Sun....check!

Warm......NOT!!!!!! But that's not stopping us from enjoying our whirlwind trip around Florida. We opened with a day at Disney's Hollywood Studios where the girls were just so very sure that I couldn't ring in the next half a century without a drop or two...or five on the Tower of Terror!!!! We zipped around Rockin' Rollercoaster a couple of times as well.

Then we headed over to my Dad's at Sarasota for a day on the beach!!!! The 62 degree water didn't keep the kids out of the waves...but it did me! The next day was spent dodging storms as we headed out for Palm Sunday services and my 'official' birthday dinner...which I "ruined" by getting sick before the appetizer was even finished. A good nap with the sound of rain pelting the roof was the cure!

Since the next day also dawned cloudy and cool we headed SOUTH....to the Everglades. Have great pictures of the dolphins which surrounded us on the boat ride through the 10,000 Island National Park!!!! Today was sunny but breezy and brisk so we did yard work for Grandpa (clearing more room for loungers on the back patio was more like the motivation). After some relaxing lounging and 'fishing' at the little bay at his corner, we then had a blast trying to beat each other at miniature golf.

Tomorrow is the last day ):.....weather report is not stellar....sunny again but also brisk and breezy again!!! Maybe the beach...maybe not but at least it will be better than home....maybe.....heard they are expecting 80's for our arrival home?!?!?!? I can only hope that's true.

Spring break post overload...

NOT!!!!  Turns out my family had other plans for me this spring break. Today is a significant birthday....the kind where portions of a century now come into play!!!! Seeing how very bummed I've been about not getting to Sarasota this past 15 months they 'kidnapped' me for a a couple of days in the Florida sun!!!! I'm here without any wi-fi capabilities except this quick visit to my Dad's public library so I'll have to give you a rain check on those promised posts. I'm taking lots of pictures!!! 'See' you guys in a couple of days.

As Promised

Not the best of photography but her's Julia with her Meteor project. She's tickled pink...er blue, I said blue Julia...that it received a 100%!

I tried it against the kitchen cabinets but clearly I'm clueless with this picture taking machine!!

Now a different story as far as my sewing machine is concerned!! Here's the latest outfit I listed on my Etsy site.

I'm in a crazy busy work phase as all the schools are trying to get us in before they go on spring break. So, please forgive me for being a blog slacker as I promise I'll make up for it when I'm off for spring break too!!!

Celebrating the first day of spring!

Ah, it is finally here.....spring!!!! All week we basked in the sun and balmy warm 60+ degree temperatures. So how then does nature celebrate spring in Chicago?

Nice huh? But not at all unexpected. So as we head out on our day FULL of errands we must once again...

 
clean off the car...and wear boots...and gloves....sigh...

 
In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of four and twenty hours.  ~Mark Twain

This and That Thursday

It's seems to be my modus operandi to be a blog slacker in the early part of the week only to over post on the weekends! Makes sense to me but for my readers I will just say that I'm not an overly organized or disciplined person which leads to me running around like a chicken with her head cut off as the school/work week dawns and about now...on Thursday, I begin to get under control. As I am not scheduled to work tomorrow I am gleefully anticipating a nice long day in the salt mine. Gleefully you ask? Well I'm just about caught up on my custom orders so that means I can start 'playing' with some of the fabric I have just waiting to be made into some little girl's outfit!!

Only one more Easter dress is waiting to have it's final touches and it's on to summer outfits. Here's a custom order that I had a lot of fun with.....

a little boy's "cheater" tie to match.....

his sister's Easter dress!!!! Those will be pictures I can't wait to see! Hint, hint.

We've also been busy with Julia's science project!

She had to do a 'display' of her choosing covering the subject of meteors. She had a blast turning Styrofoam balls into 'meteors' by gouging them and then painting them.

They  were mounted on yarn and hung from a hanger. Her 'facts' were then laminated onto the strings. I forgot to get a picture before she headed off to school but will post it after it comes back home!!!


Julia has really been blossoming in her creativity!! Besides being selected to have a piece of her art to hang in our local art museum she brought home this from art class today....

I'm blown over by her neatness and creativity!! She's only 9 and in third grade and yet she 'saw' the Titanic in her perspective lines!!! Looking forward to her future progress (:


As crazy busy as this week has been with work and St. Patrick's Day I did feel the need to squeeze in one more event! 

My niece Alyssa was confirmed on Tuesday!!! I am beyond lucky to only live across the street from the church so it made the time crunch a little less stressful! My Mom was up to seeing her granddaughter confirmed too!

She did remarkably well given it was a 2+ hour ceremony. Not only was it a granddaughter getting confirmed but Alyssa chose Veronica as her confirmation name....which is my Mom's younger sister's name!  Her sponsor for confirmation was.....

c'mon!!!! Was there ever any question???? Congratulations Alyssa Rose Veronica and good job Auntie Peggy!

Just another Wednesday

....... NOT!!! I just couldn't let today pass without acknowledging it's importance to our family. St. Patrick's Day to the family of a Patrick Mahoney born in County Kerry Ireland is naturally a BIG deal....even if his daughters were born in Guatemala! Here are just a few of the pictures I came across to show how the Irishman, Irish-American, and Guatrish members of this family have celebrated the day over the years.

