Have you guys heard of Skirt Week? It's going on over at Crafterhours. Go check it out !
I made this skirt a while ago and just decided to try it on myself today. I like it for the most part. Wish it was just a tad longer. I made it with a yoga style waistband which makes it that much more comfy. It's getting hot here finally so I'll be making a few more of these for myself soon.
I have to warn you before you read any further. I'm awful at getting my picture taken. I make funny faces, blink, squint, frown. I just can't get it right. So I usually hide but to enter into the Skirt Week contest you have to have the skirt pictured on you. I hate when people cut their faces out of photos but that's just what I did with this one. Trust me you don't want to see the face I was making in that one. ;)
Oh my...look at the face..like a pucker or something. haha.
These a-line skirts with the yoga waistband are the best. You can wear it as a skirt like above or you can hike it up and wear it as a top. I think it would look A LOT better if I had boobs to fill it out but that's never going to happen. Squinty eyes any one? blah
Does it look like I have a shrunken head in this next one? I've always said I do...lol. I think my head isn't proportioned to the rest of me. Geez, I'm really complaining today.
I'm done I swear.
These are super easy to make and super quick. If you'd like a short tutorial let me know and I'll whip one up real fast.
Sadly the Pen's lost tonight so they are out of the running for the Stanley Cup. It's ok because we will get them next year. :) That's what all losing teams say right?
This was as far as my husband got on his beard. As soon as that buzzer went off he ran to the bathroom to shave. Something about it being itchy but really there isn't much there so I think he should have kept it. I wanted to see what it would look like in full Grizzly Adams mode!
Are you ready to see who won the giveaway? There were 3 groups and everybody that commented got entered into the drawing for each group. So that was 3 chances to win!
I want to thank all of you who entered. I didn't realize it would be so hard to give away free stuff! Did you guys add it up? There was $250 worth of prizes being given away. I think that's awesome and I'm so happy for the winners.
Are you ready to see who they were?
Ok...I will put the group # and then who won it. It will coordinate with the group # in the original giveaway post here. Got it? Ok good....Here goes!
Group 1 Winner
#6 Mary
Group 2 Winner
#12 Valerie Smith
Group 3 Winner
#8 Ashlee
Congratulations you 3. I need you all to email me so I can get your prizes to you!!
I need to catch up on orders then hope to be back soon with something crafty to show you all. I miss blogging!
Ok...I give. No body is donating to the Beard-A-Thon. I should have thought this out better. It's tough out there right now and I completely understand not being able to donate right now. So...I've decided to change the rules for entry. To enter all you have to do is comment on the post for the giveaway here and tell me what your hometown hockey team is :)
To keep it about the Beard-A-Thon, if you would like extra entries all you have to do is donate to my hubby's beard. Go here and click on Pledge this Beard. For every $10.00 you get an extra entry. But you already get a free entry by just leaving me a comment! So tell all your friends and lets get lots of people involved! There are some great items here to be given to 3 of you!!
make sure to read all the way through because there is a huge giveaway at the end! :)
Hey guys! Have you all heard of the Beard-A-Thon going on with the NHL? If you are into Hockey I'm sure you have. If you aren't a hockey fan here is a rundown. Each team that's in the playoffs for the Stanley Cup have their own page where their fans can sign up to grow their beards out until there team is out of the playoffs or WIN the Stanley Cup. Also each team that is participating choices a charity or cause to support and raises money for them!! I think that's awesome don't you?
The Pittsburgh Penguins (our hometown team) are in the playoffs! Yay! So my husband decided to join the Beard-A-Thon and grow his out. (which he never does because he says it gets itchy) Here is the fun part....you can 'Pledge a Beard'. The Pen's have chosen the Mario Lemieux Foundation as their cause to support. And what a great one it is.
(copied directly from the Pen's site)
The Mario Lemieux Foundation was created in 1993 by hockey legend Mario Lemieux and is dedicated to raising funds for cancer and neonatal research as well as Austin's Playroom Project, an initiative that creates sibling playrooms in medical facilities. The Foundation’s projects include:
• $3 million gift to the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, to establish the Mario Lemieux Center for Blood Diseases at the Hillman Cancer Center • $5 million gift to the renowned University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, to establish the Mario Lemieux Centers for Patient Care and Research • $2 million gift to the Children’s Home of Pittsburgh, to establish the Lemieux Family Center • $1.6 million gift to Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, to establish the Mario Lemieux Foundation Endowment for Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Research and create the Lemieux Sibling Center
Additionally, Nathalie Lemieux created Austin’s Playroom Project after the Lemieux’s personal experience while caring for their premature infant son, Austin. Austin's Playroom Project seeks to benefit families and improve the quality of a child's hospital experience whether as a visitor or patient by establishing cheerful playrooms that are safe, calming and comfortable. 21 Austin’s Playrooms have been established in western Pennsylvania with six additional playrooms scheduled to open in 2011.
