Cutie Pies

I made these (ready to smock) pink tops and bloomers in stripe for the baby, and the capris for the big sister for a wedding party, their mom smocked them herself and it was her first time trying smocking - I think she did a great job and the girls were beautiful.

I made these blue angel sleeve bishops for these beauties so they would steal the show at a wedding recently -- aren't they beautiful models!? They have a brother who was wearing a jon jon (shortall) too, but I think he didn't want to be in the pic...What beautiful girls!

Whale Outfit Modeled

Please forgive that this model is a couple sizes larger than this outfit -- my daughter is 4 and my niece I made this set for is turning 3 this summer...but you see the set and how cute they are -- I can't wait to give it to her!

Top for Niece's birthday present

I whipped this EASY top up for my niece's birthday next week - isnt it cute -- just cut off an A-Line dress below the waist and don't sew the side seams together...I got the idea off of craftster.org...quick and easy -- I think I'll try to make some shorts and add a ruffle of the whales onto the hem too, but off to bed I go for now!

Brother/Sister Shorts & Sundress! Cute!

I created this set for my good friend for her son (size 2) & Daughter (Size 7) .

She found this fabric on the http://www.palmettokids.net/ website and I got Deborah to send it to me and thought these patterns would look good on her kids. It is a green and white seersucker with pre-embroidered little alligators all over it...SO CUTE!

Shorts are a basic short pattern, I have no idea which one I used because they are all the same, and the dress is from my favorite pattern New look 6195 View E (definitely the easiest one in the pack -- less than an hour to assemble it!) It has an elastic back and ties around the neck.

I can't wait to see them in it at church!

Blooms from my Garden

Here are some of the blooms in my garden right now... bright yellow chrysanthemums, southern hibiscus, and some sort of zebra stripe leaf cannas...all so nice to look at!

Purple Booties -- with Fringe

I think the little white fringy yarn on the top of these booties sure dressed them up and made them cute! I just added one row of single crochet with the same hook all the way around -- major cute indeed! This was added to the little booties I posted yesterday -- they needed a little something more.

Crochet Booties - Slight Variation

I made some booties from this pattern before, but this time I only did one row on the "cuff" and they are more like the "short socks" of today...Don't they look nice on Molly? She is such a nice model for me! I am thinking of adding one row of that fringy, fuzzy yarn across the top edge for some pizzazz!

Original Pattern is here:

http://susan.kraus.net/pages/pattern6.html

I used a g hook -- I think they'd fit a newborn.

Remote Control Organizer tutorial

I created this project:
http://craftyjnet.blogspot.com/2008/05/im-being-published.html

for Lark Books to publish in an upcoming book called Pillowcase Challenge...

If you want to see the detailed and painstaking tutorial I created for it, check it out at :

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=252081.0

What did you do today Jnet?

Painted rainbow toenails and canned Green Beans -- YUM!

Yes, my toenails are green, the girls get a kick out of it -- I call it "fungus Green" -- Gross right!?!?!

Friend Dress & Doll's Dress

I made this matching set for my daughter's best friend for her birthday -- they both love their American Girl dolls so I took her friend to the store and let her pick her own fabric out and assembled a dress for her and her doll...she is going to be so excited. This fabric has a layer of glitter in it so it is fancy

Here's the kicker, I secretly make the exact same set for my daughter for her birthday (next month), and she will be so excited to get them as she was watching me make this one for her friend and said "I wish you would make one like that for me mommy"

Girl's Dress Pattern: New Look 6195 View B

Doll's Dress Pattern: McCall's 5554 View C

Cheetah girls go to Berefoot Sunday!

I added this action shot of us today as we wore our matching dresses to church this morning to the "Barefoot Sunday" event. check out this neat organization at www.giveshoes.org. anyway, I Love my new skirt and plan to use that pattern again! I must also mention that this little girls pattern for a sundress only uses one yard of fabric to make a dress...you can't beat that for frugality!

Bracelets to match!

Today my 4-year-old and I made these bracelets for the girls and I to wear with our hot pink cheetah matching outfits I made on Monday -- aren't they cool? They are all exactly the same except Mommy needed some extra

wiggle room.

Crochet Booties 2

I made a second pair using the baby fingering weight yarn and ended up with a nice yellow pair of booties that would be great for a newborn. (A little smaller)

also added the tie to the pink ones. I had run out of the pink yarn so I found some varigated baby yarn and I think it jazzed them up a lot!

