corduroyscloset

Happy Valentine's Day!

2012-02-14T11:09:00.000-08:00

How awesome is the internet! And pinterest! And blogs! While I may spend too much time on them my kids at least benefit from it.

Last weekend we were snowed in. And by snowed in I mean we got 5 inches, so I wasn't going anywhere. My kids were getting restless and I remembered this pin,

so we made these:

I also made some heart stamps out of apples ( we were out of potatoes)

And last night while the girls were making valentine's for their family I printed off a couple of these
And they turned out so cute.


#2 is still working on writing her name, although she usually does a better job.

Last night while the kiddos where sleeping I whipped up these. Another pinterest idea,

but I dipped mine in chocolate to make them seem more like kisses.

And then what holiday wouldn't be complete without being inspired by something from Made.
I saw this tutorial and knew my girls would love the shirts. They were so quick and easy!

Of course getting my girls all dressed at the same time and posed normal is out of the question.

I tied up their shirts with ribbon and placed them in their room with a cute box stuffed with a pair of socks(courtesy of the Target dollar section that was half off yesterday!) It was fun to hear them find their gifts when they woke up.

So while my husband is probably not getting anything this year, he won't be home anyways, at least my kids know how much I love them!

The Pink Construction Party

2012-02-11T08:29:00.000-08:00

My new 4 year old is way into making things lately. And pink. A construction party seemed right up her alley, with pink. So this is what I came up with after searching online. There are a TON of fun ideas if you just hunt for construction party.

For the party we needed tools, hats and tool belts of course. Tool belts can be found at Home Dept for $0.77. (At Lowes the are twice that.)
And in keeping with the pink theme I dyed the girls tool belts pink. It was so quick and easy to do. Just buy the Rit dye from Wal Mart and follow the directions. No need to look for a tutorial on line, they just seem to complicate things more.

The hats were from Amazon and the tools were from the dollar store.

We had tons of fun activities for the kids. It took awhile for me to come up with some simple things for 3/4 year olds to make on their own. Most things in the stores required way too much assistance from adults and I didn't want to make parents stay and help if they didn't want to.

The first thing we did when they got here was to paint some cars my dad had made for the kids to make. He cut them out and shipped them off to me with sandpaper and wheels in each bag for all the kids coming. He even took pictures of him making the cars and how to put them together in tutorial form.

I bought washable paint and brushes from Wal Mart and cut the paint so that each kid had 3 colors in their bag. (and on the invites I told them to come dressed in play clothes.)

It was everyones favorite part of the party. The parents tell me their kids can't stop talking about the cars they got to make. And while we were making them my girls couldn't stop telling their friends that their pappie made the cars. They were so proud!

While waiting for the cars to dry we got ready to head over to the construction site I had set up in another room. First we got some stickers out and put names on everyones construction hats. Then we put on our tool belts and headed over for some demolition fun!

The birthday girl got a special pink hat from her aunt, uncle and cousins for her birthday.

I had boxes stacked up and a ball duck taped to a string as the wrecking ball. My husband held the string while the kids swung trying to knock over all the boxes.

Then they would stack the boxes they just knocked down for the next person in line to go. I think they played this game for an hour.

They had a rough time having to wait their turn.

But got over it pretty quick.

We did a couple more crafts after this. We made these from Family Fun (without the paint):

And some pom pom ball creature thingys.

Then it was time for cake and presents.
Construction toys were $3 for a BIG box at Target. That is how I decorate cakes. Bake a cake, frost it, then put toys on it to make it look fun. I am no cake decorator.

Afterwards we finished gluing the wheels on the cars.

Then I let the kids run wild on a sugar high while waiting for the parents to come.

Sewing with kids- Freestyle

2012-02-07T17:40:00.000-08:00

I haven't done a sewing with kids post in awhile. I haven't really been making anything with them lately. Just letting them roam the craft room and experiment on their own.

Mostly it has been letting my 3 year old cut fabric into the tiniest pieces possible. Her favorite thing to do when I sew while little sister is taking a nap. It makes a HUGE mess but it keeps her busy so I can get things done. I also make her clean it up which keeps her busy for even longer.

Something my 1 year old loves to do is put pins in fabric. Her favorite thing to do while her 2 older sisters are asleep and she stays up late.

Fixing holes

2012-02-05T17:54:00.000-08:00

If you live in the cold and have a daughter who only wears skirts then I am going to guess that this post will benefit you.

Leggings are a must under skirts out here in the winter and even with a pair to wear every day of the week my 6 year old still managed to wear a hole through a couple of them. So I got to work on repairing them. It took all of 5 minutes for both pair.

I cut out a piece of fabric to cover the hole in the knee. Ironed it on with my favorite fusible webbing (making sure to put paper in between the 2 pieces of fabric so they didn't stick together where the hole was, and I was done!

Yeah, I could have stitched around them for durability and cuteness but I have been feeling lazy lately.

They have been through a few wears and washes and are holding on just fine. That is why you buy the good stuff.

They are now her favorite pairs to wear!

Sewing with kids!

2012-02-01T18:04:00.000-08:00

For those of you who follow the sewing with kids series, I was totally slacking on updating my Sewing with Kids page and wanted you to know that I have finally updated it. So go ahead and check out all the fun things I have made with my kids in the past!

Sewing With Kids- The Not Sewing Post

2012-01-31T17:40:00.000-08:00

I did find this craft kit on Amazon and had to share. It looked like so much fun I ordered it with birthday money that was given to my 6 year old recently. The day it came both little sisters were sleeping and we ran upstairs, opened it right up and made something.

She was SO excited about it and can't wait to make more things.

The kit comes with everything you need to make 20 crafts. And they are all made from recycled things which my Kindergartner is way into right now. All the crafts seem pretty simple and the directions are in pictures but a tad confusing for a 6 year old so I had to help a bit to find the right pieces for the craft.

Also, the paper that the cupcake in the picture is made from is used in several crafts and if any of you have every used it you know that nothing sticks to it very well. Especially a glue stick trying to hold 2 pieces together to make a box. So we did have to pull out the glue gun for a couple things but she has still had fun making the few crafts we have so far.

All in all I would recommend it for anyone who has a kid who loves to make things!

Boy Fabric

2012-01-25T10:06:00.000-08:00

It's not a secret that I love fabric and I am guessing that almost if not all of you who read this blog love it too. I have been hanging onto some cute boy fabric for awhile hoping I would someday get to use it. These have traveled across country with me. You would think I would know by now what I wanted to do with them since I have had them for so long but I have no clue.

This was clearance at JoAnn's. Home Dec weight. Couldn't pass up.

This was at some random tiny fabric store. Also home dec weight. So in love with it. I have almost cut into it a couple times but decided not to.

And my good friend found this oil cloth for me knowing I would LOVE it! I have one idea for it but will have some left over.

So do you have any ideas on what I could make with it? Please share!

Dino Sweatshirt

2012-01-22T09:58:00.000-08:00

I love free clothes!

I got a few free sweatshirts when I found out I was having a boy and then found this picture and decided to copy.

Mine = not as cute but with free clothes and scraps you can't go wrong. Plus I still think it's cute, just not as...

Now I just need a plain sweater so I can make this.

Owl Pillows

2012-01-19T09:55:00.000-08:00

I got back in the sewing groove long enough to make these cute pillows and one more quick fun project I'll post later in the week. This is something I have been wanting to make forever but was always on the back of the list. I finally just sat down one day and started.

I had my 3 year old help pick out fabrics and we got everything cut out. Not an easy task with a 20 month old helping you pin everything down.

The one below is what my 3 year old picked out all on her own for herself.

3 owl pillows for my 3 girls who are now all sleeping in the same room.

If you want to make your own there are a few tutorials online like this one here. And have you seen the owls from gingercake? They are so stinkin adorable! Check them out. You can buy her pattern here. I looked at them all and then decided I liked different parts of different owls. I looked on pinterest because there are a million and one pictures on there and then just drew out a shape and cut.

Making

2012-01-12T17:47:00.000-08:00

I haven't been doing much sewing lately but I have been making things.

Like this bunk bed.

While 7 months pregnant.

Getting ready for the new addition.

Elephant Tee

2012-01-10T17:45:00.000-08:00

My 1 year old loves to make elephant noises and when she does she holds her arm up high like its the trunk.

I had to make a shirt where the trunk was the arm.

All 4 shirts for her ready to wrap.

Christmas Tree

2011-12-31T17:53:00.000-08:00

This craft has been in the works for 3 years. Seriously. I started it and never finished but this was my year!

I wanted gingerbread houses the girls could re-decorate. I covered milk cartons with felt and then cut out little felt peices as decorations. They stick to each other making for hours of fun!

I also covered a styrafoam cone with green felt to make a tree for the girls to decorate by sticking pins in the tree. More hours of fun!

My hours of fun lasted maybe 3 minutes. So 3 years traded in 3 minutes. Literally. But I share because maybe your kids have a longer attention span than mine do.

Crib Sheet

2011-12-29T17:53:00.000-08:00

I found some houndstooth fabric the other day and knew it would make a nice crib sheet for the new boy nursery. My husband asked why everything had to be houndstooth. OK, so maybe I should slow it down a bit, but the boy has no houndstooth so it'll look alright, right?

So here are my awesome night shots of my new crib sheet.

I used the crib sheet tutorial from Made found here

The tutorial was easy to understand but what she doesn't mention is that her pattern calls for fabric that is 45" wide. Mine wasn't but she also doesn't mention that is doesn't matter. I made it anyway and it fit just fine. It was short by a few inches and wasn't tight at all. So if you go by her measurements, you can some up a bit short and be fine.

She also calls it a toddler sheet tutorial but there is no way this would ever fit my toddler bed. Not sure if all toddler beds are different sizes. Mine came from Ikea and is almost a foot wider than my crib mattress. Just saying, in case anyone out there was thinking of using this to make sheets, so you aren't disappointed with the outcome.

Sewing with kids-Christmas gift for teacher

2011-12-20T20:35:00.000-08:00

My 5 year old daughter wanted to make the Christmas tree garland for her teacher. I thought it was a great idea but was totally garlanded out from making 5 of them so I told her she could sew them herself. She of course was thrilled since we haven't been doing too much sewing lately.

I let her do all the tree sewing and turning and stuffing. I sewed up the trunks since they were tiny but she turned them right side in and did all the trimming. She also picked which trunks to go with which trees and what order to sew them on the garland.

For full directions on how to make them click here.

Here is her version.

Then we packaged them up in a paper bag she decorated herself and a card she made.

I added pictures of her sewing the garland for her teacher to see.

Her last day of school before the break is tomorrow. She is putting the gift in her bag as I am typing this. Kinda last minute, but it is done and Corduroy is so excited to give it to her!

And here is another tip in case you don't have a small table for your kids to sew on. (Or you are too lazy to bring the one you have back upstairs for your kids like me)

Just put a box under your table and place the foot on it. Works great!

