I used my sewing machine (finally)!!!

I'd been wondering if the idea I had for K's Halloween costume was still going to fit her so on Friday I decided to pull it out of the storage bin and try it on her. It's a size 2 so I was a little concerned but after some struggling (and her screaming "tight" at me) I managed to get it on her. The top is stretchy Lycra material but the arms and skirt don't have any give at all so we have to work a little harder to get her arms up into the sleeves. However, there were a few modifications I wanted to make to it first.

The base of the costume is a super cute red and black Flamenco dress my parents brought back from Spain. Since K is obsessed with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse I thought I could use the dress as a Minnie Mouse costume. The first thing I needed to change on it to accomplish this goal was the fringe.

This is how it looked originally with the fringe (and a sippy cup)

I'm not much of a fringe person (at all) so originally I thought I'd just cut it off and that would be that. Unfortunately "that" is never quite "that". After cutting off the fringe some of the top part that was still attached wasn't all straight and it was starting to unravel a bit. All in all, it looked kinda crappy so I had to come up with a way to fix it. Plus where the fringe met in a V at the middle on the front and back wasn't perfect so I wanted some kind of Minnie Mouse cameo pin to put right at that point to kind of cover it up and make the costume more fancy and more "Minnie". I went to Jo-Ann Fabrics looking for some red with black polka dot ribbon - no luck, only red with white polka dots or pink with black polka dots.Then we went to Michaels, still no luck on the ribbon I wanted. While I could have checked Hancock Fabrics, it's a bit farther away and I was being impatient. So I decided to look into other options for the ribbon. I thought about plain red but I couldn't find one that was a perfect match. I thought about plain black but with the shininess of the Lycra, a plain ribbon didn't look quite right either. I ended up with black velvet and I think it looks really great.

(Please ignore the pile of mail under the dress. The left side is finished with the black velvet ribbon and the right side is how it looked with just the fringe cut off.)

Also, I couldn't find any Minnie Mouse cameo pins so I looked at buttons, jewelry and finally ended up with these awesome Disney embroidered stickers.

Totally cool.

 Finally, after having to rip out my first attempt because I sewed the ribbon on with a stitch right down the middle that didn't hold it down enough to cover up the raw part of the remaining fringe, I figured it out. I had to make two lines of stitches, one at the top of the ribbon and one at the bottom so the velvet would stay flat and keep all of the yucky parts covered. I added the large red Mickey head sticker right at the tip of the V on the front and the large black Mickey head sticker at the tip of the V on the back.

Tee Da! (I moved the mail so it looks a lot nicer.)

Being a long time Disney fan myself, I already had a very nice pair of furry Mickey ears that I've had for years. I bought a roll of wired red with white polka dot ribbon and made a big bow and sewed that onto the ears. Here's a before shot:

Doing her best pirate face.

All in all I think it turned out very cute and the best compliment I got was from the Hubbs saying he wished it was bigger so she could wear it longer. :) I'll post a complete shot of the whole costume when she wears it on Halloween.

MyMe

K has taken to calling us Mommy and Daddy now instead of Momma and Dada. She says Daddy very well (although there is a slight pause between the Dad and the dy which is super cute. I guess she has a harder time with Mommy (even though she never did with Momma) because it comes out sounding more like My-me or Mar-my most of the time. It's seriously the cutest thing I've ever heard. The Hubbs and I used to talk about how cute it will be when she can say Mommy and Daddy and now that she is, we were right. It's awesome!

Shutterfly Photo Book

I received a promotional code from Shutterfly for 50% off of a photo book and it expires tomorrow. I've already made 2, one for Nana and Papa and one for Grandpa. I still need to make one for us and one for Great Grammie and Grampie so I really want to use the other but I'm not sure I have the stamina to get one made before tomorrow night. I guess I'll start it now and see how far I get. Wish me luck!

And so it begins...

5 boxes packed, 8000 to go...

Whooo's There? (Part 2)

Sorry for the delay in my second post. K and I went to visit Nana and Papa and pick out my Christmas present. I'm SOOO excited. Since most of you are on FB you've already seen my kick butt new sewing machine but in case you haven't (or just want to look at it again, like I do) here it is:

My Viking Husqvarna sewing machine. Yay!!!

I can't WAIT to start sewing curtains and clothes and other awesome goodies! Thanks Mom and Grammie and Adam for this totally amazing gift. Woot!

