Three Sides

Hey Monday!  I’m not exactly happy you’re here considering you mark the end of vacation.  But, I’ll get over it with a super easy post about these curtains I made for Sebastian’s room.

I made his closet curtains out of a queen-size sheet, cut in half and hemmed.  The window curtains I made out of some white duck fabric from Hobby Lobby.  To keep things from getting too plain with all that white, I stenciled on some tiny triangles.

Here’s how I did it.

First, I made my stencil.  Using the Rhonna Designs app on my phone, I stuck a little triangle onto a white background and sized it to the size I wanted the triangles to appear on the fabric.  Then I laid some stencil plastic (leftover from stenciling this rug) over the top of my phone and traced the triangle.  I traced two because my cousin was here to help.  Hooray for company and help!
 

Then I pulled out these foam pouncers (affiliate link), originally purchased way back when I dotted these jeans, and squirted a little bit of black acrylic paint onto a plate. 
I didn’t add any fabric medium to the paint because I know it’ll still be permanent even though it might not be as soft.  On curtains, I’m not worried about the feel.  Clothing is a little different.

Next, I put a small amount of paint onto the pouncer and dabbed that paint right over my stencil.  Note:  Use enough paint to just cover the surface of your foam.  A nice thin coat dabbed a few times over the stencil will do the trick without bleeding.  Too much paint will get under the stencil and give you some crazy lines and a not-so-crisp shape.  You might have to dab the plate a few times after you get paint on the pouncer to get some of that extra paint off.

We just placed triangles in random places, scattered over the curtains.  The more imperfectly placed, the better, in this case.
 

I love the triangles vs. regular old dots because I feel like they’re a little more manly for our little man.  Sharp edges and nice straight sides…in other words, tall, dark, and handsome.  Or maybe that’s a stretch but either way, you catch my drift.  :)

Anyway…

Have a great Monday!  I’m feeling the usual ‘overwhelmed’ at all the to-do’s I really want to get done this week and the fact that we’ve been on vacation for the better part of the past week and a half is making that hefty load even heftier.  It’s okay though, usually come Tuesday, I realize that I can’t be a one-woman show and I hack my list in half.  Happens every week.  Vicious circle or sensibility shot?  Not sure…

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So easy you might as well do it…and pin it for when you do.  :)

The Boy’s Room

Up until a little over a month ago, Sebastian still had the girls coraly-pink curtains hanging over his closet (it was the girls’ room until several months ago).  I’ve felt so bad but I’ve just been too busy with life and other things to put his room on the priority list.  Not to mention the fact that my decorating budget is a sad $10-$20 a month so that money has been going to other spaces.  Poor kid.  But, when Anthony left for Ecuador a few weeks ago and I had my cousin, Faith, here to help, we dove into a mini-makeover of his room.  It’s not finished by any means, but it’s better.  Much, much better.

Here’s what it looks like at the moment:


Here’s a glimpse of what the room looked like before we started:

The fan shade was a little longer than I wanted it and the plastic lining was pretty beat up.  I hung what was left of the curtain I used to recover these two chairs over his window to add darkness during sleeping times and the frame over his bed was blank.

 

I’ll have tutorials up asap on the stenciled curtains and painting but I haven’t got all the details on the fan shade because I wasn’t sure it was going to turn out as planned.  It did though and lucky for me, I have another shade needing to be redone so I’ll write up a tutorial on that one! 

Basically, we took apart the old lampshade, cut a new piece of plastic that was shorter, recovered the plastic with this thin fabric I found at Walmart (Walmart!  I know!  They have it in black and white too!), and put the shade back together.  It’s much easier than it sounds.  Pinky swear.
 
I went for a thin fabric so that the finished shade wouldn’t block too much light.

I bought the old shade at Dirt Cheap for $2 and used a half yard of fabric ($4 a yard) so this entire shade cost me about $4.50 including the hot glue.  Cheap and good.

I made his closet curtains out of a queen-size flat sheet I cut in half and hemmed and his window curtains out of two yards of white duck fabric I found at Hobby Lobby.  The sheet was $5 at Dirt Cheap and the duck fabric was $6 ($5/yard but with a 40% off coupon).  I only flanked one side of his windows with a curtain because he pulls on the curtains when he’s up there and less curtain is safer in this case.  Originally I was going to go for a roman shade instead but until I figure out how to work that out, a panel it is.
  
I stenciled the curtains using stuff I already had so that didn’t cost me a thing.

The green metal frame above his bed was thrifted for 50 cents and I just painted the foam board inside it with some paint I had on hand plus some I bought at Lowe’s and Hobby Lobby.  All in all, it probably cost me $2 just counting the paint I used.


