Too Sweets pattern pack giveaway!

***This giveaway is now closed. See the winner below!***

Hey! I've got a great giveaway for you today-and a great pattern shop to introduce you to, if you haven't heard of it already! It's called Too Sweets, and seriously...these patterns are lovely! I am in love with her fabric choices, too...all the little details and touches are fabulous! Check out some of my faves below. (lots more in her shop!)

                         the neverland dress                                                       the pockets are best dress

                     the roundabout blouse                                               the summer days tiered dress

                the layer cake tunic dress                                                    crocheted bow or bow tie



Now for the giveaway! They are giving away to one lucky reader, 5 patterns of your choice! (worth $25)

I know I'd have a hard time narrowing it down if I had to choose! ;)


How to enter:


1. Visit her shop, take a look around, then come back and leave a comment telling me some of your fav patterns!

2. "Like" them on Facebook. Leave a comment telling me you did so on this post.

Please leave your email address with one of your comments so I can contact you if you win!

The giveaway will run until Friday the 7th!

Good luck!

The winner is...Ashley!

Rainbow Dash costume

 Sadie is flat out obsessed with the My Little Pony show-she has all the characters in toy form (and some doubles), sleeps with them at night, acts out the plots of various episodes....and her favorite pony has always been Rainbow Dash. No wonder, I mean...she can fly and her mane and tail are the colors of the rainbow! So when I asked her what she wanted to be for Halloween this year there really was only one option in her little 4 year old mind.

I am really excited about how it turned out! I especially had fun collecting all the yarn colors-Michaels has the best colors vs Joann and was cheaper too...FYI.

It's a simple hoodie and pants combo-nice and cozy warm for Halloween night. Ya know cause it gets so cold here in Cali.  ;)

(Well...sometimes it can.)



She's gotta have her wings!

I tried to get the yarn to flop over the front like in the cartoon, but Sadie wasn't a fan of it in being in her face.

I'm really proud of that cutie mark! Sadie's jaw dropped when she saw it, so that's a good sign. I think she'll probably want to wear these as normal pants after Halloween. ;)

I took pictures for a tutorial, so expect that up sometime soon!

Update: here are the links!

My Little Pony Hoodie tutorial

My Little Pony Pants tutorial

Next up is Applejack for Charlotte! That's her favorite pony. If you're wondering what Rory and I are going to wear...we're gonna be a little lame and wear MLP tee shirts this year. I thought adult sized my little ponies would be a little weird. (no offense if that's your costume ;)

Next year when I'm not the size of a beluga whale I'll get back to our family themed costumes! As long as the kids will agree....

wood & wire display frame

I've been working on this little wire frame for the nursery off and on for like a month-it turned into one of those projects, ya know? Every little step turned into an ordeal...ok maybe not that bad, and maybe it really was my pregnant back aches from leaning over to paint it...haha! Either way it turned out just how I imagined so all's well that ends well. Hey-you can see the scalloped garland I made overhead!

My dad helped me make the frames from some 1x3" wood (two frames of the same size-I stacked them) and then I painted and distressed them with the help off good ol Vaseline. (Tip found here.) Then I painted and cut the chicken wire (found at my local hardware store by the foot) to fit, and stapled it to the front of one of the frames. Then Rory helped me (ok he did all of this part) screw the frames together from the back. I attached some metal hangers on the back and hung it up! Which was really the hard part, right? I think the total for this project was about $40 (including the earring clips)

I did a little teaser photo on Instagram of these vintage clip on earrings I snagged off of Etsy-asking what people thought I would do with them...so here's the answer! I used them to clip up photos and cards, etc!  (sidenote: look how little Sadie was when Charlotte was born! awww)

 I thought it was quite astonishing that my poor little pregnant brain thought to do that.

Thanks to my pal Kristin for this awesome card! The colors were perfect and I love the big YEAH! hehe



I also made some fun printables to match the nursery scheme-and I was going to have them for you to download but I cannot, for the life of me, find where I stashed them on my computer. I'm afraid I might have deleted them. Grr...I'm going to go with the pregnancy brain excuse again. ;)

Update: I found them! Hooray! Download them here.

the sweet & sassy dress: a tutorial

This dress pretty much named itself because Miss Sadie was being super sassy during this photo shoot! I couldn't believe the smiles I was getting out of her! Surprisingly it only cost me a leftover piece of saltwater taffy from her party....I was all ready with Squinkies and such nonsense. I think it's a fluke...pretty sure next time she'll be as demanding as ever. She'll want spring water from Antarctica and fancy chocolates from....somewhere fancy, I guess.

I had to make this yard of fabric stretch, so I did a cream bodice to match the cream in the houndstooth. (fabric is Houndstooth in Melon from Lily Bella Fabrics!) I love the flutter sleeves and little tie in front.

I haven't done a pleated skirt in awhile so I went for it-winging it is my middle name!

Here's how I made it!