Also, while I was visiting Unka Chunks house, he let me pick out a BEAUTIFUL, completely hand-stitched quilt made by my great aunt. The picture doesn't do it any justice at all because it's so pretty and every single stitch and detail on it was done BY HAND! I love it and can't wait until it gets just a bit cooler so I can snuggle up under it on the couch while drinking hot cider. Man I love the fall!!!

It's SO pretty and cozy looking!

Ok, bragging aside, back to the last bits of the cute decor I have for K's room. The cool thing is that whilst visiting M&D, we hit up a Babies R' Us and they had some of the wall decals I've been eying on the interwebs but was hesitating a bit over since I couldn't see them in person. So, since they are even cuter in person than on the web, I picked those up too. Here is what I have:

Little Boutique Tree decal

Carters Tree Tops decals

I'm thinking that these might go in the Play Room because I don't want K's room to get too busy and I have decals already that match the Target Circo owls I already have (see post one for those). Plus, I'm going to make the smaller of the two rooms her bedroom with just her bed, rocking chair, and books in there and then put all of the toys, ball pit, piano, trampoline, her soon to be constructed kitchen (ooh, I'll have to blog about that because it's totally cool), etc. in the play room and I don't want it to be *too* jammed.

As previously mentioned, another bit of decor I already own for her bedroom are these Circo Love and Nature wall decals. I don't like all of the decals, especially the tree that comes with the set. It's way too scrawny and besides, the new Babies R' Us tree I just picked up is so much prettier.

See what I mean about the tree?

This is all of the labels that come in the set.

The owls and birds are cute though so I found this idea that another person has on their blog to use them on painted canvas and make them more like art instead of just stuck to the wall. It's pretty cool. She painted the canvases the same color as the wall but I think that I will paint mine a sky blue to give them some contrast from the wall color (whatever that ends up being).

Cute, huh?

 I've also purchased the Skip Hop Owl backpack and lunch box. Ok, so obviously I know she doesn't actually *need* these yet but they are SO cute and what if, by the time she IS ready to use them, they don't make them anymore? I mean really, I couldn't let that happen. Come on ladies, you know how it is!

I know, right? How could I have resisted?

So this leads me to the quandary of how to display such adorable bags... An owl peg board, of course!

Like this

Or this

Or even this one (the owl looks very concerned about the birds trying to kiss him. It cracks me up.)

These guys are so cute. I want a whole flock of them!

These are made by Maple Shade Kids on Etsy. Too cute! So, we'll have to see about those.

That's it (for now). I know I'm a bit of an owl craze and let me tell you, with fall quickly approaching, the retailers are not being nice by putting out tons of owl stuff (clothes, toys, bath mats, towels). I'm having to restrain myself left and right so I don't end up buying it all and then not being able to pay rent. Hehe, just kidding, Honey =D  I love you!

Whooo's There?

Hi! Welcome to my blog. This is a place for me to give updates on The Bear, The Hubs and me, and cute projects I'm working on or would like to work on.

First up is Bear's new bedroom. As some of you are already aware of, we'll be moving to a bigger apartment in four weeks and four days so I've already started planning K's new bedroom theme for a few months. I've been pursuing other design and craft blogs hours on end in the evenings gathering ideas to borrow and implement in both her room and our new PLAY ROOM! Yay! I can't wait to give her more room to play. It's going to be weird though because I'm so used to her being able to seamlessly go from her bedroom to the living room when she wants to "zoom" her cars around but in the new place, the bedrooms and play room will be upstairs while the living room and kitchen will be downstairs. It's going to be a transition for us all but I'm sure we'll manage and be used to it very quickly.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand, K's new bedroom. I'm going with an owl/woodland creatures kind of theme. I'm not 100% sure of the color we'll paint her room yet (tan, blue, green, yellow???)  After you see what I have picked out for her, maybe a suggestion or two would be very helpful. So here is what I have so far (and mind you, all of these items are cuter in person (in my opinion, at least).

Duvet cover (colors are brighter in person)

This is a close up of her sheets.

Lamp (it's a nicer green in person, not quite so yellow looking as in the picture. Note the mushroom on the pull chain - love it!)

Owl pillow (super cute!)

Hedgehog bean bag chair (she has this in her current room and calls it her "bean")

Large canvas print for the wall (the color in this picture is a bit dark and it's much bigger than you'd think)

Beanie Baby Owls from Mom (she got us all of them except for the bottom right one.)

There's a bunch more to talk about when it comes to the wall decals and all I'm going to do with them but I'll save that for a Part 2 so I have something to write about tomorrow.