Simple Shirt Refashion - Dye and Gathers

I hope you all are having a wonderful week so far. My sister is in town from out of state and we had a big(ish) family dinner on Sunday with my parents and all their posterity. There's not a huge number of us yet, but the cousins had a great time playing together so there was a lot of commotion. It feels so good to be living near my family again.

I recently completed another shirt refashion from my stash. This is a shirt I picked up during my Macy's clearance rack raid I talked about in this post.

I loved the square neckline and embroidery, but not the white, especially with small children who love to grab me with messy hands. Also the flutter sleeves were not very flattering.

So I dyed it using Rit dye in purple. I used the stove top method, which was rather tiring because I had to stand there and stir the entire time (nearly 30 minutes). The shirt itself is cotton, so it took the dye well, but the embroidery and the thread used to sew the shirt together is synthetic so it did not take the dye at all. That was okay with me since I did want to keep the contrast of the embroidery.

Then, using elastic thread, I sewed all around the edge of the sleeve to make it a puff sleeve instead of a flutter sleeve. I thought I'd share a tip for using the elastic thread: tie it off so it doesn't pull out. [This may totally be a given that everyone knows already, but I haven't seen anyone else say it, so I thought I would just in case.]

Leave the beginning and end tails of the thread long (at least a few inches) so it's easier to work with.

Using a needle, bring the regular thread through to the side with the elastic thread.

Tie in a knot several times and trim excess short.

And now I have a shirt in my favorite color! Yay for purple!

Have any of you used dye for your projects?

Out on a Limb Tuesday -- Taking a Break

When I first started my own linky party, it was around the time when one of the most commonly used companies started charging for their services.  I thought there would be a decrease in those parties available, and for a time there was.  However, now it seems like there are more than enough parties and new ones are starting all the time. 

So I thought I would take a break from hosting the parties and focus on posting projects (I've got a few laying around I just haven't written posts for yet).  Also my days are much more full now that my son needs quite a bit of attention with his online home-based schooling. 

I will be starting up again some time in the future, although I don't know when at this point.  Thank you to everyone who has linked up and participated each week.  It was a lot of fun!

Strawberry Whole Wheat Cream Puff Cake / Pie / Tart

Recently, while browsing around some links at a linky party, I stumbled across this Strawberry Cream Puff Cake recipe, which the blogger got from Mel's Kitchen Cafe.  [They call it a cake, but to me it seems to be closer to a tart, but who cares anyway, right?!]  I absolutely adore strawberries... and cream puffs... so I had to try it.  Fortunately I had an excuse as we were invited to have dinner at a friend's house and she asked us to bring dessert. 

I altered the recipe a little to make it slightly more health-conscious (I love doing that to desserts!).  I used whole wheat pastry flour, raw honey* and stevia as sweeteners.  [Just an aside -- did you know sugar is so much more fattening than fat?  Very interesting, and true. *Update: originally I used agave in this recipe, but have since learned it is highly processed and contains more fructose (the component of sugar that makes it fattening and bad for your liver) than high-fructose corn syrup.]

In the original recipe it called for orange zest in the cream cheese mixture, but I didn't have any oranges so I just omitted it.  It also said to lightly grease the pan, which I did, then had a very difficult time getting the thing out in one piece.  So use more grease, or grease and flour.  Something like that.   But anyway it was a big hit.  Everyone loved it!  (I had fun taking pictures of it, too!)

Here is my version of the recipe:

Strawberry Whole Wheat Cream Puff Cake
adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

Cream Puff Base
5 Tablespoons butter
2/3 cup water
1/8 teaspoons stevia extract powder
2/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3 eggs

Cream Cheese Mixture
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup raw honey

Topping
2 cups sliced strawberries
1 teaspoon raw honey

For the cream puff layer, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  Bring the butter, water and sugar to a boil in a medium saucepan.  Add the flour all at once and stir quickly until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the pan.  Remove the pan from the heat and stir the mixture until smooth.  Let cool for 5 minutes.  Add the eggs one at a time and beat until the mixture is shiny with a satiny sheen.  Don't over beat.

Grease the bottom and sides of a 9-inch spring-form pan (or a 9-inch circle cake pan).  Spread the mixture on the bottom and one inch up the sides of the prepared pan.  Bake for 25 minutes.  Remove from the oven and prick with a toothpick 10-12 times.  Return to the oven and bake 5-10 more minutes until golden brown but not over baked.  Cool completely.

