Monday, May 31, 2010

Tutorial Tuesday- A Puffy No-Sew Tutu

I've been working on making a tutu for my cute niece, but I'm not going to do my own tutorial for two reasons. 

1) There are a lot of them out there. 
2) I'm not quite done yet :) 

But I am going to link the tutorial that I'm using to make mine.  I found it at Plum Tickled.  It's a great tutorial, very easy to follow!  I am going to make mine a little shorter and puffier, kind of like this one which I just found at a random etsy shop.  (Baby Bee's Boutique, looks like some cute stuff there!)

Click here to go to the tutorial.  No matter the length or body you want, you can make a cute tutu from this tutorial!

A Baby & Me Boutique Giveaway Winner and Introducing This Week's Giveaway Sponsor

Lucky number 101

Mike and Tiffany, who said, "I follow via RSS."  Congrats Tiffany, email me to claim your prize. 

Remember for just one more week I will be offering a 10% discount to all of my readers.  Just shoot me an email or convo me in etsy.  I am also offering buy one get one free patterns this week only!  For that deal simply purchase a pattern from my shop and then tell me what second pattern you would like in your purchase comments.   (You can choose one promo or the other, not both :))  Stop by Baby & Me Boutique to have a look.

As for this week's giveaway, I've got a great shop sponsoring it!  R'z Cozy Creations.  Go check them out!  I am going to wait until tomorrow morning at 5am to post it because of the holiday.  So check back then.  You'll have all week to enter. 

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Follow Friends Sunday #3

Welcome to Follow Friends Sunday.  Link up your blog, facebook, twitter, or all three and make some new friends.

There's only one rule:
For each page you link you MUST visit and "follow" at least that many others because that's the only way it will work :)

It's also nice to leave comments for your new friends and of course follow back, but those aren't rules per say.  Neither is displaying my button, but here it is anyways, just in case you want to :)




 
Since these posts are pretty dry I decided that each week I would share a shop that I love, just for the heck of it.  I'm going to start it off by showing you some of the unbelievably adorable bows and flower clips in my sweet sister-in-law's shop, Missi Lou Bows.  You can see lots of her pieces on her facebook page by clicking here.  I love the bows for little girls, while the fabric flowers are so stylish for teenagers and adults!
 

A bow on a headband: Only $8!

Tons of cute bows: One for $5 or two for $8!

And fabric flowers for the same deal. 

Go check it out!  And tell her Jill sent you :)

Saturday, May 29, 2010

For any of you who are bored this weekend. . .

I have a little request for my sweet sister.  I will paste the details here below, but first a couple reminders:

- Enter your wedding dress into Fashion Friday by scrolling down two posts
- Enter your easy recipes into the linky below this post
- Last day to enter the Baby & Me Boutique giveaway by clicking the picture in my sidebar
- And last but not least, I would love for you to take my little poll at the top of my sidebar

Okay here is the little favor I'm asking, only if you've got a minute.  I'll let Lindsey (from Fitness for the Rest of Us) take it from here:

I have a special request.....I entered a contest hosted by a plus size swimsuit company (size 8 and up, yep it stings...) But hey, My plus sized self will glady accept their $1,000.00!

And I do think its a wonderful contest-celebrating bodies of ALL sizes! Because beauty comes in all shapes and sizes!

So if you have a moment to register and vote. Please do! Here is the link: http://www.swimsuitsforallcontest.com/node/69.

Below my photo you will see"login or register to comment" click on register to get started :) then once you are registered (screen name, password, and email only) click on vote on the upper right, scroll down to my pic and feel free to give me 5 stars (hehe) by clicking on the 5th star (below my pic).

And FYI the company-Swimsuits For All, actually has some SUPER cute suits.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Easy Recipe Saturday #3

For this week I'm going to stick with the normal easy recipe share, but I was thinking maybe next week it would be fun to have a theme, like Asian food (I say that because I LOVE Asian food!  All types, Japanese, Chinese, Thai.  Yum!)  We'll make some exceptions in the easiness area in order to accommodate the theme.  I would really love to have some good Asian food recipes, so get them ready for next week! 

