Giddy over Verna!

I am just loving Kate Spain's Verna collection! My little clutch doesn't exactly do it justice - you have to check out the entire line. It is fabulous!!!

Chefs in the Kitchen

This week is flying by...can I add another day please? Company's coming, laundry is still piled up and I have some birthday shopping still to do. My little princess is turning 5 this weekend and we're having her party on Saturday. We decided to do a cooking party - so we'll have 10 little girls making up pizzas and decorating jumbo cupcakes. Fun! Fortunately, we decided on this theme a month or so ago, so I've had plenty of time to make aprons and chef hats for the girls. Thank goodness I have that checked off my list! I used the tutorials from Stardust Shoes - and if you haven't checked this blog out, please do! Joanna has some super fun tutorials on here!

While I adore those quilt fabrics out there, I had to be a little more frugal with this project. I found a twin sheet set at Target for $15 and was able to cut out all of the apron fronts and hat tops from that. I lined just the top part of the apron with some pink poly/cotton (the sheets were poly/cotton too...minimal shrinking!) and had some extra Mary Englebreit fabric that was feeling a little lonely. Pockets and ties with that. So, I'm thinking I spent maybe $30 for 10 aprons and hats...not too bad and they get to take them home. Sure beats spending the money on the little trinkets that end up in the trash, don't you think?

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Susan

What To-Do List?

So, why is it when I have a million and one things on my to-do list (that don't involve any creativity), that's when my creative juices start flowing. I have spent the past two afternoons working on a couple different clutch purses for the spring when I really should, you know, be feeding my kids? (Don't worry - I did feed my kids...I just won't be winning any mom-of-the-year awards for my inventive cooking. That's why spaghetti-o's were invented, right?). I told myself this morning that I would clean up after I finished "experiemental clutch A" last night around midnight and not touch another piece of fabric today. Then the mailman came and delivered exactly what I was looking for...some beautiful spring florals. I just couldn't help myself. Today's project came out much better than yesterday's - I'll post pics later. I promised the girls we'd watch American Idol tonight since it's Ellen's first night on...so off we go. Have a good night!

Susan

Four Years Ago Today...

We met our youngest daughter for the first time. She hates this photo of her (the top one) but I couldn't love it more. It was the first time we saw her sweet little face in person and the first time we heard her voice. I wish I could have bottled up the excitement in the hotel conference room that day when the nannies started bringing the babies in. No one knew whose baby was whose because they were all so bundled up. One little angel was crying so hard and I asked our guide who that was and sure enough, she was our little K.

We were so blessed to meet 10 other families on that trip and will be seeing them all again in a few weeks at a reunion in Texas.

One of my favorite photos of my girls...I only wish they got along like that now!

Happy Gotcha Day Bear Bear!

Susan

Girls and Twirls

I think she likes it...don't you?

Pattern: Pink Fig - The Girly Skirt

Fabrics: Paula Prass Summer Soiree

Love is in the Air...

Amy Butler's Love that is! I wish I could say I just "whipped" this up, but in all honestly, it took me way longer than I would have liked. Aside from experimenting with interfacing combinations, those curves just kill me. I must have turned and re-turned this bag 5 times because there were these teeny tiny areas of fabric that I just couldn't catch under that darn machine! I'll blame it on the machine, yes, that sounds good. Not my complete incompetency when it comes to maneuvering around those curves. Larger seam allowance next time!

But, now that's it's done, it did turn out well. I love the size and sturdiness of this bag. I used both canvas and heavy duty sew-in interfacing and did a better job this time with the seams. However, I did just read a nifty little trick after I completed this bag and it would have come in handy (if you've been making bags for awhile, don't laugh!). I need to cut the sew-in interfacing smaller (as I would for the fusible) and sew it to the canvas before sewing the main fabric to the canvas/interfacing. duh! Seems so obvious now. That means I can continue using the sew-in if the fusible bothers me. This after I did just purchase a few yards of the heavy duty fusible. oh well. It won't go to waste. This bag is available in my lonely little etsy shop.

Hope you are having a great week!

Susan