On the news just the other day there was a story about how the Mario Lemieux Foundation had donated a bunch of xBox's to the Children's Hospital for the kids. Which yes I know isn't as important as making them well but getting their spirits up and giving them something to get their minds off of things for a while is always a good thing, right?
This is where the giveaway comes in. I emailed a bunch of my favorite people asking if they would donate an item to be given away and I got a great response. :) The catch is you have to go Pledge my husbands beard to enter the giveaway. NONE of the money comes to us. It doesn't even come through us. It all goes directly to the Mario Lemieux Foundation and will say that in the email you receive after pledging. We are getting nothing from this at all besides knowing that we are helping raise money for the kids! The whole 'Pledge' thing is just a fun way for the fans to feel connected and have some fun.
So to enter the giveaway you must go Pledge Chris Waldrop's Beard then come back here and leave me a comment saying you did. Easy right? I know what you are thinking, having to pay something to enter a giveaway. But seriously it's for a good cause and you could win some awesome things. The giveaway will last until the Pen's are out of the running for the Stanley cup or they WIN! So hurry up and pledge so you can enter just in case we don't make it very far. This giveaway could last days or weeks. Just depends on how well we do!
You all want some pictures of the Beard I'm sure! Here is a pic of Chris on shave day. It's the evening of shave day so it's grown just a bit but you get the point.
And here is a picture at one week of no shaving. I almost didn't believe him that this was all it has done in a week but I checked the Pen's playing schedule and sure enough it's been a week.
Kinda looks like a mug shot, no? I told him I'd be posting these so if he wanted a better picture he should have taken one!
I'll be posting pictures weekly of the growth so you all can see how it's looking.
Now onto the giveaway!!!
I have divided these into 3 groups . When you comment please make sure to say which group you would like to be entered for.
GROUP 1
$25.00 to spend at Little Lizard King. I have a few of their patterns and love them!
1 Deal from Groop Dealz that is $20.00 or less. (needs to be used within 30 days of when you are notified by me that you won!)
1 Hello Kitty Pillowcase dress in the size you chose from 12m-6 from me :)
$30.00 Gift Certificate to Zoe Girl Designs! I'm in love with her whale onesie!!
I love everything here! I wish I could enter since I did already Pledge my hubby's beard! So come on guys...go pledge and come back here and enter.
The official rules: ;)
For every $10.00 you pledge here you get 1 entry. So if you pledge $30.00 you will get 3 entries, leave 3 comments....each one with your name you used to pledge, the giveaway group you wish to enter and your email address so I can contact you if you win
For a free entry all you have to do is comment with your favorite Hockey Team and your email address!
That's 2 ways to enter but really you could have tons of entries if you donate more $
Just make sure to leave a separate comment for each entry!
And again I would like to mention that I am not getting any money or products from this in no way. We just want to raise some money for a good cause and have lots of fun doing it!!!
Oh and make sure to check out the sponsors of the Beard-A-Thon tab at the top of the page!!!! Thanks so much you guys!!
Hey Guys! First I want to thank you all for your comments and emails about my last post. I love the support that this community brings! You guys are the BEST. :)
Lucas is so much better now and after lots of tests it ended up just being Sinusitis. Thank goodness that's all it was. He was put on lots of different meds and it is clearing up nicely. The doctor put him on a steroid saying that just antibiotics wouldn't take care of it so that is making him eat tons. Which is definitely a good thing. I'll have to get a photo of him. He is finally gaining some weight and you can already see it in his face.
Thank you all again so much. :)
I'm tired and getting ready to go to bed. Up early tomorrow for the Pirates game! We'll be grilling out with bunches of friends. I can't wait. I wanted to leave you with a quick video of out-takes of pictures I took today of my sisters. They crack me up. Crap, Nevermind. I uploaded it to YouTube and 1. it looks not good and 2. they wouldn't add the music. Boo. I'll figure it out soon and post it for you all.
edit: Ok let's try this. If it doesn't work or is annoying please just ignore it. Thanks!
So yeah, I pretty much suck at uploading and posting videos. Sorry Guys. If you do watch it please sing, I'm to Sexy in your head while you do.
This post might be deleted in a day or two. It depends on how things go and how I feel about it then. Really, right now I just need an outlet and a place to lay out my thoughts. The past month has been a bit rough. My son, Lucas, has had migraines for years. I think it's been about 5 years he has been getting them now and he is only 9 years old. He'll be 10 in September.
The migraines would come maybe once a month for a few hours then it would be gone again for at least a month. There were times that he wouldn't have one for a few months. Our doctor was never concerned because migraines are hereditary. I have them and so does my mom and my one sister. I was just told that if a parent has migraines then the child is 50% more likely than a child with a parent who doesn't get migraines to get them.
