Our treats.

This year we will be handing out homemade candy corn trail mix.

And some of the cutest paper doll printouts I have ever seen!

I found these over at babalisme. She has a ton of free printables on her blog and some great party ideas too. You should see the printables she has for Christmas. I know I will be printing some of those off too!

I printed out a girl and boy halloweenie for each of my nieces, sewed up a cute little bag, and put in a pair of scissors. And of course I had to add a little tag on the bags. I found the cute little ghost tags over at the crafting chicks blog.


Happy Halloween to all of you!

embrace the camera {my lil pumpkins}

A little fall fun in the leaves at Grammy's house.

For the past few years I have been taking the biggest pumpkin from our patch, hollowing it out, and sticking the baby in it for some pictures. We knew before I even started carving that pumpkin that our littlest pumpkin just wasn't going to fit. That's alright, we love her chubbs and all!

Of course our missy girl had to get in on the action.

Oh those toes are scrumptious!

A picture of me and my little girl, thanks to my niece that is the BIGGEST camera hog eva!

Just because it was so beautiful. And I'm wishing these days never end.

Newborn dress turned toddler apron (refashioning tutorial)

Do you have a ton of newborn baby dresses like me and don't know what to do with them? Why not do what I did, and turn them into a toddler apron.

Just the other day I was going through my kids drawers and I came across this dress that was a hand-me-down from a friend of mine. I always love getting hand-me-downs and especially from her. I am always guaranteed to get at least a few things from Zutano, and I just love their clothing! This dress was one of my favorites from her. So when I was getting ready to pack it away I decided to use it and make her a little thank you gift instead.

So this is what I started with, a 0-6 month dress from Zutano.

I cut off the sleeves and cut the dress just above the waist. I wanted to keep the gathering that was already there.

I saved the sleeves. There is actually a bit of material there and I'm sure I can make something else with them.

Here is the bottom half of the dress. Luckily, it was a button down dress so I didn't have to finish off any of the ends or side seams and I kept the buttons and button holes as they were.


I made a waste band/ tie by making a large bias strip. I cut mine about 44" X 4". Folded it like above and ironed it.

I made the ends of the tie pointed.

Then I gathered the skirt a little more by sewing on a stitch length of 4 and pulling one thread until bunched.

I pinned the middle of the tie to the middle of the of dress by opening the bias strip 1/2 way and tucking the dress in.

I started sewing at one end and sewed around the whole tie while attaching it to the skirt.

I added a little pocket.

And that was it, a baby dress turned toddler apron!

It was so quick and easy. Just think how sweet your little one is going to look playing in an apron that used to be one of her baby dresses.

I love these little drawstring bags I have been making for my etsy shop. Doesn't this make the cutest little thank you gift?

Now I can't wait to see what else I have for dresses so I can turn them into aprons. I can see some great Christmas gifts in the future.

We saw the light at the end of the tunnel.

Saving this old house of ours is what we have been doing for the past 6 years. We purchased our 1870's farmhouse a little over 6 years ago. For some reason when we first saw it we fell in love with it. I'm not sure why, but it was probably a case of being young, dumb, and in love. We knew it was gong to take a lot of time and money to fix, but what we didn't think of is how long it would take us and how the addition of 3 kids in 3 years would change things so drastically. We still have an insane amount of work to do before this place is finished. I would say we are a little more then 1/2 way finished. Most days we dislike this house and wish we didn't buy it, but this weekend we saw the "light at the end of the tunnel"!!! It only lasted for a split second, but for that moment, when were standing outside admiring how we have been saving this old house, we saw it and it felt so good! It was like were brought back to the day we first saw this house and all the potential it had in store. It was like we were looking at our house, how we did 6 years and we fell in love with it all over again.

A few pictures so you know exactly what I mean,

Then and now...

Go ahead and gasp. I know, it's bad! But in all honesty, the inside of the house was much worse then the outside. Yes, it's possible!

It is amazing what new windows, doors, roofs, siding and a lot of blood, sweat, and lots of tears can do!

See, there it was, shining so bright, "the light at the end of the tunnel"! Thankfully it has given us the much needed strength to carry on. And so here we go, continuing to save this old house of ours.

linking up to:

Casserole Carrier {Tutorial}

I am really excited to share this with all of you. This is unlike any other casserole carrier you have ever seen. I love that the handles are made of fabric and are not wooden dowels. I think it gives the carrier more stability. I also like that it is lined with Insul-Bright to keep your casserole dishes warm or cold while transporting. With that said, I do not recommend taking dishes directly from the oven and placing into carrier. It may work, but I'm not going to try that one. Just let the dish cool a bit first. The carrier is made of all machine washable fabrics, so wash away. I suggest line drying instead of placing into the dryer. Casserole carrier will hold a 8x12 or 9x13 rectangular pan. (Please forgive me on the pictures. I hope you are all able to see my stitches. I used the darkest fabric I had and used white thread. But I was taking these pictures in the middle of the night and the lighting was not so good.)

Don't let all the steps scare you. I tried to make this tutorial as easy as possible for everyone to follow along. It really is easy. Your just taking two pieces of fabric and making a cross with them and attaching some handles. I hate to think that my ideas are basic, but they are!

Materials Needed:

*Insul-Bright (1 yard)

*medium or light weight cotton fabric (2 yards of fabric)

*2" wide Velcro ( 24" of 2" wide Velcro)

Let's get started!

We will be cutting materials along the way instead of cutting all of the materials ahead of time.

Cut two pieces of Insul-Bright to the following sizes: 30" X 15" and 37" X 12"

Cut two pieces of fabric slightly larger then the 30" X 15" and 37" X 12" pieces of Insul-Bright.

