I recently won a contest at The Grant Life for a free month of ad space.
For a whole month the Big D & Me blog button will be in a prominent position on the right side of The Grant Life.
Yippee!
Kelly gave away the ad space in celebration of her 27th birthday.
Do me a favor and head over to The Grant Life and show Kelly some comment love as a huge thank you from me.
Thanks Kelly!
When I saw the “Reflections of Motherhood” video I knew I had to share it.
I loved it and knew you would too.
The premise is the following: We asked moms if they could go back right before they had their first child…what would you tell yourself?
I would say:
*You will be fine no matter what happens
*You will cry.
*You will laugh.
*It’s okay to want a break.
*It’s okay to work.
*It’s okay to stay home.
*You are strong.
*You will soon know a love which is incomparable.
*You are days away from pure love.
What would you tell a woman whose about to become a mom for the first time?
Last year as I was toodling around Goodwill I came upon this crazy looking metal tree. I had seen this piece in a magazine at some point and remembered it was an Easter decoration with decorated eggs hanging from it.
While I didn’t want an egg holder, I did want a spooky tree for Halloween. I bought the tree for $2.99 and brought it home. To say my husband was skeptical is an understatement. But as usual he gave me an unsure nod and said nothing. Thanks Derek!
I sprayed the piece black and let the kids decorate it. They spent a fair amount of time one Saturday morning working on it.
The main decorations were foam Halloween stickers – pumpkins, bats, and ghosts. They also included a mummy they printed out along with some homemade tombstones. The tombstones are made of a foam board covered with felt with letter stickers to create the R.I.P. messages.
I cut out a witch silhouette from foam board to add to the very top.
This year we were able to take out our spooky tree and redecorate it – a fun new tradition. It now sits on its new home, our dining room table…at least until Nov 1.
How’s your Halloween decorating going?
I recently discovered the blog Sunny Vanilla and am extremely glad I did. Jen’s blog is filled with original crafty projects using both fabric and paper. I love her fabric choices and only dream of bring able to sew like her. Some of my favorite projects on Sunny Vanilla are making a book with fingerprints, how to sew a father’s day book, her summertime purse, cocktail coasters, and how to make a $7 skirt, Make sure you check out Jen’s Etsy shop too.
Today Jen has been kind enough to share a craft with us using a material almost everyone has in their house. In fact, I buy four of these each week to quench the thirst of my three growing kids. Intrigued?
Take it away Jen…..
Hey everyone! I’m Jen from Sunny Vanilla and I’ll be hanging out with you all today. A tid bit about me…When I’m not sewing or crafting, I’m swatting mosquitos and sweating buckets over in the Sunshine State. I like to call this place home 😉 I married my HS sweetheart (I know, roll your eyes) and after a long, long, long time, we finally settled down and had a little girl we like to call our nugget. I’m a simple, beachy kind of girl who lives in shorts and flip flops. I think laughter is the best medicine of all, aside for maybe a really good bargain shopping spree. It’s nice “meeting” all of you!
I’ve got a little tutorial for you that I think you’re going to love. It’s simple, super inexpensive, and one that your kids may enjoy doing too! Enjoy!!!
I’m not sure about your family, but we go through milk around here like it’s going out of style. So naturally we have tons of milk cartons {we really should just put a cow in our backyard}. Well, I started saving the rings on the top of the carton thinking I could use them for something. Enter the napkin ring!
To get started with your napkin rings, you will need the following {a glue gun will work too}:
Glue two milk carton rings together like this.
Cut approximately 28 in. of ribbon.
Once the glue has dried, add a small dab of glue to the inside of the ring and attach the end of the ribbon there.
Begin to wrap the ribbon around the ring, making sure to keep it nice and tight. Overlap as you go.
Once you’ve completed the ring, add another small dab of glue to the inside of the ring. Cut your ribbon and press firmly into the glue.
Now you have a napkin ring! You can leave it alone or embellish it however you’d like.
I took a scrap piece of fabric and made a little bow tie with it.
Then I glued a couple of buttons to the top for a finished look.
You could also use tulle…
…or just the buttons themselves.
Now you have a set of four napkin rings ready for your next party!
Thanks Jen – Go check out Sunny Vanilla for a crafty read
Last night I went out to dinner with a friend.
I realized 4 minutes from the restaurant that I had forgotten to put on deodorant.
It was 85 degrees and I knew we were going to eat outside.
