What's Up in the Garden

I've been slacking on the sewing/knitting/general hand crafting as of late.  With the sun out and the warmer temps returning, the kids, Mr. Viever, and I are all outdoors!  So I thought you guys might want to see what we've been up to.

For my birthday back in April, Mr. Viever bought me several seed packets.  Well a few weeks later we hit up another nursery and I bought more seeds.  Seeds do us no good just sitting in their packets.  However, the area that is supposed to my raised garden bed... is still a dirt hole that needs sides, the soil amended, and a whole lot of rocks taken out.  So starting the seeds indoors it is!  I bought  Jiffy seed starter and set it up in our mudroom- sunny but no direct sunlight and nice and warm.

Super Seamstress- KA CHOW!

I’m a selfish seamstress.  What I mean is that I usually only make projects that I want to make for my own reasons... a dress for me, a stuffy for my kids, a gift from me to the nephews, etc. Usually when someone asks “Can you make _____ for me?  I’ll pay you.”, I groan a little and say “no” (politely, of course).  It’s not that I’m a big old jerk, it’s just that for me, sewing is my fun and a release and once you MAKE me do it, I just want to throw feces.  My sewing time is also pretty limited, so I try to spend all that time making the projects I WANT to make.  Every once in a while, though, there’s a project I can’t refuse.  These project requests are usually made by family members which are like required “yeses”, but sometimes, it’s just fun and I want to do it.  BOTH of those things happened this go around- the time I made that cape for my sister’s nephew (my daughter is modeling and everything is worthy of a girly pose).

Cozy Julia Cardigan

Spring is well underway and yet if you are like me you still get chilled depending on the day or time of day.  I bought a red knit from Joann's a couple of months ago with the intention of making a full sleeved cardigan for myself but my sunshine loving self needed more than just a cardigan to get through the end of winter and much of the beginning of spring.  Now that it's warmed up a full sleeved cardigan seems to be a bit much so I decided on making A Mouse House Creation Julia Cardigan in a 3/4 sleeve.  Just long enough for chilly days but not so long to be overly warm.

Please excuse the grubby/realness of my photos.  I got up Mother's Day and decided our back patio NEEDED to be pressure washed.  So my husband got out our landlord's pressure washer and got it started for me.  So the dirt and mud on my jeans are from that.... I may even have some on my face and a bit on my cardigan.... not just for night's out or looking cute!

80's Prom Dress that's "Truly Outragoues"

I don’t know if you’ve heard of “ProjectSewn” but it’s awesome.  It’s the women’s equivalent to Project Run & Play and run by the same lovely gals from Simple Simon.  I’ve been voting the past two seasons, but haven’t sewn along at all.  I really wanted to join in at some point, so why not now?  I missed the link up, but I can still sew along!  This week’s theme is “Leading Ladies” where we make ourselves something inspired by our favorite leading lady.  I have many favorites and most of them are named Jennifer  (Jennifer Lawrence, Jennifer Garner, Jennifer Aniston) So I went with one of them.  Here’s my J. Anniston inspired look:

The Frozen Effect

So there's this movie with a snow queen, a sister, a snowman, a funny-looking donkey, a reindeer, unnecessary trolls, and a severely neglected youngest child who turns into a treacherous and murderous throne stealing poop face.  Seen it? No?  Maybe this will help

LET IT GOOOOOOOOO! Let it go!  Can't hold it back anymore!

....and I bet you're still singing.  My child has become infected with the mother of all Disney brain freezes called "Frozen".

April Showers

April is my favorite month (yes I know it's May but there are only so many days in a calendar month and I made this back in April so I shall speak about my love of April).  First of all, it's my birth month!  Second, spring gets into swing.  I love spring.  But this year, April also brought me a new "sibling" for my Brother sewing machine (ex-660 if you are wondering) a brand new Brother embroidery machine the PE 770.

 I'll give you a moment to be just slightly jealous.

My very first attempt with it was using a file on the machine.  It stitched out beautifully, and I definitely had the bug.  So I headed over to the Embroidery Library and checked out their freebies (woe is me, my crafting budget is still in the red from a few fabric runs ago....).  They had this ADORABLE duck playing in the rain.  I had to have it and well it was free!! It is no longer but they do have this cute duck frolicking in the flowers and another one of a dragonfly -- good until May 31st.

Oh SNAP! My Conference Overview

So everyone’s been writing about their experiences with SNAP and most are in “this many things I learned at SNAP” format.  Why swim against the current?  Sometimes there are sharks!

I give you “5 things I learned about MYSELF at SNAP”