Head on over to this Shabby Apple Giveaway!

My wonderful Sister-in-law, Kari, is hosting a Shabby Apple Giveaway on her blog!  If you haven't checked out her blog before, head on over.  She has a writing style that keeps you entertained and will tie you up in reading back posts.  And her list of 100 things she wants to do before she turns 100 in the sidebar is fun to read too.

Anyway, she's hosting a giveaway where you could win this green dress from Shabby Apple.

 
Giveaway closes Wednesday, Sept. 28th - so hurry up and enter!

Pumpkin and Ghost bottles

I found this on Pinterest . . . but one problem - I don't drink wine.  So I called around and found some people I know that do or have neighbors that do and they saved me some for this project.

I had to use baby oil to get all the labels off (since I don't have Goo Gone - I know, who doesn't have goo gone?)  And then I spray painted the green bottle orange (after taping off the top for the stem).  And I didn't want a clear ghost, so I used Rustoleum's Frosted Glass spray to foggy it up a bit.

I cut the faces out of vinyl.  Still not sure if I am liking the ghost faces, but it's tricky to get a ghost face to not just look like 3 circles/ovals.  I wanted a smaller ghost, so I cleaned out our soy sauce for that one.  But the neck of the bottle isn't as pretty as the wine bottle was.

Peg People

I won a giveaway on Simple Simon & Co. a few months ago where I got 3 peg princesses...My daughter loves to carry them around, but I hadn't seen the wood pieces around anywhere so they didn't make my to-do-list.  Then, I stumbled upon this post with Star Wars and Harry Potter peg people and was determined to find them to make some of my own. 

JoAnns has the girl shaped peg people that have a dress shaped body, but Michael's had the boy shaped ones that are straight from the neck down.

Here are mine:

They took 3 days of naps to paint . . . and I found them quite addicting.  The pirate seems out of place since the rest are "characters."  I think my favorite is Robin.  You can't tell from the picture, but the back and sides are yellow for his cape.   I started with Harry since I was copying the image from the post above, but then I ventured out and made some of my own.

Toddler Apron and Chef Hat

My daughter is getting a bunch of dress up stuff for Christmas, so I got an early start on some since I'll be making them and don't want to keep it all till the night before and drive myself crazy.

I was looking for a cute apron pattern (but not girly since my son would be using it too) that would work on a toddler.  But I mostly found child ones that seemed sized for a 10 year old or older.  So I just made my own sizing, but used this tutorial. (The tutorial is a PDF, so you have to scroll down the right side and find the button for "classic apron" tutorial since I can't link directly to it)  I picked this one cause it had "D rings" on the neck strap, and I liked the polished look it gave.  And I absolutely love this fabric - I found it at JoAnns.

Anyway, I had to shrink the pieces to work on an 18 month old but still last for a few years.  The length I used was 19" from top to bottom and 17" wide at the bottom.  The top was 7.5 inches wide with a length of 13" from the armpit down.  I did make the straps 20" long instead of 22" as well.  As you can see, it's a little big on my daughter, but it fits wonderfully on my 3 year old son.  So we should get plenty of years of wearing time out of it.

The chef's hat was tricky to make since I didn't want to put bias tape around the edge.  I just doubled the height of the band and folded it in half to get the clean edge to it.  Other than that, I followed the tutorial on that one pretty close.

Vinyl Embellished Toddler Rocking Chairs

My parents get each grandkid a toddler rocking chair around their 1st - 2nd birthday timeframes.  They paint them all cute too!  With my son's, I added vinyl to it before I ever got a cricut... I cut it out with an exacto knife!  Took forever!

But with my daughter's and my nephew's (who are only about a week apart) I cut it out with the Cricut - way easier.

Here's my daughter's chair - front and back... I used the butterfly trail dots to go down the railing.

Here's my nephew's chair - front and back...

And here's both my kids in their rocking chairs.  They don't usually last very long out in the living room.  The chairs are in "toy time-out" a lot - hidden in my room since Emeree likes to stand on it to rock back and forth.  So hopefully soon she will be safer with it and they can be out more often.  Cause they sure do look cute in those chairs!

Pillow Bed (Double sided)

Once I saw the pillow mattress on Ucreate, I wanted one right away...don't really have the need for it yet, but it was so cute. 

Super easy - just 4 pillows stuffed into 4 compartments in a long piece of fabric.  Easy to make, take apart, and wash!

I didn't want to make multiple ones, so I used a cute, girly print for one side and solid gray for the other side - more boy-ish.  Perfect for laying down to read or watch a little Dora and Diego!

 The tutorial said she found pillows at IKEA for 99 cents, so I made a trip the next day.  They were $1.29 at my store, but that was still an awesome deal.  And I didn't want to buy an expensive duvet cover, so I used some flat sheets that I had laying around.  No one really uses flat sheets, so they are always in awesome shape if you find them in your linen closet or even at thrift stores. 

Since I was making it out of fabric insead of an already-made duvet cover, it took a lot longer, but it was fun to make.  I did get confused in one point of the tutorial about making the pocket flap for the pillow.  I made one but it doesn't work at all.  So I will need to add 1 or 2 snaps to each opening to keep it cute and closed.  But I gave the snap kit back to my mom, so I'll need to borrow it again.

