...and one more...

Here's one last tote. For now, anyway.

Today we went to our friend Emma's seventh birthday party, and this was her gift. Her favorite color is, of course, pink. I love the main body fabric-I have ogled it many times but never had the right project for it. I think this worked!

You can probably tell that I love to sew these totes.

I am taking a break from them for a while though. We're caught up on birthdays for the moment, plus I am busy making another mini messenger. Not for me, of course. Photos in a few days, when I finish it up!

Yes, Another Tote (and more cupcakes)

Well, one might argue that I am nothing if not predictable, and I would not be one to disagree. Evidence is below, in the form of a tote bag and some cupcakes.

I made this for Adrea's sixth birthday. Adrea is my neighbor, plus she happens to be my cousin's daughter. Which I think makes me her second cousin, but I consider her more my niece. She loves pink and she loves pretty, so we thought this fabric was perfect for her. The pink part is actually swirled with shiny pink.

Here are her party cupcakes. Her mom, Jenni, baked the cupcakes and made the frosting. All I did is tint it pink and purple and swirl it together to frost them. The kids sprinkled on colored sugar for a little oomph. Pretty fancy!

Summer Sewing

I haven't been crafting much lately, as we've spent all of our daylight moments outside. However, I have two things to show you today.

Here is a tote I made for our friend Miles for his third birthday. I actually sewed this in April, when I found this awesome robot and rocket fabric. Click on the photo to enlarge it so you can see the cool red fabric, too. Miles's birthday was a week and a half ago, so I couldn't post this until now. Didn't want to ruin the surprise in case he reads my blog.

On Monday, Nora went to swimming lessons and then we went to our friend Charity's house. She lives in a most convenient location. Get this-we walked up to my favorite fabric store, which is one block from her house! Charity was just as smitten as I am with all of the amazing fabrics. She picked out this adorable animal fabric for a tote for her 2 year-old, Josie. I used lime green thread for a bit of contrast. We plan to drop it off after swimming lessons today. I sure hope Josie likes it!

On a related note (sort of), I may have mentioned the heat of late. After spending our days swimming and playing in the sand next door, we are exhausted, starving and hot. I am having trouble coming up with dinners that are filling and appealing to the children but do not require the use of my oven. I can't stand to warm my house by even one degree. Last night we had eggs. The night before, we had tacos. The girls do not like barbecue, so that makes my life tricky this time of year. Please-if you have any ideas for hot weather meals that little girls enjoy, I would love to hear them. Oh, by the way, we are vegetarian. Or tofu snappers, as my father refers to us. I'll just be here, waiting for the advice to pour in...

Garden!

A few weeks ago, Kevin's parents came over with the most delightful gift: fencing!

They worked with Kevin for two afternoons installing this around my vegetable garden. I can't even tell you how exciting this is! Last year, the deer and the bunnies ate everything in my garden. I was not very happy to have spent hours and hours weeding, tilling, planting, watering, weeding, watering, weeding, watering and weeding just so the local wildlife could eat everything.

It's been really hot here for the past few days, and I have been vigilant about watering and weeding, and everything has just sprung up. I swear the tomatoes have grown several inches this week! And look at the flowers! This means I will actually have tomatoes to harvest this year!

My dad had extra onion sets, so Dana planted a row in our garden. They are growing like weeds. I am thrilled!

Peas! I am very happy to see peas coming up. I planted them along one edge of the garden so that they can grow right up the fence. Smart of me, no? Yeah, it was Jerry's idea, not mine. That's Kevin's dad.

These are pole beans. I chose yellow because I am lazy, and I will be able to see yellow easily when it comes time to pick them. Green beans are much harder to spot, since they are the exact same hue as bean leaves.

Cucumbers! These are actually in my flower bed, but I am still very excited about them. Fresh cucumbers are my all time favorite garden treat. I like them even better than garden tomatoes. Isn't that crazy? I planted four plants, one on each side of my 4-sided obelisk. I should have planted 40 plants because I love them that much.

Some color, just for fun.

