and it came today, in this little box. Would you like to see inside?
Beautiful silver links, one dainty pearl, and an open circle charm with two names: lucy and owen. It's called the Open Circle Bracelet.
Yes, I love it too (though I'm not sure how great I am at being a hand model?)
Made by Lisa Leonard Designs, all of her jewelry is stunning. It's handmade, customized, and there's something for everybody. Still need a gift for Dad? She has a cool line of items for men. Thank You Lisa Leonard. We all need more gift options for the boys.
Need a baby gift? Check out her baby spoons. Actually, just go look at everything. I'm a sucker for pretty pictures. And these are all eye-catching.

Now the only secret is, who's name will go on that tag?
I guess we'll find out Christmas morning!
need stocking stuffers?
Let MADE help you out! Head over to the SHOP, cause Santa just dropped off his goods.
Hairclips for girls:
Ruffled blankets for babes:
and matching Burp Cloths to go along:
We know you've been nice this year.
Of course I couldn't just pick two of you. So....there are FOUR winners! Owen approves.

The first two winners get the bags:
# 242: Amy of Crafting by Candlelight, who said These bags are wonderful!!!

#137: Mara, who said Oh how I love these eco-freindly tote bags. What a great post and giveaway!
Enjoy your jazzed up grocery experience!
If you didn't win, you must try it making them! You can find the tutorial HERE.

And for the next two winners?....two hairclips!
#6: 9crafty11, who said great looking bags! Will have to have a go of your tutorial too! Thanks for that & a giveaway to boot!

#418: Kimberly of Altering Life, who said Congrats on the win!!! :) Here's hoping I'm lucky too. :)

Thank you everyone for participating. I can't believe there were 527 of you! Thanks for making my day! Wow, that was a lot of exclamation points. I'm done.
With Thanksgiving just days away, a GIVEAWAY seems the way to go. And you're all invited!
Thank you for voting for my Recycled Grocery Totes. They won!
The tutorial can be found here on the SYTYC website.
This fits a one Gallon Milk jug perfectly. I used to tell the checker No bags for the milk. But I really hate it when the jug leaves a milky residue on my car. So we're baggin it classy now! And you can too. Here are the details....
There will be TWO winners. One winner gets the Milk and Ice Cream bags. The other winner gets Greens and Bread.

RULES for the GIVEAWAY:
* Just leave a comment. That's all! (and leave your email address in your comment, please)
* only ONE comment per person.
* If you make a mistake and need to leave a new comment, please go back and delete your previous one.
* Open to anyone who has a mailing address, even overseas friends!
* Giveaway is only ONE day long. It will end Monday, 11/23 at 11pm (central time). Winner will be announced Tuesday morning.
Now head over to SYTYC for Week FOUR: Turkey:
And as always.....Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. It's pretty fun.
I'm often asked, "do you recommend a good online fabric shop?" And my answer is always the same, YES! It's called Whipstitch Fabrics:
And we're happy to name Whipstitch as our first sponsor, ever. Welcome!

If you're looking for current fabrics, designer names, cool colors, and everything in between, you will love this shop. I often browse her etsy shop, clicking on every page just to see the pretty fabrics (cause we all have an addiction to buying cute fabrics and letting them sit in our stash for a while, right? A girl can NEVER have too many fabrics).

Just a few of my current favorites:
I really must have this Alexander Henry NICE THREADS fabric. I don't even know what I'll make with it. I just need it. Gimme, Gimme. I need! I need! I guess I'll head over to the shop (just don't tell my husband).
Not only is Whipstitch a fabulous online shop for fabrics, but if you live remotely near Atlanta, they have so much more to offer. Stop by the Sewing Lounge where Deborah (the mastermind of Whipstitch) teaches sewing classes. You can also find her same great fabrics there in-person. And the Lounge is having a HUGE sale this weekend. Check it out. Or attend one of their annual sewing workshop retreats. Stay tuned-in to all their happenings on their blog.

No go drool over fabrics and pick out a few for your next Market Skirt, or Christmas gift project, or simply to feed your fabric addiction. It's all at Whipstitch!

Autumn look

Well, someone lifted their magic wand and leaves exploded on my site. Sorry for the overkill but the blog needed an updated Fall look. So here you have it. Rich, dark colors for the cooler season.

