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Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Portland Bound!

We're heading to Portland here soon for the purpose of fabric shopping! I read the blog by the store Bolt and have been wanting to go there, also there is Fabric Depot. But where else should I go for fabric and other sewing items? Any suggestions???

Monday, May 30, 2011

TGTM

What? Don't get it the title? It stands for Thank Goodness for Thriftshare Monday! YEAH! Because I wanted to participate in Apron Thrift Girls, weekly Thrift Share Monday again, I actually did some research on what garage sales I would go to instead of just seeing one on the way home from my weekly Saturday morning break errand. There were three that I had chosen. Two started at 9:00am and one at 10:00am. One of the 9:00am ones promised Little Pet Shop items and I had my eye on a Blythe doll for Tesla so I definitely wanted to stop there. The other 9:00am one seemed close by so it would also be good but nothing spectacular listed. The third one at 10:00am was a fabric sale. Specifically. Crazy. My friend Amy actually told me about that one. Thanks Amy!

Okay so the loot.
First garage sale I spent $5.10. (Note to parents, I know your daughters are super super cute and they act like adults but please make sure they can do math before letting them be the bank at your garage sale. They had to recount everything several times and gave me to much money back after I gave them a $20 and 10cents. Of course I corrected them. ) The Littlest Pet Shop items were a no go but I did find some other very cool things, well cool to my lovely 2 year old.

Here we see, two Chelsea dolls, you only see one here, the other immediately lost her tennis outfit and left to explore the rest of the house. Their names are Genny and Ava... I'm starting to run out of names and those are names of two little girls that Tesla plays with. Two little people, one Jesse figurine and a wooden bead necklace. All for 25 cents each. But along with this loot was the best find ever and has not left Tesla's side since Saturday morning.

See the horse? Her name is Beauty. She's the best. Tesla is just getting down from her chair in this picture to get Barbara (a Barbie, clever name right?) so that she could ride Beauty. That's my husband playing with another find, but more on that in a bit.


Besides a book that I managed to not get a picture of, the last thing I bought at this garage sale was this MAC chair. It was only $3.00 and came with the bag to carry it. The seat snaps into place and is much lower than a lot of the child size chairs. I took this picture next to Ben so you could see the relative size.

Okay so on to the next garage sale. First I saw this Bead kit that I thought of getting for my niece she's big into beading  but I believe she's getting some Ithing for her birthday and I figured she'd need itunes or some sort. I find the whole itunes and ithing gift terribly boring, but I'm pretty sure the icompany is marketing to me. Well I passed on the bead thing and saw this instead.

Snap Circuits Jr. A friends son has this or the non junior version and we thought it was pretty cool. My husband is an electrical engineer and even though he could technically put together something that did more then this that needed to be soddered together I thought that at $5.00 he could use this with kids to get them excited about science. When I got home I showed him the box. Not even 30 seconds later he had it open and was putting it together.

Check out that smile on his face while Tesla pushes the button.
Next and last, I went to a fabric sale out of a garage. This woman apparently does this sale all the time once or twice a year. She used to work at a quilt shop and is a pattern designer. Everything was priced at $4.00 a yard with smaller cuts available. I spent $17.00 on fabric and here is what I got.

I want to make something for my step dad and nephew with these music notes.

Auntie Bubbles is going to get a pouch or three lined with these owls!

I actually have some larger red tomatoes that I think will be made into a pouch with this as the lining.

Not sure what to do with this, but I thought it was sweet.

Definitely a pouch.

Day of the dead by Alexander Henry! YEAH!!! I can't believe I finally got some!

Other pretty fabric!
So that's everything I got! I think I did pretty well. I spent $27.10 total. A bit much to be spending unplanned but the fabric really was a great deal. Did you go thrifting this weekend? What did you find? Don't forget to see what others found this weekend at Apron Thrift Girls link ups!


