Goin' to church in style

Once I found the little bag for Alayna's "Crispers", I told her we could decorate it.  Just days before finding her little bag, I came across a tutorial to make a ruffle bag. 

And because every girl likes ruffles, we decided to make said ruffle bag.  Only, a miniature one in her case.

Layna picked the fabric.  And I did the creating.

Turned out pretty darn cute, huh?

In fact, I thought it turned out so cute, that I made a mom-size version for me. 

I have to admit, I like hers better, but alas, not all my church "stuff" would fit in her bag.  So I'm stickin' with mine.

A little too excited

I was thrilled to receive these in the mail today. 

I was even more excited that the company that sent them to me gave me two extra fabrics since the shipping wasn't as much as they said it would be.

 And I was quite possibly ecstatic that I love them even more in person than I did when viewing them online.

Let the projects begin!

I redeemed myself

Even though I was not the most on top of it for Alayna's costume, I tried to redeem myself by making her a Trick or Treating bag.

And here it is.  Cute, huh?

 And a little closer look.  The front.

 The back.

And the inside.



A few more details.

-I used this pattern from The Sometimes Crafter. 
- I had to get in touch with my cross-stitch/embroidery self.  It's been awhile...like maybe 10 years, but it was fun. 
-I need to stop my habit of starting a project, and not wanting to stop 'til I'm finished because it causes me to stay up 'til one in the morning when I could have just gone to bed at 10:30 with Dan and finished in the morning.  Oh well, maybe one of these days I'll learn.
-All the late hours paid off when I would hear someone tell Alayna what a cute bag she had.  It's not about the costume, it's all about the bag.  :)

Big girl Par-tay

A couple of weekends ago, Alayna was invited to her very first big girl birthday party.  Her friend Gabby (whom Alayna absolutely ADORES) was sweet enough to invite Alayna to her 5th birthday party.  Alayna was the youngest person she invited (besides Gabby's younger brother, Nate, who is a few months younger than Alayna) so, I was a bit worried, but Gabby's mom assured me that it would be fine.

Alayna was beyond excited and carried her birthday invitation around where ever she went and told her Daddy promptly when he got home that she was going to Gabby's "Happy Birthday"!

And of course, the day of the party, was the first time Alayna has willingly fallen asleep on her own during her quiet time so we had a bit of a grump for the first few minutes prior to the party.  BUT I knew that not waking her and having her skip the party was NOT an option. 

So here she is, minutes after having been woken up.  The party girl.  Not in the mood for a "I'm going to my first big girl birthday party picture". 

Gabby LOVES babies.  And when I asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she said, "Anything baby." 

Well, living in the town that we do and only having two (yes two) options for shopping for birthday occasions like these, I was forced to get in touch with my crafty side.  (Thanks to my mom and sister for the suggestions.)

So, Alayna and I made some things for Gabby's babies.  

First, a hooded towel for when she gives her baby a bath.  Turned out rather cute, huh?  Alayna picked out the colors.

Second, we made matching bracelets for Gabby and her baby.  Alayna helped pick the beads.

Kind of fun. 

Alayna had a blast!  She could not stop talking about the party.  She had to tell me ALL about it (as well as Dan, when he got home). 
Oh, and Gabby's mom told me she did really well....and I am choosing to believe her.  :) 

The worst project ever

This seriously was the worst.project.ever.

At least Dan proclaimed that it was. But the end result was so worth it.

First, I need to give a little background. My Dad owns a ranch and when he bought it from the previous owner, everything stayed in the old ranch house. So my dad had the task of going through all the stuff and deciding what was junk, what could be sold to the antique shops, and what he wanted to keep. Once he sifted through everything and had it down to the main stuff that wasn't junk, he was kind enough to ask us (my mom and all us kids) if there was anything that we wanted.

And this little beauty was among the things that I chose.

Ok, so it wasn't really a beauty....yet, but I could see some real potential.

And the best part is the steps can swing in the stool so it looks like.... this:

Now, tell me that is not cool. I mean, I would have LOVED to have a stool like this when I was a kid.

But as you can see, it was not in the greatest shape. It is quite old after all.


A close-up of it's condition. If you look closely, someone even painted carrots in the two corners.

