A giveaway

It's not mine.... but I've entered!

Hop over to See Mommy Sew to enter for your chance to win your choice of these two adorable things! My fave is the twirl skirt! Preggo? Check out her etsy shop .

I want to do a giveaway soon.... But what shall I give? I'll think about that later.

I'm getting brave. I'm going to attempt to make Kaytlin a pettiskirt... kinda like the ones Kaiya Eve sells for upwards of $70-80! I'm ordering my nylon chiffon today. I want Kaytlin to wear this at her birthday party. She wants pink and black... of course... with her wannabe punky self. She cracks me up. She just loves skulls, rock music, and all things punkish. Matt and I aren't even into all that. We like rock but we don't wear skulls or punk-like color combos etc. Here's what I'm making her (image borrowed from the Kaiya Eve website). Wish me luck! It's going to take a lot of patience, but supplies are MUCH MUCH cheaper than it costs to buy one!! Heck... supplies are much cheaper than just about anything I make!!

I ordered a couple of new fabrics yesterday. I can't wait to get them!! Here's a sneak peek...

Sandi Henderson's Farmers Market combo

Sis Boom's Bell Bottoms combo

What shall they become????? Hmm............. Something twirly............ something girly............. something fun.....

What a busy weekend....

Matt and I met an awesome couple at our neighborhood pool last week. The hubby is in a band called 12oz Prophets. They invited us to come to there show at Sportsline in Lawrenceville this past Saturday. We went… and it was absolutely awesome. They are so talented.

www.myspace.com/12ounceprophets

So I made this handbag a while back. I personally love it. I love the ease of use. I love that it’s big but not so big that things get lost. I love how the inside pocket is big but not toooo big, and no zipper to fool with, and I love how the pocket is in two sections. I can easily stick my debit card and spare change right down in there, then easily dig it out! I love the colors of this bag. I love that I don’t have to worry about it falling off my shoulder (because it’s held on the forearm). I just love this bag. I have gotten so many complements on it that I decided to sell another one…. A recreation of my wonderful bag. I didn’t know if it would sell or not… because I know people are funny about things being recreated when it’s not custom clothing, but low and behold I’ve sold TWO! The first one sold within two days of being listed…. Then I relisted it and it sold AGAIN! Within two days!!! I listed it for a third time today; we’ll see how it goes :-).

I redesigned my shop banner, so check it out :-) http://kaytiebugs.etsy.com/ tell me what you think! I know it’s nothing fab… I made it myself… I just cropped around a snippet of one of Sandi’s Farmers Market prints. Wow how creative of me, right? Terrible, I know… but it’s pretty cute and the best I can do. I redesigned my blog too if you haven’t already noticed :-)

And now for something twirly… because I’m in love with twirly these days. I made this cute little twirl skirt for my niece’s 2nd birthday. It’s in Amy Butler’s Coriander and French Wallpaper… from Belle, my fave AB line. I wish Amy Butler blogged… IMO designers should blog, it offers a gateway… a way to connect with people… a way for people to really see a designer as a person versus a name on a slevedge (or tag, or label, etc….). So, thanks to you designers over there in my sidebar… thanks for blogging. Thanks for offering up a daily dose of inspiration. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Thanks. Oh yeah… almost forgot, this paragraph is about a skirt. Duuh!

We went to my moms house Saturday... up in the mountains. Beautiful place. I sooo wish I had my camera. My mom has a BIG garden... mostly tomatos, peppers, herbs, etc. Actually half of her family up there (her inlaws) have a garden. They all grow different things and share with one another... and help each other. We went to a relatives garden to pick blueberries... something I had never done. Kaytlin was in absolute HEAVEN. They don't use pesticides, and although it would have been best to wash them first, Kaytlin was eating berries right off the bush. It was the cutest thing. She had a bucket and was filling it up. She loves tomatoes too... LOVES... she was picking them right off and eating them. She does that at home too. It was so cute. We made off with about a half gallon bag of blueberries and a bunch of tomatoes. The child ate so many berries and tomatoes I'm surprised it didn't make her sick! I really wish I had my camera... it was such a pretty moment.... huge blueberries everywhere, a cute little Kaytiebugs dress on my kiddo (and on her cousin), setting sun on the mountains, and all of us scooping up as much free produce as our buckets could hold!

