Making Clothes

One of my 2012 goals is to make more clothes for my family. Granted, it may not be cheaper than just buying clothes from Target. And it's certainly not easier. But I LOVE wearing dresses that my granny made...seeing what kinds of patterns, fabrics, and detail she chose for herself.

I'm starting slowly, though, with simple, simple patterns. And I'm augmenting things I already own. Like this dress I've had for awhile that had slowly shrank to a weird "not quite long, not quite short" length. I chopped off a few inches, reattached the ruffle at the bottom and thats it! It's been so unseasonably warm around here that I've already worn it several times this week without leggings. February and we've got the windows open!

The boys are in a wedding tomorrow and I just had this crazy idea of making bow ties for them. How hard could it be? (haha). I'll give it a try!

Happy crafting!
Arian

Robot Pants and Cloth Napkins

I've been on a bit of a pants-making kick around here lately. Really, it's just an excuse to buy more ridiculously cute fabric from my new fav little fabric shop. I followed this really easy tutorial. Thank goodness for Pinterest : ) See, the hours I've spent pinning are not in vain. : )

Pinterest also brings friends together. When some of my girl friends and I noticed that we'd all been pinning photos of cloth napkins we decided we might as well get together in real life and make some. Maybe "pinterest accountablity partners" is not a bad idea....you know, friends who are willing to ask, "Hey, have you actually made those no bake granola bars you said you were gonna try?" or "Hey, lets see your abs. Surely they're nice and flat by now since you pinned those '12 moves to flat abs' forever ago." Just an idea ; )

It's cold, snowy, and windy here today. I'm totally content to just stay inside and keep making cloth napkins. We are, after all, gonna need more than the three napkins I was able to finish with my friends last night. But errands call.  Time to bundle up and face the elements!

Arian

Ah, Fridays.

Happy weekend! Hope yours is off to a good start! We took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather and went on our first family walk to Starbucks. I survived my first week with Daniel back to work (thanks to meal, cleaning, and laundry help from family and friends--pretty awesome.) And it was good to ring in the weekend with a celebratory soy latte : )

I made this skirt today! It's still a work in progress but it's inspired me to make more like it! The challenge with clothing a recently pregnant body is finding cute outfits that are forgiving of my still-changing shape and are also nursing friendly...this combo seems to work! I'll post a how-to on the skirt when I get the process a bit more refined ; )

We're slowly falling back into our weekly/weekend routine. Tonight--Friday night family pizza and a movie night. Feels good to be back to something regular. I even got a few more rows done on the family movie night afghan. My goal--to finish it within a year of starting it. I think that gives me about one more month. I can do it!

Happy weekending!

Arian :)

Glitter Lotion DIY

So I like glitter, especially around Christmas (also around Valentine's Day, Halloween, Independence Day....Arbor Day.......Presidents Day...) I've had an eye out for a long while for a glittery, shimmery lotion that isn't chock full of artificial ingredients. But "all natural glitter lotion" seems to be a bit of an oxymoron. Then it finally hit me---glitter lotion is glitter.....plus lotion. And I happen to have those things at home already. Genius.

So some good unscented lotion, extra fine glitter, a few drops of peppermint oil, and a cute jar later, I finally have my festive holiday glitter lotion. I'm all sparkly and glamorous despite the fact that I'm also wearing sweatpants. : )

So if you're a girl and you're related to me, don't buy any glitter lotion because you'll prooooobably be getting your own cute jar of peppermint shimmer lotion soon ; ) (except my sister, who due to some traumatic childhood "hot car + granny + stale mint gum = car sickness" memories, hates all things mint). Sad.

Hope your December is off to a good start!

Arian : )

Nesting

 One of the big things on my "to do before Eli arrives" list was to organize all of our art/crafting/sewing supplies in one place. Now when one of the boys needs a pair of scissors for a project I don't have to send him on a 20 minute scavenger hunt around the house.

 What was once our dining room bookshelf (which Daniel made out of old barn siding my Papa had...I love it), is now a neatly organized, Restoration Hardware-inspired, creation station.

 I have a habit of collecting metal bins, old wooden boxes, and vintage train cases any time I'm out at a yard sale or thrifting. They're perfect for storing art supplies. The boys can just grab the bin, box, or case they need, take it to wherever they're working, and put it back when they're done...easy cleanup!

 And our books have a new home in a metal cabinet I also scored from Papa, organized by color of course : )

Next on the list--finish the nursery!

Arian : )

Super Easy Dress

We had our third annual family Simple Portrait this weekend (last year's, 2 years ago). I love that I'm pregnant in this year's photo and that next year there will be 5 of us!

