Birth Announcement for a Sweet Little Girl

First of all, I find it sort of ironic that my last post was about my 30th birthday and today is, in fact, my half-birthday.

If you read my personal blog then you know I'm expecting our second little kiddo (a boy!) in just a few weeks now.  If you remember my pregnancy with my first then you know that I developed an aversion to crafting.  This time around I wouldn't necessarily say that I developed an aversion to crafting, but I certainly didn't have any extra energy to spare in those first few months!  So that along with a general lack of motivation and...well, happy half-birthday to me!

I thought I would start off by showing a little cross-stitch project for my great-niece (Yes, I'm a great-aunt and a Great Aunt!)  I have loved making these for my nieces and nephews through the years and now I get to start on the great-variety as well.  The kit is from Bucilla and I think it is absolutely adorable. 

(By the way, if you are an avid cross-sticher like I am, then check out 1-2-3 Stitch.  This is a web-based company but is local to where I live.  They offer locals the ability to just go pick up there orders from the outlet so you don't have to pay shipping and handling.  I opted to do this for another project I ordered, but when I found that my time was more valuable than cost, I sent them an email asking if they could just change my order to a delivery and charge me shipping/handling.  They not only changed my order per my request but said, "Don't worry about paying extra, will just send it at no cost."  Awesome!)

Here is my version of the project.  Out of respect to the mommy I am blurring out Baby M's name:

I love all of the little details!

I hope she enjoys it as much as I enjoyed making it.  I am currently working on one for my oldest daughter.  I have another one for my great-nephew born in December.  And of course there is my second little kiddo.  That gives me 8 weeks to get them all done.

Cowgirl Costume

Happy Halloween!

This year's costume for my 2 year old happened a little bit by accident. I bought the denim vest (seen in the picture below) from Old Navy for my daughter's 2 year birthday pictures. I don't normally spend so much on an item of clothing that will be outgrown so quickly, but in this case, I am glad I did because it really made the outfit.



Afterwards, I was sort of complaining about the cost vs. length-of-time-before-it's-outgrown issue to a friend from work. She suggested I make my daughter a cowgirl for Halloween. It was like a bell went off in my head: "Ding Ding Ding!"

The first thing I knew I wanted to do was to make a bandanna skirt. I had seen these before and I thought it would be the perfect cowgirl skirt. I found a great and easy pattern here. It is the easiest thing I have ever made. Seriously, it took me 20 minutes. In fact, when I was at Hobby Lobby I saw all sorts of cute patterned bandanas that I thought I would make into some play clothes for her as well.

Anyway. Here is the finished product.



And here is my daughter modeling the 2-inch fabric length I sewed to the bottom. Adding fabric at the bottom makes it possible to make this skirt for any young girl. The taller they are, the more fabric you add. Love it!



I knew we would be doing a reverse applique class at SPARK this year (trust me, I will be blogging more about SPARK!) I went prepared with a template of a horse and a toddler's t-shirt from Target. It turned out even better than I could have imagined! The designer Amy Tangerine taught the class (she is so inspirational!) and I was on cloud 9 when she liked my design!



Next up, and probably my favorite part of the costume are the boots. These were a small source of stress at first because real cowboy boots (for a toddler, even) were $55! Yikes! My husband and I agreed that she could just wear her Sunday shoes, but deep down I really wanted her to have cowboy boots. So I headed to our local thrift store to see what I could find. They didn't have any cowboy boots, but they had these.



You're probably thinking: not even close. I did too. But I knew I could figure out a way to make them work. Then I found this embossed felt at Hobby Lobby. I thought it looked just like leather from a distance. Then the wheels in my head started spinning...



Through trial and error (sorry, no template here) I just started cutting away the felt until each piece looked like the top of a cowboy boot. Then I hand sewed the two pieces together. It still needed something, so I grabbed another bandanna I had purchased and cut out little squares and stitched them on.



