new beds for the little girls

While we were in Maryland for Thanksgiving we made a trip to IKEA to buy new beds for the little girls room.  My neighbor is in the Navy and has to stay on the ship every 4 nights for duty.  For the last year or so her little girl has been staying with us when her mom has duty.  She was not yet 2 when we started watching her and was happy to sleep in the pack-n-play each night she was here, but she is about to turn 3 this month and the pac-n-play was getting a bit too cozy. 

Plus, this tiny room was even smaller with a twin bed, a crib, and a pac-n-play in it.  I knew we were not ready for traditional  bunk beds yet, but the IKEA Kura bed seemed like the perfect solution.

We put them together last week and the the girls have been happily sleeping in their new beds and LOVING all the play room they have in the room now!  We were even able to pull most of the play kitchen down from the attic - something Addie has been asking to do for awhile now.

And last night I finally finished the binding on Addie's Briar Rose rainbow quilt!  I am so pleased with how this turned out!  My quilting skills are definitely improving and the binding was not half the nightmare I remembered it being after watching a few tutorials online.

For those who are interested, I used this pattern as my basis but altered it (changed the square size and added rows and other fabrics from the Briar Rose line) to make it fit a twin bed.

finally finding some time to sew again!

I didn't realize how much I missed sewing until I finally got to sit down at my machine for a bit the other day!  So good to be making things again :)

craft camp week 2

We had another fun day of craft camp today!

Prep for this week was much simpler than last week since we only did one project.

We decoupaged fabric onto wood bunting pieces.  It was pretty straight forward and these girls did it in half the time in took the adults to do the same project on craft night a few months ago!

During our snack break Regan and one of her friends taught the other girls the cup song game...

Somehow it just happens that all 4 girls in the camp are gymnasts, so there were lots of handstands and back handsprings going on throughout the morning :)

Here are the finished buntings- They all turned out so great- this is a great group of crafters for sure.

craft night

Craft night was a little different this time around.  In addition to the crafting and yummy food we also watched the videos from the (in)RL conference and talked a lot about community. We crafted into the wee hours (I think the last ladies left about ten after midnight) and everyone went home with their own beautiful and unique bunting. Here are a few pictures from our evening.  (Sorry they are a bit dark- the lighting isn't very good for nighttime picture taking in my house!)

Can't wait for the next craft night!  May will be a BYO craft project and I've got something else fun planned for June.

shop talk

I've been busy doing some different Handmade by Amy work this week.  There is a local shop, Kitsch, in Norfolk that sell all handmade in Virginia wares and I am going to be putting some of my camera straps and bunting in the shop!  I am super excited!  I am also working on some more masculine or gender neutral camera straps (sorry, no pictures of those, I am still waiting on some of the fabrics I ordered to come in).  And the biggest news is the change I made in my Etsy shop, starting today all items Ship for FREE, cause who doesn't love free shipping?

late night sewing

With less than 4 weeks until my due date most of my nights are pretty restless, so in order to avoid endless hours of tossing and turning I have been staying up later and sewing.  It is nice to have uninterrupted sewing time and I find it brings a certain amount of balance to my crazy emotional/irritable self.  This weekend I finished up my diaper bag.

The pattern calls for a ruffle on the front, but the fabric I chose did not lend itself well to that, so I left it off.  (Except for the red dots lining the handle, all the fabric came from Ikea- the grey I got about a year ago and the hedge hog fabric I got while we were in MD in May.)

This was actually really fun to make (although time consuming- there is LOTS of cutting involved as it has outer fabric, lining fabric, heavy weight fusible interfacing and a fusible fleece layer)  I could definitely make more of these- only I don't really need another diaper bag!

I also finished up this bunting.  The pennants are a bit smaller than the last one I made and I added pom-poms this time, which I love.  I should put this in my shop, but I am not sure I can part with it. Most of these are fabrics I have been hoarding for quiet some time, just waiting for the perfect project.

What have you been sewing/creating these days (or nights)?

random tuesday

So, as if I have not had enough of sewing bunting, I made up this cute Riley Blake bunting and listed it in my shop today.

The hubby got all the kids working this weekend washing and waxing the van... everybody wanted to work when it involved getting on the roof of the van (even Addie cried when I said she could not get up there too) :)

We made these rainbow pudding pops last week- turns out they are prettier than they are tasty- but fun none the less!

where has may gone?

I can't believe it is the end of May and this is only my 6th post for the month!  Pretty pitiful, although not totally surprising.  I tend to get a little quiet and antisocial when I am pregnant, especially toward the end.  I've got 9 weeks left and am already getting comments like "you look like your ready to have that baby any day now!"  Which I guess is better than the "Nine weeks?  You're huge!" that you know they are thinking, lol! 

Anyhoo, I just finished up a custom bunting order for a wedding.  The order included 10 different lengths of scalloped bunting ranging from 5-18 feet long and totaling about 100 feet!

(Don't you love my new chicken tray up there?  Picked it up at Homegoods while we were visiting my family in MD a few weeks ago... if I can't have chickens in my back yard, at least I can have them in my kitchen :)

This is a mini version of my standard size scallop that will go over the bride and grooms chairs and their menu board.

I really am going to try to be more faithful about posting.  It just seems like the last few weeks have had us running around like crazy and I've hardly picked up my camera let alone found any time to sit down and blog!  Hope you all are enjoying your long weekend- I know I have enjoyed a weekend of just staying home with the family!

for jess

I did a custom bunting for my friend Jess. It turned out super cute, I love the fabric she picked.

And since she let me keep the extra fabric I could not resist whipping up a coordinating Penelope Owl for her little girl. She turned out so cute Tallulah has requested her own Penelope just like it :)
Enjoy, Jess!