Peppermint outfit

Here is one of my recent projects. I made this one for a friend's daughter who turned 2 in November (late birthday present). The pants pattern I made from a pair of my daughter's knit pants. I realized after making the pants how easy it is to take a pair of pants I like and make my own pattern. I'm going to try to do this more now, although I do have a pants pattern I love and have been using a lot lately, but this worked great for knit pants since I didn't have a knit pants pattern. The applique on the shirt is from Lynnie Pinnie. I made this same outfit for my daughter, except it has an M on the peppermint and it is a different style shirt. The knit fabric I used for the pants is from Chez Ami, love the fabric!!

Back to baking cookies and hopefully get some more sewing done later tonight!

Craft Show followup

So, I haven't been good about blogging the last few months. Life is busy with two kids, running a small business and everyday life. The craft show I did a couple weeks ago was a success. It was my best show to date and I've received enough custom orders from the show to keep me busy. We are spending Thanksgiving with my family, so once it is over I will be very busy completing orders and sewing as many Christmas presents as possible.

For the craft show I made lots of new products and some sample dresses/outfits for display. Below are two of my favorite products I recently started selling and have been added to my etsy shop.

Countdown...

I'm participating in only one craft show this fall and it is on Nov. 14th and still have a bunch of stuff I would like to make. I always do well under pressure, so hoping the next 7 days I can get a lot of things made to sell or have as samples for special orders. My mom is coming in on Wednesday to participate in the craft show and she is just getting started today on making more things to sell....talk about leaving it to the last minute! :-) I started 3 months ago and thought I would have a lot more done by now, but between orders, presents and doing things with the kids and everyday life I haven't gotten nearly as many things done as I hoped. Wish me luck....getting things made and selling lots at the craft show!!

Have a great weekend everybody!!

Tinker Bell Costume

I originally bought a costume for my daughter from Wal-mart, but it fell apart within 2 hours of putting it on, so I returned it. I then went to Joann's and bought fabric to make a Tinker Bell costume for my daughter. I didn't want to wait until the last minute to make it, especially since we need it Thursday to go trick-or-treating at daddy's office. So, I spent time this weekend make it and finally got some modeling shots today. I didn't use any pattern, just winged it and I'm quite pleased!! The only part of the costume that isn't handmade are the wings and I'm going to have to make some adjustments to those since they are too big and won't stay up on her shoulders.

Neglect

I've been neglecting my blog. Life has been busy and I haven't taken the time to sit down the past month and blog. Not going to say much tonight, but hope to get back to blogging tomorrow! I've been trying to get some projects finished, some orders have been completed, but they weren't great for taking pictures at my house. One was a valence and table runner for my best friend, another was embroidering aprons and a table cloth for a customer....maybe one of these days I'll get some pictures to share from my friend and customer of what they look like hung up/on. Until tomorrow.....hope to have pictures of some completed projects.

Sweet Boy

On Friday I picked my son up from preschool. I love hearing what the teachers have to say each day. He is doing so well and adjusted very quick to preschool. Thankfully, we haven't had any problems and have heard all good things about him from the teachers. As we were leaving one of the teachers from the other preschool class told me sweet story that took place on the playground a week ago. She said my son was waiting in line to get on the monkey bars. A girl was on the bar in front of him and when she leaned her head back her hair fell in her face. My son walks up and moves the hair out of her face and told her she was pretty. Such a sweet thing to say!!

Knot Dress - attempt #2

I've attempted my own design of the Knot Dress tonight. I downsized the pattern quite a bit since the other one was way too big. Hoping it fits my daughter!! The embroidery designs are from Lynnie Pinnie (www.lynniepinnie.com). Thought they were perfect for a fall outfit. The little pumpkin is on the top back of the dress, which may not have been the brightest idea on my part since my daughter has long hair and will most likely cover the design, unless I put it up. Oh well! Hope to have modeling pictures tomorrow.

Knot Dress

I've see a lot of knot dresses lately and didn't have a pattern for one, so I drew up my own pattern. This was my first attempt and turned out way too big for my daughter, so it may go up in my etsy store. I'll be making a smaller one soon for my daughter to wear this fall.

