A Craft! Head Band Holder

Well, guys, I made it! I put my darlings on the school bus for the first time this morning. It wasn't easy. There were tears for 2 days. Tears at 5 this morning. And tears when they drove off. All the tears were mine (mostly). Even though there have been times that I've longed for more time to myself, time to craft alone, I'd gladly take 5 more years of having my girls by my side.

The girls had to answer a little survey for their teacher. One of the questions was, "Name 3 things you like to do." One of Paige's answers was "Water the garden". Hold me.

At the beginning of summer, I wrote here that I would not blog so much or carve out time for time consuming projects so that I could have more time with my kids. I stuck to it and I'm so glad. But, now.....it's on like Donkey Kong!

Here's a little craft to help organize the obnoxious headbands that end up flopping around all over the place:



Take an empty oatmeal container and some fabric:

I covered the container with the pretty paisley and had this shrunken shirt in my fabric stash. It was the perfect color for rosettes, plus it had that lacey band around the chest which happened to fit perfectly around the circumference of the container!


It's so perfect! It hold the bands tightly and it's so pretty! I set out trying to make the main fabric pleated, but it just wasn't working, so I hot glued it on flat and tight. It's just fine and still pretty without the pleats. I used this tutorial for the roses.

Turn a Wool Sweater into a Change Purse

My cousin sent me this link to these adorable little change purses on Adventures of Blue Girl XO. I've had it bookmarked for a while, but finally got around to making one the other day.

I bought this sweater at a yard sale for .50. It's 100% wool and pretty much totally felted. I cut a 8 " X 6" rectangle from it.

I needed to line mine:

Ready to sew on my zipper! My first time!! I'd never used my zipper foot. It was really quite simple and now I'm totally not afraid to do them! Here it is inside out before I sewed the sides shut.

And here it is all sewed up with the pretty little liner on the inside:

I really love it, although it's THICK! It's really too many thick layers folded up on one another. My purse is just too small to handle this right now. I intended to keep little things like hand lotion and sanitizer in it, but by the time you add all that, you've got a hefty little wad of wool floating in your purse! So, next time I'll use a thinner felt. And this little beauty will be put to use elsewhere. These would be great in a bigger size for make-up bags~!

Tackle it Tuesday: A Welcome Sign

I bought this sign at my local thrift store for $3 about a month ago. I knew I wanted to refinish it into a chalkboard sign I could hang at my front door. I finally had time to tackle it over the weekend.

I taped it off, primed it, and got one of my kids to start painting on the chalkboard paint.


It took a couple coats of chalkboard paint. And when I peeled off the painters tape, most of the border paint came off right along with it. DARN! I really wanted to keep it that red color, because it matches our shutters. Oh well.

I then taped off the middle chalkboard portion and primed the frame. Then I applied a few coats of this green paint because darling husband had it in his shed. Speaking of darling husband....he's been away for 16 days. He comes home tomorrow. What a perfect message to greet him at the door:


He's been sorely missed....but as you can see, we keep ourselves BUSY when he's gone!

What have you tackled lately? Visit 5 Minutes for Mom to see more.

Rain Boot Planter

One of my girls saw this idea on a website. I'm not sure where, she just ran to me an excitedly told me, "Mommy, we can use our rainboots to plant flowers!" Luckily, I had this pair set aside because they're too small. Look how cute!

I just had to drill drainage holes through the bottoms.

And plant!

Love it! I'm going to submit this to Strut Your Stuff:

I've been sewing!

A LOT!

I've been inspired by some of the crafty blogs I read to repurpose thrift store finds into something cute and wearable; both for me and my girls. So I came across this tutorial from Sew Much Ado on how to make a kid's ruffled skirt out of an adult shirt.

First stop: thrift store!


There was a special on this day: fill a bag with any clothes for $5. So all of this cost $5!! Six lady's shirts. I used five of them for skirts and the white one served as the ruffles.

Next stop: sewing machine!

Final destination: look at this cuteness!!!

(Note the flower on this one above. It was a bedazzled piece on the chest of the shirt. I cut it out and transferred it as an iron on to the skirt.)

(This one was so stripey and colorful, I thought it needed no ruffles.)

(I LOVED this shirt above and was really hoping I could make it a skirt for me, but alas, my legs are too long.)

(Look at the bruised legs on this girl! Perhaps she shouldn't be wearing skirts at all!)

That wasn't all the sewing I did. Oh no! Stay tuned for cute little jumper dresses I made from men's button down shirts. And also, a ruffled skirt for me!