Darling Orange and Blue Baby Dress

This past month, or so, I have been doing a lot of "gift sewing"- which I love. I really enjoy giving gifts- as I have said before! I love thinking them up and I love seeing if what I thought up was really something they love. This dress was a little harder to come up with because it was a baby shower gift for someone I don't know very well- but I think it turned out great- and they seemed to like it a lot!

Orange and aqua are by far one of my favorite color combos- I just love to contrast! I mean, come on- look at that piping pop! Anyways, this dress is made from a quilting cotton from Joann's- I had it in my stash just waiting to be sewn up (In fact I think I might have to sew up some more for the etsy shop). I was excited to have the perfect colored buttons on hand, and I think the aqua stitching on them added to the whole look.

Geeky, Nerdy, Cool

I am much better at having best friends than having lots of friends, I'm a little awkward in groups which makes it hard to get to know people. However, I'll take best friends over anything any day of the week. One of my longest friendships (13 years and counting) is with the most awesome of guys a gal could know (Well except for my hubby- because, well, I'm married to him). Patrick has a really bright and lively personality and he is one of those people that everyone loves. Patrick has a ton of interests- and his enthusiasm is really contagious. 

While I was brainstorming ideas for birthday presents (in the fabric store of course) I walked past this great monochromatic, woven cotton, Star Wars fabric and I knew it had to be something for Patrick- it was just too perfect to leave. 

 

In the end I made him this great infinity scarf- paring the Star Wars print with a nice navy chevron flannel, and in an ode to Brini Maxwell (another of Patrick's obsessions) ball fringe. I went back and forth on the color of the trim- between keeping it all navy and adding color, and in the end I decided on the pop of color because I just love navy and apple green together. I'm pretty lucky too because even though I got this to him months late- it's still cold enough for him to wear it. I guess there are some good things that come with this crazy weather! 

  

A Little Bit of Christmas Wood Burning

This year for Christmas Brendon and I didn't have a whole lot of money floating around and we wanted to share something that took more time and love, and less cash! So we came up with the idea of wood burning signs for our friends and family. Brendon had wood burned a clock at one point years ago and I did some signs for my friend's wedding, so we were familiar with the process, but these signs were a much bigger project.

A big project, but a fun project too. It was neat to take one idea- and specialize it for the personality of the person receiving it! Brendon sanded down the surface of each pre cut wood plaque, and I hand  drew out all the designs, and we worked together to burn all of the signs.

This one was for my In laws and my father in law thought it was so neat he got up and hung it on the wall right then!

This one was actually the hardest because I wanted it to look as close as possible to the illustrations in the book "The Giving Tree" and so I worried the whole time about making a wrong move with the wood burner!

I couldn't help adding some color to these two- and I think it would be hard to not add color to future signs I make because, I am in love.

A Very Special Dress for a Very Special First Birthday

I love that Cordelia has friends, she is however very short on girl friends. Most of her friends are boys- which is totally ok, but I am very grateful for Baby Echo because she gives me yet another excuse to make more cute little dresses! Baby Echo (we started calling her baby because it helped Cordelia part with toys and clothing we would hand down to her- and it stuck, so now Miss C only calls her "Baby Echo") just turned one, and this is the dress I made her for her birthday.

One of the things I struggle with when dressing my kid, is that so much of the little girl clothing out there is light pink- or pastel, which is hard to wash stains out of and not really to my personal taste. I know this is a similar frustration for Echo's mom and from the start I knew I wanted Echo's dress to be a darker color. This deep red fabric jumped out at me in the Joann's and pretty much demanded to be used for this project. I couldn't help adding the little pink piping for contrast- and I love the little sparkle the etched buttons add.

I wanted the dress to remain in Echo's closet for as long as possible, so the back has a wide band of elastic in it- with the tie to help cinch it tight and the straps button at three different lengths. I also figured keeping it sleeveless would mean that it could be worn over a long sleeve shirt during the colder months, and by itself during the scorching hot summers- this mentality might explain why I have very little clothing I think of as seasonal!

A Scrapbook for Sarah

 

Crafting is kind of my thing, my happy place. I know everything I do isn't perfect (don't look too close at the corners, they aren't quite square) but I love crafting. In fact, I have too many crafts. Felting, painting, sewing, embroidery, jewelry making, crocheting and so on. I spend too much time dreaming up ideas that I run out of time to follow them through! Scrapbooking often gets moved to the bottom of the "to do" list (which means that I have not finished Cordelia's baby book, but hey, I'll get there eventually right?)

 

I have found, and I am sure you have too, that when you are making something for someone else it gets moved WAY up to the top of the list- it also gets to be fancier than something you would make for yourself. I'm totally ok with this, I love giving gifts and truthfully I need the deadlines involved with gift giving to get stuff done!

 

This is a scrapbook that I made for my friend Sarah to immortalize her bridal shower. If you don't remember me sharing photos from the shower, take a look- that post is here. So this book did take about 7 months to make and really isn't that big but I was trying not to stress over this project, I wanted to keep it fun! And I added a ton of details that I would never add to anything else, ever.

 





I don't think I ever shared it- but this is the shower invitation- which I also made (with a lot of help from my sister). The tea bag pops out of the tea cup because I was all about being fancy!

 



It's a lot of fun to look back at the decorations!

 



 

Yum, and remember the yummy (and mostly Paleo) food. Sarah's friend Ada made the best little Paleo sandwiches.  

 



 

This was one of the best showers I've been to. Everyone was really comfortable talking and socializing- sometimes it's hard to put a bunch of strangers in a room and expect them to have fun, but not with this group of ladies!

 



My hubby called me out for including an extra large picture of Sarah and I- but hey, I made the book and threw the shower, AND for some reason we only have twelve photos together in our entire friendship, so I'm going to flaunt this photo all I want.

 



The yellow flap opens to show the Mad Libbed love story we wrote at the party!

  

I wanted her to be able to open all the cards and read the sweet messages whenever she wanted.

 



 

 

The end, Thanks for looking <3 p="">

On the first day of Spring

 

Every year on the first day of spring (well every year for the past three years) Sarah and I take an adventure. In the past we never saw each other as much as we would like and it was nice knowing we always had this one day. Thankfully, we are much better at seeing each other on a regular basis, but the first day of spring is still our special day.

 

This year we went to the botanical gardens. With how crazy the weather was we weren't sure if it would actually feel like spring, so we picked the gardens because it's beautiful and warm every day of the year.

 

Cordelia got to join us on our adventure this year, because she needed some spring just as much as we did!  

 

 

She has the makings of a fashion blogger, don't you think?

After visiting the gardens we took a walk around downtown, and got freaky close to some very hungry seagulls. Cordelia got close enough to touch them, Sarah and I were much more nervous that close to them.

 



 

 

Close to the metro station is an old carousel and Cordelia begged and pleaded to take a ride. Once we got on it she had a slight freak out, but after we got moving she loved it.

 

 

 

Happy Spring everyone!