Paige's Polka Dot Party!

So Paige's 10th Birthday (Wow!) is coming up soon and I've been working out the details.

She couldn't really come up with a 'theme' but knew she wanted to invite a few friends (and include her brothers and male cousins) to our local community pool for a Pool Party! We won't have exclusive use, but we can bring in whatever food we want so it should still be fun! She then wanted a few of her besties to come spend the night - SLUMBER PARTY!

Without a real 'theme', I wasn't sure what to do for invitations, but she knew she wanted the 'colors' to be turquoise and lime green. Fun! So just playing around with invitation ideas, I came up with this:


It's bright and colorful and FUN and, best of all, Paige liked it! So I printed and we delivered about 14 of these. The few invited to the slumber party afterward received a small, separate invitation to that as well.

There's not a whole lot of decorating to do at the pool. I picked up some dollar store sand pails that I'll serve some food in (just finger food only - triangle sandwiches, fruit kabobs, chips, drinks and cupcakes) and then we'll have some pool games. I'm hoping to do Pool Noodle Relay Races, Water Tag (tag people with water shooter), and Frozen Shirt contests.

For the Slumber Party afterward, I wanted to do a few decorations at home. My plan is to confine the slumber party to our den. It extends from the kitchen, so they'll have access to more snackage for the evening, but keeps them away from sleeping babies upstairs. It will also prevent any prank-pulling on Blake (I speak from experience).

So I'm planning to make a bunch of these to hang around the ceiling. I already found aqua and lime green tissue paper... I just have to do the legwork.


For the back wall of the den, I'd also like to make a quick paper banner to hang. Something like this, but in Paige's colors:

If I have time and I'm motivated, I may pull out some Christmas lights to hang around the room as well, but we'll see. I'll post more pictures next week of the decorations and the party!

Messenger Bag from a pair of Cargo Pants

Paige carried a Messenger Bag to school last year and really liked it - preferred it over a backpack. But the adjustable strap would never stay where we put it, so the bag usually ended up down near her knees and I hated that! So in my blog-surfing, I had stumbled upon a couple of different tutorials and patterns:

Inspiration for using cargo pants at Noddlehead here, but I wanted a horizontal vs. vertical configuration and wanted it a little bit bigger than this one.

A few more tutorials here and here I read. I wasn't sure about boxed corners at the bottom vs. a gusset but more reading indicated adding gussets will give it a little more structure.

So Saturday I made a stop at Goodwill for some cargo pants and found a cute pair of ladies Aeropostale pants. The were a little smaller than I was hoping (less fabric) but I just didn't see what I wanted in any mens pants and these had such cute pockets!

Here's the front of the bag. The flap was made from one of the leg side pockets and I ended up having to piece it. There's a part from the lower leg pieced right above the pocket because the side leg pocket was too close to the upper leg pocket to use that piece whole. I used more of that cute owl fabric I made her pencil case out of for the binding, lining and underside of the strap. There are two pockets here - one button pocket and then a zipper pocket right above it.



The other leg of the pants had two button pockets lined up, so I used that section as the back of the bag.


Here's a picture with the front flap opened up. I actually used the 'rear' of the pants to make the front inside pocket. There's one roomy pocket (top edge is the waistband) plus, of course, the additional two button pockets.

And last, here's a peek at the inside. It's fully lined with no exposed seams, topstiched everywhere in pink thread, and I even tried to put a water bottle holder on the inside (in green fabric) but the fit is a little snug after stitching it in, so I need to rework it somehow... or make it just a pen/pencil divider :-)

The gussets and strap were pieced from one lower leg and upper front sections. There was actually very little left over, so it worked out great.

I really enjoyed sewing this and might just have to make me one someday. If you missed it, check out the pencil case I made her last week here - it's out of the same owl fabric and is really cute! I need to rework the inside pocket and re-sew one side of the strap and then I'll try to get a picture with Paige wearing it.

I'm linking this post to the crafty linky parties below. Click through to get lost in blogland looking at all of the cool projects.

It's So Very Creative @ It's So Very Cheri
Make It for Monday @ Cottage Instincts
Just Something I Whipped Up @ The Girl Creative
I Made the World Cuter @ Making the World Cuter

Market Yourself Monday @ Sumo's Sweet Stuff

Made By You Monday @ Skip to My Lou

Pencil Case and RED MONKEY BUTT!

I wanted to make some special for Paige for starting school. It's not that I don't sew for the other kids, but she's always so excited about the projects and really wants to sew more and learn more herself.

I really like the design of this Gathered Clutch over at Noodlehead. Thanks Anna for the inspiration and the wonderful tutorial. This process for doing the zipper was super easy! I needed it a little longer, though, to fit pencils and markers, and didn't need the internal pockets. So I just pretty much winged it from memory. I put my gathers at the top and bottom because I hadn't printed out the tutorial, but through the center (under the band) would have been easier.

