First Bloomers

I hope you are having a great Saturday.  I am enjoying my time off.  Today Micaela and I are headed to Shreveport for a girl trip, we are so excited. 

I could not go to Shreveport empty handed.  I've been wanting to embroider baby bloomers forever and finally had a 'candidate'.  These are for my dear friend's grand-daughter.  I still can't believe, I have a friend who is in my age range (forty-something) who has a grandchild.  I remember when the daughter, now the new mom was a toddler herself...

Here are the bloomers...

I embroidered the eyelet pair in a monogram font that I use all the time.  I thought the hot pink and black would be kinda fun.  I love this font, I've used it for aprons, and pillows and lots of other stuff.  

The second pair is denim and I used a firecracker font.  I thought these would be cute for Memorial Day, Flag Day and of course Fourth of July.  These were so fun, I wish Micaela was still a baby so I could make her some.  Thanks for stopping by!

Daffodil Bag

If you read my blog, you know I am into Daffodils.  Last month I made a bag to carry all my stuff to the Texas Daffodil Show at the Dallas Arboretum.  This is the bag.

I started by purchasing the daffodil design from Embroidery Boutique more than a year ago.  (that's how long I have been thinking about making this bag).  Then I purchased about 12 different fabrics in yellow and green.  I wanted a patchwork look, my inspiration was a bag made from a jelly roll (2.5 inch strips of fabric).  I pieced all the fabrics together and made up the bag as I went along.   I top stitched the strips with a decorative stitch and alternated yellow and green thread. I appliqued a free hand circle I cut from a lid (honest) with the daffodil applique on it and then top stitched it to the bag.    I lined the inside with one of the yellow fabrics, added a ruffle at the top, a velcro closure, and long strap so I could carry it criss cross.  Ta Da.   

Thanks for stopping by! 

Butterflies & Bees in our Backyard

Went outside to pull weeds and water this morning (I took a day off from work). Discovered the Augusta Duelberg plant was covered in bees and butterflies. I quickly ran in the house to get the camera, these are a few of my snapshots. I could have taken pictures for hours, the bees and butterflies just kept posing for me...

I am enjoying my day away from the office.  Thanks for stopping by!

Quilted Laptop Sleeve

A couple weeks ago we purchased a new laptop.  I decided it needed a 'homemade' sleeve using some fun fabric I found in the WalMart fabric department~~ of all places.  I followed a great tutorail by Sew Mama Sew that I found on Pinterest. 

I followed pretty much the whole thing but instead of using fusible fleece adhered to a contrasting fabric for lining, I used real fleece in a solid color.  I also did some "quilting" to sew the fleece in place.  (This is the same fleece I used to make the soccer blanket last year).   I also added two strips of velcro for fastening to allow a fitted closure if I had a few extra things in the sleeve.

The tutorial was very good and easy to follow.  I think it turned out pretty cute and I look forward to making a few more. 

By the way, if you haven't discovered Pinterest, its's quite addictive.  I have more than 2000 pins, everything from sewing ideas, to tablescapes, to paperscraps, feel free to follow me here.  Thanks for stopping by!

Micaela's Sewing Space

This is Micaela's little corner of 'our' sewing room.  We got her the mini cube shelf (Mini Cubeicals by Closetmaid from Target) for her birthday because she wanted a shelf like mine for her stuff.  She even helped assemble it yesterday. We had the little table but now her space is more like mine.  She loves it!  Notice the fabric in the top left cubby is her assortment of weenie dog fabric, we'll be making a cover for her sewing machine and some cute stuff for her room with them very soon. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Owl Sewing Kit

I am participating in a needle case exchange at one of my local quilt stores, The Quilt Asylum during the month of June.  I've been looking for patterns and found a really fun owl "sewing kit" one (in the hoop) at Embroidery Garden.  I had a super busy week and spent most of Sunday resting, cleaning and catching up...I took a break to sew and decided to make one to test the pattern. 

Here it is, I think it turned out pretty cute. 

When you undo the turquois knotted loop (hair elastic) around the buttons, inside the quilted wings you put your pins and needles, in the belly pocket seam ripper and little scissors and there are two spools of thread for the feet at the bottom. The whole thing is a pin cushion too and it's weighted with walnut litter which will sharpen your needles and pins as you (stab) it.   I really like it and plan to make more.  I  really struggled with the fabric choice because I don't have many small patterns that all coordinate (new excuse for buying more fabric).  This pattern was worth every penny!  Thanks for stopping by!

Painting Oreo's House

Linking to Metamorphisis Monday @ Between Naps on the Porch.

My husband built a dog house for our new dog Oreo back in December. He left the wood unpainted because he knew Micaela would have some 'input' on the color etc. Well, three months have flown by and the house was still plain wood. Everytime Micaela and I would go outside she would say, "Mommy, we need to paint Oreo's house".

Well the day finally came, we had a free day when it was dry and clear outside. We struggled but we managed to lift the doghouse onto the red wagon draped with a drop cloth. We painted and painted. We did a couple of base coats in a simple glossy beige paint and then moved onto painting flowers as Micaela wanted. She drew and I painted. We had fun. The wind helped us by drying the paint quickly but made it a challenge to keep the small acrylic paint containers upright. Oreo helped by knocking over the paint containers that the wind didn't move and running off with paint brushes...it was comical.

After several hours, we finished. Here it is... (this is right before we added the wood name letters)

Oreo didn't know what to think at first, he barely wanted to get close it it.

After much encouragement and a few treats he crawled inside. We think he loves his newly 'redecorated"' house.

Micaela is happy too!

Thanks for stopping by!

Easter 2012

Here's Micaela on Easter Sunday... can't believe she will be seven in just a few weeks. Our roses have a gazillion blooms!

Tornados in the area

April 3rd-- yesterday was an eventful day, lots of tornados in the area. Long story short, the tornados did not hit our area but I did get the opportunity to spend more than an hour in the storm shelter (aka music room) at the school with 120+ of Micaela's classmates. The kids did great and I was impressed about how well the staff had complete control over the kids.

I had just purchased a new umbrella and rainboots over the weekend. The umbrella came in handy for Micaela and her friend Caroline as we exited the school. They thought the whole tornado episode was alot of fun. God willing we will not have to go through that anytime soon.

Here are the girls as we left the school, they look like they just came out of a party with big smiles on their faces...