Favorite Quick Cookies

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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!!!

Pinterest

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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