WHEW! Man am I

BUSY! TIRED! and a bit worn out. BUT I'm still here!
I'm busier than ever. 6 more weeks till the end of this semester - and my first graduation! YAY! On top of that, I'm working my little booty off to have a bunch of items ready for my "Grand Debut" of 3Giraffes.
Want to see a couple sneak peeks??! And a completed item? Yes? No? Well, since I can't hear your mind talking I'm going to assume it's a yes! (It's my blog, I can do that! haha!)

Super soft velvet that reminds me of rain with fantastically soft cotton banding around the neck and sleeves.

Custom designed girl with an umbrella. There are a few different umbrella options!

A completed tunic top! Soft, comfy fit, partially new fabric, partially upcycled.

If you want MORE sneak peeks you should look up 3Giraffes on facebook! Become a follower!!! In the (near) future I will have special discount codes and giveaways just for facebook followers! You don't want to miss out!

First Birthday, First Pizza, First Cupcake.

This past Saturday was Baby Bunny's first birthday. But the lucky girl got to celebrate Saturday AND Sunday! It must be those eyes that make it so easy to want to give and give and give to her. Or that smile. Yeah...probably the smile.

Saturday morning I made her birthday dress. Well, technically I turned a Garanimals shirt into a dress. But I'm pretty positive the manufacturing company got the easier end of that deal. The shirt has three appliqued/embroidered cupcakes on it and it's embroidered with "Cupcake Cutie" in silver. 

I made a three layered bubble skirt out of three different colors of gingham. Each layer bubbles out to be pure cuteness. I think the skirt part reminds me of cupcakes.

We went to Sea World and told them it was her birthday. The nice people gave her a birthday sticker! I put it on her back so she wouldn't pick it off.

Then we went to the baby/little kid area that has a water play place. We had to get a new bathing suit for her. Apparently she grew out of the old one over the Florida "winter."

The old suit was a 6-9 month bikini. I thought it would still fit my skinny baby. Apparently I was wrong. The new suit is an 18mo one piece. It says "Love" across the booty. And has a ruffled heart on the chest. So cute! :)

Her first faux hawk.

Had to change her...so back into her birthday dress she went! Then a nice little rest on the rocking chairs infront of the baby station. 

For some reason she likes to sit backwards on chairs.

And stand on them. But that's ok because daddy was there the whole time.

Daddy rocks!

The girls sat on (fake) Shamu and waved. That fake Shamu isn't even close to as big as a real one.

We went on the carousel. 

Where she tasted lemonade. And LOVED it!

Then the Sea World version of the "Tea Cup" ride. I think they called it "Swishy Fishy"?? Something like that.

We walked around a little while longer....then left. Baby Bunny was so exhausted she was just lounging in her stroller. Which she NEVER does. It's hard to tell, but Puppy Girl is in the background.

Then Sunday we exchanged some things at Target. Baby Bunny decided to do some cart surfing.

Later at home she had her first taste of pizza. It was from Cici's, so not the best pizza in the world. But her newly 1 year old palate didn't care too much. She had 1.5 pieces of macaroni and cheese pizza. She LOVED it. But I didn't think to take a picture of it.

Made some Oreo cupcakes with my sister/best friend. And gave one to Baby Bunny.

She enjoyed squishing it more than she enjoyed eating it.

But she definitely did eat it!!

Until she decided...

She was done!

Happy first birthday to my youngest girl! I love you!! :-)

Busy busy bee!

I'm quite aware that I haven't posted in a while...and for that I feel like I'm neglecting my little piece of blogland. However, I do have several good excuses. The top one being related to the others! What's that top excuse?! That I haven't created anything new recently. What is related to that? That I'm ssssoooooooo busy that I haven't had time to create anything new! I haven't even had time to fix anything old. School is back in session. Which for a normal mom is a great thing...but for this mom means that I'M back in school too! On the bright side of that?! I'm going to finish up my AA at the end of this semester. PHEW! FINALLY!! Also...I'm a mom. With a 9 year old, and a nearly one year old at home. And boy let me tell you....Baby Bunny is like a little ninja! A ninja that can do gymnastics, compete with the worlds best rock climbers, and beat some of the guys in NASCAR with her lightning fast crawling. That child definitely gives me, her dad, and anyone else around her, a run for their money!
So...those reasons are why nothing new has been posted recently. I'm sorry for the neglect dear blog. And my (few) readers/followers. I'm GOING to sew this weekend. Not sure if I'll finish the project...but I hope so. Actually I have two projects in the works, and need to whip up a third for Baby Bunny's 1st bday on the 19th. Oh, and I have one paper, two tests, a quiz, and a couple pre-labs (oh how I LOVE chemistry...) to have done by/prepare for next week. Nope! Not busy at all over here! Oh yeah...and a broken key on my laptop keyboard thanks to my ninja...Never realized how much I use the "U" until she broke it!

