"Re-purposed Spring Dress"

I have seen various posts about "re-purposing" your child's too small clothing or turning your old t-shirts into adorable dresses for your daughter.  I have admired their talent, but had decided that I couldn't do that.  Well, I had all of the inspiration that I needed after seeing an absolutely adorable re-purposed dress from Make It and Love It http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2010/05/re-purposing-t-shirt-into-dress.html.  I set off on a search for one of my daughters too small shirts and some random fabric in my stash!  I came up with a too small cute white shirt and this colorful striped fabric.

I followed a few different tutorials.  The first is from http://www.olemissmom.com/2009/07/summertime-sewing-t-shirt-dress.html and http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2010/05/re-purposing-t-shirt-into-dress.html .  I used ideas from both of these fantastic tutorials to create the dress.  Both tutorials are very easy to follow and have great pictures, so there is no need for me to re-write a tutorial for this project.  Here are a few pictures I took along the way while creating my daughters "Re-purposed Spring Dress."



Fabric tube sewn to t-shirt.



Top stitching the t-shirt to fabric for a clean look.





The soon to be tie for the dress.







The finished dress from the back.



The finished dress from the front.



Closer detail of the bow in the back.

I had a great time creating this "re-purposed" dress!  You know it's a hit when your daughter approves of it and your son even says, "Wow, you turned her t-shirt into that!"  Thanks again to the blogs for their awesome tutorials!  Hope this gives you some inspiration to create your own "re-purposed project.





Back from Blogland Vacation

I am finally back from a lonnnggg blog land vacation!  A new job and busy family equals not time for blogging.  Hopefully I can get back to posting some of my fun creations!   Here are some of the creations I have fit it amidst our busy lives. 


Happy Birthday sign for my daughter!



Birthday Banner



Birthday Party Door Hanger for my daughter.



Christmas Presents: Fleece Scarf





Fleece Scarf, Mittens, and Hair bow





Cupcakes and Party Decorations for my son!



The Choice Jar!  No more saying "I'm bored!" at my house.  If you do,
you have to choose from this jar and your task may be a chore or a
fun activity.  You never know what you'll get so you are better off just
not saying, "I'm Bored." (found the idea on Pinterest)



Our Family Mission Statement in the form of Word Art.
We sat down at a family meeting on January 1st and read about
what The Bible says families should do and be.  From there we
wrote our thoughts in phrases and created a word art page of them.



Burlap Painted Door Hanger
I have to give thanks to my friend Alina for
 great instructions.

The Value of Giving to Others

   I have realized by my children's attitudes that they have not witnessed and been part of enough giving.  This is hard to admit since it is my husband and I that they are watching and learning from.  I can not say this about my family or his family because they have always been very giving to others and to our family.  I feel like we do give, but do we go beyond?  Probably not!  Our heavenly Father call us to give to others and to not store up riches here on earth. (Matthew 6:19-21)  Evidently, I have been giving TOO much to my children and they think that I should give even more! 
   I have finally come to the realization that this is a bad path to lead them down and we should u-turn it back to where we should be!!  I have explained to my son and daughter, (ages 9 & 5), that we have been blessed beyond measure and that we should desire to share with others our blessings.  They agreed and even gave examples of how we do and have given.  I explained to them that we need to buy out of neccessity and not desire/wants for this whole week and that we should find some ways to give to others this week. (We are starting small!)  They both agreed that we should go for it!

   With that said, we took a trip to wonderful Hobby Lobby this morning.  My daughter was so excited to go look at "all of the beautiful things" they have there.  But my son said, "Momma, I thought we were only supposed to buy out of necessity?"  I assured him that we were only buying what we needed to make a gift for a friend that just had a baby.  His response, "But it's not a necessity."  Not sure if he's right or wrong.  I do love to make things for other people and I feel like it is an ok way to give. To the left is a picture of the baby gift! (Had to add a crafty picture in here!)

   Well, we are on day 1 and not sure how it's going, but we will continue to strive to have a more giving heart so that it comes more naturally and we don't have to even think about it.  So if you would like to join our family in prayer for a more giving heart, these are some verses in the Bible that spoke to us.

