Hello Kitty Halter Top

Harper is OB-SESSED with Hello Kitty. Maybe because they have the same initials? Who knows. When we saw this fabric on sale at Joann's, we picked up a yard and knew that something cute had to come of it.  What it became: an easy-peasy halter top.  Here is how I made it:

Cut out a basic rectangle with shaping for arms.

Cut out a smaller rectangle for the back.

Sew bias tape along top edge of front rectangle, and up sides of arms to tie around neck.

Make casing for elastic for the back of top, feed elastic through, and sew to anchor elastic.

Sew back to front at sides, right sides together.

Sew cute jumbo ric-rac along bottom hem. Then put on and model! :)

Simple Sunday and a Simple Skirt

Hooray for lovely, simple weekends around the neighborhood...

We had blue skies, finally, and 80 degrees. Aaaaaah, perfect!  Saturday was great fun as it was my dad's birthday. We celebrated by having them over and heading down the road to the West Seattle Grand Parade.  I heart neighborhood parades.

The pirates are a favorite with the kids. They blast a very loud cannon, however, that makes us jump out of our skins!

Sunday was a lovely, simple day too-- we went to church, and we went to a beach not far from our home. We first attempted to go to Alki Beach in West Seattle, but couldn't find parking. After searching far and wide on all of the surrounding streets for almost a half hour, we gave up and headed back towards home. That's when we remembered Jack Block Park-- an amazing, little-known park just down from Alki. So that was our new destination.

The city view from Jack Block Park.

 Such clear water!

Notice the shoes... really? On a rocky beach, Harper?

Chill-axing.

Some friendly visitors.

After heading home, I felt like sewing something in my sunny, breezy dining room make-shift sewing room. I found a tutorial on Simple Simon & Co, and it seemed to fit the theme our simple and sunny weekend: Starboard Skirt Tutorial. It is meant for little girls, I quickly discovered, but I decided to make it for myself. I had some heavier vintage home decor fabric that I used, and I did not alter the formula given in the tutorial. I highly recommend this tutorial for beginners-- it was such a pleasure to make something in an hour and enjoy myself the entire time! No frustration here! The one thing I need to do-- that I realized after looking at these photos-- is that I need to press the inverted pleats so that they travel all the way down to the bottom hem of the skirt. Other than that, I love how it turned out, and I can't wait to make more-- perhaps I will make one for the girls next time. :)

Thrifty Thursday

This day of the week in particular seems conducive to displaying my recent thrift-store (or plain old thrifty) purchases, since it's Thursday and my alliteration-loving self can call this post "Thrifty Thursday!" 

I really scored this week at the Goodwill Outlet.  My ABSOLUTE favorite purchase for all of 99 cents were these..... Vintage, leather, perfectly worn, ACME western boots!!

I haven't been able to find this type of boot on ebay for less than 30 bucks. Score!

I also found this adorable vintage recipe box...

And this Little Golden book entitled "Daddies." So cute!

I also found a great deal this week at Target... all of their summer stuff is on super-duper clearance. You know, because its already July and the weather here in Seattle has been so hot for so long... :0!

I got these neat-o water bottles for the kids-- nice to have a lid and straw for mom (mess-wise) and kids (fun-wise). They were 50 cents each.

I also found this summer-themed Glad Press and Seal for $1.00, because really, do our leftovers care if they have summer-themed saran wrap on them as fall approaches?  I think not.

Be sure to check out your local Target for other awesome deals to liven up these remaining weeks of summer-- beach towels, slip n slides, flip flops-- basically, tons of stuff, was half price.

Mug Rugs and a Bearded Dragon

Harper has had a blast at Magic Treehouse Camp this week. For those of you with kids, I'm sure you've heard of the fabulous "Magic Treehouse" series, where a brother and sister travel to different countries and time periods via a magic treehouse in their backyard. Both Mason and Harper love the series. Harper's first grade teacher from this past year, Ms. Schwendeman, and her talented daughter, Rachel, decided to do a few week-long camps this summer, one of which was this Magic Treehouse camp. Harper was a thrilled participant and has learned about Italy, the Phillipines, and other locales. As a small token of our appreciation of Ms. Schwendeman and Ms. Rachel, I decided to attempt to make these mug rugs that I found over at Wild Olive. I know for a fact that Ms. Schwendeman loves tea, and I'm hoping that Ms. Rachel does, too!

Please visit the Wild Olive blog for the tutorial... here are a few photos of what I came up with.


All cut out and ready to assemble.



Ms. Schwendeman's mug rug





Ms. Rachel's mug rug

Back of the mug rug

In other news, Mason-- my sweet, handsome little Mason whom you rarely see because little girl patterns and ideas are so much more plentiful-- saved up his allowance and gift money to purchase his very own pet. He is the new owner of a cute little bearded dragon named Sylvia.

Sylvia is 7 months old and very friendly. Her previous owner was a little boy Mason's age, so she already seems quite comfortable with Mason. Mason decided to read her a book last night (How To Train Your Dragon, naturally!) and I could swear that the little thing was really into the story. She paid rapt attention the entire time.

Pillowcase Dress

When Joann's had their 99 cent sale on fat quarters, I knew it was the perfect opportunity to make a pillowcase dress for the girls. I've been wanting to make one ever since I started sewing 6 months ago. I think they look adorable, and I like the fact that due to their billowy nature, both of my different-sized girls can share them.

For the color scheme, I decided to use black, white, and red. The girls have tons of girly pastel clothes, so I thought it would be fun to change it up a bit. For the pattern, I was inspired by The Cottage Mama's pillowcase dress.

It only took this novice sewer about an hour and a half to make this dress-- and that includes cutting time. Not bad! Harper couldn't wait to model it for me. I can't wait to find more fat quarters to make another one... maybe its time for a trip to the West Seattle Fabric Company!

Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer....

I sure hope everyone had a fabulous 4th of July holiday! We had a H-O-T holiday visiting family just outside of Kansas City, Missouri. The weather on the day of our arrival? Sunny with a high of 101 degrees, and 90 percent humidity. Wow! Quite a change from our Seattle summer weather of partly cloudy and 70.

This trip was the first time that all 3 of our kids hung out with all 3 of their cousins. They hit it off and had a great time playing together. Our days were filled with summer fun.



Water balloon fights.

(Well, maybe this activity wasn't Georgia's favorite.)

Picking wildflowers.

Arm-wrestling.

Chats with Pa.

Swimming in the pool.

Getting stuck in a frog floatie.

Cooling off and watching a movie.

Making funny faces.

A visit to the American Girl store in Kansas City.

Sharing favorite toys.

A visit to a lovely farm.

Sparklers on the 4th of July.

Most of all, becoming good friends.

 After a few days, it was time to say goodbye and head home. We will miss our family members (and new friends), but I have to say, while looking out the window of my airplane seat while approaching Seattle and having this as my view....

It's good to be home!