Belated Birthday gifts...

My nephews birthdays were recently... (well one was in March so it wasn't so recent). I decided to make them each a nap quilt. It is a SUPER simple quilt, only ended up being 44x44. I added a little applique to the corner of each one. For Cade's I just cut 5" strips of fabric (7 rows) and sewed them toghter. I wanted to use a charm pack but my quilt store didn't have any that would work for boys and I needed to do it quick since I needed it done in a week.

I just printed out their initials on my computer. Then I scanned and enlarged one of the rockets on the fabric.

For this one I used one of Traci's patterns at Amazing Mae and the Moda Sock Monkey Charm pack. I saw there is another pattern of Sock Monkeys coming out soon and I can't wait to get them!

I'm happy with how they turned out but in retrospect would have made the initals 2 layers so that they stood out better (the cream letter with a red border)... but live and learn!

Around the house ... #4... jewlery idea

For years my jewelry has been a mess. I love necklaces... 90% of them are just costume. They would get tangled, and lost and I could never tell what I had. So when we moved I decided to put them up on the wall. My husband wasn't 100% thrilled with the idea, he thought it might look sloppy.. but I don't think it does.
I got some nice looking hooks (at the Pottery Barn outlet, but I have seen nice ones at Target & lowes). Then I just hung all the necklaces on them... Mostly by color, but it doesn't always stay organized.

And I love it... It's so easy to pick out what necklace to wear when I can "see" them all. For effect I put all my pearls (they are all fakes) on the dressform my Mom got me... I love it - I think it looks very "french". I still keep the "nice" stuff in the jewelry box.

Around the house... post #3... teenager bedroom

I have a 13 yr old daughter. We decorated her room in a "fashion" theme.. the walls are a pale turquoise blue. I'd love to post a picture of the "whole" room... but it's still not "ready" (or clean enough for that matter!!!) We reorganized over the weekend and I'm still getting some of the bookshelves organized and stuff. But here are a few photos of "snippets" of her room: The wall decals are from http://www.houseof3.com/ They are not vinyl, but plastic, you can't really see it here but there are crystals on them... very sparkly... also here a peg rack with all her "fakes"... (one of which she picked up on the streets of Rome last summer and one in Istanbul.. they had big signs that said GENUINE FAKES...)

Her IKEA dresser.. I LOVE IKEA... this dresser works great for her... she loves the mirror... it's not the best quality... I'm not counting on it lasting for years but it was pretty cheap :-)

Jewlery on a holder... much easier for her to keep things "picked up" when she just has to put htem on a holder.

The drapes... I made them, they look compicated but it was really simple. They are lined in black polkadot fabric which you can't really see here.

Bulletin Boards--- also from IKEA.. they come plain white. So I took 3 of them and covered them with the fabric we used in her room. (just used masking tape to affix to the back). Then my hubby hung them up in a tile pattern. I didn't clean them off.. you can see she uses them.

I'll post a picture of her whole room for another "around the house".

Around the house... post #2

This post is from our old house:

(sorry for the not so great pics. I took these at our last house and my camera wasn't the greatest back then)

In our old house, my daughters room had some funky angles in the ceiling. The builder framed off one side to a 4ft tall wall and the other side let it go all the way down to 1 ft. This was cool for my little daughter it gave us lots of play space in the room but the room was "off" balance. Plus figuring out what to put on the "short" wall was a challenge.

So we added a curtain... it was really easy, we used the IKEA wire kit and hooks to hang it, and to save $ instead of buying fabric I used shower curtains that I purchased at Target. You can't tell from the photo but it matches her bedding. It gave her a "play" place..she would use the curtain like a stage and do little plays. Plus it was a GREAT way to hide all the not so cute toys.

One side of the room: With the curtain open a bit...

