My Darling Girl is One

I can't believe my baby girl is one. It honestly feels like I brought her home yesterday. And yet, somehow we just celebrated her first birthday with family and friends. How does that happen? How do they go from this:

to this:

in the blink of an eye?

She's not only the baby of the family, she's also the girl, with two older brothers. So, needless to say, this was a fun party for me to plan. We have called her ladybug since the very beginning, so it wasn't hard to decide where to start. Plus she was born in the spring. Plus, she's a girl. So flowers, and ladybugs and butterflies, let's have them all! And it had to be vintage feeling. I warn you, lots of pictures follow.

Let's start with decorations. I knew when I saw it on Ruffled that I had to make a new birthday banner for the girl. If you haven't seen it, then go here and download your own for free! It's so beautiful. I sewed it into some bias tape and looped the ends for easy hanging.

I also made one with her name and I plan to hang it in her room now that the party is over.

This one I sewed into wider bias tape and trimmed with tiny red ric rac. I love ric rac these days. Anything at all that reminds me of my grandma, I'm just a sucker for.

I tried to be mindful with my decorations and not spend a bunch of money on things that would just be thrown out by Tuesday. So instead of balloons, I bought and hung these eyelet lanterns which will also go into her room.

I'm going to try my hardest to salvage and re-use in the future the tissue flowers courtesy of Martha and the ruffled streamers courtesy of the Made tutorial found here.

Drinks were served in little reusable mason jars bought for .30. I did use paper plates and napkins because I just couldn't resist the flower plates and polka dotted napkins I found. They perfectly matched the runner I made for the table out of a vintage flat sheet and scraps of red and white polka dot fabric. I did "splurge" on striped paper straws too. They're just too pretty.

I did need to buy her one special balloon. It's tradition for the first birthdays in our house, ever since my firstborn fell in love with the birthday balloon friends bought him. And since it was the only balloon, I thought, why not make it big?

On to the food. We had butterflies and ladybugs and flowers. No really we did. Don't believe me? See for yourself!

Butterflies

Ladybugs

more ladybugs

flowers

See? The Babybel idea I found here. I tweaked it by using decorating gel for the dots and eyes. And the ladybug pretzels I've seen all over the web. The butterflies were my idea, just crescent dough cut out with a cookie cutter. Press a cocktail sausage into the center and bake. Viola!

We also had finger sandwiches served up on the seriously girly three tiered server I got one year at high tea with my mom and grandma before I knew I was having a girl.

Even the nuts got the floral treatment.

And then there's the cake. The cake my incredible sister in law (who was the one representing family at the party) baked and iced and decorated with me. I'm so glad she came and not just because I put her to work. Ha!

The original idea can be found here. Instead of piping the ladybugs though, I just took the gel pen to red candymelts. I love how it turned out.

Here are a few bonus shots of the party and the party girl. I love how her shoes and headband matched the party decor. Recognize the shoes from this post?

My sweet girl.

I love her.

Her party hat I made myself the day of the party because I realized I had totally forgotten it. I took an old sports party hat apart and used it as a template on cardstock and cut it out. Then I sprayed it with spray adhesive and when it was tacky pressed some scrap fabric to it and trimmed the excess. I stapled it into hat form, hot glued ric rac and added elastic. Oh, and I love it.

The party favors were little versions of my butterfly cuff, with velcro for the bigger sisters and elastic for the little sisters. There's a tutorial coming up for them, stay tuned.

Her present from Grandma and Grandpa.

So, that's it. What will more than likely be the last of the first birthdays I throw for my wee ones. It's a good thing I enjoyed it so much. And I think the birthday girl did too.

Prepping for a Party

You'll have to excuse me. I'm taking this weekend "off" again. Not only is it Memorial Day Weekend, and coming from a very military family I take that very seriously. But, today is my 11th anniversary to my incredible husband. And last year, our 10 year present to each other, given two days after our anniversary was this little bundle:

So Sunday is her first birthday. I can't even believe it. We're having a little party for her, so this weekend, I'm going to be a little busy getting ready and celebrating my family.

I hope you all have as wonderful and family filled a weekend and I intend to.!

Another Pretty Little Something

So, I've told you before about my husband's talented and incredible cousin, Lauren. You remember her from this post. I have really been enjoying getting to know her better long distance via Facebook and I look forward to the next time we get to see each other face to face and really actually talk to each other.

In the meantime, she asked me recently to design her a bracelet that was "her". Something dramatic, dark and interesting. (Those are my words, not hers. They just happen to fit her.) She showed me several items online that were almost what she wanted, but just not completely it.

While I was working one night, I came across a leather scrap and started playing with it a bit. I liked the shape of it. And then it hit me. Lauren's design. It was perfect and I couldn't wait to get it done and show her.