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Saturday, May 28, 2011

A Pillow Case for Cooper

On Friday, I told you about the pillow case I made for Cohen. Today's pillow case is for Cooper. Cooper is also turning 3 on June 11th. He shares a birthday with my cutie patootie niece Sophie who will be 9! It's going to be a busy afternoon for us, with both his and Sophie's birthday parties. Luckily Sophie's party is just the kid one. They are doing it at a bead store which isn't incredibly appropriate for my Tesla, who has a tendency to eat pretty things that look like candy. So we're just doing a drop in, in the evening on that one.

Cooper is having a Farm party at a horse farm not to far from us. There will be horse rides and Tesla is so super excited about this, I can't tell you. I told her the other day in the car and she started singing Happy Birthday to Cooper despite the fact that he wasn't with us. I think it was just to try and speed up the process of riding the horse. I just have to mention that Cooper has this delicious little dance that he does when he's really excited about something. He kind of gallops in place almost. It's so cute. Oh and his smile. His smile is the cutest thing I have seen. He tilts his heads, squints a little bit shrugs one shoulder up and smiles. The first 30 times I saw him do this, I thought that is the most adorable smile I have ever seen, and then one day I saw a picture of his mom from high school (gotta love fb), and there she was 20 years earlier doing the exact same smile. How cute, that her smile is passed down to her son. (PS: his mom isn't really old enough to have been graduated 20 years just seeing if she's paying attention. ;) )

Even though Cooper is big into horses and diggers like Cohen,  when I asked his mom what she thought he'd like on his pillow she said firetrucks! So I found some firetruck fabric. It's called Under Construction Firetrucks Blue and is not by a specific designer.

Picture from Fabric.com

Here is the front of the pillow.



Here is the back of the pillow.


Now I know for sure Cooper is going to love the pillow case because I showed him the fabric and he did his little dance. I hope he can sleep well on it!


Happy Birthday, Cooper!

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Friday, May 27, 2011

A Pillow Case for Cohen

I have been working on more pillow cases! My daughter has a couple of friends that are both turning 3 within the month. One today and the other on the 11th. These boys are super cute and I just adore them and their moms. I'm sure their dad's are great, I just don't spend enough time with to say I adore them. Anyway, both boys are into trucks of course. Since I had recently started making pillow cases for Tesla I asked the mom's if they thought the boys would like a custom pillow case, and after I got the okay from them, I started looking for fabric.

Cohen is really into diggers. He's huge into diggers. One time we went to the community center to play in their open play space and there were diggers outside digging a trench and he pretty much just stood there watching them and laughed as only an excited 3 year old can do. He's really adorable. So for Cohen I found this Michael Miller Tot Town Dig It White.

Picture from Fabric.com
 Here is the pillow front. 
Here is the pillow back.

The pillow is more like a sham style. I like having pillows that don't have to be straightened up. I made these tight fitting too. That way even with the less dense pillows that we tend to give our toddlers it would fit well. I think he's really going to like it. I'm not sure his mom is doing a public birthday party for him so I'm going to need to coordinate getting this to him. I kind of want him to have it for his birthday. I don't really care if he knows it's from us. I just want to know he loved it.

Happy Birthday, Cohen! We love you!!!

I was going to do all three pillows at the same time but decided while writing this post to break it up into three different postings that way I can tell you a little bit about the recipient.


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Thursday, May 26, 2011

Winner!

Wow, what a fantastic couple of days! Thanks so much to Sew Mama Sew! for hosting such a wonderful Giveaway Day! There were really some fantastic items being given away, and although it looks like I didn't win anything, I sure feel like I did with all of your wonderful comments!

So who is the winner? I used the Random Generator to select a number. I think I messed up when I said that I wanted the widget to be editable after the code is created, so you're not going to see the result below. It's the first time I have used it and I can't preview a working one. So the first time that I hit the generate button the winning comment was #18!




Number 18 came from:


Candice @ Made With Love said... I love the blanket! I have a baby shower (for a girl) to go to in June, and this would be a perfect gift! Thank you for this opportunity! :) 
 
 
 
Thanks Candice for entering! I checked out Candice's blog, Made with Love man I wish I had won what she was giving away!
 
 
http://madewithlove-candice.blogspot.com/

I just realized I could still enter her giveaway and did! Everyone should hop on over there and enter to win one of her kits! I absolutely love them!

