A Day Late and a Dollar Short

Yesterday was Wednesday, but it was also one of those days I don't think I got to sit down until somewhere after the kiddos went to bed.  I feel like we have those days a lot.  I know I should enjoy them now because there will come a day when the house will be quiet and we won't be frantically running out the door to the next appointment.

So yesterday was Wednesday and we went to the library and the theme was "Nursery Rhymes."  Which, I thought was going to be an easy theme but you'd be surprised.

Piper wore:

Oliver + S Book Report Dress

This is the Oliver + S Book Report Dress done in Heather Ross Nursery Versery Little Pigs in Pink and Robert Kaufman Metro Living Circles in Chartreuse.  I had been eyeing the Heather Ross fabric for quite a while but it is a Japanese import linen blend and is kind of pricy.  When I heard what this weeks theme was it gave me the perfect opportunity to need to purchase some.  

When the two fabrics arrived in the mail, I really liked them together.  As I was putting the dress together, I started to think it was a mistake and didn't like them together at all.  After I was finished and had a few days to admire my finished work it started to grow on me again.  In the end, I like the finished product.

Like all O+S patterns this one had clear, easy to follow directions and cute details on the dress like the buttons at the neckline.  I chose to use some mother-of-pearl buttons on both the shoulders and cuffs at the sleeves.

The back of the dress has a cute contrast yoke and pleated detail:

I guess I should point out the fabric details.  Like I said the theme was nursery rhymes.  Take a look at my cute pink piggies and see if you can figure out which nursery rhyme it was:

Did you get it?  How 'bout, "this little piggie went to market, this little piggie stayed home, this little piggie had roast beef and this little piggie had none, this little piggie cried wee, wee, wee all the way home."  Cute, right!

In addition to dressing Piper to match the theme she brings something for show-n-tell as well.  Not that she ever gets up to show it but I keep hoping one day she will.  I looked and looked through her plethora of stuffies and had nothing related to a nursery rhyme.  So I quickly whipped up this guy on Sunday afternoon:

He's supposed to be Humpty Dumpty but I was kind of winging it.  Surprisingly everyone recognized him.  I taught Piper the rhyme, she calls him "humpy dumpy." :)

Finally here's one last look at my cutie model in her adorable new dress.  I did add length to it hoping it would last her for fall, but I'm doubtful.  Another thing to note, the bottom of the dress is quilting cotton.  I think in the future, I'd like to use something with a little more weight to it.  I just wasn't happy with the way it was hanging at times yesterday and I think that was partially due to the lightness of the quilting cotton.  I do in fact have another dress like this finished and the bottom is twill, I'm anxious to have her wear it to see the difference.  But, you'll have to wait to see it. ;)

Snow Day!

Yay! We have had our first snow day since sometime in February of 2010.  The past two years Zachary has had more time off from school due to hurricanes than snow.  Last week he was terribly disappointed by the early dismissal from school due to inclement weather which in the end turned out to only be rain.  As you can imagine, we have been in desperate need of a snow day.  We have already been out for round one of fun in the snow and will likely go back out this afternoon if the snow is still here.

Of course I took a lot more photos and you can see them here.

Library Wednesday

Happy Wednesday!

This weeks library theme was "Hats."

Oliver + S Bucket Hat

Piper wore this Oliver + S Bucket Hat (from the book Little Things to Sew and free on their website).  I made the hat in December right after Christmas.  It was the first thing I made so I could try out my new Bedazzler.  The fabric is Riley Blake Dress Up Days.  I love this fabric sooooo much.  I have a bit left and have a spring dress planned for it.

Piper had a bit of the sillies and wasn't much up for modeling.

Progress on Zachary's room continues.  All the walls are painted.  We need to do some touch ups around the windows and baseboards.  Hopefully we can at least get his bed put in this evening so he doesn't have to sleep on the couch anymore.  Although I think he likes it.  Maybe by early next week we'll have everything put back together and I will have some pictures to show. :)

Room Re-Do Part 1

Over the weekend we started a full room makeover in Zachary's room.  I wish I were here to report that we were all done and show off some final photo's but no such luck.  This is the first time we have ever done any kind of room redecorating in the 14 years we've been married.  Being a military family that rented homes and moved every 3 or so years just didn't allow for this kind of thing.  Needless to say, we are working out a lot of kinks with our first project.  So, it's going a little slower than expected, but it's fun watching it come together.

This is the before:

This is during:

We let Zachary pick out the colors, new furniture and new linens.  I think he did a great job on his selection.  I was hoping to be finished painting by today so we could get his furniture back in his room tomorrow and he won't have to continue to sleep on the couch.  We'll see if that happens.

Rainy Day Project: Swing Set Skirt

The weather here has been yucky the past few days.  It's been warmer than normal but also very cloudy and wet.  It has me in a bit of a funk.  Yesterday I was looking for a cute, fun, quick project to help lift my mood.  This is what I came up with:

 

Oliver + S Swingset Skirt

It's a modified version of the Oliver + S Swingset skirt.  I love sewing skirts, they are quick and easy and Piper loves to wear them.  In the mornings when I get her dressed I give her options, 9 times out of 10 she wants to wear a skirt.  This skirt was no exception to quick and easy.  I did modify it a bit.

I wanted the lining to hang out a bit at the bottom so I switched the top skirt and lining skirt pieces.  Did that make sense?  Essentially the lining is on top and the skirt is on the bottom according to the pattern pieces.

