Jimmer T-shirt

You wouldn't know it from reading this bog, but I actually am the mother to a couple of boys. One of which is obsessed with BYU Cougar basketball. Today, while we were driving home from the beach, my son asked me if I could make him a "Jimmer" t-shirt (they aren't real big sellers here in Central Texas). He even promised to unpack and un-sand the car if I would make it right away. Since I will trade crafting over cleaning any day, I took him up on the offer.

I wanted to make one that said, "You got Jimmered", but he loves this video. (Actually there are a bunch a great lines in that song. "Superman sleeps in a Jimmer Jersey". How fun would that t-shirt be. You could do a big superman emblem w/ a "J" on it. If they keep winning I'm totally making one.)

He found me a plain white t-shirt. I cut out the letters using my Cricut out of freezer paper. I used the Cuttin Up cartridge. I set "teach me how to" to 1 inch and "Jimmer set on 2 inch. I think the proportions looked pretty good for a Youth Large size t-shirt. (If you don't have a Cricut, you could also type up what you want on the computer and print it out on freezer paper and cut the letters out by hand.) Then iron on the freezer paper (shiny side down)-don't use steam or it won't stick as well. Then dab on your paint. I had a happy little accident. The only blue paint I had is probably older than the kid I was making it for, so it wouldn't go on very smooth. It was really blotchy, but I love how it turned out. You can either wait for it to dry or pull out a blow dryer. Then remove the freezer paper and you have a new shirt.

All smiles. Now I just hope they continue to win, so he can wear it again. Go Cougars!!!!

You might enjoy my other clothing post here.

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I saved summer!

Bathing suit shopping, so far in my daughter's life has been no more difficult than shopping for my boys. EASY! This year it was downright impossible. We went to 5 stores last night-each more disappointing than the last. None of the suits in the girl's section had any padding up top. For modesty's sake, she needs a little padding. The women's section either looked too old lady or too "girl's gone wild".

Since desperation breeds inspiration, I started thinking that it wouldn't be too hard to sew a bra into the lining of her suit. She even had a bra with a broken strap from last year and an old suit that still fit, so I thought I had nothing to lose.

First, I cut off the polka-dot outer fabric and removed the straps. Then I pinned it to the lining of the suit.

I whip-stitched it into place. Be careful to only sew it to the lining and don't go all the way through the actually suit material.

It worked perfectly!It doesn't show from the front at all. Summer is saved! (yes I know it's only March, but I live in Texas and all of our pools are open) I've seen padded bra cup thingies @ the fabric store and I'm going to get some to sew into a few more of her suits.

You might be interested in my other fashion ideas here.
UPDATE: It worked so well that I did it to another suit. She had an old gray knit bra. I was feeling lazy and didn't remove the gray fabric. MISTAKE. The knit fabric doesn't dry very fast and so I'm going to pick it out and start over, this time removing the gray fabric first.

Linking up here.

Mother-daughter bookclub

My daughter made another cake this morning. I was going to blog about it, but I had the lens cap on wrong and none of the pics turned out. Trust me it was cute.

While we lived in Maryland we were part of the best mother-daughter book club EVER. It was the highlight of my month and I suggest that everyone should have one. Here's how we ran it:

-All the girls were the same age (most of them were 9-10 when we started)

-We met the first Friday of every month (it worked out great to have it the same day each month)

-We rotated homes each month, and the host picked the book and provided refreshments

-At the end of each meeting, the next host would present her next book

-It was basically an excuse for a party and we tried to plan refreshments around the theme of the book. Sometimes we even dressed up. Most of the time, the host would also look up some info on the author.

-We took the summers off, b/c it was no fun to host and have everyone on vacation.

-I suggest that the "mother-host" reads her book selection before presenting it to the group to avoid surprises.

Here's some books that we did ( I enjoyed all of them):

The Tale of Emily Winsnap by Liz Kessler

From Mixed up files of Mrs. Basil E Fankweiler by Konigsburg

The White Giraffe by St John

The Lightning Thief by Riordan

Nim's Island by Orr

Fablehaven by Brandon Mull (The Candy Shop Wars would be fun too)

The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs-Birney

Freaky Friday by Rodgers-(we pretended to be each other all night-too fun)

Half Magic by Eager

The Princess Academy by Shannon Hale (any of her books would be great)

The Misadventures of Benjamin Bartholomew Piff -Lethcow

Sister's Grim-Buckley

The Runaway Princess by Coombs

The Frog Princess by Baker

The Witch of Blackbird Pond-Speare

The Willoughby's-Lowery

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane-Di Camillo

Twenty-One Balloons by du Bois

To see my other posts on books click here.

Sheet Music shoes update

Here's my original post about the sheet music shoes.

