The Mardi Gras Post

We had a FUN Mardi Gras!!  There was some of this...

 Some of this...

This was going on in nearby Church Point...

Check out this float made with THOUSANDS of bottle caps!!  

Now that is Mardi Gras dedication!

 I did a little decorating...but not too much.  Again we have overlapping holidays...

 And I made The Middle Child a dress for Mardi Gras...

I LOVE this pattern!  It is so easy and very changeable...which I did.  Before I go on and on here is the link to Ellie Inspired.  I am sending you to her tutorials  page, because she has so many cute cute dresses and patterns.  I used the Sweet Apple Frock but didn't do the patchwork.

I also attached the sleeve straps to the center back to make it fit a little more snug, since I made the size 6.  But then after she wore it once I changed the straps to the sides to give her more wiggle room.

Here is a view with the sash tied in the back...

I know I am not the best at tying bows, but how cute is this...??

Well, the kiddos are back in school and The Boy is at my folks....gotta get back to some me time...and maybe some quality sewing! :)  Go check out Ellie Inspired....GOOD STUFF!!  Until later...

Getting Ready for Mardi Gras

Can you BELIEVE that we woke up this morning to THIS!!



And THIS??


See Lisa...I told you everything in my yard is DEAD!! And it is still going strong! But unfortunately, it rained all night so the snow is melting into all of the puddles on the ground. But still..it is pretty AMAZING!! Especially since it was in the 70s LAST WEEK!! Then the rains came, and it got COLD. Needless to say my sinuses are taking a beating. So I haven't been doing too much sewing! But I have been baking! I sent my Awesome Man out the door with this:


This is the third one I've done, so far. It is filled with Bavarian Creme...mmmmm. If you have a breadmaker and are interested in making one to celebrate Mardi Gras, HERE is the recipe I use. I don't remember the Bavarian Creme recipe I used..but I'm sure I googled it! :D

So...a little sewing going on, I am making some of these for the various children in our family. Super simple and tons of fun!




And with two holidays colliding, we've been busy making Valentines for the girls to bring to school...sadly, no pictures. But they had tons of fun embellishing hearts we cut with the Cricut!! And I finally got my desktop computer set up with the Sure Cuts Alot program so I can use the MANY free SVG files offered around blogland! Thank you!!

The Middle Child celebrated Valentine's Day, and then Mardi Gras at her Pre-K this week. She was able to wear the dress I made last year for Valentine's...as a top, but luckily she had a cute pair of red pants with hearts on the knees to pair with it. No picture of that either....yeah, I'm a slacker!! But I did make a new outfit for Mardi Gras...with pictures!!


Just a simple pillowcase style top with a pair of ruffled pants. Here's the action shot!

So, I will be crazy cleaning today since my Momma is coming for the weekend! We have some parades and a surprise party and a run with the chickens this weekend!! Wha-??! you say?? Well check THIS out. We will be in Church Point for the Courier de Mardi Gras...so much fun!! Those Cajuns are CRAZY!! :D So wherever you are HAVE FUN! And if you are venturing out to the Parades this season...bundle up and BE SAFE!! Until later...

Mardi Gras Madness!

So here are some before and after shots of the Mardi Gras costumes I embellished!! I finally finished them...and my "output" has picked up!! It is amazing how much I can accomplish when I am NOT working with sequins! :D

Here is the before shot:

We wanted one of those fuzzy collar, but the Sherpa was too dull so I opted for some sparkly, fluffy yarn and knitted a big rectangle and sewed it on the existing collar. Pretty good effect!

I embroidered the patch and added the sparkly ric rac!

It is supposed to be a cloud with a silver lining, and a lightening bolt coming out! Ms. Priss said it looked like a flower!

The children that these belong too will be the Wright Brothers. So we played around with "flight gear", but probably got the time frame wrong! I don't think they were wearing sequins back then!!

Here is the other outfit before:

And after

I knitted another rectangle to add a collar to the bomber jacket. And also did another name tag. I embellished the inside shirt as well, but didn't take pictures...I don't think....

And here is a shot of the back. I really like how this design came out! It sorta looks like a "sinking sun"!

So all in all...a success! I got it too her on time for all of the Formal Pictures were taken, so that's a plus!! She was happy with the outcome, and I learned ALOT in the process. The most important one....Don' t be afraid of embellishments :)

Well, it is WAY past my bedtime! I am off to bed...until later....

What to do with all of those BEADS!

Sorry about slacking off with my posts, we have all been fighting the stuffy noses around here! The constant change in weather has our sinuses in turmoil! I haven't been able to concentrate long enough to get anything new created! But now that the bon temps have roulled and the last traces of Mardi Gras have been cleaned up along the parade route, what do you do with all of those beads? My suggestion? Get out the hot glue guns and empty plastic containers and create craft buckets!

This is a great way to get rid of those beads and they make pretty containers to hold pencils, crayons, markers, etc... I made these last year and they have held up pretty good. We have had some issues with the Middle child trying to pull the beads off, so you probably don't want to use them around small children who still like to put things into their mouths! But these would be great teacher's gifts! Other suggestions for getting more use out of beads could be making beaded "curtains". I also made some of these a few years back and of course tried to make it more complicated than what it should have been, involving heavy duty staples. There is really no need for those, just snip the beads to the desired length and wrap around a dowel, twist the beads to hold then tie a pretty ribbon to the dowel to hang!

I will be back to sewing hopefully this weekend now that I am starting to feel better, so hopefully next week I will have new things to post. I got some great new patterns from the Habitual blog that I have a link to on the left that I can't wait to try out! There is a Kimono tutorial that I am going to lengthen a little and make Ms. Priss and the Middle Child robes with. I love the sewing community on the internet! They are so generous with their creations and go to great lengths to give you all of the information you need to create your own pretty things. I only wish to get as good so one day I can write a tutorial and "give back"! Until later...

We love a parade

Happy Lundi Gras! We made it to the Children's parade on Saturday, but yesterday was not a good day. We all have runny noses and the hubby and me are fighting fatigue. This is not how we wanted to celebrate our Mardi Gras weekend! Hopefully we will feel better tomorrow. Here is a picture of the tu-tus in action! We got loads of compliments, and all the one's at Bundle of Joy were sold. Maybe we will see them tomorrow. There is a parade tonight that we are hoping to make, and tomorrow there are parades all day and a carnival with rides. The children are very excited! Hopefully whatever it is we have will be gone so we can enjoy the day! I've managed to get a picture of an actual King cake that I have made. I tried to do a braid with this one, not too bad, but definitely not as good as the picture of the King cake I got off of the internet! Go figure! The hubby wanted this one filled with vanilla pudding. Kinda messy, but very tasty! As you can see, I NEVER get my colors right. The girls had fun decorating this one! There is nothing like slinging sugar around! Take a look:

As you can see, there was no waiting for mom to take a picture! Until later...

King Cake recipe for bread machine

First and foremost, this is not a picture of a King Cake I made. I haven't taken any pictures of mine, but I wanted an image so you would know how to shape it, so I googled it and found this picture. Anyway.... here's the recipe I use.

Ingredients:
4 Tbsp melted butter
4 Tbsp water
1/2 box (3.4 oz size) instant vanilla pudding
1 C milk
1 egg
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4 C bread flour
2 1/2 tsp yeast

Fill with:
1/2 C softened butter
1 C brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

Place ingredients in machine following the specifications of your machine. Set for DOUGH cycle. After complete on DOUGH cycle, remove from machine and roll out to approx 17 x 10 rectangle.

Filling: Mix together brown sugar and cinnamon. Spread softened butter over dough. Sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon mixture over top. Roll tightly from long end, pinching edges closed when completely rolled. Shape into oval or circle, some like to braid or twist, whichever method you prefer. Tuck one end into other and close tightly. Place on greased cookie sheet, cover and let rise until doubled in size. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.
Do Not overbake!

Frost with:
4 oz cream cheese (softened)
1/4 C butter (softened)
1 1/2 C confectioners sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp milk

I choose to fill mine with fruit or cream cheese after it has been baked by using a large tip cake decorator, then frost. I have never baked one with filling inside so I am not sure how to alter the recipe for that. If anyone tries it, let me know how it turns out!!

