Have a Merry Christmas

I really have been slacking on posts here lately. I have two skirts I made for myself to show you...and I have a NEW ITEM coming January. I can't wait to show you!

I am signing off for the Christmas Holiday. Hope you all have a wonderful Holiday Season and I'll be back January!!!

Makella’s Christmas Dress

This year I decided to make Makella’s dress. I was pretty happy with how it turned out. I used the bodice of a dress she wears to make sure when I cut the fabric it would fit. Can you believe that it fits like a glove? I have to say sometimes when I think about it I’m shocked ! I had started taking pictures for a tutorial and then spaced doing anything for the second half of the dress. I could make another dress if a tutorial is REALLY needed by everyone… what do you think?

Second and most important.. I need your help! The husband thinks the flower around the next line should come off, and I can’t decide. What do you think? Keep the neckline flower, or take them off?

Merry Christmas everyone………………………

How do you spend your time?

So I am sitting here in front of the computer, when I should be doing a million other things! The Husband is out of town, the kids are asleep and I can't seem to get motivated to do anything useful besides sit on the couch and surf the internet.. research Christmas gift ideas.

It could be due to the fact that I am currently a single Mom (props to all single Mom's out there...I only have to do it for a couple days here and there and it can be tough a bit challenging at times) 

It could be due to the fact that I stayed up WAYYY to late last night working on Makella's Christmas dress...picture soon to come. I just have to add some finishing touches!

or it could be that I just am tired and should go to bed!

I'll take all of the above and see ya in the morning :)

(Please tell me you have many moments like this too!!!)

Cake Stand

I was so excited when I saw this plate and candle holder at Hobby Lobby. I don’t have a cake stand and had been looking for the right pieces to make one… They are so easy (just glue the two pieces together) and now I want to make a 100 more… but then what do you do with that many stands??

See the candle holder??

Such a simple project..and it’s even better with warm cookies on it. Don’t ya think?

Im back..and some business

I am back from a fun Thanksgiving trip to visit some family in New Mexico. The 10 hr drive went really well considering I have a 4 year old and 1 year old.

I was able to get some Black Friday shopping done, and the whole time I was there I thought we were crazy for getting up so early and going out in that crazy mess. Why do we do it?? I will never know!

I hope you all survived too....

Also our little business to take care of. Our giveaway at the Polka Dot Chair winner was ....

Raechel said...

I actually really like the car seat canopies. I've always wanted one for our Hazel and it would come in so handy this winter!

Congrats!! I just contacted you via email!!!  

until next time, Ashlee

Out of the office..

This major storm coming to Utah has changed our plans. I will therefore be off the computer and away from MB Sprout until next week... See ya then! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday!!

Posts soon to come

I promise I will be posting more tutorials and fun stuff soon (my son has been sick, therefore I have been holding him 24/7 and doing not much else).

I do leave you with this, until next time.....

about 10" in one night- and that was only storm 1 of 4!!

Tie up curtains (Tutorial)

I was asked by my sister to make some curtains for her window and door. She wanted ‘privacy’ curtains more then ‘I want the sunlight blocked’ curtains. We found a fabric the matched great for the house and did not put any backing on it so light would still come through..

want to make some for your house??

Here we go..

You first need to measure the window space you want to cover.

Our window measured 35” x 35” There was an extra 1/8 inch on the length but I didn’t count it since we will add a few inches anyway….

We then cut the fabric. I cut our piece 37” horizontal (giving an extra inch on each side) by 42”(vertical). I will explain further down why we added so much to the vertical length. Cut your fabric and then fold in both left and right sides 1/2” and then fold again another 1/2” so your raw edge is encased. Make sure you iron the fabric flat after each fold. Then stitch each side down.
Then repeat this step for the BOTTOM of your curtain. Now you should have all three sides folded in and stitched closed.

Now we are going to make the top loops for the curtain rod to go through.

Measure your curtain left to right and divide it by how many loops you want. I wanted 7 loops and it equaled out that they were approx. 4 “ apart.

