how cute are they?

so these are my boys clayton (6) and carter (1 and 1/2)... we had just come in the house after taking a little "nature walk" (aka stomping through every, single, solitary puddle of muck in the woods). carter wiped out a few times and needed a bath desperately... then clay wanted to do a group shot of us. so there they are my little monsters... i mean angels ;) complete with carter's drool pouring out and everything!




so anyway, then comes the dress. now that it is done, i LOVE it! but as tina will vouch for me, i had more than a few frustrations on my way while trying to put it together. my girl, kasey, wanted a dress for her niece to wear for her wedding rehearsal... talk about pressure! now considering that this is my second attempt at a dress, and tina developed a new way to put them together, it was not as hard as i feared it would be. i think it turned out pretty cute! i just might give the dresses another whirl! we'll see though... the bags are SO much easier!

the sand in the hourglass is quickly falling and the buffalo indie market is right around the corner. we have a LOT of work to get done! i'm happy with tonight's productivity... for now!

i ate way too much frosting today...

so, like tina's last post, this post is not exactly sewing related but... anyhoo, today was the (belated) first birthday party for my niece grace, aka gracie, aka stella, aka stellabean. because i'm crazy and apparently have all the time in the world, i volunteered to make her cake, a princess crown. the cake started out a potential disaster when i forgot to spray the pan before i baked the cake. when it amazingly came out with no problem i was thrilled! i was so happy about how it turned out... and then i put her name on it. i HATE the way her name came out... did i mention the OCD? i make myself crazy with the little things. (now to tie in sewing) it's always the little goofs that no one notices (until the intense urge hits and i have to point them out) that make me crazy. same thing when i sew. it's always the 4 or 5 stitches that are not perfectly in line that put me over the edge. i need to realize, (and so do you tina) that people probably won't notice the tiny imperfections. right? well, i was out a little late last night with the husband and i'm not sewing tonight. i'm going to go kick back, relax, and read my cosmo. now tomorrow on the other hand, i need to get down to business! my "vacation" is over and back to work i go!

girls love ice cream

What has Tina been doing lately? Well for starters I had a sleepover with Molly. We had an entire girls night together. We did green face masks, had bubble baths and painted our nails. Actually, to be correct, Molly got her nails painted and I got one big toe painted before it was time to move on to the next task. Maybe that will be a new fashion statement. One of the best things we did was eat a fabulous ice cream sundae that Andrew had prepared for us. Isn't he the best??! Molly said it well: "Doesn't daddy do the best things for us?" Indeed he does. We love you daddy.

We even slept together in our guest room. Well, I put Molly to sleep in the guest bed and then came back downstairs to get some things done before joining her. If only I could let myself go to sleep at 8:30!

It really is great fun being a girly-girl. When I was Molly's age I was definitely not - I was very much a tomboy. My mom didn't want to deal with pigtails and barrettes so I had a short boy hairstyle. I followed my brother around (he would just beat me up regularly) and looked just like him. People would even ask what his "little brother's" name was. How did I ever recover from that? I am not sure I did, to be honest. I'm still talking about it now! I will say though that now he is the greatest brother. He would do anything for me and we're good friends (hopefully not just out of the guilt from the beatings).

When I was 11 or 12 and able to fully take care of myself I grew my hair long and it has been that way ever since. Don't get me wrong, I did love my Barbie dolls, baby dolls and My Little Ponies! I was also athletic and loved softball, volleyball, and riding four-wheelers around the yard. The best of both worlds.

Now I get the chance to burn off all of my girly energy with my little ones. Hence the bonnets, hairbows, tutus, and dresses. I LOVE IT! However, I also hope I have a little boy some day to spend some time throwing the ball around with.

What did this post have to do with? Who knows. I guess this is supposed to be a crafty blog but we all need to take a break now and then, right? Plus you get to learn a little more about the personal side of TinaPig...if you kept reading past the big toe comment...

