Fashion Week Day 2

Kid clothes and Pillow give-a-way end at midnight.

To celebrate Day 2 of our Modest is Hottest fashion week; you are getting 2 postings for the price of one.
Idea #1
I had this xs t-shirt in my closet left over from when I was only a mother of 2. Realizing that my mother-of-three body is a size medium, I gave it to my daughter. She never wore it because it was to “plain”. I was inspired by this shirt of mine and thought I could easily use the same idea to fancy up a shirt.


The inspiration shirt

I used a variation of the organza flower that was so popular last spring.

Step 1: Cut strips of Organza into 3 inch squares (I used 17)

Step 2: Fold each square into 1/4ths.
Step 3: Round the unfolded corner of each folded square w/ scissors

Step 4: Hold the rounded corner close (but not touching) a candle flame. The edges will melt and this will stop it from fraying.
Step 5: Align the rounded edge of the petal w/ the bottom of the V and pin the pointed part of the petal to the shirt. I continued to pin the rest of the petals all the way up the neck line about a pinky-finger’s length apart. At first I sewed them right next to each other, but it looked like a clown collar. Play w/ the spacing until it looks how you want it.
Step 6: Sew the pointed end of each petal to the shirt.

Fashion Week Day 1

I have a tween daughter (the one that does all the baking) and it is really hard to dress her. Over the past year, she has grown lots of inches and a few curves. The stuff in the girls section, looks too baby and doesn't quite fit right. The stuff in the junior's section does not quite fit and horrifies her parents. Also if there is ever anything half-way cute, the other 500 girls at her school buy it. I want here to feel beautiful, confident and have a style that's all her own. We've spent the week working on some items to spruce up and I will post one a day. Welcome to our "Modest is Hottest" fashion week.

Bleach T-shirts

I've had this t-shirt for at least 4 years. It has that vintage over-washed look that would be perfect for this project.

Step 1: Cut out a bunch of shapes out of freezer paper. I used my Cricut and George Basic shapes, but you could easily cut them out free hand.

Step 2: Iron on the shapes on the shirt (shiny side down)

Step 3: (the bleach will bleed threw so make sure you put something between the shirt layers-or you'll get flowers on the back too-I used a plastic cutting board) You could use a bleach pen, but since I didn't have one, we used a q-tip and some bleach. We got a little carried a way and the bleach bled more than I would have liked. It's best to slightly dab bleach, wait a few minutes for the bleach to work and then go back and add more if needed.

Step 4: It still needed something, so I sewed on a purple glass bead on each flower. Tadaa!

I love the colors. We were so excited, that we took a pic while she's still in her PJ's. She proudly wore it to school today. I'm going to go get a bunch more $5 t-shirts and make some more.

One more day to enter my kid's clothes give-way or my St.Patty Pillow give-a-way!

Easy Peasy St. Patty Pillow

I think this took under an hour and I used scraps so it was free. Speedy and Thrifty.

I started by cutting out all the Leprechaun parts w/ out of fusible web with my Cricut and Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge. (In case you are wondering I have at least a dozen or so cartridges, but the Paper Doll ones are my favs). Then I ironed it on the WRONG side of the fabric and cut out all my shapes. You could free hand it if you don't have a cricut but either way you still have to use scissors to cut out the fabric. I would love something that cuts out fabric. (Anyone out there want to send me something and I promise to blog the heck out of it.)

The hat and shoes are actually out of some faux leather. It looks really cute in person, but you'll just have to trust me.

Then I made a quick pocket pillow and ironed all the parts on. I glued some beads on for eyes and drew a mouth on w/ a ballpoint pen. TaDAA!

I've been wanting to make our front door seem more welcoming. I bought a cheap bench a few weeks ago and it's been hanging out in the back of my van. I finally put it together yesterday and thought my new pillow would look great there. What do you think?

Here's some natural St. Patty's day decor that I'm not so crazy about. ARGH!!!

To see my other St. Patty's decor click here.

I'm linking w/ tatertots and jello

and

Update. I thought the jacket was lacking, so I added tiny beads to look like buttons. They're hard to see in the picture, but trust me they are there (and they are cute).

Linking up here.

What I'm Reading Fridays: Behemoth/Leviathan

So last week, I blogged about Scott Westerfeld. I've been listening to Leviathan and Behemoth as I've worked on various projects and thought I'd let you know what I thought.

