Sisboom Chillin!

The skirts keep coming and coming! This skirt has three sisboom fabrics - I m not sure which of the lines they are from - all the sisboom lines coordinate so well together that I lose track. I loved this skirt so much I made it twice. The fabric on the top tier is gorgeous! The blue is very vibrant and this pic does not do it justice. I end up trimming alot of skirts with the black or brown zebra - they give everything a bit of pizazz. Jessie was a good sport, it was so hot when we took these pics - at this point she was done. She definitely saw an ice pop in her future! Quick note - I have opened up an etsy store. I am adding things slowly but surely! So please check it out!

My DH is taking a website class this semester and I am hoping he will help me with this blog. I still can't figure out the spacing of pics and texts and it gets frustrating. I just noticed the leaves on the ground in the picture - fall is coming! My baby girl starts Kindergarten this week and I still have to make the fairy dress - I promised! Better get to work...

17 days and counting....

AAAHHH! The art/craft fair(not sure what to call it)is getting closer. I keep wondering if I have enough creations for the fair? Is it better to have a variety or less variety but more sizes of each item? I think the answer is probably both!

This is my Lantern Bloom skirt - I love this fabric! It is truly like a work of art. The fabric appears to have texture and the colors have so much depth! The birdcages are adorable too. I made this skirt in a size three and five - Im not sure this is typical little girl fabric, but that makes this skirt unique and I hope a little sophisticated. I think the blue on the bottom brightens in up and it is perfect for fall! Jessie loved it!

From this to that...19 days and counting to the art fair

Nineteen days left! I am starting to get very nervous! I have so many ideas and time is running out. I posted a calender in my sewing room to help keep me focused. My problem is I get distracted with new ideas and fabrics and fabric combinations. It all goes back to editing. Obviously the answer is to stay out of the fabric stores - but for some reason they are all having fabulous sales this month.I think my skirts are almost complete - though I may do some more Halloween twirls if I have time at the end.

Remember how I "organized" all the fabrics on my dining room table (picture above) well here is a first peek at the results.

First look at the green, pink and zebra fabric with the ribbon on the table...well it became this:

I love this skirt - I call it the perfume twirl. The top fabric is an Alexander Henry pink fabric with cute old fashioned perfume bottles on it. The main fabric is sisboom casey scroll - this fabric goes with anything and the trim is obviously sisboom's zebra. I found the ribbon in NYC while exploring the garment district and should have bought more. The green and zebra is kind of my homage to the Gymboree Mod Zebra line, which I loved.

This is where I find the joy in sewing these clothes....to see a pile of fabric and ribbon become a skirt that will be worn by a girl as she conquers the world!

A stormy summer...

It has been an odd summer in New England weather wise. We started June and July without a day over 90 degrees. August has been a hot and stormy month. Last night around five thirty the clouds came rolling in. I love thunder and lightening storms! I'm sure this makes me odd, but I love the drama of it. The colors are amazing as the sky turns from blue to gray and the relief the wind brings as the temperature begins to break and you feel the anticipation of the heavy rain. last night was not a disappointment - it reminds me that we are really not the one's in charge!

It's finally hot!

Yesterday we went to the local oyster festival...so much fun, but very hot. We went on the rides, painted shells and drank lots of water to keep cool.

We visited the crafts that were on sale and I am really getting excited and nervous for my own craft fair debut. In some ways I feel very confident about what I m creating, there was nothing similiar at the craft show yesterday. There was a variety of things including handbags, three or four booths of tye dye clothing and lots of jewelry. Im starting to look for a tent - apparently I need a 10x10 canopy tent - I hope someone knows how to put that up (LOL)

Im on a roll...

Im on a roll...my Dh gave me a new camera for my birthday and I am having so much fun playing with it! This is one of the skirts ready for the craft fair! I spent the day fabric shopping yesterday - it was heaven. I looked up all the quilt stores in my area and visited four of them! One was very disappointing - I left without a yard of fabric, which is not like me, but I was totally uninspired. However I did discover a new quilt shop that had beautiful fabrics from sisboom, Heather Ross, Heather Bailey and Anna Maria Horner. I decided to grab a fatquarter pack of the the Good Folks to get a better feel for how the patterns went together. I really like how the skirt came out! I added the moda blue and brown polka dot - hoping to tie it together.
I am using the rest of the fq pack to make a size 3. I am hoping to spend the next few days on getting the skirts done.

