KaydeeBunz

Raglan Shirt Tutorial.

2012-02-10T13:00:00.001-05:00

Here is another shirt tutorial that is super easy and very comfortable to wear!! (I'm really into this style of shirt right now!!)

I started with a raglan shirt from Walmart (I know, its kind of cheating).

I then pinned up the sleeves so I could get a good pattern for the shirt body.

Then make your sleeve pattern. I extended mine a bit because I wanted a 3/4 sleeve.

Here are your pattern pieces, looks simple right?

You can make this without the shirt by using a regular

shirt, Ill do that in the next post!

Apparently I don't have ANY photos of me putting it together or cutting, nothing!

I've got kids so I'm constantly picking up and putting down!

All you need to do is cut 2 sleeves (you can see where it says "fold") and 2 shirts. Sew them up and you have a really cute shirt. Once I started sewing it took me about 30 minutes to get it done.

And I have my pattern that I keep using.

Thats me with the BABY BELLY!

Questions? Comment or email me, please!! :)

~Kat~

Ruffled Maternity Shirt Tutorial

2012-02-10T12:46:00.001-05:00

I am about 21ish weeks along and I have all these maternity clothes but I find that I never wear them! Do you ever look in your closet and see all these clothes but theres nothing to wear? I feel like that a lot these days so I decided to start making my own stuff. This is actually my first shirt that was a success so I am happy to share with ya! It was inspired by Aura Joons post about Dressing the Bump during the second trimester. This is yet another Pinterest inspired post. (Check out that link, shes super cute!!)

Okay here goes…
I started with a tank that I really liked. I made sure to cut about an inch around it to give it some “give” for my ever expanding belly.
*NOTE* I cut two pieces for the front and two for the back (4 total) because this fabric was thin and you could see my bra through it. Depending on your fabric, you might not need to do this.

I also made the top piece a little bit longer and wider. Im glad I did this because when I put the ruffles on it, the “give” wasn’t as good on the front due to the stitching (I hope that makes sense).

I then measured how far down I wanted the ruffles to be and I wanted them right below my bra line. So I started there and just made ruffles, there was no rhyme or reason to it, I just went crazy.

Once I was done with all the ruffles I sewed up the two sides and then decided that the neckline was too high. I marked where I wanted it to be, cut it and then hemmed it.

As you can see, the hem isnt all that great, so I folded it under and then sewed around the neckline to make it not curl out like that. I haven't actually mastered necklines or sleeves…I am constantly learning.

At this point I tried it on and got really mad at it because I hated the way it looked. I felt like it made my shoulders look like a lineman's and I really dislike looking like that. So I left it for about a month and then came back to it (do you ever do that? I have a pile of "not done" clothes in "time out").
I trimmed in the arms in a bit making them thinner (they were wide before) and added these small sleeves which I love. There was a little area in the bust that was a bit wonky, but when I added the sleeves I just darted it so it would look right.

I should also *NOTE* here….the sleeve was too short so when I started pinning it in the top middle of my shoulder it didn’t come all the way down to my arm pit. This doesn’t bother me, if it does you, then Id add about 2 inches to the bottom tail of the sleeve pattern and see how that goes.

The end result looks like this….

Im soo totally happy with it now!!
PLEASE comment or email me if you have questions!
~Kat~

PS...the white underneath/on the bottom of my shirt is a belly band which are super easy to make...another post maybe?

Eating healthy

2012-01-16T12:57:00.000-05:00

I was checking my mail this morning and was delighted to read Sidetracked Sarah's "Motivated Monday" post! She blogs about eating healthy, different things to try as well as tips and tricks. She also has TONS of other stuff, crafts, DIY, family, etc. you should go check her out, its guaranteed that you will find something that you like.

Anywho....so this morning her post was about eating salads and making them healthy, but one key thing people forget is that whats the point of this nice healthy salad when you dump 8 tablespoons of Ranch on it (that's about 800 calories or so, yuck!)? I see it all the time, people think that they are doing the right thing by eating a salad but in reality, they just ate half a days worth of calories (or more) in one sitting...where they thought they were being healthy...sad.

Over the years I have tried many different types of diets, the two that I love the most are Eating Clean by Tosca Reno and my personal favorite, Skinny Chicks Don't Eat Salads by Christine Avanti. (Ironic that this a post is about salads and my fav diet book yells about not eating them...figures)
Okay so here are a few of my favorite dressings!!

Lemon Dijon, straight from Skinny Chicks Dont Eat Salads by Christine Avanti
Tsp of olive oil
Dab of Dijon Mustard
Juice from Lemon
1/4 tsp minced garlic.
The key to this dressing is that you can mix and match the amounts to fit your taste buds. Sometimes I go overboard on the garlic and it zings in my mouth! Just play with it and see how it goes!

For an Asian twist I like to make my special blend.
Asian Blend
1 tsp low sodium (I only buy low sodium as a tbsp of the reg kind is about a days worth of your sodium intake)
1/4 tsp minced ginger (you can omit this if you don't have it, I just usually have it on hand and really like adding it to a lot of things)
Dab of spicy mustard or Dijon.
Drizzle of olive oil
Mix these together, add some minced garlic if you like or some rice wine vinegar and you have a nice and healthy dressing. Just play with it, you might not like this one so play with the ingredients to see what fits your fancy!

I have blended so many things that I had on hand trying to come up with an awesome dressing because I'm a big time salad fan. Some of my concoctions came out great and others made me cringe. I'm sure you also have tons of other things on hand that you can use as a healthy dressing, like salsa, balsamic, red wine, or ANY kind of vinegar, (just don't go overboard on the oil because olive oil has around 100 to 170 calories PER TABLESPOON.... that's a lot!! I have an olive oil spray bottle that I got at a Pampered Chef party and I love it and use it for many many things. If you don't have one then you can just measure. Since olive oil is a MUFA its good to have it in your diet, but all things in moderation.) you can also use lemon or lime juice....go crazy and look in your cabinets to see what you have on hand. Chances are, you have something simple and healthy to go along with that beautiful salad!

Huh...I had a really good time writing this blog post, apparently I have picked up many good things over my years of "dieting" and have found that eating fresh foods and using natural herbs to season, while watching your portions is the best way to lose weight. I know that I have lost over 65 pounds doing this without adding exercise. Imagine if I did something active (which you should do btw... I'm just lazy and would rather sew)....I probably could have lost the last 40 pounds!! Oh well..after this baby is here (yes Im pregnant, 17 weeks or so, but that's for another post) Ill get on it by eating healthy and doing BodyRock TV! (Oh, you haven't seen or heard of that? Check her out...its High Intensity Interval Training and I love it!)

Please comment or email me if you have any questions.....I will try my best to answer and if I don't know something I will do my best to find an answer for you!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Shirred Dress

2012-01-14T15:14:00.001-05:00

Is it silly that I'm working on a spring/summer shirred dress in January? Usually Id say “no” since I live in Florida and its summer all year long and especially since it was 85 earlier this week. But now that I have started this masterpiece, its in the 60’s, figures.
But its whatever, I'm still making it!
I don’t know if you have a sewing machine or what kind it is, but I have 2 Brothers, neither of which I could get to shirr since I've had them. But then I found a few tutorials out there..here, here and here (though the last one was just the model I used for the dress, not the actual shirring tut cause none of their tips worked with my machine)…and they actually worked!!! YESSSS! I have had my machine for over 2 years and I have never been able to shirr, all those cute tutorials on sundresses or shirts I always had to pass up because my machine just wouldn’t do it. Well now it does!
This is the dress I'm working on. To do 20 or so rows will take me forever and since I'm only on row 5, I figure I have a few more hours left, thank goodness for Netflix!

I really like the way the pattern changes as it goes down the dress, very pretty. I also made a nice hem at the bottom using a decorative stitch to add a bit of cuteness to the bottom so it wasnt so blah.

I just wanted to share what I was working on. Are you making anything fun?
Thanks for stopping by,
~Kat~

Bag with a divider tutorial

2012-01-04T16:19:00.001-05:00

In case you didn’t know, I have a purse obsession. While I should be cleaning my house and taking down my Christmas decorations, Im actually making a Bible Bag for my Bible (obviously) and my notebook (I'm a big time note taker so I need this with me at any and all Bible Study sessions).
Another thing I obsess about is the construction of my purse, its pockets, and if it can fit all my stuff (I have kid junk as well as mommy junk that all needs a place). One way I figured out to organize was to make a divider that goes down the middle. Now I've read many, MANY tutorials on how to make this purse and how to make that purse, but none of them had dividers and I find that I really dig it when my stuff is separated and has a place (I might have said that already..oops). So I wanted to show you how to add a simple divider to any bag and once you get the concept down you can play and change it to however it fits your fancy!!

Step one, gather all your pieces and act like you are going to make a regular ol bag with four sides, two straps, and a liner that also has four sides (The rainbow is my outside and the orange is the inside)

Here is my outside pieces with their pockets, I just wanted to show you these.

This is where it’s a bit different. To make your divider, you are going to make a piece that is maybe 3 inches shorter than your outside pieces but about 1/5 inch wider.

Now!! I know this is going to sound c-c-c-crazy, but in order to get your divider meshed as part of your inside, you need to cut them right down the middle. Same goes for the bottom inside piece.

Now sandwich those pieces that you just cut with one side of the divider, right sides together. (If there is an easier way to put in a divider, please let me know.)

You can see that I got cut crazy and made my divider and my sides the same size, don’t do that, just cut it in half and then sew it to the divider, don’t do any other cutting (like me)

Its starting to look like the inside of a bag now!! Do the same thing with the bottom and the other side, just cut down the middle (I think I said that though) and then sew it onto the divider.

Take your straps and get them ready and also sew up the outside pieces of your bag (just do it regular, no cutting of sides and what not). Its cool…Ill wait!

Okay I often look at the two parts of my bag (the inside parts all sew up and the outside all sewn up as well, do the outside just like you would a regular bag, 4 sides together!) and wonder how I'm going to flip it inside out so I can put right sides together with the right side of the external bag.
Don’t worry about that though, just pick a side of the divider and flip it!

Add your straps making sure they are all lined up correctly, as you can see mine are pretty exact (that doesn’t always happen though). Then sew it up leaving a few inches or so, so you can flip it inside out.

Flip it, then sew around the top as you normally would then BAM! You have a bag with a divider in it!!

Here is my bag ready to go with my Bible and my notebook as well as other stuff!!!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope this all made sense, if not then ask in the comments or shoot me an email!
~Kat~

My Pinterest Addiction

2012-01-03T11:18:00.001-05:00

Have you done any pinning lately? Well I might have a problem and am considering going to meetings, HA! I have friends on Facebook who keep telling me to slow down with the pinning, but its sooo fun I tell them!!
Warning….heavy links below….all going to Pinterest!

This is a Kindle Fire holder that I made for a friend of mine. Not really from Pinterest but definitely inspired from different things I've found on there!

These are two Maxi Skirts that I made from this post. I LOVE them and intend to make MANY more!

This was the girls Halloween outfits. The tutu was inspired by this post and the wings my hubbs made by inspiration from this post!! The wings were really fun to make, lots of hot glue and glitter (it was a two person project, thanks honey!!)

These were probably one of my very first sewing projects that I EVER did. It was not inspired by Pinterest but when I finally stumbled across it online I HAD to pin it!! As you can see, I didn’t know I had to hem things, which is why there's a lot of loose threads hanging around. These did fit my oldest, they now fit the baby….glad they can be passed on!!

I just want to say that I LOVE THIS ONE! It took me about 10 minutes and I wear it a lot. Its in my “make more” pile at home and I have tons of knit waiting to be made into one!! (its about as easy as the skirts above!)