The pattern uses a drawstring at the waist.  I didn't feel like making button holes and wanted something simple and easy to wear so I opted to eliminate the drawstring.  At the waist, I sewed the lining and top skirt together opposite the directions, then turned them right sides out.  I then top stitched the two.  Then I sewed 3/8" from the top and 1 3/8" below (leaving a 2" opening for adding the elastic) to create a casing.  This sort of gave the skirt a paper bag waist.  You can kind of see here what I did:

For one final touch, I added a little bling.

I was able to almost finish the entire skirt from first cut to last stitch during nap time.  Unfortunately someone in our house is taking shorter naps than she used to so I am getting less done during nap time.  

Piper's been watching the Tinkerbell series of movies a lot lately so I was pretty excited when I found some Tinkerbell fabric at WalMart recently.  Have you seen the Tinkerbell movies?  I have to admit, when DH first brought one home I was a little annoyed.  He knows my position on princess-culture.  (I know what you are thinking, we had a Brave birthday party.  Merida is different, she's strong and independent and gets dirty).  Turns out the Tinkerbell movies are not so bad either.  Tinkerbell is also a strong female character (a little hot headed) but she's a "tinker" fairy.  More or less, Tinkerbell is an engineer of the fairy world.  She builds things to solve every day problems the fairies have.  I guess I can't complain about that.  

Anyway, hopefully the weather will improve soon.  If not, I've got plenty more fabric for sewing quick, cute skirts for Piper to wear. :)

Library Wednesday

Wednesday is my favorite day of the week.  I get to go spend time in two of my all time favorite places on earth; the library and the coffee shop.  I always say, if I win the lottery I want to open a children's bookstore / coffee shop / bakery.  I'd be in my own personal heaven every single day if that were ever to happen.  For now, I just have Wednesday's to look forward to.

This week's library theme was Winter.  I didn't make Piper anything special because I had picked up the cutest fuzzy skirt at the end of last winter from Gymboree and knew she had to wear it today.

Sometimes it's hard to get a good picture because she can be such a goof, like this...

So, I didn't sew up a new outfit but I did make something for library.  For some unknown reason every time we went to the library I thought it would be easier to balance a half dozen books in my hands and chase after a toddler than carry them neatly in a bag (that was said with oodles of sarcasm).  I can't even begin to explain why it has taken me 2 years of story time to finally decide to make / bring a tote bag to carry our library books in.  I've seen plenty of other mom's and dad's do it.  Sometimes I can be a little slow on the draw.

Over the weekend I was just looking for a quick project to put together and it dawned on me that we needed a bag to carry our books in for library this week.  I had the perfect fabric for it, Cat in the Hat, I just needed the perfect pattern.  Where better to look than my favorite place on the internet for sewing, Oliver + S.  That's right, in addition to the adorable children's clothes, Liesl also designs bags, quilts, and other great items.  I used the Mother-Daughter Tote pattern that is free on the Oliver + S website and got to work.

 Oliver + S Mother - Daughter Tote

If you know me at all, you know of my love and affection for all things Dr. Seuss.  So the fabric for this tote was easy to select.  I have been trying to come up with a good project for my stash of Seuss fabrics from Robert Kaufman and this was it.  Of course the tote is quick and easy to put together.  I did modify the pattern a bit.  Instead of using 4 different fabrics, I used 3 making the middle stripe a bit wider.  The inside of the tote is lined with a nondescript blue fabric I had in my stash.  I don't really know where it came from or what it's made of, but it's nice and sturdy so it works well.

I think today's nap-time project will consist of making a second tote for Piper.  She loves to carry many, many stuffed friends with her when we leave the house and we never seem to have a bag that fits her, they are either too small or the straps are too long.  That isn't the case with this tote.  I didn't measure mine, so I'm not sure what the dimensions are.  You can see in the pictures above where she's standing next to it.  It's not a huge tote, but it holds 8 library books without any problem.  The straps aren't too long either, Piper can easily carry the bag (when it doesn't have 8 library books, then it was too heavy). I did get a Bedazzler for Christmas (Thanks Mom!), so you can be sure Piper's bag will have some bling on it. :)

Oh, and we did go get coffee after visiting the library...

Wednesday, what a great day! :)

December in Review

So, December was an incredibly busy month at our house.  I never intended to take a blogging break, I just never really got a chance to sit down at the computer for more than a few minutes here and there.

So much happened in December, it's all still a little blurry (good thing I have pictures)...

The beginning of December, Zachary had an audition for Tri-County Choir.  I am pleased to announce that he was selected to both the Tri-County Choir and the State Choir (his audition for that was in November).  The weeks ahead will be full of rehearsals here, there and everywhere but what an exciting time for him.

Then there was a piano recital:

We visited with Santa:

We attempted to get some birthday photos taken:

This was sort of the theme of the photo shoot.

A special little girl turned 3, and there was a party!  Complete w/ princess dress:

A beautiful cake, the birthday girl helped to make: 

A lot of fun was had by all!

At some point I must have hit my head because I also agreed to make not one, but two different wedding cakes for two different friends:

Somewhere in the midst of all this Christmas came and it was lovely!

So, in addition to ALL of this sometime in early December on the Oliver + S blog Liesl was asking if anyone would be interested in testing a new pattern.  I volunteered and was sent a pre-released pattern to make this lovely:

Liesl + Co Woodland Stroll Cape

The cape was just released this week in both an adult and child sized version.  I will go into greater detail later this week, because there is a good story to go with it.

I have been sewing up a storm and feeding my fabric addiction quite a bit over the past month.  I have a lot to show you in the coming weeks.  Tomorrow we start back to library and I have a fun project to show you tomorrow in honor of story time.  Check back to see what it might be...