Happy Birthday Seanna!

warning: the following post is long with lots of text and mushy feelings.
If you are not into these things please scroll down to the pictures and look at the sewing goodness. This month was my sister Seanna's birthday. She's in her lower twenties and taking the world by storm. We are only three years apart, which meant that growing up I bossed her around, tortured her, and spent lots of my childhood playing with her. She was the one that I concocted adventures with.

When I had horrible night terrors she was the one who I climbed in bed with (yes I know I'm older she should have been climbing in with me).
No matter how late at night or how tired she was she never once complained.
I'd whisper "Seanna tell me a story, so I don't think about the dream" and she would half asleep come up with some bizarre story to distract me.
It always worked and I'd fall back to sleep.
As we got older it was often me doing her make up, or her stealing my clothes, I would go to her when I needed to vent, and she'd come to me to
brainstorm idea's for her art.

She's got to be one of the most talented and artistic people I know. Whether it's sewing clothes for a doll, creating bead sculptures of fairies and dragons, or drawing and painting fantastic pieces of fantasy art; she just excels. Even now she and I are always talking about ideas for creative projects, helping explore ideas and possibilities on each others creative processes.

I've always believed that soul is thicker then blood. Many times people are born to families that are not nearly as loving or supportive as people we meet along the way who are like family to your soul. Often we adopt those people into our family.
I'm very blessed to have a sister who is not only a blood sister but also a soul sister. How greatly blessed I feel to have been able to grow up beside her.
Happy Birthday Seanna, I hope you find all the most wonderful things in life,
and hope you never stop creating the fantastic things you do!

For her birthday I really wanted to go all out and do something special for her.
It took me approximately two and half weeks to make everything here. The most difficult was the bag.

I started out with making her some comfy pajama pants. I found this fun teal Tye Dye material in flannel and felt it was just perfect. (all shades of teal are her favorite but especially dark tones)

The flannel is soft and warm with out being too bulky like fleece. They are loose enough to lounge in but have a drawstring so they don't fall off her butt. Also after making a pair for my husband last month he suggested that the only things he would have added to his besides a drawstring (i was too lazy to add one to his) was some pockets. He said they are nice for when he needs to run some errands and needs a place to put his keys or wallet.

So pajama pants version 2.0 have two feminine style pockets in the front. She really loved the look of them.

This is her checking out her new digs. "wow, awesome dude" (yep we are orginally california girls so everything is sprinkled with the word dude or awesome)

Here is a nice view of the cute little pockets. When I make my next Men's style I'm going to do larger pockets with a closure since they have bigger wallets and don't carry purses.
She's carries a purse so these stylin ones are more for knic-nacks and treats.

Pajama pants are rather easy so I decided I needed something a little more swanky in there for her too. Something she could wear out on a date, or to church. Also long sleeved since winters here are pretty cold and snowy.
I present bell sleeved romantic shirt in her Fav color again Dark Teal.
This material took me a long time to find but has the perfect shade of teal. Her being an artist the shade does make a difference. It has elegant scroll designs and a cool gradient between the teal and the dark blue. That way its not too teal.

My biggest fear was that it wouldn't fit right. I had measured her before hand but couldn't have her trying it on before the big reveal since that would ruin the whole surprise.
Luckily the measurements were accurate and it fit perfectly.
The pattern was a gift from my Step mom McCalls pattern M5050. This one was the size small.
The pattern was easy to follow and had great instructions.

Then I made a matching handbag to go with the shirt. It is lined with a black satiny lining material. There are three pockets around the exterior of the bag and the main pouch is closed and carried by a cute drawstring. This was cut out from Simplicity pattern 5320 D. Ditty bag.
The original patterns are really for a patchwork style quilted bags. I loved the shape of the bags but don't care for the patchwork quilt look.
(it screams old lady bag to me)

So I used the basic pattern but took off the top row of the external pocket that is patchwork, and used the same material for all the external parts. I think this made it look more modern and hip.

I also used a medium to heavy interface material to help the bag be sturdy. The pattern calls for fleece, but I just used the firm kind I had on hand which I liked better. I used it on the bottom and the external pocket but not on the main body of the bag.

It goes nicely with the shirt, but she can also use it with other outfits, Its small and easy to carry but still has plenty of room on the inside for her wallet and makeup etc.. The outside pocket is perfect for her cell phone and lip gloss.
(If anyone is interested in these hand bags, or the shirt handbag set let me know and I'll make more for my etsy shop.)

Here is a closeup of the detail on the sleeve. Its a really pretty bell shaped sleeve. I love this shape of sleeve it for some reason makes me think of Romeo and Juliet. It was the one thing she'd requested if I'd ever make her a shirt was to have the bell shape sleeves.

If that wasn't enough I decided she must have home made cake.
So I made from scratch a vanilla yellow cake with a white cream pudding filling.
It's decorated with cream cheese frosting which was very tasty!