New Baby Set

I joined a MOPS (Mother of PreSchoolers) group this month and one of the ladies from the group ordered a baby set for a baby shower she is attending in October. The expecting couple are fans of Purdue, so we put together a Purdue baby set for the gift. She liked it so much she ordered an embroidered onesie for her daughter, which I'll have to show soon.

Made by Rae Jackpack Backpack GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Made by Rae Jackpack Backpack GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Playing with friends....

Thursday, while my son was at preschool, my daughter and I went to the playground to meet up with some friends. Since my son is gone 1/2 day three days a week I'm trying to get out some with my daughter so she can play with some kids around her age. We all had fun and my friend got some awesome pictures of my daughter and her girls. Aren't these the best pictures!!?? Now, which ones should I print??? I'm a big fan of the black and white ones!!

What are they up to???

Deep in thought!

1st Day of Preschool

Today was the first day of preschool for my 4 year old son. My husband was out of town yesterday and wasn't going to make it home in time to take my son to school this morning, so I had to take him. I wasn't looking forward to dropping him off because I was afraid he was going to latch onto me and not let go.......he hasn't always done well when we leave him at church, so I was expecting the same routine. It was a wonderful surprise this morning when he was all happy before school and even when I left him at school. The hardest part this morning was getting him to eat his breakfast (I'm guessing he was a little nervous!!). I had to force him to drink his smoothie this morning and he wouldn't touch anything else. He usually eats a ton in the morning, so this was a big surprise. The next hardest part was getting my 2 year old out of his classroom. She wanted to stay and play! Here are a few pics (in revers order)... of course little miss 2 year old had to hop in most of them! :-)

Atari Baby Set

One of my husband's friends wanted me to make him some Atari computer covers for several different computers with the Atari logo embroidered on the covers. When he first asked, I hadn't gotten around to learning how to digitize with the software I got for Christmas. So, I asked one of my groups if anybody knew where I could find the digitized logo. I got one response, but didn't like the way it stitched out. It was free, so no complaints, but this was all it took for me to take many hours to learn my software. I've only digitized one thing so far, but really like the way it turned out and my husband's friend is happy with his new covers.

Other friends of my husband's are expecting their first baby in a few weeks. He mentioned they might be interested in some of my products and maybe I should embroider the Atari logo on a onesie for their baby girl. I added baby to the logo and stitched it out onto a onesie, bib and burp. What do you think? It's going in the mail as soon as I get around to adding snaps to the bib.

New Products

I'm addicted to remnants and have a hard time passing them up when I find ones I like at Joann's, especially when the fabric is already on sale!! The great thing about Joann's as compared to the other fabric stores is you get the sale price at 50% off, so a really great deal. I have a 58 qt. box overflowing with remnants (can probably fill 2 if I wanted to). My Mom buys me remnants too, so that just adds to the pile.....not complaining one bit because she find me some great fabrics too!! :-)

There are so many things you can do with the remnants and I'm trying to put as many to use now as I can as I prepare for the craft shows this fall. I'm also trying to use up a good bit of my flannel since I have so much of it too (at least 8 28 qt. bins plus some small bins with overflow). Earlier this week I made a flannel/plush blanket with a matching bib and burp. I still plan on adding a toy and maybe something else to the set. The back of the bib and burp I use a left over piece of flannel from another set a made a while back. Really trying to use up some scrap pieces!

Then a couple nights ago I worked on a purse, which I will post later, once I have a better picture. I use a home decor remnant I got recently. It was normally $9.99 and was 30% off. At the remnant price I got it 50% off the $6.99 a yard sale price. What a steal!!! It was under a yard, but there was still plenty left to make some wristlets. Here is my first wristlet....more to come! This was my first ever wristlet, so it's not perfect, but I'm sure each one will get better!

It's been a while...

So, life has been busy and I haven't posted in a couple weeks! We had a wonderful trip to visit my parents, although I was exhausted when I got home. My brother's kids were there with us all week too, so the kids had a blast. We spent the 2nd weekend at my parents' camper at the campground and went to the flea market. I always love going to the flea market.....never know what kind of deals you are going to find, plus they have some wonderful fresh produce. I always come home with fresh fruits and vegetables and enjoy them so much. We arrived home Sunday afternoon to a nice clean house, thanks to my hubby!!

