The Life of a Cheap Chickadee

How To Do a Simple Applique {my first video tutorial!}

2012-01-26T14:33:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to post this for a LONG time! Appliqueing is like...MY THING! So I guess I just wanted to make it a really good, really helpful post, whith amazing pictures and all. Instead I decided to do a video. It was pretty fun and REALLY fast and SUPER dorky! Posting this video from YouTube is making it hard to set up this post how I want so I'll leave it like it is and post more tips and pics on appliqueing soon! Oh! Plus....OTBM and I are going to be working on a St. Patty's applique project together soon and I'm pretty darn thrilled about that! Here's a link to a bunch of appliques I did a long time ago

Please don't mind my "not cute craft room", it's not really a craft room it's a messy room in my basement where I stuff fabric into every corner...then I stuff it in the closets..... and then I find shelves and stuff it there as well.

Gerber 5-Pack Onesies Brand One Piece Underwear - White, 0-3 Months
Thermoweb 17-Inch by 5-1/4-Yard Heat'n Bond Lite Iron-on Adhesive
Moda Ruby Charm Pack 5" Quilt Squares
Tato Girls S/S Undershirt 3-Pack (Sizes 7 - 16) - white, 14/16

The "IT'S SO FLUFFY!!!" Heart

2012-01-24T08:15:00.000-08:00

Remember this fluffy lacy heart? I posted about my Vintage Valentines Mantel Here, where I showed you how to make the valentine card bunting. Now I will show you how to make this super sweet and simple heart.

Here goes...

What you need

Lace cut from the bolt (about a yard)

cardboard box

hot glue
a ribbon or some fabric to tie at the top

So, in my case I actually had an old lacy valance that I bought at the thrift store. It has been waiting a few years to have it's total makeover moment and it finally came! Yaaaay! I think this is now a very happy valance! Chances are if you keep your eyes open you could find something like this at a thrift store (or in Grandma's closet) as well.

First I grabbed a box from my garage, drew a heart on it with a sharpie, cut it out and then painted it white (optional). Painting it just made it so that I didn't have to worry so much about covering every corner. Then I cut out random circles out of the lace. I folded the lace and cut four circles at a time. My girls had fun helping me with this part. Each pile you see is a pile of 4 so that should give you an idea of how much you will need.

I then took the circles and folded them in fourths. (little Addy is helping me with this part as well)

Sorry for the horrid pic quality (these how to pics were taken with my phone)

Then I just glued kind of randomly with the hot glue gun. I started out making flower shapes in the middle of the heart, then I lined the outside of the heart to shape it and then I just filled in the rest. You may find that you need to cut a few more circles to make the heart fluffier.

The bow tied to the top of the heart is a piece of cotton torn, tied in a bow and then duck taped to the back of the cardboard heart.

"IT'S SO FLUFFY!!!!!"

(Despicable Me)

Hero Hues Ribbon 3 yards: Lace

Are You Having a Good Monday? I Hope So... :)

2012-01-23T10:43:00.000-08:00

My Vintage Valentine's Mantel {and a Bunting Tutorial}

2012-01-20T12:36:00.000-08:00

Ever since I was a little girl I have loved lace and fluff and all things pink and girly. I don't necessarily drape myself in lace and pearls, but I WOULD if it were socially acceptable.

I have had this idea to decorate for Valentines Day using vintage cards and images for a few years now, in fact, ever since I ran across The Graphics Fairy. Oh man, that is one fabulously handy blog. I have never decorated for Valentine's Day (season) before on account of my slight distaste for the holiday, we barely celebrate it. I don't think we need to be told when to share our love, it should be shared everyday. I do however adore love songs and books about love and romantic movies but for me Valentine's is really more about the pretty things that come with the holiday.......

ahhhhh pink, ahhhh pretty, ahhhh vintage (hold on I'm having a moment)...................

Is it too girly? The day I made and hung this banner my two year old son came upstairs wearing a pretty pink tutu. Ooopsy. He looked pretty stinken cute though!

Ok. With that said (sorry to get so wordy on you all), this ridiculously simple project was one of those that I was worried wouldn't turn out like I wanted. But instead turned out even more lovely than I had ever dreamed! If you look closely at the pictures you could easily figure out how it was done on your own. But here are some quick instructions anyway.

