Juicy Bits

125: sweet as strawberries and the king of super-heroes

I really do love halloween.  It makes me sad that I don't get the opportunity to dress up very often anymore.  I may need to throw a party again sometime soon.

But that's OK, I can live vicariously through my kids.  :)

So I did get the chance to sew again this year.  Next year Quilt Market is on Halloween, so I don't know how that's going to go.

Aurora requested Strawberry Shortcake.  But not your regular old Strawberry Shortcake.  She has a new look, you know.  A new movie came out on DVD recently.

I thought this was a great idea, very sweet and pretty simple too.  I took a t-shirt and sewed the skirt onto the bottom.  This lovely strawberry fabric came in handy.  Then came the accessories: a hat, a bag, tights, and even a jacket.  Sadly the strawberry buttons for the jacket didn't make it in time.

I have to say, the weather at Halloween here in the Northeast drives me crazy.  Some years it's freezing.  Like you need to wear a million layers and even a coat over your costume.  That's often a pain.  But then you have a party or something to go to indoors and you'll sweat to death.  I put the turtleneck under Aurora's this time and had the jacket, but even though it was raining it was like 65-70 degrees out so no need for the jacket.  Frustrating.  

I think this might be generally cute enough that she can just wear it as regular clothes.  If you love the little strawberry patches, you can get them at Fabrichound.

And yes, that is pink hair.  we sprayed it, which is a big mess, but perhaps less annoying than a wig.  She only colored it 2 of the 4 times she dressed up.

Now, Theo didn't get to decide.  I went with a generic super hero.  We were calling him "Super Theo!"  But, yes, it is an Elvis jumpsuit.  I just added the "T" on the belt and the back of the cape and lengthened the cape a little.  I had originally planned for a mask, but it never happened.  And I know the hairdo isn't exactly The King, but more of a cute greaser.  

I wish it was possible to get a clear action shot, as he was very excited he was "gonna fly".  The running/flying shots all look something like this:

But I did enjoy this jumping one.  Definitely an action hero.

What a cutie!

Hope you all had a great holiday.  We had a grand total of ONE trick-or-treater because of the rain.  Yikes that's a lot of left-over candy!

JT

90: easter goodies

This was my easter creation for Aurora.  I guess you can ignore all my comments about not sewing clothes for the kids much.

I really love this dress, particularly because I could use lots of my favorites from my stash.

She had quite a few compliments on it, and it's funny because she's come to expect that.  She told me that people had better make a fuss about how pretty her dress is.

   

I created my own pattern for this dress.  The inspiration is this dress from Chasing Fireflies.  As you can see it's not really the same style, just shares the ruffled back.  By the way...I love the kids clothes at Chasing Fireflies, but they're SO expensive. 

I'm wondering if this is something others would like to buy a pattern for.  It's not the easiest dress ever.  The actual sewing level isn't that high, but it's time consuming making all those ruffles.  I already have some modifications in mind, but I wondered if it was too intimidating for anyone to want to buy.

You're my market research, so speak up if you're interested...

I didn't make an outfit for Theo, but of course, he looked darling.

Here's the whole happy family:

So, I'm wondering....didn't it used to be warm for Easter?  I have all these pictures of me outside in short sleeves and I know my dad would have made me suffer through the cold like I did to my kids, but I really don't remember that.  I should probably just make my kids do a photo shoot like 2 weeks after Easter on a nice day.

Oh, and I ordered these awesome bunny cookies from cakebox cookies and they really rocked.  I mean so delicious, and I'm really picky.  I wanted to test them out as a potential source for party favors and I will definitely order again.

JT

88: sweet ruffles

Happy Easter to all who celebrate.  And, Happy Spring to everyone in this hemisphere!

This is a little preview of the easter dress I made for Aurora.  It's my own pattern and you will see it in it's entirety very soon.   I have to process the tons of pictures I took today.

It doesn't have the high twirl-a-bility factor that her Xmas one did, but what it lacks in that department, I think it makes up for in poofy ruffles.  Tons of 'em.

