Sew the Show

I don't often enter sewing contests or link-ups because I can't handle the pressure. BUT, if you follow Alida Makes, you know she started a Sew the Show series a few months ago. Every month she picks a Netflix show and everyone sews up a look based on the show's fashions. This month is FRIENDS!!!! You guys, Casey and I have watched this show from start to finish so many times, it's not even funny. I'd been in a sewing slump (the last few things I've made have turned out to be duds!) so this was just the creative boost I needed! I immediately started looking for ideas.

The Facebook page associated with the contest is a pretty fun place. Today someone posted the infamous Rachel in Barbados dress. Don't we all need a statement sundress like this in our closet?

So far I have this denim vest. Do you know how many denim vests Rachel wears in the first few seasons? And overalls too, but I have exited the age bracket for pulling off overalls, haha. If you follow me on Instagram (which you can find via my pretty new button over there to the right, hehe), you may have already seen this.

It needs buttons and then it'll be done. I've made another piece to go with it, but I'm saving the finished look for the linky party!

I've been watching Murdoch Mysteries on Netflix while I sew lately. As long as my Internet cooperates, that is. It doesn't like to reach all the way upstairs! Frustrating, but oh, well. What do you watch or listen to while you sew?

Check it ooouutt!

Ok, I have learned some coding skillz. And I'm pretty darn proud of myself! It's good to self-educate, right?? How's it look?? I'm so excited about how it's coming along, even though I have lots left to do! Some of the tabs up there are still blank, but I'm working on it!

You'll notice the change of name, I'm sure. All past Fancy That links will now redirect to the new URL. I waffled for weeks about whether to change the name of my blog to Eat, Pray, Diffuse, which is how I have branded my essential oil business. In the end, I went for it. Fancy That, although it will always be special to me, is not an available domain name and there are multiple blogs and businesses with that name. But, no one has claimed Eat, Pray, Diffuse and that name is so fitting, I bought the domain name, along with nikkischreiner.com and took the plunge!

Before I go further, don't worry, my blog will still be updated on Bloglovin' and other readers as far as I know, I'm just working on getting names changed over. Also, I'm going to go ahead and shut down the Fancy That Facebook page. If any of you rely only on that page for new posts, you'll want to be sure and follow me another way. I'm sorry! Although, I really don't think that anyone who follows me there doesn't also follow me on a reader. Let me know if I'm wrong.

But I want to tell you about the new name! Casey and I racked our brains for the perfect team name for our essential oil biz and I finally landed on Eat, Pray, Diffuse. That's the name of our team's Facebook page too, which I'll be happy to add you to when you take the essential oil plunge with me, hehe. It's not only quippy, it's how I deal with stress, in that order: Eat, Pray, Diffuse. And then I sew, of course ;)

This blog will remain a blog about sewing and our life and all the things I've always blogged about but, I'm so excited to share how we use essential oils in our family too, including tips and "recipes". I'm trying a homemade laundry detergent right now that's amazing!

Thanks for listening and I'd love to hear your feedback on the new look!

(This was taken by my dear photographer friend Angela when she visited me and I love it :)

It works!!!

The Internet will not beat me! If you didn't notice the redirect, I am the proud owner of nikkischreiner.com!! Check it out up there, yippee! This may seem like an easy thing, but once you have the domains purchased, you must redirect your blog's old URL to the new one and this is harder than it seems. For me, anyway, sheesh. I'm sure most people do this without a hitch, but I feel rather accomplished right now ;) I went with Bluehost for my domain, in case you're interested. I do think it's user friendly and the one time I called customer service, they were awesome. I'm still blogging on Blogger, though. I tried switching to Wordpress, but decided I wasn't up for the learning curve right now, haha.

So changes are coming! A change of name, for one, and some new tabs and links. I'm working on it, piece by piece!

We had a lovely Easter weekend. My mom came to visit! We were excited to see her :)

So, our weekend in photos:

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter too!

P.S. It occurs to me that I have no idea if I need to do anything on BlogLovin' or anywhere else to make sure my followers are still updated with my blog posts, now that my url has changed. If you have any insight on that, I'm all ears.

new tops, new camera

Hello, lovelies! I had a busy week, but what else is new? Haha.

I'm just gonna get right to the sewing :)

I really love Fabletics. They have great quality athletic wear and while the prices are decent, they're not low enough for me to flood my wardrobe with the stuff, if ya know what I mean. I had my eye on a drapefront sleeveless knit top. I came super close to ordering it, when I remembered I had a pattern just like it! AND I had just been gifted the perfect fabric to make it with. The pattern is Simplicity 1588, View A, which is not styled well on the envelope at all.

Here is my first copycat, which you already saw if you follow me on Instagram. (I'm into watching Murdoch Mysteries while I sew. I recommend it :)

And while I had the pattern out, I went ahead and made another one! I wore it for yoga that day (I do yoga at home, I really love Yoga with Adriene, she's my favorite,) hence the yoga pants. It stays put on my hips, even in downward dog :)

 Okay, prepare for an onslaught of unrelated photos, because I was GIFTED a new camera and just cannot get enough of it!! My D90 was damaged in the last move and while my little D50 was getting the job done, this D200 just blows both those out of the water and I am just floored that it's mine and by the generosity of my lovely friend!!!!

We are doggie sitting again. We love this dog. Seriously.

Red hair don't care. #gingerproblems

 Cardinals on my lanai! 

 Diffusing doTERRA cleansing blend with Grapefruit because big dogs stink, haha. This completely gets rid of any smell, even if you've been cooking bacon. Or something with fish sauce. I think it's cool how the camera captured the mist!

