Sewing Room Make Over!!

Hello everyone!! Hope your Summer is going well...when does school start again??! ;) I am just popping in to let you know that I haven't been too lazy lately. My good...make that AWESOME friend, Kathy "moved in" last week and wouldn't leave until my sewing room looked like THIS!!!

Our 23 yo moved out and left this HUGE corner desk!! It fits all of my machines beautifully! The hutch is not the one that came with the desk, but it fit better!!

Some of my fabric neatly rolled and stored....YAY!!

AND....I have a cutting table!!! I knew it was in this room, someWHERE!! HA! Oh, if you look against the far wall you can see the original hutch! It is that BIG, that is why I couldn't put it on the desk! :) But it fit perfectly in that spot and holds all kinds of little trims and things!!

Well, that's all...just wanted to show off my "new" sewing space!! I got an order for an LSU crib set from a first time Momma in Baton Rouge!! So I am busy, busy!! Until later...

Summer Lovin'....Having a Blast!

Did I ever mention that July is the MONTH of Birthdays around here? Ok...not the MONTH, but for sure the WEEK!! :) Well, I guess if I am to be accurate, I must start the last week of June! So here goes: my baby sister 6/24, my cousin 6/26...we also just added a new bundle of joy through my SIL's sister on the 26th (congrats girl), my BFF 6/27, my OLDER sister 7/3, my niece also 7/3, my Middle Child 7/4 hence the patriotic bday banner above, one of our oldest family friends 7/5, my sweet Momma 7/6, my cousin's daughter 7/7...which also happens to be my awesome man's and mine anniversary, 10 YEARS...YAY!! See...now how is one LAZY momma supposed to keep up with all of those birthdays and events???!!! Lots of rain checks, and "I'll have them for you soons!!" obviously!! HA!

So where to begin....oh, of COURSE. My sassy Middle Child turned FIVE!!!

I first saw a pair of cuffed bloomers over at No Big Dill, do you read that one? She is soooo talented, and with FIVE girls and one on the way HOW on EARTH does she manage to do everything she does???!! Anyway, I thought they were so cute that I knew that is what I wanted to do for my Birthday girl!! The pattern for the bloomers are from Clever Charl0tte, but of course I had no time to order and wait for a pattern and I set out to "figure them out" on my own! Not as cute as the pattern, but sweet enough for me!!

And about the banner....it is pretty pitiful of me for JUST getting around to doing this...I mean, she turned FIVE!!! HA! Burlap, fabric scraps (right AND wrong sides of a deco weight woven), and felt!!

Of course being the 4th of July, the siblings needed outfits also...

Flat-front shorts for The Boy...tutorial courtesy of Dana at MADE, don't know why I haven't tried that one before.....AWESOME!!! And they fit like a dream!!!

And for Ms. Priss...sorry, this is the only photo from the day with the outfit on! As you can see, she just threw it on over her swim suit!! (oh...and don't you LOVE the popsicle in her mouth, smoke bombs in her hand, and she is shoving a box of firecrackers in her pocket...PRICELESS!!)

The skirt is pair of old worn out jeans from my awesome man!! It was supposed to be a skirt for me, but I got a little rip-happy and tore the bottom to short!!! So as not to waste, I figured out how to make it fit Ms. Priss. Sorry, no pictures but try to imagine....cut down side seams in a "V" like pattern about 2 inches, the back waistband happened to be sewn like a casing so I fed about 10" of elastic through and stitched in place. Then I used a ladder stitch to sew up the cut side seams. It fit pretty good, but next time I will probably go ahead and cut about 2 inches away from both side seams all the way down, it would make the skirt less flared! I added a couple of hearts with the coordinating fabrics on the front and back of the skirt, and also the tee shirt to snazz it up!! Hope you all had a Happy 4th!!

So for Father's Day, or as my Daddy would say...The THIRD most HOLIEST of all Holidays, after Easter and Christmas of course... I made him another Poppie tee!