It was fun using some of my favorite girly fabrics from my stash.  I think I only bought 1 yard of fabric for the main body of the dress...

Have a great day...

JT

78: remember when?

I feel I have now matured in my blogging ways...

My reasoning?  Well, I can no longer remember what I've posted about and I actually have to go back and read my own stuff.  Generally I have a very good memory, so it's not really like me.  The problem is I've composed many a post in my head and never actually typed it up.  And, I have some pictures sitting all nice and edited, but they've never made it online.  

These are some of those shots.  

When I posted about Aurora's birthday invites this year, I took a few shots of some from past years.

This first one is for her second B-day.  It was a very simple circle theme.  We did polka dots and lots of fun with MANY balls of varied kinds.  The invite is circles of cardstock attached by a little gromit (shown fanned out).

The next year she had a teddy bear picnic done in plenty of pinks and browns.  I didn't design this invite.  My very talented graphic designer sister did...with lots of (probably annoying) input from me.  This particular copy has seen better days, but you can imagine it without water stains...

And finally this is the invite from a halloween party we had a few years ago.  No I did not do the awesome art.  It's a complete rip-off from Target.  I screen captured their web site and then added the text.  ( I smudged out the address and phone numbers on all of these to make my only slightly paranoid husband feel better.  :) )  I cut the front panel in half up the middle and stitched up the side to make it open from the center.

Someday I'll post more details but that's all I've got for now.

And, you'll all let me know when I start repeating myself too much on here, right?

JT

77: won't you be my neighbor...

I'm back to my home sweet home and settling back into my regular life, if there is such a thing.

Remember a while back when I talked about wanting to make a Putz village?  Well, I know you thought I was all talk, but that's not so...

I did manage to make one house before I lost my momentum.  I ended up using the directions from BHG, except that I made it half the size and changed a few details.

It's pretty much complete except for some landscaping (trees and such).  I do intend to make at least 2 more before Christmas, but for now I've put them aside.  It was fun to make but very detailed and time consuming.

Do you like the little train decoration in the front yard?  My husband shook his head like "only you..." when I repainted it to fit the color scheme of my future village.  :)

JT

74: it's never too late for love

Well, I embellished this little number for Aurora some time ago, with plans for a tutorial before Valentine's day.  Now I'm just squeezing in some simple instructions (no pictures....sorry!) just in time.  It's  VERY easy, I promise, so if you need a little something for your sweetie to wear on heart day, you should be able to do it in an evening.  

Plus, nobody says you HAVE to do for the holiday...I think it's a good "anytime" pattern.

So I started with a pre-made dress, but this could also be done on the bottom of a shirt.

I use Steam-A-Seam 2 for my fusible appliques.

So, first step: print out the hummingbird pattern.

Next trace this (not the beak part) onto the Steam-A-Seam.  Make sure you trace the reverse of the final design you want.  Cut loosely outside the lines you just traced.

Peel the paper without the drawing on it.  Stick the pattern piece on the wrong side of your fabric.  Now cut along the lines through the Steam-A-Seam and the fabric at the same time.

Peel the remaining paper off.  Place the hummingbird wherever you want on the garment and iron in place.

Then I did a straight stitch very close to the edge on top of the hummingbird.  The edges will fray slightly with wash, but I like the look.

Finally, satin stitch (a wide zig-zag) for the beak.

I added little heart flowers that rim the entire bottom of the dress.  Cut out little hearts of varied sizes and fuse to the dress the same way you did the hummingbird.  After stitching around the edge of the hearts, I stitched a stem to the edge of the dress by using a straight stitch and going over it 4 times.

That's it!

Many kisses to you all...

JT

69: on a roll

These are the last of the homemade holiday gifts:  marker rolls.

 

They’re essentially the pencil roll pattern by Pink Chalk Studio from the book Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts.  I didn’t really follow the pattern and used different measurements and materials, but it’s the same basic idea.

