This last one was a Studio Ghibli themed craft swap. So it wasn’t just quilts, it was any type of craft. Well, almost any. The partner you are assigned does have a preference. I’m lucky mine likes mini quilts. If you are unfamiliar with anything Ghibli, then I recommend reading up on it a bit. Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation film studio that has some of the best animated films out there (in my personal opinion, and apparently many others too). They created such films as Kiki’s Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, Ponyo, Spirited Away, Castle in the Sky, etc etc. I 100% recommend you go and watch every single film they’ve made, if you havent already.

Anyway, for this swap I focused mainly on the film My Neighbor Totoro. My partner listed it as one they loved, and it fit best with their favorite fabrics and colors. Even though this should have been an easy make for me, I struggled. I couldn’t pin down just one idea. I had TOO MANY IDEAS! I put off working on the quilt until I made up my mind. In the meantime I made a little soot sprite brooch that you can read about a few posts back. So I wasn’t slacking completely.

I went out of town twice late Feb and early March, and then came home to the entire family being sick. So there was no time for any making for three whole weeks. Once everything got back to normal I went into panic mode and quickly picked out one of the designs I had come up with. It was a simple applique design of leaves around a hole that Totoro could peek out of.

To accomplish this look, I drew all the leaves by hand in a 5″ square. I then scanned in the doodle and enlarged it to 18″ square in illustrator. I also did a quick outline of Totoro and divided up all the pieces I’d need. I did this early in the morning before CT woke up, so instead of using my Silhouette CAMEO like usual, I decided to iron on the double sided fusible interfacing, print out templates, trace everything and cut out all the fabric by hand quietly. I miss doing that sometimes (not TOO often though).

The first part I pieced together was Totoro since that’s basically the bottom layer. I used a Corelle plate and traced a circle on the black and white fabric as my circle guide. I then did a reverse applique to get that perfect circle cut out (detailed instructions will have to wait until a later date) I made another circle 1/2″ bigger and attached my totoro applique to that. I then glue basted the two pieces together just so I could get a feel for the whole thing.

I pretty much just eyeballed the placement of the leaves, using my original sketch as a guide. I ironed them on in quadrants. Once they were all secured I attempted to hand embroider around all the edges. Lets just say it was the worst idea Ive had in a long time!! After a bunch of cussing and pulling out thread, I decided to do a machine blanket stitch around each piece using a dark mustard thread. Even though it was faster than by hand, it still took me a few hours to finish (broken up in two days of course).

Once all of the applique work was finished, I quilted it up using invisible thread on the front and the same mustard thread on the back. I did 45 degree angled stitches on each corner, so it overlapped on the middle sides. I then did a simple straight line stitch in the circle and then around the applique to permanently secure it. Can I just say how much I’m loving invisible thread for these projects? In certain light you can hardly see any stitches at all!! It’s awesome.

To finish the piece off I bound it in some black chambray and hand painted the eyes, whiskers and mouth (using fabric safe paint of course).

Since it was a swap, and all, I also added a few goodies in the package! A beautiful card I picked up at Disney World that would make a great framed print, the Soot Sprite brooch I made, some japanese sweets and a pile of Lizzy House fabric scraps (some from the new and yet to be released line).

I really loved working on this piece, and it really made me realize I LOVE making themed quilts. LOVE IT! If I sign up for anymore swaps (in addition to the other two im working on), they are going to be themed, period.

Whew, I think thats it! Everything was sent out two days ago, and it doesn’t look like my partner has received it yet. I’ll let you know what he/she thinks once they receive it. I also haven’t received my package yet, so expect another post talking all about that!!!!

