Please excuse me...

If I don’t make a peep until sometime next week. I’m a gigantic baby and I’ve spent most of the previous week crying my brown eyes blue. I lost my wedding ring. It’s lost for real and just typing that makes my eyes well up.

I know to some people it’s not such a big deal but to me it’s “cry your eyes out and mope for a week” worthy. That was last week though, this week is “tear your house apart, finally unpack and clean up, and hope it’s in a box somewhere” week.

I have fun stuff to share and I’ve been working on things here and there but until I find my ring or give up hope I’m just not in the mood. Cody did pick me up a temporary replacement so I wouldn’t feel so naked in the mean time but I want my real one. One that won’t turn my finger green ;). What is it about wearing a ring that makes you feel so secure? I think I could walk down the street naked if I had my ring but without it I feel totally exposed. Wouldn’t my neighbors just love that- ha! Wish me luck and I promise craftier things to come next week!

Monday Reality

Here’s a little glimpse into a typical Monday at my house.  I spend all morning doing dishes, sweeping and mopping floors, and this-

The day after the weekend laundry explosion.  Somewhere under that ginormous pile lies my washing machine. This is only 2 days worth of laundry, Saturday and Sunday.  If it weren’t so stinky and gross I would hide in there.  No one would find me for at least a week or until they needed jeans and undies.

When I shut the door and pretend it doesn’t exist- that’s when I get to craft.  Like this-

This is my new project that I started on Friday, which is why my laundry looked like the picture above today.  The rest of the house was pretty much the same.  Crafting has it’s price when you’ve got a big family to look after.  I’m so thankful for doors, and curtains… yes definitely curtains.  This is my life as a cover girl. 

Have a fan flipping-tastic Monday!  If you need me I’ll be hiding crafting.

Boo Who?

I crack myself up, I really do.  So you probably want to know who won the boo banner don’t you.   I’m not a fan of the random # generators because every time I play with them, they never ever choose the first or last #, ever.  So I put all the comments in a bowl to give everyone a fighting chance and had Cody use his impartial drawing abilities to pull out lucky #25-

Kelly O. said... 25

I applaud your "BOO"!

September 15, 2009 5:48 PM

 

So Kelly, congratulations!  Drop me an email at dontlickthefloor(at)hotmail (dot)com with your address and I’ll get that out to you.  If I don’t hear back in 3 or 4 days I’ll draw another winner.  You will have one cute door this fall if I do say so myself ;).

I love it when I get nice comments, blog links, and emails that show off your creations using one of my tutorials.  When I got an email earlier this week from Marcia with pictures of dresses she made with the apron dress tutorial it made my day and I asked her if I could post them to share! I had to show you these.

The bitty one is for her 10 month old granddaughter (I think that’s what she said… don’t quote me) and it looks great sized down that little. I love the changes she made and the fabrics she used!  Her granddaughters are going to be some stylin chicks this fall.  Do you see the leggings, Love them!  That’s a direct order from one who thinks they are stinking adorable.  I would love to show off more of everyone’s work so if you have a picture of a tutorial of mine you made and you want to share don’t be shy,  send me an email.

I’ve been working on a project all. day. long. and I don’t want to put it down so I’m off like a dirty shirt.  Have a great weekend!

An early Boo for you -tutorial style-

Edited to add- the giveway is closed and a winner was announced, thanks to all who entered!

I’m in love with burlap banners right now and even though it’s too early to start decorating for Halloween, it’s never to early to make the stuff to decorate with. Like this-

Minus the green star, I had to take the picture of my front door open so the sun wouldn’t shine through the burlap and make it hard to see. Want to make one?

Here’s what you’ll need to get if you don’t have them on hand-

Freezer paper (or letter stencils)*

Burlap*

Black paint

Glitter paint- optional

Hemp cord

You’ll also need a glue gun(or sewing machine/iron on hemming tape), scissors, paint brush, ruler, iron, piece of cardstock or cardboard 8 1/2" x 11", and your computer printer.

