Summer is here...

  The weather has been beautiful here lately and we're all in full summer mode when it comes to clothing.  So when Jenny had another pattern to try out, I volunteered again.  This time was for a Woman's tunic.  But I realized before I cut my fabric that tunics and me just don't really get along.  I'm a little too top-heavy if you know what I mean to wear what is basically a short dress with jeans...I always end up looking pregnant or large, or both...
  So I decided to just add a few inches to the length and make a dress.  This pattern has so many possibilities.  I added a halter strap to my dress, but you could leave it strapless, add straps, add the halter ties, add backwards halter ties like Jenny did on the tunic dress I made for Emma...  You could add side pockets or patch pockets (thinking I'm going to go back and add to my dress).  You could make it at tunic length, dress length, maxi-dress length.  You could lengthen the bodice and just make it a regular top.  Jenny gives you a great foundation here to take the pattern and make it your own.

   And if adding to the pattern weren't enough, I thought it would be a great summery detail to add beads to the halter straps.  So, I dug around in the kids' craft basket and found a bag of pony beads.  I pulled out 2 greens, pinks, whites and blacks each to match the colors in the dress and wrangled them onto the straps.  The fabric is actually black with little pindots of a bright green, pink and white.  Up close it's obvious, from a distance, they blend together nicely.

  My only complaint at all with this dress is that even after taking it in a few times, I feel it's a little big still in places.  But that comes with trying out new patterns and altering them.  Next time, I'll start with a smaller size...and how could that be a bad thing at all??

  And last, just a funny story (which was not funny at all at the time) to amuse you this weekend.  And by amuse you, I mean be glad it was me and not you!  Chris and I started the C25K running program a few weeks ago.  I had been doing cardio 3 days a week anyway, so I was looking for something new and this is a great program to get back into running or into it at all.  So yesterday afternoon I knew Chris would be home soon so I put a movie on for the kids (don't judge please...Emma was sick yesterday and I wanted her laying down) and went out to run.  As my pictures often show, our property is mostly in pine trees, but we have a grassy area in the back of the property where Chris keeps a track mowed for me to run on.  (He's sweet like that.)  I get about 3/4 of the way through the workout and am gearing up for the final long run and I look up ahead and stop dead still.  There is a 6-foot brown snake spread out in front of me with his head lifted up hissing at me and his tail just a-shaking.  I almost died right there!  Now, I jam when I run, so my music was on loud and I couldn't tell you if there were rattles on the end of said shaking tail or not, but I can tell you that I ran backwards about 15 feet at lightning speed and just stopped and stared.  It was surreal.  The snake was not in the least bit scared of me, and I was scared to death!  I had visions of snakes in movies jumping at me and chasing me across the field!  He finally turned and slithered SLOWLY back into the high grass and woods where he came from.  I waited till he was gone and then sprinted back up to the house as fast as I could with fear that he was waiting to strike at my heels as I ran by.  I was determined to finish my run, but Chris was coming down the driveway, so I told him and then was so shaken I couldn't concentrate so I called it day.  And now, little Miss Fraidy-cat is afraid to go outside and run anymore.  Honestly, I don't even want to go outside at all...what if he comes up to the house?  What if he's waiting in my garage for me tomorrow?  What if he and all his snake buddies thought I was cute and they want to eat me for lunch??
   I know I live in the woods and I've always known there were snakes around, but knowing and seeing are 2 very different things.  I'll get over it eventually, and MAYBE continue with the C25K program (I'm not set to run again till Monday), but maybe I'll just stick to my sewing machine and let my fingers and my creative juices get all the workouts for awhile...or I could just strap a shotgun to my back when I run... 

P.S.  I'll be linking this dress up to all of my favorite parties...check out the party page to see where all the cool kids hang out!  (kidding, of course!)

Confessions

Do any of y'all read Rachel's blog at Stitched in Color?  She posted a few confessions the other day and asked for everyone to tell theirs.  I thought it was so interesting.  From reading most of the comments (there were well over 200!), I found that I am not alone in certain likes and dislikes.  Come to find out there are many of us that don't fall in love with every new line that comes out.  There are many of us who can't afford to or flat don't want to buy every new pre-cut that comes out.   There are many of us who shop at JoAnn Fabrics and we're okay with that.

