What Elise Wore: Butterfly Easter Dress

We enjoyed a beautiful Resurrection Sunday surrounded by family, friends, our faith, and of course, food! A new addition to this year's Easter activities was the blooming cross that we all added flowers to at the end of our Easter services, a perfect symbol of the new life that we receive in Christ. And a perfect backdrop for photos of my girl in her butterfly dress (remember how we settled on butterflies here?). I hope your day was as wonderful as ours!

{Dress: DIY by me; pattern here, cardigan: Koala Kids (consignment), black mary janes: Circo (Target), ruffle socks and polka dot hairbow: Faded Glory (WalMart)}

From Yellow To Orange To Butterflies

If you do not know, let me be the first to tell you...2 years old are opinionated. They will tell you exactly what they do and do not want to wear. You can make Elise's day by giving her something with pockets and send her into orbit by picking the wrong pair of fuzzy socks.

Daddy thought it might be nice for her to have a yellow Easter dress since she doesn't wear that color often. I wasn't 100% sold (I was worried that it would wash her out since she is pale like her Mama and has light hair) but I found a beautiful yellow and turquoise fabric and started planning her dress.

Then she informed me that she wanted an orange dress..and  she reminded me every day that she wanted an orange Easter dress...all I could see was pumpkins and Tennessee Volunteers, it was awful, but she would not be swayed. So search #2 for fabric was on and I finally settled on a fabric that had a nice amount of orange in it but plenty of pink and aqua to satisfy me as well. I showed it to her...her response, "Where are the butterflies?" My response? "YOU ARE KILLING ME, SMALLS!"

We took deep breaths, I let her go to the computer with me and my 2 year old picked out her butterfly fabric...pics of her dress to come.

What Elise Wore: Queen of Hearts

We celebrated Valentine's Day with tulips for me, hyacinths for Elise, a candlelit family Valentine's dinner and White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake for the Rev.

We woke up the next day to a sprinkling of snow and ice (enough to cancel church) and dressed our Valentine up for a little post Valentine's Day lunch. Have I mentioned how much I love sewing ruffle pants for my gal? She is the queen of our hearts, for sure!

{Tunic: DIY by me; pattern here, ruffle pants: DIY by me}

Blue Ridge Modern Quilt Guild

Sewing has really become something that I want to excel at, so when a Mom of one of Elise's preschool classmates mentioned that she was starting a Modern Quilt Guild, I knew that I wanted to join. She is a talented wedding dress and clothing designer and her mother owns the local sewing shop, so I knew that I would be surrounding myself with knowledge and some great resources. Modern quilting follows traditional quilting technique, but modernizes the aesthetic by using bold, bright colors and print; expansive negative space; high contrast and creative threading. We are meeting once a month to share our projects, learn techniques, and sit and sew a block of the month. This month, I sewed my first block, this cute little fancy fox face. Quilt pattern available here.

 

I'm planning my first big project, which will be a modern quilt for Elise's vintage modern big girl room. I'm toying with one of the quilt patterns below, in the color palette below left.

 

 

Any fellow quilters out there?



While She Naps...

I'm working on sewing summer clothes for her, planning her 2nd birthday party (read losing brain cells to Pinterest), turning this Mexico souvenir T-shirt into a romper for a sweet baby boy, painting beads for a geometric necklace, creating faux Scrabble art, and catching up (read printing and sorting through 6 months worth of photos, mementos, and journal notes) on my Project Life scrapbook for 2014.

Do you have any extra down time in the summer? How do you spend it?

What Elise Wore: Her Easter Dress

Growing up, our Mom made all of our special occasion clothes. Back then I was sure it was either to stretch her single parent budget or because she took special joy in dorking my brother and I out in matchy matchy outfits. But after finishing a few dresses for Elise lately, including her Easter dress, I think that I may have stumbled on to the real reason...there is nothing like sending your little one out the door knowing that they are literally wrapped in your love. I sure do love that little girl (and my Mom for all of those outfits, too!).

{Pepper's Dress: DIY by me; pattern here, Hairbow: DIY by me, Silver Sandals: Mooshu Trainers (eBay)}

Nelle Sew Along

You might recall that one of my goals for this year was to sew more for Elise. I had so much fun picking fabrics and sewing this Nelle dress by Brownie-Goose with a group of Brownie-Goose lovers over on Facebook. One dress for summer down, several more to go!

What To Make With Vintage Aprons?

My Mom is in the process of cleaning out the remaining items in my MeeMaw's house, since it has sold. I was helping her and came across all of these aprons that belonged to MeeMaw. Mom was just going to put them up and save them because she didn't want to just throw them away. I asked if I could have them and make use of the fabric since it was too pretty to just hide away. I already have an art piece in mind for one and I'm working on some summer dresses and clothing for Elise that will use up most of the rest. Do you ever come across any old fabric and what do you do with it?

Good Enough to Eat

If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook (and hey, if you don't, why not? Use the buttons on the right over there and find me!), then you know that I made Elise felt desserts for Valentine's Day. She had soft fruits and veggies from IKEA in her play kitchen, but she needed the good stuff!

I had so much fun sewing these little treats, and I realized that hand sewing is hard (I must get a thimble before I make any more!). I get so tickled when she tries to eat them! Outside of sewing them, I had the most fun deciding how to display them for her. When a search of Etsy scored me this vintage child sized cake plate, very similar to the one that I inherited from my MeeMaw, I knew I had gotten lucky. Love it all!

What Elise Wore: Her Valentine's Dress

Remember here when I sneak peeked the fabric that I was using for Elise's Valentine's dress? Well, here is my Valentine all dressed up for church yesterday.