 ”Around here, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” – Walt Disney

So this might be the hardest blog post I’ve written to date. I’ve been writing and rewriting it in my head for weeks, no, months. Always changing it, tweaking it so it sounds right. I figured in the end the best way was just to be blunt and say it in as few words as possible…

Starting June 15th, the Art School Dropout shop will be temporarily put on the back burner. At least in my head. I will not be creating new products and I will not be taking any new custom orders. The shop will be paired down to just Home Decor and Party Supplies (minus custom listings). All orders placed will be shipped out by my husband, not me, on Saturdays. From now until June 15th, all Accessories, Jewelry / Juxtapose Necklaces and Craft Supplies will be 40% off to help clear them out. Everything else will be 25% off just because. (discount will be applied in the cart, no coupon code needed) Shipping may be slow at first while we switch over, so please have some patience with us!

Now I will explain a bit about WHY I’m doing this…

For the past 6 months or so, my mind has been going a mile a minute with ideas and things I would like to create. It usually goes fast, but lately its just out of control. At times it was getting to be a bit overwhelming and was causing me to forget important things, mess up on orders and such. I have been writing all the ideas down in hopes that I will one day have the time to try them all out. Well, when I realized Art School Dropout was turning 11, something just clicked in my head. I love creating for the shop and I love seeing my goods out in the world, however I have been doing the same thing for 11 years. I love learning new processes and I feel like I could be improving my skills. I have more unfinished personal projects than I do finished. I am my own boss, I have the power to cut back on business related stuff and work on personal stuff for once…

So that’s what i’m going to do. This may be a temporary situation, it may be permanent. I’m not sure yet. It’s scary to walk away from something that you’ve put so much of your life into. Actually it was almost my entire 20′s. Most of my adult life. The fear is what’s making me hold on just a little, and with the help from my husband (who’s been offering for years and I just never took him up on it) I think I can start chiseling away at my “Things To Try” list.

In a nutshell, I want to see what I’m capable of when I’m not tied down to a brand.

In the coming months I will be prepping for BlytheCon. I am scheduled to learn how to quilt using a longarm machine (and be certified to rent one). I will finally finish all of those quilts I’ve been working on for years. I am signed up to properly learn Illustrator. After that I would like to learn more about customizing wordpress properly. I would like to finally write patterns for all of those quilts I made. I want to paint CT’s room. I’d like to finally decorate our bedroom and bathroom. I want to build some furniture… and so so so much more.

I plan on sharing all of it here on the blog. So I won’t be disappearing into the mist, but possibly instead I’ll be around MORE!

I feel like I forgot so much that I wanted to say, but I also feel like this is good! I know it will be good for me, and that really is all that matters, making myself and my family happy.

I blame all the awesome fashion blogs out there, or maybe the fact that I have a little girl who dresses super cute, but all of a sudden I want cute girly clothes. Dresses, skirts, tights, fancy coats and pretty shoes. I’m a stay at home mom, who doesn’t party or go out, so it’s really hard to justify such purchases. I always have to justify a purchase, otherwise I feel super guilty afterwards.

I am linked to ModCloth daily, usually from a blog, instagram photo or email. I spend way too much time on there looking at all their adorable clothes, and to top it off, they add loads more each day. They have everything I’ve been looking for and more. So if I had unlimited funds, or a very large ModCloth gift card, I’d buy…

1 - The Leif Aquatic Top /// 2 – Knits a Small World Sweatshirt (These two shirts are kinda like band tshirts, but way cuter! and warmer!)

3 – Your Fireside of the Story Cardigan in Coal (I said I didn’t need anymore cardigans, but this one has huge buttons, my other cardigans don’t have huge buttons!!) /// 4 – Plenty by Tracy Reese Turn to the Tundra Coat (I love the details on this coat, plus the fur comes off and leaves behind a cute collar!)

5 – Every Gilded Moment Dress /// 6 - Pretty in Prague Dress /// 7 - Coach Tour Dress in Noir (I really seem to be drawn to black dresses. Every time I try on a colorful pattern or solid colored dress I just don’t feel like myself. Apparently I have a little bit of a goth side. I’m seriously tempted to buy the Coach Tour dress, it looks like a good “starter dress”)

8 – Cultivate Colorful Tights /// 9 - Pale in Comparison Tights (How cute would these tights look under that Coach Tour dress? and with my Dr. Martens? or maybe those boots below?)

