Juicy Bits

206: cantilevers

I've got exciting news.  For the first time, I'm going to have a quilt in a show.  And it's a big one!  At Quilt Festival in Houston this fall, there will be an exhibit of The Modern Quilt Guild Showcase 2012 and one of my quilts was selected!

As you can imagine, I'm pretty psyched about this.  Only 33 quilts were selected.

I made this quilt, titled Cantilevers, specifically to enter in the show.  I think it's only quilt I've sewn that's entirely solids (well, there's a little bit of print on the back...shhhh... I didn't take any pictures of that yet).  It was inspired by a building I saw driving home from a Philly MQG meeting.  The building itself didn't have cantilevers but it had three offset windows that just got my mind rolling.

I think I'm most proud of the quilting.  I did it all myself on my regular home machine.  Thanx to Angela, I've really had the machine quilting bug lately.  I'd love to buy a longarm, but I'm restraining myself for now.  I practiced with a lot of doodling before starting on the actual quilt.

Anyway, there has been plenty of discussion online about what exactly is "modern quilting".  I don't feel much need to add to it except to say that I definitely consider myself a modern quilter.  I'll direct you to the Modern Quilt Guild's site to see what they have to say about the matter.  But, no one gets to define you, so if you are or you want to be a modern quilter, then you are.

I've founded a local branch of the guild this year, the Central Jersey Modern Quilt Guild.  If you're local, we want you to join us!  We've been having a ton of fun so far...

So far, 2013 has allowed for more quilting for me than last year which is making me happy.  I began and completed my first quilt in the first week of January.  Hopefully I'll share that one soon.  I'm trying to decide if I want to write up a pattern for it.  And, since then, I've completed 2 others (including this one) and started 2 more.  Yay for quilting!

JT

204: puppy party part 1: the details

 

In my usual delayed fashion, I finally have the details of Theo's puppy party from last summer.  The theme selection was pretty easy as he is just crazy about puppies.

 

Let me answer your first question right away, no we did no surprise him with his very own puppy at the party.  Or any time after for that matter.  I was VERY tempted though.  All that focus of puppies had me looking in non-allergenic breeds and all that.  But, at least for now, a puppy just doesn't fit into our hectic lives.  Maybe when he's a bit older and can share some of the responsibilities.

Anyway, back to the party.  It was a great day.  The puppies themselves were the main activity.  I mean what more entertainment does a group of 4-year-olds need but a couple of cute doggies to play with.

 

If you're wondering where we got the puppies/dogs to come to the party, they were from an animal rescue organization.  They had brought some dogs into Theo's pre-school to share with the kids and I thought, why not see if they could bring them to a party?  Although they were quite generous and really just did it for the love of children and dogs, I did give a donation to the organization as well as asking the guests to bring food or toy donations.

And the black lab puppy even got adopted by one of the families at the party!

It was a day filled with playing with puppies, pretending they were puppies, and even adopting their own little stuffed puppies.

I'll be back soon with all the details of the events of the day, but here are some of the sources:

Photography: mostly me, but some by my dad

Invitations, adoption certificates and graphics: custom by me

Real puppies: Castle of Dreams Animal Rescue

Stuffed puppies: Aurora brand bought from Stuffed Safari (great customer service!)

Dog bowls: Petsmart

Cake and cupcakes and dog bone pretzels: Deirdre Thauer

Pretzel recipe: King Arthur's Flour Baker's Companion cookbook (Yum!)

Cookies: me

Wooden doghouses: Birdhouses from Michaels with the openings cut larger

Cardboard doghouse: my dad and me

"Best in Show" ribbons: me

 

 

 

202: knock off

I kinda hate to post a negative post (this is my happy place), but I wanted to share and it's really not that bad.

I've been "knocked off".  In a way it is a bit flattering.  Really, my little owl is worth copying?

So, as many of you know I have this little free owl ornament pattern.  The key word there is free.  It's my gift to you.  But it is for personal use, not for people to profit from.  And in reality, anyone's who's asked me if they can use the pattern to sew them for charity or even personal profit, I've said yes to.  I'm fine with an independent crafter using it, but it was not intended for mass production.

Well, a reader sent me this picture:

She bought this cute guy in a store and it wasn't labeled except with "made in China".  Seriously?  China?  Clearly not hand sewn but some dedicated crafter.

