Monday, February 28, 2011

Its Sew Fun Tuesday! (2)

Last week was my first Linky Party and it was so fun! Thank you for sharing the great ideas, I can't wait to see and learn more!! 
This list is open to any crafts, sewing projects, recipes. Please do NOT link to just a store or etsy shop. This is for sharing projects, not sales. Please link directly to your post, not the blog homepage Thanks!!

I love followers! And feel free to grab a button to promote my Linky Party!!





Pacifier Clip

New to my store!!

love the ruffly fabric!


Lime green zebra stripes ;)





Friday, February 25, 2011

Fabric Wall Art

I love when I can decorate inexpensively.

I had lots of leftover fabric from my Dolly's quilt, and thought that it would be perfect to use some on the walls to tie it all in together!

This is nothing new. It's quite simple in fact.
1. Buy inexpensive canvases - I bought mine at Michael's when they were half price!
2. Pick your fabrics, if you're lucky like me, you'll have extra scraps from something else used in the room.
3. (optional) embroider or personalize the fabrics. I love any excuse I can come up with the personalize things!
4. Iron fabric well...I thought mine was irone could, and I still see creases!
5. Pull tight over the canvas and staple on the back


So easy, so fun, and makes a great statement!



** Check out the fabulous blogs I'm linking up with, I've listed them here: http://itssewforyou.blogspot.com/p/linky-partys.html

** Check out my Linky Party on Tuesday!
http://itssewforyou.blogspot.com/2011/02/its-sew-fun-tuesday.html

I've been featured!!
The Girl Creative

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Craving Cupcakes!

I'm LOVING all the cupcakes out there, now if only my family would like sweets as much as me and help me eat them...my love of sweets and desire to lose the baby weight are not going together very well!

First off, this felt cake is a-dor-able! My kids love to play in their kitchen and would LOVE if I made them this :) There is Beauty All Around did a fantastic job coming up with this!

Now on to the Yummy Cupcakes!!

1. Vanilla Chai Cupcakes with White Chocolat Buttercream Frosting from Alison's Wonder Scraporium
2. Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting from The Cupcake Challenge
3. Vanilla Cupcakes with Marshmallow Buttercream Frosting from The Farm Girl
4. Sweetheart Cupcakes from Midnight Maniac


5. Ice Cream Shoppe Cupcake from Savings and Stewardship
6. Salted Caramel Cupcakes from Prudently Painted Vintage
7. Hi Hat Cupcakes from The Mixing Bowl Diary
8. Nutter Butter Truffle Cupcake from Inside BruCrew Life


Awesome Decorations:
9. Noah's Ark Cupcake Tree from Sweetened by Kagi
10. Owl Cupcakes from The Madsen's

Yummy Cupcake Alternatives:
11. Mini Oreo Cheesecake from Mrs. Happy Homemaker
12. Cake Cookies from Lil Liz-bits
Can't wait to try making these!

Monday, February 21, 2011

Its Sew Fun Tuesday!

Welcome to my first ever Linky Party!  I know there are a ton out there, but they are so fun and I wanted to start one to look closer at all the great stuff being made out there!

This list is open to any crafts, sewing projects, recipes. Please do NOT link to just a store or etsy shop. This is for sharing projects, not sales. Thanks!!

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

A while back I came across a recipe for Cinnamon Roll Pancakes that sounded delicious! I told my husband about them (he typically makes the kids pancakes on the weekend) and he was sold :)

Typically, this is what he does to spruce them up!

So, when the weekend came for Daddy's pancakes, he searched for the recipe without me and didn't find the same one I had found. His recipe called for flour, and it was pretty lumpy and difficult to put in the pancakes. We tried my recipe the next day, and there was too much butter and the mix was too runny!  This weekend we cut the butter WAY down, and here is what we got:


Perfect! (although a little messy this morning :) )

Here is our preferred recipe:
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Cream Cheese Icing:
2 cups powdered sugar
2 ounces cream cheese 
1tsp vanilla
4 Tbsp milk

We use Bisquick pancakes, I know lots of people out there make their own batter, but the Bisquick is so easy!  We tried it with frosty, and although delicious, we prefer in our house to use syrup and whip cream


or on just plain Maple Syrup :)


Yum! Enjoy :)

Saturday, February 19, 2011

One Month to Win It

Yippee! I'm in One Month to Win it!! THis is the first time I've entered a contest and I'm one of the 12 finalists...now to see if I an make it past week one :)

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Friday, February 18, 2011

Diamond Argyle Quilt

Once Upon a Time I was searching for a quilt pattern for my 3 year olds room.


I came acoss this pattern, and loved it
the size wasn't right, so I stated by cutting apart the pattern and remaking it to fit a queen size bed. I had never sewn diamonds, but thought it's still a straight line, right? HA!

First up, shopping, samples to see what went with the fabrics I'd already purchased!

A big pile of bright colors...

...led to a LOT of diamonds to be cut!

Then it was time to lay it out to determine what order would be best.


I struggled to meet the angles up appropriately! I'll take pointers if anyone has them :)

I tried using an iron on batting, and although it was easier than not using anything to fuse together, I wasn't entirely impressed. I still ended up with lumps and uneven spots. I had laid it on the ground and ironed right on my carpet as it was too heavy on the ironing board, but it still didn't get smooth.

I quilted by "stitching in the ditch" but I don't have a walking foot, so they jumped all over the place!

