Ladies and Gentlemen....are your paintbrushes ready?

Because we are about to get our PAINT ON! :)

I had tons of random pieces of wood in the garage that were driving me crazy...but the hoarder in me couldn't throw them away - so I had to find a use for them.  In comes pinterest. :)

The projects were all super simple and I did all three of them in about a day and half and that's only because I had to wait for paint to dry. :)

I'm sure you've all seen this one online - I LOVE it! :)

This one I painted based off of something I found in a magazine years ago and I kept the page this whole time....I decided I just needed to DO IT! :)  It hangs in our kitchen right next to our back door. :)

These I made this past fall for Halloween.  I am too much of a cheap-skate to buy Halloween decorations, so I made a few of my own...I think they looked pretty cute out there with the pumpkins and gourds. :)
I just free handed everything - but it was so fun!  I put tea-lights inside of the mason jars and they looked great!

Then this last one I think is my favorite.  We each have a name board - I screwed little eye hooks into the top edge and then it just sits on 2 nails in the board.  I did try to make my own chalkboard paint, which was a HUGE mess - not sure what I did wrong, but my paint was the consistency of play-dough.  I made sure I added the exact amounts and then....who knows what happened, but I totally went with store bought.  :)
Anyway, it is so fun to see what Ze-Ra and Wolverine write on here! And I see everyone check it in the morning when they come downstairs. :)

I would love to see your craftiness!!!  Feel free to post away on the Facebook Page or even send me an email and I can post it if you'd like! :)

Kid's Table Cover

My Grandpa was a wood working magician.  He was the most good-hearted man I have ever met.  He was a salt of the earth farmer and could make everything from china cabinets to benches to wall-hanging crescent moons to my personal favorite...Bunny Furniture!

 

I'm not sure if he saw this pattern somewhere or if he created it, but either way, this stuff is hand made, stained, and painted.  Each of my Aunt's have one and each of us grandkids does as well. I remember being a kid and seeing rows and rows of bunnies hanging to dry from the basement ceiling. :)

So you can imagine this piece of furniture is near and dear to my heart - but I still want my kids to use it....what to do...what to do....

Ah ha! I made some fitted sheets for Te-Man's bed (using this tutorial over at DanaMadeIt) when he was younger (because I refused to pay $40 per sheet for a baby!) and I thought I could use that same idea, but use laminated fabric to make it waterproof.

 Voila!

I am totally thinking about making one using the measurements for a standard picnic table so that when we got to a park or camping we don't have to worry about the table cloth blowing away or remembering clamps/etc. :)

Plush Alphabet

This is the very first thing I ever pinned on Pinterest.  I made these for Te-Man over a year ago and he plays with them quite a bit.  It is fun to choose a letter and go find things that start with that letter or we hold and trace them while we read his Star Wars Alphabet Book.  I also made him a simple little drawstring sack to keep them in.

If I had it to do over again, I think I'd make them a little thicker with either thicker batting or two layers.  Other than that, we love them!

Here's the whole Alphabet and numbers 1-10

Here's a close-up so you can see how imperfect my sewing was...this one is probably the worst - as far as my stitches not even staying on the fabric. Sheesh - I must have been in a rush (or since it's a U, maybe I was getting tired of going all the way through the alphabet! haha). Also, if you have a serger you could serge the edges so they don't fray - but I wasn't going for perfect (clearly!) so I didn't mind the frayed threads.

Also, you can see that the batting is exposed, so like always, watch your kids with these. :)

Here's my Te-Man and Wiley Kat's son enjoying some snacks :)

Cave Fort

Have you seen the pictures on pinterest of the sheet/fan fort?  It looks pretty awesome and I was thinking that of course, the Z-Squad needed to have one. :)

I went to thrifting and found some sheets - in fact, I got a california king set and 2 flat full sheets for less than $4. :)

Then I went to sewing.

First, I sewed the two full sheets together along their "long" side.

