ON{the laundry}LINE

Micro Shoot–Father & Son

2013-05-15T08:10:00.001-07:00

My husband, son, and I just got back from Elkhorn Resort here in Manitoba, near Riding Mountain National Park. We wandered down and took a look at their new stables and said hi to the horses, and I took a quick moment and did the world’s fastest mini shoot (we are talking less than five minutes here, but I got at least as many shots that I was happy with so works for me!)

Jackson wasn’t too sure what he thought about the horses so we got his serious face, but that’s okay with me because that face is a large part of who he is. He is a goofy, happy, smiley boy but when we’re out and about this is often the look he gives people!

If you zoom in on the above picture you can see Elkhorn’s chalets really well, which I thought was pretty cool. A nice way to remember the trip! (If you look at the other pictures really close you can probably see the swarm of ticks descending on us. Chris got the worst of it and picked at least five off his his legs and from down his shirt. I wound up with two. And the next day when we were at home there was suddenly one trying to hide in Jackson’s hair, probably from on the truck.)

It was nice to get away and I enjoyed getting some quick country shots of my boys! Chris grew up rural and we’re hoping to live outside the city ourselves by the time Jackson is in Kindergarten. We are excited to bring Olivia and Nicole up to Elkhorn someday, it’s a shame we have booked two camping expeditions in summer already.

Sew Pretty Bubble Tea

2013-05-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

When Sew Pretty Tee Shirt Dresses book arrived in my home, each member of my family went through it and chose their favourites and I had requests, plans, and and demands from all directions. For once I didn’t even mind, because these projects all start with a finished tshirt or tank top, and refashioning is right up my alley. If you have never tried this type of project, you might be surprised to realize just how much time you save when you start with some finished elements. Whether you’re using stained tshirts, too short tshirts, or even buying cheap tshirts on sale just to make dresses with, this kind of project is a quick way to customize your girls’ wardrobes!

My husband chose this simply darling tie-waisted ‘wrap’ dress and requested one for Nicole.

This dress immediately reminded me of a dress I had pinned ages ago, so you just know I have to make it for at least one of my girls.

And after flipping through the whole book, Nicole has decided she must have one of the cover dress before her wardrobe will be complete. (Olivia had no opinion, she was likely off conditioning her hair with A&D Diaper Ointment or getting into my hot pink lipstick.) I had grand plans of doing one of these gorgeous projects. But then life happened. And I kind of like the plot twist, because instead of pretty happy shiny “And with all the free time in the universe, Laura whipped up boutique dresses at her leisure while sewing aprons to donate to silent auctions and baking goods to donate to lunches and raising three children AND keeping them alive…” which I mean, HAHAHA. Not even fairy tales go there.

What really happened is much more grounded in reality. For some reason, I often find myself deciding The Night Before that I would like to whip something up for one of my girls and staying up all night making that happen. So I flipped through the book and selected a few simpler projects, and then narrowed it down to the Bubble Tea dress. From cutting, deliberating over fabrics, changing my mind on who I was sewing for, all the way to completion, this project took me less than two hours. None of these dresses have patterns to mess with, just cutting instructions. I altered the bubble a tiny bit to fit in the amount of fabric I had decided on using, but otherwise followed directions that really helped move this project along.

So whether you’re living the dream or you’re a bit closer to my own reality, this book has sweet little projects for you. And if you’re curious, I was in bed by 11:30 AFTER also doing some laundry. A new record for procrastination projects! I recommend this book for beginners looking to start out with some big satisfaction, all the way to advanced sewists who would like some quick and easy wow factor. Not to mention that all these based-on-a-tee dresses are super comfortable for their intended models!

If you want to see more projects that involved a little more planning and a little less flying by the seat of one’s pants, or even get a chance to win a copy of this dress, check out the other fabulous bloggers on the blog tour!

May 5
The New York Mom will feature a finished project
Nouveau Stitch will feature a finished project, “Flirty Shirt”
Just Pure Lovely will host a giveaway
The Crafty Princess Diaries will host a giveaway

May 6
Craft Knife will feature a finished project, “Cool Water”
Stitched by Crystal will feature a project for her 9-month-old
BlogHer DIY will feature a project

May 7
Prudent Baby will review and host a giveaway
House of 34 will host a giveaway

May 8
Smashed Peas and Carrots will feature a finished project, “Bubble Tea”
Simply Modern Mom will review and might do a project

May 9
Marsha’s Spot will feature a finished project, “Patchwork of Art” and host a giveaway
Sew Spoiled will review the book
Maya Made will feature a finished project

May 10
Dollar Store Crafts will feature a project
Only From Scratch will feature a project

May 11
A Few Shortcuts will review and host a giveaway
Wild Olive will feature a finished project
Positively Splendid will feature a finished project

May 12
On the Laundry Line will feature a finished project
Elegance and Elephants will feature a finished project

May 13
Luvinthemommyhood will review and host a giveaway
My Little Gems will host a giveaway

I received a complimentary copy of Sew Pretty T-Shirt Dresses in exchange for this review. All opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own. Images above from Sew Pretty T-Shirt Dresses by Sweet Seams Studio, published by Sixth&Spring Books. Photography by Dan Howell and dress design and instructions copyright © 2013 by Sixth&Spring Books/Soho Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Bubble Shorts

2013-04-18T14:11:00.001-07:00

I had the pleasure of pattern testing for Heidi of Elegance and Elephants, and I did the bubble shorts from her Bubble Pocket Shorts Pattern. I don’t want to give it away all in one go, but spoiler alert: I’m gaga for this pattern. (sorry if you’re getting this in a feed reader again, updating the link to the now-released pattern! Use coupon code BUBBLE until Tuesday, April 23 to get 25% off.)

I know it looks really intimidating, but the instructions really hold your hand and tell you you’re pretty, walking you through each step with clear photographs to go with the explanations. I think this looks very top-of-the-line kids-designer-clothes. I worked mine up in a stretch poplin for light, breezy shorts. As you can see, it is absolutely scorching here. Wait, what? Oh. Believe it or not, our weather goes just as high into the positives (Celsius) as it does the negatives… eventually… hopefully?

Olivia is her own stylist. I had planned on her wearing a tweedy newsboy cap, but she tossed it aside and stuffed her big sister’s big fluffy toque on her head instead. A real Canadian gal. I wound up having to wrestle her into a jacket and stuff some babylegs on her afterwards so she could keep playing when the (fastest photoshoot in the history of ever and then hope there were some useable shots) was over.

And as you might recall from my All You Need Is LOVE dress post, Olivia is all about the pockets lately, so these bubble pockets are right up her alley. I think I will make a pair for Nicole as well (they go from 6m-8yr!) and see if they’re as cute on her as they are on Nicole. I mean, Nicole did walk into the craft room, take one look at them, and demand a pair. I live to serve, right?

Here’s an instagram photo of the inside of the shorts waistband. Not the greatest photo, but I just love the neat and tidy contrast waistband on the shorts. It is just the sweetest and most professional looking finish! I think I need to step up my game a little for waistband finishes from now on, because I am just super in love. I used this cute little elephant print as a wink and a nod to the fact that it’s an Elegance & Elephants pattern.

