Something About Katie

Crochet CRAZY!

2012-01-25T21:27:00.000-08:00

Why do I feel the need to be obsessed with things as I am learning them? My newest since November has been crocheting and I am telling you I have gone crochet CRAZY! But I LOVE it and I am loving all of the things I have been making. My daughter turns 3 on Sunday and so Friday we are having a princess party. I was going to crochet princess crowns for her friends but I think I have run out of time to do that. HOwever, I got hers done today and put little pearls in it and it turned out SO cute! I love it.

She would NOT model it for me ( she is s stinker like that some times ) so I promise it looks much cuter on. I have also been doing a lot of hats. I am LOVING the hats! Check out these ones I just crocheted this weekend and put in my etsy shop.

Okay so this first one I actually made for ME but it was too small for my huge head. Just barely too. If my hair was long I could get away with it but it's short and looked funny.

This next one is so cute! It is a new born one and is so tiny. I love the HUGE bow on it and I am loving the grey and yellow together.

And lastly a toddle size hat. I love the yellow and white together. This hat was pretty easy to make so I think I will be making more in different colors for my shop. I might try and make one of these ones for me.

So please tell me I am not the only one who becomes obsessed with things when you first start learning them? Pretty please.....

Grandma

2012-01-25T20:31:00.000-08:00

My mom and dad came to visit along with my sister Kim and her baby Jacob. We had lots of un and ate way to much food. It was great. While they were here we went to go visit my Grandma who lives a little over an hour or so away from me in a nursing home. My grandma wears a wig and she used to always wear a fake flower in it. SOOOOO my sister thought it would be fun to make her a bunch of flower clips to bring her. The night before we went to see her we put the kids to bed and then made some hair clips for her. We also made some for her roommate because we didn't want her to feel left out! :)

Check out what Grandma scored.

The white one with the blue in the middle and the pink felt one were for her roommate but the rest were for grandma. My favorite's were these three

Kim made the last one. So we are hoping she is wearing them and that all of the other old ladies are jealous! haha Hopefully we can get grandma a man. Love ya grandma!

Quotes

2012-01-13T12:45:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while I used to add quotes I liked to my blog. I haven't done this in forever. I didn't get anything else blogged the other day and now my parents are on their way and I have been trying to get things super clean. It is the first time my family will be able to see my new house. I am excited. As I was cleaning I found this quote from a lesson at church a couple of weeks ago. I can not say who said this because it isn't on the slip on paper so if any one knows who said it let me know and I will add it. Any ways Here is the quote! ENJOY

The "what" and "how" of obedience mark the way and keep us on the right path. The "why" of obedience sanctifies our actions, transforming the mundane into the majestic. It magnifies our small acts of obedience into holy acts of consecration.

I think this was from Presidents Uchtdorf's talk about the forget me nots. :)

Why Hello

2012-01-12T07:23:00.000-08:00

It has been almost ONE MONTH since I blogged. Let me just tell you that I didn't plan that. IN fact I have at LEAST 3 blogs that I took pictures for and never posted. Ever since we moved we have had major problems with our internet. I would get to the end of my blog and hit the publish post button and the internet would stop working and I would lose it. It was very frustrating, not to mention a big fat waste of time to sit around and write a post to not have to save or publish. BUT we think we have got it all squared away now. My problem now is getting back into the habit of posting. It's not that I do not have projects going on. I have had many finished projects. Those I have pictures of I will slowly start to post. My project for today is an ear warmer.

I made this for my sister using an old Old Navy sweater. I cut it up and sewed it together to make the ear warmer part. Then I put two buttons on it which are a pretty pale yellow ( LOVE yellow and grey together ) and then made a crochet grey flower. I LOVE how it turned out. She walks daily with her best friend Liz and so I made them both ear warmer's for Christmas. Hopefully they enjoy them and use them on their walks to keep those ears warm.

Now here's hoping I can get some more stuff up. My parents and sister and her baby are coming tomorrow and will be here until Tuesday so I am hoping that maybe I can get a bunch of stuff posted today and scheduled for them to post through out the weekend. Crossing my fingers!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.

Favorite Quick Cookies

2011-12-14T10:17:00.000-08:00

I can not remember if I have posted this recipe here on my blog or not so I thought I would write a quick post today. I know a lot of people are baking like crazy around the holidays. If you are in need of a quick and easy but SUPER YUMMY cookie recipe give this one a try.

Easy Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup brown sugar
1 stick of butter
1 egg

Blend together until smooth

Add 2 cups Bisquick ( you know, the pancake mix! )

Then add whatever goodies you want. I always add white chocolate chips or regular ones. My mom also adds walnuts but I don't like those so I skip them. These cookies are SUPER easy and SUPER yummy. The Bisquick gives it a great flavor and you only have to remember 4 ingredients. What is not to love about that? I also like to add flax seed because I like to add that into anything I think I can sneak it into. So give it a try. Let me know how you like them if you try them. Oh yeah and bake them at 350 for 10 to 12 minutes ( depending on how small or big you make them )

Oh and just a trick my mom taught us growing up that I LOVE to do is before you take them out of the oven, I cut open a brown paper bag ( I swear grocery stores STILL carry them, you usually just have to ask ) Lay the brown paper bag out flat on the counter and when the cookies are still hot transfer them onto the brown paper bag and it drawls out any of the extra oil and grease.

ENJOY and I will try and get some actual crafts up here soon.

Some Free Patterns

2011-12-09T11:04:00.000-08:00

So I have been on the internet looking for different kinds of free crochet patterns. I am LOVING Youtube these days. I have never really used youtube before but when I started looking up crochet stuff I found someone who makes all kinds of crochet video's and I love all of her stuff. I have started a board on pinterest for all of the patterns I have been finding. I made a hat for me using a video but then I REALLY wanted to try and make a hat using a pattern. I haven't really been able to figure out the patterns yet. My mom helped me while I was in Utah for Thanksgiving and so I decided to go for it and try. I actually made a hat and it ACTUALLY turned out cute! It was supposed to be for me so it is a little long for Kayla but it was too tight and looked ridiculous on me. Mostly because I messed up my count and when I got done I realized that instead of there being 58 stitches I only had 40 something! haha Yeah, that could be it. :) Any ways here it is

Any ways. In case there are people out there wanting to make one too here is the free tutorial I found and used HERE

ENJOY! I'll be posting more as I find them and make stuff. I can't believe I got to post TWICE in the same day! WOO HOO Let's hope I can keep it up and get some more stuff up on here over the next week or so.

A Soup Recipe JUST for You

2011-12-09T10:19:00.000-08:00

Man has it been COLD here! The other day I went to take my son to school and I noticed that the water bottle in my car was frozen. It wasn't frozen solid but it was pretty close. My husband is one of those people who only enjoys soup when it's cold. I will eat it ANY time because, well, it's so yummy. Since it was cold I really wanted to make soup. I busted out a recipe and changed it up a bit. Want to have it? I thought so...

Potato Cheese Broccoli Soup

4 potatoes ( washed and peeled and cut up )
4 cups of water
1 onion OR onion powder
A can of cream of chicken soup
A head of broccoli
Carrots
A block of sharp cheddar cheese

Boil the 4 cups of water and cut up potatoes for 10 to 15 minutes. I stir occasionally so nothing sticks to the bottom. If you are an onion person add some chopped up onion now. I HATE onions so I opted for some onion powder. I put about one teaspoon or so into the pot.

Next you want to add a chopped up head of broccoli. The amount you put in is up to your person preference. I also take carrots and shred them straight into the soup with a cheese grater. You can also add celery if that sounds good but I usually don't do that. Add a can of cream of chicken soup. I couldn't find my recipe when I made it the other day so I added two small cans and it turned out super yummy. Next I shred up a block of sharp cheddar. THIS made a big difference for me. the recipe calls for half a block of velveeta which taste great BUT the soup never seems to heat up well. This time I did the REAL cheese and it heated up perfect. Again it is up to you though. keep stirring. If you like soft broccoli you might want to add the broccoli in towards the end of your 10 to 15 minutes of boiling the potatoes. This will help make them softer. Once everything feels soft you are done! I stir quite a bit at the end because if you don't it sticks to the bottom and then burns.

So how do you serve this? My FAVORITE way to serve this is with sour dough bread bowls. Let me tell you, I HATE soup dough. I don't like it at all but for some reason it rocks my world with this soup! I tried doing regular old french bread with it once and was so disappointed at how different it tasted. I like to cut off the top of the bread soup, scoop out the inside and then stick it in the oven with some butter and garlic salt sprinkled on. I even butter and sprinkle garlic salt on the lid and use that to scoop up soup. If you can not find bread bowls I sometimes just get the sough dough loaf and then cut it up into strips and butter and add the garlic salt to those.

Want to see the soup?

yeah, I forgot to take pictures. Trust me when I say it was fabulous! And here is what I did to the sough dough loaf to make it easier to dip in my soup ( and yummier! )

Sorry for the horrible pictures. I took them with my cell phone.

So don't think I am not posting because I have given up on blogging. I have not had much time and when I do have time and TRY to write a blog my internet quits working. It has been SUPER frustrating for me. Something got messed up between my lap top and our router and it kicks me off constantly but it NEVER kicks my husband off. So I could just use his lap top right? Not really because ALL of my pictures are on MY lap top. I am hoping to get this resolved at some point because it is driving me nuts. I have some projects to post and I am hoping to get some up right now since the internet seems to be working. Here's hoping...

Birthday Boy

2011-12-04T18:54:00.000-08:00

My son turned 6 this week! He is SO big! He REALLY wanted to have a Super Hero party, so while I was in Utah last week I started looking on pinterest and all over the web for ideas. I found some good stuff on line. I am telling you though that people spend an obscene amount on money on kids birthdays. When I was little we were allowed to have a party every other birthday and we were allowed to invite close friends. We had cake that my mom made and some simple games. When we were older my parents would take us toilet papering. haha Anyone else do that? I have been so many times I can't even count them. My husband NEVER went. I told him I would take him someday! haha

Any ways. We made some invitations and I wanted them to be really cute. So I took a bunch of pictures of my son in a cape and made him look like he was flying.

I then added the border and the POW WHAM on picnik.com

I think it turned out cute! We ended up having about 19 or 20 kids here and that is not included my kids. It was LOUD and the kids seemed to have lots of fun running all over the place, hitting each other with balloons and pretending to be super heros. Most kids wore costumes or capes and I also had some masks for those who didn't have anything. We had hot dogs, mac and cheese, sandwiches and snack food for everyone to eat. We also had cup cakes for the kids and cake for the adults. We also had some super hero pages for them to color, a pin the emblem on the super hero ( which was a picture of Tyler blown up huge ) and then we also did face painting. The face painting was a hit with everyone too. Unfortunately it ended up smeared on the carpet and on the couch! We washed it out though so no big deal. Tyler got a TON of presents. He also got a lot of money. He was lucky. We handed out little Batman gift bags to everyone too. It was fun and Kayla can't WAIT to have a princess party in January. Here are a few pictures.

I like Kayla peeking through behind Tyler in the last picture! haha It was a good time and after I was completely exhausted. The funny thing is when I went to bed I couldn't sleep. Maybe it was all the cake and frosting I ate. I LOVE frosting! ;)

BACK

2011-11-26T09:17:00.001-08:00

We are back from Utah. It was a fun, yet interesting trip! I am hoping to post soon! Stay tuned for more crochet things. It has been my new addiction. I am very much enjoying it.

How's everyone's Christmas decorating going? We haven't started yet. We are busting out the tree tomorrow. It will be fun setting it up in our new house.

Until next time...

No Internet No Time

2011-11-20T07:37:00.000-08:00

Between moving and having no internet I have not been able to write a post. I am leaving in an hour or so ( If I can get packed that fast ) to drive to Utah to see my parents. My husband has to stay home and work and so it's just me and the kids. It will be our first time driving there since Kayla potty trained. It should be interesting. Here's hoping we make it okay and I don't have to kill anyone. :)

Newest Obsession

2011-11-08T14:53:00.000-08:00

My poor husband! I just get into these kicks and want to do new things. First it was making hair bows when my daughter was born. Then sewing. Then sewing anything and everything but mostly purses. Then it was creating fabric hair bows and accessories and opening up the etsy shop. Then I started doing odds and ends things here and there. Next, garters, shoes clips....blah blah blah. NOW I have taken on a new challenge.

CROCHET! I am in love with crochet right now! I mean REALLY. My hand is absolutely killing me because I can't keep my yarn right and my hands are all over the place but I love it so far. I found this free tutorial and pinned it here I didn't actually learn the pattern because.....well....have you looked at a crochet pattern? Um HARD! I have no clue how to read them. So I found an online youtube video that shows you how to make them and in ten short minutes I had me a bow! The grey was my first and the orange was my second. Right now I am working on a flower but as I mentioned before my left hand is on fire and it's time for me to go pick up my boy from school.

Who else crochet's? I want to know. Leave me a comment and let me know where you like to get your patterns from. I found a million free ones on line and have been into the youtube video's since I am a beginner. Everyone told me just just try it but I wanted someone to show me. I finally just went on line and looked and WOW! Now I am hooked....no pun intended! :)

The New Place

2011-11-07T13:33:00.000-08:00

This week starts moving week. It is going to be crazy, hectic and exciting. I told y'all I would post some pictures so I thought I'd do so now while I am in between packing boxes ( oh which I only have like 10 to 15 packed and my house is a MESS! YIKES!!! )

Here is the front of the house from a couple of angles

Here is the living room

The kitchen ( I love all of the cut out's so you can see to the other room )

Our kitchen from the other way so you could see the dinner room

This is the breakfast nook area. See that door leading to the room in the back? THAT is going to be my sewing room/photography studio! WOO HOO I am SOOOOOO excited about that. No more sewing on the kitchen table.

Here is the dinner room up close and you can see the front door of the house. Off to the side where my son is standing is going to be his room. the door next to that is a coat closet and you can't see in this picture but my duaghters room is next to the front door off to the left from this picture and my husbands office will be to the right of the front door.

Here is the back yard. Our grass in need of some serious water but that's okay, at least we have some! And notice the gorgeous double rainbow?! I told my husband it was a sign

This picture was taken a few blocks away ( around the corner from where we live right now ). I had to stop and get a picture of the rainbow over the water. Isn't it gorgeous!?!

Now I can't wait to be moved in! Do you know that I call myself a photographer but have lived in this house here for almost a year and we NEVER put pictures up? It drove me NUTS. I can't WAIT to start decorating and hanging pictures. EEEEEEEEEEEEE

So I will most likely not be on again this week, for obvious reasons. I have crafted a little and if I have a moment to spare I might try and show you one or two. Have a great week everyone and I can't wait to blog again from my new house

Happy

2011-11-05T08:31:00.000-07:00

I am happy to report that after my little break down on Monday I tried really hard to re-evaluate things in my house. I was in the middle of doing something and I just got this thought into my head out of no where and I knew what was wrong. I would like to say it came out of no where but I know exactly where it came from. I have been so busy doing all kinds of things like, packing, cleaning and cooking. My poor son hasn't gotten enough attention from me and you know what they say, "even bad attention is attention". As soon as I had this realization on Tuesday I decided to spend time with him right when he got home from school. This is usually when I start dishes and start working on dinner. I usually hear, "Mommy can you play with me?" and what do I say, "No I'm busy right now making dinner." IS that a valid thing I was doing? YES! My family needed dinner but sometimes a frozen meal is worth getting to spend some extra time with your kids.

Wednesday when I picked my boy up from school we went home and I said, "How about I come sit on the couch with you and cuddle" He was SO happy! We sat on the couch, My boy, my girl and I, eating popcorn, cuddling and watching Kung Fu Panda. It was so nice and I am telling you I only sat with him for like 20 to 30 minutes but it was EXACTLY what HE NEEDED! The next day when I picked him up from school we came home and went on a walk. We live in an area that is surrounded by water. There are ponds all over and so we like to walk to one and "feed" the ducks. The ducks have never once eaten our bread but that doesn't stop us from feeding them. Then we went to Dinner and to Costco. Tyler was REALLy good the whole night. The next day mommy got her hair cut. Can I just tell you my hair hadn't been cut in like 6 months. It was full of slip ends and it was looking horrible. I haven't had bangs since the 3rd grade and so I got bangs and got my hair fixed. It looks so cute and I feel great! Thursday we picked him up from school and we cuddled again and worked on homework. I am telling you guys it is amazing what just 20 minutes or so of Tyler and Mommy time has changed his attitude. I don't know if it will continue to work but it has work wonders so far.

This next week is going to be stressful. We are moving and I have started trying to make Christmas presents. I decided that if I didn't do something creative this week then it would just make my mood even worse. It has helped a lot to try and be creative in some way. So for me this next week is going to be filled with packing boxes, cleaning a lot and TRYING to get some sewing in here and there when I can. But we are all SO excited to get moved into our new house. That is keeping me motivated. I was going to post some pictures of our new house but I need to go jump in the shower. I'll post pictures of my new hair soon too. Now if only I could stop eating some much freaking Halloween candy I think I would be feeling really good. We only had ONE trick or treater so the two bags of candy we bought are just sitting her calling me and my husband's name. SERIOUSLY. The kids go to bed and we sit her eating candy watching TV. It's horrible. Maybe the candy will get "lost" in the move. :)

I hope everyone has a great weekend. My husband has to work today and so I have two very whinny kids and we are heading to the new house in a little bit so I can clean some more. The house was built in 2007 and is really nice inside but it has been empty since March so there is an inch of dust on everything. While the house is empty I wanted to wipe everything down. Last Saturday we vacuumed EVERYTHING and I started scrubbing the baseboards. We were there forever it seems like that we didn't even get that done. Here's hoping I can actually get something done with the two cranky kids bugging me every two seconds. I'll post pictures later.

