Hi my crafty peeps! Hope you have all had a great week. I have photographic proof of the kitchen painting. (And the reason I had nothing for CT last week!)

I finally like the color, after I went back and got “Pecanwood.” It seems the “Dusty Linen” was barely any different from the color of the trim and shutters. Now…maybe someone wants to talk me out of painting my cabinets? They would look so good with a fresh coat of “Dusty Linen” on them.

In other crafty news, Emma turned her diorama in yesterday. Hallelujah. I am proud of her, even if she was very insistent on doing it “her way.” All her design and her creation. She definitely knew what she wanted and is good at being bossy. “No Mama, I think that the seaweed should look like this…”

Needless to say, Daddy ended up helping her assemble the final product. It turned out very cool.

I was so excited to have a few hours to sew over the weekend and am working on putting my idea for those vintage aprons into motion. But it didn’t get far enough into motion that I can show it yet. Next week for sure.

I did finally finish a birthday gift for my best friend’s little guy. When Jen posted the tutorial for the art purses I was totally psyched. I have been looking for something that I can make for boys…it seems they don’t like vintage pillowcase dresses and such.

So I adapted the art purse into a little art book of sorts for our little guy. I obviously took the purse handles off and just put a little velcro closure instead.

I should have made it just a little bit bigger so my Mad Libs book would fit, but overall I was happy with how it turned out.

I have the fabric for two little girly purses cut out as well. Maybe if they have little art purses to take to church they will stop drawing all over my announcements and scrounging through my purse for pens? I think they might make good Easter gifts. I’ll try to get them done this week, too. And also I have about five different projects for a 7th birthday tea party coming up. Doesn’t 7 seem SO much older than 6??

Do you have any good crafty stuff to share today?

I’m busy painting myself into a corner in the kitchen. And the paint isn’t dark enough…so back to the paint store I go.

I’ll return with craft goodness next week, I promise!

And a very happy Tuesday to you all!

Hope you all got some time last week to get your craftiness on.

I had a tiny little bit of time, and made a ruffled skirt for Addie.

And I “fixed” one of Addie’s stained shirts, too. I did it after she went to bed, so she was pretty excited when she came down.

The ruffles are still a little bit off, lengthwise, but it sure is fun to guinea-pig on the girls.

And over the weekend we trekked to the flea market where I hit the mother lode at my linen lady’s booth. Look at all the lovely pillowcases I ran off with…

I will have dresses in the etsy shop soon! (I hope.)

AND, then…I also got some great vintage aprons from the same lady. She gave me a great deal on them…

And I have a great idea for them. We’ll see if it works out. Look at the sweet detail on the aprons…

Just imagine cute sundress-y sort of goodness from these. I’ll keep you posted.

How about it, my crafty friends? Have anything good to show today?

I’m intent on cleaning up my fabric stash around here. The girls are enamored with skirts, and it is hard to find really cute ones. And when I do find cute ones my first inclination is to turn over the price tag and scoff. “Pshaw! These are so easy to make!”

Er, right. But actually finding the time to make all those lovely skirts is another thing. But, like I said…I have the fabric – so we are on a mission for some skirts!

Em has been eyeing this purple/pink flower material in my bin for awhile. So I finally got it put together and sewed the elastic in it last night so she could wear it to school.

(She totally had a different skirt on with this t-shirt and these boots yesterday and slid this skirt on over her leggings so I could snap a pic…I’m working on a coordinating shirt for her new skirt, so don’t worry! Although the boots have been a constant in the wardrobe lately…they may stick with the skirt.)

I used this twirly skirt tutorial but didn’t have quite enough material. So it isn’t quite twirly. Unfortunately I told Em it was a twirly skirt and the minute she put it on she twirled and she was a wee bit disappointed in the “twirl-ability” of the skirt. I promised her that the next one would be a little fuller.

Now, I need to get back to the school newsletter and some other little artsy things that I have to do this week so that I can get back to our twirly skirts. For there is another little someone waiting (not-so) patiently for her skirt to be done, too.

***Edited To Add****

Ok, I got to thinking  and was a little concerned with what Em would want to pair up with this skirt tomorrow and I had a white long-sleeved t-shirt that had a spot on the front so I decided add a little flower to it to go with her skirt.

