New Blouse – New Display

I obtained a pattern for a peasant type blouse for Ella a while back and recently decided I couldn’t live without Anna Maria Horner’s Fortune Fabric from her Good Folks collection. And so the two met and became this:

Since I have a picture of Ella in her new top at the library, I’ll take this time to Brag on her! Ella is quite the reader for a 5 year old. She is the best reader in her Kindergarten class, according to her teacher. The other night she read a book to me and I was astonished at the big words she was able to decipher with ease. She is now reading Because of Winn-Dixie, a children's novel by Kate DiCamillo. Yes… a novel. I read her this book last year. I am thrilled! Literacy opens such a world to people and reading is something that I enjoy immensely. Since I’m already bragging, I will also add that she loves math. She will make up problems adding several numbers together and then solve them. She has a much better memory than I, for which I am thankful. She is already memorizing addition facts and complex bible verses. And I am totally not pushing her on this, it is all her. I am just here to encourage and provide resources to quench her thirst for knowledge.

Finally, at the solicited suggestion of a friend, I redid my potholder display so as to have a neutral background. I used ModPodge to adhere some very affordable burlap.

Before:

After:

I do think it makes a difference and I am quite please with the resulting look. Now I’m off to make even more potholders. Have a great Wednesday and remember to thank a Veteran!

Because I Love Him!

OH did I cringe every time we went to the fabric section at Hobby Lobby and Miles informed me that he wanted this fabric! I never really took him seriously. Well I never seriously thought of buying the fabric at least!

This last time he was more specific. After Ella mishearing that he wanted me to make him a skirt and me questioning him. He said "No A Shirt!"

And how could I say no?

I could not.

A couple yards of this fabulous fabric, some red thread, four checkered buttons, a McCall's 4164 pattern, throw in a bit of frustration here and there and the result is this.

Hope he loves it! {Think he does}.

Skirt and Yard Sale Finds

Remember that corduroy I was talking about from JoAnn's that is now 50% off? Now you can see just how CUTE it is! Yes I finished another easy skirt.

And YES Ella is reading up a storm and just improving by leaps and bounds thanks to all of her practicing! Which is why I felt a book was an appropriate prop for this photo shoot. I am so proud of her.

For this skirt I followed the directions for the ribbon trim at the bottom. It too was quite easy and I think the result is really pretty.

And finally I found some worthwhile items at yard sales to actually post about! This is not everything, but does fit into one of my favorite categories - home decorating!

So first is this great candle sconce that fits in perfect with our decor and will go great in the upstairs hallway next to a lonely painting. I swore I saw this in one of those direct sales catalogs. Upon research, I don't think it is Southern Living. But perhaps is from the Taste of Home Entertaining line.

Next is quite a simple item really, just a small hurricane. The color and the bubbled glass are perfect with our decor. Don't know where I'll use it yet, but I'm happy I got it.

I've got the lovely Lightening McQueen fabric in the washing machine for pre-shrinking. So be on the lookout for that lovely shirt coming up soon. Unless I botch up my first attempt to make a collared shirt...

Breaking the Silence

You may have noticed it has been a little quiet over here at Sunnypond Home lately. Today something happened which prompted me to blog again, besides easy family holiday photos and video. I written before about Quiltplay, the store where I entered my little creation into their unfortunate fat quart contest. They gave me a little brown bag with a fat quarter in it and my challenge was to make something pretty out of it. This is what I came up with. A fun pinwheel mobile.

The way the entries were judged was through "change wars." To vote for a project, you would add change to the corresponding ziploc bag and the bag with the most money would win. All money collected going to a local food pantry. The winner would get 12 free fat quarters.

Well today I got a call from Quiltplay informing me that I'd won! How exciting. I must say that picking out 12 fat quarters is a bit nerve-wracking. I don't have a project in mind currently for a bunch of fat quarters. But I'm sure I'll manage! And I plan to go tomorrow while BOTH kids are in school!

I finally got some shots of Ella in the shorts set I made for her out of the Wonderland fabric (which I purchase from Quiltplay) that I wrote about earlier:

I find the colors and patterns subdued but quite pretty. I love the tan and brown branch design, but the colorful flowers make it pop, just a little. Just what it needs.

The last few weeks I have been borrowing movies from the library and found myself really enjoying Jane Austen adaptations as well as my recent choice of "Jane Eyre," the Masterpiece Theatre version. I never read that book in school, but the movie was excellent and I may need to read the book next year.

I continue to read books about the bible and do bible studies. This year's reading is dedicated to just that to learn and review more about my faith and its background.

In the last two week I have also been making time to work out more. In fact in the past week and a half, I've worked out more than I had since Jan. 1, 2009 up until that point.

Today after working out, I headed over to garage sale, which happened to be an Estate Sale. It was very odd. It didn't seem like the home of empty nesters. There was stuff from all members of the family there and everything was for sale. I can't imagine what happened!? Plus this house was amazingly large, lush, rich, mansion-like... you name it. Lovely furniture, but too expensive and one piece would take up an entire room in our house! I ended up getting an alarm clock for Miles, two Barbies for Ella (they were both thrilled) and cute salt and pepper shakers for my mom. She likes chickens. She grew up on a farm that had them. Though she says she has enough, I just couldn't resist. Not my style for our house, but very cute anyway!