Women

2011-10-31T22:45:00.000-07:00

Why do we as women always seem to take on more then we can handle? Do you notice that? I know it isn't just ME. I feel like for some reason women are just more willing to give themselves over to others to better them even if it means killing themselves. Today a friend of mine called me who I hadn't talked to in YEARS. She needed a favor and I just happened to live in the area she needed something from. Did I mind her calling and asking? NO! Was I offended that she asked me to do something for her when I haven't heard from her in years? NOPE! In fact, I felt horrible that I just couldn't help her out today. It really wasn't in the cards for me today to do anything much but yell at my kids apparently. I am having an extremely hard time with my son. Without getting too personal let's just say that he is SO good at school and at church but for some reason when he gets home he just doesn't want to be good any more. I understand. I really do. But it has been driving mentally insane trying to deal with him all of the time. The worse of it for me is that his sister is learning ALLLLL of this from watching him and now I am starting to have problems with her as well. I am glad that he is so good for other people but I wish he understood that he should ESPECIALLY want to be good for his OWN MOTHER! He totally does not understand that. We have been trying EVERYTHING lately. I try something for a week or two and it doesn't work so I try something else. The latest thing I REALLY thought was going to help and so far it hasn't. The thing that frustrates me more then anything is that a LOT of his problem is personality traits and not something behavioral. For instance today I put him in time out. I have a rule that you can not talk in time out or your time out starts over. Lately this has become a thing of the past and I was trying to revive it. I told him not to talk or even make a single sound. The second I said that he made a whining noise. Why should I get to tell him what to do, right? I mean, I'm only his mother. So I took a bean out of his jar ( when he fills up his jar we get to go do something fun! ) and then I say make another noise and I will take another one out. Most kids would stop but not my stubborn little boy. he makes another noise immediately. I ended up taking out about 8 to 10 beans just because he wouldn't stop making noises. Does anyone have any suggestions on kids with that stubborn attitude I am talking about? REALLY, anything might help. I am at my whits end with him. This is only one of the several problems I am having with him. I won't get into the others but any advice would be wonderful. It has been a long day for me. Every morning is a battle to get him ready for school. Every morning I end up screaming at him because he simple won't do what I tell him to....I just don't know how much more I can take of it

My mother told me about a great article my church put out about fasting with a purpose. I read it. I am going to fast and pray that him and I can work through this together. I know my son is a child of God. I know he was given to me for a specific purpose and I love him more then life itself. He is one of the sweetest kids you will ever meet, he just has that temper that I just don't know what to do with. So for now I am trying my best to stay calm, not yell, and keep reminding him that I love him. When I remember these 3 things, everything gets better but sometimes.....I forget!!!

Seriously?

2011-10-27T09:57:00.000-07:00

Wow! I have only been averaging about 1 to 2 post per week for the last month or so. That is so sad. Funny thing is that I thought when my son started school I would have SO much more free to time to craft. HAHAHAHA It has been the opposite. I haven't sewn hardly at all and I have made nothing for my etsy shop. I have barely managed to do a few projects for friends or for church.

This last weekend I did a Halloween photo shoot with some friends and friends of friends. It was lots of fun. I made a Halloween banner just to help with decorations. I also brought my halloween quilt that I made a LONG time ago. A lot of the fabric matched because it was left over from when I did the quilt. Here is a picture of my son and his friend Lillie ( who happens to be my best friend from high school's little girl )

I was planning on using the Halloween banner across my fire place but I made it SO huge that I would have to cut it in half and so far I have been way to lazy to do that. Pathetic I know. The main reason for the photo shoot was to take a picture for my friend. Her little girl is almost a year old and she is so adorable. She was looking on pinterest or somewhere and saw a picture of a baby INSIDE a pumpkin. If you have been looking on pinterest at all you have probably seen the picture. she sent me a copy and said, "Can we do this, please?" I told her as long a s she carved out the pumpkin herself I would totally do it. SO this is what we ended up with

When we first put her in it she balled! Like big crocodile tears! Then her momma started singing and all the kids started jumping up and down dancing and we got this little smile out of her. She never smiled huge but that is okay. We liked this one any ways. What a cutie pie huh?!

So there you have it. Some kind of a blog post from me. And since today is Thankful Thursdays I am going to say I am thankful for friends. My friend Lisa not only set up everything at her mom's house and bought all of the decorations for this photo of her daughter, but she then wrote a note on facebook and asked if anyone was interested in coming and paying money to get their kids picture taken! What a trooper she was! She worked hard all day too. I'm so grateful for the few of my friends who are like that and support me no matter what. Her momma raised her right. I met her sister and she was the SAME way. Kept asking me if I needed anything, threw my trash away for me, put my medicine in the refrigerator for me. It was so nice! I hope everyone who reads this can find something that they are thankful for today too!

So here's hoping I have SOMETHING crafty to show for my self soon. I am NOT making any promises thought because we are moving into our new house in about two weeks, I have one box packed. YIKES!

Thankful Thursday

2011-10-20T09:43:00.000-07:00

I know I have not been on here much lately. I apologize. We have been crazy here. Last Thursday I got the flat tire on my way home from the grocery store. My friend was coming to stay with us for the weekend so we had a couple of things planned. We all had sore throats and the kids were coughing a lot. We went out to dinner and then bowling Friday night. It was fun! We also got a call from our realtor and WE GOT OUR HOUSE! Like, it is OURS! I can't tell you how much of a stress relief that was. Although we have to move now, not to mention clean the house because it has not been lived in since March, but we no longer have to sign a million papers and wait patiently for someone to let us know what is going on. Buying a house is such a pain but totally worth it. I have had a lot of other things going on too and with everyone not feeling well it has been a challenge.

Last night we decided to go to the doctors when my husband got home from work. So my thankful thursday's is to say I AM THANKFUL FOR ANTIBIOTICS! Seriously! Although we are not feeling better YET, I am so grateful the doctor gave us drugs so we CAN get better. Now it's only a matter of time.

So since the house is officially ours now I'll post pictures soon. We aren't actually moving in until the 8th or so of November. Even then our lease isn't up on our rental here until the end of December so we get to pay a mortgage payment and rent the same month as Christmas, my son's birthday, my husband's birthday and our anniversary. Yikes! Not to mention that we had to buy me 4 new tires last friday and have had several trips to buy little things for the new house. The thing about buying little things is that they add up to be a lot! Did I also mention our house hasn't sold in Texas yet?!

So for now I am busy and trying to get SOME crafts and sewing done but I am failing miserably! Here's to hoping I can get SOMETHING made in the next week so I have something to blog about. What are you all thankful for this week?

WINNER

2011-10-15T22:04:00.000-07:00

I was finally able to figure out how many entries everyone had and threw a bunch of names in a bowl.

I had my boy Tyler pull out three names and would you believe it or not ALL three names were one person. So the first winner is

AMANDA

Then we disregarded the fact that Amanda won all three and pick two new winners! haha

And the next winner was

Spencer and Sara

And thirdly picked by Kayla was

Lisa Morris

WOO HOO! So happy for everyone who won! Everyone who won let me know which hair clip you want and hopefully everyone picks a different one. If we have any repeats I am going in order of how you won. WOO HOO

thank you for all of those who entered. Maybe I'll do one again soon. :)

Post Poned

2011-10-15T08:17:00.000-07:00

I am post poning the announcement of the winners of the give away until tonight or tomorrow. I had some confusion from a few people on where they were supposed to enter the giveaway and I want to make it fair. I had people leaving comments on facebook and trying to leave me comments on etsy. once I get it all straightened out I will put everyone's entries in a hat ( if you had 4 entries then I will put your name in the hat 4 times! ) and then pull a name. Normally I go off of the order the comments appear on my blog but since that is wrong I gotta do it the old school way. I promise to get it figured out as soon as possible! I have things I gotta do this morning and afternoon and then I'll get this taken care of! Thanks for all those who entered! You guys rock. I hope everyone is having a good weekend so far. We took the kids and my friend Kevin to dinner and then we went bowling. Kayla had never gone before and the last time Tyler went he was 2 so he didn't remember. We had fun.

Okay I'll be back later with some results!!!

2011-10-14T10:54:00.000-07:00

Who here is addicted to pinterest? When the blogging world first started talking about pinterest I had NO clue what it was. Then I noticed it showing up a couple of times on my STATS for the blog. I finally decided to figure it out. I got on it and fell in love immediately. Then I naturally got both of my sisters hooked and my mom.

Any ways. I have a board on mine called FLOWERS. Check it out HERE

I have LOTS of flower tutorials on there. I also have some under the crafts board that I haven't moved over to the Flower board yet.

If you are wondering what the heck I am talking about and want to join in on the fun of PINTEREST let me know. I can send you a request to join. It is so much fun and such a wonderful resource for finding things you need or want. It is also a great way to share things with people easily.

So take a look under my flower board and find some more great tutorials for flowers.

Don't forget about the GIVEAWAY CLICK HERE Today is the last day and the contest ends at midnight! Leave your comments and check back tomorrow to see who wins!

I am off to hit a couple of yard sales with my honey! We close on our new house any day now and if we don't find some more furniture it's going to look like we spent ALLLLL of the money we had on the house but then couldn't fill it with stuff! haha Have a great Friday Y'all!

Awesome Blog

2011-10-13T22:56:00.000-07:00

I have posted this before but you MUST check out the blog fabric bows and more ! It has every type of flower and bow imaginable on there and the tutorial on how to do it. When I first saw this site I about died. I spent hours on there going through all of the tutorials and learning LOTS. Go check it out and find all the wonderful options available on there.

Just a reminder that tomorrow is the LAST day to enter the giveaway! I'll see you guys again tomorrow.

Thankful Thursday

2011-10-13T15:07:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I posted Thankful Thursday's! Today I have a GREAT one. Today I am thankful for AAA! I went to the grocery store to buy groceries with my two year old. I was about a mile from our community when my tire wet flat. DOH! I had groceries in my trunk and so I got out of the car to take the groceries out and put them up front with us in the air conditioning. I came back into the car and saw this

Good thing I only buy washable markers huh? It came right off with a wipe. So anyways I guess I am thankful for TWO things. AAA for fixing my car and washable markers! haha I am having a much better day now though. My friend is here for the weekend and he brought me food from my favorite restaurant! WOO HOO

Gathered Flower

2011-10-12T11:41:00.000-07:00

Some where on the net I had found a flower tutorial and read it but never book marked it or pinned it. I remmebered it the other day and decided to give it a try while watching America's Next Top Model! ( Are my sister's, mom and I the only ones who LOVE that show?! ) Any ways. I got it done but wasn't sure how to put it together completely so the next day I got on line to find it. CAN'T FIND IT ANY WHERE! Boooooo I spent like 3 hours off and on looking for it on the internet and pinterest. It was driving me CRAZY. Yesterday I was attempting to clean some of my craft stuff and I found a piece of paper my mom had given me with instructions on how to make several fabric flowers and it was on there! AHHHHH I wanted those other 3 hours or so of my life back. So frustrating. But before I had realized I had the instructions all along I went ahead and put the flower together how I wanted it to be and put it on another garter. I LOVE how it came out.

So my question to YOU guys is DOES SOMEONE HAVE THIS BOOK MARKED OR PINNED SOMEWHERE? You make this flower by take a piece of ribbon or fabric and you basically stitch up and down the length of the ribbon in a zig zag pattern and then you pull the stitch to gather it. You get this gorgeously gathered petal flower. Any ways if you have a tutorial for it PLEASE let me know. I want to see how they say to assemble it AFTER you gather it. I just kinda did it best I could but am curious what the actual instructions say.

So THREE people have signed up for the giveaway. And I am giving away THREE things. haha SO far I have automatic winners! If you are reading this now thinking, "What giveaway?" click here to check it out and participate!

Tonight we are doing a craft night for the ladies at church and I am teaching them how to make flowers. We'll see how it goes. I am really excited and hope it will be a success. "See" Y'all tomorrow.

What I Love

2011-10-11T22:07:00.000-07:00

What I LOVE most about flowers is that you can use them for just about ANYTHING. Doesn't have to be a hair thing. Could be a broach, some shoe clips OR the top to a pen. My friend Fabi over at Mrs. Sassy Crafter has a great tutorial on her blog for some flower pens. I was looking at it earlier and she makes the flower in a way I had NEVER seen before. Don't you just love that?! I love that a certain flower can be made so many different ways and look the same each time. Want to see the tutorial? I thought you'd never ask! Go check it out here She has LOTS of really creative things on her blog. Her latest obsession has making cards and they are so cute. So go check out here blog and make sure to look at all of her fun tutorials. She is a super sweet person too so leave her a comment and get to know her.

My Cutie Pie Designs

2011-10-11T10:37:00.000-07:00

Today I am featuring an etsy shop called My Cutie Pie Designs. It has all sorts of fun hair clips including seasonal ones. She has several for Halloween so if you wanted to get some for the holiday coming up go grab some up!

Her etsy site is My Cutie Pie Designs

She also has a facebook page where she sometimes does sales and giveaways! WOO HOO Check out her facebook page HERE Go LIKE her page and I am sure she would appreciate it!

Go support a fellow crafter and check out her stuff! Later today I am hoping to get some more stuff up here so here's hoping I find the time!

Don't forget the current giveaway. Enter by clicking HERE

I'll see you later with a tutorial and some hair things.

Flower Week and a Giveaway!

2011-10-10T21:53:00.000-07:00

I had a BUSY day! I haven't had time to sit down and write a proper post but I wanted to get this giveaway started. SOOOOOOOOOOOO

I'm going to be giving away 3 hair clips from my shop! That means 3 winners! WOO HOO I am also thinking of doing another winner where the person doesn't get to choose something from the shop but just gets a bag of hair bows and things I made that I never put on a hair clip. Does anyone else do that? I have like 20 hair clips/flowers/bows that I made to put on an alligator clip or what not but never actually put on something and then it just sits there. Any ways.

I am going to give you guys a couple of ways to win.

1. Be a follower or become a follower

2. Visit my etsy page and "like" it. I don't think I have a single one haha

3. Blog about this giveaway on your blog or write about it on facebook

4. Visit my etsy shop and leave me a comment telling me which hair clip ( or head band ) you would choose if you won.

That's it. If you do any of these leave me a comment and please leave a comment for each one.

Visit my etsy store HERE and if hair clips aren't your thing I'd be willing to let anything 10 dollars and under go!

Thanks for all of you who read my blog regularly and leave comments. It is so nice to see when you want to show something off or get feed back on something.

Please let me know if you would like me to feature you this week. Tomorrow I have an etsy shop to feature and a hair bow tutorial so come back and check out all of the fun!

*****ADDED*******

SO THIS IS WHY I SHOULD NOT DO THINGS WHEN I AM TIRED. I DIDN'T TELL YOU WHEN THE GIVEAWAY ENDED! GIVEAWAY ENDS FRIDAY AT MIDNIGHT AND I WILL ANNOUNCE THE WINNER ON SATURDAY. ALSO GIVEAWAY IS FOR USA AND CANADA ONLY. THANKS AGAIN

GIVEAWAY

2011-10-09T17:46:00.000-07:00

Well I was a little discourage this week because only ONE person responded to the need for a giveaway. BUT I decided I don't really care and I am going to do one anyways! HAHA I really need to get rid of some things from my etsy shop and so why not give a couple of them away right? So starting tomorrow I will be posting the info about that. Amanda if no one enters then you will win everything right!? haha So we'll see how this goes everyone.

Going along with the giveaway I am going to feature a hair clip every day. Either one of mine or maybe someone else's. Do you have a hair clip or flower tutorial on your blog you want me to share next week? Let me know. My email is on the right hand side of my page. Also, if I can figure out how to use the linky thing Thursday I think I will do a linky where you can link to your blog with any hair clips you have made using one of the tutorials I will post or just making your own. This week goes perfect for my personal life because on Wednesday we are having craft night for the ladies at church and I am in charge of teaching everyone how to make flowers! I can't wait. So we'll see how that goes and I'll keep you all posted.

So until tomorrow....

More Garters

2011-10-06T10:54:00.000-07:00

I finally made some more garters. I like how they came out. I had been looking on etsy and noticed that quite a few people who were selling garters decorated stretchy lace. I thought that seemed like a really cute and fun idea. Not to mention EASY! So here is what I came up with

Isn't it cute. I think this would be so cute around a brides leg. I bought a boring one from the store. I wish I was as crafty now as I was when I got married. I would have made tons of stuff instead of buying it and it would have been cuter. I am not planning on getting married every again so oh well.

the last two are matching ones so I was thinking of selling them as a set. A toss garter and a keep one. We shall see. My etsy shop has been SOOOOOOOOOO slow lately. I haven't sold anything in weeks but I spent a bunch of money buying supplies and haven't managed to make them yet. I am seriously going through a rut right now. I am thinking of doing a giveaway next week. We shall see. I was thinking about having next week be HAIR week and then giving away one of the hair things from my shop. Would anyone be interested in that? the rest of the week I was going to post hair ribbon tutorials and what not. Either my own, or ones I find on line. We'll see. Leave me a comment if that sounds at all interesting to you. I hate putting lots of effort into something only to have no one respond.

