Happy Little T-shirts for Boys

We attended an adorable little 2 year old birthday party Sunday evening. My kids indulged in plenty of chips, hot dogs, (not potato salad because it had a small snippit of green from the pickle relish visible underneath all of the mayonaise and mustard- horror of all horrors!), candy from the donkey pinata (that's what we do in Texas), all the juice boxes a little child could want, and of course cake and ice cream (Blue Belle homemade vanilla, of course). I wanted to share with you all these t-shirts that I made as gifts. You too can do this!
One of these days I'll do a tutorial to take you through step by step, but in this case I had to hurry to get them done. Gee, so hard to believe that I was rushing at the last minute, huh????

Basically, you just draw the image you want onto Wonder Under. Then cut out the shapes, iron them onto your fabric, then iron onto your t-shirt. I also stitich around each shape and then embellish with other things like ribbon or buttons.

I'll take the credit for the monkey design, but I can't take the credit for the monster. I saw him on a site on Etsy (http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=36690 ) and decided that I could make one of my own. I'm planning to do another monkey for my little primate. I'm also going to make him a Choo Choo train for his birthday coming up soon.

Hard to believe that boy will be 2 soon. He's such a mess. Today he was playing "hop hop" while sitting on my lap and "Hop Hopped" up on my chin with his hard head. Yes, I bit my tonque in the process. The taste of blood in your mouth is ever so nice first thing in the morning with my coffee.

Headed to the Great LaPorte County Fair! and some great apron tutorials

I'm taking the kiddos to Indiana for 2 1/2 weeks in July. This is where I grew up and visiting during the county fair is the best way to see the most amount of people in such a short time. My summers revolved around 4-H projects, riding my horse, and getting ready for the fair. I'm excited to share this with my kids, and also to show them off a bit!

The downside to all of this, is that I'll have to endure the 2.5 hour flight with my almost 2 year old. "Lord, please bless the poor souls sitting next to me on that flight. Please give them (as well as myself) all the patience you can muster. Amen"

Every girl that goes to the fair needs a new pair of boots. So we drove out to the largest western store I've ever been to and bought her some. I told her that I wanted her to wear them until they had holes in the bottom (little kids boots aren't cheap!). I feel guilty for spending that on myself. Oh well, I'll wear my $5 flip flops while my girl looks adorable in her new pink boots. That's the way it should be.

So here's a picture of my little gypsy girl (the hair was braided for church - but as you can see, that quickly came out the second we walked in the door).

I wish I could give her a pony to ride like I had when I was little. But, ponies require more than a subdivision lot. Guess I have a lot more appreciation for what my parents gave me, now that I have children of my own. Guess that's the way it's supposed to be. "Thank you Lord for giving me the blessing of children. Amen"

Oh! and I am happy to see that my tutorial was placed on this list: http://http//tipnut.com/free-apron-patterns-tutorials/It a GREAT list of free apron patterns as well as other stuff. I haven't had a chance to check it out completely yet, but sure looks like fun.I'm happy to say that my inspiration apron will be going to a new home - to Jan in Michigan. Thanks Jan!

We also celebrated hubby's 35th birthday on Tuesday. Happy Birthday Honey - you're a great Dad and wonderful husband.

Little Bird Houses and Challenges Raising Kids

We had our craft club night last week and Susan found the cutest project. We took these wooden bird houses and covered them in pretty paper, applied ribbon, other buttons, etc and the cutest little birds. My boy saw mine sitting on the counter next morning and kept saying "quack, quack"!. Guess mine resembles a duck. We had lots of fun though - I got home at midnight! Wow - when I called my hubby on the way home, I thought it was 10:30, not 11:30pm! Gotta love girlfriends, wine, fun giggles, and oh yes, crafts :)

Not much blogging lately - we've been so busy this week with vacation bible school. I'm volunteering this year and both kiddos have a class. Little boy is loving it, since this is his first time in a really structured classroom for any length of time. They are both whipped in the afternoons, which I thought would be a good thing (think, looonnnggg naps!) But..

