Landlubbers' Guide: Pirate Costume Tutorial Series!

Part 1 is coming this afternoon!  See you then!

Pirate Peek

I'm going to wait till I finish both girls' pirate costumes to post full-fledged pictures and tutorials, but fear not-- they are in the works!  Then I'll post Big Man's.  I hope you're ready for some swashbuckling fun! 

**tangent alert** I watched "Revolution" last night, and the description on the info screen of On Demand was that it was a "swashbuckling journey."  Swashbuckling?  Awesome.  I'm in.

I thought, since it will be at least a couple days until I can get the whole pirate crew sewn up, I'd give you a sneak peek at Noelle's top.  Get excited!  I know I am!

Decision Made

I've been back and forth about Halloween costumes.

My Little Ponies?
monsters?
a skunk? (I was a skunk when I was little... my choice)

Then Riley started talking about something that ended up being IT.  And all six cousins will be dressing up on the theme.  I'm pretty excited.  I just got all the fabric this morning.  And I'm planning on creating tutorials, so be prepared for that in the coming weeks!

Want a hint?  Here you go: I bought five different fabrics this morning, and they were all in black, red, and/or white.  Arrrrrrrrrrre you able to guess? ;)

Rockstar client and a cool camera strap cover

One of my favorite things in the whole wide-y world is when someone says to me, "Hey, do you think you could make (______) for me?"  My answer is always, "YES!"  Or, more often, "Oh, heck, YES!!"  I love love love projects. 

So that's why Erin is my rockstar, uh, client.  She's also one of my closest friends, but let's be business-like and professional, shall we? 

Here's her latest commissioned work (oooo!  more professional-sounding language!): a padded camera strap cover, now named lovingly after her. :)

I love these colors together.  And the backing is flannel, so it's nice and soft, perfect for-- say-- lugging your camera with you while hiking in Chile.  Yes.  That's what Erin is about to do.  She's awesome.  Oh, and in case you're worried about getting that gorgeous strap dirty, it's totally washable.

Erin was also the recipient of this cow dress.  Betcha can hardly tell which one Erin is, huh? 

And she commissioned a few onesies (and a pair of pants) for her friend's new baby.  Here are a couple of 'em.  

 Erin, you should know this already, but you are a rockstar.  Keep the projects comin', pretty please!

Happy Birthday, Clifford!

I'm a sucker for a theme.  I really, truly am.  When I have to answer those "What three words best describe you?" questions, I usually put something like "enthusiastic", or-- perhaps more appropriately, "ENTHUSIASTIC!!!!!!" :) 

So Riley's preschool teachers didn't know what they had in store when they asked the kids to wear red today in order to celebrate Clifford's birthday.  See, we don't wear a ton of red in our house, so what's a girl to do but to rush out to Jo-Ann's and buy varying shades of red fabric?!

When I started making Riley-girl's outfit, I had no clear vision except that I wanted a variety of fabrics, some ruffles, and sweetie-bell sweats in red.

We ended up with a tunic top, featuring two ruffles at the neckline (one with puppy prints-- woohoo!) and a big piecework ruffle at the hem.  I like how the grey tones down the red/black theme.

 I even got to use a little more of my Riley Blake chevron for the straps and one of the piecework panels.

 And we are going to get a LOT of use out of these sweetie-bell sweats.  They're so ridiculously comfy.  I may need to make some for myself.  I'm not kidding either.

 Happy birthday, Clifford!  Thanks for giving us another excuse to go fabric-shopping! :)

Vintage-y Modern Striped "Tennis Dress"

Riley's taking tennis lessons, which I'm pretty thrilled about.  I'm not going to pressure her into a life of tennis, but I really really really do hope she loves it.  :)

She has one tennis outfit that Nana and Granddad bought for her, but-- you know me-- I'm always looking for a project, so I decided I'd make her a couple tennis dresses.  The first one I made is in the wash, but here's the second one, which she wore to class yesterday.

 Okay, so she actually could wear it as a regular dress, too, but it works pretty darn well for tennis. 
It's made from (I think) dancewear fabric-- the slick, super stretchy stuff.

 I'm calling it a vintage-y dress because, clearly, tennis players these days do not wear skirts this long.  But she's four, and she has a tendency to bounce around and sit on the ground and not worry about her underwear showing, so we went with a longer skirt.  And then there's the high neckline.

 But the stripes are nice and modern (I'm a sucker for stripes).  I switched up their directionality on the front and back of the bodice, and I LOVE how a circle skirt makes the stripes look.  So fun!

 So there she is, a tennis dress for my little tennis star!  Keep your eyes peeled for the other one soon (which you got a sneak peek, if you recall...).

Syllabus Shock?

I remember, back when I was in college, those first days of classes.  You'd walk in, learn about the upcoming semester, get the syllabus and walk out in a cold sweat because HOW IN THE HECK AM I GOING TO READ AND DO ALL THIS IN ONE QUARTER?!

I mean, I'm not the only one who dealt with syllabus shock, right?  I'm pretty sure it's a thing.  Yeah.  It's a thing.

So what's the mom version of syllabus shock?  Because I think I'm experiencing it right now.

Really, truly, these last couple weeks have been crazy-pants.  And I only have ONE kid in school!  And it's preschool... only three days a week... for only 2.5 hours a day.

I was trying to process why I've felt so out of my mind, overwhelmed and just plain flaky.  It probably defies definition, but here's what I think are major contributors:

  

Riley started preschool.  In the afternoon.  I think the afternoon thing has thrown me for a couple reasons.  First, knowing that I have to get Riley to preschool on time, in the middle of the day, looms over me for the entire morning.  I get super anxious if I'm late, so even though it's only 8 am, I find myself checking my watch and trying to plan out every moment up to departure time, so we can be on time.  Second, Brooks and Noelle still nap in the afternoon.  This means that I drop Riley off, throw the other two in bed, let them sleep, then have to wake them up.  Who wants to wake up a peacefully napping kid?!  Not me. 

I've been stressed about Brooks.  My sweet guy recently was hospitalized overnight because of wheezing and airway constriction.   Then, at his 9-month check-up (that we went to when he was a little over 10 months... Oops.), I walked out with orders to FIVE other doctors.  Ugh.  He will be just fine, but it was a little much.

The kids are so close to together but are in different stages.  Riley's in preschool, Noelle would LOVE to be in preschool but is still too young, and Brooks is still just kind of chilling, taking in the world.  Here's a good example: Riley gets herself into her carseat herself, Noelle can snap the top clasp, and Brooks still happily gets lugged around a latched in.

Anyway, I find myself conscious of the fact that I'm not firing on all cylinders.  Yesterday, despite the fact that I had it written down in two places and had had a conversation about it, I found myself calling my friend to confirm a playdate because I just didn't trust the state of my mind or memory.  Argh.

Long story short-- I'm clearly a person of routines.  And I'm pretty excited for our routines to get themselves rooted firmly in place.