Pinterest has been one of my many down falls. I LOVE IT! But it takes up time that I could be using to do something else. I usually get on pinterest when I only have 5 minutes. You know like, I am making my kids grill cheese and so I will go through things on pinterest in between flipping the sandwich. So pathetic I know. It makes me feel like I am doing SOMETHING other then cleaning, cooking and helping my kids with stuff. I am hoping to get into a better groove and better time manage soon. Because it's killing me to be so out of whack.

I potty trained my girl this weekend. She is doing really well. Last night I put on her diaper so she could go to bed and then we were reading scriptures and she says, "I have to go potty!" and ran to the bathroom, took her diaper off and went on the potty! WOO HOO I am SO happy she didn't just go in her diaper. Today we haven't had any accidents and I am crossing my fingers it stays that way. Happy Thursday everyone!

Halloween Costume Fix

2011-10-05T10:47:00.000-07:00

My kid is BIG! He is in Kindergarten and he wears a size 8 in boys for shirts and a 10 in pants. Seriously. Most of the kids in his kindergarten class are HALF of his size. Especially the boys. He had a certain Halloween costume he wanted. My in Laws came and visited here two weekends ago and took us shopping. They really wanted to buy them Halloween costumes. We found the one Tyler wanted but they only had one size and it was a size 4 to 6t. Hmmmmmmmm The store also didn't except returns. I knew he would have a melt down if we didn't get it. We had been shopping ALLL day and he was tired and wanted a costume so bad. We bought it. We got home and it fit pretty good BUT if went right up him bum and was a little short. I said, "Don't worry, Mommy will fix it!" Even though I had no clue how I would go about doing that. My Mother in Law looked at it and said, "Why don't you just add material to the center?" BRILLIANT! So glad she was here because I don't think I would have thought of that SIMPLE solution. The costume really did fit him pretty good every where else. It was just not long enough in the body for him. He is like his mom and dad and has a long body and shorter legs.

Yesterday was the big day. I picked the seems and took the top off of the bottom.

See how the middle has a belt that is white that attaches to the sides? I took that off and then added a white band across the stomach.

Here's my white section I am adding to the middle

I attached it to the legs first and then attached the top and bottom together again. THAT'S IT! We now have a costume that FITS him and I mean REALLY fits him. If we had found a size 8 to 10 I bet it would have been too big on him. This one is nice and tight ( which when sporting muscles I think it should be )

Sorry the picture is blurry. I couldn't get him to stand still he was so excited! Do you have a costume that is too short? Why not fix it yourself. I bought the extra material at JoAnn's and it was expensive so it was a good thing I only needed a little. Make sure the fabric stretches. Kayla's Jessie costume from last year is too short and small on here too so I am going to do the same thing with it. It won't look like it belongs on hers but she won't be wearing it out of the house. My kids just like dressing up. They were wearing their Woody and Jessie costumes yesterday running around the house pretending to be cowboys.

See how short is costume is on here. Hopefully one of these days I can fix it. She would be SO happy!

New Belts

2011-09-28T21:43:00.000-07:00

When I first opened up my etsy store back in March I made a ribbon belt out of white satin ribbon and a white flower that I put a little fake diamond in the center. It was one of the first things I sold. I think they are really cute but I never made any more. Lately I have been noticing them a lot of pinterest ( which I am completely addicted to by the way! ) My friend Katrina is a very fun and out going person. She loves wearing feathers and fun outfits. She has a birthday this week and I was looking for something to make her. I decided to make some belts for her. Here is how it started.

I started with about 3 yards or so of satin ribbon ( I get mine from the Dollar General and its REALLY nice for only being a dollar! )

Then I decided what I wanted to put on it. I went with some shabby chic flowers I bought off of etsy about 6 months ago and still haven't used all of them. They were a little plain though so I added a pearl in the center of both of them

I added them to the ribbon right in the center. The put just a TINY bit of glue in the center to attach them but I knew I wanted to add some feathers!

I busted out my guinea feathers and started glueing away until I was happy. The pictures turned out HORRIBLE because it was black on silver and I could not get my lighting right ( did I mention this was at midnight and everyone else in my house was fast asleep? )

I love the way it turned out! I decided she needed two! I busted out some new ribbon in a lighter color and decided to do something pretty instead of funky. I LOVED how this one turned out

So what you think? I think I need to make some for me for church to wear over some plain dresses. I don't know if with kids it would stay tied on my back though! haha

So my lack of posting lately has been due to a number of things.

I had two hard drives crash and thought I lost everything on them ( which was mainly pictures! ) I cried...a LOT!

We are in the process of buying a house.

Our house in Texas hasn't sold yet.

My boy started school which I thought was going to do WONDERS for me. It has done the opposite. I haven't had time to do ANYTHING! I haven't gotten hardly anything done. My house is a mess and my poor daughters nap schedule is SOOOOO messed up that mainly she just doesn't nap which is also killing me. She is super cranky and I don't have time to work out or blog. Boooooo

I am trying.

Here's hoping I can figure out a better schedule for me and my daughter.

good news is the house we are buying is wonderful and we are just waiting to make sure the appraisal goes well and we get the loan from the bank. Also, my son LOVESSSSS school.

I'll try and blog more soon. TRY being the key word. But I promise I will TRY!

Making Garters

2011-09-21T10:18:00.000-07:00

I love garters because they are SO easy to make and the possibilities are endless when making them! I mean really, you can do or use anything for them! Weddings, bridal gifts, bachelorette parties, Valentine's day; they are good for many occasion's. I thought I'd give you a quick tutorial on how I usually make them. Again, you can make them differently but this is how I usually go about making them.

Okay first thing I do is find some satin ribbon. What size you use depends on how big you want the garter to be. I usually like smaller ones but the one I am showing you in the tutorial was one I made for a client recently and so I'm using that. I took satin ribbon ( that I found at the Dollar tree! ) and if you can measure the recipients leg, then do so. I have HUGE thighs so I usually measure a smaller part of my leg. You want to cut your ribbon longer then your measurement so we can gather it. Again, how much you want it to gather is up to you too. Generally speaking if you cut the ribbon at around 25 or 26 inches long, you should be good. The ribbon I used was wide so I knew I was going to have a border coming off of both sides. YOu don't have to do this but this is what I did for this one. I'm goign to show you pictures of some other ones I have made at the end.

Here is a picture of my supplies! Lace, ribbon and some measuring tape.

I measure out 26 inches of ribbon and cut TWO pieces. You need one for the back and one for the front. I also had to cut down my lace because this is a sheet on lace and not lace used for trimming. If you have lace that is already cut down for you then you have one less step!

Here you can see that the ribbon is centered with the lace. If you only want lace coming off of ONE side, then make sure to pin it that way.

Make sure your second ribbon is also pin to the back. Usually when sewing everything is right sides together. This time you want the right sides facing OUT because we are not going to be turning any thing.

Find where you want the elastic to be and we are going to create the casing for it. I wanted the center to be about 1/2 inch or so.

See?! Basically I am doing a 1/4 inch on both sides! Turn the ribbon around and do a 1/4 seem on down the other side now.

Don't worry too much about the satin puckering up or gathering where you don't want it to. Remember we are going to add elastic and it will be gather any ways so it will not be noticeable.

I don't have a picture of this next step but you need to feed your elastic through your casing. I use a safety pin on one end of the elastic and then feed it through. When you get to where the elastic on the end without the safety pin is at the end, pin it in place so you don't lose your elastic inside of the casing and have to start over. Then I get it to the other end ( the side WITH the safety pin ) and pin that in place too

Next I put my sewing machine on a zig zag stitch and I sew the ends closed.

They don't need to line up perfect because I trim the excess off and now you have a garter ready to be embellished! Isn't it pretty. If you get your ribbon at the dollar store these are SO cheap! They are pretty fast and easy to do as well. I like to take mine and embellish them for weddings with a personalized stamped charm! Most brides want to have their future husbands names on the charm and have the wedding date on the "toss" garter. It makes for a fun and personal thing for your wedding day. I bought my garter and I kinda wish I had been crafty enough to make it back then.

So here is the finished product after I added the charm and the embellishments.

This one was a little bigger then I usually make them but I think it's cute! Here are some others I have made

So be creative and have fun! I have one in my shop in animal print with a charm on it that says, "Take me" I made it with fabric. When making the garters with fabric you want to put the two pieces of fabric together and stitch along both long sides with right sides faces. THEN, you want to turn it right side out and THEN make your casing for the elastic. That way you don't have any raw edges.

Any questions let me know! OH! I just realized I didn't tell you what size to make your elastic. YOu want to make it an inch or so SMALLER then your thigh measurement. So if you are 20 inches around your thigh make it 19 or 18 inches long. You want it to stretch a little but not TOO much! The first time I sold a garter on line on etsy, I made it too small because I didn't ask the bride to be what your thigh measurement was. She had to send it back to me and I had to re make it so that it would fit. Opps! You never want to make something twice. So be careful but most importantly have fun! These are supposed to be pretty, sexy and fun! Go to town

A Few More Projects

2011-09-19T17:03:00.000-07:00

My son owns a Leapster Explorer. He loves it. He has to earn games by trying to new foods ( which pretty much NEVER happens! or by doing things around the house. ) Basically we bribe him which I am TOTALLY okay with. You do what you gotta do sometimes. He really needed a case for it but I REALLY wanted his case to be able to hold the games as well. All of the manufactured kind in the store only hold the actual leapster. BOOOOO I finally got around to making him my own. I even did a tutorial for it! However, after just a couple of hours of using it I found it's not very practically. It would be an easy fix but I haven't had time to fix it yet. Here's what it looks like.

The Leapster goes in the main pocket to the left and the little pockets to the right are for the tiny games. There are 9 pockets and right now we only have 3 games so we have room to grow. The part where I messed up is that I didn't close off the pockets with velcro. this means that when my kid goes to close it, the games slide out very easily. Not good. I will fix it one of these days but for now we are just happy we have a case for everything.

The only thing I have worked on this last week was some wedding accessories. I get request for wedding garters on etsy a lot. Here is the latest

I made a tutorial for garters too! Hopefully sometime this week I can post it. Garters are actually SUPER easy to make. I usually use satin ribbon and then it makes it even easier.

Then I made two hair clips for weddings. These aren't for anyone specific, I made them just because I thought they were cute and they have been getting a lot of people in the shop I am selling hair clips in looking for wedding stuff. Not a single one of my hair clips has sold so I figured I'd better change my strategy. I dropped them off today and the owner thought they were SO cute! Hopefully that means someone will buy them.

So we'll see what happens. I HATE not having time to do things. I have so many hair clips in my head that I want to try to do but I am having a hard time managing my new time schedule with my son in school and my daughter needed mommy time. I have also been trying to work out everyday which is proving to be difficult. I know this isn't new. Every mother struggles with time management and I know it's just a matter of time before I get into a good groove. I am telling you that I am ADDICTED to pinterest! I know this isn't knew to anyone yet either but I have been finding the GREATEST stuff on there. Since we are going to be moving into a new home in 2 plus months I have been trying to find good decorating ideas and things. Here's hoping everything goes well with the house. The bank did not choose to foreclose since we had already gone into escrow. Now we are going to do the inspection and hope things go well with that! Cross your fingers for us.

Is anyone thinking about Christmas already? I am NOT one of those people who start playing Christmas music at home or getting out my decoration before December 1st. In fact, I don't listen to Christmas music at home at all. I get enough of it when I go out. I am annoyed that stores are already stocking up on Christmas stuff. I DO however, start thinking about what I am going to MAKE people for Christmas. I am hoping to make a lot of fun "green" things for people this year. We shall see what happens.

Getting Crafty

2011-09-19T14:15:00.000-07:00

I have been not the craftiest person ever, but I have had projects going non-stop it seems through out the last week. I was asked to do some hair clips for someone's wedding. They wanted some different colors then usual weddings which made it slightly harder to get the stuff to make them. They wanted black and red flowers, with feathers and netting. I bet this wedding is going to be styling! Here is what I made

The black flower is for the bride and the red flowers are for the bridesmaids. You have NO idea how hard it was to find black flowers that were NOT roses. I finally found a "bush"that was black leaves and I took those apart and glued them all together to form a flower. Then the red flowers I had bought were bigger then the black flower. I couldn't have that seeing as how it was the brides hair things, so I call ALL of the petals off and then glues those all together to form smaller flowers. It was a lot of work! But I think they turned out great. I also did a garter and some other wedding hair things this week. I'll post later.

I had some drama when on Thursday my husband got out my external hard drive to get a picture off of it that someone had ordered on canvas from my etsy store only to find out that the hard drive was not responding. It was the back up to my lap top which fried about e month ago. So my back up to my lap top and the lap top were both gone. This means I probably lost 10,000 pictures and most were from pregnancy with my daughter on. So pretty much all of her baby pictures. I was CRUSHED! I balled myself to sleep. We are hopeful that we are going to be able to retrieve them. I'll let you know how that goes. I'm crossing my fingers and SO GLAD, I was a good blogger on my family blog during those years so I know I have a lot of those pictures SOMEWHERE. I am still pretty depressed but we'll see what happens. I gotta run for now but I'll be back soon with more projects to show you ! Hope evryone is having a great Monday!!!

Chocolate Milk

2011-09-13T18:52:00.000-07:00

My kids love chocolate milk. Let me rephrase that. My GIRL loves chocolate milk and my boy has kinda grown out of it. Most of the time he wants regular milk now. My girl on the other hand won't even drink regular milk any more. First thing in the morning she has a sippy of chocolate milk for breakfast. Can you blame her?! I love having some nesquik milk for breakfast half of the time too. Any ways. If I had never of tried doing the South BEach diet I would have never thought to try less sugar. I KNOW sugar is bad for you but I just had never really been concerned about stuff like that. Do you know what? I see the two of these in the store ALL of the time.

I would have assumed before trying the South BEach diet that 25 % less sugar would be LESS sugar. Hmmmm If you are a South Beach dieter you know that things that say NO SUGAR ADDED are usually allowed. Like no sugar added fudgesicles are a yes when doing South Beach. I always buy the no sugar added nesquik because it is also allowed. Before that I always bought the 25% less sugar. Well, the other day we were OUT OF CHOCOLATE MIX! Seriously OUT! I knew that was an emergency for my daughter because she wouldn't drink plain milk. I ran to the little market where we live and they only had the 25% less sugar and since it was an emergency I bought it. A couple of days later I found the NO SUGAR ADDED. When I got home I compared the two and was shocked!

25 % less sugar has
60 calories
0.5 g Total fat
30 g sodium
14 g total carbs
13 g sugar

Sheesh

NO sugar added
35 calories
1 g total fat
70 g sodium
7 g total carb
3 g sugar

Man! What a difference huh?! I was shocked it was that much and I HONESTLY think the no sugar added taste much better, it however doesn't mix as well but that's okay. Obviously the sodium is higher but I don't take in much sodium and neither do my kids so I'm okay with that.
So is this news to anyone else or am I the only dummy who didn't realize this?! I mean really when you see "no sugar added" verses "25% less sugar" I just thought LESS SUGAR meant it would have LESS sugar. That's what I get for assuming right?

Hope this helped even one person. :)

Yikes!

2011-09-13T07:17:00.000-07:00

Any one else a total slob like me? I am especially so when it comes to my sewing and craft stuff. I think it is due to the frequency at which I use them. You know what I mean?! I can't wait until we get a new house and I have a creative space that is mine that I don't have to clean if I don't want to. For now I am stuck with the kitchen and my crap is every where! Here is what I decided to do to help the clutter.

Click here

The blog the Little Green Bean takes foam board ( which you can get at the dollar store for...well, a dollar! haha ) and cuts them up into 8 pieces and then wraps the fabric around it to store. Um hello awesome! I am in the process and my material already looks SOOOOOOOOOO much better. I'll post pictures when I get more done but trust me if you have tons of fabric and you hate digging through it every time you need to make something check out the above blog post and consider doing yourself a favor! It's super easy, super cheap ( which you gotta love ) and totally doable in a reasonable amount of time.

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Thomas the Train

2011-09-12T21:28:00.000-07:00

Here are the pictures of the Thomas the train hat I made for my friends boy last week.

I am sure it looks cuter on and I am crossing my fingers it actually fits him! :)

This is with the Jack and Jill pattern from izzy and ivy. Very easy pattern and it gets easier every time you try it.

9-11

2011-09-11T08:58:00.000-07:00

I remember this day like it was yesterday...

What do you remember from this day? I am STILL kicking myself that I didn't save any newspapers from this day or any of the days after. My husband was in Brazil on a mission for our church when this happened and he saved a Brazilian newspaper from this week! He said it was really crazy being in another country. He said someone came up to him and asked if he was American and then said his country was under attack. He didn't really believe him. I'm glad he kept the newspaper!

Never forget all those who lost their lives that day. Some willing and some not. I am blessed to be an American!

HATS!

