Subtle Tee

Lately...

2011-12-18T14:37:00.001-08:00

Our life seems like a movie with a plot that thickens at every turn.

So grab some pop corn and a comfy seat as I try catching you up to speed on us being busy being busy!

I couldn't believe how long it's been since I last said hello, but it's good for you faithful followers to know that we're still here

We'll "here" is relative, because we haven't exactly stayed put anywhere this year.

Sometimes it takes moving away to know that you belong exactly where you were in the first place. Please tell me we're not the only one's who've learned that lesson the hard way?!

So we moved back.

Yep.

6 months after we moved away.

Naturally this meant we spent many hours like this...

Don't worry! While this looks like an angry face... I'd rather think of it as a tired face... sometimes in kidland those go hand-in-hand and can easily be confused.

They didn't hate us for long. Especially when we stopped to visit cousins who made sure we didn't pack away our silly sides!

And we certainly didn't pack away our creativity...

I also want you to know that in the midst of packing boxes, lots of driving and job hunting our kids have definitely not stopped smiling and growing...

Or playing grown up for that matter...

And also acting grown up when we least expect it...

And surprisingly doing a much better job than I might have given her credit for

Except for a teensy evidence of one last bowl lick before the wash...

Thank goodness this went in the dishwasher just in case!

But rest assure, I'm still hanging in there!

Well... ok I'm not doing nearly enough of that, but we have been doing plenty of this

and even a little of this...

So you can understand why the sewing and crafting as been put aside for a wee bit... or at least the blogging about it! Like I could NOT do some sort of creative something for this long?!

Anyway, there's much to tell you all about, so bare with me as I'm trying really hard to find the right balance so that I can keep sharing about our crazy life while still having enough time left to enjoy the precious moments like this:

It's such a blessing to see your kids really love each other.

Siblings are the best!

Make the cut!

2011-07-16T13:32:00.000-07:00

It's so sad to see those soft baby locks go...

Even if when you have photographed evidence that the time has come like this...

Clearly I have a history of waiting just a tad too long to make that infamous first cut

See what I mean??

Don't believe me?

Well go on then... refresh your memory with this rag muffin 's before shots!?

Everyone loves to say "Look at all that hair!! Oh just you wait, that hair'll fall out before you know it"

Nope!

Not with my little hair balls.

It just grows and grows until Mom takes matters into her own hands.

Which sometimes has turned out pretty stylin'

And other times...

Yeah, I know Sweetheart, I'd have a pouty face if my mom cut my bangs like that too...

She got used to it.. which is a good thing, because we're still growing out those few months of Audry Hepburn baby bangs.... 2 years later... esh...

Understandably, I was determined to get things right with my third little birdie!

Which is why for his 3 month birthday weekend, this little piggy went wee, wee, wee, wee all the way to the barber's bumbo!

As usual, he was such a good sport about it.

He just quietly sat in the Bumbo happily drooling while I pretended to finally know what I was doing this time

But when I said "ALL DONE!!"

I think he was still a little dubious....

"Are you sure I don't look silly??"

After all he had seen pictures of my first 2 victims

Don't worry little guy!

Once he caught a glimpse of his handsome mug he was all smiles!

Cheeky cheeky cheeks!!!

Yes, baby boy, your new style makes your cheeks look even fatter!

And to this Mommy says mission accomplished!

Pack N' Play Sheet Tutorial

2011-06-07T17:00:00.000-07:00

It's looking like poor lil' number 3 will be stuck in the P n' P for a more than just the first few weeks here until his older brother cannot possibly safely ~~be confined~~ fit in the crib any longer ...

Soooooo I thought I'd start making this Pack n' Play business a little more cozy for the hopefully long haul ahead of us.

First thing's first, we need to get this baby bird some upgrades to the starchy Graco sheets to some softer ones while spending less than his college savings. Best place to look... my own linen closet!

Between the hubby and me we have tons of queen size sheets from our single days that just hibernate in our closet until the lucky day when guests come to visit. And even then, only the few and the fortunate get slept on. So I "borrowed" a few jersey sets to recycle into pack n' play sheets.

And it took me whole 20 minutes!

Which is about all the sewing time I have these days :)

Wanna try?

Here's what you need:

1 yard of fabric
36 inches of 1/4 or 3/8 inch elastic
Thread
Sewing goodies (machine, scissors etc)
20 minutes

Here's all you do:

Step 1: Cut the fabric

A standard Graco Pack N' Play sheet is 26" wide x 38 1/2" long when it's all said and done, so if you don't have a Graco brand make sure to measure your standard sheets or actual pack n' play to be sure these measurements will work.

A few options:

For raw or serged edges cut the fabric 34″ wide x 43″ long
For hemmed ends cut the fabric 35″ wide x 43″ long
If using knit or jersey fabric like I did in this tutorial cut 1" smaller in each direction to account for the stretch.

Step 2: Cut the corners

Fold the fabric in half long ways and make sure the corners match up as closely as possible.

Mark 4″x 4″ squares out of each of the 4 corners and cut them out.

Step 3: Sew the corners together

Fold the corners of the corners together to make a diagonal edge with the fabric inside out.

Serge or stitch together with a zig zag stitch on your machine

Step 4: Finish the edges

I simply serged my edges since no one will see them, but since I know not everyone has a serger I made one sheet with hemmed edges to show you :)

Step 5: Attach the elastic

Cut 4 pieces of elastic each 9" long. Fold the 9" piece in half & mark the center

Turn the fabric inside out and line up the center of the elastic with the edge of the seam in the corner and pin in place.

Then you want to mark out 9″ from both sides of that point and pin the lose ends of the elastic to the sheet. Start sewing at the middle of the elastic on the seam.

Stretch the elastic from both ends as you go and sew the elastic to the sheet with a zig zag stitch then turn over and sew in the other direction.

It should look something like that when you're done.

Or, if you used the hemmed edges string the elastic through to the 9" mark and sew in place. Pull the other end to the 9" mark on the other side of the corner and sew in place.

Go ahead, that's all... try it on...

Tah Dah!

Now, you'll have to excuse me while I go snuggle with my favorite new born and that scrumptiously soft baby skin!

As close to Heaven as it gets here!

Learning to use a spoon

2011-06-02T14:52:00.000-07:00

Off to a great start

Ok, in goes the milk, now there is no turning back!!

Steady... steady... you can do this Son...

To the target... you got this buddy!

That's right... curve the spoon and eat

You did it!!

Now let's try one more bite...

Wait, with the spoon!
The spoon. Use the spoon!

Ok, ok, geez, Mom! I got this.

Um, actually, this spoon stuff takes too long.

Would a kiss make it better?

HELP!

My first born fooled me. She was too easy. I feel deceived.
How do you teach this stuff?!

A few deep breaths, fresh air and much needed family time

2011-05-23T15:27:00.000-07:00

Still there?

Oh good!!

I know you've been seeing a whole lot of family and a whole little of crafty or sewing these days...

But sometimes (and most times lately), fresh air, sunshine and a day with my fantastic four is just what the doctor ordered!

Don't worry, dust hasn't swallowed my sewing corner just yet! And believe me, the ideas are flowing. What with all the many late night nursings and plenty of time to day (er night??) dream, I've had lots of time to scheme up some great projects for when things settle down again.

During those wee hours of the night I've also had a chance to step back and come to terms with these last few crazily busy months. If only I had realized what one seemingly far-fetched job interview would really mean for my nice and routined life... (a life that used to have plenty of sewing time in it!)

Well now I know!

And typical me, even though I had the perfect space to vent all about it on my blog I never did. I think deep down I knew I just had to keep moving, because admitting how stressed out and overwhelmed I really was would just make it all come crumbling down. But now that it's all over and my husband and I can laugh at how funny, crazy and unbelievable it all was, I thought you also might enjoy a disbelieving chuckle and a glimpse into just how not "crafty mommy blogger perfect" our last few months were :)

So join me in a head shake and sympathizing smile as you read the highlights of it all week by week...

Week 1
My husband interviews for job and actually gets offered the job a few days later

Week 2
He accepts the job and ridiculously soon start date

Week 3
Start date arrives 3 weeks after interviewing for the job forcing my husband to leave me pregnant, with 2 toddlers to pack and sell our house in Arizona while he moves to Oregon for this new job

Weeks 4-6
I obsess over keeping the house immaculately clean for showings while trying to pack and take care of 2 toddlers without my much needed wing man

Week 7
Christmas/New Years

Week 6
Plan and host a baby shower and Sienna's third birthday party

Week 8
Spend a few days driving all around town with my car door stuck OPEN and bungee corded down until I figured out how in the world to get this car to a mechanic and home again with me and the kids alone.

Week 9
I somehow (and still don't know how) survive Jonah's first major fall and stitches without Daddy to make it all better

Week 10
Pack, decide to take the house off the market, interview property managers, find renters and hope to God that my husband approves of all these huge decisions I'm making here!!!

Week 11
Find a house to rent in Portland from Phoenix without really ever spending substantial time around Portland... very tricky!

Week 12
Realize that there is NO WAY our current large yet over-full house is going to pack up and fit into even the biggest size house available to rent in our price range in Portland

Week 13
Try to sell, donate or throw out more furniture, toys and clothes that I'm ready to come to terms with even now...

Week 14
Pick up and actually drive the most ginormous Uhaul truck they make!

Week 15
Finish packing, cleaning and moving our beloved home that we put so much blood, sweat and tears into remodeling ourselves... And say goodbye to our dear friends and family.

Week 16
Drive alone with the two kids 23 hours across three states to our new home.

Week 17
Arrive, in the pouring rain and freezing temperatures, to our new home in Portland, Oregon.

Week 18
Realize that nope, actually, we still don't really like cold weather and rain! Uh oh...

Week 19-24
Begin getting used to the cold weather and rain, learn to play indoors a lot more and start to see the sunshine between the clouds (in more ways than one)

Week 25
Welcome our third baby into this world!!

Weeks 26-30
R.E.S.T.

Phew!!

Almost three months apart was hard on our family, but looking back I can see what a test of faith it all was and how the past few months have drawn us all even closer together than we were before. Not only does absence make the heart grow fonder it definitely made me MUCH, MUCH more appreciative for the wonderful, helpful husband that I have. I think he missed me and the kids a teensy bit too :)

But for the record, I don't want to do this ever again!

Home-made with a smile

2011-05-04T14:29:00.000-07:00

And a few desperately needed sunny shinny days
(or I should say not rainy days)

To motivate us to start exploring our new landing, which was greeted by easily the most adorable peddler dog in the world at the Portland Saturday Market complete with his own "smile" sign!

How could you not smile even as we watched the clouds start moving right back over our heads minutes later...

Rain or shine I decided that it was time to start home-making this place into a home!

So, grab your own cup of tea, take a seat and I'll give you a little look at our new digs!

Ding dong!

Come on in...

Don't be shy now!

Here is our lovely living room adorned with far too many pictures for the wall space...

but I've had a hard time cramming our already too full house in Phoenix into this smaller house in Portland. So um, yes, you'll have to just tell me it looks ok anyway :)

Exhibit 2 of cramming...

Turning our entertainment center into a dining room hutch...

We just took out the middle part and the TV and voila!

Wouldn't have guessed it would you?!

Then we have the much coveted, loved, played on and yes, fallen down STAIRS!!!

We've never had stairs in our houses before and the kids just love them.

Up those glorious stairs are 3 bedrooms, but my 2 most important critics voted best room in the house to be the special princess and prince charming room...

Don't ask what makes it that besides it's inhabitants, but that's what the kids call their room. Hey, if it gets them to go to bed there, then call it the Taj Mahal if you want to!

