Ruffles and Stuff!!

I thought I would confuse some folks by putting a cute little pink dress at the top of my post.  YES I am having a boy.  And NO I have yet to make him anything....except I think a few burp cloths a couple months ago maybe.  BUT I am REALLY going to miss ruffles and stuff .....and pink.....and butterflys.....and dresses.  SOOOO I decided to get it out of my system and off of my to-do list.  PLUS (drum-roll please) SANTA BROUGHT ME THIS.....

I know what you are thinking....was she a good enough girl to deserve that???? NOPE, but he brought it anyways and I am not going to complain.  I LOVE IT!!!  I have done very little except watch the instructional DVD about 10 times and sew on a bunch of scraps, but I LOVE IT!!!  Anyway....enough about my love life.  I decided to start off with knits because they are the little buggers that give me such a hard time. 

SOOOOO I used MY OWN TUTORIAL from days past (which by the way was my MOST POPULAR TUTORIAL OF 2010) and made a little onesie dress and ruffle butt-cover for my new BFF Rilee McKenna who was born a couple days before Christmas.  She is my new favorite RED HEAD:)  I am not sure about my friends and their ability to produce red heads, but there are sure a lot of them in my life these days..ha ha!!!

My new serger (yet to be named) did not help with my inability to sew ruffles on straight, but I still am in love with this little ruffle butt....I cannot wait to see it all filled up with a little teeny tiny diaper bum....CUTE!!!

I broke out a 5 pack of onesies, and only used up this one, so watch out because I am PRETTY sure there are a few more ruffley pink projects in my future.  AND THEN I PROMISE I WILL MAKE SOMETHING BLUE FOR MY LITTLE BOY....PINKIE SWEAR!!!

Meet Ginger...

EVERYONE....meet Ginger.  She is a sassy little gingerbread girl with wild piggies and crooked buttons.  Me and Ginger have been spending the last couple of days together and have become REAL good friends. 

Here is her story...

A few months ago I had this crazy idea that I wanted to make Emersyn a little Christmas outfit.  Nothing fancy....just fun.  I could not get the idea of gingerbread out of my head....and decided on a gingerbread-ish skirt.  I bought the supplies and let them sit in my craft room and wait and wait and wait....until December 22 rolled around and I could not stand the thoughts of wasting a bunch of fabric, rick rack, and a plain red shirt.  Waste not Want not....right????  So I started again on my little idea.

I used THIS tutorial from FROM AN IGLOO for the skirt.  Kinda Gingerbread-y right???? 

I decided I also wanted a Gingerbread Emersyn...cute little girlie with pig tails and a sense of humor. 

She is NOT exactly what I pictured, but she is kinda growing on me.

AND I finished them at 11:55 on the 23rd...so technically I was not making her Christmas Eve outfit ON Christmas EVE...PHEWW.  NOW the moment of truth...trying them on.  Since I have had 2 late night sewing sessions, I have not actually been able to measure Em AT ALL.  SOOOO this was kind of a GUESS AND CHECK sorta outfit.....except I have been able to check and have thus far ONLY GUESSED!!!!  Wish me and Ginger luck tomorrow:) 

Homemade for the Holidays

Last year I went crazy making quilts and quilts and TONS of homemade gifts.  THIS year I only made ONE.  SERIOUSLY...one.  Kinda sad, but WAY easier:)  The one I chose to made was for Emersyn's BFF and partner in crime Delaney.  I saw the pattern, thought they needed matching aprons, held onto the pattern and fabric for 2 months and waited until the VERY last minute to finish ONE (Em's will have to wait) before Christmas.  YAY!!! 

Here is my owl apron on my two year old sized model "Bunny."  Doesn't she look happy with her new apron????:)

The pattern for this apron is by THE APRON LADY DESIGNS.  I bought mine at Craft Warehouse, but I looked it up online and found it for sale.  I also found this ADORABLE lady bug version which is what I SHOULD have made for Laney BUG, but TOO LATE!!! DARN!

