before and after... unflattering shirt

Baby Stella Belle has a new dress. It's made from a pretty shirt. Here's the shirt before...

I love this shirt and bought it on clearance at a fancy boutique, but every single time I wear it someone asks me if I'm pregnant. The last time was at a coffee shop and when I told the lady I wasn't pregnant she started going on and ON about how I had "good coloring" in my skin. She said she thought I was pregnant because I was "glowing," but deep in my heart I knew it was because of the dang shirt. So I went home, did 100 crunches and cut the shirt in half.

I paired the bottom half with a plain pink shirt from Stella Belle's closet. The pink shirt had some chocolate milk stains on the bottom and sleeves. I cut off the stains and sewed it to the bottom half of the fat shirt. Result? Happy

How do you recycle clothes that you don't wear?

the beginning of the week

Espresso this morning! Charlie loves making espresso and he's very good at it. I've been trying to drink more tea in the morning since I'm slightly severely addicted to coffee, but today seemed like a good day for strong coffee. Tea tomorrow.

Anyone paint a file cabinet the color of a school bus today? No? Just me? That's ok.

afternoon outing

We were meeting Charlie and his posse of college students who work on his TEAMeffort staff for dinner. Since camp schedule is unpredictable and usually not flexible, we had a few extra minutes to grab a frozen tea at Wake Up Coffee while we waited. Wake Up Coffee is the dreamiest place around, and... AND they have a kid table with toys and puzzles. True love.

Do you support your locally owned coffee shops? Do it.

art camp again

Hi! One more blog about Community Art Camp. It's pretty much all I have to blog about this week because it has completely taken over my world, and my house, and my car, and everything...

Tomorrow is the last day of art camp. Happy Thursday! Eat a piece of candy.

art camp

Happy day 3 of my first annual community art camp! I've been meeting with kids ages 4-14 every day this week to teach them about art and artists and artistic skills. I love watching kids paint. Hope everyone is having a delectable week and eating lots of chips and salsa!

what happens at lowe's stays at lowe's

This is why I went to Lowe's Home Improvement Superstore this afternoon... A three dollar sample can of green Valspar paint. It took fourteen minutes to make this purchase. The following events ensued between the time of my arrival and departure...

If they weren't so darn cute...

it's o.k. to blog about sushi

It's called Fancy Q's and I'm happy to report that we ate lunch there 3 times last week. But we only ate dinner there once... so I wouldn't say we're completely obsessed... yet. It's the yummiest, cheapest, most spectacular sushi. The adorable Japanese men who make the sushi scream something that sounds like "grandma jose'!!!" every time someone walks in the door. Next time I go I should take my real camera. The iPhone doesn't really do it justice.

Eat something yummy today!

a quiet week

Little Dean and Millie G. spent the week in Mississippi with my parents. Our house was quiet. Baby Stella Belle was bored out of her mind without them. We went to the beach almost every day and took full advantage of all the uninterrupted play time, but it wasn't the same without brother and sister.

More blogging later. I've got a week's worth of hugs and kisses to catch up on.

quilt number 2... day seventeen

I probably get to spend a good hour on the quilt twice a week. It's finally starting to look like more than a big pile of frayed squares. Now it looks like small piles of frayed squares sewed onto an old (but gorgeous) full size sheet. Just what I had in my head.

I'm sewing big squares directly onto the sheet and then attaching the smaller squares and patches. Once the top is finished I'll do batting in the middle and something brilliant for the back. Here are a few of my tried and true quilting rules... 1. No measuring 2. No hemming (Mom, you might not want to read number three) 3. No pinning.

Anyone else working on a quilt today?

hey sister soul sister

My sisters took me shopping for my birthday while I was home in Mississippi last weekend. We laughed and drank coffee and laughed. I wish we could spend every Saturday together...

big huge bag

I made this bag for beach trips and road trips. Now it's one of my everyday essentials. It's made entirely from fabric scraps that needed to be brought back to life.

The strap is made from a curtain panel that I snagged at a garage sale.

The fish is cut from one of my favorite raggedy old tshirts. It needed to be thrown away, but I couldn't part with the Walter Anderson fish, so I cut it out and put it on this bag. Mr. fish makes the bag very summery.

O.K. off to get a few things done! Happy recycling fabric!