Add purple, gold, and green sugar sprinkles and you are done! Happy Mardi Gras!
Les bon temps Roule!

Busy Weekend

I had a very busy weekend, starting Friday with a call from Bundle of Joy ordering six more tu-tus! Needless to say, I was very excited. I was shopping when I got the call and rushed home to fill the order before they closed at 6 pm. I think I did a pretty good job, considering. These were a little different because the colors are a little brighter. I also finished up a short set for a 2 year old boy. My awesome man had to have a "white elephant" gift for his company Christmas party, and since most of the ladies are my biggest supporters, we thought it would be a good idea to give a "gift certificate" from me. I was told there was alot of stealing going on and the lucky winner decided to use it for a gift for her godson. I will be sending it with my man this morning so I hope she likes it. I got to use my birthday present from my folks for the first time and I love it! It is a dress form for children. I am working on my sizing and it is helping out tremendously. Here is the dress form.

And here is the outfit I made. It is denim shorts with LSU pockets, and a TShirt with a little tiger face applique, and the child's name monogrammed. I did something similar for The Boy when he was born.

I have a week to finish up the birthday present, quilt order, and shower gifts for this coming weekend, so I will hopefully be able to find the time to post. I am also working on Valentine's outfits for the girls so I am staying pretty busy. And you never know when those tu-tu orders will come in! Whew, I'd better get some sleep! Until later...

Mardi Gras Creations

Good Morning! I haven't posted all week because I have been busy creating! In addition to the two quilt orders, a couple of birthday gifts and a shower gift, I have been trying to come up with some ideas for Mardi Gras. I finished a couple of the decorative bibs I've been working on, and I decided to try embellishing some of the tu-tus with organdy ribbons to see how it would look, pretty good I think. Next I am going to try and incorporate a satin bow to some.

I was browsing Etsy, which is like an Ebay for handmade items and is really neat, and saw some bows that had embroidery work on them. I figured I could try it even though I don't think I am very good at making bows. I like how they came out, but will keep trying different bow types to see what works best.

I have added the pictures to the slideshow on the left. The embroidery thread is really neat it has multiple shades of purple so when it stitches out, it looks like stripes! Let me know what you think!

The bibs are purely for decorative purposes. The top material is a satin/ polyester blend with stiff gold stitching. The back is a nice soft Ultracuddle material to make up for the "scratchy" top. These pictures didn't come out very good, but the monogramming says Mardi Gras 2009 with two Fleur Di Lis on each side of the year. I have done different types of fonts to see which works best. Some are cutesy and some are for either sex. I think it is a good idea for babies since I have never found too many Mardi Gras onesies that I like. This way the baby can wear a white onesie, long or short-sleeved depending on this crazy Louisiana weather, with the bib over it as decoration! Easy. Anyway, as soon as I finish with my orders and gifts I am going to start making Mardi Gras pillowcase dresses, or A-lines I haven't decided yet. I also promised Miss Priss and one of "the boys" that I would try to make a fleece "helmet"-type hat. See, busy, busy! One last pitch...Miss Priss is a Girl Scout Daisy this year and it is almost COOKIE TIME! Pre-orders will be beginning shortly! :) Until later...

Keeping that Resolution

I had a good and productive weekend. I am trying to keep that "Get organized" resolution. So I went to the consignment shop that I sell my Tu-tus and discussed organizational things with the owner who is awesome! Unfortunately for her, she and I are alot alike. We have all kinds of wonderful ideas, but not enough time and sometimes, not enough motivation to follow through. Maybe together we can overcome that! Her hubby made a really cute counter top display so I decided, actually we decided to copy it for my tu-tus. I was actually motivated enough to finish it and it is ready to be taken in to display all of my tu-tus. Hooray! I also did a mini one for the girls, but I didn't have enough end caps to finish it. But the size would be a good counter display for bibs and burps, I think.

