heart healthy instructor gifts

you all know that i LOVE jazzercise.

and if you attend with me, you know that im not good at it.
yet i wake up at 4.30am most mornings to go.

i always like to give a 'thank you' christmas gift to the instructors. sure they are getting paid to be there, but the class i take is at 5:30am and in the winter, it is REALLY REALLY cold.

last year, i scored some sweet coupons for olive oil, making each bottle practically free!

yes, i could have stocked up on a months worth of oil for my family, but instead i gave each of my instructors a bottle for a christmas gift.

hey-olive oil is good for my heart and so is working out!

did you know you can SPRAY PAINT fabric?! me neither!

but at v& co last year she does a whole post on it!
IT LOOKS AWESOME!

i mean, really...who wouldn't want this?

(you can tell i made this last fall...nice pumpkins ba!)

i would suggest washing the fabric after the paint drys. the fabric won't be hard and easier to sew.

i just cut the fabric to fit the bottle in and tied it at the top. the fabric i just had laying around, so that was free.

the berries i did pick up at michaels, but they were on sale and topped it off nicely.

when chris saw the bottles on the counter, he asked when i got to pier 1.

THAT TOTALLY MADE MY DAY!

and he wasn't even trying!

ah-love that man!

go broncos!

parker's 10th birthday was yesterday.

how did he get so old?

(yes, chris did have hair at one point!)

when we went to disneyland this year, i got him one of those neck things so he could sleep in the car.

it was only $3 at walgreens but it had a boring cover on it.

but it worked and i used it the ENTIRE way home while sick with strep.

since parker got a bike for his birthday, we couldn't really afford to buy him much more. but i didn't want him to only get a bike. i don't know why.

so i got the cover off of the neck pillow and used it as a pattern.

(what, you don't craft on a table that has star wars action figures on it too?)

i only got a quarter yard of fleece broncos fabric, which turns out to be not enough width wise but i made it work. this side is the one that has an opening so you can slide the pillow in and out.

and for the solid side i just used 2 halves.

and yes, i did sew this together wrong and had to seam rip and re-sew.

im brilliant.

the end result!

not too shabby! and parker didn't even get upset by the fact that he ONLY got a new bike!

once a princess, always a princess!

for the past few years i have been a princess at halloween. one year i was sleeping beauty (with a big long black wig...goo!), last year i was peincess leia so this year i'm...

an indian princess!

not really pocahontas, as i dont show that much boob. or belly.

usually.

and this is a way way simple costume. you will need 2 tshirts (whatever size fits. i used a large) and some beads. i bet you can use the colorful plastic ones,  but i used wood ones that i spray painted.

(and this was the ONLY photo out of 40 that i could use of my kids in the shirts)

i sewed the shirts together at the bottom, right sides together, then cut one off right at the arm pits of the shirt.

i strung the wood beads onto a string as a necklace.

pretty much that is all.

i re cut the bottom on an angle to be a bit more cooler. and i cut some fringe on the arms.

with what was left of the cut shirt, i made a little belt and strung some beads on it.

so watch out john smith-there is a new pocahontas in town!

teacher halloween gift

back in may, i made my friend, gram, some cute cards for mothers day.

they were so easy and just useful, i thought i'd make some for nate's teacher this year.

**you see, i have this 'thing' about giving teachers more candy. really, what adult needs more candy?**

nate says, 'my other teachers liked us, but ms. ames LOVES us!'. how could you not just adore a teacher like that?

i started with this fabric, it is a little grandma-y, but ms. ames is a grandma. she will like it.

then, i just did what i did before with the the underwonder and the sewing machine.

i even used a really really fancy stitch!

and here is the finished project! i got the envelopes at savers for 75 cents for the pack. so way thrifty too!

and before you think 'thrifty ba-you are just so on the ball with getting your teacher halloween gift done!', let me say that my kids go on break thursday and won't be back until the 2nd week in november. so i HAD to get it done now.

but you can still think i'm on the ball. i won't complain.

new baby gifts

i got asked to be in charge of the new moms and babies in my ward (neighborhood). part of my job is to get inexpensive gifts for the new babies.

that is ALOT better than camping!

i found this cute idea on support blog for moms of boys. check out the original design here.

now, here is mine and the few things i did differently.

the first thing i did was change the eyes. since we were giving these to newborns, i didn't want any choking hazards. they had buttons but i switched mine to 2 fabric circles for eyes.

i sewed back and forth over the 2 circles a million times, kinda sloppy in a cool way. 

and the jeans material...old jeans from my kids! FREE BABY!

yes, that is guitar hero ribbon! this one is for sure for a boy!

and here is 3 of my creations. i have to make some girl ones here soon, i think with some flowery fabric and some cute ric-rak hair.

makes you wish you were pregnant. doesnt it?!

my 'little' brothers

my 'little' brothers have an obsession with the steelers.

kinda like my thing with balls.

i came across this at joanns and got a quarter yard knowing exactly what 2 people are getting for part of their christmas gift!

then i was at ross and found some hand towels ($1 each).

the 'maters aren't staying.

remember way back when when i made a cool packers towel?

well, pretty much the same thing here. although this fabric was a little harder to work with.

ta da!

oh, and here is a photo of my 'little' brothers....

aaron in green is only 6' tall (and 30) pat is 6'7" (and only 37).

im the oldest and the shortest.

but the cutest.

and the favorite sister.

but still short.

franny franny bo banny banana fanana fo fanny fee fi fo manny franny!

we have a dear family friend (franny if you couldn't guess from the title) who is having her 14th birthday here soon. so OF COURSE i had to make her something awesome!

some of you might remember this post where i made a bag for niece.

i wanted to do something similar, but not exactly the same.

i ran to d.i. for some cargo pants.

these are from aeropostal but were kinda worn out.

i just wanted the pocket and the button.

i decided to make the size of the bag around the pocket size, so i cut out around it.

then i was rudely interrupted by this HAIL STORM. (turns out there was quite a bit of flooding that happened after the hail stopped and had clogged all the drains. thankfully, we were ok.)

i basically followed the instructions that i used for the big bag, just making it smaller.

i lined it in purple, because franny loves purple. i don't know if this is her favorite shade, but it is purple.

and here is parker, who didn't want his face shown, modeling it.

turned out pretty good if i may say so!

happy birthday franny!

nate's new tie

it all started with me innocently buying a tie for nate at kohls. it was a christmas clip on tie, but it was like $1, so i got it.

the next thing i know, he wants to wear it to church.

with a striped golf shirt.

in july.

he gets his fashion sense from his daddy!

the next time i hit d.i. (a local chain of thrift stores),

i found this men's tie for $2.

the little man on it is a stripling warrior (don't know that story? check it out here)

first, i had chris tie it around nate's neck to see where i had to cut it off at.

then i seam ripped the tie to expose the 'guts'.

i had to make the 'guts' skinnier since the tie had to be skinny for nate's neck.

then i cut the tie shorter and just eye balled how skinny to make it.

then i realized that i couldn't just sewing machine this shut. DARN!

i hand stitched it closed and told nate that every stitch was me saying 'i love you' to him.

(he bought it)

the final product!

this little shirt was also from d.i.-a whole $2!

 i think he looks very sharp!

and a special thank you to steve sokol for re-tieing the tie saturday night for me! (chris was out of town and i don't know how to tie ties!)