PS- if you notice any random 'J''s... those were smileys when I was writing this in word... but when I copied and pasted it over, they all turned into J's! AAH!

Pink twirly fun

My latest creation. I love it. I forgot to take a picture of the appliques at the top of the pants lol. I'm not sure what happened to that bottom picture, but the slightly blurry, muted color, black thing in the corner give it a certain interestingness to me for some reason. It's gotten the most views for this set on flickr, so I imagine it holds interestingenss to others as well.

PS: no sew heat n' bond doesn't work so well when appliqueing cotton onto denim... just an FYI :-)

This fabric has been a creative block for me. I had it in my stash for a good while, I really wanted to use it, but I just couldn't think of what exactly I wanted to make. So many designs would have required a third coordinating fabric, and if I buy more fabric right now my hubby is going to KILL me lol.

So now this is done...... what next?? When I was cleaning out my garage I found an old sheet. It looks and feels like the 60's. It's creamy white and has a big band of eyelet trim... enough to make two... somethings... tops, dresses... something.

Because we've seen it all twice...

That's one thing I love about etsy. It's so full of wonderful unique things!! Today I had the pleasure of coming across DaliDecals. This store is full of adorable wall decals. Just had to share this shop with everyone :-)

Here are a few of my faves

K on the front page of Sandi's blog :-)

I was bouncing around blog land when I noticed Kaytlin's picture on Sandi Henderson's blog page. It wasn't IN her blog, but a pic of one of her latest tops I made was featured in the side bar on her shir madness group. The pictures change according to interestingness, so apparently this pic is interesting. It's gotten lots of clicks on flickr. I personally love it too :-)

Sometimes

This is a long one, and there’s nothing cutesy-tootsy about it... but try to read through to the bottom.

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in day to day activities, responsibilities, hobbies, pleasures, chores, and such that we forget something very important…..

I’m guilty too. Days like today I think in third person, looking down upon myself as though I am so self centered (well, self including family and friends), so concentrated on myself and my family. There are so many other important things going on in the world, and I look down on myself for not being involved in any of them. My heart wants to be, but I find myself making excuses for not…. “I don’t have time,” and “I can’t afford it” are my two biggest excuses. They aren’t reasons, they are excuses.

Sure, right now I don’t have time to join the Peace Corps, I can’t afford to adopt an African baby (although if it didn’t cost $500,000 to do international adoption I’d do my best to adopt as many starving children as I could afford to care for). But I’m certain there’s something I could do.

What can I do to make a difference? Even a small difference is better than none at all. My first thought is to commit to donating a portion of all etsy sales to a charity… probably one dedicated to fighting world hunger, that’s where my heart is.

Every person has there own cause that’s near and dear to them…. mine are more world-wide than local. There’s the ASPCA for the animal lovers, local Women’s shelters for abuse survivors, a medical research charity for every disease ever known to man, etc. Ya just kinda pick with where your heart is.

I personally have a deep compassion for the less fortunate people in the world. Why global and not local, you might ask…. Because here in the good ole USA, we’ve got it MADE. No child in this country will starve due to lack of ability to get food, thanks to charities, churches, food stamps, WIC, and if all else fails… shelters, Family and Children Services, soup kitchens, foster homes… the list is endless. In the USA, even a homeless man who hasn’t even made an attempt to work in 20 years can still get a jacket to wear in the winter, shoes on his feet, and a belly full of food. Here in the USA, you are basically guaranteed medical care for any condition. For the poor homeless man, it may not be the best medical care… but it’s care nonetheless. Even the poor homeless man can get chemo if he’s diagnosed with cancer, or a cocktail if he’s diagnosed with aids… thanks to charities in the USA as well as public hospitals that are not allowed to turn away a patient due to there inability to pay.

