Check out Spring Top Week at Made by Rae

Voting started today. There are 5 days of voting....4 groups spread out between 4 days and the 5th day is final vote. The final vote will determine the Best Top Award (Readers Choice)!! Check back each day and vote for your favorite top!!

Kids' Birthday

My daughter celebrated her 4th birthday over spring break (end of March) and my son celebrates his 6th birthday the end of April. I had planned on doing separate parties, but time flew by way too fast and I decided to do a combined birthday. We planned the party for this past Saturday. I was going to do it at the house, Lego theme for my son and something girly (My Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake or Tinkerbell) for my daughter, but my husband vetoed that.....I was quite happy he vetoed it when I got sick, as were as the kids, and I didn't have time to clean the house!! We decided to have it at a local gym and let each of the kids invite the number of friends for the age they turned/are turning (4 and 6), then we included siblings and our friends' boys who are the same age as our kids. A few weren't able to join us, so we ended up with 13 kids. They took care of everything except the cake and candles. I always have to do something for the kids for their party and had planned on birthday shirts. Because we were all sick last week I ended up doing the shirts Saturday (finished 45 minutes before the party.....just enough to get a shower and get to the party 5-10 minutes early!!). I also baked cupcakes Friday night and then spent Saturday morning frosting them (not just one frosting, but two.....chocolate frosting and a colored icing). They turned out delicious, but I wish I could be one of those moms that doesn't always have to be doing stuff until the last minute and would just relax. My husband gives me a hard time about working up until the time we are walking out the door, but I just can't help it!! Enough rambling from me!! Here are the kids in their birthday shirts! My son requested a crown number shirt with crystals.......

Birthday Prince

Design from Lynnie Pinnie

Birthday Princess

Designs from Lynnie Pinnie

Change

When I first started my blog it started off more personal. It quickly turned into more of a business blog, so I have wanted to change the blog address for a while. I was going to set it up with my business name, but it wasn't available. I've continued to check if it has become available, but no luck.....so, today I decided I would change it to www.littledarlingdesignsbyjulie.blogspot.com. The web address better reflects by business!

Starting Monday, all business will be on the new blog. I'm going to work on setting up the new blog this weekend and post the giveaway on the new blog Monday (hopefully). Head on over and become a fan!!

Thanks for your support!!

Almost to 500 fans...

First thing....we are SO close to 500 fans on my facebook page. When I reach 500 fans I'm doing another giveaway. I'll be giving away a custom outfit, plus some other items from my stock. Help us get to 500 fans!! We are at 497 last I looked!!!

Here are some things I've been working on recently. The first is my daughter modeling the owl outfit I made her. The owl design is from here. I designed the pants. At this point they are available in size 3T, but soon I'll have them available in smaller/larger sizes. If you would be interested in a pair, please e-mail me to let me know what size you would need.....still haven't decided how big I'm going on them!

Felt Owl Clips.....aren't these the cutest!!! Love them!!

Owl Clip design from here.

Knit Doll Ruffle Pants

I'll have different fabric options available for the doll pants in the near future. I'm also going to make a top to match the owl outfit above as well as a matching dress/top to go with the pants.

This dress if for a custom order I'm working on. I have one more pillowcase dress to make and two bows to complete the order.

Lots more to do this week. My to do list:

1. Pillowcase dress
2. Crayon wallets
3. Art totes
4. 2 Appliqued shirts
5. Custom Tooth Bag
6. 2 Personalized tooth fairy pillows
7. Custom order for a changing pad, fabric diaper and wipes case and a binkie holder
8. Custom Zebra Pillowcase Dress with matching doll dress
9. Atari dust cover
10. Custom Window Shade for my bff (way past due)
11. Pattern design (knit pants, knit dress, etc.)
12. Shirts/dress for 15"/18" dolls
13. Sample First Communion/Flower Girl Dress
14. Christening outfit for my friend's little boy
    
    The first 5 I have to get done this week by Wednesday or Thursday!! I guess I better get busy!!

Happy Tuesday!! Have a GREAT day!!

The winnners are.....

Thanks again to everybody who participated in my giveaway. I'll be doing more giveaways as I get more followers on my blog and more facebook fans on my business page. Please continue to spread the word!! I'll be doing my next giveaway when I ready 300 fb fans.....only 56 more fans until the next giveaway.

