Instagram Friday!

Linking up at Life Rearranged for Instagram Friday!

The beginning of the week had an insane amount of rainbows...

All of them were the full-on, St. Louis style huge arches.  Do rainbows ever stop being totally unreal and magic?

We took the girls for their traditional Christmas gift from mom and dad--Build a Bears.

L named her orange cat Tiger.

K named her border collie Basket.

E named her fennec fox Melody.

L and K had a little Christmas performance for dance.  They both ate it up.  They are divas.

They also had fun playing before bed last night while E was at soccer.  Their fun is insane and I'm just glad we didn't end up in the ER with skull fractures, but they were laughing the whole time.  That's good, right?

This is L.

There's 30 more of these.

Instagram Friday!

I've decided to start linking up to Instagram Friday on Life Rearranged.  Next week, though, as this week she was doing a different project for Instagram Friday.  Anyhow, it makes me more accountable to record our family's week...and I get to play with my new iphone!  Woot.

"Schnuggle me, Mom.  I need schnuggles." 

Round One of E's  braces DONE.  

"Sit on the couch wif me, Mom.  Sit."

Best grocery shoppers.  A is rocking L's Fancy Nancy headband from Halloween.

Please note: Tiana pillowcase, baby Tiana doll under arm, Tiana frog, Tiana softie, and Naveen frog between the wall and bed.


L is not in any of the pics.  But she did record close to 1,000 videos of herself on my phone.  

Agent P

When my sister-in-law called wondering how she was going to pull off an Agent P costume for her 3 year old, the gears started turning in my head and I couldn't NOT do it.  

It turned out the way I imagined it, which is always very satisfying.

I referred to these tutorials for sewing up the shirt and pants.  

For the webbed feet, beaver tail and duck bill I used double layers of felt.  With the tail I added a layer of batting between and quilted the cross-hatching into it to give it some dimension and texture.  Between the felt layers on the bill I hand-stitched two bits of pipe cleaners to help bend the bill into a curved shape.  They're all separate pieces, with elastic to fit around his ankles, waist and around his face.

They already had the hat.  PHEW.

I had imagined myself making a detailed tutorial for each piece, but then I just wanted to get it done.  ;)

Giveaway Winner...

OK, I don't know how to do the fancy-shmancy screen capture thing.

Anyhow, our winner is:

Aimee said...

I just shared your giveaway on my facebook page!

MAY 8, 2011 8:45 PM 

Why is this only typing in caps?

I'll contact you, aimee!

seriously, what is wrong with blogger???

Take Note, Mr. Nolan.

(Sorry for the itty bitty image.)

This is from the Happy Meal box K had for lunch today at an outing to the park.

What on earth is Robin wearing?

And for the love of all that's good, this had better not show up in the next Batman movie.

500 Facebook Fans Giveaway!

I have hit 500 fans on Facebook!  Hooray!

Because that is exciting, I'm going to have a sa-wheet giveaway.

The winner gets to pick one item in my shop.  

Anything.  Clippies? Skirt?  Dress?  Ready to ship?  Pick your size?  Whatever.  

Here's how we're going to play this:

1.  You get one entry for making a comment.  

You only NEED one entry to win, but here's how to get your name in the mix a few more times:

2.  Tell me you're a fan on facebook.

3.  Tell me that you follow the blog.  Maybe I'll post more than once a month.  You never know.  Unless you follow.  Then you'll know.

4.  Give my little ol' shop (elkdresses.etsy.com) and this giveaway a shout-out on your blog.  Comment and post the link to the specific post.

5.  Tell me that you spread the word on facebook.

The giveaway will close on Sunday, May 8th, at 11:59 pm Pacific Time, and I'll announce the winner sometime on May 9th.  Include your email in at least one of your comments to make it easier to get in touch with you!

What I've Been Up To...

We went to California for a few days to use the last days on our Disneyland annual passes and so I could go to LA and get bunches and bunches of fabric.  Oh, and to see my hubby's side of the family, too.  ;)

Look at my cute family!  

Don't believe K's bored face.  Her two favorite Princesses are Ariel and Tiana, and we had BOTH of them at the Princess Fair.  She put her hands to her mouth and gasped, "Ariel!  Oh Ariel!"  And she gave her a huge hug.  The Princesses were so sweet and noticed K's favorite pink sparkle shoes.  K's older sisters were so excited for her that she got to meet both her favorites.

E and L were also excited that K was tall enough to go on Gadget's Go-Coaster.  K was excited too, and apparently a little concerned during the ride.  We got nailed by the squirting frogs at the end.  K was really ticked.  She got off the ride and yelled, "WET.  GOT WET.  AUGH."  She scowled and yelled at the ride on the way out.

And my favorite husband (my only one, currently) took the girls to the little Santa Ana Zoo while I went to LA for fabric.  

After I catch up on a few orders, I'm going to start making new things for my shop.  I began drafting my patterns for sizes 4 through 8 while we were there and I didn't have a sewing machine.  I wish there were more hours in the day!

Winner! And some motivation...

And, skipping for a repeat comment clarifying a typo (Hi Brittany!  ;) ), number 18 is TIFFANY who said:

"I am a big fan of your stuff! I am now a follower. Thanks for the chance to win some cute clippies! : )"

Shoot me an email Tiffany and pick your clips--steelebjm (at) yahoo(dot)com.


For everyone else, don't forget that if you mention you follow my blog in note to seller that I'll give you a free coordinating set of hair clippies with every dress you buy.  ALSO...

In an effort to help the Japanese people, through March 31st I will be donating 50% of my net proceeds to the Church of Jesus Christ of Lattery Day Saints Humanitarian Fund.  They have always done amazing work with victims of natural disasters (among other things).  You can read about some of their work during the aftermath of the Indonesian tsunami here.  Spread the word--I'd really like to send them a nice chunk o' change.

K Doesn't Want to Grow Up

I have come the conclusion over the past few days that my Miss K loves being a baby.  She revels in it.  Where E, my first, was chattering with an amazing vocabulary and crisp enunciation, K talks remarkably like Boo.  L, the second, wanted to be just like E.  At just barely two years old she started asking nearly every day when it was her turn to go to preschool.  K, well, she is in no hurry to be a kid.  It's like she just knows she's the baby right now, and she's gonna milk it for all it's worth. 

E and L loved getting big girl beds for their second birthdays.  We just barely put up K's big girl bed about 10 days ago (although she turned two last November), and although she has slept well--in part because she doesn't know how to open her door yet, bwahahahaha--she's been skeptical.  Last night she was about to climb in, and in a rare moment of vocal clarity, announced, "Don't wan dis bed."  I made non-committal shrugs and noises and she persisted, "Where K bed."  I extolled the amazing virtues of Princess Tiana sheets and demonstrated how soft they were and how they made me feel like a princess.  "DON'T WAN DIS BED."  Then I gave up and passed her off to Daddy and let him be the bad guy.

Oh well.  She will be our baby for a few more years, as we save up to adopt two baby boys from Ethiopia.  I guess we all might as well enjoy it.  She's pretty dang cute.

Anyone else have a child who was hugely reluctant to leave babyhood?


AND...don't forget my giveaway!

The Encourage-Me-To-Blog Giveaway

One lucky winner will receive their choice of hair clippies from my shop!

I will choose the winner via random.org on Sunday, March 13 and announce it here.

How to enter: 

1.  Become a follower of my blog and make a comment on this post.  That's it!

Giveaway will close on Saturday, March 12, at midnight, PST.

 

And if you don't win, I will include a free set of coordinating hair clippies with each dress purchase if you tell me in the note to seller that you follow my blog--through March 31st!

By no means do I aspire to be one of the awesome blog queens out there, but I would like to learn to use this format more adeptly, and if I know there are people out there reading, I'll be more encouraged.  So help me out, man!

Feeling Like I Got Something Done...

I bought these two long sleeved shirts on clearance at Carters and converted them into short sleeve, using the excess sleeve fabric to make tabs. 

I'm really pleased with the results, and how easy it was.  I think I will incorporate the tab sleeves in some new designs for my shop.  Also, I want yards and yards and yards of that lighter gray fabric.  YUM.

