A Pinkalicious kind of week

This post was suppose to be posted two weeks ago.

We accidentally had a pinkalicious week (two weeks ago).  We had a party for my daughter's preschool families, there are five girls in the class so I thought pink cupcakes were only fitting.  Then the next day my daughter picked out Pinkalicious at the library, we read it all week long, and which made the left over cupcakes she ate all week long that much better it was a fun week.

Juliette Dress

I've seen a few juliette dresses for little girls on the internet, all for at least $100 more than I spend on clothes.  But pinterest has got me thinking, why can't I make one.  

source

School Bus Cookies

The first week of school my son was obsessed with school bus cookies.  He teacher made them for the first day of school snack.  He told me we needed gram cracker cookies, mini oreos, yellow frosting and teddy grams. He had to make do with blue frosting that I had in the fridge.  I bought him mini oreos and teddy grams but I didn't want to make more frosting. Can you see the school bus?  I think they were suppose to look more like this? maybe? I don't know I let him make it all himself, then copied his for his sister.

Backpacking Beanies

We were suppose to go backpacking about a month ago with another family.  The morning of I decided I was not going to carry heavy knit beanies for three people on my back. Sleeping in beanies is necessary, especially at our elevation.  So I quickly sewed up some fleece hats.  They are slightly hideous, but still great for sleeping. I made them super long, because the only thing I hate more than being cold in an old sleeping bag (my husband bought me a new one last year) is waking up cold because my beanie popped off my head. That way we can roll the brim lower and stay warmer!

 I used this pattern for mine.

The kids got bunny ones, because I knew they would think it was awesome.  I relearned an important lesson with fleece, make sure the stretch goes the right way before cutting and sewing.  Nan's was wrong :(

Natural State

My sister in law was out a few weeks ago, and while she was out she took this gem.

I love to be in my kitchen baking stuff, assuming I know what to make.  Sure I hate dinner time because I hate coming up with menus, but other than that, I truly enjoy feeding my family.
(Although after seeing this picture, I'm not too crazy about those two tops together.)

P.S. I came up with a new craft, and can't wait to start on it Monday morning with a trip to the craft store. Hopefully I have it finished by the end of next week.
P.P.S I am in the process of baking a cake before we finished off the last set of cupcakes.  Belch, I guess I just invite too many people over, I keep having to baking deserts.

Girly Lamp

Years ago I bought three lamps in a set.  Two table lamps and a floor lamp.  For three years, I had this ugly glue stain on one of my lamp shades.  I could never really turn it completely to the wall because then the seam on the shade showed.  (See bottom of the lamp shade.)

 So I decided to dress it up for my daughter.  There are a lot of girly DIY lampshade embellishments out there online, but I went with my own, because it was free, and a little less over the top than most.

 A year or two ago, I bought a big bag of lace for $5 at a ghetto fabric store, so making this lamp didn't even dent my collection.  I sewed the lace so I could gather it, then glued gunned it on the lamp. Took less time than nap time.

Its a little too girly for my taste, but it goes well with the bedroom, and I never have to see the glue stain again! The plain shade was a little plain for the room, and I didn't want to buy a new shade since I made this for free.

Kinder Crafts-scrapbooking

Long gone are the days when I can pump out multiple crafts a week.  But life changes, and so now, we'll be pumping out a kindergarten homework craft once a week.  Our first assignment was a scrapbook page.  I let my son have too much influence so we ended up with too many pictures for an 8.5x11 page. We made it work though.  I asked him what he wanted on, reading the teacher's instructions and he asked, "Family like all my cousins?! or just us?" I said we can put your cousins on, well he has 30 cousins (the youngest of which is shown on the page) and so that definitely filled up the page.  This assignment asked for a baby picture, and he wanted a picture of him hiking, and his birthday.  FULL.  J also added the stickers.

(don't mind my editing out the personal information.)

Treasure Box

The whole reason we had bare wood and paint out.  The whole reason we had pinkish/purple glitter: my son's friend turned 5.  She like him, loves all things junk and finding treasures, and adoring what other people would toss.  Since they share their love of treasure, sparkly things, and collecting, we had to do a treasure box for her birthday.  My son picked out the glitter at the store to cover her treasure box with.  The paint job is suppose to look antique so its white washed, err purple washed.  It was a huge success.  Everyone loved it especially the birthday girl.

 We even put some treasures in to start with.  But left plenty room for more.  Stupid blogger won't let me fix the direction of this picture.  I double checked it was flipped the right way before loading, and it still came like this.

Everyone loved it so much and it was so easy, I was thinking about making two more and giving them to my kids as christmas presents.  They BOTH actually help in this creation, but it would be a surprise for christmas. They both adore the birthday girl.