These dresses were inspired by this post and wow, were they easy! Just save all those kid shirts that you thrifted for a dollar and BAM…instant CUTE dress!! I have requests to make more of these from my oldest, I guess I just haven't done it (shame on me!).

This was found online but I just remember the picture, not how to make it, so I just winged it and came up with these! I posted about them before around my birthday, they too were cute and easy to make!! Since then I've recently found the post whilst blog hoppin and pinned it cause the original post is super cute so Ill probably try to make hers as well (I'm bad at following directions, which is why I wing it most of the time…but its more exciting that way, honestly!)

I also made this purse which I JUST talked about the other day. I've since given it to my friend Trish because I love her and she kept trying to steal it! HA! There is a matching wallet that goes with it and the tut is floating around in cyber space somewhere, Ill have to pin it when I find it again.

I also made some RedNeck Wine Glasses for my Mom which I found on the net and then pinned to my “Gifts” board, as well as some Ipad holders which I made for my Mom, Dad, and Step Monster. I didn’t take pics of the ones I made (forshame!) but if you follow the links they will take you to Pinterest where you can find them and many other cool things.
Things to make!
I plan on making some organizers for my truck, one for each kid because Im tired of them walking all over the stuff they drop on the ground, drives me batty!! Also on my list of things is ANYTHING on ANY of my sew boards but currently I want to make a camera strap for my new camera and/or the lens holder from this post (there's so many options). I also want to make so much other stuff.
Lastly…I got a new camera for Christmas (thank Dad and Lori!!) and I've been messing around with all the different settings which came from tutorials on Pinterest! This one about bokeh, and anything I find on Gayle Vehar’s site is amazing!! There's this, this, and this!!

Custom Bokeh

StrarBursts

Into the sun with low F-stop

Low F-stop

Into the sun again….probably my favorite pic right now!

Okay I'm done for now! HA! Thanks for taking the time to read and follow the links if you have time….Pinterest is amazing!

Have a great day

~Kat~

All New Things

2011-12-31T11:33:00.001-05:00

Id like to start off this post by saying that 2011 was a wonderful year! I didn’t blog as much as I wanted to, but I accomplished many wonderful things in our family and personal lives!! I hope you had a great 2011 and that 2012 will bring you many awesome things!
SO! Ive been doing some sewing lately and wanted to share it with ya!
A matching bag and wallet made from fabric I found at GoodWill!!

These are some “bug bags” I made for our girls so when we go on our outdoor learning labs my hubbs and I don’t have to carry all their “goodies and treasures.”

These are some rainbow bags I made for the girls so they can tote their stuffed animals around.

This is my nook cover!! I got some hypercolor thread for Christmas so the “Nook It!” and the circle around it will change colors when its in the sun! Super cool! (the left one is inside…the right one is outside and the colors are activated!)

Heres some fab I got last night at Hobby Lobby. Id never been before and each of these were marked down to $2.50 a yard! Im going to make some skirts from the two bottom ones (they are knit) and Im not sure what to do with the other two….it was the right price, so why not?

The next few are fabrics I got from Goodwill!! I think I spent about 30 to 40$ in all and I have YARDS of fabric!!

The one to the far left is my fav!

More GoodWill fabric. It’s a whole ROLL of knit, its still in the plastic!! And the pink is twill and the white/cream on the right is corduroy! Im super happy about this find!

This is the last of my fabric GoodWill run, its all jean type fabric and super bright!! I used the orange for the inside of their rainbow purses, its awesome!

Hmm…well I guess that’s it for today, I need to go hang with the kids and make memories!! Happy New Year to you

~Kat~

A month or so later….

2011-12-09T03:13:00.001-05:00

So things here have been a bit challenging with the whole homeschool thing but I'm glad to say that we truly love every bit of it! I'm very glad we made the jump esp now that we are switching curriculum to a more “set” system whereas before I was just winging it. (Btw, I don’t recommend that particular avenue as it was super stressful and I felt like pulling my hair out!)
I have found out that my daughter is a pretty good reader and can do most simple math in her head. I'm very proud of her as she's only 5 and we have so much more to go.
I have redone and redone our schoolroom over and over again and I think I'm finally happy with the way it looks (pics to come, its in the wee hours of the am and I cant sleep nor do I have recent pics). I think you’ve got something when the cable guy says “I take it you school from home?” Me: “Why do you say that” Cable Guy: “Cause that sure looks like a classroom.” Mission accomplished!

In my attempt to keep the baby busy I picked up a few things on the net and she seems to love them, here are a couple!

What I also love is that she uses the Monster Truck as a seat, very inventive!

As I said, its been challenging learning process but one that I feel like we’ve all learned from!
How's things going in your neck of the woods?
Thanks for stopping by,
~Kat~

A new beginning

2011-10-17T13:41:00.002-04:00

So we are finally getting things on track with homeschooling. Last week was nuts with all that we had going on but this one is a smidge better. We thrive off of routine so its going to take a bit for us to get used to the new schedule, so far we are really liking homeschool and love where our life is going!!!

Today we did some phonics lessons and some folder games. She did such a great job on both of the games and then the worksheets. We mostly did phonics and problem solving activities so I feel it was a successful day and its not even over yet!

Alligator Alley, its a short a game.

Frog Hop, its a short vowel game, and she won!

We did magnetic math, thank you dollar store!

This is our game area. There are boxes for everyone,
Ill do another post on them later!

This is our reading area. There are big kid books and readers, then
there is a book shelf for the baby.

This is our art area and my Mommy shelf
(the wooden bookshelf is mine, most of the time)

Well this what we have done today. We also need to get a bit of reading in and our Bible lesson. I also have started doing a 15 minute a day cleaning for each room so the house is always clean. Today was kitchen day, yeah me!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Im taking back my life!!

2011-10-05T10:52:00.001-04:00

So I am taking back my life!!! I've been bogged down with school and other stress issues and Im glad to say that I'm finally leaving the stress behind and moving forward with my life. My friend Trish and I have been printing and gathering all sorts of homeschool material and items to prepare our little ones for a wonderful and successful school year!! Since Im not homeschooling yet and I have neglected my "at home" duties, now is the time to get things done. I have LOADS of laundry, a really unorganized craft/sewing area, thousands of coupons to clip and a homeschooling area to prepare!! Do you ever feel like your life is out of control? I get like that sometimes and God always has a way of reminding me that the "things" Im stressing about are not that big in comparison to the important issues in our lives.

Once again "God Is Good, ALL THE TIME! And all the Time, GOD IS GOOD!!" (we say that as a group in Church on Sundays and its soooo true!)

Our new homeschool area, its a work in progress.

I honestly dont know what to do to make it cleaner/neater.
It drives me bonkers sometimes!

This pile has thousands of coupons waiting to be clipped so I can
save us MONEY!! (I love coupon shopping,
do you?)

Ugg....I really need a Laundry Fairy!

Thanks for stopping by! What have you don recently to get your life back on track?

I'm at a crossroads….

2011-09-21T21:37:00.001-04:00

So Im at a crossroad right now, Im not sure where I want to be in life. If you look at my “About me” section you will see that Im passionate about wanting to be not only a teacher, but a fun and effective one. Well I now think that I want to be a teacher, but a teacher to my children, as in a homeschool mom. I still want to finish school, but I think my main focus will be in Straight Math, not Secondary Education Mathematics. Sound fun? Well, at this particular time in my life, I think it sounds good…..

Whats your thoughts?

Cloth Pads!

2011-08-31T10:38:00.003-04:00

So I read this post about making cloth pads for girls in other countries who don’t have access to disposable pads (or any pads, really) and have to use leaves, scraps of cloth or even trash. Its sad that they don’t have access something we don't even think about using because its available to us just about everywhere.

I decided that Id make a contribution and sew some up! I used a few different patterns and I really like them. (I might make some for myself, its no different than the cloth diapers I use for our baby!

If you have time to sew a few, please do….there will be a girl somewhere out there who would be very thankful for your time.

I made 11 cloth pads and I will be donating them to Days for Girls. Check them out, there are a lot of things you can do to help even if you don’t sew.

If you are mailing them to Days for Girls you can ship them to this address
Days for Girls; 810 H Street Road; Lynden, WA 98264

I will try and make more later tonight, but I have to work on Truth Tables for my Mathematical Foundations class...boo.
Thanks for taking the time to read this…
Kat

Daddy Flat Diaper tut

2011-08-12T19:02:00.000-04:00

One of my last posts was about cloth diapers and how many I have and that I have also made most of them. Well that got a response from a few people and they wanted to know how I made them, esp the ones that are serged on the outside. I figured Id make a couple tutorials showing the different ways I make my diapers, this one is the Daddy Flat or the Quick Snap Flat (Im calling this particular one the redneck daddy flat because of the shirts design).
You can print out the pattern I used for this one here, she says you can use it to make a profit but asks that you donate money or diapers to Diapers for Orphans, there is also a FaceBook page that you can check out though it doesnt look too active at the moment.

Okay on to the tut, keep in mind that I did this using a serger so there was no sewing then turning involved though you can do that, I just choose not to do my diapers that way since I got my serger (its soooo much quicker!! ) (One of the many perks of having a serger is being able to sew diapers this way, its paid for itself in the 30+ diapers Ive made not including the clothes and junk I serge with it, just saying...:))

Lay out your shirt. I wanted the design to be on the outside so
I kept it like this. Just lay your pattern out and pin in place, then cut.

Here is what it looks like cut,
I dont cut out the loops that create the flaps (they are on the pattern), when I serge my machine
cuts them out (Ive found this is easier than cutting and then serging cause all I have
to do is follow my pen markings not a cut line, try it both ways and see what
fits your style)

So you add your soaker (there is also a pattern for this as well,
it should be at the link provided above) and sew it in place.

Once its sewn in place (this is not on the pattern and this step
is optional) I trace and then sew the lines making a casing for
my elastic.

I had two pieces that were approx 6 inches long. I used the large pattern so
depending on the size and how much you want to use
depends on your length.

Put a safety pin on one end and thread it through
your sewn casings. Once the tail reaches the end (as shown) sew it up
then keep threading along till you reach the other side.
Then you will sew that in place and take out the pin (DONT leave it in, ouch).

Finish serging around your edges, add some snaps if thats what you
want to do (there are places
on the pattern that show you where to put them) and you
are finished!!!

This is another view of the inside!

You can see my little redneck baby with her mullet
all ready to play. She would NOT sit still....

And she thought this was a good idea, I took a pic but made
her stop, dont worry; no babies were hurt in the making or "playing in"
of this diaper!

I hope that wasnt too confusing..please comment or email if you have questions! Im going to post another tutorial of how I make a different diaper using a different pattern cause this is one a few that I use!!

Cloth Diapers!

2011-07-29T10:56:00.001-04:00

Do you use cloth diapers? We do! Ive been making them like crazy recently so we can save money and I love them!!
We only use disposables at naptime, overnight and when we go out and about, so my goal recently is/was to make our stash bigger. Ive thought about selling them but Im not sure they are "there yet," though they have gotten significantly better!!
I just wanted to show you a picture of what we have. Theres over 30 but only 27 are shown (one was being worn and theres always some in the wash). There are about 9 or 10 that I bought and the rest I made!

Thanks for stopping by!! Do you cloth diaper?

Gatorama Adventure

2011-07-28T09:25:00.002-04:00

Well we went on a field trip last week and it was SUCH a fun time!! Wow! My girlfriend and I along with our six kids piled up in my truck and we headed out towards Gatorama. If you havent been, I suggest you go, it was a fun time and there are some neat things to see out there!! I hope you enjoy the photos!!

The kiddos piled up in the tuck and ready to go.

When you first get there you can check out some baby gators.

