Isn't she fancy?

Like most 4 year olds, Miss Claire loves to dress herself.  She's a real girly girl and will pick a skirt or a dress 90% of the time.  (She's also decided that despite the year round cool weather that she prefers short sleeves too.)

When she picks out her outfits in the morning, there are a couple of rules she's set. 1) It must follow the pattern (for instance: long sleeve, short sleeve, short sleeve, long sleeve). 2) It has to match (This one is a little funny to me because her idea of matching and mine are completely different!). 3) Hello Kitty rain boots go with everything. 4) It has to be fancy.

The photo to the left shows one of the outfits my fancy fashionista picked out this weekend. I tried explaining that rain boots are called rain boots because you wear them in the rain, but all that gained me was a "what the heck are you thinking, mom" look. So now I just go with it.

For Valentine's Day, I made Claire a couple of different shirts that she could choose from.  Guess what she chose to wear?  A Halloween outfit, of course!  She got dolled up in her black pettiskirt and little witch tee to eat her Valentine heart pasta.  She said this outfit was more fancy than the Valentine tees and it matched her lunch better.

Speaking of pasta...I love all of the fun shaped pastas at World Market.  We've got the hearts, Easter eggs, and zoo animals.  I don't eat noodles, but the girlies love me to make mac and cheese with them or toss them with a little olive oil and parmesan.  It makes for easy and quick lunches, so Claire eats them once or twice a week.

 
Here's another bento (or fancy lunch as Claire likes to call it) that I made.  I was pretty busy so we did a super quick and easy lunch this day.  For the entree, we have turkey and swiss cheese skewers.  Her favorite part was the fruit.  She loves the grapes, raspberry, and blueberry skewers with the whipped cream for dipping.  I made her the mini spinach salad with homemade ranch dressing, which she didn't touch.   She just started eating salad a couple of weeks ago, but she is only willing to try "white salad" (ie romaine hearts).

What's for lunch?

It's no secret that my dear, sweet, second born daughter is a difficult eater. The funny thing is that when she was a baby, I made all of her baby foods and she had quite a varied and healthy diet. Some time shortly after her first birthday that all changed.

It all started with her refusal to eat any fruit except strawberries. Then she refused to try any vegetable in solid form preferring only the mashed "baby foods." I actually gave her baby food veggies until she was about 3.5 because she loved eating "sauce," but wouldn't touch them in whole form.

Here's the thing though...Claire does eat a lot of different foods that I rarely see other toddlers eating. She just doesn't eat a lot of "regular foods." She's loved calamari since she had it for the first time when she was 2. Mexican and Thai food are two of her favorite cuisines...give that girl some refried beans or fish cakes and she'll lick the plate clean. Give her a donut and she'll freak out because they are "begusting!" (not that she's ever tried one!)

Since we moved to California in August she's made a huge effort to try new things. One of the first days here she told me she'd love to have apples at Subway. The last time she ate an apple she was 10 months old! She loved them. I've since broken her out of her 3 year fruit rut when she would only eat strawberries. She's also discovered that green beans, peas, and broccoli are delicious.

In an effort to get her to try more things and make lunch a fun event for us, I've decided that we're doing "bento" lunches. Although I do have some authentic bento boxes that I purchased in Japan, I decided that for now we're going to use some cute sectioned plates I bought at the Target dollar spot instead.

Here's the first bento that I made for her. She's got a turkey and cheese quesadilla with salsa and sour cream for dipping. For her dessert, she had cherries and raspberries with whipped cream for dipping. Claire just discovered that she LOVES both of these fruits.Our second bento was a quick lunch I threw together. She had a turkey and cheese sandwich with a unicorn shaped cheese (I bought a bunch of awesome cookie cutters at Sur la Table including this unicorn one.), cherry and apricot skewers, whipped cream, and some yogurt.
The third bento she had was met with mixed results. Claire devoured the leftover kung pao chicken and heart shaped rice patties (made with mini heart cookie cutters). She had a few cherries, but I think she was a little full from the chicken. I have to give her credit though, she did enthusiastically pick up one of the sugar snap peas...but she did not like them. Not even with the ranch dressing and she'll eat almost anything dipped in the ranch.
Stay tuned for more kid-friendly bento lunches!

Boy

I'm a girl mom. A girly girl mom. That is certainly reflected in the things I create. I tend to use pink...a lot. I can't help it. I love pink and so do the Divas I live with.

I, naturally, have a really hard time coming up with boy designs. I really don't know why though. I own a LOT of boy designs, but when it comes to stitching them out I have no clue what to do for fabrics, colors, etc. For the last few months, I've been trying to step out of my girly comfort zone and come up with some boy designs. Here are a few of the things I've made for boys in the last few weeks.

A boy version of my girly owl birthday onesie was requested. These colors were chosen to match Wesley's party decor.

This "Love Machine" onesie (design from Lynnie Pinnie) was fun to stitch out the first time. I think it came out cute and could work for a boy or a girl.

Apparently a lot of other people thought so too...yesterday I stitched out this design 5 times: 3 for boys and 2 for girls. I have 2 more to do. Like I said, it was fun to stitch out the first time...lol

Isn't this design cute? I found it from Embroidery Library awhile back when it was on sale for $1. I found these baby towels on sale at Target for $5 for a 2 pack. These towels were really thin (thinner than expected even for baby towels), so I don't really recommend them although they did have some pretty colors.

Of course, I had to make a tie tee. Perfect for Valentine's Day!

I tried with the truck above, but I HATED stitching it out and won't do it again. There were too many steps (and I omitted a few too). I think it turned out cute, but not cute enough for me to do any more!

