Spring Top Week - Raspberry Lemonade

This is my second entry for Made By Rae's Spring Top Week.  I can't believe I finished it before the deadline.  Whew!  This is my own design.  I was originally inspired by Anthropologie's Lettuce Florets Blouse, and then I started thinking about this Chinese top I have had for years.  I don't have a picture of it, but it is a traditional red brocade top (like this, kind of) with the asymmetrical front panels and buttons going down one side.  I found this poly/cotton fabric in raspberry pink and then these great pressed flower buttons and it all started coming together.  I used my brocade top as a guide and then added sleeves.  It needed a collar, and I wanted to give my stretch lace another go, and it just happened to line up perrrrrrfectly (almost like I planned it!).  And here it is! As for the color choice, I had just bought this bright yellow skirt on sale at Target, and I had nothing that matched it, and so I decided to make a bright top to go with it. Now I think I'm going to need some new shoes . . .

Spring Top Week - Neapolitan Tee

I finally finished my first top for Made By Rae's Spring Top Week!  I don't think this top will be winning any contests, so to speak, but I think it's pretty good for my first attempt at sewing a top for myself.  I had half a yard of this brown knit material and I managed to piece it together in a way that fit me.  I used a t-shirt of mine as a sort-of pattern, but my material wasn't wide enough and it would have been way too tight on the belly.  So I  cut out a couple of triangles from the scraps and sewed them into the sides just under the bust line, then ruched them up.  I let it sit unfinished like that for a few days, trying to decide what to add to it until I finally dug through my stash and pulled out some old stretch lace that I thought would make a cute collar.  When I put the off-white lace on the brown material, it made me think of Neapolitan ice cream, so I made a little pink button to pop in the center and did all of my hem stitching in bright pink, as well.  And here it is!  I have a couple more ideas for tops and I hope to get at least one more squeeeeeezed in before the Apil 30th deadline.  We shall see.
By the way, if you're wondering what happened with my dress, I ended up returning the dress form to exchange it for a smaller one, and I am waiting for that to show up before I continue with the dress project.  Also, the fabric stash/craft area clean-up project is about half way finished, but I had a busy week, which included getting a root canal.  It'll happen by Friday!
As for Spring Top week, there are so many amazing entries! Check out the Flickr group to see them all.

Someone to Watch Over Me

I made this baby chewer for my friend's newborn baby girl.  My friend is a HUGE fan of Twilight, and she literally put the first book of the saga in my hands and got me a wee bit obsessed with it, too.  This is our melancholy hero, Edward Cullen.  It's difficult to see in the picture, but the white satin fabric I used for his skin is embedded with bits of glitter, so he sparkles like diamonds in the sunlight.  *sigh*  Oh, Edward!  Anyway, I plan on giving it to our little friend with a note that says, "Someone to watch over you while you sleep."

Spring Cleaning Part 1 - The Boys' Closet

On my first day of spring cleaning I started on the Boys' Closet of Horror, and was left utterly exhausted and less than halfway finished by the end of the day.  What a mess.  I dragged everything out.  The massive tower of clothes shoved in next to the dresser, the clothes spilling off of the top shelf.  I kept thinking, "What kind of person lives like this?  What kind of person lets her children live like this?"  I was pretty annoyed with myself for letting it get that far.  I had started to clean it up a couple of times before, but the task was so overwhelming that I would give up and leave an even bigger mess than I had started with.  See all of those bags in front of the closet in the "before" picture?  Those are from previous attempts to sort things out, but they ended up just sitting there for weeks (months?) and I would have to step over them every time I wanted to get clothes out for the boys.
By the end of the first day, I had cleared one side of the closet and sorted through all of the clothes that were in piles and in the dresser.  I filled two garbage bags of clothes to give away--one for consignment and one to send to Goodwill (side note: even if you think your stuff is too gross to donate, Goodwill and The Salvation Army will recycle or upcycle clothing that they cannot sell, so give to them and keep old clothes out of a landfill), and another couple of paper bags to either keep for myself for future projects/keepsakes or pass on to friends with a boy about a year younger than Milo.  Day 1 was under my belt, and there was still a ton of work to be done.
On Day 2, I felt a little more encouraged by the progress of the previous day's work.  It was time I tackled the other half of the closet.  The half where I would shove random crap into when guests were coming over. I pulled it all out and it became a massive pile of junk in the middle of Huck's bedroom.  Broken bits of plasticy thingies.  Onesies from when Milo was an infant.  So many socks, none of them matched up.  I sort of let the boys fend for themselves while I took on this project, and when I emerged from the mess in the bedroom, I found sweet Milo, my artist, on the kitchen floor with a Sharpie, coloring his legs.  There were some nice, black scribbles on the linoleum and on the countertop, as well.  And we rent.  Great.  The rest of my morning was spent with hairspray and a scouring pad, trying to out the damn spots (which I *mostly* did).  I did get back to the closet after lunch, and I managed to finish it that afternoon.  I finally sorted the boys' clothes and put stuff that doesn't fit yet in paper bags on the top shelf, and hung a closet organizer for accessories/swim stuff/sweaters and things that don't need to cram up space in the dresser.  All nice and neat and tidy! 
But then there was the matter of the rest of the room looking a mess.  With the closet looking so organized, I couldn't leave the rest of the room looking the way it did. . . two more days, two garbage bags of trash, one more garbage bag of clothes and plastic crap to donate, and one super exhausted mama later, and the boys' room is the nicest place in the house!  Really organized, too.  I didn't just shove stuff into random baskets this time.  I sorted and chucked things and it looks awesome.  I'm feeling good about it, even though I know that, for the most part, it is futile effort.  My children can tear apart days of work in a matter of minutes.

