On the HILL and Looking OVER...

...should I take the plunge??  As I am writing this, the clock is ticking away bringing me closer to FORTY!!  Yep, the BIG 4-O.M.Gosh!!  When did this happen??  Just last week I was 30, getting married and having my first baby!!  WOW, the time has flown by!!  Oh well...guess that means I need to stop PROCRASTINATING so much and actually get things DONE!! HA!  And to help me accomplish things just a little bit faster, here are a few goodies I got for Christmas and an early birthday present!!

My two big Boys gave me a gift card to Joann's, so I picked up a few yards of fabric and a really cool circle cutter!!  See that yellow thingie?  It's made by Olfa and has an 18mm (teeny tiny) rotary blade...which BTW Joann's doesn't carry!!  Haven't used it yet, but it has got to work better than me cutting circles FREEhand!! ;)  My Awesome man gave me those wonderfully shiny and new Gingher Shears!!  I was in DESPERATE need of new scissors!!  And my friend Rhonda was just bragging and going ON and ON about the Bias tape maker she got for Christmas...so that HAD to be my bday present to myself!!  I have used that and it works AWESOME!!  I also got one of these...

It's a Tulip light from OttLite!  It's called the tulip because of the way it looks...and the neck pulls out...

COOL, huh??  I love it, it really adds just the right amount of light to my sewing room!! :)  

Ok...so I know that I have been VERY absent from the bloggy world for a while...I've been busy being LAZY again!!  It must be this crazy January weather!  Our 24 year old finally left my couch and went back to his apartment (and he is doing well, thanks everyone who asked about him!)...so I couldn't use him as an excuse to NOT take down my Christmas stuff...so I did that, and some cleaning...and LOTS of laundry!!  And then the birthdays, other than my own, began!!

One of Ms. Priss' friends requested a pillow...claiming her AWESOMENESS!!

10 year olds are so FUNNY!!  And while I was at JoAnn's I found some chalkboard fabric...for $3.99/yd!! I couldn't believe it, because I had just priced some on the internet and it was $10.99/yd!!  Is there a difference?  Has anyone gotten this fabric from different places and found them to have varied qualities?  Anyway, I've been wanting to try making a playmat...so Ms. Priss' friend was my official "tester"!

It sewed really easy, and seemed to take the chalk well..even though I didn't read the instructions about how to "prime" it before use!!  Basically you just rub the chalk across the fabric by the width of the chalk, not just the tip.  So I told the little girl to do that!!

I used a vinyl table cloth scrap for the backside, and some bias tape...THAT I MADE!!  I know, plain boring fabric..I could have just used store-bought!  But I didn't have blue...see, that bias tape maker is already paying for itself!! HA!  Anyway, she thought it was super cool, so now I need to make some for my own kiddos!

My nephew turned 7!!  He had an ice-skating party...so FUN!!  He only asked for a wallet for Christmas, so I had NO CLUE what to make for him!!  Then I remember seeing this bag on Pinterest...don't you just LOVE pinterest??!!

It is the Explorer Bag from Chez Beeper Bebe!!  She has some really good tutorials...go check her out!!

I used an Army green canvas for the outer bag, and some fun frogs on a simple cotton fabric.  I really LOVE her choice of fabrics for her bags, but I didn't have any homespun plaids!

I didn't find the bag too hard to do.  Even the accordion pocket on the front was explained well.  Here is the link again for the tutorial.

The Middle Child had a birthday party to attend!!  She was SO EXCITED!!  It might have been her first one that wasn't family related!  So I went to one of my old stand-bys...

Just can't go wrong with a monogrammed hooded towel! :)

My SIL's mom is going to a big Mardi Gras bash and requested an adult-sized tutu...

This was the first adult-sized one I've done...and I underestimated the amount of TULLE that would be needed for it!!  I had to go back to the store TWICE!!  It is 22 inches long!!  That's 45 inch strips I had to work with!!  Once I had all the tulle, it actually went pretty fast....except for that leaving to go BACK to the store part!! ;)

Ok..that's all I've got from me...for now!  I do want to take a minute to BRAG about Ms. Priss!!
She and her partner won Honorable Mention in the Fourth Grade Social Studies Fair!!

