What I'm Up To

Lately I've been focusing a lot more on my health and my kids.  Exercising a ton, eating less and healthier {lost 9 lbs. so far since the second week in June} and doing lots of stuff with the kiddos too.  Not so much creativity flowing around here lately, at least not from me.  I had also been busy preparing for the Farmer's Market for Kitchen Stitchen and the Munchkin Mart for Ella, both making cookies, setting up and supervising while she was selling.  And planning and executing Miles' Birthday Day of Parties. {ok, some creativity in there}  But I do have a few projects I'm slowly hacking away at, or at least slowly preparing for.

The one that is the furthest along is my sewing cabinet.  It was passed down to me from my mom and starting to get pretty warn.  I decided to strip it and paint it white {it was stained wood].  After mustering the courage and seeing how easy Rhoda from Southern Hospitality makes it seem, I finally got started.  I used a liquid sandpaper/deglosser and then Rustoleum's Heirloom White Satin spray paint to refinish it.  I also used a metallic chrome spray paint to redo the hardware (it was an antique brass).  Let me say, it has not been so easy for me!  I have used 3 cans of spray paint and need to run out for a 4th!  As hard as I try to be even, it looks like it's spray painted!  Thus all the extra coats.  The funny thing is, this spray paint is supposed to take one coat HA!  And the deglosser?  I suppose it worked, but I was skeptical and there are places on the wood that seem a little rough.  I just hope it turns out alright.  After the last round of spray, I'm going to try some clear gloss spray:

I'll let you be the judge when I post before and after photos.  I chose a white paint to refinish it because I think it would look nicer with my wall organizer and mod sewing chair.

Other projects which I either only have the fabric for, some of the fabric for, or only the pattern for are as follows:

• 2 casserole carriers to make before next Farmer's Market as those were the hit last time.  Fabric was purchased at Quilter's Heaven in Northbrook, IL.
• A reversible wrap around skirt.  I only have one of the fabrics chosen {not yet purchased}.  Found this at Quilter's Heaven and knew I wanted to make a skirt from it.  Just didn't know what yardage I'd need at the time I was there.
• A small hanging quilt or doll quilt.  It will probably be a doll quilt for Ella's babies.  Pattern purchased at Touch of Amish in Barrington, IL and fat quarters for the dresses at QuiltPlay here in Grayslake, IL.  Should be interesting to make. 

Another cool happening was our trip to an Art Fair in Evanston this past Sunday.  I lived in Evanston two times.  The first time was while I was in grad school at Northwestern and the second time was about 6 years later for a span of about 5 or so years.  I love Evanston.  It is not your typical suburb.  It is very classy urban and certainly has some very beautiful areas and architecture, including the University and lakefront.  It was a great place to live for a while.  It was nice to be back for a bit, though next time I'd like to visit my old apartment and the flat that Jason and I lived in for a few months before buying our own place.  Back to the art fair...  While we love art fairs it seems we rarely find something we just LOVE, or at least something we BOTH love. 

But this time we did and it was even at a decent price.  And so we came home with the neat water color.  I have it hanging in our dining room and we both think it looks great.

During our visit to Evanston, we also stopped at our favorite Middle Eastern restaurant in town, The Olive Tree.  Ah!  I ate all vegetarian.  Healthy, but perhaps a bit too much pita consumed to scoop up all of the hummus and babagannoush!

Miles Turns 4!

On Saturday, our little boy became a 4 yr old.  He was so excited for his birthday, both for the festivities and to finally become 4.

Just in case the guests had any question as to whether this was the right house...

First up, Miles wanted a pirate party and so it was.  Too bad he would only wear this getup for a few minutes before the guests came.

 

Mommy came up with various activities to keep the pirate guests entertained for 2 hours.  One was a craft.  Painting and decorating a little treasure chest.

While the paint dried, the kids had grilled hotdogs and hamburgers for lunch and then went on a treasure hunt put together by Captain Dad.

After several ever games, it was cake time. Miles requested a chocolate cake with no frosting.  I finally convinced him on CoolWhip for frosting.  It actually tasted really good.

The aftermath of party number 1...

In between parties, Miles naps.

 

Just a couple pics from the family party.  Cupcakes with CoolWhip (as requested by Miles for cake for this party).

 

Miles enjoying his new play shaving kit.  Is it strange that this almost made me cry?  He can't grow up!!  I know, I'm being silly

You don't want to see the aftermath at the end of the day!

Sewing Ministry

As you may know, I offered to make a few items for a wedding of a young woman who graduated from the Teen Mother Choices program and is getting married this summer.  I used a Burda pattern {style 9702} with modifications {thinner straps and fuller skirt} to make two flower girl dresses and here is how they turned out {they look much cuter on the girls}:

 

I also made this ring bearer pillow with pearl beads at the corners and finished with a navy bow.

