Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Spring 2014

****Giveaway is closed! Congratulations to Jill R.!! You are our winner! ******
Jill R. said...

I'm looking forward to camping this summer. Thanks for the chance to win!

This is the Fifth year I am participating in the Sew Mama Sew giveaway and I am excited to do it again this year!

 

This year I am giving away a set of two fabric hair pins. Great for all ages to hold your hair back and look pretty while doing it!

 

Here are the rules:

• Post a comment on this post to enter. Tell me what you are excited about doing this summer. You can have extra entries if you follow me on Facebook, Etsy, or here on my Blog. Please post a new comment saying you have done each of these things. (This way each person can have up to 4 entries).
• You have until May 16 at 5 p.m. PST to enter to win. Winner will be announced by email no later than Sunday, May 18 and I will update this Giveaway Day post to include the winner’s name.
• Winner needs to be from The Continental United States no international shipping.
• I will pick two winners via random.org.
• I will ship the item by May 20st.

For those of you who are new to my blog....welcome! I hope you have a chance to look around at all of the fun things that I make. I have not written for a while but I hope to be back at least once a month to post the fun things I have been creating and selling on Etsy! For those faithful followers thank you so much for sticking by me and please go check out some other fun blogs and giveaways listed here. Don't forget to check out my Etsy store where you can purchase my products. You can get there from the products page here on my blog or right there on the right sidebar.

Good Luck!

Personalized Napkin Set for Family and Guests

I really love the idea of having a napkin for each person in the house that way no one is confused as to who's is who's. This set is for a friend of mine that was having a baby and wanted to get a set of napkins for her whole family. They are simple but hopefully get the job done. Good thing they all have different initials. They are now having another baby so I guess I need to make them another one for the new baby. Luckily that little one won't need one for a few months. ;)

She also wanted a set for when she has company over and they need a napkin. I had done in the past Eat napkins but she wanted a set that said, eat, drink, and be merry. Loved the idea and since they wouldn't fit the way I have placed them before I put the words going down the side of the napkin. I really like how they turned out and I could see using just the eat for appetizers, or just the drink for a cocktail party or just the be merry when Christmas comes. Of course using the set together is so perfect and can you imagine how fun these would look already set out at each person's place before dinner. So fun.

Here is another set of napkins that I have done that are similar. I have another set that will be coming up in a few weeks.

Newer Designs for Onesie

You have seen other screen printed onesies that I have done and I was ready to try out a few new ideas that I had. They have been on Etsy but I have  yet to talk about them here. Man I am behind in my blog posts. So after having a few babies that have made me rise a bit ealier than I normally would have before babies and thought this early bird onesie would resonate with many moms.

Speaking of no sleep, this onesie is a take off of a bumper sticker that I have seen around town and totally makes me think of not only night owls but newborns that are awake and ready to play at night.

This onesie was recommended by a client at a craft fair. I am not a huge Harry Potter fan but I think this is great for those who love those books. You can't tell from this picture but this is printed in a iron color. It is a black that has some shimmer to it. It just reminds me of iron and metal, looks cool in person.

Can you tell that our kiddos have both been criers? I think this is cute for the colic baby who just needs to be a bit crabby sometimes.

I have always wanted to create a bee onesie for my little one since that was his nickname. I of course did this way too late and he of course can not wear this but I still think it is cute to have a little bumblebee on a onesie. It is screen printed in gold ink.

You have seen a mustache onesie in my collection before but this one I just added little man on it, simple and cute.

This moose is a giveaway winner from last year. Here is the post about the giveaway to check out the other version of the moose that I did, on a tee-shirt.

Loving the green on the white onesie.

Here is the past set of screenprinted shirts that I posted about a while ago. Enjoy. I hope to have yet another set up and ready for you to see in the next few weeks.

Quick Takes # 16

1. This is probably not new news for anyone but the clothing store H&M now has a website and you can order online. I don't really get out shopping very much unless I am in Target but I always see cute clothes that other bloggers wear that they purchased from H&M so I thought I would give the site a try. I have yet to actually buy anything yet because I am a bit maxed out in the clothing department but man did you see the dressing room feature? So cool. Well I just went to look for the link to show you how cool it is and I can't find it. Maybe it is only on the app? Or maybe they got rid of it but it was so cool that you could see how it looks on a "person" with your measurements before you order it. Too bad it is not a guarantee that it will fit.

