My Own Road

Chevron jewelry organizer

2012-02-22T07:00:00.007-06:00

My jewelry situation is a sad mess. All of my necklaces are tangled in one giant knot (both from being clumped together and from little hands playing with them). I've been keeping all of my jewelry in an old, standing jewelry case in my bedroom, and I'm tired of looking at that big, clunky thing in the corner of my room everyday. I wanted to make something that would keep all of my jewelry organized, but look cute at the same time. Can you guess what I used?

A bulletin board! (OK, maybe it wasn't that difficult to guess...)

I originally wanted to buy a bunch of mismatched drawer pulls and drill them into my wall, but when I found this bulletin board for $6, I immediately knew what I wanted to do

To make your own chevron jewelry holder, here's what you need:

Supplies:

Bulletin Board
Spray paint or acrylic paint - 2 colors
Clear sealant
Foam brush
Nails
Double fold bias tape
Vinyl or contact paper for the stencil
Masking tape

Step 1: Paint your bulletin board.

First, you'll need to paint your bulletin board white. It may take a few coats to cover it completely, but make sure you have good coverage, especially over the wood frame. You'll want to paint the cork board too. Spray paint would probably be best, but it was night time and I was impatient, so I used acrylic paint instead.

Step 2: Apply your stencil.

Now, you'll need to apply your chevron stencil. I used my Silhouette to cut out a chevron design and apply it to my board, but if you don't have a craft cutter, just Google "chevron" images and then trace the pattern onto the paper backing of your contact paper, cut out, and stick to your bulletin board.

Step 3: Apply your second color.

Next, put tape around the wooden edges of your bulletin board, right up to the cork so that when you apply your other color of paint, none gets on the wood border. Apply your second coat of paint and let dry. You will probably need several coats of your second color as well.

After your paint has dried, peel off your masking tape. As you can tell from my picture below, some of my turquoise paint leaked into my white areas. I just took a small brush and touched everything up until it looked good.

Here's what it should look like when you finish painting!

Step 4: Add nails and bias tape to hold your jewelry.

Finally, I used a ruler to evenly space my nails. I simply used a hammer to gently hammer them in without pushing them completely through the cork. From there, I just hang my necklaces on the nails.

To hold my earrings and bracelets, I folded the ends of a piece of bais tape under and hot glued them. I then placed the looped ends over a couple of nails, that's it! The earrings I just hook onto the bias tape and for the bracelets, I string them onto the bias tape and when I want one, I just take slip the end off the nail and choose the one I want.

This project turned out better than I could have hoped. I'm so glad to have a functional, pretty new jewelry organizer.

I won't even pretend that this is half of my jewelry. I might need to make myself a couple of these...

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Push Pack Giveaway with Small Batch Studio

2012-02-20T07:00:00.004-06:00

I have another great giveaway for you this week! If you're a follower of my blog, chances are it's because you found me because you saw my Hospital Survival Kit on Pinterest or another social site. I could have never guessed how popular that little bag of goodies would be! I made the kit for a friend of mine who was due with her first baby last year. Since she had never had a baby before, my friend didn't know what kind of things she would want or need when she went to the hospital. I thought back to my last two births in the hospital and the things I wished I had brought with me, and that became my inspiration to make the kit.

Laura, a mother of 3 girls and owner of Small Batch Studio, had the same inspiration that led her to create the Push Pack, a pre-packed bag of wants and needs for laboring mamas. And the best part? The Push Pack is already assembled for you and can be customized in your choice of pink or blue.

Laura says, There is nothing like preparing for the birth of your ﬁrst-born...One thing I struggled with was what to bring to the hospital. There are lists out there, long lists. I know people who brought birthing balls, boom boxes, aromatherapy massage oils, as well as the clothes for themselves and their baby. Now, I am not saying that those things are unnecessary, but I don’t know any mom who brings the same stuff when they’re having #2.

The packing list for the subsequent births are much smaller and more practical. The only problem is now that you have a child or children, when do you have time to pack all of your essentials? Do you want to live out of a travel bag for two weeks? I came up with the idea of the Push Pack. I interviewed a bunch of moms asking them what things they were so glad to have or wished they’d had while they were in labor. The push pack includes the items that were mentioned most often. Call it wisdom and experience, peace of mind, and a gift of love all wrapped into one bag.

The Push Pack includes so many fun and useful goodies for new moms, and all bath and body products are either natural or organic. The pack includes:

EO® lavender scented shampoo, conditioner and bath gel
washcloth
make up remover
razor and shaving cream lotion
deodorant
comb and hair bands
lip balm
toothbrush and toothpaste
breast pads
maxi pads
disposable underwear
comfy socks (your choice of pink or blue)
playing cards
Motherlove Organic Nipple Cream®
notepad
thank you cards and pen
gum
Preggie Pop Drops®
Bellybar®
cup of oatmeal and spoon

What new mother wouldn't love to have all the essentials on hand when their new little one is born? The Push Pack would make a great shower gift for a friend (or keep one on hand for yourself!)

Laura is giving one of my lucky readers a chance to win their very own Push Pack! Each pack comes with the items above in your choice of blue or pink.

You can enter 3 different ways to win:

Tell me which item in the Push Pack you love the most
Like Small Batch Studio on Facebook
Follow My Own Road and leave me a comment on this post letting me know

Even if you don't win, Laura is offering readers of My Own Road a 20% discount on the Push Pack! Just enter the code "myownroad" in the coupon code box when you check out. Also through the end of February, Laura is offering free shipping on all Push Pack purchases.

**The giveaway ends February 23rd at midnight CST. The winner of the Push Pack giveaway will be chosen using Random.org, and announced here on February 24th. Please make sure that your email address is linked to your profile when you comment, or include it in your comment.**

I want candy

2012-02-18T07:00:00.000-06:00

Valentine's Day is over....which means there are a lot of these on sale.

No matter how old I get, I still love these things. Each year I have to have several boxes of these chalky little hearts candies. They're nothing special really, but I still love them. They're kind of the fruit cake of the Valentine's Day season. You can find them in every store and people give them out because they're a staple of V-Day, but nobody really likes them. Except for me. Maybe it's because I can only get them once a year.

As the years have gone on, the messages have gotten more "high-tech" to reflect the times. Now you can find hearts that say "text me" and "dial my #." I'm going to die the day I get a conversation heart that says "facetime me."

I'm stocking up while I can, but in case your candy heart stash runs out, I found this awesome recipe to make your own at Capitol Hill Cooks so you can get your candy heart fix throughout the year :)

Now onto Cadbury Creme Eggs!

Giveaway Winner: The Sharp Crochet Hook

2012-02-17T09:15:00.002-06:00

Happy Friday! If the promise of the weekend around the corner didn't make you happy enough, I'm excited to also announce the winner of the The Sharp Crochet Hook giveaway. I've had a lot of fun using this little tool to add decorative edges to my projects (and plans for quite a few more soon!)

After plugging all of the entries on Random.org, the lucky winner of the Sharp Crochet Hook is..............

#14, Susan D!

Congrats Susan! The winner has been sent an email. I'm sure you'll have just as much fun as I have playing with your new crochet hook.

Even if you didn't win, you can buy the Sharp Crochet Hook by itself for only $6.99, or you can purchase the combo pack that includes the hook and the Crochet Edging Handbook with 15 different crochet patters for $10.99. It's a great deal for such an awesome product. You can crochet decorative edging on all sorts of fabric (and even paper!) with this baby.

Thanks to all who entered, I appreciate each and every one of you! Make sure you check back next week - I have another really great giveaway for you then too!

First haircut

2012-02-15T08:43:00.000-06:00

**Make sure you go HERE to enter my giveaway for The Sharp Crochet Hook! The contest ends tomorrow at midnight**

Well, we finally did it. We took Haley to get her hair cut for the first time! For almost 3 years, we've let her hair grow....and grow and grow. She has such beautiful long curls, but it had finally gotten to the point where her hair had a mind of its own and needed a trim.

I took her to Sweet and Sassy Salon, a salon and spa geared specifically to little girls. The facility itself is the ultimate in girly-ness - everything is pink and sparkly. They do haircuts and styles, spa services, and even parties! While we were, there a princess birthday party going on that Haley was absolutely captivated by (hence the zoned out look below.) The little girls were dressed in princess dresses and tiaras and were dancing around the place. I'm anticipating a future princess party for this girl.

Since she had never even had a trim before, Haley was skeptical when the stylist put her in a chair, draped a blanket around her so she couldn't move, and broke out a pair of scissors. Each time we visit the doctor's office, Haley screams and cries, so I was preparing for the worst.

This was the first cut when her little baby ringlets were chopped off :(

Thankfully, she did surprisingly well. Maybe it was the little television that each station is equipped with or the fact that there was glitter everywhere. Whatever the case, she was all smiles by the end. After cutting her hair, they also sprayed it with glitter (are you sensing a theme?) and then she had the option of having it sprayed with her choice of several scents. We chose strawberry :)

After that, she got her nails done too which is a special treat for her since we don't usually let her get them painted. She was very clear that she wanted her nails painted orange which is news to me. Usually everything has to be pink pink pink.

On top of her strawberry-scented glitter hair cut and orange nails, she also got a tattoo on her hand, her choice of sucker, AND 2 glittery flower tattoos on her cheek, all included in the haircut. Why don't they offer this to adults??

She was such a goober after we got done. She kept asking to go home so she could show daddy her pretty nails and hair. In fact, I couldn't get her to stand still for a good picture, so this is what you get.

I hope everyone is having a great week!

Review and Giveaway: The Sharp Crochet Hook

2012-02-13T07:00:00.014-06:00

***This giveaway is now closed***

I love to crochet, the only problem is that I can only crochet things that are square or rectangular. When my daughter was born, I made a huge baby blanket made entirely of about 70 or so crocheted squares joined together. I was pretty impressed with myself because before then, all I had made was a ton of scarves. Needless to say, when Laura from The Sharp Crochet Hook contacted me about doing a review and giveaway of her product, I was thrilled to be able to make something other than a scarf.

The Sharp Crochet Hook is a brilliant little crochet hook with a sharp point on the end that lets you easily add decorative crochet edging to projects without having to poke holes through the fabric before crocheting. You simply push the sharp end of the crochet hook through the fabric as you crochet. It's perfect for people like me who aren't experienced crocheters because you can easily add crocheted edging to projects to give them a beautiful handmade look.

Armed with my new Sharp Crochet Hook, I decided to make an appliqued shirt for my daughter. for Valentine's Day.

Supplies:

Shirt
2 colors of felt squares
Sharp Crochet Hook
Yarn
Sewing machine and basic sewing materials

First, cut out a heart from one of your squares of felt. Make sure it's about 1/2 inch smaller than you want your final heart to be since you'll be crocheting a border around it.

Next, use your Sharp Crochet Hook to crochet a border around your heart. I used The Quick and Easy Variation stitch in the Crochet Edging Handbook that came with my Sharp Crochet Hook. It was really easy to follow, and it contains 14 other stitches that I'll be trying on other projects soon.

Since the felt was so thick, I had to wiggle the fabric a little to get the crochet hook to poke through, but if I had chosen to use knit fabric instead I wouldn't have had any problems. The hook made edging SO easy since I didn't have to bother with poking holes through the fabric beforehand. I simply crocheted away while watching television and after a little while, I had a beautiful little crochet-edged heart!

Once you have your edging finished, pin your heart to your shirt and sew around the border to secure. Cut a second heart from another piece of felt and place on top of your crocheted heart. Pin and stitch to secure.

That's it! The the crocheted edges really made the shirt and gave it some personality. I can't wait to use my new Sharp Crochet Hook to add decorative edging to other projects!

So how would you like to win a Sharp Crochet Hook for yourself?

Laura is giving away one of her Sharp Crochet Hooks to one of my readers. The Sharp Crochet Hook is perfect for adding decorative edges and borders to receiving blankets, gloves, clothing, towels and even paper products!

You can enter 3 different ways to win your own Sharp Crochet Hook:

1. Like The Sharp Crochet Hook on Facebook and leave me a comment on this post letting me know

2. Tell me what you would make if you won
3. Follow My Own Road and leave me a comment on this post letting me know

**The giveaway ends at 11:59 pm CST on February 16th. The winner will be chosen via Random.org and announced here on February 17th. Please make sure you include your email address in your comment if it's not linked to your profile.**

Even if you don't win, the Sharp Crochet Hook would make a great gift -- or just buy one for yourself! You can buy the Sharp Crochet Hook by itself for only $6.99, or you can purchase the combo pack that includes the hook and the Crochet Edging Handbook with 15 different crochet patters for $10.99.

Good luck, and thanks for entering!

DIY Valentines Roundup

2012-02-10T09:53:00.000-06:00

Need some fun ideas for last-minute valentines that you can make yourself? Here are a few great ideas I've spotted around the web!

Invisible ink message in a bottle @ Minneco.co.uk

I was soapin' you'd be mine valentine soaps and printables @ My Own Road

Photo valentines @ Design Mom

Free printable candybar wrapper @ Anything But Perfect

Matchbox valentines @ Inchmark

Valentine fish bowls @ Faboolous

Hopefully this roundup inspires you to try your hand at making your own unique valentines this year. Happy (Valentine) crafting!

Warm winter strolls

2012-02-09T07:00:00.004-06:00

The weather has been unusually warm in Tennessee lately. That means more walks outside, which is something I absolutely love. My husband is not so happy with the lack of snow. He came from Pittsburgh, the land of freezing cold. Every time we visit PA in the winter, I have to remember to bring heavy layers and big jackets. Here in Tennessee though, it's pretty perfect for casual strolls outdoors with my kiddos.

It's a good thing it's been so warm too, I've been needing to peel myself off the couch where I've been glued to The Hunger Games series. Seriously amazing books. If you haven't read them yet, go out and buy them. And also find a comfy couch and plan on being there for quite awhile because you won't be able to tear yourself away. It took me about a week and a half to finish all three books and now that I'm done, I'm a little sad. I always feel like something is missing when I finish a good book.

I did finally get around to doing a couple of projects though, including putting together a couple of giveaway posts that I'm really excited about :) Make sure you check back soon, I can't wait to show you what I've been up to!

How about you, have you been having more of a summer than a winter lately?

Perfect printable

2012-02-06T09:51:00.000-06:00

How many people can say that they first met in the check out line of a Mongolian restaurant, or that they walked down the aisle to "Afternoon Delight" after they were married? If you can answer "yes" to both of those question, we have to talk because we NEED to be friends.

