So you know how my daughter is a fan of
Project Runway? Well we watched the most recent episode where they bring back previous designers. And Valerie was there. And my girl LOVED the dress they made for her:
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| I like that one because it has the most sparkly. |
Then we went to the Lakewood Arts Festival... and Valerie was there!
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| This is her booth. I did not go all fangirl and get a photo with her although I really should have. |
Yeah my girl basically lost her mind. She was all shy and didn't want to say anything. But they still had a moment over her red hair. And then later on asked me if we could go back and see that sparkly dress lady again and maybe talk to her about a skirt. So on the way out we stopped at the booth again. Unfortunately Valerie was not there but her coworker was fantastic with my daughter. Showed her the dresses and chatted with her about shoes. Really. Their store, Yellow Cake, has a girls line - I can't wait to check it out!
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| The Dudes at the Lakewood Arts Festival. |
I, however, went to the Lakewood Arts Festival with one goal in mind. To get another bag from
Tara Hubbard handbags. I have her medium messenger bag by accident. My mom bought it last year but hated it. She's not really a messenger bag type of person. So she gave it to me. And I LOVE it. Its the perfect step-down diaper bag. You know - for when you need the stuff (diapers, wipes, outfit change, snacks, whiskey, etc) but not ALL OF THE STUFF (multiple outfit changes, multiple diapers, bottles, baby food, medicine, blankies, toys, Valium, Vodka, etc.) But I"m *almost* at the point where I don't need a diaper bag at all. A regular purse is just about enough. So I bought this:
It's big enough for a diaper and a few wipes in case of emergency but that's about it:
Perfect. And I have to say it's pretty cool not to be toting a diaper bag around with me anymore. More and more I'm feeling like the really hard part is over and the really fun part is just getting rolling.
Speaking the really fun part.. I just finished a projct made specifically to facilitate summer funtimes: the
Made Beach Towel Dress. The whole concept here is that if you're at the pool with your kids chances are you don't have hands free to hold on to your own towel. So you end up drip drying or freezing because you're taking care of them and not yourself. TRUTH. This solves that problem by .... wait for it.... adding straps to your towel. Such a simple solution and yet... .GENIUS!
Full directions are on
the Made blog (her patterns are on sale right now! I"m so tempted to buy all of them...) I used a towel I purchased on clearance at Target. Then I sewed rows of elastic thread in straight lines across the top. I did 22 rows which made the shirring stop at the bottom of my boobs.
The keys to elastic thread for me seem to be winding it onto the lower bobbin pretty loosely, using a larger stitch length than I usually would. And also this:
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| Steaming the crap out of it to make it scrunch up as much as possible |
I steamed it and scrunched it enough that I probaby didn't need the straps. But since the goal here is hands-free kid wrangling at the pool so I added some straps out of some knit fabric I had kicking around:
Super easy, super quick, super cheap, super functional, and super cute. Perfect summer project!
