Gingerbread House

This year I took part in my first gingerbread display, after starting my house in October it was fun to finally see the finished product.

With lots of help from the queen of gingerbread(my mother-in-law) my house was put together.

If any of you are attempting to put together a large gingerbread house, make sure the air is dry or you have a dehumidifier. I decorated all the pieces before I put it together and by the time it was ready to put together the gingerbread softened up so much it would have claps.

After a few days around the dehumidifier it was ready to be assembled. But that's not the only problem we ran into. After getting the house set up at the display, they discovered that apparently it was to dry in the room, so they ran humidifiers, seriously...this stuff is finicky.

What do you think? It's always fun to build a gingerbread house around the holidays....so get to work, I want to see your piece of art!

Toy Story Finger Puppets

My son was invited to a Toy Story themed birthday party this week so we were racking our brains trying to come up with something a little 3year old would love. I knew that the birthday boy had a few finger puppets that he loves, and he's also adores Toy Story, so what better gift then Toy Story finger puppets.

First I had to decide which characters would be the easiest to make in finger puppet form. The winners...Alien, Lotso, and a rocket ship(for alien of course). Using felt I cut out all of the pieces that I needed to make up my puppet. You can either sew each individual piece on, or hot glue them on, whichever you prefer. I sewed Alien, but I was running out of time so I hot glued Lotso and the spaceship pieces to them.

When sewing on the pieces that will be on the outer edges of the finger puppet, such as the arms, ears, wings of the rocket, make sure you lay them to the inside of the puppet before you sew the outer edge.

After all your pieces are in place, lay right sides together and sew around the outer edges.(I backstitched a few times at the ends, just to make sure the felt wouldn't come apart after they got played with a few time). Flip the puppets right-side out and your done.

I used permanent markers for Alien and Lotso's mouth and eyes.

I know when your young homemade gifts can be kind of lame, but since he's only 3 I'm hoping he thinks there cool, because I sure do!

DIY Shoes

Check out these adorable shoes my mom just whipped up, she's is always amazing! What do you think? Should I beg her to write up a pattern to share? Then maybe she'll come up with some little shoes for a boy(Boy things are always forgotten..why is that?).

Dresser Refinish

Ahhh it's finished....and I'm in love!

My parents gave me these old dressers when I got married, there not even that ugly but I knew they had potential to be much cuter. So after years and years and talking about refinishing them....we finally did it. So I sanded the top down, I probably could have sanded way more than I did...but I was just to excited to get painting. Taped this bad boy off, and got down to the fun part.

I don't know why I had the two-tone idea in mind but it was one of those ideas that gets stuck in your head until it's actually done... so I went with it, so glad I did.

I used Krylon spray paint in Ivory, the first coat I used the primer/paint in one. Two more cans of paint and the dresser was covered. Then I finished it off with a black glaze to show off all the scraps and dings...makes it look a little more antique.

The handles aren't my favorite, but they will do until I can afford new ones....which may be so long I will just forget about changing them anyways.

And a HUGE thanks to my sweet adorable husband for all his help, I couldn't have done it without you;)

Project Preview

Can I just tell you how extremely excited I am for my next project. Oh man, you don't even know how happy I was when I broke down and bought this paint, all smiles. I have been dreaming of this project for a long time, I sure hope it turns out as cute as I'm thinking it will!

Thankful Turkey

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, I can't believe how fast the last few months have flown by. To help the family(mostly me) be a little more grateful, we made a thankful turkey. A perfect family home evening activity for November.

Everyday until Thanksgiving we write on one of these little notes and slip it into "Chief"...that's what we named our turkey. Then on Thanksgiving day we "carve" our turkey and read all of the things we are so thankful for.

Chief is made from a large chocolate milk can. I cleaned out the inside, pulled of the label, and cut a little slit in the lid for our notes. The Turkey and feathers were all cut out by hand and only took a few minutes. The thankful turkey was so quick and easy to make and so worth the gratitude he brings to the family.

Two days into it and I am already so thankful for...Chief, he helps me remember to be more thankful.

P.S. I'm in love with his little gobbler!

Shower Curtain

When I found out I would have an extra bathroom to decorate when we moved, I was super excited...but when I realized I didn't even have a budget to be thrifty, the bathroom stayed extra plain and boring....until now!

I got some sheet sets at target for $4 for some christmas presents I am making, can you say STEAL OF A DEAL! After I finished the presents, I still had 2 sheets left over, a blue one and a white one, perfect to make the striped curtain I was dreaming of. Yesterday it hit me to make a shower curtain, and I was so excited about it I couldn't put the fabric down!

So since it was made from scraps, I guess I could say it was FREE...or $2. Either way it's pretty great!

It feels so good to have a splash of color in there now. I LOVE it, and I can't stop walking into the bathroom. Let the bathroom decorating begin!

Faux Wheat Arrangement

My mom has a really pretty arrangement of wheat at home that I love! I have always wanted a wheat arrangement but I never have got around to finding a wheat field to chop up. The other day when Preston and I were outside playing with these fuzzy grass that looks pretty close to wheat, I thought...why not just use this stuff, So I grabbed a bundle.

I stabbed the ends of the grass into a square block of styrofoam to keep them somewhat arranged and together. To Paint the inside of a spaghetti sauce jar I just squirted some paint in the bottom of the jar, closed the lid and shook until the inside was covered. The vinyl came from my scraps as well as the fabric.

I was extremely pleased at the outcome...why didn't I think about using that grassy stuff until now. And when I was at Target a few days ago I found this cute wicker pumpkin for $2, didn't NEED it but....it was my splurge for the month! If I can keep my monthly splurges less than $5 I think I'll be OK.

I am LOVING this fall weather, and getting so excited for the holidays!

T-Shirt Revamp

I always say that I'm going to revamp some of my plain shirts but...it never happens! 7-8 months ago(haha) My sister and I bought some cheap shirts from Wal-Mart so we could make them cute and I finally did it! I have been wearing the plain less cute version of this shirt the whole time but now I have a new cuter version to wear.

I cut 3 long strips of fabric with "petals" all the way down the strip, then sewed the strips on the shirt, 1/2" in between each strip.

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Now I'm on a sewing kick...I've been sewing like crazy and I love it, three christmas present done & I'm feeling very productive! Just wait till you see my next project...almost finished and I'm so excited!