The Sidekick Suitcase

I just finished a project that was at a whole new level for me. I felt like I needed to grow in my sewing skills and this totally did that for me. I feel braver! I made my own bias tape, and then used it for piping, sewed in two zippers, and tried to follow directions instead of fight them! Yes, I'll admit it, sometimes following 
directions is necessary. 
Sometimes. :)

Jodi over at Sew Fearless let me be a pattern tester for her new pattern, The Sidekick Suitcase.She has created the cutest mini suitcase pattern that is now 
for sale in her shop! 

Image from here.

For my suitcase, I decided against the recommended duck canvas, and went with a denim* (because it was on hand and I was trying to do it on the cheap)(and, maybe because I have authority issues...hahaha).

I also added some simple iron on appliques to pinkify it a little more for my pink lady.


Check out those lovely zippers!


The beautiful backside. 

A couple of sweet pockets.

And one satisfied customer.
(All the glory a mom needs.)

*Note: DO NOT USE denim if there is ANY stretch to it at all. It was a bit of a nightmare because of my mistake of fabric choice. I'm sure a non stretch denim would be great though!

Anyway, it turned out well. And Dee is in LOVE with it. She promptly ran to her room and started packing the entire contents of her dresser for a trip we took last weekend.

Do you like it? 
Wish you could make one or six for your own kids? 

If so, I will be holding a pattern giveaway for The Sidekick Suitcase, thanks to Jodi at Sew Fearless, and you could win a pattern for yourself! 


Yee haw!

Check back on Friday for the giveaway! 

Sew Fearless is also hosting a 5 pattern giveaway later this week, so go check it out! You've got a lot of chances to win!

Linked up here:

 

Creating Really Awesome Free Thingshttp://www.creatingreallyawesomefreethings.com/
Making the World Cuterhttp://makingtheworldcuter.com/
Craft and Tell at http://www.cherishedbliss.com/

Visiting Sunbeam (248:365)

Cryptic sounding, isn't it?

Actually it's a cute story.

We are visiting Scott's family right now and at church today little Dee was super brave and went to her sunday school class all by herself and wasn't sad! She is such a big girl! She even told us about how fun it was. When I was her age I was super shy (still am a little) and was not brave enough to do things on my own. Good thing my little sis came along only 3 years later so she could help me out.

Story time:

When I was 10 or so I wanted my ears pierced and me, my mom, and my 7 year old sister went to Claire's to get it done (still not sure why my sister got to do everything I did 3 years younger...). I was too scared to go first, so I made my sister do it first. She was crying, or course, so I took off. I wasn't about to suffer that pain! My mom came and got me and forced me to do it too since I made my baby sister go first. I'm glad she did, but why do we suffer so for beauty?

I also always made my sister call people on the phone for me and ask for the free cookies at Albertson's because I was too shy.

Thank goodness I've grown out of that phase.

Bravo to Dee for never going through it!

First Earache in our House (242:365)

Of both our little ladies, Goose is the first to get an earache. Poor baby. She is not a sickly kid, but she does get more sick then Dee ever did and I'm sad to report on her little red ear. She's starting her first antibiotic (Dee's never had one either) and hopefully she'll be better soon!

Easy Saint Patrick's Day Earrings and Hair Clips (241:365)

I was at Micheal's recently and saw some green buttons for $1 a pack. I grabbed two packs, hoping to find some cute buttons inside.

I lucked out in the cute department and made some hair clips for myself and the little ladies, and a pair of emerald green earrings for myself and some clip-ons for Dee.

No one will be getting pinched around here on Thursday!

Unearthing My Creative Space (230:365)

My creative space has succumbed to an avalanche of chaos and I spent my "free" time unearthing it today. Kind of a bummer job, but it helped me feel a little more motivated to start getting on some more projects.

I also made a giant list of all the projects I want to work on.

Giant.

Here's to motivation and focus!

And, today Dee read "sat" and "am". Woohoo!

Dee's First Letter "m" (221:365)

Yesterday Dee and I started "playing school", or rather,started her reading lessons. We are both really excited about it and are enjoying the lessons.

