DIY Toddler leggings

I am finally back and hopefully ready to start posting more often!  As my first post back I am going to do a tutorial on how to make super cute 5 minute leggings!

As a mom to a cute little 2 year old girl I am finding that leggings are just too dang cute on this girl, but I'm not willing to go out and spend a ton of money just to get designer ones. So we've been doing the leg warmers out of knee high socks a lot!  But I was starting to feel bad about that cute little chunk of leg that was still visible.  Winter is probably not the greatest time to be doing leg warmers all by themselves, but honestly, thats the only thing I could get on those ever moving little legs.   So anyway, a week or so ago I was emailed with this cute tutorial from  How Does She? on making LEGGINGS out of knee high socks and that definitely caught my interest!  But the greatest part was that it only takes 5 MINUTES!!!  I am just going to share my steps quickly with pictures and maybe a little commentary and give you the link to the tutorial from the ever talented Lara from How Does She?

Find some very cute knee high socks (I got all of mine at Target $2.50 a piece)

Cut the toe off of the socks (the tutorial says to measure 6 inches up from the curve of the heel, I found I needed a bit more for little M's big booty)

Cut on the crease, from toe to the curve of the heel

Turn one sock inside out, and slide the right side out sock into the newly inside out sock.  I'm sure I made that way more confusing sounding than it really needed to be! But what you want is to have the right sides facing each other....

so you can stitch around the edges, from toe to heel than back up again!   

Almost done! Now go measure the tummy of your cute little one and cut wide elastic the length that you just measured.  Sew the ends of the elastic together to make a circle.  Turn your leggings inside out, place your elastic ring inside the leggings and sew all the way around the top or the leggings.  You may have to stretch them a bit to fit the waist band, but it'll be just fine :)

 

And ta-da! You are done, sit back and enjoy seeing cute little legs run around in something that you made!

Sailor Knot Bracelet

I am back!  After having no computer for a week or so then getting sick, it kind of threw of my groove for blogging.  But I am back with a fun picture tutorial for you!  Last year for a Fabulous Friday activity we crocheted strands and tied them into a sailor knot for a headband.  And they were super cute, but I don't tend to wear headbands so I decided a bracelet would be just as cute and way easy to make.  So here is my first picture tutorial....and if you have questions about any of the pictures please leave a comment and I will try to explain a bit better.

Supplies:

4 pieces of 12-15 inches of yarn or jersey knit fabric

scrap of matching fabric

scissors

hot glue gun

 Once you finish this step, slowly pull the four ends.  Doing it slowly will help you get the size and shape that you want.  When it's to your liking, cut the ends and secure with hot glue.  Cover up the ends with a strip of fabric or a cluster of yarn.  Slip in on and enjoy your new bracelet!!!

Back to School Snack

Summer is winding down and all the back to school sales are starting.  Which means mom's are counting down the days in excitement and kids are just enjoying their long fun days while they can.  Why not make going back to school a bit easier and give the kids a boost of energy to get through the school day?!  These energy bites are super tasty (they don't tend to last more than a day or two at our house) and  healthy enough that I've snacked on a couple as breakfast a few times.

Ingredients:

 1cup Oatmeal

1/3- 1/2 cup Honey (your preferance)

1/2 cup Flaxseed

1/2 cup Peanut Butter (or other nut butter)

1 cup Coconut flakes

1 tsp Vanilla

*optional- Chocolate Chips or Craisins  

In a bowl mix all ingredients thoroughly.  Let chill in fridge/freezer (I do the freezer so I can eat them quicker) 20-30 minutes. Pull out, roll into balls and ENJOY!!!  Store in airtight container in fridge for up to a week.  Once everyone in the family tries on of these, I doubt they'll make it a week in the fridge though.

Hope you all enjoy this tasty fast snack and that you enjoy the rest of the summer. 

Make Something Mondays

 Welcome to my newest tutorial and the start of "Make Something Mondays"!  I am excited to start sharing crafts/tutorials every Monday with you guys, let's get to it!

Awhile ago I came across a picture of one of these cute ribbon bows on Pinterest (You'll find as I keep writing posts that I'm kind of obsessed with this place).  I found a tutorial for the bow but somehow didn't Pin it, anybody else do that?! Anyway, I had a hard time finding it again so I decided to just sit down and try making one from memory. It wasn't too hard to figure out and now I've gone a tad crazy making them....anybody want some bows?!

 Below is bow done with a 1.5" wide x 3.5" long. Bow ends up being about 2.5" across

Materials:

• Scissors
• Thread
• Ribbon
• Needle
• Embellishments

 1. Find some ribbon that you would like to use, it can be wire ribbon if you'd like. Cut 5 strips of your ribbon to you desired length.  I did 3.5" inches for the bow in these pictures.

 2. If you are using wired ribbon, take the wire out from one side (this will make it easier to cinch up the petal).  With one hand hold the middle side that you are taking the wire out of and with the other hand push slowly from the top toward the middle.  The wire should start popping out enough for you to grab it and take it out.

 3.  Start sewing down the short side of the ribbon toward the side that no longer has wire, makes no difference on ribbon with no wire.

4. Continue to sew down the long side then up the other short side.  

5. Pull thread threw until it starts to look like a petal.  

6. Repeat steps 3-5 for the last 4 pieces of ribbon.

On one continuous piece of thread pull as tight as you can after threading all the pieces, don't pull too tight though or you'll break the thread and have to start all over again (I've done that a few too many times, not fun!) 

7. Thread back threw the first "petal" a little bit and pull to close the circle that has now been created.  Knot your thread, and you're done! Now comes the last and my most favorite step....

8. Add embellishments!  Jewels, buttons, pearls, etc.  Have fun with it.

 And there you have it, a super cute bow to go on presents, headband, or clips!

Fluff the petals to your liking (with wired ribbon you can make the petals 'bubbly' like the black and white bow below, or you can show the edges off  like the ribbon above)

The black and white bow is a 2" wide ribbon cut to 2" (so a square) 

1.5" wide 4.5" long ribbon used (this was a non-wired ribbon, so the edges are more ruffly)

I hope you have all enjoyed my tutorial and that it has inspired you to go make a few for some cute girls/lovely ladies!  

Sunshine for a Rainy day

Sorry for the delay!  Little hands make quick work of destroying helping write blog posts!

This is my first tutorial and I chose and easy one so bare with me..... here we go!

A couple weeks ago it was another rainy day here in WA and the kids and I were in need of something to do/create.  I had just been looking at my amazing stack of scrapbook paper wondering how I'd ever  use it all, since I started digital scrapbooking, and realized that our house could use a little sunshine.  So why not make some sun of our own?!  And I set to work picking out lots of different yellow and orange papers.

What you'll need:

• scrapbook paper (I used yellows and oranges', but use whatever you'd like!)
• paper cutter or scissors
• a ruler (if you're using scissors, unless you are confident in your ability to cut straight lines, I definitely am not hence the paper cutter)
• card stock (can be any color, I used white but you could use yellow incase some paper doesn't overlap) 
• glue
• scissors  

Cut up different sized strips but stayed in about a 1/2"-1" width (but its up to you!) by 12"

Let your little ones choose what ever papers they feel and let them go to it!  If need be, of course, do all the gluing for them

Cut your now glued paper strips into a circle.  Glue that circle to a piece of card stock as a base and

then glue little strips of left over paper on around the circle as the sun rays.

And there you have it!  A little bit of sunshine to brighten up your house.  

I didn't get around to doing this, but you could always do some glitter on it too to make it a bit fancier ;)  but little L is all boy and "boys aren't cute, they're handsome", so says him.