Normally I wouldn't go right to "copy", because how many different ways are there to make a felt owl? And I know I've designed things on my own only to find that someone already beat me to it.  But you be the judge.  That's pretty darn identical to mine.  Right down to the decorative blanket stitching.  The only real difference is it's made by machine and glue.

Here's mine:

Since it's a free pattern I put out there I don't really see myself trying for any actual recourse. In this case it would be pretty futile. And I'm OK with that. (No, that's not permission for someone to copy this or any of my other designs.) But it does floor me that someone, somewhere decided to mass produce something of mine without permission.

Someone else was making them for sale on a website called fiverr and, worse, he/she was using my photo with not credit and representing it as their work.  Thankfully the site handled the matter.

Anyway, so that things don't stay negative on here for long, I promised to be back with another post very soon...

JT

200: holidays

Phew!  Nice little "blog breather" there.  Wish I had something more monumental to share on this, my 200th post, but alas, just a bit of catch-up.

In my usual delayed fashion I haven't really talked about the holidays.  Of course they were busy, busy, busy over here.  I made a bunch of gifts, but I'll have to share most of them at a later date.

But to start with, this is an awesome project I did for my sister.  She just moved into her very very own city apartment and of course I had to help with the decor.

This is a large canvas that I painted and then mod podged on some fabric.  The inspiration is actually from a bedding set, but it was totally different colors, in a different scale, and had no print fabric.  So it's not a copy at all.

But I did make it to coordinate with this bedding set I got her.  I'm not going to put a link because I'm sure by the time anyone cares, it will be long gone, but it was from Macy's.  

It was fun to do.  I normally sew stuff so painting was a departure.  Actually if I could have found a background fabric that coordinated well, I probably would have sew this too, and then stretched it on canvas, but time was limited.  Painting is always a bit more difficult than I think it will be, but I'm quite pleased with how it came out.

Our holidays were mostly spent at home.  I enjoyed my newly converted wood burning fireplace and spent lots of time just hanging out with the kids.  I've even completed an entire quilt since the new year! (More on that later).

Here are a few of the basic holiday holiday portraits.  Aurora chose her own dress this year which she was just dying for, so I went with it.

Hope you had great holidays and that your new year is shaping up to be a good one.

JT

193: design wall debacle

I suppose the design wall episode wasn't so much a debacle as pretty fruitless.

What I decided to do on my birthday was to make myself a design wall.  Truth be told, I've never really seen the need for them.  I've always just used my floor and it works fine.  But lately I had been envying some sewists with their works in progress sticking up there for a long time while they mull over the design.  Sounded like a cool idea.

So, following the directions here I set out to make a movable design wall.  I wanted it big, but to be 3 separate panels that would fit perfectly into the corner of my studio I had picked out for it.  So I bought the foam insulation but only had one choice of type at my local Home Depot.  It was pink but I didn't see the problem in that.

It was a problem.  I had to add an extra layer of white fabric underneath so the whole thing looked close to white.   Between that and cutting the panels down to size, it ended up taking more than my birthday to complete and wasn't particularly inexpensive.  

Then I brought them upstairs and realized I was totally kidding myself.  I was never going to put these away in their intended corner. Right now they're still set up in the hall area outside my studio and this is 3 months later.  They're not going anywhere...at least not very often.

They are pretty cool and the blocks I have on there now are from my first ever online Bee - The Busy Bees.  It's fun to play around with them and nice to really be able to step back.  But let's be honest, the same effect could have been achieved  by tacking a big piece of batting to the wall whenever I need it.  And it would have saved me a lot of headache.  Live and learn.

Two other notices:

The Modern Mix blog tour is still going strong.  See the list on the last post and don't miss your chance to win a copy and learn some funny stuff about me...

We're finally going to have a New Jersey chapter of The Modern Quilt Guild.  Hoo-ray!  See the fancy new button on my sidebar?? If you're in the area stop by our new blog and find out about how to join in the fun.

191: I will blog tonight

I've been telling myself that all day, and while it's technically now tomorrow, I'm on it.  Obviously.

A while back I promised to share the results of all serger-sewing-fun I had this summer.  These dresses are my favorite.

One is for Aurora and the other for her best friend who just happened to move half-way around the world this summer.

