Panda Dress

Just wanted to start showing off my summer projects with Little One's Panda Dress. SHE LOVES PANDAS. A LOT. So of course she had requested I make her a Panda Dress this summer. So this morning I cut up a few T-Shirts from my stash and came up with this for my girly girl:

Little One with her best pal Bamboo enjoying the sun in the backyard (sorry the dress appears to be crooked but it's not, she's just a major wiggleworm).

Am I Supermom or what???

Now I am attempting to add some length to a purple summer dress I found at WallyWorld for about $3, it's one of those short dresses that shows entirely too much leg (especially the out-of-shape pasty kind I have). Hopefully it will improve greatly once I'm done with it.

Well I better finish this, have Offspring waiting in the wings itching to blow up some bad dudes on the computer...

Have a blessed day, everyone.

Happy Father's Day!

Wishing all the dad's a Happy Father's Day out there - you do an awful lot and we think the world of you. To all the military dads like my hubby, you often miss months and years in your children's lives; we are so grateful for everything you put up with and sacrifice.

In keeping with my tradition of very manly Father's Day Cards (from beer bottle cap "flower" arrangements to some potty humor inspired cards) here's this year's edition combining two things I love: flowery things and duct tape (big fan of Red Green on PBS). So what better way to honor Warrior Man than to give him this card:

I love the sound of ripping duct tape!

Also I made some wall art for a big dead space in the living room. I had bought some small canvases with seriously cheesy "art" on it at Dollar Tree (my fave) and finally searched through my mountain of scrapbook paper to find just the right one (holy cow there is a lot of paper, I seriously need to get off my derriere and get some more albums worked on...).

I tried to use the staple gun but switched to using duct tape early on (the staple gun and I have a history and not a pretty one, better to leave it alone as we are running low on band-aids).

Here's the before and after:

As I was hanging these babies up I noticed how sad the paint job in the living room is... high time for another one. I had chosen this shade of yellow to brighten the space up but throughout most of the day you feel like you live inside an Easter Egg (that's what you get for not trying the color out ON your wall first). The only thing that's holding me back is the fact that the living room, entry, dining room and kitchen are part of the same open space - that's a lot of painting... I'm sure the offspring would just LOVE to help with that job... NOT. I don't want to take the risk of arming them with paint brushes and rollers, someone could loose an eye or one of the animals could get a new look!!!

Now that offspring are out of school and I'm home for a while there are high hopes of getting loads of projects done around here - painting the outside of the house moss green with cream trim (if this rain ever stops, the next person telling me that's why WA is so green better duck!), some work on fence to protect veggie garden from curious dogs, some kind of patio or deck area and some other upkeep projects. I have an evergrowing list of projects that need to be worked on (rehab of some clothes for me and Little One), sewing projects (chair covers/curtains etc) and hopefully there'll be time left for some new bag designs. I would love to start listing some of this stuff on Etsy but seem to be giving items out as gifts as soon as they're done.

Better finish for now, I still need to wrap hubby's gift before he gets home.

Have a blessed Sunday, everyone.

Sweet Ruffle Purse and more Crafty Goodness

Ahh, it is so lovely to have the sewing machine back in service!!! It purrs like a kitten and I have been a busy bee finishing up the teacher's gifts before school gets out next week.

I have to make a confession: I love love love love girly flowery ruffly lacy things... anyone who knows me is probably rolling on the floor laughing by now. Seriously, this practical mom has an obsession with sweet things and shabby chic style (in reality our place is a bit country and a lot shabby - thanks to offspring and critters). But I try to practice the art of restraint so poor hubby (WarriorMan) and Dude (GuitarHeroMan) are not living in the Land Of Precious all over the house. So there's only a sprinkling of cabbage rose prints and ruffles around. But I hoard any lovely fabrics/papers/etc I can find until I come up with a good project. I'm excited to have one off my to-do list. I finally figured out a use for this beautiful flower fabric I have had for a VERY long time (another great curtain find at Goodwill, sadly not big enough for a large project). I have been ogling these ruffly and flower decorated bags on some great craft blogs and decided to take a stab at it. I'm not confident to try putting in a zipper, but some velcro will do the job just nicely.

Here's some pictures of the last few craft-filled days.

First, get a load of this ruffly beauty. I just love the colors and am pretty proud of how it came out.

This will be my new purse... I'll be the coolest mom in the frozen food isle!!!

Here are the teacher gifts I made for Little One (both for her classroom teacher and dance teachers).

More Cheese, please! & Tropical Flower (fully sewn by hand)

Groovy Blossom & "Rubber Chicken" Bag (Little One called it that)

So much for today. I better finish up so WarriorMan can get on the computer when he gets home.

Blessings. C.

Much to do

Oh, sorry, forgetting my manners. Hope all has been well, haven't felt like blogging much lately. We're trying to finish up the school year, loads of teacher gifts in the works - had to be put on hold for a bit while sewing machine is at the shop this week (made funny noise and skipped stitches, so grateful that it was just a minor adjustment and the nice guy at the shop is not charging me anything for it - I was horrified to hear that the regular service without any repairs runs at about $90!!!). I'll get to pick my baby up tomorrow afternoon just in time to hit the ground running.

I spent Memorial Day weekend at home sewing 25 costumes for Little One's school play (luckily they only needed costume pieces sewn, but 25 spiders makes for a whole lot of legs to cut and sew!!!) Thanks to sewing machine and lots of coffee it was accomplished well in advance. Offspring were off with grandparents camping (they "roughed" it in a comfy cabin at the campground) and hubby was at work. So me by my lonesome, some great tunes on my Ipod, the snoozing hounds and snoring kitties and let's not forget the never-ending RAIN... RAIN... oh did I mention the RAIN!!! I am so sick of this RAIN! We had a beautiful day yesterday for once, but of course I was tied up with some goings-on at church until the late afternoon and was too tuckered out after to be out and enjoy it. Today when there is extra time it RAINS!!! No fair! as Little One would say.

Sorry, sidetracked yet again... back to subject. Kids are trying to fit all sorts of class parties etc into these last few days; new schools for both next year (High School for Dude and different Elementary School for Little One). For me, a bummer to start off the summer season; have a layoff coming this month and side gig was also cut... hopefully will be able to find something after the summer - fingers crossed and prayer candles burning...

But on to fun stuff: pictures.

Pictures of spider legs and "helpful" cat - WildMan is battling the MonsterSpider, dragged a few of them around the house when I wasn't looking and all around felt very proud of himself. Feloneous Feline (man I hope I spelled that right).

Here's the general madness during Little One's school play.

Quick Mom Rant of the Day: Folks, do me a favor and SIT THE HELL DOWN!!! Sorry for the uppercase shouting, but it has to be said... see the general suckiness of the photo??? Know why??? Because of the Ubermoms clogging up the isles in the auditorium continously taking pictures through the whole play while we mere mortals can't even get 2-3 decent photos of offspring for bragging rights and scrapbooks!!! Here's how it should be: right before your precious child is on stage you get into position taking care not to block out the sun for the rest of us, take your pictures and return to your seat. Don't park your rear permanently in the middle of everything living out your papparazzi dream... just sayin'. And please, if other parents ask you to please not block the view for everyone - how about giving it a try??? Be considerate, please.

Oh, same goes for church too. It's very hard to be reverend and prayerful when you can neither see nor hear due to cameras clicking and general madness of people trying to get the best shot.

Get it? Got it? Good!

Alright, soap box is being put away again. Whew!

Here's Little One on her big day at church:

No new projects to show off right now, a few things in the works, will hopefully be ready within the week.

Have a blessed Sunday.