Wednesday, March 16, 2011

My Creative Outlet

First of all I am happy to report that Aubrey has been staying out of trouble. There have been no major messes that have caused me to call my daughter names such as beastly or a terror. So I am much happier these days. :)

I have been having so much fun lately with doing the kids' rooms. The boys room is all finished except we have to actually hang the shelves that we got at Ikea last week. When that is finished I will post some pics. I have been on the hunt for a chandelier for the girls' room for quite some time. When I tried to explain to Josh what I wanted he thought I was crazy. I had to show him pictures on the internet to prove that putting a chandelier in a girls room was a good idea. Anyways, I had found a few at a really awesome store here in town that sells antiques but they were more than I wanted to pay and when I looked online all I could find was ones that were too big or ostentatious. But I still wanted to have the crystal look. Well, then I stumbled upon this little beauty... While we were in Utah for the birth of my sister's first baby I took the fam to a cupcake shop that was right by our hotel called "The Sweet Tooth Fairy." The cupcakes were to die for and I found a light fixture that would be perfect for the girls' room. I just loved it so I took a picture so that I could try and find a match to it. The next day I went to Ikea and unexpectedly I found a chandelier that was almost a perfect match. And the best part was that it was half the cost of the ones I had found in Billings. I love ikea!!! So this little sucker is the inspiration for the girls' room. Now I just have to fill in the rest. We are starting with paint and will go from there but I am loving the striped two tone paint look.
I have been lucky enough to have a number of friends and family members having babies recently. I love babies! I just want to hold them and snuggle them and eat them up. You can't get much better than a brand new baby. Anyways, I have been hard at work making some cute things for all of my friends and family. I made some bow ties and used my skinny boys' necks as a guide. I figure that you don't want them too tight for a baby and that if a baby is chubby at all then Ethan's neck will most likely be the same size. We will see. I put lots of velcro on them just in case. My sister had shown me once how she makes bow ties so I just made a few adjustments and tried my best. I was pretty pleased with how they turned out.

Josh's stepsister is having her first baby next month and naming her Aubrey too so I made an initial onesie with the cutest ruffle butt ever! I love making little girly things with ruffles and bows and not using traditional "girl" colors. Oh and just can't over how cute the flowers and headband turned out. I love the fact that the black headband goes so well. I had made this one for Aubrey but she didn't get to wear it very much because she had nothing that really matched.


Too Cute!!!


This bag was a special request made by Julie. It is her diaper bag for her new baby. She was very particular on the fabric but we finally found some that she approved of (long distance fabric shopping is difficult) and it turned out so beautiful. I made a couple of different adjustments to the pattern on this one to make it more of a diaper bag. I added width to it and gave it a bunch more pockets as well as a longer handle. I had taken it down to Utah in pieces so that I could finish it with her there in case she wanted any other adjustments made. Well I had forgotten some pattern pieces so I had to wait for Josh to bring them to me, (he came down a day later for work) and then the next day when I was supposed to finish it he still had my stuff with him in his car when he went out to make his sales visits. So I finished it up at the last minute in the hotel. I even had to go to the front desk and ask to borrow a pair of scissors since I had left mine at Julie's house. So yeah, getting this bad boy finished was quite the feat.
Yup, I took this picture in my hotel room :)

This is my newest favorite baby item. The suspenders are so stinkin cute! And then it allows me to use a coordinating fabric for the ties. I love them!!! I can't wait to make more, so you friends of mine better start poppin out those boys!

Yesterday I spent almost the whole day sewing. It was wonderful, I love sewing because it allows me to clear my mind and just think. I found myself pondering a number of different things in my life right now. It just leaves me feeling refreshed and more focused after I get to spend some time creating. Now if only I could find that kind of joy in cleaning my house.