And as soon as we moved, Auntie Awesome and I took the girls for a shopping trip where I bought all the supplies to make the planter.  All of them!

And then, I left them sit in the garage for a month and a half.

I don’t really know why.  Maybe moving was harder than I thought?

But, on Monday night I finally slapped some spray paint on that sucker and Tuesday the girls and I planted and this is what we have.

Before Plants (obviously, right?)

Isn’t it happy looking?  I may still opt to stencil our initial or house address on it.  Verdict is out.

After Plants

Also, we decided to plant herbs instead of flowers.  It’s really late in the growing season and we love fresh herbs, so it was a win/win.

If you decide to make this, you may find you have trouble getting the pots to sit flat at first.  Don’t worry!  The weight from the pots will flatten the dirt and everything will be even/flat.

Also, the Princess and I went to Walmart to buy our plants.  Plants are hella cheap right now, including big patio planters with tomatoes!  I bought three boston ferns to hang on the porch for the stickered price of one.  See?  More pretty!

Porch ferns. LOVE!

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I haven’t, but I tend to be a little dramatic in any case.

But, I think there’s still room to cram in more summer fun, so we’re going to be doing the following:

• Making a Marble Run ( and I hope we, but not really meaning me or Big Daddy, do not fight over it).  Maybe we’ll even make two.
• We’re going to ice cube paint on a hot day
• We still have time to make amazing things out of homemade playdough
• We still have time to eat Popsicles for breakfast.
• We have time to blow a million bubbles
• We have time to camp, cook out over and open fire and sleep(mostly) under the stars
• We have time to go to an amusement park.
• And we have time to shop for school supplies because even though I lament the ending of summer, I’m a school supply junkie so buying school supplies?  Cheap?  AWESOME!

We may only have a month left, but I think there is plenty of time to still pack in the fun.  What fun things are you going to pack into the end of summer?

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I’m busy trying to figure out where I could put this adorable Loopy-Loo Garland from ISLY.  It’s going in my house SOMEWHERE!

I already have a spot picked out for these Cherry Blossom Branch Lights

I’m not much of a fun of crocs and croc type shoes, but I like them a LOT as these cool alien feet from Craftzine

I love this idea for ice cube painting from Mini-Eco

These tiny little crochet butterflies from Little Birdie Secretsmight just find a place in Little Bit and Baby Bee’s garden themed room

This baby sunsuit from Made by Rae is Just….edible .  Seriously THAT cute.

Dear Lizzy’s pretty petals tee is stunning and with thre girls I can think of about a million uses for those little flowers

Loving this ribbon head wrap from Twelve Crafts Till Christmas

I’ve seen other incarnations of this take-along doll house byServing  Pink Lemonade.  And, don’t worry Mom’s of Boys, she has a farm tutorial too. Maybe I should sew up one of each and the little people can switch off.

Hope you’ve found something to inspire you this week!  Happy crafting!

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Once upon a time there was this girl. We’ll call her Wittle Llama.  She had a great love for very pretty things.  She would pull out the Schmottery Farm catalog and show her patient, loving husband Wig Laddy the things she thought they should buy to outfit their tiny abode.

Wig Laddy would raise is eyebrow and cock his lip in that way and ask questions about how it was made and how much it cost and blah, blah, blah and always rebuffed her request for a house full of Schmotter Farm furniture.

Because obviously, Wig Laddy didn’t love Wittle Llama at ALL.

But deep down, Wittle  Llama knew that Wig Daddy was right, especially after discovering that $800 doesn’t even buy you WOOD furniture.  It buys your particle board and MDF.

With the pending move, Wittle Llama decided that it was time for their traditional entertainment center and piers to move on to Aunt Waren and greener pastures.  She began to consider how she would talk Wig Laddy into an $800 piece of MDF furniture from Schmottery Barn.  Because it was perfect.  Just what they were looking for.

And then one day, Wittle Llama found a website.  And there, in it’s entires, was the Schmottery Barn media console she’d be coveting but there were plans on how to make it yourself.  This was perfect!  Just what she wanted!

But, Wig Laddy didn’t build things. EVAH.  Wittle Llama pleaded.  She bargained. She pointed out how wonderful it would be if they could build their own lovely furniture.  Out of wood.  REAL wood.