But for this week, here is the info:

I am ALWAYS looking for new fast and easy dinner recipes! It is a rare occasion that I'm not thinking, "Hmmm, what can I make that is super easy, super fast, and yet tasty?" I have a few great recipes that fit this bill, but you can only have the same thing so many times in one month, you know?
So in hopes that I'm not alone in this I'm starting this recipe share.
Feel free to use a recipe you posted months ago, or post a new one just for the party. I can almost guarantee you I will try your recipe out as long as it meets my fast and easy stipulation :) and of course I'll feature ones I love.
Please. . . share your ideas because I could really use some new "super easy" recipes to add to my small list of overused recipes :)

Fashion Friday #3

I'm doing this a little differently this week, so read on!  My sister (Lindsey from Fitness for the Rest of Us) noticed last week that with this linky you can choose to attach your picture from your computer rather than your blogSo to make it MUCH easier to join the party (no need to blog about your outfit) I have chosen the largest thumbnail available so we can all see the outfit.  Then just link your main blog url and maybe it will send some traffic your way.  Plus it will just be fun :) 

Lindsey also suggested doing themes, and since I posted both of our wedding pictures last week I figured wedding dresses would be a fun theme.  I mean, who doesn't want to show off their wedding pictures, right?! 

Thanks to everyone who linked up last week!  There were some cute outfits!  I was going to feature a couple of them but I should really use this time while my son is being good to take a shower, lol.  So I'll just leave it at this. . . Link up your wedding dresses and I'll feature my five favorites next week :)

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Idea Sharin' Wednesday Features

Somehow I managed to make it around to everyone who linked up again this week, yay! That's a miracle because I've been so busy.  I keep voluntarily piling more stuff on my plate, I'm crazy like that :) 

There were lots of great ideas, like always, and thanks to everyone who participated even though I was late posting the party. . . again! I wont apologize (even though I want to) since the "ten rules of blogging" say not to :) but anyways, I loved looking at all of your great projects, here are a few that grabbed my attention.

My mouth waters just thinking about this delicious looking sweet and sour chicken!  I am such a sucker for good Chinese food.  I can guarantee you I'll be making this!  Find the recipe over at Santa's Gift Shoppe & Ideas.

And I'm in love with these bandanna shirts from Over at the Perkin's Place!


Get some amazing organizational ideas and tips over at Home is Where my Story Begins.


Some gorgeous Scrabble tile pendants at Scraps and Scribbles.


And last but not least, would you believe that these darling flowers are made from magazine pages?!  Check them out at Frugal Life Project.


And I just remembered that I never got around to announcing what the prize is going to be this week.  The winner will receive a simple headband in any size and a choice of several different colors from Baby & Me Boutique. 

Those little beauties are only $5 and so are the cute interchangeable flower clips to go on themClick here to go check them out.

For everyone that was featured here or has been featured previously, grab a button :)




Now a couple items of business.  Thanks so much to Tammy from Life is Not Just Paper and Glue for awarding me the Trendy Treehouse award!  Tammy is a sweet gal, I really enjoy reading her blog!  Go check it out.

And if you wouldn't mind taking a second to take my little poll over there at the top of my sidebar, I would love to know where you all stand!  I've got a fun little photography product to share with you soon and I'm just wondering how many of you it will appeal to.  Thanks so much!

Hope you are all having a fabulous Thursday :)

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Idea Sharin' Wednesday #10

Wow, I can't believe I forgot to post last night again, bad me!  Well I will leave the party open all week so hopefully everyone will still get a chance to join.  I want to get this up right away so I will add the details about the prize later.  Thanks for joining in the fun!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Bathtub Paints

 How fun is this?  Make some bathtub paint for your kids.  I know they sell this stuff, but I didn't know you could make your own with just a few common kitchen ingredients.  Head on over to The Idea Room to check it out!

Tutorial Tuesday- Lace and Tulle Headband

For those of you who missed my tutorial over at It's So Very Cheri, I am posting it here to make sure no one misses out :)  I think the headband turned out super cute, what do you think?


Thanks to my cute sister-in-law for letting me use her as a model :)

Supplies:

- The sewing machine is only used for sewing the lace together in the back, so that could easily be done by hand if you don't have a sewing machine.
-a sewing needle
-4 inches beige tulle
-4 inches brown tulle
-4 inches off-white lace
-brown stretchy lace ribbon
-scrap felt
-5 off-white pearl buttons
-brown thread
-a hot glue gun
These supplies cost me less than $10!

Steps:
1) Measure around your head (where the headband would go).  Mine was 21 1/2 inches, but you'll want to find your own measurement so it fits just right.  Then add one inch to that for a seam allowance.  So I cut my lace ribbon 22 1/2 inches long. 

2) Fold it in half and sew it together using a 1/2 inch seam allowance.  I went back and forth a couple times just to make sure it was secure.  Set the headband aside and lets whip out those flowers now.

