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Saturday, March 31, 2012
The Petal Top: An Ann Taylor Knock Off
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Thursday, March 29, 2012
Craft Room Dreams & Plans Changed
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Coffee Talk
I’m sitting here with The Today Show on in the background, Jace happily playing a game on the iPad, and a coffee in my hands. Since we haven’t spent much time together lately, I thought it was a good time for another coffee talk.
Jace and I spent the last week in California for my grandpa’s funeral. His health started doing poorly about a month ago, so we had booked our plane tickets to go see him one last time. My grandpa has always been a fighter—defeating cancer twice, open heart surgery and congestive heart failure over the years as well. There have been several times over the past 12 years or so where he has been given six months to live and each time he’s managed to amaze his doctors. So when I booked our tickets, I figured this could potentially be just one more time of saying goodbye to Grandpa and then seeing him again a year later. Sadly, though, he passed away two days before Jace and I were set to fly down. I had a feeling the day he died that it would happen, and was so thankful that I’d be able to be there for the funeral.
I did get to see him this summer when Jace and went to California with my parents. At that time, I figured it could have been the last time I’d see him. I’m so thankful for that time and that he got to meet Jace.
There were several very personal elements to the funeral. I actually had the thought that if there was a blog that featured funerals (how weird would that be?), this would be one that would be highlighted. My grandpa was a WWII veteran, so he had a flag draped coffin. Rather than having a floral arrangement from the family, my mom and her brother and sister honored their dad’s love of wood by having a florist arrange branches from a redwood tree. On the table with pictures and memorabilia from his life, they had a basket full of fresh produce as a representative of my grandpa’s love of cooking, especially with fresh fruits and vegetables. And finally, by younger brothers (Army veteran and Naval officer) wore their uniforms and were two of the pallbearers. They also folded the flag at the gave side service and my brother presented it to my uncle. I am thankful for the faith that my grandpa and I shared and that I will see him again.
On a happier note, I was able to visit Hobby Lobby again while I was in California. I picked up some ruffle fabric and a gray and white stripe knit. The stripe is supposed to be for scarves for my shop, but I’m thinking I’ll make a cute maternity top from it instead.
Easter is just around the corner and I need to get my dress made. I still think I’m going to knock this dress off, but I first need to find the fabric. A trip to Joann’s is in order today.
My shop’s stock is dwindling quite a bit so I need to put some actual effort into making new items for it. I have all the materials purchased already for some flower necklaces, wrap belts and spring scarves.
I am determined to have us take a family vacation this summer—even if I need to make lots of sales to pay for the gas. My grandparents have a house in Cambria, CA on the central coast. This is the view just across the street from their house.
So that’s what’s on my mind this morning. I hope you are have a wonderful Tuesday!
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Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Guesting @ Kojo Designs Today!
Today I’m over at Kojo Designs as a part of their Sewing for Me Series, sharing how I made this pleated neckline top. Stop on over and check it out!
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
My DIY Skinny Jeans {Maternity Style}
I’ve become really attached to skinny jeans over the past year, so as I outgrew my normal clothes and had to switch to maternity, I really wanted to find a pair of skinny maternity jeans. Motherhood’s one and only style (in store at least) really didn’t look skinny at the ankles, and the fit was all wrong on me around the waist. I liked the ones I saw online at Gap, but they’re $70 and I was worried they might not look good on, either. So I followed the trend of everyone else online, and turned a pair of boot cut jeans into skinnies.
The beauty of this situation was that I had a pair of Gap Long and Lean maternity jeans that I bought while pregnant with Jace. But they were always just a quarter inch shorter than I like, so I didn’t enjoy wearing them. Thinning the leg made them perfect!
Most girls I’ve seen just take the legs in at one seam, but my jeans had showed the grain of the material because of their wash, and taking in on just one side would have angled it funny. So I laid out a pair of skinny jeans down the middle of the pant leg, and pinned up both sides to match the width.
Because the back of your butt/leg has more shape than the front (typically), there was more material on the back of the leg. So I was careful to just work along the seam and not just fold the material in half. Once the pins were in place, I sewed up both sides. I both sewed and serged my seams.
And then I had Gap skinny jeans… just not the ones you can order online!
I was later trying on another pair of my maternity pants, slacks this time, and found they were even shorter than the jeans I had just converted. So I did the same thing to them (only this time I just needed to take in one seam on each leg) and fell in love. This time a cigarette pant was a little more of the look I was going for. Like the top? You’ll learn more about it tomorrow.
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