These are all shirts from marathons she ran, places she visited (Egypt, Jerusalem, Denmark, Poland!) or people she helped working as a physical therapist.  It was a fun, though enormous project to work on.  The finished quilt is 94″x110″ which is almost King Size. My two brothers are holding it up for me and their average height is 6’6″.  We grow them big here.  I used a heavy woven cotton/twill for the back because it will probably be used as a picnic quilt more than a bed quit.

All the shirts she gave me were gray or white except this one.  And it just didn’t work on the front, no matter which way I tried it.  But I couldn’t very well throw it away either.  And it’s a good thing I didn’t because even though I bought 10 yards of fabric for the sashings and the back (that plaid is 60″ wide) I only had a tiny piece left.  You know, about 4″x10″.  I needed that shirt in the back just to take up some space!  Also, my brother are kind of dorks, especially that one in black. HA!  I hope you love it M!

Quilt Stats: 30 shirts for the front, cut into 14.5″ (unfinished) squares, I used more than 20 yards of lightweight interfacing, ironed onto the backs before I trimmed them down to keep them from stretching.  That’s important when you are quilting with knits. Sashing is 2.5″ finished, same as the stop border.  The outer border I think is 4.5″.  I wish I could have made it an inch or two wider.  Oh well.  The back has about 30 pieces in it, just what happened when you are sewing all the scraps together.  Which is also why the plaids don’t match up perfectly.  Bummer.  I added a grayish border to the blue shirt to help it stand out, and so the blues wouldn’t butt up next to each other and clash.  And because those extra four inches were necessary!  My friend Kellie at the quilt shop where I work quilted it for me, and I bound it in a light gray by hand.  If I was doing it again I would probably picked a little darker gray.  It didn’t look nearly so light before I had it all finished.  Isn’t that the way it goes.

Every year at church we set up an angel tree to help the families in our neighborhood that need it the most. (You pick a tag off the tree and buy a gift for “Adult Male” or “6 month old girl” or whatever.)  In the past Scott and I have always taken a few tags and returned our anonymous gifts.  It’s part of what Christmas is all about anyway and we feel strongly about helping people who live right by us.  But this year we just couldn’t do it.  Instead, I helped make stockings for these angel tree kids.  I could at least do that.  But one day at church I was sitting there in class, the angel tree set up right in front of me.  And I noticed a new little tag.  A family had been added at the last minute.  And right there in the center was one tag that I couldn’t stop staring at.  It said “Girl, age 7. Want: doll”.

I stared at it for the entire 45 minute class.  I have absolutely zero idea what the teacher was talking about.  But my heart was racing, knowing what I was going to do.  Then while I very impatiently waited for class to end (I did have the presence of mind to realize that it would be rude to stand up in the middle of the teachers lesson and walk right up to the front of the room…) I had a minor anxiety attack thinking of the possibility that when class was over someone else might get to it first.  I KNEW this little tag was for me.  As soon as the closing prayer was over, the “Amen” still hanging in the air, I maybe climbed over the empty row of chairs in front of me and snatched the tag as quick as I could.  Maybe.  But I made it.  And that’s all that matters.

We didn’t have any money for Christmas, but I have enough craft supplies to circle the planet, twice over.  And I knew I could make a beautiful doll without spending any money.  But one that this little girl’s parents could never hope of buying.  There was only a few days until these gifts were supposed to be returned so they could be delivered.  But I talked to the woman in charge and told her I would never make it in four days.  But I’d have it done and wrapped and at her house by the 22nd of December.  Then I got to work.

I combined two different patterns to make this doll.  She is part Poppy Doll (from Fiona Dalton at hop.skip.jump) and part Little Red (from Larissa Holland at mmmcrafts).  I’d never made either of them before, but after I looked at the pattern pieces I knew I could combine my favorite parts of both to make this Christmas Doll.  I did end up buying about 6″ of brown felt for her hair and braids.  I just couldn’t make her hair jet black (I saved that for her shoes), or gray.  And those were the only options in my stash.  After I made my doll I started pulling out fabric scraps for her wardrobe.

And then I decided that I was going to go all out.  Because little girls need dresses, and shoes, and a school bag.  And it was Christmas. She just just wouldn’t have been right without them.  Her shoes took a few tries to get right.  They are black felt with a working button closure.  Her school bag is purple felt with a vintage button clasp.

