What’s That? Up in the Sky!

Is it a bird?

Is it a plane?

No. Its a winner!

Victoria, who said – “I think it is an incognito forest creature and we will not know what it is until it reveals itself. It will definitely need two arms which could be cut from another fabric and it also needs a tail. Then of course, it may need clothing or a backback. Maybe a baby. Maybe some friends. It could be the beginning of an entire stuffed species who will bring about world peace. And all of this for a dollar in a plastic bag on a fabric store counter. Cool!“, is our UFO sewing project winner.

She had PZ at the mention of “baby”. Thanks everyone for commenting and I may have another UFO giveaway in the future. I picked up more than one bag of strange vintage precuts. Stay tuned!

The Truth Is Out There…

We’ve Got a Winner!

Shelly (with comment 43) said “My girlie is 2 and is the most adorable kiddo you’ve ever seen! (Sorry, but it’s true.  I’d love a sleeved dress with some aqua or yellow. Some bermuda shorts would be cute too.“.

I’ve sent her an email and am starting to look at my vintage fabric stash in preparation for sewing her little girlie a dress.

I can’t tell you how much joy I got reading about all your little ones and all the love you obviously feel for them, not to mention how many of you shared your common interest in handmade and vintage. If I had time I would make something for each and every one of you. Thank you all for visiting my little neck of the woods in blogville and I hope to see you around these parts again!

UFO Sewing Project and another possible giveaway

*Giveaway is now closed

If you are looking for my SMS May Giveaway Day post check here.

UFO – That’s Unidentified Fabric Object. I was at the Knittn’ Kitten yesterday and saw on the vintage fabric table a couple of ziplock bags with a.dorable fabric scraps in them. The bags were labeled  as precut vintage. I didn’t think much about it other than it was $1 and I could make pockets out of it.

That is until I got home and really took a look at what I had.

This was the first piece that tipped me off that I may have bought more than just scraps. Upon further inspection and a little help from PZ, we pieced together the puzzle into something like this…

 As you can see there is a face piece and 2 back of the head pieces, a front and 2 back body pieces, 2 leg pieces that are cut on the fold, 2 front and back arm pieces (see the little finger nubs?). I’m not sure if its supposed to be a lamb or a rabbit, cat or dog. Who knows? Any guesses?

There is actually another almost complete set of these precut pieces. We’ve got everything but one of the arms. I have another scrap piece that one part of the lost arm could be cut from, but the back of the arm would need to be cut from another fabric. Or you could just have a 1 armed friend.

I’m already sending one package out with my SMS May Giveaway Day so sending one more wouldn’t be a problem. If you’re interested in the precut pieces leave me a comment and let me know what kind of animal you think it is and if you plan on using a different fabric for the arms or just making a 1 armed friend. If more than one person shows interest I’ll  A)  be surprised, and B) randomly pick a winner.

Happy Wednesday, folks! Its another rainy day here in Portland so we’re going to need it.

Knits and Necklaces

Phew! I finally made it through all the blogs on the SMS May Giveaway Day. If you have some time, or actually a LOT of time, and you’re feeling lucky you should definitely check it out! If you’re looking for MY giveaway, its right here.

Now I can get back to sewing and blogging and heck!, even parenting. When the SMS Giveaway Days happen, I kind of shut down. Anyway! I’ve been trying some new stuff around here. I’ve got the new serger now, and finally sat down and pulled out some of my vintage knits to play around with. Here is what I made in approximately 15 minutes.

"cute" pose

"crazy" pose

If you look closely, you can see the necklace that PZ made all by herself. I actually think its pretty awesome and a really cool way to get your kiddos thinking in patterns.

PZ's necklace

We worked for about 2 hours on necklaces on Sunday. I pulled out all my old beads and jewelry making supplies. It was kind of neat to see all the old stuff. This was something new for the girls. We’ve made felt jewelry, but this is the first bead work we’ve done. We all got frustrated many times, beads rolling off the elastic string, Quinby choosing to toss more than floss. But we got through it and both girls are very proud of their work and so am I.

