With These Hands

I knew back in late August/early September that I was going to create gnome costumes for the boys.
I wanted something that was basically like regular clothes, but also warm, and non-cumbersome.
The only thing I thought they would have issue with was the hat and beard, but they both did super-great and didn’t try to take them off at all!
I was so proud.

In my head, I knew what gnomes looked like. Heck, I watch the Amazing Race which is sponsored by Travelocity, so without fail I see that little gnome mascot every Sunday night!
To get a specific idea though, I just googled my way through many, many images of gnomes on the web.
You would not believe how many variations!
So I kind of settled on doing a hybrid of these two guys:

I liked the colors of the second guy, but the vest type top of the first dude.
Since I was sewing everything, I knew a sleeveless tunic was way more desirable and much faster than trying to add sleeves.
With a belt, I thought it achieved exactly the look I was going for.

The hat was loosely based on the woodland elf hat in Bend The Rules Sewing. (I love that book!)

Once I had the hat down, I tackled the belt and then beard. The belt was easy, I was happy that I had picked up some goldtone buckles from the fabric store, it definitely added to the overall look.

The beard proved to be a bit more challenging, if only because I wanted something that wasn’t going to be too annoying to the boys (like cotton-y strands and threads in the mouth) but still have a look that was full and reminiscent of a fluffy beard.
I thought I was simply going to do graduating layers of white felt.
But as I was starting it, it seemed too flat and two-dimensional for facial hair.
I got inspired at the last moment. I started thinking, loops, loops, loops.
So I started cutting strips and sewing them on in lines and a bit of layering.
I LOVED the way it turned out.
It gave it this interesting, modern, clean look while still looking like a obvious representation of a beard.
The process was quite enjoyable to partake in.
I felt proud!

Trick-or-Treat!

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materials used:

polar fleece for the tunic
wool blend felt
thread
buttons
brass buckles

store bought white turtlenecks and khaki pants from the boys’ own wardrobe

November 3rd, 2008 ★ 1 Comment »

So truth be told, I’m not really much of a Halloween person.
I mean, not so much in the way of zombies and death and blood and bats and all that creepy stuff.
About as creepy as I will get is abiding the Jack-O-Lantern, which is to say, really not creepy at all.
I’m a wuss, I will admit it, even when it comes to make-believe-y type things.
I’ve learned to accept this.

But these, these cute little pumpkin luminaries, well they are just the cat’s pajamas!
I used the tutorial found over at Skip To My Lou. She’s got a whole mess of Halloween crafts to partake in.
But this is the one that really tickled my fancy!
(Just how many cliched phrases CAN I use in one post??!)

And all aglow!

The only modifications I did to the original tutorial is using orange tissue paper instead of the mentioned crepe paper. I was indeed looking for orange crepe paper when I was at Target recently. But they had none to be found! Everyone grabbed ‘em to make their own pumpkin lanterns, I can only presume!

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materials used:

mod podge
tissue paper
construction paper
baby food jars
pickle jar (!)

October 20th, 2008 ★ 1 Comment »

18 million years ago (it seems), one of livejournal friends posted a link to a baby pants tutorial.
Well I finally used it!

There was once this happy cow who was placed on a little onesie courtesy of a very cool lady who has a very cool etsy shop.
We loved this onesie and got lots of use of it.
But babies grow, as they are wont to do.
I didn’t want to give up the jovial bovine, however.
So he went into a pile of “SAVE THIS OR I WILL DIE!” clothing and things in the bottom of the boys’ closet.
Yesterday I started to try and do something interesting and fun with some of these items.
Including the cow and the moon.

The before:

And the after:

Wee pants for Noah!

I had an old cut-up sweatshirt from a few years ago that came in handy.
I made the patch by cutting the screenprinted part of the onesie and using steam2seam fusible webbing.
After I ironed the patch onto the pants I did a simple straight-stitch along the edges.
I then took some more of the onesie solid black material and made a waistband through which I fed 3/8 inch elastic and voila!
Baby lounge pants!
They are cozy and adorable.

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I soon took scissors to two more favored onesies.
(This one is another from the aforementioned etsy shop.)

Before:

Truth be told, Mike was never a fan of that puffer fish.
I LOVED it.
You never see baby clothes like that!
I could not give it up.
So I made Matty a hand-me-UP!
Is there such a thing??

After:

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One more.