I know it is hard to see, and I most definitely should have used a solid fabric, but it says Poppie's Cowpokes on the red horseshoe fabric!! Of course I moved the pocket down to where my Daddy likes it!! :)

And for my Momma, an embellished Cover-up!

They're supposed to be flip flops...can you tell?

I have a flip flop machine applique for my Embroidery machine that would have probably looked much neater....but I wanted to try the hand-cut frayed look...don't worry, she'll let me know how it works out!! ;)

I should stop this post now...I know it is getting to be SUPER long, but I do have a few more items to share!! I am also in the process of shoveling out my sewing room and re-organizing it...yet AGAIN!! But I just acquired a pretty cool desk from our 23 yo who just moved OUT!!!! YAYAYAYAYAY!!!! Anyway before I get penalized for excessive celebration...I think I WILL end this post and HOPE that I will be back in a couple of days to finish sharing what I've been doing this summer...besides being LAZY!!! ;D Until later...

Beginning of Summer = Lazy Days

After the crazy comes the calm!! Just popping in to let you know that we have started our Summer off with some eXtremely lazy days!! :D The girls and I joined our Library's Summer Reading Program...so that is what we've been doing. Lounging around and reading books in our jammies.....BLISS!!

Ms. Priss had a Girl Scout camp last week so I made a few things for her...but in my state of laziness, only took a picture of her cape.

The theme for her week at Camp was "Super Heroes". She picked out the colors and fabric, then I just cut a shield and letter "I" free hand. Quick, easy...done! I also made her a new "sit upon" which is basically a pillow with a handle...sorry, no picture. While she was at camp, The Middle Child was at my folks, so it was just me and The Boy lounging around reading and watching movies. This week they are all back home and it is a little more hectic and loud, but we have a Zoo trip planned, then back to the Library to get more books!! I also have some birthday and Father's day things that need to be made, so I guess I will saunter into my sewing room at some point....see, LAZY!!

But, I was feeling a little guilty at the end of the school year, having made something for all of the teachers and leaving out our poor forgotten bus driver, so I whipped this up the last day of school so Ms. Priss could run back on the bus and give it to him.

Just a wonky little free hand cut bus banner for him to hang by his seat.

So...back to my lazy lounging reading fest....hope ya'll are having a "SUPER" summer! :D

Until later...

Spring Events have taken OVER!!!

Today is the last day of school for Ms. Priss....YAY?? Although I love the lazy Summer days of not having to do much and NO SCHEDULE, being cooped up with THREE kiddos all day/every day can sometimes be trying!!! But with the way I have been running this past MONTH, days of doing nothing will be a welcomed change!! :D And I just want to say "Thanks" in advance to my awesome folks, who will be taking my children from time to time this Summer...it HELPS!!

So what Spring Events have taken over? Well, I have officially "retired" from Girl Scout Troop 043!! We will have new Leaders taking on all of the responsibilities...and I CAN'T wait!! We had our last meeting/ Pizza Party at my house last Friday! 22 girls and some Mommas = a whole lotta chaos and FUN!! I had about 9 of the 3rd graders sleep over as a last hurrah...ummm...fun? Let's just say it was alot like Survivor...alliances were made, then came the betrayal!! If 8 and 9 yo girls are like this...HOW will I handle the teen aged years?? GAH!! But we ended up all friends, and everyone went home happy!!

Sunday was our Awards/Bridging Ceremony, and I was the MC so I had to write a little speech...then actually speak!! Everyone said I did ok...but I know how nervous I was...slip ups and fumbles were involved!! I was also in charge of decorations, that was the fun part. Thank goodness for Dana over at MADE!! She just knows how to put everything together...then shows you how to do it!! :) Ruffled streamers anyone...?

My girls had a fun time ruffling the crepe paper!! It was good practice for learning to stitch a straight line...and because it was 69 cent crepe paper, I didn't stress too much if they messed up!! ;) Basically we just overlapped two colors of rolled crepe paper, put the settings on the longest stitch, turned the tension way up to the tightest setting, ran a straight stitch....and viola!!

The Bridging Ceremony is when a Girl Scout officially moves from one age level to another. All Bridging Patches are some sort of Rainbow, so that is what I went with to decorate our Bridge.