Both of them have been sooooo whiney and crabby. Little boy is into "MINE", for EVERYTHING. It's driving me crazy. When my girl was little we didn't deal with that so much because she was it, she didn't have to share with anyone. Also, her personality didn't really lend itself to that problem. She's much more passive, especially in social situations.

Now, when it's just us at home - she gives us a run for our money. I'm thinking kindergarten next year will bring it's own trials and tribulations. Influence from other kids will be interesting. We've already had it out this morning over her hairdo and outfit.

Well, gotta run and corral 23 kindergarteners this morning! (with the help of 2 friends, thankfully!)

There's No Place Like Home, unless it's about to get invaded by a Pumpkin Vine

You probably know by now that my girl loves, loves, loves, to craft. She also loves her sparkle shoes. Unfortunately, those sparkle shoes didn't stay very sparkly. They started out as black sparkle shoes. I brought them home from the store and literally within days, she had worn out the sparkles on them. I found sparkles all over the house - even in her bed (yes, she wore them to sleep).
So, yesterday as I was browsing my favorite blogs Craft Zine- we came across a tutorial for making your own sparkle shoes! Totally easy - just basically paint your shoes with glue, then sprinkle sparkles everywhere. I will be forever vacuuming up sparkles. She was excited, so here's our results -


I also wanted to show you all my garden. My girl wanted desperately to grow pumpkins. So, I let her put a few pumpkin seeds in the back corner when we planted the garden, not really having much hope that they would actually grow. I was more concerned about my precious tomatoes growing into juicy round deliciousness. Well, the pumpkins have not only grown, they have literally taken over the back forty. They would take over the neighborhood if I let them. I've been cutting them back a little at a time, just to keep them from suffocating the rest of the garden. You can see them behind little girl, in the corner. At one point they had grown over the tiller, but I cut them off. I'm trying to get them to grown along the back, behind my peppers, but they are a bit unruly. If I cut anything off, I have to do it under the cover of darkness, or at least nap time, because if little girl sees hacked off pumpkin vines laying limp on the ground - or sees me coming at them with clippers - she goes into a tizzy.

So, I guess we'll have Cinderella's pumpkin carriage in the fall for my little "Dorothy" in her red sparkle shoes.

Those are my tomatoes in the cages - I can't figure why some are big, with long arms all over and curly leaves, one is barely past the cage, and one looks pretty and green. None of them have tons of fruit on them - just a few flowers. Hubby says the flowers are falling off. Any advice?? This is a learning year on the garden - we have been dining on zuchinni though, yummy on the grill.

Little Girl's Vintage Apron Patterns - I'm Inspired!

These are some darling little girls' apron patterns that came from my mom's stash. I'm thinking that the 70's looking one was probably meant to be sewn for me as a child, but I honestly don't know if that ever happened or not.


These other two came from mom's collection of vintage goodies by way of her antique business. I'm so lucky! I am totally planning to sew each of these. I'm especially loving the one above - It's a size 4 and my little girl is a 5, so I'm not sure if it will fit her or not. I'll just have to see once it's done.

This one looks like it has been used, but the transfers are still in the package. I'll probably never actually use them, but I can certainly use them for inspiration. Aren't they cute??
Hope you enjoy!
If you want to see the backs of the patterns, you can click on my Flickr page here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27301962@N02/2559360562/in/set-72157605483383540/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27301962@N02/2558536547/in/set-72157605483383540/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27301962@N02/2558537235/in/set-72157605483383540/
I'm still new to Flickr, so I hope you can view these ok.
Hope you're all having a nice weekend - it's 95 today and humid. Blah. We're watching the horse races :)

Tornado Apron - Apron Angels

DSCN2896
Originally uploaded by whoopsiedaisies

Ok, so I got a new Flickr account and I'm not sure what I'm doing yet. I made this apron to send to Missouri for the victims of the tornado. I wanted to share a photo before it was sent off. It's a take on the ruffle apron, but instead of doing ruffles, I decided to pleat the tiers. I also decided to do a little red, white and blue theme in honor of the 4th of July coming up soon (Yes! it will be here soon! Can you believe that?)