Other changes have come to the site as well:

* Both tutorials from last week's SYTYC challenge are now here on MADE as well. You can find them in the TUTORIALS link to the right, or by clicking on the buttons below:

* MADE is now accepting Sponsors. Click on the ADVERTISE button to the right for more info.

* That Modern Leaf Pillow tutorial I talked about.....well, I've started a new endeavor: pdf patterns! SO....You can find it for sale in my SHOP (also linked in the sidebar). Included in the pattern are step-by-step instructions for creating piping, which can be used for a variety of projects!
And have no fear, there will still be plenty of FREE tutorials and sharing of info here on MADE. It's a small way for me to say Thank You to YOU for stopping by (and free stuff just makes life a bit happier). In fact, it's been a while since I did a giveaway. Hmmm....there may be a little something for you all, next week ....

SYTYC Week TWO - The Modern Leaf

Another fun week at So You Think You're Crafty. Congrats to Vanessa for her beautiful no-sew fabric wreath! Check out the tutorial here.

And some of you guessed, the leaf pillows were mine!
The perfect Fall accent for any room, these pillows are made of soft tan linen, chocolate piping, and your own color-changing leaf.
With a whole spectrum of thrifted T-shirt colors to choose from, I couldn't resist making these.
Some of you have asked about a tutorial. You can actually purchase the PDF Pattern HERE. If you've loved our tutorials, you will feel right at home with our patterns. Full of colorful photos and step-by-step instructions, we also show you how to make piping (which can be used on a variety of projects).
The theme for Week 3 is GREEN. Many ways to interpret this one. So head over and check out the cool things everyone made. Many inspiring ideas!

Acorns in BLOOM

There's something festive hanging on our door. And you can find the hundreds of acorns HERE on the lovely blog BLOOM.
When the ladies of BLOOM emailed me about guest blogging, I clicked on their site, saw that banner above, and knew I would love the site. I was right. Fresh style and design combined with a forum of ideas from other moms are what make this blog interesting. This past month has been full of holiday traditions and sharing craft ideas. Everything is just, well, lovely. I hope you enjoy it too. Now head on over to see my acorns in BLOOM.

Vintner's Cellar, TONIGHT

For those of you in the Austin area, please join me and other crafters for a Fall Vendor Fair, TONIGHT. I'd love to meet some of you in person!
Hope we see you there!

SYTYC Week ONE - Harvest Dress and Dinner for Two

When Harvest is done and the pie has been baked,
stuff those big pockets full of goodies to take.
What a very fun WEEK ONE for the So You Think You're Crafty online contest. There were almost 3300 votes! Wowzers! Thank you for those of you who cast yours for:
The Harvest Dress and Dinner for Two.
The dress was a winner! And you can find BOTH tutorials (for the Puffed Sleeves and pocket, and Dinner-for-Two felt food) on the SYTYC website HERE.

There were a few other favorites from the week, that I was secretly rooting for as well.
This tractor from Homemade by Jill made me smile every time I looked at it. Jill has an amazing talent for felt and cool things for boys.
These Wheat Throw Pillows from Vanessa at V and Co. are just beautiful. I've done a lot of freezer paper stenciling in my day but never thought to do it on pillows. And the wheat stalks? Great idea! Beautiful, cute, love the colors.
So, with WEEK ONE behind us, I can now share more of my creation with you. I actually had the idea for this dress a year ago when I created the Green Thumb Overalls for Owen.
I loved the upholstery fabric so much that I asked my Mother-In-Law to head back to her local Joanns (mine didn't have it. Clearance stuff) and buy me another yard...in hopes of making a dress for Lucy. Well, that time finally came!
The dress spoke "harvest" to me, not only because of it's pitch-forked fabric but because the large pockets could hold an entire Thanksgiving Harvest feast. The perfect church dress, with toys attached to-self.
I made all of the food items out of felt; most of them double-layered and some with velcro attachments so the food can be separated.