John 3:16
16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Acts 10:22
He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.

1 John 3: 17-18
17If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

Hebrews 13:16
16And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.


Luke 6:38
38Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."
  The list could go on and on.  There are so many verses in the Bible where God calls us as his sons and daughters to give to others.  It is my prayer that I will see a change in my children and myself.  Not just because I think they ask for "too many things," but because it is a value that God has called us as parents to instill in our children!

Random, But Fun Crafting!!

You know, life is just busy, busy, busy!  But on the same token it is fun, fun, fun!  ( Minus back problem and other kinks thrown in.)  Our weather has been pretty great these last few weeks and we have tried to enjoy every moment of it.  Of course, I have incorporated time to fill my need of creating fun crafts! So here are a few of the fun crafty things I have created along with the blogs that inspired me! Thank you to all of the wonderful crafty bloggers out there in blog land! (Yes, I love exclamation points!! Especially when it comes to my God, my family, and crafts!!!!!!!)

Project 1:  The Playful Knot Dress
After I made a pair of ruffle pants for a dear friend's daughter she gave me this adorable fabric. So exciting!!! I had been eyeing this cute knot dress tutorial over at
Everyday Chaos http://bridgetbaxter.blogspot.com/2008/04/happy-anniversary-to-you.html  and an Etsy listing at Kissing Kumquats http://www.etsy.com/people/kissingkumquats?ref=ls_profile  I am not a seasoned seamstress so I did it "Ashley style," meaning not always following all of the directions.  I did not do crisscross  back, I just did a bib like the front so that it would be a closed back.  This tutorial was very detailed with its instructions so it was easy to follow.

Project 2:  The Pearl and Ribbon Necklace

I saw one of daughter's friends wearing a bracelet made like this.  I fell in love with it and searched the blog world over to find a tutorial.  It has been on my to-do list for months and I finally got around to making it!  The tutorial can be found at Blue Cricket Design http://www.bluecricketdesign.net/2010/01/craft-1-ribbon-and-pearl-neclace_04.html This tutorial was awesome!

 Project 3: The Decoupage Initial
I have always loved these letters!  I always thought that it was too hard to do this technique, so I have never tried it.  After listening to others talk about how easy it was I decided that I too should learn how to do this!  The inspiration was actually just a need for a decoration to hang between two windows in my mom's "purple room" as my daughter calls it. (The quilt has purple in it and that is my daughters favorite color)  I found a decoupage tutorial here at Heart Of The Matter Online http://heartofthematteronline.com/how-to-decoupage-letters  The tutorial has great pictures and directions.

 Project 4: Ruffle Shorts
I decided that I must  make these shorts for my daughter after seeing them in various direct sells children's clothing catalogs and on Etsy.  I made her a couple of pairs of ruffle pants for the winter and early spring, so it's only fitting to make them for summer too!  I used this amazing tutorial from Simply Annie Kate  http://simplyanniekate.blogspot.com/2010/06/learn-to-make-boutique-style-ruffle.html.  She posted a two part tutorial for ruffle pants on You Tube. Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74s7ealQlVc  Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZFK0zJN6hQ&feature=related You can also access these tutorials on her blog.  For the shorts I just did the same thing using a pair of shorts that fit her now to make the pattern.

 So as you see I have been trying a few new crafts.  It is so exciting to try new things!  I hope that you have a chance to check out all of these fantastic bloggers.  It takes a lot of time to create tutorials and I thank each one of you for doing this for those of us who like to try new things! With that said...Happy Crafting!!

Fun Crafting & Cooking!!

It seems like the whirlwind from Christmas still has not slowed down!  Between family activities, work, and projects on my "wanna do" list I have not slowed down.  But, I must say it has been fun and I hope it continues to stay that way.  So without further ado, here are some of my recent endevors..
                                             

My Fun and Spunky apron!  I LOVE IT!! I don't know that I will EVER make another one though!  It was tough to make it reversible.

