a stroke of luck!

You know you're in trouble when the boxes that bring you fabric start to reach this size. Eeeks!

But seriously, when they're filled with these goodies? I love me some Heather Ross. Far Far Away, Mendocino, VW buses, goldfish - you name it. Of course getting your hands on some of that stuff is darned near impossible without spending a fortune (or prying it from the death grips of some Heather Ross fabric horder).

So imagine how I felt when I saw this: a Heather Ross sale!!!

I made it in - by sheer luck I think - and I'm so excited to see what kinds of goodies I get! I'm quite certain the fabric gods were looking down on me that day - so to "pay it forward" so to speak, I'm promising to do a giveaway for something when I get my loot. I have no idea when that will be, of course, but stay tuned!

And sneak peek: some holiday fabric I plan to start making things for the shop for! I have a new dress I'm hoping to debut this weekend, but we'll see. I currently have 5 orders to fill! (these are good problems to have!)

go go go!!! STOP!

There are times when we really need to listen to our bodies. I'm experiencing one of those times right now.

You see, in the last week and a half or so, I have been working out, going on playdates, driving to the farm for our CSA, preserving food, sewing, opened my shop, sold 8 items, changed many diapers....you get the idea. And all this while getting an average of 6 hours of sleep a night. Which is fine....but I guess not fine for me right now.

I'm nursing a baby (who is just 2 months old today!) and battling thrush to boot. And to make matters worse, I've now come down with mastitis for which my midwife has ordered me to 24 hour bedrest. So I sit. And I lay. And I think about all the other things I should be doing. No wait...scratch that. Could be doing. Because I'm doing exactly what I should be doing.

Laying in bed...resting...and nursing my baby!

the winner is...

"made just for me" (aka Amanda). Congrats! An email is forthcoming.

I used Random Integer Generator (random.org) but I can't figure out how to post the results here. Other than this:

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:6
Timestamp: 2009-08-21 23:31:13 UTC

Thanks for the comments everyone!

ETA: I learned this evening that Amanda has her own site on etsy as well. Check it out here.

midwest summer

bean picking

topping and blanching

heirloom tomatoes

gorgeous (and sweet like candy) watermelon

and, um....what the top of our gazebo looks like after a night of tornado watches

Hope everyone is enjoying summer as we are!

Final reminder to enter the giveaway below.

Last day! I'll announce the winner tonight at 7PM!

dresses!

The dresses I've made are familiar to all of you now. But now I have them listed in the shop! I'll be sure to get some ready-made in there soon, but for now, at least the option exists for people to buy one right away and have it customized! I also have an idea of a jumper dress for this fall. Hopefully I'll be able to play with that soon!

Also, be sure to comment in the post below to win a free skirt! Pass it along to your friends and family too!

first sale!!! (and a small giveaway)

Today I can celebrate my first etsy sale! YAY!!! Two actually. I sold two skirts today in my shop and I'm thrilled about it! Thrilled enough that I want to keep the momentum going and I want to do a giveaway!!!

So, leave me a comment here if interested and you can win any skirt in my shop. You pick the size and the fabric - ready made or custom if need be. I'll close it and post the winner by 7PM Friday night. Anyone who buys from my shop gets an entry per purchase. Buy one item - get one extra entry. Buy two - get two. Make sense? Good luck!! (and thanks Amber!!)

new fabrics!

What a week. CSA pickup and delivery on Wednesday, Holistic Moms meeting about homeschooling on Thursday followed by lots of running around, preparing for and celebrating of Derrick's birthday. Friday was massive sewing, business dealings and setting up shop. The entire week was also filled with massive sewing, craft space organizing, working out (I have some, ahem, baby fat to lose...) and lots of hugs/kisses/playtime with the kiddos. And then 4+ hours of car shopping yesterday. Needless to say, I'm exhausted! But tomorrow is a new week. Time to do much of it all over again!

First off, I promised you all a tutorial on freezer paper stenciling. I first saw this in Amanda Blake Soule's The Creative Family. I just did a quick search and realized that Jean from The Artful Parent has the same info here. So, I won't type up a long tutorial as a way to avoid re-inventing the wheel! And I must say, I love the designs she used. I might have to start doing some stencils on my tees as well!

And now...goodies! Here is some new fabric I've recently received and will be making things for the shop with soon!

First up....Timeless Treasures Apple. I LOVE this fabric - perfect for fall. Just love those cute owls!



And this is Chestnut Hill by Joel Dewberry. Ironwork in Lichen and Narrow Stripe in Eggplant. I think the gold and eggplant make this a beautiful fall combo as well!

Get them while they last!

Oh my!!!

What a week! Seriously, a crazy, tiring, ambitious, crammed week.

I'll be back with more on that later (or more likely, tomorrow) as well as a tutorial for those of you interested in freezer paper stenciling, but for now.....

my shop is open!!!! Check it out!

Freezer Paper Stenciling

Noah has been really into "creating" lately. Painting, playdoh, drawing, cutting and gluing with paper, and making ice sculptures have been his favorites lately. So, when he said he wanted to paint yesterday and pulled out the fabric paint as opposed to the tempera, I thought it sounded like a great idea!

We even made a special trip to the store for new t-shirts to paint! Before doing that, Noah told me he wanted a helicopter t-shirt. So, we went looking for helicopter silhouettes online. We found one, and of course it showed up with a bunch of airplane ones as well, so we printed out both.

Below are the finished products. Noah also chose the color. He wanted them both purple!

And of course he wore the airplane shirt all day today. A long, fun, busy, dirty day (as you can clearly see in the picture below). But hey - isn't that what kids are supposed to do in the summer? ;-)

skirts!

Well, at least one for now!


But LOTS more to come! I've been wanting to make skirts for quite some time, and they seem so easy it seemed silly to buy a pattern. But, I also wanted to have some kind of sizing "template" for when I want to make skirts for a general size (more on that in a bit!).

I originally tried the Lazy Days Skirt pattern over at Oliver + S, but to be quite honest - it is NOT meant for small kids. I originally made the above shooting for a 2T size, and going from selvedge to selvedge is just entirely too large for that. I also think the ribbon at the bottom is cute, but I like to change it up a bit too, so I added the same fabric I did on the bottom of the lemon dress I made last week.

Long story short, I think the skirt could easily work for 18mo to 2T, but it was a really good first shot and I have my own little pattern figured out now!

And what will I be doing with these LOTS more skirts? Well, selling them!

After some really amazing positive feedback I received on the dresses I posted last week (both here and on Facebook) I decided to go ahead and open an etsy shop. I'll reveal that in the coming days...but for now...back to sewing!

new dresses

Here are the two finished projects I was talking about! Dresses for a sweet (and absolutely adorable) little girl from Noah's class last year!