Homemade Gift Ideas

My favorite gifts are homemade one's. I also prefer home cooked meals to out to eat. Something about the time people put into making something makes it a ton better.

I have this frame I painted a while back. I got it at a garage sale for $1.

I added a bit of fun to it. I see these fabric flowers all over the places at boutiques. We've been looking at fabric for window treatments so I have a ton of scraps. I found a use!

This is how you start. With a triangle glued to a small felt circle or square.

Then you just twist around and glue. You could use fabric glue but I have burned finger tips immune to burns....

I added a 2nd fabric for some contrast.

This is another frame I finished.

There are a lot of printables online I'm thinking this is a great gift for teachers, family and friends.

Summer Sewing

My little miss just can't have enough clothes! I have so much fun dressing up my little girl.

I recently got my sewing machine fixed, finally it was broken for a year. Remember last time I did a sewing project.... April 2009.

I tried my handy work to make my first skirt. Guess what? It worked and I love it!

It was super easy. I added some crosses to a hand me down shirt with scrap fabric. The whole project.... FREE! Little Miss and her buddy Jacob. His mom sews appliques on his shirts too.
Next time I make a skirt I will take photos of each step. I'm getting my sewing machine set up on a desk so I can sew while on bed rest. My DR says it's ok for me to sit up.

I am linking up to DIY Project Showoff Parade.

This is one of my favorite blogs! Visit if you love DIY and projects.

Teacher Appreciation Gifts

Last week was teacher appreciation at my son's school. I've had the privilege of being a co-room rep this year.

We did a class project for the teacher. I bravely ventured to the school and took over her class for about 30 minutes to complete the project.

I got a wooden platter at Hobby Lobby and painted it a cream color. Then got each of the kids finger prints with black paint. I got home and turned their little finger prints into bumble bee's. Then painted a quote on the plate.

We also made a class book. Sorry no photos. To keep the kids occupied while I did the finger prints I had them each write a sentence about what they like most about the teacher and to draw a picture of them and her. It turned out so cute! I then had it bound.

Our PTA had a theme week so we brought an item each day with the theme. Here is what we did:

Monday: Wake Up Teachers - Bring Gum

Tuesday: Chocolate Theme- bring candy

Wednesday: Cinco De Mayo - bring favorite Mexican recipe

Thursday: Flower Day - bring flowers

Friday: Thank you Day - bring a homemade card

It was a great week!

How To's Custom Hat & Cape

I interrupt all the Christmas celebrating for a birthday party. Anyone else have a December Christmas baby? My friend Ashlee has a beautiful little girl who celebrated her birthday last week. Her daughter Milla and Madeline are good buddies. Remember this post when she made some custom shirts for the girls?

Ashlee made the most beautiful little party hat. I've seen these creations on esty for $40. She's shared the pattern and instructions for my readers. Thanks girl! Let me share: Here is the pattern she used. She enlarged the pattern to make a larger size.

Items Needed:

• Foam Craft Sheets (the flexible and bendable kind)
• 1/2 yard of crushed velvet
• Craft maribu (the fluffy feathery stuff)
• Rhinestones
• Soft Fabric and Elastic Headband
• Felt for the number

1. Trace the pattern on the foam craft sheet
2. Glue the crushed velvet to the foam pattern
3. Add rhinestones
4. Cut the birthday number from felt and attach to the hat. Ashlee used the Disney font and printed a number 2 and used it as a pattern.
5. Hot glue the hat together and add the maribu and attach to the headband
   

My little Madeline and birthday girl Milla in her special party hat.

We were both in the craft mood. I made Milla a cupcake cape for her birthday. She's got everything cupcake so a cupcake superhero she is.
Sorry I don't have pattern for this one. I will try my best to explain my made up way to make a cape.

• I simply use 1/2 yard of fabric and fold it in half and cut it in a taper shape
• Fold in the sides and hem
• Before I sew the elastic in the neck I do the felt work
• I cut the felt design and pinned then sewed in a zig zag stich
• For the neck I fold and pin in the elastic and sew it closed.
• Pull the elastic to shorten the opening then sew down and cut elastic.
• Finally I use self adhesive Velcro to hold the neck closed.

For more crafts visit A Soft Place to Land DIY Party

Stir Crazy at Home!

I have got some awesome friends! As a co-room rep for Will's kindergarten class we have the responsibility of coming up with gift baskets for the big fall festival.