Real wood sold Wig Laddy, but he didn’t build things.  Evah.  But they had this friend. Um, Ron, who did.  And so Wittle Llama called Ron and asked if he could mentor she and Wig Laddy through the building process and because Ron is awesome he said sure.

So, last Sunday, Wittle Mama, Wig Laddy, Ron and his wife, um, Jim (Some things are hard to rhyme, man. Jim is not a man and I figured it was better than Dim which she is NOT), hung out and Ron taught Wig Laddy how to make something.

And Wittle Llama is in love.

Lovely

I will be building the doors, putting in the shelves, sanding and staining but it will be in our house soon and I’m so excited to see it finished.

If you haven’t, check out Knock Off Wood!

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It seemed simple.  One pattern piece and a few steps.  And some bias tape.  I considered making my own bias tape, but after I determined that I needed, oh a yard or so and I was using my much coveted, treasured and out of print Heather Ross Mendocino fabric (check it out on Etsy! $27 for a set of 6 fat quarters.  That puts it at $18 a yard.  Lots more than I paid for it when it first came out, but I’m digressing and I intend to talk about Heather Ross fabric in this post anyhow).  So, anyhow, I bought some bias tape to match because 1) I’m lazy and 2) I wanted to use as LITTLE of my fabric as possible.

I know it sounds weird to actually not want to use your fabric, but I can’t really justify buying more of it at $18 a yard.  And I love it.

(Yeah, I got that app too)

I would consider my sewing skill to be intermediate and this went together for me in about 30 minutes.  I haven’t used bias tape in a long time and I forgot how nice it was to use and how nice the finished product looks when you use it.

I followed the pattern and  instructions exactly as written, but I omitted the wooden beads.  I didn’t have any on hand, saw no reason to buy any and think it looks just as nice with only the knots at the end.

I may sew a pair of bloomers to go under this as there’s no way it will actually work as a dress on Baby Bee.  I might also pair it with a pair of cuffed capris.  Or both.  It seems pretty forgiving through the chest (it gathers on the straps) so it would probably be great for a gift too.

And now onto Heather Ross.

If I could only have one person’s fabric in my collection, I’d pick Heather Ross.  Mostly because the designs and drape of the fabric is just perfect.  I do have some of the cotton lawn fairy tale fabric, which is much lighter in drape than this and some of the kokka that is heavier, but for the most part Heather’s cotton fabric feels just like this fabric does and it is a dream.

THere seems to be some sort of disconnect between Heather and the people who own the licensing for her fabric as she said some time ago that there wouldn’t be any more new stuff from her for some time.  Then, she announced that some of her designs would be available at Spoonflower.  It’s beautiful and it. Is. Pricey.   I’m not sure what the drape is like on any of the Spoonflower options,  so I don’t know if I would be LUV with them like I am with what I currently own.

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If you’re a beginning sewist, these dresses are the way to go.  One seam up the back with straps.  You can make them from fabric from the dress or use ribbon.  Your choice.  Wonderful.  Easy.   But…frustrated with the limitations, why not make your own shirred fabric sundresses?

I followed the easy tutorial at Pretty Ditty and I made this:

Littlebit LOVES it.  She picked the fabric.  If I were to make this dress again, however, I’d change something.  Of course. (When you fly by the seat of your pants, you’d always change SOMETHING).  I’d sew the dress parts together (bodice and skirt) and then shirr.  It was really hard gathering and attaching the skirt.  Why not do it all in one piece?  I wanted a fuller skirt.   Want some more direction? Check out:

• Little Girl’s Shirred Sundress from Sewing Chick
• Shirred Sundress Tutorial from Kitschy Coo
• Prudent Baby offers a tutorial with Pom-Pom straps
• Thornberry made a shirred pillowcase sundress
• And look!  Heather Ross shows you how to make a shirred sundress on Martha Stewart.  And there’s a video! For you more visual learners.  The sample dresses are made out of Heather’s Mendocino line, which is just beautiful.

So, what are you waiting for?  Go make something!

FYI-My Hobby Lobby did NOT carry elastic thread NOR did my local Wal-Mart which still carries fabric.  I had to buy mine at Joann’s.  It comes on a spool and you can find it with the regular elastic.