3) I started with my beige tulle flowers.  Cut out circles of different sizes and stack them from largest to smallest.  They definitely don't have to be perfect circles.  Keep making circles until you've used all of your tulle. 
4) Now it's time to sew that little stack of tulle into a flower.  Fold it in half and stick your threaded needle through.  Then carefully fold it in half the other way and stick your needle through that way.  It will make a little x. 
5) Your flower should be pretty secure now.  Thread on one pearl bead.

6) Grasp the bottom of your flower and work it a little until you achieve the shape you want.  Then thread your needle through a few times in different places to secure it.  I found on my second flower that you can even wrap the thread around the bottom a couple times to keep it in place and then sew through it a couple times.  It may look a little messy down there but that doesn't matter because no one will see that part :) Tie the ends of the thread together a few times to secure and trim off excess thread.

7) You have one flower complete!  Next I did my brown tulle flower.  I knew I wanted it to be a bit smaller so I cut smaller circles and I only used about 3 of the 4 inches I had cut.  Other than that- exact same process!

8) Now it's time to make your lace flower.  I wanted this one to be a little bit bigger than the beige tulle flower so I cut my circles accordingly.  I didn't need to use all of the lace because it is much thicker than the tulle, but I used most of it.

9) I used the same exact process for this flower but I threaded on three pearl beads instead of one and I didn't bunch it quite as tightly because I wanted this one to have a more open look.

10) Trim the edges of your flowers if desired.  I did a little trimming to make sure they looked just how I wanted.
11) Arrange your flowers on a piece of felt.  Once you achieve the formation you like, hot glue them into place. 
12) Cut the felt around the spots where you glued the flowers, like so:
13) Pull out the headband and try it on.  Then hold your flower formation up to it until you find just where you want it.  Use one hand to hold it in place and the other to remove the headband.  Go back to your craft room and lay the headband on just where you have it. 

14) Cut another piece of felt similar in size to the one you already used and hot glue the two together.

And that's it, you're done!  This project did take a little time, probably an hour or so, but it was pretty easy and I'm very happy with the results!  Hope you like it too :)

Monday, May 24, 2010

Giveaway- Baby & Me Boutique

I'm especially excited for this giveaway because. . . I'm sponsoring it!  It's kind of funny that it's taken me this long to squeeze myself into my giveaway schedule, but I just had so many other wonderful sponsors lined up.  You are probably all pretty familiar with my shop seeing as I post about it occasionally and I have a showcase in my sidebar, but let me show you a little more :)   

I sell headbands and hair clips (some of which are interchangeable) as well as cute earwarmers.  Fun and stylish for babies, little girls, and adults!




I also sell newborn photography props and cute everyday items for baby.


And for those of you who like to crochet, I sell my patterns!


Here's what you could win
I've put together a fun prize package, most of which is stuff from my shop, but a little of which I have just made recently. 

The winner of this giveaway will receive the following:
- Crochet Flower Earwarmer in brown
- Adult sized headband (pale green) with interchangeable flower clip (two toned pink)
- Child sized headband (brown) with interchangeable flower clip (bright pink)
- A cute fabric bracelet (click here to see my tutorial)

With shipping that's about $50 worth of goodies!

The winner will have the choice of the package described above OR their four favorite patterns.

Here's how to enter

1) Check out my etsy shop and tell me your favorite item
2) Blog about this giveaway (3 entries)
3) Follow me on Twitter by clicking on the icon in my sidebar
4) Follow me on Facebook by clicking the icon in my sidebar
5) Facebook about this giveaway
6) Tweet about this giveaway
7) Follow my via RSS by clicking on the icon in my sidebar
8) Follow me by email by clicking on the icon in my sidebar (5 entries)
9) Purchase something from my shop (10 entries)
10) Display my new button on your blog (5 entries)


I am offering a 10% discount to all of my wonderful followers for the duration of this giveaway and one week after.  To claim this discount convo me and tell me what you would like.  Then I can make an order just for you with the adjusted price.

Giveaway details:
This giveaway will close Saturday May 29th at 11:59 Pacific Time.  Make sure to leave a separate comment for each thing you do and multiple comments for things that are worth multiple entries.  Each comment is an entry.  Thanks for entering!  Please watch for the winner Sunday evening.  I've had people miss out on their prizes, so just check back!

Thanks for entering!

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Adorable Ruffle Dress Onsie and a Couple Blog Award Thank Yous

Have you ever had a tutorial idea, but then found someone else beat you to it?  I'm sure I can't be alone in that boat, there are so many creative gals out there!  I found this tutorial for an adorable onsie (or tee) ruffle dress over at Sumo's Sweet Stuff.  She's got a great blog!  Aren't they adorable?  I think they are cuter than I could have made!  Click here to go see the tutorial.

