Little Sesame turns 2 tomorrow and we had her party on Saturday. It was a hot, sunny day but luckily our backyard had plenty of shade.
Here’s her birthday banner in action.
There were plenty of friends for Mike and I to hang out with but little Sesame had some buddies to play with too.
There were cupcakes to be eaten. They’re carrot-pineapple cupcakes with a little cream cheese frosting and since the birthday girl loves birds (or bees, as she calls them), I decorated them with bird’s nests made from kataifi (shredded phyllo dough) and little jelly bean eggs.’ The frosting is colored with natural colorings- raspberry for pink, blueberry for lavender and turmeric for the yellow. I made a ton of cupcakes and only had one left after everyone went home. I want some more!
There were also a few presents to be opened. Sesame loved all her things but her stuffed dolphin and Hello Kitty purse and wallet were definitely the biggest hits.
I actually made her pretty party dress! It’s the first thing I’ve sewed using a real pattern and with things like gathers and buttonholes in a long time. I got the pattern from that*darn*kat on Etsy and it was really easy to make. I want one in my size!
It was a fun birthday party and I can’t believe my little girl is (almost) 2!
Tags: sesame, sewing
Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »
My kiddo is just about to turn 2! It feels like time is flying by but then it also feels like little Sesame has been with us a lot longer than just 2 years. I barely remember life before her sometimes! We’re having a birthday bash this weekend and I whipped up this cute and colorful banner for her party.
I cut the triangles out with the top edge along the fold of the fabric, so they’re double sided. They’ll probably flip around when the wind blows them so I wanted them to be pretty on both sides. I folded them with the wrong sides together and sewed along the edges using the rolled hem stitch on my serger. (side note: My husband is awesome. When I told him I was sewing the flags he said, “You’re not sewing, you’re overlocking.”) The letters are cut from white felt and I attached them with fabric glue.
I attached them all together by sewing a length of rick-rack along the top edge. I can’t wait to hang them up for her party!
Now that she’s nearly 2, Sesame is getting to be quite helpful around the house. At least she thinks she’s helping. Here she’s trying to wash the dishes. She mostly just got water all over. Notice where she’s standing- not on the platform of her learning tower, but on the rail. The kid is fearless.
She’s wearing some shorts that I just finished knitting. She wears a wool soaker (or woolly as we call them) at night so these will be nice for the summer. They’re a short version of the Perfection Pants that I’ve knitted before. I used one skein of Cascade 220 Quatro that I had left over from a cardigan I knitted. I embroidered some flowers to make them a little cuter and added some extra stitches in the bind-off of the cuffs so it made a little ruffle. It just needs a drawstring. They were falling off of her when I took this picture- her little bottom is not really so square shaped.
Tags: baby knitting, FOs 2009, sesame, sewing, tutorials
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
I’ve been working on several custom orders lately and have been really enjoying them. I like the challenge of making new designs but even more, I like taking customer’s ideas and turning them into something pretty!
Sometimes it’s hard to find the time to do things for myself but I try to squeeze it in. Sesame loves her Klean Kanteen water bottle and I finally made her a felted wool cover of her own. I feel bad that I made so many covers for other kids before she finally got one but that’s the way it goes sometimes.
I’m also working on some new products for my shop and the festivals I’ll be doing this summer. 
For the latest news and updates on the things I’ve been working on, subscribe to my newsletter! You’ll also get some exclusive discounts and offers and now, if you sign up by the end of the month, you’ll be eligible to win a cute, cozy coffee sleeve! I’ll randomly choose one subscriber who’ll win a coffee sleeve of my choice.
Tags: contest, ThinkingMama
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
First I want to thank you all for the nice comments, emails, and tweets about my new website. I’m still adding some pictures to it and tweaking it a little but I’m really excited about it.
I have several finished items that I’ve neglected to share on the blog. I keep wearing them and forgetting to take a picture and when I do think of taking a picture, they’re in the laundry or some other unphotographable state. But no more! What’s more, even though I knitted them a while ago, they’re lace so I’m thoroughly enjoying them this grey, sunny, hailing, heat wave, cloudy, normal Portland spring. Winter and Summer fight over who should dominate Spring, but eventually Summer always wins out.
In the meantime, I will wear these lovely green socks. The pattern is Polly Jean (though I had Michael Jackson’s Billy Jean stuck in my head the entire time I spent knitting them) and it’s a free pattern! I changed it up a little. I subtracted a couple stitches from the cast-on since I like my socks pretty snug. I also opted to not to the twisted stitches, though they do look pretty, just because I don’t like to knit twisted stitches.
Thirdly, I did a basic 2×2 ribbing for the cuff instead of the 1×1 ribbing called for in the pattern. I like how snug the cuffs are but I did lose the way 1×1 ribbing would have flowed right into the main pattern. To that I say oh well. I love these socks! I also love that the yarn was free. It’s Louet Gems that I won in a contest. How awesome is that.
Another free lace pattern with free yarn. These super soft fingerless mitts are Cafe Au Lait Mitts (free Rav download).
The yarn is Bouton d’Or Ksar and I got it from a secret pal a while back. It’s 50% camel and 50% wool and is so amazingly soft! I had 2 balls of it and I have maybe 1/2 a ball left. I wish I had a thousand balls of this yarn. I changed not a thing on this pattern and I love love love my mitts.
In other news, I have doing a ton of gardening! I really want to put a picture of my garden on here but, like my knitting, every time I think of it, the conditions aren’t quite right for picture taking. Things are starting to grow and I’m excited for the summer when everything will be leafy and full of vegetables. I’m looking forward to a summer full of yummy salads like this one from Eco Metro!
Tags: FOs 2009, knitting, mittens, socks
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
Happy Mama’s Day is too much for Sesame to say so she shortens it to “Happy, Mama!”‘ Mike and she even wrote Happy Mama down our front steps and sidewalk with sidewalk chalk. So cute.
I wanted to make something nice for my mom and actually found the time to do it. I thought I had it done and in the mail in time but I was wrong. Sadly she didn’t get it in time to open it on Mother’s Day but now that she has it, I can post it here.
I saw little mini scrapbooks at Michaels and had a “hey, I could make that!” moment. I cut the pages out of an old cereal box then covered them with small pieces of scrapbook paper that I found at work. The whole book is smaller than an index card. I cut the pages to be different widths and cut pretty designs into the edges. I love this picture on the front. It’s my mom and little baby me.
would have liked to put a picture of my grandma with my mom when she was younger, so that it could be chronological, but this is one of the only pictures I have of them together. This picture was the last one taken of my grandma. I miss her. The picture on the right is my mom with my 2 day old brother. I was a month shy of 2, almost exactly the age Sesame is now.
I’m lacking in photos from my childhood (lots exist but none are in my possession) so I jumped ahead to some big milestones- my brother’s high school graduation, my wedding and newborn Sesame.
Then comes a picture of my mom with little Sesame and an accordion-folded mother’s day message.
Mike helped me pick out this picture. It’s my mom with her 2 kids and granddaughter. I think it’s a cute picture for the back page.
It’s pretty, it cost nothing, I got to use stuff from the recycle bin and I made it in one evening. Perfect!
Tags: crafts
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »