Carseat cover

I am totally hoping I win this giveaway — a new & pretty carseat cover: http://grosgrainfabulous.blogspot.com/2009/11/chubby-baby-car-seat-cover-guest.html

Both my girls are in carseats still, of course, but I have never been a fan of their carseat covers.  Totally stoked that this giveaway could be used for a toddler carseat cover, and oh my does Chubby Baby have some cute ones!  Wish me luck!

Happy 35th to Me!

I’m generally pretty easy-going about birthdays, but man, 35 suddenly sounds old!  Despite the growing number, my birthday was Fantastic!

We started the day with going to Chuy’s Christmas Parade here in Austin.  The girls are at SUCH good ages for parades.

The whole drive to the parade, Elena asked again and again about the Princesses.  She said she was sure Ariel would come say hi to her because Ariel would Love to have Elena for a little sister.  (Ariel has always been Elena’s favorite — she called herself “Ariel” for a good 6 months when she was 2 or 3.)

So imagine Elena’s glee when this happened:

(Julia got a hug too, but we didn’t manage to get that on camera.)  After seeing Ariel and Sleeping Beauty, Elena turned to me and exclaimed “Mommy, they were *so* nice!”

Julia was also thrilled, and with the opening motorcycles she’d watch them for a bit, and then turn to me with a big smile and give me a big hug, and then go right back to watching the parade again.

They danced to music, waved at everyone, and watched in awe at the balloons and the Disney characters.

Good good day.

Later in the afternoon, I took a good long nap with Elena while Julia napped in her crib, and then tonight went to eat at one of my fave restaurants, Benihana.  And after that I got to enjoy cake made and decorated for me by my little family:

OH, and the writing on the cake is great.  My husband asked the girls what they wanted to say on the cake (of course, thinking ‘happy birthday Mommy’).  Instead my cake has a love letter written on it:  “Dear Mommy, I love you very much”, and is covered in Tinkerbell candies.  Best birthday cake decorations ever.

And then my husband gave the girls their baths – completely on his own – while I started this post and downloaded photos.

The whole day in 1 word: *bliss*

Happy Thanksgiving! (with a flashback)

Hope you are all having good eats today!  Mmmm, baby, pumpkin pie!

Once I had kids, I learned that one of the most important parts of Thanksgiving isn’t the turkey, or even the pumpkin pie, but…..the handprint turkey!!!  It just isn’t Thanksgiving if you’re not doing some sort of turkey handprint craft!

Last year, I kicked the craft up a notch:  I made Elena a skirt and Julia a dress – each with their own turkey handprints!  So very crafty, I know.  Enjoy the flashback pics — I can’t believe how much the girls have grown!

Ten

1.  A bad way to wake up in the morning:  You walk out into the living room and find a pile of kittie puke.

2.  An even worse way to wake up in the morning:  You do #1 above, and then make some exclamation of some sort about the kittie puke.  Your 4-year-old then pipes up behind you as she follows you out of your bedroom “I KNOW Mommy!  I didn’t see it because it was SO dark and stepped in it by accident!  But it’s okay, Mommy; it came off when I climbed into your bed!”

3.  Totally. true. story.

4.  Elena’s favorite word is “Actually.”  Since we’ve noticed it, I’ve actually noticed that I use that word a lot too.  And I’m actually trying to stop.

5.  I’ve been hitting up all the resale shops lately, doing my winter-clothing shopping for the girls.  They always have cribs set up.  Julia labels each one as a “nigh-nigh!”  Awww….

6.  The girls love Elmo. (and neither Elmo nor the girls have any sense of where the camera is!)

7.  Elena is for some reason really questioning death and dying, etc etc.  Nope, we don’t know anybody or anything that has died recently, but it is a favorite subject.  She really wants to know “well who’s going to die first??” and has drilled me on “so is ____ going to die??  Is that butterfly going to die??  Is Daddy going to die??”  I need help!  SO, anyone know any good books for 4-year-olds?  I’d love some recommendations.  I would like to cover the religious side too – we are Catholic and want to teach heaven & God, etc. along with death in a kid-appropriate way.

