Refashion Show

A long, long, long time ago, I organized a “Refashion Show” at my church.  I should have blogged about it before now…

…hanging my head in shame…

But, I’ll share what we did now and you can forgive me later!  :)

I picked up a bunch of stuff at a local thrift store, and I handed it to several ladies in my neighborhood. 

Here are the fun ways they refashioned them:

This was refashioned into a cute vest and a headband with a flower.  I do not know where the picture of the finished product went.  Sadness…

This awesome “grandma nightgown” still had the original tags on it:

I refashioned it into this fun skirt:

It’s cute AND comfy!  The tutorial will come later…

This silky “grandma-shirt” was refashioned into a cute skirt-purse!

…complete with pockets!

This GIGANTIC dress was refashioned into a “Mom and Me” dress set.

So, so cute!

This little boy’s dress shirt was refashioned into a toddler girl’s dress.

It looks lots cuter with a pink belt and white leggings….  I did this one, too.  I’ll post a tutorial on it later.

I don’t know where the before picture went for this one, but what started out as a pair of fuzzy, brown, toddler-sized pants ended up as a monster pillow!

Seriously.  How cute is that?!

A BIG THANK YOU to all the awesome ladies who participated in the challenge!  You have fabulous imaginations!

March Fab Five

Since Valentine’s is over, here’s some inspiration to get you thinking about what’s coming up next….

I pinned this forever ago from Zulily. Really the reason I pinned it was because it’s name is Clovis. Nat understands.

I thought this mantel was sweet from A Little Tipsy.

My SIL does a tradition with her family where a leprechaun causes a ton of mischief. Think Elf on the Shelf for St. Patty’s. This cracks me up from a Differentiated Kindergarten.

Really, I love St. Patrick’s day, and the food and silliness that is the holiday. I have a board here that has more ideas, kid crafts, printables, and food ideas if you want to go check it out. I think it should be easy to decorate for, since Emerald is the Pantone color of the year too….

Onto Easter, since that is coming right on the heels of St. Patrick’s.

Love how Chocolate on My Cranium has this countdown to Easter to remember we’re celebrating Christ, not the Easter bunny.

In my hubby’s family, Easter egg decorating is a REALLY big deal. They are all really artsy, and creative, so their eggs are literally works of art. Then they roll them down a hill to see which ones last the longest. So I have a lot of egg decorating ideas on my Easter Board.

How about a cute Easter manicure from Holiday Snob?

I may try to make this this year. Then again, maybe not. But this egg garland from Craft Endeavor is pretty awesome.

This is awesome. But alas, it links to a private blog, so just admire it mkay?

So there’s more ideas, specifically printables, egg filling ideas, basket decorating, etc. We’ll be sharing some of our own over the next few weeks. Have a great weekend!

Earring Makeover

Today is Valentine’s Day.  Do you have any awesome plans?

I do.  I’ve got a fun dinner with my guys planned.  I hope they like it.  Heart shaped personal pizzas, heart shaped carrot slices, heart shaped garlic parmesan breadsticks, red Jello, red punch, and a heart shaped chocolate layer cake.  Mmmm…I can hardly wait!

Since today is the day of love, I thought it would be fun to have my Valentine’s day nails, and dress in red, white and black today.  (I need to match my Valentine’s Day décor!) I whipped up a red ruffle scarf…Ash is right…it’s insanely easy and fun!

I also gave my favorite earrings a makeover.

That was also quick and easy.  About a year ago, I got these cute, fun earrings on sale for a dollar.  Score!

But, they tarnished after just a few months.  I guess that’s what happens when you buy such expensive jewelry!

I remembered that (a very, very long time ago) one of my friends did her science fair project on rust.  She found that nails that were coated in nail polish (he he he!) didn’t rust, and others did.

That’s what sparked my idea for this earring upcycle.

I decided to paint them red with nail polish…

…and I just LOVE how they turned out!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Who Needs Hostess?!

Not me, that’s for sure!  I’m actually not a fan of all those preservatives, but my boys are.  Unfortunately, they don’t get the treats all too often.  When we found out Hostess was going under, we bought some Twinkies. 

This was the first and last time that my little Monkey had a Twinkie.  Oh, and that is Deege in the picture.

Jingus just turned twelve.  For his birthday cake, he wanted me to recreate Hostess Chocolate Cupcakes. 

I did, and I posted it on Facebook.  That recipe will come next.  Anyway, Ash and I have a cousin named Brady.  When I posted the chocolate cupcakes on Facebook, Brady asked if I could recreate a Twinkie.  I’m always up for a challenge, so I tried.

