Sewing is Finished!

Whew!

I have spent so many hours with my sewing machine over the last month. It's a love-hate relationship right about now - But Christmas gifts are completely finished (other than a small handful of things still left to buy) and I am feeling extremely accomplished. I wish I could share all of my projects right now, but my family reads my blog :)

This one didn't require sewing, but I made it yesterday. It is a hair bow holder for my niece Kami.

It was even easier to make than I thought it would be. It is just an old picture frame I picked up from the thrift store. I spray-painted it black and trashed the original picture. Trust me, it was um, pretty (Haha)! Then I cut lengths of ribbon about 2 inches longer than the height of my frame. I then used my glue gun to glue the ribbon onto the frame. I didn't measure for my spacing - I decided to just wing it. I'm totally thrilled with how it turned out! If you look close at the flower ribbon, each petal is a flip-flop!! How stinkin cute is that?

So here is another purse - the outside fabric I got from an estate sale for $1. I liked the vintage look of it!

I bought a purse from the thrift store just because I wanted to take the magnetic snap out of it and re-use it. So as I was taking apart the purse, I decided that I really liked the shape of it - especially because it had a flat bottom. (The others I've made don't) So I completely dismantled it and have reused it numerous times now as a pattern! Here is the first one I've made from my new 'pattern' The inside fabric is cloth napkins that were a wedding gift - I don't do cloth napkins so I repurposed them :)

The other night my niece Hollie brought me a card and letter she'd made me. The letter was apparently her Christmas list for me. It said, "Dear Sissy.....I want for Christmas a handmade purse and Taylor Swift CD." She's seen a couple purses I've made so I assume that's where she came up with it (and she knows I like Taylor Swift). How can I not fulfill that cute girl's wish?! So I had to make her a purse :)
I totally had to save the best for last.
Oh my crap! I wanted to make a purse for myself using my new 'pattern' so I found some fabric I liked and made this!
Can I just say it again? Oh my crap! I love it! I'll be honest, I squealed after I sewed the ribbon onto the outside. How stinking cute is this?! I am totally in love. Love, love love! I'm so glad I hadn't picked this fabric for a gift, cause I'm here to tell ya - someone would be without a gift! No joke. :)

Haddie's 2nd Birthday

My little girl turned 2 today, can you believe it?! My goodness, how quickly time has passed. My sweet baby isn't a baby anymore! I remember everything about her being born - she should still be tiny!
She had such a fun birthday! She walked around all day singing "Happy Birthday.....................TO YOU!" She even said Happy Birthday Momma at one point, until I could convince her that it was HADDIE'S birthday, not Momma's.

She looks so interested in her Elmo card from Grandma Leslie! You'd almost think she could read it :)

Oh how we love Dora in our house. Grandma Ronda gave her a Boots stuffed animal - it goes right along with the Dora one that her Great Grandma Phenes gave her.

Grandma Leslie's puppy Gus provided her birthday cake. Cousin Kambri insisted on Gus bringing HER a Dora birthday cake for her birthday, so apparently that's a new tradition.

Oh, my. Did I mention we love Dora? Holy stinking cow! 4 books, 3 stuffed animals, flashlight, PJs, 2 washcloths, hooded towel AND her talking Backpack. Plus there's more under the tree for Christmas! Nuts, I tell you.
This video is from this morning. It's kinda long, but totally cute! She likes to repeat Backpack from Dora when he says "Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. Delicioso!" If ya listen you can hear her trying to say it. Silly, silly girl :)

Grandma Leslie decided to show Haddie what her Riding Inchworm does. I got a video of it, too. Oh, how I love my cute, silly momma! Haddie got mad and took her toy from Grandma - She wasn't interested in it until someone else was.
Haddie's Uncle Shaun had to miss her party because he works for the city and had to plow roads tonight. We were sad he couldn't be with us, but he did stop by to tell her Happy Birthday. He came in his big old plow truck with all the lights running. Haddie loved seeing his truck!! We have seen him drive down our road a few times since then and each time she runs to the window and says "Shaun! Shaun, come back!" She loves her Uncle Shaun so very much! They are buddies. Thank you, Shaun, for making her birthday that much more special! You are so good to her.
Haddie felt it necessesary to hit a milestone tonight. After the party I got her into bed - a crib, mind you - and started picking up the house. The next thing I know, she is standing at my side asking me to rock her. I guess we're done with a crib, eh?
So right this minute she is laying in her ladybug tent (another birthday present) with her daddy. They are reading books and Mark keeps threatening to put her back in bed if she doesn't quit playing around. Haha...Oh what fun!