And since my kids are still so small, I can fold the top pillow section over to make a double pillow for their little heads.  But they both woke up from nap and instantly plopped down on it.  I love when they like things that I made for them.

Mermaid Doll

My daughter is starting to carry around dolls while she's roaming the house, so I thought it might be fun to try making a doll for her.  Then I saw this mermaid doll pattern/tutorial and knew it would be the one to try.  I grew up in the hype of "The Little Mermaid"  in the '90's so I have a soft spot for mermaids.

And I liked that this one had a removable tail so she could just be a doll as well.  Here's the one I made.

I would suggest something if you are going to make this doll/mermaid...I used knit fabric for her body (the polka dot print) but that was a bad choice.  It stretched and was hard to get the bottom where her legs are to look good.  Also, it's color is too close to her body color, so it blends in.  I was originally going to use a magenta glitter satin, but thought the tail might not stay up on a slippery fabric - but now I wish I had just gone with my first plan.  I do wish it was easier to find better colors in felt.  They don't really make a strawberry blonde felt; I wanted to match my daughter's hair.  So I went with the brown; it's cute, but I wish there was a better color for a blonde doll.

The pattern printed out huge for me, so I just shrunk all the pieces in photoshop before starting since I didn't want a life sized doll.  I don't know if my printer settings were off or what, but keep in mind you can always shrink or expand patterns like this.

The tail was made out of scraps of fabric that my mom used to make my niece's mermaid halloween costume...a teal satin and a sheer, shimmery teal fabric to put over it for the shiny effect.  It was soooooo difficult to sew with.  I don't know how my mom stayed sane making a costume out of it.

I also used a scrap of shirred fabric left over from making a toddler dress a couple years ago to make the doll a dress as well - variety for changing outfits.  I didn't have any stuffing, so don't tell anyone, but I just used a seam ripper and pulled some out of a couch pillow :)  So this doll was made with scraps and borrowed stuffing - didn't cost anything to make her!!  I love free projects!

My daughter carried it around with her most of the evening last night.  It even went for rides on the truck with her.  Not the best picture of her though...she looks kinda disheveled.  Her hair won't grow on the sides, but she has a mop of curls on the top and in the back.  So kindof a mohawk and a mullet combination.  I can usually distract from that with a headband and hair clip when we leave the house. 

Wreath made from . . . Spoons!

My mom goes blog hopping just like me, and she happened to find an awesome project that I hadn't seen.  It's a wreath made out of plastic spoons - she found it at Nesting Place.  Here's mine!

I grabbed a couple boxes of spoons on my trip to the grocery store the next day and made this during nap time. The only problem was that my front door is white, so the white spoons just blended in with the door.

I went to party city to look at some cool colored spoons, but they were quite expensive compared to the 99 cents I spent at Safeway.  Then I got another idea...spray paint.  They make special spray paint meant for plastic, but the colors are boring - so I went with normal spray paint and just hoped it would adhere to the plastic okay.  It's going to stay stationary on my door, so hopefully the paint will last.  I painted it yellow so that I could have a fun, summer wreath.  It reminds me of either sun or wheat... but I like it.  It was super easy to put together, and I used all 48 spoons that came in the boxes, so $2 for a wreath isn't bad.

Fort Kit

I saw this idea on MADE during "Celebrate the Boy" back in February.  I fell in love instantly and was just waiting for the perfect recipient to make this for.  Make sure you scroll down on the "MADE" link to see the kits she sells - that's where I saw it first.  The other link is her tutorial.

My niece, Lorelai, is turning 7 this month and she loves to make forts.  So I thought a cool kit just for her (plus a bag to keep it all in) would be perfect.

I was having a hard time finding sheets that were "cute" but not expensive, so I went with solid gray ones and appliqued an "L" on the front corner of them to personalize it a bit.  I sewed ties on the corners and along the long sides like she did in her tutorial.  I did try thrift stores to look for flat sheets, but they were just as expensive as buying new ones - and they didn't match each other.  ($5 for a flat sheet at Wal-Mart)

Pinecone Wreath

I have wanted to make a pinecone wreath for a couple years, but don't have any trees dropping pinecones near my house that I knew of.  But back in February, we went for a walk along the waterfront and spotted a ton of pinecones on the ground. 

This wreath was intended for my mom for her birthday, but she was with me when I found the pinecones, so I had to fess up with my project since she would wonder why I was picking up a ton of pinecones.  But, she probably wouldn't have been that confused.  After all, I am her daughter, and she used to pick them up at random rest stops and parks when I was younger...something we always teased her about.

Anyway, I finally got around to making the wreath, and guess what!  She had totally forgotten about it, so it was still a surprise for her birthday!

Here's the back...

I was going to use a styrofoam wreath, but I would have had to paint it brown and then wait for it to dry - unless I didn't care about seeing white spots between the pinecones.  And I don't have much patience when I want to start a project.  So, I dug through my craft stash and found this old brown branch wreath - perfect match to the pinecone color.  And ironically enough, it was one that my mom had given to me when she was cleaning out her craft stash before she moved.