photography: embrace the camera 04.28.11

This was taken on Easter in sunny San Diego.

It's not often that we take family pictures. We need to do it more. Love my cute, little family.

Embrace it!!!!

And don't forget about my giveaway found here.

What I'm Loving Wednesday: Valentina Dress Pattern and a Giveaway!!!

The Easter dresses were a success. They both looked adorable in them, so I of course had to do a quickie photo shoot.

So, a little about this dress pattern . . .

A few years back when I started blogging, I found a sewing/refashioning blog that I loved called
My Mama Made It. Since then she's changed the name of her blog to Made by Lex that you can find here.

She came out with a pattern that she sells on her etsy site here called the Valentina Dress. Love. It. The pattern comes in size 6 months to girls 8 that you can see here {currently the pattern isn't on her etsy site, but she says she'll be adding more soon}.

And it is so easy to make! No button holes and no zippers. Just the way I like it! I also love how versatile it is. You can make it casual or really fancy looking {like the Easter dresses}. It really is my go-to pattern. I've made about 5 or 6 of these dresses now and not one is alike.
Well, Alexis has been so kind and generous to giveaway one of her Valentina Dress Patterns
{pdf} to one of my fabulous readers. How sweet is that!!!

Here are the details:

This giveaway starts Wednesday, April 27

and will end on Saturday, May 7 @ 9 p.m. (PST

{Make sure you leave your e-mail in the comment section so I can contact you.}
To Enter:
1. Tell me what's on your sewing to-do list.

For Extra Entries:

1. Follow my blog, come back here and leave me a separate comment letting me know and if you're already a follower, let me know too.

2. Follow Made by Lex, come back here and leave me a separate comment letting me know. {I love her blog - - especially her amazing refashions}

3. Become a fan of Lex Designs on facebook, come back here and leave me a separate comment letting me know.

4. Post about it on your blog, facebook, twitter, etc.

Good luck! If you're the lucky winner, then you'll be sent the pattern in PDF form through e-mail shortly after.
Oh and because I know that you're totally not sick of seeing a ton of pictures of my little girls in their Easter dresses . . . here are some more.

I'll be posting to these linking parties found here.

Happy Easter!

Hope you all have a wonderful Easter.

We'll be spending ours at church and then a delicious Easter feast with family.

May we all remember the true meaning.

Sewing: Easter dresses finished!

Here are the finished products! The girl's Easter dresses made from $3 thrift store fabric. Love it.

And I'm very proud to say that I finished them before Easter. {I'm a procrastinator.} I'm also very proud to say that this is the first infant dress I've ever made. I didn't really get into sewing for Ava until she was 1 year old.

I love how they turned out! I'll share all of the details with you next week. But this pattern is my go-to pattern. So easy. Can't wait to share it with you. {Although I did tweak a few things this time.}

Free: "He lives" printable

This Sunday I get to teach the Easter lesson to my girls at church.

I made this printable for them and maybe you could use it for your lesson or to just display in your house. Perfect for the Easter season or just year round!

Just right click and save to your computer. Then print!

{wondering what D&C is, you can find more about it here}

I'll be linking to these parties here.

Thrift Store Obsession: fabric for cheap

I'm still here. Promise.

Anyway, I'm busy making Easter dresses for my little girls this week.

Why do I always procrastinate?

I don't know.

I shouldn't have.

I've had this material for almost 8 months now.
Don't ya love it?

Guess where I got it at?

Yep, the thrift store.

This bolt of gorgeous fabric was only $3.

Man, I love thrift stores.

Now, I know I always say you'll see the finished product soon and then ya never see it (for example: our kitchen, our coffee table, etc - - need to really work on this)

but, you really will see this finished product by the end of this week.

Easter is on Sunday.

Adios!!!! I need to get sewing!

photography: embrace the camera 04.14.11

Here was our quick, little photo shoot today. Love my girls!

Who wants some free paint?

You know I love me some free paint!!! Who doesn't.

I have a ton of projects just waiting to be finished. And now I can finally finish them thanks to valspar paint.

Everyday, they're giving away 100 free samples of paint. So, the first 100 people that go here at 9 a.m. CST (7a.m. PST) gets this below.

Lovely, huh? Just received mine in the mail yesterday and I'm so excited to paint a craigslist chandelier that we bought almost two years ago . . . yellow!!! Of course to go in our grey/yellow guest room/sewing room/photography studio/study. We'll see.

What will you paint with your free paint?

sewing: toddler neck pillow

We'll be going on a road trip soon and to make it more comfortable for little Ava, I decided to make a neck pillow. It's so sad to see her little bobble-head. So, hopefully this will help.

I like the tutorial found here from Make It and Love It. And it was really easy! You do have to make your own pattern (but all you really do it just draw a horseshoe shape). Made two in under an hour (after I figured out the pattern). And I already had everything I needed.

I also made one for her little cousin. Rumor has it that he doesn't do so well on long car rides.

I'll be linking to the "linking parties" here. Have a great weekend!!!

photography: embrace the camera - 04.07.11

These little girls love their daddy. This is why he doesn't get much studying done at home.

We've definitely been embracing the camera this week. Little Reese just keeps on getting bigger and bigger. And I don't want to forget these special moments. She is so precious.