Another Chance to Win Some Goodies!

Hi, guys!

     My friend, Hayley over at Welcome to the Mouse House is hosting a giveaway that we're a part of!  You can win a pair of Raspberry Swirl Snail earrings (like those pictured below) that were made by yours truly, as well as have the chance to win a lot of other great prizes.  Be sure to stop in and check it out!

     Don't you just love free stuff?  :)

Maxi Dress and Baby Birds!

     I first heard about the release of the Emmaline Dress pattern from Violette Field Threads when it was announced on their Facebook page.  I fell in love instantly and had to try it.  I ordered the fabric (same as in the pattern picture I saw, it was too pretty and I just had to have one like that for Scarlett) immediately and knocked it out this weekend.  The pattern was really easy to read and I can't wait to get started on some of the others that I picked up in the pattern bundle.

     I just had to get her dressed up and get some "action shots".  :)

Hamming it up.

Back of the dress.  (Checking out the chickens hiding in the zucchini.)



     Also, do you remember those eggs I posted a picture of in an earlier post?  They hatched!  We've got baby birds!  Three of the four eggs hatched.  They're so cute.

    

     With the baby birds hatching, the weather heating up (sometimes TOO hot), and the garden starting to produce baby zucchini... I can't help but get excited about the upcoming summer!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear Giveaway Winner Announced!

     A big "Congratulations" to Meredith M. for winning the "Brown Bear, Brown Bear Book and Burp Cloth Giveaway"!  An e-mail has been sent to you to get the shipping details.  :)

      I want to thank everyone who participated and stopped by the blog and Etsy store.  You guys are fantastic!

      Keep an eye on the blog.  With Spring in full-swing, we've had a lot of exciting stuff happening in the garden.  I've got another giveaway planned in the very near future to help celebrate it!

"Grouchy Ladybug" Burp Cloths and Spice Rack Button Organizer.

   I believe I have a button problem.  Whenever I see buttons on sale, something "pings" in my brain and I'm instantly drawn in.  My button collection has gotten completely out of control and while looking for some worthy buttons today, I decided to get it semi-organized... rather than just relying on a Rubbermaid tub of button chaos.

     Thankfully, this was a project that the kids were THRILLED to help me tackle.  Playing with buttons?  Sold.

    I've had this spice rack for years.  It's just been sitting empty forever because I knew that it would be used sometime, but I just kept overlooking it.  Not today!  I cleaned it up really nice and the kids and I were able to bring a semblance of order to my button box.  Still not completely done, but we're well on our way.   Perfect use for an old spice rack.

Spinning Spice Rack turned "Button Organizer"

    Also, my husband was a huge help yesterday and took the kids for a few hours while I had a big of time to myself.  I was able to finish off another set of burp cloths for the baby and now just have a few more left to go.  (Honestly, can you ever have enough burp cloths?  I don't think so, so I'm stocking up bigtime!)

    "Grouchy Ladybug" burp cloths.

     Don't you love it when you get uninterrupted sewing time?  :)

     Last, but not least, we had a big surprise this morning when I was watering my impatiens and discovered...

     I love little surprises that pop out of the blue like that.  I accidentally scared Mama bird away before I realized there was something else in my hanging planter while I was watering.  However, she came back right after I left.  The kids are thrilled and I can't wait to figure out what kind of birds they are and to see the babies when they hatch.  We had this happen last year at our other house and got to watch the baby birds hatch, grow, and eventually move on.  So excited to get to do it again! 

Freezer Paper Stenciling on Shirts

  My friend, Ashley, over at There is No Place Like Homemade has a great tutorial for using freezer paper stencils to paint on shirts.  I loved the way her Star Wars shirts turned out and wanted to give it a shot with shirts for my own kids.

    I think they turned out pretty decent!  Still have to heat-fix the paint in place, but this is how they looked this morning after peeling off the freezer paper stencil.

     Still have a little more work to do in order to finish them up, but I'd say that this was probably one of my favorite projects I've done recently!  Scarlett's birthday is coming up, so the Tinkerbell shirt will be for her party.  Going to hot-fix some rhinestones on there to "bling" it up for her.  Also, have to make one more shirt for Kai (aside from his ninja and dino shirt seen here), and two more for Cam (who got the Harry Potter shirt).  One quick word of advice.... when picking out a shirt, keep in mind that dark colors = a lot more coats of paint needed.  That Harry Potter shirt took about 5 coats of paint.  Also, the intricate wording of the Harry Potter shirt meant that I had to be super careful to make sure that every little crevice was not forgotten. 

     I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out the freezer paper stencils, which helped reduce cutting time and allowed me to get a lot of painting done in a short amount of time.  The Tinkerbell silhouette had to be completely reworked in the Silhoutte software and was probably my biggest holdup.  Even with the Tinkerbell issues, it was still a super-fun project and I highly recommend it!

"Brown Bear, Brown Bear" Book and Burp Cloth Set Giveaway!

********Contest Ended- Congratulations, Meredith!********


     Since I've been busy whipping up a bunch of baby stuff, I thought it would be fun to do a baby-themed giveaway!  At our house, the Eric Carle books are a huge hit and one of our favorites is "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?"

     The prizes for this giveaway are a "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" board book and a set of 3 burp cloths.  The burp cloths are made with 100% cotton fabric that is sewn onto Gerber pre-folded 3-ply birdseye cloth diapers.  The fabric embellishment extends down the middle of the cloth diaper, leaving white areas on either side for additional coverage for burpy babies.

Photo showing the embellished fabric-covered middle of the cloths.

    

       The giveaway starts today and ends midnight on the 23rd.  See, there actually are some good things that start on Friday the 13th.  ;)  Open to US and Canada.

Baby Blankets Galore!

     I've been working on a lot of baby stuff recently to get ready for the newest addition to our household.  Of course, after my last child, I had given all the baby stuff away thinking that we were done.  (Go figure.  Isn't that how it always goes?)  Been scrambling to catch up and wanted to start off with some baby blankets.

     The first one I made:

    This was in case the baby was a girl.  Used 100% cotton for the top part, and then a fuzzy material found in the "minky" aisle for the fluffy underside.  Also, my new labels came in!  Was so excited to have those arrive and couldn't wait to start attaching them to everything.  :)

    This was before I opted for an elective ultrasound to find out the sex of the baby.  That's when we found out that we were actually having a BOY!  Yay!  Another excuse to start whipping up different blankets.  I gave the fuzzy blanket to my daughter after she saw it folded and tucked away in my closet and started petting it like it was a fuzzy animal.  Looks pretty on her new toddler bed.  For once, she actually made her bed this morning.  (Knock me over with a feather!)

    Anyway, onward to the boy blankets:

     Both are lightweight blankets with 100% cotton top and soft flannel underside.  They were both super quick and easy projects and a great way to make the kids' naptime really productive.

    Finally, on my list of baby "done"s, is my first knitted project.  To those out there who knit on a regular basis, I salute you.  This was my first knitting project and seemed to take FOREVER.  Used two strands of yarn to knit with and it still took me four days to complete a single washcloth.  Still have two more to go.

     Currently working on knocking out a few more burp cloths.  Definitely in full-on "nesting" mode.

    Keep an eye on the blog, I've got a giveaway or two in the works.  Will be posting in the next week or so.