10 – Been There London That Skirt (how cute is this skirt?!? It reminds me of Disney)  /// 11 – Put Down Routes Boot (I like the height of these boots, the buckles and the fact that there is hardly any heel. I’m not a heels type of girl. These may be my perfect boots)

This list is a just a wish list, the only thing in my budget is that Coach Tour Dress. I really do like it. Do any of you readers have one? does it flare out a bit? or is it straight down? I’m short and chubby, I’d prefer a flared out skirt.

Oh and something neat, ModCloth is having a huge holiday sale right now! It’s their ‘Tis The Season sale. Starting Today and ending Sunday evening, 100 plus NEW ITEMS are 50% off. I missed out on their last sale, and I still see blog posts about how amazing it was. I Could buy one of those Coach Tour Dresses I like, looks like a few colors are on sale!! And I said I wouldn’t get all worked about holiday sales…

Edit: I ended up purchasing the Coach Tour Dress in Violet!!

I’m new to this type of internet shopping. Are there any other shopping websites you think I’d like? With styles similar to what I picked out above?

I’ve talked about my Disney collection here before. It’s kinda big and is growing very fast. I just love Disney! So of course, I bought more pieces while we were at Disney World last month. I didn’t go too crazy. I made sure most of the pieces were small (with the exception of a large knit mickey that I didn’t take photos of).

I had a difficult time picking which Vinylmation figures I wanted. A lot of them cost more than I wanted to spend, and others just weren’t my taste. I was very happy when I found a solid white one during our last day there, and then I found the red polka dotted one at our resort the day we left. I prefer simple figures, and these fit the bill.

I also bought a castle magnet to match my Disneyland one, and a castle antenna topper just because it was cute and simple. I don’t have a car of my own, so of course it’s just going on the shelf. The little plastic mickey ears are actually a Mr Potato Head piece that they sell. I loved how it kinda looked like a vinyl toy piece. The last piece is the Mickey in the middle who’s head is kinda tilted up a little too far. I thought he looked a bit like my vintage Mickey’s, and he didn’t cost much, so I brought him home too.

After we got home, I went on ebay looking for something I forgot to get in the parks. While searching I found this pin for the 30th anniversary of Epcot. The date on the pin is just a few days before we were there, so I bid on it and won it for $1! It’ll go very nicely with our Anniversary button and CT’s First Visit and Celebration buttons. As a side note, apparently Epcot and I are almost the same age, I’m just a month older!

So, this was actually the least amount of souvenirs I’ve bought at Disney yet. I was proud of myself! Now I just need to find a spot for them all on my hutch.

Oh and on a side note, I’ve found I really love taking pictures of my toys. I’m even getting that picture above of the red polka dotted Vinylmation toy printed large for my sewing room, like 18″x24″ large.

Our original plan was to do the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party the second night we were there, just in case any of got sick or something else happened. Kinda get it over with before everyone was exhausted. Well, it rained that night, so we were able to switch our tickets over to the next party, which was the night before we left. So it was basically a party to celebrate the end of our vacation!

You may be asking what the difference is between the party and any other night at the Magic Kingdom? well, a lot! They have these events a few times a week starting in September and ending right after Halloween. It cost additional and tickets should be purchased before heading to Disney, and if you go on Halloween (like we did for our anniversary in 2008) you have to get those tickets months ahead of time. It’s a great time to have your entire family all dressed up in costume, because everyone else was! (CT was snow white, us parents ran out of time to make costumes)

They close the park to anyone who didn’t purchase the party tickets around 7pm, which is when they start all the fun stuff. The first thing they do is hand everyone trick or treat bags, this year they were paper bags with Wreck It Ralph and Frankenweenie on them. These are used for trick or treating all over the park! Sometimes its just a Disney employee handing out the candy, but other times its actual characters. Though this time I didn’t see actual characters doing it, maybe its just a Halloween day thing? Soon after all that they start the first of two special Halloween Parades…

We figured we’d just watch the second parade, since they’re exactly the same, and go ride some rides during since they’d be empty. But we got sucked in and had horrible spots, so sorry for the crappy photos. If there’s a next time, we’ll prepare better and wait it out in a good seat. The parade was all about the villains. The whole night was pretty much all about them. Everything was so neat looking and all the costumes were amazing. It really set the mood for the whole night.