Here’s a last picture of the knit dress. I wanted to show a close up of it so you could see the cute vintage fabric. It’s blue alligators at the beach! This was another Knittn’ Kitten find from awhile ago.

May Giveaway Day!

Comments Closed. The Winner will be announced tomorrow. Thanks everybody for all the great comments!

I have always been into vintage, even more so lately if that’s possible. Vintage kids books, vintage patterns, and especially vintage fabric. You may have seen some of the cute tops, shorts and dresses I made for my kiddos during KCWC.

To celebrate my love of vintage, this May Giveaway Day  I’m going to make something out of a great vintage fabric for one of you lucky readers. I can do a dress or top for little girls NB to 6 or a pair of pants or shorts for little boys NB to 6.

If this sounds too crazy and you just want something you’ve already laid your eyes on, feel free to check out my shop and pick any item $15 or less.

Let me know in the comments what your favorite color is and a little about the kiddo I’ll be sewing for. I’ll pick the winner at random on May 26th. This contest is open to everyone, even my international readers.

If you have any feedback about my shop I’d love to hear that, too. Thanks for visiting and don’t forget to subscribe to my blog! We’re going to be doing a lot of fun stuff this summer.

NOTE: The items pictured in this post are NOT the item being given away. The item the winner will receive will be handmade by me after the giveaway is closed. 

Boredom Buster – Popsicle Adventure #1

As you know, I’ve been trying to come up with some fun ways for the girls and I to enjoy our summer together without going crazy. This is the last week of school for Quinby and I am starting to feel the pressure of providing creative edutainment for my kiddos. Today, we got to try out my latest boredom buster idea – Popsicle Adventures!

What you’ll need

• wooden popsicle sticks (you can get them at craft stores or grocery stores. I got ours at Fred Meyers)
• ingredients for making your favorite kind of popsicle (I’ve got recipes for the ones we made below)
• sharpie marker
• imagination

I started off by thinking up a bunch of action words like run, jump, dance, and a bunch of object words like ball, rope, dolls. I then took my Sharpie marker and wrote the words onto my popsicle sticks near the end of each stick. This will be the part of the stick that goes inside of the popsicle. 

Then the girls and I had a blast on Friday making up three batches of popsicles. We made Blue Annas, Strawberry Limeys, and Triple Berry Blast Offs. I used molds that were made for plastic sticks, but just put tin foil on the tops and carefully pierced the foil with the popsicle sticks, adventure word down. 

This morning, I took the popsicles out of the freezer, popped each one out of its mold, and wrapped them singly in wax paper before storing them in labeled freezer bags back in the freezer. Once my molds were clean again I made Cherry Lemonade Pops, Choco Pops, and Creamy Dreamy Lemon Pops.

Between all the cooking, (we also made rosemary pizza dough and chocolate chip pumpkin bread), and the trampoline jumping, Pannonica decided she was bored and thus the adventure began!

Each girl got her own popsicle. Both chose Blue Annas. Upon completion of the yummy pops, each girl found she had a word. PZ had hula hoop and Quinby had walk.

Now we had to figure out a way to put the two words together. First the girls tried hula hooping while they walked. This didn’t work since neither girl can really hula hoop even standing still.

Then it was decided that the hula hoops themselves should walk and so they needed legs. The girls got right to it, folding up paper to make accordion legs, coloring shoes on the ends, and taping them to the hula hoops.

PZ took hers for a walk, while Quinby enjoyed watching her sort of dance in the breeze.

The whole adventure took a little over an hour and everyone had lots of fun. When we were done, both girls wanted to go on another “adventure”, but I had to set the limit of one per day. I have a feeling we’ll be doing this a lot this summer.

Here are the recipes I used to make our popsicles. Let me know if you come up with any good recipes or adventure words. I could use some help brainstorming over here!

