Little Lizzie

Creative Inspiration

Oh sad poor neglected blog, your tale of woe may soon come to an end. I am very excited to be participating in the Blogging Your Way e-course taught by the fabulous Holly Becker of Decor8 and Leslie Shrewring of A Creative Mint. If you are familiar with Holly's blog you will know that her book Decorate was recently published.

  

                              You can get it on Amazon ;)

I hope to find creative inspiration and a focus for this blog. I'm not sewing a lot anymore but I do have little creative projects going on here and there. They never get blogged because I have a tendency to be a perfectionist and that can prevent one from actually doing things. That and a great ability to over estimate what can actually be accomplished on any given day. But no more! I'm going to settle for "good enough for now" blogging and work my way up from there.

Here's a pic of the largest creative endeavor I worked on over the last year. He arrived in February. His name is Major.

Oh and I got obsessed with Pinterest early on and have been furiously pinning ever since. Here are my boards if you want to take a peek or you can...

Friday randomness

I have just had a lovely online chat with my brother where I heard about his new girlfriend and we geeked out over camera gear.We almost always communicate online these days. How about you? Are you using the computer instead of the phone to connect with people?

The three older kids and Kenny or enthralled with the season premiere of Star Wars:the Clone Wars cartoon. My husband likes to tell me how the cartoons are way better than any of the newer Star Wars live action movies. I tend to tune out after the first 5 seconds of him telling me this every time, but I do agree that the cartoons are better. It wouldn't take much though to be better than those movies. I think eating melba toast while watching paint dry would be much more entertaining than being forced to watch Star Wars episodes I,II or III. 

So anyway, they are enthralled with Star Wars and I am enjoying a Blue Bell fudge bar while surfing the net. I just looked to see what parts of the country Blue Bell is available in. Oh my goodness! A lot of the country is missing out! I love their website design too. I tend to like more visual representation of categories myself.

Anyhoo, here are some things I found this week that either made me laugh, cry, or dream up a new project. Just what I need...

I have wanted to do a crochet project for a while and even bought an adorable booty pattern on etsy when I was preggo with Deke but once I actually read the directions, I got a headache and never went any farther lol. of course my friend Emily actually used the pattern and the booties turned out to be so cute!

So I've been seeing these adorable zig-zag or chevron patterned crochet blankets everywhere and I want to make one. Here's one I saw on Anna Maria Horner's blog and here's a tutorial I found on making a Ripple blanket  

The newest edition of LMNOP is out. It has some fabulous pics of kids spaces including this unbelievable room with built in bunks. With all these boys, I would love to have a room with built in bunk beds.

I have to make a Belle dress for halloween for Claire and found this adorable Belle dress tutorial from crafterhours. Too cute!

Kathleen Fasanella from Fashion Incubator had an interesting poll and post on what makes a good design. It comes down to what sells profitably. This is a reality that explains my entire excursion into design and selling boutique childrens' clothing on ebay. That's a long post for another time...

This guy seriously needs to cut down on his caffeine intake lol

I do not understand why Gretchen is never in the bottom. Seriously. Jackie O would not be caught dead in that. I thought all the designs were pretty hideous though. Mondo's was the closest though wild in color and pattern. I do appreciate that he lined the jacket in a contrasting fabric. I love details like that.

I would love to make Deacon a Gnome costume for Halloween but I don't think he'd keep the pointy hat and beard on...

You might notice the link over on the right to the Kid's clothes week challenge. I really want to participate but boy I need to kick it in to high gear because I have my sewing stuff all torn up because I've decided to purge and only keep what I can fit into one armoire. Yes I'm crazy! But already going through my magazines and tearing out the pages i want to keep has helped me get rid of at least 60 magazines. Yes 60! So now I'm on a mission and there's no turning back.

Have a great weekend!

Summer sewing, pregnancy hormones and decluttering life...

Ok, so I haven't posted in 5 months but I have been busy...

I planned on blogging about the Easter dress I made after being inspired by a jcrew dress with fabric roses all over it but that never happened. here's the finished dress.

The summer was HOT and busy with 5 kids running around. Oh and then there's this

Yes that would be baby #6 that kept me nauseated and tired all summer :) It's another boy. So I will now have 5 sons and one "Tyrant Queen". Actually the Tyrant Queen had been praying for a little sister for months. She took the news pretty well actually. I had also wished for a girl but then when I found out I was fine. The older boys are very close and the dudes are getting along well. I think having three boys in a row will be fun. It definitely won't be boring.

I had a fun two weeks teaching some of the smartest, cutest teenage girls to sew this summer. We made a pair of shorts, a cute drawstring bag and an adorable purse. They really caught on fast and I even decided to teach them to use 1/4 inch seams and it really worked out. The hardest part was dealing with 4 different sewing machines and figuring out how to thread them all.

I have some sewing projects lined up including a "Belle" costume but am trying to purge my house of all extra stuff we don't need. I swear junk multiplies at night. Anyway, I just read this book It's All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff that was recommended in a post by Sarah at Clover Lane. I love her blog!