After the parade we went to ride the teacups again. As you can see above, the teacups really were her favorite thing at the parks. When you ask her what the best things at Disney were, her first reply is the pool at the resort and her second thing was the teacups!

The Happy HalloWishes fireworks were amazing! Again, they were all Disney villain themed. During the fireworks show they would cast weird lights on the leftover smoke to make it all creepy looking, and they would also project images of different villains onto the castle. As you can see in the green colored photo above, one of them was Oogie Boogie from the Nightmare Before Christmas. There were many others, but I can’t remember them all. Wow, does Disney do fireworks right! They were basically all around, complete 360. As my husband says, what’s considered a grand finale for our local fireworks is just the beginning at Disney. It was all so pretty!

After the fireworks we went to go have dinner before the next parade started. CT had been up a little late every night we were at Disney, so we figured she’d be able to stay awake. We headed down to the beginning of the parade hoping to get a better seat. We had no such luck. Good thing for CT, her dad is tall and she was able to sit on his shoulder to watch some of the parade… She started to get drowsy halfway through and ended up falling asleep in her stroller. We figured we’d seen the parade before, so we would just slowly head out of the park. I took a bunch of pictures on the way out of course, always take advantage of the quiet and calm time you have when your child is asleep! (like me writing this blog post right now) We actually caught the parade at the entrance and ended up being trapped in the middle circle of main street! That’s where that photo on the right above came from. Luckily they let people through inbetween parade floats, so we were able to beat the rush to the bus. which was great, because carrying a passed out toddler, a stroller, backpacks, camera, etc on a crowded bus sucks!! (we know, we had to do it a few nights before)

As you can see, our little snow white was seriously exhausted. I know she had a great time though, because she has excitedly talked about it all nonstop since we got home!!

I’m really happy we were able to take her to Disney World, and even happier we could do the Halloween party. It’s one of my favorite things to do at Disney! It makes me wonder if the next time we go should it be for Halloween, or maybe mix it up and do the Mickeys Very Merry Christmas Party? Has anyone ever done both? If so, which was more fun for little ones?

Well, this is the last post I’ll be writing about our actual trip. If you’re interested in seeing all the photos from this our Disney vacation, just head on over to my Flickr page, I uploaded everything finally!!

CT loved the tea cups the most, as you can see above. We rode that one more than once! She also really enjoyed the Peoplemover, “it’s a small world”, Peter Pan’s Flight, Prince Charming Regal Carrousel, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and Dumbo the Flying Elephant (which has an awesome waiting area now, fully air conditioned!!). she DID NOT enjoy Pirates of the Caribbean! that was a bad choice on our part. It was too dark and she didn’t like that first drop. She could have fooled us, because afterward she wouldn’t stop singing “yo ho, yo ho, a pirates life for me…”. Ha!

We stumbled on something really cool one of the days we were there. Disney is building a whole new section of the park, all the way in the back. It’s going to house a few new restaurants, rides, shows, and two new castles!! The Beast’s castle and Eric’s Castle, I believe. Most of it is already built and a little bit is open (like the new, double, Dumbo ride with that air conditioning I talked about). We were being really nosy while trying to take pictures of one of the castles (pictured above), when we found a hidden door to the new section. The “cast member“ guarding the entrance told us we could come in and test drive one of their new attractions! It’s called Enchanted Tales with Belle and is an interactive play. It takes places in Maurice’s house (her dad), which I have pictured right above. They take you in and choose different kids to be part of their interactive play, CT was chosen to be an enchanted frame. We were a little weary she’d freak out, but she seemed happy she was chosen. The play is a shortened story about how Beauty met the Beast. It was really cute! halfway through it was CT’s turn to get up and be part of the play, but instead of getting up she freaked out and started screaming. I guess she has a little bit of stage fright. It was really neat being able to see everything they’re building behind those hedges, and it really makes me want to visit again after its all finished, which should be in about a month and a half!

