Borax Fun

picture found here

i have ants. well, my house has ants. my kitchen and bathroom to be specific. this house has had ants in the spring/summer since as long as i can remember. i don't know what my grandparents did about them. years past i have used ant poison traps, they have seemed to work okay. but they always come back and keeping poison around(not the band) is not what i like to do. factoid: there are grease ants and sugar ants. i am certain we have sugar ants, thirsty sugar ants. anywho...my mom in law said something about sprinkling borax as a picket line, ants won't cross it. i forgot this advice. so there i was in the "lie-berry" with my little brood on our tuesday "lie-berry" trip, i was in the "get your life clean and in check" section and i found a book. the book is called organic housekeeping. in this book i was reminded of the borax effect. so i totally ran out and bought a box of borax. when i got home, i sprinkled the stuff everywhere, and they fled! it is amazing stuff. i was also reminded that you can make slime with borax and school glue. you can also preserve flowers with borax, and make crystals. the girls will love all we can do with it, who knew borax would fill our summer days with wonder?

Leg Warmers How-To

i have always bought babylegs leg warmers for my kids and was looking for a more cost effective solution to my leg warmer addiction for the kids. so one sunday when i was admiring my friend jordan's daughter's leggings she told me how to make my own from socks. i think i was the only momma on the block that didn't know how to do this.

first you need knee socks.

at the ankle cut the foot off. there you have the leg warmer. now we have to make the bottom cuff.

take the foot and cut the middle out. this will make the cuff of the warmer.

fold them in half, right side out.

take your leg part turn it inside out and put your cuff inside of it, all raw edges together.

sew those raw edges together to make the leg warmer bottom cuff.

ta-da! enjoy.

Twirly Skirt Tutorial

this skirt is made with one yard of fabric for any size. this one i made for popi, i am making the same skirt for bee next. you can use a coordinating fabric for the ruffle and waistband if you want, sometimes i do, sometimes i don't. the waistband you use a yard of fabric and the width is up to the size of the elastic you use. you wan to make sure when you wake your waistband there is room for the elastic to go through. the ruffle, which you can use or not, is about 2 yards.

first i made the ruffle. the width depends on how much ruffle you want. fold your yardage in half giving yourself about a half inch for sewing, and that will be your ruffle width. i wanted about a 2 inch ruffle so the width i used was about 5 inches. i folded it in half and ironed it to make it stay and sewed the opening down with the largest width stitch on my machine all the way through without any back stitch. you take your thread end and ruche the fabric down to the other end making your ruffle till you have a little over a yard ruffle.

pin your ruffle to the bottom of the skirt. again, the length of the skirt is determined by who you are making it for, hold the fabric up to your child and see where it hits and add a couple inches for edges.

see? all sewed on!

you then take the waistband fabric and sew it inside out on the edge and then you turn it right side out and iron it flat.

i had sewed the skirt together before putting the waistband on, but you don't have to. you pin the waist band on in the inside of the skirt and sew it on leaving the ends open. you can sew the skirt together now or before, just remember about the open ends.

all together.

i have a nifty elastic threading tool, but you can also put a safety pin on the end of your elastic to fish it through the waistband. just measure your child's waist to see how much elastic to use. make sure to leave a couple inches of elastic so to make it easier when you sew your elastic together. when you have fished it all through, pin the elastic together and sew. then you can hand sew the waistband ends together.

here is my finished skirt. i sewed a flower on it. i don't know if i'll keep the flower on it or not.
it looks super adorable on my popi!
i used some alexander henry fabric and joann's fabric.

Project Tea Towels

Christmas ain't over folks. i was suppose to have these done a month ago. oops. i got this fun linen print at spoonflower.
i then made tea towels. which really was nothing, i just hemmed the edges with a double fold, and voila, tea towel. i just wish i made one for myself now...

Christmas Stocking How-To, by me

for our family i have made our own stockings out of two coordinating cotton fabrics, white pom poms, and a ribbon. this year i had to make a new stocking:) here is popi's...

first i cut out the shape i want out of the fabrics. i fold the fabric in half so i cut 2 pieces at once. i do this with both fabrics, so i have 2 stockings. i pin them both inside out to sew them one at a time, leaving the top open. yes, that is littlest pet shop under my ironing board. don't tell bee:)

my second piece. the floral is going to be the lining inside. you could actually reverse this stocking if you wanted to.

after sewing them and turning the outside stocking right side out, put the lining inside the stocking wrong side out, so when you open it, you see the pattern. did that make sense?

see?

i then folded the top edges in and ironed the hem down so i could sew it.

i did both edges and inserted my pom poms and ribbon hanger in between hems and pinned it down.

then i used my zig-zag stich to sew it all together.

done! if you look closely you can see the folded down edge and see the inside. sorry you can't see the ribbon loop for hanging, but you get the picture, right?
Merry CHristmas!!