I need to read the book again as I got a little lost in my decluttering mission. It's actually going well but it doesn't seem like it to me on first glance. I clean a room of surface clutter and then some child comes along and leaves a toy, school paper or something I told them to put away right on my nice clean surface. I haven't even gotten to the deep junk purging yet.  A big part of the problem is that we moved into this house 14 months ago and I still don't have an assigned place for everything. There are some things that kind of float from this closet to that. So that is my mission and like everything else I get mad when I want something to happen RIGHT NOW and it's a process. I did send an entire minivan full of stuff to Goodwill this weekend which lightened my heart. Which is good because my poor family had to deal with a complete meltdown on Saturday preceding the Goodwill trip.

I had been furiously working on making the living room look at least somewhat straight and barking at children left and right and then I decided I needed to calm down and take a shower. So I went to the bathroom (we have one bathroom for 7 people) and I was straight back into steaming mode because there was stuff on the counter and floor etc and I had just cleaned this bathroom not a few days before. So I was determined it would be clean before my shower. I started clearing the sink and then moved to the items I saw on the floor. It was a few books the top one being a book a had just cleared off of the couch not an hour before and given to my husband to put away! I bent down to pick it up and yelled his name as I snapped up straight not realizing the cabinet door above me was open. My head hit hard against the corner of the door. The pain mixed with the cocktail of pregnancy hormones was too much and I set to sobbing uncontrollably. Of course the husband came running to see what was wrong and to comfort me and was met with a sobbing diatribe about what he had done and how that led to my pain lol. I told him to leave me alone and sobbed through my shower. I often wonder how he survives the psycho that is a pregnant me. He really is patient. 

I am finally getting to hanging shelves and organizing areas for play in the kid's rooms. All the while planning on keeping only the things that will comfortably fit on those shelves. See, I'm learning ;) I will post pictures when I have it all done.

Birthday cakes for kids are so much fun!

There are 30 different fabulous kid's cake ideas over on parenting.com. They tell you everything you need to make your own masterpiece. I particularly like the little barn cake and the Tinkerbell cupcakes are too cute. I think I will have to make the Squid cake for the 9 year old for his tenth B-day this summer. This kid loves squid and or anything with tentacles, anything that is pinchy, or has claws. I made him this Kraken costume for Halloween when he was in Kindergarten and he wore it two years in a row. He loved it. That's why this cake would be perfect for him lol!

Martha Stewart + sewing + giveaway = woohoo count me in!

Run on over to Grosgrain and enter to win Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts.

Here's the link

Grosgrain Martha giveaway

Clickin Moms

So I mentioned that I have become a bit obsessed with Photography over the last year and a half. One of my favorite places that I keep learning from is

 

I have their banner over on my sidebar. I love this site!!! The site is a wonderful mix of women and a few Dads that are pros, people trying to get ready to go pro and hobbyists who want to learn more about the art of photography. I took a photography class from our local junior college but found that I had actually learned most everything taught in that class already just by reading tutorials and asking questions on Clickin Moms. So if you want to learn how to make your photos look better no matter what camera you use, click the link above and join in the fun!

And because I can't seem to have a post without a picture, here's one of my littlest man around Christmas. Boy does he love that thumb.

 

Poor neglected blog

Wow no posts in almost a year. Time to dust off the old blog and get back to some crafty goodness. I lot has happened in the last year. In April #5 made his arrival and might be cutest thing you have ever seen he's a smiler aka "Smiley McGigglepants". His arrival was rough as it turned out to be my third c-section and then just to add a new twist, I had to have surgery again a week later to repair a ruptured incision sorry for TMI.

Then we moved a few weeks later. We tried to do a lot before we moved and got most of the inside painted but still need to paint the  bathroom. I had great plans for the kids rooms but alas they are unfinished also. 

My cutting tables had to go and there was much rejoicing on the part of the husband because he hated moving them, they weighed a ton. I guess I should give him a break as he'd already moved them a couple of times ;) So my former large sewing room is now condensed in to a single armoire in my bedroom but I do have space for my machine and sewing desk.

I do feel like now that Smiley is almost one I am starting to come out of the haze of feeding, clothing and endless amounts of poopy diapers. I'm itching to get sewing again and have an idea for an Easter dress for the girl. Now to see if I can get it done...

Oh yeah I should mention that I have become a bit obsessed with photography over the past year. Hopefully that will lead to better blog pics. I make no guaranties...

Here's a pic of "Smiley McGigglepants" just 'cause.

Making Craigslist easy!

I love hunting for bargains on Craigslist. My most recent purchase was a fabulous pottery barn sectional sofa. After swearing to never attempt slipcovers again I may try with the couch but we'll see...

Anyway, if you're like me you can start looking for something on Craigslist and then realize you've spent an hour and haven't looked up what you meant to in the first place. I usually narrow down my search by my exact city unless it's something I'm desperate for and then I will include the surrounding cities.

Oh but I found something that I love. There's a Firefox add on that lets you preview the pictures from the listings in the search results without having to click through to the actual listing! It's fabulous! You can cut a lot of time out this way. Here's a screenshot of me searching for a "wooden playset". You can see how it shows the pics on the actual search page and also when you roll over a pic with your mouse you see it bigger in a preview pane on the right.

Here's the Craigstoolbox download. You can download it for explorer or firefox.

Also, I don't know how many of you use a blog subscription service like bloglines or google reader but they are really cool so you should check them out. I use google reader because I never really liked bloglines. Anyway, you can turn any Craigslist search into a "subscription" and be notified whenever new listings are added.

Whenever you search just scroll to the bottom and there is an RSS feed button.

