Hello Sunday, Goodbye Weekend...

Alas, another beginning of another week and the ending of what feels like a wasted weekend...

I'm not very good with managing time, I am a horrible procrastinator (Unless I'm suddenly hit with inspiration), which is not a good habit for a single Mom, because when you have a child, at any age, you better get things done that you need to get done pronto because you never know when they may need you (Right now I'm procrastinating on an order with this post, ha!).

I would very much like to make my Saturdays more productive, so, I will be combining "Healthy Mondays" with posts of weekend projects that I did, or worked on.

Now, this next weekend is Mother's Day and things have been so crazy around my house I don't know if any plans have been made for that Saturday, but if they haven't and I have the money, I might make a magnetic chalk/ bulletin inspiration board. Do you have any projects your just itching to get to?

To Do:

Magnetic Chalk/Bulletin Inspiration Board

Shelf

Sunglasses holder

Tessa's first scrapbook page

Upcycled cigar box

Reupholstered fold-up chair

Refinished Desk

Awesome Last Minute Easter Egg Idea

So I was watching "Unwrapped" on the Food Network last night and they were talking about, well what else? Easter of course!

One of the segments they did was about a book called "Easter Eggs." It was filled with different decorating ideas, they featured a few of them but only two were my fave.

The first one is a great idea if you have any chalk board paint left over from a project.

Just give the kids some sponge paint brushes, hand over the chalk board paint and chalk and let them have a blast drawing designs on their chalk board eggs!

The second one I thought was fabulous.

Take a nail and a hammer and gently punch a whole at the top of the egg. Then, take a wooden skewer and insert it into the egg, poking a hole out the end, to remove the yoke and egg whites, push it out with the skewer repeatedly. Once you think it's all out, boil it in water to sterilize for 5 minutes. Then take a pastry bag filled with melted chocolate and use it to fill the empty egg (I noticed they did it while the egg was still in the carton, perhaps to keep the chocolate from dripping out?) Allow the chocolate to harden, crack open, and enjoy your chocolate egg! How cool is that?

Enjoy your Easter weekend! I know I will. Today, I have family visiting and Tessa's Dad will be here. We'll be going to the park in our Easter clothes to take pictures. Tomorrow our church is having a service with potluck and Easter egg hunt for the kids. I'm VERY excited, it will be Tessa's first Easter!

DIY Foot Scrub

Some of you might remember my DIY brown sugar body scrub. As much as I like using this scrub myself I felt it wasn't strong enough to give the attention certain places REALLY needed, such as my feet.

I don't know anyone who doesn't have a problem with dry, callused feet especially at the end of winter and who wants to show off those toesies when it's sandal season? Many of us seek professional help, other's just walk out in sandals as is and many of us just hide them, am I right? So, I created a DIY foot scrub and it really helped!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Course Salt
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
2/3 cup Olive oil or almond oil
Jar or two

Measure out your dry ingredients and pour them into a bowl then measure out your 2/3 cup of oil of choice and mix well. Once it's mixed and the clumps of brown sugar are de-clumped, pour into your jar over the sink so as not to make a mess everywhere, and VOILA! Your homemade foot scrub.

I suggest using this with your feet either dry or slightly damp, you can try it in the shower but it seems to dissolve too quickly to really make too much of a difference. Be sure to rinse. Make sure there are no open sores on your feet as the salt will cause the sore to burn.

With Mother's Day coming up, this would make a very nice gift for the Mom in your life, just tie some twine or a nice ribbon around and attach a lovely note and there you go!

Tip:

For even softer feet, use the scrub before going to bed, rinse and pat dry. Then rub just olive oil over your feet, wrap in cellophane and then cover with a sock and go to sleep, your feet should be sooo much softer when you get up in the morning and ready for a little nail polish!

"Green" Easter Grass

Isn't this prettier than that fake stuff?

So I was watching Kathie Lee and Hoda the other day and they were talking about a very "green" Easter grass (literally) for baskets.

Instead of using store bought grass for your baskets, why not grow wheat or rye grass in them instead? Just line the basket with plastic and add a few stones in the bottom for drainage, add soil and plant seeds accordingly. In ten days you'll have a beautiful lush basket. Don't forget to water.

I like this because it's eco friendly, you don't have that fake grass that gets everywhere (seems like months after Easter we were still vacuuming it up). Once the egg hunt is over you can use it as centerpiece at the dinner table for days and it's just prettier.