And finally, I did not take pictures, but I made three wristlets in the wedding colors for bridesmaid's gifts.

As I tell anyone who shows interest.  Giving of your heart and of your talents and time comes back to you many fold in such joy.  I was so honored to be a part of the preparations for this young lady's wedding and I'm looking forward to attending and seeing how it all comes together!

I certainly plan to occasionally use my sewing skills to minister to others.  Because you see, when you are doing a project like this, you can't help but think of the people involved and you might even pray over them and put lots of love and positivity into your creations.  Plus meeting with the client and getting to know them better, is such a special opportunity.  I hope to be a part of this woman's life for a long time as a support and guide as she needs it.

I truly believe that you can use just about any skill, talent, gift that you have to better someone's life and touch their heart.

Summer Monday

Today was one of the first weekdays that it actually has felt like summer around here.  And we took full advantage of it.  After 1 hour of elliptical machine and 1 hour of yoga, we ran home to get changed into our swim suits.  After dropping off some wedding things I had done, we headed to the pool for fun in the water.  After that we headed to the Tastee Freez (local soft serve stand) and the kids got small cones with their choice of topping.  At home I turned on the slip and slide, and the kids had more fun... while I ate a yummy salad.  Now they are eating and finally we will take Ella to Pom Pon class.

Tomorrow I hope to post photos of the flower girl dresses and ring bearer pillow that I made.  I almost handed them off without taking pics!

Market Day

I have been a bit MIA from blogland the last few days/week, but keeping quite busy.  Along with sewing dresses and other wedding stuff, I've been more involved with the kids since they are home all day and also diligently dieting and frequently exercising at the gym.  I have discovered I love Yoga!  As far as that goes, the pounds don't seem to be melting away very fast, but I certainly can feel it and am very excited about seeing more long term results.

Of course, in the below pic I don't look so great next to that dress form!  It will be interesting to see how I look by the next FM.  But anyway, that is me with the kids at my first Farmer's Market.  Didn't sell a whole lot.  Did get a lot of compliments.  Wonder if my prices were too high since some people looked and looked and didn't buy.  A LOT of people just walked by and didn't even glance at the table.  Another tough thing was that my table was on the side of the street that didn't have the food vendors, so that sidewalk wasn't traveled as much.  Well, it was a fun try and I've got two more attempts at this!  Plus I have to mention that so many sweet sweet friends came by to see me and offer support!  It certainly made the day more than worth it.

The cute thing is that Ella wants to sell something too!  So I've signed her up for the Munchkin Mart at the FM for next week.  We will make cookies and package them up and I will sit with her to sell them at the next FM.  As if I don't have enough on my plate already!  Well, it is for my child, so that's more than ok.  I am looking forward to putting the sewing on the back burner for a while to work with the kids more.  Reading to them more, teaching them more, library time, pool time, walking, park time etc...  It has been a lot of fun with them so far even though I otherwise seem to keep quite busy.  They are changing so much and have a hunger to learn and I want to help them nurture their curiosity and blossoming intelligence.

Getting Ready

Tonight was the night I did a trial run-through of my table setup for the Farmer's Market next Wednesday! My wonderful husband helped by giving me suggestions and doing some of the product prep, oh and taking this photo, which I made into many photos.

I will take you on a tour of my table to show you how I decided to display all of my items.

Well, first off, we have to have a business sign. Since I just found this out last week, I came up with something simple. My business logo in a frame. As I set up the table, the framed logo started to get swallowed up by all of my items. I started to look around the house for some sort of riser for the sign and came up with the idea to stack up a bunch of cookbooks. I will probably tie a bow around the books so there will be less question as to if they are for sale. I also felt the table needed more ambiance, so I added this utensil crock with utensils in it.

Next up, {please pardon the lack of merchandise I didn't feel like getting a bunch of magnet tins out just for a trial run} this was my idea for displaying the magnet sets. {I will replace that sign with a nicer one}. I just took a large cookie sheet that we had and stood it up in a plate display easel that we also already had.

Two towels are displayed on a countertop towel holder I purchased at Homegoods for a steal. The rest of the towels were rolled up and tied with a white ribbon. {Thanks Jason for all of your help with these}. I thought they'd be easier to display this way, not to mention neater. And as I saw those tied up little bundles sitting there, they looked like little gifts. So inviting! I purchase the wire basket at Homegoods as well. Mind you, I had this all worked out in my head before I found the wire basket. Good thing I found one!! And the chalkboard basket labels are from Pottery Barn Kids. I think they add to the ambiance of the table.

The potholders were easier to display than I originally thought they'd be. I thought I had to have them hanging up, but that was near to impossible to figure out in any simple manner. So I found this perfect shaped basket at Ikea. I will have at least one out on the table so people can see what they look like and hopefully make them want to go rummaging through the basket.

