Downton Abbey & Flawed Perfection Jewelry

Hello friends! I am so excited about today's post have have been looking forward to it since being in touch with Megan from Flawed Perfection Jewelry. If you like Downton Abbey or beautifully hand crafted jewelry this post is for you. And there's a special promotion code at the end. :)

Have you seen Downton Abbey? If not, get to your nearest Netflix or Hulu and go watch now. As with many things, I was late discovering it but quickly fell in love. I love the simpler time. My favorite character is Anna. I love the story between her and Mr. Bates. I suppose I picture myself as one of the downstairs characters. Must be all that cooking and cleaning I relate to. ;) If I were a woman of privelege I would be like Sybil. I love her independent, rebellious spirit. Even if it does get her into trouble sometimes. And that is why I chose the Sybil colorway when ordering my necklace. {Mine is the marquise one pictured} It took me some time to decide as they are all so pretty but I loved the pop of color.

Let's welcome Megan to tell us more about her new jewelry line.

Hi, I'm Megan from Flawed Perfection Jewelry. I design sterling silver and gemstone, pearl, and/or Swarovski crystal jewelry. I'm so happy to be on here today to share a really fun line! Welcome to...

I've come up with 7 colorways inspired by the characters and activities of the beloved BBC/PBS series. Each colorway is comprised of 3 colors of Swarovski Crystals. Even if you haven't watched yet (first off, why haven't you?!), I hope you enjoy these fun color combos! Let's meet one of them, the fun and colorful Sybil colorway:

Lady Sybil's colorway has the most obvious inspiration. Her "surprise" pants look was the perfect inspiration, as it shows her spunky spirit and fun personality. This colorway also seems modern, just like Sybil's forward-thinking ideas for the time. These colors fit perfectly with her bold personality.

Source

Here are 2 designs shown in the Sybil colorway. 7 designs are available in all colorways.

I hope that these colorways capture a bit of the colorful fashion of Downton Abbey! My favorite thing about these colorways is that they are a subtle nod to Downton without being dated. As beautiful as vintage jewelry is, a chic, modern piece of jewelry in a special colorway can be fabulous too. I'm also offering FREE shipping on your Dinner at Downton order for the next week. Just use code DOWNTON at checkout.

So, what's your favorite thing about Downton Abbey? Are you as obsessed as I am?

Thanks for having me today! Remember to stop by my blog for a full explanation of all 7 colorways.

-Megan

Thanks to Megan for letting me participate in her promotion! I can't wait to {finally} start on season two of Downton Abbey now that it's available on hulu.com.

Thanks for visiting!

Happy Fourth! {a few days late}

It's not often that I have projects done ahead of time so a late 4th of July post really isn't very surprising. ;) Our plans for the holiday changed so many times I can't remember them all now. The day before it turned out that we would be home and I decided to make the kids something patriotic to wear. That night I started on the baby's romper, and had a short list of things to get from the store in the morning. The kids told me what they wanted their flag shirts to look like, I had a different idea in mind for my son but he's old enough to have input and veto my ideas in these situations. Next year I might just surprise him instead of asking. ;)

After shopping, cutting & ironing freezer paper and painting {my oldest did her shirt} I finished up the romper. Then I sent the kids outside to torture them capture the moment with pictures. We spent the day at the carnival. It was a really fun time full of rides, fresh lemonade, cotton candy and funnel cake. There were only a handful of rides that the baby could go on with me so we spent most of the day watching the big kids. It was a hot & humid day and by the end we were all ready to go home to cool down and have a quick dinner before going out to watch fireworks.

I hope you had a fun & festive fourth! It's one of my favorite holidays.

It's hard to tell but my daughter wanted hearts & stars instead of just hearts. My son wanted the flag to wrap around the shirt but I ran out of time. My favorite was the romper that my youngest wore, the pattern is a free download on fabric.com called Hannah's Pillowcase Romper by Create Kids Couture. {click the name to go to the pattern}.  The skirt that my oldest daughter is wearing is from last year, I made it using a $1 handkerchief and white cotton for the band. We all had matching patriotic flip flops and the girls had hairbows as well.

Just for fun here are some more pictures I got of her in the romper. I can't wait to make more of these, I think it would make a sweet gift. This is the second CKC pattern I have used and both I used the same size as what I would buy in the store.

Thanks for visiting!

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Just Three {July}

Popping in real quick with a list! I love lists. This is one list linky I've been meaning to participate in for a while but this month I anticipate much busy-ness getting ready to kiss the Army life goodbye and move back into the civillian world. It will be a strange and exciting transition I'm sure.

Meanwhile, I have this sewing machine and piles of fabric calling my name. So to keep me in check and on task I'm making a list of just three things to do this month. You can do more but just three will be plenty for me.


1. Bowls & Borders Blog Hop Did you know that I quilt? I'm still very much a beginner and this quilt will be my first time paper piecing. Why did I sign up for a project with a deadline on something I've never done before? Because I'm crazy. And I love this stacked bowl quilt. I think it would look really cute hanging up in my kitchen. Wherever that kitchen is I'll find a wall space or cupboard front to hang it from. I'm really glad I signed up too because they filled up quickly and had to close sign ups early.