T playing teacher...shes great

There were LOTS and lots of gators and we got to feed them...they really
liked us...or maybe it was all the small children?

And a couple crocs

Can you see the gator over there?

Then we got to hold a few gators.

They have raccoons.

Kinkajous

And then we watched her feed them chicken...wow..

The kids had a great view..

I love that they can see through the slats.

We got to hold more gators (I love that mine have their hands
in the "pick me, pick me" position)

She didnt really want to do it again, but she did pet him.

And then we left....on to more fun stuff!

We stopped at Fish Eating Creek to have a nice picnic lunch.

Nice faces.

While we waited to get checked into the park all the kids played
in the truck....wow, there are 6 kids on one bench seat!

My side of the lunch table.

T's side...both super healthy and yummy!

mm a mouth full of eggs!

I guess the whole "Dont go in the water" thing didnt
really matter...we knew it would happen.

They were filthy!!!!

We found an awesome camping spot...it was beautiful!

Here is another shot....magical.

We found a peach stand...

and bought a BOX. Best peaches EVER!

Then we took funny pictures by the bear sign.

A bear does
WHAT?

You can check out Trish's blog Homeschooling the Chaos and see all the fun homeschooling stuff she does. We are public schoolers for now but she insipres me to do more educational stuff with our family and kids, its great and shes amazing and I cant wait to do more field trippin!!

Thanks for reading and stopping by...

Another approach to the Tulle Shirt Dress

2011-07-14T17:19:00.000-04:00

Okay so here is a different version of my last post. I hope to try another way since I think I will be making more of these.....cause they rock!

I started with a scrap of tshirt from the bottom of one of my other refashions.
I also had about 4 layers of tulle.

I lined up the tulle in layers. The outer layers were on the outside and then I worked my way in
so the inside layers was right next to each other.

Hopefully you can see it better here, its like a big circle sewed together.
White, white, black, pink. And pink is on the outside, then black is next, and then the two whites.

You are going to place the shirt scrap to the right side of the tulle so you can make the skirt bottom. This is the same as if you were going to make a layered skirt. (wow, I really hope that makes sense cause it sounds a bit "iffy" to me)

I then gathered the tulle to match the shirt bottom/scrap so they were the same length.
(I just pined it into place, I didnt use my machine)

More pinning....cross it over, layer it up, just get it to match the same length as the shirt scrap.

I then serged the layers together.

Here are the layers all serged up (you could zigzag on your sewing machine)
and now you have your skirt.

Put the "right" sides together and do the same thing with gathering and pinning.
NOTE: see how my skirt side does not match up with my shirt side, I fixed that so if you have a "side" of your skirt you might want to line it up with the "side" of you shirt.

Start pinning....

Keep pinning

Finally you are done pinning.

Now serge the layers together, again. Just go right over your previous serge or zigzag stitches.

Flip it right side out and enjoy!!

See..."Stunting" in progress!

This one was a bit different than the other one. I didnt use elastic with this one and it was much quicker with less steps. Im not a fan of "gathering" with the use of my machine so I dont know how that would turn out. Im not going through their closets and seeing what shirts they dont wear that much so I can turn them into fun pieces of art-wear!!!

Thanks for stopping by....what do you think?? Will you be making one?

Shirt to Fluffy Dress

2011-07-13T07:00:00.001-04:00

Have you seen those dresses these days where it looks like a shirt but theres a tutu at the bottom? Well we got one "handed down" to us and my girls just LOVE it!! So me, being the cheap-o that I am decided, "Why not make some more??" And I did!!

This is the first of a few and I thought I would share it with ya!! I know there are probably better ways of doing it, but Im digging the end result!

So you start with your shirt and your tulle. I used about double the width of the shirt so it would bunch up nice in the end. All my tulle is from the scrap bin so its was all different sizes, shapes, and textures...so feel free to have fun with this part and get creative!
(I really wanted to use the blue zebra ribbon but it never worked out, thats why its in a few of the pictures)

I took the tulle and lined them all up, serged the ends (you could use a zigzag stitch if you dont have a serger). I then folded it over to the wrong side and made a casing for the elastic (this is the pic below).

I put the elastic through the casing and sewed the ends. I made it so the tulle skirt was the same width as the bottom of the shirt once the elastic was in and sewed up (I eye-balled it).

Then I put them right sides together and sewed right through the elastic, the casing and all the layers. I made sure to pull the shirt a bit as the elastic will make it hold its shape once its all in place but be able to keep some of the stretchiness (since it is knit and the band does have elastic.)

Then you flip it around and pin the shirt in place over the skirt and then sew around. This time it will be a bit thicker and harder to pull (mine was, but there were a few layers).

In the below photo you can see the stitching around the bottom of the shirt, which gives it a finished feel.

Get your model out and dressed and then go to the Library!!!

I was told to make her thousands more in hundreds of colors...we shall see how that goes!

Well this was a fun project and it took me like 20 minutes (with NO kid interruptions) to complete and I really like saving money!!

Thanks for stopping by!

What Ive been doing...

2011-07-12T18:45:00.000-04:00

We Im back to school and its been pretty crazy here. The hubbs is taking few classes and with my rigorous math schedule, not much has been getting done. However...recently we both decided that it would be a good thing to delete our different social media pages and a couple days ago I finally made the plunge and deleted my FaceBook page. I gotta say, it feels great!!

Anywho...I know it sounds silly, but since Ive deleted my page my brain has clicked on the sewing switch and Ive been making all kinds of stuff! I completed a few diapers, (they are super cute too, Ill post about that later), a purse (which I also love), I redid a few of our big girls shirts and made them to fit the wee one since the big one wont wear them. I completed multiple chapters in my math homework, studied for a HUGE test and now Im writing a blog. All in all its been a stress free few days and I like the way in which we are headed, life is good....

Now on to the pictures....

These are the little shirts for the wee one.

My purse, it has an attached pouch that I keep silly things in.
(Chapstick, tampons, gum, ect, just incase you were curious as to what silly stuff is.)

The inside has pockets on either side, its so totally awesome!


Here is my happy model testing out one of her shirts!!

Well thanks for stopping by!!

Cecil Webb Adventure

2011-06-22T22:49:00.000-04:00

We went off on another adventure this week, this time to Cecil Webb in South Punta Gorda. It was amazing! My father and step mother have some kayaks and have been talking about going out there to 'yak down the river there so we decided to go check it out by land!! It cost us $6.00 to get it and we were able to have access to the whole park (its huge). The first day we went (these pictures are from two different days, like a Tues and a Wed) we drove through just to check it out. I got to practice driving a stick so I can drive it south for school in the fall, the hubbs says I did pretty good...I'm still a bit freaked out by it though. Anyways, we had a really good time. We saw some gators and a bunch of birds and the girls had a really good time. You can camp out there but only on the weekends and if its hunting season you can go during the week (which is a bummer for us since the hubbs works weekends and I don't really want to camp out there during hunting season). The second day we brought out our bikes and biked the 10 mile loop that they have. Again, it was a really fun and awesome time, we are thinking about getting a year pass so we can go at least once a week!!

This was a fast and wild little baby...

Me and my Big girl having a blast!

Shes got her pony..but shes not too sure..

taking pictures down on the shore

Checking out the water

What a fun and relaxing day

No day is complete without a good rock throwing!

Oh yes...that is a good splashing!!

But you can see who we woke up...this guy was HUGE!

This one popped up right by Em and I..needless to say...
I got us out of there not tooo fast but fast enough!

Panorama of half of the lake...I'm not the best at these types of photos
but I thought it would be cool.

Too much Swamp People makes for a nervous Mommy...

We found some hatched eggs at a different location.

And some fresh berries....ahh..I mean tomatoes?

Then we made it to the pier at the end/front of the trail.

Panorama of half of it...

ME! (and my little people throwing rocks in the background,
as you can see...we are big time rock throwers!)

Daddy letting the baby use his polarized glasses to see the fish, she didn't digg it.

My Main Squeeze....

Time to go!

Then...after a hard days work we treated ourselves to some wings and beer....awesome I know.

Thanks for checking out this weeks adventure. Are you doing anything fun for summer?? Please let me know, its fun to compare notes :)

~Kat~

Stump Pass Adventure

2011-06-16T09:18:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the beginning of our new Summer Adventure Series for 2011! Our goal is to have local adventures that are free or cheap. We are trying to make this sort of an outdoor classroom type thing while being active and saving money. I hope you enjoy.

Our first off right by going out to the adventure begins in the Englewood Beach area where we recently found Stump Pass Beach State Park (there is also this site here). The hubbs and I found it while exploring the beach area when we stayed at the beach house over Memorial Day weekend. I was looking for some history on the Pass (I should ask my Grandfather who is a local historian) but only found current information.

We packed up the stroller/trailer (its a bike trailer that changes into a stroller and it rolls over anything, genius!), made some PB&J sandwiches, packed some fruit and lots of water and went on our way. One side of the park has a path that you follow and it goes along the Ski Alley side and through the mangroves. The other side is one looong beach. If you are going to go, bring some sunscreen and mosquito spray as they attacked us for most of the trip!!

Em hanging on one of the small beaches along Ski Alley

Am on the same beach!

Our family hiking it through the mangroves.

Checking out the cacti.

You come out of the woods right onto these beautiful beaches, it was wonderful.

She wasn't happy about the mosquito's

Turtles!!!!

Hanging in Ski Alley with a family of dolphins!

This is right at the end when you get ready to come out at the Pass.

And here we are!!

A little lagoon type beach at the Pass.

We looped around the Pass and came up the other way on the beach.

They had fun playing in the trees that were at the beach.

Dolphins at the Lagoon...VERY cool!
(this pic should be up higher on the list but its messing up my formatting, sorry)

We walked this whole thing..you cant even see how far we went
(the trees the girls were play at are WAY down at the end!)

This is the beginning and it gives you some info about the park,
the trail we hiked was 1.3 miles long to the end!

And some happy girls riding home....

We had a wonderful time and we plan on doing something like this each week over the summer. This adventure cost us $3.00 for parking and probably $4.00 in gas (gotta love our new fuel efficient car) the rest of the stuff (our food and drinks) were things we had at home so there was no cost for that. I really like being able to do stuff locally that is fun and adventurous and CHEAP!! So welcome to our new Summer Adventure Series....this one is from last week, I still have to post the one that we did yesterday!!

Thanks for stopping by....what are you doing over the summer? Anything fun??

Summer is here!

2011-06-13T20:14:00.004-04:00

Well summer is officially here!! We are hitting temps above 100 degrees and its really muggy out, but what should I expect, we live in South Florida (you'd think after living here my whole life Id be used to it, but I guess not). Anywho...we are all home now for the summer and to keep us away from being bored and away from the TV/Electronics my hubbs and I have come up with a plan to be active outdoors at least once a week and to just be more active in general. This week we did a bunch of fun stuff! We went to our local park and checked out the boardwalk, the girls got to look at some little crabs, play on the swings and it got us all outside and away from the house. We also went to the beach and hiked through a state park that I never knew was there, but thats a whole 'nother post all together!!

This one is about cooking. So we got this book From GoodWill (btw, if you donut shop at second hand stores you are truly missing out on some seriously awesome stuff!!), so we got this cooking book for kids.

I thought it would be a fun thing for us to do together while the baby naps and then once she woke up we could all enjoy the fun goodies that we made.

Well we made our first bath of moon rocks (cookies) today and they were...T.E.R.R.I.B.L.E. like whoa they were pretty gross, ha! When I tasted the batter (yea we usually eat a bit of it before we put it in the oven) I knew it was going to come out nasty. I added a bit more chocolate and a smidge more sugar but when they came out they were still nasty! I felt a bit bad for my daughter but as honest as she always is she says to me after tasting them "Wow Mom, these taste gross!" HAHAH! I love her.

