One more thing to check off the list…

Seems to me that there’s always something to fold, clean or fix.  Does it seem like that to anyone else?  Well, today I finally got to my ever growing pile of stuff to fix (you know, that pile of shirts needing a button sewn on, or jeans with a rip in the knee, or that dress with the hem falling out).  Well, this particular article of clothing is actually something of mine (usually I get to everyone else’s thing before I do mine, but this time I decided to be first).

So, I dislike it very much when the underwire in my bra breaks through and starts to slowly inch it’s way out of the casing and begins poking me in the side!  I just couldn’t throw away my FAVORITE bras just because a tiny little piece of wire was poking out!  So, I set out on google to find a quick fix and came across this

http://chaoticallycreative.com/2012/07/05/underwire-bra-repair-in-10-seconds-or-less/

and I thought what a great product!

And then, being the cheapskate that I am, I thought hmmm, could I do that cheaper?

I got on google once again, looking for a cheaper version of this.  Well, I never did find one but I got to thinking…

and this is what I came up with.  It’s cheaper, it’s a no-sew way to fix this problem and, so far, I have washed my bras (after fixing them this way) several times (like A LOT) and they are still “fixed” ;D.

Materials Needed:

a sheet of felt (like 20 cents at Walmart) and any color but it’s probably better to try to get a color that is either neutral, or will match your bra

scissors

hot glue gun and glue stick

So, you can probably figure it out but all you do is push your wire back in the casing as far as it will go, cut a small rectangle of the felt a little larger than the size of the area being covered (that would be the hole that the wire is poking out of ;D) and hot glue it into place.  Once the glue dries, I just used my scissors to snip off the excess glue and felt.

Here’s my before pictures:

And the after picture:

I’m pretty excited and have fixed 2 bras this way so far and plan to fix all future bra/wire poking out problems this way :D.  This is SO great because before I always had to just throw away my expensive Victoria’s Secret bras and that is just NOT fun.  So this is perfect!  I know this is a universal problem for women everywhere so the next time something’s poking you and you think Awwwww man!, think again and try this trick :D! I love it!

…Til Next Time!

Puppy Party Decor…

Like I said before, I really had a blast getting things ready for this party.  My Little Bit2 and I put our heads together to come up with some fun decorations we could make ourselves and this is what we came up with.

I drew a Happy Birthday sign on the chalkboard we already had and tied skinny balloons to the top of it and added a few blown up balloons to finish it off.

I drew the doggy for pin the tail on the dog game and it was also part of the decor!

We used doilies for the Happy Birthday banner and made big tissue paper flowers.  We also put some battery-operated candles in some pink bags for the table.

LB2’s Grandpa came through with a super huge box for us so we could make the “doghouse”.  We cut the door out of it and papered it with white paper so my Little Bit’s could draw hot pink paw prints and squiggles (mostly LB3’s contributions).  Then we finished it off with the Big Bone “All Wagger’s Welcome” sign.

I made signs for each area of the puppy adoption areas so everyone would know what they needed to do at each area.

I also made a checklist for the Animal Hospital area so the girls could check off each thing as they checked their puppy’s vitals and cuddliness :).

we had Dad hang the streamers (we may do that ourselves next time 😉 lol)

And we turned our light pink balloons into puppy balloons and hung them around the main party room.

It was a lot of fun coming up with the ideas – my LB2 is SUPER creative – and I think it turned out pretty awesome!

…til next time!

A Dog-gone good time…

Tee hee hee!  I really had fun creating this party for my girl :D!  I know that birthday parties are really for the kids, but I truly had fun in the planning, the crafting, the baking, and the having of this birthday party! 😀

Here are some of the pics from the actual day:

Happy Birthday!

The Adoption Center

The adoption certificates were a free download from Chickabug.

The Pet Clinic

The Puppy Supply Shop

(the cute printables on the puppy chow also came from chickabug).

Dog-gone yummy treats!

The Puppy Cake and requested (by the birthday girl) Pupcakes

Gift opening time!

Pin the tail on the puppy

And there’s always time for a photo-op!! 😉

…til next time!

