Cat on a Limb

Project Recycled -- Week 2

2012-02-09T10:21:00.001-08:00

I forgot to post about round 2 of Project Recycled!

Click here and go vote for your favorite. (Should be open for voting through Friday)

Project Recycled -- First Round

2012-01-30T08:09:00.000-08:00

The first round of the competition is up over at T-Shirt Diaries! I can't tell you which one is mine, but if you have a minute or two, head on over, check it out and vote on your favorite.

Please click here go and vote for your favorite!

New Beginnings

2012-01-22T21:35:00.000-08:00

I have been absent from the blog world for a while. My life was turned upside down around New Years and it's taken me a while to get back on my feet and figure out what I need to do.

First, I've decided to go back to school. I got married and had children relatively early on in my life so I never finished college. Finances have determined that I need to get a job, yet without much education or experience, my options have been limited (as well as what those options pay!). I will be going to a community college and working towards an accounting certificate, then possibly an associates degree in accounting. Who knows where it will go from there. Looking through the course schedule I've also been tempted to dive into the world of food preparation/ restaurant management (I love food!) as one of my dreams is to make healthy, great tasting, convenience foods available to the general population. We'll see. I'll start with accounting since that has a good possibility of leading to a decent job in the shorter term.

I am definitely planning on keeping up with this blog, although I don't know how often I will have time to post. I still have lots of ideas, need to be creative, and want to share those ideas and creations with everyone here. So I'm not going anywhere. I just may be stretched extra thin for a while.

One thing I will be participating in is the first Project Recycled.

I am a contestant and will be re/up-cycling weekly until I'm voted off. :) It all starts Monday, January 30th. You can click on the button and it will take you to The T-Shirt Diaries where Robin is hosting the contest. There you will be able to vote (until Friday of each week) on the projects you like best. I'm excited!

Leather Obi Belt with 3D Flower

2011-12-11T21:56:00.001-08:00

When I was making the belt for my high school reunion outfit I was rushing that day to get it finished in time to wear to the reunion. It was a little rough so I wanted to give it another shot, this time with a bit of a variation (also made using pieces of a former leather jacket). I altered the pattern for the petals and made them into a 3D flower.

I started out by making the petals of the flower. I altered the original petal design to be wider so I could fold it over and glue (using E6000 -- I'm sure there's some sort of leather glue that would be better, but I just wanted to stick with what I had on hand this time).

I altered the direction of the fold so the petals wouldn't all be exactly the same. Hint: Only use a tiny bit of glue, using too much will interfere when sewing them on to the belt.

I clamped them and let them dry overnight. Bonus = I finally found a use for the cute, tiny clamps I picked up on impulse one day -- I'm glad I did, they were exactly what I needed!

I cut out the other pieces in the same way as the previous obi belt, except with wider ties and added seam allowance around the edges of the main belt pieces.

I sewed a triangle piece to each side of the rectangular piece, making sure right sides were together, opened the seam allowance on the back side, top stitched on either side of the seam and clipped some of the excess away at the edges.

I folded over 1/2" around the outer edges and top stitched.

When transitioning from the triangular to the rectangular piece there was some excess bunched up, so I cut a small slit, close to, but not touching the edge, overlapped the sides and sewed.

Then I sewed the ties to the ends of each triangular piece.

I arranged the petals for the flower and secured them with just a tiny dab of glue. I used a spice jar (the perfect size!) to hold them down until they dried.

After the glue was dry I sewed the inner corners of the petals onto the belt.

And I had my new belt!

I really love this version of the belt. I ended up breaking three leather needles making this one, but I think it was worth it!

------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Monday - Craft o Maniac Monday -- Craftastic Monday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Make it Great Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party -- Tuesday - Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Upcycled Awesome -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Tuesday Talent Show -- Wednesday - Seven Thrity Three -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Create and Share -- Whatever Goes Wednesday -- Linkin’ with Lil’ Luna -- Thursday - Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Transformation Thursday -- Thrilling Thursday -- House of Hepworths -- Friday - Remodelaholic Friday -- Flaunt it Friday -- Frugal Friday -- Weekend Wander -- Show and Share Day -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Catch as Catch Can -- Friday Flair -- Feature Yourself Friday -- Simply Link {Party} -- Pity Party -- Design Dazzle -- Saturday - Saturday Spotlight -- Sunday - The DIY Showoff Project Parade -- Sunday Showcase Party -- Creative Bloggers Party -- I Heart Naptime -- Think Pink Sundays

Suede Flower Leather Obi Belt Tutorial

2011-11-27T20:23:00.001-08:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday filled with gratitude, family, laughter and love! I know mine was. And now I'm fully embracing all the Christmas and holiday decorations, music, lights, projects, etc, etc. Bring it on! (Of course at the same time I'm kind of freaking out that I don't know what I'm going to do for gifts for everyone -- especially since our gift budget is basically non-existent. I think most are going to involve some stash-liquidation on my part!)

Today I also realized that I never posted about the dress and belt I made for my 10 year high school reunion. Here's the photo of the final product:

Today I'm going to share the tutorial for the leather and suede obi belt.

I started with a black leather jacket and a brown suede mini skirt I found at the thrift store on a 50% off day. (That's a great way to get leather at an affordable price, and reduce/reuse/recycle!) A while back I had cut out the lining, zippers, facings, etc and cut them into non-sewn-together pieces.

One of the things I love about leather is that it doesn't unravel or fray, so you can leave the edges raw. Of course folded and sewn edges have a more professional/finished look, but sometimes I'm just glad to be able to cut a corner here and there. :)

I started out by cutting the pieces using my quilting ruler and rotary cutter (I LOVE those things!).

Main rectangle: 5" wide x 17.5" long
(I'm tall and have a long torso, so I would suggest about 4" wide for a woman of average height. Also the length was my waist circumference in inches, divided by two, adding two inches, and adding one inch for seam allowance.)
Triangle pieces: 5" wide for 1/2", then down to a point x 12" long
(I just estimated this one, but it ended up being about 3/4 of half of my waist circumference, plus 1" for seam allowance.)
Ties: 3/8" wide x 20" and 18" long
(I totally estimated and just used the longest piece of leather I had. This is how long they ended up. One side is longer because the flower is slightly to the side and the straps tie at the center of the flower.)
Flower petals: I drew the shape of a flower petal and traced it with a fabric pencil onto the suede. I flipped the pattern over for a couple of the petals so they all would not be exactly the same shape. I cut them out on the inside of the pencil line so I wouldn't have to worry about trying to wash/rub it off.

Be sure to use leather needles. They are stronger and sharper than regular needles. I would also recommend using a thicker, stronger thread. It will help it all hold together well, and look better, too. If you have one, use a teflon or roller presser foot as well, since the suede side of leather tends to grip as it's going through the sewing machine and one of those feet will help it glide smoothly. (I didn't have one, but it still worked out pretty well, with some concerted effort.)

Start out by sewing the triangle pieces to the sides of the rectangle piece. Leather can't be pinned in the normal way, so I stuck pins straight in, inside the seam allowance (since once you put a hole in leather, even a tiny one, it won't go away).

After that, top stitch the seam on either side, both to give it a finished look and to lay the seam allowance down flat.

Then stitch all the way around the outer edge of the belt. For a more finished look you can simply fold over the edge and top stitch just like the other seam. Why didn't I do that? I have no idea... :) But if you do, be sure to add the extra width to the rectangle and triangle pieces to make sure your belt ends up the width that you want.

For the ties, trim the point off the triangle pieces to make it 3/8". Place the tie under the point, overlapping about 3/4" and sew it on by stitching back and forth several times in a straight line.

Visualize dividing the main rectangular part of the belt into thirds and place the flower petals on one of the dividing lines (so it's to one side, instead of in the middle). Glue them down with a small amount of glue (I used super glue since I needed something that would dry quickly) placed near the center of the petal, so the glue will not be in the way when you sew. (I took this photo prior to sewing, since I was testing out how it would look, and I wanted to remember the placement of the petals when it came time to sew them on)

Using a free-motion presser foot (so you can turn smoothly while sewing -- see below), sew the petals on by stitching along the inside of the edge for each one.

Source

And then you are done!

How to Cut a Pineapple for Maximum Usability

2011-11-16T01:23:00.001-08:00

Over the summer I went to visit my mom's church for a night of cooking / food prep tips from a professional caterer. One of the things she talked about was cutting a pineapple so you are able to use the maximum amount of the fruit. I thought it was a great idea and as a bonus it looks really cool.

Of course I had the idea to do a tutorial after I had already started. So pardon my hands in the photos while I "reconstruct" the pineapple for the sake of the tutorial. :)

Start with a ripe pineapple (not when they're green in the store, wait until they're a bit yellow).

Cut off the top. (I heard you can plant this,it will root and grow a new pineapple! [I love Pinterest])

Slice off the majority of the skin, but leave the little prickly dents.

Start slicing next to one of the dents, angling the knife underneath, and continue in a cork-screw fashion.

Slice on the other side of the dents, angling in towards the first cut, and remove the excess.

Continue until you have done this to the whole pineapple.

I just can't get over how awesome that looks!

At this point I cut the pineapple in vertical quarters and cut out the tough center.

I cut the quarters into spears and we ate it as is. You can cut it into smaller pieces for fresh eating, fruit salad, pizza, etc. Or make yourself a piña colada with fresh pineapple. Mmmm.

------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Monday - Craft o Maniac Monday -- Craftastic Monday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party -- Tuesday - Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Upcycled Awesome -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Tuesday Talent Show -- Wednesday - Seven Thrity Three -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Create and Share -- Whatever Goes Wednesday -- Linkin’ with Lil’ Luna -- Thursday - Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Transformation Thursday -- Thrilling Thursday -- House of Hepworths -- Friday - Remodelaholic Friday -- Flaunt it Friday -- Frugal Friday -- Weekend Wander -- Show and Share Day -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Catch as Catch Can -- Friday Flair -- Feature Yourself Friday -- Simply Link {Party} -- Pity Party -- Design Dazzle -- Saturday - Saturday Spotlight -- Sunday - The DIY Showoff Project Parade -- Sunday Showcase Party -- Creative Bloggers Party -- I Heart Naptime -- Think Pink Sundays

MIA

2011-11-13T19:30:00.001-08:00

Sorry I've been MIA for a while. I feel like I've been away for months. Probably because I haven't really been able to focus on my blog for some time now. My mind has been divided between my son's schooling, my daughter, our financial situation (not good), trying to find work, my husband wanting to start a family blog, starting said blog, and of course all the other everyday things.

I do have some projects that I haven't posted yet, which I hope to start posting tomorrow. I also am going to add some items to my shops, including kits for the silky fairy wings and the tree carving embroidery. I'll post an update as soon as I get those things up and running.

Thanks for being patient with me!

