Happy New Year

It's not even New Years here and I already got one goal done, I quilted my hubby's quilt and now all I have to do handsew the binding on and I'm done. Which I plan on doing while I'm watching Chuck and Larry, that is if I can stop laughing!!

In order to get myself motivated to quilt my hubby's quilt I had to do some fun sewing. So I sewed my sister some PJ pants. I used a pattern out of the Amy Butler In Stitches book and also Amy Butler material to make them. I trimmed the bottom with some ribbon from May Arts. I also made her an apron but I will save that for another day!

So I guess better get off the computer and start sewing so I can get it done before my hubby gets home on the 12th!

Looks Like I Suck

At blog posting, that is!! Hopefully I will get better at this blog posting after the Holidays. I really do have good intentions but just not enough time in the day to devote to blog posting.

Anyways I've been working on making a quilt for my hubby for awhile now and I finally got the top done. I would get started on it and then have to put it aside so I could do store orders or sew for the craft fairs. Now I just need to find time to do the quilting part of it. Actually I've had time to quilt it but I just haven't felt like sewing the last week or so. I had hoped to have it to him before Christmas but that just isn't going to happen, I might just have to hand it to him in person when he comes home in January for 2 weeks.

Happy Halloween

Remind me to never do a Craft fair so close to Halloween because I have been so freakin busy sewing that I never really got to enjoy my favorite holiday, Halloween. I didn't have time to sew any costumes this year either so its a good thing I have a supply of Halloween costumes from past years. I did however end up buying costumes for the oldest two; The Grim Reaper and Clone Trooper. My mom made the other two, I think Chastin was the first one to wear the frog and Buzz Lightyear. Buzz Lightyear was made by my very talented mom 7 years ago and it's been worn by 4 different kids on at least 5 different times. The frog has been worn at least 3 times.

Is Halloween a hectic day for anyone else? Today I had an appt with my dermatologist, remind me never to see Dr. Troy Davis again, what an ass. Then I took my 1 year old to the doctor for a rash, that was a waste of time because he was fine. Then to Preschool to drop my 3 year old off and I met my friend for lunch. Came home, went to pick my 3 year old up. Came home and decided that we didn't have enough Trick or Treat bags so I cut out 2 bags, while cooking dinner. I managed to get one bag done before it was time to eat and get the costumes on. It's always fun getting costumes on 4 kids by yourself, then you got the neighborhood kid calling probably wanting to go trick or treating with us. Like I dont have my hands already full!! Mind you I did all this feeling like I'm coming down with a cold and with a fussy 1 year old. So I'm ready to head to bed and do nothing for an hour, something that is unheard of for me in this house.

15 Years Ago

I met my husband at a club in Seattle. He approached me with the famous pick up line, "Do you come here often?". How original huh? I was standing, leaning on the rail watching everyone dance and was pretty surprised to figure out he was actually talking to me. I thought he was H...O...T!! I ended up spending the rest of the night talking to him and meeting a couple of his friends. When I went to give him my number we couldn't find anything to write on or to write with. All we had was some lipstick and a business card but it worked because the next day he called and we went back to that club. 15 years later my hubby still has that business card with my number on it.

Today he called me from Iraq to see if I remembered what today is. Of course I did...well..after he left me a message saying, "Do you know what today is?". To be honest my husband is way more sentimental than I am. It took me along time to get my anniversary date right. I've been known to get my anniversary mixed up in the past but after 13 years of marriage I think I finally have it down. Kendall has been gone since April and I find myself being reminded of him several times a day. Some days I barely miss him because I'm so busy and overwhelmed but some days I can't help but thinking about him constantly and missing him tons. Today was one of those days. Love ya Baby!!

Halloween Skirts

It's October and it's time for a month long celebration of my favorite holiday Halloween!! What better way to start it off than make my friends daughters some Halloween skirts. The skirts are made with Alexander Henry and Marcus Brothers Halloween prints. They all loved their skirts and boy is it fun to sew for girls!!

