Quick Zip Shopkins Bag

In my last post, I mentioned another project I was going to work on. I'll bet you didn't expect to be seeing it so soon, did you? It had a very short deadline, and I honestly didn't think I was going to have it done in time. But since it was for a birthday gift for a very special 9-year-old whose party was yesterday, and since things were going very well, I kept at it till it was finished (finally, at 1:00 a.m. Sunday!).

Courtney wanted a bag to carry her collection of Shopkins in, preferably something that she could see them through. When she mentioned it, we discussed some options... then I did a lot more thinking and nixxed some ideas. Finally I came up with this, the Quick Zip Lunch Bag. It's a pattern written by Erin (Erickson) Gilbey (have I mentioned her before?), so I knew it would go well, even though I'd never made one before. I'd bought the pattern awhile back and was finally happy to have a purpose for it. Here's the bag.

What's that you said? You can't see through it? Well, look at this side!

I made a "window" and inserted a piece of clear vinyl (thanks, Auntie Kris!) in it. I was sooo glad I'd made all those luggage tags, because I was able to use a technique from that pattern for inserting the vinyl into the window. It worked great! My design took a little lot of thinking and planning and calculating, but it worked as I hoped it would and went smoothly. The hardest part was gluing the lining "window frame" to the vinyl and outside frame, because it was the last step and it was pretty close quarters by then (not to mention the glue wanting to come out of the tube much faster than I needed it to). It worked (and there's not too much glue on the vinyl window).

There's a slip pocket inside the bag, which I thought would be good for keeping those little lists that come with the Shopkins. You know the ones... they identify all the available Shopkins... making the kids want every one. ;)

Courtney didn't take long to load the bag with her 151 Shopkins (thank goodness they're so tiny!). There's room for that many more and then some.

She was very pleased with her new bag. Here it is on her shoulder, so you get an idea of the size. Just right.

She does love her Shopkins! She and her mom even made two Shopkins character cakes for her party. Aren't they cute? They tasted yummy, too!

Today's her birthday - February 1st. I can't believe she's 9 years old already!!

Courtney is EIGHT!

Here are some fun photos from Courtney's gift-opening at her birthday party last Saturday. Click on the collage to see the images larger.

Some of her gifts... from left to right, top to bottom:

1. The tote I made for her to carry her AG dolls in
2. A blanket for her AG doll that she got for Christmas, with the doll's name, Cecile, embroidered on it
3. A Lego Friends set
4. A cute top
5. A case of embroidery supplies (her other grandma's been teaching her to embroider)
6. A book bag
7. Supplies and a book for making Pipe Cleaner Pets
8. Beados
9. This is the doll bunk bed she got last year. She had to put Cecile to bed under her new blanket right away. :)

She's one lucky (and loved) girl, wouldn't you say? :)

Takeoff Tote #2, modified

'Bout time I get back on the blog, huh? Goodness, only one post last week. Anybody notice? ;) Hey, I've been busy!! And I finally get to show you some of what's kept me that way. 

This is what I made for Courtney for her 8th birthday, which was yesterday (but the party was on Saturday). It's another Takeoff Tote, from the pattern by Erin Erickson.

Since Courtney got another American Girl doll for Christmas, I made this for her to tote both of her dolls around in... like when she comes to Grandma's house. I made some modifications on it to better accommodate the dolls. I omitted the top zipper and added a flap instead, so they could stick out the top. I left out the inside pocket so the dolls wouldn't get their legs caught when they jumped into it. I also made the straps a little shorter so the bag wouldn't drag on the ground when Courtney carries it. Here's the other side of the tote, and it's holding my little model, Kit:

I only had a half yard of that main fabric, so I had to improvise a little there. I made the bottom out of the same fabric as the straps and lining. I also made both outside pockets out of contrasting solid colors, and each pocket has a zipper, just for fun.

I installed my first-ever hidden magnetic snap closure. I thought Courtney might think it was kinda cool, plus I thought it'd be better than velcro in that it wouldn't catch any of the dolls' long hair. See, you can hardly tell it's there, right?