So, in summary, five stars to this pattern, go forth and make shorts, and hopefully enjoy them in warmer weather than Olivia did. Check out the other testers’ shorts – and weather – here!

Linked up at:

I’m not affiliated with Elegance and Elephants and was merely asked to test-sew this pattern and photograph the results. This blog post is not in any way a sponsored post.

Go Anywhere, Bow Anywhere

2013-04-13T13:09:00.001-07:00

I recently got the opportunity to try out the Anywhere Dress (affiliate link) pattern. I was pretty excited, because this sweet little pattern is simple and perfect for a playdress, and the customization options are endless. Blank canvas. Love that.

This was absolutely perfect for Nicole, because she has A Problem. It’s not a new problem, for her or for my own self. We’ll sum it up politely by saying that in regular jeans/pants with a tshirt, she has wardrobe malfunction of the plumber-esque variety on the regular. It’s a problem that plagued me as a child, and I learned to dress for it and/or how to carefully avoid it as an adult. For her, though, the perfect and most comfortable solution is leggings with a tunic or dress.

I chose to make this Anywhere Dress with the elbow length sleeve with cuff variation, so that in the event that we ever experience this seasonal anomaly reportedly called ‘spring’ she will be prepared to go forth without layering up. Also, I just think this length is really cute. The fabric I used is from Girl Charlee fabrics – not an affiliate, this was my first time purchasing from them and I was very happy with everything I got. Also I silently applauded the shrewdness of the included sample swatches, as I was crushing on a new fabric before I even got the ones I had purchased out of the box.

Since I can’t ever just leave well enough alone, and I had some nicely sized scraps, I decided to embellish the dress and eventually settled on this oversized bow over the shoulder. I just hand stitched it in several places. Where the bow goes over her shoulder, its tacked down along the shoulder seam but the edge of the bow flies free. My husband suggested that if I do it again, I’d be better off doing it with solid fabric or a contrast bow, since it doesn’t really stand out. Ah, well.

Overall, the fit on the Anywhere Dress was just fantastic, spot on. Nicole felt comfy and loved it, the skirt is wide enough to allow for freedom of movement but not so wide as to be an issue with the shorter hem. Personally on my leggy miss I would definitely go with a longer length if I wasn’t using leggings, but I mean… we always use leggings. It’s a non-issue. There are easy instructions on how to lengthen the dress if desired, though. And as you can see above, she felt really cool in her new dress.

Or maybe just cold? Ha! What a great sport she was. I hemmed it this morning between dropping her off for ballet and picking her up, and she changed into it and we took pictures at this handy backdrop (?!) before heading out to buy fabric for the pattern I’m testing this weekend. Don’t worry, the snow isn’t literally quite this deep here, but there are giant piles like this at every parking lot! Oh well, the sun is shining and it’s warming up so we’re staying positive and buying stock in windshield wiper fluid.

Bread Machine Whole Wheat, Flax, & Honey Bread

2013-03-20T18:54:00.001-07:00

So, I’ve been eating as ‘clean’ as possible for the last few months, which means experimenting a lot in my kitchen. After playing around with a few different bread machine doughs, and then getting comfortable enough to adapt and adjust and create my own, I present to you my our new family loaf. This is a sweet and soft sandwich bread that throws your preconceived notions of whole wheat & flax bread right out on their bottoms. With magical ingredients such as coconut oil (easily subbed for butter or even olive oil) flax, and whole wheat to make it healthy, and lacking in both preservatives and excessive effort, this is our new go-to bread.

Ingredients:

9oz warm water
2Tbsp coconut oil (or butter, or olive oil)
1/4 cup honey
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
1/4 cup ground flax (I like to use ground toasted flax)
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp yeast

Put all of the ingredients in the bread machine in the order listed, making a small well in the flour to put the yeast into. Turn your bread machine onto its dough setting and turn it on.

When dough is ready, tuck it neatly into a greased loaf pan, or I like to use my Wilton’s large silicone loaf pan. Let it rise, covered, in a warm place for another half hour… if you don’t have time, then just let it rise while your oven preheats to 350. Put an (oven safe) dish of water on your bottom rack, and bake for 30-35 minutes. Let it cool for at least 5 minutes in the pan, then cool completely on your cutting board before bagging it for later – or eat it all right away. Either way it’s fantastic.

I should warn you that Olivia can mow through half a loaf by herself if it’s warm and she’s got the hungries. We won’t even speak of what the bigger peoples can do with this stuff. I like it with crunchy natural PB, Chris likes it with ham, cheese, and honey mustard. This is also fantastic as a raisin or cranberry bread (just knead them in when the dough is done.) So, what are you waiting for… dust off that bread machine and start dumping!

Easy-Peasy Dolly Shift Dress

2013-02-18T04:00:00.000-08:00

Here’s the repost of my guest post from Naptime Crafters Dressing Up Dolly series.

My middle child – a bit of an international superstar for being absolutely crazytown – loves dolls. She will drag them around, give them the baby’s things, and maybe share them with the baby (or the baby with them, more likely.) Since I haven’t made anything for the dolls since my oldest was into them, it was high time I got back into it, so Dressing Up Dolly was the perfect push. I came up with this Easy Peasy Dolly Dress, which works as a nightie on small dolls and a shift dress (with or without the elastic belt) on bigger ones.

I wanted too keep a few things in mind. I wanted to be able to use up scraps, as my scraps are getting a bit out of control and doll clothes are the perfect opportunity. I wanted something that could be made fairly quickly, so I could pound a few out to cover up some of the shameful doll nakeness that’s going on around here lately. I wanted something that could work for a wide size range of dolls. And most importantly, I wanted something easy enough for Olivia – my crazy middle child, a tiny little two year old – to get on and off the dolls herself. She’s not quite up to closures yet, so I wanted to use elastic.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PATTERN

So, if you’ve got some shameful dolls or small hands, lets get to work! Start with the printable pattern for the dress. Cut it out, then cut out your pieces. Don’t forget to mark your notches on the sleeve so you’ll know which side goes on the body, the curve is slightly different on the sleeve side. I cut my dress body on the selvedge so I wouldn’t have to hem it, but you can add some length to it for a hem. Another suggestion I have is using cast off shirts, and lining up the bottom of the pattern with the hem of the shirt.

The cut out pieces (I notched my sleeves but not the body of the dress.)

Press down the top of the dress piece to form a casing. (finish the edge as desired) Cut out two 3.5” pieces of 1/8” elastic.

Stitch the casing, making sure it’s wide enough for whatever you use to thread the elastic. I like to use diaper pins, a tip I picked up somewhere that’s made threading things through casings much less painful. If you look above you can see that to save time, I threaded the elastic partway through and then tacked down the one end of the elastic to make sure it stayed put.

Pull the elastic the rest of the way through, then tack it down on that side as well. Do this with both front and back of the dress.