8.  Made 2 more tree blocks yesterday on my snowman quilt!  13 more to go!

9.  A year ago I put away a little play tent.  The girls weren’t playing with it much and it was in the way and driving me insane.  I brought it out again today.  ‘Twas like Christmas.  An upside-down Christmas, that is:

10.  My husband and my girls all crawled, roaring like lions, all the way to the girls’ bedrooms last night from our bedroom.  Cracked. me. up.

Joy in the New Year Challenge

I’ve been hemming and hawing about this challenge.  Of course I have lots and lots of UFOs (unfinished objects).  But ACK — finish them before the New Year?  When I have both one of my daughter’s birthdays and Christmas???

SO, instead of counting every UFO I have (seriously, we don’t want to even acknowledge that number), I decided to count my three Christmas quilts which are in various stages of completion:

1.  Bethlehem quilt.  The top is practically finished — need to connect the 4 big blocks, add a dove and borders, and do all that other quilty stuff.

2.  QN magazine snowman quilt.  This quilt is the one I finally started at the crafting quilt together and shown here.  Currently, the snowmen are in the same state as they were in that picture, but I have started on the trees for the alternate blocks!  5 down, 15 to go!  This quilt I think is the one I have the best chance of finishing.

3.  “Fun” Snowman quilt.  All the fabric is bought, including the backing!  I just need to make it!  Sounds easy, right???

All of these quilts are just for me, not for gifts, so there is no real urgency to getting them done except it would be nice to use them this Christmas season.  So wish me luck!  Only a month and a half to get them done and reach my goal!

Crafting Get Together

This weekend I met up with some girlfriends for some crafting goodness!  There’s no set schedule to the meet-ups, and just whoever can come comes (its a changing group).  We all just bring whatever we’re working on and a snack to share.  It is fun to chat and see the other cool stuff coming together in the room, such as sewing, scrapbooking, cross stitching, etc.  And yummy goodies too!

Another great part for me is that it forces me to get work done in preparation for the get together.  I don’t know about you other sewers out there, but my work tends to be scattered all over the room in various stages of assembly.  A get together makes me clean things up as I figure out which project is portable, or even to make a project portable!

All that to say, I *finally* cut into some of my blue and white snowflake fabrics on Saturday afternoon leading up to the get together, and at the get together I managed to put together 12 snowman bodies!

I did the little black buttons while watching football Sunday, and now of course need to make the eyes and carrot noses.   The quilt also has trees for the alternating blocks.  I haven’t even started those yet, but I definitely got a good start on the quilt on Saturday.  So happy!

Ten on Tuesday

1.  Julia LOVES “I Gotta Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas.  LOVES it.  She’ll randomly start singing “Be..Night…Be…Night”: shorthand for “Tonight’s going to be a good night, tonight’s going to be a good good night.”  My husband plays it for her in the car regularly, and she’s a dancing fool in her carseat.

2.  I have been working on designing a quilt especially for Julia.  Lots of decisions to make on the design, not just fabric.  (Combining a couple different patterns into one.)    Perhaps I’ll show off my very sophisticated graph paper stick drawings.  Wish me luck!

3.  Elena made a bunch of fake random phone calls the other day to try and get things her way.  For example, she wants a friend to have a sleep over, and we said we’d have to talk to the girl’s parents.  So she got out her (non-working) phone and called over there:  “Hi ____’s Mommy!  Yeah.  Yeah.  Can ___ have a sleepover?  Oh good!  Great!”  Then to us: “Mommy and Daddy, I talked to her Mommy and she said Okay, so let’s have the sleepover now!”

4.  Hit Joann’s Halloween fabric sale and have fabric to make the girls’ Pocahontas costumes.  Thought I might have to finish those in time for Thanksgiving, ha!