I have other things growing in the vegetable garden, too. Things like Swiss chard, kohlrabi, spinach, carrots. Kevin's dad had a huge selection of seeds leftover from his gardening adventures, and he shared them with us. Those tiny seedlings are hard to photograph still since they are very tiny yet. I also have a pepper plant and some basil. But really-how many plants do you want to look at?

I have a couple of sewing projects in the works, but it has been much too nice out to sit inside sewing. I will probably start the one tonight though.

S'Mores

I found this recipe a couple of weeks ago and couldn't stop thinking about it. I finally made it last Sunday to bring to our weekly family bbq.

Yum-all those marshmallows!

It's just a s'more in a pan. Really easy and really yummy. The only change I made was to use 8 chocolate bars instead of the 7 called for.

It's better than a campfire s'more because the chocolate is actually soft. That is the one downfall of a campfire s'more: hard chocolate.

Mini Messenger

So Nora has been asking and asking for a messenger bag instead of a backpack. All of the ones I can find are intended for laptops, and because of the extra padding and everything, they are really heavy! And bulky! And the straps are ridiculously long. And because of these issues, I told her I would figure out how to make her one, one that is lightweight and smaller and with shorter adjustable straps. I promised to do all of this in time for school to start in the fall, but one night I was doing something or another and I found an online tutorial for messenger bags.

Since my sewing skills are a work in progress, I was a bit hesitant to just jump into this. So I looked through the rest of this woman's blog and somewhere saw mention of a smaller version. So I decided to make myself the mini messenger as a trial and, if it worked out and wasn't too complicated, I could make the bigger one for Nora for school.

And you know what? It totally worked out and it was pretty easy!

You actually follow the sewing directions for the regular messenger bag, but there is sort of an addendum tutorial with the smaller measurements and some other notes if you want to make the mini messenger.

The mini uses three fat quarters, two zippers, a magnetic snap, and about a yard of interfacing. So I made this for about $10! This photo shows the front of the bag, with the flap closed.

I used Amy Butler fabric and I have to say, it turned out really cute. I love it! Do you see the magnetic snap there? It is sitting right in the middle of two pockets. I keep my phone in one and it's perfect. The flap actually covers the pocket and prevents the phone from just falling out. Nice!

That's the inside of the purse. It has a ziptop closure, so I don't have to worry about my wallet falling out. Also, do you see that green zipper inside there? It has an interior zipper pocket! I still can't believe I sewed an interior pocket! It was actually very easy, but don't tell anyone.

This is the back. There are two pockets, but I am not sure what I will put in them. Maybe a mini Kleenex packet or something I won't worry about losing. They don't have closures, so whatever I stash there won't be super secure or anything. Still-there are five pockets, plus the main part of the bag. I will be able to carry everything I need in an organized fashion.

Sometime soon I will take Nora to select fabric for her school messenger. I can totally make her one without pulling any of my hair out! I am really excited!

Nightie for Nora

On Friday, my dad took Nora and Dana to my nephew Keenan's baseball game. That left me with a couple of hours home alone. I used my time to sew a nightie for Nora.

I love how it turned out!
The fabric is flannel from Sandi Henderson's Ginger Blossom line. I saw it at Hannah Johnson and knew that Nora would love it. It has her two favorite colors: pink and turquoise.

The pattern is McCall's 5744. I saw a sample of this nightie on display when I bought this fabric and I loved the crossover style. So cute! And talk about customer service: this isn't a pattern she sells-she was just looking to display the sample nightie-so she let me borrow HER pattern!

I cut my own bias tape for the contrast. I know it's a whole lot easier to just buy a package of it, but it looks so sweet with the coordinating fabrics, and plus, do they even make flannel bias tape?

And here's the best part: Nora absolutely loves it! She could not believe I made it without her even knowing. Which completely cracks me up, because my dad dropped the girls off while I was in the middle of this project, and I continued to sew while the kids played. I was three feet away from her, with fabric scraps everywhere, and she never really noticed. Kids are so funny sometimes.

She got a bit wacky for the camera.

I need to go buy this pattern in the smaller size so I can make one for Dana, who has asked very kindly for a nightie, too. Coming right up, friend!