Moto man

Could this boy be any freakin cuter! Gah! He is all about riding his little quad lately, and boy is he a dare devil! Summer is oh so much fun!

Lovin life!

Morning! How was your weekend? Ours was great! I'm at one of those points in life where I'm feeling extra grateful for everything. My spacious home & yard, my great husband, our amazing kids, my family. Just everything. I realize not every family is able to provide their children with playrooms and yards filled with chickens, a dog and a cat, not to mention all the fun nature aspects of having a yard. We are truly do lucky. Do you ever just have days where you are over whelmed with gratitude?

Nip & Tuck Pants to shorts

Geez kids really do grow like weeds! No really Nathan is getting taller by the second! How is it possible that my 42inches tall little man was just a newborn a mere 3.5 years ago?

Recently it seems as though all the shorts we bought for summer are getting too short! So rather then buy new shorts, I started looking through his pants from last winter. Lord knows those would be waiting for the flood of the century come this winter! See the thing about Nathan is he's a bean pole, tall and skinny! 2Ts totally still fit his waist, they're just way too short. So why not take his old pants, and preform a little nip & tuck!?!


First I found the longest pair of shorts Nathan owns, better to be too long, then too short! I laid the shorts on top of pants, then made my cut about an inch below the shorts end.

Then I sergered the ends were I made my cut, if you don't have a serger don't worry just fold and iron twice so the hem is folded and not exposed.

Then with pants (shorts) inside out I folded the leg up about 3/4 an inch and ironed. Be sure you do both legs the same, and that your iron line is straight!

Now stitch! I went around each leg twice.

But the stitch is right on top of the first so you can hardly tell.

And you're done!

Don't you love instant gratification!!

They look great!

And now Nathan has one more pair of shorts for the summer, that were headed to the Goodwill!

P.s. For those of you who are interested about the owl cookie jars from yesterdays post. The white one is the $90 anthro and the brown/tan one is the $8 1980 swap meet score. I honestly think I might be liking the brown one on my counter now too! Which do you like more?

Owls!

Okay guys check this out! I was gifted this Anthro owl cookie jar for Christmas! It was $90, I only know because I was lusting for it for months. Fast forward to today, a Sunday July morning at the swap meet. I found an adorable owl cookie jar that seemed exactly the same as my Anthro one, just different colors and had '80 and a name on the bottom. I bought it for $8 since I knew my aunt had wanted one also and her birthday is next month. An $8 gift I'm sure she'll love seemed great to me. So here's the pictures. They are almost exactly the same, just two or three minor difference and the colors of course. So tell me which was $90 and which was $8 from 1980!

Insta-Post

Well I've jumped on the instagram bandwagon! I opened an account when Sydney was maybe 6 months (check 1st photo on my account) but just recently spent some time figuring out how to use it.

Ive come to the conclusion I like it more then Facebook! I'm not sure why! What do you like more? Do you even use instagram? If so follow me at Ronimo112! Part of the enjoy is using my new collage app! I'm loving making collages, which if you are already a follower on instagram im sure you already noticed! :-)

Ready set go... My most recent instagram posts! Let me know your thoughts on instagram I'd love to hear!

I miss blogging!

Really I do! Summer has been great, filled with beach, sun, water, family and FUN! But I lost my craft mojo in all the business. Sad. Totally.

Recently I went thrifting and remembered my love of craft! Oh my love of all things crafty!

So much has happened that I need to fill you in on! First I'm starting nursing school in the fall. I think that may be one of the reasons I've been letting the blog die, with my craft mojo. I just figured I won't be able to juggle it all. But blogging and crafting is something I really do love so hopefully I can find a balance. Wish me luck!

We've had new developments with Sydneys health, answers are so close. Her and Nathan have both been doing great! They are the best kids alive.

