Fancy Shoes: DIY Project for about $5

Why is it so hard to keep kids in shoes? It seems like as soon as they get a pair they out grow them! I particularly hate shoe shopping with the girls in tow because they pick out hideous, sparkly shoes or, even worse, shoes with characters on them. All of these for the low, low price of (roughly) $40.

After spending money on some shoes to put up for the school year my kids promptly outgrew their current shoes so it seemed I would be spending even more money on shoes. We walked aisle after aisle in store after store, striking out on finding the right size, color, and comfort level. (Are everyone's children this picky??) I gave up and went to walmart and bought two pairs of plain white canvas shoes for $5 each. My children cannot be trusted to keep white shoes clean for more that five minutes so we took those shiny white shoes home and broke out some sharpies and my knowledge from the short stent of being on the pep squad in middle school. The result was their "fancy shoes" that they helped make themselves.

To make your own fancy shoes (which I'm tempted to do for myself!) you need a pair of canvas shoes, sharpies, rubbing alcohol and about 30 minutes of your time. Start by coloring basic designs in the color(s) of your choice. We did hearts, stars, flowers and butterflies. These are just rough shapes that need little thought because they will change in the next step. Once your shapes are drawn,  drip rubbing alcohol onto the colors and watch them spread out onto the canvas. (I helped ours along a little with the use of a cotton ball to drag the colors onto all the white areas.) Once you have the color you want achieved you let the shoes dry. You can do this by setting them outside in the sunshine or with the help of a blow dryer. Once they are dry use a fine tip black sharpie to draw the outline and design into your shapes. Then all that's left to do is proudly sport your new, fancy shoes.

Welcome to Lynch Homestead

In the excitement of planning our coop and garden this winter I decided our home needed a name. Although my dad was partial to 'Green Acres' and others to 'Lynch Farm' we thought 'Lynch Homestead' suited it better, as it was not an overstatement of what it really is. Of course the only real reason to settle on a name was so I could make a sign to display proudly on the outbuildings we are turning into the coop.

After browsing pictures of farm logos online I knew what I wanted to make and I got started. A few pieces of wood salvaged from a make shift work bench the previous owners left at the home, a wood burning kit from a craft store, and three days (and countless hours) crawling around on my kitchen floor and I had a sign to proudly display. 

Welcome to Lynch Homestead!

I had wanted to play with a wood burner for some time and a sign seemed the perfect opportunity. I liked the results but I must say, it was an ambitious project for my first! I don't know what was more nerve-wracking; free handing a design on uneven boards, or the tediousness of slowly moving the burner along to outline and shade the 2'x 3' sign. I will say that the finished product made it worth the time I spent on it!

Girly Super Hero Cape

We went to a birthday party for one of my favorite little people and needed the perfect gift. Amelia knew exactly what she wanted to get her: dress up clothes! I loathe the princess collection you find in the stores so we compromised and made a super hero cape for her to dress up in. Flowers and ruffles make it frilly and earn Amelia's approval-very important!

Like most things I make, it was a 'figure it out as you go.'  I love the end result and the girls did too, so much so that I had to make a couple more for them! (And how could I say no when Amelia said they give you the super power of growing a garden?)

A Very Merry Homemade Christmas:Sew With Me

As soon as Amelia was big enough to talk, if I was sitting at my sewing machine I would hear, "I sew with you?"

Much like anything else I do, she wanted to be a part of it. Not willing to risk little fingers getting poked or pinched I would hand her scraps of fabric to occupy her. As she's getting older she's not as easily entertained by mere fabric. She watches closely as I work on projects and mimics what I'm doing. When I saw her get a baby spoon out of the drawer to use as her needle I knew I needed to come up with something better for her.

This project was inspired by something I remember doing in grade school, sewing with laminated paper and yarn. I wanted something sturdier than paper so I opted for a piece of hardwood. Together with some yarn and yarn needles Amelia now has her own 'sewing kit.'

