August 2009 Burda

I received my new Burda mag in the mail at the end of last week. I was thrilled to see it. I wasn't expecting it so it was quite a fun surprise. I flipped through it immediately and saw some things that I just loved. A few I will definitely make.

Jacket 119--I loved the unique styling of the collar. I am not sure what I have to make this out of but I would really like to make this one.




















Blouse 104-- I will definitely make this one! I have been wanting to make a shirt like this one and was thinking I would have to change up a pattern I already have to add the ruffle. I think I may make this out of a stripe fabric that I have had for a while but waiting for just the right pattern. I liked it in the denim also but I currently do not have any lightweight denim appropriate for a shirt.
Skirt 107--I love the pleats and the buttons and the belt. I guess I just love everything about this skirt. I am not sure what I will make it out of or what I will wear it with but this a must sew!





















Up until this magazine I have never been impressed with Burda's childrens clothes. The are never sized big enough for my daughter and I usually didn't like the styling. That all changed with this issue.

Jacket 139--When I turned the page and first saw this jacket I about dropped my teeth. I LOVED it so much. I couldn't wait to show it to my daughter who would look absolutely adorable in this jacket. Much to my dismay she wasn't as impressed as I was. I am going to make it anyway and make her wear it!


Skirt 145--This one I was a bit unsure of. I think it would look really cute with the jacket. Maybe in matching material. This one is a possibility but not certain.


Dress 141--I wasn't lovin' this dress when I first saw it. My daughter on the other hand loved it. So I will probably make this one to match some of the fun tights she already has. But it will be without the buttons since my daughter didn't like them.


I already have so much to sew and so little time. I have just now added quite a few more things. Such is the life of a grand planning seamstress. :)

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day!

Until next time...

Burda 8-2008-103

I purchased the Aug 208 Burda mag last year mainly because of this pattern. I loved it immediately. Since I bought it in the fall it was too cold for such short sleeves so I put it off until this summer. Well, this summer has been so busy that I am only now getting around to making it. I know that summer is almost over for us but I wanted to do this anyway. Maybe I will get to wear it once or twice before it gets too cold. I got this fun polyester silky polka dot fabric back in March from Fabric Depot in Portland specifically for this project. I love using fabric that I got while on a trip. The actual fabric is a little more burgandy than red.


I have the pieces cut and I am hoping to get some time to start sewing this up soon.

Thank you so much for stopping by. Have a great day!

Until next time...

Road Trip: Denver, Colorado

Next on our route was Ft. Collins, Colorado to see my husbands family. As usual we took some day trips down to Denver to do stuff with the kids. Naturally one of my favorite stops was Denver Fabrics. I got quite a few nice fabrics. Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures. I was too busy fondling fabric to remember pictures.

We took the kids to a few fun places. Most of which we had been to before but had so much fun we made sure we did them again.

Overlooking Denver from the foothills

1. Denver Children's Museum

We visit this museum every time we are in Denver. When our kids were younger they LOVED the downstairs young child exhibit. This area was so much fun. There was a tree with all the things need to play house. There was costumes, a boat that rocked, and many other things I cannot remember. My kids were very disappointed that they were all over the age limit of 4 (I think) for this area. There was still plenty for them to do. There is a nice fire truck exhibit where my boys dressed up like firemen and pretended to fight fires.

We spent most of our time upstairs. I tried to get my kids into the art area but they weren't interested. They wanted to go to the invention area. This area has a bunch of cubbies with an assortment of tools. The children take recycled materials and can fashion them into anything they want. They do have some idea sheets to give ideas but the children are free to do whatever they want. My children started to make some things but were really just interested in sawing wood.
The next area my children loved (and remembered from the last time they were there 3 years ago) was the grocery store/diner. They loved shopping for groceries with their little carts, buying them from each other at the cash register and putting them back. They also really enjoyed taking orders and making food for mom and dad.


They spent some time at the small basketball court shooting baskets. Their other favorite area was an animal habitat playscape. They put on different animal costumes and then ran around up hills, through burrows, under trees, in and out of nests. This area was all about learning about different woodland animals' habitats, food and predators. They had a blast!


2. The Butterfly Pavillion

My husband and I had been to the Butterfly Pavillion years ago before we had children. We remembered that it was quite fun so we decided to take the kids. It was judged great by 2 out of 3 children. We didn't know that our oldest son would be terrified of the butterflies.

The first stop is a really neat room that has all kinds of different bugs. There was so many to explore that we do not get a chance to see. Seeing all the different ways that bugs camoflage themselves was fascinating.

The next room had some ocean creatures. The kids loved touching some starfish.

