Shopping Bag Holder- Tutorial

My friend made so much fun of me when she saw that I was making this, because she's constantly teasing me about how I "obsess" over these stinkin plastic grocery bags trying to take over my life! Even though I remember to bring my reusable grocery bags probably 8 times out of 10 (isn't that so "green" of me?), I still feel like I'm drowning in them. So, an effort to not let these little puppies get out of hand, I have always taken like 3 seconds to roll each one nice and tightly, before stuffing them into my overflowing tote bag.

How does she know I do this?.......

So it's like this- In my church, there are a billion little babies. Consequently, a billion stinky diapers at the end of the 3 hour block. That makes for one rancid smelling "mothers' lounge." So a few of us have been "donating" our grocery bags to the lounge, in hopes that moms will first wrap up their kids' stinky diapers before placing them in the pail of horror.

One night, some friends and I were together chatting, and we somehow got on the topic of that smelly mothers' lounge, and how the smell was improving. After many stinky diaper related comments, my friend exclaimed, "Who is the world is bringing those grocery bags?"

Just before I could proudly raise my hand as the girl who saved our olfactories, she continues, "Because whoever it is, needs to get a grip! Each bag was rolled up all tight and neat. Who has time for that?!"

As I hesitated for a second, wondering if I was going to own up to this said "odd" behavior, I realized that, YES! I'm an organizational freak who takes the time to roll up my bags. As a result, I don't have to get spittin mad each time I try to pull out a bag with one hand, and instead, a tangled mess of 46 bags comes falling out onto the floor! Nope! When I want one bag, I get one bag! It's rather freeing, really.

And that's what I proclaimed (in somewhat similar words).

So, now I'm taking it one step further, with an even better way to organize those cursed bags. My grandma had one of these when I was growing up, and I found an amazingly simple tutorial at Make It Love It!

Great way to get rid of some scrap fabric, and also make our lives just a tiny bit simpler. :)

Thanks for all the grief, Ann...

May Card Event

Look at these lovely little cards from this month's Card Club! We're finishing our 4-month theme explosion of baby, thank you, wedding, and happy birthday.

Simply lovely ladies! I'm thoroughly impressed, as always.

Pretty {Standard} Pillowcase

Little Lady has decided that she needs a big pillow to sleep with. After a few mornings of waking up with a stiff neck, her daddy finally decided he needed his back. So I ran to the store, found a pillow, and began sewing!

When I showed it to her the next morning, she was thrilled! The simple pleasures in life...

I found a tutorial from 44th Street Fabric and then added these ruffles and pom poms to it! I just can't get enough of these poms! Thanks, Jess, for the last minute pom pom donation ;)

Easy, quick, and soooo cute!

See Show and Tell Fridays for fun link parties.

Quiet Book Project- Round II

Take a look at these beauties! I did a second round of the Quiet Book Project with my friends from college, and WOW, are they impressive!!!

I love all the different skills they focus on, and especially the imaginary play they promote!

Barn with animal finger puppets

By: Marek

Summer Tree

by: Nyoka

Clothesline and basket

by: Becca

Getting Dressed page

by: Janae

Peek-A-Boo Page (click here for details)

by: Tori

Finshing Pole with magnetic fish

by: Stacie

Monster with changeable faces

by: Mitzi

Ice Cream cones

by: Jan

Can you believe these?! Ridiculous! Thank you so much, girls. My kiddo's quiet book is now bursting with fun and gorgeous entertainment.

See Show and Tell Fridays for fun link parties.

Show and Tell Fridays

Emmeline Aprons- Sister Style!

Have I expressed how much I love my sis, Shannon? Well, I'm obsessed with her. Shannon and her son came out to visit us in St Louis, and it's been such an amazing week! I wanted to thank her for coming to see us, so I decided to make her an apron to wear while she's whipping up all those out-of-this-world cakes she makes.

I used this pattern from Sew Liberated. It's double sided! A two-fer! I appliqued a little "E" on Shanny's.

BEEP, BOOP, Robot PARTY!

Last week, my little guy turned 4 years old. We hosted a ROBOT PARTY for him. It was really fun to put together.
These are the invitations I came up with for the party.


I had all the fun stuff out on my kitchen table.

We made a goodie bag for each child with a tag that said, "Thank You For Coming." Inside the goodie bag was a wind up robot, a glow stick, silly bands and a baggie of M&M's, pretzels and Cheerios. I attached a tag to that bag with robots that said, "Nuts and Bolts."
I loved the idea of ROBOT FUEL for a beverage. :)
The cake turned out great! I couldn't find much inspiration for a robot cake online, so I came up with this little design. I was pretty happy with how it turned out. However, more importantly, the birthday boy loved it!
I made this shirt for the b-day boy to wear for the party. I used the Robotz Cricut cartridge for the template and dabbed acrylic paint around it.

At the party, we made robots out of pretzels and marshmallows. The kids had a blast.


Another activity was Pin the Robot on the Spaceship. I had all the kids color their own robot to pin on an enlarged image of a spaceship on my door.
We also made robot costumes out of paper bags. The kids really got into this. Check out these cute little robots. :)


Happy birthday dude! We LOVE you!

Finishing Quiet Book Pages- Directions

My long-time and close friends from Ogden, UT made some exciting quiet book pages for which I'll be checking my mailbox at least 17 times a day until I get them! I can't wait to add them to my book!

Here's a quick tutorial with pictures of what I'm talking about for you cute O-Town girls!

Step 1: After making all reinforcements to the pages that you'd like, decide the order you'd like the pages to be in. Place two pages right sides together (be sure that you have them facing the right directions so that when you flip the pages right sides out, they aren't upside down).

Using a 1/4" seam, top-stitch down one length-side of the page, across one width-side, and up the other length-side.

Step 2: Flip the pages right sides out, and iron flat. Be sure to place a towel on top of the pages with felt, as the iron can melt the felt pieces. On the unstitched end of the page, fold the unfinished edges in, and iron flat. Begin to topstitch the top side, the outside edge of the page, and the bottom side of the page. When you get to the inside edge of the quiet book page (where your eyelets will be), finish your straight stitch, and begin a zig-zag stitch.

I used white thread on the page on the right, so you can't see the stitching very well. Look at the page on the right of this pic to see the stitching. Be sure to back-stitch at the beginning and end of the seam.

Step 3: After finishing all quiet book pages, begin setting your eyelets. Remember that I used:

• 1 package of 15 Large Eyelets size 1/4" (6mm)- Dritz brand, silver color. You can buy a starter pack that includes the little eyelet tool for applying them to a page. I think one package is only like $3...
• Book Rings- I got 2" size, and they're really big. I went big because I planned on adding pages to the book often, so it made sense to do that. I bought these in bulk at Office Depot, and we all just split the cost at the exchange party... Super cheap too.

When deciding where to place the eyelets, get a piece of notebook paper, place it over your finished quiet book page, and mark over the holes onto your page using a pencil. This gives you a uniform guide to use on all your pages.

Good luck girls! I can't wait to feature all your pages in an upcoming post!