Mister Man enjoying cuddle time.
Candice I'll email you as soon as I can to get all the info for your baby shower gift! I hear the masses stirring awake so I need to get off now! Everyone else, I do make these cuddle blankets to sell. I can make them gender neutral for all those requests. I sell them for $20.00 each so if you'd like to purchase one please contact me!


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Sunday, May 22, 2011

May Giveaway! Sew Mama Sew!



Hi Everyone, and welcome to Tesla's Mom! I'm super excited to be participating in my first giveaway and on top of it to be part of the May Giveaway Day hosted by Sew Mama Sew!I started this blog a few years ago to create a place for our friends and family to keep up to date with our lives. Back then we were living in New Hampshire which was quite a ways from Seattle where I am from and my family lives. In that time we've moved back to our house in Redmond, Washington and closer to my family. It's been great being close to them and they have been able to be a much bigger part of our lives. We still have family and friends on the East Coast though and so I continued with the blog. Well at some point I started reading a lot of sewing blogs. Being a sewer myself I found it wonderful to be able to read about people's sewing creations. Since my son was born just four and a half months ago, I have been reading more and more and have loved the community that is the quilting blog community, and I want part of it! The ladies and men for that matter are so creative, and supportive of each other, and I am learning so much from all of them and that's why I've decided to partake in today's giveaway.

For today's giveaway day I am giving a custom Cuddle Ribbon Blanket to one lucky reader. These blankets are fantastic. I've recently been making them for friends who have had babies. (I'm just at that age where everyone is having kids!) Each blanket measures approximately 10.5" by 10.5" with approximatly 1.5" of ribbon on each side. I will also embroider a name of choice on the lower right hand corner.Winner must be located in the US. I will not ship internationally.

Here are some pictures of my little guy enjoying his Cuddle Ribbon Blanket!









The giveaway will be open until May 25th at 5:00pm Pacific. To enter leave a comment, letting me know if you'd like a blanket for a girl or a boy. You can enter a second time if you become a follower, be sure to leave a second comment. I will let the random number generator choose a winner. Your prize will be mailed out by May 30th! Good luck and don't forget to visit the other participants of the May 23rd Giveaway Day!

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Toddler Cuddle Blanket

My friend Denise asked me to make a larger cuddle blanket for her sister in law who she was throwing a baby shower for. I really wanted to do a matching bib and burp cloth so I added those in. Denise bought all the fabric and then some for payment. I love the way these turned out. I hope she like them!


Friday, May 20, 2011

Gift Set

Here's one of my more recent orders, I just completed. It includes a Baby Cuddle Ribbon Blanket, 1 Bib and 1 Burp cloth in matching fabric. Looks so sweet. For the bib I was able to use my new snap press and the polyacetel resin (plastic) snaps. They work really nicely and my new snap press is a cinch to use! The bib is now adjustable and would fit someone as small as Ben who is just 4 months or Tesla who is over 2 years old. I love these bibs they cover so well and are very soft on the skin. Unfortunately Ben is not the best model, he's a great tester though. There's a few of the same type of pictures just different views of the items.

Burp Cloth, Bib folded, and Baby Ribbon Cuddle Blanket

Burp Cloth, Bib and Baby Cuddle Ribbon Blanket (Minky Dot side up)

Bib and Burp Cloth. Bib is adjustable.

Ben modeling the Bip in toddler size adjustment.

Bib modeling the bib in infant size adjustment.
Baby not included

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Fonts


I have been working on a bunch of embroidery this past weekend. I have a few projects that I'm doing that I'm embroidering names on and so I thought I'd just cut the fabric out and just get all the embroidery done in advance, that way when I wake up in the morning I can just sew and complete rather than design the look still. I decided before doing anything I needed to just break down and do some sampling of the embroidery on my machine. I have tons of fonts but not all of them are great for embroidery. I'll have to do some more but once I did the Garamond I knew it was perfect for a classic serifed font. I also ran out of room on this fabric to do more, so it was a good stopping point. The English 111 is really strange. It's the most cursive looking font, so I thought it would be perfect for embroidering little girls names but it will not make the full capitalized E. Strange right? Not sure what's wrong with it. I have a friend who's daughters name is Elena and I made a little cuddle blanket for her, but then had to redo the top because it wouldn't show that E. Does anyone else have this problem?


