Tuesday's Tutorial

My brother in law, Rick, gets home from Afghanistan in just a few short weeks.....we can't wait!!! For Tuesday's tutorial I'm going to show you how to craft a welcome home banner for your favorite soldier:) This will be tied on the entrance gate along with lots of other awesome banners my sister is collecting and creating.


1. Buy a twin size sheet at your local thrift store....spend an hour looking at Halloween costume possibilities while you are at it.

2. Find some suitable red, white and blue fabrics in your stash....discover lots of fabric you forgot you had.

3. Iron on some heat and bond to the fabric you selected....decide on the message for your sign...and trace your letters on the paper side of the heat and bond. Be sure to trace out your letters backwards.

4. Amaze your sister with your freehand lettering prowess.

5. Cut out your letters, remove the paper backing and arrange them on the sheet to your heart's desire.

6. Iron in place...try not to get too verklempt with excitement over your soldier's return or you'll burn yourself.

7. Admire your beautiful creation!

Tuesday's Tutorial

PLACEMAT TUTORIAL

I'm so excited to share with you my first Tuesday's Tutorials post! And I'm especially excited that it's courtesy of the ever lovely Creative Kismet who so generously allowed me to share her tutorial . Regina is one of my favorite bloggers....always so generous and beautiful and uber creative. I have two of her prints and I love them!!!!!

Regina loves to sew and loves to sew delightful things for her kiddos....I love these placemats she designed and think it would the perfect addition to Miss S's lunch box for school.



Placemat #2 with Directions

Here’s what you’ll need to make your own:

2 ~ 14 x 17 inch pieces for the mat with 3/8 inch seam allowance.
2 ~ 3.5 x 6 inch pieces for the pocket with 1/4 inch seam allowance.
1 ~ 14 x 14 inch piece for the napkin with 1/4 inch double rolled hem.
1 large button
18 inch piece of ribbon, cord, tie, etc.
scissors, thread, sewing machine, rotary cutter, cutting mat

1. Cut and iron all pieces.

2. Take the two largest pieces, place right sides together and sew all around using a 3/8 inch seam allowance leaving a 4 inch gap. Clip corners, turn right side out, poke corners out and press flat. Sew zig-zag stitch all around the edges.

3. Take two pocket pieces, place right sides together and sew all around using a 1/4 inch seam allowance. Leave a 2 inch gap on the bottom short end. Clip corners, turn right side out, poking corners out, and press flat. Place pocket piece on placemat — right or left bottom corner about 1 inch awary from edge, or where-ever you would like it to be. Pin in place and sew around sides and bottom edge with a straight stitch leaving top edge open.

4.Fold and roll the mat up and pick a good place to attach the ribbon (I folded the top third of the mat down over the utensil pocket the rolled it up from the utensil side). Hand stitch one end of the ribbon in place then hand sew the button on top.

5. Make napkin using the above tutorial, sit down and enjoy a nice little lunch!

Thanks so much Regina!!!


PS Don't forget - http://raeshadrz.blogspot.com/2010/04/project-postcard.html

Recommitting

Life completely got away from me this summer....I fell out of touch with friends, blogging and mostly just tried to keep my head above water. With Miss S back in school and Hubby starting school today I'm hoping to get our schedule back on track. I miss visiting all your blogs, participating in lots of swaps and being inspired by all your creativity. So I'm gonna get back on track.

I'm plowing ahead with my theme of the day and here's what I have planned so far:

Sacred Sunday
I Made It Monday
Tuesday's Tutorial
Whatever I Want Wednesday
Thrifty Thursday
Freebie Friday (I'm taking a cue from my darling Mary Ann on this one)
Show Me Saturday

First Day of School

Miss S's first day of fourth grade was Wednesday....she had quite the week though. A mix up at the after school program on Wednesday, a high fever on Thursday sent her home early and she stayed home on Friday. She's looking forward to this week and not having any drama:)

I Dare You....

not to oohh and ahhh over this little guy....his hair is finally long enough for a little bow (except Max keeps trying to rip it out).....