They are made from recycled t-shirts that I mostly got at the Salvation Army Thrift Store.  A few pieces are old dresses or t-shirts that Aurora used to own and probably had  stain or something on them.  One is even from old PJ pants of mine.

I knew I was going to do very piece-y stuff in bright colors and I found this etsy seller for inspiration.  The patterns are my own, and obviously that took the longest time.  The actual sewing of the dresses is quite quick.

 I got very addicted to shopping at the thrift store.  I went there at least 3 times and spent more than $30 on t-shirts, most of which only cost $.99 each.  You do the math.  I now have big bins of t-shirt scraps to work with.  Luckily I feel pretty certain I'll make more.  She loves the style and wearability of the dress.  I've also made her another and Theo a couple of pieced t-shirts.  I'll try to get pictures of those.  I love Theo's t-shirts because boys clothes often bore me.  And I might want to try some adult sizes, but it's harder to come by big enough pieces.

 

And now I frequent the thrift store on half-off day.  I just can't get over buying Gap jeans for the kids for $.99.  They both now have several pairs of jeans in too big sizes.  I have to scour the racks, but I always find some good stuff.  And I did get quite a few props for her Harry Potter party.  By the way, it's over (thank goodness) and it was a smashing success.  Whenever I have the photos edited, I promise to share.

JT

187: it *might* be OK to judge

You can go ahead and judge my book by it's cover, but maybe only if you like it, OK?  If not, keep in mind there are 16 different projects in it, so I'm sure there's something you'd love.  

 

Anyway, I'm swooning over how it came out.  Gorgeous, huh?  And it went to press last week. EX.CIT.ING.

So, before I know it I'll be holding a copy in my hand.  Yikes!

JT

 

181: big news

I must say, I kinda feel like this post should be titled "old news", but it is new to you.

So, here it is: I wrote a book!

Yes, past tense.  As in, I'm pretty much done.  I did the bulk of the work last spring/summer (hence, the "old news").  I do feel like I've been a bit of a tease about my news, and that might have been annoying. But, I'll admit it, I kinda liked being in that club where you have secret projects you can't talk about.  And, really, I wasn't allowed to say anything.  Because, if I was, you know I would have been blogging tons of complaints and moaning about how much work it was etc.

And, it was a TON of work.  But I think it's one of those things (like childbirth) where the memory of how hard it was fades and the excitement takes over.  And, I can hardly tell you how proud I am.  I dying to see it acutally done.

The title is:

Modern Mix

16 Sewing Projects that Combine Designer Prints & Solid Fabrics

7 Quilts + Pillows, Bags, & More

It will be published this fall by Stash Books, an imprint of C&T Publishing.  I'm so honored to be in the company of their other awesome authors. And, can I just tell you?  They are a dream to work with. Everyone is so professional and knowledgeable and just really helped me to make it the best I could.

So, yes, it is a project-based sewing book.  Each projects uses both some solid fabrics and some prints.  They're all modern and fun and there is something for every skill level.  My first love has always been quilting, so there are 7 quilts, but since I never can focus on just one thing, there are also bags, pillows, an apron, a tablecloth, and more.  I wish I could show you more than just these sneak peek photos, but for now they're all I've got.  I think the cover is almost final and I promise to show you as soon as I can.  

If you're interested, I'd be happy to share more about the process of writing a book and how this whole thing happened.  Soon... like after I get back from quilt market.

JT

 P.S. Holy cow! You can already pre-order it on amazon.  That's my name there, folks.  For real.

180: forest chic treats and sweets

We decided to have another party this winter for no reason other than we really like to bake. The "we" I'm referring to is myself and my youngest sister Deirdre who is conveniently in town to help.  This time around, it wasn't a strictly cookies party like last year. We had cookies, and plenty of them, but also cupcakes, pretzels, brownies, etc.

The look I decided on was lush, forest floor, with a traditional, chic twist.  Does that make any sense? It did in my head anyway.  And I think that's how it came out.

It was very nice to be able to share the work of all the baking. My husband invited like a million people but since it was a holiday weekend, enough people were away and couldn't come that it wasn't too overwhelming.

It was a simple, casual, open-house-type party where you could drop by whenever.  Plenty of Aurora's friends came.  We had one little craft for them to do: decorating rocks with paint pens. So simple, but they loved it and it was appropriate for toddlers to teens.

