Give away!

Is that right? Is it give away, give-away, or giveaway? Regardless, I'm having one.

Occasion? My sister had a baby! I'm so excited for her and trying to figure out what to get her now that I know it's a boy. I love giving gifts to family and friends and I thought, I should give to the blog-o-shpere too.

So, here's the scoop. I'm offering one of the four Melly & Me stuffee sewing patterns shown above. You choose which on you would like. Leave a comment here (one per person, please) before Wednesday, 6 pm eastern time, telling me which pattern you would like and what you usually give for baby gifts. I need ideas. Something unusual. I'll randomly pick the winner. Yeah! I've never done this before here.

Pass on the word. Let's get as many entries as possible to make this a little more interesting.

Go!

Green Jeans is in the house!

Green Jeans, our latest Etsy shop is open!!! The idea for the shop started last spring when my girls and I were working on a few things to donate to a fundraiser. I was cutting off some holey jeans for one of the girls and thought that the cut off leg would make a great skirt for a doll, so I made several for the sale. One of the girls suggested that we should sell some on Etsy, so here we are. Most of the items in the shop were discovered by accident. Some may be made from patterns. Most will be made from recycled, thrifted, or vintage materials. An item or two may be totally new. All of the items will be handmade by me. I have some examples to show you.

Above is a Denim skirt upcycled from a pair of jeans and appliqued with some Heather Bailey Nicey Jane. Peasant top is made from some Nicey Jane scraps.

Here's another skirt upcycled from a denim leg with a Nicey Jane ruffle.

This is a bib made from a thrifted "the Doors" t-shirt. The back of the bib is white terry cloth. Isn't that so stinkin' cool?

This Brown bib is made from a thrifted pacman t-shirt. The back of this one is brown terry cloth. Dang!

We stumbled upon these by accident one crafty afternoon. I was working on a tote bag for the fundraiser and made the straps too long. Beezer saw the leftovers and asked if we had any velcro. She made herself a bangle. We're making them more finished now and using metal snaps with pearl accents on them.

We're calling them Wrap-n-snaps. That was TT's idea. She's made a million for her friends. They all love them. They're machine washable and the more you wash and wear, the more comfortable they are. We're making child and adult sizes. I'd say they're a little more earth-friendly than those silly bands that are sweeping the nation (and my house).

We've got more ideas brewing. I'll let you see them first, all 2 or 3 of you. ;)

until then,

hilltopmom

Summer Pattern Sale!

Pattern Patti is have a summer clearance sale. All patterns are $10 plus shipping. Good deal on Modkid Boutique, Melly & Me, and Pink Fig. Run on over there and check it out. Now!

Also, Green Jeans is getting closer and closer to opening. I'll tip you off when it happens.

later,

hilltopmom

Rock stars and Barbie

Our family was just recently given a membership to the Indianapolis Children's Museum. If you are ever in Indy, you must visit our museum. It is a fantastic place. They do such a great job of bringing in new, exciting exhibits as well as maintaining older ones. A couple of them have been there since I was a kid.

The Dinosphere is only a few years old, but is a permanent exhibit. Very interactive and hands on and very visually pleasing. They even have paleontologists on site and sponsor digs every summer in the west.

We got to see a couple of the temporary exhibits for the first time. Rock stars, cars & guitars is one of them. Check out the pics. They actually had guitars and cars that belonged to rock stars, as well as memorabilia. As always, there were things to do. They had a sound booth fill with Playstation Rock Band instruments that the kids could play. They got to pretend they were recording. There was a station where you could create your own album cover and email it to someone.


This car belonged to David Lee Roth.

I can't remember who this one belonged to. See the Kiss figures behind?

When I was little, I was so afraid of them. I thought my aunt was crazy for going to one of their concerts. She didn't seem to be frightened, though.


This jacket belonged to Johnny Cougar. Oh, sorry. It's John Mellencamp now. I'll always remember him as Johnny Cougar. You see, he's from the town I grew up in, Seymour, Indiana.


Look! It's Mellencamp's original draft of Smalltown. Yep, that's my town. I actually had a t-shirt when I was in middle school that said, I'm from THE smalltown. Can you believe it?

King of Pop and King of Rock were represented.

This belonged to Mr. Presley.

This is only part of the extremely cool wall of guitars belonging to all sorts of rockers. A lot of them were from Cheap Trick. There were also some from Roy Orbison, Kiss, Elvis and I think Johnny Cash. Lots of others I can't remember. I'm getting old. Dangit!

Well, I think I'm going to have to save the equally cool Barbie pics for another time. I may have lost you already.

How about an announcement before I sign off? The girls and I have been working away on getting our Green Jeans shop stocked up. I really hope to get it open by the end of the week.

I'll give you a tour of the shop soon.

until then,
hilltopmom

Well, I've done it again

It's like I'm some sort of cyberspace gypsy. I just can't find a home that I like, so I hop from town to town, from url to blog to blog. I hope that blogger can be where I squat. It's like I'm moving west and claiming territory for myself. The terrain here seems to be better for my family. Maybe I can make a go of it in these parts. Now I just have to make sure everyone has my new address.

If you're new to House on Hilltop, read my about page. You can also read my previous posts at my old wordpress home as well as Pattern Patti's wordpress home. I know, I'm a gypsy. Well, no more. I've turned over a new leaf. I'm staying here. Unless, of course, I get so wildly popular and sell so many photo mats, sewing patterns, and re-purposed treasures, that it only makes sense to have my own real web-site with a built in store. Shoot, I'd have to move on then. But, until that happens, I'm here. Thanks for reading. My main reason for being here is to promote my etsy shops, make extra money for my family, maybe save for 4 college educations or 4 weddings. Wanna help? Click some of those links.
hilltopmom