I want to do something cool with his crib (it’s my old crib!) eventually.  My first idea was to paint the bottom half of it a medium gray so that it looks like it’s dipped but now I’m leaning more towards painting that big recessed area at each end.  Maybe adding a stencil there or a simple geometric design?  Time, and the blog, will eventually tell.

On the wall opposite the crib is a dresser we bought for Sebastian off of Varage Sale (an online sale site kinda like Craigslist) for $50 several months ago.
 
It’s not my favorite as far as structure and design go but it was cheap and I think a little gray paint plus the brass handles will take it a long way.  I obviously haven’t done anything to the wall above the dresser.  Right now I just have paint samples I picked up in the color scheme I want the room to head for hanging there.  The lamp is still sporting the lampshade I made for the girls room way back when and the lamp either needs to be repainted or replaced.  I’m also thinking of whipping up a new changing pad cover (check out my easy tutorial!) that will match the curtains.
  
On the window wall, I have some of Anthony’s childhood trophies sitting on the shelves.
 
I kinda want to spray paint them but I haven’t asked the champion about that idea yet because I’m a little scared he’ll be mortified…so when you read this post Anthony, what say you?  Pretty please?  With brown sugar on top?

The rug is from Old Time Pottery and I got it for $35 (which is their usual sale price for a 5 x 8) because it had dirt marks along one edge.  I got those babies out though.  I stole the yellow geometric pillow on the window seat from the living room and the other two were thrifted.  Eventually I’ll make said window seat a tad more comfortable with a custom cushion.  I’d also love to recover or sew a new slipcover for the rocking chair in here too.  I’m over the brown and would love to go for a light gray linen or maybe crazy with a mustard color.  And then there’s the looming popcorn ceiling and shabby brown carpet that I’d love to both disappear but that ain’t happening anytime soon.  A mom can dream though…and then take the focus away with a big shade on a fan and a rug over carpet.  :)

So far, I’ve spent about $55 in this room trying to turn it into something fit for a boy.  Not too shabby, eh?  It’s still pretty plain but the wall stripes (tutorial here) are a big help keep it off the ‘too plain’ scale.

And just for fun…
No kids:

A home office/guestroom filled with hand-me-downs.

Girl kids:
 

      Boy kid:

I’ll be back with painting and curtain tutorials next week!  Have a great weekend and fourth!

Flo Rida

The state, not the rapper.  Although the rap star by that name does pop up on the Pop Fitness Pandora station we blare during the pre-bedtime hours so the kids can jig their jiggles out.  They be like “wha wha”…nope, really they be like “what the heck is this talk singing junk?” and request a different song whenever rap comes up but hey, let’s move on, shall we?

Last Wednesday, the day after Anthony got home from a 12-day mission trip in Ecuador, we made the short-ish trek (7 hours) across the state of Florida to visit my sister on the east coast.  She has a little girl who is 11 months older than the twins and two boys, one who is six months older than Seb and a newborn.  It’s so, so awesome because our kids that are similar in age then, are all the same gender and so playtime works out quite nicely. 

Our girlies:

Our little men:


Since she lives two minutes from the beach (and since we were blessed to be able to stay with her mother-in-law who lives ON the beach; 100 big steps on a boardwalk and across a w i d e expanse of pure white sand until your toes are in the Atlantic), we obviously hit that place up.

[Anthony with the twins; me with Gus (short for Augustin) and Sebastian…which really made me wish Sebastian had a twin.]

AND THEN, thanks to an incredibly generous gift by the parents of the kids who went on the mission trip with Anthony, we got to walk the streets of Disney World last Friday.  It was amazing…and HOT!

The girls are a little over a week shy of three years old (crying a river) so they just slipped in for free since kids under three are free!  They were obsessed with the ‘princess castle’.  They wanted to make sure it was still there at every turn.
 

We took them to Disney for Night of Joy a year and a half ago, but at their ripe age of 14 months at the time, they didn’t really seem to take it all in.  This time was totally different.

We didn’t get to see Elsa and Ana unfortunately (when we were picking our Fast Passes, that one disappeared right before our eyes) but they LOVED meeting Tinkerbell.  Cloud 1009.

 

And I’m pretty sure they didn’t take their eyes off Belle the entire time we watched her little show.

Nor did they want to leave the room after.

They were petrified of Mickey Mouse, Sebastian included.  So sad.
   
Wouldn’t go within five feet of that big, sweet face even after we waited a grueling (not really though) 30 minutes to see him.

I had a couple of requests on some Insta pics I posted requesting tips for bringing toddlers to Disney but I feel like a major beginner in that arena so I’m not sure if I’m much help!  I’ll try my best though!

