mini coloring pages

I've searched far and wide on the internet trying to find small coloring pages. I thought it would be handy to have some in the computer, ready to print, cut apart, and take with us whenever Lydia needs a quiet activity while we're out. But I have not been able to find such a thing anywhere.

So, even though I do not claim to be an artist, I decided to make my own. I'll share them with you, in case you have need of them. The first ones here are an Easter theme, and also basic shapes. They are sized to fit the middle pocket in these crayon wallets like the ones I made at Christmas. But, of course, they would also fit in a small bag or purse. If the pages are printed on cardstock, they might be easier to color in a variety of situations. Just click on the image, print, cut apart, and bring some crayons along!

**Note: When I printed mine to check and make sure they work, the image didn't take up the full page. You may have to change the size a bit when you print. I'm working to fix it.**

Many thanks to Lizi for scanning and cleaning them up for me! I will be making more from time to time if you'd like to check back. Opinions and suggestions are also welcome, but keep it nice - I SAID I wasn't an artist! ;)

undoing

Have you ever not liked how something turned out, and know it's gonna bug you if you don't go back and fix it? Yeah, I'm there right now. Here's Lizi's hoodie to go with her Easter outfit. It's all finished, but the ribbon at the hem didn't turn out right. The knit stretched as I was sewing it on, and now it's all, you know, "floopy" (is that a word?) In other words, it sticks out and looks too big. It even stretched so much that it mostly pulled the gathers out of the ruffle. So I'm going to take it off and try to get it to go on without stretching this time.

In the plus column, though, other than that we think it turned out cute. This shouldn't take long to fix, and the blouse is nearly done. And it's still six days before Easter!

Hello and welcome!

Over the past few days, I've had several visitors to my blog from a new site called Seamingly.com. It lists blogs having to do with sewing, and I've really enjoyed it! Some kind soul nominated my blog, and I in turn have nominated and referred others.

So to celebrate your arrival, Seamingly visitors, I have started a list of links to free patterns and tutorials on this blog. (Scroll down, it's there on the right.) Of course, regulars, you may avail yourselves of it as well. I'll add more to the list as I have time - and find them - heh...

The blogs on Seamingly are listed by popularity, and viewers click to vote for them. If you'd like to vote for my blog, there's also a new button here on the right for that. ;)

one down, one to go

I decided to take a short break from Lizi's Easter ensemble to make Lydia's dress. I thought it would be a load off my mind to have one done, and here it is - pressed, now hanging in the closet, ready to go!

Lydia picked the purple Kona cotton at the store. Then we looked at ribbon for a hair bow, and found one the same purple color with a tiny trim on the edges in a BRIGHT green. Of course, then we had to find a trim in the same color green to go on the dress.

I hand embroidered the flowers and little circles on the front. The neck, sleeves and hem are trimmed in white Kona cotton, along with the bright green trim. I feel a little guilty that I'm spending so much more time on Lizi's dress, but a) Lydia loves her dress, and that's what counts; and b) I wanted Lizi to have a very un-lame dress for her thirteenth Easter.
And here's the requisite ginormous hairbow - we do live in the South, after all - in the ribbon that inspired the color combination.

would you like some dangly baubles with your ruffles?

Actually, I didn't really ask - Putumayo puts chain belts with charms on their outfits, so obviously Lizi needed one with our Putumayo-inspired outfit.

I've never really attempted jewelry making to this degree before - jewelry sellers, now I understand! It was fascinating to try, and quite addictive. My wire wrapping is still pretty rudimentary, but I was getting more comfortable with the process of using the head pins and eye pins by the time it was done. I'm a long way from making anything that's salable, though.

At least it's good enough to get a thumbs-up from the one who'll be wearing it. ;)

ruffles, ruffles, ruffles!

And Amy is the winner - in the new banner are, indeed, the materials for, and beginnings of, Easter dresses! (Not a moment too soon.) Here you see the skirt for Lizi's outfit. For months, we've planned on making a Putumayo-inspired outfit - we both love the brand, but even if you have the money (or yen) it's very difficult to get in the US. It's based on this skirt, minus the screen printing. I was going to try to learn to do the screen printing, truly; but Lizi was content without it, and given the time we have left, I didn't press.