2011-09-10T14:43:00.000-07:00

I got to sew on Friday and let me tell you it was SO nice! My friend Sarah has a boy turning 3 who LOVES trains. I made him a kind of conductor hat with Thomas the train on it. I like how it turned out and now I am just crossing my fingers it fits! They live in Texas so I can't just measure his head and make sure it fits. Cross your fingers for me. I'll post some pictures of it later.

While I was making the train hat Kayla grabbed it half made and said, "Oh mom I love it!" So I told her it was not for her but that mommy can make her a new hat too. She has been carrying around some Dora fabric like it was a blanket and I have been wanting to make her a new dress with it. Instead I decided to make her a Dora hat! I LOVE how it came out.

She was NOT into having her pictures taken with it on though. I gave her my phone because she wanted to do a puzzle and I told her if I let her do a puzzle she needed to let mommy take her pictures. Can I call a two year old a liar?! haha This is what I got

I got great pictures of the top of it! So I said, "Kayla can you look up at mommy?" So she did, however she brought the phone up over her face!

I got ONE good one

And then I got the look of death....

Well so much for awesome pictures of the hat but you get the point any ways right! Oh yeah and I used the Jack and Jill pattern by Izzy and Ivy. It's a great pattern and now that I have made it 6 or 7 times it gets better every time I make one!

Flower Tutorial

2011-09-07T10:36:00.000-07:00

I'm not very creative when it comes to finding names for things. So Flower tutorial will have to do for now. This is a very simple tutorial and the finishing results is pretty fast and pretty cute. You can use any fabric you want for this. I tried two different kinds and I used two different ways. The first time I tried just using a glue gun. That was almost harder to do then a straight sewing machine. Here is what the finish product looks like.

First I took a 37 in by 3 in strip of fabric

Take your strip of fabric and make a long string of glue down one of the long sides...gotta be fast so the glue doesn't dry.

Then fold the fabric in half and press the sides down together so the glue sticks

Next take the new strip and cut on the folded side alllllll the way down to make petals for the flower

Make these whatever size you want. Try different sizes for different looks. Then you need to start your flower. Add a little glue to the end piece and then roll.

Now work your magic the rest of the way down with the gun and then roll. Glue. Roll. Until you get to the end.

You can make the roll really tight for a fuller flower or make the roll kind lose for a less full flower.

I love the way the end roll looks!

And there you have it! I think it looks really cute by itself or you could add a pretty button or some ribbon in the center

Next I tried it with sewing instead of glue for the first step. I think it actually went faster and was less messy. YOu can do it by hand by with a machine. I'm lazy so I used my machine.

For this flower instead of doing one long strip I decided to do a bunch of shorter strips with different coordinating fabrics. Mess around with the lengths and don't worry about making then too long. You can always cut them if they are too long when you roll them!

I love how colorful it is!

Then I added something to the middle. This is actually a brad for scrap booking but it had great color!

I then decided to make a wider one. I took a piece of thick interfacing and started with the OUTSIDE circle and sewed it down using my machine. You could use the glue too because that would have been just as easy or you could sew it down by hand. Once I was done with one color ( if there was extra I just cut it off ) I just grabbed a new color and started sewing/gluing again!

The center I took the part of the green one I had cut off because it was too long and rolled it and glued it in the center. Again it looks good by itself or with a colorful button in the center!

These are SUPER easy and can look really elegant or really fun depending on the fabric and button you use for the middle! I haven't had time since I made these last week to try new ones with different fabrics. I also want to make some more with a much wider petal. The wider the petal the more the flower kind of looks like a flower you would buy in the wrapping paper section! I love them. Oh how I wish my daughter would let me put things in her hair! Now I either need to gift these or put them in the shop. Someone please convince my daughter to leave something in her hair! Pretty please?!

Lunch Box Swap

2011-09-06T21:59:00.000-07:00

Here are the tips I got from my South Beach Diet email today on ways to healthy up your lunches! They are good ideas so read up and get healthy y'all.

Swap…high-fat lunch meats like bologna and salami
For…lean reduced-sodium deli meats like roast turkey, lean ham, and grilled chicken breast

Swap…white bread and white pasta
For…100% whole-grain bread and whole-wheat pasta

Swap…fried chips and other high-fat, low-nutrition snacks
For…reduced-fat cheese sticks, a handful of nuts, veggie dippers (like carrots) with hummus, or a fiber-rich snack like plain air-popped popcorn

Swap…fruit canned in syrup
For…fresh fruit or fruit packed in its natural juice

Swap…cookies and cakes
For…fresh fruit or sugar-free gelatin

Swap…sugary fruit drinks and sodas
For…vegetable juice blend, water, or low-fat or fat-free milk

Baby Quilt

2011-09-06T11:20:00.000-07:00

If I don't get to write an actual blog soon I might scream. I have had several written in my head but haven't had the time. Then this weekend and yesterday I TOTALLY had the time but my internet wasn't working. Figures. So today I am backup and running only I have people coming over for dinner and my house is a mess. Also, my son got some kind of a bug and is home sick today from school. He was SO sad to have to miss a day of school already! So was I! Yesterday I was planning on running to JoAnn's for their labor day sale. I actually needed some material for something I need to make for a birthday present. My son woke up with a fever. Then he started to feel better and BEGGED me to take him shopping. We got to JoAnn's at 10:30 or so and the whole parking lot was packed! BOOOOO So I didn't go in. I wasn't going to do that to my kids, especially when one wasn't feeling well. I took them to the dollar store and then to get lunch. AFTER I already forked up the money for lunch Tyler starts getting the chills and of course doesn't really feel like eating. We get home I BEGGED him to TRY REALLY HARD to take a nap. He of course doesn't nap. But he at least rest on his bed for over an hour.

I start dinner and my husband comes home. He felt bad I didn't get to JoAnn's. He tells me to go ahead and go now. We eat dinner and I get a shopping list ready. I figure if I am going into town I better get groceries too. ( It takes 30 minutes or so to get into town. ) I kiss everyone good bye, I get about 5 minutes from JoAnn's and I get a tex telling me my son just puked every where! REALLY? I FINALLY get out of the house by myself with my husband's blessing and he throws up? I went straight to the store and bought groceries and went home. No JoAnn's for me again. Oh well. I got home and found this on the couch

He fell asleep at like 8:30 with the throw up bowl in one hand and the ipod so he could play angry birds, in the other! haha He is SOOOOOO sad he had to miss a day of school already.

Before all of the sickness happened and the internet stopped working, I got something new in the etsy shop listed. It is a baby quilt that my mom mad and I LOVE it! It is SOOOO cute.

Isn't it cute? I wish I had the need for a baby girl quilt because this one is so sweet.

Cross your fingers for me that tomorrow I can get my tutorial from LAST week up and running. I'm dying to get it on here.

CRAZY Week

2011-09-02T10:20:00.000-07:00

I have had kind of a crazy week! My son started kindergarten and we also had company. I have completely turned my life all upside down and have changed our schedule. I have also started up the south beach diet AGAIN and have so far lost 6 pounds since Monday. WOO HOO

I have had little time for anything at all. My house is pretty messy and I have laundry stacked up. Sheesh. I did manage to get a tutorial done but now I am having difficultly finding the time to actually post it! The pictures are shrunk ad ready to go I just need a half an hour or so to write it. I am crossing my fingers that I will be able to before the day is through. Here is what the tutorial is for

New very easy hair clips! Or brooch pins. Whatever you want to use them for. Now I must go because my daughter is telling me to put down my computer. haha

Hats

2011-08-30T14:13:00.000-07:00

It seems I make hats a lot. My friend told me that she likes to have her boys look like they are from the 1950's. She asked me about making hats for her sons. I decided to see what I could find. I found a CUTE free pattern on line for a newsies hat. I took an ACU that my friend gave me and I cut it up and used the pattern to make this.

Sorry the pictures are blurry. I think the hat turned out cute. It is WAY to poofy for me so I am hoping in a couple of days I can re-make it with some minor adjustments to the pattern. I can't find the pattern right now but I have company over and have been busy. When I find it, I will add the link to the post here at the bottom.

Yummy Dessert

2011-08-24T15:28:00.000-07:00

Last night we had the missionaries over from church for dinner. I wanted to make something EASY for dinner and dessert. I LOVE what I ended up making so I thought I'd share. It is so easy too. Here's what you need

Some kind of concentrate juice ( I choose pink lemonade and it was AWESOME )
vanilla ice cream
cool whip
butter ( Ironic after I just wrote about butter...)
grahma crackers
a little sugar

Here's what you do. Take about half of a thing of vanilla ice cream and a can of juice from concentrate and put them in a bowl to melt together.

next take about half a thing of cool whip ( I wanted to save a little to go on top after it was done! ) and mix the cool whip, and the new ice cream mixture in a blender. I did this just so that there weren't any ice cream lumps. You could also do it in a standing mixer I am sure.

Next take your graham crackers ( I took two packages but mine was a little over kill ) and put them in a zip lock bag and beat them to death!

Take your rolling pin and roll out the chunks that did not break up. Next add about 1/4 cup of sugar. You can add more if you want it to be super sweet but mine was fine was just the 1/4 cup. Next spread the graham cracker mixture in a pie pan on a cake pan. Melt about 6 or so tablespoons of butter and pour on top of the graham mixture. Mix this well and smash it to the pan like a pie crust. Next pour the ice cream mixture on top and them stick it in the freezer. I took it out while we were eating dinner so that it would soften slightly and then I cut it up and added a little spoonful of cool whip on top! IT WAS SO YUMMY! I loved it and the sour pink lemon aid was PERFECT with the graham cracker. I have also done this with a strawberry daiquiri and it was amazing too! Try what you like but TRY IT! It's such a good dessert for an easy but yummy summer dish!

Input

2011-08-23T22:07:00.000-07:00

I know I do this a lot but I always second guess myself when it comes to creating things. Do you guys think I should turn these flowers I just made into hair accessories with maybe some white or grey feathers coming off of them? OR do you think I should leave them as is and turn them into shoe clips? My original plan was shoes clips but now I am not so sure. Any advice helps. Thanks y'all!

The picture is not that great because it is from my phone but you get the idea! :)

Butter or Margarine?

2011-08-23T07:55:00.000-07:00

I have been gaining weight back. It is not fun. I go through ups and downs as far as my weight and the way I eat. I have also been going through weeks of working off and then I get wrapped up in other things and don't work out for weeks. This has got to end. Monday my kid starts kindergarten. My life is going to change. I have decided that through that forced changed I will make many more. One being eating better and working out. So come Monday I am starting up my South Beach diet phase one. It's tough but it gets your body rid of all the processed sugar. After two weeks of no carbs you start adding it back but in the form of wheat flour in stead of white. It's a great diet and the first two weeks are tough but you usually lose between 8 and 12 pounds. I am hoping to lose at least 8! We shall see what happens.

I get emails from the south beach diet web site and sometimes they are super informative. The one they sent today I liked and thought I would repost for everyone. I am not a fan of margarine and I LOVE butter. So switching is hard for me. Especially since I didn't think it was actually better for me. This email helped. hope it helps you too.

Which Is Better: Butter or Margarine?

In supermarkets across the country, butter and margarine battle over prime space on dairy shelves in an effort to win over consumers. But which is considered South Beach Diet-friendly?

The answer is trans-fat-free margarine (often labeled as vegetable-oil spread these days). The reason lies in the different types of fats that are contained in butter and margarine. Butter, made from animal fats, is high in artery-clogging saturated fats. Margarine, on the other hand, is made with vegetable oil, so it contains mainly polyunsaturated fat. But don't be deceived! While margarine contains less saturated fat than butter, the hard varieties (like stick margarine) are high in trans fats.

What Are Trans Fats?
Trans fats are manufactured in a process called hydrogenation, in which liquid vegetable oils are transformed into solid fats. They are used in foods like crackers, cookies, and pastries to improve their flavor and texture and to extend their shelf life. Like saturated fats, trans fats can raise LDL ("bad") cholesterol, but trans fats have also been shown to lower levels of HDL ("good") cholesterol. Studies have also shown that trans fats can increase the risk for obesity, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and cancer. Not surprisingly, trans fats should be considered the worst fats of all and avoided.

The healthiest choice is a trans-fat-free liquid or tub margarine. It’s easy to make an informed decision about buying trans-fat-free products because in January 2006 the Food and Drug Administration required that the trans-fat content of packaged foods be included on the Nutrition Facts panel. The trans-fat number is listed after Total Fat and Saturated Fat, but only if the product contains 0.5 grams or more per serving. So be sure to check for hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oil in the ingredients list to avoid trans fats altogether.

If you've been diagnosed with high cholesterol, you may elect to use one of the cholesterol-lowering vegetable-oil spreads made with phytosterols, also known as plant stanols and sterols. These compounds, found in sources like soybean oils, can help in reducing blood-cholesterol levels when used regularly.

Happy eating everyone!

I Heard Him Come

2011-08-21T09:29:00.000-07:00

We are back from vacation and today is Sunday. I felt inspired to share with you one of my favorite songs about Jesus Christ. It's lovely.

ENJOY

Lyrics to I Heard Him Come :

I heard him come
I saw his very face
I wondered who
Would come into this place
Where dead men walk
And where the dying talk
Of life before
The curse upon them came.

He looked on me;
He must have felt my gaze
He came toward me,
Through the crowded maze,
And I a leper in shame, hid my head
Till someone said, Jesus, is his name
And he said,

Nations fall behind him
The rivers crawl to find him.
Mountains move
Just to let him through.
Come and never leave him
Just let your heart believe him.
And never let his light go
Never let your love grow dim.

He fed a thousand
With one loaf of bread
I saw him raise
A child from the dead
He healed the sick
The blind man saw his eyes
The lame man stood
And joyous were his cries
And he said:

Nations fall behind him
The rivers crawl to find him
Mountains move
Just to let him through
Come and never leave him
Just let your heart believe him
And never let his light go
Never let your love grow dim

I saw his pain
As they nailed him to a cross
Wish that we
Could understand the cost
He looked on me
As he had once before
Saying, Teach my word
To all forever more
And I'll say:

Nations fall behind him
The river crawl to find him
Mountains move
Just to let him through
Come and never him
Just believe
And never let his light go
Never let your light grow dim

New Things

2011-08-17T17:12:00.000-07:00

I am adding some new things to the etsy shop. I have been doing the bow ties here and there and I FINALLY decided to make some for the shop. SOOOOO I ordered some bow tie hard ware so they could be adjustable. I have only made two so far but they are CUTE! I decided to also start adding some girl ones on both hair clips and on lace stretchy headbands. Here are the two boy ones and the one girl one I have made so far.

I have lots more fabrics I can't wait to make bow ties with! Now here's hoping they sale!!! haha

I am in Utah right now, I am post dating these. I hope everyone is having a great week! I am SURE we are.

Pillow Case Dress

2011-08-15T17:14:00.000-07:00

I know these are not knew. In fact, I made my niece one like two years ago. It was the first thing I made when I got my sewing machine. Which by the way means my two year anniversary is coming up with my sewing machine. I think that means I need to have another giveaway! We'll see come next month.

Any ways. I went thrift store shopping a couple of weeks ago and got the CUTEST vintage ( at least they were old! ) pillow cases and flat sheet. As soon as I saw them I knew I wanted to make my girl a pillow case dress. It turned out SO cute too! A lot of the time I make my daughter something she uses it once and then is over it. She LOVED this dress and as soon as I put it on her she started to twirl. Pretty much ALL of the pictures I took of her were blurry because of this. She literately could not stop moving.

She wore it to church so we put a white shirt under it. I thought it looked even cuter like that! My girl even let me do her hair which she does NOT let me do ever. At first I did them in braided pig tails and it looked so cute. About ten minutes later she brought me the rubber bands and said, "Here momma, here are my pretties back." But then I convinced her to let me do a pony tail and put in a cute clip I made. Check her out.

The nice thing was it took like 20 minutes to make it! YEAH!

A Tooth

2011-08-14T11:14:00.000-07:00

My friend Cari wanted me to make her son a tooth pillow. Not sure what I mean? It's a pillow for when your kid loses a tooth. There is a pocket in it for them to put their tooth in for the tooth fairy. I got the idea from MMMMCrafts. I fyou go to her blog she has a free template you can print out and use. The boy versions she has on her blog are things like, a police officer. Cari wanted me to do a pirate one and I thought that sounded like a great idea. So I drew a sketch of what I wanted it to look like.

And this is why I TAKE pictures rather then draw them. haha I am NOT an artist. SOOOO this is what I came up with.

I think it came out cute. Cari sent me a picture of her son holding the pillow smiling. Hopefully that means he likes it. If you have a kid who hasn't had any teeth fall out yet you should check out the tutorial and free printable here

In The Mood

2011-08-14T09:14:00.000-07:00

I have been WANTING to sew lately but have had several other things going. My sister was here visiting along with my other friend Kevin. We had lots going on while they were here. My house, when they left was a MESS. Like horrible mess. Kayla was best buddies with her cousin Jacob who crawls. She would crawl on the floor with him and says, "Come on baby Jakey" It was so cute. Then he would smile and laugh and follow her. She would also dump out EVERY little thing she thought he would like to play with and spread it out all over the floor. You could barely walk in my living room. I have no idea how they were crawling on it.