I'm a girl with a heart for a variety of dishes. So I made two versions, cause each food deserves it's own presentation, right?
My all-time favorite holiday dessert is Pumpkin Pie. This little pie comes apart in two servings and has whipped cream as an option. (Usually my ratio of whipped cream to pie, however, is switched).
Hold the whipped cream? No problem.
Turkey Drumsticks:
Grapes that pull apart in bunches as real grapes should:
Homemade bread with Strawberry Jam or Butter:
Steamed Broccoli (which shockingly is like candy to Lucy. I shake my head in confusion but I keep the green stalks coming!)
and.....dinner is done.
I'll be posting the tutorials here on my site next week. In the mean time, head over to SYTYC to check them out. AND, check out everyone's new creations for WEEK TWO: Leaves.
Some really cool creations with the new theme! Head over and vote for your favorite. Voting is open till Friday night.

green, white, and a little stumped

Just when life is busy it's always a good idea to say YES to a few craft fairs? Right? Thankfully I have a small bit of inventory already built up. But this weekend, as I lounge around the cabin at a girl's weekend getaway, I'll be making these:
and these:
...while Lucy and Owen spend quality time with Dad. She really is thrilled about it, I promise.
and I'm at a bit of a quandary these days. Maybe you lovely people can help me figure it out. I love my joon bug clothing labels; the color, the logo, the look. They are the perfect thing for children's clothing. But as the made site grows and I sell my goods at craft fairs, I question which label to go with. Am I joon bug or made? I feel more made. So do I create made clothing labels too? or instead of? I hate to say goodbye to this little face. Maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe I can be both. Somehow I don't think the face goes with "made". But I've got some other ideas floating around too. Oh....the things in life that are so inconsequential.

How 'bout a little more of this instead.

Sam, if you will let me be,

I will try them, you will see.
Say! I like Green Eggs and Ham!
I do! I like them Sam I Am!
Lately, Lucy's favorite bed-time book has been Green Eggs and Ham. She requests it almost every night and often I hear her reading it in bed to herself when I wake up in the morning (since she has the thing memorized).
When October rolled around I thought, I'm too busy this year. She can just be a boring princess (since I'm sure that's all she really wants to be). Of course I knew my sewing hands would look back on that and always regret not making a homemade costume. Oh, the dilemma.

Then one night, Casey had a bright idea: she should be Sam I Am for Halloween. So we asked her and she was totally into it! Okay! I was jazzed and excited, especially because I love doing ensemble pieces. So little brother became Cat in the Hat.
Once we got the hat on and situated he was a good sport and wore that thing ALL night long. Endurance.
Most of the pieces were made of felt (the favorite costume fabric-of-choice).
I glue-gunned a pipe cleaner grid inside the hat so it would stand up straight. Worked pretty good.
The green eggs and ham were made of felt also and stuffed with batting.
I knew she wouldn't hold a plate of eggs all night, so I glued them to a cardboard plate (painted white) and attached a "bracelet" to the bottom to secure it on her arm.
She thought it was great fun and wanted to wear it most of the day.
The yellow dress was made of that furry fabric; you know...the kind that gets little hairs everywhere....even in your mouth. Couldn't wait to get that part of the project cleaned up!

I couldn't find yellow fur at the store so I bought white, used RIT dye and tried to dye it yellow. It mostly died the underside of the fabric leaving the fur a pale yellow. Bummer.
So I went back to my original thought and just spray-painted the fur yellow. Hooray! Bright yellow indeed. I lined the dress with cotton so that she wasn't itchy all night. Cause nothing's worse on Halloween than a child who refuses to wear the costume you just slaved over.

The shoes are probably my favorite part. They looked so cute on her little feet.
I sewed two "shoe profile" type pieces together and lined them with white knit. That knit folded out the top and created a casing for elastic (to go around her ankle).
I sewed a small piece of elastic to the bottom to help it stay on her shoe (but I'm not sure this was necessary. They stayed on pretty well regardless).
The costumes got plenty of wear time; first on Friday night at the church Trunk or Treat:
And for a good hour Saturday night, all around the neighborhood.
I could tell Lucy was running out of steam eventually when I asked her, do you want to go to that house over there? or just go home?
I want to go home, she said.
And that's a wrap.

I do so like Green Eggs and Ham.
Thank you, Thank you Sam I Am.
For Halloweens of the past, click HERE.

S.Y.T.Y.C.

I know what you're thinking....she left out the "D"! Sorry folks. There's no dancing involved in this competition.....other than maybe a nervous dance, or a why am I up till 2am finishing this project? dance, and hopefully a victory dance here or there? But that's up to YOU to decide.

