Not on the walls...

That's the mantra around here these days!


I know you can't compare one child to the next. It isn't fair and it won't work. But in this case, I just can't help but do it. It's just so telling about life in this house. Belle has never colored on the walls...not once! And she has had pretty much unlimited access to crayons, markers, oil pastels, etc. since she could hold them. Bee...well it took about 30 seconds. She picked up that first crayon and before I could blink there were huge orange scribbles all over our kitchen wall.



So for now, we color only while strapped into the booster seat. But she does love this toy! It is made by Crayola and plays music at the same tempo as your coloring. Color faster and the music speeds up...pretty fun:) If you have little ones who like music and like to color, it's definitely great for rainy days.

Welcoming a New Baby

Welcoming a new baby is always fun! Those tiny toes, that sweet smell, the feathery hair....mmmmmm!

And every baby deserves a little something special, made just for them!

And a cute little cupcake on the bum can't hurt either:)

Meet Millie and Her Very Special Friends

Millie is a very special little lady with a smile that will make you flip. Not to mention her wispy wings and shining eyes. Be still my heart!

Whether playing outside, dancing to music, or reading a book, Millie can always be found with her best pals at her side. Elise is the shy, peaceful member of the bunch. She soothes her friends when they are hurt or sad, and holds their hands when they are scared. Piper, on the other hand, is the rowdy one. She's always looking for the next tree to climb, wall to scale, or refrigerator to paint:)


Like the angel and devil on Millie's shoulders, Piper and Elise push Millie to new heights. Whether it's challenging her to climb a new tree or encouraging her to slow down and smell the flowers, they bring out the best in Millie in every situation. What a lucky girl to have friends like these!

And on the rare occasions when her buddies aren't around, Millie pals around with her best human friend who even sports a coordinating dress. I hope the human Millie will love her new doll for many years to come!

Once Upon a Thread

Have you heard about Once Upon a Thread??? If not, look over there to the right and click on that button. You aren't going to want to miss this! Katy over at No Big Dill is hosting a MONTH of projects based on children's books. Clothes, toys, and who knows what else! I'm just a tiny bit excited!

A little background for those of you who don't know me personally...I used to be a teacher, an elementary teacher, an elementary LITERACY teacher. To say that we have a lot of children's books in our house would be like saying there are a few stars in the night sky. Maybe one day I'll share some pics of all the books you can find in all the various places in our house, but for now, let's just say that I didn't need to head to our local library to prep for this challenge.

The problem was narrowing the selection! I spent nap time today thumbing through the books in our playroom. After pulling a stack of possibilities as tall as Bee, I curled up in the rocking chair to read and brainstorm. And a couple of hours later, I think I've made my final choices.

It's a mix of award winners, old favorites, new classics, and some just for fun stories (and not a princess story in the whole mix!). I have projects planned for each of the books, but I make no promises that I will actually get around to all of them this month. But, I'll do my best and hopefully we'll have some fun along the way.

Now being a former literacy teacher and all, I can't pass up the opportunity to share some of that knowledge stored in the dark recesses of my brain. So along with the projects, I'll include a little about each of the books, as well as ideas for engaging your child in the stories, words, pictures, and letters found in each title. You may even find some "do with your child" projects for a few of the books.

I hope you have as much fun as I do!

What's your favorite children's book?

Sweet Little Harriet

Harriet is a sweet, shy, little bunny. She lives at the edge of the woods with her many brothers and sisters. Of the entire family, she is the quietest. Her best friend is a field mouse named Henrietta. The spend their days nibbling rose petals and watching butterflies.

Most of her siblings don't know this, but Harriet loves to sing. Her favorite song is Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. She sings it every evening to help Mama Bird put her babies to sleep.

