A Light Dusting

While in Utah, in May, I stopped at one of my favorite stores.

Gygi's

I seriously have to make a budget and a list before I head into the store.  Who doesn't love kitchen gadgets?  Now that I know they have an online store I might just have to order some things :o)

One of the things I picked up were these little shakers

I have been looking for containers like these for some time.  Ikea didn't have what I was looking for, but these were perfect.
 Click to see what I did with the shakers.

4th of July Shirt

With the leftover ric-rac from this project I decided to make a coordinating shirt.

I used the bodice piece of the neapolitan dress pattern from Sachiko at the Tea Rose Home. (Can you tell that I really like this pattern right now?)

I had my little girl try the shirt on and realized that it was too long so I flipped up 2 inches and added an elastic to cinch it in to make a drop waist shirt.

Using the leftover ric-rac from the skirt I sewed on the red ric-rac.

Then I sewed on the white ric-rac.

I debated what to do with the blue, but ended up just making a ric-rac flower.

I started on the outside edge of the flower and zig-zagged stitched as I folded and turned until I got to the center.

Another 4th of July outfit complete.

Check out the outfit I stitched up last year if you love ruffles.

4th of July Skirt

 Last year for the 4th of July I made this ruffle dress.  This year I wanted something a little more casual. Last month while visiting family in Utah I went to the Fabric Center and bought some large red, white & blue ric-rac.

 At Walmart I picked up this tiered skirt

The best part is that it was only $3

I measured out how much ric-rac I would need and finished off the ends.  I pinned the ric-rac so that I could sew a straight line and catch the skirt.

The ends aren't perfect, it really doesn't show when it's done.

I made sure to put the white in the middle layer so it would show.  To prevent bleeding I washed and dried the red and blue ric-rac before sewing.

Doesn't it look patriotic?

 I'm sure you could make one of these skirts out of an old t-shirt too.  It's fun and festive.

The Neopolitan Dress

Do you have a blog or blogs that you love to read, anytime they release a new post you stop what you are doing and read every word and gaze at each picture.

Tea Rose Home is one of those blogs for me.  She always has great projects and tutorials.  I've had the prettiest material in my stash just waiting for the perfect pattern--Sachiko released the Neopolitan Dress pattern and I knew this was the perfect fit.

The white material is a light cotton with yellow embroidered flowers.  The sash is a chiffon gingham I found on clearance at Walmart.  The yellows of both material match perfectly.

Now that the weather has warmed up this pattern allows for a flowing dress and lots of twirling.

I made this dress and had my two kiddos pose for pictures for their father for father's day.  He was surprised and loved the dress too.  My little girl wanted to make sure he was really surprised and made sure he didn't see the dress until Father's Day--we even had to curl her hair as a surprise too.  I forgot to take a picture of the back--the sash is tied in a square knot because there wasn't enough to tie it into a bow.  The knot helps the dress still feel playful.  I added length to the sleeve because as mentioned in this post my little girl gets cold all the time.

Hope you can make this dress sometime too, it is simple and fun to make.

Patriotic Mantel

I haven't decorated my mantel since the Spring.  I haven't decorated because I haven't really found something that I wanted to do.  I've been saving leftover glass jars knowing that someday I wanted to try the milk glass effect-I've seen it on several blogs so it's not an original idea.

I only used three for the mantel, the fourth is going to go in my living room.

Pour the paint in the jar, slowly move it around and downward.  This paint is from this project.

The blue is from the kitchen mat up-cycle project.  The red is a sample jar from Home Depot.  I didn't use white on the jar on the right because I didn't want it to blend in too much with the white mantel and the white flowers.

Following the tutorial by Dana I made some paper napkins.  I used three layers instead of two.

Isn't it pretty?

I found a package of huge red Ikea napkins in my stash too.

I found the ants at Coldwater Creek at the beginning of April-I thought they looked summerish.

So there you have my Patriotic Summer Mantel.

Happy Flag Day...Patriotic Subway Art

My aunt and aunt-in-law have their birthdays on Flag Day.  Happy Birthday!
Each of the presents they receive is usually patriotic themed in some way.  My mom usually gives her sister something silly (rwb socks, candy, etc) and another well thought out gift.  While changing up the decorations in my home I thought of these two aunts and made some fun RWB themed decor.   I'm sure this would be a fun birthday present too.