Happy Birthday, my beautiful Hadley. Your Mommy loves you so very much, and I am so grateful I was blessed with such an amazing daughter. You and Daddy are my life - I wouldn't trade you for anything!

Visiting Santa

On Saturday, we took Haddie to Box Elder Credit Union to go see Santa. We figured she would be scared and probably even cry. She acted a little bit shy but no tears! I was so proud of her, she did great! After her picture, while still on his lap, Santa asked her what she would like him to bring her for Christmas. Right then she glimpsed Dad and said 'My Daddy!' in the cutest little voice and reached for Mark. It made Santa laugh and he said 'Oh, I like to hear her say it like that!'

So that's year #3 that she's done well for Santa! (Although her first visit, she was only a week old so I suppose that doesn't count!) Hopefully she'll keep this up - I'd rather have happy, not crying, Santa pictures :)

Little Girl Tutus

Here is a project I finished today. I made a tutu for Haddie for Halloween but she wouldn't wear it - little stinker. But my sister wanted tutus for her 2 girls so I told her rather than teach her, I wanted to make them for Christmas for them.
This is Kambri's:

And this is Hollie's:

I had to borrow little one's bear as a model, as she wouldn't cooperate to model herself.
I had seen a tutorial somewhere online but kinda overlooked it. Til my wonderful friend Tiffany told me I HAD to make one because they're cheap and easy. So we decided to get together one day to do them. One day turned into a week, then my whole family got sick so that turned into a month. Well, I wanted Haddie to have it for Halloween so I finally had to just get the info from her. Here are two tutorial links she sent me:

See Jane Scrapbook Halloween Tutu

KSL Studio 5 Tutorial

I mostly used the Studio 5 one. It was more detailed and easier to follow. Plus the lady gave you variations on doing them, which I loved!
The best way to tie the tulle on is with a slip knot instead of a regular knot, just FYI. It is much quicker and it covers the elastic waistband a little better.
2 more Christmas presents DONE!

Decorating Birthday Cakes

This my 3rd ever decorated cake. She's not gorgeous, but I'm not complaining. I've never taken a class or anything - it's just been a learn-as-I-go kind of thing. I have tons of fun with it, even though it admittedly takes me hours to decorate a cake haha!

Little Girl Aprons

Here are the aprons I've been working on. I didn't use a pattern - I just followed an online tutorial. This is the first one I made, and I followed the measurements from the tutorial.

It was just made with scrap fabric I had. It said this size would fit my Haddie (she wears a 2T) but it ended up fitting my 7 year-old niece. The neck strap was too long for her, even. I also wasn't sure that I liked the pocket to go the full width of the apron.
So here is #2, also made from scraps. Actually, the Dora fabric was a valance that I got brand new at the thrift store for $2. I just wanted it for the fabric :)

I changed the measurements in hope that it would fit my kiddo but it's STILL too big, in the neck strap (again!) mainly. And the pocket hit her knees. The size is about perfect for niece #2 who wears about a 4T.
And #3. I got smarter with the neck strap - I put Velcro on one end so that I could make it considerably shorter and still be able to fit it over her head.

She is complete with binky, bunny and juice! :) This one is my fave of the three. I promise, it's not crooked - It just looks that way in this picture.