In the future I will announce the winner on my blog and will give you about 24 hours to respond and claim your prize. If I don't hear back from within that amount of time then I will draw a new winner. You will need to check my blog the day I say I'm going to announce the winner in order to see if you won. This time I e-mailed the winners Friday and gave the winners all weekend to respond and even sent out extra e-mails to those I didn't hear back from as of last night. A couple of the winners didn't claim their prize, so this morning I picked new winners. Now that all the pillows are claimed I would like to announce who they are....

• (#37) Blue Pillow: Dawn, from DeDa Studios, who said "Just showing some love!!...."
• (#14) Purple Pillow: CracklinRosie, from Hootie Patootie, who said "Love the pillows!"
• (#33) Customized Pillow (from blog): greatdeals2010 (Kershy), who said "I visited your website and love the blue monkey taggie blanket under toys~"
• (#11) Customized Pillow (from facebook): Gretchen, who said "Hey Julie- I found your site through your personal FB page since we went to school together. I love your stuff & my daughters do to...."

Congratulations to all the winners!!

Have a wonderful night!!

UPDATE: Tooth Fairy Pillows

Mandi and Carli, if you don't claim you tooth fairy pillows by tomorrow morning I will be picking new winners after I drop my daughter off at school (Monday morning). Please check your e-mail for a message from julie @ littledarlingdesigns.com or jellaan @ comcast.net.

I had a wonderful weekend with family! My brother was visiting from out of town. We played UNO and lots of Wii yesterday. The kids LOVE having their uncle around and miss him living here!! My brother left this morning and we headed south to meet up with my in-laws for my mother-in-laws birthday. We did some outlet mall shopping, had a meal at Tumbleweed, shopped some more and then headed home. It was a great weekend!! I'll miss my family, but will look forward to the next visit!!

Olivia Owl Order

I had plans on getting at least a couple orders done today, but ended up just getting this one shirt done. I LOVE the way this little owl shirt turned out!! Isn't it cute?!! The design is from here. I love this fabric and think I'm going either make an outfit for the shop or one for my daughter. I need to see what sizes I still have in these shirts.

Have a great weekend!!

Giveaway - Winners have been notified

UPDATE: I'm going to give the winners until the end of the weekend to get back to me since I have family in town and after thinking about it some might also be busy with family. If I haven't heard from them by Monday morning I will draw new winners for the unclaimed pillows.

Winners have about 24 hours to respond to my e-mail. If I don't hear back from you I will pick a new winner.

Once I hear back from all the winners I'll announce the names.

Thanks to everybody for participating!! Please continue to spread the word about my blog and facebook page! Once I reach 300 fans on my facebook page I'll host another giveaway for one item from my craft show stock. Last I looked I was up to 236 fans....this past week Little Darling Designs went from about 130 fans to 236, so it's possible in another week we could be having another giveaway.

I don't plan on participating in craft shows this year, so I'll be posting a bunch of my stock in the ready to ship album at discounted prices as I have time. All items in the ready to ship album include shipping, so the price you see is the price you pay.

LAST day to enter the giveaway!!

If you haven't entered my giveaway, today is the last day. To learn more about the giveaway click on the picture of go here, http://mommypatrol.blogspot.com/2011/02/time-for-giveaway.html. You have until 11:59 p.m. tonight. I'm also giving away one personalized tooth fairy pillow to one of my facebook fans. See my facebook page for more details.

Please Pray for Luke and updates

First, I would like to ask you to pray for Luke. A couple months ago Luke, a 6 year old little boy, was diagnosed with a brain infection. While his family was driving in their car on the last day of 2010 Luke became completely nonresponsive. No movement. No blinking. No talking. Silent. Gone. His parents pulled over and called 911. Luke's father signalled for a police officer at an adjacent stop light to come help. The officer pulled Luke out of his car seat, laid him on the ground and took the phone to speak to the 911 operator. Luke was having a seizure. Luke was eventually take to the hospital in an ambulance and still remains in the hospital. Luke has been in a lot of pain and having trouble sleeping. You can read more about Luke at prayforluke.com. Here is the latest update. They will be traveling to Mayo in the near future. Please pray for Luke. Here are the family's Prayer Requests:

Sleep for Luke
Mayo travel (Rochester, MN)
Doctors at Mayo
Abram (little brother) - he will go with us on this adventure along with our friend, Lea
Answers
Complete Healing

The last couple days haven't gone as planned. I planned on getting a lot done, but have been so tired and had house cleaning and laundry to do, so I haven't gotten much done in the sewing room. The last post stated I would be posting some new designs I will be offering. Well, I haven't gotten anything else stitched out, but I did take some pictures of the other St. Patty's day shirt I stitched out. The design is from here. This shirt is a 4T and is ready to ship if anybody is interested. I stitched out 2 St. Patty's day shirts and my daughter decided she wanted the other shirt, so I'm offering this one up for sale. The shirt is $20.00 and I'm offering free shipping. I can add a bow to the shamrock and/or more crystals around the shirt if you want (free of charge). Please e-mail me if interested and I will send you an invoice.