When I first met my future husband, he was this brilliant, handsome grad student, and I was a naive girl with no idea of what was best for me. After a brief conversation that first fateful afternoon at the Mongolian restaurant, we met again a week later at a friend's birthday party. Patrick, who I was about to find out was as much of an Anchorman fan as I was, randomly burst into a chorus of "Afternoon Delight" in the parking lot. I began to harmonize with him for several verses, and from then on, we knew that we were both equally as weird, so we had to be meant for each other.

Our relationship has always been unique. We were engaged 4 months after we started dating, I was pregnant a month and a half after we got married, and baby number two followed not long after. Nothing was ever forced with us, it just felt.....well, perfect.

Of course, no one is perfect. When we first got married, one of our first arguments involved me yelling at Patrick for leaving a dirty bowl in the sink for days without washing it because as EVERYONE knows, you're supposed to rinse the bowl out and put it in the dishwasher as soon as you're finished. Consequently, I also learned that it's weird and annoying when I leave multiple used paper towels laying around on the kitchen sink to use for later.

Apparently I'm less than perfect too.

Isn't that what love is all about anyway? Finding that one person who loves and accepts you despite all of your imperfections? I know it's true for me, and I wanted to free printable in recognition of all of our perfect imperfections.

Click HERE or click on the picture below to be taken to Google Docs where you can download this free printable in your choice of yellow, turquoise or gray, size 8x10.

And in case you were wondering, yes, I still leave paper towels laying around the kitchen.

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Banned

2012-02-02T07:00:00.002-06:00

If you follow my Facebook page, you know that I banned all computer games and crafting last Saturday so that we could have some quality family time together. My husband said he felt like he was grounded, but for me, it was really nice to unplug and spend time together for the whole day.

And also, I liked not having to battle for attention with Pat's Star Wars The Old Republic game.

(I took a bunch of pictures with my iPhone throughout the day, so they're a little grainy :)

We rented Kung Fu Panda 2 and watched it with the kids. Connor was obviously thrilled. He fell asleep almost immediately.

This little girl loved having us to herself though. We went through 2 bags of popcorn before she lost interest and Pat and I were left to finish the movie by ourselves.

For dinner, we broke out our fondue pot and made beer cheese fondue using this recipe. We both love the Melting Pot, but we don't love the price so making the fondue ourselves was a LOT cheaper - and a lot more fun! Our fondue pot was a wedding gift, and it hasn't seen a lot of action in the past 3 1/2 years, so it was good to get some use out of it for once.

I justify eating all that cheese with the fact that we're dipping veggies and fruit into it. And bread - you can't forget that.

In case you're wondering, the recipe was really good! It tasted almost exactly like the Melting Pot's version (and according to the source, it was actually shared on television by representatives of the Melting Pot so it's supposedly the real deal.) It was so good, in fact, that we made it again this past week.

While the Melting Pot generally uses a cheap beer in their cheese fondue, we found using the right kind of beer makes a world of difference. Newcastle is my personal favorite. And as an added bonus, you get to drink the rest of what you don't use :)

So that was our computer and craft-free weekend. Nothing huge and exciting, but enjoyable nonetheless. If I didn't think Pat would hide my fabric stash somewhere, I might consider doing another ban this weekend :)

"I was soapin' you'd be mine" Valentine gift {soap tutorial and free printables}

2012-01-30T07:00:00.001-06:00

After my recent adventures in soap making, I got a little hooked. I just can't tell you how easy it is! I'm doing the 'melt and pour' method of soap making though, the kind where all I have to do is....well, melt and pour the soap.

When I told my husband that I learned how to make soap, he pointed out that I'm not actually making the soap, I'm just mixing it. Way to crush my little crafting heart. Next time he goes to play one of his computer games I'm going to remind him that he's not actually a wizard.

So there.

So back to making soap. I have these cute silicone heart molds that were meant for muffins, but why make muffins when I could have a year's supply of heart soap? I also included some free downloadable tags so you can give them as gifts.

Supplies:

Glycerin soap
Red food dye
Silicon heart mold
Fragrance of your choice
Cellophane baggies
Free printable tags HERE
Ribbon
Cardstock
Hole punch
Decorative edge scissors

First, follow the instructions on the back of your glycerin soap to melt your soap in small batches (5 or so ounces at a time). I like to use a kitchen scale to weigh out the soap, then melt it in a clear measuring cup to make it easier to pour.

After you have your soap melted down, stir in your desired amount of food coloring until the color you want is achieved. Next add your fragrance according to the package directions.

Pour your soap into the mold and allow it to dry. Mine took approximately 30 minutes, but time will vary based on size of the mold and amount of soap.

After it's cooled, pop your soaps out of the mold, and it's ready to be bagged!

I made some free downloadable gift tags that you can download HERE. Just print on cardstock and use decorative scissors to cut them out.

To package my soaps, I put a couple of them in a cellophane bag and tied it with ribbon. Then, I punched a hole in one of the sides of the tags and threaded one of the ends of the ribbon through it.

Simple and cute. These heart soaps would make a great Valentine gift for co-workers or friends!

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Pinned it, made it: food

2012-01-26T10:39:00.001-06:00

One morning recently, I woke up with the sudden itch to actually make some of the things I pinned on my Pinterest board. Novel idea, right?

I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that, when it comes to Pinterest, I find myself scrolling through the pictures for a ridiculous amount of time while pinning pictures like a mad woman. Then I realize that it's been 10 minutes since I blinked. I know I sound like an addict, but I can stop anytime.

Really.

I've got tons of boards for categories like things I'd like to make myself, inspiration for future projects, food, and things I'd like to make the kids, but I could count on one hand the things I've actually made from Pinterest. So I decided it was time for some action!

Over the past week, I've been trying out some of the recipes that I pinned, and I thought I'd share them with you too so you could hear what I thought of them and give them a try.

-----------------------------------

1. 2-Minute French Toast in a Cup from Prudent Baby

Prudent Baby has always been one of my favorites. They always have great tutorials for clothing and other crafts, so I knew this one would be a winner (and it doesn't hurt that french toast happens to be one of my favorite breakfast foods.) The preparation and assembly for this was SO easy. I had all the ingredients on hand, and all I had to do was mix everything in a cup and cook for 2 minutes in the microwave. Brilliant, and yummy! I'll definitely be making this again.

2. Cinnamon Cream Cheese Rolls (via Jen McCaffrey on Pinterest)

This recipe had no source to it, so I'm linking to the pin itself since the instructions are in the caption. I immediately liked the idea of making these because the ingredient list was so simple: bread, cream cheese, butter, cinnamon and sugar. I had my doubts that they would turn out very good but I have to say, these were delicious! The sugar and cinnamon that the rolls are covered in, along with the crispy texture and creaminess of the cream cheese, remind me of getting a cinnamon sugar pretzel with glaze dip at Auntie Anne's. They are rich, but I think these would make a great snack or addition to a Sunday brunch.

3. Pepperoni Rolls from What About Pie?

As a child, there was a local bakery down the road from my church that would make pepperoni rolls each day. The recipe was basic, just bread filled with cheese and pepperoni, but that homemade bread and gooey cheese was to die for. After church each Sunday, we would drive to the bakery and pick up pepperoni rolls for each of us and devour them on the way home. This recipe brought all those memories flooding back. Since the bread is store-bought, it wasn't the same as the bakery version I remember, but I would like to try this again with my own homemade dough. All in all, it was delicious!

4. Panera Broccoli Cheese Soup by Chefnini on Food.Com

This last recipe is one that I made just recently. My husband is a sucker for Panera's broccoli cheese soup, so I decided to make this with him in mind. I kept the recipe the same, however I did substitute one cup of 1% milk in place of one of the cups of half-and-half to cut down on the fat and richness and it worked just fine. The only thing I would change would be to reduce the amount of nutmeg. Otherwise, this dish was a winner. I might double it next time since there were hardly any leftovers.

-----------------------------------

Are there any recipes you've made from Pinterest that you absolutely love? Leave your suggestions in the comments below, I'd love to try them myself!

Also, if you want to check out the rest of the food that I've pinned on my "Eats" board, or to follow me on Pinterest, you can find me here.

Cupid's Arrow Chocolates

2012-01-23T07:00:00.003-06:00

Target is a dangerous store. Not only do I love their clothes and home decor, but they also have an area at the front of the store with shelves full of inexpensive goodies and decorations for under $5. I'm not sure what they call it, but I refer to it as "the black hole" because I get sucked in right away every time I walk in. It's kind of like how grocery stores keep candy in the check out line because they KNOW you're too weak NOT to buy it.

I just can't help myself.

I went to Target recently in an attempt to return something, and I was immediately drawn to the goody section. I was desperate attempting to tear myself away before spending all of my money on cute little robot thank you cards and Valentine's decorations, and then I spotted these:

They may not look like much, but these silicon ice cube molds were just begging to be used for a Valentine's craft. After all, Valentine's Day IS the day of love, but it is also the day of chocolate. And I'm totally down with a holiday that encourages me to eat as much chocolate as possible, so I made some Cupid's arrow chocolates.

Here's what you need to make some too.

Supplies:

Candy melts or chocolate chips
Silicon heart mold
Pretzel rods
Fruit Roll-Ups or other gummy candy

Melt your chocolate chips or candy melts according to the package directions. I prefer the double boiler method since it seems to melt the chocolate evenly without overcooking it. I don't have an actual double broiler, so I just simmer (don't boil!)some water in a pot and place a glass bowl on top and melt my candy that way. It works great!

After your candy is melted, pour into your mold. Make sure you slightly overfill each cup.

Place a single pretzel rod on top of your chocolate at an angle as shown below and leave chocolate to cool.

While you're waiting for your chocolate to cool, use kitchen shears to cut out some hearts for the arrowheads and feathers for the tail from a Fruit Roll-Up. (In retrospect, I wish I would have used fruit leather or gummy candy for this part because they're a little thicker, but the fruit roll-up still worked fine.)

Once your chocolates have cooled, pop them out of the mold and admire your awesomeness.

Now, dab some of your melted chocolate on the ends of your pretzel rods and attach your fruit roll-up pieces.

And there you have it, cute little chocolates with Cupid's arrow through them.

Now give them to your Valentine! And if you're giving these to your man don't worry, while your guy might not appreciate the cuteness of the pretzel and Fruit Roll-up arrows, he will appreciate the fact that you're giving him food.

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A walk outside

2012-01-22T15:24:00.001-06:00

Today was..well, not what I expected. We went to church, dropped the kids off, then 30 minutes into the service, we got a call that our house alarm went off. We grabbed the kids and rushed home after being assured that the cops were on their way. When we got home do you know what we found?

Nothing. A balloon that we bought the kids had moved when the AC came on and set the motion sensor off. I'm sure we were the least exciting call the cops had gotten all day.

We did enjoy some time outside though. It was one of those overcast, perfect-for-picture-taking kind of days. So Connor and I took a trip outside while Haley was napping.

This guy is busy perfecting his walking. He actually has it down really well, as long as he's not wearing shoes that is.

Shoes on his little chunky feet make him one angry dude. The minute we put them on him, he kicks and whines pitifully until they come off again. It's not comfortable for him, shoes just make his little life more difficult. It made me think of how our relationship with God can be sometimes. When something hard comes along, we kick and scream instead of doing what we should do - just come to Him.

And He picks us up and sets us on our feet again.

That's not to say we won't have other spills later. But He's always there, watching over us like any caring parent does. Ready to wipe away the tears and pick us up again. Because ultimately, we have to go through the hard stuff to make us stronger.

Even though it may be hard to understand at the time, one day we'll look back on all that hard stuff and say, "If I hadn't tried and tripped a little, I wouldn't have learned how to walk."

So thank you God for shoes. And for helping us up when we fall.

Heart doily shirt

2012-01-20T07:00:00.001-06:00

I don't really decorate or do much for Valentines Day (aside from going out to dinner with Patrick), but this year I wanted to make something fun for my daughter to wear. I recently picked up a pack of paper heart doilies and immediately remembered a project I saw on Maybe Matilda awhile ago.

Rachel uses doilies and fabric paint to make a cute shirt for herself and, while I've tried several times in the past, I can't ever seem to make anything cute for myself. I get a vision for a cute article of clothing, and then I put all this time and effort into making it only to have it turn into a complete train wreck. Children's clothing is just so much more forgiving. So, until I can teach myself to make decent adult clothing, I've learned to stick with what I know, so I made one of Rachel's painted doily shirts for Haley!

I used pink and red fabric paint and layered the hearts on a plain long-sleeved shirt.

It turned out so cute!

This method of using doilies to paint a shirt would really be great for any holiday. I'll definitely be trying it again. If you're looking for a quick, inexpensive idea for Valentine's Day, grab a pack of doilies and make one of Rachel's painted doily shirts!

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Link love and a portrait of Connor

2012-01-17T07:37:00.002-06:00

Back in October, I have the pleasure of winning a giveaway over at one of my regular blog reads, Dee*Construction. Do you have a blog that you love to read because it makes you want to live in that person's living room (in a non-creepy way)? That's Dee's blog. It's the one I like to sit and page through on lazy days in my pj's with a hot cup of coffee. It has a wonderfully vintage, homey-feel that I can't get enough of.

All photos property of Dee*Construction

I'm one of those people who would love to have a house full of vintate-y things, but since it doesn't come naturally to me, my house ends up looking more like a garage sale. That's why I live vicariously through blogs like Dee*Construction, Bleubird Vintage, and Cakies.

Besides peeks into daily life, Dee also has tons of wardrobe refashions and makes the most adorable dolls. Oh, and she's expecting baby #5 soon. I don't know where she finds the time to do it all. If I had 5 kids, I'm pretty sure I'd just hang out in sweats all day watching reruns of What Not to Wear on a pile of laundry. I can barely attempt to craft with 2 children.

Like I was saying, back in October I entered one of Dee's giveaways to win a custom portrait from one of her sponsors, Stella of the blog The Golden Adventures of a Very Dark Horse and the shop Frank and Dean. When I enter giveaways, it's usually something I do without really expecting to win, so I was so thrilled when Dee notified me that I won! The prize was a custom portrait of a person and background of my choice.

After a lot of deliberation, here is the picture I decided on (my Connor boy back when he was little and squishy!):

Here is Stella's portrait based on my photo and background choice:

Isn't it awesome? The likeness and colors are just beautiful, I feel so lucky to have won the giveaway! The portrait is hanging out on my mantel right now, along with my DIY hurricane vases that I worked back into my mantel decor after Christmas.

If you're looking for a custom portrait, shoot Stella an email. She's one talented lady!