Exciting New Boy Stuff!

As you already know, if you've been reading for a while. I LOVE making clothes for my daughter from designer fabrics. I even bought a hand sewn dress recently made of fabrics from the Sugar Snap line by Melissa Averinos. Ella wore it today, but I failed to take a photo. It was so darling. Here are some photos from the Ebay listing by the creator
sugarplumsllc.

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OK, so that's not the boy stuff yet.

I recently ordered some fabric for making new towels and potholders. One of my strategies to lower costs is to purchase as much as I can from the same seller. So I was able to find a seller on Etsy who sold a lot of what I wanted. And really, in retrospect, I already have some modern birds and some chickens on yellow, so didn't really need the last fabric I wanted with more but different modern birds. Though I do love birds. I also wanted some special fabric for a special project for a special boy. So here is the fabulous packet of fabrics I ordered from Fabricworm. I tell you, I highly recomend this shop. She's on Etsy, but I found that she has an off Etsy store where you can be more exact ordering your cuts. The shipping was low, and speedy lightening quick. Also, just look at that neat bundle all tied up with twine. And I didn't even show the cute tag with the bookwo..., I mean fabricworm on it! I will definately be back to her shop.

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OK, OK where is the boy stuff right? Well it is right here!

A cute short and top outfit made from Keri Beyer Rocket Scientist Countdown Blue fabric.

This is a very new fabric line and I haven't seen anything sold on Etsy with it yet outside of a burp cloth.

I'm was/am very excited for a cute yet boyish fabric to make a custom outfit for my son. Isn't he a good model? He followed my instructions for posing very well!

And I must say I am so happy at how excited Miles was that I made this for him.

FYI these are meant to be a summer outfit, not pajamas. Though they'd work as pajamas I guess.

Here's the kicker. I'm fairly certain I have enough fabric to make an entire other pair of shorts in size 3/4 as well as a T-shirt applique. So, dear reader(s), do you want an outfit like this for your son? I know some of you have sons out there and have a hard time finding cute custom clothes. I can go smaller sizes too. I would just charge for the cost of materials and shipping. I think it would come out somewhere around $15 (including the T-shirt which is from Target). I would also probably suggest a black or white shirt. I don't know what I was thinking with the light blue. But if you like it, hey, that's fine too. The rocket doesn't show up really great there. If more than one person responds, I'll most likely go with a regular reader that I know. And if more than one regular reader responds, I'll go with the first regular reader commenter. I would prefer to make this for someone's son over a nephew or son of a friend or grandson, but we'll see.

My sewing machine saga continues. I got my old machine back from repair only to find that one thing I specified as broken and was promised would be fixed, was NOT. So I'll need to bring it back. As for my new one. I sent it back and I'm waiting for a replacement, rather impatiently I might add!

Books, Book and New Dress for Ella

Today we met Jason at the Chicago Botanic Garden for lunch, so enjoy a couple of flower photos I took....

For some reason, I'm having trouble putting together a synopsis of our vacation. I think it is because reviewing it will make it more real that it is over! I've really had a hard time coming back to everyday normal life. So for now I will just say we had an excellent excellent vacation. As I said to Jason, it seemed like real summer. Northern Michigan is a beautiful, wonderful place to visit in the summer. If you are interested in looking at lots of pics go here or for the best of go here.

Recently I've finished 3 books.

*The Posionwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver was good but hard to enjoy. It was written through the voices of 5 people, a woman and her 4 daughters. Personally, I have trouble keeping track of who's who, but that's just me. After many chapters I finally caught on. Also the book goes at different paces. At first it seems slow and a bit uneventful, then it gets quicker and very event filled, finally it skips ahead in time very quickly not once, but many times. I stilled learned quite a bit from it, so I would say it was worth reading.

*Next I read The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. This one I loved so much I don't want to give it away for someone to read, which is what I often like to do with books I've finished. It is set at the time of the Civil Rights Movement and is about a girl who runs away from an abusive father (actually more so to help a friend in trouble) and who had a mother who died when she was very young. Throughout, she struggles with whether her mother loved her and even if her father loves her. She finds a new family in an unusual but warm group of women/sisters and learns to mother herself.

*Finally I read The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus. Um, I couldn't put it down, and I'm a little embarrassed, it was a complete train wreck, kind of like a soap opera. What I liked about it the most was that it made me appreciate that we are not in a very high social class and what often comes with being in that class as far as priorities (which I believe are all out of whack). Apparently it was made into a movie and I didn't even know. Jason tells me he heard the movie was bad.

