Today's the Day

I hope you all had a lovely 4th of July. We were lucky enough to get a campsite at a local beach and spent 5 days laying in the sun and relaxing. The water was quite chilly, but that didn't stop the kids from playing on the beach and making sandcastles. It was a great time for the whole family.

When we came home, we were greeted with our first ripe cherry tomato. We planted this cherry tomato plant a few months ago and it just started getting little green tomatoes on it. This cutie was the first one to turn red. This is our first try at growing tomatoes, so the kids and I were very pleased with our efforts. :) Lily got to eat the first one. I could tell by her expression that it was a little sour, but she said it was delicious.
I loved reading all of your favorite colors in my giveaway post. I know that is one of the hardest questions to answer. There are so many beautiful colors, who could choose just one? Not me! I have to agree with many of you who said that they love the combination of blue & red together. And lately more than ever I've been loving purples and violets. I think my favorite colors change with the seasons and with my moods.

And, I wanted to thank those of you who wished me luck and offered wonderful advice about my decision to homeschool my kiddos. It seems to be a controversial subject, and I definitely get mixed reactions when I tell people that I will be homeschooling. But, I am truly thrilled about it and am going to give it my all! And, yes, I will be blogging about it along the way.

Okay, okay, enough about me. I bet you're all anxious to hear who won the giveaway!

My buddy, Mr. Randomizer selected post #20 ~ TheFancyFritter

TheFancyFritter said...

I stumbled across your blog and think this giveaway is wonderful! I love blues and pinks together, also I always love green! :) Enjoy homeschooling! I'm thinking of doing it with my little one too in a couple of years! Great blog! :)

Congratulations to her and thank you to the rest of you for visiting my blog and participating. I will have lots more fun stuff to come, so please stay posted.

Hugs,
Shannon

A Giveaway! Hooray!

I have been creating and selling my little girls clothing since the beginning of 2007, and I've enjoyed every moment of it. The best part of all has been all the friends I've made along the way. But, the time has come to move on. It has always been my plan to homeschool my children, and since my daughter just turned 5 we will be starting her kindergarten curriculum in the Fall. I am excited, nervous and a tad bit overwhelmed, so I just need to focus all of my energies on that. Of course I will continue to sew, but I think my projects will be fewer and farther between.

I wanted to thank all of you for your support and friendship. I love the fabric world and all the friends I've made, and I will continue to stay involved and continue to create.

And, of course, I will still have plenty to blog about, so please continue to visit me here. :)

As a thank you to all of YOU, I thought a giveaway was in order. This giveaway is meant to inspire your creativity. Simply leave a comment telling me what is your favorite color (or color combination) and I will select a winner using the handy dandy randomizer. The winner will receive the following goodies:

• Stitched in Time by Alicia Paulson. It's a fabulous book jam packed with amazing projects!
• 2 yards of fabric that I purchased from quiltcc on etsy. I love their shop and the fabrics they sell you won't find anywhere else. 1 yard is a ditsy strawberry print fabric and the other is a pink ballerina print.
• 1 yard of Red Jester ribbon from the Andalucia collection by Patty Young.

Winner will be selected next Sunday, July 5th.

Hugs,
Shannon

Thank You Heather Bailey

A couple weeks ago Heather Bailey had a giveaway on her beautiful blog. To my surprise, I WON! There were 1180 entries, so I thought I had no chance of winning. What a pleasant and wonderful surprise.

Today, I found a cute little box on my doorstep. I was so excited to run over and see who it was from. Yippee! It was from Heather Bailey!
Want to see what sweet goodies were tucked into that cute little box? Lots and lots of Freshcut lovelies!
I can't wait to make something beautiful with all these amazing fabrics and ribbons. My creative juices are flowing!

Thank you Heather!

xoxo,
Shannon

Summer Blues & Sunny Hues

My latest creation. I love it so much (I hope you don't mind if I pat myself on the back for a moment). The fact is, I am madly in love with these fabrics and this color combination. The fabrics are from Jennifer Paganelli's Flower Power collection. Soooo pretty!!!

When I was finished sewing, I immediately showed it to my toughest critic. That's right, Miss. Lily! She squealed (literally!) with excitement and said, "I can't WAIT to wear THIS! Can I wear it right NOW?". I don't get a reaction like that out of her very often, so I knew I had a winner.
This sweet little creation is up on e-bay as part of the Lollipopz Boutique "Summer Blues & Sunny Hues" launch. You can see my listing HERE.

xoxo,
Shannon

A Corner of My Home

I've been a busy little bee this week. After putting the finishing touches on the Clementine dresses and shipping them out to my wonderful customer, I began working on a dress for the Lollipopz Launch coming up this Friday. So far, I am love, love, loving it! Can't wait to share it with you all on Friday.

I am also working on the tutorial for the Tiered Mommy Skirt. I don't know if I should keep calling it that, though, because you certainly don't have to be a mommy to wear this darling skirt. I'm hoping to have the tutorial finished by sometime next week.

When I get a moment to set back and relax, I love to read. I read blogs, books, books about blogs, magazines about crafting.... just about anything that makes me feel inspired.

I wanted to share my quiet spot. This big ol' rocking chair started out in Lily's nursery, and now it's found it's way into Marty's & my bedroom. I love to sit here, open the window, feel a gentle breeze, and read away.
Here are the crafty books that I'm loving right now. I'm also reading a big stack of books about homeschooling because I will start homeschooling Lily this fall, so I have a lot of preparing to do for that. I'm curious, what's on your book shelf right now?

If you're looking for something new & inspiring I highly recommend these:
The Creative Family by Amanda Blake Soule
Seams to Me: 24 New Reasons to Love Sewing by Anna Maria Horner
Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross
Artful Blogging. It features one of my favorite bloggers, Camille Roskelley
Stitched in Time by Alicia Paulson
100 Applique Motifs by Deborah "Ismoyo" Green

Oh! And, want to see something cool? My Seams to Me book is signed by Mrs. Anna Maria herself. Pretty snazzy, if I do say so myself.
I hope you're all finding some quiet time too. It's not always easy to find the time, but when you can, it sure is nice.

Shannon

Pretty, Pretty Dresses

Did you want to see what I was creating with those lovely orange & lavender fabrics? The fabric is Clementine by Me & My Sister Designs for Moda. I purchased it at Fat Quarter Shop. Isn't it fun?

Stripwork Twirl Dress
Jumper w/Removable Sash Belt

Flowers for the hair

xoxo,
Shannon

Creating

Here's what's been going on in my sewing room today:

top-stitching
adding some ric rac
finishing the hems for the rufflesmaking a couple flower hair clips

Now I'm taking a little break with some White Tea and a couple cookies. It's just one of those days that calls for tea and cookies.

So, what's new with you? :)