Bad eBay Seller: nikfine

DO NOT PURCHASE anything from this seller. I don't know how this seller got the feedback he/she did, but they are fraudulent.

I purchased a pair of shoes (I thought) on THIS sale, which clearly shows, in THREE pictures, a white shoe with a buckle. I purchased these because I needed a buckle shoe specifically.

What arrived instead were these:

I'm so unhappy with these shoes. First off, when these arrived, and Doug handed me the package, a HUGE cloud of cigarette smoke came with it!! I had NO idea what could be in there, and then I saw the label, and was excited to get Aldous' shoes. NOPE!!!

Instead were these hideous Easter-parade-gone-wrong lace-up shoes, and yes, the laces are as yellowed in real life as they are in the picture.

These shoes are SO cheap!! They are those thin plastic-y shoes you pay $5 at Payless of something from a hang-rack. The soles are impossible: they're thin hard slippery plastic! They are obviously cheap shoes. And they were $15 plus shipping!! ACK!! So $20-ish.

I notify the seller immediately, saying I want the proper shoe shipped priority to so I would have for Saturday, and the only offer I get is for me to return the shoe and get a refund. She/He flat our refused to ship me the proper shoe!!! I doubt they even HAVE these shoes, and I reported them to eBay.

In the meantime, I can either return these for a full refund, or use them. The idea of taking both boys around shopping for shoes appalls me, which is why I bought from eBay in the first place. UGGG!!!

FWIW, when I sell stuff, if I send the wrong thing, I send the proper one as soon as I know, whether you've returned the original item or not. I would prefer to lose money than to get bad feedback and lose a future costumer. But I guess that's just me, and I'm not trying to rip people off.

Monday is sewing day!!!

Every Monday, William goes to Kidztime to socialize and Terah and I spend the morning sewing! She's currently working on a dress from Ottobre.

Here is a rather annoyed William modeling yesterday's shirt. :) It fits perfectly!!!



Three more shirts for William, today! These were a bit more complicated than yesterday's but only a bit. These are all from Kwik Sew's Sewing for Toddlers book. First, the owl hoodie!!


Next, the weird fabric from Golden D'or shirt!! This stuff is very spandex-y


And a green raglan sleeve tee. Doug has a short-sleeved shirt just like this.



That's all for today. I have Oprah goes-to-the-State-Fair-of-Texas to watch!!

The Sunday of shirts and an air show.

Tee Shirt Sunday

Today I whipped up a bunch of long sleeved tees for William, who is woefully lacking of cooler-weather clothing. These tees are easy-peasy and I have a few raglans lined up for tomorrow. These are Kwik Sew for Toddlers. William wears a 3T in KSFT, but I have to buy a 4T ready-to-wear, go figure.


Today I also made this shirt for Doug, for swimming. I call it a swimsuit top, but I'm sure there is better name for a man's shirt....anyway, it's Kwik Sew 2881. I measured his back/waist length and made it according to the right size but I think it could really be a bit longer. Otherwise, it fits great. He likes it. He need a shirt like this for swimming at the YMCA with William. They keep the indoor pool area a bit cool, for some reason.


This past week I had a bunch of sewing to do: here's just a bit of it.
Two pairs of pajamas in Thomas the Train fabric. I mostly made up the top, but the pattern for the pants is Kwik Sew for Toddlers, except I added two inches to the length, cut it off, added a bit of the opposite color for trim, folded it in half, then sewed back on.




And a sheep dress, with fancy sheep buttons. Bodice and sleeves are Kwik Sew for Toddlers, with about 6 inches in length taken off the bottom of the bodice. I also added 1" to the sleeve length to bind it, rather than make a ribbing cuff.




Fort Worth Alliance Air Show

Doug took William to check out the air show for a couple hours, which explains all of the sewing that I finished today. William had a great time, but was scared by some of the louder planes. It was Doug's first air show and he really LOVED it!!





He's inspecting this wheel pretty closely.


Taking a picture of Doug taking a picture of him (with his invisible camera, of course)


Cutie-patootie posing !!

KAMsnaps.com REVIEW and new jackets for the boys.

KAMsnaps.com rocks!!

Big raves for Judy at KAMsnaps.com for her fantastic costumer service. I checked out some super snaps on her website for my kids' winter jackets, sewed them up, and when I went back to order them, one of the kind I needed wasn't on the site anymore!!!

Talk about a panic!!! I HAD to have those snaps!! I emailed right then and there to ask what was up, at 9pm mind you, and she replied immediately.