And no time rest!  Onward to the Dreaded Fabric Stash/Craft Area!

The Monsters in My Closets

I've had a lot of people ask me how I am able to do all of the crafty stuff I am able to do with two little guys running around.  The answer is simple: I neglect the stuff I should be doing and I do the stuff that is fun.
I am NOT a neat person.  Never have been.  I can very easily turn a blind eye to a giant pile of garbage sitting in the middle of a room.  I simply walk around it, day after day, just kind of hoping it will go away.
This weekend, we realized that we had lost our car registration sticker.  My husband had renewed it, but never put the sticker on the car, and it disappeared into one of the many piles of paper we have sitting around the house.  So Steve started cleaning off the computer desk, and I started mining through the giant pile of crap on the entryway table.  And as I dug and dug through expired coupons and credit card offers, I started throwing things away and clearing it all off.  And what's this? Behold!  I could see the surface!  I moved on to the wooden chest next to the table and cleaned it all up.  What about that pile of cardboard boxes that I keep thinking might come in handy some day in case I need to mail something?  Trash!  Trash.  Trash.  TRASH.  By the end of the day we could see our computer desk AND our whole entryway area looked neat and tidy.  And Steve did find the car registration sticker, so it wasn't all for naught.  It all felt very good and productive, and I proceeded to clean off the top of the entertainment center, which is always a catch-all for stuff we're trying to keep out of the kids' grabby hands.  When I walked into the living room the next morning, I was a bit taken aback by how neat it all looked.  It was nice.  We could've had people come over, and I wouldn't have to do a frantic grab-and-shove-crap-into-the bedroom-and-shut-the-door that usually happens!  Nice.
The problem, though, with cleaning one area is that you really start to notice all of the other horrible areas in the house.  So I'm going about a Spring Cleaning Mission.  And I'm airing all of my dirty laundry right here on the Internet for anybody to see.  Over the next 3 weeks, I'm going to tackle these three major problem areas in my house, and I'll document my progress here.

Week 1 - The Boys' Closet

Week 2 - My Fabric Stash and Crafting Area

Week 3 - My Itty Bitty Sewing Room

Pretty disastrous right?  Looking at it here, it honestly embarrasses the hell out of me.  But that's why I'm doing it!  I've already started on the Boys' Closet, and I'm already feeling the weight lift.  It feels good!  You should do it, too!

Family Portrait Coasters

Some friends of ours recently bought their first home, and I wanted to give them a personalized housewarming present. Of course, I waited until the last minute, so I had to come up with something cute, but simple to make, and the idea for these coasters was born!  I really like the way the Daddy coaster came out, and I thought it would be fun to make a coaster set of bearded and mustachioed men.  Some fine-tuning needs to be done, but I smell a tutorial coming up in the near future. . .

(Another) Apron for Mei

My niece was lamenting that she only had one apron! How sad! How awful! What a thing for a mere child to endure! So, for her 5th birthday, I whipped out this little number. She opened it in front of me via Google video chat, and she seemed pleased with it. She ran off immediately to gather "apples" to "cook."
This is a different style than I usually make, but it was quicker to sew and just as cute. I especially like the little ruffled white double apron bit. I had trouble with the scallops, though. I think I need to read about scallops because even though I clipped them quite a bit along the curves, they still came out too angular when I flipped them inside out. Or maybe I need one of those itty bitty irons.
Also, I apologize if the color is off. We got a new monitor, and it is a nice, big size, but it is sooooo contrasty. I've tried adjusting the Gamma settings and such, but I can't seem to get it right, and so I'm having trouble with color-correcting my photos. Also, Milo stole my Wacom stylus and I'm having to Photoshop with a mouse. Someone once told me that trying to draw with a mouse is like trying to draw with a bar of soap, and it is so true! I won't complain any more about it, but that's what's going on if some of my Photoshop work looks a little whacked.
Happy weekend, everyone!

Easter Cake

I am in charge of Easter dessert today, and I chose a recipe for Pineapple Carrot Cake from my brand new cookbook, Rosie's Bakery All-Butter, Fresh Cream, Sugar-Packed, No-Holds-Barred Baking Book. I frosted it with the Cream Cheese Frosting from the same book, and seriously, I have never had a creamier, silkier, richer tasting frosting. I am usually lazy and get the terrible canned Betty Crocker frosting, but this was easy to make and a thousand times better. I topped it off with some coconut dyed green with a few drops of food coloring, an a chocolate bunny and some Whoppers Robins' Eggs. I threw in a few jelly beans around the base because the white frosting on the white plate made it look really top heavy. And Viola! I hope it tastes as yummy as it looks!

Happy Easter, everybody!