As soon as the bag was finished Creamie declared it “so baby cute” and then informed me that she needed keys and a phone and a chapstick and a notebook to go inside.  But I thought I should probably make her some pants before I worked on minature chapstick.  I tucked an extra set of hair ribbons and a silver heart necklace (a gift from a highschool boyfriends parents.  I never even wore it)  into her bag instead.  I did have to make her pants twice because the first ones just didn’t come on and off easily enough.  And the rest of her wardrobe pattern drafting went surprisingly well.  I think I had my own little angel watching me, making sure i didn’t screw anything up too much because there just wasn’t the time. This little blue shirt has buttons up the back, and is fully reversible. The other side is a cute tealish blue gingham.  I had plans to make her a pair of jeans and another shirt or two.  But it just didn’t work out.

Because it was December, and I couldn’t very well send a little girl out in a little sleeveless shirt, I drafted a pattern for a wool coat too.  The Little Red Riding Hood pattern has a beautiful red wool cape, but I didn’t have any red wool.  And a Little Green Riding Hood just isn’t the same.  I used the hood as a starting point and in much less time than I anticipated I had this cute green coat with wood buttons ready to go.  See, that was the sewing angel watching out for me again.  I kind of wish she’d stay around all the time.

Of course that wasn’t all, because she also needed some flannel jammies.  So I drafted that pattern too.  I had the perfect pink polka dot left over from making this blanket and amazingly the perfect color of ribbon trim.  A small miracle.  And I think adding 1.25 inches of 1/16″ elastic to the bottom of the long sleeves was one of the most frustrating things of the whole doll making procedure.  Sheesh!  I ended up threading it through with a needle because I didn’t have a saftey pin small enough to do the job.  Those 2.5 inches of elastic were enough to drive me to eat up all my chocolate stash.  True story.

And last of all, with just a few alterations to the jammies pattern I was able to make her a party dress.  Because little girls need dresses as much as they need coats and bags and jammies and cutie little shoes.  I finished tacking down the lining by hand while in the car on our anniversary lunch date the afternoon of the 22nd, and when I got home I added button holes and the sash.  But I made it.  Kind of. (I ended up cutting the drop off kind of close.  But I was NOT letting her go out the door without getting a few pictures.)  Santa was already loading his sleigh when I arrived, box in hand, smile in my heart.  It was something I’ll never forget.  I don’t know which little girl opened her on Christmas morning.  But I hope she likes her.  I hope she wasn’t wishing for a Barbie, or a Bratz doll or something lame like that.  All Christmas morning I kept thinking about my little 7 year old girl, hoping she wouldn’t be disappointed.

I will make this doll again.  I thankfully made (and kept!) my labeled paper pattern pieces so I won’t have to start over next time.  I think next year I’ll make one for Creamie.  And a little boy to go with her.  (I already have a huge list of clothes I can make. ) While I was working on making this Angel Doll she asked me a few times who it was for.  And I told her it was for a little girl who didn’t have any presents for Christmas.  She probably didn’t understand, but she accepted the fact that it wasn’t for her.  And she was totally OK with that.  She gave this Angel Doll a lot of hugs and rockabyes before she was finished, and was happy to help me wrap up all her clothes in tissue paper and put everything in one big box.  I can’t wait to do it again next year.

This tutorial is just for a Twink costume.  I didn’t make the Rainbow Brite costume.  I borrowed it from my sister, and she and my mom made it years ago.  It is a royal blue dress with a full skirt.  It has a heavy interfacing petticoat underneath to make it stick out.  Add white trim around the bottom (this is fusible fleece) and a red belt.  The finishing touch is rainbow striped thigh high socks.  You’ll need two pair.  Cut the feet off of one pair and wear as rainbow sleeves.  Add some killer red shoes and you are good to go.  Now, onto Rainbow’s little Sprite named Twink.

For my twink costume I purchased rainbow striped tights (I found mine at a thrift store, but Rainbow Striped babylegs/legwarmers are pretty easy to find.  This pair on Amazon is only $4.  I also purchased a red long sleeved onesie for her to wear underneath her Twink costume.  Now, onto the sewing!

