My visit to PA through Pixlr-o-matic

Things have been quiet around here over the past few days because we were off on a visit to Pittsburgh to  see a show with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law. We saw our first Cirque du Soleil show! We've been trying to go for years, but one thing after the other kept us from going. The one we saw in PA was a tribute to Michael Jackson, one of my favorite artists, so we pretty much HAD to go see it. It was really interesting to see his life through dance and song (and plenty of acrobatics!)

While we were there, we fit a ton of other fun stuff in too as usual :) Rather than tell you about what I did, I thought it'd be fun to show you through the pictures I took on my phone using Pixlr-o-matic (my favorite new photo editing program!) My sister-in-law got me hooked on it over the weekend. I love all the different editing options and frames they offer, and you can download even more if you sign up for the paid subscription (which I may be doing in the very near future.)

1. Sibling love! 2. Riding the merry-go-round at the zoo 3. A yummy ice cream sundae on a hot day 4. My little cowgirl 5. Trying out a new hairstyle 6. Mini me 7. Aunt Shanny with her nieces and nephew 8. Pretty painted tootsies after a spa party 9. One of the many beautiful churches in Pittsburgh 10. Worn out from all the fun

Just a peek into our extended weekend in Pittsburgh. It's a beautiful city with lots of great photo opportunities, even if all you have is your phone! I definitely suggest downloading Pixlr-o-matic if you're looking for a great editing program for your smart phone. Also, for some tips on how to take great pictures with your phone, check out this post on A Beautiful Mess. You might never use your camera again ;)

Trouble

(Source)

Exhibit A:

Here's a tip: when your son is alone in his room and he's quiet for a little too long, you should probably go investigate. Chances are, he probably found the baby powder and decided to shake it all over his room. And his head. and the floor.

Check out the baby powder line on his head, I don't even know HOW he managed to do that. And if you look closely, you can see that it's even on his pacifier!

Oh this boy, he's the funniest little, dirt-covered noisy mess I know.

Easter

I hope everyone had a great Easter yesterday! Since the closest family is 13 hours away, we had a nice relaxing Easter with just the 4 of us. We went to church in the morning, then had an Easter egg hunt in the back yard afterward.

Connor didn't quite understand what he was supposed to do. He ran around the yard with one plastic egg, throwing it on the ground every few minutes. That freed Haley up to get pretty much all of them. Which was fine with her :)

I guess this is also an unofficial sneak peek to a dress tutorial I'll be sharing with you soon :) I've been wanting to make a dress with a crossover bodice for awhile, so a week before Easter I whipped this baby out. Haley loved it too, she wouldn't take it off when we got home from church! That's a win in my book.

After the egg hunt, I thought it'd be nice to get a picture with both kids together since those are so rare. It didn't go well.

Haley was a perfect angel, but Connor ended up doing this most of the time.

I got Haley by herself and she cheesed it up for me :) This kid is going to be a singer or a TV show host, I'm sure of it.

Eventually I got a semi-smile from Connor. I'll take it!

All in all, it was a great Easter weekend. How was yours?

My big kid

I had some fun snapping a few shots of this little guy lately. Or should I say big guy? He's 17 months now...wow it's strange to even type that! He's in that bittersweet stage between baby and kid where the glimpses of his babyhood are becoming less and less and I see him becoming more of a "big kid."

His vocabulary is off the charts. The doctor said at this point, he should have a vocabulary around 4-6 words, but I can name off at least 20 words that he spouts off on a regular basis. He also prefers to run most places instead of toddling around like he used to.

But then I catch him playing with his toes like he used to when he was a baby and it makes me smile and think about those little glimpses of babyhood that I get each day. Like how he still mostly babbles, or how he thinks it's funny when I sing "itsy bitsy spider" to him and tickle his chunky legs.

And the cuddles....I hope he's always this cuddly! I'm lucky that both of my kids still enjoy cuddling with me. Sitting down on the couch and cuddling with them after dinner is one of my favorite things.

So Connor, take your time becoming a big kid. I don't mind waiting a little longer.

Shirred top to dress {clothing refashion}

I have this shirt that I can't bring myself to part with. I've had it for about 5+ years now, and I've always hung onto it because I love the embroidery detailing on it, and more importantly, I had my engagement pictures taken in it.

Aw, look at young, blonde me!

Unfortunately in this case, I am a skinny girl and that carries over to my *ahem* bust area. The shirring on the top of the shirt is pretty, but I can't manage to keep it up very well :) I didn't want to throw the shirt away though, it just looked too pretty and carried too many memories, so I refashioned it into a dress for Haley. It's cool to think I wore the shirt over 5 years ago when my daughter was just a dream, and now she's running around playing in it. What a great way to repurpose a piece of cherished clothing!


Supplies:

• Shirred top
• Disappearing ink marker
• Double fold bias tape
• Scissors
• Sewing machine and basic sewing supplies

Step 1: Size your shirt. 

Here's the shirt I started with. I put it on my daughter to figure out how much I needed to take off the sides.

I simply turned the top inside out and pinned down both sides. Then, I used my disappearing ink marker to mark the areas that I would be trimming off. Using a zig-zag stitch, I sewed along the sides of my dress on the lines I drew and cut off the excess fabric.

Step 2: Make your straps.

Next, measure your child over the shoulders to determine how long your straps would be and add 1/2 inch. For my 3-year-old, my straps were each BLANK.

Position your bias tape on the inside of your dress and stitch down using 2 separate rows of stitches. Repeat to attach the straps to the back of your dress. I decided to cross the straps so they would make an 'X' in the back.

