Recycling .... sewing style....

I have mastered the elastic waist skirt.... I wanted to make pj pants, or just any freaking pant involving an elastic waist. I found this tutorial on how to make kid pants from an adult shirt: click here and I figured what the heck. I don't have many T-shirts that I am willing to shred, but I did have an old work shirt that I have not worn in a rather long time that I was about ready to donate to Goodwill. It wasn't really hard at all. It was quick project, and I am happy with the results. Though I do think it's cool to make them from a shirt, I have to admit, I am itching now to go spend some money on some cute flannel and make a ton of these for the kids for pj pants....

Speaking of kids- it's a good thing this was a quick project... My oldest came down with a cold when we were all out of town, and she got worse and needed to go to urgent care yesterday as she was having some issues catching her breath. I stayed home with her today and tried to make sure she got some rest. I attempted to keep the other kids away so she could rest up some, and had them go next door to my parents house. Wasn't even worth it, as when the others came back over in the afternoon they started throwing up, and having fevers themselves. Oh the joys of multiple kids... they just love sharing germs...

Need it want it....

Getting organized...

I have a craft room, though it looks NOTHING like the pictures above. My room started out as our "office/computer room"... meaning a place for our computer and to hang our dipolmas and special college awards, and what nots...Then I set up a folding table and called it my scrapbook room. The computer is still in the room but its ancient now, and has been replaced my laptop, so really I need to get rid of the computer in there.... I mainly digital scrap now, but I still have a crap load of scrapbook supplies that I refuse to part with. My room also now has the sewing machine that I got for Christmas 2008, and I am starting to pile up on some material. So my scrapbook room is now becoming a sorta craft room I guess, and I don't know how to organize it...I did declutter the room somewhat, but I am just at a loss. I would love for the room to look cutesy, and inviting as it's so plain and disorganized now. I am greatful I have a room to devote to my hobbies, but I need to find a way to get it set up to use the room to it's potential. Also, I need to win the lottery so I can have the money to make it look like a magazine photo.... oh to dream... Any suggestions from crafters out there to organize your supplies?

Back in Virginia...

Yes, it is possible to be exhausted from shopping.... We came back by noon, and I don't know if I have ever been this tired before. We had fun though. Dave was a saint and stayed home with our younger kiddos, and I tagged along with my parents and with my oldest, Laura. She did really well with the long car ride, and behaved herself just fine on the trip. I got a crazy amount of clothing for the kids, a few things for Dave and I, and ate way too much food. Laura and I took a horse and buggy ride through the Amish countryside, and she was excited to see lots of cows. Laura is quite the little shopper herself....she loved picking out clothing for her and for her sisters... We came back a day early as my grandmother (dads mom) was hospitalized. She is doing well though.

I can't wait to catch up on some blogs, get some rest! I will post some pictures tomorrow.

So I lied...skirt reveal

I ended up attempting the skirt tutorial, and it was really easy and super fast. I used a cute baseball print fabric for Laura to wear to her cousins first softball game. Baseball/softball is a huge part of our springs/summers so I am sure she will get plenty of wear out of it! ok, seriously, last post until I get back this weekend....

PA bound!

Tomorrow morning I am joining my parents to head back up to Lancaster, PA for our annual shopping trip. We have been doing this for the last three years. They have wonderful outlets, that are even better then what we have here locally in Williamsburg. I always am excited to also check out their Pottery Barn outlets (both kid and grownup). I usually get loads of clothing (no sales tax on clothes or shoes in PA). My older two need some spring and summer clothes badly.
I also hope to check out some fabric stores, and maybe, just maybe find a Hobby Lobby close by since I hear how wonderful that store is. I want some material to make a cute skirt that I saw another blogger make that may be simple enough for me to handle….
Will check up with everyone’s blog when I am back Saturday!

By now everyone and their mother has heard of The Pioneer Woman’s blog. Her food is out of this world…. I recently purchased her cookbook (two copies, one for me and one for my mom). The cook book is awesome. Just like her blog she takes step by step pictures, which help people like myself, need things broken down in baby steps. Check out her blog, and then order that cook book…you wont be sorry!
So after reading the cookbook, I decided to challenge myself. I made her pizza dough. Ok, let me explain. Using anything that requires me to make bread scares the crap out of me… I attempted to make homemade bread a long time ago, probably when I was still in high school or something… and it was a utter failure. So making this pizza dough took some courage and scared me. I went forth and followed the directions in the book. I did have a minor freak out as the dough was really sticky, and I couldn’t figure out how to get it off my hands. I may or may not have sent my daughter next door to get my mom, whom directed me to just use a little more flour. What would I do without my mom? Crisis solved. I didn’t do anything with the pizza dough until last night. I tried out a recipe on her website that kind of copies California Kitchen Barbeque Chicken’s pizza. Let me tell ya… it was sooooo good! The husband had to work last night, so he missed out on it, so it was just me and the kids… The kids didn’t like it, but I kinda figured it would be to grownup tasting for their liking…Hey, I enjoyed eating it at least.
The cool thing about the dough is the recipe makes enough for two pizzas, and my husband asked me to make the pizza for him tonight so he can try it. Next time I make some dough I will try to make a more kid friendly pizza for the kids with lots of normal pizza fixings so they will eat it…and then recreate the Barbeque Chicken Pizza again Dave and I. This will definitely because a household staple… I can’t wait to try out some more recipes!

More sewing adventures...

My middle baby was sick today...she was having some accidents, and Sunday she was crying when she would go... so off to the doctor she had to go, so I came home early. During naptime I attempted to make one of those cute crayon roll thingys. I got the instructions from this link: http://www.skiptomylou.org/2007/04/25/on-a-roll/ It's pretty easy to follow, but of of course I had some goofs and I didn't have any ric rac to make a cool edge so I attempted a blanket stitch which didn't really work out to well for me, but whatever... it's still useable even if it doesn't look perfect and my sick baby thinks it's really special....

Lilly Eggs!

I admire Lilly Pulitzer clothing. Such cute prints. However I can only afford it when there are sample sales, items are found on consignment, or when I luck out at TJMaxx. I got a catalog from them a few weeks ago, and it was beautiful. I drooled over the $100 and some dollar scarves, and the cute dresses. There's no way I will be buying anything from it though, but I didn't want to throw it away.... I decieded since the prints are always so springy and fun I would do a craft with them. I bought some plastic easter eggs, and then with the kids help, we cut dresses on the models in little pieces and then modge podged them on. It was messy and sticky, but I think they turned out cute, and the kids love any reason to use scissors and make a mess.

Cornhole Bags

It's starting to get semi- warm out! That means one thing- it's almost cornhole season! This morning I whipped up some pink cornhole bags. I am excited to break out our boards in the yard and break these bags in. I learned about Cornhole last year, at a kickball game I was playing, and I came home obsessed. We bought some boards from a friend, but soon Dave starting makeing some for friends and family. We had bought our bags online, but now that I know how to use my sewing machine a little better I will just make our own. If you don't know about Cornhole then you need to google it! It's such a fun outside game for cooking out, and to even bring to the beach.

St. Patrick's Day Shirt

Ok, so this isn't Gymboree quality... but it will work. I wanted to make my girls a St. Patrick's Day shirt using my sewing machine after I saw this : http://itsgoodfortheheart.blogspot.com/ Well, not actually make a shirt, but take an old one we already had and jazz it up. It wasn't really that hard at all, and the project was free. My mom had more fabric then a fabric shop, so I asked her if she had any green fabric, and she ended up pulling out 3-4 different St. Patrick Day prints. Now I plan on recreating this again for Rachel and Emily, but I wont do as big of a clover this time around cause this one was a little too massive.

Hi my name is Robyn and I am a litter bug...

