Tracing Wheel AND Tracing Paper

I would have to say that this is the best thing that I have discovered all week! I know that as a person who loves to sew I probably should have already known about this stuff but normally I just eye ball any markings that I have to make while I am sewing, which isn't the best way to go about things but this little discovery has made my life so much easier! I can just put these nice little tracing papers right under my pattern and trace the markings directly on to the fabric with 100% accuracy. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

I heart Aprons and $1.99 patterns!

Honestly I totally don't like to cook...AT ALL but for some reason I am absolutely obsessed with aprons. I love making them, I love the way they look but I don't really wear the ones I make because I don't want them to get all dirty and gross I just have a cute little hook in the kitchen that I collect them all on. Ya, I'm pretty much strange like that...Anyway JoAnn's alot of times has patterns on sale for $1.99 and I love that! For the most part I like to get all of my patterns online for free but every once in a while I find a great pattern that I have to buy! A whie back I found this pattern that I had to have. It has two of my most favorite things...ruffles and layers! Here is how it turned out...

Scot was kind enough to be model. I sure love him! Anywho, I hope everyone is doing well. Only a 4 day work week! Woo hoo! Happy Monday!

Refurbished Shirt...

I think people are actually calling it repurposing but I like refurbished better. Anyway, I was inspired the other day by my friend Mitzi's post (here) to make one of these cute ruffly shirts. I looked around and found a tutorial I thought looked easy here. I didn't want to do anything too in depth for my first try but now that I have done it once I want to go out and buy a gazillion plain shirts because it was so much stinkin' fun and it took hardly any time...Here is the finished product...

And a close up...

If you go here you can find a whole bunch of different tutorials on refubishing shirts. Oh and the best part is I found this shirt on sale at Kohls for $6, regularly $12. Then I went to Target and they had a whole bunch of V-Neck ones on sale for $4! Score!!

Also just a side note, I am really weird about clothes getting ruined in the washer so I hand wash a lot of my clothes because I am crazy like that. I decided to throw this bad boy in the washer and just see what happened and then just lay it flat to dry. Good to go. Looks like brand spankin' new still. I'm probably the only one that would be worried about that but just in case there were other worry warts out there I thought I would put your minds at ease :)

By the way....HORRAY MONDAY IS OVER!! Have a good week everyone!

First project in a while!

It's been forever since I posted a sewing project on here. I haven't really been in the mood for sewing lately but recently got the itch again. Here is my most recent project....and let's just say it was a little more work than it was maybe worth...

There is supposed to be a cute little bow on the outside but I got slightly lazy toward the end and decided it was busy enough without it :). Next time I will definitely make the handles a little longer and I might leave the outside pocket off. Anyway, now I am inspired to do some more sewing so I need to figure out what my next project will be!

Hope everyone is having a fantastic week! I will be INSANELY happy when Friday is here!! I could so use another 3 day weekend!

B - Town

Last weekend Scot and I went to Boise to visit my bestie friend Mitzi. I can honestly say I feel like we are kindred spirits. We met in college about 8 years ago and we were definitely meant to meet and become friends. For a more detailed account of our friendship go HERE to Mitzi's blog!

Mitzi posted a whole bunch of fun old pictures from when we were in college so I thought I would post a few more just for old times sake!

We loved running around in these amazing wigs and visiting friends. OK, we only did it once but we thought it was really funny.

Here we are with a sexy beast hockey player in Jackson Hole.

Kayaking on the American River in Sac Town where you don't back down!

Mitzi took me to her home town of Arco, Idaho. Here we are at Swingin' Tree.

Playing airplane or something??...

Here is what a typical evening at our apartment looked like on any given night of the week...Three Amigos!

Mitzi and I after she had moved to Salt Lake! That was a sad sad day!

Love this picture...it's hilarious!

It was so great to catch up and just hang out with good friends. We loved getting to know Mitzi's husband more and meeting their adorable son Corbin! Here are a couple pictures. I can't believe we didn't take more! We were picture taking fools in college. I had a hard time widling them all down to do this post!

Here we are on our short hike Saturday overlooking Boise...

Mitzi helped me make this SUPER cutie apron over the weekend. I told her I was making it just so I could have something cute to hang on my hook in the kitchen. Ha ha ha!

Thanks so much for a fun weekend! Can't wait to see you guys again...SOON! Not 4 years from now!!

Here are the happs...

{That's short for the happenings...}

So I can't believe how long it's been since we've posted anything! That's probably because we have been super BORING this summer! Oh well, what can you do? Anyway earlier last month we went on a bike ride...BAD idea. It was probably one of the hardest things I've ever done...OK maybe not but pretty dang close. I couldn't even walk the next day. We rode from a little town called Silverthorne up to another ski town called Breckenridge. We figure from the car to Breckenridge was around 10 - 12 miles UPHILL the entire way. When we got to the last hill I literally stopped my bike got off and started to cry. Scot was being very supportive and telling me I could do it. I told him to go on without me and that I would just live there next to little stream forever. After eating a cliff bar though and a few swigs of water I was rejuvinated enough and we DID IT! Woo hoo. Here is a before picture when we still thought we were going to have a fun day. Sexy, I know.

