Dance Costume Bag

We needed something to carry around my little's costumes for her dance recital and up coming competition season. I first made a bag out of a vintage pillowcase. 

Then I remembered I had this adorable ballerina fabric and made a new one. (I put her blessing gown in the original instead).  

While I was at it I whipped up a boxy make-up bag to go along. 

Simple Christmas Project Day 6: Ugly Sweaters

Ugly Christmas sweaters are all the rage in parties. We were invited to one and so I decided to throw some home made ones together. 

Simple Christmas Project 5 Wish List

So yesterday I showed you how I simplified my present buying for my family.  Today I want to share how I know what to put in each of those categories.  The Christmas Wish List.  So my cute 6 year old started making his list before Halloween.  It looked like 2 pages of printer paper filled with wants posted to my fridge.  So cute but he wanted to add more… getting inspiration from Confetti Sunshine's Thanksgiving Poster I made wish list posters.

We used 3M's poster tabs and hung them on the wall.  After having a short lesson on why we give gifts at Christmas we handed the kids washable crayons and let them make their lists.  

They can add to it all season long.  We have explained that they will not get everything on their lists.  Mom and Dad also have veto rights with Santa and relatives too.

To share in the joy of giving I've made a generic version for you to download.  We had ours printed at Staples as engineering prints in 18X24 for $1.99 each.

Simple Christmas Project 4 Presents

 A few years ago (like 4) I gave away this free printable:

I still love it and the method.  This is what we use in our house to determine what presents to buy for Christmas.  It's made things so simple.  If you would like to use it just click on the image to open it, right click, choose save image or print… Enjoy!

A Simple Christmas Project 3 Star

               A CHRISTMAS STAR

I decided to really work on my porch this year, it's never come together well for Christmas. I needed a center piece and fell for this simple star on Pinterest. 

The site it links to no longer exists but it looked pretty self-explanatory from the picture. I went to Lowes and bought 5 of their yard sticks (found in the paint area) for $0.98 each. 

I added 2 coats of craft paint to get in the ruler grooves really well, and a coat of glitter paint. After they dried I tied the points together with twine. 

Wrap around some Christmas lights I had on hand and I have a beautiful shining star. 

It's a work in progress but the porch is coming along.

Simple Christmas Project 2 Advent

               CHRISTMAS ADVENT

So you may recall the advent calendar I made years ago to hold a mini chocolate bar. I never really liked giving my kids candy first thing in the morning, and since we moved here 3 years ago we haven't used it. Bah humbug. So this year I decided it was time to bring an advent back.  I searched Pinterest for a modern idea and came across Confetti Sunshine. Oh my gosh- her blog rocks!  I kinda got caught up on it for a couple of hours one night, yeah...so anyway. I love the advent she did, and she offers it as a free printable!

http://www.confettisunshine.com/2014/11/diy-christmas-advent-calendar-with-free-printables-poster.html

I downloaded the poster and had it printed at Staples as a 24x engineering print for $4 and threw it in my frame from ikea I already had hanging. 

Instead of mini clothes pins like she used I decided to go with envelopes. 

I printed the envelope template from miniecoco.uk. Cut out and glued 24 - I will admit it was a little tideous. I added the numbers; a free printable from simpleasthatblog.com, then stuffed them with an activity for the day. There are a million options on Pinterest for these, but I made my own that are customized to our holiday calendar. 

I used a cheap tape (so it comes off easily and leaves no residue) to tack the envelopes up.

There you go. Super simple advent calendar that my kids love.

It's Begining to Look a lot like...

CHRISTMAS!

I want a simplified Christmas this year, which is a feat in and of itself. I decided to go with white, silver and black for my family room, trying to use as much of what I already had as possible. With that said, I have had a few inexpensive projects I wanted to do… So here's to 12 days of Christmas projects.

First up is this modernized nativity from thehowtomom.com

http://www.thehowtomom.com/2013/12/spray-painted-nativity.html

For my nativity I hit the thrift store and found one if those pearlized ceramic nativities for $4. With a can of metallic silver spray paint (I already had) I went to town. It took no more than 10 minutes. Voila:

A fun modern nativity, center stage in my home. Sweet. 

Thanksgiving Printable

I put these together last night for fun.  They are huge, so they can be printed as posters or as engineer prints at staples.  Enjoy.

Christmas pillows

I will add some new pillows to the guest bed this Christmas season....grammi (my mom) made the doily or "snowflake". Isn't it pretty?

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Christmas is coming...

I had fun making this little tree block designed by Lori holt for an instagram sew along. I think I'll make a pillow cover

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Baby blankets!

Carly came over to make some receiving blankets. They turned out so cute! She can't wait to cuddle  her little miss!

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Nail polish is a girl's best friend!

The beginnings of something fun...

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Families are forever!

Baby girl quilt beginnings...

For baby girl Reid. A herringbone design with a floral backing.

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A strawberry block

I've had this quilt pattern for too long and finally made a block. Was super easy and fun to make. 

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A strawberry bag

I've had this pattern for a while. Thought it was so darling! I made one up today and love it! Was so easy to make. Been loving strawberries lately.  

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An original painting

Painted by my friend Kellie. She sells at the farmer's market and has done many custom paintings including one of the big green electrical boxes in a nearby city. This is my 3rd painting she has made for me. This one is for my new office. I'm crazy about it!

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A budding seamstress

Cecily made 2 pillowcases. One For Herself and one For A Friend Who Has pertussis. She is sweet to think of her friend.

It was a fun sewing lesson.  

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Dresden

I like this dresden with points on each end of the petals. I may embroider something in the center. It's on a kitchen towel. Laura

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Dresden kitchen towels

These are for my boss'  mom and aunt. Both in their 80s. They used to make similar towels for their selves back in the day. I made one for my boss for mother's day, they saw it and requested some. Laura

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A creation by Joy and Ben...

A big and happy family!
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Pioneer doll

Reagan made this simple doll after seeing one at Heritage park. Usually they are faceless but Reagan wanted a face on hers. 

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Quilt for work...

I made this for the couch for the place I work. We are moving to a new site. I'm making a few new things for the new place. Laura

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Quilt finished

I made this one for this couch where I work. I'm crazy about dresdens!

Laura

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4th of July dresses

Birthday cake!

Anna's friend made our birthday cake this year. Isn't it a perfect mermaid cake? Reagan had a mermaid party and for our family party we had this cake. I love birthdays!

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Peasant top from a vintage pillowcase

Sarah gave me the pillowcase and asked me to make something for Reagan. Here's what I made...

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A kitchen towel...

I love making these towels!

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Shrinky dink bracelet

Made by Cecily

4th if July dress

I love making these tee shirt dresses! Short or maxi. Easy and fun for any occasion. ..laura.

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Flower Power

The minute I saw this fabric (or should I say vintage sheet) I knew it had to be a coat. I went home and pulled out this thrifted pattern: 

This was a big sewing challenge for me as I've never lined a coat before. The instructions made no sense, coming from a clueless reader. I looked up some YouTube videos and started to get an idea of how to do it and the I dove in. Luckily I got the right idea so there was no tragic unpicking. I'm really happy with how it turned out. It's a couple sizes too big so she'll have a lot of room to grow.