BFF Coffee Cozy

2012-01-15T07:00:00.003-06:00

I have to have my coffee in the morning. And I mean, a big ol' cup of it. My husband jokingly says I have a bucket of coffee in the morning. A bucket is one of the standard coffee measurements, right? Tall, grande, venti, bucket. Yep.

Maybe "bucket" is comparable to Starbucks' alleged "trenta size" which is apparently larger than the capacity of the human stomach. 31 ounces of coffee. Talk about your coffee buzz. Is it bad that I want to try this? That sounds like the right amount it would take me to start my day off without being a troll.

Since it's beginning to actually feel like winter in Tennessee (and also due to the fact that I've been drinking multiple buckets of coffee thanks to my new Keurig that I got for Christmas), I wanted to share a coffee sleeve that I made for a friend awhile ago.

It's a simple sleeve that I made by tracing a cardboard Starbucks sleeve on 2 layers of felt, adding additional felt coffee and muffin characters, then finishing it off with a blanket stitch around the edges. I also added a few french knots for the blueberries and couple seed beads for the eyes on the coffee cup.

Maybe one of these days I'll actually keep something I make haha.

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And then this happened.

2012-01-12T07:00:00.001-06:00

So while we were in Pittsburgh for the holidays, Connor learned a new trick.

Yep, Connor learned how to walk! He had been taking a few steps here and there before the holidays, but he decided he was over the whole crawling thing and just took off during our 10 day vacation. And now, he is into EVERYTHING.

Want to know how to babyproof a house? Let a one-year-old loose and hide anything that they find interesting.

We went to my sister-in-law's house for New Year's, and Connor was thrilled. It was like we had just taken the kid to Disney World. We spent most of the time hiding stone coasters and antique cameras, blowing out candles, and attempting to keep him from leaping off of the stairs (which had no banister) and onto the cat.

I feel like his sole purpose is to break everything. I mean, just look at this face. It's a look that says "I am Connor, Destroyer of All Things."

Needless to say, we are re-babyproofing.

Oh and while we were there, he also decided to get 2 more teeth. I need this kid to stop growing!

Mitten Pocket Shirt

2012-01-09T07:00:00.001-06:00

I have a thing for appliqued shirts (if that wasn't abundantly obvious.) Probably because of the instant gratification they give me. I get a cute shirt in half the time without having to make the actual shirt itself, and that leaves me more time for really important things, think like eating bowls of Oh's cereal while catching up on my DVR'd episodes of Chopped (there's just something so intriguing about watching four people frantically attempt to make an appetizer out of stuff like candy canes, lamb chops, and pancake mix.)

I get inspiration from so many different things that I have to keep a running list in my phone. For this project, my inspiration was a mitten. Originally, I had a vision of making a cute ruffled dress for my daughter with striped mitten pockets. The dress became a shirt, then the stripes became hearts but hey, at least my mitten pockets remained unchanged.

Wanna make one too?

Supplies:

Shirt
Scraps of knit fabric
Ric-rac
2 buttons
Sewing machine and basic sewing supplies
Free mitten template for download HERE

Step 1: Make your mittens.

First, print and cut out my mitten template. Using a disappearing ink marker, trace the template onto your knit fabric. Flip your template and trace a second mitten. Cut out.

Next, fold the bottom of your mitten up 1/4 inch and press. Fold up another 1/4 inch and press. Using a zig-zag stitch and coordinating thread, stitch straight across.

Step 2: Attach your mittens.

Now you need to enclose the raw edges of your mittens. We'll do this with a gathering stitch. Set your stitch width and length to their highest settings and stitch 1/4 inch around the perimeter of your mitten, making sure not to backstitch at the beginning or end. Leave the tails long for gathering.

Tie the tails at one end of your mitten in a knot. At the other end, pull gently on one of your threads and push the fabric away from the thread to form gathers. You'll have to work to distribute the gathers evenly around the mittens, especially around the thumbs. You want to gather just enough to keep the raw edges of your mittens underneath so that they're not exposed when you sew your pockets on.

Place your mitten pockets on the top of your shirt and make sure they're lined up exactly where you want them. Now pin pin pin.

Make sure you're happy with the placement because there's no going back once you stitch everything in place!

Once you have your mittens pinned where you want them, use your coordinating thread to stitch your mitten pocket in place using a 1/4 inch seam allowance (don't sew the top closed :) Add some ric-rac for the string (stitch down with coordinating thread) and a couple buttons for decoration.

Here's a close-up of the pocket detail.

The pockets are a great place for kids to hide their treasures.

The pockets are also really great for blogging mommies to hide the bribes for photo sessions (smile if you want chocolate!)

Check out my sidebar to see where I link up each week!

Melt & Pour Honey Almond Oatmeal Soap

2012-01-06T08:58:00.000-06:00

In my roundup of quick handmade gift ideas for the holidays, one of the projects I listed was the honey almond oatmeal soap over at Just Deanna. I was looking for a quick gift idea for my co-workers, so I decided to try it out! The process was so easy, but it was the name that got me.

Honey? Good. Almond? Good. Oatmeal? Good. All together in a soap? Awesome.

I gathered all my supplies at Hobby Lobby (I just needed some soap and fragrance, I already had the oatmeal at home) and got to work. Let me tell you, this is SO easy to do. Deanna said this project is perfect for a kid to do, and she's so right. All that was involved is melting, mixing, and pouring.

I may have found a new obsession.

I always love getting blocks of yummy smelling soaps that look like they come from fancy boutiques.

I'll let you check out Deanna's post for the actual soap making tutorial, but I did change the quantities around some because I found the amount of oatmeal to be too much, and I substituted shea butter soap for the goat's milk soap. Instead of mixing 6 cubes of soap with 1/2 cup of oatmeal, I actually cut the oatmeal in half and mixed it with 12 cubes of melted soap at a time. This left me with about 2 1/2 batches instead of 5. The oatmeal that you add in makes it great for exfoliation, but if you'd rather have a nice solid bar of soap, you can leave that out.

I wrapped them in freezer paper and used my Silhouette to cut out some cute tags that I attached with embroidery thread.

My co-workers loved them! I only wish I had made more, the soap itself is really creamy and the smell is delicious. The honey almond fragrance is light and not overwhelming at all. Best of all, the whole process to produce a batch of 6 bars took under half an hour. I'll definitely be making more in the future.

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I'm back!

2012-01-04T07:00:00.001-06:00

Happy 2012! I hope everyone had a great holiday break, I know we did! We took a 10-day long vacation to visit family and friends in Pittsburgh for the holidays. It was really great to unwind, recharge and just enjoy spending time with everyone.

These two had an especially good time over the break. They were spoiled rotten for Christmas with tons of gifts from both sides of the family. I feel like I could easily open my own Toys R Us in my house right now.

(Sorry in advance for the photo bombing!)

We made up for lost time and spent lots of time with family. It was nice to just sit around and laugh with each other. We also ate a lot of really good food, which I will be making up for over the next few weeks :)

I'm glad we ended up not getting a Christmas tree. Yaya and Papa (my husband's parents) had at least 4 decorated trees that I can remember. There may have been more.

While we were in town, we also got to celebrate our little niece Avalene's second birthday.

The party was "snow" themed, so we pretty much added lots of snowflakes to the existing Christmas decorations and made our own little winter wonderland. My sister-in-law, Shannon, was the mastermind behind pretty much all of the decor.

I just loved her winter scene on the table, complete with little snowy cupcakes!

Above the table, we strung lights and little tissue paper poufs.

I used my Silhouette to cut out lots of snowflakes to make garlands and hang from the ceiling.

And for the party favors, Shannon used mason jars, hobby trees, and plastic animals to make snow globes. There were so adorable!

For the food, there was a pasta bar with all of the fixin's. (PS you know you're a blogger when you stand off to the side taking artsy pictures of mushrooms and olives.)

We had such a great time but like always, the time spent with family was too short. I'm looking forward to a new year with lots more great memories!

Oh Christmas pole, oh Christmas pole

2011-12-23T07:00:00.002-06:00

Since we're out of town for the holidays this year, we didn't get a Christmas tree. I absolutely love the smell of a fresh Christmas tree in the house, it's just more fun when you're there on Christmas morning to enjoy it. So this year, in place of a Christmas tree we have a Christmas pole.

One night while the kids were sleeping, Patrick and I strung lights around the pillar in our entryway. Haley was so excited to see the lights when she woke up the next day. She ran out and yelled, "Mommy and Daddy, it's CHRISTMAS!"

My daughter is obsessed with everything Christmas related this year, probably because she's finally old enough to understand that this time of the year is special. She doesn't quite understand what "Christmas" is yet, she just thinks that anything having to do with lights or snowflakes or Santa is called "Christmas." We're working educating her about what Christmas is actually about, but for now it's just cute to see her get so excited about lights and decorations.

As for Connor, he keeps trying to eat the lights. At this age, everything is food.

Merry Christmas everyone! I will be MIA for the next 10 days or so while I enjoy some much-needed family time. I hope everyone has a blessed holiday and a happy New Year!

Gifts that can be made in an hour or less

2011-12-21T09:43:00.001-06:00

It's crunch time! I can't believe Christmas is 4 days away. If you're like me, you've probably procrastinated a little bit.

Here's a roundup of some quick and easy tutorials that are mostly upcycled from things you probably already have on hand, and can be made in an hour or less.

Click on the pictures below to be taken to the full tutorial.

Easy DIY gifts for the holidays

2011-12-19T07:00:00.001-06:00

Need some ideas for a few last minute (and inexpensive) handmade gifts that you can whip up this weekend? Here are a few of my favorites from around blogland:

Flower hairpins at Craftstylish

Cute and easy headband (made from a sleeve!) at Maybe Matilda

Honey almond oatmeal soap bars from Just Deanna

Photo tile coasters from Oopsey Daisy

Ball jar sewing kit at Frugalicious Me

Bubble magnets at My Own Road

Magnetic paper dolls at Make it and Love it

For even more ideas, check out my board full of gift ideas and giftwrap on Pinterest. You can also see all of my boards and follow me HERE.

Happy (handmade) Holidays!

Printable nativity

2011-12-17T07:00:00.001-06:00

See the details for my Christmas mantel HERE

In the 3 1/2 years we've been married, my husband and I have yet to gather a large quantity of Christmas decorations. What we do have is a small box full of donated ornaments from our family members and a few small things I managed to find at after Christmas sales.

Lame, I know.

This year since we're going to be out of town for Christmas, I wanted to get a little more festive and that included wanting to put up a nativity. Problem: we have no nativity in our small box of ornaments. Solution: make a printable one!

Want to make the easiest nativity you've ever made?

I simply went to Fontspace.com and did a search for "nativity fonts." I found the SL Christmas Silhouettes font that I absolutely loved, then downloaded and opened Photoshop (you can also use Word if you don't have Photoshop.) Typing in the letter C gave me my nativity scene, then the letter U gave me the star. From there, all I had to do was print it up and frame it.

Easy!

There are other pictures you could use instead. The other great part about using a font like this one is if you have a Silhouette, you could download and cut this font to make cute pictures on canvases, cards, etc!

I included printable nativities below in silver, blue or red. Just right click on the image and save to your computer, then print out the size you want. (All printables are for personal use only!)

Check out my sidebar to see where I link up each week!

DIY hurricane vase

2011-12-15T07:00:00.000-06:00

You can see details for my entire Christmas mantel HERE

Isn't the Dollar Store a wonderful place? It's full of tons of cheap goodies just waiting to be improved on.

Plus, I can walk in there and buy a whole basket of stuff without making a dent in my budget. You just have to get a little creative sometimes.

Take these vases and martini glasses for example. Pretty blah. But with a little glue and spray paint, they make a great addition to my holiday mantel!

Supplies:

Vase (found at the Dollar Store)
Martini glass (found at the Dollar Store)
Krylon metallic spray paint
E600 adhesive
Filler

Step 1: Spray paint your martini glasses.

In a well-ventilated area (outdoors preferably) apply several coats of metallic paint to your martini glasses.

Make sure you actually pay attention to directions and don't spray too close or turn your glass over before the paint is drying or you'll end up with some drippage like I did...oops.

Step 2: Apply your adhesive.

After you've been a good girl and followed the drying rules for the spray paint, apply some of your adhesive to the bottom of your vase and glue to the bottom of your martini glass, making the part of the martini glass where you would drink from the base of your hurricane vase. Hopefully I didn't confuse you too much there.

Let your glue dry, and how you have some adorable hurricane vases!

Fill with any filler you like (I chose a pack of assorted small Christmas ornaments) and decorate away! I also decided to tie some ribbon on mine to make them even more festive.

These make great decorations year-round.

Check out my sidebar to see where I link up each week!

"Let it Snow" framed wall art

2011-12-14T07:00:00.000-06:00

You can see details for my entire Christmas mantel HERE

I got a couple of pictures from a friend for free, but it wasn't the pictures I was interested in, it was the frames. (Though I'm sure you'll agree the pictures are just lovely ;) I had a vision for some cute framed wall art for Christmas, so I got to work dismantling them.

Supplies:

Frame
Spray paint
Contact paper
Foam snowflake
Ribbon
Tape or hot glue

First I removed the glass and backing and laid the frame out in the yard for several of coats of white spray paint. On a side note, if it's windy outside, just say no to spray painting. Just don't. Step away.

After the frame was painted, I used my Silhouette to cut out "let it snw" from white contact paper (and yes, I know I'm missing the 'o', you'll see where that went next!) If you don't have a craft cutter, just use Word to create your wording and then trace it onto the back of some contact paper (make sure you flip your letters!) and cut out. After cutting, I just peeled the backing off and stuck the letters to the wall.

For the O, I wanted to substitute a snowflake and hang it from ribbon, so I used a foam snowflake that I bought in a pack Wal-Mart and some red sparkly ribbon. I just cut the ribbon long enough to hang from the top of the frame down to the wording and used tape to attach it.

Then I put it all together!

It really makes a great focal point for my Christmas mantel. I can't wait to come up with some ideas to reuse my frame after Christmas is over!

Check out my sidebar to see where I link up each week!

DIY tree form and garland Christmas trees

2011-12-12T10:07:00.001-06:00

You can see details for my entire Christmas mantel HERE

I wanted to decorate my mantel this year, but (as you have all figured out by now) I'm a cheap-o. As in, I won't pay the $2.50 for a styrofoam tree form kind of cheap-o. I mean, all my money is going toward Rapunzel and Disney princess merchandise, so I can't really afford styrofoam tree forms.

At least that's what I tell myself. It sounds way better than "cheap-o." (Husband if you're reading this, you can thank me later for saving us $2.50. You're welcome.)