1)  Backpacks are the way to go.  We swapped out our normal over-the-shoulder-diaper-holder for a backpack and it was a breeze to just sling it on back and move on.

2)  If you’re going in the heat of summer, make sure you eat and drink!  It’s hard when you’re bringing toddlers because all of your energy is invested in them – keeping them cool, hydrated, and fed – that it’s easy to forget about yourself!  At least for me it was!  I barely ate anything during the morning and scarfed down just one pb&j for lunch which usually might keep me going on a normal day in which I’m not sweating and walking and walking and walking.  It wasn’t good enough though because around 3pm I started to get really dizzy and had to sit down lest I pass out.  I missed the afternoon parade because of it too!  So, before you start, drink and eat and make sure to keep doing that all day!

3)  My sister brought her sweet baby boy along and carried him in her ergo.  She got lots of judging looks for carrying him around like that but little did those faces know that she had an ice pack in the front pocket of that thing to keep little Damien cool.  He was great all day! 

4)  And speaking of ice, did you know that Disney hands out free ice waters?  They do!  All you have to do is ask!  All of the food shops and stops gave us icy cups and straws if we needed them!

5)  Bring sunscreen no matter what the weather man says!  The night before we left, all signs pointed to a dull and cloudy day with scattered showers so I didn’t think we’d need sunscreen.  I packed it anyway though just in case and whatdya know?  It was sunny as all get out with one little (very nice) shower mid-day.  So thankful we let Ariel’s Sebastian be the lobster and didn’t have to try it ourselves!

As far as keeping kids busy while waiting in lines, I have no answer to that question.  I’m sure pulling out your phone would help a lot but Disney also does an amazing job at keeping you busy in lines with added effects!  We didn’t even attempt any lines with a 30+ minute wait because we were already outnumbered, adults to kids, so we probably would’ve set ourselves up for trouble.

For better tips, check out Kathryn’s blog!  She wrote a whole series on how to do Disney after they spent a week there! Mom About Charlotte has some great tips here and so does Mama Cheaps.  If you’ve been to Disney with your little tots and have some pearls of wisdom/sanity-savers you’ve learned, share in the comments!

Kimonos or Robes?

I gave you guys a sneak peek last post at these mini kimonos:

So now let me fill you in with a whole peek and tell ya how you can make one, sew or no-sew!  I made mine with my trusty sewing machine but you guys, I racked and racked and racked my brain on how to make this go either way – sew or no-sew!  I know a lot of you don’t know how to sew (yet) and so I didn’t want this to be a project only to be done with a sewing machine.  Making clothes for kids (and adults) is so fun, but I know it can be a downer when you find out you need to be able to sew to make something cute.  Sew, let’s get our kimono on.

[Hey!  That rhymes!]

The supplies:

-a piece of knit fabric (or a fabric that won’t fray at the edges)
-a scissors
-fringe (optional)
-glue (optional for the no-sew version)
-sewing machine (for the sewn version)
I bought this fabric at JoAnn’s.  It was 50% off, ringing in at $7.49 a yard.  I bought a yard and a third and got two toddler kimonos out of it and two toddler-sized inifinity scarves pieced together with the leftovers (more on those later).  The fringe is also from JoAnn’s. 

First, I cut out two rectangular pieces of fabric that were 23 x 42 inches each.  If you’re just making one toddler kimono, you’ll only need 2/3 of a yard of fabric.  However, it’s worth mentioning that the kimonos I made would probably fit a girl who wears size 5 or 6 pretty well.  They’re a tad large for my size 2T girls.  If you’re making an adult-sized kimono, you’ll need more.  I’d guess about two yards depending on the length you want. 

After I had my two pieces, I grabbed one and folded it in half long-ways with the right sides of the fabric facing each other.  The top of this piece measured 23” and it measured 21” long.  The folded side would eventually go along the girls shoulders and arms.


The Sewn Version
For the sewn version, I measured down four inches from the top of each side and put a pin.  This four inches would be the arm holes.  Past the four inch mark, I pinned the sides together and then sewed them together.  Simple enough, right?

The dotted line in this picture shows where I stitched:

Next, I turned the kimono right-side-out and folded it in half so that the two sides I had just sewn were together.

Then, I cut down the fold only cutting through one layer of fabric (IMPORTANT!!) and only to the top fold.  This gave me the kimono opening at the front.

(So in the above picture, the two sides I had just sewn are laying on the left and I cut through one layer of fabric on the fold at the right.)

After cutting, I laid out the kimono and it looked like this:


The last thing I did was sew a few zig-zag stitches at the very top of the front opening to keep it from ripping.
I don’t know how likely it is to rip but just in case it got pulled open too far (you never know what toddlers are capable of), I wanted to make sure it was nice and secure.

