...and emma makes three!

wow, so much has happened and changed since my last post, and all my good intentions of keeping y'all posted flew right out the window. But, our sweet little girl, emma, entered the world a bit early, on May 5th... Cinco de Mayo, which down here in Houston is a pretty big event already. 7 lbs, 2 oz, 21 inches, and judging by her long, skinny feet and legs, I'd say she's going to be tall like both her momma and daddy.

I don't have much time these days to do much other than feed, change her diaper and soothe her so I'll simply leave you with some sweet pics of our little peanut for now!

Quality time with grandma.

Our little perpetual motion machine.

Snuggling with daddy.

Just hanging out on a quilt from a longtime familly friend, Mrs. Peggy Bannan.

Me and sweet pea at 5 days old.

Baby Shower Living Room Makeover

I'm lucky enough to have two great friends hosting my baby shower, one a fantabulous baker and the other a meticulous planner. So with them taking care of the organization and sweets, I can focus on what I enjoy doing... decorations and designing paper goods.

I figure before I get too far into all the little stuff like ribbons and paper pom-poms, cake flags and glitter garlands, I should get the bones of my living room in order. My shower colors are pink, gold and natural, so all the blue in my living room has got to go!

Since I need the dining room chairs for extra seating, I made some girly, flirty seat covers with some white canvas and a bunch of leftover pink butterfly fabric from my Bella Butterfly collection. (I'm definitely getting a ruffler foot attachment for my sewing machine after making six of these babies!)

Much better, right?

Now on to the couch. Once I removed all the existing pillows from the couch, it was pretty naked, so I decided to make some quick, modern pillows out of white cotton and gold brocade fabric. These are so fast I'm going to fill the entire couch with them. One part glitz and two parts fun!

I already have pale pink table runners and sheer pink table cloths that I had made for my wedding so now I can really focus on the decorations. I found a ton of ideas and inspiration all over the web, especially on Pinterest, so look for some giant tissue paper flowers and super fabulous fabric flower favors next (say that five times fast!)

New Owlies in the Shop and Les Amis Now on Flannel!

The countdown to baby is getting shorter and I found myself making a ton of new owlies this weekend. It all started with a custom request from a repeat customer for two of them, and two more I made for baby shower gifts and before I knew it I'd made a whole arm full of them for my etsy shop! You can download my free pattern and tutorial from this previous post.

There's something so satisfying about seeing them all together in one big owlie pile, but hopefully they'll find loving homes soon enough. Though I'll for sure be keeping a few of them for myself, er I mean for the little one's nursery.

And did you know that selected designs from the Dusk colorway of my Les Amis Collection for Michael Miller are now available on flannel? Yup, that's right, how cool is that? I just got some bolts in and having been happily sewing up flannel bibs, receiving blankets and some owlies, too, scroll down to see one I made with the "Ripples-Aqua" fabric.

Well, I'm off to make more stuff... I hope you're enjoying your Easter Weekend!

Can you tell I have girly on the brain?

I think this is my favorite of the bunch, with it's sweet little heart add-on.

...and the one I made with my new "Ripples" fabric on flannel!

Owlie Pile!

Hand Lettered Shower Invites

Just a little post about the newest object of my attention.... my baby shower! Feels a little like when I was planning my wedding, except Pinterest has come along since then so I spend way too much of my time looking at all the pretty eye candy and making crazy-impossible lists of everything I want to make for it instead of actually doing it. But, I did manage to get my invites designed and ready to mail, phew, inspired by this invite I saw on minted.com.

The leaves are accented with gold metallic ink and I lined the pearly pink envelopes with a tiny brown polka dot & cream paper. I plan to carry on this hand-lettered style throughout, so more to come!

Baby Patterns

I'm really testing my New Year's Resolution lately, which is not to be so hard on myself if I'm not as productive as I think I should be. Actually, I've been really busy and productive, I just haven't been able to get any of it posted! So, I'm just going to post a few at a time until I get caught up.

In preparation for our little one getting here soon, I've been trying out new baby patterns and using some of my new Les Amis fabrics for Michael Miller.

Socks the Fox is one of my favorite fabrics from the collection and I love how this little romper turned out! I'm showing you the back view because the buttons are so cute. If I make it again I will add buttons to the front as well. Can I tell you this was my first time making button holes? I usually avoid patterns with buttons like the plague, preferring even invisible zippers to them. But, that just goes to show you how fear of the unknown can really make you irrational.

Once I dug out my machine's sewing manual and did a few internet how-to searches, I was making button holes like a pro. Honestly, if I'd known it was going to be this easy, I'd have tried patterns with buttons sooner. But, I have to give most of the credit to my sewing machine which has an automatic button hole stitch, it even measures the width of the button for you when you pop it into the back of the special foot. Anyhow, the pattern is Kwik Sew #K3776, and it also includes a dress version and little bloomers.

Next up is a pattern company I've been dying to try... Oliver + s. Their packaging is so cute, their Quilt Market booths adorable, and oh yeah, their patterns are a-dorable too. I actually bought three of their patterns, but this one is their Ice Cream Dress.

Could those notched pockets be any more charming? And there are so many ways to really customize this dress just by mixing up your fabric choices. Search "Ice Cream Dress" on Pinterest and you'll see screen after screen of all kinds of super cute inspiration.

I have so many more projects to show you, a lot of them using free tutorials out there on the web, so stay tuned.

And I promise it won't be 2 months before I post again!! :)

Peach, Yellow and Aqua

Happy 2013 everybody!!  Can you believe it's a new year already? I usually sit down and make a very serious list of what I'm going to change and accomplish in the new year, but this year is going to be a little different. What with preparing to be a first time mom, and not knowing what this next year will bring, I've narrowed my resolution down to a simple generalization... not to be so hard on myself if I'm not as productive as I think I should be! And of course, to try and enjoy all the moments as I'm told they too will fly by all too quickly.

As you can probably imagin,e I've been preoccupied with everything baby. I have lots of ideas and my new favorite color combo is peach, yellow and aqua. Here are some projects I've started...

Super simple flannel blankets with hand-binding.
The bottom binding fabric is from my new Les Amis collection.

My first hexie project! They really are addictive, though a pillow is about
the size of what I can manage right now.

Yes, another chevron quilt. I know they're everywhere right now,
but I love HSTs, and no matter how I rearranged my individual blocks,
they just kept coming up chevrons!

 Well, that's all for now, but stay tuned for lots more projects and updates. I'm in the process of custom painting the nursery and working on some new softie patterns, not to mention embroidery patterns and original wall art!

... and did I mention I'll be doing a giveaway too? :)

Festive Fox Ornament Pattern & Tutorial

I want to share a little pattern and tutorial for a Christmas ornament I made today! I don't know if any of you know this or not, but I have a thing for foxes, so here's my ode to this lovely animal...

Make one yourself using a free pattern and tutorial pdf I set up here.

Please send me a pic if you make one, I'd love to see your version!