Happy Halloween?

No, I haven't lost all sense of time.

I'm just reeeeaaaally behind schedule, mmmkay?

This year was the first year I handmade THREE Halloween costumes for the kiddos, so I felt it was worth documenting it here. I'm super proud of these looks and the fact that the kids loved them? Sooooo worth it!

Chase had a very specific vision in mind for his costume. He wanted to be Super Mario! But not just the standard, regular, non-super-powered Mario. He wanted to be: FIRE MARIO. This actually made things super simple and I was really excited to get started!

Of course I scoured the interwebs for a handy tutorial and boy did I ever find a gem over at smashed peas and carrots with Maggie's tutorial! Of course I had to modify it ever so slightly to make FIRE Mario, but this tutorial was totally easy peasy and a lot of fun!

So here's the look I was going for:

 

And here's my own little Fire Mario (wearing his Mario costume at his 4th birthday party a few days before Halloween):

As I mentioned, the costume was super easy and went together in a matter of minutes! He also had gloves and a mustache and cute brown boots. He looked just like Mario! I ordered his hat online and made the "M" logo and sewed (?) it onto the hat. Too cute! The best part was that I had this costume finished a few weeks before Halloween and Chase wore it EVERYWHERE! He insisted on wearing it every time he played Super Mario Wii, had to put on the hat anytime we went anywhere, and just loved to be in this costume! It was such a hit!

With a little brother also in need of a Halloween costume, it didn't take long for me to proclaim little E as "Baby Fire Luigi!" His costume was also a snap and was completely adorbs!!! I used a hat that Chase wore for his 1st Easter (with the added "L" of course)... awwww!

I'm so proud of these costumes!

Next up was LO's costume... she wanted to be none other than RAINBOW DASH! For you non-MLP fans, Rainbow Dash is a My Little Pony pegasus. Should be fun to make, right?

Last year she was a unicorn and I totally cheated by purchasing a hoodie sweatshirt and sweatpants and just modifying them to make the costume. This year I made the entire thing myself -- hoodie, pants and all! This wouldn't have been possible without the amazing Toni at Sugar Tart Crafts and her step-by-step My Little Pony tutorial. She broke everything down into easy to follow steps and I was sewing like a pro in no time! I made the hoodie with mane and ears, sweatpants, cutie mark, removable tail and removable wings!

Not surprisingly, I had one super happy Rainbow Dash on Halloween night! She just loves to pose for the camera! And the best part is that she'll wear just the tail or just the wings with other outfits (pajamas) so these individual pieces made a super fun addition to her dress-up stash!

My little Halloween cuties!

My next sewing project? Christmas pajamas!!! :)

Valentines Time!

LO and I worked on her valentines for her K4 class a few weeks ago with one of her friends from school. I really LOVE how they turned out and am so grateful for the awesome idea from Pinterest!

Here's the picture I used:

And here's a ((horrible)) pic of her valentine with the Tootsie Roll pop attached!

Happy Valentine's Day, y'all!!

Adventures in Quilting

I am SO SO SO excited to share with you guys a fun little big ol' project I had been working on for the past week or so.  It's my very first official quilt! Like, seriously, cutting out squares, sewing them together, layering the top, batting, then bottom, "stitching in the ditch," and ((grumble)) binding, too! It was a MAJOR project and I had NO IDEA what I was getting myself into.

See, I saw this adorable quilt "kit" at good ol' Walmart, and immediately LOVED the various black and white patterns. It looked like fun! But you have to remember something: me and numbers don't mix. Seriously. I have no idea about measurements (and why am I sewing then??) and didn't even think twice when I saw (if I even saw it, which I don't think I did) that it said, "Finished Size: 48in x 64in." I had no idea what that translated to in, say, "feet" (which is much easier for me to picture in size vs. inches).Whatevs!

I got home, pulled the fabric out, and started cutting 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 inch squares. MUCH bigger than the 4 x 4 inch squares I had cut for a previous (and much less involved) quilt project. And there were a LOT of squres. It didn't take long for me to realize this project would be a bit bigger than I had imagined. But it was okay -- it'd be my very first quilt and I was totally okay with throwing myself into it, feet first!

Everything was going quite well, until I realized I'd need a walking/even feed presser foot, which my mom's old Singer I had been using did NOT have. I ordered one from Amazon, then waited. And waited. And waited some more. I got very antsy and, I'm not sure how or when, but I decided I needed a new sewing machine -- one I could call my very own.

After a few days of research and calling local sewing shops, I decided to go against what ALL of them told me (the Baby Loc store told me I simply HAD to buy a Baby Loc; the Husqvarna shop told me I absolutely must purchase a Husqvarna, etc. and decided to buy the Brother SE-400 -- a computerized embroidery and sewing machine! I have NOT for ONE SECOND regretted this purchase!