For this project you will need:
Saw
Drill
Sandpaper
Paint
Small detail paint brush
Spray laquer
Krazy glue
5 1/2" x 36" piece of hard wood
4 Wooden spools 1 3/16" x 5/16"
4 yarn pieces cut to 50"
4 Yarn needles
Optional: cute painted box with fabric modge podged into the top

Start by cutting the wood into four equal parts and sand the raw edgeds until smooth. Next draw your design onto a piece of paper and mark where your holes will be (I spaced mine 1" apart). Each piece of wood will need its own template.I did simple shapes for these using Micrsoft word.
Tape one template to a piece wood and using a drill with a size   drill bit, drill holes through paper and completely through the wood. Remove paper and sand any rough areas that may be around holes. Repeat with remaining pieces.
Using acrylic paint and a small paint brush number the holes as if it were a dot-to-dot puzzle, lable the shape and allow to dry completely.
Once dry, spray with a coat of laquer and allow to set the reccomended amount of time.
Next take a spool and use krazy glue to glue one end of one piece of yarn to the spool. Hold in place until set and allow to dry completely. On the other end of the yarn lace one yarn needle on, leaving a 1" tail. Using the glue again glue the tail back to the yarn, securing the needle onto the yarn. Once the gule is completely dry, wind the yarn around the spool and secure into place by tucking the needle into the yarn. Repeat with remianing spools.

Framed Number Party Decor

The big #3 birthday is quick approaching (as I am reminded daily by Amelia). Slowly but surely I am marking projects off the list in preparation. Since her age is her favorite topic and we are working on learning numbers right now, this seemed like an appropriate decor piece for the cake table.

The best part of this project is I made it using things I already had so it didn't cost me anything! I borrowed the frame (size 11x14) from the girls' room and used the remainder of the half yard of polka dot fabric that I also used for the drink toppers for the party as well as 1 1/2 yards of shimmery pink fabric I've been holding onto for some time now. Sharp scissors, a glue gun and a piece of cardstock and you're set to go!

To start I removed the back and the glass from the frame and stored the glass in a safe place. Using the polka dot fabric and glue gun I strecthed the fabric over the backing and glued the corners down on the back of the board. (I tested it out and if you use thick lines of glue from the gun they remove easily from the backer board as well as the fabric so after the party is over you can use it again for another project!)

Next I drew the number 3 onto the cardstock and cut it out. I wrote it in good ol' cheerleader-style bubble letter, slightly streched/thin looking, as it will fill out as you continue the project. (Clearly I was never a cheerleader because it wasn't pretty, but that's ok because it won't show)

Next cut the shimmery fabric into circles approximately 3" across. These do not need to be perfect so don't take too much time on them. I folded the fabric many times and cut cirlces from it that way.

Now begin placing the fabric pieces onto the cardstock. Using the glue gun and one circle at a time, place a dot of glue in the center of the circle, pinch it in half and roll it between your fingers, making it into a flower-like shape. Starting in the center of the number begin gluing them down close together, working out as you go. Once the cardstock is covered you may need to tack down some of the edge pieces to give the number a little better shape.

Using thick lines of glue from the glue gun, stick the number down centered on your fabric lined backer. Place back into the frame and it's ready to go!

Little Bo Peep and Her Sheep

Little Bo Peep lost her sheep and didn't know where to find her....

Just leave her alone and she will come home, bringing her tail behind her

I must say, I am quite pleased with the costumes I made for the girls this year for Halloween. Inspired in part by Amelia's obession with Toy Story 3 earlier this summer and by the classic nursery rhyme I came up with the idea of making Amelia a shepherdess and Marinn her sheep. As is apparent by Amelia's first two costumes(a baby bird and a pig), I love seeing babies dressed as animals. You can only get away with doing it for so long so I figured I needed to take advantage!

I made both cosutmes with no patterns, using their exsisting clothing as templates.  Bo Peep's outfit consists of a dress, pantaloons, and a bonnet (that were made by myself) as well as tights, boots, and a shepherds hook. I added the tutu I made for St. Patrick's Day to give the dress some volume. The sheep costume is a onesie style, fuzzy outfit that I made over top of black tights and a black shirt topped off with a headband complete with ears that I made from a pair or mens dress socks.

Marinn was less than pleased about painting her nose, but has done surprisingly well keeping her ears on. Amelia loves being Bo Peep and has been haming it up while in costume, eliciting many 'awes' over the pair.

Reusing Frappuccino Bottles

When I went to visit my mother in Texas over the summer I exploited my mother's guilty habit of consuming bottled frappuccinos and had her collect the empty bottles for me. I thought they would be good for drinks at the girls' birthday parties and rather easy to pretty up. With a little fabric and thread I whipped up these toppers to coordinate with Amelia's Ice Cream Shoppe party.

