T-shirt makeover

When I was in the 6th grade, jean shorts were the cool thing to have.  It felt like everyone had them but me.  I complained to my Mom but she just told me to cut off a pair of old jeans.  Since I didn't have any jeans I thought I could part with, I started bugging my sister for a pair of her old jeans.  After nearly driving her crazy, she handed me a pair of Lee jeans with a hole worn on the left butt cheek.

I took the shorts and made a heart-shaped patch from scrap material and sewed up the hole. I didn't want it to be obvious that I was covering a hole, so I cut more of the material into squares and sewed them on the shorts in a scattered-like pattern; turning the squares different ways.  I was so excited to show-off my "new" shorts! I'm sure my family was worried for me, I kind of had my own sense of fashion and it had failed me a few times before.

Not this time though...the shorts were a hit, in fact other girls were having their Moms buy them new jean shorts and new material to make their shorts cool like mine!

I think that creativity is lost when a kid (or adult) can have anything they want.

So...it's almost time for school clothes shopping and we've set a tighter budget for the girls this year.
I've definitely seen some creativity spawn from this (from them and me :) )that I'm very excited about!!!!

This is the most comfortable shirt in the world.  So comfortable, I wore it a lot, even when cleaning (nice clean bleach spot).

Thanks to perfecting my boredom doodling flower and a bleach pen...

I let the bleach set in until it had the color I wanted and then I rinsed it with the sprayer using cold water.

A new, wearable shirt has emerged!

Felicity, Sadie and I all had white shirts with stains which we decided to dye purple!!

1/4 cup dye, 1/4 salt and boiling water. Wear plastic gloves and stir.  I lined everything in plastic bags (because purple won't match our red kitchen :) )

First we dyed them, and then we made designs with the bleach pen.

Felicity designed this shirt on a piece of paper and then I drew it for her.  She didn't add the lines inside the heart...this was my "artistic interpretation" after dripping a line that wasn't "supposed" to be there.  I just added a bunch more lines so it looked intentional :)

After washing Felicity's shirt, it faded, so we will have to retouch the white (once we get another bleach pen).  Sadie made a "whirl pool" and a pool which consisted of squeezing a blob of bleach...um, should've bought 2 :)

Aubree is modeling Felicity's shirt because Felicity ditched us (and her project) to hang out with a friend :)

Aubree is crocheting a bottom layer to her REALLY old tank top.  There were holes in the bottom of the shirt that we cut off and she added 3 layers of crocheting to it.  I drew a quick design (another one of my boredom doodles) and she liked it.

Um...this is adorable :)

Next we took pink shirts and decided to try the ombre look using red dye.  I doodled my version of a rose with Elmer's glue (got that idea from Pinterest) and let the glue dry over night.

 The directions (I realized later said to use gel glue) but we didn't have any and I began to second guess if this would actually work...I mean it's washable glue, um really?

It worked! Shirts in bad enough shape that we would've thrown them away (wouldn't have even given them away) will now be back and cuter than ever!!

Picture this...

I've heard so many comments the last couple of years about digital cameras being so good that you don't need to go to a professional any more, well...I've read the tips on pinterest, I have a book on photography, but they just don't turn out with the same polished look...at least not when I do it. 

So a couple of days ago, I went to Portrait Innovations which was about 8 minutes away...no excuse for not getting them done earlier, right... 

They took 156 pictures, which is great, but then they have to go through them 3 at a time, keeping 1 eliminating 2.  My sis-in-law and I did this in December with just Sadie (age 2 1/2) and Cate (age 15 months) so I knew the drill and I was on a mission to make our 4 hr nightmare (but with cute pictures, so totally worth it) into the fastest time I could possibly set...I had to have a plan!

Here's the Plan:

1. I had the girls wear their fancy outfit first, and a casual outfit second, that way when we got there, they were prepared for the formal shot, and after changing into casual, they wouldn't have to focus as much on their hair...I mean...it's a casual picture :)

2. As soon as the photographer had taken all the required pictures, the girls will leave and get drinks or smoothies.  Yay, that means they don't have an opinion on which ones I pick and they don't have to listen to my "constructive" comments about pictures of them :) brilliant

(You may wonder why the constructive comments? They start out trying to sell you all the poses and that starts off at $909) My goal price was $150!

