Nursery items

Got this email yesterday regarding some nursery items I right before Christmas. This is for the same little girl with the memorable quilt that I made.

I LOVE MY JOB!

Mandi,
I just got home a little bit ago to my beautiful new nursery items. Wow, they are better than I ever imagined they could be. Your work is so wonderful...the diaper changing cover fits great and I LOVE the touch of pink fabric on the side of one of them. The hamper and window seat came out amazing. And the boppy cover fits perfectly. I could not wait to get them up in the room and snap some photos. I will send you a couple tomorrow even though the room is still in process. I can't say enough...you exceeded my expectations. Thank you thank you for making my nursery vision a reality!
--R

Boppy on the chair


Changing pad cover, hamper bag and window seat cover


Pink coordinating fabric on the end of the changing pad cover


The quilt on the back of the chair


Aren't those big flower poufs in the corner so fun? What a great nursery with potential to grow up with this little girl.

Picture perfect

I made several camera accessories for the holidays, and didn't get pictures of any but the camera bag, and since I gave them all away, I didn't know what I was going to do! (Heaven forbid I make another! ha!)

So I was excited when I got an order for more camera accessories...this time a strap cover, lens cap holder, and lens cozies. (I also have the webbing and slides to make a replacement strap cover). I love the way these turned out, and they have lots of possibilities! Monogrammed cozies, lots of different fabric and ribbon combos, etc.













Another thing that is picture perfect? Soon, this blog! These camera accessories were actually made for a trade with another small business that, among other things, designs blogs. I think they focus more on the party goodies, melamine plates, etc. now, but I was able to talk them into trading for a blog design. Plus, they are friends of friends, both K-Staters--so you know they are good! Check them out on Etsy at RV Parties. So check back soon for a new look at MandiMoo Designs.

**That long skinny box propped up in the background with the picture in the mannequin? NEW FABRIC! Just arrived today. A few pieces for custom orders, and then some laminated cotton...yes, I am going to make a raincoat! Jumping on the fashion bandwagon this spring, as rainwear seems to be the thing to have. Hopefully in about 2 weeks I will be featuring it here!**

To infinity...and beyond!

Couldn't resist! Happy Birthday yesterday to my mom. She was here last weekend and we went shopping (briefly) and she (casually) mentioned she needed a new scarf and that my aunt and cousins had made the infinity scarves. I figured it couldn't be too hard and decided to make a couple for her.

This first is my favorite, and was kind of a last minute decision. Made of knit, it is the warmest and I think definitely the cutest! With the glass beads in the middle of the flowers, it could be either dressed up or down depending on the outfit she puts with it.



This next one is made of a heavier fabric. I love the print...blacks, greys, browns...very versatile.

This last one is made of a sheer chiffon, black and white (imagine that!) and will be good as the weather warms up more this spring, too.


I have an extra of each of these scarves available for purchase. $20 for the white knit with flowers, $12 for each of the other two.

Vintage seed sacks

A friend asked me to make some totes out of these vintage seed sacks.

I. AM. IN. LOVE.

I put the canvas on the bottom to preserve as much of the original design as I could. If I had not, the design would have been on the bottom of the bag, subjected to more wear and tear.





Wanting to conserve the vintage feel of these bags, I used ticking stripe on the inside to coordinated with the canvas bottoms.




These seed sacks had all sorts of markings on them...and I wanted to preserve those as well.

Like the hand pointing to the seam with instructions on how to tear open the bag. It became an interior pocket.

Spring still in the air (or on my mind at least!)

With no spring craft fairs on the horizon, I have been using this time to do some projects that I have been wanting to do but haven't had time for. These include some cute little pieces for my cute little girly!

I made this pattern for Z her first summer in pink and lime green and LOVED it. Since I had an overabundance of this poppy red floral fabric in my stash, I decided to make a sundress out of it...actually two, as my niece J will also be getting one when she comes to visit this weekend! The dresses are a touch big at the moment, but hopefully will fit by the time the weather gets warm enough to wear them!





A little bow accent and matching bloomers!

My sweethearts

I love holidays. It doesn't really matter what holiday or if it is a highly commercialized one. Mainly I just like an excuse to make fun shirts for my kids and have them wear them day after day for the weeks leading up to the big day!

I was going to wait and share them on Valentine's Day, but thought someone may be looking for some last minute inspiration. G's features a tie applique with a small heart cut out near the bottom.




Z's was a shirt with a logo on front and back that needed covering, so appliqued red hearts on both sides, then covered the front heart with white tulle puffs. Made a matching hair bow that she repeatedly removed throughout the day, and a denim skirt that may not see the light of day again! I was trying to use denim from old jeans, which is IMPOSSIBLE to gather on a tiny skirt, so ended up pleating it and it looks very old-fashioned. Back to the drawing board, good thing I was using scraps!