{Janey Jumper Dress: DIY by me; pattern here, White Shirt: Garanamials (WalMart), Red Tights: Faded Glory (WalMart), Shoes: Keds (Thrifted)}

Sew Much Fun!

Remember how I told you that more sewing was a goal for me this year?

These fabrics are on their way to me! Won't they make a cute Valentine's Day dress for Elise?

And this pile of felt and thread? I'm planning to turn it into some fun felt food for Elise to add to her kitchen.

I'll keep you posted! Have a great weekend!

More Burp Cloths & Wipes Cases

In addition to her car seat cover, Elise needed some burp cloths and a wipe case to coordinate with her diaper bag. And I couldn't resist some cute boy versions of the same for her possible future boyfriend, if she decides to be a cougar, Impulsive's sweet baby boy, Drew--which I could show you if I had taken a picture before I mailed them...but they were cute--turquoise and brown, with cute little dinosaurs...use your imagination...

Wipes Case pattern available here.

DIY Car Seat Cover

I'm sure it comes as a surprise to no one that Elise received a few handmade Christmas gifts. While it was her 1st Christmas, she is obviously not at an age where she understands or appreciates gifts--she was pretty underwhelmed with the whole thing and slept while we opened all of her gifts for her!

We got her a few fun things, and of course, some clothes (I love dressing her!), and then there were a few things that she needed. A car seat cover was on that list. It gets cold, windy, and snowy here in the winter and I need to keep my girl protected! It took just 2 yards of flannel fabric and 1 yard of ribbon and less than 30 minutes to sew this. I know that I could have purchased one, but not for the $6 it cost to make this one and certainly not in a print that would coordinate so well with her car seat.

Covered up and protected...

And flipped back to reveal her cuteness!

Nursery DIY: Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This

I knew that I wanted something custom for the baby's bedding, but spending the more than $300 (and some wanted WAY more) that most want online for such was not going to happen, so sewing it myself was the way to go. I'm hoping that Baby Herface will have plenty of sweet dreams in her crib.

I used my 3 fabrics (the Cocoa Berry collection by Michael Miller) to create a crib skirt, bumper pads (yes, I know they are controversial), a ruffled blanket ( I conquered ruffles and minky for that one!), a matching taggy blanket, and a little owl named Lola ( on a side note, it is really sad that every time I look at the owl, all I hear is Barry Manilow proclaiming, "Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl..."---thank you Mom for raising us with Barry, Neil Diamond, and Air Supply...no really...). 

I'm really happy with how it all turned out and I'll be back later to show you what is hanging above it.

P.S. I'll go ahead and apologize on Mom's behalf that you'll be humming Copacabana for the rest of the day...

Nursery DIY: A Rescue, A Pillow, & A Pouf

Continuing with the nursery show and tell...

The rocking chair was a rescue. Someone was just going to leave it behind in a house that was being sold and the Rev's Mom (she's a realtor) rescued it and held on to it for us for 6 years. It just needed a good cleaning, some new snazzy upholstery and a little hot pink trim.

Of course, once it was finished, I knew it needed a little softness for those long nights rocking, so I used Ashley's tutorial to make the pillow with side ties.

And then, what good is a rocking chair without somewhere to prop up your feet? This pouf (tutorial here) is by far my favorite DIY in this room. It is so much fun to look at and I can already see little Baby Herface dragging it around the house and using it as her cozy sitting space.

High Five!

Team Jacie needed a new high chair pad for their bonus baby (one of 2 kids they are fostering right now). They had come into a spare high chair, but the pad was hideous.

I used the old pad as a pattern and I put my sewing skills to use and cranked one out, using this tutorial. It was a bit of challenge, with some troubleshooting involved, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

High (Chair) five for me!

Sewing Again...

Just a cute little diaper and wipe clutch and a set of burp cloths that I whipped up for a co-worker's baby shower...I'm getting the hang of this sewing thing!

And I just got this book, which has a ton of cute things that you can make using 1 yard of fabric or less, so I might just crank out another little project this weekend! I'm thinking that I really need a case for my netbook, so maybe that will be my first 1 yard project!

Car Caddies

Still working on my sewing skills and doing little projects to test my patience try to improve.

These cute car caddies (tutorial here) were a Valentine for Team Jacie's boys, B-Man and Mater. They love Matchbox cars and Chuggington trains, so these will be a perfect way to tote a few around and have their favorite toys handy in church, at the doctor's office, or on car trips. If I can figure out a version to hold action figures, they will be all set!

My Heroes...

Hanna wants to know what we've been making lately. When I saw her post, it dawned on me that I never got around to showing you the Super Hero capes that I made to go in my babies' Team Jacie's boys' Easter baskets. Still working on my sewing technique, but it's getting there!

What about you? Do you have something handmade to share? Visit Hanna and show it off!

Mr. Roboto

A few weeks ago I found the cutest robot fabric and knew that it would make perfect baby gifts for my friend/former cubicle neighbor's new baby boy. I try to keep it practical by doing a set of embellished burp cloths and an embellished wipes case--things I know for sure will get used! This time I decided to try my hand at an appliqued onesie, as well. The fabric made a perfect little tie onesie for Baby E and a cute store bought pair of shorts finished off his outfit.

Now, every good baker/crafter/blogger knows that you have to document everything with photos. Even the Rev knows to ask, "Do you need to take a picture of this?" before diving into some baked goods or a new dish. But sometimes you accidentally delete pictures off of your memory card because you are fiddling with the camera and trying to get it ready to capture the Rev's big graduation moment....

Thank goodness Baby E's Mom posted a pic of the new outfit on Facebook and let me snag it to share it with you. Here is little Mr. Roboto in his new outfit. I seriously want to get a hold of those cheeks! So happy for this new little family!