What you need:
A few yards of lace cut 1-3 inches in width
gluestick
creative edge cutting scissors (don't know the official name)
distressing ink
pretty scrapbook paper
a hole punch

I bought most of my cards from the dollar store (at 2 for $1) and printed a few from the Graphics Fairy blog. There are 8 cards in my bunting. I cut the cards down to suitable but still random sizes. I then inked them, then glued them to some pretty scrapbook paper, then did my little creative cut around the edges and then inked that. I then set them all out how I wanted them to look, hole punched the top two corners of each card and then laced the lace (or ribbon) through. I had to cut and tie the lace a few times but I love how that adds to the look.

My opinion. You didn't ask, but your getting it anyway ;)
This is my philosophy on decorating for different holidays while still matching your existing decor. My decor is already pretty eclectic and colorful so matching is not much of a problem for me although it IS well thought out. For each holiday I use the colors that traditionally go along, but add a color from my existing decor that doesn't usually accompany that holiday. In this case I incorporated blue. And used the same hues that were already existing in this room. Make sense? If I were to decorate for St. Patrick's Day, (which I'm not), I wouldn't use the dark bright green traditionally used, I would use an olive or yellowy green and maybe some silver and add a teeny weeny bit of blue.

I will be back soon with a fluffy lace heart tutorial and lots of other great Valentine's ideas!

Hero Hues Ribbon 3 yards: Lace

Valentine Postcards

Faux M&M..... I Mean Gumball Machine

2012-01-17T19:52:00.000-08:00

For Christmas my sweet neighbor and her daughter gave this to me. Ok, so she they didn't give it to me, they gave it to my daughters. But I've kinda taken it over. They brought it over filled with Hersheys Hugs and Kisses. When I was at the grocery store the other day and saw Valentines M&M's and CANDY CORNS? (yeah, that's right, candy corns), I was pretty excited to make this my newest Valentines decoration!

Stay tuned for the rest of my "Valentines House". I will be revealing it slowly this week and next. I've never decorated for Love Day before so I'm kind of busy and excited about it!

I'M IN LOVE WITH LOVE!!!

Here's a link to the gumball machine tutorial she used from Libby James.
The only difference is that Steph, (the sweet neighbor), added a little "hugs & kisses" vinyl. I love it!

I think I might make a few for teachers gifts or for my church ladies!

Click here to see where else I link up!

Free Buttons For Everyone!!

2012-01-16T15:02:00.000-08:00

There it is! Do you like it? I've always wanted my very own button, ever since I was just a little teeny blogging girl. Feel free to take one if you like. If your not sure how here is a picture tutorial. Although I LOVE to craft, photograph and write, I really stink at the technical end of blogging. Like REALLY stink. And the problem is that I have no desire to be any better at it. If I have to think about all that stuff then I won't have any time left to create the wonderful content on my blog! Hopefully......that's why you come here anyway!

I had the wonderful Hannah, from:

design my button. Don't you think she did a fab job? She is a sweetheart! As for the rest of my blog design, the lovely Kristi does that. We have an ongoing trade that never seems to end. So, yeah, it works out pretty good.

*Sigh*, I still have so much to learn.

I will be starting a group singing class next month that goes from Feb-May so....plan on me not learning anything new until after that.

Ever feel like you've put too much on your plate? Nah...you all would never do that right?

Speaking of too much on my plate, I've been meaning to finish Jack's room and blog about it with a whole "room reveal". I've always wanted to do one of those. Unfortunately I'm not very good at feeling like a room is ever "finished" so I never do. I promise I'll do it this time though. As for now, here's a little framed collage I made to go above his crib.

I took these pictures with my phone, so they aren't the greatest quality. This project didn't take long at all, I printed off pictures found on pinterest that I felt were "all about Jack".

I found this frame at a thrift store. I spray painted it red and mod podged over the glass with old book pages. Then I let that dry and put the pictures where I wanted and mod podged over that. I like to use the Matte finish Mod Podge. I think it doesn't show the streaks nearly as much and you come out with a more professional looking project. But that's just my opinion (in case you wanted it).