Any ways. We had lots going on after they left too. I FINALLY got about 25 clips to the shop here where I live. I am both nervous and excited to have something in a store for sale. I have no clue if any of them will sale. If they don't sale, then it will be kind of disappointing. The good news is that I am in no contract or anything and my first month of rent space is free. Take my advice people, if you have a skill you are good at always ask if someone is willing to trade services. The shop I was going to be selling hair clips at was having problems taking pictures and getting them on facebook. I told them I was a photographer and asked if they would be willing to have me come do pictures for them and I could get rent space free for the first month. They said yes! WOO HOO Here are some pictures I took of their shop

It's a pretty cute shop! The good news is that no one else sales hair clips either so the only hair clips in there are mine! I made some cute stuff for the shop too. But because I have been doing hair clips like crazy, I am not in the mood to do some for my etsy shop. Maybe in a week or so I can duplicate some for my etsy shop because some of them were really cute. Here is a picture of all of them together.

I have more crafts to write about but I don't want to write them all in the same post so I'll write more soon. I need to shower and go over my lesson for church today. It's a pretty intense lesson that I am praying I can get through.

Happy Sunday everyone!

2011-08-11T22:52:00.000-07:00

Today is thursday. I am having a crappy week. It makes thankful thursdays kinda hard. I am thankful for so many things. When I am having a bad day I usually miss my husband a lot. He has been having a crappy week too. Some of our reason are the same, some are different. We are both amazed lately at how many people SAY they will do something but DON'T. It amazes me when how bad the economy is, and how much people need business right now, they are not pulling their weight. We have had family members totally let us down, lawyers NOT call us back and real estate agents who ignore our calls. Seriously? Do you NOT want our business? I thought EVERYONE right now needed and wanted business but I guess not.

SOOOOOOO for today I am going to name something simple. I am thankful for my new business cards! haha I ordered some new cards for my photography since my old ones say Serving the Central Texas Area. I really liked my old cards so I did something almost exactly the same. I changed things up slightly. In stead of business cards, I got postcards! I LOVE THEM! They are so cute and I love that they are big enough to see the pictures well on them. I have seen photographers do this a couple times over the last year and every time I found one, got given one or picked one up somewhere, I just loved how big and colorful they were. So you want to see?

Sorry it's a bad picture. It was taken with my cell phone. SOOO who wants one? :)

Lady Bug Purse Tutorial

2011-08-08T22:20:00.000-07:00

So who wants to make a cute ladybug purse? I am telling you this was EASY, quick and my daughter has taken it every where we have gone since I made it for her. She LOVES it! So here is what you need:

2 fat quarters
2 pieces of 14 inch ribbon
1 piece of 3 inch ribbon
two scrap pieces of fabric about 5 inches or so in all directions
interfacing ( optional )

READ INSTRUCTIONS ALL THE WAY THROUGH BEFORE SEWING!

I started out by cutting TWO pieces of fabric 11 1/2 inches tall by 11 inches wide from one fat quarter. If you have pattern on your fabric that is directional ( meaning the pattern goes one way ) then make sure you cut it going the way you need it. Mine needed to have the animals upright so I made sure to do so.

Do this with both fat quarters. One will be the outside of the purse and one will be the inside. If you want to interface it, do so now. I decided for my daughter, it didn't really need it. Don't know what interfacing is? It is the stuff that makes purses stiffer and more padded.

Next you want to round the corners ( you don't HAVE to, but that is the look I wanted for my purse. I didn't want it to just look like a cute tote, but a purse instead. ) I just grabbed a bowl from my cupboard and used that to outline a curved edge. Make sure to do it to both the left and right corners of the bottom of the fabric like so

Again, make sure you do this with all four of the pieces of 11 1/2 X 11 inch pieces.

Next you want to pick a color for the lady bug. I picked some pink fleece. If you are doing a lady bug like me you want it to be an exact circle. I used another bowl that was slightly smaller then the one I used to round out my edges. It turned out to be about 5 1/2 X 5 1/2 inches all the way around. Yours can be whatever size you want!

Next I made another circle cut out for the wings. I chose a black and white polka dots so it could be close to what a real lady bug looks like but anything works well.

Here are my circles.

Next I took the circle that would become the wings and folded it in half and then cut it down the center. This gave me two pieces like so

HOWEVER, this part is up to you. The one I saw in the store had wings that were much smaller. I played around with this and I liked the big wings because that is how a real lady bug would be. YOU DO WHAT YOU LIKE!

Now, I didn't have any iron on adhesive and so I used some spray on glue. Very clever I thought until I noticed I sprayed it all over my hand and everything was sticking to it!!! Not cool...

Place your lady bug how you want it on the out side of your fabric. I over lapped my wings a little because again, I LIKED it like that! Do what you like....

I then did a zig zag stitch all the way around the wings and body. This is going to get repetitive but seriously do it how you think it will look cute. I think the zig zag kinda ties everything together.

Looking cute right? Now I took a round piece of tule ( you know the kind they sell at the dollar tree in the wedding section ) and scrunch it in the center and pin it to the lady bug over the wings right in the center.

I LOVE the tule.....if you don't like it, scratch it!

Next take your 3 inches of ribbon for the antennas. There are a couple of things you can do. I just pinch mine in the center and folded it over and glued it. If you want to make the antennas a little cuter you could tie knots on the ends. The version I saw did this. I was just too lazy and the ribbon I liked was a little too fat for that.

Next glue it to the button of your choice. Or whatever you think would make a cute head. I thought a button was a good idea but you could get really creative with that. And then I got lazy again and instead of sewing the button on, I glued it.

Now that the outside is done you need to pin the two outside pieces with the right sides together and sew all the way around on the sides leaving the top OPEN ( i love how you can still see all the black lint stuck to my fingers! haha )

Put the top off to the side and do the same with the inside pieces ( if you want pockets on the inside you must do so now BEFORE sewing it together. Since mine was for a 2 year old I felt pockets to be unnecessary )

When sewing the inside together ( right sides together again ) make sure to leave an opening on the bottom. A good 5 to 7 inches. This is so you can turn the bag right side out in a minute. What I do to remind meyself so I don't forget and just keep on sewing is I do a double pin where I want to stop sewing.

In the picture above you would NOT sew in between the two sets of double pins.

Next I clip the corners and I iron open the seams.

If you have NEVER made a purse before this next part will seem weird. Trust me though...I have made about 40ish purses!

Take the outside of the bag and turn it so it is wrong sides facing together ( in other words, what it will look like when the bag is ALL done! ) Then take the INSIDE of the bag and put it over the outside of the bag so that the right sides of both fabrics and facing each other. Check out the picture if you are confused. It should look like this

Next you take those seams you ironed open and line them up and pin them together ( with the seams still open )

Next you want to take your 14 inch ribbon and pin it where you want your straps to be. Honestly if you are smart ( unlike me ) you will do this BEFORE pinning the two together.....I forgot, however and had to do it on this step. Also, look at my picture below: you will notice that my ribbon was sliding sideways. You do NOT want that to happen!!! If you do then your straps will be crooked. I had to fix this a million times before I sewed it down. If you are smart ( unlike ME! ) pin the strap to the outside of the fabric BEFORE putting the inside over and lining up the side seams. It seems fussy but it will be worth it I promise! Also, make sure you pin the strap in between the two. If you pin it to the outside of everything right now, when you go to turn your purse the right way, your straps will be trapped between the two fabrics.

Next you want to sew all the way around the top of your bag. You are ALMOST done! WOO HOO

After you sew around the top you may be wondering how you are going to pull the whole purse the right way. Have no fear! Do you remember that hole we left in the bottom of the inside of the purse? Find that hole, put your hand in it and pull the OUTSIDE of the bag through it like so

It should look like this when you pull it through ( at this point your daughter might come to see whats going on and get REALLY excited to see something you made for her! )

Next you want to shove the inside of the bag....well....in the INSIDE! And then iron down the top of the bag and stitch across the top again to make sure the lining stays down. Also, it just looks cuter when you finish the top. I again used a zig zag just because I think it fit with everything else better.

Next do you remember that ~~stupid~~ dumb hole in the bottom of the lining? ( I'm not aloud to say stupid because I get yelled at by my 5 year old for saying a bad word. Aunt Kimmie got yelled at a LOT while she was here last week haha

You want to tuck under the seam and iron it down. Then pin it closed and sew it down.

You could also just sew it by hand. I was just lazy and I like to think that when I sew it by hand it makes it slightly weaker. Then again, my daughter is putting really small things in here so far. She had some crayons, some bracelets and some puzzle pieces in it all weekend.

You now have an adorable new purse for your daughter, grand daughter, sister, friend, niece or heck, yourself!

I was thinking of all of the fun animals you could do instead of a lady bug.

butterfly
monkey
OWL ( i'm gonna try that one! )
caterpillar
hippo

all sorts of fun and easy different shapes and sizes. I would LOVE to see if anyone does one. Send me a link if you do and if I get enough of them I will make a new blog in a month or so and post all of them who send them in. Either leave a link in the comments or email me at katiesclicks at yahoo dot com.

I hope everyone had a great Monday! Mine was awful! haha I woke up to realize it was that "time" of the month, my kids were PMSing WAAAAAAAAY worse then I was and I had a bunch of errands to run. Not cool. Then my husband came home and he was in a bad mood too which just made everything worse. Now the kids are in bed, the house is quiet and we are both typing away on our lap tops. Him doing homework ( he is ALMOST done with his first bachelor's degree! His second one should be done by April! ) and I am changing the craft world one tutorial at a time....okay not really but hopefully at least ONE person enjoys this tutorial and gives it a try. :)

Thanks for reading and let me know if you have any questions.

I'm linking up to some parties through out the week...

A Loss

2011-08-07T10:48:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday our family suffered a loss. It has been tough. We had a GREAT day! We drove out to where I used to live and met up with friends we hadn't seen in forever. The kids played together on the playground while the grown ups talked and laughed. We were there for hours. It was wonderful. We also ate at 2 of our favorite places. You can't beat great food. As we were driving home from our most excellent Saturday, as we got closer to home we noticed there had been a storm. There was flooding on the streets and you could tell that had been some strong wind. It was drizzling on us a bit. We got home and noticed the power had gone out. A couple of hours later the power went out again.

The next day we woke up and I looked out in the back yard and saw something horrible!

Do you see it?

We were missing something.

I looked to the left......nothing.

I looked all the way to the right.......nothing.

CRAP.

Cody got up a little while later and I said, "Go look outside"

He looked. "Where is it?"

I said, "No clue"

Cody went outside and looked around. He looked left....nothing.

He looked right.....nothing.

He looked UP! BINGO

FOUND IT! My kids are devastated. They loved their trampoline. Do you noticed how not only is it on the roof but that the frame was completely destroyed?! YUP! No fixing this puppy. What was worse is that after Tyler cried for a minute he said, "Now I'll have to wait until I go to grandma and grandpa's to jump on the trampoline." My parents JUST moved and no longer have a back yard. DOH! We explained that to him and he cried for a second again. Bummer.

So after some tears ( from both Tyler and Daddy ) Okay Daddy didn't really cry but he wanted to because he had the task of climbing on the roof and trying to get the dumb thing down. Everything on it was ruined. We loved you trampoline. May you now rest in pieces...literately.

Butterfly Purse

2011-08-05T13:38:00.000-07:00

Can I just tell you how happy it makes me when I ACTUALLY get some crafting done when I haven't had time?! SOOOOOO happy. My sister was here visiting so I wasn't crafting at all and then my house was a mess. I got it almost cleaned and then decided it didn't matter any more because if I didn't sew SOMETHING I was going to go crazy. Does anyone else ever feel that way?

Any ways. I saw a purse at a boutique in Utah while I was there and thought it was really cute. They wanted 18 dollars for it though and it didn't even have interfacing in it and the handles were made out of ribbon. Hmmmmm. I didn't think it was worth 18 dollars for those two reason but it was such a cute girly purse. I quickly clicked a picture with my cell phone and knew I would have to try it. I went ahead and didn't do interfacing either and made the handles out of the ribbon. It's perfect for a little girl who is going to just put little toys and things in it. Here is how it turned out

I love the fabric! I got it as a fat quarter for 99 cent when I was in Utah. I also got the inside fabric at the same price. So basically it cost me maybe 5 bucks to make and didn't take that long. It took maybe 2 hours and that was because I took pictures along the way so that come Monday I should have a tutorial up! WOO HOO I have been wanting to do a tutorial again. So there you have it. Monday or Tuesday I should have the tutorial up and just so you know it takes less then two fat quarters for the out side and inside and then scrap fabric to make the lady bug. Fat quarters are on SALE at Joann's right now for 99 cents! Go grab a couple and come back Monday so you can make your own. I am hoping to have some different animals too. I REALLY want to do an owl or a butterfly. Here's hoping I have time!

Thankful Thursdays

2011-08-04T21:09:00.000-07:00

I am SO thankful that my sister was able to adopt this cutie pie!

Seriously could he be any cuter? I think not!

Recycled Flowers

2011-07-27T16:19:00.000-07:00

I saw this project in a magazine cut out my sister had in her special folder she made. She had all sorts of fun and cool ideas, projects and things she wants all cut out of magazines and neatly placed in a three ring binder.

Yeah...I'm not that organized but I am glad SHE is. While I was in Utah she got it out and I flipped through it.

So here is my version of what I saw. I took a penny saver ( whatever kind of paper you want. Book pages, newspaper, ads...whatever ) And I LOVE that I used the penny saver because we just throw it right in the recycling bin pretty much every single week. Makes me so happy to repurpose these!

Let's get started!

Ripped out some pages from whatever source you are going to use. Take some water and some water color paints and paint the heck out of your pages.

I tried a couple of different things here. Here I painted the paper. I also tried coloring the water and the crinkling up the paper and sticking it in the water. Both work. You have to have the water REALLy dark with the color though. I let that dry. Do both sides because you will be seeing both sides of the paper when it is all said and done.

Next I took some of this fabulous stuff

And I added it to some water ( I didn't want it to stiffen the paper TOO much! ) and coated the paper AGAIN! Let it dry and then crinkle the paper.

Next you can do TWO different things. I tried both and I am not sure which one I like better.

The first thing you can do is CUT petals out of your paper.

OR

You can rip petals out of your paper. I like the look of both so try out both and see which one floats your boat!

Next you want to take a smaller petal and glue it to the center. In the picture you see regular glue BUT I ended up using the glue gun and it worked SOOOO much better because it dried instantly. Just be aware that paper is THIN and you will probably burn yourself at least once. I kept putting my finger under the paper and then pressing directly onto the glue gun. DUH! haha When I use ribbon or fabric it's usually thick enough to not burn.

I found this floral wire at the dollar store and thought it would work perfect! They had many different colors and any color would have looked great.

Put some glue on the wire and then roll the paper around it.

It should look something like this. Then just start glueing all of the petals on. I try and go from one side to the other to fill in all of the spots.

Once you get it looking good, try bending the petals out a bit so it doesn't look flat.

At this point I wanted them to stay like they were and so I wanted to add a top coat. I have this

I took my flowers out side and sprayed the heck out of them using both. I found the results looked pretty much the same. Neither of them looked shinny to me but I love how they brightened up the color and made it a deeper shade.

Then I had a little too much fun taking some pictures of them

So go make some flowers. The nice thing about these is your kids could help you make them. They take a while only because they need to dry in between coats but other then the glue ( if you use hot glue ) your kids could help.

linking up to some parties

Something OTHER Then Hair Clip

2011-07-26T16:33:00.000-07:00

I swear I still do crafty things other then hair clips. It doesn't seem like it but I swear I do. Most of the time I do not end up finishing things which is why they don't get blogged about. While I was in Utah I bought a baby shoe pattern and I finally got around to doing it. The patter was way easy to follow and it didn't take too long to make these. It was a change from things being a trial run the first time. You have to remember I have been sewing for less then two years and everything I have learn has pretty much been from the internet. Sometimes that means messing things up while I try to figure them out. I am also stubborn so I often just try and make things without a pattern. Sometimes I have great success, and sometimes I fall flat on my face. The important thing is that I enjoy sewing and it makes me feel good to create things.

Anyways. Here are the shoes

The hardest part of the pattern was after they were done and I was trying to figure out how to decorate them. I finally settled on these flowers I bought a million years ago and never used. I almost put a red flower on top which I LOVE with the black and white but I decided the these flowers because I figured it would make it easier to go with most out fits. Hopefully they fit!

I have another project up my sleeve. It isn't done yet s just to give you a sneak peak it involves water colors, recycling and modge podge. You can't go wrong there right?!

Until then...I need to go finishing making my home made wheat bread for our grill cheese we are having for dinner! MMMMMMMM We LOVE making grill cheese on home made wheat bread around here.

