Too cute!

So...I was surfing about, checking out some new bloggy good places and stumbled across this little gem of personalized pillow. Is it not the most adorable thing?! I am particular to this one because it reminds me of a special little girl I know. *grin* Hellooo...Christmas gifts!

Interested in an adorable personalized pillow of your own? Just saunter on over to Bella Marie Designs or check out the feature article by Heather Bailey.

Happy surfing!

Yellow week: day 5

Yellow: Craft




Some of you might have gotten a sneak peek at this quilt a few weeks back, while it was still an infant. Well looky now, its grown into a full blown adolescent quilt! It still needs backing, binding and actual quilting but that will come. It might take me 10 years but....




This is a vintage Watkins Tea can. Anyone remember those? Way back when I was a wee girl my mom and I Tole painted a bunch of these for gifts. This one is a bit scratched and rough around the edges but I think that adds to the patina.





I dd not stitch this little number yet when I saw it at Goodwill (only a dollar!) I had to snatch it up. As I sighed at the utter cuteness of the embroidered flower adorning this seersucker sundress, I thought 'I could totally do that'! I am going to try my hand at adding a little stitching to the pillow case dresses I am making for Craft Hope. I'll let you know how that pans out.


I had a lovely time participating in Yellow Week (even if I was late to the party) a big thanks to Erin, Tracy and all the other participants.


If you would like to see more Yellow Week check out the Flickr pool here.

Where do we blog from here?

Following up such an eloquent post as the one my verbose hubby authored makes me feel like a blathering idiot. And really, how does a non politically driven blogger girl move on from here?

Well she does what she knows best. She gets a little crafty.

Last weekend while my darling was blogging away in my stead, I took up residence in my craft studio, also loving dubbed "Mom's Craft Hole". Between showing Dick Daring the inner workings of Google and Blogger's photo uploader, (because ya know, I am a technical GENIUS!! muwhahaha) I managed to whittle a path to my sewing machine, where, to my great surprise, I pieced a twin size quilt and stitched up a sundress for a worthy cause.

My bloggy friend Jade has stared a group called Craft Hope. Being always a willing joiner where crafting is concerned, I happily pledged my crafty prowess. The Craft Hope group is stitching up handmade clothing for the Pan de Vida shelter in Mexico. If you are the crafty sort and would like to help out please hop on over to the Craft Hope site.

Here is dress #1.

(read:Go here to see my sweet Fern ironing this very pillowcase for me this past summer when I attempted my very first pillowcase dress, it very scintillating reading.)




The armpits looks weird and lumpy. I think that maybe I didn't cut the arm holes deep enough or maybe I cut them too deep.....whatever. I am hopeful that the next one will have lump free pits.

How's that for eloquence? It may be all blather but who doesn't love a good cause and some crafty goodness?



Ya know, I think my hubby will be proud of me for being so Socratic. And such a stellar seamstress.

Gettin' crafty

Over the weekend I got a hankerin' for some crafty goodness....so I broke out the quilting stuff.


Here's a peek at what I was up to.









I can't wait to get back to it....

Giveaway Alert....

While I was out perusing the WFW blogs this morning I came across this sweet new to me blog. As a self professed fabric junkie finding a blog authored by a fabric designer was... um, heavenly. And get this there is a Giveaway too!

GO! Check it out!

For my Momma

I have such a wonderful mom. Just so ya know.

My mother made the sweetest pair of matchy, matchy, Sunny Day Dresses. She made them in Fern's favourite color, blue.

My mother has been begging me to do a photo shoot of Fern and Fidget in their new Sunny Day Dresses. So, being the good and obedient child I am, I took the girls out and pranced them around the farm for a mini photo shoot. The girls did a good job of obliging me. When I would say turn, they would smirk at each other and spin really fast. When I would ask them to tip their face this way or that, the little twerps would turn completely around.....some peoples kids, eh? I did get a few good pictures of the two of them, despite the insolence.


Here is just a peek at the girls in their finery.

Hey, look! They like each other. At least for a minute.

Sweet.

As we were moving on the next spot, I caught this tender moment. Fidget reached up and grabbed Fern's hand as they walked away from me. This made my heart melt.

