Another $1.00 find

My little Madi loves to dress up. What 5 year old doesn't right? Well we decided to make her a little make up table. I went to a thrift shop and I found this ugly old brown and gold shelf thing! You should have seen the looks I got carrying this thing around. It really was pretty ugly! (of course I didn't take a before picture) But these people just didn't have the vision like I did! I saw it and instantly thought it would be perfect for Mad's room. So I paid a dollar, spray painted it white, and screwed it in under her mirror. The day after it was hung I went upstairs to find it already getting good use.

Congrats!

Congratulations "Shan" you are the follower of the month winner! You will receive your headband in the mail just as sson as you send me your address!

Valentines Garland

So have you been noticing in the crafting blogging world a lot of similar Valentine ideas floating around here??? I have to. I think that they are all darling, so I pulled three ideas that I have been seeing a lot into one. On My frugal family, she made a way cute ribbon heart hanger click here for tute details, Then all over the place I have seen these ruffle hanger hearts. So simple. Cut your strip of any type of fabric sew a gathering stitch down the middle, gather it and then hot glue your ruffle to a wire hanger formed into a heart. And then of course there are the Valentine garlands all over the place as well. So I decided to take a bunch of ribbons and hang my hearts onto them. I put it over my fireplace and now we have a new free Valentine decoration for our home! Kind of fun to play off of other ideas floating around the web. Happy Valentines!

Santa's little Helper!

This year Santa Clause pooped this mama out! He needed a little help finishing up a Christmas project for a very cute Little girl, and lets just say that the procrastination in me did not help! But Heck the project was so much fun I can't complain that much! The only sucky part is that Santa gets all the credit for the cuteness, and my little Miss may or may not have "accidentally" seen this hidden in our house!! DANG! at least she believes that we were just storing it for Santa because it wouldn't fit on his sled! and at least she didn't get to actually see it because it was covered with blankets and tarps so it was still kind of a Christmas miracle right???

My sister gave us this old house and it needed a lot of work! But $3.00 and a lot of late night hours, later it was just perfect!
I "wallpapered" each room with scrap book paper and embellished with stickers and brads and buttons! too fun!!

Most of the furniture needed a new paint job but I found that spray paint worked the best for this. And lets be honest we all know by now that I am a little crazy so of course I had tons of spray paint on hand.

I thought that I would be sewing all of the little pillows and bedding but I didn't I took the lazy way out and just used a hot glue gun! I did sew some buttons onto the pillows and I did sew the little rugs together and then clipped the edges and washed them for a rug look! For the bath towells below I cut a white wash cloth and then just sewed a strip of pink rick rac for some extra cuteness.

This has been so much fun for my Madi, she adores it. I love that the total cost for me was $3.00 for some hardwood floor for the kitchen! It's amazing what a little creativity can do!

She has been bit by the bug!

So my Awesome sister in Law has been bit by the sewing bug!! It's about time! I LOVE IT! We often talk about the latest and cutest things we have seen while blog stalking and I finally have a friend who can understand my passion a tiny bit! But I just had to show her off for a minute! For my sweet little Mia Pia's Birthday Aunt Emalee made her this ADORABLE hat out of an old tee shirt! SO STINKING CUTE!! Don't ya think? Of course it is now on my never ending long list of things to try but until that day comes I will just have to admire Mia in the one that was made for her by aunt Em. Thanks Em We LOVE it!

Ruffled tiered skirt...LOVE IT!

So I have this friend LACI. She is an absolute doll! She is so creative and bold and just plain cute! Her daughters are always dressed so dang stylish with the fun bright trends and she just has that eye for style. If you live in Utah then you have to check out her photog blog she is AMAZING and just different from the rest.

So anyways the other day we were going to let our girls play and we decided that while they were playing we should make a skirt. She had this AWESOME leopard print fabric that used to be her dining room kitchen curtains!!!! and then an example of a skirt that she already had. So we studied the skirt and then went to work! Needless to say it took me WAAAYYYY to long to sew and figure out, but I guess that's what happens when you have 6 kids running around and a brand new skirt idea with no pattern.(sorry Laci!!!) But I LOVE IT!! It just lays so cute and it is just so much fun!This is the outfit that we put together, I can't wait to see how Laci dressed it up! She is so good at that!!

I wish so bad that I would have taken pics along the way. But I didn't think of it at the time. So I will do the best to explain, it really is pretty simple. email me if you have any questions.

**First pick your fabric. The fabric we used was like a thin sheer almost a chiffon type. I am sure cotton would work, I am curious to try it. The only problem I can think of is it

might wrinkle a ton and it might be hard to iron out these ruffles, what do you guys think???

** Next cut a rectangle. For about a size 5 we used a 12X40 inch rectangle. I would say that this size would fit anywhere from a 3t-6 and you would just adjust the elastic. But my daughter wears a size 5 and these are the measurements that we used so you can adjust accordingly.

