Princess Envy!!

Is anyone else SUPER excited about this whole Royal Wedding thing???  I cannot help but be interested in the whole thing.  I think it is the idea of somebody BECOMING a princess.  What a fairytale idea:)  PLUS April 29th is the day after Emersyn's birthday....not really a coincidence, but fun!!  The whole thing kinda makes me wish we had royalty in America....just so we had some interesting people to watch.  I HATE hearing about what Michelle Obama is wearing, but if she were a PRINCESS...I might give a hoot!!! 

New for the shop

 

  

If you have ever been to my etsy shop you know that I have lots of different vintage sheets and fabrics.  What you may NOT know is that I have never sewn anything with ANY of them.  Crazy huh??  I just started finding sheets that I LOVED…Listing them….Selling them….and never stopped to create.  SOOO I decided it was time I tried out my own product.  I LOVED 3 particular fat quarter prints I had, so I chose them and thought…..hmmmmm placemats.  So I got sewing and a few hours later…..I had placemats and napkins.  All cute and coordinating and fun.

I am not gonna lie….I kinda love them A LOT!!!  It was soo fun and easy to sew with the vintage fabric too.   No problems.  It is so nice and soft and already worn in….it is just what I want a fabric to be like.  It wasn’t too fragile or delicate and worked great.  And my favorite part….ONE OF A KIND.  I love that nobody else can just go to the fabric store and get the same fabric as me…..is that selfish??  I guess technically if they really wanted to fabric stalk me they could head to the thrift stores and try to find the same ones, but  REALLY??? 

I decided to go a little bit reversible for more options, so both the napkins and placemats have more than one option.  I love options, I love change, I love moving things around.  I guess that is why I love thrift shopping…..you pay so little that you can change your mind more often.  Like on my last trip I got two purses that I LOVE!!!  6 bucks apiece….for real leather and SUPER cute.  Now even if I only use each of them for a week (or 15 years) I will have gotten my moneys worth…..I am way off topic though.

PLACEMATS….Oh yes…..I tried them out on my table.  I WISH my table looked like that at dinner time.  I actually had to scrub play dough (from a week ago), marker, and finger paints off of the table top just to get a NON-rainbow table in the picture.  Since I will not be using fancy napkins (or real plates) on my table any time soon I put these in the shop.  Now I think I am on a mission to make them in every color of vintage print I can find……after I take a little nap that is:)

100 quilts for Christmas!!!

Because I do not have enough projects going right now (said with dripping sarcasm), I have decided to join this quilting cause.  I stumbled across this terrific idea by accident, and you know me....I cannot NOT join a charity event.  SOOOO here is a quick rundown of what is happening: Over on THIS blog they are running 100 quilts for Christmas.  They want people to make and donate 100 quilts to their local community charities and then link the quilts up on their blog.  They will be having giveaways galore and helping out charities in the process.  I am not sure what I will be making, but I will keep you posted.  HERE are all of the details and requirements, plus an explanation of the drawings involved (since I know all you sewers wanna join up too!!!!).  I love giving stuff away and cannot wait to be ONE of the ONE hundred quilts.....I wanna be number 87....just for fun!!!

Switch it…Change it….Rearrange it!!

 

I am still a little backed up from not having my computer for 2 weeks.  So here is a much belated Halloween post.  Since Halloween was on a Sunday, I wanted Emersyn to have a dress that fit the occasion.  SOOO I used something I had on hand and made a Halloween dress.  BUTTTTT I figured Halloween is only one day a year, and I wanted the dress to be usable AFTER Halloween.  SOOO I made THE EXCHANGEABLE DRESS.  Confused???  This is what I did….

I had this black dress that I bought at the thrift store for a dollar.  It was just plain and sad looking, but I bought it thinking it could still have a good life.  SOO I went onto E-bay (saved myself an expensive trip to the craft store) and bought a spool of orange tool, a bunch of velcro, and 2 yards of orange polka dot ribbon and got started.

First, I took my tool (it was 6 inches wide) and folded it down the middle.  Then I turned up my tension to 9, increased my stitch length, and ran a gathering stitch. 

 

I came up with a super long piece of tool that was kinda a mess.