The Twink costume is basically a white fluffy pumpkin.  When I was talking to Scott about it he said “It’s a pumpkin in fun jeans!” (please  tell me someone else remembers this episode of TheOffice…) I used this basic Simplicity pattern and combined the pumpkin bodysuit with the hood from the lamb costume (sans ears).  Simplicity has renumbered their patterns and this is now labeled Simplicity 2788.  It is available at Joanns, Hancocks, Hobby Lobby, Amazon or any number of different places.  I bought mine at Joanns on one of their 99 cent sales I think.  Use the measurements on the back for yardage required.  I am not going to go into that here because it’s all right there in the pattern that I used.

The white fuzzy fabric I used is white  Silky Furry Fleece.  I got mine at Joanns (here it is).  It comes in Red and Brown and Cream and Black and White.  I lined the whole costume with regular white fleece.  You’ll need to line it because the stuffing goes in between the two layers.  Creamie was only 9 months old when she wore this, and I had to take about 10 inches out of the smallest size because it was so large.  The costume has velcro at the shoulders and elastic around the bottom and it goes together pretty easily.  I did modify the hood just a bit, besides leaving off the ears.  I added about 1.5 inches to the length in the back so that it would be long enough to cover all of her neck and meet up with the bodysuit and to make it look like one piece.

The belt was really easy.  1: I used royal blue nylon webbing and a bit of Velcro to hold it together.  After I had the bodysuit finished i measured around it while it was on Creamie and cut the nylon to length.  I used less than 1 yard. 2: For the little pouch to hold star sprinkles I used a scrap of red felt (about 2.5″ x 6″.)  Round the corners on the top flap a bit and then just stitch it together, no need to turn it inside out.  Sew on a button and make a tiny slit for the button hole. 3: The star is from a sheet of stiff yellow felt (you can buy pre stiffened felt at craft stores.)  It is 3.5″ across.  I hot glued a belt loop onto the back so that I could thread it onto the blue belt. 4: Thread the star and the pocket onto the belt and you are good to go.  I decided to make them all separate pieces so that I could wash the bodysuit separately if I needed to.

Her little star antennae are also separate pieces.  Because I was sure the hood would need to be washed after she wore it.

Cut four stars out of the stiff yellow felt and hot glue a big fat fuzzy pipecleaner in between them.  Then I attached the pipe cleaners to two alligator clips with a little hot glue and by wrapping the wire around the clips.  I clipped the antennae onto the hood by sliding the bottom side of the clip through the fuzzy fabric.  I could have made button holes or something but I just shove the clips through the fabric.

I tried to find cute little red shoes for weeks but in the end decided it would be cheaper to just have her wear socks over a pair of shoes she already had.  I bought a pair of red socks and cut off the tops.  I just zigzagged around the edge of them with my sewing machine and she wore them over her shoes.

Put all of that together and it is one of the cutest costumes I’ve ever made.  If you have any questions, ask them in the comments and I’ll try to answer them here as well.

A few nuts and bolts things: 1: If you are traveling, take off the bodysuit before you strap your kid into their carseat.  That one should be pretty obvious.  2: I am not affiliated with Amazon or Joanns or anyone else and I am providing links to products they sell as a convenience to you.  I am sure similar items can be found other places.  3: If you want to make these to sell in an online shop or at a craftsfair or whatever, go ahead.  But please provide a link back to this tutorial in your listing or on a tag attached to the costume.  That’s just being nice.  4: I’d love to see any costumes you make, please email them to me at pinksuedeshoe at gmail dot com or leave a link to your post/picture/whatever in the comments.  Happy Halloween!

I was going to give it to my sister, for her baby girl due next month, but it ended up having a lot more pink in it than I think she’ll like.  So, I’ll have to come up with something else.  Which, lets be honest, will be pretty easy.  I came home with a new little stack of fabric today. (Quilt details: 43″ square, made up of 9 patch blocks and large blocks measuring 7.25″.  Inner border is 3/4″ in brown, outer border is I think 3″… I don’t remember now.)

I really like making baby quilts because I can piece the whole thing together in one good afternoon and evening.  Bigger quilts seem to take forever, but I can totally rock out a baby quilt in one day.  (You know, because at this point in my life I don’t quilt them myself. )  It was just a fun and fast little project, but I really do like the whole process of picking out fabrics and then thinking up a pattern that will work.  Weeks ago, when our first Halloween fabric arrived at the quilt shop I designed and made a Halloween quilt and made up a bunch of kits.  And as soon as my mom saw it she commissioned another for her birthday (which is today, Happy Birthday Mom!).  Those kits sold out in two weeks so I was glad I didn’t wait to bring hers home.  I of course don’t have a picture of that one, so I’ll hopefully have hers done next week so she can enjoy it before Halloween and I’ll post pictures then.  Creamie had a very early bedtime tonight (YAY!) and I am hoping that her new antibiotics help her kick whatever it is she has been sick with for the past 2 weeks.  I’m off to make my favorite cookies, recipe tomorrow.

