Mother's Day sewing, among other things.

I had a lovely Mother's Day! I hope you did too :)  After a veritable feast of steak and lobster at my mom's, we came home and I sewed the rest of the day away! I finished up a knit dress and then cut out a rayon top. I just snatched up Simplicity 1614 the other day when they went on sale for 99 cents, but I was very unsure of this flowy style on me, although it's a style I've been wanting to try.

I am very pleasantly surprised by how much I ended up loving this top! It really might be the most comfortable thing I own.

I really like the back and the nice butt coverage ;)

Kelby totally photo bombed my first attempt:

Yes, he still wears the dino costume. Makes the sewing time worth it when they love their costumes this much!

In other news, I did quite a bit of cleaning on Saturday and then took that rare opportunity to take a picture of my granny couch, which we scored at an estate sale for $25 several months ago (it was marked $90, but it was the end of the day and she was practically begging us to take it, haha). I updated the look with pillows and new lamps from Ikea. Then, after touching up that wall behind the couch, I only hung up the one piece of art, rather than the collage I used to have there. I really like the look now!

 Then I moved a chair over to the bookshelf side because it occurred to me that not all furniture must be pointed at the TV, hahahaha! I like to sit over here and it makes a much better conversation area now.

I snapped this pic of Kelby splashing in puddles. His new camo pants were soaked and he *made* me wash them right away so he could wear them to bed that very night. I just get so happy when the kids love things I make for them that much, so I couldn't say no ;)

It's supposed to reach the 80's this week!!! We are so excited, that we went to Target this morning and bought our annual kiddie pool and the kids are happily playing in it even as I write this. I'm also working on a super cute new pool bag and can't wait to sign the kids up for lessons! AND, I spotted the first green bud on our huge front yard tree. She's always a late bloomer, but oh, how I love waiting and watching for those first buds!!

chairs!

I told you I found an awesome chair at the Goodwill in Pueblo last weekend!! Here she is:

 Isn't is gorgeous!!?? It's in perfect condition and it looks to have been professionally reupholstered (lucky me). It's a perfect peachy color and so comfy. I think she was made for me.

 We decided we wanted bedroom chairs well over a year ago and so we began keeping our eyes peeled. You may remember me blogging about this green one after we found it last year (also at Goodwill) for only 10 bucks! It was a lucky find, most mid-century modern pieces like this have ripped vinyl, but this chair is perfect. It's a man's chair, though, so we kept searching for a girly one. Casey spotted my peach chair first and it was $45. I told him it could be my Mother's Day gift and he said he would have bought it for me anyway. Aw :) I then sat in it until it was paid for and got it's "sold" sticker, just so no one would steal it, hehe.

And now the manly green chair gets to live on Casey's side :)

And now for a couple thrifting tips:

I have a few friends who think we get really lucky all the time at thrift stores. But, really, we are just patient. We keep going and looking and wait until we find what we've been hunting for--for the right price and in the right condition. It can take some time. You can't just decide what you want, go check every thrift store/antique store in the vicinity in one day and then give up when you don't find it. Same goes for Craigslist--when I'm looking for something, I just check CL a couple times a day, sometimes for several weeks, until I find what I want. This is how I got my 8x10 wool Pottery Barn rug for $100.

Also, you have to be careful when shopping for vintage items because it can be tempting to snatch up anything vintage and you end up with too big of a collection of things you only bought because, well, they were vintage and cheap. We learned that lesson the hard way! Now we pass up lots of things that are cool, but just not useful in our home. More on this topic when I show you the new Corning ware pieces we found the same day as we got my chair :)

Spring!!!!!!

I thought it would never come!! There's a reason I didn't blog last week. It was cold. And it snowed. And I was trying to keep a good attitude--or if I couldn't do that, at least not outwardly complain about it ;) But the weather was really getting to me and I was unmotivated to do much of anything extra.

But now the weather's nice and I can think of lots of things to blog about, ha!

I made a maxi skirt:

 See my awesome stripe matching?!? I can't take full credit, easily matched stripes are a sign of quality knit fabric. I got a striped knit at JoAnn recently (and made a dress out of it that I have yet to wear or photograph--like I said, the weather...) and it was impossibly off-grain. It had a pattern running both ways and it made me want to pull my hair out trying to cut it to match. In the end, it just didn't. Poor quality right there, folks. Leave it to JoAnn's! But, don't get me started... I think I'll just stick to Denver Fabrics whenever possible. No pattern for this skirt, I just winged it (wung it?). I've seen a lot of large scale striped skirts like this out there this season, so I was thrilled to find this fabric.

