Bad with the Follow-Through

You know how in basketball, when you make (or try to make) a shot, if you don't have a good follow-thru it doesn't ever seem to go in.  That's me.  I have no follow through.  Seriously, TONS of stuff that I don't finish or procrastinate on, and sadly, my little piece of blog-land is one of them.  So, here's the quick run-down:

I did a coule of craft shows this fall- one was a total bust and the other was not so bad.  While I was at one I met a girl named Lois who sells for Thirty-One, and I was hooked.  The stuff was SO cute!  I've done a few shows, made a little extra cash, and its fun and easy for me.  I'm still sewing, but this replaces my sewing "job" (aka, supplying the etsy shop and craft fairs), which means I'm back to sewing for fun.  Yay!  I havent's wanted to look at my sewing machine for weeks, but now I'm itching to start some Christmas projects :)

The other big news at the house was that Sophie was hit by a car a few weeks ago.  We are VERY blessed and extremeley lucky that nothing too serious happened.  Sophie ran into the street when we were visiting my cousin and was hit.  It was very scary, the EMS came, we went to the hospital.  Her chin was split wide open and it appeared that her jaw was broken.  The EMT was about 90% sure that was the case.  Brent was waiting for us at the ambulance bay and noticed right away that there was something "off" with her mouth.  LOTS, and lots of prayers were said in those first few minutes for our little girl and I know they helped heal her.  After she went for her CT scan, when she came back, her jaw looked back to normal.  She had no broken bones, no internal bleeding, her jaw was fine, and not even a concussion, which is a miracle considering she had tire tread on her face.  She ended up with some stitches in her chin and her neck.  We did an overnight stay at the hospital to be observed and got to come home the next day.  What a miracle!  The only thing now, is that her lower lip isn't moving correctly.  We're very hopeful that it will heal on its own, but for now I'm happy to see her crooked smile!  Sophie won't even walk to the car now without holding my hand.  I'm sad she had to learn that lesson this way, but grateful that it seems to be sticking with her so that we won't EVER have to do that again.

Update Smupdate

Things have been busy!  Brent continues to plug away at the garage project.  I've been doing a lot of sewing in preparation for the upcoming shows, plus I've done some alterations for some girls participating in a wedding this weekend, I've been doing lots of hair recently too.  Also, we did this last week:

We LOVE Cedar Point, but had been unable to go for almost 6 years!  The Mr. and I spent last Wednesday there and had a blast!  See that HUGE coaster at the front?  The Millenium Force is seriously the best coaster I've ever been on.  And yes, it is HUGE!

We've also been working on hammering out an itinerary for our 10 year anniversary trip.

Yep, we're headed to Vietnam in March.  I can't even begin to tell you how excited we are!

Also, I'm in a pickle.  My sister is hosting a prom for grown-ups in two weeks.  I have purchased the fabric to make a dress, and now I don't want to do it.  Boo!

If Wishes were fishes . . .

CraftGossip is having a totally awesome giveaway- win an Etsy wishlist up to $100!!!!  Seriously too fun for words.  Here's my wishlist

Super cute Halloween Tags $4!!!  from CraftyChic

Set of Halloween Banners from The Spoiled Wall  $12

Peacock Fascinator from Pegasusmaiden  $16

Cute Christmas Gift Tags from Mad4Plaid  $5

Beautiful Pattern from Bernioles  $5

Awesome Laundry Soap from Shifflett Studios $8

Super Cute apron from Paisley Pockets $28

3 yd. Amy Butler Full Moon in Cherry from Brodyandma  $23.25

HOT HOT HOT

The weather here in IN has been unbearable.  Really.  I'm a PROUD card-carrying Hoosier, but even I've had enough of the heat and humidity and have been whistful for the 100+ heat and skin-cracking dryness of the West.  It's been too hot to do much of anything outside;  even the girls only last about 30 min. before they've had enough, so we've been indoors a lot.  Too much!  Maybe we'll make it to the splash pad again this week.

Yes, the kids are cute.  It's kind of ridiculous ;-)

This is my Little Midgee on her 3rd Birthday!  She's growing up fast and just keeps getting cuter!

I've been making LOTS of skirts.  This is a favorite for sure.  Finally got the pattern for it in the shop, and I got a start on the shows I'm doing this fall.  Hopefully no repeats of the last two years where I spend an entire week tethered to the sewing machine.  I promise I'll be good this time!  I already have 75% of my stuff cut out and ready to sew.  That is a huge help.  Now I can just pull something out and sew it up and it's done in about 45 min. tops.  Loving it!!!

