Make My Day

So, by now you know my slight obsession with Jennifer Paganelli's Sis Boom fabrics. Well, Jennifer the person is the sweetest too! She always takes the time to leave thoughtful comments on photos and blogs. She shares constant inspiration and beauty through her blog, and to top all of that off, she posted the kindest words about Avery's zebra romper on her post today. Thanks Jennifer, for all you do to inspire and encourage others!

BTW, I have a zebra romper listed in the shop. It's size 2T only since I had to make up the pattern on my own, but if you just have to have one in a different size, let me know. I'll see what I can do.

Great Tutorials Found

I found a couple of great tutorials at The Cupcake Goddess blog. (Don't you just love her title?) The first one uses paint.net, free photo editing software I've been using for a while, to pump up your photos. The second one helps to post photos from flickr a bit better than blogger posts them.

Before:




After:



What do you think?

Zebra Romper

As promised in this post, here are plenty of photos of Avery in her romper.

Dancing Queen Party Pics

My good friend, Katy, hosted a fabulous party for her daughter's second birthday over the weekend. There were cupcakes. And cake.

Plus snacks. Here's Katy and her youngest daughter Zoe.

Here's the darling birthday girl, Lily.

Avery joined in the fun inside Lily's new playhouse.

So fun!!

Playing Around

I played with my new camera quite a bit this weekend up at the ranch. Be prepared for a few posts with photo overload (at least the grandparents should love this).

New Pattern Love & Tweaking

I'm loving this new pattern from Jennifer Paganelli and Carla Hegeman Crim called the Cathy Dress. It is very easy to sew and produces such a sweet dress, or top if you choose. Of course, it's that much better when you use Jennifer's awesome fabrics.

Avery has a birthday party to go to this weekend with a Dancing Queen party theme. Too fun! She just had to have a little rocker outfit to help celebrate, so I tweaked these three patterns to come up with this romper. This was my biggest sewing challenge so far. I love using other's patterns to create something totally my own. Hopefully I'll have some great photos to show from the party. The fabrics I used here are Jennifer Paganelli's and Tanya Whelan's. I'm going to try to get the romper listed in the shop too.

Over-the-Top Popcorn

Here is a super easy treat you really must use for entertaining sometime. This recipe and photo are from Southern Living Magazine. I put this together for a salty side for our cravings baby shower. Here is my version:

Mix together 2 bags store bought popped white cheddar popcorn with 4-5 slices cooked and crumbled bacon, 1.5 -2 TBSP Ranch dressing mix, and 1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper.

Start snacking!

New Ride

Check out Avery's new ride!

Cravings Baby Shower

We had yet another reason to celebrate with a mommy to be this weekend. So, of course, I had to give some of the details of our baby shower. The parents have elected to wait until the birth to find out the sex of the baby, so we centered our theme on the mommy. This one is all about cravings. Haley hosted the party, and I helped with some of the details. Liz helped me pull together the invitations, and my sister came up with most of the fun wording. For the favors, I dipped pretzel rods in white candy melts and coated them in sprinkles. You can find the free ice cream template here.

I found silicone baking cups in the shape of ice cream cones at Hobby Lobby. They made super cute vases to set the scene.

We had a few salty and sweet treats to eat including a large pickle tray. Then it was on to the fun ice cream sundae bar with tons of toppings.

The cupcake magic shell topping was new to me, but fabulous!

All That Twirls

So, I was too impatient. I waited for the rain to stop, but the sun didn't quite make it out.

My sister gave me the Sewing Clothes Kids Love book for my birthday. This is the Insa skirt pattern using only the underskirt. I used the ideas from Jona's skirt here. You may recognized all the fabrics from Avery's Easter dress. This was a great way to use up some of those scraps! This one is going in the shop, so I can't wait to pick out some fabrics to make another one for Avery.

Speaking of Jona of Fabritopia, this is her Evelyn Apron skirt pattern that I have used several times before. I used the sweet fabrics from Tula Pink's Plume line. I love the vintage keys hanging from the trees in the main skirt fabric.

I'm listing this one as a custom item in the shop as well.

Okay, it's time to go study that camera manual so I can do more that just use the fully automatic mode. Wish me luck!

New Toy

I have a new toy!! This year my wonderful husband bought me this totally awesome camera for my birthday/anniversary/Mother's day gift! I took a photography class in high school, but like the German class, I remember nothing. I'm looking forward to playing around. I've been sewing a bit, but holding out for the camera to take any pictures. Now if the rain would just let up and the sun would come out, we would be in business.

I'm Crazy for Poodle

Have you seen what just popped up on Jennifer Paganelli's blog? Isn't her new line just too cute? The name is fantastic too! I simple can't wait for this one to come out. I see fun things happening here!

I grabbed this photo from her blog. Go check it out!!!

Happy Easter

We've really had some Easter fun this weekend. Yesterday, we joined all of our friends in the neighborhood at the park for a picnic and egg hunt. Can you spot all of the adults with the cameras?

We did another quick egg hunt at home today after church and brunch at a friends house. Check out the determined look on this face.

It gets even better when Daddy reveals the marshmallows inside.

Keep celebrating because Jesus is risen!!!!