Girl! you better work!

"You better work! [covergirl] Work it girl! [give a twirl] Do your thing . . . on the runway." LOL!!!That's my favorite "supermodel" song. Whenever I have helped with fashion local fashion shows or just need a good strutting song while I'm donig busy work around my house - that's always a favorite.


And I thought bringing up that song up would be appropriate while I shared some of these fun photos of my first time in front of the camera back in April. I was cleaning out my inbox last night and found all these pictures and I realized I hadn't shared them on my blog yet. Miss G and Miss P were all ready to with their "poses" and they made me look good in the photoshoot. (wink) It was so fun for me to get to be in the pictures with these cuties both sporting a pair of my Shaggy Mosaic Jeans.

of course thanks to Susan - who took the photos. You can see more of her incredible work on her blog - Dandelions and Daisies. I have to laugh at the photos because that was like 3 or 4 haircuts ago????? LOL!!! *sigh* oh me and my everchanging hairstyles!

and if any women out there feel like getting their groove on and struttin' I have just listed a pair of my Shaggy Mosaic Jeans - with 3 different color/design options. You choose! They are sure to put you in the Supermodel mood!

Creative Blogger

A big thanks to Bobbie of MadieJane Blog for awarding me a "Creative Blogger Award". It was nice to read her sweet comments and I'm glad she enjoys my blog and other crazy ideas, photos, etc that get posted here.

The award is given to those "who bring unique and creative elements to their blogs. For those who incorporate art, music, creative writing, photo's, and other beautiful visual effects into their website. For those who put a unique spin on things and come up with new ideas. This award is for the artsy, the funky, the inventor, and even the rebel. This award is for those creative individuals who stand out from the crowd."

Now I get to "pay it forward" per say, and award a few blogs a Creative Blogger Award as well.

and the winners are..........................well there really could be many winners but I've narrowed down a few who hopefully haven't already received this award.

Creative Blogs - does the name say enough? I love reading her blog! She seeks out and spotlights other's creativity from all different aspects of the "creative" wheel. I love when you can see people unselfishly supporting others and she does just that by bringing these blogs some extra attention and traffic.

Heather Bullard's Past Present Collection Blog is simply a treat for the eyes. She has s talent for seeing the beauty in something and creating gorgeous collections. Her photos transport you to any time and/or feeling. *sigh* It's just good for the soul to take a minute and stroll around here each day.

and another daily dose of inspiration is the Absolutely Beautiful Things Blog. Her blog is a record of things that inspire her, her own personal work, and gorgeous images. It's wonderful resource of inspiration in color, design and just fun to see what she comes up with next to design or share.

congratulations ladies and thank you again for sharing your creativity with the blogging world. Be sure to check out the blogs I have listed and leave them a comment if you like! We just love comments (wink)

Good things to come.......

Don't you just love sneak peeks? 2 new outfits coming soon and great for back to school and the upcoming fall season! Back to the sewing room now!

Create your own coloring pages

I have recently seen a few spotlights on sites that create custom coloring pages and even a tutorial on how to do your own in photoshop on the Craft Magazine blog. I don't have photoshop but I still wanted to be able to create some fun coloring pages using pictures of my kids and other shots we have captured so I started tinkering around in irfranview which is a program I use to quickly resize pictures, fix the color, etc. I use it all the time and it was is free to download too. I discovered it was very quick and easy to create my own coloring pages using this program and I wanted to share a short HOW-TO tutorial with you.

Custom coloring pages

Step 1: open up your photo in irfanview and resize the photo if necessary. Click on the "image" botton at the top and then click on the "convert to greyscale" button. This makes your photo black and white.

Step 2: Click the image button again and put your mouse on the word "effects". This will bring up a pop up box off to the side. You will then want to click on "edge detection."
Step 3: Back to the image button - (we are quite familiar with this one now - LOL) and click on the word "negative" to apply that effect to your picture.
Step 4: You now have a custom personalized coloring page! It can easily be copied (ctrl button + the "c" button) and pasted into word. There you can resize it if necessary and print! If you would like your coloring lines to be darker please follow the next steps.
Step 5: To darken the coloring outlines Ist click on the image button and click on "enhance colors" This will bring up a box. You can darken your lines but dragging the tab in the gamma correction section to the left. (pictured as 2nd) This will darken your lines but may also add some shadow or graying to your coloring page. To lighten this shadowy color drag the tab in the contrast section to the right until you achieve the look you want. (pictured as 3rd) click the OK button to apply these changes to your page Step 6: You now have darker coloring lines and can copy, paste and print your coloring page! (see the coloring page in step 4 to contrast the look of the lighter lines and darker lines) Now break out those crayons and get to coloring!