So I decided to make my own tree form because I have lots of these:

Here's what you need to make your own cardboard garland trees and be a cheap-o too!

Supplies:

Cardboard cereal box (for the biggest tree template, you'll need a large cereal box (think Frosted Mini Wheats)
Hot glue
Scissors
9+ feet of gift wrap garland
Free downloadable tree forms with 3 sizes HERE

Step 1: Create your tree form.

First, cut out one side of your cereal box. If you're making the large tree form, make sure you don't cut the sides of your cereal box out (found that out the hard way :)

Next, print out and trace my tree form template onto the unprinted side of your cardboard and cut out.

To make the form, you'll need to gently ease your cardboard into a tree shape. Start on one side and gently roll your cardboard (don't fold or bend) until it's all curvy-like.

Pinch the tip of your tree form and secure with hot glue (make sure the tab portion of your tree form is on the inside.) Continue gluing along the tab until the tree is secure.

Ta-dah! Tree!

Now make a forest of them.

Now that you have your tree form, there are a ton of decorative Christmas trees that you could make with your tree form, but I included a tutorial for a simple garland tree below.

Step 2: Attach garland.

I found some cute garland used for wrapping gifts in the Christmas section and decided to make some festive garland trees with my new tree forms. First, put a dab of hot glue on the bottom of your tree form and attach the end of your gift wrap garland.

Continue twisting your garland around the tree, adding dabs of hot glue as you go to secure your garland.

When you reach the tip of your tree form, leave an extra 1/2 inch of garland and tuck the end into the hole of your tree form.

Merry Christmas, enjoy your $2.50 savings ;)

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My Christmas mantel

2011-12-11T07:00:00.001-06:00

FINALLY I can share my Christmas mantel with you! (And can we all just vow to overlook my dirty fireplace tile that I didn't vacuum before the pictures? K great.)

Christmas is fast approaching and since we'll be out of town this year, we decided not to get a Christmas tree. That and also Connor would probably try to eat the needles so I'd like to avoid my son poop a Douglas Fir if possible.

Since there was no tree, I decided to go all out with my mantel and decorate it using things I already had, as well as store bought items to keep it affordable but festive (several tutorials to follow over the next few days!)

Most of my supplies were purchased at Wal-Mart, like these snowflake and and icicle ornaments, ribbon, and garland below.

I used a vase that I already had and some fake berries I found at the Dollar Store to add a pop of color to the cool palette that I chose. I made these awesome hurricane vases myself and filled them with small ornaments.

This printable nativity is another super easy tutorial that I'll be sharing soon.

And these garland trees were also handmade, including the tree forms (another tutorial as well.)

But my favorite part had to be my "Let it Snow" wall art that I made using an old frame that I repurposed. I originally had something else in mind when I started making it, but it morphed into this instead (which I actually like better than my original plan.)

I hope you like my mantel! Not too shabby for my first shot I think :) Check back over the next few days for tutorials on how to make a lot of the decorations you see!

Check out my sidebar to see where I link up each week!

Christmas Traditions: Advent Calendar

2011-12-09T07:00:00.000-06:00

When I was a kid, one of my favorite Christmas traditions was waking up each morning and running to the kitchen with my brother where cardboard advent calendars waited for us to open them each morning. We would pry the perforated doors open to reveal thin little chocolate squares inside. Most of the time, the advent calendars were from the local grocery store so the chocolate tasted strangely sweet with a hint of cardboard, but we didn't care. Christmas was the only time of the year when my parents would let us start our day with chocolate without a second thought.

I wanted to carry on the tradition of the advent calendar with my children, but I wanted a calendar that I could put my own candy or little trinkets into, something that I could personalize myself (without the cardboard flavoring.) As I was shopping the after Christmas sales last year, I came upon this at Marshall's:

It was the cutest wooden advent calendar AND it was marked down to $20.00! I couldn't resist. I snapped it up, and then it waited patiently in my attic for a year until I finally dug it out on the 1st and filled it with Hershey's kisses.

Did you know that a Hershey's kiss candy cane has exactly 24 Hershey's kisses in it? Well, mine did anyway, which worked out perfectly for the 24 advent days.

Haley loved it. Once I showed her how to open up the little wooden door, she was thrilled to find the little colorful wrapped chocolates. And actually, she got got a little TOO excited because when I woke up the next day, I discovered that she had scooted a stool up to the counter and opened 4 of the doors on the bottom row to eat the chocolate (some with the wrappers partially on.) She would've eaten more too if my husband hadn't caught her in the act. Sneaky girl.

I can't blame her though, I may have snuck a couple myself...

Monster sandwiches

2011-12-06T07:00:00.001-06:00

You can find the full details on the Little Monster 1st Birthday HERE

My absolute favorite part of the things I made for my son's Little Monster birthday party was the monster sandwiches.

I originally planned on making 3 different kind of monsters, but after I made this guy, I thought "how can they get any cuter than this?"

Here's what you need to make your own monster sandwiches:

Bread
Olives
Lunch meat
Cheese slices
Toothpicks
A round cookie cutter or a glass and a knife

First, take a cookie cutter and cut the center out of your bread slices. Don't have a round cookie cutter on hand? No problem, do what I did and turn a glass turned upside down and use a knife to cut around the edges.

Next, put your choice of fillings inside (I went with ham and turkey lunch meat) and any other condiments you think your guests would like.

To make the teeth, simply cut jagged edges around half of a slice of cheese and insert the cheese inside the sandwich on the bottom.

Make the eyes by snapping a toothpick in half, and inserting each half into an olive. Stick the olives in the top of your sandwich.

Ta-dah! Monster sandwich!

How fun would it be to make your child a whole monster-themed lunch for school one day?

If you had the time (and the endurance to cut out multiple monster cheese teeth), you could always make a whole pack of monster sandwiches for a crowd.

Check out my sidebar to see where I link up each week!

Little Monster 1st Birthday: the outfit

2011-12-04T10:00:00.000-06:00

You can see the full post on Connor's Little Monster 1st Birthday HERE.

I wanted to share some more details about Connor's Little Monster 1st Birthday party. The first thing I did when planning his party was to make him a birthday outfit. Since the party is centered around monsters, I wanted his outfit to feature a monster on it.

I used my Silhouette and sewable interfacing to cut out the "One-Eyed Monster" image from one of my husband's old button down shirts. I removed the eyelashes because I didn't want it to look too girly :) I also cut out the letters for his name from the same material, I then sewed around the edges of everything to attach.

For the pants, I used Dana's Knee Pad Pants tutorial. Unfortunately I used one of Connor's smaller pairs of pants to make the pattern and I realized AFTER making the pants that I seriously underestimated his chunk. Because of that, I had to make a button closure at the top rather than making the waist a simple elastic waist.

I really like the closure, but Connor still had a hard time wearing the pants because even with the added stretch of the elastic loops, the pants were still too small.

I'm just glad they looked good for the photos. That's what really matters, right? ;)

Little Monster 1st birthday party

2011-12-01T07:00:00.003-06:00

We're back from vacation, I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! We sure did, and we celebrated our little guy's 1st birthday too. It was a whole week full of parties and overeating. But we didn't mind that at all.

My boy turned one. ONE. I can't believe it's been a year already. He's just growing so fast (maybe a little TOO fast, he's already in 18 month clothing)! To celebrate, we threw him a Little Monster 1st birthday party, customized monster shirt and all. We had a great time!

The invitations were made using my new digital scrapbooking software by My Memories. I actually designed the monster myself using various shapes that were included in the software.

For the food and decorations, I kept it somewhat simple (if you don't count the time I took to design 25 monster sandwiches :) The plates, napkins, banner, table cloth, and pinata were all purchased from Target (I couldn't believe my luck when I went to the party aisle and saw that they had monster party supplies!) We also decorated with some streamers and balloons - again, I wanted easy stuff!

The food was my favorite part. We made "monster fruit dip" by combining a package of cream cheese and a container of marshmallow fluff and dying it green.

And my absolute FAVORITE part was the monster sandwiches (tutorial to come!) in turkey and ham, complete with olive eyes and cheese teeth.

Little monster cake pops with a foam board covered in tissue paper as a stand.

And of course, the cake. I found this cake on Pinterest and was determined to duplicate it. I'm going to man up and confess that I had to Photoshop this picture a bit to cover up the fact that the cake split in the back some after sticking the cake pops into it. It was kind of a bummer that it didn't turn out exactly like I wanted, but I told the perfectionist in me to chill out because it was still pretty dang cute I think. Major props to my mom for piping on all the frosting "fur"!

The cake was 3 layers, with each layer dyed a different color! Note to self: in the future, purchase professional food coloring and not just the little tubes from Wal-Mart. I didn't get the exact colors I wanted, but they were close enough.

Connor couldn't believe his luck at first when we set the cake in front of him. I think he was wondering if we mistakenly gave him his very own huge piece of cake to have all to himself. He got over the shock pretty quickly :)

We didn't do any party games because Connor is so little, but my awesome sister-in-law made these great monster masks out of foam which made for great photo props!

At present time, Connor wasn't too into the actual gift opening.

He was more interested in feeding me the wrapping paper.

But we had a great time catching up with friends and family and celebrating Connor, my favorite little monster boy.

Haley didn't even mind sharing all the attention. Just for a little while. She looked adorable in her monster shirt too.

I'll be sharing more of the details on the party soon!

Happy Birthday Connor!

2011-11-28T07:00:00.001-06:00

Happy first birthday, Connor!

One year ago today, I was sitting in a hospital bed holding my little snuggly son and marveling at how small and helpless he was. Today, he's a ball of energy - and 3 times the size! Despite all the bed rest and worrying, my boy came out just perfect (and on his own time.)

I'm so proud to be your Mama.

Acorn Knot Hat

2011-11-26T07:00:00.001-06:00

In case you missed my guest post over at Sugar Bee Crafts recently, here's what I shared!

When Mandy asked us to come up with something holiday or season-themed, I knew just wanted I wanted to do. When putting away my son's summer wardrobe, I realized that he didn't have any winter hats - and he has a lot of noggin to keep warm - so I decided to make him one. I immediately thought about doing a knot hat because the knot on top looks kind of like the stem on an acorn. Add a leaf, and you have an acorn knot hat! And what's more adorable than a baby in an acorn knot hat? Exactly.
Here's what you need to make one too!

Supplies:

Knit fabric for the hat
Knit fabric for the cuff
Small scrap of felt for the leaf
Needle and embroidery floss
Fabric glue
Basic sewing supplies

Step 1: Create your pattern.

First, draw a basic knot hat pattern to fit your child's head (use a tape measure to help!) and add 1 inch on for seam allowance. Then, cut the bottom 2 inches off so you have two pattern pieces: the hat piece and the cuff.

Step 2: Cut out your pattern pieces.

Use your pattern to trace and cut out two hat pieces from your knit fabric.

For the cuff, fold your fabric in half and place your cuff template on the fold (I cut up an old onesie I had laying around to use for the cuff.) Trace and cut out your cuff piece. Repeat for a second cuff piece.

Each cuff should be 4 inches wide when they're open.

Step 3: Attach your hat and cuff pieces.

With one of your hat pieces facing right side up, fold one cuffs with the wrong sides together and pin the raw edge of your cuff to the raw edge of the hat (see below.) The folded part of the cuff should be facing up. Sew straight across the cuff using 1/4 inch seam allowance.

Flip the cuff down and press (as tempting as it may be, don't skip this step!).

Now, stitch straight across the top of the cuff to make sure it lays flat (I used a zig-zag stitch to make it more decorative.)

Step 4: Make your leaf.

Cut two leaves from some craft felt. Use a disappearing ink marker to draw the veins on one of the leaves.

Using a needle and some white floss, stitch across your drawn lines and knot your thread. Using some craft glue like Fabri-tac, glue the other leaf to the back of the one you just stitched and let dry.

Step 5: Finish your hat.

Place your two hat pieces right sides together and pin. Insert your felt leaf near the base of the knot and pin in place. Sew to join the two pieces. (You can finish the edges by zig-zagging or serging them, but since knit fabric doesn't fray, I didn't bother to.)

Turn your hat inside out and use a skewer to push out any corners. Tie a knot at the top to make your acorn stem, and there you have it!

I put the hat on my son to take some pictures and as it turns out...my son hates hats. Maybe I should change step one to read: First, make sure that your child likes to wear hats. Yes? OK, now move on to step 2.

Oh well, I still think it's super cute. I'll just have to convince him of that too.

Check out my sidebar to see where I link up each week!

Monster birthday party inspiration

2011-11-23T07:00:00.000-06:00

My son's 1st birthday is on the 28th - eek where did the time go?? No matter how much I tell him to stay small, he doesn't listen.

Boys.

I'm planning on doing a monster-themed birthday aka, "The Little Monster is Turning One!" but I have no idea about the details. Monster party, that's all I got. Since it IS his first birthday and he'll never remember it, maybe I should have gone with a simpler theme, but I don't want Connor to look back at his first birthday and ask, "Why did you guys go all out for Haley's first birthday but you bought a few streamers and a balloon for mine?" Man, the kid isn't even one and he's already giving me hypothetical guilt trips.

As usual, Pinterest came to my rescue. If you haven't heard me talk about Pinterest before, it's basically a virtual resource for categorizing all the things you love. It's a lot of delicious eye candy, I could sit and pin things for hours. (If you want to join the addiction that is Pinterest, email me your address and I'll send you an invite. You can also follow me by clicking HERE or clicking on my Pinterest icon on my left sidebar.)

Here are some of the monster party ideas that inspire me on Pinterest:

Monster Eye Favors from It Is What It Is

Monster Cake by Makoodle

Monster Bib by Crankypants

Monster Birthday Invite by Posh Little

Now if I could just get off Pinterest and actually PLAN the party...

Guest posting on Sugar Bee Crafts

2011-11-19T07:00:00.028-06:00

I'm over at Sugar Bee Crafts today taking part in Mandy's Guest Blogger Extravaganza! Today, I turned my son into an acorn with this little number:

The Acorn Knot Hat serves two purposes:

1. It keeps Connor's head warm.
2. More importantly, I think it'd be really funny to whip this picture out one day when Connor is 16 and getting ready to head out the door with his homecoming date. Revenge for those nights you kept me up, buddy!

So head on over to Sugar Bee Crafts and learn how to make an Acorn Knot Hat so you can embarrass your children when they're teenagers too.

And leave some love while you're at it ;)

Winner of the My Memories digital scrapbooking software giveaway!

2011-11-18T07:00:00.028-06:00

Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway of the My Memories digital scrapbooking software!

