Makaio's Tooth Fairy Pillow

My nephew, Makaio, just lost his first tooth! What a big boy! Can you believe I hadn't even made him a tooth fairy pillow yet? What kinda auntie am I anyhow??

He was a little uneasy with the idea of someone coming into his room while he slept, so that bought me a little time.  But now I have redeemed myself and he can carry on losing those teeth.  It's actually not a pillow at all - this design fits better under his pillow. Or maybe I should have made one that hangs on the doorknob.... oh, well.

Remember this one I made for Malia? 

Here's the front:

The back (aka where you cash in).  I made it nice and roomy so the tooth fairy can fit packs of gum, hotwheels cars, or large wads of cash (inflation, y'all):

I hope he loves it!

Brooklyn Baby

The recipient of this quilt is getting a baby brother!  I simply cannot wait to meet him!!

So this quilt shall be called Brooklyn Baby (since they've recently moved from NYC). 

Orange binding and the 2D Zoo I'm in so love with as backing.

Aunt Sara and Uncle D love you already!  We can't wait to meet you in September!

p.s. I've been informed that the quilt has already been hijacked by big brother, Charlie, upon which to host stuffed animal tea parties.  This makes me immensely happy.

Matchy Matchy

My sister, Monica,  is a little obsessed loves the Amy Butler Barcelona skirt.  I have made her several and she wears them all the time.  And they look totally great on her too!

She's stopped waiting for birthdays or Christmas to receive them as gifts, and now just supplies me with fabric any ol' time of year :) I'm cool with that! I had a little left over to make a Lazy Days skirt for Maile.

Monica kindly snapped this photo with her fancier-than-mine camera.  Would you look at that photo styling?  She's hired!

Kate, I'm pumping out skirts for you!

Miss Maile is Four!

My littlest niece, Maile, is getting so big!  She turned 4 today!  I can't even believe it.  She's having a rainbow party this weekend, so I had to make sure she was ready for the party in rainbow-wear.

 

I found this very appropriate rainbow fabric at Birch Fabrics, which is dangerously conveniently located on my way to San Luis Obispo.  

Kate is having her Summer Skirt Challenge, so this was perfect timing!  I used the Lazy Days skirt pattern, per the usual.  It's tried and true and fast as ever. 

I hope she loves it!  Happy Birthday, Miss Maile!  We love you!

Turning 6!

My favorite (and only, but nevermind) nephew in the whole wide world is turning six! That requires, like, 2 hands to indicate your age! So old - I can't even believe it!

Look at this guy! Could you just eat him up?

He is kind and smart and funny and will do just about anything for Legos.... and he pretends to love me in order to play Angry Birds on my iPhone. He's just his own little self and I just think he's the greatest!

I bought this book for him when he was just a little baby. I'm so excited to finally give it to him! It will teach him all the really important "boy" things like how to tie knots, identify insects, make paper airplanes, and play chess. (Yay! for rad photos...ugh)


And bless his little heart, almost every time I see him, he's wearing his birthday shirts. So, of course I made him another!


And don't tell, but I used one of D's old flannel shirts he had in the Goodwill pile. I just thought it was so manly & perfect! Don't worry, you will see more projects made with this fabric...I'm thinkin' manly patchwork baby quilt?

Happy Birthday, Makaio!!

My Girls

Well, they're not MY girls, but I like to call them mine. :)

And I'm especially proud when they wear the things I've made them.

Here's Maile in her way-too-big-for-her skirt and her 3 shirt. "Maile, how old are you?" and she hold up the OK sign with her little hands.


And Malia, who built her whole outfit around the headband I mad her (mom). *Snif* this makes me so proud.


I'm not yet done with the hipstamatic and polaroid photos, so just ride this thing out with me, ok?

Missing Three

She insisted on wearing just her bathing suit with Uggs and water wings - even though it was going to be a couple more hours before we hit the water.

This might be my favorite photo of all time.

Water Go, Spaghetti Stay

When my parents were first married, my dad was still learning English. He loved to cook even back then, but when making spaghetti, he needed a colander but didn't know the word.

"Do you have a, you know, water-go-spaghetti-stay?"

