Printable Give-Away Winner!

The contest has closed for the first give-away in my 3-part series!  I had the random number generator at random.org select a number for me:

And commenter number 5 was...Kelly!

Congratulations, Kelly!  You have one year from today to redeem your free printable design.  Contact me via e-mail when you're ready to start, we'll get your design put together!  

Stay tuned to The Green World, I'll be announcing give-away number two on Monday!

Beachy Things

We finally made it to the beach last weekend.  (I say 'finally', but really, we're way ahead of the game compared to last year.)  Elora asked us Friday if we could go to the beach "to get a shell for Mama", and we said, sure, we'll go on Sunday.  She then spent the next 48 hours asking, is it Sunday yet?  And when it finally was Sunday, the question changed to, is it time to go to the beach yet?  We got a later start than intended (we always do) but we did make it out there.

Did you notice that Elora isn't wearing a swim diaper under her suit?   She is DONE with diapers of all kinds, even at night and out and about!

Unfortunately, we were there right around lunch time and the sun was pretty intense.  We were all  wearing SPF 85 sunscreen, but we still got some sun.  

We did stay for about 2 hours.  Brandon and Elora were in and out of the water or playing in the sand the whole time.  Kaylie and I just stood in the surf, played in the sand, and had a snack.  (Elora was too busy playing to eat a snack.)  I wish I'd gotten more photos, like of the wall and pool that I built between Kaylie and the water so that the waves wouldn't get her, since she liked the sand but not the random waves.  They'd just wash against the wall and fill the pool.  We ended up with a few other kids playing with us, scooping out sand, and looking for periwinkles and sand fleas.  But we were too busy having fun to bother with the camera.  We did get a family photo, or at least, we tried. 

We had another beach-goer take some pictures of us all together, but one of us (me or her) managed to bump the aperture dial and it was turned waaaaaay too low. This is as much detail as I could get out of it.  It's kind of a neat picture, though.

And yes, that goofy picture on the left was the best shot of the front.

Saturday night I up and decided that I had to have a new swimsuit cover-up.  I still had my Anna Maria Horner Little Folks viole squirreled away, so I dug it out and went to work.  I didn't use a pattern, or even a tutorial, I just made it up as I went.   It's shirred around the high waist, and the bodice (such as it is) is made from 2 triangles, gathered at top and bottom. It took me 3 tries to get the bodice pieces right, and two tries to attach the straps, but it turned out ok and I even have enough fabric left to make another little sundress, one that can be worn to places other than the pool or the beach.  

PS:  Don't forget about the giveaway!  You have until tomorrow to win a custom designed printable of your choice from The Green World Shop!

Custom Printable Give-Away! (Closed)

I have spent much of the last few days working on the Shop.  I now have 5 birth announcement designs available in the shop, and they're all completely customize-able.

I started out doing just classic pastels and only a handful of fonts, but those got boring.  Fast.  So I started thinking about the colors that are hot right now in fashion and design.  This is my new color palette:

And I expanded my offering of fonts, double-checking the licencing on all of them:

And then of course I had to start plugging the new colors into my designs.  These are my favorites:

I don't know about you, but I am digging those bold colors.

And now that I have your attention, to the give-away!  Next Friday, one week from today, I'll be giving away a free custom announcement design!  Here are the rules:

1. To enter, you must leave a comment on this post.  Up to three more entries may be gained by following this blog, sharing a link to this contest on your own blog (snag the give-away banner!), and/or "liking" my page on Facebook.  Please leave a separate comment for each entry, andindicate what it's for (FB, following, etc.).
2. The contest will close at midnight eastern standard time on Friday, July 20, 2012.
3. This contest is for the design only.  The winner/recipient will receive a high-quality digital file, and will be responsible for printing his or her own invitations.
4. The prize "announcement" can be made from any of the templates available in The Green World Shop, and can be customized any way the winner wishes, including making it into something other than an announcement.
5. The prize does not have to be redeemed now, but can be redeemed at any time in the next 12 months.

That's all I can think of now, so hopefully that covers all the bases.  Good luck, and thanks for your help in promoting my 'new' shop!

The Green World Shop Is Open!

I'm officially back in business!  Along with my jewelry, I've also added something new: custom printable birth announcements!  I turned Rebekah's announcement into a template:  

 So far, I only have the one design up, but more are on the way, along with some other goodies that I have in various stages of completion.  Some are just waiting to be photographed and posted.

Old Sheets into New Dress

The other reason for the Father's Day photo shoot was to get some pictures of Elora's new dress.  I had an old, old pink-and-orange-on-white striped sheet that's been around for as long as I can remember.  It was so old that when I took it apart, I didn't even have to bother with the seam ripper, I just pulled it apart with my hands.  It was stained and paint spattered, and until recently, had lived in my beach bag.  For whatever reason, I decided it would make a cute dress.  

I used the body of the printed sheet for the body of the dress, the trim from across that sheet for the straps, belt, belt loops, and bottom trim, and a flat sheet from the thrift store to line it. I started with Corinnea's recipe (did you ever post that tutorial?) for a simple shirred dress, but instead of doing front and back panels, I sewed it all into a tube and shirred it all together in a continuous spiral.  This went much faster, and wasted a LOT less thread that the way I'd done it in the past.

Kaylie's wearing the dress that I made for Elora last year.

The sheet I used for lining was a bit heavy, so I think I will try something else for that, next time. I'll for sure be making more of these, they're so fun!  If I can find Corinnea's little tutorial, I'll try to post it.  :)

What's In A Name?

The results of my shop-renaming-poll were split down the middle, and I came down on the "shop" side, so that's what I'm going with.  It's simple, clean, easy to remember.  When I get all of my info updated, and all of my current stock photographed and listed, I'll be officially re-opening the shop.  You can look forward to another give-away, and some awesome sale prices--I want to move this stuff out!

Renaming the Shop

I've decided to change the name of my shop, so that it coordinates with the names of my blog.  And then, I might actually re-open the shop!  Wouldn't that be nice?

Anyway, my options are Green World Shop or Green World Boutique, and as usual, I can't make up my own mind.  So, I've created a poll (at the top left of my blog) to get an idea of what everyone else thinks.  So, if you haven't already, please vote! 

PS: To the people who suggested that I do this when I first asked for shop name suggestions, you may now chuckle, and say 'I told you so'.