Thrifty Fun in PA

Wanda took me to her local thrift store and got me her awesome senior discount (50% off on Tuesdays - the general public gets it on Wednesdays, when it's mega-busy). Some of my favorites:

Cute brown skorts and red, polka-dot bloomers for Coze.

Tiny shirts.

Tiny pink purse, that's stitched just like a mama one!

...and Annika, who had no shorts for summer, got a few outfits.

These shorts were my favorite! They make me want to sew something hexy!

...and she got these....plus 3 more pairs of shorts. Score.

Wanda found this for Sofi, who does want to date a super hero:

...and these shoes for me....

Pretty guilt-free when you only pay $2.50 a pair.

Cute tote.

Messenger bag that goes over the body. As my brilliant husband said, "It's like a pocket you wear."

...and I got a bunch of boy stuff, but it's boring, so I won't waste your eyeball power on it. If you've seen one plain t-shirt, you've seen them all.

Large sack of clothes and stuff: $67

A Cozy Shirt

I always like to stow away a couple of projects in my bag whenever I go out of town.  Trust me, it's better this way. (If I don't bring one, I'll probably start one.) So, believe it or not, Cozy needed shirts. (I know! Kids just keep growing!) This blue shirt is patterned after a shirt of Sofia's (that I love).

I got to sew it on one of Wanda's vintage Singers. (...in her pimped-out sewing room.)

It was pretty simple. I started with the shirt shape and some strips of fabric.

Gathered the strips.

I sewed the first one on upside down to hide the seam.

Flip. See?

Then ya' flip it back up to sew on the next strip.

Once they were all on....

...I sewed the back to the front, just at the shoulders.



Laziness. Since I cut the neck out with pinking sheers, I just tucked the neckline under and sewed it. Hey, it works.



I sewed the sleeves in, with a little pleating in the middle,

pinned the sides together,

and sewed it up.

Ta-da!

...and she's still one of the cleverest, cutest things I've ever made.

G-Ma and G-Pa's

So, there was this giant storm...lightning so constant it looked like there was a strobe light outside our window...accompanied by widespread power outages. 

No air conditioning. Sounds like a great time to visit Grandma and Grandpa! (...which we've been waiting to do anyhow. Luckily this storm hit right after Tony finished finals.)  What a good call.  Cozy didn't want to come home at all.  I think all of the yummy food contributed. Jonny walked thru Grandma's front door and said, "Mmm. It smells like beans!" Sure enough, Grandma had a pot cooking, and Jon ate burritos all week.

The kids also caught up with the new Avatar series. Lovin' Sofia's Korra-inspired hairdo!

SWAG!

Jon must have waxed nostalgic for the old last airbender series...because he just got an Aang haircut. :(

We got just enough fireworks to feel July 4th-y. Thank goodness we're from out of state. PA will only sell you the good stuff if you have an out of state driver's license. (Uh...yes...we're going to drive to Washington state to light off these mortars...) There were plenty of snakes, sparklers, and smoke bombs too (the legal ones).

And, darn it, I forgot to draw cute little faces on the spent smoke bombs, so we could pretend they were little creatures and keep them under our beds in a shoe box. The kids would have loved it. (I always did!) ...and Tony would have hated it! 

I also forgot to take pictures of the gardening I did while I was there. (Darn!) Well, I actually did remember...at about Gettysburg (our half-way point). Sorry Wanda.

When we finally came home today, I looked around and thought, "Wow. It looks like last July, when we were moving in." (But really, it's not nearly as bad.) Tony made a trip home to deliver some furniture his folks gave us (and clean out the frig), so his delivery was waiting for me to find it a home.

After much measuring and rearranging, I think we found a way to fit in Annika's new dresser. Yes, it's the one with the mirror! Adorable - I know! (Her old Ikea one was breaking daily. Those pressed-board pieces can only handle so many moves. This one is much more charming anyhow.) Cozy's nightstand is new too!

Cozy's dresser is now shoved in a corner, waiting to be cleaned off and cute-ified.

Amazingly, her wall decals moved pretty easily...no paint peeled off or anything.  I took the opportunity to make a couple of changes. I ditched the creepy squirrel and stuck the cute hedgehog in instead. SO much better. I case you don't remember, their room used to look like this...and then this.

...and I can neither confirm not deny throwing out a huge bag of toys. (Don't tell!)

Tomorrow I'll show you what else I was up to in Pennsylvania.

Stencils

Little James and I have found another common interest. Stencils.

This just came in the mail:

I've promised myself not to use it until I have my kitchen painted...and then I'm planning some fairly experimental painting for Anthony's room. I was hoping he'd go for the houndstooth, but he likes something a little more geometric.

James is finishing his projects a little faster.

My favorite was the birthday card he made for himself...so cute!

Shroomy Quilt

I finished one of my mushroom quilts.

The pillow turned out a little wonky. For some reason I thought rounded corners would work out better. Bummer. ...but I liked the pieced mushrooms so much - I couldn't just scrap it. Even as it is, I had to take out a ton of the fluff to make it this normal.

James claimed the extra fluff. He has big plans for a Shaun the Sheep costume.

....at least the zipper turned out ok.

I'm mush happier with the quilt itself. It's made from the more primary colors of my "Hoot" charm pack, with some mushroom fabric from Joanns, and a border from Sandi Henderson (that I got on clearance forever ago - stashbusting!) It's the first thing I've hand-quilted in a while. So hard. ...but my MIL gave my some tips that made it much easier....but still so much work.

Every time a friend has a baby, I want to give them something handmade. It just rarely works out. Something about being busy and only finishing my projects many months later...
This one was timed a little better. When she had the baby, I was nearly finished (two months ago).
....or maybe it has to do with the fact that she calls me a genius every time I sew anything. (Flattery. It gets you handmade gifts...so use it sparingly.)

Regardless, this quilt is on it's way to baby Jude. Hope he likes it and spits up on it frequently. (As that is how babies show their approval.)

My Summer Wreath

I saw this adorable wreath on Pinterest a month or so ago. I immediately ran out and bought a letter "R", some fake flowers, and a wreath. ....and then was too busy (and too scared) to put them together. Made myself do it yesterday, and, what do you know, it wasn't as painful as I thought it would be. Nice tutorials sure help.

So, today I told Tony I was going to hang it up with ribbon and a nail.

"A nail through the glass?" asks my sarcastic husband.

...and then he tries to show me how I would like it so much better on our wreath hanger, which I know I wouldn't. And it looks just fine, don't you think?

You'll never guess what I found when I was driving my nail into the very top of the door, where nobody will ever see....an older nail hole....that we never noticed.

Spontaneous Sewing for Sof

Sofi is a die-hard Avengers fan, partly because of all the comic books she and Odie inherited from their Dad and partly because of all the extremely cut older men playing the various superheros. (At least she just likes boys she can't have. That's easier for me!)

....and she's always whining that all of the Avengers shirts are in the boys section, and (thus) I won't buy them for her.  Well, today she dug this shirt out of Odie's drawer. Never been worn. Still, long-sleeved and boy-cut. Bleh. Lucky for her, we can sew.

 I had her bring one of her shirts down for a pattern. We cut off the collar, hemmed up the neckline, shortened the shoulders, and turned the sweltery long sleeves into cute ruched ones (with a couple pieces of elastic)

And she got to go see the Avengers in an Avengers shirt (+Spiderman and Wolverine....but we all know they should have been included if NYC was under attack.) Happy Day!

I didn't make her sew anything (time crunch), but she had to sit and listen to my process as we cut things apart and put them back together. Next time I'll just coach, while she sews. I just have to find the right shirt, to give her the proper incentive.  :)