Easter wardrobe gone awry.

easter at old navy

easter at old navy by joyshope on polyvore.com

So apparently I have A BOY...
Didn't have one last Easter.  Or any Easter before that.

Sort of forgot about that minor fact when I ordered the girls their Easter outfits from Old Navy.
Feeling all proud of myself, I found a maxi dress, romper, and spinny dress all in one place, all on sale, all with free shipping.  All coordinating.  

But then Jeannett, who has had a boy for many an Easter, asked what Shane was wearing.  Oh ya, the boy that now needs an Easter outfit.  I could have just gone to Old Navy and grabbed him the super cute shirt above.  But that would involve the whole going to Old Navy thing.  My Old Navy is not close, and they never seem to have the sizes that I need.  

She suggested a white button down and pairing it with a tie or bow tie that I could make in colors to match the girls.  Brilliant.  For sure I have coordinating fabric in my stash. Even more brilliant?  Target has button downs.  Ten bucks.  Almond milk and a button down were on the list for the next day.

While there however, I saw the dumb gingham hat.  I put the dumb gingham hat on his baby head.  I fell in love with the dumb gingham hat on his cute baby head.

At that point I could have just purchased the hat.  For no reason.  Then gone on my merry way to the dairy section.  
Until my wandering eyes spotted these.
Dang it.
In the cart they went.
Romper and spinny dress.
Detour to the big girl section.  Which is not my favorite.

Found this.

Brain goes into crazy person overdrive.
Back to the little kids section.

Grab this in a 5T.
Grab a white button down.

Operation total Easter outfit overhaul in full effect.

Realize that the maxi dress from Old Navy is a creamy off-white.  Not even close to a bright white.  Creamy white won't do.  A trip to Joann's is now in order.  

A Halley Dress is needed to be made.  Thankfully that pattern sewed up ten times quicker than I thought it would.  I will be making so, so, so many more.  

Lastly, off to search Pinterest.  Find this bow tie tutorial from Prudent Baby.  Chop the gingham shirt to bits.
Pray the catnapper gives me more than 20 minutes to sew.
He does.
He gives me 30.

Sigh.
A few catnaps later the 5T gingham shirt has given it's life to become a bow tie, two headbands and a clip. I am in love.  The kind of love that masks the crazy that one dumb gingham hat created.  The kind of love that makes me want to start a bow tie factory.

The lesson to take away from all this?
As Justme commented yesterday, ALWAYS BUY FOR THE BOY FIRST.

The end.

Easter is going to be CUTE!!!!!!!

Share your Pinterest adventures at the PinterTest Kitchen.

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Big.

Halley.
I miss her.
School days are long.
Really long.
Add in activities and homework, and I feel like I am missing out on real time with her.
I worry that when she is home, there is too much busyness and biggest sister responsibility, placed on her.
I want her to be a kid.  Little and carefree.  
Even if she is tall and scary smart.
So when the little ones were sleeping, we went on a little adventure.
Wind and storm clouds were not going to stop us.
We picked daisies.
Talked about spring.
Took off our shoes.

 Pretended that we didn't live in the suburbs.
Shivered a bit in the wind.
 Played he loves me/ he loves me not.
It always lands on he loves me.
Always.
 Spun and danced.
Froze time for just a minute.

Funny thing about my biggest girl...
she is obsessed with maxi dresses and skirts.
OBSESSED.
Seems all of my anti-mini skirt brainwashing has worked.
Times a million.

Problem is, they are not so easy to come by in her size.
Trust me I have searched.
She has searched.
Tea length will not suffice.

So what is a mama to do?
Ask (beg, plead, demand) her favorite pattern making friend to come up with a maxi dress pattern, of course.
One that is everything my maxi dress loving girl could dream of.
Especially since she got to be the fit model.

Just perfect.

So now my girl has a dress named after her.
Together we are going to pick fabric and sew.

I can't wait.


My favorite.


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An outsourced, recycled, simple, Halloween.

What is it about holiday clothes?
I love them so.
I have a bin for each season and I love digging into them year after year.

I made these pumpkin dresses in 2007.
(The fabric is called Pumpkin Party and it is made by Alexander Henry.  It is out of print, but with patience I bet you could find it with a good google search.)
They have seen quite a few Halloweens.  Last year I made a bigger one for Halley.  After this year the littlest one will have to be passed on.  Hating the growing again.  Hating.

I really, really wanted to recreate the magic that happened last year at the parking lot pumpkin patch.  
It might be my favorite picture that I have ever taken.
It didn't exactly happen, but I like it all the more with the addition of someone who wasn't even on our radar or in our dreams last year.  How crazy is that.  A new human.  I love him.  I love his candy corn-esque little outfit from Drew and the pumpkin hat that Halley wore her first Halloween in 2004.  Bins of holiday clothes, I tell ya.  You never know when you will need something again.