Along with the royal theme we've got going here, Sienna likes to tell me to go to sleep in my queen room after I tuck her in bed every night...

So, alas, our "queen" room.
(Apparently Daddy doesn't have any of his own rooms in this house...)

Even the back yard is claimed by the Great Window Streaker!

We wash windows a lot around here as you could probably guess...

But that shouldn't make Daddy feel too bad since my kitchen is no longer sacred space as our landlords "conveniently" designed it with bar stools directly in front of my main counter space....

Perfect for little diggers to sneak in a pre-taste or two while I'm cooking!

Another great part about this house are the beautiful green views we have out our windows.

I love Phoenix, heat and all, but you do tend to get a lot of cinder block views from first floor windows...

And last but not least, the most spectacular homemade home-making part of our new home:

Of course!

What else were you expecting?

Oh ok, the Welcome Home Mommy and Baby Sebastian sign Daddy made with the Sienna and Jonah was pretty spectacular too!

That's about as far as I've gotten lately with crafting and home making... but you have to admit that growing a baby while moving to a new city is no creative task to scuff at!

And now there are three

2011-04-26T08:41:00.000-07:00

Meet our beautiful number three

I would've never believed you could fall in love this many times!

But I just can't stop myself from staring endlessly at those teeny tiny feet

Or touching his own little mane of dark brown hair

And gazing back at those big, blue, curious (and still with a hint of a deer in the headlight) baby eyes

And, oh, those perfect little lips!!

Apparently, I'm not the only one head over heals with this little guy...

Sienna is pretty sure HER baby came out of mommy's tummy last Sunday.

Whatever you do, do not try to tell her any different!

Baby Sebastian was born April 17th at 5:35am after 2 days of labor

That's right, 2 full days!!!
(They say your labors are supposed to get quicker the more you have... riiiight!)

He was our biggest nugget at 6 lbs 13 oz

My wonderful husband had a full week off work this time to help us get used to our new family of five, which was a dream come true for me in more ways than one! But it turns out that 2 days of labor and 3 kids under the age of 3 is tiring for Daddy too....

I came down stairs after a shower to this picture perfect babysitter :)

When I woke him up he was completely disoriented and had no clue how long he'd been out for.... oh, thank goodness for guardian angels....

and for all three of my precious babies!

Peep a boo undies

2011-04-11T06:58:00.000-07:00

Whether we actually eat them or not, you can't deny that nothing gets us in the mood for Easter treats like seeing yummy little Peeps

But I'd say more importantly nothings says yummy like seeing one on this cute little bottom!

I'm so glad I finally got around to making these sneaky little undies!

I just love everything about them:
The springy yellow colors, the subtle surprise you may or may never see, and of course, I can't get enough of the down right punniness of the whole thing!!

So here's a little sneak peep
(oh, I'm dying over here!)

at this quick and easy tutorial to spice up your Easter outfit.

Wanna try?

Here's what you need:

Plain panties
Felt
Embroidery thread and needle
One cute little tush to pull this all off

Here's all you do:

Step 1: Trace and cut out a peep onto your felt

Dana from Made has a nice little template I borrowed for her peep garland here that you can use.

Step 2: Stitch two dotty eyes and a little peep nose

You can also use a fabric pen or paint to draw on the face, but I'm on a limited craft access with not all of our boxes unpacked just yet, so I stitched them with some embroidery thread I had in my sewing box.

Step 3: Pin the peepster onto the back of you panties

Step 4: Stitch it on!

Since the felt won't fray, I thought it was cute to give it a visible straight stitch along the edge, but you can applique it with a zig zag or even hand stitch with the embroidery thread.

And there you have it!!

Some perfectly Easter undies to keep hidden under your dress for the great hunt

But be careful....

you'll never know when they might pop out to say

Look who's here....

2011-04-06T14:36:00.000-07:00

My! brand! spanking! new! camera!

Hello you little Rebel T2i, welcome to the family!

Since your arrival (19 hours and 52 minutes ago), I've been dedicating every spare moment I can to playing with you and getting to know all the yummy details about you...

And my oh my, you are one intricate little fellow.

Some might say I'm a little in over my head here...

And I would be the first to agree...

Yes, in addition to whatever else I am these days, I certainly am quite in over my head in LOVE with this bundle of joy!

Come help me on the hunt!

2011-03-30T15:39:00.000-07:00

To find me?!

No, but I can understand why you might think it's for me since I've been a little MIA these days with the move and the baby and the reason for this hunt...
but no... for now, this hunt isn't for me.

To find my kids lost in the endless stack of boxes?

Closer... but no... they leave a trail of crumbs and noise to help with that!

For a new camera??

Pictures from here

YES!!!!!

Eeeeeee!

I.am.too.excited.to.sleep.

That and my belly is so darn big that I just can't sleep no matter what, so I might as well be too excited for it!

Our camera (tear) started slowly breaking a while ago and I was actually promised a new one for my birthday in Feb, but with the move and the baby and ___(insert)___ whatever else excuse we decided that we shouldn't spend the money just now.

I pretended to agree, but in my heart of hearts I just knew that a camera was in my destiny sooner rather than later :)

So the big question-

WHAT KIND OF DLSR SHOULD I GET?

Quick, quick, send me your comments, fill my inbox, tell me please so we can't order away before we find another reason to wait!!!

Do I have to bribe you with pictures of the new baby when he arrives any week now?!

I promise, no old point and shots were intentionally broken or harmed in this pursuit. All fatalities were the result of natural causes.

Growing babies and heading north

2011-03-07T14:26:00.000-08:00

Hello there little guy!

I can feel you kick, kick, kickin' away in there all day!

My other two pregnancies were spent ~~anxiously~~ impatiently awaiting the arrival of a new bundle, but this time around I have to admit I've been a teensy bit distracted....

Before we could announce IT'S A BOY!
Or even, boy, oh boy, am I really going to have 2 boys?!

Daddy got offered a new job in Portland and the next thing we knew I felt like I couldn't even find my belly bump over the pile of boxes!

So I thought now that we've arrived (at long last) to our new home in the Northwest it's about time I dedicated a little blogging to the little you growing inside

And just to show you how much we think about you we even packed a new suitcase just for you!

Ok my little man, now it's all up to you, so

GROW

BABY

We can't wait to love you so much more than we already do!!

And hey, seems like 32 weeks sure does fly when you've got a house to move, so I what do you know?!

I guess we'll be seeing you pretty soon....

Yippeeeeeeee!!!

Gorgeous photography courtesy of Kiss The Camera, check out the amazing work Christine does in Scottsdale, AZ.

1 shirt, 2 shirts, old shirts, new shirts! A little how to...

2011-02-11T11:16:00.000-08:00

We're getting ready for our big move and we've been fighting the inevitable questions like

Oh really and how long has it been since you fit in that?

College days are over... give up the holy t-shirt...

Come on, it's stained everywhere... call a rag when you see one!

Logically, given that we're in the middle of packing and moving a shirt with stains and a tiny little hole in the center like this should make the trash pile done and done...

But... I like sewing quite a bit more than I like packing and cleaning... sooooo naturally I was thinking more along the lines of the endless refashioning potential!

Then I came across this unworn brightly color, but slightly plan t-shirt and thought hum, it's still mighty cold up in the northwest this time of year (where we are moving). Perhaps a long sleeve t-shirt would get more use.

And that's how these two babies mingle, mashed and blended into 2 beautiful "new" shirts!

Shirt #1

Shirt #2

Ta-dah!!!

Adding sleeves to an regular tee is quick, easy and very functional especially when you're moving from Phoenix to Portland!

Wanna try???

Here's all I did:

First, I measured the length and circumference of the chunkiest part of Sienna's arm from the arm pit down to get the size of my sleeve strips. Measuring from the arm pit down is key here, because you'll be attaching the sleeve to the end of a short sleeve, not the shoulder.

Next, I cut the strips out of the bottom, using the natural hem of the t-shirt as the cuff of the sleeve. Then folded them in half and sewed a tube.

To attach the sleeves, I tucked my right-side-out tub through the armhole of the short sleeve shirt turned inside out.

Then pin all around making sure to line up the seams of the sleeves.

Carefully stretching from both sides as I sewed, I attached the long sleeve to the end of the short sleeve.

After those short 15 minutes or so I fold it right side out...

And there was my new long sleeve shirt!

Ha! What a walk in the park!

Like this one :)

Now, I was left with a half of a shirt and just as I was about to toss it...

Into my scraps bin (oh no, goodness sakes, not in the trash!), but yes, just before it hit that scraps bin I had an idea to refashion that part too into another dress/shirt!

So I pulled out some other left over strips of pink and purple jersey fabric I just knew I should save and pieced them together to make a cute little tiered top!

I still had the original problem of the stains and small hole in the shirt, so I used some other smaller scraps to make the waded flowers for the front and cut the shirt half slightly higher to take out the hole.

Almost PERFECT!!!

Almost is key here since I did have to fudge a little with the uneven sized scraps I was limiting myself to and the obvious fact that I really had to sneak in a few minutes here and there for this project while I was supposed to be packing not sewing :)

Shhhh... I still don't think the Mr. Seamstress knows I wasn't packing that whole time after all...

Should the case be taken to a jury think we'll just have to bring up the important facts here that I did save us money (which all husbands like), still finished my packing (which my husband mostly cares about) and even enjoyed myself just a little (favorite part of all)!!

Melting Into Spring Jumper

2011-02-06T19:08:00.000-08:00

What's a little girl to wear when she finds that winter is melting into spring??

How about a bright, swirly jumper!?

I'm sorry for all of you who can't fathom this idea just yet, but over in our neck of the woods spring is almost here!

So naturally, Sienna and I decided to go looking for it...

And needed the perfect jumper dress for the job!

One that has bright springy colors

But still with some soft, cozy velvet

And maybe a little extra lining since as you know we haven't found Spring just yet!

Ok, this one will do...

Now, hurry Mommy, we've got to find Spring!!!

SHH!

You gotta be really quiet and pay attention...

And look very closely...

But sometimes that you can just listen and the tree will tell you if it's here...

Wait, did you just hear that...??

Oh that's too silly!

I think I just found it already!

Almost Sweetheart, almost.

A Mary Poppin's birthday party

2011-01-26T13:36:00.000-08:00

Come join us as we look back at Sienna's Jolly Holiday 3rd Birthday Party!

We celebrated Sienna's 3rd birthday 2 weekends ago and had the party at this wonderful train park in Scottsdale with an almost Mary worthy magical carousel and everything! The down side to the practically perfect location was having to get there at the crack of dawn to reserve your spot, so from the wee hours of the morning that I opened my eyes til the last guest was gone it was Step In Time!

So please pardon me for the picture quality here... hosting 3 year old birthdays in a park is a little crazy without even trying to take pictures, but I'd say if you love to laugh then keep on scrolling for some fun and goofy pictures, plus a few pretty good Mary Poppins theme party ideas if I do say so myself!

First there were costumes....

Mary Poppins (scandalously pregnant) and Jane

Despite the particularly warm, sunny day of 75, "Jane" stayed in costume all day and for, well, I do believe she still thinks she actually is Jane.

I don't think we helped by letting her call her brother Michael, although he was more interested in drinking his first CapriSun than dressing up like Mary Poppins characters.

In case you don't think I'm a bad enough mother for giving my 1 year old a CapriSun, I made sure that everyone else had spoons full of sugar to help the medicine go down.

Sienna actually helped me make these out of melted white chocolate and red sprinkles! Super easy and the kids LOVED them!

