Strawberry Shortcake

So for Halloween this year, Ava wanted to be Strawberry Shortcake (pretty funny to me since I loved SS as a child growing up in the 80's but apparently she has made a comeback).  I looked around online but could only either find frilly & country versions of the old Strawberry Shortcake or hideous satiny versions of the new Strawberry Shortcake.  And they were all expensive! 

So I did what I do these days...I decided to make her a dress myself.  Of course what I originally envisioned is not what I actually made but that's because 1) Ava really wanted Strawberry Shortcake fabric she saw at the store and 2) when you don't use a pattern, things don't always turn out quite like you want(i.e. it's not as bubbly as I imagined and it a bit shorter than I wanted --good thing there are tights!).  We went with the newer version of Strawberry since that fabric Ava chose was of her instead of Straberry circa 1980.

Anyways, Ava loves the final version (she actually hugged it to her chest and kissed it when I gave it to her) so that is all that matters.  I decided to make a bubble dress that she could actually wear more than just on Halloween, bought her a really cute strawberry crochet newsboy hat off Etsy & some green striped tights.  On Halloween I promised her we would spray her hair so it would be pink/red so she will really look like SS then.

Here is Ava modeling her new costume (which I can now not get off of her!)

 "I love my dress!"

P.S. Someone is excited.  Something tells me she may wear this a few times before Halloween!

Rosemary's Baby Gifts

This past weekend I headed down to Houston to throw my best friend Rosemary what I like to call a "non-shower" baby shower.  Basically, me & another friend of hers took her to lunch and spent a day shopping and having fun instead of having an actual shower.  We did bring gifts and I did want it to feel kind of like a  real baby shower so I made a diaper cake in addition to putting together a little gift basket.

 Close up of her gift basket which includes blankets, towels, washcloths, stuffed lamb, handmade onesies & burp cloths and a handmade dress.

My version of Dana's Warhol dress.  Since Rosemary is from Lewiston, ID, I decided to make her daughter a special little Idaho dress out of some old t-shirts we had saved.

And a close up of the diaper cake.  My friend Michelle made an awesome diaper cake for one of her friends and passed along this online tutorial to show me how it was done.  It really was SUPER easy and I highly recommend making one this way as opposed to the ones I've seen that use rubberbands.  It took around 15 minutes!

I was going to post all these photos last week since everything was done but thought that Rosemary might check out my blog and see them.  Sure enough she told me this weekend she was looking at my blog to see what I might have made her...sneaky girl!

Another Book

Sorry it's been awhile since I have posted anything.  I've actually not been doing too much crafty lately since I was sick for awhile.  But that is going to change as I have some projects coming up in the next few weeks including some baby shower stuff and a Halloween costume for Ava.

I did make another book a few weeks back for my brother-in-law's 40th birthday.  He loved the book I did for my niece Griffin last year at Xmas and said that he would love to have one.  Right then and there, I decided that I would make him one for his milestone birthday.  Of course I did not make it until days before but the end result turned out great and he, my sister and their kids loved it! 

Here are most of the pages (Please excuse poor photos...I was sick while taking these and did not have the patience to get the photos just right.)

Cover

 And inside!

Too bad the laminating causes such a glare.  But definitely needed to be laminated since small children look at it!

Baby Gift

One of my friends, who I have known since 1st grade, just had a baby boy this past weekend. So my mom and I sewed up some stuff to send her way.

Here is the whole set laid out: a baby quilt (sewn by mom), a tote bag (also mom), and 3 onesies a burp cloths (me!).
My friend and her husband are into animals so I decided to do all animal onesies this time around. My go to onesie for boys (and one of my faves anyways), the whale:

A zebra (this one does not actually match the quilt fabrics but I included it b/c the baby's room has zebra stripes on the wall and I just happened to have some fabric left over from the chest I refinished awhile back & from the dress I added fabric too--this is now one of my favorites):

And a duck (because my friend's husband gave her a pet duck years ago!):

And here is the beautiful quilt my mom sewed. I still need to attempt to do a quilt sometime soon but just have not found the time yet. I love that my mom uses a pre-quilted solid fabric for the back and just sews it together like a regular blanket. Much faster than doing the actually quilting and it looks great too!

This is on it's way so I hope she ends up liking it!

I Can't Stop!

Yep, you guessed it. I made yet another tank dress today. This time I chopped off the skirt part of this dress...

and attached it to a black tank top. I really did not wear this dress much before because I always found the top to be a bit awkward. Maybe because I wore it right after I had Ava and filled it out more. Or maybe because it was low cut and not good for everyday wear especially around my 3 year old. So since I bought it 3 years ago for my HS reunion, I decided it was worth it to cut it up and recyle it into my favorite style of dress.

Here is the after photos...I am dork. Did not like any of the photos I took (although I never really do) so thought I would give you all 4 dorky self portraits of me in the after version.

Still think I prefer the ones where you don't see my face. Ha!

Birds on a Wire Painting

This weekend I finished up another painting for Ava's room. You remember the big blank wall space above her bed (here)? Well this "Birds on a Wire" mixed media painting is going there.

I used fabric, doilies, telephone book pages, paint, charcoal, and glue to make this. Here are some close ups of some of the birds.

And here it is in the room (right next to my big Pinkalicious painting -- notice how the colors coordinate? I love that you can do crazy bold colors in kid's rooms).

I thought I was done with her room (and I pretty much am) but have decided to fix some shadow boxes she has on the wall to make the more colorful and to add something to the entryway as it is a little dull too. But it is coming along!

Tank Dress

Once again, I decided to recycle some of my clothes. This time an Old Navy tank top that was WAY too long and kind of boxy and an ill fitting strapless dress from Target. I loved the dress last year but after wearing it a few times the chest part got stretched on one side and was a bit off.

So, I cut off the top of the dress (but kept a few rows of the shirring) and cut off most of the shirt to make this cute little empire waisted tank dress. I love it! These are my favorite pieces of clothing this year (if you can't tell) and I am so glad it is so easy to make them...especially when you are using 2 old pieces of clothing. Very little sewing my friends!

I also think next time I make a dress and have to make the skirt part myself, I will opt to do rows of shirring at the top as it looks better than elastic, is more comfortable and gives it just the right amount of stretch there. The only way this dress could be better is if I had taken the time to take the skirt apart and put pockets in. But I did not want to bother with that since it was already sewn. I'm lazy, what can I say. But I do love me some pockets.

PS. Sorry for the lame photos but no one is around to take my photo so my bedroom mirror & bad lighting will have to do!