N wearing the nightgown I made. It didn't turn out as bad as I thought and it fit almost perfect to her.

So I did manage to get a couple of pictures of the girl wearing the nightgown and the crown.  Not perfect shots by any means but at least they are better than the ones where she is trying to get behind the camera. Of course she doesn’t know that it doesn’t work that way.

Yay for the birthday girl!! I forgot the crown when we were cutting her cake but she wore the crown all the next day.

She has a nice day, nothing major but lots of family there.

The New Girl's quilt. I am not sure that I like how it turned out.

The way I had envisioned it was a lot different. But the more I look at it the more I am getting used to it. The back will be the same yellow/ flowery print that is on the front. In the middle block I will embroider her name.

Then in practicing in working with knits I wanted to make N a nightgown, She has run out of sleeping things already…She is growing so fast.

So here is the before picture.

As you can see I had already started to cut into when I decided that I should take a picture.

And this is what I ended up with. I am not perfectly happy with it. I need to do something with the sleeves and the neckline isn’t what I wanted, but I ran out of scraps. However I love the flower at the bottom.

Not the best picture, but you work with what you have. And because N was trying to get into the shot while I was taking it.

I found that working with the knit isn’t as hard as I was expecting, but of course I was working with an old shirt of mine and not straight from a bolt of fabric like I would normally do. Also I couldn’t get the girl to wear it so that I could take pictures of her.

Now for the next project I love this. N’s birthday is this weekend and she will be two. I wanted to make her a little something that I could get pictures of on her on her birthday. She will be a princess for the day, not a queen, that position is already taken.

Don't you just love it?! This was really a practice for her costume for Halloween this year.

Aren't they just the cutest?

I had decided at the beginning of summer that I wanted to make them the same shirt for the both of them but was hoping that I would get it done before June. Well that didn’t work but at least I finished it in time for the last month of summer. I am not perfectly satisfied with my husbands shirt. It looks a bit to short for me in the front but he likes it and I will have to figure out what I did wrong in the next shirt that I make for him.  Even though it is the same pattern that I used for his last shirt using the man fabric, this one.

Now I have to make a dress and skirt for N, a baby quilt for the new girl whom we haven’t come up with a name yet, and a J’s and N’s Halloween costume for October. I know that it is a bit early but I don’t plan to be around for Halloween this year. I should be having this baby at that time. I want them to have something good for this year. I already know what I am going to make them. I can’t wait to show you pictures!! They are even excited about it this time around.

As always let me know what you think.

Me and the kids went to Florida to see my sister, her family and my dad, stepmom and sister. It was long, exhausting, fun and makes me really wish that we all lived a little closer together so that we could visit more often. But now it is time to head back into our old routine.

Lots of swimming!

Watching the shows at Seaworld.

Eating and playing with the cousins.

We had a really great time. To bad it is over but grateful that we are back home.

Anyways, there was a meet and greet on Friday night and my and my friend Tiffany from Simply Modern Mom were able to go. Dana was here on Friday night for a meet and greet and then on Saturday for demos and a class. I wasn’t able to make it on Saturday due to my husband getting bitten by a yellow jacket, to which is he severely allergic.

I forgot my camera, can you believe that?! But was able to get a group shot of all of us on Friday night. Thank you Tiffany for the picture!

Had so much fun!

It is sad to say that I don’t remember everyone’s name that I meet that night. However I can say that just talking to everyone was so much fun and it is amazing at how much we all have in common with each other.

If you want to see more pictures of that weekend you should check out Dana’s Blog here and Tiffany’s blog here.

One for J and one for N. They love them.

Since we are leaving this weekend to visit family I figured that having something to keep them upright in their carseats would be good for them. So here are the neck pillows that I made for the kids.  I had made them and stashed them so that they wouldn’t play with them before the trip. I wanted to keep the novelty of them if possible.  Unfortunately for me, they found them and was running around the house with the pillows around their necks. They looked goofy for sure.

