Disneyland, attempted robbery, and a teensy bit of sewing.

We spent half of last week in Disneyland! woot! We love that place, too much sometimes....we had an awesome family reunion with my family and I think everyone had a blast! Even I did, hauling around my 33 week belly in 90+ degree weather and 100 million percent humidity. (or so it seemed)

The girls of course loved their favorite rides...Small World, the Teacups, Dumbo, the carousels...Bug's Land...ok that's about it. Still we had fun doing those every. single. day.

I think Sadie had the most fun loving on her two cousins-she wouldn't stop kissing or hugging them or holding their hands. She is so excited for the new baby to come!

Sweet girl cuddling with her new doll on the way home.

 So....to switch gears, and tones....

The day after we got back, (Monday) someone (we think a couple of teenage punks) tried to rob our home that morning while we were gone grocery shopping....we actually interrupted them when I tried to get back in the house (they had closed the top latch from the inside) and they ran off through the back over the fence. I shoved the girls back in the car and we drove down the street to call the cops, who came quickly and were so calm and helpful. Luckily they didn't hurt us or get away with much, although they had our bags packed with my jewelry, our tablet, and Rory's gaming stuff. (jokes on them-most of my jewelry is from Forever 21! bwahaha) They completely trashed our master bedroom which was the most disturbing part. A stranger going through your personal belongings has got to be one of the creepiest feelings ever.

Since then we've beefed up locks around the house, are researching alarm systems, etc...and generally freaking out whenever I get back home from somewhere. (flashbacks anyone?) We were definitely protected and looked out for, and I'm so grateful that things turned out the way they did, though I would never have thought this would happen to us! Belief that the world is mostly good: shaken. We are SO grateful they didn't come one day earlier.
 

So you can guess that I haven't quite felt like myself this week! Not very crafty or creative, though I'm helping with a fun robot baby shower tomorrow! Will show you more of that next week! I also started cutting out a Junebug dress for the Sadester-she needs dresses! (ok, she needs dresses that she actually WANTS to wear...her and I don't always agree on fabric choices these days! lol....*cough* diva *cough*)

Plus the girls have had a cold this week! Sheesh...I am SO ready for this week to be over. Sayonara, suckiest week ever. (in a few days....)

Sewn Hats book giveaway!

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

 I am super duper excited today to share with you this new book hot off the presses-called Sewn Hats! By Carla Hegeman Crim (also known as the Scientific Seamstress!)

Sewn Hats is a collaboration of 35 hat designs (and patterns!) from many fabric designers, pattern designers, and bloggers (including yours truly!). This fab collection features a variety of hat patterns for all genders, sizes, ages, and fashion sense. 

Also how about this?! This book will also be an eBook – available in a bunch of formats so it can be compatible with different kinds of eReaders.

My contribution was the Sugar and Spice Bonnet-isn't that bubs adorable? Plus the bonnet isn't too bad, eh? ;) It's pretty exciting to see my name in print, I've gotta admit!

I had so much fun working with Carla on this, and I'm sure everyone else did as well! It looks like an amazing array of hats were included in the book!

How'd you like a chance to win your own copy of Sewn Hats?

How to enter: Leave a comment on this post and tell me your favorite kind of hat! Easy peasy. Please leave an email address so I can contact you if you win.

The giveaway will run until Friday the 28th.

Good luck!

 Check out the Book Tour Schedule below!

Sewn Hats Blog Tour

9/4 -  Scientificseamstress.blogspot.com

9/5 -  Mod Kid Boutique

9/6 – FrenchGeneral.blogspot.com

9/10 – Pink Chalk Studio

9/11 -  LuluBliss.com

9/13 – Green Bee Patterns

9/14 – Goosie Girl Boutique

9/17 – Melissa Lilac Lane

9/19 – OneGirlCircus.com

9/20 – Tie Dyed Diva Designs

9/21 – Figgys Patterns

9/25 – Craftiness is not Optional

9/26 – Bari J.

9/27 – Confessions of a Craft Addict

9/28 – SisBoom.com

10/1 – Sew Mama Sew

10/2 – Aesthetic Nest

10/3 – Blue Nickel Studios

10/4 – Betz White

10/8 – YummyGoods.com

10/10-  Wiley Craft

The winner is....Susan!

yellow and coral knit top

I just cannot stop myself. I am in deep with coral and yellow (add some mint or teal and it's all over). I thrifted a big yellow and white striped shirt to refashion for one of the girls, and Sadie needs shirts more than Charlotte right now, so she got it. (you should see C's drawers, they barely close!) She's been growing into all of Sadie's old mama made shirts, of which there are a lot....

 I thought I'd make this one like a tunic but it ended up looking a little too long. and maybe a tad sloppy, but whatever. She'll grow into it! Right?

