Early recap of KCWC so far

A quick recap of things I've made for M this month:

Then the first two things I made for the Kids Clothes Week Challenge. he wrap dress from Sunday. The pants I made on Monday were cute, but a little too slim for M.

Yesterday I went for a quick-n-easy project: a simple circle skirt. I used Made blog's tutorial but made a covered elastic waist since I didn't have any thick, fancy elastic on hand. I'm really enjoying picking through all the fabric pieces I have already. It's paring the back stock down while giving me a fun challenge to match complimentary patterns up. (If you want to make a circle skirt that fits 2T to 3T, I have a jpg collection in google docs to make the circle cutting easy as pie.)

If I decide to try another pair of pants, I have some super cute, colorfully striped fabric that would be just perfect for these flat front pants.

I think I only post pictures of myself in this plaid dress. It, too, has a circle skirt and is probably why I was determined to make one for M. I love to randomly spin around the house and watch it flare out. Other times I hoist it up like Melissa Gilbert/Laura Ingalls does at the beginning of Little House on the Prairie as she's walking through the fields.

Just for the record, M likes to spin around and see her skirt flare up, too.

Kids Clothes Week Challenge: Day 1

It's Kids Clothes Week and this blog has a great list of tutorials to try. What is the Kids Clothes Week Challenge?

Want to join? Go to Elsie Marley's blog and sign up, join the flickr group if you want to show off your creations, and dust off the ol' sewing machine!

I cheated and started yesterday because I have to take time when I can find it. Using the "It's Mother's Day and I want to sew" excuse helped me get the time to do it, though. Here's what I made: a Prudent Baby wrap dress in a cherry print with a gingham skirt. The fabric is from the same batch as this dress; there are so many great fabrics in that batch that I'm eager to make more more more cute pieces for little M and I won't have to fork over any money for materials. 

I should've done it with snaps like they suggest, but couldn't find any snaps and when time is limited you just have to go with the supplies on hand. Buttons, I've got lots of cool, old, pretty buttons so I used those. I'd show you the button holes, but these button holes are actually way worse than the first button holes I ever made, so don't look closely. Just look at M's cute little face and then glance at the dress. 

I had so much fun working on today's post on Modish I want to do more more more recycled outdoor projects like every single pallet project Eren has completed recently. That table and those casters. . .*sigh*! Are chandeliers a new theme?

Then there is this lacy little number I found for a song in Trellis' shop. It's going to be part of next week's project. . . and has a little something to do with another recent theme.

Happy Friday folks! Are you planning on playing outside?

Happy Earth Day!

What are you doing to celebrate?
Jess is going to get a compost bin started.

I'm going to work a little more in the garden, and organize a specific spot for our recycling, to make it easier to take out. It doesn't sound too progressive, but the more organized we are at the Sweet Haven Farm (our unpublicized name), the more successful we are.

I also spent a little wad of dough on more hellebores (her pic, not mine!) this morning, but for 12 plants, what I spent was a bargain. What a beauty to use to reduce the size of our lawn, too!
Check out Wildflower444444 for more plant deals and delights!

Also, a recent order from High Country Gardens included:
Appar Blue Flax: Linum perenne 'Appar'
Wild Four O'Clocks: Mirabilis multiflora
Evening Primrose: Oenothera speciosus 'Rosea'
Russian Sage: Perovskia atriplicifolia
They won't arrive until Thursday (I've been tracking them like a hawk), but am already dreaming of where to put them.

Yesterday I bought a little sage plant and a pregnant onion from The Rainbow Path. The plants they were selling seemed to be extra starts the lady didn't have room for. The sage was something I would've bought sooner or later, the pregnant onion is a happy little addition to the houseplant jungle I'm working on! It's so nice to stumble upon plants and not have to go fight the masses at the nearest Lowes.

As far as actual gardening,
I planted a little more yesterday, then napped until this morning. . .Yikes!

That much sleep keeps the news fairly bland.

I spent a little time thinning some seedlings yesterday. Only about half of the starts made it. The seed mat threw me a curve, I really didn't keep up with watering them like I should have. Live and learn.