Anyway other than that not much else...I have been working on a few projects some of them are gifts though so no posty...
Seriously, this project was seirously sent straight from heaven. I have been looking for a place to keep all of my jewelry where I could see it all and not have it get all tangled up and low and behold I found the perfect solution. All you need is a frame, chicken wire and your husbands big old staple gun! Oh ya!

I've seen it done with really gorgeous, ornate frames but seriously where do those people find stuff like that? I don't know, so I just went with Michael's frames. Works great and I had a stinkin' coupon. HECK YA!

Here is another somethin' somethin' I FINALLY finished. I started this project way back when and finally decided it was time to finish it. I was a little off on my measurements but it will do the job.

Anyway that's about all from us for now. We hope everyone is doing well!!

Pincussion Organizer

Another website I heart visiting is Sew Mama Sew. They have a ton of really cool tips and free tutorials. While my mom was in town we decided to make these really cute pincussion organizers from this free tutorial that I found on Sew Mama Sew.

Now I can have all of my little sewing supplies right next to me on the couch and throw all of my scraps away in the garbage bag. Pretty neato!
I heart free tutorials!

Water Bottle Sling

Here is the latest and greatest that's come from my all time favorite site Make it and Love it. I made the Water Bottle Sling a few weeks ago and was waiting for an opportunity to use it to see if I liked it and I was finally able to use it when we went camping recently and let me tell you, it worked like a charm. If I had it to do over again though I would probably make the strap longer. It was a little more...taught than I like across the chestisy region. Other than that it is a golden nugget of a water bottle carrier. Try it out, it seriously takes zero time at all! Make them for your kiddos too so you don't have to carry their water bottles either.

Grocery Bag Holder

So...I really wish I had taken a picture of the one we had before because it was the most HIDEOUS thing you have ever seen but I was so excited to throw it away that I didn't even think about it. A while back I was in desperate need of one of those plastic bag holder dealios and I was on a msision to find a cute one. Well that just wasn't possible...there were just none to be found. Finally one day while strolling through Wal Mart I did find one...a hideous one but I had found one. VICTORY! So I picked it up...it had a hole in the side of it but whatever...I found one. So I bought it and we used it for a good year and every time I opened the pantry door and saw that hideous eye sore I cringed. Depressing I tell you. It was made of this really scratchy burlapesque type material and it had random cats and pumpkins on it and the words "felines and friends" all over it. BARF! Anyway fast forward to a yearish later while blog surfing some of my favorite sites I found THIS really cute tutorial and decided to try it out on Friday night. It didn't take too much time and I was able to make it with some fabric that I already had :) and voila a MUCH better plastic bag holder that is way more pleasing to the eye. Try it out!

Need a Bag?

Do you have some dish towels (clean ones OF COURSE)? Then you should make a bag! I found THIS super cutie pattern on THIS super cutie website. She has such great ideas, I check her website daily for new inspiration.

I actually wasn't really even thinking too much about making this bag until I saw these tea towels at Target one day while I was browsing and I fell in love!

You will have to buy 2 packs of them to have enough to make the bag but they are really cute for carrying around magazines or whatever you like to carry around or you can use them for Green Bags for shopping. Stuff like that. Here is mine...It looks really craptastic in this picture but what can you do? I think I made mine quite a bit longer than hers and I decided I was too lazy to make the little flower that she made but it still gets the job done.

OK now go print off the directions and make one!

What do you do?

This post is a little late but WHATEVA...

What do you do when your girls weekend is RUINED by snow, your husband is working on your floors, AND it's Conference Weekend?

SEW! (Well I do...did anyway.)

OK so I sewed this little lap top cover inspired by this pattern...I learned that I NEED patterns. I am so not sewing savy enough to make up my own plans. This project turned out OK but I still plan to buy the pattern eventually and make a better one. Totally NOT satisfied!

I also made another one of these as a gift. I love this project. It's so quick and easy and satisfying!
I worked on 2 other projects as well but I don't want to post them until they are done because I have a little bit of OCD like that.

I do want to say that I loved conference. I have so much love and compassion for the leaders of our church. They have so much conviction and love for the gospel and they truly believe what they are telling us, they KNOW it is true. How can that conviction not rub off on you when you watch and listen to their words? How can you not be inspired to go out and be the best person you can be? Anyway I loved it, I was inspired and edified! What more could I ask for?

Also, can I just say that I HEART watching conference at home. There is nothing better than being able to roll out of bed, go downstairs and be spiritually filled in the comfort of your own home, jammies on, with a big plate of waffles. Oh ya!