Making

2011-07-25T19:19:00.000-07:00

I have been making flowers. I haven't really taken any pictures of them. I don't want everyone who actually reads this to get sick of them. Don't you hate that when someone blogs the same stuff every time. I feel like that has been me lately so I have been debating on not blogging at all or blogging the same three crafts. Hmmmmm

This weekend my in laws decided to come surprise us. It was lots of fun. My husband smoke us some ribs and brisket and I am telling you it was GOOOOOOD! And I don't even really like meat. I made some of the Brazilian Cheese Bread I blogged about. SO good you guys! If you have not tried the recipe yet I AM TELLING YOU DO IT! You will NOT be let down. My mother in law went home with the recipe and a bag of the tapioca flour so she could make some. :)

They came to church with us too. Church was really nice yesterday. One of the lessons we had was about how our most important calling in this life was that of a spouse and a parent. It hit home for me. Who cares what we do in this life we were terrible at raising our kids and were terrible at being a spouse!?! I mean, really. With that in mind, I have had a pretty good day with my kids. Things that normally would drive me crazy have not. I haven't yelled. I haven't ignored them so I could craft. In fact earlier today I had some craft I wanted to try and it just so happened to work out that Kayla could do it too even though it wasn't a kid craft. You'll see what I mean when I post it in a day or two. We sat at the table and painted together while my son was playing a computer game with us. It was nice. I REALLY don't want to be a failure as a mom. I want my kids to look back and cherish the times we spend together. I am working to improve myself all of the time. Today Tyler told me I was the best mom he ever had! haha It makes me laugh because of course I am the best he ever had because I am the only one he has ever had! But hey...I'll take it!

Here's a quick picture of a clip I just recently made. I love it

Maybe tomorrow I'll be back with something other then hair clips

Blue Eyes

2011-07-22T16:12:00.000-07:00

Remember how I told y'all I had a photo shoot this week with some cutie pies from church? Check out their gorgeous blue eyes!

Adorable right? If you want to see the rest of the pictures click here

Thankful Thursdays

2011-07-21T19:29:00.000-07:00

Today is thursday. I am thankful for a lot of things. Sometimes I just feel really lucky. I know I have already said I am thankful for my husband and so I am not saying that again, however I am SO thankful that my husband loves me today, just like he did ( well...probably better ) then he did at the beginning.

A friend and I were texting each other and he made mention something about another one of our friends not being attracted to me. I laughed and said, "I am perfectly okay with that because I was never attracted to him either." Then I went on to say that I was just thankful my husband loved me even though I am fatter, and get WAY crankier and I don't always clean the house and dinner is not always ready for him. I am SO thankful that I have a husband who is understanding. I am grateful I have a husband who no matter what I look like, he thinks I look beautiful. I will not have make up on, not showered in two days and be wearing some random outfit and he'll come home, kiss me and say, "You look really good today!" HAHA Sometimes I think he is mocking me but he isn't. He thinks I am wonderful no matter what and I am SO grateful for that.

So technically, I am grateful for my husband, AGAIN! But really I am grateful for a best friend who loves me no matter what.

Busy

2011-07-19T14:37:00.000-07:00

Sorry folks! I have been busy. It seems like I have been getting nothing done too which is frustrating. Partly because I spent time this weekend to make a baby sling for a friend and then work on my etsy shop. I listed 12 new things and with the listing everything comes taking pictures and taking the time to list it. I would say on average it takes 10 to 20 minutes for me to list one thing. So needless to say sometimes when I have things to list, nothing else gets done. My poor husband has been SOOOOO sun burnt too so I have spent lots of time rubbing him down with coconut oil ( which he says helps tremendously by the way! ) He laughs at all of my, "Well maybe you should rub "insert essential oil here" on it." Whenever something is wrong with him. THIS time however, he listened because he was in so much pain he was willing to try anything and what do you know IT WORKED! Little stinker. We used some avocado oil the last couple of days with the super dry, itchy, peeling skin and that seems to help a lot as well.

Any ways. Hopefully I'll get some stuff up here soon. I have been asked by a local vintage style shop in a town near me to start carrying some of my hair clips in their store. I was excited about this adventure but it means making a tons of stuff to put in there and I need to get it done ASAP. I also told the lady I would come take pictures of her shop for her to put on her facebook page and we are going to trade services! Trading is such a great way for two people to get what they want and to get their business out there. The shop opens up in a week or two so I have been going a little crazy the last day or two. Also, I am doing a photo shoot Wednesday for someone from my church. She has the CUTEST little girl and boy so I am SO excited to do those for her. I think they will turn out great. Here's hoping any ways. So I have LOTS of things going on and I just hope that over the next week or so I will have some time to blog about this and that! I have a Thankful Thursday post written in my head already so here's hoping that gets typed up sometime too! haha

Happy Tuesday everyone. I hope you are not as tired and crazy as I am. :)

Oh and my mom is a quilter. She does excellent work. She is going to start listing things on my etsy shop. I have listed the first of many quilts she is going to have me sell for her. Take a look if you are a quilter. The next one is going to be an adorable baby quilt and I can't wait for her to finish it up so I can list it because it REALLY is so darling!

Handmade gift exchange

2011-07-16T09:40:00.000-07:00

I know I have already talked about this but I got my present this week from the home made gift exchange. We were supposed to have them mailed out on the 24th of June. My partner had gotten hurt and spent some time in the hospital and then I left to go to Utah so I told her to just not worry about it and send it when I got back. She was also getting ready to leave to go to Utah as well. I got it in the mail Monday YIPEE! Here is a picture of what I got.

I told her I liked vintage stuff.

Love the black flower!

Perfect spot for one of my business cards! ;) haha Actually I wanted to use a picture of my husband and I but I couldn't find one at the time.

I didn't even tell her that I was a photographer and she put a camera on it! How perfect is that?! Now I just need to figure out where to put it.

My crafter was Dee from La-dee-da creations. She just opened up an etsy shop here and she is part of an organization in Arizona called love-create-shine-change Click on the link to see what it is about! Or just go check out her blog for all her crafty goodness! http://ladeedacreations.com/

THANKS AGAIN DEE

Seriously?

2011-07-15T21:21:00.000-07:00

I have MORE flowers to post on here tonight. I know what you are thinking. SERIOUSLY? Yes. Sorry it isn't something more exciting but I have NOT had much time this week to craft. My husband has been home on vacation so I didn't really have time to myself to do things like that. I did however, get to go to the town thrift store by myself for like 45 minutes during nap time on Wednesday. I SCORED! I got a couple of vintage ( or at least REALLY old ) pillow cases and I have started to turn them into some pillow case dresses for my daughter. The one I bought to actually turn into the pillow case dress I am having second thoughts on it now. I am thinking instead of maybe making me a skirt. We shall see. I also found a SUPER cute skirt for me in a size 18. I am not a size 18 however so I must take it in before I can wear it. Hopefully that doesn't take me TOO long to do. It's SO cute that I am hoping it helps motivate me enough tot get it done so I can wear it. I never seem to want to wear any of my dresses or skirts to church. I also bought a flat sheet and some other pillow cases, some AWESOME stretchy knit I am planning on making a skirt for me with ( it was 1 1/2 yards for only 1.50! ) a wallet, a leather ( well fake leather most likely ), 4 books for my kids and a basket to do new born pictures with and I got it ALL for 11 dollars. YYYYYYYESSSSSSS! ( said just like Napoleon Dynamite )

Any ways. Here are the flowers I made the other day using some tutorials I found in blog land.

The first one is kinda plain but I think I will add a leaf or two too it to add just a little something else. I tutorial I saw put some leaves off of the side and I didn't think it needed them until I tried it without.

I LOVE how this one turned out and it looks so hard but it really wasn't complicated at all. It didn't take that long either which is a plus for me. You do have to sew and some people don't like that but it was worth it in my opinion.

This one was EXTREMELY easy and yet looks so elegant if you use the right ribbon. I think I am going to be adding some tule, russian veiling and/or some feathers to it. It's super cute now as it is but some other stuff added might make it pretty darn cute too. And since my girl refuses to use clips or put anything at all in her hair I will most likely be putting these in the etsy shop. I have been thinking about doing another giveaway too so maybe I'll use some for that!

I hope everyone had a great Friday. I got to see two friends I haven't seen in forever and have lunch while the kids played. It was nice. That's twice in one week I got to hang out with old friends. Life doesn't get much better than that!!!

PS We also put in an offer on a house. Keep your fingers crossed for us. It is a short sale and they were asking more then what we offered. We are hoping they counter offer and don't just flat out tell us know. We'll see what happens. I'll keep y'all posted. EEEEEEE

Thankful Thursdays

2011-07-14T12:31:00.000-07:00

I am thankful for recipes! I would be SOOOOOO lost without recipes. I wouldn't know how to cook anything at all and I would be SO scared to try anything. Recipes get us familiar with what ingredients are good for certain things. For instance, who would have though that honey would be good for your skin? I would NEVER have thought, "Hmmmm I think if I rub sticky honey all over my face and then leave it there for a few minutes and wash it off....I bet it will make my skin nice and soft!"

Well, I got a recipe for YOU! I haven't tried it yet. I was cleaning just now and saw it and thought, "Oh yeah I forgot about this." I got it at church. The ladies had a spa night and this recipe was give to us along with a chocolate bar. Here are the ingredients

1/3 cup of cocoa
2 tablespoons of heavy whipping cream ( sour cream will work too! )
3 tablespoons of oatmeal powder ( I just throw oat meal in the food processor )

Preparation

Mix all the ingredients until the mask is consistent. Apply on the face, gently massaging it so that the oatmeal can start exfoliating the dead skin cell layers. Leave it on for about 15 to 20 minutes and then rinse off with lukewarm water. ENJOY YOUR SOFT FACE!

Do You Remember?

2011-07-14T07:52:00.000-07:00

Do you remember back in May or June when I blogged about a camera bag I REALLY wanted but they were out of stock in the color I wanted? WELL, they have the color in stock again! I have been debating on buying it or not. I HATE spending large amounts of money on one single item. Last month I bought my new backdrops and I haven't regretted that yet! I got great pictures of my sister and her little family. Check out my cute nephew

Here he is with his daddy sporting one of the bow ties I made him!

So I LOVE my backdrops! I haven't used all of them yet so I still need to get some bodies over to my house so I can try out some more. And now I am debating on buying the bag. BUT WAIT! Over at sew.craft.create. She is giving one of these camera bags away that I want! I am sure I will not win because I just am NOT That person who wins things ever BUT I am blogging about the giveaway any ways. Today is the last day to enter so go on over and enter because you never know when you might win something! And even if you don't win the blog itself is SUPER cute and you might get some new great ideas!

Since I am showing you pictures from my little photo shoot wanna see some more? Check out my cutie pie Kayla girl

And the BEST picture I could get of the two of them

And then my boy! The first picture I posed. THEN he decided to pose himself...

LOVE this one! haha

And if you knew my boy you would know him this picture describes him to a T!

Don't forget to go over to the giveaway and enter for your chance to win a camera bag!

Flower Obsession

2011-07-13T21:46:00.000-07:00

I have many obsessions. They come and go. Lately it has been making flowers. I saw a lady at a store in Utah and she was wearing a flower in her hair. I saw it and thought it was pretty cute. I KNEW I could make it myself and do you know what? I ACTUALLY DID! Too often I see something, take a picture of it with my camera or cell phone and then NEVER try it. This one was on my mind until I got home from my trip and I could try it. The first one turned out really big so I decided to make a smaller one in the same fabric. I think I am going to put them in my etsy shop and sell them as a Mother Daughter set or a Big Sister Little Sister set. Here is how they turned out!

Aren't they cute? I was thinking of doing a tutorial but I wasn't sure. They are pretty sell explanatory ( like I said, I just saw it on someone and then came home and did it like 4 days later. ) But sometimes I think things are easy because I am used to sewing and making things. Does anyone need instructions? If I get a couple of people who want directions I'll make up a tutorial for these next week.

So how has everyone's week been? I had a FABULOUS day today! I FINALLY got my California drivers license! WOO HOO So glad I do NOT have to worry about that any more. I also got to go to the community thrift store here by myself and I SCORED some awesome stuff! I'll take pictures and show y'all tomorrow. We also went and looked at some houses today and I fell in love with one. We are planning on putting in an offer and I can't wait. Hope y'all are having a great week too!

Did You Know

2011-07-10T10:02:00.000-07:00

Don't you HATE when you put something in a plastic container and you can't get all of the food out of it? I especially hate how when you put pasta in tupperware the food smell lingers for ever after wards. Well I just read an interesting tip. I have not tried it but I am sure it works wonders. Take your plastic container and open it up. Then take a newspaper and rip out one of the pages. Ball up the news paper and put it inside of the plastic container. Seal that puppy closed and leave over night. The next day the news paper will have absorbed that lingering food smell! WOO HOO I'm going to have to give this a try. Let me know how it goes if you try it. :)

Happy Sunday everyone!

Tiny Tutorial

2011-07-07T20:32:00.000-07:00

Before I left to go on vacation I made a headband for the person I got in the handmade gift exchange. Her name is Dee from La Dee Da Crafts . She said her favorite color was yellow and she loved head bands. I was already making bow ties and so I went ahead and used my Bow Tie Tutorial and made this headband for her

So do you want one? I know you do...okay so even if you said no here is a tutorial. I am not re-doing the bow tie tutorial so you'll have to follow that for the bow tie part. I am going to show you how I made the headband part. I was SOOOOOOO easy and looked really cute. Here's what you need.

You need some double fold bias tape and some elastic or a rubber.

Now measure your head where a head band would go. Most people will measure about 21 to 22 inches or so. Mine was some where in the middle. I went ahead and cut my bias tape at 17 inches. I did NOT fold under the raw edge so if you want to do this then you want to add an inch to your length and make it 18 inches. Going with the 17 inches, I cut my elastic 5 inches.

Fold open your bias tape and insert your elastic half an inch or so and fold over

I sewed this shut with a zig zag stitch several times. I did this to both sides. Make sure if you do not want the raw edge to fold it under before you sew it. Also, make sure to NOT twist the bias tape or the elastic when you are attaching it.

Next I sewed along the edges to close off the bias tape and to give it a cute accent. I used white to go along with my yellow and white theme.

Easy right?! I am sure everyone has bias tape they are never going to use just sitting around. If you don't have double fold, take single fold and just cut two of them and then lay them on top of each other. This would be JUST as easy. I think these turned out really cute so I might be making some of these for my etsy shop. We'll see. I always say I am going to do things and then don't follow through.

Want to see the purse I made to match the hair bow?

I wasn't sure if I liked the yellow flower or the white flower better so I made both. I put a brooch clip and an alligator clip on both so she can put them in her hair too! I hope she liked all of them. I think they turned out cute. I LOVED this yellow and white fabric. I don't wear bows in my hair but making this one made me want to start!

Vacation

2011-07-07T15:28:00.000-07:00

We got back from vacation yesterday evening. MAN was that a long day. I had a UTI and it meant basically needing to stop and use the bathroom pretty much every hour. I think it was more often then the time I was 8 months pregnant and drove from Utah to Texas. We also didn't have the kids DVD players. They both broke on the trip and so I was REALLY worried about that. The kids actually did pretty good. The last hour or so was painful but other then that it went well.

What is it about being home that is just so nice? The last couple of days we were in Alton Utah which is a small little town. I had forgotten my home made deodorant at my mom's so I bought a travel size stick at walmart and I have got to tell you it was horrible! I am NEVER going back to store bought deodorant again. My brand new white shirt after wearing it with the storte bought stuff had yellow arm pits by the end of the day. I wore a different brand new white shirt with my home made deodorant and it had no white pits at all. Hmmmmmmm

ANY WAYS. I have tons of pictures to go through and I'll pick some to post on here later. Since today is thursday I will give you something I am thankful for. NAPS! haha I am SOOOOOO thankful for naps. Naps for me and naps for my kids. We tried to go grocery shopping with super tired, cranky kids and it is a miracle we didn't kill one or both of them. My daughter has decided she likes to hit. WHERE do they learn this stuff?! My boy went through a hitting phase as this age too. Super frustrating. Any suggestion on how to deal with it? So far we have been doing time outs.

Everyone have a great Thursday and don't forget to think of something you are thankful for too!

Did You Know

2011-07-01T08:20:00.000-07:00

I'm starting something new on my blog called "Did You Know" These are all going to be really quick simple post that are about something simple. Usually a simple solution to a problem that everyone deals with at times. My first one for today is this, BEE STINGS.

I always did the baking soda and water. You make a paste and put it on the sting. Well, I just learned something new. You take an alka-seltzer tablet and moisten it slightly and then stick it straight on the sting. It contains baking soda which helps reduce inflammation and it contains asprin which relieves the pain. The fizzing allows for both of those two factors to travel beneath the skin providing immediate relief! Sweet right?! I need to get some alka-seltzer tablets for our car first aid kit. ( Note to self: get a car first aid kit! haha )

HELLO

2011-06-29T08:02:00.000-07:00

We are in Utah having a great time. I do not have internet on my lap top since I am not at home which means not much blogging for me since my pictures aren't on my moms lap top. BUT we are having a great time and enjoying soaking up some sun! So I don't neglect this blog for TOO long I have a simple and YUMMY recipe for all you folks who are grilling this summer. It's is stuffed Jalapenos. I have not tried them yet but my family raved about them. My sister Kim found the recipe. Here is what you need

1 lbs chorizo
10 big jalapenos
bacon
cheese

mix chorizo and a little bit of cheese. Cut jalapenos and de-seed them. Stuff with the chorizo and cheese mixture. Close the jalapeno up and wrap it with a piece of bacon and secure it together with a tooth pick. Next throw those puppies on the grill and enjoy! Like I said, I haven't tried them yet but my sister made them for my family one time and they LOVED them! I am hoping to make some when we get back to Cali! Enjoy your 4th of July and hopefully I'll be back in a couple of days to post some more.