 

 

2. Lydia's diamond quilt/duvet. I don't have pictures to share yet but some months back I started cutting diamonds using Riley Blake's Fly a Kite fabrics {so cute!} and then I stopped. I need to lay the diamonds out, figure out how many more I need {quilt math makes me shudder} and order fabric before it disappears forever. That's all the progress I expect on this quilt this month, but it's important to get the fabric while it's still available.

3. A little quilted something. I can't be too specific about this because the recipient may be reading. ;) But I promised the person who helped choose the name of my etsy shop a prize and well, some months and 200 fb fans later....I still haven't done that. I've thought about it and then well, you know how it goes.

Thanks for visiting! Do you have Just Three this month? Click the button above to visit Tracey. She has some pretty incentive to link up this month!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Happy Saturday morning to you! I'm normally not so chipper in the mornings but I had a fun evening with my kids, half decent night of sleep and the baby is still sleeping so I'm enjoying my coffee in some peace. PLUS I just chose the winners for my giveaway and am excited to announce them. I love giving things and if I could I would host giveaways more often.

Thank you to everyone that entered! There were 64 total entries and using rafflecopter you just click a button to choose a winner. Easy peasy. I've had some issues with coding on the back end so I took a screen shot of the winners.

Congratulations to Jennifer & Karri!

I will be e-mailing you shortly! Jennifer wins a custom bunting from my shop and Karri can choose from ready to ship options.

As a thank you to everyone who entered and has supported my shop I have a promotion code for a 20% discount - use code FB200 during check out. The code will be good through July 7th.

Have a great day! The baby is up now and I have some things to get done before joining the rest of the family on the boat this afternoon.

Thanks for visiting!

Pretty as a Picture Creations Giveaway

Good morning! I haven't posted in a while and still have that eyeglasses tutorial to get to but first, we're having a giveaway! My etsy shop Pretty as a Picture Creations has a facebook page and that page has over 200 likes! I've been meaning to do a giveaway since 100 fans so I've decided to have two winners. Using this post as a guide to stay in the rules of facebook the giveaway will be hosted here. The giveaway will run from today {Monday June 25} through Friday {June 29}.  Use the rafflecopter widget below to enter and check back next Saturday {by afternoon} to see who the two winners are!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Make Over a Onsie

I don't have the chevron glasses case ready yet but if you missed me at Honeybear Lane last week, you can see my onsie dress here today.

I wanted to make a gift for a cute little girl I know and this is what I came up with. Dressing up a onesie is a quick & easy way to make a custom dress for a gift or your own baby girl. I used a knit fabric but you can also use woven, though knit doesn’t require hems and won’t fray in the wash so it goes faster without a knit. If you use a woven cotton be sure to hem it.

Here is what you’ll need:

First I measured the width of the onsie, for this 6-9 mos size it was 8.5″. I multiplied that by four to get the width so I would have about twice the ruffle on both front and back and decided to make the skirt 8 inches long. Measuring it out, it looked about right. If you have a baby around to measure that would be more accurate.

Next, I ruffled the long side of the skirt. If you have a ruffler foot, use that. Otherwise you can use this nifty trick I learned when I started sewing again. Set your tension to the highest setting and stitch length to the longest. On my machine that is a 9 & a 5. Then without using a basting stitch, sew down the side and watch the ruffles come. I leave a bit of thread on both ends to make adjusting the ruffles easier.

Lastly, you’ll attach the skirt to the onsie. I apologize for not having a picture of this step. Be sure to line the skirt up evenly on both sides, pins help keep everything in place. I used an elastic stitch (looks like a zig zag stitch with dashed lines) and stretched the onsie back toward me a bit while sewing to help ensure mama can easily put this on baby. You can attach the skirt one of two ways, put the skirt & onsie right sides together (with skirt upside down) or put the wrong side of skirt on right side of onsie with the skirt right side up as it will be worn. I chose the second option and this gave a paperbag style to the skirt.

This was cute but still missing something. I cut a long 1.5″ strip of the fabric and ruffled it with about 1/4″ edge and pinned it to the neckline, cutting to size as I pinned. I sewed the ruffle on the same way as I attached the skirt and repeated this step twice more. Again, I apologize for not having a picture of this step. I just eyeballed it and made sure the ruffle above would cover the edge of the ruffle below. It worked out.

Then to complete the outfit I ruffled a 1 inch strip of fabric and attatched it to some FOE (fold over elastic) that I cut to 16″ and tied a knot at the ends. I think this will make a cute matching headband.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my dressed up onsie today, thanks for visiting!

~Rebecca

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Come to See Me!

Thursday {5/31} I will be at Honeybear Lane. If you haven't 'met' Heidi yet, you really should. I was chosen to be a contributor on her blog, along with some other fabulous ladies, and tomorrow is my first post there. My contributions will be baby related, so fun. Hope to see you over there!

In other news, I hope to have a tutorial for these chevron glasses cases up in the next few days.

Thanks for visiting!