Thanks!

First off I want to say thanks to Stacy of Stacy Sews for the nomination of the "E" excellent blogger award. It is so humbling to think people want to actually read about my sewing progress. My blog started as a journal of sorts just to document my sewing. My goal has never been readership. Of course I am happy to share what is going on in my sewing life with the world and I truly enjoy the comments that are left for me, I read each one so thank you for taking the time to post a comment. :-) This award has been circulating the blogland for a while now so I'm not quite sure who to pass the torch on to, so if you haven't been nominated, I nominate you! :-)

Also I wanted to share with you a new treat I bought for myself ~ Kai pinking sheers. I love the set of three Kai scissors I purchased back in March at the sewing expo so much that I finally broke down and bought the pinking sheers too. I often wish I had a pair of pinking sheers so on a whim I ordered them. I placed my order on Friday and on Monday they were in my mail box - super fast shipping, but they are in Seattle so it's only a few hours away from me. I tested them out and they are fab.u.lous - I know they will be a great asset to my sewing tool collection!

Sewing this week has been pretty quiet. I've worked on some diapers for my weekly store stocking, but other than that, not much. I'm thinking ahead to school clothes and what I will make the kids (well boys anyway). The girl child is on her own for shopping RTW this year. Yes it breaks my heart, but she's on her way to 5th grade and has ideas and likes of her own so it's high time she shops RTW to see how far the all mighty dollar doesn't go. She'll be getting an "allowance" and it will be a lesson in finance for her to manage that money and see what she can buy. She is partly covered already having new tennis shoes and a new coat, so she'll need to fill in the gaps in her closet with some pants, tops, and skirts or dresses as well as a pair of dress shoes. It will be interesting to see how this turns out. My parents started doing this for me in the 7th grade, but she's been rather fickle with her clothes lately and wants all Hannah Montana clothes from Wally World (yes, she's mildly obsessed!). So off to Walmart we'll go - not my most favorite place to shop, but I imagine she'll get quite a few sweatshop made goodies with her money.

Lastly, there is a little contest on a group I belong to for a free Euro kids sewing pattern. The contest runs through midnight Eastern time on July 30th, so if you sew for children and love using the Euro patterns (especially Farbenmix or StudioTantrum patterns) and aren't part of the European Sewing Patterns for Children group, please join and use my name (Melissa Bauska - must put my name in the application when applying for me to be in the running for the prize). The pattern they are giving away is actually one my daughter likes and even tho I hadn't planned on sewing for her, I bet I can woo her with it. :-) Like most yahoo groups, there is a small application process so please only join if you're interested in the group and sew for kids.

Hope you're all having a fun weekend!!! :-)

A little less talk, a lot more action.

I'm a country girl (yes I really live in the country) and love country music. Last weekend while my hubby was away on business, the kids were up late listening to a Toby Keith CD while playing Legos. On a whim I thought it sure would be fun to see him in concert (I've only been to two concerts at the fair and then one when I was little with my dad which I don't really remember) so I decided to hop online and see what his tour schedule was. Low and behold he was coming to the local Amphitheatre in a week. So I decided to look and see if I could find tickets so I could surprise my hubby with a special date night. Lucky me, I ended up getting tickets in the center section 14 rows from the front!!! I was so pumped and kept it a secret until yesterday afternoon divulging clues to him via email. Once he guessed the "who" I told him what we were doing - needless to say, he was very impressed with the surprise and my creativity (can you say "awesome wife" points for me??? lol).

So with an upcoming date night upon us, I had to make something new to wear (of course!). Flipping through my BWOF mags this past week I found the perfect little top to wear to the concert. It is from the June 2008 issue - #123. It was actually super simple to make thanks to some tutorials that have been posted. I ended up following the one posted by Christina of Assorted Notions, but both Dawn of Two On, Two Off and Angie of Quality Time both had helpful info on their blogs too. Thanks ladies, I'm so appreciative of you taking the time to share how to do something, especially when the directions are pretty murky! I posted a full review Pattern Review if you'd like to know more about the top. The verdict: DH loved the top and we had a B.L.A.S.T. at the concert last night. I think that was actually more fun than I've had in a very long time. The group Montgomery Gentry opened for Toby Keith and they were wonderful to see live as well - it was just a night of pure fun!!!

