Merry Christmas!

I just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas! We'll be back next year with more blogging and new designs (sorry I've been such a slacker). But for now, you can hop on over to Annalee's blog for a fun Tiny Seamstress give away! We're giving away one of my new Clutch designs! Yay!!! So go enter to win...you know you want too!
See you next year!

5 months

This little beauty will be 5 months old tomorrow! Can you believe it? She is getting so big, my heart can't take it!!! She is holding her head high and rolling over from belly to back. She loves eating her hairbows and blankets and is very persistent on spending time with daddy every. single. night. :)

We went out on a date for the first time since she was born and we left her with some close friends. When we came back she was super mad...I mean, wouldn't even break a smile, kind of mad. Needless to say it will probably be awhile before we do that again...however, it was fun hanging out with just my hubsand! She somehow manages to find her way into our bed each night and loves those silly brothers who sing and dance for her all day long.

 We love this crazy bunch of ours!

Black Friday Sale!

     Hop on over to the shop for some super great deals on clutches, bags, totes, kits and patterns! My mom loves it when I make her a handmade bag for Christmas and I know yours will too! So snatch up a super cute kit before they're gone! Sale ends soon! Happy Thanksgiving!!! 

Pretty in White

     Yesterday was Remi blessing day. It turned out to be a wonderful day for us all. I love having family in town visiting and I'm so grateful for parents on both sides that are so supportive and involved with our children. Remi was as beautiful as ever and well, naturally I was one proud mommy showing her off! :) Ruger was as sick as ever with the flu and Sawyer was off playing somewhere, so we just did pictures with her by ourselves. Love that girl! Love, love love her (in case you missed that)!

In record time

In two short weeks, I will be attending the Unique Boutique in Idaho Falls, selling all my fancy stuff. :) And so I'm sewing away over here, staying up til the wee hours of the night. In fact, I just finished this beauty in record time. Three episodes of Last Man Standing (thank you Hulu). Do you like how I measure my sewing time in episodes, as opposed to actual time?
Anyway, I will be selling patterns, bags, and kits to make your own bags (i.e.darling bag shown above). I would love for you all to come and see me! You can get all of your Christmas shopping done in one stop and hey ,you can make a bag for your mom in record time, and she will love you all the way to the moon and back (at least that's how it works with my mom).

And just a little side note, I will also be hosting a little black Friday over in my Etsy shop, following Thanksgiving. So make sure you check back for some killer items!

xoxo, tiff

And a little something for her...

     I started this quilt before Remi was born and it's taking me forever to finish...I'm thinking it will be her Christmas present. ;) I love, love, love how it turned out! The pattern was a much bigger size and I just wanted a baby size quilt to match my diaper bag, so I took off a few rows and it worked! I was quite surprised I figured it out. Ha! Some day I'll get the binding done...some day. 

Happy Halloween!

This has been our best year yet with Halloween. The boys are loving every second of it and have been overly-filled with junk food this week. Thank goodness for Uncle Brady! He fixed up all those cavities in no time and the boys never even knew what hit 'em. :)

So we're cavity free and ready for some serious trick-or-treating!

Happy Halloween everybody!

Three Months

 I snapped these photos with my cell phone the other day. Remi was is so happy almost all of the time and these snap shots show her personality through and through. She is a complete chatterbox (I have no idea where she gets that from) and she will talk to you and make noises at you as long as you will let her. She loves her daddy's voice and will just giggle even if he's in the other room talking. She loves ruffley dresses (or maybe that's me) and we've been working really hard on the word "ber-nin-a". We should have that down in no time. :) The boys (mainly Sawyer) thinks it's really funny to sing her name to the Chuggington tune. It's super cute and she laughs at them the whole time. We sure do love you lots and lots Remi Jean!

We have a winner!

Thank you to all who entered my giveaway! It was so fun reading all of your comments! And now for the winner...

        #13 Just Julie who said...

The reds and yellows would look PERFECT in my kitchen for a fun table runner or placemats. Of course I always love making cute bags.. Great fabrics!!!

Julie please send me (tinyseamstress(at)yahoo(dot)com) your shipping address and I will get your Delightful! package shipped out asap! And if you didn't win you can still head on over to my Etsy shop for 20% off all of your favorite tiny seamstress patterns. Just enter the code Delightful at checkout!

Giving it Away!