So whenever I check google reader it shows me all the new listings from the categories I'm interested in. So cool! I will have to write a separate post on subscription services as once you figure out how to use them they are so helpful!

You can subscribe to my blog by clicking the button up in the address bar.

5 years old

My little girl turned 5 yesterday! It's hard to believe. Of course the night before I got the brilliant midnight idea to make her a felt Birthday crown. So I grabbed some scraps I had and whipped this up. It's pretty plain but she loved it. If you want to see a very cute tutorial on how to make felt crowns there's a great one at Juicy Bits She even has a template for you to use. I was in such a hurry I just laid the felt out and went to town with my mini rotary cutter.

Yes, I'm still here

I know it seems like I've fallen off the face of the earth but I haven't. I'm just 36 weeks pregnant and counting the days until the end. Also I'm so excited because it looks like we will be getting a new house if everything goes well. My Mom and I have been talking for a while about all of us getting something together (I also have one younger brother still living at home). We found a great stacked Duplex with lots of space for my Mom and brother in the upstairs unit and plenty of space for all my crazies downstairs. We are having the inspection done today and I'm praying that everything goes well. So then it will be pack in the next four weeks, have a baby and move....just like that easy peasy lol!

Adorable Tutorial and Computer woes

My computer has died. Well it actually just seems to have some sort of poltergeist as it starts up fine and then after a minute or so turns itself off and starts up again. I have a friend coming over to try and recover the stuff I want off of it and put it on Kenny's old computer. We'll see how that goes...

In the meantime I found this adorable tutorial by Larissa from mmmcrafts
on how to make a tooth fairy pillow.

She includes a pattern so go download it!

I love free stuff!

I found a fun blog with free downloads! Amy of Living Locurto designed the cutest valentines cards. You can download them for free here. I've added her link to the sidebar so check it out if you are ever in need of some free cuteness. 

WooHoo thank you Senator DeMint! This just in CPSC issues a stay...

Looks like Senator DeMint of South Carolina will be introducing legislation next week to reform CPSIA. It seeks to delay the enforcement 6 months, allow component testing, prevent retro-active enforcement and require the CPSC to publish a small business compliance guide for those of us who don't have a multitude of staff to help figure this stuff out. You can read Senator DeMint's proposal on his site here

Let's hope this gets traction before the small fish get fried.

*Update*  Apparently the CPSC is issuing a stay in enforcement of CPSIA for one year to sort it all out. You can see the statement here

Thanks goodness! Hopefully we can get things worked out by 2/10/10 so that reasonable testing can be accessed and completed by all businesses large or small that cater to children.

Zakka makes me smile!

Zakka is a fashion and design phenomenon from Japan that can be described as "everything and anything that improves your home, life and outlook". Rather broad isn't it? Here's the Wikipedia entry Zakka
I stumbled on to Zakka because of the Artist Shinzi Katoh who is apparently the most famous Zakka designer. From his site:
ZAKKA -- the things that make people feel happy and exist like a comfortable air.
This is what we always keep in our heart when we create new designs.

You can see tons of examples of his work and purchase products on the UK site here.
I love anything that's retro, or vintage looking. To me Zakka is just plain fun and cute. Here are some of my favorites from the UK shop.

These lotion bottles


I love all of the "letter sets"

and the postcards

The Print & Pattern blog has some really cute examples of Zakka.

Oh and here's a flickr group of Shinzi Katoh collectors for you to peruse.

Get some great deals!

Due to the madness known as CPSIA there are a lot of deals to be found. Sally over at the Polka Dot Mom posted some of her finds on etsy and I too have seen a lot of people just trying to get rid of their merchandise before it becomes banned as a hazardous material. You can search CPSIA Sale on etsy and find scads of items. I definitely need to get Claire some hair clips and I think these are adorable from HairSprinkles.
  

Baby Vagabond has some cute baby dresses on sale.

 I love these personalized towels from  Plain Jane Baby's shop
 

You can get some really cute Robot finger puppets from  Little Bird Creations
 

The list goes on and on but it gets depressing thinking about all the great items that will be unavailable in a matter of weeks. So get them while you can...and hope that someone with any sense can make some changes to this legislation before it puts too many people out of business.

New (to me) camera fun

Like any of my creative endeavors, when I decide to learn something new I tend to become obsessed with it. I got my new camera and have been playing and reading and testing and practicing so I can learn how to use it to it's full potential. I joined the most fabulous site called Clickin' Moms and have learned a ton from the ladies there. The talent pool is huge so it can be a little intimidating at first but everyone is so nice you soon forget to be self conscious and just start asking a lot of questions. I have already learned so much! I have also signed up to take photography classes at our local Junior College and hope to learn a ton more. Here are a couple of shots I took of Claire today on the porch. She's posing with one of the cupcakes I made her for Christmas. I will have to post on my adventures with play felt food later ;)

You can click on the pics to see a larger version.