This year I planted a bunch of tomato plants (big tomatoes and some grape tomatoes), green peppers and red peppers. We had our first tomato last night, which my 4 year old son and I enjoyed. He was so excited to have a tomato from our own garden. It was so tasty!!! We have a ton of green, some very large, tomatoes and I'm looking forward to more fresh tomatoes. We have some peppers too, but they aren't ready yet, at least from what I can tell. With 13 regular tomato plants, 6 grape tomato plants, 3 green pepper plants and 6 red pepper plants, I'll be doing lots of canning this year!!! I may even head over to the farmers market to try to sell some...we'll see! I'm looking forward to next year when we have a garden with a wide variety of fruits and vegetables!!

I'm so thankful for our friends who have a pool. I'm not against a public pool, but it's not cheap to go on a regular basis. Because our friends have a pool, we get to swim on a regular basis throughout the summer. She's had her girls in swimming lessons and the oldest two have made so much progress this year. Her middle child, who is the same age as my son, started swimming a couple weeks ago, which we got to see for the first time on Monday. Seeing what your peers can do has really been great for my son because yesterday he started doing some floating and kneeling on the bottom of the pool all on his own. He did the rocket ship (floating on belly with arms above the head and kicking). I'm so proud of him and know now that he is really ready for swimming lessons. I will definitely be enrolling him in swimming lessons this fall!!

Guess I better get back to sewing!!

Heading to Cleveland....

I've been working since last weekend trying to get some orders done before we head to my parents' house, outside of Cleveland, Ohio. One of my husband's friends wanted some covers for his old Atari computers. My husband has all the covers, but I had to create patterns out of each cover. I spent a bunch of time over the weekend working on the covers and today was the first day I've during the week I've really had to time to get back to them. It's taking some time to tweak them so they fit each computer just right, but they are coming together. I also did my first digitizing job....the Atari logo for the covers. I'm quite pleased with myself that I figured out the digitizing software I got for Christmas from my in-laws. I definitely have a lot to learn, but the logo turned out nice and my husband said it looks good (and he's quite picky, so yeah for me!!). Tomorrow I will hopefully finish the covers and get the logo stitched on them!!

So, Friday morning we are heading out mid morning, hopefully around 10:00 a.m. and should arrive at my parents' house around 3:30 or 4:00 p.m. I'm really looking forward to the week. Hopefully I'll get to see some friends, spend time with my parents and I'll get to see my aunt and uncle who are visiting this week and then my older brother and his kids are coming in as well. It will be a house full for the weekend, but then everybody leaves except for me, my kids and my niece and nephew (and of course my parents will be there). There is no set agenda for the week, only next weekend when we go camping and visit the flea market on Saturday! I'm so looking forward to a week without having to accomplish anything!! :-)

The Design Girl

The Design Girl is having a giveaway for reaching 500 followers. She is giving away 5 pre-made blog templates. Check out the giveaway, http://designgirlblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/500-followers-giveaway-yes-another.html.

Happy 1 year anniversary...

As of today we have been in our new house for one year! We had a brutal awakening this morning around 8:10 a.m. when the smoke alarms went off....now we need to figure out why they went off!! One screaming 4 year old wondering what the sound was and why it was making the horrible noise, a 2 year old still laying silently in bed and mommy and daddy trying to figure out why the alarms sounded for just seconds!!

It's been a great year in this beautiful house. We finally have some nice grass growing in after spending lots of money to hire somebody to add top soil, till and grade the property (two acres) and seed everywhere. We've added some more seed in some areas and will surely have to add more in other areas as we figure out where the patches are going to be. I'll be happy when the grass in nice and thick throughout the entire yard. We finally got some good rain the last couple days, so I've had a break from watering duty for a couple days.....time to get some laundry done!! Expecting more rain on Saturday and praying we get a nice shower again!!

I'm patiently waiting for some fresh tomatoes and peppers from our garden. We will have large tomatoes (not sure exactly what kind they are since the neighbor brought over the starter plants), grape tomatoes, green peppers and red peppers. Yum, yum....can't wait!! Next year I'm planning on a full garden with many more vegetables. This year everything is in temporary gardens because I wasn't planning on a vegetable garden until my neighbor brought over a bunch of tomato and green pepper plants he had left. Since the yard was still in the process of being finished I put the plants in the gardens around the house that I was working on setting up. Looking forward to a full garden next year!!