Animal Shirts

2011-12-16T14:07:00.000-08:00

I have a 1 year old who is bssesed with animlas right now. They make her happy. I love seeing her happy. She has a ton of animal jammies thanks to my mom and loves getting ready for bed now. We read books to her all day long but only the ones with animals in them.

So for Christmas I thought I would make her some animal shirts. Of course I keep thinking of animals that would be fun to make. So far I have made 3 shirts with one more in the works, I also made her a dress that I just need to take a picture of. She has already worn the dress a lot. It is an owl dress and walks around "hoo-ing" whenever she wears is.

I let her help me pick out her Lion fabric. I know it's supposed to be a present but it was so fun to watch her pick out the fabric and the buttons. She kept adding them to the shirt. If you have kids, let them join in. They love it and it's so cute to watch them.

It bugs my 6 year old that the mane falls in the lion's eyes. But manes are messy and crazy right?

Familiar

2011-12-14T10:15:00.000-08:00

I have been seeing these cute jammies in the stores lately and can't help take a picture of them. They just seem kinda familiar to me.

Target:

Old Navy:

I am in love with them and I wonder why.

Mine from last year:

Do you ever see something in the store after you made it and think other people are getting rich off of your idea? I am sure they never saw my tiny blog or the SYTYC blog or the tons of others blogs this has been posted on for that matter, but this has been happening to me since I was 19. I make something and a year or two later I see it in the stores. Maybe someday I will get brave enough to open my own business and get my ideas out to the masses before everyone else!

And I know that I have made a few of these but it still didn't stop me from also buying some of the ones I have seen in the store. :) They are just too cute!

Lalaloopsy Party

2011-12-11T09:54:00.000-08:00

Let's face it, Lalaloopsy dolls are stinkin cute with their big button eyes staring at you! And being a crafty mom I couldn't resist talking my daughter into picking that theme for a party. It just sounded way better than a princess themed party. So many more exciting things to do.

In keeping with the theme we did lots of crafty things at the party. My 6 year old loves crafts and sewing and I knew she would have a lot of fun with this theme.Sugar crumb cookie being the favorite doll since her and the birthday girl share December birthdays.

The girls helped me decorate the table.

Wearing her apron I made

I made the birthday girl a skirt, apron and shirt Lalaloopsy style.

The first thing we did was color while we were waiting for everyone to get here. I made paper dolls for the girls.

Next we made button cookies. I had the cookies all pre-cut. They smashed the middle down with a cup to make a rim and then poked holes with chopsticks and decorated with sprinkles.I wrote their names on wax paper next to the cookies so I knew who they belonged to.

While the cookies were baking we got to work on our last activity. The sewing one. I was a tad nervous. Husband at work. No moms stayed. Lots of girls who had never sewed before. But they did awesome! My 1 year old was taking a nap and we all finished the dolls.

I wanted a sewing project but I wanted the end result to be something the girls would be excited about but it also had to be way simple for them. I made all the dolls ahead of time.

I had them all labeled and thread and needles ready to go. I used a disappearing pen to draw a mouth on the face and they all stitched the mouth on themselves.

I had Corduroy and Ady make theirs ahead of time so there would be 2 less girls to worry about that day.

Besides my 3 year old the ages ranged from 6-12.

After the faces were sewn on I sewed them up leaving the bottom open and let them stuff the dolls. Then I sewed up the bottom for them. Super easy for first timers. The 12 year old helped some of the others when they needed it and even made an extra for a friend who couldn't make it because she was sick. How sweet is that?

Next was opening presents and then the cake.

I used the handles from the packaging of the dolls to put on the cake, as well as the dolls themselves.I can make a lot of things but cakes are not my specialty. Yeah for toys to decorate with! Each layer inside was a different color. It was fun to hear the girls reaction when I cut into it.

I made the party bags. Couldn't resist. They are just so much cuter than store bought even though it is more work.The mouse is sugar crumb cookies pet.

I tagged them all with everyone's names so we could stick their crafts inside as they finished them up.

They ended up taking home their colored paper dolls, 4 button cookies I had bagged up, their stuffed doll they made and a pencil topper and eraser.

During the party a few girls said this was "the funnest party ever!" Gotta say I love hearing that!

More boy!

2011-12-07T16:10:00.000-08:00

You will be seeing a lot of this here and there. I have many projects in mind to make.

This was quick and easy. Find cute onesie and fabric. Sew fabric on top. Sew on felt. Sew on buttons. Done!

You know what would be awesome? A velcro version for when it gets spit up on it. Just un-velcro the fabric and add another one. Clean looking duds all the time!

Boy Stuff! No diaper bag needed

2011-12-05T15:47:00.000-08:00

Do you know how cute boy stuff is? I have been on a spree as of late and am in love with all the fun fabrics out there. I went to make some blankets cause I will be needing some not pink blankets in the near future and had a hard time choosing. There were too many to pick from. I put a lot back(you can ask my mom) and ended up with these 6.

I am not sure how you guys pack your diaper bags but I find diaper bags completely useless. (Unless of course you have bottles and formula and such) But if you are nursing then there really is no need for a diaper bag.

I use flannel blankets as my all in one. Of course you can't use the teeny tiny receiving blankets you buy in the store. Those barely wrap a doll up. Here's what you do:

Buy a yard of flannel. Serge around the edges. Put in your purse.

Why only a blanket? It serves as a blanket, burp cloth and nursing cover. Because of the material it sticks to you and you don't need one of those fancy nursing covers that you can never really peak in at your baby on anyways even though you have that annoying plastic thing around your neck that makes it impossible to fold. When the baby gets bigger and starts kicking then buy some ribbon and some office clips and clip them to your blanket so that the blanket can't be kicked off you.

Make a bunch and swap them out to wash.

I think the only other thing you need in your purse is a pacifier? If you use one? And diaper and wipes of course. I always have those in my purse, baby or not since I always have a toddler on hand. But those fit nicely in a purse as well. And yes, I have a small purse. What do you put in your bag for your baby that gets used regularly?

Presents

2011-12-03T15:42:00.000-08:00

I am still on a sewing spree and am trying to post but have been too busy caught up actually making things. Go figure. I finally finished the extended family gifts and mailed them out today! Such a good feeling. I also had a birthday party today which I always seem to go over board on. (I'm not the only one right?) That kept me pretty busy. Luckily I had family in town who didn't seem to mind that I disappeared upstairs for hours while they played with my kids.

Here is a picture of one of my presents for my nephew. I know these are everywhere on pinterest right now. There is a really cute looking one that says it's a super hero fort kit although I don't get it cause the only thing super hero about it is a lightening bolt on the outside? But it would be fun to actually make one that that is superheroed out. Like sheets and all kinds of other fun things. Like the strings should be called spiderman webs??? I don't know, could be super fun to play around with!

Anyways, I made a couple of these last year for my girls. They love them. And I made one for my niece this year as well but didn't take a pic. Found cute girly sheets at a thrift store though.

And here is the original post on how to make them. At least as far as I can tell. Lots of links you will find will eventually take you right to this one.

Super Saturday-Thank yous

2011-11-29T07:13:00.000-08:00

Super Saturday was such a HUGE project! I had never done one before or even attended one so that made it that much harder to figure things out. I had so many people willing to help out and take on the projects that I gave them. It made things so much easier one me since I dove into this without knowing if I would even have any teachers for the projects I picked.

I was still in major sewing mode(and still am. Can't stop)

So I whipped up these super cute tea towels for the teachers. I may have made an extra set for myself to keep...

All the workers at JoAnn's may or may not know me by name and yell it across the store whenever I head in there. (Think Cheers). It's pretty awesome!

Super Saturday-Apron

2011-11-27T07:05:00.000-08:00

We didn't get very far on these aprons. I felt bad because it had been a long day for everyone and while we were all supposed to be sewing these babies up I was running around trying to clean so that we weren't at the church till midnight, when I should have been helping everyone.

Here is my finished product. It turned out so cute! It was really fast. I made this in one evening after the girls went to bed and I still got to bed on time. These would make such fun Christmas presents. You can never have too many aprons (says the girls who has tons hanging in her kitchen and even more stored away...)

Super Saturday-Quiet books

2011-11-25T07:05:00.000-08:00

A lot of the younger couples at my church wanted to do quiet books. I know they were thinking cute felt activity books but there was no way we would have the time to finish even a page. I have made one. They take FOREVER!

Searching on pinterest I came across these really cute pages from this company. Finch Family and Games.
They have so many activity pages to put in a quiet book. The colored ones cost $1 to buy so I bought 5 different ones. It was hard to narrow it down to that. They are made to put in folders but I liked them in binders inside sheet protectors.

I got some magnets from JoAnns and put them on the back paper under the sheet protector and then on the back of the laminated cut outs. They stick pretty well as long as you get the thicker magnets. Not the thin kind.

I did a few extra things in my own binder for my girls and nephew who will be getting one of these in the mail for Christmas(shhh, don't tell him MW)

I added a place to hold all the little cut outs.

And then for my daughter I added a few coloring pages. I turned pictures I had taken into black and white sketch pictures and put them in a sheet protector. They she can use white board markers or white board crayons to color on top of the sheet protector and wipe off.

Super Saturday- Christmas Tree Garland with DIRECTIONS

2011-11-20T08:18:00.000-08:00

This is the class I taught. I had one lady who was so terrified to sew. She had tried and failed years before, but was so determined to make these. She did awesome and was the first and only one to actually finished the garland in the time allotted and even for the whole day. Others worked overtime and didn't finish.

If you want to make your own I don't have a pattern but you just cut out a triangle and a square in the size you want and then follow these directions:

Christmas Tree Garland

1. Cut out 10 trees and 10 trunks (2 fabric pieces per tree)

2. Sew 2 sides of tree leaving bottom open to turn right side

3. Trim thread

4. Turn right side in

5. Turn bottom of trees inside for seam and iron

6. Stuff trees

7. Sew 3 sides of trunks, trim and turn right side in

8. Pin trunks into place and sew bottom

9. Hand stitch bakers twine onto trees (8 inches from each end and trees 6 inches apart)

oh, and when you are cutting out so many trees and need a quick way to turn the fabrics facing the wrong way to sew them together, here is a quick tip:

Grab the top piece of fabric...

and place it on the bottom...

now all your pieces are facing each other and you are ready to sew them together.

I also use chopsticks when I am turning them right side to poke in the corners to get those corners all the way out.

Easy Peasy!

Super Sat- Nativity with DIRECTIONS

2011-11-19T08:17:00.000-08:00

Here is an after picture of the Nativity picture we made.

It was quick and easy to make and I live the simplicity in it. I found frames at the dollar store and I ended up spray painting all of them since we were running short on time. I also had squares cut out of all the fabric with fusible webbing and pattern pieces for everyone to cut out. I places them all in individual bags along with instructions to make it easy and so they could do at their own pace. Here is what was printed:

Christmas Nativity

1. Spray paint picture frame and leave to dry

2. Iron fabric onto fusible webbing.

3. *Place and hold iron on medium setting on paper side of adhesive for 5 seconds (or until stuck). Repeat by gliding iron to new area and pressing slightly until entire surface area is bonded.