1. It fits!
2. I paid attention while cutting the fabric so Dora was centered
3. I like the lace I added to the pocket and the arm holes. It gives it more of a finished look

These are all just a single piece of fabric with the edges turned over. I didn't pay a thing for any of them, so I didn't feel like going to the work of putting a backing on it. Although that would make it look that much nicer.
I will be giving these to 3 beautiful lil girls for Christmas, as they go along quite well with something Grandma is giving them ;) Shh! Don't tell Haddie she was trying on her Christmas present!
AND I have to show off my cute model, who will celebrate her 2nd birthday next week! Can you believe I have a 2 year-old?!

Purses! I Love Purses!!

My apologies! I know I said I'd post these pictures sooner rather than later but alas, time got away from me. I've been super busy lately! My mother-in-law's birthday was on Thanksgiving but we celebrated on Wednesday because this year was my family's year in our rotation (We alternate every-other year celebrating Thanksgiving with mine and Mark's families). So Wednesday morning I made a cake for her birthday, then took her to dinner that evening.
I made pecan pie before I headed to bed, as that was my food assignment for Thanksgiving. Then of course, Turkey Day! Part of that includes Kellie and I sitting down to make our shopping lists from the Black Friday ads.
Got home from Mom's at nearly 10 PM and got online browsing the online Black Friday deals. Finally around 2 AM I logged off and went to bed, only to wake up at 3:30 AM to go shopping with Mom and Kellie. YAY! I love Black Friday. We shopped all day. Seriously. 4:45 AM until 7 PM-ish. Exhaustion!! 1 hour of sleep was certainly not enough. So worth it, though.
So ever since then I've been working on getting my Christmas decorations out, which is a chore! I have a ton - I love decorating for Christmas.
Okay okay, onto my promised blog post! In all of the projects I've worked on lately, one of them included sewing a purse. Seriously, that's the hardest thing I've ever sewn. My skills are very limited. But I absolutely LOVE how it turned out!! Check out those pleats - who knew I could pull that off?!

The blurry picture doesn't do it justice. It's darling. Trust me. :) But it was a little too big for my taste, but Mark's mom liked it so it ended up being her birthday present.
I wanted to try making another one but smaller. So - here's my first attempt at altering a pattern. HO-LY cow, I managed that as well!

The only difference between the two is about 3" in the width. Much better!! So can I just tell you how much fun I've had sewing these? I would love to make like 10 more of them. But I've got a huge list of projects to get done, and I ran out of magnetic snaps so I can't make anymore til I make it to Joann's. Plus, I feel guilty making bunches of stuff for myself.

Next up: Little Girly Aprons!

Crafting In Progress - Do Not Disturb!

I'm SO on a roll here. Seriously, I think I'll be done with Christmas gifts before Thanksgiving! Okay not quite, but I've got a great start on it. I would show pictures, but my family reads this so I must refrain. I have taken pictures though so I can share after the holidays...trust me, I will. I'm totally in the Christmas spirit and I've decided to do mostly homemade gifts. Not just because money is tighter this year, but because I completely enjoy giving gifts that I've made myself. It gives me a sense of pride...I'm very humble, right? Haha!
So here are a couple things that I can share with you. I'm a sewing machine these days. Last year for Christmas I made microwaveable rice bags for everyone in my family. I seriously made 10 of them. And neglected to make one for myself, and I've needed a new one for a couple years now. So I splurged for myself:

Nothing terribly exciting or difficult skill-wise, but I'm personally excited about it.
I saw a tutorial for a plastic bag holder made out of a dishtowel. So Haddie and I made a trip to Dollar Tree and got this dishtowel that matches my kitchen.

I would have hemmed it so it wasn't quite so long but I didn't want to cut off the cute stripes on the bottom. So it will suffice, at least until I find another dishtowel that I like better. For now I love it, though!!
I've made some super cute purses and aprons this last week so those will be in my next post! Watch for them - They are darling! There goes my humility again :)

More Pillows

Remember my curtains from this post?

I've now finished my living room pillows to match them! I've had the material forever, and I even had 2 of them done other than closing up the stuffing hole. Then procrastination set in and they sat in my craft room for 2 months. I've had my sewing machine out lately for some projects I've been doing so I finally made myself finish them. Yay, more things to cross of my list!