Where does time go? Tomorrow my little baby turns 1 and I might actually cry about it because he's my last and he's so damn cute. If I didn't already have 4 I would definately have another one but I think that it's best to stop at 4. If I hit the lottery though I might change my mind. Anyways it's late and I can't think of thing to say so I'm heading to bed but check back soon because I have another completed project to show.

My Favorite Holiday Is Coming

Ok, so I'm still in love with Halloween. Even more so than my own kids. I love candy corn, pumpkin carving, dressing up, costumes and the fact that the whole holiday involves my favorite food; CANDY!! Now, I just wish my boys liked it as much as I do. Every year I think how exciting it's going to be to make there costumes or even have my mom make there costumes and every year I'm disappointed. No matter how early I start or how many times I ask them what they are going to be for Halloween, I get the same ole answer. I don't know!!! Why can't they love the holiday as much as I do and why can't they get excited about dressing up and going trick or treating??? Why oh Why!!

Yesterday after my daily bike ride I spent some time with the neighbor girls browsing my Halloween costume catalog and the stupid American Girl catalog that I get for the sole purpose of torturing myself. I want one of those damn American Girl dolls and I have absolutely no excuse to get one. My boys would rather die that even get within 15 feet of a doll. I thought that if I grew my son's hair out that I might actually get to pretend he's my doll long enough to play with is hair but boy was I mistaken. If I get anywhere near him with a comb he jerks his head about like I have a knife instead of a comb. I just can't win let me tell you.

Anyways (I think this is one of my favorite words) I have no idea where I was going with this. I would love to make costumes for all the little girls in my life but who am I kidding I have no time to sew for them. I can't even find time to finish there Halloween skirts that I started. I did however manage to make some Halloween blankets, now I just have to add them to my website.

Schools in Session

Today was the first day of school for my boys. Chastin started 5th grade and Cole started 3rd grade. They went off to school in style and with there custom made book bags from there mommy. I made them both out of black canvas and lined them with Alexander Henry Skulls and Bones using Amy Butler's High Street Messenger bag and using an Anita Goodesign embroidery design. Now I just hope they hold up through the school year. The bags were pretty easy to make but they took me over a week because I was having problems with my sewing machine. Thankfully I turned the machine in to be serviced before I threw it out the window. It would had been hard to explain to my husband why I threw a $5000 machine out the window. Well this just going to be short and sweet, I'm beat and heading to bed.

Neglected Blog

I know I have neglected my blog lately but I really plan to change that very soon. Very soon there will be new changes around my blog and on my website. I'm having my website redesigned and I plan on launching some new products with my debut of my new website. Crazy thing is that I'm not quite sure what I'm going to come up for my new products. I have lots of ideas but some of them are way to involved to be making them one after another. Like my friend Mandi does, I ask myself would I want to make 50 of these? Allot of the times, it's no way!! Then I have to take into consideration how much it would cost me to make each item. I'm also always searching around trying to find new ideas or inspiration or thinking how I can improve on the product I already have. So with that said stay tuned.......

Tag! Your it!

I've been tagged by Nicole!
Here are the Rules:

1. Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves
2. People who are tagged write a blog post about their own 8 random things and post these rules
3. At the end of your blog you need to tag 8 people and post their names
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment and tell them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

8 Random Things about Me!

1. I'm a Gemini and get easily bored so that leads me to #2.
2. I a total Martha Stewart. I love to cook, garden, decorate, sew, crochet and knit. You name a craft or hobby and I've probably tried it at least once.
3. I have more compassion for animals than I do humans.
4. I'm a total food addict. I love most all foods and I often dream about food!
5. I love to laugh and hate to be in a bad mood.
6. I can be totally girly one minute and the next I could be wrestling with my boys.
7. I often think I can do anything to find out that I'm not quite as talented as I thought I was.
8. I'm mechanically and writing challenged!!

Who am I going to tag???? I have no freakin idea, Nicole tagged most of my online bloggers already. I will have to revisit this one.