To add more visual interest to the dress, I made an inverted box pleat

And that's how an old, loved shirt became a new dress for my daughter :)

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John the Baptist and moving out

I've been a little absent from blogging lately. We've had a lot going on at our house! The past few weeks have been dedicated to cleaning, organizing, fixing and packing, and I'm sure you're not interested in reading posts about how to dust effectively ;) If you didn't know, we live in Tennessee which is a good 12 hours away from any family. After being married for 4 years and then adding 2 kids to the mix, we've learned that we need our family. So, we're moving out! Or hoping to soon anyway. After lots of prayer and planning, we put our house up on the market yesterday with the hopes of moving to Pittsburgh to live near my husband's family. It's exciting and a bit sad to think that we will be leaving behind our very first house, the one that both of our kids have known and grown up in. But on the other hand, it's thrilling to think about how great it will be to live near family again and have that support we've been missing for the past 4 years.

So, if you or anyone you know is looking for a house in Memphis, I would be happy to show you the perfect house :) The market hasn't been very good over the past few years, but we're believing it will sell and sell quickly!

In other news, I forgot to share a funny story that happened recently. My daughter has this little childrens' picture Bible that she loves to carry around with her. It's been her favorite book for awhile, and I'll catch her sitting there looking at the pictures and telling herself stories. One day recently as I was sitting next to her, she points to a picture of John the Baptist (below right) and goes, "Look Mommy, that's Daddy!" I of course burst out laughing and started teasing Patrick about how it must be time for him to shave his beard. Then she points to the guy on the left, "That's you, Mommy!"

Apparently it's time for me to change my makeup regimen or something. Or maybe get a new haircut?

So how's that for a random post for you? Hope everyone has a great weekend!

T-shirt to a dress {with ruffles}

Hellooooo refashion season! Winter is over, and that means shorts, skirts and dresses. This past weekend, I dug through my kids' clothes and put away all the long-sleeved shirts and brought out the summer stuff. It was like Christmas morning. I get just as excited about putting my kids in new clothes as I do when I buy new clothes for myself. Is that weird? Clothes for kids are just so much cuter than adult clothes sometimes! I wish I could rock a pair of glittery shoes like my daughter. Sigh.

Along with the new clothes, I also pulled out some thrifted shirts and pants for the kids that needed a few alterations before they could be worn. One shirt in particular, a cute Bambi shirt that I got at a garage sale last year, was a bit too long to be worn as a long shirt over leggings, but a bit too short to be worn as a dress. Solution? Ruffles. Made from cutting the bottom off of men's undershirts, because you know how I love using men's undershirts to refashion clothes.

You can see how I utilized men's undershirts in these other projects (click on the picture to be taken to the link):

Here's what you need to make a ruffled t-shirt dress!

Supplies:

• Shirt
• Men's undershirt (the larger the better)
• Dress to use as a template
• Disappearing ink marker
• Ruler
• Scissors
• Sewing machine and sewing supplies

Step 1: Measure your shirt.

First, you'll need to figure out how long you need your ruffle to be. Using the dress you have as a reference, lay your shirt on top of the dress to determine how many more inches you need to make the dress nice and long.

Add 1 inch to your measurement for seam allowance. I needed about 3 inches of ruffle to make my dress long enough plus 1 inch, so I needed a total of 4 inches. 

Step 2: Cut your ruffle fabric out.

Now, lay your undershirt out and measure the amount of fabric you need (in my case 4 inches). Use your disappearing ink marker and ruler to draw a line straight across your undershirt from one side to the other.

Cut out your strip of fabric, and it should look like this. See how the bottom is already hemmed for you? Yay for shortcuts!

Step 3: Make and attach your ruffle.

Now, you're going to sew a basting stitch (which is basically just a really long stitch.) Set your sewing machine to the highest number for stitch length and width. Sew a straight line across the top of your fabric strip about 1/2 inch from the raw edge of the fabric (don't backstitch at the beginning or end!)

Pull one of the threads and push the material away from you to make the ruffle. Make your ruffle the same length as the bottom of your t-shirt.

Next, turn your ruffle inside out and pin the raw edge of your ruffle to the bottom edge of your t-shirt all the way around. The right sides of your shirt and ruffle fabric should be facing each other. Set your machine's stitch length and width back to normal, and stitch your ruffle to your shirt.

 

Ta dah! Super cute new ruffle dress.

Haley was even kind enough to model it for me without much bribing. She's finally getting to the age where she puts up with my photo sessions and (dare I say) enjoys them. I'm loving it.

And she even struck a pose! Check out that sass! Do I have a 3-year-old or a 13-year-old? Sigh....I'm sure it's only a matter of time before Bambi shirts will be replaced with Bieber shirts....

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Easy pom pom garland

Ok, so this last tutorial is nothing life changing, but it is a fun and easy way to add more color to your party! My original plan was to make some kind of burlap pennant garland for Haley's Up! birthday party, but then I decided I wanted to add more color. Because obviously color is on thing that is lacking with this birthday ;)

This project is super simple, and all you need are 3 supplies - yay!

Supplies:

• Pom poms
• Embroidery floss
• Needle

First, measure out how long you want your garland to be and trim a piece of embroidery floss to size. Make sure you leave a bit of a tail at the end for tying or taping your garland where you want it. Tie a knot at the very end where your last pom pom will go.

Start threading your pom poms on your needle through the center of your pom poms.

Now thread thread thread! Tie a knot several inches from the end like you did before.

Depending on how many pom poms you have, you could choose to place them really close together or spread them out like I did, both look great! Then, just tape or tie them on wherever you want.

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