The Great Escape! Round Top/Warrenton

Round Top was great! We all just kept saying - "OMG - I can't believe how much stuff there is!" It literally kept going, and going, and going. Fun road trip, fun friends, good food, dirty feet, found treasures, close quarters = one great weekend! We could have shopped for a week and still not have seen everything.


"Clutter" - the mantra of my life it seems lately! One cute tent too....

The Coffee Bug - I just thought this was too cute for some reason. Who would have ever thought to put a Volkswagon Bug with a camper?
Some refreshment at Royer's Zapp Hall................. good chicken salad, ice cold tea, and great people watching.
The Mae Ola House - our home away from home!
Some of our fun finds! I just know you wish you had found them first! Hop over here at Forever Flamingo and ask Lacie about her 4 ft. plastic Santa!

Here's my stash......... (minus a really cute barn wood wall hanging with a star cut out for my boy's room). I'm really, really loving all of it. The recipe box is cedar lined, tongue and groove with a Bakelite handle. The ladies that sold it to me were so sweet and fun to chat with.

The train case is this great yellow color. I'm planning to store some of my fabric stash/sewing supplies in there.

The "Bird Barn" was just cute - not sure where to hang that yet. And, the wooden picture of the lady doesn't have a spot yet either. My hubby isn't too sure of her - one of those, "and, WHY did you buy that?" purchases. But I love her anyway.

All of my linens - awaiting a good, hot, sudsy wash............ Yes, that is a naughty Christmas apron laying there!

We stopped in Giddings at the Taco Bell - flush toilets and soap with a sink were definitely the high points. Then, at Health Camp in Waco for the best milkshake I think I've ever had!

Yo! I love Yo-Yo's!

Have you tried making Yo-Yo's yet? They are fun and easy! If you're like me, you hate throwing out those little fabric scraps, especially the prints that are so unique. I love taking those scraps and making something useful out of them. I've been carting around a little bag of supplies this week, trying to feed my creativity during those 5 or 10 minute breaks I get throughout the day. I settled down in our overstuffed chair Monday night to watch Dancing with the Stars, had the kids somewhat occupied (or so I thought), had my supplies all ready when my boy climbs up in my lap - along with my very sharp Ginger scissors, needles, and pins and asks me "Mommy, what you playing?" Guess that wasn't such a good idea anyway.

These Yo-Yo's are going to look great on aprons, diaper/wipe holders, anything really. I've even see them stitched together to make a valance to hang in your window - or just a piece of wall art. This is where I found the instructions to make them - Heather Bailey - beautiful blog if you care to take a peek.

Good luck Yo-Yo'ing!

Oh - and did I mention that I'm GOING TO ROUND TOP IN 2 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Little Boy's Applique T-shirt - the easy way! Loads of Pictures. Free Tutorial

Here is the project we are going to be learning about today. You can use this same method for applying just about anything to a t-shirt, onesie, burp clothe, or what ever else you can fit under your sewing machine. In this case, I am making a baseball t-shirt for a friend of my daughter's for his 5th birthday.
Here we go.......!
Here's what you need:
Blank T-shirt
Wonder Under
Scrap Fabric
Embroidery Floss
Print Out of your design

Here is the picture I want to apply to the t-shirt. You can find great, simple pictures from children's coloring books. Obviously, you can also just draw your own picture.

Take your picture and trace it onto the smooth side of the Wonder Under. (the rough side will become the adhesive that sticks to the fabric)Cut out each shape. You'll want to decide beforehand what fabrics to use for each element of your picture. You'll cut out each shape that has a different fabric. Lay your shape onto the wrong side of the fabric you'll be using. Following the directions on the Wonder Under, iron each shape onto your fabric. Make sure you use a damp pressing clothe. This makes the process of peeling off the paper much easier. In the past I've tried to skip this step thinking I was saving time, but it's a pain the butt to get that paper off if you don't!Cut around each shape (now applied) to the fabric, close to the lines you drew.Peel the backing off.Place the fabric pieces (sticky side down) onto your t-shirt. Being sure they are placed exactly where you want them. Iron them down according to the instructions on the Wonder Under.Now it's time to stitch around all of the shapes you just ironed onto the t-shirt. I have used a zig zag stitch in the past, but lately I've liked using a straight stitch. I also use a pretty short stitch since I tend to be stitching around some tight places. Use the hand wheel on your machine if you have to in order to get into the tight spots. A straight stitch will give your final design a frayed look over time.

Now you'll want to take a disappearing ink pen and draw in the line where you want to hand embroider, or machine stitch the details. (*I had an "oh duh" moment while writing this tutorial. If you want to avoid having the stitching from the hand embroidery show on the back side of your work, do this step before you iron it onto the shirt. I think this would also help secure the threads. I wish I had done that on this project)
Using embroidery floss, stitch in the lines. I used the machine to stitch in the details on the baseball cap and embroidery floss on the baseball.If you want, you can take Fray Stop and apply it to the edges. There you have it! Hope you enjoy! You can do so many things with this. I've even used iron-on letters which I purchased from Michaels to add wording.

Let me know if you have any questions! I've been trying to type this as my two monkeys are jumping on the bed - something they've been told a million times not to do. I'm booting them outside now.

I'd love to hear how your projects turn out!

Craft Club Aprons and Sick Kids

Craft Club was a hit Tuesday night. - We made these aprons. Most of the girls had never sewn before, and I think everyone left proud of their accomplishments! We used 3 different Amy Butler fabrics.
I'm bummed today because my boy is sick. We left for church last night and after he'd been squabbling with his sister and crying, I noticed him wheezing. So, we're headed to the doctor this afternoon. Our picture session has been cancelled. These poor children may never have their 2 year and 6 year picture taken, will they forgive me when they are grown? The photographer is out of town for the next few weeks - so that pushes us into October, and my boy will be 27 mo. old. Kim takes phenomenal pictures. We'd been planning this for months - well, "budgeting" for this. It's not your run of the mill trip to the JCPenney photo studio prices, but well worth it at certain points in your life. Guess what my family is getting for Christmas presents? That is if we every have the pictures made. My girl woke up last night coughing like crazy - that nasty "barking" cough. I just hate it when the kids are sick.