Tree Love Embroidery Pattern

2011-11-02T04:00:00.000-07:00

A little while ago my family and I were invited to attend the wedding reception for my cousin's daughter. The theme was country and their invitation stated "Cowboy boots encouraged". When thinking about gifts I knew I wanted to give them something special and unique and immediately this project I found on Pinterest came to mind:

I loved the idea of the adorable initials and heart "carved" into the tree and there's actually a link to the pattern for this one as well. You can click the photo to go to the pin, then click through to the website.

I wanted something just a little bit different, with a couple different colors, so I drew up this pattern:

You can download my pattern here -- Embroidery Pattern -- Alphabet Pattern

With a little bit of rustic-looking fabric and cotton embroidery thread I was able to complete the project in just a couple of hours. I found the perfect frame at a local arts/crafts shop and had my gift ready far in advance (unlike my last wedding gift!).

I traced the pattern onto the fabric using a water-soluble marker.

The stitches were very simple. I used a running stitch for the two colors in the tree.

And a backstitch for the heart, arrow, and initials.

When I was done with the stitching, I used a damp cloth to gently wipe/blot the ink off the fabric.

Here is the final result:

In a few days I'll have some kits available for purchase in my Etsy shop.

------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Monday - Craft o Maniac Monday -- Craftastic Monday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party -- Tuesday - Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Upcycled Awesome -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Tuesday Talent Show -- Wednesday - Seven Thrity Three -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Create and Share -- Whatever Goes Wednesday -- Linkin’ with Lil’ Luna -- Thursday - Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Transformation Thursday -- Thrilling Thursday -- House of Hepworths -- Friday - Remodelaholic Friday -- Flaunt it Friday -- Frugal Friday -- Weekend Wander -- Show and Share Day -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Catch as Catch Can -- Friday Flair -- Feature Yourself Friday -- Simply Link {Party} -- Pity Party -- Design Dazzle -- Saturday - Saturday Spotlight -- Sunday - The DIY Showoff Project Parade -- Sunday Showcase Party -- Creative Bloggers Party -- I Heart Naptime -- Think Pink Sundays

Halloween Wrap-up and Low-Key Grown-up Costumes

2011-11-01T17:54:00.000-07:00

How was everyone's Halloween? I hope you all had a fun, safe night! We had a great time going trick-or-treating with my brother and his family. My little super heroes were so excited and ready to go.

Here's how our whole family of costumes turned out: (Please pardon the extremely goofy/lame photo... I actually hesitated posting it, but I did want to show how the grown-up costumes turned out.)

Can you tell who I'm supposed to be? Here's another hint:

Know now? Hawk Woman! Well, actually it's Hawk Girl, but my kids thought I deserved the title of woman. :) And by the way, there is a serious lack of female superheroes. It seems like most of the women are on the villain side of things...

But anyway, we had a great time and I hope you all did too!

P.S. I love Halloween for the experience of dressing up and going trick-or-treating for the kids, but I do not enjoy the candy. It makes my kids even crazier than they are normally (even with just one piece per day) and it's very hard for me to resist as well. I'm very temped, especially after watching the video below, to just throw it all out. But the hard part is helping my kids to understand that just because something tastes good, doesn't mean they should eat it. And I would understand peoples' arguments when they say "It's just once a year", "Let them binge and throw the rest out", "Just be sure they brush their teeth well", etc, etc, IF it really was just once a year. But the problem is the Western culture has become so saturated with sugar. It's in everything and everyone has tons of sweets for every occasion, or just daily for no reason at all. That's a major problem for many reasons.

Here's the video that has changed my perspective about sugar in a lot of ways. There's a lot to the professor's lecture, but essentially he explains how sugar is just as toxic to our bodies (i.e. our livers) as alcohol is. It also explains how sugar, NOT fat, makes people fat. (The whole "low fat" craze is completely wrong). If you have the time to watch it's an amazing video!

Shabby Apple Winner

2011-10-24T20:47:00.000-07:00

We had such a busy weekend and I've been working on a project for my husband all day today, I almost forgot to post the winner of the Shabby Apple giveaway!

Thank you to everyone who entered. The winner is...

Congratulations Ginger!

I will be e-mailing you with the details.

Shabby Apple Giveaway

2011-10-17T16:13:00.000-07:00

If you "like" me on Facebook you may have seen the post I did saying I was contacted by a company asking if I wanted to do a giveaway. The company was Shabby Apple and I am beyond excited about having the opportunity to offer this giveaway!

Shabby Apple is known for their women's dresses that are both beautiful and wearable, like these...

There are beautiful bold jewel tone colors like fuschias, purples, emeralds, deep blues and of course the essential and ever sophisticated black. There are also bright, cheerful whites, yellows and pastels.

I love all their vintage inspired dresses as well as their fresh, modern looks.

Shabby Apple also has women's skirts,

jewelry and accessories,

little girls' dresses,

as well as maternity dresses, swimwear, fitness wear, aprons, even arts and crafts! You should go browse around their site and check out all the wonderful pretties available!

Now, I have a chance to offer one of you, my fabulous readers, this beautiful dress --

Spanish Steps Dress

The only catch is this is only open to U.S. residents and there are no exchanges. Comments will be open now through Friday night at 10 pm PST. Winner will be chosen and announced over the weekend.

To enter: (choose any or all methods, leave a comment for each)

1. Become a follower/subscriber of my blog (or let me know you already are).

2. "Like" Shabby Apple on Facebook. (You'll also get in on exclusive discounts and promotions)

3. Blog or Tweet or Facebook about the giveaway with a link back here. One per person.

But wait, there's more!

By using coupon code catonalimb10off from now through November 11, you can get 10% off your purchase! Sweet!

Homemade Silky Fairy Wings -- Christmas Gift Idea

2011-10-15T17:17:00.000-07:00

I've been having a bout of craft ADD lately. There have been so many projects that have popped up with higher priority while I've been in the middle of other projects, so I've had to stop one thing, change gears and complete another thing before going back to the first project. But I have been sewing up a storm lately and that feels good, plus I think they're all great projects so I'm extra excited about posting them all! (P.S. No offense intended to those who are affected by ADD for real.)

One of those urgent projects (well, two of them actually) were birthday presents for my son's friends who had a birthday today. They are twins, a boy and a girl. For a while I was feeling a little bad because our budget is tight and I wasn't sure what I was going to do for gifts. Then it dawned on me -- for the boy I would make a cape just like my son's Superman cape, and I would make wings for the girl. It was budget friendly and fairly simple to make... although for the wings I would have to make things up as I went along. Thankfully I figured it all out and now I can pass it on to you!

By the way, both these projects would work great for halloween costumes, dress ups or Christmas gifts. I think I'm going to make some for my young relatives.

For the cape I made one in the same way I made my son's Superman cape, except instead of Velcro tabs on the corners, I sewed on strips of fabric (mine were 27" x 3", with a 1/2" seam allowance on all sides) to make ties, and sewed them on like this:

This is the underside of the cape

Here's how it turned out (Seymour modeling):

The wings are a knock-off of a very awesome company -- I really hope they don't mind me saying this! -- Sarah's Silks. They make incredibly beautiful playsilks and silk dress-ups. They make real silk wings that are hand-dyed in gorgeous colors and patterns. If you have the money (they're $30) I would recommend buying them because they are well made by a great company. But I couldn't afford that much, or the shipping time, so I needed to make my own. Plus I thought the ribbon that had to be criss-crossed around and tied was a bit too much work from my experience with how often kids like to put things on and take them off again. I decided to use simple elastic as the way to keep them on the shoulders and wrists.

I started with about a yard of polyester chiffon. Since it was 60" wide I decided to cut it in half, as well as cut off the selvedges, so I ended up with a piece about 30" x 36". To "cut" the fabric and make sure there are right angles at the corners and it's not skewed in a funny way make a little cut at the right length, then rip it all the way down. There will be threads coming off, but just pull them off and you'll end up with a fairly clean, straight edge.

Chiffon tends to be fairly difficult to work with, whether polyester or silk, so when hemming all four edges to make clean finished seams I had to fold it over once, pin it, then fold it over again to make sure it wouldn't slip out.

Next I folded the shorter sides together so the longer side was divided in half, and marked -- with a water-soluble marker -- a line 5/8" away, parallel to the fold line. I went slow so it would soak through to the other side and I ended up with two lines 1 1/4" apart at the center of the rectangle of fabric.

Then I sewed a gathering stitch along both lines and set it aside. I cut a 25" long piece of 1 1/2" wide ribbon and sewed the ends with right sides together using a 1/2" seam allowance, then trimmed the corners of the seam allowance to make sure they don't stick out.

Also iron it so it is folded completely in half with the connecting seam at one end and a fold at the other. I slid the chiffon into the ribbon loop, evenly gathered the lines and sewed them into place on half of the ribbon. I left one half of the ribbon loose so I could stitch on the ribbon side and make it look nicer.

Next I cut a 32" piece of 1/4" elastic, overlapped the edges 1" and sewed it together (you can do this by hand or machine). I folded it into a loop and laid it on the back of the ribbon where I had sewed the chiffon, making sure the seam was within the edges of the ribbon. I stitched back and forth several times over the elastic.

I cut a 2" long piece of ribbon and pressed the raw edges under 1/2".

And sewed it into place over the top of the elastic, making sure not to sew into the loose side of the ribbon.

Then I sewed the loose side of the ribbon down.

For the wrists I cut a 3 1/2" piece of ribbon (one for each side), sewed a 1/2" seam, turned and pressed them.

I cut an 8 1/2" piece of 1/4" elastic, looped it through the ribbon, overlapped the edges 1" and sewed it together.

I moved the elastic so the seam was in between the ribbons and sewed them to the top corners of the wings.

After that Daisy had a great time modeling them for me.

------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Monday - Craft o Maniac Monday -- Craftastic Monday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party -- Tuesday - Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Upcycled Awesome -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Tuesday Talent Show -- Wednesday - Seven Thrity Three -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Create and Share -- Whatever Goes Wednesday -- Linkin’ with Lil’ Luna -- Thursday - Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Transformation Thursday -- Thrilling Thursday -- House of Hepworths -- Friday - Remodelaholic Friday -- Flaunt it Friday -- Frugal Friday -- Weekend Wander -- Show and Share Day -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Catch as Catch Can -- Friday Flair -- Feature Yourself Friday -- Simply Link {Party} -- Pity Party -- Design Dazzle -- Saturday - Saturday Spotlight -- Sunday - The DIY Showoff Project Parade -- Sunday Showcase Party -- Creative Bloggers Party -- I Heart Naptime -- Think Pink Sundays

Superhero Pants and Cape Tutorial

2011-10-13T17:02:00.000-07:00

At last! I can finally say I am totally, 100% done with my son's Superman costume. Now I just need to hide it away so it won't get trashed or lost before Halloween! That is, if there is ever a time when he's not wearing it...

Now I just have to finish my costume and make a new shirt for my daughter (she had a growth spurt and now it's too small!). Soon, very soon!

