Dollar Store Crafts Website

I am about to start a new craft and I was searching online for inspiration.  I happened to stumble across this wonderful website.  I love going to the Dollar Store.  And I am all about saving some money!

For some inspiration for crafts with things found at the Dollar Store go check out this site.

San Diego!

San Diego here I come!  In one week I will be in sunny Cali.  I have never been before so I am excited to get a chance to go.  I will be there for a wedding that I am in so there won’t be too much time for sight seeing but I will try and get to the beach and the zoo.  Can’t wait!

My Niece's Dress

I have no idea why I haven't posted this on my blog! I made a little dress for my niece. It was super easy to make. The hat though did give me some problems. I did not quite understand how to make the hat so I improvised and made it myself. Still came out ok, though not perfect.

Here is the dress and the matching hat:

Here is the back:

Here she is in the dress. Isn't she cute?:

My Laudry Room Continued...

I finished the curtains that go over the washer and dryer. It came out super cute! The only left to really put in there for it to be complete is the wall decal which should be here any day now.


I was watching HGTV's Design Star and saw on their first episode one of the rooms that was done and it had the same fabric that I used in my laundry room! It was so cool. Here is the room, see if you can spot the fabric on the headboards.




That room was gorgeous!

Hopefully I can update next week with final laundry pictures.

My New Project

I was looking through my sewing websites and was looking at Burda Style when I found a project that I have to go try right now. I am going to make a pair of shorts out of a tshirt! It looks super easy to do and I have everything I need to make it... just a tshirt! Though I will have to find a good tshirt that I wouldn't mind changing. Off to sew!

Update!

Here is the finished product. It came out super cute! But like someone posted on the comments section of the tutorial, there isn't too much room in the butt. But they make cute pajama bottoms nonetheless. I think this will be a good quick and easy gift to give. I will have to find the perfect tshirts for my friends! It took me a total of about an hour to make and that was only because I had to keep reading the tutorial to make sure I was right on track.

Here is the front view:


Here is a back view:


Side view:


Side view:

I hate doing laundry but at least the laundry room is pretty!

I am *almost* completely done with the makeover. I have painted everything and am missing just a couple of last minute details. I am getting a vinyl phrase "Laundry, loads of fun" to put over the window, and I have curtains to put up over the washing machine (from the ceiling to the shelf). I will start that curtain tomorrow most likely.
Here is a panaramic picture (I didn't know about this feature on my camera, it's so cool!), sorry the lighting is bad.



Here are some other pictures.

My Personal Weightloss Challenge

This week was Week 1 of my own little personal weightloss challenge. I am going to get on track to losing about 10 lbs. (taking baby steps and making small attainable goals). I signed up for Step Aerobics at the Rec Center. Last week was week one and boy was it tough! I am so glad that I did it though... one week down five more to go! The instructor is really nice and always switches things up so it never gets boring. I can't wait until next week!

Yummy Banana Bread!

Yesterday I noticed we had some bananas that were getting old. I then remembered that that is the best time to make banana bread! So I searched for an easy recipe that didn't require nuts, because I don't like them. Well I found this easy recipe online that I had all the ingredients. The bread came out so yummy! The only modification that I made was that I added some cinnamon. It was delicious for my first banana bread!

Part 1 of my Laundry Room Makeover

So one of the things that I want to do this summer is makeover my laundry room. The hubby says that I can do whatever I want to it. So I am going to paint it, make curtains, and redo it to make it more 'homey'. I want a bright and airy color on the walls and a fun patterned fabric. So I went to Joann's and found a great fabric and I am basing everything around my fabric. I wasn't quite sure how I wanted to do make the curtain for the laundry room but I bought the fabric and thought I'd 'wing it'. Well the other day I went to Hancock Fabrics and they were having a sale on their McCall's Patterns. I bought like 6 different patterns for different things. One of the patterns had a valance that I wanted to use for the window. Well yesterday I spent a good 3 hours on the curtain and it came out wonderful! I am so proud of this valance! The most tedious part was cutting the pieces out. That can be tiring! But I finished it and it beautiful if I do say so myself.

Here are some pictures of the valance in the laundry room. I put it up to see what it would look like.


Here is a picture where you can see the color that I am going to paint the wall. It is Glidden's True Turquoise.


Here is a picture of the other side of the valance. The contrast color is brown.


Tomorrow I plan to start painting the laundry. But first I have to empty it!

My Master Bedroom Updated and Other House Pics

I put my master bedroom on Rate My Space to get feedback and got a suggestion to add bigger lamps to the nightstands. Well I don't have the money to buy some bigger lamps plus I haven't found any yet that I like so I found some tall branches to add to the nightstands. I already had the vases and rocks so with the two branches that were on sale at Anna's Linens it cost me $7.98! What a steal... I love how it adds height to the area.
Here are some pictures of the updates.



Here are some more pictures of our house.
Our Master Bath




Office/Craft Room



Guest Room



Upstairs Guest Bath

My Baking Day!

Today I decided to bake a couple things while I was home and do some post vacation laundry. I had wanted to bake some chocolate muffins. So I went online to find a good recipe that I had all the ingrediants. I found this recipe online at Muffinrecipes.net. I made it a while ago but I forgot one of the ingrediants so they turned out hard! Today I tried them and I am going to give this recipe a C. There is still something 'off' about them. So now I am still on the hunt for a good chocolate muffin recipe.




I also made some delicious Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. I found a great recipe on another blog called Baked Perfection. These came out so yummy! I love peanute butter and chocolate so this was the perfect recipe.

My new home!

Here are some pictures of my house! I am super in love with it. We still have a loft, a guest room and an office/craft room to decorate but that will take some time since I don't know exactly what I want to do in those rooms.

LIVING ROOM:




DINING ROOM:


KITCHEN:






HALF BATH:




MASTER BEDROOM:





FRONT OF HOUSE:


We really love our new house. I can't wait to do other fun decorating things to it.

Buying a House!

We are buying a house! We hope to close March 19. We will see. Yay!

My Rocking Chair

So over the weekend I sewed some more loveliness! I made covers for the cushions on the rocking chair that I have in my classroom. It was a boring bland plaid pattern. I used fabric that I had gotten for cheap last year. They are frogs.... for Mrs. Phillips' Frogs! It is super cute. I will hopefully get a pic tomorrow. I am pretty proud with the cushion covers. I can't wait to sew more things. =)

My New Crock Pot

ANOTHER one of my fabulous Christmas presents was a Crock Pot. I had wanted one since so many people have commented on how wonderful theirs was. I had never cooked in one, I just wanted one.
I hadn't even gotten it out of the box, let alone used it until about a couple of weeks ago. I was on the Nest message boards and someone had suggested this Gluten Free website of crock pot recipes. I decided to check it out. It is 365 days of crock pot recipes---cue hallelujah music. It is wonderful! So many great recipes and of course the ingredients do not have to be gluten free but she does suggest the best gluten free ingredients in her recipes because of her own preferences. My first dish was Applesauce Chicken. It was very tasty. I didn't realize how tender the chicken would be!

I also made The Crock Pot Lady's Taco Soup. I didn't really make any changes to her recipe but next time I probably wouldn't make so much--I would only use one can of each of the beans instead of two. We definitely had lots of leftovers! It makes a great family meal. Here is a picture of my Taco Soup.


I really enjoy my crock pot and can't wait to make more recipes in it. This week I have planned to make Maple Dijon Chicken and Chicken and Rice Casserole.
Yum-o!