Tea Time In Tampa

We had tea for 6 little girls in our neighborhood and their mothers. We totaled 15 people with me, my mom and my three oldest girls. I love having tea. We created some serious neighborhood warmness. We even introduced two neighbors who've lived her since the beginning of the neighborhood and never met. Wow.

I made these. Aren't they soooo stinkin' cute! I got the directions from Pioneer Woman who got the directions from Bakerella. I flavored them: green - key lime; pink - strawberry; yellow - lemon; orange - orange; purple - blackberry. Very rich, but good.

We have lots of lizards in our yard. This must mean we have lots of bugs in our yard.

The Space Shuttle Discovery

Leah, I am such a dummy. Next time remind me to not be dumb and email you. Were you there? It was so much fun.

Next week, I get to sew all week long. WOOHOO!

Hint

Here's your hint: all of these fabrics will go into one item, except for where the fabric is doubled then it will be gender specific. Also, I am still missing four fabrics.

Isn't that owl fabric cute! While I was looking for some of the fabric I came across this even cuter fabric and I had to have some. Lucky Kaeru Fabric has a lot of cute owl fabric from Japan. I ordered it on Friday and it came in the mail today. The owl fabric in the other post I bought at Joann's.

This is all the fabric I received in the mail today. The other four I purchased at eQuilter. They are on their way right now. I am nearly convinced that if you're looking for a fabric and it's sort of off the wall and no one else will have it, eQuilter will.

Sew On

The sewing room is nearly complete. Marie came and inspired us o put it together. Mom and I kept looking at the room and shaking our heads in dejection and resignation that it would never get put together. Or at least that it would be a long time coming.

Marie helped us stain the two taller bookshelves you see there and then she emptied out boxes and boxes and boxes...mostly of fabric. Doesn't it look fabulous!

Our first project in the sewing room are these cute little baby doll slings. One for each of the three older girls. Ella is sewing hers all by herself, I am helping Sarah and teaching her to sew and then Rachel's I'm just doing myself.

We Get Visitors

Marie's husband was about to lose some of his vacation time because he had accumulated so much of it so they decided to take a vacation to Disney World. This is *REALLY* good for me because we live so close to DW. After they spent 5 days there they came to visit me...er...us. We had such a good time. Del and Shane played golf and watched football, the kids ran around chasing each others and having a grand old time and Marie and I did what any proper wives would do is such a situation: went shopping. We went to Joann's three times, visited two quilt shops, went to an antique store, ate out and shopped for appliances for our new house.Here they are with all the kids. I'm really sorry, Marie. I did not mean to refer to your male-species offspring as "that". I know his name, I promise. And he's really cute. The funniest part was when the kids found a trail of sugar ants on the window sill and Caleb was trying to feed these teeny little ants to Lily. When I asked him if he would eat the ants he says, "No." Then I asked him why he'd feed them to Lily then and he says, "Well...they were dead." or "I killed them first though." Or something like that. It was HILARIOUS. Boys. I'm not sure what I'd do with one of those creatures. I'm rather partial to my girls. Boys scare me.This is what I bought at the antique store. Remember the post Marie put up about embroidering all the names of places you've lived on a pillowcase? I think that's a great idea so we found this pillowcase...okay, wait, Marie found this pillowcase for me at the antique store for $4. I'm going to use one side to embroider Del's places and the other side for mine. Isn't Lily's had so cute?Marie helped me reduce my fabric stash. One thing I've noticed about having a large fabric stash is that it's hard to know what you have so you just end up going out and buying new stuff. It's a pain to search through a humongous stash. So anyway, she took several lengths home with her. Some of them she had previously given to me. The rest of the stuff I am giving to my grandma's quilting/sewing group. I am very happy with my reduced stash.

This doesn't really have much to do with Marie visiting but it's my new sewing basket. I tried to buy one with a lid to keep tiny little hands out of my stuff (they like to throw pins all over the place) but I didn't like any of them. This is my $5 version. Somehow it's just turning in to a storage container instead of a sewing basket. There's got to be something better out there. Do you use a sewing basket and if so, what is it? Any good ideas out there?

Anniversary Gift #2

The FedEx man just came banging on my door with THIS!!!!!

It's our 9th anniversary in two days and he already got me an ice cream maker! I'm not sure how much more of this spoiling I can handle. I think the poor FedEx man must have thought I was insane because I just kept saying, "Oh my gosh, it's a dressform," over and over and over.

Now the big question is...what do I make first?

I Need Your Help Again

I'm sorry I seem to be incapable to make any decisions by myself. It's crazy, I know.

Remember that bag I made and Tina won and now I'm making one for myself? Well, I happened to use all of that liner fabric for the one that is currently in England. With Tina. And that was my favorite liner fabric. Ever. And now Tina has it. In England.

So I had to go to the store and get some more fabric. I looked for that exact fabric but of course it no longer exists. Not being able to decide on just one fabric, I picked out four and now I can't decide.