Plus, I was wearing a sleeveless shirt.
This was potentially a ripe situation.
I hunted around the car.
All I found was a pack of Altoids.
Apparently licking Altoids and rubbing them in your pits works quite well as a deodorant replacement.
In case you were wondering.
These are the windows in our office / playroom/ game room. They looked a little bare so I decided to spruce them up.
So here’s what I came up with:
The bunting has some pops of turquoise in it which matches with other bits of turquoise in the room.
I chose to use fabrics I had in my stash and stayed in the blue and orange families. After ironing the fabric I was ready to cut out my triangles.
I am an impatient crafter so I wanted to make this banner as quick as possible. I initially used a piece of cardboard that I had cut into a long triangle. FAILURE – this did not work. I cannot eyeball a triangle. I kept snipping away at it, after every few triangles I cut, and finally decided I needed a new plan.
I marched upstairs to my computer, printed out this triangle on card stock, and cut it out. My new template worked great.
Her’s a sampling on my fabric pieces. This picture is actually from the first few triangles which are not shaped like I wanted.
Roughly every six inches I pinned triangles to a long pieces of think white trim.
I then sewed two simple straight (ok, curvy) lines across the top and bottom of the trim.
Simply hung it with push pins after.
I love this so much that I’m thinking of all the places I could place pennant buntings in my house…Caroline’s room, on the stairs, a Christmas bunting, a birthday bunting, ……gotta go cut some triangles.
I made my daughter’s Halloween costume this year.
She is going as a mermaid.
Or she might be Bette Midler.
You be the judge.
The resemblance is striking I know.
Caroline loves mermaids so this was a natural choice this year for her costume.
Beware of this tutorial – there are many photos and only rudimentary sewing instructions.
I first started with a long sleeve shirt which was given to us as a hand-me down.
I ultimately decided I would make her costume into a dress since it would be easiest for her. Plus, bikini tops on little girls creep me out.
I cut the sleeve off of the shirt and cut the collar to make it a little wider.
Next, I took purple cotton fabric and cut out two semicircles of material to try and make some cap sleeves. I then sewed some purple flower trim onto the long edge. The trim was quite delicate so I had to sew it with a needle and thread.
I then gathered the top portions and held it with pins so I could use my machine to sew.
This gave the sleeves a curved shape.
When my six year old saw these he said, “Oh, are those for Caroline’s chest?”
The sleeves also received another line of trim on the gathered side. Once the sleeves were finished I hand sewed them onto the shirt.
Feeling that one more layer of flowers was needed I hand sewed the third line of flowers. I was very worried at this point. I was worried I had the “more is better” syndrome and would ruin the costume.
A little sequin sparkle in the center of the top and that section of the costume was complete.
Here are the materials I decided on for the tail. I know, low key. Nothing flashy here.
I folded the sequin material in half so that once I cut around my template (not the actual template in the photo, can’t figure out where it went) I would have two full tails.
I sewed the tail together, turned it inside out, and stuffed it.
It is about this time where I realized I was making a slightly deformed mermaid. The size of the tail should probably belong to a mermaid which is 7 feet tail. But I was this far into it and not about to turn back.
I left an opening on the side so I could sew in some elastic for her to wear around her wrist in case she wanted to hold the tail up. I should have sewed it in when I initially sewed the tail.
This actual bottom portion of the costume I pondered for days. I looked at mermaid costumes online and watched the Little Mermaid intently (not!), I finally decided on a side tail for her. I thought it would be fun for her to have something to drag but I also needed her to be able to walk. Here’s what I did.
I gathered the material (have no idea how much) and made it come to a rough point at the bottom. I sewed the edges down and sewed across the whole bottom.
My next challenge was to figure out how to get the bottom section attached to the shirt.
I finally settled on cutting the side of the shirt about 8 inches and then pinning the shirt and green material together.
This is the costume after sewing the two major pieces partially together. I left one side of the costume open in order to add the middle trim.
My idea was to sew the purple sequin trim by hand.
I tried and failed. It was cumbersome and the thread kept getting caught on individual sequins.
Instead, I brought out the trusty glue gun. Normal sewers are gasping at the thought.
Glued the tail trim on as well.
Finally sewed up the side of the costume
You can see the arm elastic on the tail here.
The final result:
My Little Mermaid!
Showing off her mermaid swimming skills
One costume down, four to go.
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Have you ever had this problem?
