It's Time to Go Back to School!

Well, the summer passed by entirely too quickly and all the little people are returning to school. So, course some of my favorite little people needed some items to take with them back to school!

I used the Big Applique font from 8 Claws and Paw to create a design for Emily's "School Rocks" shirt. I had to decrease the size of the letters a good bit so they'd all fit in one hooping, but it worked wonderfully! Sweet girl wore it to daycare the last day of summer to get everyone excited about going back to school :)

 

 

Next up on the goodie list, Ayden needed his own little backpack for daycare. I got a little camo Cinch Sak from the 31 party I had earlier this summer. I thought it'd be ideal since it's very lightweight and not as bulky as a lot of the bags are these days. It took me awhile to figure out what I wanted to put on it - I didn't want to only put his name on it. I mean he is only 2 - he needs something cutesy right? I finally decided on the Squirrel Alphabet from Planet Applique. I used fleece for the squirrl to give it a little texture. After I'd done the applique, I wanted to add his name somewhere but just didn't want to do the traditional above or below the applique. I decided to make it a little more fun and put it in the squirrel's tail using a font from my machine. It was the perfect subtle touch that just "made" the bag!

 

 





The last of my back to school goodies was for a new friend that was in deperate need for a first day of kindergarten outfit. Apparently she'd ordered one over a month prior online, but a week before school started, they contacted her saying they were unable to complete her request. That just makes me sad that someone would do that to someone! Luckily, I was able to fit her in. I was able to find the same design her sweet Grace picked out online & made her this rockin' dress! Kindergarten Rocks design came from Embroidery Boutique. I used the Itch 2 Stitch's Jelly Bean font to add her name. This was so much fun!

Welcome to Izzy's Beach Bash!

I am so excited that I can finally share pictures of all the goodies I've been making over the past 4 months! I was soooooo happy when I was asked/allowed to help with planning a baby shower for a dear friend. I knew I'd be doing the cake, but I was even happier to be able to contribute to the decorations.

So, with Annette and I both on decorations, it was sure to be a whole lot of fun. Before we even knew the colors or theme of the nursery, we knew we wanted to use girly blue & red together. When we found out the theme and colors of the nursery, we were thrilled that we could incorporate the nursery theme into the theme of the shower!

I know I went a tad bit overboard, but hey, it was an opportunity to learn how to applique onesies & make tutus, sew a straight line with the runners and tablecloths, and try to perfect a new way of doing banners. Plus, Leslie goes overboard with everything she does so she deserved an over the top shower right?

Annette went just as overboard as I did! She painted chairs & signs & all sorts of silver pieces with chalkboard paint. She made hanging decorations with paper plates that were soooooooo cute! She has an awesome collection of pewter serving pieces that added the perfect elegant touch to the super cute shower!

Thanks for looking!

Skeleton Wedding

Most people wouldn't think I was very into the "goth" or "steampunk" scenes. The truth is that I often really love some of the designs those that are come up with. Even though i really like them, I haven't found many occassions to make anything for myself. I did make an awesome romantic skull patch for giggles one day and some of the looks I got were quite humorous. I don't care - I like it. I got the design from www.urbanthreads.com - they have THE MOST AWESOME non traditional designs for embroidery & applique out there!

Anyways, back to the point of this post. We received an invitation to go to one of my hubby's friends' wedding & guess what???? The invitation had skulls on it! Oh, how my mind wandered! I was SO excited because this was my chance to do some sort of off the wall gift that would truly be enjoyed by the recipients! I considered several options, but decided on a skeleton bride and groom design with the date of the wedding to be used on a wall hanging. I stitched the design out on linen, stretched it over a canvas, attached a ribbon, and glued on the backing - Voila! I was very pleased with the way this turned out & from what I hear, the recipients enjoyed it as well.

Rainy Weekend Fun!

It was a miserable weekend for doing outside activities with all the rain and dreary weather, so I got to play in the craft room! Yippee! 

I was pretty productive for not working at an insanely crazy pace. I embroidered some little outfits for sweet Ensley, made a pair of patriotic shirts for a friend at work, and finished my June challenge entry. I'm working on some charms for another long term project too. I'm on such a roll, I really wish I didn't have to go to work this week!

I used 2 mini filled designs from Applique Momma to embellish the top of this little romper.

This girly octopus from Applique Momma girlied up this blue bubble.

The princess coach came from Frou Frou by Heather Sue. I love this one & use it often!

