Home Sweet Home: Watermelon

What comes to mind when you think of summer? Maybe things like playing outside, eating watermelon and spitting out the seeds in the grass until you were a pink drippy covered mess and then swimming in the pool to clean off.  This is the image that I wanted to capture in the bright cheerfulness of my watermelon "O".

I started with painting the entire block of wood white.  After a couple of layers I lightly drew lines with a pencil around the outside edge of varying widths and painted them with a light and a medium shade of green acrylic paint.  The watermelon pink paint I admit was a custom mixture of colors.  It took a couple pinks, a little red and some white before I found the right combination that made me think summer.

Once all of that was dry I sealed it with a satin gloss finish acrylic paint sealer and then hammered carpet tack nails randomly across the front for the seeds.  A big thank you goes to my sister Amber for the idea of the carpet tacks.  They look cute and it saved my from possibly messing the whole thing up by trying to paint on little black seeds.

You can check out the main post for this project and all it's monthly letter "O" links here HOME SWEET HOME.

Last Year's Pajamas Affect This Year's Planning

As Thanksgiving approaches this week, and my thoughts inevitably turn today gratitude and the upcoming holiday season I find myself thinking about the upcoming crafting projects that I should have started weeks ago and now only have a few a weeks left to get finished before Christmas is upon us.  This seems to be something that I do often as I looked back over last year's Facebook posts I realized that I am even a little ahead of schedule this year if I start on the children's Christmas pajamas anytime before December 10th.

Last year I was a little bit over confident in my time management vs. project size and quantity skills and I found that it got me into a little be of trouble.  I had previously made a set of fish pajama's for my daughter using Simplicity Pattern # 2481.  You can read pattern review and how that project turned out here.  It was such a hit with my daughter and such an easy project that I decided it was perfect for making in big quantities and I would be able to make three sets for my younger three child without any problem leaving me plenty of time to tackle a bigger project for my pre-teen and teen girls that are now borderline women's size clothing making their gift projects take longer simply because of their size.

Well it took me a week with a busy house and five children to get the first set of pj's done.  Red with blue Iron Man.  My youngest son Jeremiah was obsessed with super heroes at the time and I was really hoping he would like them.  But it took a whole week to make one set of pj's which left me on December 15th.

After the Iron Man pj's were done I was ready for a pattern switch and I cut and sewed the pink nightgown for my oldest daughter next.  It was a vintage looking nightgown New Look Pattern #6163.  This is an out of print pattern that I actually rescued from my mother's stash before she got rid of all her sewing patterns because it was a nightgown I had always wanted to make for myself.  Now the pattern is too small for me so I live vicariously through my girls by making it for them.

Their project ended up being a big recycle/up-cycle project.  Since that summer I had gone through all my sets of bed linens and set aside the ones that were worn out from age and washing or from our previous cats getting them with a claw.  So I took those sheets and let the girls pick the ones they liked best without them knowing why I was asking.  Then I matched them with a little bit of fabric and lace for the fancy old fashioned collars and this project was all set.

One Tip: when working with lace, especially if you want a layered effect and plan to put on a couple different ones.  Save yourself some time and at least look at the lace that comes pre-sewn and layered together for you already.  I know it is hard to see in the photo but the pink night gown has a three layer lace that came all put together and it was super quick and easy to sew on since it only took once around.  The blue nightgown however is the opposite, because it has two layers of single layer lace and I had to not only figure out how to layer it so it would look nice but I also had to take double the amount of sewing time to put it one since each layer was sewn on separately.

Everytime I got tired of sewing pleats or lace and ruffles I went back to crawling around on the floor to cut out sewing patterns. This gets harder every year and is honestly not something I am looking forward to doing this weekend as I cut out and plan for this years Christmas pajamas.  Unfortunately if I lay out the fabric on my folding tables it tends to slip and slide around and the pattern doesn't get cut out well.  Anyone have ideas for fixing this and helping me get off the floor?

My youngest daughter's pajamas from this pattern were a fun little up-cycle that ended up adding more time to the project than I had planned on or expected.  Originally they pink floral and blue butterfly fabric was part of a bedroom window curtain I had made for my girls bedroom clear back in 2005.  We have since moved several times and it never fit any of the windows right so I figured it was finally time to reuse the fabric.

Well this required a lot of seam ripping that I eventually gave up on and ended up simply cutting out the seams altogether because it was faster than using a seam ripper on them.  Once I got this set cut out and ready to sew I cut out my son's ocean themed set of pattern pieces.

By this time I was ready for a break and my knees were so sore that it took a couple of days before I was ready or willing to get back down on the floor to cut out the next couple of projects.

Honestly I am not sure how I did it, but I spent the morning of December 24th putting the finishing touches on one nightgown and two sets of shirt/pant pajama set and I was able to get them finished and wrapped just before dinner so that the kids could open them as their Christmas Eve gift.

Sewing the day of Christmas Eve instead of spending it playing games, singing carols and visiting with family is not something that I ever want to have to repeat.  And so it has me thinking about this year and wondering if I need to either get started sooner, or pick a different project to make for the kids that will still show them how much I love and care, without pulling me away from them during the holiday celebration.

Home Sweet Home: Summer Sun

My children were watching Care Bears a couple weeks ago and the way they animators drew and brought to life the moon, sun and all the little stars are what gave me the inspiration for for the face on my summer sun "O".

I started with a yellow acrylic paint as a base color and let that dry.  Then I sponged a yellow/orange color around the sides and on the sun's rays and let that dry.  Finally I sponged a bright orange in a thinner layer around the sides and over the sun's rays and gave that time to dry.

Next it was time for the face.  I used a dot dash pattern around the edge of the sun's face and painted on the face with the smallest paint brush I had.  The white dots on the eyes I added very last with the tip of a toothpick.

It turned out so bright and cheerful, just like all those fun summer days I remember as a kid playing outside, eating popsicles and swimming in the pool.  A perfect project for a blustery fall day when you are missing the out of doors.

You can check out the main post for this project and all it's monthly letter "O" links here HOME SWEET HOME.

Home Sweet Home: Patriotic Star

Veteran's Day is coming up in less than a week and it has me feeling a bit patriotic.  So while I should probably be painting my "O" symbol for the month of December I couldn't resist the opportunity to paint my patriotic star for the month of July.

This Star has been one of my favorite "O" symbols to paint for this project so far.  I used a pencil and a ruler to mark the stripes Then I picked red, white and blue paint.  It took several coats of paint to cover up the pencil marks and I learned that faint marks on future projects will be easier to cover up.  I used some white sheer ribbon and some silver grosgrain ribbon to decorate the middle.  The stars were sparkly silver brads from the scrapbooking section of the craft store.  I cut off the prongs and glued them onto the wood with superglue.

I love how this turned out and I can't wait until July comes around so I can set it out and use it for the the month.  If only all of the "O" symbols for this little wooden sign turn out this cute.

You can check out the main post for this project and all it's monthly letter "O" links here HOME SWEET HOME.

My Little Pony Inspires a Rainbow Mask

I grow up in love with the movies and the tv shows and the toys that were such a big hit in the 1980's: My Little Pony.  My three daughters have fallen in love with the vintage toys and movies that I have kept or purchased from Ebay and they have recently fallen in love with the latest version of the tv show.

Since I started designing and developing children's felt masks for my mother's Etsy shop I was inspired not only by this particular childhood favorite but also by my children's love of bright colors.  My oldest daughter is a fan of wearing every color of the rainbow every day that she can.

So this mask is for all those little girls and princesses out there who love dragons, and unicorns, butterflies, rainbows and fairies.  You can look for this mask in my mother's shop here.