Simplicity's idea of 28 inches....

My little princess is going to be Snow White. I'm not really sure why I always want her to be all girly.... I'm not super girly myself. I figured this was the last year that I get complete control over her costume so I was going to all out! Unlike my usual frugal craft shopping, I broke the bank with this costume. I think it is worth every penny.

I used Simplicity's toddler Snow White costume pattern. I loved how easy it was to read and all in all a pretty great pattern. Expect they seem to think that a toddler is a giant! Here is a picture before I lopped nine inches of skirt off the bottom.

Keep in mind that my daughter is average height for her age... around 30 inches tall ... and this pattern was for an approx height of 28 inches tall. Here it is when I altered the length to something that wouldn't require her to wear 10 inches heels.

I still have the hem to do, install a zipper, make the collar and final finishing touches, but for the most part we are ready for Halloween! Go fall!

More pjs

This is the third set I made today. She has a red, white and blue set as well but she is wearing them and I am not going to wake her up.

Average cost
1/2 yard of flannel fabric (I had it all in my stash) but I'm assuming I spent $4/yard.... $2
Pre-made t-shirt..................... $2
Thread (also from my stash)........$1
Notions (wonder under, stabilizer for embroidery, elastic - also from my stash)......$1.50

Total cost: $6.50

Carter's look at a Wal-mart Price

My daughter went through a growth spurt this past week. Everything I tried on her didn't fit yesterday so we went to a quick shopping trip at our local Carters. I found some adorable stuff on the clearance rack, but I couldn't bring myself to spend $10 a set for jammies. Being a frugal shopper most of the time (I won't get into how much I spent in supplies for her Halloween costume), I decided that I could probably make her Carter's-esque jammies at a Wal-mart price.

I went to Wal-mart today and found white t-shirts on clearance for $2 each. You can't beat that price... you can't buy knit that cheap and knit is a challenging fabric to work with. I knew that I could embellish the t-shirt to match the pants so I stocked up on all they had in 18 months and 24 months. I used the Simplicity toddler pattern #5317 simply because it was the only elastic waistband pant that I had in a toddler size. I used the 1/2 size. I am really pleased with the fit. My daughter weighs approximately 23 pounds and is just under 30 inches tall. To help you fit your own child, she fits comfortably in a 18 months Carters and Target brands.

I love applique! It adds so much to an ordinary child's t-shirt and is super easy to do (and looks a lot harder than it is). Wonder under is a applique's best friend. Wonder Under is a basically iron- on double stick tape. It is available in most craft stores and is located with the interfacings. I usually buy out a bolt when I see that one is low. At Joann's, if you buy out a bolt you can get the last yard at 1/2 price. I can never have enough wonder under. I have learned certain tricks for it though. Draw your design on the paper side of the wonder under, allow the wonder under cool 100% before you start to peel, and make sure to move the iron over your applique for a good 20 seconds to 100% adhere your applique.

I cut the star out of matching pants fabric and adhered wonder under to the star and then to the shirt. I used a machine blanket stitch to seal the sides of the star to the shirt. Then I used my brother embroidery machine to embroider the stars on the shirt, but I bet you could find

iron-ons in stars to do the same thing.

Project 365 update

I ran into a snag in Project 365. My camera broke at the beginning of the month. My family was attending a party at the zoo where I asked a stranger to take a group picture of us. There was a bad handoff and my camera hit the ground HARD. It immediately said "Lens Error" and hasn't worked since. I was crushed! Seeing that this is the second camera that has broken for me this year, I am starting to think that I have bad juju when it comes to cameras.

I have been using my husband's digital camera and have been pouring over the ads for an awesome deal. I really like the new Canon PowerShot. I love how thin it is. No matter what - we are buying the extended warranty this time! Unfortunely, Project 365 has suffered. During crop club yesterday, I was able to scrapbook up to August 10th and get all my pictures organized and printed up until yesterday. I was really disappointed to find out that I missed the 14th and 17th though. I decided that I would take those days to journal a personal question.

