be the thread

Tuesday, June 30

rainbows... and my pot of gold

I know it's not St. Patrick's Day. Bear with me.

I saw this cake made by Meg at whatever... and decided today was the day to give it a try!
Start off with some white cake, a bunch of Wilton food coloring, bowls, and 8"cake pans.

We had so much fun mixing the colors in!

The cooking time was a bit less than the box said for 8" cakes (about 15 min). I cooked a few of the layers at a time just so I wasn't slaving in the kitchen all day.

Then after waiting *forever* for them to cool, I trimmed, frosted, layered, stacked, trimmed, frosted, frosted, and frosted some more. I didn't feel like going to get my ruler. But I wanted to give you a little perspective as to how tall 6 layers of cake is.

Then I swore my son to secrecy... I wanted it to be a good surprise and an amazing reveal. He actually decided to tell Daddy that it was just a big pile of frosting sitting on the cake plate.

Then we cut in & enjoyed the pretty colorful bunch of sugary yumminess after dinner.

Isn't it gorgeous???!!! I just didn't have a ton of frosting and didn't want to make more. I suppose it would take on a whole new look with thickers layers of frosting in-between. I kind of like it this way!

So why go to all this trouble? It's my anniversary. Love ya, sweetie! (he's my pot of gold, a treasure indeed!!!)

Monday, June 29

testing... testing...

I am so excited!!! I have been testing a pattern for Dawn, from Olabelhe.

I can only imagine all the hard work that goes into getting the details organized, formatted and put together - let alone the math & drawing skills needed to draw your own pattern. I am envious.

I can't really talk about any more details yet, but let's just say OH SO CUTE!

(that's a peek at my sewing table - do you see a little bit of pattern piece sticking out? a pretty blue fabric? just you wait!!!)

Saturday, June 27

cowgirl party

My niece's 2nd birthday party was today. This is the (handmade) invite.

Her cute cake (made by her mom) and poorly photographed by me.

She celebrated in fine cowgirl style! Don't you just LOVE the boots?

Here we are in "our finest duds" as requested on the invitation. (OK, maybe not our finest duds, but I don't have the time to stitch up detailing & pearl buttons on shirts.)
I fringed up the bottom of the tee, appliqued the heart with dark blue bandana fabric & denim ricrac around the edge. The skirt was one she already had. Her hairclips (not shown) used a skinny denim ribbon & the denim ricrac.

For his shirt, I just appliqued a star on (out of the same fabric) and stitched around the inside with white & around the outside with dark blue. When he was getting dressed, he found the sheriff star in the dress-up box. He wanted to put it in the middle of the star on his shirt. After the picture, he said he needed a bandana and we went digging again and found a red one. Then he asked what a "real" cowboy looks like & how they wear their bandanas. Google images, here we come. We got it figured out. (He asked if cowgirls wear bandanas too. Tip: DON'T Google "cowgirl" with your 4 yr old watching. Images not *quite* as appropriate as cowboys. He just giggled and pointed, it's not that bad. I'm just sayin'...)

For me - I just grabbed a skirt & tank I already had, and then made myself a simple fabric headband & necklace. For the necklace, I made a LONG tube of fabric, shoved some of the kid's beads inside, and tied knots. So easy. My skirt was a layered, ruffled blue denim-looking one I already had. But, unfortunately with a 4 yr old photographer in charge, you don't get to see the whole outfit. (My boots are the ones in the pic with Abby.)

Then at the end of the party, as the sun was setting...

Thursday, June 25

the porch - again

Ok. Well the heat index is like 100 all week. So I'm pretty sure we're not going to get much landscaping done. This is what it looks like now. If I didn't just post it now, it might never happen.

Some of the plants from before are going back in, and we're going to have a little more empty space (I think?) which is probably a good thing. Maybe some bulbs in the fall... or annuals next spring.

I'm just not sure I love the furniture set-up either. It's just hard because the windows aren't the up/down kind, they're the crank out kind - so you have to be careful what you put in front of them. And I don't really want furniture crowding the door. Ultimately, I'd love two wooden rockers I think. I don't want to be Cracker Barrel or anything, I just love the idea of sitting in a big comfy rocker sipping sweet tea while the kids play in the yard.

What DO I love???
I love that the posts are clean and simple (although at this point unpainted).
I love that there is room to sit on the glider and not kick the bushes.
I love that I don't hit the roof with the door when it opens.
I love that I have a blank canvas to decorate.

So, for now I will just try and enjoy my sweet tea, and try and dream up something fun so I'm more impressed with it than I am right now. What are your front porch dreams?

Wednesday, June 24

labor of love

Check out this baby doll carrier.
My sister-in-law picked the fabric, cut out the pieces and did the first couple steps of the 50-step pattern. She asked me if I could finish it (she was getting a little overwhelmed with baby #2 and the difficulty of the pattern). I didn't think it would be that hard. I could figure it out, right?

Well,
I love my niece.
I love sewing.
I've decided I'm just not sure I love taking someone else's beginnings. Next time (if there is a next time?!!!) I'm doing it myself from the cutting out part. And I'm not sure I'm EVER going to use this particular pattern again. It kept on going to the bottom of my to-do pile, which tells me pretty blatantly that it was not my favorite project.
But.... Saturday is her 2nd bday party (and it's FINALLY done!!!) so Happy Birthday, G!

Monday, June 22

display space

My front room has slowly morphed from a not-really used room, to my creative space. It has the piano and a hutch too, but more importantly - it is my craft space. It houses my shelves, tables, sewing machine, fabric, and other assorted goodies.
Because it's the first room people see, I have to be a little aware of what it looks like if someone just stops by. Sometimes I just say oh well, but when I need to clean up I do - and I turn it into a consultation space for meeting with customers.
Recently, we added a display shelf. (I can't take all the credit - all I did was pick out the shelf. My hubby did the install.)

I love how deep it is - no problem holding my fuzzy cubes, hooded towels, and lovey blankets. I love it that people can see the goodies when they walk in the door, rather than having to dig around in a plastic tub. And my favorite part - the shelf brackets. I chose them with those squares for a couple reasons - I don't really love the whole country look anyway, and figured the little squares would be great for hanging some of my items. I kind of feel like the top of the shelf is pretty crowded though, so I guess I better start selling some things!!!!