I have an idea brewing, but I don’t like to share brand new ideas until I think them through and see if they’ll actually become something… so for now I’m off to think think think and pick a charity to donate a portion of my etsy sales to.

Ginger Blossom Quilt

I was just over admiring Sandi's blog, hoping she had posted another pattern, but instead I found this. A contest to win a gorgeous quilt made of Ginger Blossom fabric. This thing is so beautiful!! So click on over and enter yourself to win. I've already conjured up my own little video plot to submit. Now I just need to learn how to use my camcorder, get the video OFF the camcorder and onto my computer, then figure out how to load it to youtube!!! LOL! I know my camera will do it... but I don't know how! So if you do, clickedy click on the comment link and tell me how!! Then go on over to the Old Red Barn Co. to enter yourself to win! But if you win and you heard about this from me, you should really let me at least borrow it or something :P

PS: I also checked out the Old Red Barn Co. online store, lots of great products! They have MAN SOAP!! Matt uses whatever he thinks smells good from the grocery store.... usually Axe or something equally cologne-ish. BAD BAD BAD!! I've been trying to get him to switch to some form of organic/natural soap and he insists that every single one I've shown him smells too girly! I use organic shampoo, conditioner (both Organix, usually Coconut Milk), and body wash. Kaytlin uses my shampoo and she has her own little kids organic body wash. I'm not an absolute eco nut or anything, but you'd be shocked to see the difference between my hair and skin before and after using strictly organic products. It's awesome!! My mom used to bring her own bath and body stuff when she came to visit, now she always wants to borrow mine! My fave quote from her - "I just can't stop touching my hair!" lol. Anywho... organic bath and body products are great and much better for your skin and hair than regular stuff.... even better than the high dollar non-organic stuff. And one last little note, you don't have to spend an arm and a leg.... my body wash is like $8 and shampoo/conditioner are like $7-8/each. Sounds like a lot to some people, but you're worth it!!! Splurge on yourself, you deserve it!

Now go enter to win this quilt!!!

Make your own Clothing/Handmade Item Hangtag Mini-Tutorial

This is for the googlers...

Materials:
A decent inkjet printer
Avery clean edge business cards

There are a few different ways you can do this. I’ll briefly explain each one. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions at all!! kaytiebugs@yahoo.com

The Avery website, internet tools, and download tools are very user friendly.

Clothing Hangtags using free Avery downloadable software:

Go to www.Avery.com and download the free Avery Wizard software. This works with Microsoft Office, so if you don’t have Microsoft Office, skip this part. With this software, you can select which product you have (the package of business cards says the product #, you’ll need this to proceed). You can use templates or create your own from scratch. I used a template and just added the text that I needed to be there (My business name, size, and care instructions). There are options to print these horizontal and vertical, I printed mine vertical and used a hole punch in the top left corner, then tied it onto the garment with some ribbon.

Clothing Hangtags using tools on the Avery site:

The business card package comes with detailed instructions on how to print using there website. You begin at this website: http://www.avery.com/us/print/index.html , select “Create project by product type”, go through the list and find your product ID, and begin designing your own tags! You can select between horizontal and vertical printing.

Clothing Hangtags using Microsoft Office:

I tried this method at first, but honestly it was much easier to use the Avery options. The packaging has directions for using Office, but I tried a zillion times and I could not print vertically. Other than that, it was pretty easy to use following the directions. I designed my background, text, etc…. I just couldn’t get the things to print right!

Hope this info was helpful. I know lots and lots of people have googled and found my clothing tag tutorial useful (according to analytics anyways), so maybe this will be a little helpful too J. Happy printing!

I have made a few things since my last blog! Check ‘em out! Like my new handbag made from Anna Maria’s Drawing Room fabric? I love it! I get so many looks and complements on it!