I'll end today's post with a beautiful green tribute from † mariana on flickr. She always has such interesting photos, and her words here are absolutely inspiring.

Project conservation

I'm sure to most of you, drying clothes on the line isn't too novel, but for me it's a new experience. We've had one in our backyard all along, but we also have a GE dryer that looks brand new. It was my parents but when the drum started squeaking, the appliance place said it would be just as practical to buy a new one rather than fix the old one.
Since when did dryers become disposable?
Anyway, it works just fine, the squeaks are pretty annoying, but it gets the job done. . . until the clothesline was re-strung! Now we have a good sized line that accommodates 2 loads worth of damp laundry! What a peaceful, meditative act. And it'll lower the electric bill a bit! I also started painting the rain barrels a hunter green instead of leaving them the dirt-showing, glaring white. So much better! The mister and I were talking about building a water tower-like structure for the stand of one of them, you know, just to be funny.
We also put the larger furniture objects out at the street with "Free" signs on them. We got rid of 5 chairs and a coffee table with minimal effort! Some things have been Craigs listed, others eBayed, and the majority will be given to the community thrift store. Purging feels so good!

The wallpaper is finally going up. I really love it, and had a tough time deciding where it should go. I only have one roll, and though it is a double roll there was a lot of pressure to have it in a really special place. I was/am especially afraid of overdoing it and turning the house into an amusement park hall of mirrors. The color of the trees is actually closer to the install shot. The background is a true mirrored finish (Huggie Bear now spends a great deal of time on the stairs trying to figure out why the black cat in the wall won't come out and play.)

On the stairs it went; one wall is done, 2 more strips on the other. My mantra this week: I will wallpaper, I will paint the stairs. Repeating this oath as frequently as possible.

And just because everything is getting holidayified, I hung a garland from the ledge. This year I really have been Ga Ga for Garlands. I made this red and purple one for a swap, but loved it so much when I put it on the stairs to photograph, well, I really want to keep it there.

Tips to close the great wallpaper divide: I got this wallpaper off eBay. If you want a similar look, try searching using vintage wallpaper and foil, metallic, or mylar. You'll get some pretty interesting results. A little warning, Martha Stewart featured vintage wallpapers last year (I believe) and they have gone up significantly in price since then. Those high prices are for people not willing to thrift it out. Check out thrift stores, don't pay $30 for a roll of wallpaper. It may be hip, but you can find it cheap.

Garnishing with garlands: I made up this garland by bringing out all of the crafty materials I thought might be appropriate. I'm really in the mood to get rid of things by using them up (hence the now empty jar that used be packed to the brim with craft store pom poms) and either giving them as little gifts or decorating the house. I am definitely an "I'll use it someday" kind of person.
I haphazardly strung the craft store pom poms on about 8 feet of embroidery thread. There are also cut out circles and star shapes of felt strung on, bits of yarn knotted on (remember how to make friendship bracelets?), and sample spools of cream colored thread.
The thickness of the embroidery thread made the whole thing very sturdy and resilient to playful kitties. Leave loops of thread/yarn/cord on the end for easier hanging.

Amaze and astonish your friends this holiday season, Part 2

Are you, like me, are sitting at your desk reading crafty blogs, itching to get home and work on your own projects? Sneak in a little bit of time to make your own wrapping paper there at work. Pssst: I won't tell if you use a little of the printer toner, at least you're reusing waste paper!

1. Create your pattern. These designs are from Word and use fonts: Directions, Holidays, Montype Sorts, Parties MT, Signs, Transport and others. Repeating letters, symbols and words will make your life a lot easier.
2. Change your margins to leave as big of a typeable space as possible.
3. Repeat the pattern as many times as you can to fit on a page. I
4. Dig out paper from recycling that is suitable for 1-sided printing.
5. Load into printer so it will print on the blank side. Print as many sheets as desired.
6. Wrap to your heart's content (or until everything is wrapped)
7. Adorn as desired.
8. Give your personalized gift wrapped gift to a loved one.
9. Once ripped off in a fury of excitement, put the paper back in a recycling bin for its next life.