Blog hop Most Embarrasing Moments....

When my Oldest daugher (14) was two, I had her with me while waiting in line at a check out. The woman in front of us happened to have a noticibly large posterior (butt, if your a redneck like me!)and, much to my dismay, my daughter noticed it....I was horrified as she reached up, patted her butt twice and yelled "BUTT-BUTT!" .......Um, ma'am, which isle has the holes to crawl into?

Your turn! Wanna join the hop? Follow me/leave a comment and go here:

Blog hop Friday!

It's BLOG HOP FRIDAY!!! YIPPPEEEE!!!!!!  What a wonderful way for us bloggers to network! If you're not a follower yet, come on in and then stop on over tomorrow and leave a comment! Then put my link somewhere on your page and  I'll return the favor! 

Here are some more sites "hoppin around!"

A visit to The Frugal Family Fun Blog

(If you have a tutorial you would like us to try, leave a comment with a link to the tutorial and we'll check it out!)


Whew, the kids and I are WORN OUT!  We traveled all the way from I'mSEWcheap-ville to The Frugal Family Fun Blog!  It took us a while, but it was worth it when we got there!

In all seriousness, Valerie's site is AMAZING!  She has tons of fun kid friendly activities and  everything well categorized and easy to follow! 

Today, the kids and I decided to follow her tutorial labeled : Easy Crazy Crayon Party Favors .   What a great way to repurpose broken crayons! It seems like every time my children color they break at least one crayon!  And I'm SEW cheap that I can't stand to throw them away and buy more all the time!

Ok, without further adieu....here is how our visit to Valerie's site went!

First up, the list of necessities :
                                                                    1. Broken Crayons

                                                                   2. baking tin

  (Valerie uses a heart shaped on....SEW cute....but alas, I only have the round one and I'm too cheap to buy more!)

The FFFB suggests having an adult use a pocket knife to score the wrappers to make it easier for the kiddos to remove them. Twas a very good idea...however, I'm a bit inept with sharp utensils, so,  I used a serrated butter knife.

Now, time to start the project!

                                    Step 1.  The kids helped me peel off the crayon wrappers..

                                   Step 2.  We separated the crayons by color (maybe not a necessary step,            but the kids loved it!

Step 3.  We picked out the colors for our crayons and put them in the individual cups.

Next, Valerie at The Frugal Family Fun Blog says to put your crayons in an oven at 275 for 10 minutes, so, thats what we do!

Here they are melting in the oven:

Here they are about 3 minutes after I've pulled them out...

And then, I put them into the fridge, as suggested.

30 minutes later I pulled them out and .....

VOILA!

This was so much fun!  The kids each picked out their favorites!  Now they want me to find a heart shaped tin like Valerie's so they can give them away to their friends for valentines!

Thanks again to The Frugal Family Fun Blog for this GREAT Easy Tutorial!

This was a fun trip......I like it here......I may stay a while and do another tutorial......or come back again another time!

Family Blog Travels

I love to travel.  I enjoy driving or riding down the road, exploring new places, touring points of interest, learning new things, taking home souvenirs.....you name it, I love it!
BUT.....I have 5 children, two dogs, and a cat. This, coupled with a limited budget,  makes travel a little difficult these days.  However, thanks to y'all, I can still travel! 

I just pack my laptop,  hop on the Blog-train and take off!  Maybe my first stop will be SCOTLAND where I can learn how to make a cute purse/bag from Julia D. Art, or maybe the kids and I will stay right here in the USA and learn from a girl who's ORIGINALLY from the UK, but moved to good ole' California ,and learn how to make her Lazy Crayon Roll.  Who knows where we'll go first, or after that!  It'll be a blast! 

Don't worry, I'll keep in touch as I travel, right here in my blog! The kids and I will have a ton of fun trying out all the tutorials you bloggers have posted!  We'll post what we've done, all of it!  The good, the bad, AND the ugly! 

Keep checking back...maybe you'll find a site that makes you feel like traveling there too! AND...by all means, if you have I "blogville" you want me to travel to , go ahead and post a comment with a link to my site!  If I like one of my points of interest.....I may just have to post it in "I SEW love these sites"!!!

I already went to RavenzTarot Mindless Sewing Rants and I get to bring home a souvenir....I WON  a GIVEAWAY!!!! Thanx Ravenz!

FIRST STOP:  We're visiting Valerie at The Frugal Family Fun blog!  She has a GREAT blogville and....She shares her name with my youngest daughter! Hmmm.....lots of stuff here....might have to stay a while..........

Stamping out boredom

The kids and I sat down together today and, as a team,we stamped out boredom....literally!  No, seriously! 

                                                          I got out my alphabet stampers
(which are usually paired with water and construction paper for some fun alphabet learning with my 5yr old)

Some acrylic paint and paint brushes,

AND...fabric from old jeans or khakis.

We poured some paint into old Tupperware lids, 

cut some more stamps out of potatoes

and started stamping!

We monogrammed:

We stamped nicknames:

We made pictures:

WE HAD A BLAST!

I even had my daughter stamp up a piece of t-shirt fabric that I had.

They didn't have to be perfect.  In fact, the imperfections were what made them cute!

Then I started attaching those monograms to things!

These are a couple of my different lunch bags:

and This is an apron (tutorial posted on this site!) I made for a friend.

We haven't used all of the stamped fabric pieces yet. There weren't really any projects planned for them. We just put them into a Ziploc for later use.  This way, we had fun as a family while saving future monogramming time as well as saving MONEY on paint by not having wasted, dried out paint by getting the stuff out every time we need something.  

In the future, if I realize we need another stamped item, we'll just "Stamp out Boredom" together AGAIN!

This was an project in my book!

 

Upcyled Skirt / Dress Tutorial

I was given an adorable little "dress" for my daughters.  It, however,  wasn't something I would have let my daughters wear.  I just couldn't see getting rid of such a beautiful item.  I knew it could become something new, useful and even more beautiful!

Here is the pic of the dress "before" transformation:

Pretty, eh?  So, what did I do?  I CUT IT IN HALF!

If you look closely, you'll see that I lifted up the bottom ruffle and cut it where it wouldn't show. The fabric I was working with was a lycra which doesnt fray, but it would still be smart and look better if at this time the under layer that was cut was got a serger run-through. AND....this is what I came up with:

I did shorten the straps as well because it was just too low. Next, it was time to deal with the bottom half, and, once again..I reverted to my love of denim upcycling!

I grabbed a jean mini skirt that a well intentioned person gave my daughter and merged the two! (it's important to note here that if I had had my serger out, this would have been a much sturdier and cleaner merger! It's not too late though....!) Then turn it over and top stitch just a smidge onto the denim edge. AND....:

A cute and flirty skirt!..... here is a pic of them together:

Now, it should be said here, that the outfit was NOT complete for my daughter....but, with a little black t-shirt.....

(pay no attention to the adorable doggie behind the dress!)

THEN....add a cute long sleeve denim shrug....and VOILA!....

An adorable and funky outfit!  Ok, ladies....challenge time...Get out those tiny dresses and CUT EM UP.....and show me what ya get!!!!!!!!!!