Yeah! A Blog Award! Thanks!!

Thank You Brittney from Brittney's Budget Crafts for honoring me with a blog award!

If you haven't visited Brittney's blog before - you really really should! She has some GREAT ideas to share!! ;)

Rules of receiving this award:
1. Thank the person who gave you this award

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

3. Pass the award along to 15 bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic! (in no particular order...)

4. Contact the bloggers you've picked and let them know about the award.

Here we go:

7 things about Me..(This is not easy!)

1. I am a mom - with 2 little ones. As if that's not obvious by the themes for my crafts. ;) I have a 3 year old and and a 4 month old! They give me total joy & purpose....sometimes stress too...but they are AMAZING blessings. I thank God for them every day!

2. I wish I were more organized. My husband loves techy things & I love crafty things & between the two of us & our two kiddos, we keep a pretty crazy home. It's still a home - but I wish it were a completely organized place. I just don't quite know where to begin. I really need someone to help me know what to go ahead and get rid of! ;) Organization is a MAJOR goal of mine.

3. I'm just learning how to sew. I'm not very good yet, but I'm having a great time learning. My Nana is an amazing seamstress & I'm learning what I can from her. She & my mom have the ability to make anything imaginable & I hope to be able to be that way too!

4. I love traveling, visiting new places, new faces & new adventures. I am a pretty spontaneous person with very varied interests. I love exploring & have several places I'd love to visit...but I've lived in OK most of my life. ;)

5. I'm in school, studying Speech Language Pathology.  I have a tremendous desire to use my gifts to help people.  I am currently taking a little bit of time off for our newest addition & I'm very thankful for this time with my sweet kiddos.

6. I really enjoy creating new things. I find it very soothing to make something on my own & extremely rewarding to be able to share my creations with friends who appreciate them.

7. I really enjoy cooking fancy meals...but everyday dinner isn't my cup of tea.  I'm working on that though!!!

I'm supposed to pass this award on to 15 blogs that I found recently & enjoy. It was SO hard to pick 15 - I have so many that I love!  Here are a few of my recent finds (in no particular order) which I think you might enjoy checking out! 
Macey @ Macey's Daily Parade
Shelley@ House of Smiths
Aura@Aura-Joon
Bev @ @ FlamingoToes.com
Bec @ theiheartblog.com
Sonia @Kosmic Chai
Ann @ makethebestofthings
Allison @ Design LIFE
Cole @ Letters From Coco
Dana @ Surviving 4 Kids
Suzanne@ Just Another Hang Up
Diane @ Perfectly Imperfect Life 
Morgan @ Mama Loves Papa
Amy @ Varnish Design
LeAna @ A Small Snippet of Our Lives
Bonus Blog Award! Stephanie @ Sabbe Spot

Why not? :)

T-Shirt Dress & Tie-Tees for Tots - Take 2

After Jonas showed up to Pre-K in one of his tie t-shirts, the teachers there sweetly asked me to make all of the students outfits for the end of the year "graduation" program out of plain white t-shirts.  This motivated me to create my first t-shirt dress.

I was really happy with how that turned out, and was going to go for the same thing...but ran into some difficulties.  When sewing the skirt on, my bobbin ran out of thread after sewing half way around the shirt. I didn't notice & after fixing my mistake, I ended up with a portion of the shirt that I couldn't get the thread off of because it was so deeply woven into the t-shirt that to take the thread out would create HUGE holes. So, I had to get creative.

I had some jersey material on hand that I was planning on using for flowers, but instead decided to make a cute waist-band ruffle. They turned out great!

The Pre-K class made such cute little models for my outfits. That's the biggest task I've tackled sewing so far. I was very proud to see my work on all of those cute little kiddos. I am also excited that now they have something to be proud of  - created all from a simple white t-shirt!

You should definitley give this project a try! It's fun & relatively easy. If you make a mistake - you CAN fix it & your outfit might even look better because of it! Your little one also probably won't complain about being uncomfortable. I know that is a bonus!

Easy Caprese Salad

Easy Caprese Salad

I'm always on the lookout for great recipes that are easy & convenient. After looking at some ingredients I had on hand the other day, I came up with this idea to make an Easy Caprese Salad.  It only took a few minutes (which is very important in my home with 2 little ones) and it tasted delicious.  

A traditional Caprese Salad is usually made up of slices or balls of mozzarella cheese, basil and fresh sliced tomatos. 

I wanted to use my Caprese salad as a complete meal, so I added pasta & baby spinach.  This time, I used Ronzoni Smart Taste Spiral pasta this time, but have also used whole wheat pasta with success. Then, I simply used baby spinach & basil leaves as my base, put one serving of pasta on top, sliced some small grape tomatos (that's what I had on hand) and sliced up some reduced fat low moisture mozzarella string cheese.  I lightly coated the pasta in Kraft's Fat Free Zesty Italian. 

It was SO good & fresh tasting, I just wanted to share.

Hope you enjoy. If you have some quick and easy meals that take minutes, using fresh ingredients, I'd love to know about them.

Fly Away With Me Mobile (Part 2of 3)

Even though I only recently posted the butterfly mobile idea on my blog here, I have actually been working on it since this past winter, in anticipation of my little girl.

