Seeds, kiddie art, fabric hoarding and a purse

I'm fried.

I can't even come up with a clever title for this post (see above). The last two weeks have been a blur--slammed with work deadlines, a fun-but-all-too-fast trip to Portland (Oregon), and these two adorable children who keep calling me Mommy and insist that I feed, clothe and clean them.

In the meantime, I'm longing to sew. And send stuff off that I've already sewn (JennaZ--your book sling is done and lovely, I'm just having a dickens of a time finding a mailing tube that's long enough for it. It's my No. 1 priority for tomorrow. Er, today. It's tomorrow already.).

One thing I have managed to find time for is buying fabric. What is my deal? I should probably not write another post encouraging underconsumption until I rein in this habit. Our trip to Portland last week included an important stop: Ikea. Without sales tax. Weeeee! Plus, fabric was on sale. (Justification alert. Justification alert.)

Then, when I got back home, I stopped at the Quilting Bee in Spokane Valley because they're having a sale. I bought some adorable circus fabric that I'm going to use with this pattern--Feliz party dress from Studio Tantrum. So girly and fun.

Somewhere along the way I did manage to sew this purse, roughly following this pattern from Favorite Things.

I fully intended to follow it exactly, but--I have to be honest here--I couldn't understand half of what they were telling me in the directions. Has anyone else used Favorite Things before? I'm not trying to badmouth them--I'm sure it's more my problem than theirs--but at one point I felt like turning the instructions upside down to see if that helped. The purse turned out fine, but making it hurt my head.

Then we've been doing a little bit of this:

And a little bit of that:

And following these fantastic directions for making masterpieces out of children's art:

You basically trace a silhouette onto a child's painting, cut it out, then paste it on a white background. Simple. Brilliant. Beautiful. 

I first saw the idea on Ohdeedoh and there was some conversation there about how damaging it would be to a child's self-esteem to repurpose their art. Hmmm ... I just told the girls from the beginning that this was what we were going to do. Bo helped me trace and paste. Viola! She loved the finished product and so do I.

So much more to say, but my battery is low and it's, um, 1:32 a.m. Nighty nigh

Comments

[jj923]

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[jj923]

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Welcome!

[Nis]

Mimi, love the new storage that now resides in the foyer... trips to PDX are so fruitful aren't they?! I love the new art, too and think that we might have to do something like that. I feel badly that I don't display more of MK's work. I'm sure she can discuss it in therapy 20 years from now! :)

And, oh, lovely...I see that someone is offering us discounts on "Channel". Do you think that's sort of like Chanel or ??

xoxo

[Megan]

Ha, ha, Nis. I'm sure my kids will be in therapy for plenty of other reasons, like how I lost my temper the other day and threw dishtowels across the kitchen (not at them, just sort of against the wall in a fit of frustration. I really should stop admitting these things online).
Not sure where our little Gucci friend came from. If they saw the name brands in my closet (or lack thereof) they might have targeted a different blog.

[emily]

1. I love that dress pattern, but am pretty sure I'd never finish it as is the case with most of my sewing projects.

2. Yes, I've tried Favorite Things...a skirt...wasn't loving the directions either AND the pattern was $$$$$$$.

3.I am so doing the painting cutouts. Those are beautiful.

and finally 4. Did you get that storage shelf from IKEA? It's a good thing I live a fair distance from that store....I just can't help myself and a quick glance in my closet would be a clear indicator...brand names??? not on my freelancing check ;)

[emily]

So I started to say a clear indicator that Gucci wouldn't want to post on my blog either but I think I was interrupted by screaming...not my own, though it might be a nice stress release.