Before:

Now this dinosaur guy was from Matty, he grew out of it, it went to Noah, then he grew out of it.
These kids and their GROWING!
Well, I liked that dino, so he is now residing here:

I thrifted the green shirt from the Salvy and added the dino using above method.
He looks happy, no?
ROAR!
Matty likes it!

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materials used:

re-purposed tees/onesies
thread
fusible webbing
elastic

October 13th, 2008 ★ No Comments »

Semi-makeover?

So years ago, when Matty turned like 8 months or so, we got tired of feeding him in his little blue rocking chair thingie, so we headed to Target to spring for a highchair. (Poor sentence structure alert!)
The selection was ick then.
But it was more about function and price than anything else.

This is what we got:

And really, the ONLY reason it even looks cute is because of Little Face. Aww, he’s so little here! (Where did 4 years go???)

We put the highchair away once Matty was big enough for the table.
And then along came Noah.
He too started out his solid food days in a wee infant chair.
But when he turned about 7 months, we knew we needed to go get the highchair.
It’s actually still in near perfect condition.
Save maybe for one stubborn-ass Blues Clues sticker that just won’t come off!
I refuse to spend too much time on it though, save my sanity.

Anyhoodle, I was right sick of looking at that beige (BEIGE!) seat cushion, so I set to work to make a new cover.
The home decor fabric that I picked up was on sale and I only needed a yard of it, so it was about 6 bucks.
I picked red because red is AWESOME. And it has dots!
I wanted to do it with minimal spending of the dollars, so instead of buying batting, I simply made the cover double-sided and slipped the old (washed!) cover inside, then stitched it up.
Kinda like a duvet cover? Minus the buttons.
I needed to add the little elastic doohickies on the bottom so it attached firmly to the chair itself. That was easy.
And I made a hole for the um, stem thing? Yeah, that was a bit more challenging, but I survived. Used a zigstitch for that.
And well, that’s about it.
It came out a bit smaller than the original cover, my head got wonky regarding the seam allowance, oops.

I like it though.
Mike said it’s fantastic and this pleases me.
Noah, well, he looked at it and pounded on the tray. Which I took as a sign of approval. And a sign for more Cheerios.
Kids.

August 18th, 2008 ★ No Comments »

It came and went by fast.
And now I can breathe again!
After a slow start on the first day, Thursday, things picked up a WHOLE LOT.
And I had my best year ever at the Arlington County Fair.
I’m still flying high because of it.
I beat my first two years and also beat the goal I set for myself.
Amazing!

Some pics of my set-up:

Now it’s time for me to sit down and list all the extras in my shoppe. I will hopefully have this completed in the next few days or so. If you’re looking for something that you saw at the fair, please keep checking back!

Thank you to everyone who took the time to stop by my booth.
And very special thanks to those who loved my things enough to make a purchase.
It means a lot to me and I’m very appreciative!

Cheers!

August 11th, 2008 ★ No Comments »

Has been a million years since I’ve posted something crafty?
Yes, yes!

But here we go, a project I started and COMPLETED in only about a week!
Unheard of!

Some of you crafty folks might know of a very sweet site Wee Wonderfuls.
I gather quite a nice bit of inspiration from Hillary and her work.
This was no exception.
I looked at this adorable photo of her daughter and just knew I wanted to make some fun banners for my sons’ room.
I don’t like to copy things exactly, so I thought for a while about how to make this project mine. And ultimately, my boys.

Here is what I came up with.

This one for my Matty:

The letters are felt, hand embroidered using DMC thread.
For the end flags, I wanted to pick images that represented Matty’s interests.
He’s a reader and loves music.

So…

He likes to bring his instruments onto his bed. To play and snuggle with them.
And yeah, he’s totally allowed to stand up and jump on his bed!

Now for my Noah.

His end flags couldn’t so much reflect his interests, ’cause well, he’s only months old and his interests right now are eating paper and pulling my hair. I didn’t really know how to indicate that in stitchery.

So I gave him a little red birdie:

And some sunshine:

I think he approves:

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materials used:

scrap cotton fabric
flannel
linen
interfacing
dmc embroidery thread
poly thread
ribbon

May 12th, 2008 ★ No Comments »

Okay, here is the thing.
I really don’t like Valentine’s Day.
I think it kinda um, sucks?
But only because of what it has become.

I love hearts.
I love love.
I love candy.
And lovely fresh flowers.

