Hello? Hey....it's been a while...

It seems the closer we get to the end of the school year, the busier it gets!! I know that I have been the BIGGEST slacker poster/visitor/commenter lately, and I am so sorry! And I would totally understand if ya'll delete me off of your Reader...but then you would miss me, so I guess you just have to accept me....flaws and all! :)

So...what has been keeping me away from the computer lately...?

California...just accept that you will NEVER win the battle of the Berries!!

Yep...it is that time of year again!! We went to the Strawberry Festival in my awesome hometown, Ponchatoula!! I don't know what it is about the soil in Tangipahoa Parish, but they grow the BEST strawberries, period...the end. I came back to Lafayette with FIVE flats...YUM!

Anyway, in honor of the festival and in appreciation of my cousin and her wonderful husband for hosting a fun and relaxing gathering at their home every year, I made this for them.

Can you tell it is burlap? Awesome, right? I used a little spray starch on the green stems to make sure they "stood up" and didn't droop once the banner was hanging...it actually worked!!

The Middle Child's Overalls redo got a little strawberry applique makeover...

And The Boy sported this really fun wagon applique! It seems that the wagon has taken over the boy applique trend, instead of the pick-up truck! I used my Embird software to combine the wagon app with a couple of strawberries!!

For Ms. Priss I attempted an argyle look...not sure if it came out right! I used a piece of matching denim from these pants that were made for the Disney trip to display a cute strawberry applique. Some scrap pieces of a knit fabric were used for the diamond shapes...what do you think?

mmmm....strawberries!

Ok...moving on...I really thought the strawberry banner was inspirational and decided to keep the theme going for these Easter Banners!! One for The Middle Child's teacher....

...and one for me! The ingredients for these cuties are orange burlap, craft felt in assorted colors, scrap fabric pieces for lettering, green bias tape (made or bought), and scrap pieces of various shades of green tulle! Oh and the Teacher's received some ribbon-love on the ends, where I left mine plain.

And if you are interested, I made the string eggs last year using a tutorial from The Crafty Crow...which I can't find now, but I googled it and THIS one works just as well! :) I used Elmer's washable school glue...it worked fine, and was easy to clean the kids after :)

There have also been various creations made for school functions. The Middle Child had Black and White Day last Monday, so of course in true ME fashion, I was busy Sunday whipping this up!

And LOOK...it is reversible so it is like TWO dresses at once!!

I used these sweet ladybug buttons to add a bit of color! Oh, and I KNOW that my pockets are not straight...thanks for noticing! HA!

Ms. Priss had a Book Character parade yesterday. Can you guess whose Biography she chose to base her character on?

The bonnet was made using this SO EASY tutorial!! In case you are interested!

And like I needed another one...

This beauty was my Awesome Man's mother's!! Wasn't nice of his ex to finally give it back? It works beautifully!! The Middle Child has already tried it out and the knee presser lever is a hit!! :)

I hope you all have a nice Easter!! Hopefully I will be back in a more timely manner to show off the rest of what I've been up to!! My AWESOME parents have so generously offered to keep all THREE of my babies next week during Spring Break so I can pull up carpet and try my hand at some concrete floor staining, DIY style...wish me luck!! Oh, and ALL suggestions on this undertaking will be GREATLY appreciated!! Until later...

All About The Mickey

Well, we've been back from our Disney World vacation for about two weeks now, so I guess you've waited long enough to see what has been keeping me so silent here on my blog! Sorry it has taken me this long to update, but since we've been back I've had to clean, do LOTS of laundry, sell Girl Scout cookies then settle up our accounts and deposit LOADS of money...unfortunately NOT into my bank, HA! and take care of not one BUT two sick kiddos with upper respiratory infections...YUCK!! Everyone is on the mend, I am back to my regular laundry routine, and the final Girl Scout cookies have been sold and settled...so get ready for an EXTREMELY photo heavy post!!! :)

Animal Kingdom:


Everyone got a tiger Mickey including my Momma and two nephews! The lone cheetah Mickey belongs to....GUESS!!!


Ms. Priss was the cheetah in our group, but she had a sweet cousin helping her flaunt the cheetah, girl!! :) All of these were cut on my Cricut Expression then sewn on with my sewing machine! The Middle Child was the only "Minnie" with her purple bow and I was able to get another use out of the tiger/LSU ruffled pants I made last fall!! YAY!!

Speaking of LSU...



I promised my brother a shirt, and Ms. Priss liked it so much she had to have one too!

Couldn't leave out the Saints...


This was a machine applique I designed with my embroidery software by merging about three different designs!! LOVE IT!! I am telling you that there were soooooo many Louisiana families at Disney World. We felt right at home in our LSU and Saints apparel!! This shirt was done for my 9 yo nephew, he was so excited....well as excited as a 9 yo boy can get and still look cool!! ;)


The Middle Child had an outfit for ALL EIGHT DAYS of our trip!! WHEW! But thankfully I was able to use ruffled pants that were already made, and I found a couple of bargains in the clearance bins that just needed to be appliqued or embellished!