I suggested we give them to the dogs (one each) and that went over really well, except for with the baby, who loved them, she was mad that she had to share with the dogs! lol

That baby will eat anything, even gross moon rocks!

Thanks for stopping by and checking out our failed attempt at moon rocks!

Ahh…the simple life. …

2011-05-21T18:44:00.001-04:00

So I totally deleted my facebook fan page :( I wasn’t too happy about it, but I feel a lot less stressed about it now that its gone. I also deleted my myspace, my hubbs myspace and my hubbs facebook (his actual page). I think we are at a point in our lives where we are “over” certain things. He is tired of the constant electrical outlet called the internet and Im tired of the drama it brings. Booo to drama. Do you get caught up in the pointless drama that the people around you bring?? Maybe I need new friends??

Oh well. This is just a test run for my new blogger writer that I just started using. Hopefully it will work because I definitely like my blog!

Thanks for stopping by

~Kat~

New Tab

Derby Time!

2011-05-09T13:44:00.001-04:00

I went to my first derby party over the weekend, and I actually think it was the first time Ive ever watched the Kentucky Derby. It was pretty awesome though and my dad tells me that its been called "The greatest 2 minutes in sports" or something like that (sorry if I have misquoted you dad).

Anywho, I went to great lengths to get a cute dress, matching shoes and a matching purse. Finally, after trying on what seemed like 100 dresses (more like 5 or 6) I found "The One." I also found these cute shoes that have a ribbon to tie them, but I replaced that with some fabric that matched everything and then BAM, instant cute shoes!!

My accessories!

I also made fabric flowers for my 8 dollar Walmart hat. I clipped them to the hat so now that the party is over I can make more flowers for it or just use it as a beach hat (since we are there a couple times a month).


One of my flowers.

I just had to have a purse to match my stuff so I made a simple clutch. it worked so well and took me minutes to make (I love stuff like that!)

My tiny clutch.

It was all very exciting!! I got to have a wonderful evening with my husband, father, step ~~monster~~ mother, and all their friends as well as get congratulated for doing an awesome job during our fundraiser for the Homeless Coalition. Oh yea, I guess I should sat that this Derby Party was the end to our fundraiser. Our team goal was to raise $3500 but in the end it was closer to $8000!!! And that was just our team, other numbers were $25,000 and $9,000 (there were about 15 teams total and we raised $75,000) Awesome right??!

My cousin and I derby-ing it up!

Me, my cousin and my step mother!!

My handsome date!!

And thats all for my Derby Party!! I cant wait till next year when we have another derby themed fundraiser and then party!!!! Woot! (dont worry, there will be many more fundraisers throughout the year)

Thanks for stopping by

~ kat ~

C-c-c-crazy!

2011-04-18T19:46:00.000-04:00

Yep, the title is pertaining to my life, but I dont think Id have it any other way!!

Our Monster Hats!! We love them!

So ya see, I was page hopping (on Facebook) one day and I stumbled across this site called Girly Stitches. Well, she has the cutest crocheted hats and I (mostly me) decided that we needed some of her Monster Hats and OH WOW, they are SO cute! The day we got them I think the girls wore them all night and then to school the next day. Its one of their new fav things to have on their heads. Now mind you, we live in South West Florida and it averages 85 degrees (plus humidity) and they still wear them!!! Shes amazing, if you havent checked them out you must do it. Not only is her stuff totally awesome (she has more than monster hats) but shes really nice!! :)

Which brings me to the craziness! Well as some of you know, Im currently a student at our local college with the hopes of one day becoming a middle or high school math teacher. As the semesters go by, I fall more and more in love with math. Right now we are working on Infinite Series which includes Geometric, P-series, Nth term test, Direct Comparison, Limit comparison, oh wow..the list could go on,but I wont bore you. Point is, Im almost done with Calc 2!! I have around 5 more classes and then Im off for 6-8 WHOLE WEEKS!! oh my goodness!! Think of all the wonderful things I could make! :)

SO, the past few days have had me in a sewing fit, and Im trying to make stuff to sell before May 5th so it can benefit a fundraiser Im working on for TheCharlotte County Homeless Coalition. Our mission started and they split us into teams and each team had to raise "X" amount of money to win bragging rights, but it all goes in the same pot and it all goes to benefit our community! Our big event is this Saturday at Punta Gorda Speedway but Im trying to sell my goods on the side to not only benefit me but my team.

Which brings me back to Girly Stitches!! She just closed a "1000 fan giveaway" and I was a sponsor for it!! Im kind of piggy-backing her giveaway into making money for my fundraiser but to also seek out extra fans that I probably never would have had in the first place!! Im very honored to be apart of something like this, its networking and using our resources at it finest!! (And hopefully after the fundraiser is over-with, I can raise funds for our family :))

My sponsor item that I actually really like. Guess Ill have to make one for myself!

a HUGE travel bag that I am currently working on!!

So please, check out my Etsy (as I said, anything bought between now and May 5th will go to out team Smarty Jones for our part in a fundraiser for The Charlotte County Homeless Coalition!!) and check out Girly Stitches, shes awesome.... I cant tell you how amazing she is! (fast ship and super cute stuff and really good prices!!)

Thanks for taking the time to read and participate! :):) You all rock :)

Lovely Weather

2011-03-26T12:52:00.001-04:00

Lately we have been having the best weather! Ive moved my sewing machine and my serger so I can look out the windows and enjoy the view, the birds chirping, and the smells. Its nice having the windows open right now, in a few months it will be too hot for that so we shall enjoy it while we can.

Well...my internet was down so I haven't really been able to do much school work (a lot of it is online or requires me to be online) so I decided to sew. Ive got a serger that Im new to, but man shes awesome!! It even cuts the extra fabric, which can be a good thing, or a bad thing. I still like it and I cant wait to figure out the different features it has!

So I sewed up a couple really cute skirts and I started working on some bloomers for the baby. She needs diaper covers because she likes to "be free" most of the time, which isnt good when she has to potty. Im making a few of those for her with cute ruffly bottoms. Id really like to make the girls matching Easter Dresses, we shall see how that goes.

The Bloomer bottom with ruffles.

The back of the skirts with the tag on the outside
(it actually looks much cuter there, I know, one has a tag inside and out)

Hipster Hoodie

2011-03-21T09:55:00.000-04:00

I'm getting a quick post in before I head out to school.

Recently I purchased the "Hipster Hoodie" by Running with Scissors and I really like it. You must read the directions throughly before starting (something I'm really bad at) and keep the piece from the pattern page that tells you the dimensions of the cuffs, ribbing, and strips, and also buy shirts that are the same thickness (it makes the hoodie a bit better but diff types will work, as mine did).
I made a trial one for the wee one and I think I might try to mess around with it so I can make a bigger one for my big girl (shes about a 5T and the sizes go to 3T).
Just wanted to share it with you on this fine Monday morning! :)

(There is a pocket in the front and the teddy is in it!!) (next time Ill do it in diff colors:))

Thanks for stopping by!!!

The Land of The Living...

2011-03-14T10:13:00.000-04:00

Im feeling refreshed, open, wonderful, excited and ready to make some changes in my life. Ive noticed that my KaydeeBunz "following" has grown from a couple to a few and I'm pretty excited about that. We (meaning my family) recently went on vacation up into the mountains (Ill post pics in a few) and had a wonderful time. I was without any sort of electronics even my phone and it was rather refreshing (yep, I said refreshed again). We hung as a family, did things outdoors and explored a world that was unfamiliar to us, I really didn't want to come home. But...all good things must come to an end and Ive decided that our lives need to change. I want to paint our house to give it a fresh feel, I want to make the backyard more appealing to our family (dogs included). Im rearranging our office/ my craft area so its not as electronic oriented. I also want to do more with my blog and stay off the ever addicting FaceBook. Yes I have a FB "Fan" page for KaydeeBunz and Ive made it so this blog will update it, and I can use it strictly as KaydeeBunz....which is awesome! But its whateves....the whole point is to make my life more relaxing, family orinetied, and awesome...we are on our way.

So I came home and started painting my back room. I dislike the wood paneling, it makes me feel like Im in a portable from 6th grade cause they ran out of room in the school building (insert yucky memories here).

This panorama isnt great, but you get the idea of what it all looks like...which is a mess!!!

This is the one wall after Ive primed it. Its not perfect but I love it already!

This little number is going to be refashioned for a friend of mine whose a BIG TIME Gators fan. She has a Little Gator at home and this will be for her! I have no clue what to do with it, but its going to be epic.

This is the BIGGEST mug ever. I got it on my vaca and Im in love. As you can see in the background my SewNews and my Calculator are ready to go. :)

So....thats (some of) what Im working now that Im back to the land of the living....its been fun playing hooky, but now its time to get things moving!!!
Thanks for reading :)

Kimonos for Lilly

2011-03-04T21:28:00.000-05:00

I came across this cute blog Nancy's Couture and she has a post about a cute little girl named Lilly. Well Lilly is sick and going to have heart surgery on March 22 and for 7 weeks after she wont be able to lift her arms. She will be needing shirts like a kimono. So I have started making some so I can get them sent out ASAP as March 22 is very near! If you can make some please do as there is a tutorial and a pattern. If not, your thoughts and prayers will work as well :)
Thanks for reading and taking the time to pray for someone else. Please go check out Lilly and her story, shes a real cutie.

Its not done and theres a couple more Id like to get done over the weekend, but I think its pretty cute :)

Blossom bag

2011-03-01T10:53:00.001-05:00

I have been REALLY busy with school and the fam and I started this free purse pattern by Amy Butler (found here) about a month ago and FINALLY finished it! I LOVE it!! I bought more fabric so I can make some adjustments to the pattern and make another one!! Just wanted to share it with you!!

Im really digging the colors!!!
Thanks for stopping by!

Quick and easy strapless top

2011-02-28T09:49:00.009-05:00

One of my favorite things to wear these days are my tube/strapless shirts that I refashion from regular ol'tshirts. Its pretty simple really.....esp now that I have done like 10 or so of them. I have even made my own from scratch using some cute fabric from Walmart. This one was inspired by our date night to the roller rink. I wanted something retro and found this for a couple bucks at.....Walmart!! So to begin with....you grab a shirt, flip it inside out and cut off the sleeves and to the top right under the neckline. I then made marks on the wrong side (keep it inside out) so I can see where to sew it up. Depending on your shirt and its size, you might want to bring it in a bit more or leave it like I did and just trim off excess fabric. You are then going to sew up your lines and then trip off any excess.

For this shirt I made a casing for elastic, but because it was so tight I just left it as is with the casing (for support so it doesnt roll over like some of the other shirts Ive made) but did not use any elastic. If you are using elastic, pull it around your chest to where it feels comfortable, and then add about two inches. Thread it through your casing and sew the ends of the elastic and then close your casing. (no pics cause I didnt do this step on this particular shirt) Flip your shirt rightside out, try it on and admire! Now go skating with your friends and try not to bust it!!! Woot!! Thanks for reading... :)

Been Busy

2011-02-20T19:15:00.006-05:00

I havent been doing much crafting lately. My Calculus 2 class as well as my Ethics and Law class have been keeping me super busy. We have made it to the beach a couple times.......man, do I LOVE Florida beaches. I consider myself blessed that I live 45 minutes from like 10 different beaches, I also think its great that my girls are beach babies!!

Ahh...what a beautiful day!

Gotta love building sand castles.

We even saw some planes!! They were really neat!
The one let out a trail of smoke!
I was memorized with the waves.....it was so clear and wonderful.
We even got a friend (well not really..he was fishing for our food!)