 The girls keep on asking when we are going to get Disney passes again.
(Probably, maybe, never.  Boo.)

 But I am pretty sure that this two minute, twelve dollar, rickety boat ride, will hold them over for a bit.

 Seriously.  They are pretty easy to please.

Considering my fairly controlling nature, one might assume that I was the mastermind behind this little Neverland theme.  But no my friends,  I have passed down the gene of orchestration to these little ones.

It started with Halley.
She wanted to be Tiger Lily.
Mostly for the moccasins.
My mom was going to make her a costume, but when I saw this Pocahontas one at the Disney store I knew it could work.  I snipped off the Pocahontas medallion, took off the belt, flipped it upside down, glued a feather in the back and called it Tiger Lily.  Done and done.

Lucy is a real life Tinkerbell.
Strong and tiny, fair and flighty.
She did not need any begging to don the lime green again.
This cute costume came from Kohl's.
Hooray.
I planned to make her a version 2.0 of her little Tink shoes, but instead she chose a rainbow sparkle pair from Walmart, with a green puff hot glued on top.  Crazy easy.

Little Miss Wendy is 99% sunshine.
But when you catch the other 1% watch out.
Picture time came during what is supposed to be naptime.
But I still think she is the cutest Wendy I ever did see!
My way too talented mom made this sweet number.  
It is just perfect.  So cute on this baby Wendy girl.

No trip to Neverland would be complete without Peter Pan.  Good thing we added a human to our family this year.
My friend's dear mother in law crocheted this darling hat without a pattern, off just a picture.  Oh to have those kinds of skills.  It will last his little head through the winter months.  Jaunty feather and all.
His costume was based on Make It and Love It's tutorial.  It is so dreamy to sew with fleece and felt.  Forgiving, no fraying...  Just my kind of project.

 My goal was to buy what I could, make what I can, and outsource the rest.  I have to admit that Wendy and Peter's hat are certainly the Halloween stars.  Outsourcing works my friends.  That and my cute littles that wear them.


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do-over

Last year I had full intentions on making this dress for Halley and Lucy.
Fail.
Now there is one more girl in need of a dress and a pesky thing called moving.
Repeat fail.

Good thing that I have my sweet mother.
Who I have turned into my own personal sweat shop worker.
Cranking out pants for Lulu and saving the
day when I feared another Fall would go by without new dresses.
In a way I am glad...
I love the fabrics so much more than the combos I originally planned.
Heather Bailey.
Polka dots.
Zebra.
Happiness.


So here are the assignments.
I think they will be crazy cute.
Crazy well made also.
My mom is a sewing rockstar.
She smokes my A.D.D. messy skillz...

But if you don't have a rockstar mom to save your overwhelmed self, don't fret.
I found a shop on Etsy last night with the craziest prices I have ever seen.
Marissa from CreativeBee has amazing fabric and super fun designs.
Plus she is really, really sweet.
Go take a peek. You won't be disappointed!

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Did I just make that? Me? That?

Some people in the world are just too stinking talented.
Ashley of Little Blue Boo is the valedictorian of that class.
There is no end to the many facets of her awesomeness.


When I saw this pattern I wanted it.
Bad.
But I doubted my ability to sew something so rad and so knit...
How could you not try the cuteness?
I am ever, ever, ever so glad that I did.
It is by far the most well written pattern I have ever tried.
I learned so many new tricks and skills and actually succeeded in making something I never thought I could on my simple sewing machine with my crazy A.D.D.

In fact I made two.
That is just the start.
I rarely make more than one of the same thing...
but I am eyeing Jason's t-shirts when he is not home.
When we move and get everything out of storage you better bet I am raiding his old band shirts to make the girls dresses from their daddy's rockstar past.


But for now, I found some fun touristy Cali shirts
in a rainbow of colors and am bringing a little surf style
to some cute midwestern girlies.

Raid your husband's closet, get out your old sorority tees or hit up a thrift store for some funky randomness.
You will love it and wonder if it was actually you that sewed it.
It is that good.
She even came out with two more gorgeous patterns that I simply cannot wait to get into my sewing machine.

Ridiculous.


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turquoise zquirrel?

Lulu is starting preschool this week.
Yay!!!!
As I am getting all of her things ready I came across Halley's
old school issued bag. It is practical, but has seen better days.



My unique and random daughter is currently OBSESSED with squirrels.
Why?
No clue.
Not a single squirrel has ever lived around here.
She saw one in the mountains and now
thinks, dreams and talks about them 24/7.
So I seriously considered letting her use this Old Navy free shopping bag...
since she totes it around constantly. But... then I devised a much better plan.


I rigged up a slipcover for the old bag in her favorite color,
{wonder who influenced that choice?}
my favorite print and current favorite font.

A zquirrel.
Fits her silly self perfectly and now I will know exactly which bag on the rack is hers.

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