Child's Apron Tutorial

I was in Kohl's last week and came across a Halloween dish towel and pot holder set clearanced for $2.79. I had been looking for a cute set to make a children's apron out of so I bought a couple of them. I saw the apron on Pinterest and had been keeping my eyes open for matching sets that I could try this with so I was very happy to find them so cheap! I did have to buy some orange thread, but used ribbon I had so I made this adorable apron for Chloe Jo for less than $4.00!
She thought it was pretty great, too! I made it a bit big so she can use it for a few years.
I'm looking forward to making something with her in the near future (who says you can't use an adorable Halloween apron all year long!?).

And because it turned out so cute and I know many of my readers sew (or aspire to sew), I decided to go ahead and blog the tutorial of how I did the apron.

I started off with the dish towel and hot pad set and a roll of ribbon.
The first thing I did was cut the part of the dish towel I wouldn't be using off. This will depend on the height of your child. I made the dish towel portion a little long so it wouldn't be too short in a year.
I then cut the ribbon. I cut a long piece to tie around the waist, 2 shorter pieces for the neck straps and a short piece to cover up the rough edges on the back of the apron. I made the short piece 12 inches long to fit a toddler. I also heat sealed the ends of each piece.
The next step is gathering the towel. I used the longest stitch length and sewed across the cut edge of the towel twice and then gathered it to be about 11 inches.
The gathered edge needs to be smaller than the shortest ribbon so that the ribbon will completely cover the rough edge. Also, make sure your gathering stitches are close to the rough edge so that the ribbon can cover them. You won't have to worry about taking the stitches out if you cover them up with the ribbon.
I pinned the ribbon to the back of the apron, making sure the ribbon covered the gather stitches.
I then changed my machine back to the normal stitch length and sewed one line across the to hold the gathers onto the ribbon.
Your apron should look like this right now.
Take the longest length of ribbon and pin it to the front of the apron, covering the gathers and stitching. Make sure the pins go through the towel and the short ribbon.
I then sewed the ribbon on, making sure to stay as close to the edges of the ribbon as I could. I just sewed it in a big rectangle the size of the short ribbon.
This is what my ribbon looked like at this point.
I then pinned the pumpkin hot pad to the ribbon and sewed it on with orange thread. I used 3 different colors of thread on this project.
Next, I pinned the remaining pieces of ribbon on the top of the hot pad and sewed them down for the neck straps.
And that was all there was to it! The apron with the green ribbon is Chloe Jo's and I made this one with the purple ribbon for my niece, Brianna.
Brianna's birthday is coming up and she asked me for an apron. Since the Halloween aprons turned out so cute, I went ahead and made her this adorable heart apron. It was basically the same process except instead of a hot pad, I used the part of the dish towel that was discarded for the Halloween aprons. I sewed it into a small square and sewed it underneath the waist ribbon instead of on top like the pumpkin hot pads.
I really enjoyed making these and will definitely be making another anytime apron for Chloe Jo!

The Bug

I've got the bug bad this week.

The crafting bug, that is.

Back on October, my Mom had sent me a kit to make a necklace, bracelet and earrings. That poor kit has been sitting on my desk just waiting for me to open it. I liked the way the jewelry looked and I had good intentions of doing it right away...I just didn't. Well, I finally got to it this week!

I love how it turned out!
I'm not much of a jewelry maker, but this project might have changed that. I really enjoyed creating these pieces.

Great. Just what I need. Another hobby. :)

Another front door project

I love having a few fun things on the outside of our house to welcome our visitors. I have a few wind chimes, two garden flags, a stepping stone with Chloe Jo's hand prints, our outside seating and a wreath. I love wreaths and I love making my own (because wowzers...sometimes they are so expensive in the store!). I am hoping, one day, to have a wreath for each month of the year. How fun would that be?!? I think it would be super fun. Maybe I'm the only one. Of course, for that to happen, I would need a place to store my potential wreaths. Anyway, I digress. After I took the holiday stuff down, my poor front door (actually my wreaths hang beside the door, but whatev) was looking very dismal. The wreath I usually use for winter was looking shabby so it went away leaving me with no wreath for the outside of my home. Sadness.