Okay, I’ll try and explain this properly. Take the body pieces and one sleeve piece. Right sides together, pin front and back to the sleeve, overlapping slightly at the neckline that will meet at the middle/top of the sleeve where the fold was. Here are two more photos to try and illustrate what I mean:

Above shows half of the dress lifted to reveal the sleeve underneath. Below is where the front and back are intersecting with each other a whee bit, like a lapped shoulder.

It sounds batty, possibly, but bear with me. Sew the seam, and when you flip it right side out, you will have the following:

So, sew and finish your seam.

I have a serger, but it’s being finicky, so I sewed and then zig zagged it to prevent unravelling. This seam in particular may receive some rough handling.

Repeat on the other side, making sure that your front and back overlap in the same way. After you pin, flip and double check before you sew, if you’re not totally sure. Then press your seams.

Press and finish your sleeves before you go on to finish your sides.

Pin and finish your sleeves and side seams.

If you used a selvedge or existing hem, you’re done! Otherwise, finish the bottom of your dress, press and press and press to make any little errors melt away.
(like what happened to that seam above left? Ugh.)

Now, if you’d like to create a belt, cut a piece of coordinating fabric 2.5” w by 12” long. Fold it right sides together lengthwise, then sew and turn to create a casing. Thread a 3/4” elastic through it (using the same method as for the neckline) and then sew the raw edges together securely.

Create a flower either by stacking up a pile of wacky circles and tacking them together in the middle and then scrumpling them up, or whatever wonderful flower tutorial you’d like. (There are so many fabulous ones out there!) Stitch it onto your little elastic belt over the spot where your ends met to cover it up and add some finesse.

And that’s a wrap! Thanks for having me, Amy, and bless you for putting up with my comedy of errors in trying to get this blog post live. Feels like whatever could go wrong, did!

Be sure to check out the rest of the series!

Guest Posting for Dressing Up Dolly

2013-02-13T18:13:00.001-08:00

Have you seen the Dressing Up Dolly series at Nap Time Crafters? It might seem like a lot of work to make doll clothes, but trust me when I say, your children will look at you in a whole new light. I don’t care if you’ve made a ballgown that you’ve woven with spider silk and it lights up like the stars when they dance. If you make it for their doll, it is scientifically proven* to be 65.7% cooler.

There is just something very satisfying about making a tiny little garment and having your kids think you are the best thing since sliced bread. For a quick and easy little dress pattern, check out my guest post for the series by clicking the image below.

*science may or may not be a loosely applied term here

Mel-orange-drama

2013-02-09T08:43:00.001-08:00

It all started innocently enough. The girls were eating toast, I was preparing some oatmeal cereal for Jackson, and I thought I should add some fruit to our breakfast. It was Saturday, why not a special treat for Olivia… I’ll bust out the mandarins.

The peak. The high. She abandoned her toast like yesterday’s old beat up flip flops and dove into that little orange like it was the cutest pair of ballet flats you’d ever seen. But then, faster than you could say “what do you mean parachute pants are coming back,” it was gone.

Nicole, however, was still pecking away at her peanut butter toast. She likes order, and she loves to savour. First her toast must be finished, then her orange carefully peeled (preferably by her mother) and segmented, then eaten one small piece at a time.

Olivia eyed up Nicole’s mandarin pensively. “No, Olivia,” two voices at once, and she looks at us as if she is offended. “Cole’s orange,” she says almost defensively, then her words twist with a hint of melancholy. “You eat it, Cole? You eat your orange? Yours?” Her eyes fill with the forbidden fruit. She moves a chair closer.

Nicole eyes her distrustfully, and looks at me, her hand hovering over her orange. I spoon cereal into Jackson’s eager little mouth. Olivia moves another seat closer and Nicole snatches her orange up and moves it to the other side of her plate, furthest from Olivia. “Cole’s orange,” Olivia tries to reassure her placidly, slipping off the chair and sitting on Nicole’s other side, while Nicole switches her orange back. Olivia looks charming and conversational. Nicole is starting to look panicked at this point, and decides she and her breakfast are safest beside me.

Olivia watches the mandarin orange intently as it finds a home back across the table, then feigns a casual attitude as she follows Nicole. Then she abandons all pretence and stands on Nicole’s chair, leaning over her now-shrieking sister to stare hypnotically at the orange. “Orange… orange… Cole’s orange… orange…” she chants through Nicole’s dramatic shrieks. “Olivia, back off!” I bark, and she looks up at me, startled. “Okay, I back off…” she says remorsefully, to my surprise, and does so, for approximately two-thirds of a second. Then she’s right back on Nicole’s chair, leaning over her to try get a glimpse of the orange that Nicole is now curled up protectively around, still shrieking.

I throw my hands up and give up on feeding Jackson. “Nicole, please go finish breakfast in your room so you can eat in peace. And run.” She happily obliges, Olivia hot on her tail, until the door slams. My wild, intense middle child returns to me, hot fat tears running down her face and her large blue eye eyes full of sorrow.

I stifle a grin, and casually start peeling my own mandarin orange, which until now had apparently gone unnoticed. Immediately those eyes regain their sparkle, and she hopefully says, “Mommy’s orange?” “Yes, Mommy’s orange,” I tell her firmly. She nods, smiling at me, and we both know I’m going to share, but I say it anyways, and she bubbles up, a giggle escaping.

And a few minutes later, Nicole comes out of her room with two orange slices. “I have pieces for you, Olivia, because you’re two years old. I’m the best big sister ever, hey?” Olivia explodes into a million tiny pieces of pure joy, and they’re best friends again.

And I never, ever put mandarins on the breakfast table again.

All you need is LOVE

2013-02-06T10:50:00.001-08:00

Love hurts.

I went ahead and made the dress I had been jabbering on about making for Project Run and Play’s sew along. Or in my case, Project Run and Almost Play. I was literally one seam away from finishing it but had to throw in the towel in the name of cuddling my children. No regrets, except maybe for messing around trying to get my serger going before I actually started the sewing portion of this program. If I had foreseen the future and known my kids were going to get terribly ill and need excessive cuddling, I definitely would have just given the thing a dirty look and went straight to the zig-zag seam finishes I wound up using anyways.

Aside from just the LOVE applique, there was more love put into this dress. The giant pockets are straight up love for Olivia, who loves to shove things in pockets so much she has taken up to shoving things in MY pockets if she doesn’t have any on her own person.

The fully lined bodice, made using this tutorial, was another labour of love. I haven’t done a fully lined bodice on a dress before, but the embroidered applique called for it, so it would be more comfortable inside. The back was a little surprise love, since I had initially planned to add buttons and then it fell nearly this way when she was trying it on a second time. I tilted my head, adjusted it, and decided I quite love it like this. I can always go back and add buttons and buttonholes if I tire of it.

The fabric, aside from the white cotton lining, was some love from their Nana, who saw this striped and dotted sheet and just knew I could make something for my girls with it. The elastic in the pocket should tighten up in the wash so it doesn’t hang quite so much. I also still have markings on the bodice. Apparently it was too much effort to wash and re-press the dress, just as it was too much effort to wash and repress my hooligan child.