Cut your remaining fabric (or a section of it at a time) into 5” strips.

Fold the strip over (right sides together) and stitch the seam together, leaving the top and bottom open. I used a 1/2” seam making my strip 4” in width. Turn the strip right side out, and iron flat with the seam in the middle.

See the pictures below to match the steps….

Fold in half                                                           stitch seam

attached safety pin                                       push pin through the tube

Pull pin through entire tube                   Iron flat with seam in the middle

Once you have ironed flat cut your stip into 8” pieces. If you don’t have enough fabric strips repeat the step above.

Go back to your curtain and lay it out is a large space so it can lay flat. Here is where the extra length comes into place. We cut out fabric at 42” . Fold to top of the curtain down so right sides are together. I folded mine over 5” then iron flat so you have a line through your fabric. I measured 5” on each side/ placed a pin and then folded over to make sure it was straight.

(Yes this doesn’t look even, but it was all even in the end.)

Now you have this crease to use as a guideline.

Fold each of your strips in half with the seam on the inside.

Place them against your crease and in the places you want. I fold my curtain in the middle and place one there. Then one at each end in between those.

It’s hard to see the straps since they blend in…but can you see it there?

Now we need to add the tie straps. I used ribbon because A:Its super easy and B. I didn’t have any more fabric.

You can make the tie’s out of your fabric just follow the same steps as we did for the loops, just make the length the same as your curtain.

Take TWO of your ties and pin them in place like we did our loops. I placed mine approx. 8” in from each side

Once all your loops and ties are placed pin the top down. Then stitch approx. 1/2” from the edge.

Once you have stitched flip the ‘back’ tie over the back and iron them so you have a nice clean/flat top.

Then top stitch the whole thing

Turn your curtain over and fold the raw edge under, iron flat, then stitch.

I did a double stitch because I like the look of it.

You are so close.. Just one last touch to make these look fabulous. Pin the front and back tie together.. This can be tricky since you are doing through the fabric, but just do the best you can.

Stitch around the edge of the ribbon and down to the double stitch you made.

Lastly if you used ribbon you want to heat seal the edge (or use fray check)

If you haven’t done this before you put the ribbon edge over a flame and you will see if start to burn upwards just slightly then pull it away.

The sealed edge…AND

Your final product is ready to hang!!

(FYI: This is not the window it will hang it. I took this picture at my house, since I haven’t given these to my sister yet)

Email me or post a comment with anything that doesn’t make sense!

Also…I have a few more tutorials in the works and hope to get at least a couple of them up within the next few weeks…

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Our Giveaway @ The Polka Dot Chair

Our giveaway is going on right now @ The Polka Dot Chair. Go leave a comment and enter to win a Carseat Canopy!!! Good Luck to all...and a big HELLO and WELCOME to our new followers!!!

Swap Party (Tutorial)

This party was a LONG time coming…. My friend and neighbor Sarah came to me with the idea of a ‘SWAP PARTY’ back in March. She saw this idea on Studio 5 and thought it would be a fun thing to put together and host. Many months passed and we did nothing about it. Finally around September-ish we decided we just needed to do this party! We planned the details, got the invites out (4 weeks before the actually party so people had time to RSVP). The day finally came for the Party and it turned out to be a blast.

If you don’t know what a ‘Swap party’ is here is the Studio 5 link that talks about it

We made the invites as well as an ‘information sheet’ to go inside. Since this idea was new to most we wanted people coming to understand what it was all about. The information sheet explained that they needed to bring 3 items from around their house that they made, didn’t use, never used! This item’s were supposed to be FABOULOUS and wrapped fun! The were each given 3 ‘tags’ in their invite. These tags were supposed to be filled out with ‘selling’ points for their item and then attached to it. They were NOT supposed to buy anything so that this was a free party.

We made juice and desserts for the ladies to enjoy while we SWAPPED TIL WE DROPPED!!

We will be doing this again next year since it turned out so great!! I hope they all enjoyed it as much as Sarah and I did.

