upcycle/restyle #2

I had so much fun making my old shirt into a skirt for Miss B that I decided I might give this "upcycle" thing another try.

so, from what I've gathered, upcycling is when you take something you already have and turn it into something else. and re-styling is when you buy something to turn it into something else. is there anyone who's more "upcycle savvy" that can correct me if I'm wrong?

ok, so after a quick trip to Goodwill the other night, i got a bunch of sweaters and shirts to do stuff with. I'm so excited! So I thought I'd document my findings and changes on here so maybe other people will see how fun and easy it is!

as far as "easy" goes, I guess it's relative. I don't consider myself a master seamstress. in fact, when I talk to people who are REAL sewers, I feel really dumb. I don't know all the terms, or what the settings mean, or a lot of the "technical" stuff about sewing. But my mom once told me I'm a "natural," so I guess that's what it means. I have a pretty good idea of how to get the look I want even if I don't totally know what I'm doing. But using a pattern? not a chance. I guess I use a pattern for my pinkadink shoes, but that's as far as it goes. I don't get patterns, and they totally freak me out. I just like to cut and sew. :) so that's what I did.

I didn't take a before picture of the sweater, but I bought a pink women's sweater at goodwill, chopped it up, and sewed it back together, just smaller. :)

and then, a few weeks ago at church, I saw Lillian's friend Hannah had really cute leggings with a little ruffle on the bottom. I thought they were SOOO cute, and took a look at them, and made some for Lillian! So that was my upcycle. I started with these old pants I got for free one time, that were sort of weird and stretched out and I never wore them anymore.


then I put a pair of Lillian's leggings on top to get an idea of the shape, cut around them, and sewed up the sides.



I used a piece of the leftover to make the ruffle.



they were pretty cute, but still needed a waistband, which was NOT going as I planned. SO, then I took some of the extra from the other leg and made a waistband, which is still waiting for elastic, but they look pretty good anyway!


so, there's the final product, the complete outfit for 3.59.
looking at it now, I wish I had made the sleeves smaller. maybe that's a project for next week. gotta catch up on my pinkadink orders tonight since I haven't been able to do much lately with the sick kids.

I have a few more items that I picked up too, so hopefully there will be more posts as I learn a bit more about this fun new hobby! :)

blech blech blech

that's how we feel around here.

Josiah got a fever in the night last wednesday night, and since then we haven't been able to get rid of it. By the time he was done, Brielle and Lillian picked it up and Brielle has been puking with it too. I know it's nothing major, and there are so many parents who'd love to switch places with me. and my heart breaks for them.

but maaaannnn....I'm about to go crazy here. I've had sick kid body and breath on me for a week straight. And I want to cry. and I want my own space.

so today I decided that I had to do a few fun things for ME. The kids could care less that we've basically been sitting on our butts watching tv and movies all week like a big pile of sick...somethings....not even sure what lays around all day on top of each other. puppies? anyway, thank goodness for netflix. but today I NEEDED something different.

So, after looking at my friend Kelly's facebook pictures of when she took her daughter to a Green Eggs and Ham breakfast, I decided that today we'd have green eggs and ham burritos. so we did. it's something we've never done here. so we did it. And before we ate them, we watched the video on youtube. and somehow it felt like a major change switching from the tv to the computer to watch. wow, that's pathetic.

anyway, so we had to convince Brielle that she'd like them. it was an awful lot like the story actually, because eventually she loved them. :)

and after ALL THAT different-ness, I decided that during naptime I was going to work on a sewing project for me. well, for Brielle, but just not for the pinkadink. It's good for me to do that on occasion. To get my creativity back for ME, and not for the business. And poor Brielle never really gets anything made just for her. She doesn't even have a towel!

So I found a tutorial online on how to make a cute skirt. I got this shirt at the MOPS swap (free stuff!) two years ago, and really loved it. I've been wearing it all this time even though it has a HOLE in the shirt, right in the front. it's small, but still, it's a hole. And in the winter when i wear a black long sleeve shirt underneath, it's really noticeable. But I still felt the need to wear it. I think I need to go shopping. So anyway, I knew I'd be happy one day that I didn't throw it out. And today's the day.

Here's the shirt:


and by following THIS tutorial, I made it into this skirt:
poor, sick, Brielle. She really loves it, even though you can't tell...

(note to Corinne Doughan (if you're reading this): notice the painted paneling in the background, our newest change)

and here's a better view, so you can see the pink stitching, which I happen to think totally makes the skirt:


so, hopefully this is our last day of fevers and feeling blech. but if not, I may need y'all to send me some old shirts.

a much less mushy valentines post

so, there are a few things I want to remember about this year's valentines day besides how wonderful it was to spend time with my husband.

like this.



