Bryant Family {Cincinnati Family Photography}

One of my absolute favorite families in the world!  

truck party

I am trying to be better at documenting......I haven't posted much on here in the last nine months.  Not because I haven't had projects going, but because I haven't been able to take the extra step of documenting.  But I am vowing to do better because it will be fun to have a visual history someday of all these little things.  What I wouldn't give for photos and thoughts from all my mom's projects from when I was growing up.  I can't count how many quilts, articles of clothing, pot holders, etc..  that she has done over the years.  And since my love of sewing/creating comes from her, it would be fun to see those things again.  

My little guy turned three last week and naturally we had to have a truck party!  He loves all things transportation but really favors garbage trucks.  Since we own just about every garbage truck on the market, we did a little combo party to branch out a bit.

Here is the invite:

I love the simple look and it was very easy.  I just used some clip art I found on etsy and played around with some different fonts.  I had them printed as 5x7s at Costco for around $3.  Easy!

 I didn't get any good pictures of the little guy, he hasn't been the most agreeable child since turning three and spent the night hitting his cousins with sticks and pouring lemonade on their dresses.  Just a precursor for the year to come, I'm afraid.

 We had a simple dinner....a must when there are 8 adults and 13 kids running amok.  The kids played outside and then came in for treats.  My friend gave me the idea of making a "dump" cake and the kids thought it was great.

 I found this dump truck at Target in their sand toy section, cleaned out the back really well, and then loaded in the "dirt".  It is just pieces of chocolate cake on the botom, a layer of chocolate pudding, and then oreo crumbs on top.  And, some gummy worms to add to the effect.

 After treats, we had fun playing Just Dance 2 on the Wii........not really part of the theme but good entertainment nonetheless.  I am not the best at planning party games and luckily it was a family party so no pressure!  These little dump trucks were sent home as party favors (also in the Target sand toy aisle).

Whew!  And, now I don't have to plan any birthdays until July.......

::little white dress::

I am guessing everyone out there has already discovered the delightful emersonmade website.  I could (and have), spent a whole lot of time looking at each and every beautiful photo.  I love her style and simple, clean look.  I truly wish I could afford to buy a flower in every color and style but alas, I had to figure out a way to do it myself.  I cut out a bunch of templates and then bought a rainbow's worth of fabric to test things out.  Along the way, a friend asked me to help with her daughter's baptism dress......I am pretty sure I steered the design selfishly so that I could try these out!  We went with a simple silk-shantung dress with a little cluster of fabric flowers at the shoulder.

This was such a fun project for me to do.  And, for a beautiful little girl on a special day.  

Now, to build up the courage to wear one myself!

summer "sewing"

I usually tend to put a big hold on most creative endeavors over the summer.  There is just simply not enough time to keep four kids entertained and fed, the house clean (I am using that word very liberally), laundry done,  and surviving our busy sports schedule.  

I occasionally do make a few exceptions.

In this case, I was handed 20+ baseball jerseys with a pile of patches by my extremely generous husband.  By generous, I mean that he is "generous" with my time and talents, ha!  I am usually copied in on all the team emails he sends out but I must have mistakenly been left off the one where he told everyone to bring their jerseys to the next practice so that I could sew on the patches before our World Series.  Not that I minded, it just added to the hilarity of my to-do list on the day before we left for Puerto Rico, where the team was playing.  

 Funny, it actually felt good to sit down at the machine, after I managed to find it under the piles of fabric and other such nonsense that had piled up over the last few months.

And, even though it really didn't put my skills or brain to much work, I enjoyed the process of centering, pinning, and backstitching my way around each patch.  Such a nerd, I know.

My little guy even kept me company throughout the process.   

 So, there you have it......the extent of my sewing this summer.  Although, I just stumbled upon a new project that caught my eye, and my sister asked me to help with flower girl dresses for her upcoming wedding.  I can't wait!  More details to come....after school starts, of course.

For the teachers

One of these years, I am determined to have all my kids' teacher gifts ready before the last day of school.  This year school got out a week earlier than usual so it was a bit hectic trying to fit in all the end of year parties, field days, and presentations.  By the time all that was done, it was the last day and I was caught yet again empty-handed and unprepared.  Lucky for me, I have a good friend and neighbor who is always on top of things like this.  She sent me a great link to a blog named eighteen25.  I know there are a lot of great sites out there with good ideas but I love that they offer printables so that I can pass them off as my own......it is something I seem to excel at.  I mean, why try to come up with something original when someone else has already gone to the work of doing it and sharing it with the world??

