My day is looking up!

So I spent the day fighting with, err creating, a new shorts/top set for my Etsy shop. I had to recreate part of it when my coverstitch machine chewed it up. Thank goodness I had more fabric. Unfortunately, of course, I had already done the applique on the front and was nearly done when the coverstitch took a good chunk of it. I did finish it though, and you can see that at my shop

BUT, my day started to look up quite a bit. I entered a drawing on a blog, Quilt Taffy for some fabric (because I NEED more fabric, right?) and I WON. Yippee!!!! You can see the my prize package here and I chose the brights, package #2. :)

So, not a bad day all in all.

Spam time, aka new items in my Etsy shop

Okay, so it has been a rough few days in my personal life and sewing is my relaxation, so I have new items in my shop as a consequence! Now, who can't use a nice toddler bib or two. Go on, go take a look. :)

Seriously, sales are slow but I'm still new to Etsy and it gives me such pleasure to create. I have discovered trading at Etsy too so while we may not have actual cash from it we will have plenty of other handmade items to use. LOL. There are tons of jewelry sellers (I traded for earrings), soap sellers (haven't found a good trading partner for that yet), knitted items (I traded for organic cotton yarn knitted face cloths), on and on. Yes, the barter system is alive and well on over at Etsy.

I'm off to do some gardening before it is too hot to do anything.

Roooolllll call

Yes, we have a roll call - Lily performed a perfect rollover yesterday afternoon from belly to back, witnessed by me, Noah and Noah's speech therapist (Stephanie). Woohoo, way to go Lily!!! I'm sure there are many more instances to come.

Eewww - what is that?!

Yuck - That might be your first reaction to the photo today (along with the thought it is a terrible angle and quality of photo) but on further inspection you will see we were very happy to see these this morning. In fact, they are our Painted Lady Butterflies. They came in a kit of caterpillars and the photo you see is four out of five of them in chrysalis form. We have been watching them grow for the last little over a week and following their progress. More photos to follow next week hopefully. :)

A few links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Painted_Lady
http://www.earthsbirthday.org/butterflies/bflys/activitykit/2.htmlhttp://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Vanessa_cardui.html

SewingMamas on Etsy blog

As you may notice, I sell on Etsy. Etsy has some groups called "street teams," that are basically groups of like-minded sellers, grouped by interests or geographically or other ways. I belong to the SewingMamas Street Team, which is a group of us who post and chat together on http://www.sewingmamas.com Well, we have a collective blog, where we talk about our shops and our work. Check us out at: http://etsysewingmamas.blogspot.com/ And I can say from swapping (trading with) and viewing the work of these ladies, that you would be a happy buyer from any of these shops. :)

Simplicity 3765

Simplicity 3765, originally uploaded by michaeldog_1999.

I got some weekend sewing in, and made Simplicity 3765 for Lillian. I made her the 3-6 month size and for once it pretty much ran true to sizing, just a little bit large. The aqua was a teeny scrap from the Wal-Mart scrap bin I paid less than 50 cents for. The red is a red stretch denim I have had in my stash for a long time, at least since Zach was tiny. I had planned it for the boys but it always seemed a little too girly, and now it is for our girl. :)

The things kids say ...

After the IKEA incident on Saturday we move on to Sunday, where Zach sees in his Cricket magazines a sweet idea of getting a bowl and a couple sheets of paper and writing on them compliments for mom. Then mom gets to choose one from the bowl and read it now and again. I any case he came to ask me for the paper but requested only one sheet instead of the suggested two sheets becuase, "I don't have enough compliments for two pieces. I just want one paper." DOH. Rich and I held our laughter until he was out of sight. LOL.