Pretty right? But wait! Lauren isn't one dimensional. No. She has many sides. She can be sweet and romantic like this, sure.

But, she also has a modern edge to her. So let's lose the flower shall we? Go for something clean lined and asymmetrical shall we?

Nice! I love this bracelet. It's so versatile. I've said it before, I love accessories that do double duty. In this case it does even more than that.

See there? The flower has a pin backing so she can pin it on a dress, or put it on a necklace. And it just threads on to the bracelet, so there's no puncturing the leather.

It's on its way to her and I can't wait for her to have it. After all it was made especially for her.

I'm Loving the Tweed

I have a wonderful customer who is so encouraging. She is a huge supporter and I have never even met her. She always has kind words to say and the day she received her first order she promptly placed another. It's wonderful to have happy customers!

This is the design that we came up with for her this time around.

They are a totally different vibe from her black shoes with the red bows that I made for her last time. Those were bold and sophisticated. These are soft and sweet.

I know there will be lots more tweed shoes in my future. I know this because when I was at the thrift store the other night, I bought two tweed items to make shoes from.

She also wanted some rosette hair clips that matched her daughters' shoes. I hope they like them.

Now it's on to making her son a pair. Yes, I am working on a boy design. But, these things take time.

I also have a new bracelet to show you, but that will have to wait till next time. Even though I am in love with it. Off to sew!

Princess Shoes

When I was a girl, I loved dresses that made me feel like I belonged in a fairy tale. Sometimes I would even layer skirt upon dress upon skirt just to get the fullness I was looking for. I'd even enlist the aid of blankets wrapped around my waist to create a train. I know I'm not alone in this.

My first custom order from Etsy came from a mom who wanted to give her daughter the dream dress for such a little girl. It's Silk dupioni, it's layers of ruffles, it's romantic and just pure fantasy. It from The Handmaiden's Cottage.

Source: The Handmaiden's Cottage

See what I mean? I was in charge of making shoes that would live up to such a degree of girlish imagination and beauty. Tall order. But, I think I came close. I just happened to have a little bit of cream colored silk dupioni. Obviously, it was meant to be.

And obviously, it needed a little pink.

Hopefully when she slips these little slippers on, she'll feel like a princess.

And with these shoes came yet another improvement. I have added firmness to my insoles so that they protect better and yet are still very comfortable and soft enough for early walkers. I'm pretty excited about this new development. And the best part is that, this improvement is so inexpensive it won't affect the price at all. Yay!

A Word About Pricing...

Yes, the dreaded P-word. I can't tell you how much stress that little word has caused me in recent months. I'm way more comfortable giving things away than I am telling you what something is worth. Especially, when it comes to something that I made. The pressure. I mean, it just boggled my mind in the first place that people would be willing to pay for something I made. Then there's the question of what would other people consider it worth? What's too much? What's not enough? Seriously, it's a lot of pressure.

That said I have tried my hardest to price my shoes reasonably. I use re-purposed and thrifted materials whenever I can, making a silk shoe the same cost as a cotton one. Since I started making them, however, some things have changed, for the better of course. I have learned a ton thanks to my wonderful customers granting me the ability to make so many shoes. And I have added layers to my shoes to make them even better. With that, though, comes a longer time to make them (it usually takes me three nights' worth of work to finish one order) and added cost. That in addition to prices going up for the other items I use means I am going to have to raise my prices just a little bit. Baby and children's shoes will be $30 and women's sizes will be $40. Baby boots will be $35-$40.  All shipping will be $5 unless shipped with another item.  I do reserve the right to price particular designs differently depending upon the material used.

All current orders will remain at the same price. This increase only applies to future orders. I hope that you all will continue to think that these Little Things are worth it. And thank you so much for your support and encouragement in this endeavor. I honestly couldn't do this without you all!

Improving Cozette

This is one popular little design. And in truth it really is my favorite as well. I just love the romantic nature of them. I love the fact that a utility fabric can be made into something so sweet and pretty.

These were for my first order from Busy Bees. And the delightful customer who ordered them wanted to know if I would make a matching sash to go with the dress they were meant for. I always love a challenge.

Since the dress has flowers at the shoulder and the shoes have flowers on the toes, I thought that another one on the sash would be overkill. So I went instead with a sweet ruffle embellishment.

The more I make of this design though, the shabbier Em's are looking. I may need to squeeze in a new pair for her.

In the meantime, I hope this little girl enjoys her Cozette set.

And the Bows Have It...

It was very close. But weighting the outcome was the fact that my husband strongly favored the bows. And she already has flower shoes seen here. So it seemed a good idea to add variety to her shoe collection.

How is she one already?

As you can see in these pics, it was definitely the right decision.

My little beauty.