I like to pick my battles. (A lot of which can be seen on instagram, where you can find me under the username lorchick. Disclaimer/Warning: may contain poop, butter eating, sewing, and excessive amounts of chubby baby)

And one last bit of love? Olivia loves it. Win all around, in my books.

If anyone is interested in a tutorial for this pocket dress, let me know. Partway through I realized I might be on to something that other people might be interested in, so I took some notes.

Inspired: Dressing Olivia

2013-01-28T13:48:00.001-08:00

Okay so I was totally going to participate in Boy Week of Project Run and Play. But somehow what I came out of the craftroom with was a washi dress. These things happen.

Right now I’m putting together some inspiration for Olivia’s dress for this week. She’s the most awkward to dress right now, with her skinny hips and general skinny-fat toddler body. But what I love about dressing girls? Dresses. Dresses for girls, and one-piece outfits for boys. Simple, cute, no tucking anything in, and no dealing with her giant tummy pushing everything to her tiny hips where her no-bum laughs and says “Good luck with that.”

To fit my wants and hers (Just linking to pinterest here, while I prefer to link the source some of these are from online stores in foreign languages with items long out of stock, but you can try access them via pinterest if you’d like)

-giant pockets. She is obsessed with pockets right now – and I love a good pocket too. She keeps trying to stick things in MY pockets, so clearly she needs more of her own. I’m loving the giant pockets on this pin..

Source: ellos.fi via Laura on Pinterest

A trim clean bodice where I can put some embroidery, and a full skirt for those pockets.

Source: alittlemuse.com via Laura on Pinterest

I’d also like to try get something done for Nicole this week as well, I’d love to get something matching or coordinating happening. But Olivia is my top priority since Nicole’s closet floweth over! Won’t she just be mad though, she feels I’m contractually obligated to sew exclusively for her.

I’ve actually got a sewing machine on the way for her from ebay, bought for less than $100 including shipping, but reviewed as good for beginners. She got a toy one for Christmas from my grandma but it doesn’t even have a bobbin, just one line of thread, I don’t understand how it works so I’m not very helpful! So since she wants to learn, and it wouldn’t suck to have a simple backup machine that does reliable stitching, Chris and I decided I would start stalking ebay until I managed to get one of the two machines I was looking at for the price I wanted. So if it comes in this week, I’ll also be teaching her how to sew a basic bag, along with the basics of machine safety, how to wind a bobbin, how to thread the machine, etc. All the boring stuff! I figure if we intersperse boring stuff with working on the bag together, in small doses, I can teach her. I’ve cleaned up my craft room (still waiting to redo my fabric organization) in anticipation of sharing with her. I’m cautiously excited to embark on this journey of learning with her, I hope she takes to it as well as I think she will.

Blue-eyed beauties 3-2-1

2013-01-19T13:38:00.001-08:00

I wish I could say I’ve been busy slaying dragons and conquering new skills, but no. Mostly just housework, hanging with the littles, and reorganizing my house. Actually, we shall restate that first bit. I have slain a dragon. Our playroom. I have completely reorganized it into an entirely unbeautiful and very functional toy storage system a la Rubbermaid, that makes it way easier for the kids to spend five minutes cleaning up. Instead of me spending two hours reorganizing every toy into it’s special spot, I have a bunch of buckets that are either by theme or by type, and they get one at a time, and if they want another they throw everything back in the Rubbermaid first. Pinworthy and beautiful? Not particularly. Functional? Absolutely.

I’ve also been working on skills, actually. Firstly, on my houseworking skills. Let’s be real here – it does not come to me naturally. If I strike you as the homemaker type, I apologize. In reality, I am the artsy fartsy type, and if I leave myself in my natural state I tend to sit up every so often and wonder what the heck happened. I’m forcing myself to create new habits and routines and so far I’m doing pretty well. I mean, two steps forward and one back – I have a toddler and a baby after all.

Secondly, I’m giving running another go. It’s actually just happenstance that I took it up in the New Year. That’s just when my husband and I came to the conclusion that going to the gym was not fitting in particularly well in this season of my life. Jackson has been clingy off and on, and my husband struggles with him when I’m gone, and that’s stressful for everyone involved. So in lieu of not having a whole gym available we opted for a second hand treadmill. I’m nearly done my second week of it and I’m getting stronger, faster, and yes, losing weight as well. But mostly I’m feeling more energetic, which is really helping with that housework skills thing… especially since I’ve got less sleep lately than I ever got when Jackson was a newborn. C’est la vie, and this baby season is long days and short years, and all the snuggles and laughter are totally worth the lack of sleep.

However, I have resolved to do or create something every day, even if it’s just a photograph. So, on a particularly crazy day, I pulled out my dslr and took pictures of my crazies. Then I edited them another day. Every day a little bit of something! Running and creating even just little bits, that’s what’s keeping me in a happy, healthy place (mentally and physically) this cold cold winter.

How about you? How do you keep in the happy healthy zone?

Teeny Tiny Zoe Dress

2013-01-09T19:16:00.001-08:00

So, on New Years Eve my brother and sister in law were blessed with a second baby girl who they named Zoe. Due to some medical issues/complications, I didn’t get a chance to meet her until today, so I channelled my excitement into a teeny tiny dress for the teeny tiny little earlybird. (If you follow me on IG you got to follow along a bit on my progression on this thing.)

Sorry for the iphone pictures taken in the basement at midnight, ha. Naturally I was so excited I had to take pictures as soon as I finished it but then didn't think to take pictures with my DSLR this morning in daylight before I gave it to Zoe’s mom. Hopefully I can get some pictures of her in it and HOPEFULLY it fits as well as I hope it does! She is so very teeny tiny, I can’t get over it, so hopefully she can get some wear out of this little pinafore. And really, her big sister can use it for a doll afterwards! So small. (note: It fits her perfectly, and her mom says she doesn’t think she’ll be able to bear giving it to the kids to use for dolls afterwards. So I guess it’s a hit!)

See my new tag there? Yay! Washing instructions are on the inside. It’s a bit big looking on this dress, haha, but in normal garments it will be fairly unobtrusive. I will have to test it out by making a matching skirt or top for Zoe’s big sister, I guess! (;

If you’re curious and would like to make your own, the dress is a mashup of these two tutorials:

Click on the images to be brought to the tutorials. Except I didn’t actually follow the tutorials so much as skim them ahead of time and I’m seeing something in the second one which makes me think I make things way too hard sometimes, so maybe do read them at least right before you start drafting.

I chose to make the ruffles a bit less ruffled than I would have on a bigger dress, just because it’s so tiny and for such a little bitty that I didn’t want to overwhelm her with volume. I’m definitely planning to make this again in Olivia’s size and flounce it right up! Possibly also a tunic for Nicole, I think it would be quite charming on her, almost more so than on Olivia.

2012 Roundup

2013-01-02T19:04:00.001-08:00

Happy 2013!!

