Sunday, November 29, 2009

eye spy...a christmas wish

I missed last week's theme but didn't want to miss this one, because I wanted to let everyone I haven't spoken to yet know that I already got my Xmas wish -- my biopsies are back and while I am not trouble-free, I am totally cancer-free. Woohoo! So everything else this year will just be a bonus.

My altruistic peace-on-earth type wish is that the bad juju or whatever it was of this whole past decade will fade away and leave everyone I care about -- and everyone, really -- alone from now on. Or at least for a while, I mean really...give us all a break!!

My selfish gift guide wish? Some cool sewing books....cool socks...cupcake stuff:

honors-club-101-lg.jpg


and more sewing patterns, because boy do I need more (sarcasm alert).

What are you wishing for? I hope you get it!

This week's eye spy theme brought to you by Cindy herself!

Saturday, November 28, 2009

what the grown up Pippi might wear

pippidress.jpg


Seriously, how cute is that dress? And I didn't realize it until after I'd bought it but so, totally, grown-up Pippi. I will definitely be needing some stripey tights for that one. I found it at a site I'd never heard of until last week, Tulle -- of all the Black Friday weekend sales I saw promoted they were the only place that looked interesting, and I just remembered to go check them out. And found that dress and had to have it. (Also got some leggings, and a little knit skirt for $4!) Lots of cute stuff, actually -- if the quality is decent, I'll shop there again. They have a men's side too, but the sizing info is useless, and I mean useless. Otherwise I'd have picked up some sweaters for Evan.

I just hope they haven't sold out of everything I ordered already. And now to go looking for some pippi-riffic tights and big shoes!

*oh dear, my search for tights just led me to the most extensive socks/tights site I've ever seen. Send a search party if I don't come back soon!

Friday, November 20, 2009

the panda is back!

Remember the awesome Fry Pan-da that Fred Flare had a year or so ago? (Which, I can testify is actually a pretty awesome pan in daily use.) Well, they've got a Baby Pan-da in stock just in time for the holidays:

minipanda.jpg


Much smaller, just 7" so not as useful. But just as cute! And yes, one is already stashed away in our house for Emily. So, everyone who's been wanting a Pan-da of their very own - now's your chance!



Sunday, November 15, 2009

eye spy...adventure

eye spy adventure


Or an adventurer, anyway. This is Emily on the Giant Wheel ferris wheel in Wildwood this past year. It was her second year riding the giant wheel and her 4th or 5th ride all told. She is fearless! She also begged to go on the flume ride, which was too much for a 4-year old -- she was just too small and I truly feared losing my grip on her on the 2nd (really HUGE) drop, but she was tall enough so they let her ride. And she didn't get off after the first drop either! (you have a spot where you can leave before the big one). Go, little Miss Adventure!

This week's eye spy theme brought to you by Louise!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

how to make a muno dress

One of the most common questions I get is, "how'd you make those Yo Gabba Gabba dresses?" I can't help you with the Brobee dress, that's made from a cast & crew shirt (although you could certainly make a dress out of any cool YGG tee!) But I can help you with the Muno dress (or whatever character you want) -- and here's a little how-to.

muno dress


First you need your dress pattern. Any simple, a-line dress with a one-piece front will work. I used this cute dress pattern, Butterick 3772. Here's another Butterick dress/top pattern, that wraps and ties instead of fastening at the shoulder. The Farbenmix Anna dress would also be perfect, although a little harder to find. And here's a simple McCall's dress with no fasteners at all!

Now for your YGG design -- there are lots of goodies you can work with in Nick jr's YGG papercraft section. They have a full set of iron-ons you can just print out onto transfer paper if you don't feel up to applique -- just pick one, print it and transfer it to your dress front!

If you do want to do an applique, or something else crafty, there are plenty of templates on those printable pages. For full-body images, look for the coloring pages, and for large heads, go for the masks. I used the Muno mask for my applique!

I printed it out at the size I wanted it to be on the dress -- you should be able to print the page larger or smaller when you print it. I actually "printed" the mask as a pdfs using Cute PDF Writer and saved it so I could print it as much as I wanted without going back to the Nick site. I added some more Muno at the bottom and then redrew the mouth, fixing it where it was crooked and adding in the teeth (and yes, his teeth aren't pointy -- anymore. This is how they looked in the pilot, which Emily was used to at the time. Now she thinks it's freaky.)

I cut the pieces out of cotton knit (old t-shirts, actually) -- since knits don't unravel, you don't have to finish the edges of the applique. I assembled the whole thing first using some fusible interfacing (you could also use something like Steam-A-Seam , which I've used on other appliques). If you look close you can see that I overlapped everything -- for example, the teeth are under the upper part of the mouth, and over the bottom part. This made it a lot easier, since I wasn't matching edges up.

Finally, I placed the finished Muno on the dress where I wanted him, and stitched all around. (I assembled the dress most of the way, but did the lining and hem after adding the applique. If I was going to use an iron-on or maybe use fabric paint, I would probably have completely finished the dress first.)

There's only one bad thing about this Muno dress....it's too small! But I think a Foofa dress may be in the offing (and I don't mean her costume). We'll see. Who will be on your Yo Gabba Gabba dress?

Saturday, November 7, 2009

halloween was happy!

halloween pics

Emily has been choosing her own costumes since she was 2, and until now it was always simple. Two years ago, after seeing the Halloween episode of Yo Gabba Gabba, she just declared, "I will be a pirate, like Brobee!" After Halloween that year, she told me that the following year she would be a witch like Toodee, then after that, a fairy like Foofa (and then a cat, not sure where she got that from). She stuck to her plan last year and was a witch. But this year, as summer went on, she started wavering...

She wanted to be a fairy. Then, maybe a witch again. Or maybe, Foofa. Then back to the fairy. And so on. Finally, as we got closer and closer to Halloween I sat her down and told her she had to pick one. And finally...Foofa won out. (I admit, I pushed a little for Foofa since I don't know if she'll want to be her when she's much older. You can be a witch or fairy at any age.) And here's the final result:

halloween pics

I went with a dress, kind of interpreting the character a bit. I know my girl, and if she wasn't totally comfortable she wouldn't be happy. This outfit is actually leggings (studio tantrum Laguna), a long-sleeved shirt (farbenmix Zoe), a sleeveless dress (my own pattern) and a vintage hat pattern. I made everything out of pink cotton velour, with flowers out of some cotton, stiffened with this stuff I found called "InnerFuse". We all gave it two thumbs up!

And I got it done just barely in time for the festivities -- we had a decent time at the Zoo Spooktacular (although it poured the whole time, cancelling out some of the fun), a great time at the Museum's free Halloween fest, and then a fantastic time trick-or-treating. And even after tossing out half of it, Emily's got enough candy to last her a month! I hope everyone's Halloween was as much fun!



Thursday, November 5, 2009

cute ikea hack

Saw these totally cute stools on the Brainpop blog:

stools.jpg

Looks like they used Frosta stools from Ikea, plus a bunch of Contemporary Home toilet lid covers from Target (which come in a bout a zillion colors). They suggest they'd be great for classrooms - I agree! But also I think they could be pretty cool for your house! They even still stack with the fluffy toppings on!! Super-good idea. Although I'll probably never do it.




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