I ordered the walking presser foot for my new Brother and before I knew it, I was quilting! Like, for real quilting! It was so easy, exciting, fun and productive! I couldn't believe I was capable of producing such an amazing keepsake!

I had already decided early on during the process of making this quilt that I would be giving it to someone very special. A sweet, sweet woman named Heather, who happened to be Chase's physical therapist and was able to teach my son how to walk! She's meant very much to me and my family over the past almost-year that she's been coming over for weekly visits, and it's amazing the progress Chase was able to make in such a short period of time under her care! So I was focused on making my very first quilt to give as a gift to wonderful Miss Heather!

It didn't turn out absolutely perfect, which of course was my goal (I love perfection!), but I figure it has some "first time quilter" nuances that will make it that much more special. Right? Right?? Well, that's what I keep telling myself anyway.

So without further ado, here are some pics of my finished product!

The quilt top. Love the black & white patterns!

A special little touch... I embroidered Chase's name inside a heart in the bottom right square. Just a little something to remind her of Chase since, after all, he was and will always be her very most favoritest patient ever! Haha!

Funny story about the embroidering... I had tested and tested and tested again the design, sizing, positioning, etc. on scrap fabric to make sure it'd be PERFECT before I embroidered onto the quilt. So I got it exactly how I wanted it, then went for it! When it was finished, I took it out and looked it over, only to see I had embroidered: Chasc. Yes, that's right. A "c" instead of an "e" in Chase's name. Lovely. I removed the stitches for the "c" and then had the joy of setting it back up into the machine and making an attempt to line it up just so in order to have the "e" placed at the exact spot where it should've been to begin with. Needless to say, it was NOT perfect. You can see the "e" is a bit lower than the "Chas" but I don't care! I decided that since Chase doesn't have a perfect heart, there's no reason to think his name inside a heart on this quilt should be perfect, either! I love this!!!

The binding. The biggest, most royal pain in my rear. It definitely didn't turn out as perfectly awesome as I had hoped, but this was only the second time I've done binding (the first was the satin blanket binding that pretty much binds itself) and it was by far the hardest part of the quilting process, but still manageable. I'm sure I'll get better with more experience.

The backing print.

I'm so pleased with how this project turned out. I sure hope Heather agrees!

The Finished Product!

Well, it's no Vera Bradley, but I finished the messenger tote for Stephanie, the winner of my first ever blog giveaway ever, and I think it turned out super cute! Stephanie chose the Crazy Flower print for her tote.

Thanks again to everyone who entered and played along! I had so much fun with this! Now it's time to get on to several other sewing projects that I have waiting on me. I'm so excited about them, but I can't share much about them on here... yet. ;)

And the Winner Is . . .

...Stephanie!!!

Stephanie said, "I would love to have the crazy flower print as my messenger bag! I am sure everyone would love it on my unit! I work on the Heart unit at Children's Hospital in DC!"

Gotta admit I love the randomness yet NOT randomness of this drawing. I mean, of course I used random.org and it was a COMPLETELY random winner selected. But how NOT random was it that the winner works in a Children's Hospital heart unit!? Yay! I definitely feel like I'm spreading a little bit of Chase love to the Children's Hospital in DC! :)

Congratulations, Stephanie! I'll get started on your crazy flower messenger tote today! Please send me your name and mailing address via email to mom2lo@charter.net. I'm so excited and I totally hope you'll love your new messenger tote!

Thank you to everyone who participated in my very first blog giveaway ever! This was so much fun and I look forward to doing another one again soon!

REMINDER!!!

Have you entered for a chance to win the handmade messenger tote of your dreams? There's still time to enter! Click here!!!

Remember: all comments must be posted by 11:59 PM EST on Wednesday, April 6, 2011. The randomly selected winner will be announced on Thursday, April 7th!

Good luck!

My Very First Ever Blog Giveaway Ever!

Yes, folks, you read that blog post title right! It's time for my very first ever blog giveaway ever!!!

I'm so excited!!

((squealing with delight))

You may recall I mentioned a few days ago that I won a little giveaway on Spring Creative's blog. Well, I received my prize yesterday, a beautiful new messenger tote kit! Here it is!

It's very cute in person (my online pics never seem to come out very well). Anywho, I decided I would LOVE to make this messenger tote as a giveaway for my loyal blog readers! Yay!

The good news is, I already have experience making one of these for myself, which I love, by the way. I learned a lot my first go 'round so I'm expecting to be able to make this one with much more skill and somewhat more ease.

