I don’t talk much about my family on the blog or social media, because I don’t feel like it’s fair to share their lives without their permission. Plus they all like their privacy.

I’m making an exception today, because I NEED to share how my mom is a sewing superhero…

Many brides and wedding parties in the Baltimore/DC metro area were hit hard when bridal superstore Alfred Angelo closed abruptly a few weeks back. My mom was the main seamstress at their Columbia, MD location and handled hundreds of dresses a month. Most of these dress alterations had been pre-paid to Alfred Angelo, and my mom had not received a paycheck in weeks. She cares about all of her customers though, and continued to work on their dresses. Even after the doors officially closed she had 87 dresses on hand that still needed to be picked up, she continued working FOR FREE! You can read all the details and more about the closing in the Baltimore Sun article they wrote about here...

Baltimore Sun: Columbia Seamstress Scrambles to Help Brides Affected by Alfred Angelo Closings

My siblings and I have gathered together to help her out in any way we can, plus a friend has graciously offered up space for her to work in. We also started a GoFundMe to help her offset any costs and pay her bills.

GoFundMe: Offset Costs for Denise

Also, Any proceeds from sales in my shop from now, until August 18th, will be added to her GoFundMe page.

If you could share these links, and get the word out, I would love it! This is a new situation for my family and I. We don’t normally ask for help, and aren’t really sure where to go from here. Any help is appreciated!.

CT’s first day of Kindergarten was this past week. It was a HUGE milestone for both of us, so of course I had to take loads of photos.

I also figured I should make a little sign so we never forget it was the first day of school.

Then after much thought I decided on a second piece that can be detached that says which year of school shes starting.

All of this snowballed into the fabric banner above! It’s 8″ square with marine grade vinyl letters cut out using my Sizzix Fabi and the Block Talk Alphabet Die Set. The background is Andover Fabrics chambray in black. I made it pretty much the exact same way as my Appliqued Vinyl Letter Pillow.

I also added snaps to the bottom of the banner so I could make an attachment for each year she is in school. I plan on making all the grades later this week when things have calmed down around here and putting this in a safe place.

The idea of her using this every year makes me all teary eyed! Can you imagine her in 12th grade holding this little banner?!?!?

As you may be able to tell, I’m a complete mess over her going to school. Yes I gained 8 uninterrupted hours each weekday, but I still miss her soooooooooo much. Does it get easier?!?

It was a cute tree that had a slight Scandinavian look to it. I can only picture it in white for some reason, but I bet it could be used in many ways. I painted a border of them on the bottom of a dress I made using their stencil vinyl.

The dress is made using Made By Rae’s Geranium Dress pattern and the fabric is Andover Fabric’s chambray in black.

I am so in love with this dress and I want to make so many more! The pattern has 3 options for sleeves, 2 options for the skirt (pleated or gathered), 3 neckline options AND an optional pocket! Plus you can make it as a dress OR a top. Seriously, SO MANY OPTIONS. Plus it went together in just two hours on my first try and the instructions were so easy. It fit her really well too! I can see CT’s closest packed full of these within a year, you guys will be so sick of seeing them, maybe…

My mom did most of the work putting this whole thing together. From the food, to the candy bar, to the hot chocolate favors to the games and more. She went all out!!! The only thing I had a hand in was the little tags on everything, the food signs, the macarons and the photo booth and props. All but the last pieces were all her idea too! It was a lot of fun to help put together and I am so happy we were able to have it in our home! I also can’t wait to meet my newest niece sometime soon!! She’ll get a cute nickname unlike her dad, we’ll call her “Little R”.

Now be prepared for a bunch of photos, mostly up close, because that’s just my style!

(please note this awesome cake wrecks where Harris Teeter spelled my sisters name wrong and wrote “It’s a GIR!”)

Oh and the above picture is my other adorable little sister and her best friend!

My camera battery died halfway through the day and I had to borrow my sisters, so the photos are all weird and different. I also messed up on photos of the adorable banner I made and the gorgeous mobile/centerpiece my mom made using tissue paper, paper lanterns, tulle and other paper goods! It was so pretty we decided to hang it in CT’s playroom afterwards.

This was the first time my mom and I have collaborated on anything, it was a fun and surprising experience!

This was the third event we’ve had at our house in the last month, and the second to last. I’m super happy to have everyone over, but I won’t lie, it will be soo nice when I can get back to normal! I miss making a huge crafty mess!!!

They had loads of places to land, but sometimes if you were lucky they’d land of you! they landed on my husband A LOT.

Plus there are people walking around telling you about the butterflies and even helping you catch one on a paint brush (you aren’t allowed to touch them) CT was able to hold the paintbrush a few times. It was one of the highlights of her birthday.