Not only did she hook me up with the snaps I was searching for, she shipped the order out the next day!! I had my order SO quickly, for a good price and with a smile on my face, to boot!!! Thanks, Judy!!!

That's not the only time I've emailed with questions and gotten a quick response back, but that sure was AWESOME customer service. I would recommend shopping at KAMsnaps to anyone, any day!!


The Winter Jackets

It doesn't get terrible cold here, so for the boys' winter jackets, I just went with a fleece lined with a knit. Mind you, I had never MADE a lined jacket before, nor had I applied snaps to a garment, but what the heck?? I gave it a whirl.

To learn to make a lined jacket, I made Aldous first, in the Ottobre Ghost Jacket pattern, from Ottobre 6/2007. The design called for a little ghost applique on the front, and it was serendipitous that I had chosen to line it with an Ooga Booga fabric that had monsters which look a LOT like the ghost!! So exciting!!







Anyway, it turned out well, AND I finished it off with Ooga Booga snaps, available at KAMsnaps.com.

William's jacket was a bit easier. I decided against recreating the pain in the butt elasticized sleeve cuffs and hood in the raglan sweatshirt pattern, found in the Kwik Sew for Toddlers book, the more modern version. That book of patterns is, by far, the most useful pattern purchase I have ever made. I use the pieces in that book to make just about any clothing imaginable for kids!! It's a great investment. I also have the vintage version of Kwik Sew for Toddlers, Kwik Sew for Babies, and Kwik Sew for Children, all of which are the same caliber as the one first mentioned. I DID just order Sew Beautiful Lingerie from the same company, and I'm excited for that to come!! 2 more weeks!!

Anyway, I used the patterns for the raglan sleeves, the raglan tee front and back, and the hood, plus the cuffs.
Like Aldous' jacket, William's was fleece outside and cotton knit inside. The print for the inside was airplanes, that I got from Fabric.com. They had it for one of their Daily Deals, so I got it for $2.50/yd. WOOT!! I looked at their store for it, to give a link, but they don't have any more I guess.
I constructed the jacket the same way, except for adding the ribbing cuffs, and omitting the elastic from the hood. I also lengthened the fronts and backs by two inches, to make sure it covered his hip area when standing.





I finished this with red engraved airplane snaps from KAMsnaps.com. They are SO cute, and I love having little details like that to add, just to make the things I sew EXTRA special!!! They cost very little more than plain snaps, so they're totally worth it!

Airplane snap/ blue ooga booga snap

The Texas State Fair Extravaganza!!! 2009 version

 

pumpkin carving fun!

Last night we had a great time!!! Everyone came over to carve Jack O' Lanterns for Halloween.
As usual, William helped me prepare by taste tasting the cake......





And the frosting!!! It goes without saying that I didn't mention a bite being taken out of the cake while the guests were there. :)


Here's the final cake. I made a bunch of yellow, red and orange fondant leaves and covered the frosted cake with them. It was a marble cake with chocolate frosting (in case you hadn't figured that out yet)


Look: a Halloween banner...


The stuff on the table. Probably after the sixteenth time of rearranging it because William kept moving everything to smell the candle. He kept saying "I love cannels!!"


The funny napkins and plates I found ON SALE at Target. I just can't go to Target. It's too expensive because all of these totally adorable things find their way into my cart.


Terah and William taking all the pumpkins to the front. William is wearing his awesome skull cords from Target.


Baby Audrey in her pretty dress, with t-shirt and bow from Target. ha!


We put the extra bow on Aldous...


Everybody at the table


Zachary was being strange with his candy corn. We found Carmel Corn at Target, too!!


Audrey and Aldous enjoyed each other at dinner, and Aldous kept feeding her beans.


William thought the conclusion of dinner was a good time for an Alexander smack-down.


An event is not complete with out a sexy pose from Doug.


This is Mikey's sexy pose.


here are all of our pumpkins, lined up and ready to go!!!


I think Audrey wanted to go carve her own pumpkin!


Doug and Aldous had to get the soundtrack to pumpkin carving all lined up.


William cautiously gives Terah a hand, with his spoon.




Working hard!!! Alexander is on the phone with Grandmom, who called during the festivities and managed to catch us all at the same time. Good timing!!


Ashley carving her masterpiece. Her's was nearly perfect!!


More hard work....and lots of concentration! Alexander is still talking!


Audrey wonders just what her Mommy is doing!!


Silly Terah!! Alexander is STILL talking....


Spooky pic of William!!


Look!! Punkin' Head!! well, Zachary, anyway.


The finished Jack O'Lanterns






Beautiful!!!