Valentines

My little girl was sick awhile back so it was a sit and do nothing day….that is until I came up with this EASY decoration. I knew I wanted to do something cute (and inexpensive) for Valentines with these glass jars but I didn’t know what. I started to think of coloring salt or sugar but was afraid of the mess they would be, then I wondered if I could color rice? Thanks to Google I found out that YES you can and it’s super easy! Simply mix the rice and some food coloring with rubbing alcohol to help the liquid evaporate. I spread it out on a cookie sheet for awhile and kept stirring it until it was dry. Do not use water with the food coloring it doesn’t dry. If your color is too dark just add more alcohol. I need to try again for a picture of the whole mantel, the lighting just wasn’t right when I took these pictures….and now my camera is loaned out for the weekend.

The glass jars are made from candle holders and glass vases from the dollar store.

Miss Maddi, Every Prayer Counts!

This one of my favorite picture of Maddi. I’m not sure when it was taken but I think it just shows so much of her personality.

http://maddisized.blogspot.com/

Hello all, I've been a bad blogger lately, okay for a LONG time. There are many reasons but lets not get into most of them.

My last post was a little pathetic, not picture wise but word wise, I did it quickly from my phone. I made that card for my sweet niece Maddi. She is a beautiful 13 year old girl who was in a horrible car accident on Black Friday. I had just been out shopping with her and her mom, her sister, my sisters, cousins, friends that very morning. The accident left her with severe brain trauma. She has been in the hospital for over 39 days, the first of which were spent in a medical induced coma. And she will be there for many more days in the hospital. She is doing amazingly well however, she is now up and walking! She still has a very long way to go. She is starting to want to try her voice out and it will just be time until she is able to talk again, but I have Faith that she will.

So I'm asking all you out there in blog land if you can spread the word about our little Maddi. I know her family feels everyone's prayers daily. You can follow her progress here http://maddisized.blogspot.com/. Every little prayer helps.

Her dad just added ads to her blog, I'm not sure how much they will help but I've been clicking on them like a mad woman :) I figure being home all day there isn't much else I can do to help them but that is one thing I can do. I look forward to reading the blog update every night. Starting at around 7ish I start checking it, I’ve been a bit compulsive about it.

I have done a lot of crafty things lately, now let’s just see if I can organize my home enough that I find the time or should I say MAKE the time to post about them.

Sunshine card

Smile :)

Isn’t she pretty?

Winter Fun

I think these pictures speak for themselves. Yes that is Me and P in the top picture (sorry it’s blury, I took these a long time ago.) T took the picture and I think he did a good job!

Below is A, P and T (on a snowboard)

Fun in the Sun

I’ve scrapped a few pages lately and by lately I mean some time since January. One of my favorites being this page!  

This was a weekend we took to the lake with some good friends. We went in mid September and thought it would be soooo cold but it was wonderful and warm! Maybe that’s why this spring has been so cold….

More cards…..

  I made these cards with a 4x4 base for each card and then I used 5 sheets from my Basic Grey’s 6x6 “Off Beat” paper pad to make ALL the cards. I still had scraps leftover, I was so surprised how much use I got out of these 5 little papers.

(The first one is my favorite by far! although the next one is close….) hope you enjoy!    

okay this last one I didn’t use the Off Beat paper, but I made it at the same time so I just added it with the others!

Porter’s New Bed

Do you know how hard it is to resist this smile?

He is getting way to big! How ironic is that for me to say when I give him growth hormone shots everyday…..I want him to be the right size for his age, but I want him to stay little just for me!

Friends Card

I think this is one of my favorite cards I’ve ever made, I got the inspiration from Kristina Werner (a very long time ago….) I need to make another one because this one has been given away. It was nice to have a card in my stash ready when I needed it!

I’m going through my pictures on my computer today and realized I HAVE taken pictures of things lately I’ve just never posted any of them, so I HOPE to have some set up to post in the next few days.

I was going to take a picture of my entry way and what I’ve done there recently but it SNOWED today so I have no sunlight, and if you’ve ever been to my house you know I have NO sunlight in my entryway on a normal day…..I hope to post pics of it soon.

Bench

So most of you out there have probably heard of the fabulous blog Knock Off Wood. Well I finally tried out one of her plans and couldn’t be more pleased with the results! I thought I’d start with something simple and this is what I made (all by myself I might add!) I hope to make more things from her site (money and children allowing)

Up and Away

Finally posting something :)

I’ve done lots of creative things lately just been too lazy to take pictures and post them. But I have new posts coming….if anyone out there is still reading this little blog o’ mine.

I love the silly smile on Porter’s face, oh how I miss having a little toddler learning new things even if that includes things they shouldn’t do.