They wear green.....ALOT!

They marched in parades....okay 'rode' in parades.

Did I mention about the green wardrobe?

They danced at St. Patrick's Day parties with their cousins.

They did a lot of waiting around to dance too!

There was a lot of family support of the dancer!

Oh, and more green clothes!

There were trips to Ireland just to make sure they learned about important Irish exports...like Daddy!

(Or maybe the Waterford Crystal made in the factory behind them?!?!?) 

For sure we all have our Irish knit sweaters!!!!

Speaking of clothes, here's more in green!

They all know how to draw shamrocks.

But only Daddy knows how to set spuds and cabbage in the high field of Gurranbeg where he took Mommy for their 10th anniversary!(He showed her how to wear Wellingtons when heading to the cow shed too!)

So in closing on this feast of St. Patrick I give you our Patrick on the bridge to his childhood church and the traditional prayer said in Kerry.

On this saint's day which has brought in this new dawn, as we are in good health at its coming, may we be in good health when it goes and when it comes again.

"May the sun shine warm upon your face..."

Thus starts one of the most famous Irish poems. A fitting sentiment for the start of what we sarcastically refer to "High Holy Week"....a.k.a. St. Patrick's Day! Our local parade is always on the Saturday before March 17th which would mean today! So we gathered the clan and donned our Irish knit sweaters and prepared to celebrate.

 

Yes, Auntie Peggy and Alyssa joined the Mahoney girls since Andrew was marching with his hockey team. Meanwhile the real Irishman did what real Irishmen do on St. Patrick's Day.

 

Patrick wore....red flannel! No parades for him either since the big rugby game between Ireland and Wales was being rebroadcast on our local Irish radio program. Yes, Chicago has a rather HUGE Irish population who have a 6 hour block on a local radio station every Saturday. No way he was going to miss out on all the news from "home" or the big game for a parade so he poured another cup of tea and settled into the kitchen table!

 

Quite the couple, don't you think?!?! Now to be perfectly honest I had ZERO desire to go to the parade this year. Let's just say that the sunshine that was to warm our face was.....

 

very liquid!!! And not very warm either!!! But it's really not in an Irishman to skip any kind of a party so I headed out with the rest of the clan.

 

Nice thing about a local parade is that it's local! We headed off on the short walk to the parade route and along the way saw the first signs that spring is thinking about making an appearance.

 

Now many a year the poor buds on the trees get to wear a coat of snow so I won't be getting too excited just yet but it's a start.

 

See, I told you that it's not like an Irishman to miss a party! Even in a cold drizzle we draw a crowd...but then again we have generations upon generations of experience with cold rain. There's a good reason Ireland is not a popular winter destination!!!

 

Then again we start them off young with learning to live with the weather in order to party!!!!!

 

We met up with more cousins at the parade route too! Mairead and Auntarie stood with us (too wet to sit!!) because Deirdre was marching with her dance school.

 

We saw the usual stuff....bagpipers whom we discovered have official raincoats to protect their kilts! Horses are always a highlight for a certain member of the family. Clydesdale's are a particular favorite.

 

One creative family who wanted to march even invented a new "group"! In an effort to get some control over the length of the parade the organizers instituted a registration fee and a requirement that the unit must be one of the 'approved' types of marchers. Since marching bands was one of the choices...harmonicas it was for this clan!!!

So after retrieving Deirdre from the end of the parade route, we headed back to Auntie Jenny's house to pick up the teen/tween members who had bailed after about an hour and a half in the "sunshine".

 

To find what are possibly the saner members of the family!!! Today would have been a perfect day to stay curled up on a couch under a blanket. 

Today held a double dose of corned beef....sandwiches for lunch and with cabbage and spuds for dinner. Tomorrow is the annual viewing of the Quiet Man followed by a big roast leg of lamb Sunday dinner....man I love the excuse to eat "Irish"!!!!

"The Talk"

 Just had to record this snippet of conversation overheard in my house this morning as all the cousins gathered to go to the St. Patrick's Day parade.

That video was so inappropriate.

Why did you say that?

Because of the lyrics!

Um...which lyrics?

OMG!!! You know?? Like from "the talk"?!?!?

Yeah, I've had "the talk" and I don't see your point.

Oh that's because there are like SIX "talks" and you've only had the first one.

NO! I've had several "talks" even about all that other stuff. I'm not a baby you know?!?!?

I wasn't saying you were a baby! I know you've had "the talk" but there is still more that you haven't heard yet?!?

I have too!!!!! I know what you're talking about from the later "talk" not just the stuff in the first "talk". My Mom "talks" to me you know?!?!??!


At this point I just lost it and my chuckling ended "the talk" about "the talk". Good thing Patrick was spared "the talk" about "the talk"...he's still trying to decide just how big a gun to buy after seeing Mari try on her new swimsuit!! He told her, "I'm not ready for this grown girl. Could you please slow down and let me catch up?!?!"

Finally!!!!!

