Sorry Blog Readers

Wow am I horrible or what?? Can you believe it's been well over a month since I last blogged?? Not that there's any excuse to forget about my fans (as if I have a huge following! HAHAHA), but I have been a VERY busy bee!

I've been a knitting fool doing some custom orders and knitting up Christmas presents and decorations. After December 10th, I'm hoping to have some free time to knit for ME until after the first of the year :)

With all this Christmas shopping going on and running around like a chicken with my head cut off, I've been wishing I had a comfier couch to come home to. Right now, I have a comfy chair and that's it. My couch is so uncomfortable! So, of course, we've been looking at couch's and dreaming that we could afford them right now! LOL Well, we found a couch we are IN LOVE with. But then when you get a couch that changes the feel of the room, you start thinking about changing all the other pieces you have. So, I was looking around online and found these GORGEOUS coffee tables. We have a decent coffee table right now, but I'm not like in love with it. I'm thinking it will be nice to get some end tables, coffee tables, etc. that are REALLY what we want as opposed to getting something just b/c it's cheap and looks good for now. You know, like some QUALITY pieces that you'll only have to buy once b/c they'll last a lifetime? So, I was looking around THIS site and found a bunch of stuff that I'm totally loving and it will be a nice change to my living room and match the couch I want :) This site is great and they even offer FREE shipping and have a ton of stuff on sale right now.

Take a look around the site and tell me what YOU love on the site and how you would decorate around that signature piece :) I'm thinking something with loads of knitting storage in it would be nice :) HEHE

Mikayla's Drawer Dollhouse

I got inspiration from nice girl notes blog again. I can't help it! The girl is a genius when it comes to craft projects :) Anyway, she had this ADORABLE dollhouse that she made out of 2 side table drawers. I HAD to make one for Mikayla! And that's exactly what I did :) Here's how they turned out!!!!








If you wanna learn how to make some yourself, check out nice girl notes blog post HERE!

Knitting Wish List

When most people look at kid's clothing and home decor, they might think about how cute something is or how much they'd love to get that particular item for their couch. When I look at clothing and home decor, I think of how easy it would be for me to knit that! LOL I get inspired by every day items a lot, but it seems to me that a lot of those everyday items are KNITTED items. Knitting is becoming increasingly popular again! It's always been around, but I think a lot of people assumed it was just for old people in a nursing home. NOT TRUE!!! LOL At Target, just the other day, I was walking through the home goods and saw several knitted throws and pillows. I never buy them though b/c I know I could knit that item to look almost identical.

Here is a really cute hooded jacket from Gymboree that I love, just don't love the price so much! At almost $40, I could make 2 of these or more depending on the yarn.



What I see when I look at this jacket is that it's wrong side out, maybe reverse stockinette (purl side out) or in garter stitch, striped, which means different colors of skeins, it will have 8 yarn overs to make buttonholes, it has ribbing along the cuff and edging, double knitted belt, etc. You get the point! haha So, of course when I see this, I immediately go to my favorite pattern site, Ravelry and what do I do? I search for a similar pattern that I can use as a reference!!!

I have many knitting books with double breasted sweaters or jackets for kids. Just make it with similar colors of yarn, change colors throughout to make the stripes, and make it wrong side out instead of right side out. I am planning on trying it with the patterns I have as reference. I will keep you all updated when I find something :) What will you knit based on a designer look???

6 years already?

Well, it's official. My daughter is another year older. As of September 17, 2010 at 4:44AM, she turned 6! I can hardly believe it. Time really does go by WAY TOO FAST. It breaks my heart b/c I thought we'd have another little bundle of joy by now! On a positive note, she got tons of fun stuff for her birthday, including an awesome, girly, all wood kitchen set by KidKraft. We bought tons of Melissa & Doug wooden food to go along with it as well. It was AMAZING and she was VERY surprised ;)





For her big day, I got her a special outfit to wear to school. I made her a tshirt with an iron on princess crown, bought her a little "Birthday Princess" ribbon to pin on her tshirt, a princess crown from Claire's and bought a poofy pink skirt from Old Navy for $5 on the clearance rack.



How cute is she?

Overall, she had a great birthday and we were very happy to spoil her like the princess she is!!!

