Flower hair pin tutorial

It’s nearly time for college football to begin. Around here it’s all SEC all the time. Unless it’s Sunday, then it’s all about the Saints. Our fall schedules revolve around football games. This year that is especially true because this is the first year we are taking the girls into Death Valley. When they were little we brought them to tailgate, but never into the actual stadium. I’m pretty sure they are going to be BLOWN AWAY. 

The girls wanted some hair pins to wear with their “gear” for the football games. You aren’t a true fan unless you are spackled in Purple and Gold from head to toe. For the girls, we picked flowers.

Cheap. $3.50 for the whole bundle cheap. It had the necessary colors, so I grabbed them up.

 

Pop the flowers off of the plastic stem bundle and pull the backing and front fuzzy buttons off. I used 6 flowers to make 2 pins, so I sorted the petal layers by size.

Re-layer your petals with the largest diameter on the bottom. Using a needle and thread, stitch the flower layers back together. I topped my petals with a football shank style button.

After the button has been sewn onto the layers, continue to stitch  back through the layers coming out the back side of the petals. Stitch several passes through the bent end of the hair pins.

I squeezed a bit of glue to the back thread and under the football button to ensure it says flat.

Easy peasy. And cute too, No?

  

I couldn’t be left out, so using the same technique, I made two styles of yo-yos out of gold tulle, layered them together, sewed a bobby pin to the back and added some bling.

This is so darn easy, there’s no reason to not be properly styled for football games… or the playground… or the mall… or the… well, you get it. 

 

For the 3rd week in a row I’m linking up to Kim’s Get Your Craft On. This is some kind of record, I’m sure. :-)

A is for Apple

Monday morning was our first day of school. We brought our teachers a yummy apple cinnamon oatmeal muffins. These are the muffins I like to make ahead, freeze, and then warm up in the microwave for a fast breakfast.

Start with 2 Fiber One apple cinnamon muffin mixes prepared by the box directions , add to the mix one large apple (diced), 2Tbs. of ground Flax seeds, 1/4 cup steel cut oats, and an additional 3Tbs. of water. Bake at 400 for approx. 15-17 min.

After the muffins have baked, remove them from the pans and allow them to cool completely on a wire rack. If you’d like to freeze and heat them, store them in a gallon sized freezer bag. It only takes around 30 seconds or so in the microwave to warm them.

For the muffin toppers, I printed free ones from Scribd, cut out the circles, and then glued them to toothpicks.

Fast, fun, and in my opinion, WAY better than bringing a plain apple for the teacher!

 

I’m linking up with Kim at Today’s Creative Blog!

Browse through the link party and find even more fun projects!

Back to School – Get Your Craft On

I recently found myself in a conversation about Teacher Appreciation week. I was at our back to school PTO board meeting and a question came up about what do we want our Teacher Appreciation week to be about? We were making all sorts of plans about fun things to do for our teachers… Starting with a Back to School desert bar… How yummy does THAT sound :-) My lemon cake will be making an appearance at the bar.

I thought about that PTO meeting while I was drooling over binders and fresh crayons in the school supply section. I remembered THIS feature on Today’s Creative Blog. There are LOTS of really fun supplies these days. I thought that it was pretty lame that the kids got to enjoy all of the goodies. This Thursday evening our kids will go up to the school for Stop and Drop to deliver their school supplies and meet their teachers. My kids will come with a small token of their excitement for the school year.

We filled a fishing tackle organizer with fun clips and tacks in the school colors. We found so many things that we ran out of dividers… but the girls liked the blue ones for some reason, so they had to stay… (It’s sort of hard to remind myself not to correct them when it’s their project…)

When I asked what else they thought the teachers would need in their “survival kit” the girls immediately said chocolate, lip balm, and gum. 6 even suggested that every girl likes diamonds, so nestled in with the kisses is a “huge honkin’  diamond”.

6 was right. Every girl needs big fun bling.

After helping them cover the lid and making a bow for them, the girls decorated the top with stickers and their school logo.

They are so excited to see who their teacher will be. They are equally excited to see if she goes for the candy or stickers first.

Show your teachers you support them and offer your help. Even if it’s in the form of a thank you note telling them how much you appreciate their work.

Have a great school year!

 

 

Trash to treasure

Do you ever have something that you just don’t know what to do with it? Trash that is… Do you recycle it? Do you cut it up and bag it? Do you give it to your parents who live out in the country with less stringent waste management programs?

We’ve been kicking around these metal planters since our move to Texas… almost 2 years now. They were a pretty coppery modern pair that turned into a rusted up mess in one, and the other just looked terrible.

While looking at putting more plants out onto the deck, I remembered I had these planters out behind the garage. One was still trash, no matter how hard I tried to work with it… but the other?