Anyway, I made the tu-tus also. Before I bring it to the store, I am going to make a couple more, but solid colors I think. I have a couple already there besides the Mardi Gras theme, there are LSU and UL Lafayette themes. They are left from the fall, so now I think it is time for some cheery colors. The name of the consignment shop is My Cutie Patootie on Rena Drive if anyone local is interested. The owner is highly motivated to sell locally handmade items. She has some burps and bibs, hair bows, bow hangers, A-line dresses, and my tu-tus! She is really sweet and laid-back.

Have I mentioned lately how awesome it is to have a serger!! I finally made PJ pants for my girls! They picked out the material in November!! Once I got the flannel cut it only took MINUTES to sew them up!! I love it! It took longer to put the elastic waistband in! Needless to say, they were happy to have them last night!

I also made a penguin pair for Miss Priss, but finished the kitties first so that is what she wore! I've added them to the slideshow on the left. I also added a link to the DIY network site. For anyone interested they have great ideas and even teaches you how to make stuff. A friend asked me to remind her about casting on and purl stitches, we've switched to KNITTING for those who don't follow, anyway this site has a good craft section and glossary index so I thought it might be fun to send you there! I am very upset with the channel though. Usually during the day they have all of the craft type programs on, but here lately they have had home improvement shows on. Nobody wants to improve there homes until the spring, during the winter people stay inside and make stuff!! Ok, my mini rant is over. Happy Martin Luther King Jr day, enjoy your children being home from school! Until later...

Staying Busy

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I have been pretty busy. Which is a totally good thing! I am trying to learn Time Management! If I can do better at managing the time it takes to do things, then I am sure I can get a lot more accomplished. I am finishing up a couple of things so I can start on new ones. Hopefully by the end of January, I will have many new things to post. For now, I finished my Mardi Gras tu-tu "prototype" and will finish the bib by the end of the day. What do you think? I think the yellow is very washed out in this picture. But I am sure that everybody knows that Mardi Gras colors are purple, green, and gold! I took this picture in the morning sunlight, maybe I need to find better lighting the next time?

I also did a towel wrap for my Godson's birthday, but didn't get a picture of it. And I made these for my wonderful mother to wear on her bowling trip.

But they are from a "hipster" pattern and my mom likes full coverage, so I will be adding a longer waistband to compensate! Wish me luck on that! These are also a wide leg pant and very comfy. I think I will have to make me some. Of course I had to add pockets, because what are lounge pants without them? I made them on my new serger and I gotta tell ya, I am loving it. It makes my projects whiz by. It really does cut down the time it takes to do garment sewing. I would definitely recommend getting one if you like to sew clothing. I will be doing some pillowcase dresses next and I can't wait to see how fast they seam up! I am also thinking about using my serger to do my quilt blocks. It is supposed to help the seams lay flat, and it will cut the excess fabric while it is sewing the seam, so it has to be a win/win! I'll let you know, but for now I must get back to managing my time! Until later...

Warmth for the New Year

Happy 2009! I hope everyone had a safe and fun New Year's. I know a certain someone who probably curled up with her Christmas present after a long night of New Year's libations. This just goes to show you that you can make a quilt out of anything! Speaking of quilts, that is what I will be making the next couple of weeks. I have to finish up my Godson's Christmas gift, I'll post pictures when it is done. The top is knitted squares, so I am trying to figure out the best way to attach the fabric bottom layer. I also have a special project for a very special person that I am working on that is now going to be a Valentine's day gift. Hopefully. And lastly, I got an order for another LSU inspired quilt. This time it is for a boy, so I will be making different fabric selections. I have also decided that I am going to be inspired by Mardi Gras this year. I already have several projects in mind and can't wait to see if they will turn out as good as I see them in my head. Any Mardi Gras orders or idea suggestions are welcomed. I am thinking tu-tus and bibs for now, but will think about pillowcase dresses and T-shirts. I will post more on that topic as Mardi Gras gets closer! I have been given 6 months to figure out how to do an embroidered fabric party hat, so I have to get on that too. Well, hopefully my 2009 will be as exciting and inspiring as I want it to be, but for now, it's time for the morning "mommy" duties. Until later...