Then, I laid the king sheet out flat on the floor and laid the sewn together full sheets on top of it.  They didn't quite match up, the full sheets were a little longer, but I figured that's ok because the fort will just have more space, so I kind of "pleated" the top fabric...I just folded it over every once in a while to pick up the extra slack so that when I got to the corner they matched up. If you are wanting your fort to be beautiful or your sheets have patterns, you might want to make sure that you have the "inside"sides facing.

Now....just sew 'er up.  You'll want to leave a space of about 3-4' un-sewn at one end to allow access (by people) and to allow room to fit in your fan.  

Spread the fort out, put in the fan, and BAM Instant FUN!!

We had a little picnic, did some reading, even had a small pillow "fight".  Lots of giggles and all kinds of fun memories!

**Of course, any time kids are involved with something like a fan - parental guidance is necessary to protect their little curious fingers! But who wouldn't want to hang out in a fort all day? :)
:)

SuperHero Capes

Have you ever stumbled upon a website and thought to yourself - this person is a GENIUS!!  That is the exact thought I had when I found Vanilla Joy.  I am almost speechless about it because it is just so awesome!   She's on Facebook too!

She has some Superhero Cape Patterns available for FREE and they are AMAZING! Super easy to use, work perfectly, look FANTASTIC, and kids LOVE them!

I have had more than one person tell me (and Wiley Kat) that I should sell them.  I don't think that would be right because I didn't create the pattern, but I can sure share it with everyone!

Every kid needs a cape and who better to make them one, but you?!

Montessori Button Snake

I saw these on pinterest forever ago and I've been making them for about a year now I guess.  They are super simple and super cute!

The idea is that kids can practice their buttoning skills on something other than their pants or shirts (really it is unfortunate how infrequently most kids wear button down shirts these days).  I was also thinking you could make different color games out of them, different hues of the same color, teach the rainbow, etc.

I have made a few of these, and a few snap-a-zoos as well, and I'm going to be sending some to my cousin who is a physical therapist - I was thinking that it might be fun and different for the little ones that they help.

Montessori Button Snake

What's In It:
Felt
Ribbon
Button
Thread/Needle

What To Do With It:
Cut your felt into squares of any shape you desire.  I went with 1 1/2" squares, but I think some shamrocks, hearts, stars, pumpkins, etc would be awesome! 

Fold each piece of felt in half and snip a slit in the center of each piece of felt.  No specific size, just make sure the ribbon can easily fit through.

Cut ribbon to desired length.  I find that including the snake tale, about 10" is good.

Sew a button onto one end of the ribbon.

Thread felt on the ribbon.

Sew the last piece of felt to the ribbon in a coordinating thread color. Alternately, you could sew a second button on instead.  

Yer looking a little long in the pants....

So let's just start this out by saying that I am not short.  I am 5'7" which is a very respectable height.  Why is it then that I regularly can only find pants that look like this?!

 

What do short people do?!

Maybe you haven't heard, but I'm a little stingy with the ole wallet and I'm not about to shell out even more money on some pants that already cost more than I think they should, to have them tailored to fit the way they should've straight from the store!

So...I take matters into my own hands.

How to Hem Your Pants while Keeping the Original Seam

First, you'll need to determine how much you're going to need to shorten them.  While wearing the pants, fold the bottom hem up until the pants are the desired length (See my right leg in the above pic, I had already folded it, but then realized that I should take a picture of the original length and while I was messing around with the camera, the fold fell).  Take them off carefully so you don't disturb the fold (you could even get help here and have someone pin them in a few spots while you are wearing them), and measure the distance from the bottom to the original hem. (Mine was 3 inches)

Now pin the jeans 1/2 of that distance (I pinned mine a to 1 1/4 because the original seam on these pants is pretty wide, but for all of the other pants I've done, I've measured and pinned at 1/2 the original distance).

Using a thread that matches the original hem thread on the pants, sew just to the right of the original hem, all the way around the pant leg.  I am not sewing on the thread line, but instead just to the right of where the light and dark fabric meet.  

