Olivia's fleece Jacket!

As you can see I have my camera charger back! So here is my daughter's fleece jacket that I've been mentioning. I used a McCall's pattern (MP 293). This was my first clothing project with sleeves or a hood. This one was pretty easy and fun to work on, fleece is pretty forgiving stuff. Though it has been worn and washed a couple of times so please excuse the pilling that has already begun. I added the embroidery and I really like what it adds to the piece. I got my inspiration for the design from a child's garment I saw at Anthropologie a few months ago. I have some finishing touches to add to my jacket that I've mentioned and would like to have a little photo shoot with my daughter before posting that one, I'll try and accomplish that this weekend, so stay tuned :).

Happy Friday and have a beautiful weekend!

Zuny

My husband passed along this find for me. He's never short on cool design finds, though that is part of what he does. This company makes handmade leather home decor items, shown here are bookends and paperweights. I love the simplicity of the animal forms and the fun colors, they're super cute. They would be so fun in a kids room. I'd love to try my hand at mimicking the shapes in the form of plush toys...wheels are turning again. Maybe I'll have some extra time to play around one of these days.

New additions to my project/inspiration list.

I found a great craft site, Living Creatively, posted on a blog. Where else? Its beautifully designed and has a great list of projects from painting to sewing to knitting, all sorts of stuff. I've added these two projects to my list. I love the idea of doing the mobile in felt with applique instead of stamping. I have some willow branch pieces I could use in place of dowels as well...the wheels are turning.

Still cameraless :(.

I have so much to show and no way of showing. I'm having some serious camera withdraw. My daughter has played in the snow twice and I've wanted so badly to take pictures of her all bundled up. Also I finished my first garment for myself and it fits! Success! Its quite exciting. I'll have to have a photo shoot with my daughter in her new jacket, which was also a success, and my new jacket...when I have my camera again, which I'm hoping is very soon.

Flu Bug.

Hi all. The kids had a bit of a run in with the stomach flu. After three days of cleaning up poop and vomit (sorry for being graphic, but my week was graphic) and I was good and run down they started feeling better and graciously passed me the bug. We're all doing much better now, but don't quite have our energy back. I have a couple projects in the works using some of my McCall's patterns. I have pieces cut out but haven't started on the construction yet. We'll see how making clothes for myself goes...kinda nervous. I did finish a fleece jacket for my daughter that turned out really cute. I'll have a post on that as soon as I can. It seems I left my camera charger in Indy over the holidays. I've been camera-less for about a week now :(. The charger should be in route though, I'll be happy to have my camera back. Until then you'll have to live with cheesy pictures from the web :). Hope everyone has had a wonderful and healthy week!

Isn't it January?

The weather today is wild. We've spent the afternoon outside without jackets on and the windows are open. Its great to get some fresh air circulating through the house. Its 55 here with a warmer forecast for the weekend. Crazy, wonderful! I love Colorado, though I feel like I've been transported somewhere tropical. It can only mean some crazy cold weather is coming soon. So I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts. I'm off to play outside! :)

Little Seamstress.

Olivia got some of those lace and trace boards for Christmas and loves them. She decided she needed to try out Mommy's new "snewing table". So here she is doing her "snewing" (sewing).

Future Fun.

My husband and I got bit by some kind of flu bug early this week and we are now, I'm happy to say, finally feeling normal again. Now that I'm on the mend I can start planning some of my next projects :). As mentioned earlier I made my first trip to an IKEA during our Christmas vacation...still not over that store! While there I took the opportunity to expand my fabric stash. Now I have 1 yard cuts of beautifully fun heavy cottons to spiff up my life with. I just have to figure out what kind of spiffing up I'll be doing. I'm hoping to use the bold fabric in the kids playroom (reds and oranges). Maybe some fun floor pillows and hanging buckets to organize the large amount of toys we've accumulated in three short years. JoAnn's had their McCall's patterns on sale for $1.99 (reg $15.95+) so I picked up a few and I'm going to venture into clothing in a size larger than 3T. I'm quite excited to make something for myself to wear. Just hoping that it will be wear worthy when I finish. Also my wonderful sister-in-law bought me Simple Sewing by Lotta Jansdotter for Christmas (thank you again!) and first on my list from there is the cafe apron and the doorstop. I've got a big pile of fun here that should keep me busy for quite awhile, I'm looking forward to digging in!

Featured Member!

I'm the current Featured Member on Burdastyle! Check out my interview here!

Felt Bookmark

I made this bookmark for Josh as part of his Christmas present. I thought it turned out really fun. I got my inspiration from these bookmarks by Jessica Jones of How About Orange. I replaced the paper with wool felt and stuck to one fabric on the inside, which is some Amy Butler fabric left over from our duvet cover. It was a simple and fun to make, one of those instant gratification projects. I'm sure I'll be making more of these little guys.

Hello 2009.

Hello! I'm back! We are almost a week into the new year, yet I still feel like I'm recovering from December.

We had a wonderful time with our family in Indy during the holidays, though there were some lowlights thrown in with the highlights. We attended a funeral, my husband was sick much of the time, my son ended up taking a trip to the ER because of a case of Croup, nasty stuff. On the other end Olivia turned three and had a cowgirl bash and her first meeting of Chuck E. Cheese, we went to two Christmas parties, got addicted to Wii, Olivia had a blast with her cousin Brennan, Jackson got tons of hugs and attention, we played lots of games, ate lots of food, had our first IKEA experience, and spent lots of time with my husband's wonderful family. It was a fun trip but its always so nice to be home.

This past week we've spent much of our time unpacking and setting up our IKEA goodies...that store is amazing and the prices are awesome! I think I could live there :). Our most exciting purchases were a bunk bed for the kids and a new desk for my sewing space. I love my desk. Its beautiful and I love having my computer and sewing machine on one table. The office is so much more open now. I'm going to donate my old sewing table to GoodWill and a little kids table and chair set (also from IKEA) is going to take its place so that the kids can have a play space in my play space :). I'm so excited to have a place for them to be in my sewing room with me. I'm slowing getting attached to this space which will eventually be Jackson's room when we decide we want another little one running around in our lives. I have to remember that this is a transitional room as far as my things are concerned. Until then I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

Now that my sewing machine resides on such a stylish table I felt it needed an equally stylish cover, so I made her this little number. The ruffle skirt is just for some added sass. Actually I'm calling it a graceful recovery to some not so good measurements. The base of the cover was too tight for my machine. I ended up having to shorten it and figure out a way to make an extension that would flare to cover the base of my machine. This is what I came up with. I actually like it better this way. Its interesting how mistakes force you to be creative; a great insight from my husband. So here's a before and after shot of my new workspace and my machine in her sassy new frock.

Here's to fun crafting, making memories, and more graceful recoveries in the new year. Happy 2009!