Satin fever

Oh, boy, I finished two of three Halloween costumes this week and I am now officially sick of satin!!! What a pain! It doesn't press, it ravels like crazy and doesn't take well to pinking shears. But, at least I will have one happy little angel and one happy little fairy :)  Also, it's annoying that some costume patterns skimp on finishing.  My kids wear these things way more than just on Halloween, so I take extra care with finishing and preventing raveling!

Kelby wants to be Buzz. No problem. Sweats, felt and hot glue, here I come. No more satin, yes!

In the midst of all this and all the baby bedding that I am plugging away at, I am itching to sew myself some Fall clothes! I got some great fabrics last weekend, but in the mean time, I'm trying to make my Summer things into Fall things.  Here's what I wore to church today:

I made this skirt over the Summer with some vintage cotton. The pattern is Simplicity 2258. The ruffle tee is J.Crew, via Savers, my favorite thrift store :)  The reason I showed you this pic is because I recently found this look on Pinterest...

(From stylebible.ph via Melissa Koster on Pinterest)

...and I think I could make the above skirt pattern work for this too. If I widen the sides a little to give it a looser look and add a ruffle at the top with some belt loops? And, how about this pattern (which I already own) for the shirt? Add a cute cardigan and there ya go.

As for Mad Men, there were some good points made in its favor in the comments after my last post :) I just don't think I'm a drama girl. Except for maybe Gilmore Girls, which I loved. But then again, the last two seasons annoyed me a lot. So, give me comedy please and throw in a few fun reality shows like Project Runway or American Pickers (which has me entranced on Netflix almost every night) and just keep the dramatic life lessons away, hahaha!

Chalkboard paint

I bought a huge frame at a garage sale last summer and finally, before we started our current school year, got around to giving it new life as a chalkboard! Whenever Casey and I undertake a new house project, big or small, we tend to bounce a LOT of ideas around before jumping in. In this case, we decided to buy a piece of plywood, have it cut the right size, paint it, then screw it right into the wall, screwing the frame on over it. I didn't want it hung like a regular picture because I need it to stay put while in use! Here's how it turned out:

So, now that I've used the stuff, here are my tips for successfully using chalkboard paint:

• Buy the roll-on kind. I tried the spray paint first and even though I primed my wood first, I had a hard time getting an even coverage. I used the whole can over several coats and it still looked spotty. Plus, it didn't erase at all.
• Let it cure for 3 or 4 DAYS! Don't use it at all until it's been that long! 
• Before using it, rub a piece of sideways chalk all over it in a circular motion, so it gets in all the tiny cracks. Then, rub that in with your eraser, also in a circular motion. After that, wipe down with a warm rag and you're good to go! 
• Don't use colored chalk! It does not wipe off. The white chalk comes off fine with a wet rag, but the colored stuff stays. 

Although not the same as a real chalkboard, this is working for me! Just don't expect it to erase very well with just the eraser. Every couple days, I just take the wet rag to it and it looks like new :)

art

We sat down for a little art project together the other day.  We do this pretty often, but the results are not always very blog-worthy :)  However, I recently discovered a wonderful blog called Deep Space Sparkle Art Lessons for Kids and there are sooooo many fun projects on there for all ages.  We got to work on the turtle drawing and here's what we came up with:
Here's Natalie's...

And Layla's...

Here's mine...

And here's what Kelby was doing because I wouldn't let him whack at the chandelier with the fly swatter :)

Speaking of art, I came across a book in the art section of Barnes and Noble this week called Charley Harper: An Illustrated Life.  I started flipping through it and really like his artwork.  I think this would make a great coffee table book for our new house, don't you?  Can you help me convince Casey that this is a good idea????

just for fun

Life is carrying on as usual at our house. We had a minor bug last week and since we weren't feeling very well, things were a bit relaxed--in a good way. I forgot to show you these pot holders I made for my friend Becky's birthday. She had seen the ones I posted earlier last month and requested some brown, turquoise and lime green ones. I was happy to oblige :) Pot holders are such great gifts--they are fast and fun and use up scraps. Although, after I made two of these blocks, I was imagining how fabulous an entire quilt of these would be. I mean, come on, she's on a VESPA! ;) Awesome.


I've been plugging away at some Groovy Girl clothes for Natalie for her birthday (pictures to come) but I need to buy some tulle scraps for the tutu so I sort of came to a stand still. SO, I used the time to make this little crochet hook cozy! I checked out Sew Darn Cute from the library, just for this project and I finally got around to it. I love it, it will make crochet even more fun...cause everything's more fun when it's cute, right??


It fold up into a little wallet. This project was fast, it only took about an hour from start to finish. There are some other great projects in the book too, just FIY :)


Yesterday I took this picture of Casey and Natalie. I think it's so sweet. He's really good about letting the kids in on whatever he's doing, even if they waller him. (I don't think that's actually a word, but you know what it means, right?)


Then, since I'm determined to get on the other side of the camera more this year, I asked Casey to grab the camera and get a shot of Kelby's cuddliness :) He's my most affectionate baby by far.


I know this post is getting long, sorry :) but I want to share this pic of my friend Kellye and I. We met while living in Georgia, just before our husbands were deployed to Iraq. She was in Colorado for the weekend and we were able to spend a day together for the first time in more than five years! It was so much fun, we did some reminiscing and I've been thinking a lot about our Georgia days. Isn't it funny how you can think you want life to change so badly, but when it does, you immediately miss the way things were?? That's the way it was for me when we left there. I missed it almost immediately, in so many ways. All this to say, reflecting on that has convicted me to try and truly live where I'm at and embrace my situation, whatever it may be (which, when I'm honest with myself, has always been pretty good.) Thanks for the awesome Saturday, Kellye, I hope it happens again sometime :)