4. Cut fabric to desired shape. Peel off paper backing.

5. *Place material, adhesive side down, in desired position on top of project. Press and hold iron for 8-10 seconds(or until stuck) until entire piece is bonded.

6. Stitch around picture if desired.

7. Place in frame when frame is dry.

*Please note that each brand of fusible webbing has different directions so if you make these make sure to follow the directions of the brand you bought.

Super Saturday aftermath-temple blocks

2011-11-15T10:28:00.000-08:00

Last week was crazy busy and I am glad I have a few days to recover before the next round of life starts. There are a lot of things that need to be cleaned and feed at my house.

I wanted to post a few pictures of the day and what everything looked like after we made it. I don't have pictures of everything yet so I will slowly be posting them.

The temple blocks turned out great and were probably the most completed craft. I didn't do too well on the time frame front. Note to self: when planning these things always take into account gab time.

My friend Leandra taught the class and did a great job!

Finished product before the ribbons. I had to finish mine at home because I was busy getting ready for the other classes but I did get them painted while I was there. Pretty proud of myself since I did so many.

I don't remember if I mentioned this before but we made ours larger than recommended on the website. We printed the pictures off at 5x7. I also jumped on Picnik and added different sayings to the blank pictures she offered on the website. Most of the ladies wanted Families Are Forever. There were also a few that did Once Upon a Time.Here is the link again in case you want to make your own. It only ended up costing us $2.25 each to make them.

Super Saturday

2011-11-08T15:22:00.000-08:00

This weekend is going to be a craft day at my church. Some like to call it Super Saturday. I am in charge and am really excited but have never actually been to one so we shall see how it goes. My ward out here is kinda small but I managed to round up helpers to make things.

Here is a preview of the crafts we will be making.

Click HERE for the link to this project's toutorial. We decided to make ours a little bigger but it still ended up only costing $2.50 each. And we decided to offer all the temples from this site along with a few different sayings and ribbons so they could really be personalized.

This is my favorite. I found this garland on pinterest, It is for sale overseas. I just made my own. These came to $2.60 each for a 6 foot garland!

We are also making a quiet book from some of these cute pages. You can buy them HERE. I bought 5 activities. $1 each activity and then you print them yourself. They are already colored so all we have to do is laminate and stick magnets on them.

This is another image I found online and copied. I found a dollar store frame I spray painted and then chose a white cotton background and some printed cotton fabrics for the nativity scene. We will just be using fusible webbing to iron it on. I will probably take mine home and sew around it but you don't have to. This ended up being $2.50 to make.

We are also making this apron:

To put in this jar:

I also have a friend who is making really cute cards and tags for us to stamp and make.

It's gonna be a lot of fun. Lunch after and lots of chatting with friends! I'll post pictures of the after next week.

Papy Halloween!

2011-10-31T14:03:00.000-07:00

Over here we have been spending the week playing with my parents. Well, the kids have been playing and I have been cleaning, organizing and looking at new cars. We haven't been able to do a whole lot else since there are 7 of us here and only 1 car seating 5 that works.

But it has been fun. While my dad (named Pappie by my oldest) was playing some of my Halloween blocks fell down and my dad promptly fixed them.

Today I will be headed to my Kinders school for crafts and games and tonight we will be hitting the cold cold streets to stock up on candy. Hope you have a good day too!

Halloween Costume-Garden Gnome

2011-10-30T19:11:00.000-07:00

Please don't think Little Red Riding Hood. She wears a cape, not a pointy hat.

This outfit turned out so cute and would have been even better had I finished everything I wanted to. Like the red pointy shoes and making the suspenders actually stay on her shoulders instead of falling at the sides. And then maybe people would have actually thought garden gnome instead of little red....

I made the hat in under 2 minutes. I was out of time so I cut from a guestimate and sewed like the wind. It worked out perfect. Maybe someday I will do a tutorial. (another thing I had planned for you)

I made the skirt and love how it turned out but Clover wished she had her big sisters pink cowgirl skirt. She kept stealing it and putting it on and then running away with it around her ankles. I also made the apron. It has a mushroom applique. Super cute if you could actually see it. I based it off another I found on pinterest.(maybe I'll post a link later?) All things I planned on for making this post better but lets face it, I have family in town and am playing with them and having lots of fun.

Halloween Costume-Butterfly

2011-10-29T19:01:00.000-07:00

Corduroy had to be a Butterfly this year. This was after Strawberry Shortcake and million other choices. Luckily she stuck with this one long enough for some trick or treating to be had.

Already in this picture she was tired of the "butterfly" costume and changed it to a "fairy". Meaning no antenna headband but a wand instead.

She had to have the whole outfit purple. I was thinking of making some cute felt wings but got lazy and bought some at JoAnns. I do not recommend this, they broke during her first wearing-super cheap. She had to have a purple skirt that I made. I forgot how much of a pain these skirts are to cut out and tie. But it looks so cute all fluffy. And she had to have a complete purple under outfit. Luckily since it is in her favorite color she will wear it again and again. That is a Halloween costume I don't mind spending money on.

Not sure if it was the broken wings disappointing or what but she wore them twice and has since changed her costume and wears something out of our dress up suitcase. Who knows what she will be on the actual night of Halloween.

Halloween Costumes- Cowgirl

2011-10-28T08:22:00.000-07:00

My 3 year old had to be a cowgirl this year. Country life is really taking to her.

When I asked her what she wanted her outfit to look like she told me it had to be all pink. She had to have a pink hat and pink boots. Luckily we scored with boots from the thrift store for $1 and a hat for $0.50. And the pony was a buy from the dollar store years ago.

I made the skirt because for some reason she doesn't own one pink skirt. But she was happy to wear one of the many pink shirts she owns.

And her last specification was that she had to look like she was floating on air.

Fall Recipes

2011-10-27T06:43:00.000-07:00

I had a church activity last night and it was so much fun! The theme was Food and Fun and we had plenty. We played a few get to know you games since there are so many new people in the area and then we ate some yummy fall food. All the recipes turned out great and everyone asked where they could get them so I thought I would share.

Apple Cartwheels

Click HERE for the recipe

Pepper Poppers

Click HERE for recipe

Bat Garland: Tutorial

2011-10-26T06:54:00.000-07:00

Supplies:

fabric scraps
ribbon
fusible webbing (for added stiffness but not needed)

1. Cut out 2 bat pieces for each bat.

I have had my bats for a few years and don't remember where I got the template but Martha has one here. That looks like this:

2. Follow the instruction depending on the kind of fusible webbing you use. I use this kind.

So I cut my shape out and then iron it all together at the same time.

3. After webbing is ironed one sew 2 pieces together stitching as close to the outside as possible.

4. Next sew onto ribbon. My ears and wings were both sewn onto the ribbon so they wings wouldn't flop down when hung.

Let me know if you make anything from my tutorials. I would love to see them!

Skeleton Magnet: Link to printable

2011-10-25T06:55:00.000-07:00

Go here for a link to print this cute skeleton. I made mine into a magnet like the picture but there are so many possibilities to do with this buy.

Here is what our looks like. I mod podged the paper after putting it on the sticky backed magnets so it would last longer.

tried and failed pinterest finds

2011-10-24T17:44:00.000-07:00

Last week I tried 3 different crafts with my kids and they all failed. They did not fail due to the sites. All fault was purely my own.

This first one we tried were ghost milk jugs. Link on how to found here.

They ended up pretty cute. I found out my 3 year old really does know how to draw a face. You just have to ask her to do it. But when we went to light them up outside my lights didn't light up. Such a let down. And then it has been so windy here that everything outside just blows away so I can't have anything outside anyways.

our version, cute in the house, wish there were lights. ..

The next craft we tried were these cute ghost lights. (I think I have a thing for ghosts). Link found here.

These would have been fine but before I put the faces on them I had already found out that both strands of lights were broken so I just never finished them.

Last craft we did were these cute acorn pumpkins. Link found here.

A few weeks earlier my 5 year old saw this craft while we were browsing the web and wanted to make them. She went out to our backyard and collected a TON of acorns. She promptly came inside and washed them, dried them and put them in a bag.

Well, they weren't really all the way dry before she put them in a bag and when I opened the bag I found a few moldy acorns and almost all of them had holes in them and worms were popping out everywhere. They did grab a few good ones and paint them and then got bored fast and never wanted to finish up the faces.

If you want to see more of my Pinterest Halloween posts then go here. So many pins, so little time.

Halloween Silhouette Curtains

2011-10-23T17:45:00.000-07:00

I am kind of a freak about certain holidays. Going through the Martha Stewart Halloween magazine last year inspired me to make these curtains.

I love them so.

My husband and I live in the bat cave

I free-handed the designs onto a huge roll of paper and then pinned that onto my black fabric and cute out carefully, pinned more carefully and sewed A LOT. I used my blanket stitch around all the designs to make them look nice but I wasn't about to use any fusible stuff underneath cause that would have been a fortune.

the girls had to have something less scary for their room

The time was well worth it. These are my favorite things to look at in the house.

You can see the design inside and out and it is so fun to pull up to the house at night with the curtains all lite up and a witch welcoming me home.

Witch and Warlock Tea Party Part 4-Activities

2011-10-22T17:13:00.000-07:00

This last Saturday marked the 2nd annual Witch and Warlock Tea Party at my house. Although it's more of a Halloween party and less of a tea party it is still fun. We are still getting to know people out here so we just invite everyone we know, boys included and make it family friendly. Turns out to be way more exciting that way than just sitting around sipping tea.

I found some really cute invitations at WalMart for a buck and had the girls stamp the inside of them.

I had a coloring station set up in the front room so that when kids arrived they could sit down and color pictures of witch hats I hat printed off the computer.

I asked them to all get together and this is as close as they got

Then we got to work on the games. I had everything set up in the playroom and when the kids got here I pretty much put my 5 year old in charge and just let them play whatever they wanted whenever they felt like it. They were all 6 and under so I knew trying to get any order going would be pointless anyways. Plus that left more time for me to chill with the other grown-ups.

We had a bean bag toss, left over from my Carnival Party

Witch Hat Ring Toss. I made a witch hat out of felt and then stuffed it with a styrofoam cone and beans so it would stand up straight and also, heavy enough to not be knocked over. Then I cut out 2 rings from cardboard and had the girls paint them black.

Next was Pin the Wart on the Witch. Super simple again. I printed a picture off the internet and then being lazy bought green dot stickers for her "warts". Of course the kids used all the colors and had fun just sticking them wherever they wanted.

I asked her to put the sticker on the witches nose so she pointed to her own

Last game was a Candy Corn Drop. I put a jar at the bottom of a stool and had them drop the candy corns right in the jar and then they ate whatever they had dropped.

Witch and Warlock Tea Party Part 3-Food

2011-10-21T18:49:00.000-07:00

After games was food. I had everyone bring something to share. I didn't take a picture of everything that was brought but I should have. People always have so much fun with this. We had skeleton cookies, bone pretzles, dirt pudding and more.