Fold the unused flap of fabric down to the original hem and pin in a few places.  

With the outside of the pants face up, sew as close to, or on top of, the original hem as possible and sew all the way around each pant leg.  This step isn't mandatory, but it helps to keep the hem from curling during washing, which would then require ironing after each wash...and I don't iron. haha

Here is what my seam over/next to the original looks like.

You can then trim off the excess fabric from your "fold", or in my case it wasn't peaking out the bottom of the pants, so I just left it intact.  This way I wouldn't have to worry about pulling off fraying bits of jeans for a few washes.  

There ya go!  They are now just perfect with my flats or my kitten heels (cause we all know how often I wear heels...hahahahaha). 

Piping is for pansies

I mean, when you can make floor cushions this cute, who needs it?!

Check out these cute floor cushions from Living With Punks.

I didn't have any piping, but figured if my goal was to use up some of the ridiculous amount of fabric that my poor shelves (and desk and bunny table and laundry basket and 2 boxes in the garage) are overflowing with, then going to the store to buy piping was the opposite of that plan because we all know that I can't get within a mile of a fabric store without coming home with a trunk full.

So, I followed her directions pretty closely (minus the piping of course).  The only changes I made were to sew the handle on right away.  I also pinned the top and bottom to the side piece all at once and then had all the pinning done and could sew sew sew!

Te-Man was asleep when Wolverine and I stuffed them and then stitched them shut.  So, they haven't been baby tested, but I can testify that they do make some pretty great footstools! :)

Make one!

Or 10...that's my plan anyway...I want to make the kids a reading nook and figured a bunch of these in different sizes would be awesome!

It's a fox, It's a Pig, It's a Turtle....It's a

SNAPAZOO

KamSnaps used to make and sell these back in the 80s.  However, great news for us, they no longer make them and have released the pattern for personal use.

Bear

An amazing friend, Wiley Kat, stopped by the fabric store for me on Sunday to pick up some fleece - can you believe I didn't have any?!  Can you also believe that I only spent $13 on a trip to the fabric store?  Personal record....and it's all because I wasn't there ;)

Fox

I then made these into my Sunday evening project.

Cow

You stitch around the pattern, place the snaps in the correct locations, and......you have a Snapazoo!

Te-Man and Ze-Ra have both been loving on theirs and I can't wait to give one to Wiley Kat's son. :)

Turtle

I think these will be on the Christmas gift list.

Look at those pasty legs!

Yesterday just wan't busy enough, so I decided that after I sewed elastic channels into 16 diapers I needed to work on another sewing project.  How about making 3 skirts? Yeah...that sounds about right! :)

Please excuse the random blankets on the floor....and yes, we were drinking mimosas out of wine glasses.  HaHa...

I'm not sure how many of you purchase fabric, but I am notorious for getting a fabric that will be perfect for one specific project.  Usually it turns out that I either find a more perfect fabric or the project gets changed/scrapped etc.  Both of these fabrics were originally for something else that has since fallen through, but I could never seem to find a project worthy of them....finally, I just went for it. 

One for Ze-Ra

I used this tutorial over at Mercy's Mom. She does a fantastic job of clearly explaining step by step!

And a matching one, with a horrible picture, for me. :)

Overall, I'm pretty happy. I can't wait to wear the black/red one with a pair of black stockings and some boots. :) 

Sneak a Peak?

The other day I got up early, SURPRISE, and started on another batch of 16 diapers.  Yesterday, I got all of those diapers turned and top-stitched.  This means I am just about 1/3 done with that set.  And that's reason to celebrate, so I thought I'd share a few pictures with you. :)

I still do not understand how crafty or work at home mom's have all of this amazing fabric and turn it into totally kick a** stuff and then not give it to their own kids.  Teagan NEEDS some of this....right?! :)

To see what diapers we have for sale right now, check out Honey Bee Bottoms over on Hyena Cart
http://hyenacart.com/stores/honeybeebottoms/