Kid's Clothes Week Challenge

I didn't plan on participating in Elsie's Kid's Clothes Week Challenge this year, but a visit to a local quilt shop led me to this fabric, which was just screaming out to be made into a shirt for Phoebe.

I used Rae's Flashback Skinny Tee pattern, which is super quick and simple.  I made this in size 2T since that fit Phoebe really well when I sewed with it a mere three months ago, but this waffle weave cotton doesn't seem to have as much stretch as a typical knit, so when she went to try it on, she got a little stuck in the shoulders and arms.

After almost scrapping the whole shirt, I decided to chop off the arms (it was originally long sleeved), and that seemed to be just the ticket!

A fun animal shirt for my animal loving girl.

Penellogram

Gah!  I totally hate it when more than a week goes by in between blog posts.  And it's definitely not for lack of things to blog about.  I've got about a billion posts in my head, but these kids are just sucking the life out of me! 

And it is only being reinforced by my current Instagram obsession, because everyone keeps posting these gorgeous pictures of themselves sewing and working on projects all day long, and it only makes me seethe with jealousy that I can't get more sewing/blogging/thrifting/cleaning/laundry/sleep/alone time/etc. in everyday.  Sigh.  One day when the kids are grown I'll miss these days of endless games of Hi Ho Cherry-O, right?

But I digress....

Here's another baby quilt that I made for a very soon to be born little boy. 

I just love the range of fabrics I chose for this quilt - some are from current lines of fabric, some are from vintage sheets, and I even used some cotton napkins that I picked up at Target awhile back. 

Phoebe kept calling these diamonds when I was sewing this together, but I informed her that they are actually parallelograms.  Henceforth, Phoebe's favorite shape is the "Penellogram".  Obviously, she seems to be doing much better with her little sister :)

This measures about 45" square and is backed in a vintage sheet that seems to match perfectly.  And speaking of vintage sheets, I've recently added quite a bit to the shop.  Stop by and take a look and I'll give you 15% off your order through the end of the month if you use the code PENELLOGRAM!

Doily lamp tutorial. Finally!

Well, it only took me three months, but I promised that I'd finally get around to showing you how I made the doily light for Penelope's nursery.  Unfortunately I can't take credit for this awesome idea - I saw this version on Pinterest awhile back - but here's my version it and some tips that I found useful....

So a mere week before Christmas, and only ten days before I went into labor, my husband came home to this going on in the middle of our kitchen.  Luckily, we've been together for about 11 years, so he's pretty used to my crazy projects taking over our house.

I used one of those giant punching bag balloons that I found at the dollar store since they are perfectly spherical vs the typical balloon shape.  Plus, they seem to be a little thicker than a normal balloon, and less likely to pop during the process.

The original poster used wallpaper glue, but I just went with what I had on hand which was regular old Elmer's school glue, that I watered down a bit.  I simply placed the doilies on the balloon and painted them with the glue until they were completely saturated.  The glue seemed to have just enough tack to hold them in place and I didn't have any problems with them falling off before they were dry.

I let this dry for about 24 hours and then went back and touched up some areas that didn't feel quite stiff enough (if your doilies seem too pliable, just increase your glue to water ratio).  Then I let this dry for another day.  Then it hung there for another couple of days just because.

Finally I popped the balloon (which was Phoebe's favorite part) and used this lighting kit from Ikea to hang it up.  I intentionally left an opening between a couple of the doilies so that I could fit the bulb and socket into the center without having to cut out a hole in the lamp.

And there you go!  It was incredibly simple, and it only cost me around $10.  Four for the lighting kit and I probably used about six doilies (thrifted at about $1 each) to cover the balloon. 

The light has held up beautifully.  It gets turned on every evening, and I haven't had any problems with it warping, or getting too hot, or anything.  And Penelope just loves looking at it and all of the beautiful shadows that it makes on the walls.

Next up - one for every room of the house!

An Instagram Easter

 So I've had the Instagram app on my phone for who knows how long, but it wasn't until this past weekend that I became super addicted.  Come follow me, okay?  You'll get to see lots of behind the scenes action that doesn't make it to this blog - babies, cats, works in progress, my messy house, etc.  You can find me under Emmmylizzzy, of course!

My weekend started off with me getting super sick for a good 24 hours.  Thank goodness my parents were already here for the Easter weekend so they could watch the kiddos, since I pretty much didn't move from my bed for an entire day.  At one point, Phoebe brought me this daffodil and said "Here Momma, I brought you a present to make you feel better".  This cute moment was followed promptly by her grabbing it out of my hands and saying "Actually...., it's mine".

Thankfully I felt much better the next day for some Easter egg fun.

Due to being sick, I didn't end up making any fancy ones like in years past.....

.....but Phoebe rocked out some pretty awesome ones by mixing her own concoction of colors together.

Odin decided to keep an eye out for the Easter bunny all night.....

.....but must have missed him, because he had time to deliver waaaay too many goodies. (I think I get more excited about Easter than any other holiday)

After church and a lovely brunch in downtown Ann Arbor with the family, we headed home to hunt for eggs and relax the rest of the day.

Hope your holiday was just as great!