Around the house.... post #1

So I know I have been a AWOL blogger... we have just had a really crazy few weeks. I helped with girls camp for church then my kids all had camps the next week and all needed to be in a different place at a different time (I don't know what I was thinking!)... Then my youngest daughter ended up pretty sick and had to go to the kids hospital for a ct scan... all is well! But I have been sidetracked lately....
I have lots of sewing tutorials to share but not too much time to "write" them.. so I thought I'd try something new:

Almost 2 years ago (geez I can't believe it has been that long!) We moved into a new house. It was bigger, closer to the schools and a much better fit for our family. The house we left was one that we built, I had picked out everything down to the doorknobs. Decorating is one of my passions so it was hard for me to move into a house that was already "done." I have slowly been making changes to the house (some big and some small) to make it ours. It was wonderful before so anything we have done has just been to personalize it to us.

I thought I'd start a posting series called "around the house"... It will show some of these projects that I have been tackling. (and a few ideas from the last house too)... Some of them are pretty big (like finishing the basement) and some are small (like a photo wall in my kids room)....For the next few weeks I'll share them... I hope you can get some great ideas ....

One of the first projects I tackled was the kitchen. I LOVE too cook... and I LOVED LOVED LOVED my gas stove. I wanted to switch out the electric cook top (that came with the house) for a gas cooktop and move the microwave to give me more "head room" when I was cooking. We moved the microwave to a bookshelf in the kitchen and installed a vent hood.

Next was tile... I am a messy cook and could quickly see the walls behind the stove getting dirty and fast. I wanted a glass subway tile and lucked out and found one the SAME color green as the paint! I knew this project was beyond my abilities so we got a tile guy to come and do it and he did a great job. It gave the kitchen just enough "sparkle!"

The kitchen before:


And after: The crown molding still needs to be fixed... we moved the cabinet up 6" added the vent hood and projected the cabinet out from the wall 3" to make it more "substantial".

With my red accents...

Close up of the tile..

My gas cooktop..

I have the coolest sister ever!

I have the coooolest sister... she is 2 yrs younger than me and has always been way more "hip" and in the "know"... She runs the babysteals.com website...

Check out this cake she made for her son's 4th bday! She got the idea from the "cupcake" book..

What a lucky kid my nephew is!!! I wish we could have been there to celebrate with him!

Cute object lesson Idea...

Melissa at A Little Loveliness had this on her blog today I thought it was so cute that I would share:A cute idea for Young Women's or Primary or VBS... it's the scripture Isaiah 64:8...

8 But now, O Lord, thou art our ^afather; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the ^bwork of thy hand.

The dog ate my homework...

Actually that is not what happened......a storm happened.
Check this out... looked out our window tonight to see this!!! HOLY STORM BATMAN!!
Thankfully no tornadoes... but the power was out for a while...so no sewing machine !! and I was ALMOST done with something... oh well... try again tomorrow!

Why today was a good day....

Today was a good day. It was a "hard work" day but a good day, a fall fast asleep being the good kind of tired day...

Half the reason it was a good day was because of this... hello it was $7!!! Pottery barn is asking $25 for them!

and these..

and these...

and Oh my gosh how cute is this? (cupcake tablecloth from vintage 50's pattern!!!- repo.. but I don't care)I mentioned earlier that I drove food down to girls camp today. Well.... I got of the freeway for girls camp and realized I was in Glendale, KY... For those of you that don't know... Glendale is this little hidden gem in central Kentucky (about 1 hr S. of Louisville) Tiny, but in about 1 square mile are 2 cute restaurants (one called the Whistle Stop cafe, KILLING me not to eat there...I have been known to drive miles for food) and about 10 antique stores and even more cute boutiques... and a trolley that serves ice cream... how cool is that????

So after I got the girls settled at camp I figured it wouldn't hurt to hit at least one store... right? But just one, sadly Glendale is a place to go with a girlfriend, plus I looked like I had been camping... I hit one store and found some fun stuff! I can't wait to create... I feel a pillowcase dress coming on!

and... oh yeah.. I'll be back this summer... with reinforcements

(photo courtesy of flickr)

Q & A Finally!