We’ve lived here for five years, and it was just a few months ago that I ventured out to our city library.  And it is awful.  Dark, dirty and a place where old books go to die.  Thankfully, they have a deal with the neighboring city library and I can go there.  Thankfully.  Anyway, after the first time visiting I realized that I really needed a library bag.  Because there was no way I could carry my stuff, Creamie’s stuff and the books and still chase her and/or drop everything at a moments notice for a potty break.  So, I started looking around my collection to see if I had something that would work.

And I found the perfect bag.  A great big bag made of heavy duty canvas, thick straps the perfect length and a zipper pocket inside for keys, phone, chapstick, handsanitizer, library card, and the printout of the books I need to remember to bring back.  Too bad it was ugly.  A handmedown from my sister, who used to work for a scrapbooking magazine and ended up with boxes of swag.  But I am so not crazy about the logo on the front and the sponsor list on the back.  So I improved it.

See, much much better.  I used some cute fabric and sewed on panels to cover up all the ugly labels and logos.  I just cut a piece to size, pressed the seam allowances to the center and topstitched it in place. The hardest part was getting my sewing machine down inside the bottom of the pockets to stitch across the bottom.  This would be a much easier fix on a messenger style bag.  No trying to fit sewing machines inside small pockets!

Our latest trip to the library was a good one.  I am so glad I brought my camera.  It fit right inside that giant bookbag with plenty of room for the 22 books we brought home.  One day I’m going to max out my library card in number of books brought home.  But I think my bag could still handle it.

I found some of my favorite books from my childhood to bring home to read to Creamie.  I have loved reading her the books my mom read to me, and some of them books my mom read to her littlest sister.  The Flicka, Ricka and Dicka books, Snip, Snap, Snur were always my favorites.  Creamie is in love with the Little Bear stories.  She is particularly interested in his mothers sewing machine. (Cue heart swelling with pride music here.) Most of these books are still a little old for her, but that doesn’t stop her.  Or me.  I am constantly amazed at how much she remembers and understands from books that seem too involved and stories that seem too complicated for a 2 year old.  Yeah, my kid is awesome.

She laid down right here and read books to me for more than a half an hour before she remembered the big park that was outside.  And as soon as we got home, she was ready to read stories again.  It is one of her favorite things to do.  The other night I think we read 15 books in a row before she had her fill.  And that makes me happy.

The past few days she has been requesting one ponytail “like mommy’s one big ponytail.”  She is so sweet sometimes.  I love it.  Though that one ponytail makes her look a lot more grown up to me.  Maybe it’s just me.

This outfit started life as a too large thrifted dress with a broken zipper.  But for some reason I was totally drawn to the pattern on the skirt.  I don’t really like purple, and I don’t ever wear flowers that are this big… so I can’t really say what it was that made me bring home a broken dress.  But I did.

I cut off the top, and made a new waistband.  I was able to save the already installed invisible zipper, I just trimmed it down (thankfully the broken part was at the top!) and sewed it onto the new waistband.  And then I cut a pocket out of the bodice and added it to the other side seam.  Because skirts with pockets are awesome.  I think I am going to hem it maybe a half an inch, the original hem looks a little ratty up close.  But no one else really notices things like that.

After I had finished my skirt I took it to visit my sister Heidi. Because I didn’t have a single thing in my closet to wear with it. And she did the rest. She should dress me everyday of my life actually. She is really good at it. And she always has the right shoes.

I borrowed the ring from her, but the rest of the jewelry was mine, mostly anniversary gifts from Scott.  He has good taste too.  I am still on the lookout for my own perfect wide black belt, but I’ve picked up several others the last few weeks from the thrift store.  For $10 I have 5 new belts.  Bingo!

Actually, there has been a lot of good thrifting going on recently… pictures to come!  I am also adding this to Project Restyle!  Yay!

