a jean skirt

I LOVE this tutorial from homemade by jill featured on kojo designs. It was a very easy, and fast skirt to sew up, and stinking cute I might add. I think I'm going to have to make a couple more . . . They're perfect to pair with tights for the fall! Corderoy . . . mmmm.

Just a few observations about the tut-I don't have a serger so I just zigzagged where it said to serge. The pattern is also made for 3-6 month old, but mine fit my 6 week old okay, a little big, so I think it will fit for a while, but I'd say it was on the small side of 3-6 months. Overall it took me about an hour from start to finish. An even better reason to make lots!



the sweetie in all her wiggly glory wouldn't keep her legs down. This is the best of the bunch . . .

FF-Nurturing Poster

My little sweetie is getting close to six weeks old. Life is getting easier. slowly. We don't have family too close and so I've relied on a few principles to get me through this crazy time.

First, I try to focus on the positive. Instead of griping and feeling angry at her for of all the sleep I'm missing out on when it's 2:00 am and I've put little sweetie down 4 times, and she's woken up yet again as soon as her head hits her bed, and we start over again with the josteling and shusshing, I try to think about how sweet she is and how this is my job right now, and it's okay. She needs me, and I am blessed to get to spend so much time with her. (don't worry there have still been bouts of resentment and the pity party-I'm not perfect.)




Second, I've really tried to focus on the bigger picture and why I'm doing what I'm doing. This has really helped! I have made the word Nurture my motto, and remind myself daily that my opportunity as a mother is to nurture my children (especially after the little buddy has dumped the entire salt shaker out and is rubbing it all over the counter). That's not just keeping an eye on them (which obviously I wasn't in the above mentioned case-but that's another story). It's "cultivating, caring for, and making grow." And there isn't a better job out there! I feel so lucky to be a mom and to get to watch my beautiful children grow, and to be the one to help them do so. I love my job, and even though it's not an easy one, it truly is the most rewarding. Sometimes I forget that though, and it's nice to have a visual reminder to step back and enjoy them, and remember why I'm doing what I'm doing.

So, I thought I would share this nurture poster I made that has helped me so much!. Hopefully it will be helpful to some of you too! As always it's printable on a letter size sheet. To make it centered, and frame-able in an 8x10 just cut an inch off the right side and a half inch off the bottom. This will make it 8x10.

Also, the quote at the bottom refers to this article if you want to read the whole thing.

halloween toppers

I've got some Halloween Cupcake Toppers up in the shop. Go check them out. They would be fun as gift tags and stickers too . . .

* and if you're holding out for free ones . . . yes, I'll have candy corn themed toppers on October 1st here :)

FF-get well soon cards

They say September is the beginning of RSV season. It's probably the beginning of lots more colds and sicknesses too-but I guess I paid more attention to the RSV warning with a little one around. Anywhoo. I thought I'd pay a little homage to that with a get well soon card. (click on the underlined words to download the pdf). Send a little love.

Two cards to a letter size sheet. Print on cardstock, and cut in half. Each card once folded is 4.25 x 5.5 inches.

Enjoy!

spoonflower

I'm sure most of you have heard of Spoonflower, but if you haven't, it's a place where you can upload your own designs and have them printed on fabric. You can also print fabric others have designed. It's pretty darn cool. My only hang up is I'm a tight wad, and I just can't bring myself to dish out $18+ a yard (depending on the fabric type). Someday . . . in the mean time I get really excited when they have a free fabric swatch day so I can see what my designs look like printed. They come around every so often. If I could get on the ball I would enter their weekly fabric design contest too. Either way it's a good resource to know about!

psudo Tutorial: Rosette headband

I have a little dish on my dresser where odds and ends hang out. Mostly jewelry and hair accessories I'm too lazy to put away, change, you know that stuff. . . I was digging through it a couple of days ago and made a little connection. I had a left over rosette from making this, and a piece of shiny elastic. I thought, why not sew that rosette on the elastic-I actually had another rosette floating around as well, and make one of those hairbands that have sprouted up everywhere. It was super easy, and well, I thought I'd show you how I did it. I don't know how clear it will be though, hence the post title.

Need:

jersey fabric sewn into a rosette. (find rosette tutorial I used here.) The bigger rosette is simply a strip of jersey twice as long as the little one.

elastic headband (or shiny elastic)

scrap of felt

needle and thread.



1. cut out a piece of felt the same size as the bottom of your rosette.
2. sew the felt onto the underside of the elastic/headband. I'm betting that their is no "underside" to the elastic headbands-but there was to my elastic-and I did the little one wrong.
To sew the felt on I went through the center of the elastic and then up on the outside of it through the felt so that it made a bit of a crows foot pattern on the felt-that way the elastic won't curl. I don't know if this is really necessary-or clearly explained :)
3. Sew the rosette onto the felt sandwiching the elastic/headband between the two.
This is what my completed headband looks like on the back: I didn't sandwich the little one, and I don't think it will hold up as well.

FF-scalloped recipe cards

September makes me think of cooking for some reason. Harvest time I guess. I love the beginnings of fall once school starts with that little bit of crispness in the air. When I was growing up we'd always come home to bread baking, or some fall canning waiting for us. So, I feel like some fun scalloped recipe cards. They are printable on letter sized sheet (I'd recommend card stock). Two 4x6 cards on the page. Use the gray crop marks as guides for cutting them out!

the beginning

I picked up this awesome chair on the side of the road today. There were actually two of them, but the other one was so beat up I didn't think it was repairable (is that a word?). Too bad, it would have been more fun to have a pair of them. But I'm still excited to get this one in working condition. I think I may keep the green top, but I'd like to paint the wood white. We'll see when I get to it. I love old chairs!

FF-Monthly Menu Planner

*UPDATE 8/8/11: I've relinked the files so they should work again! enjoy!

This is my new favorite way to plan meals-by the month. I'm not a huge fan of cooking, but I grew up in a house with a home cooked meal every day, and that's what feels right. The worst part about it is coming up with an idea for dinner. I've been planning my meals for a week, but this seems to work even better. Then I don't have to stress out what we're going to eat at 4:30 in the afternoon when I forgot to plan my weeks menu. I can still tailor my shopping around the planned meals, but I only have to worry about deciding what to eat once a month. I like that. I thought you might like it too. I actually have two freebies today though. One is a monthly menu planner with a shopping list space on the right hand side, and the other is just a larger monthly menu planner-with no shopping list. Both print on a letter size sheet still. enjoy-and good luck meal planning.