It would have been better if it was a purple or pink shirt, or if I had appliqued it in purple or pink…but we are talking 10:30pm project here. You get what you get.

Little light here for CT today.

I have this little dress – horribly and quickly – photographed before we finally got to deliver it to our sweet little 1-year old friend.

This is one of those projects that started out with an incredible vision, and then fell apart incredibly quickly. Pretty much everything that could go wrong with this little dress….did. This is actually the 2nd dress – there is a first version that is going to be adapted for Em’s American Girl doll…it wasn’t even able to be salvaged.

It was supposed to be reversible…finally I gave up on that. The inside lining that light blue color in a cotton/linen, which come to find out is kind of see through. And why…oh why(???), did I think it was a good idea to put buttons on this? I hate buttonholes.  But, it is done, I do love the birdy fabric and Elizabeth seemed to like it just fine. I’ll get better photos of it on her some time.

And that, my friends, is all I have this week. Yikes. That sicky illness last week kind of through my crafting out the door.

But wait! I do have another little crafty tidbit I can show. I think I can probably show.

I didn’t get permission from my mom – but she doesn’t have a blog, and I’m pretty certain she won’t mind if I show off her Valentine card for a minute or two.

So check this out… (again, sorry for the crappy photography – in my dining room at 8pm at night…lovely 1970s chandelier lighting!)

So it looks like a simple little V-day card, right? Then you open it…

Can you see all the cutout folds? You can’t really get the full effect in this crummy view – but trust me, it is really, really cool. It got “whooaaa’s” from the whole family. So thanks, Mom! They had to have taken a long time.

And with that, what does everyone else have for today?

I can barely keep my eyes open tonight. It was a very short, whirlwind weekend but totally worth it. I’ll be back to post photos and fun stuff from the SuperBowl, but first I need some serious sleep.

And also to show what I have for CT today. I made two bags last week…for me! I wanted a new laptop bag, so I made up this…

…and used it over the weekend. It worked really well. And I love the cool flower fabric.

I also made a little bag that I could put my camera in, with a pocket for my phone and cash. I needed something that protected it a little bit, (more than throwing it in a purse) but isn’t as bulky as my camera bag. So, a smaller little messenger bag type thing…

I also used it this weekend at the SuperBowl. It worked out well and even had some extra room for my tailgate loot. I padded it with a fleece interfacing so that it does a decent job of protecting my camera, too.

I can’t promise that I’ll be back tomorrow to look at everyone’s crafty goodness, I am already feeling behind and so very tired this week. But I’ll catch up, so make sure to leave your goodies!

Today’s CT is short and sweet since I’m trying to finish up another birthday dress for our little friend who turns 1 today (Happy Birthday, Elizabeth!) and I’m trying to get a little camera bag sort of thing done before my trip at the end of the week, too.

But we had birthdays last week, as you well know – and we had to take some time out to bake some cookies for Daddy (we sent them to the hotel…and they weren’t too dry, I guess.) and cupycakes for Uncle Jeff.

And I also finally got a little baby shower gift together for my cousin. She is expecting a little girl anytime now, and I’m figuring this package probably got to her already. If it didn’t by some chance, don’t peek Jackie!

There are some little reversible bibs…

Some reversible, flannel (super-soft flannel!) burp cloths…

And some little onesies…

My favorite, of course, is the little birdie…

And that is all I have today. I’ve got to get back to the machine…but I’ll be back to check in on your craftiness…so leave it!

I don’t have a ton of craftiness to show today, nor very good photos, but (cue the excuses…) I have two very good reasons for my lack of crafts this week. (And as usual my excuse for poor photos – waiting til the very last minute to take them, and not a ray of natural light to be found.)

So, first of all, J. is leaving for two weeks this morning for the ProBowl and SuperBowl. Which means that a bunch of the past weekend was spent hanging out with Daddy and packing him up for his trip. It was more extensive than it sounds, believe me.

And secondly, I started training in earnest again for the triathlon season. I was a bit slacking last year, but I have already signed up for the Pasadena one in March (in.eight.weeks!) and I’m planning on finding at least two others this summer to keep me motivated and training this time. So I found myself a sucker, training partner, my friend B., and we have been mapping out our workouts, most of which we try to do in the morning. Which pushes my errands, laundry, day-to-day stuff into the afternoon. Which pushes other stuff (PTA, work, blogging, photo-ing, etc…) into the wee evening hours. Which? Leaves not very much time for crafting. And also hasn’t allowed me to put anything up in the store, which I had hoped to do after the first of the year.

