2 Reasons Why I Am Excited!

You know that dress that I got in a fight with?  Well, with the help of my amazing mother in law, I fought back and I WON!!!  Take that Sucka!
Check it out.  Newest style to be offered on the Baby Taylored line.  Shop to be opening up soon, so stay tuned.  And both of these pictures are from my phone so forgive me.

AND, the Mini Journals ARE HERE!

Winner will be announced tomorrow!  You have till midnight tonight to enter here.

I'm So Dense Sometimes

My mom always says to me, "You like to do things the hard way."
Yes, I know mom. I really can't help it, it's just part of my nature.
So this morning at 5:45 as I was getting all worked up and anxious thinking about how I was going to make a surfboard and sun applique for a shower gift that a friend requested. I guess I could have asked my blogging friend Heather because she does some super suh-weet appliques, but that would have been too easy.

My last few rounds at applique work haven't gone so well you see. I can sew dresses with my eyes closed, but applique work, well it just intimidates me. For those veteran sewers out there, stop your eye rolls okay. Lest you forget, I have only been sewing for 6 months.
Anyhow. All of a sudden a light bulb went PING in my head! Or BUZZ! Or whatever it is that light bulbs do.

It finally dawned on me what the purpose of this stuff is:

See right there, it says "Perfect for Applique"

Brilliant!
Who would have known (well me I guess if I had bothered to read the package
when my mother in law gave me the stuff several months ago)?

So I got to work on my little baby shower gift bundle.

And went on to create a birthday gift for one of Taylor's preschool class mates
("L" for Lance and he is 5! and yes, the L is supposed to be wonky)

Now that that's over, I can go forth and concentrate on making some sweet little dresses with this stuff. Don't you love the way fabric looks stacked like this? All pretty and inviting. It's saying, "Come to me. Cut me up. Create something beautiful out of me." My favorite is the bright pink and orange floral on the white background. I bought 10 yards of that print.
Me and this guy have become new best friends. This is one mean looking iron. It means business. Stand back or you'll get burned by the heat. Thanks mother in law for my birthday gift :) A serious iron is worth its weight in gold when you're ironing yards and yards of fabric. Did I tell you Baby Taylored is having a photo shoot this Friday? This photographer approached me a while back and offered to take some pretty pictures of my little dresses, and how could I refuse? I am so excited to work with her. My goal is to open my shop before Blog Sugar.

Now to decide on Etsy or Big Cartel. Anyone have thoughts on this? Which venue to use? I'd love some feedback.

So for now I am going to be a busy bee sewing away. All my dresses from my last batch sold out, so that means all new dresses to whip up. Thank you to all those that purchased from me at the last craft fair.

Sew long for now my friends! (haha get it, "sew" long for now? I crack myself up!)

p.s. thank you to all those that have entered the drawing for the Marta Writes mini journals. What a huge success (in my eyes) it has been so far. You have until tomorrow to enter and then I'm shutting it down and announcing the winner on Friday after Playgrounds & Lollipops.

Excuse My While I Organize My...

...My Everything...

Beginning with throwing out creepy, crappy toys like these ones

What are these things?!?! I'll tell you. They're weird, strange, ugly, scary, cheap giveaway toys from Happy Meals. If America needs another reason why we should not let our kids eat fast food, these "toys" should be the poster children:

"Don't buy Happy Meals because your house will end up
being cluttered with nonsense toys like us!"

{for the record, I do buy Happy Meals for my kids once in a while and I don't apologize for it,
but these particular toys were given to my kids from our babysitter's collection of happy meal toys.
It's a long story.}

Anyhow, back to the point of this post.

Ever have a big project looming, but you just can't seem to find the motivation to kick start you into gear? That's where I'm at right now. For me organization, or the lack thereof is quite debilitating. I can't concentrate, I feel anxious, I have a hard time sleeping. I know, I have problems.

So while I have a bajillion dresses, skirts and pj bottoms that need to be sewn for an upcoming craft fair that I'll be participating in, I spent my weekend ORGANIZING! It just had to be done. I was inspired by Clover Lane's 40 Bags in 40 Days challenge for herself. And while I may not be Catholic and I am not resolving to do anything for Lent, I do allow myself to steal inspiration from just about any source that I can find.