Triple Berry Blast Off Pops (we made these in rocket molds)

• 1 cup blueberries
• 1 cup raspberries
• 1 cup strawberries (with the greens cut off)
• juice of one big lemon
• 2/3 cup sugar

Blue Annas

• 3 big ripe bananas (cut up)
• 1 cup blueberries
• 1 1/2 cup yogurt (Nancy’s low fat plain)
• 3 T sugar

Strawberry Limeys

• 2 cups strawberries (greens cut off)
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 cup greek yogurt
• 3 T sugar

Must Make Monday – Breakfast

We have two weeks until Quinby’s school year is done and older sister PZ is waffling about just how much school she’d like to have over the summer. However it turns out, we’re looking at a lot of Mama and girls time. This means I need to start thinking about all new routines and coming up with activities that are time consuming and educational as well as being fun.

I’m hoping to experiment with more food projects – cheese making, pasta baking, popsicle freezing, smoothie blending, meat dehydrating, jam preserving, and vegetable pickling. I’d really like to have at least one food project a week.

I know a lot of our summer days will be spent walking the neighborhood and going to the local playgrounds and parks, but I’m hoping to get some regular hiking in as well. And we’ve got a few short trips planned, so I’d like to figure out a fun way to prepare for those adventures as well as preserve the memories once we return.

I’m looking to find some fun science/art projects that we can do outside. And am always on the hunt for great kid’s books. I’ve got a fun boredom buster idea bumping around in my head that you’ll hear more about later. And I’d really like to get myself and my girls more in touch with our household and the joy of homemaking. PZ especially is 5 now and really ready to begin taking on some responsibilities around the house.

It would thrill me to help nurture the creative spark both my girls are exhibiting toward art and painting. Plus I think PZ is probably ready to try her hand at small sewing or yarn projects.

As you can see I have a lot to mull over. Anything you can share would be great! You’ll be benefitting from my research, too, I promise. Like today, I decided to do some research on the supposedly most important meal of the day – breakfast! With the kids at home, I won’t be able to skip it or wait until the brunching hour like I’ve been doing the last few months. I’m sure we will go to restaurants for breakfast on occasion, but I’d like to keep that at a minimum.

Breakfast is probably the one meal of the day where I feel somewhat comfortable. I can make eggs, although the girls haven’t been eating those as much lately. I can make toast, pancakes, muffins, anything that needs baking. Yogurt and granola is a no-brainer. But what I’d really like is to find some recipes that are good, nutritious, interesting, and easy enough that Mama can make breakfast without getting into a funk that messes with our entire day.

Do you know anything that fits the bill? Let me know. In the meantime here’s what I’m looking at…

This peanut butter and banana smoothie recipe from Fitness magazine looks super yummy. Its like starting your day off with a great tasting, good for you milk shake. My girls would love this and would be able to help make them which is a big plus.

This Apple Jack Breakfast Wrap found at Food.com looks scrumptious and easy and we all know what they say about an apple a day…

This carrot cake pancakes recipe found at MyRecipes.com sure looks interesting. Some of the reviews say that more spice was needed. My family loves cinnamon, so I’d make sure to put more of that in. I’m also wondering if cream cheese wouldn’t be the perfect topping for this breakfast cake.

Family Fresh Cooking has this wonderful looking recipe for Peanut Butter Pumpkin Coffee Cake. I am for sure making this one! We LOVE pumpkin year ’round in this household and it is so good for you. The girls and I are old pros by this time at baking breakfast breads and I’m betting this one will become a new favorite.

Maple-Nut Granola from Eating Well magazine would be the first granola we’ve tried making. I’m a big maple-nut fan and this one looks fairly healthy. Do you have a favorite granola recipe?

I’ve had pizza for breakfast before, but never a breakfast pizza. This breakfast mini pizza from Eating Well magazine looks like it would be fun to make and fun to eat. I can imagine we would play with the toppings to make different pizzas for different days. Great idea!

