Maternity Clothes and Birthday Party Aprons

I made this skirt a while ago, but I've loved it so much I just had to share. I found a tutorial (http://homemadebyjill.blogspot.com/2010/03/refashioned-jeans-to-maternity-skirt.html)for making jeans into a maternity skirt. I used a pair of jeans that I found at a thrift store for $ and an old T-shirt. The project was simple, fast and turned out so well. The next day I made a pair of maternity pants out of an old pair I had sitting around. I don't think I will ever buy maternity pants/skirts again. It is so much cheaper to make them, and they fit better. Sorry, the pics are horrible. Peter is the worst photographer in the world, I think. I tried to take these myself which is almost as bad as having Peter take them. You get the idea though.




And here is a picture of the cute little aprons and chef hats I made for Laura's birthday party. I had so much fun making these up. I figure they were a pretty cheap party favor since I didn't have to buy anything and just used bright fabric scraps that were left over from making my birthday banner. My favorite is the one little boy's apron who got a jean pocket to make it more manly.

Halloween Decorations

I love Halloween for two main reasons: 1. little children in costumes are adorable and 2. Halloween means Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner. So, it always makes me happy when I get to put up a few Halloween decorations becauseit reminds me that in a few quick months I will be decorating for Christmas and setting up my Christmas tree, which is my favorite time of the year.

A couple of years ago, my mother-in-law gave me this cute dish towel with the haunted house on it. It was too cute to use as a dish towel so I spray painted (I love Wal-Mart $1 spray paint!) a frame I found at a yard sale for a $1 and put my dishtowel in it for a spooky Halloween picture.

I love my candy jars! They cost me $1 to make. I bought these glass jars and glass candlestick holders at a yard sale for 25 cents a piece. Then I glued the jar to the holder and filled them up with candy. The expensive part is keeping them filled with candy. In spite of my strict instructions that they are only a decoration, my husband is really enjoying having candy in our house, which is unusual for us. I thought candy corn was just a decoration. I didn't know people really liked to eat that nasty stuff.

Laura and I found this stick on a walk this morning and I thought it would make a good haunted tree. I spray painted it black and stuck it in a formula can that I modgepodged some fabric on. I found these little skulls at the dollar store and glued some string to them and hung them on the tree. I'm not quite sure how long this decoration is going to last because Laura keeps trying to pull the ornaments off the tree.


I bought a huge box of fake flowers at a yard sale for $2. Mixed up with all the flowers were some red and white poinsetta flowers. There is probably nothing I hate more than cheap, fake poinsetta flowers. I've just seen too many people stick them in their outside flower pots during Christmas and then leave them there until March. Hideous! So, I spray painted them black, covered some buttons with orange fabric and made a Halloween wreath for my door. I had to add a few orange flowers so that the black flowers would stand out against the dark wreath.


Happy Halloween!

This and That

I had book club at my house last week and we discussed "The Great Divorce." The book is awesome and I give it 5 stars. It is a very inspiring book that tells the story of a man who finds himself in Hell and learns what he must do to make it to Heaven. I tried to make our refreshments match the theme. i don't have any serving trays so I spent a few dollars at Goodwill buying candlestick holders and plates. Then I spray painted the candlestick holders and glued them to the bottom of plates to create some fun serving platters.



I made this apron for myself a while ago out of an old pillowcase I bought at an estate sale for a quarter. I had some extra left over so I made an apron for Laura. I know it was a waste of time because she could care less, but it just looks so cute hanging on a hook in my kitchen.



I made this little green polka dot halter dress for Laura a while ago. It is still my favorite. I am going to be sad when summer is over and she can't wear her cute summer dresses anymore.


I bought a big gold framed mirror at a yard sale for $2. I used my $1 spray paint from Wal-Mart and painted it red. I love spray paint. This is a horrible picture, but I think it turned out pretty cute.

Happy Spring

I made a spring wreath to celebrate the 70 degree weather we were enjoying today. Man, I love summer.

Here is the Laura's little chair that I upholstered for her room. This was my first time doing it and it was a learning process. It was a lot of fun and now I want to recover another piece of furniture. Laura loves to sit in her chair and make it rock.




I also finished the black apple dolls for Laura's shelf.

Laura's New Clothes

I have been doing a little sewing lately for my daughter. Here are some of her new clothes:

Bonnet: I think bonnets on babies are the cutest thing ever. My baby disagrees and tries to pull it off whenever she remembers it is there.