YUMMY Chocolate & Strawberry Cake Truffles!!!  The recipie I used can be found here:  http://www.bakerella.com/red-velvet-cake-balls/  You can use a variety of cake mixes and frosting.  We used chocolate cake and chocolate frosting for one and strawberry cake and vanilla frosting for the others!  They are so fun to make with the kids, even young ones can crumble the cake!!

Valentine's Dinner Decor!  We converted our Dining room into the Brown's Sunny Restaurante` for our family Valentine dinner!! So much fun! 

My current project for a friend....ADORABLE ruffle pants!! Her daughter picked out the fabric!

Huuummmm?  Wonder what I will work on next?  Happy Crafting and Cooking!!

Trying to stay on His path

These days it seems as though life is just flying by at the speed of lightening! I guess with Christmas and our son's birthday last month and school starting back we have been busy.  Getting back into the routine requires some work too.  I have noticed, and I shouldn't be surprised, that in these times of "busyness" we begin to lose sight of the most important person in our lives, God!  Have we strayed far? No, but just far enough for the devil to try and steal our joy!

To remedy this we have decided that as a family we are going to memorize at least two verses each month so that when we are feeling distant we can practice or say our verse!  This may sound elementary to some (we do have two elementary age children), but for us the simplicity of it is important. We are choosing verses based on what we need to remember about God.  For January we felt like faith and understanding His power was on our hearts. Our verses are; 2 Corinthians 5:7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. and Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.  To us there is nothing better that hearing your child recite the verse with confidence or to see them tell others to listen to their Bible verse!  This is not something that we have always done.  We are not perfect parents or perfect Christians for that matter, but we are striving to walk more closely with Him. 

It is not always easy on His path, but we know that with His strength it is possible!  Will we sometimes fail?  I'm sure!  We are not perfect, and that is what I love the most about God.  He's not looking for perfect people!  He is looking for broken people, people who need forgiveness.  I am broken and need forgiveness daily!  I am thankful that my Jesus is full of grace and mercy and He just wants us to crawl up in His lap and ask for forgiveness!  So, if you are like me and have found yourself just too busy, stop and talk to Jesus.  Tell Him how you feel and ask Him to guide you toward the things that are most important for your walk with Him.  I have only posted about crafty things thus far, but as I was reading  http://www.imperfectpeople.net/  I felt like I needed to share my recent experiences with God, with everyone that I can.  Katie is such an inspiration to me and I'm sure to many other people that subscribe to her blog.  She is real and in love with God! So, thank you Katie for your wonderful posts!  I love the song by Stellar Kart that reminds us "That we were born to be part of something Holy. Bigger than you and I!"  Check out the lyrics and video:

What A Great Thanksgiving And Is It Time For Christmas Already?

I hope that each of you had a great Thanksgiving!  This time of the year is so much fun, but also soooo busy!  We were able to have Thanksgiving with family close by on Thursday and then traveled to North Carolina to have our second Thanksgiving with family.  Our kids love it!  They enjoy getting to see their cousins and playing with everyone.  We love "catching up" with family and indulging in all of the delicious food.  My family is so blessed to have so much family!  We are almost done decorating our house for Christmas.  The kids have a tree in each of their room's that they decorate and we have a family tree in the living room for all to decorate.  We used to put a tree in every room, but these days we are trying to simplify.  We are not there yet, but are trying!! 

I was able to make some early Christmas presents for my cousin in Florida.  We will not see her at Christmas so we celebrated early.  I enjoyed making her oldest a dress and embellishing a coordinating onsie to match.  I am excited to make handmade Christmas gifts for family this year.  I hope that they will enjoy each gift!  I love getting homemade or handmade gifts anytime of the year! So what is your favorite thing that someone homemade or handmade for you? 

