Oh the potential...

So I bought my first ever scrap pack of fabrics off etsy. It was like Christmas...I wasn't sure what I would get but I knew it would be good. Here is what came:

It was the "cool" pack so all the colors are in the blue-ish family. I have no idea what I will do with it all, but I am excited to grow my stash! This could be an addictive thing for a pack-rat like me. :-)

Now these are the fabrics I bought on purpose to make a summer shirt. I am thinking kind of along the lines of the summer dress we made. It is so cute in my head...now the tricky part is I just have to make it with my hands.

I will show you when it is complete. You won't see much for a while because 3 days until my CRUISE--wooHoo!!!!!
(Come to think of it, I might should have ordered more fabric for that top!)

weekend project

Here is a little something I worked on for a friend. It makes gourmet coffee look that much better. Is that is even possible?? And the best part is that I needed to buy several lattes for my "test" cups!

Hope you had a nice, restful weekend!

Spice up your Spiral

I have an on-going love affair with school, office, desk supplies. I desire any new product Sharpie puts out on the market, and I hoard pens. (I have way too many around here and some are so old the ink has got to be dried up.) This probably helped aid me in my decision to be a teacher...just love all those things. A friend of mine who went back to teaching full time this year saw my ribbon journals and gave me the idea of doing something a little more simple. She is always taking a spiral to meetings. I actually have a spiral that sits on my craft table. I write ideas and lists in it almost daily. So I decided to spice it up a bit. Here it is before:

oh, so boring

And after...

CUTE! I used modge podge, but you could just use adhesive. Such an easy project.

Summer dress TUTORIAL

My first ever tutorial. I am sure it will be clear as mud...just ask if you have questions. Again, I consider myself to be a beginner in sewing experience even though I have been sewing a while. My lovely sister Jill helped me make this tutorial and she is the owner of this new cute dress! Click on the pictures to make them bigger, if you want. I just didn't want the post to take up the whole page with super huge pics.

1. Wrap the fabric around you and determine a comfy size. You don’t want it too tight. It needs to come over your head easily to take it off. But you don’t want it too big or it will look like you have just put on a tent. MEASURE YOUR BIGGEST PART. If you are a hippy chick, make sure you go around that area comfortably; if your bust is, then make sure around that part…it is imperative!!

2. Put right sides together to sew your side seam. You can finish the seam by serging (if you are lucky enough to have a serger) or you can zig zag stitch if you wish to prevent too much fraying in the wash.

Cut arm holes. I made mine about 3 inches across at the top and 4 inches down. You may have to adjust this a little bit depending on your size.


Cut a few slits in the curve to make hemming easy. Then fold and press it with an iron and press again to finish the hem. Stitch where you have pressed.

Next you need to make a casing around the top. I made one about 1 ½ inches. Press about ¼ inch and then fold over and press again to make your 1 ½ inch casing. Then stitch. Do this on the front side and back side of the dress.

Take a ribbon or string and feed it through the casing to see how long you will need your strap to be. Then cut a piece of fabric this length and about 3 inches wide.

With right sides together stitch your strip of fabric leaving the ends open. Then turn it inside out. (This step takes a little while.) You have got to jam your finger and shimmy it up---don’t you love my technical terms? If you have large fingers, you might want a pencil.

Feed your strip of fabric through the casing to make your straps.

Overlap them just a tad and stitch over that to close the ends and to make one big strip going through the casing. I think a zigzag stitch would work best here. You can then feed it so this part of the strap is inside the casing if you don’t want the stitch to be seen.

Last you need to make a hem. So measure how long you want the dress. Fold over about ¼ inch and press, then fold over about ¾ inch and press again. Stitch.

VOILA. Go out on the town with your significant other and expect to look hot and get tons of compliments.

Now be sure if you make this easy dress that you post on your blog about it and leave a link here so that we can see how awesome yours comes out. :-)

The winner is...

HADLEY is the winner of the little lovey.

She is the real life dairy queen so if you haven't met her click on over to her blog. She looks like a super fun Mommy and a thrifty shopper!

Hadley, please email me your mailing address so I can get this in the mail to you this week. YEA!

Ribbon Ramblings and a GIVE AWAY

My favorite craft store surprised me last week. I was walking down the ribbon aisle and as I turned the corner where there is usually the ribbon by the yard...the heavens opened and light shined upon us, as the instrumental hymns played in our ears (that part is true) and I saw the most beautiful thing ever. A whole aisle of new, pretty grograin and satin ribbon in coordinating prints to most of the fabrics they sell sold by the package, not the yard. My almost two year old was dancing to the hymns in the cart until it started wobbling and then I showed him how to look through the hole of the ribbon bolt and he became as giddy as me. (Seriously, those carts...they may have a lawsuit on their hands one day if the kid inside is as dancy as mine.) You might be giddy to when I show you what I got:

and of course it was half off. So, in honor of my new, fun ribbon I made a little lovey and decided to host a give away in honor of having new blog friends from TCB! Yea!