As far as the decor goes, I designed and printed the labels myself.  The jars are lined with various green print fabrics stabilized with interfacing.  I glad to say I didn't have to buy a single piece of glassware.  The greenery is a combination of fresh and moss.  The invitations can from the $1 bin at Michaels, if you can believe it.  I paid more for postage. :)

JT 

 

164: race car birthday part 2: the day

So here are the events of the day in approximately chronological order.  

First, I'll say that we decided to have the party on weeknight for various reasons, and that was so cool.  Even though it meant providing a meal for the guests, it was great to be able to stay up uber-late and not have to wake early.

The craft project for while everyone was arriving was simply painting with matchbox cars.  I rolled the paint out in the tops of egg cartons.  The kids' smocks are adult t-shirts from the thrift store.  I love that I could color coordinate them with the decor.

 

Next up was matchbox derby.  I made and painted the plywood track.  They put the cars in the top and then we pulled up the starting gate so they all went at the same time.  

Of course, later it was more of a free for all, which was fun too.

Now it was time for rides in a "real" race car.  I can't tell you how much my inner (outer?) stylist wanted the car to be red.  But none to be found.  But it was a Porsche.  I mean, come on.  Oh, and I didn't mention that it rained that day, which was a bummer.  I really wanted most of the festivities to be outside.  But it stopped long enough for the top to be down.  We added the vinyl number and stripes to make it look authentic. 

A checkered flag finish line was a must.  Theo loved it.  Jon just took them one at a time for a spin down the drive and around the cul-de-sac.  It was really about crossing the line and everyone cheering.  While waiting for their turn, everyone had to stay in the tire circle in the driveway.

 

Afterwards it was time for dinner and cake and general playtime.  Food was baked ziti with caesar salad and chicken nuggets.  I did make the cake.  It was my nemesis.  I. Do. Not. Like. Fondant.  I had never tried it before and at 4 am, it sucks unless you know what you're doing.  But it came out pretty cute (And I photoshopped out some of the cracks).  

The drink station was fun.  There were three choices in water dispensers (I cut a hole in the back to put the drinks and ice in.).  They poured into funnels and then your cup at the bottom.  One bit of advice is if you're doing it indoors, put a tray underneath to catch the drips and spills.  I had originally thought to use small gas cans as pitchers, which would have been cute too.  But since he's a bit young I worried about them knowing the difference between those and actual gas cans which they should NOT drink out of.  :)

As far as planning, I stressed out and took on too much this time around (including work commitments) so I didn't feel in balance.  I asked a lot of my family and friends and while I'm not sure exactly what I would have done differently...it wasn't easy to pull off.  Tears were shed, but, all in all, it was a great day and Theo had an awesome time.

JT
 

All photos by Christianne Ebel

163: race car birthday part 1: the details

Keeping with my previous format, I'm separating the party pix into two posts.  Each time I look back and see how many pictures I showed before and end up adding a few more to the current party.  Pretty soon you'll be looking at hundreds of images from one event.

 

Well, I think I mentioned, Theo is crazy about race cars.  And checkered flag finish lines.  (And railroad X's, but that's another story)  So the theme this year was a no brainer.

 

 

I'm just going to let you enjoy all the gorgeous images, and I'll add some of my sources for those who might care.  The next post will have the events of the day, but needless to say, a great time was had by all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photography: Christianne Ebel

Invitations and graphics: Kara Thauer (my sister, she doesn't currently sell them, but could probably be convinced...)

Vinyl number and stripes for car: custom by Janey Mac Press on etsy

Large fabric banners and table runner: me

Matchbox car plywood race track: me.  If there's enough interest I could make a little tutorial for this, but it's pretty straightforward.  I originally saw several online, including one here.

Hubcaps: walmart @ 4 for $16 (and a few a friend had)

Theo's mechanic outfit: me and it was a mash-up of patterns.  I took shirt and pants patterns and combined them adding a few detail.  The patch was from here.

Drink station: poland springs water dispensers and funnels with labels I made (The idea came from a friend of mine.  I suggest you laminate your labels or buy water proof ones). I constructed it out of a bakers rack we owned.