I love this project because it makes me feel better about my addiction to pinterest. This time I put my pinteresting images to good use! Jack is in that stage where he loves to point to things and say what they are. He also loves to count stuff and name the colors or what the animals say. So, it's perfect!

{Walgreens} What's Changed and the Walgreens Prescription Savings Club

2012-01-15T16:02:00.001-08:00

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Walgreens for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
For the past year, Walgreens has negotiated with Express Scripts for a new contract to continue part of it's pharmacy provider network. Those negotiations were unsuccessful, and the contract expired in December. As a result Walgreens is no longer part of the Express Scripts' pharmacy provider network. This includes all Walgreens pharmacies. Wow! Not fair .Walgreens and Express Script
Here's what that means. Patients are not seeing their costs go down in exchange for the increased hassle they're being subject to. It's all pain with no gain. Many patients under an Express scripts plan have used Walgreens pharmacies for years and have a personal relationship with their Walgreens pharmacist. In an effort to minimize their disruption and inconvenience, Walgreens unveiled a comprehensive national effort to make this transition as smooth as possible and is doing all it can to help patients continue to use Walgreens when possible, or take care of them as they are forced to leace Walgreens in order to use their in-network coverage.
To help ease this burden Walgreens is offering a special discount on annual membership for its Prescription Savings Club. Sweeeeeet! Walgreens Prescription Savings Club. For $10 a year, a family memebership covers everyone in your immediate famly,including a spouse, dependents 22 and younger and pets. Individuals may join for $5. Join and receive discount prices on your prescriptions.
Other benefits include:
Savings on more than 8,000 brand-name and all generic medications
Discounts on flu shots, pet prescriptions, nebulizers and diabetic supplies
Bonuses when you purchase Walgreens brand products and photofinishing sercices

Be sure to support Walgreens and stay updated by liking them on Facebook and following them on Twitter@Walgreens. Walgreens on Twitter
Walgreens on Facebook

Jack {Family Friday}

2012-01-13T17:43:00.001-08:00

This little guy, who refers to me as "Mombee" and his father as "Dadden", is the highlight of my year. I don't blog about him enough! He is the silliest, snuggliest little guy. He is definitely a tender hearted little lover. Below is a picture of the kiddos with some neighbors on a "safari". Jack is clearly using his cheese as binoculars. Make's total sense. I'm liking this "Mytubo" business! It's Android's closest version to Instagram and the source of these pictures. If you have an Android phone, give it a try. It's free of course! :)

Happy Friday!!

Funky Shoe Lace Tutorial

2012-01-11T21:39:00.000-08:00


handmade shoelaces Pin It

Do you ever get so overwhelmed with life and all the things you need to do that you just go and accomplish something else entirely? Something that wasn't even on your to-do list, so that you can escape the reality of the "not fun" things?

Well these shoe laces were a result of that. And you know what? My girls aren't complaining. They'd rather have funky shoelaces than a freshly mopped floor anyway! My oldest and youngest girls (age 10 and 6) are all about the funky, mismatched, bright colors! My Addy (in the middle) has a slightly different style which is absolutely wonderful as well. I just love that they are getting old enough to know what they like and be able to express it.

We have a few dress rules around this house and they go like this...
1. It has to be modest
2. If you tell me you like it and will wear it, then you WILL wear it.
3. Twice a week I get to pick what they wear, all other days are their choice.

Maybe it's lame that I choose what they wear twice a week but the way I see it, I don't buy or sew them anything they don't like. If I do, then they tell me and I take it back. So...if I've spent the money, I want to see it ON them. Does anyone else have similar rules? I've always wondered when I see adorable age 6+ girls all dolled up and perfect looking if their mother had to pay them to get them to wear that. Or bribe them? Or threaten them? I hope not. Or maybe the child just doesn't have an opinion and is easy going about it.

A penny for your thoughts please!! I'm really curious. And if your method is to "threaten" that's cool too, I won't judge. :)

Ready for the tutorial already?

{Shoe lace Tutorial}

1. Take out previous shoe laces and measure them, then cut a strip the same length. This strip was about 1 and 1/4 in. wide, and only a 1/2 in. wide as the finished shoe lace. Put your iron on high steam and press like you see in the picture.