I actually made 4 of them, but only got photos of the 3.  I think paired with a nice coloring book or activity book, they make a great gift.

 

They’re so happy and colorful…I’d love to have one in my purse to pull out whenever the mood to doodle strikes me!

JT

67: twas a few days after christmas

I was finally able to get the kids to sit for some portraits.

Well, mostly sit anyway... with a bit of running away.

From these shots you'd think they were super-cooperative.  In reality there was some bribery, much pleading, and a whole lot of blurry pictures.  God, I love digital.  Back in the day I would have gone through so much film.

    

It actually was a pretty nice day...not overly cold.  So we moved it outside for a few minutes.  Until Theo fell on his face.  Ugh.

As I mentioned previously, the dress is altered from a pattern.  Theo's vest was made without a pattern from an example and the tie was made from this tutorial by Ottobre Design except a little smaller.

       

Aurora was very pleased with the twirl-a-bility of the dress.  She looked at me quite seriously and with reverence said "Thank you, mom, for making me this beautiful dress.  I love it."

My...   heart...   just...   melted.

Makes it all worth it.  :)

JT

66: santa mouse and his merry wife

OK folks, I'm dying of the cuteness here.  

Generally I think I'm unsuccessful at the yard sale/thrift store thing because I'm SO picky about the aesthetic value of every little thing.  I can rarely see something and appreciate it for it's funky retro vibe alone.  It must be "pretty" to look at.  Does that make sense?  So, a cool vase that helps make someone else's home look overall amazing, I wouldn't buy cause I don't LOVE it by itself.  Which means if I want to fill my house with fun stuff that I love, it's going to take me forever to do it!

But I digress, because I do indeed think these little guys are amazing!  I went to an antique shop with a rare hour to look around and I mostly wanted vintage Christmas decorations.  These were the only two I came up with, but I know they'll make me smile every year.

Also for christmas I got these darling little elves.  If you remember, I mentioned I was wanting to start a collection.  Now I have.

Oh, and thanx so much for the help on the glitter houses.  There were some good suggestions.  I particularly liked littleglitterhouses.com for useful information.  If you're interested in more, I'll leave you to look back at the comments, since just about everyone left their info there.

And after the kids holiday portraits, I promise to stop posting about Christmas.  I know it's enough already.  :)

JT

65: putzing around

Ok, so I've always loved these little glitter cardboards houses (I've just learned they're referred to as putz houses or villages...).  Vintage or just "vintage look", it doesn't matter to me.  But it seems to be difficult to find vintage ones in good condition.

So now my new plan is to make some.  Does anyone know a good site for tutorials or patterns?  I'm not overly concerned with patterns since I can easily make up my own, but I would like good pointers on the method.  If I'm gonna spend the time, they'd better last years and years!  (the picture is from BHG which has some instructions...)

Also if you know of tutorials for cute felt ornaments, you should clue me in, cause for the last few days I've been scheming about making all kinds of cute decorations for Christmas next year.  But making them NOW.  In my mind, next year I'll have this whole awesome themed tree to show you plus lots of fun tutorials.  

Well, it sounds a lot more believable in my mind, I swear.

Have I told you how I'm all about planning?  But not always so great with the follow through... Well, maybe come Christmastime next year I'll describe what I had in mind.  You can all use your imaginations and agree I'm a genius.  :)

JT

P.S.  Where can I buy cute little wreaths and deer and snowmen for the front yard?

64: seeing red (and orange)

My sister requested red and orange pillows for her new apartment.  Those were the only parameters, so lots of freedom!

I was really only going to make her two, but I couldn't help myself.  They were quick and fun to make.

Of course I found my stash was seriously lacking in the red department so it was another reason to fabric shop...

I didn't make the crazy all red shag pillow.  Its from Crate and Barrel (now only $12.95!).  I kinda want to buy her the matching rug.  It's very cool.

Now her living room should be very cheerful..