It's funny as I work on this craft fair project - I feel myself begining to define my style more. I'll talk more about it tomorrow...more pics...

Stay out of her way!

As life gets busy, I try hard to get everything done and keep organized. Activities, playdates, laundry, dinner etc. My hope for my children is their childhood is enriching and provides opportunities for them to reach their full potential (I overloaded on Maslow in college).
For my son this is great it's the way he rolls. He wakes up at 7am dressed, packed and ready to go for the day. He's like the energizer rabbit and loves a schedule! Many times in the rush of getting it all checked off - I don't always take the time to see what both my children really need ...
Jessie follows the beat of her own drummer and it rushes nowhere! She is naturally drawn to beautiful things and perceives the world in a real visual way. At her age she has the patience to work on a project and make decisions with much care and thought. I have bought her dolls, tricycles, blocks, videos enrolled her in dance, soccer and gymnastics - when I get out of her way, what she really wants to do is color, paint and water the plants. Perhaps I need to stay out of her way a little more. Lesson being learned!
Today Jessie and I began painting our tag sale hat rack. We had extra paint in the garage and I think it is turning our well. We all agreed it looks like a flower in the garden and we will add glitter at the end!

I have completed two more skirts for the craft shows and I will try to take pics this week and post them!

The Planning....and the editing!!

So I have been playing with my fabrics to come up with possible designs for the craft show. I am going to focus on ruffles, twirl skirts and head scarfs. My friend does beautiful appliques shirts and I think it will be a good combo! You would think the planning from that point would be easy...however...the biggest challenge for me is the editing of ideas. I want to use every fabric in my stash and then some.

So I made some rules: it has to be a fall design and color. It will be Sept. and we are all ready for a beautiful fall in New England by then. Again you would think this would make it easier but then I have too choose between cotton, denim, cord etc.

Anyway I decided to put the fabrics with my "sketches" (I hesitate to call them that - they are a little pathetic) on the dining room table to get a big picture of what I am doing. I hope that makes sense. If anyone has any ideas on editing - please let me know - My head is spinning!

Oh look what I found at a tag sale for 5 dollars (excuse the messy garage) - I am going to paint it - maybe some glitter of course. The hat stand not the garage - though that might be fun too. Then I can use it to display clothes at the craft show - Cute!

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A plan starting to take form...

It has been a goal of mine to do a craft show for awhile now. I think I miss being part of a creative community like I was when I was younger and working in theatre in NYC. have been attending many craft shows this summer and have become very inspired. Since I over research everything - I started viewing applications and requirements of shows in my area. I quickly realized I would need a picture of a booth set up. This leads to my visit to the local mall where JJill (one of my favorite stores) was going out of business. They were having a great sale on their clothes - but also were selling their fixtures. Look what I got!

I actually snagged three of them...at a great price - $20 each!

I also found these fabulous girls - but I think they need some cute eyes, noses and lips...I'll work on it. I was able to bring home four of them...Love It!

And the best part is a week later my neighbor and I decided to do the local craft show in Sept. AAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lemons to lemonade!

When my DH and I bought our current house - it had so much we wanted. It was at the end of a culdesac, great schools and a large family room. The one thing missing was a large flat backyard for a swingset and the kids to play in. The back yard is a large hill that descends to a creek. A couple of summers we tried the small pools - but they never worked because one side would overflow and the other would never fill. We tried fancy nemo and elmo sprinklers but they always fell over and tumbled down the hill.



Then one summer we discovered the slip and slide. Since them it has grown into three slip and slides with a tarp at the bottom. It has become our own personal water ride. I will say it can get muddy but the kids don't seem to care! They love it!








We now have the perfect backyard for the summer and sledding in the winter is a blast! The kids love their backyard and don't seem to miss the swingset...yet.