Then when you are done oohing and aahing you can give him a little kiss on these darling little puppy lips:)

CKHS Class of 1990

I cannot even express how much fun I had at my high school reunion....holy cow.....it was amazing reconnecting with old friends and spending time laughing and reminiscing. My classmates have posted about 500 pictures on Facebook already of the reunion and I can't wait to go through them ALL!!!

I didn't have the patience to put the pics in order...but just so you know Friday night my hair is curly and Saturday night my hair is straight:))

Reconnecting with my old friend Tracy:

Seriously, I'm making this face in half the reunion pics. Tammy kept teasing me all night that my Sprite was spiked:) This is me and my friend Lance - we had SO much fun in high school....he's a DJ in Tennessee now:) And we've challenged each other to long distance Beatles trivia:)

Getting down dancing....we stayed Saturday night until 1 am!!!!!

Lisa, Marcie and Raesha - we danced together and were on drill team together since junior high:


My two dearest friends - Tammy and Susan:

I tell you our reunion rocked....but it would have been mighty fun to rock out with the Itchon Klinefelters too:) With names like that they have GOT to be fun:


All dolled up and ready to head out to PARTY! Wendy at the MAC counter at Kitsap Mall is my new best friend. She did my fabulous makeup AND we ran in to her on the ferry coming home from Seattle on Sunday!!! How fun!


Tammy's raising the roof and who knows what I'm doing:) This was probably after one of the boys I went to high school told me I looked stunning:)

Another one with my funny face:

Saturday night we had a photographer and we each got to go home with this awesome class picture!! What a beautiful reminder of a fun weekend.

Vacation Part One

WOW!!!! I had a fantastic week in Washington. It was so hard to get on the plane to come home, but I missed my handsome Hubby and the puppies. We played, shopped, ate out, slept in late, and had a fabulous time!!

My darling Miss S and my BFF Tammy:

Eating fresh crab on the pier in Seattle:


Collecting shells on the beach...literally 30 yards from Tammy's house...she lives in a DARLING little beach cottage with her girlfriend:

Beautiful Day

Woke up to crazy fog and the ferry blaring it's fog horn at a little tiny boat in it's path. Just a few hours later and it's all burned off giving us this gorgeous view from the back porch.



We are heading out today in search of Daiso the Japanese dollar store! Fun!!!!!

-Raesha www.raeshadrz.blogspot.com

-Raesha www.raeshadrz.blogspot.com

Thrifting

No vacation is perfect without a little thrifting! And look at this gem I scored yesterday at St Vincents. Still in the box! I don't think I'll use the bath oil but I could not pass up the beautiful blue delft pitcher and saucer. I paid a whopping fifty cents for it!!!! And of course now I can't figure out hoe to mobile post the pictures so I'm just gonna post this and keep trying:)

See You Next Week!!

I have a million things to do and only about 48 hours left to get it all done in! Miss S and I leave Tuesday at 3 pm to head to the airport....I can't wait!!! I will definitely have to take a sleeping pill tomorrow night - I know I won't be able to sleep cause I'll be so excited. I'll try to do some mobile blogging while we are gone but who knows if that will work or not. So until next week....enjoy this darling picture of me and my sister from when she was here a few weeks ago. I love her!

