Cullen's Birthday!

I have some new things I have been working on, but have had no time to finish any, so unfortunately I have no crafty pictures to share right now!

What has kept me so busy? Well, my sister came to visit all last week, and Cullen's second birthday was on Friday. All week was spent going to the zoo, and getting stuff ready for his big party we had on Saturday. The party was a huge success, and he had a blast! I used raw edge applique to make him a cool birthday shirt: It had a 2 on the front and his name on the back!

My sister made him a cool Halloween themed "cupcake cake":

And he had lots of fun with all of his buddies:

Poor guy still got a bit of sunburn, even with SPF 50 slathered on! (And Nevaeh is wearing the pillowcase dress I made for her a few months ago!)

I still can't believe my little man is two! Shaine and I were looking at pictures from his first birthday, and just marveled at how much he has grown, and learned, since then.
He knows all of his shapes, colors, most of the animals and the sounds they make, and we are working on numbers and letters. He says "please" and "thankyou", gives his baby sister hugs and kisses all the time, and helps mommy every chance he gets. He is easily the best little boy I could have asked for. While I can't wait to see him grow and learn more, this is such a fun age that I just want him to stay where he's at for awhile longer!

Hopefully, now that things are settling down and returning to normal, I will be able to get some things done. I have a few WIPs, and lots of pretty new fabric I haven't even played with yet!

This made my day!

I finally got some pictures of my longtime friend's daughter for whom I had made some skirts and a dress for awhile back. She sent me these today after some technical difficulty with her computer, and they certainly put a smile on my face :)She just looks so happy in all of them! This one has to be my favorite though:

Her mom says she just keeps spinning every time she wears it!

Some more finished stuff and a giveaway with a CAUSE!

So I finished the last two Halloween totes... I played around a bit with the measurements on each one, so they aren't all COMPLETELY identical.And here are all three:
And my niece got the dress I made for her yesterday to celebrate her first day of preschool and she loves it! I am just so glad it fits (it ended up a little longer than I intended but thats okay), since it was a surprise, I couldn't just ask her measurements, and living several states away makes it hard to get them on the sly. Here she is enjoying her dress:

Okay, so usually I only blog about giveaways I enter that I REALLY want to win.... This time, (although I would really love to win the charm packs) it is more about loving what she's doing. Jennifer is having a giveaway here for THREE charm packs and a pattern.... but what I find more impressive is that she is also training to participate in the Nike Women's Marathon coming up VERY soon in San Francisco, benefitting the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society... Her info and support page is HERE. I am waiting until Shaine gets home to see if we can spare a little more to donate, but seeing as how we already donated to support my old Army friend, Reinalyn, who is preparing for the same race, he may say no.

Friday Night Sew-in

Well, since Shaine had his wisdom tooth pulled yesterday, he was a bit out of it, so after Cullen went to bed, I actually had the night to myself! I didn't get a whole lot done, as I was having some tension issues with my machine (I am thinking it was the thread, since that was the only thing different)...

I did manage to put this together for my friend's little girl though:

I am unhappy with the look of the ribbon straps though, so I am going to make a fabric one today. I sent her a picture already, though, and she loves it, which makes me happy :)

Today I am going to try my hand at a laptop bag, and I am generally using THIS tutorial to do so, with just minor changes. My sister FINALLY re-enrolled herself for college, so I am making her the laptop/book bag as a gift.

And to those who would like a giggle to start off the day (or afternoon, evening, whatever it is when you read this), here is a video I recorded of Shaine while the anesthesia still had its grips on him! He was trying to tell me why it would be okay for him to drive instead of me!

Pillowcase dresses

I have been scouring various patterns and tutorials for weeks of little girl clothes and dresses, trying to find something rather easy and simple to get myself started. Here is the first one I did:
And it was so fast to put together that I was hooked! I then used this tutorial from The Polka Dot Chair (tons of amazing tutorials for all kinds of things on her blog!) and made a few small changes and came up with this:
It was a bit harder than the first one, but I absolutely LOVE how it turned out! I loved the middle fabric SO much, that I went on and made another simple one out of it:This one I am going to hang onto for my little girl. Of course it will be awhile before she can fit into it (It is probably about a 24m-2T in size, although with the ribbon for straps it could last longer. I used a 24m tank top of Cullen's to kind of get a size idea.) I used double fold bias tape (store bought... I just didn't feel like making it!) for the arm holes and the bottom trim, and used an orange thread to do a decorative stitch on top of it, rather than the typical matching straight stitching. I absolutely love it!

I also finished compiling the fabrics for my sisters rag quilt, and cut out a TON of squares. Hopefully I will make a dent in some of the sandwiches I need to make today!

And today is day 2 without my little man! I am enjoying the peace and quiet, but its so weird. I have never spent more than a night away from him at one time. He is having a blast though! Went to see fireworks last night, played on a trampoline, and just been hanging out with TONS of family :) I will end the post with this great picture Shaine sent me yesterday :)