More Baby Shoes

I'm working on some more baby shoes for Amelia's. These are all made with upcycled material and lined with felt. The cream colored ones are from a linen curtain and the darker tan ones are from some lightweight wool that I got from a craft circle. I really like the pair with the little owl on them. I did the owl with a freezer paper stencil. I think they came out really cute. I still need to add snaps to the mary janes, but I can't seem to find the snaps that I bought. SO, it's off to Walmart to get another package of snaps....blah.

My first leather baby shoes

I love making shoes for my babies, but it's really only something I've been able to do for the first year or so of their lives. Once they start walking, they need something a little more sturdy (fabric wears out really quickly on concrete). So this week, on my trip to our local Goodwill I picked up this pretty unattractive leather skirt. I figured I would try my hand a little pair of leather shoes for Zion.

I'm still getting the hang of this whole sewing machine thing and I really don't think mine likes me very much, so these were sewn by hand. The inside and the little flower are felt and the strap closes with a little snap (the button is just for show).

My index finger is one big callous now, but I think it was well worth it. They tuned out pretty cute and Zion really likes them.

Progress and Portraits

It has been a busy couple of weeks here. I finally finished the boots and hats for the shop on the Square. They all turned out pretty cute AND I managed to print some tags for them on fabric before my printer ran out of ink. As I am still mastering the sewing machine, they are all pretty much hand sewn, but it's progress. I really wanted to get them to her before Christmas, but there were lots of other things going on around here. While I was in sewing mode, I decided to make a new pair of shoes for Zion. I had a nice wine colored wool sweater that I made into a pair of cute, warm winter Mary Janes. I also used my new hole punch (that I found for $5 at Walmart) to add some nice detail to them.


My shoe making was slowed a bit by a large family portrait that I was painting. My friend offered to trade me a washer and dryer for a portrait of her family. Can you ask for a better barter?! We have been in need of a washer since we moved into this house (a year ago). This is by far the largest family I've done, but it was good practice. I usually pride myself on being able to complete a portrait in a day or so, but this time I had to paint seven people. That stretched my work time, well, seven times (at least). I signed it and scraped my palette today so that I will not be compelled to keep touching it up (I'm prone to doing things like that). Hopefully she likes it.

Sweater slippers, shortbreads and small business plans

The weather has taken a nose dive around here. Thanksgiving weekend was beautiful. We could not have asked for better weather. This week, they are predicting snow. SNOW! It's cold out there. It's also a little chilly in our house too. I promised the girls that I would make them all slippers to warm their icy toes (which they love to put on unsuspecting parts of my body throughout the day). The thought of hand sewing slippers for everyone was rather daunting. So instead, I figured I would take this opportunity to teach the girls some basic stitches and let them make their own pair of slippers. Jena is working diligently on her first pair. Ashni has MUCH less patience for things that take longer than 5 minutes, so she may be wearing socks this winter. I guess 2 is too young to let loose with a needle, so I did make a pair for Bijou. I love recycling secondhand sweaters into slippers, baby shoes, hats and toys. We found a great grey lambswool sweater at Goodwill. So far it has been used to make a pair of legwarmers for Ashni for ballet, Jena is using part for her slippers and the rest has been used for Bijou's slippers. There's still enough material left to make.....something, but I don't know what yet. I finished Bijou's slippers last night and she's had warm toes all morning.

A couple of days ago, I got a hankering for lemon. Lemon something...I wasn't sure what yet. Then I remembered how much I love shortbread cookies and lemonade in the summer and thought, what if I could combine the two of those (I also enjoy lemon cookies). So I whipped out my shortbread cookie recipe and rummaged around the fridge until I found a lemon and a lime. I grated some lemon and some lime zest and added it to the shortbread dough. The I made a lemon - lime icing to put on top. GREATEST THING EVER! We've made about three dozen over the last couple of days.

Now, my mother (who is always trying to come up with business ideas for me), has decided that I need to start a business that sells baby accessories, lemon shortbread and buttermilk biscuits. HA! That's like those place where you can get a haircut, your car washed and a slab of ribs all at the same time. As I was relaying that idea to my cousin (who was partaking in one of the lemon shortbread cookies) she reminded me of a little shop here on the square that does indeed sell baby accessories and baked goods! Go figure. So today, I will be packaging up some cookies, pulling out some of my stock of baby accessories and trucking down to the square to see if she's interested. I will also be going to get a sewing machine! YAY! Happy early birthday to me! Thanks mom.