Monday Inspiration: Modern Quilts

Happy Monday! to start your week out i thought it'd be nice if i loaded you up on some color! i'm currently in the process of picking the quilt pattern for two quilts for Big A's room (he has bunk beds) and the pictures of quilts i'm considering are nice and vibrant. i originally was going to just do straight strips across the whole quilt, since its so simple and wouldn't be too time consuming. but after seeing all these beautiful patterns i'm rethinking that plan. 

maybe you can help me work it out? i'm not an expert quilter, so i'm looking for something that will not be labor intensive. i will be machine quilting the entire thing (it would take me YEARS to hand stitch a whole quilt, i just know it), and i am using one solid color of aqua for the top, one solid color of brown for the bottom and a white border all the way around.

No.1} i love the large scale pattern of this one, i think being so large would keep it at a pretty beginner level? 

No.2} oh man. this is a beauty.

No.3} i think this triangle pattern is my favorite. but i think it actually might be the colors that are drawing me in and not the pattern? i can't tell. 

No.4} i like this one because even though it's solid, the stitching has interesting detail. 

No.5} straight strips in a visually appealing layout. this one is easy but different.

No.6} i'm looking at this one more for the way the fabric is cut, the stitching is WAY too detailed for me. it's beautiful though!

No. 7} this one has another fun but easy arrangement.

No. 8} this one is more labor intensive, but i think i could do it. 

so what do you think? which one is your favorite? can you visualize any of these patterns just solid aqua? 

thanks guys!

tara

birthday girl gets a new outfit!

today is my baby girl's birthday! and to make her feel extra special i decided (yesterday... typical) to make her a new outfit. 

i used a tutorial from one of my favorite sewing blogs, Make It and Love It. i love the step by step, easy to read instructions and photos she provides. it makes it easy for me to follow along, especially since i wouldn't consider myself an advanced sewer. i've really learned a lot from making things off her site. for this one i used her "little girl romper" tute. i also really love that she has a lot of boy stuff on there. 

{via}

i've had my eye on this super cute romper i found on pinterest for a while, and i happened to have a similar red polka dot fabric laying around.

i love how it turned out. the only changes i made to the original tutorial is that instead of making the chest area pleated, i added eyelet ruffles. i also added cuffs on the shorts with coordinating tiny polka dot fabric and a matching headband. 

she loves it too. i had it hanging up and when she came down stairs for the first time this morning she saw it right away and said, "thank you for my beautiful outfit mommy!". 

love her. 

Amalya, happy birthday sweet girl! you are growing up so fast. it really does seem like you were just a toddler, running around and jabbering words only we could understand. but now your favorite thing to do is "chat" at the table with us and carry on long discussions about your favorite things. you have so much personality, you are so animated and add drama and flair to every dance or song you sing. i see you changing, and understanding the struggles in your heart more. i see you working hard to obey and learning how to ask for things with words and not being so quick to throw a fit. i'm so proud of you for that! i prayed for you and you are a gift to our family, the perfect fit. God did not make a mistake on you, and i hope that as you grow you will learn that beauty comes from within, not from your outward appearance. i pray that God would capture your heart, even now, so that you will spend all the days of your life giving him the glory. i pray He will reveal His will for you to us and to you early on so you will never wander, and that you will use your gifts to bring him honor. 

you are so dearly loved, sweet girl. what a joy it is to be your mommy. 

xoxo,

mommy

new dinnerware + linen napkins

guys, my table is super fancy right now! and for no special reason.

i know, i know... you're all... whoa, what? you can't just be gone from blogging for more than a month and then be all up in our face with a fancy table! we're not your booty call, that you can just show up whenever you want and expect some love...

sorry guys, i totally understand. i guess i'm just struggling to commit to this internet relationship. but you know what? i do like you, a lot. just trying to figure out if i want to be married or just date you occasionally. it's not you. it's me. 

haha. 

wow, there are a lot of awkward relationship references going on right now. sorry. 

anyway, like i said. my table is fancy. before i took my long break from blogging (which was to join my husband in San Diego for 4 weeks of summer camp at Hume SD), in an effort to find something unimportant to take away the stress of packing my entire family for 4 weeks, i decided it would be a good idea to make a dozen linen napkins... that we wouldn't be using for over a month... just because... it wasn't like i had anything else to do... like pack....

