Sneak Peek Friday #7

After a beautiful summer-like week, the weather turned nasty yesterday and we even had some flooding. This momma salamander got washed up and my daughter said the baby came out of her mouth! Do they do that to protect them I wonder???

The last few weeks have been CRAZY here so I didn't link up last week at Studio JRU. This week I don't have much to show off. I have been busy switching the kids' clothes around and I purged my fabric stash yet again. I have a lot of bright, fun prints that I don't love as much as I used to, so I am cutting them all into 3 1/2" squares. I think I will make some I-Spy quilts with them as a leaders and enders project. If you don't know what that is, it is a tip I picked up a few years ago from Bonnie K. Hunter of Quiltville and you can read about it HERE.

Really not much for this week, unless you want to see neatly stacked fabric and drawers full of summer clothes! I can't wait to see what everyone else has been up to, though!

Spring is finally here!

The last few days have felt more like summer, but it has been beautiful!

We got another calf this week!

He is a really big calf- and cute, too! The chicks are in their awkward adolescent stage now (they're ugly!) Last night hubby got the field plowed up. The cherry tree is blossoming, too, and the peas and onions are planted in the garden.

The flowers are blooming (I am missing some tulips, though!)

Some of my Mothers' Day flowers came back from last year and have been blooming already, too!

Happy Spring!!! :)

Easter Basket Goodies

When we came home from church on Easter, it was starting to spritz, so I rushed them outside for a very uncooperative picture. This year I made a few things for the kids' Easter baskets. They get enough candy everywhere else (isn't that what grandparents are for?)

My 2yo is still on her Strawberry Shortcake kick, so I made a little blanket and pillow for her doll. I should have used white thread to stitch everything down, but it was really late at night and I didn't care anymore. During Sunrise service, she finally got Strawberry to lay just so with her pillow and blanket, but then her sister tried to move it so she could sit beside me. So, just as the guy leading the service said, "Now we will turn the service over to our pastor" she let out a loud, "Nooooooo!" Everyone got a good laugh out of it, though.

I made a cute headband for my oldest daughter to with some leftover dress fabric, but I can't currently locate it. I also made all of the girls a whole bunch of hair bows.

I don't sew much for my 11yo son, but he asked for a belt to hold CO2 cartridges for his air pistol. I added little Velcro pockets for ammo, too. It was a thrown-together, day-before-Easter thing, so I wasn't real particular about the sewing. He was happy with it, though, and I might add a holster to hold the pistol itself, too.

Finally, I had already promised to make an apron for my 5yo and I even let her pick the fabric for the front. I got the directions here from tidbits and they were great to follow! I cheated and saved it for her Easter basket, but I also made her a pair of oven mitts, too! The directions for those came from ikatbag here.

She likes it and the fabric is as girly as you can possibly get!

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter!!!

In the Garden Twirly Easter Dress

My 7yo daughter was also very opinionated about her dress style. She wanted a "poofy" skirt and straps instead of sleeves (she said spaghetti straps and I said "NO"). So, I checked out my bookmarked list and found this tutorial. She totally approved! The straps are the minimum 1" wide allowed in the school dress code, so it should be OK to wear to school if she wants, and the skirt is two full widths of the fabric- so it is very "poofy."

I was really nervous to do the shirring because I had never tried it before and it is the very last step! I saw it done on Martha Stewart a few years ago and figured I could handle it. Luckily, it worked just fine.

Thanks for bearing with me as I showed off my girlies' Easter dresses the past few days! Happy Easter!!!

Puffy Sleeve, A-Line Easter Dress

My 5yo wanted "puffy sleeves" (I wasn't thrilled with that- I don't like sleeves!) and a "straight" skirt.

I traced one of her T-shirts to get the bodice pattern, but made the waist fairy high. Then I cut the skirt to be an A-line style.

The sleeves were a little trickier, but they turned out really, really well! I used the same technique as found here.

I prefer invisible zippers and I used a sash from the Easter dresses I made two years ago. Maybe later I will make another one, but for now this is good.

It is very simple, but it is what she asked for! For now there is a little room for her to grow (or the dress to shrink) so she should be able to wear it all summer long!

Ruffle Tank Easter Dress

For the Easter dresses this year, I wanted to:

1. use things I already had, if possible


2. skip the commercial pattern thing


3. let the girls have a say in what style they wanted

I had one yard pieces of cotton quilting fabric in pretty calicos that I made work for the younger girls, but I had to buy some for the oldest one. All these addicting blogs gave me the confidence to "wing it" with the patternless approach, too. But for my youngest, who is not yet 3, she would have asked for something ridiculous given the option.

So.. I patterned the style after her favorite shirt -the one that she INSISTS on wearing all the time (she says it is her beach shirt, even though she has never been to the beach.) I made it longer, of course.

I love the cute little flutter sleeves on this. When I sewed the top ruffle on, most of the front gathering came out, so I just let it go cause I was lazy.

