Crocheted Flower Coasters

I knit a little, but I absolutely love to crochet.  So imagine how excited I was to see a tutorial for these adorable crocheted flower coasters! and how cute is that teapot?? Thanks to Rebecca of Nook for posting this over at Versus.  LOVE THEM!!!  (Check out the cute way she gifted them... and don't miss her super cute granny square blanket).

Butterfly Dress

I have a little niece who just recently celebrated her FIRST birthday (Happy Birthday Lu!!).  When I saw this Butterfly Dress on Sewing in No Mans Land- I knew that's what I wanted to make her.  The pattern is great and the tutorial easy to follow- I had a little bit of trouble with the front opening, but I'm sure next time I'll do better... I would suggest practicing on a scrap before doing it in the actual dress.  This was also the first time I'd ever used bias tape- fun to try something new!  I also copied her tutorial for this headband.  I loved the way it turned out (and if it looks huge in my picture, it was- apparently the size of my 2 1/2 year old's head is WAY bigger than a one year old girl.  Luckily too big was easy to fix).

Twirl Skirt

One of Missy's girls had a birthday and I couldn't resist the urge to make another skirt.  This Twirly Skirt from House of Hill Road has been on my to-try list for over a year; I love the way it turned out.  The tutorial is very easy to follow with great pictures. She gives the dimensions that you need for your fabric pieces depending on the measurements of your skirt-wearer; very nice for when I make skirts for girls that do not live in my house!

40 Sucks

I loved this idea the instant that I saw it.  The gallon size jar is SO cute- I can't wait to pick one up next time I'm at Wal-Mart.  Thanks to Blue Cricket Design for this 40 Sucks birthday gift idea.  My Mom turns '40' (or something like that) next month- I can't wait to make one for her!!

Framed Bow Board

Check out this darling framed bow board from iCandy handmade... so cute!  This would make a great gift idea for a baby shower!!

Valentine Teacher Gift Idea

I'm loving this idea for a Valentine Teacher Gift Idea- So Fortunate to Have You from eighteen25.  Very clever, classy, and sounds delicious!  Perfect for my boys preschool and Primary teachers.  One time (okay, like over 10 years ago) Missy made homemade fortune cookies for family night- maybe she'll find her recipe and share.  Or, store bought cookies are really easy.   

IPad / Kindle / Android Tablet Carrying Case

Now I was not lucky enough to get one of these toys for Christmas, but I have several friends and family members (Missy) who did.  The Polka Dot Chair has a great tutorial for a Kindle Keeper, but I think the measurements can be easily adapted for any of the above mentioned devices.  Plus, don't you love the bow she tied?? 

12 Days of Giveaways & Fancy Rubber Gloves Tutorial

We're excited for our chance to participate in the 12 Days of Giveaways!!  Today we are giving away a pair of Fancy Rubber Gloves (we think every woman should still look fashionable when washing dishes or cleaning toilets).

To enter this giveaway, all you have to do is leave us a comment with your name and email address. It's that easy!

You can get one additional entry if you are a follower of if I could... Just leave a separate comment letting us know.
 

This giveaway is open to US residents only, and will close at Noon (MST) on Saturday, December 11th. The winner will be chosen via random.org and will be announced later that afternoon.

Good Luck!!!

Now if you're not lucky enough to win a pair of gloves but still want some, here's how you can make your very own...

What you'll need:
Pair of household rubber gloves (we found these cute tangerine colored ones here)
Oilcloth (1/4 yard is plenty) (we ordered ours from fabric.com)
sewing machine and thread

1.  Cut your oil cloth for your cuffs.  You will need two 19" x 3.75" rectangles.

2.  Sew the pleats in your oilcloth.  You will need to take your oil cloth from 19" to about 10.5" inches.  I think the easiest way to do this is to finger press/fold the oilcloth as you sew, making about 1/2" folds and sewing over the folds. (I like to mark my oil cloth so I know where to fold my pleats.  I marked my oil cloth every two inches, and then 1/2" before and after so my folds would be even.  So, I made marks at 1.5", 2", 2.5", 3.5", etc.  You really can skip the marking step, for me it's just easier.) 

3.  Repeat sewing pleats in the other rectangle of oil cloth.

4.  PRESS your oilcloth.  You want the pleats in the gloves to stay folded and neat.  The best way to press oil cloth is with weight. Make sure your pleats are laying flat, and stack weight on top (I used puzzles and books).  I recommend letting them get pressed overnight.

5.  After your oilcloth is pleated and pressed, put right sides of short ends of oilcloth together and sew, using a 1/4" inch seam allowance.  You should now have 2 rings of pleated oilcloth.