From left to right we are Amy, Diary of a Quilter, Amy, Vintage Fern, Erin, Two More Seconds, Leigh, Leedle Deedle, Elizabeth, Such a Sew and Sew, Vicki, Sew Inspired, me and Amy, amylouwho.  Thanks amylouwho for taking pictures!

We all brought a sewing project we had been working on, or just finished and we had plenty of good food and great conversation and had a great night together.  A few of Amy’s friends weren’t able to make it (there was a giant rain storm that day!) and so a few days later we did it again.  But this time we met at The Material Girls quilt shop in South Jordan, which is owned by the wonderful Nadine.

From left to right: Calli, Make it Do,  Amy, Amylouwho, Sara, Sew Sara, Vanessa, V & Co. Amy, Vintage Fern, Nadine, Material Girls, Amy, Diary of a Quilter, Megan, Quilt Story, Erin, Two More Seconds,  Shari (hiding in the back), Doohikey Designs, me and Leigh, Leedle Deedle.

We had dinner together and spent the evening looking at fabric, chatting, laughing and while we sat around the work tables in the back room.  It was another wonderful way to spend the night.  I don’t think I got home until well after midnight!

Erin (Two More Seconds) and Vanessa (V & Co.) picking out fabric.  Nadine has amazing taste in fabric, not to mention she orders everything.  We all came home with a little something new!

This is just one wall of her not very big, but absolutely packed store.  And thanks to Amylouwho for showing me how to use her flash.  I bought an off camera flash for Scott years ago (he knows WAY more about photography than I do!) and since she showed me how to use hers I haven’t been so afraid to use ours.

[ Nadine, owner of Material Girls and Calli picking out fabric.  So much fun! ]

Thanks Nadine for keeping the shop open late just for us.  I had such a great time listening to stories and laughing with everyone.  It made me realize that I need to get together in real life with people who share my interests a lot more often.  These women felt like old friends.  And I don’t know a single person that doesn’t need more old friends.

And thanks Amy for coming to Utah to give the rest of us a good excuse to get together.  I spent a few more nights hanging out with Amy, and I can’t wait for next summer to hang out again.  And as for the rest of the amazingly talented women I had the privelege of hanging out with… lets do it again.  Soon.

[ My very favorite denim blazer: New York & Company 3 years ago, Skirt: handmade from a thrifted vintage sheet, Earrings & Turquosie ring: handmade by my friend Adrianne, Necklace: thrifted,  Bracelet: swap meet in Honolulu 3.5 years ago, Sandals: Steve Madden hand-me-downs from my sister, white tee: Walmart, yellow purse (a few pics down) NineWest, thrifted ]

Last night we went out on a date and we started out at this old abandoned house. I’ve driven past it a million times but this was the first time we’ve stopped. It was awesome, and creepy, all at the same time. The walls inside were full of cracked plaster and peeling wallpaper.

The walls in the kitchen of this old house were bright turquoise.  You can kind of see them in that first pic. I wish I had a better picture of them, but they were so pretty.  And with the broken out windows, the burned out door and the rickety old back porch it was a very unexpected surprise.  I think I’ll go back here again.  I don’t know how long it will be before this old house is torn down and I know I’ll miss seeing it when it’s gone.  I hate seeing even the ricketiest old buildings demolished.  The land around this one has been slated for a strip mall for years.

So I mentioned a few days ago that my pink hair faded a lot while I was scuba diving.  I like the color in this picture a lot more than I like it in the mirror… the back has faded a lot lighter than the front. So we’ll see how long it takes before I do something else.  I hope you have a great weekend.  We are going to clean out our storage unit (bleh) and if I get lucky I’ll sneak in some sewing time to finish another skirt.  Update: I ‘m adding this project to the Project Restyle flickr group, and Sew and Tell at Amy’s!

You can download my Bunting Template and print it at home or you can make your own template with a paper plate or mixing bowl or whatever else you have hanging around.  My favorite mixing bowl (and therefor the template)is 8.5 inches across, but I also included a mini version at 5.25 inches across.  Trace your template onto cardstock or thin cardboard like the back of a cereal box. I choose the rounded shape over a triangular pennant shape because I think you can see more of the fabric that way.