I actually receive two orders for this same shirt within a day or so. It's one of my favorite boy shirts. I love the circles and the colors. It's so fun!

Cyber Monday Sale!

There's a great Cyber Monday sale going on in my Etsy shop! New holiday tees are listed, so you have lots to choose from!All tees and bodysuits are buy 2, get 1 free**! To redeem your free item, add 2 shirts/bodysuits in your cart. When you check out, in the 'message to seller' field, please let me know which shirt you would like free! Visit Banana Bear Boutique now!

**Free shirt must be of equal or lesser value.

Tutorial Issues

I am aware of the issue with the layette gown tutorial link NOT working. Instead of fixing that, I'm just going to post the tutorial on my blog to make it easier! If you want the tutorial before it gets posted, please leave me a comment and if you are a 'no-reply' blogger, please leave me your email address too so I can email it to you!

The Last One of the Season

Although I love the A line turkey dresses I've been making and selling at Banana Bear, I am so over making them! I originally wanted to make Claire one too, but I just couldn't bring myself to making another one. My solution was to make her a turkey peasant dress!

I have yards and yards and yards of this brown corduroy, so it was the natural choice. For her sleeves and applique, I used some leftover corduroy from another dress I made her. I was going to add some trim around the bottom, but when you don't start making the dress until 11:00 PM the night before you want your sweetie to wear it to her Thanksgiving party, you just might decide to skip that.
The peasant dress is probably my favorite to make. I've made Claire 5 or 6 of them in her current size using a couple of different patterns. For this one, I used The Sweet Dress pattern. Although in the pattern description it states that it can be made in 2-3 hours, it takes me far less time. It took me less than an hour to construct the dress including cutting the pattern out. Justin joked that it took longer to do the embroidery than it did to make the dress, which isn't too far from the truth!

If you haven't ever been to You Can Make This, head over there now! Not only are there sewing patterns, but there are craft patterns too. I found this website about 2 years ago and I have loved just about everything I've purchased from there. :)

How many days until Christmas?

I seriously can't believe that there are only 36 days until Christmas! The last month and a half have really flown by for me and I haven't even started thinking about the Christmas gifts I need to make until tonight.

I've been browsing for different craft and sewing ideas and I have a few ideas. I really like the idea of these magnetic calenders. I could definitely use one myself and think they would make great gifts. The only problem is that I don't know what to do about the meals. Leaving them blank seems lame and I'm pretty sure that a few people I would give them too would just not use it if it they had to finish it. Suggestions?

For the soon-to-be-teen in my house, I think I'll make her a few of these make up bags. I have made one similar to this before with a different tutorial, but I think this one looks easier and I'm all about easy!
For hostess gifts and little add ons for a few family members, I think I'll make these cute little fingertip oven mitts and towels. I think they're really pretty and functional, plus they are easy to make. Now that I'm thinking about it, I don't know why I haven't made more sooner. I could use some of these finger mitts in my own kitchen!

What are you making for your holiday gifts? I'd love to see some ideas and get inspired!

Layette Gown Tutorial

Edited: I now have the tutorial posted in full on my Banana Bear Blog!

Giveaway!

Jenna from Momma Told Me is hosting a giveaway for me. It's a $20 gift certificate redeemable in my Etsy shop! Head on over to her blog to enter!

**While you are there, check out all of the other great giveaways she has going on!

Outfits

I embroider a lot of shirts, but one of my favorite things to do is create outfits. Here are some of the outfits that I've made over the last month or so.

I'm not sure why I didn't get a picture of the two parts together, but I didn't. This birthday shirt (above) and skirt (below) were a custom order for her daughter. She really liked Claire's birthday outfit, but wanted lilac instead of the pink. This is what we came up with.


And next...

Technically this onesie isn't an outfit, but you're not going to mention that. This was made for a future Twilight fan. Her mother wanted the saying on the front with pink ruffles on the bottom. I love ruffle bottom onesies!

When I started making these layette gowns about six months ago, I had no idea that they'd be so popular! The gown and onesie (above) were custom outfits made for twins to come home from the hospital. Although I've made these gowns in a few other fabrics, the kleo fabric that is shown is by far the most popular one.

I don't sew for my girlies as much as I'd like to, but I do make them a few things every month. (Well, I make Claire a few things...Elise isn't as easy to sew for!) I actually made two of these adorable polka dotty peasant dresses: one for Claire and one for her long lost BFF Savannah. I modified a peasant dress pattern I have to create these and then added the sash for fun. Of course, Claire likes to wear it without the sash most of the time.

I've made 4 of these lady bug ruffle butt onesies in the last month. I think all of the moms are using it as part of their little girls' Halloween costumes. At least two of those little girls have tutus to go with them. I can't wait to see how the full costume turns out!

Another layette gown...this one is made with one of my favorite fabrics by one of my favorite fabric designers: Amy Butler.

This turkey dress was my first try at making a reversible aline dress. I think it turned out really cute! You can't really tell from the photo, but the dress is pretty small (about 6m), which made it a little more difficult to complete some parts, but I'm sure that the pattern will get easier the more I use it!

My most popular fabric combination for the princess birthday shirt is the zebra print and pink swiss dots. I make a LOT of shirts like this and a few outfits too.

And last, but not least is one of Claire's Halloween outfits. I love this little witch applique! I had a few of these purple shirts in my stash, so I was really happy to find something that it would be perfect for. I actually didn't make the skirt. I bought it at Wal-Mart for $5 in the Halloween section. I saw it and knew it would be perfect to go with her shirt and to add to her dress up bin. She thinks so too. :)