I'm getting a garage!!!  Words cannot express my joy over this one.  We've lived here almost 4 years with no garage.  I think parking in my garage will be the height of luxury.  Things were on hold for a bit when the excavator found a human-looking bone.  We had to get it examined by the Anthropology lab at the local college to see if it was human.  Turns out it is a pig femur, which can be swapped out for a human femur . . .so if ever you're in need of an extra femur, keep the Augustus' in mind!

A Flurry of Fairies!

As promised, a small post on Vivian's fairy themed party.  This was her first party that wasn't just family, and she was really excited to have a "girls" party.  I thought it was so cute when I asked her who she wanted to invite that she included her friend's little sister and also put "Aunt Natalie" on the guest list!  I could have gone totally over the top, but reigned myself in and that was a good idea.  Even a "low-key" party ended up being a lot of work.  On top of doing all the party stuff, there was still a house to be cleaned and diapers to be changed!  I am proud to say, I stuck to my $25 budget and still had pennies to spare!  Anyway, here's the rundown:

Fairy Wands!  These were super easy and made a really cute centerpiece in a vase.  I bought these 3/$1 at the Dollar Tree and then put some glitter glue on them and used a thumb-tack in the tops to attatch a few pieces of randomly cut ribbon.  These were a big hit and I would definitely do them again!

Makeup!  All of the girls got fairy makeup in their color of choice and then topped off with a heavy dose of glitter.  Electric Blue was my most requested color, which was surprising.  I was ready to put pink on 7 girls!  Oh, and of course, all the girls got wings.  I managed to find these at a fantastic price, $1.50/pair at http://www.haloheaven.com/

We started out coloring pictures of fairies; this was a great activity because not everyone arrived at the same time.  I set the talbe and the side table using some vintage sheets and tablecloths from my collection.  You can't see it terribly well, but in the center of the talbe is a birdcage that I decorated with some fabric flowers and then placed a fairy figurine inside with some glitter.  The girls LOVED that!

We played a game next;  Pin the Wings on the fairy.  It was a lot of fun and the girls certainly giggled a lot.  I just drew the back of a fairy on a piece of posterboard and then cut out a pair of fairy wings and put some tape on the back.  Super easy!  Nobody even cared that my fairy was lopsided and ill proportioned ;)

Next it was bubble time.  Best $1 I've ever spent.  Seriously.  We also painted flower sun catchers, but I didn't get any good pictures of that.  I found a package of 12 at Michael's for $4 and used my 40% off coupon.  It was a bit messy, so be sure you have a plastic tablecloth that you can just throw away, but it was lots of fun.

Time for cupcakes and icecream!  Nothing complicated here either.  I had some sprinkles on hand and some pink glitter-gel.  I found a template for cupcake wrappers and traced some pink and lavendar scrapbook paper I had on hand.  They were cute and definitely not perfect!

We brought out the Birthday Girl's cupcake on a silver candle holder I had.  She thought that was really cool! 

Month in Review

I can hardly believe it has been an entire month since I blogged. I've not done anything crafty, but I have of course purchased some new fabric. I was fortunate to run across a shop that still had some Sandi Henderson "Meadowsweet" in stock and couldn't pass it up. So, without further delay, here is the month in pictures:

We spent the first days of our vacation (after a very long drive) in Estes Park, CO to visit the National Park. It was kinda cold and rainy, we couldn't see the tops of the mountains and saw one small patch of blue sky in the 3 days we were there and met up with the rest of the Augustus clan, so of course we had lots of fun! It was kind of ridiculously beautiful and odd for June. You can see there is still a little bit of snow on the banks of the lake. I think we were at about 10,000 ft. here. We wanted to drive all the way through the park, but they closed the road due to snow (about 10 in.) and low visibility.

When we got to Utah we got to meet a new cousin! Whitley and Brent's little guy Grant. He is super cute and of course, the girls loved it. They thought he was soooooo adorable. They're right :)
> We went to our (and by our and mean mine & the kids) first rodeo. It was fun, although I didn't really care for the calf-roping. It was just a little rough. I did however thorougly enjoy the Mutton Busting and the cow milking. Very entertaining.

After we got home we celebrated Vivian's 5th birthday with a girls only fairy party. I think I'll make a whole post about that later . . .
The next weekend I got to have lots of fun doing makeup for a wedding. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE doing bridal makeup, and this bride was super cute and fun! And last, but not least I'm so excited, in September my sister is hosting a prom for adults! I'm really excited and have been mulling over what to wear. I think I will probably wear mostly black, because it's me. I have however been watching the shows from Paris Couture week and got some major inspiration. I LOVE the silhouette of the first dress, and the second dress, the jaw dropping hand painted silk pansy, is a Dior. Of course, I will never own one, and I don't know that I really have the desire. I think instead I will attempt making a Dior "inspired" dress. I'll keep you posted!

