Moms Night Out

I participated in a Moms Night Out Boutique last night and I must say that I had a great time. I sold some felt rolls and couple of other things. I did some "window" shopping. I came home with a few unexpected goodies. I had some tasty treats. I met some new people. I had great conversation. And I had an excuse to make a yummy dessert platter:

Jane's Purse

A few weeks ago my Aunt Janie somehow, don't ask me how, broke her purse. Ripped it, actually. Not even on a seam. She really likes this purse and isn't ready to invest time into finding a new one so she used some fabric glue to fix it. But you could sort of still see where she glued it so she gave it to me and asked me to get some ribbon to put over it since I'm at the craft store ALL THE TIME.

So I finally got around to doing it today and I'm pretty happy with the results. I found some red ribbon that I liked and felt that I was off to a pretty good start. But then my Liquid Stitch was old and not coming out of the tube. So back to the craft store I went. After reading all the labels I settled on a flexible fabric glue and came home. After gluing the ribbon over the tear I decided to add a flower accent and turned to the web to figure out how to do it. I settled on this tutorial via this roundup on Sew Mama Sew because I wanted to use some of the leftover ribbon. I just put the flower on a safety pin so that she can take it off if she doesn't like it. But who wouldn't like it?

Happy Earth Day!

In honor of Earth Day I want to highlight a project we (Ryan and I) did last summer. We are always trying to do things on the cheap and so we occasionally hit the local thrift stores. I like to check out the linen sections because it is a great place to find fabric. Most of the time I don't find much but this particular day I was in luck. I found a large round table cloth in a nice, thick, sturdy fabric that I immediately knew would soon be covering my ugly, old, creaky desk chair. So I bought it for a dollar and we went home and got to work. Some scissors, a screwdriver, a staple gun and some arguing were all we needed. It has held up remarkable well, considering we really had no idea what we were doing.

I had a ton of left over fabric. So I also made a wall tote to hold some of the stuff that collects on our tiny little computer desk:



And it made an appearance in some swatch portraits we made to dress up a bare wall after we got rid of a bookcase:



And I still have quite a bit of fabric left so who knows where else it will pop up. I love that I've gotten so much use out of $1 worth of thrift store fabric. And that an old table cloth found a new purpose.

*The wall tote pattern came from this tutorial from JCasa.

*The swatch portrait idea came from The Purl Bee.

Mamas love ElleBows too!

My friend Lisa makes the cutest hair clips. I mean THE CUTEST. Abby won't leave clips in her hair most of the time, but ElleBows? ElleBows are a different story. And lately I've noticed that when I want to pull my hair out of my eyes what do I reach for? My ElleBows. They're lightweight. They stay in place. And they're cute.

I love the crochet ones, like the one I'm wearing in the picture above, and these butterflies:



And I love these because they'd go with lots of outfits:



And how cute are these with the fabric covered buttons?




You can find all of her cute clippies in her Etsy shop: www.ellebowsandmore.etsy.com

And check out her blog for the latest and greatest: www.ellebowsandmore.blogspot.com

I Made More Baby Shoes

I've had baby shoes in the back of my mind for a while, but I don't want to try the other pattern again because I'm tired of breaking needles. So I was pretty excited when I came across this pattern from Homespun Threads. I had to read the tutorial a few times to understand it completely, but once I figured it out it was really easy. It also assumes that I understand things like basting and trimming your corners, which I sort of do, but not really. So this is probably not a great tutorial to use if you are brand new to sewing, but otherwise it is great.

Oh, these also turned out a LOT smaller than the pair I made with the other pattern. Not in a bad way, just in a make sure you get them to the baby sooner rather than later or they might not fit way.

Thank you Homespun Threads!!

www.SewEmily.etsy.com

I'm realizing that I put up the button for my new Etsy shop, but never really announced it on my blog. So consider this the Grand Opening announcement!

I made Abby a travel felt roll a few weeks ago and she absolutely loves it! I took it to a meetup of my mommy group and it was a hit with the other kids as well. So I decided to make some and sell them. I've got a few of the felt rolls up my shop, as well as some kits of extra pieces. I have a few more made waiting for pictures and a few more pieces of fabric waiting to realize their felty potential. So check early and check often in my shop and if you see something you like feel free to buy it. :)

I'm concentrating on the felt rolls right now, but hope to add some other things if I think they're worth selling. I know I'm itching to make some baby shoes...but I'll keep you posted.

I've got some crafty friends who are making some amazing things right now so stay tuned for some posts highlighting their fabulous creations!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Blogland!

I had some left over marshmallow from the marshmallow shapes we made for the Easter party so I decided to make some Rice Krispie treats. And because squares are boring we decided to make them into shapes. After some trial and error we ended up using cookie cutters. We pressed them into tulip and egg shaped cookie cutters and then Abby decorated them with M&Ms and sprinkles. I haven't made Rice Krispie treats in years, but I remember them hardening very quickly, but these stayed soft for a long time so we had plenty of time to make the shapes. Maybe it has something to do with the homemade marshmallow.

Anyway, a great activity for Easter morning, methinks.

More Marshmallows on a Stick!

I'm really having fun putting things on a stick lately. It is just so easy and so cute. And so portable. (The practical side of me must always make an appearance.)

This time it was favors for an Easter party I helped with and I am again very happy with the results. I stuck with the King Arthur Flour recipe. I highly recommend it, especially if you've never made marshmallows before because the accompanying blog post gives great step by step instructions (with pictures!). It helps you feel like you know what you're doing. Even if you don't.

Something I learned this time around is to not get impatient. We tried to start cutting out shapes with the cookie cutters too soon and so the first ones did not have nice clean edges. And they were a huge pain in the ass too.

So go make some marshmallows! But give yourself plenty of time, so you're not rushing at cutting time and making a big mess.