Tim Urban and the Halter to Toddler Dress

Yep, the Halter to Toddler Dress was mine. Love Love Love.

One of my favorite American Idol Contestants from Season 9 is Tim Urban. I am Texas-biased, of course, but I liked this little cutie from Duncanville, TX who laughed every time judges criticized him. He was supposed to go home after the top 24 were announced, but due to an equivocation about another contestant having a previous record contract, they came to the airport and asked him to come back. He did, and made it to the top 7.

I am sort of like the Tim Urban of this season of SYTYC. Polls looked like this

Poll: Wild Card {week 1}

I am last. No big deal, it was fun to try and I still LOVE the dress. But Holly at Domestic Dork decided to leave, even though her rockin tickety tock clock kicked my toddler dress in the tail. It was no equivocation about a record contract. She felt like she needed to be "peace out" with the blogging world for awhile. You can read about it here. Farewell, Holly. You seem like a funny and fun mama and I wish I could have seen you compete more in the contest.

So I am back. I didn't pack my bags and go to the airport. I was just WAY DOWN in the polls and had a lot of work to do after returning from a relaxing weekend in Mexico...more about that later. I emailed Missy the day the craft was due and said "I think I'm toast in the contest...may not be motivated to finish my next craft", which was about 20% done, since it looked like I would be "going home" anyway. Then Missy e-mailed me back and said, "I would still do one."

So here I am. I am so happy to post pics of Lucy in the toddler dress and finish up the tutorial. This week's theme is "Make Believe". Go here and vote. I loved my halter and I love my craft this week, so even if I am last place again, I am OK with that.

Oh, and btw, Tim Urban was in Cancun the same time I was...at a neighboring resort. Along with Aaron Kelly, Ruben Studdard, and Corbin Bleu, to name a few. They had a concert and I had the opportunity to go, but my fellow travellers opted for a cozy night kids free. Could ya blame them? Farewell, Tim! Maybe next time.

Lucy got to wear her dress to church today. We can "come out" with the dress, since the polls have closed. Some of my church friends knew I was in Season 8 of SYTYC, but didn't know which one was mine :) Sawyer wanted in the picture, too.

Here's us with her dress and my dress that I made using a LBB Pieced Tunic Dress Pattern. Too bad you can't see my super cute pink heels that matched.

You Decide!

I am so excited to announce that I am a contestant this season on "So You Think You're Crafty". So many tutorials that have helped me, now I get a chance to try! I have pondered the last few seasons, but it hasn't been a good time, but when is it ever a good time??? So excited to finally compete. Go here and vote for your favorite. Polls close on Friday!

Sand Art Brownie Mix

This is an excerpt from my family's blog, which I thought would be appropriate to move on over here. They make great gifts!

I saw this in last year's "Taste of Home" and thought it would be the perfect project for my kids to work on with me as teacher Christmas gifts. We made 7 jars of this brownie mix, and of course one for us. One has to try the recipe out before we mass distribute it, right?

I got the jars from The Container Store for $4 each. The ingredients were about $20, and that makes 7 gifts. Not bad for a teacher gift, huh?

Despite my plan for the kids to work on these with me, they lost interest pretty quickly. We got enough involvement for each kid to take a picture "in action", and then it was pretty much time for Kevin and I to work like 60 finishing these out while the kids played.







Ta dah! The completed jars. I will decorate them and send a final pic. Homemade by Jill has some great ideas for decorating jars for Christmas.



Sand Art Brownie Mix (Taste of Home Dec/Jan 2009 Issue)
1 cup + 2 T all-purpose flour
1/2 t salt
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup baking cocoa
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup vanilla or white chips
1/2 cup chopped pecans (I used walnuts)

Additional ingredients:
3 eggs
2/3 cup canola oil
1 t vanilla extract

Sand art instructions:
in a small bowl, combine flour and salt. In a 1 qt glass conainter, layer the flour mixture, cocoa, sugar, brown sugar, chips, and nuts. Cover and store in a cool dry place for up to 6 months. Yield: 1 batch (4 cups total)

To prepare brownies: In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, oil, and vanilla. Add brownie mix, stir until blended.

Spread into greased 9-in square baking pan. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean (do not overbake). Cool on wire rack.

Sewing Inspiration I

I have loved the posts that I have seen that are based on our heritage as it relates to sewing, so I decided to write my own! I have some amazing people in my life that have served as my inspiration for sewing!

Aunt Uarda was a professional seamstress, who sewed from 1950-1989 at a Woods Manufacturing Co. branch in Dublin, TX, with the headquarters were Waco, TX. Her starting pay was .75/hour which increased through the years to about $6/hour. She sewed clothing based on contracts that her company had. This American apparel ranged from making Army Raincoats (sewing on rubber...yikes!) and pants, both kids (Billy the Kid) and adults which also included different styles of blue jeans. Her contract also served Sidron of Dallas and Nardis of Dallas which were very expensive labels at that time. Later, Panhandle Slim took over and the factory made western apparrel. The jeans/pants contract came at a time when her kids were having hard times. That Christmas, she made each of her 6 grandchildren 4 pairs of jeans! She bought some of the fabric on her own and obtained some of the fabric pieces from scraps at the factory bins. She cut her patterns out at home, and went to the factory before and after hours to use the factory machines for personal use, per the company policy. When she brought the finished jeans home, her husband commented on how they looked "factory made", to which she replied, "They are!" She also made her daughter Jamie's wedding dress and her all of her granddaughters' bridesmaid's dresses. When the Dublin factory closed down in early 1980's, she bought the factory serger and is still using it!

Teacher Gifts using Silhouette

I am in LOVE with my Silhouette cutter! I cut these vinyl letters out to make each teacher their own customized "stash" of their favorite candy! The canisters are stainless and plastic and very kid proof ($6/each at Big Lots). I used premium black vinyl and cut the vinyl in Cooper Black font. I also cut the kids' initials and year in a smaller size Cooper Black. Then I just followed the instructions using transfer paper and the scraper tool. Then tied a bow around it and filled it with their favorite candy! So fun, cheap, and beautiful!

Bezel Bracelet

I do NOT do jewelry! Very intimidating and un-fun! But when my MOPS moms were requesting a jewelry item for the spring, I googled "cheap easy bracelet" and this tutorial came up from Anngela's Pretty Little Things. I was so happy to see a full stock of Hobby Lobby bracelets and we were able to embellish them using scrapbook paper and leftover photo squares from another project. I pretty much followed the tutorial step by step with the exception of using sun and moon glaze for the adhesive and top coat. The secret is to fill the entire bezel with glaze so that it has a glassy finish! Thanks, Anngela, for your tutorial which literally saved me on this one!

Toddler Elvis

I had mulled over Sawyer's Halloween costume for awhile, and saw this white polyester at Joann's for $2/yard, and this all came together for about $10 and in 24 hours. I hadn't planned on using the embellishments until it was completed and didn't look quite blingy enough to be Vegas Elvis. After the embellishments, it looked absolutely perfect. Since I had no experience in designing whatsoever, I used Sawyer's clothes and traced a pattern in which I used some ugly polyester scrap fabric to make and tweak a template. It took half the night but was so worth it!


My proudest part of the costume is the "flare" on the legs and arms, which took 2 extra triangles of fabric per sleeve/leg. It took some tweaking but gives it so much more dimension. Designing was a blast! I wish I had more time!



My poor little Elvis was "All Shook Up" after the long photo shoot.