From School Library Journal
Starred Review. Grade 7 Up—This is World War I as never seen before. The story begins the same: on June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife are assassinated, triggering a sequence of alliances that plunges the world into war. But that is where the similarity ends. This global conflict is between the Clankers, who put their faith in machines, and the Darwinists, whose technology is based on the development of new species. After the assassination of his parents, Prince Aleksandar's people turn on him. Accompanied by a small group of loyal servants, the young Clanker flees Austria in a Cyklop Stormwalker, a war machine that walks on two legs. Meanwhile, as Deryn Sharp trains to be an airman with the British Air Service, she prays that no one will discover that she is a girl. She serves on the Leviathan, a massive biological airship that resembles an enormous flying whale and functions as a self-contained ecosystem. When it crashes in Switzerland, the two teens cross paths, and suddenly the line between enemy and ally is no longer clearly defined. The ending leaves plenty of room for a sequel, and that's a good thing because readers will be begging for more. Enhanced by Thompson's intricate black-and-white illustrations, Westerfeld's brilliantly constructed imaginary world will capture readers from the first page. Full of nonstop action, this steampunk adventure is sure to become a classic.—Heather M. Campbell, formerly at Philip S. Miller Library, Castle Rock, CO END

Overall, I liked both books-espcecially b/c I got to listen to German accents. There's lots of action, a slight romance. Mostly, I enjoyed the creatures Westerfeld dreamed up. I give it a PG rating for mild violence and there's no sex at all, so you can let your kids read it. Most of his books seemed aimed more at girls, but I think it's a series that boys would really like and I'm suggesting it to my nephew.

Check out other posts on books here.

Cricut Cupcakes

My kid is making custom bake goods to raise $ for camp this summer and people are very generously hiring her. Her first order is for a Mary Kay Open House. As I said before, I am not a cake decorator. We tried the decorating bags, but they were a mess and they looked like a 12-year old did them (even when I tried). I bought her this contraption. It made things much easier. Here's an action shot.

TADAA!!!

I think she's getting way better at this.

I had some shirt boxes from the dollar store and they were perfect to transport them in. I put the top barely on, so I wouldn't smush the cupcakes.
She would love to open her own bakery one day, and I think she's well on her way.

Check out our other culinary adventures here.

Super Family!

I set a goal for myself, to work on my lessons the Sunday before, instead of rushing something together every Sunday morning. In my enthusiasm, I read the calendar wrong and I don’t even teach this Sunday. I guess I’ll just save my cute road trip handouts for another time.

The next 2 lessons  for my Young Women class are on families. I think I'm going to use the celestial airlines idea from Sugardoodle for one of them.

I had so much fun making the superfamily home evening chart that I’ve been looking for another excuse to make little Cricut superheroes. I’m going to base my lesson on the idea that we all need to develop our “super powers” to make our families super.
For example:
Super Vision: See only the good in others, have eternal perspective, see what needs to be done and do it
Super Hearing: become a good listener
Super Strength: integrity, honesty etc.
Super Speed: Be quick to forgive, quick to help
etc.

You could really go on and on here and I'm really excited to here what my girls come up with.

I’m also going to talk about family kryptonite (selfishness, jealousy, pride, disobedience etc.).

I was going to put this all on the handout, but I thought instead we’d just talk about it and then I’d have them record in their notebooks some superpowers that they could develop to make their family SUPER. I thought it would be more effective for them to come up w/ ideas, then me just telling them.
If you don’t have a Cricut, you could always just put a super hero emblem, or have each girl design their own with their own initials.

It looks a little plain, I think I may go back and add some clouds or something.

Another idea about families from my hubby, that is genius, but I can't use it b/c he just did.

While on a recent trip to NYC, we watched an impressive sunset from the observation deck of the Empire State Building. It is an amazing building that soars high above Manhattan. However, that great view would not be possible without a foundation that extends over 2 acres and is 55 feet deep. Learn how it was built here. So to create amazing families, we also need great foundations and you could discuss with your girls what it takes to build them. You could really have a lot of fun with this theme. Builders, soaring to great heights, the "integrity of the building" tools you need for building. You could even get into the 3 little pigs story.

For a handout, you could either make something Art Deco (b/c who doesn't love Art Deco) or make "wish you were here" type postcard. On the back the girls could right some promises to their future selves. Feel free to use this one.

You could also use any great building in your area.

Update:
I added a building and now I like it much better.

Click here for more YW ideas.

Big Girl Headband

I started this craft blog about 6 weeks ago and it has been so much fun. The last few days have been really, really great! On Saturday, my blog was one of the blogs featured on Tatter tots and Jello. Then last night Sugardoodle's Facebook page featured my brownies. So a big thanks to both sites for the shout out. Big thanks to all of you guys too, for checking out the blog out and for all of your comments.

There is so much cute hair-stuff in the blogosphere. I am more than a little sad that all the really fun hair stuff came out AFTER my little girl grew up and was so excited when I saw this headband here.
Perfect for a tween. Pretty, but not even a hint of "baby".

I didn't have any actual leather lying around, but I did have some fake stuff left over from an Inigo Montoyo's Halloween costume. (By the way, if your family ever dresses up like the cast of the Princess Bride very few people will have any idea who you are. This little guy was adorable regardless)

The tutorial was quick and easy and approved cool enough to wear to Middle School. TADAA!

For those of you that still have babies that haven't grown up yet, check out this give-a-way (My sister makes the cutest baby photo props).