JCrew Style Flower Tutorial!

A friend recently asked me to figure out how to make these flowers and then teach her how to do it.  So here you go!!  This is based on a JCrew floral headband.  You can make hairclips, corsage, headbands, pin it on your purse, etc...

This will make 1 flower.

1.  Cut 2 strips of fabric 1.5" wide and 11.5" long (you could make it longer!!).

2.  Run a gathering stitch down one edge of the strip.  You can use a sewing machine or do it by hand!

3.  Stitch the ends together.  Stitch by hand.

4.  Pull the gathering threads until the center closes up.  Secure the gathers by either handstitching or I grabbed all the gathering thread ends and tied them in a knot.

5.  Now you need to hide the handstitched ends.  Arrange the gathers so the ends are tucked in a fold.  Gently press to keep the ends hidden.

6.  For the Center:  Cut out 3 small squares of fabric and tear up a cotton ball.  I did not use all of the cotton ball, you need 3 small pieces.

7.  Wrap up a piece of cotton in the fabric and secure it by hand sewing.  It will look like a Halloween Sucker Ghost.

8.  When you have all 3 done, you will need to hook them together.  You can handsew them or tie them together by wrapping the remaining thread ends around and knotting it.

9.  Next you will take your flower center and carefully stuff the ends through the center of each circle.

10.  Pull a few threads from the edges to fray them.

11.  You will need a piece of fabric or felt for the back.  I simply sewed 2 pieces together to make these fabric backs. 

12.  Finally, you are ready to glue it to whatever you like. Brooch pin, hair clip, headband, etc... I used hot glue!  I also added a few dabs of glue in between the 2 circle layers to help secure the center (these you want very small and right at the center).

This could be used to make a lasting corsage for Mother's Day!

Knotty Fairy Adventures!

Every single night poor Charlotte is visited by the Knotty Fairy, cousin to the Tooth Fairy.  The Knotty Fairy sneaks into your bedroom late at night and plays in your hair while you sleep.  I have not decided if she is harmless or actually enjoys the mischief.  Either way she loves Charlotte's hair!  Do I hear the beginnings of a story here?  Wait and see!

Tears to Follow!!!

Car Play Mat!

Everybody loves a car play mat!  Personalizing it makes it even more fun!

A couple of people have asked me about my play mat, so I thought I would post a mini-tutorial!

Supplies:

Graph Paper

Ruler

A toy car

Pencil

Acrylic Paints

Clear Coat

Sharpie - 2 sizes

Sewing Machine and Thread

Dam Canvas (Be sure you are at the right store before you call it that.  I bought mine from a Farm supply store, Smithfield Implement in Utah.  Dam canvas is used for irrigation, it is nice and thick and comes very wide.  You can also buy canvas at most fabric stores.)

1.  Decide how big you want your mat.  Mine is about 60"X31".  Add 2" to the raw edges, before I hemmed the raw edges my mat measured 60"x33".

2.  you need to hem the raw edges of you canvas.  Press to the wrong side 1/2" and then again.  Stitch it down.

3.  Now that you know how big your mat is, you need to start the lay out of you "city".  I grabbed a toy car and measured it.  Doubled it and that determined the width of my roads.  I used graph paper and drew a layout to scale, I erased tons and changed things around.  I decided that my "city" needed to have: Grammy's house, Grandma's house, airport, gas station, grocery, post office, fire station, police station, church, school, playground, lake, consturction site, playground, and a roundabout!

4.  After you have your mini version figured out, cut out to scale the outlines of your buildings and place them on your canvas (tape them if you need to).  Using a pencil, ruler, and whatever else you need - sketch your "city" on to the canvas.  The reason you use paper outlines of your buildings is to help in the transfer of your design from paper to canvas, and then you can make adjustments if you need to.

5.  Now you are ready to paint.  Place the mat on either a protected suface or a surface you don't care about.  The paint  might bleed through!

6.  Start painting your creation.  I am  no artist, all my buildings are plain brick and boring, it was a first try!  Be creative, your kids are going to love it no matter what!  Add trees, flowers, parking lines, etc...