I used some gorgeous coral knit for the flowers and bias tape around the neck. I got it at Britex Fabrics when I met up with Kate there a few months back. (Ack! I never posted about that....well here's a picture of us with our goodie bags...We had a blast!)

I made the fabric flowers using my felt flower tutorial-just add more "petals" and hand stitch them together, then to the shirt. Easy peasy! I used my Go Baby cutter to cut out the flowers...man I love that thing! I'll need a new flower die someday I'm sure. I use it all. the. time.

Is it just me or is this little girl growing like crazy? She looks so much older to me in these pics...and her hair is getting loong!

bento lunches

Yes, I've hopped on the Bento lunch bandwagon...this way of packing lunches has a big appeal to me! Even though Sadie doesn't start kindergarten til next year, we still pack a lunch to go to parks and play dates at least twice a week. (the girls are requesting them on the weekends too....lol!) A few reasons are:

1. Less plastic waste-it's all washable. Ok, so I did unwrap some string cheese sticks...

2. Getting to be creative with lunches and use all those cute dividers. I am a food separator at heart so I love it!

3. Less food waste. When the girls are finished eating at lunch time, I stick the containers back in the fridge, and then they have the rest for snack later. Win win! (win, if you're an Office fan)

4. Hellooo cutie pie accessories! Need I say more?

This one had some carrots, blueberries, and grapes on the top tier...the girls adore these picks and enjoy "pick"ing them out each time. ;) (that was bad, I apologize) The bottom tier had a few mini chocolate covered pretzels, turkey pepperoni and cheddar cheese cut into flowers, and some whole grain Ritz crackers. There were only a few carrots leftover-they loved this one! The box and picks are from allthingsforsale.com.

This box is from Target-Ziploc brand. This lunch had a whole wheat and homemade jam butterfly sandwich decorated with fruit leather (which were eaten by Miss C in about .3 seconds lol)....some honey wheat thin sticks, cut up kiwi, yogurt raisins and cut up cheese stick in silicone cups, and some homemade hummus and carrots. 

The girls loved using the little picks to eat the cheese and kiwi!

Box is from allthingsforsale.com. It has some cheddar cheese stars in a silicone cup, PB&J roll ups, honey wheat thin sticks, and on the bottom tier, cucumber flowers, carrots, and ranch dip in that little dip container (also from the site above), then some grapes and kiwi.

Sadie really liked the roll ups, but Charlotte didn't touch hers. I ended up eating hers for my snack! Both girls won't eat cucumbers (though Sadie did like them for one day)...but I keep cutting them up and offering them in hopes that someday they will change their minds! Or until I run out of cucumbers.

This lunch box we've had for ages-I'm glad I got some similar new ones (top pic) cause I use these for Rory's leftovers he brings to work, and they tend to smell a little leftover-y...even after being washed a bunch of times. haha! gross.

It has some yogurt raisins in a mini cupcake liner, cut up pears, flower cheese, and a half a heart PB&J sandwich...then some cucumbers and carrots, and grapes. I think I added some hummus under the veggies after I took this pic, too. My girls will literally eat hummus with a spoon!

So anyways...I will probably be posting these bento posts every so often since, well...they're cute and fun and it's my blog. ;) Plus we could all use some lunch ideas, right? I've found a lot of inspiration via these cute bento blogs:

Meet the Dubiens

Another Lunch

I've purchased most of the Bento supplies from this site:

Bento USA aka allthingsforsale.com

I got the silicone cups from Joann's-12 for $10! Use a coupon to make them even cheaper. 

To answer some of the questions asked in the comments:

I've linked to the boxes on that website that I ordered from (see above).

I've gotten my cookie cutters from all over-Etsy, Michaels, Joanns, Hobby Lobby-you name it. For the small fruit leather circles, I used the wide open end of a Wilton piping tip and poked it out with a toothpick. 

I usually make the boxes while the girls are still eating breakfast, and they love eating up the scraps as I go! (especially the fruit leather lol) If they don't eat the cheese nibbles right away I will save those in a baggie and pull them out for snack later. 

Hope this answers some of your questions! I'm no authority on bentos, but they sure are fun to make!

Sew Ready to Play guest post

Come see what game inspired this fall dress over on the Sew Ready to Play series over on I'm Feelin' Crafty! Sadie loves her new dress, though she informed me that she can only wear it while playing her game. Uhhh....ok?

 Anyone else ready for fall? I am SO ready for boot and jean weather...not to mention having this baby and wearing normal clothes again! Plus my birthday's in November, so I'm partial to the fall season. ;)

The main fabric is Acorns in Aqua, in case anyone was wondering!

the big nursery reveal!

Finally, it's here....the moment you've all been waiting for! haha...ok maybe the moment I've been waiting for! The nursery reveal! I had so much fun redecorating the nursery for little girl #3 (she does have name...yes an "A" name but we're not telling yet...such a tease, I know), and poured every last bit of second trimester energy that I had into it. (now I'm done...hurry up next 8 weeks!)