2. Press it again in half so there are no raw edges showing.

3. Sew a straight seem along the open edges all the way down both laces.

Should look like this

4. Finish the edges. You can simply cut them at an angle like this... or tape the ends real tight. I cut the edges first, then laced the shoes and then taped the ends when I was done. I used medical tape which worked ok but I think a stronger clear tape would have been better. Maybe packing tape?

That's it. This is also a wonderful method for sewing any kind of sash or strap (minus the tape on the end). I always use this method as an alternative to turning things inside out. Blech! I hate doing that!

Averi is also sporting some lace "Sock Toppers" more pictures and a tutorial can be found here.

Have a great day! And if it's not such a great day, maybe you need to make it one by doing something unexpected and out of the ordinary........you know, not on your "list".

Speaking of lists, have you seen "Chaos Theory"? I'm gonna to have to admit, I loved it. "I now make all decisions using index cards". Not really, but I'm considering it.

Warning: This movie is PG-13 and so is this trailer.

The Queen of Hats

2012-01-11T12:13:00.000-08:00

You know like the "Queen of Hearts" but the "Queen of Hats"? Get it? Yeah, you get it. My wonderful friend and fellow blogger, Erin from Shakespear's Stage, made this hat out of a sweater! I think it's sooo adorable! Head on over and check out her simple tutorial. Erin makes all kinds of amazing hats. I wish I had pictures of all the noggin frosting she's created for my kiddos! She's so funky!

I'm playing catch up around the house today but hope to be back tomorrow with

um......gosh..... uh...........SOMETHING!!

Crazyness

2012-01-09T20:14:00.001-08:00

These last few weeks I have felt like an utter mess. I speak to you tonight from my phone lying in bed. Over the holidays I got some sort of 3 week flu or parasite, or.....who the heck knows what it was but I haven't been feeling myself ever since. I think I need to start running again....blech! Tonight I fear that I will be awakened by other sick people manifesting their illness with gushing fluids coming out either ends of their little bodies....eeeeee, I hope not!

On a different but somewhat related note, the picture above was taken last week of my paps and me. Our little flu problems pale in comparison to what he went through this month. He had open heart surgery and has been a heck of a trooper about it. I don't think I could even come close to expressing with words what my dad is to me. I know everyone says their dad is the best but mine really is! He is supportive and loving above all and at all times. He is kind, smart, selfless, funny, helpful, spiritual and strong to name a few others. I am so grateful for him and his example and well....I'm just hoping this surgery will help it so that I can have him around for a long long time. I could go on and on but I'll stop. I'm tired and still blogging from my phone so what do you expect?

The moral of the story today is.... go hug someone you love and let them know how much you care. Goodnight.

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I Feel Lovely Just the Way That I Am

2012-01-04T20:44:00.000-08:00

I love this song by Sara Haze and I reeeeeally wish there was a cool video to go along but I couldn't find one with good sound and resolution so this will have to do.

I've been thinking about the New Year lately and what it brings...which is odd for me because I NEVER make New Years resolutions or even give it a second thought. I've always felt that if you want to change something, then do it right now! Don't wait for a New Year to make a resolution! That seems silly. But then again I'm not very good with acting on my resolutions so maybe if I write about it here I can look back on it and want to say that I've changed.

Even if it's just a little.....

Let me just start by saying that I have 3 daughters who, whether they would admit to it or not, look to me for an example of how to act and who to be. They might always look to me as an example or they might not. But for the time being I've got them, they are mine and they're watching ME. I don't think I need to point out what a huge responsibility that carries. Chances are, if you're reading this, you're a Mom or you at least had a Mom once ;)

You get it.

I feel like I need to do better with my example. I need to spend less time on the computer, and the phone, less time worrying about what I look like, what I weigh and more time liking myself just the way I am. More time feeling lovely just the way that I am. I want my girls to love themselves and see themselves the way I see them and not worry about how the world sees them. I want them to grow up to be confident women. I know that seems next to impossible but I can start by spending more quality time with them, listening to them and not nagging them. I expect a lot of them. Like A LOT. And sometimes I think it weighs on their little hearts more than I imagined it would.

"I can do hard things" and so can my children, but I'm going to have to stop doing whatever I'm doing and teach them if I want them to learn how to do those "hard things".