After that I can post about the dress and belt I made to wear to my 10 year high school reunion, which happened this past weekend. I had such a good time, it was awesome. I really liked how everything I made turned out, and think I looked pretty darn good.

So, back to the superheroes. One of you, my fabulous readers, asked for a tutorial on the pants, so I'll do that plus the cape since I had to make a new one anyway. Click here to go back to the tutorial for the logo t-shirts.

When looking at lots of superheroes I've discovered that most of them have the same style of pants, which makes this pattern very versatile since you just need to customize with your particular hero's colors.

For the pants I started with an existing pattern for a pair of pants in my son's size. I drew the shape of the contrasting colored brief and "boots" (just below knee level). My son was very insistent that he wanted the "pointy part in the front" on the boots, just like in his Superman coloring book.

I traced the shape of the brief on separate pieces of paper, without any seam allowance on the bottom where it transitions from the brief to the pant. Same thing with the boots, except no seam allowance on the top where it transitions from the boot to the pant.

You can either cut out a full pant and just lay the contrasting color pieces over the top and sew them on (I did that for the brief). Or you can just cut the part of the pant that shows, with seam allowance to overlap and sew together with the contrasting pieces, which is what I did for the boot area. [I really hope that sentence made sense to you!] Once I had the pieces cut out I laid the contrasting pieces on top of the pant and pinned it.

I also pinned a piece of tear-away stabilizer underneath and sewed an applique stitch over the edge of the contrasting pieces. NOTE: Be very careful about the direction of the "grainline" in the stabilizer. Make sure it is going in the same direction as the seam you need to sew. If it's going the opposite direction it will pull, stretch and pucker your seam when you try to tear it off.

Make sure it is going in the same direction as your seam and you'll end up with a nice finished look.

After I finished all those seams, sewed the front pants and back pants together at the center seam. Then I clipped the curves to make sure it fits well and doesn't pull.

Then I sewed the side seams and the inner leg seam.

I left the cuffs unfinished to make sure they were long enough, folded over the waistband, and stitched around it, leaving a space to insert the elastic. I inserted the elastic and finished the waistband in the same way that I did in this tutorial.

Now on to the cape! I started out with 1 1/2 yards of cotton broadcloth. I folded it in half with the selvedges on the top and bottom, then cut from 18" at the top to the corners at the bottom.

Of course after that I measured my son and discovered I needed to cut about 6" off of it (which I did at the top). Then I folded the edges over twice, to conceal the raw edge and keep it from fraying, on the sides and the top. The bottom was the selvedge so I just left it alone.

Then I measured on my son's shoulders to see what would be a good width of cape for him. In his case it was 12". Then I pleated the cape on one side to get it down to 6", then mirrored the same pleating to the other side. I didn't measure, but just played around with it until it was right and looked good.

[I apologize for the photos... I haven't quite figured out how to shoot red effectively!]

Next I added little squares of Velcro (okay, it was generic "hook and loop") to the corners of the cape, and the corresponding spots on the shirt. And then I could check one more thing off my never-ending list of things to make!

I cannot tell you how excited my son was to have another cape! He spent the next 30 minutes running up and down the hallway seeing how his cape would fly behind him as he ran. I think he likes it.

------------------------------------------------------------------
I'll be linking up to these fabulous link parties:

Monday - Craft o Maniac Monday -- Craftastic Monday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party -- Tuesday - Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Upcycled Awesome -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Tuesday Talent Show -- Wednesday - Seven Thrity Three -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Create and Share -- Whatever Goes Wednesday -- Linkin’ with Lil’ Luna -- Thursday - Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Transformation Thursday -- Thrilling Thursday -- House of Hepworths -- Friday - Remodelaholic Friday -- Flaunt it Friday -- Frugal Friday -- Weekend Wander -- Show and Share Day -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Catch as Catch Can -- Friday Flair -- Feature Yourself Friday -- Simply Link {Party} -- Pity Party -- Design Dazzle -- Saturday - Saturday Spotlight -- Sunday - The DIY Showoff Project Parade -- Sunday Showcase Party -- Creative Bloggers Party -- I Heart Naptime -- Think Pink Sundays

Pardon My Dust

2011-10-12T10:04:00.000-07:00

Please bear with me while I figure out why my web hosting company suddenly blocked access to the files I have hosted there (including background image, fonts, blog button and social media buttons).

Just wanted to let you know I'm still here and not going anywhere... except for maybe changing hosting companies!

Buttery Flavored Popcorn Without Butter

2011-10-05T18:16:00.000-07:00

The past couple days here have been rainy and cold. When I was growing up my mom would make popcorn each time it rained and I want to keep the tradition going with my kids.

I also love popcorn, especially buttery, salty popcorn. However I don't always like using so much butter on my popcorn (or using the artificially flavored microwave stuff). So the last time I made popcorn I tried something different. I decided to try using coconut oil instead of butter and to my surprise the result tasted like buttered popcorn! Great! Coconut oil is a much healthier fat than butter (although I still use it often).

Here is what I used:

Organic popcorn purchased in bulk from my local health food store, Dr. Bronner's coconut oil (whole and unrefined), and Real Salt (a sea salt naturally containing minerals).

The popcorn popper I used is the one pictured below, but you can use an air popper or even just a plain brown lunch bag with popcorn kernels in it for the microwave like in this tutorial.

After the popcorn was popped I drizzled it with coconut oil (you may need to melt it, but mine was already liquid), stirred it with a butter knife (great when you have a very full bowl and don't want it to spill out), drizzled, stirred and drizzled and stirred again. I didn't measure though. Then I sprinkled with sea salt, stirred, sprinkled and stirred again.

I was so happy with the result! The kids and I shared it while snuggling under warm blankets and watching a movie.

------------------------------------------------------------------
I'll be linking up to these fabulous link parties:

Monday - Craft o Maniac Monday -- Craftastic Monday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party -- Tuesday - Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Upcycled Awesome -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Tuesday Talent Show -- Wednesday - Seven Thrity Three -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Create and Share -- Whatever Goes Wednesday -- Linkin’ with Lil’ Luna -- Thursday - Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Transformation Thursday -- Thrilling Thursday -- House of Hepworths -- Friday - Remodelaholic Friday -- Flaunt it Friday -- Frugal Friday -- Weekend Wander -- Show and Share Day -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Catch as Catch Can -- Friday Flair -- Feature Yourself Friday -- Simply Link {Party} -- Pity Party -- Design Dazzle -- Saturday - Saturday Spotlight -- Sunday - The DIY Showoff Project Parade -- Sunday Showcase Party -- Creative Bloggers Party -- I Heart Naptime -- Think Pink Sundays

Trash to Tool Caddy - Using a Six Pack Carrier

2011-09-29T17:00:00.000-07:00

Recently my family and I picked up some Japanese take-out. They sent home our miso soup in a six pack carrier (way to reduce/reuse guys!).

After dinner I got to thinking that I could just cover it with some pretty paper and make something useful out of it. So I did just that.

I started by taping the carrier so it wouldn't fold up, then cut out a piece of paper big enough to wrap around the carrier, leaving a little extra at the top and bottom edge. Then I broke out my trusty Paper Mod Podge and, using a foam brush, glued the paper to the carrier.

Then I folded the edges over at the top and bottom. I cut out two pieces of paper for the handle area, gluing one at a time and folding them through the middle to the other side.

I also covered all the raw edges on the top and sides of the handle with paper. I held up a piece of cardstock to where I wanted it to cover the handle and traced the shape. Then I cut out the handle and traced a second piece (one for each side).

I measured the height, width and depth of the inside sections, cut out pieces of cardstock, and scored them (by running the cutting blade very lightly over the cardstock) to make them easier to fold accurately.

I glued on the cardstock pieces for the handle then inserted the rectangular pieces into the carrier (in a triangular shape to make them easier to get in), opened them out and glued the sides together.

I ended up with this:

From trash to treasure! I seriously love it.

------------------------------------------------------------------
I'll be linking up to these fabulous link parties:

Monday - Craft o Maniac Monday -- Craftastic Monday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party -- Tuesday - Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Upcycled Awesome -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Tuesday Talent Show -- Wednesday - Seven Thrity Three -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Create and Share -- Whatever Goes Wednesday -- Linkin’ with Lil’ Luna -- Thursday - Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Transformation Thursday -- Thrilling Thursday -- House of Hepworths -- Friday - Remodelaholic Friday -- Flaunt it Friday -- Frugal Friday -- Weekend Wander -- Show and Share Day -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Catch as Catch Can -- Friday Flair -- Feature Yourself Friday -- Simply Link {Party} -- Pity Party -- Design Dazzle -- Saturday - Saturday Spotlight -- Sunday - The DIY Showoff Project Parade -- Sunday Showcase Party -- Creative Bloggers Party -- I Heart Naptime -- Think Pink Sundays

T-Shirt Superheroes -- Part 2, The Kids' Costumes

2011-09-22T22:52:00.000-07:00

I finally finished the kids costumes!

(Well, pretty much... grr..)

There were definitely a few hang-ups along the way. Just having so many steps to the process and making two costumes at the same time, plus having to continue life as normal made it take a very long time. BUT it's over now. So I can heave a big sigh of relief. Now I just hope they can stay ~~intact~~ nice through Halloween!

Here they are:

The only thing I have left to do is make another cape for my son. Why? Oh, because an adult in my household who shall remain nameless (not me) lost it at the park. Need help visualizing it with the cape?

Here you go:

Hahaha

One of the best things about making things for your kids is how they [usually] completely and utterly enthusiastically LOVE what you've made for them.

For the costumes I used t-shirts, thread, interfacing, stabilizer, fabric glue and puff paint. I was thinking of writing out full tutorials for each of the costumes but at this time of night I just wanted to get the post up to feel like I had actually completed the project! But be sure to let me know if you're interested in a tutorial, either full or for a certain part.

Next up part 3 -- The low-key grownups' costumes
or
Back to part 1 -- Superhero t-shirts using applique and reverse applique

------------------------------------------------------------------
I'll be linking up to these fabulous link parties:

Monday - Craft o Maniac Monday -- Craftastic Monday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party -- Tuesday - Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Tuesday Talent Show -- Wednesday - Seven Thrity Three -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Create and Share -- Whatever Goes Wednesday -- Linkin’ with Lil’ Luna -- Thursday - Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Transformation Thursday -- Thrilling Thursday -- House of Hepworths -- Friday - Remodelaholic Friday -- Flaunt it Friday -- Frugal Friday -- Weekend Wander -- Show and Share Day -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Catch as Catch Can -- Friday Flair -- Feature Yourself Friday -- Simply Link {Party} -- Pity Party -- Design Dazzle -- Saturday - Saturday Spotlight -- Sunday - The DIY Showoff Project Parade -- Sunday Showcase Party -- Creative Bloggers Party -- I Heart Naptime -- Think Pink Sundays

Quick House Cleaning Tip and School Update

2011-09-17T22:10:00.000-07:00

This post is kind of random, but I just wanted to get something up since it's been a while. (I'm almost done with the t-shirt costumes!)