What better way to brighten up a dreary day than to do a fun summer sunshiny beach bag! This design came from Luna Stitches.

I used the Old Glory Alphabet & Preppy Monogram Font from Hang to Dry Applique for this Grandpa - Grandson set!

Some of my Favorite Appliques

I was just looking through my little blog here and realized I haven't posted many of the appliques I've done! This is crazy since it's my new obsession, so I'm going to try to fix that now.

My very first appliques!
Alphabet from Planet Applique!

Are you ready for the Fourth of July?
Fireworks by Applique Junkie!

Ayden's 2nd birthday outfit!
Pirate Ship from Planet Applique!

Austin's Sock Monkey!
Valentine Sock Monkey from the Itch 2 Stitch

Cute Burp Cloths
Both Designs by Planet Applique

"I Dig You" by Planet Applique

Friendly Shark by Lynnie Pinnie
*bought 2 pairs of Walmart shorts and used the fabric from one to do the applique!

Ayden's Spring Ensemble - LOL
Caution Sign by Hang to Dry Applique
Dinosaur Alpha & Sports Easter Eggs by Planet Applique

Emily's Birthday Banner
Cupcakes by Big Dreams Embroidery
I modified the candy piece from Embroidery Boutique

Emily's Octopus! How cute is this?
Applique Junkie

Sewing Room Organization Projects!

Like so many other people lately, I’ve become OBSESSED (or possessed, as my MIL would say) with Pinterest. There are soooo many AWESOME ideas on there & I just hope to be able to attempt even a third of what all I have pinned to date! I’ve posted a couple of prior Pinterest projects on here before, but I thought I’d write about my most recent Pinterest inspired creations this time.

I bought a sewing/embroidery combo machine last September and have gone crazy since then! It didn’t take me long to realize what a poor decision I’d made in getting the small 4x4 hoop machine, so I upgraded just before Christmas to a big dawg. I was originally playing in the kitchen so I could be near the computer, but realized that sewing makes a big mess. It’s even worse than the cakes because you don’t have to worry about stuff growing on fabric if you leave it sitting there a couple of days so I’m not so quick to clean up behind myself.

We decided to turn the extra bedroom/my hubby’s hobby room into a combined hobby room. I’ve kind of taken it over, but he does still have his little desk with his recording equipment on it. I think he’s a little bitter… we’ll do better when we get another house! Anyways, the first few months it just looked like a disaster area! Fabric & scraps thrown everywhere; you couldn’t see the floor, the table, and occasionally you couldn’t even find the sewing machine! I’ve been working hard to try to get it more organized. It’s not quite there yet, but these Pinterest projects/ideas are helping get it that way. 

The first is actually a quite simple project. I did see the idea on Pinterest, but I could never get to the link that gave the directions for making it so I kind of winged it. I used a tv table from Target, some quilt batting, GORGEOUS Riley Blake Red and White Chevron print fabric and the handy dandy staple gun. This works great and takes up so much less space than a real ironing board. And the best part is that you don’t have to hear that horrible screech every time you open it up. I think that’s one reason I hate ironing so much! Plus, my ironing board is atrocious so this adds to the “prettiness” factor of the room too!

TV tray Ironing Board

My next project was a pretty thread wall organizer. I bought a super gorgeous frame at Hobby Lobby & got my hubby to cut the wood to fit the frame. I covered the wood with fabric & then used drywall screws to make my thread holders. I really like the way it is now, but I think I’m going to go back and add some additional screws in between the rows so it will hold more than 48 spools. Maybe nails so the smaller spools will  fit. Or I might just leave it just as it is. Who knows!



Pretty Wall Thread Rack (In progress)

Finally, we get to fabric organization. This came from several sources adapted so it would work for me and my tiny space. Since we have a big armoire in the room, I’d originally thought I could use it for fabric storage. But, it was just entirely too hard to keep it nice and organized in there so we had to do something different. I bought several baskets at Michael’s in fun, bright colors and thought I would use them to separate fabric by colors. This worked pretty well for awhile, but still wasn’t exactly what I wanted. So, I went to Target and bought a 9 cube bookcase unit thing and used the baskets in it. They don’t fit exactly, but it’s worlds better than what I’d had so I’m happy! The coolest thing is the mason jars I’m using for scrap for appliqués! It’s really making my life so much easier – and it doesn’t help that it’s pretty too.