But then he got chased away.
Its been such wonderful weather that I wanted to share some SunShine with you.
Hope you enjoy your weekend :)

Skittles Belt Tutorial

2011-01-23T07:51:00.008-05:00

I am not sure if you have been over to Lil Blue Boo, but she has some really awesome tutorials!! One of which is a fused plastic patchwork belt, (its pretty awesome!) Well...my brother just recently had his birthday and well, hes really hard to buy for. I keep giving his gas cards but that gets old, so I thought I would try this out since I had 2 big bags of skittles for him. I emptied the bags (they were the big bag filled with little fun bags, so I gave him the belt and a gallon bag filled with fun bags) and attempted to make him a scrap belt! Okay so you start with your materials, plastic wrappers, iron, D rings, scissors, webbing of some sort (I used the butterfly stuff you see below), and walmart bags, I used like 6 bags (note~ depending on the thickness of your bags depends on how many you will use. You know..like how Targets bags are thicker than WM bags). You are also going to want to cut your skittles bag into little strips, depending on how much you want shown. I prob could have cut the BIG printed skittles out but I chose to cut it up into strips, play around with it, the possibilities are endless! I cut my bags into strips about 2.5 inches wide, I didnt really measure, I just wanted it to be a smidge bigger than the belt I was making. Then you take a long strip of freezer paper (this stuff is awesome, if you are a crafter, you HAVE to have a thing of freezer paper around!) What you are going to do with the paper is fold it in half shiny side in) and then half again. You want the shiny sides facing away from where you will be ironing as it will stick to the bags, and we dont want that. So you place the strips of bags in your folded freezer paper sleeve, overlapping as you go. I then ironed down the strip. You have to be careful here because you can easily melt your bags. Ive read that medium works best, but for my tiny iron I had to put it on high. Just mess around with a few layers to see where its best for you. (see my strips below)I then took my webbing and pinned it in place and then trimmed up my pieces making them slightly bigger than the webbing. Im not sure I will do this next time, I just thought that since the belt was for a boy it should be a bit bigger....but its whatevs. Once you are done making your strips (unpin it from the webbing) you then take your little plastic skittles pieces and place them on your fused bags strip. I dont have any pictures of this part as I was by myself and it was tricky getting the pieces to stay down before I could iron them. I ended up doing a couple pieces at a time. You are going to have to see what it looks like. There were some spots that needed two layers of skittles wrapper and some only needed one. You also want to make sure its all sealed and fused together because if its not then it will come apart when you are wearing it. I then trimmed the sides, (once it was cool) and ironed it an extra time just to make sure. Be careful, you dont want to go overboard and kill the thing! I then overlocked the webbing to the fused plastic. If you dont have a sewing machine you might be able to get away with just gluing it to the webbing or just tossing the webbing all together and just making it a bit thicker by using more walmart bags. I attached the D rings by placing them at the end, folding it over, and then sewing it. I used a zigzag stich for this part. You want to make sure its secure since its going to get pulled on a bit. And then BAM....you are done and have an aweome fused skittles (or whateva) belt!! I wish I had more wrappers (we dont eat candy) cause Id like to have one for ME!! Thanks for stopping by and tagging along through my tutorial :) Have fun, and enjoy!!

Spring Redo

2011-01-20T14:32:00.007-05:00

Well Spring is in the air where we are at in Sunny South West Florida and I have decided that I want to give my house a make over!! I know that it needs a new coat of paint, but we arent sure how long we are going to live here, so I think what Im going to do is have two different sets of decorations. One for fall, and another for spring. This way I can switch things up when the time comes and I havent put all that much money into it!

So I started with these two signs that were in our kitchen. I bought them years ago for really cheap, like 1$ each but I wasnt really digging what was on them (esp since I can make signs myself). So I got out my sander and some paint, and went to work.

I really like the way they turned out, even though I had to do multiple layers since the original color was so dark. But its a success and Im happy!!

Im also tired of the way our living room is. Due to the design of our house we are limited on how things can be moved around, but Im always up for a challenge! I turned the bookcases, took down the stars and the sign (moved them to our room), took the stars from our room down and modge-podged them into magical pieces of work, and BAM...a whole new living room! (and in moving the living room set to our bedroom its like our room is different too, oh so easy, right up my alley!)

My new look! Im soooo digging it!

This is what the little stars looked like to begin with. I wanted to cover them in fabric but that did NOT work out so then I tried using scrapbook paper but nothing would stick so, I painted them! I had another plain star (I dont have a pic of the before, just the after) and that one didnt mind being modge podged so it has cute summer sayings on it!! Im in love....fa'real!

My summer star...

My painted stars......

So now Im stuck with the rest of the house. I really like the way it all looks, but I want it to be a bit more summery/springy...since we do live in FLA!

Thanks for reading, I had a really fun time making all these things!

Princess Canopy

2011-01-10T18:45:00.009-05:00

Im not sure if you know, but I have two little princes living at my house! The oldest really likes sleeping in my bed and well, while its really cute, I often get kicked, slapped or wake up with feet in my face. I know she will only be little once and there will come a day when she wont want anything to do with us, but a couple nights sleep a week would be soooo welcome!!

So I decided to make a canopy type thing and put it over her bed.

I started out with the supplies below. They were all things that I had around the house and it came at a perfect time with all the Christmas lights being on sale (74 cents a box, boooyaa!)

So I had my hubbs make 4 evenly spaced marks in the ceiling and then he put up the hooks. (I helped hold the hula hoop so he could see where the marks should go, its very professional ya know!)

He also marked the hula hoop so I could see where to place my knots.

I then pulled apart the hula hoop. Ive seen where people have cut them, but you dont have to do that (usually) since they sometimes have a sticker and a staple holding the two ends together. I just pulled it apart and put on the curtains.

I wasnt sure what to do at this point since there was 4 spaces but only 2 curtains. So I painfully cut a slit where the knots where and threaded them through.

I then made a knot with a hoop, my hubbs and I have no clue what this knot is called, but as long as you can attach it to the hooks, you will be golden!
Hang her up, attach the lights and BAM, instant princess-ness!!!

This is also really good for us too because our biggest is scared of snakes and thinks that there is one hiding in every corner and in every shadow of our house. She tells me not to leave the door open because snakes will get it. (Thanks Animal Planet) Im thinking that next we will make some Monster Spray....seriously...what an awesome idea!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Car Seat Cover Tutorial

2011-01-07T12:39:00.011-05:00

As some of you know, car seat covers arent too terribly hard to make. But I have some friends out there who dont know how to do it, and this is for them!!

To begin with. Take your fabric and drape it over the car seat. I ended up with 34'(W) x 35' (L) but you could make it bigger or smaller depending on the type of car seat and how you want it to fit (really, the possibilities and combinations are endless!)

You want to take cut your two cut pieces and put them facing together and then sew all along the edges but leaving a few inches on one side open.

You are also going to want to find a good place to put your ribbons for holding it to the car set. I made a couple tiny marks on the fabric in the picture below (they are hard to see)

You want to take cut your two cut pieces and put them facing together and then sew all along the edges but leaving a few inches on one side open (at this point you can either round the corners like I did using a bowl to make your edge, or you can leave it like it is, Ive done both ways and they are both cute!).

I like to clip any round edges when Im sewing. This makes the edges a bit easier to work with once you flip, iron, and sew it all up.

So now we get to the flipping. What you do is where that couple inches of opening that you didnt sew, you now want to take it and start pulling the fabric through so it will then be right side out. (sorry I dont have a pic of this step) You are going to want to use a chopstick or a capped pen, wooden dowel, whatever you have thats long and you can use to push your sides and corners out. Once you do that you are going to iron the sides to it sits nicely. You are also going to iron the opening so its folded and so it matches the rest of the fold. Then sew around the whole edge so it holds its shape.

Now you are going to take your ribbons, two of each color. I honestly cant remember how long they were and since Ive organized my desk I cant seem to find the sheet with my measurements on it, sorry. I go for longer rather than shorter as you can always trim it. Prob about 7 inches for each piece.

Go back to the markings that you made in the beginning. If you didnt make any markings before just go now and place your rectangular piece of fabric in the car seat and see where you want the handles to go, then make some marks and sew on the ribbons. I like to do two matching colors on each side so it gives it some spunk, but you can do it however you want. When finding your placement for the ties, I like to pin them down once I have a good spot and then tie the ribbons so you can see if the placement is good or not. If not, just put them in a different spot and try again.

Then.....put it on the car seat, tie the ribbons and voila....you've got yourself a car seat cover!!!!

FYI...Im NOT a Gators fan, Im not really into College football as much as NFL. This was for a friend of mine who gave it to a client of hers. GO FSU!

Thanks for stopping by!!

~Kat~

Drab to Fab

2011-01-02T22:08:00.005-05:00

AHH!!! So I was browsing the blog-a-sphere and found this really cute blog, Pumpkin Pie Crafts. One of her posts was about a Peasant Shirt Tut for her little one and I decided to try one for myself (since all my redos are for my girls and I happen to have a bag of shirts that Im not sure what to do with). I kind of followed the directions and....success!!!! YEA!! Im so happy that Im wearing it tomorrow!!!

Thanks so much for the awesome tut and thanks to all for stopping by!! :)

Happy 2011!

2010-12-31T17:08:00.011-05:00

I must say...2010 was filled with some really awesome moments!! My hubbs and I had our 5th year anniversary and we FINALLY went on a mini vacation (our first since being married). Our big girl started school and the little one, well, she has and will continue to be a cutie pie!!
As is our tradition, we burn our Christmas Tree on New Years; sort of like a good bye to things of the past and hello to all things new!! Below are some of the fun pics I took!!

If you've never seen a Christmas Tree burn, its quite amazing. It literally takes seconds, esp if you can just throw it in the pit. We didn't have that option so my hubbs cut it up (see above pics). It took seconds to go from the above to the below picture! I guess
thats why Christmas Trees are a fire hazard.
(No chairs were harmed during this burning)

It was producing smoke like a train....crazy

The 'hood was covered in it!

We actually stopped because we were worried the Fire Dept would come (again) and think our house was on fire....yikes!

I hope your 2010 was also great, but that your 2011 will be even better!!

Thanks for stopping by, God Bless!!

~Kat~

Christmas Sewing!

2010-12-29T18:56:00.005-05:00

Ahh this winter break has been filled with lots of fun crating and sewing!!! I made a crazy camera bag (Ill post pics of how I made it one of these days!)

A cute gathered clutch for my teacher!

A Diaper clutch with a fabric covered wipes case for myself and one for my cousin. (Both of my cousins matched the clutch print!)

I made these coasters before but I added a matching table runner which was a short one because I dislike the long ones. This was a gift for my Mom for Christmas!

And this is a Christmas outfit that I made for my big girl. The tree on her shirt is appliqué hands that I traced. I should have sewed them down because after one washing the fingers were all sticking up. Ive since fixed it, and she loves it!!

Its been forever since I wrote a blog and I wanted to put up a few of the things I had been working on!!
Thanks for stopping by,

Pink Cadillac

2010-11-23T20:14:00.005-05:00

My hubbs and I decided that the girls should have one of those big motorized vehicles from Toys R Us before they got too big!! It was great! Em had a BLAST and the little one was a smidge freaked out by the super speeds it gets up to...so she only rides when Em is going slooww ha! Its cute!! I love them!!

The hubbs mowed a track around the outside of the yard and in the middle I
created "Kid City." Which is just a bunch of kid toys, and every now and then
we might add a sheet for some fun!!

Just look at those smiling faces!!

Then we had a bonfire and roasted some s'mores...it was a wonderful evening!!!