The bad news is, I can't decide which side of the fabric to use!

So this giveaway is gonna be REALLY easy for you. All you have to do is leave a comment ON THIS BLOG POST (i.e. not on Facebook and not via Twitter) and tell me which side of the fabric you would want as the outside of your messenger tote. I will use Random.org to select a winner from all of the comments, and the winner will receive the finished product as soon as it's complete!

So simple, right?

Oh, but I bet you're wondering what exactly your choices are, am I right? I thought you might be. So here you go!

The two sides of the fabric are (click images to view larger)...

Crazy Flower!

or...

Crazy Dots!

Comments must be posted by 11:59 PM EST on Wednesday, April 6, 2011. The randomly selected winner will be announced on Thursday, April 7th!

Thank you in advance for your participation is my first ever blog giveaway ever! So. Much. Fun!!! :)

Still Sewing!

Guys. I'm totally hooked. Seriously. This sewing stuff is ridiculously exciting and so much fun!

For my next project, I decided to make a messenger tote that I could use as a laptop bag. I already have this sleeve that provides all the necessary protection for my MacBook; I just needed a bag to carry it in (along with the power cord and other miscellaneous computery stuff).

I found a totally cute tote by Springs Creative at Walmart Wednesday night. I cut the pieces out yesterday and I just sewed it together this morning! It was supposed to be my weekend project (I wanted to have it finished before we take Chase to MUSC for his heart catheterization next week), but it was so easy and fun, I finished it in no time at all! I think it turned out amazing! I'm still completely shocked that I can turn a piece of fabric into something so stylish and functional!

On a side note, I happened to enter the weekly giveaway on Springs Creative's blog and -- GUESS WHAT?! -- I won!! I never win anything! But I won another messenger tote in a different pattern that I should receive soon. How exciting, right? It looks like this one:

Cute, right?

Anywho, let me show you my pics of my latest triumph!

My new messenger tote project, thanks to Creative Cuts by Springs Creative.

A "before" of the cute fabric (it really is cute... the colors in the pic from my iPhone don't do it justice).

And... the "after" pic! Ain't it cute?!

It's the perfect size for my 13" MacBook in the sleeve, and I love the contrasting print inside.

Thought I'd get a better model for this project rather than model it myself (like the apron). LO likes it, too!

So it goes without saying that I'm loving these creative craft kits. They're obviously easy enough that a novice like me can be successful (side note: no, this is not a paid endorsement for Springs Creative -- LOL!). I'm just having so much fun, I want to share with you all!

I'm a little scared at the thought of purchasing an actual pattern and actual fabric and then getting the pieces all together by myself, but I'm sure I'll give it a try very soon. But in the meantime, I'm gonna see what other kits are available since it's so much quicker and easier than doing it all myself from scratch. :)

And it goes without saying that these little craft projects have been a wonderful distraction from the fact that Chase goes in for a heart catheterization next week. I'm not very excited, knowing this will be an invasive procedure involving general anesthesia and intubation as well as intervention (ballooning the LPA). I keep trying to push it out of my mind (focusing on fun things like being a first-time sewer -- wait, that looks like sewer, maybe I mean seamstress, except that gives me way more props than I've earned), but I know it's gonna happen and I just have to deal with it. God already knows the outcome and our job is to just trust Him. Easier said than done sometimes.

Oh, I feel a cath-related blog post coming on... ((sigh))

My First Official Sewing Triumph!

Yes, once upon a time I made a pillowcase. And then another. And then one more. Without a pattern, just cutting rectangles, measuring here and there, tossing in a few pins to keep it together, then running it through the only setting I know how to use on my mom's sewing machine.

It wasn't rocket science. I get it.

But today I unveil an actual accomplishment! I bought a sewing kit from Walmart of all places to make my very own apron, and was able to do it all by myself! Yay for me! Although I still don't technically know what a "flounce" is and didn't find out this video existed until two seconds ago (long after completing my project), I think I did a pretty decent job!

Good ol' Walmart. Home to Creative Cuts by Springs Creative. So easy and so fun!

The "before" picture of my fabric cut-outs.

And... the "after" pic!
NOTE: There's a reason I don't have a million-dollar modeling contract, folks. As if.

Complete with functional pocket. See??

I have to admit... I'm getting addicted to this sewing stuff. How amazing is it to see a bunch of random shapes of fabric magically turn into a functional item like this apron? I can't wait to try something else next. Any suggestions? One day I'll get brave enough to buy a real pattern and cut out my fabric like the pros do it, but for now, I'm up for whatever the next challenge is that comes after a pillowcase and ready-made apron.

So. Much. Fun!