Today she successfully wrote her first legible letter "m"!

We are on our way to literary freedom!

Drop One Off, Pick One Up (219:365)

The last few times Scott has gone on conference trips, my mom has been able to come out and "replace" him. She has even been able to plan her flights to line right up with his, so I literally drop him off and pick her up at the same exact time. 

We did another airport swap today. 

Dee is soooo excited for her grandma to be here.

Goose was terrified of her, but soon got over it.

For dinner, Goose ate her first broccoli trees and strawberry chunks. She LOVED it. She is at the point right now where she eats more than Dee at just about every meal. She can really pack it in, even weighing in at only the 25% for her age.

I am about to start a reading program with Dee. Per my friend Anna's recommendation, I bought the book Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, and am working my way through the introduction. I never read intros, I just don't have the patience, but I'm so glad I'm taking the time to do so here. It explains a lot of really important aspects to the program that are key to Dee's comprehension of it all.

I think we will start the program tomorrow. I am so excited about it!

5 Minute Headband (217:365)

Yes, it really only took me 5 minutes to make this dazzling little beauty.

I got the tutorial from New Green Mama.

All you need is some old knit material and 5 inches of elastic.

I used a pair of Scott's old pajama pants 

that have some lovely HUGE holes in the behind.

They will NOT be missed.

Now they are being put to better use, making my gross hair look cuter!


How to make the headband:

Cut a 2 1/2" by 14" rectangle. 
Then slice the rectangle lengthwise 3 or 4 times, getting only 3 inches from the ends on both sides. These strips will curl when pulled tight.

Then you sew about a 5" piece of elastic, zig-zagging it on both ends. I kind of rolled up the knit material around the elastic to encase it better.

I will definitely be making more of these little darlings. 

(Headbands and kids...)

Vintage Valentine Tutorial (214:365)

Today I made some vintage-style Valentines for Dee's preschool Valentine party tomorrow.

I can't wait for her to pass them out! (Although, I do realize they will probably go straight into the trash, I am still proud of how stinkin' cute they are!)

I found this great vintage Valentine's print fabric at a local fabric store.

  I think this idea would be so cute with so many different kinds of prints. You could make your own stationary cards!

Here is a little tutorial on how I made them.

Valentine Headbands (213:365)

I made these cute little headbands today for my girlies to wear tomorrow.

Only, I didn't put them on hard headbands, but stretchy ones, since Dee WILL NOT keep a regular headband on no matter what!

I got the idea/ found the great tutorial over at Blue Eyed Freckle, who, btw, has the cutest felt headbands! I can't wait to try out some of her ideas myself!

Dee's First Dance! (211:365)

Our YMCA had a Valentine's Daddy Daughter dance tonight and Dee and Daddy pants went together. Goose was asleep already...

They had so much fun!

Dee requested "Talk About It" (Funky Town) from Shrek and had a lot of fun dancing to one of her favorite songs. She then kept wanting to request different songs, but daddy was a little bashful about bugging the DJ. 

During a slow song she kept yelling to Scott that she wanted them to change the song (like mommy like daughter-boo slow songs!). 

At the end of the night they gave Dee a rose which she was so excited about!

Dee and Scott had a really great time on their "date". I'm so grateful to have a husband who cares about his girls enough to spend quality time with them doing things the girls want to do!

The After Party

Knitting, Chocolate Covered Marshmallows, Dancing and Swim Class (200:365)

Still trying to finish that little infant cocoon.

Dee kept saying she wanted "that chocolate marshmallow Valentine treat". I had NO idea what she was talking about for a loooong time today. Than I remembered it was one of these that she was craving.

Image from here.

As should you. They are good! I have fallen in love with these little gems myself.

However, we didn't have any at the moment, so we made our own. 

We used Christmas marshmallows, and dipped them in melted goodness. Yum!

This morning Dee had her first dance class. It was so cute to watch her through the glass. She was really good at listening (we talked about that beforehand) and doing all the moves really well. She was so excited about her class and all the new moves she learned.

We may have a little ballerina on our hands.