But, that’s not what Valentine’s Day is ’round these parts and it just kinda sucks ass.
When we stopped at the grocery this afternoon, there were all of these people milling around the 4 valentine’s card that were left in the wall. So wrong.
I would have kicked Mike’s butt in two if he would have given me a card today.

Now.
All that being said?
I did REALLY enjoy making these for Matty and his classmates. (and teachers!)

I wanted to do something fun and quick. I whipped these up in about a night and a half.
I’m so pleased with the way they turned out!
And I adore how sweet they look in their packages.

My Baby-La, showing off his Valentine from Mama.
Aww.
And his teachers reported: He wore it all day!

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materials used:

craft felt
batting
dmc thread
ribbon
cardstock*
cello candy bags
archival ink
typewriter font mini letter stamps

*Packages included image by The Black Apple’s Emily. As soon as I saw her post offering up the valentines, I knew I wanted to incorporate them somehow. I cropped her PDF image, shrunk each girl and printed up a sheet of tags on cardstock. They looked SO AWESOME.

February 14th, 2008 ★ 3 Comments »

Nearby, there is a small bar/restaurant/lounge type place that opened about a year or two ago.
Ever since I walked by it for the first time, I’ve wanted to do a circle mural.
I got the perfect opportunity when we moved into our larger apartment and Matty had his own room.
Oh I procrastinated plenty and months and months went on by before I finally started it.
But, finally, FINALLY, earlier this month, I set to work.
And I’m in love with the results.
I used varying sized bowls and glasses as templates, traced them all out, then tackled each color at a time.
When I opened the dark blue, I hadn’t misplaced a drop of paint.
I shouldn’t have spoke too soon.
There’s a nice splotch on the carpet now. (But easily covered by the toy box, shhhh!)
And another moment when I dripped right onto the lower part of the mural itself.
I’ll admit it, I ran to Mike and cried for a bit.
But I pulled it together and made the necessary corrections and seriously, you can’t even tell. (I’m awesome!)

So here we go.
First, my inspiration:

And now, my interpretation:

Yes, I am wearing pigtails. And yes, I am 33 years old.

And yes, my bum is big. What of it?

(I made the curtains and striped pillow too!)

We added elfa shelves for the boys’ toy haul. (I ♥ the Container Store.)

I think my Bubs likes it.
: )

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materials used:

various glasses/bowls for templates
pencil
brushes
flat interior wall paint
patience

and my ipod shuffle

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Furthermore, I made this wee animated thingy for fun. I’m a dork, yes, it’s true.

January 30th, 2008 ★ No Comments »

Sort of.
I actually re-activated my etsy shoppe and my main shoppe has remained open as well.
Bits of business popping in here and again, which is nice indeed.
I can say I miss my crafty hands.
But.
They’re off doing mama’s work, and how can that be bad?

I do have some WIPs though and hopefully they’ll be complete soon and I can get this here blog hopping with cool pictures of my projects and stuff. God willing.

My health has been iffy lately, which has put a total damper on things too. (Dang gallbladder!)

I’m certainly looking forward to next year.

In the meantime, please take a look at some cutie-wootie shirts that I got for my Matty.

This one is from the perpetually awesome CircularAccessories. This is the third shirt I’ve purchased from her and they keep getting better. Her work is precise and very cool. I’m totally jealous, because screenprinting is something I’ve always wanted to partake in. Maybe someday.

(See how Matty is giving me the hand here? Nice!)

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And this golden tee is from a new found love. Bublove!
Isn’t that the cutest name?
Adorable.
Especially because I’ve been calling Matty my bub (or bubby) since the day he was born. Love that nickname. The owner of bublove, Kim, was so sweet in her emails and when my tee arrived in came in the cutest of packages with free hand puppets!
Isn’t that the greatest thing about crafty small business owners? They really take the time to offer such incredible service.

(Could he be anymore smashing?)

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And of course, I couldn’t leave out a fine picture of my newest sweet bub, our Noah. Who is growing at quite an amazing pace!

So there ya go.
Other people being crafty.
And you know, my cute kids.
What more can you ask for?
: )

December 11th, 2007 ★ No Comments »

With very good reason.

Our newest lovey:

So this blog and my shoppe will be inactive til I can figure out how the heck to handle two young boys and still have time and energy for anything else other than a shower.

: )

October 19th, 2007 ★ 1 Comment »