Moses Basket Re-Do

2010-11-19T17:40:00.015-05:00

A friend of mine wanted me to redo the Moses basket liner since the one that she had was blue, worn, and needed to be replaced. I gladly accepted the challenge (I've never done anything like this before) and off to the store I went to make a new liner!!I picked up some batting, 2 yards of cute girly cotton fabric, as well as 2 yards of some soft pink fabric (like fleece). I also picked up one of those fabric squares so I could make my own bias tape rather than buy it. I did that because I dont mind making the bias tape (one day I WILL own a bias tape maker!) and you cant buy really cute patterns, just solids, and well, solids are just no fun sometimes!

I started out by making a pattern by using freezer paper (I used this simply because its really big and if I used the 8x10 paper I would have to tape pieces together and that just didnt sound that fun) with the help of my hubbs.

So I had my two pieces for the side and the corner and figured with the bottom piece I would just wing it (thats my usual MO).

I cut out all my pieces and sewed them together. I needed 4 sides and 8 corners. So I then had my two pieces, the inside piece and the outside piece, both without bottoms.

I then took my soft pink fabric and just pinned it to the bottom of the liner without the use of a pattern (sorry, no pics of this) and then I sewed it all the way around and then cut it so it was in the shape of the bottom, kind of like a big oval. (I hope that makes sense, its hard to explain).

And then YEAH, my project was finally coming together!

Once I had all the pieces I then set it in the basket to see how my progress was going, and well, I had waay to much fabric. I probably wasted a good 1/4 yard on this because my patterns were horrible. I think next time I wont use them at all, just wing it. But anywho, so I had to put each piece in the basket and size it all down a bit, but I still had to make sure each (inner and outter) piece would match up and not loook funky. So I sewed it all up and both sides matched up (for the most part) and it looked cute. And I was successful! YEA ME!

I then began to make my bias tape. I measured out some strips, cut them and then sewed them together. There are many places to look for tuts on how to make bias tape. Check out Prudent Baby, (I LOVE THIS SITE!) there are so many awesome tuts on there its amazing. One is the How to Make Bias Tape tut.

Okay, so I cut the fabric into strips and sewed them together, then I folded it in half, ironed it and then folded those pieces in half and ironed them.

So then you have something that looks like this.

And then once you are finished you will have a nice pile of homemade bias tape.

I then pinned the tape onto the liner and sewed it on. There are also tuts out there on how to correctly attach bias tape. If you dont know how to do this I totally recommend reading a tut out there on how to correctly attach the bias tape. Before I did that I was lost and my stuff didnt come out right, now, well, it aint perfect, but I'm much more pleased with the outcome! (Check this tut out, again, thank you Prudent Baby!)

Okay well its getting to the point in this post where you must be wondering if its over...well its not. Sorry.

When I was done with the bias tape I still had a few pieces left so I made 4 pieces total and used them as ties for the sides (to hold the sides up) I also took some ribbon and added it to where the handles are so they would hold the middle up.

Lastly I remade the pillow. It was this flimsy piece of foam to begin with but I took it and added some batting and some of the soft pink fabric I used eariler to make a pillow. I used Muslin to cover it and seal it in, this took it from a junk pillow to an awesome pillow.

I also had to make a pillow case, one that matched the whole thing. So I sewed up the sides leaving an opening in the middle, flipped it inside out and BAM, instant pillowcase.

I opted to leave the pillow underneath the liner because I get nervous with anything a baby might happen to roll over and get stuck under while sleeping. And with it under the liner it made it all look so perfect and go together so well....I was very happy with the finished product, you might even say I was a bit proud lol

Well that is finally over, if you got this far thank you so much for reading all of this. I didnt start out with the intention of making a tutorial, and I dont think this really is one, maybe more of a play by play of what I did. Again, thanks for looking....

~Kat~

Twine Pears

2010-11-16T06:10:00.005-05:00

,A couple weeks ago I totally had the Fall bug and since its getting to be Christmas time I need to get all my Fall stuff posted so I can make room for my Winter things!!! (YEAH for Winter and Christmas!)

I saw somewhere someone making cute little twine pears and I decided to make some! So I sat down with my nice cold beverage, some gluing essentials, and started making some pears, (and one apple, but the pears were way cuter!)

All I did was get the glue gun nice and hot, wrapped the twine around the Styrofoam balls an then added a bit of extra glue to the ends where the stick goes and voila! Cute little twine pears!!

Add them to your centerpiece along with you homemade attempt at acorns (lol) and woot! You now have a festive, and cute centerpiece!

Thanks for looking and stopping by!

~Kat~

Fall Fun

2010-11-12T07:27:00.004-05:00

My big girl and I decided to do some fall crafting!! Its great! She painted a bit while I made a wreath and a fall votive.

Gourd Centerpiece

My Fall Votive.

My Fall Wreath. I started out with a plain wreath from the dollar store as well as some hot glue and different fall leaves. I spent about $5.00. I also bought this cute fall garland and then cut the leaves and everything else I could use off of it (also from the DS).Glued everything onto it (sorry, there arent many pics of that)
and the hung it up outside! Im very pleased with it. Oh, I also used some burlap (that I had) as a holder for the top!

Thanks for stopping by!

~Kat~

Thrift Store Finds

2010-11-11T21:59:00.006-05:00

I LOVE thrift stores! This includes Good Will, Salvation Army, and any/all second hand thrift stores! You never know what you will find there!

I'm a big time book person, so I constantly am looking for new books. Sometimes I can leave there will 15-20 books!! Its great!I just wanted to post some fun things that Ive found lately that were related to sewing and crafts! (Our local Joannes donates to Good Will so if I catch it at the right time I can get LOADS of stuff (like a bolt of Muslin for 5$) on the cheap!)

I got this awesome knit fabric for 3$ and it was about 6 yards!! AWESOME!
Ive made a skirt for myself and a peasant dress for the baby.
My big girl wants a dress also,
so thats another thing I will be making with it!!
And theres SO much more left!! LOVE IT!

Some more knits to use for dresses for the girls.

(1$ each)

Cute scrapbook paper. And a pillow project. I actually got like 3 of these and they were all 50% off!
I doubt I will make the pillow, but I have the fabric and can do whateves with it

This one is the jackpot (well I thought so anyways!)
They each have 6, 18"x 42" inch pieces of coordinating fabric in them!
Ive made like 3 purses with just one box!!
LOVE IT!

YEAH! Thanks for stopping by!!

~Kat~

Freezer Stash

2010-11-11T11:07:00.004-05:00

Today I went through our freezer, cleaned it out and took stock of all the meat we have in our freezer!! It was wonderful! We have about 25 "meat" meals and a bunch of lunch stuff for the kids (and hubbs).
I took a few pics and just wanted to share since Im sooo proud of myself HA!

Before

After!

I posted this because I took everything that was in boxes, cut out the nutritional info as well as any cooking instructions, placed them in a gallon ziploc and was able to add room by ridding myself of those pesky boxes! (thats a long sentence, oops)

Thanks for looking, I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did!! :)

~Kat~

I am the one hiding under your stairs, Fingers like snakes and spiders in my hair

2010-10-31T08:46:00.004-04:00

Sorry for the weird title....its "This is Halloween" by Marilyn Manson and its also in "The Nightmare before Christmas," I figured it was appropriate since today is HALLOWEEN!!!

So we are all dressed up and ready to go!! Which is too bad since we have to go to church in a bit and cant wear our costumes lol, but thats okay. I told the girls that we have to put our costumes on hold until after the football (GO BUCS) game and then we can get all dressed up!

This year I opted to make their outfits since I have a machine now and am able to do that sort of thing! And this year they wanted to be fairies!!!! So I have two fairy princesses prancing around the house, its magical!!

My big girl got to dress up for school and the little one wanted to be dressed up as well, it was very cute and we all had a wonderful time!

Hanging at the house before school.

Happy about getting glittery

My wonderful makeup job lol

Waiting outside sissy's school for the Halloween Parade!

The Parade!! It was super cute!

Now we are just hanging and listening to Halloween Radio on Pandora (prob my fav place for streaming music!!)

Pumpkin Carving!!

2010-10-31T08:31:00.003-04:00

In years past, I have always had a Pumpkin Carving Party, but this year we toned it down and stayed low key, witch is fine with us because we have decided not to throw any big parties anymore (its too much $, work, and stress).

So we just had my Dad, Aunt who was visiting from out of town, and us! It was fun, magical, and we were able to create some awesome masterpieces!

Notice the baby in the pool.
She doesnt care what time or temperature it is,
its always the right time for a dip in the pool!

The second one from the right is Em's and its my fav.
Its like a pirate face going arrrr hehe

Myself (in purple) and my Aunt Michelle
(along with a baby at the bottom)

It was a fun night and Im glad I got to see my aunt and that we got to carve our pumpkins!

Summer Sewing

2010-10-13T15:48:00.008-04:00

I took a semester off over the summer to recoup, regroup, and reorganize; all I did was read like 50 books, which I guess falls under the recoup category. I wanted to work on the many projects that I have in my bookmarks and do a little sewing. I guess I made a few things, but not nearly as much as I wanted to. Here is a few pictures of the things I got done.

My new (old) purse. (Ive since taken it apart to
fit it with interfacing for more stability!)

A random skull clutch that Im not sure what Im going to do with.

An Ipad holder for my StepMonster (Ipads are the bomb btw!)(oh, and my
Monster loves dogs (they have 7) so thats whats up with the
dog type print, and thats also her initials!) I would also like to say that the little yellow ring holder was also made by me at Bisque It Studio, they rock!

Bandanna dress and romper for the girls for July 4th!
(I really like that the wee one looks a bit devilish, and our big girl
is doing a downward glance, nice shot girls lol)

Business Card holders for my bestie Renee, since shes a new Realtor!

Cute clutch for my bestie for her bday!

I made a bunch of baby stuff since another one of my besties just had her first baby!!! But I will be posting that stuff on a separate post since theres a few different things!!

Thanks for reading!! :)

My FIRST Quilt!! YEAH!

2010-08-23T16:16:00.006-04:00

Ive been wanting to make a quilt but wasnt exactly sure what all went into it. In looking around through all my blogs and came across the disappearing nine pattern from Obsessively Stitching. She has a wonderful tutorial on how to do it and well..I tried it out!! I had some help from my homie Trish, shes just awesome like that!

What do you think?? I use it for the baby (I guess shes more like a toddler now, but I dont want to let go of that title) and its the perfect size!! I cant wait to try out more of this style since it was super easy and really fun to do!! YEAH for my first quilt! :)

(Here is another blog that has a couple pics on this type of pattern!)

Zucchini Pickles!

2010-08-10T20:13:00.007-04:00

I am a subscriber to Cooking Light Magazine, and I LOVE it!! They have the best healthy recipes and they are all in one place!! Well each month they feature a diff food in their "Suits us to a Z" articles, and this month it was Zucchini. They have a cute article on different things to do with Zucchini and one of them was Zucchini Pickles!! Well I had to try them since Im all about making my own pickled stuff!!

And mmmm they are good!

This is my counter collection of mason jars!

They are, Zucchini pickles, couscous,
buckwheat, quinona, and more Zucchini pickles!
( I think its puuurrdy!)

Well I have tried looking on their site for the article so you can see the recipe, but its no where to be found. Luckily, I have my handy dandy magazine so I can pass it along!

The article says;
That you can follow your favorite recipe for making pickles or you can combine 4 cups 1/8 inch zucchini slices, 1 cup slivered sweet onion, and 3 thinly sliced garlic cloves in a glass bowl. Bring 1 cup white vinegar, 1/2 cup sugar, 3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper, 1 teaspoon mustard seeds, and 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt to a boil. Pour the mixture over the zucchini, cover and chill for at least 24 hours.

