Friday, March 12, 2010

So Much To Do....

...SO LITTLE TIME!
Taking a little BLOGGY BREAK here.
I need to take a deep breath, step back and sort through everything I have piled on my plate.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Making Things Fun

It's important to me to keep things fun around here. I find that if I can laugh and joke with the kids that they are more apt to be respectful, help me out when needed and it makes home a good place to be. You don't have to be a grumpy, mean mom to get what you want out of your kids!!!
I thought you might get a kick out of trying this little April Fools day trick that I pulled on the kids last year. A couple of times a week I make a special after school snack. It usually just sits on the counter all afternoon (since our kids all get home at different times). Here's what I did.

A "REAL" SPONGE CAKE
I put sponges in a cake pan, frosted them and put sprinkles on them, then I tried not to giggle as I watch each of the children try to cut a piece. We refrosted and resprinkled after each child tried to dig in. It was more fun as the day went on because by the time the last person tried to get a piece of cake the whole family was in on the trick.



APRIL FOOLS!


Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Butterfly Palooza

I'm a believer in positive thinking, in the fact that your thoughts create your future, so today I'm thinking.....butterflies, butterflies, butterflies, and hoping for SPRING!!!!
Let's start with this adorable little girls necklace made by Brandi at Rosie Rosies. I'm sure they're out there, but this is the first time I've seen a statement necklace for a little girl. Makes me think I need to make a skirt to match!
I never get tired of the great idea's over at lollychops. What little gal wouldn't love this in her room?

How about this cute butterfly punch art by Ali Edwards. Although this isn't a new idea, I love that she used magazines instead of scrapbook paper. Wouldn't this be cute with the butterflies cut out of vintage children's books?

Love, love, love this butterfly wedding bouquet by Martha.

In fact, forget the wedding bouquet, I may just have to make one of these to put in a pretty vase in my entry way. GORGEOUS!

Monday, March 8, 2010

And The Winner Is....



#52, The Tinsley Family
True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 52 Powered by RANDOM.ORG

I will let Kami from Sweet Charli know and she will get with you to work out the details.
CONGRATULATIONS!

Friday, March 5, 2010

The Love List

Oh my goodness....what a fun morning! I've had the heebie-geebies all week long worrying about this Studio5 spot I was asked to participate in and it ended up being the funnest, funnest thing....not scary at all (once I was there)!

Every month Studio5 presents it's "Love List" ... local products that they love. Here is a peek at the segment if you missed it.


It was such a cool experience to get to see the behind the scenes action. Everyone was so nice. I would do it again in a heartbeat!

All of the products on todays show were things that would be great to give as baby gifts, there were some really cute things, and some super creative ladies sharing them. Here are some links if you want to take a peek.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Somebody Else's Cute Stuff


I haven't had any time to do my own crafty playing this week so I thought I'd link you over to somebody else's fun stuff. I have been trying to lay off the sugar and can I just say that when I saw this little caterpiller dude over at food art party I could almost taste him. He's pretty good too!!!


Tami, the blog mama, over at Food Art Party has a blog chock full of "FREE" cupcake liners. You might want to hop over and take a look, she's pretty good with all that pixel/computer artsy kind of stuff. That's something I would love to learn how to do!

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

It's About Love

I've mentioned before that I am an adoptive mother. Both of our amazing, sweet, fun sons came to us from someone else's tummy! My little Nate likes to say that my tummy is broken, sometimes that happens. You may wonder, "Well, what about those girls she has?". We wonder too, we honestly don't know how they got here...babies aren't something we are supposed to be able to do. People have asked me what it's like to have biological children and adopted children. Everyone wonders if you love them the same. The answer is YES! There is not one teeny, tiny difference in the love I have for my kids...it is exactly the same, fierce, scary, mother bear kind of love! So.....why am I telling you this? Because I'd like to introduce you to my friend Cyd and her adorable little family. They are looking for a little sister for their boys to love and protect. There's nothing like a big brother!
Ryan and Cyd have the two most adorable little boys, Noah and Jaxon. Like me, Cyd's tummy is now broken, yet they feel like they have more to give and would love to add a little girl to their family. Once in a while there is a birth mother who wants her child to have big brothers and sisters, this is the kind of family the Jones' can provide. Ryan is an awesome, involved daddy (he coaches all of their sons teams) and Cyd' is just the cutest, sweetest mom, teaching those boys to grow up to be good men. If you happen to know anyone thinking about placing a baby girl for adoption have them take a peek at Ryan and Cyd's profile. Every day I thank Heavenly Father for our sweet birth mom's, who put their babies before themselves and gave them the chance at a better life.