More fun with CPSIA

So I thought I'd have a little fun *said in my most sarcastic voice* and give a few examples of the cost of testing products so that they comply with the new CPSIA. To be completely honest I haven't listed on ebay in a good long while as I've been busy with kids but I can post a few examples of items that sold and how much they would cost to test now. So here was my best selling item on ebay. This strawberry outfit sold fo $120. Now trust me the big sellers on ebay got that and a lot more for their offerings but I didn't list a ton so I'd say I was more like a medium fish in a large pond ;)

So this little dress and bloomers has a lot of tiny details which I love to add to my items. Off the top of my head here's what makes the outfit
*5 different fabrics
*2 different elastics
*2 different types of ric-rac trims
*3 different types of buttons
*4 different types of thread

@ $70 per component that comes to $1,120.00 to test this dress set. I am not including phthalates testing in this but if I did that would an extra $350 per component.

Here's one of my favs

*3 different fabrics
*3 different kinds of thread
*2 different kinds of elastic
Total cost to test: $560.00  ooh much more reasonable
Forget the flower in her hair I'm ignoring that lol!

You get the point...it's just silly and absurd.

I got this idea from a few etsy sellers who decided to give an example of what their items would cost if they had to test. You see some of the listings here.

Glimmer of hope...

Well the CPSC just exempted all resalers from the new law. We'll all still be able to buy from resale shops and sales. They basically said that resalers were exempt but still liable if they sold something that exceeded the new lead limits. Here's the official info:

CPSC Clarifies Requirements of New Children�s Product Safety Laws Taking Effect in February Guidance Intended for Resellers of Children�s Products, Thrift and Consignment Stores

The other thing that happened is that the Commission voted to exempt certain materials from testing and I've already seen a couple articles about it.

Bloomberg article

and

LA Times article

Don't start jumping up and down yet folks. Both of these articles make statements like this:

Bloomberg: "The two-member commission, reacting to complaints from manufacturers, also agreed to exempt natural products such as gems and cotton from mandatory testing for lead."

LA Times: "The commission's two members (a third seat is vacant) voted tentatively to exempt:
* Items with lead parts that a child cannot access;
* Clothing, toys and other goods made of natural materials such as cotton and wood"

But wait! The official vote states: "The staff recommends that these findings only apply to a material that is untreated and unadulterated by the addition of materials or chemicals including pigments, dyes, coats, finishes or any other substance, and has not undergone any processing that could result in lead content that exceeds the CPSIA lead limits"

So if you like color in your life this does not apply to you ;) I'm not scoffing at it completely. I think it shows some movement I just hope there's more movement to come. Here's a video of one of my local news stations covering the new legislation.

CPSIA- ALL THE HAPPY stolen from FUN DOUGH by EXPENSIVE TESTING Fox4 Dallas

  

Why most of us moms who sew will be out of business on Feb. 10th CPSIA

Last August the CPSIA Consumer product Safety Improvement Act was signed into law. The aim of the law is to protect children from toxic items. Anything and everything that is made for a child 12 years and under is subject to this law. It has to be tested for lead and depending on the item for phthalates and or flammability if it's loungewear or sleepwear. This will kill all of us little guys that stay home with our kids and make items and sell them from our home. We will not be able to afford the testing unless the standards for testing are amended in some way.

Please read this article by Heather Flottman titled The Sky is Falling for an easy to understand exlpanation of what this means for us who produce handmade items and for the consumer.

Also, you might think that us little guys could fly under the radar but Etsy and Ebay have already stated that they enforce all CPSC regulations and as of Feb 10th if you don't have documentation from a third party laboratory that your item is safe, it is considered HAZARDOUS. 

This is retroactive so expect to see this affect any and all resale shops and sales. In the end we will all have to pay more for less variety of items for our children.

Here's a Wall Street Journal article on the effects of the law.

Rick Woldenberg, the chairman of Learning Resources which was mentioned in the WSJ article has a few Youtube videos titled Response to CPSIA Implementation that are from a CPSC panel from early November. You can see what this family owned company has done and will have to do to comply and what it will cost them. 

For even more in depth discussion on the law, how to comply, and what should be changed amended visit the CPSIA and Consumer Safety forum on the Fashion Incubator site.  

Thanksgiving

We had a crazy Thanksgiving week as we all got a horrible stomach bug. I did get my home dec project finished and sent, well almost finished. Everything but two pillows were done when the sickness hit. There's only one out of six of us who didn't get it and I'm praying he doesn't. We did have a small respite on Thanksgiving which I'm so grateful for but were soon hit again by the bug yesterday.

I apologize for no pics yet again but my new to me camera should be here Monday or Tuesday and I'm so excited! I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving!

Squeezing in some floral fun

A good friend of ours had to have surgery this week and I decided to get some flowers for her. We have a fabulous wholesale floral shop here called the Flower Market. You walk in to the big flower refrigerator and pick out stems or whole bunches of your favorite flowers. The flaw in my plan today was that I had both Claire and Wyatt with me so I had a very short amount of time to grab flowers and get them out of there. I got greenery that was too big but still works. I wanted to try filling the vase with some kind of fruit so I went to the store for fresh cranberries but they didn't have any ( you've foiled my plan again Albertson's!) so I settled for limes. I then had to rework my whole arrangement and put the flowers in a cup inside the vase so I could try to squeeze the limes in where they would stay instead of just float around. In the end I used way more limes than were necessary but I'm happy with the end result. I think my friend will like the flowers and that's what's important, not floral perfection ;)

This has got to be a personal record, two posts in two days!

Toilet diving and the creative process.