And here enters Pinterest.

I finally did it. I caved. I am now a member of Pinterest.

It. Is. Everything. I. Knew. It. Could. Be.

To get ideas for a new front door wreath, I started perusing. I found a few that I liked, but none that I loved so I took all the inspiration and made a perfect (for me) front door wreath-like thing.
What do you all think? I love it! I love the trend of putting teal and red together so I took that and ran with it.
And I modified the felt roses that I make. I love how they came out. It was so fun putting two colors together! Plus, I made the edges wavy instead of straight and it just added so much to it!
I bought a wooden letter from the local hobby store and painted it black. It was looking a little dull so I remedied that with glitter polka dots. Too fun!
And I found the perfect ribbon to go with it. I couldn't believe my luck with the ribbon. I was expecting to have to use a plain, but nope. Hobby Lobby came through for me.
And wah-la! A unique, custom "wreath" for the outside of my home.

Apparently...

there is only one good reason to get your hands dirty (per my little neat freak).

A Krispy Kreme donut.

It's finger-licking good.

And best when it is sealed by a kiss with Grampy.

Christmas: Part 3

This post will finally finish up the Christmas extravaganza!

We left Arkansas Tuesday morning after an awful night. Chloe Jo had gotten sick during the night and threw up 5 times in about 3 hours. We decided to get on the road anyway, but bought a few cheap towels just in case we had an accident in the car. Why is it that Chloe Jo has gotten sick the only two times we've been back to the mid-west since we moved?!?

We made it to my Mom and Dad's without any further incident. Mom was still at work so we went to see her shortly after we arrived at their house. Once she got home we ate dinner and opened presents.

Chloe Jo was thrilled with all of the Dora stuff Mom and Dad got her! My mom made her 2 Dora hooded towels and 2 Dora washcloths. She talks about them every time she sees them in the bathroom.

We spent Wednesday just hanging out at Mom and Dad's and then went to Wednesday evening Bible study. Mom teaches the 3 year old class there so I left Chloe Jo with her thinking she would stay with her G-Jo. Nope. Mom texted Dad asking for relief and then texted me. Neither of us had our phones on. She finally texted Russ and his phone went off and I had to go rescue her. I'm very sad that she wouldn't stay with her G-Jo.

Thursday morning Mom wanted me to go with her to quilt a baby blanket for Brenson. I've never been with her to do that and it was so interesting! I had a great time!

And how fun is that blanket?!? My sister is doing Brenson's room in giraffes so it is perfect for the little guy.

Later that day my sister and her family came to stay for a few days. Thus commenced our 5th present exchange. Chloe Jo and Brianna were ready to open their presents!

On Friday we hung out and visited all day. Brianna, Chloe Jo and I did a few crafty type things like watching sponges grow in water. Do you think Brianna could be any more excited about this?!?

We also played with play-doh. I love crafting with my girl and my little niecey-pie!

We also had a little family baby shower for Brenson.

I love that the girls helped each other get this gift over to Chelley and Chris! They have a very love-hate relationship. They love hugging each other, but then they also like to push each other. They will be best friends one day, though. I insist. :)

The girls are very competitive and if one of them is on G-Jo's lap (or Grampy's lap) the other thinks they need to be up there, too. I think there is always room on both of their laps for both girls.

After Sunday morning church services, my sister and her family and we all drove to Oklahoma so Russ could preach that evening for the congregation my sister is a member of. We finally left to go home Monday morning. We went home a different way than when we went to the mid-west so we ended up hitting 10 states during our 2 week vacation.

One of my favorite things on the drive home was seeing the Olympic torch in Atlanta. I am a big Olympics fan (I hope to be able to attend a competition or two one day!) so I was very excited about this!

We finally made it back home on Tuesday and we are glad to be back!