The yellow polka-dot pants were $2 at Walmart.


This T-shirt was a size too small which made it very short at her tummy. So I added the polka dot ruffle and viola!! I LOVE the multiple Mickeys!! The gingham ruffled pants were part of her Halloween costume, so they were already done!! Oh, did I mention that I will be adding "action" shots? I ran out of time trying to finish outfits and didn't take pictures before I packed them...so there will be LOTS of action shots to display some of the sewing I did!


Ms. Priss is soooo hard to make pants/shorts for. She has such an odd body type that it gave me FITS trying to get the pants to fit her backside withOUT having too much "crotch" hanging down in the front. Any and ALL suggestions are WELCOME!!! I ended up doing lots of creative cutting and folding/sewing around the waist where the casing for the elastic was!!

The Boy's shirt is just the left over fabric from a Mickey cut out!! I used my machine to sew around the outside square, but the Mickey silhouette was too hard so I ended up using some chunky red embroidery thread and did a running stitch. It is hard to see in this picture, but I really liked the effect!

Oh, and I must tell you that the Autograph Books I made all of the kids were a HIT!! They got loads of compliments from all of the characters that talked, and a couple of thumbs up from the ones that didn't!! And I am happy to report that they all used their backpacks during the whole trip!! YAY!

We had dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table where The Middle Child wore her Cinderella dress that her Grammy and Poppie gave her for Christmas. So I coordinated every one's outfit around her Princess dress. This is for Ms. Priss.

This is a machine embroidery applique. I used clear vinyl to give it the "glass" effect for the slipper, and it's hard to see but it says, "if the shoe fits..." HA!

For The Boy...

The pants I made last Spring, so the shirt was all that was needed. Even Mom and Dad got in on it!

My husband had a TON of shirts from the last company he worked for that were just sitting in a bag in our closet. I used a lot of creative Mickey's to cover the company logo!!

Epcot:

The tie-dyed shirt was $1 at Walmart!!

The Earth Mickey is a combination of machine appliqued circles for the ears, and a Filled stitch machine embroidery design. I did one for my husband too...sorry no photo!

Here are two outfits of The Middle Child's that were $2 a piece from Walmart last Fall.

The tees were screen-printed with a peace and apple design that I covered with Minnie's. You can see the screen print through the green Minnie a little bit.

But it was still a cute outfit!!

Happy (belated) Mardi Gras!!!

For the boys...two of these were for my nephews, the other was for The Boy.

I am sorry to say that I didn't get a good "action" picture of my girls' Mickey's. I could probably do one now, but I haven't had the time!! Maybe it will pop up in my slide show! HA! The yellow fabric in Ms. Priss' pants is denim!! I LOVE it! I found it in the clearance bin at Joann's for $2!! I had enough to do these capri's, and the ruffled shorts that went with the tie-dyed peace Mickey!! SCORE!!

Me and The Husband!! Another "creative" way to cover that old company logo!! My shirt is a tissue tee aka REALLY THIN SHIRT!! So I had to use a BIG Fleur de Lis and a couple of Mickey's to keep myself "covered"!! ;) I really liked the effect!

And last but not least...we couldn't leave the Dinosaur shirt at home...

This was originally a Santa Hat Dino that I cut the Santa Hat off and added a New Year's Eve Party hat then cut that off to give the little fella some Mickey ears!! What will he wear next?? Stay tuned...

WHEW!! that was a very long post with TOO MANY pictures!! Thank you for your time! :) So when all was cut and sewn I ended up doing 38 shirts, and 11 pairs of ruffled pants...and because I am such a procrastinator it was all done in a 2 week time period!! I've got to start earlier next time!!! :) Enjoy your day...Spring is here and we are having GORGEOUS weather! Next up, sewing for Easter!! Until later...

Love...the Crafty Way!

Just some eye "candy" for you today!! :) Now you know why I've been so busy...still working on things for Disney World, and Mardi Gras is right around the corner!



Love Banner...burlap and vinyl table cloth letters!

These were my Contact Paper crafts featured at crafytammie...

Some hand stitched hearts...

LOVEly hair accessories...

Heart Yo-yo tutorial...here!!

Petti-Tutu tutorial at my local girl's AWESOME blog...Wildflowers & Whimsy...Thanks April!!

Hand stitched Owl applique from the AMAZING Kimara and Michelle over at Wee Folk Art! Thanks as always ladies!! :)

And some Valentines (plus about 20 others NOT pictured) for my girls' classes!

Well, that about wraps up my Valentines for this year!! I had so much fun perusing the bloggy world looking at all of the great tutorials and projects for this year!! Can't wait for next year!

Happy Valentine's Day!! Until later...