I indulged myself a bit this week, too. I'm always on the lookout for more knitting and sewing books (not that I need them). Well, I found this book club online that fits me PERFECTLY and they only make you buy 2 more books in a year's time instead of way more than that like some companies. So, the club is called Crafter's Choice. For joining, you get to choose 4 books for $1 a piece, you get a free gift, and your shipping is free. So the total ends up being $4.39 with tax! Unfortunately, one of the books I chose was a new one and won't ship until October 1st, but I'll get all my others next week. So what the heck did you choose, Michelle? I was hoping you'd ask!!! haha

I chose:
Modern Top-Down Knitting by Kristina McGowan
The Knitter's Year by Debbie Bliss
Sweet Nursery Chic: Sew 50 Adorable Projects in 10 Charming Themes by Susan Cousineau
Sew Serendipity by Kay Whitt

How excited am I??? WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!

I'll review them and tell you all about them when I get a chance to look them over.

On a completely different note, one of the blogs I found recently is called nice girl notes: polite with bite. She has some great entries, so PLEASE check it out!



She's doing a little thing today on her blog called "What's in Your Bag?". So, I decided, why not? So here's the contents of my purse. It's really not that exciting though :)

My Merona bag from Target:




The contents:



Colorful Wallet (this is embarrassing but I think it's by Miley Cyrus HAHA)
Disney Princess pen
Clean & Clear Oil Absorbing Sheets
Crayola Crayons (in an old school tin I found at Cracker Barrel)
Orange Tic Tacs
Snoopy First Aid Kit (filled with pepto, band aids, Benadryl, etc)
Always Infinity Pad
Keys
Burt's Bees Wax Chapstick w/ Clove Oil
Curious George fingernail clippers
Halls Cough Drop
Tums
Equate Rewetting Drops for my contacts
Round Moroccan Mirror from World Market
Black iPod with hot pink headphones
Brown sunglasses
Victoria's Secret Beauty Rush Lip Gloss
Victoria's Secret Heavenly Perfume

There you go! If you are interested in showing the contents of your purse, go to nice girl notes yourself and enter :)

just poppy jewelry rocks

Lately I have been on a jewelry kick. I am always looking at it when I'm at different stores, but I never buy any. I love the unique, chunky, funky, and over-sized the best. I'm talking fun and costume jewelry, not the expensive stuff. A lot of times they are charging a lot more than I'm willing to spend on something that I just "sorta" like, but like the idea of.

Well, my friend, Jessica, has her own jewelry line called just poppy. It is AMAZING! She has some beautiful and unique designs and has really low prices. She's always running specials and fun contests to cut the price even more. So, I'm going to shamelessly promote her :)



Check out some of these cool designs!





And these are just a FEW of her hundreds of designs! She has bracelets, earrings, necklaces, and rings galore!! She also does custom orders. So, check out just poppy now and place your order. You can also go to her Etsy page to order items.

Modge Podge

Well, I've been browsing this AWESOME blog called The CSI Project. The CSI stands for "Create Something Inspiring". There are so many projects on there use Modge Podge. These people are so creative and I was extremely inspired by a lot of it and set out to create my own stuff this past Labor Day weekend. So, that's what I did.

Inspired by Kate over at oh write!, I decided to create some fruit art for my dining room. The wall was bare and needed some color. Kate created little wooden artwork using scrapbook paper. It turned out really cute. You can see her creation HERE. I wanted to do mine on a much larger scale to cover the wall. So I went and bought a 3 pack of canvases for $8 and instead of scrapbook paper, I used fabric I had leftover from other projects. They aren't perfect, they look homemade, but that's what I love about them!! I used Modge Podge to glue all the pieces on and here they are! Ta Da!




I also created an art wall for Mikayla in her room b/c my refrigerator door is becoming a bit crowded :) So I got a picture hanging kit for 99 cents that had a 6 foot wire and hooks to put it in the wall. I bought a pack of clothes pins for $1 and bought some spray paint ($2) in the color "ballet shoes", which is a pretty pastel pink. I spray painted the clothes pins, slid the wire through the metal hole in them and I my husband hung it up on the wall! Voila!



