Sprucing Up My Plants

So you all remember the movie How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days? There was a scene in the movie where crazy Kate Hudson makes this huge deal about their "love fern." Well, Britt and I have one of our own ... sort of. Right before we got married we were given a plant. Some sort of ivy. It's held on for five years, even though I am a plant killer. This past week I was looking at it and it just looked so sad with it's two little tendrils hanging down the side of my end table, so I gave it a face lift.

I started by putting 3 wooden skewers in the plant's pot in a triangular shape (like a teepee).


Then I hot glued the three poles together at the top. I wove the ivy around the poles and then I took a little green string and tied the end of the tendril to the top just to secure it a bit.

Ta-da! It looks so much better.
And I know - for a plant that is 5+ years old, it's kind of scrawny. But it's scrappy! And it has what it takes to make it through the lean times. :)

Working, working, working!

Look at me! I'm actually getting things done again! It's absolutely amazing. The list on my desk that's a mile long may just get done after all. :)

But sorry, I have no pictures to share because 1) I'm waiting for a big reveal on my most recent project, and 2) I didn't take any (which is probably the bigger reason).

Hopefully this weekend I'll have some time to work on some robes for the little girls and some Chinese dress up items. The dress up clothes are still in the planning stages and I haven't quite figured out if I'm going to have to make my own frog closures or if I'll be able to buy them. Of course it would be really cool to learn how to make them myself, and I found a really awesome tutorial, but ... maybe this week isn't the time to learn how.

I want these so bad!!

How cute are these shoes? And what kid wouldn't want to create all sorts of animal footprints? They are made by a Japanese company Kiko + Kids and they are called Ashiato Shoes. I think I partially love them because when I was in elementary school I read a story about a little Japanese girl and her square shoes and I just loved it. Since, I've always had a soft spot for them.

They aren't going to be available in the US for a while though. Do you think there's anyway I can make some for the girls?

Fall Wardrobe 2 - Refashioned Sweater Dress

This was once a sweater that I wore all the time in high school in college. But, as I'm no longer the same size, and I very rarely ever wear sweaters anymore, I decided it was time for it to find a new life. I have to say, that this kind of refashion is one of the easiest to do. I simply laid one of Charissa's a-line dress on top of my sweater, and cut along the lines for the body keeping the shoulder seams and the neck. So then I lined up the sleeves, keeping the hem of the sleeves (one less thing to do!). Sorry, this probably doesn't make sense, but it was so easy. Because I kept the neckline, the bottom hemline, and the two sleeve hems, I only have three seems to sew. can't beat that! And CJ has a new dress!

Fall Wardrobe 1 - McCall's M6154

I made the girls two of these dresses this week using McCall's M6154. Well, I feel like they may be more like tunics. They are so wide that they seem shorter. Either way, it'll be fine since I have a great love affair with leggings entrusting that the girls will be covered. (I feel like leggings are a bit more wearable for little girls than tights. They are a bit tougher so I don't have to worry about them crawling all over the place or being rough and tumbling at a park.)

ANYWAY - the pattern is super easy. I actually feel like the directions made it harder, so I ignored them and just made the dress on my own. Which really wasn't hard because there are all of four pieces (I didn't add pockets or bows or anything else). The only thing I had to alter was the yoke. I felt like it was just way too big. Looking at their pictures, I think that was the style they were going for, but I just didn't want the yoke going half way down their chest. I think I probably would have lengthened it a bit too so that I could get one year as a dress and the next year as a tunic.


This year as I work on the girls' wardrobe I'm trying to focus on serviceable items that Charissa can wear to school. We're not 100% sure she's going this fall, but if she is she'll need clothes that aren't super poofy and adorned with bows and bobbles. It's going to break her heart. I don't know what she'll do if she ever goes to a school with a uniform.