Buffalo Indie Market is fast approaching!

so this is it, the Buffalo Indie Market... our first real live appearance! check out their site buffaloindiemarket.com i'm not gonna lie, we are both panicking... what if no one likes our stuff, what if the "real artists" think we are a joke, what if the only people who buy anything are our friends and family and they are only doing it to pity us? it's called confidence... tina and i have very little. yet ANOTHER thing we need to work on! being on "vacation" this past week and a half ( i say "vacation" in quotes because i hardly call chasing after a very rambunctious 18 month old a vacation) i have gotten quite a bit accomplished. i have figured out a new type of bag, i made an adorable (but a titch crooked) wallet to match my (newest) favorite purse, i have made a bunch of kid's bags, and i'm not stopping! tonight i cut out more stuff to hopefully work on tomorrow (if carter decides to cooperate and take an extra long nap!) anyhoo, this is supposed to be about the market... COME TO THE MARKET! BRING YOUR FAMILY! BRING YOUR FRIENDS! BRING YOUR MONEY! just kidding (sort of). it really should be a good time. if all else fails, hit up the bar (that's what i will be doing if no one likes my stuff!) confidence, that's right confidence... i must try to work on that too this week! ;)

HAPPY EASTER!!!

so how did you spend your easter morning? because i spent it ripping stitches out... FOREVER! i made my friend her custom ordered (and I mean custom ordered!) beach bag yesterday evening. once i finished, i decided to try out the new purse "pattern" i got from tina (i say "pattern" in quotes because tina and i really don't use patterns, we pretty much wing it and freestyle). i was a little tired by the time i got down to the part of the bag where i needed to use a bit of brain power, and consequently made some MAJOR goof ups. using the tiny stitch that i was using, it gave me about 47 billion stitches to rip out when i decided this morning to give it a whirl again. but, this was the result... my (newest) favorite purse EVER! it has metal D rings on the straps and a magnetic button (both also thanks to tina) that were new to my repertoire. i'm excited... doesn't take much though! for now we must sew, sew, sew and get things ready for the Buffalo Indie Market (see link to the left)... time keeps on ticking, ticking, ticking, into the future!

who's out there?

Happy Easter!! It's Easter morning and Abby and I are waiting for Daddy and Molly to wake up so the excitement can begin. Abby just sits here chewing on her toys not even knowing that there's a hidden basket full of goodies for her. It's funny that we have to make the basket for her just to keep her older sister going. Oh the joys!

Anyways, in the crafty department there hasn't been much going on. I finished the owl painting. I am not sure it went in the direction I was going but once you start you can't go back. It's still cute, but different. Molly's favorite is the upside down guy. The next favorite is the peeking owl in the crack. Caren seconds that. :)

I just can't keep my mind on a track. I just want to do too many different things. I really need to get sewing if I want to have enough for the show, which is rapidly approaching ( 3 weeks)!! At least we did have some fun the past few days which is equally as important. As Catfish would say, "I'm hell when I'm well." Ha ha.... Sorry, only Caren will get that one.

Hope everyone has or had a great Easter. I am going to start making some noise to wake the rest of the house up and get this show on the road.

- Tina

little pottery girl

I thought I would share my latest dress and bonnet combo. It is definitely one of my favorite fabric combinations. I took my time with this reversible dress and it was well worth it. My big pottery vase on its stand turned out to be a great model. The dress is too big for my 7 month old and too small for my 4 1/2 year old so I need someone in between to try this stuff on! I have so much on my mind that I don't even know what to write! It's just about midnight and I have been working on a painting the past 2 nights. Hopefully it will be done soon so I can share the final product! Then, back to sewing, and perhaps tutuing. Why can't there be more hours in the day?!