Next up is a dress I made a few weeks ago - New Look 6802. I love this dress. I loved it the minute I saw it in the pattern catalog, but I'm a sucker for twist tops and wrap tops/dresses. Well I was not at all disappointed by this little number and have already worn it twice. I have another one cut and ready to sew up. I highly recommend this pattern, the instructions were super easy and the results are fabulous! Review on PR

This last top is one I whipped up because I realized I really needed more solid colored pieces in my wardrobe. It's from Ottobre Woman 2-2007 #4. Super easy and a TNT (tried and true) pattern for me. I also made four tank tops from the same issue this week too, pattern #1. I love the tank top pattern as well and it's very quick to make since I use my coverstitch machine and binding attachment. I don't have a picture of the tank tops, but I made one in turquoise, hot pink, plum, and red.

Currently I'm working on a jacket in turquoise linen. It's the Project Runway Simplicity 3538. I'm not sure if I'm in love with it or if it's looks too Becky HomeEc-y. It's almost done, so I think I will put it away for a week or two and bring it back out and see if I'm liking it a little better. I hate it when I'm not in love with something right away. I'm a jacket novice so I'm sure there is lots of room for improvement. DH doesn't know if he likes it either, so maybe that is swaying my feelings right now. He said he's not sure about the color and the color is definitely what I love so I don't know.

Yes I Do Sew...

It might not seem like it because I haven't posted in 2 1/2 weeks, but I really am still here. And yep, we even survived CEC on my son's birthday (thank you all for your well wishes too). It was actually a great time because the place was totally dead! We live in a pretty small community so I think that helped, plus it was in the middle of the week and a pretty nice day out. He had fun and hey that is all that matters, right? Here are pictures to prove fun was had by all (yes, even the adults!).

This entry is kind of a weird one for me. I am not much of a self promoter or one to toot my own horn so to speak, but a local friend (who also reads my blog - hi Kim!) said I must share this little tidbit with you, so here I am sharing. :-)

What you probably don't know about me is I have a website Posh Punkins. It all started in April 2003 when I decided I wanted to offer cloth diapers I was sewing to other families (don't worry these aren't the big white rectangles your mom or grandma used, instead they are cute, fitted cloth diapers). You see, I had been using cloth diapers for several months and decided I loved them so much I wanted to share them with the world. My hubby was very supportive of my plan, so it was then that Posh Punkins was born.

In the summer of 2005 I decided I wanted to explore some other avenues and spend more time with my family so I stepped away from offering cloth diapers. Fast forward to present day; recently a friend had contacted me about me reentering the cloth diaper marketplace. At first I told her I wasn't really interested, but after thinking about it for a while I decided some extra money would be great so I decided to jump back in. I had this *great* plan like I always do, I'd sew diapers one day a week and then I'd have the other six left to do whatever sewing I wanted to do. In theory this is great, but reality and theory never seem to be the same. I only stock the diapers at The CuddleBuns Boutique on Monday at 1pm Eastern, so really there is no reason this shouldn't work, but I will blame it on summer break and having the kids home.

So really, I *have* been sewing, just not too much for me lately. I'm having a hard time getting a rhythm down, but I know that all takes time. I am really craving sewing for me, so this week's stocking only has four diapers available for sale. In a perfect world, I'd have 6-10, but hey it's not a perfect world so four will just have to do. And since I'm self promoting, if you need any personalized baby gifts, you should check out my website too - I have cute baby bloomers that you can have a name or initials embroidered on, embroidered burp cloths, & chenille birthday bibs. So there, I did it, now you all know I have a business. :-)

Even tho the "non-business" sewing has been low, I did actually make a cute dress for me a week or so ago and a bathrobe for my daughter. Hopefully in the next day or so I can post the reviews of those two items.

I am a little bummed tho because my hubby was out of town for 3 days on business and I got no sewing done at all. I had such high hopes of making several things for me, but this time nothing got done. Oh well, there is always tomorrow, right? Besides the kids and I did have a fun time. The highlight of our weekend was our trek to the river to enjoyed some glorious sunshine. And really, family time is is what is important in the scheme of things, not how much sewing I get done. There will be plenty of time for sewing once they are grown and gone, but for now I need to embrace that they are young and still enjoy spending time with me. I will fully admit tho, I'm *VERY* happy my hubby is back home and am so glad he doesn't travel for work very often. Plus I sleep terrible when he's away.