A word of advice: If you are planning to make a skirt for your 12 year old daughter that has a ton of ruffled ribbons on it, and you are planning to use your handy dandy ruffler attachment to gather said ruffles, make sure the handy dandy ruffler attachment fits your current sewing machine, not the one you had ten years ago. Nevertheless, I've gotten along all right, and I think the results are pretty true to the original.
And now, onward to the blouse, hoodie, and crinoline. Oh yeah, and the 4 year old daughter's dress.

And if you'd like to gaze upon the adorableness that is Putumayo, please go visit their site. It helps if you can read Japanese. (Which I can't.)

you know the old saying...

…I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once.

Sorry for the unexpected blog break. I'll be back in a few, and hopefully I'll have something to say besides "AAAAAAAAAGGGHHHH!!!!"

In the meantime, here's a dandelion:

And once again, thanks to Lizi for a new banner! I'll leave you guessing about the materials… but here's a hint: it's what's keeping me busy.

Happy Pi Day!

my littlest seamstress

We have an old, castoff foam mat that the cats like to sleep on. Every now and then, I'll throw it in the washing machine. This time, however, the foam was hopelessly bunched and I had to take out the stitching on one end to straighten it out.

I was about to sew it back up, and Lydia came over to help - she normally likes to pull the needle for me once I've made a stitch. She pulled the thread nice and taut the first time, then wanted to make the next stitch herself. I told her to go for it - after all, I didn't think the cats would care how it looks.

I held the edges for her, and she stitched and stitched until she got all the way across!
She was very pleased with herself, and rightly so. (Never mind the spaghetti sauce on the face.) And mama was pretty proud, too. ;)

And Bilbo seems to approve, as well.

a sweet feature, and a word of advice

Recall the Hide and Seek Etsy game recently? Well, the winner, Lona of ShadySideFarm, has very generously offered to feature each shop on her blog! She did a post on my shop this morning - hop over there and take a look!

And I leave you with this word of advice from yesterday: Never look away. Because when you look away, things like this happen:

But on a beautiful day, the warmest we've seen since November, who can blame her!

And yes, we still don't have grass. It's been too rainy to get the tractor back out to smooth the ground so we can plant it. Oh well, the "pile" is gone, anyway!

late to the party

To all of you who have nagged, poked, prodded, and cajoled:

I have been assimilated.

I have conformed.

I am part of the flock. Baaa.

I am on facebook. Kim Payne, if you can find me. Happy?

** Update** - never mind. The last thing I need is one more thing to keep up with on the computer, so I deactivated the facebook account.

In other news, the First Fridays event was very cold, but turnout was actually better than I expected. Hoping for some good things to happen there this year. But now that this one's over, I've got to get busy sewing Easter dresses for my girls!!

on the road again

Why the pile of stuff on the hearth, you ask? Well, I'm off to First Fridays again! Coming along on the trip are my dolls, critters, hats, cuffs and assorted other stuff. And a few more critters to be stuffed during the day tomorrow, hopefully. It would be great to sell some things, but if not it will be a nice visit with family there. So it's a win-win.

If you're in or around Florence, come downtown and see me tomorrow night! And if you've had your eye on something in the Etsy or Artfire shop, you might want to snatch it now, just in case it sells. I'll be putting my shops on vacation mode tomorrow afternoon.

All the critters

One of the commenters in the giveaway, knit1kids4, asked what the frogs look like. It occurred to me that many of my current readers might not know what all the critters look like - after all, it's been a year since I made any! So here's an old photo so everyone can see. Just to be clear, these are not current ones I'm about to list; these are long gone. But I am making more this week, so keep an eye out for them!

Help me out here - which is your favorite? I had not planned to make any elephants, because they didn't sell well before, but what do you think? I'm working on toning down the patterns a little bit - sometimes they get a little wild. I'd love your input on colors, styles you like best, any observations you'd like to share!

Speedy's new home

Thank you all for participating in my little giveaway! Now comes the hard part for me - choosing ONLY ONE!

The random number generator chose 11, which is…

Amanda's comment!

Amanda is one of our great SHEteam members, and I'm happy she stopped by to comment. So how about YOU stop by and visit her shop?