Aren't the dresses just the most adorable?? Yes, I know that girls are cute too...

Well, there you go mom. I hope that you like my pictures. The girls and I are very grateful for the beautiful gift of the Sunny Day Dresses. Thank you.

I love you!

Farm Fresh

So the sun decided to shine yesterday and I was so smart as to make a commitment to spend the day inside. SEWING. After begging for sunshine for weeks, can you imagine! I am NOT bitter, not in the slightest. :)



I spent the day sewing with, and for my girls. I thought that, at some point (HA!) the sun'll come out (TOOmorRrOW! whoa, channeling Annie there for a sec) and the temperature will rise (like, this very minute) so, why not make some (boy, I am so brilliant) sun dresses?




First we chose the music................... A little, Fiona Apple to help us get into a groovy mood.

Next we dug through the bins, and bins, and yes, more bins, for the perfect fabric.

(notice the sun streaming through my window, how wonderfully it illuminates the bins?)

Then we fluffed them in the dryer, but they still were too wrinkly, so...........

(doesn't the sun do wonders for my heap of fabric?)

I set my minion to work with the iron.

(Oh look, there, yes it is more sunshine)

Because my minion did such a good job ironing all the fabric, I let her pick out the fixin's for her dress.

She chose this cute pillowcase. YES, that's right I said pillowcase. I made my minion a dress from one of the zillions of pillowcases I have in my secret stash.

(isn't the sun shining beautifully in my back yard?)

She is very proud of her new swimsuit cover-up.

I felt this particular pillowcase has, well, the look of a pillowcase (minus the big greasy head print, of course). So for my next dress making adventure, I am going to attempt to make one from a vintage pillowcase and add some more foo-fa-rah and see if that will help make the pillowcase look less pillow-casey. Since I have only slightly less than a bazillion (this is no lie) vintage pillowcases, I am going to be making lots (well maybe, if the rain keeps up) more of these little cutie pies (mmm, did someone say PIE!). BUT, I am going to save this project for a rainy day.

(I spent a SUNNY day inside, with children, sewing things, I might have gone a little nuts, O.K.! )

Keep your eyes peeled (HERE) for my tutorial on how to turn a pair of short-alls into a super cute, overall dress.

That Girl

I am that girl that you saw in Walmart today. The one with the screaming, mimi throwing, toddler. That was me, trying in vain, to convince him to shut up long enough to grab some rice, applesauce and folder tabs, with only a quick jaunt over to fabrics. I, so desperately wanted to go down the aisle with the duct tape. The temptation was too much for me to handle. My threat's met deaf (most likely a side effect of the blood curdling screams) ears. But how would you know any of this? You just lurked in the shadows, watching. Waiting.

I am that girl you saw standing on her head, butt crack showin', trying to force a billion pound bag of Jasmine Rice under the shopping cart. You gape in wonder at my behind. (yes it really does make African girls jealous, and NO I can't find pants that fit the dang thing) I am the one who, standing up red faced and adjusting all of her clothes, gave her 12 and 9 year old children the look of death for laughing. 'Just wait till your FATHER gets home'...........

I am that girl at the check out with the danger mite child who is determined to climb out of the shopping cart. You look to see if I notice the escapee. You draw in a sharp breath as I deftly snatch the air born toddler from the stratosphere and plop him back into the seat of the cart, barely saving his life. He is ungrateful. He screams like a banshee. You wonder if the clerk can move any faster.

I am that girl you saw in the feed store wearing pink cords, a sparkly shirt and ballerina flats. You gave me THE look. I was trying my darnedest to load the chick starter, oyster shell, dog food, rabbit food, chicken scratch and layer crumble into the back of my Suburban. I was trying not to get too schmutzy. You were repulsed by all of the Juice Boxes, Pull-Ups, Toys, McDonald's paraphernalia, extra Clothes and Shoes, I was trying to force out of my way in order to shove all the feed into the back of my truck. You wondered when I would go back to the city from whence I came.

