crafties

 Here are a few photos of the craft bazaar I participated in this weekend at our local Arts Walk. It was a pretty good experience for my first, and I can definitely see myself doing it again sometime. I scheduled this one on pretty late notice, so I didn't have enough time to come up with some of the creations that have been floating around in my mind lately. Instead, I just stuck with some baby goods and a few hand printed cards.

I shared a table with my friend Kathleen, who makes jewelry. Isn't her display the cutest?? 

:)

my weekend in photos.

We had a GREAT weekend. Saturday was a beautifully sunny day and we spent nearly every hour of it outdoors. Sunday, however, was a cold and rainy mess which meant less egg hunting and more napping on the couch in front of Anne of Green Gables. It was perfect. I hope you had the kind of weekend that leads into a lovely Monday.

:)

wardrobe fix.

Sometime in the last few weeks I realized that unless I'm going to wear sweats to work, I'd better pull out my maternity wardrobe again. My little number 3 is sticking way out there already. The first thing I made, in hopes that I could stretch my current work wardrobe (get it?) a little further into my pregnancy was a belly band, using this tutorial. It worked pretty well, but turns out I just don't prefer layering on an extra piece of clothing. I wasn't confident enough that it would actually keep my pants up, and felt very self-conscious while wearing it. Good thing I didn't splurge a bunch of cash for a real one!

Hello 14wk belly!
(I'm sure my husband's recent baking spree has nothing to do with it)

Instead, I used this idea to sew a maternity panel into this pair of pinstriped slacks I've had for years and have never been able to zip. I basically just cut a tummy-shaped scoop out of the front of the pants. I put the pants on and used a crayon (like all the pro's do, right?) to draw where I thought I should cut. Then I sewed a double layer of stretchy knit fabric right into the pants. Ta-dah!!

 Here they are in action. I apologize for the next shot, I just wanted to show you how the panel actually fits.

Perfecto! Free maternity pants, since I already had everything I needed to "make" them in my closet. I was even able to throw them together in the morning before work and wear them the same day. (I use the term "morning" pretty loosely here. I don't actually go to work until 10:30)

:)

!

I know my blog posts have been few and far between for the last few weeks now, and there's a good explanation for that, besides this one. You see, aside from having all the technical difficulites, I've been a bit distracted with looking up things like this, and discovering patterns like this, and sewing things like this. If you took the time to click on all those links, I'm sure you've caught on to the obvious.

We found out about a week before my birthday that this little guy is going to be a big brother!! I think he'll be excited about it when he figures out what it all means. 

This girl, on the other hand, has it all figured out and could not be more thrilled about the new addition. 

As you can see, our house tiny house is going to be a VERY full house come this Fall, but we could not feel more blessed and excited about our growing family. 

:)

Here's a little preview of a project I've been working on this week for the bazaar this weekend. I screen printed these fabric panels by hand way back when I learned to screen print last Spring. These were just little drawings I made and thought there were funny for baby things because they all have nocturnal animals on them. If you're not busy Friday night, I hope you can make it downtown for the Olympia Arts Walk. That's where I'll be.

:)  

a little thing to sew.

This weekend, while I was busy sewing away at some projects for next weekend, I was able to fit in a fun little project for my girlie. I made the bucket hat from the book Little Things to Sew. 

 I fell in love with this book the first time I saw it, based on the photos alone. The projects are great, too. This is the first one I've made from the book, and it went together in a snap. Madee had fun picking out the fabric for the lining and loves that the hat is reversible so she can change her look. ;)

 I ended up making the size large (sz 7-9), which fits my taller-than-average 4 year old pretty well. I always feel like hat sizing is on the small side with most patterns in general--knit and crochet ones included, but that's probably just because we all have grande cabezas in this house.

 You can see here that my sewing isn't perfect, which is why I love sewing for my kids--they hardly notice that I can't sew straight! This project was pretty technical for me, which means I learned a lot. I like books like this though because while some of the projects are just above my skill level, I'm not too scared to try them since botching them wouldn't be a huge fabric loss.

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend!

:)

crochet hat.

I crocheted this super cute hat months ago, with the intention of making two more for three of my super cute nieces, but so far I've only made one and a half. The pattern is called Big Girl Bonnet, and it can be found on this blog. Or on ravelry. I used some plain cotton yarn from my mom's stash (thanks Mom!!), and I love how it turned out. It's an adult sized pattern, and fits my large head well. I'm thinking I'll need to make four more instead of just two, so that Mad and I can join in on the super-cuteness as well. ;)

If anyone would like to find me on ravelry, here is my project page.

Hope the weekend brings you all joy and relaxation! 

:)

hello again!

Wowza! It sure has been a while since I've posted on here, and there's a good explanation for that. Our poor net book recently bit the dust, and just as my husband pulled out his old desktop and got it all running again it also bit the dust. I think I mentioned before that I tend to have that unfortunate effect on technological devices. In the meantime, while we've been patiently waiting for a brand new(!!) computer to arrive, I decided to get busy at the sewing machine. I signed up for my very first craft bazaar, and might have bigger plans for it than I can actually handle. But only time will tell. I have almost two weeks left to sew, screen print, and embroider enough lovelies to fill a table.

:)