In the spring, Harriet wanders among the trees looking for fallen bird eggs. When she finds one, she gently places it in her pocket and sets off in search of the mother bird. Once she was unable to find the mother bird, so she brought the egg home with her. A small blue bird named Esther hatched from the egg and decided to stay with the loving Harriet. Esther built a nest in the tree directly above Harriet's burrow so she could always be close to her friend.

Harriet is made with linen-look cotton and a blend of vintage and modern fabrics. She measures 19" tall, not counting her floppy ears. If you're interested, you can find her here.

A Disaster...Oh, and a Skirt too!

Ok - Look closely just to the left of the skirt. Do you see the purple pen line on my microfiber sofa? Don't ask how it got there. Let's just say it had something to do with a one and a half year old and a slightly distracted Mommy trying to have a meeting in her house.

But here's what I need to know...HOW DO YOU GET PEN OUT OF MICROFIBER WITHOUT LEAVING A BIGGER MESS THAN YOU STARTED WITH????

I've been afraid to try anything in fear of just making the mess worse. Advice??? PLEASE!

Oh yeah, and that's my new summer skirt. I used the tutorial on Anna Maria Horner's blog and her Pastry Line voile. Here are my tips:

1. You can see through the voile. I am planning to tuck a lining in once I find a fabric that is appropriate. I started to use a lightweight muslin because I had that on hand, but really...why use a gorgeous voile and then put stiff, scratchy muslin underneath it? So I left a bit of a lip on the waist band where I can tuck a lining in later. Not smart, I'm sure, but I was antsy to get the skirt finished and try it on and who knows how long it will be until I make it to a fabric store! I suppose I could always wear a slip...if I even own one!

2. The larger the width of fabric you use, the better your result will be. I had already used this piece of fabric to line an infinity scarf (wait - I don't think I've shown that to you yet! another day, I promise!), so I didn't have a full-width cut to start with. It's still cute as it is, but it just doesn't have the flounce that I was looking for. So plan for width...lots of it.

3. Um - Measure! I didn't measure or mark the elastic channels at the top because I'm a wing-it sort of gal. I ended up a little off and had to add some stitching below the elastic channels. You don't really notice it until I point it out to you, but if you're a perfectionist, go ahead and measure then you won't have to worry about that little imperfection. Me - like I said, I wing it:)

Overall, the skirt came together super fast (even including the time it took me to splice together elastice pieces so I would have enough to finish) and the result is adorable. I will definitely be making more of these...in fact, I've already started picking out fabrics.

Now somebody tell me how to get the pen mark off my couch...PLEASE!

I've Been a Busy Little Bee

REALLY! I have, I promise!

There have been LOTS of orders.

And lots of tees!

And lots of late nights!

And some really poor photos taken in the middle of the night!

I just didn't want you think that I had abandoned you. Remember me being buried alive??? Well, these are just a few of things I've been churning out recently. Don't you just love that train? It kinda makes me wish there was a little boy in the mix around here. KINDA.

Now...BACK TO WORK! There's a mostly-finished football jersey calling to me from the table:)

Welcome 2011!

We rang in the New Year pre-school style complete with noise makers, glittery shakers, boas, and jewels. The countdown began at a few seconds before 5:00 and concluded with much cheering and clapping and giggling and squealing.

So this morning, we welcomed 2011 with glitter on every surface, balloons covering the floor, and sequins as far as the eye could see. And I wouldn't have it any other way. It seems a good omen to wake up to a sparkly house on the first day of the new year:)

Happy New Year!

Pips in Action

Coordinating Christmas Eve outfits from the yet-to-be-released Sherbet Pips.


I only wish my models would have cooperated enough for me to get a shot of both of them together with no one crying...oh well!

I love these skirts because they were perfect for a holiday family gathering, but the "not red and green" color palette will last them through the winter too.

More pips to come, I promise!

Distracted

I might have been a bit of a distracted Mommy for the last week...


It's a good thing Bee is good at entertaining herself....



Maybe you'll be reading her blog before long....