7.  For cleaning up lines I used a sharpie, for fine detail a fine sharpie.

8.  When you are satisfied and it is dry take it outside.  Spary a coat or two of clear coat to help protect the mat.  Let it dry and you are ready to play!

I also used this same method to create a Hopscotch Mat for indoor play!

Monday Morning!

This is what I did Monday morning.  It took less than 1 hour (well until I started fussing with it)!!  No pattern is necessary.  This is the Lazy Day Skirt from Oliver and S. 

I changed it up a little bit.  I like slips, so I built it right in.  I just treated the two fabrics as one at the top, and of course hemmed them seperately.  I still thought it looked a little homemade, so I added a ruffled ribbon to the blue layer. 

Percy Jackson and the Last Olympians T-Shirt!

A month before Jayce's Birthday he came and asked me to make him a Camp Half-Blood T-shirt. 

Did you hear me, my little BOY asked me to MAKE him something.  I was excited and how could I say no.  I have forced my homemade creations on my boys from time to time, but never have any of them asked for anything!!

Jayce loves the Percy Jackson and the Last Olympians series.  He would be done with all 4 books, except books are our best bargaining chip.  He is already planning to re-read them!

So I set about trying to figure out what to do on the shirt.  From the movie I don't remember any of the campers at Camp Half-Blood wearing the camp T-shirt described in the books.  I looked online for movie pics nothing.  I looked for shirts already made - I found one adult version.  ADULT!!! 

When we bought the entire series of books it came with a few collector cards, 1 showed Percy Jackson in his T-shirt and 1 showed Annabeth in hers.  I copied this shirt. 

He wore it for 3 days before I could talk him to wearing something else!!

The Loot, The Dinner, and The Cake!

We made Jayce wait until the night after his Birthday to open presents and eat his dinner and cake.  We were waiting for Jason to  be home.
The Loot included:  Money, clothes, Percy Jackson and the Last Olympians figurines, The Didj, Didj games, Nerf Gun, Harmonica lesson book, and a Ripstick.

Based on the facial expressions - I don't think he was too disappointed!!

We sent him on an errand to our room and that is when he found the Ripstick!  I think he was surpirsed.

On the Birthday boy dinner menu:

Ribs (we finally are figuring out how to cook them, go here (scroll down a bit)).

Crunchy skinned baked potatoes

Peas

Needless to say after that feast Jason and I were very stuffed.  So we did not complain that kids were completely distracted with new toys and did not mention cake until we were tucking them in bed.  I have to agree, I think that makes us the meanest parents on the planet.  Jayce was not upset, the idea of Dirt Dessert for Breakfast kept him happy!

Happy Birthday Jayce!  We are so proud of the boy you have become.  You are smart, strong willed, and have a strong desire to make good choices and to make other happy!  We love you!

A Birthday + Friends + Museum + Dad = Best Day Ever!

During Jayce's Spring Break he turned 8.  On his special day, Jason had to "Stand Duty" = not coming home. So, in an attempt to make Jayce's day special we decided to go to Jason.  I of course talked Jayce into eating lunch at Gino's East (my favorite Chicago Style Pizza - oh yum!).  We had friends (The Hawley's) meet us for lunch and then we headed to the Kohl's Children's Museum for a few hours before dinner.  The kids had lots of fun, but they didn't burn off enough energy!!  After we were done at the museum we met the husbands at Chipotle and then took the kids to McDonalds for happy meals.  I had also made some Apple Pie Caramel Apples for the occaison.  (Do not keep the apples in a cooler with ice up until you are ready to eat them - they don't cut or eat too easily!!).  The kids were sent to their own area of McDonalds to eat, it was pretty funny and made for a nice quiet dinner for us.

Here they are at the museum at every kids favorite part - the Grocery Store!!

This is Jayce in his new Percy Jackson T-Shirt -more about that later!!

Grahm made me a Potbelly Sandwich!

The other favorite - Water!!  I didn't realize what Grahm was doing with the geysers until it was too late!

I couldn't resist a picture of the squished cheeks!!

Egg Dying and another Hunt!

Saturday night at bedtime, I finally decided we had better dye the Easter Eggs.  It is always fun to see how they want to mix the colors - Tradition and Science, two of my favorite things!