See how they grow

I did the Fat Mum Slim photo a day challenge in August. It looked like this:

I used My Memories suite (posted about here) to showcase all of my pictures from August. I did them all! Can you believe it? I can't. 

If you want to follow me on Instagram, I'm ashleejuanita. I think you can just search for my name and it should come up. I'd love to follow you, leave me a comment with your user name. Do you do the photo a day challenge? Here's Septembers:

On to the project for today:The other day, I was thrifting, and spotted this. It was lovely. It was $3. I bought it. It was a little bowed, I’ll grant you, but you can’t buy nice wood like this for that cheap (and the vinyl), so home it came.

The idea is really simple. A piece of wood, 5 feet tall, with nice routed edges, and then painted a color, mod podge paper rectangles around, and vinyl a ruler up the middle. Simple. So, I ripped off some of the papers that were coming off anyway, and mod podged other paper on top. I covered up the name of the previous child that was vinyled (I’m making up words) on, and just made sure all the paper I added was something other than blue and brown to make it more gender neutral and cutesy.

Voila! It’s hanging in the girl’s room now, and we had a fun night of putting our measurements on, including their size when born. Now, it moves with us when we leave next, and I just need to patch a hole in the wall.

Polka dot wall art how to here. It turned out fun and was super cheap, so bonus!!

We used little labels to write the name & date on so we knew how tall little ones were. I’m paranoid, so you don’t get to see their names. Sorry!

Cute vinyl saying was already on there.

Both my girls were really close to the same size when born…That’s what those stickers show. I know there’s a lot of different versions, but this was my $3 version. They love it!

Harry Potter Party

Way back at the beginning of the year, my oldest, Jingus, turned eleven.  He is a huge Harry Potter fan, so we had a Harry Potter party.

I mentioned that we were doing that a long time ago, but I never showed you the party.

(hanging my head in shame)

I hope that you’ll forgive me! 

This Harry Potter party was a lot of fun.  It was perfect for an eleven-year-old birthday party.  There were a few things I would have done differently, but whatevs.  It was Jingus’s party, so we did it his way. 

His party invitations were Hogwarts Acceptance Letters.

We ran through Platform 9 3/4 to get onto the Hogwarts Express.  This is just a cheap plastic tablecloth.  I would have sponge painted the bricks onto it, but Jingus wanted to do it this way.

First, the wands chose the wizards.  I posted a tutorial for the wands a few months ago.

Then the wizards were sorted into their Houses.  We just used a witch hat for The Sorting Hat.  I wrote down all the house names on strips of paper and put them into the bowl.  Each guest pulled a paper out of the bowl, and that was what house they were “sorted” into.

We played “How well do you know your Hogwarts Staff and Students.”  I found this printable somewhere on Pinterest.  Not gonna lie.  There was a lot of cheating happening with this game!  Everyone wanted to copy my boys' worksheets.  Dang.  My kids are geeks too!  They never really stood a chance…

Here’s “the trolley.”  Oh.  Didn’t get a picture of all the balloons in the front room.  We had to blow up a gagillion balloons.  Want to know how I did it?!

Monkey’s nebulizer!  Ha!  All those hospital visits last Winter weren’t good for nothing!  :)  Mkay.  Back to the trolley:

Look at all that deliciousness!  I made the chocolate frogs from this mold I bought off of Amazon:

CK Products Frog Assortment Chocolate Mold

The frogs are just melted chocolate chips.

We just named some of these treats after Harry Potter treats.  They’re Jingus’ favorite snacks.

We couldn’t forget the Butter Beer!  These are just IBC cream sodas with labels I found off Pinterest.  I don’t remember where, but I’ve got all of these things pinned on my Birthday Pinboard.

All those party boys cleared us out of EVERYTHING!!

Especially this one.  He loves to eat sweets!

After all of the games and presents, the boys headed downstairs to watch Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

It was a really fun party.  At one point, I was thinking, “My goodness!  All this time and money put into the party!  It would have been so much easier to just buy him more presents!” 

But, then, all his friends came over. 

They raised a ruckus. 

They got high off of sugar. 

They had so much fun. 

The presents they gave him were more special because, “That one is from…I love this one from...  I wish he didn’t move or that we could play more often…” 

And then I realized it was so worth it.  He had a fun day with his friends, and they all had fun at the party.  It made this Momma’s heart happy to see her boys having such a great time!  It was definitely worth all the effort, and he’ll always have the memory. 

That lasts a lot longer than a present!

Containing my Crap

Happy Labor Day!! Have fun doing whatever you're doing! Here's a really quick, easy organization that I did for my patterns...Right now, I'm working on my craft/sewing table. Woohoo!! Post coming soon! You know all those paper patterns when you’re walking around your favorite craft/fabric store that you can rip off one and have it free? And you know how those patterns then get lost in the abyss that is your purse/craft room/sewing area (if it makes it that far?) Well, I decided to do something with those recently.

This is my pattern box. It’s overflowing. Something needs to be done, I realize it. This is just step 1. I grabbed out all of those free paper patterns first.

I got a binder from the DI.

Hey big spender…It was a planner, so it’s not a full binder size. It already had a bunch of lined paper and a few dividers in it, so I used the dividers as a guide to 3 hole punch my patterns, since they’re not typical size. I cut out some more dividers out of cardstock. Orange is what I had the most of. Whatever.

I decorated the binder with washi tape. Because I can.

Then, labeled those dividers, and stuck in my patterns.

So far, I’ve got things like pillows, Halloween, Christmas, kid crafts, décor tips, house things, crochet/knit, and apparel. With lots of space for more.

Speaking of washi tape, I’m developing quite the collection

(do you like my sewing machine cover? Love it!) Here it is by my box of patterns, on top of the patterns I got from my Grandma. See the 1/2” worth of lined paper in the pattern book? I’m thinking I’ll keep notes on patterns, alterations, etc., so I don’t have tons of paper floating all over. Nice.

One step closer to maintaining my hoard.

What I Wore Sunday: Week 31

Guess what, peeps?!

I’m back!

Family reunions are over, the weddings are over, and school has started. 

Wahoo!

I’m still crazy busy processing produce from the garden, but that will end soon, too.

So, hows about we have a What I Wore Sunday Link Party?!

I’ve so missed you guys and all of your fun creative-ness.

So, let’s party, yeah?!

…52 weeks of shaking up the wardrobe…

The Rules:

1. Wear a different outfit every Sunday.
2. Incorporate at least one article of clothing or accessory that was either refashioned, sewn myself, or handmade.
3. Outfits can be worn more than once; just not the same way.
4. Think outside the box and be creative!

This is what I wore Sunday:

This is a ruffle tank that didn’t fit right, so I resized it on the shoulder seams.  Easy peasy.  I made the cardigan out of a clearance rack tee shirt.  I did a lettuce hem on my serger.  That tutorial will come sometime soon.

I got a lot of compliments on this outfit, but that may just be because I was wearing the high school’s colors to Church.  I don’t know.  But, I really like this outfit.

Onto the party…

What about you?  What did you wear?

Link up to anything you have refashioned or sewn yourself.  It doesn’t have to be dressy, and it doesn’t have to be worn on a Sunday.  It doesn’t even have to be worn by you.  Show it off!

• No links to shops or giveaways, please.
• Link back to Crafty Cousins on your blog too, okay?!

• Bonus points for following Crafty Cousins or liking us on Facebook!  :)
• Tell your friends about the What I Wore Sunday Link Party.  What’s a party without lots of partiers?

Can’t wait to see what you’ve got!  :)