HUGE

2011-06-22T21:35:00.000-07:00

My friend Amanda asked me if I would make her a HUGE purse for summer. How could I pass that one up?! I LOVE making purses and even more so, I love making them for friends. So we decided on colors, I bought some fabric and then got started. I think it turned out cute. Wanna see?

This first picture is to give you an idea about how big it is. That is my daughter in the chair next to the purse. You know, the purse that is practically the same size as her....yup, it's big! haha

A small pocket for cell phone, chap stick, keys....

3 gigantic pockets that go all the way across the other side for bottles, diapers, wipes.....

Aren't the ruffles pretty!? I have some more things that got crafted this week but they are for my home made gift exchange. I JUST mailed it off today so once she gets it I can post pictures I made a tutorial out of one of the things I sent her too so as soon as she gets it ( and I actually have internet ) I will be posting a quick, fun, EASY tutorial.

On a side note, because I am goign to Utah for two weeks I will NOT really have internet. I am freaking out a bit but it will be okay! ( at least that is what I keep telling myself. ) Normally I hook my lap top up to my phone but that is no longer an option since we started getting internet at our house. We turn off the wireless option on my phone. DOH! We'll see if I can get a blog or two in between now and when I get back. If not, have a great 4th of July and I'll see y'all when I get back!

Chocolate Cinnamon

2011-06-22T15:26:00.000-07:00

Doesn't that sound yummy? Chocolate cinnamon. Well, it at least sounds yummy to me! I FINALLY got around to using some of my empty chap stick tubes. I also finally used the deodorant tubes I bought! WOO HOO. I am leaving tomorrow to drive to Utah AGAIN. I have been promising my mom and dad some chocolate chap stick. This time I wanted one with some Bees Wax in it. I looked up some recipes and then adapted one for my liking. Here is what I did.

Chocolate Cinnamon Chap Stick

1 Tablespoon Cocoa Butter

1 Tablespoons Sweet Almond Oil

1 Tablespoon Avocado Oil

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

1 Tablespoon & 1 teaspoon Beeswax

5-7 drops Cinnamon essential oil

6 to 10 chocolate chips

I should have entered a drop or so of Vitamin E and I forgot! I think this is plenty good for your lips without it though.

Here's what you do. Bees wax takes a while to melt. You want to take the bees wax, cocoa butter, sweet almond oil, olive oil and avocado oil and melt them together. Do this either in 10 second increments in the microwave or use a double broiler. Once the bees wax is all melted into the other oils you want to add you essential oil. If using Cinnamon it is VERY strong. I only used about 4 or 5 drops but I could have used a couple of more. I would rather have too little then too much though. Then add some vitamin E if you would like. Stir in the chocolate chips until they melt. I used 6 of them and again you could use more. Whatever you would like. This is just to add some flavor and to add some color. Don't let it cool TOO long before pouring into whatever it is you have to hold it in. I used my empty chap stick tubes and it took up about 9 to 10 of them.

And here is the deodorant in their cute little roll up tubes

I can't WAIT to roll this on instead of using my finger! WOO WOO for all natural home made products that won't cause harm or cancer! YEAH BABY!

linking up to

Watcha Working With @ It's Toile Good

Confessions of a Pizza-holic!

2011-06-20T21:50:00.000-07:00

I LOVE pizza! Like.....LOOOOOOVE pizza. I could eat pizza everyday for a week if it was from a different place every time. I got really into making my own pizza about 2 years ago. For a long time I just used the same recipe over and over again. I didn't try anything new or play with it. I kinda get scared to experiment. Since we moved from Texas to California and I have no life ( no seriously haha ) I have taken up baking. I have baked and baked and BAKED since I moved. I am so glad I did not gain all the weight back that I have taken off since I had my last baby. It has been nice getting to know the kitchen better and trying new things AND experimenting! One thing I finally decide to mess around with was our pizza recipe.

Before moving onto my tips and tricks, I wanted to start off by telling y'all that I REALLY try to bake with whole wheat. My pizza recipe that I used called for half wheat flour and half white flour. I wanted to try and find one that was ALL wheat. It was nearly impossible. After discovering white wheat, which has been my savior in the kitchen, I usually use half white wheat and half wheat flour. For those of you who have no clue what white wheat is LOOK IT UP! You won't be sorry.

After many attempts at baking different kinds of pizza, my friend Sarah bought me a Whole Grain cook book for my birthday back in April. It has been wonderful. I have picked up a few things from it.

ONE- they have several different recipes for pizza dough. One thing I LOVED from one of the doughs was to add dry basil, dry oregano and some cayenne pepper to your flour mixture. Um can we say YUM! I have since started adding in some garlic powder too. Let me tell you this gives the dough a great flavor.

TWO- if you have cooked any kind of bread or rolls before you have been told to put a wet tea towel over the dough while it rises. I have done it a thousand times. My cook book says it used plastic wrap instead and I have to tell you that every since I started doing that my dough rises better and faster. SCORE!

THREE- Before I roll out my dough I put down a layer of Semolina Flour on the baking sheet or pizza pan. This makes the pizza crust, well CRUSTY! I LOVE this. The first time I did it I hadn't realized my pizza wasn't crispy before. Now I do this and my pizza is wonderfully crusty on the outside but still extra soft on the inside. You can also use corn meal but I like the semolina flour because it's more like really soft sand and isn't as corse ( in my opinion any ways )

FOUR- I roll my pizza out, poke it with holes with a folk so it doesn't get huge air bubbles in it and then I rub some olive oil on it to crisp it up. Then I put it in the oven at about 400 degrees for 5 to 6 minutes. This helps the dough cook up all the way. The thing with pizza is the toppings don't really need to "cook" and cheese does not take long to melt. Sometimes I need my crust to cook longer then planned and the mozzarella ends up burning a little. So take your time cooking the dough before topping it.

FIVE- pull it out of the oven and put on your toppings. I like to put down cheese then toppings, then sprinkle more cheese on. I also like to use lots of different kinds. Lately I have been into putting on provolone, then mozzarella, then some pepperoni and olives ( or Jalapenos ) and then a little cheddar and Parmesan. I don't used powdered Parmesan either. I can't STAND the smell of it. I use fresh kind. Put it in the over for another 8 to 10 minutes or until everything is nice and brown.

SIX- I pull the pizza out and immediately I spread melted butter on the crust and then rub some garlic on it. It makes it SOOOOOOOO good.

Here is a recipe I have found that I love. I have added some things to it but for the most part it was perfect the way I found it. Try it and use my six steps and you will NOT be sorry! Oh and of course ENJOY!

Pizza Dough

1tsp white sugar
1 Tbsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water ( not too hot or you will de-activate the yeast! )
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup white wheat flour
1/2 tsp dry oregano
1/2 tsp dry basil
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder ( or garlic salt )

dissolve sugar in warm water. Add yeast and let rise for about 10 minutes until nice and foamy.
Stir in olive oil and salt into yeast mixture and then add wheat flour and half of white wheat flour. Also add basil, oregano, cayenne pepper and garlic powder. Mix until the dough seems to be together. Add as much remaining flour as you can. If dough seems SUPER sticky, add more. Dough should be soft and not overly dry. Use dough hook on mixer or knead the dough by hand on a lightly floured surface. Place dough in an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise one hour or until dough has doubled.

Now here is where you can do two things. One you can roll out the dough now on a layer of semolina flour on a cookie sheet or pizza pan ready to cook. OR you can let it rise a second time. It depends on my mood and how much time I have. Usually I don't let it rise again. This dough is pretty thick so I spread it out pretty thing because it expands even more when you cook it.

Now you just need to follow steps four, five and six and you are good to go! I usually set my oven to 400 and cook the first time about 7 minutes and the second time 8 to 10 minutes. I used to have my oven set at 500 but found that the inside of the dough wouldn't cook all the way.

Let me know if anyone tries this. I cooked it tonight and it was excellent. Sorry I didn't take a picture of the finished product but take my word for it, it was YUMMY! I love this too because for the most part it is pretty healthy. You are getting lots of fiber and depending on your toppings this can be a great source for some veggies.

One thing I didn't talk about was sauce. I make mine. Again this depends on my mood. USUALLY I take a can of organic Italian style tomatoes and throw them in my food processor with a small can of tomato sauce, some garlic and some olive oil. If you only have a regular can of tomatoes, then just throw in some dry basil and oregano in place of the "italian style" tomatoes. It's pretty much the same thing. Then I blend it until smooth but I know some people like chunky sauce so just do what you like. This is a pretty sweat tasting sauce. If you want it to taste more like a pasty sauce like you would get from Pizza Hut, then don't use can tomatoes and just use tomato sauce, basil, oregano and some garlic. Both are delicious. In fact the first sauce I gave you directions for is what I use when making any kind of pasta. We love it!

One last thing, ENJOY YOUR PIZZA! I know we do.

Linking up to Tuesdays at the Table

A Few Projects

2011-06-19T08:45:00.000-07:00

I have had some sewing projects this week. Sometime I have crazy weeks for no reason. Sometimes I have a lot of sewing I have to do. Sometimes the house is a MESS and someone is coming and I have to clean. This week my house wasn't too dirty but we were having people over for dinner Tuesday so I did need to clean some. Mainly the kitchen. I HATE doing the dishes so often they pile up. Ours were piled up.

I got our house cleaned and a couple of small projects done early in the week. I FINALLY got my other flowers sewn on the purse I made myself. I had decided on the three flowers a while ago but then just kept putting off actually sewing them on. I like to sew the flowers and not glue them. Especially when it was going on a purse I sewed. It takes longer but sometimes it is worth it.

I'm babbling, I know. Here are some of the things I can show you that I worked on.

First I got a custom order for someone on etsy again. She wanted a garter set for her wedding. She wanted them really simple and she wanted her future husband's name on a charm hanging from it. Here is what I made

Then I had been asked from someone at church to make her daughter a scripture case. Not sure if you remember the auction I talked about having at church a couple of months ago. I had made a scripture case for it and two different girls tried to win it. The one who didn't win asked me to make her one EXACTLY like the one the other girl won. I know how girls can be, especially young girls. I didn't want to do it exactly the same just in case the other girl got upset. SOOOO I made the case the same but changed the flower on it.

I made the flower so it can come off and I put an alligator clip on it so she could put it in her hair if she wanted!

Do you see the perfect pink felt circle on the back of the flower pin? I found them on etsy and I LOVE them. YOu get 10 of the circles and they are self adhesive for only $1.99. The store is called Bitsy Bands. Click on the link if you want to check out their store. LOTS of good supplies for really cheap there. I bought like 5 or 6 things from them and with shipping I only spent 11 dollars! Score.

The other thing I can actually show you is this bow tie I made someone at church.

I LOVE this bow tie. I bought a fat quarter at JoAnn's when they were on sale and I KNEW I wanted to make a bow tie. There is this cute boy at church who is 7 to 9 months old. Not sure exactly and I don't even know his name. I know his mom and in a couple of weeks I am going to be taking pictures of her kids. I seriously CAN'T wait!

The other things I sewed this week were for my home made gift exchange. I can't wait to send her stuff on Monday and for her to get them so I can show you the fun stuff I am sending her. It was fun making stuff for someone you don't know.

Happy Sunday everyone. I hope you had time for all of your projects. I have a list a mile long and I am leaving Thursday for Utah so I have limited time to do it. Let's hope I can manage my time good!

Added

2011-06-15T07:59:00.000-07:00

I forgot to add to my last post about smoothies that sometimes I put some coconut oil in my smoothie! haha The first time I did it I didn't like it at first. By the end of the smoothie I was used to it and thought it was pretty yummy! Don't forget coconut oil is safe to have a table spoon or two a day! So why not consume it in a yummy smoothie!

Have a fabulous Wednesday!

Smoothies

2011-06-14T22:04:00.000-07:00

My baby girl and I have been enjoying fruit smoothies for breakfast in the morning. When I say smoothie I really mean HEALTHY smoothie. Not all smoothies are that healthy! I used to think I was making healthy ones because I used low fat non fat ICE CREAM and apple juice! YIKES! Now I REALLY make HEALTHY ones.

This mornings smoothie was
5 strawberries
10 blue berries
5 raspberries
a hand full of spinach leaves
about 3 or 4 baby carrots.

Sounds really weird right? Carrots and spinach throwing you off? Let me tell you, they cut out all of the sweetness of the fruit. I added a little bit of water too. Sometimes I add flax seed. If I add flax seed I try and drink it all. The flax seed blows up if you freeze it and then defrost it. :) Sometimes I also add low fat plain yogurt.

Sometimes I also add bananas, oranges, peaches and apples. I HEARD broccoli doesn't leave a taste in the smoothie either but I haven't tried it yet. I SWEAR to you you can NOT taste the carrot or the spinach. Try it.

My daughter LOVES sharing these with me. She says, "I want fruit momma!"

This is right after she enjoyed the one from this morning. Can't argue with that face! Enjoy

Update

2011-06-13T21:22:00.000-07:00

Two things: ONE I made a video tutorial for my ribbon flower. I tried uploading it through blogger but it's too big. This means I am going to have to try and upload it on You Tube, which I have never done. In other words, it is going to be a few more days because tomorrow and Wednesday and going to be busy for me. Possibly Wednesday afternoon I can get it done.

Second: I updated my steering wheel cover for my car! Last year I made a super boring one and the fabric I used slipped so it would drive me crazy when I drove. It was also slightly too long and hung down on the sides further then I would have liked it. Well, today I used my own tutorial ( is that lame that I seriously looked up my OWN tutorial and then used it? ) With those things in mind, I used flannel and made the sides half an inch smaller around and it worked perfect! Now, I didn't drive with it yet today but when I tested it out it seemed to not be slipping at all. So here it is

Isn't it cute? I love my fabric!!! Now, this will have to be taken off every time my husband drives but it will be so worth it. And even though I am NOT a pink person, this was too cute to pass up. I do link PINK and BLACK together so it's all good.

So here is the tutorial if you want to try and make one yourself HERE

And hopefully in a day or two I will have the video up for y'all, which I felt totally retarded making by the way! haha People who make those things regularly have to be so confident.

Tomorrow I am going to the post office to pick up a package that arrived for me so I'll let you know how the steering wheel. Do you know what my package is? I ordered 4 backdrops from someone on etsy for when I do my photography! I am SO excited about them too. I can't WAIT to get some people here to take pictures of now. If only I could persuade someone to come....

PS I made other things today that are either not done or part of my home made gift exchange so I CAN'T show them on here yet. Not until my person gets it in the mail. I can't wait to be able to post pictures.

Subway Art

2011-06-11T10:19:00.000-07:00

Subway art is SOOOOO popular right now! I love the graphics involved. I love putting words on pictures. If you have followed my blog for a while you know I have a printer that prints on canvas and it prints HUGE! I LOVE IT! I have pictures of my kids with a famous religious song on them. My son's picture has the first verse of the Mormon primary song, "I AM A Child Of God." and then my girls picture has the Chorus of that song on it and I hung them right next to each other. I love them and I always get compliments when people come over to my house.

Well, last week I was looking through all of the people who linked up projects over at Sew Much Ado . I saw this

SUBWAY ART

And I really liked how it had the red hearts mixed with the black wording. I have been wanting to try one of these. Later on that day was church. I was sitting during the last hour listening to this wonderful lesson about how we must make Christ the center of our families and something clicked! Before I went to bed that night I went to Pic Nik.com and started working on my own. I made the word CHRIST the center of the collage and then tried to do anything pertaining to family all around it. Funny thing is, it looks A LOT like the collage I had found. Apparently she made it at Pic nik too because the hearts are exactly the same.

ANY WAYS. I printed it out and was going to frame it. I got a couple of frames out and it was too big for ALL of the 8X10 frames I had. Isn't it frustrating that most frames that say 8X10 are actually a little smaller?! SOOOOO I am going to have to find another frame but until then here is he collage I made

Hopefully I can find a frame so I don't have to try and shrink it slightly. What a pain that will be! :)

Oh and just so I don't seem like a COMPLETE copy cat I didn't steal her words. Even the XOXO I swear I used for a reason. I signed pretty much every letter, email anything with XOXO so I swear it was ME. haha Enjoy your Saturday Y'all!

Dryer Sheets

2011-06-09T22:05:00.000-07:00

So who here hates throwing away dryer sheets? I feel like a horrible person every time I do. Why? Because it seems like SUCH a waste. I mean you use it once, twice MAYBE three times and then you throw it away. Back in April I started to collect mine. I had something in mind for mine to do for Green Month. They take a while to collect a bunch. I have actually meant to do this a WHILE ago but have been lazy. Not sure why either since this took me literately 5 minutes to do and that was mostly because I had to take pictures for y'all to see.

So here is my stack of sheets

First let me back up and tell you what problem we are taking on. I have a garage where my laundry is. We live in a golf course community and so we are part of an association. This means rules. One of the rules are that our trash cans have to be so far away from our front door. To solve this problem we keep our trash cans in the garage. PROBLEM being I still have a baby in diapers and we don't use cloth. Boooo for us not using cloth ( I know shame on me ). As most of you know, it's getting HOT. This basically cooks the poop smell and it is overwhelming as soon as you open the door. GROSS! Makes me not want to do laundry and I already hated doing that. SOOOO here is what I decided to do.

Take your stack of dryer sheets and grab them right in the middle.

