We would like to wish all of our friends and family a Merry Christmas.

Dare to Design for Shabby Apple Dresses

Dress Design For "Shabby Apple Dresses"

My inspiration for this dress came from the Iris flowers that grow in my mothers flower garden pictured above.
As the flower blooms the petals fold back to create a very unique shape.
The petals of the flower inspired this asymmetrical collar.
The color pallet comes from the Iris flowers as well.
The fabric will be a woven cotton to make it light enough for spring and still hang well on the body. It will be a vibrant blue with a green print for the collar and sash.
This dress will be perfect to wear to a picnic or a spring night out.
It will add a touch of whimsy to any woman's closet.

I heart halloween

This year I decided to have a Witches Tea Party. All of the guests showed up in great witch costumes. We ate a spooktacular meal of Witch's brew (cheesy potato soup) in pumpkin bread bowls, bone bread sticks, a Halloween pasta salad and a spider web jello salad. For Dessert we had a pumpkin roll that was divine. Thanks Lanelle. We played Ghost bingo and did a Halloween word search. It was a lot of fun to dress up and decorate my house for the occasion. Can't wait for next year.

Here are some photos of the food.

These are glasses I got at dollar tree and cut vinyl labels for the outside. I Got the Idea from Better homes and Gardens but can't find the link anymore.

The Jello Salad. Thanks Christine.

Pasta Salad in a Cauldron

Bone Breadsticks. I got this idea here.

Pumpkin Bread Bowls. Thanks Molly

More Projects

On my list of things to do this summer was to get Eden a chest of drawers. My mom had this one at her house and let me have it. It obviously needed some TLC. I wanted to have a pottery barn feel with a little shabby chic. so this is what I came up with. I remove the remaining Silver hardware. I filled in the holes and created new ones with Clint's power drill. Then attached the new wood pulls that I painted along with the whole piece. Above is the before and below is the after.







And here is a close up of the shabby chic detail. I think it turned out great.


The next project that I had on my list was to cover the chairs I got from my Sister in Law. I have only gotten to one of them, but it is the one in our living room. The one downstairs will have to wait until I decide what I really want to basement to look like.



This is the lovely chair before (above) and Below is the after.



and here is an up close so you can see the fabric detail.



One thing that doesn't show in the pictures is the zippers. I took them out of the original cushions and put them in the new ones. Now I can take them on and off easily when they need to be washed.

I got some great tips on how to slip cover a chair from Here. My chair has a bit different shape but it was nice to see the process step by step first before I jumped on a project like this.
thanks pink and polka dot.

Summer Projects

I made a list of things that I want to accomplish while I am home for the summer. I wanted to do a project per week, but trips and things have sort of gotten in the way of that. I have altered my plan to work on something daily so i can get as many projects done as I can. Here are some of my summer projects so far. I love how they turned out.

Project #1
Half bath cabinets

This is the before.

And this is after. I love them.


Project #2
Is our small pantry or shelves in the kitchen



Here is the mess before. WOW!!



And this is how it looks now.
I could look at it for days.
I primed and painted all of the shelves you notice
the old brown color in the before.
Now it is bright white and clean. On the top shelf I
got baskets from Dollar Tree
made labels using my silhouette machine.
I also cut some lettering out of vinyl.
Here is a close up of the baskets.

They will help us stay organized. I think it turned out great.
The colors go really well in my kitchen. I wasn't sure the dollar store
was going to have what I needed for this project.
Why would I doubt they always pull through.
With a little creativity you can decorate and get organized on a budget.

Family Photos

These are our most recent family pictures. Look at Eden she is getting so big and her little personality is starting to develop. She is so funny she has a mind of her own. She knows what she wants and will try really hard to get it. When she gets caught doing something she shouldn't she will try to hurry and finish her task before we get to her. Like the other day when I went in her room and she had her dads package of gum and was biting into all of the pieces with the wrappers on. I said Eden no no and you could see on her face this little smile and she hurries and puts the last piece in her mouth, or when she is taking all of Dads cards out of his wallet she gets caught and tries to finish her task. She does it all with the cutest giggle and smile on her face so it is hard to get mad at her. Oh what a cute girl she is.

Refashion

This is a dress that my mother in law gave to me. I really love the print but don't so much love dresses. After being pregnant especially. I feel like I still look it in dresses, so rather than throwing it out or sending it to the D.I. I decided to create a skirt out of it. This is what I did.


First I figured out where I wanted to cut the dress. This dress had a empire waste so it was a little difficult figuring out just where to cut it off. I didn't want it to be to short or to long. The bottom half will become the skirt.


Next I simply sergered around the top to finish the edge and then turned down the serged edge 1 1/2 inches to create a casing. Then I had to find elastic to thread through the casing. Since I was doing this just before church so I would have something to wear I used what I had in the craft room. I used 1/2 inch elastic. When I get to the craft store I will pick up wider elastic and replace it.

And here is the final result. I really like it and I had something new to wear to church.

I heart Applique

These are a few of the applique quilts that I have made. I really enjoy the process of cutting all the little bits of fabric and applying the fusible web. Then sewing around all of the little pieces. These three quilts began with a few flower designs that I found on the internet. Then I designed each layout on graph paper and adjusted the flowers to be just like I wanted them. I especially love the first quilt pictured. It is the one I made for Eden. I got the inspiration from a quilt in Pottery Barn. If you know me at all you know that I want the Pottery Barn look with out the price tag. I think that I accomplished the look and I like my color scheme even better than the over priced Pottery Barn one. If you want to see more awesome applique check out dontlooknow.typepad.com

Easter Decor

This is my easter shelf. I think this blog is turning into a blog about my shelf. Oh well:) I love to change the decor for each holiday it just makes my little house so fun and festive.

R.S. Birthday Party

I am incharge of decorating for the branch RS Birthday party. I am making these cute paper cupcakes as center pieces. I found the idea on "Keeping tabs" blog. It has been super fun to plan and decorate for the birthday party. I hope it all comes together.

Another Photo of Eden

I am having so much fun with the picasa photo editing. This is my latest creation with Eden's photos. Eden Now has her first tooth. She has also figured out how to use her legs as she crawls. She is still crawling with her belly on the ground, and scoots along with the help of her legs.

Holiday Craft Party

My friend Michelle organized a craft night. It was so much fun we met at her house and she had prepared all of the blocks. Also she prepared and designed all of the vinyl lettering. Isn't she awesome. I just had to show up paint and mod podge the paper onto the blocks. They all turned out so cute. I think I also want to do the Family blocks and the Lucky block. Maybe another time. Even Eden got to play with a little friend. We all had a great time. Thanks Michelle.

What a cutie

Cute pictures of Eden. It is hard to believe that she is already 9 months old. She is growing so much. At her last appointment her weight was 17 lbs and she was 29 3/4 inches long. That is just over the 97th percent in height and the 25th percent in weight. She has started to army crawl and is just figuring out what to do with her legs. Her teeth are not in yet but it shouldn't be long.