Our Girl Scout office misplaced its Bridge, and couldn't find it in time, so we had to use the Boy Scouts' Bridge. It was nice, but no hand rails for me to hang the Rainbow on...so I had to get creative....kinda cute, huh? Thankfully, it didn't fall down during the ceremony! :D

With the left over crepe paper, I ruffled one color and made flowers.


You know me and my banners! After ruffling the crepe paper, I shaped it into a flower, then glued it to a paper bag. I cut out circles using fancy-edged scissors, then stitched it on some jute twine. Simple, but pretty!

Another simple, pretty, and best of all...CHEAP decoration was giant tissue paper flowers!

These were hung on the backdrop behind the stage, along with the banner!

So as I said...I am officially retired from Assistant Troop Leader, and so is our actual Troop Leader! She has been our Leader since we began 3 years ago as a Daisy Troop, so I wanted to do something extra nice for her.

Of course we all teared up when I gave it too her...although it is not Good-Bye, because her daughter is still in the Troop! :) I put a pretty ribbon on it, just in case she wanted to hang it.

The badges, patches, and pins are all mixed, representing the Daisy and Brownie Troop she led! And with The Middle Child starting Kindergarten in the Fall, I have a feeling that I may have to step up and lead her Daisy Troop, if no other mom does...so don't feel sad for me!! HA!

Ok...since it is Ms. Priss' last day of school, I FINALLY decided on what to make for her Teacher.

It is the Everything Tote from Heather Ross's Weekend Sewing!!! This is the first time I've made this...LOVE IT!!! I will be making one for me...hopefully soon!! Here's the inside...

Very easy to put together. It takes a 1/2 yard of two different fabrics, depending on what you line it with...but WOW!! It is HUGE and carries nicely. I know, I am behind on the Weekend Sewing projects...I've had the book for over a year!! Better late than never, right!!??

So now that GS and the school year is done...I'm free!! Yeah, right. I OWE!! I've missed a couple of birthdays, so I have a few projects that are screaming at me!! First and foremost, I have to CLEAN my sewing room...again!! I don't even want to be in there!! I pulled out one of my sewing machines and sewed on the craft table in the recently redone front room, because it is NICER in there! So neat, and clutter free!! So, that is what I will be doing until you hear from me again...cleaning!! UGH!! Until later...

Dresses, Pillows, and a Room Change

Hello...I'm back!! I know, it took me long enough huh? It seems that my Daddy isn't the only impatient family member I've got...my AWESOME SIL came for a quick visit this past weekend, and she let me have it for not updating my blog fast enough!! So I decided to squeeze in a post just for you Kathi!! xo

So, remember back in February when the wonderfully sweet Tammie invited me to share a tutorial with her readers? Well look what she sent me for my effort...

Sweet, right?? Thanks girl!! Love the earrings!!

Speaking of my sweet friends!! Have you been to visit Kindershop lately? WOW!! That girl is busy...and yet, still manages to post more often than me!! HA!! Anyway, you should definitely go for a visit...she has AWESOME tutorials!! Like this one...

The tutorial is so well written and easy to follow!! I had a little trouble with the construction of the yoke, but that had more to do with my unwillingness to use pins...UGH!! AND once I started cutting, I realized I didn't have enough fabric for the back of the dress...so I just worked with what I had.

I think it came out ok...even if it is a little "dress of many colors" like! :D So I decided that one was not enough, after all Beatrix has to do EVERYTHING in twos!


This one is for Ms. Priss. The pattern is a good size 5t or so, and with a little bit of extra finagaling (real word!) I was able to get a size 8/10 from it!! awesome. I made little matchy headbands for them to wear with the dresses, but can't find a picture. I'm sure we will be seeing these dresses again...the size will last a couple of Easters...YAY!!

So once Easter was over and the kiddos were left at my folks for the week, I went home and got to WORK!!