*You can find freezer paper in the foil/cling wrap isle at the Super big box stores. It comes in a huge roll for about $5-$6 but one roll will last you a lifetime. Really. It would be a good project to split with a couple of friends. In fact if I know you personally and you want some paper just give me a shout and I'll bring some next time I see you. I have plenty! I also got my burlap from the fabric section in my super store, it was just over $2 a yard, next to the batting by the yard. If you have a JoAnn's or other fabric/decorating store check there too.

1. First lay your burlap out horizontally and measure 11” down the left side of the burlap. Find the strand of burlap that’s at the 11” mark and pull it all the way out .

2. That makes a nice even line so you can cut it straight across without all those annoying fuzzies.

3. Cut through that line.

Now you should have a piece of burlap that is 11” tall by however wide, mine was 36” wide since I bought it by the yard. If you cut 2 pieces of burlap 11”x36” you will get 14 pennants, enough to spell Happy Halloween if you wish.

4.Next you’ll take your cardstock and fold it in half. Place a ruler or other straight edge from the top corners to the bottom middle and mark then cut out your triangle.

5. Lay your triangle on your burlap and line up the top edge of the triangle to the top edge of your burlap strip. Cut your burlap, I found it easier to use my ruler and rotary cutter for this- less mess.

6. Flip your pattern over back and forth cutting as you go (6).

7. Now lay out your burlap pieces and measure a length of cord that’s a little more than twice as long. Just eyeball it, but it’s always better to cut long and trim later. Cut two extra pieces of cord that are about 28” long (sorry, no picture).

8. Lay one burlap triangle down and squirt some hot glue close to the top edge. Lay the middle point of your cording in the middle of the glue and fold the top edge of the burlap over your cording(8a). If you glob on the glue it will come out the front side of the burlap, if this is a problem you can always just zig zag stitch with your sewing machine or you can use the iron on hemming tape (8b). All three ways work just fine- it tried them all.

9. Repeat step 8 with the other two (or more) burlap pieces leaving some space between each piece to hang, until you get to the outside edge. Stop folding about 1” from the outside edge, give it some more glue, and stick the end of one of the 28” cord pieces over the glued cord and burlap. Do this for each end piece. Fold the burlap over both hemp pieces. This gives you an extra bit of cord to hang it with for tying onto things.

10. Now cut your freezer paper stencils. You can follow my instructions for that here if you’ve never done it before using an exacto knife and computer printer. You can also run freezer paper through your cricut/silhouette machine like I did if you have one and skip the printing and cutting it yourself. Print/Cut your letters about 4 1/2” tall. I think my font was set at 350 pt and I used the blue cap with the shiny side down on the mat (silhouette). You can free hand or stencil them however you want if you don’t want to freezer paper it.

11. Iron on your individual letters using the high/cotton setting, using the letter piece you took out for reference on where to iron on the “o” hole and “b” holes- for lack of a better term ;).

12/13. Cut a piece of freezer a bit bigger than your stencil and iron it on the back. This keeps the paint from going through the burlap onto your work surface. Paint. I mixed some glitter paint in with the black and then sponged off some of the paint with a paper towel to give it a more see through look. Let the paint dry, tear off the freezer paper pulling from the top down so you don’t pull out any strings that should stay in the banner, and viola`. You have a new banner!

Don’t be afraid to play with this. If you make one don’t forget to show it to me- I love seeing them!

Oh, I almost forgot- if you made it this far you deserve a treat. A boo banner treat. So leave me a comment and you could get one of your very own without needing to make it! I’ll draw a random winner from the comments on this post in a few days, just make sure to come back and see if you’re the winner- I don’t hunt people down well ;). Good luck!

~Loving these~

I finished making my project for the tutorial I was going to post today but I have some bad news.  I was trolling etsy and came across the exact thing I was going to do a freebie for. I always check etsy and ebay to make sure I’m not going to cost anyone before I post a freebie.  Great minds think alike but I decided it wouldn’t be very nice of me at all to show you how to do the exact same thing for free when she’s trying to make a little moola.  So- I’ll still do a tutorial I just need to make another generic one and take new pictures.  I might even give it away since I’ll have two kind of. 

