Minnie Mouse Gift Set

A few weeks ago, I posted the Minnie Mouse shirt that I made for Gretchen. After completing the shirt, my mind continued to turn with more ideas to complete the look. If you want to see my original post, go here.

Gretchen is in love with Minnie Mouse, and I was a mother that swore my child would not wear character clothing, but she looks adorable in this shirt, and we've gotten several compliments when she wears the set.

The set features an applique Minnie Mouse with a pink and white fabric hairbow. The shirt comes with a detachable boutique bow for Minnie Mouse. The shirt can be worn with or without Minnie's bow and is easily attached and removed for washing. The set, also comes with a matching hair bow for your daughter, that features a Minnie Mouse ribbon sculpture on the side. I'm retailing this set for only $20.00! However, feel free to choose the shirt alone, shirt with Minnie's bow, or shirt and hair bow.

Above is a close up of the Minnie sculptured ribbon. If your daughter will not tolerate hair bows, the set can also be made with a pigtail set of sculptured Minnie clippies that will look like the one above, placed onto a lined alligator clip. You can receive 2 of these with the $20.00 set shown above.

I also wanted to picture the Mickey shirt that will match. I had a customer purchase both shirts for her twins. The Mickey shirt retails for $12.00. If your daughter likes Mickey more than Minnie, I can make the sculptured ribbon set above in a Mickey style- or you may choose to have 1 Mickey clippie and 1 Minnie clippie.

I can also make each of these designs in other fabric choices.

I love the way Minnie turned out, and I was so excited to complete an entire collection with the shirt and accessories. Most importantly, my little honey pie has approved it!

Shutter Love Tuesday: Summer Fun

I haven't participated in Shutter Love Tuesday (from Trendy Treehouse) in a few weeks, but when I went to check my facebook and saw the update that the theme was up, I decided to add a photo from this weekend.

Gretchen doesn't get to enjoy popsicles too often, but I love that she's going to take a huge bite of this!

Little Honey's!

I love getting pictures from happy customers, and wanted to share just a few of the work GG and I have done over the last few weeks. Miss Miriam is wearing her fast-ordered whie lace pillowcase dress that features soft pink ribbon and monogramming. Her mom contacted me on a weekend, and needed the dress by that Wednesday- thankfully GG was able to pull it off and Miriam looked adorable for her aunt's wedding!

Precious Brinkley! The bow was actually a gift for Brinkley- I went to school and church with Brinkley's mom and uncles- and GG and I put together a lot of our handmade items for her. Brinkley is just beautiful!

Addison is just as precious, and is wearing a complete ensemble from HPA! A friend of mine ordered the tutu, bling onesie, headband, and flower clip as a baby shower gift, and I was so happy when she sent me a picture!

If it weren't for these adorable babies and their happy momma's, my love of crafting bows and other pieces wouldn't be possible. I feel blessed every day when I get an email for an order. This month has been super busy with customers, which has led up to my much needed vacation! I'll be taking the month of July off to spend time with family, and I'll be back in August with very exciting new outfits and pieces!

(I'll try to blog a bit while I'm away though!)

Western & Girly Green Wipe Case

I've been wanting to make a wipe case like this for a while now, so when a customer wanted a "western" themed wipe case for her nephew, I was so excited! The wipe case features a bandana type material and a rope trim!

She also ordered this wipe case for a friend. The fabric is mint green with pinks, purples, oranges, and greens, and features a purple trim!

Zoo Trip

Last Friday, I took Gretchen to the zoo to meet with my friend Christi, and her son, Drew. We've made this an annual trip for the last 3 years and always have so much fun catching up with each other! It's also been fun to look back at how much they've changed since our first trip in 2008. Gretchen and Drew shared the wagon. They did very well, unless Gretchen decided to not keep her hands to herself! Then, they would walk or take turns.

Gretchen is 9 hands high! We tried to get Drew to stand with her, but she was too touchy for him!

We took their picture last year by the elephants. This year, Gretchen screamed because of these huge things behind her. Drew didn't seem to mind though.

