Friday, August 29, 2008

We have a winner!!!

By random number generation, MyBUG has won the double ruffle femme skirt! She left a comment and blogged in two places... Myspace and Indymoms.

MyBUG operates an Etsy shop, http://mybug.etsy.com/

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

I'm going on vacation! Keep the entries coming though!

I fixed the giveaway so that anyone could enter, not just people with either a google account or openid. So if you tried to enter before but couldn't, click on over and try again! If you have any trouble, shoot me an email at kaytiebugs@yahoo.com!

So TTFN.... I'm off to Myrtle Beach until next week!

Friday, August 15, 2008

Ruffly Girly GIVEAWAY!!!

What do you get when you combine Sis Boom, Pink, Brown, and ruffles???

MY FIRST GIVEAWAY!

So what am I giving away??

I am giving away a custom made ‘Double Ruffle Femme Skirt'. The fabric will be two coordinating Sis Boom fabrics, brown and white ‘Casey Scroll' and pink and brown ‘Mary Trellis'. The fabrics are pictured below. The pink will be the top fabric (see the Farmers Market Double Ruffle Femme Skirt below? The pink and brown will be where the cherries print is on that skirt), the brown and white fabric will be on the underneath (where the stripes are in the picture below). Sizes available for winning are 18 Months thru little girl's size 5 with a 23" waist measurement.



How can you enter to win this adorable little skirt??? There are a few different ways, and each thing you do increases your chance to win!

1) Post a comment below... include info like how you heard about this giveaway, what your fave item is in my etsy shop (see etsy mini to the right of the page in my sidebar), what brought you to my blog today, if you've ever read my blog before or are a regular reader, etc.... something somewhat interesting and more than "Hey! Can you enter me to win?" This will count as one entry.

2) Blog about this giveaway... blog on your blogger, typepad, or even your myspace/facebook blog or cafemom journal.... For each place you blog about this, it'll be counted as FIVE entries.

3) Post this clickable image somewhere.... In the sidebar of your blog, on your website, on your myspace/facebook profile, on your cafemom profile, etc.... FIVE more entries for each place you post it.

* If you plan on blogging or posting the clickable graphic, please do so first then come back and leave your comment including links to these things.

Entries must be received by 8/28/08 (two weeks from today). One comment per person. In your comment, make sure I have some way to contact you if you don't leave a URL. If you have trouble or questions, email me at kaytiebugs@yahoo.com. The winner will be selected by a random number generator.


Use this image in your blog or wherever, but remember to make it clickable!! The image is hosted at http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3058/2764723235_511499b3b7.jpg (that's an underscore between all those numbers). Make sure it links back to this web address: http://kaytiebugs.blogspot.com/2008/08/ruffly-girly-giveaway.html. Having trouble? Feel free to ask in a comment or email me questions at kaytiebugs@yahoo.com


So get busy entering!!!

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

The most beautiful place in Georgia



If you read this all the way to the bottom, I've got a secret to share with you. But first, I'm going to tell you about my weekend.


While Matt was in Panama City scuba diving with his dad, I went to my moms for the weekend. She lives in the North Georiga mountains, the most beautiful place in Georgia. Parts of it seem untainted... everything is small, simple, and easy going. It doesn't take an hour to go 20 miles (and if it does, it's because you had to cross three mountains to get there, not because there was a jacknife tractor trailer and two fender benders in the interstate). People are friendly. Things have a wonderful timeless feel... and everything "old" is embraced with the term "antique". Hence the picture.... see the copper cooking utensils? I told my mom to write in her will that those are MINE! lol



So what did we do all weekend? Well... I worked on those roman shades for my coworker, no fun. This project is much harder than I anticipated. Not to mention the fact that it's HOT! I've constantly got 10 feet of upholstery weight fabric sitting in my lap! It's been quite a challenge, and a learning experience. I am trying to compare it to what quilting would be like... working on such a huge amount of fabric.

We picked tons of tomatoes and peppers. I have so much I don't even know what to do with it!
K went for a ride on Dollar.


I also learned how to make homemade salsa! My mom has a big garden, and all of her family members do too... so they kind of share crop. They all help each other when harvest time comes. We used home grown peppers, tomatoes, and *cough* store bought onions... among other secret family ingredients. I never knew my muscles could actually grow tired from chopping veggies!




I created a flickr set titled 'My Faves'. I just looked at it... and it's like if my life were flashing before my eyes, these would be some of the images that would appear.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

How ‘bout them Dawgs!!!




The first UGA game is August 30th!!! Less than a month away! We (Matt, myself, Kaytlin, most of my family members, and MOST of my friends… well, all except Josh, he’s a Tech fan… heffer… lol, Kaytlin gives him hell about it, well… we all kinda do).

