Weigh In Monday

Stats:


Starting Weight: 175
Today's Weight: 166


Well, crap.  I gained a pound.  In all fairness, yesterday was Caroline's birthday party and there was a good pound of crisco in the cake frosting alone.  I've also weaned the baby but my boobs haven't quite gotten the message yet.  It'll all even out I'm sure :-)


In other news, I'm compiling a list of tips and hints to have a fantastic birthday party on the cheap.  I have my receipts out, and I'm crunching all the numbers to give you a break down of what I spent and how I saved.  Until then, here are some photos from the party!

 I love the outfit she chose, lol.

 My lovely sister doing some hair chalking on Ellie!

 We all got our hair colored...

 You can't really tell here but Charlotte had every color of the rainbow in her hair.

 Caroline and her Tinkerbell cake.

 Yep, I baked that.

She was a fan.  

Happy Birthday Caroline!

Happy 3rd Birthday Care Bear!

I can't believe 3 years ago today you came into my life.  Who could have known from looking at this sweet face what a strong-willed, funny, determined kid you would become?

When you were born I thought she were the tiniest, most dainty looking baby I'd ever seen.  Your hair was jet black.  You had this sweet little face with the most delicate features.  You were just gorgeous.

And you still are.  Happy birthday baby.

What do you do with your cake tops?

Assuming you bake cakes (which I never did until recently), and assuming you care about them being even and stuff (again, never until recently), what do you do with your cake tops?  You know what I'm talking about right? That delicious goodness that you shave off the top of the cake so that it's even when you stack 'em.  


Here's what I did with mine today, Instagram Style!

I put my cake tops back in the mixing bowl with the leftover frosting and threw in some sprinkles for good measure.  That's yellow cake, chocolate cake, purple frosting and multi sprinkles.  Mmmm Mmmm!  I was going to make cake balls but that just seemed like too much work for today.  

They're sitting on the table waiting for the big kids to get home from school and the little ones to wake up from their naps...he he he.  I love to surprise them with treats!

I had help, LOTS of help with the baking process today.   Hopefully no one will find an egg shell in their slice of cake!

FWIWW: Uh-oh, she's on a Tirade! Save yourself!

For What It's Worth:


The Scale Says:  My weight this week is still 165.  Haven't lost, haven't gained in two weeks, but my pants are much looser.  This morning my mission is to take them in at the waist.  Oh, and I suck at following through on things.  Sorry!  I am committed to getting back into the habit of weigh in Mondays.  

DVF Gap Kids:  Diane Von Furstenberg is designing for Gap Kids now?  Huh?  Let me start by saying that I LOVE her.  I really dig her aesthetic.  The way she uses prints is brilliant.  Her Gap Kids collection is adorable.   BUT  I just find it a bit odd.  To me, her design aesthetic is sexy without being vulgar, sophisticated, rich-looking, something you would want to wear to Belize on your honeymoon.  It has a certain spark to it.  None of that spark really translates into Gap Kids collection IMO.  I feel like they just wrote DVF all over everything and called it Diane Von Furstenberg.  I guess if you're super into labels that's ok.  But $40 tee shirts and $80 dresses?  For kids?!  I don't even spend that much on clothing for myself!  Plus I'll be damned if my kid is going to get to wear Diane Von Furstenberg before I do.  


Peter Pan Collars:  I'm over 'em.  Sorry.  I know everyone loves them and I'm probably offending you, but for me, personally, I'm ready to move on to another neckline now.  Please don't kick me out of blogland!  


4th Baby:  She is so spoiled.  She has decided that if she is going to get the attention around here she needs to be the loudest, the neediest, and the most disagreeable child in the house.  She loves daddy more than me.  And she makes it a point to tell me so every.single.day.  Where did my sweet angel baby go???

Where did you go happy, sweet baby!?

That's about all of my ranting for the day.  I'm going to do some sewing now!

What would you consider cheap?

How much do you usually spend on a child's birthday party?  Sunday is Care Bear's 3rd birthday and we're having a big party for her, her first real birthday party.  I have been chosen to speak at my MOPS group about throwing a birthday party on the cheap, so I want to know from all of you...what do you normally spend on decorations, games, favors, cake, food, etc?  Keep in mind that it is a large party, 30-40 people.  

The decorations are in the works, my Pinterest Birthday Board is brimming with good ideas.  Now to make them all come to fruition on a dime!

FWIWW: Blogging.

For What It's Worth...I have been thinking a lot lately about this crazy blogging world.  It seems to be getting so BIG.  Every time I turn around there is a new adorable blog on the street that I have to follow.  So now I'm following a floppily jillion blogs.  Do I have time to read all of those?  Umm no!  Do I have time to comment on every blog post I read?  NOPE.  I barely have time to write on my own little blog let alone worry about what's going on on someone else's.  

Therein lies the problem.

The craft blog world has blown up.  Which is fabulous, don't get me wrong.  I love that so many people are out there sharing their ideas!  However with such a vast sea of blogs out there it can make you feel kind of insignificant.  

There, I said it.  I feel insignificant.  Sometimes.

Do you know what I mean?  If I write up a tutorial and get one or two comments I feel like it must not have been what people want to read.  If I see that yesterday I had 815 readers and today I only have 814 I wonder what happened to that 815th reader?  Did I say something she didn't like?  Did she decide it's not worth her time to read me?  If I hop on Pinterest to see (stalk) who has pinned one of my ideas and I see a negative comment, it totally ruins my day.  This blogging thing can be hard on the ego.