I’m currently working on stuff for K to wear on vacation. Nothing exciting finished yet…. I made a dress but it’s not even photo-worthy. Kayt picked the fabric from Walmart and honestly I don’t like it. Sure, it’s cute, but it’s not what I’m used to. Plus I had to improvise the pattern to incorporate both fabrics, and it’s much longer than I wanted it to be (thanks to me not really using the pattern AND not fitting it before finishing it). Oh well, honestly I made it for her because it’s what she wanted… and she’s okay with the length (about mid calf), so that’s what counts.

I finally started chopping up my Ginger Blossom last night. It will become a twirly top with jeans trimmed with lots of ruffles and an appliqué or two.

I think I blogged about this before... I made it for K while she was at my moms house for the week (daycare flooded and closed for the week, after we shipped her off to Nana's they decided to open back up the next day and didn't bother to call and tell us that they were open because we had "alredy made arrangements"... thanks jerks, I sure did miss my DD while she was gone)... I made her this because I missed her so much! It's embroidered linen fabric, ya can't tell by the pic though.

I have been meaning to blog lately, but time doesn’t usually permit. We had an awesome super busy 4th of July. I made Kaytlin a pillowcase style tunic with a matching hairbow and bow flops for $9. It was last minute… I’ve been so busy that I didn’t even realize that she had nothing festive to wear to Mall of Ga. for fireworks and games. She is such a doll…. She loves live music. There were bands performing all throughout the day. She loved watching the performances. This is the best pic I have of her 4th outfit. Pouty face and all. No close up of the hairbow or bow flops, sowwy :-(.

I'm getting fairly decent at crochet. I'm almost finished with a little stuffed amigurumi creature for K, but I don't really like how it turned out. I'll post pics when I'm finished. I made a little bag the other day, working on the strap and I'll be done. I also made some cute 80's style leg warmers... those turned out super cute!! I can't wait to take pics of her wearing them to share!

Kaytlin's new Shabby Chic Bedroom

Yes, two entries in one day…. This topic warrants it’s own entry.

K’s birthday is in the fall. When we moved into the house last Fall I basically bought all new stuff for her room. She liked it at first, but after a while the love faded and now she really doesn’t like it at all. She didn’t have much say in what I did with it (she wasn’t even quite 4 years old at the time), so now she wants to redecorate her room as her birthday present. Initially, I was dreading the work involved. When I did her room when we moved in, I spent a LOT of time making things. My stepdad and I built her headboard and a window seat/toy box combo, I painted her room all by myself (control freak…. I wanted it to be just right…), I sewed more things than I thought possible , including a new cover for an ottoman, a duvet cover, tons of throw pillows, bed canopy (not much sewing involved really), curtain, curtain thingy for dressup corner, I painted and repainted so much stuff, I mean I put a WHOLE LOT of work into this room. I didn’t actually spend much, because I did a lot of repurposing, building, upcycling, etc. I actually only spent like $250… and $80 of that was on paint. But I spent endless hours working on things. So now I’m faced with having to do it all over again. And this time it’s going to cost more. I didn’t have a lot of dough to work with the first time around because we were buying our first home. So I had to make do with certain things. But for $250… I’d say I didn’t do too bad. The only things in her room that she had before is toys, books, dress-up dresses (none of the décor surrounding the area though), and her dresser. Everything else you see is new and falls into the $250 I spent.

These pics don't reflect what her room looks like now, we've changed some things.... got some things hanging on the wall, moved stuff around a little, improved things a little, etc. This is what I'd call phase 1.... but these are the only pics I have.

I started to think about what to do with her room…. Then I remembered the pics I saw on flickr of the Grand Revival booth at quilt market. So beautiful. Below is the inspiration. Her room will be a Shabby Chic fluffy ruffly girly soft haven. I’m going to re-upholster the headboard and bench, maybe paint the dresser in crackle paint (maybe… MAYBE), paint the whole room a soft pink, sew up a new duvet cover in Ava Rose prints. I’d love to get a new light fixture, but I may have to settle for revamping the current ones and maybe buying little shades to replace the current globes.