Baseball and Old Projects

I haven't got much sewing done the last couple of days. I have a dress in progress but the good weather and baseball season has kept me from working on it. So here's a picture of an outfit I made my girlfriend's daughter a couple weeks ago. I made it using Amy Butler's Lotus line and I didn't use a pattern for the skirt but really it's not like it's hard to make a skirt without a pattern for a little girl. What makes it hard is not having the girl to measure. So in the end it fit her sister better. I just appliqued embroidered on a plain white t-shirt to go with the skirt, using a embroidery design from Farbenmix.

Boys

Well I usually post pictures of my projects but these boys of mine are my proudest work!! They are the joy of my life and at times the biggest headache of my life!! I've been a lazy mom and just started giving Callin solids at 7 months and even though he acts like he is so interested in what we are eating he's not too keen on actually eating it himself. He does dig fries and bread at restaurants though!! It's crazy, Callin is my 4th child and you would think I would know everything about raising kids. But I find myself wondering (or should I say reasurring myself) if it's perfectly fine for a baby to live off of breastmilk for the first year. I have problems remembering exactly what I did for Cade but I do remember making all of Cades baby food. I also remember giving Cade table foods and not being very careful about introducing foods one at a time. Even though none of us have any food allergies I worry about doing that with Callin because he seems to always have some sort of rash going on. I guess for now I will just keep on giving him foods hoping that one day he will actually try it:)

Getting Back in the Groove

My blog has been neglected the last month or so. So today is a new day and I'm getting back in the groove of posting or least I'm hoping too!! So from now I hope to post at least once a week. Now that goal isn't going to be easy with summer coming and the fact that I will be going back to school part time on Monday. Which I'm dreading by the way but with only 6 more classes to go I have to get it done!

I've made a couple things the last month besides my store orders. I made this bag last night with some of the new Michael Miller prints and May Arts ribbon. The next bag I want to make wider and put the eyelets a little farther over. I also plan on adding a small embellishment to the front of the bag to hide the seam of the ribbon. Of course I couldn't just finish off the bag but I had to set aside so I could start making a dress. So the bag goes in the unfinished pile along with a couple dozen other things ... well that's a slight exageration. Now, if I only had enough time to do all the projects that float in my brain. It was a week of thoughts and anticipation before I was actually able to work on the bag. Now, I have all these creative ideas for girl outfits and not enough time to make them reality. Well I do have the dress started and hopefully tomorrow I can make some more progress on them.

Medieval Torture Treatment

Callin is teething really bad lately and because his gums are so sore he has turned into my personal medieval torturer. He loves to take his head while he is firmly clamped on to me and move back and forth and pull as far as he can. I can't wait for those teeth to break through but then I will have to worry about him biting me. Least I know what to do when they start biting and hopefully I will be able to nip that right in the butt. Nursing is suppose to be the greatest thing on earth for your baby and so you just expect it to be the best thing for mommie too. Well I like nursing, I don't think I can say I love it though. It means no wreckless drinking, the first month is full of teeth crenching pain, it makes the big O harder to attain than usual and then their is the biting. I at least walk away knowing that all my sacrifices were for a great cause and a sense of achievement to make it through all the ups and downs.

Another Good Bye

Well it's almost time again to say good bye to my hubby as he goes off to Iraq for another year. I dread the good bye as always but I'm going to try and stay strong this time and not be a crying mess in front of my kids. I'm also focusing on the fact that he did apply for a job within the company he works for and just maybe he will get that and be able to come back home. But enough of the sadness...

Here's a picture (not a very good one) of a couple embroideries I've done a couple weeks ago. I'm trying to come up with a new design to replace my pacifier blankets. I have a winner I think but I need to work on it first. Though right now I'm taking a small hiatus from my business and just enjoying sewing for myself, friends and family. I made my sister a skirt and then ended up making myself and my friend one too. They are just plain linen skirts that come just past the knee and have a drawstring waist. I'm hoping to work on some aprons tomorrow if I can bare to cut my Amy Butler material that I just got on Friday. So stay tuned and hopefully I will get better with posting on my blog....right now I have to go and wrestle with the boys.

