Thursday, November 21, 2013

Cute Little Lunches

If you are a Mom and have access to the internet, you have seen them.  You don't even have to be a Pinterest addict to know what I am talking about. 

Those cute little packed lunches with star shaped veggies and heart shaped fruit intended to prove you are the better Mom lure your little darling into consuming healthy food. 

This is not a discussion about the merits of such food preparation.  What I want to know is this :  What becomes of all those little leftover bits of meat, cheese and veggie after you have carved Mt. Rushmore from a cucumber??

Sure you can sometimes use the bits in a quesadilla or quiche or something.... but on a daily basis. Seriously?  I have a enough trouble coordinating dinners and turning leftover roast into soup etc.  If I also had to mentally track what my lunch leftovers were going to be and how to use them efficiently things would get crazier than they already are.

So what do all of you cute-lunch making moms really do with those extra bits?  

~ Christina 

Monday, September 30, 2013

Last Day!

This is the last day to enter the Cherry City Kids drawing for a $30 gift certificate.  Some of you have "liked" posts but you must go to the facebook page and like the page to enter.  The drawing is at 9 pm tonight and I will post the winner Tuesday morning.  So fun!

~ Christina 

Monday, September 23, 2013

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Making "Oops!", "Awesome"

A few weeks ago I sketched a dress silhouette on a post-it note and showed it to Miriam as we were walking out the door to school.  She immediately decided that the bias strips on the dress should be in an ombre/ gradient in various shades of pink.  It was a simple sheath dress so I used a trusty bodice pattern I had made for her already and lengthened it.

I got a roll of medical exam paper in the mail this week and I am using it as pattern tracing paper.  Works great!


Finding a nice gradient of solid pinks in the same weight fabric proved difficult so I decided this would require busting out gloves and dye.  Here are all the pieces lined up before the dye-bath. 


This is where we go "oops!" - Pink is a Miriam color.  Purple not so much....  and this came out pretty darn purple, more purple than this pictures shows.  This gives you an idea of how the dress would have looked.


Thankfully shretch knit is forgiving, and stretches.  A bit of cutting and what would have been a dress for little sister becomes a stylish and comfy skirt for big sister (who happens to like purple just fine).






This shot has the color most accurate, the other are a bit light and pink.  The long sleeves of the dress became a hem band to make this is long enough for Abigail.  Awesome!  

~ Christina 

Thursday, September 05, 2013

First Day of School

The kids' official first day of school was Wednesday but I am just getting a couple of pictures up now. 

David protested that I had taken his picture the day before, but this was his actual first day of class.  He had to badger the office to get his schedule changed so that he could take the required PE class.  They suggest he put it off until his Sr. year - um, no.  
It looks like this will be a challenging year but he likes most of his teachers.  By the end of the year he will be ready for the AP Chem exam and the AP US history exam. - Go David!


This is me piggy-backing on Adriel's beautiful pictures.  Despite not having any classes with her best friend, Abigail likes most of them and is excited that she will finally have a challenging math course.  She is taking a slightly accelerated class that will have her doing Algebra in 8th grade so she can move straight into geometry as a freshman.


Miriam had a great day, likes her new teacher and is super happy to have her best-buddy Autumn at her table group.  Her teacher, Ms. Hopkins, has traveled extensively and Miriam loves all of the stuff from Paris around the room. 
 This year part of Miriam's homework is to receive and respond to notes from family members and friends.  These notes and emails will be placed into a notebook all year-long.  This helps to improve her letter writing skills and acts as a keep-sake for her.  All of you grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins out there - get writing and help Mim with her homework.  Short notes are just fine and asking questions is a great way to give her something to respond about.

Thank you!

~Christina 


Can't Decide on my Favorite

The new Winter styles are up at My Sailor Girls.  These are all so pretty I can't decide which I like best.  The doll dress/ girl skirt sets can be made in sizes 3-8, larger sizes by special order.


I love peppermints and snowflakes.  I have had a peppermint fabric for the holiday season three years running now and it is always popular.  This one is on a soft turquoise background.

