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.

A few of my recent projects...

My first order of business was a nursing cover and diaper/wipe clutch for a friend's baby shower, but in my rush to get it ready for the shower, I forgot to take pictures. It was even my own creation, not copying anyone else's tutorial.


I also decided that I needed to make a pincushion before I did any other sewing projects, so I tried the strawberry pincushion tutorial at Embroideroo http://embroideroo.blogspot.com/2009/10/strawberry-pincushion-tutorial.html . Mine didn't turn out as cute as hers, but it does the job. And who says a strawberry can't be blue?

Then the cutest thing by far.... The ruffle t-shirt dress from kojodesigns http://kojodesigns.blogspot.com/2009/08/kojo-tutorial-jcrew-y-ruffle-dress-from.html . This dress was super simple to make, and is possibly my favorite thing in my daughter's closet at the moment. The hardest part was trying to get her to hold still for a picture.
















And I had to include this picture because it's so precious.

Spooky Stuff....

Friday night we finally got around to carving our pumpkins. Hudson was full of a million questions, but really enjoyed "helping". He got to scoop the goop, and kept grabbing the carving tools when we weren't looking and giving the unsuspecting pumpkins a little stab. Holland wouldn't touch the goo (just like her brother at that age), and couldn't really care less about the pumpkins. She wasn't feeling well, so she just kept crawling into my lap. When all was said and done, we ended up with a vampire Mickey for Hudson, a cute little hairbow wearing-gaptoothed-cheeseygrin pumpkin for Holland, a spider for Daddy, and a greenish puking pumpkin for me. Oh, and Cootie had to test some pumpkin and promptly got sick on the dining room rug.










Saturday was the big day. We went to a Christmas bazaar at Hudson's school, lunch at Grammy Marcie and Papa Jim's house, then home for short naps. My fuzzy little elephant was so excited to trick or treat and my little Pebbles Flintstone was just kind of along for the ride. It was freezing, so she didn't stay out long. At one point, Holland got so cold that Danny was wearing her inside his coat, and Mimi D ended up taking her back home. Hudson was funny, because there was a neighbor wearing a scary mask, sitting on his porch, and he wouldn't even get out of the wagon. Because of that, things started out pretty slow for him, but he soon got into it and had a great time. We came home and both kids loved dumping and sorting through all of their loot before settling down for the night.

Going to give this a try again...

OK, at first this was going to be a blog to advertise my hairbows, but scratch that. It will just be for any randomness that comes to mind. Although, I do still have my hairbows for sale at www.ohholland.etsy.com.

So anyway....the kids, Mimi D, and I went to Thistleberry Farm today. It was supposed to be 70 and sunny, although we never saw 70 or sunny, but we still had fun. The kids had fun riding the cow train, playing in kids corral, and doing the hayride. I didn't have my camera charged, but Mimi D got some good pictures. Hudson tried the jumping pillow but got knocked down twice by some big kids, so we moved on to other fun things. It was a long, busy, fun-filled, no-nap day! Possibly going bowling tomorrow, but shhh, don't tell Hudson yet.