Shutterfly

I just ordered my Christmas cards from Shutterfly, and can't wait to get them. They have a ton of beautiful styles to choose from. Here's one of the styles I chose...

Gift Tag Story Christmas 5x7 folded card

Make a statement with Shutterfly Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

First English Silent Auction

Hello! If you happened to pick up my business card or bid on any of my auction items at the fundraiser last night, first of all, THANK YOU! Second, you will probably notice that I have hardly anything on my etsy site. I haven't listed much lately, but I have plenty of things I've made, or would love to make. I've mostly been doing custom orders lately, so if you see anything you like in my completed listings on etsy, anything on my blog, something you've seen somewhere else, or even anything on my baby when we're at school, please let me know and I'd be happy to create something for you.

On another topic, here's something that I'm excited about today. Disney at www.rufflesandstuff.com is having a "Ruffle Your Stuff" contest. She has really sparked my creativity in the past few months, and I think she's even the reason I started blogging. She has the greatest ideas, and seems like such a sweet person. I'm excited to get started on my entries for her contest.

In the next few days I will also be posting some other dresses I've made for Holland, Hudson's "heartbreaker" t-shirt, and his stegosaurus shirt.

Other random recent projects

Let me start first by declaring that my next project MUST be to learn to use my new camera properly! I would love to take beautiful pictures like those I see in other blogs, but it certainly hasn't happened yet. I have the camera to do so, but definitely not the knowledge. And Spring needs to hurry and get here, so we can go outside!!!

Anyway...


When I bought my sewing/embroidery machine a month or two ago, the first thing I wanted to do was make something for Hudson, since it seems like I'm always making girly things for Holland. Since the machine came with Disney Pixar patterns, I decided on a Mike from Monsters Inc. scarf. How bad is it that I have a picture of the cat in it, but not the kid I made it for? But my big fat cat sits more still than my rambunctious 3 year old.




This next scarf was like the easiest thing ever. I cut squiggly shapes from an old t-shirt (should've used a newer shirt, but oh well), ruffled them by sewing with a long stitch, then sewed them onto the end of a Dollar Tree scarf. I intended to make it for myself, but a certain little diva woke up right as I was finishing it, and insisted that it was hers by grabbing it and trying to wear it. I've never gotten to wear it since...






One of my next embroidery projects was this dress that I put Holland's initial on. I'll leave out the shirt where I embroidered her name upside down...





This next project is one of those things that seemed like a cute idea, but I rushed through it and it's just kind of okay at best. It was supposed to be a kitty shaped taggy blanket thingy. Holland is definitely not impressed!




And since my poor Hudson is always left out, I will close with a few goofy pictures of him.

Lil Blue Boo / Dharma Trading Design Challenge

Well, here goes nothing. I am entering the LBB/Dharma Trading Design Challenge. I am somewhat a beginner at sewing, so I may be in way over my head here, but I love Ashley at Lil Blue Blue's Recycled T-shirt Sienna Dress pattern (available in her etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/lilblueboo), and have made 5 dresses, so I figure why not? The pattern is so easy and so adorable! You can find Lil Blue Boo's blog here: www.lilblueboo.blogspot.com

My very first attempt is my favorite, I think. When I'm doing laundry, Holland loves to put Hudson's undies on her head. So when I saw this "be weird" shirt at the thrift store, I had to have it for her! Another significant thing about this dress is the brown floral print fabric. It's part of a shirt I wore when I was pregnant with her. Since this was my first attempt, I was nervous about trying any kind of embellishments, so I did a very small star stencil with freezer paper on the sleeves.









My second try was using my mom's old "I've got a black belt in crazy" shirt. Because Holland certainly is crazy, but of course in a good way! My grandmother recently passed away, and I used one of her shirts for the ruffles and collar. I used freezer paper stencils on the back for the gold flowers. I also made a pair of capri leggings using the remainder of the striped shirt.






The title of this dress pretty much sums it up: "Buy Now, Tell Dad Later". So very true. The blue printed fabric in this dress was also one of my grandma's shirts. The shirt that had the words on it wasn't big enough to use for the pattern, so I cut it out and used it as an applique. I made this one in a 3T, so it's too big for my baby to wear yet.




I wanted to try something different for the next one, so I decided to use all solid colors and do a deer stencil with a fabric flower. I was a little scared about how the deer would turn out, but I love it! This one is also a little big for my girl, so she couldn't model it, but I can't wait for her to wear it.





And the last one probably isn't eligible for the contest, because I didn't have time to embellish it. I plan to add some red hearts to the back where it is all white (would've been good for today, Valentine's Day). I thought the Saved by the Bell shirt was too funny. I added bands to the sleeves to change it up a little. Please excuse the crazed look on her face and blurry picture. I sure do love that silly little girl! (And her brother too, but I didn't make him anything for this challenge, so I'll share his silliness in another post).







Sooooo.....wish me luck! I'm sure I'll need it!

Adorable Ruffly Jeans Outfit

I saw an outfit like this for sale once and thought, "I can make that......maybe". At that point, I wasn't very confident in my sewing abilities, so the fabric sat in my pile for a while. Finally, I got up the nerve to try it a few weeks ago, and I love how it turned out. I just cut off the cuffs of the jeans and the bottom of a onesie, then hemmed and added long ruffles. And of course I made matching hair clips, which she apparently did not care for! I was going to do some sort of ribbon or rick-rack at the seams, but couldn't find anything I liked, and I actually like how it looks without it.

Stocking Advent Calendar

I know I'm a little late in posting this, but....oh well. I made this calendar for Hudson (and Holland in future years), and he loved it. The "elves" put a treat in the stocking each night, and he counted how many days were left. The stockings are felt, sewn together with a zigzag stitch, with felt letters glued on. The hardest part was cutting out the letters freehand, but it was still easy. I then bought a piece of foamboard from Hobby Lobby and stapled on some Christmas fabric and 4 pieces of ribbon. Super simple! I was in a hurry to get it done in time, but for next year, I'd like to make a big Santa face out of felt and glue it on behind the ribbon, with a big white fabric bag at the bottom to look like Santa's beard. We would put the stocking in the bag each night, and Santa's face would be revealed when all the stockings are off.

Photography

So, I got a nice new camera for Christmas from my wonderful husband. I'm hoping to finally be able to take good pictures of my babies and my projects. I "know" an incredibly talented photographer, who is offering a workshop to share some of her photography knowledge, and I'm really hoping I can attend. Her name is Katie DeWinter, and we know each other through an online forum called the Junebugs. We all met online when we were pregnant with babies due in June of '06, and we still keep in touch. Anyway, Katie is having a contest to win a free spot in her workshop. To enter you must post a link to her workshop http://www.katiedewinter.blogspot.com/2009/11/beginner-photography-workshop.html on your blog or facebook page, along with a one sentence answer to the question: "What do you LOVE about photography?". So to answer the question....

I love that photography captures life's beautiful...and not so beautiful memories, such as my gorgeous baby sleeping like an angel, then that same pretty girl with her finger up her nose.

Speaking of photos, next time I promise to post pictures of the projects I've finished recently, and possibly even a tutorial.