3. Make silly faces or do whatever you have to, to make sure there are plenty of pictures that don't turn out.  It just makes it easier that way.  The narrowing down process is brutal! 

Okay, so that was the plan, but now I have more tips to add.

What a cute picture of Felicity and Sadie!  Here they are sitting on a rock wall with brick behind them and...a hardwood floor?  Are they in the kitchen or the great outdoors? Lol!  I didn't notice this until I looked at them at home.  So here is the next tip:

3. Look at the background...logically.  We either needed fake grass here or a kitchen sink :)

This time we have the grass...and a brown ottoman, um okay? This is the perfect pic for a redneck joke.  You know you're a redneck when you have more furniture on the outside of the house then inside the house, lol :)

4. Clean the bottom of their shoes. I think it adds character but the girls weren't a fan.

5. No picture to show here because...if you are wearing a dress and they angle is just right (or just wrong (in this case) your panties will show... :) I won't name names, but...it happened!

6. Send the kids off for food instead of drinks/smoothies. They came back before I was done because they were hungry :( awh poor babies.  I had to send them away quick before the photographer "lured" them in...remember, they don't have an opinion, opinions take time :)

7. Make sure they have their smile down before you get there.  After complaining about a certain someone's smile (eyebrows raised, chin down, closed smile), she could have won an Academy Award with her (fake) tearful, "I just don't know how to smile!" Um, okay then don't complain when you look like a dork in the pictures...yes, she still complained :)

I ended up getting 4 poses (1-8x10, 4-5x7, 8 wallets) a packages of another pose with 40 pics, 5 greeting cards (Happy July! um, okay), a book with 19 pictures, a cd, and a poster. Tax and all, I spent $142 :) 1 hr and 20 mins...it has to be a record!

Thrift Store Chair Makeover

Aubree, Sadie and I went to one of our favorite thrift stores and we found this cute but rough chair

This chair was $2.00, so we took it home and...

pulled out our box of vintage fabric (garage sale scraps) $3.00 for the whole box and have used lots of it!  I let Sadie pick out her favorite pieces and we cut them into strips. 

She chose the two she liked the best and we tied them on, alternating colors. 

Close up

and the true test...it didn't break with her in it, it must be okay :)

Breakfast at Tiffany's 16th Birthday Party

Before Sadie's party had even started, we were trying to decide what Aubree's 16th birthday party theme should be.  In the meantime her friend had a "Sweet 16" party with Candyland decor...darn, that would've been a good one. "And then I said what about 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' and she I-hi (singing) remember the film..."actually it's one of Aubree's favorite movies, paired with the fact that her name is Aubree which sounds like Audrey, well you get the drift.  So planning mode begins...

Invitations, Aubree looking like Audrey

So we found this table at the Brass Armadillo

we printed off some pictures of the movie

And we decoupaged them on the table.

Homemade Mogpog

1 part water

1 part glue

Our glue was half full, so we just added in the water and shook it...that was perfect!

The finished table, and we re-purposed the chicken wire frame into a "best wishes" note holder.

I found this ceramic purse at a thrift store for $3.00.  A little paint and finishing touches made a nice Tiffany-like accent!

Sadie had to look the part too.  I made her black tutu from strips of black tulle tied to a piece of elastic.  It could've used a few more strips of tulle, but I used the whole roll and wasn't making another trip to Hobby Lobby!

These were my practice petit fours

The liquidy icing is supposed to cover the cake, after spooning and re-spooning I decided I would be pipping the on the icing using Wilton's #14 star tip.