With the help of my 23 yo, I was able to move all of the furniture (including our piano!!) out of the room and rip up the carpet, which was DE-sgustin!! Thankfully, the garbage was going out that night, and it was actually picked up...YAY!! The prep work on the concrete was the hardest, and most time consuming!! I had to clean them really good! I also had to scrape up paint and caulk spills and fill a couple of cracks. Then I had to go back after it was all dry and scrape the excess concrete filler, sand it, then clean it again!! Waiting for it to dry took a day, then I was ready to spray the acid etching stain on. I used a plain ole all plastic garden sprayer, because if you use a sprayer with metal parts, the acid will damage it and cause it to gunk up! Once the acid stain was on, I was waiting again. Then I had to neutralize it with baking soda and water, scrub it, rinse it, wait for it to dry...again, then RINSE it again!! You have to do these "tests" to make sure all of the stain residue is up before you can apply the sealer. Well, I had to rinse it a whopping FOUR times, THEN go over it with some towels to make sure I got ALL of the residue up. Thankfully, I had a wet vac to help the drying times or I wouldn't have been able to finish it before the children returned!! After I was satisfied that all of the residue was up, I started to apply the sealant! I used an outdoor sealer, because the indoor option was a two-part Epoxy mix...I wasn't ABOUT to mess with that!! I just made sure there was adequate ventilation and applied one coat with a roller brush. I probably should have applied two coats, but 1) I only had enough for one coat, and B) after I applied it, there were little bubbles that were not drying clear so I didn't want to put a second coat on if I was just going to have to strip it off to fix it!! So here it is...



I am happy with the results...and was soooo tired that it could have come out SUPER crappy and I would have been like, "it looks GREAT!!" HA! So I am thankful that it came out decent, and if next year I have to apply another coat of sealer because only one coat wasn't enough...so be it!!

The floors looked so "fancy" in fact, that I decided to paint the walls...last minute, of course.


This paint is supposed to be a primer/paint combo that should have only taken one coat, but as you can see...it should have had two!! Oh well, rustic floors...rustic walls!! HA!!

Anyway...the kiddos came home and I had other pressing matters. Like, what to make my Momma!! I saw this tutorial featured on Sew Mama Sew! and KNEW that I had to make these for her for Mother's Day!!



I LOVE how they turned out. Now, originally I tried the old "trace my kids head on wall with a lamp shining on them"...didn't work well. THEN I tried to have them lay on the floor, head on a piece of paper...didn't work either. FINALLY I found a tutorial that explained how to take a photo and using Photoshop making a silhouette out of it...BINGO!! Worked like a charm! :) Sorry, I can't find the exact tutorial I used...it was on my other computer. But if you Google Photoshop tutorials, there are a TON out there...who knew ;)

So, that is all for now. The Middle Child officially graduated from Pre-K, so she is done for the year...next up KINDERGARTEN!! I know, so FAST!! The Boy will start Pre-K 3 in the Fall, if I can get him potty-trained in time...almost there!! He is no longer REFUSING, now I just have to be more consistent and it will be smooth sailing. Ms. Priss has about a week left before she is out for the Summer, so we've been busy with end of year things and will be having our Girl Scout Award/ Bridging ceremony this Sunday. Friday will be our last meeting and pizza party in our home, so I've got to get cleaning!! :) And the third grade class had their annual field trip to our awesome State Capital!!

Hope your school year is winding down smoothly!! Until later...

Hello? Hey....it's been a while...

It seems the closer we get to the end of the school year, the busier it gets!! I know that I have been the BIGGEST slacker poster/visitor/commenter lately, and I am so sorry! And I would totally understand if ya'll delete me off of your Reader...but then you would miss me, so I guess you just have to accept me....flaws and all! :)

So...what has been keeping me away from the computer lately...?

California...just accept that you will NEVER win the battle of the Berries!!

Yep...it is that time of year again!! We went to the Strawberry Festival in my awesome hometown, Ponchatoula!! I don't know what it is about the soil in Tangipahoa Parish, but they grow the BEST strawberries, period...the end. I came back to Lafayette with FIVE flats...YUM!