The colors are bright, the sewing is imperfect...but I love how it turned out

The back is made of large rectangles. I had originally bought the back fabrics for the front, but the big designs didn't work for the pattern, so it became the back! But now it's reversible to another great yet simple
design :)



** Check out the fabulous blogs I'm linking up with, I've listed them here: http://itssewforyou.blogspot.com/p/linky-partys.html

** Check out my Linky Party on Tuesday!
http://itssewforyou.blogspot.com/2011/02/its-sew-fun-tuesday.html

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Projects I love

A Pretty Life in the Suburbs showed us the great idea of sewing ribbon to your kitchen towels to prevent them from falling when little fingers use them...I think I need to do this to the hand towel in our bathroom! My kids can't ever seem to get that thing to hang!

Just Hang Another Up made these Adorable Owl Heating pads for her kiddo's! Cute, Cute! My kid's always need a heating pad or ice pack or bandaid for their imaginery boo-boo's, love these for them!


Love these soap bottles from Tea Parties & Baseball Games, what a great teacher, hostess or anything gift!

And finally, Show, Tell, Share made this great reward chart. My kids have a similar one at preschool, where their fish sinks if they are bad. I've threatened them that I'm going to make one at home, because they are so much better behaved at school! But I think a cute one like this just may be necessay to work on their at home manners :)

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Featured!

Sunshine and Chaucer featured my Chenille Quilt on her blog this week! Yippee!


Thanks again to Sunshine and Chaucer and stop by her site to check out the other fabulous quilts she featured!

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

New Look

I was beginning to feel my banner wasn't as "clean" of a look as I'd like. So, after playing around for a while, this is what I came up with! I hope you enjoy :)

and feel free to grab a button!

**let me know if you grab a button, I'd love to check you out, too!!


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Monday, February 14, 2011

Valentine's Vacuum

Happy Valentine's to Everyone!!

This year for for Valentine's, I got something that really "sucks" HAHA! My humor is awful!


Actually, this thing is awesome! the base swivels, and is so easy to use!! And my kids are loving it, how do I keep that excitement going?


**sorry for the awful photos, night pictures!

Friday, February 11, 2011

Custom Bed

My husband and I tend to get bored when we run out of projects...might be why we are in our third house in 7 years of marriage! We can also be cheap and not want to spend too much. You put these two things together, and you end up building a custom bed for your three year old! This isn't the first bed we made (some other time I'll have to post my Buddy's bed), but this is the one we made most recently!

We put my Dolly in a queen size bed when we moved into the house when she was just over 2. It was nice we didn't have to worry about her rolling out! When we found out #3 was on the way, we hurried to finish the basement so we would have bedrooms down there for kids #1 and #2 (and my sewing room!!) Well, When #3 was born this fall, we didn't feel #2 was ready to move downstairs, so we decided the girls were to share a room. The room is decent size, but not big enough for a queen bed and a crib...and dresser...and changing table...and toys! Thus created the NEED for this new bed :)


The bed was inexpensive, fabric and materials (including headboard) cost us less than $50. And it was timely, less than a couple hours to assemble.

As usual, it all began with surfing the internet. Design Mom made this fabulous toddler bed. We didn't want a toddler bed, so we just took the idea and started creating our own. First we went shopping for a mattress (not included in $50 price tag! Did you know that twin mattresses tend to be almost as expensive as a queen? we were shocked!) Once you have your mattress, it really is all about measuring.

Measure the mattress, add a few inches to the length and width and that is the interior size of the box to drop your mattress in! I didn't want ours too tight so that it was easy to get the fitted sheet around the mattress, so we added about 3 inches to the length and width.


The sides of our bed are 11" high (because that was the scrap board we picked up!) and then there is a 2" lip to hold the mattress in, so the mattress is 9" off the floor. Perfect for a young one.

Next pull out the batting, I purchased cheap batting and laid mine on two layers thick.


I had lots of help!

Next is the fabric. I measured the length + width and bought that much fabric. With how narrow of a strip of fabric you need I decided to sew a seam at one corner. If you don't want to do any sewing, you could staple a seam. A third option is to purchase additional fabric so a continuous loop can go all the way around.

With this you will end up with lots of scrap fabric. Even cutting the fabric in half, out of the 44" I used 32", leaving a 12" strip 2.5 yards long!


Make sure to fold the batting and the fabric over the edges of the bed. Use a staple gun to secure in place every few inches.

Although I like the simple look of Design Mom's toddler bed, I felt our room needed some height, and so we decided to create a headboard too. Once again, we had purchased scrap wood, so used that to determine the height (42") and the width is 2" shorter than the width of the bed so that it stays nicely tucked behind the bed.

Upholster with two layers of batting and the fabric and you are done! You could nail/screw the headboard to the bed, but once ours was pushed against the wall it was so snug we just left it, and it hasn't moved at all since installation!


And now we have one bright bed for one bright room :)


** Check out the fabulous blogs I'm linking up with, I've listed them here: http://itssewforyou.blogspot.com/p/linky-partys.html

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Thursday, February 10, 2011

Projects I love - Valentine's!

Organize and Decorate Everything has some adorable Decorating ideas for your home, this one was my favorite!

Lyndsey's Craft Spot made this fun countdown to Valentine's day, what a fun way to get the kids excited!

She wears Flowers posted a tutorial from In Between Laundry that I find genius. Why have I not thought of this before? using puff paint to turn any sock into a non-slip sock!


Once again I'm loving the Subway Art, especially this one from Morgan Made It


OK, this one isn't Valentine's, but how cute is this Shrek Hat from Little Eme?

There are way too  many cute things out there right now, and not enough time in the day!!


If you've been featured, please grab a button!


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