I had to make cupcakes tonight. Had to. And they had to be pink and chocolate of course. Because. and (also of course) I ran out of frosting 1 1/2 cupcakes before I was done. But LOOK! heart shaped swirly goodness...(and a total accident)
I made these for my cousins (who are 20+ years younger than me) The first is for Myka, she is 4 and always has color wonder markers and paper in a ziploc bag...but now she has a lovely case for them! And her sister now had a bag with colored pencil roll and a pad of super sticky post-its.
Every year my husband's family drives across the border to Missouri to (ahem) watchother people buy fireworks and then bring them back to their homes in Iowa where it is illegal to light off anything more exciting than a sparkler (in my opinion the most dangerous fireworks on the market...I mean no-one would give their kid a match and a roman candle...but a glowing hot metal stick with sparks and embers shooting in all directions..sure--because 2 year old Poopsie needs to look cute for the picture. End of rant. Promise) So anyway....uh...oh, the dress.
Last Friday before we had out of town guest show up I found some great fabric for $2 a yard at Walmart (where else? And anyway, it's the only place to buy sewing and crafting supplies in town.) It was red, white and blue (with a little bit of yellow) and it was printed with the words "Road Trip" and little travel mugs, compasses, maps and little vroomy looking cars. I had to have it. So I repurchased New Look 6557 which I used twice last year for a couple of dresses and had pretty much worn out. I made view C
with the straps from view E to cover my bra straps, and Voila...I will be the coolest (read- most over dressed) member of the caravan. Again. Yay me!
The tub is plain white now, with white feet. The bathroom is white, with white tiles, white shower, silver hardware, and lots of mirrors. So except for the towels, everything will be white (when it is done) I want to paint multi color stripes of different widths with white in between (also of different widths) Sometimes maybe a couple narrow stripes of the same color next to each other..... My dad (the guy doing all of the work) thinks it will be too much, but I think the room needs a bit of Jazzing up....it is the kids' bathroom after all. The towels will be in 6 colors...one for each kid (purple, blue, green and orange) and 2 sets for guests (pink or red, and yellow) The one window will get a curtain in a similar stripe to this and the other is only 4 inches wide...so will likely get nothing--or some kind of cool beaded twisty wire thing...hmmm... Anyway, the bathroom will be boring boring boring if I don't take some sort of drastic action.....do you think it will be too much?
Okay. I'm in Iowa and we got about 8 inches of snow in the last couple of days. I felt sorry for our 3 legged shih-tzu Linus because he was having trouble (but a little fun I think) trying to go out into the yard with the other dogs (a long legged hound and a snow loving lab-mix) So I dug him out a "doggie trail" around the raised beds, and into the grassy area in the yard where I made a "poop parking lot" for them to use. He was having a great time..but having trouble seeing the turns---since everything is so very white (and he keeps undoing his hair tie so his bangs are always in his face). So this morning while I was killing time letting the babies sleep in the van I cleaned up the corners a bit and then had the brilliant idea to use some colored water to mark the trail sides (so it wouldn't stain his furry paws when he ran on it) Into the kitchen I went...but we were low on food coloring, plus it would take an obscene amount to color the water dark enough...espresso powder..no..soy sauce...no...Ah HAH! Walmart Crystal Light Cranberry! No-one in my house liked it as much as I did, and we never remember to make or drink it anyway. So I mixed it up in a squeeze bottle and gleefully blood spattered the trail. Fargo was the obvious movie choice for naptime today...if only I had a wood chipper to park out there.
This was my other daughter Clara Jane's submission for the Balloon Museum fashion show. The fashion show requirements were that it be a. made with actually balloon fabric or b. made with fabric with balloons on it So, in an act of "oh crap the show is in 2 days and Clara wants to participate too" desperation, I hacked up an old balloon shirt (my dad is a pilot and with the balloon race in town for 10 days every summer since before I was born we have ---oh about a BAZILLION balloon shirts) and ripped into an old tank top I had in the closet (it never fit my super long torso right and the colors were perfect) So...I used the t-shirt gaucho pants tutorial http://community.livejournal.com/t_shirt_surgery/3597625.html and a lot of elastic because she is a teeny tiny skinny thing and the shirt was a 3x hand me down. The shirt has a balloon and clouds appliqued, and has some of the standard recon elements...gather-y ties along the sides and cut&tied shoulder straps to make it less va-voom mommy scoop neck and more tee-hee little girl jammie top. The hat is one of the sleeves that we just gathered and tied at the top with a strip of the t-shirt fabric.