If you don't want to put the money into buying the soil and then the seeds and then having to grow it ahead of time; here's another idea that is virtually free. Save up your junk mail and newspapers, paint them green or another easter-y color (even white would pretty!) and run it through the shredder or have the kids help you cut it up into thin strips; you can even have them help paint the paper and who says the paper has to be painted a solid color? Let them finger paint on it! This DIY will save you a few dollars, and give you and the kids something fun to do together.

Oh yeah... about my weekend project

I almost forgot about my planned weekend project. Well, I did find a dress, but guess where? In my closet! Not sure how it will turn out because the material is difficult to work with and right now I really wish I had a manikin, because just when I think I have it pinned all nice and even, I lift it up to see where the hem falls and it turns out the back is shorter than the front. Lame. I have yet to finish it so I'll keep ya posted.

SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!!!

Hello everyone, I hope your Sunday is filled with SUN... Get it? SUNday? Although there is nothing sunny about my Sunday, it's been raining all day so far.

So what are you guys up to? Today, like every Sunday, I'm rushing to get myself and the little one dressed and out the door to church with the help of my mom. By the way, having a cute little baby in your lap while making funny noises makes it really hard to concentrate on the sermon, and if you have kids then you know what I'm talking about.

A couple of weeks back I bought a PDF pattern for baby shoes from sewingwithme1for Tessa's Easter shoes. Mom and I finally got around to sewing them, however they aren't done yet. I don't want to show you the steps for it because I'd hate to take away from sewingwithme1 sales but once it's finished I will definitely put pics up of the finished product.


So stay tuned!

I CHALLENGE YOU!!

So I was doing some cleaning and organizing today and I realized I had some spare jars that use to be candles but had been used up. I ended up using them for holding cotton balls and my hair ties that seem to disappear into thin air. Hopefully I solved the problem.

And so, I came up with this challenge for you my readers.

Rules of the Challenge:

1. Become a follower of my blog

2. Join my fan page

3. Tweet about the challenge

4. Post on Facebook about the challenge

5. Most importantly, you HAVE to do this one, is submit a photo of a repurposed/ recycled jar that you have done yourself, in JPG format to littlemisscards@hotmail.com, no bigger than 1000 x 1000 pixels.(If you do not submit a photo you will not be entered into the challenge). Please include the same name that you will use in your comments in the email so that there is no confusion. Also, I will be posting photos on the blog unless you do not wish me to.

6. Once you have done most of these, or all of these, please post a comment (seperate comments for each one) that you have done so. Be sure that your email address is included.

Winner's will receive a ten card set with their monogram of choice and will be picked at random through random.org you have until April 9th midnight.

Happy DIY!

Here are some ideas to get you started

Kara Paslay Designs

Design * Sponge

The Go Green Blog

DIY projects from around the web

This one I found via Indie Spotting. The idea comes from Brassy Apple I thought this one was so cool I just had to share with you. I wish I had more time on my hands, I would love to try my hand at this one. Here's the full tutorial.

I think this one is such a fun decorative idea, and so easy! You could do so much with this one. you could leave the vintage keys as is and experiment with different types of backgrounds like fabric, scraps of wallpaper, vintage book pages or paint the keys a bright color. Don't you just love Liz Marie's dresser?

Wouldn't this be awesome in a Shabby Chic room? This is a great idea for the avid gardener looking to do something a little more than just putting their flowers in a vase don't you think? Abby's Paperie Garden has a lot of beautiful stuff on her blog, but I think this one is my fave.

I think this save-the-date idea is darling! So easy and so inexpensive, too. I've received save the dates before and usually once the wedding is over they go in the trash. But these are so cute it would stay on my fridge forever! So you know with these your money will be put to good use, and not the trash. I found this gem on Bubby and Bean.

This one would make a great gift for a friend. Its a DIY of lounge pants that I found at A Spoonful of Sugar. Don't they look comfy? I think I just found a new sewing project.

I hope you found some new projects to keep you busy, I'm dieing to try out those lounge pants!

Back to the Drawing Board...

Yesterday, I made a blog post about a DIY project from this weekend, and after about a day of using my seat cover, it broke. One of the straps popped out of its seam. So, I will be removing that from the DIY page.

I have a better idea for a cover now, however I won't have time this week. This week I'll be doing a lot of cleaning since this weekend my sister, her husband, their four kids and Tessa's Dad will be coming in this weekend to visit. Its going to get crowded.