So what better way to commemorate the first game than making something absolutely adorable for Kaytlin that goes with the theme?!?! This is what I have in the works. At first I wanted it to be a skirt with matching appliqué top and I wanted to make a twirly skirt tutorial, but honestly I’d rather make it a dress or something. I think I might still make a tutorial though, and include pattern pieces for the bodice (and maybe some other pieces) in a PDF. Here’s what I’ve got so far… a ton of cut up squares and a strip that was going to be the casing for the waistband. I love the fabric combo…. UGA, red polka dots, black polka dots, and Michael Miller paw prints. May I just say that the makers of the UGA fabric did a terrible job of printing it. The fabric is kind of like a grid…. And it wasn’t printed straight on the bolt, plus those straight white lines… not very straight when you hold a ruler up to it to cut on them… I adore the print, but if I could buy the same thing from a different manufacturer I would. PS- I decided against the gingham band if I do the skirt, it just didn't match as well as I thought it would.


And here’s that tiered skirt I mentioned before. I still need to wrangle up K for a little “photo shoot” so I can list this skirt on etsy, but we’ve been super busy lately. For the last few months she’s dreaded “modeling”. Like the milk mustache? We were running out the door and I wanted to snap some pics just in case she spilled koolaid on it before we got to do a real modeling session.


I’ve been employed to make some soft fold roman shades. I’m excited and nervous at the same time. The instructions are relatively simple, but geez cutting 2 ½ YARDS in a straight line sounds just a tad bit intimidating. Luckily I’ve got a yard stick and some awesome scissors! I’ll post progress pics.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Who do ya love?

I'm a proud member of the Etsy Street Team 'Cafemom Etsy Moms'... we're a bunch of fun lovin' moms who sell on etsy. Check out our blog here. I just won a really cute plushie from rockerchic's shop!!

So we all like to click around etsy and admire other sellers goodies... and buy too of course. I asked everyone who they loved to oogle over, and here's what I got!


aebaby loves
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=13850
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5851887 I love her stuff, but I just checked and for whatever reason she only has 2 items left in her store. But they are super cute nevertheless :)
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5437870 - she is my competitor :) but I still lover her stuff :)
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5579481 - fantasticly great store, lifts your spirits right away.
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5104708
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5937224 - just magical!
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5211621 - scrapbooking!! :))
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=97808
Wow that's a lot of love from cafemom etsy moms!
Be sure to check out the Cafemom Etsy Moms blog and these shops!

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Fabricaholicism

I received my fabric yesterday and cut it all up this morning... four little lovelies coming soo! I was going to write a tutorial on how to get two adorable skirts out of one yard of fabric, I took pictures and everything, then the iphone got wiped out... photos gone... therefore no tutorial. Shucks! Maybe if someone shows interest in how to get two skirts out of one yard (or two half yards, which is what I did) then I'll do it again, photos and all. I will post pics of the skirts in my next entry... I tried to take pics today but it was raining outside... and inside pics with my cam aren't nearly as good.
I just ordered the nylon chiffon to make Kaytlin's pettiskirt mentioned in my previous post!!! I'm so freakin excited! I hope it doesn't take too long!! I just can't wait to chop it up. Most people look at pettiskirts and think they're hard. Being that I've never actually made one, I could be totally wrong in saying this, BUT I'm gonna... it doesn't really look that hard. It looks like the hardest part is just cutting it all up, which shouldn't be too hard since it's all straight lines and repeating lengths etc. It'll be pretty time consuming... shirring up more yardage than I ever thought possible and all... but not really hard per se, just time consuming. Hard is a wedding dress, HARD is a dress that requires buttons, a zipper, criss cross bodice, turned straps, multiple layers to be hemmed, gathering AND beading. We're talking rectangles, shirring, and straight stitching. Alright, I'm starting to sound cocky.

I would just like to know where in the world these etsy sellers are getting there nylon chiffon though. Side note: I'm going to write an awesome tutorial on how to make these (because there's no way in the world I'd make one to sell, I'd make like nothing per hour.... it'll be easy to make but very time consuming therefore not very profitable compared to hours spent making). If I put a lot of effort into the tutorial I'll probably sell it for $5 though... or at least at first. Because honestly there isn't a single GOOD tutorial to make a pettiskirt... or at least not one that I found. Yeah, I watched the martha video (and read the instructions)... very vague... that gal doesn't want to tell folks how to make her skirts, she came on that show to promote her skirts, not to teach others this wonderful skill she has. LOL! She ran through those directions like it was nothing, and took no time to provide measurements to make any size bigger than what the babies in the audience were wearing. Nicely done. Then there are other tutorials. They were helpful... but my number one biggest complaint about this whole process was the measurements. I couldn't find measurements to make one for my DD sz 4T... they were mostly all for babies. It took me forever to figure out how much yardage to purchase and honestly I'm still not sure. I ordered more than I thought I'd need though, 16 yards. Some gals on ebay talk about having a 45 yard pettiskirt... no stinkin way you're fitting 45 yards of fabric into one skirt. I am pretty sure they are referring to the lengths of all of the cuts combined lol.... that and HELLO they're charging $60-80 for something that takes hours to create (I don't care how talented, if you tell me you made one of these in an hour I'll tell ya you're lieing and ask you to show me ).

Okay... this has become way too long.

Because I have no pictures to share, I'm posting these..... I absolutely love the new Ava Rose fabric from Grand Revival Designs! That's on my list of fabrics to order SOON! I love love love the blue fabric with the roses, paired up with the white with pink polka dots! You guys should click the link.... the blog is amazing.