It got cleaned up with some soapy water and a wire brush. Then I used an outdoor metal primer, and a bit of aged copper spray paint made for outdoor use. Check out those sparkles!

After patiently waiting for the paint to dry, I filled it with some of the Miracle Gro Moisture Control potting mix, a Queen palm, and some Creeping Jenny.

 

It helps to add more of an outdoor room feel to the patio and connects our lounging area to the rest of the seating group. I also put one of those beach sand umbrella holders behind our chairs. It screws straight into the ground and holds an umbrella where ever you need one. The afternoon sun in this spot gets SO hot. I still need to locate some cute pillows, but this space is coming along nicely. I love reading out here!

yeah yeah… TRUST me, I KNOW

I just had to post up this picture of my poor little Christmas wreath… Believe me… I KNOW it looks terrible.  I just had no inspiration on Saturday after discovering my door piece was too faded to put up.   Sad, isn’t it?

A friend told me to drop by Z Gallerie to take a look at all of their aqua colored decorations.  My tree is a hot mess of Red and Aqua.  I’m no florist… and BOY can you tell.  But at least my wreath looks better…

So what unusual colors do you like this year?  I’ve done brown, lime, aqua, purple, hot pink, pear green, lime green… not at the same time, of course.  But it really makes it a lot of fun to plan each year!

Back to School

My baby starts Kindergarten tomorrow morning.  I don’t know if I should be sad, or really really REALLY excited.  I’m leaning toward the latter… She’s kind of boisterous and I think we’re ready for a break from each other.  In true Holly fashion, I finished her 1st day of School jumper with 13 hours to spare.  I work better under pressure I think ^_^. 

This is the Martha Pullen A-line jumper pattern modified to have just a top inner lining, instead of being fully lined.  It’s just too hot for that sort of mess right now.  And as an added bonus, she’s required to wear shorts under her dresses this year.  It’s a red chambray fabric that is thick enough that you can’t see through it, so the 1/2 lining worked just fine.  Better in fact, given that there isn’t all of this fabric to turn as there usually is. 

The appliqué is from Sew Many Designs.  These designs have always stitched out perfectly.  The digitizing is FABULOUS…  I’m really jealous of digitizers… even with the “mack daddy” program that came with my Creative Vision (4D Embroidery Suite) I still don’t have the guts to try my hand at it.   

 

Decor Keeper

 

How do you organize your home projects? 

I’ve seen several blog postings recently on how to keep all of your home project info organized. 

This is not that kind of post.

I don’t organize my home projects. Maybe I should, but that would require too much effort for me.

  I DO however keep this super cute pink photo album with me at all times.  It has basic room info (window measurements, paint chips, fabric swatches, and bits of trim) that I can use when I’m out and about.  I can’t tell you how many throw pillows I’ve returned because I picked the “wrong shade of green”.  Really, it’s embarrassing.

And here’s a handy tip… Keep a tape measure with you at all times!!!  I’ve measured dozens of media stands looking for one that hit 49” wide…. and having this clip on tape measure with me has been a huge time saver (for me and any salesperson who’s SURE whatever they are selling would work for me)

  

View of the inside… just staple what you have to a 4X6 card and it can easily slide in and stay put!

In “The Mood”

Is it just me, or do you have to be “in the mood” to sew, craft, etc.?

I have been putting off a gift for so long that now it’s finishing up just in the nick of time.  Sometimes, for me, fear of screwing something up just makes me freeze up.  My friend tells me I’m a perfectionist… but I don’t see it.  Otherwise, my house would be done, I’d be 40lbs lighter, and my hair would be great. 

Anyway, because I’m sure the new Momma doesn’t have the time to look at my blog right now, I thought I’d share a pic.  Sometimes little projects like this can push me into the creative mode (aka – The Mood).  Alas, I’m packing to take this little burpie out of town, so more sewing (and blogging) will have to wait til next week.

 

 

Back in the saddle again...

Hey guys! I've been sewing a bit this week... Woo Hoo! It's about time I put that Creative Vision to work... but it's name is taunting me... Here's what I've started on.

The girl's bathroom re-do...

I put self-taught pinch pleats in this sweet little curtain... Nuthin like trial by fire...



Double rows of raspberry velvet ribbon along the hem...



Bow hangers attached to wall mounts (eh... drawer knobs from Anthropologie if you must know)...



I can't wait to finish up the shower curtain and get the paint started in this room... It's screaming beige and blah not girly and fun...

3rd time's a charm

Ok, so here's my "Save Mother Earth" idea of the year...

This is Jillian's Easter egg hunt outfit for school. Cute little capri set, huh?



But somehow... it looks familiar...Oh, Wait! It looks like last year's egg hunt outfit... but different...