For the cream cheese mixture, beat the cream cheese until smooth.  Gradually add the honey until well blended.  Add the remaining ingredients and beat until stiff peaks form.  Spread onto the cooled cream puff shell.

Mix the sliced strawberries with the honey and place on top of the cream cheese mixture. 

I'll be linking up to these awesome parties:

Monday - Craft o Maniac Monday -- Craftastic Monday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party -- Making Monday Marvelous -- Tuesday - Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Take a Look Tuesday -- Show Me What Ya Got -- Tuesday Time Out -- Show and Tell at Blue Cricket -- Tutorial Tuesday -- Anti-Procrastination Tuesday -- Anything Related -- Wednesday - Seven Thrity Three -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Show Off Your Stuff -- Create and Share -- A Crafty Soiree -- Whatever Goes Wednesday -- We Did it Wednesday! -- Your Whims Wednesday -- Linkin’ with Lil’ Luna -- We Did it Wednesday -- Thursday - Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Transformation Thursday -- Thrilling Thursday -- House of Hepworths -- Chic and Crafty Thursday -- Friday - Remodelaholic Friday -- Flaunt it Friday -- Frugal Friday -- Weekend Wander -- Furniture Feature Friday -- Show and Share Day -- Fun with Food Friday -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Catch as Catch Can -- Friday Flair -- Feature Yourself Friday -- Fantabulous Friday -- Simply Link {Party} -- No Rules Link Party -- Pity Party -- Saturday - Let's Get Crafty Saturday -- Show and Tell Saturdays -- Saturday Spotlight -- Sunday - The DIY Showoff Project Parade -- Sunday Showcase Party -- Creative Bloggers Party -- I Heart Naptime -- Think Pink Sundays

Public School, Home School and Other Options

 
It's been a while since I've posted. Why? I've been dealing with school enrollment issues for my son.

He is supposed to start kindergarten this year. However, we didn't have everything together (as far as moving in to our apartment and getting bills sent to us, a working mail box, finding out about schools around us, etc) until the summer time. So when we finally decided we would enroll him in our neighborhood public school, which we've heard good things about, and went through the required TB testing, ordering of birth certificate, and so on, it was too late. The school was full, and actually had been full for a couple months. So they automatically enrolled him in the "overload" school, told me that's where he was going, gave me a form that talked about the uniform requirements and a form to sign to have him bussed there.

Whoa, hold on a minute! 

I knew nothing about this other school.  Except for the fact that it's downtown (which, for my city, is not necessarily a good place to be).  So I drove by to check it out.  Okay, so maybe I'm a little overprotective and slightly judgmental when it comes to the safety of my children, but still...  Yikes!  There were 12 foot high walls around the school (walls like that usually don't exist unless they are necessary for some reason), run-down unkempt houses on one side, and unoccupied graffiti-covered commercial buildings on two other sides.

I decided to not completely judge the school based on the surroundings and look up reviews online.  There were some rave reviews saying the school was wonderful and the teachers were great.  There were other saying their kids got picked on because they were smart, that there was an abundance of violence in the school yard, gangs in and around the school [Can you imagine... gangs... in an elementary school?!], and that the school promoted mediocrity.  Some websites that score schools mostly based on test scores (which I'm not sure if they're very relevant or not) gave the school a very low score (like 3 out of 10).    After learning everything I could about the school I had nearly completely decided I would not let my son attend kindergarten there.

So what other options do I have?

Before we had kids my husband and I had become acquainted with Waldorf Education, so when we moved we looked into what existed in our area.  We discovered there was a school about 30 minutes away and looked into the possibility of our son going there.  Well, unfortunately the full tuition cost is extremely high.  They do work with people somewhat, but since we could not afford any tuition at all (and we have a pretty simple lifestyle), it wasn't really an option for us.  (Nor was Montessori or any other kind of private school)

Another option is traditional home schooling.  I'm completely responsible for all curriculum, scheduling, activities, and tracking down other kids and people to interact with socially.  How overwhelming!  I have a great respect for mothers who do all that.  But for me, at this point in my life, I just have far too much on my plate to take that all on. 

