Sewing Room

I really need an extra 5 hours in a day.  I have so many fun projects that I want to do and normal, every day chores keep getting in the way.  Tonight I am tackling the jungle, aka. my front lawn, before my HOA has a fit because it looks something like this:

And no, that isn't my actual lawn, even though I feel like it is.  I also want to get my sewing/craft room (or the garage, as The Man prefers to call it) functional so I can make all my cute projects sometime this century.  Until I can do any of this - here's a sneak peak at my first up project, once everything else is done of course...

Kids Clothes Week Challenge

I know I already sew baby/ kids clothes all the time (or most of the time), but last year I saw this and really wanted to participate, but found out about it too late. So this year, I'm in!  For 7 days, from May 9-15 I will be spending at least 1 hour every day sewing little munchkie clothes, I'm so excited! So in preperation for this I am picking up some new material, I'll show you when I get it. And if you would like to join me check out elsie marley, sign up, and grab the button.

Fun stuff on it's way!!!

So I went a little crazy at the fabric store a week ago. I went in to buy a zipper and some thread, and left with about 12 yards of fabric. Whoops!  That's okay though, because it allows me to make a new skirt pattern that I have been wanting to try out.  Here's a little sneak preview of some of the skirt fabric.

Finished skirts will be in the shop by Saturday (weather pending, need to get some shots this weekend).  I'm also adding a new dress design and some pendants.  Aprons are next on my list as I have decided to make this a whole suzie-homemaker line, with my own little twist and I'm super excited for all the upcoming new items!

Also, keep your eye out for a Mother's Day give-away that I will link every one to as soon as it is posted. Great things to come!



What to buy, what to buy???

So for Christmas I was blessed with a gift certificate to The Needle Shop on Etsy.  I initially had thoughts of all these wonderful fabrics that I would love to buy and make things with.  And then I went to their website and disaster struck.  What do i buy? Which fabrics do I want the most? Which project do I want to do the most? Ahhhhhhh! What do I do??????

So I have held onto this gift cert for 2 months now hoping the fabric would just give me a call or something so I wouldn't have to make the decision. No such luck. 

I know it doesn't expire for a few more months, so really I have time to hold onto it.  But there is something that is built inside of me that says - spend it. 

I keep wavering between a few different fabrics:

This Alexander Henry Meadow Lark in Blue-Grey

I love the owls in this Robert Kaufman print.

And I don't know what it is about this Michael Miller print, but it's amazing.



I think I have a thing for birds....

Pay it forward

So I already did this on my facebook, but have decided to extend it to my blog as well.  Thank you to Craft My Soul for reminding me that every craft blog should be paying it forward in the new year.

I promise to send something handmade to the first 5 people who leave me a comment. They must in turn post this and send something they made (make) to the first 5 people who comment on their status. It must be handmade by you and must be sent sometime (anytime) in 2011. A great way to start 2011!

And this is the latest fabric I just bought, so there's a chance that whatever I make will have this incorporated somehow!

Here's the dirty details for anyone who wants to get in on this:
     1. You must post this on your blog also before I will approve you.
     2. When you comment you need to leave me a way to get ahold of you (like your email address). All of my comments are private and I must approved them before they are posted, so if you don't want your email address visible to the world, just let me know by sending it as a seperate comment.
     3. I will try my best to get these out in a timely manner. That being said, if it's October and you still haven't gotten anything from me don't be shocked, I didn't forget, I have two little kiddos and they take a lot of time, I promise you will get your item before the end of 2011!

Valentine's Day Apparel

So yesterday we had some awesome domestic goods to display for Valentine's Day. Today we are going to delve into the world of fashion.  Here are some goodies for you to ogle over (or give hints to your husband/ boyfriend/ significant other/ bestie/ or anyone else you think may need to buy you something this holiday season).

First up:

The Sterling Love Bubbles Pendant is just so amazingly dainty and adorable it would look beautiful with casual or dress wear.

This 4RetroSisters Happy Valentine Apron would be perfect for any woman in your life who likes to bake or cook, with it's simple lines and splashes of color.

This Parisian Valentine Multi Layered Scarf would look elegant paired with a multitude of clothing options.

For example this lovely little V Neck Black Dress.



And wouldn't these Grey Drawstring pumps look fabulous with the outfit!

