Uppity-Mama

My "Hipstaprints"

I have been messing around with Hipstamatic, an iphone photo app.  I really like the way it can turn an ordinary photo into something retro, which seems to immediately add a bit of sentimentality and art to it.

Here are some I took this weekend on a trip to Santa Barbara and a farm in Moorpark.

 
 

Quickest Tote Bag

Beckett needed something to keep his cars in.  This fabric from the Country Wheels collection by In My Mind's Eye was perfect. 

This bag takes literally about a half an hour to make.  If anyone wants a tutorial let me know and I'll post one.

Sunday Slice, Nov. 15

This is part of Beckett's space.  He shares a room with big sister MIra. The orange rug circles and light fixture are from IKEA.  The sea animal cards on the wall are from Wee Gallery. 

 

 The stuffed robot is Kalvin from Kauzbots.

And sometimes, they do yoga!

 

A Bit Late...

I forgot to show you our Halloweenishness. We were all pirates, except for Zander.  Mira and Violet made some candy bags to go with their pirate outfits.  We didn't make anything else.  We bought.  Violet decided to be a Zombie Pirate and put white face all over herself, as you can see.  I like the red ric rac she chose to use as a handle on her bag.

You can kind of see Mira's bag below.  We were pretty stoked to find the pink pirate skull fabric at F&S.

And Zander?  Well, he won best costume in the middle school contest and again that night at a party.

And here s/he is!

A Pillow to Go With It

After Violet made her patchwork pillow, Mira naturally wanted to make one too.  She used some of the leftover fabric from her quilt, and this time she drew AND embroidered the design.  I was so proud of her that I bought her this book, hoping for more.  I'll keep you posted on that front.

Mira (and her quilt)

Mira, my daughter, has amazed me since the day I met her.  She was born in South Korea and lived with a foster family until I picked her up and brought her home when she was 13 months old.  She adapted to our family so quickly, it truly felt "meant to be."  She brings all of us daily joy with her wit, smiles, and keen observations.  I wanted to make her something special.  I decided on a quilt.

 

She is a wonderful little artist and so I asked her to draw some pictures of sea creatures (a theme we agreed to) on fabric.  My favorite is the crab with the heart shaped claws!

I embroidered over her drawings and combined those squares with the beautiful fabrics from Heather Ross' Mendocino line.

I added some kona cotton sashing and Dumb Dot binding.  I put the binding on by machine with a zig zag stitch.  I just knew I didn't have the patience to hand sew the back.  Though it's going on her twin size bed, the quilt is at least a full.

I told her that some people name the quilts they make. She named hers "The Wild Ocean." I machine embroidered it on the back and she keeps picking up the corner when her bed is made to look at it.  Oh, my heart!

She is so thrilled with the end result.  I hope she will always cherish it and remember making it together with her Mama, who will ALWAYS cherish her.

 

Violet's Patchwork Pillow

She really did this by herself.  All I did was cut the backing fabric and iron.  I even left the studio while she sewed the front to back.  She did the back envelope style so we can remove it for easy washing.  She loves it and is so proud!

Weekend

We finally made it back to the beach.  It was hot and sunny in Westwood but when we got to Santa Monica it was chilly and cloudy.  We managed to have some fun anyway.

Room Swap

We decided, for various reasons, to switch Violet and Zander's rooms.  One reason is that Zander is 12 now and we felt he should have the room with the bathroom.  Violet groused only a bit and then got excited to paint her room and have a new space.  I had blogged here about fixing up Zander's room while he was in Mexico.

Now it looks like this:

The wall color is In The Pink by Sherwin Williams and I made the curtains from Anna Griffin's Riley Collection fabric.

And his NEW room looks like this.

While He Was Out

Zander went to Mexico for a week by himself.  Well, not exactly by himself, with another 12 year old.  And they stayed with a third 12 year old...and his father who lives there year round.  He had a fabulous time but was very homesick. We were also very homesick for him.  So I spruced up his room to surprise him.  I rearranged the furniture, made curtains and a throw pillow with his initial on it, bought new sheets and changed the comforter.  He was very happy and surprised.