Above are some embroidered names on a red Kona Solid for some little boys I know. These are eventually going to turn into pillow cases for them. I don't have Cooper and Cohen's accent fabric yet, so it'll have to wait. I love the way these turned out. Very strong and clear looking. I used the Garamond font.

What are your favorite fonts for embroidery? Do you have a favorite sans serif one? Or cursive one?


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Monday, May 16, 2011

Thrift Share Monday - Always Say Yes

Once again I'm able to participate in Thrift Share Monday hosted by Apron Thrift Girl. This past weekend I was not able to go garage sale shopping. After the week we had getting everyone healthy again after the crud hit our house, causing my 4 month old to be hospitalized, my 2 year old to get two ear infections and run a fever for what felt like forever, and my poor husband to be incapacitated by nausea, headaches and fevers I needed to run some serious errands. We didn't leave the house pretty much for one week, and although I don't really mind being a home body, I needed time away from my lovely family.
Despite everything that happened last week we did manage some crazy great thriftiness. First I got an email from a woman on Craigslist who had listed a playhouse and slide but hadn't listed a price. She said she was going to relist it but for some reason again didn't give any details and waited two more days to get back to me about what the price was. However she inspired me to look on Craigslist again for a playhouse, and managed to find one for $35.00 within 5 miles of our home that had just been listed. So we got it!





 My daughter loves the house. We set it up at a really perfect time. We'd been inside for what felt like forever. We have American flags near our front door and she decided that she needed one on the house. Not in front of her front door, but on the roof. I asked if it was so that everyone knew she was American, and she said "NO, no American." Hmmm must work on that patriotism.
 
Another thrifty thing we did was say yes. My MIL called a few weeks back and said that a friend of hers had some clothes for our son that are handme downs from her grandson. So I said sure if she wants to mail them to us, we'll take them. I learned awhile back to just take any handme downs people want to give us. We  have a lot of storage space and if there's something I don't like I'll just give it away, or if it's kooky and not my style keep it anyway for a laugh! Not a problem. Then another friend, Tracey, asked on facebook if anyone wanted hand me downs for girls size 4-8. I jumped on it immediately. Tesla may be 2 but she's wearing size 4 and we can store clothes that are to big for her, so why not? We sorted through all these clothes this weekend, and I can tell you with the exception of underwear and perhaps a few other essential items, we're not going to need to buy clothes for our kids for few years. Seriously. That's a pretty cool feeling to know you're set for clothes for awhile. So here are some pics of my cuties in clothes that were handed down to us and cost us nothing!

 Ben in a flannel/hoodie.

In his concert clothes... Wait I wasn't even alive. Do you think this may be Beattle related?

 Tesla lounging in a very cute red knit dress.

 Ben in some jammies.

 Okay this picture wasn't from this weekend's hand me downs but from some we got 2 years ago from a friend who said "here you want more kids, take these, you'll probably have a boy."

Nap time is apparently over.... Check out the other links on Apron Thrift Girls blog to see what other people have been thrifting this weekend.

Friday, May 13, 2011

Gnoma Claus by The Happy Zombie

Have I mentioned my love of the The Happy Zombie??? She's a rock star in the sewing world. Seriously. Everyone knows her. She's constantly mentioned in magazines and on other blogs. I learned about her in the fall, while reading a post by the Bolt Neighborhood Blog. I mentioned it back in October here. I love reading her blog. It's really inspiring. The colors are bright and cheery so I always feel uplifted and like I can do anything. Her favorite colors are Red and Aqua, which were my wedding colors. So I feel like we're kindred spirits. I imagine Martha, Monica and I one day chatting over coffee as we take a break from our sewing or crafting. I'm on a first name basis, with all the greats, don't you know? Another cool thing about Monica is that when you comment on a post on her The Happy Zombie blog, she actually writes back to you. Not just a standard, thanks for commenting, she actually writes back personally recalling things you wrote on your comment. Seriously, the first time she did that I just about pee'd my pants. Super excited, I felt so special. Now I kind of can't wait for her to write a new post just so I can comment. *he he he*

Okay so enough gushing.