Questions from a 4 year old...

Yesterday my 4 year old son was full of questions. I can't remember all of them, but I do remember a couple.....

Why did God make me a boy????

When can I get my ears pierced?

The Big Giveaway

Do you love giveaways? They are always fun to participate in and you can win some fun things. Found this blog through another blog I read daily. Check out the big giveaway, http://designgirlblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/big-giveaway.html. The giveaway ends today, so hurry on over to see what they are giving away!!

Baby Gift

One of the doctors at the chiropractor's office I go to had a baby in June. The office purchased a personalized tag blanket from me and because I love making and giving baby gifts I made a few things as a present from me for baby Ava. I love when people are so grateful for handmade baby gifts....the family loved the gifts! I made up a bib and burp to match the back of the tag blanket, a softie owl (an in-the-hoop design from Digistitches, www.digistitches.com) and monogrammed and added the date of birth to a blanket I had in my stash (not pictured).

Pretzel Jello Salad

Also known as Raspberry Jello Salad.
This is one of my all time favorite jello salads.

Note: also good with strawberries or cranberries

Crust:
3 cups crushed stick pretzels
3 tbsp sugar
1 ½ sticks margarine

Filling:
2 cups cool whip
1 pkg. (8 oz) cream cheese
1 cup sugar

1 large box (6 oz) raspberry jello
2 cups boiling water
2 (10 – 12 oz) pkgs. Frozen raspberries

Crust: Put pretzels in blender on grind until they are of crumb consistency. Mix crushed pretzels, 3 tablespoons sugar and margarine together and pat into an 11x13 pan. Bake in a 350 degrees F oven for 10 minutes. Let crust cool

Filling: Thoroughly mix the cool whip, cream cheese and 1 cup sugar together and pour over cooled crust. Chill.

Dissolve jello in boiling water. Stir in 2 packages of frozen raspberries and continue stirring until raspberries are thawed and jello starts to thicken. Pour mixture slowly over chilled cream cheese layer and refrigerate until set.

Start here with your content. Replace this paragraph, and everything down to AND INCLUDING the word: STOP. DO NOT REMOVE OR CHANGE THE CODE BEYOND THE WORD STOP BELOW! This has been the most requested theme, so I hope we have a record turnout. Please put up a post with your favorite recipe, or if you don't have the recipe, a photo of your favorite dish and a description. Here's a sample post I did for you: http://www.mcklinkyblog.com/2009/07/mcklinky-blog-hop-for-july-21-2009.html Also, be sure to submit your recipe here too: http://www.mcklinky.com/recipes.asp! I WILL CREATE A MckLinky RECIPE BOOK, AND MAKE IT AVAILABLE TO ALL BLOG HOPPERS FOR FREE! ...STOP

Bit of Whimsy Dolls Giveaway

This week Bit of Whimsy is have a Christmas in July giveway. Each day she will be giving away something different. You can be entered into the drawing by leaving a comment on her post. Check it out....http://www.bitofwhimsydolls.com/blog/2009/7/20/giveaway-day-one.html?lastPage=true#comment4870257. She has the cutest patterns for making dolls, lots of different dolls!!

Question of the day....

My 4 year old asked me today if he would have a big head like Daddy when he grows up????

Larger picture of outfits...

Here is a larger picture of the outfits since I can't figure out why the pictures don't open up larger when you click on them.

4th of July outfits

I planned on making the kids some matching outfits for the 4th of July and finally got around to it just a few days before the 4th. The 4th was so rushed I didn't get a chance to get the kids in the outfits, but still wanted to share. The owl on the shirt and the dress is from Sewing for Sarah Embroidery (http://www.sewingforsarahembroidery.com/). She has some really cute designs (which I have a ton of!!)!! My son wore the owl shirt with a pair of jean shorts, but my daughter had to have a totally matching outfit. The dress is my own design. I took the top of an a-line dress and added two layers for the skirt of the dress. This was the first time I've made this dress, but I'm sure I will be making more! :-) I also made some matching bloomers to go with the dress, which I LOVE! I really like these bloomers (they are longer than the other bloomers I've made) and plan on making more! Please excuse the wrinkles....I just got pictures today after they came out of the dryer. I'll probably have the kids in these outfits tomorrow, so hopefully I can get some cute pictures of them!

