Spring Events have taken OVER!!!

Today is the last day of school for Ms. Priss....YAY?? Although I love the lazy Summer days of not having to do much and NO SCHEDULE, being cooped up with THREE kiddos all day/every day can sometimes be trying!!! But with the way I have been running this past MONTH, days of doing nothing will be a welcomed change!! :D And I just want to say "Thanks" in advance to my awesome folks, who will be taking my children from time to time this Summer...it HELPS!!

So what Spring Events have taken over? Well, I have officially "retired" from Girl Scout Troop 043!! We will have new Leaders taking on all of the responsibilities...and I CAN'T wait!! We had our last meeting/ Pizza Party at my house last Friday! 22 girls and some Mommas = a whole lotta chaos and FUN!! I had about 9 of the 3rd graders sleep over as a last hurrah...ummm...fun? Let's just say it was alot like Survivor...alliances were made, then came the betrayal!! If 8 and 9 yo girls are like this...HOW will I handle the teen aged years?? GAH!! But we ended up all friends, and everyone went home happy!!

Sunday was our Awards/Bridging Ceremony, and I was the MC so I had to write a little speech...then actually speak!! Everyone said I did ok...but I know how nervous I was...slip ups and fumbles were involved!! I was also in charge of decorations, that was the fun part. Thank goodness for Dana over at MADE!! She just knows how to put everything together...then shows you how to do it!! :) Ruffled streamers anyone...?

My girls had a fun time ruffling the crepe paper!! It was good practice for learning to stitch a straight line...and because it was 69 cent crepe paper, I didn't stress too much if they messed up!! ;) Basically we just overlapped two colors of rolled crepe paper, put the settings on the longest stitch, turned the tension way up to the tightest setting, ran a straight stitch....and viola!!

The Bridging Ceremony is when a Girl Scout officially moves from one age level to another. All Bridging Patches are some sort of Rainbow, so that is what I went with to decorate our Bridge.

Our Girl Scout office misplaced its Bridge, and couldn't find it in time, so we had to use the Boy Scouts' Bridge. It was nice, but no hand rails for me to hang the Rainbow on...so I had to get creative....kinda cute, huh? Thankfully, it didn't fall down during the ceremony! :D

With the left over crepe paper, I ruffled one color and made flowers.


You know me and my banners! After ruffling the crepe paper, I shaped it into a flower, then glued it to a paper bag. I cut out circles using fancy-edged scissors, then stitched it on some jute twine. Simple, but pretty!

Another simple, pretty, and best of all...CHEAP decoration was giant tissue paper flowers!

These were hung on the backdrop behind the stage, along with the banner!

So as I said...I am officially retired from Assistant Troop Leader, and so is our actual Troop Leader! She has been our Leader since we began 3 years ago as a Daisy Troop, so I wanted to do something extra nice for her.

Of course we all teared up when I gave it too her...although it is not Good-Bye, because her daughter is still in the Troop! :) I put a pretty ribbon on it, just in case she wanted to hang it.

The badges, patches, and pins are all mixed, representing the Daisy and Brownie Troop she led! And with The Middle Child starting Kindergarten in the Fall, I have a feeling that I may have to step up and lead her Daisy Troop, if no other mom does...so don't feel sad for me!! HA!

Ok...since it is Ms. Priss' last day of school, I FINALLY decided on what to make for her Teacher.

It is the Everything Tote from Heather Ross's Weekend Sewing!!! This is the first time I've made this...LOVE IT!!! I will be making one for me...hopefully soon!! Here's the inside...

Very easy to put together. It takes a 1/2 yard of two different fabrics, depending on what you line it with...but WOW!! It is HUGE and carries nicely. I know, I am behind on the Weekend Sewing projects...I've had the book for over a year!! Better late than never, right!!??

So now that GS and the school year is done...I'm free!! Yeah, right. I OWE!! I've missed a couple of birthdays, so I have a few projects that are screaming at me!! First and foremost, I have to CLEAN my sewing room...again!! I don't even want to be in there!! I pulled out one of my sewing machines and sewed on the craft table in the recently redone front room, because it is NICER in there! So neat, and clutter free!! So, that is what I will be doing until you hear from me again...cleaning!! UGH!! Until later...

Dresses, Pillows, and a Room Change

Hello...I'm back!! I know, it took me long enough huh? It seems that my Daddy isn't the only impatient family member I've got...my AWESOME SIL came for a quick visit this past weekend, and she let me have it for not updating my blog fast enough!! So I decided to squeeze in a post just for you Kathi!! xo

So, remember back in February when the wonderfully sweet Tammie invited me to share a tutorial with her readers? Well look what she sent me for my effort...