How much is that doggy in the window…

So, it’s my girl’s 9th birthday this year.  Sigh.  The time is going by too fast these days! Anyway, this year LB2 decided she wanted a puppy party.  It seemed like a pretty strange theme to me when she started crawling around on the floor and barking.  Yep, that’s my kid ;).

Anyway, when she did finally settle on this theme, we sat down together and got started (notebook in hand) to brainstorm some ideas.  One she definitely wanted was a puppy adoption.  So we jumped in feet first and got busy!

Here are the invitations we ended up making:

We got them all ready and sent them out to our guests!

My girl was SO excited.

Party pics coming soon!!

…Til Next Time!

A book report about Helen Keller…

It’s that time again…  time for another book report that is.  If you are a regular reader, you already know how excited I am this year over my Little Bit 2’s book reports because not only are there many different project ideas to choose from, but they are also a way for my LB2 to get creative (and excited) after reading a good book!

The book she chose to do her report on this go round was a biography about Helen Keller.  Right away she knew she wanted to dress up like Helen Keller so she decided to do “Mystery Person” and see if her classmates will be able to guess who she is dressed up as after reading her card with “clue’s” she’d written on it.  We dug through her closet and found this old Easter dress I made from a couple years ago:

A few alterations and she was in heaven with her dress.

But she still thought something was missing.  After flipping through the book and checking out the pictures, she decided what she needed was an apron.  Any old apron would not do for this one though, she drew me out a picture of what she had in mind so we scoured the internet for a tutorial (It’s SO much better with a tutorial!) only to find there was not one single tutorial for THE apron she wanted.  Hmmmm.  What to do?

So, I had to sit down and really figure out what exactly she wanted and how I could make it happen.

Here’s the apron she liked that we found online:

http://angrychicken.typepad.com/angry_chicken/aprons/

She had a few suggestions to change the apron a little bit.  Like a shorter, not so full skirt and less “frilly stuff”.

So, we sketched it out:

And here’s the one I came up with:

I am pretty pleased with the outcome and…

LB2 was happy too :).

The day of the presentation, she had her outfit, her list of “clues” and was ready for her presentation

Isn’t she too cute? 😀

…Til Next Time!

Oopsie…

I know it’s a little past Valentine’s day (ok, a lot past)  but I had a lot going on and didn’t get a chance until now to show off all the Valentine’s craftiness that went on over in our house.

The Littlest Bit (3) and I were invited to a Valentine’s Party/ Playdate where we were tasked with bringing a snack to share so we decided to make strawberry flavored cake pops.  Some with chocolate candy coating and some with white.

Finished product:

I think they turned out pretty cute!  And they were super yummy also 😀

We didn’t really have a ton of time in the morning on Valentine’s Day for a big breakfast (hahaha, that is SO an understatement as we NEVER have a “ton” of time in the mornings!!).  So, breakfast was toaster strudels (a favorite treat among my girls) and we drew festive hearts to add a little love.

I couldn’t let my little bits go to school in just plain red shirts, so I quickly (I’m a little ashamed to admit it was the day before!) sewed a zebra heart onto LB2’s shirt and we

I took a little more time to do LB3’s shirt (although, still the day before Valentine’s Day) and I think it turned out super cute as well!

She LOVED her crazy elephant shirt with the zebra stripes!  LOL

She couldn’t keep still, even for a photo op

I hope your sweetheart day was really sweet!

…Til Next Time!

Vocabulary Parade…

Little Bit2 gets the BEST assignments at school these days!  What’s better than a book report that you can scalp or make your own board game?  Well, that would be dressing up as a vocabulary word for a super fun Vocabulary Parade!!

That’s right.  The students get to pick a word from their vocabulary list and then make a costume that represents that word.  I think that was my favorite part — sitting with her and brainstorming ideas for her word :D.  It was too much fun!

The word chosen: VAIN

“You’re so vain! I bet you think this song is about you…”

And it is pretty funny that when I started singing this my LB2 said her teacher “sang that SAME song to me, Mom!”

Okay, so she decided the best way to show her Vain-ness ;), would be to dress in her most fabulous dress (with her high heels, of course), fix her hair and wear a most luxurious tiara headband, and pin a bunch of awards all over herself that show how great she is.  We don’t really have a bunch of awards but I did have some blank awards that are some DIY reward ribbons.  So, LB2 sat on down and made herself some ribbons.