Okay, I’ll do a year-end roundup too. If only because I feel like I did nothing but I know I did something. But I’m not really going to link to my posts, because that takes too much time and I’m lazy.

The beginning of the year had me knitting. I did this Mallory Cowl by www.luvinthemommyhood.com, and I also knitted but never photographed a vest for Olivia. Then I eventually fell off the bandwagon when I knitted two adorable little cardigans and then lost interest mid-sleeve after I ran out of yarn for a second time and needed to order more. Math is apparently not a thing for me.

I sewed this cute couch pillows, and I have no idea where they went. My children made off with them. The sparkly one didn’t even last a day before it was stolen.

I let my then four year old play with scissors and sew herself a circle skirt.

And since I was pretty sure I was having a girl (wrong) I gussied up a receiving blanket and did a tutorial. Sharp crochet hook for the win!

I created a fun little valentine for Nicole’s preschool class

I rearranged my house for the first of many times, and I sewed Olivia a giant sleep sack that she will never outgrow because she takes her clothes off instead of going to sleep sometimes. Confession: I never finished the armholes because I needed it that night but I would do it later. I did not do it later.

I attempted to partake in Kids Clothing Week Challenge, and I did this little peasant top for Olivia. It was one of two projects I did with fabric that had cool continual prints/features that I had bought to make dresses for myself without taking into account that since I needed to use the selvedge and couldn’t cut double, I should have bought twice as much. sigh.

Cute little double-tiered circle skirt for Olivia happened and I still love this project, long outgrown.

I know there were more projects but they didn’t wind up being blogged. I wound up staying at my parents for about six weeks, and didn’t really do anything crafty while I was there. Sadly when I was back home I was into the third trimester and really feeling it, I put all my energy into taking my girls on fun outings and working on stuff for our home renovation. My hubby and I went through a rough patch this year but we worked through it with lots of prayer and guidance. Quick tip: major home renovations during pregnancy with a chaotic toddler are pretty much the opposite of say, doing yoga.

One of the things I did get done was Nicole’s dress for her preschool graduation. It was a refashion project and by far her favourite thing that I did this year.

And in July, this happened:

At which point I got a whole bunch of help from some awesome family members as I adjusted from having two to having two-under-two. Jackson was a bit early and thankfully I kind of saw it coming, or at least was incredibly uncomfortable enough to cancel the party I’d been putting together for Nicole’s birthday before I sent out the invites. I didn’t ever share his birth story, did I? I’ll get to it, but as a prequel, I was in prelabour for something like a week and a half, waters bulging, 5cm dilated, and it was hot hot July weather. In other words, I was fun in a bottle.

Anyways. Distractible.

This little guy stayed tiny for the first month, and then he exploded into Giant Baby status.

That set of pictures still cracks me up. Oh, the difference a month can make!

I did make him a pair of teeny tiny Sunday shorts while he was too small for normal bottoms.

At some point in here we did finish our kitchen renovations, but I never did wind up blogging about them properly after we heard mutterings in our circles ‘in real life’ saying snarky things about us and our new kitchen. It made me pretty upset, because I lived with a pretty bad kitchen for about five years, and it progressively got worse as time went on (about halfway through, the pantry got black mold in it and I lost a pantry and a cupboard, which left me with almost no cupboard space at all) and I didn’t really complain about it much I think. So I was pretty excited to have a nice kitchen! Haters gonna hate though, hey? I’ve been reading a book called When People Are Big and God is Small and I recommend it big time. It’s about exactly that sort of thing and not letting people be a Big Thing when there’s really only one Big Thing you need to worry about. (God)

But back to the roundup! I sewed this skirt for Nicole, and she loved it. She got to pick the embroidery for it herself. I actually went on a little bit of an embroidery spree trying out the features on my new sewing machine, which sews like butter and I wish I had upgraded years ago. My sewing took several large steps up in improvement … if you’re considering getting into sewing, this may sound like a no-brainer but get a machine that sews well. It will really, truly make a difference.

I went on a bit of a sewing spree. I made the skirt for Nicole and the shirt for Olivia. I also did some tailoring and embroidering on random things, but I’ll leave those out of this post.

My baby got gorgeous. I also found instagram and my blogging took a bit of a dive, ha.

And that pretty much sums up the past year of blogging! We did a LOT of renovation and moving things around and painting and the like. Our family grew, and my girls grew up. Nicole was just a chubby little baby pretty much in those preschool grad pictures, and now she’s suddenly got these skinny little legs that has my husband pushing her to have a few more bites at supper each day.

I’m hoping to blog more consistently now that things are getting a bit more normal around here. Renos, holidays, work, school, everything has been nuts but we’ve been so blessed. I hope you all have a fantastic year in 2013… I know I plan to!

Silent Nights

2012-12-17T11:40:00.001-08:00

Along with many other bloggers out there this weekend, I have nothing of value to say. The whole world is filled with mothers who are holding their children a little tighter and grieving for those in who cannot. My kindergartener has no idea what happened this past weekend in Sandy Hook Elementary, and I would not like to tell her. It may come up at school today, there are kids in her class with older siblings who probably know, and then we’ll have to talk about it. It makes me sad that we have to go from discussing how our Elf on the Shelf moves from place to place, and how it was Opa and not Santa at our Christmas party (because Santa is in the North Pole) to discussing death and evil and fear in the world. And it makes me sad that children who still believed in Santa, with Christmas lists and holiday plans, were the victims of choice for a sick sad man whose name I am trying to not remember because he doesn’t deserve a place in our memories for what he did.

But I have nothing of value to say. There is nothing valuable TO say, but “Come, Lord Jesus, Maranatha.” My heart aches for mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, friends, everyone who lost loved ones and every child who lost the innocent fearlessness of youth this weekend.

We’ve been under the weather again, and in the face of illness, the holidays, and just plain not feeling up to blogging about sewing and baking and my silly little lovelies in the face of tragedy, I’m going to sign off the blog until the New Year. So hold your families tight this Christmas, and have a blessed New Years.

xoxo,

Laura

What’s up, bananapants?

2012-12-05T12:06:00.001-08:00

I was going to write “What’s up, buttercup?” but I’m pretty sure I’ve already used that title. Bananapants sounds like it is potentially crude but it’s a phrase my 5 year old throws around and apparently it refers to pants made of bananas. Which is gross and you can’t sit down, so it’s an insult. I apologize, I blanked.

My kids have been various forms of sick, leading to not sleeping and weakened immunity and eye rubbing and ending in a double eye infection for Jackson. I think we’re coming out of the woods, though, and that’s really for the best as the laundry situation is ~~slightly worse than usual~~ actually probably about average if you take the last four years and combine them all out mathematically.

As to what I’m up to, I’m:

a) looking crazier than normal as I walk around my house vacuuming the air. We have a fruit fly situation and it’s the only thing that’s working. A pox upon you and your household, I say to whatever plant product those nasty things hopped a ride in on.

b) quilting. I was joking to myself I should make a tutorial on my unique quilting technique, Crazy Lines or as I like to call it, Just Do It. (Yes, I joke to myself. And write blog posts in my head. Substantially more frequently than on here, lately, actually.) It would start like this:

Step One – Have no idea what you’re doing. The fact that you’re reading a quilting tutorial written by someone who’s never quilted before in her life is a good start. Go with that and embrace it.