Mikayla also had a really cute tea set that she got for Christmas from my friend, Abi. It was one of those paint-it-yourself tea sets. Well, the only problem we had with it was that she didn't have any place to display it w/o it getting knocked over constantly. So, I got the idea to get her a tea tray or cart. I couldn't find a "play" one that I really liked. So, I went to Goodwill, just to find out that they weren't open yet. However, there was a TON of stuff just sitting by the front door, including a small TV that I snagged. It was all donated stuff, so I sifted through it and low and behold found a tray! Yay for me! And better yet, it was FREE. The only problem with the tray is it was covered in leather and velvet and was HIDEOUS. So, I got right down to it, ripped off all the leather and velvet (which came off surprisingly easy) and exposed the all wood tray. I then sprayed it with the same paint I used on the clothes pins and wiped off some of the paint to make it look "shabby chic". I then took a piece of fabric, sewed the edges and fitted it to the bottom of the tray and Modge Podged it in! It turned out great and holds her tea set perfectly. Check it out!



Unfortunately, I forgot to take a "before" pic. Ugh! But you get the idea.

Labor Day Sales

I am not usually a sucker for Labor Day sales. I've found that sometimes the prices are exactly the same as they were BEFORE Labor Day. But sometimes there are some great deals out there! So be careful shoppers when you do your shopping frenzy this weekend. Make sure you check the prices of items to see what they were BEFORE the sale if possible. Some places will put a red tag on their item and write down the price on it that it already was and then say that it was a higher price, just to pull you in! Don't be a sucker!! Compare prices. That's one good thing about having internet on your cell phone... you can get online while you are at the store and compare prices.

Moving on... haha

Mikayla's 6th birthday will be coming up very soon and we received a coupon for The Children's Place as a "happy birthday" gift. So I was looking on their site and, I have to say, their prices are really good! I remember when I used to turn my nose up at some of their stuff b/c they were soooo overpriced. They have cute stuff, I just couldn't see spending that much! Well, over the years, their prices have definitely went down and we've shopped there on many occasions. Here's a few outfits I mixed and matched myself that I might have to consider buying my little princess!






With that inspiration... HAPPY SHOPPING!! Have a great and safe Labor Day weekend!

Let me catch you up...

Well, it's been a hectic week. My beautiful baby girl had her 1st week of Kindergarten. It was emotional, grouchy, tiring, happy, exciting, etc., all wrapped up into one! It's still hard for me to believe she's already in school.



On the plus side, I have loads of free time to focus on my knitting, sewing, and singing. So, now for the projects I've been working on, as of late!!

I had a customer order for a bolero/cropped sweater. I searched for a good pattern and just couldn't find exactly what I needed, so I created my own for her, asked for measurements, and went from there. I chose to use a 70% bamboo, 30% silk yarn so that she had that shiny look she wanted. She also asked for lightweight and breathable materials. So this was the perfect yarn to use. I also made her a hanging towel and wash cloth. Here's how the bolero turned out:



Here's what she had to say about her bolero, towel, etc., which she received today:

"I received my order today and sooooo excited. The bolero fit perfectly, and the color is wonderful. The towel I ordered to specification is exactly what I wanted. It matches my kitchen. It is not only soft, but very absorbant. Thank you MLC for your attention to detail." - Lin Ruch

I'm so glad she's happy and I hope the orders just keep on coming in!

Now, if you remember THIS post I made in the past about wanting to make my own flats, I really wanted to do it but just wasn't sure how to get the bottoms on there or where to find bottoms, etc. Well, I DID IT!!!! I made my own ballet flats to wear around :) They are UBER comfy and soft. They are perfect and I couldn't be happier with the results. I made the slipper itself using a pattern from CoCo Knits called Pleated Ballet Flats. The pattern cost $6 and is well worth it! I'm going to make a ton of these little slippers just to wear around the house w/o any bottoms :)

Anyway, I ripped the bottoms off an old pair of HIGHLY uncomfortable flats I bought awhile back and used super glue to put them on the bottom of the knitted ones. They turned out great and I could not be happier! Here they are:




Aren't they adorable? I'm hoping to wear them tomorrow! I want the glue to set for at least 48 hours.

So, that's what's been going on with me! I hope all of you are having a great end of summer, all those kiddos got back to school safe and sound, and keep on being crafty!!!!

