She Sews Again!

I have been eager for a chance to sew something up for baby girl Zoey and after I saw this super easy tutorial at Fussy Monkey Business I knew I had a project to do. I didn't actually follow the tutorial but I did make my own style burp clothes with some $4 towels from Target.

 I raided my fabric stash and set to work making some adorable one of a kind burp cloths.

 Instead of trying something new and buying materials I didn't have on hand I skipped the bias tape and stitched the cloths together good side facing in, flipped them inside out and finished them with a finishing stitch around the edges to give them a nice clean look.

 Within 30 minutes (not counting the bubble bath or trip to the playground in between!) I had eight handmade burp cloths with 4 different adorable fabrics.

 The fabric side is super cute and the towel side is super absorbent- everything one needs in a burp cloth!

 

  I have such love for this fluffy stack!

Tied up with a cute ribbon these would make an adorable addition to a baby shower gift too!

Teacher's Gift

One week left!

One more week and my baby girl finishes her first year of preschool.

::tears::

Well of course that means I had to get a bit crafty. On the bummer side though Madison has four teachers. Yikes!I found this chalkboard flower pot idea at Lanie J. and Co. and knew it would be perfect! Cheap yet thoughtful and creative.

Unfortunately I have no pictures from the painting process because I started these a few months ago, oops! We did finish them up this week though and I love them!

Maddie wasn't in the mood to decorate the pots with chalk so I ended up just writing Thank You! on them. If you can get your little one to decorate them instead I think they would look fantastic!

My local florist gave me the flower picks to add a little note too. I wrote:
Thank you for helping me grow! Your Friend, Madison B

A snowy Christmas....gift

Fair warning right now:

If you are on my Christmas shopping list look no further unless you want to see what Madison and I made you for Christmas. If you can't resist and look...well act surprised anyways!





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I have a huge Christmas shopping list and generally I like to just make a gift for each family to keep things a little simpler for me. This year I was set on making some snowmen out of keystone pavers and let me tell you I am stubborn!

I had to search EVERYWHERE for the silly pavers but in the end it worked out well and on a budget. I ended up spending about $40 on materials to make 18 gifts! Better yet Madison and I had an activity to do together for about two weeks!

Materials: White acrylic paint, 1/4 yard fleece, sparkly pipe cleaners, 1 1/2 inch pompoms, assorted black buttons and orange puffy paint

By far the most time consuming part was the painting. Madison helped A LOT and we did two coats on each paver.

For packaging I opted for the quick and easy tissue paper method! I was also lucky enough to win some personalized holiday gift tags from the Good Day Designs Shop that matched perfectly with the theme!

Thanks again Teresa!

Hurray for Christmas shopping/crafting/wrapping being done at my house!

I did it again!

I am probably starting to feel a bit over confident but that's okay with me! Last night I stitched up an I Spy bag for Madison!

The whole project cost about $6 and that is a bargain!

Sure my lines aren't straight and my square isn't exactly a square but it still serves its purpose just the same!


Before I stuffed all the little trinkets inside I took pictures of them and then printed it on cardstock and laminated them so Madison has a cheat sheet of what is inside!

Sewing Without Injury

I did it! I practically ambushed Mr. Funny Days as he walked into the door yesterday with my excitement! While Madison napped yesterday I broke out the sewing machine and I actually made something! Like a real something!

I started off easy with a fabric bracelet from the tutorial on Sew-Fantastic. Easy peasy! Well other than the fact that the piece of fabric I had was too small so it was a Madison bracelet. I am already planning on making a few more with the fabric scraps from my next project!

Alright are you ready for my truly amazing abilities?!?!?! I made a crayon roll!

Okay, okay I know that they were the rage a while back but I was terrified of the sewing machine then. Yesterday I did it though, technically I did it twice because either the directions were not complete or I am incapable of reading properly...any who. I used the tutorial on Skip to My Lou and I am in love with my creation!

It may not be perfect, I may not know how to cut perfectly straight or even sew straight but I made it all by myself! YEAH!

Tutu-errific!

A few weeks ago Madison's dance teacher mentioned that she was making all of the little girls tutus for their winter performance and said that they were 'super easy!' so I figured sure why not? I asked Madison what color she wanted for her new tutu ~ pink, purple....blue, green, yellow, orange, black, brown, red.

Sure kid. So we headed to the craft store and picked up every color tulle that they did have for Madison's rainbow tutu. The most aggravating part was cutting all of the tulle into strips but besides that it was actually very 'super easy!'.