One of the best house cleaning tips I have ever received was to focus on one area in the house at a time. Countless times I have found myself picking up a couple of things, immediately taking them to the other room where they belong, putting them away and repeating that over and over again without making much progress in the area I was trying to clean. But using a bunch of bins / baskets / bags to place items that don't belong makes cleaning up one area a whole lot faster!

I [had -- before we moved] a bunch of plastic bins, one for each room in our house. I would go to an area (usually the living room) and place items that belonged in different rooms in their own bin.

It really helped me clear the area quickly so I could do the vacuuming, dusting, straightening, etc that I needed to do. After that I would have the kids take their things to their room, and I would take the other items to their respective rooms and put them away.

It's such a simple thing but it has really made a big difference to me, especially with small children who often leave their things strewn all over the place!

And now for a quick school update -- We were on the waiting list for our neighborhood school, and because they had fewer students in a higher grade, they had an extra teacher and ended up adding a whole new kindergarten class. So, my son is now going to that school!

I was really enjoying doing the K12 method (it's so fun when they send all the books and materials and supplies for all the standard subjects including art, science and music). But it was difficult to keep my son interested for long. After the first week he was getting comfortable and not giving it the same attention he did at the beginning. It was also a challenge with my daughter, being smaller, needing so much attention and care (i.e. diapers/toilet training, frequent snacks, water, cuddling, anything).

So we were excited when we were notified that he got in this year. Although it is bittersweet since I'm still a little apprehensive about how he will behave in school (so far so good, mostly), what his teachers will be like, and how the school functions. I'm not totally convinced standard public school is the best thing for children, but I think it's what my son and I both need right now. He needs the social interaction and the reminder that he does actually have to follow some rules (he doesn't like mine), and I need the time apart so I can have some one-on-one time with my daughter, miss my son and learn to appreciate him more.

Here's to a great year!

Superhero T-Shirt Costumes Using Applique and Reverse Applique -- Part 1

2011-09-07T04:00:00.000-07:00

My son has had a pair of Superman pajamas since he was 3 years old. [These are the same Superman pjs I mentioned in this post about his knight costume last Halloween] They're a size 4T, so he has worn them even past his 5th birthday. But the fact that they are now just too small and my son wanting to wear the shirt every single day led me to decide to make a new Superman shirt, but more durable than the printed version he had before (that was cracking and peeling off, yuck!).

My kids happen to be on a superhero kick, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to get a head start on Halloween costumes for this year. Also adding to the timeliness of the project was Michael's (arts/crafts store) having a 2 for $5 sale on their blank t-shirts. (This was back in July so I'm not violating my Stash-busting September pact, and I gave myself a little loophole in my project-acquisition fast to allow for a project here and there for the kids... don't hate!) So I picked up a bunch of shirts with plans to transform them into something my kids will LOVE (and hopefully will last for a couple years at least!) plus a shirt for my husband. My son will be Superman, my daughter Wonder Woman, and my husband Batman. Me? I don't know yet... I will rant about the lack of female superheroes later on.

Note: I apologize for the lack of photo quality below... but I hope you can follow the idea.

I started by pre-washing all the shirts. I cannot stress enough how important this step is! Things get really messed up when different parts of clothing shrink different amounts, or at all (like in the case of embroidery and appliques). Just launder them as you will launder the finished project.

Then for my daughter's Wonder Woman shirt I had to alter a child's small shirt to make it even smaller ('cause size small is meant for kids 6-8 years old). I traced a shirt that fit her well (use a non-stretchy shirt because even though these t-shirts are knit, they do not stretch much at all!), added 1/2" seam allowance, folded it over and cut it down to size.

Then I cut the sleeves off the original t-shirt and cut them shorter.

I don't have photos for the next steps but I sewed up the side seams, sewed the hem of the sleeves using elastic thread to make them gathered, then gathered the top of the sleeve and sewed it into the new smaller shirt.

For the logos I decided to use applique and reverse applique techniques. The Batman and Superman logos each have two layers while Wonder Woman has one layer. I went around online and found logos for the different characters. I re-sized them in Photoshop and printed them out. I first cut along the outside shape of the logo. I used that as a template to trace the shape onto the fabric for both the upper and lower layers of the logos. For the lower layer I also cut a layer of fusible interfacing and ironed it on.

Then using an Exact-o knife I cut out the center part of the logo and traced it on to the upper layer.

I placed both layers centered on the shirt along with a layer of tear-away interfacing underneath for extra stability while sewing and pinned it all down. (Looking back, I would rather use soluble interfacing so the added bulk will be gone after you wash it or soak it in water.)

Then I sewed an applique stitch (wide width and very short length) on the outermost outline of the logo. That will help keep everything flat and in place when sewing the inner lines.

Here's a quick visual with the tear-away stabilizer. It actually has a grainline like paper does, so it tears straighter in one direction than the other.

When I sewed the inner lines I went very slowly (and I still made mistakes! grr). I suggest you go slowly and at the corners, lift the presser foot and reposition in the new direction so you don't end up with a curve when you need a sharp corner. When you're done, carefully lift up the top layer of a part that needs to have the lower layer showing through and make a small cut in the middle of the fabric.

Then using sharp (clean!) nail scissors, cut away the upper layer, getting as close to the stitching as you can without actually cutting the stitches.

Continue with all the parts that need to have the lower layer showing through and you have a completed logo!

And in my case, one happy little boy.

Come back soon for part 2 -- the whole costume, where I will make the rest of the costume out of little more than t-shirts! :) This should be fun.

P.S. As I was writing this post my son came in with a suggestion for my character. I got a great costume idea to go with it. Hooray for spontaneous inspiration!

------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Monday - Craft o Maniac Monday -- Craftastic Monday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party -- Tuesday - Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Tuesday Talent Show -- Wednesday - Seven Thrity Three -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Create and Share -- Whatever Goes Wednesday -- Linkin’ with Lil’ Luna -- Thursday - Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Transformation Thursday -- Thrilling Thursday -- House of Hepworths -- Friday - Remodelaholic Friday -- Flaunt it Friday -- Frugal Friday -- Weekend Wander -- Show and Share Day -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Catch as Catch Can -- Friday Flair -- Feature Yourself Friday -- Simply Link {Party} -- Pity Party -- Design Dazzle -- Saturday - Saturday Spotlight -- Sunday - The DIY Showoff Project Parade -- Sunday Showcase Party -- Creative Bloggers Party -- I Heart Naptime -- Think Pink Sundays

Stash-Busting September

2011-09-06T13:51:00.000-07:00

This month I'm participating in T-Shirt Diaries' "Stashbusting September". All the bloggers taking part are agreeing to not buy any craft supplies for the whole month of September and only use what we have on hand. Things for businesses are permitted, but not for personal use.

Since it's already going along with my project-acquisition fast I figured I would participate in this as well. Maybe it will help me stick with it -- I've been tempted for sure!

Stick with me and we'll see what all I can accomplish!

Fresh Tomatoes with Dill on Whole Wheat Bread

2011-09-03T21:36:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite parts of late summer is the abundance of fresh tomatoes. While at a farmer's market (one of many in our area) we picked up some tomatoes from a couple of young farmers.

I love using the tomatoes in a way that makes them the center of attention in a meal. Here's one simple and delicious way of doing just that:

Fresh Tomatoes with Dill on Whole Wheat Bread
from catonalimb.blogspot.com

100% whole wheat bread, sliced
mayonnaise or Veganaise
fresh tomatoes, sliced
dried dill
sea salt

Start with a good loaf of 100% whole wheat bread (from a local bakery if possible). Toast the bread just enough so that it is slightly crispy on the outside but still soft on the inside. Let it cool for about a minute then spread generously with the mayonnaise or Veganaise. Lay the sliced tomatoes on top. Sprinkle with dill and sea salt. Sit back and enjoy the abundance of summer!

I'll be linking up to:
Sunday Showcase Party -- Tuesday Talent Show

Simple Shirt Refashion - Dye and Gathers

2011-08-24T06:07:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-23T01:52:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-20T01:04:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-19T12:33:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-12T01:19:00.000-07:00

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?

-----------------------------
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

2011-08-10T13:14:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-06T14:20:00.000-07:00

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.

-----------------------------
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

2011-08-03T07:01:00.001-07:00

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?

Jewelry Box to Fancy Pincushion

2011-07-26T19:25:00.000-07:00

Several months back I went on a little thrifting spree and picked up lots of little things to refinish/repurpose. One of those things was a cracked little metal jewelry box with a broken lid (for $1.00). I think I remember having one just like it when I was a little girl. I quickly fell in love with the tiny Queen Anne style legs and swirly flourishes on the sides.

I didn't care for the lid, and it was half dented anyway. Luckily it was broken clean off with no jagged edges, so I just discarded it.

At first I was thinking of painting the box and using it as a dish to store quarters for laundry. (Might as well have something that makes you happy every time you reach for more, and more, and more quarters to do laundry, right?) Then I had a different idea.

I pulled out the E6000 (for the first time ever, can you believe it?), glued the crack and clamped it in place overnight. Painted and sealed it, then made a little densely-packed pillow (made with a fat quarter and poly fil) to stuff inside.

Voila! I have a fancy new pincushion! (For a total cost of $2.50)

Not much evidence of the crack!

-------------------------------------
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 - Hair

2011-07-25T23:47:00.000-07:00

I've decided to participate in this week's Shutter Love Tuesdays at The Trendy Treehouse. This week's theme is hair.

One of my first thoughts when I hear the word "hair" is my daughter's curls. They make me melt. Every day. She loves her hair, too. She loves to touch it and twirl it around her finger.

Raising a Boy is Difficult

2011-07-25T13:27:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I think, would it really be that bad if I donated him to the zoo...at least for a little while?

I had this cane-back chair I was planning on painting and reupholstering (I found for $5 at a yard sale). It was great. I loved the curve and the cane was in perfect condition (which is rare!).

Well, today my son did this:

With one swoop of a tape measure. Sometimes I am dumbfounded by the level of destruction that this child can inflict on innocent belongings. He just runs and jumps around the apartment hitting, ripping, banging, stabbing, etc, etc.

We need to move to a house with a yard. Stat.

I'm still going to keep it and refinish it... It is just going to take a whole lot more work than previously planned!

Mourning for Norway

2011-07-23T12:35:00.000-07:00

I was very shocked and saddened by the news I heard this morning about Norway, a major part of my heritage. My heart aches and mourns for all those lost and affected by the attacks.

Dream Bubble Pillowcases - Cute Wedding Gift Idea and Tutorial

2011-07-21T04:30:00.000-07:00

My cousin's daughter was getting married and I knew I wanted to make something. Usually I'm a stickler about keeping to the registry (since there's a good reason those things exist!) but I wanted to give them a little something interesting and unique. Besides, by the time I got around to ordering a gift I realized it wouldn't arrive in time for the wedding. Oops!

