Get a Melissa & Doug 25% Off Coupon When You Take the North "Poll"

I love coupons, freebies, and I love promotions!  This is a great one from Melissa & Doug!  I'm always looking for cool, and unique ways to reach consumers, because it's my job! (hence why my last blog post was from July!). 

Melissa & Doug want you to tell them which of their educational toys you think is the best! Just click on the image below to place your vote in the North "Poll!" You'll Get a Melissa & Doug 25% Off Coupon** to use at MelissaAndDoug.com just for voting!

Baby Chiarizia's Baby Shower!

Last weekend we celebrated the anticipated arrival of Baby Chiarizia. With much help, we threw my bestie Lainey, a grey and yellow themed baby shower.

Lainey has the biggest sweet tooth of anyone I have ever known, so It was fitting to have a dessert table!

Family traveled down from New York to be here, which was totally awesome. Friends and co-works came, and stayed despite the loss of power in the middle of the day on a 100 degree afternoon!

(Lainey and her momma!)

Adorable 'Buddy' cake made by her adorable cousin Kate.

Lots of lemonade!

Lots of Lemonade with rosemary infused Vodka! (Yummy!)

Lainey got so many adorable and useful gifts! I'm thinking it probably took her all week to put everything away!

And handmade gifts! Awesome super soft blanket that her mom knitted, and a cute blanket that her aunt made. Pretty awesome!

The only posed shot I got. Which I would have gotten a picture of everyone there!
Cheer up Lainey :-)

So excited for you guys, and wicked excited to meet the little one!

Thanks to everyone who made it, near and far to celebrate with Lainey!

A dress to mow the lawn in

Wicked simple dress to make.

The tank is from H&M, and was a whopping $1.97. For the fabric skirt part all you need is about quarter yard. I sheered about 7 or 8 lines and connected it to the tank at the top and bottom of the sheering.

I also made a cute flower pin out of the fabrics, to add to the strap of the tank. It's a bit too heavy and was making Melody's strap fall off her shoulder. Not cool.

Still need to work on her skills. I like straight lines ;-)

A Not Too Dressy, Dressy Dress

I made this dress for Melody to wear at my my cousin's wedding back in March. Lots of family, lots of hugs, a beautiful wedding. I wanted something dressy, but not too 'Eastery'. Which is funny, since she ended up wearing it on Easter. Whatevs.

And even more whatevs is that it was TOO dressed up for our casual Easter Sunday, followed by emergency appendectomy (me not Melo :). But had to get one more wearing out of it!

I used Anna Maria Horner's Innocent Crush Viole. I've yet to meet a fabric from her collections that I don't like. A little see through for skirts and dresses, but tops are ok without having to line them.

I used tulle to give this dress some poof!

My favorite part actually is the back. It's very fitted, and I used fabric covered buttons for the back closer. Hard to see in this pic.

Her shoes matched perfectly, too bad she only got to wear them 2 times :-( Girl is starting to get more shoes than me!

I love this pic :-)

Happy Birthday To My Little Girl!

That's right - Melo is 2 today!

She's becoming a big girl right before my eyes! Everyone asks, can you believe she's 2 already?! My immediately answer is usually, 'no I can't believe how time has flown by'. But really - I can believe it.

It has been a very full 2 years. Filled with fun and laughter! Cries of a baby now turned into cries and whines of a toddler. She's learned a lot. We've learned a lot.

We are excited to see her learn and grow even more this year.
Happy Birthday Sweet Daughter of Ours!

ps. The adorbs skirt in the picture, is the market skirt you'll find here, from super talented Dana from MADE. She is constantly pumping out awesome tutorials and tips!

Photo Challenge - Motherhood

Not only do we want to share our creations with others we want them to look as pretty as possible. And ESPECIALLY if they are on our favorite subjects, our kiddos! And that means better pictures!

I'm in constant awe of all the amazing photos I come across on the web, and seeing photographers with such an eye for art through their lens. It's great to see their vision unfold in wonderful shots. My cousin Melanie with Room 118 photography being one of them!

I started reading I Heart Faces blog a while ago and have learned a lot about photography and have been inspired by both amateur and professional photographers. What an awesome resource and a great way to connect.

This weeks challenge is on Motherhood. This picture was taken of me and Melody last year on my very first Mother's Day. I love it. It's actually one of a set of many that I posted here.

So I'm submitting this photo to the challenge this week!

Yesterday I didn't get any pictures of Melody's and I together, but as I posted yesterday, I was able to spend the day with my mom as well, which was awesome.