Home Made Felt Ornaments

there are some super cute felt ornaments from a catalog i saw at my mom's house. i have been doing a lot of felt work lately and decided it would be too easy to make them myself. i went to the local craft store to pick up some wool roving in white, because i did not have that color, and sheets of wool felt.

here is my green sheet of felt.

i then cut out the tree shape i wanted, a front and a back to the ornament, they were curled up.

then popi and i sat there and used cream embroidery thread to embellish the tree front.

i used green embroidery thread to blanket stitch the pieces together and stuffed it. i then sewed a thread circle to hang it by on top.

i made a green one and a red one. the red one has white dots i felted onto the tree with my white roving and my felting needles. they turned out so perfect! i wish my photo was better. o well. i'm giving them away at a Christmas party tomorrow! i think i need to make more:)

My Note Cards

Handmade Note Card Giveaway

i didn't go to anthro today. i am sorry my faithful readers, i will make it up to you, how about with a giveaway. i make these cute note cards with a flower on it, owls, or a pull behind camper trailer. i'm in bed right now putting my little goddess to sleep with some milk(yes, i'm that kind of mom), otherwise i would get up and show you a picture. anywho, i will give away 6 note cards of the reader's choice to who ever wins. just leave a comment below telling me what shoe size you wear and you are entered into the drawing. you can only enter once. i will leave the drawing open till sunday at midnight. monday i will announce the winner. i will get a photo up of the note cards you can choose from. until tomorrow...yawn.....night.

DIY Day

what another great afternoon. it is 75 degrees and beautiful. popi and i are inside having snacks and watching "station agent" with the gorgeous peter dinklage. love that movie. this morning we did some do-it-yourselfing!

i really love *bucks' peppermint mocha lattes, but hate the price tag. i finally decided to make my own! and the amazing thing is that it worked:) fresh pressed coffee, ghirardelli ground chocolate, peppermint extract, and frothed whole milk. delicious.

my Greek has many keys. this picture is not even half of them. i love him, so i made him a key thingy. i found this old racket holder and put some hooks in it, hung it up, and voila! a place to put keys.

my most exciting craft today was my automatic chicken waterer, the avian aqua miser from the walden effect, one of my favorite blogs. it is in the corner of their cage that i finally got back from a friend. it allows the chickens to drink from a container that can't get poo in it! i made one for the chick's cage and i am making two others, one for the coop and another for outside when they are free ranging it.
what a great day!

Holiday Card Bonanza!

speaking of holiday cards, i need to pick a card design. and if you know me, you would know that shutterfly is my go-to for photo books, photo gifts, and custom cards.

i am trying to find the perfect holiday/Christmas card to put my family photo on. here are the ones i like best...

bright Christmas story Christmas card
on this one i could put a picture of each of the children, and write something that happened to them this past year on there. i also like the minimalistic look to the card.

color me merry Christmas card
i love the bold colorful font next to the black and white photo in this, even better if it was a photo of my girls:)

dotty and nice Christmas card
i like this because i could put 2 photos of all of us in this. the black is a bold background and the dots are a nice simplistic, cheery touch.

modern damask red Christmas card
so simple, it puts the photo at center stage, yet the colors are Christmas and the damask is classic.

candy cane fun Christmas card
bold photo, simple and fun font. who doesn't love candy canes?

just merry Christmas card

this card is light and bright and fun! the plus is it has room for 4 pictures.

what to do? so many beautiful choices...
i'm also looking at baby announcements. we never sent one out for kalliope. shutterfly has so many cute ones, like this and this.
i might as well look at mother's day cards while i'm at it. seriously, shutterfly is so much fun.
i better get busy, i have to make a couple photo books while i'm there....

Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly, follow the arrow à http://bit.ly/sfly2010

Goodies in the Mail!

got a package from Urban Creatures today!!!!
i have been wanting one of these recycled t-shirt necklaces, and now i have one!!
the girls got one too, but they are at their dad's, so i will have to take a picture later.
i am in love with their handmade accessories.
love love love

Oh Crafty Girlfriends

i seriously have some of the most talented friends in the world. and with the Greek goddess coming soon i get to see more of their handy work up close. goodies for me! errr, i mean the baby:)

by now you know i have talked about my friend valerie numerous times. she is very into quilting right now, and of course is very good at it. knowing my love for chickens she made the little one a quilt with fabulous french chicken fabric. the girls running around on the fabric are reminiscent of henny penny. wonderful! i can't wait to put her down on it.

this is the other side of the quilt, dontcha just love the funky chicken?

i woke up one morning with a yellow package on my doorstep. upon opening i found this flannelicious baby blanket with a hand appliqued real fuzzy rabbit. it is so yummy and soft. it will be great this winter to wrap the goddess in. my awesome quilting friend miranda made it.

kristen is an artist. a for reals gallery artist. but besides paints, she uses all sorts of mixed mediums. her work is beautiful. no fair. for years she has been waiting to do a belly cast of "our baby." i think she enjoyed herself with this. it was so odd feeling. when it hardened and i would move or laugh it would pull away from my skin and make me laugh more. it turned out great and it wouldn't have been done if she hadn't come over and done it.

i have the best friends in the world. they are all so different and talented. all of them are. how did i manage to surround myself with such caring, like minded, and crafty people? it's crazy how we can attract what we need.