Cost: practically free (I bought a huge bed skirt with lace all around the edge at Goodwill for $1 and used a small portion of it for this bonnet.)

Tuxedo dress: I made this a little while ago. It is sleeveless because I couldn't figure out how to sew the sleeves on.

Cost:
fabric: $3.00
buttons: $1.50
Total Cost: $4.50

Polka Dot Dress: I had some leftover scraps from some aprons I made and decided to make a dress out of it. I wanted to learn how to make sleeves. This was my first attempt! (Grandma and Grandpa Munk, now your granddaughter can match you in the kitchen!)

Total Cost: fabric: $3

Green Dress: Mr friend and I bought a pattern from Etsy for this simple dress. It was so easy to make and I think it turned out adorable. The best part was I bought the fabric at Wal-Mart for $1 a yard. I bought a little extra for future projects.

Total Cost: $1

Green Jacket: I found this emerald green fabric at Wal-Mart for $1.50/yard. I loved the color so I bought a couple of yards. My friend suggested I make it into a little jacket. Doesn't she look adorable in it?


Cost:
green fabric: $1
lining fabric: $3.50
buttons: $3.75 (I hate buying buttons. It doubles the cost of the project!)
Total Cost: $8.25

Valentine Decorations

My house felt so empty when I took down my Christmas decorations and so I quickly made up a few things for Valentine's Day. I love Valentine's Day because it is such a fun excuse to decorate with pink. When I was looking online for some ideas of what to make, I saw a lot of small white christmas trees decorated with pink. I found this branch on a walk outside around our neighborhood and thought it might be a cute and cheap substitute. I spray painted it white and stitched conversation heart sayings on these super easy and fast heart pillows and hung them from the branches. I thought it was a great way to use the cute sayings with out having to eat the nasty candy. (I can't decide which tastes the most disgusting: conversation hearts or candy corn. Why can't all holidays have yummy candy like Easter does?)



Cost: branch: free
spray paint: $1
colored fabric: $1
can: free (reused formula can covered in polka dot fabric)
(I used beans from my cupboard to fill the can and hold the branch up.)
Total Cost: $2

I made this little banner following a tutorial on rag letters. And I reused the stands my stuffed christmas trees were on with these burlap hearts. The flowers on the burlap hearts were originaly made for Laura's head, but unfortunantly her head is not growing as fast as my fabric flowers are. I keep making them bigger and bigger. I think I found the breaking point with this one. Way too big for that cute little head.




Total Cost: free (all made with stuff I had on hand)

Christmas Decorations

I love Christmas time and I love making my house look festive. There is nothing better than sitting in your living room and enjoying the lights and smells from your Christmas tree. However, the few christmas decorations that we got last year in our little apartment didn't go very far in decorating our home. So, I had to be a little creative in coming up with some cheap, new decorations.

1. Gingerbread house




I decorated it with mostly frosting so I wouldn't have to buy a bunch of candy. I like it better with out all the colorful candy anways. I put Christmas lights in the house and under the snow and it looks so pretty at night when it is all lit up.

Cost: I don't know because I used ingredients from my kitchen. I spent $6 on candy (most of which I didn't use. Peter enjoyed having a candy jar on out table. Thats a first)

2. Wreath



We got our Christmas tree at Lowe's for $24. What a deal. The tree is 7 ft tall and perfectly shaped. They were selling small and pathetic looking trees at Wal-Mart for $30. And they gave us all the free clippings we wanted. I hauled a shopping cart full out to our car and filled our truck. I love free stuff. Then I made this wreath with the clippings.

COST: $1.99 for the wreath wire form. I will be reusing this alot in the future. I love having something cute on my door.

3. Coffee Table Centerpiece




Holly trees grow all over the place here. So I bought a glass bowl at Goodwill and filled it with some free holly clippings. I used wrapping paper folded for my table runner.

COST: $0.99 for the glass container

4. Christmas Tree Decorations


I popped some popcorn and strung it on a thread with cranberries.
Cost: $2.00 for a big bag of cranberries plus $0.50 worth of popcorn




I bought some cheap glass balls from Hobby Lobby and covered them with stips of scrap fabric using fabric glue.
COST: $4.00 for 24 glass balls



I wanted to make a garland out of dried oranges and apples but it was too heavy for the branches of my tree. So, I just hang up the orange slices with a ribbon. It is very simple, but one of my favorite things on my tree this year.

Cost: $2.00 worth of oranges



I used the left over gingerbread dough and frosting to make men to decorate to hang from my tree. They were so fun to frost.