Let me know if you like it. As I said, I got the recipe from the Cooking Light Magazine, August 2010. If you like to eat healthy I highly recommend this mag!! (and no, Im not getting paid to say this, but hint hint Cooking Light...Im a big fan and would LOVE to tell the world about ya! lol)

Goals for the week

2010-08-03T10:16:00.007-04:00

So recently I have been making goals in regards to my eating and exercising habits. I have found that due to my nature of things, that if I set too high of goals, I wont achieve them and will even sabotage myself and do the opposite of what I had originally wanted to do. Crazy I know, but its how this brain works.

I have my Sparkle People page and it tracks all my food and fitness FOR FREE, so Im digging that site and all it has to offer. I also bought Zumba, which is great, but Ive slacked off the past couple of weeks and Ive only been running, not a combo of the two (which is what I wanted to do from the start).
SO, this weeks goals are as follows;

Run 3 of the 7 days, do Zumba 2 of the 7 days, and eat healthy (5 of the 7 days) from my new Healthy Cooking cookbook. Ive allotted one day to eat out and one day to eat something fun like homemade pizza or these yummy nachos Ive been making lately.
To me, these seem reasonable and logical, which is what Im going for.

Im excited to get things back on track with my eating and exercising habits!! What do you do for exercising and/or healthy eating?!

Update...I did stick to this and have been good about my eating and exercising!! So I guess....mission accomplished!! :)

1st Birthday

2010-07-03T07:27:00.005-04:00

So my baby just had her 1st Birthday and its made me realize how wonderful life can be and how blessed we are to have these two beautiful, healthy children. Her first year was filled with many trips to the beach, camping, icecream, trips to the fountains, and a couple Busch Gardens trips, as well as many fun family filled days!!! Our lives have been forever changed due to our little one, and for that, I'm truly grateful. Thank you God for blessing us time and time again.

mmmmm rainbow cupcakes!

I just love this picture!!!

Happy Birthday baby girl!

More and more Diapers!!

2010-06-10T14:28:00.002-04:00

Ahhh the joy I find in making diapers is ridiculous, and recently my cousin asked me if I could make some diapers for her new baby boy. Of course I said YES!!!It took me a bit so find some boy materials, and I still have to Velcro a few of them, but they are basically done..and I know Im biased, but I think they are cute!

This is a set (for some reason I really like making sets)
Bib, Booties, and Diaper!

And this is one I made for my little one...I just had to throw it in! :)

Thanks for reading....

Curtians!!

2010-06-10T14:12:00.007-04:00

I have been so busy lately with sewing, fun, and just life in general; that I havent had much time to write any blogs. I have though; been taking pictures for future blogs...so I guess its time to get down to business!!

Recently my hubbs and I decided that we needed to add some curtians to our open floor plan so we could have more privacy in our bedroom. (That and it makes it a bit darker so the wee one can sleep better)

So off I went to buy one more matching curtain set, and the store was out. I should have figured they would not have the same ones since I bought these like 3 years ago, oh well, silly me.

I decided that since I can sew, I will just make some. So I took the bottoms off a pair in the front room and added some burlap to them, mixed them with another matching pair that I had and voila....I have curtains!! (I dont have pictures or me doing it, just the afters!!)

This is the front window that matched but it was longer so I just shortened it and hemmed the bottom. Then I used the cut bottom piece to make the top of the bedroom one and added some burlap, SIMPLE!

Im proud of my DIY project, its similar to a curtain project that I saw somewhere (she painted her burlap) but I didnt do any painting, just sewed em up and did the thing!!!

Light Bulb

2010-05-20T13:31:00.007-04:00

So for the past month or so I have been trying to get my machine to shirr....I have been completely unsuccessful, and its been a bummer. Well after reading many sites, tutorials, and comments, I have finally figured it out!! (I will post how at a later date....its a doozie).

I have been trying to come up with original items, pieces that are handcrafted by me and that are by use of my own pattern(s). Like everything I do in life, I have a hard time following directions or instructions (or in this case patterns with directions) so most of the stuff I've made isnt like the starting pattern but I still feel like its not mine. Well the light bulb went off in my head and I'm in the beginning stages of making my own pattern(s)!! YEAH!! I've made a bunch of cute stuff for my girls here lately so now all I need to do is mess around with it a bit more, work out the bugs, and then see if I cant sell them!!

Here is what I worked on last night and today.......

I made my big girl this dress and she wasn't that happy about it at first....

.....but then I added some pockets and she was perked right up!!!

We shall see where the wind takes me.....Thanks for stopping by! :)

Manic Monday

2010-05-17T20:57:00.010-04:00

Well I was a Busy Bee today, I guess Summer Break has finally kicked in.

So I started the morning with a diaper for my baby girl. I had been so busy with other stuff that I've neglected to make her any new diapers lately, so off I went and we can now add one cute blue diaper to the mix.

A while ago I bought this dress for like 2 dollars at a yard sale and it didn't fit right in the bust. I liked the pattern in the skirt so I just cut the top off, added some elastic and voila, instant skirt!!! I love refashions! :)

I also saw a tutorial somewhere for a bandanna dress, but since my big girl has decided that she isn't going to wear ANYTHING I make, I decided to make a bandanna creeper/romper thing for the wee one. It took me like 20 minutes, some elastic, and a couple pieces of Velcro, oh, and some twill tape. She looks ADORABLE in it. I am soooo going to get more of these (for 1$$ each btw) next time I go shopping!!!

And lastly.....A while back I made a diaper bag, which I LoVe, but its just too big. I feel like I carry around way to much stuff that we don't use so I decided to make a smaller bag for regular outings and then we can use the big one if the girls are going to someones house. This idea was inspired by my new friend Trish and its such a great idea!!!! Thanks Trish! :)

Well thats all for my Monday, and I was also able to get 2 workouts in, hang with the girls, read some of the big girls Bible to her, and cook dinner!! Seriously, I LOVE summer :) Hopefully tomorrow I can start making things for my Etsy. What did you do today? :)

SMILES!

2010-04-26T15:24:00.005-04:00

So I am again posting a picture to the I Heart Faces, "Smiles" contest this week. I chose to pick a picture of our baby when she was only a couple weeks old.
Thanks for visiting, enjoy your day!

Kk

2010-04-09T00:48:00.005-04:00

Ahhhhhhh my machine is back up and running!!!! So I had been waiting on my part to come in, but it was taking FOREVER!! Upon furthur investigation, the local store told me that Brother has my part backordered until the middle of April :( which made me pretty sad. But I found the part on Ebay (ooh I love Ebay sometimes), ordered it and within a couple days, viola, I had a new part. Well poo poo on me, cause the bobbin case does not like my machine :( yep, another sad face. So I decided to put my old/broken piece in and it worked like a charm. Its sad really because I have been waiting for what seems like forever to use my machine, even had stuff due for Church but couldn't come through. And the whole time I could have used my old part. Oh well, I think it was God's way of telling me that I needed to concentrate on school since I was slacking in that area...until my part broke and then I got all caught up on my school work!!!!But I just got done with the "K" for our Children's Ministries at Church. I look forward to going on Sunday and finally being able to turn it in! :):) Its nice to be able to contribute to something as important and special as Church!!!Hope y'all have a great night....its off to be for me....hopefully more sewing is on my agenda for tomorrow! :):)

Park of Trees....

2010-03-23T18:52:00.004-04:00

So I posted this picture on my last post but didnt realize that you can only have one picture in the contest. Silly me for not reading the directions. Since I can not post the pic in that post, I will just post some cool pics from our wonderful day at the park.♥ This is my hubbs and I♥

This is my hubbs playing in the Banyan tree with our daughter!
♥ Our oldest♥♥Our baby♥
A nice picnic in the park!! What a lovely day!! We are blessed to live in Sunny Florida.

I Heart Faces

2010-03-23T14:25:00.008-04:00

This is a picture of my daughter at the park last weekend. She was climbing the tree and my husband got this shot from ground level looking up at her.

Stuck like Chuck

2010-03-19T08:49:00.003-04:00

I have SOOO many projects that I need to get going on, one is due on Easter, and well, that's a couple weeks away!! EEKKK!! So I decided last night to just start cutting out all the pieces for stuff that I need to get done. Like my friend wants some blocks, so I have been cutting out all the little detail pieces that will go on the faces of the blocks. I also have to make a "K" for our children's Sunday School class and I have that all cut out, so it waits for the missing part as well. I was also in the middle of making a really cute diaper bag but that too stands still. Its very quiet over here and its almost as if I dont know what to do with my time.....(probably school work)....Oh well, this too shall pass and in a couple days I will have my new part and Ill be golden!! Hope you have a GREAT Friday!! :)

Onesie Dresses

2010-03-08T20:56:00.005-05:00

These days I have been making, creating, and playing with my new sewing machine. I must say, I have put many miles on that baby with only a few problems (all of which I solved using my manual!)
Do you ever have those onesies laying around that just aren't that cute, or maybe they are blah and don't go with much? Well I had a ton of them lying around and I found a tutorial on a onesie dress thanks to Barefoot in the Kitchen!! I (as usual) didnt really follow it to the T, but I did a pretty good job of it and I have made (currently) 2 onesie dresses for my little baby girl. I also made some booties to match them as its winter here in Sunny Florida and we need something to cover up those toes, that and the crocs are too big to wear and flops dont come till a bit later.
This is such a fun and easy project, and I think I have almost perfected the ruffle
skirt! I also like to put a little something on the bunz of the onesie so when they are crawling around, you don't just see hiney, you see cuteness!! (The one says "Rock Baby")

Diaper Bag

2010-03-08T20:40:00.005-05:00

My hubbs and I are 8 months in on our second daughter and for both this one and the last one, I have HATED all my diaper bags. I think I went through 4 or 5 with Em (our first daughter) and the one I bought for Am (our second) is just to bulky and it always frustrates me!
Well since I'm all crafty now, I finally decided that I was going to make my own!!!

If you know me, you know I have an issue with following directions or instructions, (destructions as we (people in my family) like to call them, well this also applies to crafting and sewing. I have bought, watched, read, and copied many a tutorial and pattern, but in the end, I always go with my version. The making of this diaper bag is no different, actually, I just ended up cutting a big piece and said, "This is how big/long I want it!", and I cut another piece and said, "This is how deep I want it." (Its all very professional ya know). I then cut out a liner that matched all the side pieces, used a waterproof piece (beats me what its real name is, vinyl? pleather? whatever it is, it was in the scrap bin) for the bottom and started sewing. I took one of those blocks of fabric and used it for the inside pockets. I'm actually amazed that it came out as good as it did. My friend "S" wants one like it but more of a tote to take to the gym. I think I can do it!! Sewing is great and I LOVE my new diaper bag!!!
Oh, and I also embroidered a K on it for our last name, and did 2 reverse applique hearts (the little one I like better, but oh well).

New Projects

2010-03-08T20:20:00.005-05:00

Right now I am working on a few different things for my friend "H". Her sister is having a baby in July, so I need to get started on things. I found the cutest prints and I HAD to have them!!! I bought a few yards here and there with "H" in mind, but I think Im going to have to buy more for ME!

The first pic is the nursing cover which I am making reversible, because who doesn't want a reversible nursing cover? (with pockets on both sides I might add)!!! The second is another cute AM print that I'm going to do some other fun stuff with for "H". And the third was a discount fabric that I thought I could use to make my nieces something, or a skirt for one of my BF's older (all ages 7-12) daughters. It was cute, so why not?

So this is what I'm working on now, I'm going to post on the stuff I have been doing since I have the itch and my blog has been slacking!!!