After the ocean room you can go into the butterfly pavillion. I LOVED this part. It is so fantastic! It is a beautiful pavillion full of trees, plants, flowers and of course butterflies. Butterflies from all over the world, in so many different beautiful colors fly everywhere. My daughter tried very hard to get one to land on her. This was so much fun!


The last room at the butterfly pavillion is a fun area for kids to climb, and play and learn more about different bugs. They also have hundreds of real (but dead) bugs and butterflies behind glass so you can get a close up look.


3. Hammond's Candies (featured on HGTV "How's It Made")

We toured this candy company a couple of years ago and wanted to go back again with my husbands family and when my children were a little older and could enjoy it a bit more. This is a fun step back in time. They make old fashioned candy with old fashioned methods on old fasioned machines. They make ribbon candy on a little contraption that is over 100 years old. This picture shows how they aerate the candy before it is shaped into candy canes and lollipops. This is a fast tour but it is fun to watch (and it's something free).

Of course the trip isn't complete without a stop in the candy store. :)


4. Red Rocks Park and Ampitheater


We decided to go to see Red Rocks as we were driving by on the highway. We were headed to Denver Fabrics so we decided to go after (couldn't take away any precious shopping time since they were going to close soon). I didn't really know what to expect. It was fascinating. The rock formations were beautiful. There are some hiking trails through the area but we unfortunately didn't have time to hike them. We drove up to the ampitheater but couldn't actually go in and see it because they were getting ready for a punk rock concert. We walked down a path from the top around the side to the bottom of the ampitheater where we could see in a bit. It was quite an amazing sight! In the picture you can kind of see the rows of stairs. These are the seats that look down onto the stage. The stage is backed by a huge rock as well as the sides. The rock formations make a natural ampitheater. It was really fun to see. I think going to a concert there would be awesome. Oh, here is a cool picture of part of the road up to the ampitheater.


I didn't really intend for these posts to become a long travel guide. Well, I hope this helps someone out there with a little trip planning. There are so many other fun things to do in Denver. These were just the ones we hit on this trip. Next time we are going to plan ahead to go on a tour of the Denver Mint. I think that would be really fun.

Hopefully my next post will involve some crafting.

Thank you so much for stopping by. Have a great day!

Until next time...

Road Trip: Omaha, Nebraska

I have been sewing but don't really have any pictures to show. So I thought I would show you some pictures from our road trip earlier this summer.

We flew to Minneapolis where we began our adventure. We stayed the night near the airport and managed to make it back to the airport to get our rental car before noon. We didn't reserve a minivan ahead of time because they were soooo expensive. We were praying that we would be able to upgrade when we got there. Every other trip they always asked if we wanted to upgrade so we were hoping they would do it again. God provided and were were able to get a minvan. This was a very good thing because I don't think my husband would have made it through this trip in one piece if we had to be in a car with three kids in the back seat together.

So we left Minneapolis and headed to see my brother and his family in Omaha, NE. We made it in one piece in about 6 hours. We got to visit that night and go to Famous Dave's BBQ. We had been told over and over how great this restaurant was but now we finally got to see for ourselves. It was good. :) The next day we went to the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha. OH MY GOODNESS!!! This zoo was AWESOME! I have been to a few zoos and this is by far my favorite. I liked it even better than the San Diego Zoo. They have some of the most fantastic exhibits. As you walk in you see this great big dome. It was the desert dome and it was AMAZING!

Inside the dome you walked around the large mountain looking at different birds and animals. You surroundings were just like in a desert with sand, and desert plants and flowers. After you fininshed in the top (which was hot like the desert too) you went downstairs. All I can say is WOW! First you go inside the mountain into the bat caves. There were so many different kinds of bats. Then you walk into a bayou. Literally a bayou. You walk on raised wooden walkways over the water in which alligators and other animals live. They have sunken boats, a run down shack, and plants to make it look so real.

This zoo is half inside and half outside. They had so many neat exhibits I can't remember them all. The other one I really remember is the rainforest. It was EXACTLY what you would think a rainforest would look and feel like. The even had a fun rope bridge to walk over and hidden paths to higher lookouts.


Somewhere in one of the building was a bunch of monkey exhibits. The gorilla one was really fun. They had these bubbles so you could see better. There was even a tunnel you could go through that came up under the exhibit so that you were kind of in the middle with a bubble over your head. It was really fun.



This was such a fun trip to the zoo. I would love to go again. Someday we will get back there to visit my brother and a trip to the zoo will definitely be in the plans.

Hope you have a great day! Thanks for stopping by.

Until next time...

What have I been up to this summer?

This...


And this...



And this...


And this...



While watching this...

This...


This...


And waiting for this...


And this doesn't even include pictures from our little over two week driving trip to Minnesota, Nebraska, Colorado, and South Dakota. What a busy summer!!!

Hope you are having a great summer too!

Until next time...