Sewing for baby girl

I've been sewing up a storm for our baby girl.
I bought a pack of plain white onesies and jazzed them up with some fabric & iron-ons. The head bands were made with stretchy elastic sequins & I've been buying little hair bows to clip onto them. My Mom bought me the zebra print onesie and I added the pink ruffle heart. The birp cloths were made from a dish towel I cut in half and sewed left over fabric onto. The quilt is half finished. Seriously sewing that minky soft fabric is sooo hard on my sewing machine and it makes a huge mess but it's soooo comfy on a blanket.

I've been having so much fun making all this stuff for our little Kora and getting her room ready. The kids love to play in her room and even put some stuffed animals in there for her.

She is soooo loved already.

Seriously though after I sew for over an hour I need to take like a week off. Anybody else feel this way after they make something?

Sewing

Since we found out we are having a girl yesterday I had to get sewing. I made the little chiquita a "lovey" which is just a little blanket with ribbons on it. Kai had one and he LOVED it.

Also, I finally finished Kai's blanket that I started months ago. It has Spiderman, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, & Wolverine on it....his favorites! Too bad I could not get Jack Sparrow & Obi Wan Kenobe's face on it too. Oh well. He wanted the back to be all black minky fabric. He loves it & will not let anyone else use it :) It is the first blanket I've done all by myself so I am glad that he likes it so much.

Gettin' crafty with it, na-na-na-na-na-na-na

I am making handmade gifts this year and here is an easy and fun gift to make for teachers/mommy friends/Grandma's

They are holly pins. I got the idea from Martha Stewart, here are the instructions

and I just used felt, small ornaments & little bits of glitter leafs I had on the tree to embellish them. The cards are made from House of 3 printables you can buy online.

They were really fun to make too (except for the hot glue gun burn)
Now on to my sewing machine.
Can I just say that Baby Lock is the best!
I am making a quilt with all the fabric I have been saving for something special.
Now I just need to find the perfect backing.

Sick kids & curtains *revised

This weekend I went to the fabric store.

I love fabric stores.

L-O-V-E.

Which is probably why every time I go I end up changing the curtains in some room of the house.

This time I did Kali's ...with my mom's help they turned out really cute.

My sewing machine took a dump.

It keeps "bird nesting" you know where the top is a perfect straight line and underneath the fabric is a giant clump of thread.

Here are Kali's new curtains & the CUTEST desk chair that my mom remodeled out of an old yucky wicker chair.

And with Kali's old curtains I made her a skirt! She said she wanted a long poofy skirt that could touch the ground. (How fraulein Maria of me huu?...you know, like the Sound of Music)

and here are Kai's curtains with black out fabric on the back because his room is SO bright.
Thankfully I had my mom to help because that stuff is SO hard to work with.

Kali went to a birthday party this weekend...Kai had to stay home since he has a cold.

...Kali got the same cold the next day :(
So my mom bought them these to cheer them up!
This is just one of about 20 pictures Kali has taken of them.
Good old Woody & Jessie :)

My present from Mr. B

My birthday present from Mr. Becker was to repaint our bedroom, here is the before:

And now the after

I made new curtains from some awesome fabric I found on sale for only $4 a yard at my favorite Home Fabric Store on 32nd St. and Thunderbird. It's the same place I got the fabric to redo my sofa.

my mom got me some fun things for my sewing desk so I thought my sewing desk needed to be jazzed up with some new paint too :)

Now that I look at these pics again I realize that I am a horrible photographer :( I need to take a lesson from my friend Monika or my cousin that can do EVERYTHING Rosemary)

I will try to take some better pics later. We still need to buy a new bed frame and then I am going to make a new headboard ( I got instructions in the Do It Yourself magazine a few years ago) then my vision will be complete !

For the love of a couch

Before

During

After

Saturday morning I decided I was going to reupholster my couch. Did I know what I was doing? NO. Did I know how much fabric I would need? No. Had I ever seen it done before? NO. (well on t.v. so kind of)

But since I suffer from over high self esteem, I literally think I can do anything short of brain surgery. Francis thought I was nuts when I told him what I was doing. So after getting my fabric Saturday afternoon I thought, oh I will whip this baby up tonight...well......taking the old fabric off took a good 6 hours!

So, Sunday morning after the Father's Day brunch I did for my dad and Francis (I know you are probably thinking, why did you plan to do the couch the same day as the brunch..and I have no answer) I worked on my couch ALL DAY Sunday, and I mean from noon-9 pm :( My hands felt like raw skin when I was done. I still have to sew up the sides of the seat cushions (as you can see in the pic) but other than that I am done and I am not going to be sewing anything again for at least a month! Well, maybe sooner ;)

Saving Money (**Revised)

Instead of going to a water park we have been going to Altadena park on 36th Street and Cholla. Fun & free, you can't beat that!

And, on the way home I saw a fabric store called Home Fabrics on 32nd Street and Cactus (NE corner) it is literally right off the 51 freeway. They have TONS of fabric that was normally $20/yard and is now $3/yard. The fabric manufacturers are going bankrupt so there is a HUGE sale. I bought enough fabric to cover all the windows/french doors in my kitchen/dining room/living room for only $24!!

Now I just have to rip the backing off of my old curtains to attach to the new fabric...fun, fun, fun! Anyone want to bring their ripper and come help???

***Here is another fun/cheap idea to keep kids busy in summer....go to www.harkins.com and you will see a link for the summer kid's movie deal. $7 for 10 movies during the summer starting at 9:45am. They also have a kid's concession combo for $4 (that is really good because usually just a soda is $4)

This and that

Let's start with some Christmas cheer...my white poinsettias that I have managed to keep alive despite the fact that I forgot to water them for at least 3 days...they were parched!

My fabric from Joanne's that will soon become an apron to wear while making some yummy holiday goodness

My Chirstmas ornaments that are taking some time off from the tree until Kai learns that you don't need to shake the tree or throw toys into it

My mom and Miss Kali made the Gingerbread house on the left while I was at the gym yesterday...isn't it cute? I just love the little foam kits for kids at Joanne's. Can you tell that I go to Joanne's a little too much?

Now for some Kali talk...

Here is Kali all ready to go to tumbling class..like her "Melmin"(the giraffe's name on Madagascar) boots?




And here she is at tumbling with her friend, Jackson (his actual name is Jack but she insists it is Jackson)

Mommy and Mr. Kai, this kid loves taking pictures and I am wearing my new etsy earrings...I love etsy!

Last night I went out to dinner with a friend of mine that is a PA at the jail hospital...she had some crazy stories. But I won't post them, let's keep this PG today;) Mr. B made the kids crab legs for dinner and kept K&K happy for a few hours so Mrs. B could go out and have some adult conversation but boy was I happy to get home to my sweet little family.

Tonight is the Ward Party so I get another night off from cooking...well kind of.... I signed up for dessert so I will be making a new recipe and if everyone likes it will be posted to Yummie Tummies this weekend.