Dear Blog, It's not you, it's me.

Dear Blog,

I know that we haven't been seeing as much of each other as we'd both like in the last year, but it's complicated. You see, I haven't been completely honest with you. There's someone else. Nine someone else's actually... three human, three rodent, two canine and one feline. And they need my creativity too.

For instance, in December they needed new flannel pajamas made from the cheesiest puppy and rainbow prints a momma could find. I used a PATTERN! I know - you are not as aghast at the idea as I was - but as I was sewing these on the eve of Christmas Eve, I needed quick and dirty and that's what using a store bought pattern afforded me. And the payoff was well worth it. I think they wore these for four days straight without changing into daytime clothes more than once or twice an only for a few hours. To say they love them would be a serious understatement. It is still all I can do to get them into the wash occasionally.

 

And it didn't stop there.... on Christmas Eve I found myself again at the sewing machine, this time whipping up these sweet little pompon skirts. I mean, look at those faces. They just NEEDED to have Christmas skirts didn't they? And the hair flowers, well, what's a pretty skirt without a little hair jewelry?

 

You'll be happy to know that somewhere in there I managed to make myself a hair flower or ten too.

 

Somehow, in the flurry that always is the holidays, I managed to not get a single picture of all of the handmade gifts I made for the rest of the family, but that's alright. All that matters is they got them.

Blog, I do love you too. I promise to make room for you in my life this year. Starting with today.

Smooches!

Violet

Because I'm too lazy to upload to my images folder :)

 

Laurelhurst School Winter Artisan Bazaar!

I've been busy! I'll be showing at the upcoming Laurelhurst School Winter Artisan Bazaar on Sunday, December 6th from 9am until 4pm. I'm so excited! I've got lots of goodies in store. New dresses... some of which you can see right down below. It is a new style that I've just finished the pattern for. My 10 year old niece loves it over jeans and leggings! I'll be photo-shooting the new sparkly holiday headbands tomorrow, so look for those pics soon!

For those wonderful customers that aren't here in Portland, this will all go online on December 7th in time for holiday shipping!

 
 
 
 

Merry Memories

Oh, how I miss this kitchen, but not that haircut. Seriously, why didn't someone tell me? This is the Christmas of 2004. Mia is 2 1/2, Cannon is 4 months and Kung Fu Bambini wholesale was 11 months old. I lurve these pictures LOTS.


 
 
 
 

Pretty Princess Puppies

I finally found five minutes to blog. I downloaded the pics from my daughter's camera as I've used it a couple times lately since my camera is dying a very slow death and when it finished downloading all 2042 pictures (seriously), I found this pure genius. Oh girls, I love your creativity and passion so much. There's some other genius on there too that I'll share. Barbie and Ken are back in the convertible again. Look out!


 
 
 

Yesterday I needed an outlet....

In the process of catching up about the summer months, I don't want to get behind on current events so I'll be double posting for a bit.

Yesterday was my sweet kinder's first day of school! No, she did not wear anything that I made her. lol! I've taught them the art of the second hand store as well and we're all Value Village and Goodwill junkies now. Here she is putting her backpack in her locker. Bestill my heart. sigh.
 
I had a bit of a breakdown. I was the mom in the hallway sobbing. I have found myself doing that a lot lately. There's a lot of emotion still pouring out of this girl right now! Anyway, I was sobbing in the hallway. Here's the story:

I ASS-umed I'd be able to stay with her in the morning for a few minutes since that is how it worked with Miss Mia's kinder teacher. Another piece of the story is that we (Cannon) didn't get the same teacher Mia had. Which we (I) wanted. The other teacher's really are truly fabulous. I just didn't want change. I liked it the way it was and I wanted it to be the same. And blah blah blah about me... for now.

Cannon was a bit thrown off when I couldn't stay with her. I could see we were either in for a total meltdown or, not, but I had no way of knowing which way it was going to go down. I just had to quickly walk her in, say goodbye, give her some big hugs, kisses and bubbly supportive words and off I went with an "I'll be here for lunchtime!". Two minutes later she was up in front of the classroom introducing herself with the biggest smile on her face, the stress of moments before totally forgotten. And I was in the hallway sobbing and throwing a temper tantrum of monumental tantrums. In my head at least.