Does anyone know a little baby girl who needs this cute thing?

Isn't it so fun? So, all you have to do is leave me a comment (make sure I can find you if you win) and if you want to "follow me" you can be entered again. I will pick a winner on Monday, so invite all your friends with sweet girls to come over and enter. :-)

PS- If you are the karen that left me a comment yesterday, I am sorry I couldn't view your profile to get a hold of you. The fabric you were asking about was from Hobby Lobby and I think they sell it exclusively, but I am not sure about that. Sorry, I don't know the name of it. If you really want some and don't have that store in your area, contact me. I can help you get some.

PPS- Stay tuned for my first tutorial on the summer dress. It may take me a week or so, but I will do my best to show you how to make it.

Featured

Oh my WORD. Kim over at Today's Creative Blog featured me. I commented that I was dreaming of one day being crafty enough to be a feature. Seriously didn't even think I was on her radar, and she emailed me telling me I was in her FFF. I about fell out of my chair then! AND then to, only hours later, see that she really did feature me. I feel like the old silly Wayne's World, "I'm not worthy" scene. The ladies she features are so talented and to think that she puts me on the same playing feild I am HoNoReD!! to say the least. Thank you, Kim. I cannot wait for her to send me that prized button!! So if you come my way because of TCB and are kind enough to leave a comment, I would be so appreciative if you would follow me too. I don't have a fancy, cutesy button yet...maybe if I get some followers. :-)

Summer Dress

Saturday night my fam and I made a quick stop into Old Navy. Ben and I are on the hunt for some cruise clothes. I saw this cute dress... The more I looked at it I thought, "I could make that..." Seriously, just look at this dress closely. It is basically a pillow-case dress for a woman and they wanted $24.50 for it.


Remember that cute Amy Butler fabric I got...the bells started to go off in my head and I grew more excited. The race was on to get the boys, bathed and in bed so I could begin my project.


AND, drum roll...

TA-DA!
A few differences: 1. mine doesn't tie in the front. When I get better at button holes, that would be an easy fix and 2. I think theirs is made of linen and mine is cotton. 3. Mine cost about $9 and theirs $24.50

It is so comfy and cute, I think. I will definitely make a couple more. Mine took exactly one yard. This is all the fabric I had left over and I am short. I squeaked by.

Any beginner sewing can make this and should....it was just a lot of fun!

Fancy-ing the Fridge

So last year when we moved in I sat some bigger items...several trays, a large wooden cutting board on top of my refrigerator and thought I would find a home for them soon. Well, a year and a month went by and since I was having a big shower last week, I thought I better make my kitchen look a little bit better. I mean it isn't often you get 60 women into your house...it better look as good as possible. So, off to Kirkland and Homegoods I went. I don't have a before picture. Believe me, it was just some stuff stacked up there. But here is what it looks like now...


...much better and homey. I mean it really made a big difference. The little houndstooth box was on sale for 4.99!! I already had the pewter dish, but I love the easel I found for it.

And I have a problem area by the phone because the phone jack and the outlet are like 12 inches apart and the cords have always bothered me. However, I didn't want to clutter up the counter too much. Here is what I chose.
I don't know how everyone feels about fake greenery. I know many people turn their noses up. I like it personally as long as it looks as real as possible and as long as it is one that won't need dusting. Doesn't this little plant look real? The plate matched my kitchen so well and again under $5.
You can still see the phone jack, but it looks better. Just thought I would share. I love home accessories. :-)

A new favorite

So I made this to send to a friend who just had a baby and I think I may be addicted to making these now. I had made one before and was not pleased with the little applique I did, but this one turned out so cute and it really only took me about 30 minutes. I LOVE projects I can complete from start to finish in one setting.

You will be seeing these in the shop very soon.

When you don't have a little girl to sew for...

...you can sew something for yourself. So, I decided I was not daring enough to try for a easter dress (maybe next year), but how about a skirt. I started this a few weeks ago, but had some reservations about how it would fit. I put it down and last night came back to it, added the elastic and ruffle. It is a slightly weird length. It falls right below the knee which is an okay problem because I could go back and shorten it.




It isn't fabulous, but I think turned out cute enough to wear. What do you think? I need some confidence.

Get framed

I love frames like this...so shabby chic. Since that is the look I am going for in our guest room I decided to turn some gold into old. Ha! I actually have a few of these gold frames left over from a table at our wedding. So I decided to paint one and see how it came out. Here is the before:

And after...

Ahhh, much better. I think I have a couple more to paint now.

Not dramatic, but improved

Here is our porch before...

(I am kind of ashamed to post these)
Yes, a dead plant...nothing says, "Y'all come on it." better than that.

Dirty bench

DRAB (and embarressing, not to mention uninviting)

And here is the after...

Clean and accesorized bench

A living thing-and I will try so hard not to kill it.

A fiesta wreath

I think people might want to come in now. :-)