This Sweet Potato Oatmeal Breakfast Casserole from Oh She Glows looks spectacular. I’ve never seen anything like this before and I just know my vegan friends would love it. This would be a great one for the weekend or for those mornings we might have an early play date.

This last week I did the Elsie Marley Kids Clothing Week Challenge and had a lot of fun. I realized that I am a lot happier when I take the time to allow myself creative achievement. Even just an hour a day (which was the challenge) of sewing made me much more patient and glad to see my little ones. So I’m really hoping to be able to find that balance this summer. Wish me luck and send me your ideas. We all need them!

KCWC – Day 7

Its the last day of the challenge. I had total hope of finishing up all the things that got put in the “oops” pile: 7 pairs of shorts (2 for PZ and 5 for Q) that I cut the waistband too short on and a shirt I made for PZ that would probably fit big on a 12 year old. This didn’t happen.

I did however get to hang out with two of my best girl friends who I’ve been unable to catch up with for a while and talk to my big sister whom I hadn’t talked to since February. I got to eat really yummy empanadas that my husband slaved away on all afternoon and I managed to get 1 pair of shorts fixed. I forgot about doing them flat fronted until it was too late though.

I really enjoyed this past week. My sewing frenzy put a smile on my face. Well, all but the shorts disaster night. I threw a tiny tantrum on that particular night. Next week, I’m going to try to keep my momentum going. I have two dress commissions to fulfill and I want to sew for myself a bit. I have a skirt already that I really like the cut of so I’m hoping to try and copy it. I’ve been feeling the absence of a workhorse black skirt and am hoping to remedy that this week.

Did you survive the challenge? What are you working on this week?

KCWC – Day 6

It’s kind of like if you give a mouse a cookie, only in this case its if you make one of your daughters a princess dress you can be pretty sure the other one will pout until you make her one too. Thus, day 6 of the Kids Clothes Week Challenge was dedicated to making a princess dress for Miss PZ.

(This picture is horrible, but I couldn’t get her to stop watching her favorite documentary, Babies. Both girls love that movie). The skirt of the dress is a really great double gauze cotton with Tink and Peter Pan on it. (Another favorite movie). The top is the same blue linen I used for sister’s sleeves yesterday only I’ve used alternating hot pink and pearl pink thread for the shirring and I used a pink and white striped linen for the straps. The purple sequined sheer fabric I gathered at the ends and sewed on as part of the strap so they hang down her shoulder a bit. Best I could do to add a bit of sparkle. I’m hoping to add wings to both girls dresses, but don’t have any wire (and no, I don’t have wire hangers either. We wouldn’t want it to get too Mommy Dearest over here).

Quinby wore her princess dress out and about today, so I’m no longer concerned that it will spend more time on the floor than on her body. Of course, that means the dress is already in the wash after having had OJ and pancakes liberally applied to the front of its skirt.

In other news, look what I got last night. Bangs! I’ve never had short bangs before and I’m totally in love with them. Yay! BTW: My best gal pal Cory from Freecycle Jewelry made my fascinator. You can check out some of her stuff locally at House of Vintage.

KCWC – Day 5

I was having such a hard time getting Quinby to wear the dresses I made on Day 3. All she wants to wear are princess dresses, so I caved. I saw this dress (for over $100) and thought it was lovely without being over the top.

This is my rendition – Understated Princess.

It was pretty simple to make. Two tubes, a bit of shirring,  and some pleated sleeves. The sleeves are a periwinkle blue linen, the skirt is a moon fabric that I got many moons ago for Quinby and couldn’t figure out what to make with it, and the top is a scrap of pink and gray polka dot I found in my scrap box. I used silver and pewter colored thread.

I REALLY loved how she put it on and cooed, “I’m a princess!”, as she twirled.

Of course, she still pulled it off and dumped it on the floor 10 minutes later in favor of some polyester ruffly dress we got at the resale shop. Drat!

If you missed any of the days in my challenge, check out days 1,2,3, and 4 of the Kids Clothes Week Challenge.