Turkey's, Turkey's, Turkey's

Only 11 more days until we get to eat one of many yummy Thanksgiving meals and spend some extra time with family!  I have been trying to come up with a Thanksgiving outfit to make for my daughter out of this adorable polka dot fabric that I found.  As I was checking out this fabulous blog, Dressing Heidi Sage, and they had a post/tutorial on how to make a simple rectangle skirt!  I thought, "This is the perfect start because we all know time is of the essence!"  She also posted on how you can use your fabric as inspiration for the shirt.  I decided to use the fabric to make a yo-yo and to use it like the feathers on a turkey!  Well, I had another dilemma! The red shirt that I had on hand was supposed to be for her Christmas outfit!  So, I decided to make the turkey removable!  For the turkey, I cut out a turkey body from regular brown felt. I added a beak with yellow felt and hand stitched the eyes and waddle on.  I then sewed it onto the fabric yo-yo through the eyes of the turkey so that there would not be any extra stitches on him.  I attached it to the front of the lower left side of the shirt with a safety pin.  And viola, there I had a SIMPLE Thanksgiving outfit.  And you know I have to have a coordinating hair bow, so I made fabric yo-yo from the polka dot fabric and made a clip to attach to her brown bow.  With that said, you must check out this blog, she has the cutest ideas for clothes and this rectangle skirt is so simple!!

My posted tutorial!

Remember that fabric yo-yo tutorial that I posted a few weeks ago?  Well, I am happy to say that Totally Tutorials has added it to her long list of anything and everything tutorials!  This blog is a great place to find detailed tutorials on how to do almost anything crafty.  She has criteria for each tutorial that is submitted, then she decides if it will be published or not.  This ensures that the tutorials are clear step-by-step directions for each project.  I have found many projects that I am adding to my to-do list on this site. Check it out and have fun crafting!!

Our Family Thankful Tree

  We are welcoming the month of Thanksgiving with open arms!  I remember reading somewhere that a family started a thankful tree each year on November 1st and added to it each day until Thanksgiving.   So with this thought in my head I set out to "create" a Thankful Tree for my family!  I told my children about this project and they were excited to get it going!  We chose some fall colored card stock to write our notes on and set out to find the "right" branches to create our tree with.  On our nature walk we also decided that we would need some fall leaves to add around our tree.  This walk was one to be remembered!

  We chose a clean path through the woods to find the perfect branches, but much to our dismay all we could find was pine limbs.  So this meant that we needed to go down a path full of brush through to a row of nice hardwood trees.  My daughter decided that this path was much to tall for her to walk in and that she needed to be carried.  Being the brilliant mom that I am, I came armed on this walk with a cell phone in my back pocket, my house keys hanging out of my front pocket and a container to put our nature finds in.  Notice I said, my keys hanging out of my front pocket.  

  So, we find a path that has been trampled by the deer and follow it to the line of hardwood trees and we pick up leaves and find the "perfect branches" for our Thankful Tree!  We started back and I realize as I am carrying my daughter that I no longer have my keys!! Oh my!  We turn back and search for my keys with no luck.  We return to the house to make sure that my forgetful mind hasn't forgotten that I left them at the house, but no luck there either.  So, we back track on both paths and find no keys.  My dad comes to help in our search, but finds no keys! My husband comes home and they take another trip down the path to see if they can find my keys and what do you know my husband finds them in a place that none of us had looked before!  Guess I didn't remember that we had walked that far!! 

  By the time they arrived back at the house I had begun to put our Thankful Tree together.  We used a glass vase, a cylinder Styrofoam piece, moss, branches and leaves.  We pushed the branches into the Styrofoam and covered the Styrofoam with moss and leaves and put it down into the vase.  We discussed with the children how important it is to be thankful for all of the wonderful things that God has created and for all of the blessings that he has bestowed upon us.  Each day we will add things to the tree for which we are thankful for.  I cut out some small pieces of card stock and attached string to them so that we could hang our thanks from the tree.  We will also ask guests if they want to add to our thankful tree.  When the month is over we plan to read the notes that each of us wrote to remind us of all that God has provided for us to be thankful for.  This is the month of Thanksgiving, and our first note is that we are thankful for our wonderful Lord and Savior!