Puppy Dog and a Monster - gotta be for a boy. Back to School Groove.

Just sharing these two little t-shirts I made for another great customer of mine. I especially love how the puppy turned out, such a sweet expression. Great for back to school.

Hope you're getting into the groove of "back to school". I think we are. Bed times have been moved up to 7:30pm, dinner moved up to 5:30pm, rise and shine moved up to 6:30am, etc. Unfortunately, I still want to stay up late, which means I'm not getting my 8 hours of beauty sleep each night. Around nap time for my boy, I'm struggling some days to keep my eye lids from closing.

Craft Club is meeting tomorrow night at my house. We are making aprons. I'll be sure to share with you how they turned out! I'm planning to make Jambalaya (sans the shrimp - I don't do seafood), homemade bread and cookies for dessert. I had intened to have a nice green girly salad also, but completely forgot to get lettuce at the store - so, no salad. O well, we'll make up for the calories in wine and cookies anyhow.

Plaid Patchwork Dress - It's Done - Ready for Pictures, I think.

I finally was able to complete my girl's little patchwork dress. She's not as crazy about it as I had hoped, but that was a pie in the sky dream anyway. She only likes t-shirts and knit pants these days - no shoes, and hair flying wildly. A little gypsy. Anyhow, I think the dress is adorable. I used this pattern from Simplicity. As I posted earlier, I loved this little dress from Kelly's Kids, but decided that I could make it, instead of doling out my precious hard earned $$.

Just wanted to share a few pictures from the Cowboy Party for Carson - it was sooo cute! All of the little cowboys and cowgirls riding ponies, good Texas BBQ, good friends and cake.

Cowtown Cutie - Cowboy T-shirt

I started with this little invitation - and ended up with this cute little t-shirt! We're headed to a birthday party this evening for Carson - I wanted to make him a t-shirt and was actually inspired by my cake decorating attempts. Anna used a technique similar to what I used when she taught us how to transfer a design to a cake.
Yee-Haw Cowboy! Happy Birthday Carson!

The "Happy Fly Cake" and my girl is "6"!

My sweet boy has labeled this the "Happy Fly Cake", and I made it! I AM proud of myself. I showed you all the craft club cake and cuppy cakes I made using Anna's recipe several weeks ago - but this was my first attempt at a go it alone, full fledged birthday cake - for all the world to see. It was totally time consuming (2 full days), but worth it.

I would like to thank the Academy - ....no, really I'd like to thank Anna for your cake knowledge, Susan for maintaining the cell phone line during production, and Shannon for moral support!

She had a crafting party at Joann's yesterday with several of her closest girl friends. They made the cutest fabric covered memo boards to hang in their rooms.

Happy 6th Birthday Sweet Pea! Hope you loved your day - I love you!!!!!!

We took our girl to Dallas on Saturday to pick out her American Girl doll. We had promised her a dolly on her 6th birthday. After some consideration, she picked out Kit. Such a cute store - the dolls really are nice. I love the fact that there are books about each doll as well. We all had a good time, kids had fun (#1 girl about laughed her pants off at her brother who stood in the middle of the store and TOOK his pants and shoes off for the the whole world to see what, we don't know!) Finished the trip off with dinner at Cheesecake Factory - YUM.

The History of Aprons

Some of you may have read this before, and if you have, it's worth re-reading. I good friend of mine sent it to me recently and I wanted to share it with all of you who love aprons and "the good old days"! Thanks Jennifer!

The History of 'APRONS'

I don't think our kids know what an apron is. The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath, but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven. It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.

From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.

When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids. And when the weather was cold, grandma wrapped it around her arms.

Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove. Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron. From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.

In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.

When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.

When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner. It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that "old-time apron" that served so many purposes.

REMEMBER: Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool - and her granddaughters set their's on the window sill to thaw.
These days they would go crazy trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron. And I don't think I ever caught any illness from my grandmother's apron.

Taggie Project and the Big Yellow Bus

Just sharing a project I completed for a Great customer of mine - thanks again!

These are little taggies going to 3 little babies - little triplets. Everyone... pause for a moment of prayer for their parents. What a blessing!

And...here is my girl coming off of the school bus for the first time. What a brave girl! She rode home for the first time Wednesday. She said that she got a little teary eyed because she couldn't remember her Bus #, but we've written it on her backpack now and quizzed her over and over since then. I think she's enjoying it a bit more. Riding the bus is a rite of passage in my book - of course I was tortured into riding it through high school when I was a kid! (Don't worry Sweet Pea, I won't make you do that)

Her brother just about turns himself inside out, he's so excited to see that big yellow bus stop in front of our house!

Vintage Goodie Turned into a Vintage Cutie

One of these days I'll do a tutorial on how to make these. It's a little Tag Blanket and Burp Clothe/Changing Pad set. I love making these because they allow me to be extra creative and use up some of the little pieces of fabric I have laying around.
I made these for a great customer of mine - Athena. Thanks again!
I'm trying to "work" my business extra this month in an attempt to pay for my trip to Round Top in a few weeks. I love the saying, "Work makes Work" - I don't know who said it first, but it makes sense to me, in more ways than one. In relating to my Whoopsie Daisies, I don't get any work, unless I "work".......so,.........gotta get to work. C Ya