The results?!  Awesome!  Here’s what I did:

I started off with a sponge cake recipe and cooked it in some muffin pans.  You could use this pan to get the Twinkie shape…

…but I just used a muffin pan.  On to the recipe:

Classic Sponge Cake

4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup butter (lightly salted)
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1. Beat eggs in large mixing bowl with paddle attachment for 5 minutes.  Do not skip this step!
2. Add sugar, and continue beating for another 5 minutes until light and fluffy.  Add vanilla and stir on low until just combined.
3. In a separate bowl, sift together dry ingredients.  Add to eggs and sugar on low speed until just combined.
4. In a saucepan, heat milk and butter on low heat just until butter is melted.  Add to batter, beat just until combined.
5. Pour into two greased and floured muffin pans
6. Bake at 325 until the middle springs back when touched, or a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean--about 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand in pans for 10 minutes. Then turn out onto wire cooling racks and cool completely.
Hint: Cakes are close to being done when you start to smell them.

While the cakes were cooling, I whipped up this fabulous frosting/cupcake filling from my favorite ladies at Our Best Bites.

Now, there are two ways to fill cupcakes.  You can inject the filling with one of these…

…or icing bags and tips.  I would have done this, but my supplies were still needing to be washed from the chocolate cupcakes.  So, I did this instead:

Take a cupcake, and use a knife to cut a circle in the center.

Use a Ziploc bag with a corner snipped off to pipe some filling into the hole.

Replace the circle you cut out.

Flip it upside down…

…and you’ve got a Twinkie! 

***WARNING***

These are MUCH tastier than Twinkies!  :)

They are a lot of work, too.  If I wanted a super tasty dessert, I would definitely make these.  If I just wanted to snack on a Twinkie (ewww gross, but if I did…) I would just pick up a box of these:

But, if you want some homemade tastiness, try these out.  You’re sure to love them!  :)

Enjoy your recipe, Brady!  :)

My Five Faves of Ash

Happy New Year, y’all!  Are you exhausted from last night’s parties!  I am!  We watched movies, played games, and took care of sick kids.  Ugh.  At least there’s been a lot of snuggling going on at my house!  :)

Let’s see.  My five faves of Ash are:

Her family.  I just love her, her brothers, her sister and her parents.  Love, love, love.

Her sense of humor.  Every time we text each other, I laugh out loud.  Seriously. 

Her family.  Her girls are super adorable, and her Hubs is a lot of fun.

Her fashion sense.  She is so cute and always looks incredible.

Her craftiness.  Seriously.  She inspires me.  Oh yeah.  Those are my five faves I’m supposed to be posting about.  My mistake.  Oh goodness.  How will I be able to pick just five?!  I’ll have to try!

I just love these lacey boot cuffs!  So cute and so much fun!

These ideas for chores and allowance for kids are fabulous!

I loved everything about this Owl Baby Shower!

I’ve used this suit pants hem tutorial on several pairs of my guys’ church pants.

…and the pirate shirt.  Love, love, love it! 

Thanks for sharing all of you super crafty awesomeness with us, Ash!

Nat’s Top 5

I thought it’d be fun to highlight my favorite projects from Nat this year. Sort of a year review, but less vain, since they’re not mine (by the way, I updated the tutorials page so you can find any of our tutorials you want now easier!) So in no particular order, here’s my 5 faves from Nat:

I love Ruching. For real. You don’t have to be pregnant to enjoy the awesomeness that is ruching. So go here to see how Nat ruched this cute shirt!

I’ve used this tutorial at least 6 times this year. Seriously. I used it on 3 pairs of new skinny jeans, 1 pair of hand-me-downs that were already pretty trashed, 1 pair of my jeans, and at least 2 other pants are waiting on my sewing machine table for me to fix them. My machine and I are on a break. We’ve been seeing too much of each other. We’re taking a break.

I love me some carbs. I really want to make these. Soon. Just haven’t yet. But Nat claims they’re really easy so I should be able to do it. Recipe is here.

Every time I see this, I get nostalgic and hope that maybe someday I’ll have a little boy too, so I can make this adorable necktie tee. Someday. Maybe.

But, in all honesty, I can make ridiculous, fluffy, flowery dresses anytime I want because I have 2 little princesses of my own. And they’d love this dress!

Do you have any plans today for New Years? Looking for some décor, party ideas, or resolutions displays? Go look at my Pinterest board for New Years. If I wasn’t just getting over a nasty cold, I would make the oversized sequins. Love them!

Happy New Year! See ya next year