Mushrooms, Cupcakes, and Vintage Sweetness

A little peek at some sweetness I've been working on.

Vanilla Cupcakes filled with Lemon Curd.

Wee chairs and vintage hankies.

A bit of lace and a peek of a hem...

A sleeve...

...maybe it will go with this!

It's looking like it will be a perfect outfit!



Last week I visited some antique shops and found some very sweet vintage finds. The most exciting was the little embroidered blouse, shown above, which fits my little elsa perfectly! Not only that, but matches just perfectly with the linen pants I am sewing her inspired by the book "Carefree Clothes for Girls". Do you see the little friend peeking out of the pocket? She's a tiny German dollhouse dolly that Elsa's sharp little eyes spied at the antique shop!

Summer Days

I know, I have been absent for a long time. But the days have been so full of summer fun that it's been hard to sit down at the computer. Here's a little glimpse of what we have been up to....

...our days have been busy with new pets, birthday celebrations, midsummer festival, some crafting, some acting (Elsa was in two plays! She was adorable as Cinderella's stepmother and the Magic Mirror in Snow White.) and even some sewing inspired by the ripe strawberries growing in the garden.

Hopefully your summer days are just as full and fun. I will try to post a little more frequently, especially with all the exciting activities going on this month!

Prom 2010

A couple of months ago Jill came to me with this picture of a calla lily turned upside-down and said "I want to make a prom dress that looks like this!" .....ummm...ok.....I was overwhelmed to say the least...

Jill's senior prom was April 17th, she was not going with a date, but rather with two of her good friends. The theme of the prom was Masquerade, and the girls decided to be the elements - earth, wind, and fire. Jill would be earth and her idea was the calla lily. So. She drew some designs, we bought fabric, and began to sew. Well, we did not get it done in time for senior prom! The innovative design really was almost beyond my abilities. I was stretched to the limit and just did not have enough time to finish. We had the top about half done and were still trying to figure out the logistics of the skirt when the big day arrived. Thankfully, I have a bridesmaid dress that Jill has always loved and wanted to wear to prom, so she decided it would work instead.


She did beautiful facepaint and hair to match the dress and go with her theme of earth.

The other two girls made their dresses - and they were all so pretty! They had a great evening and all had many compliments!

We did not give up on the calla lily dress as there was still "Mormon Prom" the beginning of May. So...back to the sewing room! Jill figured out the skirt finally, by drawing a pattern based on a silk calla lily. She made a tiny version, then drew the pattern on graph papaer and enlarged on to newsprint. She carefully cut it out of white silk and we stitched the two layers together and began to pin and tack it around her. We didn't figure out how to actually fasten the thing! It ended up being hand sewn in strategic places and tacked on to her slip. We also didn't get the boning in the hem to make it flare out like the lily. But, it turned out to be very beautiful and unique, and Jill still has plans to work on it some more!

The jacket is forest green brocade lined in hand-dyed yellow silk. The slashed sleeves are also lined in the yellow silk and the collar is hand-dyed silk chiffon left unhemmed.

Lucy had a completely different idea for her dress! Lucy's date was her dear friend Barry, who is just as creative and crazy as Lucy and totally willing to get caught up in her "steampunk" vision. Lucy wanted a victorian look with a modern steampunk flare, and decided to start out at a vintage clothing shop. So. We all drove out to Glendale (about 45 minutes away) and had an absolutely fabulous time hunting through the truly amazing and enchanting antique stores there. We had so much fun that we had to go back again a few days later and look some more. We ended up in a treasure trove of a shop called Matilda's Closet where Lucy literally spent 2 hours trying on clothes, hats, scarves, gloves...and finally bouncing ideas off the sweet shop owner Rose. Incredibly, Barry was just as enthusiastic as Lucy in this adventure, and was ecstatic when he found a tailor-made tail coat from 1940 (the tag in the pocket had the date, tailor and customer!) It fit as though it was tailor-made for him! All navy blue wool, lined in silk, high waisted, long tails...perfect!! With that settled, Lucy began to think navy blue too. She tried on this and that, we talked about how we could alter or change things, but nothing was clicking. Finally, dear Rose brought out an old navy blue velvet dress from perhaps the early 1930's that she had just picked up at a vintage clothing expo. It was faded in spots and a funny fit, but it had some really intriguing details...

A row of covered buttons down the back, the cool V waistband in front, smocking on the shoulders...turn it around and cut it up, make it into a jacket with tails maybe...yes, we could see the possibilities! Rose mentioned a victorian styled blouse underneath and I remembered that I have a real victorian blouse - and we were off and running!

The result was so cute! We cut the velvet dress all apart, took the front skirt and sleeves off, folded to make lapels, re-sewed the back-now-front with princess seams for a fitted shape and it was perfect! My Victorian blouse added the needed lacy touch, and we made a new skirt out of silk and silk chiffon, hand gathered up in front to show off the amazing boots Lucy borrowed from her Young Women's leader. Barry's mama made him a velvet vest and black satin cravat to go with his gorgeous tailcoat. She then pulled out a ruby brooch originally owned by his great-grandma for the cravat and a cane from the 1800's that the original Barrington (Barry's namesake) used!!