2. Speaking of clothing. There is a new website that I heard of a few weeks ago called Go Chic or Go Home. I go on there every once in a while to get ideas of outfits. Ever since I have been staying at home I have been trying to figure out what to wear. I am used to wearing business causal since that is what I wore to work but now that I am at home with sticky kids I know that I can't really wear those same outfits that I used to wear. I just want a few ideas on how to transition and I love that there are pictures of normal people wearing different styles of outfits. You can also upload you clothing to help you put outfits together or just download your outfit pics that you take. If you are looking for a way to wear that white skirt you can just search for ways that others have worn white skirts. Something that I need sometimes....help figuring out how to wear things.

 

3. Bee loves to wear his sunglasses outside and I think he is pretty much the only child that we see out and about with sunglasses on and he always get the comments like "cool dude" and "love your shades." HA He started wearing them because he hates bugs flying in his face and in the early summer there were quite a few little gnats outside. I hate those things too, always right in your eyes driving you crazy. So I don't mind him wearing sunglasses not only to "protect him" from the bugs but to keep the sun out of his eyes.  

 

 

4. I have been wanting to get into shape now that I think we have a good routine around these parts. I just need to motivate myself. We have a gym membership but it is so hard to get there with kids and they don't have child care. I have some workout videos and I just need to get up earlier in the morning and do it! It isn't about loosing weight it is about toning all of the muscles that have been out of use for 2+ years. Working on the pain in my back that I am sure is from a weak abdomen. Wish me luck Jillian here I come!

 

 

5. I am excited that shows are starting their seasons up this month. I have been wanting something to watch at night while sewing and there isn't much to choose from on hulu during the summer. I watched The Office last year and was glad with the final show but am a bit sad that it is over. I now need to go back and watch the first two seasons, I think I started watching season 3 or 4. Downton Abby and Call the Midwife are what I am really waiting for but it might be a while until they start here in the USA, in January, right BBC watchers? Here is a clip of the Season 4 trailer.

 

6. I am now an android user and really love my new phone. Maybe that is because I can now text for free or because the pictures that my camera takes are almost better than my good camera (not really but close) and I can get on the internet while in free internet hot spots. AWESOME. Welcome to 2013 me. haha

 

7. There is a local ice cream shop about two blocks away that is closed...for good. I realized this about half way through the summer and I am still really sad about it and drive by just to see if they opened again. It is called Spanky's and I miss it. I loved the Snickers concretes and I guess I will have to go to DQ which is not as close to my house. Maybe I should try making my own!!

 

 

Fleur de Lis

For some reason I feel like I have posted these before but maybe that is just because they are sitting out where I can see them in my work area and so I think about them a lot. So here we have two shirts that I made using two different techniques to see which I liked the best.

The first one I used a screen printing glue and applied the glue to the shirt and then shook the glitter over the part of the shirt that had the glue. This worked well but I had to race against the clock before the glue dried and even after heat setting there is still glitter that is left behind by this technique. Fine if you are little kid but not for a mom who hats glitter all over their house. On the plus side, I do like how much shimmer and sparkle this method left.

I realized that I had some silver screen printing ink and that I hadn't tried it out yet. This knight I thought would look great in silver on this black tee-shirt. It turned out to have a bit more sparkle than I thought it would. I was thinking that it would be more grey but silver it is! Perfect. Now to think of other fun things to print in silver. All I can think of right now is dollar signs gangster style. ha.

No really it could be great for a sports fan shirt or even a Halloween shirt with a cool sparkly skeleton head.

Hope you all had a great weekend. It was great here but went way too fast. I have a few fun projects that I am working on this week and one of them is baby gift set for a client.

Another Batch of Burp Cloths

A year ago I wanted to make a bunch of burp cloths for me to sell at a local store that was having a craft fair. I didn't sell any there but have sold one set since. I hope to feature that set and how I altered it next week. I love how it turned out.

This is the set that I sold but I also have more of this fabric and can make another set if this tickles your fancy. All of these fabrics are by Amy Butler and I will never grow tired of looking at these pretty fabrics.