As with the other parks, we put aside a lot of time to meet all the characters we could. CT was able to meet Alice, Minnie, Buzz Lightyear, Tiana, Rapunzel, Flynn Rider and Cinderella with her Prince. She was also able to meet Snow White again, which as you can see from the photo above, she loved!! She filled up almost every page of her autograph book, which made her very happy. I’m thinking of scanning all the autographs in and making a little Blurb book for her. She loves books, so I bet she’d love a book with pictures of her in it! Have anyone of you used Blurb? How was the quality?

So, I have more photos to share from Magic Kingdom, but they’re all from the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, which really deserves its own post. Oh and as I’ve said before, if you’re interested in seeing more photos from our trip, you can find all of them in my Flickr account.

This time around we weren’t able to stay for an entire day, there just isn’t enough for CT at Epcot. It was actually the park we went to after our two hours at Hollywood Studio, since theres a ferry in between the two. We were able to see a few Disney characters, like Snow White and Aurora (Sleeping Beauty). That was really neat! Plus their two of CT’s favorites! She actually sat down next to Snow White and got comfortable as if she was going to stay there all day!

Epcot has the neatest things to see, you can learn a little or a lot about each country showcased, it all depends on how much time you have. Like I said before too, the shops are awesome! We didn’t buy too much, just some little trinkets at the shop in “Japan” (we wanted a lot in there) and a plush, mounted, bear head in “Canada” (to go with my moose head I bought back in 2008)

Since we were there in October, it was also the International Food and Wine Festival. Its an annual event held in the World Showcase section of Epcot. Last time we were there (before CT), we tried out some of the food carts they have scattered around, but this time, Because of my issues with gluten, we stayed away. Everything smelled so good though! I was able to enjoy amazing mexican food at La Hacienda de San Angel. Pretty much everything on the menu was gluten free!

CT was able to ride two of the rides, without being too short or possibly too scared. She loved the Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros and The Seas With Nemo & Friends. She talked about them for awhile afterwards.

We stayed for the fireworks, because they are so amazing at this park! We didn’t get a great view (I was standing next to a trash can and as you can see, there was a tree in the way) but it was still amazing. CT loved them and kept telling us “thank you for bringing me!”, which is really the best thing to hear from your child when you do something for them!!

IF (in capital letters for a reason) we take another vacation to Disney, we plan on staying in a resort off a monorail for once so we can get to parks like Epcot and Magic Kingdom easier and quicker. We just enjoy them more! This was my third trip to these parks, and everytime I see something new! It all makes me smile!

Just like I said yesterday, I took loads more photos than I could ever share on here, so if you’re interested you can see them all on my Flickr account. I haven’t uploaded all the photos from Magic Kingdom or the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween party yet. Oh and I forgot about all the photos I took with my phone, so I’m up to about 800 photos now… I just love taking pictures of EVERYTHING!

I tried out several patterns before I was happy with the outcome. The first few were commercial patterns I bought at Joanns. They never quite fit CT right, and the sizes were all wonky. Very disappointing, and such a waste of my time. In the end I found one on Etsy by Ruby Jeans Closet. The pattern is called the Peony Flower Girl Dress, and is absolutely perfect for simple princess dresses. The instructions were super easy to understand, you don’t need any hard to find supplies and the sizes are perfect! I also like the pattern because it’s easy to change up a bit, so I can make each dress a little different to fit whatever theme I want. One pattern can yield so many different dresses. I was only able to finish four dresses before our trip, but I have plans for so many more once things die down.

