I found my first real inspiration for a kids room I would like to do for the girls.  Love the color.  Love the life in it!  Love it.

Mom, These are for You!

My mom made these gorgeous heirloom dresses and outfits for the girls this Christmas.  Aren't they adorable?  If you saw them up close, you could see all the detail and finishing she added.  I am in love with the dresses (and the girls who are wearing them!)  And, yes, they are FREEZING in this picture!  But we had to catch some good lighting!  (The indoor shots below just don't do the dresses any justice.)

Madeline is doing her typical "one foot placed lightly on the other" pose.  I don't know where she got that!

Sweet sweet Raleigh playing with some new toys in the windowsill.

Big sis and little sis.

Fresh Decor

These are the decorations I made with the magnolia leaves and holly my dad sent me.  Nothing like fresh greenery!!  I gave the wreath a little haircut after this picture was taken to even it out a little.  Thanks, DAD!!

Just in Time for Halloween

I finally finished Raleigh's Halloween "Good Witch" costume this morning.  It's taken me about a month to find spare hours here and there to work on it.  I always like to have some kind of work-in-progress as a creative outlet, but I am glad this one is finally finished.  I really enjoy working with felt and fleece and tulle for costumes because the edges don't fray, and I don't have to be an expert seamstress to figure out how to piece it all together.  Plus, I can make up my own design, which I did here.  Up there is the cape.  I cut up a feather boa to line the collar, and stitched silver beads around the edges on the sides and bottom.

Here is an up-close of the hat.  I wanted it to look like a Mary Engelbreit illustration.  The flash is a little bright, so the colors are a little crazy.  I added a blanket stitch around the edge of the flower and spider in a shimmery-silver thread color.  And since I love tulle, I put some underneath the flower in black and purple.

More of the hat.

These are a pair of shoes of Raleigh's that she wore to Rikki's wedding.  They lasted about two days before the cheapo fabric began falling apart.  So I stitched some sturdy canvas to the broken places and then glued felt on top of it with an adhesive spray glue.  I sewed darts into the felt to make it lay flush to the shoe.  

Here's the skirt.  She wanted it to be a floor-length skirt, but I made it just above her ankles so the shoes would show.  Now I have just one last thing to add to the costume (and it will be a surprise for Halloween): I'm going to make her a matching ring to wear out of one of those white seal-caps that you take off of the Tropicana orange juice cartons.  They have a little "ring" part that can fit through kids' fingers and a circle on top that is great for gluing things onto.  I'll finish it all in time to be burned out on Halloween and excited to create things for the next holidays!  Au Revoir!!