**Next cut your strips for the ruffles. We did 7 1/2X60 and you cut 5 of these. For 5 tiers.

**Next I took the rectangle and sewed the two 12 inch wrong sides together. On the bottom of the skirt I did a finished hem. I fold and iron a half inch and then fold and iron another half inch and use a basic stitch to stitch it into place.

**for this skirt I used a thin elastic and I don't know why, it really doesn't matter. But I liked the look of it. On the top edge of the skirt sew a band. Again I fold and iron about a half inch over and then fold and iron again the width of the elastic that you use. Then I stitch around the band. Remember to leave about an inch opening to thread your elastic through. (but don't thread the elastic until the very end)

**Now for the ruffles. I tried to take pictures using just a piece of fabric to show you. So, you take your fabric and fold it lengthwise in half with wrong sides together. Like the pic.

** Then you fold about a half inch over and do a gathering stitch all across the top. We had a hard time using the basic straight gathering stitch because of the thickness so we ended up doing a large zigzag stitch. You could iron this half inch if you didn't feel comfortable just eyeing it but I just eye balled it and it seems like that would go a lot faster.

** After you have all 5 of the ruffles sewn with a gathering stitch you gather the 5 ruffles. You want to ruffle the ruffles to be 40 inches long. The whole cuteness of the original skirt we were copying was that the ruffles were not hugely ruffled. That is why we chose the length of 60 inches. If you want it more ruffly cut and gather your strips longer.


** Then you are going to start sewing the ruffles right on to the skirt. I sewed the first ruffle right under the bottom of the band and then each additional ruffle was sewn on 2 inches from the ruffle above it. A trick my ma taught me so that I didn't have to measure and pin every time was to get an index card and measure it to the length that you want and then use it as a guide while you are sewing. So I just kept my card right up to the top ruffle and then sewed the next ruffle on next to the card so that I knew it was even all the way around.


** After you get your ruffles on you are ready for your elastic. I suppose everyone is different with their elastics and how they do it! This is what I did though. My daughters waist is 22 inches so I cut my elastic to 19 inches. I don't know why but this size just seems to fit her. You can always cut and adjust your elastic if it is too big so you will have to play with it and see what works for you. I think the general rule of thumb is to take one inch off the measured waist but that always seems too big for my honey. Ok now it's time to thread your elastic, I always use a safety pin on one end and then just guide it through. When you reach the end you sew your two elastic ends together and sew your band closed and WALA! You have made the cutest frilliest little girl skirt ever! I LOVE this skirt I am totally thinking that I am going to make my girls pastel ones for their Easter clothes!! Thanks Laci, great idea! We'd love to see pics if you give this a try!

PS don't forget about the giveaway, it ends next Wednesday. Either follow the blog to enter or check out the post and follow those directions for more entries!

Giveaway of the month

Hello! So remember how we have gotten off to a very slow blogging start for the new year??? Well we haven't forgotten about the follower of the month! For this month the giveaway will be this cute flower head band. This is a hit at our house both Madi and I wear this and it is just kind of fun! This is an easy project that needs hardly any supplies and a hot glue gun! As soon as we have a winner I will do a tutorial as I am making the winner theirs. Ok so if you are already a follower you automatically have one entry! If you are not a follower follow now. If you want more chances to win you can have an additional 3 entries by doing this:

1. Post a comment stating your favorite way to be creative and artsy

2. Post a comment telling us that you have added our button to your blog (but make sure that you actually did this!! :) )

3. Post a comment telling us that you told the world about this giveaway by either blogging or face booking! again you should probably do that before posting!!! Alrighty have fun!! and Good Luck!!! Oh and we will announce the winner one week from today on Wednesday Jan 27

PS: I just made the cutest skirt yesterday for my dolly and her friend! It was out of my friend's old curtains and it is probably one of my favorites that I have done! I can't wait to post pics and eventually do a tutorial!! So stay tuned! Thank You LACI!!

PSS I have the cutest cousin ever who is doing a drawing portrait giveaway on my aunt's blog! SHE IS AMAZING!!! She will take a photo that you send her and draw a picture of your child in pencil. They are beautiful. Hop on over there and check it out! But I kind of didn't want to tell you that because I am really hoping that I win. But I'm cool like that so go!!!

A fun little Mama and daughter tutorial!

A Picture Pocket Pillow

My 5 year old honey got a sewing machine from Grandma D for Christmas! She was sooo excited and has been even more excited to try it out. Well now that things have calmed down a bit we pulled out the machines yesterday and got creative. I asked her what she wanted to make and she sat there thinking and then all by her self came up with the idea of a heart pillow with a place to put a picture on front. I was shocked! And then I thought what a great tutorial lets do it!

**So first step pick out your fabric! You know you have scraps lying around use them!! I was kind of trying to convince my little dear to use some fabrics that match her pale pink and sea foam blue room but she preferred BRIGHT ORANGE AND PINK!! So that's what we did! :)

**Next choose your shape. I had some large butcher paper so I had Miss Madi draw a heart on the paper and then we pinned it to the fabric. (The fabric was folded so that we were cutting the front and back at the same time.) After your desired shape is pinned, cut it out baby!