Last year, The Happy Zombie came out with a really fun Holiday line that included the Gnoma Claus. Well I knew those would make great gifts for Christmas, so I immediately bought a few panels. I quickly did nothing with them. My dreams of completing a bunch of hand made holiday gifts last year were squashed by my pregnancy. I was just tired and uninterested in doing anything. But now I'm not pregnant and I decided to go ahead and start on THIS years holiday gifts!


This morning I made the first of many pot holders! I also want to make cute little pillows with this. I find the Gnoma Claus to be just adorable! Thanks Monica for creating something that is just well.... Happy!

Monica, along with the other rock stars are in Salt Lake City at Quilt Market. I am so looking forward to reading all the reports about it. You can see the button for the KPKM radio on the right side of my blog. That's Pam from Pam Kitty Morning who organizes all the reports and does fun videos at Quilt Market. She's another rock star. Both Monica and Pam have new lines of fabric out, you can check out their postings about them here and here

Well that's enough for me for one morning. I need to go eat breakfast before the rest of the house wakes up!

Thanks for reading along! Leave a comment and become a follower! You know it would make my day!!!


PS: Thanks Blogger for deleting my first posting and making me rewrite this. Thank goodness I subscribe to my own blog in google reader and could just copy and repost. 

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

May Giveaway Day Participation

I have decided to participate in the May Giveaway Day, hosted by Sew Mama Sew, on May 23rd! You can read all about it here.  I have been making super cute cuddle blankets for babies and think I'll make a customizable one to giveaway! So even if your baby is to big for it, you can add a friends babies name to it and it would make a wonderful gift. This is one of the first steps I'm taking to start my business by increasing readership! Please be sure to Follow my blog so that you'll be up to date with all the news!

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Pillows

Recently we've been trying to move T into the big girl bed. Our attempts have not been working. But in the mean time we set up the big girl bed with a pretty cat quilt and cat pillow case cover.



My mom had this quilt made for me when I was a little girl. It's in fantastic shape, it looks brand new. When we I was looking into bedding for T's bed I was just shocked at all the pricing and the fact that everything was either girlish or boyish. I didn't want anything that was to girlish because she'll be sharing her room with her little brother at some point. Hence the trying to get her into the big girl bed.

Anyway, she won't sleep in it. But she will sleep with her cat pillow case cover. Which is a problem, because it's a pillow case cover not a pillow case. It's comfy but it's at least 25 years old and looks great and I would prefer it didn't get ruined by little mouths and oily faces. (I'm well aware that it will most likely be ruined anyway.) She would also pitch a fit if we tried to give her something else though, so what happens if the pillow case cover is in the wash for nap or bed time. Or she gets sick on it and I can't just rewash it. I knew I needed something different. Something she'd be excited about sleeping on. I took her to the store and showed her the Toy Story and Disney Princess sheet sets and I asked her which one she'd like. She just said "No Woody, No Princess." Great. Then I decided I'd make a pillow case for her. I found this beautiful fabric, which was out of my price range for a pillow case that I wasn't sure if she'd like or not.

So I went to Joann's. I found some really cute fabric of, princesses walking dogs and doing other things, cute cats and colorful stars. I've only used the princess fabric so far but she loves the pillow case and is using it. So I'm happy. Here are two versions of it.







I have to credit my husband with the idea of the second one. I was complaining that I had a bunch left over but not enough to do a whole pillow and this is what he came up with. It's my first pieced thing. I'm pretty excited about it. T is sleeping on the first pillow, the second one I made for a friends daughter. I need to make one for her son too, and then I'll send it off.