Now, I know you are thinking that the stool doesn't seem that big so it couldn't have been that bad. Why did we proclaim it to be the worst project EVER? Well, I should have remembered from this summer when we refinished our table and chairs, that anything that has round legs is just, well, it just stinks. Dan says that after sanding those blasted chairs this summer, he will never refinish chairs again. Next time we are just buying new ones. It's just not worth it.

Well, this time I thought I was being smart. I told him that we were not going through the hassle of sanding. We were going to strip the paint. I had just stripped something prior to starting this project and LOVED it. It was so fun. If you have never stripped something, you really should.

Anyway, so we started stripping. But quickly realized that it was going to take FOREVER to scrape the 20 layers of paint. I kid you not. There were SO many layers of paint. And I don't know if it was because the paint was 50 years old or what, but it was a pain. Nowhere near as pleasant as my first stripping experience.

So we scraped and scraped and scraped. And scraped some more. Did I mention we scraped? Well we did. We literally scraped for days. We had to take turns because we would get so burned out. I really thought I would never see the end of this project.

And I have to be quite honest. Dan did more scraping than me. There is something to say for men and their elbow grease. They really can just do a better job at things like this. I would scrape forever and still not do even half as much as Dan could. He was just better at it. And well, I was ok with it. :)

So once we finally had the 20th layer of paint off. It was on to the painting. I debated over what colors to use. I just couldn't decide. Should the colors match my kitchen, the bathroom, did it have to match anything? I just couldn't decide.

And this is what I ended up with:

It took Alayna all of thirty seconds to declare this stool as hers.

And why not? She already knows how to put the steps up...

and down.

So, what do you think? Not to shabby for the worst project ever, huh?

What do you do when you have a bare wall....

that needs a little something, but that something can't cost a lot of moolah?

Well, you make a collage of pictures using old frames.

Add a little spray paint that matches your decor, sand them some and wala!

I was so excited when the inspiration of making a collage of pictures came to me because I would always feel guilty putting the "old" family picture in the picture box to sit when the current family picture replaced it. I felt like, I payed good money to get those pictures taken and even if they are a little bit out of date, I still want to display them and this was perfect for that.

On a separate wall that you will see in my upcoming house tour post, there are our current family pictures, but this wall was dedicated to the past. If you look close you will see that there are pictures of Alayna when she was a baby and some wedding pictures as well as our family pics from years past.

This picture really doesn't do the colors of the frames justice. The lighting is kind of off, but I LOVE the way it turned out. Who would have known that dollar store frames could look so good?



A few close ups so you can see the colors a little better (even though they still look a little different in person, but you get the idea).

The waiting is over

I have been waiting to do this project for a year at least.

While living in Casper I had decided that I wanted some old windows to make some crafts with. So, one day I got on craigslist to see what I could find. I really had no idea how to go about finding them, but within minutes I was calling a lady that said she had some for free and that I could pick them up anytime.

Well, it really was my lucky day. My dad happened to be in town with his truck. And since he loves me, he offered to help me pick them up and then store them out in the barn on his ranch.

Fast forward a year to right before we were moving. Well I guess my dad's generosity ran out because he told me that I could either take my windows with me to Arizona or they were going to the dump. :)

After pleading (and I mean pleading) my case with Dan, they were finally loaded in truck among our other belongings.

Then it was once I got all my Christmas decorations out, that I realized I needed pull out my window project. I was setting up the nativity that my Grammy gave me when I realized the camel wouldn't fit with the rest of the nativity. With our old entertainment center biting the dust, there was nowhere big enough for my nativity to fit. And as you will see in a minute, it would be a crime to not display the beautiful nativity that my Grammy gave me.

So I told Dan, "It's time to make the window table." He was a little hesitant considering I already had three projects that I was working on out in the garage. In fact. I think he said, "You know, most people work on one project at a time." But I told him it was a must. It was for the sake of the nativity. Plus, I needed something to keep me occupied while he worked the night shift.

So after the fiasco of my table legs first being out of stock at our local Home Depot, then getting delivered to New York City, then delivered to a kind lady (that I talked to on the phone) in Washington state, and finally two weeks later made it to my front porch, I was finally able to end up with this:

Pretty cute, huh. I absolutely LOVE it! There were moments where I was a little worried that it wouldn't turn out as cute as I imagined, but it is perfect. Exactly what I wanted.

