Adult Sweater Turned Into A Kids Sweater

Pin It I've been holding on to an American Eagle sweater of mine for a long time even though it shrunk and was way too small for me.  I've nearly thrown it out many times, but just didn't.  Well today was the day that I finally found something to do with my sweater.  I fixed it up so it would fit my daughter.  I must say, she looks much better than me in it :)

Here is the sweater before I cut it up.

 I cut off the sleeves and cut the f front and back apart.  I didn't want to have the AE symbol on the sweater or the big tag in the back.  I cut me made up pattern, shortened and thinned out the sleeves and sewed away.

Here is the finished product.

 And from the back.  She LOVES watching the washing machine.

Sweater Dress

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My husband recently cleaned out his closet and was about to toss this sweater when I stopped him.  I was so excited to make a sweater dress for my daughter!  I will admit, this sweater was a little challenging to sew just because even if you sew in a straight line, sometimes it looks misshapen, but I love how the dress turned out!

Here is the sweater before I cut it up.

 I cut off the sleeves.

 Using another dress as a reference, I cut the remaining pieces - not shown in this picture is the bottom part of the dress - sorry!

 I sewed a brown ribbon around the dress.  I sewed a couple little pleats on the front and added a zipper to the back so the neck could be like a turtle neck.  Here is the finished product.  Now she just needs a headband to match :)

Publish Post

Virginia Trip

Pin It Well my trip to Virginia was great - other than the flying part.  We had some mechanical issues and ended up struck in Phoenix for night and my daughter was horrible on most of the flights.  I've got to say.....flying with a screaming baby has got to be one of the most stressful things for a parent ever!

Here are some pictures from our trip to Virginia:

 We went to Colonial Williamsburg while we were out there.  I would definitely recommend going, however, it does involve a lot of walking and it's about $20/person.  This is a cool bridge we walking under on our way to Colonial Williamsburg.

 Colonial Williamsburg: The Governor's House

 The Governor's Garden/Yard

Colonial Williamsburg: The Capital Building

 University of Virginia's Business School.  Isn't the campus beautiful???

 We also went to Monticello - Thomas Jefferson's House.  This is the view he had from his garden area.

 The house

  My daughter walking around Monticello.

Heading to Virginia

Pin It I'm heading out to Virginia for a couple of days.  My husband is interviewing at University of Virginia for their MBA program.  My one year old daughter will be joining us and is sick with a cold, so I really hope the flight goes well.  I'll do some more posting when I get back.  Have a great week!

Multi Canvas Painting

Pin It A while back I decided to do a painting for my wall.  I really liked the multi-canvas look.  After searching the web and seeing many different styles of paintings, I decided to do this one of my own.  It was going to be cheaper and it would be fun to have something I painted on the wall.  This is how it turned out: 

It was based off of this painting....I changed the colors so they wouldn't be so vibrant and obviously mine isn't nearly as good, but considering it was my first acrylic painting, I was pretty pleased.

14 Ways to Save Money of Groceries

Pin It I found this article on Yahoo by Rebecca DiLiberto the other day and thought it had some good tips.

1. Line the bottom of your refrigerator’s crisper drawer with paper towels. They’ll absorb the excess moisture that causes vegetables to rot.

2. To keep herbs tasting fresh for up to a month, store whole bunches, washed and sealed in plastic bags, in the freezer. When you need them, they’ll be easier to chop, and they’ll defrost the minute they hit a hot pan.

3. A bay leaf slipped into a container of flour, pasta, or rice will help repel bugs.

4. Stop cheese from drying out by spreading butter or margarine on the cut sides to seal in moisture. This is most effective with hard cheeses sealed in wax.

5. When radishes, celery, or carrots have lost their crunch, simply pop them in a bowl of iced water along with a slice of raw potato and watch the limp vegetables freshen up right before your eyes.

6. Avoid separating bananas until you plan to eat them – they spoil less quickly in a bunch.

7. Put rice in your saltshaker to stop the salt from hardening. The rice absorbs condensation that can cause clumps.

8. Stock up on butter when it’s on sale – you can store it in the freezer for up to six months. Pack the butter in an airtight container, so it doesn’t take on the flavor of whatever else you’re freezing.

