Lil' Liberty

Tomorrow is Lois' first birthday! I'm so excited I feel like it's Christmas eve! Cupcakes, check. Candles, check. Bubbles, check (must have bubbles). Party hat and dress, check, check! I made her dress from lightweight denim with Liberty print accents for the pocket and tie. I think it turned out pretty cute.

For beginners, I wouldn't recommend denim, especially denim with stretch to it, which this one has. I really just liked the wash of this denim and wasn't looking for it with stretch, but the wash I liked had stretch to it. I messed up the hem 3 times. With the stretch in the fabric, I couldn't get the tension right and it kept pinching a bit, arrrgh! I really wanted to do an especially good job on this one since I plan to keep it for Lois. I didn't want her to look at it later and think, wow, mom was a sloppy seamstress! My mom used to make our clothes and gave away everything except one dress, a beautiful dress, and I've looked at it often and am always impressed by how perfect it is. That dress is much more elaborate (maybe I'll take a picture next time I go home), but I hoped Lois would feel the same way about some things I've made.

Ah well, this dress isn't perfect, but it's a good go at stretch denim, and it's her very first brithday dress, so I hope she'll think it's special one day despite its imperfections. I can't wait till tomorrow. Party girl pictures coming soon!

Ripe

During our last trip home to Atlanta, my brother-in-law, Brandon, had a little photo session with Andrew's side of the family at Andrew's mom's house. Brandon's a great photographer with his own photography business, Ripe. If you're in Atlanta and looking for a photographer for some family pictures, he's the best. He also shoots bellies, babies, and children. One of my favorite pictures on his site is my nephew, Cash, with ice cream on his mouth (that one is in the growing section of his site). Adorable. We're pretty cute too, at least we are when we have a good photographer taking our picture. Here we are, the little family of 3, back in May. I can't believe how much more grown up Lois looks now. You'll see her again soon. This weekend is her first birthday.


Ripe Photography.

Globe Shopping

Can you say dream job? I only wish I had the Sundance Channel so I could watch the full episodes. I first heard about Man Shops Globe the other day on Green and Pretty, and now I noticed it's all a-buzz in blogville. The show follows Anthropologie buyer Keith Johnson as he hunts for unique pieces for their stores. I always wondered where they got all those amazing fixtures for their merchandising (and ideas for a lot of the merchandise itself). How fun. You can watch clips here.

The Big Flea

Today's the big Alameda flea market. As I type this I'm sure the hardcore market-goers are scoring some great treasures by flashlight. I'd love to go, but we need to get a lot of other things done, and I know if I go, I won't get any of those other things done. Going to the big flea wipes me out, in part because it's so good and so big and in part because it always takes forever to get home across the bridge. But it's a great flea market and totally worth the traffic hassle. I wasn't surprised to see it in an article on the best flea markets in the world in the last issue of Budget Travel. Next month I'll be there. I want to find some vintage Christmas wrapping paper and ornaments for our Christmas tree to be. Here are a few pictures from a few months back.

So. Tired.

Suitcases are unpacked, laundry is done, mail is sorted, bills are paid. But we're so tired. These pretty bedroom pictures are making me even more tired. I'd love to cozy up in any one of them, especially this top one. It looks like how I feel--dreamy and drowsy. Must sleep.






Images from flickr. 1 here, 2 here, 3 here, 4 here, 5 here, 6 here, 7 here.