And, we have a winner!!!!

I used random.org (I was going to post the graphic, but my computer is being dumb- so whatever!) and comment #71 is the winner!


Jacky {The Sweetest Petunia} said...
Okay, that is beyond adorable! I'm Jacky, and I'd love to win. ;)

GIVEAWAY CLOSED

A bag full of goodies!

I grabbed my favorite purse from the "stash" and decided it was time to give it away (since nobody wanted to buy it ;-) Nothing says summer like the combination of black and white, and who doesn't love pink??? I'm filling it with a checkbook cover, a travel tissue cover, a hair clip, pin and pin cushion. Maybe I'll add more . . . Anway, on the the good stuff- how to enter! There are three ways to win; please leave a seperate comment for each entry:


1st Entry: Leave a comment with your name and email address


2nd Entry: Become a follower of my blog. Please leave your name and email. (ex. "Macy macymade at gmail dot com I'm a follower")


3rd Entry: Blog about this giveaway. Please be sure to include a link to your post.


Giveaway is open for entries until midnight June 7th!

BONUS!!!!!!
If there are more than 300 comments the winner will also get a copy of "Weekend Sewing" by Heather Ross!!!!

Some Good Pictures

I'm so pleased with how this dress turned out. As mentioned in a previous post, I used Butterick 4732 for the dress. I added the pick-ups and the wrap-around bodice. The bodice was a little tricky and definitely required fitting on the model- lots of pinning. The pick-ups were a breeze though! They were a fun addition and I would definitely do them again. The bolero is from Simplicity 2400. I was concerened that it would have a really "home made" look to it, but it looked great. I think that's because it was a good pattern, not really that it had anything to do with my meager sewing skills. All in all, this was a good sewing experience for me and I would do it again in a heartbeat!

The Hills are Alive, and so am I

While I muse over what to make for a giveaway (I'm leaning towards another purse giveaway, but this time stuffed full of goodies!), I painted a wall in my kitchen. I only have one coat done, and it resembles the color of wet concrete. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. I'll get back to you on that one.
In the meantime, I watched "The Sound of Music" this morning with my kids. It was BETTER than I remember, and my kids loved it! My oldest is almost 5, and I thought it might be too much for them, or not hold their interest. Boy was I wrong! Right after we finished it, they asked to watch again. Maybe tomorrow. It's been years since I've seen the movie, and it was interesting to see it with "grown-up" eyes. First of all, when I was 10 I don't remember the Capt. being sooooo dreamy. Also, the Baroness had an AWESOME wardrobe!
Speaking of great clothes . . .

Bummer

I'm bummed! My hit counter at the bottom of the page stopped working so I had to re-set it. I was getting close to the 10,000 mark and was planning to do a give-away. So, I guess the giveaway will have to come early! Any suggestions??? I'm thinking doing another purse giveaway, maybe some pillowcase dresses for little girls, a bunch of accessories? So many choices

It's a Dress!

I'm done with the final fitting! Here is a pic before I finished the hem and got the straps sewn in- but you get the basic idea. It was a lot of fun to make and I'm excited to try something again soon!

I wish I didn't have to title posts

Spring is definitely here and I've felt really productive. I made a pie and brownies on Monday and yesterday I mowed the yard for the 3rd time this year. I'm still hopeful that we'll get a garden in, but that remains to be seen. We have planted a small flower garden and mulched the flower beds so things are coming along nicely. I've also been de-cluttering. It feels nice and I've also managed to make a little bit of money at a garage sale, so that is always nice. Here are a few of the things I've been up to: I made these little pin cushions for the facebook give-away I participated in. They were fast and easy. My favorite kind of project.

I finally got around to getting some new hair. I look a little surly because I honestly don't enjoy having my picture taken, but I do love the hair!

I finally cracked open my copy of "Sublime Stitching" by Jenny Hart. I've loved drooling over all the cute embroidery stuff I've seen lately and decided to recycle one of Brent's old dress shirts and embroider the girl's initials. I think I'll cut out the pieces and make them each little pillows for the birthdays this summer.

This is my garage sale project. It is a cupboard door I got that was painted plain white. I printed off the text and used tracing paper to transfer the image on to the wood then spent a good hour with a tiny brush and painted. Next I used a little sand paper and went over the letters to weather it a little; brushed on some glaze and called it done!

And this is the big project lately. I've been working on the hand quilting of this for a couple of months. It sounds tedious and laborious, but it is really enjoyable. I don't stress over having perfect stitches and find it a very relaxing evening activity.