Classy Party Garland

A super classy garland for my sister-in-laws birthday. Hopefully she gets it in time. 

Made from thick glitter card stock from Joann's and my Silhouette machine. Inspiration is from Urban outfitters.

Mushroom Jars

Have you seen these jars with the animals glued to them? Here, here and here. I wanted to make these sooo bad. I had my friend save me some jars and right before painting them I realized (light bulb moment) that they would be soooo cute if they looked like mushrooms! With woodland creatures perched atop them. I'm a horrible spray painter (just a little too heavy handed and spazy) but they will do for now. I used my Shilouette machine to make the white circles out if vinyl. They turned out good except for my placement of them. Not so good around the edges ( I will be redoing the lid with the deer on it).

I sprayed the lids with a tan paint 1st only because I thought it was gray primer but when it came out it was tan. ooops. Then I did a couple of coats of the red. I used just regular spray paint (all purpose). Sealing it with a clear spray kept it from being tacky and gave it a nice sheen. I have not glued down the animals yet as I was trying to decided which woodland creatures I like the best.

Along with a serious love for fake mushrooms I have a thing for fake pretzels too! they are all over my Christmas tree and now they hang year-round in our kitchen. I found this giant one at a hobby-type store  here in town. I also found the ceramic spoon, fork and knife there.

Back in November my blog friend Venus posted about these adorably cool pin cushions she makes and I had to have one. She has them for sale in her etsy store along with really cute aprons!
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 On a side note...we are home for a very short time. Jon's mom passed away last Friday from the brain tumor she had. She passed 1 year and 2 months after being diagnosed. We have been celebrating her life by going to Disneyland (she had a thing for Mickie Mouse since her name is Mickie) and will be having a "celebration of her life" get together this weekend then we fly back to Germany. 

Ava's own post

I was thinking these photos of Ava should have their own post even though I like to post crafty stuff along with the kids stuff. But she is just so beautiful and I love these photos. I'm not necessarily tooting my own horn here. If she was ugly the photos wouldn't be awesome. Right? :) I don't know what I'm saying. 

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Ava constantly tells me she loves me out of the blue. In the waiting room, in the car, from the other room at home. All random out of the blue I love you's. She probably says it out of the blue 2-3 a day.

* Mary A asked on facebook about the yellow jacket. It's Crew Cuts and was Emily's but I don't think Emily ever wore it. 

Badminton Top

*fabrics used: blue lamb fabric is Woodland Trails by Sherri Berry Designs and Fly a Kite by October Afternoon both are Riley Blake

The Badminton top from Oliver + S. 

I have been anxiously awaiting this pattern!! I love all the detail of this top. Love it! I do not love that I misjudged the size. I made a 7 because well Emily is almost 7. But Emily is tiny. I mean tiiiinnnyyyyy and apparently I am new to making her things? Let me give you an example of how tiny she is. Her friend Cheyenne who just turned 7 is wearing size 8-9 and Emily is still in a 5-6. Cheyenne is 50" tall while Emily is 45". I don't know Cheyennes measurements but I do know Ava's: Emily and Ava who are 6 years and 4 years are the exact same size (23" for chest, waist and hips). EXACT measurements except for height (Ava is only 38" tall).and they are 2.5 years apart. Crazy! Either someone is chunky or someone is small.....

So I made the wrong size as you can see by the clip in the back and the arm holes are over powering her. I'm thinking I should have made a 5 but with the 7 length.

I found the pattern to be something I had to turn Grey's Anatomy off for as I could not read and make while watching t.v. It's just a lot going on to get all this detail. Next one will go faster and I'll be able to watch t.v. while doing it:) I did make a fabric tie for the front as opposed to using ribbon. I cut 2, 15" strips on the bias at 3/4" each strip. Fold RST, sewed a scant seam and turned. Oh and I almost forgot, Emily chose this fabric!! I would not have chosen it as this type of print can make a garment look home made but I think paired with denim it looses that. Now if I paired it with Capri's out of the same fabric with a big-ass ruffle at the hem, well then, it would SCREAM homemade! Right? Right!

Woodland Fabric Buckets

Four fabric buckets in a woodland theme. The Owl and Fox are made from looking at this persons stuff on pinterest and then I got to thinking about what else I could make to go with them. I have the bunny (also inspired by that etsy seller and one from Oliver + S) in the works but I have big dreams of making the following (some woodland, some not):

Panda, skunk, raccoon, mushroom, monkey and a bird.

I did a mock-up of them in my Silhouette software and they are cuuute! I really enjoyed trying to make up minimalist-looking animals.

The bucket pattern is from this seller. It's the same one I made this bucket from.

The frog is part linen and part Kona cotton and just might be my favorite.

The insides and back of the buckets with my labels.

And this is where they will live.

I had made a brown fox first but then remembered that foxes are more reddish and i wanted to make the stump that is also brown so I made another one.

Above is the Easter egg "hunt" from last weekend put on by Jon's Unit. Ava is trying to hold back her crying because a boy dropped an egg near her. She picked it up and put it in her basket but Jon made her give it back to him. So total meltdown and as you can see they barely found any eggs.

And here is yesterday's egg hunt in our backyard. I hid 40 eggs so they for sure would each fill their baskets. No crying here.