I'm a member of the DAR chapter (that's Daughters of the American Revolution for the cooler people out there).  We are having a Dolley Madison tea next weekend, so I made a costume for myself to wear.  Everyone is wearing costumes, not just me, thank heavens.

The sleeves are my favorite part!

I used Simplicity pattern 4055 with Navy Blue broadcloth.  This is actually my first time making any type of dress, so I did pretty well.  One major lesson learned, measure yourself before you launch into a fitted bodice.  I just stuck with my own dress size and had to ease out some seams to make sure it would button.  And I had to add the sash.  The original pattern doesn't have any sashing between the bodice and the skirt.  But I'm so glad it buttons in the back :)  And as I said, I've never done any kind of sewing for dresses before so I was happy with the results.  And I made this in one day!

Note, I found a great site where the original pattern writer (designer?) posts notes about how to make this a better fitting bodice.  Her main point is to add plenty to the bottom of the bodice if you are not an A bust.  Hahaha!  Wish I had seen that yesterday :)  Here is that link: Help with Regency Gown Patter

The theme of Up, Up, and Away has been very fun to brainstorm. I first thought of this theme because we named our daughter after Amelia Earhart. I wanted to be a pilot since I was 9, and although that dream wasn't a reality, I still love aviation.

So I knew I wanted to do airplane tickets as invitations. And I saw really cute ideas on pinterest. Of course, I'm terrible with graphic design, but I keep working on it and these types of projects help to get more familiar with tools. It does help to have Photoshop on your laptop, though. I don't! I used to have it, but my new laptop doesn't have it, yet. So I did this task in Publisher.

So I first made the silhouette outline for a paper airplane ticket. The dimensions are approximately 3.5" high by 8.5" wide, so it will fit in a standard envelope. I'm going to order red envelopes for my invitations. Super cute!

Then I made a word template for my invitations that have Passenger Name (Birthday Girl), Departure Time, Arrival Time, Date, Class (First, all the way baby!), Service (In-Flight Meal Provided), and Location. I also added perforations for the ticket stub on the right-hand side of the ticket with the Silhouette. This part had the flight number (the numbers were her real birthday), and a seat number along with how to "Check-In", aka RSVP.

 They are perforated, just like an airline boarding pass.  I have perforations both for a ticket stub, which has the RSVP Check-In date, and contact information, as well as the "Flight number" and the "Seat".

 And there is also a perforation on the end that tickets used to have the carbons on.  Does anyone else remember the days with carbon ticket copies?  Anyone? 

I think they turned out really cute, don't you? Here are the templates:
Studio File for Airplane Ticket (Silhouette Cameo)
Microsoft Publisher File for Airplane Ticket

This is complicated, but I figured it out so you should be able to as well! I made my design in Publisher, saved as a jpeg, opened it in Silhouette and then copied and pasted the cut lines from the Studio file and moved everything around till it looked great. Don't forget to use the registration marks!

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I've got kites on the brain, and with the help of a great tutorial, I'm making these! More to come!

Source: maizehutton.blogspot.com via Rebecca on Pinterest

DO NOT PIN THIS IMAGE! This is not my image. It is an embedded pin. If you wish to repin, please click on the Pin and repin from Pinterest.

I'm now selling popular fabric flag banners/bunting in my etsy shop!  If you would rather make this, you can :)  I posted a tutorial a while ago about how to make them, easily, and use up all those fabric scraps you have too.

Just made another adorable set of baby shoes for a sale :)  They are so cute and go together well!

Here's the pink link and purple link to get yourself a pair!

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There is a landmark in my small hometown of Winter Haven, Florida.  It is the Orange Dome.  This is an artistic representation, although I have to say it never looked that spiffy.  The orange is now faded, its use is forgotten, and it sits alone on a lot with a sad chain link fence, almost protecting it from us.  

  

Well, the time has come to tear it down and I'm a little bit nostalgic.  I remember going there as a child for the Citrus Festival (which has also been canceled).   My husband remembers bringing livestock to the fair as well.  And I'm sad my daughter won't ever get to see what it looked like, even if it never met the artistic ideal that is above.  So I went down to take some pictures before it is gone.

 

 

She was more interested in the leaves, but it provided me with at least some happiness that I have these pictures and can show them to her someday.

They are tearing it down.  Here's the time delay camera link.

At my work, we follow a somewhat annoying meeting process called Scrum.  It is named for the Rugby term, and frankly most of us don't like it.  But we are handling it with grace (sarcasm?).  There was a story that during the meetings (which are EVERY day), some of us are pigs and some of us are chickens.  The pigs are those that are fully committed to the task, and chickens are those that are only involved.  It goes along the lines of breakfast:  pigs are committed (i.e. bacon) and chicksn are involved (i.e. eggs).  One gets the axe, another gets to roost.

A coworker's wife is having a baby.  We threw a baby shower for him, and I made these cake pops to celebrate.  Bear in mind, he told his wife that since she was fully committed to the pregnancy, but he was only involved, that she was the pig and he was the chicken.  Yeah, I don't think that went over very well.  Here are the chicken cake pops:

 And here are the piggies:

 Sorry for the bad pictures, I don't seem to have great photography skills right now.  The red on the chickens are M&Ms and so are the pink noses for the pigs.  Picked up a Valentine's Day pack that had them.

The cupcakes had small squares of yellow fondant (homemade fondant tastes better!).  I wrote tasks like Bathe the Baby and assigned hours to complete.  One only hopes it doesn't take 10 hours for Bedtime.  The yellow squares are supposed to be Post-It notes, which is how we record tasks for our Scrum meetings.