My First Sale

Does it mean you're obsessed when you wake up dreaming about fabric combinations?  My shop, ModernBabyThreads has had its first sale, which happened to be my favorite item in the shop.  I love the Alexander Henry Apples and Pears fabric - it's so versitile.

So my first sale went to someone in Dallas, so thank you, thank you.  It was a cudly blanket with the Alexander Henry designer fabric which reversed to a coordinating soft, plush pink dot minky. It measured roughly 30" x 30. 

I'll be doing some sewing to get the inventory up in the shop.  If anyone is looking for a great item for themselves or as a gift, please think of Modern Baby Threads

Giveaway

There are so many giveaways on blogs, but I have yet to win one.  I'm trying my darndest on this one, because I could really use a gift card to CSN Stores.  They have so many cute things, I'd probably take me a year before I decided on what to buy.

Go pop over here and enter her giveaway.  Also, check out her amazing renovations, including these amazing DIY light fixtures.

It's Almost Football Season

I've been away from blogging for a while so it was time for a craft.  I whipped out my trusty sewing machine and thought I'd make something for a friend who just found out she's having a baby girl.  I wanted to do something special and personal so I thought I'd incorporate her favorite college football team into a Pillowcase Dress.  (It's against my better judgement to use this fabric since I'm a Georgia Bulldog fan, but you've go to give the people what they want!!)  I've always thought they were adorable and seemed like something even I couldn't mess up since it's been a while since I attempted to sew...

The dress I made is for a 12 month old.  Of course, you can always use a pillowcase, since it's where the name came from, but I used fabric.

1. Cut fabric to approx 16" in length and 30" wide. 

2. With right sides facing together, sew side seam and then iron open.

3. Fold fabric in half widthwise so you can cut both armholes at once. Measure 3" down and 1.5" in from the seam and create a J shape.  Cut armholes.

4. To finish the armholes, fold under 1/4" and press.  Fold under another 1/4" and sew.  This part was a little tricky, since it's a curve, but I just pinned, pinned, pinned.  You could also sew bias tape around - I might try that next time.  You want to make sure to do this so you don't have raw edges on that sensitive baby skin.

5. To finish the top, I pressed under 1/4" and then folded under 1" and sew.

6. Cut ribbon into pieces about 1 yard each and feed it thru the pockets you just made.  You may need to cut them a little shorter, but wait until you try it on the little one first.  Use a little fray-check on the edges of the ribbon.

7. You could just fold the bottom under 2 or 3 inches and sew, but I decided to add a contrasting border.  I cut a 6" piece of fabric 32".  I folded it in half to create a 3" border on the dress.  Press each raw edge under 1/4" and sew into place.  You can also add ric rac at the border - I'm still considering it. 

Can't wait to see her face when she sees it.  The youngest tailgater will look adorable!

A Soft Place to Land

Fingerprints on the Fridge

Budget Valentine Gift

Since my birthday is exactly 1 week before Valentine's Day (more on my A-MAZING day later), the hubs and I usually decide to go pretty low key for Valentine's Day.  In fact, we try to have date nights quite often, so the "Hallmark holiday" as the hubs calls it never ranks too high on our holiday list.

However, let me say ladies - he treats me great and is constantly doing sweet things all year round, so don't picture a neanderthal grunting at me that he wants to stay in.  Ok, now that the disclaimer is out of the way, we decided to celebrate Vday with dinner and a movie.  The hubs let me pick something out of one of our many cookbooks, and he was the master chef.  What a great treat.  While I love cooking, it's nice to be pampered and waited on too sometimes.  We also saw Dear John.  Has anyone seen it yet?  While it's definitely no Notebook, I'd say it's worth seeing.  Different than I imagined. 

On to the gifting...

I wanted to keep within a small budget and I managed to do it.  Total cost of the gift?  $1.50.  Sweet!  This this amount and some creativity I created what I dubbed The Memory Box.

I went thrifting to find an antique wooden recipe box.  While I didn't find a wooden one, I did find a metal one with rust that had seen better days.  That was ok, because I planned a little makeover for it. 

First, I painted the rusty metal box a crisp white to have a base color.  I then found cute scapbook paper at Michael's and used a coupon to save a whopping $.50.  Am I the only one that will.not.buy without a coupon?

With a little Modge Podge and patience, I covered the box in the paper.  To tell you the truth, I'm not a Modge Podge expert.  I usually use either too much or too little...I mean, how can you mess up watered down elmers glue?  I'll work thru my issues on another day.

I know you are wondering what I put in the memory box.  Using this website, I created card catalog cards of special dates and memories we've shared.  Of course, I did the obvious choices like our first date and the day we got engaged, but my favorite are the kookie entries that mean something only to us.  

I simply saved and printed each card and put them into the box, then tied it with a pretty bow and paired it all with a homemade card. 

My favorite part is the excitement that I'll feel at the end of a wonderful day with the knowledge that we'll get to write an entry together.  I think it'll also be fun to read thru with our future kiddos recreating the days of our courting and earliest memories. 

Linking to:

Trash to Treasure Tuesday @ Reinvented
DIY Day @ ASPTL
Get Your Craft On @ Today's Creative Blog

Happy Groundhog Day!

Happy Groundhog Day, everyone!  To be honest, I completely forgot about the holiday until I heard them talking about it on the news this morning.  To be fair, I'm not too worried about whether Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow or not as spring has a way of springin (pun intended) fairly quickly here either way (please don't hate me because i live in Florida and don't have blistering cold weather - we have to deal with all the elderly drivers...that should soften the blow some!!).

Now that the day is here, it make me think about the furry groundhog.  Aren't they just so cute?  Aren't they?  Anyone?  Hello?  (insert crickets chirping here).  Did you know a groundhog is the same thing as a woodchuck?  I sure didn't.  So, since I know nothing about the animal that has its own holiday, I'm going to assume you don't either.  I know not everyone is as ignorant uninformed as me, but bear with me.  So here's a few trivia facts I found here.

• All groundhogs have 22 teeth
• Groundhogs hibernate one to a burrow, with at least two doorways.
• Males emerge earlier than females each spring (I guess the females like to sleep in...i know i do!
• Groundhogs can lose 50% fo their body weight in hibernation.  (Hello, hibernation.  Have we met??)
• They can swim and climp trees and have a top speed of 15km per hour (yeah, I'm too lazy to do the conversion, but I assume that's fast!)
• Groundhog Day was once celebrated by the ancient Celts.  It's halfway between the winter solstice and sring equinox.
• Farrah Fawcett, Tom Smothers, James Joyce, Graham Nash, and Christie Brinkley were all born on Groundhog Day.

Hope you feel enlightened!

Goals for February

I can't believe January is already over.  Since I didn't put down my goals or resolutions for 2010, I thought this might be a good time to set some concrete goals for February.  The beginning of the year is such a great time for getting and staying focused.  So many times people do so well in January with their resolutions then fall off the wagon. 

Here's what I hope to accomplish in February:

• Run in the morning 6 days a week
• Afternoon workouts 4-5 days a week
• Finish planting garden
• Find curtains for the dining room
• Finish cornhole board set and make bags
• Sew something for the house and something to wear
• Paint something
• Redo bookcases (free craigslist score) and decide where they're going
• Blog 4 times per week
• Find (or redo) a lamp for the bedroom
• Spend one night a week as quailty time with the hubs
• Turn 30 gracefully...

Getting the Look for Less

Ballard Bellesol Mirror (Medium) 31.5" diameter
$159

HomeGoods Mirror, 32" diameter

$79.99