Doll Dress

Every year my siblings and I draw names on which family to get gifts for, and we drew my older sister who has 3 girls!  The oldest has an 18” doll, and my daughter (same age as her cousin) really wanted to make a pretty dress for the doll.  We went through my fabric, and she picked this pale aqua butterfly print by Lizzie House.  I used regular knit fabric I had on hand for the little jacket too. 

I bought this Simplicity pattern when it was on sale for $.99, and of course my daughter really wanted a beautiful fancy dress like the one on the cover, but I just didn’t have the time to go that fancy!  Plus, I wanted to be able to use my materials I had already to save some money.  Luckily, my daughter still loved it, and was so excited to give it to her cousin.

My girls were very protective of the little dress while it was still at our house!  My little crazy-hair child wanted to make sure the dress didn’t fall while I was taking photos. :)

I made the little flower brooch with my AccuQuilt Go! Baby and the Rose of Sharon die, which I have been saving up for for quite some time.  Here’s a good tutorial on how to make these little flowers; I just hot glued a clasp to the back of it instead of putting it on a headband and it made a perfect little accent to the plain jacket.

I just loved this little dress! It was fun to make; it did take longer than I thought it would though, because the pieces were all so tiny!  I took extra long when using my serger because I didn’t want to chop a hole in it while wrangling those small pieces.  Overly cautious, maybe, but it turned out great so I can’t complain!

Have a great day!

Wonky Star Quilt

I have always loved wonky star quilts.  They are traditional in a sense, but then once you throw a little “wonk” in it, it becomes fun, modern, and whimsical.  I really wanted to try it out, so I picked this pattern for the quilt for Karali.  I had wanted to get it done by her baby shower, but my life is SO CRAZY BUSY, I had to throw in the towel for that goal.  My new goal was to get it to Karali before Christmas!  Amazingly enough, I did it! :)

I had all the front fabrics already, but I was really worrying over the backing.  The only real yardage I had was blue (surprise surprise) and it was really girly.  Her nursery colors are gray and green, so I wanted to have one of those colors as the focus on the back side.  Well, a recent trip to the local bulk fabric store (SAS in Tempe, I think it was featured on Project Runway?) yielded several yards of the Michael Miller Ta Dot in gray.  It was meant to be.  But you can’t just have a back of polka-dots (though, dots are a favorite).  I threw in a strip of patchwork strips made of leftovers from the stars on the front.  I like how it breaks up the back!

I bound it with some Heather Bailey, and quickly snapped some photos before heading out to lunch with Karali, and to give her the quilt! 

I can’t even remember what the finished size was… I do know that I used my AccuQuilt Go! Baby and the 4 1/2” HST triangle die to help with the stars.  I love that little machine.  Anyway, I think that makes each block about 12” square, so I’d venture to say it was a 48” square quilt.  I love this size for babies; it is perfect to lay on the floor so they can play, but not get in the way of everyone and everything.

I am busily working on another quilt right now, but I have a few other handmade Christmas gifts to share soon!  That is the problem with being a sewing blogger… I make lots of things I can’t share until after the fact :) 

See you soon!

Merry Christmas to all!

I want to wish you all a very merry Christmas, from our family to yours! 

For He is the reason for the season.

Project Run and Play

Hello everyone!  I hope holiday events are at least starting to wind down; I know I am anxiously awaiting Christmas… I got Mike some good stuff this year and I can’t wait to see his face when he opens his gifts!  That is the best part- seeing the reactions to those gifts you carefully selected!

I have been supremely busy lately with tons of stuff, the first of many being Project Run and Play, where I will be a designer this season!  Yay!  Yikes!!  If you have been around my blog for any reasonable amount of time, you know I like to do things as simple as humanly possible.  That is totally the opposite for Project Run and Play- you go all out for that!  It is definitely proving to stretch my imagination and perspective on what I am capable of.  Can’t wait to share what I have going!  The season will kick off for real in January so stay tuned!  I have a feeling I will be running on little sleep from now until I get voted off ;) But still, I’ll do my very best so you’ll want to vote for me!