When Missy contacted me two months ago (right as we were loading our moving truck) with her idea for a Crafter/Sewer online competition I wanted to drop everything right then and get sewing. Since becoming an avid Project Runway watcher I've always thought it would be fun to post some weekly challenge ideas on the blog and have everyone participate with their interpretation of it. But that was the extent of it. It was just a thought.

Enter: Missy with her fabulous blog, her fabulous competition idea, and a group of very fun crafters to get it all going. Missy, you're genius! Thank you for making it happen.
Basically:
10 crafters
10 weeks
10 weekly challenges

* A Theme will be posted at the beginning of the week.
* Crafters create their interpretation of that theme (we already have this week's theme in the works).
* Projects will be posted on SoYouThinkYou'reCrafty and YOU and ANYONE can go online and vote for your favorite! (all projects will be anonymous).
* The Winner will be announced on Monday and their project's tutorial will be on the SYTYC website. (and the losing project crafter will be eliminated).

And that's how it works! Sounds fun right? I agree. And look at this great group of ladies we're talking about:
A talented bunch! I just pray I can keep up with it all. A challenge each week? Okay. Baby steps to the next week. Baby steps. And in the middle of that week...try to throw in a bunch of handmade Christmas gifts and upcoming craft boutique inventory. 'Tis the season to be busy!

The first challenge will be posted THIS Monday, 11/2 on the SYTYC website. I'll have a reminder here on MADE and I always have the SYTYC button on my sidebar.

in the dog house

Don't you love it when you have 100 things to do by Saturday and yet you find yourself throwing it aside for an hour while you make a doghouse?
I was about to throw out a Huggies Wipes box this morning and thought, maybe Lucy wants this? I can cut a door out for her dog to sit inside. (she's majorly into Clifford right now). Of course a simple door turned into a couple windows, a second story hang-out, and a coat of yellow spray paint. Well, the dog got the second story while Lucy carefully lined-up all her favorite "people" inside.
It was a hit! And though it's a pretty sorry looking house (the paint doesn't even cover the ugly Huggies pics)....it got me to thinking more about cardboard houses and creations. I've been looking on Craigslist and in thrift stores for a dollhouse for Lucy for Christmas. With a tight budget, I don't want to spend tons of money and yet I still want something cool and unique, right? I know, I'm asking for the impossible. So I thought, hey! I'll make her a princess castle out of boxes, pringle cans, oatmeal containers, etc. This will be really fun! Well, we'll see if I can get to it before Christmas. My back-up plan will be to shoot for her birthday in February.
If you're looking for an inexpensive way to do kids' Christmas gifts, cardboard and felt are great options. And there are many inspirational sites out there with cool ideas:
* Here is a great tutorial for a felt/cardboard castle (brought to you by Confessions of a Sewing Dork).
* Who can pass up this felt playhouse from the talented, homemade by jill?!
* forty-two roads has been a favorite site of mine for a while. At first I was floored by her cool artwork. But she also makes kids kitchens and doll furniture that are remarkable. She was even on Martha about 6 months ago showing how to make a doll chair (instructions are here). If you're looking for ideas, check out her site!
* And if you feel like tackling a kitchen out of wood or MDF, check out this adorable creation. I love it!)

I'm certainly a novice when it comes to this stuff. I'm very impressed with what others have done. We'll see if there's a castle down the road! In the mean time, here's to the army of Disney figures lined up for some sort of Alamo battle.
* Thank you all for the great comments! Many of you left fabulous ideas on making cardboard houses! Make sure you check the comments section to see what others have said.

I was last month's center fold...

A few months ago the UK based magazine SEW Magazine contacted me to see if they could do a blog feature about MADE. Um? OF COURSE. Please!
The first week we arrived in Texas it came in the mail and I was super excited to check it out. I flipped through the first half of the mag and when I came to the center-fold, there it was!
A short little interview:
with a few pictures:
My favorite part about it being a UK magazine is the slight changes in vocabulary. They didn't change any of the article content. But some "z"s were changed to an "s". While became whilst. And store-bought in the UK is pronounced shop-bought. How cute does that sound?! (with a lovely british accent of course)