This was the first year that we took their swimsuits and let them play in the sprinkler/water area at the zoo. Gretchen loved running through it, and crashed into other kids a few times.

Drew enjoyed watching the water disappear and squirt up again. I love this picture of him!

Drew was so calm and quiet, and Gretchen just ran and screamed!

We had such a great trip with them, and we're looking forward to a trip in the fall with them, and another annual trip next spring to the zoo!

Teaching Tots- A is for Apple

I wanted to do this activity with Gretchen several weeks ago, but I didn't have any paint lying around the house for her to use! I finally purchased one tube of it at the grocery store, so we could complete this activity.

On our first Teaching Tots day at home, we colored the letter A and pictures of apples, and we had applesauce for lunch. Today, we expanded on this activity by painting with apples.

I cut an apple in half, and we talked about how apple starts with the letter 'a', and we talked about the peel of an apple, the inside, and the seeds, and how apples grow on trees.

Next, I gave her a plate of paint, and a 1/2 apple, along with a few slices of apples. She insisted on using the paintbrush, although, I showed her that she could simply dip the apple into the paint.

I think she had more fun putting the paint on the apple, rather than putting the painted apple on the paper!

She did get the hang of it though, and made a few apple impressions.

And, then decided that it would be much easier to just paint the paper with the paintbrush!

I haven't been brave enough to let my 2 year old paint, but she really enjoyed this activity, and stayed clean enough, that I didn't have a heart attack!

"Walk a Little Slower Daddy": A Father's Day Tutorial

Last week, Gretchen and I made DJ a special Father's day gift. But, because he reads my blog, I couldn't post it until now. So, I realize, that it's way too late for you to do this yourself, but it would also be a great gift for a dad's birthday, or even for Christmas.

Supplies: a small canvas, paint, paintbrush, sharpie, newspaper, wet wash cloth, and the poem found here on dltk-kids. I set out all of the supplies before bringing Gretchen outside, and I also put her in an old t-shirt and left her pants off since we were painting her feet. I layed out several layers of newspaper, so we wouldn't get paint on the porch. I sat out the canvas, paint brush, and a paper plate for the paint. I used washable crayola paint, that cost around $2.00

Then, I painted each foot, one at a time, and pressed it onto the canvas; one foot on each side.

I picked her up and took her to the water spicket outside with a wet wash cloth to wash off her feet, and we set her painting in the sun to dry.

Once, the feet were dry, I wrote the poem on the canvas with a sharpie marker.

I won't show you my husband's reaction to this present, because we brought his presents in the bed and woke him up! But, I assure you, he liked it, and will be taking it to his office to display.

Gretchen's Swim Lessons

Gretchen has been taking swim lessons for the last two weeks at our Y. We took the class last year, and I wanted to try it again with her since she is older AND because we will be headed to the lake and spending a lot of time at the pool next month. At the start of the class, the kids get to pick a toy. They have to throw it (well, I throw it for her) and then she "swims" after it.

She gets to practice jumping off the wall, by pretending she's Humpty Dumpty.

Then, she gets to climb out and jump again!

Sometimes, she does really good at paddling her arms and kicking her feet.

She gets to blow bubbles in the water.

We still need to work on floating!

Her friend Lily is taking the class with us. We spend our "free time" and some additional time letting the girls chit chat!

We've also started to dunk her under water! Thankfully, she doesn't freak about this too much!

Her daddy and I both LOVE the water, so this child doesn't have much of a choice! I think the swim lessons are helping to ease any fears that she might have. And, after every class, she says, "I want to try again!"

Teaching Tots- Sparkling Letters

Earlier this week, I posted that we made a sparkling fish using sequins, and suggested that you could read the book Rainbow Fish, for a literacy activity.

We also used those same sequins to finish our letter K and letter Q pictures.

I found this king picture on coloring-ws. We used the sequins to give him jewels on his crown.

And, what's a king without his queen? We glued sequins on her earings.