I'm embarrassed to admit just how many times I have tried to get my Etsy site up and running!!! Every time I'd get to the point of listing an item only to run smack into a brick wall. After sitting in front of a screen for countless hours watching the little 'loading' symbol flashing the result was always the same..."Picture file too large to load"!!!!! UGH!!!!!!

Well I'm just so DONE with giving eBay such a large cut of my sales! The economy has had a huge impact on everyone's wallet and my barely marked up items are not always selling like in past years. This means the account for the food baskets for Mari's first family has been being replenished veeeeeery slowly of late. Then I get this little rush of orders and a chance to put some cash aside for the food BUT eBay eats into the 'profits' too much!! I had to make the Etsy site happen!!!

Happy to announce that with a little help from my friend Lynda at Socks That Rock I have had success!!!!! Now I can start listing all the outfits that didn't sell on eBay of late AND place my new designs up for significantly LESS!

Please check my store out and feel free to share with anyone that may be interested!!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/stellalunastyle

I'd put up a badge/button but my brain is still throbbing from all the geek challenges of this morning and I have absolutely no idea how to even attempt that feat.

Wow!!

I have not been a very good blogger of late. I would like to apologize! It's just that now that the testing is over in the schools, I'm back to work....and this just when I have a surge in custom orders?!?!? Just have one word that pretty much covers everything in this post....WOW!!

The Guatelinda dress seems to be well liked! Much of my 'free time' is now being spent trying to figure out the fastest way to get my darn sewing blog up and running so as to save on eBay and Etsy fees as well as finishing off the Easter requests so I can get started on the Guatelinda requests.

WOW! Is also what I have to say about this.....

my Julia selected from hundreds of local school children to have one of her art pieces be displayed at the local art museum!!! I'm very certain there will be a post on this in the future!!!

And WOW!!

There really is grass under that icy white stuff!! Don't want to jinx anything but we do seem to be seeing lots of signs of spring. More and more flocks of geese heading north and fewer days with temperatures below freezing must surely indicate an approaching spring?!?!? Hope we get a couple more days in the 40's and 50's so the dirty piles of snow hurry up and melt!

Guatelinda!!!

So excited to show you guys the latest outfit I've been working on!! I've just listed it on eBay and hope this is something that can help keep this little 'sewing rush' on track. The time to refill the food basket account is looming so needless to say I'm motivated at the moment.

 
 

Had gotten a deal on some Guatemalan flag bandannas and wasn't sure what to do with them. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. A few things I'll tweek on the next one I make but nothing major....unless it flops on eBay!

 
 

Here's a close up of the bandanna portion. I was actually bummed when they first arrived because the blue is too royal in comparison to the Guatemalan sky blue. Once the floral piece floated to the surface of my piles though I suddenly 'saw the light'.

 
 

I did button closures because I'm not sure how much longer the knot style would be appreciated. I'm going to see if I can find a deal on some cuter buttons since they are one of the costs I need to keep down to actually make money to put in the food basket account .

 They are items 120539861788 and 120539865123 on eBay if you're interested.

Those of you who kindly ordered Easter items will be receiving follow-up e-mails soon! I have most all of the orders under way except for those of you waiting on fabric choice pictures. I snapped those today and will have those off in the e-mails too.

Sew Spring?

Since all the local schools are in the midst of mandated testing, I have had a few extra days off this week. Just thought I'd show you a couple of the latest productions from the salt mine.

 

The last of my St. Patrick's sets for this year! It's a 5t Garanimals Brand EUC skort that I have added a ruffle of cute Snoopy Leprechaun print trimmed with a rolled hem and ric-rac paired with a peasant style blouse. I'm going to hold off listing them on eBay for a while to give any of my blogging buddies who might be interested a chance to buy them without the eBay fees. I'm asking $17 for this set.

 

Easter is quickly approaching! This jeans set is a 36 mos. Miniwear EUC elastic waist jeans to which I've added egg shaped appliques, co-ordinating print patch pockets, and a ruffle trimmed in ric-rac.

 

The top is a 3T Jumping Bean t-shirt to which I've added an Easter print ruffle, ric-rac, and a tie bow in back. I'm asking $22 for this set. 

 

This is a simple round yoked dress in a 4/5 with button tab closures on the shoulder. From the shoulder to the hem is 26 inches long and can be easily paired with her favorite top for cooler days. I'm asking $12 for this dress.

 

Here's another set in the same Easter print! This is also in a 4/5. The top fits a bust of 23-25 inches and is 23 inches long while the elastic waist pants fit waists 20-24 and are 22 inches long. This too can be worn with a tee-shirt for cooler weather. I'm asking $17 for this set.

 

Just off the machine in time for the picture taking session! This is another 3T Jumping Bean top to which I've added a strip of the Easter print trimmed with ribbon. The 3T Sonoma brand EUC elastic waisted denim skirt has had a double ruffle added in coordinating prints and the back pockets have been covered in the polka dot with the same ribbon trim as the top. I'm asking $22 for this set.

I have plenty of the Easter prints as well as EUC denim so if you see something you like but it's not in the right size I'd be happy to take a custom orders!!!