Miss Marion is already 2 months old today. It has gone by fast! She is so so sweet.
I made this Kimono from a vintage pillowcase a few months before she was born. I put it on a month ago and thought I had wasted my time making it since it was so big and looked all bunched up. I tried it again today and found it much prettier. Why do we forget that our babies grow so fast?
The pattern is from a vintage layette set. Some of it seems insanely impractical with all the tiny bias tape and ties but I had to try a few. I may make another in fabric that doesn't wrinkle so easily! Did you have a favorite thing you made for your baby to wear? She has already almost grown out of those cute baby pants I made!
Anne turned 7 last week. I won't give my usual "time marches on" speech but I am feeling it. She is a precious girl ~ happy and sweet and full of generosity. She also has a new side to her that Travis and I are noticing. Her big sister likes to be ready for the bus EARLY. Like 20 minutes early. This is not important to Anne and she is showing a strong aversion to being rushed. She waits to put on her coat. She lingers over hugs to the baby. She slowly ties her shoes. She wanders around looking for papers and books as the time gets closer. This drives Elsie crazy and Anne knows it. Anne has always just done whatever Elsie wants. I try to smooth things over by reminding Elsie that there is plenty of time. I don't enjoy seeing Elsie unhappy but I do like to seeing the middle child show her own determination (even though it is a little passive aggressive at this point). A little backbone is always encouraged and this 7 year old has certainly got it!
We had a bowling party with the cousins. So fun and easy!
Having an amazing photographer for a sister in law (and great friend) is such a blessing. Thank you Jenny for taking these photos of the bowling experience and the birthday girl. You captured it perfectly as usual. Jenny is posting pictures on her blog daily right now and they are great inspiration. Check it out for sure!
I don't regret following the popular crowd either. The Tova Top is awesome and worth all the hype. Such a cute shirt. It even looks OK on my post pregancy body! The hardest part is dealing with all the pattern pieces and that wasn't even all that bad. I made a practice version first to make sure I wouldn't mess up on my nice fabric (Anna Maria Little Folks Voile). Come on friends! You can join in with the cool kids too. You will be happy you gave into the peer pressure.
We had many project brewing in 2012 (mainly Miss Marion!) but last February, on a random snowy weekend, we took our sledge hammer and began a major home improvement project on our bathroom. We had a strange configuration in our master bedroom that included a teeny tiny bathroom and a smallish closet and a large "dressing area". It was an annoying waste of space. What followed was about 10 months of mess, labor, mistakes, victories and lots of good learning.
The above icky pictures are how it looked for many months as we made small bits of progress and grumbled about the dust and work. A good friend helped to frame out the walk in closet (thank you Adam!) and another friend, David, whose has the best work ethic EVER, came to help with the bathroom and gave us the kick start needed to make some serious progress.
Most of that progress happened last spring and it wasn't until last month that our bathroom was finally finished. Why? I think my husband and I both work best under pressure and arrival of the baby finally gave us the push to push each other and get this project done! Honestly, as you can imagine since I was PG, he did most of the work. And a bathroom is A LOT of work! My work was mostly decision making and cleaning up! Now I know why they cost so much to redo- it is a labor of love to redo your own bathroom and neither of us much loved this project while it was in progress.
Of course, we are thrilled with our bathroom now. You really appreciate home improvement when you do it yourself! Especially with all the ups and downs that we had- from unknown dust allergies and injuries, to plumbing leaks and paint spills, we were relieved when it was finally finished. We splurged on our vanity and stone top, but the rest is middle range big home store purchases. Most of my creative original ideas for the redo were crushed by cost restrictions but compromising is part of the work when doing this type of project, right? I'll save all those ideas for when we do the kitchen soon- HAHA! That comment was just to freak my husband out :) How do you manage to get through home improvement? Are you a do it yourselfer or a save up and hire someone? Thank you to my husband for all his hard work!
I wish that I knitted this myself but my friend Kristi from SweetKM sent it to me. Not only does she knit these beauties herself, but she also sells the pattern. Thank you so much Kristi! I have to admit I have been longing for one of these since she first started making them for her own sweet daughter a few years ago. Not only is Kristi an awesome knitter, she also has an amazing talent for vegetable gardening and blogs about it too. On a visit last week, Jenny took this picture for me.
We had a great Christmas- full of family time and lots of santa excitement. Marion was baby Jesus at our church pagent and the big girls were angels on Christmas eve. It was precious. Hope you all had a Merry Christmas too!
Another new thing I made for the handmade arcade was some small bunnies. Perfect for a little extra gift for a baby shower or (of course) in the easter basket next spring. To me bunnies are equally baby as much as they are easter so I figured a few for this December show wouldn't hurt! Plus, they are super cute and I couldn't resist making a few of them.
If you already own this quick and easy pattern, just print out your pattern pieces at 65% percent. Also, you will need to adjust the "toe" to make it poke out about an inch less- without this change, it looks really sharp. I did a simple tie instead of the bow like on the big version and I left the embroidered eye off.
Also, these are the price tags I am using now. They are nothing fancy but I figured if you are looking for tag ideas, this may work for you as well as it does for me. I just used a paper punch from Michaels and with some trial and error, made a word (actually I used Pages on my mac) document on a standard sheet of paper. You can fit about 24 logos per sheet of paper. I just punched out the logo and then punched a small hole for the safety pin. I put my prices on the back. Simple, cute and cheap!
Come and see me tomorrow if you are in Pittsburgh! I would love to meet you!
This weekend I am doing the Handmade Arcade again. This will be my 4th time doing the show! Before you think I am total nut doing a craft show only a few weeks after having a baby, I made all my stuff back in Septmeber and I am happily resisting the urge to sew a single other item before the show. It feels so wierd to have a show in only 2 days and not doing any last minute stressy sewing. When I say wierd, I mean it feels really great!
This time I made all my owl bags with pom poms for the show. Remember this cute bag? I worked out how to make it easier by tacking the pom poms on with steam a seam light. This was great and made the process much faster. You have to cut the steam a seam into sections to get around the curve. Once the poms poms are attached, then you sew the 2 sides together and DO NOT trim your seams down. The last time I trimmed my seams and ended up with several poms poms falling off and it's pretty tedious sewing those little suckers back on by hand.
Also, Vanessa let me preview her brilliant new photography ebook a couple of weeks ago. I really recommend it to help you take photos of your sewn creations. She talks quite a bit about staging and photo editing. These tips are simple and useful! To show some of the "behind the scenes" I took a picture of my staging to share with you...
I use the hooks for the towels in the bathroom. The backdrop is the coat closet by my front door. I open my front door to get better light (even though it was 27 degrees outside!). This is my best location to get a wider shot of my creations even though the natural light is only mediocre. The first photo I lightened up in PSE and second I just did in my iphoto. I had to really work on all those shadows!
Vanessa is giving away a copy of her ebook for sew mama sew giveaway day so head over to her blog and leave a comment for a chance to win!
The newborn baby days go by in a blur. We sit on the couch together so much! I am enjoying her so much. My other 3 kids were born so close together it almost seems like I was a different person back then- dealing with a baby and 2 toddlers did not make for peaceful days on the couch. Jenny took more beautiful pictures here. This one is in the nursery with all my "stuff" around.
and guess what?? The newborn baby gowns fit beautifully. That was a relief since I made like 6 of them!
Happy Day after Thanksgiving!! I am having my annual sale!! Be sure to stock up!
Click on the picture above to go to the pattern shop. Sale lasts until Monday November 26th at midnight (eastern standard time). Thanks so much for being my customers and following the blog! You guys are the best :)