And, on her necklace. We also glued jewels on her crown.

Gretchen is loving the more hands-on rather than the coloring, but she will color a little bit. I place dots of glue onto her paper, because I'm not brave enough to give my 2 year old a bottle of glue and let her have at it!

We did these 3 activities (fish, king, and crown) while I was making dinner one evening. This kept her busy and I was able to finish an entire meal!

Teaching Tots-F is for Fish

Last night Gretchen worked on her letter F picture of a fish. We picked up some sequins earlier that day for her to glue on to the fish, as it's scales. I dumped the sequins into a plastic bucket, and added glue dots for her all over the fish.

She had a great time naming all of the colors of the sequins.

And, she has a sparkling fish!

If you want to expand on this activity, read the book, Rainbow Fish, or any other fishy tales.

We also cooked fish for dinner, and discussed where fish lived.

Teaching Tots- File Folder Game Tutorial

I promised last night that I would post a tutorial for the shapes file folder game. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures because I didn't make the shapes one, but I have made them during the school year, and wanted to share with you how to make one for yourself.

First, choose a theme. A poster last evening said that she was making one with pictures to match beginning sounds. You can also make one for counting, colors, and matching upper and lower case alphabets.

Materials: Pictures (you can find these using clip art, or googling for images), A File Folder, Velcro, Laminator (optional)

If you decide to make a shapes game, simply find pictures of the shapes that you would like to use. The one in our game has a circle, square, rectangle, triangle, octagon, diamond, oval, and pentagon. You could also add a star or a heart. Once you print out two sets of your shapes, glue one set onto the file folder. Then, laminate the entire folder, if you choose. Also, laminate your second set of pictures (the ones that match). Next, add velcro to the top of each picture on your file folder, and the back of each picture of the matching set. And, that's it!

I was teaching a four year old to count a few years ago, and I used stickers instead of picture, because they were readily available. I started out placing 1 sticker on the top "row". In the next row, I placed 2 stickers, and so on, until I had 10 rows up to 10 stickers. I placed velcro in front of each row, and printed off numbers 1-10, and added velcro to the back of those. To play the game, we had to count each row of stars and locate the number that matched it.

Gretchen also has a color file folder game. Simply print off a black/white image- we have kites and bears, but you could also do a circle or other object, and color each set. Make sure that you have a matching set. Place one set onto the file folder, laminate, and add velcro, and laminate your second set.

The possibilities are endless for file folder games! I have a whole book dedicated to them at my office. Gretchen is having a blast playing with them, and they'll easily pack in the car for our vacation in a few weeks!

Vote for Hamilton

Baby Gizmo is giving a way a Candy Apple Stroller Package to one lucky person, and one of my college friends has entered her little boy in the contest! They have a lot of catching up to do in order to win, so I told her I would beg (yes, I really am begging you~ you can't see me, BUT, i'm down on my knees begging, and pleading, and saying pretty please with a cherry on top) vote for Hamilton! Here is his entry, and you can vote, by clicking this link. Just click the little dot beside his picture and submit your vote. You can vote 1x per day until June 25th! Help Hamilton catch up and win a new stroller, because, let's face it- you'd be very embarassed to push your child around in that.

Teaching Tots- Shapes: A File Folder Game

I had a few file folder games that I used in therapy with my preschoolers, and I decided that since they weren't going to be used over the summer, that I would bring them home for Gretchen to play with. She loves them, and it gives mommy a few minutes to unload the dishwasher, or put in a load of laundry!

A skill that develops between 2-3 years of age is matching. Preschoolers need to learn how to match objects that look the same. In this file folder game, she is matching like shapes. Which, actually serves as double duty, because she is learning the names of shapes. Typically, children can identify (point to) shapes before they can say the name of the shape- so you can work on this skill as well. This file folder game has the following shapes: circle, square, triangle, rectangle (which are typically the first shapes learned), oval, diamond, octagon, and pentagon (which are more difficult to learn).

I was suprised that Gretchen could do this easily by herself. We haven't really worked on this skill, but after discussing how to play the game, she caught on quickly.

I'll be posting a tutorial to make your own file folder in the next few days.

Father's Day Gift Ideas

I've been planning this post for a week, and I'm just now getting around to writing it. Father's day is THIS Sunday, and I'm proud to say, I just have to pick up a gift card and get our cards in the mail to my dad and DJ's dad. My husband received his father's day gift (a custom golf club) back in April. We tend to do better with this holiday, than with Mother's day!

I also found these great ideas: I spotted this while reading through my blog roll today. You can find the directions to make this beer mug here. It's just butterscotch candy and marshmallows in a beer mug, but so cute!

I found this desk bowl on Etsy for only $16.00. You can find it here.

My husband and father-in-law both love to grill. I think these custom spice jars are a neat idea, and it's only $12.00 for the set of 4. You can find it here.

We only have a daughter, but this sign would be neat for anyone with a boy and a girl. It's only $8.95, and you can find it here.

Need some more frugal (or fast) ideas?

~Take your child's photo with dad's favorite object- a soccer ball, football, etc.

~ Purchase a "D", and an "A" wood letters from a craft store, and take your child's picture with the letter "D" two times, and the letter "A" one time. Frame the pictures in a 3 photo frame to spell "DAD".

~ Head on over to DLTK-kids and print off some great Father's day craft projects to do with the kids this week! (I really like their foot prints poem)

~ Make your dad or hubby a candy bouquet, or just fill a bucket with some of his favorite goodies.

~ Have your kids make a homemade card.

Most importantly, let dad relax for the day and remind him what a great father and husband that he is!

A few more: appliques

Being a SAHM for the summer, has allowed me to also have more time for my home business. Which, is a great thing! And, also leads me to post about it, rather than post other things. I have sent out more orders this month, than I have in previous months combined! I love how busy I am with my family and with my projects!

Plus, I started to list items on my facebook page for reduced prices, which has in turn made business perk up!

Here are a few applique's that I've made recently.

I've had this zebra high heel cut out for a while, and when I listed it at a reduced price, it finally sold! I'm so glad that the buyer also wanted the hot pink stitching around the shoe, because a stiletto zebra just HAS to have hot pink! I also think it would be cute with "shoe diva" monogrammed on the shirt, but I've yet to purchase my own monogramming machine (hint, hint, hubby!)

I also had a request to do a 4th of July applique. What's better than a flag for the fourth? And, I had the chance to do two of these bad boys, because I sewed the back of the shirt to the front of the shirt with the first one. Which, meant, I had to go buy another shirt! I'm thinking I could've done fireworks with the same material and it would've turned out just as cute!

And, finally, I LOVE this little buckeroo bandana! I've had the fabric for a while, and it hit me one day, to make a bandana out of the shirt! One of my high school friends, ended up purchasing it for her little boy. I think some sort of ye-haw country phrase should be monogrammed on this shirt as well, but it's just so darlin'!

These were all shipped out yesterday, so I'm excited to see these little honey's in their custom shirts!!!

And, I promise, I'll eventually get around to posting something other than business stuff!!! I DO have a fun weekly series, that I want to start, but since I'll be out of the blogging world for most of July- I'm going to wait until August- yes, you have to wait that long!!!

Mickey & Minnie applique's

A few weeks ago, I promised Gretchen that I would make her a Minnie Mouse shirt. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is her all-time favorite t.v. show at the ripe old age of 2! She has a pair of Minnie Mouse jammies, that she got in March, and on several occassions, she's begged me to let her wear them to the sitter's.

I also decided to make Mickey Mouse, because, let's face it- you can't have one without the other!

And, here's her Minnie Mouse shirt! I'm going to add a real bow to this Minnie, that will attach with a safety pin, and I'm going to make her a matching hair bow.

And, here she is modeling her Minnie Mouse shirt! Sorry, she's sideways- just tilt your head a little!

And, all this coming from a lady, who SWORE her child would never wear character clothing! At least it's boutique quality!!!