So I turned to my newly-discovered provider of ideas wonderful, unique and fabulous -- Pinterest. I did a quick search for "wedding gift" and ran across lots of great ideas. Including this one:

I thought it was rather adorable and knowing the happy couple is very fun-loving I decided it would be perfect.

So I headed on down to my local Bed Bath and Beyond to pick up some plain white pillowcases. ... I was blown away by the prices! Holy cow! Who pays $60 for two pillowcases?! Yeah, so they're 750 thread count, so what? I just need something basic. The most basic they had was 200 thread count for $15. I still think that's a bit much. Unless, of course, they are sewn in the USA with fair wages and decent working conditions... which I doubt. (But that's a rant for a different time and place) I picked them up anyway because I didn't have time to go anywhere else.

I pre-washed them so it wouldn't cause any problems if it shrank after painting. I'm not sure if that step was necessary, but I've seen far too many things bunch up in strange ways because they were not pre-shrunk.

Using a water-erasable marker (found in the sewing notions department of a fabric/craft store) I drew a cloud and circle shapes. If you don't get it right the first time, just redraw until you do.

If you want to you can erase the lines you won't use prior to painting, but you MUST be sure it is completely dry before painting. I'll show you what happens if you don't later.

I used this textile paint:

Using a foam brush (to better achieve a sharp edge) I painted around my outline.

At one point I messed up and smeared some of the paint. So I tried wiping it off with a damp cloth. It worked well enough that I could just paint over the worst part of it, so I did. BUT I didn't let it dry completely beforehand, so when I painted over it the paint bled.

Noooooo!

So if you need to correct mistakes or erase guide lines, make sure it is totally, completely, 100% dry before you continue painting! Unless you want the paint to bleed... which could be cool, too, depending on what kind of effect you're going for.

So even though it was a little bit of a fail (including the fact I think I should have placed the circles a little lower to have them point to the cloud in a different place), but I still like the idea and thought it turned out pretty well. At least it was only intended to be a stand-in gift until I sent them something from their registry.

P.S. Did you know Amazon has wedding registry now? Man! I wish they had that when I got married!

------------------------------

I'll be linking up to the wonderful parties listed below!

Monday - Craft o Maniac Monday -- Pink Hippo Party -- Craft Catwalk -- 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 -- Saturday is Crafty Day -- 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

New Blog Look

2011-07-20T16:00:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to do a quick post to let everyone know about my blog's new look. Come check it out if you're in a reader. I wanted something a little more cool and summery. The drawing of the woman is by Alphonse Mucha, an artist whose most famous work is from the art nouveau period. The poppies in my banner and buttons were drawn by me.

Oh and if you had my button before there's no need to grab the new one, it changed automatically.

Let me know what you think of the new look!

Flower Arranging, Three Ways - Part 3

2011-07-20T04:30:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the third and final installment of the floral design series.

This time I used a metal container (the seams had been sealed so it wouldn't leak) and fresh flower floral foam.

When buying the floral foam make sure you get the kind intended for fresh flowers. There is dry foam that looks similar but won't hold water. I started by cutting it to fit the container. You don't want to push it in because it will compress the foam too much and it won't hold water as well.

Next I filled a container with enough water so that it's deeper than the foam is tall and placed the foam on the surface.

Let it soak up the water by itself. If you push on the foam it will end up with dry pockets inside.

I placed inside the container, secured with waterproof floral tape, and filled with extra water.

I like to lay out all the flowers and see what I have to work with.

I started by adding greenery to the foam in a soft triangle shape with the tallest part in the back half of the container. Remember to cut the stems at angles and remove any leaves from the stem that will be inside the foam.

I happened to have some bear grass in this bunch of flowers so I added that after the main greenery.

Now, at this point I accidentally switched to auto pilot and completed the whole arrangement without taking any more step-by-step photos. Doh! So I apologize for the following few photos and hope you get the idea.

After the greenery I placed the bigger flowers that would be the main focus of the arrangement. The most visual weight should be at the bottom in the front, close to the rim of the container. From there the flowers should be spaced out in various directions, at varying heights, leading your eye to travel around the arrangement. The flowers can also be facing different directions; they don't all need to be facing the front.

Next I placed the tall linear flowers towards the top of the arrangement creating height, and a couple of Queen Anne's Lace to fill out the sides.

Side View

Finally I took the daisy mums (Chrysanthemums) and filled in the gaps all the way around, front and back. The arrangement doesn't need to be densely packed, but you do want to conceal the foam and tape.

And there you have it!

Back View

Part 1 - a simple arrangement in a low glass vase
Part 2 - arranging with a tall glass vase

------------------------------

I'll be linking up to the wonderful parties listed below!

Monday - Craft o Maniac Monday -- Pink Hippo Party -- Craft Catwalk -- 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 -- Saturday is Crafty Day -- 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

Out on a Limb No. 10

2011-07-19T13:39:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everyone who linked up to the party last week. Here's a few of the projects:

Esther at Fleur Cottage had patience with some hydrangea plants that paid off in a beautiful way

Rach at Family Ever After made some delicious strawberry freezer jam

and Darcy at Smart-Bottom Enterprises made a fabulous 6 layer rainbow cake

Be sure to grab a featured button from my sidebar!

Now for this week!

Come link up any creative projects from your blog. The linky will remain open until Saturday night. (Please keep it family friendly).

**Please grab the button (or use a text link) and put it anywhere on your blog (your post, sidebar or party page).** I would like to get more participation and be able to help promote fellow bloggers!

Attention Bloggers who use Google+

2011-07-18T12:17:00.000-07:00

More people are joining Google+ all the time and it's quickly becoming part of everyday interactions. However, there is one issue I have just become acutely aware of in regards to all the different companies Google owns and how they are all connected.

Did you know when you upload pictures to your blog, using Blogger to upload, they are placed in a Picasa album. Even if you never signed up for Picasa on your own, an account gets opened for you and attached to your Blogger account.

Then, when you sign up for Google+ you have to give Google+ permission to link your Picasa account. If you don't want to give permission, you don't get to sign up for Google+. Once you do sign up, all your Picasa albums appear in the albums section of your Google+ account. Well, changes made through your Google+ account end up changing everything else along the way: Picasa albums and Blogger images. So if you happen to not understand this connection and delete random old images that appear in Google+ that you don't want to be there (which I, along with quite a few other people, did), they will be deleted from your blog. Just to let you know.

I live near Google. Anyone want to go over there with me and kick someone in the head?

P.S. Recently I have been using a Flikr account to host my images and using the html code to place them in my blog posts. So thankfully all those images remained. Only the ones I uploaded directly through Blogger disappeared. It will take quite a while to go back and replace all the images!

Flower Arranging, Three Ways - Part 2

2011-07-13T07:32:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone is having a great week so far! The kids and I have been enjoying going to the park daily in perfect mid-70's weather.

Today I'm following up my first floral design post with part 2 - arranging in a tall glass vase.

Often flowers come semi-arranged in a plastic sleeve like this:

If you just open it up and stick the bunch in a vase it looks like this:

Of course it would be better if you cut the stems shorter, but I like to separate the flowers (to see exactly what I have to work with) and start fresh.

If your flowers come with a packet of flower food, begin by filling the vase with water, adding the powder and stirring until it is dissolved. (I like to use a conveniently provided stir stick aka flower stem.) It will clear up in a few minutes.

I usually start the arrangement with the greenery, but these bunches didn't have any so I used the flowers that were not the main flowers. Hold the flower up to the vase to estimate how much you need the cut off to get it at the height you want.

Cut the stem at an angle, above or below, but not on, where the leaves grow out and remove the leaves that would be below the water line. Leaves decay quickly in water and will shorten the lifespan of your flowers.

Repeat this process and crisscross the stems as you add them to the vase. This will allow you to stand some of them up straight as well. Vary the heights of the flowers and create an overall round shape to the arrangement.

When you have flowers like roses, take a look at them before you add them to the arrangement. Often times the outer-most petals will be damaged or shriveled.

To remedy this gently grasp the petal at the base where it attaches to the flower and pull it off.

Add the main flowers, crisscrossing the stems and varying the height to continue the rounded shape of the arrangement.

Space them out somewhat evenly as you continue to add flowers.

Add the remainder of the main flowers and fill in the gaps with "filler flowers" (usually stems with lots of tiny flowers on them) if you have them to complete the bouquet!

Come back next time for part 3!

Part 1 - a simple arrangement in a low glass vase
Part 3 - a one-sided arrangement using floral foam

------------------------------

I'll be linking up to the wonderful parties listed below!

Monday - Craft o Maniac Monday -- Pink Hippo Party -- Craft Catwalk -- 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 -- Saturday is Crafty Day -- 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

Out on a Limb No. 9 plus Features

2011-07-12T13:30:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everyone who linked up to the party last week! We had lots of great projects. Here's a few of them:

Sharon at Sweet Pea and Pumpkins made some yummy letter-shaped donuts

Gillian at The Lackadaisical Willow crocheted an absolutely adorable fox beanie

Emily at Nest Nesting Nested created a beautiful lampshade with vintage lace

and Chantelle at Thousand Square Feet sewed up a fun apron using brightly colored fabric

Be sure to grab a featured button from my sidebar! (Sorry, I didn't realize it wasn't there before!)

Now for this week!

Come link up any creative projects from your blog. The linky will remain open until Saturday night. (Please keep it family friendly).

**Please grab the button (or use a text link) and put it anywhere on your blog (your post, sidebar or party page).** I would like to get more participation and be able to help promote fellow bloggers!

Flower Arranging, Three Ways - Part 1

2011-07-10T00:10:00.000-07:00

Most of the time when I put the kids [and husband] to bed at night my plans of staying up later washing dishes, working on projects and writing blog posts disappear rather quickly as I fall asleep myself. So sometimes I get up in the middle of the night to do those things, or just to enjoy the quiet and a few moments of quasi alone time. Although blog posts written between 2 and 4 AM can be rather... interesting. We'll see how this one turns out!

I love flowers! I have heard it's been clinically proven that flowers make people (including men) happy. I wouldn't doubt it! I love the look, the smell, the feel. It's a multi-sensory experience.

I first got started in "proper" floral design when I got married. I bought a book from the craft store I worked in at the time and, with the help of my mother-in-law's business license, bought fresh flowers from the local wholesaler, made my own bouquet and boutonnieres for ~~the~~ my groom and the groomsmen. I loved it and surprisingly it helped me relax [a little] the night before the big day.

After that I started doing floral design at the craft store, but moved out of state after a few months for my husband's school. While there I took a floral design class just for fun at the local university. I loved it so much and took the class twice so I could do different designs for the holidays during each semester. From there I got my own business license and started arranging flowers for small weddings. It was so much fun but got rather difficult after having kids so I've only done a couple weddings since then. I still love it and jump at every chance I have to arrange flowers.

Now, on to the arranging. Unfortunately I wasn't too good about getting photos of each step. I usually work fast with flowers and want to get them back in to water as soon as possible. Hopefully everything will make sense anyway!

My husband brought a huge bag full of flowers home from work one day. If I had ordered the flowers myself and planned what I was going to do before hand it would have been a little bit different, but this time I just used what he brought.

We’ll start with a simple arrangement of peonies in a low glass vase.

Use water-proof tape (found at craft supply stores) to make a grid across the top of the vase. [You can also use a floral "frog" or foam for fresh flowers if your vase is not clear.]

Add some foliage first, if you have it. The peonies I received had long stems of leaves so I cut those off (at an angle) and crisscrossed the stems in the vase to create supports for the peonies.

Then add the flowers, cutting the stems to the right length and spacing them out fairly evenly. [Odd numbers of flowers generally look more pleasing to the eye than even numbers, but I had four peonies so I used them all.] Add a little more foliage to fill it out.

Next, Part 2, arranging with a tall glass vase.

Part 3 - a one-sided arrangement using floral foam

----------------------------------
I'll be linking to all these fabulous linky parties!

Monday - Craft o Maniac Monday -- Pink Hippo Party -- Craft Catwalk -- 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 -- 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 -- Saturday is Crafty Day -- 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

Out on a Limb No. 8

2011-07-05T16:54:00.000-07:00

Wow! We had 7 projects linked up last week! Woo hoo! Pardon me while I do a little happy dance. Ok done.

You know what? I'm so happy about reaching this (small but significant-to-me) goal that I'm going to feature everyone that linked up. Can't promise that in the future, but I'm excited! ha ha

laxsupermom from Sugar & Spice in the land of Balls and Sticks made some great festive pinwheels with her kids

Lara from the Lackadaisical Willow made beautiful hand-stamped jewelry with a washer

Erin from It's Just Us made major progress on a complete bathroom overhaul

and she also hosted a festive celebration with bright colors all around

Anna Christina from Sewing to Sooth My Soul made a fabulous little sundress

Jennifer from A Heart Full of Love made an adorable patriotic tutu for her daughter's American Girl doll (I love those dolls!)

Maggie from Midwestern Sewing Girl sewed up some awesome parade and picnic kits with table clothes and painters tape -- really, go check it out!)

Be sure to grab a featured button on my sidebar!

Now on to this week.

Come link up any creative projects from your blog. The linky will remain open until Saturday night. (Please keep it family friendly).

**Please grab the button (or use a text link) and put it anywhere on your blog (your post, sidebar or party page).** I would like to get more participation and be able to help promote fellow bloggers!

Winners!!

2011-07-05T15:46:00.000-07:00

When I said I would post the winners on Monday I should have remembered what day that was going to be! So I apologize for making promises I couldn't keep since my family and I were busy with the festivities of the day (i.e. free pancake breakfast, parade, street festival, extended afternoon naps, dinner out and fireworks... from afar because the main venue decided to NOT have fireworks on the 4th but had them the two previous nights... HELLO!?! Duh. I was ticked. Not to mention that it made my 5 year-old burst into real anguished crying when I read the big lit-up sign that said "No fireworks tonight" as we drove by. So we had to drive to a different location which was already saturated with people since everyone from the main venue had to come over to the secondary venue to see anything at all -- on the actual Day of Independence!!)

Okay. Enough ranting. Now for the winners!

The winners of the pattern giveaway are as follows:

Group #1 -- Children's Size

Group #2 -- Women's Larger Size

Group #3 -- Women's Smaller Size

And the winner of the vinyl giveaway is:

Ladies, please e-mail me your addresses at catonalimb (at) gmail (dot) com and I will get those prizes sent out to you ASAP!

I'll be posting Out on a Limb Tuesday next.

Nautical Theme Decor

2011-07-02T12:30:00.000-07:00

As part of my stash liquidation mission I finished painting a display piece for our bathroom. I originally purchased it at a thrift store last year (for $1.50) and thought it had a lot of potential but the colors just did not say ocean/beach/nautical to me in any way! (Except for maybe that touch of red)

I started out by painting the background blue, the boat white and attempting to paint the frame white. But no matter how many layers I painted (with craft paint or artists' acrylic paint) the black would always soak through! It was so frustrating I just put it aside for many, many months.

But a couple days ago I got it back out and decided to finish it, one way or another. Then I got the idea to use the leftover thinned gray/brown paint that I used in my weathered wood shelf. I used a foam brush and did one light coat over the white of the frame. I thought the brush strokes gave it almost a faux wood grain kind of look. I blended just a touch of gray/brown into the background and added a few red accents with a tiny detail brush.

Now I love it! It looks great hanging in the bathroom (especially with our rich red, vintage, damask towels)

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! To all my Canadian readers -- Happy Canada Day! (A day late) And all my American readers -- Happy Independence Day!

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

Monday - Craft o Maniac Monday -- Pink Hippo Party -- Craft Catwalk -- 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 -- 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 -- Saturday is Crafty Day -- 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

Framed Patriotic Book Cover

2011-06-30T18:34:00.000-07:00

A while back I picked up some vintage books to have on hand for various projects. One of them had an eagle and crest debossed on the front cover which I immediately thought would make a great Independence Day decoration. Well, seeing as how it's only four days away I figured I should actually finish it and put it on display!

After ripping off the cover I brushed white paint over the top of the design and wiped the excess off trying to keep some of the paint in the grooves of the design.

I thought it looked okay, but I wanted red in there, too. So I painted red, let that dry, then painted white over the top again.

I found a frame (in my stash) that was, thankfully, just the right size. Laying the glass on the book cover I traced it, then used a heavy-duty metal ruler and a Stanley knife to cut it to size.

For the frame I painted it with white craft paint first, then blue to make sure I would get a bright color. (By the way it was a major pain trying to get the paint deep down into all those crevices around the "carved" designs on the frame.)

Then I mixed up some light blue paint, dabbed a paper towel in it, and lightly brushed it over the top of the flourishes, corners and edges.

After that I put the two together and got this--

This may be the extent of my patriotic decor this year, we'll see.

P.S. Why is it that spell check thinks bazillion is a word, but not debossed. Look it up spell checker people!

I'll be linking up to these wonderful blog parties!

Remodelaholic Friday -- The DIY Showoff Project Parade -- Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special -- Sunday Showcase Party -- Flaunt it Friday -- Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Frugal Friday -- Seven Thrity Three -- Weekend Wander -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Transformation Thursday -- Show Off Your Stuff -- Furniture Feature Friday -- Show and Share Day -- Create and Share -- Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Thrilling Thursday -- Fun with Food Friday -- Take a Look Tuesday -- Saturday is Crafty Day -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Show Me What Ya Got -- A Crafty Soiree -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Whatever Goes Wednesday -- Craft o Maniac Monday -- Pink Hippo Party -- Craft Catwalk -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Let's Get Crafty Saturday -- Catch as Catch Can -- Craftastic Monday -- Friday Flair -- We Did it Wednesday! -- Creative Bloggers Party -- Your Whims Wednesday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party -- I Heart Naptime

Out on a Limb No. 7

2011-06-28T21:17:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a while since I've done Out on a Limb Tuesday. I guess I'm discouraged about getting very little participation (but very grateful to those who have linked up in the past!). But I'll keep going on and hope for some more link ups.

I did want to feature the last project that was linked up in #6. It's a beautiful little girls dress (with tutorial!) made by my friend Teresa. We knew each other before we both got married and I moved out of state. Unfortunately she moved out of state right before I moved back! Wah! But I'm delighted to keep up with her via Facebook and our blogs (her's is Crafting in my Closet! ). She is a very talented seamstress and sews lots of adorable things for her even more adorable daughter.

I'm relenting on the rule of only being able to link up projects that are new to you in some way. Just link up any creative projects from your blog. The linky will remain open until Saturday night. (Please keep it family friendly).

**Please grab the button (or use a text link) and put it anywhere on your blog (your post, sidebar or party page).** I would like to get more participation and be able to help promote fellow bloggers!

Also a reminder that the giveaways will be open until Friday (sewing patterns) and Saturday (vinyl sheets)!

200+ Followers Giveaway -- Adhesive Vinyl Sheets

2011-06-27T16:10:00.000-07:00

Wow! I was so excited when I recently made it to 200 followers. I'm touched that so many of you would choose to join me on my creative journey! It makes it a lot more fun when I'm not the only one that benefits from or enjoys the projects I do. Of course I would still do them if I didn't have a blog or didn't have anyone commenting, but I love being part of this wonderful, expansive blogging community.

To celebrate I am giving away over $100 worth of adhesive vinyl sheets! (The kind you can use with a Silhouette, Cricket or other cutting machine -- it's actually the same brand/grade as the Cricket vinyl). There are 20 sheets in 14 different colors including metallic gold and chalkboard. Each measures 12" x 36".

To enter (leave a comment for each one you do):

1. Become a follower/subscriber of my blog (or if you are already let me know)
2. Like me on Facebook (see the sidebar)

3. Post on Facebook about the giveaway and link here

4. Tweet about the giveaway on Twitter with link here

5. Post on your blog about the giveaway and link back

This giveaway will remain open until Saturday night, July 2nd at 11:59 pm PST. The winner will be announced on Monday.

Holy crap it's July at the end of the week... !!

Pattern Giveaway -- Enter here!

2011-06-26T12:21:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it's not officially a cool "giveaway" since it's just my stash I'm passing on to others, but a few of you expressed interest in the patterns, so I'll need to draw names for them in order to be fair.

I divided up the patterns into three groups. It was a little difficult because there is overlap of sizes in many of the styles.

Group #1 -- 12 Infant/Toddler patterns
Most patterns have some designs for both boys and girls. Sizes range from Newborn to 18 months on most.

Group #2 -- 16 Larger size women's patterns
Sizes range from 12 to XL. (see size chart below)

Group #3 -- 24 Smaller size women's patterns
Sizes range from XS to 14. (see size chart below)

I've included the size chart to help you know which size you are. Please read: Unfortunately the sizing system for apparel in stores is completely messed up. The sizes are not consistent between designers, and sometimes even with the same designer. And they are NOT the same as the sewing pattern sizes. There are even problems with the size chart they list on their patterns. The "ease" [extra space to make sure you can move in the clothes] they add to their clothing patterns is far more than necessary, making the clothes too big and baggy, even when something is supposed to be fitted. I've discovered I needed to find the size with my measurements, then go down one size (sometimes even two sizes, like from 14 to 12 or 14 to 10) and cut out that size instead of the one that matches my measurements. So that should help you know which size you really are -- no matter what the pattern company says! ha ha [FYI, this is true for Simplicity, Butterick and McCalls. I'm not sure about any other brands]

To enter: Simply leave a comment with which group you would like. You can leave a separate comment if you would like to enter for more than one group of patterns. I'll leave the comments open until Friday at 8 pm PST and will announce the winners on Monday.

*Be sure to come back tomorrow when I'll post a giveaway to celebrate 200 followers! Yay! (Retail value is more than $100)*

WARNING! Not for Long Term Storage!

2011-06-24T13:09:00.000-07:00

Many of you probably know already, but I thought I would "blow the whistle" to alert anyone else who may not be aware... CDs / DVDs are NOT intended for long term storage. [Recommended 2 years or less.] I found this out the hard way.

I had every intention of linking up to laxsupermom's Before Blogging Throwback link party. It's an awesome idea she came up with to help us showcase projects we did before we started blogging. So I thought I would link up my wedding dress and flowers. I pop the CD with our wedding photos on it into the computer and... nothing. "Do you want to burn to this disk?" -- aka. BLANK disk. I even downloaded some software that's supposed to recover lost files on CDs, but it found nothing. Nooooooo!!!

To be reasonable, this is probably not the end of the photos all together. The family members who took photos (we couldn't afford a pro photographer!) probably still have them... although hopefully they didn't move them to CDs!

Pattern Giveaway? -- Need Your Response

2011-06-21T12:42:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to clean up my stash and get rid of things I'm not going to be using in the near future. I'm going to get rid of most of my sewing patterns and was wondering if any of you, my fabulous readers, would be interested in a giveaway for them?

I have 53 of them (40 are women's clothing patterns ranging in size from 6 to 16, with 13 boys and girls infant-18 months patterns) and they're the Butterick, McCalls, Simplicity brands found in most major retailers. They're all new and uncut (ha ha, I guess that's a testament to how often I get around to doing the projects I plan!) and mostly new styles. Some are a little older but classic styles.

So, let me know if you would be interested in that, or maybe if you're the only one who responds that wants them I'll just send them to you!

Simple Pleasures -- A Cardboard Box

2011-06-20T12:42:00.000-07:00

I'm so glad children find joy in simple things. Especially easy to make, free things. Like a cardboard house. Just cut out squares in the sides and top, you end up with fun and laughter for... at least 45 minutes. Maybe more. We'll see.

It's going to be a hot one today. We may spend the day wasting time in various air conditioned locations.

As of tomorrow, happy summer everyone!!

Another Shirt Refashion - with Obi Belt

2011-06-15T12:46:00.001-07:00

Here's another one of my shirt refashions that (thankfully) only took two days to complete because I put off other things (dishes, house work) to make it happen. My husband said "But you just made a shirt!" Yeah. So? Right now he has at least twice as many shirts as I do, and I don't like most of mine! So I'm taking time to make some shirts (and other clothes) for myself that fit and that I really like.

Just an aside -- I'm going to start saving up for a coverstitch machine. It's basically a serger with the added ability to sew a "coverstitch". It will make working with knits a whole lot easier.

Back to the shirt... here's what I started with. I loved the print, but definitely not the style of the cut. Boring!

So I bought a little bit (1/4 yard) of contrasting fabric and turned it in to this --

I think I'm becoming a wee bit obsessed with obi belts. I'll be making a leather one from my stash at some point.
_______________________________________

I'll be linking up this project to these great parties--

Monday - Craft o Maniac Monday -- Pink Hippo Party -- Craft Catwalk -- Craftastic Monday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party -- Making the World Cuter Monday -- Tuesday - Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Take a Look Tuesday -- Show Me What Ya Got -- Tuesday Time Out -- 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 -- Thursday - Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Transformation Thursday -- Thrilling 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 -- Saturday - Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special -- Saturday is Crafty Day -- Let's Get Crafty Saturday -- Sunday - The DIY Showoff Project Parade -- Sunday Showcase Party -- Creative Bloggers Party -- I Heart Naptime

Shirt Refashion - From Baggy to Fitted

2011-06-13T10:05:00.001-07:00

Here's my first project from my stash-busting mission!

One night (a long while back when we still lived in Utah) I went to Macy's looking for some shirts [and pants too, but I never find pants that fit right]. It just so happened they were having a big clearance sale, plus an extra 40% off the lowest clearance price. Sweet! I ended up getting a bunch of shirts for $5-$7 each. Unfortunately most of them needed some sort of alteration or refashioning. One of them actually didn't need anything changed, which is rare for me. Ha ha!

This shirt started off as a super overly baggy, tunic length shirt with a belt. I'm sure some photographer made a teensie little model look great in it, but that type of fit just isn't my style.

Ugh. It took lots of pinning and frustration working with the 10+ extra inches around the shirt. I took it in at the sides (going all the way up, including the underarm and down the sleeve tapering to the cuff so I wouldn't have to bother with remaking the cuff to fit the new sleeve). I also added darts to the front and back (along the princess lines) for a better fit and cut about 6" off the bottom and sewed up the new hemline.

To finish it off I took one of the faux leather cords off of the belt, since it seemed like a bit too much with two.

Now I like it.

One project down, only 15 bazillion more to go!
_______________________________

Linking to the parties on my Blog Link Parties page.

Going on a Fast

2011-06-06T21:26:00.001-07:00

I've decided to go on a fast.

A project-acquisition fast.

Why? Because this is what my creative space looks like right now.

I have so many things I've purchased (including decor, furniture, fabric for clothing, clothing to refashion, etc) that I just haven't gotten around to completing! I've decided it's time to actually start completing those unfinished projects (or get rid of them completely). I'm going to see how far I can get on just the things I have right now. I will allow myself to purchase some small supplies to help me complete the projects such as buttons, thread, glue, paint, sandpaper, etc, but no new projects to work on.

I especially need to get started on using my fabric stash. I got a little addicted shopping Fabric.com's clearance section (with free shipping after $35 and frequent 15-20% off total purchase coupons) that I acquired a lot of great quality fabric for awesome prices. The big obstacle right now is making slopers (basic patterns used to create other designs) custom with my measurements so I can start designing and creating clothing that will fit me perfectly. Being tall has made it very difficult to find anything that will fit me right (so I don't really have many clothes currently available to wear). Also being "cheap" I find myself purchasing ill-fitting clothing on the clearance racks (like cute shirts at Macy's for $5 each!) with the intention of altering it... but then getting around to doing it is another story!

So. No more new projects for me until I work through what I've got. How long will it take me? We shall see!

P.S. Are there any other project ~~hoarders~~ collectors out there like me?

Sewing a Button on a Suit Jacket

2011-05-31T15:52:00.003-07:00

Things have been pretty quiet on my blog for a little while, which I've been sad about. I have been going through some difficult personal times and am still trying to fit everything into our apartment and small storage unit and get rid of the rest. No luck in getting the upper portion of my fabulous cabinet upstairs. My husband says it's too heavy for him and me to do it, (and said we should get rid of it... Ha! Not a chance.) but says it's up to me to find someone to help. Not like I know many burly men around here. Sigh. I hope to have it up soon.

In the mean time I've needed to repair a couple things on my husband's suits since he wears one every day to work. He purchased two brand new suits since he got his job and a button fell off of one of them. Thankfully I was able to find where they hid the spare buttons (inside a small breast pocket) and sewed it on. Please pardon the lint in the photos!

When sewing a suit jacket button (or any other jacket or coat button) there needs to be space between the button and the fabric to which it's attached to leave room for the thickness of the other side of the jacket. The amount of space depends on the thickness of the side of the jacket with the button holes. For my husband's jacket I used two toothpicks taped together to use as spacers.

I also used a good, strong, heavy duty thread when sewing. After threading the needle and knotting the thread I stuck the needle through the fabric where the button would be starting from the front of the jacket (so the knot in the thread will be under the button in the end). I pulled the thread all the way through so the knot catches, then stuck the needle through and pulled it all to the front again. I went through the button (if your button has four holes you'll want to sew diagonally between the holes) and pulled the thread almost all the way through. Then I used the toothpicks to get the right amount of space under the button and sewed through the other holes.

I sewed through the holes a couple more times in each direction, making sure the space under the button remained the same.

Then I brought the thread to the front side, but kept it under the button instead of going through it. I wrapped it around the threads three or four times.

When I was ready to tie off I brought the thread around almost as if I was going to wrap it again, then brought the needle through the loop to make a knot. I knotted a couple times, wrapped once more then knotted one more time, just to be sure.

I cut the thread and was done! Nice new, functioning suit.

I'm linking up to the parties on my "Blog Link Parties" page, including The Creative Itch

My First Guest Post - Weathered Wood Shelf

2011-05-19T09:51:00.000-07:00

I was so excited when my über-talented cousin-in-law asked me to guest post for her while she takes a few weeks to travel (and work!) in Europe. My post is up this morning on her fabulous blog, go check it out!

Out on a Limb No. 6

2011-05-17T09:52:00.001-07:00

I'm beginning to get more than a little frustrated that I haven't been able to get my husband to help me move in my new cabinet so I can complete the set-up of my creative space (and move some other things into storage which I can't fit in there until the cabinet is out!). Everything is still in boxes and I've been itching to work on some more projects. Usually when I can't get help I just end up doing it myself, but unfortunately this is one thing I can't move on my own! :)

I did actually finish another project, but it's being saved for my very first guest post ever! I'll let you know when it will be posted.

So here we go with another week of Out on a Limb!

Since my "brand name" is Cat on a Limb you can only link up projects or creations where you went "out on a limb" in some way. Either a technique you've never tried before, or a tried and true technique applied to a new object, or something 100% new to you. I'd love to see how you all stretch your creativity (please keep it family friendly).

**Please grab the button and put it anywhere on your blog (your post, sidebar or party page).** I would like to get more participation and be able to help promote fellow bloggers!

Out on a Limb No. 5

2011-05-11T07:49:00.000-07:00

I admit it. I thought yesterday was Monday. That's what I get for not leaving the house for two days! Just trying to get settled in, still squeezing through boxes, and managing all the other daily tasks associated with keeping everyone fed, clothed, clean and happy!

So here we go with another week of Out on a Limb. Here's hoping for more participation!

Since my "brand name" is Cat on a Limb you can only link up projects or creations where you went "out on a limb" in some way. Either a technique you've never tried before, or a tried and true technique applied to a new object, or something 100% new to you. I'd love to see how you all stretch your creativity (please keep it family friendly).

**Please grab the button and put it anywhere on your blog (your post, sidebar or party page).** I would like to get more participation and be able to help promote fellow bloggers!

Jewelry Display Frames - Pottery Barn Knockoff

2011-05-10T18:52:00.002-07:00

For a while I have been looking for a new way to store my jewelry. I've been using a little wire dress form and while I like it, it's not quite big enough. I saw these display frames one day when browsing around on Pottery Barns website:

They're sold out on their website so I don't know what the price comparison would be. I had purchased a few frames in the past to use for something (I didn't know what at the time!) and otherwise used things I had on hand.

Here's the before:

Cute floral pictures, but not quite my style. I also used the frame which I made into a seashell display. I decided that seashells are better in smaller displays, at least for my purposes.

I started by removing the glass, pictures and backing out of each frame. I also had to remove lots of staples from the larger frame, which I did with some pliers and lots of clenching of my teeth.