I made my scarecrow dip I mentioned before and I also made these RIP PB&J sandwiches.

And some witch hat cookies. Both really simple to make.

I also had a pumpkin ice cube tray and poured orange water into it and froze a bunch. The kids loved watching their water turn orange.

Someone also had brought a black cat pinata. AWESOME! I LOVE pinatas. It was hilarious to watch the kids "tap" the pinata.

The adults had to help a bit to get that thing cracked open.

Lastly we watched The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown with whoever was left over.

I had so many more plans of things to do but I am just starting out with all this and since I make most things being poor and cheap and being only one person, I can only do so much each year. This year was WAY more exciting than last year and I can only guess next year will be even better.

Fall Leaf Garland Giveaway Winners

2011-10-21T07:22:00.000-07:00

Since there were only 3 entries and I know 2 of them had birthdays this month I couldn't deny any of them the chance at getting a present in the mail. So I decided to award all entries with a 6 foot fall leaf garland.

Congrats to Amy, Trish, and Mhairi!

And Happy Birthday to Amy and Trish!

I sent an e-mail to you guys so send me your address and I will get this shipped off next week.

Witch and Warlock Tea Party Part 2- Witch Hats and Tutorial

2011-10-20T06:36:00.000-07:00

I found this headband at Target in the dollar section and last year felt like making my own. It was quick and simple and perfect to have extra for a tea party in case someone forgets their hat or looses it on the flight over.

Supplies:

Ribbon
Felt
Headband

First: Take some ribbon wide enough to fit over your headband and sew the ribbon together.
Open up the ribbon and put headband in between the 2 pieces. Then sew up the bottom.

Second: Cut out a circle shape and a hat shape, 2 pieces of felt each. Sew the circles together and the hat top together. Then take an extra piece of ribbon and sew a strip onto the hat top.

Third: Sew the hat top to the circle piece. Lay the hat top flat to the circle making sure it is centered and pin in place, then sew. Once sewn, flip the hat top to the other side and sew again on the other side. This will help the hat to pop up and stay standing up straight.

Fourth: Tack the hat onto the headband. I hand sew it so the seams are hidden.

Witch and Warlock Tea Party Part 1- Decor

2011-10-19T17:46:00.000-07:00

If you're having a witch party the mood has to be set. Kids love walking into a house with lots of decorations and feeling as if they can play the part.

I decorated my whole mantel with fun witch finds. The book is just an old book I have and prop up to look like a spell book. You can always write up and actual spell and place it in the book. Burn the edges. Someday this is my plan. Someday just never seems to come.

I found the glass at a local store for cheap and filled them with colored water. I placed 2 candlesticks behind the book although the verdict is still out n if I like them or not. And I had a plastic cauldron that I have been putting my advent calendar in daily. It is fun to see the bat wings popping up out of it like a real potion.

I also picked up a lot of things from my local thrift stores. These 2 hats were 50 cents and are fun hanging from my curtains rods. The sign above was a deal from Target last year.

Incredibles Onesie

2011-10-18T18:42:00.000-07:00

Fan of The Incredibles? Turn your kid into one of them this year. Just applique a onesie and put some eyeliner on them and you are good to go.

I promise this is my last onesie. (Unless I remember more cute ones I made. I totally forgot about this one and Superman)

Superman Costume

2011-10-17T18:38:00.000-07:00

One of my all time favorite costumes!

I took 2 onesies and cute them in half and sewed back together to get the right colors.

Appliqued on a logo and added a belt and cape.

For a bigger kid a onesie might not be the best idea. This is a simple appliqued shirt with a cape sewn right onto the back. You could also velcro the cape on, or snap it.

Add some tights and you are ready to fly!

Pumpkin Onesie

2011-10-16T17:11:00.000-07:00

This is my oldest a few years back and the inspiration for Corduroy's Closet.

Yes, the onesie is a tad tight on her but she doesn't seem to mind one bit.

Gost Chair Covers Tutorial

2011-10-15T11:43:00.000-07:00

I saw a version of these in Target a few years back and went right home and made them with stuff I had around the house. Free is way cheaper than $15 per ghost right?

The originals were made with retro white felt that was kinda creamy(dirty) looking and ribbon which got torn off very easily by little fingers. So last year I re-made them and they look so much nicer.

Just cut out a ghost from white felt the length of your chair

Cut some strips of fabric to hang the ghosts over the chair and around the sides and sew those into place

Then glue on some buttons eyes and a mouth so they can peek at your from across the table

Witch Hat Onesie

2011-10-14T17:47:00.000-07:00

Cute and simple

Fall Leaf Garland and a GIVEAWAY!

2011-10-13T11:50:00.000-07:00

If you are addicted to pinterest like half the country right now then you have seen pictures of this garland. So cute and easy to make so I went ahead and made a TON!

My 5 year old helped me so she got dibs to hang the first strand in her room.

Then we hung a really long strand from our banister,

And another across our front door

And I still have some left to make another string of garland so I am doing my first GIVEAWAY! If you want some fall leaf garland to decorate your house with leave a comment with your email address so I can get a hold of you and I will pick a winner sometime next week.

Halloween Advent Calendar

2011-10-12T11:38:00.000-07:00

This year I decided to make an advent calendar since there are always so many fun things I want to do with the kids throughout the month.

Of course I decided to do this about a day before October 1st and spent so much time cutting paper, covering clothespins, stamping and sticking #'s onto the cardstock cut outs that it was October by the time I finished and by the time they were hung it was time to jump into festivities and I never got around to actually printing off any of the fun things to do to clip onto the clothespins.

So far our festivities have included celebrating a couple birthdays in the family, seeing a ballet (I know these have nothing to do with Halloween but they were fun), and then we jumped more into Halloween with decorating the house, decorating invites for our annual Witch and Warlock Tea Party, making fall treats, and future activities will include lots of parties, a visit to the pumpkin patch, painting acorns, and making ghosts out of things like milk jugs and cheesecloth.

The advent calendar was easy. I mod podged cardstock onto the clothespins, cut out Halloween shapes and stamped some or used stickers on some, and then added magnets to the back to hang them on my fridge.

The Candy Corn Onesie

2011-10-11T17:49:00.000-07:00

This is my cutie pie Ady modeling for me.She has been featured on Etsy for modeling this onesie and many other things I have made.

This is the first Halloween Onesie I made. I wanted it to last all season.

I found an orange onesie at the dollar store with a little picture on it and I just covered it up with the applique.

And for those of you who know Ady and wonder how long she has been sucking on her wrist: forever

And if you look closely at that wrist you will see her permanent hickey.

Although it's hard to notice if you can't get past those big blue eyes.

The Doily Spider

2011-10-10T12:21:00.000-07:00

I saw this idea on another blog that of course I can't find anymore. (If you know which blog please feel free to post in the comment section. )

I fell in love with it but never got around to making it last year. I found some cheap doily's last month at a favorite thrift/antique store and snatched them up. They happened to be perfect sizes for my 3 hoops I had at home.

I ran home, stuffed the doily's in and they have been hanging up in our front room for about a month now.

It's never too early to start decorating right?

Halloween Treats

2011-10-09T17:23:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I like to put my sewing down and venture into the kitchen, although that is rare. A few years ago I got the cooking bug and made every single recipe that I could find. Some turned out great, like what's below, and some turned out super nasty, like the pumpkin soup I made. So gross!

skeleton cookies:make a gingerbread man and pipe on his bones. Fun for kids to help

A scarecrow take on the 7 layer dip

Spider Sandwiches: These were so yummy. There are ham and cheese inside them. And butter I think. Breadsticks for the legs and biscuits for the body. My girls refused to eat them but had a blast helping to put them together.

Pumpkin Maternity Shirt

2011-10-08T17:42:00.000-07:00

This is something else that was a HUGE hit in my little etsy shop last year. I wore it the year before when I was pregnant and decided to make and sell them last year.

Since there were no orange maternity shirts to be found I had to dye them and then wash and wash to make sure they wouldn't bleed onto anything because no matter what they tell you, it will still bleed a little. And that is no bueno when selling something.

Then I appliqued on a little face and with a cute little or big bump(mine are always HUGE) you are ready to celebrate the season.

I'm not selling this year. I miss it terribly but know that I am having more fun spending time with my kids. Someday I will be back at it again. My kids will only be little for a bit and soon enough will be in school and then I will have more free time than I imagined to sew and sell.

Halloween Costumes day 7- Hello Kitty

2011-10-07T17:38:00.000-07:00

My oldest picked Hello Kitty last year and in the spirit of trying to make super simple and quick costumes (mainly because they decided what to be the night before) I used the little bad wolf pattern to make her kitty hat. I made sure to put the bow on the correct ear because apparently Hello Kitty has a twin named Mimi and she wears her bow in the other ear.

I made some mittens for her and she wore white tights and a white long sleeved shirt.

A simple Hello Kitty type dress finished off the outfit.

She wore this outfit at our church's trunk or treat. No one guessed who she was. She didn't seem to pleased about this and when we went trick or treating at dad's work a few nights later she decided to be Dorthy from the Wizard of Oz. She already had ruby red slippers and a long blue dress with a basket and a little dog sitting in it. I put her hair in braids. 2 other friends were the exact same thing that year and when they saw her, them all decked out in the store bought sparkly Dorthy outfit, asked her what she was. Corduroy again was devastated and whispered in my ear, "I even have braids in my hair and they don't"

So on the actual Halloween night, she went back to her standard Corduroy the Bear outfit. I dressed the baby in little red riding hood and put some wolf ears on my head and wore a brown sweater. My husband also wore a brown sweater, his standard color. Middle girl was still Rapunzel. She fell asleep on daddy's shoulder and baby was back at home with the grandparents. One of the houses commented on how cute we were as Goldilocks and the 3 bears. Corduroy turned around and stormed off quietly and didn't say much the rest of the night. Poor girl. I am going to have to work on my "simple" costumes cause they aren't doing the job.

Costume Week day 6-Rapunzel

2011-10-06T17:35:00.000-07:00

Last year, before we had ever seen Tangled, my daughter all of a sudden had an infatuation with Rapunzel. I think it was buzzing in the air. That is all she wanted to be for Halloween.

this is from the year of the broken camera and this was the best I got

So I made my red riding hood cape in pink, added a long braid from yarn and sewed it inside and added some sheer fabric to the hood.

Costumes Day 5- Corduroy the Bear

2011-10-05T17:24:00.000-07:00

On this costume all I made were the overalls. She loves this costume so much that she has worn it the past 3 years. It might have something to do with the fact that her and the bear share the same name.

Corduroy the Bear, cowgirl and a bee

Do your kids change their minds with costumes like mine? Notice Corduroy is missing from this picture and we have a flower fairy instead. (wishing I had that headband 2 years previous)

Halloween Costumes Day 4-Bumblebee

2011-10-04T17:10:00.000-07:00

I found some wings and headband in the dollar section at Target(love that place) and turned it into this:

I sewed a little stinger on the bum out of felt and stuffed it.

