Autumn tunic and wreath

Our front door had this lovely wreath to celebrate Autumn..and with fall comes my favorite pallet of colors. I had to make a few tunics for the girl's school wardrobe. This one was for Eden, even though they are 1.5 years apart I love that they can already share most of their clothing with each other because even though I made it for Eden, Novie ended up wearing it first ;)

Owl Love You

Once again, I found a product I love on Pinterest and HAD to make it. Since making these I've had about 10 friends ask how to make it and have made 3 since starting! They make the cutest gifts and very simple, easy to make. I enjoy making these and see many more Owls in my future.

http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2010/12/snuggly-owl-for-sewing-republic.html

So, Pinteresting!

Not sure how many of you are on Pinterest these days. If you have any ounce of creativity in your body, need for organization or like to decorate for Christmas (everyone I think) this is the site for you! Everything from DIY, recipes, clothing, tutorials, tips on organizing, cleaning, decorating, holidays ideas, crafts etc (you get the idea) it's the ultimate of "idea" networking in a nutshell, and men, it's for you too. Props to the guy friends who have started to follow my pins.

I used to spend hours and I mean hours! on the Internet trying to find tutorials and adorable ideas for my girls, home and holidays now I'm just a measly click away to my Pinterest account where I have have categories such as; Fall/Thanksgiving ideas, Fashion Inspiration, Repurpose, Living Wiser, Motivation, and Pretty Food (plus about 5 more). Feel free to check out my page:

http://pinterest.com/tabicati/

Now the 1 and ONLY problem I have found with Pinterest is the downfall of just "pinning" ideas all day instead of actually following through on the ideas. Do you do this? or am I somehow the ONLY person who struggles with this. Pinterest needs "rewards" for those individuals who actually fulfill their pins! Like a sticker, balloon or cookie :) Anyone with me on this one? So after pinning for a year and fulfilling a pin once every 3months I completed/made 4 pins in 1 week! aaahhh, I feel fabulous! It's like I lost 5lbs! Anyways, I am going to try better on how crazy I get with pinning. I want to actually MAKE what I pin, complete that organizing tip, bake that recipe and put that outfit together!

Here's to a year of doing and not just pinning. What Pinteresting item did you fulfill this week?

Here's one of mine:

Recycling Broken Crayons

I remember making these crayons as a kid. Its a simple solution to all those broken crayons we keep ahold of.. Clean out those junk drawers, desks and art boxes and pull all those broken crayons out that are too short for those darling little hands.

Have them collect all those crayons and take the paper off and separate into similar colors, we had to break many of them into smaller pieces (I think the girls enjoyed this part the best) :)

I used a mini muffin tin.

Put in a pre-heated oven 250degrees for about 10-15+ minutes, just until the crayons have melted through.

Pull out of the oven, allowing it to cool off for several moments before putting them into the freezer for about an hour.

When the wax has hardened, pop them right out!

And clean-up is simple! Pour hot water over the remaining wax pieces and wipe off.

Enjoy this special time with your little ones!

A little something for me

I do not like making myself clothes and that's that. It takes less than a yard to make Novie AND Eden something, but OVER a yard to make myself something and seeing the massive inches of fabric it takes to wrap around myself is ridiculous. But I want to try and also make myself clothes and hopefully help out our budget.

I've needed a black skirt now for about 2 years :) Yep...how have I been managing so long without one, well, its ONLY because I have not found one that I LOVE. So...here it is, a skirt for me. A black one with pockets (a fetish of mine) gotta have pockets on everything :) I think its cute not sure though if I'll be brave enough to wear it past the front door into the real world.

I shirred the top about 10 rows I think??

Big deep pockets!

Ruffle Dresses

I got these two little sand colored shirts for $2 each (400ft.) at Auchan which is kinda like a Walmart?.. I knew they would have ruffles I just wasn't sure what kind, how many, what style shape or where to put them. I bought the shirts 2 sizes bigger to give myself a few months to find the perfect tutorial. The girls told me they like to be the same (match). Most of the time I have them pick out the material they would like their particular shirt, dress or skirt to made from. It's always fun to see what their imaginations reach for and pick. This time they wanted the same. So matchy-mathy it is! These took a little over an hour to make both of them. I went for the assembly line technique when making two identical items and it peels so much time off a project! Cutting a project out is what takes the most time!! sheesh. So here you have it the little ruffled-tunic dress.

Eden my little crazy girl

Daddy got Wii Mario Brother's for Christmas and the girls are addicted!

Jan 14th 50 degrees here in Hungary, wonderful!