Looks like she's a natural:)

Making Do Monday - Cover Those Stains

Somehow with all the holiday hullabaloo, I just forgot about Making Do Mondays. I promise to at least try to do better:)

We're a messy house...clementine juice running down our arms, paint splattering across our chests, garden soil ground into the knees of our pants. It just happens. We seem to have no control over it. So we make do:)


Both of these shirts featured lovely stains on the front (strawberry and chili if I'm not mistaken).

A quick sketch, a light iron to fuse, and a few rounds through the sewing machine and they were good as new...actually, better than new!

All you need are a few scraps of fabric and some of this.

Holiday Treasures

We all treasure different things during the holiday season. It may be the precious ornament from your great-grandmother, the platter on which you always serve the holiday ham, the parade of cards arriving each day...or the artwork of a precious child.

What holiday treasures do you hold dear?

Girlysaurus

Dinosaurs are NOT just for boys!

We are very happy at our house, because Belle has a NEW fascination...DINOSAURS! And let me tell you, it is WAY more fun to play dinosaurs than it is to play princesses.

How this fascination began is still a bit of a mystery, but we are definitely encouraging it. We have checked out just about every dinosaur book in our library, visited the "dinosaur" museum (NC Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh has a cool dino exhibit), pretended to be stegosaurus, pteranodon, and of course, tyrannosaurus rex. We have had a fun-filled few weeks and so we are celebrating with some cool new dino clothes, because seriously...DINOSAURS ARE NOT JUST FOR BOYS!

Bee seems to always have to play the part of the stegosaurus, so this little gal is for her (fabric from Above All Fabric...again:).

And Belle got this great tee from Happy Family happyfamily.etsy.com.

Then Belle requested a "nice dinosaur with a long neck" t-shirt. Of course, I complied with the request. I love the combination of the sweet little ruffle-neck tunic with the traditionally masculine dinosaur design:)

There is sure to be more Girlysaurus sewing in the coming weeks as well...we'll definitely share if there is:)

TEES!

I need to keep it short this evening...typing is a real challenge with bandaids on multiple fingers! I was more than a little clumsy at the machine tonight and stabbed several fingers with pins while I worked! But, I thought I would share a couple of quick tee refashions that I have done for Belle in the last couple of weeks. Both are reasonably simple if you are adept at working your sewing machine.

The first is this adorable bow tee. It was made to match the patchwork pants that I shared a while back. It doesn't take much explanation if you are familiar with ruffles. If you would like step-by-step directions, just let me know.

I created the bow by turning 2 long strips of fabric right sides together and stitching down the long sides. Next, I turned the tube right side out and top stitched both sides. Finally I cut the ends on the diagonal, turned the edges under and topstitched. Once the long strip was prepped, I tied the bow and hand-stitched it in place. I think next time I will attach the bow to a large pin so that it can be removed for washing. I was, of course, making this at the last minute the night before Belle's preschool program. And wouldn't you know that there were no appropriate pins in the house...oh well!

The ruffle was made by cutting a long strip of fabric approximately 4.5" wide by twice the length of the bottom edge of the tee. First, I sewed the short ends together to form a large circle. Then, I folded the circle in half the long way with wrong sides together and ran a gathering stitch (longest stitch length your machine will do) close to the edge. I pulled the top thread to gather the fabric, flipped it up over the tee right sides together and pinned it in place. I sewed the ruffle to the tee and finished the raw edge with a zigzag stitch. Finally, I flipped the ruffle down in place and topstitched along the edge of the tee approximately 1/8 of an inch above the seam. I really like the way this tee is long on Belle, but if you wanted the tee to hit right at the waist of your pants, then just cut a few inches off the bottom of the tee before you add the ruffle.

I don't have a pic of the second tee refashion, but it is really basic. I needed a tee to match a pair of capris that I made for Belle to wear to her birthday party (MY BABY IS 3...Where did the time go???). I couldn't find anything in her size that matched the pants, but I did find a tee one size too big. I figured I could make it work with some redesign.

