Birthday tie

I made my dad a tie for his birthday and now that he's opened it, I can share it. :] I really, really am happy with it. I did it differently than the last tie I made, and it really turned out nicer.
The last tie I made, I used a tutorial from the Purl Bee. This time I used the pattern at Puking Pastilles (ugh, blogger still hates me and won't let me either highlight things or paste in links. What the heck!). The pattern wasn't perfect, but I made it work. I took out the interfacing from an old tie of Adam's and used that as a guideline in ironing. I used instructions from both patterns plus a mixture of what I found worked better to put the tie together. Even with all the ironing and hand-sewing, I found that it came together really quickly.

I also used covered buttons and cufflink blanks to made him some cufflinks from old ties of Adam's as well.

My dad likes it, so it's success! Now if it only weren't so hard to find tie silk, I could make Adam lots of ties!

Urban hoodies

Fall really took me off guard this year. Pennsylvania seems to switch seasons without transition. We took the kids to the park at Linvilla on Saturday and we were the only ones in short sleeve there. I wasn't cold, so I guess it was fine, but I still felt a little self-conscious to see all the little kids decked out in full fall gear while our kids were in short sleeves and Katrina was in a skirt. So I decided to go ahead and buy the Urban Unisex Hoodie tutorial that I've been eyeing for awhile. This week is coupon commotion at Joann Fabrics, so I was able to buy all the knits for the kids for 40% off. Each hoodie required a yard for the inside and a yard for the outside. I made them reversible by switching how you attach the band, but for everything else I followed the pattern exactly. I used size 3T for Katrina and 2T for Daniel. They both ended up long and a bit big, but there's room to grow and also room to layer.
I would like to excuse the lack of pants on both kids on the fact that we had just gotten up and taken their pajamas off, but it's currently an hour later and both kids are still pantless. Daniel pulls at his clothes and yells, "Offfffff!" and Katrina will just take her pants off, so it's hard to keep them properly clothed around here.

See? "Off! Off!"

Katrina's doesn't have buttons yet, because I let her pick out the buttons for both hoodies and her heart-shaped ones are currently in her room somewhere.

I have no idea what was going on on the tv.

With the hoods on, they're super cute. Sorry for the shot of our dump zone on the ottoman.

I took some pictures in my light box so you can see both sides.

So there you go! The nice thing is that the pattern goes from 6 months to 5t, so I think I'll get lots of use out of it.

I also bought fabric for a jacket for me and backing for our quilt during the Joanns sale, so I'll hopefully be showing more finished projects this week. I'd also like to be blogging more about everyday family, non-sewing stuff. There's just not much going on! Our life is basic these days with nothing too exciting happening. But we're enjoying it. :]

I've added this to Sew and Tell(http://www.amylouwho.com/2011/09/sew-tell-super-soft-and-girly-ruffle.html) at Amy Lou Who.

Beach Day!

Today was our first beach day in two years! Somehow last year it just never happened. Two years ago was a pretty awful experience because we forgot the stroller. Three years ago was fun but Katrina was 4 months. So this year, we really just wanted it to be fun. And it was!

First of all, I finished Katrina's bathing suit.
I traced her old one and added some extra to the sides and some extra length. I made the straps a bit long and the crotch a bit wide, but overall it turned out great.

And most importantly, she loves it.

As usual, we went to Ocean City, NJ. Adam's parents came today too, so we had lots of hands for the kids, which was especially important in the water.

I don't have any pictures of us playing in the water, since I was out there playing too. The waves were really choppy. Last time we went, Katrina was afraid of the water, but this time she had tons of fun. And Daniel was in heaven! He kept jumping and saying, "Weee!" The waves were strong enough that I kept a permanent grip under his armpits, and several times the waves were enough to knock me partially over, but he loved every minute.

Afterwards everyone got very sandy on the shore.

Katrina was very proud of her sand castle that she made all by herself, moat and all. She gathered seashells and when we got home, she drew a picture of the beach and glued the seashells on it.

After playing, we ate on the boardwalk and enjoyed the breezy afternoon weather. It was really a perfect day. Plus, we ate some delicious pizza, Polish water ice, and brought home salt water taffy and Johnson's caramel corn. Yum!

Sewing area revamp

Once again I decided to revamp my sewing area. My side of the living room was pretty packed. Also, Adam has asked me to tailor some clothes for him, and my little desk won't be enough to cut things out on. So yesterday I rearranged everything. It's all moved now, but I still need to prepare the wood that I bought last night to be the top of my new sewing table.

First, my littlest cutie.
And now, my new sewing nook. It feels like its own little room now. Actually, that's what Katrina calls it. She asks me permission to come into my sewing room. :]

The cutting table will go between the two shelves in the front. It's nice and spacious, 3' x 6'. I still need to sand and paint the wood I bought, and then draw some lines on it to help me cut.

This is the next best thing to having my own sewing room! I really am appreciative of our extra large living room. And very grateful for a husband who puts up with my compulsive need to dramatically rearrange every room of our apartment every few months!

Cute moments

Daniel is getting better and counting and is apparently starting to recognize letters too (when I say recognize, I mean, he's acknowledging their existence, not that he knows what they look like). For the longest time, when we would try to get him to count with us, the exchange went like this:
Me: "1"
Daniel: "2"
Me: "3"
Daniel: "2"
Me: "4"
Daniel: "2"
You get the picture. Well, now he can say various numbers between 1 and 10 and tries to count along when he hears someone counting. He likes to say, "3, 2, 1, blastoff!" Today, he came to the back of my laptop and pointed at the back, saying, "P, I, P, I, 2, I, I, I." I had no idea what he was pointing at, but then I saw that it says, "INSPIRON" on the back. I don't know if it was coincidence or not that he said so many of the letters that are actually there, but it was definitely cute.

Katrina followed him and pointed out all the letters that she knew, and when she got to the end she said, "I spelled!" It was pretty cute too.

Aha!

I finally remembered the really funny thing about Katrina that I wanted to share.

A few weeks ago we were driving somewhere and went by a cemetery. Katrina got excited and pointed out the window, saying, "Mine checkers game!" I was confused, until I realized she was talking about the gravestones.

"Your checkers game? You mean, your chess game?"

"Yes, mine chess game."

"Oh sweetie, that's a cemetery, it's not, it's not . . . Okay, you're right, it does look like your chess game."