Novie informed me her green shoes went best with this outfit

and I kinda agree ;)

Matching sisters

http://tearosehome.blogspot.com/2010/02/tutorialtunic-dress-for-little-girl.html

Solutions for your Tangled Necklaces

IKEA has some plain wooden mirrors that are perfect for so many projects. I covered them with some thick upholstery fabric, bought some heavy-duty double hooks, screwed them on the wooden mirrors and voila! the perfect solution for those big piles of tangled necklaces and bracelets. It gave my side of the room a face lift. It cost me about $12. Alot cheaper than a jewelry box. Thanks for hanging them up Andy!!

Peasant Blouse Tunics

I always see free tutorials for Peasant shirts. This is one of my favorites...

http://indietutes.blogspot.com/2007/07/peasant-blouse.html

At least for my girls the sizes are not accurate and I have changed a few things to adapt it to my taste and these particular ones are long-sleeved. The girls wore these last night for New Year's with some long johns underneath. They each picked the animal for the front. I was pretty surprised when Eden picked the pink bird and Novie picked the lion. Completely opposite their personalities! Exciting to see them branching out into each other's worlds ;)

Yo-yo shirts

Yo-yo's are such an adorable embellishment to a plain shirt. I loved the color of this polka dot shirt but when Novie wore it, it was screaming to be embellished with something. It's a nice way to use some of that big pile of scraps.

Christmas Home-made

My goal this Christmas was to make over half of the girls gifts. I want to make them memorable items each Christmas worth saving for their kids. I want to use the "special" fabric I have been hiding away and make them gifts they will adore for years to come. Well, I ended up doing way over the 50% goal!!! I actually completed all my projects 2wks before Christmas and started another whole plethora of gifts..now alot of those still are not yet finished but I was really proud of the motivation I had to make things for my girls. I've been getting brave with zippers and buttons, trying to take projects a little more slowly to notice every line and stitch. To take time to iron between each stitch as well, for some reason I cannot stand that step in the project process, blek.

So here are the bean bags I made. I thought they turned out pretty awesome. I actually think Andy and I use them more, or maybe the students and interns do. I must say though these 2 additions to the family have been the perfect solution for cramming 15+ people into our living room.

"Paper Bag skirt"

Not sure why it's called a "Paper Bag Skirt" it's anything but that! I love this adorable flouncy, twirly skirt. (I've actually made 3 of them now) :)

Here's the tutorial by Make It and Love It. Have fun makng your little girl one!

http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2010/08/paper-bag-skirtand-hidden-mistake.html

Too big for onesies

Eden my baby, is 2 years old now and has finally outgrown onesies. I can get them on but it's a little too low and snug. So now I have a ginormous pile of cutie onesies looking to be re-purposed. Here is my first project. A little comfy stretching dress with matching comfy pants. I traced some sleeves from another long sleeve shirt and sewed them into the tank top onesie. Took about 30min to make the skirt, sleeves and pants. Super cute, comfy and easy!!

Doilies, going vintage

I bought a "mystery bag" of sewing supplies from a clothing drive and the bag was full of doilies, and a bunch of other surprises. What is a girl to do with a load of doilies???

The search was on....and on..and on.

I found it, the perfect project! Actually in a book I've had for a couple years now on Embellishing.

A doily scarf!

I wore it yesterday and got alot of compliements! I actually still have about half of the doilies left. The search is on again for re-purposing doilies!

Button Bobbies

My Mother -in-law sent me a plathera of buttons for my birthday and this was the first thing that popped into my mind to make. This is only the first bunch I tried but I think I have about 30 of them now. It's perfect for those stubborn fuzzy hairs around your face. Novie has worn one to school almost every day. Love them they are so darling.

Easter!

Not the best pictures...especially green on green.

But this is our little egg tree for our table.

I dyed 4 cups of rice green to make some grass I didn't have rubbing alcohol which I have used in the past to help it dry quicker and dye more evenly. I actually like the blend of different shades of green.

Here is the recipe:

dry white rice – any kind

rubbing alcohol – this helps rice dry faster

green food coloring

plastic zip baggie

paper towels

cookie sheet

Put the rice in the baggie and drop 2-4 drops of food coloring in and shake together to mix.
Drop in 1 Tablespoon of the rubbing alcohol
Put paper towels on the cookie sheet.
After you have the desired color pour out the rice onto the paper towels.
Place in the sunlight.
Should be dry in less than an hour.
Enjoy your green rice!

Table Runner

New table runner.
Just in time for Easter!

Art Case

I'm really happy with the way this turned out but do not like how flimsy it is. Novie was using it in the car and had a hard time keeping her coloring book flat and not bending as she drew on it. I think I would like to try this again and place cardboard between the outside pieces instead of interfacing so that it's durable for coloring on top of.