Then I slid each piece over the top of each boot. The best part is there is no glue involved so I can just slip them back off and reuse the boots (which, by the way, are in awesome condition. I still can't figure out why they ended up at thrift shop, but I'm sure glad they did!) Here are the finished boots. Pretty close, huh?!



Next she needed a hat. I found these cute foam hats at Hobby Lobby and I thought the pink seemed more like my daughter. I stitched some gingham ribbon around the base and added a hand-sewn flower made out of a strip of bandanna (another skill I learned at SPARK this year.) I made an quick chin strap out of some red ribbon.



And what is a cowgirl without a horse? I found this horse on the same trip to the thrift shop. It had a red bandanna around it's neck with a Wells Fargo logo. That seemed easy enough to fix. After a good bath, I attached another hand-sewn flower to his bandanna. And he's ready for trick-or-treating now!



This was the most fun I've had preparing for Halloween. It's also the first costume I have ever made from scratch (minus the vest, of course.) I have been hesitant to sew costumes before because you can buy them so cheaply! But this entire costume came together for far less than I could have expected. Here's the breakdown:

Vest: originally $20 but fair to say repurposed in this case, so $0
Skirt: $1 for the bandanna, $1 for the fabric hem, $2 for the elastic, so $4
Shirt: $6 at Target, $350 for the class (okay, we won't count that one)--$6
Black tights: already owned--$0
Boots: $3, felt was $0.50 a sheet (at 2 sheets) plus another $1 bandanna which I also used for the flowers (owned the thread)--$5
Hat: $3 plus $1 ribbon on sale (owned the ribbon for the chin-strap)--$4
Horse: $0.50

That's an entire costume for just under $20. And not only was it fun to make but each piece (minus the hat) can be reused--or played with--post-Halloween.

Finally, here is my daughter in her costume at her Grandma's school parade!

Christmas Advent Calendar

When I say I haven't done anything crafty for the last couple of months, that isn't entirely true.

I started this advent calender over 4 years ago. It has absolutely plagued me! It didn't seem that involved when I started, but attaching sequins isn't exactly the quickest process. I had some other sewing projects that I needed to start (and I don't like having more than one going at a time) so I spent as much free time as I could on it and I FINALLY GOT IT DONE!



While I'm kind of sick of looking at it for the time being, I actually do think it turned out pretty cute. I love the santa.



There is a pocket for each day leading up to Christmas and a little stuffed toy that goes in each pocket.



And then a large pocket at the bottom to keep all of the stuffed toys as they are removed. Pretty clever!



The kit can be found here.

Easter Dress

I decided very last minute to make my daughter an easter dress. It's not really what I would consider a classic easter dress, but I already had the pattern and I had bought the fabric before my daughter was even born. It took me less than a week which is far better than the last one!



It is a pretty simple pattern. The pattern was from Butterick and is probably older than I am. I was looking through some old patterns of my moms and I really liked this one. It's hard to tell in this picture but there are ties that tie on each side.

I bought the cardigan at Target so she could wear it through the spring and then she can just wear it as a jumper in the summer.

It's really hard to get a picture where my daughter is standing still...

Butterfly dress

Normally I don't apologize when I go MIA on these blogs, but this time I have a really good excuse. For a few weeks every spare minute I had went into finishing a dress I started last year for my daughter. I was so afraid to learn how to use my sewing maching and I have no idea why. It was so much fun! I bought the material with the idea of it being worn mid- to late-summer. And my daughter loves butterflies. I was afraid it would be too small for her now (and by the measurements it should be) but it actually fits her just right. Hopefully the weather will warm up so that she can wear it! I love the details. Particularly the ribbon.

The buttons were supposed to attach on the inside, but it didn't look right. So I moved them to the outside.

And the appliqued butterflies. Again, the details!

Of course I had to try it on her when I finished.

She wouldn't stop twirling long enough for me to take a really good picture of her. I think that's a good sign that she likes the dress!