Did you see who was spotlighted in the column next to me? Craft Hope! I'm honored:
I had Casey take some pics of me and the kids since I don't have any real pictures of "me" (other than stuff I've taken myself...you know, the dumb close-ups with part of my arm in the shot). It was kind of an impromptu photo shoot from the Sunshine Shortie pics. Unfortunately, most of the photos of me are too silly or out out of focus:
So I settled on this one of me and Owen:
How I love these little people:Thank you SEW magazine. You totally made my week, month, who knows how long? I'm still excited about it!

simple crafting

I'm a sewer. But I wouldn't necessarily say I'm a "Crafter". For the past 5 years of our marriage (and two kids) we've lived in a two-bedroom apartment. Things always felt tight to me and thus, the thought of adding more seasonal decor just made it feel clutter-over-board to me. So I've kept it simple and haven't tackled many "crafts". Over the years though I've adored blogs with fabulous ideas for party garlands, pumpkins, front door wreaths, ghosts and goblins, and all things Christmas.
I'm happy to say that in our new house, things are very un-cluttered and there's now plenty of space to add a little holiday cheer. So...today as it poured rain outside, I got out the craft supplies. I quickly remembered why I also don't do many crafts (with kids that is). Messy, prep-time, unhappy 22 month old, happy 3 1/2 year old, and everything in-between.
But, when all was said and done, we had a fun time. And we have a surprise for Dad when he walks in the door tonight.
It's nothing fancy. And though it looks like Lucy made it, I actually colored most of the pumpkins. It's cool to make it look like a 3-year old project right?
Simple paper pumpkins, colored with crayons and glued on paper-scraps, hole punched on the sides, and strung together with yellow yarn. Happy Halloween!

For Before and After pics of our new home, check it out here on our family blog: 88 miles per hour.

mini me?

As a woman who likes ruffles, I just assume my daughter would feel the same. Well......since she's hit the full-blown princess stage, we're in luck! Ruffles, ribbons, and frill are IN.
I bought this adorable petticoat at a Ventura thrift shop last year and wasn't sure what to make with it. I knew that somewhere down the road it would come to me. Then, as I was cleaning out boxes before our move, I found this black shirt (also thrifted) and thought, a-ha!....
I'll market it to her as The Princess in Black.
She bought it.
It's still a work in progress. The petticoat is a little too bunched-up around her and it's a bit itchy. So it needs tweaking. But as I looked at the dress I realized, it looks very similar to my black dress from Forever 21. It's true, our children are a reflection of ourselves. So um, I guess Lucy is my kind of gal!
She likes plenty,
and plenty of (tasteful) ruffles....
and very girly Princess Slippers.
(a gift from my husband to wear at our wedding luncheon five years ago. How great is that?)
Sorry Luce for making you a mini me. One day you'll have your own opinion, your own style, and funny teenager language to go along. And then you'll be teaching me a thing or two about what's IN. Maybe then I'll be a mini you.

feeling the colors

My husband looked around our newly painted house tonight and said, "it's very pastel-y in here. It kind of looks like your MADE blog." I guess the design apple doesn't fall far from the tree. So, in keeping with the theme I:
A) jazzed up the blog banner and
B) (drumroll) finally joined the year 2009. Yep, I MADE a button! Some of you have been asking for one (which makes me happy). And so here they are. Two versions: Colors and Faded Aqua. You'll find the html in my sidebar. Make sure you scroll down in the html box to get the entire code.

If you need more detailed instructions, it's quite easy:
* go to my sidebar
* pick which button you'd like
* copy the html code below the button (make sure you scroll down in that little box to get the entire code)
* if you use Blogger....go to "Layout", "Add a Gadget", and click the "HTML" option
* paste the html code right there in the box and then place the button where you'd like on your sidebar.

And if you ever need help making your own blog button, check out these or these very easy-to-follow instructions.

Enjoy the rainbow of fruit flavors!

fading summer: yellow linen pants

I've been wanting to make these for a while but could never find the right yellow color at Joanns. So before leaving the LA area I made one last trip to the Fabric District and stocked up at my favorite linen shop (Carmel Fabrics: 432 E. 9th street, #1). The cute old shop-owner has beautiful linen in every color. I mean, you could go crazy there. And he only charges about $7/yard.
Remember this dress? I thought the original shirt was great because:
A. it would it make a cute breezy shirt dress - which btw, will likely be for sale down the road since Lucy never got around to wearing it (except for the photoshoot that is).
B. there were TWO pockets on the front of the shirt, which would be perfect on linen cargo pants.