Lillian had to bring a valentines box to school. This is the type of mom duty I've been looking forward to for 6 and a half years now. And as much fun as it was for me to make it, I really wanted it to be her project. So I did the structure part of it, and you guessed it! Lillian did the decorating. and it was so cute, because she kept asking my opinion, because I was "much better at this type of thing." :) And it took every ounce of tongue biting possible to not tell her that Christmas bells didn't really go with the theme. We had gone to Hobby Lobby earlier in the night to get 2 pieces of paper and one pack of stickers. That was the limit. So she did a GREAT job getting pretty matchy stuff. I was so proud. But then we found my old scrapbooking stickers and the girl went crazy. It was so fun. And she was so proud.

and this.



This is the valentines garland we made Friday afternoon when Lillian had only half a day of school. We melted crayon pieces between wax paper and then cut them into heart shapes. You're supposed to peel the crayons with a peeler or a pencil sharpener, but I decided to be efficient and use my Pampered Chef chopper. And it was efficient. but I'll let you know how our chopped food tastes with little crayon bits in it until it some day (if ever) completely comes off the chopper. Here are a few pictures of the process.




and, this. holiday treats are a must. :)





hope you all had a sweet valentines day. :)

valentines day

Last night I went on a date with Steve.

For those of you who don't know, it's been a rough many weeks in our house. Steve started his new job, which we are very thankful for, but it's kind of a "you can NOT mess this up" type of job. So that means we haven't seen him much since January 10. And when I say we haven't seen him much, I really mean I FEEL his hairy legs making my skin itch beside me in bed on occasion. A day that we actually SEE him at all is extra special. It's been getting a TINY bit better, but it just really sucks.

I fully recognize that I'm kind of a needy person. Well, actually, it seems only half of me is needy. Like I have two people in me. There's one me who is very much "I can do it myself and don't need a guy to build stuff, fix stuff, etc." But the other part of me really really really needs to be with my husband. I guess that would make me emotionally needy. Hopefully not in a codependent way, but I'm afraid it's awfully close.

So anyway, it's been a hard month or so. Lots of emotion by the kids, a bit more bed wetting than usual, me doing new duties like scooping the driveway (which I "don't need a guy for" but WOW was it handy to have a big strong husband to do it). I've handled his absence rather well, for an emotionally needy person, if I do say so myself. But I just miss him.

BUT THEN...this week we got to have supper together for the fist time in about 5 weeks. It was so great. We went to Pizza Hut so Lillian could use her book-it certificate. We'd been to this Pizza Hut before, and knew that it was basically a CRAP HOLE disguised as a Pizza Hut. But we didn't care. I think it's mostly just a take out one, so like, they don't have any plates (oh, actually they did this time. paper ones.) and they just hand you your boxes and you eat at dirty tables while your coat and clothes soak up the really old broaster oil smell or something. But we totally didn't care. I wasn't cooking, and we were together. It was splendid.

And then we were supposed to leave on Friday night to head up to OC, but since Steve's car (which is not actually his car because his car broke) had a flat tire and he was unable to get a new tire because he works all the time during open business hours, he was using the van. Well, the only way for us to get to OC was the van, so he had to come home from work on Friday night so we could take the van. Well, then once I got him home on a friday night I sure as heck didn't want to leave, so we just hung out for a couple hours before totally ZONKING out on the couch like two people who are ridiculously tired do. And then I left with the kids in the morning.

and THEN...on Sunday night he picked up a babysitter on his way home from work and we went out on a date. a real date! We ate at Chipotle, went to see The King's Speech, and then picked up a few groceries on the way home. It sounds so wonderfully boring as I write it, but I was just really really craving some time with my dear husband. I feel so lucky that I still get the SAME feelings that I got when I was 16 when I spend time with this man. I totally have a crush on my husband. :)

YES, the movie was great. Everyone is asking. But heck, we could have been watching Clash of the Titans for all I cared. (ok, that's probably not totally true. I would have cared.) But it was so good to get away from the kids and the house with a million things we should be working on and just BE together, it was just a bonus that the movie was great. I just couldn't get enough of seeing him awake...and smelling him...and begging him to scratch me. (I'm having some major skin issues if you haven't gathered. but that's for another post.)

We don't normally go all out for Valentine's Day. I'm a "refuse to buy (read: pay for) a Hallmark card" kind of girl, so I make some dorky little homemade card for Steve every year. And if we do presents, it's usually kind of a 'hm...what is something we both really want that we can justify by calling it our Vday present to each other' type of thing. :)

But this year, all I wanted was time with him. and I got it.

It wasn't even the REAL valentines day, but it sure felt like the day of love. :)