LADY BUG BOW HOLDER

Hey Hey! Friday is finally here...

So The Boo is soon to be in a big girl bed.  I cannot wait.  I have been dreaming about what her big girl room would look like since I found out we were having a girl.  I decided on a lady bug theme so long ago, and have been slowly buying or writing down ideas for what seems like a year.

I did have an issue though.  Someone has purchased or made a TON of hair bows for her.  I have no idea who that could be....

I needed a place to store all this fancy hair adornment.  I searched a bunch of websites, but could only come up with the one ribbon holder idea.  I had a gazillion a bit more bows to hold. 

This is what I came up with.  A lady bug made out of fabric with all the legs being separate to hold bows.  That would give me MUCH more room!  Here's the drawing in my little black book (you heard about that here)

I am sorry to say that I did not take pictures of the process it took to create the bow holder.  If so this could be a better tutorial. 

I will briefly explain the elements and creation.  Oh wait.  You wanted to see it?  Here is the finished product.

Here's the lowdown.  I cut out the ladybug with my Cricut.  What would I do without it??!?!? I used it as a pattern for my red and black fabric, as well as interfacing. 

I pinned right sides together and made sure to place my ribbons inside, the top loop for hanging and the antennae.  Note: I used two ribbons back to back with a wire in the middle so I could shape the antennae when I was done.  I used hot glue to seal the wire in.
I sewed around the entire thing, leaving a small opening to turn right side out.  Once that was done I added a piece or two of quilter's batting to give it a little shape. 
The last step was to stitch around each spot.  I just used a zig-zag stitch and made them super tight together. 

Don't look too close... I'm no expert seamstress.  I just love the way it turned out if I do say so myself.  One step closer to the lady bug room for The Boo.  All her bows fit for now...

I can't wait to get started with a bucket of paint and tons of accessories.  I will be sure to share with you along the way!  Have a great weekend...

Cheryl

KIDS BATHROOM BEFORE AND AFTER

Well, Well... HAPPY SPRING!
It's finally here... warmer breezes and windows open.  I just love the smell of fresh air in the house and the look of a fantastic spring coat. 

To share in the spring feeling, I thought I would share the first room of our home.  When we moved in 5 years ago, this is one of the first rooms we did. 
I wanted something FUN.  I was pregnant... in the throws of nesting... you know what that means?  move out of the crazy pregnant lady's way!

Both our bathrooms are super tiny with no windows.  When we moved in, the main bathroom was painted a darker green color with a fan-tabulous border.  EEWWW.

Sorry about the grainy photo.. old camera.  BUT, you can totally see why we need to change it up to something bright.

I bought a bold, fun striped shower curtain from Tar-get and decided that I wanted to mimic the stripe on the wall.  The hubby thought I was crazy, but that's nothing new.  I have come up with some good ones and always pull him along for the ride.  He wuvs me!

Here is the beginning of the taping and stripes on the wall.  I drew the lines and then marked them like a color by number.  I used acrylic paints from the craft store.

The pic on the right is how it looked after it was done.  The stripe goes all the way around the room and is about 6 inches wide.  After it was done, I painted a gloss coat over top to protect it.

When you get close, it does have a few blemishes, where it bled through the tape, but not that much.  It was a first try. 

We were about to have The Bug, so we were not able to change out the gray tub / toilet (who puts gray in a bathroom?!?! bizarre.) But we did change the top cabinets, faucet and light fixture. 

We hope to eventually change up the floor and the vanity cabinet.  I'm sure by that time we will want to do something completely different!  Here's the finished look...

It's cheery, right?  The bathroom is perfect for the kids and mommy, too!  Have you ever done something crazy with paint?  How did it turn out?  I would love to see it!  Thanks for checking out part of our home! 

Cheryl





TOY STORY 3 PARTY

Party! Party!  Spring is in the air people.  Aren't you super excited to break out the grill and have a party outside?  I know we are feeling ready!

Today I wanted to share another passion of mine besides crafting.  I am obsessed in love with planning parties, tablescapes and the 'themes."  I am not a professional, although I find myself dreaming of it.  The thought of an event coming up for me to plan excites me. 

Please note:  I only do this for fun!  So... I don't have those beautiful pictures of tables set up like I drool over on Pinterest, etc. 

I started by stalking researching for cake ideas and found this amazing cake on Be Different, Act Normal.  You can see her sister's cake here.  I changed it up just a bit, but thank you! for the great inspiration!

This party was for my son, The Bug.  He was completely into the movie and I admit, we loved it too!
I found this AMAZING party by Alison with fantastic ideas for Toy Story at Oopsey Daisey.  Because of her inspiration, I decided to make it a theme throughout the party - from the food to costumes!
The tables were set up in out basement - really the only place in the house where we can stuff enough people.