6.  Slide your oilcloth ring onto a glove, right sides together.  Leaving about 1.5" of glove at the top.  Fold over the glove, use a couple of pins to hold everything together and sew- using 1/2" seam allowance.  If the arm of sewing machine is skinny enough, you can fit your glove around it.  If not, you kind of have to cram everything in there to sew- kind of tricky, but doable. 

7.  Sew a second time around the glove, I just used my presser foot as a guide, just to make sure everything is secure. Repeat with other glove.

8.  Turn gloves right side out- voila!  Your own set of fancy-schmancy rubber gloves!

Snowman Soup - great gift idea (and free download!)

This is such a cute idea for a friend, neighbor, or teacher gift.  You've heard it said that it's all in the presentation... well, Kierste from Brown Paper Packages has made hot cocoa and candy canes into a darling gift called Snowman Soup.  And she's nice enough to share the free download for the super cute tag!!

Turkey Cake Pops

I think cake pops are such a fun treat - and they make fun gifts, too!  Aren't these turkey cake pops absolutely adorable?  Well, if you've been intimidated to make cake pops before, never fear - Big Bear's Wife has a VIDEO tutorial on how to make these (I know, pretty cool)!!  Click HERE to get the tutorial.

Seven Petal Crochet Flower

I love crocheting, it makes me feel not so guilty for sitting in front of the TV at night (and I must mention here how extremely happy I am that the new season of Glee has started).  Well, I'm loving this Seven Petal Crochet Flower from Little Birdie Secrets.  Last spring I used her pattern for a 5-petal flower  (and she even has a video tutorial) to add some cuteness to my beanies- can't wait to try out this 7 petal flower.  I love how she attached it to some ribbon for a bookmark- the perfect addition when you're giving a book as a gift, or what a cute party favor when it's your turn to host book group!

Dishtowel Cafe Aprons

In case you missed our guest post on Sugar Bee-Craft Edition, we're reposting it here for you!

We spent a fun afternoon with our sister, SIL, mom, and aunt making these cute Dishtowel Cafe Aprons... so cute and very beginner (truth be told Missy did cry the first time we made these- she's WAY too much of a perfectionist).

I love making these for gifts. Pair it with a cake box, kitchen utensil, or favorite cookbook (depending on how much $ you want to spend) and you have a perfect gift for a teacher, neighbor, or friend. Now, on to the tutorial for the Dishtowel Cafe Aprons.

Dishtowel Cafe Apron

ITEMS NEEDED:

1. Dishtowel (we found most of these cute dishtowels for way cheap at Walmart)

2. Trim (ruffle, ric rac, pom-poms, etc...) same as the width of the towel + 2 inches

3. 1.5 yards of coordinating fabric for the waistband (you will have enough leftover to make another apron)
4.  Matching thread

Cut your dishtowel so that it is 18"

Pin the trim on the bottom of the towel, wrapping it around to the back about 1" on both sides and sew

(did you notice I switched towels on you?)

Cut out two 6" strips of fabric.  Each strip is 6" wide and 54" long

Pin the two strips right sides together, end to end, and sew (you have one LONG strip)

Iron the seam open flat

Fold the fabric in half (so your strip is now 3" wide) and iron

Open the fabric back up and iron in all raw edges about 1/2" (if you want to be fancy you can angle in your ends)

Here's just a square corner

Here's one I did with a fancy corner

Fold the strip back in half and press it one last time

Open the fabric strip and place the towel inside, lining the top of the towel with the fold of the fabric.  Make sure the seam of the fabric strip is centered on the towel.

Pin the entire strip and sew (using a 1/4" seam allowance- which means you use your presser foot as a guide) around the edge of the strip (bottom, side, top, side)

Ta-Da! All done!

(This would be Missy's son modeling... what a sport)

Linking up:

Bad Day Jar

I feel I must preface this post with the fact that my sweet husband is usually very happy, always willing to help other people, and is one of those people that you like to be around.  I also tell really long stories, so you can just skip to the end if you'd like.  That being said...

Monday was one of those terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days.  I felt like all day my phone was ringing with people telling me bad news; I had to make 4 apology phone calls (which all 4 people I called were very gracious); my house was (still is) a complete disaster; I had done 4 loads of laundry and did not get one folded; I had to cancel (last minute) some kids that I tutor (I hate when I do that- I feel terrible); I had watched 10 kids most of the day (that really wasn't bad, they were all REALLY good, I'm just adding that detail to help paint the picture); I had started preparing dinner but didn't end up getting it finished so I fed my kids Dino-bites (HATE when I do that) and I had a bad headache because I felt that everytime I wasn't around my kids I was crying.  Okay, really it wasn't that bad for me, I mostly was just feeling so sad for people I love.