Next, what would a Mary Poppins' party be without umbrellas?

I found these PERFECT while umbrellas from the Oriental Trading Company that you can actually decorate yourself!

I had to admit that these didn't go exactly as planned... I wanted to make ruffles to sew along the bottom of each one like a real "Jane" umbrella would be out of a water-proof shower curtain, but you can't do every good idea you have I supposed! Even still, I think it's a nice token or tuppence for everyone to take home!

Don't worry the boys had fun at this ultra girlie fest too!

I laid out long strips of butcher paper I've been saving since I stopped teaching for just the right occasion, such as, needing long "side walks" for the kids to draw magical chalk pictures to jump into.

That, and the really cool real KITES (also from the Oriental Trading Company) that they got to decorate themselves too!!

Then after we decorated them....

You guessed it!!

Let's go fly a kite!

Up to the highest height!

And send it soaring!!

It's been a week since the party and the soundtrack only played through 2 or 3 times during the party, but I still find myself singing silently in my head all day :)

And finally, last, but not least...

We finished off the day with Funfetti Penguin cake for all!

It's supposed to be the Jolly Holiday penguins with the menu...

Don't laugh, it was the best I could do with limitations of frosting, food coloring and trying to involve a very excited almost 3 year old!

Sienna had been begging for a Mary Poppins theme party for months and months. When I couldn't persuade her to go for something like Strawberry Shortcake or a little easier, I started hunting all crafty corners I know for Mary Poppins theme party and ideas and was quite surprised by how little I could find online.

I did find this ADORABLE professionally photographed party that set the bar far higher than my highest kite would reach on a practical budget. But if you're looking to do a Poppins Party I recommend checking it out for some more fancy ideas...

Such as these scrumptious candied applies, but I decided our age group wasn't the best for something like that... or, adorable as it was the real tea set for that matter!

Now, truth be told, there was one other tiny little part for the party that got left behind, because I simply ran out of time! But I think it would've been so cute and easy that I just have to tell you about the cute little carpet bags I was sewing for all the party favors!! They just didn't get done in time... but can we still say it was the thought that counts??

All things considered I'd say the party was very supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Quiet is bad

2011-01-12T11:33:00.000-08:00

I never thought I'd say that!

But I'm learning quickly that no noise, means trouble with an almost 3 year old...

Silence

"Sienna... where are you?"

Little mouse like squeaks of noise in the kitchen

Grab the camera, who knows what you'll find in that kitchen!

CAUGHT!

"Sienna, what are you doing?!!"

"Mama, I just eating a snack"

Frantic searching around the kitchen for the rest of the unopened 16 oz crate of blackberries

"Sienna, where are all the blackberries that were in there?"

"um... I just put them in my tummy"

"ALL OF THEM?!"

"Um, yes, I did it!!"

Mouth gasps open with blank gaze of disbelief.

How did you find them in there?? Geez, how long was I in the bathroom!??

"Sooorrr-reeey Mommy"

Surprisingly no stomach ache to teach her a lesson..

But what's even more surprising is that Mommy didn't learn her lesson about the quiet thing either, because a few days later I walked into my bedroom from doing the breakfast dishes to find this...

"Sienna, what are you two doing in Mommy's make up box?!"

"Um, I'm playing make ups nicely with Jonah and he likes it too!!"

Oye, I think I learned my lesson this time. ~~Bring my camera when I'm going to catch my kids in trouble??~~
No, no, quiet is bad. Quiet is bad.

"You aren't supposed to play with Mommy's things. Let's get out of my room right now and play nicely with your toys!"

"Oh, and, uh let's just not tell Daddy that Jonah liked playing make ups too."

Needless to say these little darlings have been making it a difficult to sneak away for any quality sewing time lately! So I decided to use their momentary (if only that were true) mischievous streak to take my machine in for it's tune up.

So no sewing for me this week until my machine get's out of the shop, but I do have a really cute dress I made over Christmas to share.... soon :)

Wrist cuff pin cushion love is in the air

2011-01-05T13:03:00.000-08:00

Who doesn't love a homemade gift??

Not many people I'm learning after my first year of this crafty mommy blogger thing and I felt like the pressure was on just a tad bit this Christmas to dish out some personalized presents for ~~a few~~ a lot of those homemade gift lovers in my life.

Yikes!!

Luckily, there are some very creative, crafty bloggers out there who have the same brilliant ideas that I do with frequently much easier ways to make them!

I had the idea to make wearable pin cushions for some of my crafting partners in crime over here and just knew that I'd stumble upon the perfect, quick and easy tutorial if I just keyed in the right words...

And voila!

Before I could say the words I stumbled upon a tutorial for these adorable wrist cuff pin cushions over at Keyka Lou!

I had everything I needed at home to make these.... a little velcro, small amount of coordinating fabric, string and a big button. I even recycled a plastic baby food lid to put under the flower to block my wrists from those pesky long pins...

It was so quick, easy and inexpensive that I decided to go splurge on some fancy iron-over pins to match the fabric!!!

I'm so glad I did, because wasn't that just the right finishing touch for a little gift!?

Prince Charmings

2010-12-30T12:54:00.000-08:00

Mama, can Jonah be my prince charming?

Do you blame her for asking?!

Who wouldn't want this little stud for a prince charming all dressed up in his tuxedo?

As much as she adores her little brother now, I have a feeling these will be words to tuck away for some time down the road when she might need a little reminder of how much she loves her brother.

But he sure does look cute in that little tuxedo I scored a few months back for just $15, doesn't he??!

We've been going to a lot of weddings lately and especially since Sienna got to be a flower girl for my brother and new sister-in-law's wedding a few months ago she has been convinced that every bride and groom are princesses and prince charmings.

And to take it a step further, she is desperate to have one of her own!

It's all she talks about.

This is her literally asking in the middle of the wedding....

"Mama, one day when I grow up I'm gonna get a prince charming like Daddy, he's gonna give me a ring right here (points to finger) and then I can get a baby in my tummy too!! I can't wait!!! I can't wait!!"

Not.Even.Joking.

She really asks for this several times a week. Don't even get me started on the baby in the tummy deal she's always daydreaming about...

It might be my fault for telling her that Daddy is my prince charming, and you know, she really loves that guy. I don't blame her for wanting one of her own, but the girl is not even 3 yet!

Hold the stage coach and horses please!

But, alas, when we told her Jonah wouldn't be her prince charming forever she settled on the ring bearer, but I don't think it was quite what she hoped for...

Thank goodness!

But they did have fun dancing together after we convinced them it was ok to hold hands.

Now for the true confessions...

I was the same way when I was a little girl.

(I just had to show this old picture of me I found while I was packing for the move!)

I guess some of us are destined to be mothers and something just tells us from the start!

Although, wouldn't you say by the look in my sister's face here that she might not have agreed...

Quick n' felty stocking stuffers

2010-12-23T13:44:00.000-08:00

Need last minute stocking stuffers for your ~~teddy bear~~ little princess?

I thought these felt treasures were the perfect, quick, last minute and inexpensive stuffer idea!

...and I sort of hoped you wouldn't mind me using Miss Bear to model Sienna's future hair decorations just for now.

I put all 3 of these together in oooh 15 minutes using pretty much felt scraps, glue and some old hair ties!

The head band is my personal favorite with the large teeth edge bow and a thin strip for band that I stitched to a scrap of thin elastic I had in my box of "don't throw away because you might use it for something somewhere sometime"
(hehe, glad I have that box now!)

I had some smaller scraps of pink felt about 1.5" x 3" that I thought would be perfect for a little pony tail holder bow.

Then I liked that so much that I fancied it up a bit for another brown one to go with this adorable dress I made her that you'll be seeing very soon....!

All I did for these pony bows is pinch together the square of felt (or 2 in the brown case), held it in place with a dab of fabric glue and covered up my messy work by wrapping around a thin strip of felt down the center. Just before I sealed the wrap with glue I stuck an old hair rubber band against the bow right under the wrap!

Since I give my ponies a tug and yank when I take them off... and so does the mini me in my life... I did do a couple of hand stitches to sandwich close the rubber band between the outer wrap and the bow. I used embroidery thread here, but I think any type of doubled up thread should be ok.

Don't you just love these easy little felt bows?!

I know I've seen these from a few different crafty bloggers out there, and I'm so sorry for not listing all of them, but I do know that I recently saw a great and simple tutorial for felt bow clips over at Craftiness Is Not Optional.

Very doable at the end of a shopping budget!

Then... while I was starring at all those scraps of felt I remember the brilliant idea that I saw that I almost forgot about until just in the nick of time!

Felt baby doll diapers!!

Now these honestly are NO SEW at all!

Just a few snips, tucks and stick ons.

I made a few different sizes for her various dolls, but they're adjustable so they even fit her smallest baby pictured above :)

I saw these a long time ago from the lovely ladies at Kojo Designs and almost forgot all about them until now!

Check out their tutorial here.

Another 15 minutes for these guys and I still had half of a nap time to spare!

Go head, stop reading now and go try it!

BUT WAIT!

Before you go....

I also want to take a few minutes here to say that one of my favorite Christmas presents, any presents all year are all you wonderful bloggy world friends out there that give me more motivation, inspiration and fun than I ever imagined this crafty mommy blogging business ever would!!

Thanks so much for all encouraging comments you and the great ideas you all share!

Merry Christmas to all!!

Monkey see, Monkey love

2010-12-21T13:06:00.000-08:00

And do ya blame me?!

When I saw Jess's clothes pin Christmas wreath tutorial from Craftiness Is Not Optional it was a done deal for me!

This was so quick and easy I couldn't believe it. I literally sprayed the pins while my kids played outside and they even helped me string the beads on the wire. This could be a great school craft project for kids to give to their parents... hum.... file that one away in my mental note box!

I did a few things differently than Jess, like spacing out the pins with 2 instead of one bead so the cards didn't overlap as much. I also didn't bother gluing... I might see why later, but it seemed to stay just find without it??

Hers looks fuller and a little better to be honest, but I didn't know how else to fit all these wonderful Christmas cards!

Speaking of which... I have a secret confession that I can now confess because it's completely a thing in the past....

I ~~hate~~ used to hate Christmas cards.

WHY?

Why would anyone "hate" Christmas cards.

One word:

c.l.u.t.t.e.r

What do you do with all those lovely cards that collect in your "too nice to just toss out" pile?

Now I know!!!!!

And now I keep checking the mail obsessively hoping that we'll get more and more of them.

I love them so much now that I even, for the very first time since we've been married, sent out Christmas cards of our own with this cute Grinch smile from Sienna!

See :)

And because it's just me, I simply had to write a little poem to go with it.

Wanna read that too???

Of course you do or you would've stopped scrolling!

Twas a month before Christmas,

when all through the house not a Da Da was stirring, where was my dear spouse?

His boxers were hung by the laundry with care,

In hopes that I’d wash them for when he’s next there.

The children were nestled all snug in my bed,

While visions of sanity danced away from my head.

Two days had passed since he went on his way

to a new job in Portland, here with the children I stay.

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from the very far edge of the bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash,

To see a For Sale sign nailed down with a smash!

The bump on my belly of a new baby bro

Gave the lustre of change, much more than we know.

When, what to my wondering mind became clear,

that we’ll have 3 under 3! Oh me, oh my dear!

With a little walking Jonah, so lively and quick,

He’s all boy for certain, rough, tough and quite slick!

More fun with Sienna as she grows faster each day,

She tries hard to mirror mamma in every single way.

“No Sienna! No Jonah! Now Children please listen!

To sell this big house each corner must glisten!