Let me know if I should start writing that up for y’all.

c) This one is something I haven’t actually done yet. Check out Cori-Lynn’s blog here for a good cause to support, and if you’re in the Hamilton, ON area (which I am not, to clarify. Still trying to get my doors unfrozen here in Winnipeg, MB.) a silent auction at which you can potentially get your hands on the opportunity to have a handmade dress for your little one by yours truly. And I mean, I have never sold my dresses before because I tend to be stingy with anything that takes me more than half an hour to make. So this is a rare opportunity.

d) On instagram, username lorchick. In there like a dirty shirt, kids. Share sometimes grainy pictures of my kids/baking/sewing/hair with crazy curlers in it? YES PLEASE. Sometimes even baskets of laundry. Oh, stoppit, I know. Reign it in, crazies.

Almost didn’t have a picture in there. Phew. Close one.

Because the world needed another home video of a laughing baby

2012-11-24T20:38:00.001-08:00

Babies are adorable so that we adore them even when they won't nap for more than 15 minutes at a time so they're so overtired they are alternately laughing and screaming.
It's science.

Jackson, 4 months. Naps = broken. At least he still sleeps through the night.

I don’t actually sound like that, that is my talking-to-baby-voice. Thanks to the magic of voice messaging thanks to my husband and smartphones if I’ve learned anything this year, it’s how annoying my own voice is and what a blessing it is that anyone can stand to talk to me in person at all.

Mission : Play With Your Food

2012-11-22T07:32:00.001-08:00

Just a quick pop-by say-hi. I thought I’d share something I came up with to distract my adorable monster Olivia (who refers to herself as both Olivia AND Monster so you know its legit) yesterday. She is pretty obedient, but of the school of ‘mom didn’t specifically say Don’t Climb Up The Side Of The Six Story Building or at least not in the last ten minutes’ and treats creating chaos like it’s her job. Yesterday I had a moment of ~~desperation~~ brilliance and Mission: Distract Olivia aka Play With Your Food was born.

I quickly (and somewhat poorly) drew a house, car, and little playground for Olivia to play with Teddy Grahams on. This bought me a good 15-20 minutes, not counting the time spent adding a sandbox here and a pool there later to add more distraction. If you’re curious about the dots, I had started off with dots for her to place them and some candy gummies on, which was also successful but not half as time-buying as Teddy Graham Playground.

Good luck with distracting your own lovely little monsters, and let me know in the comments what you’ve come up with in moments of ~~desperation~~ brilliance!

Hey Howdy Ho Blog Title

2012-11-16T22:59:00.001-08:00

It’s amazing to me that I don’t get paid just to write blog titles, first of all.

Thirdly, I had the flu. (I skipped second just to be contrary, because it’s been that kind of week.)

The flu bug only really took me down for about 24 hours, but that kind of overlapped with the end of a day in which we had had company plus most of the next day. If you are a mom, or if you have ever had a mom or experienced one from a distance, you may have noticed that when moms get sick, the house pretty much explodes. Sets on fire, practically.

Anyways, I’ve been taking forever (read: four days) to get my energy levels back up and back on top of my housework most of the way. If you follow me on instagram (which I have been on again for all of five days, also) you’ll be aware of the following: (and as such, this will be the most boring blog post ever)

This happened. Goodbye, android. Since my husband did it (well, I did the first crack, but he finished the thing off while I was at church) he replaced it with a phone of my choice. Iphone 4~! “But Androids can do more.” “But I don’t want to do more.” I’m too ~~lazy~~ old for this new technology nonsense.

I had a really, really good mail day. The Puppets book is for Nicole and the rest are all for ME! Funny thing is, Sew U is my second copy; the book is always on loan so I bought a second to keep as a reference. I actually have Sew U Knits as well. I la-la-LOVE craft/sewing books, such eye candy! Huge craft book sale at bookcloseouts.ca and I scored good.

These are not for me, because my husband ~~doesn’t want me to be happy~~ ~~loves his best friend more than me~~ didn’t know I liked Bon Jovi so he didn’t even ask. I ~~am going to take off with them~~ ~~hope he gets stampeded by a herd of anteaters~~ hope he has a good time out with his best buddy.

Nothing to see here. Move along, move along. (I took putting off doing the folding and putting away to a whole new level by sitting opposite of it and taking a picture of it. Turns out no amount of instagram filter can make unfolded laundry look pretty.)

I baked bread. More than once, actually. I won’t buy bread anywhere but Costco, and only a specific type. But I did not feel like going to Costco this week, to the extend that I actually have baked bread twice just to get out of it. I am avoiding work to the extent that I actually go to twice the amount of effort required to do that work as it would take to just go already.

Speaking of Olivia, guess what she’s saying in this picture? “I am two!” That’s right, she finally is actually two years old! It feels kind of anticlimatic. She couldn’t POSSIBLY still be due for her terrible twos to start. Right? RIGHT??!!!!

So, happy birthday to my wascally wabbit, my silly monkey, the thorn in my side but the rose in my cheeks. She is the most exciting thing to ever happen to us (hopefully) and we are so blessed to have her (seriously) … she sure makes life interesting but she loves us so hard and we love her straight back!
She’s trouble and a half and the most creatively naughty child BUT she is SO OBEDIENT at the same time. Counting to three WORKS for this kid. She’s not sure what happens after two but she doesn’t want to find out!
She is so very generous – if I try and give her a treat on the down-low, she demands one for Nicole as well (an unwavering loyalty that does NOT go both ways, sorry to say.)
She is more persistent than most adults I know (to my chagrin) and boy howdy, does she like to be naked (to my consternation.)
She keeps our (extended)family rolling with laughter, not to mention many of our friends. Untameable hooligan that she is, Chris and I are pretty happy that she’s ours. We just have to give each other pep talks once in a while. You’re the boss! You’re in control of the situation! She knows it and doesn’t like it, is all! (all false, probably, but we like to pretend.) And hey, I don’t have two under two any more! That means it’s all easy peasy from here, right?

At least until puberty hits?

The Stuff of Nightmares

2012-11-09T10:52:00.001-08:00

Allow me to tell you the sordid tale of editing these photos. Let me warn you… it is not for the weak of heart.

It all started out innocently enough; the girls decided they wanted to play outside for a while, and I snapped a few shots of their sweet little oreo-covered faces while they got ready. (I asked them if there was a horse in my lens, and as it turns out, there are two; a white one, and a blue one. No wonder Olivia looks so intense here.)

Eventually, play time turned to nap time and first Jackson and then later Olivia were tucked into their beds for naps. I started the laundry, popped a T-disc in my Tassimo machine while tidying the kitchen a bit, settled Nicole in for some quiet time. I sat down at the table with my coffee and my laptop and started editing. And here, my friends… here we come upon my cardinal error. I relaxed and let my guard down.

