Week #25 The Super Fast Shorts!

Daddy helped me stand for this picture. I like standing. 

Last weeks project, the Mash-up Summer Cover-up, was a hit with Lily Bear and the peanut gallery (aka, her sisters) but they decided that it needed some bottoms to go with it. 

I had just gotten back from Santa Fe, 

Bandelier National Monument

my mother was visiting and I needed a quick, quick project. Shorts seemed like something I could get done in an hour or so. 

I was wrong. 

I got them done in 15 minutes. Score!

I used the left over fabric (up-cycled baby towels) from the cover-up and tada, matching shorts. 

Quick, easy, done. My kind of project. I need to do more projects like this.

Week #24 Summer Pattern Mash-up or How to Use your Old Baby Towels

Hot, it is hot out here in Colorado. It always is, every summer, but somehow it always takes me by surprise. We are one lucky family because we have a pool, that we belong to, less than one block away. We spend as much time there as we can and this summer is no exception. As a result, Lily Bear is now our Water Lily. 

However, no matter how hot it is here, when we get out it is shiver time. 

I wanted to make the Water Lily a cover up, but I didn't like any of the patterns I saw out there, so I decided to do a mash-up of two patterns. 

Challange: Pattern Mash-up

Project: Swim cover-up

I took the hood from LBB's Recycled T-shirt Hoodie

and the dress from one of my go to LBB patterns, The Sienna Dress

and I got Lily's new, keep me warm when I am out of the water, summer cover up!

The sun was directly in my eyes for these pictures, thanks mom.

To keep in theme with up-cycling, I used two of Lily Bear's baby bath towels. I love how soft they are and we only use baby towels for about the first six months, after that they are just too small for us. The fabric worked well with these patterns because it has stretch just like t-shirt material does. 

I even added some cut out appliques I took from the hood of one of the towels. Fancy!

My family thinks that the Water Lily looks an awful lot like a pink Jedi master. 

Use the force oh Pink one, use the force!

Week #23 Confessions and a Do Over

Hotel we are staying at . . isn't it gorgeous?

I am in Santa Fe, NM right now on a mini vacation. My cousin Mimi is at a work training here and I joined her for the tail end so we can have a girls weekend.

Challenge: Make Something for Santa Fe
Project: Kwik Sew 3675
Santa Fe, the land of turquoise and flowy clothing. I have the turquoise and I wanted to make something flowy and summer and cool that I could wear while I was here. It is very scary making something for myself.
I used a Quick Sew pattern that my favorite local shop, Mama Said Sew, was teaching a class on. I saw the dress made and it was perfect.

I made the dress out of a beautiful orange cotton (okay it was an up-cycled sheet, but it had a great linen look to it) and a gorgeous trim from the afore mentioned sewing store.
I made the dress the length of view A without the ruffle. I sewed the dress the night before I left in just a few hours.
I tried on the dress and almost cried.
Here is the confession. I am not losing weight from having a baby very easily. . . okay not at all. This dress was suppose to look good on everyone. . . but not me. I looked like Orange Blossom from Strawberry Shortcake.

I really wanted to stretch and sew some clothing for myself, but it is so hard when you spend so much time making something and it turns out to look ridiculous on you. I was so frustrated I went to Kohls and bought four dresses so I would feel pretty and comfortable while I was here in Santa Fe.

I am calling a Do Over on this project.
I am going to try and tweak the dress, shorten it, take in some of the bulk of the skirt and anything else I can think of to see if I can make it look right.
I am also calling a Do Over on me. I have not been taking care of myself in the way that I should, I know this. I want to be comfortable in my own body, I want to be able to keep up with my kids and teach them by example to be healthy. I want to like getting dressed in the morning again. Brian (the Mr.) and I have a bet going to see who can loose the belly first. I am nothing if not competitive.

Do Over.

Week #22 Baby Romper

Okay so I was done with the T-shirt up-cycling month, but I figured one more couldn't hurt right?
Challenge: Make a summer outfit
Project: Maliboo Romper

She won't crawl, but I can get her to stand for pictures? Sheesh!

Summer has finally hit Colorado, and it has hit it with a vengeance. It took such a long time to get warm here, I wasn't sure that we were ever going to stop wearing long sleeves.

Still had snow over Memorial Day weekend.

In celebration of summer, I wanted to make something for Lily Bear that would help her beat the heat.
I decided to use the Lil Blue Boo Mailboo Romper pattern.

Yes, I do think I should start getting a pattern discount from Ashley for using all of her patterns in my blog :)

I made some modifications (surprise, surprise) by cutting the pattern pieces up in a different configuration. The front of the romper is suppose to be two pattern pieces, I created it with three. 

Hannah Montana made an appearance in this outfit. 

I used two t-shirts of Elle Bean's and a men's t-shirt we had in the stash. 

This project was so easy and yet so many things went wrong. 
1. My serger hates me, I know it. I love it but it hates me. I will continue my serger rant in another post at some point.
2. I cut the fabric out and realized I had two front left pieces instead of a right and left. Sigh. I recut but had to make the romper one size smaller. It worked out alright, but this will probably only fit Lily Bear for a month or two.
3. I broke a needle on some bling that I didn't notice was on one of the t-shirts. Part of the needle flew into my eye. Fun.
4. Trying to get a picture of Lily Bear in the romper with out any back up was impossible. The first time I tried it, she had a blow out and I had to postpone the shoot until I could do laundry. This next time she drooled all over the bodice before I could even get a picture and sitting still was just not happening. 

Trying to crawl off the couch.

Practicing some dance moves?

Jazz hands mom.

Sigh.

Camping. . . with a baby.

Let me start of by saying, yes, yes we are crazy. In our defense we were planning a family trip to California to visit my family, but it got side tracked by the hubby's new job and camping was really our only option for a mini-vacation. 
We are trying to make up for the lack of a big family vacation by participating at a lot of local events this summer. Lily Bear, and all the girls for that matter, were great fun while camping, however not so much that we are going to do this every weekend. We are not that crazy.

If you haven't guessed yet, ours is a blended family. Brian and I were married almost two years ago and we both had daughters to add to our family. 

Lily Bear is the link that joins us all together. 

Here is our first family vacation together back in 2006. We went to Mesa Verde and The Great Sand Dunes.

Mandatory family vacation picture.

They were a lot happier than they look. I swear.

My favorite picture of the whole trip.
Elle Bean made us carry a bucket and pail up the dune so she could  use it when she got to the top.

Here is last week's venture into Rocky Mountain National Park. 

Mandatory family vacation picture.

Teenagers putting up a tent, always good comedy.

Hiking in snow.
 I kind of forgot that spring has not quite hit the mountains yet.

It was very, very cold.
 Lily Bear keeping warm.

We are so lucky to live so close to such natural beauty.

We also visited Estes Park, ate Grandma's Mountain Cookies (best in the world) and watched the glass blowers at Glassworks Studio and Gallery.

All in all, a great weekend. 
Life is good.