See below for the full tutorial!

embroidery hoops-and a few mini tutorials!

You may have seen bits and pieces of the embroidery hoop decor I made for the new nursery, but here they are all together! With a few mini tutorials also! I gotta say I'm loving this posting less often thing I've started doing. I'm a lot less stressed out about projects, and I'm even working on a new dress tutorial! My mojo is on it's way back....

I love how this pennant/garland banner hoop turned out! So colorful!

This one was really easy-I just cut little triangles, pinned them like so in swoops...

...then sewed right along the tops of the triangles.

For this loopy flower I cut pieces of felt 1/4" wide and varying lengths, then glued the two ends of the strip together, then glued them all together in the middle of the hoop, and covered the middle mess with a button. Easy!

The bow was a last minute addition but I also really like how it came out. That coral make my heart go pitter patter!

The bow hoop was made with felt-I cut out the bow shapes like below: both cut on the fold-left side of the pattern in this picture below.

Then I folded the bow ends into the middle, hot glued them together, then layered it on top of the bottom part, with a small piece wrapped around the middle. (no pic of that, sorry)

Hope you like them!

scalloped garland tutorial

Hey Howdy Hey....channeling Woody the cowboy today I guess. I don't know why I say these things sometimes.

Moving on....so I had a bunch of random scraps of fabric leftover from the quilt and other projects, so I decided to make a fun scalloped garland to swankify a wall in the new nursery. Yes, that's a word...

 I am so close to being done with the nursery and the final reveal, just need to finish up a few loose ends...so I hope to post about it in the next few weeks!

So here's how I made it!

I cut out some 5" circles (you could do any size) with my Go Baby! cutter, then sliced them in half with my rotary cutter and ruler.

Then sew two pieces right sides together, around the curved edge, I kept my seam allowance small, between 1/4" and 1/8", mainly so I wouldn't have to clip the curves.

Turn right side out, and press.

Next I sandwiched the raw edge between some twill tape (bias tape would work too, I just had this in the right color), and pinned it together. Sew along the edge of the tape and you're done!

Easy peasy!

baby's first dress

I really wanted to sew something the other day-nothing too complicated or mind boggling (my mind is boggled enough with being 6 months pregnant), so I pulled out this mint fabric from my sponsor The Ribbon Retreat and some eyelet trim my sister in law gave me, and whipped up a little Charlotte dress for the new baby!

Only I didn't cut the back out correctly, so I winged it and added an exposed zipper-tada! No seam allowance needed.

I think it's so sweet and I can't wait to try it on the newest little Miss around here! Not to mention I must have a subconscious pull to coral and mint/teal right now-it fit right in with the nursery colors!

I have no clue if I did the exposed zipper right, basically I didn't have any more fabric to cut out back bodice pieces so I was working with no seam allowance in back...so here's how I put it in!

I serged the back of the dress bodice and skirt like so.

Then I hemmed the bottom up-making sure that both sides matched up! The bottom looks off but it matched up. Just a little wonky cutting I guess.

Then I sewed one side of the zipper to the edge of the dress, I lined up the edge of my serging right next to the zipper teeth. You'll need to use a pull apart zipper for this kind of thing...and wow crooked stitches! My sewing machine didn't like the metal teeth and kept hopping around.

Sew on the other side of the zipper, also matching up the bottom edge with the other side of the zipper, and then wrap the top around and tack it down to the lining. You can cut off the teeth right along the edge so that it won't scratch your kiddo.

P.S. See the winner of the  Word Whipped giveaway here!

Sadie's Under the Sea party!

Sadie's party was last Saturday...and today is her actual birthday! A big Happy Birthday to the Sadester! We have big plans: swimming lessons and In n' Out for dinner (plus some more My Little Ponies from mom and dad coming her way...if you follow me on Instagram you know what I'm talking about!)

I mentioned it was probably going to be hot again...soo....yeah it was. :( Not as bad as Charlotte's party, but still in the high 90s. With a lot of help from my sister Julia, Rory's parents, my parents, and Rory of course, it was a success! I managed to forget my camera, but my dad had his on him and luckily he has way more lenses and fancy gadgets than I could ever dream of. I am a total control freak though and so bossed him around (and stole it a few times) to get the shots I needed. (still missed some oh well!) Thanks for putting up with me, Dad. Anyways...here are the party deets!

 Her invite was designed by my good friend Tara from Paper Patch Ink...so adorable, right? The waves are ric rac!

Let's start with the food table. I made another rag garland and I think it turned out really cute! I love the starfish fabric! I covered the tables with white tablecloths and nets from the dollar store over the top.

We served "sub"marine sandwiches-complete with color coded washi tape flags. Roasted turkey and provolone, and ham and cheddar. (we also had some lettuce and tomatoes but didn't get a pic. I snagged that fabulous seahorse at Ross a few months back for a few bucks.

I made some fancy mayos-the pesto one was really good!