 

I then took my messy tool strip and sewed one half of my velcro (I chose the soft side) and sewed it onto the tool.  I had to keep straightening up the tool as I went so that it was a ruffle and not all bunched up.

I used a zig zag stitch because the tool was shifty and I wanted to make sure and catch it.

 

Ta-da…..look at that crooked row of stiches:)  Good thing it was going on the INSIDE of the dress huh???:0

Then I just sewed the other half of the velcro onto the inside edge of the dress. 

Last but not least, I used black embroidery floss to make loops on either side of the dress to hold the ribbon. I didn’t get a picture of that, but it was pretty easy.  I just threaded my needle with floss and tied a knot in the end. Then I put the thread through where the skirt met up with the top of the dress on the side seam.  Then I left the loop a little bigger than the ribbon so it would not bunch up, put the needle through the same spot and tied another knot on the inside of the dress.  Pretty simple.

Now I can just pull the ribbon out, switch out the orange tool and have a new dress.  ORRR  leave the tool on and find another matching ribbon.  ORRR….well you get the idea.

  I already have big plans for the exchangeable dress for Christmas, Valentines, Saint Patrick’s Day, you name it.  I will keep you posted on the life of this little dress….it still has a lot of life in it:)

Just a little reminder...

I really thought that my day COULD NOT possibly get worse when I woke up this morning to aching sinuses, a pounding headache, and the beginnings of what promised to be a killer cold.  I WAS SOOOOO WRONG!!!  It was not until a while later that I realized that the NEW low point was getting my pants wet.  NOT wetting my pants----that would be awful, but I could just count that off as another pregnancy related mishap.....NO you read it correctly.  I got my pants wet.  My two year old (who had already worn every shred of my sanity down to the wire) came and snuggled with me on the couch....told me I was the best....continued watching her thousanth episode of Calliou (remember me being sick and not feeling the need to entertain)....and then apparently too engrossed in the life of a Canadian four year old proceeds to pee ON THE COUCH.  Just sat right there and peed.  Un-be-freakin-leavable!!!  As if that is not weird enough, she doesn't tell me or even take her eyes from the t.v.  It is not until I realize that I am wet, warm, and uncomfortable that I realized there was a problem.  I ruled out my water breaking and me wetting my own pants and discovered the problem.   PURE LAZINESS.  I asked her if she peed and she said YEP!!!  I asked her why and she said "I was just watching cartoons."  Because that is what people do when they are watching t.v. right.   Thank goodness for leather couches.  GRRRR!!! 
HOWEVER...that also proved to be a false alarm in the low point department.  The REAL low point of my day came much later.  After 3 more potty accidents (one on my kitchen chair cushion) and a rough day all the way around I realized that life COULD in fact go farther down hill.  When I was trying to explain that BIG GIRLS go potty in the toilet and if we continued to pee all over mommy's house we would have to go to the store and get diapers I got hit in the face by yet another false alarm.  Em looked up at me and said "Yep I do need diapers AND we need to buy me some baby bottles too."  Talk about backfiring!!!  So I made a noise that was loud and may or may not have sounded a lot like a very naughty swear word....AND that folks is when the real bottom fell out of my day.  I got the big puppy dog two year old eyes pointed right at me and THEN it happened.  Emersyn said "mom....you just need to be more patient." I sat there with my mouth open and my eyes unblinking thinking....Who the heck taught my kid that word and how does she know how to use it????  Then she hopped off the potty (we still pretend she is gonna use it once in a while) and ran into her room.  And this folks is the moment.....she sat in her rocking chair with her blanket and said....."mommy, sing me a song about Jesus." 
There is nothing like a big plate of humility handed to you by a two year old in pee pants with a water colored face that reminds you of the big picture.  SURE my house has pee on EVERY available surface.  SURE you cannot see my floor through all of the toys and goldfishes on it.  SURE I would rather be sleeping than up 3 times in the night trying to convince my kid that HER bed is just as warm and good as mommy's bed.  BUT along with the thousand low points and the moments of wondering where the closest fire station drop point is to my house, there is always at least ONE hight point.  Today that came as I rocked my dirty child in her rocking chair and sang to her about Jesus.  Tomorrow is another day.....I hope I remember the lesson that He (with a little help from HER) taught me today.