I also got my gathering foot to work for my serger, and I was so excited that I made ruffles until I ran out of fabric. So there are 2 rows of ruffles on the bottom.

She loved the pockets on her Leah tunic so much that I put pockets on the dress, too. And I added ruffles at the top.

It was very easy to sew up, so I may make another one and post a tutorial and pattern for it, too!

Chicks and Eggs

I can't believe how fast these chicks are growing! I see them change a lot from day to day. One week ago they were all fluffy and fuzzy. Now they are growing little wings and tails and they have really ugly feet!

See the little wing feathers? This is only unfolded about halfway. They all hide now, too. Last week they just about ran into my camera lens and now they huddle in the corner! I had to wait really patiently for one to come close enough to catch.

Now for a little treat! I made these cute little bird nests with eggs the other day, inspired by this blog post here (Thank you!)I just used my own No-Bake Cookie recipe and after they cooled a little, I pressed Peanut Butter m&m's into them (cause they were the speckly-egg looking ones in the store). So, if you want it, here is my recipe:

No Bake Cookies

3 cups oatmeal

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup margarine

2 Tbsp. cocoa

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 tsp. vanilla

2 cups sugar

Melt margarine in a large saucepan. Add sugar, cocoa, milk, and vanilla. Bring to a boil and continue to boil for one minute. Remove from heat and stir in oatmeal and peanut butter. Drop by spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet covered in wax paper. Refrigerate until firm. (You can also freeze these to save for later!)

Sneek Peek Friday #6

Well, I am back and running this week! Here is some of what I have been making...

I already blogged about the painted plastic eggs and shirt I made this week (click to see those).

I also finished up a custom order for decoupaged eggs. Love these! Here's the back:

And I finished that apron for my 5yo daughter- here is a peek at it- it is very wrinkly because it is folded up and hiding in my drawer until Easter. After that I will do a full post on it with her modeling. I think I am making some oven mitts for her, too.

Yesterday was BEAUTIFUL and SUNNY!!! So, I got a lot of painting done out in the sunroom where I can enjoy the sun because there are windows on three sides. I finished the pears…

…painted some frames for some embroidery pieces I have been making…

…and of course, while I am at it, I have to keep on plugging away at snowmen!

BUT, yesterday, I realized that I only have a little over a week until Easter! So, maybe I should start on my 3 girls’ Easter dresses. I picked the fabric out and started planning about 2 months ago! I have a busy week next week, too, so I had better get cracking!!!

I am linking up at Sneak Peek in the Studio Friday over here.

Leah Tunic Sew Along

I participated in a sew-along with Jess from CraftinessIsNotOptional. She has an awesome blog with lots of great tutorials. It took me longer, but I finally finished it!! YAY!!!

The pockets are the best part- every little kid loves pockets and they are just the right size for her little hands!

I cut my fabric incorrectly the first time, so I had to get more (an excuse to go fabric shopping!) since most of my stash is really small pieces (1/4-1/2 yard). I LOVE this fabric!!!

Bias tape is not my friend, but I braved it anyway and it turned out pretty well. I even made my own double fold bias tape. Something other than white would have been nice, but I am still trying to use what I have when possible and this is all that matched.

I may end up getting a big daisy button for the back later, but for now, this works.

The sleeves are a little stiff and science fiction movie-ish, so I hope they settle down a bit after I wash it.

Thank you, Jess, for an awesome tutorial!!! :)

Painted Plastic Easter Eggs Tutorial

I get these crazy ideas in my head and I just have to try them. This time I thought, what about painting plastic Easter eggs? I wasn’t entirely sure that it would work and that the paint would stick to the plastic, but I gave it a shot anyway. I was pleasantly surprised that it DID work and that the texture was very nice- much more like real eggs. So of course I made a whole bunch of them!!! Here is the step-by-step tutorial of how I did it:

I used regular old acrylic craft paint in some pastel colors and an assortment of old plastic Easter eggs that were in the Easter box. Separate the eggs so that they can sit on the newspaper to dry and you can hold them from underneath to work with them. Apply the paint with a foam sponge brush and wipe it on pretty heavily, but evenly. After the first coat, you can still see a lot of the plastic.

Let it dry COMPLETELY and then apply a second heavy coat, brushing in the same direction as before so you don’t pull the first coat of paint off. The coverage gets a lot better.

After that coat dries, dab and sponge the paint on heavily for the third coat. This gives it the nice eggshell texture later.

If you can still see a little plastic when this dries, you may need a fourth coat to touch it up.

Then, SPECKLE! Take a toothbrush and dip it in chocolate brown paint. Go pretty heavy for some big splotches, and flick the brush with your finger about 12 inches above the eggs. I practiced on the newspaper first (like Mommy said to) until I got the hang of it. This part is messy, but fun! My son saw me speckling and said “Whose toothbrush is that?” I think they turned out pretty cute! The speckles remind me of candy eggs. Yummm…