Pick out some great fabric.  All of mine are either one color with white, or a tone on tone print, because that is mostly what I am drawn to.  If you are going to use my large template you’ll need a piece of fabric 7.5″ x 17″.  (The mini size uses a piece 4.5″ x 11″.)    Each  flag is about 8 inches across finished, so figure out how long you want your bunting to be and use however many flags you’ll need to achieve that length.  For my 6 foot window (where this is going to end up hanging) I used a 7 and a 9 flag bunting together.  OK, let’s get started.

 Fold your fabric right sides together and trace your template with a pencil (I used a pen so you can see it).  Then pin the pieces together with the pins well inside your traced line.

I pin them this way because it holds the pieces of fabric together while I cut, and then it is all ready to sew together without having to repin everything.  And I am not talented enough to sew around curves without pins.  When you are all pinned, cut out your pieces.

Now sew around those curves (leave the top straight side open)  with a 1/4″ to 3/8″ seam allowance.  I just lined them up on the edge of my presser foot, because that is the easiest way for me to keep a uniform seam.  Pull the pins with your left hand (which might feel really backwards) as you sew.  Or if you pin them far enough on the inside of your shape you can just sew the seam and then pull them out when you are done.

After your flags are sewn together, clip the seams every 1/2-3/4″ around the curves so it will lay flat when you turn it inside out.  Don’t snip your stitches.  If you do, go back and resew that part.

Turn your flags right sides out, push out the curves and press around the edges so they lay flat.  I found it was faster to do these assembly line style, so do all the sewing, then the clipping, then the pressing.

Lay out your flags on the floor to get them in the order you prefer.  Now that I am all done I wish I’d switched the top left light pink with the bottom right dark pink. (Why do I always see this in pictures after the fact?)  Oh well.  I choose to do two separate buntings, but I wanted to hang them up together, so I arranged my colors so they’d look good by themselves or hanging up together.  If you make one long bunting (like this pink one, or this red white and blue one) you can still get a dual look by doubling the bunting back on itself when you hang it.

Next choose a bias binding.  You can use a prepurchased double fold binding, or make your own.  (You’ll want a bias binding so that it will hang with a smooth curve.)  My first round I choose the wrong thing for my binding.  After I was finished sewing the whole thing together I realized it was too bright, and had too much white on it. So I unstitched it and found a new fabric which is a little more neutral. (This green is a Heather Bailey print from the Nicey Jane collection.)  I cut 3″ strips on the bias, folded it in half and pressed it and then folded the sides to the center and pressed it again, making my binding about 3/4″ finished.  Next time I’ll make it smaller at 1/2″ finished, I think.  I used 11 feet of binding on the 7 flag bunting and a little over 12 feet on the 9 flag bunting.

Start sewing your flags on!  I sewed my binding together for the first 30ish inches so I had a long tail to tie my bunting to curtain rods or nails in the wall or whatever.  This will also give you a little wiggle room when you hang it up so you can adjust the length easily to fit your space.  Then just tuck in your flags, making sure that the raw edge is all the way to the middle fold of your binding.  Sew along the edge, carefully, so you catch the top and bottom edges of your binding, and leave about a half inch of space between each flag.  When you are finished with the flags sew another 30ish inch long tail so you can hang your bunting up easily.

Tada!  Finished fabric bunting that you can reuse for years.  I hung it up on the wall in my craft room for a picture, because taking pictures of something hanging above a window is hard.  And I can never get the settings on my camera right, so it ends up totally dark or way too bright.  So wall photo it is.  I just used two long sewing pins stuck in the wall to hold it up.  But I think I’ll hang a curtain rod over my window so I can just make loops in the ties and hang them up that way.  And now that I’m looking at pictures, I really think I might switch those dark and light pinks on the edges.  Which means just a little more unpicking.

I got this stack of fabric last week, and it is destined for some more summer clothes for Creamie.  I am not exactly sure what yet, but I’m sure it will come to me.  Some more skirts and little peasant shirts are sure to be involved.  I used the Camera Plus app on my iphone, with the Diana toy camera effects layer.  I am starting to love my iphone camera apps, that’s for sure.

Last week I was a guest poster over at Amy is the Party for her summer blog party.  I shared a favorite summer time treat, Lime Pie Cakes  And not only did she have some awesome party tutorials and ideas (mini cupcake fondue, can I say more?), she is also having a giveaway for a free ad space if you are looking to advertise your business or blog.  I  think it’s a brilliant idea!  Go check out her ad giveaway here, or a giveaway for some of her adorable jewelry here.  And here is a list of all her wonderful summer party ideas!