Barry and Lucy ordered welding goggles from Amazon and spent a fun couple of evenings customizing them with leather, paint and wire to turn them into the awesome steampunk style. All together the outfits (and kids) were absolutely adorable!!!

A Teeny, Tiny Princess and a Teeny Tiny Pea

I have such wonderfully creative daughters! This past Christmas, I really wanted to make Elsa a Princess and the Pea set inspired by the lovely print from Heather Ross's Far Far Away fabric line. But...I was running out of time! My darling Lucy stepped in on Christmas Eve and made the sweetest little princess doll and sewed up 20 tiny matresses while I put together a little bag to hold it all. The results were just as enchanting as I had hoped, and I had the added benefit of a delightful time spent crafting with my daughter.




The matresses and contrasting fabrics on the bag are from Heather Bailey's Fresh Cut line of fabric.

Sew Sweet

Last month I had a bit of sweet sewing to catch up on. First, I had cut out this star baby for Elsa last fall when I made this baby for her little cousin. In January, Elsa could see that I had some "free time" haha, and insisted that I finish it. No problem! It is always such a joy to sew little dollies full of love!

Next, I needed to finish a gift for some dear little twin baby friends of ours.

I'm afraid I got a bit carried away in my enthusiasm and made a whole batch of these little sweeties!

Now I have a nice little pile of baby dolls...I don't really know what to do with them but they sure are cute.



Here are the dollies for the twins, all bundled up in little bags for safekeeping.

Crafting, Cooking, Crazy!!

The holiday season is upon us and we are in the full spirit of it here. Earlier this month I signed up for three swaps, you can see the tags on the right sidebar. Two were due this week, we are also hosting Thanksgiving Dinner for my family (37+ people!) and Lucy is making Homemade Pies this afternoon to raise money for her marching band fees. So, it is very festive here!!These are all the cute things we made for the Handmade Stocking Stuffer Swap. We had 14 children on our list, 8 boys and 6 girls. David made the boy things, and I made the mermaid dollies for the girls. I was so glad that David stepped in to help! He is so creative and handy when he wants to be :)

A close up of the mermaids. I had so much fun making these for the swap that I decided to make some for my little nieces for Christmas.

I made these handmade chocolate truffles for the goody in the Enchanted Forest Ornament Swap. They were so easy and soooo yummy! If you want to try them, here's the recipe...

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1 cup good quality chocolate (I used Ghiradelli dark chocolate chips)

Heat the cream over medium heat to just before boiling, remove from heat, add the chocolate and stir to melt.

If you would like to add flavorings, do so now. I added about a tablespoon of peanut butter to one batch, to the other I added about a tablespoon of reduced cherry syrup (another recipe maybe!) and a teaspoon of rum. Stir in the flavorings thoroughly.

Put in a covered bowl in the refrigerator until stiff enough to mold. (about 1-2 hours or overnight is fine.)

Form into little balls - I scooped with a melon baller and then rolled to form. Roll in cinnamon sugar or cocoa powder.

That's it! Easy!

Here they are all packaged up, with the ornament and a kitchen towel. The towel is made of natural linen with a border of Japanese woodland friends fabric I got on etsy.


With all the craziness, I let Jesse stay home from school today (it was only a half day anyway!) and he rewarded me by making these amazing blueberry scones! Thank you sweet boy! I think he's turning into a fine cook!

The Mad Hatter Was Here...

Here we see Lewis Carroll as he imagines some of the characters in his new story....

Alice meets the Mad Hatter, March Hare, and two darling doormice.

The Cheshire Cat wasn't all there...

I had to take a few pictures the next morning when the light was nice. It was such a fun party! Friends, family, and neighbors joined us, and many of them had gotten into the spirit and dressed to match the theme.

We ate pumpkin soup, homemade bread and homemade crackers; a variety of cheeses including brie, gouda, white farm cheddar, and my own goat cheese with raspberries and black grapes; cupcakes of course and cookies printed with instructions for Alice; Gramie's traditional homemade donuts; Jill's favorite winter squash dip; October Ale (a mix of spiced apple cider and ginger ale) and our own made from scratch rootbeer.

The setting was so magical with paper lanterns, thrifted tea pots on all the tables (filled with dry ice and warm water for effect!) and all set out under our big pine trees.

Here are some details of the Alice dress I made for Lucy. I finally found a purpose for the antique apron I found 15 years ago!

Every year we put up our "Family Graveyard" for Halloween. I had to laugh when I was able to snap this picture of one of our black cats walking through.


I have to say a little about the Mad Hatter costume. It was AMAZING!!! Jill found the purple velvet Ralph Lauren suit at Savers (thrift store) for $15, added a crazy purple and gold silk tie which she tied into a very fancy knot, my old silk shirt, some awesome shoes also from the thrift store, and of course, the HAT, made by Lucy. She also wore a little silver thimble and had a giant needle threaded with silk ribbon in her coat pocket. She was a most elegant Mad Hatter!

Thank you to everyone who came and helped make our party so fun! It was a truly enchanting evening!