Dress Shirt Onesie

I'm not very good at sewing something and having it turn out the actual size I want it. It's usually a size or two too big. Oh well- it's a good thing my kids always grow into them! This dress shirt onesie is a prime example. I thought it would be cute for Easter. It's Halloween now, and it fits him. I was close, right?

[Jessica Nash photography] Right before the photo shoot, he pulled off a button at the crotch, so he ended up having to wear pants with it. I thought it would be cute to see him running around in just a onesie, but oh well!

A First Birthday Party, Seuss Style

I cannot believe my baby is 1. He's walking. (He's been walking for at least 2 months). He walks backward. He tries to run, (although it's really more like a speed walk). He has four teeth, and a fifth one that finally cut through just days before his birthday. He likes applesauce. He hates mommy's homemade peas. He enjoys clapping. If you point at him, even from clear across the room, he'll hurry over with his little index finger outstretched and come up and touch his finger to yours, like he's straight out of ET. We totally should have had an ET themed birthday party. That would have been hilarious :)

But instead, I opted for Dr. Seuss. Jonas likes the PBS show, "The Cat in the Hat Knows a lot About That." We read "Green Eggs and Ham" almost nightly. It's my oldest son's favorite book. I also figured that since we don't own all the Dr. Seuss books and/or movies, that would be a good gift idea to tell the relatives. No one knows what to get our boys because We. Have. Everything. They always ask, "What do the boys need?" Um, nothing. We have toy boxes, filled to the brim, in every room. We have totes of clothes that they boys are waiting to grow into. Seriously- I have totes of clothes that go up to size 6 (my oldest son currently wears a size 3). I have a thrifting problem, but that's for another day :)

I scoured the internet and amassed quite a Dr. Seuss party pinterest board. I found recipes that weren't necessarily Dr. Seuss, tweaked them, and made them for the party. We had The Grinch's Roast Beast, One Fish Tuna Fish, Green Eggs, Ham & Cheese Pinwheels, Fish in the Pot Goldfish Crackers, Thing 1 and Thing 2 Blue Tortilla Chips with Salsa, Pink Yink Drink (Tampico has a really good pink punch!), The Lorax Orange Sherbert, and Orange Jello Poke Cake.

Most of my photos didn't turn out very well because of the lighting, but I will share a few with you.

I thrifted this fish bowl last December in order to put Christmas ornaments in it. 

 I almost donated it back to Goodwill, but then something made me keep it.

The sherbet bowls are from Dollar Tree. They were two for a buck, and they included two matching spoons in the set.  I added some Lorax mustaches and gave them away as favors.

Brotherly Love in "Green Eggs and Ham" attire :)

I dusted off the cobwebs pulled out my trusty Wilton cake decorating set 

and went to town on these deviled eggs.  

Big Brother trying on one of Jonas's presents

The food table before the food came out-- after the food came out, most of the pictures didn't turn out. The first birthday decorations on the wall were thrifted back for my oldest son's birthday party. I dragged them out of storage and then added some Dr. Seuss bulletin board items from Michaels.

The Grinch's Roast Beast sandwiches :)

The little orange frames all contained a picture from a Dr. Seuss story, depicting what that particular food was.  The frames didn't do any good, because everyone ended up asking me what everything was anyway!

Ottoman Love

Fugly, no?


I had slipcovered this thing years ago,
but my son recently drew all over the slipcover.


Ugh, enough photos of this nastiness.


Tada!


And the best part is, this transformation didn't cost me anything! The fabric was leftover from the window treatments, the fringe was already in my stash, and I already had the spray paint on hand.


I love it!

Thrifting for Kid Clothes: Spring/Summer Edition

Last time we had the Christmas Edition...
now I bring to you, the Spring/Summer Edition!

A thrifted St. Patty's day tee (50c) and hat

50c long sleeve shirt and thrifted khakis

50c long sleeve shirt and thrifted jeans

I love, love, love his Easter outfit!
The tie was my husband's when he was little.

The shirt, khakis, and coat were all thrifted. The coat was $1.50

And here's Jonas's thrifted Easter outfit!
Somewhere along the way, he lost his orange tie.

Having fun at the zoo in a thrifted outfit!

