The made a set of six. Then, they started cutting salsa bowls out of the bottoms, and then, they were using the tops of the jars for plant holders.
I showed my niece as she was the one that wanted the glasses made out of the bottoms of the green wine bottles.
I just wanted to share the craft as I thought it was fun and a great way to recycle jars!
Have a blessed day!
So, I thought I would just share a bit about something fun as I am super tired. I am going to share a hint on the fun gift I shared about a few weeks back that my friend is having made for me.
I was talking to my sister about needing some glass for this gift, and I remembered that there was a suitcase of different colors of glass from my mothers estate and I wanted a green color and I remembered there were several sheets that color.
Come to find out, that my sister gave the suitcase to a neighbor when she moved homes. We tracked it down but all that was left were really small pieces. My sister then remembered she had this lampshade from our home when growing up that she thought she may get fixed at some point, but realized it really isn't her style, so she said I could see if any of the pieces from the lamp would work for my new gift.
I talked to the artist working on my piece, and she said the lamp pieces could work, so I clipped the top flat pieces out of the lead surrounding them, and put them in a box and shipped them to her across the country.
I got a call from her today. We decided all the final elements which I will share later. It is just nice that something from my childhood will be included in the gift! I fell asleep for hours in my chair writing this, and had a million little dots for many, many pages. Sititus hit me hard tonight!
I hope you have a blessed day!
Her mother showed her how to take it in and Grand Princess started sewing it and taking it in by hand. She took it in and liked it so much, she decided she wanted to wear it for her baptism. She got a cute white sweater and wore that over it.
Princess Three saw her wearing it and sent a few photos of her wearing it to the family chat. It was fun to see them both wearing the same thing so many years apart.
Both of my grandmothers were wonderful seamstresses and my mother also sewed and I sew. I have sewed since I was 16 and things went from there. I didn't teach my girls to sew other than working on quilts, but Princess One started sewing at 21 and has gotten really good. It is fun she is teaching her daughter.
I look forward to seeing what she will create in the future as her talent grows!
Have a blessed day!
She also said she liked the "Frozen" squares but I think it was because that was the only black and white square. She was so excited about it.
We were gone for a few hours for the event, but later that day, I walked in on this scene, with her wrapped in a blanket my dad and step-mother (name clarification only as I love her like a mother) gave her during her baptism and she had laid out the princess quilt and wrapped in the white minky type blanket and was rolling around on the princess quilt.
We had to leave unexpectedly and her mom said she wrapped up in both blankets and cried after we left. I was glad that I was able to finish the quilt for her and know she will remember getting it and know that I love her. I have two other quilts lined up and ready to cut, but am hoping to get a few more things off my list first.
Have a blessed day!
It will be exciting to be able to see Grand Princess One's face when she sees the quilt! She LOVES princesses. I know it will be an immediate favorite because it has a silky bottom. She likes silky blankets and fabrics. I called her mom asking her opinion on which blanket to make for her as I also want to make her an afghan at some point and let her pick out the colors as well. When we talked, her mom thought the silky blanket would be the best option for her.
I thought anything Princess is the best option as she LOVES dressing up like a princess. It will be a good moment and I am grateful I got it done.
Have a blessed day!
I was also dealing with other hormone issues and generally not feeling good. I've been having some medical testing, fasting etc. I thought I would get down and spend the last few hours needed to put the batting in and binding the quilt as well as tying it.
I keep thinking I will go down and work on it, but I keep getting so tired I just opt to go to bed instead of finishing it. I decided to just not go to bed until I finish it as I wouldn't get it finished before her big day! It will be a long night!
I know she is going to love it! So exciting!
Have a blessed day!
I spend time moving the shirts around to get them in an order I like with no two squares touching having the same color. I also try to put similar sizes near each other.
I have many other videos showing how I do this, so here is a link to the channel playlist for my t-shirt quilts.
I am excited to see it taking shape. I have finally finished cutting all the squares and it is time to start sewing!
Have a blessed day~
I have collected so many DVD's that I have been waiting to watch while I work on quilts. I had a friend let me take anything I wanted from her going out of business video rental store. I got hundreds of dvd's and so many are really bad story lines or acting that I can't get through them. They are movies NO ONE has ever heard of. I actually have thrown away many as they are so bad that I can't even give them away.
They are entertaining me and I am getting through quite a few of the movies but I won't be keeping any of the ones I have watched so far.
So today I finished cutting the last rows into the height size, and spent most of the night cutting down the width sizes and finished 3 of the six rows on the quilt. I just have three more rows to cut down to fit width wise.
