Park Day

Happy Groundhog's Day! Seems like kind of a joke here, as it was 71 and gorgeous outside! Gotta love AZ. We had a park day with my awesome mom's group today. Odin had a blast, and Ally got to play with the other Ali ( a 4 month old baby). Well, attack more than play with. But both kids were good, except Allison wanted soooo badly to go and play with the other kids. She kept crawling off her blanket and looking at them longingly on the playground. Odin enjoyed going up and down the big hill, petting some doggies, and following strangers around. I was happy to be with my friends on a beautiful day, in a small and manageable park (instead of big parks where kids are so easy to lose!). Ally tried out the swing and loved it, and Odin helped push her.

After the playground, we came home and I put on a Joe Scruggs CD for Odin. Now, Joe Scruggs was a children's song guy back in the day (when i was a kid). Oh, how the 80's and early 90's were made better by his songs. Anyway, it brought back many memories. Odin danced along with the first song, then wanted me to turn it off so he could watch TV. I did not do as he requested, so he went and played with cars instead, but Ally sat in my lap and danced. :D She got another top side tooth, so now her teeth look even funnier!

I added a ready to ship skirt to the shop in size 2T. While I do have enough fabric to make one more skirt, this is the only one I have for now. I can't find the Hawaiian fabric online, and the polka dot is no longer at Joann's!

My model quit :P

Well...she is protesting anyway. I don't know why, but she now hates it when I take her outside for pictures. Tried to pose her on a chair, gave her a lemon to distract her, and yet, she kept trying to grab me. Cried pretty much the whole time. So I brought the operation indoors. She did okay for that, but the lighting wasn't great and my camera isn't either, so not exactly thrilled. Anyway, I got some usable photos but I'm not sure how much longer this can last because I am going to need her for more photos in the future! Oh well.

So I am going to gradually add some simple, fun skirts in my shop. The first is the deer skirt! I also did some pink ruffle capris for Ally with a lace hem; she modeled them, but since I made them in the next size up, they are full length pants in the picture and not capris. Also, if you are reading this, I would love more comments and followers for my blog. It's beginning to look a little sad to see 0 comments on each post! I really do need to start doing some tutorials, too! Maybe I'll do one for the twirly skirts :)

The top/dress

Things have been slow in the shop lately...only one sale so far this week, but hoping for more! I really want that 50th sale by the end of the week! I also have a goal of 3-4 sales per week, which has been happening up until now. Hopefully things will pick up soon! In the meantime, still orders to catch up on and I finished the Gracie pattern tiered top/dress. I don't know why it's called a top, since it is the same length as the tiered dress. It makes a really cute long top or short dress, though. As far as the actual tiered dress goes (the one with the rounded collar) I plan to make that one with longer tiers from now on because I do thing it's a bit on the short side. Anyway, this dress turned out adorable, and I did a rolled hem, yay! I tried it on Ally but it's a 12-18 months and her shoulders are so narrow and it looked way too big. I'll try it again in a couple months, and make adjustments if needed. I'm keeping this one for her, but it's also available in the shop for custom order.
There's a pair of pink ruffled capris with a lacy hem as well, but I haven't taken pics of them yet! I'm thinking this might be Ally's Easter outfit, unless my mom buys something for her, which she probably will :) Today I am taking the kids to Joann's and Target. Adam is working in Tucson and I can't do another day at home. This week I don't have much going on, and I don't like it...too many long days! Adam has installs every day, which is great, but it gets kinda lonely, even with 2 munchkins. Hope the kids do ok during errands- I always end up going to both places at the same time, since they seem to be located near each other, no matter which part of the valley I am in. Odin keeps getting out of bed early, ugh! But at least he takes a nice long nap...

Giveaway!!!

Aubut Life blog is hosting a giveaway for my shop! The winner receives a $15 gift card to my shop...here is the link: http://aubutfamily.blogspot.com/2010/01/joyful-vision.html. Go there for instructions on how to enter!

Almost to 50...

One more sale until 50 in my shop! I am going to give a fun free gift to the 50th customer, wonder who it will be? In between working on orders, I am also creating dresses and outfits for Ally for spring and summer. I want to make sure I get these done since it seems I have been so busy lately! The top/dress (not sure what to call it, as it looks like a dress to me but it's supposed to be a top) that I am working on now is from Sandi Henderson's Gracie pattern and is in Nicey Jane fabrics. I love how it's turning out, and it will also have matching ruffle capris. I will show pictures as soon as it's done.
Sorry there's no pictures in this post- I need to do a better job of taking them! I guess I've been lazy...Also, potty training is not really happening. I still take Odin on the potty, but he won't go, so not sure what to do about that! And I am done giving Ally baby food...from now on she gets tabel food, yay!

Ally's weird teeth

Yeah, so my daughter took her sweet time getting teeth. And now that she has some, they're a little weird. I'll explain. Her first two teeth were her bottom two middle, which is fine. Then she got one random tooth on the top on the side, and then another one next to it. It's not normal, I say! I took a picture to show you. Also she is waving all the time these days, and she doesn't stop until someone waves back. It is soo cute and I need to take a picture of that, too! I added some new minky pants to the shop, so I'll show off a pair of those as well.

Only 2 more sales to get me to 50! I am pretty sure, or at least hopeful, I can do that by the end of the month. I feel like doing something special for #50, or a giveaway, or something to that effect, but I've been so busy lately! I had a fight with the serger today. I was trying to do a rolled hem, and finally got the thing threaded right, but then one thread kept breaking, so had to rethread that and lower the tension, and yeah I got it, but I definitely need more practice. I will be showing you the results of my efforts (in Nicey Jane fabrics!) quite soon. I started working on a skirt tutorial, then forgot to take pictures, so it will have to wait until I make another skirt! I plan to make Ally a couple spring skirts soon, so it'll happen. In fact, i bought some cute Japanese Paris themed fabric the other day and can't wait to turn it into either a shirred top or a skirt. That project will be just for her, not for the shop, especially since Japanese fabric is expensive (probly cuz it's imported). My mom is making my soon-t0-be niece a quilt featuring some Japanese fabric as well, and I'm sure it will be amazing! Speaking of which, Dana is due in about 2 weeks and I can't wait! Too bad I have no idea when we will see said niece...Anyway, that's all for now.

My new friend..

I have a new friend for my sewing machine. A serger! I am feeling so blessed and excited right now that someone from church (minister's wife) was generous enough to give me hers. I have been testing it out today, ruining some things with it (oh well!) and I think it's going to be a wonderful addition to my shop. Almost everyone who sews children's clothes has a serger, and I just have not beeing keeping up with the times. So I am thanking God for this blessing. Now I just need to figure out how to do the rolled hem.

Also, I am anticipating a few things here. One is that I have 5 sales left to go until I hit sale 50. So I might do a giveaway of my own here when I do! Two is that I am going to make my own PDF tutorial for the shop. It's funny, I don't know why I didn't think of this before. I made up my own design for the ruffled apron skirt, and so I want to make a tutorial for sale for those who would rather make their own skirt! It'll be available in sizes baby through girls 8, and it'll be easy cuz it's all rectangles, so no pattern pieces to deal with (that's why it's gonna be a tutorial, not a pattern!).

I realize I am terrible at blogging about my kids and taking photos of them. So sorry! I will dig something up now...

Odin was "helping" me sew. Don't worry, I was very careful when he did this. You can also see some fabric in the corner (Heather Bailey Pop Garden) that I am using for an adorable baby outfit for my cousin.