My Little Man with a Yellow Hat

You've all heard of Christmas in July, right? Well, it's Halloween in July :)



After reading over how other people have used yellow felt to create a yellow hat and realizing that I value my sanity too much to attempt it, I decided to go thrifting and find one to spray paint or dye instead. That didn't pan out so well.

But one trip to Michael's later, and voila! For $4, I scored a brown foam explorer hat! I already had yellow spray paint, black ribbon, and hot glue on hand.





If you're wondering how I made the faux necktie or how I changed the outfit from white to yellow, just follow the links :)


Linking to:

Old Navy Flag Tee Upcycle

$5 flag tees from Old Navy! Everyone has one (or ten). My in-laws gave me a big box of clothes that was headed to Goodwill, and my brother-in-law's 2011 flag tee was in there.

Free flag tee plus this tutorial from Crafterhours equals an awesome upcycled tank top to wear on Independence Day!

An Independence Day Onesie

Happy Birthday, America!!!
(From the sandy beaches of OBX!)



To celebrate her birthday, I made Jonas a cute USA onesie using everything I already had on hand :) The onesie was actually a hand-me-down that his older brother wore (and it was second-hand even back then). I also used fabric from my stash, as well as fusible web that I had thrifted a long time ago. I saw something similar at The Ribbon Retreat, and knew I wanted to make one :)

Enjoy!
















Someday Crafts Patriotic Linky Party

The Man in the Yellow Hat Costume is now YELLOW

Woot, woot! My hubby ran to Meijer for milk late last night after the kids went to bed, and I told him to pick up a box of yellow RIT dye too. (In case you missed the post yesterday, I made a white "Man in the Yellow Hat" Halloween costume for my son, and I'm dying it yellow).

Last night I upcycled my sister-in-law's white linen skirt into white pants for Joel. The waist band is a little a lot girly, so I'm going to have to put some testosterone into it, but other than that, I'm lovin' the outfit!

This morning, the screaming darling baby and I came downstairs. Armed with a bottle of formula and a cup of coffee, we got to work dying the costume yellow!

I did it in a stock pot with just over a gallon of hot water and the entire box of dye. I did put it on the stove on low, but I was afraid of melting the plastic lid so I didn't turn it up high at all. The water never boiled and really wasn't all that hot. I only left it in the dye solution for 10 minutes, then I started rinsing. (And in case you're wondering like I was, RIT dye water CAN be saved for use at a later date! I wanted to keep the yellow water in case Joel outgrows the dress shirt. It's a 3T, but with my luck, he'll need a 4 by then. If he does, I'll just thrift another cotton dress shirt, and dye it too :) I have the water saved in an old milk jug with "DO NOT DRINK!" written all over it.

Back to the how-to... I put all three articles of clothes (the 100% cotton dress shirt, the linen pants, and the t-shirt material mock necktie) in the dryer on EXTRA low. Once again, I was worried about melting the plastic piece in the mock necktie, but it was just fine.

And now, drumroll please, I introduce to you Joel's Halloween costume this year.... The Man Who Still Does Not Have a Yellow Hat!



Ok, so I still need to make la piece de resistance, the yellow hat.

Here are some ideas I pinned:

Source: seekatesew.blogspot.com via Jodie on Pinterest

Source: homemadebyjill.blogspot.com via Jodie on Pinterest

Aren't they cute?! These ladies are awesome :)

Linking to
Delightful Order Thursday Linky Party!

Thrifted Candlesticks on the Mantel

I'm addicted to pinterest, people. It's like inspiration central on that website. When I decided to decorate my mantel for the holidays, pinterest is the first place I visited for ideas. (Actually it was the only place I visited)! This one from Pottery Barn is one of my favs. I love all the candlesticks of varied heights.

Source: potterybarn.com via Jodie on Pinterest

Handmade Stocking Love

One of my most favorite things that I've ever made are these stockings. Using only fabric, bows, ric-rac, etc. that I already had around the house, I created several stockings for our mantel. The toile one on the left is my favorite. The white bow was off of my high school prom dress :) Or maybe the green one with red and white stripes is my favorite. On second thought, I really like the white one too! I can't decide. I love them all :)

Christmas Ornament Wreaths

Has anyone out there ever made Christmas ornament wreaths? And if so, what kind of glue did you use to adhere all the ornaments together? I made three of these wreaths several years ago and used hot glue, but every year I have to reglue many of the ornaments back onto the wreath because they've fallen off or are barely hanging on. There must be a better way!

Anyway, I do love my ornament wreaths :) I started with a styrofoam wreath form, wrapped it in garage-sale green and white gingham ribbon (I think it was 50c for a huge big box of ribbon!), and then painstakingly hot glued bulb after bulb onto the wreath. (The bulbs were of course thrifted also!) In the end, I took some blue ribbon I had on hand and tied it around the top of the wreath so that it could hang on the wall, and voila!

Here they are hanging above my mantel this year. (And in case you're wondering, I don't normally decorate THIS early... Santa Claus is coming to our house for a photo shoot on Sunday, and so I needed a nice backdrop so the pictures turn out cute!)

{Note to self: if ornament wreaths made with hot glue are hung over candles, do not light them! Doing so will heat up the glue, causing the ornaments to come crashing down and shatter all over the floor. Then the glue will cool again, and the shards of glass wil adhere to the floor. Seriously.}

And here they are a few years ago, hanging above my couch.


I also made the blue background thingies that the wreaths are hanging on. It was a really quick and cheap project that adds a lot of pizzazz to the wall. (For the other 11 months out of the year, I hang photos on them). I could totally see making some of these with red and green fabric, or perhaps thrifted vintage Christmas tablecloths... the possibilities are endless!