Truthfully my favorite of these four is the one with the red-orange and white flowers in it. But I sort of think that the blue with the white flowers goes best. But I can't decide. If this was your bag (don't get your hopes up) which one would you pick?

Which Button Is Better?

Okay, do you like the sunflower or the yellow button. The sunflower button has a neck so it sticks out a lot and I think will probably be a hassle when it comes to washing and stuff, whereas the yellow button is just flat.

Why Do I Do This To Myself?

Do you guys ever do that thing where you start a whole bunch of projects and you're in the middle of all of them? And you can't seem to finish any of them? Well, that's where I am. Check it out.

First, Rachel's birthday is rolling around soon and so will endeth "the season of the birthdays." So save a bit-o-cash I'm making her a dress just like the one I made to sell because she's been asking me if that one belongs to her. Here be the dress, cut out.

Then I am making 9 balls for her. I know we already have over 20 of these balls but it is amazing what brand new, pretty balls will do to reinvigorate play. I am taking apart some of the uglier balls so as to not completely overwhelm us with balls. This is the project I am working the most on because since they are all hand stitched, they are the most time consuming.

Then I'm making myself one of the bags that Tina won. I really liked it so I want one for myself.

Here is a project I am dying to start but really trying not to do too hastily because I *really* REALLY, REALLY want it to work out. Sometimes, Meagan can read my mind. I've been to Joann's several times trying to find what materials I can use to make maternity pants. The underbelly kind, not the cover-the-belly-with-itchy-fabric kind. So out of the blue Meagan sends me an IM with some message that I might be interested in this. It is exactly the tutorial I was looking for. I mean, it can be applied to any garment at all, not just jeans! I'm ecstatic. So I got the materials I need and I have a pair of jeans to cut up. Thank you Meagan. I love you!

Finally, I am putting new handles on this bag. I like the bag, but the bamboo handles I had on it are uncomfortable and don't stay on my shoulder at all. I really think those bamboo handles are meant for small handbags and not big "I'm a mommy" bags.

Good Enough For Etsy?

And a third post to round out the day.

I made this little girls dress yesterday to sell in my Etsy shop. I need you guys to help me decide something.

See this part? Isn't it cute?

Do you think it needs something? Like a little yellow bow or flower or something?

This Is a Busy Post

I think that Tina should get a prize for posting our 500th post! Holy cow, that's a lot of posts!!!

Here's the bag I was working on. I had to adjust the instructions a lot. I thought the pattern was a bit flawed and then they wanted you to sew it like this: I thought that was dumb so I took it out and now it looks like this:

Much better, eh? I added lots of pockets to the inside and a button to the pocket outside. You can't see the button there because I want to cover a button with the fabric from the lining and I haven't been able to go to Joann's yet and get the right sized button to cover. I like it.

Finally, here's my entry for this month's recipe war. Mine only has three ingredients, also.

First you need some ice cream, instant espresso, milk and a huge cup.

Put some ice cream in the cup.

Mmmmmm...ice cream.

Top it with a teaspoon (or to taste) of instant espresso. Add some milk and mix it up.

Walah, coffee milkshake. Enjoy.

**I'm just joking that's not really my entry for this month; that's my current craving.

From Rags to Pretty

I have been duly grilled by Meagan to post this. I apologize ahead of time for doing a poor job of documenting the process.

Christmas 2003: We buy this folding table and chair set for the girls - just two of them at the time.

Fast forward 4.5 years and the table has faded and been ripped and abused like nobody's business. I have gotten sick of looking at the pink-instead-of-red chair and the huge gash on the table top that's been taped up. I find the table to be dumb for kids since the top is padded with foam and now it's bowed in the middle; the kids can't eat on it and they can't color on it. It's a poorly thought out child's table. I find card tables in general to be a little pointless. What's with the foam? Aren't tables supposed to provide a hard surface for you to "get stuff done" on? Anyway, especially for children, this little card table is a waste of time.

So I decide to give it a face lift. It was supposed to be an easy project but apparently this kind of stuff never is...especially when you live in Florida and are trying to do this during the rainy season...and you're using spray paint. And you can't really do it all yourself because you're pregnant. Sigh.

Anyway, Del and Pastor Ronnie did the table top. Pastor Ronnie has all sorts of woodworking experience and tools so Del took it to his house and he mitered the trim corners and nailed the trim on for us and gave Del lots of advice. Then Del primed and sanded and primed and sanded and painted and sanded. Me and the girls and my mom stenciled the top and then Mom and Dad finished the top off with some polymer...stuff. It's dried to a hard surface now and the kids can draw on it and have tea on it no problem.

For the chairs and the table legs/support, the kids and Mom and I sanded them and washed them and then my dad spray painted them.

I really like how it turned out. It's pretty darn cute, eh? The only down side is that we probably would have saved money if we had just bought an entirely new table considering that this one only cost us $25 in the first place and we spent at least that much and more fixing it up. Oh well!!!

There you go Meagan, you happy now? :)