Oh, and I shot these pictures (with virtually no light) with my brand spanking new tripod!  My most amazing Christmas present.  It's crazy how much difference a good tool can make.  I was using this really crappy tripod that came free with a lens or something that did not work at all.  It got stuck and slid all over the place and generally sucked.  The new one rocks!  I didn't even do a ton of research as usual (I left it up to my husband and he did great!).  If anyone cares it's a Sunpak 757B...

JT

63: simple slices scarf

I did precious little sewing gifts for Christmas this year in an effort to keep my sanity.  I succeeded in creating the simplest Christmas to date and still made a few pretty things.  Yay me!

These pictures are of the scarf I made for my sister.  It's done from the pattern in Denise Schmidt's Quilts book.  I feel like I'm always telling you how I don't use patterns much, and then using a pattern.  :)  Well, anyway I did and it was very easy.  Three hours start to finish.

The front is mixed textures of wool suiting with little slices of cotton prints. I used an organic cotton jersey for the lining which is oh so soft without causing a major lint problem on the front.  The only thing I would have done different would be to make it longer, but I didn't have enough of the lining to do that...

  

I hope she enjoys it and keeps warm over in Ireland.

JT

62: a peek at all their holiday finery

I made Aurora a Christmas dress this year.  I don't make a ton of clothes for the kids because, as you know, I don't do anything simply, and there are just so many cute choices out there, that I don't bother.  But sometimes a pattern or fabric speaks to me and I feel I must make something.

This time it was the fabric.  Many of you recognize the print from Heather Bailey's Pop Garden.  I just fell in love and knew immediately I would make a dress for Aurora.  It is red and green but definitely not in the regular Christmas-y category.

I used McCall's 5742 pattern, but altered it a bit.  I changed the sleeves to add the 3/4 length bubble ruffle.  And I changed the lining to be a visible underskirt with it's own bubble ruffle.  I added the sash band on the front, and finally I added the fabric flower and button details.

Anyway, these are a few sneak peeks at the dress and Theo's matching vest and tie. 

I didn't actually take portraits of them all dressed up yet, but I will attempt that soon.  Indoor portraits in the cold are so much harder!

JT

61: they were hung with great care

Christmas is over and now we're deep in the aftermath.  In my house that means hanging around and playing with new toys, tripping over all the opened gifts, and eating way too much bread and cookies.  

How long does it take you to clean up after Christmas?  I'd estimate that here the last of it is picked up on average by the end of June.  We always have that one box of little things that have no real home yet, that lives in a corner of our living room for a LONG time.  We keep the tree up until at least the new year and I'm proud to say we've yet to miss the recycling deadline.  :)

So this is the hearth in my home.  I LOVE it.  Especially with the wreath at the Christmastime.  When we bought the house it was simple white mantle with a green marble surround.  We tore it out and added the "stone".  My uncle did the work, but we helped.  It was much easier than I would have thought.  Basically like a big puzzle.  Now I just love to look at it.

In retrospect I should have lit a fire for the pictures!

I did make the two stockings for the kids.  I went for the homespun look.  Aurora's was made a few years ago, but Theo's is new this year...

JT

60: the holidays are here

Hi all.

I'm just poppin' in to wish you all some wonderful holidays.  I love seeing what they look like at everybody's homes, so I thought I'd give you a little peak of how it's shaping up here.

As always the big day is drawing near and the time to finish all the preparations has almost run out.  No I didn't complete everything on my list, but come 3 am tomorrow night (actually now it's tonight...eek!), I think I'll be in pretty good shape.

I doubt I'll be posting again before Christmas, but maybe I'll show you some more before new year's.  Is it lame to show Christmas decorations after Christmas is already over?  Oh well, I warned you, you'd always be on a time delay.

I really hope you're all enjoying some special times with your families...

JT

59: i can't help myself

My daughter's school holiday party is today.  When sign-up time came around for food I volunteered to make the cookies, because really I wanted another excuse to do holiday baking.

As Aurora loves anything with icing on it, I just planned to make a basic sugar cookie with icing and sprinkles.  But once the dough was made and it was time to bake them, I couldn't not make them shaped.  Seriously.  I tried.

