Live Your Dream

Bit O' Bling

Do you remember the Vintage Floral Headband I made a week ago? I wondered what would happen if I made the same flowers out of ribbon. I used Stampin' Up!'s 1" double-stitched ribbon in Rose Red and created a bit o' bling for my jacket.

Here is a picture of the back so you can see how I "finished" it.

Then I added an alligator clip (just because that was all I had on hand). You could easily glue on a pin--which would definitely give you more flexibility on WHERE you place the bling.

I suppose it could be ultra-versatile and one day I wear it on my jacket and the next I put it in Ella's hair. :)

Hot Chocolate Cones

I had a blast Sunday night (truly!) making these hot chocolate cones for my husband's co-workers. The recipe actually tastes good and it looks adorable, too. It took me about 2 hours to make 33 of them. :) I was a bit exhausted (and covered in cocoa) when I finished so I quickly put tags together and labels on the back with the "to" and "from" information. And when I totalled all the costs it came to right under $1 per person. Not bad!

I got the idea here and used her recipe but with Special Dark Hershey's cocoa. Each cone has 6 Tbsp. plus 1/4 c. of semi-sweet chocolate chips and about 1/3 c. miniature marshmallows. I also bought a bag of mini twizzlers which were perfect for the "cherry on top." If I remember right, each batch of cocoa made about 22-24 servings (3 Tbsp. of mix per serving).

I ran out of a few ingredients so I sealed up the leftover mix and made another batch Monday night for the kiddos' Sunday School teachers. (This second time around my husband poured chocolate chips and marshmallows for me--so much faster!)

Masculine Birthday

I used this basic design and created two more simple masculine birthday cards.

{supplies}
Paper: Whisper White, Kiwi Kiss, DS (retired)
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Stamps: Perfect Punches
Accessories: Wide Oval punch, Stampin' Dimensionals

{supplies}
Paper: Basic Gray, Baja Breeze, Whisper White, DS (retired)
Ink: Basic Gray
Stamps: Perfect Punches
Accessories: Wide Oval punch, Stampin' Dimensionals

Pillowcases & Bows

Here are the pictures of the pillowcase dress (yellow gingham) and matching hairbow. (I even found an alternate way to attach the alligator clip so the two prongs lie flat.)

Pillowcases

My sweet sister is due with a bundle of blue (Aiden Matthew Davis) in less than two weeks. I have a gift for him but wanted to have something special to give big sis Addison so I decided to test my sewing skills and transform a pillowcase into a dress. I spent the better part of Saturday morning looking for a vintage pillowcacse but couldn't seem to find any to my liking. ;) Instead I grabbed a pillowcase to an old twin set and started browsing the internet for directions. I actually combined several that I found and after a few purchases (ribbon, bias tape, and elastic) I was ready to alter the pillowcase.

It was harder than I thought--just because I have limited sewing skills--but also since I'm a bit impatient with myself. LOL. I lost the elastic three times even though I had it pinned and once even had the arm holes stitched, pulled out my pins, and discovered I had not caught the elastic with my stitches. I had to pull out the tread and retrieve the elastic (thanks to my Mom's knit picker). All in all, in about 3 hours I had a fun little dress.

The rest of the day got away from me and I didn't get to take a picture but I promise to take one soon.

I had some leftover ribbon so I worked on a hair bow while watching the new Hawaii Five-0 with my sweetie. I'll attach it to a clip in the morning and be able to share the set with you tomorrow!

Burpcloths and More

I finished my sister's burpcloths last night! In fact, I made 4 of them and decided one (draped for you to see) was pretty girlie so I kept it for myself. :)

I bought a color-coordinating pack of fat quarters from JoAnn's and Gerber diaper burpcloths. I'm pleased with how they turned out. Now that I have done a set (and renewed my limited sewing skills) I just might make another to keep on hand for baby gifts.