The first dress I was able to finish was a Minnie Mouse inspired dress. My original plan was to make it red and white polka dotted, but I remembered last minute that Minnie wears PINK on the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and CT knows her from that show. Luckily Joann’s has the same exact fabric in pink! I may go back and get the red and make a second dress, because it’s just too cute on her.

The only thing I changed on the pattern to make this dress was the waistband. In the instructions you’re supposed to put the band on the inside of the dress to hold the elastic, I put it on the outside to add a little detail. The next one I make I’m also going to put a little lace around the arm hole, just beacuse.

Oh and funny thing, CT is doing a robot dance in the first photo, It’s really funny and cute in person.

The second dress is Marvel Comics themed. This dress kinda happened by accident. While I was picking out the fabric for the rest of the dresses, my husband was wandering the store with CT. He found this fabric and asked me what we could make with it. I was still in “lets make dresses” mode, so I said I’d make CT a dress out of it. Since Disney is now associated with Marvel, I thought why not make it for the trip! I didn’t know what to call it, but by the end of the trip I said CT was dressed up as a comic book store. Ha, that totally confused people.

I did change the pattern a bit more for this dress. I cut the pattern on the line meant as a waistband guide, so that I could use two different fabrics (I thought an entire dress made out of this would be a bit much) I also added some of the patterned fabric to the sleeves as casing for the elastic. I think it added a nice little touch to the dress.

The third dress is actually my favorite one, and was a lot of fun to make. It’s a Snow White inspired dress, and was the dress CT wore as her actual costume for the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party at Disney World. It’s super lightweight and very flowy, great for spinning apparently. A bunch of people called CT Snow White throughout the day, and after awhile she started to love that (I think she was a bit confused at first).

So the changes to this dress are very similar to the changes on the Marvel dress. I used the waistband guideline as the cutline again. I also used a different colored fabric for the sleeves, which I appliqued the red stripes on myself since I couldn’t find the right material in stores. I also added white binding around the sleeves as the elastic casing. Oh and I added the little red bow. I felt very good after making this specific dress and hope I can make all the princesses for her eventually.

The last dress! This dress is Alice in Wonderland inspired, though we were also told that it looked like Belle before she got that pretty yellow ballgown. Two costumes in one! CT really enjoyed wearing this one and everyone either called her Alice or asked if she’d met Alice yet (which she had, while wearing the Minnie dress).

This dress seriously took me the longest to make. It had a bit more details, had to be more precise and I had to free hand the apron pieces. I basically just winged it all! Ha! The way I changed the pattern on this one was kinda like the Minnie Mouse dress. I placed the elastic casing on the outside of the dress again, but this time I placed the apron pieces underneath the casing to make it look like all one piece. Because of the gathering around the neck, the apron pieces were only attached at the waist, their loose everywhere else. That way it laid flat. I didn’t attach the straps until I tried the entire thing on CT, that way I knew exactly how long to make them. It was a bit more work, but I’m beyond happy with the outcome. If I ever do it again, I’ll add some white casing to the armholes and some ruffles on the apron.

These dresses took me an entire week to make, but I’m happy I made them all. I think having themed dresses just added that little touch to our trip that we’ll remember for years to come!

Edit: I forgot the best part!!!… each dress cost me on average about $6 to make, and If I had a 50% off coupon for Joanns instead of the 30% off one I used, they would cost even less. 

I have searched fan sites, google, etsy, flickr and pinterest for some inspiration. I think I may have searched too much, because now I’m overwhelmed with possibilities. I have to take into account my body shape, the weather and what I’ll actually feel comfortable in… Ugh!

Have you seen any on the internet that you think I may like? That won’t take me forever to make? I still have to make CT’s costume too! I’m also stumped with hers, more because she can’t decide, not because I can’t make it.

I guess I could just be lazy and buy a trench coat, red chucks and a blazer…