And then I iced them by drawing a snowflake pattern.  All the while I was chanting to myself "they're only 4-year-olds..."  But, nope, I couldn't stop myself.

I added blue sprinkles, although I think I might have liked them better without.  But, I figured the kids wouldn't mind a bit more sugar.

I won't share the recipe because honestly I wasn't overwhelmed with how they tasted.  A bit too eggy.  I've made them before but with more icing, so maybe that masked the flavor.  Now the dilemma is do I use the rest of the dough and make some for sending to friends or trash it and try again?

JT

57: making a list, checking it twice

I'm a list-maker.  I think you either are or you aren't.  And don't be fooled, this doesn't mean I'm organized by any stretch.  It just means I like to write it all out once in a while.  Then I freak out about how long it is and how little time i have to do it all.

Like now...just about 2 weeks til Christmas and I still have so much to do.  And I'm not even shooting for an all handmade Christmas, which would be nice.  But I do have much projects and shopping etc. left.

If you're one of those people who finished your shopping weeks ago...well, I don't like you very much right now.

JT

56: mmm...bread...

Have I told of my love for bread?  No?  That's not possible.  I'm quite passionate about it.  Like if I was stuck on desert island with only one food, that's what I'd choose.  But then I'd miss butter.  And cake, of course. 

I often choose restaurants based purely on their bread offerings.  Make it warm and mushy and I'm there.  And I'm offended by people who leave it there in the basket untouched.  How dare they? 

Of course, this little love is not very good for my waistline.  I could never give up carbs.  I tried the Atkins diet once and it made me very very sick.  I do still have a few lingering baby pounds that I've really been trying to shed lately.  So the fact that I got this book, that everyone's already talked about on their blogs, has not helped.

But how could I not try it?  And let me tell you, it does not disappoint.  The only really negative I can say is they tell you to wait til the bread cools to eat it.  What?!?!?  There's nothing better than hot, fresh bread.  I guess it cuts better when cooled, but I just rip it apart in big chunks, so who cares?

My mom has an amazing bread recipe that she makes on holidays.  We all look forward to it.  It's your typical yeast bread with all the kneading and rising, so it's bit labor intensive, but the results are beyond scrumptious.  

But believe me, you don't want to know how much butter goes into those babies.  It's best if you never know.  And I'm not posting a recipe, not because it's top secret, but because I'm lazy and I don't want to go get it.  Really, how many of you would try it anyway?

JT

55: the flirty skirty

Well, I feel like I'm seriously missing my personal goal of 2 posts per week.  It's not that I'm not doing stuff, but I haven't had many pictures to show you.  And I guess this has basically become a "show and tell" blog...which is a good thing, I think.

Anyway, I did sew this apron for use on Thanksgiving.  It's the Flirty Skirty pattern from The Apron Lady.

Of course, I did change it up a little bit.  First I made it reversible, then I tweeked the pockets a little.  

My intent was to have the 2 sides be completely different to fit my schizo style moods.  But in the end I was limited by what fabric I had on hand and the fact that I wanted the strap/ties to compliment both patterns.  So the two I choose have similar colors, but they at least they have very different "personalities".

JT

54: turkey day decor

Thankgiving is over and it was mostly perfect.  Lots of lovely baking smells and plenty of messy helping hands.  Dinner was a wonderful collaboration of several "chefs", myself included.  And it was enjoyed by lots of loving family members (we had 17 for dinner).

Most of my photos are of the table all set for dinner.  I did the flower arrangements with cranberries in the vases.  I can't remember where I saw that before, but it was somewhere.  And the placecards are from Paper and Cake.  Check out that new blog.  I think it's a cool idea to do downloadable tablescapes, hopefully they'll keep it coming.

I didn't take photos of all the delicious food consumed, but I can tell you I'm still full.

The kids each made their own little gingerbread house, which was a fun (and they'll say tasty) craft.

Hope you had a great one if you celebrated...

JT