Firefly Craftiness!

This coming weekend I'm going to be participating in my 2nd 5K. I walked with a group of my favorite girls last year and loved it so much that we're doing it again this year. If you've never experienced FireflyRun DFW you need to.

Our theme this year is "geek chic" (thanks to the suggestion by my awesome friend Chris.) Nothing screams geek to me more than argyle (I should know, I love it) so I knew I wanted to incorporate it into my costume. I couldn't find an argyle sweater vest at the thrift store, but I found an awesome (brand new, with tags, 3XL Old Navy) argyle sweater and decided to fashion my own! (Plus, it needed girly flair, and traditional argyle sweaters lack the flair.)

I made my own pattern from some paper grocery bags I had in the pantry (I used another vest as a sort of "guide" but ended up just kind of hand sketching it.) I had enough sweater to make the front of the vest plus the lining (thanks to the sleeves) and a back piece but I needed some lining for the back so I hit my fabric stash and grabbed some cute kid jammie fabric (complete with monsters on it.)

The whole thing took less than 2 hours from start to finish and I can't wait to wear it with the rest of my costume! :)

Lucas's Christmas Stocking

If you've never been to Prudent Baby, you are missing out. I freakin' LOVE this website--these ladies have fabulous tutorials and super-cute projects that sewing geeks like me love. I made Lucas a stocking using the same fabric as the tree skirt because I had enough leftover. His stocking is by far the coolest one on the mantle right now. (The rest of them came from the Dollar Tree store.) Here is the link to the Christmas Stocking pattern and tutorial from Prudent Baby!

Starfish Tree Topper

I love to craft, and I love to spend countless hours in stores like Hobby Lobby, Joann Fabrics and Michaels. I've been searching for the "perfect" tree topper but never came across anything I loved. Since we have a "beachy" theme I thought a starfish would be the perfect topper. After a trip to Hobby Lobby and a quick whip of the glue gun, here's my gorgeous starfish tree topper! Goes great with the Floridian Christmas Tree Skirt that I made in November.

A Floridian's Christmas Tree Skirt

So, this year is the first year we're actually going to be home for Christmas. We've lived in our house for 3 years but usually we go to New Mexico. Now that we have Lucas, we're going to be staying home so he can have Christmas in his own house. I married a Florida boy and I wanted to create a theme that would incorporate a little of his "beach bum" persona and this is what I came up with. It all started with the tree skirt--a blend of coordinating fabrics that are not "traditional" in the usual sense. I love that Santa has Bermuda shorts on and that there are fish and palm trees on the blue water-colored fabric. I used a tree skirt from Dollar Tree to figure out the size and to back the skirt with and I kind of just made up the rest as I went along! My son thought it was fun to wear as a cape...

Dog Food Bag Purse

My friend Kristin over at Pawsitive U asked me if I would make a few things for her Chihuahua rescue group this year and this is one of the projects. Its made from a "repurposed"paper dog food bag, some fringe and aquarium tubing that I got at Petsmart. I guess it could be used to carry a Chihuahua in too.

The Repurposed Chip Bag Shopping Tote

I run a club at my school called the Ecomaniacs--we just started this year and so far its been a lot of fun. The purpose of our club is to make fashion and crafts from materials that might otherwise be thrown away (for instance, the ridiculous amounts of chip bags that get thrown in the school cafeteria trashcans.) To demonstrate what "could" be done with the bags I made this bag. Its just a prototype. Future models would need some vinyl sewn onto the top to make it sturdier and more durable, but this is the start of something fun! I took this pic from my cell phone so its not the best one but its what I had at the time.

Bulletin Board Makeover

So, my new classroom has ZERO bulletin boards. Not one! All of this gorgeous square footage, tons of wall space, and not a single flippin' bulletin board. And you know me, not one for putting up with that! I headed to the local CCA Thrift Store here in The Colony, TX to see what fun I could have and I came across two yucky, old bulletin boards that belonged to a girl's nursery previously (from what I could tell.) Here's the transformation! I just took some leftover fabric that I had (the black was from Jesse's pirate costume years ago and the calico's were from a camera case I made before I went to Canada for my bestie's wedding.) The bulletin boards cost me a total of $5.00 plus tax and the fabric and bias tape were mine already! What a cute use of an old disaster, right?