New shoes...sort of...

I love Martha Stewart craft paints!  They with on glass, metal, wood, fabric, etc they are even dishwasher safe!  (personalized plates/cups?!) 

Shoes are expensive and kids abuse them...so I just painted Katie's old ones so they look almost new for Lilly.  I have done this one other time and it never wore off or peeled..we will see how these hold up!

Kitchen Chairs

I was getting tired of non kid friendly fabric on our kitchen chairs so after much searching I found new fabric that both Robert and I agreed on and recovered them.

A Wedding

This weekend we were able to enjoy a lovely wedding in the Mesa Arizona Temple.  Here is the happy couple:

And I'm happy to announce that the cake is finished!!

I'm very relieved to be done with the cake. I have been working on it for about a week and a half and I'm glad it's done so we can get back to normal life.   I'm also looking forward to cleaning all the powdered sugar and cornstarch off of all horizontal surfaces.

Lately...

As some may know we have an up coming wedding we have been preparing for.  I have been asked to make the cake.  Here's a sneak peak:

Pumpkins...FINALLY!

So yes, we really did carve pumpkins in March!  Here's the proof, a bit late but finally here.

A quick update...

Michael just had his first ever Track and Field Day at school.  Robert was able to go and help with it.  Michael had tons of fun!  He's had a few rough days with school but overall he really enjoys it.  He is reading now and I enjoy listening to him read new books everyday.  It's amazing how much he is learning in school!

My Favorite Craft Blogs

I feel like I have already posted about this.  If I have, sorry skip this and move on to the next post.
Here are my two favorite craft blogs.  I tried to pick a favorite but I can't.  I love that they are both moms and they enjoy making things for themselves and their kids.

I love:
baby tights pattern and tutorial  (I have made quite a few leggings and shorts for Katelyn from this pattern, they were essential to her "anti-diaper-removal-outfits" )
cute Buttercup bag pattern, haven't made it yet, but plan to
fold up and snap bib pattern, again haven't made it yet, but plan to

I love:
That she shows you how to make new clothes for you children out of your old clothes, what a great idea when you're trying to save money!
Lots of tutorials
Make your own patterns tutorial.  I have learned a lot from it.
The Shirt Dress tutorial, I have made it a couple times and it turns out SO CUTE every time!!
She talks about making your own swimsuits!!  I love my homemade swimsuit!!
Freezer paper stenciling, I didn't even know such a thing existed until she told me.  :)  Now I have a huge roll of the stuff...PLEASE come get some if you want to try it, I have what looks to be a lifetime supply.  :)
Tutorial on crib sheets...Have you seen how expensive crib sheets are, this is a way better option!  Note to self: you still haven't bought fabric for the crib sheets you need to make. 



I love how both women just go with it and don't always have a pattern.  (that's my style)  I also love that they make everyday clothes for their kids to wear.  Sometimes I forget that I don't have to just sew fancy church clothes for my kids: I can also sew them jeans and t-shirts too.  I love that they inspire me to just do it!

Do you have any great craft blogs?   If you do let me know, I'm always looking to expand upon my craftiness.

Costume Preview

So I have officially finished one costume!  Oh yea!  Here is a sneak peak:

I spent $3.50 on fabric and $1.50 on accessories so $5.00 total.  Not as cheap as I would like but better than buying a costume at Walmart.  Plus it's more durable, modest and cute than the ones at Walmart.  To see the full costume and little girl in all her adorableness you'll have to wait a few more weeks!

Costume #2 is in progress...

The transformation of a table

Years ago when Michael was just little we knew we wanted a train table for him to play with.  So we went to, where else, Toys R Us to check them out!  After seeing the $100 + price tag we knew we had to make it work some other way.  We decided to buy the train track set and get a table from Goodwill.  When we got home we put the train track together so we knew how large the table would need to be.  Then we began searching for the perfect sized table.  I think we spent about $15 at Goodwill and got a really ugly 90's coffee table.  We didn't like it so we did this to it:

 
Then Robert screwed down all the train tracks:

We all loved it for many years and it met our needs for a long time...until Katelyn came around.  She started to climb onto the table and rip the train tracks off the table, breaking the tracks and making everyone, especially her brothers very upset.  So in frustration I removed all train tracks from the table and against Robert's wishes I gave it a fresh coat of paint.


We were given a huge roll of paper so I talked Robert into attaching it to the table and our fun train table became an awesome art table.

This was fun but the kids really wanted roads to drive on...they even began laying out the paper and drawing roads...That is when I knew it was time for me to paint it again!  And this is what we have now, an awesome art and car driving table:

Originally my plan was much less detailed but once the boys got in on the planning, well, it became pretty detailed. It has a school, 3 houses plus and shoe hotel (Michael decided he needed a hotel not a house), pond, store, airport with a runway, helicopter landing pad, Firestone store (so they can get their cars fixed), 4 parking lots and they even insisted on two stop signs and a swing behind the school.  It turned out so great! 

I think our $15 table was a great buy!  You want one?  It's pretty easy (time consuming but easy) to make.  We began by planning it all out on paper. We then drew it onto the table measuring a lot to make sure things were mostly straight. (we measured their cars to see how wide the roads needed to be too.)  I used regular craft paint to paint it all up. Then topped it with a few layers of clear spray paint so it cleans up easier and can take the rough car driving.  It took about 8 hours to paint everything but I think we all can agree it was totally worth it!

Latest sewing projects

For the last wedding we went to I sewed up new vests and ties for our boys...1 1/2 months ago...
Here is a picture of how handsome they look in them!

After making the last dress for Katelyn out of a men's dress shirt Robert willingly went through his closet to pull out a few he doesn't wear any more.  Here is the latest creation!

Some highlights of the dress:  I removed all the white buttons and replaced them with cute yellow ones, used the cuffs to make her cute sleeves, made a ruffle at the bottom with the hem of the original shirt, and added a white tie across the middle.  (Originally I planned to have it tie in front but in the end we decided it looked better tied in the back instead.) I really love the dress and she seems to like it too!

Katelyn was in need of a new swim suit because the one she was wearing was getting a bit thin. (It was a "hand me down"...in fact I wore it...a long, long time ago...)  We loved the way it fit her so I traced the swimsuit to make a pattern and this is what we came up with:

I really love how it turned out.  I love that it is very modest and everything stays covered like it should.

Iron-ons are Awesome!

So I was recently reminded that iron-on paper existed when I saw a friend blog here about personalized onesies.  And then when I was searching for craft/sewing labels (just for fun) I came across a make your own labels tutorial here using iron-on paper--What a great idea!  So off to Walmart and Michaels...

I came home with two widths of ribbon and one package of Avery Light Fabric Transfers. (the transfer paper cost around $7)

In Photoshop I created a design in three different colors so I (hopefully) had it in a color I liked for the project I need it for.  (I can always go back and make more in a different color if the need arises.)

I then went on to create a few other labels. 

I printed them out onto the transfer paper, cut them apart, ironed them on and sewed the folded ones so they are ready to go.  They are fantastic!  I really like the ones that have BK on one side then you flip it over to see the size.  (once I sew on the tags all the extra strings will be gone and it will clean and professional)

I KNOW I am going to love this!  There is something great about putting a label on something that says you made it and that it didn't come from Walmart!  And besides that I am going to LOVE having the size on the items I make too.

(These are a pair of shorts/leggings for Katelyn.  When her onesie is pinned closed on top of them they keep her diaper on nicely and she still looks cute!)

All of my labels are so small that I only used a few inches of one paper...What to do with the other 5 and 3/4 pages of transfer paper?!?  I think I see a few personalized onsies in my future!