And then I sewed some ribbon onto the onesie

This was my second babies first Halloween

Little sis wore it a couple years later for her first Halloween

Costumes Day 3- Flower

2011-10-03T16:54:00.000-07:00

This is my almost 6 year old on her first Halloween.

I had big plans for a daffodil costume, but the white weed that you blow and make a wish on, not the yellow one. But every time I explained it I just got weird looks so I went simpler with a plain flower.

The petals were supposed to stay on her head like a headband but she was 10 months and I am lucky she even kept them around her head.

I sewed on 2 leaves to her onesie (which would have looked a little more like leaves if the petals were on her head) and then made a skirt to imitate grass. I cut up sheer fabric and tied some crazy yarn to it.

Costume Week Day 2- Little Red Riding Hood

2011-10-02T16:40:00.000-07:00

So these have been seen and seen again by those who have been following my blog for awhile, but I picked up some new readers after doing SYTYC and am hoping that the new readers won't be sick of seeing the costumes I have made in the past.

These are by far my favorite costumes I have made. They are just so quick and simple.

The dresses I made from a pattern on Etsy. Cute pattern but I had to tweak it a lot because of the fit around the neck and arms.

The pattern is simple and cape patterns are all over the web. I added the button closure for the little babies so they wouldn't rip off the ribbon closure.

Littler Red Riding Hood

I also added a leaf border around the whole cape for a little extra detailing.

And of course I couldn't leave out any boys out there so I made a wolf hat to make the storybook tale complete.


The Little Bad Wolf

For the wolf I basically used the same pattern from my capes but I rounded the head and added ears. I sewed the front and back of the ears to make them stand up. And all the wolf hats had buttons cause I figured a ribbon would have been too girly for that bad wolf.

Halloweenapalooza! Starting with Costume week!

2011-10-01T18:38:00.000-07:00

I LOVE Halloween and get so excited for it every year but this year for some reason I have been extra excited so I decided that I am going to celebrate it everyday this month. (I just hope I have enough posts to last a whole 31 days!)

Some of these will be repeats and some will just be better updated posts since last year my camera was on the fritz the whole month of October so I never got to take any decent pics of all the stuff I made last year.

To get the season started off on the right foot let's start out with a throwback from my college years. I was 18 or 19 in this picture and was going to college for fashion design in So Cal.

This is my all time favorite Halloween costume and I hope to be able to squeeze into it again someday. I made it from my own pattern. The picture on the left is from a boat cruise I went on. Everyone loved my costume so much and wanted me to be in their pictures. Always makes you feel so good to have people appreciate your hard work.

31 Days of Halloween!!!

2011-09-28T06:21:00.000-07:00

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. There are just so many fun things about it. So this year I thought it would be fun to celebrate Halloween for 31 days!

Every day I am going to post some fun Halloween ideas.

The first week will be all about costumes in case you are still trying to come up with ideas for your kids, or yourself.

There will also be posts about food, decorations and parties.

So stop by everyday to get some awesome Halloween ideas!

Child Mode

2011-09-27T14:33:00.000-07:00

Today I found this site.

Posted all the way back from last year. It makes me wonder how many more are out there. How I do wish people would tell me when they were posting about me.

Whoever this site is, they said such nice things about my costumes, "cutest Halloween costumes of the season".

Yes, very sweet indeed!

The Owie Doll

2011-09-23T13:31:00.000-07:00

Last week one of my friends daughters had surgery. It didn't end up being a simple surgery and she had a lot more things done to her than her parents anticipated. This sweet little girl gets surgery on her legs at least once a year. And she is such a trooper through it all. The sweetest cutest little girl I have ever met and such an inspiration to all that know her.

While she was in the hospital my daughters and I went to work on making her an owie doll and then we got to deliver it to her after she came home. I had my daughters bring their own dolls to show her all the different pieces and how they went with the doll. It was so fun to see them all playing together and to watch them give to someone else something that they had helped to make.

My 3 year old actually made about a million different things for the doll. She just kept cutting and "sewing" up fabric scraps and then handing them to me telling me to add them to the pile for her friend.

These dolls are nothing new. They came out a couple years ago by IKAT. She made an amazing pattern that I couldn't not buy.(you can find the pattern on her side bar) Right away I made 2 dolls for my little girls and had dreams of making lots of them for sick kids in hospitals in the future.

Well, that never happened but I am glad that I was finally able to make one for a little girl to enjoy.

Read about the 1st time I made them here.

Thimble collection

2011-09-21T13:57:00.000-07:00

I am working on my craft room again and am finally starting to hang things up. I have decided that I am going to keep the wall color for now. It is a cream color and I want nuetral anyways. I like that in my inspiration room because if what I am making doesn't match the surrounding areas it really throws me off.

old printing tray is the perfect display case

I have this thimble collection that has had a spot to sit but has never been hung. I am FINALLY hanging it. It is so fun to be reminded of all the cool places that I have been to and my girls love looking at them and asking me about where they came from.

These are my favorite thimbles because they are so cute and unique and they are from one of my all time favorite vacations!

I will be posting more pics as I get more done in the room. So far I have painted a chalkboard wall but at this time it really isn't too exciting to be taking a picture of.

Shiny Happy Curtains

2011-09-09T08:59:00.000-07:00

So I made these curtains a couple months ago and I LOVE them! I had some houndstooth fabric curtains in the front room but they were: too dark, didn't flow, I could go on and on.

see the floors? We have to do some replacing before we sand and restain

I am having a hard time picking one thing and sticking with it in my home. There are too many other factors to play into everything: lighting(my front room has no natural light), dark furniture(not buying new, too expensive), dark trim(don't want to paint white cause it actually looks nice), dark wood floors(still refinishing)...

What wall colors go well with dark wood trim by the way? I now have a green kitchen and a yellow front room. I need to paint my dining room but I don't want too many colors. So many dilemmas. Does anyone else have this problem? Besides the factors of finding time with 3 little kids and a budget. I think I just have too many ideas in my head.

So these are my curtains this month. And I really mean that because next month my Halloween curtains are going up! I am so excited for Halloween this year! And I will actually have a working camera to take better pictures. Last year they were pretty bad and I couldn't get any good shots.

This is my witch curtain that hangs in one of my front windows. I have bats and a cat upstairs.

Thrift Store Finds

2011-09-02T14:17:00.000-07:00

I haven't been doing much sewing lately. I do have some new curtains to show you and I am working on some more. I may end up having more curtains that windows pretty soon...

But I do have some fun thrift store goods to show off.

When I first moved into this house a year ago I had these super cute built ins in my dining room and they stayed empty for quite awhile. But since I get a tad shaky if I don't hit up a thrift store every week they have filled up and I am really not sure if I would be able to cram anything else in them.

Some of the things in here I inherited from my grandma, but most I found at a great price. It is so much more fun setting the table now.

I don't remember how much these were but I usually don't pay more than $1 for things. Aren't those tiny bowls the greatest ever? Those are my dipping bowls for our crab wontons! YUMMM!

Like all these dishes together were $1 at a garage sale. Not a complete set but I have a weakness for yellow.

I got this whole set for $14. This is a full set and I couldn't pass up that cute syrup/cream pourer thingy. And when I got home and researched it online I found out that just buying an individual plate for this set was $20. So I think I scored. And it was made in Ohio which makes it even better for me cause that is where we just moved to.

Flying with Kids-Rockstar Status

2011-08-30T17:54:00.000-07:00

I have been flying with kids since my 1st was 1 month old. I try not to make a habit of it because it is super tiring, but when you live far from family it needs to be done.

A few months ago I wrote about some tips and tricks about flying solo with 3 kids in tow and I am back with a few more.

My first tip is to admit defeat and everything else will seem like cake.Just know they won't be perfect but they can still be really good.

All they want is to be entertained. It takes prep work and energy.

My kids get bored watching movies for some reason. They will watch about half of one and then turn it off. So I have to have lots of things to keep their short attention spans going(ages 5, 3, and 1).

This last flight I had the novel idea to have them make a scrapbook of their vacation. I found a small scrapbook in the $1 section at Target and during the vacation the girls collected papers, ticket stubs, Chinese fortunes, whatever and we kept them in a baggie. I had double sided tape and the night before I went and printed off a few pictures for them and they crammed it all into the scrapbook.

Another thing my girls love are magnetic dress up dolls so I bought a new set and had them play with that. It was so much better than coloring because I wasn't constantly searching for pens that had rolled under the seats. It's magnetic see? So it sticks to the tray and you don't have to worry about a thing!

After this flight I received more compliments than any other flight I have been on. It was nice to feel like a rockstar for a night. Especially while toting around 3 kids.

Vacation

2011-08-08T15:38:00.000-07:00

I am on a super long fun filled family vacation right now, just in case you were wondering what happened to all my awesome crafts. HA!

I have a few more fun thrift store finds once I can post some pictures again. And being on vacation has my mind reeling with new ideas for crafts. Fun christmas present ideas and back to school ideas, although the later will have to be late back to school things in the making since we get back the night before my big Kindergartner starts school. But it's all day for her so if the other 2 little ones let me, I will be back in my craft room making fun things.

Also, last year I followed along with Project Runway with their challenges but making them pint sized. It has already started and I'm not home, but I am hoping to jump right in when I get home. If you want to join in with me send me a comment.

Sewing with Kids

2011-07-13T18:20:00.000-07:00

Here is our latest project. It took a few weeks to complete since my daughter is still young(5). Sometimes she gets tired or bored with it and sets it aside and sometimes she get frustrated so I make her stop because that means she is tired.

I usually sew with her at night after the younger girls have gone to bed and I always do my projects in sessions. Night 1 was picking out fabric and cutting out the pattern and fabric.

Night 2 was sewing the hearts on. She loves using my fancy stitches on my machine so we spent a whole night sewing on the hearts in rainbow color. I have her do all the sewing while I press the pedal. (her machine is low enough for her to press the pedal on her own)

Nights 3- whenever we finished were stitching the sides and handle. This is where I would have her stop whenever she seemed tired. This took longer because we had to keep re-threading her needle because she hasn't learned to hold is correctly yet. I think that comes with experience. The last day of her sewing she was finally able to re-thread her needle herself and she was so excited! I was too. I love spending this time with her but it is a lot of work for me sometimes. But the more she can do on her own the less work it is for me and becomes more fun for both of us.

She got tired of doing the stitch I showed her at the beginning and went right back to the straight stitch. She asked me if she could. Of course, it is her purse and she should make it the way she wants.

Pillows

2011-07-09T11:54:00.000-07:00

So before I painted my walls yellow my room was in serious need of color. So I made the silhouettes and these pillows and bought a cute quilt.

These pillows are just simple appliques I cut out and machine stitched on. I also added a zipper since I know they will get dirty pretty quick.

This pillow was made before I was ever married. The front of it was super gross even though it had been washed many times. I tore off the front and put a new one on leaving the back the same since it looked just fine and I loved the fabric. And this time I added a zipper so that it will be much easier to wash.