I've been crafting the past two weeks and it feel great! It's really something I love. So now it's time to jump back into blogging, sharing my passion with you. Bear with me though, it is summer which means busy days and a tried moma! Posts might not be regular but they will happen a few times a week, I hope. For now I'll leave you with a few photos of what I've been working on, all of which I can't wait to share with you!

Sugar Cookies anyone?

Yup folks that is my obsession of the moment! What a horrible thing to become obsessed with during summer, right! Well, it's not so much the sugar cookies that I'm obsessing over, it's royal icing! I love the look of cookies decorated with royal icing! I have lofty dreams of being that mom who sends the coolest cookies and cupcakes to school for birthdays and parties! Like these

Now wouldn't you have though "geez my mom rocks" walking into your 2nd grade classes Christmas party with those bad boys!

So I set out to make some sugar cookies with royal icing. After reading lots of blogs about it, most of which said that royal icing is a royal pain until you get the hand of it, I baked my cookies, made my icing and set out. Turns out it really wasn't too hard at all! I was fully excepting to get annoyed and call it quits. But nope, I must have had the cookies Gods on my side because it went really well! I was thrilled! All I made was blue stars, starting small folks, but I have BIG plans!

Have you ever worked with royal frosting? I'd love to hear your tips and tricks. Well I'm off to online shop for cookie cutters! Hope you're enjoying this beautiful day! We're just home from swim lessons, and a picnic lunch at the park! Kids are napping, mommas online shopping!

Working on me

Can I just say that summer colds suck! Yup! I've been hit with one heck of a summer cold. And my sweet little S has yet another ear infection that poor little girl. Now I get why she gets so cranky, being sick sucks, especially when it's hot out. So from now on I'm going to be 100% sympathic toward her. She gets so cranky and hard to deal with at times, but it's not her fault. And I know that, and I'm working on it. And while we're on the topic I'm going to just work on my patients over all. I need to be slower to anger, slower to snap, more understanding, more sympathic. I've come to the realization that my kids are always going to do things, and it's my reaction that builds their character. Well that's not true, I've known that all along. But I lost sight of it in the craziness that has been the past 18 months. But I've re-relalized this, and my attitude is going to change due to it. My kids deserve the best, and I'm going to do my best to give that to them. But in doing so I need to work on myself. In working on myself, I've decided to try and taking my sewing to a new level. My etsy shop has eleven items, in it and 14 more waiting to be photographed and posted. My goal was to have 40 items in it by Friday, but then I was hit by this horrible cold and spent all day yesterday in bed slepping. So I hope to convince S to model a few items this afternoon and post those 13 items this evening after the kids are in bed. So I can settle for thirty items. Check them out, it's all girls items and maybe next week we'll add a few boyish items. Any suggestions on how I can promote my shop? I need to be selling those designs. So any promotional help you can provide would be loved and greatly appreciated! Well I think this post has been scatter brained enough for one day. Sorry about that! I'm going to go photograph some skirts for the shop!

Hello Summer!

How is your summer going? Mine is going great! I won't lie though, while things are great we have hit a few rough patches over the past few months. Nothing to bring us down!

I"m currently working on filling up my etsy shop! It's about time right! I hope/pray/dream of become mildly successful in the world of etsy. I'd love to be about to help supplement our income, even just a little is better then nothing right! And what better way then doing something that I love, and I'm decently gifted at?! My goal is to have 40 items in my shop by the end of the week. So have I have twenty dresses made, eleven of which S has modeled and are posted! Hopefully my little diva will be in a modeling mood today!

As side from working to fill the shop with my hopes and dreams, we have been enjoying the lovely sunshine and summer weather lately! Pools, water parks, bike riding, beach camping. It's been a great start to summer! The kids are both at an age where they can play together outside which makes it so much fun for both of them! They are really playing well together and enjoying it, which is SO nice to witness!


Well it looks like my pictures are uploading side ways again! So annoying! I'll work on it and upload some soon~

Mother Son Day

Yup I'm still kicking, although you wouldn't guess it based on  the ghost town my blog has become! Sorry! This happened last year too. As soon as the weather gets nice, my crafting and blogging seem to slow waaayyy down. And boy is it gourgoues outside lately! 