 The girls had no matching socks. I bought them each a 6 pack and then labeled them to keep them straight! Stroke of brilliance.

 Spotted this in the remnant bin at Hobby Lobby and couldn't resist it. This tote bag pattern is on my wish list and I think this fabric would make a pretty cool lining!

Wait until you see the super awesome chair we found at Goodwill in Pueblo last weekend!!!!! It's exactly what I've been searching for, but thought I'd never find in good shape for a good price. But, patience paid off!!

I'll be back with that soon.

Cheers! :)

Hope of Spring and Kelby mischief

I don't want to speak too soon, but Spring may finally be arriving in Colorado. The snow melted in pretty much one day and we have sunny warmth in the forecast! Yahoo!! I would say I've never been so relieved for winter to be over, but I think I say that every year ;) I think I'm just a Summer girl and become more so as the years go by!

I made a pretty cute skirt a few weeks ago and still haven't had an opportunity to wear it other than for these pictures. The weather will hopefully change that this coming week and I'll get to wear this little cutie!

 I love a good shirttail hem!!

It was very windy this day! I couldn't keep my hair out of my face!
The pattern Simplicity 1617, one of their new Summer line.

I was drawn to the hem and the unique pockets, although when I finished mine, I thought the drapey pockets just added bulk to my hips, which I do not need ;) So I fiddled around with them and put some hand tacked pleats with cute buttons on there. So now they look like this:

They lay flat now and I like the skirt a lot after that little adjustment!

I've been sewing for my kids too! I found some knit army fabric recently and had to get it for Kelby. Anything camo print, he calls "Daddy clothes". Some days he wear his army pants, army shirt, army jacket, army beanie and army sandals and is so proud that he matches ;) Casey works in a recruiting unit, so there is a reason why we have so much stuff that says "Go ARMY.com" or "Army Strong" on it. Like sunglasses and beach towels and coffee mugs, for example :)

Anyway, I whipped up some knit pj pants for Kelby and he is very happy. They took my less than one episode of Bones, so it really was instant gratification.

Speaking of the little dude, he's been up to a lot of this lately:

He sure can make a good Lego mess, but I'm okay with it because as long as he's making a mess that I can see, he is not off making a mess that I cannot see ... like spilling a can of paint in the basement  and then painting the futon ... or giving himself a nosebleed while climbing on an upside down laundry basket (same way he attained the paint can) in his room to get the framed pictures down, which he later broke--on his bed, after which he fell asleep with a pile of broken glass. Eek! This kid takes mischief to a whole new level! I thought it was just a boy thing because although my girls were curious, it wasn't like this. But then, yesterday a mom of three boys told me none of her boys took mischief to the extent that Kelby does either! So, I guess I'm one of the lucky ones, hehe :D

If I sew it, it will come

Can you believe that it is snowing AGAIN!?!? Enough with the "Colorado needs the moisture" already, how about a nice warm Spring rain?? That's moisture! I'd be down with some rain! But, the snow is getting old. It's not just the snow, it's the lack of sunshine. Maybe I should throw in the towel and get a vitamin D supplement.

I keep hoping that sewing for Summer and wearing sandals and refusing to buy a new pair of jeans, even though I could really use one, I can will Spring upon us. But, alas...

I made this dress last week and managed to photograph it in between snowstorms. I couldn't wait to share because I really, really love it!

 The pattern is McCall's 6700. I bought this pattern assuming it was for wovens , only to read later that it's a pattern for knits (the fabric on the cover doesn't look like a knit to me). I was bummed because I had some gorgeous rayons begging to be made into Summer dresses. After a couple months of debate, I decided to try it in my rayon anyway. I whipped up a muslin and since the bodice pieces are cut on the bias anyway, it worked great with my fabric!

I'm glad I read the reviews because everyone said the back ties were too skinny to turn and they ended up leaving them off. I really liked that feature so I simply cut them wider. My bodice looks drapier than some on patternreview.com. I wear a cami under mine because I really don't like having to watch my p's and q's. Next time I might cut the bodice down a size. Maybe.

I'm very happy with this dress! Rayon is hands down my favorite fabric to wear and I have a few more beautiful pieces in my stash to sew up. I'm glad I took a chance sewing this pattern in a woven because I have another pattern for knits I'd like to try the same thing with. I think as long as I cut the bodice front on the bias, I should have no problems. Also, I bound the armholes with bias tape rather than the hem suggested for knits.