First I wanted to say thank you for all the comments on my blog, I have loved clicking through your profiles and seeing all of your wonderful blogs, most of which I've added to my google reader! Feel free to say "hi" any time...

I have received some questions on my blog... I thought I'd take a minute and answer them for you. Sorry for the delay I just dropped off a truckload of food for Girls Camp today!! Whew!!!! Just making some brownies and pulled pork tonight and I can check camp off my list this year :-)

About the Ink Stain Fix:

Q-How do you keep the fabric from fraying in the wash?

A- The fabric I picked is underwear, so it's a stretch knit that usually doesn't fray... I have also noticed in the past that the heat & bond helps to keep the fabric from unravelling. I'll admit I'm still experimenting with applique, but that's just what I have noticed. Also when I do the raw edge applique on something I'm going for a "messy" look so if it frays a bit in the wash I'm okay with that.

Q-Where to I get my appliqué patterns?

A-A good friend of mine posts alot of them on her blog, www.amazingmae.blogspot.com she is my applique hero! She just draws them herself. Otherwise I use images from my cricut (cut it out of paper then trace)... computer images printed in reverse or good ol' Martha's site (a wealth of patterns there)

Q-Where did you get the tutorial for the sundress? (which STILL needs to be finished AUGH!)

A- The tutorial for the sundress came from Heather Ross.. you can find it here (she wrote Weekend Sewing... a good book!)

Q- If you did not use charm packs for the Patchwork skirt, how much fabric would you need?

A- you would need

1/2 yd matching fabric for waistband and ties

1/2 yd matching fabric for skirt band

1/2" wide elastic

3/4 yard for the main fabric.

You would do everything the same, except cut 2 pieces 10" x 32.5" from the main fabric for the skirt (instead of piecing the charm squares)

Q- Where to you get charm packs?

A- I get them at my local quilt shop- (Among Friends in Louisville) but you can also get them online, I know fat quarter shop has a bunch.

Q- Can you make the skirt (twirly or patchwork) in a larger size.

A- Yes you can... I just have not taken the time to figure out yet. My 13 yr old daughter wants one. One of my next projects is to use my trusty dress form and figure it out. I'll share when I do.- I believe it will require the use of a zipper ---- eeekkkkk!!!

Q-Is a gathering stitch the same as a basting stitch and why 2 rows?

A- Yes a gathering stitch is the same as a basting stitch (at least in my vocab). You set your machine to the longest stitch length (mine goes up to 6 but you could also use 4).

The reason you sew two rows it to keep your gathers straight. Heirloom sewers use 3 rows of stitching, but I only do that when a teacher makes me :-).... you want the gathers on the waist to be lined up neatly against each other and not bunched up (the top of the fabric should still line up)... 2 rows of stitching helps with this.

Q: What did you do for your sons party it was a safari theme?

A: Andrew's party was a safari theme, but not nearly as elaborate. I'll have to share it soon... just not as many creative ideas in that one.

Q-How did I get to meet Garth Brooks?

A: Okay... this is copied from my personal blog from that night... enjoy if your really curious! otherwise just skip it.

We just had the best night, and even though it is very late I wanted to blog about it before I forgot. First I must say, this is my 2nd encounter with a celebrity in a months time... but just know these are the ONLY 2 celebs I've ever met... this is NOT my normal life. (the other one was Nick Lachey)

That being said tonight was soooo cool!!!! Jeff's office (he's a dentist) runs a Smiles for Life campaign, basically you get your teeth whitened and write the check to charity not the office... 100% of the whitening fee goes to charity. Jeff's office worked really really hard this year and were able to donate alot of $. Garth Brooks' charity Teamates for Kids is a large recipent of this $, as a show of apprecation he did a "meet and greet" and a concert tonight.

