Logical thinking

The weather here as been hot as everywhere else, and its the yicky, sticky, sweaty hot that makes you not want to do anything but lay in front of the fan and not turn into a puddle. So for the most part I am not making much, no dresses no nothing.

Turning on my iron is not what I want. Sitting down is not even fun when you stick to the chair.

So what is the best thing to do in the heat, well for me it was baking, (did I mention I am a bit crazy in my thinking)  and baking the one thing that I have been wanting to bake for over 4 years and that is bread. I made bread once and it was hard as a brick and did not taste very good, so the other day I said screw it and I started the process of making Challah bread and let me tell you the satisifaction of watching simple ingredients like flour and yeast become this thing that you can eat, it was different then making dinner or a dessert, it was so rewarding that I danced with my Bella over the rise of my dough, and I had a good laugh with my mom at the fact that I had just made bread, I concered my fear of yeast and I made bread, by hand no machine and it tasted good.

The smell was enough to say I must continue making bread, and it put so many ideas in my head of gifts to give to friends and family, and of desserts and breakfasts' to make, and the one thought in my head was "Holla, I made Challah"

So to everyone out there I hope there are little things, and big things that you finally say I am going to do it and you do and you are proud not because you did it perfect, cause trust me I didn't but that you quite telling yourself you couldn't and faced failure and you learned something new, and you danced a bit, even if in your heart.

Happy Thrifting

What is a better way to celebrate the birthday of our wonderful country then to go on a yard sale/thrift store spree and find a bunch of wonderful things to take home, well I tell ya that is exactly what I did and it was a wonderful time.

On Saturday morning we ventured out and first headed to a family friends yard sale where I saw with great delight and in very good condition an old-fashion and literally old Apple corer and peeler. Luckily I got the family friend discount of $7 dollars and I snatched that baby up and am soon putting it to use making  apple pies. (I totally spaced takeing picture, which annoys me cause I took a picture of something else and my new apple peeler was right behind me)

We ventured some more and found lots of wonderful little things, and I even got to chit chat with a wonderful lady who makes a living doing mosiac art pieces and she complamented me on the dress my daughter was wearing, that of course I had sewed myself. I love crafty conversations with people.

After the last few yard sales where I scored on fabric, (no pictures for they are in the wash) my daughter and I could not longer handle the muggy heat, and let me tell you that is all we have been getting this summer, and it is horrible, I could not live in Florida or Arizona. We headed to a few thrift stores, and I am so happy to show a few things I lucked out on.

                                  

Yes patterns, mostly from the '70's and a few from the late 60's, and all children patterns. There was a lady who after seeing me go through the whole filing cabinet wanted a chance to scour through herself. They were 5 for a $1 and I got roughly $7 dollars worth, but I have 3 ultimate favorites

Unfortunately they are sized 4, but I am hoping to figure out how to size them up a bit for my Bella, Here a are a few close ups

I have gone through and luckily these 3 all have there pattern pieces, and so do the few I have checked in the basket. Its plain to see I will be extremely busy for a long time, which I have found I prefer.

Friday night to help relax and get ready for a day of treasure hunting we went and saw the new Pixar film Brave

 and I got to tell ya, I loved it, we where laughing so hard my stomach hurt and I even cried a bit in the end. My daughter and niece said it was better then Tangled, which I did not agree, but I thought was as good as Tangled then again I like any movie where the only way to solve a problem with a little needle and thread, and of course loving your mother. Don't want to be a spoiler alert so I will stop right there.

So to sum things up had a pretty good weekend with my girl, and will now be spending the next 2 days working on her surprise 4th of July dress, any reason to make a dress for my baby is a good reason.

Happy Crafting everyone and Happy 4th of July*

*(Please be safe out there)

All is well that ends well

I finished my quilt, I cannot believe I did it, I am so freaking stoked about it that I just wanted to hop in my car drive the 200 miles to my Aunt Judy's house (she is the one who taught me) and squeal   "look, look what me and my sewing machine made" however I can not so I will happily squeal here.

Look, look what I made, yay me.

Happy crafting everyone

I just can't seem to stop myself

I just can't seem to stop myself from crafting, everyone who knows me knows I love to make things, its what I do, its how I relax and take my mind off of the burdens of life for a moment or more, and I have found yet another craft, of course for my Bella to fall in love with doing along with about a million other things in progress.

Like the moms before me who have created such wonderful projects this is to become a Birthday/Christmas gift, whenever I complete it of course for my Bella. Not just the pizza but a whole bunch of play food.

So once again to everyone, Happy Crafting

P.S. I watched a tutorial on Youtube on how to make the pizza, I think it was Lilybean.com

A different take

Maybe, but lets try it a different way

That's better.