Right before you walk into the pavilion they also an exhibit where they teach you all about the life cycle of butterflies and moths. If you go at certain times of day they also have other huge insects that you can hold… if you’re brave enough.

If you are ever in DC I highly recommend this as a stop! It’s $6 an adult, $5 per kid to get into the pavilion, but its SO worth it. I’d do it every month, maybe even twice a month. I’d recommend buying tickets ahead of time just in case, they only allow a certain amount of visitors per half hour. Oh and if you on Tuesdays it’s free!! (but you should still reserve tickets online, I imagine the free days are packed)

I’m already looking forward to when the holiday season is over so we can head back down. We were told that each time you visit is a completely different experience. I want to see if that’s true.

First we checked out the Dinosaur Skeletons and Fossils, since that was her first request. It’s also a big thing in the game. You dig up fossils, take them to the museum and a little owl guy checks them out and then you have skeletons that you can donate to the museum or sell for profit.

I may have gone a bit overboard with the photos, but seriously the Smithsonian is SO COOL! I grew up visiting all the museums on field trips, with my family and then as a teenager with my friends. I had the biggest smile on my face all day watching CT freak out about everything. She is really into skeletons and such right now (Thanks to the Dr. Suess book: Inside Your Outside, All About the Human Body) So the exhibits actually kept her attention.

Lucky for us there was also a small exhibit with live fish. So we could check that off the Animal Crossing list.

They also had gems and live butterflies like in the game! (I took so many photos of the butterflies that they require their own post)

As you can tell from our required photo outside the museum, it was COLD! I think it was freezing temps actually. Don’t worry, we were all super bundled up.

To end our Animal Crossing themed museum trip, we headed next door to the National Gallery of Art Sculptural Garden. Seriously one of my absolute favorite places! CT loved walking underneath the sculptures and see just how big they were!.

The entire day was just so much fun. We all enjoyed ourselves and are already planning another trip down. There’s so much more to see!!!

Check back tomorrow for my ridiculous amount of butterfly pictures from the Live Butterfly Pavilion at the Smithsonian.

After lunch we ended up at Culler Lake, which is kinda part of Baker Park. It’s a cute little lake with ducks and all. It was perfect for taking pictures! CT and my brother were able to play and my husband was able to hang out on a bench.

My adorable sister Cori was really awesome about taking so many pictures too! Seriously, I took A LOT of photos!!

Funny thing, I have been making jewelry for almost 10 years, and somehow this is the first time I’ve ever taken pictures of my jewelry on a real live person!!! How weird is that? I’m pretty new to portraits where the jewelry is the main focus and not the person, and I’m not too sure about how they came out. I’m very happy with my sister in the shots, but I don’t think I did well focusing on the jewelry. I guess I’ll get better with lighting, composition and all the more I try?

Anyone have some pointers?

When we finished the first thing out of her mouth was “Now we can eat them!”. So we peeled the shell off of one and gave it to her, she looked super disappointed and when we asked her why she said “I thought they were candy inside!”. Awww!!! Luckily, she still ate most it.

Today were mostly just hanging around the house and then later will be visiting family an hour or so away for festivities and such. It’s a tradition of sorts.

I hope everyone who celebrates is having a great day!! Happy Easter!

From top left…

• a doctor who pouch for my friend Molly
• a Pyrex inspired pouch for my friend Tasha
• the Modern Maples quilt I mentioned earlier this week for my sister Ashley
• a hedgehog pillow for my sister Cori (using the paper piecing pattern I found here. Oh and this was my first time trying paper piecing! I’m in love!)
• a pillow for my grandmother using the Modern Maples blocks.
• a hedgehog pouch for my sister Cori (as you can see, she loves hedgehogs, she even has one)
• two Tangled inspired dresses for nieces.

I actually made a few other things too, but they haven’t been gifted yet.

It was all a lot of fun to make, but I am beyond exhausted. New rule: Start sewing gifts in the summer!!!!!

I went through the list of what I wanted to finish and picked out one quilt to do, the Modern Maples quilt by Amanda of Hey Porkchop! that can be found in Pretty in Patchwork: Holidays. (the book has a lot of great patterns, not just this one. I highly recommend it). It’s something different than what I normally sew, and it’s just soo pretty! My sister Ashley really likes fall colors and such, so I thought it would be perfect for her.

It’s now three days after Christmas, and I wish I could say I finished this project!! Ha. I was able to piece the front completely, all 18 leaf blocks and 12 solid blocks. I was also able to piece together the back.

Just so my sister  and brother-in-law didn’t think they were getting nothing this year, I wrapped the half finished quilt with a note saying I would quilt it and return it to them very soon. I’m hoping to have it finished by this weekend, as long as we don’t all get sick…

As for everyone else, I decided to make smaller sewn gifts, which I’m going to share on Monday!!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!!