Grass, hopefully soon!!

Part of our property is tilled, grated and seeded. It's been a long project due to all the rain we've had this past month. I say only part, because we live on two acres and the big open area to the south (I think it is south....I'm horrible with directions, but I think that is right) of the house, where we hope to put up some volleyball nets and play some other games later in the summer, isn't done yet. That is the area of our property we have had the most problems with drainage, so it is taken forever for it to dry out enough to till it. I'm ok with it not being done because we have plenty of property around our house that needs to be watered each day. I spent all day from 8:15/8:30 this morning and I'm still watering a few areas outside that still look dry. The days have been so hot around here lately (up in the 90's) that it is hard to keep everything damp all day. Although it is recommended you don't water during the day, when you are growing grass you don't really have a choice but to water all day, especially when you live on a large piece of land. Hopefully in a week or so I'll have some pictures to show the grass growing!!

Growing pizza!!

I went out to water (fertilize) my plants this morning and the kids stood at the window watching. When I came inside my 4 year old son asked what the green stuff was. I explained it was fertilizer for the plants....it's their food. I don't recall every word that came out of his mouth, but he eventually asked if we could grow pizza!! I told him we can't grow pizza, but that was a nice thought! LOL!!

Monogrammed Onesies

I took all my handmade items to the garage sale I participated in at my parents' last weekend and sold quite a few things. One customer bought a couple of the onesies with ribbon sewn on them and wanted them monogrammed with a P on the front for a friend who had a baby that day. I was hoping to use my mom embroidery machine while I was visiting, but I'm not familiar with her software and at 11:00 p.m. Sunday night was too tired to figure out if her software would do what I needed done. So, the onesies came home with me and I finally got them embroidered last night. I tried contacting the customer to get her e-mail address so she could see what the monogram would look like, but never heard back from her. Hopefully she likes the way they turned out!! I think next time I will go a little smaller, but I think they look cute the way they turned out for these.

Yesterday I got together with a couple friends I haven't seen in well over a year (maybe over two!!). One lives out of town and was driving through on her way home from St. Louis. She is expecting her first child in September and since I'm not sure when I will see her next I wanted to give her a few handmade things for her baby girl. I took most of her present from my stash because I didn't have a lot of time to throw things together, but I did manager to monogram a onesie. It was a big hit (as well as everything else) and I love how it turned out. I really need to start doing more with monogramming!! She loved receiving handmade presents and I love to hear how much people appreciate handmade presents!!

Monsters in my closet

My daughter is 2 years old and has a very active imagination. The only things my kids watch regularly is PBS (Sesame Street, Word World, sometimes Dragon Tales, Caliou or Arther). We were out of town at my parents for almost a week and got back home last Monday night (late). Tuesday or Wednesday she started talking about monsters in her room. She doesn't get upset, just says there are monsters in her room and continues to talk about them until I (or my husband) go into her to check under her bed and her closet. Once we check everything out the topic is no longer discussed until she "sees" monsters in her room again. I'm not sure where she has come up with monsters in her room, but we think it's funny and cute!

More halter tops and Hannah Montana outfit....

This week I've had a busy week of sewing. I always have a never ending list of things I want to accomplish, but never get to each thing when I plan on it. I did, however, have a pretty good week and hope this weekend to get some more things done. I've been needing a break from the constant interruptions from the kids, so my husband took the kids to a local indoor play gym with bouncy houses, climbing areas, slides, bowling, laser tag and I'm sure I'm forgetting something. They've been gone since noon and are just getting back home as I type. It's been a nice break and although I haven't gotten any sewing done I have gotten laundry put away, a shower, watered some plants, some things cleaned up in my room, some new blog posts and a couple e-mails sent out. Now the kids are down for naps and hopefully I can get some more things done!

Here are a couple tops I made for my daughter this week and a Hannah Montana outfit I made for my friend's daughter who turned 6 a month ago (yes, I'm a little late....better late than never!!).