To the park! To the zoo! Let’s get out of this place!

Can I do it? I must! Oh where’s my poker face??

And then, in a twinkling, I heard a small voice.

Your family and friends will help you;

for this just rejoice!

As I drew in my head, and wiped a small tear.

We have beautiful children & lots of reason to cheer!

So thanks to you all for the love and support,

We’re sad to leave Phoenix, our time was cut short.

But knowing the friendships we have just won’t end

A visit to Portland, may we subtly recommend???

You see... we have some big changes to announce this year, and you know, this Christmas card thing was a pretty convenient way to spread the word!

Thanks Jess for changing my heart about Christmas cards and for the great tutorial!

P.S. If you read this and think "HEY! Why didn't I get one this year? Well... this is my first year and I drastically underestimated how many I needed to order, so actually, only a very select few got them this time around. BUT, rest assured... there will be more. Oh yes, there will be more!

Easy Fairytale Princess Hat Tutorial

2010-12-13T20:00:00.000-08:00

After seeing all those magical Disney princesses dancing around it's hard not pretending you're one too!

But even with the lovely little princess dress her mommy made her, she just seemed to be missing one very important thing....

A princess hat of course!

So I whipped one up in fairly or should I say fairy little time (wink, wink)

Wanna try?

Here's what you need:

A quilter's square of fabric (I used satin, but you can do whatever)
A matching square of strong interfacing or felt, or something thick to keep it up.
Ribbon or tulle
Elastic string
Optional ric rac or decorative trim
The usual sewing goodies

Here's what you do:

Step 1: Trace a basic cone

I used an old unfolded party hat to trace a basic cone shape and just made the top slightly taller to be more princess like.

You could kind of fudge this by making a semi-circle approximately the length of your child's head if you don't have a party hat to spare. The height doesn't really matter too much, but the taller you make it the harder it might be to stand up.

Step 2: Cut the fabric

Use your pattern to cut a cone shape piece of fabric and interfacing/felt. You'll end up with 2 pieces.

Step 3: Sew the interfacing and fabric together

Sew the interfacing and fabric together at the curve only. It helps to start in the center and sew in each direction.

Fold inside out to hide your seems. This is a good point to add any decorative trim or ric rac you might want to the rim of the hat.

Step 4: At the elastic string for a hat strap

Imagine the cone in 4 sections; you'll want to sew the elastic string from one end of the middle 2 sections to the other. In other words, just put it in the middle. But the sections helped me visualize exactly where when I was doing this :)

Sew those babies in place with a little back and forth stitching.

Step 5: Attach the ribbon and tulle

Place long strands of ribbon and tulle into the middle of the fabric side of the cone.

Fold the strands into the cone by folding the cone inside out, so the felt part is showing and the fabric part is on the inside. You'll want the long strands to go through the middle of the inside out cone and the ends just barely poke out of the top.

Sew the strands in place at the top by going back and forth a few times at the top side and tip of the cone.

Now go ahead and sew all the way down the cone to close the seam. I used a size 16, heavy fabric needle to go through all the layers. A straight stitch is fine here, but I went over it with a zig zag just to be sure it'll with hold the test of a 3 year old.

Snip off the little extra ribbon and tulle you have at the top...

Turn right side out and voila!

Or should I say...

Bippity Boppity Boo!

Her last princess dream comes true!

Ok, probably not last....

Let's just wait until she hears about prince charming.

But for now, princess friends is all this little lady cares about and thank goodness for that!

I know it's Christmas, but this is one amazing halloween costume

2010-12-08T19:49:00.001-08:00

Ok, ok, how can I bring up Halloween at a time like this?

Well, when you have a really good reason like my friend, Mary's untouchable talent you just have to give your hat tips whenever you can.

All of her siblings pick a theme each year for Halloween and assign each niece/nephew to a character. When they decided on Alice In Wonderland this year Mary knew the older kids would quickly scoop up the "easier" or more popular costumes, but what she didn't expect was that her little man was going to instantly set his heart on the Caterpillar of all things!

If coming up with a 3T size Caterpillar costume wasn't enough of a challenge imagine sewing it literally 9 months pregnant!

And then realizing you're just going to need another costume for the new arrival!

....and then, actually pulling it off with a week to spare between delivery and Halloween...

A.M.A.Z.I.N.G

Hop over to her blog to see more pictures of the rest of the cast and the adorable themed party decorations they had to go with it!

Remember the magic

2010-12-07T12:44:00.000-08:00

We're going where Daddy??!!
I'm too excited to sleep!!

And to be honest, so was Mommy!

It all started when Daddy decided one Monday morning that he thinks we need to go to Disneyland before Sienna turns 3 and needs a child's ticket. I agreed like a good wife to a constantly planning husband would thinking that we had a few months to go and sure, maybe it'd happen after the holidays. Little did I know he meant...

Let's go to Disneyland this very week!!

As in why aren't we packing yet?!

Hold the Dumbo ride! He means business!

So we called my Other Mother who lives a short drive from "the happiest place on earth" and asked if they had any plans that week. Of course she did, but since she loves us so much she rearranged everything so that 2 days later she not only let us stay at her house, they decided to come with us!!

Who can resist joining in on the first family trip to Disneyland??

We managed to go on the perfect day, with the perfect weather and almost absolutely no lines at all! Can you believe that?! The best part of all was the we had some extra help to trade off sitting with napping children tucked snuggly in their strollers while Mommy and Daddy dashed off to some rides all alone!

The gentleman that I married always makes sure I get to take the splash in the face on the Matterhorn, but I still love him.

You're probably thinking, Matterhorn?! Aren't you pregnant?! Uuhhhh, yeah, about that, I made sure to hold the baby belly on the turns....

I guess that's the difference between pregnancy #1 and #3!

Or maybe it's my daring personality and I just can't help but pass it along to my kids inside the womb and apparently outside as well....
Yup, that's our 2 1/2 year old on her first roller coaster!

She LOVED it.

I, on the other hand, have to say watching her on that ride was probably waaay worse for this pregnancy than any Disneyland level coaster I rode on. But, she loved it and still talks about it weeks later.

We met all of the princesses and characters who Sienna proudly tells any available warm body that she now personally knows. Funny that she recalls the encounter as such a time of bonding when she was clearly too star struck to make actual eye contact with the characters or with the camera...

You may think little Jonah was too young to enjoy this adventure, but I'd have to argue that it's a magical place to be for a toddler with new walking legs!

He was on a mission and had the walkers to take us with him!

No Jonah should go to Disneyland without meeting his famous whale!

I'm pretty sure he has no idea what a whale is yet, because I don't think he'd be smiling like this after a few more years worth of references to his namesake....

When we got home we asked Sienna what she thought of her first and undoubtedly most spontaneous Disneyland trip...

I'm gonna guess that this smile means Disneyland definitely is the place where 2 year old dreams come true!

Ruffly Rocker T-Dress Tutorial

2010-12-02T13:26:00.000-08:00

Ruffles and dresses??

Plus a t-shirt refashion??

yes please!

And as a bonus, look at all the rockin' 80's scraps that I got to use from my mom's fabric stash! I seriously remember picking out the hearts print when I was a little girl for a dress that I wanted!Even though my mom never got around to making me my lightening and heart dress, I think I'll forgive her and gladly steal it back to make a lovely dress for her lovely granddaughter. Fair is fair right?

I've seen these tutu dresses and ruffly shirt dresses all over the stores this season and I just love them! So here's my little mix of the two....

Wanna try??

Here's what you need:

Cotton/Stretch T-shirt
1/2 yrd of stretchy or knit fabric for the base of the shirt
Long strips of coordinating fabric and tulle about 4" x 40"
Basic sewing essentials.. thread, pins, scissors, chalk, machine etc

Here's what you do:

Step 1- take measurements

Lay the old tee flat to measure the width of the bottom.

Step 2- cut out the base for the shirt part of the dress

Use the number you got in step one to cut the stretchy/knit fabric the same width. Old shirts work great for this if you don't have matching knit fabric around. Either way, make sure you cut the fabric after you've folded it over since you measured only one side of the shirt. The length is up to you. For a 4T dress I made mine about 10" long, but my little fashionista is tall like her momma.

Step 3- cut ruffles strips

In this case, I decided to go with 4 rows of ruffles, but you can easily adjust this by making each ruffle layer shorter or longer. For each row you'll want to cut a strip 1 1/2 times the total circumference (length around) your shirt.

Here's how you figure out what size strips to cut:

Shirt bottom measurement x 2 = total length around dress
13" x 2 = 26"

Total length around dress x 1.5 = length of strip to ruffle
26" x 1.5 = 39" but let's just call it 40" for a little wiggle room :)

For 4 rows of ruffles I made mine 4" wide. This gave me plenty of seam allowance and overlap room for my 10" long skirt portion.

Step 4- ruffle your strips
Ruffle your strips using the loosest settings on your sewing machine and gathering until they are the same length as your shirt bottom.

Step 5- sew your shirt bottom and first ruffle row to the shirt
Wrap the ruffle strip around the bottom of your shirt folded right side out so that the same sides of the strip and the shirt are touching and the bottom of the ruffle ends with the bottom of the shirt.

Next, wrap the shirt bottom around the 2 layers so that the ends are the same length and pin it all in place.

Carefully sew all three layers together using the zig zag stitch on your machine and stretching slightly as you sew. Make sure you gently stretch evenly from both ends and you're not pulling at all.

Sew the sides of the skirt part together along the side as you normally would for any skirt or dress. Similarly, connect the ruffle row by sewing them together at the side.

Some of you might sew the ruffles together before attaching for a cleaner seam, but I prefer doing it this way so I can adjust the ruffles as I go until the very end.

Step 6- Mark off lines for each remaining row of ruffles

I spaced my ruffles out every 3 inches so that I would have about 1" overlap between each one.

Step 7- Attach the remaining ruffle rows
I like the rough around the edges look for this rocker dress, so I left the knitted edges unfinished for each layer since they won't fray.

I also sewed the bottom ruffle layers directly onto the bottom skirt part with the top exposed since no one will see it and it won't fray either! Easy peasy!

Step 8- Finish 'er off with a decorative flower or bow
I used the scraps of the scraps to make a little flower for the side to blend the colors and break up the dress a little.

She loved it!

Now, you might not believe this, but the hardest part of the dress came after I finished sewing it...

Let me tell you, trying to describe "rocker" to someone whose musical plate mostly comprises of Rafi and Disney sing-a-longs was a little interesting. When she started dancing around like a ballerina I couldn't decided if I made progress or not...

But when she interpreted my rocker signing as roaring like a tiger was when I really knew I was a lost cause...

Eh, oh well, so clearly Mommy was never much of a real rocker herself...

Maybe we both can at least look cute dressed up as one from time to time!

A quick winter dress for baby and me!

2010-11-22T12:21:00.000-08:00

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, bakers man

Make me a dress as fast as you can!

(pretty please, Momma?)

You gotta roll it, pat it, mark it with a "B"

And don't forget to make one for baby AND me!

YAY!!!!

Thanks Momma!

And how could I do anything less for that squeezably round little face?

But I'll tell you, when I sat down to make her pat-a-cake dress I was stuck. All I could think of was this adorable long sleeve peasant dress I saw at the Little Bean Workshop.

And then it hit me like a pie pan to the face. Isn't copying the highest form of flattery? And I DO love so many things on Amy's blog. And what better way to honor my personal #1 copycat than to copy this cute little dress that's stuck in my head anyway??

So I did.

In almost every single way down to the perfectly fitting argyle fabric that happened to be on sale at JoAnn's all week :)

It was so incredibly easy to make that I threw one together for baby too!