Of course now my curtains don't match and when my red front door is open my room looks like ketchup and mustard. Baby steps...

Sewing with Kids- Book Review

2011-07-06T18:20:00.000-07:00

I know you thought I forgot but I have just been a tad busy/sick/lazy to do much.

This book was sent to my daughter as a birthday present from her cousins and she LOVES it. She actually falls asleep reading it most nights dreaming of making things.

We have done a couple things inspired from this book but just finished our first real project from the book and I will show it to you next week. Since she already has a know how of pattern cutting and can do 2 stitches, she had a really easy time with the project. She can even now re-thread her needle(as of this project). YEAH! for me cause I was having to do it for her so often.

The book is really cute and if fairies aren't your thing, there are a bunch of other themes by the same company. Something for every boy and girl. And if you need more fairies, there are more than 1 fairy book.

Ahhh, much better

2011-07-03T11:49:00.000-07:00

Here are some better pictures of the front room. This is what it looks like some days. Other days it looks a little greenish. Some days Adam and I like it and others we don't.

The room is kinda dark all the time. There are only 2 windows and they go out the the porch so not too much sun comes in them. Can you see how the yellow looks nice in the top pic but not the next one???

What do you think?

Yellow

2011-07-01T18:37:00.000-07:00

I painted my front room the other day. I had been trying to pick the perfect neutral shade for a year and when I got to Lowe's to buy the paint I came home with yellow. Bright yellow! I love the color, I really do, but I am not sure I like it in my room. A few days before I tore out the carpet to reveal hardwood floors underneath. They are in decent shape but have paint all over them and desperately need to be sanded and refinished.

Anyways, back to the yellow. All of the furniture in that room is brown, now the floors are brown and the trim is brown. Not sure if we will paint the trim white or not, most likely not, but even if we do, everything large in there is brown. So I don't know how much I like it. Here is a quick pic I took. I'll try and get more up. Just haven't had a chance to take any pictures of things I am doing lately.

Obviously a crappy cell phone pic. And the yellow is brighter than this pic. What do you think???

Thrift Store finds

2011-06-26T19:00:00.000-07:00

I found this game a couple months ago and took pics of it in the store and then ended up going back and buying it. It was too hilarious not to for only a few bucks.

Monotony

A bored game for house~~wives~~ persons

For 2 - 4 housepersons aged 17 1/2 to post menopause

collect husbands, dust balls, pets, grocery sacks and kids

It even has a wooden spoon that is attached to a wire so it fits over your head like it is going right through your head.

I know you all want to play so come on over and we will

Silouettes

2011-06-22T07:33:00.000-07:00

My front room needed some brightening up and these did just the trick!

I found the frames at a discount store called Ollie's. They were only $10 each. They came with a picture of a ship in them. I broke the glass in one of them. Guess they weren't made to come apart.

I ended up just leaving the glass off since I went back and they were all sold out. By the time they get gross with dust I will want to change them anyways.

I used scraps from my craft room so this project ended up costing $30. More than my cheap self usually spends on anything but a great price for personalized art.

The Birthday Blog

2011-06-03T06:09:00.000-07:00

Today I am being featured over on The Birthday Blog for my "heart dr." party I did awhile back. Pretty exciting!

The blog has some really cute birthday ideas and it is more about the activities and less about how amazing your table looks. That is a hard thing to find in a blog lately, the ideas for activities part. And every idea is perfectly organized on the sidebar.

Speaking of hearts, Corduroy is working on a new project involving a rainbow and lots of hearts. Hopefully we will get it finished soon.

And I have been busy working on adding color to my brown living room. So stay tuned for loads of bright pillows and curtains! And if I can get some glass cut, some pictures. I may have broken the glass in a picture frame and it was 1 of 3 and of course I can't get the same frame anymore. So I am in the process of trying to figure out what to do...

Sewing with Kids- Teachers Gift Edition

2011-05-25T14:42:00.000-07:00

Since my daughter loves to sew I wanted her to be involved in making the teachers gift this year. Not that I had ever made anything before this year, she is just now graduating preschool. She has 4 different teachers at her preschool and they have all helped her out so much with opening her up and getting her to talk so I wanted to make sure they knew how much we appreciated them.

I decided to start with what I had on hand and that was aprons already halfway made. They just needed a band and a pockets. I also already had cute food fabric so I went from there. I made the aprons and then had Corduroy help with matching dishtowels.

She wanted to cut the fabric into a heart shape. She did the pattern, cutting and stitching.

I knew that would be a little plain so we also used these fabric crayons she got for her birthday. You just color with them on white paper and then iron the design onto your fabric. Super simple, crayons can be found at JoAnns, but the design just wasn't very dark. So it looked a little more silly than cute. But still, fun for Cordy cause she loves coloring.

Then, since it still needed a little something more, I stitched a thick heart stitch that my machine has across the bottom. That made it look finished.

She picked out which color went with which teacher, they best part was that I was thinking of the same colors for the same teachers.

Then she made a card for each of her teachers and stuck them all in a bag.

Cinco de Mayo Fiesta

2011-05-22T14:41:00.000-07:00

I was in charge of putting together a Cinco de Mayo fiesta for my church and thought I'd share a few of the things I did for it.

FOOD:

For the food tables I made cards with the spanish name to set out.

A lot of the food was assigned out.

I made a ton of beans, taco meat and Spanish rice. I also made a cake and some churros. The churros were gone before I even got around to taking a picture of them. I made them right before everyone showed up so they would be super fresh. They turned out the best of everything I made and were the first thing that disappeared.

We also had a salsa contest. I made numbered cards for each salsa dish and then everyone voted on their favorite. We had a few different categories.

DECORATIONS:

My friends had an idea to get bright paper to decorate the tables with and it turned out great! Perfect for the kids to color with crayons. I made paper flowers out of tissue paper and stuck them in mason jars on the table.

We also had chips and salsa on every table. My husband made a HUGE batch of his yummy salsa.

I also made larger ones and hung them up high.

FESTIVITIES:

After food we had a pinata. All the kids and adults got involved. It was a lot of fun!

I also had a photo booth set up with different props for everyone to go and take their pictures in front of. Most people were shy but a few jumped in and had fun with it. I found these awesome wigs for $1 at the party store. (I wore mine all day) and then I made mustaches and lips and glued them on chopsticks. I also made felt flowers for peoples hair. And we gave the mustaches away to the winners of the salsa contest.

One of my friends painted faces all night and the kids LOVED that!

My mom had gotten my 2 girls shirts from Mexico a few years ago and they fit the 2 youngest for the party so I decided the day before to make one for my oldest. I made it while she was sleeping and am so glad it fit her. It's the red one.

Thrift Store Finds

2011-05-15T11:36:00.000-07:00

My husband keeps joking that he is going to have to buy a trailer to haul all of my finds home in. Cause by the time we cram our 3 kids into our car there really isn't anymore room left in there for anything. But we managed to fit these into the back a couple weeks ago and I am so glad we did. They have already had hours and hours of use.

2 old desks. $3 each! Such a steal and if there was one color I would have painted these, this would be it!

Fort Kit

2011-05-08T11:19:00.000-07:00

I saw these a few months back and knew what was going in my kids Easter basket immediately! I was so excited to make them the only reason they didn't get handed out early was because I didn't get them finished until the night before.

These were so easy to make and really inexpensive if you can find killer deals on sheets. I am usually a little weary about buying sheets at thrift stores cause the thought of used sheets just eeks me out. It's like buying used undies. Yuck! But I did find some sheets that were used as curtains, and they looked brand new so I was OK with them. I also had some sheets that I had bought from Ikea for $2 that were so thin and cheap that we didn't end up using them. Perfect for forts!

I added some bias tape that was a garage sale find to the corners and middles. See the tutorial here for directions.

Next up I made a little "stake bag" to put all the extras in it.

I added a flashlight, rope, clothespins and suction cups to the little bag.

For the main bag I found pillowcases at the $1 store. I cut square notches out of the bottom of the pillowcases in both corners and sewed the up to make them more like bags instead of being flat. Does that make sense? I meant to take a picture but didn't.

And since I can't seem to leave anything plain, I used matching fabric and appliqued a tent sign onto the front of the bags.

Then I shoved everything inside. The girls loved them and used them for a week straight. And it took a little bit of coaxing but they soon realized if they put their materials together they could make their fort a lot bigger.

Update on my Wallpaper

2011-04-29T11:40:00.000-07:00

I wanted to let you know what my walls looks like a couple months after I put fabric on them.

There is a faint black outline from a few of the fabric pieces.

can you see the faint outline?

Not sure if this is because the fabric is black or if this would happen with every color.

but there isn't a mark left by all the pieces, just some of them.

Also, some of the pieces are starting to fall off on their own. Again, not all of them, most of them have been pulled off by my 1 year old. It is her favorite thing to do right now. She crawls along the wall and pick and picks until the pieces start to fall.

Let's be honest

2011-04-24T20:44:00.000-07:00

I am having way too much fun playing with my kids right now. And I really don't have any reason to post because I am not one of those bloggers who gets paid for this. I know I promised some tutorials but I don't know if I will ever get around to them. Have you ever done a tutorial? It takes hours and hours. And I would rather play with my kids and watch them giggle and laugh than sit for hours making something while stopping every minute to take a picture, then spend hours editing the pictures, and then spend more hours writing up a tutorial. Especially when there is already a tutorial out there for almost everything you could think of.

And do we really need a million tutorials on how to make a flower? One is enough I say. Go and play with your kids, we already have enough felt flower tutorials. And do we need a tutorial on how to cut out a square and put some elastic in it to make a skirt? I sure hope not.

The weather has been so nice outside lately I have been spending so much time outside in our yard playing. Today we played Rapunzel. I stood on my porch and threw a rope down to Mother Gothel when she called my name while Flynn Ryder ran around and around our house waiting for her turn to be Rapunzel. And earlier in the week we were out back planting a garden. Bliss! I hope to have more days like this because I know soon enough they will all be in school and I will have way too much time to make them clothes that I know they will most likely hate because it was homemade.

There will be more posts, of course!. I love making things, I love buying old things and I love taking pictures. Those 3 things have been my passion for about 20 years now and I am not in my 40's. Not even close. Just wanted to let you know why I haven't posted said tutorials. So keep reading for fun stuff, just maybe not tutorials. I made the girls fort kits for Easter. Have you heard of those? I just barely came across them and felt like I had been missing out. They are amazingly fun. I will post about them soon!

Does anyone have tips on how to photograph curtains?

2011-04-18T20:06:00.000-07:00

Cause I try and try and try but this is the best I could come up with. The light coming through the window just makes for horribly dark pictures.

These look so nice here, I promise. Just some curtain panels I made last week to hang on our stairway landing. (is that what it's called?)

I had this fabric in my stash. So nice to finally use it. Since it's on the stairs it doesn't matter that it doesn't match anything.

