I am in need of some advice.

I am in need of some advice.

Advice concerning a little someone in my life.

She's going through a "stage"

let's just say, I dislike no, LOATHE this stage.

It is slowly driving me insane. :)

Okay, so she's 3 1/2 and she has the attitude of a 16 year old! I'm not even kidding.

Her new "word" is "seriously mom?" Does it really start this soon? My little baby seems to have turned into a teenager over night.

Okay, so I am exaggerating a bit.

The hubs and I have talked about doing a reward chart, or implementing some kind of rewards system for good behavior.

I have googled rewards charts, behavior charts, and anything in-between.

It is overwhelming. There are so many different systems, charts, and websites that I have no idea where to begin.

So I need your advice.

What works for your family?

What type of reward system do you use?

Any advice would help.

Ruffled Shamrock Shirt

I decided to pull out my sewing machine the other day. Whenever I do this I almost always regret it. Sewing just doesn't come naturally to me. You might laugh at this, but I had no idea how to make a ruffle until a week ago! It wasn't until this video tutorial that I finally found enough courage to try it out! To tell you the truth--it wasn't hard at all. I was actually pretty surprised that a ruffle could be that easy.

So I have been hard at work making ruffles. I made Hannah a ruffled heart shirt for Valentine's Day. It was so easy I decided to try my hand at a Shamrock ruffled shirt. It took a lot longer than I had expected, but I eventually got through it. I am having a hard time making my ruffles all look the same. Some of them are really tight, and others are not as tight.

Anyways, since I made Hannah this shirt, I had to make Charlie a little onsie to match. Don't worry his is NOT ruffled! :) His is just appliqued.

I am afraid to say that I may be addicted to ruffles!

I am participating in

SYS at Somewhat Simple

Weekend Wrap Up Party

Show and Tell Saturday

Get Your Craft On!

Whatever Goes Wednesday

Link up Party at Sister's Stuff

Sew Cute Tuesday

1 1/2 weeks post lip repair

Charlie is doing wonderfully. It will be two weeks on monday since his lip repair surgery and he is as adorable as ever. :) He has his cranky moments, but for the most part he has been such a trooper throughout the last two weeks. Here are some recent pictures of my little man:

Little Birdie Boxes

Hannah's room is slowly coming together. It would probably be done a lot faster if I had more energy. I am nearing the end of this pregnancy and I can honestly say that I am exhausted! I have only been able to craft in spurts. Luckily, I had a crafting spurt last night and got something done for Hannah's room.

I have decided to name these cute little boxes because I think they are so darn cute! :)

They are my little birdie boxes. If you are new to my blog you will have realized I have a new found fascination with birds. This may or may not be a good thing...I haven't decided yet. :)

These little boxes didn't take much time at all. I would say about an hour to complete all three of them. It would be faster if you didn't have to wait for paint to dry! I HATE waiting for paint to dry.

Tutorial:

Supplies Needed

3 stackable paper mache boxes

3 coordinating paint colors

Scrapbook paper

Ribbon

Hot Glue

Sandpaper

Mod Podge

Step 1: Paint your box.

Step 2: Distress your box. To do this I got some antique white paint and then dry brushed it on very lightly and then sanded it off.

Step 3: Cut out a strip of scrapbook paper and mod podge it on your box.

Step 4: Hot glue your ribbon onto your box

Step 5: make a bow and hot glue it onto the front of your box.

These look perfect in her room and I can't decided where to put them. They are on her dresser right now, but that was for picture taking purposes only. Hannah cannot be trusted with something like this in her reach. They would be destroyed within a day! I am thinking on a shelf or something.....we'll have to see.

I don't know what I was thinking....

The other day I got this BRIGHT idea to completely re-do Hannah's room.

I am 8 1/2 months pregnant.

What am I thinking? This is what I keep asking myself.

I blame it on "nesting" Some people completely clean out their house to get ready for baby...I decide to RE-DECORATE our house before baby.....I think my husband thinks I am absolutely nuts....but he just smiles and says, "whatever you want to do sweetie." I think he knows not to mess with a pregnant woman who is "nesting." :)

Now, I am not by any means done with her room...I just barely started this weekend.