Like Alison, I named the food like the characters in the movie.  The Disney website had pictures of each character, which I just added names to and printed out with my home printer. 

Some of the food is self explanatory. 

Woody's food was Tex-Mex Taco Dip, Rex's Dinosaur Munch was Broccoli Salad, Jessie's S'more Bites were marshmallows I dipped in chocolate and then rolled in graham crackers crumbs.  The Slinky Dogs were just wrapped with crescent rolls. 

I also made small boxes with card stock (cut with my Cricut) to serve individual servings of tater tots.  I made them in different colors and wrote / drew something on each one to coincide with each color.

My favorites though were the Alien Juice and Lotso's Dip:

What fun!  We had a blast being all of the characters - can you imagine my grandmothers dressed up as Hamm and Mrs. Potato Head?!? Wonderful!

Last, but certainly not least, as it took the longest, was the CAKE.  I know you saw it above, but I just want to say that it was my first attempt at fondant! 

 If it was not for the help from my best friend - "The Enabler" the cake would not be so rockin'! She brought over all her EE-vil cake enabling tools, and she also created the belt buckle and buzz emblem on the front of the cake.  You can check out all of her AMAZING cakes on her facebook page LetThereBCake



What an amazing day it turned out to be!  I can't wait for this year's party! 
Do you have any parties coming up?  I would love to hear about them and see pictures!  Thanks again for coming by!
Cheryl

Linking up with these fantastic Par-tays!
Sew Can Do

ST. PATRICK'S DAY WREATH

Hello Hello!  Happy Friday.  I hope you have enjoyed this amazing weather this week.  I am so ready for Spring. 

I wanted to make something simple for St. Patrick's Day to hang on our door.  For some reason, I was really feeling a rectangular wreath... so I went with it. 

Here is a picture of all my ingredients (yes, I know that's for food items, but I have my own language):

• Large frame from the dollar store
• Quilter's Batting
• Green Fabric
• Burlap
• Three Colors of Green Paper
• Buttons
• Ribbon
• Hot Glue Gun

I wrapped the batting (that white fluffy stuff) around my frame and glued it down.  I then added the green fabric the same way.  The reason for the green fabric - I wanted to be able to see a hint of green through the burlap - not the white stuff. 

I finished by wrapping it in burlap.  (Many burned fingertips later... ) Next, I made three lucky clovers.  I cut 1 1/2 inch ribbon as you see below:

Make sure after you cut your ribbon like the one above you singe the edges so they do not fray.  (I am realizing that each step of this process is all about me burning my fingertips)

Fold the flat edge in three, and sew together with a needle and thread.  Connect 4 together with the thread or hot glue.... I chose the sewing here because my fingers were already sore. 

Once I had the four together, I added a button to the center (glue).  I placed each of my shamrocks on bunting I cut out with my Cricut.  (What can I say?  That thing gets a workout in my house!)

I did chalk the edges a bit to give the light paper a bit of dimension.  I then added ribbon to connect the three pennants together. 

The pinwheels are next.  Did you just scroll down to see the finished product?  CHEATER! 

I cut 12 x 12 paper into strips and then accordion folded them.  I connected the ends with gluedots.  Ignoring the pics of my fingers, you gather it together in the center pull the other ends out.  In the center, squirt some hot glue in and push flat. 

They will turn out like the third pic above.  I added a few doo dads in the center of each - buttons, circles of paper, etc.  You can make as many of these as you wish, and your choice of size. 

I have even made these on a much larger scale for parties.  There are some great tutorials out there on Pinterest. Pin-addicted?  ME?!?! Noooo...

Are you ready for the result?  I was thrilled with the way it turned out.  I hope you like it too!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  Have a great weekend!

Cheryl

My Little Black Book

C'mon.  You know you want to admit it.  Right?  You have one too...

For all of you Type A personalites out there, I sympathize.  I have one.  I cannot LIVE without it.  My little black book.  A plain old sketchbook, plain paper binded together with its only purpose to be filled up with drawings, lists - my entire world!

Here's my beauty:

For a crazy neurotic organized person like me, this book holds all the things I want to do and am planning to do in life.  Aren't there times in life when you have sooo many ideas that you just need to get them down? 

This is where I sketch, list everything possible just to make some extra room up there.  I don't have much more room left, ya know?  My cup. running over.

My family and friends like to tease me.  They quip "You should write that down in your 'book'?"  Normally, it's something they want me to do for them.  I'm ok with that.  I know they secretly feel special to be there!

I secretly hope that those scribbles make it out of the book and into this blog.  I want to share my doodles with you.  Do you feel special yet?  I hope so.  I'm pretty excited about what's to come. 

What about you?  Do you have a Little Black Book?  Paper just waiting to be used?