Red place setting cars: $5 from walmart (brand is Jada) I had to visit probably a dozen different walmarts to gather enough red ones because they come in a variety pack and you can be sure what colors they'll have.

favors: trinket bags inspired by this tutorial by Amazing Mae with 3 matchbox cars in them

"Real" race car: borrowed from a friend and vinyl numbers and stripes added.  I tried everything to rent a red convertible (particularly a mini cooper) but around here it's just not possible.

Cake and cookies: me

162: vroom, vroom...coming soon

Whew!  What a summer.  I'm just now settling down and having time to do things like lie on the hammock or go to the pool, and it's over.  School starts on wednesday for Aurora.  And I think I have yet to face the fact that Theo's going to school this year too.  No more babies at home... :(

Anyway, one of the many summer projects that have kept me busy are birthday parties.  Theo turned 3 a few weeks ago and Aurora's is coming up soon.

Theo requested a race car theme...no big surprise.

 

I have tons of pics of all the details and I promise they'll be coming up soon.

JT

161: glamping bohemian style

Have you heard of glamping?  Probably not.  Everyone seems to go "huh?" when I say it, so I'll enlighten you.

It's camping but with style. i.e. glamour camping.  And if you know me, you know that styling a campsite isn't really a stretch.  Everything is better when done with a little flair, right?

So, you've gathered it's not exactly "roughing it".  In general, when we go camping I have rules:

1. Queen size air mattress

2. Wooded campsite

3. Campground must have flushing toilets

4. Campground must have hot showers

I think for most, glamping is about bringing a level of refinery to camping.  Real dishes.  Bed linens, not sleeping bags. Extra furniture. Etc.

For me it was about creating a look.  And if you remember, I've been lusting after the look of a gypsy caravan.  Very bohemian and colorful.  That's what I went for here.  

How'd I do?

Now, please don't be fooled by these pictures.  Our campsite looked like this for about 15 minutes total.  Then the rain came, and the trying to cook for 9 people (we went with my parents and some friends), and the kids playing in the mud... but the color was always there.

This was the "living room" tent which was useful when it was buggy, rainy, or we didn't want the kids playing in the dirt.  Sadly it collapsed from the weight of the rain on the roof after a few days and was no more.

If you were wondering, we went camping at Half Moon Pond State Park, VT.  It was a lovely quite campground with a nice smallish pond.  The big drawback was it was far from anything, and with 3 kids under 6, we really wanted to go "do something" more than just hang at the campsite.  We did go to Burlington which was cool.

It was a fun trip, but I think once a year camping with the kids is my limit.  The packing and unpacking is just too much...

JT

145: i *heart* cookies

Yum, yum, yum!  

The day before Valentine's Day we had a Cookies and Milk party for some friends and family.  As I mentioned before, really it was for no other reason than I love to bake and I love to style parties.  So, fun!

Ever since I saw this post, I've been wanting to have one of my own.  One of my favorite details was the retro paper straws from Kikkerland.  I baked probably more than 700 cookies so there was plenty for everyone to take some home with them. 

The kids decorated their own heart sugar cookies.  

 

And I made a matching hostess apron to wear.  It was loosely based on the Flirty Skirty pattern.

 
 I cannot tell you how many I ate that day and the week following.  But, I could totally eat more.  Like a lot more.

The favorite of all the guests was Martha's Carrot Cake Sandwiches from the Cookies book.

But the infamous NY Times Chocolate Chip ones were also very popular (and really a meal in and of themselves).

JT

 

142: peaches and cream party part two: the day

And now on to the events of the day.

First came set-up.  It was a total scramble since I had so little time.  It was definitely a treat to have the party on a farm, but I will hesitate to have another away from home because it took so much advance planning.

You can see the tent area we had.  It was really nice that it was a separate fenced area since the farm was crowded that day.

I mentioned we were so lucky to have a nice sunny day, but, man, it was windy.  Everything had to be tightly secured down.

When the guests first arrive the could feed the animals carrots or do some coloring of farm pictures.  Guess how much coloring was done?

Next it was time to go peach-picking.  While waiting for the hay ride, there was much silliness and some rousing games of ring-around-the-rosy.  Then we loaded onto the hay wagon and enjoyed a scenic ride around the farm.

There was a little instruction on which peaches were ripe and we were dropped off in the peach groves and got to roam about filling our little baskets.  With a little help from the moms and dads, the kids had a great time.