So...within the past month his migraines have become more frequent and are lasting longer. A full day at the longest. Then they were coming everyday. He was missing tons of school or he was being sent home early. We made a doctors appt. for last Monday. It was one of his worst he has had that day. He was sent home from school and my husband had to carry him to the car just to get him to the doctors. We were given a medicine to give him nightly in hopes that would prevent the migraines from even starting. That's the goal. Our doctor also ordered a MRI because of the change in his frequency of getting the migraines. He did say again at this point he wasn't really worried about finding anything on it because of the family history. So I had a little freak out and then agreed with him. That was Monday of last week. We gave him his new medicine that night and hoped it would work super fast.
Tuesday. It was actually a good day. I really thought the medicine was a miracle medicine and he was cured..well I knew he wasn't cured but I thought it was doing its job. And honestly I credit that medicine for giving him his first migraine free day in over a week. I was so so happy to see my boy happy and playing with his sister. It was so nice. We had kept him home from school just because we were worried about the side effects of the medicine and we were to keep an eye on him. What a good day Tuesday was!!!
Wednesday. It was bad...so so bad. He had a migraine from the time he woke up and as the day went on it just got worse. We eventually decided to take him to the ER. (I forgot to mention up there that our insurance decided to be dumb and wouldn't approve the MRI right away so we are still waiting at this point to hear back from them if we can get it done or not.) Anyway, we go to the ER and they give him some medicine to help with the pain, but not pain meds, and it worked pretty fast! He had told the doctor in the ER that is pain was at a 10 when he was first examined and by the time we left it was at a 2. YAY. They did a CT Scan while we were there and we got the results pretty fast. It came back fine. They saw nothing out of the ordinary. He recommended that we take our son to the Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh to get checked out by the neurology dept. By the time we got out of there they were closed at Children's so I had to call the next morning.
Thursday. I woke up to a phone call from our doctors office saying the MRI was approved!! Thank goodness. Good News! I made the appt. for Children's and they had just had a cancellation so we were able to get in Friday morning! More Good News! Also no migraines today. He did have a few headaches but we were able to stop them before they became really bad. He has been sleeping and laying around a lot more than usual and just not my little boy. The MRI is scheduled for Monday (today).
Friday. We got up super early to head to Children's for our 8 am. appt. So glad we had it that early though because no waiting! We saw our doctor and she went over everything with us. Checked out the scans from the CT he had done at the ER and said we should definitely still have the MRI done. She also said that with the family history she wasn't worried. We got a list of foods to avoid as that is what is said to trigger most peoples migraines. Lucas got pretty upset about this as just about everything he eats is on that list. He's a pretty picky eater. We assured him that he would get used to it and we can find new favorite foods. We left there with instructions to stop taking the medicine that our family doctor gave him and start him on a new one. It was a pretty good day. He had a few headaches but again nothing really bad.
The Weekend. It was a pretty good weekend. Not much went on and Lucas was able to rest with no appts. or doctors visits. Again, a few headaches but NO migraines!!!
Monday. Today. We had Lucas' MRI at 9:45 this morning. I was a little worried about how he would do. Have you guys seen those machines? He was SO good. He stayed still the whole time. I was able to sit in the room with him and hold his leg so he knew I was there. That machine is loud! We were done 20 minutes later and we dropped him off at school. His first day back in a week. He was really happy to see his friends again and be back to normal. The results were to be sent to our family doctor and our doctor at Children's. When I had asked a nurse at our family doctor about how long we would have to wait for the results she had said probably a few days. (I googled it today and the ones I saw said 24 hours or so) At 4 pm today I got a phone call from our family doctor and they said they had gotten the results and they wanted us to make an appt. to go over them. I started to freak a little at this point because 1: at this time I thought it would be a few days to find out and being just a matter of hours I was scared 2: if the results were fine wouldn't they just say that over the phone? ....I guess there are only 2 points there. But I thought valid points. So I called my mom.
Mom's are the best right? I figured my mom would know if it was good or bad by them wanting us to make an appt. to go over results. She had gone through a lot of tests with my dad and I'm sure she had gotten the same kind of call I had got. She was able to calm me down and made me really think about it all instead of just thinking about it being bad. It could be anything. I know that. It is still a little scary but I have convinced myself that he just wants to tell us it was clear and that he wants to go over with us what more we can do to prevent these migraines. Like food and such. He didn't go over that with us in our visit, just the doctor at Children's did and he doesn't even know about Children's yet because it all happened so fast and I haven't had the chance to update him yet. So yeah, I'm sure it's fine and I'll feel silly tomorrow for being so crazy today.
I never do this but please if you could, say a prayer for my Lucas. That the results really are fine and everything is ok. If they are not, I know that we will still be ok and it WILL work out.
