2009 July « Life is SEW nice with my Two Peas!

Archive for July, 2009

Heavens to Murgatroyd!

July 28, 2009 · Filed under Stitch magazine, amy butler, kids, patchwork skirt, pillowcase tutorial, pink fig, sewing

OK, so I’m hanging out with the wee one getting ready to put her to bed and I say to her, “Heaven’s to mergatroid child!”. Seriously?! Where did THAT come from? Heavens to mergatroid?! So, that got me curious, and as I do typically each night, lock myself in the bath and step into a steaming tub and catch up on blogs on my iphone (that’s right, don’t act like you don’t do it too,
risky, yes but I’m very careful not to drop it in the water : )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snagglepuss

So I’m googling, Heavens to Murgatroyd. Turns out this is a take on Heavens to Betsy – no one is quite sure who Besty was but the pink mountain lion, Snagglepuss, on Yogi Bear coined this twist on the original phrase. Then I keep reading and it says, of all things, that the pink mountain lion on Yogi Bear was gay. What?! Gay?! I didn’t know that, did you? Of course, at the age I was watching Yogi Bear I suppose I didn’t even know what it meant to be gay but I was shocked. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that ” (remember THAT Seinfeld episode) I just didn’t know. I mean, he’s pink and all but he could have just been all metro sexual kind of thing but, whatever. He’s a cartoon character. So, now ya know and when you are playing trivial pursuit or something, you’ll have that little odd fact about this phrase to tuck away into your memory banks. What that has to do with anything I’m not sure…

Moving on…been super busy catching up on party orders! I do home parties,

Pattern found in Stitch magazine, Spring 2009

Trunk Shows I call them. You host a party at your house and then I bring all of my purse samples, and loads of fabric swatches and you get to build your own bag, or quilt, or bib, or dress, or skirt, or whatever…I make loads of

Giving it a twirl!

stuff. Anyway, its a blast (and you can host an online party too if you aren’t local – hey, just email me twopeasinapoddesigns at gmail dot com).

One of the ladies ordered a patchwork skirt. Well, I was dying to try out this pattern I found here by Chelsea Anderson of Pink Fig. I love her stuff because it is SO easy and the results are amazing. So, here’s my first try at this skirt from the mag. LOVE IT! Want one? They’ll be loaded on my website soon. (ohh! Launching my dot com soon – you’ll love). Here’s one more quickie photo from the iphone of an order from Julia’s party…

Both bags ordered by teens - aren't they cute!?

And on top of all the sewing I’ve been doing…whew! we had swim team practice, practice, practice and then

One of my fishes

championships and then banquet followed by a super fun

Easy peasy cupcakes for a pool party

Blue frosting, a gummy ring with Teddy Graham in the middle and a little fun party toothpick stuck in for sparkle.

pool party. Really, that was so much fun to swim after dark with the kids! One of the Dad’s DJ’d and it was such fun.

And check this out! THIS is India from our office. First of all, isn’t she beautiful?! Well, one of our student workers, Allison, has been teaching herself how to sew.

Love this geisha fans print from Amy Butler!

She took a tunic from her Mothers closet, laid it out and cut a pattern and made this shirt. Huh?! That’s a girl with a great sewing future! Don’t you love this! Now, the seams were a bit rough inside but at the time she didn’t have a serger. Problem resolved, I sold her my old one at the end of the school year. I can NOT wait to see what she creates next! I think she did such a fabulous job!

Ok, breathe, breathe…is this like too much information for one post?! I’ll stop now, mostly because the gardener is at home with three kids and I’m sure tapping his foot waiting for my arrival home. (no internet at home – have to schmooze it elsewhere to post – blah!)

So, next post – get ready! I have a fun little service project for us! I was reading this story in People magazine about a soldier who had asked for bedding from home to be sent because their linens over there stink. I thought, all of us sewing goddesses that we are, lets sew up some pillowcases to send over! Sound good? Next post will be a pillowcase tutorial and my giveaway for August will be some fabric so you can make one more and send off. I’ll post their contact info and all so you can mail off your little bundle of soft love for a wonderful soldier to bury their tired head into at night.

Be good everyone! School is back in session in 28 days! Yippee! (oops! That came out like a shout of joy, didn’t it? That was sorrow – I will MISS the little ones terribly and wait at the window just watching for their return each day from school – after I do my happy dance!! Just kidding – a little. I just want to catch up on laundry – we’ve been playing and working a lot – not much house cleaning going on).

Ok seriously, I’m signing off – I’m writing like I’m on crack or something – get ready for pillowcase construction, ok! Go getcha some fabrics!

xoxox,

Trish

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{to be 8 and oh, so cute…}

July 11, 2009 · Filed under american girl, kids

Thanks for the emails and well wishes…I am on the mend. Had to stop taking the antibiotics because the side effects were really bad. Hives, heart stuff, dizzy – crazy. But happy to say the infection is 85% or so better so I’m very happy about that. What a disaster that whole thing has been.

The fountain at the downtown park...the girls love to dip their toes in. The flowers downtown everywhere are amazing.

