a few pressing issues

so in my quest to become the one-stop shop for all things crafty, i followed my co-leader's lead and ordered myself a heat press machine.  this thing has variable heat and is so much better, faster and more reliable than using a conventional iron to apply vinyl and rhinestone iron-ons onto tees and sweatshirts and things like that.

of course, like the coverstitch machine, i didn't have time to bust it out as soon as it arrived.  although i found myself needing it to make family tees for pirate night on our upcoming disney cruise and so i finally took it out and plugged it in.

i'd used my die-cutting machine to create my appliqués - this was going on the backs of our shirts:

and then i made a rhinestone template for the front of the shirts for me, the bean and the old lady:

i spent a little time working on placing those rhinestones in the little holes, but i managed to finish pretty quickly and had three of them all ready to go in no time with help from the old lady.

but i needed to do a test run with the press first.  so i dug out an old shirt of the bean's and cut out a quick vinyl transfer to put on it.

it took a bit of time for the press to heat up to the recommended 325 degrees.  next time i'll turn it on while i'm still working on the transfers.

i placed the transfer onto the shirt, centered it on the plate, covered it with another shirt and lowered the press.  the buttons weren't quite working the way the instructions said they should, but it seemed to be at the right temperature.  one of the buttons was supposed to start the preset timer, but for some reason it wasn't doing its thing.  not to mention, i noticed that the black plastic knob at the top was broken.  both not necessarily dealbreakers, and the machine worked fine otherwise, but i wasn't pleased to have received what appeared to be a dud.  i have an e-mail in to the company now and e'll see what happens next.

anyway, my first attempt at the heat press was a success:

so i moved on and worked on the bean's shirt.  i followed the same steps as before and lowered the press.

i was pretty happy to see that it turned out perfectly, both front and back:

oh yeah.  now i want to press ALL THE THINGS.

breaking in a new sewing gadget

a while ago, i splurged and bought myself a coverstitch machine.  i'd been resisting the temptation mainly because it's kind of a one trick pony - it's used for creating perfect hems, which is one of my most hated parts of sewing.  and it creates a wavy stitch on the inside of the garment to allow for stretching without popping stitches, and that comes in really handy for sewing knit fabrics.  i've been doing a lot of pieces with knit lately, because it's comfy and comes in cute prints and is really easy to work with.  plus i hate to iron clothes, and you don't really need to iron knitwear.

anyway, it had been sitting in a corner of the house for weeks and weeks.  i'd found a great deal online with free shipping, and then i was insanely busy with cookie season and girl scouts in general and all of the other things we've been up to over the last few months.  so it sat there unused and unloved until finally i decided i needed to start blasting through the giant stash of fabric i had just waiting for me to sew it into fun stuff.

i had a pile of clothes i'd sewn up that needed hemming, and i'd saved them up so that i could sit down and practice using my new toy.  so i unboxed that bad boy and set it up on the table to get to work.

and look - i'd received a free machine carrying case.  since i didn't have any room on my tiny sewing table to set it up permanently, this was a welcome little bonus.

i don't know why, but i was a little nervous about trying this thing out.  so i watched a few youtube videos and read a few blogs dedicated to learning how to use a coverstitch machine, and then i finally sat down and gave it a shot.

and it is WONDERFUL.  so easy!  so fast!  so effortless!  i blasted through about five dresses and tops in the span of about ten minutes, and i was hooked.  all of a sudden i had that sewing bug again, and all i wanted to do was sit there and sew and sew and sew.

i made the old lady a fun t-shirt dress out of some "nightmare before christmas" fabric she'd picked out months ago, and she was pretty happy with it.

for the bean, i made this cute colorblocked tee and a matching skirt:

i actually made quite a few things for her that'll be perfect for the summer months.  oh, and for the disney cruise we just got back home from (recaps are coming)!

i was totally riding a huge wave of sewing success, which gave me courage to assemble and cut out a pattern for a bathing suit using some super cute swim fabric i'd found online.  it ended up being quite a challenge that took me almost all day to finish (which involved at least one full seam that i had to rip out, and i learned the hard way that a surgical blade is SUPER DUPER SHARP).  but she was pretty happy with it, so it ended up being totally worth all the effort:

i'd made myself one top, so i thought i'd tackle yet another pattern that i'd had sitting around for ages. it had several options - sleeves, no sleeves, peplum top, minidress, knee length dress.  i really wanted to make the mini, but didn't have enough fabric and so i settled for the peplum.  this, too, took me most of a day to get through, and while i'm still not sure what i'm going to wear with it, i think i'm pretty happy with it.

while i still have a pretty ginormous fabric stash to get through, i'm pretty happy to report that i've gone through a significant portion of it.  i have lots more patterns to try, and with my fancy new coverstitch i think it's going to be a super sewing summer!

unlucky #13

it's been a while since i gave in to the temptation of a surprise box from stitch fix.  i was receiving them pretty regularly for a while there, but when i was finding myself disappointed more often than delighted, i decided it was time to take a break.

but with summer coming and a handful of fun things planned out that i could use some new clothes for, i thought maybe it was time to give it a shot again.  so i logged in, made a few notes and updates to my style profile, and scheduled a fix.  it arrived about three weeks later:

i was really excited to see what had come, so i was a little bummed when the first thing i pulled out was something i didn't want or need - a handbag.

now mind you, the bag is cute.  i could totally use it and it would definitely work with pretty much everything i wear.  but i really don't need another purse, and so i set it aside to place into the prepaid envelope for returns.

the rest of the shipment was equally disappointing.  i don't really love button-down tops, and yellow/mustard/gold is my least favorite color.  it's one of the handful i know doesn't work on me, and this top was no different:

the old lady really liked this one, but i wasn't a huge fan of it for myself.  and with a pretty hefty price tag, we decided to pass on it too.

the only dress in the package was just okay.  it was a bit too small anyway, and so it wasn't hard to set it aside along with the bag and the other tops.

this is the only piece i ended up keeping.  i'll actually wear it, and it's cute enough to wear for all sorts of occasions.

not to mention, it was the cheapest option out of the bunch.  check out the invoice:

i went back into my style profile to add a few more comments and requests (and to eliminate handbags from the list of things i want to receive), so i'm going to give it one more shot next month.  cross your fingers.