The Dog Doesn't Use it But Somebody Does

And that would be Cade. This is where I found him this afternoon sound asleep. We have a dog bed upstairs and downstairs but do you think any of the dogs use them? No, they would rather sleep on Callin's blankets, couch cushions or pillows. The last places I want them to sleep on. Oh well, what can you do.

The last couple of days have been incredibly busy with trying to do store orders. It seems that I can't get one order every day I have to get a bunch of orders in all at the same time. I've spent the last couple of days making 8 pacifier blankets and I still have 3 bibs and a pillow to make. To make matters worse I broke my sewing machine and had to go buy a new one. Well I didn't have to buy a new one, but shoot it's a great excuse to get the sewing machine of my dreams. Although right now I don't know if you would call it the sewing machine of my dreams. Learning a new machine wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be. This machine is so damn fancy that it's almost too fancy. Like everything it's got a mind of it's own and so far I haven't quite figured out it's mind but it's coming along. It's going to save me lots of time with my business once I figure out all the bells and whistles though.

Finally.....A diper Clutch

I've been wanting to make myself a diaper clutch for a couple weeks now. I got started on the zippered wipe pouch a week or so ago but never got past that point. I got a few free minutes tonight and decided to finish it up. I'm going to a NorthWest Fabric Show tomorrow at the Seattle Center and figured it might be nice to have one. I can't wait till tomorrow and I hope the show is as good as I think it might be. It's like being a kid in a candy store. I hope I get inspired big time and I'm also hoping I will finally get to see the Amy Butler Lotus line in person and I hope it's as cute as the pictures I've seen.

I feel so much better getting some sewing done for myself too. I'm not totally happy with the way the diaper clutch came out. I like the design and all but I'm not happy with the way the bias tape came out at the ends. I want to do a ribbon treatment or maybe some ric rac but I need to get something because I can't find the right thing in my stash. I wanted to incorporate a diaper changing mat too but I haven't figured out the best design for that yet. Oh well, that is going to have to wait for a couple of days. I have a store order and a disaster of a house that needs serious attention as I need to get it looking clean before my Parents come over for dinner on Sunday night to celebrate my mom's birthday. Then I need to figure out what the heck I'm going to do for Chastin's birthday which just occurred to me is a little over a week away. Oh, I can't wait for some costco cake!! Yummy!!

Apron from HELL!!

This has to be the apron from hell. I started working on it almost a month ago and now I know why it's taken me so long to finish because I dread sewing on it. I finally got most of the sewing done, I just have to put on the pockets and handsew the facings. I just hate it when you work on something and it's a struggle on every step. I don't know why I'm having so many problems with it because I checked out Pattern Reviews and no one seemed to have any problem with the pattern. There are several things I dislike about this pattern. The first is that the tie straps aren't double sided which would have been easy to fix but I didn't have enough material to make them double sided. Second this pattern calls for allot of handsewing which makes more work. And third I hate the way the faces show the wrong side at the neck.

Sleeping Beauty

It's been awhile since I posted and mainly it's because I really haven't made anything new in the last couple of weeks. I've been busy filling orders and running some coops. I'm hoping that later this week I will be able to get some projects done. I have an apron that is half way finished and a bunch of ideas for new projects. I want to make a diaper clutch, where I can put diapers and wipes in. I also have a couple different ideas for blankets, now I just need to find time to do it all.

The kids are home tomorrow and we need to run to WalMart and pick up some stuff to pack in my hubby's container that will be shipped to Iraq. On Tuesday I have to take Cade in to get a speech evaluation and hearing test done, that should be fun. It's a good thing I'm taking my mom with me to help me out. My house desperately needs a major cleaning too and my mom has graceously offered to help but the last thing I want to do is clean, I would much rather be sewing. I did manage to get my garage cleaned up. I only did that so I could make room for a beach cruiser bike that I want. Usually I get allot of sewing done on the weekend but this weekend we went shopping and played outside, we had a beautiful day on Saturday and now were back to the dreary rain were going to have forever. So my post really has nothing to do with sleeping beauty but I think posts are so much more interesting if their is a picture to go with it. I took this of Callin a week or so ago, after it occured to me that a cute baby does wonders for merchandising my baby products!!

A bunch of different things.......

First off I want to thank Lacy for fixing my blog for me! Thank you Lacy!

I need some help coming up with a tagline for my business, something to go with Cocoa Dreams. Anyone have any good ideas for one? It doesn't necessarily have to relate to just babies though because I might want to carry something besides baby stuff.

Today I spent the day up in Seattle shopping with my girlfriend. I brought Callin with us and I used a Moby Wrap and boy is that thing comfortable, way more comfortable than my pouch. Definately worth the money! I wore Callin from 10am to 3 pm and my back never ached, now my feet did but not my back. We went to the Seattle Gift Show and looked at all the cool products, ate at Gordon Birsch and then shopped at Nordstroms and Macys. It was allot of fun!

Well I guess it's bedtime because I can't type, spell right or write coherantly!

Having Problems

As you can tell I'm having problems with getting my new header to show completely. I've been messing with this thing off and on for the last week and it's starting to drive me crazy but least I'm making progress. Tune in next week I might actually have the whole thing showing!!

You have also probably noticed that I haven't posted allot lately and thats because I have been busy making Pacifier Blankets or some know as tag blankets. They are selling well but I don't know how much longer I will be able to make them because this lady has a pretty extensive patent on it. How you can put a patent on a blanket I don't know but it must involve lots of money! I've contacted a patent lawyer to find out if I'm violating her patent, I hope he gives me some good news.

When I'm not working on Cocoa Dreams I'm spending time with my boys and taking pictures of them. Well, I don't always take pictures of them but today we had a little photo shoot.

Callin enjoying his taggie!

Callin enjoying his taggie!
Originally uploaded by Cocoa Dreams.

Awww I can't get enough of this little man! Isn't he the cutest? Everytime I look at him I just want him to stay a baby forever because I know he's my last one. I just love his little hand, legs and feet. Have I told you how long his feet and hands are? I figured this picture is a great advertisement for my newest addition to Cocoa Dreams. I made him a Tag Blankey out of Michael Miller Snuggle up and Satin dumb dots. I even attached a tag to the blanket that you can attach a pacifier too. Now we don't have to worry about losing his pacifier. On my next tag blanket I think I will make the ribbon a little shorter though.

Boy are these tag blankets popular right now, right along with the Bumbo Seat. I think almost everyone on my September Mom's group has a bumbo seat for their baby. I don't think I will get Callin one though, I'm not sure that it's such a great idea to prop you child up in a seat before they are developmentally ready but mainly I just don't want to spend $40 on one. Plus the fact I don't want him growing up any soon than he is already.

Amy Butler Belle Collection Quilt
Originally uploaded by Cocoa Dreams.

It doesn’t take me long at all to make the tops of these quilts but what takes my time is machine quilting and hand sewing the binding on. It took me at least a month to handsew the binding on this quilt, mainly because I was just too busy doing other projects. The actual time it takes to handsew the binding on isn’t that long. Anyhow this quilt was made using a fat quarter bundle of Amy Butler Belle collection bought from Fat Quarter Shop. I made up my own quilt pattern but it’s very simple. I took all the big prints and cut them into 5 inch squares and took the smaller prints and made either a 4 patch block or took 2 squares and a rectangle to make a block.

I have 2 other quilt tops sitting in my fabric stash to be finished but they may have to wait a little longer. I'm busy right now making baby bibs. I have a stack of 15 that I'm working on. I plan on adding them to my website so I made a bunch up out of different material. Hopefully I will have them up on Cocoa Dreams by the end of the week.