Yesterday in the car, Max and I had the following discussion….
Max: Life is like Macaroni.
Me: Why is that?
Max: Because I like Macaroni.
We went down to the beach to get some shots of Max is in his new suit since he just turned 8. He gets baptized next month.
Thankfully, the suit can be washed in the washing machine, because it did not take long until he was wet up to his waist.
The life of an 8 year old boy. It does seem like a magical place at times. 
Allyson Drake, (who I like to call Queen DIY) has made this amazingly gorgeous duvet cover and has made up diagrams to show us how to do it. The girl can make anything and now she shares with us how we can too! Thanks Allyson! 
Materials:
1 Duvet (Queen or King)
4 Ikea Knoppa twin sheets
White thread
Gathering foot for sewing machine
Find HERE
Step 1: Cut Ikea Sheets:
Start by folding each sheet in half two times, hamburger style, making your fabric width easier to cut. The sides of the sheet won’t match up perfectly so we need to create a straight line, and we do this by cutting about 1-2” off one of the sides so they are all straight (you can either use a quilting ruler to square it up or use something with a right angle). The rest of your cuts should be made off of this one to ensure they are straight also. You will need to end up with ten 19” x 98” strips and four 2” x 98” strips. I recommend cutting the sheets like this:
Step 2: Attach &Gather Strips
Sew two of the 19” x 98” strips together so the total length of the 19” strips will be 196”. Do this four more times so you end up with five long strips. These will be your ruffled strips. Now, using a gathering foot and a basting stitch, gather the 196” edges of the five 19” strips until they are again 98”. Since we are using a basting stitch, you should be able to adjust the gathering by hand in order to evenly space the ruffles across the 98”. Now you’re ready to attach these to the 2” flat sheets and create your ruffled “sheet”.
Step 3: Make Your Ruffled Sheet
Pin and sew the gathered edge of a 19” x 98” strip to the edge of a 2” x 98” flat strip. Then attach the other edge of the 2” x 98” strip to the gathered side of different 19” x 98” strip. Continue this, alternating flat strip, ruffled strip, flat strip, etc. until your sheet is complete. It should look something like this:
Step 4: Dissect Duvet
We need to make some cuts on the original duvet. If you’re starting with a queen, simply leave intact the side with the closures and cut open the other 3 seams. If you have a king and are making it into a queen, you’ll need to cut it down to fit the comforter that will go inside the duvet. In my case, I cut about 6” off each side to take it from 108” to 95”, and left the original height of 94” and cut the bottom seam open like this:
Step 5: Open & Identify Sides
Open up the duvet and lay it on the ground, right sides facing up. The “wrong sides” of the duvet fabric will end up on the inside of the duvet once it’s put back together. The right side of ‘B’ will end up being the bottom of the duvet, facing the mattress. ‘A’ will be the top (and will end up being covered by the ruffled sheet). The “right side” of the ruffled sheet is the finished side and the “wrong side” is the side with all of the seam allowances. It will look something like this:
Step 6: Attach Ruffles
Now we attach the ruffled sheet to the duvet so that it will become the new top. To do this, lay the right side of the ruffled sheet facing down on side B of the duvet so that it overlaps side A and ends just below the button closure and original factory seam (mine ended about ¾” below the closure). Then pin the ruffled sheet in place in order to sew the new seam as close to the factory seam as possible. I left about ¼” between the old seam and new seam.
Step 7: Flip & Stitch
Flip the ruffled sheet over so the right side is facing up and it is lying on top of side A of the duvet. Then pin the edges of the ruffled sheet to the side and bottom edges of side A and use a basting stitch to secure it in place.
Step 8: Final Stitches
Now flip side B over so that the right side of B is facing the right side of the ruffled sheet. The wrong side of B should be facing up. Then pin and stitch the sides and bottom edges. These will be your new permanent side seams and will secure the ruffled side (A) and B together.
Step 9: Snuggle
Turn your new duvet right side out through the closure, insert comforter, and get cozy.
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What do you do when your friend says, “Hey, my Grandmother was Rose Marie Reid. My Mother has a whole closet full of her suits. She will be here for another couple of days, but then all of the suits will go into an archive. You should get some girls and do a shoot with them before she goes.” Well, I will tell you what you do, you make it happen! And that we did.
