The Garden Tote

I made my sister a garden tote for her birthday.  She just took up gardening and loves purses so I found some all weather fabric for pretty cheap and used This link from JCaroline Creative as a guide.  I decided to modify the pattern but use the tutorial as a guide on how to put the thing together.  I wanted her to have outside pockets to store her tools and then the lining would be waterproof so she could fill it with plants or whatever.  Anyway- here it is.  I'm actually quite proud of it despite the fact that my side pockets don't match up with my front pockets, which totally annoyed me at the time.

It's actually quite big so I hope she can fit lots of stuff in it.  I didn't realize until after I had attached the sides that the fabric was mismatched.  LOL.  But the outside is a heavy duty upholstery fabric and the inside and the pockets are a waterproof outdoor fabric.  I think I should have added some bias tape to the top, so if I make this again, I might do that.

Haaaaaaaaaaaapppy Father's Day!!

Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful Dads out there, especially my awesome husband who is a phenomenal father.  Sometimes I really feel like I won the husband lottery. 

I've been truly blessed with the men in my life- two great fathers, a doting husband, and a wonderful father in law.

Playdate!

Since I'm currently jobless....my new job is to score interviews and to spend time with my baby girl.  I am really so very thankful for this extra time I'm getting with her.  She loves it too, especially when we get to do fun stuff like have play date pool parties!  I met a good friend and her adorable little girl for a pool play date and A had a blast.  She was fearless in the water and loves that she can be mobile.  She even tried a little to swim on her own!  Her little friend T is the sweetest little girl ever.  Those two together were so cute!  I think they had a blast together.

She was so excited to "swim" by herself!

    

Playing before lunch time!

 

This is the look I get everytime I tell her to smile for the camera.  LOL.

Sharing secrets!

She's such a little girl.

And now back to the kid...

From birthday parties to pool parties, A is already have quite the summer.  Since her Grandma Thelma passed and left her a little something we decided to get her a swingset and a little wading pool for the backyard.  Which has turned my backyard to the local hot spot for the neighborhood toddlers.  LOL.  She's getting so big. 

She loves her new swingset!  It's a little big for her which is great so we can get a couple of good years out of it. 

This is the look I get for asking her to smile for the camera and look at mommy.  AGAIN.  

 I really don't think it gets much cuter than this.  I love the hat. 

We have quite the summer planned for her, and now that's she's older seeing her react to things like the pool and swings just really takes me back to the best times I had growing up.  Such a blessing.

My first name is not Dooney

I made a purse.  My little sister graduated recently so I decided to try and use my new found skilz to make her something.  I decided on a hobo bag with a laptop sleeve and I was inspired by this tutorial from JCaroline creative.com.  There are really some amazing tutorials on this site so I decided that because I have no experience what so ever making a purse I might as well just jump into it. I picked up some very cute fabric at Wal Mart (and very cheap which is what I like) and started my project.

First, it's not like I cut the fabric, sat down, and tra la la a purse was made.  I poured over that tutorial forever before I could make a cut because I was so scared to screw it up.  Then I decided that I wanted a little bit different pattern so I made a square bottom vs. the rounded bottom thinking it might be a bit easier.  Cutting the pieces is definitely the easiest part.  LOL.  You can't really screw up a rectangle.  I also made this thing HUGE so it would carry a laptop.  I did okay with attaching the lining, but sewing the sides and bottom to the main pieces was a pain.  And I screwed that up.  Twice.  So the handy dandy seam ripper came in handy.  Finally I realized that my seam allowances were waaaay too small at the very bottom of the bag so I had to improvise and sewed a piece to the very bottom from the outside vs. sewing it and attaching it to the inside.

Anyhoo.  I finally finished the shell and started on the interior which was a bit easier because I had learned from my mistakes.  But I did sew the interior pocket (with my first zipper!) on crooked.  By that time I could really give a flying farkus so I went with it and decided that the mistakes would just give it character.  My sister just received it and said she loves it so I guess it's a win!  Yay!

And here it is: 

The bottom picture is actually the laptop sleeve that I just cut two rectangles out of each fabric and sewed together.  It's very basic with no bells and whistles but I did add extra lining in between the two fabrics to create padding.  I didn't use a tutorial for this so I just used my laptop sleeve and tried to recreate it.  Oh and again my seam allowances were too small so I had to sew from the outside in some places.

This was actually a great learning experience for me and my next project was a garden tote for my older sister's birthday so she could keep her tools in a cute bag.  It turned out better than above and I'll post about it later.  I'm thinking I"m gonna do the hobo again for myself.  Hehehehe.

Jobless

Well I lost my job.  It's gone, and now I've joined the ranks of the unemployed desperately sending out resumes to a faceless email account hoping for a bite.  Ugh.  I've not been without a job in a long time and it's freaking me out a bit.  I was on such a regimented schedule and so busy all.the.time.  I basically had about an hour from 9:30-10:30 that I could just hang and sew or spend time with my husband watching TV.  Now I'm sitting here with all this time on my hands and I don't know what to do with it.  Besides job hunt...and sew.  I have been able to spend quite a bit of time with Little Sassy Pants which I love.  But the transition to unemployed is not an easy one for me.  I didn't realize exactly how much emotional worth I put into having a job.  This might be a blessing in disguise..a chance to regroup and find a job with a great company that is closer to home and allows a healthy life balance.  But for now...the search is on.

Addy's Birthday Party!

We had Addy's Birthday party last weekend and I was super excited to handle all the details myself.  It's really a time consuming thing to do - serving food and cupcakes to 30+ people but I had a blast doing it and saved SO much money... even if I had to rush around like a hyped up kid on too much sugar.  I spent the day before (after work of course) preparing all the food and making cupcakes.  Then the day of was spent decorating (thanks to my sister) and finishing and organizing all the food.  I was tired!  

We had it at a local park which worked out great for the kids.  Addy had about twelve of her friends show up and everyone had a great time.  My only problem was that it was so windy we almost lost all the food and the cupcakes!  You would have thought we had her party in a wind tunnel instead of a pavilion.  But the wind died down and I didn't lose any cupcakes, so I could finally breathe and watch a bunch of two year olds party down.

Cupcake anticipation...

Addy has kind of a thing for cupcakes so she guarded her stash with all the intensity a two year old can muster.  Which was quite surprising.  She refused to leave that spot for the entirety of the party.  I think I've figured out how to make a two year old sit still for an extended period of time.

We are still working on the concept of sharing. 

I take full credit for this look.  Full credit.  

She became very bashful when everyone was singing to her.  It was precious.

Finally!  She got her cupcake.  All is right with the world.  I guess I should also add that her Aunt (my sister) decided to sneak her cupcakes when I wasn't looking.  Talk about a sugar infused ball of crazy.  She was wired!  Next time I'll have to be a bit more strict on the sugar patrol.

She was exhausted after this party.  She had a great time running around with her friends and playing on the slides and swings.  AND she took a two and a half hour nap when we got home, which translated into a two and a half hour nap for ME.  

I'm not gonna lie when I say that I'm kinda glad that it's over.  Whew!  What a lot of work!  But so worth it for that strawberry frosting face above.