Anyway, while looking around I came across one of my favorite sellers~ Couvert ~ and thought I would show her off today.  You should see the genius of her skirts.  She’s amazing. I’ve never purchased from them and I don’t know them at all so I can’t vouch for their store but I love what they’ve got.  Here are my favorites-

 

Aren’t these pieces awesome?  I want my hips to shrink to a cute size so I can have some.  Anyone have a recipe for magic shrinking hips that doesn’t involve giving up sweets for breakfast?  I didn’t think so. 

She only makes adult clothing and I think these would be so cute for kids so I might have to pull out my fabric stash and see what I can whip up.  Maybe some Christmas skirts/dresses for the girls… the wheels are turning my friends.  Turning.

Have a great Monday!

Too busy eating chocolate cake for breakfast…

To come up with a catchy title. There’s something about a chocolate sheet cake first thing in the morning to get your creative juices flowing. I don’t normally eat cake, at all- I’m a frosting licker, but I had to have something chocolate the other day and the only thing that sounded good was cake. Cake with frosting of course. Go figure?

I finished this while dreaming of chocolate cake-

I love the exaggerated collar! Thanks for helping me decide whether or not to cut up my shirt. It was a new shirt that I bought online for myself and couldn’t return and it looked a little too “boy in the striped pajamas” for me. I really love it as leggings! Nothing goes to waste around here.

I’m thinking about starting a new project I’ve never tried before, it involves a really really hot tool so hopefully I’ll still have all my digits to post about it in the coming weeks. It would be really sad to loose a finger. Maybe not my pinky, I think I could do without it. I just wouldn’t be able to type any a’s or shift on the keyboard but that’s over rated anyway. As long as I can eat cake it really doesn’t matter. Should be fun!

I’m going to start a new sew if you want - iron if you don’t kind of tutorial today if Kennedy will take the nap she missed yesterday. It’s going to be decorating related so everyone can do it, not just those of us with little girly whirls like I normal do. Crossing my fingers I can get it done with all the pictures I need today to write it up. Better cross my fingers while I still have them all ;).

*Don't forget to click on the link on your left for the free Whooga boots! If you have a myspace or blog or a site you can add a button to you can enter.*

Have a great Thursday!

A bit of Enabling…

If you would rather not be enabled in the fabric department click your buns on out of here. For those brave souls that love a good deal and don’t mind making your husband’s favorite dinner tonight read on.

Fabric.com is having a designer cotton fabric blowout sale with fabric marked down 50% to $3.99 a yard. That’s not all, if you find $35 worth your shipping is free, but it’s free shipping with a $35 order everyday. The best part is if you use this coupon code- 2PLTRY9 you get an additional 30% off. So I got 10 yards (yes 10) of cute fabric for 2.70 a yard and picked up some trim as well with free shipping. To get this deal you need to find at least $35 of blow out fabric and add it to your cart and then apply the coupon- then you get the free shipping.

Luckily I ordered early enough that I found more than enough of the cute stuff so I love it all and didn’t need to find any filler items ;). I got lots of this-

and some of this-

and this for the baby boy I am going to have in 2011- **ETA* I'm not expecting, I just have a bad habit of buying for future children I hope to have because Jeremy is too old for vintage cowboy stuff. Just putting in my order early... boy thoughts. Thanks for the congratulations though, I'll save them for next year ;) .**

And some christmas fabric to make the kids jammies for christmas eve, yada yada yada. I had some survey $ burning a hole in my paypal so I don’t owe Cody steak or anything… until he reads this and realizes I just told him I wasn’t going to buy anymore fabric until I used what I had. I still mean that, I just meant I was starting after today…

The more glamorous life of a gunnysack…

Besides the pencil bag I made for Ashlyn, this is the only other project I finished at my grandma’s house for my great sewing get away. I had really lofty goals to make 3 of them- yeah right! I finished it a couple weeks ago but have been waiting for some grass to appear to take a picture. You know, I like the dirty background better. The dress kind of reminds me of the depression so the background fits. Not that I know a darn thing about the depression. I never actually made it to my history class in school… it was right after lunch and I liked long lunches. I didn’t like my history teacher either. I digress…

The fabric choices are loosely based on a MJC dress, but of course I have to do my own thing and changed it around a bunch.