It feels good to be doing something productive. I enjoy making quilts and using my creativity. I know my Grand-Princess is going to LOVE it! I can hear her giggling now!
Have a blessed day!
Also, so many times the barbie clothes get lost or ripped or fall apart as the new ones are not made as well, so it just is amazing that someone was so creative and you could dress a bunch of barbies in just a few minutes!
They took scissors to the bottom toe end of the sock and just cut off the toe for the bottom of the dress. You can make the dress as short or long as you want it to be.
They then just snipped little holes on either side of the ankle hole to slip the arms into. When putting it on, just make sure the heel bump goes toward the back.
I thought I would post this for those busy mom's who want their kids to be able to make their own barbie clothes without needing to sew!
Have a blessed day!
I forced myself to start working on a project as I want to make a quilt for Grand-Princess One's 8th birthday coming up. In our church, kids get baptized at age 8, and I want to make this quilt for her.
I was up all night and got it laid out, washed all the shirts and backing, laid it out again, and started cutting it. I'll post more about that later.
Have a blessed day!
At one of the booths, I saw something I thought was adorable. Someone had taken a bunch of books from thrift stores or yard sales, and cut the binding off, and then added blank pages in between every few pages of the book to turn the book into a journal, diary, or a notebook. The books were ones that my girls would like, so I thought about purchasing them until I saw the prices. They were over $30 each.
I wondered if my girls would actually use the books if I made them, and when we did a road trip to visit Princess Four at her new office, she had this cute notebook on her desk, so it was at that point I decided to go ahead and try to make them. I pondered on if I could make them myself and called around to many different places as the bindings on the books were decorative. I looked online and couldn't find the exact bindings. I called different places and started shopping at all sorts of thrift stores. I went to six different thrift stores and found quite a few books that would work for my girls as I asked them their favorite top three children's books and their top three teen books.
I dropped them off and was told to come back the next day and they would be done. When I got there after five, he had cut one and put the binding holes in the wrong side of the book. I then reminded him that we needed to put the plain white papers in and they needed to be cut at the same time as the bindings. So, I stayed and helped him cut / organized the papers with the books to be cut and then brought them home to put the plain paper in between the pages of the books.
I will do another post showing how I bound them and how they turned out and me giving them to the girls. Stay tuned for part 2.
Have a blessed day!
I have been fighting another headache that started a few hours ago.
I sat in the chair to blog. I started writing in my journal and just kept falling asleep. I kept waking with my headache being worse and worse, but I am so tired, I just kept falling back to sleep.
I love clearance shopping. I try to buy gifts, prizes, or team treats when I knew there would be items for sale on clearance, but tried to buy things that could be "anytime" treats rather than things that were holiday specific.
I also try and buy the chocolate melting discs on clearance for the following year, as they are usually $2 - $4 a bag, but after a holiday, you can get them for less than a dollar and sometimes $.50 or less.
I use the candy melts for my Christmas popcorn treat. Here is a link to that post.
Who would have known in early April 2020, that we would skip an entire year of holidays where I would have used these treats, bags, and activities.
I wasn't able to do our family Thanksgiving and Christmas parties like we have in the past due to COVID, and didn't want to keep the treats for over a year as I knew I would have the treats I purchased on clearance for a long time not having those family events.
I had purchased an entire tote full of candy necklaces, ring pops, and some other Easter bags and activities.
With that, I decided to give these treats out for Halloween as we couldn't have kids over to do our traditional jewelry give away, (see how we give out jewelry here) so I tied a ring pop onto the candy necklaces and gave them out in a reverse "trick-or-treat". Here is a post about that.
I got the candy necklaces for $.25 each. The ring pops were two bags for a dollar and each bag had three rings if I remember correctly, so that is half what they are at the dollar store.
I got the candy melts super cheap for the next treat needed, and the little gift bags, we used for our annual Easter Camp-out this year in 2021.
I offered to let the girls have the cookie decorating sets, but they didn't want to do them, my grand-children aren't allowed red dye, which even the white icing contained, so I gave my nieces families all the cookie decorating kids I purchased for a dollar or two. They were happy to get them.
I love when I can find a bargain and I love to be able to share the things I find with others. I find joy in bringing joy.
Never overlook the clearance section! It may be holding treasures!
Have a blessed day!
I thought I could put a little note on the display saying, "Please Don't Touch" but the children can't read it and she said many times children are the ones breaking the hair off.
I went to Hobby Lobby and about five other stores looking for some glass sided display we could use, but also, one she could keep and like so she can keep the dust off and something stylish she would like as decor.