Not flesh of my flesh,

nor bone of my bone,

But still miraculously my own.

Child never forget,

Even for a single moment,

You didn't grow under my heart,

but in it.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Peanutbutter Bliss



Today on Studio5 (I know, I know, another one of those dang Studio5 posts!!) they celebrated National Peanut Butter Lovers Day. I'm all over those crazy national holidays....last year we celebrated nat'l jellybean day, nat'l french fry day and nat'l donut day at our house! In honor of this very special day I would like to share with you one of my families favorite peanut butter recipes. I found this recipe on the blog Stephanie's Kitchen about a year ago. It has been a fav of the fam's ever since. Give her a try!!! Click here to visit Stephanie's Kitchen.

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Sweet Charli Giveaway

Let me introduce you to
another new Utah business that made me stop and look.
Why did I stop and look? Well.... there's just enough of a twist
to their products that it made me think, "Hmmm, clever, why
didn't I think of that?"
Twisted flowers out of printed fabric....
fabric ball necklaces with an attached flower....
Flower belts, but they are thick, rather than thin.
I like it when people take a trend and put a twist to it.










Sweet Charli is offering the chance to win one of the above necklaces simply for checking out their wares.
All you have to do is:
Visit their blog and tell me what you like
  • My followers get an extra entry.

    If you would like more than two entries you can:
  • Become a fan of Sweet Charli on Facebook
  • Link to Sweet Charli on your blog
  • Follow their blog
Make sure you leave a comment for each entry
DON'T FORGET TO PUT YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS IN ONE OF THE COMMENTS
(giveaway ends Sunday 3/7)

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Meet My Best Friend


I'd like you to meet my best friend... the rolled hem foot! Love this little gadget!!! The only problem is that sometimes getting her started is a little tricky. She likes to fiddle faddle around with the bobbin thread. Some times it takes her a good inch or inch and a half to get her groove on.
The other day I was getting a little mad at her (friends sometimes do that), when I realized that all I had to do was put a piece of paper under the fabric to get her going from the very start. In the above picture I used a piece of a grocery sack, worked great....no more troubles!

We're best friends again.....sigh :)

Lil Bo Peep Is In The Building

This is my little friend Katie....blue eyes to die for by the way...modeling "Lil Bo Peep" for you. I know you saw a little sneak peek last week, but I just had to share the finished product (because Katie is so stinkin' cute and because a real girl makes my skirts 1,000 times cuter)! I've had this pattern swimming around in my head for a couple of months now. It's funny how those things keep me from sleeping. I finally had to make it so that it would stop buggin' me at 2:00 am. This little skirt is now in the shop and unlike my other skirts it comes with its own iron on birdie applique. I'm hoping that with all those birdies spring will get the hint and come already!!!

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Floral Wristband

Tired of wearing your headbands on your head?
How about wrapping them around your wrist.
My daughters LOVE shopping at thrift stores. Erika bought this old crepe dress from the DI a couple of weeks ago. We fixed the neck to be more modest and shortened the sleeves. I decided to make her a floral headband with the left over fabric from the sleeves (kind of like the one in this old tutorial).....she decided to wear it as a wristband instead!

Apparently it got a lot of oooh's and aaaah's at the Jr High!

I love how kids these days dare to do different, funky things with their clothes, I NEVER would have dared to be different when I was 15!

Oh My Heck! ....that's Utah for "get out!!!!!"

Let me preface this post by saying that I don't have a cool bone in my body!
Most people would have the ability to be all cool and nonchalant about this, but I just couldn't be cool if I tried.... so I'm not even going to try. I got an email yesterday from a producer at Studio5 telling me they'd like to feature my shop on their "things we love" segment in a couple of weeks! I am so excited! Studio5, for you non-Utahn's, is kind of like the Martha Stewart Show for local crafters. If you follow many Utah craft blogs you will read things like this all the time, "saw the cutest thing on studio5 today, can't wait to try it" or "learned how to make monkey bread on studio5 today". So, do you want to hear the extremely mature and nonchalant way I began my return email to said producer? Here it is....
"GET OUT!!! Really?"
(like I said, not a single cool bone)

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Alice & The Queen All Done








Hope those little dollies have fun at the premier!

