DIY Easter Basket from Dollar Tree Items

Easter is quickly approaching and I wanted to have a special Easter basket for Amelia's first Easter. Since she is the only girl between my sister and I (I have Alexander and she has 2 boys) I decided it was going to be a girly one.  It may be one of the few chances that I have to make something super girly for her since there is a good chance she will be a tomboy with all these boys around.

I found a basket that I had laying around the house so I did not have to buy a basket.  I am sure it is a leftover from an Easter past.  I went to the Dollar Tree and bought two rolls of tulle. (I ended up going back for one more roll.)  Each roll had 8 yards and by about 6 inches.  It did not have the width measurements but I would say it was about 6 inches.


I started by cutting up one roll of tulle into strips.  I did about 18 inch strips for my basket.  It ended up being a little long but I would much rather a little long than too short.  I just trimmed off the ends when I finished the basket.

After cutting all the strips, I cut each of the strips in half.  I laid one on top of the other to make it double thickness and a fuller look.  I then folded the strips in half width wise and fed it through the holes at the top of the basket.  I then pulled the ends through the loop of tulle this created and pulled it tight.  I did this until I went all the way around the basket.

It looked kinda white and woody from the handle so I decided to add a little color by wrapping the handle in ribbon.  Alexander picked out a lime greenish color so that is what I used.  I also found the Grograin ribbon at the Dollar tree.  I glued the beginning of the ribbon to the base of the handle and wrapped the whole handle in ribbon.  The roll I bought has 6 yards of ribbon and I did not use all of it for the handle.  It added the pop of color the basket really needed.  I love adding a pop of color to things!


I have to say it turned out great!  Amelia now has a girly Easter basket that can sit next to her while the other run around hunting eggs.  I am sure her daddy or I will help her find a few eggs too.  Or she may just Army crawl around the yard.  ( I swear she is not going to crawl...she is going to take off running one of these days!)  It will be a fun day and I am sure there will be lots of pictures taken that day of her in her frilly dress, frilly socks, and patent leather shoes my mom insisted on buying for her!

Easy DIY Maxi dress

As the temperatures begin to rise outside, I have really wanted to start making dresses for the summer.  It will be here soon and I love to wear lots of dress in the summer.  I don't really have any from last summer since I was very pregnant with my July baby.

After searching through Pinterest for maxi dress patterns, I came across one that I really loved. This is the dress that I found and thought looked really simple to make.

http://sweet-verbena.blogspot.com/2011/07/boho-maxi-dress-tutorial.html

I went to Hobby Lobby and bought 2 yards of knit fabric and started to make my dress.  I followed her instructions except I washed the fabric first.  I always wash my fabric to make sure it is not going to shrink or do anything else funky after being washed and dried.  The fabric I washed did shrink some so I am really glad I took the time to wash and dry it.

I then carefully laid out the fabric and pinned it down three sides, leaving the bottom open.  Next, I cut the neck as she instructed down 6 inches and the arm holes 8 inches.  When I did this, I pinned the tape measure down to make sure the inch line did not move up or down and make for an uneven dress.The arms were perfect, but the neck is where I had to do some modifications.  I know that she wanted to do a modest neckline but I found it very restrictive and it made me think of a hospital gown.  That is never a look that I want to go for.  Hospital chic is never in!  I also took the time to finish the ends.  I hemmed the arms and neck with a 1/4" hem.

For all of the hems, I did a zig zag stitch to help with the give of the knit fabric.  It was stitch 4 on my machine.

For the neck, I was not a fan of the restrictive v neck.  I just began to play with it and cut a scoop neck only in the front leaving the back as is.  I ended up with a wide scoop neck that was much more flattering and hemmed it also to a 1/4" hem.

For the bottom, I hemmed it to a 1/2" hem after cutting about 5 inches off because it was so long on me.  I am just over five feet tall so there was a lot of fabric left at the bottom.  I highly suggest having a friend, or wonderful hubby in my case help you with this part.  My husband just cut a slit to the point I directed him to so that I could make the final cut.  He was worried about messing it up but he did a great job!