Decoupage Gifts

I have had these two projects on my To-Do List forever! And they're finally done :)
This is a shelf my mom gave me when I was an early teen. It was plain, unfinished wood. It has sat unused for years because I didn't know what to do with it. I finally decided to finish it for Haddie's room. I spray-painted it white and originally tried sponging pink paint onto the 3 raised hearts. That wasn't working very well so I decided to decoupage scrapbook paper onto them. I followed it with 2 coats of clear acrylic sealer. It is now ready for use!

These letters I originally bought while pregnant with Haddie. They were plain white and I sponged a different color of pastel paint on each one - pink, green and yellow. They matched her Care Bear bedding and decorations. I've decided that they needed to be re-vamped because I plan to re-decorate Haddie's room. I decoupaged the same scrapbook paper used on the shelf onto these letters and sprayed sealer on them as well.
My camera sucks so the color is distorted. The 'a' is beige, 'd' is dark pink and the 'e' is light pink. The stripes and the 'y' are actually brown, not green. (Seriously need a new camera!)

I want to get a Dora The Explorer toddler bedding set for Christmas for li'l miss. She's thisclose to climbing out of her crib, so we'll be moving into a 'big girl bed' soon. So call me tacky (regifter!), but I'm giving these letters and shelf to Haddie for Christmas as well for her new bedroom.

Scrapbook Expo

Sept 11-12 I went to the Scrapbook Expo at South Towne Expo Center with Mom, Aunt Brenda and Kellie. We spent all day, both days there and stayed the night in a hotel.

Kellie and Mom working on some projects

We each had to have our picture taken with 'Ribbon Girl'. She was a super cute girl from the booth for 'Mom & Me Scrapbooking'. She walked around giving out free ribbon to everyone. She had the most bubbly personality ever! She said her mom told her not to bug people or be obnoxious. So we told her mom how much we loved her!

We got some cute things made and came home with tons of ideas. We bought lots of fun stuff...hair bows, paper, purses, wallets, vinyl, wall hangings, Cricut Design Studio, Xyron etc. Lots of money spent but we had a blast doing it! Here we are each posing with our 'loot'

Haddie wanted to pose with Mommy. She was getting jealous that for once she wasn't in the spotlight.
I have only left Haddie overnight twice. Once when Mark and I went to Anniversary Inn (She stayed with my mom at 4 months 0ld) and then for the expo (Daddy watched her). I totally missed her and couldn't wait to get home to see her.

Dollar Store Wreath

Sarah over at Thrifty Decor Chick made a darling wreath after something that inspired HER. Well Sarah, you inspired my wreath. (Seriously, if you don't follow Sarah's blog, you should. She's quickly becoming my hero. She's a fantastic chick that is all about thrifty decor. I religiously stalk her blog.)
Anywho...I loved her wreath and wanted to try one of my own. The hubby, kiddo and I were at Dollar Tree (frugal is my first, middle and last name!) last week and these were my findings:

A wreath, 2 bags of artificial leaves, some glittery leaf plant poker thingies and an artificial green punkin. I actually ended up using some elongated gourds for my project, which I also got from the dollar store. Read on...you'll see :)

So I spray painted the wreath black because if my wreath showed through the leaves, I wanted it to look a little more 'finished'. I already had the spray paint, which I'd paid $1 for.

I then began hot gluing the individual leaves onto the wreath using a low-temp glue gun. I wrapped some ribbon around the wreath and tied a bow but it wasn't speaking to me.

So off came the ribbon and I finished gluing on the leaves. It was looking a little drab with just the leaves so I needed to spruce it up a bit! Which is where the gourds and glittery leaf thingies came along. I just hot-glued those on as well.
Ahhhh I love it!
In fact, I loved it so much, I made a 2nd one!

Remember this hurricane jar? I decided to spruce it up for Fall! It cost me $3 for this re-vamp. They're hard to see, but in the bottom there are different shaped green and orange pumpkins and gourds. I got all of it at the dollar store as well! I threw in a few leftover leaves from the wreaths for good measure. I'm loving it :)