blast from the past

One of my posts is being featured in the Sunshine Coast Child Care and Community Connections Summer newsletter.   They are a group out of British Columbia.

They are sharing with their readers the fun sand castles we made two years ago. 

Actually, the picture they chose was from when the kids made them three years ago.  It's a blast form the past.   Goodness, time flies.

pattern testing- the full cardigan

I showed just a portion of a picture of Bee in a new item I sewed up the other night.  I can show you the full thing now.  It's trendy and cute and looks great on Bee, who is rather fashion forward all of a sudden. 

 
I tested this draped cardigan out for my buddy at Happy Together.  She has a giveaway going on right now to win your very own copy.  It ends sometime this week, I don't think she said a day for sure.  If you're too late, it's available in her shop, here.  It's pretty versatile, Bee just likes her clothes fitted at least at the waist. 

 
The pattern was easy to use, well written, and super well documented with photos along the way.   The pattern has sizes 18 months through size 14.  You could make them for every little girl in the neighborhood.

 
So, this fabric was from my friend Melissa (she sells adorable kids jewelry and items here at Emmi and Olive).  I grabbed it thinking I'd make a skirt for myself out of it.  The stripe isn't white and it isn't cream. I wasn't sure I'd ever match it with a top.   The reverse of this knit fabric is pretty cool too.

(I did a little something with this old bench we have in the living room.  I'll have to share another day.)

pattern testing

Bee's sporting a new garment from a pattern that I'm testing for my buddy at Happy Together.  I can't wait to share the full piece.  It's darling and I loved working with one of Jessica's patterns again. 

Thankfully Bee like this piece.  It's a little classic for Bee who these days prefers shopping at Justice.  I pretty much want to vomit when we walk by the store, but if it's neon and has a graphic design on the front, she's in.

The magazine page that's mine- mostly anyway

 

I can finally share the full info about the exciting published thing I hinted at a week or so ago. Some readers guessed I had an idea published in a book, they were thinking really grand. This is equally exciting since I am such a fan of Family Fun magazine.  

 
If you've been around here for awhile, you've heard me talk about how I've been getting that magazine since I was in the dorms in college (much to the amusement of my roommates) you also may remember this snowman shirt we made a few years back.

Someone from Family Fun contacted me back in November and asked about publishing the idea. There was a contract and everything. So, here's the shirt idea now published in print.  I was told they were reshooting all the photos.  Their model is cute, but I much prefer my own. 

 I first wrote about this shirt in January of 2010 and then wrote up a full tutorial from my blog posted February 2010.

Overall, working with Family Fun was a really positive experience.  It was exciting to correspond with editors and get an advanced copy of the magazine (the extra spending cash at Christmas was a pus too).  I was under the impression there would be a mention of my blog, the original source of the tutorial, but if you look closely, in the crease, there's my name.  No worry, I had a reader comment this morning that they saw the family fun page and found me through a google search.  Cool.

I mentioned in my original post that a dear friend sent us the first shirt and explained how to make it.  I sent her a surprise check in the mail with her half of the sale.  She was pleasantly surprised.  Back to the cutest snowman shirt models.

Man, how they change in three years!  Excuse me while I get a tissue.

click here for my full tutorial. 

pretty much exciting

I have something that has been in the works for months now.  It's getting so close to the time when I can share it.  Here's a sneak peak though. 

pie- preschool style

 Preschool Lesson Plans is featuring one of the little activities I made up for preschool.  It's the counting pie activity. from apple day.  I now have a printable version available back on that apple day post.

Preschool Lesson Plans is one of the places I like to go for ideas, so it's cool that they've got one of my things there.  

If you have preschool people to gather ideas for, head on over, they have lots of cute fall and thanksgiving themed activities right now. 

we teach ebook

If you're here from We teach, welcome!  If you are, I assume you would be most interested in my posts about preschool.   One of our ideas was featured in the We Teach Summertime Learning eBook. 

If you are an educator of little people or a parent or caregiver of little people you might be interested in the We Teach ebook full of summer learning activities. You do have to join the We Teach forum to download it, but it's free and fast and easy. We teach is an online forum of parents and teachers.  I'm pretty new to the forum myself, but hope to delve in a bit more this summer.