Last week I took Nathan to Disneyland with my aunt and cousin, who happens to be Nathans age! It was a mother son day and it was great! Those boys can be so well behaved when they want to be! They got along great and wanted to ride all the same rides! We had a great trip and I'm so happy I got to spend some alone time with Nathan. It was much over due.

Can you believe they are only 6 weeks apart!

I made Nathans Mickey shirt! He loves it, he actually even wore it today! I'll post about it in depth another day!

All in all Disneyland was a great day!

Another Dress!

Hey guys sorry I missed yesterday! I swear I have 4 unpublished K.C.W.C. projects! It's crazy trying to get them done and modeled and then blogged all in one day! But I'm loving the progress I have made this week, guess that's the point right?! 


So still unpublished are two dresses that I have yet to buttonhole. It really sucks that my normal machine is such a pain in the a** when it comes to buttons. It's turns projects that are 98% done into projects that sit on my sewing desk for months then by the time I get around to finishing them they have out grown it. But I promise I'll get those buttons done, cuz I love the fabrics I used for both dresses! 


Today's dress needs a minor stitch in the v neck but other then that I really like it! I love the simplicity of it, Plus it's super soft because the white bodice portion is made from one of my old spaghetti strap undershirt. You all know you've got 'em too! This photo from Pinterest was my inspiration for the dress, I love how it was cute and simple, let the girl be the one that draws your eye not the dress!

 (via)

 

This one is more gathered at the waist, I totally winged mine. No measurements were taken for this dress, totally guessed my way thur it while Sydney was sleeping. I think I'll make around, a bit longer this time and with a better V!

DIY Kids PJ's KCWC Day 2!

I made Nathan 4 new pairs of pajama pants. It's warming up around here and he is growing like a weed so of course he had no pj's aside from the fuzzy footsies! I also made Sydney an adorable dress that I love, but I still need to put the button holes on it. My machine was bought at an estate sale and sadly the button holer was missing. So I have to drag out my older machine to button hole. Today I will do it because I plan to make a second item that requires buttonholes today!

But back to Nathan's new pj's. I tried to get fancy with them. All are slight different, but all basic pants. They come together really quick and I love that they have huge cuffs on the bottom to be let out as he grows!  Cuz that boy is a weed!

Well Day 1 of Kids Clothing Week Challenge went great! Both the kids actually napped at the same time for a decent amount of time. I was able to get a whole project completed, and it was the only one that I hadn't cut out ahead of time. I used these great Hurley men's board shorts I picked up at good will to make Nathan some board shorts!

 A simple refashion! I love the finished product! It wasn't to difficult and the board short material was great to work with on the serger and sewing machine!

All I did was trace a pair of swim shorts he has from Target for a pattern. I also took the pocket off entirely, would was so big it would have looked silly on Nathan! Lastly I took the tie closure off and reattached it to the mini versions so they looked more like they were actually un tampered with Hurley trunks! Not goodwill mommy hack job! :)

So tell me, are you sewing along too? I'd love to hear from you if you are!

Kids Clothing Week Challenge Time!!

Hey guys it's officially Kids Clothing Week Challenge Week! Yay! I'm planning on really doing it EVERY DAY this week! I even cut out all my fabric for 7 project this weekend! Now they are all ready so I can just sew, not messing around with pattern cutting and such!

I'm really looking forward to it! Sydney needs some summer dresses, Nathan needs some summer pj's. I'm going to try a few refashions maybe some swim shorts for Nathan after I learned what not to do with these ones, jeans turned into a jean skirt for Sydney, and one of my cute summer top from years gone by refashioned for Sydney! And then there are a few little loss ends of unfinished projects that I'm hoping to finish up this week too! So needless to say my goals are lofty! We'll see where I am at the end of the week! I hope I can post a project each day. But let's face it sewing for an hour a day, photographing the finished project and then blogging about it might not happen! But I'm for sure going to give it a try!