Now this is my first time really trying to decorate a birthday cake and in my opinion it looked like a train wreck. The layers weren't the most even and of course my tips weren't liking the cream cheese frosting for the piping.
Fortunately even though I wanted to cry and call it my ugly duckling Seanna loved it and thought it looked great. (maybe just sparing my feelings)
I even tried to hand mix the food coloring so she could have teal frosting haha. It turned out a little more blue green then teal though.

The face she's making here is due to mom saying that there are so many candles we might end up with wax on the cake. Apparently candle wax doesn't sound tasty *rolls eyes*

The birthday girl made a wish and blew them out. We feasted on Asian themed dinner with home made egg rolls and then spent the evening rocking out on rock band for the Wii!

Other fun things

Some of the other fun things we did this summer.

Home done glitter toe nails. I went with blue, bubbles with green, mom with pink and my younger sis Kayla in orange.

They are super simple to do yourself, and I'm not sure why they charge so much for them in the salons. Basically we put nail polish on then while its wet sprinkle the glitter liberally onto it. I did this over paper plates so that it doesn't get all over the place. Let it dry and then top coat with the clear nail polish of your choice. I did two coats of the clear and mine staid on for over a month without chipping. The glitter I got at Michaels in a variety pack that had little packets of 10 or more colors for a few bucks.

Bubbles learned how to sew. She was a super quick study and caught on way faster then I ever did. This is her working on the pieces to make her own little patchwork blanket out of some fleece I had that she kept stealing to snuggle because it was so soft.

You can see how she alternated with a regular fleece in teal Tye Dye
and super fluffy white fleece.
This white fleece is super soft, and what I used to make sheep eared winter hats.

I also played with sculpey. This is a key and heart lock pendant I made for my sister Seanna. She collects old looking keys and is almost fanatical about them. It's made with super sculpey which I prefer because it bakes a little stronger and has a smoother texture then regular sculpey. I often mix it with some Premo so that it is even firmer. I then primed them black and did a dry brush layered technique using teal (her favorite color) and some metallic green acrylics. All on a piece of sheer black ribbon.
(If anyone is interested let me know and I can make some similar pendants to go in the etsy shop)

Then my sister Kayla really had a blast doing Henna art for us. (we have a whole family of artists lol) This was an awesome one she did on my back. It was inspired by my name (angel) and then the a&d are mine and my honeys initials with hearts. I really loved how it turned out.

This was her second piece that she did all free handed. Its what she refers to as a "tramp stamp" which is on the lower back above the buttocks. I just wanted something pretty and maybe a little Victorian, and she nailed it right on the head. Love the little heart accents.

Next post expect more sewing and fun birthday cake!

Summer sewing over and now for Fall

This summer was full of fun and crafts as well as baking. Here is some of the fun things that were made. There was more but unfortunately I didn't get pictures of everything we made.

We went and visited my Parents in California this summer. My Step mom is the best seamstress i've ever met. She sewed this cute little number for bubbles in like 10 minutes.
She has her own flower girl dress shop and also can do custom orders at
http://www.flowergirlshoppe.com/

The adorable hair accessories were made by my good friend Shae.
She has a gorgeous line of jewelry that she sells locally.
She also did the photographs since she's much more talented with a camera then I'll ever be!

Here is a dress that I made. It was this cute pink cotton I've had laying around for several years now. It has a cute french scroll work style design on it. Bubbles thought it made it look less kiddy and more young lady like. It has straps and was flowy so she could be comfortable in the heat of the summer.

Also exceptionally great for dancing in, pretending she's a fairy, or spinning and watching it puff out.
(Isn't she so dang photogenic?)

This is actually the second thing I made this summer after the cute blue checkered skirt. It was a pre-smocked fabric I found at walmart. If you see this stuff and have little girls grab as much as you can. It was super easy to make into a dress (sew a tube, and add straps). Yet was so cute and with this fabric she thought it looked kind of fancy. They had three other styles of this fabric and I'm now kicking myself for not grabbing all of them. When we went back to get more they were all sold out. Definitely was a hot commodity lol.

Not pictured was a cute pink froggy zip up skirt made by my stepmother, and some summer pirate pajamas with lace. Bubbles actually sewed the pants herself, and then I did the pajama tank top using a 3 dollar clearance one we got at walmart as the template for it.

Sad part is that I think kids these days are way to freaking smart.
I got a new serger for my birthday which I was so incredibly excited about, and bubbles learned how to use it faster then me. I was a bit slow and nervous on it, and here comes the 9 year old who zips out some pajama pants on it in half the time I did.
Anyone else have kids that made them feel a bit dumb too?

P.s. If you can get an over locker aka serger I highly recommend it. This baby is my new best friend lol. Although super pain to thread bleh.