and a few weeks before we left i went garage selling with my good friend and scored on some white dinnerware! i don't know if you remember how much i've been wanting white dinnerware, but here's a reminder. i used my new napkins and dinnerware as an opportunity to set my table up all fancy. 

and the best part was that the kids helped! they loved joining in the assembly line and layering all the pieces. after i took pictures we enjoyed an equally fancy lunch of hot dogs, carrots, and cottage cheese with apple sauce. CLASSY. they were excited and that's all that matters. 

the dishes are Centura by Corning and i hear they are actually real vintage. i looked up purchasing a couple bowls and one bowl is running $15 to replace. i got 10, 6 piece place settings for.... $10!!!! so excited. 

for the napkins, i purchased several yards of linen in the color Lake (its a deep teal if you can't tell in the pictures) and used this sewing tutorial to make 10 mitered napkins. the latte bowls are from Anthro, and my silverware and water glasses are from Ikea.

i love my table this way. the kids want to keep it this way "FOREVER!!!"... now i just need to host a dinner party so other people can enjoy it!

xoxo,

tara

library tote bag

guys. i made a tote bag this morning. 

we go to the library every week. it's part of our Wednesday routine. when we check out books we usually go way over the limit of 25 books and i shove them all into a reusable grocery bag. i have destroyed several already and my shoulder usually aches by the end of the trip from trying to carry them all to the car. 

what can i say, we love books. 

i have had it set in my mind to make a tote back that was large enough to contain all the books we get, and somehow be reinforced by its own wrap around handle. i scoured the internet for hours trying to find the perfect tutorial. here is the one i used. it was so easy! it probably took an hour. 

the only think i changed from the tutorial was instead of sewing the handle ends together, i tied them in a knot. i could foresee them coming undone with the weight of all the book and wanted to ensure this wouldn't happen. 

i got my denim from a nasty curtain panel purchased at goodwill for $1. the material i used for the lining was the light gray cotton leftover from my daughter's quilt. i have TONS of denim left over and am going to attempt a maxi dress for my daughter. not sure how a denim maxi dress would look. what do you think? 

anyway, i love it. 

can't wait for tomorrow so i can fill 'er up with new books!

xoxo,

tara

i made a quilt!

all by myself! for the first time!

(can you tell i'm excited? just a little...)

oh man. this project was so much fun, and i learned a TON about sewing embarking on something i know very little about: the world of quilting. i sort of made a quilt one other time, but had the constant aid of my best friend, Bekah. she is an expert. the quilts she has made are beautiful and perfect. when i was pregnant with my son we took on making him a mini quilt. we picked out the pattern, the material, cut, sewed, and pinned everything together. then she finished all the binding since it was so close to my due date with him. 

but i can't really take any of the credit because she did all the hard work. since she lives 8 hours away now, this time around i was on my own. 

i tend to be a self-starter, in the sense that if i see something i try to figure out how to make it. thank goodness for online tutorials because i wouldn't have gotten very far without them. i did want to choose a simple pattern and color palette so it could grow with her and become a timeless treasure (hopefully!). sticking with solid colors also helped ease my worry of making any mistakes, since they wouldn't be so visible. 

i chose a solid cotton in pale gray for the top, and a solid flannel pale pink for the bottom (for extra softness. also, my daughter doesn't like the feel of sheets, she says they're too crunchy and cold), with an all white binding. i also chose to machine stitch the entire thing. i just DO NOT have the time or patience to hand stitch anything this large. 

for the pattern on top made 4 1/2"x69" strips (twin quilts are 68x86, and by doing horizontal strips that meant i needed LOTS of fabric since a bolt of fabric typically runs 44" in width). then i just sewed them all together. for the bottom, since i wouldn't be seen as much, i made the strips as large as possible to cut back on sewing. i think they're something like 22"x69".

then i used a really thin cotton batting and spent FOREVER pinning that sucker on my living room floor. it was a BEAST! due to time and children running around, i had to roll it up and put it away a few times before finishing all my pinning. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS. my fabric shifted every. single. time. and i had to almost start over pinning. frick. i suggest pinning it all at once if you can. after all that pinning and re-pinning i finally got to sew all the layers together. 

i'm pretty impressed with the binding, if i do say so myself. i used this tutorial for cutting the binding, and this one for machine stitching the binding. 

now that little a's bedding is complete i just need to work on getting her ghetto mattress off the floor and giving her an actual headboard! here are some of my inspirations for what i want her bed/headboard to look like:

Source: etsy.com via Tara on Pinterest

i love this one made out of pallette wood! only i think i would white wash it. 