It was wide enough so that I just cut it in half, serged and hemmed it up and then hung it. Quick and easy. Now on to make some for my bedroom and dining room...

Quiet Book

2011-04-16T20:05:00.000-07:00

Here are pictures of a quiet book that I made a few years ago

Learn to Count

It has definitely seen better days

Snap the tail on the Horse and put the dog in it's house

The purse has a pocket to put things in and there is a bear with a blanket and pillow

Zippers and snap on train wheels

Match the shapes and button on the flowers

Fit your hand in the mitten and tie a shoe

These are pockets for a notepad and pen

If I could do it over I would have reinforced all the velcro tabs so it would last longer and I would have used better zippers(more kid friendly) instead of what I had on hand. I also would have made my laces with a thicker ribbon instead of whatever I had on hand. Oh, and bigger snaps, again, more kid friendly...that's what I get for using whatever I had on hand and not buying anything new for it I guess. At least it was cheap, even though it took me a million hours to make.

Weakness

2011-04-12T19:31:00.000-07:00

I have a weakness and they are vintage sewing machines. I have this beautiful turqoise one that I have lugged with me from Cali, to Utah, to Cali and now to Ohio. It doesn't work and I have never had a place to display it but I can't get rid of it.

And now, I have 2 more to add to the collection. I bought them for the kids, but really, they are for me.

I saw a pink and brown one just like this blue one the other day and I am sure I would have bought it if my husband hadn't been with me. This blue one is corroded where the battery goes, but the pink one looked like it might actually work! EEKKK!

See? It's getting some good use out of it.

The Master

2011-04-09T20:00:00.000-07:00

I have been married for over 7 years and in all my decorating endevors I have never decorated our master bedroom. Sure I have hung a few pictures and made a duvet cover but our bedroom has always been the room that just was. No attention. We got a hand me down matress with a metal frame. We have never bought a bed, like a real bed, because we want a bigger matress for my super tall husband but those things are way too much money for us right now. Sometimes we had a crib in there, sometimes a desk, sometimes both.

But now, now we have a room to ourselves and I finally have an idea of what I want our room to look like. Of course that is easier planned than done. Walls need painted, curtains need to be made, a headboard is wanted, but nothing expensive right?, cause we still don't have the right size mattress we want eventually. Oh, and bedside tables, those are a definate. Whatever piece of furniture doesn't have a home gets stuck by our bed. Our bedroom has always been a mismatched mess. Not in a good way.

In order to paint, I need a day with no kids, (HA!), for the bed fiasco, I need a good thrift store find(I think I found my headboard today!) and for a matching duvet I need to order some dye from Dharma to get the right shade. Oh, and since I am too picky for my own good for curtain fabric, I have an idea up my sleeve to personalize them all romantical like.

But for the little nook in the corner of my room I found the just right table and chair to make a little reading nook. And although the chair has been 3/4 of the way done for a couple weeks now, the table is finished!

Before

After

Wow! That was a lot of talking for just 2 pictures. Sorry they weren't more impressive. But I do love the color! And the table was $4! Score!

Credit Due

2011-04-07T19:44:00.000-07:00

So awhile ago I posted a cute birthday present that I made for my daughter but I never said where the inspiration came from. Of course I kept meaning to take pictures of the book and it never happened. Until now.

This book has so many super cute ideas in it! Everything in here is amazing and I want to make it all! So far the only thing I have made is the sewing kit idea. I took ideas from this:

And this:

and put them together to get this:

***see original post here

Hello Kitty Party

2011-04-06T10:35:00.000-07:00

I just realized that I had showed you what I made for this party but I never told you what we did at the party. It was a lot of fun and my oldest wanted to help with planning her party this year.

She wanted a Hello Kitty party and had to help with everything about the party. She knew exactly what she wanted (had to be HK plates, napkins...) and the stuff I added she had to look through and give the OK on it.

I made my 2 older girls shirts as a surprise for the party. It was fun to surprise my oldest with something since she helped with every other part of the party.

We had her party the day before her birthday because she wanted daddy to be there (he was the only boy allowed) and he had to work on her actual birthday.

I can't believe how much work went into a simple little party. And I can't believe how fast we went through the games. The whole party was over way before it was time for the parents to come and get the kids.

When the kids first got here I handed them a headband with ears and a bow on it and drew wiskers on their faces.

Then they colored while we waited for everyone else to get here.

Next up we played pin the bow on Hello Kitty. I drew a picture of Hello Kitty on a large piece of paper and then cut out bows to put on Hello Kitty.

And then I had the kids head into the playroom where I had wound several stands of yarn around toys. They had to follow their color yarn to the end.

It was pretty entertaining to watch. It was really hard for the younger kids. I think Corduroy was the only younger kid to get it and she gave up before she got to the end. But this game was also the favorite.

Next up we had a bean bag toss. I made some bean bags and cut holes out of boxes for them to throw them into.The boxes weren't anything fancy but you could definitely decorate them more.

And all of that lasted a half hour.

Next up was dinner and presents. Then, luckily someone got my daughter a HK DVD so we popped that in and watched it.

Lastly we decorated cupcakes. I had an example for them to work from.

this would be the example, not one the kids did

And this is what they made:

Corduroy's


Ady's. It was actually pretty good for a 2 yr old. You can see where she took her ears off and ate them before I got a picture.

I made these gift bags for all the girls and filled them with HK stuff from the $1 section at Target.

Most of my ideas came from this party website. I look there first for almost all of my party ideas because they have great games to play with the kids and any theme you could think of with different age ranges for that theme. There are no pictures but all of their ideas are really cute. A lot of the party websites now are just pictures of the table and they are decorated really cute but I have no idea what they did at the party. I want details of games so I can entertain kids! That website is the place to go!

Carnival Party

2011-04-05T08:37:00.000-07:00

I celebrated my daughters 1st birthday not too long ago and we had a carnival party. It was tons of fun and super easy and cheap. Everything we needed was found around the house.

Sign leading into the "carnival" room

My older daughters wanted to help out with all the decorations so the day before the party we got to work.

My 3 year old made these and I hung them up.

We had 8 different booths at the party, 2 on each wall.

Ball Toss: baby food jars, throw ping pong balls or pennies in them

Knockdown: these are used cotton candy containers but you could use soda cans or food cans. We threw bean bags at them


Feed the lion: a box that I covered with paper and drew a lion on. Then I cut out the mouth and we threw bean bags in it. Clothespin drop: place the empty jar on the floor and have the kids stand on the stool and drop clothespins in it

Strong Man: This is a ball hitting game from Target. Thought it would be fitting. You just pound the balls with a hammer.

A couple toys we have that seemed carnivally for rides.

I hung up this sheet around our armoir to hide it and to make a cute backdrop for our photo booth below. Then I set up the face painting station. We already had the face paints but had never used them. I also put cotton candy and animal cookies on the table for everyone to eat while they were getting their faces painted.


Photo Booth: After the face painting we went and took pictures

This was all with just our family. It was a lot of fun. For dinner we had hot dogs and mac n cheese. For dessert I made cupcakes that my 3 year old helped me make and decorate.

those are cotton candy balls on top

After the festivities, dessert and the opening of presents, we watched a movie and ate popcorn.

Armor of God

2011-03-25T20:49:00.000-07:00

I work with the little kids at my church. Every 3rd month I am in charge of teaching them as a group. Usually there is an outline to follow but a couple months ago, there was a 5th Sunday and I was able to pick my own theme. I decided to teach them about the armor of God found in Ephesians.

I knew what I wanted to teach but didn't know how I was going to teach it until the night before. I found my comfort in my fabric and whipped this up. I was under major time restraint so it's not the best quality but it was a lot of fun and turned out great during sharing time.

Luckily I had 2 nasty cushions that have been in my "to recover" pile forever and they worked out great for a backdrop. And I had an extra cutout leftover from my skeleton game. I pinned that in place and was ready to dress my guy.

I made some firey darts for the kids to throw at the guy before he was clothed showing that the firey darts were able to get him. (they had velcro on them so they would stick to the felt)

Next I had 2 voluteers come up. One read a scripture and they other listened to see what article of clothing needed to go on. (all the pieces of clothing were made from scraps that I just cut out. No sewing. And the velcro was sticky back velcro, so I didn't need to sew that either. Like I said, way last minute)

The shoes actually laced up his leg. I cut little slits in the felt so you could lace the bias tape right through them.

Next I got out word strips and had kids come up and see if they could remember what word went with what piece of clothing. They did OK but we read through all the scriptures again.

It ended up being a lot of fun and my own kids still like playing with it at home.

Thrift Store Find?

2011-03-24T21:16:00.000-07:00

This is in a thrift/antique/garage type store near my house. I want it! It is totally awesome is it not? A cute little carousel for my kids!

it's sitting on a random table

It is $40! I think it's a steal. What do you think?

The Kitchen Re-do

2011-03-23T20:48:00.000-07:00

So our house is a HUGE work in progress! I see my other friends blogs who moved when I did and they seem to have done so much more than us and I am so impressed! I can't seem to find the time and my husband can't find the energy. One thing we have done is paint the kitchen.

I wanted to paint the cupboards cause I hate the oak color, but it is a huge project and we don't plan on staying here forever, and since some people actually like oak, we decided to keep them the same. I do want to switch out the drawer pulls but they are 2.5 inches and that is just IMPOSSIBLE to find anywhere!

Before

Notice the ugly white pantry doors? I left them off.

This is the only picture I have managed to take of the kitchen so far. But I haven't hung any pictures up yet. It is just painted, not decorated. I am still working on painting the frames. And someday, this will be where our fridge goes so this isn't even how it will look in the end. But I kinda like it how it is...

Doing a little of this

2011-03-22T17:08:00.000-07:00

See the turquoise underneath the green? This retro piece has already been through a re-upholstery job. Love it!

Thrift Store Finds

2011-03-20T18:03:00.000-07:00

I have found some amazing thrift stores out here. It makes life so much more enjoyable for me. I have always LOVED them and have made weekly trips to since since I was in high school back in the 90's. In my last town, they were horrible and not worth going to. It was a sad 5 years for me. But probably better since we had no room for anything.

But here, here they are amazing!

I found these suitcases all on the same day for a grand total of:

$5.88

Seriously! How awesome is that! Do I need all of them. No, But I couldn't let go of them. And I had no idea how much they were until I was rung up and then I felt like I was stealing them and ran out of the store.

Sewing with Kids- Pirate Ship

2011-03-18T20:50:00.000-07:00

Have you guys been following Celebrate the Boy?

This post is totally inspired by a post from Dana. She did this with her kids and as I was looking through her blog, my girls saw it totally wanted to make a pirate ship for them.

I did a few things differently. The hats and patch were from this book.

The only downside is that all the patterns in the back say to enlarge x2. I hate when books have that. They may as well just not put the templates back there. So I just free-handed the pattern.

Also, I didn't have any black elastic, so I colored it with a sharpie. Made it look more rustic right?

I had the girls help with the stitching along the hat. Even my 3 year old got in on the action and did pretty good.

