Some Finished Projects

Here's a few things I've finished over this week.

First, I finished a cross stitch kit this week. It's from Bucilla and it was called "Fall Flowers". I picked it up from Hobby Lobby on sale (for like $12, but months ago).

I absolutely love the colors in this piece. The vibrant blues and orange/reds just look gorgeous.

Second, I realized earlier this week that next week is Teacher Appreciation Week. So I went ahead and threw together a few more coffee cozies, like I did last year.
The school colors are red and black and both of my Big Ks have coaches for teachers, so I went ahead and used school colors for theirs. Also, you can probably tell by looking that there was only one female teacher this year, and honestly I'm not crazy about the way that hers turned out, but KK liked it and it's for her teacher. The last one is for a student teacher in KK's room, but he's been there since the middle of the year so I figured he earned it.

I picked up some Starbucks gift cards to go with them, also like last year. Lord knows I need coffee to get through the day and I only have my 4, not a full classroom.

I have an idea of what to do for the SLP, since she got a cozie last year but I haven't gotten anything to make them yet. I'll show you when I do though.

That's all for now,
Jo!

Birthday Snacks

The 27th was KL's 7th birthday.
Here's what we decided for school treats:

Isn't he cute!!
Here was the inspiration (from a box of Teddy Grahams):

So I started with an apple sliced across to get a good circle shape, and then gave it a tsp. of chocolate icing (store bought per school's preference, of course). The picture I took is just the example so it has a little less icing because it was what the twins got to eat while KL's class had theirs.
Then when we got to the school, KL and a friend passed out the vanilla cookie noses/mouths (I used a food coloring pen to draw the noses on- tip: a quick dip under a running faucet amuses the almost birthday girl to see the water change colors and makes the color much more vibrant, even from when they're brand new), 2 blueberry eyes, and a choice of an Oreo to split for ears or 2 vanilla wafers because KL didn't like the Oreo with everything else. And then they assembled, if desired, their own snacks.
They all loved it. And I had a few wishing (and asking) to make another.

That's all for now,
Jo!

Princess Leia

I showed you my Cinderella dress for KL for favorite character day- KK chose to be Princess Leia.

I know what she really wanted was to make her teacher smile and wear her hair like Leia (because every little girl loves the side buns, right?). 

I didn't even start working on a costume for her until Monday night when she needed it Tuesday- talk about procrastination!! Luckily I came up with an idea to make it super easy. 

I looked online for costume ideas, and then wondered why bother when I knew I didn't have enough plain white fabric to make anything for her- but I did find this tutorial and pattern for her belt that came together pretty easily. I had a gray sheet with a worn spot that was recently thrown into my recycle fabrics and I had dark gray (think charcoal) felt. I know her belt is more silver but I figured the gray would work just fine. I used the felt to help the "patches" on her belt stick out some (and I added length because my 10 yo does not have a 20 inch waist). I also opted for elastic instead of Velcro- it just seemed easier than adding so much length that it could potentially sit funny. 

As for the gown, I took 2 of daddy's plain white t-shirts. I cut one of them right under the sleeves and stitched  them together. No fuss, no muss, no late night run to purchase fabric (and dad will take any excuse you give him to buy new clothes). 

Now, I didn't get a photo of just her in costume, but here's a picture of all my K girls before school- and in full costume. 

I love this photo. I'm pretty sure there's a little bit of everyone's personality showing through. Even the twins are showing just how different they can be, even when dressed alike- or maybe it's just me. 

Anyway, they had a blast. KK was a little worried once we started walking to school that she would be the only one in costume, or at least a little more elaborate than everyone else (and she was) but it only took a few minutes of being in the building and getting lots of compliments before she was okay with it. My little KL kept the dress on until supper time. She didn't want to take it off!! (KK took hers off for lunch, PE, and recess so it wouldn't get messy or hinder movement.) 

That's it for costumes, but here's a quick shot I took this weekend of KL in her squared-circle skirt I finished a few weeks ago- she just looked too cute. However, she was also wrestling with daddy while I was trying to get a picture so it's kind of blurry. 

That's all for now, 

Jo! 

Cinderella Dress

We are in the beginning of our ABC countdown to summer for my big girls, and Tuesday (F) is "Favorite Character Day". It says to come dressed as your favorite book character. 

KK has decided she wants to be Princess Leia, and really just wants the hair. 

KL, after changing her mind a million and half times, decided on Cinderella. We may have gone with the typical Disney design but the story line came from a book originally, right? Plus, after a movie gets famous Disney makes a few dozen story books using the characters anyway. 

So here's what we came up with :

I used the same concept as the tutu I made for KO a few weeks ago. 

I know Cinderella's dress is all blue but Hobby Lobby only had white, black, and hot pink options for the bandeau (and I didn't have time to order one online), so we went with the white. 

To give the tufts I added 3 strands of tulle in middle and tied them to the back. To hide the knot I just tucked them under the other rows of tulle. 

Also different is the straps. I knew she wouldn't be able to wear it to school without some sort of straps. (Although, I already told her she will wear shorts and a shirt underneath in case she gets hot, or itchy, or tired of wearing a big puffy dress.) So we too a left over length (same as the skirt of the dress) and looped them the same way at her shoulders, and in the back they go through a hole and then I tied them together, so the shoulders could be adjusted, if desired or needed depending on how long it lasts. 

My biggest fear was that people would assume Elsa, and according to a Facebook poll, that's the first assumption everyone is making. But I've decided once we get a black choker on her it will be easier to tell. 

Here's the only in progress shot I took, it's poorly lit and wasn't planned on being added here, but KM was just too cute in it, and got very mad when daddy took it off for supper. 

But this photo shows why I decided on two layers instead of just one. The single layer was pretty see through and left a gap near the top of the skirt/bottom of the bandeau that the second layer (along with a little help from a small white strip that I weaved through the middle) took care of.

That's all for now, 

Jo!

Niece's Skirt

Yesterday we celebrated my niece's birthday, this is the polka dot skirt I whipped up in the last weeks.
Let's start with the wrapping. I have a dislike for gift bags- I really have no idea why, part of me thinks it stems from filling a paper bag with more paper just seems wasteful, part of me think it's the feeling of obligation to use it again so it doesn't seem wasteful. I don't really know anything for sure, except the fact that I don't like them. So here's what I did:

(There was another package that I wrapped after this, but it was just a box, so nothing special.)

I have seen several different instructions on using your wrapping paper as a bag so that's what I went for. I actually used this method for Christmas gifts too, but was frustrated with the fact that they only instruct you on how to do the "bag" portion and not how to close it up, but I think it turned out great this time. (Here's a link to a tutorial on making a gift bag out of wrapping paper, with an idea of how to close.)
When it came to closing I really just folded the extra down, tucked in the sides and taped, then covered that seam with a bow.

Anyway, enough on that here's the cute niece in the skirt:

I bought the tank from Target, and you can see she's got the bow in her hair too.
I also found a cute set of 3D press on nails that came with a ring and had pretty close to the same color pallet, so I bought those for her (they were wrapped in matching paper, but it was just a box so nothing special). Here's the text I got this morning from my brother:

It's a little hard to tell, but the eyes are googly eyes, so that's the 3D part. There were also a few with jewels on them too.

I love that little girly!! And I'm glad she likes her new outfit.

That's all for now,
Jo!