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: