All in a Day's Work

I can't believe it is here already, but I guess it is time to face the music...
My oldest baby starts school in Five days!

I took her for her Kindergarten Assessment today.

But I spent yesterday getting this little beauty ready...

That's right, Ladies!  It only took me a day!  Okay, maybe some of you more experienced friends out there are laughing right now.  I know, I know, simple.  But I'm pretty proud of myself, okay?  I'm a bit of a bumbling idiot still when it comes to the sewing machine.

These, however, come a little easier to me...

So simple and so cute!  I just cut a flower out of the fabric scraps, sewed it to a felt backing and a clip, and Voila!

All of the teachers and aides at the school kept telling Dakota how cute her dress was.  And do you know what my amazing girl said in return?  "Thanks.  My Mommy made it!"  I can't tell you  how proud I am of this little girl!

You can find the pattern for this dress here.  It is a free pattern from oliver + s.  The pattern can be used for sizes 2-8.  For Dakota's dress, I used the 6 for the width, but the 7 for the length.

I'm entering this dress into this weeks contest at

Wish me luck!

Oh my gosh!  Thanks everyone for the support!  I was the most viewed link over at

Which means I get to sport this awesome new button!

Thanks Mandy, for featuring me!

Wrapping Paper...or Not!!!

Anyone noticed the severe lack of FUN, wrapping paper that comes in BULK lately?
I got a little tired of paying the BIG BUCKS for enough paper to wrap one present, only to discover that EVERYONE ELSE bought THE SAME PAPER!  What happened to originality???

Alright, I'm done ranting...I PROMISE!
Okay, what to do with little money and lots of creativity?

Brown Lunch Bag + Scrapbook Paper + Ribbon = UNIQUE gift bag for Kam Man

Did you notice that the bag matches his shirt?

I have to brag about my oh-so-crafty 5 year old for a sec.

I was putting the ribbon through the holes, thinking I would just tie the bag up.

Dakota says, "Mom, is that to make a handle?"

Uh, DUH!  Why didn't I think of that???

I say, "It is now.  Thanks for the idea, Bear!"

And so, we made this one for Bug

We also made a cute can that doubled for the wrapping for another 1st birthday baby.

Sadly, I have misplaced the picture of the actual gift.

And I forgot to take pictures of the can, so this is as good as it gets:

See the can with the tissue paper coming out the top?

I covered an old can in scrapbook paper and used some scrapbook letters to spell out her name.

Kaitlyn's mommy is my sister.  I think she loved the can as much as the gift inside!

Dino Shirt

This cute guy turned One this month.

(Doesn't my family make cute babies?)

Anywho, Someone this cute deserves something just as cute, don't you think?

Kamron's nick name is Kam Man (Duh!)

I got this shirt at Target for $3.50

I cut the dinosaur out on the Cricut

I used some vinyl of a particularly bright yellow that I would never use elsewhere

I printed the font off of picnik.com and then traced it onto the vinyl with a hobby knife

Placed the vinyl on the shirt and used some old paints I just had hangin' around

I forgot to take a picture, but the tail wraps around to the back of the shirt

He liked it so much, he tried to put it on right then and there

I just love having all these little people to make things for!

True to my word...

I am finally getting around to it.  Here are some pictures of the present I made for my sweet niece that just turned 5.

I found this cute apron at Target's Dollar Spot.

It's reversible!

Here's what I painted on the other side

I know it kind of looks blue, but  it is actually purple.

Can you guess what this little girl LOVES?

Happy Birthday,

 Lex!

(Isn't the giant cupcake SO cute?

I am trying to convince birthday girl's mom to co-author my blog.

She has some great ideas!)

Got a Minute? #6

Okay, this whole project may not only take a minute, but the design did, so I am labeling it as my next segment of Got a Minute?

My sister's little girls turned 1 today!  She is such a doll!  Wanna see?

You can't get much cuter than that!

She's having a birthday party this weekend with a butterfly theme.

I was inspired by a tutorial I read a while back (can't remember where, sorry!)

on how to use picnik.com to make cupcake toppers.

When my sister asked me to help her come up with a fun way to decorate the cupcakes,

I knew just where to go!

One side will look like this

And the other will look like this.

Aren't they fun?

Now I just have to print them off, cut them out, and glue them to tooth picks...

Not to mention I have to finish 2 more birthday presents before tomorrow night.

Wish me luck!

Got a Minute? #5

I have to tell you, I am developing a little bit of an obsession with two things.

Denim & Lace

It is out of this new obsession that this little lovely was born

Okay, I gotta say,

I 

Love 

It!

Can you believe that it only took a few minutes to put together, cost less than a dollar???

Now that's what I'm talkin' about!

I can use it as a hair pretty or a clip it to a shirt or bag.  Perfect!

In the Works

I  promise I have several fun projects in the works.  I just can't share any of them yet, seeing as they are birthday presents, and that would spoil the surprise.  I did make a fun new accessory, I just haven't had time to take pix, so...
Please stay tuned...

A Down & Out Kind of Day

Anyone else out there ever had one of those days where you just feel down?  I got out of bed this morning feeling crappy.  I was up most of the night with a sick stomach.  And most of the rest of night, I was dreading the kids catching this bug I have.  Not fun.

I just finished a reading this post.  I was almost in tears by the end.  Not that it is really THAT emotional a post.  Just that it pretty well hit spot on how I have been feeling lately.

I wish I could say that my family is always dressed, hair done, smiles on their faces.

I wish I could say that the house is always clean, the dishes always done,

and the kids were always in bed on time.

I wish that my life looked like what all my fellow blogger's lives look like.

Spotless, peaceful, beautiful.

But in reality, my life is always a mess.

I am not good at keeping the house clean.  I HATE doing laundry.

And despite the fact that I have four little girls,

there is usually a fight going on at our house.

I am thankful for the Lord and all that He does for me.

I am thankful for the post that I mentioned earlier.

It reminded me that I am not alone.

It gave me the courage to be proud of who I am, faults and all.

And it made my day seem a little less awful.

She had the strength and faith to tell the world what she believes.

I  in turn, am going to let you all know what I believe.

I am a daughter of our Heavenly Father.

He is always there for me.

He knows what I am going through because he has gone through it for me already.

He knows that my life is messy and not always a bowl of sunshine.

He is rooting for me when things are good,

and is there to lift me up when I am feeling down.

He is my Savior.

Thanks for being the awesome people that you are.

Thanks for contributing to my crafty side, and listening to my blubbery side. 

(Yes, I am bawling like a baby right now!)

Thanks for reading this post and letting me stick my neck out there.

 I'm not very good at expressing my emotions.

4th of July

Hey everybody!  It's 1 A.M., so I'm going to keep it short and just post the pix that I promised of the girls in their dresses.

Recognize the bow?

My nephew didn't end up using the bow tie, so I stuck it on a headband, and, Voila!

Thanks for humoring my addiction to taking pictures of my dolls.

I used picnik to make the fun collages.  Have I mentioned before, IT'S FREE!

Got a Minute? #4

Hair Pretties for the 4th!

To go along with the girls' dresses, I made them hair pretties.  I love them all, mostly because they take no tome at all, so it is like instant gratification!

These are the same pompoms that I used for the star shaped wreath.  I just hot glued them to hair elastics.

I used the same ribbon that I used on the round patriotic wreath.  I pulled the wire out and used it to tie it all together.  I used fabric glue to glue the gem (75 pack from the $ Spot at Target).  I used more of the wire to anchor it to a headband that I also found in the $ Spot.

This is a clip.  I cut circles out of the scraps from the dresses and sewed them together on a clip.

This is my favorite.  I actually wore it today.

I made some rosettes out of scraps from the dresses and sewed them on to the snaps from Cheyenne's  overalls.

I'm really into the headbands, now that I don't have much hair...

Please pardon the cheesy grin, Nate and I were goofing off.  I didn't realize he was really taking my picture.

For those of you that don't know me, this is what my hair looked like a week ago:

I'm still getting used to it...

4th of July Dresses

I cannot tell you how excited I was when I realized the 4th was on a Sunday this year!  4 little girls were in need of some fun, festive dresses!
But I wanted to come up with something that wouldn't cost a lot of money (after all, I still have a lot of Easter, Christmas, Prom, and Wedding dresses in my future!)

So I went to my box of fabric scraps and old clothes that were crying out for a pick-me-up...

A skirt that won't stay up on Dakota

Overalls that won't stay snapped for Cheyenne & Cassidy

And a shirt that was given to Mommy, but just didn't fit right

For Cassy's dress, I cut off the legs and sewed a piece of the shirt to the bottom

If I have enough scraps left, I am going to sew some ruffles to the bum of a onesie.

For Chey's, I was going to do the same thing, but after cutting out everyone else's dresses, I didn't have a long enough strip.  So I took a white shirt, cut some squares up, sewed the squares with some of the red shirt, and made this:

(Don't tell the other kids, but I think this is my favorite!)

For Charly's, I just took one of her dresses, traced around it, and cut it out.

I free handed the pockets out of the legs from Cassy's overalls.  Those are the snaps from the legs.

I used some fasteners from another pair of well used overalls to make suspenders for Dakota's dress.

What do you think?

I was too excited to wait for the white shirts to be done in the wash, so I will post pictures of them in the dresses later.

Oh!  I almost forgot!  I made my nephew a little bow tie while I was at it!

How cute is that!

Now I just have to make so cute hair pretties to go with them...