A "New" Bike for Our Big Girl

Anja has quickly outgrown her first bike. It was a hand-me-down from Eli. Eli has also recently outgrown his bike and it's now a good size for Anja. She actually didn't complain when we told her she was getting her big brother's bike again, but I felt a little bad that she's getting another hand-me-down. So I did my best to spruce it up for her. It could use a paint job ...but I'm not sure I'll get around to that.

Old bike:

New...ish bike:
I peeled off the "Pirate" decal and recovered the bars with a fun laminated fabric that just velcros on. I think it would look super cute spray painted teal blue, but that seems like a lot of work!

*On a side note, do the shorts look familiar? I'm making good use out of Elegance & Elephants Bubble Pocket Shorts pattern! For these ones I added a lace overlay to the pockets. I think I'd prefer them without the lace, but I wasn't sure if Anja would wear them if they were just plain brown. She calls these her "skirt shorts" because she thinks the lace makes them look like a skirt.

Mother's Day DIY Gift

Mother's Day is coming up in a few days ...I wanted to make something for her this year, so I went to Pinterest for inspiration. I found a great tutorial for "dressing up" reusable bags. My mom is a practical person and I know she uses reusable bags all the time, so this is something I'm hoping she'll appreciate. I found the tutorial on Thirty Handmade Days.

My version is slightly different from the one on Thirty Handmade Days. Their tutorial says to paint "Joy" on the banner, but I found some pretty vintage sheets at the thrift store and wanted to use them. So, instead of painting the word I made an applique with my vintage fabric.

The little bag made out of my vintage fabric holds 4 magents. I made these magnets by printing off pictures of me and my siblings and then I used modge podge to secure them to the back of little glass stones. I used a hot glue gun to attach a magnet to the back.

...that's me holding the cat. :)

Hooded Towels

A fond memory I have from childhood is wrapping up in a hooded towel (made my my mom) after stepping out of the bath. At the time I appreciated the warmth and comfort, now I also appreciate the time and love that was put in to making the towels. So, now that I'm a mom, I hope that I can recreate memories like that for my children.  I recently purchased beautiful, organic cotton fabric from SewFineFabric on Etsy. I love the colours and print. I wanted to make hooded towels for my children that appealed to them, but also to me. The animal print is for them and the colors and modern style are for me. For the inside of their towels, I used the same towels that we use in our bathrooms to tie it all together.

Pattern Testing: Bubble Pocket Shorts Pattern from Elegance and Elephants

When Elegance & Elephants released their first pattern (the Ruffle Tunic) I made one for each of my girls and LOVED how they turned out. I was very excited to find out last week that I was chosen to be a pattern tester for E&E's new pattern: Bubble Pocket Shorts. This pattern comes in sizes 6 months - 8 years and has two versions of shorts. Since I have two girls, I made both versions of the shorts. For my four-year-old I made the sailor shorts in size 3/4T and for my 2-year-old I made the classic version in size 18m/2T.

Please forgive me for how many pictures I have! These shorts are just so cute I couldn't leave any pictures out. I was originally planning on taking pictures of my girls outside (our town has tons of amazing murals on buildings that would make very cool backdrops), but unfortunately mother nature decided to dump snow on us the night before I was ready to take pictures. For some reason along with the snowfall came tons of robins who ate almost all of my dried up crab apples off my trees. (Thank you robins!) Anyway, with all the snow, I had to move to plan b and take the pictures in the bedroom that my girls share.

I'll start with my review of the sailor style I made for Anja...
- First of all, they fit great! She is a slim, tall girl and the adjustable waist works perfect for her. Plus, I am very proud of myself for sewing an adjustable waistband for the first time. With Heidi's great instructions, it was actually quite simple.
- I love all the detail in these shorts: the 6 buttons on the front, the patterned fabric partial lining, and the bias tape that finishes it all off nicely on the inside. Of course all of these details also means this pattern requires a good chunk of time to complete (they took me almost 4 hours to sew), but the time is totally worth it because they are so stinking cute!

I've found that all of my children love putting treasures in their pockets. These shorts have the perfect pockets for treasures!