They did it on the History of the Teddy Bear, which is named after President Theodore Roosevelt...which I didn't know...until we started this project.

Her partner was my friend Kathy's daughter...those two are BFFs so of course they would partner up! :)  I am so proud of the work they did...and Kathy and I did a little too ;)

Kathy even found a copy of a 1908 Sears and Roebuck catalog with an advertisement for Teddy's Bears!!  It is in the previous picture with the red box around it.

Ms. Priss and I put together the example fabrics and stuffings wall.  I didn't have any "real" looking fur fabric, so I ended up knitting some squares of wool, angora, and something synthetic and fuzzy that LOOKED like real fur!!

Ok..it is after midnight and I am OFFICIALLY 40, so I must bring my old and tired self to bed!! HA!  Have a great weekend!  Until later...

Christmas Gifts, and an EVENTFUL 2012!

How was everyone's Christmas and New Year's?  I hope Santa was good to you all! :)  We had a wonderful Christmas!  My children were all HAPPY with what they received!  And of course, that made ME happy!  While I was working on the school's ART Symposium, our girls really started getting into art themselves, so they were excited when Santa brought them LOADS of art supplies, easels, and even a fancy drafting desk with a cool ratcheting effect that makes the desktop raise up into an easel!

Our New Year's, on the other hand....well it was EVENTFUL!!  While I was at my folks with our little ones, my Awesome Man and our two BIG boys decided to go to a nearby Daiquiri place to shoot some pool...they should have just stayed HOME!!  While walking back to the house, our oldest was "clipped" by a car...YIKES!!  Well, his arm was fractured beyond a simple cast, so he had surgery yesterday to put a plate and TEN pins in his arm!!  He is recovering now, and will be back in the family fold soon...which means my house has been FULL and turned UPSIDE down!!  I am thankful that it wasn't much worse than that...but will be soooo happy when we get back to our normal UNeventful routine!! :)  Let's HOPE that is not a preview of how the rest of 2012 will be!!

So back to Christmas...I was able to finish all of the gifts for our extended family!  Of course, there are ALWAYS I.O.U.s, but for the most part everyone was happy with the gifts I made them.

For my three nephews, I followed this tutorial from Noodlehead!  It was so easy, and came out GREAT!

I used some scraps from my discarded Jeans stash!

And of course, it had to be LSU inspired!!  GEAUX Tigers!!

I didn't use any type of interfacing, so they are not bulky or stiff!  Just as a little extra, they also got an iTunes gift card to start the year off right! :)


For my baby sister, a nice little wristlet to hold her GC!  I've been wanting to make one, and would LOVE to have one for myself for the times I am just "running in" places and just need my keys and cell phone!  I found this really great tutorial...and it sewed up really quick, so I will be making myself one soon! :)

I lined it with  simple navy Kona cotton.

And just for fun...I used some of those Crown Royal bags she gave me a couple of years ago when I made her lap quilt.

The other one is for my cousin, but I found out that he was in the hospital with pancreatitis(sp?)  and decided it best NOT to encourage bad habits!! ;)

For my sweet niece, an art apron!

I've been wanting to try the iron-on vinyl FOREVER!!  It works really well!!   For the pocket, I ironed on the vinyl then folded it so the outside AND inside would be protected.  The backing is just a simple flannel for softness.

Now I owe ALL three of my children one!!

My cousin requested a simple A line with ribbon ties for her daughter to wear as a cover up over her gymnastic suit.

Of course, I couldn't just leave it simple! :)  I made it reversible, so she could use it TWICE as much!!

I even sewed two ribbons back-to-back to complete the look!!

For one of my other cousin's grand kids, I went with something old and tried something new!!  For the NEW, a ruffled drawstring bag!

I used the simple cotton bags that I embellished for our Disney trip as a template.  I decided to shorten the straps though because they were just a little too long when the kids wore them.

For the bag I used a cotton flannel and the ruffles were some cotton scraps.  For the boy cousin, my old standby...a cape!!

Well, that's it!!  Now that Christmas gift sewing is over I can finish up some orders, and start sewing for upcoming events!!  I kinda started already...for two of my nieces I did some quick bows!!

