Little Boy Tie

Today I made the little boy a new tie for church.

I love how it turned out.

I can't wait for him to wear it soon.

He'll look very sharp.

I followed this tutorial on Very Homemade.

Wardrobe Overhaul

Do you ever just get tired of your entire closet? 

I was in a clothes rut for a while, but now I'm happy to say I'm out of it. 

And all it cost me was about $13 and some time. 

$13...seriously. 

How?

I revamped some pieces from the back of my closet and bought a few items at DI to make over.

Ta-da. New clothes for super cheap.

First up, my "new" skinny jeans!

I'm not one to spend a ton on 'fad' clothing.  I personally think skinny jeans belong in this category.  I just can't imagine they're going to stick around in fashionland for a long time.  Therefore, I didn't want to spend good money on them.  Maybe time will prove me wrong, and if so, I may buy me a nice pair.  But for now, here is how I got my skinny jeans on a budget.

I bought a pair of DI jeans for maybe $5, sewed up each of the legs to look like skinny jeans, hemmed the bottom of the jeans because I'm short, and voila!

Second... a new printed dress.

Also, a DI find.  For $8. Only problem was that it was just a hair too short.  No problem around here... I just cut the dress around the waistline, added 3 inches of material, sewed it back together, and now it works! 

I wear a sash (from my closet) around the waistline, but I knew this sash was going with the dress when I eyed the dress.

Third item...a cute ruffled skirt.

I transformed an old linen skirt from the back of my closet that I never wore.

I copied the style of one of my favorite skirts.

I love the layer of ruffles sandwiched in there.

And seriously, the ruffle layer was super easy to sew.

Finished Stockings

As part of my 2012 Resolutions, I'm trying to de-clutter our guest bedroom

The room has evolved into a craft explosion room. 

I have a lot of projects started that have piled up.

So this month I'm working like crazy on Christmas stuff. 

It's never too early, right?

Never mind, that it should have been done before this past Christmas...

I choose to look at the glass half-full.

We now have names on our stockings!

Looks like I stitched those letters on by hand, doesn't it?

A big thanks to my mom for the most awesome glue ever.  She was cleaning out her basement and found it. I'm not sure if you can even buy stuff like this anymore.

With glue, this was such a quick project.
Kinda glad I waited. I would have hand-stitched the letters like a fool if I would have done them before Christmas :)

DIY Hooded Towel

My little boy is growing up too fast!  He's long outgrown the cute hooded towels I received for baby gifts.  Time to move to the jumbo-sized hooded towels!!

The finished towel.  Love it!

Hooded towels have been floating around Pinterest, and I found a lot of tutorials online, so I'll just include links to the sites I looked at:

One Simple Bliss

The Cottage Mama

(The Cottage Home tutorial is my personal favorite, I adore that cute ric-rac edging)

These 3 tutorials are all basically the same, I used bits of each one to know what I was doing.  I wanted to add them all here, so next time I make a hooded towel, I don't need to search all over the internet to find the same tutorials.

Anyway, I just wanted to add one quick little step to save you some time if you have the same problem that I ran into.

The ribbon I wanted to put on needed to be placed a certain direction so it looked just right when finished.  In case you have that same problem, here is a photo of the CORRECT way it should be sewn to the hand towel:

Place the ribbon toward the fold of the towel

Christmas Stockings

Just wanted to show these photos of my latest project....

Homemade Christmas Stockings

When I was looking online for a pattern, I found these stockings for sale (no pattern) and I fell in love.  I love the different faces, the large scale of the characters.  After I found these, I couldn't find anything that even compared.  These are just so our style.  And with that, I knew I was making up my own pattern for them all.

I just love how they turned out!

Usually when I make something myself, I hate the finished product. I notice only the mistakes.

But not these.

I am really happy with how they turned out.

When the husband opened them, he couldn't even tell they were homemade.

Now I consider that a successful sewing project!

And now I just need to finish embroidering our names on each of our stockings.

Maybe if I start now I will finish in time for Christmas next year!

Eggplant

I have been dying to try this Eggplant Involtini recipe I came across on Pinterest.  Eggplant is a new taste I'm loving these days.  Why I didn't know about eggplant before, I have no idea.

Anyway, we tried the dish tonight, and it was a.ma.zing.  Seriously, you gotta try the recipe out.

And on the eggplant, there was a recipe for Easy Eggplant Pizzas.  It will officially be my next eggplant adventure.  Basically, just slice the eggplant into rounds, top it like you would normal mini pizzas, cook it at 425 for 12-15 minutes, and enjoy!

Cake Sprinkles

It has been soooo long since I've posted.  I'm still around - just busy.  Anyway, I just quickly wanted to post this little secret of mine for how to decorate a cake.

1. Print off your image, etc. that you want to use.  I made this for my son's first birthday cake, so all I needed was a number 1.  Tape to cardboard and using an exacto knife, cut around the image - cutting the cardboard at the same time.

2. After frosting your cake, lay the stencil on top of your cake.  Shake your sprinkles over the stencil and pick up the stencil when done.  I also put sprinkles all over the cake, but you don't have to do that.

Here's another example.  I made this cake for Halloween.  Please note this image is not my exact cake, this is from the original source.