At 7:00 p.m., in enters my husband.  My kids are actually being really good (eating their Dino-bites and talking away) and I'm just heating up Spaghettios for me and the hubs (I know I'm a stellar wife). Usually he greets us all with a kiss and smiles, and will immediately begin asking about our days.  Monday, however, he starts doing the dishes (??), says he doesn't want to eat, and starts snapping at me and the boys for everything.  Kind of how our evening goes for the next half hour when I ask him to go put the big boys to bed and I'll put the baby to bed (our usual routine).  He tells me no and says that he is in such a bad mood that if he has to put kids to bed he will yell at them.  I have all the boys give Dad a kiss goodnight, and promptly wisk them all downstairs to get ready for bed.   I try just to give him space for the next hour and then I run a couple of errands.  Upon arriving home I get my head bit off because I took so long (and really I was quite proud of myself for only taking 45 minutes).  I apologized and the two of us folded laundry in silence for a few minutes.  In the end he said he was sorry.  He had a rough day at work and all he wanted to do that evening was hold his wife and watch a show (see, I told you he is sweet).  The last little bit of our evening was good- filled with folding laundry, good conversation, and watching the news.  When we crawled in bed that evening I felt that all was well between us and in our home.

All week I've been playing Monday through my head, thinking of how I could have done better as a wife (perhaps had a real dinner, our house cleaner, not been on the phone when he came home from work, etc...) but have really come to conclusion that I really did the best I could that day.  My bottom line- everyone (even my practically perfect husband) can have a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day once in a while.  Thus my idea..
a Bad Day Jar.

Simple enough, saw a cute jar on sale at Ikea.  Tied a cute ribbon and tag on it and filled it with Laffy Taffys.  Not only are Laffy Taffys one of my husband's favorite candies, but the jokes on them make you smile.  I had the boys come up with reasons why they love Dad, and I added a few of my own.  I printed up the reasons, taped them onto the candy, and tossed them all in the jar.  This way when the hubs is having a bad day at work he can grab a treat and remember why we love him (then hopefully if it's Spaghettios and chaos for dinner he'll be a little more forgiving of me too).   

Now go ahead and make a Bad Day jar for yourself or someone you love!

Recycled Aluminum Can Flower Pots

This is such a cute idea - mod podge tissue paper on empty aluminum cans to make these cute flower pots!  Click HERE for the full tutorial {Marie from Make & Takes posting on Craftzine}.  These would be a cute little gift or a cute centerpiece for your patio table... I think I'll make these to take visiting teaching this month :)

Cupcake Gifts

If you haven't figured it out- I LOVE cupcakes. The Crafting Chicks (just discovered them, aren't they awesome?  They have amazing digi-scrapping pages on there) show this fantastic way to package a cupcake to give as a gift.  They also provide some cupcake topper downloads, or you can use these ones as well.  Make some Fourth of July cupcakes and get your visits done early this month :)

Love Notes to Dad

For all you procrastinators out there (I'm right there with you), here's another quick, inexpensive idea that will let him know he's the man this Father's Day:  Love Notes from the kids (you can include some too!).  We've written cards, made coupon books, etc. in the past, but I thought this was so clever to make the love notes into candy bar wrappers.  This great idea comes from Tiffany at Making the World Cuter.  Now go get craftin' - only 4 days left!

Can Wrap

Have I got a unique Father's Day gift idea for you!  Emily at Toad's Treasures shows how to make this crafty can wrap HERE - isn't that a creative idea??  You could also fill this with gardening tools as a manly alternative to a garden apron.  You can tailor this to suit your main-man's hobby (um, I think I need to make the pockets big enough to hold the tv remotes and I can put the playstation controllers in the middle... hee hee).

Frayed Burpcloth

I love homemade baby gifts- I wish I was better at giving them.  I would love to stock up on some flannel so I could have some of these Frayed Burpcloths on hand.  Thanks to the Sugar Bee for great tutorial, and I love how she embroiders the name- so cute.

Footprint Art

Check out this adorable idea for a Father's Day gift - footprint art!  You could do the footprints in colors that would coordinate with Dad's office, den, or bedroom.  Super sweet (fast and cheap, too).  Thanks to Megan at Little Blue Prints for this great idea!

Photo Gift for Dad

I've been looking around for a unique, meaningful Father's Day gift for my hubby.  After all, he puts up with me and our 4 crazy adorable kiddos.  Good thing he doesn't read my blog, because now I know what I'm giving him!  Check out this adorable Daddy photo gift.  I love sentimental gifts and I finally found the perfect one!  Thanks to Angry Julie Monday for this great idea!!