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...

Must get the Wee Wonderfuls book!

I have only made one doll and it was from the Olive and Archie doll pattern by Hillary Lang. I absolutely loved it and it was pretty easy to make. I made it for Claire for her 3rd Birthday. Oh my goodness I can't believe she's a first grader now!

 

Hillary has  new Book called Wee Wonderfuls: 24 dolls to sew and love

I would love to get a copy and make some fun dolls and toys for the kids. You can run on over to read an interview with Hillary on Angry Chicken and leave a comment to enter the giveaway for your own copy of the book.
 

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.