Crocheted Butterflies

A little while ago a friend of mine had the cutest crocheted butterfly clips in her daughters hair.  When I asked here where she got them, she told me that someone had crochet them and given them to her.  So this got me thinking that maybe I could find a pattern on the Internet for them and sure enough I found this  great pattern on the Little Birdie Secrets Blog.

Her tutorial was fabulous to follow, and I spent some time at nights (after I put my kids to bed) making lots of fun Butterflies with leftover yarn and crochet thread.  The tutorial includes three different sizes of butterflies.  I had fun trying the different sizes.  As I had the different sizes of crochet butterflies stacked on top of each other I got the idea to stack them together and then finish them off to put on clips.

Here is the finished products, and I can't wait to crochet some more.

Meg's Dress and Pinafore by Olabehle

In March I was busy making lots of fun things.  One of the things I made was this dress found on the You Can Make This website .  The pattern was called Meg's Dress and Pinafore by Olabehle.  My cousins wife had asked me to make this dress for her daughter for Easter and noted that her daughter loves the color blue.

I went on a search to several fabric stores for just the right fabric.  I found just the right pattern at Hancock Fabrics.  They had just put out a new line of fabric, and when I saw it I just new it would be perfect.  The Fabric was a bit pricey so I had to purchase it in two seperate visits so I could use coupons.  I returned home to see what coupons they had online and found a 50% coupon I could use on the first visit (which my hubby was so kind to go and pick it up for me, since he was in the area)  and then I was able to use a 40% off coupon the second visit. They also had fabric in the colors of green and pink in the same line.  I may go back and get more to make some things for my girls.

The pattern I purchased from You Can Make This was an E-pattern, and I found it very well done.  The only thing missing was that it doesn't tell you what they allowed for the hem on the dress, so I put a 1/2 inch hem on the dress (I like the look better), and then continued with the pinafore.

One of the fun things I learned from this pattern, that I had never done before, was hand pleating.  The pattern included the instructions for hand pleating and it was explained very well.  At first I thought I was going to hate it, but I loved it.  I also loved the fact that it gave the dress a more finished look then machine gathering.

Here is my finished project.

I loved this project so much that I have now picked out some Paris fabric at Hobby Lobby to make a dress for my eight year old daughter, and possibly one each for my five year old and baby girl.

Stain Remover Tip for Sharpie or Dry Erase Markers

Am I the only mother who loathes sharpies and dry-erase markers when it comes to kids?  I find that my kids have ruined so many clothes with these types of markers.  Who thought that replacing all the chalkboards in schools with dry erase boards was the thing to do. When I was in high school I never had a problem seeing the chalkboard,  but during my senior year the school started replacing the chalkboards with dry-erase boards, and that is when I started having a hard time seeing the boards and had to get glasses.   Now that I have young children, I dread when my kids come home from school with dry-erase marker on their clothing.  I have had them wear brand new outfits to school, only to have them come home with dry erase marker on their clothes. The first time this happened I was furious, how was I going to get this out?  I put it in the wash (after trying the hair spray trick) and the stain didn't come out.  I was upset beyond words. my daughters brand new dress from her birthday was now ruined, permanently scarred by the ugly black mark!  I then decided to see what I could find online about removing dry-erase marker from clothing.  I finally found a website with a possible solution that I decided to try the next time it happened.  I didn't have to wait very long, and this time it was on my second daughters brand spank-en new Christmas dress, on Christmas (her cousin had received a small-dry erase board from Santa), I was horrified.  I was ready this time though, and hoped with all my might that this solution I found online would work.  To my amazement it did!!  I was so happy, I literally did a happy dance and sought out my husband to show him the results (I am a bit of a freak about my laundry getting clean, I hate spots).

So, this past Sunday, my five year old daughter was wearing a brand new white dress to church and comes out of class telling me how much she loves the smell of the sharpie she used to color her picture with.  As she is telling me this I see the black marker on her brand new dress - why does this always happen on their brand new stuff?  Once again I just died.  So I decided that I would use the same solution on the sharpie that I used on the dry-erase marker and to my amazement, it worked!

I just had to share this wonderful solution for all those Mothers out there, who are just like me and loathe the sharpie and dry-erase markers when it comes to kids.

Here are the things that I now keep on hand in my laundry room:

Here is the dress with the ugly black marker stain:

After blotting with rubbing alcohol and then scrubbing what was left with Murphy's Oil Soap:

Look at my perfectly clean dress, free of ugly black marker stain, making this Mommy very happy!!!

The House that went from Drab to Fab - Girls Room

Shortly after the outside repairs were done on the house, we found out we were expecting our first baby.  We immediately knew what our next project would be, but did not know how huge it would become, and the time it would take to accomplish the task.

The room we chose as the babies room was across the hall from our room and as you will see from the pictures it had some very ugly, old, and worn paneling.  This room also had two entrance doors to it; one from the family room, and the other from the hallway.  The light fixture was hideous, to say the least, and consisted of one light bulb on a two light bulb fixture, and the glass cover was missing.  The carpet was an ugly maroon, and very dirty.  We suspect it was installed in the mid  1970s.  The moldings were broken and in some places missing completely.

The door shown in the picture above became obsolete and the only access to the room when finished was from the hallway, giving the room more functionality.

 My husband worked tirelessly tearing all the old molding and paneling from the walls and what should he find below...hideous wallpaper.  He then worked on opening the closet to its full potential. The original small door that was on the closet, only allowed easy access to half of the closet space.

The room pretty much received a total makeover.  The plugs were recessed into the walls (most of the plug boxes in our home were boxes against the walls, making it hard to have any furniture flush against the wall), new light switch and plug covers, new moldings, Sheetrock to smooth out the wavy, damaged walls, the outside wall was furrowed in a bit to add insulation.  Upgrades included new moldings trim, and rosettes, hardware, fan light, carpet, blinds, textured ceiling, bead-board style wainscoting and the walls were painted a light green with a sage green sponged over the top.

I became pretty stressed in February, when this project was not quite done and I was due the end of February.  The room was such an intense project that my Hubby spent all his extra time on it.  The carpet was delayed (causing me more stress) and was not installed until the Friday before my due date (which was Sunday).  Lucky for us the Baby ended up being 4 days late (amazing since I was so stressed out).  This room became my favorite room in the house and when I walked in it, the light was rejuvenating and the room felt as though I was in a completely different house.  It was hard to believe that this beautiful room now existed in such a drab house.

Ready for Baby:

At the time of sell.