Laissez les bon temps rouler!!!  Mardi Gras is February 21st!!  We missed last year because we were at Disney World...NOT that I'm complaining!! :)  So this year I am super excited for the FUN to begin!!

And speaking of FUN!!  How much fun was the SMS Giveaway day this year??!!!  I LOVED how organized it was!  They did such an AWESOME job!  And I WON something!!

Isn't it soooo cute??   Check out Jenn's blog, Make Mine Blue.  She has a much better picture than mine!!  Thanks Jenn, I LOVE it!!

Well, that's the wrap up!  Now I have to take down all of my Christmas stuff, and get to work on those orders...and a couple of birthday gifts!!  Have a great weekend!!  Until later...

Ready for Christmas....ALMOST!!

Today is the first day of my children's Christmas break, and I NEVER thought I would feel....RELIEVED!!! With all of the Christmas programs, class parties, and just general running around I've been doing, I am happy that for the next couple of weeks I have NOWHERE to go and NOTHING to do!!  Well, except for family Christmas celebrations and gifts that still need to be made...is it really only FOUR days until Christmas??  I've got to start SEWING...GAH!!!  So this is what I've been doing for the last couple of weeks...oh, as usual it is kinda photo heavy!  :)

I know they have some fancy intros, and blog buttons that you can use....but I have NO TIME for all of that!!  SO...this is my version of I MADE SOMETHING THAT I SAW ON PINTEREST...

I have lots of the really thick cardboard left over from my Symposium tent...I am putting it to good use!!  I cut out my ornament shape, primed the cardboard, then used Tempera Paint and glitter glue.  I was going to use some fancy lettering, but ended up with a Sharpie instead! :)  I'm really happy with how it turned out...now I just need to spray it down with a clear sealer before I store it!

Next I converted my Literary Pumpkin into a Christmas tree.

I did it really fast, so my pages aren't exactly folded evenly...oops!  I was moving from project to project so quickly...and my dining table was ALWAYS filled with crafts in various stages of completion!  Thankfully, Ms. Priss' fourth grade teacher is a little crafty herself...so I didn't have to come up with this project OR go to school to help do it!!

Don't you just LOVE it?  So simple, but so sweet!  Not our Elf, Rex...he just liked hanging out on the cool wreath that Ms. Priss made.  It is a wire coat hanger, approximately 300 sandwich baggies...the ones that fold over, not zip, and a sweet little velvet bow!!  I LOVE crafty teachers that think outside of the paper and foam box!! :)  I made up some treats for the class...also ASOP (as seen on Pinterest!).

The original printable called them Grinch Pills!  I didn't really want to use "Pills" in anything I was giving to children..so I came up with my own saying...

I used a free SVG file and my Cricut to cut the "boxes", then Ms. Priss glued on the label.  Her class loved them!  The fourth grade hallway celebrated a Cajun Christmas.  All of the parents were asked to send in a food that was native to Louisiana...of course I made a King Cake...

A CHRISTMAS King Cake!! :)  And for the Teacher's gift...a bunch of things I've been wanting to make, but never have...thanks SMS for compiling some AWESOME tutorials :)

They were so FAST and EASY to make that I did the same for The Middle Child's and The Boy's (not pictured) teachers...

As you can see, I didn't have the fancy key FOB hardware, so I just used two key rings!  I couldn't find them locally and had no time to wait for an internet order!!  The Middle Child's Substitute Teacher didn't get the Channeled Rice Therapy bag...I was already doing TONS for her and running out of time!   I did mention that my daughter's Kindergarten teacher is out on Maternity Leave, right?  Well, that left our Sub to do ALL of the Christmas programs and parties...and not knowing really what/how to do it!!  Enter the most AWESOME Room Mom EVER...HA!  More like the CRAZY person who thinks she can do it all....so I send a letter to all of the parents telling them that I am HI-JACKING the class Christmas party!!  I planned and bought all of the craft supplies, and they just needed to send snacks!!

The first craft was pretty easy...Jingle Bell necklaces.

But I didn't like the idea of just plain pony beads, so we used wooden beads and some snowflake buttons.  I also found some metallic stretchy cord, which I liked better than any other alternative.