A 50c Rawlings tank top, thrifted jean shorts,

and a thrifted Mickey sleeper for the baby

40c polo onesie

My son loves John Deere, so I bought this for $1.

On a different thrifting trip, I found these green shorts to match!

Cousins! Both the boys are wearing Joel's thrifted swim suits.

The one on the left was still new with tags! Both pairs were $1.50

This iguana tank top was a quarter;

I made the shorts with fabric that was given to me :)

$2 swimming trunks-- a splurge but I love them!

Lightning McQueen swimming trunks, new with tags

A 50c dune buggy tee with thrifted shorts.

The baby is wearing a clearance outfit from Kohls.

Going a Little Quote Crazy

Quotes on ottomans...

Source: freakingcraft.com via Jodie on Pinterest

Quotes on the wall...

Source: etsy.com via Jodie on Pinterest

Quotes on canvases....

Source: karenemcgee.blogspot.com via Jodie on Pinterest

And I need them all! Hey, I'm a poet and didn't even know it :)

Today's project is the quotes on a canvas. Michaels has two packs of 16x20 canvases on sale for $5. Yowza. That's cheap.

I snatched up a pack, along with some raised scrapbooking alphabet stickers, and skipped merrily all the way home with my finds.

I already had some orange spray paint on hand, so I painted the entire canvas orange. When that was dry, I added my letters. As you can see, it screams Halloween, and that's not what I was going for.



Then I took off the words "brother" and "hug," painted the black letters with the orange spray paint, and painted the remaining two words with white spray paint. (I also found that the letters needed primed before painting).

After it was all dry, I reattached the white words to the canvas, and voila, it does not look like Halloween anymore :)




Linking to:

Oversized Prints: $3 at Staples

You've probably seen these:

Source: infarrantlycreative.net via Jodie on Pinterest

Source: sugarbeecrafts.com via Jodie on Pinterest

What?! You've never seen them? Well let me tell you, it's easy and cheap! Just visit the engineering prints page at staples.com to get started! The website says that engineering prints are not suitable for photographs, but if you have a good enough camera (ours is 10 megapixels), it works just fine!

Your size choices are 18x24, 24x36, and 36x48. Of course, the $2 poster frame I thrifted was none of those three sizes.


(That thing rolled up on the frame is the print. They print out your photograph on very thin paper).

Most photograph editing programs have the capabilities to crop the photo to the right dimensions. After cropping the photo the way you want it, upload it to the staples website, select what size you want, and it will be ready to pick up at your local staples before you can say "Decorating on the Cheap is more fun than watching Magic Mike!"

When I made mine this morning, it cost me under $3 plus tax to make a 24x36 print. I'm not sure if that was a special sale or that's their every day price, but other bloggers have quoted slightly higher prices.

When I picked it up, for some reason it was still a little larger than my 22x28 frame. I just had a little extra trimming to do, and then it fit into the frame perfectly. I <3 how it turned out!!



I can't wait until the basement is finished so I can get this up on the wall!!

Gerber Training Underwear Refashion

It's potty training time in our household!!! Can I get a Hallelujah! (And on a side note, anyone want to share how you washed poopy underwear?)

Anyway, awhile back, I had thrifted two pairs of new Gerber training underwear (they're they ones with the plastic outside, which by the way, do not stop pee from coming out and soaking the carpet). The tag says "tumble dry low." Just FYI, the dryer completely melted the plastic exterior in multiple places. *Sigh*

But never fear, I have a fabric stash a mile high which came to the rescue :)

I ripped off the old plastic coating, got out a thrifted jersey sheet (that's t-shirt material in case you don't know that term), and traced around the underwear leaving an inch or so all the way around for hemming and for a little extra give.

Cut two pieces out (one for the front, and one for the back). You can make the back piece a little larger if you want. With right sides together, I sewed the crotch and sides first.



At this point, the Gerber interior and the new fabric exterior are still two separate pieces. Then I started attaching the two parts together by stretching out the elastic waistband as I sewed. I sewed the top of the exterior as close to the elastic waistband as possible.







If you have a favorite underwear pattern or idea, I'd love to to hear about it!

Linking to Delightful Order's Thursday linky Party!