And best of all. The camel is reunited with the rest of the nativity. Phew. I can rest at ease now that's it's a week before Christmas....

What I have been doing in my spare time

I have been crafting quite a bit lately. Surprise, surprise.

Alayna is constantly wanting to "help" put on my makeup, so I made some just for her. All you need is some nail polish and an old makeup compact.

She picked out the colors and away I went. When I first gave it too her, she squealed with delight and then said, "Thank you!"

I just give her a brush and the makeup and she starts putting it on immediately.

I recently have learned to crochet. It has been one of my goals for a long time, I just have never done it. So on our last trip we made to Utah, I stopped at Quilted Bear and purchased a couple baby blankets to crochet around.

I figured if I spent the money it would motivate me to learn. And it worked. With the help of a crochet book and my sister, I finished my first blanket and am on to the next. I am hooked. You can bet, some of my spare time is spent crocheting.

Anyone having a boy?

I realized this year that I just don't have very much spring decor so instead of buying some, I decided to make one.

And as if Alayna didn't have enough decor in her room, I made a magnet board so we can hang pictures up to our heart's desire.

That's all for now.

It's really quite simple

To answer some of your questions, I'll give you a little run down on how to make the bow holders.

Find an old picture frame that you don't use anymore.

Decorate it.

Since my large frame was a flat, wooden one. I decided to use a little mod podge and some leftover fabric scraps.

The smaller frame was the perfect color so I just decided to add a bow.

Once the frames were all decked out, then I hot glued strips of ribbon to the back of each frame.

The more strips, the more bows will fit. (I ended up adding more than I thought.)

Once it's dry, clip the bows onto the ribbon and walla!

You're finished.

Last, but not least, find a nice place to hang on the wall.

You can't get much easier than that.

I had to do it

With the hair bows accumulating, space to store them was decreasing.

Which is the reason for my latest project.

You see, I had to do it. This project was practically calling to me.

Actually it has been calling to me for quite sometime, but I just couldn't find the exact materials I wanted to make them.

That is, until we moved.

You know those items that when unpacked, you can't seem to find a place for them? If you are like me, they sit around until everything else is put away so I can contemplate where to put them. This time, those few items were some old frames that I had no use for.

Then I had an aha moment and I created these:

And there you have it. Another project checked off my list.

I Just Can't Stop...

making these.

A few more hair accessories for my collection.

Now, maybe my sister will have a girl and she will be set.

Been Craftin'

Now that my time has not been spent on preparing for Terrific Tuesday, I had some time to complete some crafts for me.

Here are my Woof 'em sticks. If you remember, you put dough on the end of the stick, cook it over a campfire and then fill them with whatever you desire (hot dog, cheese and ham, pudding, butter and powdered sugar, etc.). I have yet to try them, but will soon.
This is what the end of the Woof 'em stick looks like.

I made me SEVERAL (like eighty) of these cute tags that my sister designed. We over planned, which meant I got to make all the left overs and then give them away.

Betcha can't guess who's finger that is.

I have recently learned how to do glass etching. It is my new fav. I think I will use my new bottle of etching cream as much as my Mod Podge....maybe.

If you can't tell, the jar is holding some giant jingle bells.

My sister (aka, the craft queen) made a darling hooded bath towel for Alayna. So I kindly asked her how to make it and....wala. I made one for a friend who is having a boy.

I am fully aware that you cannot really tell that it is a hooded bath towel in this picture, but I didn't have a model to wear it. She was sleeping.

I am trying my hand at another quilt. This one the fabric was pre-cut, which I quite enjoyed. Although, I did not enjoy trying to be "random" at sewing the squares together. And by random, I mean not having a pattern. I have been reassured that I am a pattern person. I like patterns. I like to make them. I like to see them. I like order....preferably rainbow order if I am making a pattern with colors. I don't know why. I just do. I always have. Lesson learned. Just thought I would share that quirky fact about me.

Lastly, as if I haven't already made enough hair clips to put in Alayna's hair. Here are some more. Once I got started, I couldn't stop. If you don't believe me, ask Dan.

Oh, and can you see the rainbow pattern?