First up is this...

It is an 11x14 printable!

 What do you think?

 Here it is hanging in my home.  You can see this wall while sitting in the living room, it is always a conversation piece because people want to read what it says.

If you would like a copy let me know and I can email you the file.

theprojectcorner@gmail.com

Paper Graduation Caps

My little girl graduated from preschool last night.  I wish all graduations could be this simple, a BBQ at our neighbors house with a five minute ceremony to give them certificates.  There were six children in our co-op preschool.  It was so much fun watching each of them grow throughout the year.  I made up some caps for them to wear during the "ceremony."

Cut a square from a cardstock piece of paper.  This square is 8.5"

Cut another piece of paper in half.

Staple this piece together.  Fold down one long edge about 1 inch.

Cut the folded edge ever .5 to 1 inch.

Circle the band around and staple together.  I even stapled the folded edge to help when keeing it glued.  I didn't take a picture of the next step, but just put a stripe of glue on the fold and glue to the square.

Repeat until you have enough hats.

I kept on making hats because it was fun to do.  Because 4-5 year olds like to play with things I didn't add any tassles on them.  You can make a simple pom-pom and attached it with a brad.

We had enough hats for little brothers to wear some too.

Happy Graduation!

Cut-Offs to...Cute Bermuda Shorts

Growing up after a year of school my mom would cut off our jeans and these would be our summer shorts.  I'm sure she did it to save money and because it is so hard to find shorts long enough.  Who wants to wear super short shorts to a park and burn your legs as you go down the slide?  Or stick to a bench because it is too hot and you have bare skin?  We found out my oldest will be starting kindergarten next month--in the middle of summer.  Looking at her wardrobe I wanted to add some fun summer-school appropriate things.

My neighbor gave us a whole bunch of jeans and pants. 

They fit my daughter perfectly, but they won't fit through the winter.  These pants are baggy and fit fine, but I wanted to summerize them.

I cut off just above the embroidered part.  I cut the left leg first and laid it on top of the right leg to make sure they were even.

The ruffle is 2.5" I didn't connect the ends to make it flare out a little more.  To finish off the opening I added a botton.

The belt is also 2.5" wide and double sided.  The other side is a solid purple.

The back pocket still has embroidery on it-I think it goes with the pink quite well.

These are the perfect length to help keep the legs cool enough during summer months-and perfectly protected at the playground.

Doubly Chocolate Mint Cookies

It's been a while since I have shared a recipe on this blog, I must say these cookies are divine.

Doubly Chocolate Mint Cookies

1/2 C Butter

1/2 C Shortening

1 1/2 C Sugar

blend, then add...

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

mix until fluffy

mix dry ingredients together before adding to wet mixture

2 cups flour

2/3 C cocoa

3/4 tsp salt

The dough is a little tacky.  Don't add extra flour until you want dry cookies.  Once the flour mixture is mixed until well blended add 1-1 1/2 C Milk chocolate chips and 1 C mint chips.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes.  Cool and remove from cookie sheet.

Enjoy!

Adapted from Hershey's Best-Loved Recipes

Amish Quilt

My grandparents lived in Maryland for almost 20 years.  While they lived there they would often drive up to Amish country in Pennsylvania.  Besides great bakeries to eat at and beautiful scenery to behold, when you go visit you can't but help to notice the quilts.  During one of the visits my Grandma bought an Amish quilt.

When my mom came out to visit me a little while ago she brought out the quilt.  My grandma had given it to her, but my mom thought since I like to quilt so much that I would love to have an authentic Amish quilt.

 It's not the traditional black fabric with plain colored fabric that I've seen, but it is beautiful.  It reminds me of the the styles my Grandma always picks out too.

The hand quilting is perfect.  Each stitch is exactly the same length.

The back is just as fun to look at as the front because of the quilting designs.

Last year my mom was in Hershey, Pennsylvania and made it to an Amish quilt shop.  There was an Amish lady there purchasing fabric so my mom asked her to pick out fabrics that she would use in a quilt and my mom bought enough to make a quilt--can't wait to see that quilt mom:)