her own sense of style

my girl Helen...she knows what she likes!
(note the blue jeans peeking out)

Dresses for Ms. Monkey

there is a delightful woman whom i have known for what seems like forever. she's the kind of woman who won't ask much, but for whom you'd do absolutely anything...and without words, it's unspoken that this road of friendship freely travels both ways.

she's also the kind of woman who happily traded her given name for the moniker "Monkey". well, Monkey and i have a mutual friend who's stunningly beautiful children are in desperate need of dresses as Christmas gifts (from Monkey, of course).

when Monkey asked, i happily obliged. these babies are headed to Australia!

i wonder if koalas and monkeys get along......

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
love, Mario, Luigi, and the fairies

Christmas Clothes for Big Sister/Little Brother

a family friend asked me to make a matching set of Christmas clothes for his 5 year old "girly" niece and his 2 year old nephew. it was a fun project for me...and i think i may have found the fabric for my girls' Christmas dresses, too!

the dress is a classic a-line trimmed in wine piping with fantastic buttons that appear to change color in the light. the spray of roses on a deep green background is perfect for Christmas Eve, but it's not so overtly holiday that a girly-girl wouldn't wear it again. the dress is reversible and features a mod floral print on the other side. of course, the piping shows from either direction, and i used the same cool buttons on the inside. the dress is designed so that she can wear it for a LONG time. it will be a dress for a year or more, and then...voila! a tunic top for at least the next two years. i LOVE this design!

for the nephew, i chose to make a super-comfy pair of pants in a coordinating-with-sister green print. the cuffs are the best part, i think. they sing in a wine stripe that is reminisent of a candy cane...or maybe a barber pole...either way it's classic, not cliche. to top off his little number, i made a tie from the same fabric as the pant cuffs.

oh! i hope they send photos of the kiddos in their outfits! i imagine them to be just precious!!

Pastor Deb's Stole

i'm not sure i'm happy with this...but then, i rarely am. i plan to send it to her with a note that offers more thread work or bead work. since the very first stole i made was such a knockout...all the rest pale in comparison.

i'm trying to be kind to myself...it is a lovely stole, and it's exactly what Pastor Deb and i discussed...so, i should be thrilled, right?

Helen's "new Do"

i was never one of those children who cut their own hair...i was always too afraid to do it! so, when my oldest daughter was mesmerized by the sound new Hello Kitty scissors slicing away at her locks, i just had no idea what to say...and it took a week to know what to do!
i was concerned that if i said to much, she'd believe that i placed high value on her appearance or that i didn't care for her creativity. i was also concerned that she would be embarrassed...she did look a bit funny. She won stares from strangers and looks of worry from her Sunday School teachers (one of whom asked if she was recovering from a medical procedure).

so an entire week after the fact, i rounded up little Helen and dragged her to the salon. she was really not impressed. she likes her hair long and was frustrated by the very word "haircut". i had a hard time explaining to her that she really needed one...see above paragraph for my neuroses... the woman who cut Helen's hair is a kind soul. exactly what we needed. Helen complained that she wanted princess hair...like Rapunzel. word spread around the salon like wild fire. dozens of women passed by our station one at a time to tell Helen she looked just like Rapunzel...after the haircut to keep the evil witch away. several more told her she looked just like a pixie with her new do. Helen wasn't too keen on that...until the hairdresser explained that Tinkerbell is a pixie...

well, now my girl has a new outlook. she's really happy being "Tinkerbell's sister". she still wants long hair, but she's much happier with herself. and that's a great thing.

now, our challenge is keeping it "cute" as Helen likes to say. she's always been the girl to have huge bows and sparkles in her hair. the more closely it matches the outfit of the day, the better. well, there will be no ponytails for a while!

we trekked to the craft store today and found felt balls...with glittery beads already attached! we immediately (read, poor dogs still needed to be let out of their kennels) sewed the balls to some fancy, glittery bobby pins (thanks, Daddy!). Tinkerbell's sister is pleased...and so is her mommy.