After typing up a tutorial, my post was somehow deleted. Much like a sock gets lost in the dryer, my post disappeared from my blog. I was so disappointed that it vanished after putting so much time into it. Has anyone else ever had this happen?  Oh well, so goes life. Enough of my pity party...on with the new tutorial!

I have no idea if this is the "best" method, this is simply the method I used. If you know how to make it easier on yourself or others, please feel free to leave your wisdom in my comments. ;)

I started with a wooden embroidery hoop. I found a spool of metal twine in the bargain bin at Michael's for about .79. It very closely resembles twisty tie line. (Thin gauge wire encased in plastic), but any small wire or possibly even string would probably work. I tied my twine on in pie formation as seen below.

Next I spray painted the whole thing white (wires and all), but I don't have a picture of this step.

I purchased a butterfly punch tool by Martha Stewart, also at Michael's, and created what felt like 100's of butterflies, out of scrapbook paper.

 Then, using a needle and clear fishing line, I createed 2 rows on each line of wire, evenly spaced, one center line and an additional 8 lines on the outer ring, centered between the wires, for a total of 25 strands of butterflies. 

I secured the bottom of each line with a seed bead, both for weight and stability, and tied knots where I wanted the butterflies to "rest" on their lines. So, each butterfly has a knot just below it, holding it in place on its line.

I added one additional butterfly to each row going inward, so the longest row of butterflies, is the center line. Giving it a tiered effect. And, voila! The mobile is complete.  Sorry for the shaky picture, but believe me, the finished result was beautiful! 

 My original plan was to secure this with some decorative ribbon to a hook in the ceiling of my daughter's room. The colors served as the inspiration for the quilt I had my Nana make for her.

When I showed my husband, I held it up under a lamp, and he commented about how it would be  really interesting if I could somehow make it into a lamp. ....I loved the idea, but I will save that for another post!

T-shirt dress

There are t-shirt refashions all over the place right now.  If you'd like to attempt this simple sewing activity, there is a great tutorial over at Just Deanna.

I attempted a refashion using the same fabric I used for my Mother's day Onesie dress.  This time it's 5T, for a friend - after being asked to make these for my son's class' pre-school graduation.  (More about that later!)

My assessment of my first attempt? Not bad! So, I thought I'd share.  I just used a simple boys white undershirt. The entire thing cost me less than $5.00, including skirt fabric. Easy &  inexpensive, perfect!

Fly Away With Me Mobile

What I'm working on next........Something similar to this:

I am so excited I can hardly stand it! ;) This mobile is available from PB Kids for $79.00. I am punching out my own colorful butterflies & making my own. I started today, but will post things as I get closer to finishing.

I was even more excited when I saw some recent posts about butterfly projects on Homemade by Jill. Check out her paper punch art project -it's fantastic! Maybe I'll do that next!

Pictures & tutorial coming soon!

Link Parties

I wanted to make a page for parties I link up to & parties you should check out!  I'll edit this post as I find new fun parties to link to. I don't know how to make these show up on a separate page, but if someone wants to let me in on the secret, I'd love to do it that way!

Mondays:

Tuesdays:

Wednesdays:

Santa's Gift Shoppe & Ideas : 
Spotlight Yourself Wednesdays

Thursdays:

Fridays:

 






Saturdays:

Mother's Day Matching Outfits!

Happy Mother's Day to all of the Mommies out there.

My two little bundles of joy are the best gifts I could ever ask for.  I have never been happier or felt a deeper sense of purpose then when I became a Mom to Jonas & Marin. I love you my sweet babies. Thanks to God for allowing me to be your Mommy I love you so much!

It was on this day last year that I announced to Clint that we were expecting our second child. This year, she's here & almost 4 months old. I did it with a special shirt that my son wore to announce the big news to Dad. He was so little then, but was ready to become a BIG brother! This year we celebrated at a brunch with my Mom & will hopefully get to celebrate with Clint's mom later this week. We have the best Mom's in the world. We are both so incredibly thankful for you and blessed to be able to have such wonderful role-models for our lives and for our little ones. Happy Mother's Day.

After stumbling across some fabric that reminded me of my favorite skirt, I decided it would be fun for Marin and I to have matching Mother's Day outfits. I bought a onesie and decided to attempt to tackle an empire large elastic waistband dress.  I didn't use a pattern, but just kind of played with the material until it looked the way I wanted it to.

After preparing the skirt, the stitches were showing through the elastic, and I decided it needed some kind of band. The onesie was a few sizes too big as well, so I left the band loose at the back to be able to cinch up as needed.  After playing around a bit, I eventually decided to connect the skirt to the onesie with some darting, just to hold the skirt in place, as I figured it may be a bit too large for now. Eventually I will take the two apart and use them as separates, but for now it works really well, and looks so cute on her. I am excited about how versatile this little outfit will be.

Then I decided, at 3:30 in the morning, that Jonas really needed to be included on the fun, because he is my little guy.  I decided to make him a coordinating "tie t-shirt" and even included a little faux "pocket" and handkerchief square to match his sister's skirt.  

LOVE IT!  They were so cute at brunch & I think they really liked their little outfits too. ;) It was a sweet Mother's Day for sure. Even if I sacrificed much needed sleep for sewing.

Enjoy & Happy Mother's Day to you!

P.S. I link to these fantastic parties. Check them out! I'm also doing kid's clothes week!