My favourite room in the house

Hey there!

I just thought I would post a couple of pictures of my favourite room in the house. Little Bean's room. Its so sweet and fun and we have so many giggles and pretend cups of tea in there. Its a great room to be a little girl in... or to revert back your childhood in :)

One more thing that I haven't got a picture of is all the little dresses hanging in her cupboard. After two boys its nice to have dresses! And it makes me proud that most of them have been made by me!

The last picture is a gorgeous little Japanese deity who protects children given to Bean by my beautiful Mum.

and on that note I wanted to give you this link to Lil Blue Boo's website...

www.lilblueboo.blogspot.com/2010/01/patterns-for-haiti.html

100% of all her pattern sales today go to the Three Angel Haiti Orphanage. How sweet is that!! Between today and her previous sales she is up over $1500 in donations.

I love, love, love lilblueboo's Sienna pattern but I am such a cheapskate and hardly ever buy patterns! I would prefer to spend all of my money on fabric and wing the rest. But this was too good to resist, a very cool pattern and for a good cause.

Her patterns come via PDF file so I am stalking my email folder waiting for it to arrive!

That's it for me tonight. Hope all is well in your world tonight.

Bec xoxo

Just checking in.

We are back from our camping trip and have hit the ground running.

$300, some mild blackmail and two neurofen later we have finished our back to school shopping! One week left of school holidays so we are trying to make the most of it!

I finally got a minute to sit down at my sewing machine yesterday, it is one of my most favourite places in the world to be. I will post some pics of my projects when I get them finished.

I have also been working on something for around the house which I will put up just as soon as I figure out how to post PDF files....anyone??

Well I have a thousand books to cover and a cranky little girl today so I will leave you with a photo of how I spent my weekend.

Bec xoxo

Where to start?

Here is a little sneak peek at my great score from St Vincents today! So many cute little tops to be made into something sweet, and all i paid for this treasure trove of beauties was $15.

My adorable little niece started Junior Kindy this week so I think she will be needing some cute little play dresses! I will keep you updated as I go.

The B family are heading out to go camping this weekend, we will be needing to pack the insect repellent! The mosquitoes are crazy at the moment. Hope you have a fantastic weekend too.

Bec xoxo

Fancy Schmancy!

I was having an absolutely terrible day which involved scraping the side of my car up and miserable crying babies just to name a few, but luckily I have fantastic funny cheerful supportive friends who dragged me out of my bad day! And having a mini super cute photo shoot with bean helps too! Its hard to frown when you see her smile.

I got this idea on how to transform a skirt into a fancy little dress from the beautiful Disney over at Ruffles and Stuff. Find the tutorial here

www.rufflesandstuff.com/2009/10/tutorial-cheaters-guide-to-fancy-dress.html

Here are a couple of pictures of my version:

I got a second hand girls size 12 skirt at a St Vincents for $1. It turned out so girly and sweet. It only took maybe half an hour. So easy!! The only things I changed from Disney's original dress was adding ruffled straps and some more ruffles along the chest.

My favourite bit is the little pick ups with pink ribbon showing off the contrastic fabric underneath. So sweet.

Go check it out if you havn't already.

Bec xoxo

See-Sam

I have a huge list To-Do list for 2010. It's very ambitious. But the number one item on my list is to build up and turn a profit (preferably huge!) with our new children's clothing and accessories company See-Sam.

My very talented friend and business partner Amanda started this venture late last year and are really going to make a go of it in 2010.

Here are a few of the items we are hoping to sell on

http://www.madeit.com.au/ and http://www.etsy.com/

I hope all your 2010 resolutions are going to plan. It's going to be a great year!

Bec xoxo

Quick! Enter this giveaway!

Just had to duck back and give you this link. It's through my all time favourite blog V & Co. She is giving away a necklace I have been eyeing off for ages and I was hinting to Mr B to buy it for me on valentines day. Here is the link:

www.vanessachristenson.com/2010/01/sponsored-giveaway.html

Good luck!!

Bec xoxo

Pajama pants to Lil Sailor dress

Oh my gosh I have two followers!! Wow O wow thanks guys yous have really made my day :D

I wanted to show a recon I did from a pair of my maternity pajamas pants that are way too big for me now. This is the before pic...

They were too cute to just give away so I thought I would turn them into a dress for bean. Here is how I did it:

Using one of her existing dresses I cut a dress shape from ones of the legs of the pants. I left the side seams and hem intact to save me some time. (If you don't happen to have a baggy but cute pair of PJ pants at home you could just sew a tube shape yourself )





As you can see in the above picture, I cut two semi circles out for the armholes and cut straight across the top, leaving a little extra for seam allowance.

Then using a contrasting fabric I cut 4 identical crescents. Use the neckline of existing top to get a rough idea of the size you need. Leaving extra for seams and to overlap the two sections (We will get to that bit in a minute)

Putting the right sides together sew all around the outside leaving the space between the white marks above open. Repeat with your second set.



Turning your dress inside out fold your sleeve seams in twice and sew just using a straight stitch.
I didn't get a photo of the next step so hopefully I can explain it properly. Email me if it makes no sense. I turned the red sections right side out and ironed them flat. then carefully folded the edges of the open part inside and ironed to keep it in place.
Sandwich the top section of the dress into the open red section and gather a little so it fits properly and looks nice.Make sure your seams are tucked in, the pin and sew together.

Finish off by sewing buttonholes and adding buttons to the shoulders and there you go...

On another note, I finally got to go see New moon today!! Just me and bean while the boys went to see Alvin and the chipmunks 2 with some friends in another cinema. Loved, loved, loved it. I think more so because I had read the book first this time. I can't wait for the next one. Oh and I am going to go and buy Mr B a set of the abs that Jacob was sporting mmmmmmm.

Bec xoxo

Allow me to introduce myself

I have been thinking about starting this blog forever now so I had so many ideas what my first post should be about. But I think I should just start at the start and introduce myself.

Hi, I am Bec.

Since my life revolves around the three little B's in my life I should introduce them too.

Binx, my handsome 9yr old. He is sweet, gentle and loves to read and create.

Beef, my fiery 6 year old. Loving or fighting, playing or destroying... he does it with his whole heart!

Bean, my adventurous 1 year old. She is playful, loving and a little daredevil. She is also my living dressmaker doll for all my designs much to her disgust.

and last but not least Mr B my gorgeous, loving husband. He is the one who bought me my first sewing machine which I know don't know how I ever lived without. He supports me in all my crazy ideas and encourages me everytime I take up a new hobby (a lot!)

I guess this blog will just evolve as I go but I am hoping it will be a place where I can share the things I make and do and all of ideas that go through my head each day, and also a place I can celebrate, vent and laugh about all the ups and downs of being a mum (mostly ups!)

So that's my first post! It is kinda weird writing this, not knowing if anyone is going to read it... but really satisfying too.

Bec xoxo

P.S That is not their real names I promise! and I am not sure how we ended up with two of their nicknames being food items :)