STREAMERS of the pony tail variety

After watching a great tutorial
found HERE I made my little
T-Ball diva some cute EASY
and FUN baseball themed
pony tail streamers attached
to a hair band she LOVED
them I can't wait to see
what the other kids on her
team think when we meet
Thursday for the
first practice.

T-Ball anyone???

My 3 year old will be starting t-ball. This coming up Thursday will be her first ever practice, which I am sure will be a blog worth adventure. So tonight I am going home to make her some Baseball Ponytail streamers. I found a GREAT Ponytail Streamers Tutorial that I am going to be using. Hopefully my plans will work out and I will have some pics to post SOON!

Cooking

Now I am not a big fan of cooking but a virtual friend of mine started a blog for kids meals.
I decided what the hay the recipe sounded good and EASY and CHEEP!!

I am all about good, simple, affordable meals.
So tonight for the weekend I gave it a try.

Pizza Wraps from Cuddlebug Test Kitchen. Only change is I uses Queso cheese instead of Mozzarella

Smells yummy right out of the oven!!

JACOB Loved it and ate EVERY bite!!!
His was served with ranch, my kid loved his dip!

We used Kroger Brand Pizza Sauce $1
Hormel Pepperoni $1

Tortillas $2.49 (for 20 so half of that)

and Cheese $2 on sale at Kroger

So we spent about $7 NO WAY FAST FOOD CAN BEAT THAT

Adventures in Crafting . . The TIE T-Shirt

I absolutely LOVE all the applique shirts for little boys.

While searing the web for the perfect Easter outfit for my ultra casual cool 2 year old I came across T-Shirts with ties appliqued onto them.
My first thought was I CAN DO THAT!
This line of thinking often gets me into trouble. So I set out in search of all the crafting ingredients that I thought I would need.

Ingredients:

 - T-Shirt

 - Cute Fabric
   for said tie

 - Fusible webbing
   for the backing,
   I used wonder under

 - Matching Thread

 - Iron

 - Sewing machine

 - Pattern Thanks Saltwaterkids

Begin by printing a pattern out or you can make your own drawn on paper.

 

Then cut out the patten, place it underneath your fusible backing and trace lines on paper side of backing
(smooth side).

  I spent most of the afternoon googoleing just the best way to do this applique and there were SEVERAL. So did a little experiment since I am ultimately making 2 shirts. With one I cut the tie out of the fusible material and with one I left fusible material around the outline of the tie. Then proceeded to the next step.

Next you need to fuse the wonder under to the fabric. This is done by laying the bumpy side of the material onto the wrong side of the fabric and ironing on hot for 5-8 seconds to get a good bond.

You can see in the photo that one is cut to shape and one has extra material. I recommend the extra material to be left and then the tie cut out of it. This way was much easier to handle and the edges did not fray.

Cut fabric and backing in the shape you traced. Also optional you can cut the tie at the neck to make a 2 pies tie I DID NOT DO THIS. I thought one pies was plenty for a first timer like me.

Now you are ready to Iron the tie to the t-shirt.
Remove the paper backing from the cut out. Place it where you want it on the t-shirt. I attempted to get mine a centered as possible but if its not perfect no one will notice. Follow the directions of the fusible fabric backing, mine said to iron on wool setting  for 10-15 seconds using a damp pressing cloth
(a damp piece of scrap fabric or bandanna will work fine) 

Lastly you are ready to sew on the applique. I used a ziz-zag stitch on my sewing machine. I am forever wondering what setting to use so at the end I am including a photo of my sewing machine settings for reference.

 

In order to avoid double stitching I used the stitching pattern in the photo to the left. I started at the narrow part, sewed across the tie and then UP -- left -- down -- down-- down -- up -- up -- that brought me to my starting point. On the backside of my t-shirt I used a little dab of fray check/fabric glue to make sure my stitching stayed in place. Or you could back stitch a couple stitches to ensure that the stitches are secure.

And TA-DA finished Tie t-shirt!!!
Ready for my special little boy.

Settings

Party Planning 101

I am a firm believer in planning and not just planning but early planning.

So I am already planning my
daughters 4th birthday party in May.

This year she requested a fairy party so my mind took off. Normally the first thing I do is sort out invitations. I like unique invitations and being a Graphic artist gives me a one up in this area. I promptly got to work on a fairy version of Nicole for her invitation. I think it turned out wonderfully looks just like her! I sketched her in good old pencil and then added the colors in photoshop. 

Now that I have a basic idea of what I want. I went in search of INSPIRATION!!!!
I normally do a Inspiration file of pictures of things I like form all over the web.

So right now the party outline is - Fairy wings and wand making, Crowns for the boys; Snail roll up sandwiches, Twigs aka pretzels and berries; face painting and fairy dust; tissue paper flowers and streamers; purple, pink and green with lots of bubbles!! and FUN!!!!!

In the BEGINING . . .

There was ME and I was good. I was an art student, amateur aspiring photographer, general craft genius if I do say so myself *wink wink* I was editor of the yearbook and the school paper. I was on MY way to the top. Yea you heard me to the TOP! whatever the top my be for an artist. I was creative and free. I could create whenever I wanted.

Then there came LOVE!!
Now love changed my world ever so slightly I was still all of the above things just with a WEDDING to plan. Right I was on my way to the TOP! I designed my own wedding invitations, I printed them and put them together I was going GREAT! I thought man I like this wedding stuff maybe I could do this full time.
I got a job at a newspaper and printing shop which only fed my need to create in the beginning. I was doing stuff for other people and I WAS GREAT!

Then AFTER love comes something called REALITY. Let me tell you reality and I have a hate hate relationship  I would be most happy if I could sit at home and CREATE all day. Unfortunately reality had other plans. In reality I have a husband and mortgage and car note and RESPONSIBILITY.

Well after love and reality come CHILDREN 2 in so many years.
So now I have a rich life filled with LOVE, reality, responsibility, and children. Which  doesn't leave much MONEY or TIME.

So this is MY crafty, creative, journey in attempt to be frugal and still give me and my kids all the GREAT stuff I see for sale that I just can't really afford.