Those Who Can, Do! Valentine's Day Edition

Have you ever noticed the shortage of cute boy clothes?  Especially around a holiday!

Christmas was pretty easy, 2 matching dinosaurs tangled up in Christmas lights surrounded by presents sweaters at Macy's, $14.99 each.  Instant cuteness!

Enter Valentine's Day. 

One very cute TooPoo (Snoopy for those not fluent in toddlerise) size 5t shirt at Target $9.99 and not a single thing in size 7.  Not one!  Nothing!  Is a kindergarten boy too cool for Valentine's day?  Pfft.  I don't think so!

Enter one awesome Mema and her laptop.

Etsy to the rescue.  But those prices!  OMG!  I refuse to pay $20+ for a shirt that won't get much wear! 

I. WILL.  NOT.  DO.  IT.

Fortunately, Etsy is an awesome inspiration for those who can.  For all others there is Visa and Master Card.

Even more fortunate is that this Mema can!

For a fraction of the price.

Two blue long sleeved t-shirts from Target on clearance for $4.88.

Some fabric scraps already at home. 

A little Heat n Bond.

A little imagination.

A pen, scissors, an iron and my trusty Singer.

Less than a half hour later, let me present....

Matching Valentine's shirts for my very favorite little boys!

Feel free to copy, I did.

Re Purpose Your Parmesan Cheese Shaker with Pinterest

My name is Rita and I am a Pinterest addict.

No worries, I don't need pintervention.

I enjoy being hooked on Pinterest.

In addition to being a huge time suck for when I'm bored, I've found many useful ideas.  I've found recipe ideas that I'll never prepare, crafts I'll never make and jewelry I can't afford.  I've even re pinned some great organizing ideas for when I have the urge to get organized.  Every once in a while, I re pin something for the kids that I actually follow through with.

Today I've re purposed a parmesan cheese shaker into a fun fine motor skill activity for TC.

Look at that determination, he is so focused.

The cheese shaker was a $1 store find and I had the spaghetti in my pantry.  You could even use toothpicks (with supervision) or rice for a more challenging activity.

Do you follow me on Pinterest?  Click the button at the top of my sidebar, I'd love to follow you back.

*Original idea can be found at Quirky Momma

Halloween Bunting Tutorial

Raise your hand if you've ever drooled over the Pottery Barn catalog.

Page after page of beautiful home decor and each one finds me foaming more than the last.  Thankfully the checkbook snaps me back to reality rather quickly.

This was my inspiration!

The Trick or Treat bunting above the doorway.  Isn't that just adorable!  Sure is, but not $29.99 plus shipping and handling adorable.  Etsy wasn't any better.  Some of them were selling for $40.

If I can't buy it on the cheap, my only option is to make it myself!

Off to Hobby Lobby, where I chose one yard each of three coordinating Halloween fabrics.  On sale for $5.59 a yard and a $2 spool of 2 inch wide ribbon that I thought was 48 feet long.
 
I had an idea of what I wanted the flags to look like so I just played around folding a sheet of newspaper until I got the desired shape.

My flags are 9 1/2 inches across the top and 12 inches long.  I added a 5/8 seam allowance and cut a pattern that size.  A rotary cutter made cutting the fabric pieces easier and I also flipped my template as I cut, so as not to waste any fabric. (Note-With fabrics that have an obvious picture or words, every other flag will be upside down, but that's OK, I just used that piece on the backside, where no one would see.)

 I now had 26 plus flags cut out.  I put two of the same triangles right sides together and sewed down the length of the two long sides, leaving the top open.  Repeat 12 times.  Trim the tip off the bottom and then a little up the sides. (about 2 inches)  This will prevent a big bulge at the tip of your flag when you turn them right side out.  Turn and press.  Crafting is the only thing I use my iron for LOL.

You now have 13 flags.  Trim the little bit of seam that's showing at the top and any hanging threads.