Also this morning, both girls participated in a new session of Float 4 Life. Some of you may remember me talking about it here. Dee is a good little swimmer, and today she practiced swimming face down! Goose likes when we all go play at the pool, but today was a different story. She screamed and screamed! I wasn't as worried about her as we were when Dee did her first class...is that bad? I just knew already that she was in good hands (her teacher has taught Dee three times already) and that she will scream for a couple of weeks, but then she will be fine and love it like Dee does.

Poor Goose.

She recovered quickly though.

And soon she'll be swimmin' around like a real goose.

Whipped Out the Ole Clarinet (191:365)

Dee found my hidden talent.

Image from Here

The Clarinet.

It was stashed under some stuff by my desk.

She was really curious so I broke it out for her and played until my lips went numb, which took about 60 seconds. Pretty lame.

I buried my talent and now I a lousy clarinet player!

I think I'll try to practice more. I know the girls will love it.

What talents are you going to work on?

Sick Kid (187:365)

We achieved a record today.

Dee threw up 9 times (at least that's when I stopped counting).

She's never thrown up more than once or twice in a day, and that's only happened once or twice in her life! She definitely set a record today, although it was not a desirable one!

Poor baby.

I've never seen her look so sick and miserable in her life. 

It's really sad!

She is currently sequestered in the kid bathroom, sleeping on the floor. This happened after I cleaned up 4 separate piles of yuck around the house all evening and realized that this was serious and should be contained. (I'm often a slow learner.)

As of now, the last time she threw up was around 10:30pm, and she's been asleep since.

Here's to hoping this all passes quickly and doesn't spread around!

Snow Day (179:365)

We played in the snow for the first time this year. We got around 6 inches, so we were obligated to have fun in it. It was nice and fluffy and perfect for snow angels.

We also used out recycling bin lid as a sled.

Wee!

Goose seemed to enjoy her first snow play and Dee and I had a good time out alone in the snow. We played in the playground and took the scariest slide ride of my life. It was a little like that scene in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation when he rides the sled down the hill and it takes off like a rocket. Frozen slides do the same thing. Just a heads up...

I about lost my cookies.

Name Plaques for the Little Ladies (167:365)

At a Young Women's church activity tonight, I made a couple of really cute name plaques for my sweet babies that say their names, and then say "is a daughter of God". 

I'm really excited about them because they are cute!

Cookies for Santa (163:365)

Dee and I made cookies for Santa tonight.

We had fun rolling out the dough and stamping shapes.

Dee loves to make cookies and it was fun to do as a new Christmas Eve tradition.

Dunk, Dunk, Goose and Dee's First School Performance (160:365)

We all went swimming today and I dunked little Goose.

I want her to take the Float 4 Life classes next month, like Dee has done,

so I decided to try and see how she does with her face in the water.

We splashed around for a while, she was have lots of fun, and then

I blew in her face and dunked her quickly, and she came up surprised, but smiling!

We did this a few times and it went well. I think we have fish #2!

Dee had her first school performance today. The kids were all lined up in a row, while all the parents were sitting in tiny chairs facing the kids. They all sang silly songs like "Hannah Hiccup" and something about Santa's Hat. It was really cute. Dee had an "itchy" nose, a problem with the button on her pants, and an insatiable need to keep lifting her shirt up a little, but so did all the other kids, which just made it all so much more adorable. I can't believe how big our little girl is!



Watching the show.

Goose's First BYU Football Game (157:365)

We all went to a BYU football game party at a friends house.

Goose sat through it really well, and Dee ran in circles for a couple of hours.

No, I'm not making that up.

Circles.

Hours.

Goose's First Movie in the Theater (155:365)

Today we tried something new.

All four of us went to a movie in the theater.

I was a little bit worried about how well Goose would do, but she's a snuggler, so she did very well considering her age. Dee is the one that ran around the theater. She was on her seat edge for the first half, then slowly her patience ran out and she ran off.

Overall it was a good experience and we all enjoyed Tangled. 

Even Scott. 

He laughed it up!

We'll have to try it again soon!