And They Called Her "Zsa Zsa"

My sweet dear little Princess. She is growing to be quite the little lady, attitude and all. Princess' fashion sense is one (among many others) characteristic of hers that I absolutely adore.

She is quite the budding fashionista. Princess' ideas of what is pretty and what is cool are defiantly unique and she owns them well. (Loves Taylor Swift, Loathes Justin Beiber) Give her anything green, sparkly, or "rock star" and she's pretty much good to go. But there are the still few occasions where I get to dress her like my little girl and she loves it.

I've been making her Halloween costumes since she was born. She loves the special attention she gets and I love to dress my baby girl.

This is the first "fancy" dress I made - she wanted to be (what else) a princess. This dress was made for Halloween when she was 3 years old - I couldn't was too lazy to find a pic from that night so this is more recently when she wore it at school for a vocabulary parade. Thank goodness I made the thing HUGE when she was little and has had many uses out of it.

Vocabulary Word Parade: Elegant - Pretty.

The princess looked elegant.

Then there are the WEDDINGS - this lovely little lady makes one gorgeous flower girl! But oh my are those dresses expensive!

My solution has been to make her dresses. This way the bride can get custom look for her wedding and I don't have to go broke buying a dress she'll only wear for one day. (Although, her dresses have found their way into the dress-up bin. )

M & M Wedding - August 2008

J & R Wedding - May 2009

This year Miss Princess is getting a brand new Easter dress. This is just a little something to whet the appetite. Can't wait till it's finished!

Let you know total cost when I am done. ;)



Iv'e Got the Urge!

The Urge to Serge!

There has been sickness amuck in our household. This, along with the end of Girl Scout cookies sales and I have been one busy mom. Posting has been one of the last things on my mind. Obviously.

I would have a post full of witty musings about my new serger but my mind is still full of snot and haze from the medications.

The Tool found a singer serger on the Craig's List for $50.  A great find indeed. I haven't used one before. I am, however, very excited to learn. The little old lady that we bought it from (named Iola) sent a book along with it. So thrilled to start!

In the Land of Leprechauns!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 Although I am not of Irish decent my husband and hellions are lucky enough to have ancestors from the Emerald Isle.  I am still proud to say that for 3 of my 29 St. Patty's Days I have had a wee-bit-o Irish in me!

I've had the directions for this face warmer in my arsenal of crochet patterns for a little while now. The Tool requested one after he saw something similar on an etsy page I left open.  I think this shade of orange was just perfect to transform my Irish family into leprechauns! When I find the original maker of the pattern I will link to it so you too can have an awesome way to make yourself a leprechaun!

Snow is Melting - Spring is Coming!

I've committed another DeStashing! 

Full of fun colors and cute detailing this little tote with wallet is here just in time for spring!  I found this group of fat quarters at an unclaimed freight store a few months ago. There were (from what I can remember) about $5 for a bundle of six! It's pretty difficult for me to pass up such an awesome deal like that so I got two bunches. This is the little project that these fun colors were waiting for.

The adorable tote with matching wallet were made from two fat quarters of  coordinating fabric. There is enough left to make another wallet, or as The Tool suggested, a coin purse. I'm just gonna show off the cute finished project. Maybe I'll make a tutorial with the next one I make.

An attempt at an *artsy* photo shoot.

Wallet ready for it's close up:

After I took the photo and loaded I realized I should have put something in the wallet. Silly ME!

Total Cost:  Maybe about $3.00  - two fat quarters at 83cents a piece.

and some fusible interfacing. 

Not too Shabby!

Time Cost: Took about 2 hours. But was also watching a movie and folding laundry.

Multi-tasking at it's best.

And Even though it's Wednesday:

How to Get Everything you Want on your Birthday

In only THREE easy steps:

Step 1:   Have The Tool make a cake with the hellions. Over sprinkling unavoidable.

The Tool trying to "spread" the sprinkles. This makes my heart melt.

Step 2:    Fight with Bubba to keep fingers out of cake long enough to sing "Happy Birthday" song.