We did our ruffle trim next. The width is up to you. Mad wanted a wider trim so we chose to cut our strips 4 inches wide. The length depends on how much ruffle you want and how much you want to gather it. I usually do the length twice as wide as the length of the original project.

**Iron your trims to have a finished edge. We ironed a half inch and then folded another half inch and ironed again. (obviously this is the long side of the trim!)

**Iron a straight stitch down your folded edge to finish it...

**And then on the unfinished edge we are going to sew a gathering stitch. Do you remember how to do a gathering stitch??? Set your stitch on your machine to the largest setting and without back stitching sew away all the way down your trim. After that is sewn grab one of the threads ( I prefer the bobbin thread) and pull. It will start to gather.

** Take your gathered trim and pin it evenly right sides together and the gathered edge matched to the edge of the pillow. Sew the trim onto the pillow using a basic straight stitch.

** For the picture pocket, I know that there is plastic fabric that you can purchase, but this project was done on a whim coming straight from miss Madi's head. He had sleeping babies to deal with so we needed to use what we had around the house! So I went to my craft cupboard and found some old scrapbook page protectors. These worked great!!

**We chose a regular 4X6 rectangle for our pocket but cut out your shape and place it on your front pillow, (the one with the trim sewn to it already) Then stitch only the sides and bottom. Leave the top opened so you can slip the picture inside. I wanted to use bright pink thread for this and a fancy flower stitch but Madi had her mind set on orange thread and a straight stitch. I did the zig zag anyways thinking she wouldn't notice or care but OOHHHH she did! And she wasn't too happy. I personally like the zig zag better though I think it just adds a little more detail! :)

**Next we took the second heart and placed it on top of the heart that already had the trim and pocket sewn to it. With right sides together we pinned the edges all around to keep it in place. Then I started at the bottom and sewed a basic normal stitch all the way around the heart. Don't forget to leave an opening to stuff the pillow. I think I left about a 4 inch opening.

**Turn it right side out and then STUFF the heck out of it!

After it is stuffed don't forget to stitch back up your stuffing opening and then add a picture. Mad's original idea for the pillow was for a picture of her and a friend, but when we finished, she decided she wanted to put a picture of a mermaid that she had drawn. As you can see there are no pics of the mermaid on here because out of the 22 that she drew for her pillow NOT ONE of them were just right for HER pillow! She kept drawing and throwing pics away. While I was waiting for her to draw just the right one. I made the I heart Madi sign and she liked that best and has kept that in!

This was such a fun easy project to do with my 5 year old! I love that it was a sewing lesson for her and a great love note spot for me! I also think this would be such a cute valentine present for little friends! You could make little heart pillows and then put your valentine right in front. But mostly I LOVE that my Madi thought of this on her own! I have seen a note pillows before but Madi hasn't so this was really fun for me to watch her be creative and design!

Helllllooooo 2010!

Yes, Yes, I am alive!! BARELY!! Just Kidding! Christmas was so much fun!! Too much fun especially when you have three little kiddies who are just so dang excited and so dang cute! After my last post I kind of got lost in the excitement of the holidays and enjoying my family and our warm home a little too much! We got to hang out with our families, eat, play games and just enjoy each other! Right after Christmas of course comes the New Year celebrations and also my sweet little Mia's Birthday! Just as soon as we got all of that celebrated I became sick with Strep and it WAS NOT FUN!!! But hopefully I am back! and hopefully the sewing bug will bite me soon and give me some new ideas!! But I wanted to share one quick idea with ya now.

So awhile back I posted about a girl's night out of refashioning clothing. My cute friend DESTRY made this birthday shirt for her little gal with some of my scraps and I JUST had to have one! I figured sense she used my scraps I get to use her creative brains!! So within 20 min I made my little dolly a birthday onesie. I thought it was adorable. I used three different sized rectangles, a piece of Ric rack, and a little piece of yellow. I used wonder under and ironed them to the onesie first and then I stitched around the cake as well. So cute and so fun. It will definitely be placed in her special box.

Another Birthday idea I used was the infamous birthday banners. I REALLY REALLY wanted to make a fabric one but again crazy time of year so I stuck with scrapbook paper and hot glue!! SO MUCH EASIER AND QUICKER!! I LOVE the way it turned out! It measures about 6 1/2 feet long. Each triangle was a bout 6 1/2 inches wide and 9 inches long. The fun of this project is that you get to use your creativity a little! ANYTHING will do! I think my Hubby thought I was a little off my rocker when he saw me putting the time and effort into this, but when I explained to him that it can be used over and over again for various birthdays the light came on!! Eventually I want to make each one of my bambinos a fabric birthday banner that will be hung each year on their birthdays and that they can take with them when they get married, but It just didn't happen this year for Mia. Our next birthday is in April so maybe then!!!

Embellishing is the fun part! GO CRAZY!!

I know the picture kind of stinks!!! And how fun would these be for Valentines, Easter, Babies ETC ETC!!