Valentines Day Activities

2010-02-18T20:31:00.023-05:00

I wanted to do some fun stuff for Valentines Day since last year I made a decision that each year I was going to make V Day fun and special for them. Last year I got Em a "big girl bed" along with all new sheets and a matching comforter. She also got to do some fun painting projects and eat some yummy chocolate (thats really our fav thing to do on V Day). This year I made the girls matching outfits and we did lots of fun crafts that included painting, gluing, glitter (or magic as Em calls it) and hair clips!! We also made some cookies......I wanted to roll them out and use these awesome cookie cutters, but since I dont really follow recipes (or directions in general) it didnt work out as I had planned. The cookies were yummy, but they just looked like regular round cookies, not cute heart cookies, oh well.

I made matching outfits for the girls and it was oh so fun!! I made a ruffle skirt for Em and a onesie dress for Am as well as matching booties.

I got the onesie tut from Barefoot in the Kitchen and I cant wait to make more!!! I cant find where I got the ruffle dress from, BUT, I cant wait to make more of them as well (it was soooo easy to do). The booties tut I got from Stardust!! Thanks so much to you gals, I love our cute outfits and accessories!

We also made heart garland
that now hangs from the dinning room fan and a few others that are also in the dinning room. (not sure why I put all the kids crafts in the dinning room, but that is always where stuff usually ends up).

We also made a heart hair clip, it was simple to make and I have tons more clips that are calling my name!!

Diapers!

2010-02-01T21:52:00.009-05:00

My journey through cloth diaper land began with my friend "S". She was telling me that she used cloth diapers for her kids and that she LOVED them, so when I had my second daughter I thought I might give it a try.
Now I sit here, 7 months into having our second child and I LOVE cloth diapers! They are the best thing since, well I dont know what, but they are pretty awesome!
I started buying them on ebay since you can get "lots" of them for pretty cheap. There are pockets, AIO, one size, and many, many more types out there. I never really went towards the name brand types, but more of the WAHM types, or the off brand stuff, (mostly WAHM). I like supporting other Moms and getting good, quality products for decent prices. As I was getting them in the mail, I started checking them out to see how they were made. I began to think, huh, I can do this! And thus began my search for tutorials on cloth diapers.
I read and watched many different tutorials, incorporated my own pattern and voilà.....I have diapers!

As I said before I think I might sell them since I all want to do is make, make, make them, but for now, I have enough cloth diapers to last me a couple days!

There are also a couple of different pattens that I am going to start using that I think are cute, so hopefully they will work as great as these have!

Busy as a BEE

2010-02-01T21:36:00.006-05:00

I guess last year I was a pretty good girl since I was gifted with a new sewing machine! Its a sewing machine and embroidery machine all in one!! (awesome right!!??) So I have been playing and crafting and sewing my heart out! I was also luck in that my husband finally built me a craft table/area. Phew...Id been waiting on that for a while now but I hate asking him to make me stuff with his BUSY and hectic schedule!!! But he finished it and its wonderful to say the least!! Since Christmas I have been in and out of the craft store as well as checking out all that Wal-Marts fabric area has to offer. I feel overwhelmed when I step into those places. Its like going to "The Bead Room" (our local bead store that is floor to ceiling beads, its crazy in there. The stores motto is "The adult candy store", and its oh so true), you have to know what you want to get or else you spend a couple hours looking at everything and then end up leaving with nothing, or a whole bunch of stuff that goes to nothing (well thats how it works for me anyways).
In the mean time I have been Googling and searching around on all the different blogs for tutorials on how to do this and how to do that, its almost a side hobby of mine now. In my quest for awesome things to make I have come across some pretty neat sites, (one of which might be yours)! I just love how the pictures look and how the pieces come out once they are finished, its all so professional. My site is nothing compared to these other sites, but its mine and I enjoy it (when I remember to post stuff that is).
I am going to make another post or two about the diapers and dresses I have been making. I am actually thinking about selling my diapers, but I have to perfect my product first. I have tried so many different styles and types so I know what I like and what I dont. I guess thats a good thing since they are diapers and you want them to hold all the yuckiness that comes along with diapers, in. As for the dresses, they are for my daughters. My first born is a princess all the way. We have many different dresses, sometimes we wear multiple dresses in one day depending on what we are doing. So I decided to make her a few. She enjoys going through my button bins and picking out buttons to sew on the dresses. Ahh....shes such a joy to have.
Well thanks for reading and stop back in soon to see my latest projects!

One day at a time

2010-01-11T18:22:00.002-05:00

So I am aware of the fact that I havent posted any new stuff recently, this is mostly due to all the craziness of the holidays and also partly due to my severe case of "lazy butt disease". We have however, done many, many craft projects, including making my new craft room. Okay, well I didnt make the room, but I helped take the wall down and I had a say in how tall the table should go! I will be posting pics here soon of it, before and after ones so you can see how awesome it is! Id also like to thank my husband who is soooo totally awesome for he is the master craftsman who put it all together!! All I need now are some more tupperwares, a pegg board, and other items that will help me to organize the space! As for now, I can sew in one spot and then roll 6 inches over and lay out the project I am working on without moving a keyboard, my school stuff, or clearing my dinner table!! Its awesome and did I say that I love it!?? Thanks babe, you are the best!!
Pics to come of all the fun stuff we did over the holiday season!

Gobble Gobble

2009-11-19T07:17:00.001-05:00

I wanted to do some festive crafts with my daughter, and when we were at the park and I spied some pine-cones, I knew we had a winner. I wasn't sure what were we going to do with them, but I had to have them. So we grabbed a handful and loaded them up.
When we got home I searched the net for some fun ideas and after finding a few neat ideas I decided we would make Pine-cone Turkeys.
First I cut out feathers from some cereal boxes that I had in the craft bin and we painted them. I also cut out a beak as well as the gobbler thing/face. I also let my daughter pick out some googly eyes for them and we glued them on also.

After we got everything painted and in place we took the pine-cones and hot glued the feathers to the back of them. Then I hot glued his face on as well as some feet that I cut out, wrapped some fishing/craft string around his body a few times, and Voilà...Pine-cone Turkeys!
This was a free project to do since we got the pine-cones from the woods and I had all the other materials at my house. These are the best projects and they teach our children that we can use things in nature to create and be crafty with! Enjoy!

SPIDERS!!

2009-10-22T12:48:00.002-04:00

My daughter and I have done a few different Halloween related crafts lately. This first one we did was spiders made from egg cartons, pipe cleaners and a bit of paint. I cut out the egg cartons and then we painted them black, (it took a couple layers of paint). Then I poked 3 holes on either side and slid the pipe cleaners through both sides. I used red pipe cleaners, but you can use whatever color you have on hand, or orange to be festive. I then had my daughter paint eyes and a mouth on them, we used red glitter paint, and orange paint. After they were done completely drying, I poked another hole in the top, took some fishing wire (any kind of string would work, even floss will work if you dont have string) and threaded it through a hole in the top and the exposed legs (pipe cleaners) underneath. I then tied a knot and we found some places to hang them! This was such a fun project for us, and it was extremely cheap. I always keep the dozen egg cartons so we had those on hand, as well as the pipe cleaners, paint, and string. So this was a free project for us, but if you were to buy everything and do it from scratch (including the eggs with carton) this project would run you around 5 or 6 dollars, and you can make many many spiders with that or just keep the left overs for future projects (that is what I usually do, I add it to the craft bin!)

Beaded Necklace

2009-10-09T23:57:00.002-04:00

I have a TON of jewelry, in all different shapes and forms. There was a time in my life when I worked at a jewelry store and made different types of beaded jewelry. Well when I stopped working there I continued the hobby at home and made lots of different pieces. Well they have been sitting in my closet for years now, and Im over it. I should also note that I make beads out of clay, which is what I used in the necklace I made for this blog. I decided to mix the clay and the beads together and make something fun.

The first of my projects was a black necklace that I cant wait to wear tomorrow!! Basically it includes seed beads (they are very small glass beads that you can pick up from walmart or any other craft store. I went tonight and spent 2 dollars on 60 grams of black beads), and the black beads that I made.

I made the beads out of fimo clay that I got from the craft store. I used a bead roller to make the beads (you can prob get away with just rolling them and making a ball), then poked a hole in them using a tool, but a tooth pick would probably work.

I then heated them so they would harden. After they were cool, I used a star stamp and some silver ink to stamp little stars on the beads. I let them dry overnight and then put a glaze on them so they would have that nice shine to them. (All these supplies I have picked up over the years, but they are each around 1 to 2 dollars and even cheaper if they are on sale). You dont have to put the stars, I left alot of them plain black, but the ones I used for this necklace I put stars on.

After the glaze was dry I strung them on strong beading wire (2 to 15 dollars depending on where you go and what you use) and then secured the ends with crimp beads (if you used fishing line you could just tie a knot with a dab of glue in the knot to hold it together better). You can use whatever you like to string them, just as long as you secure the ends so it wont come undone. Mine is really long so I didnt have to use a clasp or a toggle, it just slides right over my head!

This was a fun project and it only cost around 3 bucks not including all the tools. If you bought everything from scratch it would be around 20 dollars, but you could make alot of necklaces out of all the materials. You dont have to have all the high tech stuff that I do to make this project, this is a hobby of mine so I have the tools and materials in my stash of things)

Country Sign

2009-09-16T12:57:00.002-04:00

I saw these cute stars and hearts cut outs from the craft store ( they were a dollar each) and had to buy them. When I got home I decided to make a cute wall hanging out of them, (one that I remembered seeing in my friends home that Im sure she bought somewhere but I remember secretly thinking, oohh I can make that). So here it is, a couple years later and Voilà..Ive decided to finally do something with them! I went through my craft box and found some coutry looking ribbon that would match my warm colors of paint. I then took my dremmel out and drilled some holes in the tops and bottoms of 2 and then just the top of the third (since it will be the bottom piece and doesnt need holes). I painted them in 2 different colors and once that was done drying, I painted a verse from the Bible (and were I got it from at the bottom). After that I just put the ribbon through the holes, tied cute knots in them so they looked cute, and hung it on the wall. It was a REALLY easy project and it took me as long as it takes the pain to dry. Now that I have done one the next ones will be better looking since the first one you always do is basically a "rough draft". Total, it cost about 5 dollars, that is with the paint and ribbons.

No hastle flowers

2009-09-16T12:23:00.000-04:00

I had this flower pot that was given to me when I had my daughter (it had flowers in it) and it was so cute that I didnt want to throw it out. It has been in my closet for the past 3 years and I decided that it was time to put it to use.
Well my desk was looking a bit drab and I really like the look of fresh flowers, but they always make a mess when they die. So when I saw some awesome, oversized, daisy-looking flowers at the dollar store, I snatched them up.

You will need a 2 flower pots/vases (one bigger than the other), fake flowers (however many you desire), tissue paper (about 4-5 sheets in different colors), paint (optional, if you need to paint the outside pot/vase).

I bought 4 flowers from the dollar store and measured their stems in relation to the flower pot and how high I wanted them to stand above the rim of the pot. Once I got that I cut the rest of the stem off and set them aside.
I then took a smaller vase and placed it inside of the flower pot, these will hold the flowers since the flowers would just flop over if I just put them in their bythemselves. (You can do this however you like, esp if your flower pot is smaller than mine.)
To make it so you cant see the vase within the pot, I took colorful tissue paper and stuffed it between the pot and vase. Fluff it up a bit and bang, you have a cute, non perishable desk decoration!

In looking at the flower pot, I think one of these days I might paint it since it is a very cute pink, but some nice decorations to go on the outside will give it a different, more personalized look! (I will post pics if I do paint it)

Total cost of this project, with the vase (you can get cute ones from the dollar store and just paint them up or leave them clear, the tissue paper will cover up the internal vase), $6.00. Without the vase, $4.00