And finally, I love the Love is in the Air charm bracelet at Corby Lee Design.

I could probably add a million more things to this list, I found so many amazing items.  View, enjoy, and go shopping!

Valentine's Day Decor

In honor of my upcoming FAVORITE holiday (either because I'm a sap for those silly candy hearts, or because it's just days before my birthday) I am putting together a series of Valentine's Day stuff.  Today we are starting with some super cute decorations!

The lovely girls over at eighteen25 found a super cute tutorial on how to make this lovely heart photo chain.

I love the ways this looks like a heart chain, but when you get up close or on the side it is actually made from photos.

The tutorial can be found at Scrapper Girl along with some awesome embellishments where they have added pom-pom trim (I love pom-poms!)

I adore the way the All My Love Pillows would brighten up a room and add a splash of color. The pillows and other adorable stuff can be found on Summer Rocks etsy site.

These adorable kitchen towels can be found at tinypeeper's etsy shop and would be a lovely accent in any one's kitchen or even as bathroom hand towels.

Over at Whimsy Love there is this adorable felt hoop artwork tutorial that I think could be easily adapted for Valentine's Day. Add some hearts to your felt backing piece or some love birds and it would be the cutest thing ever!

And Anna from Noodlehead has a great tutorial to make these oh-so-gorgeous pillow covers at Elsie Marley.

That's enough projects for you today, isn't it? Get to work so tomorrow we can check out some beautiful clothing and accessories. I can't wait!

Sensory Blanket

Over my past weekend (I say my weekend because my weekends are not the normal weekend days) I decided to make Squeaky a sensory blanket.  This girl is obsessed with tags! She loves to play with them, hold them, rub them, and chew on them. At least she isn't to the stage that Peanut is where every tag on every piece of clothing of his must be promptly removed after purchasing, including all care and size tags.  Well after I made hers I thought it might be a good idea to make some cute ones to add some variety to my Etsy site.  So I picked up some super cute fleece and fuzzy/minky material and some adorable ribbons and went to work.  The final result turned out adorable, I think, so now I'll probably have to make some more =)

The pictures below are horrible, I know, but right now they are the only pictures I have.  I'll have to get the man to take some good ones so that I can get them listed soon!

This is Squeaky's

This is the back of Squeaky's

Color on this is horrible, it is actually fuchsia, black, and white - flower material is fleece and black material is the fuzzy/minky stuff

A Stocking for Squeaky!

So since it's Squeaky's first Christmas I decided to make her a stocking. Not having the desire to drive to the fabric store yesterday and having in my possession some lovely fat quarters that I picked up at Fabric Expressions, I decided that her stocking was going to bright and girly.  After some quick sketches here's what we ended up with:

I'm thinking about trimming the top part with either a lime green or purple fur if I can find one, or maybe just fleece if I cannot find fur I like.  And, after I finished of course, Peanut decided he wanted one too, so that will be my next project =)

I am in LOVE!!!

My friend Eric is living in Japan for a few years and I thought it would be cool if I could send him to find me some craft stuff from there.  In my mind I was picturing something exciting and unique that I would not be able to find or be able to order in the states (like cool tapes or ribbons or fabric).  So I got on facebook and I sent him a message...Hey Eric, since you are in Japan, can you trying finding me washi tape... just to give him a specific thing to look for because after all he is a guy and I'm asking him to look for crafting supplies.  I even sent him a link to the Etsy site for Pretty Tape so he would know what he was looking for.  I was a little excited that he might find me something really cool, so you can imagine my disappointment yesterday when I got a message back from him stating he didn't even know the symbol for craft store or where to begin looking. 

I decided that if I want to have him go to the craft store for me, then I better find one so I can tell him how to get there. I got online today and began searching Google for something, anything about craft stores in Japan and I ran across a great blog called Okinawa hai! which has a craft section.  After looking through the blog a bit I thought it might be a good idea to see if I could find any cool fabric so I could give him an idea of what kind of stuff I was looking for.  And while searching for Japanese fabric I fell in love.  I found surfing ninjas! 



 This beautiful number can be found at Quilt Taffy's Etsy shop here. I think this is the most amazingly awesome fabric I have ever found. I want to get some and making something amazing for Peanut out of it, although I don't know what I could make him that he'd wear besides pajamas. Does anyone have any suggestions?