To begin I removed the labels from the bottle and washed it in hot soapy water and scrubbed the sticky off. (A little Bar Keeper's Friend help do the trick for the stubborn spots) Next I traced a circle roughly twice the size of the bottle lid onto fabric and cut them out. (One fat quarter made 12 toppers.) Using the sewing machine set on an overcast stitch I followed the perimeter, overlapping where they meet to ensure they wouldn't unravel. Taking one circle and a small rubber band (the kind made to go in littlekids' hair) to hold it in place, I put it on the bottle and marked where I wanted the straw to be. I cut a small circle out and using the same stitch I stitched the perimeter. Make sure the circle you cut isn't too large as it will get bigger after you stitch around it. All that's left is to fill the bottles with your drink, put your toppers on with the rubber band, and put a straw in!

 

I think these will be great for the spring and summer when the bugs fight you for your drink when you're outside.

Ice Cream Shoppe Birthday Invitation

Party planning/prepping for Amelia's third birthday is well underway in our house and this week Amelia got to deliver the invitations. (I really like hand delivering the invitaions, Amelia gets to participate and I don't have to spend a fortune on postage!) Needless to say, she is very excited and we will probably be talking about her party every day now until it comes!

The theme for her party is ice cream shoppe so we made up these inviations to ask her friends and family to join us to celebrate.

To make these I used blank cardstock cards (5"x7") with coordinating envelopes from Hobby Lobby and some scrapbook paper (8.5"x11). These items frequently go on sale for half price, making this project realtively inexpensive.

Using Word, I printed the front of the card reading: Amelia's Ice Cream Shoppe 2.5" from the top, to ensure it would show under the awning.
Next I cut a piece of the pink stripped scrapbook paper down to a 3"x5" rectangle, stripes running vertically.
Folding in 1/2" at the top and 1/2" at the bottom I created an awning.
Next I cut one edge to make it scalloped using a pair of scissors (they have fancy scissors that can do this for you if you don't wan to free hand.)
Using a glue stick, glue the non-scalloped fold to the top of the card, folded edge to the top. This will make the awning stick out.
To make the ice cream cone I used solid colored cardstock, cut to a triangle, and a brown marker to make the cross hatches.
I topped it with three scoops of ice cream (also using solid color cardstock) to represent Amelia turning three and used left over scrapbook paper to add a couple stripes across the bottom of the card.
For the interior I typed the party information into Word and printed them onto the stripped paper, four per page. Then all I had to do was cut them down and glue them into the card.

I'm trying something new with this invitation; using 'regregts only' rather than 'RSVP'. Perhaps this will allow people to feel more comfortable with declining the invitation and I will be able to get an accurate guest count? I guess we shall see!

Thread Storage

My dream space to work and create may still be in the distant future but the need to organize is long over due! Since the arrival of our second child I have decided that if I have any chance at taking advantage of the little time I get to sew that I had better get things in order.

I'm fairly new to sewing. I took a home economics class in eighth grade that touched on the subject briefly, but didn't even think about sewing again until I found out I was pregnant for the first time. (Looking at tiny homemade things when you're hormonal is dangerous!)  I got my sewing machine shortly after Amelia was born and slowly started accumulating things as I would work on projects. Now here we are two years later and my project list has grown and so has the mess of supplies you can find nesting in any free space in our home.

I saw the idea for this way of storing thread a while back and made a mental note that it needed to be on my to-do list. I love having things very organized and I also like things pretty so that I'm inspired to use them and this project happens to do both! (Sorry, there are no step-by-step photos. There were a lot of 'helping hands' with this project!)

no-sew tutu

A tutu has been on my project list for some time now and with St. Patrick's Day in our near future it seemed like it was time cross it off the list.
I've never been one to do much dressing up for the holiday however, I can't seem to resist dressing up my girls for any occasion! I have a feeling this will be worn long after the parade as well!

Materials:
Tulle (25 yds)
Elastic (or ribbon)
Needle (I know, I said 'no-sew,' but it's minimal and if you use ribbon it's not necessary)
Thread
Sharp scissors
Piece of cardboard (at least 6 in wide and the length of your desired skirt length)

This is a '2T' size and I used 24 inches of elastic (including the overlap) and made the skirt 10 inches long (which took the entire roll of tulle to complete the skirt.)