Monday, February 22, 2010

Design Audition For Letty

Letty....."Alice" is done and looks so sweet and cute, but I want a little more input on little miss "Queenies" skirt. I know you wanted it more understated, so tell me which of the following three you prefer (there are only two pictures, I just wrote down what idea #2 is).


  1. Would be all black (the fabric is a black on black small floral print) with the white ruffle, as per our convo. I would add a big red heart shaped pin, so that you could take it off for regular wear.
  2. Would be the same as #1, except that the bottom border would be a red on red floral print. (from far away it just looks red, close up you can see the flowers).
  3. This one would use the same fabrics as above but I would round the ruffle up to meet in the middle front. Same heart shaped pin.

Let me know what you think and I will get on that tomorrow morning!

FYI...Another Giveaway!


Have you guys ever visited Tatertots and Jello? Love it...one of my fav's!
Sweet Jen, the Mommy of that blog, is hosting a gieaway for me this week. If your interested you'll want to hop on over for sure. And if your not interested :) you'll still want to hop over because she's one creative gal!

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Alice and the Queen

I'm always up for a good challenge, in fact I love it when customers ask me if I can make something that they've had swimming around in their minds. I've got a customer who is taking her daughters to the Hollywood premier of Alice In Wonderland. She asked if I could make her two skirts, one that looks like Alice's (easy) and one that looks like the Queen of Hearts. The trick is that she doesn't want them to look costumey. I'm excited to try to figure out how to turn the queens outlandish skirt into a cute little girls skirt (not costume). Very fun!

Friday, February 19, 2010

Sneak Peek For Kathy


Kathy.... I am so excited about how this turned out that I can't even wait for the whole outfit to be finished to show you. Oh my goodness, it just tickles me! I will work on the top this weekend and we'll do our little photoshoot next week!
FYI... this little skirt will be in my shop in the next week or so for anyone interested. Keep your eyes peeled :)

Polka dot Shamrock - Tutorial

I recently had a customer ask me if I could make a shamrock to go on her daughters skirt instead of the usual flower. My answer was, "Sure, I don't know how I'll do it, but it will be fun to figure it out!" And sure enough.... it was fun figuring it out. Now that it's "figured out", I might as well share and let you have some fun with it too.
You will need:
green fabric
thread and needle
Clover yoyo maker is optional
(Clover is the brand, not the shape. They do have a shamrock shaped yoyo maker but I thought it looked more like a flower than a shamrock. I think the heart shaped one works better.)

Make 3 heart shaped yoyo's
If you're using the yoyo maker just follow the instructions.
(obviously)

When you take it off of the yoyo maker it looks like this, so I'm thinking you could just stitch around the edge of a heart shaped piece of fabric if you didn't want to get the yoyo maker.

At this point you'll want to just pull on the thread to gather the heart into....

...a smaller, rufflier version of itself!

Lay 2 of the hearts (RIGHT SIDES TOGETHER) and hand stitch them together. Begin about 1/3 of the way down and go all the way to the point at the bottom.

This is why I wrote RIGHT SIDES TOGETHER in all caps!
OOPS....just keepin' it real. Time out while I unpick and try again.

There we go, much better. Do the same thing with the 3rd heart.

You're almost done.

For the stem you will want a rectangle approximately 2.5 x 2 inches big.

Fold it in half so that the shorter ends are meeting.

Fold the two ends in a little bit. That way you only have one raw edge and that will eventually be beneath a little circle of felt.

Starting at one end, roll the piece of fabric into a stem.

Like so.

Hand stitch all the way down the back of the stem.
Then stitch the stem onto the back of the shamrock.

And there you go.... a polka dot shamrock!

To finish it off just add a circle of felt to the back. I added a pin, since they were going on skirts, but you could do so many different things with these. You could make a giant one for your door, put a bunch on a wreath, decorate napkin holders with them...just all kinds of things!
HAVE FUN!

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

MIA

Dear Blog,

So much to do....so little time! Custom orders backing up. Family room totally torn apart awaiting new paint (by me, not a worker guy) before furniture comes tomorrow. Somethings got to give, looks like it's gonna be you.

Love,
Me
PS...shop closed this week too.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

A Little House

When I saw this giveaway on Tatertots and Jello, I thought of you and all of your cute little kiddo's! My kids are way too big for one of these, but yours are just right. Run on over here if you're interested.
Who wouldn't want a "blue bird cottage"

or a "cupcakery"?