The Craze

Anyone else have a countdown for the debut of High School Musical 2!?! LOL!!! We are pretty excited around here! My daughter and well..........son for the that matter, both enjoy HSM. It's a great movie to watch if you want to sing and dance the whole time so I can only imagine how much fun #2 will be for them. I recently picked up the People Magazines special collections edition for High School Musical 2 for our road trip for my daughter. I figured that could be hours of entertainment for her. It comes with a poster of Zac Efron - Troy Bolton in the movie - which my daughter was very excited about so the other day we pulled out her magazine and decided that one poster just wasn't enough. Why not cut up the whole magazine! She had the blank wall space and really want to take on this project by herself but soon realized that she'd need a bit of help with the tape and some of the cutting so she didn't wreck any of the pictures. *gasp* I agreed to help her but she also made sure I knew that she didn't want to "too" much help. (wink) I did the cutting only on the pictures "SHE" wanted and applying the tape loops to the back. She then hung all the pictures without any direction from me. And I must say I was very surprised and pleased how the whole arrangement turned out. She actually had some rhyme and reason to it!



Yes her walls are a pink giving everything in her room a....................uh........healthy glow?? LOL!!! So from a simple magazine came a fun mother daughter project and the satisfaction of a job well done.

SPC ~ week 3 ~ water

I missed posting a Self Portrait Challenge picture last week because we were gone. July's Challenge is capturing yourself in the elements - water, earth, air and fire. So does it count if the water or stream is man made? I guess so! Just an informal picture captured at sunset at my little sisters house in her backyard. We'll find out soon what they have in store for next month!

Mary, Mary quite contray.....................

How does your garden grow? Here's a few photos from what's growing in my garden this year. I thought I would share the bright, beautiful, vivid colors this Monday. The Flower box right now that my children planted seems to be much more eye catching then our other garden boxes. Our leaf lettuce is taking off and the zucchini is starting to produce more than we can keep up with! LOL!!! We can't wait for the cucumbers to start coming on and this fall we will really enjoy the mini pumpkins scattered around the house adding to the seasonal decor. If you look closely enough you'll even catch the bee in the flowers. Enjoy your Monday.

YCMT - LIVE!!!!

Exciting news for the do it yourself type today! The popular website YouCanMakeThis.com has just launched their new look and LOTS of new features too!!!

Kim, the owner of the site, is such an amazing woman. I had the pleasure of
meeting her at the Boutiquecafe Girls Getaway in April. She is a woman with a vision, very talented and just the sweetest woman you could ever want to me! She even made me a "queen of chat" pillow as a thank you gift for the getaway weekend - which you can make your own name pillow by searching for ebook on her site! Kim has even set up a video TOUR of how to navigate the new site and also highlights some great new features! And if you hadn't heard yet - YCMT TV is coming soon as well! Very exciting for Kim and I couldn't be happier for her!

I was checking out the newly re-designed site this morning when I spotted a
fun picture in the "I made this" section. A place for ebook customers to share their creations/testimonials from the ebooks they have purchased and I spotted a pair of jeans made from my "decoupage jeans ebook" Here is what she had to say about buying my ebook: "I followed Creative Outlet's ebook, and I'm just thrilled with how they came out! The doll is only 16" tall, so the jeans are less that a foot! Even on such a tiny scale, Megan's techniques and tips worked perfectly".- Carla C.

I was thrilled when I saw her photo and was able to see how Darling the jeans turned out on such a small scale! Great job Carla!!!! Now if my daughter sees that she'll be wanting some for her 3 ft doll as well! LOL!!!

Hurry on over to the new YoucanMakeThis Site today and you can also visit their BLOG where they are giving out some prizes as well!

Gathering on the Ranch

4 days on the mountain does a family good. We attended a family reunion on my husbands side recently and got to play with and love on almost 90 relatives for 4 days. My assignment for the week was to be the "photographer." I had to captured at least one family shot of each family that attended and then capture some of the moments from all the activities during the week. It was a bigger job than I thought it would be. I created a collage of some snapshots of my family and few I managed I actually be in front of the camera. The one in the upper left corner is what I pretty much looked like the whole reunion - behind the lens. (wink) I also got to ride a horse for the very first time. Very fun for me - just call me city slicker! LOL!!! All in all a very good time.Here's a few more artistic shots I was able to capture this week as well taking in our surroundings and activities.






And just because you are in the mountains doesn't mean you can't still be fashionable while cooking right? One of my Husbands Aunt's received this Cherry Hostess apron I created as a gift for helping out with some other activities and prizes during the week. Isn't she so cute! She has a barbie like figure and looked so chic while getting the food ready!

Back into the swing of things!

Yeah! I'm back to my "real life" and already back in the the swing of things. I have a lots of laundry to do, emails and snail mail to go through - but that's typical! LOL!!!

The family reunion was fun and I got to go horseback riding for the first time. My husband has all the photos on his laptop as we emptied the 2 memory cards we had for the cameras at the end of each night to make sure we had room for the next days snapshots. We have SOOOOOO many pictures! LOL!!! So I'll share some photos possibly soon - if you want to see any.

But like I said - back to work for me! For those that don't know, outside of being a mommy and designing I also work at Boutiquecafe - a "podcast for fashion savvy mommies and so much more." I am now helping out with the podcasts more and have been given the new assignment of reporting the Boutique news!
It's fun to announce new ebay group launches, the launch of a new site or great sale or fun crafting event. If you have boutique news you would like to share with ALL of the listeners on Boutiquecafe - send me an email to - megan@boutiquecafe.com. We will try our best to get it included in that segment for you.

I also search out fabulous accessories and fashionable wardrobe pieces for the "BC finds" section. Daria - the host and owner - and I post amazing shoes, jewerly, outfits, aprons, etc for children and adults that we find on ebay and etsy. You can find something new, fun and fresh everyday in the BC finds! and hey, if you come across something great that you think deserves a bit of extra exposure send it my way - we just might feature it on the site!

OH Ty!!!??!!! come out come out wherever you are!

We just heard last night that Extreme Makeover Home Edition was doing a house in a nearby town just 30mins away. I guess that's what you get for not watching the news! I am sure everyone else already knew! ;) Anyway, not being able to pass up the chance to see it all in action and possibly catch a glimpse of any of the designers or the famous Ty Pennington we headed out in the 100 degree weather for a once in a life time opportunity!

They don't let anyone near the area where they are working so they bused everyone in from the local high school. We can't park and walk - they won't let you - so you just patiently wait in the line to get on the bus. It's quite an undertaking. I mean, we all know demolishing a house and re-building one in 7 days is AMAZING but to be on site and see it all and how much equipment, tents, PEOPLE, cars, trailers, etc around and how much progress they make from day to day - it really is quite an undertaking!

Unfortunately we didn't get to see of the designers from the show and I heard through the grapevine the TY wasn't even there today - he was in Oregon retaping something. So who knows! Still amazing to be there and see all the volunteers and hear the family's story. They handed out cold water and t-shirts to the crowd now and then and made announcements about accomplishments that crew had made. They will have the house up and roof on by tonight. Amazing! Sadly, we will be out of town when the BIG "MOVE THAT BUS!" day happens so I guess we will wait for the show to air to really get to see the house and the family.

And as I mentioned above we are heading out of town for a few days so I thought I would leave you with a few new goodies to look at that I have been working on. The first one is a NEW apron pattern I created done in the Chocolate Lollipop Fabric and the second one was a custom order so if she's looking she'll get a sneak peek of how it turned out before it arrives to her in the mail. Enjoy your weekend! See you next week!

My hat goes off to you

Ok! I get it. I knew photography was work - I mean isn't any job we do??? right? and I've done photoshoots of my own kids and/or outfits before BUT this was a whole new experience. A neighbor called me earlier this week and asked if I could take pictures of her kids and their cousins, 6 children in all, for them. I literally laughed out loud on the phone to her! LOL!!! They really wanted to try not going to a studio and they thought having someone different than their own mothers telling the kids to smile might help. So...............I agreed. I figured it would be good experience and I wanted to help her out as well.

Besides a thunderstorm rolling in, a brief but heavy downpour, air very thick and hot we could almost bottle it up, a 18month old that did NOT want to let go of his mother and 3 boys that wanted to look everywhere BUT at the camera - it was fine! LOL!!! They really were good and we all - meaning me, 3 mothers and a grandmother - did out best to rally them together as long as we could.

All in all the photoshoot was a lot of work and I left with a new appreciation for all you talented men and women who do this for a living, (Susan, Carrie, Nikki, Melissa and others) and made a note to self not to wear my favorite khaki color slacks again when shooting outside - never know when you have to kneel down on wet grass or practically lay on your stomach to "get the shot." *sigh* There's so much left for me to learn! But grateful that she asked me and I *hope* I helped them out and gave them some shots they all will like. I think I will stick to shooting for friends and family for now. Here's a few of my favorites to share with you

Inquiring minds....................

LOL!!! I've had many requests to post picture of my new "DO". If I posted pictures everytime I redid my hair that's all my blog would be about! *snicker* Plus in about 4 weeks the color will be redone and the cut will get "shaped" up again. So basically my hair is always changing and I'm always playing around with my hairstyles - sleek, curly, wavy, teased, swept to the other side, flipped out, etc. It's like it's own chameleon! LOL!!
This time I had my hairstylist take off everything from behind my ears and stack it up. I love layers! We left some pieces long in the front and I have just enough of my blond highlights left that it really showcases all the choppy layers and how fun the cut really is. So no more "up-dos" for me for while. It's about as up as it can get it and as short as I've ever had it. So all you inquiring minds who wanted to see - I hope it was worth it. ;)

Say what???

I get a big kick out of some of the search terms people use that bring them to my blog. LOL!!! Some are quite hilarious. Take for example this one - "Daria's high heeled pictures." Not sure who or what they were looking for but it brought a few hits to my blog. Don't think they found what they really wanted though - wink. I've gotten several hits from people searching for haircut pictures like - "rockstar haircut, short hairdos", etc. And on that note - I've cut my hair yet AGAIN! Yes I love to change it up every 4-6 weeks. Different style, cut, color, etc. So I will have more pictures to share after I take a few days to play around with it and that will probably just bring a few more hits from "odd" hairstyle search terms.


anyone thinking Halloween? I have spotted a halloween resell of mine. An adorable appliqued denim jumper. The auction ends in a few days so you'll have to be quick on this one! Click HERE to see the auction.