We Julia made Peanut Butter and Jelly-fish sandwiches for the kiddos! She cut them into fish shapes with a cookie cutter. You can also see a few starfish/shell thingys I picked up thrifting behind the tray.

I bought some pink bags and filled them with Sea Salt chips and "Sand Dollars" aka pop chips. Can you tell I had way too much fun with the food names?

 Wait, it gets better. Or worse, depending on your opinion on cutesy food names.

Spinach dip=Seaweed dip! hehehe

Cut up cheese became shark teeth! (thanks to my friend Delia for that cute idea!) Crooked sign alert.

You gotta have goldfish crackers at an under the sea party, right? Served in little polka dot cups.

Fruit...of the sea salad. My mother in law made this, thanks Nora!

I packaged up some wooden utensils in glassine bags with these awesome ombre napkins I found on Target clearance a few weeks ago. I added the label on front and thought I was so funny. (it's funny right? if not just pretend it is, mmkay?) I spray painted this giant clamshell bowl I found thrifting and set them in it.

I got some big mason jars and tied some fabric around top, then filled them with sand and shells for pretty and simple centerpieces.

 

The kids had a blast in the water-we had two pools, toys, and a water table set up to play with.

One of TWO (not joking) pictures my dad got of Sadie smiling...she is such a stinker sometimes!



I think she had fun playing with her friends and gorging on sweets. Don't worry...the sweets are a-comin'!

Right after this sweet face. awww

Here's the dessert table! In all it's sugary glory. I'm sure all the parents loved me that night. ;)



I made the backdrop with plastic tablecloths, streamers, and a banner I designed and printed out, then strung up on ribbon. I designed all the labels as well.

The cake! This was by far my favorite thing to make for the table! It was pretty darn easy too. You can see my inspiration cake here, btw. It's my normal chocolate cake, and I layered and stacked it (obviously), then made chocolate coral from melting chocolate (topped with various sprinkles) and piped "bubbles" with extra frosting. Sadie wanted to add some extra shells from the cupcakes so we put some of those on too. Around the bottom I poured on some raw sugar to look like sand!

A close up of some coral. I really need to work on my frosting smoothing skillz. It makes it look like waves? Yep, we'll go with that.

The cupcakes are simple vanilla with swiss meringue buttercream (same frosting as the cake) and little chocolate seashells on top!

Of course I had to get saltwater taffy! I also got orange creamsicle ones but didn't get a shot. I thrifted those plastic seashell bowls, can you believe it? $1 each!

I bought some jordan almonds and called them sea turtle eggs. ;)

Pink sixlets became rare pink pearls!

Also Sadie and I made some strawberry white chocolate seahorse lollipops! Which didn't stand upright in the sea glass so well.

I of course had to make some under the sea cookies-sand dollars, seashells, starfish, and seahorse silhouettes.

(pardon the iphone pics) My sister made a balloon garland which we hung between two trees, and then I added some of the jellyfish we made using paper bowls and ribbon!

The favors were muslin bags which I dyed blue (a little darker than I wanted, oh well!), and then stamped bubbles on the front.

Inside the bags were salt water taffy, bubbles wrapped with washi tape, ocean silly bands, blue swirl lollipop, sea creature squirt toy, stickers, and seahorse shaped crayons.

Fun times were had by all, and I'm glad it's over...I need to stop picking the hottest weekends to have my parties. Grrr.  ohwell! At least this next kiddo is a November birthday!

I also downloaded a bunch of ocean/beach themed songs to have playing during the party, so here's the play list below if you need some ideas for your own under the sea party!

Fathoms Below-The Little Mermaid 
Surfin' USA - The Beach Boys
Under The Sea-The Little Mermaid
Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride -Lilo & Stitch 
Kokomo - The Beach Boys
Les Poissons  -The Little Mermaid 
Yellow Submarine- The Beatles
Kiss The Girl-The Little Mermaid
California Girls -The Beach Boys
Splish Splash-Bobby Darin
Surfin Safari -The Beach Boys
Beyond the Sea -Bobby Darin
Catch A Wave  -The Beach Boys
Part Of Your World - The Little Mermaid
Part Of Your World (Reprise)-The Little Mermaid
Surfer Girl-The Beach Boys 


Supply List

fabric-Fat Quarter Shop and Lily Bella Fabrics (none of it is available anymore but the pink is Dottie White on Baby Pink, orange is Going Coastal Orange Sea Star, and blue is Dot in Aqua - Bonnie & Camille - Ruby)
cookie cutters-Etsy
chocolate molds-Amazon
napkins-Target
glassine bags-Etsy
wooden utensils-Webstaurant
paper cups-pink from this shop, orange from this shop
paper straws-Etsy
washi tape-Etsy
pink paper bags-Etsy
favor bags-Etsy
favor stuff-Oriental Trading
stickers-Michaels
Seahorse crayons-Etsy