Valentine Treats

I don't normally work on the weekends. But some weekends (like Valentine weekend) people want a day off. And since Ryan and I didn't have any specific plans anyway I agreed to work on Sunday. So I'm bummed that I'll be working on Valentine's Day, but happy that it means that a coworker can go on one last little trip with her husband before their first baby is born.

And I've decided to celebrate the day anyway by bringing in some treats for those of us in the office on Sunday. So I put together this little little treat station that should have something for everyone: Brownies! Don't care for chocolate? Have a sugar cookie! Already had sugar overload this weekend? Take some vanilla sugar home and use it when you sugar craving returns!

And I'm hoping to have time to make a little bag of vegetables for my coworker on a diet. I'm thinking of cutting little hearts out of zucchini. Anyone have a better suggestion?


Can you tell that Abby was in charge of decorating the sugar cookies?:


Once the icing on the sugar cookies dries we'll package them up and be ready to hand them out!

The Sienna Dress

A couple of weeks ago I made Abby a Valentine dress using the Sienna pattern purchased from Lil Blue Boo. I've never really made clothing before and was very worried about sewing knits because I've heard that they can be a hassle. But all that worry was mostly for nothing because this went together pretty quickly and easily. I used her tip of spray starching the fabric before sewing and I really think that helped.

I used two old tshirts that I had in my closet. Sadly, I cut the arms out wrong at first (not quite sure what happened there) and didn't have enough fabric to do them again so I had to cut them down to fix it. That's why the arms are short. And I spent a lot of time trying to work around a lot of the wording on the shirts (they were those free ones you get when you do charity walks and had a lot of lame advertising on them). But then when I was pinning it together to sew it up I realized that i could just turn the pieces inside out so the writing was on the inside of the shirt, leaving me a blank canvas to embellish as I pleased. Umm, yeah, I feel totally lame that it took me so long to realize that, but I'm really glad that I did. Much better finished product.

I was going for a bit of a skater punk valentine look. So I appliqued the broken heart on the front. Then I freezer paper stenciled the hearts on the pink strip. I'm really happy with the way the dress came out. And more importantly, Abby likes it too. (I have since made a second dress using the same pattern that she so far refuses to wear).

Was going to wait to do this post until I had some better pictures, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen anytime soon and I want this up before Valentine's Day (not that she won't be wearing it all year 'round). So here it is! I did it and I am proud!

Vanilla Sugar Valentines

Back at Christmas time I made some vanilla sugar to be used in some sort of as yet unspecified gifty way. Well, I never got around to it, so the vanilla sugar became my new Valentines! I am really happy with the way they turned out. The paper came from the dollar section at Target, all ready to go - I didn't even need to cut it! I already had the little bags. Easy peasy!

Now I'm sort of realizing that I never really made any plans on who to give them to. I've got about a dozen of them, so if I happen to see you between now and Valentine's Day you just may be in for a little Valentine's Day treat.

Rag Letters

I totally fell in love when I saw this Rag Letters tutorial from Jessica at Happy Together. I knew it would make great gifts. But I also knew that I would get bored before I finished the entire alphabet. So I settled on names, which felt perfect because I looooove personalized presents.

So I've done some for birthday presents and some for Christmas presents. And I love that it works equally well as a gift for boys. I try to include something handmade with every present I give, but I often come up short with boy ideas, you know?

I also love this project because it is a great way to use up scraps. And Abby was able to help me quite a bit (which is good because I was making them for HER friends). She helped me pick out fabric and find the right letters and by the time we were done she knew how to spell some of her friends names. Educational AND crafty? I'm sold.

More Can Can Skirt Pictures

Here are some more pictures of Abby and Mia in the Can Can Skirt:

We MADE It!

About a week ago my friend, Amber, sent me a link to Dana from MADE's Can Can Skirt pattern and asking if I thought I could help her make it. I looked it over and said, "Sure!".

I was completely lying. I did not think that I had the skills to successfully make this beautiful ruffled skirt, seeing as how I'd never made any skirt before. Ever. But in my moment of confidence I had already committed to this and Amber had already bought the pattern and ordered the fabric. So there was nothing left to do but try. So we did.

After attending a fabulous Cinderella birthday party we came to my house and measured and cut and ripped out a couple of seams and read some directions carefully and totally ignored some other directions and, lo and behold, we did it. We MADE it! And we are proud.

Here are some pictures of Mia wearing the finished product. Amber's pictures are much better so I'll post some of them later.