All in all, I think I have a great dress for the summer that I can run errands in and go to church.  I am not much for wearing shorts and I love to wear all types of summer dresses.  I am excited to start working on my next dress project for the summer.

A Great Way to Remove Sharpie Marks from Wooden Surfaces

I love when Alexander draws me pictures.  He loves to ask if he can draw with his crayons and paper.  Sometimes he likes to surprise me with the same types of drawings.  Those are also fantastic.
But alas, there is one more type of drawing that can sometimes happen when you have small children.  This is the kind that happens when he feels the need to redecorate our walls.  Magic Erasers can be a mom's best friend when it comes to getting crayon drawings off of the wall.


 But what do you do when your child decides that the bedroom door is just not quite colorful enough?  I stumbled upon a trick to get the marks off of wood and I wanted to see if it really works.  Alex decided that my closet door and his bedroom door needed a little more color but as we are renting our townhouse these little decorations need to be removed.  I saw somewhere that rubbing alcohol would take marker marks off of wood.  I decided that it was worth a try since it really cannot make the "artwork" any worse.  Well it worked!  It took the marks right off of the door!  Awesome, now as soon as we find more artwork I know what I can do to get it off.  I love Alexander's artwork but I must say that I enjoy it much more when he chooses paper and crayons as his mediums to express himself!  Gotta love those kiddos!

Warning: Please make sure you test before you get all excited and take off the paint on your wood. I did this to a very small area and it can take a little paint off but not enough to notice.

Thrift Store Finds

I love going to thrift stores!  You never know what you are going to find while there.  I may not always by something but there is always so much to see.  Thrift stores are a great place to find things for your DIY projects around the house.  My husband is not a fan of going so I went yesterday while Amelia was taking her nap.  I took a quick trip to the local Goodwill.  (I say quick but on the first Saturday of the month most things in the store are 50% off on that day.)  It was packed.  I wonder around looking at all the things that they had even though I had a purpose for going today. You have to always look around because you never know what you are going to find.  Today, I needed a belt for a dress that I am making and two frames.  I found everything that I was looking for during my visit.  The best part is that I only paid just over $5 for everything that I bought.  The frames need some TLC but that is what I was looking for.  I want to be able to make it my own.  I also found 2 belts - 1 black and 1 colorful one.  I love things that are colorful.  Color always makes things awesome!  I also found an unexpected gift wrap holder for $0.99.  Hopefully I can use this to contain all of the wrapping paper I always insist on having.  I figure you never know when you are going to need to give a quick gift and wrapping paper is a must!  I cannot wait to share with you what I make of these items.  I cannot wait to get started.  I am just giddy ready to do some cheap DIY projects!

I paid $1 for each belt, $0.25 for the small wooden frame, $2 for the large wooden frame and $0.99 for the gift wrap holder.  What great finds!

When Thunderstorms Begin Your Day

Our day started extra early in the house today.  We had a line of thunderstorms roll through just after 7 a.m. this morning.  They had lots of loud thunder and lots of rain and lots of wind.  This is not a good combination when a 9-month old and 4 year old are sleeping.  Well, they were not sleeping long after the storm started and were up by 7:30 a.m.  This lead to a day with a grouchy 9 month old. She is on a pretty set schedule that really got messed up today.  She decided to take her nap around 10 a.m. which lead to us having a bad afternoon.  She was completely out of sorts today due to the storms waking her up earlier than she or I would have liked.  And a night with a grouchy four year old.  To add to the fun that the kids and I had today, my husband is working overtime tonight and did not get home until after 8.  Oh what a day!  I am so glad the storms left us earlier today and tomorrow will be a new day.

Amelia has also decided today that she really does not want to take her bottles.  I am so hoping this is a fluke.  My son was 11 months before he stopped taking a bottle and was a pro with a sippy cup and straw.  She is not quite 9 months old (April 12) and does not like sippy cups or at least the several that we have tried.  I am hoping this is a fluke today just adding to the grumpiness we had today.  Hopefully tomorrow she will be back to her schedule and taking her bottle.  She still loves her solid foods just not a bottle fan today.  Here is to hoping to a better day tomorrow!