Happy Mother's Day

I'm so happy to be spending today with my Mom who is in town helping me out, while husband is in New Orleans. Yesterday we took Melo into Durham and took some '2-year' pics. She did great! Here is one of my favs of Melo and my Mom.

My Brother and the girls are on their way to our house now, so it will be nice being all together (minus my dad). But hopefully we will ALL be together soon enough!

Happy Mother's Day to all the amazing mom's that are in my life, and to all the fantastic Bloggy Mom's that give me inspiration and make me laugh everyday!

Happy Mother's Day!

Bias tape - We are starting to be friends

Bias tape. Love it and hate it. Love the clean finish and look, and it's many uses. What I don't like is that when I am trying to do a quick simple project (which bias tape is good for), I end up standing at the ironing board FOREVER making this stuff.

I think every day I come across another giveaway for the Simplicity bias tape maker, entering each one, secretly wishing I will win, because I don't want to spend $70 for another piece of equipment in my (walls are closing in on me) sewing room.

So I finally went out and picked up a couple of these Clover bias tape makers

Let me preface this by saying this is not a tutorial. That would be lame, since the directions are on on the packaging! Just wanted to give you my 2 cents on what I thought!

You have to snip the end of your fabric strip at an angle and use a seam ripper to pull it through. Very easy. Then you just pull the bias tape maker back with the iron following closely.

Yes it was easy. Yes I will use these for now on. And no I do not have one of those pretty ironing board covers made out of designer fabrics. I wish. My board is so beat up, I just draped a piece of fabric over it, to hide the embarrassing site. Thinking about making a cover soon though.

This was fairly quick. I used an old brown t-shirt, and leftover Jessica Levitt fabric I had from Melody's 1st b-day dress.

Anyone one else making friends with bias tape?

A little collection

Love sewing books. Love the pictures. Love the detail and thought put into creating a book. And love that I can read a book written by someone, who one day turned their hobby into something to share with others. Also - the same reason I love reading blogs.

What I do have time for this week though, is to read up on some of my books! I got many of these for Christmas, but what I also got for Christmas is an Ipad (which I love), but is a huge distraction :-)

So while I do love the internet for trusty tutorials and inspiration, i'm going to spend some time with my books. I'm out of work for a week recovering from an appendectomy (ouch!), so I have the down time. It is already Thursday, so I better hop to it!

Melody's Spring Wardrobe

Melody's closet is getting jam packed with handmade goodies for the spring/summer, though I'm pretty sure the spring is gone already, since it's pretty short lived in the Carolina's! There are still many more items in my 'queue' to add, but look who else has been contributing.....

My Mom! She is a sewing fool right now, and is making the cutest little things! Melody sure is lucky! She's already made a handful of dresses, and as I'm typing this, I'm staring at a package that came yesterday with a couple tanks and an adorable romper! Thanks Nana!

I may consider outsourcing my designs, and send fabric straight to to my my mom :-)

I Learned It From My Mama!

Everytime I make a cut, or run anything through my sewing machine, I'm learning something new. My mom and friend En both taught me the basics in college, and from then on I've been pretty much self taught. Still trying to get through this stack of books however!

Remember this Dress?

More pics Here

Well, I used a new gathering technique that worked wonders with all the layers of lining and Tulle I used.

There are many techniques for gathering for a ruffle. You can use your machine if it's set right, there is a 'gathering foot', you can do a long stitch, and pray it doesn't break when you pull the thread, which it usually does, yet this is the technique I normally use.

Not Anymore! All you need is a little DENTAL FLOSS!


Yep, just do a zig zag stitch over the thread, set at the longest setting.

Worked like a charm. Need to invest in some unscented floss though. Melody smelled a bit minty when she wore her dress the first time!

Thanks MOM for this tip!

Weekend Treasury Lovelies

So this weekend I got hooked on Etsy Treasuries. All the sorting, searching, color coordinating, and prettiness, is enough to get anyone hooked!

I just wanted to display a few of my favorite lovely things I discovered, during my crazed Treasury fun!

These purses, and basically everything her shops page, I love!

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I love this picture of this ferris wheel so much. I'm loving the turquoise and yellow combo almost as much as grey and yellow!

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And these!.....

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I love this taupe and blush pink broach. Amy fyi, I need to order one of these fo sho!
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This cake stand is amazing. I would never do it justice though.

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And this picture just makes me plain happy.

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Might need to seek rehab if this continues...

Treasury Links:
Taupe and pink

Oh the Colors
Sun and Sky Goodness
Toes in the water