I heart ruffles!

Since I am all about ruffles, and old t-shirts.....I took one of Molly's dresses she's not worn much and added some ruffles from another old t-shirt....don't worry honey, they're not your old t-shirts....I have learned my lesson on that*(see note below).

The before: Oh So plain....

The after: Heart ruffle in the front that trails to the back....don't you like her poses?

*when we were first married, I needed rags for cleaning and went into Scott's closet and swiped some t-shirts that I thought were old and cut them up.....he was not happy.

Boring white T transformed

So back at my sewing fun.....I took an old Hanes T shirt from the boys and transformed into this frilly little number....under the cardigan....Molly was tired and didn't want to model for me....

My goal is to start taking things I would normally give to Goodwill and repurpose them for my good will.:)

I did it! I lost.....

12 inches! Those of you who know me, may not believe me 'til you see! Now you are probably thinking body inches.....I wish....any how....nope....I cut my hair....and boy does it feel good. I probably will let it grow out again, but I was so tired of just pulling it back in a pony tail! I do kinda miss it....but it will be cooler and hopefully less headaches.

Here's a pic, mom.....(who said, "why did you do that?" when I told her last night)

Wha 'cha doin'?

I haven't had time to blog....busy busy....but we have had some fun:

Let's start with April Fool's Day....I fooled the kids, and Scott, with a Mystery Dinner. They had to select their Star Wars character choices for Appetizer, Main Meal, and dessert. However, they didn't know what they were ordering. It was a lot of fun and the kids decided they wanted to do this for every holiday.....

Drew ordered mac and cheese and a hot dog for his appetizer and didn't order his silverware....LOL...Molly had gotten her chocolate mousse and pink lemonade for her appetizer...

Then there is the everyday "hanging out" with Barbie....Molly had wanted to play with Legos, so I got out the bigger ones for her and pretty soon I turn around and she has Barbie hand-cuffed to Harold the Helicopter....poor Barbie!

I also tackled a sewing project with a real pattern! and it was my first really successful pattern/sewing thing I have done. After I had started sewing, I realized that the pattern was a lot like an outfit I had wanted to purchase for the last two year but couldn't justify spending $79 for my ever-growing daughter who couldn't care less. So I added the ruffles to the outfit to make it look just like what I had wanted....for a lot less.

Easter came around....we always like to get together with friends...so this year I had a group over....and lots of kids. They had fun hunting for eggs.....

and playing football. While the grown ups hung out....

I got some crafting in.....a headband with Molly silhouette on it...

Drew worked very hard on his Red-Eyed Tree Frog project. He had to do a power point, a diorama, and a clay figure with parts labeled.....yes, in 2nd grade. This was the kind of stuff that he loves to do, so he had a blast. Then the whole 2nd grade had a special Safari Night at school and they had all their projects set up and parents walked thru them all (well not all) and listened to the kids' presentation. It was a neat idea!

Then back in Feb, I went to Tastefully Simple Regional Conference in Cinci. We had such a blast...especially that I got to take 9 of my team members with me! It was so fun to have a team to celebrate with! I am so thankful to have a growing team with such wonderful women...... and men...sorry Marc:)

Drew and Jack both had Grandparents Day/Special Friends Day at school so since neither of the grandparents could make it, they had some little friends who came and shared the morning with them, along with Scott and I. Here Cohen was helping Drew with a craft.

Jack had posted this note on their bedroom door...Drew had wrote real small on the bottom of each note "He doesn't mean it". :)

My parents were also up here last weekend which was a blast! It was a short visit, but a sweet one:) I have no pics....what's up with that? Don't know! Maybe my mom will send me some.

Crayon Apron

It's a rainy day and I am still in the crafting mode, so I made something I have always wanted to try to make. A cute apron to hold crayons for Molly since she is quite the colorer (is that a word?). I am not good at keeping track of what I do, but I tried.....

First take an old pillowcase and fold 3 inches up from the bottom. Iron.

Then sew the edges to make a pocket. Flip right side out and iron.

Pin 1 inch intervals.

Sew straight lines where you marked with pins. Back stitch the tops of each pocket for durability.

Should look something like this.... Measure 12 inches up and cut off the open end of the pillowcase. I think it could have been shorter.

Sew about an inch in with a baster stitch (that's really big stitches.) Then pull the thread to gather it.

To make a waist, I searched for something in my collections of "things" and found a blanket ribbon. I cut 5 feet of it and pinned the top 1inch into the middle of the blanket ribbon. I sewed down the whole length of ribbon.

I wanted to make it extra girly because who doesn't like frills if you are 4? I cut a strip of tulle 3 times the length and ran a stitch down the center of it (this is in the wedding section of most craft stores in a ton of different colors). I think it's 8 inches wide or so. I then pulled the thread again to gather it.

Space it out on the bottom of the apron and pin. Then sew. ta-dah! I think if I did it again, I would use some fab. colorful fabric/pillowcase.



I also added a little red ribbon bow.

Miss Owl

I finally started some decorating on the second floor....mainly the kids' room because they get fun rooms. Still haven't painted much though....I randomly found these really cute owl Wall stickers at Target in Dec. and thought they were so cute. Molly and I had fun decorating her walls. Then I started seeing owls everywhere....in the stores and blogs. I made a cute owl to add to her decor with leftover fabric. Isn't she cute?

Then another random thing....Drew found a medium sized branch in the church lot and asked if we could bring it home....I said, "Sure!" He looked a little shocked....unfortunately, he didn't get to keep it....but I did:) well, Molly did! I put it in Molly's Woodland Creature room as a bow "collector". I got the idea when I was in TX visiting Laura and she had a really huge branch in Lily's room with all her bows on it....It was so adorable I wanted to do it too, but we don't have any big trees to take branches from. So, I had dismissed the idea...until it just happened. The picture is on an angle....that's a curtain to the right....