Ok, now I sound needy and whiny.  I think a lot of people probably feel this way, but very few will actually say it.  But now you know the ugly truth.  I'm just putting it out there, for what it's worth.

Onesie Jumpsuit Tutorial

My Valentine's day gift to you...
 

The onesie jumpsuit tutorial!

You will need:
Fabric for pants
3 inch wide elastic
A Onesie (Make sure that your child can get into the onesie by stepping into the neck hole!  You need a onesie with an overlap shoulder, not with a regular neckline.)

The first step is drafting a pair of pants.  There is a great tutorial on how to do that HERE at MADE.  You  cut out your pants pattern pieces exactly how you would if you were just making a regular pair of pants.  Then you sew them together as you would a regular pair of pants, but instead of folding over the waistband and inserting elastic, you're going to sew wide elastic right to the waist.


Measure your child's waist and cut a piece of 3 inch wide elastic to that measurement.  Zig zag or serge the ends so they won't fray, then sew them right sides together.  Press the seam allowances out and topstitch them down.  When you're done the outside will look like this:

Now you're gonna sew the elastic to the top of the pants.

Mark the middle and sides of the elastic with pins, and pin the elastic to the top of the pants.  Make sure everything is spaced evenly.  When you pin it you want the elastic overlapping the pants by about 1/2 inch.  In other words, you sew it on just as you would for a skirt. 

Now you're going to sew it on, using zig zag stitch.  Pull the elastic taut as you go.

Next you're going to put the onesie on your child.  Slip the pants on and mark with a pencil where the waistband hits the onesie.  Take the onesie and pants off.  You're going to cut the bottom of the onesie off 1/2 inch under where you marked.  Then simply pin the onesie to elastic waistband.  Make sure the waistband is on the outside.

Sew it on using a zig zag stitch.

Now try it on your angel!

Is it just me or does my "angel" look like she's about to flip me the bird?

Chevron Print Tutorial

 

Pinterest is addicting isn't it?  While browsing one day I found this really cool technique on Alphamom and I just HAD to give it a try!  You use sandpaper and crayons to make a rad print on knit fabric!


Here is how I made the chevron pattern for my onesie jumper.


You will need:
Crayons (at least two colors)
Sandpaper
Iron and Ironing Board
Onesie (or other knit fabric)



First I cut out my sandpaper in the shape of my onesie piece. I cut it out before coloring so I would have a good idea where the pattern was placed.  Then I colored the sandpaper in a random chevron pattern.  I wanted it to have a more tribal feel instead of the sharp and perfect chevrons I've been seeing around.  If you try this, remember that anything you leave blank will be the color of your shirt, in this case white.  
 
Next I trimmed the sand paper so it wouldn't color the trim because I decided I wanted to leave that white.  

I laid the sandpaper crayon side down on the onesie and I ironed away on high heat.




Once I finished that I repeated all of those steps on the front side, making sure to tuck the sandpaper under the shoulder flaps.  I also put a paper towel under the onesie to prevent the crayon on the back side from staining my ironing board.

You can use the same piece of sand paper over again if you like, but each time you iron you have to re-color it with the crayons.

Make sure you iron it GOOD.  Get every little corner, and make sure each part gets at least 30 seconds of iron time.

Pretty huh?

Next you make a sandwich.  I put the onesie between two paper towels and ironed it again.  This helps set the color.

Finally you put it through the dryer for 20 minutes to make the color nice and permanent.



I was blown away by the results!  This technique is so easy and quick, I'm afraid I'm going to be quite addicted to it.  


Next up, the onesie jumper construction tutorial!   Stay tuned :-)

Big Bow Tutorial

Hey guys!  I got lots of good feedback about my little jumpsuit outfit, thanks so much!  Today I'm going to show you how to make this big beautiful bow!

This is pretty straight forward so I'll try to let the pictures do the talking, if you have any questions at all please let me know!


You will need:
Fabric
Glue gun
Clip of choice

You will also need a small scrap of fabric for the middle, about 4X3 inches or so (doesn't have to be exact.)

I just used the short edge as my opening, but you can do it wherever.  Topstitch around the whole thing.

Fold it in half.

Now you're gonna need a little scrap of fabric for the middle.  You can sew it in a tube, or you can be lazy like me and hot glue it!



My advice?  Don't use your thumb to push down the fabric piece onto the glue.



That's pretty much it!  Next up...the jumpsuit!

Onesie Jumpsuit

Something new for Spring...


Sometimes inspiration hits you like a ton of bricks.  This tunic is made out of one of my old skirts.  I loved the fabric but the fit was never quite right. Then I saw this post on Shwin and Shwin and thought a gathered tunic would be fab!  Her tutorial was awesome, but since I was using a non-stretchy fabric I modified it a little.  

I really love the way it came out!

Then I was making a pair of linen pants to go with it and I spotted some wide elastic.  I thought "what if I made a waistband out of that?"  I sewed it, tried it on her, and it looked good, but they kept falling down.  So I thought "what if I sewed it to a onesie?"

I love the way the look came together.  I will post more photos (ya know, when it's not 40 degrees outside) and tutorials for how to color the onesie, sew the jumpsuit and make the hairbow.
 
I love how versatile this jumpsuit is!  You can dress it up or down.  A girl can go shopping with mom or draw graffiti with sidewalk chalk in this outfit.  The possibilities are endless!

Caroline even enjoyed wearing it...

But that may be because there were some fruit snacks involved :-)