As soon as we showed up for the shoot, Jude decided he was a dog -- crawling around the studio floor and barking. Classic. It took a lot of convincing to get him to be a boy in at least some of the shots : )

I spent the morning of the photo shoot making this super easy dress out of comfy, maternity-friendly knit fabric....one more thing I can cross off my Pinterest "Things I Want To Make" list. It's basically a grown up pillow case dress--cut two rectangles, sew a tube on top of both, pull ribbon/fabric through and knot, sew sides up.  Easy. I want to make more! Maybe out of some fun, sparkly fabric for the holidays or something pretty and lacy.

I paired it with another easy DIY find from Pinterest, the hipster scarf made from one of Daniel's old shirts.

Happy Thanksgiving week!

Arian : )

Preparing for Eli

We're hard at work transforming this previously (very!) cluttered closet into a little nursery for Eli. He'll still be just a few feet from our bed but have his own private little space.

Lots and lots of little DIY projects---like these felt and faux fur covered wine boxes I'll be using for Eli's little shirts, pants, pjs, and diapers. They were super easy and cheap. Free wine boxes from a local liquor shop, a few dollars worth of brown felt and fake fur, yarn, metal rimmed labels, and my trusty glue gun to put them all together. Now I'm wondering what else I can use fabric covered wine boxes for! Gotta love cute, cheap storage!

Haha, that painting smock just doesn't cover as much as it used to : ) 3 weeks and counting til Eli's due date! We're almost ready for him!

Arian : )

Family Projects

 I'm finally getting a little better at meal planning which means we've had some pretty fun meals lately. Like our living room picnic with the tents we just made with with the boys.

Jude and Hudson picked out their fabrics and helped us drill holes and sew edges (instructions on super-cute blog here). It was a fun, one afternoon-long family craft project! And already quite a few snack times, dinner times, story times, homework times, and snuggle times have happened under these tents.

 They are going on our go-to list for handmade kids' gifts for sure.

We're pretty deep into quite a few family projects at the moment, actually.

One major one is turning this less-than-homey corner of the basement into a cozy guest room for a college friend of ours who just moved in with us for a little while.

And the other is turning this embarrassingly cluttered closet into a cute, tidy, vintage nursery before Eli's quickly approaching arrival (7-ish more weeks!)

So, yeah, we're quiiiite busy around here. Daily trips to the hardware store and the fabric store...lots of thrifting and re-purposing. Fun but tiring but worth it in the end : )

Arian

The Weekend

 Our week of eating dinners outdoors and celebrating our hybrid version of Sukkot ended with a full day of eating, relaxing, and playing outside with lots of friends and family.

 Dinner was a gourmet hotdog feast! Everyone cooked their own hotdogs over the fire then loaded them up with various combinations of our 20 or so topping choices.

We decorated our back deck as our 2-level Sukkah. Not exactly a "temporary hut" but it worked for us : ) As our boys get older, I'm thinking we'll attempt some pretty epic sukkahs, like the ones they make for the Sukkah City competition in NYC. Or perhaps more like these temporary huts. Either way, it will be fun.

For decorations, we put flameless candles under lots of the vintage insulators I got from my grandpa's house. We covered the tables with paper and crayons and fall flowers.  We made autumn fabric buntings, crochet square buntings, yellow duct tape buntings, and paint chip buntings (yay, buntings!) and we hung lots of these little flameless candle lanterns we made from baby food jars.

It was pretty sweet. When God designs a party, it's a good idea to celebrate it : )

Well, today is my birthday (woohoo!) I think I will eat a cupcake for breakfast and then take it from there : )

Arian

Paint Chip Bunting

I'm working on fall goal #1--decorating our (first) front porch. Plus, Sukkot at our home is coming up next week which, of course, is going to require some festive decorations. And my sister's fall-themed baby shower is right around the corner and, of course, I've happily volunteered to make all the decorations. In short, our dining room table has been overtaken by a mountain of fall-colored fabric, paper, ribbon, and general goodness.

Today I made what will likely be the first of many, many fall-colored buntings. This one I made with paint samples, clear packing tape, masking tape, and nylon string.

I cut the paint samples into triangles which I attached and, at the same time, laminated with clear packing tape so they'll (hopefully) survive rainy days on the front porch.

And between each paint sample flag is a little masking tape flag....folded over the string and cut into a triangle. Super easy!

One bunting down, who knows how many left to go!

Happy fall decorating!
Arian : )

Skirt to Scarf

I've wanted to try my hand at one of these hipster scarves I've had on my pinterest for awhile. This skirt had been a staple in my wardrobe for years but it was becoming a bit too short (thanks to approx. 232 trips through the dryer) and had a few little stains and holes so it was time to move on.  While Jude watched an episode of Word World and used his scissors to cut a piece of scrap fabric into tiny shreds on my bedroom floor. I used my scissors and turned this skirt into this scarf.

It's fun to wear so I will probably make another (it being scarf season and all!) And maybe I will even try making a new skirt to replace my old one! I found this crazy cute circle skirt pattern today...seems simple enough!

What is it about fall weather that turns us into crafting fiends? Must.....make.....something.....cozy.

Arian : )