I started this blog hoping that I would post about all of the creative things that I enjoy doing. I stopped selling on ebay after Wyatt arrived last year wanting to get my act together and sell on etsy and maybe more locally. Lately most of my creative energy has been spent on trying to design ways to thwart the destructive nature of my youngest child. Wyatt is my most high energy into everything kid. Around here we call him "Wyatt Charles Adventure Toddler" I haven't done a lot of sewing and I miss it. I mentioned that I have two big projects to finish and then I will be able to sew whatever suits my fancy again. I am excited because my payment for this home dec project is a new to me camera!

I love drooling over the blogs with beautiful pictures. Some of my favorites never have a post without a pic. I'm setting the bar lower for myself because if I wait until I have a pic of something then I will never post. Besides, this post would be accompanied by a picture of my valuable items in the toilet and no one wants to see that. Wyatt is driven to throw anything and everything into the toilet. Last week both Kenny and I were watching him and I saw him grab Kenny's cell phone. Kenny jumped up to get him and the kid took off like a shot. Kenny was right behind him but he got to the doorway of the bathroom and threw the phone like it was the last second of the NBA finals and with a whoosh it landed in the toilet. I had actually already resurrected this particular phone by putting it in a bag of rice but it did not work a second time. Two weeks ago Kenny was watching him and he dunked my hairdryer in the toilet. So about a week ago I replaced it with a cheap $10 new one. Yesterday he was like the Tasmanian Devil, into everything. I saw him grab my box of office supplies down and juggle the bottles of ink refills for the computer.I wasn't fast enough to prevent him from getting any on him but at least he didn't get to destroy anything else. I fought for those and while cleaning up a water spill courtesy of Wyatt, Claire had left my bathroom door open and I came in to find my new hairdryer swimming in the toilet. It's dead, doesn't work.  I'm not really sure what to do about the bathroom problem as it's usually one of the kids that leaves the door open after they use the bathroom. I could try those toilet locks but then the other kids probably wouldn't be able to work them and then I'd be unlocking the toilet for everybody. I think I'm desperate enough to try them at this point though.

So there you have it. Not a lot of sewing but a lot of toilet diving going on around here.

Here he is after a recent marker incident. He's too cute to stay mad at!

Halloween

I haven't done a lot of sewing recently because life has been crazy busy. Also I have a big project that I need to finish for my Aunt who has been really patient. I have not let myself sew anything fun until I get this done. Well, with one exception...Claire's Halloween costume. She insisted on being Barbie Mariposa for Halloween. We went to Joann's and she picked out fabric that she liked and I threw it together the day before and day of Halloween.
 

I made the fairy wings the night before and I spent way too much time on them. I started with florists wire and made a frame and then kept wrapping my frame with more wire until it was sturdier. Then I wrapped the whole thing in florist's tape so she wouldn't get scratched by the wire. Then I hot glued two layers of netting to the wings and then embellished with sequins and feathery trim. It was worth it as she adores the wings and has worn them everywhere. Also whenever they get bent from her running into things, I can just bend them right back into shape.

I made the top Friday morning. I shirred and added a flower and voila! Oh, I made the crown out of florists wire and then added some wire to the silk flowers and then wrapped them around my wire ring and then finished with floral tape again.

Wyatt was Eeeyore. I made this when Auggie was little, He was Eeyore and Mac was Winnie the Pooh. Back when I had only two children and way more time on my hands.
 
The big boys were a "King Alien" and a Navy pilot for Halloween. I added their pics to my flickr.

Reflections on June...

Wow it flew by fast... :)       Wyatt turned One on the 13th.                         

We spent our two weeks in Tyler (East Texas) with my Grandmother. The kids had a blast at camp. They had the neatest train museum in the old Cotton Belt depot in Downtown Tyler. My boys are obsessed with trains so we visited a couple of times. Here are the older three outside the depot. Don't they look thrilled that I'm making them smile for a picture lol.

                         

Here's a trackside view of the  Cotton Belt Depot in Tyler.

They also have a wonderful park in Tyler aptly named The Children's Park. There are two beautiful waterfalls with plenty of rocks to climb. Please visit the link above to read the story of how this park came to be. It is a wonderful memorial to children. Strolling through the park and reading the names of children who are no longer with us made me sad, it reminded me of the three babies I have lost and it also made me so greatful for the four I have running around now. I got some great pics of the kids but my favorite has to be the one of Mac and Wyatt sitting at the bottom of the waterfall. Wyatt is like a little copy of his oldest brother.

 

 

I know I haven't posted in forever!

It has been crazy around my house. My Grandfather passed away and we've had to move my Grandmother to an Alzheimer's facility . It's the end of the school year and I'm getting ready to take my four kids by myself to visit my other Grandmother for two weeks. They are going to day camp thank goodness!

There are many things I've meant to post but haven't. I did another wedding and it was a special one. My closest friend got married and it was a very small wedding. It was lovely! I did the flowers and the flower girl dresses.

I bought a dress that I wanted Claire to wear Easter but it turned out to be too big. It's a sweet potatoes dress that's linen with bias trim around the collar belt/sash and hem. I decided to make my own version for the girls to wear for the wedding. I chose a basic pattern but the collar gave me fits. The pattern collar was just too fat and round so every time I put the bias trim on it would pucker. I re cut the collar so it had less of a curve and that did the trick. I was really happy with how they turned out.

I had so much fun with the bouquets because I got to pick the flowers. There was a lady at the flower market buying up bunches left and right so I had to grab flowers quick and hope they all went together.