I know I said I'd post this last week, but in my defense, I have 3 children. And I went to visit my mom. And I picked up a last minute project for market. Yeah, that's all I got. So sorry.

On a brighter more Delightful! note, I have some fabric just sittin' up on my shelf trying to collect dust and it needs a home...really bad!

 Just take a look at how pretty it is...

(image source)

(image source)

 My friend Amanda (aka the Quilted Fish) really can design. These fabrics are so fun to work with (trust me, I know) and they are just so bright and happy! They are bound to bring a smile to any seamstress' face!

So have at it! Go on, leave a comment (you know you want to) and tell me what you would do with an entire fat quarter bundle of this fabric! Me? I would make my baby girl a quilt and a little ruffly dress. :) Maybe I'll go do that right now...on second thought, I should finish my market projects first.

And if you're really ambitious you can enter a 2nd time for mentioning this on FB!

A 3rd time if you put it on Twitter!

And another if you blog about it!

Good Luck! Oh, and check Amanda's blog tomorrow for something super Delightful! and Jumbo Glamorous! hehe.

*Disclaimer: If Roni is the only person that enters my giveaway then I'm going to give her the bundle all sewn up in something baby like for her little bundle. Just kidding...maybe. :P

This giveaway is closed.

My NOT so average life

    
     On his second day of school, Ruger informed me that he doesn't want to wear his hearing aids because other people will see them and ask about them.
     I said, "Did somebody ask about them yesterday?"
     He responds, "Yes. A boy asked me what they were."
     I asked, "What did you say?"
     He said, "I just told him that they were my hearing aids."
     I thought to myself for a minute, knowing that I needed to be very careful with my words. I then explained to him that it's ok if people ask about his hearing aids. They're only asking because they don't know or they don't understand. If they tease you or make fun of you then that's different and you need to tell them to stop.
     He said, "OK."
     The next day he wore his hearing aids and his teacher took a few minutes to explain to the class what they were and why he wore them. Since then he's had no issues with wearing them.

     One week later:
     I'm picking Sawyer up from preschool. He was looking a little down (really rare for him) and so I asked, "How was your day?"
     He said, "A boy in my class was teasing me."
     I asked, "What did he say?"
     He replies, "I can't tell you." (Code for he can't remember)
     "Well what did your teacher say?"
     "She told him to stop. She said, stop teasing Sawyer!"
     I said, "Well that's good."
     He says, "Yeah." (We're big on one word answers over here)
     He went on and on the whole afternoon about this boy at school that teased him. But he couldn't tell me why he teased him. So later when my husband got home from work I asked him if he thought I'd be crazy to email the teacher and ask what happened.
     He said he would think I was crazy. :) He also said that it seemed as though the teacher had already taken care of the issue and that she'd let me know if there was something to worry about. And do you know that it took every fiber of my being to not email the teacher? I wasn't wanting to be a helicopter parent, I just wanted to know. Are those two the same thing? Yes? Ok, fine. Whatever.
     So why am I writing all of this? I don't really know. Therapy I guess. I've been worried about my kids a lot lately. I can't help but feel as their mother, that I've given them these trials and so now I feel like I should carry their burdens. But then I watch them every day after their few hours at school and I see how happy they are. I see that they have made friends and that they are learning and absorbing at an incredible pace and so they must be ok? They're not coming home in tears. They want to go back. I'm not getting calls from their teachers (not yet anyway) and Sawyer now plays with the boy who teased him. So it's ok. Right? They will have hard times. People will misunderstand them because of their differences, but they will work it out. I think I've taught them to do that. Or at least I hope I have. It seems like this whole school thing is a determining factor in whether I've taught them enough or not. I guess we will see. :)

Inch Worm Tutorial-ish

 (Keep reading to find out about this "Delight!"-ful bundle)

OK, I am calling this a tutorial-ish, because I'm giving you the instructions on how to make the inch worm costume, but I don't have any pictures for you. Bummer. I made this back in 2008 for my little guy Sawyer and it was so stinkin' easy that I thought maybe I'd share it with you. And since this is a tutorial you can't get mad at my "-ish" instructions. :)

This tutorial uses a 1/2" seam allowance and the measurements listed are for a 12 month size.