I mainly worked in the kid's rooms. Here's a recap by the numbers:

6 40 Gallon trash bags filled with donations and hand me downs, between 2 rooms
2 trash bags filled with garbage
8 storage bins completely cleared out
4 drawers completely cleared out
1 very happy mom

Here are some before and after pictures.

Bags from Taylor's Room filled with clothes she doesn't wear anymore,
toys, stuffed animals, books, etc.

I can't stand messy bookshelves, it's like disrespectful to books.

This is her nightstand drawer. What a mess!

Ahhh! Much better :) Hi Baby Jesus!

Empty dresser drawersUgh, the nightmare that is her closet! I could use the excuse that we just moved in 6 weeks ago, but to be honest it gets really bad like this at least every couple of weeks.

this is a stash of books I found in her closet. She and her brother like to pick an item (this week it was books), and take a million of that item and hide them somewhere. The hiding places change. One time its the closet, next time it's under the bed, next time it's behind a chair. Are my kids the only ones that do this?

Syd's clean bookshelf
Bags from Syd's roomA clean closet for my boy :)

While doing this I had a few Ah-Ha moments (I love those). We are really trying to get Taylor and Syd in the habit of keeping their rooms somewhat tidy. To me its a value I find very important. Growing up I learned to try and take care of the stuff I had because I wasn't going to necessarily get something new if I trashed what I had.

I get so frustrated with Taylor, more so since she's older, because I see her just throw stuff wherever, and not take care of her things. But it dawned on me that A), we need to do a better job of leading by example. So instead of just telling her to clean her room, I need to show her what the expectations are and how to manage those expectations. DUH! And B) these kids have TOO MUCH STUFF! How can I expect them to keep things straight when they have 10 Barbies, 20 t-shirts, 40 toy cars?!? We need to cut down, and stop bringing things into the home. I kind of felt a little disgusted with myself and disappointed that I filled 6 bags of stuff.

Anyone have any thoughts on teaching the fine art of being tidy to young ones? I could surely use some guidance in this department!

On a lighter note, it wasn't all work and no play. Sunday morning the kids practiced with the big daddy camera and took some pretty sweet shots. Syd took the one below of Taylor.

Taylor took this one
And Syd took this one. The camera was getting heavy at this point and he couldn't continue to hold it up, which is why Tay and daddy are crouching down to get in the shot

And meet the chillest baby boy ever. Carter Brandon Gerding was born on February 19th and is just a doll. One second he was awake, and then the next he was asleep. So peaceful. No ssshhhing, swaying, bouncing, patting or rocking was required.
It was a unique experience for me :)

And finally, I will be on and off the bloggity blog for a few days as I tackle my sewing. I made my craft project list, went to the fabric store yesterday and picked up some sweet goods, and will begin a sewing extravaganza!

Have a great week everyone. Details on the craft fair will be forthcoming.
Oh, and I will commence the Two Things I Love Around My Home next week!

Celebrating Baby Boy Gerding

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the upcoming baby shower of my dear friend Kimberly, aka, Kimmy. Well, it was a beautiful affair with fantastic food, wonderful company and a spectacular setting. After all how can one go wrong with the Pacific Ocean as your backdrop? We celebrated in high style with high tea at Pelican Hill in Newport Beach. Just some fun photos to share...

I really wanted to make Kimberly something homemade, so I picked out some funky cute boyish fabric and made burp cloths, which were incredibly easy to whip up. I did these 3 in the last 15 minutes before I had to leave for the shower. I added a zig zag stitch for a cute finishing touch.

I also tried out baby booties for the first time and the initial attempt didn't turn out half bad. The first one is better than the second haha! I used this video and it was very helpful.

Of course I had to try out making a pair of baby kimono pajamas and I was very pleased at how they came out in a little person's version!

The theme of the shower was Kimberly's Bun In the Oven

Enchanted Florists in Los Alamitos provided the flower arrangements. Gorgeous as always.

The beautiful Sekella women

Kimberly, Erica and Stacey, all three expecting in 2010!

We also had an engagement to celebrate! Glen and Lea will marry April 16th, 2010. Didn't he do a fantastic job designing her ring?

Toast!


Best wrapped gift of the shower!


Actually tied with this adorable package


The girls!

Congratulations Kim! I am so happy for you and Matt.