The big day arrived so we got her all done up and here she is being vain

I also found the PERFECT handheld mirror at the Dollar Tree!  Like I said, Perfect 😉

Very fun and she was so excited to show her classmates and her teacher her costume.

And, guess what!!!

She totally won a prize for Most Creative costume!!  Woot Woot!  And THAT is MY girl 🙂

What a fantastic job she did :D!

I am such a super proud Mama right about now.

…Til Next Time

Pillowcase Dress Drive…

As you may know, I LOVE reading other blogs! I am actually a blog follower of several (probably like 20!! — is that a lot??) other blogs via my email.  I just love getting a new post in my inbox!  It’s so much fun to see what other bloggers are up to :).

So about a week or so ago, I got this post

http://www.oneartsymama.com/2013/02/pillowcase-dress-drive.html

in my inbox from one of my favorite bloggers.

Basically, this young lady is looking for people to make and donate a pillowcase dress (or two) so she can take them on her missions trip to Uganda and help clothe these poverty-stricken young girls there for Project Yesu.  She will also be taking other supplies (food, medicine and educational materials)that are desperately needed to help.

What a great thing to do!

I can TOTALLY make a few pillowcase dresses and send them her way!

If you sew (or don’t), they are taking any and all size dresses made from any fabric and any colors to take with them.  All you have to do is make ’em and send ’em to:

Project Yesu

c/o Rory Fundora

1178 Willow Bend Drive

Clarksville, TN 37043

The deadline for getting them there is May 31, so let’s get started! 🙂

I’m kind of excited!  I haven’t been sewing very much at all lately, and I think this will give me my sewing mojo back so I can tackle the ever growing pile of “stuff I need to fix/ make” :D.

…Til Next Time

A new binder…

 Little Bit2 came to me a few days ago and said she wanted a new binder.  For school, the third graders had to buy a 1.5″ 3-ring binder for their homework and agenda in order to keep everything organized.  It’s a great idea and I’m all about something to help with the organization, but I do wish there was a way to keep these kinds of things from falling apart!  I don’t know about your kids, buy mine are hard on stuff!

So, when she came to me and said she wanted a new one, I asked her what happened to the one I just bought in the beginning of the school year.  When she pulled it out and showed me the shape it was in, I was a little surprised (even though I know my kids are hard on stuff!).  In the interested of saving a little money, I told her that I would not be buying her a new one and offered to tape the binder back together.  It was in some seriously bad shape.  The plastic vinyl stuff was coming off, the hard card board-y stuff was separating from the spine… this thing was in BAD shape!

So, back to my story.  I asked her if I could tape it together and her immediate response was a big “no”.

When I pulled out my awesome tape and other “supplies”, however, she was stoked!

I forgot to take before pictures of her pitiful notebook, so you only get this before pic with the zebra tape on the spine.

Here it is with the contact paper added:

And the inside:

And, just for fun, I made a little sticker with her name on it 😉

The finished product all ready for school:

Little Bit2 likes it :D.

Til Next Time…

Making it snow…

Since we live in Eastern N.C., we don’t see a lot of snow (much to my children’s dismay).  If you’ve been following for a bit, you may remember we actually went to a festival back in December where the girls got to play in the manmade snow.  It was so much fun :D.

Since then, our weatherman has been putting us through the ringer with all this off again, on again cold weather.  One day it’s a nice sunny 65 degrees and the next it’s a chilly 40 degrees with a frigid wind chill!  Let’s just make up our mind here!!

With all that said (and a couple of sad girls who I suppose are realizing that snow is NOT in their near future) a package was delivered and along with it, some super fun snow for my super sweet girls to have a little fun in.

Woohoo!

snow angels

oh, this is SO much fun!!

and, finally, a little “in the box” time!

Oh what fun! 😀

Somehow, I didn’t get ANY pics of LB2 playing in the packing peanuts, I mean snow.  Rest assured, she did have a lot of fun in the “snow” as well!  It was a lot of fun for the girls and it’s as close to playing in the snow as they’ll get any time soon.

Til Next Time…