- Tina

a productive day!!! at last!

well... today was a good day. on top of watching carter (18 months) and my niece grace (1 year tomorrow!) i was able to make 3, yes i said 3, new bags today! tell you what, spending an entire evening getting a pile of bags cut out was worth it! now i am able to just whip them out! ok maybe not whip them out but i'm a little excited at my productivity ok... cut me some slack! :)
caren

holy cow... it's not a bag!!!

well, I have finally stepped out of my original sewing realm, and into the world of making things other than bags! thanks to tina, and a somewhat successful "sewing day" together, I have now added some new creations into my repertoire... not to toot my own horn, but I actually really impressed myself! i had to sew on curves... not just the straight lines and box shape of bags. ok, we did spend a titch too much time at joanns today... yeah, and we stuffed our faces too! but all in all, i think today was a success! so here are my cute pocket bibs (courtesy of tina's teaching) and a reversible lemon dress (definitely courtesy of tina!) and i have to say, clay was happy to see I wasn't making "ANOTHER BAG!"
caren :)

midnight at the tutu factory

Ah, my order of tulle has arrived and I am ready to begin piecing together tutus. The tutus are turning out to be a big hit. I went into Monroe's to see if anything had sold and found out that someone did buy a tutu. A dad had come in for his 2 year old's bithday party and brought her home a tutu. Her mom came in afterwards and let them know that the little girl slept in it that night. How cute is that?!?! I plan to get a bunch of them ready for the Buffalo Indie Market. The first show is April 12th. I still need to get the application in, but I have emailed with the Indie Market creator and she is very interested in having us gigglepigs at the show. Can we really have a big enough stock of stuff by then?! Well today Caren is on her way over. She has a sitter and my kids will be at Gram's. We will have an entire sew day. How much will we actually get accomplished? Can't wait to find out!!
- Tina

the reversible dress...

After a couple nights of figuring out the flip (with a little help from online tutorials) I have completed the dress. I actually made 2 at this point, but this is the first. I still am not sure how to make it completely reversible without the ties, but I think they're cute anyways so I am ok with it for now. I also need to work on my sizing skills. It seems my dresses are turning out too big so I will have to alter my pattern. This whole sizing thing is going to give me an ulcer. It even gets me with the bonnets. How can I determine sizes for heads that I haven't seen??
Oh well, it will all iron itself out after numerous trials and errors. I hope....
- Tina

more satin!!!

so this evening the emails were sent out inviting our first batch of girls to our "sewing" party. kind of like a candle party, but different! :) buy our already made items, or customize your own... that's how it will go. kind of crazy to think that people might actually want to buy some of our stuff. a girl can only have so many purses right? although I really don't want to give ANY of them up! we really need to get going and stock ourselves up on this stuff! that being said, tina and i talked to each other on the phone and sewed for well over an hour tonight. my finished product? another satin lined bag... this one with 3 inside pockets and yet another cool button.

sweet surprise

So I was at the store tonight (um...maybe getting some fabric) and found this next to the Singer when I got home. It was from Molly. Sometimes it's the little things...

-tina

time to cook!

I had a few new missions this weekend. One of them was to try an apron. I made two and this one was cuter. The first apron I made with fabrics I didn't love as much because it was my first trial. This one I actually like a lot. It isn't too fancy, but very cute and Molly really likes it! Her new pink and brown polkadot mud boots match perfect! :) It is completely reversible too. The other side is all polkadot material, without a pocket, but still cute. My other mission was a jumper dress. I didn't complete that mission just yet, but the pieces are pinned and ready to go for tomorrow. I need to get to bed!
- tina

this lining is FABULOUS!!!

So friday night we went out for dinner to celebrate my mother in law's birthday. while we were there, i delivered 2 shamrock purses to the original requester of the shamrock bags. as we ate our dinner, she came to the table and said that there were at least 4 people at the bar who wanted shamrock bags. so what did i do this morning??? i made 4 more shamrock bags! and i though that i was done with the shamrocks! well i am now... fabric is gone! so again i felt the need to switch it up a bit. so i made this cute little satin lined purse. it's got a nice big pocket in there too! i have this satin in a bunch of colors... i think i have my new lining material!
caren :)

All you can eat bows...

