Satin Flower Tutorial

My little girl got dedicated on Sunday. She had a white dress, and then the red shoes, so she needed a red accessory to go with it! So. I made this headband for her. Here are the steps!

 First cut out however many circles you want to use out of a satin polyester blend fabric. I used four circles

 Next, CAREFULLY burn the edges of the flower so that it sort of curls upwards. Be careful not to set the thing on fire!

 Your circles should look like this

 Once all your circles are done, arrange them how you want, and then I used hot glue to get them done together.

 Final product! I added a little rhinestone in the middles, and then attached it to a piece of elastic lace that I sewed together to make a headband.

My beautiful girl.

$3.00 Goodwill Desk Makeover

A few months ago, I was shopping around at goodwill, and found this little desk

 I had absolutely no idea what these little wing things that came out were for. They folded right under the desk. Later I found out this was an old vanity, and they use to attach fabric to the wings. Weird. I just left them folded under, and with a little white and gray paint and a stencil and new handles. My final product.

I think it is for sale, but it is so cute and would look great in our bedroom... we will see what happens!

Ruffled Baby Shirt

Girls are so fun! I went to one of our local thrift stores that has baby stuff, and I got a few plain onsies for 50 cents or so, with the intention to dress them up! For the fabric for the ruffles, I just used some scraps I had laying around.

DIRECTIONS:

1. Cut your strips for your ruffles. You can do as many layers as you want, I did 3. Sew one edge of the strips with the widest stitch on your machine. Then pull one of the strings to make it ruffle. Arrange the ruffles however you like, then sew onto the onsie.

 2. Sew the top layer first, then add each strip underneath one at a time, and try and sew as close together as possible, or farther away depending on the look you want.

ALL DONE! I added the little rosette because when I pulled off the price tag, I made a hole in the onsie... SO, I just added a little accessory!

Swag Bucks!

One of the fun things I use to help me afford all these crazy crafts is to use swag bucks. This is just a search engine like google or yahoo, but you earn "bucks" that you can turn in for prizes. I use my bucks to get FREE amazon gift cards. I have gotten over $160 to amazon just in the last year for using swag bucks. It is really fun because then I can buy all the things that I wouldn't normally buy because of the money. Using swagbucks, I don't feel bad about buying some fun stuff every now and then! Click the button below to get started! It is TOTALLY free and so worth it.

A HUGE advantage to swag bucks is getting friends to sign up under you as a referral. This way anytime they search and get "bucks," however many they earn, you earn them as well. This helps add up the bucks so much faster so you can get more free stuff! Have fun!

Easy Skirt Tutorial

I saw this skirt on icandy handmade and had to try it! First I made one for my little girl, then I decided to make one for myself. The one for Mia was a whole lot cuter than the one I made for me! Here is the tutorial

 First you will start with a rectangle that is double the length of your waist, or babies waist. And about 4 inches longer than you want the skirt.

 Next fold it in half and sew the sides together. Then, using your elastic as a guide, fold down the top hem so that it is a little longer than your elastic. I used 2" elastic. Sew all the way around leaving an opening to put your elastic through.

 Next put your elastic through, then sew the elastic together and close the opening. Arrange your ruffled area however you like it. Then, take a zig zag stitch and sew around the top again, and then a little above your elastic seam at the bottom. This just makes a cute little effect, you don't have to do it, but it looks cute!

 Here is my daughters finished skirt! It is a little bit higher on the waist. I love bright colors for her since she looks so good in them with her dark hair!

Here is mine... Excuse my dirty mirror, I was feeling lazy as usual and didn't wait till my husband got home to take a picture. Also, I probably wouldn't wear this with a red shirt, but I was again, lazy and didn't bother to change. Enjoy!

Pulled Pork!

My husband is amazing. One of the famous things he makes is pulled pork. Normally he does a kahlua pork that is a mixture of hawaiin sea salt and other spices and the pork is baked inside banana leaves. This time he decided to mix it up and added some veggies, and a spice rub.

This is 8 pounds of pork! He added, onions, green bell peppers, red bell peppers, salt, pepper, a spice rub on the meat, and then a few cans of beer for cooking. Cooked at 350 degrees for 3 hours, then dropped to 250 degrees for 4 hours. The longer you cook it, the more tender and juicy the meat is. Check it throughout to see if you need to add more liquid. Enjoy!

Baby Shoe Refashion

Mia is getting dedicated in a few weeks, and I found this adorable fluffy dress from gap! Gap is a dangerous place for baby girl clothes, and I don't think I am allowed to go back... Her dress is white, I didn't really want white, but the dress is adorable. So I thought I would pair her with some colorful accessories! We are going with red shoes and a red head band. I was having trouble finding red baby shoes, so I decided to buy some used ones, and make them red! I got these shoes for 12 cents at a local used kids clothing store.

 Simple plain white shoes

 Painted RED

They kinda look like Minnie Mouse shoes, but they are so cute on her little feet! SO SIMPLE!

Baby Sack Dress TUTORIAL

Here is the tutorial from the dress I posted earlier that I made for my daughter. This dress is a little different because it is not a halter, and actually fits! She had a little girl cousin that is only 3 months older than her, so I made the girls matching dresses! Here is the tutorial.

 First I just roughly measured my daughter, then I cut out a shape kind of like a trapeze dress would look like. I made it about four inches longer than I wanted to account for the top and bottom hems.

Then I hemmed up the sides about 2/3 of the way, leaving room for the arms and the top seam.

FIRST hem the arms, then fold under twice for the hem of the top. Make sure it is open on both ends so there is room to put the ribbon through.

Then, using something to push the ribbon through, push it through the front, then continue the ribbon to the back of the dress. You should end up with both ends of the ribbon on one side of the dress.

I taped my ribbon to a crochet hook and pushed it through.

FINISHED PRODUCT! It ties on one side, and looks like a cute little sleeveless dress. VERY EASY!