Before/After- Project #14

This:

Used to be this:

I found this set of 4 placemats and loved, loved, loved the design.  The background fabric is a really soft beige/taupe colored cotton that looks like linen.  And the floral pattern is a turquoise-green velvet.  The back of the placemats have the same soft linen looking fabric. 

Here's how I cut out the pattern pieces:

The long piece at the top became the strap (only used the top layer), the body of the bag used the front and back pieces, and I had some fabric left over so I added a little detail to the inside pocket:

I used a brushed twill in white for the lining, added a zipper, swivel clasp hook and "D" ring from my stash.  It's actually a pretty generous size for carrying your cell phone, wallet, lip gloss and keys.  It was really fun to make! 

Another Freebie!

Check back on December 2nd- I'm participating in the Giveaway Day on the Sew, Mama, Sew blog.  If you want to read more about it, check it out here!

 

Before/After- Project #13

I'm not superstitious, but subconsciously I think I was avoiding another Before/After project because it was #13.  Turns out I had no reason to worry, I'm so happy with how this turned out.  I made my own pattern and figured it out as I went along.

Before:  Remember this skirt?  It's 100% Thai Silk and it's gorgeous (the fabric, not the skirt!).  It's also irridescent so the colors change depending on the angle you look at it.

   

This skirt probably had about 1 1/2-2 yards of fabric to work with.  And now it's this!

After:

I used a deep plum sateen cotton from my stash for the lining.  Added four silver rings and a magnetic snap.  I boxed the corners so it's 3" deep and added a medium weight interfacing to help hold its shape.  On the inside there is a generous sized open pocket on one side:

It will be in the shop later today!

A little of this and a little of that

In addition to Avery, here's what's been keeping me busy:

Five custom tote bags (not including the first one I made for the customers approval- that makes 6 total).  I'm really good at making this bag now :)

More thrift store finds that I will use for a new before/after project.  I know, I know, the before/after posts have been non-existent for awhile.  I'll get back to them now that I've got a little more time.

I love this dress- it's got this fabulous bright yellow-green fabric as the lining that shows through the flower cutouts.  Too bad this dress is not my size- I would have kept it for myself.  So now instead it's destined to become something else. 

How about these cool placemats?  The fabric is a cotton and looks like a taupe linen.  The turquoise blue floral design is velvet.  I have 4 of them and lots of ideas running through my head. 

And I haven't forgotten about this little number. 

I better finish blogging and get to sewing!

9 Months

Avery turned 9 months old last Monday.  It seemed like she had a lot of huge milestones occur right around the 9 month mark.  She started sleeping on her tummy which makes he sleep much more soundly (yay!!!  finally mom and dad can get some sleep), she started rolling over, she started crawling, and she started pulling herself to a standing position.  It's been a busy few weeks, and she is really enjoying being able to explore her little world on her own now.  It's funny, now that's she's crawling, she has hardly any interest in her toys anymore.  She'd much rather be pulling on lamp cords, cable cords, dusting the kitchen floor with her fleece pajamas as she scoots along, pulling books off the shelf, you get the idea.  So here are a few new pictures of what we've been up to lately.

Crawling:

   

More fun with magazines:

Playing at the park:

And her newest place to play:

Quote of the day

My husband:  "Real men don't get their protein from beans.  We get it from eating meat."

The look on his face was pure disappointment and his shoulders slumped down as he stared into the bowl sitting in front of him.  He LOVES my pasta fagioli with ground turkey.  It's a simple recipe, but he loves it and we have it literally three times a month.  At Trader Joe's last weekend, I found a five bean soup starter.  I figured I would change it up a little and try something new.  So I left out the turkey and substituted it with the five bean mixture.  Bad idea.  I've had leftovers all to myself for the past two days.      

Yeah, I won't be doing that again anytime soon.

A pet peeve and a poll

We live in southern California.  Why does Sonic advertise on the local cable channels when the nearest Sonic is in Palmdale- at least 60 miles away?  It makes me so mad.  No seriously, it makes me mad- just ask Franz.  He's heard my rants.  I've been to Sonic maybe 2 times my entire life- both when I was back east visiting my sister.  Going to Sonic when I was on vacation was a super cool experience- you pull up, you order your food at your own little private speaker box, and they bring to you your food on roller skates!  How fun is that?  So showing commercials on tv for Sonic when the nearest one is so far away that I will never get to go is just plain mean in my opinion.  