Then, after a post about my frustration on Facebook, my sister mentioned an online public school option that is working well for her son.  What an interesting concept!  I had heard about the idea before (they call it home-based education), but only in passing and never really researched what it was or how it worked.  So I looked into the company she mentioned -- K12.  (This is not an ad for them, I just wanted to share what I found.)

K12 is nationwide and even have some international affiliates as well.  They help connect people with virtual schools in each state, and it's considered public (i.e. free), and they meet all state requirements and are accredited so if you decide to have your child go back to standard public school, everything transfers just fine.  All the lessons are planned out already (by a local teacher).  They have work sheets, books to read, music to listen to, art supplies, science experiments.  Everything is mailed to you, for free.  You can even register to borrow a computer and printer if you don't have one.  A teacher is assigned to your child and you can e-mail them at any time with questions or concerns.  Plus there are monthly field trips with other kids/families in your area (as well as social events, and parents can decide to get together as often as they want), a quarterly in-person meeting with the teacher, and the option to attend a weekly class (so your child can have a regular classroom experience.  Although locations are limited and the closest location to us is an hour away). 

I think this is just what we (my son and I both) need right now.  It's a good balance and compromise for us.  So I'm completing the enrollment process today and hope to be able to start school with Seymour on Monday!

I'll keep you all posted with our experience!

30 Second Belt Fix

I love the look of a skinny belt over a button-up shirt, or a shirt and light cardigan.  So I was excited when I found one during a trip to the thrift store, the same trip that I found this belt.  (Yes, it's been sitting around that long... which is why I'm on a project-acquisition fast.)  The problem was that it was too big, by about 6" or more.

Before

Then as I was about to walk out the door to church I decided I needed the belt to complete my outfit and just went for it. I put it on and marked where I would need to make a hole to fit just right and stabbed it with an awl. 

Stab

Then I cut off the excess with a rounded edge.

Cut

And it was done!

Done!

 Seriously it took 30 seconds.  I am so happy with it!

What kind of ultra fast projects have you done? 

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I'll be linking up to these fabulous link parties!

Monday - Craft o Maniac Monday -- Pink Hippo Party -- Craftastic Monday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party -- Making the World Cuter Monday -- Making Monday Marvelous -- Tuesday - Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Take a Look Tuesday -- Show Me What Ya Got -- Tuesday Time Out -- Show and Tell at Blue Cricket -- Tutorial Tuesday -- Anti-Procrastination Tuesday -- Anything Related -- Wednesday - Seven Thrity Three -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Show Off Your Stuff -- Create and Share -- A Crafty Soiree -- Whatever Goes Wednesday -- We Did it Wednesday! -- Your Whims Wednesday -- Linkin’ with Lil’ Luna -- We Did it Wednesday -- Passionately Artistic -- Thursday - Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Transformation Thursday -- Thrilling Thursday -- House of Hepworths -- Chic and Crafty Thursday -- Friday - Remodelaholic Friday -- Flaunt it Friday -- Frugal Friday -- Weekend Wander -- Furniture Feature Friday -- Show and Share Day -- Fun with Food Friday -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Catch as Catch Can -- Friday Flair -- Feature Yourself Friday -- Fantabulous Friday -- Simply Link {Party} -- No Rules Link Party -- Pity Party -- Saturday - Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special -- Let's Get Crafty Saturday -- Show and Tell Saturdays -- Saturday Spotlight -- Sunday - The DIY Showoff Project Parade -- Sunday Showcase Party -- Creative Bloggers Party -- I Heart Naptime -- Think Pink Sundays

Shutter Love - Bitter Faces

This week's theme for Shutter Love Tuesdays at The Trendy Treehouse is bitter faces.




It's such a fun theme, I'm looking forward to seeing all the entries.  My entry is another photo of my daughter.  My sister's family was in town for a visit and we all went to a park where I was taking family portraits for them.  It was after dinner and close to bed time for my kids and my daughter had had enough.  She has always been a very clear communicator, even before she could talk.  This look said "Put down the camera and pick me UP!"

Remember last time I posted the theme was hair? My photo of my daughter was chosen as the #1 winner!

Felt Star Wars Finger Puppets -- Darth Vader

On a recent trip to the library my son ran around collecting books.  One of the books he came up with was "The Star Wars Craft Book" by Bonnie Burton.  Perfect!  He loves Star Wars and I love crafting (I like Star Wars, too, I'm just not super intensely crazy about it like he is).

There are lots of fun craft projects and directions in it.  Just take a look at some of these:

Finger puppets

Ha ha, it's giant body pillow!