Here's the front:




Paige really was excited about it... she loved the gathers. Heya Momma - I know Shel likes owls too - think she'd like one as a "Back to School" surprise in the mail? If I sent her one, would her sis like one too, but maybe in a black and white fabric with a bold color band? Let me know!

Here's the back - just plain:


And it is fully lined, but no internal pockets or anything.

Paige also discovered months ago a pair of Rockford Red Heel Socks that my Mom sent me (probably) years ago that I'd never done anything with. Once she found them, she just HAD to have a sock monkey. She's been asking me for a while, so this week we finally got around to it. She helped a lot with the stuffing and sewing the buttons for eyes on.

She's named her Lacey, has slept with her every night this week, and is now asking for some clothes for her. She was also surprised to see her butt looks just like her face:

All in all, already a pretty producting week. Maybe THIS weekend I'll get that second bench made... I'd also like to start working on some clothing refashions. I'll keep ya posted!

The rest of the weekend projects... and lizard girl

There were a few more projects from last weekend that I hadn't taken pictures of yet.

When Erika first moved in with us (earlier this year) I really wanted to try to make her room nice and know that we respected her personal space and needs. Of course, I was on a budget, though. Furniture was all Craigslist or from family and I bought THIS bedding set from Wally World.

The sheets that come with the Bed-in-a-Bag sets are not generally the best quality, so we didn't use those on her bed. I can't let good fabric go to waste though. I knew I wanted to use some blackout lining (bought with a coupon) as she gets a lot of sun in her room. My first attempt turned out pretty stiff because of the lining and didn't really hang nice. That was scrapped. Blog-surfing, I saw this tutorial and loved the design - feminine but not overly flowy - and knew that would work perfect.

The sheets had a wavy gray line on white, so I oriented the sections so the lines were horizontal on top and vertical for the bottom. I think they really turned out very nice. I'm sure the turquoise paint is not her first choice, but it's staying unless she wants to do the repainting.


Yes, the wavy lines on the fabric emphasize that my sewing skills are not perfect, but we tend to not look that close :-) The top section is shirred and is just slightly wider than the window and the bottom section (same width as the top BEFORE shirring) just slightly gathers. This was a LOT of sewing (all those shirring lines basted, then gathered, then sewn to the blackout liner) but I'm really happy with them and think they turned out great.

The curtains were in part for her birthday coming up even though I'd been planning them since she moved in. She's starting a college art program in the fall so I'd been watching Craigslist again to get her a nice drafting table for her birthday. Scored a really nice one for $30 but then she needed a chair too. Making the bench freed up a few of our mismatched dining chairs, so one of them got a makeover with spray paint and the cushion recovered. In my book - another successful project.

And then last but not least... Blake's been wanting some kind of chair or stool for his desk in his room. We got bunkbeds a few years ago when I was pregnant with Dean (knew they'd come in handy with 2 boys) and there's a built in desk at one end. Again, super tight budget... so one day driving to work there was a little stool sitting at the curb in the neighborhood. Yes, it was trash day but I'm sure a piece of furniture as fine as this would not be considered trash. I had to rescue it!!!

I took it apart, recovered the top and added lots of extra padding (it was really flat) and used this beautiful fleece that my Momma sent me - Thanks Mom! Red is one of Blake's favorite colors, so I painted the base deep red and the lovely fabric tied in both the red base and his blue walls. Excuse the mess under the desk... he's a boy.

He loved it! Yay! Another success.

And just for laughs.... here's Paige with a lizard she caught... and I guess she's doing a lizard impression?? Love love love those freckles :-)

All of these projects have been great! I find I actually have more energy when I'm trying to keep myself busy and motivated instead of just being a couch potato. I need to figure out the next project... and the next one after that. There's a second bench waiting to be built and then I'd really like to start on a low-cost Master Bedroom makeover. We've done so little with it since we moved in... it's the most neglected room in the house.

Quite a productive weekend...

I took a few days vacation from work - had a nice long weekend - and got several projects that I've been meaning to do for a while taken care of. There are actually a few other small things finished, but I haven't had a chance to take pictures yet so that will have to wait.

We installed a pet door leading into our garage. We never really had a good place to put the cat litter boxes and we really don't park in the garage very often, so we decided to move the litter boxes out to the garage and install the kitty door. The younger cats are already in and out of it, but we're still working with 14 year old Custer. Dean was pretty fascinated with it as well...

If you haven't heard of Ana White and Knock Off Wood then you need to go check our her site NOW. I believe her inspiration was furniture from places like Pottery Barn and Land of Nod but the prices are insane. She figured she could build it herself and she did just that. She's since posted plans for many woodworking projects, using standard and easily attainable materials, and she's inspired a lot of people (like me) that were intimidated with building anything... to give it a try.