The fountain where the girls love to dip their toes...and the flowers downtown are amazing

The other day, I just wanted to get out a little and so we went for a walk in our downtown area. We just live 2 minutes from our downtown and the girls love to hang out down there. First, into Harvest Moon, the coffeehouse. The day before, SafeAuto had been there filming a commercial. Our downtown is very historic and cute and so they actually film a fair number of commercials down there and everybody loves the coffeehouse. Anyway, if you are ever in our downtown , you must get a cup of their hot chocolate. I don’t know what they do to it but it is the BEST ever. And Jane makes killer french toast bagesl. All her bagels are great!

We walked over to the fountains. And then waited for the new dollshop to open. HannahGrace’s Dollhouse . The girls loved it! You may just find some Two Peas little girl dresses and matching doll dresses coming there soon – I dropped off a sample with the new owners. It’s a fun stop in town. Sidewalk chalk outside so they girls can draw and babies to hold. Too fun. Then we headed over to the thrift store. We found an old working typewriter – as the girls said, “just like KIT’s!”. Kit Kittredge of course, American Girl. And an old style school desk. Both a must for their playhouse. And I found a green and blue compote dish to hold my bobbins while I’m switching out threads back and forth. Our total purchase price, $10. Not bad!

Too cute for their own good!

We sat a bit outside of the barbershop on the corner. The girls were facinated to peek through the big window and watch the men getting haircuts. The owner kept smiling at them and waved them inside and gave them each a sucker. They were absolutely giddy!

I was pretty pooped after that since that was my first day I had been up in several days so we headed home. Just kicking back and trying to let my body heal and do its thing. Hope you are enjoying summer! Don’t forget, leave me a comment about your sewing mishaps – you know, skirts and that became shirts, etc. I’m feeling kind of lonely in my demise – surely, you’ve had some funny stories to tell, right? I have to find a photo of a shirt I made when I was 16. My Mom thought it was wonderful – looking at it now, too funny! And a dress I wore to Homecoming – classic funny stuff! I need to find those and share…maybe later. I feel a nap calling while baby sleeps.

Nap-nap!

xoxo, Trish

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{how a skirt becomes a shirt and other tales of seams gone bad}

July 7, 2009 · Filed under sewing, sewing giveaway, sewing mishaps

Will this start a trend you think? Is it a skirt? Could be. A shirt? Double duty!

Sigh. I should warn you, if you have a weak stomach, some of this post may not sit well with you.

So, I’ve been sick for about a week now. Pretty dog gone sick. Remember back when I said we had been working to clean up a rental property we had? Well, the house was completely flea infested. I didn’t know this of course until after we’d spent a day in there working and I came home with like 50+ bites. Horrible. Very very ItChY!! (never EVER never be a landlord – so not fun).

And remember back when I told you all my Dad had had a heart attack and was hospitalized? And I went to visit him? I had all of those bites raging at that time. And I must have scratched them while I was there – and picked up germs on my hands and introduced it into my leg. And contracted MRSA. Totally, totally disgusting and probably the most painful thing I have ever had. More than having 3 babies. Seriously. My entire leg swelled up, I could hardly walk, it throbbed, burned, ached over my entire body and I would share more details but really, it’s just gross. They surgically opened it up and it’s getting better but man, I have been out of my mind this week. If I’ve emailed you or talked to you lately and it all came up jibberish and the like – I’ve not gone mad, just under pain meds and pain. I was already a bit of a germ -a-phob before this happened as my friends can attest and THIS has just thrown me over the top. Blah-ick! Next time I go to a hospital I will have on full coverage shoes, socks and pants that totally cover my legs, wash 20 times and then put on hand sanitizer and more.

One of the down sides, the baby is being treated with a topical antibiotic as a preventative for some odd looking spots on her legs. She’s otherwise just fine. And everybody else here seems to have escaped the wrath of this evil superbug but we still have a few more days to be sure.

Stunning shhhh-kirt! LOL!

One of the days I was sick, I thought, ha ha, I thought I’d try to sew for a bit. I found a tutorial for a skirt here at Just Deanna, her Girly Twirly Skirt. Seemed easy enough and I thought it was well written and illustrated. However, in my daze I gathered and gathered and attached and sewed and when I got all done I had this big pouf where it should not have been on the top tier. I had one of my girls try it on and my husband and I looked at it and just scratched our chins. “Hmm, lift your arms honey”, I said. And zip zap, hey! Now it’s a shirt! I added a couple of straps and both girls loved it. I call it, the schkirt, pronounced shhhhh-kirt. In the end, days later, I discovered that the bottom tier you are to cut TWO of each. I cut ONE. Yeah. That would do it. The moral of the story. Don’t sew while sick or you too will experience “seams gone bad”.

The bag here made for Teegan, matches the diaper bag I made her Mom.

So that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. I did manage to not screw up adding some ruffles to a pair of jeans and an applique to a tshirt for a friend.

My June giveaway was a set of repurposed market bags which went to Crystal, new Mom of twin girls. They’ll be on their way to you shortly Crystal. For July, I thought I’d giveaway one of my mini-notebook covers so you can take notes on the fly in your sewing room, etc. And this month, leave a comment about a sewing mishap you’ve experienced. Or if you don’t sew, just any old project gone wrong kind of story will do.

Still laying around with my feet up. And slowly on the mend. Only me. Only weird little things like this happen to me. Shhheez! Hope all is well with you and yours. Looking forward to commiserating with you on your “seams gone bad”.

xoxo,

Trish

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