Knitted leg ruffles

If you've been following my blog you know that I love all sorts of leg warmers and have made a few for Lola to wear last winter.  I can not wait for the weather to get colder so she can wear them again. Finally, I decided to knit a pair for myself, but more "foot warmers" to cover the foot rather than the leg. I got the pattern from a magazine. It's an easy and quick knit, I promise! Plus these things are so useful if you have a pair of shoes you love, but find them too cold to wear. Just make a few of these and you'll never have to wear boots in your life again ... (well, maybe :)

P.S. I am updating this page two years later. I originally said to email me for the pattern, but I was able to track down the designer - her name is Jane Burns and her blog is http://knittingimage.wordpress.com/, please contact her for the pattern. She has many beautiful designs.

And another shot ... 

Leg ruffles all dolled up in action ... 

LO(lo)V(i)E to you all, LV

Painting to Fabric .. another Romero Britto

When one of my best friends, Blanka asked if I could somehow contribute to the gala evening benefiting Alzheimer's disease she is helping to organize, I immediately said "yes" ...  I am always the first to volunteer and last to realize how much work it will involve ... Oh oooohhhh

I promised to make a fabric "painting" similar to the one I made for my mom's apartment (see HERE) for the silent auction. I decided to make another Romero Britto painting called "Twist" (as in dance). The event will be attended by the dancing community, so I am hoping somebody will fall in love with this "fabting" as much as I did ...

It's not the original, but darn close to it and more unique ...
Plus, my guy is wearing trendier pants made from knitted print ;)

(Ok, this was my sales pitch for the silent auction for the ball this Friday) ... 

The process is exactly same as already described HERE ...

It's not hard at all and doesn't require much skill, just a whole lot of patience and sitting behind the sewing machine and the ironing board.

Below are a few progression photos. 

Shall we dance? 

Let's have fingers crossed the "fabting" will sell ...

"Fabting" - a word made up by LV for the lack of other words; A painting made from fabric; 

Also a fabulous thing ... Can you think of anything else?

Have a fabulous weekend everyone! Many more projects cooking. Stay tuned! 

LO(lo)V(i)E, LV 

Toddler jeans makeover

One of the few hand-me-downs we've received for LoLo was a pair of jeans. I didn't mind the color, but the "style" was just really terrible. I've seen many jean makeovers from wide leg to skinny and so I followed in the footsteps of moms that try to bring some fashion into their little guy's wardrobe.
Check Freshly Picked blog for the skinny jean tutorial HERE

(Story time: Right after LoLo was born I went clothes shopping to our local Duffy's. While I was finding the cutest outfits for Lola, I couldn't even locate the boy's section, let alone a single outfit! So, I asked a shop assistant if it was on a different floor for some reason. She smirked and pointed at a single rack of clothes with about 50 items hanging on it. "Over there")

So, back to my tutorial (sort of tutorial). After I followed instructions on slimming down the jeans, I dug out an unused foot file and filed the heck out of the jeans, making holes and wears all over the place ... (Hubby was like: "LV, why are you using the foot file on our kitchen table? And what are you trying to do with those jeans? You are not going to put it back to the bathroom, are you?)

I then found fabric, cut out patches big enough to cover any "ventilation" holes I just made on the jeans, so my little guy doesn't get cold; pinned the fabric to the jeans from inside out and was ready to sew ... Then I wasn't ready to sew ... I realized, that you can't really sew through such a small opening with the sewing machine .. ARgghhhhh ... you know the saying "measure twice, cut once"? That never applied to me! So, take my advice: saw the patches on by a sewing machine BEFORE sewing up the skinny legs! Unless ... 

It's funny though how things just work out at the end (most of the times that is) ...  I took an embroidery thread and needle and sewed the patches on by hand, which gave it so much character! 

Don't you think? And how about that modeling pose of my favorite man in the world? 