Just think of all the fun things you could make with your own digital scrapbooking software, and they even offer a bunch of free scrapbooking pages so you can play around with your new software.

Here are some of my favorites:

Partini in Paradise Quick Page Sampler

Thanks Quick Page

Worn Paper Pack

My Memories was sweet enough to offer one of my readers a copy of their digital scrapbooking software too! So I guess you want to know if you won...

So without further ado, the winner of the My Memories digital software is.......

Ashley!

Congrats Ashley! I'm sure you'll have just as much fun with your new digital scrapbooking software as I did. I sent the winner an email.

Thanks to everyone who entered (you're all winners to me!) Even if you don't win this time, My Memories is giving you all a coupon code that gives you $10 off the purchase of the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software and a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store - a $20 value! Just copy and paste the code below when you check out.

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Drummer Shirt

2011-11-16T11:22:00.001-06:00

Why is it that little girls are so much easier to make clothes for? There are so many cute little skirts, dresses, and ruffled tops out there for girls, but it seems like boys are limited to t-shirts and track pants. Boooooring!

My husband swears by his baseball tees. No matter how hard I try, I cannot get that man to wear a graphic tee. He doesn't like how the graphics look on it because he thinks they make him look "metro," and my guy is a guy who is all about "manly" things like super heroes, guns, and explosions.

Maybe I need to make him a shirt with an exploding super hero holding a gun. I mean, that's gotta be ultra-manly, right? Watch out world, I'm about to revolutionize fashion with my new line of men's clothing featuring exploding super heroes.

A friend of mine has a son who just turned 3 recently so while the idea of a shirt with an exploding super hero was appealing, I stuck to something more appropriate for a 3-year-old. This kid loves playing drums, so I decided to make him a fun shirt with something to do with drums. This is what I came up with:

I got a Garanimals shirt from Wal-Mart, and used felt to cut out the letters and drum sticks. I love using felt on shirts so much because it's easy to cut and it doesn't fray. Plus, it gives a fun dimensional aspect to the shirt. After cutting the letters out, I just basted the felt onto the shirt with some basting spray (found that at Wal-Mart too) and sewed everything on with black thread.

If anyone is interested in a more detailed tutorial just let me know and I'll put something together. I think this shirt would be really cute with an electric guitar and maybe some lightning bolts or stars on it - because lightning bolts are also very manly. According to my husband, stars are NOT manly. Tell that to Captain America.

Check out my sidebar to see where I link up each week!

My Memories digital scrapbooking software giveaway!

2011-11-14T07:00:00.008-06:00

***This giveaway is now closed***

When My Memories contacted me about doing a giveaway of their digital scrapbooking software, I hesitated because I've always been a TERRIBLE scrapbooker. I have one disgraceful album of magazine clippings and photos thrown together with Scotch Tape, so I didn't want to shame My Memories for life if I screwed things up. When I started reading more about the product itself though, I realized there was no way even I could mess this up.

The setup was super simple, I just clicked a few buttons and done. As for the the actual program itself....let's just say I don't like to read instructions...so I didn't. I jumped right in and began browsing all of the layouts, pages and embellishments. They have a great selection of embellishments like the ric-rac I used below, buttons, flowers, stitching, you name it. And to top it off, they even offer a ton of free downloadable packages on their website.

The hardest part was actually figuring out exactly what I wanted to do. The best part is that you can use the My Memories software for more than just scrapbook layouts. With Connor's 1st birthday coming up, I decided to make birthday invitations!

I used their background and embellishments, and then I decided to make a little monster on the bottom out of several of the shapes they offer. See? No design degree needed. And no Elmer's glue or magazine pages :)

So how bout some free stuff? My Memories has offered to give one of my fantastic readers a free copy of the My Memories Suite software (a $40 value) too!

Here's how to enter:

Mandatory: visit My Memories and check out all of their great selection of digital scrapbooking kits, then come back here and leave me a comment on this post telling me which one is your favorite.

Additional entries: go check out their blog or like them on Facebook and leave me separate comments telling me you did.

Please make sure I can contact you, either by leaving me your email address with your comment or by having your email address linked to your profile.

Even if you don't win, My Memories is giving you all a coupon code that gives you $10 off the purchase of the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software and a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store - a $20 value! Just copy and paste the code below when you check out. Merry (early) Christmas!

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This giveaway is open until midnight on Thursday November 17th, and the winner will be announced here via Random.org on Friday the 18th. Good luck!

Fall Button Tree Shirt

2011-11-11T07:00:00.002-06:00

In case you missed my guest post on Tatertots & Jello on the 2nd, here's what I shared! Also, make sure you check back next week...I have a giveaway for all of my awesome readers!

Today, I wanted to share a project with you inspired by my favorite season - fall! This fall button tree shirt is a really easy sew, perfect for beginners. You just have to have lots of patience to sit and hand sew all the button "leaves" on.

Here's what you need:

Download my free tree pattern HERE
A shirt
Brown fabric for the tree
Sewable interfacing, like Heat 'N Bond Lite
Lots of buttons in fall colors
Basic sewing supplies

First, follow the directions on your interfacing to iron a piece of sewable interfacing larger than your tree image to the back of your fabric. Don't peel the paper backing off yet.

After your interfacing is ironed on, print and cut out my tree template, then trace it onto the paper backing of the interfacing.

Cut out your tree and remove the paper backing.

Using a hot iron, iron your tree onto your shirt following the interfacing instructions. Sew around the perimeter of your tree to secure (use stabilizer if needed, knits can be tricky sometimes.)

Now is where the patience part comes in! Dig into your button stash for some fall-colored buttons. Using a needle and thread, hand sew buttons around your tree until you're satisfied with how it looks. You might want to grab a snack and put on some of your DVR'd TV shows for the next hour or so while you're at it.

After lots of hand sewing, you should have a cute new fall shirt for your little one!

Now go find a big pile of leaves to jump in!

Check out my sidebar to see where I link up each week!

FroYo Shirts: Guest post with Come On, Ilene!

2011-11-09T07:00:00.000-06:00

I found Come on, Ilene! just recently while blog ~~stalking~~ surfing and ever since, I've been hooked. She bakes, she sews, and she had the GREATEST bicycle-themed wedding that you have to check out. The tutorial that really caught my eye was for adorable FroYo shirts she made - I just love all the bead "sprinkles"! I'm so glad to have Ilene here sharing it with you today so you can make one too!

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Hi! I am ilene from Come on, ilene! Thanks for having me here, Jen! I am honored to be guest posting today. My blog is much like Jen's - full of tutorials, recipes and crafts. It's basically a collection of whatever is cooking up in this crazy little head of mine. Here are a few of my most popular posts (click to see full tutorials):

Today, I am sharing with you one of my favorite projects- how to sew frozen yogurt appliques!

We had some friends who were contemplating opening up a frozen yogurt business so I wanted to surprised their daughters with cute little froyo shirts! I'm totally loving this frozen yogurt fad, I could eat a large cup for breakfast! If only froyo stores were open that early. There is a place near our old house in Boston that had this awesome mojito-flavored froyo. Pile mochi on top and I am in heaven!

The froyo design was appliquéd onto plain T-shirts. This is a great project for using up scraps of fabric and mismatched "orphaned" buttons. I didn't have a pattern so I just drew one up with a sharpie. I tried hard not to make it look like a big cup of doo-dee:

Cut out the pattern pieces with scissors:

Then trace the pattern onto your fabric using disappearing ink:

To help the fabric pieces stick to the shirt, I like to back them with Heat N Bond iron on adhesive. You just iron on the paper-backed adhesive onto the back side of the fabric:

Then peel off the paper. Cut out the pieces and iron onto the shirt. The heat will activate the adhesive and bind the fabric to the shirt:

For the spoon, I cut out a silver piece of silhouette heat transfer material and ironed it on.

Now comes the tricky part, embroidering all around the design. This requires lots of patience and slow stitching. I used a zig-zag stitch all around:

Here is a great tutorial on how to appliqué. It definitely takes some practice!

Now comes the fun part! Adding buttons, swavorski crystals and beads as "toppings"! The girls love all things sparkly, so I wanted to add some bling!

And that's it! Two unique froyo shirts for two very special sisters!

Thanks for having me, Jen!! For more of my ideas, come visit me at Come on, ilene!

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How cute are these shirts? Frozen yogurt is all the rage in my town (I can think of 4 separate frozen yogurt places within 7 miles of each other), and I'm definitely a sucker for ice cream myself, so this project caught my eye right away.

Thanks for sharing, Ilene! Go check out Come on, Ilene! and see her other great projects, I'm sure her blog will become one of your new favorites too.

The Rules of Trick-or-Treat

2011-11-07T07:00:00.012-06:00

Thank you all for your sweet comments on the passing of my grandpa on Saturday. All of your prayers and thoughts are greatly appreciated.

I know Halloween was a week ago, but I never got around to posting any pictures until now, so hopefully you don't mind some Halloween pictures and a little rant :)

(we never did get one where both of them were looking at the camera)

This is the first time my husband and I took the kids trick-or-treating so I guess you could call us amateurs, but as someone who trick-or-treated until I was 14 (yes, I just admitted that - I like candy!) I like to think I know how this Halloween thing works.

When I trick-or-treated, I followed a few simple rules:

1. Trick-or-treating begins when it starts to get dark.
2. If you plan on giving out candy, put your porch light on. Extra points for people who put their garage lights on too.
3. If you have your porch light on, I will ring your doorbell and ask for candy.
4. If your porch lights are on and I ring your doorbell, don't act surprised that my I am there and offer me a banana in place of candy.

We took the kids around for an hour and they barely got any candy and most people with their lights on said they didn't have any candy for her. I guess maybe Halloween isn't what I remember as a kid. My brother and I would go out as soon as we possibly could, then trick-or-treat until the last minute. The houses with their porch lights on meant "I have candy, come and get it!" Garage lights alone were iffy, those were probably the people hiding in their living room snickering as poor children rang their doorbells in hopes of candy. And if you were one of the people who left out a bowl of candy, I applaud you.

Near the end, my dad would drive us a few miles down the road where the mansions were and we would get full-sized candy bars. We would come back with several bags full of candy and when we got home, we would dump it all on the floor and sort them into categories: Chocolate, Hard Candies, Gross Candy For Mom and Dad (Dum Dums, Tootsie Rolls, etc.) Then for the next year, we would ration our candy out each day until it was next Halloween.

It was still fun, but I guess I'm a little sad that Halloween isn't what I remember. Or maybe I just went to the wrong neighborhood?

Guest posting on The Dating Divas

2011-11-06T14:07:00.000-06:00

I hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend! I just wanted to pop in and tell you that I guest posted on The Dating Divas yesterday and shared my tutorial for the Necklace Tee! Sorry for the late notice :)

The Necklace Tee was actually one of the first projects I did when I really started to get into craft blogging more. I had seen these kind of shirts for adults and thought, "Hey, I could totally do that!" Those kind of projects are my favorite kind! They're the ones where you can grab a handful of supplies that you already have on hand, sit down for half an hour, and whip out an awesome project. It's even no-sew - well almost, just a little hand sewing for the ribbon bows.

So come check me out at The Dating Divas and say hi! And while you're there, check out all the great dates the Divas have put together to bring you and your better half closer together.

Life is precious

2011-11-05T09:33:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I lost someone very special to me: my grandpa.

My family has known for awhile that his health was declining, but death is never easy, even when it's expected.

Actually, it came as somewhat of a shock to me on a day that was otherwise typical and ordinary. I got a call from my mom at the end of the work day He was admitted to the hospital due to poor health and the doctors thought that it was probably time for the family to gather to say goodbye. A couple short hours later, he had passed.

We called him "Pappy," and he has always been a fun-loving kind of guy, even mischievous at times. He was always making jokes and, even though he had diabetes, I would always catch him sneaking ice cream when my grandma wasn't watching. Maybe that's where I inherited my sweet tooth.

One of the things I was worried about over the past year as his health continued to decline even more was that he might never meet my son. He lived in Ohio, so I saw him only on the holidays when the whole family would get together. He met my daughter on her first Thanksgiving, but since our move to Tennessee, my son had been born and he hadn't had the chance to meet him yet.

This past July, we made a stop in Ohio on the way to visit my husband's family and Pappy got to meet my son for the first time.

While both of my children are still too young to remember, I'm so glad that we made that trip so Pappy could hold both of his great grandchildren.

Even though I know you're in a better place, I'll miss you, Pappy.

Guest posting at Tatertots & Jello!

2011-11-03T07:00:00.054-05:00

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm guest posting over at Tatertots and Jello today!!

I whipped up something a little fall-ish to celebrate my favorite season - and as an added bonus, I actually got to use up some of my button hoard.

Can we all take a moment of silence in honor of the fact that I actually got a holiday-themed project up before the actual holiday is a week from being over? And can we all just pretend for a moment that fall is actually a holiday?

Awesome, glad we got that all straightened out.

So anyway, head on over to Tatertots and Jello and check out my Fall Button Tree Shirt tutorial. And while you're at it, show some love! Because all you need is love. But comments are nice too :)

You guys are pretty stinkin' wonderful

2011-11-02T07:00:00.002-05:00

I just wanted to take a minute and talk about how awesome you guys are. No, really!

I really started to get more into blogging this past February and man has it been an exciting journey. Some days, I'm tired or I question if people even want to read my ramblings at all, and then I get an awesome email in my inbox telling me that you were inspired by one of my projects or one of my goofy stories, and it encourages me to continue. While I've never met most of you in person (except of course my husband who started following my blog at the beginning because that's pretty much a requirement of being married to me I think), I've been amazed at how encouraging and uplifting the craft community is.

I don't have the best pictures or the best projects, I don't post every day, I'm terrible at staying up with all of the trends out there in blogland, I have an inbox full of 39 emails that I haven't responded to yet (yes, I counted, and I'm sorry if you're one of the 39!), and I have no sponsors offering awesome giveaways. Yet you guys still read my blog and send me sweet emails and comments.

So thank you for reading and supporting me, you guys rock! If I was a big, famous blogger, I would give you each a Silhouette or something equally as awesome. Unfortunately, all I can offer is a big ol' cyber hug. And for those of you who don't like to be touched, high five!

While I may never meet any of you in person, I really appreciate you. You make me want to continue blogging and sharing my life with you. Thanks for caring :)

And on a completely unrelated, somewhat random side note, I'm psyched to tell you that I'm going to be guest posting over at Tatertots and Jello tomorrow!!