 I was inspired by Anthropolgie's Louisa Dot Blouse. It's even paired with a grow-up version of E&E's sailor shorts! To create Anja's shirt, I added ruffles and lace to a plain white t-shirt and made a removable peter pan collar.

 Ok, back to the shorts... did I say how proud I am of my adjustable waistband!?!

I did a very subtle ombre effect with the buttons and love how it turned out!

 And now to my review of the classic style. (Heidi didn't ask me to review these, but I couldn't resist trying out this version.)
- The 18m/2T size fits Isla (my very average sized 2-year-old) perfectly and the elastic waistband means they'll grow with her all summer.
- I LOVE how quick this style is to make and am sure I will make a bunch more.
- Heidi's instructions are so easy to follow and she includes detailed pictures with each step.

Yep, she loves the pockets!

For her shirt I tried out the ombre effect again by adding varying shades of purple under the lace detail on the sail.

And here's a couple more pictures of the two versions of the shorts...

I give this pattern a big thumbs up!

E&E Ruffle Top

My latest project was sewing E&E Ruffle Dresses for Anja and Isla.  These dresses were so fun to make. I love it when I can coordinate my girls without matching them exactly. This was so easy to do with the Ruffle Top pattern. (This pattern also includes a swing dress version and a tunic version, offering so many possibilities.) Both my girls and I love their new dresses!

Pirate LEGO Party

 When Eli was about to turn 6 he asked me if he could have a Pirate LEGO themed birthday party. He saw some retro Pirate LEGO ships in a LEGO book and fell in love with them. Unfortunately it was bad timing as there were no pirate LEGO sets currently being sold in stores. I found the LEGO minifigure series 9 packs and one of the LEGO men available in those packs was a pirate. After feeling several packs and trying to figure out which ones felt like a pirate (the things we do for our kids!), I bought 3 packs.  It turns out I'm pretty good at that because 2 of the 3 packs were pirates! I used those pirates in the decor for the party. Then I searched Kijiji and found a Pirates of Caribbean set for sale and bought it for the cake topper. I'm not very skilled at making cakes, so using the LEGO set as a topper was a simple way to coordinate the cake with the theme.

THE INVITATION:

On the page with the pirate map I drew in (with dotted lines and a red X) directions to our house. (Link to free invitation printable at the end of this post.)

BIRTHDAY SHIRT:

 I used freezer paper to stencil a pirate onto his shirt. I accidentally bought "velvet" fabric paint. I wouldn't use this type of paint again for large areas such as this one. It turned out more bumpy than velvety and would have looked better with regular fabric paint.

GAMES:

Guess how many LEGO bricks are in the glass container? (99!)

 I meant to draw a hook and peg leg, but was watching TV at the same time and apparently I can't do two things at once!

 Pin the hat on the LEGO Pirate.

Make the most "creative" LEGO masterpiece! They did such a great job and it was so fun to hear their stories about their creations!

*each winner received a LEGO minifigure

FOOD & DECOR:

Many thanks to my husband and my dad who created the LEGO cutlery holder and LEGO name place holders.

 (Link to free printables for the cupcake wrappers and pirate ship flags found at the end of this post!)

 I thought the crackers looked a little like gold and atemped to make the pizza resemble lego bricks.

The mini swards were a hit! No blueberry was left uneaten!

THE LITTLEST PIRATE:

THE CAKE:

The cake was a hit!

We used sparklers instead of candles so we wouldn't melt the LEGO!

LOOT BAGS:

 Loot bags included: coloring book, chocolate money, jewels, and crayon LEGO

 Much thanks to Pinterest and all the amazing blogs it led me to!

- Loot bags: Pure Joy Events

- Invitations and Coloring Books: Cleo Livin Life (This blog gives a printable invitation and coloring book. I used her idea but created my own as I wanted a pirate theme.)

- Flag banner: Not Without Salt (I love her modern blue and yellow LEGO pirate party theme!)

- Ocean Cupcake Wrappers and Pirate Ship Sails and Flags: Cottage Industrialist (I used her free printables.)

- Jelly Boats: Baby Club (recipe found here)