First, we went over to their house the day before the shoot to try on some of the suits. My girls had such a great time. Carole Reid Burr, who is the daughter of Rose Marie Reid, and who wrote a book about her Mother, told my girls all about the suits they were trying on. ”Oh, that one was worn by Marilyn Monroe.” Fact after fact was pouring out about these suits. History was being told. And these suits, oh what masterpieces they were. So well crafted. Each design was planned out so well to compliment a woman’s figure. They pulled out images of old stars modeling the suits. They also had posters of old advertisements. There was one model who was laying down on a diving board that looked so much like my daughter Claire. We tried to recreate it by having her lay on a surfboard, shown in the first photo. We had a 1957 red Chevy convertible lined up for the shoot but of course the one day we had to do the shoot it rained. Not just any rain, the heaviest storm we had here in Southern California for along time. So we were stuck indoors. Which turned out to be so fun! I’m glad we did stay indoors. I feel like the pictures show off the details of the suits better then if we had gone to an outdoor location.
This green suit with the buttons is the style that Marilyn Monroe wore. I loved hearing about Rose Marie Reid. Her accomplishments were great. Her design was flawless. Her suits are timeless. The suits the girls were trying on were created from the 1930′s-1960′s. My teens were saying, “I would wear this now, I want one like this, I wish I could find a suit like this now to buy.”
Brooke Heyman came and did all of the girls hair and make-up. She is fabulous! What attention to detail she has. She came with the most creative ideas and made it so fun for the girls.
A special thank you to Carole Reid Burr for sharing all of the suits for the day with us and for sharing all of the stories that went with them. And thank you to her for writing an article about her Mother for The Sandbucket Volume 2.
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wow sandi i love this….i bet these girls had a blast….i love that you were able to capture the personality of each girl and the “cute/fun” factor of all of them
Sandy-
Love Lara Burr Johnson for her inspirational idea. Love Carole Reid Burr for being willing to share her mother’s treasures and all the amazing stories that accompany them. Love you for taking those beautiful pictures, writing such a great post, and for having this uber-cool, fun and interesting blog/magazine! Love it all! 
awesome!!! love the surfboard shot and LOVE the cream suit with the darting sequins! gorgeous shoot and too much fun.
Oh, how I would love any one of those suits! They are gorgeous! I love how it all fell into place for a photo session. I bet the girls absolutely LOVED doing this! I know I would have at their age. So beautiful! Great job, Sandi and girls!
oh me oh my….simply gorgeous! favs…
[...] modeled them and the fab Brooke Heyman who did the hair and make-up. To see more pics check out The Sandbucket blog or get your copy of Volume 2. It is filled with so many great articles and images. I loved [...]
Thanks to Motherhood, I don’t think I have been bored in the last 17 years.
I hope you are all celebrated and celebrate those women in your lives.
Happy Mother’s Day!
The above image is an excerpt from Volume 2 of The Sandbucket. Photo by Kate T. Parker
Below is a column written by Erma Bombeck in May of 1974. I think I have loved everything that woman wrote.
When the Good Lord was creating mothers, He was into his sixth day of “overtime” when an angel appeared and said, “You’re doing a lot of fiddling around on this one.”
And the Lord said, “Have you read the specs on this order?
The angel shook her head slowly and said, “Six pairs of hands… no way.”
“It’s not the hands that are causing me problems,” said the Lord. “It’s the three pairs of eyes that mothers have to have.”
“That’s on the standard model?” asked the angel.
The Lord nodded. “One pair that sees through closed doors when she asks, ’What are you kids doing in there?’ when she already knows. Another here in the back of her head that sees what she shouldn’t but what she has to know, and of course the ones here in front that can look at a child when he goofs up and say, ’I understand and I love you’ without so much as uttering a word.”
“Lord,” said the angel, touching His sleeve gently, “Go to bed. Tomorrow…”
“I can’t,” said the Lord, “I’m so close to creating something so close to myself. Already I have one who heals herself when she is sick… can feed a family of six on one pound of hamburger… and can get a nine-year-old to stand under a shower.”
The angel circled the model of a mother very slowly. “It’s too soft,” she sighed.
“But she’s tough!” said the Lord excitedly. “You cannot imagine what this mother can do or endure.”
“Can it think?”
“Not only can it think, but it can reason and compromise,” said the Creator.
Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek. “There’s a leak,” she pronounced. “I told You You were trying to push too much into this model.”
“It’s not a leak,” said the Lord. “It’s a tear.”
“What’s it for?”
“It’s for joy, sadness, disappointment, pain, loneliness, and pride.”
“You are a genius,” said the angel.
