Spring Cleaning and a shopping spree

Did I mention that I am trying to do some spring cleaning? I have been getting paper boxes from work and Jared and I are trying to sort through all of our crap and donate them into piles to donate or whatever.

A couple weeks ago before I started my re-do of JR's room I  went through all his clothes and toys and things and gave two big boxes to my co-worker who is expecting in May. I hung on to a few shirts and things that I think he can wear through at least spring but I realized since the first time since JR was born I was going to have to buy him a full on wardrobe for the upcoming season.

In order to know what I have and don't have I like to organize his closet by color.

I could just spend all my money on cute clothes for JR and I started to pile the clothes high a few weeks ago but decided it would be easier on my pocket book if I just bought one outfit every two weeks, so I just ended up getting this...

But today I was out and about to buy my next outfit and I had to get this cute little matching sweater/shirt that would also go with the shorts...

That was in addition to my next allotted outfit of course, which was this...

And then I saw this shirt, which also matched the shorts in a way, so I figured the more you can mix and match clothes the better...

And then I saw some camo shorts to go with that shirt, and what little boy doesn't need camo shorts...

At that point I had gone a little past my allotted number of outfits for the day so I figured why not get the one last outfit I saw there that I wanted? A shorts and shirt set with a cutie zip up hoodie to match...

All in all a healthy start to a summer wardrobe!

Unfortunately I didn't follow my own advice and follow my color coordinated closet. I probably need to lay off the shopping for a few weeks though! Sometimes I wish that JR was a girl but other times there is such cute stuff out there for boys too.

Project: Aprons!

A while back I made these little people aprons for my tiniest nieces and nephews! I have also made them for myself and my sister-in-law and I owe my other, bigger nephews aprons too (if they want them). I didn't do a tutorial but I still wanted to post the pictures.

Aren't they cute? I am still working on my sewing skills so all my family members end up with my crappy projects! These were pretty good for my first time though!

JR's Big Boy Room: Silhouettes

This project was so cute and awesome in my mind and sooooo lame the way it came out. Okay, it isn't really that lame, it was just so much better in my mind and I had built it way up before I even started.

So I ordered some thin adhesive vinyl stickers in white of a dump truck, an earth mover, and a semi-truck. These cost me about $13 total. My original plan was to buy some cute scrap booking paper and apply the stickers there and then frame them. For some reason though in the back of my mind I had this idea just to paint canvases in three different colors and put the stickers on them, and that is what I decided to do.

I bought two different sizes of canvases, just the good old Wal Mart kind, and also a couple of acrylic paint colors I needed.

I painted each of my canvases with just one coat and let them dry to the touch.

I wanted them to have a whitewashed look so after they were dry I painted over them with white acrylic paint and then, remembering a technique I had learned at a class where I painted a custom clock, I just wiped the white paint off with a wet wipe!

I started wiping in the center in a sort of circular patters, I wanted to have more white on the edges and more color in the center.

I even added more white paint to the edges and then wiped again...

Once they were all dry I hated them. Really, I did. I wanted to go back to my original idea of using the scrap booking paper and picture frames. The problem was that I wanted to see what the canvases would look like with the vinyl but those of you who have worked with vinyl before know that it can only be applied once. The other problem was that I had already paid for and painted the canvases, plus the new paint colors I needed for this project and nothing could be returned to pay for the picture frame idea. really I paid under $20 for all those supplies and I am sure I will use the leftovers in the future, but still, I am cheap and I do have a budget!

So I went ahead and applied the stickers. And I applied the dump truck with the canvas laying horizontally when I meant to have that one vertically which made me despise the project even more.  In the end they really did not turn out that bad, I just built up what they could have been so high in my mind that I am disappointed in the results.

So my next projects are to make crib sheets with matching fabric from the bunting and to find a good aqua colored fabric for a new quilt.

Also, What to do with the random space in this cabinet where I tore the fabric out that the old owners had in there. See all those staples and cotton bits? Unless I pull those all out that part is not getting painted! Might have to put more fabric back in there...