If you have made it this far, I want to thank you for listening to this mom's worries. I really appreciate it. Oh...I forgot. We go tomorrow. Tuesday to talk to the doctor and go over the results.
Are you guys ready for St. Patrick's Day? We are here!
Any Pittsburghers reading? I've finally added a new item to the shop. I'm loving this one. :) I used a tee shirt I found at our local grocery store...who knew grocery stores carried tee's? Funny. Maybe I should call this our Grocery Store St. Patty's Day Dress.
I can even add a name on the back if anyone wants that. My photoshop skills still stink incase you hadn't noticed! I'm working on it.
Have you taken your kids to see this yet? I definitely recommend it! I've been looking forward to it coming out for months. We didn't go opening weekend because I hadn't made our outfits yet. So yesterday I finally finished them up and the kids and I had a date night. I love how they turned out. :)
I don't know what's going on with his face in these pictures but these are the best I could get so there ya go!
Lucas is Gnomeo.
Reagan's dress is by far the favorite thing I've ever made. I have a thing for gnomes and when I saw this Michael Miller fabric I knew that I wanted to make Reagan a dress out of it.
I thought maybe you guys would like to make your own Gnomeo and Juliet shirts. This is my first time doing a pdf so it's not the best. Plus it's hand drawn. Enough said. Ok on to the tutorial....
First gather your supplies:
Freezer Paper
Heat n Bond
blue and white felt for Gnomeo
red and brown felt for Juliet
shirts
scissors
iron
pen/pencil
First you are going to print out the pdf of the pattern. It's down there at the bottom of the post. Cut out a piece of the freezer paper and get your pencil ready.
Now trace the gnome hat, hair and beard onto the non shiny side of the freezer paper. You will want to trace 2 hats if you are making both Gnomeo and Juliet.
Cut out your patterns and iron them shiny side down onto the right side of your felt.
Flip your felt over and apply the heat n bond according to the package directions.
Cut out along the lines on your freezer paper pattern and remove both the freezer paper and the paper of the heat n bond. For Gnomeo arrange the blue hat and the white beard onto your garment until it's just how you like it. Make sure your iron is nice and hot and iron over your pieces. I find that with felt it's better to press, lift and repeat. So I'm not rubbing my iron around, just lift it up and lay it back down and press firmly.
Make sure your felt is all stuck on there. Keep pressing until it is.
Since the felt is thicker I like to flip the shirt inside out after I've pressed it right side out and then press the inside also to help keep it secure.
You can also stitch around your felt with your sewing machine to give it extra stability but I didn't here.
Here is the final Gnomeo shirt!
Do the same thing for the Juliet shirt but when you get to the point of arranging it on your garment make sure to overlap the hat over the hair just a bit. You can kinda see in this picture what I mean.
Here is the Juliet shirt finished. I couldn't get a good picture of this one, sorry.
Here are the kids and I ready to go on our date. I had a neighbor lady take our picture because I couldn't find the tripod. I felt bad for stopping her on the street so we weren't worried about lighting or trying to get a good picture. We had her snap one and let her go home. :)
Everyone loved our outfits and it was so nice to go out with my littles on a date.
Here is the pdf. Again, not the best...hand drawing is something I'm not good at, at all. If you love it please let me know and if you make a shirt of your own I would love to see it. :)
If you hate it I can live without hearing about it. ;)
Oh and did you see over there on my sidebar I added buttons for my facebook page and twitter. I would love it if you guys "liked" me and followed me!!
I was on Facebook today and came across a link on Be Different...Act Normal's page that said she was starting to think Packer fans were craftier than Steelers fan. Ha. I think not. No...I'm just playing :) I'm sure they are just as crafty but I wanted to show you some of the Steelers things I've made in the past and present.
I have made some tissue cozies...I've been adding these in with orders from Etsy this month as a little freebie!
I love this "black and yellow" dress. It comes with a matching doll dress.
Do the Packers have 6 Super Bowl rings?
No??? I didn't think so. :)
Reagan's bear is also a Steelers fan!
Go Steelers!
What is an outfit without a matching hairband!
This is a bad picture from my phone of the matching doll dress on my American Doll Wannabe.
The Steelers Pillowcase dress has been my best seller. I've had orders from VA, SC, GA, IW, ID, CA, NV, OH and all over PA!! That's why it's called Steelers Nation. ;)
Need something fun for the kids? How about a Steelers crayon roll.
The pillowcase dress is number 1 right now in the shop. Really though I have nothing else right now in there anyway!
Steelers Key Chain
Finally something for the little boy in your life. The Tie Shirt.
(Isn't my nephew the cutest?)
And lastly, this is my personal favorite. I think Reagan looks adorable in this outfit. Especially in her Curious George rain boots. She loves those.
Three tiered skirt with a little ruffle on the shirt.
LOVE
So there you have it. Steelers gals/guys are just as crafty as the Packers fans!!!