The Lord looked somber. “I didn’t put it there,” He said.
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(Above photo by Shalonda Chaaddock of Chubby Cheek Photography)
I believe the thing I adore most about this magazine gig, is all the fabulous people I have met along the way. I feel like I have friends all over the world now, both contributors and readers. So fabulous. Thank you for all your love and support. I have been getting emails and texts like crazy from so many of you telling me how much you enjoy this latest issue. So thank you, thank you.
At this point I would really love to give a shout out to those who shared so much of their talent to make this issue incredible. So without further ado, here they are….
Candice Ashment – Her blog is truly inspiring. Every time I visit it I am charged with creativity and determination to get all artsy with my kiddos. She has an amazing amount of creative ideas.
Shalonda Chaddock – is the face behind Chubby Cheek Photography. Oh, how I swoon over her creative photos. I was tickled when she accepted to be a part of this issue!
Stephanie Corfee is the artist behind the Choose Joy art created for Ashley of Lil Blue Boo, as well as the fun doodles and drawings used in both The Raising Good Ones article and the Teen Interview. I am in awe of both Stephanie’s talent as well as her generosity. Get to know her better on her beautiful site.
Allyson Drake – What can I say. This girl can truly make or fix anything. I love all of her creative ideas. Her bookend tutorial is truly one you could adapt to fit into any room of your house.
Lori Gehring – Mother and writer extraordinaire. I truly loved reading her wise words from her personal experiences.
Ashley Hackshaw – creator of Lil Blue Boo. What an inspiration. She has been through so many trials and yet she has adapted the motto of Choosing Joy. Love it! Loved her article “How Being Creative Helps Me Choose Joy.”
Brooke Heyman. Not only did she come up with the hairstyles for the fun fun hair doooos piece, she came over and did all the hair and make-up for the Vintage Rose Marie Reid Shoot. This shoot was so much fun. But oh, she must have been doing hair and make-up for 5 hours. She is so creative and talented. And so fun to be around. What more could you ask for in a make-up artist and hair stylist. Check out het blog here.
Julie Martin, creator and owner of ZozobugBaby has so much talent. I love how she says she loves it when kids dress happy. In this issue she shares a creative way to use old children clothes and turn it into a duvet cover. So smart!
Tammy Mitchell is a photographer, scrapbooker, party planner….well, pretty much you name it, she does it. I love to see all her creations over on her site.
Dana Ohlsen wrote the amazing piece, “Raising Good Ones.” So much wisdom wrapped up in that fun article. It was also, her teenage daughter who was the mastermind behind the teen interview. She has so much kindness and talent just oozing out of her. Check out her blog here.
Katie Parker – My girls have been going to Katie for years for her Singers Company Program. Lucky for all of you, it is spreading all over the country. Such a fun way for girls to learn to perform in a nonthreatening environment. As I have seen her cheer on so many little girls year after year, as well as her own four children, I knew she was the one to ask write this article. So fun!
Kate T. Parker – Yes! Did you catch that. We have a Katie Parker and a Kate T. Parker. Kate T. Parker is a photographer that inspires me to capture my everyday more. I just love her kids after just viewing her photographs. They are so full of life. So full of emotion. So much personality. Check out her work. You too will be inspired to grab your camera to capture the art of the mundane.
Allison Royer is the face behind BDG Style. She has impeccable taste with creative ideas on how to use your space. I just love everything she does.
Ashlee Raubach, long time friend and photographer has a way of capturing interior design like no one else. The beautiful shots in Alison’s article were taken by Ashlee. But she is also incredibly talented in Wedding Photography as well as Lifestyle. Find her work here.
Kelly Stocksen is so fabulous. Such a wonderful Mother and Photographer. In this issue she shares ways to get our children to make service a focus this Summer. Check out the S.O.S. Summer Facebook Page.
(Choose Joy created by Stephanie Corfee )
Alright, if you haven’t ordered your copy of the magazine now do so here. To have it in hand all printed up is so lovely! You really must get a copy to see all the beauty these contributors created.
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And thank YOU for being the gutsy gal who started it all so we could come together and share!!! Really. I still feel so blessed and overjoyed to get to be a part of it. Cannot wait to get it in hand!!! Much love to you, my friend.
Thanks Sandi! I really love this issue and all of the great articles and fun ideas! I can’t wait to get my hard copy .
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The pictures look amazing, but i want to see the pics of him waist deep in the ocean in his suit… love Max!!