Fairy Princess Skirt: Part 2

This was a commissioned skirt for a little girl named Suzie.  She will be receiving it this week.  Our giveaway winner, Jen, chose a light purple skirt.  Will post pictures soon....

We are off to my brother's wedding in Idaho.  Once back in town (and recovered from our non-vacation), I'll try to post some pics of the boys in their ties and girls in their headbands.

Flower Girl Headbands

For the one year old (a thicker, softer band)

For the four year old.

Using myself as the model in my dark bathroom.

These headbands will be worn with plum colored dresses and green sashes.  I'm so excited to see these on the girls.  I hope they like them.  A fabulous tutorial at Make It and Love It, found HERE.

That officially concludes all of my prep for the wedding!  Now, the anti-climax to all of this fun stuff:  packing.  Dreading it.

Family Tree

This is my brother and future sister in law's wedding gift.  I saw the tutorial for this on Sutton Grace and had to make one for them.  You can find her instructions and downloads right HERE.

Here is a detail of the tree.  I digitally smudged out the birthdates for some identity theft protection, even though most of the people on here are deceased. 

Congrats you two, can't wait to come for the wedding!

Back to School Survival Kit

I had a big project that I just finished for my YW group.  We made "back to school survival kits" for each of the girls and delivered them the night before the first day of school.  The outside packaging is a lunch sack with a decorative scissors edge, some red twine, and a cute printable from Paper Glitter.  Love that site!  I wrote each of the girls' names on the back of the apple tag.

Total, we made 28 bags.  Yep, we have a big group.  Each bag had one of each:

Hershey Hugs:  Just in case you need some extra hugs

Smarties:  To boost your smart brain power

Almond Joy: Hope this year brings you great joy

Fruit by the Foot:  Put your best foot forward

Sponge: to soak it all in this year

Eraser: Each new day starts off with a clean slate

Paper clip:  to hold it all together

Rubber band:  to stretch your mind this year

Pencil:  we think you're sharp

Prayer rock:  say your prayers morning and night

We also made a business card sized YW contact list with all of the leaders cell numbers on it for each of the girls to keep in their backpacks or purses.

I found all of the little labels for each item HERE.  Saved me a lot of time and they worked great.

And the Winner Is.....

The winner of the "100th Post Giveaway" is:

#8 Jen Gillespie said:

Britt, I don't know how you find the time to do all of this. You must be super-mom! I started following you. As much as I would love one of your quilts...I would NEVER do that to you! But I know little Jill would love the fairy princess skirt. Too cute!

Congrats, Jen!  The Fairy Princess Skirt it is!  I'll email you and we'll discuss colors and I'll make sure and put a picture on my blog before I send it off.  I would love to make a quilt for you too, but I think it would be best for everyone involved if I actually finished an entire quilt before I start giving them away as gifts....and learning how to sew straighter lines wouldn't hurt either.  I think I need to try baby sized quilts, much easier to work with and less work overall.  Someday...

Well, in other news, I have some great projects to show all of you that I have been saving up over the last week.  Here is our first one, modeled by my lovely assistant.

Plum colored bow ties for all of the little nephews to wear at my little brother's wedding next week!  They were a lot easier to make than I anticipated.  I searched around a bit, and finally used this tutorial HERE to help me create my version.

  Since finishing said ties, I was asked by my other brother (age 16) if I would make him one as well, thus excluding him from wearing the matching neck tie that all the other male family members are wearing.  I'll have to make it a bit bigger, but why not?   I'll probably use Velcro on the back, just like the little boy ones.  He he!

Last Chance for Giveaway and A Cute Idea

This is your last chance to sign up for the 100th Post Giveaway.  Click HERE to read the instructions on how to enter.

And on a side note:  How cute are these?

I printed these off at Wild Olive.  Cardstock thread bobbins for some of my embroidery floss.  Just print out the cute little guys, cut them out, and wind your thread around.  I am no longer picking out knots as I am working on a project, so nice!

Print some of your own off HERE.  Lots of projects to post pictures of over the next few days and the giveaway winner announced tomorrow!

100th POST GIVEAWAY!

We are all hard at work here, getting ready for school by polishing up our workbook skills and doing projects for my younger brother's wedding in 3 weeks!  I am making bow ties for the nephews and headbands for the nieces, along with a homemade wedding gift, stay tuned for the finished projects, they are all currently in progress.

So, I have reached the wonderful milestone of 100 posts on my ABWB project blog!  To celebrate, I would like to give a project away.  That's right, I will do one of the projects on this blog, just for YOU!  

How to Enter:

1.  Follow this blog.  Sign up by clicking on the "Follow" button on the left.  This will send my project posts straight to your e-mail or reader. (If you are already Following than you don't need to sign up again, just leave a comment with your project choice).

2.  Look around on this blog under "Looking for Something?" and "Projects I Want To Try" (the right side of screen) to find a project that you want me to make for you.  It could be the Petals Backpack or a Fairy Princess Skirt or the Strawberry Bag or a Monogrammed Baby Onesie.  

Use some discretion when choosing your project.  For instance, it would be pretty much impossible for me to make you a Toy Story birthday cake if you don't live around here locally.  Or unless you want me to fly out to your house, I probably wouldn't be able to Repaint Kitchen Cabinets.  If you don't live in northern Cali, choose a project that I can ship to you with relative ease...please.  :)

Ok, so follow this blog and leave a comment with your project choice.  Spread the word and tell your friends...there's a lot of great projects on here!  I'll randomly choose a winner on Tuesday, August 17th in honor of school starting for my kids!  Hooray for school!

Closet Organization

This is my nicely organized game/kids craft cabinet in my hallway.  Someday, I'm going to paint or re-stain the cabinet, but that's not what this post is about.  I am helping a dear friend of mine organize her craft/gift closet and I wanted to show her what some great bins can do for a lot of otherwise hard to organize stuff.  My six year old can grab a stool, climb up, and find exactly what he needs now that everything is in its proper place.  I don't have a "before" picture, but trust me, it wasn't pretty, and both my son and I had trouble finding what we needed for play and craft time.

I've got art supplies, wooden "paper" dolls (the one labeled "Joey"), and even a couple of empty containers for when we need to expand.

I found these bins at Walmart and they are perfect for what I need.  They come in a variety of sizes, range in price from $1.50 to $4.50, stack nicely on top of each other, and are easy to open and close.  I hand labeled my bins with some stickers for quick glace, grab, and go access.  My play food bin still needs a label.  That's my newest addition to this cabinet....thanks Grandma!

Stay tuned for the craft/gift closet makeover.  I'm so excited to organize that thing!

Baby Shower Cake

I made a cake for my cousin-in-law's baby shower this week.  It was pound cake with homemade raspberry filling and cream cheese frosting.  Simple and sweet.

Dots on the side and the family on top.  This is their first baby, so I painted some little figurines to represent Mom, Dad, and baby Isaac, who will be here sometime next month.  Congrats you two!  We can't wait for Isaac to get here!