Now I am going to shut myself away and sew all day.  See ya!

Holidays + Cream Cheese = Happiness

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of PHILADELPHIA cream cheese for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

All right, so not all happiness comes from cream cheese during the holidays.  But simply put, I made some Banana Nutella Muffins and while heavenly on their own, they were knocked out of the park with some yum-o Cream Cheese frosting.  

There are so many delicious things to cook/bake this time of year, and there are lots of great recipes online to try featuring PHILADELPHIA cream cheese.  I mean, doesn't Parmesan Crusted Salmon sound good to you? Thought so.  Salmon happens to be one of my favorite foods :)

Funny story... so most of my life I totally have not been a fan of Cheesecake.  Not because it wasn't delish, but because it was soooo rich. I could have one bite and I was DONE, and that's no way to enjoy dessert, so I never wanted it.

Then, I turned 27.

Not sure why this was a magic number, but recently I made some raspberry swirl cheesecake cupcakes using the real Philadelphia brand, and out of a batch of 24, I think I ate 21.  No, I'm pretty sure I did; Mike had 2, and his mom had one.  And I ate the rest.  I can now officially say I like cheesecake.  Love it, as a matter of fact!  I am going to start pinning  PHILADELPHIA cream cheese recipes on Pinterest... you should too!

So, try that delish salmon dish with raspberry swirl cheesecake for dessert in your holiday entertaining; I am sure it will be a hit!  Or call me and I'll eat the entire thing for you :)

Stamped Linen Gift Tags

My dad worked in a hospital once upon a time and became a master bed maker, and then taught us girls how to make our beds with tight corners and unwrinkled sheets.  I became a pro!  It is a skill that drives Mike nuts, since my bed has to be perfectly made (when it is actually made, that is…).

The same goes for gift wrapping; there is an art to it.  I don’t usually do much, just wrap it in paper (I’m good at that part!) and, if I have time, slap on a name with a Sharpie or something.  But I was thinking about how I love giving gifts, how I love picking out that perfect item for someone I love, and then I toss it in a regular old gift bag, or wrap it thoughtlessly?  No!  That won’t do!  Time for a change! I could at least start with some custom gift tags to show how much thought I put into the gift.

To make these gift tags, you’ll need some linen fabric, Kraft paper (mailing paper), stamps, and ink.  All you do is stamp your fabric, cut it out, and then sew it to the Kraft paper.  I punched holes in the Kraft paper in order to string some baker’s twine around it too.

One thing I learned while making these tags is you will want to use a stamp with lots of white space, or blank space, so that the words can be easily seen.  The weave of linen is beautiful but it can make it hard to see more dense stamp images.  I got this stamp in the dollar section at Jo Ann’s, and the ink at Wal Mart for 97 cents.

The back of the tag will just have a frame of stitching, and you can write your message within it.

SO much cuter than a Sharpie!

I think they look perfect against a solid wrapping background, like this white I had on hand.  And a pretty vintage crochet ribbon- which I’ll be taking back as soon as Mike opens his present ;)

Suddenly these special gifts seem a little more special!  Happy gift wrapping!

North Pole Coal Co. Pillow

For some reason, I can’t unwrap my mind from the North Pole having a little coal company for the coal needed for all the kids on the naughty list.  Not that anyone in my house has been extra naughty this year (only half my walls are colored on, not all of them) I don’t think we’ll be giving out any coal, but it is good to have reminders hanging around.  We already have a Christmas Coal Sack sitting on a shelf, and when the girls get a little too out of hand I bring over the bag and remind them of the lumps inside… it works every time!

But not all Coal is for naughty children, since the North Pole occupants need to stay warm, and that Polar Express train needs to keep chugging along.  That’s why I wanted to make something a little more friendly and comforting, like a pillow! 

