Feeling Crafty

I was going to post a part 2 of Favorite Finds Friday, but I didn't get a chance to over the weekend. Instead, I got my craft on. :) I can't show you all that I did yet, but I can show you my favorite thing I made. Or things, I should say.

February is Heart Month. This week, February 7-14, 2011, is CHD Awareness Week. I mentioned last week that my daughter was born with a condition called Tetralogy of Fallot. You can read more about it here and here. In honor of the week and the love filled holiday coming up next Monday, I decided to make her and her favorite bunny heart dresses. You'll have to forgive the pictures, I was having some trouble with the camera settings.

It's hard to see, but the white fabric is pleated down the front.

The heart is a pocket.

I had never made clothes before, so it was a learning experience. This post from Christie at A Lemon Squeezy Home was super helpful when it came to the construction and sizing. I wish that I had added ribbon or some kind of tie around the waist, since it ended up just a tad too big, but nothing a handy safety pin couldn't fix. I was going to do a tutorial, but couldn't see a need with so many awesome dress tutes already out there in blogland. Scarlett was super excited that she had a heart dress and even more excited when I showed her the little one I made for her bunny! Totally worth the billion times I pricked my fingers with stupid (but necessary) pins. We had studio pictures taken today, since I had a coupon. If you'd like to see them, you can do that here. (Please don't be a creeper and order them or anything. Thanks)

Here is Bunny and a few pics of Little Red hamming it up.

I'm going to do my best to link up to all the fabulous places over on my sidebar. Hope to see you there!

Thanks for stopping by!

Also, I thought I'd mention that MO weather stinks! This will be the second week in a row that quilting was cancelled because of the stupid icy weather. Seriously not cool.

I'm also linking up here:

 Did you know that The Idea Room has a community site now? It's pretty cool, you should go check it out!

Mommy Moments

This weekend was kind of busy and I got a little distracted today, so I'll be super creative and crafty tomorrow. I had every intention of sewing today, but it just didn't happen. We had some family time instead. Mondays are special because they're one of Ralphie's days off, so he gets to spend the whole day with me and Scarlett. We have to be pretty careful with Scarlett in the winter, as it would be really rough for her if she got sick. It's likely that she would end up in the hospital so we don't take her a whole lot of places and it's normally way too cold to let her play outside. The sun came out today and started melting all the snow. Not a lot of it, obviously, but it was warm enough that we could bundle her up and let her play in the snow for the first time. She was so excited! Here are some pictures:

Helping Daddy build a snowman

Giving the snowman his carrot nose

Daddy throwing snow at Scarlett

Scarlett throwing a snowball (it fell, so you can't see it)

 She got to play outside for about 30 minutes and was so mad when we brought her in. I didn't get a picture, but before she came in, she made her daddy give the snowman his hat. "Snowman is cold outside, Daddy. He needs hat. Give hat now." She's so sweet.

Tomorrow I'll have something super cool and crafty to share.

Thanks for stopping by!

Wordless Wednesday

Help Me Out!

My daughter is in a photo contest on Facebook and I need your help! The 'character' with the most votes gets a free Dr. Seuss-themed photo shoot and we need to win! Here's how you can help:

1) Go to the Chaotic Perspectives Facebook page and 'Like' them.
2) Go to the Seuss-Tastic Voting Album.
3) Click on the picture of Scarlett. She's the kid wearing a shiny red nose. :)
4) Type the word 'vote' into a comment.

You can vote for Scarlett once per day until the 23rd. Thanks for helping!

Thanks for stopping by,

That First Quilt…

Sorry it is hard to see, but it's the only pic I could find with Scarlett's quilt in it.

When I was born, my great grandmother, Nana, made me a quilt. I would drag it around with me everywhere! It was the only pink thing that this little tomboy liked as a child. Sadly, it was lost in the Flood of ‘93. We were evacuated in a hurry and it was left behind. Anyhow, when I was pregnant with my daughter, I decided that she needed a quilt. The problem was that no one in my family quilts any longer. Nana passed away and she was the only quilter I could think of. I decided to make one myself.
I was lucky enough to find a sewing machine at the local Salvation Army Thrift Store ( I love that place!) for only $15. I checked out books from the library and went on an online quest to learn how to use it. I had never used one before! (I was a tomboy-I took shop in school) I also found a quilt shop-the only one in my town-and the owner was good enough to explain some things to me. I bought a charm pack and made my first quilt.
My daughter loves it. She has other quilts now, but that one is her favorite and she drags it around everywhere. It’s not the prettiest and I’m amazed that it hasn’t fallen apart yet, but I love looking at it. Except for the binding-the binding and I got into a fight and I lost. lol.
It’s been almost 3 years since that first quilt and what started as a one-off thing became a hobby, and now a passion and *hopefully* a career. Please wish me luck as I start Sew Very Happy Quilts!

Hat and Costume Tree Rack Tutorial

My 2 year old daughter loves hats. Pirate hats, cowgirl hats, funny animal hats, princess crowns....I could go on and on. If it goes on your head, Scarlett is happy. She's also a fan of dress-up and has two wonderful grandmas who constantly buy her costumes. Needless to say, she has a whole lot of stuff and nowhere to put it. Enter: the Hat and Costume Tree.

I normally refuse to do any craft type shopping without a coupon, but the growing mountain of dress-up paraphernalia was making me crazy and I headed over to Lowe's. I bought a 2' by 4' sheet of wood, 3 packs of curved hooks and 6' of chain to hang the costumes from. I was also super lucky to get a big can of $32 mistinted blue wall paint (which happened to be the color I was looking for) for $5! I already had some acrylic paint and Mod Podge at home, so it wasn't completely new materials. :) Here's the fun part. I took my sister along with me for supplies and we got a little carried away with the paint samples...

I started off by painting the wood. I ended up using 2 coats. *note to self-next time don't pick a windy fall day to paint outside!*

Forgive the mess!

 Once it was dry, I took a pencil and sketched out two tree shapes along the left and right sides of the board.

Next, I measured out 3 rows of 8 hooks each on the front and marked with pencil for the hooks. I also started drilling the holes. Yay! Power tools! Once my holes were drilled, I used acrylic paint to color in the tree trunks. I tried my best to paint it on thick, but ended up happy with the texture so I didn't bother with a second coat.

I took the paint samples from Lowe's and divided them into two piles, greenish and red/brownish. I decided to do a summer tree and a fall tree. After I had two piles, I started to cut out leaf shapes from the swatches. With a little Mod Podge, I started layering on rows of leaves. *I screwed in the hooks that were going to be in the trees before I started with the leaves*

After the trees were finished and the glue had dried, I took my trusty MP and coated a sealing coat all over the tree tops to keep them there and make them glossy. :)

While that was drying, I painted on a few butterflies, flowers and a caterpillar as decoration and screwed in the rest of the hooks.

Here's the mostly finished project:

And here it is in use:

I haven't attached the chains to the sides of the rack yet, but I haven't picked up any toddler hangers for her costumes yet either, so they are currently in a reusable shopping bag for now... *I decided not to hang up the chains. She's too little to use hangers anyway.

Hope you like it!

I've linked up here: