It's My Life

Another school year is in the books. The Boy has finished his junior year and The Short Chic just finished her kindergarten year. Time sure does fly! Having the end in sight for The Boy makes me wish I could slow down time for The Short Chic. Since time slows for no one, even Mommies, I have developed a few strategies for at least preserving these fleeting moments. This year I made a Last Day of School Autograph T-shirt for The Short Chic. She is going to wear it on the last day of school and collect autographs from all of her friends. This way, when she is no longer small and kindergarten was years past we can look back at her t-shirt and reclaim a glimpse of who she was. Last Fall I introduced you all to this wonderful product from Avery, DIY Iron On Transfers as I used them to create our Halloween costumes. My inspiration for this project came from a post by  Sugar Bee Crafts . She used a silhouette machine, which I do not have.  I remembered that I had some ...

The end of the school year is upon us. The Short Chic is about to finish her first year of school and is already looking forward to being a First Grader next year. The Short Chic loves her teacher and talks about her all the time. I know the school year provides us with several times to express our gratitude towards those who teach our children. We just celebrated Teacher Appreciation Week. If you are like me, I am always trying to find the best gift I can to show the teacher our thanks. I started making Acrylic Clip Boards this past year for holiday presents for my co-workers. They are easy to make. Relatively inexpensive. And just super cute! Here are some of the clipboards I have recently made: Now let's get to the how to of the project. I took a class at Creating Keepsakes Convention (CKC) a few years ago on Acrylic scrapbooks. That class really helped me figure this project out easily. The first step, as with any project, is to gather your supplies.  I found ...

Some of The Short Chic's friends have started losing their baby teeth.  We have not. I have found myself having conversations with a five year old that I did not think I would have until she was a teenager.  I promise it happens to everyone. I don't know when it will happen but I promise one day it will. Everyone's body is different.  No, sweetheart, you have not been forgotten. I keep reminding her that she was three weeks shy of her first birthday before she even got her first baby tooth. I think it will be a while before she loses them. It does not comfort her. In fact, none of my words have comforted her.  I never expected anyone to get a broken heart over her teeth falling out. Well, technically, not falling out. In an attempt to distract her, I set about making a Tooth Fairy door. I found this idea on a blog link up, it was from  Nest of Posies  and I have had it pinned for a super long time. I loved it. I was just...

It is the weekend.  I love the weekend. I love carving out some downtime. It helps me to recover from the crazy fast-paced days of the work week. No alarm clocks. No deadlines. I actually look forward to some morning television, a luxury I absolutely do not get during the work week. However; my daughter has a completely different plan. From the minute her eyes pop open she is on the go. She has to talk out loud. Sing. Dance; even while lying down. Her imagination needs no priming. Unfortunately it does need an audience. So, here we are...up early. She is peppy and I am disgruntled. I just really want coffee and she wants macaroni art. She wins. For the first time ever, we dyed macaroni. It is pretty easy.  I liked that most of the supplies needed were found in my kitchen. That was helpful as The Husband was upstairs still sleeping.  The Short Chic liked this activity because she was able to do nearly everything herself. She added the food coloring to the macaro...

We live in flip flops all summer long. Who doesn't? The other night The Short Chic suffered a blow-out in her flip flops. We threw them away and walked home barefooted. The Short Chic has a hard time letting things go. I had to promise her a new pair or she would not have thrown them away. I found super inexpensive flip flops at a large craft store. They were less than $2.00 a pair. I also picked up some ribbon and some sparkly buttons. Total project cost: $7.00 a pair.  Making these flip flops is easy and quick. You simply cut pieces of ribbon, tie them around the straps of the flip flop. I used pink and black ribbon and alternated colors. You can make a pair with all one color or go crazy and use a whole rainbow of colors. After I was finished, I trimmed the ends of the ribbon and used my E-6000 to glue a sparkly pink button to the center of each flip flop. I really don't think it needs this step, but the sparkly button sure made The Short Chic happy....

When I think of summer a few words come to mind: hot, watermelon, pool, fun, friends, ice cream, vacations, smore's.  And tie-dye. Yes, tie-dye. Maybe it is all the summer camp influence but I just can't imagine summer without a tie-dye project. This project comes from this super cute girl. She is the recipient of my son's affection, which means she is around our house enough to give me a short lesson on how to tie-dye shoes. The supplies for this project are super easy to find. Wal Mart has Tie-Dye kits in their craft section. They are reasonable, $15.00 for five bottles of dye, refills, gloves, and rubber bands. I also picked up the plain white shoes from Wal Mart and a plain white t-shirt. Total, I spent $20.00 on this project.  My coach suggested going outside for this project. We took a plastic bag and put our supplies on it, to protect the deck. {That is almost funny because we need a new deck so badly!} Our tie-dye kit came with plastic gloves and ...

With Mother's Day and Dance Recital just around the corner, I spent a few hours at Hobby Lobby the other day looking for ideas for gifts.  I came across one of those free fliers they strategically place next to merchandise. You know the kind: they make every project look super easy. They lure un-knowledgeable crafters in thinking, "Hey, I can do this!" Yep, sucked me right in!  So I loaded up on supplies: The Jewelry Shoppe brand square key chains, assorted scrapbooking papers, stickers, embellishments, and Magic-Glos.  The Jewelry Shoppe has lots of different mediums to work with. You can make key chains, pendents in many different sizes and shapes, earrings, rings, ect.  The Magic-Glos is the key to the whole project. There maybe other products out there like this, I am just not aware. It comes in a little bitty 1 ounce bottle with a $9.99 price tag stuck on it. I used my 40% off coupon and prayed one bottle wo...

My  Short Chic is turning into a little dancer. To thank the dance teachers for their help, we decided to make them a little gift for Christmas. A tutu ornament. Supplies needed: Tulle. I selected black, white and hot pink. The pink and white both have glitter {I have been walking around for the past four days with glitter all over me!}. Glass Ornaments that coordinate with your tulle. Some kind of string {I used stretch magic}. And some super glue. Step 1: Cut  the tulle.  I learned, from trial and error, that my cell phone was roughly the right size. So, I used it as a template for cutting the tulle.   Step 2: Tie the tulle to the string. Using a simple slip knot, tie the tulle onto the string {or Stretch Magic}. I think I used about 40 loops per ornament. Step 3:  Adhere it to the Ornament. I do not have a photo of this step. But simply, you take some super glue and glue the tutu ring to the ornament.  FINISHED! ...