So as the summer fades, new pants emerge.
And Owen seems pretty happy about it.
You can make these pants using the Knee Pad Pants Tutorial but instead of sewing on knee pads, just add pockets.
Two Notes:
* You have to sew the pieces together in a slightly different order, however, so that the pockets are sewn-on to the side before sewing the pant legs shut.
* I often wash and dry linen multiple times before cutting and sewing. I find that it shrinks a bit the first few washes and continues to get softer with each wash/dry.
Summer may be gone but a little yellow cheer is always welcome.

desert beauty

A couple weeks before leaving California I wrapped up projects for friends and family. And now (with little sewing time on my hands) I can share them with you!
My cousin Rachael gave me her husband's old shirt to make into a dress for her daughter. With the brown colors and embroidered flowers on front it was destined to be a summer dress for her own desert Beauty, Savanna:
Introducing: the shirred Shirt Dress:
and the flower-chain crown:
I started with a normal men's shirt (a size XL is probably best):
I cut the pattern piece similar to my normal Shirt Dress pattern but I made the front and back as wide as the men's shirt would allow. Using elastic thread, I shirred about 20 rows on the front and back pieces of the dress. Then, I washed and dried both pieces because I've found that the elastic thread seems to shrink up a bit with washing/drying. After drying, you should cut off any excess fabric (to fit with your normal dress pattern). Or, if it looks too small after washing/drying, you still may be okay since the elastic thread will stretch a ton. And then, just continue sewing as you would the normal Shirt Dress (minus the elastic waist band). Also, on this dress I added a separate casing around the neck, just for a color pop.
And though the dress wasn't made for Goose, she had fun dancing around in it.
We even found a hula-hoop on our adventure:
The flower-chain crown was Lucy's idea. She's hit the full-blown princess stage and wanted something appropriate for any princess in the forest (or the desert).
I simply inner-twined green pipe cleaners (which I randomly had on-hand). Then I glue-gunned a bunch of flowers on top (also randomly on-hand). And there you have it! I'll be making more of these in the future.
And now the dress is off to Arizona.
Enjoy your flower-child sunset, sweet Savanna.
Love,
Lucy and Dana

we made it!

to Texas, that is. And little by little we're moving in! I still walk around the house and find plenty of homeless items in every room. But I think it's coming together.
To get to this point however.....we drove through a lot of this:
ate at far too many Dairy Queens:
drove for hours through West Texas:
and 3 days later, pulled up at our new house in Austin. Unfortunately our moving truck arrived four days after we did. And since our couches aren't arriving till this week, we've been lounging like this. Nice new wood floors and camping chairs. A beautiful dichotomy. Thankfully my mom was a good sport about it all! (and was a true camper to fly out with the little guy, while Lucy came with us in the car. It was princess heaven for 3 days straight....movies, figurines, magnets, you name it).
The kids have been loving their new space. Owen rides his bike all over the house:
And Lucy finally has a real table to sit at and eat. So this is what it's like to have a "dining room"?!
As you can tell we're in the process of home improvements. So the sewing is still on-hold. I do have some un-posted projects however from before we moved. So more updates in the future! And hopefully some before and after home pictures down the road too. We've been home owners for a while but we've never lived in a home we own. So this is a new experience for us and the house is the perfect guinea pig for our home improvement skills.

So far we're enjoying our new surroundings. Eating at yummy places like this:
...meeting new people, checking out new parks, and figuring out how to "be on our own". So far so good. And aside from how hot everyone says Texas is, the weather has been so pleasant for the two weeks we've been here. It makes an evening out to the park just perfect. Except that wearing my hair down always reminds why I like to pull it up. That does make me hot. Oh well, at least you can tell I've entered the moved-in-enough-to-do-my-hair-for-church stage.
That's it for now! Hope to see you all soon!

Winner! (and DIY bumper info)

I'd like to say that the winner is ME, because I'm sitting at my mom's house with the kids...and the moving truck is LOADED and ready to be driven away! What a day. Why do I always move in hot September? I've never sweat so much since my Cross Country days. What a nice feeling to have that leg of the move behind us! But enough about me. On with the REAL winner of the moving giveaway.
According to random.org, the winner is.......