Update: Painted Shoes

Took the painted shoes out for the first spin this morning. Walking up the sidewalk, she tripped and scuffed the toe. So, painting the rubber toe didn't hold up so well but the rest of the shoe will be fine!

Painted shoes

Painted Toms have been the rage on etsy.com and other craft sites for awhile now. I had been wanting to try my hand at it, but just couldn't make the leap.

However, I had a plain, white pair of canvas kicks for little Z that she is just growing into. The white was a little boring, and I knew after one trip to the park they would no longer be white, so thought I would try my hand at painting!

SUPER EASY! Wish I had more pairs to keep on going! I will say that I did have to do a couple of coats of the base layer (There were some marks that needed covered on the shoes) and now they are a bit stiff, so I would recommend leaving the background the same color as the shoes. Live and learn, I guess! I just used acrylic paints and then a sealant over the top...sealant may have contributed to stiffness! Also made it very shiny...would recommend a matte finish next time.



We shall see! Probably won't wear any better than the plain white would have...the paint may all come off the first time she wears them outside (I have to find some black laces before she can) Oh, just had an idea! Will probably use black grosgrain ribbon! Anyway, will try to remember to report back on wear and tear.

Dragon boy and monkey britches play in the snow

Also known as THE INVENTION OF CHEEKWARMERS

What the heck are cheekwarmers, you say?

Well, a short time ago I was asking myself the very same question.

For months, any time it was remotely chilly while we were outside, G would ask for cheekwarmers! I said sure, sometime we will have to make some, thinking he would forget about it.

After 50 more requests for cheekwarmers from my little guy, I decided it was time to do something about it. So I gave him a piece of paper to draw me a picture of what cheekwarmers looked like.

He quickly drew two circles and handed it back to me.

Hmmmmm.

I told him we could glue velcro on his cheeks to stick the cheekwarmers to, but he didn't like that idea. So a few online searches later and we came up with this:



He picked out the fleece from my stash, cut the teeth out from white felt and helped me stitch it onto the red minky. Then he helped stitch the whole mouth onto the fleece and stitched the ends of the fleece together to make a tube. As you can see we also had to cut a slight scallop at the top of the tube so that it would go up to cover his nose but not impede his sight...hard enough to keep your balance bundled in snowpants, coat, boots you only wear a few times a year, etc.! The great thing about fleece is you don't have to finish the edges, so this was a very simple project!

After the cheekwarmer was finished, we of course had to make a matching hat. He thought it needed to look like a dragon because of the large menacing mouth full of sharp teeth, so we again made a tube, sewed a curve at the top of it to mimic the curve of his head, then cut some triangles and stitched them inside the curve. Added a band at the bottom to hold it on his head, and we were finished!

Dragon boy loves his cheekwarmers, I love that it keeps his neck and face warm and toasty, and we all love the miniscule amount of snow that fell last night so we could go out "sledding" before school this morning (sledding meaning mom and dad take turns running and pulling the sled behind us in figure eights on the lawn).





And this one just because she is adorable. Wish I could take credit for the monkey hat! Too cute!


Since we were making hats, we also made this princess crown stocking hat for G's best friend B. She loves all things princess and we thought this was appropriate! Now Z wants one...

Sweetheart Auction item

I am sad to be missing the P.E.O. Sweetheart Auction back in Atwood this evening. This annual event in my hometown, in its third year, has raised thousands of dollars for women's education. This year, I sent a tote filled with all a mom (or grandma) would need for a day at the pool (this warm weather has me thinking of warm weather activities!) I will be sending a similar tote to the Family Fun Night auction for G's preschool in March.





This wire-frame tote, the "Tailgater" from the MandiMoo "eco"uture line, is great for packing all you need for a day at the pool, the park, a picnic, a tailgate, hauling all your groceries, or for toting around all of your other bags.

Spring is in the air!

First of all, happy birthday to my dad! We hope you have a great day, and wish we were there to celebrate with you!

Second, last week was positively GORGEOUS here! We enjoyed temps in the 60s, multiple days at the park, and a definite longing for spring! With that in mind, I sat down to the sewing machine and stitched up this little beauty for my little beauty (seen playing in the background on one of these nice days we've been having!) Can't wait for warmer weather so she can wear it...though I need to stitch up a cute little dress to coordinate and peek out from under the hem!

I love this fabric. I bought it for a bag and never got it used, so decided to turn it into this little jacket. Kind of big and bold, but updates the style of the jacket a bit.


I think this would be great in laminated fabric with a floppy hat and some galoshes for a rainy day! That may have to be another project....


Two little buttons up at the top


These cute little ruffled three-quarter sleeves make me happy!