But, well…February is still “after the first of the year” now, isn’t it? So there is always hope.

After I did all that complaining that I was SuperCape’d out, I did make another one for Addie & Em’s dear little friend Frankie. She turned 4 and her mom said she has taken to running around yelling, “Frankie! Flower Power!” So this special edition flower cape was created just for her.

I actually really liked the color of this cape. It was a nice change from the blue, pink and purple I ususally do.

I also made a little blanket for Maverick. It looks suspiciously like the burp cloths I made for him, no? Well, come to find out Meesh was using the cloths as little blankies for him. But, as babies are prone to do, he went and started growing and stuff and the burp cloths are not cutting it any longer. So this should hold him for a year or two…

I have another baby gift ready to go out to my cousin, too. But it hasn’t actually been put in the mail yet – and I don’t want to ruin the surprise, so I’ll save it for next week.

How about all of you? Have you been busy bees?

I have been a cleaning, organizing machine around here – so I don’t have too much craftiness to show. But would you like to see our completely cleaned out closets? How about the neat playroom where all the Christmas stuff now has a home?

I scheduled a Veterans truck pickup for last Friday to coax me into getting the rooms cleaned out and the donations ready to go. I guess it was a pretty good plan, as it, um, kinda worked! And the other half of my devious plan (mwah ha ha!) was to “pare down” the toys in the play room while both of the girls were at school. Can’t miss what you don’t even remember was there.

I also had to tackle Em’s room while she wasn’t here. That girl is a packrat in the worst way. Little scraps and pieces of everything and anything. But I am most satisfied that we are well on our way to purging and being organized. Somewhat. Well, for a few weeks at least.

Since it looks like we’ll be here for awhile, I told the girls that I would paint their rooms for them. The previous family really (REALLY) liked the color yellow. Both of the girls’ rooms and the playroom are all yellow. I like yellow just fine, but I think we are all ready for a little change and freshening up around here. So Emma thinks she wants a light-ish purple (of course) and Ad a light pink (big surprise there, too). That is on our agenda for the next few weeks, so actual crafting around here could potentially be a little light. And other than Jam and Jeff’s birthday, I don’t think we have any more until February. So we get a little breather there, too.

I do have two gifts to show that I made last week, though.

First up, I made a laptop sleeve (tutorial from Sew Mama Sew) for my Mom.

This was the same material as the lining from her bag that I gave her for Christmas. (Yeah, the one I forgot to photograph – that one.) I thought that if/when she travels and wants to take her laptop along she can slide it in the sleeve, and then into her bag.

I think it turned out ok – I really like the material. And as always there are things that I learned that I will incorporate if I make another one. That is one thing I love about sewing…you always learn a little something different with each project.

I also made a little clutch for my friend’s birthday. And also got the tutorial from Sew Mama Sew – I think their tutorials are great and their fabric…sigh. I just can’t *shop* there, I can’t control myself. Anyhow – great stuff over there and lots of free tutorials and such. Someone asked me a few weeks ago (I think it was Christina?) if I use a pattern for my bags, and I don’t anymore. The ones I did at Christmas for my sister and Mom where just sort of winging it and trying out a few different sizes. But I did notice that on SMS’s site they have a tutorial for a simple tote bag – I don’t think it has a lining, but it might be a great one to try if you are interested.

Anyhow, back to the clutch. I adapted this one a bit, too.

I just put a little wrist strap instead of a shoulder strap. I like this tutorial – it was my first time using the super stiff/strong interfacing and magnetic snaps – both are kinda fun. And I love that you can make the clutch with just two fat quarters of fabric.

I picked this fabric because my friend Kristen is a super modern and totally fashionable mom. Always pulled together. One of those moms who always looks good, and one we’d all love to hate, if we just didn’t love her so much. So this fabric was perfect for her. I had several problems with parts of this though, and I think I’d make it just a smidge bigger next time. But it is good for a phone, some cash and a lipstick. I’ll definitely be making some more of these.

Now, I’m going to peruse some paint chips with the girls. But I surely will need some fun distractions this afternoon (since I’ve been so good about cleaning and doing my chores) so show me some of your crafty goodies!