trick or treat!

Hello, long lost blog friends! I've been enjoying a super busy fall, which started over the summer. :) I love it, but I'm trying to wind things down soon so that I can fully immerse myself in the holidays this year. Hopefully, that will lead to more blogging, which I've been terrible about lately! You can see what's been keeping me hoppin' over at my photography blog, which is linked up on the right there. >>

Halloween is definitely one of my favorite holidays and I have always tried to make it more memorable for the kids by getting them involved in making costumes. Even as young as they are, they plan waaaaay ahead and actually stick to the plan. In fact, they are already planning for next year!

We went with an Alice in Wonderland theme this year. The twins were Alice and the White Rabbit, while Sarah chose the Cheshire Cat. Halloween portraits are always so fun because you can push the colors and stuff just a little more than you usually would. Here they are!

Happy Halloween!!

spring is in the air!!! finally!!

I am *so* excited to report that spring is finally starting to show up here in Nebraska! The snow is almost completely gone and we have had temps that don't require you to wear 10 layers of clothes...we are happy folks right now!

Sarah has started preschool at a church just about a 1/3 mile from home, so we have been walking her to school, which has been wonderful! Yesterday, I caught a glimpse of these flowers...a sure sign of spring! I was so excited!

This week, I finally got started on the girls' Easter outfits. I have some great Nicey Jane fabric from Heather Bailey that I mixed into stuff from my stash. I planned to have them wear ruffled pants underneath, since it's usually cold on Easter in the midwest, but the dresses turned out a little long for it, so now I'm not so sure.



I am planning to make a few extra dresses, so if you are interested in getting one, let me know!

Today I took the girls shopping for Easter shoes, and guess what? They all picked pink ones! Shocking, I know. They are so cute though, I can't wait to get them out for some "real" pics later (like when I make my pilgrimage to Texas next month for bluebonnet pics!)


If only I could find these in my size!

back in the saddle! sorta.

Although we are still stuck in the dead of winter, things are starting to look up! We are going to get really busy around here really quickly, but only good things are in sight.

I have been pretty overwhelmed with the great response I got to the super hero capes I made a friend for Christmas. I got tons of requests for them, which is great, but they are pretty much all I've gotten to sew for months now. I'm glad to be caught up so that I can take a break and work on things that are a little more fun for me. My sewing machines are glad too - they definitely did not appreciate all the cape making.

Last week while we were visiting Grandma, we made a stop at one of our favorite boutique fabric shops and the girls each got to pick out some fabric. Over the weekend, I made the time to sew them up some new goodies.

{E} is a monkey junkie and insists on owning every monkey adorned thing we come across! She asked for a dress, so that's what she got. I love these little dresses b/c they really grow with the girls and can be worn alone in summer or layered in winter.


{P} went for this awesome retro mushroom print. I had some coordinating fabrics in my stash, so it worked out great. I used THIS tutorial to make it, which is super easy to do! The only thing I have trouble with is visualizing the sizes so I had an issue with hers being almost a little snug across the shoulders, but it works!

And here's {S} in her roller-skating fairy print top! I used the same tutorial but made the sleeves longer as she requested. Hers wound up a little on the big side, but that just means she can wear it even longer!

{S} chose to wear her top for her first day of SCHOOL, which was Monday!! Yes, that's right, she is now a student again! She's been a preschooler since she was 2 years old, but when we moved we planned to just keep her home for her last year before kindergarten b/c we didn't think we could afford to pay tuition. WELL, as I was pursuing the idea of getting the twins into a nearby church school in the fall, we were offered an opening in the pre-K class for her! Since there are only a few months left in the school year, the cost is much more manageable for us. She is super excited to be back in school and we're hoping she'll make some new friends.

Did I mention we got the twins enrolled in preschool??? YES!!!! They will start in the fall and I am counting down the days!

This week I've been playing catch-up, as usual, and I finally have some new camera strap covers in my etsy shop. I plan to add a few more in the next week or so, so be sure to check it out! My current fave is this one, which looks like free flowing grassy stripes. I tried to get some neutral straps in the shop this time around for all those with hubbies who complain about the girlie ones.


I'm still working on my office space while trying to juggle my sewing projects. Hopefully we can manage a productive weekend and get it finished up. I can't wait to get started on spring dresses and Easter clothes! I've also got grown up camera love bags on my list.

On top of everything, I've even started to ... *gasp* ... exercise! I've been trying Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred video, and it's been good to get those workouts in. We are slowly seeing the snow and ice melt outside, so hopefully I'll be walking and jogging soon, but this is keeping me occupied in the meantime. I have a hot date with 5 twin mommies at the beach in July so I need to get less jiggly and fast!

my first TGFFF sale!!!

If you haven't already, be sure to become a fan of the PinkPooka etsy shop over on facebook. Today I am having a TGFFF sale (that's thank-goodness-for-fabulous-fans.) All camera strap covers are $5 today only and I have also listed some of my "camera love" bags, which are perfect for your little one for valentines day!


One of my favorite camera strap covers is this one...it's done with a fabulous Heather Bailey fabric. If it doesn't get snatched up, I might have to put it on my camera strap!


