Whoooooo goes there? It's Mr. Door Owl

{A true Backyardigans fan would know that reference :) }

I thought while all the fun giveaway was going on a I should still post a tutorial right? If you are looking for the giveaway it is the previous post. Good luck!!

Evie's room is one of the family's favorites to play in. She has a wicked awesome kitchen and thanks to a friend enough food to stock a restaurant. The boys and I end up in there playing very masculine versions of tea party almost daily. The problem is it usually is interrupted by potty breaks, snake time, tag etc. and we will run out of the room quickly. Evie will usually stay and hang out until we come back (unless food is involved) unfortunately, her bedroom door slams shut very quickly (is our house on a slant?) I made a doorstop previously but my hubby told me it was creepy looking and would give her nightmares. Hiding my wounded ego (totally kidding) I tried again and created this little guy:

His head is full of fluff and the bottom filled with sand. He does the job beautifully, that is, when he is not being played with by someone. I think I may have to make more JUST filled with fluff.

You can find the pattern for our little Door Owl HERE. Feel free to improvise, make the pattern significantly bigger, add a pair of LONG skinny legs anything really.

What you will need:

Pattern

Fun fabric

Felt

Buttons

Needle and thread

Sewing machine

Scissors

Fluff

Clean Sand

I love this particular Amy Butler fabric. I used it to makes lots of the little birdies from the Spool tutorial to give away. In fact here is Sawyer giving one to a little boy who just came out of surgery.

I am weird like that....CLOSED

Sorry this took so long to get to. We FINALLY had Evie's party last night after postponing it three times! Alright, so you are going to think I am totally odd, but, I have a wallet from Target that I adore. It is yellow (apparently my favorite color) and very plain. I REALLY like it though. I also have a fabulous diaper bag my wonderful Mum gave me as a gift when I was preggers with Evie. She said she wanted to buy me one really nice baby item and a Stork Sac won out, ironically the same day I won one in an Ebay bid ha making me all set on the purse front as well. When my lovely friend here in Timor asked if I wanted some Burberry items that she had brought with her from London and never used or intended to use I thought hmmm, I don't per say, but I bet I know a few people who might! :) Here is where you come in. I really wanted this to be for people who actually read the blog and are kind enough to comment and keep my spirits lifted and connect with a stranger a gabiliion miles away, hence the rule that you have to have left a comment and be a follower (I REALLY don't like that term {follower}, I was raised not to be a follower, now I have such negative reactions to it. I wish they had another option like {partner in crime} or {fellow creative genius}, I'll write blogger and suggest it) Up for grabs for the winner #1 is a fantastic Haymarket Check shoulder bag.

This is going to be GOOOOOOOOOD!

I have been trying to organize myself these past few days, slow down and figure out which tutorials I want to post while here and which while gone. It has been nice. That has meant posting less, so as a reward for being patient I have a REALLY good give away. Well, as long as you like ridiculously high priced designer items it is good. Lets just say my friend has a family member who sends her samples from a company they work for that rhymes with flurberry (apparently I am a magnet for their stuff?).

Heads up though you can only enter to win if you are a follower and have left a comment on a post (so if you haven't you might want to now wink wink) Details manana when the internet allows me to upload pictures. For now here is one from this weekend of Evie in between rock gnawing sessions (talk about your organic teething ring).

I attempted to take some of the boys but they were to busy posing with the hordes of locals that come running to take pictures whenever we hit the beach in front of our house.

Christmas Cards, Let the Saga Begin

I know you are puking right now at the mention of Christmas cards.

But consider this, I am a photographer hence Christmas cards are a favorite part of my year. I love sending them and I REALLY love getting them (Oh please oh please pop one in the mail for me I would LOVE to have one) As far as I know I am the only family/ portrait photographer on the island, I could be wrong but I am fairly sure. I am not that good with a tripod, nor do I really like that stoic of pictures (don't anybody move until the red light goes off!!! ha!) So my one shot is while we are on vacation in a bigger city. Add into that it takes six Weeks for us to get mail (on average) and then six weeks for it to go back to the states.

