Giving A Little Bit Of Myself

I love this picture.  I made all of us matching Christmas pajamas this year.  I have always wanted to.  Partly because of this of my Dad, grandparents and aunts - (our pajamas aren't quite as epic.)

In part I also wanted to make pajamas because my mom and both grandmothers sewed a lot in the past and there seems to be something about making clothes for someone that includes a little piece of your heart.  I'm a serious sentimentalist and I love the idea of putting a little piece of myself into our Christmas traditions this year.  I could have bought cheaper pajamas and they definitely would have been more perfectly made but I'm pretty proud of myself for making time to check this small item off my bucket list this year.  I know it won't mean as much to my kids and husband as it does to me but hopefully they feel the little bit of extra love.

Tonight when the girls were getting ready for bed, Red Fish was drawing at her new desk.  She set up a spot for New Fish and was even sharing all of her new art supplies.  She was very excited when she told me "This desk is just perfect. It's just big enough for [New Fish] to have half!" It melted my heart that "perfect" means big enough to share with her little sister. The best gifts we can give are the ones that share a little bit of ourselves. Watching these two sweet girls be sisters is one of the greatest joys of my life.

Disneyland Day 2- Minnie Mouse Day

Daddy's girl

 We spent today at California Adventure.  The girls wore homemade Minnie Mouse outfits and headbands.  I was pretty proud of them.  We went on every ride.  Red Fish went on Tower of Terror three times and loved it.  I guess we are raising a maniac.  Red Fish was pretty mad that she couldn't go on California Screamin' (a big roller-coaster) but she got to go on everything else.  New Fish loved the Little Mermaid Ride and all of the Bug's Life rides.  Red Fish and Two Fish waited in line for an hour to get on the newest ride in Cars Land, Radiator Springs Racers but she was able to ride it twice because of the switch pass.  We are already exhausted and our feet and legs hurt from all the walking.

Goofy- the girls were especially excited to meet him.

New Fish and Minnie Mouse

Red Fish and Minnie Mouse

Lightning McQueen

Buzz Lightyear

Flick from A Bug's Life

Red Fish on Radiator Springs Racers

New Outfits

The holiday clothing is out of control around here.

This year, I decided to sew matching Christmas outfits for our kids with two of my sisters in law. The kids are all going to wear them on Christmas eve. This was my first attempt at sewing clothing from scratch.  Next time I come up with a brilliant project like this and I am already so short on time, someone needs to remind me of two things.  1- The project is going to take about 10 times longer than I think it will.  2- I don't actually know how to sew.  I love the way they turned out and I think they look very cute but next time I won't sew something this ambitious (remember I don't know how to sew) in December.  I tried to use an online tutorial but turned out the tutorial didn't actually produce a skirt so I had to wing it from there.  After I gave up on the tutorial things went much more smoothly.  Maybe at some point I will attempt to make something from a pattern.  I'm happy these aren't too over the top Christmas themed because I can change the shirt and have them continue to wear them well after Christmas.

The Reveal

 Before

New Curtains I made last week to replace the ratty nasty old ones that had dog claw marks and stains.  They are better looking than this picture shows.  Notice the new floor.

We bought this pre-flood.  It has been sitting the garage waiting to be put together since our house was a wreck.

So the house is coming along.  We finally finished all of the big renovations and now I must try to somehow get myself to move everything back where it goes and try and make it a house again.  So here is the only part that is totally finished.  The entry way.  Notice that it had blond floors before and you can kind of see the old carpet vs. the new darker carpet.  I still need to hang something above the sideboard that won't cover my alarm system.  I also want to put books on the bottom but will need bookends and I don't shop that often, so it may take awhile.

Sometimes It's Important to Just Say Yes

Red Fish is an imaginative kid.  She frequently pretends to be an animal and lately her animal of choice has been a unicorn.  Today she brought me a stack of felt and begged me to make her into a unicorn with a purple horn, purple ears and red hooves.  Sometimes it's important to just say yes.  The costume won't be winning any sewing competitions but Red Fish loves it.  She helped me with every stitch and only poked me with the needle twice.


Colored Felt 9 x 12  - 50 Sheets

Done

I swore I would make these curtains this year and I just barely made it. Horray!

Also - just because it's funny. Tonight Red Fish didn't want to go to bed because she knew Two Fish was going outside to shovel snow and she wanted to help. After she had a long tantrum, I got in bed with her and we had a tearful little conversation. I was trying to comfort her and told her she could go in the snow tomorrow and this is what she told me. "But I need help my Daddy! He need me because he will fall in snow and there be snow in his eyes! His eyes dirty! He need [Red Fish] clean his eyeballs! I need help him!" This was very serious. She was very worried about her Daddy and his eyeballs. She cracks me up.

Kitchen Curtains

I had a goal to get the kitchen and family room curtains done before Halloween but I don't think I am going to get the others done in time. I'm happy with how these ones turned out though.

Upcycle

I'm really starting to crack myself up because I used to be such a sewing/crafting snob. I frowned upon it and considered myself a "real artist." Now I can't stop. I'm totally a closet crafter. Yes, I still do a ton of graphic design but I don't feel like blogging about that much. I wish I could make time to paint and sculpt but for now I feel like that part of me is dedicated to my kids right now.

I love clothes and would love to have a new wardrobe for every season. I'm also a cheapskate and could never justify the cost even if I could afford it. A few months ago, my husband and I were walking through Anthropologie. I loved everything. But it got me thinking about how maybe I could alter some clothing and make it look Anthropologized. I may still be pretty off the mark but I decided to try anyway. I like one of a kind things anyway. So I went through my closet and made a stack of worn out, seldom worn or slightly boring clothes. Here is my first attempt at making them exciting for me again. This was a simple sweater before that I liked but haven't worn a lot. I took a maternity shirt that was worn out and cut it up to make ruffles and flowers.

