yup, haven't done a thing

Since making the Halloween bows, I haven't done a thing (except make Halloween costumes). I'm going to get hopping on the Thanksgiving ones but I really need to start on the Christmas ones as that's the season that people tend to really fancy it up with bows. I'll need to find some skinny gold ribbon without wire but I think I have a lead - perhaps I can find some fat gold ribbon without wire too to make those big flat bows - I'll need to order some french clips as well but I know where to get those that have passed their lead test...

(by the way, I do only use clips that have been batch-tested for lead content. I can produce documentation if requested.)

Halloween Bows

I have been working, despite this awful cold. here's a bunch of Halloween ribbons (not yet on clippies). I'm still working on perfecting these - I'm not happy with either spider and the cat needs work but I LOVE the bat and all 3 pumpkins turned out pretty well too.



More Fall Bows to come...

plush turtles

So, I've been doing a lot of sewing this week (bow are me; sewing is me on Halloween. I start embroidery before Christmas and I'm thinking about taking up underwater basket weaving for Easter). Anyway, I came across a beautiful pattern on BurdaStyle for Canadian smocking - never heard of it before nor tried any smocking but the dress was beautiful and it said that this kind of smocking was easy so off to search for a tute for smocking. I found several but the one that seemed easiest to follow was on Patchwork Underground's blog (she does some awesome things). She used it for a corduroy turtle. I thought to myself - BABY SHOWER GIFT! and heck, why not, I've been to enough lately - so I went and pulled out a cloth diaper formerly used as a burp cloth (no, I didn't cloth diaper - I can't keep up with the laundry as it is!) and voila! Canadian smocked turtle!

With eyes:

yeah - I think it looks dead too so I pulled the eyes out

So whadaya think?

another post not about bows...

So my friend's daughter wants to be Hello Kitty for Halloween so I made her a hat. It's cream instead of white but it's a mock up with stuff I had.

Here it is:

And here with my wearing it:

And me being silly:

And here's the same pattern made into a knight's chainmail hood:

Projects...

I'm a goal-oriented person. I need a goal or it really doesn't get done. Before I had kids, I had goals like "stop tailgating" or "lose 10 lbs" and they were basically monthly and fairly idealized goals - tangible and attainable but still requiring high-level thinking (yes, losing weight is a mind game for me at least). Then I had kids and I needed to have daily goals like "shower" and "get dressed". When I was able to take care of myself and my children, I moved on to the house and had a week-daily chore (gardening/poop, grocery shopping, dusting, vacuuming/mopping, bathrooms) - this worked a lot better when I didn't allow myself to leave the house until my chore de jour was done but the school system frowns upon tardy excuses like "I hadn't finished vacuuming". So now, I can take care of myself, my children and my house, I'm trying to get back into the higher-level thinking goals. I set one for myself here (ahem - a new bow a week - I still haven't posted all of my repertoire so technically, I'm not failing you although almost nothing posted here is "new to me").

So, I'm working on a fall line of bows - leaves, pumpkins, turkeys, cornucopias. Can anyone think of other autumn things to make into bows? Thanks!

Bow organization

Since I'm so organized with my ribbon (I used to be, really, but I've started getting orders in and putting everything away quickly so we can have dinner), how do I keep my girl's bows from living under the couch with the rest of the little things and singing, dancing dustbunnies? I made a bow hanger. I saw this at a craft fair and decided to make my own to match the girls room. It went well. I bought a wooden shape, painted it, attached the wide ribbon to the back, hung it in the girls room and put the bows on it. Well, the girls don't put the bows away so I brought it downstairs and hung it in the dining room. It totally doesn't match anything on this level but any time I find a clip, I can conveniently hang it up - no more stepping on them, no more random piles taking up my (very limited) counter-space, no more "MOM!! WHERE"S MY _____ BOW??" Okay, so maybe this isn't 100% effective but I'd say it's about 90%. And the girls figured this out too so they do put them away more often so they know where it it when they want to wear them.





Brownie Points (and maybe a fun-sized Hershey's candy bar I found in my pantry left over from diet s'mores this summer) for listing the bows in the second picture that I haven't listed in this blog yet...

The last princess in my "collection"

So I recently realized that I did not have a picture of my Ariel, The Little Mermaid clip. That realization came to me while I was out of 3/8" red ribbon so it took a while (um - yeah, first, I'm out of yellow, now I'm out of red. Truth be told, I have been out of red for a while. I'm getting more organized, I promise! I got my ribbon order on Friday) but here's Ariel in her mermaidy glory:


So now, I'm working on Disney's new princess - The Frog Princess which isn't even out in theaters - and I think that I'll have the entire princess collection. Please correct me if I'm wrong. (see the comments button? you can click and comment - I promise to read them!)

As always, if you have a question about my bows, please send me an email (see about me) or call me if you have my number.