Weekly Pinterest Update

Here's the best of the best I've found this week on Pinterest!




I fell in love with a pin earlier in the week that suggested "carving" pumpkins with drills. This is one step better! No sharp knives around the toddler (who looooves power tools) and the paint makes them look pretty in the daytime too!



There's two things that caught my attention with this one. First, the color of the walls! Maybe a bit lighter, but it's very happy :) The second thing was the wire with the clippies. Currently there's a bulletin board in my craft room, but I love how simple it would be to change out inspirations.



Amiee Ray is one of my favorite artists. Check out her blog here. I have one of her little Noms (a little tiny gnome!) and several of her books on embroidery. Ever since my college days I've had a bit of a soft spot for gnomes. I'm not sure what I'll use this pattern for yet (maybe a tea towel?), but it definitely deserved to be filed away for later use!

Don't forget you can follow me on Pinterest at http://pinterest.com/ljz3535/pins/. I'm a bit of an addict, so there's usually new stuff to see!

Arrrrr Mateys!

Rowan has been getting really in to the whole pirate thing lately.  If you ask him what the pirate says, he responds, "Arrr Mateys!".  I think that's where the fascination with maps came from...

We took a family trip to the San Diego Safari Park a few weeks ago.  We've an annual pass, so we actually go pretty often.  It's great to get some walking in, see the animals, and just hang out as a family.

The place, although very beautiful, is really laid out strange.  Every time we visit we need to pick up a map.  Below is a picture that pretty much sums up what Rowan this whole trip.

He was OBSESSED with the map!  He'd very seriously study it and show us just where he wanted to go.  Then he'd look up, scan the area, point and say "This way!".  It was ridiculously adorable.  For about fifteen minutes.

It got me thinking, though.  Maybe he needed a play map a home.  Ooo!  I could make a pirate map out of felt!  Boy, did the wheels did turning.  I churned out a map by the end of the weekend!

I did a bunch of Google image research and came up with me pattern.  I think my favorite thing is the sea monster.  My second favorite is the skull cave :)  The whole thing is made of nice wool felt.  Not the cheap polyester, plastic, whatever the heck it is stuff from the dollar bin at Jo-Ann's.  Then I added some velcro so you can roll the whole thing up.  Just like a real pirate map!

Rowan has taken his to the park and on many walks already.  I love how seriously he looks at it, like he's really deciding just where we need to go.  

Since it's so cute, I thought it would make an awesome addition to my Etsy store!  So here's the first listing for one!  Come and get it!

& keep your eyes open...dino hooded towels will be coming!

Weekend Pinterest Update

Here's a few of my favorite pins that I found on Pinterest this week.  Enjoy!




This was perfect timing for finding this. I recently got a T-shrt from a car dealership that's way too big on me and would be perfect for a workout shirt with a little cutting :)



I seriously laughed out loud at this one! I actually have a wreath like this in black and purple. I could easily take off the current decor and monster-fy it!



How awesome is this!? Might need to incorporate this into the backyard next spring...

Remember, you can follow me and all my grand Pinterest adventures right here!

Revamping the Baby Room Pt 2

So you remember from a previous post that I've been "growing" up my little boy's room.  Out goes Winnie the Pooh and here come the tractors!

My parents came to visit last week and my mom decided to help things along a bit.  She gave me a little nudge to make a new valence for the window and some pillowcases for the little pillow on the bed.

The previous valence was celery green on top with a border of white with green polkadots on the bottom.  I didn't quite measure right (go figure) and the valence just went straight across, it didn't wrap around the the brackets.  Oops.  We originally wanted to use denim and a bandana print, but of course couldn't find it.  The next best thing we could find was a red and white check.  Turns out, it's perfect!

There's a basic white roller shade underneath with a scalloped edge.  I think it gives the window a little extra character.  I also love the ric-rac edging :)

When we converted Rowan's crib to a bed, I pulled out the little pillow I had used when I was his age.  Of course, it had a rather girly cover.  So this seemed to be a good opportunity to make a new one since I had extra fabric.  I even had enough to make two!

I think they're very farm and go with the tractor theme nicely :)  Rowan really couldn't care one way or the other, but I feel better now that his room is a little more matchy.  

My parents also helped do a few things in my craft room.  I've got a few more touches to do, and then I'll do a post on that!

But It's Too Cute NOT To Wear!

My darling little baby boy turned 2 in May and apparently is already having opinions on what to wear. This is exciting, but breaks my heart because I made something darn cute and, of course, he won't wear it!

 Last summer my mom bought Rowan this cute little white jacket from Carters to wear after swimming (naturally, I forgot to take a picture of it before I hacked it up). It was made of terry cloth, had a hood, and a little zipper that only went half way down (so you had to slip it over his head to get it on). It was an 18 month, so it was pretty big. This year it fit perfectly, once you got it on. Apparently his head is a bit big and pulling it on a squirming 2 year old was a nightmare.

 So I had this flash of brilliance! I'll take out the zipper, cut it down the front, and add buttons instead! After copious amounts of ripping out stitching that I could barely see and a quick cut job with the scissors, I had an unfinished, open jacket.