That is a 12 week turn around, not including the wrist breaking amount of time it takes to address, write notes etc. So we are 15 weeks to make Christmas cards. I know crazy huh. So, here is my questions for you:
Do you like receiving cards with a letter or no letter?
Do you like one single simple picture or a collage of the crazy things you have done
Do you appreciate a little hand written note or do you just want a card so you can add to your collection on your fridge/door/ strand of ribbon holding cards?
There are no wrong answers here I am genuinely curious. Maybe it is my innate need to please but I want people to enjoy the Christmas card they receive from us, not gag at our letter thinking we are bragging, or squint at pictures or think the one picture is totally pretentious... maybe I am over thinking this.

Now for you fun friendly readers in the great state of UT. If I could get my family Christmas pictures done by someone there it would be hands down Leah Miller. You can check out here website HERE. I am telling you this girl is a GEM!!! She is crazy cheap with her prices (I keep waiting for her to bump them up, I swear it is not going to be long) She is responsible for the photo in my profile and the one in my header. I know she will start booking up with family sessions so I would jump soon! When I couldn't figure out what to give my little sister for graduation I thought BING! A session with Leah for she and her friends! (You can check out the results HERE). This is totally not a {paid} advertisement, I have paid full price for all my sessions and will do it again as soon as we are back in the states, she is just that awesome to work with. For you fellow budding photographers she does lots of cool tutorials on her blog teaching post processing etc. The pictures scattered through out this post were done by my very talented friend Nicole, here site is HERE. She is located in Williamsburg VA and is already booked clean through the holidays. I thought I would include them because they were our Christmas card the year before last (Didn't do one last year, to frazzled, and it did NOT include the one of just me ha!). So, let me know what you think because crazy as it sounds I gotta get going!
Cheers
Kelly

Ruffled Tummy toddler dress tutorial

I don't know about you but I LOVE my one year olds gigantic tummy. It is always so cute sticking way out over her short little legs. I am jealous that hers is considered adorable while mine is a topic of possible plastic surgery ha! Anything to accentuate that tummy in a cute way is great so I came up with this little dress this morning.

You can't see it in that picture very well but there is a cute ribbon that goes around and ties in the back. You can see it in this one a tiny bit

Falling Leaves Dress Tutorial

My little sister starts college tomorrow. Wow. I am really excited for her, and a big ole ball of nerves even though I am a bagillion miles away from her. I mainly just want her to have as fun a time as I did. I have been thinking about her a lot and also mulling around wether or not to enter the Shabby Apple "Dare to Design" contest. I wanted to practice making my own dress completely from scratch, zero pattern. I was perusing a certain website and found this dress

I really liked it but there was NO WAY I was going to fork out the $158.00, nor could I wear wool ha! I wanted to make one for myself but also for my sister. I did a rather poor job photographing Claire's which is MUCH more like the one pictured above. But believe me if you are brave you can totally make one! Mine cost $4.25 and that includes new thread and a zipper! The fabric cutting guy even matched them all perfectly for me. I think it is because he loves practicing his english with me and gets a kick out of my pathetic attempts at Tetun. Anyway, I made Claire's out of the gorgeous "Banana Republic" fabric.

The "Taking Notes" Skirt tutorial

,!!! Update!!!! This pattern is available on the new Sewing In No Mans Land website: sewinginnomansland.com The link below is no longer active. Thank you!
I am actually not a HUGE fan of the high waisted style. And, I am usually so behind on trends it is probably out this season anyway ha! I love how it looks on tall bone thin girls but since I am short and leaning more towards "big boned" they usually make me look a little chunky. But I couldn't get this idea out of my head. It is actually an adaptation of an apron I saw on a much-to-expensive-to-ever-buy-any-of-it website. I was of course worried about the high waist thing but LOVE it.

Or, a better picture of the actual skirt up close

I loved it so much I had to make one for Evie so we could be matchie matchie in Rome... okay we totally won't wear them on the same day but hers turned out super cute as well.

You can find both patterns HERE it is listed under "Taking Notes Skirt". What is great is how super easy this is! There is actually only one piece to the pattern. The rest is up to you. How long you want the skirt, how gathered, how wide and long the ties are etc.

What you need:

3/4 yard of fabric

1/3 yard of light interfacing (I used up the last of my interfacing and it was heavy ugh)

Sewing machine

Maybe a zipper (it is up to you)