To this day, we still call it that. I commemorated with these tea towels:

They were a hit! ...I shouldda made one for myself!

Is It Too Much?

Well, here it is. I'm basically all done shopping and wrapping. Of course, I will probably come up with a brilliant (involved) gift idea tonight or tomorrow and bust my tail until Christmas morning. But for now, I think I'm done. Tomorrow I schlep them all to San Luis Obispo!


Is it too much?

This years package theme: brown postal wrap, red & white bakers twine, and Avery tags stamped with recipient's initials. Ooh, how I love those Avery tags!

(Monica, this one's for you!)

And could it be Christmas without the high-kicking skeleton angel? Don't think so...



After Christmas, I'll reveal a couple of the projects I had going on this year. Until then, and if I don't post again, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Birthday Cake Y'all

Look at this beautiful coconut cake my sister (and mother of 3) found time to make for little ol' me! She asked me what kind of cake I wanted, and the nice thing to say would have been, "funfetti" or "a betty crocker cake mix", but I didn't....bad Sara. But look at the cake!!


I can't figure out how to take a good photo in the darkish...so you get to look at my crappy photos. Trust me, this cake from Paula Deen was scrumptious, decadent, & beautiful. Wasn't that so nice of her? With all she has to do, she made me this cake. Aw, shucks, Monica.

And I have to show you this photo of my niece, Maile. Refuses to take a nap in her own bed, but boy, can this girl nap on the go. Here she is at Costco with a chip sample in her hand snoozing away. I wanted to just eat her up...

Happy Campers

I've been on vacation all week, and it has been so great! I love my job, but I also love my life, so a little break now and then is very welcome.

D and I went to Yosemite on a whim. Well, sort of. We were going to go to Sequoia but at the last minute changed our minds and went to Yosemite. Fortunately, we found a camp site (the last one available!!) and set up shop.


The first thing I noticed was how quiet the campsite was. Aaaah, serenity now. The second thing I noticed was THIS in the next campsite over:

SO JEALOUS!! Someday....Anyhow, despite my jealousy we had a wonderful time.

We made some yummy supper (it's called "supper" when you're camping, fyi) over the fire:

relaxed a bit:

And made our coffee and tea. Do you love my little Goodwill kettle?:

We did a little hiking and a little bicycle-riding through the valley. The weather was warm and summer was barely hanging on by a string. I would like to go back when there is a little water in the "falls." :)

Although not captured on film, mostly because I have already exhausted the s'mores discussion, there were many s'mores enjoyed this trip. Because, camping just ain't camping without s'mores....or jiffy pop popcorn, but that's another discussion.

Passionfruit

I love my sister very much, but MAN am I jealous of her passion fruit vine! I hope it's written in her will for me... Remember how obsessed I said I was with them? Lucky for my, her vine is huge and prolific.

If you've ever wondered what a passion fruit actually looks like, here it is.

the outside:

the inside:

If you've never tasted one, they're tart, the pulp a little slimy, the seeds a little crunchy, and oooooh so good and you can get one at my sister's house. Her address is.... just kidding.

Miss Maile is Two!

This little stinker, lover of "toffee" and "popo titis" (coffee and a purple blanket called titi), had a birthday last weekend.

She got a new birthday outfit to wear when not in her birthday suit...so that means she probably won't wear the outfit most of the morning.

I made a simple little skirt with matching appliqued Old Navy shirt. I replaced the belt on these Old Navy capris with the same coordinating fabric. Muy cute-a!

Happy Birthday Maile!

Guess What?

It's a breathtaking view, isn't it?

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

Back in the Saddle

My absenteeism is due to an awesome east coast adventure to NYC, Philadelphia, DC, and Savannah. Photos forthcoming (maybe).

It took me a couple days to get back into the groove of life. Luckily, I still haven't had to go back to work yet so I have some time. I only started sewing again today.

Firstly, my little train-lovin' guy is turning 4 in a couple days! He needs a proper shirt for the occasion, especially since it happens to be National Train Day and the party will be at the train station. Remember when I got this fabric last time I was in NYC?