 A bee on my cucumber plant.

 This never gets old.

I am already having so much fun with the new camera, it's going to make my life and my blogging a whole lot more fun ;)

Happy Spring!

It's the first day of Spring! Not that it means anything to the weather and I'm sure some of your states didn't get the memo. It's been beautiful here, though, of course. Actually this week marks our one-year of living here in Hawaii! I can't believe it's been that long. Last Easter we lived in a hotel. Mother's Day too, actually. Maybe I should celebrate by going back to the hotel this Mother's Day. Haha. Ah, the maid service and beach access.

Anywho, I visited the mainland last week and came home with a ginormous suitcase so full of fabric, I had to pay extra for my bag. It was totally worth it, though and I had planned on the extra expense. I do have a couple fabric stores here, but I pay so much more for everything and there are never sales or coupons. Not only did my friend Jenn give me fabric from her cleaned-out stash, she took me to her wonderful Mill End store, where I piled my cart high and then bought it all, without doing any head math and putting some back. Ha! For me, that's a big deal. But, in the end, I got 10 cuts of fabric for $80. Awesome!

I grabbed this knit, with a vision of this very style of dress in mind. I've seen sporty striped knit dresses like this on Pinterest. I pulled out McCall's 6559 and got to work.

You can see I added a casing to the outside, with a drawstring so it would blouse a little. I've made this pattern five times now, the dress three times and the cardigan twice! This was the curliest knit I've ever worked with, it was hilarious. I quite trying to press it and hem it, I just let it roll, haha.

I'd like to make another like this, I think. I have a couple other things to share and I whipped up a cute dress for Natalie yesterday. She finally made it into the size 10, lol, she's been an 8 for like, four years!

Have a lovely weekend!

Ten!

My firstborn turned ten on Monday!!! Blessedly, she wore pig tails that day, which made her not look quite as grown-up as she's been looking lately and was good for my Mommy heart ;)

 Layla wrote the sign, I think it's adorable.

For her birthday breakfast, I made these birthday cake muffins from the latest Rachael Ray magazine. I love her magazine, its my one and only magazine subscription. 

Instead of a party, she chose a shopping day, just me and her! It was so much fun and she's so cute. We went to Target, Starbucks, the mall and lunch. She picked several outfits and spent a couple gift cards from Grandparents. She's even still thanking me for how much fun she had, several days later. 

These "mix tapes" have easily become my favorite part of birthdays!! They are SO MUCH FUN and we listen to them in the car all the time. It was really fun listening to hers during our shopping day, she was so excited to see what was coming next ;) Here's what made it onto Natalie's Ten Tunes:

 For her birthday, she asked for a skateboard! She's doing pretty well on it, but she's played with neighbor's several times. She knew she wanted the long kind, not a short one, so I picked this one.

My kids are gonna have a real shocker when we move back to the mainland someday and they actually have to put shoes on occasionally, haha.  Sometimes we drive down to the pool and realize no one bothered putting shoes on, lol.

I don't know if you all remember me almost a year ago asking your opinion on accepting a house site-unseen with no yard and shared walls and a shared driveway and how nervous I was about it and how I mourned our huge backyard in Colorado? Let me just update you and say how thankful I am to be living here! And not just here in this neighborhood where it's so safe for the kids to play, where they have friends, where everyone is a wonderful neighbor, but on one of the best spots in this entire neighborhood! I think the Lord knew how much the views from this hilltop would bless my heart day after day.
These were both taken yesterday, one morning, one night:

 Amazing. And I didn't even hit the "enhance" button ;)

I'm off tomorrow for a jaunt to the mainland! It will be a much-needed break for me and Casey's excited to play "Mr. Mom" for the week. He says he's going to meal plan and do school and the pool, beach and bowling and the Bishop Museum. And don't forget dance! And grocery shopping with all the kids. And I'm sure he'll know now where my spending money disappears to every week, ha!

Cheers to you all and happy Friday :)

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Revamp.

I am working on revamping my blog. Not like just a new header and stuff, which I do probably too often, but a full-on overhaul. Gotta bring the blog up to 2015! I'm excited and also in way over my head, ha! Apparently one must look stupid multiple times to learn anything about the Internet these days. I'm ok with it. I considered waiting until I had everything ready and then having a big unveiling, but let's get real, I'm not that cool. Haha!

I am working through the Blog Design Love 2.0 e-course by A Beautiful Mess and am learning a lot! I'm happy to say it's worth the $45. In case you were waffling ;)  So, bit by bit, you'll see the blog start to change. Hopefully.

Some small, but exciting thing happened in my sewing room over the weekend! For my birthday, Casey bought me a TV for my sewing room, along with a Roku since we don't have cable. It's so nice to have up there! I often listen to music or podcasts while I sew, but I get into certain shows occasionally too. Right now, Murdoch Mysteries is my go-to sewing show! And sometimes Kelby hangs out up there with me and watches Ninja Turtles. I love that cartoon, I admit it.

This is what my space looked like before. I know, a mess.

But then Casey built me a shelf and now it's sooo much nicer! 

The shelf spans the length of the wall too, so I have extra space! I think I might finally snatch some of the cute prints on Etsy I've had my eye on and make my walls happy. 

I love this shot of Kelby and Casey when they were putting up the shelf:

 I put that on Instagram. You can find me on Instagram as nikkischreiner. I love Instagram and I like finding new people to follow! You should also follow Barbiestyle because it's awesome. And Prissy_Pig. I also follow Target! It's weird to follow a store, maybe, but they have the most creative photos! 

If you follow me there, you'll get to see this kind of hilarity from time to time. 

Cheers :)