So let's dive right in and I'll show you around. :) I'll list all tutorials & sources I used throughout the post.

All the fabrics are from the Mod Basics organic line, from my lovely sponsor Fabricworm!

Boring storage stuff....made as cute as possible! I still want to make a few more gauze blankets and burp cloths....but we'll see if I get around to that. I made a new changing pad cover and bought some wire baskets for the changing table storage. Charlotte's diapers are ginormous compared to the newborn sized ones! Which I don't have any of yet...soon I'll need to start stocking up, huh?

I made the window cornice box from a huge piece of insulation foam I got at Lowes, using this tutorial! I covered it in white linen and pinned some butter yellow ric rac from my sponsor Ribbon Retreat around the top and bottom to outline it. I LOVE love love how this turned out. Flippin' hard to get a good pic of though.

The curtains were made with  the remaining linen and some extra scraps-just pieced together, color block style, and hemmed the edges under with a casing up top. Sorry...it's extremely hard to get a picture of a brightly lit window that doesn't burn out your corneas. I'm melting.....

You can see more about the yellow wooden sign here, it's from this Etsy shop.

Here, the curtains are a bit better here. Rest your eyes, please. Not too long, we've still got more to look at!

The crib wall has a wooden initial (more on that below), her hot air balloon mobile, and collection of easy embroidery hoops!

You can read about those here! The white wooden frame and balloon print were in the SNAP swag bag (the print is by Rhonna Farrer I believe), and the yellow frame is from Cut it Out.

My dad cut the A monogram out of MDF using a laser cutter thingy (he belongs to a shop where they have dozens of cool machines that he can use!), and then I painted it with leftover paint from the dresser. I hung it up with some command strips that have velcro-like tabs. Those things are awesome!

I stole the pillows from our master bedroom for these pictures....haha. I don't usually use a pillow while nursing (just my boppy) so I doubted I'd ever actually leave any pillow I made on the chair...but it looked so lonesome and empty.

The rug is from Urban Outfitters, and you can read more about the quilt here. This is one of my fav quilts that I've made, for sure!

The crib skirt was made with this tutorial, and crib sheet with this tutorial. More about the skirt here.

Just another angle....yep I was shutter happy that day!

The view from the closet-you can see the cornice much better here!

And let's mosey on over to the other wall-tons of projects here! The ombre dresser, chicken wire display frame, scalloped garland, and some hot air balloon specimen art. (plus our traditional first year picture frame we get for all our kids!) Also your standard hamper from Babies R Us.

The dresser has a  little vase from Ikea with some yellow flowers, and a thrifted cool little bowl holds her headbands, plus a little silver baby frame that both of my girls have had in their nursery. :)

 

I used vintage clip on earrings to attach things to the chicken wire. I can't wait to add pictures of baby herself!

I made some easy hot air balloon specimen art (I think that's what it's called?) using some scrapbook paper, a marker, and a circle punch. It took about 10 minutes and I love how it turned out! I also painted the frame coral so that it would stand out against the wall color and white frame below it.

So....phew! After many weeks, it's finally done! What do you think? Do you think I used enough coral, teal, and yellow? No? It needs more? Don't tempt me.....

Check out Shauna and Kate's posts for this week's belly+baby projects!

my fabric store 1/2 yard bundle giveaway!

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

Holy cow folks...you may need to sit down for this giveaway. Srsly. It's huge. First, let me introduce you to one of my newest sponsors, My Fabric Store! Julie (who is super nice!) runs this brand new, lovely fabric shop, which has a gorgeous selection of fabrics available. Serious eye candy if you love fabric. (and I know you all do....) Go check it out....I'll wait.



la di dah di dah.....Oh you're back now?

Ok, now do you believe me? ;)

The loveliness below is from the Birch Fabric Storyboek fabric...I cannot wait to get my hands on some of this line! I just know Sadie is going to claim that mermaid fabric for Spain a skirt. (Luckily Charlotte's easy-going about her clothes still. She could care less what she wears!)

The 11 year old horse lover in me is loving the horsie print! 

yummy gorgeous fabric. 

So onto the fun stuff: the giveaway!

They are giving away a 1/2 yard bundle (18 total) of the Birch Fabric Storyboek fabric. That's a $150.00 value--9 yards total. Yesh, my jaw dropped too. :D

How to enter:

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

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 Monday the 24th!

Good luck!

The winner is....Jessica.....Lucas, not myself, lol!

Rainbow Dash costume-the hoodie

Today I'll show ya  (or try reeally hard to show ya) how to make the Rainbow Dash hoodie! Most of this came together well, except the hood was a little small for the neck part. I fixed that with a little pleat in front and it looks fine to me. Well, fine for a costume, ya know? ;)

We'll take ears, mane...

 ...and wings of course!

See below for the tutorial!