Christmas: Part 2

And now on to the Christmas extravaganza: part 2! We loaded up the car the Thursday morning before Christmas to head out. Our first stop was my brother's house in west Tennessee. We enjoyed visiting and exchanging gifts with them! The siblings in my family draw names and we each get one gift for one sibling so my brother, Jeremy, and I didn't have a gift to open that night. His kids (Jordan, 12, and Kaylee, 10) thought this was hilarious! Ha!

Chloe Jo was tired and cranky the next morning so this is the picture I got of her with Jordan and Kaylee. Eh, you win some. You lose some.
Friday we headed on to Arkansas to celebrate with Russ' side of the family. We stayed with his brother, Jeremy (we both have brothers named Jeremy. It is very confusing sometimes), and his family. We went over to Russ' parents house that night to hang out. The next evening we had our annual cookie extravaganza! Here are the hosts, Bailey and Jeremy.
Allison (our niece) and Bailey making sugar cookies.
Papaw making no-bake cookies. Yum!
And a few of the cookies we made. I love this yearly tradition. My hips, not-so-much.
During the cookie-making, there was a lot of horsing around by the kids!

Marcus, Alli and David.
Sunday morning, we did presents with Jeremy and Bailey and then headed off to church services. After services, we went over to Russ' parents house to have Christmas dinner and another gift exchange.

Chloe Jo, Alli, Marcus and David.
Russ' brother, Josh, loved the Steelers nutcracker we gave him!
Alli was thrilled to be opening more gifts!
We have played this game several times already!
Nana was very happy with the photo book we gave her and Papaw. I gave a photo book to Russ' parents, my parents and my grandparents. I think they all liked them!
That evening, Russ preached for a congregation there and several of his family and friends joined us at worship service. After that was over, a few of us went back to Russ' parents house and played games. Anyone love Nerts (or some call it Grouch) like we do? I'm always up for a game!
Melba and Debbie have been friends for over 50 years. They met in 1st grade!
Monday we drove around the city (we used to live there) to see what all had changed. We couldn't believe some of the new buildings. We also went by our old place and my parents' old place. It was fun to take a trip down memory lane, but I really don't feel any remorse about moving away from there. After our exploration, we went back to Russ parents' to hang out the rest of the day. We played several games and just visited.

We left Tuesday morning to go to Missouri to spend a few days at my parents home.

Stayed tuned for the last installment of our Christmas!

11 + 11 = 22

I've been tagged by my friend, Melissa Jane! Go check out her blog!

Rules:

1. You must post these rules.

2. Each person must post 11 things about themselves on their blog.

3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post and create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.

Um, I don't really want to follow the rules so I'm going to answer the 11 questions that Melissa Jane made up and leave it at that (I know, bad blogger!).

1. What was the silliest moment for you of the past year? The night I stayed up really late sewing an outfit for Chloe Jo. It was in the wee hours of the morning that I started making really silly mistakes and I ended up making this pair of pants that did not look anything like they were supposed to. I realized then that I am too old to be pulling all-nighters!

2. What Bible verse automatically comes to mind when you're having a bad day? "Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you." 1 Peter 5:7

3. What's your favorite book? This is a tough one! I love so many books that it is hard to narrow it down to just one. I can read the Ashley Stockingdale series by Kristin Billerbeck over and over and it never gets old. I also love Harry Potter, Jane Eyre, any book by Jane Austen, etc. I read a wide variety of literature and I simply can not narrow it down to one favorite!

4. What is the one moment in your life that you knew Providence had a hand in the way it turned out? When I had the IUI that I got pregnant with Chloe Jo with.

5. Who was a penpal that you had before e-mail became the main method of communication? When I was little I used to write my cousin, Kasi. I also had a penpal in 4th grade from Argentina.

6. What's your favorite pair of shoes? My pink, high-top converse!

7. What does your dream home look like and where is it located? Honestly, I don't really have a particular picture in my mind of what my dream home looks like or where it is located. As long as my husband and my Chloe Jo are there, it is a my dream home.