On the outside I was just whimpering a little, but in my head I was stamping my feet, banging my hands on the lockers and screaming, I WANT IN! I WANT TO STAY! I WANT TO BE WITH HER EVERY SINGLE MORNING. I WANT WHAT I WANT AND I WANT IT NOW WHETHER ITS GOOD FOR ME (or her) OR NOT! and beneath that was this slight little voice, saying, you know this is best, you know she is fine, you know you need to get your arse home and work every day and not be here bugging your baby who is completely fine without you.

I needed an outlet and I had options. This is what I came up with:

1. I can go home and watch all of Season 1 Project Catwalk which is the UK version of Project Runway that I just got my hands on and eat ice cream and candy bars all day. Oh, the joy of getting my hot little hands on Project Catwalk episodes!!! But somehow this seems like a huge waste of time on my first fine day with both kids at school.

2. Go to Costco. Yay. Said with my most doldrum voice possible. Maybe I could do laundry all day too. And clean bathrooms. That should cheer me up.

3. Run on the treadmill for hours on end. THIS was a big contender. I love my treadmill and I've been neglecting her. I ran for months during the Summer of Stacie (which I'll get to in future posts) to fit into a pink bridesmaid dress and it worked! Until I brought home the rest of the wedding cake after the wedding and proceeded to eat the whole damn thing. Okay, J and the girls helped, a little bit. I ate it and I gained every pound back and it was GOOD and I don't regret it one bit. Now I'm ready to lose it again. Until the next whole cake falls into my lap! And I'll eat that one too without regret.

4. Call Justin and bitch. DING DING DING DING! Winner! My poor husband. Good thing he thinks I'm sexy.

So I called the Mr. at work and sobbed and had a little fit and told him I knew that I was having a fit and I didn't know what the hell to do with my day now. And you know what he said? "Honey, go home and create something beautiful for our house." Sometimes I think he actually knows me. hehe! Oh boy, he hit a nerve. I immediately knew exactly what I wanted to do and I went home and did THIS:

 
That there would be a piece of thin wood paneling that we took out of our kitchen when we tore out the built in refrigerator that was here when we moved in.
 
So, I know it's not fancy and might possibly look like a 10 yo painted it in art camp. Keep in mind here that I've NEVER PAINTING ANYTHING BEFORE IN MY LIFE. Besides walls and furniture. I've crackle painted a desk once. And painted squares onto a wall with an elaborate grid of painter's tape once. But this mixing, and making things look like real things. Nope, just started yesterday. I like it. It worked. I was HAPPY as a clam when I went to see Cannon at lunch and now this is in our living room. :)
 

Oh, Summer, where have you gone???

Hello all!

Ahhhh. What a wonderful summer it has been, standing in stark opposition to the last year. I won't go back into last year, because, well, it is finally behind me. I was carrying it along with me for quite awhile and I've finally ditched that baggage and moved forward. Kung Fu Bambini is very officially closed. I may or may not dabble in finishing some old collections someday and I could care less either way right now. Whatever the future holds, I do not now know and I don't want to speculate. Let come what may!!!!

I do want to share a little history of just the past few months that I've been in blog-hiding and soul-recovery. I'll do that post by post alright? These pics are from June. I finally got up the energy to break out the sewing machine, but only for my girls and a very small batch for friends and a little local show. It was nice. I whipped out a new pattern in one day.... the Easy Peasy Pinny we're calling it around here... and I made the girls lots of them in different variations. This one is a classic Amy Butler/Denyse Schmidt combo of mine that I call Capri. The girls also scored some Disney princess versions made out of a Disney shiny fabric from JoAnn Fabrics that I never thought I'd buy in a million years, but those sweet faces. Those sweet "pleeeeease mama" faces. At least it is made by me and made WELL. And I have to admit they are darn cute. Luckily for my ego and my hope for the girls' design sense they don't seem to love their princess versions more than my fabric picks :)