Costume Crazy

Mom and I worked for weeks to get these costumes ready for a special event our zoo holds each year. The cards were made from white felt and spare fabric that was lying around. We used wonder under to attach the appliques to the card. I learned that if you count to 24 while moving the iron slowly your applique will be firmly attached (so attached that you can't get off when you realize that you turned the applique upside down :) Also, a pressing cloth is a must when working with felt. The iron can easily scorched your material.

My mom did an amazing job on the Alice costume. This was a professional costume. Fully lined and most beautiful! Awesome fit, Mom!

Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Smart were done from 1960s child's pattern that we found a thrift store. They were wonderfully large. The bibs were cut from fun foam and a large blue ribbon was used to make the bow. The Queen of Hearts was an embellished dress from a thrift store. Fun foam was used for the hearts. The mad hatter and cheshire cat didn't have sewing involved - just great finds from a thrift store.

New bedroom

I found this totally amazing basketweave material at Joanns for $4 a yard - originally priced $30/yard - and knew that it belonged in our bedroom. I love the discount section at Joanns by the way. They have some amazing steals in there especially when they put the entire section at 50% off the lowest marked price.

My husband and I want a tropical themed bedroom so that we would always think that we are staying in a upscale hotel in a beautiful location. I made a plan to have our bedroom done before we moved our toddler out of the nursery into her big girl room. I think that the adults deserve a nice place before our daughter gets two decorated bedrooms. :)

The bedspread I found on clearance at Bed, Bath and Beyond for $56. It is a queen down comforter with an embroidered duvet cover. Together they were originally priced at over $200. I felt like they were paying me to take them and I love them so much. I have not allowed the dog on the bed since we bought them.

I made the curtain panels and the shams from my Joanns' basketweave material. I love working with basketweave since it is easy to make sure that you are cutting and sewing straight lines. I used every last piece of material I had. The pillow is made from the back of one my husband's favorite shirts that was wearing badly. I made the wrap around my pillow because I thought it was so boring without it and it is a easy way to close a pillow without having to hand sew.

Project 365

I am having trouble getting great pictures on Friday and Saturdays since those are my two work days. So tonight I took an artsy picture of my daughter's favorite book, Knuffle Bunny Too. We did read it tonight however she was more interested in playing with her new playground ball.

I am planning on making new pillow shams this weekend to go with my new bedspread and curtains. I found an amazing deal on a new comforter and duvet cover at bed, bath and beyond. It feels so fancy! Since we are planning on giving our daughter a big girl bedroom for her 2nd birthday, we decided that we deserved a nice bedroom before McKinley got a second one.

Project 365 update

I haven't had a lot of time to sew lately, but I have been keeping up with the pictures for Project 365. Today's picture was off a plastic spoon that I found in the shower today. My daughter has a healthy obsession with plastic ware and we have been finding them all over the house. I thought it was fitting to take its picture.

It was a skirt.... now its my diaper bag!

I saw this idea for a repurposed skirt bag on another blog. I loved it! There is a 99 cent goodwill store about 10 blocks from my house and I knew I find a skirt there I could repurpose. Boxing the corners is important to officially turn this skirt into a bag. If don't you don't box them, it looks like a skirt that has a weird bottom seam. To make the pink triangle in the corner, I used the skirt slit that was already there by making it larger. The same pink fabric makes up the lining. I used two magnetic snaps for the closures. The straps are premade and bought from Joanns.

Here was my first atttempt - I like this bag as a purse not a diaper bag. It is too small, but I do like all the outside pockets. My sister told me that she would adopt the bag and give it a good home. Carla said that her favorite part is the bow.

Project 365 update

The Pioneer slip in photo album that I purchased just wasn't the quality I was expecting. The plastic between the pictures was ripping!