9. In order to make cottage cheese or sour cream last longer, place the container upside down in the fridge. Inverting the tub creates a vacuum that inhibits the growth of bacteria that causes food to spoil.

10. Believe it or not, honey is the only nonperishable food substance, so don’t get rid of the stuff if it crystallizes or becomes cloudy. Microwave on medium heat, in 30-second increments, to make honey clear again.

11. Prevent extra cooked pasta from hardening by stashing it in a sealed plastic bag and refrigerating. When you’re ready to serve, throw the pasta in boiling water for a few seconds to heat and restore moisture.

12. Keeping brown sugar in the freezer will stop it from hardening. But if you already have hardened sugar on your shelf, soften it by sealing in a bag with a slice of bread – or by microwaving on high for 30 seconds.

13. If you only need a few drops of lemon juice, avoid cutting the lemon in half – it will dry out quickly. Instead, puncture the fruit with a metal skewer and squeeze out exactly what you require.

14. If you’re unsure of an egg’s freshness, see how it behaves in a cup of water: Fresh eggs sink; bad ones float.

Glass Jars Filled With Love

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 I had some empty glass jars sitting around that were just wanting to become a Valentine's Day decoration.  So I decided to fill them with white, pink and red things :)

I had a package of different sized styrofoam balls.

 I painted the balls pink and red and also left some white (I also included some deals of the day in this picture for you haha)

 I placed the colored balls in two small glass containers and for the large contained, I layered different colors of tissue paper.  Super simple, but still a fun Valentine's Day decoration for our apartment.

Snuggly Owl

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A while ago I saw the cutest little stuffed owl on Make It and Love It  She had created a tutorial with the pattern and everything which can be found HERE This is her owl:

 
I put in on my list of things to do and I finally got around to making some.  My cousin was having a baby shower for her twins and I thought it these cute owls would be a fun gift rather than getting her clothes - not to mention, they were quite a bit cheaper than buying two outfits.

I decided to make her two owls (one for the boy and one for the girl) and to make one for my daughter at the same time.  I bought a huge bag of stuffing for $9 at Walmart and used extra fabric my mom had lying around.  I did do one thing differently from her pattern.  I didn't sew the 3 inch strip of fabric between the front and back pieces.  I did this because I wanted them to be more pillow like.  Here are the owls I made.

These are the two owls I made for Jessica's twins:

When I finished the owls, I decided that I wanted to have some little baby owls for my daughter's room too, so I made up a smaller pattern and sewed 4 baby owls.  Here are all of the owls I made for her room:

I just couldn't resist and HAD to make a little "branch" pillow for the owls too :)

I love them!  The pattern is really easy to follow.  I have received several emails from people wanting the small owl pattern so HERE it is!

Faux Metal Hearts

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When I went to DI I found these wooden hearts for 50 cents each.  They were painted different colors, and while the colors weren't horrible, they definitely needed some touching up.  I decided to try out some metal looking paint.  I really like how they turned out, though I don't think they look super metalic since the wood grain is still visible.  Here's what I did:

These are what they looked like to begin with.

 I painted them with black acrylic paint first so they had a good base.

 Then I painted them with metallic acrylic paint.  I originally had them set up like this, but it felt too cluttered or something. 

So I changed them to this set up.

Candle Holder Turned "Hot"

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I was at DI the other day and found some little candle holders for $1 each.  There were 3 matching ones so I got them all.  I filled them with Hot Tamales and now they are a little decoration for Valentine's Day.  And I will be putting some green treat in them for St. Patrick's Day.  What are some yummy green candies?

Photo Editing

Pin It I saw a blog post on The Creative Crate where she showed a picture before and after her editing.  She wanted to see our versions.  So here is my version of her image.

Before:

 After

I used Lightroom for my editing.  I love Lightroom!  I use it for pretty much all of my editing and sometimes use Photoshop for a few touch ups.  Lightroom is a lifesaver when I'm editing hundreds of pictures taken at weddings.  For this image I cropped, adjusted the exposure, contrast, hue/saturation, added a bit of a vignette and lightened her eyes a bit.   If you want to see my photography website you can go here: http://madelynwayment.smugmug.com/