And that’s that!  Because I used a knit that wasn’t prone to fraying, I didn’t have to do any hemming at the unfinished edges.

The No-Sew Version
The no-sew version involves cutting shallow slits down each side and tying.  It’s exactly how I made these infinity scarves for the girls.

Making sure you mark that four inches at the top of each side for arm holes, you’d cut slits down the side (represented by the lines in the picture below) and then you’d tie the sides together by knotting the front and back fabric pieces.

After that was done, you’d turn the kimono right-side-out, fold it in half, and cut the front opening just like you would in the sewn version.  Instead of using a zig-zag stitch to reinforce the top of the cut though, you might want to place a dab of glue over it to make sure it stayed put and didn’t rip.

Of course you could probably go the stitch witchery/iron-on hem tape route with the sides if you didn’t feel like tying them or you could even try your hand at sewing them shut just using a needle and thread since there are just a couple of straight lines to be sewn.  However you make them, they’re pretty simple, no?

I wasn’t done with the kimonos there though.  I saw a few kimonos on the web with fringe and other trim at the ends so old horse, new tricks type thing.  I had to try it.  All I did was cut a fringe piece long enough to go across the entire bottom of each kimono and sewed it on with a straight stitch.
   

Fringe is sold with the strings attached at the bottom with a little thread to make sewing easier; fringe strings all over the place would be a frustrating thing to tame while you’re trying to guide fabric through your machine or out of your way.  So all I had to do once I had the fringe on was remove that string.
 
 
Done!

    

So my first thought when I put them on the girls was “Oh my gosh, they look like vintage robes…not what I was going for”, and that’s probably your thought too.  I know.  They’re a tad long.  I’m still on the fence about the fringe.  I think it might just amp up the vintage robe look but for now I’m keeping it on.  What do you think?  Is the fringe too much?  I think I’m going to make them some more kimonos soon minus the fringe and round off the front corners to soften them up.  You know I’ll write about it when I do.  :)

Anddddd…I’m thinking mom here needs one or five too.  Maybe I should grab some more fabric and do the whole matching thing?  “Oh look!  Mom and her daughters in their robes at Target in the afternoon!”  What a spectacle.  ;)

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Have a great rest of the week guys!  Anthony just got home today from a 12-day mission trip so I’m sorry if I’ve been semi-absent during the past 12 days!  Now you know why!  He’s currently napping with the kids so I’m playing catch-up and boy do I have lots of things to play that with!  My cousin has been here for the past week helping me and we’ve been doing lots of projects around the house!  Stay tuned!!

Minis In Maxis

Back when I went shopping for the Goodwill Fashion Challenge, I also snatched up this top for a buck:
It was hanging on the end of a rack and the stripes caught my eye (what’s new?)  It was an XL so my mind immediately went to turning it into two maxi dresses for the girls.  And so I did.  To do so, I first folded it in half. 
And then I cut it in half along the fold…no measuring here folks.

That gave me two pieces of the shirt.  Last, I folded each piece in half, right sides together, with the cut edges touching and serged the two cut ends of each piece together to make two dresses (sewing them together would work perfect too).

Side Note:  If you buy an extra small or small top like this, you can probably get away without any sewing (besides maybe hemming or even just cutting off extra length if it’s a knit material like mine) if you’re looking to make a dress for one toddler.
 
And so that I didn’t age my kids 20 years, I cut two thick strips off the bottom of an old tee, folded each strip in half but forming a ‘v’, and sewed the base of the v to the top of each dress.
Insta-halter.

     
I took them outside with the DSLR to grab some quick after shots and it wasn’t until after I put the good camera away that they gave me stuff to work with.

This is unprompted, iPhone 4S, quality stuff:
 
They’ve been doing this (hilarious) thing lately where they run at each other with arms wide open yelling something in Spanish and crash into a loving embrace…and then die laughing at each other.   (I’m guessing Diego and/or Dora have something to do with it.)
 
Over and over they do it.  We were in JoAnn Fabrics two days ago and while I was waiting to get some fabric cut, they were putting on a show doing this down the main aisle.  I didn’t know if I should tell them to stop running or let it play on to the amusement of everyone around.  I let it go.  Dem girls I tell ya.  :)

Back to their garb though, I didn’t stop with the maxis…
…more on their new diy kimonos later.  (Not only are they diy but they can easily be made with nary a sewing machine in sight!  You won’t want to miss this one!)

And it just so happens that…
Yep.  Birthday present from Grandma this past year.  Totally random but I couldn’t resist.  ;)

Have a fantastic Monday! 

 

If you like it, then you shouldda putta a pin in it!  :)