I went to Archiver's today. It was a good thing that my very active daughter who was pulling everything off the shelves was with me because I could buy everything in that store. I purchased a three ring binder system to replace my current album and some more photo slip in holders. I have never scrapbooked in a three ring binder and seems strange to me but I like the idea of rearranging the album easier.

Project 365

I am so excited about my newest project! I have been working half-heartedly on my wedding album for several months, but I haven't had much motivation to work on it. I think it is because it feels like too traditional of an album. I know that I need to make it a priority because as my wedding day gets further and further into the past, the memories are starting to fade but as any scrapbooker knows that without motivation the pages are just aren't as stellar.


On July 4 (I know what a random day), I started a one-year photo journal. This idea was somewhat inspired from a two page spread I did for my daughter's first year scrapbook. The page was entitled Any Given Monday and I took pictures and journaled an average day in our lives. I firmly believe that the best scrapbooks are done in the moment of every day activities. Some of my best photo ops are when the subjects don't expect a camera to be there. Such as, the dinner table on a random Saturday night, the playground, etc, etc, etc.


This will be a challenge, but I like the idea of getting to scrapbook a little every few days. On Friday, I worked a 12 hour day but I made sure to get a random photo of the dog to put in the my album. There is so much beauty all around us in the simple things that I want to make sure that I remember what the day-to-day was like when I was young busy wife and mother.

I bought a slip in album from Joanns that will eventually hold 365 photos (I still need to buy the refills). It is hard to give up a 12x12 space to scrapbook in and try to complete your thoughts in 4x6 but I like the way it looks and the challenge of getting your message across in so few words and details. Plus, it is a great way to use up all the little extras embelliments that are left over from other albums. This is like photo twittering!

More Highlights

The inspiration for this page happened when I realized that I kept thinking it was going to be easier when M was mobile. Man was I wrong! I loved this mommy myth idea I made another page about how "all babies sleep." I did all the journaling first and then looked for photos that would fit.

supplies: paper - creative memories baby girl max; letters - creative memories swirly sticker letters; computer journaling

This is one my favorite pages to date! I found the quotation "children reinvent your world" and thought that it went great with these first day at the park pictures. I found the tags pre-made at Big Lots (one of the best stores for budget scrapbooking supplies). One of my biggest scrapbooking challenges is remember that less is more. Sometimes I want to over embellish my pages and sometimes by removing one item it makes the page that much better.

supplies: paper - creative memories baby girl max; letters - cricut machine; tags from big lots

Highlights from my daughter's scrapbook

I made myself a goal to complete M's first year scrapbook shortly after her first birthday. I wanted the memories to be fresh and scrapbooking even six months to year afterward is hard. I wanted this book to not only contain major first year events but the day to day stuff as well. Here are some highlights (more to come):

This is my title page in my album which I think is a fairly simple design but I love how it turned out. I used two photos from our professional wedding photos and the first photo of us as a family in the hospital. It was tough to use that photo because I had showered in over 48 hours and felt about as disgusting as you can get!

Supplies: large numbers are from the cricut machine; letter stickers and paper from creative memories.

A collection of photos from the hospital. I loved these body part photos that my sister had the forethought to take in my daughter's first hours. The envelopes contain birth stories from both my perspective and my husband's.

Supplies: paper: creative memories baby girl max album; larger cut letters: cricut; sticker letter & embellishments: creative memories

Happy 4th of July!

This americana bib is one of my favorites! Our daughter, who is named after a US President, has been wearing our country's colors since she was born. I can't wait for her to sport this bib at a 4th of July BBQ this afternoon!

It is made with polar fleece and cotton fabric with a velcro closure. I usually like to use a snap closure since it goes through the washer and dryer better, but I ran out of snaps.

I recently learned that you can cut out fabric pieces to applique using a cricut machine! Cotton fabric that is fused to wonder under will cut in the cricut. The trick is to place the fabric wonder under side up and have a newer blade and cutting pad. Make sure to have the cricut set on a slower setting and deep cut and it should work.

Happy Independence Day!