Petit Fours

Prepare cake batter as usual

grease and flour a jellyroll pan

pour the cake batter in the jellyroll pan

bake on 350 for 22 minutes (golden color and springy)

let cool-place in freezer for 1 hour

take out of freezer, cut into shapes, put back in freezer for 1 hour

take out of freezer and remove excess from around the pattern, (no surprise that my girls loved to help with this part!)

decorate with pretty icing and serve :) 

I didn't take a close up picture of the finished product, but here's all the food (breakfast of course) and the petit fours are on the right side.

The top right of this picture is a small chest I painted like the purse, it contained the mints that Aubree made.  My Mom-in-Law made the mini pancakes (plastic shot glasses for syrup) and my Mom made 

homemade poptarts 

prepare pie crust as usual (or open the box, lol!)

roll out the crust

cut cute designs (even number)

fill half with pie filling

cover with plain pieces

smoosh the sides down

brush with milk

sprinkle with sugar

cook on 375 for 18 minutes

take out of oven and top with icing

The big bowl in the picture was filled with bite size biscuits.  We borrowed vintage teacups and saucers from my Sis-in-law and Mom-in-law.  The teacup being for the sausage gravy and the saucer for the biscuits (So they could dip the biscuits in the gravy).

 If you've seen the movie, there are a lot of suitcases around Holly Golightly's place, so we put cupcakes in one suitcase and the wrapped silverware in the other. Notice the teacart, (thanks dad-in-law) I was going to paint it because I was afraid it might clash with the Tiffany Blue...but I ended up liking the darker contrast. The tulle puff balls were made by my Mom-in-law, who was nice enough to take over the job after realizing that I can't cut in a straight line.  We found the perfect shade of Tiffany blue material at Hobby Lobby which I cut (probably also not that straight, lol) into 15 inch squares and hemmed the edges to make cloth napkins.  The material was only $15.00 and about $5.00 for ribbon.  Aubree wrapped them and tied them all herself...Thank you, Aubree!  

Aubree also made the dog and cats masks from pictures we found online, printed out on card-stock, with a wooden stick glued on with rubber cement. We had to put a price on the masks so that the girls could "steal" them, just like on the movie. :)

If you look close you can see the vanity table my Mom set up with vintage beauty items and costume jewelry.   I'm hopping someone got a better picture of this, I might be the worse photographer ever...I'm not even kidding!

Mom also threw this together, a plate hanger (forgotten about in the basement) with vintage hats thrown on it..."now that's something you can hang your hat on".

Notice the suitcases by the tree with the phone inside, also from the movie.

We borrowed the birdcage from my Mom-in-law and put a fake bird in it, just like in the movie.

"Breakfast at Tiffany's" was also showing on the small screen :)

This just happens to be the party scene. Stephanie is also a fan of the movie (as you can tell :) )My dad-in-law looks like he's watching the movie, but he was probably watching the chocolate fountain.  The chocolate fountain kept deciding to stop flowing, so he kept stirring it around to make it go...until we finally gave up on it :(  

Pre-party pic, but it shows Aubree in her big hat and Mom and Felicity decorating.

I disguised Aubree's gift from us, she didn't think she would get something from Tiffany's but I knew the sacks would give it away instantly...so we gave them to her in a shoe box.

We got her a "Please Return to Tiffany" necklace and matching earrings.  We had a 16 engraved on the back of the heart necklace...no returning it to Tiffany now, lol! She's wearing the necklace in the picture. She was so surprised!

Here is an aerial view, from the deck. Glad to see my Mom-in-law is taking pictures, I hope she got some better shots than I did.  Every party I spend half my time looking for my camera and the other half complaining that my battery is almost dead :)

:) four darling daughters :)

I think this is a better look for us than with the sombreros :)

Aubree's friend had to come late, but she was such a good sport and dressed up anyway.  

A close up of the table

A close up of the homemade cloth napkins

A close up of the masks

A close up of the vintage screen, you can see it in the background of the party pics with an Aubree banner on it.  I wanted to do a photo booth and use this for the screen, but it just didn't happen.  I also thought of some fun Tiffany-like games but they really just wanted to talk, eat, and then swim...so the games were out :) 

The party turned out great and in comparison with her previous parties, I would say...

This one "takes the cake" :)