Christmas gifts

This year, I took hot chocolate tins and wrapped them with scrapbook paper filled them with homemade "oreo" cookies for the kids teachers, and for the neighbors filled jars of hot chocolate with layer of candy cane and marshmellows with same cookies. It's always fun coming up with something different each year.

Christmas is coming...

This year I'm finishing up my last prerequisite for Nursing school so we did very minimal with the Christmas decor...can't believe how fast the holidays come!

Table runner

Been wanting a table runner in our Dinning area forever, but haven't found the right colors, so went down to Hobby Lobby bought 1 1/4 yrds of fabric, spent only $6. Cut it down to 2 pannels of 17x45 in. Sewed one end right sides together, then zig zagged the edge. Folded the sides in and sewed first, then sewed the ends. If you don't want a seam down the middle you can buy 2 1/2 yrds fabric. Sew easy!

Doors!

Welcome Fall!



Every year I decorate my front door with a wreath celebrating the next season. With every house we've lived in I've decorated the kids rooms as well, it signifies who's room is whose and makes it fun to see every day. When we moved to this last house I hadn't put up my son Jack's cowboy hat yet, and he said "Mom, when are you going to put the hat on my door-how do I know which room is mine?" Silly enough we'd been in the house several months, and he is 7yrs old. I think it's his way of saying he likes it there!

Halloween game

So my church is having a carnival, that every family is bringing a game for the kids to play to win candy. I came up with this bean bag toss, carved a "jack o Lantern" out of a box, and sewed a few bean bags that I glued pieces of felt to the top of. It has been quite popular, the morning after the Church carnival it's going to a birthday party, then that evening it will be debuting in my Town's carnival, I hope it can last that long!

Fall decor!

Saw this at Sea World as part of their fall decor, thought it was a cute idea!

Old chair NEW!

So found this chair at a yard sale for $5, my husband thinks I'm crazy for bringing it home, he wanted to find a dumpster and chuck it in. But I convinced him it can go in my craft/office room and I'll use it for MY chair. So first I lightly sanded down the red paint, just to take off the shiny, then I sprayed primer (love, love, love spray paint), then reupholstered the cushion with fabric I already had, then spray painted the final Green Apple color-that I love! Voila-a NEW chair! Too bad I didn't think to put on an old pair of socks, had to take a pumice stone to my footsies to reclaim them. Total cost: $14, not bad for a new chair ;)

New out of Old drapes!

This new home with it's 10ft ceilings vs. my old home with 9ft ceilings, proving to be more trouble. Just added what fabric I had left from making the bathroom drape to these brown Ikea drapes that fit a 9ft ceiling height-now they fit a 10ft ceiling. (Sorry about the eliptical to heavy for me to move :)

Pom-pom decorations

My friend click here helped me with this a while back for a baby shower, now I'm making them for my daughters birthday party, they are so versitle! *Tip, if you want them to be more full, use more layers of tissue paper.

Glassware continued...

Ok, I've had a big response asking where I got the glassware, I bought the 3 smaller ones as a set at Lina's, and the bigger one at Michaels. Michaels has the best selection I've found,they are much more expensive there, so make sure to use your coupon! They are so versitile, this was for a study group at my house ;)

Bead necklaces

This year we're having a "friend party" for my daughter's birthday, so I decided to attempt to make some plastic beaded necklaces for her friends as a party favor. Luckily I had a few friends help me figure out what to do, this is what I came up with. All you need is a crimper, wire cutter, clasp, jump rings, doube rings, crimp tube beads, chain, wire or fishing wire, and of course the plastic beads. I was surprised how easy it ended up being :)

Boo candelsticks

So I saw this on click here and put JOY on the back, now we can use it for 2 holidays, I think it turned out great!

Little Girls Valence

Just finished my little girl's valence for her room. She really wanted a purple room in this house which is easy, but finding purple fabric is another story. I found this fabric as a remnant but it was a bit fancy for a little girl so I added the hot pink pom-pom trim to keep it young. I think it turned out ok, what do you think?

Glassware!