Cupcake Heaven

My daughter, Mikayla, and I have been making cupcakes galore. I don't know why the sudden obsession with cupcakes, but it's been a blast trying new recipes. I've been using THIS website as inspiration. She has a GREAT blog with tons of yummy cupcake recipes. She doesn't JUST have cupcake recipes though, she also has tons of food recipes that look scrumptious! Her website is called Love and Olive Oil. You should definitely check it out!! Here's a pic of OUR cupcakes, which don't look nearly as good as the Love and Olive Oil ones :)



So, on our cupcake journey, I started thinking about how much I'd love to start teaching knitting again here in Texas. I really want to start making some cash for myself, besides just selling my knitting pattern. Then that got me thinking about all the wonderful cupcake recipes from Love and Olive Oil I could make for a knitting group or class. Which, of course, made me think, "how cool would it be if I decorated them like knitting stuff??"

Well, someone beat me to it! haha I found these ADORABLE cupcakes on THIS blog. There's even a how-to video!!!! OMG I'm in cupcake Heaven!!!!

It's official!!!

I am now selling my first design on Ravelry and Etsy :) I'm BEYOND estatic! I created my own ruffled tank for girls. With it being summer, I thought it was the perfect project to put out there. Once it's a little cooler, you can always throw it over a cute tee or long-sleeve shirt. I'm very excited about this and I hope that all of you will check it out and buy my pattern!



Just click below and you can purchase the pattern :)

My first design!!!!

Okay so I'm VERY excited about this :) I have finally created my first knitting pattern!!! After my 5 year old daughter and I saw a really cute ruffled tank in the store, I decided that I would knit one myself, especially when I realized the tank cost $20 in the store!!! I wasn't about to buy her a ruffled tank for $20 knowing she'd outgrow it quickly. So, for $2.50 (that's how much the skein of yarn was), I made her an adorable replica! Yay! So here it is:




I have to type up the pattern and list it on Ravelry, but I am looking forward to selling it and sharing my joy with everyone else :) hehe

It's been awhile...

Well, I've been gone for a month and a half and tried to stay away from the internet that entire time! haha I was in Indiana visiting family and am very happy to be home again. I love my family and friends, but I tell you what, a month and a half with them is WAYYYYYY too long! LOL

So, what have I been up to during my anti-internet vacay? Knitting, of course! I have been wanting to knit a top that I could actually wear for awhile now. I have attempted to create wearable tops before and haven't had much luck. There was always something strange about them that made them not quite fit right. Well, I finally have knitted a top that I am IN LOVE WITH!!!

After buying the book Boutique Knits: 20+ Must-Have Accessories by Laura Irwin, I fell in love with the Soft Kid Bubble project she had in there. I was determined to make it fit me and be ADORABLE. I chose the largest size version of the pattern to fit my size 16/18 body. I thought it might be a bit tight, so I upped my needle sizes by one and hoped it would turn out.

Well..... IT TURNED OUT PERFECT! Maybe even a bit bigger than anticipated! haha It is such a perfect pattern that I probably should've stuck with the original needle size and maybe even made a size smaller. It's meant to be a larger top anyway. However, it still turned out to be a very cute and comfortable top and I really love it! If you don't have this book, BUY IT. There are SEVERAL adorable things to knit in it, this was just the first thing I made out of it.

So, here it is... my bubble top :)

Another wonderful giveaway

Check it out... another GREAT giveaway! Today is full of them :) So go read, follow, and enter :) hehe

A Day in the Life of a Dreamer: I Love My Wallet Giveaway

$100 Giveaway from Love That Max

Blog: Love That Max
Post: Kid goodies giveaway: Win a $100 shopping spree at Educational Warehouse
Link: http://lovethatmax.blogspot.com/2010/04/kid-goodies-giveaway-win-100-shopping.html


Check it out! Giveaways are always fun and she has a GREAT blog!

I've been a bad girl

I have been HORRIBLE about blogging lately. Ugh! *smacks hand* BAD BLOGGER! Anyway... moving on.

The other day I was perusing through my knitting and sewing books, thinking about what projects I wanna do when I realized that I've had two projects "on hold" and I haven't even picked them back up to look at them lately. I think I needed a small quick project to get my mind off of the 2 big projects which is my Tiptoe Cardigan and my blanket I am making out of my best friend, Abi's, yarn. They are both equally adorable projects and are pretty easy, but for some reason, I couldn't get up the motivation to finish them. So, there they sit. I am hoping to work on them this week and really bust them out. Why is it that I lose motivation mid-project sometimes? Especially when I always feel sooooo good looking at a FINISHED project. I dunno. It makes me wonder if I have a problem in general "finishing" things. Hmmm... something for the therapist couch I guess! haha

Maybe taking a break from knitting and sewing did me some good. Maybe when I pick up one of those projects this afternoon, I won't be able to put it down. We'll see!!! haha

Slowly becoming addicted

I'm slowly becoming addicted to sewing! Yay! haha Even though I haven't done any projects for awhile, I'm gathering lots and lots of books. I can't help myself!! I see these amazing projects in the sewing books and just HAVE to buy it. It's a need really... not a want :)

So, after look online at Amazon, I came across two books that I couldn't resist b/c they had some adorable projects in them.

