The Mint Needle

The house is still beaming with flowers we received for hosting Easter Sunday. Tulips, hyacinth, and hydrangeas are nestled throughout the kitchen, family room, & bedrooms. It's quite lovely. Plus, my tulips finally bloomed, hooray! We've been busy starting up our yearly outdoor work loads tiding up the flower beds and garden area. And I'm very pleased to say our cool crop lettuce has started growing:) With all these blooms coming up I was inspired to prolong my use of the 'shorts' fabric from a previous post and use it to make an adorable day dress. Take a look! I've had this vintage pattern sitting on my sewing desk for sometime. An Ebay find, originally I bought it for the 2 piece swimsuit, but decided to try the dress first. Why, you ask? Because it had everything going for it. No measurement for the waist, length could be adjusted, and a loose fit in the bust. Perfect, perfect, perfect! One interesting thing about this pattern ...

"Easter spells out beauty, the rare beauty of new life." ~S.D. Gordon~ Of course I had to show everyone our eggs. Turns out I've finally mastered my grandmother's onion dye method without cracking an egg. Now that's pretty special:) I even took a chance at wrapping some eggs in lace. You can see how they came out in this picture! I'm hoping everyone enjoys this delightful holiday in good spirits, kind souls, & tons of happiness! Happy Trails till next time!

And they are complete.... It's been awhile since I posted my interest in creating these lovely shorts and I'm glad that today, I've finally completed them. So what was the hold up?  Life.... and trying to find the perfect lace trim.  First off, let me start by saying that these have to be the most comfortable and adorable shorts I've ever made! Created with rayon challis fabrics and contrasting lace, they truly are one of kind. I just love the mix of polka dots and flowers too. If your interested in created a lovely pair for yourself, keep in mind I used Simplicity pattern 1501. It was really easy to follow and you get plenty of choices. Speaking of choices.... A recent trip to our local fabric shop had me walking out with trims, trimmings, and more trims. I couldn't make up my mind. I'm still not too sure what to do with the hot pink lace ....yet ....  but the crocheted pieces will add the perfect detail to some future summer tops.  ...

Taking daddy's t-shirts has become a bad habit in this house. Well...maybe not so bad when you end up with an adorable, colorful top like the one below! The inspiration arrived from an art fair that sells some of the hippest, graphic t's we've ever seen. I wanted to figure out a way that the girls could create their own one of a kind pieces with fool proof methods. That's where contact paper came in! Perfect for creating your own stencils, contact paper completely adheres to many fabrics leaving your art work with sharp edges and lines. And it's the most inexpensive. So how do you get started? First, there's a couple things you'll need. ~ fabric paints ~ contact paper ~ scissors ~ marker ~ paper clips ~ sponges (cut into small cubes) ~ t-shirts, or white fabric ~ old jar lids, or apple sauce cups, or egg carton for the paints ~ plastic cutting boards or cardboard, so that your t-shirts have something separating the 2...