Then, to spice it up with my own little spin I put 2 teeny pockets on the front just the right size for those chilled winter hands to warm up in.

Thanks for the great tutorial from Little Bean Workshop!

Hard hats required for this birthday zone

2010-11-09T12:18:00.000-08:00

Our little man had his first birthday a few weeks ago and I couldn't think of a more fitting party theme than this!

Our house quickly became construction central with dump trucks, building blocks, tools, dirt and lots of hungry boys hanging around.

Wait, that doesn't sound too different than normal!

Ok, a little different from normal... unlike our normal construction zones, this Birthday Zone was specially made for little diggers 3 and under!

Even the birthday cake was a just like playing in the dirt!

Jonah blew out his first candles in the back of his dump truck filled with dirt cake!

Each kid even got their own mini trucks to dig around their cake with.

When we weren't covered in chocolatey dirt we were very busy constructing giant cardboard block towers.

Well... actually they weren't so gigantic after all.

It's no surprise really if Jonah thought it was this much fun knocking over little blocks...

We could've expected our big block towers never to rise much taller than this...

The kids still had fun and loved helping Jonah break in his new favorite toy from Aunt Dani...

You didn't, did you?!

You DID!!

Our little boy has his very own, very manly, QUAD!

Adorable.

Here's the yummy, super manly (but could also be girlie with a slightly different angle) Dirt Cake Recipe!

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
2 (3.5 ounce) packages instant french vanilla pudding mix
3 1/2 cups milk
1 (12 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
1 package of chocolate oreo cookies with creme filling

Directions

Smash, crumble or chop cookies into a small pieces. You can use a food processor or a meat mallet and a ziplock bag seem to do the trick :)
Mix the softened butter, cream cheese, and sugar in bowl until smooth.
In a separate large bowl mix milk and pudding. Incorporate as many of the pudding globs as possible before adding the whipped topping to the mixture.
Combine pudding mixture and cream mixture together.
Layer in a lined dump truck or flower pot starting with cookies then cream mixture. Repeat layers.
Chill until ready to serve.
Decorate with mini dump trucks, paper flowers, gummy worms, etc

Note: As with all cakes, they're not exactly easy on the diet, but the best secret I've discovered with this is that using fat free or low fat dairy ingredients doesn't really change the taste! I've been doing it for years and my husband ~~has~~ had no idea :)

The tiny tool man tiny tutorial

2010-10-30T17:33:00.000-07:00

It's no surprise that Jonah really loves playing with anything related to tools, trucks or construction.... the apple doesn't fall far from the tree as they say.

Our future tool man had his first birthday last week, and even though he may be a man of few words if he could, I just know he'd beg me to make him the best construction costume that any 1 year old has ever dreamed of.

So I did!

This is such a quickie that I thought I'd just share a mini "how to."

I sewed the vest, because it was actually quicker for me than to hot glue it since I was sitting in front of my machine when I thought to do this. However, for all those crafty non-sewers you could easily get the same result without a stitch!

What you need for the vest:

Three standard sheets (8" x 11") of orange felt
Scraps of black and yellow felt
Optional 2" strip of velcro to close the front (or just leave it open!)
Scissors
Sewing usuals (thread, needle, machine etc)
Or... hot glue and glue gun

Here's all I did:

Step 1: Cut out three main pieces for the vest

The back- simply cut a shallow crescent (half circle) out of the middle of the top side of a full sheet of orange felt. This doesn't have to be perfect. Just cut a little dip and call it good.
The front vest sides- use the back of the vest you just "cut" out to guide how wide the shoulders should be for the vest flaps. Mine ended up being about 2 1/2" wide. Start by marking 3" in from one side of a full orange felt sheet along the top. Do to the same about 5 1/2" in from the bottom on the same side. Those are you guidelines for one flap of the vest. Now, gradually trace from the top 3" mark downward at a diagonal to make one side of "v-neck." About halfway down the length of the sheet start dropping straight down. You can go back and slightly trim out a little curve from the starting side of the piece you just cut out to make it look like an arm hole. Do you see what I mean by the little curve on the outsides of the vest flaps in mine??
The trim- Cut 1/2 to 1" wide strips of black felt the long enough to line the outsides of your vest. You can hot glue or sew these strips along the exposed edges of the vest. I didn't wrap it around like a binding. It's just decorative topping :)
The side attachers- Cut two 2 1/2" x 5" strips to attach the front to the back.
Optional yellow strips- Cut out 3 pieces long enough to go across each of the front flaps and back of the vest.

Step 2: Assemble the vest

Glue or sew the black trim to the edge of the vest. If you had to piece together the lining because the felt scraps weren't long enough, don't worry! It's black, it hides that kind of stuff nicely :) This is a good point to add any yellow accents you might want too.
Sew or glue the shoulders together before you fold the vest down and attach the side strips. The only trick here is to line 'er up real good.

Step 3: Add 2" velcro pieces to the front of the vest
This is optional, but I put little scraps of velcro I had on the front of the vest to keep it closed.

No velcro? No problem!

Felt will actually stick nicely to sand paper, if you have that laying around I happen to think it's very construction worker-esque to have something like sand paper glued to the front of your vest. Or just leave it open.

For the hat...
While I wish I were crafty enough to make a hard hat like this... I'm not. Or at least I don't have the time. I actually picked this up from the beloved dollar section at Target! I also spotted some hard hats at our Dollar Tree when I picked up his awesome pack of plastic tools to go with the new dress up digs.
The only snag was that the hat was waaay to big for both of my kidlet's wonderfully small heads. Small heads might sound like a bad thing, but not to the one who had to give birth to them! Anyway, my friend gave me the brilliant idea of gluing a piece of elastic across the middle to help secure it on!

Loved the idea almost as much as I love my friend!

Just in case I haven't convinced you that this construction outfit is ridiculous cute with my pictures...

I decided to risk letting you hear my awful camera voice just so you could join me in melting over this little guy's very new runway walk!

Who doesn't love seeing the toddling steps of new walker??

Counting by numbers

2010-10-27T07:29:00.000-07:00

First, we consulted the oldest and wisest of all our children to tell us what number she was...

Without hesitation she proudly choose number 1, of course!

Next, we asked the little guy what number he was...

He may not be the oldest or wisest, but in his short lifetime he sure has learned that when his big sister gives him something to play with he should quickly and quietly take it, because that kind of generosity doesn't last long from 2 year olds... so Jonah was happy to take the number 2.

Knowing that 3 comes after 2, which came after 1, Little Miss Mathematician started asking mommy who the number 3 was for....

Well.... looks like we'll find out in April!!!!

That's right! We're expecting our third bundle of joy at the end of April!

I'm 13 weeks and some days with a nice little bump to prove it!

I want to thank all of you for hanging in there these past few weeks while I sort of admittedly just checked out. Out of all three pregnancies I have certainly been the sickest with this one. I couldn't do much to get off the couch or out of the bathroom let alone try to sew, create or blog, but at nearly 14 weeks I'm feeling much better and ready to go!

It'll be a slow start getting back in the swing of things for a few weeks, but hopefully with all this 2nd trimester energy I should be plugging away in no time :)

Home Sweet Home

2010-10-06T20:07:00.000-07:00

Hip, hip hooray!

Home sweet home at long last...

Because I'm still slightly uncomfortable with the idea of everything about my life being published online I didn't mention that we were heading out for a two week escape to cooler climates, wedding dancing and family fun....

but we did...

and now we're home!

I thought we'd never get here after a 10 hour escapade on what should have been a 2 1/2 hour flight. I'm sure 10 hours on an airplane with 2 babies is completely feasible, but I guess when you're only planning for a fraction of that time it can throw you for a little loop.

We started off with the kids happily fed, entertained and peacefully contained in our laps until the captain announced that there was a storm over Phoenix that we were waiting to pass while circling above Flagstaff. Well, about 30 minutes later the storm was still a stormin' and we were running out of fuel, so they decided to have us head over to Las Vegas for a "quick" stop to refuel and we could be on our merry way.

Because we were only supposed to fuel up and head out they wouldn't let us off the plane or even out of our seats for that matter...

3 hours later they realized that we weren't going anywhere with about 50 planes ahead of us on the runway. By the grace of God, and the federal regulation that now says you can only keep passengers on the tarmack for 3 hours without take off, they let us off for a brief 15 minutes to grab dinner and hunt for milk. Since naturally, they don't have milk on airplanes, and even if they did they wouldn't even allow us to use the restrooms, get delicious airplane food or even water during this 3 hour wait, I guess milk on the plane probably wouldn't have done much anyway.

After racing up and down the terminal I found ONE restaurant, vendor or store who hadn't run out of milk yet to sell me 12 oz of milk for $3.50 in a plastic water cup. I don't know how much you pay for a gallon where you live, but I bought one yesterday for $1.68 in Scottsdale, AZ. I should've brought the screaming Jonah along with me for a sympathy discount, but honestly, for as thrifty and frankly cheap as I am I didn't bat an eyelash at the price for the coveted napping I knew would follow this miraculous liquid.

After another 2 hours inching through the runway line we were finally in the air and on our way home. The kids were so excited to be home and in their own beds that even Sienna, our midnight cuddle-er, slept all alone all night long! She was so glad to be home, in fact, that I woke up thinking she was still fast asleep only to find her quietly playing with her babies in the toy room all alone. Who knows how long she had been awake?! It's the small blessings like this that help us laugh off our measly travel saga.

On the bright side, we were extra disappointed thinking we might have missed a good Arizona rain storm until later Tuesday morning we got a taste of the wild side....

That's actual hail coming down!!

Did I mention it was still 70 degrees out??

Aaaah, it's good to be home :)

For every second that Sienna missed her baby dolls I think I missed my sewing machine a little more... so be ready for some fun stuff coming next week!!

long sleeve rock star tee

2010-09-27T13:17:00.000-07:00

We're not too high on the originality scale here, but with all the girly sewing I've been doing I figured it was only fair to throw in a quickie for the little guy too!

And, besides, who doesn't love a blondie with a tight guitar skirt on??

I roughly free-handed the guitar silhouette and left the edges raw, so they could curl up for a kind of rustic, old guitar tee shirt look....

maybe?

eh?

ooooh now you see where I was going...

gotcha!

I used one of my old stretchy tees from the Target clearance rack for the shirt sleeves and applique. Then I cut up a truly Old Navy blue tank top that I couldn't even get over my shoulders anymore for the body.

I love the baseball tee spin on my basic pajama top pattern that made it look like an everyday long sleeve.

I made sure to cut the sleeves and the bottom of the shirt along the original tee-shirt hem, so I saved a step in the hemming process!

Turns out that moments after I dressed the model for his photo op his generous sister offered him a stashed away animal cookie from her pocket... and well, you can imagine how lovely the new shirt looked after his first nibble.

So you'll have just to imagine the mini guitar hero in his rockin' new shirt until it comes out of the wash...

20 minute leggings tutorial with an optional flair!

2010-09-22T07:44:00.000-07:00

Super stylin' leggings in less time than it will take to read this post??

Yes, please!

As far as I'm concerned leggings are a staple fall item for girls. They're comfortable, easy to mix n' match with and, let's just be honest, what toddler tush doesn't look irresistibly pinchable in little leggings?

I'll show you how to make your own pattern, sew the leggings...and... if you have an extra 10 minutes of sewing time I'll show you how to add a little trendy scrunch to bottom of the legs.