So that's my New Year's resolution. I'm still going to be a naggy mom who expects way too much of her daughters but I can also be a friend and a teacher. I need to be equal part Mom, teacher and friend. Right now, I'm mostly just being a mom and I'm a good mom....so that's been ok until now, but my girls are turning into big girls who will inevitably turn into women (please make it stop). It's time for me to step it up a little. I think they need a little more.

So I guess I'm saying that I need to do a little more AND a little less. Does that make any sense?

Making Old Things Into New {Loni's House}

2012-01-02T11:18:00.000-08:00

I Don't even know where to start with this. I've spoken about my sister in law, Loni before in this post here. She has a lovely home and mad skills. I'm not feeling very wordy today so I'll just let the pictures tell (most) of the story...

These wreaths were made using pipe insulator for the base and then she used hot glue to hand gather (no sew) some basic muslin. I am partial to simple wreaths. I think the colorful ones are so fun for holidays and such but to go on the wall full time I'm loving this look! And the birds and the nest? Winning! Loni used some old flower plaques she didn't like anymore and painted over them. She used a mirror from family dollar for the big wreath in the middle but painted over it and then glazed in the cracks.

I don't even know where to start with this chair! Again she used muslin and upholstery pins! She glued buttons to the end of some of them and just went wild. She also used some straight pins. BUT.....no glue and no sewing! I literally couldn't contain my scream when I saw this! So cheap, easy and elegant!!

Simple Styrofoam balls covered in yarn and twine

An old clock with a new paint job, framed sheet music and fabric. Lovely.

Here are a few books recovered, a vase with a new paint job, a canvas covered in fabric and, some balls covered in fabric (my balls, can I have them back now? How is it that they look cuter in her house? ;))

AND....these cute little picture blocks. You know how a few years back there were about a million word blocks floating around painted in some hideous (sorry) burgundy color with words like "live, laugh, love"? You know the ones? You received them for your wedding or made them at Super Saturday......Well she took those, painted them, mod podged paper on top and now they are creative little photo holders! Pretty cute. These are pictures of her, her husband and her son all at the same age (ish).

Lastly, this is my favorite place in the house but I couldn't show you it all when I took the photos because it was covered in Christmas stuff. So....I'll have to come back to this one. I just wanted to point out the cute little button heart in a frame. I gave her that frame as well and now that it's cute I would like to reclaim it. I'm totally kidding, I would never do that. I think it's an adorable Valentines idea! So, the moral of the story is, if you think your house needs new everything maybe you just need to give it a paint job or switch things around a bit. Or.....at least try the thrift store first before you spend your life's savings.

Family Friday {Averi's Imagination}

2011-12-30T13:04:00.000-08:00

I've figured out a way to incorporate my family into my blog and it's called "Family Friday", we'll see how long I can remember to keep this up. So far I haven't been very diligent in keeping up my alliterated themed days. I know what your thinking, how can I even CALL myself a blogger right? I mean if you don't have "Manic Mondays", "Tipful Tuesdays", "Thrifty Thursdays" and so forth then well,....what are you? NOT a blogger my friend! Not a blogger. You know I'm just making fun of myself right? :)

Averi says the funniest things while she's pretending, back when I was strictly family blogging, I wrote silly things my kids would say all the time, but lately I've been forgetting things because I don't write them down DUH! OBVIOUSLY!

This morning as I was putting my makeup on, I could hear her in the tub. She had dumped out some bath salts and had created a whole family out of them. They had names, a community, the whole bit. She was performing a funeral for "Shiny" who had died and needed to go into the "dead box". She closed the lid on the bath salts bottle (dead box) and put a bath salt on top and said "they call him the guard of the dead bodies" The guard had an English accent and the little girl (can't remember her name) had a southern accent. There was also a point when people kept coming back alive and then dying again.

I guess anything can happen when you create your own little imaginary world. This is why I had such a hard time figuring out what to get my kids for Christmas. They literally make something out of nothing and then carry on for hours with it, while their toys sit in the closet. I do love it though :)

Here's another favorite of mine from the past. Like WAAAY in the past.