We video chatted her from the store and brainstormed about what we could do. I realized they had a framing shop and we could get a top cut for it, but wasn't sure how to hold it up. My sister figured out that we could flip up one of the two clasps holding the side glass in and it would hold the top glass up. So, we had the store frame shop cut us a piece of glass. I then asked if they had any mirror we could put in the back as I noticed that the only one they had in gold had a crack in one side. They said they don't cut mirror there.
The mirror shows the back of the dress from the front so you can see the entire topper from the front.
We put a bow on the handle and displayed the thing on a cool piece of wood I found at a second hand store.
People were taking pictures and asking for the name of the creator all night. It was a hit for sure! My friend Julie is VERY gifted and talented! I will be helping her create a new website for her toppers and other creations soon!
I feel very blessed to know her!
I try to clean up all the games and make sure they have all the pieces, put all the pieces into baggies and elastics, and if it is missing pieces, I try to find replacements or I make replacements. I have even made puzzle pieces in the past to replace lost or missing pieces.
Here is a link to how I make new puzzle pieces that are missing. 
Here is a link to a video where I share how to make a new replacement game piece.
Here is a link to my blog post about making puzzle pieces:
Here is a link to my blog post about making a piece to a game.
I made a video showing how I made the new base for the game piece. I share how you can use a domino, dice, poker chip, or any other larger piece that is big enough to hold the piece up. 
I use different sized table knives to cut the domino making a new slit or slot to hold the piece in the base. The knives used need to be the right thickness of the playing piece needing to stand up. Make sure you don't use a thick knife if the piece is thin.
Check out the video if you have in any questions, feel free to ask.
Have a blessed day!
Back to what I started yesterday, sharing about the "Creative You" DIY kits. I bought each girl a bath bomb kit, Candle Making Kit, Aromatherapy Kit, and a Soap Making Kit. In the end, they didn't want to do the kits. I ended up giving my nieces some and a few of the girls took them for gifts / activities for their roommates.
I pulled apart a few of the aromatherapy kits to use with my own essential oils and can say that I wasn't all that impressed with the aromatherapy kit. The scents didn't smell much. It said essential oils, but the oils were thicker than they would be if it were just oil, so they must have been some type of thickening oil in them. One of the lids was cracked and some of the sunflower oil leaked. I wouldn't suggest the essential oil kit.
The Bath Bomb Kits were fun for them to make, but I think they should have included more molds as they take an hour or two to dry, so you can't make the entire kit at the same time. Also, they didn't include a dropper for the water so the first time they mixed the water in to make the sandy texture to put in the molds, more water poured in than they wanted and the entire mixture foamed over filling a big mess in the bowl.
They ended up throwing the mix out and starting over. The second time, they were so worried about adding so much water that they literally were using their finger tips to drip water into the mix. If they would have included a dropper, the situation wouldn't have happened wasting a bit of the mixture.
They ended up remaking it and filled the two molds but had to let them dry for an hour or more and of course, they didn't want to leave it out for all that time to come back to it, so I think if you want to do the kit, make sure you have some extra containers to mold the mixture into so you can make the entire kit at one time.
Princess Four decided to take two of the Candle kits so I can really give any feedback on that kit until later as I kept one of each kit to do with the grandchildren.
I would suggest the kits other than the aromatherapy kit. I look forward to doing the kits with the grandchildren!
Have a blessed day!
Because of Covid, we didn't have Easter together. I stored the kits in the garage in totes and figured they would want to do them for Christmas. I mentioned doing them together and didn't get much feedback.
When we were together over Christmas, I suggested we do the kits. One daughter wanted to sleep, another was working online, and one was doing a bath bomb kit. 
I could only get one daughter to do the "Soap Kit" and she was a good sport making a bar of soap. I was actually impressed with the soap kit, but think they needed a few more soap molds. It takes over an hour to dry the soaps in the mold so you can't make another until the soap in the mold dries. 
I liked that they had clear and milky bases and that they had dried flowers and scents. They included sparkles in them, but I wondered who would ever want sparkles in soap. I would be annoyed getting out of the bath / shower and having micro pieces of sparkle on me. 
Princess Five did a half bar clear, and half bar milky with some dried flowers. I suggested she make another bar or two but making one was enough for her due to the dry time. She had a little milky soap left in the bowl, so she made a molded snowman bar of soap, and I have actually been using it. It is actually a good soap.
I would suggest the soap making kit. I think if more of the girls were making it together, they could have had fun. My nieces who are a little younger were excited to use the extra kits we didn't use. I think this kit is worth it for ages 10 to 18ish. I just wanted to do an activity with my girls. It is so hard to find activities to please girls with such different likes.
I would suggest this kit. I will share some of the other activity kits later.
Have a blessed day!