Horrible flash photos of the flowers.

Thanks SEW much!

A big thank you to the girls over at Sew Mama Sew for featuring Claire's Easter dress on the blog under "Featured Creativity". There are tons of other cute things featured too.

The pattern for the dress is a Butterick pattern from around 5 years ago #6611 (sorry couldn't find a pic of the pattern). The only thing I did to it was add piping at the collar and at the bottom of the bodice. Working with this pattern reminded me why I hate patterns from the big pattern companies. I despise 5/8" seam allowances! Seriously, I think it's the biggest reason why people get frustrated that their finished item doesn't fit or look like the picture on the pattern. It's a lot harder to eyeball 5/8" than it is to just line up the edges with your presser foot for 1/4" allowance. Am I the only one?

Ok I'll stop ranting about patterns for now ;)

Thanks again for the feature Sew Mama Sew!

Easter and 4 years old.

Like the procrastinator that I am, I didn't start making Claire's Easter dress until Friday afternoon. I made the collar Friday and the rest of the dress on Saturday. I don't have good pics of them but I embroidered little daisies all around the collar. I did that while we watched the third season of Battlestar Galactica on DVD. I love this show!

I really love how the dress turned out too.I realized if I'm not trying to design for another person's taste then I always end up with simple design and lots of details.

Claire turned four on the 26th. It's hard to believe!

Here's a couple pics of her and the rest of the gang on Easter Sunday.

9 months old

I forgot to post this yesterday. My little Wyatt is 9 months old!!! I can't believe it. It flew by so quickly. I took this pic of him on the front porch. The weather is so beautiful today!

Fun with Flowers

I helped with the flowers for a friend's wedding last weekend and had a lot of fun. The pics I took are really bad because the place was dark and I had to use the flash. I worked with Calla lilies which was a new thing for me. The bridal bouquet was all Charlotte red roses with baby calla lilies. I forgot to get pictures of the boutonnieres and of the kissing balls that I made. I had never tried those either. They turned out beautifully but took so many roses! I started with a 3" oasis foam ball and they ended up taking over 2 dozen roses each, but they were beautiful. The cake topper I made looks very much like what the kissing balls looked like but they were completely round and hung from ribbon at the end of the aisle. Here are a few pics with bad lighting.

Cake topper

Table arrangements: the branches are willow branches and then of course Calla Lilies.

Bridal Bouquet

We just "got the job" a week before the wedding and had to pick up the flowers on Friday and drive 100 miles with them all in the back of my minivan. Then we cleaned and prepped in my Grandmother's living room. My mom and I have a habit of helping with weddings and we are always very last minute. Our best ideas come from being pressed for time lol. I stayed up Friday night and finished the boutonnieres, and bridal bouquet and the kissing balls. We were able to get everything else done and set up on Saturday and rush home and change and get back to the wedding and were only about 5 minutes late. All in all a very successful endeavor. My pics are so bad that I lifted this one from the site so you could see how pretty the reception area is

It's called the the Villa di Felicita and their facilities are beautiful. I saw their gardens and where they have outdoor weddings and I can see how wonderful it would be. So if you are looking for a beautiful facility in East Texas for a Wedding or special event, definitely check this one out.

Go see Juno!

I've now seen Juno twice in the last few days. I saw it with my Mom this weekend and then with Kenny last night. I really loved this movie! It was really genuine and funny. We laughed out loud many times.

Juno is up for a few oscars including best film, best director and best actress.  Here is a great article by Roger Ebert on why he thinks Juno is the best film of the year. He says it better than I could ;)

Go see it if you get the chance!

Oh and the soundtrack is great too! I added "All I want is you" and "Sea of Love" to the playlist.

Totally pooped

Yesterday was one of those days. I know all of the Mother's will relate. It was just full of poop. One kid was sick with a stomach thing and the baby decided to dirty his diaper multiple times too. By the end of it I was truly convinced if I had to clean up one more poopie disaster I would just run from the house screaming ;).

I was talking about this very subject with a Dad the other day. We were talking about how we would have found it humorous and horrifying if we knew before we had kids how our lives would be effected for better or worse by the "regularity" or lack of it by our children.  We were gathered at a friends house and most everybody there had kids except for a couple of single people. Of course one of the single guys happened to walk in right about the time we were discussing this and voiced his displeasure " do we have to talk about this". Well this guy had already annoyed me with comments on other occasions so I snapped just a tad and said  "Yes we do. We're parents, these are the things we talk about and your outnumbered!" to which he replied rather sheepishly, "ok". LOL

So yesterday was poop. Today we have a fresh start and it promises to be a better day. Or at least less poop themed. :)

Wonderful Shirring tutorial

Go to Sandi's blog to find a wonderful tutorial on shirring. Just scroll down and it's on the sidebar on the right. Shirring is so addictive and fun! When I first started selling on ebay I made a very basic tutorial for some friends who wanted to learn to shir. Sandi's tutorial is wonderful because of the beautiful clear pictures and instructions. The only thing I do differently than Sandi is that I do stretch the elastic when I hand wind it on the bobbin. This works on both my Bernina and my old Janome but it might be different with every machine.

You can shir on many different materials. I love the look of the guaze when it's shirred but I've also shirred velveteen before and it worked really well. My favorite part is blasting it with steam after you've finished the shirring. I love watching it shrink up right before your eyes! Yes, I'm easily pleased lol.