8. Why do you blog? I blog for myself mostly (that isn't to say that I don't like comments...hint, hint!). I blog to find others who share my experiences such as infertility and being a preacher's wife and Christian. I blog so my family can keep up with what we are doing. But, mostly, I blog for myself because I enjoy it.

9. What color are the sheets on your bed? Tan.

10. Where did you meet your spouse? If not married, where did you meet your best friend? I met my husband when my Mom was working at a store called Fred's. He was her manager at the time and she introduced us. And that is why I married him. I figured if my Mom picked him out, he must be special. :)

11. What's your favorite part of nature? Goodness. This is another hard question! There are so many aspects of nature that I love. If I have to choose, though, I would say the beautiful mountains. I love driving through the Smokies, enjoying the gorgeous views. I remember driving through western Kansas and getting to the point where you can just start to see the outline of the Rockies. We once stayed in a beautiful town in the Ozark Mountains where you could see the mountains any way you looked. And then there were all of the hiking trips. I especially remember hiking in the Rockies by a trickling stream one year. We put our feet in the stream to see who could hold them in the freezing water the longest. I love the mountains.

Thank you, Melissa, for tagging me! I enjoyed answering your questions!

New Year's Resolutions

I'm interrupting the Christmas extravaganza posts to post about my New Year's Resolutions. I've been doing resolutions for a few years and have been doing pretty good keeping them. You can check out how I did with my 2011 resolutions here. So without further ado, here are my 2012 resolutions:

1. Pray more. This is such an important part of a Christians life and I pray now. I am going to take more time to pray like I should.

2. Finish the Pray Without Ceasing cross-stitch. This is at least the 3rd year for this resolution. This year I'm determined to finish it!

3. Keep reading off of the Top 100 Books list. I've read 30 so far. I don't want to put a number on here because I would like to get a few of the longer books (Anna Karenina, Ulysses and Lolita) marked off.

4. Finish 2007 and 2008 in my scrapbook. I would love to put 2009 on there, but 2009 is when I started taking a gazillion pictures (hello Chloe Jo!) so I think that would be stretching it a bit!

5. Last, but not least, I need to start taking care of my skin better. I've been noticing that I am getting crows feet and other age lines on my face. I need to start using a facial lotion. Anyone have an inexpensive recommendation for this? I also am trying to use more body lotion and foot lotion.

And there you have it! I hope I can mark each of these off of my list at the end of 2012!

Christmas: Part 1

I finally have time to sit down and do a real blog (unlike that wimpy thing I did yesterday)! We had a great holiday season! It started off on the Tuesday before Christmas. We had our family gift exchange then. We had to do it early because we left for the mid-west on Thursday morning and Wednesday is just too busy to do anything extra.

We were so excited about giving each other gifts! Just ignore how my hair looks in all these pictures. I had just taken a shower and Russ couldn't wait for me to blowdry it! HA!

Chloe Jo had a blast this year! She enjoyed opening presents last year, but didn't care much after the first few. This year all she wanted to do was open presents!
I tried really hard not to go overboard with her and I think I did pretty good and she loved what we gave her.
The only real surprise Russ got was this vanity plate I designed for his car. Everything else he had asked for. What do you all think? Does he like it?
I was thrilled to get the last book of the Inheritance series. Now I just need to take the time to read it!
And the aftermath.
By the way, I bought Chloe Jo a color wonder book (the picture reminded me) and I guess I got a dud because it doesn't work very well and I kind of hate it (and she does, too). It takes the color several seconds to show up and it is really irritating. Chloe Jo had enough and colored in the book with crayons instead. I'll have to get her one that works properly I guess.

Stay tuned for Christmas: Part 2 tomorrow!

What a Whirlwind!

The last few weeks have been such a whirlwind! We finally got back home on Tuesday evening after hitting 10 states and 4 destinations. I am glad to be home and have been working on getting all that after-a-big-trip stuff done. I have about a gazillion things to blog about and will start doing that soon. I hope everyone had a great holiday! I know we did!