I like to make my dresses grow with my kids to get a few years out of each one so I make the straps extra long on purpose. For this dress I made the straps extra extra long, a bit wider, and rounded on the ends. They were too long even for me so I tied them up a bit differently and I like it! I think it looks really cute this way and when she grows (if she ever does) the straps can grow with her. Actually it was a bit of a mistake because I didn’t have Ashlyn around when I was sewing and guessed her to be taller than she was. But as Bob Ross would say- a happy little mistake ;).

I better get off my duff and finish the other 8 projects I’ve started and haven’t finished. That’s Labor Day for you. Mom’s must labor, no day off here. Not that I would call crafting labor but humor me.

Have a great Monday!

Can you help a girl out?

I’m stuck.  I have been hung up on whether or not to cut up one of my shirts to finish my $1 shirt project.  I’ve been stuck for 3 days now just scratching my head and going humm.  To cut or not to cut, that is the question.

Stinking absent light, the colors are lighter than this.

The $1 shirt is a red and grey tiny stripe.  I like the red, I like the stripe, and for some reason I love the grey.  I want to bring out the grey and make a pair of leggings to go with the newly refashioned shirt.  I have this grey on grey striped shirt I was going to use but I keep hesitating.  Does it go?  Does it have to go to go? Do you know what I’m talking about or am I as nuts as I feel right now?

 

Kaci, my little oreo faced sewing helper, says no.  I told her to go find her dad, I don’t need her help anymore ;).

So what do you think?  Yes it goes, no it doesn’t?

Also, if you look out the window behind Kaci you can see my yard.  See the pretty rocks we’re growing.  They are fantastic.   I have another project I want to show off but I had to take pictures in the yard.  If you promise not to judge my rock and chicken poop garden I’ll show you.  Maybe.  I’m still really embarrassed about my house right now but that’s life isn’t it.  Fun projects, rocks, and chicken poop. Okay, maybe just my life ;).

Did I hear luxury and free in the same sentence?

My shirt transformation is coming along very nicely. In fact I’m finished but now I have to make something else to go with it, it just needs something else. Thankfully I got another new shirt I decided to hate and cut up to complete the look. I love to hate my clothes.

Speaking of loving and hating things, how do you feel about UGG boots? I love them. I know, I know, people with size 10 feet should not love them or even like them. I do. And I don’t care how large my peds are. I don’t actually own a pair as my conscience and my mom won’t let me (her and her size 7 feet…) but they look so comfy and inviting. I’ve almost bought a pair at least a dozen times. I can imagine myself curled up in a ski lodge next to the fire with leggings and a fair isle sweater and hat, sipping hot chocolate with my super comfy ugg’s on.

Look at that thick plush lining, don’t these just scream “Come, sit by the fire”.

That dream can now become a reality because, minus the ski lodge and the fact that I don’t ski, Whooga boots is offering a free pair of Whooga ugg boots every month! Get out! Or stay in if you have giant feet and own a pair ;). As they say on their site “The only thing better than the super indulgent luxury of a fresh pair of Whooga boots is the super indulgent luxury of a free pair of Whooga boots!” -here here.

I think they are super super cute on little girls with cable knit tights and sweater dresses. I should know, my girls wore some like it with their Christmas sweater dresses last year to church. They looked stinking adorable if I do say so myself. Even grandma approved.

While you are there for the giveaway you should try out their build a boot link on the top of their site. Cody and I had so much fun with that. I made a really cute Chocolate brown pair with pink inside I could just see Ashlyn wearing to school while Cody made… well lets just say his pair were better left as a prototype lol.

Have a great Wednesday!