Girl Scout Cookie Season

Girl Scout Cookie Season is always hard for us but this year no one has come to the door selling them and I ignored texts from friends and family regarding them. Jared bought one box of Samoas and one box of Thin Mints from some girls outside Albertsons the other day but so far that has been it.

I really really want to lose weight before the summer but I hate to give up everything so I was so pleased when I ran across these thingy's...

Think the flavor of a Samoa but it has 9gms of fiber and only like 130 calories or something! They also only have 19 carbs and I think I remember one of the dietitians I have seen in the past telling me that if there are more than 5gms of fiber in a serving of food you can subtract that number from the total carbs. The problem is most foods don't have that much fiber!

JR'sBig Boy Room: Fabric Bunting Tutorial

I saw this fabric bunting tutorial and I knew it would be perfect for JR's room. It took several trips to the fabric store with JR and then one final trip without him to get the perfect fabrics but I finally found some that I liked. I was just going to pick about four fabrics and use each of them twice but I ended up finding eight different ones.

I searched high and low for my rotary cutter because it allows me to cut more easily and more than one piece at a time if I so desire but my regular fabric scissors would have worked just as well.

Some of my supplies...

I ended up wanting my pennants to be bigger than the pdf on the other site's tutorial so I used the entire length of the short edge of my 1/4 yard of fabric as the top of the pennant and just eyeballed it. The only problem I came across was on my favorite fabric 1/4 yard was not enough to make the pattern run the right direction. Oh well.

The top edge is the connecting one, the right and left sides are the cut edges...

I should have cut them facing sides together to save a step but oh well, it didn't take long to flip them and pin them. Pin the bottom point and then the right and left sides about 3/4 an inch from the top...

Then you will be ready to sew. I used my Pixie craft sewing machine from Singer that I got at a garage sale or something. It had never been used and the price was right so I picked it up but I had never used it until now. It worked great! I don't think I could ever sew anything other than fabric to fabric but it is perfect for my little projects!

Sew from the pin mark on the right side down to the point and then back up to the left pin mark. Make sure at each pin mark you back up and sew over it a couple times. Then you are ready to turn the triangles right side out.  Pull apart the fabric at the tip.

(My camera did some wiggity-wack things in a few of my pics, hope it just needs a new SD card or something...)

Start tucking the tip to the inside...

Find a pen, skewer (or in my case I used some random kitchen tool that came with my knife set and I have no idea what it is for but I have used it for crafts on several occasions) and put it into the tip and start flipping the fabric right side out. Push fabric out one of the holes you left on the right or left top side.

It will look like this...

But my grandmother would never approve of that flat tip so I got a pin and picked it out until it was as pointy as I could get it!

Now at the top where you left two holes on the right and left tuck in the unsewen fabric so it looks like more of a finished edge...

After this it is smooth sailing. You just iron the triangles and then sew about 3/4 an inch from the folded edge across the top (seam will hit the bottom of the holes you just tucked in) and then you are ready to thread the pennants onto your ribbon or cord or twine. I put big beads between each of mine.

This was one of the easiest, fastest projects I have ever done from start to finish. A lot of times tutorials will say how easy stuff is but the people doing them are master sewers and crafters. I always start projects that are supposed to be easy and get burned out half way through but this one wasn't sew! Hehe.

I think I may add some fabric letters that say "JR" to one of the pennants somewhere. What do you think?



Project: JR's Tool Box

JR got a set of plastic Home Depot tools for Christmas (some of which Bandit used as chew toys) and I have wanted to get a tool box or something to put them in.

Then a few weeks ago I saw this wood box with a handle at Fred Meyer and it was 60% off the clearance! It think it ended up being about $3 total.

I wanted to personalize it so I got some cheap-o stencils and my orange acrylic paint and a little foam brush and went to town!

I know that you are supposed to line up the letters and tape them down so they are straight and all that but I was not about to be a perfectionist on this particular project so I just eyeballed it! I even painted outside the lines in a couple of spots! I think the finished product was perfect though!