And here are a few pictures from our fun day out wearing the momma-made-cool-jeans :) 

Hope you are all doing well. LO(lo)V(i)E to you all, as always, LV 

HalLoLoween 2011

As promised, here are shots of our first HAlLOLOween party ... I am hoping to make it a tradition, as LoLo loves all the excitement around parties and the guests seemed to have a jolly good time also ... (Once again, I struggled with the photos, so some may be better than others. I have already spoken to Santa and he promised an early Christmas gift in a form of some camera equipment, so there is hope for future photographic improvement ... YAY! )

Once again, I used Bird's printables ... The wreath above is stolen from the front door, the cupcake stand is made of three cheap trays from Party City and 2 printable-wrapped cans of chickpeas :)

I didn't have time to carve the pumpkin, so I stuck felt eyes, nose and a mouth on the poor thing. The scarecrows were bought for 1 USD each at Michaels ... The Buddha is displayed by default and if you can see it, there is a witch hanging off from the right corner. I got it as a gift from my Czech friend, Oli, who said that according to Czech belief, every household should have one with a broom, hanging somewhere in the house. Supposedly, she sweeps out all the problems of the house ... 

(The Mr. would surely argue that there isn't a need for such a thing in our house as he's got a live-in one instead ... just a bit of trivia for you ... ) 

   

The party was pot luck so there isn't as much food displayed ... plus I forgot to serve all the 40 cupcakes that are still in our fridge :(((( .... 

Yes, I made a cupcake stand and then forgot to serve the cupcakes! I should get an award for this! 

Here are the details ... blueberry muffins, "monster treats" - Halloween pretzels, the ghosts are goody bags for the munchkins containing a notebook, an edible Halloween necklace, a wafer, pretzels, a ghost stamp and tattoos). 

I lined a plastic pumpkin with foil and used it for chips (the guacamole is not pictured here), then of course there is the Mr. making roll ups that looked better than tasted ... 

(not due to his fault, I should add here :)   

According to LoLo, there is no party without party hats ... so those orange frills are part of the hats (tutorial HERE, the bucket is wrapped in paper and decorated once again with Bird's printable pumpkin, the little orange basket contains tattoos, black and orange balloons and the old fashioned gumball machine is filled with candy corn, of course. Once I put it together, I realized that you actually need a coin to get the candy out .. How about that for hospitality? "Here is some candy, you just have to pay for it" :))) But, I decided to display it anyhow, as I love the look of it, plus it's great portion and sugar control for the kids .... 

LoLo's t-shirts were also made by momma. You can make them also in about 10 minutes! Felt eyes, nose and mouth sewn to the shirt and voila! Lola's shirt has a feather collar for extra glam. I used feather string bought at Wallmart, cut the rim of the collar and sew the string to it ... That's all!

 Now, what's for entertainment?

Everybody loves crafts - even if its all secretly made by parents :) 

Part 2 and 3 of the entertainment ... 

A special guest ... Serafina, the sock monkey tutorial coming up soon! 

Hopefully by then I will have made her ballet shoes also. 

 There is no party without candles and a big blow .... pffffffffffffffffff pffffff pfffffffffff

LoLove, LV

Not another Halloween wreath?!

I know you've seen them all, but bear with me ok? This one is so easy you can make it with your eyes closed! ... hmmmm .. ok then One eye closed ... :)

Our apartment building is never decorated and I keep walking past these buildings with mums and skeletons, pumpkins and spider webs and then there is our entryway - empty and sad!

Well, this year I decided to change this ... 

I thought about making a wreath from little orange and black pom-poms, but that never happened because the craft store was out of foam wreath and the only one I could buy was the one from tree branches, which I like but none of my other wreath ideas worked with it. 

THEN I thought of my friend Bird's amazing printables! (This girl is so talented I am green with envy every single time she posts something new on her blog.) The only thing I wish she was making is printable clothing .. just imagine how much easier my morning routine would be, how much space we'd save in our NYC closets and how my hubby would be freed from any shopping for clothes duties - we'd cut them out in front of the TV watching the JETS ... LOL

Well, this is what I came up with at the end using Bird's Halloween collection .... 

No, it's not a bicycle decoration, but the glass on the door made it impossible to take a good photo and I didn't want to sneak around the neighborhood hanging my wreath on other people's doors ... 

I will be using the printables also for our "Boo at LoLo's" party this weekend so stay tuned ... 

There is still time to get your scissors (I mean hands) on these printables HERE.

LO(lo)V(i)E to all ... LV