We're going to the zoo!

We are taking the kids to the zoo today. YAY! I knew I wanted something fun for the kids to wear, so I asked the boys what animal shirt would they like to wear. 

Dominic immediately replied "A monkey with no hair" and do you know what!? I already had one of those made for him about 2 years ago - and because I had made it on a shirt too big it still fits!

Then Vincent said he wanted a lion. So I found a cute design for him. He wants to find the lions & say "ROAR. Because that is saying hi to them." So funny!

And then for Gabby... she's a baby so I picked. ;)  I had really wanted to make a skirt for her but I just couldn't find a tutorial like I wanted and so I am going to just wait and make one when I have more time - we'll go to the zoo again. So instead she's wearing a Matilda Jane skirt that we already had - the style name for it is Gabbi.

And now its time for me to stop blogging & finish getting ready for the zoo! Have a wonderful day! 

Gabby's Girly Room

I recently posted some pictures taken inside my daughters room and have had people ask to see more. :) So here's pictures of her very girly room. After having two (sweet) boys I was totally ready for a 100% girly space for a little baby girl to call her own.

This is the view when you first walk in. Please note - that we switched the nobs on the dresser, but needed new screws - when I sent my husband to the store to get new ones, he left the extra knob in his truck... and we never saw it again! lol. Guess I need to get a new one from Hobby Lobby :) 

 

   The mirror came from my parents house - I just spray painted it a cream color. its plastic, but made to look like carved roses. 

I made these bow hook/hangers from some metal flower hooks at Hobby Lobby - I just found some metal washers out in my husbands toolbox, painted them cream, then ran a cute ribbon through it & hot glued it in place. :) They work great! I can hang up knit hats/headbands on the hooks too! 

Next to the dresser is a rocking chair that is from my parents house. Its part of a pair - but this one was always in their attic, my mom rocked my brother & I in the matching one that's still in their living-room. The patchwork quilt on the rocking chair is one that my mom (Nana to my kids) made for her. Its so sweet and there is even one made from the scraps for her dolls too. ;)  

 Then is her crib (this is the first time for us to have a baby still in the crib past 17 months due to how close our kids are in age - I am loving it! lol). Her crib bedding is from Land of Nod -  Winter, Spring,Summer or Patch Percale Crib. I only recently took out the bumper because I had to wash it and just haven't put it back in yet - its so cute, sweet & girly.

The pictures hanging of the bed are special to me - the carousel painting is from my Grandma (and a perfect match to the room - THANK YOU!) and the picture of the little girl & puppy used to be in my room growing up (I am sentimental can you tell?).

The curtains were made by my talented second cousin Patty - the fabric is from Joann (but I saw it at Hobby Lobby too) and is a decorator weight - ivory/pink damask print. I made the pink/yellow/green bunting as a decoration for her 1st birthday party. I never intended for it to be hung like this over the window - but haven't figured out how I wanted it hung. I am thinking over the crib and around that side of the room.

 

The newest acquisition for the room is this sweet little fairy/flower table & chairs set I found on clearance at Big Lots. I moved her crib around to fit this and her tent in last week (basically these 2 things are what prompted this post & the pictures). Its cute & she's had lots of fun with tea parties & her babies already. we had to add a little high chair for baby dolls and the rocking chair (from my Grandma) for extra seating - 3 kids + 2 chairs is not a good thing! The pink rug is from the Pottery Barn Outlet store in Ohio. Got it on clearance. 

This pink gingham tent is from Land of Nod- it came from the outlet store. The floral hanging wreath inside it is something that I made as the mobile for over Gabby's bed . Here's the post how I made it - Pretty little mobile

Next to the tent and by the door is a nightstand with books and a cute little lamp that I found at HomeGoods. 

There are two big pink canvas buckets from PBK that hold various toys & stuffed animals. 

Across the room from her window is a large wall with 2 full sized closets - usually 1 holds current season clothes and the other holds a combination of clothes from past seasons & for the next season. :) 

The letters for her name I picked up at Hobby Lobby and then painted them myself using a stencil set & painters tape for the stripes (those ended up being my favorite. I used some of the left over paint from her room to paint them and some cream craft paint. 

And just because I love girly clothes - making them and buying them here's a peek at some of her clothes. Those bright & cheery fabrics all just make me smile ;) 

Thanks for looking! I hope you enjoyed the peek into my little girl's room. Feel free to leave a message if you need any help finding something similar to what we've got going on in here. 

Some Sesame Street friends

My daughter has a new found obsession with Sesame Street characters Elmo & Abby Cadabby. I decided to humor her passion for these cute little monsters with some applique shirts for her. I already had these striped shirts in my stash of plain shirts and think they are a fun new addition to her wardrobe. Definitely much cuter than the glittery Elmo shirt my husband brought home a few weeks ago from the store (unfortunately it was too small). ;) He tried so I can't tease him too much I guess. What do you think?

She hasn't worn Elmo yet. 

Abby was put on right away this morning - she loved it & is so proud.

Outside coloring with chalk. Notice her matching pigtails... - not quite straight - but she doesn't like to hold still, so this is about as good as this momma gets. 

Easy vintage spring showers shirt!

Last week while making the favors for my son's Ninja themed party I dug out a pack of Printable Iron-On Transfer papers that I had purchased a year or 2 ago and promptly never used. For my son's party I made some ninja headband things (not sure what the proper ninja term for such a thing is) I used a Lego Ninjago Logo that I found on google and put it into PSE (photoshop) to add each boys name. They turned out cute. The image transfer was soooo good I decided to try it for a shirt for my daughter. I had already pinned several sites that offer "FREE Printable Images" (free is the key here) so I searched for one that would work with a pink shirt she already had & is close to outgrowing (if it didn't work well I didn't want to waste a new shirt).

Supplies needed:
Color ink printer
Iron On Dark Tshirt Transfer paper (for ink-jet printers) - *there is also a version for white/light shirts too.
Scissors
Iron
Image you want to use
Plain shirt/dress/skirt, etc to put it on.

This is the image I picked from Free Pretty Things For You. (I LOOOVE her site! Adorable images, free, & great ideas - thank you for sharing with us!) I put it into PSE to resize it for a shirt. The graphic isn't perfectly sharp, but its still usable (besides my daughter moves so fast most of the time its not like anyone can tell the difference).

Once I had the image re-sized I put the transfer paper in and printed it out at best quality.  I used this June Tailor Dark T-Shirt Transfer paper (they also make one for light/white shirts too).

Then I cut out around the image. Following the EASY directions on the package - I turned the iron on low (NO STEAM), took the paper backing off the image (very carefully, the vinyl type image can tear), positioned it on the shirt, layed the included parchment paper over it, and pressed down firmly for 20seconds (lifting iron up to move to get the whole image on), then for another 1-1.5 minutes ran the iron over it to make sure it was all set.  That's it! DONE! So fast & easy. I spent more time searching for the right image than the entire rest of the project.

Now I waited to blog about this until AFTER she'd worn it & I had washed it. When it came to wash it I soaked it first in a bucket with white vinegar and water for a few hours - do I know if it helped, no but I thought it was worth a shot to hold the colors in. Then I turned the shirt inside out, washed on cold & hung to dry. I did have to re iron the image (w/ parchment paper) to get out the wrinkles, but it worked so well! Would I do these to sell - no. But if you need a shirt to go with a 1 time only occasion that your kids won't need again (think theme days at school or holidays) that you want something unique or custom for that is cheap, quick and easy this could be a project for you! Plus there is no sewing involved for my friends that don't know how to sew (or have time to).

**I also want to note that I also did a shirt with a ninja image for my son for his party and the red from the headband bled allover the face, so I would be careful about using red colors next to white, but a busy image like the birdy above worked great!

If you try this & it works for you let me know! Or if you need some help feel free to leave a comment - I'll see what I can do to help you!

Just a quick little summer dress

Well even though its February and we are experiencing snow, yesterday I picked up this cute little dress at Wal-Mart and added this adorable if I do say so myself birdie applique to it. There were several other colors of this style - I will probably go back for more! I also have a longsleeve one to do this too ASAP! Love the results!

A little bit of a catch up

I haven't posted much lately but that doesn't mean I haven't been doing some creative projects. :)

Elmo Birthday Shirt

First up is a fun little Elmo Birthday Shirt for a little girl who's turning 2. I am so happy with how cute it turned out. Almost every one of my appliques that I make are my first time doing them (since I don't mass produce for selling purposes) - so I guess it always surprises me with how cute the end up being. :)

A little something for Disney:

My cousin & his wife took their girls to Disney at the beginning of the month. She wanted to surprise the girls with fun disney themed outfits for the trip she asked me if I'd make a couple of shirts for them. I was thrilled to do it. She found two ideas online and asked if I could do them. I am not sure exactly where from, but thanks if they are yours. :) 

Christmas Shirts

These are way late for sharing too :) But here's the Christmas shirts I did for the kids for Christmas. I bought the cutest ruffled skirt from Bits n Pieces by Kristin (she has a facebook page and an etsy shop) - her items are soooo cute. I hope someday to figure out how to make another skirt like this myself, but seriously couldn't have been any happier with what I got from her. I have seen so many cute things created by her. 

The boys both wore these. 

Kristin was nice enough to include some scraps of fabric from the skirt so that I could make the shirts coordinate with each other and the skirt. i used two different green fabrics for the antlers. 

 

Gabby's shirt with a bow on it. 

Super hero shirts

These superhero shirts I did for my boys back before Christmas, but I'm just getting around to sharing them. The boys L-O-V-E them and I do too! My kids are happy b/c they are still getting a superhero shirt and I'm happy because they are AND its not a super tacky superhero in action screen print either. Win-win right? I also did the Iron Man shirt for my nephew and he loves his too. :)

Batman

Green Lantern

 Iron Man 

Sneak Peek for Valentines Day

Here's a sneak peek at the Valentines Knot Dress I made for my daughter. Its the very first time I attempted a knot style dress - I didn't use any particular tutorial or pattern. I did look at a few blogs and dress that we had bought already - but its not the same as any of them. I need to tweak a few things on this one  & then I'll take more pictures of it. The next go around I might attempt a tutorial of sorts - I always get so many tips from other blogs, I'd like to spread the love in a way. :)

Also this dress was my first project with my new Brother 1034D Serger that my parents gave me for Christmas - WOW! I love it and how much more professional it can make my garments.