A closer look shows a bit of stitching, but that's all:

Here's a quick shot of Courtney with Marie Grace and Cecile posing in the bag. They had their lovely long "Frozen" gown costumes on, or they might've been able to stand up a little better. :)

I hope they'll enjoy their rides in the new bag!

I have my next project in the works... needs to be finished by Wednesday, but I don't think I can show you until at least the 15th, as it's another pattern test. And then I have another birthday gift to make..... so blog posting may still have to suffer a bit. Besides, there's not much to take photos of to show you lately, anyway. But I could easily get used to this less frequent posting, I'm afraid.......

It happened

We got our winter storm. Blech. It started late yesterday afternoon. Here's a poor robin not liking it one bit:

Looking a bit disgruntled, don'tcha think?

This is what we ended up with by this morning:

There was a pretty good bank in front of the garage, too, which I did not enjoy scooping one bit! NOT on my birthday!!! But it isn't the first time. I was feeling a bit of déjà vu, as I remembered this happening on my birthday 5 years ago, too. I could've practically used the same photos instead of taking new ones! Yuck.

I think I shall go sew myself a birthday present out of some lovely new fabric!! Then I'm sure I'll feel much better. :)

More birthday pics

Now for some not-so-funny pictures of Miss Funny Face. :) Here she is, opening her gifts. This first one is a crossbow, and looks quite dangerous! Ha - it's not really... it's a Nerf crossbow. Sounds like some super, safe fun!

I love these flashy shoes she got from Mommy and Daddy:

This is part of what Grandpa and I gave her... her first sewing kit! Gotta get this girl started pretty soon. ;)

I also made a couple of things for her, but the pics of her opening them didn't turn out too good (it was kind of dark for photo-taking). Later this week I'll show you the pics I took before I gave them to her.

Here's the annual cousins shot:

And with Mommy and Daddy... aren't they a good-looking family?

Everyone got leis to wear at the flip-flop party. Except I never saw one on Courtney. :)

One more shot with Mommy and Daddy. Can you tell who was getting tired of having her picture taken? I think she ran out of smiles. ;)

The table decorations included a grass skirt for the table. There was occasionally a scene like this:

It made a great place to hide, and the "grass" was rather fun to play with, too. :) Incidentally, something weird happens to that photo as I upload it to Blogger. It does not look like that on my computer... it's much darker. The above pic is way too light for some strange reason. I've had that happen before. Oh, well....

I'll show you the rest of that kitty tomorrow. She's so gorgeous, and so is her cohort!

SEVEN and flip-flops

Courtney had a birthday on Saturday - she turned SEVEN years old! She also had her party on Saturday. This is the first pose she gave me (as I was trying to get things focused and obviously not doing a very good job), just before she opened her gifts. She's always been good at making funny faces, and that pose was no exception! :)

Her party theme was flip-flops! She and Mommy did a wonderful job of decorating. Look at all those flip-flops on the wall - Courtney cut them out and decorated them all herself. There was even a pair flip-flop balloons... actually it was one balloon that was a pair of flip-flops... it just looked like 2 balloons. (Sorry, you can't see the other half here.)

Mommy had really gone to a lot of detail, but the best of it all was the cakes... just look!!

Aren't they just adorable?! And they tasted every bit as good as they looked. One was chocolate with ganache and cherry pie filling inside, and the other was white with lemon filling. YUM!!

To be continued.....

Birthday party, part 5: The BIG gift!

Courtney got one last gift at her party. A REALLY BIG gift!! But obviously not a very heavy one.

Oh, my... look at this!

Can it really be??? A new bicycle?!

Hmmm... it appears that the box only contained a set of training wheels.

HOWEVER... Courtney's two cousins, who were allowed in on the surprise, quickly wheeled in the rest of the bike!!

The training wheels weren't attached because she doesn't need them anymore!

How cool is that?! A "Tink"(erbelle) bike! Looks pretty fancy, doesn't it?

Courtney was told to look inside the pouch, which she did with some curiosity.

There turned out to be some money in there! Cousin Jaime is pointing out whodunnit:

It turned out to be Grandpa G, who had helped Daddy put the bike together and decided to leave her a little surprise.