I became immersed in layers and highlights and sharpening. I finished my two favourite pictures of Olivia and uploaded them to facebook. As I was about to open more pictures, something unpleasant began permeating my fog of relaxation. I wrinkled my nose a bit, thinking Nicole had farted a few feet away. Then I stopped and sat up straight, inhaling the unpleasant aroma a little more deeply. That wasn’t a fart smell… that was a poop smell. I felt a slow creeping sense of dread, and right then, Olivia piped up from her room down the hall, “Mommy… I pooooooooped.”

Immediately I recognized that there was no possible way that a poop safely tucked away in a diaper in a closed room down the hall would smell so strong. I buried my face in my hands and took a moment to revel in the joys of motherhood. Then I steeled myself and opened the door to the most horrific thing I have ever seen (all day so far.)

I’ll spare you the details, but suffice it to say she had decided to try and change herself – thankfully containing the mess to the change table – before opting to call for help. It was one of those situations where you just turn around, start the tub, and then come back and hold your dearest darling child at arms’ length and dump them in the tub, shirt and all, then start dumping water on them while the tub is draining. Wincing but bravely facing the overabundance of fecal matter, I bravely washed down my little monster, who was just excited to be in water. Disgusting poo-water, but water.

Suddenly, she makes a disgusted noise and points, then loudly squeals, “Eeeeeeuuuuuwwww!”

As a little hairball of postpartum-shedding mommyhair floats by.

And that, my friends, is the horrifying, disgusting story …
… of how gross my shedding hair is.

Jackson Style

2012-11-03T20:14:00.001-07:00

I have very classy and sophisticated taste in music. Just kidding… OPPA GANGNAM STYLE! Feel free to picture me dancing like a moron to that, I can assure you, the mental picture is probably fairly accurate. Don’t get me wrong, I also have classy and sophisticated taste in music… but I can definitely get down to some cheesy K-Pop. And as we like to sing in this house… OPPA JACKSON STYLE!

I’ve pulled out my camera and dusted off my copy of Adobe Elements. As I get further and further away from pregnancy, I’m getting more and more back into my hobbies again ;) Just in time to get Jackson’s 3 month baby pictures! My sweet little guy is still quite happy with just chilling out and being a baby – he can’t even sit through dinner in his Bumbo without starting to slump at 3.5 months – and that’s just how we like him.

The one thing that is a bit of a shame is I’m hard pressed to get giggles out of this little guy! He’ll give up the yuks for almost anyone else, and he bestows upon me heaps and heaps of smiles and cuddles. But oh mom, you’re just not that funny. Sigh. Whatever, dude, Olivia thinks I’m hilarious.

Not a unicorn skirt, modelled

2012-10-30T18:03:00.001-07:00

I went outside with my girls today for a bit to seek out enough light to get some modelled shots of the non-unicornal skirt. I also edited the first post about that already so that it contained some modelled shots. Please note that I did, in fact, pull out my DSLR, take pictures, and even edit them a bit. Ok so I just twitched the white balance a scootch but it counts. Barely.

Ghetto clothesline, ghetto backyard. Please enjoy. Also please enjoy Nicole’s styling. Those socks are supposed to be cuffed, and Olivia will wear them cuffed, but Nicole yanks them as high as they will go and as such, does not like to wear them very often. Also a hot pink sweater with an insane amount of fluff inside (wish it was in my size, it’s like wearing an inside out teddy bear, I’d wager) and hot pink + silver lightup shoes. She had some big white-rimmed rhinestone-blinged shades on, too, but when it wasn’t actually sunny outside (fall isn’t very sunny here, which actually is quite nice for photography I find) she abandoned them.

I la-la-love how full the skirt turned out. It’s a really lightweight denim, although not quite a chambray, more like really bad momjeans with an elastic waist type of a fabric.

This little monkey needed a picture. No, I’m not brushing her hair lately. She has a cold and her hair gets snotty during naps and thusly unbrushable except right after baths, and I don’t fancy being kicked in the teeth in the name of pretty hair.

Maybe Nicole has something going here with the high socks and the skirt; I must admit, this is presh.

She just looooooves her ~~Pegasus~~ Unicorn Skirt. And I just looooooove her. Now, please enjoy my smiling children!

Lovely dark blue eyes.

Please imagine a tiny, evil supervillian cackle to fully and accurately appreciate this smile.

My ugly stepchild. Or something.

Whee, it’s Jackson! I’ll update you on him shortly, with a mothery overdose of cute baby photos.

It’s a unicorn! No.

2012-10-24T14:19:00.001-07:00

I’m pretty excited about this project, but a little afraid it won’t live up to the hype. Not only have I been trumpeting my excitement about it on the facebook page, Nicole has been excitedly telling anyone and everyone that I’m making her a unicorn skirt and it’s a real unicorn, it really is. Except a) it’s embroidery, and b) it’s a Pegasus and not a unicorn at all. Technically.

(it appears that someone touched my lens and everything is a big foggy in these pictures. Please interpret this as being in a dreamlike state, glorying in the majesty of a real unicorn.)

Okay, so, favourite features of this skirt: cute embroidery (triple yay on that one, and it’s from www.urbanthreads.com) thick hem, full skirt, the yellow topstitching on the denim using topstitching thread, pockets with pink lining. It should fall to just below the knee and have some good twirling and swishing power.

Dislike about the skirt: I should have done the topstitching on the hem with a double needle. Also, I was super duper proud about my topstitching up the side and how it tacked the pocket down a bit. Until I finished the skirt completely and realized that I had done it backwards. Odds are, nobody will notice, although my husband did agree that if you didn’t look at anything but the pockets, you’d instinctually put the skirt on backwards. Makes me want to do a big stompy fit, just a little bit, because I was oh so proud of how it looked and just sure that I’d done it the right way for some reason. Live and learn… check and recheck and then sew and recheck again, seam ripper in hand. Seam ripper and I did in fact have several goes at putting in the pockets and not getting them inside out or backwards. Note to self, doing it successfully once does not equate ‘so experienced I can do it from memory without consulting tutorial.’

Uncertain about the waistband. It has a little ruffle on it and a lot of color, which tied into the pegasus. I stole it off a pair of capris I didn’t think she’d get a chance to wear, my mil picked them up for me from a thrift store and the brightness was right up Nicole’s alley. I think I have to see it on her yet, otherwise I will take it off and use more denim and do an equally thick but more simple waistband, possibly with a zipper on the side. Feel free to nod and agree that might be a better choice, because unless this doesn’t fit there is no way I can give this to Nicole and then maybe take it back to change something. She has been excited about this skirt for five days already.

Please enjoy my photography studio, aka tacking the skirt to a foamcore board and leaning it against the cupboards. You can see the thumbtack above, if you look. hehe. That sort of attention to detail is exactly why my blog makes the ~~big~~ pretty much non-existent bucks.