Step 3:    Get first taste of delicious cake by licking the frosting off loving child's hand.

What more could a mother ask for?

It was a great birthday celebration.

Thanks for another great year.

                        ~ Dee



You Capture - B&W Emotions

I've been stalking observing the photo challenges over at "i should be folding laundry" for a while now. More recently I've chosen to throw down the gauntlet and join in the fun. This week the test is to capture emotion, and to make it more interesting, in black and white.

I can't say that I'm any good at taking photos - I'm a point and click kinda gal, more so now with the digital ability to see what I've got right away.  I turned on my cameras black and white option and was amazed at how instantly my family photos turned into pretty amazing shots.  I've learned that sometimes color can distract from the "feeling" of the photo.  Here is a small bit of the many B&W photos I got of my kiddos playing in the fresh snow yesterday. I think I captured some great emotions.

WONDER:

This is the first time I took Bubba out in the snow. He was full of wonder and awe.

ANNOYANCE:

My poor Monkey just wanted to run and play. "Enough of these pictures, Mom!"

JOY:

Oh, Princess, you are quite the diva. She loves to have her picture taken.

Finally my three-fer! I was able to capture (starting with princess and going counter-clockwise)

ELATION, CONFUSION, & FRUSTRATION:

Princess - always smiling.

Monkey - confused as usual.

Bubba - just wants to get up!

It was pretty neat to turn off the color and to just shoot photos. I may have to use this function more often. Even The Tool thought the photos captured were more artful than the normal point and click that normally comes from trying to get all three hellions in a picture. I may have to continue with the challenges.

My Husband is an Addict

As hard as it is for me to admit - my husband, The Tool, is addicted to Craig's List. 

Now before I divulge the dirty little secret that is The Tool's alone I have to confess that I too have my demons. - Facebook, Blogs, Sleeping - all addictions that seem to distract from my job as wife and mother. With this aired let me continue with The Tool's addiction - as this preoccupation has actually had some advantages.

The Tool comes home, and before acknowledging the clean (HA!) home, adoring wife, and loving children that anxiously await his daily, triumphant return, will sit at the computer to check what has been offered for free on Craig's List.  He's been able to score some pretty neat items with his dedication to cheap finds.  From much needed storm doors to the more frivolous canoe, The Tool, has stumbled upon a vast assortment of goodies for FREE or nearly free with this online community of want-ads.

The most recent wonderful find was a light fixture.  The ad was posted for a light fixture to be given away because "the wife wants a new one." A sound reason to get rid  of a perfectly good light fixture. (At least they didn't throw it in the trash - I can only imagine how often this does happen - WASTE!)

 I wish that I saved the pic that was in the ad. It showed the light in a grand entry way, with  a 16 foot ceiling.  The gentleman giving away the light was kind enough to ask if our ceiling was high enough because it was a pretty big fixture.  The Tool will pick up anything that is free that he thinks he can use or even turn around to sell for profit. If the light didn't fit - at least he could probably sell it for $50 or so. 

We took a family trip to pick up the light. It was HUGE! It was UGLY! It had POTENTIAL!
After a little research - I found out it is a bowl pendant style chandelier.
Again, I wish I had a full before pic to show, but you can use your imagination.

This is the color of the metal parts before The Tool painted them a much warmer brown tone.



Originally - the thing hung a little too low. About 4 feet down into our 10 foot dinning room. Granted the Tool and I are both relatively short - something that low was a bit daunting for our small charming home.  The Tool was able to cut and re-weld the pieces that held the bowl in place from the ceiling mount. The only other adjustment made to the piece was to add a cord and chain so that we could have electricity run to it.  Eventually The Tool would love to have in ceiling wires for it, but I feel the chain just adds to the vintage feel of our 111 year old home.

Total Cost: $21.78

Spray Paint - $6.79

Wire/ Chain Kit: $14.99

 Time Spent: About 3 hours total -

 between spray paint, ceiling holes, and time driving.

Seeing that similar light fixtures in stores and online can sell anywhere from $250 to $1000+  I say we came out pretty ahead on this great Craig's List find.