Here's what you need:

Stretchy fabric, interlock would be the best, but any light to medium weight knit should work.
Waistband elastic to fit your child's waist
Normally sewing goods, thread, pins, machine etc....
An old pair of leggings to use as your pattern
20 minutes!
About 12-15 inches of very thin elastic for the optional scrunched legs

Here's what you do:

Step 1: Make your pattern

Fold the old pants in half and lay the outside of the old pjs along the fold of the fabric.
Using a piece of chalk trace along the edges of the pants leaving about 1/2 in gap for seam allowance on all sides except the waist. About 2 inches before you get to the waist of the pants, start angling outward so that you end about 1 1/2 inches away from the side of the old pant's instead of the 1/2 that you were doing before for seam allowance. This will give you a little extra room to gather for your waist band. Next, you'll want to trace 2 1/2 inches up from the top of the old waistband to leave enough room to make a casing for a new one.

Repeat for the other side of the pants. I like to cut out the first pant leg first and then use that as a template to trace the other half of the pants.

Step 2: Hem the bottom of the legs

Save yourself some time later and just hem the bottom of the pants now while they're open.

Step 3: Sew the sides of the leggings together

Lay the pant legs flat with same sides together, so it looks kind of like a diamond. Sew each of the top sides of the "diamond" from the waist end of the pants down to the crotch.
When you're finished lay the pants out flat with the seams down the center and the folded parts outward for the sides of the leggings.

This is the same technique I used to sew my pajama pants, you can see more pictures of what I mean here.

Step 4: Sew the crotch and legs together

I like to do this by starting at the foot of the leg and sewing up toward the crotch and straight across to the foot of the other leg, so you don't have to start and stop.

Step 5: Sew the elastic onto the pants

Fold down the top of the pants to make a casing for an elastic waistband.

Sew together leaving an opening to pull the elastic through before sewing the entire casing closed.

VOILA!!

Step back and admire your quick and easy leggings :)

That was just too quick, I know you want more...

Just go ahead and fancy it up with a scrunchy bottom twist!

You have 10 more minutes before you haaave to grab that screaming child :)

This is easy too, here's all you do:

Step 1: Cut your elastic
Fold the leggings inside out and cut 4 strips of thin elastic about 4 inches each for a scrunch 6 inches into the legging. This will let the leggings rest mid-calf for most pants.
Since I needed these for our upcoming trip to a very cold place, I decided to pre-cut my standard leggings extra long, so they would come down to the ankle after I scrunched them. I just added another 3 inches to the length of the old leggings.

Step 2: Pin the elastic to each side of the ankles
Mark the pants about 6 inches from the bottom up and pin one end of the elastic there at each side of the leg. Continue pinning down along the elastic until you hit the bottom of the leg.

You'll want to do this by pinning in sections since the piece of elastic is smaller than the area you'll be scrunching. To pin in sections, start by pinning both ends and section off in half again and again until you can't pin anymore!

Step 3: Sew the elastic in place
Sew the elastic on each side of the leg by carefully removing the pins just before they reach the foot. *Note* in this picture I removed them all to demonstrate that you should stretch the elastic by gently pulling on each side as you sew.
Make sure to hold both ends of the elastic as you stretch, so that you don't yank the needle out by pulling too hard.

It should look like this on the inside when you're finished. You'll probably notice that I used a straight stitch here instead of a zigzag like you typically do for elastic. I found that it was easier for me to control stretching the elastic this way, and I figured, since it's not really needing to stretch over anything it actually doesn't need the flexibility of the zigzag like it would on a waistband or something. I think.... :)

And there you have it...Basic leggings made a little extra fancy!

And when you're feelin' fancy who isn't up for a game of hop scotch?

That is, I suppose, until your partner takes up laying in the grass instead...

Ah oh well, what can you do when your partner is only a baby?
I guess she was happier just drawing with the chalk to begin with...

Thrifty Goodness!

2010-09-20T20:24:00.000-07:00

I had such a good thrift store weekend that I couldn't help showing off some of my new loves!

Ladies and gentlemen, feast your imagination on how deliciously adorable Jonah will be in this...

Complete with a little black bow tie

Price tag- $15
(Original tags say it retailed for $75!)

Then I stumbled upon just the perfect thing to really make the girls "ooooh and aaah"...

Price tag- $1

ONE DOLLAR!!

That's a S.T.E.A.L

The catch....

The shoes are size 7 and Jonah is currently a size 3 maybe 4 with thick socks....

But the good news for that is that the tux is ironically also a little too big by almost the same factor...

But hey, at least they'll both fit just right at the same time!

Then on Sunday.... just when you were thinking why buy something a year too big??

Ooooh baby, just wait for this part!!

On Sunday I decided to browse around one of my other favorite 2nd hand baby shops and found this:

Size: 12 months!

Just. right.

Price tag: FREE!

Ok, ok, fine, not technically free I suppose. I sold a bunch of stuff on consignment there and snagged this one for $2.49 worth of credit, which is pretty darn close to free for tux pants and a vest. And pretty much free, because I still don't really believe someone actually bought some of the clothes I took there, so I'd say I more than doubled my gain :)

Now, it gets even better.... I brought it all home and tried it on the little stud and I definitely think I'll be able to temporarily hem the tux jacket to fit now, but still be able to take it back out to fit him again later!

So why all the formal wear? We have a wedding to go to soon and what better time to show off your kids?!

So yes, he will be able to sport the dapper digs to the big day... weeee heee heee!!

Watch out Mr. Groomy.... he'll be a sight for your bride's sore eyes!!

I mean, yes, he'll... uh... wear something modest, humble and quiet.... like his mother's personality.

Little Mr. Fix It Long Sleeve Tee

2010-09-16T12:38:00.000-07:00

If you can break it, you should learn to fix it!

That's right. It's a hard knock life in DIY land.

We start 'em young.

And to prove my point I er... made a long sleeve shirt with tools on it?

Ok, not you're buying it. I don't blame you.

But we do try to let the kids tinker a little with us while we're working on home improvement and craft projects. Jonah is a mean chewer of screw drivers and you should see Sienna sew a button! At 2 years old, I'm just really impressed she gets the needle through the hole. Needle! Yikes! Don't worry, she has a child's plastic one she plays with under close supervision by me while intensely absorbed in my own sewing nearby :)

Ok, ok, enough with the jokes. We're happy to admit that we're trying to ~~force~~ encourage our kids to get into on our hobbies too. And naturally, we get a huge kick out of dressing them for the part.

Hence the real motivation for the cute little long sleeve tool man t-shirt!

With a little saw, hammer, nut, bolt, and carpenter's square on it.

I used the same pattern and instructions for my new pajamas that you can check out here to make this long sleeve shirt out of an old t-shirt.
I made this one even easier by cutting out the existing neck from the old t-shirt to use as ribbing for the neckline instead of making my own.

Instead of ribbing for the sleeves and finishing the bottom of the shirt like I did for the pajamas I simply cut the pattern for the body and sleeves along the original t-shirt hemming.

Easy peasy!

I free handed the tools for the applique and sewed them onto the front of the shirt before sewing the sides together.
It's hard to tell in these pictures, but I straight stitched the saw blade a 1/4 away from the edge so it will fray slightly in the wash and look like a real blade!

I think the little tool man was so excited to get something made for him that he was more than willing to pose for a photo op.

He actually got quite into it.

Should I stand like this? With the one leg out?

How about if I turn slightly like this?

Hand up with a slight smile gazing past you in the distance??

No, no, that's too much.

How about this?

Wait, is that a bug over there?!!

Can we be done now?

He did good. It's hard to bribe a 10 month old for very long....

How to sew with knits or stretchy fabric

2010-09-14T19:22:00.001-07:00

If you feel like sewing with knits is a stretch check out a few of these tips and tricks I ~~so wisely know~~ have discovered by accident that seem to make those darn stretchy fabrics play nice!

Check out:
#1- Needle, needle, needle
#2- Set the right stitch type and length
#3- Tame those hungry feed dogs
#4- Thread Counts
#5- Release a little tension would ya?

#1- Needle, needle, needle

The type of needle you use on your machine is the key to success above all else. Especially for light weight knits and jersey fabric (like t-shirts). I use a ballpoint needle (sometimes called a Jersey needle), but you can also use a stretch needle. These fancy needles have a rounded point that penetrates the fabric without catching or cutting through the yarns.

#2- Set the right stitch type and length

I'm sure you've heard a zigzag stitch recommended when sewing elastics or knits and it's because the zig lets the stitch flex and give a little with the movement of the material. This makes it easy because you don't have to stretch the fabric as you sew. The best setting for a zigzag machine is the narrowest zigzag setting (.5mm on many machines) and a stitch length of 2.5mm to 3mm. For those super thick knits you can use a longer stitch length.

For those with a straight-stitch-only machine don't worry! Just set your stitch length to a medium (2.5mm-3mm) length and it should work just fine. The only catch is when sewing knits with a straight stitch, you need to very carefully and evenly stretch the fabric from both ends. This doesn't have to be a tug-a-war, you just slightly and gently stretch the fabric as it goes under the presser foot. Make sure you're not pulling on one end or the other though, because you could end up pulling and snapping the needle. Yikes! No matter how cranky your kids are all day I doubt anyone really wants to poke their eyes out with a needle.

#3 Tame those hungry feed dogs!

If you have a differential feed system on your machine count your lucky stars! Your manual should have some info on the best setting for knits. The feed dogs are the little spikes at the plate of the machine that "feed" the fabric through while you sew. This is also what makes the knit fabrics sometimes stretch too much or pucker when they're pulled through too tightly.

How do I know what I have???

Most basic sewing machines have a single feed which feeds all layers through together, at the same time. You can test to see if yours does by taking two of the exact same size pieces of fabric and sewing a seam down the center. After you remove them from under the presser foot check the edges of the fabric to see if they are still aligned. If so, then hooray your feed is working well! If not, well shoot, those dogs are pulling either the top or the bottom piece faster than the other. No big deal, you should be able to check your manual and adjust the feed, but it'll require a little trouble shooting back and forth with test strips until you get it.

Having the feed dogs balanced will help, but if you still have too much pull or puckering you can try easing the pressure on the presser foot. I've also heard, but not yet tested that you can put a piece of paper under the fabric before you feed it through the machine to basically eliminate the feed dogs altogether! I've heard it really helps, but you'll have to make sure you're good at evenly and gently stretching the fabric through on both sides. Then, once you're done sewing you just pull the paper out of the seams.

If you're using a serger and having problems with the knits bunching, pulling or puckering, you can also check your feed dogs. Most sergers come with a differential feed knob that you can turn to strengthen or loosen as needed.

Warning about serging with knits.... the serge stitch takes away most of the stretch in the fabric, so it's actually better to sew neck openings or tightly fitted cuffs with a zigzag so they can stretch with the material over the head, hands or feet.

#4- Thread counts

The type of thread that is. Using the lightest weight possible will limit bunching. Instead of the basic cotton thread see how nylon thread works for you

#5- Release a little tension would ya?

For knit fabrics and most stretch material you'll probably need to loosen the bobbin tension, especially if you're working with cotton thread. Always test on a scrap piece of fabric after making any changes. The best stitches for a knit should lay almost flat with a slight raise. Give the fabric a little stretch to make sure the stitches don't break. If you've gone too loose you'll know because the stitches will form “loops” rather than stitches and won't lay flat.