Happy Thursday!! I'm off to finish up an order and possibly get some new items stitched up.

Welcome New Followers and new projects

Welcome all new followers. Thanks for stopping by. I love to hear your comments!!

I've been working on some new projects. I bought a jewel setter at least a couple years ago and it sat in the box until just a few days ago. I don't know why I never got it out before....it's so much fun!!

This first design I stitched out for my daughter who is a March baby. I love all the crystals....what little girl doesn't love sparkles!! This will be available in my shop sometime this week. The design is from here.

This project is also going to be available in my shop just as soon as I get a chance to set it up this week. I am also giving away one of these custom shirts in a giveaway at Wild Sisters Bowtique, so go check out the giveaway. This design is from here. I also have this design in numbers, which work great for birthdays!! I'll get a picture posted tomorrow with a sample of the number design.

I'm a little late getting St. Patty's day shirts up....guess these will be ready for next year. If anybody is interested one of these shirts, please feel free to e-mail me. I'll have another St. Patty's day shirt posted tomorrow. This designs is from here.

The following little girl pillowcase dress and matching doll dress is available in my shop, but I also donated one to the auction for the Staats family going on over at Polka Dot Junkie by Megan Green. If you aren't familiar with the Staats family, they lost their 4 month old daughter when she stopped breathing at the babysitters. You can find out more about the Staats family on their blog.

Check back tomorrow for more new designs. Have a great night!!

Hoppin Weekend

This Hop Opens Every Friday At 3pm PST And Stays Open Until 9pm PST Sunday Link up an type of social network!

Saturday Stalk REMIX Bloghop

Happy Saturday!!

It's a Social Parade - hosted by Smart and Trendy Moms

Participating in the Social Parade on Friday. Join in with me!

Facebook Hops

Happy Friday!! I'm in need of Facebook fans and blog followers. If you follow me in any/both of these of these medias leave me a comment and I'll return the favor and follow you back.

Here are some of the facebook hops for today:

http://thefrugalfreegal.com/2011/02/facebook-friday-link-up-your-facebook-fan-pages-2/

Time for a GIVEAWAY!!

I've thought about doing a giveaway many times and just haven't gotten around to putting one together. I decided last week that now is the time. For this giveaway I will be giving away the two tooth fairy pillows in the first picture below, plus a personalized tooth fairy pillow. There will be three winners chosen through random.org. If I reach 300 fans on my facebook page I will pick a another winner for a personalized tooth fairy pillow. Are you wondering if you read that correctly? Yes, there is a possibility for 4 winners!!

So, how do you get a chance to win? See the details below the pictures.

The winners of the personalized pillows will have the choice of a boy or a girl pillow in any color minky fabric I have in stock at the end of the giveaway. Giveaway will run for one week and winners will be drawn next Friday morning (March 4th). Once I draw the winners I will e-mail each and then post the winners.

When I reach 500 fans on my facebook page I will do another giveaway for a custom outfit (boy or girl).

Sample personalized pillows I made for customers.

Here are the details for entering this giveaway.

Mandatory:

1. Become a follower of my blog and then leave a message under comments that you are a follower and please include your e-mail address so I can easily get in touch with you if you are the winner.

Extra Entries:

1. Like my facebook page and then leave a message under comments that you did this and also include your e-mail address.
2. Blog about this giveaway and then leave a comment with your blog address and your e-mail address.
3. Share this giveaway on your facebook page and leave a message that you did this and again, include your e-mail address.
4. Check out my etsy shop and leave a comment what you like in the shop. Please include your e-mail address.
5. Visit my website, Little Darling Designs, and leave a message what you like and please include your e-mail address.
6. If you did all of the above, leave another comment to earn an additional chance to win. Again, please include your e-mail address.

PLEASE remember to include your e-mail address with each comment. If you forget to include your e-mail address, please delete your comment and then leave a new comment with your e-mail address. If you don't include your e-mail address I will not search for it if you are a winner and I will pick another winner. Thanks for your cooperation!!

