New shoes

Have you visited http://sewingin-nomansland.blogspot.com/ ? If not then you need to hope right over there. She recently posted about an outfit that she made shoes from. She got her inspiration from Joyfolie. I had to take a peak. And boy did I fall in love. Every single pair of shoes are out of stock, but she is working on a solution to the problem. So until I can purchase a pair ( which I will do as soon as they are available).I tried my hand a pair. They still need a little work, but they were my first pair of shoes.

I have since added a strap across the top to help they stay on.

I can't wait until shoes are available :)

LINKY PARTY

http://sumossweetstuff.blogspot.com/

Valentines bags

I saw these bags on a few sites and fell in love! I knew I had to have them. So I was crossing my fingers in hopes that I had some fabric that would work since I am not buying any new fabric unless absolutely necessary. I found some red sweater material, red polka dot, and red camouflage. I had sever different types of interfacing so I made it work.

My only little snag was I chose to do 2 red dot linnings and the camouflage one for the little guy (not so girly). But of course Austin chose to take one of the polka dot ones!! I would have made them all polka dot if I had known. I guess I also could have done a better job on the names. I should have just waited a few weeks...I just found out I am getting a Silhouette....Yea I am so excited.

The plan is to put a little love note for the kids in the am, and then when Valentines day arrives there will be just a few little surprises for the kido's

I really did iron my fabric this time, I promise:)

I found this great tutorial for the bags at Our Scoop

Winter wreath

I don't think I used quite as many circles as she did. I would have loved to but I didn't want to buy more felt.

With the new house I have decided to try and decorate a little...so with Christmas decorations down it is time to start.

After searching One Pretty thing I found this great blog...Domestifluff.com. I knew I found my perfect door wreath!!

I loved that I could do it any color (white was just what I had on hand), I think at some point I will try red :) I had the pins on hand, all I had to buy was the wreath form.

It was pretty easy and straight forward. I did take her suggestions on making the circles. In the post there was a link to another blog at maya*made.blogspot.com. I didn't have ink on hand so I stamped mine with paint that I didn't think I would ever use again. I think it worked pretty well, take it easy on the paint so it drys fast. I also used a spray can lid for my circles.

I really need to find my wreath hanger for the door, but until then this will work

Bike basket

The last step for my little guy's bike was a basket. He wanted a place to put his back pack on the way home from school.

A Lemon Squeezy Home has a great tutorial for both a boy and a girl basket. I have found myself freqenting A Lemon Squezzy Home, I love all of her ideas and the tutorials are easy to follow.
Anyway I used her bike tutorial.

I used her measurements and the cut out, but I did peace it together a little different. I was a little uneasy with the hand sewing since he would be placing items in the basket.

I stitched the 4 outside pieces (Penn State fabric) together, did the same with the inner fabric (plain blue).
Then I placed one inside the other, right sides together, when I stitched around the top to close it I Left open spots at each area that I would insert the hanger piece at with one big enough to turn right side out.
Then I turned it right side out.
From there I stitched down the sides to create a pocket for the hanger and the same for the top front and sides.
When all pieces of the hanger were in I then stitched the holes closed.

I also used snaps

after I fixed the piece that attaches to the bar

This is before I changed the handle..I sewed the piece with the snaps to the back of the basket so it would hang a little higher

Free bike

When we lived in PA I belonged to a group on yahoo called free cycle.

Have you ever heard of it??

People post items they no longer need or want, if you see something you want you e-mail the other party back and make arrangements to pick it up (as long as it's not gone yet). It's pretty cool. The rule: MUST be FREE!!

Anyway a few months ago I got Austin a bike from free cycle, it was too big for him at the time (still kinda is) so I put it to the side. When I pulled it out over Christmas, he was able to ride it ok. When I picked it up the lady made it clear that it needed a new seat...Which it sure did, it had screws coming up and poking him in the butt!! I didn't realize this until after he was riding it. I thought it just needed padding, sorry little guy.

The before

Now I will be honest to say that I only looked at 2 stores before I gave up and thought I would try to make one with supplies on hand. I used vinyl I purchased months ago and padding we that we bought the pack n play ( no longer in use). The padding was probably to thick but who doesn't like extra padding when riding a bike?

After

Not perfect probably to much padding, but it was free :)

Not to bad for a free bike no rust, good tires, free training wheels and now a new seat