And while we were in Savannah, I was inspired to make this:


The town has recently been overrun (in a good way) by the Savanna College of Art and Design. They had this store just for the students to sell their art. I was inspired by these pillows, which have hand-embroidered chairs on them (got the ol' wheels turning, that's all I'm sayin'). And I was going to hand-embroider the bicycle, but For whatever reason decided to try machine free-motion embroidering instead. I kinda like it. Of course, it's not in a pillow form or anything at this point - I just got excited to blog about it.

It needs something though...like tassels dangling from the handlebars or a basket with flowers or something. Ideas? Maybe I'll make a few more. It literally took me 10 minutes to make. Gotta love that.

Ok, nap time. Stay dry out there!

Pillow Revision

These pillows are much better than my original attempt/vision. Well, these don't even really look like my 2nd vision either. I start out with one idea and the end product is usually quite a bit different. I banned rulers (a challenge for me) and pinning (not so much) from the initial piecing process.



I think I got the reddish/rust color right this time. I found it in some napkins I intended on embellishing from Crate & Barrel 100 years ago (they were never actually embellished).

I love how they turned out! I feel so Gee's Bend about the whole thing - using a mix of already-have (red, chocolate, linen, and teal corduroy) and new (white linen/cotton). I hope she likes them too!

Cinnamony-ish

This was intended to be a gift, but I got the color wrong - too much brown, not enough red. I'll make another with the right color. But since I don't know where this is going, I can't decide on a backing. Hmmm...I'll probably just let it sit in my UFO pile for a few months.

My favorite part is the two different whites - kona cotton and some linen from, you guessed it, the Anthro bedskirt. What?! I just keep finding pieces of it!

While the Pan Was Still Out...

My dad makes this delicious orange cake by blending an entire orange in the food processor - rind, pith, and all. I had been wanting to try it myself in a cupcake version.

I thought I would try and fancy it up a bit by using blood oranges. So I present to you Blood Orange Cupcakes with Cardamom Vanilla Frosting:


I was surprised (and a little disappointed) to find that the ruby color of the orange cooked right out. In fact, it turned a little greenish! The cake has a strong, slightly bitter, orange flavor - and the cardamom frosting complements it perfectly (I used this same frosting recipe, but added a little ground cardamom).


This is what it looks like after I ate 1/2 of it for breakfast...in addition to my regularly scheduled breakfast.

I make sacrifices for my craft - I'm hardcore like that.

Macho Gazpacho

I'm addicted to gazpacho these days. I know, a little late in the season... Thank goodness tomatoes are still abundant and cheap here in CA.

It's so easy and refreshing. Here's my dad's Andalucian gazpacho recipe.

Start by soaking a chunk of day-old bread in some ice water (no ice is fine too).

In a blender, fill your blender about 3/4 full with peeled tomatoes (however many that takes)
Add 1 small onion (or 1/2 med to large)
1-2 small cloves of garlic (trust me on this one, a little goes a LONG way)
about 2 T olive oil
1-2 T red wine vinegar
and your soggy chunk of bread

Blend it up, taste it, add salt and pepper to your liking.

My dad likes to put his through a food mill to get rid of all the seeds. I don't mind them (I actually don't even have a food mill, plus I'm a little bit lazy). And if you do decide to put it through a mill, you don't need to remove skins at the beginning.

Ta-da! Serve chilled or at room temperature.

In Sevilla, they have gazpacho bars where you can add hard-boiled egg, onion, cucumbers, and other toppings. I like it with egg, cucumber, and a drizzle of olive oil. De-lish!

Family Napkins

My sister commissioned (I'm going to use this word as much as possible) me to make her family some reusable cloth napkins, 'cause we're green and stuff. I thought about just buying her some napkins, but that's no fun - and I think she wanted them personalized anyhow (who wants to risk mixing up your napkin with the 3 year-old's?).

I came up with a compromise:
Purchased napkins with home-sewn detailing (and stash-busting!)

(*sneeze* that's stayed-home-sick-from-work me in the spoon reflection - hi! *cough*)

I bought the napkins at Crate & Barrel Outlet for $.97, and the fabric...well, you've seen this before (lots of times). I think they will go nicely with her Tuscan-style home.

Voila!