Anyway, in honor of the festival and in appreciation of my cousin and her wonderful husband for hosting a fun and relaxing gathering at their home every year, I made this for them.

Can you tell it is burlap? Awesome, right? I used a little spray starch on the green stems to make sure they "stood up" and didn't droop once the banner was hanging...it actually worked!!

The Middle Child's Overalls redo got a little strawberry applique makeover...

And The Boy sported this really fun wagon applique! It seems that the wagon has taken over the boy applique trend, instead of the pick-up truck! I used my Embird software to combine the wagon app with a couple of strawberries!!

For Ms. Priss I attempted an argyle look...not sure if it came out right! I used a piece of matching denim from these pants that were made for the Disney trip to display a cute strawberry applique. Some scrap pieces of a knit fabric were used for the diamond shapes...what do you think?

mmmm....strawberries!

Ok...moving on...I really thought the strawberry banner was inspirational and decided to keep the theme going for these Easter Banners!! One for The Middle Child's teacher....

...and one for me! The ingredients for these cuties are orange burlap, craft felt in assorted colors, scrap fabric pieces for lettering, green bias tape (made or bought), and scrap pieces of various shades of green tulle! Oh and the Teacher's received some ribbon-love on the ends, where I left mine plain.

And if you are interested, I made the string eggs last year using a tutorial from The Crafty Crow...which I can't find now, but I googled it and THIS one works just as well! :) I used Elmer's washable school glue...it worked fine, and was easy to clean the kids after :)

There have also been various creations made for school functions. The Middle Child had Black and White Day last Monday, so of course in true ME fashion, I was busy Sunday whipping this up!

And LOOK...it is reversible so it is like TWO dresses at once!!

I used these sweet ladybug buttons to add a bit of color! Oh, and I KNOW that my pockets are not straight...thanks for noticing! HA!

Ms. Priss had a Book Character parade yesterday. Can you guess whose Biography she chose to base her character on?

The bonnet was made using this SO EASY tutorial!! In case you are interested!

And like I needed another one...

This beauty was my Awesome Man's mother's!! Wasn't nice of his ex to finally give it back? It works beautifully!! The Middle Child has already tried it out and the knee presser lever is a hit!! :)

I hope you all have a nice Easter!! Hopefully I will be back in a more timely manner to show off the rest of what I've been up to!! My AWESOME parents have so generously offered to keep all THREE of my babies next week during Spring Break so I can pull up carpet and try my hand at some concrete floor staining, DIY style...wish me luck!! Oh, and ALL suggestions on this undertaking will be GREATLY appreciated!! Until later...

All About The Mickey

Well, we've been back from our Disney World vacation for about two weeks now, so I guess you've waited long enough to see what has been keeping me so silent here on my blog! Sorry it has taken me this long to update, but since we've been back I've had to clean, do LOTS of laundry, sell Girl Scout cookies then settle up our accounts and deposit LOADS of money...unfortunately NOT into my bank, HA! and take care of not one BUT two sick kiddos with upper respiratory infections...YUCK!! Everyone is on the mend, I am back to my regular laundry routine, and the final Girl Scout cookies have been sold and settled...so get ready for an EXTREMELY photo heavy post!!! :)

Animal Kingdom:


Everyone got a tiger Mickey including my Momma and two nephews! The lone cheetah Mickey belongs to....GUESS!!!


Ms. Priss was the cheetah in our group, but she had a sweet cousin helping her flaunt the cheetah, girl!! :) All of these were cut on my Cricut Expression then sewn on with my sewing machine! The Middle Child was the only "Minnie" with her purple bow and I was able to get another use out of the tiger/LSU ruffled pants I made last fall!! YAY!!

Speaking of LSU...



I promised my brother a shirt, and Ms. Priss liked it so much she had to have one too!

Couldn't leave out the Saints...


