Hurray for SUMMER!!!

The neighborhood shaving cream fight was a huge success! So much messy fun!

I'm so excited to sleep in. So excited.

We gave each of the girls' teachers a necklace that I made -

I have loved their teachers this year! I think I love their teachers every year, but I have reflected a lot this year on just how valuable a dedicated teacher really is. At the school shooting in Connecticut, so many teachers gave their lives protecting the students. I saw this repeated a couple weeks ago with the tornado in Oklahoma - teachers saved lives of children by protecting them with their own bodies. I feel so much gratitude for my own kids' teachers who truly love my kids. What a blessing it has been to know that I'm sending my kids off to a safe environment with an adult who cares about them! 

Hats off to all the teachers. I hope you have a wonderful summer and are able to relax and recharge. You such a difficult job and I so appreciate you doing it!

As close as I've been to a crappy day yesterday

What a crazy day yesterday! It began with my 4th grader telling me that she needed a skirt and a bonnet for their dance festival...at 1:00. While sewing the bonnet, the house went quiet and my 2 year old stopped answering when I called. He's a known escape artist, so I checked all the doors and sure enough the garage doors and the garages were wide open. I looked in all of his usual spots, the park behind the house, neighbors yards, even knocked on a couple doors and he was nowhere to be found. I started to panic and was about to load up the other kids in the car to go driving around looking for him when I saw his little feet poking out of the blankets from the top bunk where he had crawled in next to his brother and fallen back asleep. 

The dance festival was then cancelled due to a downpour of rain. 

Then I went to the post office to send out an etsy order. I usually use the automated teller, but there wasn't a line so I went to the "human" teller and was charged about $.80 more than I've been paying. Turns out the "large envelopes" that I've been sending are actually classified as packages. None of those packages have been returned to me, so I can only assume that they've tried to collect the remainder on the other end. :/ So I contacted all of the previously sent package recipients to say if I owe you postage please let me correct it before leaving bad feedback for me.

And then I received my first neutral feedback. A customer had asked for double sided stamping, which really doesn't turn out so well. I did the best I could with it, but because the metal being stamped must be thinner or softer than the metal stamping it, there's kind of no getting around being able to see indentions from the other side. 

I contacted the recipient and was able to make another item that she will be pleased with, but it is so discouraging to have that blemish on my feedback wall for everyone to see. I wish she had allowed me a chance to correct the issue before she left that. 

The list goes on...my vacuum broke, the 2 year old threw a new package of light bulbs across the hardwood floor, bla, bla, boring boring.

My mom sent me this for my daughter's birthday! I can't wait to use it! Maybe tomorrow for the last day of school I'll surprise the girls. It looks so fun! I'll definitely blog about that. 

These are a couple new keychains in my shop. Thanks Dad for the ideas!

Happy Memorial Day!!

Good morning and Happy Memorial Day! 

"All gave some, some gave all. Some stood through for the red, white and blue and some had to fall. If you ever think of me and all your liberties then recall...some gave all."

Feeling very grateful today for those who serve our country and their families that allow them to. God bless you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for keeping my family safe.

Burlap flower fail, ruffle win.

Confession: I don't really get the whole burlap trend. But I went to downtown Los Angeles to the fabric district and saw it for sale for $1 a yard. I have seen it on sale here at fabric stores for $4-8 a yard. So, I went ahead and snatched up 5 yards of it like a big trend following dummy just because I know other people like it. 

But I did make myself a cute burlap/lace table runner, so I am not a complete hoarder...only 75% hoarder. :(

Anyway, I have all this extra burlap coming out of my ears, so I'm going to make some flowers. I made this one that I hate and didn't take any "during" pictures.

It's the easiest kind I know how to make, but I think the cut of burlap was too wide because the flower in monstrous. I have pretty big hands, being 6'2", so you can get a feel for how bulky and ridiculous this one is. If you're curious, you take a long strip of fabric, tie a knot in the end and then wrap the fabric around the knot while folding it. 

I was going to cut a piece in half and try it again when I by accident stumbled upon how to make a cute burlap ruffle!

To evenly cut burlap along a seam, you pull one of the threads out and then cut along that line. But when the thread is in the middle, the burlap bunches up like this. So if you're careful not to break that thread, you can wind up with a cute ruffle like this. Not sure what I will use this for, but now I've got it. :)

Pretty packages

I just love pretty packages, so I have started making my own bubble wrap envelopes to send my etsy stuff in. Yes, it's tedious and likely unappreciated, but I like it and it's my shop, so we do things my way. :)

To start, I grab some cute scrapbook paper - this is my recent fave: bright chevron print.

Next, I cut the bubble wrap down to the same size as the paper. You don't have to worry too much about being exact, you can trim it later. I got a roll from the dollar store and I can make 8 from it.

Next, turn the paper upside down and face the bubble side down to be on the back of the paper.

You can't really tell, but the flat side of the bubble wrap is faced up. 

Next, fold the paper with bubble wrap inside leaving about 1 1/2" at the top to fold over.

Now comes the super tedious part - set your sewing machine to the longest stitch and stitch the sides of the envelope. Make sure to back stitch for a couple stitches to hold it in place. I like to do 2 lines on each side - just to be safe.

Now you will have extra bubble wrap sticking out at the top, trim that down close to the lowest edge.

And there it is - just open up the bubble wrap, pop the item in, I use labels for the addresses and I usually seal it shut with some cute washi tape.

(That's an out going package, I didn't just seal the brand new envelope just to show you. Haha.)

I've thought about putting some of these in my etsy shop, but I don't think people would buy them when they're so easy to make yourself!

Summa summa summa time

I can't wait for summer. Actually, I just can't wait for school to be out. I find the last 2 weeks to be a little bit pointless. The teachers are over it, the students are over it, the parents are over it - they mostly just watch movies and eat popcorn, which they could do here at home AND they wouldn't have to be up at the crack of dawn to do it. 

So I'm getting our Welcome to Summer sign ready and gearing up for warm days at the park, sleeping in, staying up late and having my helpers home! 

I made the Summer sign last year expecting the kids to rip through it, but they were actually pretty gentle and it didn't get ruined, so we'll resurrect it for the last day of school this year as well!

I probably should invest in one of those big rolls of paper, but this is actually just left over wrapping paper from Christmas. I used regular acrylic paint. The kids thought this was awesome. So worth the half hour it took to make!

Wednesdays we wear pink.

Happy Wednesday, folks! 

I thought Mean Girls was hilarious. I think in part because it was so drastically different from my own high school experience, which mostly consisted of playing sports and spending weekends hanging out with my little brothers. They're not so little anymore and we're still very close, so that is one investment I will never ever regret. 

One weekend my brothers had friends over to stay the night, so I took them toilet papering. What. A. Bust. Those noisy little boogers got caught by a cop, tried to run and didn't get away and I ended up having to come help them clean it all up. Nothing says "I'm a loser" quite like being a high schooler cleaning up toilet paper with her middle schooler brothers on a Friday night. Good times.

Eventually I'd like to have a schedule for my blog, like "Make it Monday", etc. I thought of "Wear it Wednesday" for today since I already had the Mean Girls quote necklace to go with it, but those kind of posts don't work as well for gals that spend most of their days in old t-shirts and stretchy pants. I just can't justify spending all day wiping bums and noses and spit up in my nicest clothes, so unless I'm leaving the house, I'm comfy. Don't you judge me.