My goal was to add ruching at the hip to shorten the tee and bring in the waist a bit. To achieve that I cut 4 pieces of ribbon (about 12 inches long) and 2 pieces of felt (about 6 inches long and wide enough to cover both ribbons plus seam allowances). On the inside of the tee at each hip, I placed 2 strips of ribbon side by side, one on each side of the side seam. I made sure that there was about 6 inches of ribbon hanging below the hemline of the tee. Then I placed a piece of felt over the ribbons (see diagram - it's rough, I know...but, I wanted to sketch something out so you could see the set-up). I started by sewing across the top of the felt and ribbons to hold everything in place. Then I sewed the felt to the tee on the outside edges and between the ribbons, making sure not to catch the ribbon in the seam. By scrunching the tee up and tieing the ribbons I ruched the side seams and shortened the tee by several inches...enough for it to fit Belle quite nicely. For a little added oomph, I used the same ribbon to hand-stitch a small bow on the top of each shoulder of the tee. I'm not entirely sure that I would use felt again because it added quite a bit of bulk (once again, it was a last minute improvisation). I think you could use extra wide bias tape or a piece of fabric (be sure you fold the edges under to prevent fraying). But, if felt is what you have...it will work just fine.

Diagram:
Dark line - bottom edge and side seam of tee
Dashed line - stitch lines
Shaded Area - ribbons
Rectangle with thin outline - felt piece

Patchwork Pants

First of all, let me just say that I have a new favorite fabric store...Above All Fabric (www.aboveallfabric.com). This shop is amazing! The selection is out of this world, the prices are great (you should see some of the sales) and there is a rewards program that gives you money back toward your next order. Right now she is running a Go Pink sale that benefits Breast Cancer. Be sure to enter GOPINK at check-out. You get 10% off and another 10% is donated.

A couple of weeks ago I ordered the pattern for these amazingly cute little patchwork pants (see below) from Above All Fabric. As soon as it arrived, I broke out a charm pack that I had in my stash and put together the multi-colored pair for Belle (please excuse the wrinkles...I didn't think to take a pic before she had been wearing them all day, and after the day I've had, I am not about to iron them!). Of course, I had to order more fabric to finish them off...you didn't think I would complete an entire project just from my stash did you? After a successful trial run, I decided to incorporate these pants into my summer seeersucker stuff. Aren't they adorable?

Next to create a tee to match...I'm thinking white tee with red ruffle at the bottom and maybe a detachable fabric bow on the chest, but haven't quite decided. If you have any ideas, please share!

And, "the day I've had," for those of you who don't know me personally, involved my first triathlon...in a thunderstorm and mud almost up to my knees! But I finished...and with a much better time than I had anticipated:)

Sometimes You Just Get Lucky:)

I was determined to put Belle's sweet little fingerprint caterpillar on a tee for this summer! I scoured the shelves of 4 different mass-market stores looking for plain white tees in size 3T. Just 3 weeks ago, they were everywhere, but I didn't need them 3 weeks ago! I was just about to give up and order them (and spend a whole lot more money!), when I saw a small stack of white tees on the bottom shelf at a store more than 30 minutes from my house. WHAT LUCK! I needed 4 white tees (for the caterpillar and various other projects and orders) and there were exactly 4 white tees in size 3T in that little stack! I was feeling like I had won the lottery when I turned around and spotted these super-cute plaid shorts. My luck just doubled! Could you dream up a more perfect pairing than the tiny caterpillar and this vivid plaid??? So...sometimes you just get lucky!

So how'd I do it? The caterpillar that is.

This project is perfect for the non-sewers out there...as long as you have some basic computer knowledge and a color printer. I do recommend that you do a couple of test runs before jumping in to the final project.