My biggests concern about this shoes is that they would completely fall apart. They did better than I expected, but did need a little first aid. Here's what they look liked after a full day of roaming the halls of middle school. Mostly they just had issues where her toes bend. It made a little canyon. I just modged podged some more sheet music to make a little bridge on top, so it will allow for some give there (does that make any sense?).

There was also another problem spot along the bottom, but I think that I just didn't put enough modge-podge on the first time. So I stuck some more pieces of sheet music on and I think that she's good to go.

I also read on another blog that it works best w/ modge podge make for fabric, and if we ever try something like this again we'll try it.

You might be interested in these other fashion ideas.

Laundry Symbol Art

I've been wanting to add a little personality to my laundry room and I thought this project would be fun. I used 8x10 canvases. They were $3.99/2 and 20% off, so that makes this project pretty thrifty.

Step 1: Find some laundry symbol pics online (who knew there were so many)

Step 2: Print them out. I used freezer paper, but it didn't stick very well to the canvas. I think contact paper would work better.

Step 3: Cut out your design

Step 4: Apply to canvas

Step 5: Use paint to stencil it in.

tip: If your paint bleeds a little, you can always use a little gesso to paint over your mistakes.

Step 5 : Hang it on the wall (this is always the hardest part for me. I think I have a picture leaned up against the wall in almost every room in my house, waiting to be hung)

I really want to build laundry pedestals, but I've heard that using anything else but the pedestals they come with, can shorten the life span of my washer and dryer. Does anyone have any experience with this or is this just a myth thought up by the appliance company's to get me to spend more $?

Click here to see my other Decorating ideas.

Fondant topped Sugar cookies

Our Modest is Hottest fashion week was too much fun. My kid got a ton of new stuff for her spring wardrobe and I easily spent less then $10 (of course, I did start w/ a fairly large fabric and craft supply reserve).

As I've said before, my daughter has been baking to raise for camp. She had an order for 1 dozen girl cookies and 1 dozen boy cookies. She cut our dinosaur and elephants out using her Circut Cake. We used regular old cookie cutters to cut out the butterflies and the flowers. Then we embellished them w/ little fondant balls and "snakes".

Click here to see our other kitchen adventures.

Love is spelled T-I-M-E

My good friend has the above quote in her kitchen and I love it! I thought it would be perfect for a handout for this week's Young Woman lesson. We've talked a lot about journeys the last 2 weeks. I want to start by saying that we are not alone here on our journey called earth life. Our families are our travel companions and we affect other family member's travel. We'll talk about being stuck on a plane or car with someone loud, smelly, obnoxious and compare that with traveling with someone nice and pleasant. We'll then discuss ways in which we can improve the "journey" with our families.

I am also going to supplement the lesson in the manual with the following 2 talks:
Thomas S Monson, ‘What Have I Done for Someone” October 2009 General Conference

"A few years ago I read an article written by Jack McConnell, MD. He grew up in the hills of southwest Virginia in the United States as one of seven children of a Methodist minister and a stay-at-home mother. Their circumstances were very humble. He recounted that during his childhood, every day as the family sat around the dinner table, his father would ask each one in turn, “And what did you do for someone today?” The children were determined to do a good turn every day so they could report to their father that they had helped someone. Dr. McConnell calls this exercise his father’s most valuable legacy, for that expectation and those words inspired him and his siblings to help others throughout their lives. As they grew and matured, their motivation for providing service changed to an inner desire to help others."

"In the October 1963 general conference—the conference at which I was sustained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles—President David O. McKay made this statement: 'Man’s greatest happiness comes from losing himself for the good of others.' "

"I have wept in the night
For the shortness of sight
That to somebody’s need made me blind;
But I never have yet
Felt a tinge of regret
For being a little too kind. "

And

Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Of Things that Matter Most,” October 2010 General Conference

"Our second key relationship is with our families. Since “no other success can compensate for failure” here, we must place high priority on our families. We build deep and loving family relationships by doing simple things together, like family dinner and family home evening and by just having fun together. In family relationships love is really spelled t-i-m-e, time. Taking time for each other is the key for harmony at home. We talk with, rather than about, each other. We learn from each other, and we appreciate our differences as well as our commonalities. We establish a divine bond with each other as we approach God together through family prayer, gospel study, and Sunday worship. "

To make the handout, I made some circles and wrote "L-O-V-E" on the watch face. It wasn't difficult, but getting everything to line up, took a little longer than I would have liked. Feel-free to copy and paste the template below. (or use PDF here)  I used a brad to attach the watch hands, so they would turn like real clock hands. I had some heart shaped brads that would have been adorable-but I didn't have enough for my class.

Click here for other YW ideas.