HOORAY!

Did you hear the news? I can hardly believe it myself! Somehow I won this season of Project Run and Play. I am quite happy and excited and feel like in the end it could have been anyone of us who started the whole thing. I loved seeing what everybody made each week and was sad when there was one less design to oooh and ahh over as somebody was out each time. I don't envy the judges at all!

Winning is fun, but what truly makes me happy is just all the love and support I have felt. You guys made it happen! And one thing I know for sure after doing this is that I have the most wonderful family and friends! Not just for voting but for everything you did for me so I could make this happen (watching my kids...editing my typos...putting up with my horribly messy house etc.)

But since I did win...I ended up with quite a haul! The organizers (Liz and Elizabeth from Simple Simon) did an amazing job of rounding up prizes! Thank you girls for all of your hard work and thank you sponsors! Check out these awesome prizes:

$100-- The Fat Quarter Shop

$100-- Five Monkeys Fabric

$100-- Children's Bookstore.com

$80-- Fabric bundle from Fabric Shoppe

12 patterns from Whimsy Couture

$50--gift basket from Pick your Plum

$50--fabric worm.com

I have maybe spent the morning perusing their sites dreaming about what I am going to get! Let me know if you have any recommendations.

This competition has really been quite consuming for the past 2 months or so. Sometimes it was stressful but overall I am so so glad I did it. I feel like in the past I have let myself get stuck not exploring ideas I had for things I wanted to make because I wasn't 100% sure how to make them happen, and felt that if I was going to do it...it had to be perfect. I'd taken part of a pattern making class but hadn't really ever gotten around to doing much with that, and though I thought in theory I could draft patterns...I wasn't totally sure. The greatest gift of this competition was freeing me from being stuck. I just didn't have time for it! I had to plow though and make it work and somehow things always, miraculously turned out how I'd imagined (if less than perfect). And now I feel like creatively, the possibilities are endless. And I know there are a lot of you out there who are interested in designing clothes too but aren't sure how, so I really want to share more about that process with you in hopes that it gives you the boost, or confidence you need.

If you have followed my blog for awhile you know that I am not always very consistent about posting, and when I do the subject matter is varied (sometimes crafts...sometimes chicken farming). I am excited to share more details of each project now that I have a little more time to do them justice, and I definitely plan on sewing more now...but I hope any of you who are new to my blog won't be disappointed that I don't post everyday! I have tons of respect for those who do...I just can't find the time! At any rate...welcome new friends. I'm glad to have you.

So some fun facts about this competition...

1. I was sewing in real time. I could have started earlier but with Christmas and family in town it just didn't happen.

2. Because of that I was still sewing every single week, right up until Thursday afternoon! And for several Thursdays the weather was dark and terrible! Luckily I have huge windows that let in light, but still it was a crazy scramble some weeks to get my sewing finished, kids in the clothes, and photos taken before the light went. And then I had to put my posts together. So if they seemed hurried and incomplete at times...they were!!

3. Taking pictures of kids can be hard...especially when you are in a crazy hurry and its raining/snowing on their heads. I might have promised them, "absolutely anything you want if you just smile!!" I hope you enjoy these outtakes. And while yes I think my kids are cute...they are certainly not always perfect little models as a few comments suggested. They are regular moody kids. I sure love their little personalities!

4. I don't know this for sure, but I have a hunch I was the last one to submit my posts each Thursday. Thank goodness for Project Runway...I think the girls were up anyway watching it so hopefully they weren't too annoyed waiting for me.

5. Those Frye boots Avery is wearing in the last look? Yeah...I bought them from endless.com just for the shoot and was planning on sending them straight back as they have a very liberal return policy. They are obscenely expensive for children's footwear but she LOVES them, so I might keep them? I don't even have boots that nice. She probably earned them though. The things we do for a cute photo.

Anyway...thanks again to everyone who followed along and voted! What an adventure this has been!

And if you have a minute check out this giveaway to benefit a sweet injured dog, passed along my one of my new readers. It'll do your heart good!

Happy Valentines Day! (I have not a single decoration up so...pretty much I'm mother of the year over here;))