Other random tips

Always pre-wash knits, because they do definitely shrink.
Skip the seam finishes! Most knits don't unravel much anyway and the less sewing the less room for unwanted stretch.
Spray a little ironing starch on the ends to give them some extra stiffness while you're working.
Sounds too basic to even say, but make sure your machine is recently oiled so the thread doesn't have extra pull coming through.
Use a double row of stitches on the hem. I'm sure you've noticed that most professional knits use this and unfortunately, they're fancier than most of use SAHM sewers and use a special machine or fancy serger to make this "coverstitch." But even if you don't have a coverstitch most zigzag sewing machines can take double needles, which sews a perfect double row of stitches on the needle side of the fabric and a neat zigzag on the bottom! This stitch has more stretch than a regular stitch and looks impressively professional :) The only drawback is that when you change to a double needle you'll probably have to make some other adjustments to your needle and bobbin tensions. If you want to try this hop over and check out this tutorial for twin needle sewing here.

I hope this helps!

Please email me or comment away if you've discovered any other tips, I'd love to know!!!

And.... just because I can't possibly have a post without pictures I'll seize the opportunity to show you Sienna's favorite moment of all from our little cabin trip last week.

Sitting in an old fashion high chair and eating oreo cookies
(it was a tie between the chair or the cookies)

Drinking her "milk-ooo" out of a fancy Sienna size real glass.

Puckering like a knit fabric when we laughed at her milk mustache.

Trying desperately to hide the "hairs" of her milk mustache to get us to stop giggling at her.

Ooooh kids are so fun, can you blame us for getting our kicks where we can??

FALL in love with a new PJs tutorial

2010-09-13T19:36:00.000-07:00

Oh my seasons, fall is in the air!

...ok maybe not quite in Phoenix, but certainly in all the stores and in most normal places around the country....

Regardless, since we plan to visit may of these wonderfully cooler climates in a few weeks I think we better be prepared. And by prepared, I mean... make sure we have ridiculously cute and cozy new pjs to lounge around in at Grandma and Grandpa's house!

And in the meantime to just pretend to wear over here...

Or to simply snuggle and giggle with...

Either way, for that smile I think I'll take it!

This is my first long sleeve top (eck! did I just admit that?!), but it was not nearly as scary as I thought. I used less than 2 yards of fabric, some old hand-me-down boys pjs as a pattern and just over 2 hours, that's it!

Wanna try??

Here's what you need:

About 1 1/2 to 2 yards of knit or stretchy fabric depending on the size pjs
1 yard of 1' wide ribbing
Old pjs to use as a pattern
Sewing machine, thread, pins, iron etc
2-3 hours depending on you

Here's all you do:

Step 1: Make your pattern

Front of the Top
Fold your fabric in half to begin. Fold the old pj top in half and lay the fold you made in the shirt along the fold of the fabric. Fold the arms out of the way along their curved seam as best as possible. Using a piece of chalk, trace the outline of the shirt about 1/2 inches away to give yourself a little seam allowance to work with.

When you get to the neckline, leave some extra wiggle room at the shoulder and lift up the neck slightly to trace just short of the edge of the ribbing.

Like so...

Back of the top
I like to flip the shirt around just above where I traced the front, so that both sides line up at the neck and arm holes. This way I get a better idea of how they're matching up.

Sleeves
Lay the sleeves flat along the fold of the fabric so that top of the sleeve (part without a seam) is against the fabric fold. Trace about 1/2 inch away from the bottom and end of the old sleeve with chalk stopping just beyond the beginning of the ribbing. No need to give seam allowance at the top of the sleeve since you don't need to sew it.

Pants

Fold the old pants in half and lay the outside of the old pjs along the fold of the fabric.
Using a piece of chalk trace along the edges of the pants leaving about 1/2 in gap for seam allowance on all sides except the waist. About 3 inches before you get to the waist of the pants, start angling outward so that you end about 2 1/2 inches away from the top of the old pant's waistband. Next, you'll want to trace 2 1/2 inches up from the top of the old waistband to leave enough room to make a casing for a new one.

Since we're not using exact science here, I like to cut out the first pant leg first and then use that as a template to trace the other half of the pants.
The nice thing about that is you can just cut right along and save yourself the chalking!

Step 2: Measure and cut the ribbing

Unfold the sleeves and pant legs you cut and lay them on top of a strip of folded ribbing.
Mark the width of ribbing you'll need and cut strips for the end of both sleeves and pants.

Repeat for the neckline of the front and back of the shirt. The neck ribbing will lay flat if you cut it slightly shorter than you actually need. Don't ask me how this works, it just does.
Then once you pin your slightly short neck ribbing strip you can stretch it to match the ends of the shirt like shown above.

Step 3: Sewn the ribbing to all your pieces

You can use a serger or a zigzag stitch on your sewing machine to avoid the raw edges as you attach the pieces of ribbing to each part of the pjs.

Iron all of the seams open like so...

Step 4: Sew the pants together

Lay the pant legs flat with same sides together, so it looks kind of like a diamond. Sew each of the top sides of the "diamond" from the unribbed end of the pants down to the crotch.
Open the pants so the seams are on the front and back and of the pants.

Sew the pant legs and crotch together. I like to do this by starting at the foot of the leg and sewing up toward the crotch and straight across to the foot of the other leg.

Step 5: Sew the elastic onto the pants

You can fold down the top of the pants to make a casing for an elastic waistband, or simply use a wider band and leave it visible like this...

To do that all I did was match the edge of the elastic band to the edge of my pants. Since the fabric will be wider than your elastic you need to pin the elastic in sections starting with 4 big sections and working your way down like I showed in my 20 minute skirt tutorial.
Serger or zigzag stitch the elastic to the pants and you're already done with the waist!

Step 6: Sew the top together

Start by sewing shoulders together. Nothings special, just match up and go!

Next, line up the sides of shirt and stitch or serger together, stopping at the armpit.

Step 7: Sew and attach the sleeves

Sew the sleeves together inside out. Make sure the ribbing lines up at the end of the sleeve.

Turn the body of the top inside out. Poke the sleeve through the armhole with the sleeve right side out. I know this sounds backwards, but it works.

Begin carefully pinning the sleeve to the arm hole by matching up the seam lines on the bottom of the sleeve to the seam lines along the sides of the shirt.

It should look like that.

Carefully fold right side out with the sleeves pin to make sure you've done it the right way. When you're all cleared go ahead and serge or sew it together. Repeat for the other side.

Step 8: Finish shirt bottom

To match my exposed elastic waist, I decided to finish the bottom of the shirt with a quick rolled hem, but if you left enough room you can fold and hem as normal too.

Woohoo!

You're already done!!

Just because I couldn't resist her contagious excitement over fancy new pjs I caved when she begged to wear them to bed tonight.

I know, I know, I'm already planning on waking up and change her when she's too hot to sleep in the middle of the night....

Or we could turn our AC waaaay down low... hum, tempting considering that I'd sleep really well too, but then where would the money saved on sewing my own pjs be?

The things us mothers do to see our kids loving the clothes we make them!

We like our summers HOT!

2010-09-01T19:46:00.000-07:00

And it's a darn good thing we do living in a desert and all, because you pretty much have hot or hotter around here.
But fortunately, we've learned a trick or two about hiding from the hot sun and I realized that I haven't said much at all about all the fun we've been having!

So here's a little of what we've been up to at all hot summer long:

Jonah discovered his first watermelon love again and again.

Sienna reconnected with hers, and I say reconnected because I think she is partially made out of that stuff after I ate a couple lbs of watermelon a day in my first trimester with her! You think I'm kidding don't you? We're talking seriously a couple lbs a day!

When we weren't eating watermelon, we ventured off into the wild for some camping with good friends

and cows...

Yes, Big Betsy over here was trying to win us over with her delicious smelling pies, but eventually she decided to mooove on.

And where there is camping there are lake side adventures to be found....
and some hanging around if you bug daddy just enough.

When we had enough of the great outdoors, we tried to clean up for romantic desert garden strolls...Ok...maybe not romantic, but relaxing and full of family fun!

Speaking of family fun, we couldn't forget about the many pool parties, bbqs and love to go around.
"Eh, another hug is fine I suppose..." Sienna's a big hugger...

And of course, we made sure all of our guests were properly acquainted with Bulls Eye the turtle raft.

When it was too hot for even swimming, we weren't exactly unhappy to teach Sienna about one of the most delightful summer treats of all. We stole her away where the AC is set to freezing and the butter comes with a side of popcorn- we took her to her first movie!

Last, but not least, and maybe it's just the ridiculous faces or the fact that I don't have to cook, but one of my favorite summer treats so far might just have to be goofy dinner nights with dad on the town!

...at a restaurant of his pick...

In n' Out.... no cooking... silly husband entertaining our kids....

hum...I'll take it!

Yes, it has been a good summer. Yes it has!

Formally known as the bathroom remodel

2010-08-30T08:13:00.000-07:00

....is now our fancy new bathroom!Ok, maybe fancy is relative here, but I assure you few elmo faucet protectors have ever seen such labors of love.

Sienna is also quite proud of

"my bathroom Daddy made Sienna"

and ~~demanded that~~ wanted her stool to be in this picture. It's the wrong green, but hey, it's a small request for a recent potty trainee who had to relearn where to use the potty just when she thought she had it figured out during our month (yikes) of construction time....

I know I promised an unveiling on Friday, but at the last minute we decided to put molding around the window and order new blinds for it. So we spent Friday and part of Saturday rushing to wrap that up too. I guess when you're on a roll you might as well keep on!

I forgot to mention after the tiling how to that you need to caulk around the shower when you're finished as you can see in that pretty white line around the tub.

We used a premium waterproof silicone kitchen, bathroom and plumbing caulk between the tub and the shower. We used an all purpose waterproof caulk along the edge of the shower and the wall. I hate to admit this, but I think these double shelves alone make this shower ten times better than our master bath!

Hi Elmo!

I also really love the rain shower in this bathroom. It has just the right amount of pressure and position. Yup, we both keep showering in here instead of ours... maybe it's just new :)

So there she be!

Our new guest bathroom.

It's tile time!

2010-08-26T07:40:00.000-07:00

Oooooh this is a big one!

And before I start I have a tiny confession to make.... I have to reveal a teeensy little lie here. Ok, not a lie, more of a failure to provide all of the details at once :)

Our "tile time" is really more than just a day as it would appear in my bathroom by Friday ordeal here.

Phew, that feels better!

Yes, it's true. We started the tiling part a while back and have sort of slowly continued working on it here and there, which is partly why it's taken us so long to finish! If you ask me you just need to buckle down and get 'er done in one fell swoop! So what I'm going to show you here is a compilation of our progress since the beginning of construction and mostly throughout this entire week as we worked on bits and pieces of it while others dried, set or hardened etc.

So without further ado...

The Basics of DIY Tiling
1) It is easy
2) It can be a little time consuming
3) And much like sewing, but even more so you gotta measure ~~twice~~ three times and cut the tiles once!

Here's what you'll need:

Tiles
Thinset or tile adhesive
Notched trowel
Sponge
Tile cutter
Wet tile saw*
Carpenter's square or "tri square"
Tape Measure
Tile leveler
Chisels or scrappers
Grout spacers
Grout
Sealer

*For this project we needed the wet tile saw to cut marble accent pieces and around tight corners. However, the wet tile saw can be optional, especially if you are covering a basic area that only requires straight cuts that can easily be done with a tile cutter.

Here's how we did it:

This is my explanation of how we did it, but for a good video tutorial to help you tackle your own unique space take a look here.

Step 1
Remove the existing flooring, floor boards and any other major objects in the room such a toilet etc.
Step 2
Carefully measure the surface area of the room or space to be tiled. Decide what size tiles you would like to have and if you want to include any special designs or contrasting sizes. Once all of these decisions are made you can begin calculating how many tiles you'll want to buy. Most tile stores let you return any unused excess tiles, so over buy just in case you have any breaks or miscalculations (because most people do!).