And after hours of late night cutting and stitching...her favorite part of the outfit? The 30 second hat. Figures.
I got roped into participation in a fundraiser for the National Balloon Museum last month, and made this skirt for my daughter Emma. It's a simple bubble skirt with a stretchy fold-over/fold up top (kinda like on yoga pants) The fabric came from my dad's old balloon (I have most of it still---think about the hundreds of yards of fabric used in a hot air balloon) Don't worry,it wasn't' flyable anymore. And Emma did her own t-shirt recon for the top...it was 3 shirts that we cut, fitted and frankenstined together until she was happy. She got a t-shirt recon book from some understanding relatives for Christmas and she is really enjoying (driving me crazy) slicing and dicing every t-shirt in the house.
I needed some more "fall" clothes, so I picked up some CHEAP knit fabric at the store this week and used my favorite knit skirt as the pattern. It was a really easy, 4 piece plus waistband skirt, and took about 2 hours to make (while watching tv and mommying the kids to death) The colors are kinda hard to see in the picture...it's kinds coffee and cream stripes, and I laid the pattern (other skirt all folded up and pinned) on diagonally to get the zig zaggy effect. My husband says it makes him dizzy to look at it, and I must say the small stripes are kind of hypnotic....wonder if that'll work in my favor..... I like it, let me know if you do too!
My daughter and I made this for her friend for her birthday. She has a much doted upon lab mix named Lucky, who is possibly the largest fattest dog ever. When Emma wanted to make a present for Shea's birthday, and we decided to applique on a bag we picked up at Goodwill, Lucky was the first thing Emma came up with. I decided that it's perfect, since it is very personal, but not in a soon to be dated kinda way. In 6 months, she may not like unicorns anymore, but she'll always love Lucky. Emma picked out the bag, and all the fabrics, buttons and patterns (online clip-art dog picture) Her favorite part was the sparkly purple felt we used for the dog! The Front--Emma did all of the stitching on the letters herself, and I did the dog. This was only her 2nd time working with felt, so I am very very proud of her. The Big dog...I love how he turned out. I stitched "Lucky" on the tag, and the eyes and nose are buttons.
The lining and the pocket, with the card that Emma made her inside, holding the clip on earrings Em' picked up at Goodwill as well.
On the inside, I zig-zaged a pocket with her name freestyle on my machine..we were running so late at this point for the party, but I like how it turned out anyway.
A close up of the handles detail...one of them had a tear at the top, so we covered both handles with felt and wrapped them with emboidery floss...I think this is one of my favorite parts of the bag.
When this challenge was announced, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I had picked up a very strange board game at a garage sale in July, and hadn't figured out what to do with it. It was an environmentalist's dream...a game designed for children to teach them about whales, the ocean environment, and how evil humans are---waaaait a minute! My kids can't play with this!! So, when the challenge came up, I knew what game to use, and I knew it had to drip with irony. This is a sushi set made of the "Save the Whales" board game. I feel kinda bad...but in a really goooood way.
I used the game board to make a bento box,
The cards are used to hold the ginger, wasabi, and soy sauce, and the little metal whale game markers are used as the chopstick rests. I also used a melamine tray I had on hand as an appetizer serving tray--I decoupaged some of the playing cards onto the dish areas to tie them in. I also had a couple of plates that matched really well, sorta completes the set.
Okay, I HAVE to post quick, before I turn into a pumpkin (or the posting deadline happens..I'm so tired I forgot what happens at midnight)
I have been working like crazy on this for the last 36 hours, and have spent the last 2 fighting to get my pictures uploaded so I can show them off. I am so glad to get this posted!!
Okay, now that it's up, I'm gonna try and get the rest of my pictures up---wheew! Link to the game---it's a beautifully make environmentalist wacko (my apologies to the environmentalist wackos) game....it was a joy to work with. When my son saw my finished project, he actually asked if we could play it.....lol--little late now buddy! http://www.cooperativegames.com/1002_childrens_board_games.html Before:
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and the other is only 4 inches wide...so will likely get nothing--or some kind of cool beaded twisty wire thing...hmmm...