Crafting for Christmas

Two months until Christmas!  Did I just say that? Uh Oh!!  Don't panic, you still have plenty of time to gather gifts and plan parties!  I thought about how fast the holidays come up this time of the year.  It seems like each year they arrive earlier and earlier.  What will you be getting for your friends and family for Christmas this year?  Why not make them something special!  People always seem to like gifts that are handmade or homemade.  It's like they know they have extra special love wrapped up in them.  When you create a gift for someone you think about what they like. This makes you personalize the gift more to the person receiving the gift.  You can find ideas for crafts and recipes in books, magazines, online, and even from friends!  I have been browsing the web and come up with a few ideas.  Since I have really gotten into sewing lately, I am going to make some pajama pants, handbags, and drawstring or "diddy" bags.  I have given each of these a test run to make sure I can create them.  You could also make personalized scrapbooks online or at home using scrap booking materials.  Another great gift is providing dinner for a family, baking cookies, chocolate treats, or even yummy pies.  The possibilities are endless!  Not only could you make gifts for family and friends, you could also make gifts for people you don't know!  Contact your church, nursing home or other organization and get yourself connected to someone who might not receive a gift this season!  Make them feel special and allow them to see what Christmas is all about.  Giving!  Freely and joyfully giving as God gave to us! You will find that this is just as much of a blessing for the giver than the receiver!  So get to searching for that special gift that you want to make for someone this year and try it.  You might be surprised at how well it turns out and how much the person loves their handmade gift!!

Fabric Yo-Yo's: Easy Embellishments

I love a fabric yo-yo, and after surfing the web and other blogs I have realized that I'm not alone!  They are just cute and girly! And the best thing about fabric yo-yo's is that they are easy to make!!!  They can be used to embellish almost anything! I have used them to embellish hair bows, monograms, appliques, purses, skirts, pants...the list goes on.  You don't need a ton of fabric, in fact you can just use fabric scraps or fabric squares! Oh, and the fun part is you get to play with the design when layering and you get to mix and match with colors!!  So will you get crafty today and try to create one of your own?  Check out the tutorial below. Please forgive the somewhat blurred pictures! After two cups of "leaded" coffee my had was shaky!

Your prize at the end of this tutorial!!

The materials that you will need: thread, needle, anything that is in the shape of a circle for tracing (whatever size your template is you can count on your yo-yo only being half that size when it's finished), fabric pencil or regular pencil, scissors, and of course your fabric

Step 1: Place your fabric wrong side up and place whatever you will be using as a template to trace around on top of your fabric.

Step 2: Trace around your template, you should see a circle on your fabric like this.

Step 3: Cut ou the circle. You should have a piece like this.

Step 4: Get your needle and thread ready for sewing by hand. Hold the circle with the wrong side facing you. Fold over the outside of the circle just a little bit, probably 1/4 or 1/8 of an inch. But just eyeball it, no need to measure exactly! Sew around the circle using a basic stitch as you are continuoulsy folding over the edge.  See picture above!

Another example of the circle being folded over and stitched.

Step 5: Once you have stitched all the way around the circle it will begin to pucker up to the middle. You will make sure that the pocket of fabric not sewed is pushed back or out.

Step 6: Pull the leftover thread until the center of the yo-yo becomes tight. Work with the yo-yo by flattening out the back so that the "ruffle" surrounds the middle.

Step 7: Again, do a basic stitch to secure your yo-yo and tye it off on the back.

You are done! You should have a yo-yo that looks something like this!

I hope this tutorial is helpful! Please send me a message if there is something you do not understand. I will be glad to answer questions!! Here are some pictures of ways I have used the yo-yo's.

The Basic Handbag

Since entering into this wonderful new world of sewing I have tried a few things like pants, skirts, pot holders and embellishing towels and shirts. But none of these compare to making a handbag! You know there's just something about a cute girly bag that makes a girl smile! The inspiration for this bag came from http://www.thediydish.com/ . I found their tutorial for The DIY Dish Basic Handbag. The tutorial seemed so simple. I decided to only use one fabric for the outside and one fabric for the lining and I added a pocket inside and embellishments. There are pleats at the top of the bag but they didn't show up well in the photographs. The ladies said that it shouldn't be a very difficult process, but since I am a "newbie" to this sewing thing, it took me a couple of hours! But the end result was worth all of the hard work! I'm sure I will be making many more of these! So search other blogs or surf the web and find inspiration for your style of craftiness and get going!!