Source: daffodildesign.com via Tara on Pinterest

this one is my number one fav. i've been scouring Craigslist trying to find one for months with no luck! boo.

Source: squintskids.blogspot.com via Tara on Pinterest

i just love how pretty and rustic this little bed looks.

Source: 4.bp.blogspot.com via Tara on Pinterest

i'm down with painting an old wooden bed in my favorite high gloss colors!

all in all i would totally do this again. in fact, i plan on make two more quilts for my son's bunk beds this summer. i will now be accepting gift cards to Joann's. wink.  

xoxo,

tara

found on Apartment Therapy!

so... remember how i have that other blog for my invitation design? that i never post on? that still has all my old blog posts on it? well, i recently started getting all kinds of action from the post about my repurposed crib bumper and after looking into my traffic sources i discovered that Apartment Therapy included me in their crib bumper round up.  

hahahaha, yeah! 

go check it out. 

tara

p.s. i also plan on posting 3 wedding invitation suites on that blog soon, so stay tuned. 

p.s.s. hope you're having a wonderful sunday!

our 2011 Christmas card

this is the Christmas card i made and never sent out. 

i'm sad because i love it. alas, i love my new purse my loving spouse purchased for me more! the quote came from my husband's favorite Christmas hymn, Come Thou Long Expected Jesus. 

here are the lyrics:

Come, Thou long-expected Jesus,

Born to set Thy people free;

From our fears and sins release us,

Let us find our rest in Thee.

Israel's strength and consolation,

Hope of all the earth Thou art;

Dear desire of every nation,

Joy of every longing heart.

Born Thy people to deliver,

Born a child, and yet a King,

Born to reign in us for ever,

Now thy gracious kingdom bring.

By Thine own eternal Spirit,

Rule in all our hearts alone:

By Thine all-sufficient merit,

Raise us to Thy glorious throne. Amen.

the end. 

tara


p.s. all photos by Jackie Wonders

activity advent calendar days 6-25

otherwise entitled: longest post on the face of the earth. you love it when i vomit all over my blog, don't you? what? no. 

i'm catching up. 

um, this blog turned lame during the month of December. i was hoping to blog all the fun activities we were doing, but instead all the activities wore me out! ha! so... even though Christmas is over i'm still going to post everything we did... because this is my blog and i make the rules!

now to catch you up on the rest of the activity advent calendar i planned for the kids. (you can see the first 5 days in this post)

Day 6: random act of service (i was hoping to have the kids do one random act of service each week, to get in the habit of thinking about others). for this one i had the kids draw pictures of decorated Christmas trees for a senior living home, but once we got there to deliver the pictures they wouldn't let us talk to any seniors. i guess they have policies about visitors and volunteers, which is great, but kind of a let down that day. we just left the pictures there in the hopes they would actually cheer someone up!

Day 7: making Christmas cards for our family members.

Day 8: decorate kids rooms with lights.

Day 9: get peppermint steamers from Starbucks.

Day 10: walk Christmas tree lane

Day 11: make playdough ornaments

Day 12: check out Christmas books from the library

Day 13: work on Christmas cards for family (this took awhile since our family is so big!)

Day 14: Big A's Kindergarten Winter Holiday party. little a joined me (the room mom) as i coordinate all the crafts and snacks for the party. she was a great little helper and we had so much fun at the party. 

these guys are supposed to be melted snowman cookies

footprint penguins

beaded wreaths

reindeer food

snowflakes

Day 15: shop for sibling's gift

Day 16: make gingerbread men and family movie night was Charlie Brown Christmas

Day 17: family bike ride

Day 18: decorate cookies

we made personalized people for each family member and mailed them out as gifts.

Day 19: Christmas treat for snack

Day 20: drive around to see lights in a near by neighborhood (too many to go just once!)

Day 21: make gingerbread houses!

Day 22: mini road trip to Oakhurst, CA for family time

the way there

we found a cute little Children's Museum when we got there and they had so many awesome things inside. there were different sections for pretend play, dress up, exploring... it was so much fun. i think we stayed for close to two hours!

bank tellers

cowboy pizzeria

little a workin it on stage

fire department

that trip wore them out!

Day 23: family bowling!

we take bowling serious.

Day 24: Christmas Eve service and open one gift

Day 5: Christmas!!!

and there you have it. 

i hope your Christmas was intentional and wonderful. 

kisses,

tara