1. Open the Paint program. Scan your child's art to Paint. Size it as appropriate.
2. Then you need to mirror image your pic. Under the Image menu, select Rotate, then Flip Horizontal. Save your mirror image.
3. Now you have a choice...Do you have other things that you want to create transfers of? [poor grammar...I know!]
NO 4. Put the transfer paper in the printer and print.
YES 4. Follow the same process for every image you want to transfer. Then create a Word document with all the mirror-image pics that you want to print. Put the transfer paper in the printer and print.
5. Cut out the image. Be sure to cut close to your pic.
6. Follow the transfer directions to iron the image to your garment.

NOTE - If you are planning to transfer to a dark fabric, be sure to purchase transfer paper made for dark fabric...you won't need to mirror-image your pics with this kind of paper.

Fingerprint Fun!

Belle and I have been doing lots of "projects" together this week. Our most recent adventure was into the world of fingerprint art. We started with WASHABLE stamp pads (left over from my former life as a teacher) and some plain white paper. I fold several paper towels into a square pad and got it really wet. We used the paper towels to clean our fingers off before we switched colors. Belle had fun dotting fingerprints all over her paper. Then we decided to try putting some dots together to make critters. Belle stamped the dots and I added to embellishments. I even managed to get a new logo for Belle + Bee out of the project.

Nest step - iron-ons! I've never used printable iron-on transfers before, but I thought this was worth a shot. My plan is to create an iron-on of Belle's caterpillar and transfer it to a tee for her. And if that works, Belle + Bee designs may even begin featuring a bee logo on each item...

I'll be sure to share a pic if the tee comes out well!

Easter Egg Appliques

I remember that as a kid I loved to draw Easter eggs. The endless possiblities for combining squiggles, stripes, polkadots, and zigzags in a pretty much no-fail design was highly appealing. As long as you could get the outer shape to look sort-of egg like, then you were going to end up with a beautiful piece of kid-art.

As Easter approaches, I sat down to create some eggsellent designs. How quickly I was whisked back in time to 3rd grade! I just couldn't resist that drawing of old...the egg outline, a narrow stripe here, a wide polka-dotted stripe there, and a squiggle for good measure. I traced and cut out a set of the resulting pieces in both shades of pink and shades of blue. Stitched to brightly colored tee, these are a slightly fresh take on the pastel versions of old.

You can easily create Easter egg tee of your own using the applique tee directions I posted a few days ago. Start with a basic egg shape (you can find tons of templates for these in a google image search). Add your own flair with stripes and dots. New to applique...add just a few large polka dots. Experienced embroiderer (is that a word???)...pile on the decorations and embellish away. Too busy to sew...order one from Etsy today (see shop above).

Have fun...and I would love to see some pics of your results!

Felt Applique - How To

Creating a felt applique tee for your little one is super easy and the results are super cute!

1. First design your applique. I always do a pencil sketch that includes both the shpaes and the embellishments.

2. On another sheet of paper, trace the shapes that you will need to cut using a felt tip marker. Cut these shapes out.


3. Place your pattern pieces on the felt. I always try to minimize felt usage by placing the shapes as far into a corner as possible. You never know when that 1 inch scrap of felt might be the star of your next design:) Trace around your pattern pieces with a pen or marking chalk, then cut out the felt pieces.


4. Embroider each piece with the embellishments from your original design. You can use basic running stitches, back stitch, french knots, etc. to make each piece uniquely yours.

5. Place the pieces (starting with the background pieces) on the t-shirt. Be sure to center the design where you want it, then pin it to the shirt. Make sure that you pin only through the top layer of the tee.

6. Use your choice of stitch to attach each piece to the t-shirt. The basic running stitch is the least noticeable. A back stitch or whip stitch will figure more heavily into your design. Try to keep your stitches neat and even. Continue securing pieces until your design is finished.




* I do not use a fusible webbing on the inside of my shirts because Belle thinks it is itchy, but this is an option to protect your knots and stitches.