Tuesday, June 29, 2010

The Mysterious Case of the Absentee Blogger: Part 2

I have to admit it: I'm a little biased when it comes to making gifts. It is so much more fun to make things for girls than for boys. Girl things are just so cute. And boy things, well, they take forever to think of and they don't always turn out how you want them to. My next couple of posts will be about boy gifts but this one is about a girl gift.

My niece turned 12 this year (in April...I know, I know, I'm a little late). What to make for a beautiful 12 year old girl? How about a super cute make-up bag? All girls love make-up, right? I've had this pattern sitting around for awhile:



I decided it was time to put it to use! The pattern had 5 different ones to choose from....I chose the small one in the picture in the upper right corner. It seemed to be the perfect size for make-up. The others were a little too large, unless you do your make-up like Tammy Faye then the bigger sizes would be perfect. But my niece does not.

The pattern called for a patchwork of different material for the the middle portion but I wanted it a little more simple. And this is how it turned out:



Hmmm....it's so cute, I might make one for myself! It's even cuter on the inside:



A little pink surprise! And now for a rear view:



And the little tabby-thingie:


This was actually pretty simple to make. The pattern instructions were easy to follow and I completed this in a few hours. That's a record for me! I might even try my hand at one of the purses!

The Mysterious Case of the Absentee Blogger: Part 1



Hmmmm....it seems our esteemed blogger has gone missing. Not a blog post for a whole month! Where could she be?

How about buried deep inside this?:


And this?:


And learning all about this?:


Yes, school has officially started for me and, while I cannot be more excited about it, I'm having a little difficulty prioritizing my To-Do list. So, poor Adelaide's blog has been neglected. However, I have finished a few gifts - from birthdays to Father's Day - that I'll tell you all about over the next few days.

First up:
Happy Father's Day to the best dad in the whole world! Seriously. Those of you out there who know him can vouch for me when I say, "My dad is wicked awesome!" He's sweet and kind and funny and I am so lucky that I'm his favorite child :) One thing about my dad, though, he's impossible to get a gift for. He has everything he wants and a lot of things he doesn't want. So I had to get a little creative.

He is a HUGE Oregon Ducks fan (I mean HEEE-YOOOOOU-GE). And this is what I came up with:



Yep, that's a U of O tie. So he only wears a tie maybe once a year.....details, details....

For something that would seem to be so easy, it was surprisingly difficult to make. I followed an old pattern that I had bought at Goodwill awhile back (I love me some Goodwill!):



And everything was going smoothly until it came time to create the point in the tie. Damn you, Point In Tie! (Shakes fist in air)



I had some issues with the point. Clearly. It's a little wonky. But, then, so is my dad...

I found the U of O fabric of Joann's and added a dark green lining to the inside:


You can see I also added a little loopy thing for the inside part of the tie to sit inside. I think that's the technical term, "little loopy thing".



Not too bad, I would say. Next time I make one, I'll have to figure out how to get the point, well, more pointy but I like it. And I think my dad liked it too:



I love you, Dad!!




****Note: the above picture was not taken at time of gift giving****