The next craft was a little more work...for me and the class.

They were originally supposed to make a Christmas tree centerpiece using sugar ice cream cones, icing, marshmallows, M & Ms, gum drops, etc...but I thought that would be WAY too messy and time consuming! So I googled some other options and came up with this 3D paper version.  It is a sheet of green cardstock cut in half width-wise, then stacked together and folded to cut a symmetrical tree-shape.  Once the tree was cut, I sewed a straight stitch down the middle to make it stand on its own.  We used foam stickers, sequins, glitter glue, and strands of Mardi Gras beads to decorate it!!  It took the longest for the class to craft, but still much better than ICING a cone!! :)

The last craft was more involved for me, but I figured there are enough paper and foam ornaments on my tree and wanted something a little more sturdy.

This is the back side of the ornament.   This was another ASOP project that I thought was just too sweet not to do.  The materials used are aluminum can lids...cut using a safety can-opener which leaves a nice smooth edge, scrapbook paper, mod podge, and various trims hot-glued around the edge! There is also a picture of the child that is on the front of the ornament.  Can I tell you HOW IMPORTANT it is to have a good CIRCLE cutter for this craft!!  I bought the Martha Stewart one at JoAnns using a 40% off coupon!  It really saved time and my SANITY!!  I did mostly ALL of the preliminary for this craft...I didn't really want to be sitting in class hot-gluing ANYTHING...so all the class had to do was write their name and the year on the back and glue their picture on the front! :)

After all of the crafting, the class had just enough time to play a game...Pin the nose on the Snowman!

The Boy's Pre-school had a Happy Birthday Jesus party where Happy Meals from McDonald's were brought in...so I had NOTHING to do for them...except make a couple of initial ornaments for The Boy to pass out!

Notice how mostly ALL of my pictures only include the craft for my child??  That's because this momma was so busy making sure everything got done on TIME, that I forgot to grab my camera to snap pictures of all the prep work covering my table...GAH!!  Oh well, when you are trying to do it ALL...like a CRAZY person, I guess somethings gotta give!!  HA!

Ok...so this last item was done for a friend who needed it before Christmas...some jeans that her daughter outgrew in length!

I've never done a TRIPLE ruffle before...what a PAIN!!  Looks cute though.  Here is why it was needed before Christmas...

It needed to match this shirt, but also be wearable after Christmas.  She chose the colors, because those are the colors her daughter mostly wears...whatever works...right?

So...FOUR days until Christmas and I have about TEN gifts needing to be cut, sewn, and monogrammed...then of course WRAPPED!!  Think I'll make it??  Here's hoping we all have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!  Until later...

Still Busy...but it's not all CHRISTMAS!

So when I was done with ART Symposium at the Girls' school, I thought for sure I would be starting on my Christmas crafting....oh how I was wrong!!  You may try to leave...but they will PULL you back in!!  Kathy and I received a distress call from another mom who was in charge of the Library Book Sale decorating...yep we answered it!!  I guess when you do something crafty and put it on display, you should expect to be asked to do MORE!!  So I showed up to a "paint party" at the mom's house thinking I would be putting a day into creating a panel for the hallway leading to the school Library...NO ONE was there...except for the mom in charge...and she was sick!!  So I left her house with THREE panels to decorate!!  The only "instruction" I was given was that the theme was "Wild about Books"!  

Here is the first one:

I wanted it to be "girly" so I could put some Girl Book titles on it!  I had the hippo from Fantasia in my head and just went from there.  The panel is actually a giant foam board covered in bulletin board paper.  I then used wood paneled Contact paper to make the "tree", and some more paper for the leaves.  The hippo is tempera painted on with a tulle tutu glued to the panel.  The giraffe is paper pieced then painted on.  I used hot glue for the ribbon, but Craft Bond glue stick for the paper piecing.  The cheetah is my favorite!!  She was roughly drawn on the paper, then I pieced craft FELT to fill her in!!  I used the Craft Bond EXTREME glue stick...that stuff WORKS!!  I had so much fun doing these panels...but it did take away from my Christmas crafting...oh well...

Here is the second panel I did... 