  So, why does it take Rachel asking us to tell our darkest quilting secrets to find out we're not alone?  I guess that the sewing world and it's cliques and groups within it are just like life.  Most of us are afraid to step too far out of the popular circle for fear of never getting back in it.

  Life only comes around once and you get one chance to live it like you want.  It's hard to step away from the pack sometimes, but I'm trying to remember that making others happy doesn't always make me happy.  Making myself happy will only make it easier for me to make others happy in return.  Of course, I'm not saying to forget the golden rule.  Not at all.  In fact, sometimes making others happy is an easy way to bring joy to your own life.  What I mean, is that saying I like something or agreeing to do something only because I think everyone else is doing it is not the way to bring joy to my life, and in turn, to other's lives either.
     I give everyone permission to go out and do your own thing today.  Skip in a crowd, wear a crazy shirt you love, sew something breaking all the rules...whatever makes you feel special and unique.  Because if we were all the same, then who would ever create new things for people to love anyway?

These 3 make me very happy.  This is from the Beach 2 summers ago, and everyone who knows us personally will know this is picture is them in a nutshell!

Happy Easter!

  Here's wishing a Happy Easter to you and your family from me and mine!

BIG GIVEAWAY

  I completely forgot to mention yesterday that my friend Tricia, from I Heart RocknRoll is having a HUGE giveaway over at her Facebook page.  She's over 1000 fans now and a bunch of her friends and sponsors are celebrating with her.  I'm one of those proud friends!  I think there's like 20 items up for grabs!  I'm giving away a custom dress based on things I've made for Emma on this blog.  The winner will work with me to decide size and fabrics used based on my stash.  Check out these posts to get an idea of what you could win:

Ruffled Tunic Top, Popover Dress, Ruffled Halter Top  

   Head over to her page to join in on the fun.  You'll be glad you did.  And if you're here now from the giveaway, WELCOME!  I hope you'll like what you find here and want to stick around with us.  

  Alright, I'm off to put out a few Easter decorations and dye a few eggs before our Teeball game this afternoon.  I haven't been feeling the decorating groove, and Emma and Oren have decided they are going to decorate without me...I'd better go supervise!  We will also be making meringue cookies (just google Easter story meringue cookies) this evening and Resurrection Rolls in the morning!  Activities involving eating will always catch my attention I guess!  ;)

A Good Day

  Today is a good day.  We spent the day relaxing, picking up the house, creating, protecting our "dinosaur eggs" which are really just acorns in a mason jar...don't even ask!  We made chocolate birds' nests, swam and enjoyed hamburgers out by the pool.  And what makes it an even better day is remembering our Savior who on this day sacrificed himself for our salvation all because he loved us and his Father, our Father in Heaven.

  I had a friend ask me if I could make a hairbow for her daughter to wear Sunday and although you know how I feel about hairbows (I think I like making them until I remember halfway through that I really hate it!), I agreed.  She said the dress is yellow, black and white, so this is what I came up with out of what I had at the house.  I haven't seen the dress, so I have no idea if this at all goes with it, but here it is nonetheless...

  I also worked on Emma's bow holder today, which is kinda funny since I did two projects involving bows today completely on accident.  I took the purple-painted cork board and glued ribbon strips onto it.  Then I took some headpins and beads I bought when I thought I might like jewelry making (about as much as hairbows) and made hooks for her ponytails.  Since she has a bunch of headbands, I spray painted and then inked up some big plastic buttons I had and sewed them down with embroidery floss and a strong needle.  That way the headbands can hang on here as well.  I decided to back the whole piece with felt in hopes that will help it stay sturdy and strong.  This entire project came from rejects in my craft room, so I'm fairly happy with how it turned out...  What do you think?

After loading it up, I think she might need two together to hold it all...good thing I've got extras of  it all!!

   I hope everyone reading this has a wonderful Easter weekend, full of smiles, bright colors, and the joy of a wonderful Savior who sits on the right hand of God waiting to welcome us all to Heaven one day.

WIP Wednesday

  Well, I thought I'd spend the afternoon getting in a run, finishing up a few projects (or working on them anyway), and making "chocolate birds' nests" with Oren since he was determined to do so.  I'm not sure what he has in mind for them...I was going to melt some chocolate and stir in some coconut and then mound them on wax paper in nest shapes.  But, an awful storm came through leaving the backyard covered in tiny bits of hail and wind gusts up to 25 mph. 