Sandi also started a flickr group for all things shirred called Shir Madness. Check it out! I added a few of my own.

Wow!

My little brother Tyler is in Rome right now for school. Here's a great pic of him and most of the freshman class at the Coliseum.

Sweet and Sassy

After Christmas Claire went to her BF's birthday party at Sweet and Sassy. They had so much fun! When it came time for the hair styling, Claire chose the "Rock Star" look. I snapped this pic of her while she was checking out her appearance in the mirror.

She has not stopped talking about it!

Not the best blogger...

I have been so bad about updating the blog! I'm glad to get back to a regular schedule again after Christmas. We had a nice Christmas at home this year. With four kids I have decided to do everything I can not to travel during the Holidays. Here are the older three playing with the box that the tree is stored in.

I am starting to think about sewing for Spring and Summer which is so exciting!

Baptism

Wy Guy and his friend Tristan were baptized on Sunday. I got the idea Saturday night that I should make cupcakes and punch and went off to Michaels at 8:30 at night. Did you know that Michael's now carries Martha Stewart scrapbooking supplies? I found some adorable circle stickers in various shades of blue and green and set out to make little cupcake flags. I wrote their initials on the flags and made red velvet cupcakes with homemade cream cheese icing. They were a hit! Of course I had to buy another cupcake tree stand. I love those things! I really need to buy another one so that I'll have three because as you all know in any decorative display you must go with odd numbers ;)

Wyatt and his Godmother Emily.

Halloween pics

The kids had a lot of fun trick-or-treating on Halloween. The pictures we got weren't great because they were taken in a dark house but since I barely finished the costumes I didn't care.

Mac was a ship's captain.He's been a bit obsessed with the Titanic lately so that influenced his costume choice obviously.

     Auggie wanted to be a martian so we decopauged a plastic bucket that we got at the dollar store and we also taped in glow in the dark necklaces so that it had an eery glow. He also picked out suction cup ball toys for me to sew onto different parts of his outfit lol.

Claire wanted to be a princess of course. So she was Aurora(sleeping beauty). Hers was the costume that I was down to the wire on.

I was doing last minute shopping at Joanns the night before and Auggie was with me and insisted that Wyatt should be a pumpkin.

Pretty cute pumpkin!

New links

I added a couple new links to the sidebar ------------>

When I find good tutorials that I like I will add them to the blog. The first one is on how to add a rib knit band to the top of a shirt. I really want to try working with knits so I think it will be helpful.

Also there's a link to Sewpedia which is a little sewing dictionary of terms and techniques that is part of the Burda Style website. There are tons of tutorials on there and that's where I found the knit tutorial above.

4 months old

I can't believe my little guy is 4 months old already! We've all been sick with colds around here but decided to take everybody to the park anyway. It was such a beautiful day that it would be a shame to waste it indoors. Here are me favorite pics of Wyatt.

Here's one of Wyatt and Grammy

 

My two big boys

and here's Stinkerbelle as I'm now referring to her. She got a hold of a pair of scissors last weekend and chopped her hair. I had to take her to get it cut. I was so mad!lol

Counting the days until...

Project Runway Season 4!!!! Here's a preview.

Holiday Wear

Well Beki was right it is definitely time for a new post. Life has been pretty hectic around here. Half the family including me have been sick and I'm just trying to keep the other half well. I managed to get a listing up for the LilyPLUM and The Cherry Blossoms Soiree launch.

You can visit the auction Here

Absolutely adorable

These have got to be the cutest little pair of pants I have ever seen! They are made by Crankypants. I definitely want to get Wyatt a pair but maybe wait until he's abit older when he's moving around on his own so he can show off the bum lol. You can see a whole gallery of crankypants designs on flickr. Boy that flickr is a dangerous place. You sit down to look at one thing and then you look up and an hour has gone by.

Ollie the Owl

I have a new listing on ebay today. It's a little dress I like to call the Ollie the Owl dress. I love using buttons and anything that will make my appliques more 3-D. In fact I have a little Halloween design in the works that features some cute button creatures. Claire was a riot today during our very brief photo shoot. It was so hot outside I didn't want to spend more than a few minutes there. I bought some glasses at the dollar store to fit the Blossoms geeky theme and she loved it.

Here's an outtake that I really wanted to use but it was just too blurry and I didn't like the green background. She's such a ham.

Tutorials

I've wanted to do some tutorials for a while now. This first one is on how to make your own binding with those funny little gadgets called Bias tape makers. I tried to explain everything so even the beginning sewer could tackle it. I hope you like it. Let me know if you have an idea for a tutorial. Also, I'm going to compile a list of some great tips and trick so If you've got one, send it to me and I'll post it.;)

Link for this Tut. is on the right.

Back in the swing of things.

Wyatt is 6 weeks old now and doing wonderfully. That reminds me, I need to get some new pics of him as he is getting so fat! I love chubby babies! Mine are always pretty small but he is definitely my biggest at this stage. I put a 3-6 month outfit on him yesterday and it was only a little big on him.

A few weeks ago I was asked by a great group of ladies to join their group the Cherry Blossoms!

  I was so excited! They are a wonderful group of designers and I've enjoyed getting to know them better over the last couple of weeks.