Spring Harvest!

Alas, these are not from my own personal garden...The deer won't hardly even let the grass grow in our yard. But my friend lets me raid hers! I am so grateful as I LOVE fresh veggies from the garden. I have never worked with a beet before so that is exciting...and all these strawberries mmm mmm good!

Q&E Crochet Baby Booties

http://susan.kraus.net/pages/pattern6.html

Above is the pattern I used for these Q&E Baby Booties. They were super quick and super easy! They start with a round at the toe and then work to the heel with sport yarn. I did use a needle one size smaller than the pattern because I always end up with a project a little bigger than the pattern gauge. I think I am going to give them to you Tracy L -- for your baby girl...See you Saturday!

Hot Pink & Orange Cheetah Outfits!

My girls and I will look good hitting the town in these cute outfits won't we? I made myself the skirt which hits about mid calf from Simplicity 4599 View C. I haven't got any hot pink zippers in my home collection so I hope to pick one up today while I am out so I can see if the thing will even fit...

My girls have sundresses from New Look 6195 view B. My youngest stays home with me so hers is finished, but her big sister is at school today so I have to wait for her to come home today to get the elastic and straps fitted to her.

I am excited about these! My friend Beth said "I have some fabric I found while cleaning out my house" and she wanted to know if I wanted it...I definitely did and knew it would be cute in just the right application!

Please help me decide what color shirt I should wear with this skirt...Maybe I'll post some options.

I'm Being Published!!!

Lark Books http://www.larkbooks.com/ has offered me a spot in their newest book "pillowcase challenge" where they want to see what people can make with a pillowcase.

They sent me a pillowcase and this is the remote control organizer I came up with ... it could organize other things too. This is my first craft to be published in a book and I am excited...I'll even get paid...cool! Here is the finished product that I made...and I still have a lot of work to do on the instructions, but isn't it pretty?

Bias Tape edged Washcloths

My girls were in need of some new washcloths in their bathroom. They were still using those baby ones. I found that regular $2 each (and up!) washcloths are just too thick to give a bath to a 4 year old. I found some thin ones in a 9 pack at our walmart and they are just too boring, so I plan to jazz them up in a couple of different ways...the first two I just added some edging. I started with a bias (cut at 45 degrees) strip that I eyeballed at about an inch and a quarter and then ironed into a double fold bias tape. I sewed it right on the washcloth edge to dress it up. The fabric is a pretty green with hot pink polkadots...girly! I'll post the other ones as I finish them -- I still have 7 left to play with! but right now I have got to step away from the sewing machine and clean the house...

Finished Angel Sleeve Smocked Bishops

My friend decided that she wanted me to go ahead and smock the 12 month dress that I had prepped for her to smock, and here is how they turned out...I think her kids are going to be the cutest ones at the wedding they're attending in their matching brother/sister outfits -- these go with "Aidan's Jon Jon" below.

All Star Towels

I embroidered 5 of these for the "book parade" next week at my daughter's school, the librarian asked me to do something "girly" and "sporty" with all star on it...I think they are cute! These will be part of a prize bag full of sports stuff the top readers in each grade will get (the girls of course). The boys had a green towel with sports things embroidered on them.

I knew him when he was a kid!!!

http://www.carolinaliar.com/

The lead singer Chad Wolf (formerly Wolfenberger) of Carolina Liar grew up about 5 houses down from me and his big sister was our babysitter...he was two years younger than me...how cool to know somebody famous! Nice to know that somebody from Moncks Corner is famous!

Stephanie's Bishops

I thought you'd enjoy seeing what a bishop looks like while it is getting smocked...

These "sister" dresses are to coordinate with Aiden's jon jon a couple of entries down. She wants to learn to smock so I finished off the size 6 and am going to teach her on this size 12 month dress.

Our Rainbow Cupcakes

Our Rainbow Cupcakes turned out yummy!

Cannas Multiplying & Decapitated Rose

Here is a quick pic of the Canna I received from a cousin. I got one last year and planted it and look how many came up this year! I will be able to divide and share next year I bet! Doesn't it have a pretty leaf with those zebra stripes on them?

On another sadder note, my rose bush I was so excited about, my Jackson and Perkins Princess Di Rose, has now been completely decapitated...the deer ate every single budding bloom off of it!!! You can see how healthy it is, but every one of these stems had a bud and, sigh, they are now all gone! Daddy needs to do a little hunting!