I’m going to get my hair colored tomorrow and I’m trying to come up with an excuse.
It’s actually worse than it looks.
I have a good two inches of brown hair followed by 8 inches of blonde hair. Oh so attractive
I know what’s going to happen when I enter the salon. A disgusted colorist will look at me repulsively while I say, “I know its been four months since I’ve been here but I was kind of busy.”
Crickets.
“I was trying to save some money so I waited to come in a little longer than usual.”
Crickets.
“I made sure to wear a hat all the time.”
Crickets.
“I actually never left the house during the last two months of this debacle.”
So I’ve been brainstorming..I think I’ll get a different look this time.
“While visiting a friend in Africa I was kidnapped and forced to marry a Zulu prince. But I escaped two weeks later when I jumped out of our canoe and battled a crocodile while getting to shore. I then came across military forces who took me into their operation and trained me to become a gunner until I met a young woman I thought I could trust. Turns out she was recruiting women to become geishas and I was just what they were looking for. I was the headline performer at the Sumo National Championships. Thankfully an audience member recognized me from a television appearance and was able to pay for my freedom. I just returned to the US this morning and this was my first stop.”
I’m betting this will get me a full highlight for the price of a partial.
Do you ever need excuses for your hair?
As we are narrowing down our costume choices for this year, I thought it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane at our past Halloween costumes.
Through the years the kids have come to expect me to make their costumes and believe I can make just about any character. While that may not be true and some of the costumes may be simple, I love making these and seeing their faces as they put them on.
2004
Fireman
(pants, rain boots, raincoat, fire hat)
2005
Winnie the Pooh & Roo
(Pooh: While shopping in Babies R Us one morning with the boys, Alex decided he wanted to try on the Winnie the Pooh costume. I put the one piece on him, zipped him up, and let him look in the mirror. When I went to get him out of the costume, the zipper stuck. I mean, would. not. budge! I tried and tried to get him out of the costume. I ended up getting scissors from a clerk and cutting him out. I now had to buy the costume and was now the proud of two pieces of a costume with a broken zipper. When I took the costume into Hancock Fabrics to ask if there was anyone I could pay to fix the costume, an employee took pity on me and fixed the costume for free. So that’s how Alex ended up being Winnie the Pooh for Halloween).
(Roo: Since we already had a Pooh I decided we needed a Roo. Andrew’s costume is actually a monkey costume with a blue shirt I wrote on over the costume).
2006
A Pirate and a Parrot
(Parrot: green overalls with Kermit the frog shirt from 2003, red hat, felt feathers in front and back connected by pins and elastic at the wrists)
(Pirate: shirt with iron on transfer, hat was bought, the rest of the costume (belt, hook, & pants were inherited from my sister’s college days – the pants were originally a skirt I altered from the original costume)
2007
A Saints football player & Curious George and the Man with the Yellow Hat
(Saints player: costume was given to Alex)
(Curious George: brown track suit, hat covered in brown felt with fabric ears I made, candy bucket was brown fabric covering the bucket with felt bananas attached)
(Man with Yellow Hat: yellow shirt from Goodwill, felt tie, felt covering a hat with rulers underneath to keep it standing up)
2008
Costume Party
Pirate & Captain Rex from Star Wars (pirate costume with beard, store bought costume for Captain Rex – it killed me to buy this costume but I did it because he wanted it desperately)
Halloween Night
Captain Rex and Peter Pan
(Peter Pan was a store bought costume too – I caved in Party City)
2009
Night at the Museum Costumes
(Sacagawea: brown material with added fringe & turquoise beads I sewed on)
(Larry Daley: regular clothes with name tag that read “Larry”)
(Fighter Pilot: not technically in the movie – consignment store costume)
(Teddy Roosevelt: brown pants, brown shirt, glasses, and belt from Goodwill, cowboy hat bought)
2010
Burger King, Dairy Queen, a Werewolf, Little Red Riding Hood, and a Ninja
(King & Queen: bathrobes from Goodwill with added fur trim, hat made from cardboard and silver tape, signs were made from sticky felt)
(Werewolf: regular clothes torn up with fur sewed into the clothes)
(Little Red Riding Hood: red skirt, white shirt, tights, consignment shoes, gingham fabric with red trim)
(Ninja: black pants & shirt, top shirt was fabric with hole cut out over head and tied with black fabric, black fabric wrapped around his head)
2011
??????????
What are some of your favorite Halloween costumes you remember?