Sewing up a storm!

I haven't blogged in awhile, but I have had fun with the sewing machine! I made a reversible bubble skirt on Sat. for Molly using leftover fabric, an old crib sheet, and reused a waistband on an old pair of jammies....Thanks to Tanya from http://treyandlucy.blogspot.com/ I get sooo many ideas from her creative mind/blog.
I also made a cute skinny tie applique for the boys (from Tanya's blog), just haven't got a pic yet. Jack wore his to church last night and got spaghetti on it already, so it's already in the wash! I used their old cargo pants with holes to make the applique....turned out so cute!

Now I am working on a bubble skirt from an old dress of mine....I loved the fabric, just not my style of dress anymore...you know how that goes:) Here is the dress:

and here is the skirt in progress, still need to finish the waistband....

Man Can He Cook....

I just had to post this one....check out fab recipes here when you are done watching:

http://media.tastefullysimple.com/ManCanHeCook/default.html

Cheap and fun craft

I was at Target today and it was empty because of all the snow...so I just took my sweet time and went down almost every aisle. I am sure some of you can relate! Looking for something I need that I didn't know I needed. Anyway, in the dollar bin (everything isn't a dollar anymore) they had these cute hotpads and it reminded me of a cute apron craft I saw a while back....right beside it were matching kitchen towels so I picked them up and headed home to make Molly a cute apron...

First, fold a dish towel in half and pin the pot holder on (about half way) I forgot to take a pic of that but you can look at the final pic to see placing. I sewed around the edge of the white piping to hide my stitching. You could sew straight across.

Then make a bow out of ribbon and sew on to the top of the pot holder ( I just used left over ribbon I already had).

I then pinned on equal amounts of length of ribbon to each side of the fold in the towel and sewed them on.

The last thing I did is pin and sew on a lenght of ribbon to go around the neck. I just made it big enough that Molly could just slip it on over her head and then I tie it in the back around the waist. Oh, I also snipped the loop off the hot pad....hmmm...looks like I need to iron out the pressed folds:)

Pharis-wheels

It seems I haven't had anything funny to remember or write about. I just love being able to record those funny moments so that when I tranfer them to our yearly photo book I remember them.

Last night at dinner I was quizzing Molly on her bible story that she had at BSF that day. She usually answers "Jesus" to the questions, so I am not sure how much she gets:)

Anyway, I asked her, "Who healed the blind man?" she said, "Jesus!". I asked, "Who was upset at Jesus healing on the Sabbath?" she said, " the Pharis-wheels".

Our Trip to Gull Lake for New Years Eve

New Years Eve Conference 2009 from Gull Lake on Vimeo.

Crafting

Today I did some crafting....I love to, but usually don't have time for it. I have had my supplies sitting for weeks....here is my cute little decoration I made that I can use all year or just Christmas....
First I picked out scrapbooking paper that coordinated. At first I was going to use Christmas paper but the more I thought about the word I was using "Joy" I thought it is something that I would/could display all year around. So I went with paper that I liked and was neutral in theme.


Then I took the 4 1/2 inch blocks I found at Michael's and painted them black. After that Molly Modge Podged them with a nice coat. I then placed the paper on top of the Modge Podge.

After you smooth out all the bubbles I then put a coat of Modge Podge over the top to seal. While they were drying, I spray painted the wood letters (bought at Michael's) in "Joy".

Hot glue the wood letters to each block.

I hot glued bows to each block for added cute-ness.....

How fun! You could do this with so many other words....even your last name....that was my first idea....my last name is too long...


Ooooo...the most exciting thing is that I had to make two because of how the supplies were packaged so I am giving away one. If you want to be entered in my first drawing ever, make a comment by Tuesday, Dec 1st 9am. I will announce the winner later this week.

Birthday Bash

I finally had a chance to look at Molly's birthday pics and post them. Karinne and Molly were all about the princess stuff. They celebrated their birthday's together at our house. It's always fun to have family around!

Friendship Bread

I got my first batch ever of Friendship Bread....I have researched it and it seems it could be kinda mean to give this stuff away to friends. I have heard of people running away when they see you coming with a cup of starter in a large zip lock bag.

As of now, my first run with it has been good and I didn't give any away. On Sunday, I had my first taste of Friendship Bread and wasn't so fond of the orginal recipe. I don't usually follow standard anyway, so I searched for all the recipes I could find and came up with a great way to use most or all of my starter and save one for myself....for 10 days from now.

After you share 3 of the starters with friends you can use up the rest by making my Blueberry Streusel Coffee Cake. I opted to make the Coffee Cake and then throw one starter in the freezer, keep one on the counter for 10 days from now and then I made delicious Cranberry Lemon Cinnamon Rolls with the other. Next time (yes, 10 days from now) I am going to use up 2 or 3 of the starters on Cinnamon Rolls, they turned out well. But beware, if you live close by, you may just see me coming with a bag of starter for you:)

Fall Fun

We had a fun weekend! The boys had their Fall parties at school on Friday, which involved TPing each other as mummies. Then on Friday night we went to church for a Fall party and the kids got their share of candy and more! On Saturday, the kids handed out candy so they could see all of their friends (and stay warm). If you know me, I am a last minute person, so I decided to make the boys' Jedi costumes and was sewing until 5:30pm. I thought they turned out pretty good. I tweeked them on Sunday afternoon since I really didn't have them finished by the time trick or treaters were coming.