I was having one of those mornings… my older two were having melt downs, because I wouldn’t let one wear a tutu, and the other wanted to wear a dirty shirt she wore all weekend. Those teen years are going to be torture… I was running behind to get to work, and didn’t have time to sit down and grab some breakfast, so I decided to treat myself to breakfast on the way to work by going through the drive through quick. After I placed my order for some sweet tea and a yummy biscuit from Chickfila, I was waiting in a long line I noticed I had a old diet coke can that needed to be thrown away…I also was right by one of those handy dandy trashcans near the drive through that you can practically touch which makes it easy to clean out your cars while waiting for your food… I consider myself a pretty coordinated person, but some how, some way, I totally missed the trash can and I heard my can hit the ground. Damit. I opened my driver door and tried to find the sucker but it must have rolled under the car. I quickly shut my door and looked all around me. I didn’t want to get out and lay on the ground to try to get the can because I had on nicer work clothes. I became instantly paranoid that the lady behind me was a tree hugging hippy that would come banging on my window to yell at me. I looked to my right and saw a police car in the parking lot, so now I was scared I would get hit with a ticket, and I started picturing myself on the side of the road picking up trash for community service. I tried to find it, and I didn’t mean to litter. I mean, come on folks, this isn’t McDonalds where it’s acceptable to leave a mess, this is high class Chickfila, in a nice part of town. Stupid diet coke can. I still refused to get out and get on the ground to look under the car, so I just crossed my fingers, that I could get a pass to be a litter bug. When I pulled up I looked in the mirror to see if for some chance the can had magically disappeared... no such luck. No one narked on me or condemned me though… I think I am going to give up drinking diet cokes though for a while, since not only are they bad for me, but they also made me feel really guilty today for littering…

Sewing Machine fun...

So, I have not finished the fusible fabcric box yet, (it's a super pain in the behind), BUT this weekend I played around and made some other stuff with my sewing machine.... Saturday I made one potholder, and one coaster by using this tutorial : Click Here They are super easy, and I like how they turned out. The burping pad I made this morning... I was going through some of the kids old things and I cam across plain burp pad that never got used.... (how the heck did that happen?) I put it in a pile to give a friend of mine at work that is pregnant, and then I decieded I would attempt to jazz it up....and sewed some fabric I had onto it...I hope she likes it!

New Project!

Today before Rachel needed to be picked up from preschool, my mom and I ran to a quilt shop near our house. I still had a giftcard to the place that my mom got me to go with the sewing machine she got me for christmas in 08. I wanted to scope out some fabric to just see what they had, and I was trying to figure out something new to make. Ideally, I wanted another sewing projects, but I actually left there with a pattern to make fabric boxes that are "no sew". I couldn't pass the pattern up though, and I figure it would be something cool for the kids to keep things in. I picked out some cute pink and brown fabrics from their fat quarter pre-cuts. I am going to attempt to figure out the pattern either tonight or some other time this weekend...

Thursday Thrills....

I am not someone who gets overly excited about makeup because I tend to keep it simple and stick with the basics. However, I read Monograms and Manicures blog post on a new mascara she discovered that she just tried and she found it to be a better product then many higher named brands she has tried…I was curious, so on my way to work this morning I stopped in Target and picked some up. RUN NOW and get some Loreal Telescopic mascara. Seriously, it excited me that much….I have short stubby lashes, and this truly does make them look awesome and so much longer! Seriously, nothing I have ever used before has come close to the results I have from this. I may look a mess today and have a inch of roots showing in my hair, but my lashes are banging today… (side note, I need a hair appointment asap and no I am not going to attempt to go red again. I learned my lesson so back to bleachy blonde here I come!)

Starfish reveal

My starfish project is over...I like them, and the kids have told me a million times how pretty they think they are. I plan to keep up with some sewing projects. I am going to try to find a pattern for some dresses to make the kids, and enlist my mom to help me figure out what the heck I am doing.

Any people who read my blog watch LOST? Well I love the show... I can't believe there are only 10 shows left! I loved last nights, and I think I have a theory to what the heck is going on... I think that Claire's baby (aaron) is evil. Hear me out. In the first season she saw that psychic before she got on the plane, and the psyhic told her not to put him up for adoption or give him away as it would lead to something horrible, and Claire would have to raise him. I think the bad has happend because Kate took him off the island. Maybe I am wrong and maybe I just think this because I just watched Rosemary's Baby, but I just have a feeling that's what is behind Claire being all wacked out right now. Who's with me?