My first launch with the Blossoms is called Audubon. You know how I love the bird theme lol. here is my first ebay listing for this launch "Free as a bird"

You can view the listing here.

Wyatt Charles

He's here! Wyatt was born on the 13th at 2:50 in the afternoon. He was 7lbs. 3oz. and 19" long. It was a bit of an ordeal just getting to the c-section. I am a really hard stick so they knew to go straight to the anesthesiologist to get my I.V. going. An hour and fifteeen minutes later one of the nurses finally got a vein in my hand to work. I have never been worked over that much. They tried at least 6 different spots before they got one to work. They don't let you eat or drink for hours before so you get a bit dehydrated and it's harder to get the I.V. going. Then we go into the operating room and the same anesthesiologist is doing my spinal. I'm not sure how many times he tried but I kept feeling that thing snaking around in my back. I got a bit panicked that they would have to put me under but another anesthesiologist finally got it and all was well.

Wyatt is a little angel. His brothers and sister love him. I really have to watch Claire as she tries to be very helpful lol.

Here a few pics of them meeting him for the first time.

Wedding

Well I made it through the wedding and had all five dresses and headpieces finished. On the day of the Wedding I had a mini crisis as one dress and sash just seemed to be too small on the little four year old girl. I came prepared and took the seam ripper to the fasteners on the sash and tried to make it work then I ended up just pinning the sash with tiny safety pins. I could not believe I was so off on the measurements. Then we went to put Claire's dress on and it swallowed her! We'd accidentally switched the dresses so it actually fit fine. Phew! Crisis averted. You'd think that after all that effort I would have gotten better pics but I was just trying to make it through the day lol. Anyway, I hope that the wedding photographer got some good ones. Here are a couple I took. I never did get one of the junior bridesmaid dress.

The four flower girls

My charming Claire with her aisle walking partner.

After she "walked the island" as she put it.

The dresses were white Dupioni silk and I made the petticoats with the pale green tulle to match the sashes of their dresses. The flower wreaths in their hair all had pearl bead centers and turned out very nicely.

Catching up

I have not posted in quite a while as I've been furiously getting things ready for A) My brothers wedding on the 9th and B) Baby boy's arrival on the 13th.

I am going to finish the 5 flower girl dresses this weekend! WooHoo!!! I can't wait to post pics as I think they are coming along very nicely and I can't wait to see all the little sweeties in them.

As far as being ready for baby...I'm not. I have diapers and a few things clothes and blanket wise but I'm taking a very minimalist approach to the whole thing lol. I think that's what happens when you get to number 4. For the first baby you have to have every piece of equipment known to man and by the fourth you want as few baby contraptions as possible. I do need to make a sling however that's still on the To-Do list.

New listings

I have a couple new ebay listings. Seaside Rose

and Red White and Blue

Find them by clicking the "on ebay" link to your left.

Tag I'm it

Lisa tagged me and here are the rules:

1. List seven random facts/habits about yourself

2. Choose another SEVEN bloggers to tag and list their names in your blog

3. Leave your seven tagged bloggers comments to notfiy them of their tagging and to direct them to your blog for tag instructions.

Ok so here goes.

1. I'm the oldest of five and the only girl. My brothers are Jeremy (27) getting married in three weeks! Daniel is 25, Tyler will be 18 in a couple weeks and is graduating on the 31st and Christian is almost 13!

2. I hate housework and don't like to cook either lol. I love baking but everyday cooking is the pits. The most domestic thing I do is sew. Years ago my Mom and Kenny thought I should name my business "Lizzie can't cook...but she can sew" I was not amused. I CAN cook I just don't like it very much.

3. I am the most disorganized person I know lol. I don't want to be! I am always coming up with a new system but they seem to fall apart. I shouldn't say I'm the most disorganized because on the other hand, I'm the most organized in my family rofl. I have had some success with the kids...some...tiny victories.

4. I absolutely love to play "Texas Hold'em" poker. We have a weekly game and I am the only woman that plays. I like it that way. I prefer playing face to face instead of online as it's easier to use my feminine intuition lol. I am not the smartest player as I'm too emotional. I should never get in a hand with my husband because I can't think clearly, I just want to beat him lol. The guys joke and say if I wrote a poker book it would be titled "Calling in anger" lol. That's so true.

5. I am a big proponent of natural childbirth. I had my second child at home with a midwife and was at a birth center with Claire until she turned in the middle of labor and tried to come out arm and shoulder first lol. I am not saying it's for everyone but I do think that all the medical interventions that are common today tend to complicate and frustrate labor therfore making it neccessary for other medical interventions. That being said, I am grateful for modern medical technology. My little blonde stinker is proof of that. Now that I have no choice in the matter and must have another c-section, I've decided to ask for all the drugs I can have lol. I'm a person of extremes. I go from absolutely no drugs to asking for a drug menu.

6. Some of my favorite shows on T.V. are "Flip this house" on A.&E., Amazing Race, Heroes, Project Runway and the various poker shows we watch.

7. I have always dreamed of owning a bit of land outside of town and building a house. I would love to let the kids run wild. Maybe have a big barn like studio to work in. Ok enough daydreaming, I have to get some work done lol.

OK I've been cruising blogs and it seems almost everybody has been tagged already! Here are a few that I don't think have been tagged yet.

Amy

Tori

Missy