Guest posting at Tatertots & Jello!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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:

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Or some of these:

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or decorate your kitchen with these:

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and I definitely want a few of these:

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and this would look amazing on my dining room table:

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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!