I know it looks especially fab over my jammies.

I'm more than slightly obsessed with making fabric flowers right now. It's getting ridiculous. I've made 25 this week. Most of them were simple ones from felt that I'm making into Christmas gifts.

My Room

So here is my room a little more put together. I painted the walls (although it didn't work out quite as intended) before we moved in. The bed spread was a gift for Christmas two years ago. The lamps were bought on clearance from Home Depot a few weeks ago and inspired me to finish the curtains out of a bolt of material I had bought six months ago. The pictures were bought out of some dude's van. Thanks to my husband for helping me hang everything up. Good thing those lamps were on clearance or my room may never have been somewhat put together.

Hang Ups- Summer Projects 2

For some reason, when it comes to decorating my home, I move in slow motion. Things do not seem to come together very fast even though I wish otherwise. Some of this is a good thing because almost everything I have bought has been at thrift stores (horray for spray paint) or 50% clearance or a gift. A few things were bought out of some random people's cars or garage sales. I don't shop very often anymore so the deals have been further and further apart. Then I leave things in my basement waiting for me to finish them. I've decided to try and make my house look a little more put together so I've been cleaning things out and trying to decorate.

Two Fish hung up a ton of pictures etc. for me over the weekend. There are only a few things here that have even been purchased in the last couple months. Almost everything is 6months-2 years old and I've just barely gotten around to decorating with it. Isn't that sad?

I've been wanting to find someplace to put just fun things I pick up on trips etc. so I've decided to start putting them around the top of my kitchen cabinets. So far, I have a few pieces of blown glass (I love original artwork more than anything) and an antique gas can.I've had my nativity set out since Red Fish was born. Two Fish gave it to me to celebrate us becoming parents. The big blue pot in the background is new. I bought it at an artist co-op. The stuff in the pot is random stuff picked up on clearance at Hobby Lobby. The painting was bought out of the back of some guy's car. (Scary I know, but don't worry. My brothers were with me.)Two painting in the dinning room from the guy's car.

These are my new message boards in the kitchen. I bought the frames at a thrift store, spray painted them and put chicken wire in them for clipping things to. I think I want to make one for the girl's bathroom to keep all of their hair bows on.

These are curtains I made for our bedroom. I bought all the curtain rods at a closeout sale 2 years ago and I've had the fabric for 8 months. I finally got around to putting them up. My favorite part is the ties with the puff balls on them. I should have pictures of my whole bedroom as soon as I finish it up this week.

I made matching curtains for my bathroom. Two Fish hung up the candle holder on the wall. I'm so excited that I've actually made a little progress decorating. It's pathetic I had most of this sitting in the basement.

Summer Projects

Random flowers made from chiffon, ribons, zippers, felt, wool, buttons and beads. I have made more than this but I couldn't fit them in the picture. This has some of the different types I've been making. The red, gray and black one is my favorite. I'm definitely getting better at making these. It has swarovksy crystals (found on clearance for 50 cents) glued on the flowers.
These are for the wedding tomorrow. M.E.'s colors are coral, green and peach. One of these is for my hair and the rest are for the girls.

I haven't been saying much on the blog about the projects I've been working on this summer. Some of the projects have been to preserve my sanity. I've very suddenly become a crafter because creating fun things for no reason has become my new therapy. It's nice to make something that doesn't need to please anyone but myself. It's soothing when I'm stressed or pulled in a thousand directions at once. Since I am totally obsessed with hair accessories it has been especially fun to figure out that I can, in fact, make them myself. It is WAY too much fun.

Some of my other projects have been those grown up things that we all have to do at some point. The biggest project of the summer has been our backyard. We put in flower beds, a drip system, curbing, bark chips, trees and a ton of plants. The rest of the flower beds will be empty until next summer but I'm pretty excited about the way things are looking. I really wish I had a before picture of what all the weeds on the rocks looked like. It was ugly. The best part is I can check this off my goal list for the year. Woohoo. I love to check off things, especially big goals.

Catch Up

Life's been crazy around here. I've been working a lot of extra design projects and we've been out and about a lot. We've had swimming lessons, picnics, concerts, and Toy Story 3 (which I LOVED LOVED LOVED.) We've also had some sick kids. It's beginning to all make me feel a little insane.

All dressed to go to cousin E's violin concert. They were very excited when E came out on stage.

New Fish's first drawing.

Red Fish doing her daily artwork. She's very into colored pencils and paint right now. The pots of watercolor aren't nearly as satisfying to work with as liquid watercolors but sometimes I just can't handle the mess.

A tutu I've been working on for Red Fish's next pictures. I'm very excited about it. It is pretty wild. She isn't allowed to see it or try it on until she has her picture taken in it because I'm pretty sure it is going to become a favorite item of clothing.

Projects

Pretty much everyone who knows me, knows of my love for fish net tights and fancy hair accessories. I'm also a cheapskate because I refuse to spend very much money on these things. I've always been completely intimidated by the idea of making my own hair accessories because I am generally not very good with crafts (too much burning my fingers with the hot glue gun.) This morning, sil A, and Lovely N came over for a craft party. For me, it was some serious craft therapy.
I made 19 hair accessories, have three more almost done, and fixed three I had already. It's official. I'm totally totally addicted. I want to make hair accessories all day long. My favorite tutorials I used today are:

Click here for tutorial

click here for tutorial

Red Fish has been doing a lot of watercolor projects lately. More splatter paintings and some resists using crayon and rubber cement.