RIP little U key. You ARE missed.

I'll give you a few cute pictures from this past week or so:

Sisterly LOVE <3

Sticking the tongue out: the newest pose! (Thanks daddy!)

My grand-nephew!

Cute ninja stinker!

And now....back to homework!

Puppy Girl Gets Artistic Too!

So, only as an adult have I found my ability to make things in an artistic way. I'm not talking about crafting...I've always been "crafty". I'm talking about actually making ART. Or at least, attempting to make art. I'm curious where this ability was when I was a child. Was it hidden? Waiting to be discovered and released? I know I had tiny glimmers of it here and there. I remember one time in particular - I had to do something for a book report, and I wanted to draw an eagle, but I hadn't ever drawn anything before. I got out a book that I had on bald eagles and set to work trying to trace one of the pictures. Well, it didn't work. I couldn't see through the paper I was using well enough to see the picture. But I HAD to have a picture of this eagle! So I attempted to draw it myself and it turned out GREAT. Everyone thought I'd traced it - including my own mother! Even after I expounded on how I spent the last hour and a half drawing it myself and just copying it, I still wasn't believed. Sad. Maybe if I was believed I would have fostered my artistic abilities earlier? (I wasn't believed because I had a tendency to lie - since I was the truthful child in the family - but because to that point I had shown absolutely NO artistic ability at all. I guess it's hard to believe something like that when you don't see it forming before your eyes.)
My Puppy Girl has always enjoyed doing crafty things, and drawing and coloring and painting...but like me as a child, she has shown no artistic ability - that is until a couple years ago!
About two years ago (ISH) she saw me attempting to paint something, and of course wanted to join in on the fun. So I sat her down on the floor, laid out a ton of newspaper, got her as undressed as possible (because kids ARE that messy), laid out a piece of watercolor paper, and gave her a couple of colors of paint, and a single paintbrush. Oh, and a cup of water. This is what she came up with:

This one shows the colors fairly well

Hanging up on my wall (REAL stained glass courtesy of my mother's amazing talents)

I LOVE it. It makes me think of poppies...except they're somehow in a blueish field instead of in green.
Since then she has wanted me to teach her to draw and paint. Well, I have a hard time doing that since I kinda make it up as I go. But I teach her what I figure out, and what I learn from others. She's made a couple other things between then and now, but nothing that she is proud of until a few weeks ago. So I'm not going to display the ones she isn't proud of here. Maybe she should think about painting over her "not so good" work? Make something new? Hmmm. I'll bring that up to her.
But the next one that she IS proud of (and so am I) is this made over the recent winter break from school:

Please excuse my husband's computer game! ;-)

A close-up of the middle

I made her sign her work :)

I love it. The colors in the bottom layer smooshed and blended to make a great background for the splatted colors. And the splatted colors just look wonderful together...and the way some of them almost swirl around others is really neat. She employed a few different "techniques" - one of which somehow included a stick.
Here are some pictures of her in the process...because she's my kid and she's so pretty and awesome. :-D

Mixing up her own paint colors

That's some serious concentration!

The artist hard at work! I love that child. Added to her budding artistic talent is incredible intelligence, and beauty. She amazes me constantly.

First Order - Valentines Day Goodies!

I got an order to make four special, one of a kind (Uniquely Yours) Valentines Day goodies. And it was left up to me for the fabric and design!! How awesome is that?!
There is something for a little baby girl:

A close-up of the ruffled cuteness

The whole skirt with the waistband folded once

The little skirt has an "adjustable" waist. The waist band is similar to what is on typical yoga pants. This way it can be folded over twice for the shortest, and tightest fit, folded over once for a medium fit, and not folded at all for the largest fit. The skirt should last at least a year...maybe even longer! I love making clothes that last when it comes to babies and little kids.


Something for a cute little boy:

It won't exactly last a long time..but I think it's super cute! :)

Something for a "pre-teen" girly girl:

Waistband unfolded

Waistband folded once

Close-up of the tulle ruffles

Close-up of the fabrics used

I used the same concept for the preteen skirt as I did for the baby skirt. Make it versatile! That way it can be worn longer. I also used 4 of the same fabrics...just laid out differently. Fun? I think yes. Girly? Absolutely!
And something for a teen aged girl:

Front view

front closeup

back view

a look at the hood

I made a black velvet hoodie. I used the same kiss material as in all the rest of them, and the same red lace as the middle daughter's skirt. The sleeves are overly long since teenagers tend to like to tuck their hands up inside their sleeves and stretch them out - figured I'd just give her long sleeves to start with! I put some lace on one  shoulder to add some interest.
Some fabric is upcycled, some has been waiting to be loved for a while, some is left overs from other things, some is brand new, and everything is 100% designed by me! I had a ton of fun making things for my first order! :-D And I look forward to completing many more in the future!! Interested in something for yourself or your little one? Just ask!