He was SOOO nice, and I am not just saying that. There was a professional photographer there, so I would have had to wait for them to get a picture with him, then paid for the pic. He (garth) saw that i had my camera and asked the photographer to take a picture of just us with my camera... how cool!! Plus he took the time to talk to each of my kids, Sydney had to ask him if he knows Hannah Montana (he does).. and he kept telling Kari how pretty she was...Many of you may remember the last picture I had with Garth... I was in the back and you couldn't even see me... this totally makes up for that!!!

The concert tonight was just unreal. I was sitting there thinking "I'm going to see Garth Brooks perform at the Grand Ole Opry"... It was such a great expierence. It was hands down the best concert I have ever been to. Since it was a somewhat small group, the concert had more of a feel of a MTV Storytellers than a concert. He had his band and sang all his great songs (Thunder Rolls, Friends in Low Places, Unanwsered prayers)... He also gave an incredible rendition of "The Dance." and an acoustic version of Redstrokes.

He played for 3 hours we were so lucky. At the encore, he came out and sang songs of people that inspired him.

Just him and his Guitar.

He sang, Sweet Baby James, Fire and Rain, Piano Man, Leader of the Band... by far my favorite part, he really has an incredible singing voice. Then he closed with Don McClean's "Day the Music Died"... you know the "bye, bye miss american pie" song... He got the whole audience to sing the chours... it was just cool to sit there with him and sing that song at the Opry, everyone was blaring out "took my chevy to the levy but the levy was dry..."

Andrew and Sydney slept the entire show! They just laid down on the bench and knoked out...noise and all. Kari did okay for a while, but I'm convinced that she has Strep (we brought Amoxil with us thankfully) and her fever came back 1/2 way though. I don't think she understood how cool it was to be there.

Off to bed, and home tomorrow night.

Busy Week..

I have a few things almost ready to share... but we are super busy this week with all the end of year stuff... I've got to get the twins end of year party thrown together (I'm the room mom) plus ballet recitals and getting ready for girls camp next week.

...

But thought I'd share this thought...

Did you see Stacy J. blog???? I LOVED what she said... If you didn't see it I will "recap"

Martha's Organizing Tip of the Day...

"Find inspiration from Martha's own
craft room, which is ingeniously
organized and perpetually neat."

LOVE you Martha but ...really perpetually neat? Then she must not be using it too much. My craft room is a wreck (I did clean it last night tho- it got pretty bad)...But my craft room is a wreck because I have been USING It!! Even this week, when we our schedules are insane I'll make sure to make some time for myself in there to "recharge"...

By the same token, my Kitchen is a DISASTER AREA... but it is this way because I cooked dinner for my family ... and a good one at that... I'm okay with the mess when it is a sign that I have been busy... I love it when I feel productive... I look at the mess and see that my hands have not been idle...

(now the mess in my kids rooms.. thats a WHOLE 'nother matter!.......- oh the projects I need to tackle).

I guess what I am trying to say is "stay tuned" more fun stuff to share.. just need a bit of time to get it together.

Ink Stain Fix...

Oh the Joys of teenagers, you tell them they are old enough to do their own laundry and they wash a pen with their pants.
I was not willing to just let a perfectly good pair of pants go. So I devised a plan.. I saw this on Martha she did it with cute butterflies. But I thought I'd try something different.
The pants are PINK brand (Christmas gift and not cheap, another reason to fix them). I have quite a stash of fabric that would match them but I figured that if I got fabric from PINK it would greatly increase the likelyhood that she would wear them after the fix. I wanted them to "look" like they were made that way.
So I purchased inexpensive underwear that matched at Vic's and got to work.
I traced some chipboard stars that I had in my scrapbook stash onto Heat and Bond Light.
The cut up the underwear and ironed the stars onto the WRONG side.Cut them out, peeled off the backing and ironed them onto the pants.... (side note don't iron over glitter.. it's now all over my iron OOPS!) Last step.... just a simple stitch around the edge in white , which you really can't see well here...(there is white on the butt of the pants so it matches).
Voila! Finished...
The only downside to this is that I had to sew the pocket closed to get the star in the right place... but that might not be a bad thing given her history :-)