Materials Needed:

• A green or yellow onesie/tee the size of your baby (12 months shown in picture).
• 1/2 yard green minkie or stretchy fabric of some sort
• 1/2 yard yellow minkie or stretchy fabric of some sort
• 12" of elastic
• craft wire (something sort of flimsy)
• a beanie that fits your babies head

Instructions:

1. You're going to cut off the bottom of your onesie or tee. Measure from the front neckline down 5" and cut.
2. Cut two 5" by 21" strips of green fabric. Cut two 5" by 21" strips of yellow fabric.
3. Sew the strips together lengthwise, yellow, green, yellow, green.
4. Fold the bottom of the green piece under 1" and top stitch.
5. Run elastic through the fold and sew down at each end.
6. Fold strips in half lengthwise and right sides together. Line up seams and sew down long edge.
7. Line up side seam of body piece (your strips) with side seam of onesie right sides together and sew around edge. This completes the inch worm body!
8. Now the hat. Lay your beanie flat onto a piece of paper and trace it leaving a 1/2" seam allowance around the edges.
9. Cut 2 green pieces and 2 yellow pieces using your paper pattern.
10. Cut two 4" by 7" green pieces for your antenna. Fold each piece in half lengthwise and sew one short edge and one long edge leaving the bottom open.
11. Cut two 6" pieces of wire and slide one piece into each antenna, curving the bottom ends of the wires as to not poke your child.
12. Stuff each antenna with batting until firm, with extra at the bottom under the wire and sew them shut.
13. Measure 2" to the right from the top center of one of the green hat pieces and top stitch the end of antenna to the edge of the hat piece. Make sure your antenna is facing DOWN. Measure 2" to the left from the top center of the same green hat piece and repeat with second antenna.
14. With the antenna still facing DOWN, pin both green hat pieces right sides together and sew around the curve, leaving straight edge open. Repeat with yellow hat pieces.
15. Place yellow hat piece inside of green hat piece, right sides together (with antenna tucked inside) and pin straight edges together. Sew around the entire base of the hat, leaving a 2" opening to turn. Turn hat right sides out through the 2" opening and handstitch opening closed. 
16. And now you have a really cute Halloween costume for your baby!

Wasn't that sew easy? Seriously anyone can make an inch worm costume! And now that you love me so much for sharing this tutorial with you and for reading this whole post I'm going to fill you in on a little secret! Shhh... You see that fat quarter bundle down there? Yes, that one down there!

A good friend of mine designed this fabric and next week I get to give it to one of YOU! Yes, that's right! One of YOU! YIPPEE!!! Can you imagine all the wonderful things you could make with that many fat quarters? I certainly can! Sheesh! OK, so here's your check list for the weekend:

• Make an inch worm (or even a bumblebee...that'd be cute too!) for a precious baby you know!
• Think of something fabulous you can make with a whole bundle of fat quarters!
• Come back next week to enter a "Delight!-ful" giveaway!

That's not too hard, right? Ok, have a great weekend and I'll see you next week! ;)

A New Look!

At Spring Market I made a wonderful new friend, Beth Feigner and once I saw her work I told her that I just simply had to work with her. I was so excited when she agreed and even more excited when I saw this cover for the first time! Isn't it gorgeous!?!? I love, love, love it!

This is just the first of many to come.  So, tell me what do you think? Have you ever seen the Darling bag, looks so Darling?



I love all things black and white

photos courtesy of pinterest.

Two Months!

Please tell me that time is flying by and that I'm not the only one feeling this way. I can't believe this little angel of mine is already 2 months old! She really likes the camera (can you tell?). We do this every day. :)

Remi discovered her hands yesterday. It was pretty exciting. She also poked herself in the eye a few times while discovering. It was a little comical. She has brought pure entertainment to the house, so much so that we have to "tone it down" and "be gentle, be gentle, BE GENTLE" comes out of my mouth about a thousand times a day. This little girl is in for a ride with these crazy boys.

She's brought a whole new feel into the household. And we love it!

One more. I can't resist!

 Allow me to introduce our pal Simon. This insanely handsome little guy is getting lots of attention on facebook and now so is my inbox! I've never actually met Simon, but I have conversed with his mom, Jenn through tons and tons of emails (Happy Birthday Jenn!) and we have become great friends. It's hard not too when we have such cute boys the very same age! Simon is sporting the Owl Pack to preschool this year and I have to say that the pack looking this adorable on a child, was far from my imagination when I designed it! I love, love, love it! And I love, love, love this guy!

Thanks Simon for making this little business of mine look so good! Especially since, my little guy refused to wear something that didn't involve Thomas to school (more on that later). Love you guys!