And using this tutorial, I added a pirate ship flag to our wall so we were legit. 2 legit to quit!
And speaking of that tutorial: So far the fabric has left no color stains on the walls. Its been a month of black fabric on white walls. And the flag below is fabric starched to fabric starched to a wall. And it is sticking. No sew!

And of course there were maps drawn by the girls.

yes mom, that's my Humpty Dumpty preschool shirt on Ady.

Sewing with Kids Slacker Style- Draping

2011-03-16T11:47:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed that I seem to have disappeared from posting actual craft type things. There is good reason for this:

Besides a 2 week vacation and going into an after SYTYC coma, this little person is the MAIN reason. She gets into EVERYTHING!

Yesterday, the girls were dying to sew something so we tried, and I spent most of my time pulling scissors and pins out of her mouth. See how unhappy she is? She doesn't like getting in trouble.

So for those days when you can't actually do anything cause you are too busy with baby control, try the draping activity.

Give the older kids a dress form (stuffed doll or animal would work), some fabric and pins and let them go to town while you sit back and play with the cute baby.

Hours of entertainment. Maybe just 10 minutes, but it felt like hours cause they were silent!

And I do have stuff to post. I promise. I have just been a slacker lately. Not really, just busy playing with the kids and not turning on my computer!

SYTYC

2011-03-09T09:21:00.000-08:00

This is the final week of season 6 of SYTYC. I have to be honest and say that although I wish I had made it to the top 2, I am so happy that I didn't have to make a big craft for the finale!

Go on over and vote!

The final 2 picks are some boy/girl bedding

and a felt playhouse.

It was hard to pick a winner but I ended up voting for the original one. There are SO many tutorials our there already for felt playhouses but not too many for bedding. And you can make your bedding look like whatever you want if you just have your basics given to you in a tutorial. But of course the choice is yours, so go and vote!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

2011-03-02T10:55:00.000-08:00

This year I wanted to do something fun on Dr. Seuss day. All the kids at school get to and so I guess I was feeling a little left out.

First I rounded up all our books and was disappointed to see that we only have a handful. He wrote over 40!

Next I scoured the web looking for fun ideas. I found lots of things for older kids and a few things for the younger crowd. I printed off a quiz from here.

And I plan on making these hats at some point. If I can get my energy up. (I hear you calling me DP).

We went to the library yesterday and checked out some Dr. Seuss books and Horton Hears a Who video. PBS is also doing a Cat in the Hat marathon today.

My energy is spent from making our own little Dr. Seuss lunch. It was so worth it!

We had green egg salad, with a fruit salad. I just used strawberries and blueberries for the color. Let me know if you think of a fun name for it.

For drinks I made Pink Ink Drink

This is just pink lemonade mixed with Sprite.

And for dessert I made Who pudding (normal chocolate pudding) and Thing 1 and Thing 2 Cupcakes.

Cupcakes inspiration from here. Hers are way cuter. I am no decorator. I don't even own any frosting tips. To make my cupcakes I put red dye in my yellow cake mix. For the frosting I made butter cream frosting, recipe on the powdered sugar package, dyed it blue and then stuffed it in a Ziploc bag, cut the tip, and squeezed it on top.
For the signs, I cut out circles from card stock, wrote on them, taped a toothpick on the back and stuck them in the cupcakes.

For some really great recipes (like this one)visit Seussville.com.

The girls had fun!

I read to them while they were eating.

Their silly faces:

Flying With Kids

2011-02-25T22:10:00.000-08:00

So I decided to do the impossible and fly cross country with 3 little kids. When I say little I mean ages 5, 3 and 10 months.

The closest airport to me is Pittsburgh but for some reason there are no direct flights from PIT to anywhere really. So in order to get to Sand Diego or anywhere in so cal, I have to fly from PIT to the east coast, then from east coast to west coast. Totally lame because 1. if I could just take a direct flight, the total flight time would be 6 hours instead of 8, and 2. I wouldn't have to make a plane change with 3 little kids in a HUGE airport all by myself in less than an hours time.

But the trip was a huge success. The girls did AMAZING! So I thought I would share my tips with you.

The first tip I will offer up is the admit defeat and just go with it. You know your kid isn't going to be perfect. Make this day all about them and make it fun!

For this trip I packed 2 carry-ons. One bag was just packets to keep them busy.

I went to the dollar store and found a bunch of things to keep them occupied on the trip. Make sure to get a lot of different types of things. Example, don't get a bunch of different coloring books. Get coloring books, stickers, toys, crafts, a variety of things to do.

For the trip out there I had coloring books, pads of paper, some stickers, valentine day cards for them to fill out, some reusable sticker books that had cool mermaid and pirate scenes in them, a couple paper crowns to decorate with stickers, foam Easter cut outs with foam stickers. I also found some really cool kits for $5 at Wal-Mart. One was a fashion rubbing kit. Where you change out the plates to make different outfits and then rub a crayon on paper. I grabbed 2 different kits.

New things are important when flying so I hit up the dollar store again for the flight home. I found a few new things to add since some of the old things were already used. Playdoh is awesome when flying. So are tattoos! Just give them some tattoos and wet wipes and then can put them on themselves. I also found fake nails which the girls loved.

I also separated everything into individual zipper Ziploc bags so they can open and close them easily by themselves. And the night before the flight I opened up every package so that this doesn't have to be done on the plane. If you wait till the plane you have cranky kids telling you to hurry and a bunch of trash with no place to put it. And if you have a lap child, then you have another kid eating all the plastic and getting in the way.

So whenever a kid asks for something to do, I reach into my bag, pull out a Ziploc bag and hand it to them. Simple and quick. Then I just slide the old one back in there.

I also buy a new DVD for them to watch. An extra $5 for a new movie is so worth it.

( I have tried giving them their own backpack with their stuff in it before and I always end up carrying their backpacks so this time I didn't do that and it was so much nicer. I had my 2 bags, not my 2 and their 2)

The second bag is full of food, diapers and anything else you might need.
I put TONS of snacks in zipper Ziploc bags so the girls could get to them on their own. They each get their own bag and I let them eat whatever they want out of it whenever they want. If they want the candy first, that's fine. They are going to get hungry a lot on the flight and will be forced to eat the healthy stuff at some point.

When we get on the plane I put the snack bags in their seat pockets in front of them for easy access. I also bring a sippy cup for everyone, no matter the age. No mess. I also stick that in the pocket. And on the flight home I bought a drink at the airport to put in their sippy cup before we even got on the plane and I didn't have to worry about transferring drinks from one cup to another and it was great. I think I might do that every time!

If your kids ears hurt really bad keeping the sippy cup handy works really well. My 3 year old was sleeping on the descent and woke up screaming. Gave her a sippy cup and it helped her ears and calmed her right down. She spit out all drugs I tried to give her and will only chew gum for a total of 5 seconds. Fruit snacks are also great cause they are pretty chewy.

I also always make sure to sit all the way in the back by the bathrooms. That way the kids can use the bathroom on their own without you (and 2 other kids) having to go back their with them.

All of these tips have been proven effective on several flights. Take it from me, my baby and I even got a couple Z's on the last leg of my flight.

Tips on how you can score your own row when there is only 1 empty seat left on the plane.

Then on the way to SD a couple weeks ago my husband flew with us. I sat in a row with my baby in my lap and my 3 year old sitting in the middle seat. She wanted to be right next to me. Again, some lame guy from behind who was sitting in the middle of two people asked if the window seat was taken and I dumbly said no but that I had to crazy kids who would be loud and jump around a lot. He said he didn't care cause he was just going to sleep. So I loudly asked myself why anyone would do that. Take a seat away from a mom with two little kids. The flight attendant walking by said because they can. The guy sat down and ignored all rude comments and went to sleep, while I had a baby and a 3 year old on my lap cause she was too scared to sit by a stranger.

Learn from me: Put a body in the window and isle seat until take off. No matter what. If someone asks if one of those seats are taken say YES! Tell them that only the middle seat is open.

Side Note: if you like babies and see a cute one on a plane, offer to hold it for a bit. I am sure even the most protective moms will jump at the chance on a plane. Any break, even 5 minutes to run to the restroom would be AWESOME!

SYTYC Week 8 Scrap Curtains

2011-02-22T08:37:00.000-08:00

Scrap Curtains

This project was one of those projects that just popped into my head and I couldn't stop until I was finished.

Simple kitchen curtains made from scraps of fabric and ribbon

After I hung them I told my husband that since I had something pretty and cheery to look at in the kitchen I might spend more time in there. He just laughed.

The curtains are made from flour sack towels, so there was no sewing there. And then I got to use all my fabric fabric scraps for cute little aprons. I wish they were as easy to make for me as they were to make for this curtain!

SYTYC Week 7 DIY Wallpaper and tutorial

2011-02-21T23:30:00.000-08:00

So I got the boot this week. I guess that's what I get for not choosing something super trendy and different. Since mine was the one thing that wasn't just like the others. Oh well, I love it! I have been out of town all week, along with my family so when I was able to get to a computer to actually vote I was only a couple votes behind. Then, in less than a half hour I was suddenly 30 votes behind. Too bad the voting poll isn't hidden. But I had already don't week 8's challenge so stay tuned for that. It is truly one of my favorite things I have ever made so far. It was finished before the competition even started and I have been trying so hard to make it to week 8 just to be able to put it up there. Kinda funny!

Below is my original post along with the tutorial.

DIY Wallpaper

My walls are barren at this point in my life. We are in a new house and haven't decided on paint color, let alone wall art. So before I am able to hang anything up I needed to cover the walls. And since my husband and I can't decide on a paint color, I just took the initiative to cover the walls in fabric.

This project was simple and took about as long as it would to actually paint your walls. I decided on the design I wanted on my walls and then went about cutting out my own design and put it up.

And I definitely learned a lot of tips and tricks along the way to share with you.

My dining room is totally barren. We don't even have a real table yet, just a fold up one. Soon enough it will be put together and look ama-za-aing!

Materials:

Fabric
Scissors
Starch
Damp washcloth
Towel
Credit Card

Step 1:
Pick your pattern and cut it out. (I cut out a million black houndstooth pieces. )

Step 2:
Lay towel on floor where you plan on spraying so that your floor doesn't get all starchy.

Step 3:
Spray wall with starch.

Step 4:
Stick fabric on wall and spray with starch again till it is all wet.

Step 5:
Smooth out fabric with credit card so there are no air bubbles. Use damp towel to soak up excess drips on wall.

Step 6:
Repeat!

Tips:

If you mess up, just peal fabric off wall and do it over. It is super easy to remove!
If you are sensitive to smells, maybe wait till warmer weather when you can open the windows to air out the smell of the starch.
I am not sure about how it effects the wall underneath since I haven't had this up for very long. I hear that is doesn't do anything to it but I wasn't about to put something up on new paint until I had tried it in a room that is in desperate need of paint. I will let you know after awhile if it did anything to the walls.
I know there are more tips I learned along the way and when I remember them I will put them up here.