Today my friend Jenny dropped off some incredible bows and tutus! Seriously if you want a great custom bow check her out Bella Bowz. She's done several giveaways on my blog. Thanks Jenny!!

My blogger turned in real life friend Dina, hooked me up with a Golightly's Tea Room gift certificate. Thank you Dina! If you live in the DFW area this is one cool shop.

Here is a photo of the gift basket I made for the live auction. I had over $140 worth of goodies donated!!!
With the kids at home sick I've had lots of time to reflect and be well... bored. Talk about being stir crazy that is me all the way!

Madeline brought me her swim suit and said she wanted to "swim" too bad it's 61 degrees outside.


Will has been fever free all day, yeah!! I will keep him home from school today just to let his little body heal. He seriously deserves a big treat for being such a good boy and staying in his room to limit the exposure. He is the best little boy, love him so much!

Funny this is the mask they made at school on Thursday. Kinda expressed what we've been doing this weekend.


One more thing... I've found an ah-mazing home decor blog. Lot's of new ideas and projects coming soon... you've got to check out this blog. This girl lives in the DFW area she's got to come to the next blog party I would love to hear her ideas. Did you know she spray painted her Formica counter tops??

Tuesdays Tip - MYOS

Make Your Own Shirts!!!



My friend Ashlee made these cute shirts for her daughter Milla. She found the plain white t's at wal-mart for a few bucks and with the magic of printable transfer paper she made these cute shirts!

Ashlee is on a shirt making roll. She made these super cute shirts for our girls. Little Best Friends aren't they cute!!!
Her shirt making reminded me of our trip to Disney World last year. I made these shirts for our family with the same iron on transfer paper.

The back of the shirts each had a quote from a Disney movie.

The front had a Disney family trip logo.

This was our other shirt. My BF Adrien designed this for us.

Instead of buying over priced t-shirts at the theme park make your own! We got so many compliments and it's a special souvenir!

Thrifty Thursday- Sewing Fun

With Posh Josh out of town I have been a busy girl. Painting, cleaning and now sewing!! We visited Jenny's today she makes Bella Bowz. We've been talking about sewing some little girls outfits with her extra ribbon. The kids had a play date, we even saw Milla (she has the best kiddy blog). Her mom Ashlee also makes cute bows. Whenever I need bows I am lucky to have 2 very talented friends for special bows. Thanks girls!!!

I turned a green $5 Wallyworld (Wal-mart) dress into a boutique style dress. Then I actually made my first dress!!
I used white Pre-Smocked Shirred Sundress Fabric. It was so easy to make since the top comes smocked and fitted. You just seam up the back and hem the ends. I sewed ribbon to hold up the top. Jenny has a new monogram machine so she did a monogram for Madeline. I love it! I can't wait to make more of these dresses.

Madeline modeling her new dresses. See a close up of her new green zebra dress.

She feels to pretty! She loves her new dresses!

More modeling poses next to the painting mom cannot find a place for.

I've also been doing some re-arranging!

Wasteless Wednesday- Don't Trash It

We have this ugly side table. This is something you could easily find by the trash. It has functioned in Josh's fraternity room as a beer table (pre-Jen). Served as a lamp table in various apartments we've lived in. Finally it has been a printer table next to my computer for the last couple years. It's hidden in a corner no one really sees except for me when I am on the computer. (Which is more time than I will admit)

Not very attractive! Instead of trashing the table I painted it. Much better! I primed it first then spray painted it black. Total $6. I also spent some time cleaning out my desk = FREE

I would like to pick up some black frames and put some family recipes above the printer table.

This is what the desk area looked like before we bought the house. I removed the wall paper. Then textured and painted the walls. This teal and white look was so 1990!

Tuesdays Tip - Pillowcase Dress #2

The pillowcase dress was a hit last week! So here we go round two! One of my readers who is also a friend of mine from high school made her own dress. Take a look, way to go Hollie @ The Drama Mama! (I took the photo from her blog, she even wrote about her creation yesterday). I love hearing my tips put into practice so I had to share with all of you!!

My friend Adrien came over today and look what she brought Madeline.... a pillowcase dress... 2 to be exact. She made a special one for Madeline's 2nd birthday party so that one is a secret for now.

Madeline loved her new pink and zebra dress (Adrien knows my style :) she twirled around danced to show off. I even put her down for a nap in it and came up to see why she wasn't sleeping, well Little Miss decided to take off her dress she untied the ribbon. Too cute!