Here's how I made mine in case you're interested. I went to Lowes and bought the cheapest thing I could find, which happened to be that brown pegboard stuff. I covered it with some of the heaps and piles of quilt batting that I have laying around. (Isn't it the best when you find some brand new batting at a garage sale for next-to-nothing?!) Then I stapled on my fabric (I think my staple gun {and my glue gun too} are extentions of my right arm...) and finally attached a hanger-thingie on the back so I could hang it onto the wall. Then I hammered a nail into it so that I could hang something on each panel, and viola, there you have it!

This is a photo of how they looked at the old house. At the new house, I've decorated in a more contemporary style, so I changed out the frames and am now using pictures of my husband and kids rather than my ancestors. Here is how it looks now (Sorry for the dark picture; I took this at night)

Bridesmaid Dress Tree Skirt

When my first son was 3 months old, one of my close friends got married. I was still carrying around a little extra baby weight. (Okay, it was probably more like an extra 50 lbs).

What a perfect time for me to have to buy a bridesmaid dress right? The bigger the dress, the more fabric to work with when I cut it up after the wedding :) There's a silver lining to everything!

I knew I would never wear the dress again, mainly because I was never planning on needing a size 16 again. (Wrong! I had my second child a month ago, and I am in a size 18. Mostly I'm still sticking with maternity clothes!)

Since the dresses were a beautiful shade of red, I figured I could make something Christmassy with it. And since my tree skirt was one of those small, el cheapo dollar store felt things, making a new tree skirt seemed like the obvious choice. I got the idea from Chica and Jo.

Basically, my friend and I cut out triangles, and then sewed them together into a circle. When we were done, it was not as big as I had pictured it, so we made it larger by adding a large ruffle to the circumference of the circle. We also cut out a small circle in the center so that it would fit around the tree trunk.


Voila! Happy Holidays!

Cookie Monster Sleep Sack Costume and a Newborn!

I would like to introduce you to the newest member of the family.... Jonas Alexander!

At 9 lbs 4 oz, he was a hefty little newborn! He was born two weeks ago via c-section, and we're both doing quite well. I'm so glad he was born in time for Halloween... I do love Halloween :)

Proud big brother!




Now let's talk Halloween. To save money (hey, we are now diapering for two!), I decided to have my older son be Elmo because we already have an Elmo costume. My mom got Joel one for Christmas last year. And who goes great with Elmo? Cookie Monster, of course!

I started with a thrifted sleep sack pattern, and a bunch of other vintage stuff that I already had on hand. The fabric was from my great-grandmother's stash. When she passed away, I got her fabric. The zipper and bias tape were thrifted too.

The cookie is made of felt sandwiched together with batting in the middle, and attached to the sleep sack with velcro.

Then for his head, I decided to make a baby bonnet using Prudent Baby's awesome tutorial. I left off the ruffle for obvious reasons! I bought a six pack of ping pong balls for $1.29, hot glued two of them on top of the baby bonnet, and then drew some googly eyes with a permanent marker.

Is he not the cutest baby Cookie Monster you ever saw?

Independence Day Fun, Food, and Family

I saw this awesome fruit kabob idea on pinterest and decided, "Hey I can make that!" The original photo used bananas instead of marshmallows, but I thought that they would brown too quickly and chose something else white instead. You could use mini marshmallows, but as you can see, I opted to use large ones cut in half to match the size of my strawberries.


Mmmm... the toddlers loved it!
Don't poke your eye out on that sharp stick, kid.


Enjoying a kabob in a thrifted top and super-clearance el cheapo shorts


Joel's cousin loved the fruit kabobs too!


Was this outfit thrifted too? You betcha. So were the flags the kids were waving and the quilt we laid on while we watched the fireworks :)

Someday Crafts Patriotic Linky Party 2012

Halloween in June

My son loves Elmo. (shocker, right?) Since my parents got Joel an Elmo costume for Christmas, I decided that being Elmo for Halloween this year would be a good choice! The other day, at two different garage sales, I found him an Elmo treat bucket (50c) and some Elmo tickle-me gloves ($2) to go along with his costume. He's all set!

For baby Jonas, who will likely be less than a month old when Halloween rolls around, I decided that dressing him in a Cookie Monster costume would go cute with Elmo. Several years ago, I thrifted a McCalls pattern for baby clothes and hats. I never did use any of the patterns on Joel, so I figured I better get some use out of it, because there's no way I'm going through pregnancy again in case this is the last time I have a baby!



I made the sleep sack out of some fabric, vintage bias tape, and a vintage zipper from my stash. (I love me some vintage, thrifted notions!) Unfortunately, when I went to make a matching hat, I discovered that the hat pattern was missing. (Darn those used patterns). Never fear! Using Prudent Baby's awesome pattern, I was able to make a matching baby bonnet. Since I was not using fleece, I needed to finish the edges, so I added more bias tape. I also left off the ruffle on the front, since Jonas is a manly man-child. The only thing left to do is find some thrifted ping pong balls and add some googly eyes to the top of the bonnet.



I decided to add a felt cookie to the front of the sleep sack. I figured attaching it with velcro so that it could be removable would be the best bet. I'm pretty sure felt shouldn't go through the washing machine. The world doesn't need another felt cookie tutorial (plus I didn't take any photos of the process), so let's just suffice it to say that I used some thrifted fusible web to make the chocolate chips and some batting sandwiched between some tan felt from my stash. I probably should have used a blanket stitch around the outsides, but instead I used a straight stitch on my machine because that was a lot quicker. You can still tell it's a cookie, so I'm okay with that :)