...and FINALLY I am soooo happy to announce that the floor is finished and I should be able to post pics this weekend! Yahoo!

P.S. Girlies, I am so sad that we had to postpone our girls weekend! I was so looking forward to seeing you all and spending time with you guys! Such a bummer that the snow decided to come THAT exact weekend! Can't wait to reschedule and see you soon! Love you guys!

The Undercover Crate...

OK, if you have been looking for different ideas for storage I have a seriously cool project for you to try....seriously...cool...seriously. Did I mention I was serious? Alrighty, now...This is what you do:

1. Go to THIS link and print off the directions.

2. Go to your all time favorite fabric store (such as this one, this one, or this one) and pick up some awesomly awesome fabric. I chose some that goes in my living room because I was in desperate need of some storage in there for all of my yarn. I have quite a bit. Scot couldn't believe I filled one of these things up with all yarn. I'm obsessed. What?

4. Unfortunately you will have to go to this store to find the best deal on the crate. Sorry. The pattern does show you how to customize this project to any kind of open storage crate like this but I just like these crates because they are sturdy and a good size...

3. Come home and follow the directions and in about an hour you will have one seriously CUTE storage crate! I plan to make more of these for all over the house. I LOVE it!

Go from this:

To this:

Happy Sewing!!!

Fabric Basket

And...another project. Aren't you sooooo excited? I can feel the excitement. So I was browsing online one day and ran across this tutorial on Pink Penguin and I fell in LOVE! I was thinking of all the wonderful things I could do with this basket. I was going to do all kinds of organizing and make 3 or 4 of them for the living room for all of my yarn and magazines, it was going to look soooo fabulous! So I printed it off and went out and bought this SUPER cutie fabric and started working right away as soon as I got home never really paying that close attention to the dimensions on the tutorial. Well as I started cutting I thought, man this is pretty small but I just kept on going thinking it would get better. Finally as I was cutting out the last piece I was like this is going to be one SMALL fabric basket...and it is...and that's OK...I am still in LOVE. My next goal is to tweak it so that I can make a much larger one for organizing. Should be pretty easy. I will let you know....

"A" is for Apron

Here is Apron #2. I found the pattern in this book:

"A" is for Apron.

I modified the pattern a little bit by just doing three pleats instead of gathering it at the waist, that's just easier to me. Anyway, If you like to make aprons or just like to sew quick/easy projects this book is ultra fab! You can buy it at JoAnns, Hobby Lobby, and I am pretty sure I bought mine at Barnes and Noble. There are about 22 different patterns and basically how it works is the patterns are in the very back of the book and you just take them to a Kinkos or Office Depot or some place like that and have them englarge the pages to however big it instructs. For this one I took it to our FedEx/Kinkos and had them enlarge the page 400%. It cost me about $7 per page but you can reuse the pattern pieces so it's not too bad. Then you just cut out the pattern and follow the instructions like any other pattern. Bada Bing, Bada Boom...

(BTW Where are my feet? That looks weird. Oh well, I am too lazy to fix it.)

Big Ol' Church Bag...

I am the Young Womens secretary for our ward and along with this particular calling comes lots of...stuff to carry around on Sundays. So to make things a little easier I decided to make a bag to carry all of this...stuff in. I have had bags in the past for Sundays that I would carry all of my teaching materials in when I was in Young Womens and Primary before but was never fully satisfied with their carrying ability. As of late I have become completely OBSESSED with Amy Butler's patterns/fabric/stationary/scrapbooking supplies, etc. Pretty much all of her products are amazing to me so when I found out that a store in Castle Rock sold her patterns and fabric I hurried over to check it out. I found this pattern for the Birdie Sling and asked the owner a few questions about it and decided to try it out. Her patterns are super easy to follow and there are lots of instructions which is EXACTLY what I need to get through some of these things so I really really like her patterns for that fact. She has gorgeous fabrics and I can't wait to get another pattern and start another project!

I LOVE sewing! I am not great at it and I definitely need to work on my straight lines but it gets my mind off of the stress of work and is a fun way to just let my mind wander to another place...

Scot was kind enough to be my model...

Here is the inside. It looks kind of weird from this angle. There are two pockets on the inside in there...

Ta-da!

My First Apron

OK SO I SHOULD TOTALLY BE GETTING US READY FOR OUR CRUISE and doing laundry and packing since this week is going to be crazy and we are leaving on WEDNESDAY!!!...But I decided to make an apron instead. Ha! So ever since my mom came to stay wtih us for a few days a few weeks ago and we sewed like crazy I have been obsessed with looking for easy patterns to sew. So yesterday I was online and I found tihs really cute and super easy looking apron pattern. I had some fabric from another project I was working on and I decided that "Hey I could make that." So I started wipping it out at about 11:30 last night and got up this morning and finished it about 10am. It is by no means perfect but I am still learning, so it's fun. Now I just need to figure out how to cook!!