( I wanted to give a Thanks to Sarah for these pictures, and for hosting the party at her house)

-If you want to host one of your own..here are the details of how we did ours to help you plan your own-

1. We made the invites

(Each invite included)

-the actually invite

-3 ‘tags’

-the info sheet

This was the poem on the front of the invite

“Swap til you Drop”

We're totally in a recession;
At least that's what they say.
I don't want to face it,
Just want to play, play, play!

It is time to get the girlfriends,
All together for a bash.
We could always go shopping,
But, who has the cash.

I've got a fab solution,
to this financial jam.
Just bring all your older stuff,
for a night away from your fam!

We'll eat and laugh and have some fun,
and drink some diet pop.
In the end we'll choose the goods,
We'll Swap 'til We Drop!

This idea will bring for sure,
Joy beyond measure!
Remember, one girlfriend's junk,
Is another girlfriend's treasure!

2. The back of the invite had the ‘when’ ‘where’ info on it.

Thursday Nov.4^th

6:30pm sharp

Sarah Diederich’s home

R.S.V.P: Ashlee 801-000-0000

or

Sarah 801-000-0000

By Mon. Oct 25^th

3. The info sheet said…

Important info:

*Please bring 3 fabulous items

to swap. These items should be in

your home. Look for items that are

not being used anymore, never used,

made by you etc. the whole point

of this party is to not spend money!

*fill out your “tags” with info/’’selling’’

points about your item, and bring

them with you

*make your items “fabulous” by

wrapping them with ribbon, cellophane, bows

*please r.s.v.p Ashlee or Sarah by

Mon. Oct 25^th so we can plan

accordingly based on the number of

attendees

Once everything was put together we had delivered the invite and explained to them a little about the party. 2 weeks after we dropped off the invite we called those who hadn’t RSVP’d to make sure we knew how many were coming.

Once we had the total amount of people we bought clothes line clips, painted them pink and used mod podge to put everyone’s name on a clip. (each person received 6 clips at the party and we had a total of about 18 people at the party). We put each persons clip in a little bag with their name on it, and had them sitting on the counter when everyone arrived to the party.

The day of the party we had the clips in bags, desserts, drinks and tables set up for the gifts to be put on.

When everyone arrived to told the ladies how the party was to work. They each were given their bag of clips. We set the timer for 10 mins (after they had already about 30 mins to visit with each other and view the gifts) I explained once the timer beeped they needed to have places each of their 6 clips on items that they wanted to take home.

Once the time was up we went from item to item putting the clips in the bowl and then picking a name. Once a person had received 3 items, or the amount of items that was supposed to be brought, they were no longer allowed to get any more.

The Party worked GREAT however here are a few things we would probably change the next time around!

* We thought it would be best to have the host add in a few additional items/gifts (some people left with only 1 or 2 items instead of 3)

*any items not picked would be donated to a family, the DI, neighbors etc…

*When picking names and passing out the gifts we thought it would be best to start with the ‘most popular item’ i.e. the items with the most clips- to the items with the least clips.

I hope this helps you plan your own swap party…email me with any questions!!

*the invites*

*The info sheet/ and the 3 tags*

*The invites ready to be delivered. I wish I had a picture of the front of these. Sarah made them so adorable*

* Some of the gifts that were brought*

*This is the best party juice. It’s so good and makes so much. I got the recipe from Emily (another friend and neighbor)*

What would I do without all these wonderful ladies?!?!

*These cupcakes were so yummy..thanks Sarah!*

but next time I vote I’m not making the cupcake toppers. These little crowns were the BEAST to put together because of the darn little dots!!

*These were two of the 3 gifts I brought-

This is a ‘baby gift box’ it included 4 baby headbands and head flowers/bows

and a new version of my ‘minky lovie’ with the minky on one side and a soft knit on the back…I LOOOOOVE it I almost had to keep it!

This was a purse I made..turned out pretty good! The last gift which I didn’t get a picture of was a large canvas back with LOTS of scrapbook supplies in it!

Now.. go plan a party!

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