You've got to try this

http://pandora.com/

You put in your favorite artist and they play music for you -- it is awesome...you can't download it, but for me it is a nice (commercial free) radio station of only what I want to listen to!

Rainbow Cupcakes

I have got to try these -- divide your cake mix into 6 bowls and color them the rainbow colors and put them in the pans and bake = the girls are going to flip!

http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/rainbow_cupcakes

Aidan's Palmetto Jon Jon

Didn't this turn out cute? It's a size 4 jon jon that is completely reversable -- all that is left is to try it on him to see where the buttons need to be sewn into the straps -- he is going to be cute! She is having me make butterfly/angel wing bishops for her daughters and this is for her son -- more to come as I finish smocking the bishops!

Student Teacher Tablecloth

Next week is Teacher Appreciation week so I whipped this up for my 1st grader's teacher. She has a little table where the "student teacher" sits in the classroom and it has an old scrap for the tablecloth. I machine embroidered it, hemmed the edges, and added a button to the bottom. I though that she could use the button to change the name each day of the child...I think she is going to love it! It's about 40 inches square so it is a nice size too.

Butterfly Tops

Size 2 and size 6 ready to smock tops. They are exactly the same on the front and back -- these shirts really make a nice show! Now I can't wait to see what you're going to smock on there Kim!

The last 4 finished!

So, now I have 12 completed fully lined tops that are ready to smock and you can attach either shorts, a skirt, a little ruffle (to make it a shirt) or even long pants -- these are super versatile and I can't wait to see what she is going to do with them at http://palmettokids.net/

I think they will eventually land under the "haydebug's heirlooms" tab...after they get smocked of course.

4 more tops finished

Here are the 4 24 month ready to smock tops I finished up last night - I may get the last 4 done tonight!

Make your own Hamburger Helper dinner

http://milehimama.blogspot.com/2007/01/works-for-me-wednesday-make-your-own.html

I think I could try one of these next time I have a "cooker's block" and can't think of anything I'd like to cook...they aren't glamorous...but it would pass the kids test!

4 down 8 to go

I have a big job I am in the middle of -- I got the first four finished, and here are the other eight, cut, pleated, tied off and ready to sew...I should be able to assembly line them fairly quickly -- but even prepping 8 up to this point took some time! Thought I'd post this so you know why I haven't posted much lately...

Also, we spent this entire weekend on the plumbing in our new house we just are getting started on, weather couldn't have been more beautiful!

4 tops done -- 6 to go

I finished 4 of the 10 tops in this pattern for the website I mentioned below...the top two are size 3 and the bottom two are size 4 -- ready for a skirt/ruffle & some smocking -- this is fun!

New pattern - ready to smock

I'm making a new pattern for a lady at http://palmettokids.net/

It will have a ruffle attached to the bottom after it is smocked, and it could easily be adapted into a jumper, dress, shirt, whatever you want - how fun! Isn't the sash on the back fun?

The pattern is Bonnie Blue's "Hallie" and this is it in size 3. She has me making 10 of them and then sending them to another lady to smock them and then they get sold on her website -- isn't that cool?

This is a test

To see if the "subscription" email thing works...

Wanna Subscribe to me?!?!?

I think I have an option in this blog website that I can put 10 email addresses in for this site to notify you when I post something new -- if you are one of my friends or family that wants to know what I am up to, I'll put your email address in there and youre supposed to get an email notification whenever I post something new!

Princess Diana Rose

My dear friend Tracy gave me a Princess Diana rosebush (2 years ago?) and we are enjoying our first bloom of this season -- this thing was blooming all the way through October last year -- big, full blooms!

Now if I could only learn how to trim the darned thing! It's taller than me!

Kwanzan Flowering Cherry Tree

Our Kwanzan Flowering cherry tree is in full bloom and looking so pretty --

Striped Shirt (For ME!!!)

http://www.simplicity.com/dv1_v4.cfm?design=4632

Finally something for me, Simplicity 4632 -- short sleeved shirt version -- it started out as a dress, but it was pretty loose so I cut off the skirt and went back to the shirted version -- got this nice thick fabric for $1 a yard believe it or not -- my youngest is asking for a sundress to match me to I guess I'm off to pick a pattern for that! No buttons, zippers, or snaps, it just slips over the head -- that is probably why the dress was too loose. It does have two "boob darts" on the side, but overall, a quick and easy pattern to use.

Thanks to my 4 year old for being my photographer!