The diretions for this apron were not great, but if you have sewn a bit, you can figure it out.  Mostly it was just missing things like---right sides together---or where to actually sew.  Minor things like that--ha ha.  Anyway...it all worked out ok and was a pretty quick project. I kinda love rick rack EVEN more now than I did before owl looked at me with those big Rick Rackey eyes.

Happy Holidays from Me and Bunny!!

Mission Accomplished!!!

Sometimes I wonder what has been going on at my house....we are always busy, but it seems that not much gets accomplished.  Last week was FOR SURE one of those weeks.  What WAS I up to???  I was making necklaces of course....wasn't everyone????  NO???  Hmmmm??? 

Well I was.  I was making necklaces for the Young Women of my ward. 

Next year's theme is THE THIRTEENTH ARTICLE OF FAITH, so I decided that BELIEVE kinda wrapped it up in a suitable one word stampable necklace theme:)

I used my good old 5 dollar Harbor Freight stamp set and set to work....FAIL.  I am not sure what the deal was, but I could not get one complete necklace stamped without an ugly mess up.  I went through TOO many washers to count.  Then after giving up...I tried again and got into the groove.  PHEWW too because I had NO other ideas for a Chrismas present for the girls.  Then after I got the hang of it I spent countless hours on my garage floor (not fun for my big pregnant body) stamping my little heart out.  Seriously EVERY time I headed out to the garage Emersyn would say "mommy where are you going NOW???"  I would tell her that I was going to make more necklaces....."AGAIN!!!!"  She kept coming out to tell me to be quiet too.  I am not sure if she was referring to the hammering or the angry words, but either way she was ready for me to be done!!! 

I printed up cards with the 13th Article of Faith on the inside and clipped the top of the card so the necklace would stay attached. 

Added this cute little clip art (found in internet land) to the front of the card.

AND for the back....improvizing.  I could not figure out how to keep the necklace looking cute, so I searched my house and found a simple solution.  You know those snack sized zip lock bags that really don't fit anything usefull and come in boxes of a like a million and NEVER get used.  Well I have a big pile in my messy zip lock drawer that NEEDED a new home.  SO I cut them in half and taped them to the back of the card.  Kinda ghetto maybe, but did the job. Voila....necklace holding cards. 

Now this is one of those crafts that is not really very fun....not very easy....and I will probably never do again....BUT I did like the finished product.  SO the moral of the story is this.....

making 1 or 2 stamped necklaces=Fun and cute 

Making 30 stamped necklaces=More stress than its worth

Just sayin!!!

Where has Baby Jesus Gone???

What do you do when Baby Jesus goes missing (gasp)???? FIRST, you have a 2 year old wandering around looking for Baby Jesus.  THEN you have a 28 year old Daddy digging through EVERY square inch of your home in search of Baby Jesus.  You EVEN see an 8 month pregnant lady get on her hands and knees and look under couches, beds, and chairs.  THEN you have SAD:( wisemen and Mother Mary have a whole sad little production about how much they miss Baby Jesus and how they need to go out and find him.....even the sheep. 

AND THEN you finally break down and do the obvious....EBAY!!!  YES for only ten bucks you can have a new Baby Jesus shipped right to your door (maybe) in time for Christmas.  PHEWW!!

Craft Day TAKE 2!!!!

A few weeks ago MY GIRLS and I got together to make these cute Christmas Countdown blocks from Makia Creations.  We had food, fun, crafting, and candy....not much more a girl can want.  I loved the idea of getting a full craft kit in a box and not having to go anywhere and find the materials....that was the plus side.  The DOWN SIDE...no instructions in the box (frown).  If I had ever made anything similar to this, no instructions would have been fine, but I was at a loss as to how to modge podge, stain, or use vinyl.  I know that is a lot to be retarded at, but still.  I was forced to go to their website and get a video tutorial that was only slightly helpful.  ANYWAY....the pluses make up for the negatives in this case because I loved my finished blocks.  BTW...the picture is not of MY actual blocks--not because they are not super cute---but because I am to lazy to take a picture and then download it.  But MINE are super cute and sitting on my mantle (with the wrong number on them again---darn those days for changing EVERY day).

Anyway...I was thinking about my blocks and how much fun I had making them and decided....

