Children's Art Group Kickoff Event

I'm so excited with how the first event for my Children's Art Group went. We had 15 moms (and a couple of dads) come out with a whole bunch of children! They ranged in age from babies up to about five years old.

Our first activity was painting without paintbrushes. Each family brought a couple of bottles of washable tempera paint and a few items from around the house with interesting texture. We painted with feathers, pine cones, potato mashers, spatulas, flowers, a metal basket, dryer balls, toilet paper tubes, and lots of other fun things!

The kids had so much fun! I have a few other projects in the works for our local art group. I can't wait until the next one!

Children's Art Group

So... I finally did it. I've been playing around with this idea for several months, and I finally jumped in with two feet and it's happening! I have officially started a children's art group here in our area. If you live near me, check it out!!

I've set it up on meetup.com. It's a pretty easy-to-use social tool to create events in your community.

Anyway, it hasn't been announced to the meetup community at large yet (it will be tomorrow), but I already have 18 members. Our first event is this Sunday. We're having a No Paint Brush Painting event. At the moment, there are 11 mamas and 14 children attending.

I'm planning to spread out some old sheets or drop cloths on the ground for the kids to paint on. I got some paint trays at the Dollar Tree for washable tempera paint. Each parent will supply 1 or 2 bottles of paint and some items with interesting texture to paint with. It should be a blast! And probably a little bit messy too.

I'm hoping to plan about 2 events per month. They will primarily take place on the weekends so working moms and dads can participate too. I have 2 events up on the calendar for August, and I've already planned September and October. I still have some thinking I need to do as far as location during the winter. The next few events will take place outside at local parks. I'm hoping maybe the art center or a church might donate some space to us at least once a month. Otherwise, I might have to clean out my basement and limit the number of attendees.

Anyway, I'm really excited about the group. And you'll definitely be seeing some more posts as the events take place.

Companion Dot & Floral Ruffle Dress

I just finished the companion dress to the Floral & Dot Ruffle Dress I made earlier this week for Baby R. This one is for her big sister, Little H. Their mom picked out the fabric. I just love the colors. And I've always loved flowers and polka dots together. I'm giving both dresses to her tomorrow when we meet up at gymnastics class.

Here are some more shots of this dress.

Here are the two dresses side by side. The girls are going to look so sweet in them. I love that they coordinate, but because they are inverse, they're not too matchy-matchy.

And, I apologize for the crappy photos. It's after midnight and I'm giving them away first thing in the morning, so I didn't have an opportunity to take any photos with natural lighting.

Floral & Dot Ruffle Dress

After finishing the romper I made for Little O, I had some time to make another ruffle dress for a friend's daughter. What a breeze compared to the romper! I'm actually planning to make her two dresses (one for each of her little girls), but I only had time to make one today. This one is for Baby R and the second one is for Little H (one of Little O's closest friends). The other one will be the inverse of this one, so the main dress will be dots, and the sleeves and ruffle will be floral. I can't wait to see the girls in them. They're going to look so cute!

Adelaide Vintage Romper

Today I finished one of the most challenging sewing projects I've ever attempted. And I have to say, I am quite proud of myself!

I found this pattern for a cute little girl's romper online. It was so cute, that I got over my fear of making clothes from a pattern. Yup. I've never done that before. The dresses I made before  (here and here) all came from an online tutorial (no pattern needed).

I learned so much making this little romper, and I'm excited to put my new skills to work on future projects.

First of all, I learned how to add piping. What a pain! But it's so cute it's worth it. I didn't think so at the time, but I do now.

I also learned a new technique for making bows. I see a couple of new hair bows in Little O's future.

Before this project, I had never made a collar before. Or straps, for that matter. I love the sweetheart neckline. I think it turned out pretty well.

I've always been intimidated by patterns that have shirring on the back. It looks so cute, and makes the clothes so stretchy and comfortable, but I was sure it was really complicated. I was so wrong! I just put elastic thread on my bobbin and regular thread in the needle, and voila! For some reason, I always thought you had to shirr by hand. I love that I did this with my machine, and it only took a few minutes.

I experimented with one final technique for this outfit: applying snaps with a snap press. Thank to a friend for loaning me hers. I practiced on a piece of scrap first, but it turned out to be really easy. I kind of want one of my very own now... Hmmm. Amazon wish list?

I think the most complicated part of the whole pattern was attaching the interfacing where the snaps go. It was so tiny.

Here it is! All done and ready to wear.

Too bad it's so late. I can't wait to see Little O in it. Of course she's going to wear it tomorrow. Pictures to come!

Another Ruffle Dress

I just finished sewing another ruffled dress for a friend's daughter. She picked out the fabric (and it just so happens to be the same as the second dress I made for Little O--the sleeve/ruffle fabric is just a little bit different).

This pattern is so easy. I found the tutorial here.

I'm having a little girls' night in tomorrow night, so she'll see it then. I can't wait to see her little girl in it!

A little breather...

I've taken a little break from blogging lately. Not really on purpose. Just because I've been so crazy busy!

I did finish the dress(es) I made for Little O. And I've got a few more in the works. But now that her Morning Out program is over for the summer, I'm just not sure when I'll find the time to sew!

I know, this isn't the best picture. Sorry. It's the only one I have! Turns out, a 2-year-old isn't the greatest model.

I'm still involved in a monthly whole-foods supper swap. All the meals have been AMAZING! And it is so nice to have one or two meals a week that require no thinking and very little effort. And since they are all made with whole foods, I can feel good about feeding them to my family. We got an upright deep freezer for the garage. So that's where we store our freezer meals. And we also went in on a half of a locally raised cow. So we keep all our meat out there too. And the massive quantities of chicken stock I've been making.

In other news, Little O broke her leg. On Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day! She fell off a piece of playground equipment (while trying to turn over onto her belly to slide down). She fell less than two feet. We wound up in the ER for several hours, and she wound up with a pink cast up to her mid-thigh. Good thing I got those dresses done because getting shorts over her cast is a bit of a chore. Although some days she insists that's what she wears.

She's in good spirits. And the cast will come off in just three more weeks. In the meantime, we're keeping busy with lots of sensory bins, sidewalk chalk, the library, and play dates with friends. And the Toddler Busy Bags from the exchange I hosted a few months ago are really coming in handy! She spent the first day snuggled up on the couch watching Sesame Street and reading books. But by the second day she was crawling around all over the place. And yesterday, she started walking on it again.

It hasn't really slowed her down much. We even took her camping last weekend with some friends.

The wagon came in really handy while camping! We found it used for $25 the day before we left for our trip. SCORE!

We kept her cast clean with a large men's sock pulled up over it. She actually really liked the look and wanted to wear one on the other leg too.

Anyway, hopefully I'll find some time to get back to crafting soon! I've been missing it. And my craft room has been lonely.