The larger frame was made to hang in the "profile" direction so I moved the hanger so it would hang "landscape" style. I removed the hanger with pliers and, after measuring to find the middle, hammered it in to the new position. If you do this be sure to put some towels under the frame so you don't mash the molding.

I brushed on three coats of craft paint (using almost a full bottle for all three frames) then one coat of polyacrylic finish. It really made the color brighter to do this step instead of leaving it matte.

The larger frame is the necklace holder so I measured to evenly space five hooks. I just used cup hooks I had from another project.

When drilling the holes I put a little piece of tape around the drill bit so I would not drill too deep.

For the other two frames I stapled some spring twine (for upholstery) to the back. I used a couple of staples to be sure it was sturdy.

Here is the final result (I like how it's pretty much a functional version of the empty frame gallery):

Including the frames, which I picked up at yard sales, and a little bottle of craft paint, my total cost was about $4. I'm sure that beats Pottern Barn by more than a little bit. :)

-----------------------------------------------

I'll be linking up to the parties on my "Link Parties" tab.

PDF Pattern How - To

2011-05-08T10:19:00.001-07:00

I have been thinking a lot about PDF patterns lately. I've been wondering how people make them, how they digitize them, how they ensure they print out the correct size, etc. And now I know! It turns out the website Sew, Mama, Sew! had Carla Crim from Scientific Seamstress do a series of three posts describing the full process of creating PDF patterns. She even reveals some resources she uses to make things easier and the very basic software she uses to digitize the patterns.

Part 1 - Pattern Drafting and Grading

Part 2 - "eFormat" Your Pattern

Part 3 - Writing Instructions and Marketing Patterns

I'm so excited! I just may end up creating some patterns and selling them on Etsy. I'll probably start with some childrens patterns while I get the hang of it, then try my hand at womens patterns. It's also a good way to give away freebie templates for craft projects. Oooo ideas, ideas! Happy day!

Vote for Me! Pretty Please!

2011-05-06T23:50:00.001-07:00

Wow! I was nominated for the "Best of April" over at To Sew With Love with my pattern and sewing tutorial for the toddler Maxi dress and shrug. She is holding voting through tomorrow (eeks! I should have posted this sooner!) so please, pretty please go vote for me! You can also vote for one other project that you like and there are some really cute ones.

Vote for me here!

Thanks everyone!

P.S. I'm still working on getting us settled into our apartment. It's hard moving from a three bedroom house with unfinished basement, garage and backyard into a second floor two bedroom apartment. Plus the house we lived in had so much built-in storage so now I have to figure out how I'm going to store everything, especially all my art supplies/crafts/tools/sewing supplies/fabric/etc. My air compressor had to go into storage. Sigh. Just not something that really works in an apartment complex! Settling into our new place I feel like I'm working with a giant one of these:

Oh, and I have some more triumphant deal finds to share as well. Stay tuned!

We Have a(n apartment) Home! plus Out on a Limb No. 4

2011-04-26T18:26:00.000-07:00

We moved in to our apartment on Saturday. Finally, after nearly a full month, we have a home of our own! Of course there are boxes everywhere and we won't have internet service set up until next week, but we are so happy to have our own space. So, until I get back to regular posts and unpack all my creative stuff (can't wait!) here's Out on a Limb #4.

Since my "brand name" is Cat on a Limb you can only link up projects or creations where you went "out on a limb" in some way. Either a technique you've never tried before, or a tried and true technique applied to a new object, or something 100% new to you. I'd love to see how you all stretch your creativity (please keep it family friendly).

**Please grab the button and put it anywhere on your blog (your post, sidebar or party page).** I would like to get more participation and be able to help promote fellow bloggers!

Out on a Limb No. 3

2011-04-19T22:03:00.000-07:00

Here it is, another Tuesday nearly gone already. But I do have Out on a Limb ready for you. The party will remain open through Saturday night so be sure to link up!

By the way, does anyone have any ideas to promote link parties that isn't just going through other bloggers' link parties and asking people to link up? (I'm not sure about the etiquette on that type of thing)

Since my "brand name" is Cat on a Limb you can only link up projects or creations where you went "out on a limb" in some way. Either a technique you've never tried before, or a tried and true technique applied to a new object, or something 100% new to you. I'd love to see how you all stretch your creativity (please keep it family friendly).

**Please grab the button and put it anywhere on your blog (your post, sidebar or party page).** I would like to get more participation and be able to help promote fellow bloggers!

Toddler Maxi Dress and Shrug - Part 4 of 4 - Sewing the Shrug

2011-04-18T03:00:00.003-07:00

Part 1 - Drafting the Dress Pattern

Part 2 - Sewing the Dress

Part 3 - Drafting the Shrug Pattern

Here we are, the fourth and final installment of the toddler Maxi Dress and shrug tutorial. I feel really lame about it taking so long, but under the circumstances it's better late than never, right?

Oh by the way... we found an apartment! We will move in this Saturday, April 23rd. Finally, our own place! It is not 100% ideal and I will have to face one of my fears because it has a gas stove. Yikes! Plus it has lots of large floor to ceiling windows which are not tempered glass. They make me very nervous with two small, rowdy children, but we have a plan and I'll do a post about that when the time comes. I'm so excited to decorate! I also found some furniture at Salvation Army which I plan on refinishing, but the pieces will definitely be in use until I get around to actually doing it.

Okay, on to the tutorial. I like to try to streamline the sewing process and change bobbins and settings as few times as possible so during this tutorial some pieces may have seams sewn but not used until later. It will make sense in the end!

Cut out all the pieces you will need for the shrug. I used knit fabric to make it snug and comfortable. I did not include a pattern piece for the ruffle but just cut strips of fabric 1.5" wide. Cut more than you think you will need. Sew the ends together so you have one long piece. Set aside.

With right sides together place shrug front pieces on top of the back piece, matching shoulder and side seams. Stitch in place.

Change the bobbin to elastic thread. Sew straight across the bottom hem of the sleeves. Leave long threads at the beginning and end, then knot them together so they don't pull out.

Sew .5" away from one edge along the whole length of the ruffle strip. Set aside.

Change back to regular bobbin thread. Switch to a long length gathering stitch and stitch around the shoulder seam on the sleeve leaving long thread tails to gather. Leave about 1" unsewn at the beginning and end to have room for the seam and gathering.

Switch back to a regular stitch length. Fold the sleeve in half with right sides together, matching the under arm seam and stitch. Be sure to keep the thread tails you will use for gathering the sleeve out of the way of this seam.

With right sides together pin the sleeve into the shrug armhole. Match the underarm seam to the side seam and find the middle of the top of the sleeve and pin it to the shoulder seam. Work from one end to the middle, then the other end to the middle. Gather fabric and even it out around the armhole. Stitch in place.

This is what you should have so far. Almost done!

Starting at the back of the neck pin the ruffle onto the body of the shrug, right sides together, with the .5" side lined up to the outer edge. When you get around to the back of the neck again, overlap about .5" and cut off any excess. Stitch in place.

At the back of the neck you can either leave the edges of the ruffle loose, or you can tack them together with a simple straight stitch. (Sorry I don't have a picture for this step)

Clip the curved parts of the bolero only on the flat layer of the seam allowance (not the gathered layer).

Turn the ruffle to the outside and top stitch about .25" from the folded edge all the way around.

And now you're done! Be sure to admire your handiwork, pat yourself on the back and take some pictures.

------------------

I will be linking this up to the parties on my "Blog Link Parties" page including The Creative Itch

Fears -- Unreasonable? Perhaps. But They're Mine.

2011-04-17T00:17:00.000-07:00

With things changing so drastically in my life lately and the added motivation of a fun linky party [and with my craft supplies locked away until we move into our own place] I decided to do a personal / confessional post today.

I've always been afraid of certain things. Sure, them seem rather ridiculous and silly when I tell people about them, and maybe they are, but I do have reasons! Ok, maybe not good enough reasons to totally justify the fear... but maybe they will help you not laugh at me quite so much. :)

- The dark. Yes, to this day I am still afraid of the dark. [Ha, what a way to start out the list!] Why am I afraid of the dark? Because of all the things that could be in the dark either indoors or outdoors i.e. wild/rabid/poisonous/otherwise dangerous animals (Okay, it doesn't have to be dark for those to be around, but the dark makes the fear of those things even more poignant. I've heard too many stories about people getting bitten by poisonous insects or snakes, mauled or killed by bears, mountain lions entering populated cities, etc.), ghosts or evil spirits (Yes I believe in those, but I'm guessing this fear comes mostly from years of watching "real" ghost TV shows with my siblings when I was a kid and listening to everyone I know tell their stories of the supernatural, plus it doesn't help that I have an overactive imagination too), robbers/murderers/otherwise dangerous people (I blame the media, horror movies -- which I don't actually watch but the trailers are enough, and the few people who choose to do evil things which leads people to be suspicious of each other.) Funny side note - when I was younger I used to want to sleep with the brightest nightlight available and as many as possible, but now I have trouble sleeping at night unless it is very, very dark.

- Natural Gas. More specifically, natural gas in homes. It seriously gives me major stress to turn on a gas stove. Standing there with the lighter going "click, click, click" while an extremely combustible gas pours into the room? Yeah. And those knobs on the front of the stove perfectly available to my kids who love to turn knobs? I'd like to kick the genius who thought that one up. (Speaking of that, my sister-in-law actually has one with knobs on the side of the cooking surface, much better idea) Newer furnaces, water heaters and stoves have mechanisms that shut off the supply of gas when the pilot light goes out, which is great, but if you're living with older appliances no pilot light = leaking gas = not good. Then earthquakes (being in California) can cause a whole lot of other problems with gas lines. Then comes all the stories I've heard about explosions. [One about a man who was working on something, needed a very specific part which he didn't have, left to go to the store to get it, noticed the smell of gas and told the utility workers who were digging in the street. Gas leaked out of the pipe, through the ground, filled the crawl space under his house until it got to the level of the pilot light in the water heater. BOOM. The man came home to find he had no more house, although he was blessed with his life. True story, my mom knows him. Another one about a gas leak in a woman's home. The utility personnel came and were outside with her. The phone rang so she went inside to answer it, one worker followed her to try to get her out. BOOM. They both died. I heard this one from the best friend of the utility worker.] Not worth it in my opinion. When I design and build my own house (some day!) it will be all electric, solar and wind powered.

- Deep Water. Meaning any deeper than up to my neck when standing. Okay, I don't have a real excuse for this one. Other than the obvious fear of drowning. Whenever I look at a satellite picture of an ocean (especially if I can see how the water gets deeper, or the bottom drops off) I get creeped out and have to look away. I get scared being in boats over deep water. Random.

Those are the main ones I've had ever since I can remember. Then, having children has added a whole slew of other fears, of course all based around keeping my kids safe. I mean, I do have a lot to be concerned about when my kids think it's funny to run into the middle of a street with me running after them yelling at them to stop. Sigh. Being a mom is hard! But that's a post for another day...