 

 

We had a little wait until the hayride came back to get us, so the kids did a little tree climbing...

 

Then we headed back to the tent for food and treats.
 
 
 
 There were a variety of sandwiches, fruit kebobs, and snacking stuff.

 

The yellow jackets turned out to be a huge problem.  They were everywhere.  We couldn't put out the food until the last second and they swarmed the sweet stuff.  I had planned on peach lemonade in a big punch bowl, but we quickly had to nix that idea because they would go crazy for it for sure.  Luckily, I had back-up juice boxes.  The idea of the bees eating the food didn't gross me out (you can see the little holes they ate in the candy below) but I was worried one of the kids would get stung because they're so aggressive.  We lucked out and no one did.  Had I thought of it ahead I would have brought sugar-water traps to put out and lure them away from us...

 

Candles were hard to keep lit...

But we pretened.

The cupcakes had little versions of cakeballs like the cake pops I made based on Bakerella's apple design.  The pops were adorable, but seriously time consuming.  Luckily my baking sister was in town to help me out.

The ice cream was another snafu.  We rented an ice cream cart and I called ahead to reserve the dry ice and they said don't worry just come by and get it that morning.  Well, I went by and they were out!  And no on else was open on Sunday.  So we had to make do by keeping the ice cream in the farm's freezer then just using regular ice.  It was pretty melty.  That was me trying to be relaxed about the details and I learned I'm just better off obsessing and forcing them to take a reservation.

After the food, the kids got to enjoy all the activities.  The farm was having it's fall festival and we bought wrist bands for all the guests.  That meant as much hayriding, tractor "train" riding, pony riding, hay pile climbing, bouncy house jumping, and corn kingdom playing as they wanted.  Theo would have ridden around on that "train" all day if we'd let him.  And Aurora loved the ponies.

 

 


 Then we just let the party peter out.  We took down the decorations and packed up, but a bunch of the families stayed as long as they wanted.

My two kids were totally exhausted but very happy by the time we got home.  (So was I, now that I think of it...)

JT

 All photos are by Christianne Ebel.
 

141: peaches and cream party part one: the details

 

Here at long last are the details of Aurora's 5th birthday party.

 

The theme: peaches and cream

The location: a farm

The activities: peach picking, eating ice cream, and much more.

 

I'm happy to report that we were blessed with gorgeous, sunny (if somewhat windy) weather.  That's the totally stressful part of planning an outdoor party away from home.  I had all of 1 1/2 hours to decorate the tent.  Not pretty.  Thankfully I had some helpful family around.  The tent had giant peach paper lanterns strung up with felt leaves.

I also made some fabric garlands that ran across the support bars with mini peach lanterns hanging down.  Totally didn't anticipate the amount of wind so it was hard to get a decent picture, by my friend Christianne did it again.

The yellow jackets dug all the sweets I made: cupcakes, fruit bouquet, peach shaped cake pops (a la Bakerella), and take home candies.

The tables were covered with plastic (stapled because of the wind) and then fabric runners.  I love all the different peachy fabric I was able to collect for this party.  I used them for the runners, for garlands, for the buffet tablecloths and to line the baskets.  I wanted it all to have a patchwork-y feel so I used a lot of different prints.  I think I could cut up the tablecloths and made an adorable quilt someday.

 The centerpieces were wooden boxes (my dad made them) that I painted and put chunks of wheat grass in.  I originally saw the idea here.  I love that they were fresh and green but not floral arrangements that would be expensive and have to be made the day before.  The flowers are made from Raffia with little looms that I first saw from Cathy of Cal.

The peach picking meant everyone got to go home with their own fabric-lined basket full of peaches.  

And since my daughter loves it so much, we had an ice cream cart (a whole issue, read part 2) with cone wraps to match the color scheme.

 

I designed the invitations and all the signage myself.

 

Please tune in soon for Part 2, run down of the events of the day...

JT

All photos are by Christianne Ebel.

140: I won and so can you

I entered a little party planning contest and won third prize.

Over at Creative Hostess they had a Most Adorable Kids Party of 2009 contest and someone suggested I enter.  Why not?

 

And Theo's birthday came in third place.  

Anywho, The prize I won was an adorable printable birthday set from Parties by Hardie.  Aren't they cute?