"mommy, this is the BEST. DAY. EVER."

it's been almost a week now, and i still can't believe that the bean is all done with second grade.  the time really does fly by, but this school year almost literally went by in a huge blur.

i managed to remember to find the ol' chalkboard sign just that morning.  because of course, we have to take the traditional "last day of school" picture:

compared to the one we took on the first day of school, she didn't really grow all that much.  she's still pretty young, so i really hope that doesn't mean she's going to stop getting taller.  oy.

the old lady and i headed back to the school about an hour after we dropped her off, so that we could watch the final awards ceremony of the year.  the teacher is really good about emailing the parents of kids who are receiving awards, so i knew we had to be present for it.  and she saved her for last (this could also be due to the fact that they do them in alphabetical order)...and she had so many nice things to say about the bean that i was kicking myself for not taking video of it.  it was fun to watch her get all twirly and embarrassed and blushy as her teacher piled on the praise, and i beamed with pride as i listened.

we only had our teacher for the second half of the year, but we loved her.  she's a really fantastic teacher, and i'll miss working with her as the room parent.

we made our way to the classroom, where i managed to get a picture with my rock star kid.

and then we said our final goodbyes for the year before heading outta there with a big packet full of end-of-the-year gifts and all of the awards she'd received - bible verse memorization for the whole year, citizen of the year, a silly "puppy" award, another for her participation in the speech meet, and one for excellent behavior out on the playground.  she'd racked up every award there was to earn except for perfect attendance...which she totally would've gotten if not for a sucky week where she got sick and had to stay home for like three days towards the end of the year.

when we got home, we found something on the doorstep that she'd anxiously been waiting for since we placed the order last week.  it was coming from china, so i actually didn't think it was coming for at least another week.

do you know what silly squishies are?  they're these little sponge-like figurines that are super fun to squeeze and squish and play with.  she's a big texture freak, so these things were like heaven to her.

she sat there and unwrapped each and every one of the 30 pieces she'd ordered, and she was one happy camper.  she's totally addicted to them all, and she's spent a bunch of time sorting through them and figuring out which ones she wants to give to which of her friends.

and now we have the whole summer ahead of us to hang out and do fun stuff.  we actually have most of it all planned out, and it's going to be over before we even get a chance to enjoy it.  yikes.

taking a dump again

it's been awhile since i did a photo dump, so that's what you're gonna get today.  you're excited, i know.  but there are so many things i take random pictures of thinking i'll write about them, but then they don't end up being worthy of a post on their own.  you know, like that recycling story i told you yesterday.  heh.

so as i'm browsing through my camera roll, i totally find myself cracking up at pictures like this:

and this one, right after picking mollydog up from the groomer's.

i kind of want to make myself this shirt.

and then this one for the old lady.

during a trip to the local filipino grocery store, we were highly amused at the wide array of dramatic captions and photos on the calling cards for sale.  so cheesetastic:

these giant things were in the hallmark store when we went to pick out cards for her sister's birthday.

speaking of the old lady, she finally hit her 100th class at xtend and got to sign the wall.

as for the bean, she recently participated in a speech meet that brought together participants from a bunch of local christian schools.  they memorized bible verses, poems and fables, and the bean had worked hard to memorize a fable entitled "george washington and the cherry tree."  it was a pretty lengthy piece, and we were all amazed at how she was able to get 'er done and still remember to use gestures and convey tone and emotion through her tone.  she was in a room of fellow second graders, went 12th in a group of 15, and scored a superior blue ribbon.

that same week, their school spirit day had them wearing either a college or high school t-shirt of their choice.  and while she still fits into that old harvard sweater we bought her during our east coast road trip back in 2010, it was too warm for it.  instead, i busted out my own souvenir tee from that trip and holy cow, it fits her perfectly.

we had a lovely breakfast with the ILs, who were in town briefly to attend a family wedding, at our new favorite spot at cable airport.  we had a little time to kill before we could be seated, so we checked out the planes and the general store.

i immediately got "cool it now" stuck in my head when i saw this in the shop.

well, crap, i've managed to get it stuck again.  bah!

you know what's really bad, yet so so so good?  the fact that a krispy kreme opened just down the street from us.  uh-oh.

oh!  the pocky truck decided to stop in our neck o'the woods!  i was super duper excited, as you can tell.

and a whole bunch of these pretty flowers popped up in the backyard in what seemed like overnight.

how about a cookie round-up?  i don't think i've done that in awhile.  although i haven't done a ton of cookies lately, either.  oh, well.

these were for a "late lash & lush" happy hour evening at my lash extensions salon.  she offered late appointments for clients who usually can't make it any earlier in the day during the week, and made it cute with drinks and snacks.  i hear these went over pretty well:

because i totally forgot about this order until the night before i needed to deliver them (oops!), i didn't have time to order a cutter.  instead, i had to find a solid outline of a sony playstation controller online, print and cut it out, and then used it as a template to hand cut the cookie dough.  major pain in the ass, but at least it was only a dozen.  and while they weren't perfect, i think they turned out okay.

birthday cookies for an old friend's little boy.

and lastly, a set of "the incredibles"-themed party favors.

whew!  i think that's good for now.  how's that for random, huh?