I designed this in both Photoshop and my Silhouette Studio, and then cut it out with freezer paper.  I was going to screen print it like we did for the coal sacks, but I am out of mod podge and I was only making one.  Still, I painted a square of linen with the screen printing ink; I really like the quality. Of course some of my freezer paper didn’t adhere to the linen and I ended up with some out-of-place ink blobs!

I wanted it to look like one of those old feed sacks, except different ;).  I changed the establishment date from the Coal Sacks, because really, it should be Christmas Day!  It is always Christmas at the North Pole! The original sacks had the year that Santa was celebrated in the United States, 1773 (according to Wikipedia).

I saved my studio file, if you have a Silhouette machine and you want to make one too, just shoot me an e-mail (on my contact info!) and I’ll send you the file. 

Sock Monkey Baby Shower

It is baby season around here, it seems!  So many people I know are having babies, and one of them happens to be my super awesome friend, Karali.  She’s a first time mom, and I offered to throw her a baby shower the second she told me she was pregnant ;).  I am just so excited for her.

I wanted it to be everything SHE wanted, so I asked her what type of theme she wanted, and I was pinning baby showers like crazy!  She finally settled on Sock Monkeys, since she has a little collection already and they are so darn cute!

I got started collecting ideas, but the inspiration for most everything came from this Sock Monkey baby shower.  I am no graphic designer, so I got the sock monkey graphics from JWIllustrations on Etsy, which are the most adorable illustrations I have ever seen.  Great quality work, I pretty much want everything in her shop now.

Since I have an itty bitty condo, there was no way I could throw a baby shower at my place, so we did it at another friend of Karali’s.  Thanks Emily!  I had never met her before, and I was already bossing her around as to what I wanted to do.  I’m terrible.  Anyway, Emily was sneaky and got a photo of the baby’s sonogram, as well as a little maternity shot of Karali to have at the table by the door.  We also had some baggies and bowls of treats for guests to take on their way out.

The food table, one of the most important parts of a shower! :)  This was before everything was done, but we had brunch food like Maple Bacon quiche, Monkey bread, Crepes with yummy topping, and donuts.  There was a delicious red punch too (with red and white striped paper straws!) but I never got a photo… oops!

You can’t go wrong with crepes, seriously…

I made the big red fan medallions out of poster board.  They were a little heavy! I topped the gift table with red minky fabric, the food table with red Funky monkey fabric, and the entry table with cream Funky Monkey fabric.  I know fabric. ;)

The best part of a shower really is all the gabbing that goes on!  There are always hilarious parenting stories to be shared.

We also had a demonstration on how this little sock monkey was made to shoot across the room like a slingshot, while yelling like Tarzan.  So funny.

Here’s how you know the mom-to-be is seriously about the Sock Monkey theme:

After a while of gabbing, we played a Nursery Rhyme game, where I’ve written out descriptions of nursery rhymes and people had to guess which ones they are.  No one knew Ding Dong Bell- do you know that one? 

It was really fun, with lots of sweet women there to celebrate with Karali.  Her mom and sisters don’t live in the state and were so sad to miss out on the shower, but there are plenty of gals who love Karali and are willing to step up in a second to help out in their place.

Overall the party was a great success! Hooray for babies!!!

An Ornament Tradition

I love Christmas trees with pretty lights all decked out!  Now that people are posting their trees, most of them beautifully themed and stunning, I wanted to share a little about what is on our tree!  We don’t have a theme, and I win the battle every year over colored vs. white lights, but the most important part of our tree is the ornaments that adorn it.

Since we were babies, my parents have purchased a new ornament for me and my siblings every year to open on Christmas Eve.  I always looked forward to it, especially when the next Christmas season rolled around and we pulled each ornament out, one by one, claiming our own and putting them on the tree. 