And now a couple thank yous for some sweet ladies who gave me blog awards.  Always makes my day to know my blog is enjoyed! 

Aleesha from Ready, Set, Create awarded me the versatile blogger award.
Pati from A Crafty Escape awarded me the gorgeous blogger award.

I know I was given one other award a few weeks ago and haven't gotten around to doing my usual shout out.  I searched through my old comments to try and find it, but it was no use.  If that sweet person was you, shoot me an email, I would love to give you a thank  you!

I'm not going to pass them along just because it would be too hard to pick only ten people, seriously, I follow over 100 blogs!  There are just too many good ones.  I'm very honored though so thanks :)

Little Lace Flower Clip and A Zillows Pillow Winner

Have you seen this yet?  So cute!  There's a really simple tutorial over at Aly & Ash

Alright on to business.  Random.org declared lucky number 79 the winner of the Zillows Pillow Giveaway.  And  number 79 is. . .
Snowflake07
Who won with her third comment from following my blog via email.  Congrats Snowflake07 email me to claim your prize.  And to everyone else click here to go get a Zillow pillow for youself.  Thanks to everyone for participating, we'll have a new giveaway in the morning.

Follow Friends Sunday #2

Welcome to Follow Friends Sunday.  Link up your blog, facebook, twitter, or all three and make some new friends.

There's only one rule:
For each page you link you MUST visit and "follow" at least that many others because that's the only way it will work :)

It's also nice to leave comments for your new friends and of course follow back, but those aren't rules per say.  Neither is displaying my button, but here it is anyways, just in case you want to :)





Saturday, May 22, 2010

Easy Recipe Share Saturday

It's that time of the week again, Easy Recipe Saturday!



 

Thanks to all of you who participated last week, looks like some yummy stuff!  I will be trying all of them next time I go shopping.


I am ALWAYS looking for new fast and easy dinner recipes!  It is a rare occasion that I'm not thinking, "Hmmm, what can I make that is super easy, super fast, and yet tasty?"  I have a few great recipes that fit this bill, but you can only have the same thing so many times in one month, you know? 

So in hopes that I'm not alone in this I'm starting this recipe share. 

Feel free to use a recipe you posted months ago, or post a new one just for the party.  I can almost guarantee you I will try your recipe out as long as it meets my fast and easy stipulation :) and of course I'll feature ones I love

Please. . . share your ideas because I could really use some new "super easy" recipes to add to my small list of overused recipes :) 

Friday, May 21, 2010

Fashion Friday #2

Better late than never, right?  Okay to start out I am going to go ahead and feature our only participant from last week, my wonderful sister Lindsey from Fitness For the Rest of Us.  She linked up a couple of fun outfits from past posts.  Super easy, right?  Well look at this darling dress.  This was actually an etsy find!  I'm not sure the exact shop you would have to drop by and ask her.  I love the empire waist, always fluttering!  But anyways here it is.
I'm not sure what she's up to here.  Lindsey and I are known for our crazy picture poses.   Here's a couple pictures to prove it.  These are several years old (although t doesn't feel like it) from when I went to visit her while she was living in Japan.



We even did it at our weddings.


Okay back on topic, I hope you'll forgive me for that tangent :)  So for this Fashion Friday I started out at American Eagle and I ended up finding enough for my post right there.  I found a lot of drop waist dresses.  Those are pretty big right now and I think they are super cute!

They have a ton of cute dresses over there.  I would probably wear a tee underneath because I usually go for a more modest look, but I don't mind doing that because I love the layered look!

And now do any of you remember the picture I posted of myself on last Fashion Friday about the little ruffle skirts that were popular for about five months?  Well look what else I found plastered all over the American Eagle website?  Yep you guessed it.

  So I guess they're making a comeback.  I just had to post that because I thought it was too funny.  Anyways, on to a more modest find:
The Summer Cardigan.  Do cardigans ever go out of style?  And check out this adorable Embroidered Purse.

Alright I'm opening the linky party again in hopes that I'll get at least a little more participation this week.  Remember you can just find an old post with a picture of a favorite outfit or you can even post about an outfit you love from a store, like I've done here.  Really, anything goes :)

I'll keep doing it every week and if I ever get 20 participants then the next week we'll have a giveaway to go with it.  And speaking of giveaways, Courtney over at Scraps and Scribbles is having a giveaway right now for linking up your fashion finds.  Go read the details here and you could win some gorgeous juicy lipgloss. 
So you can do one fashion post and link it to both of our parties :)  I will leave Fashion Friday open all week long in case you want to take do a post later this week.  I'll be featuring more of you next week- if anyone participates :)  Thanks for reading!

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