Cost:
About $0.69-1.99 per square foot for ceramic tile, a little more for porcelain and a double or so more for travertine. The marble comes in sheets of pre-cut cubes for under $10.

Step 3
Do a dry run lay out with the tile on the surface to cover. Don't be afraid to mark on the ground or shower before you place the tile down to help you. Some people use a laser leveler to draw lines on the surface as a guide before beginning.

When laying out the pieces start from the edge and work your way in, so that the full size tile will be on the edge of the shower or closest to the door of the bathroom floor. It's important to leave about 1 cm spacing around each tile for the grout. Once all the full size pieces are mapped out, begin measuring for the additional cuts.

Step 4
Use the tile cutter to cut the end and corner pieces of tile.

Step 5
After ALL of the tile has been laid out for a dry run, you can begin mixing the thinset or tile adhesive to lay the tiles down.

During this remodel we discovered the wonders and joys of pre-mixed tile adhesive!!This stuff is almost double the cost of the powder, but more valuable than it's weight in gold! Since this stuff doesn't harden quickly, so you can start and stop tiling at your leisure, which we know is a beautiful luxury when you're working with the kidlets at your feet.

Step 6
Use the notched trowel to lay out the tile adhesive on the surface with evenly distributed grooves going the same direction.
It's important to make sure there is an even amount of adhesive covering the surface, so that the tiles will all be level as you lay them down.

If necessary, stop and scrap or wipe off any excess with the edge of the trowel or a sponge to even it out.
Always use a leveler to double check the alignment of the tiles before the adhesive sets.

Another method is to plop to stuff right onto the back of the tile and smooth it out from there. This works nicely in hard to reach areas, but it's easier to get a level surface if you rake the adhesive directly onto the surface to be tiled.

Step 7
Put a tile spacer in between each neighboring tile to keep them evenly spaced across the floor or shower.
This is a good point to use your scraper or sponge to clean up any seeping adhesive between the cracks while it's still wet. You need ample clean space between the tiles and enough clear depth to fill it with grout.

Step 8
Allow the tiles and adhesive or thinset to completely set for at least 48 - 72 hours without walking on them to ensure they stay level.

Once they have thoroughly dried, start removing the tile spacers and scrapping off any excess adhesive from the spaces between or the surface of the tiles.
Jonah was absolutely dying to get in there and help the entire time. There's just something about that little man... I have a sneaking suspicion that he's bound to be Mr. Fixer Uper like his daddy! Let's hope so :)

Step 9
Mix the grout in relatively small amounts that you are sure you'll use in that setting, because it will dry up fairly quickly.
Use the smooth side of the trowel to spread the grout over the tiles, making sure to get it between each tile.
Use the flat edge to scrap it across the tiles and into the spaces as much as possible.

Step 10
Use a damp sponge to clean off the excess grout from the surface of the tiles.
Repeat a few times until the grout is completely off the tile surfaces and fully compacted into the spaces.

Step 11
Allow the grout to dry for 72 hours and cover with a protective sealer.

AND DONE!

Jeez, my fingers are about to fall off from all this typing! Hope you made it to the end here, but now you're really going to love me, because I just have to make you wait to see the finished tile until the unveiling tomorrow afternoon :)

What fun would a sneak peak be? The tiling is the biggest part!

Building the shower

2010-08-24T16:22:00.000-07:00

Naturally, as soon as we laid eyes on the Easter bathroom we knew it would require serious overhaul remodeling, but with the a tight budget we decided to settle for a temporary coat of normal color paint to cover the baby blue until we could afford to tile.

Fortunately, or not, our timeline was moved up a little when we discovered that the shower board backing wasn't properly attached and started falling right off!We looked into a quick fix with pre-manufactured shower kits starting at $800, but of course we couldn't stop thinking that we could just build our own shower and slap some tile on top for the same money or less.... so we did.

And here's how we did it:

Step 1
Removed the faucet and handles. Peeled (at this point) off the deteriorating shower board.
Ew, I just cringe to think we were trying to clean ourselves in something like this!

Step 2
Tore out the backer board and built 2 boxes for inset shower shelves.
Step 3
We learned the hard way from our first shower that you need to make the shelves a lot bigger than you might think to actually hold all the ~~crap~~ essentials a woman needs in the shower. Naturally, the 2 X 4 spacings weren't big enough to squeeze in our 16" x 16" box that would become our top and bottom shelves, so we carefully sawed into one of the 2 x 4s to make room.

Once you have a cut out, simply secure your box to the 2 x 4s and wall.

Step 4
Cut new 1/2" backer board slabs to cover the exposed surfaces.
Don't forget to cut holes for your faucet, handles and shower head if it will be covered by backer board.

Step 5
Secured the fitted backer board to the wall with titanium coated screws along the studs (2 x4s) in the wall. We ended up using one screw ever 6" up. The trick here (And because it was so tricky, the kids, the camera and I were all furiously shooed out of the bathroom. Leaving us pictureless for this step. You must know how these things go don't you?).... anyway, the trick here is that you have to be careful to make the board as level to wall as possible to avoid leaks and so the tile will lay flat and smooth.

Tah Dah!

Flat and smooth against the wall.

Next up.... we start tiling!!!

Almost new cabinets

2010-08-24T09:13:00.000-07:00

After the baby blue walls and light pink tile, the one thing that I was most anxious to part with from our inherited Easter themed bathroom were the boring old, marked up cabinets. The cost for a new double sink vanity and cabinets even with DIY installation would have been around $1500.

GASP!

Waaay out of our budget, so instead we decided to give our existing ones a face lift with quick sanding and paint job.
Which takes us to our first "how to" of bathroom remodel week....

Cabinet Remodel DIY

Step 1
Removed the cabinet doors and drawer covers from the vanity.

Step 2
Sanded the entire unit, doors and drawer covers with a 150 grit sand paper.I used an electric sander to speed up the quite tedious process, but had to switch to the old fashion way (my own two hands) to make sure I smoothed out ever nook and cranny. The wood should feel completely smooth and free from any gloss or shine when it's sanded enough. Be patient and thorough, this step makes a huge difference later on!

Step 3
Use a damp towel to wipe down the unit, doors and drawers after you finish sanding until it's clean from any dust particles from sanding that will show through the paint.

Step 4
Slap on your first coat of paint making sure not to clump the paint in any of the corners or edges.

Don't forget to do the floor boards that go around the vanity!

Step 5
This step is the doosey! Back to the sanding...
Once the wood is coated with paint (might take two coats), re-sand the entire thing by hand this time using a 320 grit sand paper.

Ah! Are you kidding me?

Nope.

This will get rid of brush strokes and make the finished product much smoother and professional looking.

It'll also give you a chance to smooth out any of the corners or edges that the paint might have clumped in.

Step 6
Give 'em all one last coat of paint making sure your brush strokes go in the same direction.

Step 7
Put it all back together and admire you're almost new cabinets!

Unfortunately, this is all you can get for "after" shots, because we just can't spoil the whole package until we're completely done!

Total cost:
Less than $25 for 1/2 gallon of left over paint from our master bathroom remodel, brushes and sand paper.

Also...I'm too excited about this little story that I'll run the risk of bragging just a teensy bit here....

Last night, our neighbor, who happens to be a professional painter, came over to look at our progress last night. You see where this is headed right??

Guess what he asked us?

Where we bought our new cabinets from?!!

EEEE!!! He couldn't tell they were the old ones re-painted?! Best compliment ever without him even knowing it :)

It gets this remodel moving again...

2010-08-23T14:37:00.000-07:00

We started smashing, tearing and undoing our second bathroom about...
oh boy, a month ago now...

...time sure flies when you have a DIY remodel to ~~procrastinate doing~~ finish up.

Naturally, I knew we needed a little nudge to get us going past the initial destruction clean up, so I decided to plan a little soiree this weekend with a few of our closest friends. As the guest list approached 40, we realized that

I really can't only invite a few people to anything
We couldn't have everyone peeing in our bushes, so we had no choice but to roll up our sleeves and get to work!

Turns out that this whole cram the remodel into one week, but get to work on it together thing is actually so much more fun than dragging it out over months and months and months like we did with our master bathroom.

Plus, since it's all we get to do until the party I had the idea to document our step by step progress and share the behind the scene "how to" details of the remodel with all of you!

Before we begin, let's take one last, long, nauseating look at the original baby blue walls and light pink tile bathroom...
What were these previous owners thinking?

So long Baby Blue!

And three cheers to the hopes of a new bathroom by Friday!

Laced to a Tee Skirt

2010-08-19T07:48:00.001-07:00

From humble beginnings, a little old t-shirt slowly transformed....

into a beautiful lace trim skirt!

Remember a few weeks ago when I shamelessly showed you this, but said I couldn't tell you what it was in case I managed to salvage it?

Well... luckily it wasn't trash day, so the next morning I thought better of my slight outburst and pulled 'er back out of the dump to at least stuff in a craft drawer until I mustered the creative courage to try again. After the delightful afternoon of window shopping around the bloggy blog world I was telling you about here, how could I not be feeling creatively gutsy once again?

I just loved how quick and simple the Toddler Skirt and Shirt by Lil Blue Boo was, which was just the perfect thing to recover my originally sundress bound and already half way cut up shirt into...

But of course I couldn't help adding my own little spin to it, so I spiced it up with some lace trim along the bottom.

I learned my lesson from the sleeveless yoke dress that an outfit isn't complete if it doesn't have pockets. So I decided to add a dainty miniature gathered pocket right in front with a matching lace bow to tie it all together.

Naturally, the pocket was Sienna's favorite part until she discovered that nothing goes better with lace than mommy's heals and pearls!

During our modeling session she was simply too busy with phone calls to look at the camera. When I asked her if she could look at Mommy for a picture, she stared at the ground said in her adorable and strangely almost English accent,

"Mommy, I just can't look at the camera right now, OK?"

I suppose I'll just have to get in touch with Ms. Sienna's agent at a later time.... for now, this is as good as it gets.

Silly girl, where does she come up with this stuff?

Wondering what to do with an old t-shirt?

2010-08-16T20:03:00.000-07:00

Oh boy, do I have some ideas for you!

I could spend all afternoon finding the end of the crafty blogging world looking at all the creative ideas out there...

so the other day I did just that!

If you've seen my Hubby Tee Tank you probably guessed I am a sucker for a good t-shirt refashion! It's no surprise I almost ripped the shirt right off my husband's back when I saw these...

Get ready, because you'll probably need to start sewing after you read this!

A little somethings to sew for you:

1. The Ruffle Shirt by Sachiko at Tea Rose Home

2. Anthropologie Wrap Tee by So Happy Together

3. Another unbelievably cute Anthropologie tank top by So Happy Together-

A little somethings to sew for your home:

4. Ruffly Gathered Pillow by A Quiet Little Life

5. Flower covered wedding ring pillow Vanessa of V & Co

A little somethings for your little yous

6. The Beach Comer Dress by Ruffles and Stuff

7. Toddler Skirt and Shirt by Lil Blue Boo.

A little somethings for your babies

8. Infant Gown by This Mama Makes Stuff

9. T-shirt Sleeve Baby Hat By Homemade by Jill

10. Ruffle bloomers by Blueberry kisses

How am I ever going to ~~steal~~ ~~no sneak~~ borrow all the t-shirts from the Mr. that I'll need to do these?!

So much inspiration so little time!!

What's your favorite??
Any other good tee make ups out there that I missed? I'd love to keep adding!