Casserole carriers - one will be displayed with a dish in it as seen in this photo and the others fanned out underneath it.

My business cards are printed vertically, so finding a creative way to display them turned out to not be so hard when I saw this glass candle holder at Hobby Lobby. It's the perfect shape and size!

As I close this most exciting tour of my table, I will also point out the wonderful display idea for my apron{s}. My friend Gail came up with this idea and lent me the dress form! Notice the Kitchen Stitchen logo shirt I ordered from Zazzle. As for me, I purchased a polo shirt and my parents have been working hard to convert my logo to an embroidery file for my mom's embroidery machine. I plan to take my shirt there tomorrow to get it all logoed up to wear at the market! Perhaps along with another one of my aprons. Oh, and before I forget. We just bought this table at Aldi on sale. It is so sturdy and collapses so nicely into a portable size complete with handle. And the "table cloth" is a $10 bedspread from Ikea. Probably should iron that up a bit.

I'm getting so excited!!

New Product Peak

I'm very excited about a NEW product idea for Kitchen Stitchen.  I quite fortunately found something{s} at Michaels yesterday that prodded me to make an idea I've had for a while come to life.  Here is a sneak peak!  I can't wait to show you the results when I get some done.  And I'm amazed at the evolution of this idea into something even more original than what it started as.

And for your viewing pleasure... here is a photo I took yesterday at the Farmer's Market.  Jason had the good camera and he met me there, so I was able to get one photo in.  Don't these look delicious?! Yum!

 

Botanic Garden Photos in April {I mean June}

Yesterday the kids and I met hubby at the Chicago Botanic Garden for a jazz concert.  It was quite a COLD evening {more like April or May than June}, but fun nonetheless.  We got to dance a bit and the kids just tore up the "dance floor" with their smooth moves.  I also rediscovered my love for photographing flowers and even photographed a few other things at the Garden.  Enjoy. {Jason helped me learn some new post-processing techniques}.

A close up of a purple pom pon flower.  Forgive me for my ignorance as to scientific names here!  Love the detail of these individual blooms, exquisite!

I thought the lines and moss on this brick were interesting.

One of the many beautiful water features at the Garden.

I just love this ivy on brick.  It was like this on all four corners of this walk-through terrace structure.

More vines of a different nature on this fence.  Just looks extremely interesting to me.

A close up of the vines above, love how they twist around themselves.

There were actually some peonies near these cotton candy pink ones that were more beautiful.  They had a light yellow in the center but I didn't get as nice of a photo of them.  Doesn't this look so shabby chic?

Not much in focus {I think the depth of field is poor and I don't know much about how to adjust that} here, but I really liked the effect of these tentacles {I studied more zoology than botany in my college career, so give me a break}.  Ok, just looked it up and they are called stamen which are made up of a filament and an anther.

Pottery Barn Hack {?}

I've heard of Ikea hack, but I have a sort of Pottery Barn Hack.  A Pottery Barn Kids Hack to be exact.  I bought these baskets a while back that fit perfectly under this old school bench in our entryway.  In the winter I used it to store the kids mittens, hats and scarves.  It has worked very well.  Now I'm putting sun hats and sun glasses in preparation for summer. {Which we are still waiting for}.

I had always wanted to label these with the kids names and had in mind little chalkboards.  At the time, I couldn't find any at Hobby Lobby or JoAnns, though I did recently see some at JoAnns.  I saw some sold on Etsy made of the chalkboard fabric, but they were a bit expensive and I couldn't bring myself to buy something for that much that I could make.  But I also didn't want to buy all the fabric and make them.  Like the logic?  So then I found these little chalkboard basket label tags at PBK.  They came with either pink or light green gingham ribbon.  Neither work in the main part of our house.

So I knew I would change out the ribbon, but to what, I did not yet know.  Then last week I got the redletterwords artwork that I ordered and it was wrapped with some thick twine.  I eventually threw it away.  Later it came to mind as the perfect replacement for the ribbon.  So I actually went through the trash to find it.  I then washed it, just to be safe and let it dry overnight {it didn't really look gross or anything}.

I rethreaded the tags with the twine and secured each one to a basket. 

I'm very happy with the way they turned out, I think the twine was the Perfect material for this.  Makes me wonder what else one could do with twine for decorating.  And actually now I have an idea of how to use it to tie up some of my new store items.

I've been sewing like mad to finish up my goal list of things to get sewn before the Farmer's Market and they market is still a week and a half away!  Should give me time to figure out my table setup.  Plus I have to work on the wedding projects.

Ella's Last Day of Preschool EVER

All bundled up on JUNE 3 for her last day as a pre-schooler.

Tried to get both of them to pose nicely.  Ha! Many more attempts were made than shown here. 

Eventually I gave up!