I keep pinching myself to see if I'm dreaming. Here's a little sneak peek at what I'm sharing:

Ooh, how very vague and unhelpful of me!

I got into the fall spirit with this project - fall is my favorite! (I channeled a little Elf there haha)

Anyway, I hope you'll come visit and check out my project and leave lots of sweet comments so I don't look like a complete loser or anything ;)

Blog Swap with The Dating Divas

2011-10-30T07:00:00.001-05:00

Today, I'm doing a blog swap with The Dating Divas! Their website is full of all sorts of great ideas for date nights, crafts, and ways to connect with your family. They make it easy to plan fun events, and even include free printables and great suggestions for those of us who want to plan a great date night, but can't quite connect the dots. But I'll let Cami tell you more!

Hi! My name is Cami, and I am one of The Dating Divas! We are a site dedicated to strengthening marriages through actually dating your spouse! What a crazy concept right?! Ha, ha! Our site includes anything from date ideas to family ideas, crafts, romantic ideas, etc. It's awesome! So, without further ado please enjoy this AMAZING and cute idea that my fellow diva Lisa M. put together!

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Can I just tell you that I love my neighborhood! It is soo full of energy and life. Especially since there are many kids the same age of my own which means my older girls always have a friend close by to have a play date with. It's a common thing for them to receive an invitation to a birthday party often. Not only do they love the idea of a party, but getting the invitation is half the fun! A letter with their name on it.....it doesn't get much better than that for a 8- and 9-year-old! So it was no surprise to get an envelope addressed to Maddy and McKenna on our doorstep. The difference was that this invite was not for just any old birthday party. This was a very special card, inviting them to bring Dom and enjoy a "Daddy - Daughter" Day at the park. YAY! I think I may have been equally excited about this idea even though I was the one staying home to care for the younger kidlets.

Come to find out that this idea was thought up by a 7-year-old herself. My friend's daughter asked her mom if she could plan this date. Before her mom could say yes, she had already schemed the whole thing up in her head!! What makes this invite even more unique is that it was put together with glue by the master-mind of this whole event! You would never know that a 7-year-old was so talented! Check out this snazzy little card:

This is such a simple and inexpensive way to bond with the kids we love the most. Not too mention bringing our friends out for the occasion. I was just tickled to see the pics of Dom and the girls playin' it up at the local elementary school park (....bottom pic).

It is so hard for Dads to find time to play with the kids. They are soo busy with work much of the time and we all know they need their downtime too. So for a dad to make time to bond with his kiddos is priceless!

How special is it for Dads to make memories with their kids that mean so much!

A big THANKS to Madison for hosting this fabulous Date! Even if it is impossible for your hubby and kids to get to a park......why not have a "Daddy-Daughter" Date at home!! What better way to show your kids that you love them then by "dating" them this Valentine's season. Love is in the air!

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Thanks for blog swapping with me, Cami! Make sure you go visit The Dating Divas for more great tips and themed events made to bring your family together!

A Halloween confession

2011-10-29T09:59:00.000-05:00

Halloween is 2 days away! I'm all about a holiday that gives me permission to eat a pound of candy without regret. This Halloween is especially exciting for me because I'm taking the kids trick-or-treating for the first time.

Since I was stuck in the hospital on bed rest last year while I was pregnant with Connor, I never got to take Haley trick-or-treating, instead I laid in bed and watched Man vs. Food and ate a whole bag of candy myself (I had a favorite nurse who kept me supplied - it's good to have connections.) This year though, it's on.

For Halloween this year, I made an iPhone costume for Connor, which turned out to be a ton of fun to make. Then, I had to figure out what to do with Haley. She's been obsessed with Rapunzel, so I considered making her a Rapunzel dress but the more I thought about it, the less excited I got. There are so many talented bloggers I've seen who made adorable Rapunzel dresses (here, here and here are just a few great ones) but it just looked like so much work.

After working all day, I come home and want to just lay on the couch, but there's dinner to make and kids to bathe and so really, I wasn't looking forward to sewing on tiny rick rack and puff sleeves. And I felt a little...guilty.

As a craft blogger, I feel pressure to make everything rather than buying stuff from a store. I feel the need to sew every costume, to blog about all my meals, and to make each and every birthday completely handmade complete with little tags and color coded food.

But you know what, who says I have to?

It's OK to buy stuff from stores, that's why there there! It's OK that I didn't make 1, nope not 1 Halloween decoration! It's OK that I didn't throw a Halloween party with themed food. And I'm completely OK with buying my daughter's costume from the Disney store (well actually my in-laws bought it for her, which I'm VERY OK with ;)

So here's Haley in her 100%-not-handmade-Rapunzel-costume. And it's even taken with my iPhone.

I told her, "If you smile I'll give you chocolate!" What a little ham :)

Monster Hoodie Refashion: Guest Post with Maybe Matilda

2011-10-26T07:00:00.001-05:00

It's an understatement to say that I'm pretty psyched to have Rachel with Maybe Matilda guest posting today. I've always loved her blog because she's funny, honest, and she works magic with crochet hooks. And as someone who can only crochet things that are square or rectangular, that pretty much makes her a superhero in my book. But crocheting is only a part of what Rachel does. I'll let her tell you a little more about herself.

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Hi! I'm Rachel and I blog at Maybe Matilda about crochet, sewing, and clothing refashions. Now, right off the bat, I'm going to warn you: I'm not one of those ladies. You know the kind, with their houses all decked out weeks in advance of every holiday, thoughtful handmade gifts to give, and clean, well-behaved children wearing home-sewn clothes (probably sewn from home-spun fabric, too).

So I'm going to lay it all out right now: this is the only semi-Halloween-ish item in my home right now. And it's one of the only clothing items I've ever made for my little boy. And I purposely didn't make it too Halloween-ish, because I didn't want it to be limited to wear for the next week or so, so it hardly even counts as a holiday item. And, to top it off, it's dirty in the pictures (which, of course, are fuzzy). Gimme a break--he's a real boy and his clothes stay clean for all of about 20 seconds. If you're still interested and not completely turned off by my lack of mothering superpowers, maybe you'll enjoy this sneaky peeky monster hoodie refashion I pulled together for my little fella:

I have to admit, I think it's pretty cute! I bought him that hoodie a few weeks ago for a few dollars, but he already has a few plain hoodies and I thought maybe he could use one with more character. I reverse appliqued these cute little monster heads onto it, and wild guess here, but I think he might like it!

Here's how I refashioned his little hoodie with some peekaboo monster fun!

You'll just need:

- a hoodie

- knit/jersey fabric scraps

- sewing machine

- hot glue/fabritac

- googly eyes

- felt

I started by sketching and cutting out the monster heads on white paper. I thought it would be cute to have them "peekabooing," if I can make up that word right now, into the sweatshirt, so I drew one popping up out of the pocket and another poking out from the zipper.

Make sure your fabric scraps are a bit larger than the designs you sketched, and pin everything together. The layering, from top to bottom, should be paper, hoodie, fabric scrap.

Now sew around the shape of the pattern sketches--you're not sewing onto the paper, but using it as a shape/guide to sew around. Make sure you're sewing through both the hoodie and the fabric scrap behind it. Try not to stretch the fabric as you sew, and if you get to points or curves that are hard to navigate, just stop sewing while the needle is down in the fabric, lift up the presser foot, and swivel your fabric, then lower the foot and keep sewing. When you're finished, remove the pins and you should have a nice stitched outline of your sketch:

Here's what it'll look like from the back:

I sewed straight over a fabric fold by accident . . . whoops! No biggie--it's in the back, so I just left it. (Perfectionist? Not even a little. I can thank my mother for that--we've jokingly nicknamed her Kathleen "Goodenough" LastName.)

Now trim away the excess fabric from the back, being very careful not to accidentally cut the hoodie fabric.

This is the part that made my heart race. It's a little scary, so be cautious. Carefully, carefully, cut out the monster shape from the hoodie fabric. Make sure you're staying inside the stitching lines, and be very careful not to cut the scrap fabric from the back! It's easiest, I find, to pull the two fabrics apart as much as you can, and use small sharp scissors to start with a little snip in the center of the design:

Then work from there to cut the rest of the fabric away, without getting too close to your stitch line.

Add some googly eyes and teeth cut from a bit of felt, and you're all done! (I used hot glue to attach the googly eyes and felt, and time will tell if that was a poor decision or not. I'm sure something like Fabritac would hold up better in the washer and dryer, so it's possible that my son's hoodie is going to lose its facial features after the first wash. I'll put an update on my blog after it's been washed.)

Thanks for inviting me to write a guest post, Jen, and I hope you guys will come visit me at Maybe Matilda!

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Isn't he such a cutie? I just love a little guy in monster gear. Thanks for sharing, Rachel! Make sure you go visit Maybe Matilda and check out her other great tutorials and projects!

No-Sew iPhone Costume

2011-10-24T07:00:00.006-05:00

Halloween is 7 days away. Oh wait, you knew that? Apparently I chose to completely forget that fact. And also the part about how my son still had no costume for his first trick-or-treat.

We're not huge into Halloween at my house. I have no decorations up and I still don't have a pumpkin (it's probably a lost cause by now), but there is one thing I celebrate very passionately in October: candy. Halloween has always been all about the candy for me. You can keep your suckers and Pixy Stix (and if you are one of those families that give out toothbrushes I know who you are and I will be skipping your house), give me the chocolate! Specifically the Reese's cups and the Baby Ruths.

As a kid, I always made sure to go through my stash after I went trick-or-treating and pick out the good stuff to hide in my room somewhere because we all know that when parents do the "candy inspection" they're not really looking for needles and opened candy, they're looking for chocolate. Now that I have young kids, you better believe I will be doing plenty of candy inspections myself until the kids catch on.

I was feeling the pressure this past weekend since it's my son's first trick-or-treat experience, but since I was low on time and resources I decided the costume had to be inexpensive, quick, and no-sew since I didn't feel like sitting down to a major project. Then as I was surfing the net for ideas on my iPhone, then I realized the answer was right in front of me. I got to work and whipped this baby up in roughly 1 1/2 hours (the apps were what took the longest to cut out and piece together) and while I made this for my 11-month-old, it would easily make a great costume for any age. And I even designed some apps for you to print and cut out. Consider it your Halloween treat!

Supplies:

Shirt that fits to use as a template
Felt or fleece for the main fabric
Assorted felt squares for the apps
Free app template HERE
Hot glue gun and hot glue sticks
Scissors
Disappearing ink marker

Step 1: Make your main piece.

First, fold the piece of felt or flannel that you chose for the main fabric in half with the fold on top. Tuck the sleeves in and lay your template shirt on top of the fabric to determine the length and width you want your final costume to be (extend it 1 1/2 + inches wider on each side to be safe). Using a disappearing ink marker, trace around your shirt where you will be cutting.

Cut out your rectangle, making sure not to cut across the top where your fold is.

Use your template shirt to determine where your neckline should be and how wide and deep it needs to be and mark this with your disappearing ink marker. I would make the neckline slightly larger than your template shirt's neckline because the felt isn't as stretchy as knit.

Use a CD to round each of the corners like an iPhone.

Cut out your neckline and each of your rounded corners.

Step 2: Cut out the detail pieces.

Now, cut out a rectangle for the screen (use a CD to round the edges like you did above), a small rounded rectangle for the earpiece, and a circle and square for the power button. Position and hot glue these components in place.

Step 3: Create your apps.

This was the really fun part! Determine which apps you want to make for your costume. I looked at my phone and picked several of the simpler ones. I designed the 6 you see below and included them HERE if you want to print and cut them out to make yourself. Just cut out each piece on card stock (which I prefer because it's thicker) or regular print paper, and trace onto squares of felt. Cut out each component and hot glue to assemble.

Now, just arrange your apps on the screen and hot glue them down. Simple!

Step 4: Glue sides.

Pretty explanatory. Since the sides are open, you can choose to leave them this way, but I decided to glue the sides together so my little guy couldn't wiggle out. Just lay your template shirt on top of your costume and use your disappearing ink marker to mark where you want the bottom of the sleeve to be. I marked about an inch down from the sleeve on either side. Hot glue the two sides together from this mark to the bottom of the shirt right before it curves.

And there you have it, a super easy no-sew iPhone costume!

Now obviously since this costume is hot glued instead of sewn, it's not machine washable so just wipe any stains with soap and warm water.

Check out my sidebar to see where I link up each week!

Some things in life really are free

2011-10-21T07:00:00.001-05:00

So listen, I know I'm about 10 years behind on the whole burlap thing, but if you've been following my blog recently, you know that I'm redoing my craft room (and very slowly might I add) by incorporating a theme around burlap and bees and calling it "Bee Inspired." I wanted to do this particular theme mostly because I love bees, but also because the burlap was free. FREE. And I'm a sucker for free stuff.

While I was visiting my family in Virginia this past summer, my dad happened to mention that he was helping my brother decorate his new apartment because, as we all know, guys need some major help in the decorating department. When I first met my husband, he was living in a house with 3 other guys. In his room he had the following items: an 80's-style particleboard armoire lined with gold paint, an old thrifted TV stand, a tempered glass computer desk (which was the only thing he was allowed to keep by the way), an X-Men poster, and a bookcase that he had fashioned out of cinder blocks and wood planks that he was VERY proud of by the way. If my dad hadn't helped my brother, he too could have had an apartment lined with cinder blocks and X-Men posters. My husband still talks about that X-Men poster.

So anyway, Dad said he had gone to one of the local coffee shops and asked one of the guys for some of their old coffee bags. He had seen some of them hanging on the wall of the coffee shop and thought my brother could use them to decorate the walls of his apartment. And the coffee shop owner gladly forked over 6 of them. For free.

Why have I never thought to ask the local coffee shops for their coffee bags? It's not like they use them, they just toss them in the trash. We went back to that coffee shop and they gladly forked over several more coffee bags. Now, this was a locally-owned coffee shop so I don't know if the big dogs like Starbucks would be willing to part with their coffee bags, but it's worth a try right?

Because if you could get your hands on some free burlap coffee bags, you could make this:

via

Or some of these:

via

or decorate your kitchen with these:

via
and I definitely want a few of these:

via

and this would look amazing on my dining room table:

via

Or you could decorate your craft room like me. So if you want some free burlap too, head to your local coffee shop and just ask.

Click on the pictures below to see all my Bee Inspired Craft Room projects so far!

Shopping in Shannon's Closet: the fall edition

2011-10-19T07:00:00.002-05:00

In yet another chapter of Shopping in Shannon's Closet (where my sister-in-law dresses me with all of her amazing hand-me-downs), I wanted to share with you some of the awesome fall things I scored from her latest stash!