Men In Trees and a Pillowcase Skirt

Can you believe that ABC is so stupid as to cancel Men In Trees??! Well, I guess they never asked me anyway. I can still have my opinion, and my opinion is that it's a great show. I'm wondering how they will end things. Did you know that Patrick got his memory back on tonight's episode?

I love the light heartedness of the show, the romance, and the questions that are posed among other things. Tonight's question to ponder was whether or not it is a good thing to reveal everything about ourselves, whether or not it's better to know some things, or to remain in the dark about them. Maryn caught Julia's husband with another woman and she wonders if it is better to tell her, or to stay out of it.

I think for myself, as painful as it might be at the time, I would much rather have the whole truth. Honesty has to be the best route, don't you think?

Another reason I love the show is the Aprons! Have you noticed? Annie wore a cute ruffled one tonight and I have seen Maryn in several while she's cooking. You have to love that - I have been looking all over the web for a picture of her wearing an apron but can't seem to find one.

ABC, you really should consider bringing this show back! If you're interested in reading more, you can check out http://www.anneheche.com/ - go to the forums and there is a MiT section. You can also read more about it at http://www.abc.com/

Since I can't find a good picture of Maryn or Annie in an apron, I'll share a little skirt I recently made from a vintage pillowcase. I used a pink hankie and tattered doily on the front. These little skirts are fun to make from pillowcases, because #1 the fabric is unusual and #2 the hem is already done.

Well, I've got to get some sleep - this post is taking forever because my computer keeps jamming up. Ugh -

Good night!

Vintage Hats

This past weekend, I flew to Birmingham to help my mother-in-law with a garage sale. She is down sizing to a smaller house, and let me tell you - this was no ordinary run of the mill garage sale. You could easily have furnished another house with all of the stuff she had for sale. Thankfully, it was successful, and she's just a few days away from moving into her new house. Everyone involved is relieved that that day is almost here - especially my mother-in-law.

The weekend was also a get away for me. It's the first time I've really left my boy for any length of time, and the longest stretch for me to leave my hubby with the kids. It really was a good break for me, even though it was lots of work, I'm still glad I was able to get out there.

Let me tell you, that flight going out was the most peaceful experience I've had in a long time. Once on the plane, I looked at the guy sitting next to me and said, "I don't know what to do with myself! I've usually got two little ones to contend with!". I stared a the seat in front of me for awhile, then got out my book and read the rest of the way.

I packed very light. And it was nice - no stuffed animals, snacks, books, DVD player, car seat to contend with - but I knew I'd probably be coming home with a few treasures also.

I wanted to share with you all these great vintage hats I brought home. They belonged to my husband's grandmother - Ninny Johnson. I'm not sure what I'll do with them - how to display them. If you have any great ideas, let me know! But, I do love having them. Do you all know anything about hats? I'm new to this - I love the black straw one the best I think. Although, the green one really makes brings out the green in my eyes - as if I'll be wearing it out somewhere! Wouldn't it be fun if women still wore hats like this? I have 2 fun 50's dresses that are hanging in my closet. One is black, and could easily be worn out today, I may get brave one day and wear it - they both just make you feel beautiful.

Don't you just love the bags under my eyes?! Lovely. My boy is sick though, I have an excuse. His temperature got up to 105.7 today - got me a concerned for sure! I took him to the doctor - she says it's a nasty viral infection. Poor little guy was just a mess today. After dinner though (which he ate), he proceeded to pester his sister. So, I'm hoping that's a good sign that he's over the hump and starting to feel better.