Seriously, the ripping out of the zipper was the toughest part of the whole project.  Carters sewed that sucker in there for good!  The next step was to serge those two raw edges, then turn them under a half inch and sew.  I also top stitched near the edge to make sure it laid nice and flat.

I rummaged through my horde of buttons (every seamstress needs a horde of buttons!) and just happened to find these 3 enormous orange buttons.  But how to close it?  Button holes seemed like a bad idea due to the ravel-ly nature of terry clothe and I really didn't want to lose any girth in the jacket.  My mom jumped in and suggested using bias tape to make loops.  So back to the closet I went and happened to find some bright teal bias tape that looked really striking with the orange buttons.  

Then bippity-boppity-boo, the jacket was done!

Of course, having developed compulsive-embroidery-syndrome, I then decided it needed a little something on the right shoulder.  Enter my favorite website for cheeky patterns, Urban Threads.  There was this awesome little pirate ducky that seemed only too appropriate for a swim cover-up.

Not sound too smug, but seriously, how cute did this thing turn out?  I finished it the night before Rowan had swim lessons and was all excited for him snuggle up in it when he was done.  

WRONG.  This jacket is like the plague or cooties him.  Every time I pull it out, he practically runs in the other direction.  Hence why there is no picture of him wearing it.  Sigh.  Good thing it didn't take 6 months to make!  Maybe I'll get him in it yet this summer....

Craft Room - Take 2

So my craft room drives me nuts.  It's really just a hodge podge of stuff and I've never really done much with it.  Mostly because eventually that room won't be mine forever.  Someday we might have another baby and then we'll have to play room shuffle, and if not, then eventually that will become Rowan's room.  With that in mind, I just haven't had the heart to put much effort into it.

However, the other day I finally had enough.  The closet in particular made me want to pull my hair out.

I decided to roll up my sleeves and tear in to that sucker.  First thing I did was pack up all the bellydance costumes on the bottom shelf.  Since I'm sort of in bellydance remission, they rarely get used and I could really stand the closet space.

Then I took everything out and sorted.  I even *gasp* threw some things away!  I was very proud of myself on that one :)

Next, I went to Wal-Mart and bought a few cheap fabric bins and a large jar.  Here's what I used the jar for:

Isn't it pretty all full of buttons?  The little jars from Ikea have sequins in them.  Seriously, these jars make me pretty happy.  I plan to get more of them :)

My next big project was my fabric stash.  Holy Moly Cow.  The pink and green bins in the top picture were just overflowing with fabric and there was more on the floor.  Big pieces, little scraps, cotton, denim, felt...

While procrastinating on Pinterest one day, I ran across this awesome tutorial on a blog called Smashed Peas and Carrots that shows you how to make mini fabric bolts to store your fabric.  Brilliant!  Now all my big pieces are wrapped on bolts and out where I can see them.  Currently they're horizontal because my shelves are wire and I'm waiting for my husband to cut a sheet of something to cover them.

I know it looks a little sloppy now, but once they're vertical I think it will really clean up nice.  And I adore how I can see at a glance just what I all have!  As for the little piece too small for bolts, I used the fabric bins to stow them.  I also decided not to wrap the felt on bolts.  I just chucked all of that into an empty plastic box with a lid for now.  

My goal was to cut down on all the random, loose, stuff floating around that closet.  Most everything (at least the little stuff) is corralled into either a jar or a basket.

Not perfect by a long shot, but at least I don't cringe or run screaming every time I open the door.  I have several more ideas I'd like to implement.  The next one is also a Pinterest inspiration.  I'd like to find a couple wood spice-rack shelf thingies to store all my little jars of sparkies and doodads.

Give me some time, and we'll see what happens!

It Only Took a Year...

Sooooo....around a year later, I  FINALLY  FINISHED  THE  STAR  WARS  QUIET  BOOK!!!!

Here's the cover in all it's glory!  I made it totally different than the directions said.  Instead of just 2 sheets of felt stuck together with grommets in them, I used black denim.  There's two long sheets of denim (that I did the appliqué on) that I sewed right sides together, then turned right side out and topstitched around the edges.

When I finished the pages, I put in the grommets and held them together with binder rings.  On the cover, I sewed a strip of black gross-grain ribbon down the middle, leaving gaps to insert the binder rings.  Then I just clipped in the rings!

Here's the last page that I never did show a picture of.  The End.  Finally!

On the inside of the back cover, I stitched in my initials and the year I finished it.  My grandmother used to do this on most of the things she finished.  That way some day when my great-grandkids are playing with this they'll know who made it.

Upon finishing this, there's definitely something I would do different next time.  I wouldn't make the pages out of felt.  I would do them out of muslin, like my gramma did in my old books.  I'm really nervous that the felt won't hold up well.  To help stave that off, I added interfacing in between the pages, but that makes them extra bulky.  I think muslin pages would make the whole book more compact (not to mention it would be cheaper!).  

& oh!  The wheels are turning for the next book already!  Stay tuned!  And maybe it won't take a whole year for the next one ;)