If you haven't heard about my sister-in-law, she's nothing short of awesome. She's the sister I never had who, besides being extremely talented and brilliant, has an awesome taste in fashion (and a love of shopping). Luckily for me, she has taken pity on her poor sister-in-law's sense of fashion (and empty wallet) and does better than let me wear her clothes - she gives them to me when she gets tired of them! I love that girl. And so does my budget.

When my in-laws visited last, my mother-in-law brought another big bag of Shannon's stuff for me. A lot of it is cooler-weather stuff, so I've been waiting to share some of it with you!

Outfit #1: Lumberjackie

Shirt: Shannon's
Leggings: Mine, Target
Shoes: Mine, Target
Belt: Mine, Forever 21

OK, so most of this outfit was actually mine for once, but it definitely has some Shannon influence in it with the leggings. I mentioned before how much I love leggings, but it took a lot to get me to actually wear them in the first place. I think I was having flashbacks to elementary school stirrup pants. Now, I don't know what I'd do without leggings.

I love this flannel shirt because 1: There's just something so wonderfully fall-ish about flannel 2. Blue is my favorite color and 3: The sleeves have pickups in them so I can wear the sleeves long or short depending on how cool the weather is that day.

Outfit #2: Goody Two Boots

Dress: Shannon's
Necklace: Shannon's
Boots: Mine, Gap

So I'm sure you're loving my corny outfit names, right? And also the very obvious fact that I only have 2 poses? Yeah, modeling is not one of my fortes.

This is an outfit I wore to church recently. I wanted to wear a dress, but it was a little chilly outside so I decided to wear one of my favorite pairs of boots with it. Not sure if this particular pair of boots worked as well as they could have with the dress, but I'm kind of lacking in the boot department since I have arches that are like, 3 feet tall, and therefore can't wear any heels higher than a couple of inches. My husband says I walk like a velociraptor when I wear heels. He even does an awesome impression of me walking like a raptor. Which I will not repeat for you. Ever.

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And now some outtakes for you. Because when my husband gets the camera, he's good for about 3 minutes. Then has the attention span of a 6-year-old and makes me laugh so I can't take a normal picture.

Linking up to WIWW:

Cheating my way through a winter wardrobe

2011-10-17T07:00:00.008-05:00

Thank you to all of you who left your sweet comments on my Babushka Doll Shirt on Monday! I wanted to get you in on a little secret of mine that I applied to that shirt. You might not have noticed, but it's a sneaky trick that I use to winterize Haley and Connor's summer wardrobes.

Did you happen to notice in my previous post that the shirt began as a short-sleeve top and ended up as a long sleeve shirt?

That's because I cheat my way through my kids' winter wardrobe. If I already have a shirt on hand that I want to use for winter but it's short-sleeved, I just add sleeves to it using one of my husband's undershirts. Cheap? Maybe. I prefer "clever." :) Plus, I really like the look of the different colored sleeves.

Since that secret is out now, I might as well share the details with you so you can save some money and cheat your way through your child's winter wardrobe too!

Supplies:

Short-sleeve shirt that fits your child
White men's undershirt (or any other knit shirt you may want to use)
Disappearing ink marker
Sewing machine and basic sewing supplies

First, find a long-sleeve shirt that fits your child well. Lay one of the sleeves on top of your knit shirt flush with one of the edges and the bottom of your shirt (this is so you don't need to hem your sleeve). Use your disappearing ink marker to trace around your sleeve, making sure to make a j-like curve at the top where the sleeve meets the shirt. Repeat on the other side edge of your shirt to make 2 sleeves.

After cutting each of your sleeves out, they should look like this when they're open:

Fold them in half long ways with the right sides together, and pin along the long side. Sew down the long side from the edge of your sleeve to the top (make sure you don't sew either of the shorts sides closed!)

Turn your sleeve inside out, and you have a completed sleeve! (sorry, I didn't take a picture of the finished sleeve, but I'm sure you all know what a sleeve looks like :) The long side you just sewed is the bottom of your sleeve.

To attach the long sleeves you just made, turn your shirt inside out and stuff the existing sleeves of your shirt inside. Locate the original seam where the existing sleeves are sewed onto the shirt. This is where you will be attaching your long sleeves you just made.

With your long sleeve right side out, insert the sleeve inside of your shirt's armhole, matching up the raw edges of your sleeve with the edge of the armhole.

Pin your sleeve to the armhole and sew all around the armhole to attach your sleeve.

When you pull your sewn on sleeve inside out, it should look like this:

Turn your whole shirt right side out, and now your short sleeve shirt has been winterized! You can do the same thing with little boy's shirts. It's a little addictive. Especially if you stock up on cheap, end-of-the-season sale shirts from summer.

The only downside is your husband will start to wonder where all his undershirts went. Just tell him you're saving money on your kids' winter wardrobe :)

A difficult anniversary

2011-10-12T07:00:00.004-05:00

I wrote this post to share with you the details concerning my difficult pregnancies, but also to encourage those of you who have also experienced high-risk pregnancies due to a small cervix. The post is long, but I hope those of you who need it are encouraged by my experience.

Today is an anniversary of sorts. Not a wedding anniversary, but one that changed my life just the same.

A year ago today, I was 31 weeks pregnant with my son. Despite the fact that I was feeling larger by the minute, I had been having a really great pregnancy. I had all the normal pregnant-woman-type things happen to me throughout my pregnancy - strange cravings for hot dogs and Cheetos, exhaustion, soreness - but this one was certainly not going the way it had when I was pregnant with my daughter.

Me 5 months pregnant with Haley and dressed up as a baby for our office Halloween party in '08

For those of you who probably don't know (because I started this blog after I had my daughter), I found out several years ago when I was 11 weeks pregnant with my first that I had a smaller than usual cervix. In order not to bore you or talk to much about girly parts, the cervix basically keeps the bun inside the oven while he/she bakes, then the internal timer goes off at 40 weeks and ding, the baby is done. For someone like me who has a short cervix, the oven door has been broken and the bun could come out of the oven way before it's done baking. This is especially a problem when you're only 11 weeks pregnant.

When I was told this information, I was laying on the exam table getting my first look at my little wiggling fetus on the screen. I wasn't prepared to deal with a faulty cervix, it didn't run in the family as far as I knew. All I knew at the time was that I was having my first child and I was over the top excited about it. My body was supposed to know what to do, I couldn't be bothered by this nonsense about a short cervix. Where was the receipt for this thing anyway? I didn't sign up for a faulty cervix.

As the days went on, I went in for visits every 2 weeks to monitor my cervix to make sure the baby wouldn't be born too early. I loved each visit because it meant that I got to see my little developing baby wiggle and squirm on the ultrasound with each visit. Before we knew that Haley was a girl, we called her Babby, a nickname that stuck with her even for a little while after her birth.

Haley at 22 weeks

Things went well for awhile and little Babby continued to grow, but as we neared Christmas, my faulty cervix had had enough. At one of my routine visits right before a planned road trip to visit my in-laws for Christmas, it was discovered that my cervix had begun to dilate. At only 27 weeks pregnant, I was admitted to the hospital for some tests which proved that I was contracting. I was devastated. There were tears (and a cancelled road trip) and I was told go home on bed rest and to restrict my activity to showers and sandwich making until the baby reached a safe level of maturity to warrant more activity.

At the time, I was upset to know that I couldn't go about life as usual. As a young, very active person, I hated knowing that I had to be chained to the bed for at least 7 weeks with people waiting on me for all of my needs. This may sound like vacation to you, but believe me when I tell you weeks and weeks of watching TV with no option for any other activity gets pretty old. Looking back, I should have kept my mouth shut and been more thankful for the breakthroughs we've had in medicine that help to prevent people like me from going into labor well before the baby is at a mature level of development.

For someone like me who has a shortened cervix, there is a very real possibility of losing the baby or for the baby to be born too early and have developmental issues. How lucky was I that I had a doctor who knew enough to tell me to shut up, take my medicine, and think about the health of my child?

So I did just that. Except for the one time my in-laws came to town and wheeled me around the outdoor shopping mall in a wheelchair.

Escapee!

Thankfully, my body cooperated a little longer and Haley was born at 35 weeks, perfect in every way. She was tiny at 6 pounds, 2 ounces, but she had no issues whatsoever and was able to leave the hospital after a routine length of time in the hospital.

When I became pregnant with my son, I was prepared for the same song and dance. Every doctor's appointment was nerve wracking as I waited for the nurse to look at the screen and tell me "Your cervix is dilating again, to the hospital with you!" but those words didn't come. My appointments were still more frequent than most because of my previous complications, but by my 25 week check up when I was again told that nothing was wrong, I relaxed with the thought that I was in the clear.

At 30 weeks pregnant, my friends threw me a "baby sprinkle" (a baby shower for someone who has already had a baby before and has most items she needs). I had a great time, and felt completely blessed by all my friends who came. While I was there, I kept feeling what I thought was just the baby repositioning himself. Nothing painful, it just felt like he was poking his head hard into my abdomen.


Me at 30 weeks (photo courtesy of Christan Yarger)

I returned to my appointment several days later for a routine check up and while laying on the exam table getting the ultrasound, I saw a familiar image on the screen. The look on the nurse's face confirmed it. A dilated cervix. After confirming the diagnosis, the nurse left me in a room to wait for my doctor. "How could this happen again?" I wondered, "Everything has been fine." I was again wheeled over to the hospital and plugged up to multiple machines to check my vitals. It was confirmed that I was contracting again. The roller coaster ride began again.

The next 2 days are probably 2 of the worst days of my life. I was put on a high dosage of magnesium right away. If you've never been on magnesium before, it's horrible stuff. It's usually meant to treat seizures and kidney problems, but it's commonly used to stop contractions as well. What it does is relax your muscles, which of course stop the muscles causing the contractions in my case, but it not only relaxes those muscles, it relaxes ALL of your muscles. I had a hard time keeping my eyes open and when I was able to keep them open, I had double vision because my eye muscles were too relaxed. To simply roll over in bed, I had to muster all the strength I had to grasp the handle on the opposite side of the bed and heave myself to the other side. It also makes you nauseous. The only way I can describe being on magnesium is to tell you that it makes you feel like you're drunk, on muscle relaxers, and have the flu at the same time.

Thankfully, the doctors were able to get my contractions to stop and I was eventually able to be taken off the magnesium and have a meal. My friends who threw me the shower came to visit me and brought lots of fun goodies with them to cheer me up (which was my inspiration for The Hospital Survival Kit). One of my favorite things that they brought was a pair of cat socks that weren't very functional, but had great entertainment value.

Cat socks (sorry for the bad quality, it was taken with my phone at the hospital)

I spent the next 4 1/2 weeks on hospital bed rest. I went through a grieving time at first because I couldn't understand how this could happen to me yet again after things were going so well. My doctors had to talk me down quite a few times after begging them to let me go home. As I cried a lot at first, but I eventually understood and agreed with my stay there. I took medications to control my contractions and was constantly monitored. My days were very predictable, but I was also very lucky to have a boss that allowed me to work from the hospital, so that helped me break up the monotony some. I learned to deal with, and eventually tolerate (I can't say like because I would have much rather been at home with my husband and daughter) my stay at the hospital.

I was sent home at 35 weeks, still pregnant and with a good outlook. My son was at a good weight, and he was at a place where his development was not in question. He was born 2 weeks and 2 days after, at 7 pounds even.

Haley meeting her brother for the first time

While it's been hard, I am a better person for all that I went through because I appreciate the blessing that is life that much more. While on hospital bed rest during my last pregnancy, I heard stories from the nurses of the other girls on my floor who went into labor very early in their pregnancies and gave birth to very small babies with problems, some who did not survive. I am one of the lucky ones who managed to stay pregnant and give birth to 2 healthy babies thanks to God first and foremost, but also thanks to all of the efforts of the doctors and nurses from both pregnancies who took the time to counsel and care for me and my unborn children.

Those who know my history with pregnancies always ask, "Do you think you'll have another?" The answer right now is yes, we have always planned on having a third. We've discussed that topic at length, and our family doesn't feel complete without a third little somebody. All of this of course depends on our financial situation, but we would like to have a third eventually. I know when the time comes, I'll probably have to have a cerclage (where the doctors will sew my cervix closed to keep the baby in until birth), and this is something that I'm nervous about, but I'm more concerned with the health of my future baby.

If you have (or have had) a high-risk pregnancy, I would love to talk to you and encourage you as well as answer any questions you may have to the best of my ability.

Babushka Doll Shirt {a Silhouette Project}

2011-10-10T07:00:00.002-05:00

I just love the ladies over at Prudent Baby. They're so sweet every time I talk to them, not to mention all of the great projects they have for mama's and kiddos. They had a contest awhile ago to see who could come up with the cleverest phrase to go along with a Silhouette Babushka Doll cutouts they were giving away. My entry was "Sometimes it's ok to be full of yourself." I thought it was pretty clever. I didn't make first place, but they were sweet enough to humor me and send me a cutout of the doll anyway. Awesome!

I have several babushka dolls that I've collected through the years, and they now sit in Haley's bedroom up on a high shelf along with all the other things she's not allowed to touch. She always asks for them, so I knew she'd love it if I made her a shirt using the babushka doll cutout.

Supplies:

Shirt
Babushka Doll design in Silhouette Studio
Iron on transfer material
Sewable interfacing
Scrap fabric the same size as your doll cutout
Scrap felt for the flower
One small button
Basic sewing supplies

Step 1: Cut out your 2 doll pieces.

You will need 2 babushka doll cutouts: 1 of the full design on transfer, and the second just a silhouette of your doll in fabric.

First, use your Silhouette to cut your babushka doll design. Weed the excess transfer material, saving the outline of your doll (seen below).

Next, follow the instructions on the sewable interfacing to iron interfacing to the back of your scrap fabric. Using the outline you saved from your babushka doll template, trace your outline on your fabric using a disappearing ink marker. Cut out.

Iron your babushka doll fabric onto your shirt and sew around the perimeter of the doll.

Step 2: Apply your iron on transfer material.

Now that your design has been weeded, place the design on top of your fabric. Follow Silhouette's instructions to iron the transfer material to your shirt.

I use a little Fabric Fusion to stick down any unruly edges that don't want to be ironed down well.

Step 3: Make your flower embellishment.

Cut two circles out of your felt: one that is 1 inch in diameter, and one that is about 3/4 inches in diameter.

Place your biggest circle on the bottom, then stack the smaller circle on top followed by the button. Hand sew your flower to your shirt.