Initially I stretched the elastic over a chair and that was such a BAD idea so I redid it and only stretched over my thigh, MUCH BETTER.

Madison loves her new tutu and I am thrilled that I made it all by myself!

We are on friendly terms

The sewing machine may not be my best friend yet but I don't tremble at the sight of it anymore either. This past weekend I fell in love with the chair backers at Pottery Barn but thought "You know what? I am not going to buy these I am going to go make them!" And that I did.

Canvas is actually surprisingly cheap so I bought a whole yard with hopes of making a chair backer for each season for Madison. I haven't ventured to the seasonal ones yet though, instead I went for an every day look.

Hubby picked out the patches, cute huh?!

Madison said she thought the bag was a good a idea because "You can leave me surprises in there!" Now I just have to explain to her that there won't be a surprise in there every day!

Handmade Christmas

When it comes to grown up crafts I am not that awesome. I can whip up a construction paper anything without a problem but when I have to sew, stitch, iron or use any other adult crafting technique things don't usually end up as I hope.

But,

♥ ♥ ♥
Look what I made!!!!

First up is a super easy fleece scarf. I found the idea at Make and Takes and thought it seemed like something I would be able to do.

I made one for Madison

and then had enough leftover to make a baby doll size one too! She is getting a new doll for Christmas so this will be perfect!

After Madison's dance bag applique went so well I knew I wanted to make a small baby doll diaper bag too. I also ordered an adorable baby doll diaper set from Lu Bird Baby that will go perfectly!

The barrettes were a last minute idea that came together pretty well. I made two that match the baby doll diaper bag.

Then three more in the corkscrew style. This is was my first corkscrew attempt, ever. Not bad.

This one is a bit better.

And this one is my favorite!

Felty Fun!

AC Moore has a sale on felt right now 10 CENTS EACH!! so Madison and I headed over this morning to stock up. We have never done any projects with felt so I set to work with a little experiment while Maddie was napping and look at my cute little friends!

I am by no means skilled in the sewing department so these obviously are not perfect but Madison adores her new finger puppets! I have a feeling I will be stitching away this week while hubby works late! Now all I need is a trip to Walmart to stock up on thread. Hubby is the only one that sews used to sew so we only have white, navy blue and black thread or the colors of his uniforms!

Brushing up on those 1996 skills

I have previously stated that I don't know how to sew. I suppose that is technically incorrect. Back in 7th grade our home-EC class was all about sewing....fun! So technically I haven't used a sewing machine since 1996. Well I finally broke that bad boy out this afternoon and with a little help from hubby (I sat and stared at the machine until he came over to show me how to thread it) I actually managed to make a little sack for Maddie's bear puzzle.

Frankly it is nothing to brag about in the least but I am happy to say that I did not sew any fingers to any material and I was also able to wield the iron without burning myself. Ah, yes the iron is also hubby's domain!

Technically the bag still needs some sort of closure, I am thinking Velcro would be a good choice, but besides that it came out pretty cute. I even did a little bear applique to pretty it up!

Now that I have dipped my pinkie toe into the sewing pool I am convinced that I can make some homemade gifts for Mad this Christmas. Darn all you inspiring mommy bloggers! hehe

Tiny Dancer

I have been admiring from afar the BEAUTIFUL applique creations at Chasing Cheerios. I do not sew at all, I suppose I can stitch a bit but I most definitely do not sew. So every time a new applique project pops up on Chasing Cheerios I think "Wow, I can do that!" well her last project got my wheels turning.

During our many errands yesterday I picked up a few small pieces of fabric, some Heat'n Bond iron-on adhesive and a cute canvas bag. I whipped together the bag in less than an hour last night and I am really happy with the results! I am already planning a small tote for when we go out to eat with 'YUM' and a fork underneath it!

I have plenty of fabric and adhesive leftover so I am sure there will be a few more projects popping up. I guess I got the applique bug!

Now that Mad has a cute little bag to hold her new tap shoes I suppose the only other thing we have to do is head over and sign our tiny little dancer up for classes this morning!

My baby is growing up!

Handmade Thank You

A month or so ago we did some ice cube painting on blank note cards as an afternoon project. At the time it happened to be the only white cardstock I had in the house but as an after thought I figured they would be perfect Thank You cards.


Boy was I right, I love how they came out! As an added bonus Maddie wrote 'Thank You' on a piece of paper that I scanned into the computer. Instead of asking her to write it over and over again I figured I could just print it out for each card!


Oh and if anyone is wondering from the ice cube painting project: yes the cube paints work very well on white stretched canvas!