You don't have to be too picky on cutting out the fabric pieces because you will be trimming them later. I just find it quicker to sew the pieces together this way and trim the fabric off later. Plus it saves you time from having to cut out the pieces of fabric to the correct size.

Gather the 30" X 15" piece of insul-bright and the two pieces of fabric that you cut out to go along with it. Take the two pieces of fabric and lay flat with right sides facing and now place the Insul-Bright on top of the fabric like shown.

Sew all around pinned pieces using the edge of insul-bright as your guide. Leave a 3" opening for turning right side out.

**note: I changed the foot on my machine to H at this point. It is a plastic foot that glides over the Insul-Bright instead of getting caught up on the material. I didn't do this on my first casserole carrier but did it on this one and it made a huge difference. Change foot back once finished sewing directly on the Insul-Bright.**

Trim excess fabric except where the opening is, you want to leave that section a little longer so that when you turn right sides out it will tuck and sew shut nicely. Don't forget to square off corners. Now pull fabric out through opening.

Iron and push out corners so that they are nicely pointed. Now top stitch around the entire piece of fabric.

Repeat with the 37" x 12" of Insul-Bright and fabric pieces.

Pieces should look like this now.

Lay the pieces out on top of each other making a cross like pictured below.
Make sure the 37" X 12" piece is on top.

Line them up straight. The right side of the 37" x 12" piece sticks out about 10".

And measures 9" up from the bottom.

Mark on the bottom piece of fabric where the top piece of fabric is positioned on it. Make sure you make marks onto the top piece of fabric where the bottom piece is positioned underneath it as well. This doesn't mean anything now, but it will help in later steps.

Now place a casserole dish in the center of the two pieces and fold closed. Fold the 37" x 12" piece close first then fold the 30" x 15" piece closed next.

Now you are going to feel for the top of the casserole dish and make a mark on the fabric where the top of the dish is. This mark will tell you where to stop sewing when attaching the handles.
See my little mark? Now take a ruler and extend that mark the entire length of the fabric to show where the top of the casserole dish is. Repeat on the opposite side.

Set aside for now.

Now it is time to make the handles.

Cut four pieces of fabric 40" X 2 1/2". Cut two pieces of flannel or batting the same size. Layer with the flannel on the bottom and the two pieces of fabric right sides facing on top of the flannel.

Sew together on both sides, the entire length of the pieces. Flip right side out, iron and top stitch.

Handles should look like this.

Time to attach the handles you just made. Gather the 30" x 15" piece, this is the piece you will be attaching the handles to.
Remember the marks you made earlier when you used the casserole dish as a guide? well, this is where those marks you made from the top of the casserole dish come in handy. See them on the picture above?
You will want to line up the handles as pictured above. Make sure they are evenly spaced and about 3" in from the edge. Make sure the middle of the handles are in the middle of the piece of fabric. You don't want lop sided handles.

Sew the handles on. Use the top stitch that you did on the handles as a guide, and stitch right on top of those stitches again. Do not sew past the marks on the fabric showing you where the top of your casserole dish will be. You want to make sure you sew straight lines. These will be seen on the bottom of the carrier.

Pieces should look like this now.

Now it is time to attach the two pieces together.Line the pieces up again like you did when you first made the cross. Remember the 37" X 12" fabric is on top and the fabric with the handles is on the bottom. Pin in place.

Do not sew directly on the marked lines. Sew in a little about. See where I made my stitches? Again, I wanted to make sure my stitches lined up with the stitches on the bottom piece. These stitches will be seen from the bottom. It will just make it look neater on the bottom of the carrier.

This is what the bottom of the carrier looks like now.

See how nicely the stitches line up on the bottom?

Time to attach the Velcro. Lay carrier flat, place casserole dish inside and pin Velcro in place where you want it.

Play with the pieces and see where you would like them most. Here is where I placed mine. I placed it in about 2" from the edge. I used a 2" wide Velcro so that I can use this carrier for two sized pans.

Time to finish the handles. I prefer to make little padded sections to attach the handles together.

To make the padded handles, cut four pieces of fabric and flannel (or batting) 6 1/2" X 3"

Layer them like so, with 1 piece of flannel, 2 pieces of fabric right sides facing, and the last piece of flannel on top.

Sew sides together, leaving ends open.

Turn right right side out and iron. Fold ends in about 1/2" and iron again.

Slide ends of handles into the middle of the padded handle. Make sure the handles are evenly lined up. You don't want a lop sided carrier!

Pin and sew in place on the ends of padded handle.

The fabrics are pretty thick at this point and I had a hard time sewing through all the layers until I switched needles. I can't remember the last time I changed my needle, it's actually kinda embarassing.

Cut two pieces of fabric 5"X 2"

Sew together the two pieces of fabric, right sides facing. Leave a 1 1/2" opening for turning right side out.
Turn right side out through opening, iron and top stitch.

Sew the Velcro on. Make sure the Velcro is sewn on opposite sides and ends like in the picture above. The hook on the bottom front and the loop on the top back of piece of fabric.

Fold spoon holder in half and mark where the center is. Now measure 1/2" away from the center on the right and left sides. These marks will be where you want to sew the spoon holder onto the carrier. This way it will keep the spoon from wobbling too much.

You are finished!

**This tutorial is for personal use only! If you are going to link up and use my pictures, please link back to this post and don't forget to give credit where credit is due! **

I hope you will find some time to sew one up. I would say it takes about 3-4 hours from start to finish to make one of these. You will have a little extra fabric and Insul-Bright left over, so sew up some matching hot pads or oven mitts to go along with the carrier. If you make one using this tutorial, please email me a picture or add it to my flickr group, I would love to see it.

Tutorial updated: January 5, 2011