Not too bad, right? (Besides the fact that you can see the blue disappearing ink marker I used to trace the doll :)

Haley was just happy that I let her play with the dolls during the photo shoot.

Check out my sidebar to see where I link up each week!

Tag team

2011-10-07T07:00:00.004-05:00

Sometimes, I think my kids get together and coordinate efforts to keep my husband and I up all night. The minute you get one calmed down, the other one starts up. Their timing is just too perfect for it to be coincidence.

Last weekend when I participated in my first craft fair, my husband watched the kids all of Friday night and Saturday until 5:30. When I got home, both of us were utterly exhausted and looking forward to bedtime. The kids went down without a fight and instead of going to bed early I was glued to the TV watching Prison Diaries on TLC, which is one of those shows that I probably wouldn't have watched normally, but for some reason was extremely entertaining at 9:30pm.

10:00 rolled around and I went through my normal bedtime routine and finally fell into bed around 10:20. Right as I was drifting into a warm, peaceful sleep, my daughter woke up crying. To help us both get a good night's sleep, it's usually my husband's responsibility to handle my daughter if she wakes up and I handle my son. That night I took pity on my husband since I had to leave him with the kids for half the weekend, so I got up to console my daughter who, in a half-asleep daze, claimed she had to go to the bathroom.

I suppressed the urge to remind her that it was 10:30 at night and she was wearing a diaper.

After dragging her little half awake body to the toilet and back, I settled back into bed. As I started to drift off again, my sweet husband rolled over and informed me that he had an annoying song running through his head. As he rolled over and went back to sleep immediately, Annoying Song proceeded to play over and over again in my head for the next 20 minutes. Annoying Song eventually tapered off and I finally managed to lull myself back to sleep. And it was at that moment that my son tagged in.

After lots of rocking and singing, I managed to get my son down again and get about 7 hours of sleep myself. This may sound like a lot but for me, this is just enough to function but not enough to be quick on my feet. This meant that everyday tasks the following day took about twice as long as they usually do because of lack of brain function. Brushing my teeth became a 10 minute event and grocery shopping lasted 2 1/2 hours. In my defense, there were a lot of new holiday snacks in the snack aisle that needed close inspection.

Is it bad that I'm kind of looking forward to when they're both teenagers and sleep til noon?

Superhero Cape

2011-10-04T07:38:00.000-05:00

I remember watching old reruns of the original Batman episodes on TV when I was little and wondering why anyone would want to prance around in their underwear and tights and punch people in the face. Eventually I came to realize that all little boys at one point or another love to play superhero just as much as I loved playing with my Barbies and X-Men (Wolverine and Barbie were on and off for quite a few years.)

Even though my little guy is only interested in gnawing on things at the moment, I'm sure once he gets old enough to find hobbies other than eating he'll want to put on a cape and fight bad guys too. Every little boy wants to be the hero who saves the day, so when my friend made me the Bee Inspired drawing for my craft room, I knew exactly what I wanted to make for her 2 little boys in return.

A superhero cape! If your little guy has a favorite superhero, you could make one with his symbol on it. Or, if you want to make it really special, you could personalize it for your child.

Supplies for a small cape:

Download my free pattern HERE
1 yard knit fabric (you may need more depending on how big your child is)
2 sheets of felt for the collar, and more for the patches on the cape
3 inches of Velcro
Craft glue
Sewing machine and basic sewing supplies

Step 1: Cut out your pattern pieces.

First, download my pattern HERE. Cut out and tape page 1 to page 2 where indicated. With your knit fabric folded, place your main pattern on top of your fabric with the edge on the fold where indicated. Trace around and cut out. Repeat for a total of 2 pieces, one for the front and one for the back.

You could also use a men's knit shirt to make your cape like I did, in which case you'll fold your shirt in half longways and place your pieced template on the fold like this:

When you trace and cut, you should have 2 pieces.

To cut out your collar, fold your sheet of felt in half and place your collar template on the fold. Cut out 2 of your collar pieces.

Decide what kind of design you want on your cape. This one was made for a friend's son named Sadron the 5th, who goes by the nickname "Five," so I decided to make the patch on his cape play off of his nickname. Make your design in Microsoft Word then cut out your letters and design and use these to trace your design onto your felt. I cut an S and a 5 from felt, as well as a sunburst that I found in Microsoft Clipart.

Glue the pieces of your patch together using the craft glue and let dry.

Step 2: Sew on your patch.

Position your patch on the right side of your cape (the part that everyone will see) and pin.

Sew around the perimeter of your patch and design to secure.

Step 3: Join your front and back pieces.

With the right sides together, pin the sides of your cape and sew around the perimeter, but leave the neck open. Turn your cape inside out through the opening in the neck.

Step 4: Attach the collar.

Sandwich the raw edge of your neckline in between your 2 collar pieces and pin.

Sew around the entire perimeter of your collar to finish.

Step 5: Add Velcro.

On the top of the left side of your collar, sew several inches of the hook portion of your Velcro. On the underside of the right side of your collar sew the loop portion of your Velcro.

And now you have your very own personalized superhero cape - or one with his favorite superhero on it.

And if you're wondering why the cape below is gray instead of red, it's because I made it and then realized afterward that I made it way too small for a 6 year old so I had to cut out my patch and start over. Sigh.

Again, why can't my projects just turn out perfectly the first time?

My friend's 3-year-old son was originally supposed to model the cape for me but he decided not to at the last minute, so Connor graciously stepped in - even though the cape is way too big on him.

"Watch out bad guys!"

"I'm off to save the day!!

Until the Evil Captain Mommy scooped him up for kisses.

The world is a safer place with my little superhero on duty.

The craft fair

2011-10-03T07:00:00.001-05:00

Well, I can finally say that I've participated in a craft fair! This past Friday and Saturday, a couple other girls and I shared a booth at one of the local craft fairs in Memphis. For the past month, I've been cranking out bibs like crazy and managed to make around 30 of them for the festival. The other girls brought a variety of painted canvases, bows, and other goodies for kids and babies.

I think we had a cute little booth :)

One of the girls had an old window that she used as both a decoration and a sign to list pricing of all the items.

I hung my bibs at the front of the tent so people would see them as they walked in, and they'd hit them in the face when they left ;) I used Picnik to make a sign to advertise the bibs, which I modeled after this sign I found on Google. I wanted the sign to have a "country" feel to it - I really like how it turned out!

The festival was fun but really exhausting! I have a lot of respect for all of you who do festivals every year! I may do another one in the future, but for now, I think I'm going to focus of making things for my Etsy shop that I want to start very soon.

So what do you think, would you want to buy a bib if I started to sell them on Etsy?

Mandy over at Sugar Bee Crafts has some awesome tips on how to prepare and decorate for a craft fair - her booth is so cute! Check it out HERE

My end-of-season steals

2011-09-30T09:57:00.000-05:00

Nothing else gets me like having to pay $30 for teeny baby jeans that they'll grow out of in a month. I mean, babies are like 1/6 the size of a normal person, so lets take that price and divide it by 6. I'd happily pay $5 for baby jeans. Sadly, I don't think retailers will ever agree with me. And that's why I love end-of-season sales so much.

If you've been reading for awhile, you know that I hate paying full-price for stuff, especially clothing, which is probably why I love making clothes for my kids so much. When I go shopping, I usually walk in and make a bee line for the clearance rack. When it comes to clothes for myself, I have an awesome sister-in-law who dresses me, so she's just helping to enable my cheapness even more. And I love her for that. And don't even get me started on my husband. The man would be happy to own a pair of cargo shorts and 2 baseball tees, one in black and one in gray.

So back to baby clothes. At the end of each summer and winter, the hubs and I make a trip to some stores and stock up ahead of time for the coming seasons, which helps us get a lot of cute clothes for the kids at prices we would never be able to get in season. We happened to be in Babies R Us recently to find a new car seat for Connor, and they had an amazing clearance event that I couldn't pass up. Everything was discounted already with an additional discount on top of it PLUS a buy one get one free deal.

It was on.

Here are some of the cute things we scored for next year:

A bunch of cute matching graphic tees and comfy shorts,

(I just love the blue striped shirt for some reason, the color is so pretty! ...I mean manly.)

And of course, I had to get a pair of swim trunks for Connor for next summer. He's going to look like such a big kid :(

For Haley, I found this adorable ruffle skirt,

Jean shorts for $3!

And assorted other pants and shirts. But my favorite had to be these:

Adorable rainbow sneakers! Love love love. They match everything, so that's a major plus :)

Is anyone else an end-of-season shopaholic like me?

Guess who's mobile?

2011-09-27T08:43:00.000-05:00

Yup, this little guy here is finally crawling.

It took him about 9 1/2 months, but Connor is officially crawling EVERYwhere. He's been rocking back and forth for awhile now, but he finally got enough coordination to go for it. And I couldn't be happier. Most of the time, he sits and plays well but then gets bored and cries for us to carry him somewhere new. Now, he just goes places himself.

He's still a little tipsy, but that makes him even more adorable. Watching him crawl in these early stages is hilarious. He looks like a little bulldog when he's crawling at you with a concentrated look and short, quick steps.

Life is just more interesting when you can go places yourself.

And now that means Connor finds wires to chew on. And random pieces of stuff on the floor end up in his mouth. And books get torn up. I'm going to have to hide everything. Again.

But I can't be mad at this face, can I?

Mystery project reveal and a winner!

2011-09-25T14:19:00.002-05:00

Many of you made some good guesses on the blog as to what I've been up to lately, and if you follow me on Facebook I threw out some hints about what I was working on. I think I'm pretty terrible at hinting. That's probably why I only made it through 3 hints before someone got it. I'm also really bad at lying which I suppose isn't a bad thing unless your 4 years old and your dad tells you that he got your mom towels for her birthday and to keep it a secret. I'm sure you can guess how that one turned out. I kept that secret for a whole 15 minutes.

So the oh-so-secret mystery project is bibs! Not just any bibs though, fruit bibs! Why? Because fruit-themed anything is awesome. Remember the California Raisins? Exactly.

I'm participating in my first craft show this week, so I whipped up about 25 of these babies to sell at the show. I think my hands are permanently cramped in a claw-like position from all the sewing I've done recently. I really love how they turned out though, too bad my 2 1/2-year-old doesn't like things tied around her neck and my (almost) 1-year-old has started to pull a Hulk move and rip bibs off his neck with excessive force lately. Sigh.

They really turned out better than I hoped though. They get me in a very fall-ish mood, which is my favorite season next to spring by the way. I think I'd be ok if we did away with summer and shortened winter some, or at least required winter to stay above 50 degree temperatures and snow on command on days when I felt like seeing all the pretty snow. Not to much to ask, right?

They were inspired by a shirt I made, similar to the apple bib above, for a friend 3 years ago when I first started sewing. I then saw this pin on Pinterest and thought, why not combine the two ideas? I'm calling them Fruit Basket Bibs, and the fruits include an apple, pear, strawberry, and orange. I think the orange is my favorite, even though it took a lot of patience to stitch each individual fruit section on. Times 8.

You all made a lot of great guesses that came close, but Rebecca made the right guess on the Facebook page.

Congrats, Rebecca! You will be getting your very own orange bib in the mail very soon! The craft festival is this coming Friday, and I've never done anything like it, so wish me luck!

I'm linking up to the parties on my sidebar, as well as the Point of View Autumn Link Party and The CSI Project:

Preparing for Baby

2011-09-22T07:00:00.002-05:00

Not me, thank you very much. Not yet anyway, I'm having enough fun juggling two right now to think about a third just yet!

Has anyone else noticed that everyone seems to be pregnant or having babies lately? Dana over at MADE just announced that she's pregnant with another little girl on Tuesday - so excited about all the adorable baby projects that are sure to follow! And of course Katy over at No Big Dill just had her 6th child - a little boy! I can't wait to see all the fun boy stuff. I imagine that making boy things after having 5 little girls to sew for must be exciting and intimidating. Then there's Rubyellen over at Cakies who just had her 4th little girl. There's something in the water...and I'm not ready to drink that Kool Aid quite so soon after the last one.

But, if you are pregnant, or you have a friend that is, The Dating Divas have some great ideas on how to prepare for baby. They included some great ideas for essentials like preparing your husband, getting maternity pictures taken, getting your other little ones ready for the new baby, and of course making time for yourself - something that we ladies forget to do!

And you might even see my Hospital Survival Kit for New Mothers over there as part of the roundup :)

Go check out all the fantastic ideas to prepare for a new little one over at The Dating Divas. And in just a few weeks, I'll be blog swapping with them - so excited!

PS - have you taken a guess at what I've been up to lately to win a mystery prize? If you're a follower on Facebook, I've been giving little hints along the way :)

I've been busy

2011-09-21T07:00:00.004-05:00

*This giveaway is now closed*

Sorry I haven't posted a project yet this week, my craft room has been looking more and more like an assembly line lately. I've been cutting so much, I have a blister on one of my fingers from where the scissors rubbed it raw.

I've been doing LOTS of tracing, cutting, ironing, and sewing.

Just when I think I'm done, there's still more to do.

Can you guess what I'm up to?

There might be something in it for the first person who guesses right... :)

My new flash!

2011-09-19T07:00:00.000-05:00

So this came in the mail recently....

My brand spankin new Canon Speedlite 430EX II!

I have been so bummed about some of the pictures I've been taking lately. I so wish I had the ability to stay at home with my babies and craft during the day like many of you other lucky ladies out there. If so, I would be able to craft during the day and take pictures then when the lighting is perfect. Right now, I need to work to help bring home the bacon, so the majority of my crafting is done at night - which makes for over exposed, often yellow pictures.

It's really a huge let down when I work so hard on projects and then staging them just so, and then they turn out yellow due to poor lighting. But not anymore now that I have this baby! My husband spoils me. I won't even list the many things we've purchased for me this year. Let's just say I won't be getting any Christmas, birthday, or anniversary gifts for the next few years. And I'm totally cool with that.

I still need to read the instruction book to really get the hang of the new flash, but I'm already loving it in auto mode. I played around with the flash some to see how big of a difference it really made with my pictures (please ignore the messy craft room!)

1. Without flash

2. With standard flash that came with my Canon Rebel

3. Speedlite pointed directly at me

3. With retractable wide panel down

4. Speedlite at a 75 degree angle

I can already see a HUGE difference with my Speedlite. It lightens up the shadows and makes all my pictures look much more natural. Plus, since the flash is adjustable, I can use it to bounce light off the ceiling and walls for better pictures. I'm SO excited to start using it with all my projects in the evening. No more over exposed pictures that I spend forever editing. I'm one happy girl!