Here's a whole list of the talented contributors this summer and my weekend reading list:

MaryLea Harris, http://www.pinkandgreenmama.blogspot.com/
Amy Mascott, http://teachmama.com
Candace Lindemann, http://naturallyeducational.com/
Maggie Woodley, http://www.redtedart.com/
Stacie Nelson http://www.amazingmess.com/
Laura Eldredge, http://www.theseedsnetwork.com/
JDaniel4’s Mom, http://www.jdaniel4smom.com/
Alida B. Bunder, http://www.two2read.com/
Julie Long
Erin Wing, http://www.smalltypes.com
by Elizabeth, http://tinyreader.blogspot.com/
Michelle Breum, http://beginningreadinghelp.blogspot.com/
Nicole, http://activitymom.blogspot.com/
Loralee Leavitt, http://www.candyexperiments.com
Heather Kauffman
MaryAnne, http://mamasmiles.com/
Rachel Miller, http://quirkymomma.com/
Maureen Wagner, http://www.strongstart.blogspot.com
Kate, http://www.picklebums.com/
Julia, http://roots-of-simplicity.blogspot.com
Dawn Little, http://literacytoolbox.com/literacytoolbox/
Beth M.  http://www.mamabeefromthehive.blogspot.com
Jackie Higgins, http://readysetread2me.blogspot.com/
Deb Chitwood, http://livingmontessorinow.com/
Jamie, http://www.handsonaswegrow.com/
Cathy James, http://nurturestore.co.uk/ Wondering what idea of mine was included?  It was the summer zoo trip cards.

out to lunch dress- pattern testing

Jessica at Happy Together is giving away three copies of her new pattern, the Out to Lunch Dress. I got to test it out for you!  I loved it.  It's another great pattern from Jessica.  Her patterns are easy enough for a newer sewist, but have such possibilty for enhancement and adding your own touch making them anything but basic.  My favorite thing probably is that she gives you a number of options within her patterns.  

Here is an example.  Here is the Out to Lunch dress with a gathered skirt:

Here it is with a circle skirt.

Two great skirt options.

This dress of Bee's was made as her Easter dress.  The skirt is repourpsed curtain/bed skirt material and the top is what I made Lou's Easter pants out of.  I added some buttons to make it a touch nautical since Lou's shirt had an anchor embroidered on. 

Some of the other testers added other details.  Go over the Happy Together to see them (after you finish looking at the pictures here of pretty gal).

And my cute guy,who had to make an appearance.

Bee picked out the fabric for the second dress.  She flipped when she was mermaids for little girls.  Last season we found a mermaid fabric but it was a little grown up. 

 

She can't wear tank tops of sleeveless tops to school, so I had to make sure that a shirt underneath would work out. 

Goodness, when did she get an attitude?  She's standing in front of our strawberries and raspberries, not a berry in sight  (although this past weekend, we did have our first 'harvest.'

She also can't wear these flip flops to school, but any chance out of school and they are on her feet.

For your chance to win a copy of this pattern, head on over to Happy Together. She also has them for sale in her etsy shop.

virtual costume parade

Go check out the virtual costume parade at Make it and Love it. We are close to the bottom in a whole group of cute kids!

Today's Post is here: Stew and witches fingers

Loopy Leaf shirt

I saw the link for the loopy leaf shirt from Family fun on One Pretty Thing over Labor Day weekend; a shirt that we also made last fall. I did want to make sure that I blogged about it this fall. After the wind we had last night and the the amount of leaves on the ground, I'm unofficially announcing it fall.



Last fall, Family Fun Magazine featured a cute shirt with a loopy little fall leaf. Bee and I got right to work making our own version. Ours was short sleeve of course since fall is still summer in Florida! The leaves don't actually fall off the trees until February, and then it's only a few types of trees. By March, it's pretty and summer again. We also have three leaves since we couldn't decide on only one fabric. The top turned out pretty cute and we submitted it to the 'readers share' section of the magazine. This was in November. By March, we were in the magazine. I didn't realize how much in advance they work at magazines! It was exciting for Bee and even more exciting I think for me! I have been getting Family Fun since freshman year in college... imagine how cool I was to have that delivered to the dorms!


Oh, I miss her cute little short hair cut... She thinks she wants long hair.

Welcome new readers

You can find me two other places this week on other's blogs. ABC and 123 did a great post on tea party activities and shared the tea party birthday party Bee's friend had, the Fancy Nancy Party we went to and our felt tea party snacks.

Floral Showers posted a picture of her table tent a while back. I found her through One sweet thing. I commented on her site about our table tent and she decided to share our table tent play house with her readers too.

So if you are here via Floral Showers or ABC 123, welcome! If you are new here via some other path, welcome to you too. If you are here because you are related to me... which may be most of my readers- hi and thanks for checking in with us!

Stay posted, I will be doing a giveaway in a few days... not sure what yet, but I did say I would once we were unpacked and settled. The last box was unpacked yesterday!

Unrelated photo, but, kitty does have a new name. We are calling her Chloe. She has the sweetest temperament and lets the kids carry her all over. She didn't mind being in Bee's baby sling at all! This picture almost makes me forget about the large vet bill from yesterday's trip- of course we adopted the one kitten with an upper respiratory infection and a scratched cornea (not to mention her dislike for the litter box)!

books

Over and ABC and 123 they are sharing some fun ideas for parent and kid made books, including some of mine :)

unrelated photo: my new camera strap for my new camera.... still haven't figured out the new software yet

my first featured button

ABC and 123 learning featured a few of our projects today. I grabbed their featured button and it is now off to the right. I am excited to have my first 'featured on' button.