The first book is:



It has the cutest skirt on the front cover, which is what made me fall in love with the book to begin with. There's also a really adorable tie-back floor pillow cover. I love big comfy pillows to lounge on but haven't always found patterns or designs I actually like, so this is a good compromise! This book is full of funky, retro fabrics and designs and I have a feeling I'm going to be sewing a lot of the projects in it!

The second book I bought is:



I borrowed the Weekend Knitting: 50 Unique Projects and Ideas from the library one time and LOVED it, so when I saw this Weekend Sewing book, I had to look inside. I love all the sewing projects paired with fun recipes to try out! It's very creative and multi-functional, so to speak. There's patterns for children and adults and I'm already in love with this book :)

What are your favorite sewing books?? What should I buy next? I'm totally addicted.

Susan B. Anderson's Blog Giveaway

If you are a knitter, you've heard of Susan B. Anderson. Well, I am following her on Facebook and I read her blog. Well, guess what she's doing today??? A BLOG GIVEAWAY! YAY! The giveaway is for a book called "How To Knit a Love Story" by Rachael Herron. If you want to enter this giveaway, please visit Susan's blog by clicking HERE.

Tuesday Tip

"If you really struggle with putting zippers into cardigans, the best tip I can give you to make it easier is this:

Most dry cleaners who mend clothing will sew in your zipper for you. They will do it quickly, neatly, and professionally, and without ripping it back six times, crying, or saying abrupt things to your loved ones and pets." - Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, AKA the Yarn Harlot

Pillowcase Dress

So, I did it! I found some instructions online, read them, and made my first pillowcase dress for my daughter. WOOHOO! It was REALLY simple and I am IN LOVE with it. So, I wanted to share it with all of you. I'm definitely going to be heading to the thrift store in the future for more pillowcases!

I've been so lost...

...without my computer! Ugh! I didn't have a computer for over a week so I haven't been able to blog, however, I have still been busy and crafting away! hehe My husband was on a business trip and his work laptop wasn't working correctly, so he took our home laptop instead. Next trip, he's not allowed to take it! haha

I have REALLY been enjoying sewing and made several things since last blogging. I designed my own kid's drop waist dress, which turned out GREAT and I am totally in love with the fabrics. I also made a fun ruffly skirt, and simple dress.





I also bought this fabric in hopes of making another cute dress for my daughter with it, using the pattern I had in my stash (Kwik Sew 3768). If you can't tell, my daughgter loves dresses and skirts. She ONLY wears dresses or skirts and PJ's. So, we rarely buy her pants or shorts. In the winter, she gets very upset when she has to wear pants. LOL



I saw in a sewing book somewhere that you can use a pillowcase and make a child's dress or top or a woman's top, depending on the size of the pillowcase. So, I decided to head to the thrift store and look at pillowcases that were cheap and attempt to make my daughter an easy dress for summer. I haven't tried it yet, but isn't this pillowcase fabric A-DOR-A-BLE?????



On another note, my daughter has 2 loose teeth, her 1st loose teeth, in fact! So, I made her a little tooth pillow with a pocket in it. Her teeth are so loose they are barely hanging on, but she doesn't wanna chew on them, wiggle them, or anything. haha Oh well, at least I have her tooth pillow ready for when she looses them! Here is what it looks like. I used the KnitPicks pattern, Tooth Fairy Pillow, as inspiration but didn't follow their pattern exactly. Their pattern looks WAY cuter and nicer, but I had no desire to use the magic loop method. I've done it before and just didn't feel like learning it all over again to make the pillow, although I'm sure it would've turned out like the picture! haha Oh well. I'm okay with what I've done!



I'm still working on several knitting projects but I've definitely gotten lazy! I have 2 cardigans I've worked on and both just need sleeves. haha I also have my throw that I work on here and there. I will keep you all posted and put up pictures of anything I get finished. Have a great week!