Stowaway baby doll

When Heart + Sew posted about the doll suitcase she made her darling daughter I just new I wanted to make one for Savannah when she was old enough. I forgot all about it and then Prudent Baby featured it. Then I was on a mad hunt to find a suitcase. Not so easy. After much searching I came up with this cool purple one. It's a little bigger than I was looking for, but hey beggars can't be choosers.



Mine is not quite as detailed as Stacy's, but I have never been to much into details (which posses a problems sometimes). The one room I really wanted to do the kitchen, I didn't even get to. I have everything cut out, but I had enough. Maybe for her birthday I will complete it. I am thinking I want to do a back yard. I am going to wait and see if she really plays with it, before I put much more work into it. I do want to add many details to the next room, I think that's what makes it so fun.

So here is my front room. I tried to do something different, not sure if it worked. My thought's were the little black box would be a tv?? I didn't add the light above the door, started to and felt I just couldn't stitch such detail without messing it up.

I had this white fluffy stuff, I must have picked up at the reminents and thought it would make the perfect rug

and the bedroom, for the most part came out like I wanted, except the bed blanket was suppose to go to the floor. The black frame is suppose to have a family photo in it, I'm working on that...out of ink:)

One of the hardest things for me was getting the foam board to fit just right.

I went a head and made her a black apple doll as well. The doll was fun and easy, next time I'll get a little more creative with her. Sure wish I could put a face on her. Last time I tried something like that it destroyed the doll though. My little guy made a scarf for the doll as his Christmas present to his sister. He is so proud of it. I made just a few little items to play with, but more are needed.

pallet transformation

ok, so this has been done for a while, but I am just starting to get back into the blogging. Finding time for everything is hard!

So The inspiration came from Sweet Serendipity. I enjoyed doing a few things for the house this past summer. I see many more things coming for the house.

In Florida, pallets and spring just go together, so they are pretty easy to find. This pallet was sitting on the side of our road for about 2 weeks before I went down in the dark and had my husband jump out of the car and take 2 and place them in the van. There were 3 or 4 then. The next day they were even closer to the street I guess hoping someone would come take the rest. I was unsure if they really wanted someone to take them or not. See when you get your sod if you turn in the pallets you get $5 per pallet. The other pallets sat there for a few days and when I worked up enough courage to take the rest, they were gone. But I still got this beauty with 2 pallets and some left over pieces.

So, mine doesn't have as much meaning behind it. But I tried to put some meaning to it, by using words that were important to us as a family and values I wanted my kids to know.

Mine hangs in the dinning room and on several occasions my little guys talks about the words and what they mean.

work bench

next up on handmade items that needed my husbands help, was a work bench. I got my idea from http://mcbabybump.blogspot.com/2011/02/diy-play-workbench.html

no real tutorial, just enough to get started. We made ours bigger since our little guy is 5 (even though he is the size of a 3 year old). I also didn't just stick with 2x4's. It is all top shelf white board from Home depot. But here is a break down of the cuts:

top shelf 2ftx1ft
hight 4ft
2 front legs 2ft
10 inches wide for bottom shelf
for the top we used left over from Savannah's tower it is 2ftx3inch.
side supports are 9.5
the peg board is 2x2
we attached the peg board before we attached the top shelf.

I then sanded it painted black.
We got him an extra set of hooks he could place on Christmas morning for more tools.

The project it self was pretty easy, the only problem we ran into, was my husband was working on a little bit of a slant in the garage so it made it uneven, until he realized he just had to place it on an even surface and all was well. We are going to work on pre drilling some boards and giving him nuts and bolts to put boards together. My husband is very excited for little man to get this one.

learning tower

I am not so sure that my husband likes Pinterest. I always have projects going but until I found Pinterest they were all my own. Several times this year I have had to go to my husband for help. I have to face it, when it comes to wood...the end result is not good.

So the first project he helped me with was for Savannah. The learning tower from Ana White. It was pretty easy to follow, but a little more expensive than I thought it would be, probably because I wanted the hinges. I wanted to be able to keep it and not get give it away like so many other things when the kids are done using them. I think this will be something we can pass down to our grandchildren. I know a long, long way off, but I always think ahead. We followed it pretty much to the T. We put it together and then I took it apart to paint. I am so excited. Even though this one is for Savannah, I think Austin will enjoy it as well.

The photo's don't do it justice, but I could only get 1 photo before it was put away for the big day. I am sure I will get many more of it in use.

Preparing for Disney

In January we are headed to our first Disney trip...so excited! We are going for my first full marathon and for the kids first ever Disney trip. For Christmas I thought it would be fun to make my daughter dress up clothes. I thought it would do double as gifts and clothes she could wear. I am in love with them. Now I kinda feel like I should make something for the little guy to wear so he doesn't feel left out:)

I also pinned a dress up wardrobe and thought It would be perfect to pear with it for the holidays.

So on too the tutorials I used...


For Bell I used crafterhours. I pretty much followed everything, except...I didn't use knit. Why, because I couldn't find it in the color and because I wanted it to be shiny like the other girls would be wearing at Disney. The other thing...for around the shoulders and waist I used material left over from a petti skirt. Mostly because I thought I had some white shinny stuff at home and I didn't which reflects on the Cinderella dress :)

Next up was Snow White. I pretty much followed the same top as bell, measured the length I wanted and then followed craftiness is not optional. It all came out pretty well. I did try and make it come to a point in the middle even though you can' t really see it in the pictures. I did a quick easy headband as well. I closed it the same way as Make it and love it's Cinderella dress.

For Cinderella I followed Make it and love it. So I tried to stay true to the tutorial. I had the blue material left over when when my oldest did a Baton competition many years ago. And like I said early I didn't have any white shinny material so I just went with what I had on hand.

For the wardrobe, I found this on pinterest. A neighbor was throwing a dresser away because the bottom draw was broke. I snagged it right up and I went to work. I would have like to use batting behind the fabric, but I didn't have any and it was not a "need" so I went without it.

I searched long and hard for a mirror, I wanted her to be able to look in the mirror after she was all dressed up. I finally found this at target on clearance for 9.50. It is a tad to wide, but it will work.

On the other side hooks to hand hats or necklaces. I can't wait for her to see it all

http://www.bluecricketdesign.net/

An Autumn tunic

A little while ago Luvinthemommyhood.com post a great tutorial for this Autumn tunic and I had to do it right away. I need the right fabric, so I had to wait until I got to the store. It really only took me 2 days:). The tunic has actually been done for quit some time now, but as everyone can see I have not been that great with keeping up on my post.

The neck came out a little larger so I could fit it over her head. I think I would add a button next time. But I love how it came out!


It's not typically off her shoulders, but she was running through the corn maze having a great time.

My new clock

So, I am pretty new to pintrest, but boy do I love it.

I had been dreaming of a big round clock on the wall. After looking around I found this one. While I liked all the numbers my husband did not. He said I could do it, but I had to use slashes in place of numbers (as pictured).

I got everything at Hobby lobby. I painted all the wood numbers and slats black then I bought these Velcro things to hang the numbers up.



I had to cut the wood slats down, they came in a pack of 6 at Hobby Lobby, so I had to buy 2 packs. The hand portions were the most expensive and I should have waited until I had a coupon, but I was too excited.

I told my husband how big I wanted it and he went to work. He centered the middle part of the clock and then measured 14 inches out from the center and placed the Velcro on the wall for the numbers first (12, 3, 6, 9). After that he went to work on the slats. I can not tell you how he figured out the spacing. But that's one of the reasons I love him.

Voila! My big clock was born.