Wouldn't this make an awesome Christmas present?

It's a bird house.. hehehe

How cute is this?!

One project we chose to do together is making finger puppets with felt. (Thankfully I had all the materials in my stash!)

We gathered our supplies (ignore the large embroidery thread, I just ended up using regular sewing thread) and got started.

First I traced the basic finger puppet body template from the book. Then I used that as the basis for drawing the helmet and cape (there wasn't a template for those).

After cutting out the templates I outlined them on black felt using a white marking pencil (found in the notions departments of a fabric store), and cut out the pieces. You will need two body pieces, two helmet pieces and one cape.

I bent a pipe cleaner to fit the arms (slightly shorter) and hot glued it in place.

Then I sewed up the edges, leaving the bottom open.

I put just a little bit of stuffing inside the head and the cape was sewn on just at the shoulders.

I glued the helmet pieces in place and sewed around the outer edges, again leaving the bottom open. Then I cut out tiny pieces of felt for his front "control panel" (haha, I don't know what to call it!), the mouth piece of his helmet, his eyes (since we didn't have tiny black buttons) and glued them in place. This is where tweezers come in handy.

For the light saber (I only had white and green pipe cleaners, so my son chose white for Darth Vader) I cut a small rectangle of gray felt, hot glued the pipe cleaner to one end, rolled it up and hot glued the other end closed, then glued it to Darth Vader's "hand".

And here he is in all his dark glory.

We also made a Yoda finger puppet as the book had a template specific for it, although I actually had to alter the robe template because it didn't fit right over the body. It seems as though the people who made the book weren't too careful about testing the templates! And the scale was funky because the Yoda puppet was bigger than the Darth Vader puppet. Oh well.

But anyway, the kids loved them and they had a lot of fun playing with them and putting on a puppet show for me. Time well spent.

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I'll be linking up to these fabulous link parties!

Monday - Craft o Maniac Monday -- Craftastic Monday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party -- Making Monday Marvelous -- Tuesday - Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Take a Look Tuesday -- Show Me What Ya Got -- Tuesday Time Out -- Show and Tell at Blue Cricket -- Tutorial Tuesday -- Anti-Procrastination Tuesday -- Anything Related -- Wednesday - Seven Thrity Three -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Show Off Your Stuff -- Create and Share -- A Crafty Soiree -- Whatever Goes Wednesday -- We Did it Wednesday! -- Your Whims Wednesday -- Linkin’ with Lil’ Luna -- We Did it Wednesday -- Thursday - Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Transformation Thursday -- Thrilling Thursday -- House of Hepworths -- Chic and Crafty Thursday -- Friday - Remodelaholic Friday -- Flaunt it Friday -- Frugal Friday -- Weekend Wander -- Furniture Feature Friday -- Show and Share Day -- Fun with Food Friday -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Catch as Catch Can -- Friday Flair -- Feature Yourself Friday -- Fantabulous Friday -- Simply Link {Party} -- No Rules Link Party -- Pity Party -- Saturday - Let's Get Crafty Saturday -- Show and Tell Saturdays -- Saturday Spotlight -- Sunday - The DIY Showoff Project Parade -- Sunday Showcase Party -- Creative Bloggers Party -- I Heart Naptime -- Think Pink Sundays

Express Jeans -- Born to Rock the Sidewalk, Bred to be Epic -- And Giveaway

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Express. All opinions are 100% mine.

Who loves Express?  I do!  I love the brand as a whole, but especially their women's jeans.  There are so many options for color and cut (they have jean legging, skinny, straight, skycraper {to fit over tall heels}, barely boot, boot, and flare).  And did you know they're having a buy one get one 50% off sale?  Oh the possibilities!

I love seeing lots of white jeans during this time of year.  Paired with a light, airy top they say "summer" to me like nothing else. 

I always love the classic look of dark wash jeans, but I'm glad they are bringing back these:

Light wash, I have missed you!  Thank you Express!

And you can mix things up a bit with gray jeans.

Or you can go bold and daring with red jeans. 

There are so many choices with Express jeans. Also, now through August 28th they're having an Express giveaway!  You can enter every day for a chance to win a free pair of Express jeans, and you get an extra entry for each friend you tell about the giveaway who also enters. Sweet!

What style of jeans is your favorite?  What do you love about them?