  

And, I'm passing it on to you!  All you have to do is leave a comment and tell me what theme you're planning for your next kids' birthday.

I'll pick a winner on Feb 10th at midnight, so enter before then.

And I promise my next two post will be of Aurora's birthday which was way back in September.

JT

138: under the sea nursery

Hey, that rhymes!  I'm a poet and I didn't even know it.

This is Theo's room before the "big boy bed".  It was really designed as a nursery in the true sense of the word.  He slept in our room for over a year, but I loved to sit in the rocker and nurse him.

 

 

This before shot is how the previous owners had the room.  

 

Of course I made lots of things in the room.  I've shown you the quilt and numbers collage before, but here are a few more:  

Pillows, roman blinds, a turtle and two fish, covered lampshade, and, of course, the border mural. 

Instructions and all the supplies you might need for blinds can be found here.  There's a bit of math involved, but they're really not that difficult.  The turtle and fish are from patterns by Rumpled Quiltskins.

The border was another of my past-the-edge-of-sanity projects.  

Truly.  

It's painted from a stencil, but instead of using one color for the waves and one for the background, I felt the need to make it more like actual tiles by painting each square individually with a range of blue hues.  And no, one coat wasn't enough.  They all needed 2-3 coats.  Do you have any kind of idea the kind of time that takes?  Well, I do, and it's no picnic.  100s of hours.  

And this is how I spent the nesting energy of my second pregnancy.  About 1/2 way through I wanted to quit, but I can be plenty stubborn when preggo.

Here's hoping Theo develops a love for fish.  Right now it's all trucks, race cars, and trains.  I really don't want to have to change this any time soon.

JT

136: in print

So, if you happen to be perusing the pages of Fon's and Porter's Love of Quilting this month,

 You'll come across this on page 63:

 

That's my very own magazine ad for Timber.  Aw yah.

I'm getting so excited, it won't be long now until it hits stores.

And, yes folks, my husband and I did carry our couch into a field so I could take pictures.  

JT

126: construction party part 1: the details

Can we fix it?  Yes, we can!

Can we build it?  Yes, we can!

Theo is crazy about Bob the Builder.  It isn’t even really the character, so much as all things construction.  Whenever he sees any kind of construction vehicle, he says “Bob, the builder, BOB THE BUILDER!!”

So I knew that was the way to go for his birthday this summer.  And, despite the stress of having to leave town and get back the night before the party, everything worked out perfectly.

Since I have so many gorgeous pictures (courtesy of my good friend, and amazing photographer, Christianne Ebel again), I’m going to split this up again like I did for Aurora’s monster party.

Get ready for a ton of photos.

So as you can see right away, the colors I used were brown, orange and yellow.  Or more descriptively, chocolate, pumpkin, and mustard.  Remember we started off with these invitations.

When people first arrived they had a little hint at what was to come.  I made the barricades by painting over some wooden sawhorses we had.

I used lots of fabrics (big surprise...) for decorations.  The Be an Man collection and some Tot Town from Michael Miller (as well as a few other construction-related ones I had) added to theme.  

The food table had a giant runner-style cloth that was super easy to make and had quite an impact.

Some other details to the food display included: nuts and bolts, a dump truck full of pretzels, color coordinated m&ms, and my cute little "dig in" signs.

 

And lets not forget the sweets.  The cupcakes had little toppers with graphics I designed.  

And then the oh-so-frustrating-to-make-at-the-last-minute-but-undeniably-delicious tool cookies.

The kids' tables were set outside on the deck.  

Again I used graphics I designed to decorate the cups and the napkins/silverware.  I put a nut and bolt in each bowl to prevent any wind issues (turned out there were none).

Each child had their own personalized hard hat.  

There was a sand table for lots of digging fun.

The deck was decorated with big balloons and traffic cones.

And I made (with lots of help from my mom) a fabric caution tape garland because I couldn't bear the thought of a plastic one.  

You'll read more about it in the next post, but we had a visitor.  

And there was coloring.

We put out all the tools and trucks etc. we could come up with.

Each child when home with a bucket full of goodies.  

 

It included A construction site sticker book, matchbox vehicle, and a small wooden construction puzzle (which Theo is currently obsessed with). 

And a thank you dump truck cookie.

Stop by in a day or two and see just exactly how the day played out.