Mason Jar Storage & Basket Fabric Storage



Once the room is in complete order, I’ll post real photos. I was just excited to share what I’ve done up to now!

Cake with the Daring Little Separator

My most recent cake reminds me that there is an awful lot of editing that goes on behind the scenes before you ever see a television show.  Let’s give you a little background before I show you the wedding cake from somewhere south and red and very, very hot where people have little horns and carry pitchforks.

I’m sure at some point in your life you’ve watched one of the numerous cake decorating shows that are on the Food Network or TLC channels. I’ve watched several of them – my favorites are the Food Network challenges. I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to take a class from the wonderful Kaysie Lackey! She is one of THE MOST energetic and creative people I’ve ever met! The class was so much fun & I was super shocked that she taught us to put together a cake (real cake – not just a cake dummy) that made it all the way home from Nashville, TN – A 5 HOUR DRIVE!!!!  Here’s a picture of the cake before we left:

Kaysie & Casey - KC squared!

And here’s a picture after it’d been traveling for 5 hours in the car.

Totally amazing that it survived right? I thought so.

So, this brings me to the cake from H. E. Double Hockey Sticks. All of my wedding cakes up to this point have been tiers stacked on top of tiers. Ever since I went to the crazy teapot cake in Nashville, I’ve wanted to step up my game as far as cake design goes. I’d gotten very tired of doing the same ole thing, but that’s what everyone seemed to want. FINALLY, I have a sweet friend that’s getting married and said I could do what I wanted.

This is my chance! I can do finally do something out of the ordinary. YAY!!!! Or so I thought to begin with… The cake design is fairly simple. Round cake, ribbon roses, and buttercream piping. The part that gets tricky is the 6x3 cake dummy covered in fondant that separates the center tiers. I really think that if I had not insisted on stacking the entire cake at home before I left, I wouldn’t have had a problem. They do it on TV all the time, so why wouldn’t it work for me?

Purple and Black Round Wedding with Separator & Ribbon Roses

The car ride was MURDER! I thought it would be a good idea for someone to sit in the back of the car with it just in case it tried to topple. I didn’t make it to the end of my short little street before I was hyperventilating in tears and made my hubby pull over. He graciously sat squished up in the back with it and let me drive. I think I held my breath the entire way there. Just before we pulled into the parking lot, we hit an unexpected BUMP & my hubby’s hand smashed a small part of the bead border. No worries though – that’s what the emergency kit in the front seat is for. We got it set up, I fixed the border only to realize that the cake is sitting on a table that is slightly crooked L I guess it could have been my cake, but all the tiers would have had to be crooked in order for it to be the cake I’d think. All the tiers seemed to line up to me. I guess it doesn’t matter though – the bride said she loved it & I’m fairly certain she would have told me if she didn’t like it. I am just thankful it made it there in one piece and she was pleased.

If I ever do another similar cake, I will just have to put on my big girl britches and stack it in front of people. I’m thinking I won’t do another one of these though. I don’t know if I nerves could take reliving the memory of this one again...

Closeup of some details (I know this looks crooked because of the camera angle - LOL)

More Hello Kitty Cakes

So apparently Hello Kitty is quite popular... I think it might be my most popular request. My most recent HK cake was so popular it deserved its own post :) That one is probably my all time favorite HK cake, but these are pretty cute too. You can also tell that I've come a LONG way in my decorating abilities. Sometimes it's fun to go back and look at the cakes you thought were so cute at the time, even though now I'm sometimes disgusted in what I'd done before. But - does it really matter as long as the precious little recipients like them?



Simple all fondant decor with buttercream icing underneath 

Another simple round cake covered in fondant - I like the bow on the first one like this better, but i LOVE the name up in the air on this one :o)

My favorite tiered version! Buttercream base with all fondant decor (HK, polka dots, stripes, name & flowers)

The super sweet recipient of the Shamrock Hello Kitty cake below just about brought tears to my eyes. I was having a bad day when I got the sweetest message from her mother. She said that the cake was exactly what she wanted and that it was her favorite part of her party. She wanted balloons, shamrocks & HK on her cake. This story is what makes me love to do these and what made it so hard to decide to stop.


Shamrock Hello Kitty - Buttercream base with fondant accents



Tiered buttercream with fondant accents and Hello Kitty candle



Simple carved shape with buttercream decoration

(Told ya you could see the difference a couple of years can make in your decorating ability! - newest on top obviously!)