I promise, you won't find them cheaper anywhere else, so now's the time to snatch one up! I've had them on sale for a while now, so Monday I'll be returning to regular prices.

You can see what's in the store HERE.

Thanks for all the support! I have the best friends and fans!

Merry Christmas!

We enjoyed a nice Christmas at home this year. We've been in the midst of a blizzard, so we couldn't leave the house even if we wanted to. We hung all the stockings and cozied up by the fire all day Christmas eve.



Here's Scott's stocking I made for him several years ago. It's Santa watching football on tv. Perfect, huh? :)


After the kiddos went to bed, Santa paid us a visit. Sarah asked for a sewing machine, Phoebe wanted a swimming baby and a Wonder Pets flyboat, and Ellen wanted a baby with a high chair. They made sure to leave out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.



In addition to their requested items, they got movies, barbies, and new stick ponies. They were all very excited that Santa had come!

During naptime today, Sarah got to try out her new sewing machine. She is doing great with it! Sews a straighter line than I do. I have a feeling we'll be upgrading her pretty quickly.


We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! It's still snowing and blowin' like crazy here as we wait on Christmas dinner to finish making itself. Merry Christmas!

sew, I've been a little busy...

I have a good excuse for not blogging - I have been sooooooo busy sewing! It's been great b/c I can certainly use the extra cash for decorating the house, but I haven't had time for much else lately. I've done 12 skirts and 10 aprons in the past month, plus 3 super hero capes and a zillion camera strap covers. I kept thinking I'd put some of these items in my shop, but my wonderful online friends kept me busy enough so that I didn't have to do that. :)

I'll be posting a tutorial for the skirts soon!

homemade gifts: aprons

This year, my mom and I are giving the girls their very own aprons for Christmas. I was inspired to make the twins' aprons from vintage materials after finding a vintage embroidered dish towel with the letter "E" on it at a local antiques store. I knew right away that it would be adorable as an apron for Ellen.

None of these aprons are perfect, but I love all the charm they have because of the vintage fabrics and embellishments. I have been hanging onto some of these fabrics for almost 15 years! lol

Phoebe's apron is funky with a retro pear pocket.

Since I only used half of the dish towel for E's apron, I decided to make another apron to sell in my etsy shop. It was a good excuse for me to try out this ruffle technique before we attempt to ruffle some towels for the purple bathroom.

And while I was at it, I made another one of the pear aprons to sell. I know there's someone out there that will love these as much as I do!

I will also be restocking my shop with camera strap covers throughout the week. I'm having a sale, so they are only $8 right now! More on that later...

You can always get to my shop by clicking on the etsy widget on the right side of my blog.

fine dining with feathered friends

Operation: Rainbow Bright is moving along. Our bathroom project is just a day away from being finished! This week I also got some things finished up in our eat-in kitchen dining area, which is our only dedicated dining space for now (the formal dining room is our office space.)

I admit, I am not very inspired by kitchen and dining spaces. It's hard for me to come up with creative ideas that will work together, but I came across this wonderful idea to make fabric birds and mount them on a branch, and I knew it would be perfect for our space. The bird pattern is by Spool and can be found here. I made a bird to represent each person in our family. The girls had a blast playing with them before they went up.

Oh, and I have made the executive decision that the ceiling beams are getting painted (white.) We have someone to do it, we just need the cash. I keep trying to work around them and make them less noticeable, so we are gonna paint those suckers! It will give the kitchen a very cottage-y look (we've seen it done in other houses.)




We have a very large window and I wasn't sure what type of window treatment to do, so we went with an inexpensive patio shade (which I'm not sure I love, but it will work until I decide.) We don't need a ton of privacy from it, but it would be nice to have something to cover the window at night when it's easy to see in.


I also hung up some decorative plates that I've been collecting. I LOVE them and am so glad I have a place to display them now. I intend to keep collecting and continue them down the wall.




The plates compliment my teapot collection, which is now over the sink. I'm still working on unpacking, so there may be more to add to the display. It's all just sort of thrown up there for now to get it out of the way. LOVE my new Alice in Wonderland teapot!


When we moved from our old house, I made the decision to replace our dining chairs. The table was in ok condition, but the upholstered parsons chairs had been trashed by the kids. Originally, I wanted to go with some sleek, modern chairs from Ikea to contrast with my cottage-y/shabby things, but they discontinued the ones I wanted! Plan B was put into place, which was to collect old chairs and paint them all a fun color. Unfortunately, finding chairs is not easy! Tables = easy. Chairs = not easy. I scoured craigslist.com for a while until I found someone selling a collection of 6 chairs + a table for $60. We wound up using 4 of the chairs and the table will probably go out on our covered porch. Scott's mom found this great table with 2 leaves for $5, so I had her get it and I freshened it up with some 3-in1 stain. (Our old table is now my sewing table since it doesn't have the leaves.) She also found the two end chairs for us for $3 each! I love a bargain!



In the plate picture, you can sort of see into our family room, which is a few steps down. Just wanted to prove it's a mess!!! lol It's next on the list - I've been working on it. It's a super dark room because of the covered porch, but we're making progress with brightening it up.