#85, Nikki, who said: "That is adorable, and I would love to have that! Thanks for the great giveaway!"
I hope your little guy enjoys his new crib bumper Nikki! And I noticed that you made quilted notecards recently. Beautiful fabric choices. And you are so right.....they're fool proof!

Thank you all for participating. It was a bright spot, in a mess of boxes, to read your sweet comments.

IF YOU DIDN'T WIN (and truly need/want a crib bumper)....you should try it out as your next project! They're not hard, just awkward. It's a pain at times getting all that fabric and batting through the machine. But you can do it!

HOW TO MAKE A CRIB BUMPER:
1. measure the distance around your crib
2. either buy the bumper insert from Joanns (a friend used that and said it worked great) or buy quilt batting (I used a medium-ish batting and double-layered mine.)
3. Lay one fabric face down on the ground. Put the batting down on top of that (if your batting and fabrics are not long enough to make one entire piece for the length of the crib, just patchwork it together). Lay the other fabric face up on top of the batting....so that you have a bumper sandwich.
4. Cut out your bumper, the desired length and width you'd like.
5. I often serge around my entire piece, truly sandwiching everything together (so things don't shift as I do the border). Or you can use pins or safety pins to help hold it in place.
6. Create a border out of your own fabric or use pre-made bias tape!
7. Sew on the border as you would with a quilt binding (only, no hand sewing please)
8. Make some ties, decide where you want them, and sew them on!
9. (optional). I sewed vertical lines periodically, to give it a sectional look and help hold it all together. You don't have to do that but I thought it looked a little nicer.

And that's it! I hope all your babes are fast asleep in their cribs right now. My little ones are. And after not seeing them for 3 days, this face is just asking for gobs of kisses.

moving GIVEAWAY! (closed)

This past month we have done a lot of Craigslisting, held a garage sale, given stuff to friends, and made many trips to Goodwill. But I find it harder to give this orange guy to just anyone. So, I'm offering it to you. Let's do a Moving GIVEAWAY!

I'm not giving away the whole crib; just the CRIB BUMPER. Owen is almost two and soon he'll move to a Toddler bed. The less stuff I have to pack, the better.
The bumper is made of Orange Dots on one side, brown world/maps on the other, and edged with a light-chartreuse (two layers of batting in the middle). It was my first attempt at making a bumper, so it won't look store-bought. But I think it's pretty cute. For more info see my first post about it here.
If you'd like this baby crib bumper, here are the rules:
1. Leave a comment
2. Leave your email address in the comment
3. One entry per person (if you forget to leave your email address and leave a second comment, go back and delete your first comment so that you only show up once. please :))
4. Sorry, but only open to US Residents. It's pretty bulky to ship.
5. sit back and relax!

Tomorrow is the day we load the truck, so the giveaway will end tomorrow night! (Thurs 9/3 at 10pm, PST). Can you tell that blogging is my outlet of fun right now? Thanks for bringing excitement to my boring days of packing!

more pot holders

A month ago while at my parent's house I found a stack of items, headed to the Goodwill. Sitting on top was this crazy clown costume that my grandma had made for my grandpa, back in the 60's. Can you honestly imagine a 6'2", grown-man wearing that? Let's hope it was for Halloween. Here's the front and the back:
My siblings and I have fun memories of that costume and other crazy things in our Granner's "dress-up" box. So when I saw it in the give-away pile, I had to snag it. I asked my mom if that was fine and her question was, "what are you going to do with it?"
In the words of Ferris.....The question isn't "what are we going to do," the question is "what aren't we going to do?"
And so, for my sister's birthday, I made more pot holders/hotpads......whatever they should be called. Created from the clown costume fabric, they have fun sentiment.

This one feels 80s geometric. On the back I used gray corduroy and just topstitched with crazy zigzags all over the place. Reminds me of a spiderweb:
And you may remember this fabric from the itsy bitsy Giveaway a while back. Thankfully there's still more left! You'll see it pop up from time to time:
I ran out of batting for the inside so I used two layers of thick felt for the center. I haven't tried them out yet though. So we'll see if my sister burns her hand. Let's uh, hope for the best!

For more info on making these, see my other post HERE.