This little puppy in the tub was always my favorite to put on the tree; the bubbles are little glass balls, and the little bar of soap gets me every time.  I’m not much of a dog person, but this little guy has a special place in my heart. 3 of the 4 bubbles remain in tact, which is better than the little gumball machine my sister received and then promptly bit into, destroying the ornament and cutting her mouth in the process.  My parents picked the gumball machine because she loves candy, obviously a little too much! :)

Sometimes my parents would give the ornaments in a theme, like the year we all got a ballerina, though none of us were actually in dance lessons :).  I think every girl wants to be a ballerina at one point!  My little brother got a football player instead, if I remember right.  Because he did NOT want to be a ballerina!

One of the purposes of getting our own individual ornament every year was for us to be able to have them on our own trees as we grew up and moved out.  I remember my first Christmas as a married woman (girl? I was 20!) and pulling out my childhood ornaments to put on our tiny, pathetic tree that looked like a toilet brush.  It made my first Christmas away from home that much easier because I had something familiar already in our tiny apartment. 

You can imagine my surprise that first Christmas when my new husband started pulling his OWN ornaments from growing up out of a box!  He had the same wonderful tradition at his house, so our first tree was decked out with at least 40 ornaments attached to memories.  This salt dough one pictured above was made by a friend when he lived in France in the early 90’s. 

We are carrying on the tradition, and ornaments are one of my favorite things to shop for during this holiday season.  I love finding unique ones, but sometimes the mass-produced guys are too good to pass up, especially when you are pregnant for the first time and you see an expectant s’more snowmama!

My parents still give us an ornament every year, like this from my mom’s trip to Germany.  Oberammergau is the BEST place to get Christmas anything, all year round!

And Mike’s parents still give us an ornament too, which usually are reminders of the real meaning of Christmas.  They also write on the ornaments the accomplishments our family reached during the year.

Two years ago on Christmas Eve, I was wrapping the ornaments for our girls and Mike and I asked him if he had wrapped my ornament yet.  He got this look on his face that was a dead giveaway that the man had forgotten my favorite Christmas tradition!!  I laughed it off, but he didn’t buy into my forced joviality.  He ordered me not to look at the craft table and started cutting, gluing, asking for thread, etc. and when the time came to exchange ornaments, I was impressed by this beauty:

He even wrote the date on it in Sharpie on the back.  I started laughing and gave him the biggest hug ever.  I think I was most impressed he knew how to do a blanket stitch, but really, I will be keeping this treasure forever!  I love that man.

Someday I do want to have a themed tree in the more formal part of my home, and keep this tree in a different spot where the family mostly gathers.  This is all on the condition I have a beautiful big home someday ;) What is your favorite Christmas or Holiday tradition? What does your tree look like?

Christmas Card Holder Tutorial

This year, I had my family Christmas photo done in September so I was ready to go on Christmas cards.  Addressing and mailing said cards is another story though, so we’ll just pretend like I’m really on the ball.  Anyway, it got me thinking about how we always pile the cards on top of the fridge every year, and go through them occasionally to show our kids the extended family and far away friends.  That’s no fun, right?? This year I solved the problem by making something specifically for holding our Christmas cards- framed Chicken wire!

The materials for this project:

• Frame of desired size, no glass needed.  Paint if you want! (Try a thrift store or make one)
• Chicken wire (I got mine at Home Depot, you’ll have tons left over for more projects)
• Wire cutters
• Staple gun or handheld stapler and staples
• Gloves to protect hands

I didn’t have gloves, so I put on some long sleeves to help avoid injury to my arms.  Fail.  Find some gloves.

First you’ll want to cut your chicken wire to roughly the same size as your frame.  You’ll be trimming later, but it is easier to pull on and work with if there is a little extra.

Staple the chicken wire to the inside of your frame, pulling it as tight as you can without skewing it as you go.  Trim the excess after it is all stapled.

When you are done, you’ll have this cutie! 

To hold the cards, I got some mini clothespins from Hobby Lobby, painted them red, and added a few felt embellishments. 

Embellish the frame with pom pom trim, tinsel, or anything else that might make it festive for the holidays.

Just clip the photo to the chicken wire with your little clothes pins, and you have yourself a Christmas card holder!

Now I sit and wait for Christmas cards to come in the mail.  That’s the best part!