90% Completed Projects

Here is my sweet Bailey modeling her "My Little Mermaid" outfit for me in front of the half finished filing cabinet. There are still a few more details to add to the costume like glittery, hot pink, wavy ribbon on the top and around the bottom of the skirt. I am getting better at reading and understanding patterns but still face issues. I would say this outfit took 3 hours to make if you didn't mess up (not including cutting everything out)...5 hours with messing up...it took me 5 :)

I am mod poding a filing cabinet from my work that we were not using. Blake spray painted the black filing cabinet to look brand new. I finished one drawer and cut out the other three so all I have to do is glue them on with a few coats of Mod Podge.  The paper I am using is crimson red and this pretty black and white design on the drawers. I was going to do houndstooth but I wanted something more pretty. I plan on putting our files on the bottom drawer and using the other three to hold craft supplies. I may give Blake a drawer to hide some of his things that are in the golf/hobby room with Alabama decor.

I starting taking her picture and she posed!? Where is she learning this stuff? You can't really tell but her straps are hot pink, glittery sequin trimming! Love it!

Getting Ready for DW 2011

We are going to Disney World in a few months for a very big 4th birthday and I am so excited! I bought Bailey a few shirts to practice my embroidery skills on for her to wear while we are there. I also purchased a Simplicity Disney Princess pattern when they went on sale last week for $1. I have already made the top for the most part and everything is cut out (half the battle) so hopefully I will finish in a few weeks. I am so excited to see my little Ariel Bailey dressed up in something I made. I'm not very good at making clothes...practice make perfect I guess. I definitely can not make fitted clothing...I need more classes for that. Here is the pattern...I personally like Jasmine but Bailey picked out Ariel. Also I am making Minnie Ears on headbands but they are not finished yet so I will post those pictures later :)

Playhouse and Pillows

I finally got around to making Bailey this table top playhouse. I had over 3 yards of felt leftover from resurfacing her balance beam and could not figure out what to make besides a couple of flowers to go on headbands so when I saw a few of these pop up over blog world I decided to give it a whirl. It was actually super easy to make the basic model. I think I made the door too wide and may change it, but I wanted to get it down for Bailey to play with it. I want to add windows to the sides with curtains and maybe add a few other things. There are endless possibilities with these cute houses. I looked on an etsy site and she charges $250 for these! Yes they have flowers and lots of cute additions to the sides and the door is more fancier, but it literally took me an hour to do this and probably 5 more to finish with the extras but I was pleased with my project and Bailey was to!



I made these pillows for my boss out of the bed skirt that came with the bedding his wife purchased. They needed more pillows but couldn't find any to match and were not using the bed skirt so I made 3 large pillows and still had enough fabric left over to make 2 more if needed. I bought a simplicity pattern for $1 to make the roll pillow since I had not made one before...good thing I did because the circles are huge and I would have low balled the sides without a pattern. They turned out good and hopefully his wife will be pleased.

Learning to Embroider

Written Last Week:
I have so much I really want to do but I feel kind of out of it these days. I get home from work and I feel obligated to work out, prepare a meal, and have one-on-one time with my family. Where does this leave time for extras?! I can not wait for winter to be over - I hate being inside all the time and I get sleepy around 8:00 PM because it gets so dark by 6:00 PM.

This Week:
A few months ago I purchased an embroidery machine for my Christmas gift. I told my craft buddy/sorority sister about it and she purchased the same one so that we could help each other. Well I have another good friend that picked up on embroidery from a mutual friend and we met up with her last night to figure it out. It's hard to describe how last night went...I was overwhelmed, partially stressed and felt defeated. It took 2 hours to make a tad bit on the ugly side "B". I thought we would be cranking out projects. I brought over 4 shirts to do and left with a scrap of fabric with a cursive "B" on it. BUT I didn't let it get me down. I went home and finished the pillows that someone ordered and they came out great! So I believe I am getting a pep in my step and ready to get back on the crafting schedule.

Slow Start to the Year

So this past Tuesday I met up with the girls to do "Craft Night Tuesdays" and 3 of us brought nothing! I thought I would just sit out a week and I guess I wasn't the only one ;) So far this year I have accomplished nothing besides staying on a diet for 4 days without straying off too bad (darn those Pretzel M&M's that were half off after Christmas). I am very proud of myself for staying on the Slim Fast Plan...it is hard to eat less than 1,200 calories a day...I've lost 3 pounds already but most of that was extra eating at Christmas. I have been busy planning a spaghetti dinner for my Alumnae Chapter, sending out mail outs, and preparing for next month's sorority informal recruitment. It has been a nice little break from everything but I think tonight I might blow the dust off of my machine and start working on a few things I found tutorials on.

Sewing Projects Coming Up:
- Continue Working on the T-Shirt Quilt (half of my squares are cut out)
- Make 2 square and 1 roll pillow - custom order
- Start embroidering a few things...Must haves: Strawberry & Elephant Appliques

So nothing new to post as of yet, but I am/will be working on a few big things that will be done soon!