Addy's Wisdom About Jesus, The Devil and the Afterlife

No Sew Table Runner

2011-12-27T14:15:00.000-08:00

Last month I did a guest post for "Over the Big Moon" and I thought it would be perfect for today. Why? Because if your like me, then when you take all your Christmas Decorations down, you may be feeling a little bit empty. AND a little bit awesome too because WOW all the clutter is gone! I don't do spring cleaning, I do January cleaning. It just comes natural to me to want to deep clean, organize and re-decorate (just a smitch) after Christmas. If only it came natural to me all year long, we'd be in business!

So in light of new things, let's go ahead and put a new table runner on shall we?

Here's my "no sew (or sew if you wan to) personalized table runner"

All you need is:
a 1/2 yard of muslin
lots of hot glue
some lace or trim
your printer
and this stuff....found at Joan Fabrics for only .79 a yard! It's some sort of burlap :)

Basically you just need to cut two squares of your muslin (or whatever shape you fancy) and hot glue them together. I sewed mine together like a pillowcase but it's not necessary.

Then hot glue the lace around the edges........

Then glue the burlap ribbon on top of that. You could miter the corners of the burlap if you want that quilted border look. I simply overlapped mine. I feel like it has a sort of vintage school days feel. Which is great since we mainly use our table for doing homework!

Are you ready for the best part? Here's how I printed on the muslin.....

After printed, I cut out the text with pinking sheers and antiqued the edges with some scrapbooking ink. Then I just hot glued it to the corner of my table runner. And Voila! Your done.

I want to point out that this project was done with a regular cheapy Epson printer and regular ink...oh and of course, regular paper! So you shouldn't even have to go to the store for this part! Yaaaay I love not leaving the house! :)

If you are wondering how I made the balls in the basket, I just bought balls in a two pack from the dollar store and then wrapped them in long torn strips of white and cream colored fabric, then hot glued.

I chose to share this tutorial with ya'll today because this project has so many possibilities! Speaking of possibilities.....here are a few links to other projects I've done using this print on fabric procedure.

Personalized Stockings

Love Note Pillow

I'd like to thank Pam and Lisa from "Over the Big Moon" again for inviting me to do this guest post on their blog. I adore Pam. Not only is she uber creative and well........giving, she was supportive and kind to me when I started out blogging (not that long ago) and when I needed it most! She continues to help me with my constant questions with REALLY helpful advice and...I'm not sure that she has really benefited from it! Crap! I need to make her something! As for Lisa, I'm excited to get to know her better. Cause it seems to me, like she is made of awesome sauce as well! Keep the awesomeness coming girls!

Here's your card....

2011-12-23T20:39:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas! Love, The Pace Family

(Mike, Sundi, Lydia, Addy, Averi and Jack)

Love Me Some Kool-Aid

2011-12-22T00:01:00.001-08:00

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Kool Aid for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

What do you think of when you hear someone say "Kool-Aid"? I think of this awesome girl from middle school Gym class who always had a really pretty reddish pink hair color. I know that's weird but she said that she dyed with Kool-Aid. Awesome right? Yeah, it was. What's your favorite Kool-Aid memory?

Well, besides the fact that my kids would give up their right arm for a drink of Kool-Aid at any given moment....... their are also some other pretty sweet uses for it!

After checking out this site.....Kool-Aid

I'm kind of freaked out by how much I've been missing out on! Key Lime Pie, Double Berry Smoothies, Triple Lemon Layer Cake!! Yumm!!!

Also...visit Kool-Aid's facebook page,
Kool-Aid

and click on the "Noches de PelilKoola tab for a Kool-Aid coupon and also a schedule of upcoming Sunday Movie Nights and downloadable movie specific bingo cards for the entire family to play during the movie while you sip on some sort of Kool-Aid or delicious Kool-Aid recipe cause guess what? (Wow that was a run on sentence) Each bingo card contains a recipe on the back! Family Movie, Bingo, Dessert!!! How cool is that? I think something like that would be a really great thing for my family!

So...What's your favorite Kool-Aid flavor? I like Tropical Punch flavor but I also love any of the Kool-Aid Jammers for the kiddos.