Let's try out that bike for size!

Guess who's hoping for a very early spring this year? :)

That takes care of the birthday party pics. A fun time was had by all. And I'm still finding it hard to believe that Courtney is 6 years old already!!! :)

Birthday party, part 4: More gifts!

I think this was Courtney's favorite gift of the lot. It was made for her by her Uncle Rob. It's doll bunk beds!

Isn't it awesome?! Here she was being shown the great points about it, apparently. ;)

One of those great points was this blanket. It was made especially for Courtney's American Girl doll, Marie Grace. It, and all the rest of the bedding, were made by Auntie Kris, who does a beautiful job with her embroidery machine.

So cool, huh?

Auntie Kris is also a quilter. Look at this adorable quilt she made for the other bed!

That bed set will be treasured forever, I bet! I think Courtney and Marie Grace were both pretty thrilled, to say the least.

Speaking of that embroidery machine, look what Kris made for Courtney's daddy:

He used to LOVE The Dukes of Hazzard TV show! :) So now he has his very own monogrammed towel set, in his favorite color! :)

I have one more special Courtney gift to show you. Although it seemed to take second place to the bunk beds at the party, I think it'll get lots more love when nicer weather comes! ;) Come back and see next time!

Birthday party, part 3: Gifts!

Courtney got so many nice things for her birthday! Here's a super cute dress from Mommy and Daddy:

And leggings to wear with it:

Auntie Jess and Uncle Alex sent a couple of little "Dream Bakery" sets to make some fun goodies with. They look like they'd be good enough to eat! But they're just for pretend. :)

Grandpa and I gave her this portfolio for her art work:

Oops! That was upside down. Let's try this way:

To make some more art work to put in it, we gave her this set that I got a super deal on from Amazon before Christmas:

It looks so fun! I told her that it came with the condition that I get to use it with her sometime, too. ;)

I somehow managed to not get a photo of Grandma and Grandpa H's gift. You'll have to use your imagination.... think LOTS and LOTS of Legos! I want to play with them sometime, too!!

There were a couple more awesome gifts. So awesome, in fact, that they may each deserve a post of their own! (Also because I haven't taken many other photos to blog about lately. Sometimes life holds more important things than taking pictures.)

Birthday party, part 2: The setting

The theme for Courtney's birthday party was 'butterflies'. Can you tell?

For Christmas, Courtney had gotten a little butterfly punch. It got put to good use (and had quite a workout!) in making party decorations. Just look at all those little butterflies on the streamers! That was a lot of punchin'... but I bet she loved it!

Also for Christmas, we had given her a set of mosaic "stick-by-numbers", which just happened to also be butterflies. The mosaic backgrounds came with numbered tile spaces, and a bazillion tiny sticker tiles had to be stuck into those spaces. They were kinda like paint-by-number, only with pretty colored stickers instead of paint. I was privileged to help with the blue one. A lot of time was spent sticking all those stickers!

This photo does not do the butterflies justice. They were glorious and shiny and sparkly! Every "dot" was a colored tile, placed carefully!

Did you notice the little clear box with a heart inside? It's full of Courtney kisses for Mommy when she misses her little girl because she's in school. How sweet is that? When it starts to run out, she puts more into it. :)

Of course we couldn't have a birthday party without a birthday girl, and here she is, wearing ... what else ... a butterfly dress! And looking quite tickled by something (perhaps a butterfly?).

Courtney had a party with friends/classmates the day before, and she received the head piece and wand, which were quite lovely and fun.

Family parties need cousins, right? Here are the only two that were able to make it. Unfortunately, the rest had sickness in their families and couldn't come.

Birthday parties also need cakes. Here is Courtney's, made by Mommy and decorated with more butterflies. The bowling pin was a gift from the bowling alley where she had her party the day before... it even has butterflies on it, as do the other pretty decorations.

Courtney blew out the candles, of course. Her hair was tied back for the sake of safety near the lit candles.

Of course a family birthday party isn't complete without Daddy and Mommy! How I love that family!

A birthday party's not complete without presents, either, is it? Come back next time to see what she got!