Back to the ironing board.  Take the entire 12 feet of ribbon, fold the width in half and iron.  Fold that in half lengthwise and pin the center.  Now take a flag and pin the center of the top of the flag to the center of the folded ribbon.  I then pinned 6 flags on the right, alternating the designs and then mirrored the pattern on the left.  I just thought it would look cool that way.  I also didn't leave any space in between, just pinned one flag directly next to the last one.

Once everything was pinned, I started at one end and stitched very closely to the edge of the ribbon all the way to the other end.  I had about 12 inches left on each end and so I made a loop on each end for hanging.

I think I like it just the way it is, without the lettering, but I am going to add those plastic spider rings on the ribbon in between each of the flags.  It's really hard to get a decent picture of the whole thing, I hope you can get the idea.

I also had enough fabric left to make 9 more flags, and I should have some leftover black ribbon in my stash, so I'll be making another bunting for Augie Dawgs!

If I'm feeling really ambitious I may make a birthday bunting for the boys, and Christmas and Easter.  It was a quick and easy craft, just the way I like them.  Who knows, maybe I'll make one for a giveaway.  What do you think?  Would you enter a giveaway if that was the prize?  Or would you make one yourself?

Lookie What I Made!

Everyone is always telling me how awesome I am.  Well, not exactly everyone and not always.  Once or twice someone has mentioned that I'm amazing.  It may or may not have been laced with sarcasm.  Sometimes I surprise myself.

The end of preschool was approaching and Augie Dawgs came to me and asked, "What should I get TOF's teacher?"  I told her I'd get back to her.  So for a few weeks I scratched my head and wondered, what kind of gift would stand out and really wow TOF's teacher?  I scoured the crafty blog posts and visited with my good friend Google.  I was completely at a loss.  Then the light bulb went off!  Mrs. K is a photographer.  I know photographers.  I'll ask them.  And so I did.  I was at a blogging event with the lovely Sabrina and I asked her what she thought might make a nice gift for a teacher who also happens to be a photographer.

Sabrina suggested that I check on Etsy for a camera strap cover.  She said they had some very nice ones and that I could get one in Mrs. K's favorite colors.  So I was off to Etsy to check them out.  Oy, the choices.  They were all beautiful!  The problem is, I'm cheap frugal.  The nicest covers were almost $30.  It wasn't that $30 was too much to spend on someone who helped TOF grow so much in the past year, it was that to me, the gift didn't look like something that cost that much.  Does that make sense?

I kept looking.

I even sneakily emailed Mrs. K to ask where she gets her pictures printed.  Thinking that perhaps we could purchase a gift certificate for her.  She answered, but wouldn't divulge her secret as to where she gets her professional stuff developed.  Man this is one tough cookie!  I kept looking.  And Googling.  And then I found this.  A step by step tutorial for making a camera strap cover.  I read and reread.  It was easy peasy.  I could do this!

The three of us set out to Hobby Lobby where TOF chose the fabric in Mrs. K's favorite color.  I picked  some brown minky fabric for the underside, so that it would be softer on her neck.  He kept referring to the strap cover as a scarf.  He was so excited.  "I just know Mrs. K is going to love her scarf."  He sat along side me as I crafted the strips of fabric into what was beginning to resemble a camera strap cover.  He stood far away from the iron that he understood was too hot for him to use as I pressed open the seam and applied the interfacing.  It was all beginning to come together and looking nicely if I do say so myself.  I trimmed the seams and turned it right side out.  I felt accomplished.

And then I started to worry.  What if she hates it?  What if she already has a favorite camera strap cover?  What if it doesn't fit?  Or worse, what if she sews?  Really really well.  And notices that maybe there is a flaw?  Because I'm crazy like that.  I worry.

Tuesday, TOF took his gift to school and I worried more.  I was ready to send another email to let Mrs. K know that if it didn't fit, I'd gladly make another.

Today, this was in his backpack when he came home, along with the sweetest note expressing how much she loved her new camera strap.  And I exhaled.  

Sometimes I surprise myself.