Any grand plans for you this week?

On an unrelated note, Nathan is officially riding a bike with NO TRAIN WHEELS!! He never used training wheels, thanks to his "Strider" bike! He is loving riding and I hope to post a video of him doing it this week. After I get Al to help me figure out how on earth to do such a thing! Have a great week everyone!

DIY Ruffle Jeans

Have I mentioned it's great to be blogging about my sewing again!

These jeans are the cheap side of me coming out, along with the side of me that wants S to be the most fashion baby girl in town! She is very petite (lucky her huh) but with that comes its share of problems. Some of which are in her clothing. She is 16 months old and still rocking 6 month clothes for everything but jackets and pants. Because she is the right height for her age, which makes jackets and pants seem too short! I've tried 9 month pants and they are just too baggy! I don't like the way they look on her. So I got crafty and added eye lit trim to the bottom of her jeans! It added a good inch and a half to the length! Since it's spring and she is 16 months old I was not about to buy her new 6 month jeans! Low and behold her new (old) jeans!

Disclaimer: This is in no way my idea and I'm sure moms everywhere have been doing this since before I was even born!

Sydneys Easter Dress

Now I had planned on posting this before Easter of course! But that just didn't happen. So better late then never, right? You'll forgive me I hope!

This dress was made from a thrifted vintage cotton sheet so it is nice and soft. I used a t shirt pattern that I drafted here as a guide. Then just cut the neckline down to make it the square scooped neck. I added three snaps in the back to make on and off a breeze. The bodice is fitted (and fully lined) and with the skirt I was going for the twirly affect, and for the sleeves I was going for the gathered at the shoulder, full look!

 Over all I was pleased with it! I thought she looked darling on Easter with her little pink jellies (from old navy) and her little pink sweater!

Well Hello There!

Hi! Long time no talk! Sorry about that. I was side lined by rest bed for a bit, but I'm ready to jump back into blogging and sewing. Oh how I've missed sewing.  The bed rest issues is something I'd rather not discuss, all that matters is I'm back in the saddle now.

So much has happened over the last few weeks, good and bad. It has all really made me sit back and think about things. Sometimes that can really be eye opening. I'm so grateful for what I have. I don't feel like I express enough gratuity and I really want to work on that. I also really am working on my time management to cut back on stress. Pinterest has encouraged me to redo my laundry, what wasted space that room has been for the past 3 1/2 years! It's a great sized laundry room with a sink and only has the sink, the washer and dryer and 3 old kitchen cabinets. I could be use that room for all kinds of storage solution goodness! And I plan to make it happen!

So basically I'm back, with a renewed outlook on things. The time away has left me feeling ready for some changes, made me realize what is most important, and really isn't at all. I hope your Easter was wonderful. Tomorrow I'm going to be super lame and post about Sydney's Easter Dress! Cut me some slack okay!

Just because they are too cute! Please excuse the fact the Sydney looks like she rolled in the dirt!

Those were the carrots they left out for the Easter bunny!

Ruffled Yoke Shirt

This shirt was a labor! It took a lot longer then it normally takes me to make a shirt but i love the details! The ruffled yoke idea is from pinterest. The double bias taped back was for added details. The snaps were because Alex said no buttons! He hates messing with buttons while dressing or undressing her!

I used a simple t shirt as my guide,  (you can read about that here) lengthened the arms to a quarter sleeve, and curved the neckline slightly to accommodate the ruffles.  Without making it seem like they were chocking her!

The back is a double bias tape feature with a snap closure. I made the bias tape from a vintage sheet I had lying around, the ruffles from it also.

Sydney looks darling in it, so it was worth the extra effort! Making this shirt remined me how much little details really make it! Note to self to make more detail stuff!  It's great for this unpredictable spring weather we've been having! I plan to mess around with this design more, I love the idea of making something more then just dresses for Sydney!