The second Book in the title refers to Facebook. I joined after Jason had been on for a while and was connecting with lots of old friends. I haven't kept in touch with a ton of old friends but through Facebook I have reconnected with some. Most recently, kind of by fluke, I found my college roomate. She has a new last name and I could barely see the tiny avatar type picture by her name: Katy "Different Last Name than her Maiden Name". I found her in a search of the college class I graduated from. So I sent her a message asking if her maiden name was that of my roomate's. Amazingly it was her! So I heard back from her this morning and she seemed happy to have connected. We were roomates for FOUR years, so we had some rough patches at times and senior year was probably the hardest. But we had a lot of good times in there too. And I've been looking for her off and on through the years.

Are you on Facebook? Have you met any long lost friends?

I made a VERY simple dress for Ella out of some fabric I LOVE. I wanted it to be straight and simple but when it was done I was a little worried it looked kinda Mu mu-ish. Jason tended to agree. BUT then when I was at the local Farmer's Market today with the kids a woman asked me if it was a particular designer (Zutano) and I was just beaming as I told her that I made it myself and she said it was beautiful. Well it was probably because of the fabric, but still. Maybe the style isn't too bad. She's just a little girl!

Love her cute catalog model poses!

One other thing... I have always wanted to plan a baby shower. I have cut ideas out of magazines, really cute ideas. I almost had the chance once, but then didn't. So now my mom is going to throw a shower for the kids of one of her friends down the street. She has asked for my help and I hope that I can be involved in some of the ideas. I just saw an idea for homemade invitations on a blog today and sent the URL to her to see what she thinks. I love them because they involve fabric, buttons and sewing on paper and the mother of the expectant couple is a seamstress. For a peak, go here and here. I may be sharing more of the ideas with you on the blog over time.

Oh and another thing. I picked up some artwork I had framed today and LOVE the outcome. I have had the most luck taking my art to JoAnn Superstore to get framed. Not so much at Michaels. I've also learned to think about what I'm looking for before I taking the art into the framing department. So yeah, I'll post a pic later.

Ahhhh, Much Better!

Doesn't this look better to you? I fixed it, it's done. Now on to other things.

And don't forget to enter the drawing tomorrow for my birthday giveaway!

I am Honored / Little Project

My friend Crystal was given one of my bags (one of my favs) for an early b-day present and posted it on her blog. I was also thinking of her (before she bought the bag) and how sweet of a bloggy and etsy friend she's been and made up a little pincushion for her. I saw a similar one in her etsy favorites and remembered a pattern I tore out of a quilting magazine. I'd been wanting to make one and had some extra Heather Bailey fabric scraps. I love how it turned out and even though I didn't sell it, I did remember to put my new tag on it. Go figure!

Speaking of which, my friend Lindsay in Austin got her package of the outfits I made for her girls. I'm hoping she'll post pics soon of her girls in them, but here are what they look like on my coffee table:

For Mallory

For Hadley

Sorry they are turned sideways, but hopefully you get the picture and hopefully I will get to post pictures of her girls in them when she posts on their blog.

Oh, and now you see where my leftover fabric came from for the pin cushion!

The Super Secret Project Revealed

Since I've started sewing again I don't think I've made anything for my mom, who makes us stuff all the time and who is mostly responsible for any sewing experience and early exposure I've had to the craft. She still gives me her old sewing books, magazines patterns and sometimes buys me fabric. She and my dad even bought me my current sewing machine early last year! So I decided for her birthday (which was last Sunday) I would make her something. Thus my super secret project. I gave it to her today. I think she likes it. She is bringing it to her sewing guild to show her friends.




I love the fabric! I found the pattern in the Spring 2007 Quilts and More magazine that my mom passed on to me. The pattern is called Apron Strings. Looks like there are a lot more neat things to make in this issue. Click on the link above to hopefully find a place to order a copy if you want one. The apron pattern is actually for a trio of different aprons. I made one other out of some left over Amy Butler fabric I had from a diaper bag that I made. I have no idea what to do with that apron and will post it after I figure that one out!

New Outfit for Ella. Think Summer!

Remember the patterns I bought off of EBay from Aimee of SewSensible? Well, I've just finished one outfit for my daughter. I also discovered that Aimee posted pics of the other outfit I made for a friend's daughter on her blog!

Here is our little model...




Can't wait for the weather to wear this! There is a little bit of slack in the elastic in case she grows! :-)

Cute Little Outfit

I bought two patterns from Aimee of SewSensible. She sells them on Ebay and you can find out where to find them through her blog. Here is my result using the dress top and boutique pants patterns. This cute little set is for Madeline of the previous post. It is a size 9 months so she will hopefully fit into it when the weather is warm!


In progress


Done! (minus the elastic which I will have her mom measure her for later)


Close-up of darling ruffle.

The Dress

Here is my Daughter Ella modeling the dress I have been working on excitedly over the past few days. Now who can mistake her for a boy! :-)





I basically used a Simplicity pattern and altered it to add the ruffles on the sleeves, collar and hem. Oh, and I added a sash. The design and color scheme were copied from a post on Heather Bailey's blog. Her mom made her daughter the original. The fabrics are designed by Heather. Once I saw it, I just HAD to try to make it! I don't think it turned out too bad. This is my first little girls dress.