I'm going there someday...

If you remember how in April of this year during General Conference, President Monson said,

To you parents of young children, may I share with you some sage advice from President Spencer W. Kimball. Said he: “It would be a fine thing if … parents would have in every bedroom in their house a picture of the temple so [their children] from the time [they are] infant[s] could look at the picture every day [until] it becomes a part of [their lives]. When [they reach] the age that [they need] to make [the] very important decision [concerning going to the temple], it will have already been made.” 

Well needless to say I've felt like a sinner since we moved in, because my daughter didn't have a picture of the temple in her room. My son has a picture of the Logan Temple, so I wanted my daughter to have the Salt Lake Temple.

  Lil' Luna has a great tutorial of cute temple art. I've been waiting to try it for probably a year.  I mixed it up a bit, you know I can't follow directions!  Anyway, I "save as"-ed the picture from Lil' Luna, then turned it a pink/purple-ish hue, printed for 10 cents on Winkflash, to a 5x7.  Then bought a frame at Hobby Lobby, painted it green and purple, with purple/pinkish sparkles.  I love variegated paint jobs. Then I found some ribbon in my closet that was first used on the vases from by brother's wedding lunch, right after his marriage in the Salt Lake Temple.  But the green was too green with variegated paint, so I streaked purple paint on the ribbon to match the frame.  

 I added the ribbon because I thought oh, it needs to hang on the wall, then it looked so perfect on her dresser, so thank goodness the ribbon is wired, because I love the bow.

I love it!
Lil' Luna's tutorial is so great, its everything that is wonderful about the internet.  Great free pictures of the temple. I wanted a picture of the Denver Temple so I used the antique non- word for my living room.

Scripture Bag

Without the title do you know what this is?  I made it with my new found sewing desk space.

For months my CTR 4, has been asking for a scripture bag.  He diligently brings his Book of Mormon to church.  Where we use to live they encouraged all the kids whether they could read or not to bring their sciptures.  No one seems to care here, but luckily the habit is set.  So I finally, made him one.  He of course picked this material out of my stores. Inside there is a pocket for his scripture marking crayons, and a pencil pocket holder thing, slots for three pens.  Now he doesn't have to bother me for one.

I used no pattern, measured wrong, and my fusible webbing didn't work, so the bag took me twice as long as expected.  Two nap times instead of one.

Beauty

I'm sure this doesn't look beautiful to most of you.  

But it is a thing of beauty.  

A sewing machine and laptop all on one desk, my husband sure knows how to make me twitterpated. 

Plenty of room to use both at the same time.  

New and Improved Pillow

 Remember this pillow?  Well over the last year and half, I've really come to hate it. In the picture it looks all nice and new in shiny, but in reality, it was old and pilly. So I tore it apart, and put this monogram H on the pillow. While pulling apart the flowers I was very nervous, and wondered if I was making a huge mistake. It ended up no mistake, but perfect. I love it.

 I decided to pull it apart, because I still love these pillows and to it seemed like I needed three pillows so I had to do something, because I absolutely hated those felt buttons by now.  My husband likes my new pillow because he doesn't like buttons on pillows whether they are felt or plastic.

 I got the monogram H from this vase my mom's friend made me.  I think your suppose to put a votive in or something, but I figured out it perfect for our puzzle pieces that don't stay together.

The monogram pillow idea came from, Martha Stewart September 2011 issue.  I loved the spread about them, because I love monograms so much!  But in true Martha form, the article is no where to be found online, only this tutorial. I found this picture so inspiring so I had to post it. I'm starting to dream up more monogram ideas based on this pillow, but who knows if I'll follow through.

Baby Stella

My cousin just had her first baby, and in fact the first baby in their family, so everyone was obviously super excited-- the first grandkid.  Since I had been with them during my others cousin's wedding.  I had to make her a baby blanket, in a way to relive the fun of the wedding.

Alpha Wall

Here is my last creation/completion.  It took a few months, but I love it, and so glad I spent the money collecting the alphabet in our game room. I got the idea here.

I was so pleased with myself, when I hung 24 letters and had to finish making the last two.  Two friends were over and one said, oh my sister-in-law did that but, all her letters matched color scheme, it didn't quite work.  But I could see where she was going with it, I love the way yours turned out.

I think mine is actually extremely chaotic in comparison to the examples, but that is me right?!

The real eyesore, is that R S U are so large all together, but I loved them all, so they stayed. 

P.S. I know this picture is too big for the template, but it needed to be done.

A Stenciling Plan

I decided today that I want to stencil over my son's closet:

Scripture Power

everyday I need the power that I get each time I read 

Although stencil is a loose term for me, more like free hand with a pencil, then paint.