I made a little tag for each one so that neither of them can complain about the other having theirs.

Me and my kids are going to be traveling to Florida in a few weeks to see family. I wanted to make sure that I was able to keep them entertained without the seeming necessity of movies and video games.  So I scrolled through my blog reader to see what I could be inspired by.

I came across these posts which I loved.

This is the Scrap covered Clipboard from Dear Fii found here.

Then it was the how to Make a Magnet Chalkboard and travel bag from Fireflies and Jellybeans found here and here.

And this one here from Smashed Peas and Carrots. Chalkboard cloth, How awesome is that stuff. I bought a yard.

So I had all this inspriation and was thinking of something that my kids would be able to handle since they are both still pretty young. Since they will also be carrying backpacks, I wanted something that would fit inside and be easily portable without a lot of mess to go with it. Or at least too much of a mess, they are kids after all.

I came up with this.

Here is the front of the clipboard. J loves Cars. He picked out this fabric.

This is the back with the Chalkboard cloth has been glued to the back. I used E6000. Since this is the first time that I have glued something like this down, next time I will take more time and not leave so many marks where the glue is. Or bubbles…

And in the middle pouch, which I have closed with a snap, is the flannel eraser for the chalkboard on the back of the clipboard.

I really hope that this will keep them entertained as we travel. Or at least enough so that I can have a turn listening to the radio or an audiobook while we are on the road.

As always let me know what you think.

Before I started I check out the tute that Dana from Made had made to give me some idea of how it would work. Check it out here.

Recently my husband handed me some shirts that I am planning to refashion anyways but they were slightly discolored. The white ones especially. They really weren’t white any longer. So I decided I would dye them first to see how they turned out.

Before:

the blue one is 98% cotton and 2 % spandex, the middle white one is 100% cotton and the one on the right is 65% polyester and 35% cotton.

Here is what the shirts looked like in my sink. I didn’t quite trust my washing machine. It is evil. I know that it would have held on to some dye to use in my next wash of clothes.

The top is the 100% cotton, middle is the 65% poly and 35 % cotton and bottom is 98 % cotton and 2% spandex.

I don’t believe that my sink was really big enough for the fabric to move freely in. I now understand why the directions say to constantly stir or agitate the fabric.  I ended up with some blotchy spots but not enough to bother me or what I make out of the shirts.  But also you will find things on the fabric that you might not have noticed before just because they didn’t dye to match the rest of the fabric.

I really liked how this one turned out. My husband could have worn it again except for the small part that didn't dye and I don't know if it is part of the fabric or something else.

You might not be able to see it as well but I believe that it is a part of the weave.

This is the 100% cotton

Blotches on the sleeves. Thankfully I am turning all these into short sleeved shirts for me.

This is the 98% cotton, 2% spandex. A nice dark shade, but this was already a blue color before I dyed it.

There are more blotches that I missed on this shirt on the sleeves and some on the back.

I found that in doing this in the sink there just wasn’t enough room to move the fabric around in to be able to get a good coverage.  The next time I dye, and I will dye again, I will get a large plastic tub that will give me plenty of room to move and swirl.

I really liked how I got three different shades of blue depending on the type of fabric. I used RIT Royal Blue dye to try the first time around. I figured it would be a good color instead of pink or orange first. Especially if I make a mistake and end up dying my counters.

I think I just picked up another hobby. Let me know what you think and I will show you what I make out of the shirts. Hopefully before summer is over.

It has two snaps, and is made in olive green fleece and

man fabric. I love this man fabric.

closed and ready to go.

Recognize the outer fabric? Let me know what you think.

It is hard to take a picture of a skirt when you can't see where you are aiming.

Out of the dozen’s of pictures that I took, well ok  five pictures that I took,  this as the best one.  Because this is a stretch knit and has a 2″ elastic waistband it will grow with me into the summer months.  Next spring and summer I will take in the waist and wear it then.

Let me know what you think.