This was a machine applique I designed with my embroidery software by merging about three different designs!! LOVE IT!! I am telling you that there were soooooo many Louisiana families at Disney World. We felt right at home in our LSU and Saints apparel!! This shirt was done for my 9 yo nephew, he was so excited....well as excited as a 9 yo boy can get and still look cool!! ;)


The Middle Child had an outfit for ALL EIGHT DAYS of our trip!! WHEW! But thankfully I was able to use ruffled pants that were already made, and I found a couple of bargains in the clearance bins that just needed to be appliqued or embellished!


The yellow polka-dot pants were $2 at Walmart.


This T-shirt was a size too small which made it very short at her tummy. So I added the polka dot ruffle and viola!! I LOVE the multiple Mickeys!! The gingham ruffled pants were part of her Halloween costume, so they were already done!! Oh, did I mention that I will be adding "action" shots? I ran out of time trying to finish outfits and didn't take pictures before I packed them...so there will be LOTS of action shots to display some of the sewing I did!


Ms. Priss is soooo hard to make pants/shorts for. She has such an odd body type that it gave me FITS trying to get the pants to fit her backside withOUT having too much "crotch" hanging down in the front. Any and ALL suggestions are WELCOME!!! I ended up doing lots of creative cutting and folding/sewing around the waist where the casing for the elastic was!!

The Boy's shirt is just the left over fabric from a Mickey cut out!! I used my machine to sew around the outside square, but the Mickey silhouette was too hard so I ended up using some chunky red embroidery thread and did a running stitch. It is hard to see in this picture, but I really liked the effect!

Oh, and I must tell you that the Autograph Books I made all of the kids were a HIT!! They got loads of compliments from all of the characters that talked, and a couple of thumbs up from the ones that didn't!! And I am happy to report that they all used their backpacks during the whole trip!! YAY!

We had dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table where The Middle Child wore her Cinderella dress that her Grammy and Poppie gave her for Christmas. So I coordinated every one's outfit around her Princess dress. This is for Ms. Priss.

This is a machine embroidery applique. I used clear vinyl to give it the "glass" effect for the slipper, and it's hard to see but it says, "if the shoe fits..." HA!

For The Boy...

The pants I made last Spring, so the shirt was all that was needed. Even Mom and Dad got in on it!

My husband had a TON of shirts from the last company he worked for that were just sitting in a bag in our closet. I used a lot of creative Mickey's to cover the company logo!!

Epcot:

The tie-dyed shirt was $1 at Walmart!!

The Earth Mickey is a combination of machine appliqued circles for the ears, and a Filled stitch machine embroidery design. I did one for my husband too...sorry no photo!

Here are two outfits of The Middle Child's that were $2 a piece from Walmart last Fall.

The tees were screen-printed with a peace and apple design that I covered with Minnie's. You can see the screen print through the green Minnie a little bit.

But it was still a cute outfit!!

Happy (belated) Mardi Gras!!!

For the boys...two of these were for my nephews, the other was for The Boy.

I am sorry to say that I didn't get a good "action" picture of my girls' Mickey's. I could probably do one now, but I haven't had the time!! Maybe it will pop up in my slide show! HA! The yellow fabric in Ms. Priss' pants is denim!! I LOVE it! I found it in the clearance bin at Joann's for $2!! I had enough to do these capri's, and the ruffled shorts that went with the tie-dyed peace Mickey!! SCORE!!

Me and The Husband!! Another "creative" way to cover that old company logo!! My shirt is a tissue tee aka REALLY THIN SHIRT!! So I had to use a BIG Fleur de Lis and a couple of Mickey's to keep myself "covered"!! ;) I really liked the effect!

And last but not least...we couldn't leave the Dinosaur shirt at home...

This was originally a Santa Hat Dino that I cut the Santa Hat off and added a New Year's Eve Party hat then cut that off to give the little fella some Mickey ears!! What will he wear next?? Stay tuned...

WHEW!! that was a very long post with TOO MANY pictures!! Thank you for your time! :) So when all was cut and sewn I ended up doing 38 shirts, and 11 pairs of ruffled pants...and because I am such a procrastinator it was all done in a 2 week time period!! I've got to start earlier next time!!! :) Enjoy your day...Spring is here and we are having GORGEOUS weather! Next up, sewing for Easter!! Until later...