About Me

My photo
Judith Van Atta Roenke. I am a Navy Submariner wife. Triathlete. I am the proud mommy of Henry the Fifth and Peter Tristum. Welcome to my Blog...

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Monday, October 27, 2008

My Sense of Humor is so Juvenile

I just commented on someone else's blog and the anti-spam word was "adinho". TeeHeeHee.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

GROSGRAIN MINI STORE OPENING NOVEMBER 6!!!! AND BIG PREVIEW GIVEAWAY!!!!


GROSGRAIN MINI STORE OPENING NOVEMBER 6!!!! AND BIG PREVIEW GIVEAWAY!!!!

I am so excited that Grosgrain will be selling her creations soon! Maybe, just maybe, she will make a few boy items - I hope I hope. She is giving away 3 skirts with matching tops to celebrate! I am so impressed. Bibs and Burps are the best I can do for now.
My mom is coming tomorrow to give me the respite time to finish his costume and maybe a few bowling shirts.

Friday, October 24, 2008

A Gift from Poland


One of the gifts Henry brought back from Poland. A stylish bag of sugar. He knows me so well.

Sock Monkey Bib and Burp Giveaway

My first Giveaway!! I am giving away this sock monkey applique bib and burp cloth set. Hand made with all new materials. Backed with baby blue chenille. I can vouch for my handmade bibs and burps holding A LOT of baby barf. They are very absorbent and have great coverage for your messiest solid food days. Velcro closure. Machine wash any temp, dry any temp, pre-treat with spray-n-wash for stains.


Open to all (three) of my readers! I am willing to ship overseas for this first giveaway. Although my readers consist of Hubby who lives with me (duh), neighbor who I can just hand them to, and buddy who lives in CONUS.

To enter leave a comment on this post. Link to your blog or leave an email so I can contact the winner. If you don't want to publicize your email, find mine in my profile and send me an email in addition to your comment. I will not publish emails or use them for any purpose other than notifying the winner.
I will use a random number picker to choose the winner. Last entry accepted November 6th, 2008 midnight EST. Drawing will be November 7th, 2008.

addendum: extended entries to Midnight Nov. 7th.
Posted by Picasa

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Google Ad Sense

So, I decided to add ads to my site. In a few days, the ads should appear at the bottom and are generated by Google based on the content of the blog. I do not choose what ads appear or what products are being advertised. This is just a way for my site to possibly generate some revenue.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Birthday Gift and an Embarassing Photo


One of Henry the Fifth's little girlfriends turned one a few days ago. For her birthday, BabyH commissioned Mommy to make her "The Cutest Dress Ever." I think I succeeded. She is a little swimmer, so the mermaid fabric I've been hording was a perfect match for her personality.


She is the same weight as Henry, so the poor man had to try it on. He looks so strange in a dress.
I also sent some Green Bay Packers coffee sleeves to keep Henry on he daddy's good side.

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!


Grosgrain is giving away this handmade gown! It even has period underpinnings and hand made flowers on the front. Go check it out! Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Wet and Wild



My SIL gave Henry a water table for his first birthday. I hadn't even thought of it. Of course, a seasoned mommy would know what to get for a kiddo's 1st birthday.
Henry was playing with it inside until the other day. I took him out with a blanket to play inthe yard while I washed some selves off to bring in (to store my expanding sewing collection). Naturally, Henry didn't want to stay on his blanket, so he came over to the big puddle by me and got soaked.
When in Rome.... Since he was already soaked, I brought out the water table and filled it. He had a BLAST. He was hollering and laughing and splashing like crazy. Luckily it is mild enough here that he could play a while without getting too cold.
After playing his butt off in the water, he took off down the driveway. I followed, and he he ended up circumnavigating the entire house!! His poor little leg warmers are shot now.

Wing Tai, Geneva, NY

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Fabric Party Hat Tutorial

I wanted to make a sock monkey party hat for Henry the Fifth's first birthday. I couldn't find a tutorial for a fabric party hat. This is my attempt at documenting how I made his.

Materials:
Paper Party hat
shirt box or cereal box
fabric of choice
matching and contrast scrap strips/remnants
fusible interfacing
pinking shears
scissors
ric rac
needle
thread
1/4 inch elastic

1. Open a store bought paper hat and trace onto an old box top or cereal box. Cut out template. You can use the actual paper hat as your template if you don't need it for guests later.
(There is a PDF template by scholastic here, but it is small compared to a store bought hat.) (Note: on my template I left the tab used for a paper hat to connect together. This was not necessary and will get cut off. Next time I will omit this tab.)

2. Using the template, trace and cut out your fabric and fusible interfacing using pinking shears. Make sure the sticky side of the interfacing matches the wrong side of the hat fabric.

3. Iron the interfacing to the wrong side of the fabric following the directions on the interfacing.

4. (This step was added later when I realized the hat needed reinforcing.) Cut three 1 inch strips of interfacing to run from the top to the bottom of the hat. Iron on in equidistant spacing. Depending on the weight of your hat topper, you may need more reinforcement. It is possible to add later as needed, just easier to add now.

4. Measure and cut 2 lengths of ric rac to trim the perimeter of the hat bottom. Machine sew onto the hat. I chose contrasting colors I later picked up in the hat topper.

5. Fold the hat right side together matching the edges. (Note: on the template I left the tab used for a paper hat to connect together. This was not necessary and will get cut off.)

6. Sew hat edge with right sides together with 1/4 inch seam. If you haven't already, cut off the extraneous tab.

8. Turn right side out.

9. Make hat topper.

9a. I made a huge pompom following this tutorial by Molly Chicken. The pompom came out beautifully. Unfortunately, the weight of it was too much for the hat to handle, even after reinforcing.

My pompom circle.
Cutting the pompom.

I don't have a photo of the hat with the giant pompom squishing the hat down.

Hat topper, 2nd attempt....
The following is the fix I did to create a smaller pompom-esque fringe for the top of the hat.

9b. Cut 10 to 15, 1/2 inch thick strips of matching and contrasting fabric approximately 6 inches long. (I pulled about 10-15 strips out of the cute, giant pompom I made.)

9c. Thread a needle with matching thread. Knot the end. Push needle thru fabric at the top of the hat so the knot is on the inside of the hat. Then, push needle and thread thru the middle of all of your strips. Arrange strips on the thread so that they hang down in all directions. Bring needle and thread back down thru the fabric strips and thru the tip of the hat again. Repeat until the topper is secure. Be sure to keep the strips from getting caught in the loop of the thread as you sew.

(This is actually an after party shot, as you can tell by the buttercream frosting on the hat!)

You can sort of see how I sewed it on here.
10. Measure a length of elastic to go under the chin of the birthday person. I set the hat on the baby and held the elastic in place. If your birday person is not available, then guesstimate.
(In this view you can see the reinforcing that I added.) Hand tack the elastic to the inside of the hat on either side, making sure the seam is in the back.


PAH-TEY!!!!

(Launder: I hand washed his hat with woolite and it kept it's shape nicely.)

Please comment with questions so that I can edit the tutorial to future use.