The snowflakes are Miriam's favorite.  She has already claimed that fabric for her own Christmas dress.


 I like that the prints are Fall/ Winter without being married to a particular holiday.  That way your little one can get a lot of use out of her skirt.  The colored balls and branches motifs are really seasonless and can be worn year-round.
 Here we have some one-of-a-kind doll dresses that are the perfect small gift for any occasion; just right for stocking stuffers or Winter birthdays.




I will not be making duplicates of these little doll dresses, so get them while you can!

~ Christina 

Cherry City is now on Facebook!

Come like my new Facebook page and be entered to win a $30 gift certificate to Cherry City Kids.  The drawing will be held on September 30th.  The winner will be announced here on the blog and on the Facebook page.  

~ Christina

Tuesday, September 03, 2013

Happy Jr. Year my Son

The kids don't actually start school until Wednesday but Freshman come a day early to learn their way around, and those who help them along are upper classmen called Celtic Starters.  David hit the road at 6:15 this morning for a meeting before the class of 2017 arrives.  If you can't read his shirt it says "Saving the world, one freshman at a time".  


 Einstein the Elephant was showing his school spirit this morning - ready for the pep rally later today.

~ Christina 

Sunday, September 01, 2013

Rolled Hem foot

I have recently acquired and started using a rolled him foot for my Kenmore machine.  IT is not the easiest thing to use but I discovered something today that is really great and I wanted to share in case it would help others.

Abigail's new dress is circular layers of this thin, gauzy fabric attached to a full lining made from cotton.  Because it is sheer and I was going to be cutting the skirt in various circles I knew it was time to learn to use a rolled hem foot.  doing this hem by hand would have be days of work, tons of aggravation and it probably would have looked terrible despite the effort.

I did practice with this foot and actually made two other dresses with it before I started in on Abigail's.  The thin fabric is actually much easier to get through than the thicker cotton I used on the Cherry City Kids dresses but I discovered by accident that it works wonderfully if the edge has been surged first.


First surge the edge that you plan to roll and hem.

The surging gives the fabric a natural fold point that makes it roll into the foot much more easily than without.  You still have to guide it, but the fabric more naturally wants to roll at that point and it happens to be the right with for the foot!


Here is the finished top

Here is the backside of the rolled hem.  You can see the surger loops sticking up there out of the hem, but it is very nice and neat because I didn't take pictures of the messy bits


Saturday, August 31, 2013

My Little Quilter





A couple of weeks ago Miriam attempted to make a doll dress on her own.  Doll dresses are tiny and detailed.  They require skills like turning fabric while sewing, clipping, backstitching..... It's a lot I promise, too much it turns out for our budding seamstress.  Having a 7 yo make a doll dress for her first semi-independent project was not the greatest idea I ever had.

It finally dawned on me that I got the basics down while making some simple quilts.......  Why would I expect more from a 7 yo?  Now we are working on a pillow case that her pink blankets will get along with.  The blankets (aptly named Pink and Blankie) are left over receiving blankets from her babyhood.  They are another story for another day but Mim thinks there is enough pink in this pallet to keep them happy.  Yes, we personify the blankets.  That's just the way we roll around here.  I cut the fabric this time so she can work on her stitching skills and I think things will go much better this time.

Friday, August 30, 2013

Wild Cupcakes

A few weeks ago Abigail went to a cake decorating class and came home with these wild cupcakes.  They were greatly enjoyed by all


 The zoo

Lion

Zebra

Tiger



Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Kit's Modeling Career

I found these on my camera when I was downloading just now.  It seems Kit has had a busy day modeling for Miriam and her buddy Autumn.  I find it interesting that only one of these dresses is store bought.  Can you pick out the one my mom made for my dolls many years ago?








Cherry City Kids is Open!!

Come see the handmade, classic styles now available at my new shop Cherry City Kids!










Sunday, July 28, 2013

Petal Skirt



The last Cherry City design I will finish putting together before the fam gets home.

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Sneak Peek at Cherry City Kids




Ruffle Dress



 Pin-Tuck Dress



 Cherry City Kids  - Vintage Inspired Clothing for Modern Kids