So I saw this way cute picture on Becky Higgins blog and I thought, I could get some glassware like that and add snacks to it to put on the counters so the kids can stop asking me every 5 min for a snack. It was a bit harder to find the Apothecary jars, just posted it on Facebook and had answers within minutes. It's great having a network of friends at your fingertips!

Hair Bow board

Hair Bow Board
1.What you need to get started:
-Fabric 22x18in
-Ribbon 17ft (3/8" wide)
-25 pushpins
-25 jewels
-19x15in board
-18 1/2x 14 1/2 backing felt
-19x15 (40z)batting
-hammer
-glue gun
-stapler
2.Place the fabric face down on table then center the batting then add the board last.

3.Staple one side of the fabric, then staple the opposite side of fabric, with tugging a little to make it taunt, but make sure on front side that It’s not so tight it’s creating dimples in the fabric. Continue till it’s all stapled.

4.For the corners just fold neatly under then staple down.

5.Add ribbon, cut strips into:
-2 strips of 27in. (add first)
-4 strips of 15in. (add 2nd)
-4 strips of 21 in. (add 3rd)
-4 strips of 9 in. (add last)
staple to one corner, then pull taunt to opposite corner and staple down, continue till get the finished look. When adding ribbon in between two ribbon spots measure for the exact middle then add ribbon to that point.

6.Hammer in front side at all cross points a push pin, should be 25 ct.
7.Hot glue backing on back to cover all staples.
8.Attach picture hanger on middle top of backside.
9.Hot glue gems to top of all push pins.

Bathroom Faux Drape

In my last house I made a faux drape for my guest bathroom, but in my new home the ceiligs are a foot taller, so I added a foot of a solid fabric to the bottom and ta da! Sewing a drape is easy, you just sew the edges in and make a pocket for the top to slide the drapery rod in. I took a rod and cut it to the size I wanted, and screwed only one of the hooks that came with the drapery rod into the ceiling and then srewed a closet pole bracket (circular, can find at any Home hardware store) into the wall.

Poppy Flowers

Made few of these poppy flowers and added to a sweater, then made a few for clips, so fun and easy.

click here

Evolution of My Diamond Wall...

It's funny when I first had the idea to do a harlequin pattern on a feature wall back in my Chandler house in 2005, I never imagined it would evolve to what it is today. Back in Chandler I just couldn't get the Gold color right, yellows are the hardest for me to figure out. Then in the Mesa house, it came out with a yellow tint, when I was just going for glossy, but finally in the Gilbert house it's just right...am I starting to sound like Goldie Locks and the three bears? All I did was make a template out of cardboard of a diamond that was to scale of what I wanted then I used blue painters tape to hold it up on the wall and used the blue tape to tape around the diamond. I continued it across the wall. It really didn't take very long at all.

Twirl Skirt

Just in time for Valentine's Day! I've been working on and off on this super cute skirt and just got it finished for my daughter to wear to church this Valentine's Day. The pattern is called The Edith Twirl Skirt, by Jona Giammalva http://www.fabritopia.com/edith-twirl-skirt-pdf-sewing-pattern-instructions.html

I will say this was the first skirt I ever did sew, and boy was it a challange for me, you'll do fine if you can do bias tape and gathering, those were a bit tricky. But all in all I think it turned out great! Plus my good friend Connie came up with this cute tuxedo shirt idea to match, I just grabbed a premade shirt and did the gathering stich again and it was as easy as pie-Enjoy!

Fabric flowers

My daughter has outgrown the hair bow stage and now wants just flowers, this is a fun fabric flower I just learned to make. Ok, first make a template and cut out desired fabric, chiffon, lace, netting, all work really well. Since I used Cotton, I put wrong sides together. Fold in half, then half again, and stitch across the point bottom, do this 8x, then using thread string 4 together and put a few stitches in to secure, then do this to the remaining 4 and hot glue them one on top of the other, then finish with a jewel, button or pearls to cover the stitches on top. On the bottom hot glue circle of felt to cover stitches, then hot glue clip on top.