My Oldest Baby is Starting School

I cannot believe that almost five years have passed since I was in the hospital getting ready to give birth to my first child. We knew we were having a boy and that was so exciting for us.  He has been a surprise from the start by turning himself right before he was born to a breech position and making us decide to have c section or turn him.  We chose c section and he was born at 7 p.m. on the dot on July 24, 2009.  It was hot and stormy that day.  It was hot today as we hit another milestone in his growing up.  It is hard to believe that little boy in the hospital (he only weighed 6 lbs 14 ounces) is getting ready to start kindergarten.  He is really growing up too fast.  He is so excited to start school and I am excited for him even though it also feels bittersweet.

He has always been an independent child and he was the same today.  He walked right into registration introduced himself to the principal as Alex Constantine and shook her hand.  He was so confident!  I hope that he is the same when it comes time for us to leave him on that first day of kindergarten in August.  I know that I will be a mess just as I was the day I left him at daycare for the first time when I went back to work after he was born.  I am excited for him though.  I am excited to see his love of learning grow each day.  I am excited for his new friends and new experiences.  I am excited to see him grow into a confident and smart young man.  This is just the beginning of a 13 year journey that will have its celebrations and defeats.  I know that we have raised him to be ready to take on these challenges. (I mean this is the kid that will eat anything once - he loves sushi and miso soup.)  I have had five years to prepare for this.  As a former teacher, I know he is ready to learn so much and that he will succeed.  As a mommy, he is still that tiny, long, and lanky baby that I brought home 4 days after he was born in that very hot July.  I still have a few months to get ready and love every minute we get to spend together from now and the rest of the summer.  I cannot wait to see what he will accomplish!!!

My First 5K

On Saturday, I participated in my first 5K.  It was awesome!  I decided that if I were going to run a 5K it would have to be something fun and not competitive for my first.  I found the Color Me Rad race and signed up.  I have never been much of a runner but I figured I could work hard and train to run since at that time the race was not for a few months.  I started researching what I would need to do and came across the Couch-to-5K program.  I was set!

Here is the program that fit me.  With being a SAHM mom to two little ones in the middle of a very cold winter here in Tennessee, I decided my best bet was to run on the treadmill although I have to say after running the race, running outside is much more fun!  I went to the gym three nights a week while my husband got the kids to bed or fed Amelia her last bottle.  I have to say that it is hard at first but with determination it becomes habit and something that I loved doing.  Even now, I am looking for my next 5K and still running when I can.

The following is a link to the program that I used.
http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml

When I first started it was hard to just run the minute and a half.  It seemed impossible looking ahead to week nine and seeing that I was going to be running 3 miles or 30 minutes.  But this program is great for conditioning your body into being able to accomplish this goal.  With each increment in time and mileage increase, the first workout was hard.  But the next got easier and by the end, 30 minutes went by so fast.

On race day, the weather was gloomy.  The forecast was for rain and lots of it.  When I started the race, it was just a nice drizzle and thankfully the temp was in the upper 50's.  It was so much fun to run with a crowd of people.  Because this was a color run, they said that you would want to wear white because of the color that would be thrown through the race.  I wore a pair of shorts I found at a thrift store and a shirt from Walmart I found for $1.  I did not want to ruin anything nice.  And thank goodness I didn't because I was certainly colorful by the time that I finished the race.  Even the the bottom fell out of the sky before I finished the race and I was soaked, the color was still everywhere - my clothes, skin, socks, and shoes.  I am sure that it was in my ponytail too but since I have such dark hair it made it harder to see.

For anyone that is looking to just run for fun or great exercise, training and running a 5K is a great way to accomplish this.  I had so much fun and I am looking forward to my next race.  Eventually I would love to run a MudRun but that may need to wait for a little while.  I plan on entering at least one more race this summer, although the temperatures get really hot here in the summer.  Get out there and have fun and if it is raining on race day, just remember that just adds to the fun!