I have been envisioning these pictures since we put an offer on this new house back at the end of October, and now it's finally real!  And I love it!  It makes the kitchen feel taller--we have tall ceilings, but with the shorter cupboards (standard, I guess, the last house's cupboards were just extra tall) I didn't sense how tall it actually is in here.  I used some scrapbook paper from the Snack Stack and frames from good ol' Ikea.  Next up, I'm painting that cabinets, and I'm going to copy this gray and white look from Dana at Made.

Per the recommendation of Miss Dolce Vita Mia, I headed up to Sas Fabrics in Tempe last week, with a cruddy feeling K in a stroller.  She was on day one of those little fever viruses, no other symptoms, just general blah-ness.  It made for easy shopping since she just hung out in her stroller with a big cold sippy of fruit punch.  Sad, but helpful.  (Not contagious either--and I did end up on the couch snuggling her pretty much the rest of the week, so I'm not a completely awful mom!)

Anyhow, so these are some fabulous knits I found.  Skulls with white ruffles, anyone?  I know one of my girls is getting one!

Hair Clippies

I'm listing all sorts of coordinating hair clippies in my shop for my dresses.  These will be available whenever I feel like making them, not on a custom basis.  Unless you ask really, really nicely, and you're sweet, and ever so nice to me.  These are some of my favorites:

I think the rose clippies are definitely sophisticated enough to wear as a grown up, especially by a ponytail.  If you don't think so, don't make fun of me if I have one in my hair.  It's bad karma.



My New Love

A couple years ago I got these curtains for my back sliding door.

They go perfectly with the colors of my accessories around my family room.

In the new house, they didn't work for the backdoor, since it was about 100 inches wide.  We ended up doing the curtain panel track system from Ikea. 

But I love those curtains!  So...I decided I'm a big girl with scissors, and I'm going to use them in various new ways around my downstairs. 

First up...my sad, sad ironing board.  I got it when I was a freshman in college for ironing (hahahahahhaaa ohhhh how funny) and it's been perfect for my sewing desk, which I have out in the family room so I can actually hang out with my hubby in the evenings (and watch tv).  It has a perfect mdf base, so much nicer than the metally griddy things.  The original cover had holes and it looked generally depressed.

Now look at it!  Ahhhhhh...

I repadded it with some batting and adhesive spray and then used my staple gun to tack it to the board underneath. 

I may or may not have been actually patting it lovingly as I've been sewing.

Lamenting the Decline of My Little Pony

I was a HUGE fan of My Little Ponies when I was a kid.  Had a whole herd of them.  Still do, in fact, at my mom's house, and my girls play with them when we go to visit. 

When my first was a baby in 2003, I got her her own Little Pony.  They changed a bit, had eyes twice the size they had been in the 80's, but it was still cute.  We now have a herd of those at my house. 

Then a couple years ago, they changed again.  Seriously, why fix what ain't broke?  They had the ginormous, malnourished eyes with oversized heads, little bodies and chunky legs.  I think we got one for a gift, and my kids have relegated it to being a "baby" pony.  Because what adult pony would have eyes taking over 50% of their face? 

Now they've changed them again.  Dude, they don't even look like ponies now.

What IS that thing?  It's like...a...mutant deer...with rat ears?

Sigh.  

Something NEW is coming...

I'm going to be doing this this next week to take pictures of my lovely new coordinating hair clippies I've made.  And even better, I found the lamps on the end aisle at Target today for $3!  Just two ugly green lamps, waiting for me.  It was fate.  So I need to order...

...these this week.  In the hopes that peoples are going to buy my hair clippies. 

Skirts...Coming Monday!

Here's a peek at some of the skirts I will be listing this week on etsy.  They all include a sewn-in panty/diaper cover, since even big girls who play on monkey bars like to wear skirts to school. 


I have been sadly neglectful of my blog.  I'm much better at facebook anyhow, but compound that with moving into a new house in January and getting hired by a friend to make seven bridesmaid dresses for her sister's wedding, and you get absolutely no updates from me.  The jackets for my big girls are ALMOST done, luckily I made them big so they can be worn next winter also.  Here's the dress I'm adapting/recreating for the bridesmaids...

I've finished 3 out of the 7 dresses.  Hooray me!