Giveaway closes at 11:59 p.m. EST on Thursday, March 3, 2011. Any comments left after that time will not be included when I pick the winners.

That's all!! I'll be in touch with the winners on Friday, March 4, 2011.

Happy Thursday!!

Celebrate the BOY!!

Do you have a boy and like sewing ideas for him? If your answer is yes, then you need to check out Made by Rae and MADE this month. They are celebrating the BOY for the next month. Each day each will have some new ideas for sewing for the boy(s) in your life.

Today Made by Rae kicks off the first day with a tutorial for dragon slippers. These would be great for the boys in your life, but with this tutorial you can make them for anybody, any size!! Aren't they cute!!!

Photo from Made by Rae

Dana at MADE kicks off the first day with a tutorial for kid's pants. Throughout the month she will share a series of pants ideas with you, each one building on each other, with tutorials and patterns. A couple years ago she shared a tutorial for making Knee Pad Pants, which I love!! Check it out here and then go here for today's tutorial.

Photo from MADE

If you missed out on last year's Celebrate the BOY click here to check it out.

Happy Sewing!!

Another custom outfit and some other orders....

I haven't been good about taking the time to blog lately, so thought I would take a few minutes today to show you a few things I have worked on over the past few weeks. Here are just a few things I've completed recently. A couple of the things are for my daughter and the rest are orders.

This is one I completed a while ago, but my daughter wore it yesterday to school. I love pillowcase dresses because they can be worn all year round and can be worn for years. Once it is too short for a dress she can wear it as a top with some pants, shorts or capris.

Here is another outfit I made for my daughter recently. She wore this to school Monday. The skirt is a new pattern I am working on designing. I need to make some changes the next time around, but I love the way it turned out!! My daughter picked the bird fabric out of my stash and insisted I make her a skirt with it (although I had plants to make some ruffle pants), but on Monday she was in tears before school because she wanted a black bird (black fabric with birds on it....never seen anything like this) skirt to wear with the shirt!! The girl has a mind of her own and is very particular about what she wants these days!

The bird design is from GG Designs.

Here is a shirt a friend of mine ordered to give to her niece. I love these fabrics and think I'm going to make another shirt with this same owl and fabrics with some matching pants/capris. I think this will make a cute spring/summer outfit. What do you think?

The owl is from Planet Applique.

Here are a couple shirts I made for an order for twin girls. I've used this owl many, many times. It is one of my favorites. It is the Olivia Owl design from Lynnie Pinnie.

A friend of mine found a couple outfits she wanted for her daughter, but they were only available up to size 12-18 months and her daughter is 3. The first one was made from giraffe minky fabric and was loved by all. :) This is the second outfit I made. It has a few changes from the picture she showed me. I created my own patterns for this outfit. I haven't seen it on her daughter yet, but can't wait!!

These last two outfit were made for a customer. The bird design is from Planet Applique.

The Rocketship is from Digistitches. I got the idea for the patches on the pants from MADE. When my customer asked for pants made out of cotton fabric in size 18-24 months I thought about how many pairs of pants my son has ruined because he is so hard on the knees. It thought patches on the knees would be cute and would help the pants last longer. She liked the idea, so here is what I created.

All of these outfits can be made to order in the size and fabric of your choice. Please e-mail me if you are interested in placing an order.

Valentine

I've been trying to get orders done and samples made for Valentine's products for my Etsy shop. I also finished a swap gift, over a month late! I hate getting behind, but was sick a lot back in the fall and got way behind. I got the last of my December orders out this week and now I'm working on January orders. I hope tomorrow and this weekend will be productive and I can get most of my orders done and out Monday. Wish me luck!!

For now, I'll share with you some of the hair clips and Valentine shirts I've been working on. The felt hair clips are from GG Designs.

This heart butterfly design is from Five Star Fonts.

This cupcake heart design is also from Five Star Fonts.

I've got a bunch more valentine designs to test out and hope to share those in the next few days.

Patterns

One of my goals for 2011 is to create some of my own patterns to use for products in my shop. I started working on my first 2 patterns and want to share my first test run. They are both for knits.....one for a dress/top and the other for some ruffle pants.

I got started playing around with knits/minky when friend showed me a picture of an outfit she and her daughter really liked. The outfit was not available in the size she needed for her daughter. I created this outfit from a photo and used no patterns. My friend and her daughter loved the outfit!! Here is the outfit for my friend's daughter....

Here is the first run of the patterns I'm working on....