Sweet, right?? Thanks girl!! Love the earrings!!

Speaking of my sweet friends!! Have you been to visit Kindershop lately? WOW!! That girl is busy...and yet, still manages to post more often than me!! HA!! Anyway, you should definitely go for a visit...she has AWESOME tutorials!! Like this one...

The tutorial is so well written and easy to follow!! I had a little trouble with the construction of the yoke, but that had more to do with my unwillingness to use pins...UGH!! AND once I started cutting, I realized I didn't have enough fabric for the back of the dress...so I just worked with what I had.

I think it came out ok...even if it is a little "dress of many colors" like! :D So I decided that one was not enough, after all Beatrix has to do EVERYTHING in twos!


This one is for Ms. Priss. The pattern is a good size 5t or so, and with a little bit of extra finagaling (real word!) I was able to get a size 8/10 from it!! awesome. I made little matchy headbands for them to wear with the dresses, but can't find a picture. I'm sure we will be seeing these dresses again...the size will last a couple of Easters...YAY!!

So once Easter was over and the kiddos were left at my folks for the week, I went home and got to WORK!!


With the help of my 23 yo, I was able to move all of the furniture (including our piano!!) out of the room and rip up the carpet, which was DE-sgustin!! Thankfully, the garbage was going out that night, and it was actually picked up...YAY!! The prep work on the concrete was the hardest, and most time consuming!! I had to clean them really good! I also had to scrape up paint and caulk spills and fill a couple of cracks. Then I had to go back after it was all dry and scrape the excess concrete filler, sand it, then clean it again!! Waiting for it to dry took a day, then I was ready to spray the acid etching stain on. I used a plain ole all plastic garden sprayer, because if you use a sprayer with metal parts, the acid will damage it and cause it to gunk up! Once the acid stain was on, I was waiting again. Then I had to neutralize it with baking soda and water, scrub it, rinse it, wait for it to dry...again, then RINSE it again!! You have to do these "tests" to make sure all of the stain residue is up before you can apply the sealer. Well, I had to rinse it a whopping FOUR times, THEN go over it with some towels to make sure I got ALL of the residue up. Thankfully, I had a wet vac to help the drying times or I wouldn't have been able to finish it before the children returned!! After I was satisfied that all of the residue was up, I started to apply the sealant! I used an outdoor sealer, because the indoor option was a two-part Epoxy mix...I wasn't ABOUT to mess with that!! I just made sure there was adequate ventilation and applied one coat with a roller brush. I probably should have applied two coats, but 1) I only had enough for one coat, and B) after I applied it, there were little bubbles that were not drying clear so I didn't want to put a second coat on if I was just going to have to strip it off to fix it!! So here it is...



I am happy with the results...and was soooo tired that it could have come out SUPER crappy and I would have been like, "it looks GREAT!!" HA! So I am thankful that it came out decent, and if next year I have to apply another coat of sealer because only one coat wasn't enough...so be it!!

The floors looked so "fancy" in fact, that I decided to paint the walls...last minute, of course.


This paint is supposed to be a primer/paint combo that should have only taken one coat, but as you can see...it should have had two!! Oh well, rustic floors...rustic walls!! HA!!

Anyway...the kiddos came home and I had other pressing matters. Like, what to make my Momma!! I saw this tutorial featured on Sew Mama Sew! and KNEW that I had to make these for her for Mother's Day!!



I LOVE how they turned out. Now, originally I tried the old "trace my kids head on wall with a lamp shining on them"...didn't work well. THEN I tried to have them lay on the floor, head on a piece of paper...didn't work either. FINALLY I found a tutorial that explained how to take a photo and using Photoshop making a silhouette out of it...BINGO!! Worked like a charm! :) Sorry, I can't find the exact tutorial I used...it was on my other computer. But if you Google Photoshop tutorials, there are a TON out there...who knew ;)

So, that is all for now. The Middle Child officially graduated from Pre-K, so she is done for the year...next up KINDERGARTEN!! I know, so FAST!! The Boy will start Pre-K 3 in the Fall, if I can get him potty-trained in time...almost there!! He is no longer REFUSING, now I just have to be more consistent and it will be smooth sailing. Ms. Priss has about a week left before she is out for the Summer, so we've been busy with end of year things and will be having our Girl Scout Award/ Bridging ceremony this Sunday. Friday will be our last meeting and pizza party in our home, so I've got to get cleaning!! :) And the third grade class had their annual field trip to our awesome State Capital!!

Hope your school year is winding down smoothly!! Until later...