You might have seen these fabrics before in other things that I have made. I have a big bin of fabric that is the perfect size for burp cloths and every once in a while I just go through them and make a bunch of sets of burp cloths.

These and a few other sets are featured on Etsy and I would be happy to personalize them send them along to you. They are prefect for shower gifts or just a welcome home to mom and baby, especially when this is not the first baby. Sometimes mom is ready for something new for their second, third, etc child. They have to look at some many hand me downs that something new is fresh and oh so nice.

I have been on a fabric buying hold for a bit but looking at Amy's fabrics always makes me want to buy more. I haven't stepped foot into the local fabric store in a while just so that I am not tempted. So pretty.

 Here are others like these that I made and sold in the past. If you are interested in any of these you can find them in my Etsy store.

Quick Takes #15

Ok I think I need a life intervention or a life coach or a nanny, chef, and maid. I might have talked about these last three things before but today I want to talk about 7 of the millions of reasons why I am not great at blogging....

1. Introvert vs extrovert. I have been hearing a lot the past few months about how a lot of bloggers consider themselves introverts and that is why they like to blog. My extroverted friends all talk about wanting to have a blog but that they would much rather go out and hang out with people. So I wonder where I really fit into these categories. I am an introverted extrovert? or maybe an extroverted introvert? I love talking to people on the phone and hanging out with people but since having kids all I want to do is stay home. The thought of a play date is exciting (getting to hang out with adults) and terrifying (all the prep and dealing with the children's aftermath) at the same time.

2. Time. I feel like there is never time to blog. I can only really efficiently do it on my laptop and the prime time to blog is when the kids are asleep...and the hubby is on the computer. drat. I can use my phone but I HATE typing on that thing. The way the auto correct is on there I feel like it takes ten times longer. Maybe it is because I am not used to it, or maybe I need to change my settings. I wish I could crank out posts during naptime but squirrel is still inconstant at the length of nap. I am so pooped after playing, cooking, laundry, picking up, reading, answering a million questions running errands, etc that the thought of doing anything during naptime but surfing the internet and eating cookies makes me want to nap.

2. I have a MILLION projects that I have been working on and are waiting for me to blog about, but really who wants to see yet another breastfeeding cover that looks just like the one from yesterday? I need to split the boring posts up with....more boring posts?! :) I would love to finish all of the projects that I started instead of spending time finding a cool way to show you what I have been up to.

3. I have nothing to talk about.

4. Or maybe I do have something to talk about and I think, oohh I should put that on facebook or blog it...and then I think, who wants to read that?! I think the post will be boring or that maybe I am being too self-centered in thinking anyone wants to read my thoughts.

(Here we about to ride the bus...my first bus ride. Yes my son went on a bus before I did.)

5. Pictures...oh my. How do you ladies have time to take awesome pictures and then put so many in your blog posts?! I am still learning how to use my nice canon camera and sometimes it saves the pictures sideways. I have no idea how to change that so I have to flip them in a photo program and make them the right size so that blogger will let me post them. I might just have to start using more pictures from my cell phone which takes pretty good pictures and I think I can put them into my posts on my phone. Still takes longer to type on that crazy thing.

(Here is a bad example of bad selfies that we take around here. ;) )

 

6. Content and voice.  I am a bad speller and not a great writer and really I know that people love to read blogs because of a certain bloggers voice and content. They are serious, funny, relatable, and they do it naturally. Sometimes it takes me so long to write a post because I am trying to write something everyone will want to read. I need to start just writing in my voice. It might not be the best, and it will have many spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors but the words will be out there.

7. L A Z Y. I think what it comes down to is that I am lazy. The kids are napping for who knows how long and instead of pounding out some words or sewing some stitches I just sit. In front of the tv, the cell phone, the computer. At night I again do the same and hours fly by. Sometimes I think to start something and just get sucked into youtube videos and then it is past my bedtime and I know I have to go to bed.

So that is why I am not great at blogging. I want to hop on here and keep you updated on what is going on with my sewing etc but I don't want it to consume my every thought and action so I guess you will see me sometimes and other times know that I am zoning after a long day of laundry, diapers, cooking, shopping, cleaning, sewing, and lovin' on my family.

Wow that turned into more of a downer post than I was going for. Yikes. Anyway I hope to be back in action and kick my laziness aside.