I wanted to do a "Night-themed" one because of the book Stellaluna!!  I had a whole bunch of craft paper scraps after I cut 22 "V" vests for The Middle Child's Thanksgiving Feast...and I HATE to waste!!  So I used the rolled paper to make the trees!!  Once again, I used the Craft Bond EXTREME glue stick to adhere them to the panel.  Then threw some tempera paint to add "texture"...Kathy must be rubbing off on me :)  I didn't have a lot of time to work on this panel, so I printed outlines of the animals then cut and glued them to the panel.  After, I went over them with tempera paint...worked out much better than me trying to draw or trace all of the animals!!   Thankfully, Kathy saved me from the third panel...she took it and did a Rainbow Fish underwater theme...sorry, no picture!!  So once that was done, I was free to work on other things...but first, I wanted to show you my really QUICK Thanksgiving wreath I did for my momma...

It was my Halloween wreath that I did with the orange drywall tape.  Same scrappy burlap flowers...I just added some thick felt leaves, a different ribbon, and a scrappy "Give Thanks"!!

So I've been knitting....a little...

This was a really quick hat I did for my SIL's new baby niece!!  Her momma sent me a couple of picture texts of hats asking if I could make one...for that sweet babe...OF COURSE!

Her big brother had a birthday in November...this is what he requested...

Spiderman is his favorite super hero...so why shouldn't he have a cape?? HA!  I made it reversible...just in case he realized that Spidey is NOT a cape-wearer!!

 Ms. Priss had a couple of birthday parties to attend this month also...

Pillows are my "go to" gifts these days!!  And headbands...

These are for the second birthday girl...

 YAY!!  A little Christmas crafting!! :)  The last two headbands were actually for Ms. Priss' BFF...she got a bag full of goodies and an I.O.U. from me!!  I promised to make her a pair of jammies, but realized too late that I didn't have enough fabric...GAH!!  So she is owed a trip to the fabric store to pick out her own PJ fabric! :)

I mentioned a couple of post ago about making ornaments with my GS Daisy troop for a swap...well here they are!!

They all did such a good job!!  I brought them white air-dry clay and cookie cutters; floral wire, jingle bells, and some ribbon; and some pre-cut felt circles with the GS logo already stitched on!!  They all picked which type of ornament they wanted to make and went to town!!  I brought them home...under LOTS of protest to let the clay dry and add the hanging ribbons.  The air-dry clay took a LONG time to dry...like a WEEK long of constantly turning to make sure they dryed evenly.  Maybe it is the humidity in LA that makes them take sooo long.  I want to do some with my kiddos...can I put air-dry clay in the oven??

Any way, the swap was cancelled...bummer!!  BUT the girls were sooooo happy to get to keep the ornaments they made, so all ended well!! :)  This month we did some winter-themed tee shirts...

I was just going to paint the mitten on the shirt, but ended up not getting all of the tee shirts in time!!  So I cut the mittens from felt and the cuffs from various fleece and felt scraps.  Then decided to go ahead and monogram all of the girls' names on the cuffs...for FUN! :)  I used a machine blanket stitch to sew them to the shirts...it just looked RIGHT!!

Then  brought them all to the meeting so the girls could put their handprint on them....too cute!!

As you can see...some of the girls still forgot their shirts...and one little girl tells me, "my momma doesn't want me to get paint on my hands..."  WHA-???  So I improvised by putting her hand on the mitten and painting AROUND it...think they can THWART me, huh??  HA!

So wrapping up this super-long post....The Middle Child's teacher has left to have her third sweet baby...which means aLOT of work during pre-Christmas week for this ROOM MOM!!  Anyway, before she left to have her baby BOY...after having two girls, she asked if I could re-fashion her baby swing cover to make it more "BOY-ish".  She sent me the cover and a thrifted bed ruffle...this is how it turned out.. 

Not too bad...but my machine did NOT like all of those LAYERS!!  I finished it and got it back to her a whole day before she left for maternity leave...yay!!

SO this is SMS GIVEAWAY WEEK!!!  Are you participating??  I'll be visiting...so should everyone else!!  Head over to Sew Mama Sew! for the list of link ups!!!   Until later...