Oh my, where has the time gone?! I haven't posted since last Sunday! I had a few issues this past week so I wasn't very productive. For some reason my machine didn't want to sew a straight seam through my new fabric. I spent one night ready to toss it out the window. The next night I decided to not even turn it on because I was afraid. I talked to the sewing teacher at Joanns and apparently it was the weird threads in the material and the fact that my machine isn't very powerful. That's right, my brand new machine that I thought was so great is a weakling. AH! At least I manage to glue a few hair bows together at 6 a.m. when I am up with the baby.



This is the new material that was giving me so much trouble. After switching to a denim needle, using different thread, and taking a few deep breaths, I got it to turn out ok. My husbands co-worker ordered it for his wife so I wanted it to look nice and not like it was done by my 4 year old. Well, it's late and I am beat. Hopefully I will have more to show very soon.
- tina

another bag...

so I was out last weekend with my best friend kelley. she looked at my shamrock purse and said "so when am I getting MY purse?" now you must understand that kelley is not exactly your handmade purse kind of gal (i love you kel, but you know you aren't!) so here was my quandary... what kind of purse can I make her that she would actually use? so this is what i came up with... hope she digs it!
caren :)

my (newest) favorite!

so I'm a little (ok a LOT) obsessive... after all of the shamrocks, I just HAD to make something new and different tonight. I know I have said this before, but this is my favorite purse yet! I love the vintage-y orange fabric, a cool vintage button (thanks to the mom in law), and two big ole pockets inside. did I mention how much I LOVE this bag? :) by the way, Clayton (my 6 year old) once again reminded me that I need to make bags for people other than myself... not sure I'm going to be able to part with this one though.
caren

no more shamrock bags!!!

so I'm FINALLY done with the shamrock bags and am able to get back at it. I woke up this morning to the fabulous surprise of an "ice" day! although both my monsters were home with me I was still able to get a lot of sewing done. I finished my last 3 shamrock totes and made a cute little purse for my mother in law's birthday... using one of my newly acquired cool buttons! I was so busy sewing, looking up dirt bike videos on youtube for Clay and cooking a turkey dinner, that I'm a bit brain dead now... maybe it's the triptophan! I really want to start something new and exciting tonight... we will see what happens!
caren :)

more shamrocks!

bring on the green beer!!! is it st. patrick's day yet? so I busted out 3 cute shamrock purses tonight... I must say they turned out pretty cute. 3 totes left to make and I can start being creative again... I CAN'T STOP BUYING FABRIC!!!

Sunday projects...

Well, these were my projects on Sunday. Again, trying something new! The hairclip took all of 3 minutes to make and turned out cute. I think I'll make a bunch now that I bought all the clips! I will do some more normal ones most likely. These are a great craft for when you just feel like sitting in front of the tv and not actually sewing, all you need is some ribbon and a hot glue gun (perhaps a button too). My bag turned out pretty nice. It's a little on the long side, but that's ok! I got some great new material and couldn't wait to try something. Time to do some house chores (that have been very neglected lately). This afternoon I get to go to the sewing class that came with the purchage of my new machine. Hope I learn something new! Think of all the possibilities!!

-tina

buttons

so my mother in law gave me a big container full of buttons today. here are a few cool ones. we need to start sticking buttons on everything! there are some REALLY cool vintage buttons in there. I LOVE these 2 that look like belt buckles... c

tutus

As Carenpig was repeatedly tearing out the same seam on her shamrock bag last night, I was piecing together these tutus. I wanted to bring my machine so we could both sew, but didn't feel like packin'er up and traveling through the snow with her. The tutus are so easy and come out so darn cute. I was never a girly girl as a child, but have turned into more of one as an adult. Having two girls probably helped lead to that. I actually went to a local boutique about a block from my house called Monroe's Place today. I never even knew what it was until a few days ago. She consigns handcrafted items and was a huge fan of the tutus! I put the first two for sale there today. Yippee! I also left two bonnets and hope people like them! After spending the day spending too much money on more fabric and getting a huge headache at a too loud and crowded Chuckie Cheese birthday party, I plan to sit and attempt to craft something...

- tina