Now, let's all close our eyes and wish for SPRING!!

real life snippets

Can you believe that it is snowing? Again? Spring is still on the agenda this year, right? Right?? I know that Colorado needs the moisture, but we are a little stir crazy this week. Today we loaded up and went to Target for new Legos, a new movie and some pizza for dinner. Spirits were much improved after that :)

I was thinking yesterday that I haven't blogged in awhile and that I have some lovely Summer sewing to show to you, but alas, I do not want to take pictures of my lovely Summer sewing in the lovely Winter snowstorm that is happening outside right now and I don't really have any other pictures to blog. To remedy that, I took some pictures :) I did commit to taking more photos of our everyday life here, after all, something I'm glad I've been keeping up with since starting my project life knockoff venture (see more pages below!)

So, here you have it, what we do when it's snowing in Springtime.

 The world needs more games that kids can play alone, in my opinion. This is a fun one.

 Rapunzel makes an appearance!

 Our church library had a giveaway table last week and I scored this gem along with some other old books. Corrie Ten Boom's story sure does put my own hardships in perspective. I'd like to reread The Hiding Place soon.

Kelby's two favorite things: Ninja Turtles and Legos. He builds these little sets all by himself! And then he rebuilds them over and over. Nothing keeps him busy like new Legos. Smart guy ... or sly Mommy ;)

My girls right now are REALLY into Lego Friends. As in, they save their allowance for new sets, read the books and chapter books and draw stories about their Lego Friends. They are so much fun, kudos to Lego for continuing make the most awesome toy ever!

Last week, I got busy on February 2012 in my scrapbook!

Yep, there's a toilet in my album. And why shouldn't there be? It was a part of our life, after all. I love this scrapbooking method, I never would have put a toilet in my book with my old method of scrapbooking! Ha!

Like I said, I have some awesome Summer sewing to share! Hopefully soon, but one never can tell with these Colorado weathermen ;)

Project Life Knockoff: January

I got the rest of my photos organized from 2012 and got going on more of my scrapbook! If you missed my first post about this, my new and simplified way of scrapbooking, you can read that here. I finished January on Monday night and started working on February last night. It's so relaxing and fun and the kids really love seeing what I've done. January didn't have very many pictures so it's only one spread. Other months have a TON. October, for example. Why do I have soooo many photos from October??

Anyway, here it is :)

By the way, Michael's now sells these photo inserts in a couple different layouts, which I used both of here! I was excited to have more layout options and they were inexpensive too, especially with a coupon :)

It's crazy how much kids grow up in just a year, right?? Pulling older photos out always makes me teary-eyed about how fast the time goes. Someone on the radio recently asked the question, "Is there anything in your life now that you're in danger of regretting later?" It inspired me to really focus in on the discipleship opportunities I have with my kids. Being a homeschooler, I have much opportunity for that and I have been praying daily that I will never let an opportunity slip by to point my kids to the Gospel. Because the years are so fast and I do not want to regret letting those teachable moments slip by because I'm tired, lazy or just kidded out. Ya know?

What about you?

Sundays are for sewing

After church on Sundays, I like to sew. Two Sundays ago, I spent all afternoon on a dress that did not work out. It was a bummer, even though it was just a muslin because although I wasn't upset about using nice fabric, I was bummed out to have wasted the time.

This past Sunday was much different! I had spent the evening before drafting a top pattern out by combining some existing patterns, tracing and retracing onto wrapping paper until it was exactly what I was wanting! I've been looking for a racerback tank pattern made for wovens and could only find patterns for knits, even though loose woven, sleeveless tops are all over in ready-to-wear this season!

The time spent was well worth it because on Sunday I was able to whip one out. Then I wanted out of the house for a bit, went to Old Navy, decided I could make better stuff than they're selling and came home and made another one :)

I am very happy with this pattern, it's fast to sew, flattering, loose and comfortable. Perfect for Summer!

I used Burda 7509 for the most part:

I liked the hemline and the shape, but I added two inches in length. The darts come from the armholes instead of the side seams, which I think is unusual, but made for a great fit.

But, I used the neckline and armholes of McCall's 6559 because I really love a racerback cut, I think it flatters shoulders and feels feminine and pretty.

I have used this pattern a ton. I've made the dress and two versions of the cardigan. I have an awesome knit with huge stripes sitting in my stash right now begging to be made into this pattern!

When I took these photos yesterday, it was in the 60's. I don't even want to show you what it looks like out my windows right now. Some winters just really hold on, don't they?