My weekend

"Hey Boo Boo, it's a picinic basket!"

Saturday was a beautiful day here in Porterville, California. It was sunny and 65 degrees, perfect yard sale weather.

Quite frankly, I was surprised I even had the energy to go out Saturday morning and thrift. Friday night Tessa just would NOT sleep, she was tired but she decided screaming was a better use of her time. It took Mom and me, both to get her to finally go to sleep. We weren't even sure we would feel like getting up in the morning, but we did.

We set out with the little one about 8:45 am. In one yard sale I found a couple of toys and two really cute dresses for Tessa, she LOVED the toys. I love them, too, they're easy for her to grab onto and aren't hard like her other toys so I don't have to worry about her accidentally hitting herself with it.

Tea for two anyone?

I found an old picnic basket for my bike! I was so excited, I very rarely reach my goal when I'm out and about at yard sales. I was thrilled with my find. We found another yard sale with three different picnic baskets, there was one that was much nicer than the one I had picked up earlier but wasn't as deep. Mom bought a little glass tea set for Tessa when she's older and a stone vase/pot for herself. I found this really cool vintage lamp, i would guess from 60's or 70's, but when I plugged it in at home it turned out it didn't work very well. But I only paid $.50, so its not like I was at a huge loss. Once we were done, we picked up some breakfast and headed home. We had a very good morning.

My sewing project started off a little rocky. I had everything measured out and pinned together, it was actually turning out quite smoothly. But when it came time to turn it right side out, I realized I attached the straps wrong and had to take it all apart and start over, bleh.

So after much seam popping and re-pinning here is the final result.

 First, you want to measure your seat and figure out how much of the seat you want to cover; do you want it to cover the entire back portion or just where your back will be touching the seat? Do want it to cover the seat part so your booty doesn't get burned when you sit? So measure accordingly. Mine is 20 inches long and 12 inches wide. You also want to measure the width of the head rest so you know how far apart to attach the straps.

Next, pick out your fabrics, I chose two coordinating fabrics with different patterns. The top fabric is more of corduroy material and the back fabric is just your everyday cotton material. You don't have to, but its best that one of the materials is thicker than the other so your back is more protected from the heat.

Tip: you could put batting in between the two materials for a little extra comfort and extra protection. 

My two fabrics, right side facing me

Cut out your two pieces of fabric according to the size you want, I left an extra half inch on all sides for seam allowance. Then cut out your straps, I made mine an inch in width and twelve inches long.

My straps, I used the cotton fabric since the corduroy would be hard to fold

To sew the straps, I folded the raw edges inward, toward the wrong side of the fabric and then folded the strap in half length wise so that the raw edges were on the inside and pinned it together (don't worry about the ends). If your having trouble keeping the raw edges in place, iron them down and then fold, then pin. When you sew your straps your only going to do a top stitch along the sides, again, don't worry about the ends. Don't forget to do your back stitch!

This is where I messed up, I didn't tuck the remaining strap inside, don't pay attention to the fact this is ribbon, not my strap

Now, pin your two pieces of fabric together, right sides facing each other. When your doing this, pin your straps to the outside of one of the fabrics and then tuck the remaining length of strap in between the two fabrics so that when you make your turn, the straps will be on the outside. Be sure to pin your straps apart according to the width of your head rest.

Once its all pinned together start sewing, remember to leave at the most, half inch seam allowance. Don't sew all the way around, leave at least 4-5 inches of unsewn fabric so that you can turn it right side out. Before turning it right side out be sure to trim the excess fabric if you need to, especially the corners.

Once thats all said and done, do a top stitch along the hole to close. Now your all done! Take the straps and tie it around the head rest! I attached each strap to one of the bars underneath.

I have to try this out to see if it will keep my back from getting sweaty during the summer, but its supposed to be in the 70's all week, perfect for testing it out.

So many projects, so little time

I have a list of projects I want to do about as long as my arm and finding time to do them is tough! Yesterday while I was driving my leather interior car (which makes my back soaked with sweat) I had the idea to sew a very simple seat cover. But when?

I want and need to do the first page of Tessa's scrapbook, I very much need to upcycle that cigar box thats sitting on my shelf, I want to find an old chair and reupholster it, there's a book I want to alter and turn into a childrens poetry book for Tessa, I have a few ideas for new cards... There truly just isn't enough time in a day and there's too many things that have to be done NOW!

How do you sellers juggle your shop and your own personal projects?