Hey!  Want to heck out what other people are making? Check out:

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But clothes making?  Totally my thang. I’ve made a little bit of everything.  Pants, shirts, skirts, jumpers, dresses, costumes and pajamas.  Mama-made pajamas are most favored nation status around here.

While I subscribe to Ottobre Magazine, my favorite nightgown pattern is easily found at most fabric stores and Wal-Mart (I know, I know the DEBBIL).  It’s a McCall’s  See and Sew B4005 and it runs about 2.99.  Why do I like it?  It really IS easy.  At this point, I can get this nightgown together in about thirty minutes.

Fairy Fabric from Joann's and hid in my "collection" for a couple of years.

I do want to make one point.

The problem with “Big 3″ patterns is that they’re sizing is off.  Seriously.  Littlebit is running around a 4t now.  I pulled out my measuring tape and measured her, matching her measurements to the pattern.  It reccomended I sew her a size 4.

Huge nightie plus some big cheese

Well, as you can see the nightie is falling off of Littlebit.  I could probably cut her down to a size three or maybe even a two without it being too small.  I also chopped about six inches off of the length as well.  My point? Well, it’s a great pattern, but beware of sizing even when measuring.  If your fabric is extra speical and you want a perfect fit, it might be worth it to make a practice nightie in some less special fabric first.

Overall, though, this is a great pattern for a new sewist (I like that better than sewer which can be taken more than one way).  If you have girlie little girls, she’ll probably love it too.

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To keep myself on track, I’m using 2do on my iPhone.  I enter in my chores, commitments, etc and am having good success.  I’m sorry about leaving off he exercise, but I need to wrap my head around a better way to do it.

Using my calendar (and task lists) have left the hous clean, which means more time to ponder crafty possibilities, like what sort of sundress I should make with this.

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And then I started to think.  It’s true that in the blogosphere, that a lot of people are enjoying bloggy success with cooking and baking blogs.  In fact, the pioneer Woman has even recently put out a cookbook and has been on a book signing tour.  That’s success, my friends.  But do I think it’s economy driven?  Yes and no.

Chicken and dumplings, which spawned this whole thing

Cooking from scratch, unless you’re consistently cooking expensive cuts of meat or with truffles or something, is inexpensive.  And, unless you’re consistently cooking high fat or calorie heavy foods, are better for you than eating out, but I think the overall interest in food, cooking, baking, gardening, sewing, knitting and other crafty and DIY pursuits are part of a sort of backlash, anti-technology if you will.  Creating one thing or one small batch.  It seems kind of rebellious in a mass produced world.

Wee bag

For me, it’s not about being a rebel.  And it’s not about economy, though cooking food at home from scratch is economical.  It’s about the joy of using a handmade thing.  it’s about selecting th fabric or yarn or recipe and pattern to fit your exact needs.  It’s about holding on to things done the old way because sometimes the old way is better.  It’s about knowing where things come from.  Whose hands kneaded the dough, or knit the gloves, or sewed the hem or pickled the cucumber.

Clearly I have no problem with modern convenience. I like target and starbucks as much as the next girl.   Maybe more.  But I also like the simple process of crocheting a chain, baking a cookie, sewing one perfect dress.

When there wasn't a foot of snow on the deck.

And teaching the lesson that just because you can buy it doesn’t mean you have to.  It’s not just economy.

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Santa and the Girlies

We are lucky enough to have a local Santa to visit where the lines are short, the wait time is non-existent and Santa looks pretty real.  Your community might have a similar place check your local newspaper and

http://www.santa-america.org/map/

I’m also wrapping up the presents as they come into the house.  My list of gifts left to buy is printed out and filed into my planner so I can take advantage of any spare, free moment AND so I can cross things off as I make them happen.

Looking for a quick and easy craft to make with the kiddos?  Consider paper chains.  Littlebit and the Princess are both over the moon about this super easy craft.  They’re inexpensive and even young children can participate.  At three, Littlebit was able to make her own chain with a little help.  And the Princess took off with supplies to make her own as well.

paper chains a la Littlebit

If you want to step up your game, check out Folding Tree’s holiday entries for some cool paper crafting ideas for big and bigger kids.  I made a few tear drop ornaments to hang over the dining room table….for some reason I can only find a few of my normal snowflakes this year.

paper teardrops

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