Top 6 Handmade Gifts For Girls From Cheap Chickadee {perfect for bdays and valentines too!}

2011-12-15T15:00:00.000-08:00

Today is your lucky day! I have compiled 6 simple projects that I've made this year into this wonderful "gift idea" post. Normally a consistent blogger (which I am trying so very hard to be), would break this into something like "5 handmade days of Christmas" and do a different post everyday with just one project and one tutorial. That was my original plan... BUT WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF TIME! ACK!! I can't believe tomorrow is my last day to get things done before Christmas break. I'm soooo not even close to being done with my Christmas shopping and creating! With those crazy thoughts in mind, lets get straight to the point!

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1. Embellish a t-shirt. This little model is my neighbor Brynlee. My girls are getting these shirts for Christmas so I couldn't have them modeling them for me now could I? The shirt above is a simple t-shirt with two ruffles and a strip of fabric tied in a bow. I just zigzagged the edges of the ruffle to give it a scrappy look.

These shirts started out as long sleeved shirts on sale for $2 at the Children's Place. I will post a tutorial on them soon. I love the way they turned out. If you plan to make one before Christmas and have any questions for me, please email me and I will try to answer them for you.

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2. Fleece Scarfs. My girlies LOVE these! They are so warm and were soooo easy to make.

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At Joann Fabrics (or wherever you like to go), they have a ton of fun printed fleece. It's usually on sale this time of year, or you can use a coupon and it ends up being really cheap! I think I used about 1/3 yard or less on each. Here's what I did...I cut my fabric into two long strips. Then sewed about 5 straight lines all the way down the length of the scarf. I just eyeballed how much to space the lines apart. Then I sewed another straight line across both ends of the short sides of the scarf, leaving about 5 inches on the end for snipping. If you just look at the picture below it should all make sense. I'm so horrible as using my words to give direction. I'm more of a hands on kind of gal.

3. Embellished Dollar Store Hats. The hat Brynlee is wearing, was made last year. It's just a basic hat with flowers sewn on. This year the "Dollar Store Hat" evolved into...

this! I really like the way it fits. You can find the tutorial for this hat here on my blog.

4. Personalized Pajama Pants! Aren't these the cutest? I made these pants out of an extra sheet that came with Lydia's bedding. If you want a cheap way to make pajama pants, that's the way to go. Whether it be a thrifted sheet or new, you can easily get at least 3 pairs of pants out of it. I sewed a band of fabric to the bottom of the pants, a mismatched bow on the top, a pocket on the behind, and of course...her nickname "muffin" to the leg. I applied the appliqued nickname with "Wonder Under" and just used a straight stitch to reinforce the letters instead of a silk stitch. Silk stitch is for CRAZIES! ;)

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Oh man! I love these pants! Lydia (my 10 year old), wears them every chance she gets!

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5. Love Note Pillow or in this case a "Love Song Pillow". I made this pillow for my Mother in Law in memory of her mother in law actually, Grandma Manda, who recently passed away at the age of 97. My mother in law, Cathy, selflessly took care of her for many years. This song was one of many silly songs Grandma sang to us and the grandkids. She couldn't remember much but she sure could remember the lyrics to crazy songs, stories and poems. She was such a wise, loving woman with a bigger heart than anyone I have ever known. Oh how we will miss her!

I think it would also be a really sweet idea to put lullaby lyrics or sayings for your children or spouse on a pillow. For this pillow I used my "print on fabric" technique. Only in this case I didn't glue the printed fabric to the pillow, I machine stitched it with some sort of ultra thick thread. Here's a simple picture tutorial.

6. Doll Cases (embellished old suitcases) I bought some an old suit case and a few brief cases last year at the thrift store and covered them with scrap book paper, ribbon, stickers and mod podge. I adore them! And so do the girls. They are one toy that I don't mind if they leave out cause it makes the house look pretty and colorful. I decorated them to fit each daughters personality and favorite colors.

And I'm pretty sure the dolls are happy too.....cause their shoes and clothes aren't getting lost quite as often ;)

So there you have it. Like I said I will be posting tutorials on a few of these projects so stay tuned...OR, if you are just waiting and waiting and waiting............for a specific tutorial (doubtful but nevertheless), PLEASE message me and let me know so I can move it to the top of my list :)

Merry Christmas!!