B.O.B.

B.O.B. is all I’ve done for the last 2 days and it’s a good thing it turned out as well as it did.  

The last picture is my littlest monster dressed as B.O.B.

Skirt from slacks (tutorial)

Before

After

These used to be one of my favorite pair of slacks on my hubby. When the seems around the waist and pockets started fraying I was sad until….. I saw a cute skirt in my head!!!!!

I have to add that my mom asked where I got the skirt. When I told her she had a look of astonishment as she looked the skirt up and down! I had already told her about making it just the day before but she didn’t realize that it was the one I was wearing. It was the best compliment I could have gotten!!!

I entered this at Kimba’s DIY day over at A soft place to Land

I’ve tried to write down how I did it, if you have any questions feel free to ask!!!

1. use your seem ripper to undo the outside side seems of each leg. (I did the outside of the legs because those seems were fraying a bit, and I wanted to use the inside seem as part of the skirt) Also undo the hem seam.
2. Measure how long you need your skirt to be and add about 4 inches to that number (mine was 25 inches). I measured 25 inches from the old hem seem (the bottom of the pants will become the top of the skirt) and put tick marks all along the pants and then cut it off. Now you have 2 panels that each have a front piece and back piece already sewn together. The back of the pants were naturally a little bit larger which works out perfect for the back of the skirt to fit over your bum =).
3. Next I sewed them all together to make the tube of the skirt. You can easily tell the back because it is slightly larger, at this point I marked the back middle seem just so I wouldn’t have to keep figuring it out.
4. Now I pulled it on and literally pinned the side seems to what I was wearing where the side seems should be. I then pulled the front middle seem out in front of me and measured how much excess there was, mine had 2 inches excess in the front and 3 inches in the back. I put in the darts and absolutely HATED the way it hung so I took them and out and simply took in the front and back seems starting with 1 1/2 inches and gradually meeting up with the existing seem. Then I did the same on the right side starting with 1 inch. ( I did the left side when I did the zipper) ( See how the seem is bigger at the top? I didn’t cut off the excess because the edges were already surged to prevent fraying.)(Here you can see that is is just a flat front with out any pleats in it.)
5. Now I needed to make an opening for the zipper. I chose the left side of the skirt and unpicked about 6-7 inches for the zipper opening. Remember that that is still one of the original seems of the pants so we are not undoing any sewing that we have done so far. I simply followed the instructions on my zipper package, To this day Zippers still scare me, I don’t know why, they aren’t that scary once you get started. Just remember to take in any remaining inches that you need to (I forgot to do this and had to do my zipper twice)
6. Once your zipper is in use the remaining pieces of the pants and make a facing. I’m sorry I don’t have a picture of what my cut out piece looked like before I sewed it on, but you can see it in the picture above. Then simply sew the facing to your skirt, iron the seem and hand stitch the facing to the zipper. Do what ever top stitching you want or even simply stitch the facing to your seem allowance on the inside of you don’t want any top stitching at all ( I hope that made sense.)
1. Remember to finish off the edges of your facing piece. I always hate doing stay stitching (I don’t have a surger) but always regret it when I don’t. I think the hem and facing are the only places I had to do it on this project because all the other seems were still done from the slacks.
7. Next I hemmed it up and added top stitching to the front and back seem and to the hem and the top of the skirt.

Okay now if anyone is still reading this please tell me which shoes you lie best. You know how men are…. ;-)

Welcome Little One!!! 2S4Y

My sister had a new little baby boy on Wednesday! So of course I needed to make a cute baby card! She didn’t know if it was a boy or a girl until he arrived so I whipped this card up and can’t wait to see the little man on Saturday!!! Although I’ve been informed that he needs bilirubin lights and I might not get to hold him =(. I was so hoping to snuggle and hog him since his cousin that was supposed to arrive next week is no longer coming.

I had already bought the cutest boy outfit for him (I just knew he was a boy) and when I made the card I realized that it matches his orange and blue striped outfit perfect!  

Title…. What’s in a Title?

EVERYTHING!!!! But for the life of my I couldn’t think of anything good to write for a title. Alas I am no writer. I wish I was but that is not one of my talents and I am okay with it.

I finally finished my friend’s Birthday present. It’s very simple, just an altered note book and a cute paper box with a bottle of Prima’s inside it. I also gave her some scrapbook paper. She recently moved here from across the world where supplies were outrageous!!!! So she is still collecting all the “fun stuff". (Of course who isn’t still collecting it?)

 

I found the notebook and Dollar Tree it came in a 2 pack. I made the box from a template found at Hemidemisemiquave. I created a lid for it.