Denim Sunflower Tutu Dress

Isn't this the sweetest thing you've ever seen? I know...I know, I'm so biased. But I just can't help it. This little dress is so fun to make.

I took an Old Navy denim overall dress and cut the skirt off just under the belt loops. Then I made a yellow and white tutu. Tutu tutorials can be found all over the web. Just google and find one that's easy for you to follow. I did add ribbon into my tutu to make it even cuter. Then I simply stitched the tutu to the inside of the top. I added ribbon through the belt loops and tied in a bow. I found these cute sunflower pins at Claires. Bought two to add one to the front pocket and one to put in her hair.

Here's the front.

Here's the back

A&J

Bandana Dresses Part 2

Another spin on these adorable bandanna dresses. These straps are a little different. For example, these straps are sewn to the front and tied in the back.

Front

I love this version because you can tie a big fancy bow in the back.
Back

I added a little bit of fancy embellishment to the front. I would like to give you the impression that I have such neat ideas and that I thought to just add this to make it look that much cuter, but what really happened was I hate reading directions and so I didn't and messed up my stitching when I sewed the ribbon to the front. I didn't make a fancy Z pattern as suggested in the directions. Nope, I just sewed crazy lines back and forth and back and forth and it looked hideous. So, I ran to my favorite store Hobby Lobby and purchased this life saving rose ribbon. Sewed it right on and voila, covered up my very ugly zig zag pattern that I'm infamous for. Turns out, I love this added feature and purchased more to added to all my other ones I plan to make in the future.
I couldn't resist making this red one with zebra ribbon. Isn't animal print so fabulous.

A&J

Ultimate Movie Night Gift Basket

Need a quick and easy universal gift idea that's perfect for any age? Try an Ultimate Movie Night Basket. You can modify this gift to fit any age from Disney movies for the itty bitty ones, or old time movie classics for the great big oldie ones.

Start with a basket of your choice. This little masterpiece is for an avid OSU fan so I selected an orange basket.
Add some super comfy PJ's.
Select the perfect movies. This little guy (I still think he's little, but he's actually 10) has every current movie imaginable. So I selected some age appropriate classics that every kid needs to see.
Some tasty movie candy.
Of course movie popcorn. I didn't have much time, but I usually find bags of caramel popcorn, but microwave works great too when you are in a hurry.

Add some tissue paper, cute ribbon, and a fancy card and you are done with your very own Ultimate Movie Night present.

What's so great about this is you can get creative as you want. I've done a scaled down version for teacher gifts as well. Sometimes if you don't know PJ sizes, you could add a soft blanket, or if you can't decide on what movies, put in movie theater tickets. The possibilities are endless.

Let us know if you have other cute possibilities. We love hearing new ideas we can use.

Have fun!!

A&J

Halloween Costumes

For all you fellow crafty parents out there, I know how hard it is to find orignal costumes that are not your typical run of the mill costumes that you see every other kid that comes to your door wearing. Then if you have multiple kids, how fun is it to make their costumes match or make sense together. With that said, it's easiest when they are young and you can talk them into anything. The older they get, the more opinionated they get and then actually want to have a say in what they are going to be. Argh. Just drives the type A moms CRAZY.

This was last years.....

Elephant & Peanut
(I actually sewed pink bows on to make sure everyone knew they
were a girl elephant and a girl peanut, but that was last minute and I didn't get that pic.)

This is what I really wanted to do this year.

Little Bo Peep, and her little lost sheep.

(these are not my kids BTW. But they are cute)

But, after many hours of Halloween catalogs and online shopping, my once easily convincible 5 year old, now wants to be this.

Her daddy is on her side. He makes a good point in the world of ICarly, and Hannah Montanna, this will be the last year she will still want to be our little princess. So, yes, I've given up and given in.

Oh, and this is the other one.

So yes, my sweet little ones will now be yet another two in the sea of millions of other little princess that bless our streets every Halloween.

I love Halloween.

A&J

Ice Skating Party

The Perfect Ice Skating Party any kid would love.

First the perfect invite. I found this cute little gem at Traylorpapers.com.

Next, design the perfect cake. I always have to do two tiers because it's just that much more fabulous. I found the little ice skating bear online and it's actually a Christmas ornament. Then I had the baker place it to where it looked like she was ice skating the words right on the ice. Ignore the fact that the bear actually had to skate backwards to write this, but hey, it's very talented bear. Details. No one but me even noticed.
The perfect outfit. She did have on a crown, but that quickly fell off due to her fast agile skating abilities. Ok ok, it actually fell off due to a near fatal crash, but hey I have the power to edit here.
Next, the perfect party favor. I like finding unique things that parents don't actually toss in the trash as soon as their little ones fall asleep on the way home or just aren't looking. Or quickly eat all candy that's left while their innocent one sleeps. All the while fibbing a little to them when they awake saying you must have eaten it all before you fell asleep, you just don't remember.
So I found these cute books on sale at Barnes and Noble. For about $4.00 each. They came with the little ice skate necklace that I still see her friends wearing. I simply added a tulle bow and tied a sucker and ribbon to make them pretty and voila. A very simple party favor that they are sure to enjoy for awhile.
We did have a few boys at the party so I found these cute books for them. I did the same thing by adding tulle around them with suckers attached.

Ps. you have to tie candy on to favors like these because some kids aren't as excited as the parents are to get books as their favors. So trick them by adding just a little sugar. Parents are happy that it's not a ton more sugar that they wind up having to eat so their already sugar overloaded (from the birthday cake) sweeties don't eat that much more on the way home.

A&J