That is until today :)  We were invited to a housewarming party for some friends who moved to Acton.  And guess what is just 10 miles down the road?  Yep, Sonic.  So since we were going to be in the neighborhood, we decided we must go.  We couldn't be that close to the nearest Sonic and not go. 

Since neither of us is familiar with their menu, we took a few minutes to look it over and see what jumped out at us.  Would it be a hot dog and tater tots?  How about popcorn chicken?  A strawberry limeade slushy?  Franz got a chocolate shake and I got a Sonic Blast with Reeses Peanut Butter Cups.  We chatted in the car and watched the other guests get their food via server on skates and waited anxiously for our turn.  Here she comes with our order and she's not gliding towards us, she's WALKING.  So anti-climactic.

Anyways, after all the years of seeing Sonic commercials and wondering what we were missing out on, we finally got to experience Sonic.  Which leads me to the poll.  Franz thought his shake was "disappointing".  The ice cream in my blast had no taste.  We both left feeling deflated about Sonic.  We both think the absolute best to die for chocolate shakes are at Chic-Fil-A.  So how about you- do you prefer Sonic or Chick-Fil-A?  Or is there another to die for chocolate shake in town we're missing out on?  Do tell!

Dear Daylight Savings Time,

What happened to our friendship?  I used to like you- I would look forward to seeing you (especially this time of year when you afforded me one luxurious extra hour of that sweet thing called sleep which I don't see much these days).  I thought we were friends?  We used to get along so well.  But now, as I'm writing this at 5:45am (and that's after I moved the clock back, so it's really 4:45am) with a kid who's wide awake and ready for the day, why do I feel like you've turned your back on me?  Why do I feel like you've been waiting to play this cruel joke on me the whole time we've known each other?  I have so many unanswered questions, but as of this morning our friendship is over. 

Your ex-friend,
Jen

Happy Halloween

This past weekend we visited Underwood Family Farms.  It's literally just up the road from our house.  It was a lot of fun, they had tons of things to see and do.  There was a corn maze which we gave up on probably a quarter of the way through.  It was huge!

There were food vendors (mmmm kettle corn!), a huge pumpkin patch, a field of sunflowers that were nearly 8 feet tall, pig races (yep, you heard that right), pony rides, a hayride pulled by a John Deere tractor, a petting zoo and various other animals.

We stayed for a couple of hours until Avery got tired- it was a lot to take in for an 8 month old.

We had a great time and can't wait for next year when she will be older so she can enjoy it a little more.  But we did manage to get our first "family photo"- I can't believe it's taken us almost 9 months to do this.  Have a safe and happy halloween everyone!

Yesterday

As a first time mom, I remember the first time I took Avery out on my own.  I think it was just a quick errand to the post office.  It seemed like there were so many little details to think through.  Which parking spot would be the best so I could get her car seat into and out of the car the easiest, did I set up her stroller right, would I have enough time to do what I needed to do before she needed to eat again, did I need to pack a bottle, etc.  Too many details!

So yesterday I decided to take her with me to downtown Los Angeles to the fabric district.  For those of you who don't know where I live, my house is about 45 minutes from downtown, without traffic.  But when is there no traffic in LA?  Driving downtown stresses me out- there are lots of one way streets, it's very crowded, there are crazy drivers, you get the idea.  But I needed to go downtown so I decided to see this as a challenge of sorts.  To see how far I've come in just 8  months. 

She cried or whined almost the whole way there (it took me a little over an hour).  I found myself driving the WRONG WAY on a one way street (luckily it was an alley not a busy street), got honked at and finger pointed (no not that finger), didn't find what I was ultimately in search of, and got back to my car to find that I had been boxed in. 

But I did it :)  There is no way I would have attempted that 8 months ago.  Something that seeemed so intimidating and difficult then is a piece of cake today.