  So, instead we all tucked ourselves in bed and took a little nap after school.  Actually, Emma read I'm sure and I think Oren played with toys in his room.  But Chris and I took a little nap anyway.  And it felt great.  I'm still a little sleepy because I NEVER nap during the day, but sometimes rainy days just call for it.

  So, my list won't be as high as I'd have liked, but here we go:

Finished:

  A dress for me.  I blogged about it here.  Because I was home alone this morning, I didn't get any pictures of myself wearing it...how many pictures of me in my bathroom mirror does this blog need?  I'll see if I can get Chris (or Oren!) to take some pics of me in it on Friday. Here's a picture of it all done though.

WIP:

  Working on sashing for my Mod Mosaic quilt.  I'm going with 4-inch white sashing around each block.  I'm hoping to have this baby ready to quilt by next Wednesday's report.

  I've got a square piece of cork painted bright purple in hopes of turning it into a bow holder for Emma's room.  For a girl who loves to wear ponytails, she sure has a lot of bows and hair accessories.  This should be done by Friday and I'll post pictures of it when it is.

   Spiderweb blocks for my swap.  I'm sorting 1-inch and 1 1/2 inch strips for these blocks.  I don't think I have enough solids...Oh, darn, I'll have to buy some more!

Quilts needing quilting:  (Absolutely no progress here at all...)
  My Postage Stamp Quilt-a-long quilt.  I think I've decided to forget the borders and just quilt this one to get it done.
  Jelly Pops quilt.  I made this top before I started the blog and just havent' got around to quilting it yet...

As before, I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced.  What have you been working on and what did you get done this week?

A Summery Top for me!

Hi everyone!  I’m back today with a quick post about the strapless shirt I made on Saturday.  I didn’t take pictures along the way because it really is that simple, but I’ll tell you what I did. 

Does anyone else scrunch up their face every time they use their camera?  Oh, it's just me...well, then.

I bought this simple knit t-shirt at Walmart from one of their $3 displays. I liked the color and the fit was good, so I didn’t want to change it too much.  But I thought a strapless look might be cute.  I laid the shirt down on my cutting board and lined the ruler up with the bottom of the sleeves.  Since my shirt was striped, this was even easier.  I had a built in level!  I just cut straight across, cutting off the sleeves and neckline/shoulders.

Then I just folded over about an inch (again, I just used the stripes as a measurement) and pressed it.  I had half-inch elastic handy, but you can just fold down a little more than the size of whatever size elastic works for you.  I stitched this down, leaving a hole to thread the elastic through.  (Because this was just for me and knits don’t ravel, I didn’t even worry about folding up the raw edge.)  Here’s where I forgot I was working with knits and used a straight stitch.  Be sure to use a stretch stitch on your machine so you don’t pull the stitches out like mine did in a few places.  Oh, and switch to a ballpoint needle, they work much better for knits.  I did at least remember to switch needles.  If you’ve never worked with knit fabrics and that made no sense, let me know or just google sewing with knits!  ;)

Now, measure your chest around and cut the elastic just a little smaller than that.  This is one place we want to make sure the fit is good and tight…especially because we’ll be wearing it during the hot and sweaty summer months.  Don’t want this baby slipping and sliding off, do we??

Once I had the elastic cut, I pulled it through, sewed it up and sewed up my casing.  Then with the extra pieces, I cut strips and gathered them to make little flowers and hand-sewed them on the “neckline.”  I thought it made for a simple, quick, but cute little top.  And it’s versatile too.  Depending on the amount of scrap fabric you cut off in the beginning, you can make little halter ties and tack them down to the inside front.  Or, buy a shirt in a bigger size than you need and cut a small hole in the hem and use it as a casing for elastic or a drawstring for a blousy look.  You could put an embroidery or appliqué design on it.  Or go crazy with flowers or ruffles along the top or side. 

I’ll be linking up again to some great parties.  Check out the list here, and make sure to go see all the great goodies these ladies have for ya.  Summer clothing should be simple and fuss-free.  Don’t you think?  What do you love to wear all summer long?