5.  Haven’t been able to find a Native American costume pattern I like.  Might have to ad lib it.

6.  We take a nightly walk to the mailboxes after dinner.  Ever since Halloween, Julia expectantly says “Treats?!?” when she sees porch lights on.  And “UhOh! No Treats!” when we pass a house without lights on.

7.  Finally have the girls sleeping past 6 am for the first time today since the end of daylight saving time.  Thank goodness!

8.  Elena’s pretend games are getting so much more involved every day.  Of course, we need to figure out how to play without destroying the house!  (making her own pretend houses and the like.)

9.  This weekend I started one of the two snowman quilts for which I have already bought the fabric.

10.  Get the feeling my Sewing To Do list is out of control?  It is.

And an extra just because I don’t like to post without a picture — here’s Julia doing on of her favorite things in the world: going down a slide.

(um, you’ll have to imagine it right-side up because, well, I suck.)

Happy Dia de los Muertos!!

What???  You mean to say that you didn’t make dresses for your children just to celebrate Dia de los Muertos??!?!

I really can’t say that celebrating “Dia de los Muertos” is in my cultural background, but I am Catholic and celebrate All Souls Day (Nov. 2), AND I appreciate how Dia de los Muertos/All Souls Day is a day to celebrate and remember friends and family who have passed.  Also, my children are half-Hispanic and it is a day celebrated by their grandmother, etc., in the cultural/traditional sense, so it seems natural to teach my children about the day from both viewpoints.

And I must then also admit that I love Alexander Henry’s fabric line, and I thought my girls would look super-cute in it!

And they did!  Julia got the pink sugar skull dress:

Julia’s dress is New Look 6796.  It was easy to make AND I just love how it came out.  I will definitely make this dress again! I love how the ruffle is ruffled at its top!

I keep meaning to try it on Elena to see if it is a good little tanktop for her, but I haven’t done that yet.  It would be great to get something for both girls out of the same garment!  (Of course, not that Elena’d wear it in that fashion since she only wears dresses!)

By the way, Julia loved the pumpkins with “chicken pox,” as Elena termed them.  Julia would laugh every time she found another pumpkin afflicted with the pox, like the pumpkin in the picture above and this one below:

Elena then had her dress made with black sugar skull fabric:

Elena’s dress is McCall’s M5569.  I’m not the biggest fan of how this came out, but I don’t think it’s the pattern’s fault.  I think I should have chosen to add more pink to this.  I’m thinking of maybe adding a pink bow around the waist and a band of the pink sugar skull fabric along the bottom.  Any opinions?  I think the dress just suffers from too much of the black fabric.  I’m kinda wishing a had just made a poofy-twirly skirt out of the fabric.

I did have a couple issues with the pattern though.  First was that it required a FULL 44 inch width fabric to make the skirt, and my fabric was simply not the full width — more like 42 inches.  That was easily fixed since the dress is pleated.  My second issue is that the measurements indicated I should make her a size 5.  She is swimming in the 5:  I have a safety pin on the back pulling it tighter and I really think it is too long.  I’ll probably just put it in the back of her closet for a while after I make any adjustments — it should fit next Dia de los Muertos for sure!

I really like the pictures of the dresses on the pattern, so I might attempt this again.  I’ll just consider my fabric choices a little more — and go down a size.

Now go celebrate their lives and remember your lost ones with happiness on this All Souls Day.

Halloween Fun!

My girls are at the *perfect* age for Halloween!

1. They are old enough to really get into it!  Elena ran from door to door as much as we’d let her, and yelled Trick-or-Treat while she rang the doorbells!  (kept trying to teach her to wait until the person opened the door, but her enthusiasm could not be stopped!)  And Julia would hold out her pumpkin, repeating “Treat!  Treat! Treat!” endlessly!  No tricks for her!
2. They are young enough to get both lots of oohs and aahs and LOTS of candy!
3. They are naive enough to not worry about hiding their candy from each other — or us!  Can we say candy raid???

Elena woke up on Saturday knowing it was Halloween, and bugged us ALL. DAY. about when we’d get to go trick-or-treating.  I think she thought we were torturing her when we decided to wait for some adult friends to join us and walk the neighborhood.  She was freaking out about it getting dark and being bedtime and missing t-o-t’ing.

