Tuesday, May 31, 2011

A visit with family

We were so happy to have my sister-in-law and her family make the drive from Michigan to spend Memorial weekend with us. What a treat! They have two boys, Ethan and Gabe, who our daughter Alora adores, and a beautiful 8 week old daughter Ayla. Alora was so taken with her saying, "Look how cute she is! She's so tiny!"

Gabe holding his baby sister

We had a great time going to Ikea, taking the train downtown, going to Shedd Aquarium (braving the torrential rain in the process) and just hanging out at home!

Alora loved watching Ayla get her diaper changed

Movie time for the kids!

Fun in the splash pools with Alora and Everett

In preparation for them coming, I just had to make a little something for that baby girl. I can't resist. I made her one of my Eco Cotton Rosette hats and matching booties from this great pattern while she was still a cookin' in her momma. I also made a knit blanket for her out of a lovely grayish-lilac yarn and trimmed with white ribbon when she arrived. I didn't get a picture of these, silly me, but that's okay!

Nevertheless, little ones just beg to be created for and I couldn't help myself. More on that in a minute...

I have been wanting to try out some more applique after my custom Dr. Seuss order.


This is just one of the four pieces, including two bibs and two Ergonomic Burpcloths. They came out so cute!

First I whipped up this little burp cloth duo for a friend who just gave birth to a sweet baby girl, Kennedy.

I fell in love with this fabric line. It's Kate Spain's Central Park for Moda. Love. It was fun to play around with my sewing machine embroidery skills, something I'd never done, and try out some new applique techniques.


So on to the little lovely for our niece.

I picked up some Carters onesies on sale the other day and had a vision in my head. After one "practice" onesie that I had fully embellished and mostly destroyed while playing with my machines embroidery options, I was ready to make the official one. Let me just say that sewing on knit fabric is a WHOLE different ball game. I knew it was going to be different that sewing on my usual woven fabric, so the practice shirt was REALLY helpful.





And here are a few shots of sweet Ayla in her new shirt.

Just looking at her daddy :)
Not a great pic, but those are the EcoCotton booties I made on her cute little feet.
Her daddy sure is good at getting her to smile!

You may see some more applique items end up in the shop at a later date, but I did get this cute little ruffle onesie listed if you just have to have one!

I also have a new project started that I've been wanting to do for quite a while. More on that tomorrow!

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Cleaning house...blog style

As I attempted to revisit blogging today, I was bombarded by way too much clutter on my page and just felt overwhelmed and under-inspired.

Funny that the house full of clutter surrounding my desk chair and computer screen was so much less disturbing...but I digress...

The lovely ladies behind The Ivy Twines just had a post about blog design. You can check out it out here. Thanks to their introduction, in steps from stage right - Makin' Cute Blogs - what a revelation. This site is fantastic. There are so many free background sites out there, and good ones, but Carolynn from MCB has these awesome tutorials for doing it yourself.

First she sent me to ColourLover. Don't even get me started on how cool this is. And free. (Did I mention it is SO cool?) I could play on this for hours and even my three year old would love it.

Spiffed up and streamlined things nicely and with a few more color and font tweeks, as well as a new header, things are looking much cleaner.

The other places worth a look are http://pixlr.com (like a free photoshop and no software downloads) and Pugly Pixel (lovely blog bling clip art).

Here's what I've been up to in the studio:

Kids are in bed, J is out of town on business, time to hit the sewing machine...

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...