We have a long, narrow kitchen table in the long, narrow breakfast area of our kitchen. It does fit, but it can sometimes be hard to maneuver around especially when people are seated and their chairs are pushed out. Also, when we inherited the table... it only had 2 surviving chairs so we've been dealing with mismatched Craigslist chairs for a while now. We've been wanting benches for the long sides of the table for a while, but I wasn't finding anything within our budget. So, with Ana's plans for Modern Farmhouse Table Benches I made the first of two benches:

I'm pretty happy with it. It's way far from perfect, but I'm proud of it as my first (of hopefully many) furniture project and it will definitely serve it's purpose well. The kids like it and it's very handy to just slide it under the side of the table and get it out of the way.

The other major project was painting our front door. It was stained but had weathered quite a bit, so first we talked about sanding it down and just re-staining it. I'm sure that would have looked nice, but I've always wanted a red front door. Isn't is supposed to bring fortune or prosperity, too?

I'll post the rest of the weekends' projects tomorrow... I made some curtains for my step-daughter's room (she recently moved in with us) as well as painted/recovered two chairs. Oh, and maybe I'll also post some pictures of the other kids. It's not that I take more pictures of Dean, it's just that pictures of Paige and Blake usually look like this:

That's cousin Jayson with her feet. What happened to my sweet little kids?

Domo Arigato, Mr. Destructo...

It's been way too long since I've posted, I know. We've been busy, though. I have lots of projects to show over the next few days.

The biggest news, though, was that my little man turned TWO! We didn't do anything big... just had cake at home with family. He enjoyed blowing the candles out so much, we did it several times - even on just his piece of cake.

DISCLAMER: You'll notice that in every picture I post of him, he is shirtless. He's going through that independent, 'I've learned I can take my own clothes off' phase. He is often seen running around in just a diaper not 5 minutes after we've gotten him dressed. Yes, he's also discovered he can remove his diaper as well, but thankfully he brings it straight to us so we can throw it away (and get another one on him).

He's such an.... ummmm... trying child. This boy can make more messes and get into more stuff than I've ever dealt with before. Just for a bit, probably 15 minutes, I took pictures of everything he got into:

Digging in the bookshelves in the living room...

Climbing up on tables (after clearing them off, of course)....

Climbing the stairs... the WRONG way....


And even though this was 'destructive' and something he probably should have been told not to do... when I found him sitting in the windowsill, behind the blinds, with our cat Opie... it's just too cute to be upset about.

He's talking really well, but is going through that phase where he gets really upset and frustrated when he's trying to tell us something and we can't understand him. He's also having a VERY hard time with sharing... or having to give up something he wants but we have to take away because it's breakable or doesn't belong to him.

He's definitely a sweetie, though. That smile... those eyes.... I know he can melt my heart.

GIRLZ ROCK T-shirts

So we're taking the Girl Scouts to Sea World for their end-of-the-year celebration. Twelve 10-year olds... are we crazy? They've done such an amazing job selling nuts and cookies last year and this year that not only have we been able to go on lots of cool outings and camping, but we have enough money to go to Sea World for 2 days with the in-park Dining Plan and Quick Queue to jump to the front of ride lines.

It is so much easier, in a group, when we all wear our matching troop shirts. We have silk-screened ones back at the beginning of the year for all of the girls and adults to wear whenever we have outings or events. Those will be great for Sea World... but what about Day 2? We wanted matching shirts for the second day as well but didn't have the budget to silk-screen again. We had to DIY-it!
I ordered solid colored shirts online for just over $3 each. I really wanted to try out using bleach as well, so we started with a large stencil of a guitar and, using a spray bottle, misted a 50/50 water/bleach solution onto the shirts.

I wish we had made multiple stencils as not only did it get a little ragged before we finished 18 shirts, but it took forever to do these one by one and then we still had to wash and dry them before proceeding.

We then had another stencil that said GIRLZ ROCK that overlaid the top of the bleach guitar. We used three different colors of spray fabric paint across that stencil.




They turned out looking pretty cool, I think. I hope the girls like them and they're 'cool homemade' not 'embarrassing homemade'.

To speed things up (again, only 1 stencil and 18 shirts...) we needed to find a way to press the stencil down on the next shirt when the paint on top of the stencil was still wet (we had re-positionable adhesive on the backside of the stencil) we resorted to laying a piece of cling wrap on top of the stencil, rolling it on to the shirt, then peeling the cling wrap off. The stencil stayed stuck to the shirt and we were ready to spray again.


However, then we noticed that the design left on the cling wrap was pretty cool too. So we wanted to see what would happen if we laid that same cling wrap on another shirt, rolled it on to transfer the wet paint and then peeled it off.


We were left with this: I little more messy but still neat!


Once we were able to make 2 shirts for each stencil positioning and spraying... it sped up significantly. We made 18 shirts... 13 kid sized and 5 adult ones. It was a lot of fun and I really hope the girls like them.


So we're heading off to Sea World in about a week and we'll be that large, loud group in the bright shirts... on both days :-)