Luckily our friends arrived and there were enough houses in our neighborhood with their lights on to make our girls very happy, and we had no scary incidents with dogs like last year.

I know you got a glimpse of their costumes in this post, but I promised then more details on their making, so this seems as good a time as any!

First, Elena as Cinderella.

Elena was Ariel last year, and probably would have been happy re-using her costume, but *I* wanted something new.  And, as you have probably figured out by now, it had to be a princess.   So Cinderella it was!  I used Simplicity 2817 for the pattern.

The pattern was pretty easy and I liked how it came out!  You might notice my interpretation is a little more detailed.  I took inspiration from this website, using brocade instead of organza for the skirt puffs and sleeves, and added an appliqued brocade front onto the dress, trimmed with silver.  I think the result is very elegant, if I do say so myself.

TIP for gathering brocade:  it will start to shred! (at least mine did.)  To stop it from falling apart on you, apply some Fray Check.

The dress was not nearly as poofy as I wanted though.  I think my choice of brocade instead of organza for the skirt puffs weighed down the dress too much and didn’t give the drape I wanted.  (Don’t I sound so Project Runway?!?) So I improvised and made Elena a petticoat!

I LOVED the effect of the petticoat!  Elena, not so much.  SO, I got her to wear it for the pro pics and for the pictures in my parents’ front yard shown here, but she would not wear it trick-or-treating.  Not a big deal, and as you can see from my top pictures, still cute!

The only other issue with the dress was that it ended up 6 inches too long after my initial hem!  So I just kept hemming.  I’m always too scared to just cut off!  That big hem bugs me in the pictures though.  Ahh well!

Other details:

• tiara from Target’s website.  I had an online gift card that had been sitting for almost a year, so when I wanted something beyond just the plastic tiaras you find everywhere, I used that.
• Sparkly glitter shoes also from Target.
• Long white gloves (worn in top pictures) from one of the Halloween mega-stores.
• Necklace from my jewelry box, but Elena has been insisting that she should have it b/c it fits her so well.
• Finally, I tried to give her sparkly bracelets that she wore as a flower girl in May, but she insisted that Cinderella did not have bracelets and she must not wear them.  Surprised me that she denied sparkles!

Second, Julia as Cinderella’s little mouse friend.

I have to admit I was stumped on a costume for Julia!  I really wanted the girls to coordinate, but I knew Elena was a princess and really didn’t want a 2nd princess.  (I figure I’ll have lots of years of princesses when Julia can also express an opinion!)  A girl on a chatboard I’m on suggested the mouse, and I’m so glad she did!  It was perfect!  I don’t think everyone knew the connection, but I did and I was so happy!

Anyway, Julia’s costume is Simplicity 2506 .  The mouse body was EASY to put together.  I loved sewing with the suede-ish fabric.  (don’t remember if it was actually ultrasuede or something else).  I used some glittery pink fabric for the pink parts, but it was very thin and slippery, so before I sewed it I backed it with pink felt (used Steam-a-Seam Lite).  Great decision.

The hat, though, I’m not too thrilled about.  As you can see in the below picture, it is WAY TOO SMALL:

I really don’t know what happened.  I thought I used a size that would end up with a slightly too-big hat, but instead I had trouble connecting the chin straps on Julia and it showed half of the back of her head instead of covering it completely.  Julia could not stand the hat the first couple times she wore it, and fussed every time we put it on.  BUT, she did wear it a bit longer each time, to the point that on Halloween she never once tried to pull it off once it was on!   Yay!

I also probably would have topstitched it at the front of the face, but since it didn’t fit well anyway I never bothered.  Luckily from the front you couldn’t really tell the bad fit.

OH, and I added the bow on the head to make it more girly!

Total cost for Julia’s costume = @ $10!

So, there’s my girls and their costumes.  And here they are posing for pictures for their Papa:

And…a little game of chase is about to start: