Car Love Shirt

I've been searching for something cute to make for my little man that would be easy and fun and Dad-approved. (Ha!)

When I came across the Car Love Shirt by Polly at Helping Little Hands, I knew I'd found it!  Plus, I'd been wanting to try out freezer paper stenciling for a long time.

I wanted to make the shirt in time for Valentine's day, but I had trouble finding a plain shirt.  Finally, I had to buy one at Walmart that had a pocket on it and make use of my handy seam ripper to take it off.  I freaking love that little tool!

Oh well, it's not really that Valentine-y of a shirt -- one of the reasons it's Dad-approved! (I did get the shirt a size bigger in hopes that he can wear it next V-day, though!)

Polly provides stencils to cut out with her tutorial, but I really wanted to use my Silhouette, so I imported her heart shape and bought some of Echo Park's adorable car shapes from the Silhouette store.  I had a lot of fun designing it. :D

Then I cut the shapes out separately (the heart, then the cars) and ironed them on.

The freezer paper was curling, but it still stuck beautifully.

I thought I would be saving myself some work by using the Silhouette to cut out the car shapes... and I suppose I did, but only a little.  It took forever to pull all the little wheels off!

Finally I got them all ironed on.  Looks pretty cute already, doesn't it?

I picked up some acrylic paint from Walmart to do this project, which is what Polly used in order to get the distressed look.  I liked how hers turned out, so thought I'd try it, too (although I did use two coats).

Then I let it dry overnight, just to be safe.  The next morning, I washed and dried it and it was ready to wear!

Bribing him to take pictures by
letting him hold trucks.  Fitting.

I think he likes it!

His favorites:  "Een" (Lightning McQueen),
"Da Da" (Chuck), and "Moo Moo" (Boomer)

Guess it won't be fitting him next February.  Who knew that my 21-month-old could fit into a 3T??  Big boy!

About to try it on.

As you can see, "Mama's" SUV is strategically placed... as is "Daddy's" pickup.

And up close.

The only thing I wish I'd done differently was white paint.  Oh well, guess I'll just have to make him another one! ;)

Yeah... I'm pretty much obsessed with these shapes.  My mind is spinning with all sorts of projects including them... in every medium. :/ I also downloaded Echo Park's cute train shape (which Gabriel also loves).

Uh oh.

Click here to see where I link up!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Some of the most beautiful words to describe love:

Sonnet 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no, it is an ever-fixèd mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand'ring bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

- William Shakespeare

Happy Valentine's Day!

The Pinterest Challenge

I'm participating in The Pinterest Challenge with my Ruffle Butt Onesies!
Be awesome followers and vote for me?  Thanks! :)

(To vote, click the star above my entry.  Use CMMD-F or CTRL-F to search for the title "Ruffle Butt Onesies.")

Cranberry Muffins

I posted on Facebook a while ago about making cranberry muffins.  I got requests for the recipe and fully intended to post it before Christmas (because cranberries are kind of Christmas-y), but then Hallie Lou made her appearance and I... kind of fell off the blogosphere.

SO... I decided to share them again for Valentine's Day, since they're, you know... red and all. ;) I even baked them in heart-shaped muffin tins.  How cute and Valentine-y!

You can use fresh or frozen cranberries but, since fresh ones aren't in season, I'd recommend the frozen ones.  I found my frozen berries at Central Market; my local grocery didn't have them.  Seriously couldn't tell the difference!

(Actually, the recipe calls for partridgeberries [lingonberries], so if you're lucky and live in Canada, you should definitely use them rather than cranberries if you can find them!)

Start by creaming the butter and sugar.  This is my favorite part of baking. I always like to sample... yum!

Add egg, vanilla, milk, baking powder, and salt to your buttery-sugary blend.

With flour mixed in.

Then, mix in the flour.  My mom always did two parts white flour and one part whole wheat, but you can use all white (or all wheat) if you like.

Pour in the berries and fold until incorporated.

Mmm!

And the finished product.  Look how cute they are!  And yummy, too.  I am not ashamed to say that I could eat a whole batch of these babies in a few days.

Hey, cranberries are healthy... and they're made with a little wheat flour, right? ;)

Click here to see where I link up!

Cranberry Muffins Recipe

1/3 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup milk

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups white flour

3/4 cup wheat flour

1.  Preheat oven to 350. Cream butter and sugar.

2. Mix in egg vanilla, milk, baking powder, and salt.

3. Stir in flour until blended.

4. Fold in berries until incorporated.

5. Fill muffin tins 2/3 of the way.  Bake for 20 minutes.

Tip:  reserve some berries to add in once you start getting to the bottom of the bowl.  If you don't, you might end up with some berry-less muffins!

Ruffle Butt Onesies!

So I'm FINALLY getting around to revealing the project I've been working on.  Three cheers for me!

I made these absolutely adorable personalized onesies!

Side note:  my autocorrect keeps wanting to change "onesies" to "onuses." What the heck are onuses?  Do I even want to know??

Anyway...

I was a hostess for my sister-in-law's baby shower this past weekend.  One of my favorite items from my son's baby shower was a set of personalized onesies, so I decided to make some for my little niece, Faith.  (Ahh!  I can't believe I'm going to be an auntie!)

I had planned everything out how I wanted them to look, following this Silhouette/appliqué tutorial from Jen @ My Own Road.

And then, I came across the ruffle butt onesies on Pinterest.

Can we say "OH. MY. GOODNESS"?

Immediately, I was obsessed!

I had planned on doing four, but they took me a lot longer to finish than I'd originally anticipated.  So I just did three.  I don't think they could have turned out better!

Apologies for the weird angled pics.  I forgot to snap
pictures of them until they were already hanging up.

I used my Silhouette to cut out the appliqués from fabric, which already had fusible interfacing ironed on. Then I ironed the cutouts to the onesies.

After I had them on, I applied some fray check, just to cut down on the fraying and then I straight-stitched them on.  I wanted them to fray a little (my sister-in-law likes the shabby-chic stuff), but I didn't want too much!

Note to self (and anyone else who cares):
Gingham frays like nobody's business!

I cut out my ruffles with pinking shears and applied fray check to the edges.  Then I followed the tutorial for sewing them on.

After washing the onesies, two of the ruffles started coming off.  GASP.  I guess my backstitching wasn't holding too well, even though I used a very gentle cycle!  SO... I re-sewed them and then went off to Walmart to get some liquid stitch, which was applied to the undersides of the ruffles for added support.

I also added a bit of the liquid stitch to the undersides of the appliqués for the same reason (and I used it to put the button on the last one... the needle wouldn't go through all the layers of ribbon). 

Yes, I know the ruffles are in the wrong order on this one.
It was the last one and I was sewing around midnight. :|

Anyway!  I just love how they turned out!  Apparently everyone else did, too, because I was asked numerous times if I had an Etsy shop or if I would take orders.  Ha!

First things first:  I need to make some for Hallie! :)

Click here to see where I link up!