I am that girl you noticed in the Goodwill. The one with a gazillion kids. The one whose kids were either pickin-N-flickin' boogers or peeling the price tags off all the glassware. Yes, it was I, who meandered over to the book nook, the one next to all of the noisy toys, just to annoy you. I told my kids to have at'ter. 'No fighting now, there is plenty of annoying junk for all of you.' You had the nerve to glare.

I am that girl.

The pesky shopper. The ridiculous farm chick wanna be. The goodwill stealer. THAT mom with the screamin' kid.

Garbage at it's finest!

Drum roll please...............Here is my highly anticipated (you girls didn't really stay up all night waiting for little ol' me?!) "get real" sewing project. As I stole the idea from my dear friend over at Farm Suite I forfeit all credit.

So in honor of Earth Day here is my feed sack tote. I used a dollar store dog leash for the handles and Viola'. One super cute farm chicky craft. Oh and its good for the environment too~

I was really ticked at blogger and its photo downloading bologna this morning. This one crummy picture is all I could upload. I plan on making another tote with the rest of the bag. Hopefully blogger will have figured out what's going on and I can put up more pictures.

What will the farm chicks think of next??

Vintage Cute

Here is the cute, cute fabric I found at St. Vinnie's yesterday. Each bundle is between 1-2 yards. I am going to be using these in my sewing/whatever project today.

Fabulous Friday

Fern stayed over (Thursday) with Maddy and Sarah. At some point in the evening as Fern was trotting around the girls room, she got tangled in a blanket, fell forward onto the bed, hit her mouth on the lamp and broke half of her front tooth off. YIKES!! When I heard the story I was slightly freaked out. She wasn't in pain and didn't seem to be bothered by this mishap one bit. Miriam was freaked out and had thought that she should have looked for the shard of tooth.

Miriam and I had planned a movie day for Spring Break. We had snacks galore, which we shoved into the most inconspicuous (HUGE) purses. We set out a little later than planned but alas all was not lost. The movie had changed to a later time. We shuffled ourselves into the theatre to see the much anticipated " Enchanted". It was all we hoped it would be.

After the movie let out we rushed Fern over to see Dr. Rita, our dentist. Maddy and Sarah stayed with me and Fern. Miriam took Fidget and Grace with her to the baby's checkup. Dr. Rita fixed Fern right up and you wouldn't even know she had a chunk of tooth missing.

Fidget and Grace had a hay day tearing up all the magazines in the doctors office, much to the embarrassment of my dear friend. At this point we are both a bit frazzled!! We decide that we need a mommy time out!!

Somehow we manage to offload 6 little girls on the EGE (thank you so much EGE!!) so that we can go see "27 Dresses", a movie which we have been waiting months to see. We dawdle too long talking to out friend Kerri and are late to the early showing, which is already sold out. This is just not our day! We commit to the 10:25 showing and buy the tickets on the spot. With a couple of hours to kill we decide to scout out the Goodwill and get some food.

I found this amazing fabric, a killer pair of shoes that I him'd and haw'd about, and some shoes for the boys.

Fainting from low blood sugar, we make our way across the street for Wendy's, only to be lied to by the employees. Wendy's does not have Ketchup, never has evidently. Umm, WHATEVER! Fast food workers!! Finally with some food in hand we start off for the theatre, wildly munching hot fries.

The movie was well worth the 5 month wait, and so was the super long day and even longer night. It was icy and cold when the movie let out. We got Dutch Bro's from Dracula boy, man the night shift is weird! Note to self: don't buy coffee at 2am.

Whew, what a great finish for a Fabulous Friday!

"It's a sunny day out"

The sun decided to come out and play today. It was still quite nippy out but the kids and I got out anyway. We went out for some early dinner. Miri and the grills met us there and we had a wonderful afternoon of food and fun. The grills made a fort and the boys rough-housed in the yard.

My favourite part was finding the perfect living room in an old Country Living. I poured over the spread for close to an hour, scheming on how I could make it mine. Of course if my darling husband saw the 10 different prints employed throughout the photo's he would run screaming in the opposite direction. There is always hope right??

I am stealing the daily blogging idea from my friends Miri and Misty. I just hope I don't run out of things to say.......HahaHa!