Changes in the Air

today i was accepted into the Distributed Learning Masters of Divinity Program at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN. wow. still a heavy concept to ingest.

such a blessing and an honor...but still so strange to me.

if life is crazy now, how will i juggle yet another ball?

i trust deeply the call of God. so, i suppose, that trust is what makes me put one foot in front of the other to keep going.

still, hard to imagine how this will ultimately impact our lives. what will we have to sacrifice? what will we have to "put on the back burner"? what will we gain? can i simultaneously live the life of the "called" and be an wife to a naval officer?

what to do now, except sew another garment and pray for guidance!

Slow and Steady

"Learn something new every day." "Inch by inch, everything's a cinch." Those are two of the wise sayings my Grandmother Lois had for me. She was full of them, and as I've gotten older, I've discovered most often, she was right.

This week, I've been trying to learn a new sewing trick each day (in addition to the "facts" my boys bring home from school). Today, I give you "Mr. Turtle", the terrycloth applique that glows in the dark.

Carter needed a costume for a book report at school. He was supposed to be one of the characters from the great Judy Blume's Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. Since Carter is an elementary aged school boy like the main character Peter, we were having a tough time figuring out how to dress him up. Then Carter remembered "Dribble", Peter's pet turtle who meets an untimely end.

So was born this tshirt.

Today, turtles. Tomorrow...the hare?

Butterflies and Inspiration

Yesterday, Mother's Day, my sweet husband took over all KP and most kid duties so that I could get some sewing done. I managed to finish a new Ballgown for my littlest one, and she adores it.

The fabric is a collage of brilliant butterfly wings...a print from the Hoffman Challenge in 2004. I had purchased the fabric to make a lap quilt for myself, but I couldn't escape the thought that these butterflies were destined for something more spectacular. So, the fabric sat on my shelf for the last four years (yikes!) waiting for a stroke of inspiration.

It came in the form of my youngest daughter. She has always been drawn to bright, cheerful colors (unlike my oldest daughter who much prefers pinks). When Clara saw the butterflies, she grabbed them and took off. Once I wrestled them from her, I just knew that she needed a Ballgown with the happiest accents I could find.

What could be happier than yellow? Maybe yellow and orange stripes! So a moment of toddler greed brought my cherished fabric off it's shelf. It was given new life as the happiest dress yet.

It also renewed my joy and motivation for this craft. Hooray for Clara! Hooray for Butterflies!!

Slow Going

Feels like I'm slogging through quicksand lately. I'm crazily busy, but I never manage to get anything done!

I have piles of fabric and three new patterns calling my name...

I did finish a new Butterfly Ballgown. Unfortunately, I ran out of elastic to finish the pants. My dear friend Jennifer from Poppygogs, a fabulous local embroidery studio (www.Poppygogs.com), is running her own brand of crazy errands and has offered to grab some for me. Hopefully, I'll finish those up tonight and can offer them for grabs tomorrow.

My goal is to get at least two more dresses...and something in addition to Ballgowns...up before we have to leave this wonderful place called Prattville.

Fabric shopping - not for the faint of heart

i took my four darling children with me to the fabric store this morning. imagine two lovely, proper southern women and one non-showered, under-caffinated me attempting to have a lucid, productive conversation with three whirling dirvishes (ages 7, 3, and 1) and one pouter(age6).

honestly, i am amazed that the building is still standing...even more amazed that we made it out of there without breaking anything...

i had visions of being able to actually talk through trends and colors and weights of fabric that could possibly go into fall...HA!

i did walk out of there with loads of new stuff. several butterflies and some sweet cherries (thank you to Helen who stopped spinning long enough to find that one)...look for new dresses and shorts for girls coming soon

Something a little new

well, i certainly never expected to be a blogger. but here i am. i just opened a store at http://www.imogensgarden.etsy.com/ it's going well, and i love it! my darling friend jennifer suggested that i may need a blog...so here we are.

this outfit the "Juicy Jungle Ballgown" is my most popular and is one of my favorites!

check out the shop. i'm sure you'll have some wonderful things to say!