Now take some string, thread, yarn, ribbon or in my case a cute shoe lace and tie it around the middle. Like so

Next, take all of the sheets and spread them around. Try and make it cute and as much like a ball as you can.

Next I opened up my essential oils

And I decided on Cinnamon but the Rosemary would have been a good choice too.

Sprinkle some on and then kinda scrunch it around a little.

Find a spot to hang it up!

Did it work? Um, YEAH! My husband went to the garage to throw something away and he said, "Why does it smell like cinnamon?" I made a face and then showed it to him and told him what I did. I expected a weird look from him but not so. It was down with the garage smelling like cinnamon instead of poop! haha I am down with it too. I loved that I killed two birds with one stone!

I am linking up to

Thankful Thursday

2011-06-09T12:41:00.000-07:00

Last week my family was on vacation at Disneyland so I didn't get to do my thankful Thursday ( and only on the second week! sheesh! ) So this week I guess I should do TWO things I am thankful for on this lovely Thursday afternoon.

ONE, I am thankful for my beliefs. Whether that be spiritual, political, economical WHATEVER they may be. I am thankful I have my own opinions and they someone doesn't have to GIVE them too me. My husband and I were watching a movie last night and he had an entirely different view on it then I did. That's okay. if we all thought the same how boring would that make us all!?

TWO, I am thankful for my son, Tyler. He is super smart and sometimes that makes it hard to be around him all of the time. He talks NON-STOP! Lately that has been driving me up the wall. He literately thinks he HAS to be talking and when we ask him to be quiet and eat, brush teeth, go to the bathroom; whatever it may be, he says, "But I just can't help it" He has SOOOO much going on in his head and I will be SO grateful when he starts kindergarten in September. He NEEDS it so bad and I need it so bad too. But for now, I am thankful for him and his sweet spirit. He really is a joy to have, even if sometimes I want to rip my hair out. I LOVE HIM! And I am thankful he is so smart. It gets me off of the hook a lot when doing things like reading and playing games, but it makes things harder because he WANTS to understand how everything works and sometimes there is just NO WAY of teaching a 5 year old somethings.

So what are you thankful for this week?

SUPER!

2011-06-08T19:40:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I was looking for fabric flower tutorials and came across the best blog ever as far as hair bows goes. I FELL IN LOVE! I went through this blog off and on for over 2 hours during nap time and while my kids were playing. SOOOOO much good stuff on there if you like to make hair things and lovely fabric flowers like me! Go check them out. I just entered there link party here

Or you can go to their main blog page by clicking HERE Seriously AWESOME!

On a side note, do you remember that custom piece I said I did for someone's wedding on my etsy?!

Well, she got it in the mail, loved it and asked me if I could make her a garter to match. I think it turned out really cute!

The S+D is her and her soon to be husband's initials. I love it!

Ribbon Flower Tutorial

2011-06-08T08:09:00.000-07:00

I have searched ALLLLLLLL over the internet at fabric flower tutorials. SERIOUSLY. I have looked at so many that they pretty much just all run together and when I go to make something, who knows whats going to come out of it. It's fun to see what other people come up with. Sometimes I hate something, yet they have a thousand comments telling them how wonderful it looks. Other times I fall in love with something and no one has commented at all. That is what is so awesome about the craft world. YOu don't have to like everything!

I search etsy a lot too! Not for tutorials, but for cute hair things I really like. Then I will recreate it and try and add a little bit of a spin on it. Sometimes though, I see something and think, "How did they do that?" That is when I search for tutorials on line. There are some I simply just can't find. Or someone wants you to pay for them. I'm cheap guys. I don't like paying for instructions. So there I was staring a a picture of a flower and something clicked. So I tried it and even though it wasn't exactly what the picture looked like, it was pretty darn close. So here is my little tutorial on how to make one of these satin ribbon roses with your own two little hands and a needle and thread.

SUPPLIES
Ribbon ( I used 1 1/2 inch hot pink satin )
needle
thread

First things first you want to take your ribbon and hold it near the end and then create a fold.

See how creating the little fold makes the ribbon cup up on the sides? This is what we want to do. Here is the underside

Now you want to take that needle and thread and make a stitch or two here to hold it together.

Now you want to make another tuck

And another stitch

See how this is forming the walls of the flower now? Keep tucking and stitching. I don't stitch EVERY tuck. But the first 2 or 3 I do. Remember that you want to keep in mind how big you want you flower. I make this outsider circle as big as you want the flower to be or as little as you want the flower to be.

Here a tuck, there a tuck, every where a tuck tuck...and some stitches

Notice now that I have 5 or 6 tucks I have created more walls to my flower. You want to keep making the walls smaller which means making the tucks bigger AND making sure that before you stitch the tuck is making the shape that gives you the wall and not doing something else. Sometimes, I had to retuck ad then stitch.

Eventually you will start to run out of space. This is where you can cut the ribbon and start to make your middle. I kinda scrunched my ribbon up to my liking and then stitched again.

Isn't it pretty?! I love how they come out. My suggestion is the first time you make one don't stitch at all. Just get a feel for how to do it. Then un do everything and then try again and then stitch. I always do this the first time I try something. This way if I screw up, it's not permeant.

Now you need to do decide what to do with your center. I wanted the center to be hallow so I could attach a huge vintage inspired button that I got at JoAnn's the other day.

My second one I started the outside out smaller. I ended up with a bunch of ribbon that I didn't want to cut off so I scrunched it up cute and sewed it down. Then I added some fake pearls to the center. I love this one too.

I havent' finished the one with the pearls but for the other one I added some russian veiling, guinea feathers and a green felt leaf. I then added it to a elastic headband for a tiny baby. Ain't it cute?

So now go and create! If you have any questions just let me know but it is seriously simple once you try it once or twice. Remember just tuck and stitch. You can't go wrong.

Linking up to some parties

Trendy TreehouseShow and Share @ Just a girlblue cricket design

I-Spy

2011-06-07T21:33:00.000-07:00

How many of you guys out there are into the I-spy quilts? If so I have something for y'all. My friend over at Mrs. Sassy Crafter she is doing an I-spy swap. So if you wanna swap some fabric here's the LINK

Go check it out. If you aren't into I-spy quilts, go check out her blog any ways! Lots of good stuff over there. :)

I'll be back in the morning with a tutorial for y'all!

In The Works

2011-06-07T08:01:00.000-07:00

I have a very easy tutorial in the works. I am hoping to have it up tomorrow. I already took all of the pictures but now I have to shrink them and save them all to my lap top. Sometimes that takes forever. Here is what I will be showing you how to make.

I have searched and searched and searched for fabric flower tutorials. There are some flowers people make and sell that I just couldn't figure out how to make. I was staring at flower someone made one time and something clicked. I couldn't find a tutorial any where I looked ( I am sure there is one SOMEWHERE but I couldn't find one! ) So, I got out my camera, some ribbon, a needle and thread and went to town. I think they turned out super cute and they are actually really easy. So stay tuned until then.

I am off to run errands.

My Dear Crafters

2011-06-06T10:47:00.000-07:00

My dear Crafters....I am in need of some advice AGAIN! This is one of the things that is so wonderful about a blog. I can ask a wide variety of people a questions and hopefully get some opinions on something. I made me a new purse and I love how cute it turned out! I was in a hurry when I made it and ran out of time to finish it the way I wanted it to be. Here is what I got NOW

I love the little band that goes across the top and ties on the side. I wanted to accent it more so I put the flower on it. My original plan was to do this to it

I wanted to do the 3 flowers on ONE side only of my purse. Once I got the one flower on and ran out of time to do the others I thought I liked that better any ways. I was staring at it during church yesterday and now I am thinking the three flowers will look better. So what do you guys think? Should I leave it as it is with just one flower in the center? Should I leave the one flower and do a matching on on the other side of the purse so they match? OR should I do the 3 flowers on the one side and leave the other side blank? I really don't want to do 3 flowers on each side. I think that would just be WAAAAAY too much girlness for me to handle. But I do love the three on the one side. So I need opinions please. All comments are greatly appreciated it so help a sista out and leave me your comment! THANKS EVERYONE. I am linking up to some other blogs!

SCORE

2011-06-06T09:30:00.000-07:00

So did anyone else venture to JoAnn's on Memorial day for their sale? Actually it was the whole weekend. I begged my husband to drive me since I still hadn't gotten my license in the mail yet. He was nice and drove me and dropped me off and then took the kids to Target. I got there at 9:05 and they opened at 9. I was expecting a crowd and the store was actually pretty empty. It was AWESOME. They were having a sale on Simplicity patterns. 5 patterns for 5 dollars. I grabbed 5 of those and then some interfacing, some very pretty buttons, some elastic, a bow, some parchment paper and a couple of fat quarters. My receipt said I paid 29.70 ( with taxes ) and I saved 93.50! SCORE!!!!! Mainly because the cheapest pattern was 14 dollars and the most expensive one was 16. The buttons I bought were all expensive too and they were on sale for 50 % off so I got a really good price on those too. Then I had a 15 or 20% off off my whole order plus a 50% off coupon for any regular priced item. I was giddy all day long! :) Here is a picture of my loot

I can't wait to get started on something. I already used the interfacing for my new purse. I will post pictures of that later on this afternoon. In the meantime, I am going to get some cleaning done and a few hair things for my etsy shop. I also need to run some errands and I am so happy to report my license came in the mail Tuesday! WOO HOO It was kinda funny actually because I almost cut off a cop car on my way to the post office. I was a little freaked out. I got to the post office, opened up our PO BOX and there it was. THANK GOODNESS! haha

Baking Soda Face Wash

2011-06-04T10:50:00.000-07:00

We are back from Disneyland and every single muscle in my body hurts! Two days in a row was rough but the third day was torture on my body. Especially since the kids were so tired too and wanted to be carried ALL the time. We gave away our stroller when we moved so we didn't have one. FINALLY half way through day 2 we couldn't take it and went to rent one from the park. We ended up getting two and Tyler actually sat in one the rest of day two. Day three we only got one and then they kept fighting over it. FINALLY we put Tyler in it and Kayla on his lap. Worked much better and they looked so cute.

Any ways. BEfore I left I was going to do another post about baking soda and didn't have time. I was going to tell y'all two things.

ONE- if you are too scared to try the baking soda in your hair as shampoo but like the idea of it stripping all of the waxes and crap shampoo leaves behind on your hair you can just add some baking soda to your shampoo and it helps strip everything out. I had read this and my sister reminded me of it the other day. This is what she does now. She likes it a lot.

TWO- need a simple and CHEAP way to wash your face? Wet your face with warm water and then take some baking soda and make a wet paste in your hand. Rub it all over your face. It gently exfoliates which we all need and cleans at the same time. Rinse off with warm water and enjoy your soft face. So easy and so cheap! Also, don't worry about it getting in your hair! Last night I washed my face with baking soda before I jumped in the shower and rubbed my hands on my head after I washed my face. Then I just got in the shower and washed my hair any ways. If you wash your hair with baking soda any ways, you're just getting a head start!

So I might not be on here much this week. I have some new projects ( like the purse I made before I went on vacation ) but as far as new projects go they might have to wait a week or two. If I don't get caught up on my family blog I might have to scream! :)

Gift Exchange

2011-05-31T08:28:00.000-07:00

I am so excited! I signed up for the Craftaholics Anonymous Gift Exchange I have always wanted to do one and the one time I did the art exchange I never received anything in the mail. It was still a good experience though. I am hoping this one will be much better! I can't wait to see who I get and be able to make something cute for them. YEAH! And if you want to participate click on the link above and read all the rule. Then sign up! I don't know why I am sitting here surfing the internet because I have a MILLION things to do today! I mean seriously. Between now and around 1 o'clock tomorrow I have to pack all of us for our 3 day trip to Disneyland, make a purse, fix a repurposing I started I plan on wearing Thursday, do some laundry, try and finish cleaning my kitchen ( YIKES! ), go to the post office and mail my latest etsy sale and put my etsy site on vacation! When we get back later this weekend and take my site off of vacation mode, I will be adding some new things! WOO HOO I can't wait. Adding things is so annoying but exciting at the same time.

Well....I guess I REALLY need to get off of my butt and get going. Sometime today I plan on writing a post. I have a great beauty tip for y'all thanks to my sister Kim. Happy Tuesday everyone ( I totally wrote Monday and then realized I lost that day yesterday! ) haha

Miracle Stain Remover!

2011-05-30T12:45:00.000-07:00

So when I was talking about doing green month I asked if anyone had any suggestions. I got one and dumb old me didn't even do it. Sometime I get overwhelmed and sometimes I just don't follow through. This time it was both. The suggested given me was an all natural stain remover. Well, I just happen to try one yesterday and it worked AMAZINGLY well. Want to know my secret? Vinegar. Yup that's it. We went to church and Kayla was wearing a flower dress with light colors. The nursery leader was running late and so someone who didn't know the rules was helping out. They brought RED punch into the nursery. Of COURSE someone spilled and of COURSE Kayla sat in it! BOOOOOOOO I was a little sad but then I figured this was my chance to find a GREEN cleaner. I looked it up in a book I have that I bought on sale for 5 dollars and Barns and Noble. It is called GREEN CLEANING ad it is all using white vinegar, baking soda, lemon juice, tea tree oil or borax. AWESOME. I haven't even read half of the book yet and learned so much. So I whipped out the book and looked up under vinegar something to get our berries or fruit. I figured that was the closest thing to red punch. It said to soak the stain the straight vinegar. So I did. For about 3 or 4 hours and then rinsed it out in the sink and hung it dry. There is absolutely NO evidence that there was ever a stain. Freaking awesome. So next time you think something is ruin by red punch or fruit ( I cut fruit a lot! ) then have no fear! Get out your white vinegar and clean away. HAPPY CLEANING!

Flower CRAZY

2011-05-29T09:59:00.000-07:00

This weekend I went flower crazy. I have issues....I find something I like and then get really into it and neglect all other things. A couple of days before this was the sun glasses case. I was SUPPOSED to make some bow ties this week and never got around to it. Boooooo. Check out my craziness

Like I said CRAZY!

While making flowers I found these I bought like 5 months ago and then didn't do anything with.

I bought some in a couple of different colors and kinda made a head band and then forgot about them. SO some hair accessories are being made now.

Then I made another one of these but with some recycled satin and some feathers. I love the frayed edge look. It's so fun!

And now I must get in the shower. I would say I was listing all of this flower craziness in my etsy shop today BUT I remembered later yesterday that we are going on vacation this week and so I will have to close the shop for a few days. This means less work for me for the week but more work for next week. That's okay. I REALLy want to have more stuff in my shop and start selling more regularly. I sold 3 things this week but hadn't sold anything for almost 2 weeks before that. Hmmmmm

Have a great Memorial Day everyone! I am heading to JoAnn's to fight all the crazies who are going for their big sale. I NEED interfacing for a purse I ammaking me for our vacation so I MUST go. Cross your fingers I come out alive! Those crafty, sewing women are CRAZY! haha

TV Show's

2011-05-27T12:25:00.000-07:00

I need some help! I have been doing really good working out as much as I can. The problem is we do not have a TV in our bedroom and that is where our elliptical is. What I have been doing is dragging my lap top into the bedroom and then watching a season I got from Netflix on there. I was watching The Good Wife season one and I just finished it! I love that show. But I already watched season 2 on TV. I am looking for some good ones to work out too. I like the one hour shows better but if it's a 30 minute show that's okay too. Have any suggestions? It can be old or new, I don't care. I just need to keep up with my working out and when I have nothing to watch I get lazy and don't do it. Any ideas would be great! THANKS! Have a happy weekend Y'all!!

Thankful Thursday

2011-05-26T16:28:00.000-07:00

I am going to TRY and start something new on my blog. I am going to try and write something I am thankful for every Thursday. Someone I know used to do this on their blog a while ago and recently I was thinking about it. SO going along with the post I wrote yesterday about marriage, I am thankful for my HUSBAND! Not only does he not complain EVER that the house is a mess or I didn't do his laundry or make him something for dinner other then pizza, he also ALWAYS asks my permission before spending money ALWAYS. We had been talking about getting a grill. We use a small Gorge Forman grill and it has seen better days. Here we have a little cement patio in the back and so we knew we wanted to get one with some of our tax return money. Well, the tax return money kinda went to a bunch of other things and we didn't get one. My husband has been eyeing some on line. He has been wanting to learn how to smoke. He told his mom he wanted to learn how to smoke and she looked at him like he was crazy! Then he explained that he meant MEAT and she laughed. SOOOOOO after looking for a couple of months and not buying anything he finally decided to buy one. Then he kept NOT DOING IT! haha I guess he is like me sometimes about spending money. One night he had told me he was going to order it and I said "Go for it!" Then next day I get a phone call from him. He says, "I just wanted to be sure it was okay with you if I bought the grill?" Um...didn't I already say yes?! haha Then he started to tell me he was going to use mostly amazon gift cards he had from one of his credit cards ( cash back for buying certain items ) and I just laughed at him. I begged him to buy it and leave me alone. He did, and I was SO happy he did. I am SOOOOOOOO grateful for a husband who includes me in finical matters. I know some married people have separate accounts. We have one and I don't even know how to use it. I don't need to really because I COMPLETELY trust him. He has always been more then forth coming and he always says it's OUR money and gets mad when I refer to it as HIS. I am so blessed for this and so I am GRATEFUL for my husband!