I think I'm getting the hang of this

I am no professional, and it wouldn't take long to look at the things I made and find about a million errors, but who cares I am loving my sewing machine and the things that we make together, here is a new little dress for my Bella, its her Father's Day dress, its only called that cause I made it and Father's day was coming up. It could have been easily her Friday dress.


she knows how to strick a diva pose

I found the tutorial via pinterest. I love that website, everything I make I find from there, plus the wonderful bloggers who creat such wonderful projects, this is the blog for this pattern http://thisismeinspired.blogspot.co.nz/2012/04/recital-dress-tutorial.html the only thing I did diffrent was the strap placements, I think it would have bugged her and she wouldn't want to wear it as much. What I love about the dress and what my Bella loves about the dress is that it is twirly, and every girl loves a twirly dress

Every mother wants to hear right when they are done with sewing their daughter a dress is, "I want to try it on, I want to sleep in it, can I wear it tomorrow too" So who cares about errors, it passed the one test it needed too, and I thinkg I got an A. Happy Crafting!


(Oh and regarding my horrific lawn and the apparent lack of mowing, we have been getting rain for weeks now with only a moment of sunshine. So please ignore the jungle that is growing around our house as soon as the sun is out for more then a moment we will be attacking it. Happens every year)

I am still here

Wow, I am really bad about blogging. I have a reason, I have been somewhat busy with weddings, traveling, knitting for babies, birthdays, graduations, attempting to garden and lots of sewing. Since my last post I have been loving my new sewing machine, Rose, yes I named my sewing machine, and let me tell you we have been busy. Here is a quick update of all that Rose and I have been doing. One of my many cousins was getting married, on Mother's Day weekend. So I wanted to make my Bella a dress and so I went straight to my ever growing fabric pile and grabbed the fabric I have been wanting to make a dress out of since I got it last year, and I had the perfect pattern for it. I was taking my time and not expecting much, but then like in a blink of an eye I was done, and I was very happy with the results. In case you didn't see it. Doesn't my little beauty look wonderful. The shoes where a splurge, but a happy splurge, she loved them and has been walking in them since we got them. Then next I came across a wonderful lady in florida doing a bit of crafting charity, and I couldn't say no. She was asking the online community to make pillowcase dresses for girls in Africa, when she told me the story behind it, young girls in Africa have no real options for clothing, their families could buy them but the cost of clothes is the same about of what food cost them for a whole month, and with that being said, food in a belly is the more important of the 2,and being a mother who is making her daughter clothes for the pure enjoyment and not out of neccessaity I couldn't refuse, and I signed up to make as many dresses in 2 months as I could. Luckily I had a few pillowcase dresses on hand, and a lot of bedding so I went to work on cutting a lot of sheets into large pillowcases and after 2 months was proud to be done with 14, 7 for the little girls and 7 for the taller girls, and I must say it was great breaking in my new sewing machin with such good karma. That was pretty much 2 months of work right there, along with my knitting which I have no pictures to post. 4 of my cousins were all expecting babies around the same time, 2 have had theirs and 2 are still in the oven. I love to knit for babies and I must be honest, girls are more fun, they have more options, and when babies are born in the summer well wool is not the best of options. So I have come to the last week of what has been happening around here, and that is my beautiful Bella graduated from Kindergarten, and I must admit I feel silly about getting emotional about this but I have been very emotional. On Thursday she graduated and as I saw my little girl standing on the stage singing the song she has been practicing for 2 months, so proud I was and as I looked at her, the past 6 years flashed in my mind. The ultrasound, the day of her birth, all the little milestones that have happened up to this point and I cried like a baby, if your a parent you know, and if your not yet a parent, you will know and it will be one of the most happiest cries you've ever had. So enough of all that, this is a crafting blog so lets talk crafting. I asked my Bella if she would like me to make her a dress for her graduation, and she said yes, (I love that) and rather then attempt at reducing the size of my fabric stash I went to a repurposing project. When we attended my cousins wedding, which was an out of town event, we went to as many Thrift stores as possible, cause that is how we roll yo, and way and I found a skirt right before leaving and I thought that it would make a cute dress, and I was right. It was very easy and was done within a night, I didn't take pictures of the process but you can kinda tell what I did. The patterned portion and the black on the bottom are the skirt, the black in the center and the straps are what I added, she loved it cause it was twirly, the little cardigan was found the weekend prior at a yard sale, I love it when things like that happen. She was the Bella of the ball, I mean graduation and I was very happy she liked it. She wore it a few days later to her graduation dinner, of all the places she chose to eat, Olive Garden was the place to be, I can only assume it was for the bread sticks, she ate 4. and yesterday I finished yet another Bella related project, what can I say she is my muse, and after much realization I need to practice shirring, was happy with the results. I found the tutorial via Pinterest, I am in love with Pinterest, it is by far the one website I can not go long without out viewing, and here is the blog, crafterhours.blogspot.com I want to make another Romper but first I have to get better at shirring, I ended up cutting a piece of elastic to her waist measuremetns minus half an inch and sewed it around the waist, for without it kept falling down and looked like she was wearing a sack, and will increase the top portion a bit more. So I am off to sew more things, I have a few finished knitting things I may share but those are for another day. I am hoping to attempt to post blogs a bit more often, so to whoever may read this, Happy crafting