Here are the ones I ended up using:

I bought the glass jars at Wal-Mart and then just printed out the labels and used glue dots to secure them.

 I filled up these colorful bags and a few cellophane bags with wrapped gumballs/starburst for the peripherals........you know, the gym/art/music/library teachers, bus drivers, and other people who work with my kids.  

So thank you ladies at eighteen25....you saved all our teachers from getting gift cards without anything pretty to go with them!  I am sure I will be stopping by more often to "borrow" some more of their good ideas!

Catching up......

This is the time of year that I really don't have much time for creativity........

I am putting in some serious hours at the baseball/soccer fields.  Of course, when

you spend a lot of time at practices and games, you also spend a lot of time 

hanging out with Mr. Clorox and Mrs. Tide.  So, between laundry, sports,

and school getting out......my sewing "corner" is a dusty neglected place.  

I knew that if I didn't post something soon, it would get easier and easier to keep putting it off.  

So, in lieu of any recent projects, I am catching up on a few that I meant to

blog about and never got around to it.  

Some friends of ours hosted a fun evening at their home last fall and

gave "serious" food assignments to all who were invited.  Serious, as in....

it better be good, or don't bother:)  I was assigned to help with dessert and

really, is there such a thing as just dessert anymore?  I mean, these days

desserts are far more suited to their own table with coordinating decor

and multiple choices for all the guests.  

I didn't get any good pictures but I wanted to share a few that were taken by

our host and some from my phone.  We had a great time putting it all together and 

it really wasn't all that much work.  

We went with a brown, orange, and white theme.  I covered a piece of plywood with 

some orange/white Amy Butler polka dot fabric and then just used a piece of

brown cotton for the main table cover and then folded up an orange matelasse fabric

for some contrast in the middle.  

The treats were all quite simple, the colors and white dishes just tied everything together.

If you haven't tried making cake pops yet, I recommend doing them this

way on the first go around.  It was much easier and left a lot of room

for error.

Again, I apologize for the poor picture quality.  I completely forgot

to bring my camera!

I am not sure if this counts as a true crafty project but it was a lot

of fun and a change from the norm for me.

{The white cake stands are Martha Stewart from Macy's and the

other pieces are from Southern Living at Home.}

St. Paddy's Day fun

I am usually pretty practical with the sewing projects I take on.

But, this year, when my daughter came to me with the idea of making green outfits for

St. Patrick's Day......I must have had a sudden brain lapse.  She had it all planned out

in her head and even found some shamrock fabric that I bought a couple of years ago.  

So, I thought it would be a fun project to do since it was her idea

and I knew she would be excited about it.

I used a Sandi Henderson pattern for the ruffle pants (which I highly recommend).  

I have several of her patterns and find them to be very well put together with

easy-to-understand explanations and good illustrations.  Plus, one pattern

covers a wide range of sizes, from infant to 8 years old.

My younger daughter wanted a skirt and I didn't feel like using a pattern so I came up with this 

based on simple Gymboree skirt I saw last fall.  I just kept the fabric folded in half like it 

comes from the store and cut the length I wanted for her.  Then I cut along the fold so I had

two rectangles, each around 22 inches wide.  I sewed the sides together, 

then just rounded off the bottom edges, 

gathered a strip that was twice the width of the skirt, and sewed it onto the bottom edge.  

For the waist, I folded over the top, pressed, and sewed a basic casing for elastic,

and voila!  Easy skirt in around 30 minutes.  (Good thing when using shamrock fabric!)

For their shirts, they wanted something fancy appliqued but I knew they wouldn't wear

them again so I just made some simple fabric flower pins from a tutorial

on katiedid.  For their hair, I had run out of fabric and had lots of

felt leftover from the playhouse I did a couple of months ago. 

I cut out two shamrocks for each girl and sewed each pair together

with wide stitches of embroidery thread and then glued an

alligator clip to the bottom.  Easy and different than their usual

hair ribbons.  

I had fun with this project and it seems my girls will be

celebrating this holiday all year long!