Last year it was just a shorter jumper with pom poms... And the year before that, it was a below the knee jumper! This year it's shortened to a top with ric rac and Abby's old matching capris with some ric rac added. Now THAT's what I call getting milage out of an outfit! Guess I'm pretty lucky that my kids have just grown up and not out huh? LOL

Awe... look how much my baby has changed in a year! WOW!!!

Good Golly!

Is this the Miss Molly?

It's been a while since I've done any pattern re-drafting, but this one turned out so cute, I just had to share! It's the Miss Molly that I've made a few times before. This particular dress is my gift to my niece for her 2nd birthday gift. I wasn't going to post it, but I showed the dress to a friend this morning and she had a fit over it... so yes, I've ruined any surprise factor for when I actually deliver the gift this weekend, but hey, it DID get me a new sewing post, right?



Here's a close-up shot of the re-draft... Instead of gathers, I put in a pleat. Not hard, but this small little change really makes the dress look a bit more "dressy". And the close-up lets you see this fabulous linen... I'll be so sad when I run out of this fabric... it's just sooo pretty.

Test Run

It's been a while since I've sewn anything for a little girl, so I did a test run on my friend's daughter before I work on a birthday dress for my neice.

This pattern is so easy. If you are a beginner and want to venture into something a little different but totally sweet, I HIGHLY recommend this Miss Molly pattern from youcanmakethis.com

Good Golly Miss Molly!

I have finally found a "go-to" summer dress pattern for Jillian! It's the Miss Molly sundress by Samantha Caffee of The Handmade Dress on YCMT. Samantha's pattern was FABULOUS! It took less than 10 pages to print (a real shocker!) and the directions were some of the best I've ever seen on an e-book pattern. I think it took me less than an hour from start to finish... but I didn't have uninterrupted time... The fabric is a Liberty of London lawn print... Sew nice!

Sorry you have a pic from a hanger, but the little model went for ice cream with her daddy and I just couldn't convince her to stay home and try on more clothes...

Photo bucket

No, not photobucket, but a Photo Bucket. I saw this posting somewhere in blogland where the discussion was about how to organize your photos. One suggestion was to just dump them in a bowl and set them out on the coffee table. Since I totally suck at putting pictures into scrapbooks and albums... or even getting them off of the sd card... I thought this might work for us. Grace Violet's Ribbon Bucket gave me the inspiration to put together a bucket for the girls. I took out some of my favorite snapshots and decorated the $0.99 metal bucket that I picked up from Michaels with dimensional scrapbook travel stickers. They love flipping through the pictures without having to worry about fingerprints and smudges. Thanks for the tutorial Kristen! Adorable as always!

I MUST be sick...

If I'm posting twice today! LOL When there's nothing I feel like doing besides hanging out under numerous blankets at least. :-) Finally I had the energy to locate my camera. It was hiding under wrapping paper... So without further ado, here are the treatbags that took me forever to complete. The design is from embroiderygarden.com and has been such an easy way to do favors for birthdays and class parties. They have loads of designs... but I've sort of cheated each time and used their base and added the words/designs that I wanted.

These bags are for the girl's school Christmas parties. I ordered custom printed M&Ms for each of them and then added the custom ones to a big bowl of regular holiday M&Ms to make them go a bit farther. We had LOTS of bags to fill.









Here is another sample that I posted ages ago, but thought you might like to see what else you can do with a good basic embroidery design... I added a strawberry design and some basic lettering in Embird to the base design for Jillian's 4th birthday party favors.

Workin Hard?

Or Hardly Workin?

As my scale has told me, sewing is NOT an acceptable form of exercise. But I sure am having fun! So much so that I dug one of my "For Sale" Janomes out of the closet and put her to work... Maybe now I'll finish these Christmas projects before Easter! :-)



I've been stitching out so many treat bag toppers that I'm beginning to question how over-crowded the girls schools are...



And that's just for one class... and they aren't finished yet!

Yep, I'm feeling like an Elf these days... but it's SEW fun!



Now if I can just figure out what the heck to do with this sewing/guest room!!!

It's gonna have to wait til AFTER the holidays though!

For some great gift tags for all of those packages you'll be wrapping, take a look at the Quilted Bag Tags from Digistitches. They go together quickly and the design is PERFECT! Jennilee also has several machine embroidery designs that make great gifts. Go check her out, you'll see!

Update...

Ok, so even though Sister will see this, I had to post a couple of pics of these gift tags... they are really turning out so cute!

Two Sides of the Same Story

Here is one of the new school dresses I'm working on for Jillian. It's the Sunny Wrap pattern at You Can Make This. Now that I've figured out the fit and all, I've got to dig around in my files and find some appliques for this little blank canvas pattern! It can also be reversable... which I did... why waste all of that time for one dress when you can make two at the same time! I also think that if I don't monogram the main panel, I can make the wrap go up front. Pretty cute!