Thoughtful Thursday

This one is for all my fellow Trekkies:)

Wordless Wednesday

Sock It To Me Saturday

The kiddos here go back to school in exactly one month - school officially starts August 18!! Holy cow where has the summer gone? I printed out Miss S's school supply list this morning and about fell off my chair.....this is what she is required to have for 4th grade:

48 wooden pencils
1 package of colored pencils
1 box crayons
4 dry erase markers
1 dry erase eraser
2 highlighters (2 different colors)
6 composition notebooks
2 boxes of tissues
1 package of markers
1 package 3x5 index cards (colored)
1 ream (500 sheets) of white copy paper
1 protractor
12 pocket folders with brads
(blue, red, yellow, green, orange, purple 2 of each color)
5 tab dividers (2 packages) 1- 2 inch 3 ring view binder
3 packages of white loose leaf paper (wide rule)
4 glue sticks (no bottles)
1 pair sharp point scissors
1 ruler with centimeter and inch markings
2 packages of pencil top erasers
1 box of gallon size Ziploc bags (boys)
1 box quart size Ziploc bags (girls)
1 container Clorox cleaning wipes
1 container of hand sanitizer
$5.00 for a class T-Shirt for field trips
$5.00 National Geographic Kids Magazine
Multiplication Flash Cards (1 set)
Division Flash Cards (1 set)

Is it just me or is this a little extreme??? Even conservatively I'm going to be spending about $75 on JUST this stuff....that doesn't include a backpack, new lunch box and anything else she is going to need.

Sacred Sunday

Our Sunday School lesson was on the Psalms in the Old Testament and then our Relief Society lesson was on the Atonement. Two things today really touched me.

First this Psalm of David -

PSALM 23

A PSALM OF DAVID.

1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want

2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Second was the words of a musical number sung in Relief Society -

His Hands
by Kenneth Cope

his hands
tools of creation
stronger than nations
power without end
and yet through them we find our truest friend
his hands
sermons of kindness
healing men's blindness
halting years of pain
children waiting to be held again

his hands would serve his whole life though
showing man what hands might do
giving, ever giving, endlessly
each day was filled with selflessness
and i'll not rest until i make up my hands what they could be
'til these hands become like those from galilee

his hands
lifting a leper
warming a beggar
calling back the dead
breaking bread, five thousand fed
his hands
hushing contention
pointing to heaven
ever free of sin
then bidding man to follow him

his hands would serve his whole life though
showing man what hands might do
giving, ever giving, endlessly
each day was filled with selflessness
and i'll not rest until i make up my hands what they could be
'til these hands become like those from galilee

his hands
clasped in agony
as he he lay pleading, bleeding in the garden
while just moments away
other hands betray him
out of greed, shameful greed
and then his hands
are trembling
straining to carry the beam that they've been led to
as he stumbles through the streets
heading towards the hill on which he died
he would die
they take his hands, his mighty hands, those gentle hands
and then they pierce them, they pierce them
he lets them, because of love
from birth to death was selflessness
and clearly now i see him with his hands
calling to me
and though i'm not yet as i would be
he has shown me how i could be
i will make my hands like those from galilee

PS Don't forget - PROJECT POSTCARD!

Fashion Musings

As you know my 20th high school reunion is the end of the month and I really want to WOW with some awesome outfits. This is what I'm thinking for the Saturday night dinner dance....a little dressy, a little flirty, a little trendy.

Do you think I can pull it off or will I look ridiculous? tell the truth!!!!

PS Don't forget - PROJECT POSTCARD!

Tired Tuesday

I have spent the last few days living it up with my sister, 4 of her kiddos, my brother and sis-in-law and their 3 kiddos and I am POOPED!!! Holy moley. I think I'm going to bed at 7 pm tonight. But really all I want to do is stay up late hanging out with my sister. We are having so much fun. Our 4th of July weekend was awesome and filled with tons of food, fun and fireworks. Photos to come soon!




PS Don't forget - PROJECT POSTCARD!

Wordless Wednesday (almost)

Oh yeah - I am SO there!!!



PS Don't forget - PROJECT POSTCARD!

Thrifty Tuesday

I love Jonathan Adler designs....just wish it was a little more in my price range. I was so excited to find this darling pillow at Goodwill for only $2.99!! I can't find what it retailed at but most Jonathan Adler pillows are at least $98!! It will look so nice on our bed.






PS Don't forget - PROJECT POSTCARD!