New Year!!

This past holiday season was extra special; We had so much family to celebrate with!  And of course, you can't have this much family together without doing some pretty awesome things.  Like paintball.  And downtown New Years Eve festivities.  Like I said before, awesome.

 

Somebody was tuckered out by the end of the night!  He didn't even wake up to get his food from McDs!

 

Tutu and bow-tie

This weekend was spent watching two of the cutest kids I could get my hands on.  Naturally, their cuteness made me want to make something.  Soooo, Pinterest DIY called and I looked up how to make a tutu for Aubrey, and a little bow-tie for Trey.

I got some UNC fabric for the bow-tie--all you really need is about a square foot for both the bow-tie and the piece that holds it together.

I cut the bow-tie to about 6.25" x 5.25" and turned it inside-out and began to sew it by hand...you know, because I'm suddenly Susie home-maker.  Well, it looked horrible and I could tell it wouldn't hold up...

 

See..??  Yuck.  So I turned to my trusty sewing machine--Taylor used it last with a heavy duty leather needle for making a cover for his golf-cart (he's much better at sewing than me..go figure).  The bow-tie literally took just a minute to sew up (make sure you leave space at the end to turn it inside-out again)!  Yay, technology!!  

The bow-tie should look like a  little square patch about 6"x5".  Sorry, no picture.  For the next part, you want to make a piece of fabric about 1"x3" to tie around the middle.  I hand-sewed this part (which you can see in the picture..and I know it looks horrible, but it's the thought that counts!!).  Then I put a snap on and the other part of the snap on the little one-sie.  What is nice about this is that as Trey grows, I can always place another snap on a T-shirt or whatever he wants to snap the bow-tie to!

 

Next, the tutu!!  I bought about 9 yards of light blue tulle white tulle--you know, Carolina's colors.  :)  I folded it in half, then in half again so it would be easier to cut.  

I measured 16" and cut at the end so that the tutu, when wrapped around the piece of elastic (oh yeah, I sewed a piece of elastic in a ring about 16" in circumference) so that when the tulle stuck out, it was about 7" long.  You can also tie the tulle in a knot around the elastic.  Either way, the best part is that you don't have to sew!!  (Sorry, no pics--turns out it's really difficult to take a picture putting it all together..maybe next time).  Oh, and I alternated colors so that it would look decent.

Ta-Da!! 

And the best part...

My next project: SHARK WEEK SHIRT!!

Here is my next project: a shark silhouette shirt for shark week :)  I'll post pictures after it's done!

I haven't quite decided on the shark picture that I want to use, but it would be something along the same lines as this image.  If you have a better one, let me know!!

Baby makin...shirts!

Handsome T's older sister, Meredith, is pregnant with twins.  Twins, as it turns out, runs rampant in his family.

Handsome Taylor (left) is an identical twin with Garrett (right...obviously): 

Their mom, Angela (left),  is an identical twin with her sister Cecilia (right):

Cecilia's grandsons are very handsome identical twin boys: 

Phew!  I'm pretty sure that it only passes through the women's family line...pretty sure.  So now Meredith is pregnant, and while her twins aren't identical (boy and girl), I can still make them fantastically cute twin stuff:
 

I wanted to make some one-sies, but I didn't really want to order them since it wouldn't be completely hand-made.  So, I decided to make them using this idea I got from a friends blog.  Using fabric paint, freezer paper, and some creativity, she made ridiculously cute Harry Potter shirts.  Here is my attempt at one-sies as well as directions in case you would like to try it as well!

Step 1:
Get your material together.  This is what you will need:

An iron

Freezer paper
Tulip fabric paint
Foam paint brushes

Xacto knife (and scissors)

The fabric of choice: deliciously cute one-sies

And the most important things to have while being creative...

Step 2: 

Freezer paper has a shiny side and a dull side.  If you are printing your image to the freezer paper, make sure you print it on the dull side (this goes for if you are drawing/tracing your image as well).  

Step 3:

Once you have your image on the freezer paper, carefully and slowly cut the image out using your xacto knife (or if you are really talented, a pair of scissors).  If you have images (or in my case, letters) that have parts to cut out inside them (i.e. O, P, A), make sure you save them!

Step 4:

Iron the piece of freezer paper you want (shiny side down) onto your article of clothing...several times.  Just to make sure it's sticking!  

Step 5:

Using your foam paint brush, paint your image (and make sure you stay inside the boundaries of your image!).  After the first coat of paint dries, you can add an additional coat so that the likelihood of your beautiful piece of artwork staying beautiful is doubled.  Also, to ensure that the paint doesn't go through the fabric, place a piece of wax-paper between the two layers.

 Step 6: 
This is the best step!  You can peel the freezer paper off of the clothing (after the paint has dried, of course).  For the wee little pieces, you can use tweezers if you can't grab them off with your fingers.

W is for Williams (Meredith's soon-to-be last name)

Ta-Da!!

Yes, I ordered this shirt

I work in the science field.  Chromatography to be exact.  I think I divulged a little more info about it in a previous blog.  It's really not that exciting so I had to find something to spice it up!  So I created this shirt:

And if you can't read what it says, I will tell you: I love the smell of chromatography in the morning.  If you've ever seen the movie Apocalypse Now, the original quote comes from that: I love the smell of naypalm in the morning.  Clever, right??  :) I thought so.  So now I can show off my cute shirt and work at the same time!

Pretty in Pink

Okay so maybe I'm not Molly Ringwald with ultra stylish 80's clothes and a hot date...well I do have a hot date...but sans 80's attire, I've decided that this girl can be pretty in pink too!

Pink is usually a color that I stay away from.  It's not that it's a drab color...there is just this negative correlation to me with blonde-haired, blue-eyed girls and pink.  Oh, and it makes me look like I am 12.  Blah.

I do own pink-like colors.  Coral.  I like coral.  It's a fabulous mixture between pink and red and orange.  And red.  That's about it...but I can now say that raspberry (or pink) is one of those colors!  Hoorah!!

Granted, I do not take this garment home, but it is part of my daily attire.  Thanks Fisher for making these girls pretty in pink!!!  

I may not be an anthropologist, but I do love anthropologie

Occasionally I will pretend shop in one of my favorite stores that I can never seem to afford: Anthropologie.  They have one in the rich mall in Charlotte and I loooovvveee going in there.

Well, I am on the email list just in case there is a 99% off sale or something and I received an email about their new line: BHLDN (wedding stuff!!!).

Not that I'm planning on getting married anytime soon, but a woman can look right?  And drool?  And ogle?  And not that I'm for certain going to get anything here, but since I was looking anyway I picked out a gown that I thought was absolutely stunning and fit my personality.

I realize that this Bohemian beauty is probably 8 feet tall, so I couldn't wear just regular sandals...but maybe some cute sandal/high heel combo.  I'm not 100% crazy about the pattern on the dress, but I do love that it's creamy and not white and is made of linen.  Yum.  Annnddd, the most important part is that it has a low back with slim strings (tube tops make me look manly due to my broad shoulders from swimming...so no tube tops)!!!  Yes, this is my type of dress and I love it.  What do you think??