HEY GIRLS....IT IS TIME FOR ANOTHER CRAFT DAY IN JANUARY!!!!

I am STILL really in love with this little guy...

CUTE CUTE CUTE!!! BUT I would really like one of these....

I am in love with the WONKY heart!!!  PLUS do you know what happens in FEBRUARY besides Valentine's Day?????  YEP.  I get to be NOT PREGNANT again!!!!!! SHOUT IT FROM THE ROOFTOPS!!!!  If you have a group of friends who likes to craft, I would TOTALLY tell you to go check out MAKIA CREATIONS.  They have cute stuff with NO STRESS!!! 

SO LADIES....Let's make a date for January!!!!!

One line a day journal

A while back I was cruising around THIS blog, and found a link to a super cute journal.  I MEAN SUPER COOL, CUTE, AMAZAING, USABLE, and FUN journal.  I looked at it, thought it was a good idea, and then went about my day.  BUT THEN I was cruising around Amazon (is that not what you do to find Christmas presents???)  and found the ACTUAL journal from that post.  SOOOOO cool. 

Now I didn't really get it until I clicked on the book (on the Amazon page) and looked inside.  It is a five year journal, but each day of the year has a page.  SOOOO January 1st will have 5 entries (one for each year for 5 years) on it.  That way you can look back and see what was happening the previous year (or 4 years) GET IT???? 

PLUS you can only write a sentence or so.  I would imagine writing a funny kid comment or a one liner to remember that day.  HOW FUN!!! 

I have not ordered this yet...YET, but it is on my to do list.  SOMEDAY!!! 

Also on my to-do list....make a cute area in my house so that "cute little journal" has a nice comfy home....Maybe I better just let it live over at Camille's house:)  This picture was shamelessy stolen from her blog by the way...at my house "cute little journal" would probably be lost at the bottom of the toybox right now OR lost under the pile of crap on my coffee table...just sayin'!!!

Stocking 411

I had thought about posting a tutorial for making a stocking, but then I found this great one on UCREATE.  edit: Here is another great tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew....you cannot go wrong on that blog!!!  Why reinvent the wheel right??? 

The only thing I did differently was to cut my outside from a pillowcase so that it had the cute cuff already---no folding.  You could also use the top of a sheet to get the same cute cuff.  Happy Stocking-ing:)

It's beginning to look a BIT like Chrismas!!

I spent some time last week making a few Christmas stockings.  I used up some more of my vintage fabrics and had some fun making unique stockings. 

Did anyone elses' brother have these football sheets growing up???  I think every boy in our family did.  I thought a football stocking would be SOO fun for a little boy or a BIG little boy:)

This yellow one was made form a pillowcase, so I did not have to make the cuff...so much easier!!!

I listed these in the Etsy Shop, but I plan to make few more this week.  If I remember to take pictures I might post a tutorial soon...no promises though.  I also have to clean up my NEW craftroom/old spare room, send out my Christmas cards, find my floor, and take a VERY long nap. 

busy books

Am I the only one with a blog who has not created a busy book yet???  PROBABLY!!  BUT they just seem like a lot of work....I am a bit lazy when it comes to crafts.  Not really lazy maybe, but I need some instant payoff....not a craft that takes days and weeks and tons of supplies and STILL might look like poop.  Just sayin!!!  I found this cute busy book the other day on Amazon and put it RIGHT in my cart.  THEN I remembered that I was done shopping for Little Miss Emersyn for Christmas, so I saved it as a birthday idea.  OR an I am getting a new brother and need a gift GIFT.  BUT I thought I would share the link in case you need a cute gift for a kiddo in your life.

I realize you COULD make these pages on your own, but for 30 bucks, I am not sure it is worth it.  That sounded LAZY huh???  I think these ones are so cute and would come in handy during church or on a car ride.  And just imagine if your kid ACCIDENTLY learned to tie their own shoe....SCORE!!!  Anyway...I just wanted to share my good find.  I hope Christmas shopping is going well for you....I am still sticking to my online only shopping....I CANNOT WAIT FOR THE PACKAGES TO START ARRIVING AT THE DOOR!!!!