**EDIT: Hey all of you that commented or emailed about being pattern testers, I'm interested in your info. So shoot me an email (if you haven't already) and we'll chat. Thanks!

You know you're loved when...

...your super cute nieces decide to make one of YOUR bags to carry to school!

I mean come on look at this sweet face!

The Backpack being used for the special VIP days at Suzy's pre-school. :)

 Maggie carrying the Darling Bag and isn't she ever so darling? OK, now I'm sounding like my mother! Hi Mom! ;)

 And of course, little miss Kate with her Little Miss Business bag. This girl really is all business and then some!

 Maybe I'm just a big cheeseball, but I was super flattered when they texted me from the fabric store telling me they'd each decided to make a bag! I mean really, that's just the best kind of love any aunt would ever need!

Happy Back to School to everyone!

I had to make something for myself.

     Sometimes the hardest thing about being a designer is that you get so caught up in designing what you "think" other people will like and you forget to just do what you like. Before Remi came, when I had all of those sleepless nights, I decided that there were a few things she and I both needed. One of which was a new diaper bag with all of the amenities! I sketched for awhile and decided that I'd throw in some of my favorite things from other bags and a few new ideas. This is what I came up with.

     I L.O.V.E. it! Of course, I put pockets in the front and the back and all around the inside (cause that's what I like to do) and then I added some scrunch, a little bling (the fancy kind that I never splurge on) and a child handle. The child handle is pure genious and of course it's not my idea...it's Roni's idea. You know how when you're crossing the parking lot at Target or walking to the library and you don't want to loose your 4 year old, but your hands are filled with bags and a baby? Well the "child handle" is your third hand! Isn't that UH-MAAAY-ZING? It has worked wonders with Sawyer! In fact, he won't even hold my hand anymore...he wants to hold "Mommy's bag". Thanks Roni, for offering up your advice on how to better my diaper bag! Sure do love ya!

     So there you have it...pockets, bling, scrunch, and child handle. My ideal diaper bag! :)

    Coming soon to a quilt shop near YOU!

After I write a pattern, make some alterations, have it tested, printed, and distributed all around the world. So...it shouldn't be too long. ;)

Oh My Boys!

 This summer has flown by and I've barely kept up with birthdays...barely. Two weeks ago Ruger-man turned 6 and today Sawyer turned 4! They are both feeling pretty grown up, now that one will be entering Kindergarten and the other will be the big man on campus at Pre-school cause he's ahem, 4! Don't ya know? Oh and that minor bruise on Ruger's forehead? Oh yes, that was his clever dive off of the bed...he didn't calculate the distance between his bed and the train table. Silly boy!

And then one of the darling babe...just because I can! :)

One Month

     Well, we made it one month. I'm still learning how to dress a baby girl and figuring out the whole flowers on the head thing. Remi sleeps well and is pretty low maintenance. She's just started cracking a smile this week, she loves, loves, loves to be held, and she enjoys trying to drink her bath water. We sure do love our little gal!
     We even survived our first week of church! Jason couldn't be there so it was just me and the kiddos...there may or may not have been a bag of candy involved and perhaps one loud "cock-a-doodle-do" from Sawyer, but all in all it was a good day!

Family

this is the family i came from. one mom. one dad. five brothers. one sister. it has now been joined by seven in-laws and 30 grandchildren. oh, and calvin's dog pepper. this family is wild. we are crazy. filled with emotion and dentists. supportive. fierce. lovable. and eternal. i am so happy to say that i am a part of the keller family.

Inseparable

 There's something so magical about having a newborn in the home. It's peaceful and spiritual. I've always tried to savor every single moment with my babies because I know that the time will pass quickly and I don't want to forget a single detail. So, I just sort of sit on the bed and stare at them all day long. :) I figure it's my right as a mother.

 After Remi was born we had to wait several hours to hold her. She had some fluid in her lungs and was struggling to breath so they monitored her closely. The second I began to gain feeling in my legs again, they let me go to the nursery to visit her. When they put her in my arms, her heart rate jumped up and stayed consistent the whole time, until I put her down again. After that they felt it was best that she go back to the room and stay with Jason and I. :) Since then we've been inseparable.

So, if I'm not around much for the next little while, just know that it's not that I don't care, it's just that my arms are full and my heart is content. :) Lots of love from the Jenkins!