Taking a little break this week in Marco Island, Florida. Olivia celebrated her 3rd birthday Tuesday, which she has been referring to as "birthday on the beach". She loved the beach... Henry, not so much. A little too much heat and sand.
Don't miss our Heat Wave Sale through July 10. A ton of fabrics, ribbons, papers, and hardware on sale. New and old-- don't miss it!
A new collection from Wendy Slotboom called Lily Pond. A delightful mix of simple graphics and your basic pink, green, blue and brown. Perfect for kid's clothes!
And congrats to Misty of Kentucky who won the Lantern Bloom fat quarter pack. She responded to my email announcing her win with "Holy Cow, I never win anything. Yipee Skippy!" Yipee Skippy, indeed, and enjoy those little works of art.
Let me first say that I do not know where my daughter gets these pouty model looks. I'm canceling her subscription to Cosmopolitan.
Anyway, my obsession with the tunic continues, so I whipped this up yesterday off of the pattern I talked about Friday. I L.O.V.E. it. It was easy to put together and the instructions were great. The only problems I had is when I didn't read them carefully and just moved on on my own. :-) I love the way they handled the contrasting facing and putting in the sleeves. Easy peasy. The only modification I made was I interfaced the contrasting facing around the neck because without it, the darker fabric showed through and I wanted it to have a little more body. (I was raised by a woman who interfaced everything, so it is definitely a personal preference.)
For fabric, I used Jennifer Paganelli's Magenta Stephanie and Blue Elizabeth Rose. The Elizabeth Rose is a stripe, so I used the strong stripe around the cuffs and the floral motif between the stripes for the neck.
I need to lengthen it a bit for my daughter to qualify as an out-of-the-house dress, but as a pool coverup, I think it will be perfect. I'm making more of these...
There's a whole background to tunics, for me anyway. Jennifer Paganelli,
fabric designer and sewer/crafter/artist extraordinaire always wears
darling tunics at Quilt Market to show off her fabrics. I have
threatened many times to make one, but hadn't found a suitable
pattern. On the left is what I had so far (chuckle, chuckle).
On a side note, I met the owners, Kim and Chris of You Can Make This at the Mom2.0 Summit that I attended in February. Their website sells downloadable patterns for sewing, quilting and knitting. (And probably some other things, but I only cared about the sewing. :-) ) So I was pursuing their site last week thinking about how I need to direct you over there because they have such cute stuff.
So are you ready for how all this fits together? Jennifer Paganelli and Carla Crim created a pattern for Jennifer's tunic and it is downloadable at You Can Make This.
I just bought the Patricia tunic and I'm going back to buy the children's Sophie tunic. I promise not to dress my daughter like me-- maybe. Anyway, the pattern is a downloadable pdf file and you print out the appropriate size of the pattern pieces and tape them together. The instructions include great drawings and full color pictures.
What I loved about this tunic is that it is just made for coordinating fabrics. Of course, Jennifer's Flower Power would be perfect, as would any of the coordinating quilting collections. I've always personally coveted one out of Alexander Henry fabric. And can you imagine one from Lantern Bloom?
So this pattern is quite fortuitous, as it saves you from the sleeveless monstrosity I was working on!
Laura Gunn's Lantern Bloom fabric collection just arrived from Michael Miller fabrics. She is a painter by trade and this fabric captures the texture and variegations of her art. The fabric uses very rich colors and actually shows the layering of color that was used in the original painting. Very cool and sophisticated looking.
Kathy Miller's blog, Making it Fun, shows great pictures of her debut at Quilt Market including lots of goods made out of the fabric. Visit Laura's blog, too, where she shows a lot of her paintings.
Oh, and Laura kindly sent me these fat quarter samples from her fabric collection last month, so how about I share the love? Leave a comment (make it meaningful- you can do better than just a "hello"!) by Tuesday at midnight and I'll draw one name to receive this stack. If you consider it a plus, they have been lovingly handled by me several times as I have admired them.
This is my sole accomplishment of the day- I got a car title and plates. My poor nanny has gone to the Texas Department of Transportation six times and her daughter and her friend have each gone once attempting to complete this task. And yes, every time, the state required another piece of paper, usually signed by some unattainable third party. And yes, every time, the request was a little different. In Texas's defense, a car title isn't that difficult to get in this state, but this one had all sorts of mitigating circumstances that needed to be waded through. Buying from an individual does not always work- especially individuals that don't provide the proper paperwork and disappear after the sale.
For the record, I'm not that altruistic. Just realize every time she went to the TX DOT was at least three to four hours that I spent with a newborn and an almost three-year-old. Government agencies can tax my patience, but not as much as a three-year-old. I do night duty, but I need a break during the day!
So, I guess this is quite an accomplishment, because I got it done today in a little over four hours and with only two trips.
What's this bonus piece of paper, you ask? Oh, that was the speeding ticket I got on the way to the DOT the second time. 63 in a 50 for a fine of $195. And my vehicle inspection sticker is expired. That's only $20 fee if I get it done in the next two weeks. He didn't wack me for not having my current registration sticker displayed (it was in the glovebox) or for having an insurance card that expired in 2007. So, thank you, Mr. Robles for not making it any worse.
Yes, I have mixed feelings about the accomplishments of today.
Olivia has taken to her role as big sister well. Hope that continues another 18 years. Henry continues to get bigger. Yes, bigger. And no noticeable hair loss.
I am wandering around in a fog, so seriously, I couldn't come up with anything clever to write about all week. Henry getting bigger involves a lot of eating between 11 and 6 in the morning. And though I do nod off on him occasionally, I wake up when I drop the bottle or when he reminds me that I am nowhere near his mouth. Oh, the trials of having an old mother...
Olivia has also been enjoying the benefit of Henry's gifts and the many gifts that have been included for her. She received a dance leotard this week that she hasn't taken off for three days. Here she models Henry's bath towel with her sunglasses and the gift wrap.
I will return to the land of the awake soon. I hope anyway...
New from Michael Miller comes Flower Shower in the great jewel tones shown above. Sorry I can't come up with any more clever things to say... I'm a little tired. :-)
The May Issue of Family Fun magazine features a Mother's Day Tea Party and guess what they used for the tablecloth? Well, Red/Orange Calliope by Jessica Jones, that's what. It's on page 76 and the feature was styled by Ann Lewis, Nicole Blum and Marie Piraino. They nicely featured the calliope design as the header of each page of the feature as well. Yummy.
Henry and family are settling in nicely. I said he had his days and nights mixed up. That isn't really true. His sleep schedule during the night is identical to his day sleep schedule-- it's just so much harder to take at night! However, he has been doing a nice sleep stretch from 2:30 to 6:00 a.m., which is most welcome.
And Olivia still thinks he is fascinating as, of course, Mother and Dad do as well.
Okay, now it's time to get on with work and stop obsessing about this baby. For now.