Fly free, little pegasus! I do love how it looks like it is run/flying along the hemstitching line. Suffice it to say, I am just in love with my new sewing machine! Aside from the awesome embroidery feature, I have come to realize that a lot of problems with my sewing before, or frustrations, were very much a ‘it’s not me it’s you’ between me and my old machine. My stitches have quite literally never been so even! And egads, automatic buttonholer! It’s like some sort of foreign magic. (I went back and edited in some modelled shots of this skirt, taken with my normal camera and free of hazy smudge)

Speaking of magic, I apologize that I haven’t shown my kitchen reveal yet. (Try not to think too hard about that segue. It really did not make any sort of sense whatsoever.) We keep adding little things here and there to the kitchen/livingroom! Almost done now, I’m pretty sure, and I’m hoping to get that rephotographed soon. But here’s a sneaky peaky!

Oh no, wait. That’s Nicole’s two year old backside and a sortof view of our kitchen before we painted the old cupboards white but after we had ripped out the wall between kitchen and livingroom.

Here we go, this is more like it! The table is where the fridge was in the first picture, more or less. Since this photo was taken the door has changed, the window and door were framed out, and we hung a chandelier over the table. We’ll be putting a dishwasher in where that garbage can is later this week. See what I mean? Still changing lots of things!

A little sew-n-sew

2012-10-23T11:33:00.001-07:00

I kept hoping to get some actually GOOD photos of these items, but lately it has been darker than the deepest darkest blackhead around here. In the brief moments of sunshine, these garments or these children have not been properly available. So in the interest of blogging about them ever, this will have to suffice.

My children are not particularly exposed to models, Hannah Montana or whatever the current hip hop happening young tween show happens to be, or commercials. We have Netflix, the end. Not to be self righteous. Well, maybe a little – I think the shows aimed at preteens and young teens these days are straight up oversexualized, considering the age group they are for, and it is not okay that parental and teacher characters are punchlines and fools… what ever happened to Full House/Boy Meets World type shows? Where authority figures could be funny but always had a valid and awesome point? As opposed to “Oh my mom, she’s so helplessly ditsy haha. I don’t know what she’d do without me!” Says the 12-15 year old girl with the 8 year old audience. NO. Not okay. But I digress, I could literally write an entire blog series on the topic but this post is about sewing things.

Anyways, when I told them to be models this is where it went. Models tilt their heads sideways and/or act like flamingos.

For Nicole, a pale blue crinkly gauzey type materiel she picked out of a remnant bin. Throw on a rolled hem, one seam up the back, a knit material skirt underneath for a modesty-comfort one-two hit, and a simple elastic waistband. Easy, simple, and a great way to quell her claims of injustice. “Olivia gets everything she wants and you never sew me anything!” Pretty sure that’s the opposite of actual truth. Also, Olivia has never requested anything from my sewing room, but takes things with grace and dignity. Nicole, at this age, had a few handmade items (like a hooded cape, for example) that she deeply despised. Real passion was invoked. Olivia is nonplussed by all, neither particularly excited nor particularly irritated. Despite never being rejected, it is a bit saddening that I never receive the deep level of excitement that Nicole has always had for handmade items she was impressed by.

Take this top, for example. Hand stitches (blanket stitch applique and french knots on the bodice), facings, covered buttons, pleats. Olivia neither likes nor dislikes. It took a while, which is the cause for Nicole feeling like I ‘never’ sew for her. It was fun to do, but I wish it had been longer… I was working with two fat quarters.

Probably the best shot I have of the detail work. Please enjoy the complete lack of editing as far as these photos are concerned. I’ve been busy lately, something always has to give, and it’s been photos editing and blogging. Also my memory… I’ve missed some great things lately simply by completely forgetting about them entirely, much to my own chagrin.

Olivia giving me the stinkeye for pulling her arm out to try and take a picture of the front of the shirt while she was eating the sit-still-bribes. I love this crazy monkey, attitude and all.

Last bit of loving for Nicole, a tank top of hers wandered through my sewing machine’s embroidery hoop. Doing some learning. I love it… I have a really fun project almost finished that involves a really cute bit of embroidery, I’m actually going to go work on that right now!

Have a great day! Do you have any fun projects on the go?? My husband keeps complaining about mine because he wants me to hem the curtains! Consider that proof that I did not forget about it this time, but completely chose to go finish something fun instead. I’m a terrible person.

KCWC-ish

2012-10-08T21:46:00.001-07:00

Okay so first of all, I did this like two weeks ago but I have two under two, a kitchen reno, wasn’t in my house for two weeks, had to move out and back in with three kids, and you’re not the boss of me. Secondly, this is really just a quick alteration, but it was touching my sewing machine, so again… you’re not the boss of me. Shut your face. I won’t put it in the flicker pool, because it doesn’t seem worthy, but know this… kids clothes and sewing have been on my mind. And refashioning has been on my mind a lot again lately, too. Sometimes a refashion is as simple as fixing an unwearable but potentially awesome pair of pants!

So, these pants. They are the best pants. They’re a dusty green with flowers and I bought them on a clearance rack for four bucks. Woohoo! Joe Fresh, if you’re curious. Then I got her to put them on and they were snug little skinny pants, yes. And yet the waist was an inch and a half too big? Weird, guys. Weird.

So I took them in at the waist. No fancy. I didn’t even measure, just pinched and guessed and hoped for the best. If you say that out loud, it rhymes. (Olivia always has this eighties-looking ponytail going on and I don’t love it but she’s not fond of having her hair done and it’s in that awkward place where it’s not bangs anymore but it hangs in her face.)

The shirt she’s wearing it with was her back to school shirt that I bought her early on in summer and made her put back in her closet several times before school started. She even tried to sneak it out under sweaters, but you get busted pretty fast wearing a hoodie sweater when it’s sweatastically hot outside. Anyways, aside from the fact that she’s clearly a professional model on the side, another thing about Nicole lately is that she la-la-LOVES sequins. I picked up some sequin trim last time I was fabric shopping and one of my goals this week it to use it to make her a shirt. I’m sewing up something hopefully cute for Olivia first (better be cute after all the decorative hand stitching I did on the bodice) but then it’s all Nicole. She’s been asking every time I look in the direction of my craft room if I can sew her something.

Nicole modelled these pictures. I mostly just went with it, but I did ask her what was on the roof to distract her when she started making some CA-RAY-zee faces.

Pretty sure she was a baby sometime last week but good grief, I am far too young to have this long limbed creature as my child. But then she’s in her room and finds a ‘surprise’ from our naughty doggie and crossly exclaims “ARE YOU SERIOUS?! Augh… Lily!” in literally the exact same tone that I use and yup… that kid is mine.

It’s my Birthday…

2012-10-04T11:54:00.001-07:00

…and my kitchen is nearly finished! Hop on over to the facebook page to enter to win a $10 Starbucks gift card in celebration of my birthday (a gift from me to one of you!) and stay tuned for a kitchen reveal in the next few days, with a way before, before, during, and after-ish kind of thing. (We have appliances coming, eventually, but I can’t wait til whenever in the next two months that is to share!)

Oh… and it’s snowing here today. No, I’m not joking.