Here are the before Pictures:

(her room was a mess....well that's an understatement....a DISASTER is more like it!)

We started with her dresser. That big ol' ugly brown thing that takes up most the space in her room. :) It probably is way to big of a piece for her room...but hey, we are college students with basically NO BUDGET. So we could not afford to buy a brand new dresser for her.

We decided to revamp it with some paint.

Here is the dresser now.

We painted it a very neutralized green. When I say neutralized..I mean it is almost white with an undertone of green.

I then distressed it with some pink paint and sanded it.

I am really happy with the way it turned out. Now if I could only teach her that her clothes are supposed to stay in her dresser.....then I would be REALLY happy.

Here is my list of projects for her room that may or may not show up on this blog...depending on how well they turn out :)

**Curtains

**Quilt Shelf

**Pillows (these i am worried about..I have never really made a pillow)

**Wall decor (not sure where to go with this one...)

Creepy Crawly Halloween Bow!

I couldn't let Hannah wear her Halloween skirt without some matching hair bows! I had extra ribbon from her wand project...so I made some korker bows and added a plastic spider to the middle to make them creepy crawly Halloween bows!

Supplies Needed:

3 Coordinating types of ribbon
Wooden Dowels
Hair Clips
Hot Glue
2 Plastic Spiders

Step 1: Kork your ribbon.....You can find tutorials everywhere for this. Just google it and you'll find a million. :)

Step 2: Tie your ribbons together

Step 3: Hot glue a plastic spider in the center of your bow

Step 4: Hot glue your bow to your hair clip

Now you have two Creepy Crawly bows! Perfect for Halloween! :)

I just hope she'll wear them....she's scared of the spiders! I guess I'll have to put them in without her looking!

Shabby Witch's Wand

Hannah's Halloween Costume would not be complete without a magic wand, now would it?

She is going to be the cutest witch around when I'm through with her!




Supplies Needed

1 yard each of 5-7 ribbons
1 Wooden Dowel
Black Paint
Hot Glue

Step 1: Cut your wooden dowel to the size you prefer. This dowel is about 18"

Step 2: Paint your dowel black

Step 3: curl your ribbon. (also known as "korking") You can find tutorials everywhere, just google how to make a "korker bow" I korked some of my ribbon and left some of it straight.

Step 4: Lay a straight ribbon across horizontally, this will be used to tie all your ribbons together

Step 5: Arrange your ribbons in a pattern that you like

Step 6: Tie your base ribbon around all the ribbons and tie in a double knot. I made two different bundles of ribbon. So that my wand would be fuller.

Step 7: Tie your two bundles together with another base ribbon

Step 8: Time to glue your dowel onto your ribbon. Place some hot glue right int the center.

Step 9: Place your dowel onto the hot glue and hold until set. I also tied my base ribbon around the dowel after I glued it...to make it more secure. MAKE SURE YOU DO THIS!

Now you have a magical witch's wand!

Hannah has been playing with it all afternoon and saying "abra cadabra!"

She can't wait to use it for Halloween!

Halloween Tiered Skirt with Applique Shirt

I decided to bite the bullet and actually SEW an article of clothing for Hannah!

Scary, I know.

I'm not sure what I was thinking when making this decision. I blame it on being pregnant. :)

I had a bunch of fat quarters that reminded me of Halloween and I decided to make her a tiered skirt with them. I used this AWESOME tutorial. I would not have known what I was doing without it!

I did make the shirt all by myself. Well I didn't actually SEW the shirt...I appliqued it with a pumpkin. I would share the pattern, but I have no idea how to transfer that onto a computer document. If anyone knows how to do this, I would love to figure out how.

I am actually quite proud how well the skirt turned out! I mean, for never sewing anything like this in my life...I think I did pretty good. (just don't look too close)

I also never knew how useful youtube was until I searched on youtube "what is a gathering stitch" and "how to baste." Yep, YouTube has basically taught me all I know about sewing :) Which now consists of sewing a gathering stitch. I still don't understand what basting is all about... :)

I will be shocked if this thing doesn't fall apart in the washer! I'm sure you will hear about it if it does! :)

I am participating in the following parties:
Get Your Craft On!!

Whatever Goes Wednesday

Show and Tell Wednesday

Sew Cute Tuesday