Then I finished up her thank you cards and made the matchbox favors (wrapped Hershey's special dark nuggets with scraps from the Chocolate Chip Patterns DS paper).

{supplies}
Paper: Whisper White
Ink: Certainly Celery, Cherry Cobbler, Chocolate Chip
Stamps: Baby Steps, Because I Care
Accessories: Certainly Celery 1/2" poly-twill ribbon (SAB), clear box

I forgot to open one of the matchboxes when I took a picture so you have to imagine the nuggets inside. :)

{supplies}
Paper: Delicate Dots DS (SAB), Whisper White, Chocolate Chip
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Cherry Cobbler
Stamps: Baby Steps
Accessories: Big Shot, Matchbox XL die, Sticky Strip, linen thread, Crop-a-Dile, Chocolate Chip 5/8" grosgrain ribbon, Sizzlits Lots of Tags die

I hope I have everything packed for her shower. I will be sure to bring my camera and take lots of pictures to share with you tomorrow!

Sewing Burpcloths

I am semi-recovered from Alex's party...I mean there is still lots of new toys to put away and a few thank you notes left to write...but now that his big event is over I can concentrate on my sister's baby shower this Saturday. I needed to get out of the house so the kiddos and I spent the afternoon "abroad" running errands and had a fun outing with one of my friends who knows all about Steak and Shake's 1/2 price milkshakes. :) Anyway...all that to say...I bought supplies to make a tutu for Ella and a set of burpcloths for my sister (see Dawn's post here).

Ella and I went to my parents' house with fabric and burpcloths in hand after dinner tonight (while DH took the boys to baseball practice). Three hours later I had cut all the fabric, sewn the panels, and stitched them to the burpcloths. I have to go back on Thursday night to top-stitch and to sew the 2" panel shut (where I had to turn it right-side out). Not bad. I love them already but you'll have to wait to see them until the top-stitch is in place...

Flower Clips

I hope you had a terrific Memorial Day holiday yesterday. We took a brief overnight trip to Chattanooga and enjoyed some R&R...as much as you can get with three little ones. :)

I did manage to make some flower clips for Ella's hair when we got back last night.

I lined them with a skinny strip of shelf liner to make them stay in Ella's hair. I just used flowers from a scrapbooking store and layered them from the bottom up using hot glue. Super easy!

What was so amazing is that the colors matched perfectly with Stampin' Up! 1/4" grosgrain ribbon! :)

Crocheted Pearls

A friend of mine gave Ella some socks that she had hand-crocheted beads onto the cuffs of bobby socks. They are TOO cute and the perfect mix for Sunday dresses and summer dresses. The only problem is that we have one pair with pink beads and one pair with red beads. She wears them all the time!

I finally met with my friend last week and she gave me a 5 minute tutorial on how to crochet the beads onto the socks. Thank goodness for youtube because I was able to find a video on making a slip knot and after HOURS of trying (read lots of frustration) I figured it out! I did a pair with pearls and clear beads. They turned out lovely and stayed together even after washing. Now that I have a 10-pack of bobby socks I'm ready to turn Ella into a bead goddess. :)

{supplies}
Accessories: white cotton crochet thread, 1.5 crochet hook, plastic pearls, bobby socks (Wal-Mart)

Ribbon & Bows

I am obsessed with all things girly. I {heart} having a girl! This past week I was busy scouring websites for directions on making hair bows and used my stash of ribbon to make some super cheap bows for Ella's hair.

{supplies}
Accessories: alligator clips, hot glue gun, lighter, Melon Mambo 1/2" polka-dot grosgrain ribbon, Pretty in Pink 1/2" striped grosgrain ribbon, Whisper White 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, Regal Rose 5/8" grosgrain ribbon, Chocolate Chip 1/4" and 5/8" grosgrain ribbon, Pumpkin Pie 1/2" striped grosgrain ribbon, Pumpkin Pie 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, Soft Sky double-stitched grosgrain ribbon, Wild Wasabi double-stitched grosgrain ribbon