Backless Shirt

Goldfish Valentine [a re-post] with a Printable Template!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie @ the Backless Shirt Blog) — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 20:44:00 +0000

Re-post!

I have received so many questions about this little valentine, I thought I'd post it again for 2013. Edited to add the files I created so you don't have to make your own!

(see below for templates)

I purchased a pack of 100 of these bags at Michael's Craft Store for $3.99 (use the 40% off coupon!).

originally posted on February 13, 2012

Happy Valentine's Day!

xoxo

I saw this valentine on, you guessed it, Pinterest. (Click here to see what else I'm pinning). The file is available in her Etsy shop, so you can simply print it.

The concept of this valentine was perfect for us b/c it's unisex so it worked for both my son and my daughter!

For the over-achievers out there [insert fist pound here], you can make your own simple (translation: looks like a 3 year old drew it) version in Photoshop or Picnik (or another free photo editing site) and add your child's name. Just don't fall in love with the ease of use of Picnik. It's closing on April 19th. Boo.

Use your printer settings to print 4 per page. I stapled several sheets together (outside of my cutting area, of course) so the sheets would stay straight while I cut them out.

Other variations include:
"Our 'school' is cool because of YOU!"
"You make our 'school' cool."

The bags (bought a pack of 100 for $2.99 minus 40%) stuffed with the card stock inserts. Doesn't this pic look a little trippy?

The kids chose Goldfish crackers instead of Swedish Fish (which I was a *bit* disappointed by, btw).

We made about 50 valentines and used about 2/3 of the giant milk carton-shaped Goldfish package.

Print. Trim. Fill. Give. Eat.

[edited to add files for you!]
I am not a programmer, but if you have problems with the downloading the files, email me and I'll try to help!

The first two files are PDFs and are not editable. #3 and #4 are Word documents that you can download and add your kids' names before printing*.

1. Download PDF & Print

2. Download PDF & Print.

3. Download Word Document. Click on the text boxes to personalize with names. Print.

4. Download Word Document. Click on the text boxes to personalize with names. Print.

*For personal use only. Please do not edit these files beyond the text boxes I've provided. Do not post these files anywhere, rather share them by linking back here!
Have fun!

It doesn't get any easier than that, right?
(well, maybe it would be easier to buy a huge bag of boxed nerds and just hand those out...but they aren't nearly as cute!)
(don't worry, we bought said bag of boxed nerds...they are slowly disappearing into my belly)
(just doin' my share to keep Wonka in business)

Sharpie Oil-Based Marker Project

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie @ the Backless Shirt Blog) — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 02:58:00 +0000

[let's take a break from house-building and do a little crafting...shall we?]

I love receiving handmade gifts and I love to give handmade gifts. When you don't have time to create something from scratch, or when you want to make it extra special...personalize it!

These oil-based Sharpies make it so simple! I ordered a 15 piece set from Amazon, but they are available in sets of 5 or individually at your local craft stores. Then I went shopping for some white ceramic serving pieces. I found the most perfect options at TJMaxx for a reasonable price. A serving tray and a small fluted bowl that matched.

For the design, I knew I wanted to make old-school holiday lights. They are timeless, modern, and little bit retro and so much fun! I started by free-handing the bulbs, placing them in random angles but trying to keep a similar spacing between them.

Maeve wanted to help, so I watched while she drew the black squares at the base of each bulb. She did a great job, huh?! And she's crazy cute with that look of concentration!

Caramel corn gives you crazy crafting powers, by the way.

Then just connect the light bases to one another to form the string of lights...adding a few loops, of course!

I used my Silhouette to cut some contact paper into a stencil to add the name to the tray and bowl. And on the bottom I crossed out the "dishwasher safe" that was printed on the back and wrote, "hand wash me" and added the year as well. You could also include your "To:" and "From:" on the back to further personalize!

These markers do not indicate that they are food-safe. I also could not find any instructions for 'setting' the paint. Unsure, I put them into a cold oven. Turned it on to 350 degrees and set the timer for 30 minutes. Then turned the oven off, but leaving the tray & bowl inside until they cooled. That took most of the afternoon.

I knew these would be more of a display and maybe once a year would be filled with peanut m&ms and maybe some cookies, but I thought maybe setting the paint this way would give it a bit more life.

Easily adapt this for any holiday - hearts, shamrocks, stars and stripes...of simply a name or monogram. This would make a wonderful hostess gift as well!

...to remember this project for next Christmas!

Warm Toes and Somewhere for the Flushes to Go

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie @ the Backless Shirt Blog) — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 00:05:00 +0000

The forms set for several days and were removed, leaving us with bea-u-ti-ful concrete walls! The plumbers laid some pipe (ha ha) and then we were ready for some insulation in the floor.

I am amazed that they know where to put things!

Pretty sure this is the floor drain in what will become our mechanical room.

And the ever-important sump pump.

The two lines that jut off to the right run over to the bathroom.

The basement floor was insulated with foam then the water lines were laid for the in-floor radiant heat.

By this point, we'd already realized this house-building process would include a lot of changes, edits, adjustments...call them what you will...they would be plentiful. :)
Although we'd mentioned our long-term plan to finish additional square footage in the basement, they hadn't run the tubing in the future space (the dirt section at the bottom of the picture below).

We also learned that any suck edit, change, adjustment causes delays in the schedule. So, instead of pouring the following day, the tubing guys had to return and add more orange stuff.

The following Monday, a huge Mack truck arrived with a huge pump and dumped a huge amount of concrete. Huge.

After the floor was finished and smoothed, they poured the stoop and the garage floors.

Pouring the stoop.

If I were to do it over, I would've left the stoop hollow and utilized the space for more storage. It would've cost us another door and we probably don't need more space...but being as I'm so obsessed with space utilization, it'll forever bug me that we 'wasted' this space.

I'll get over it. I hope. ;)

Let the Pouring Begin.

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie @ the Backless Shirt Blog) — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 03:12:00 +0000

I enjoy learning about how things work and how things fit together. And I've been learning a lot! After Bob finished the excavation, he dug around the perimeter of the walk-out basement. In the photo below, they've set some forms in preparation for the concrete footers. Footers provide a foundation for the walls.

The footers have been poured and they've delivered stacks of forms for the walls.

The sections that are poured within the perimeter will be a foundation for interior walls.

The forms are all set up for the exterior walls. Including the radius wall that I am in love with.

And filled with concrete. This wall, next to my handsome hubby and beautiful daughter, had to be removed and replaced. Ack!

Next up...plumbing and radiant heating tubes in the basement floor!

Day One. The Dig.

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie @ the Backless Shirt Blog) — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 02:10:00 +0000

The beginning. It was a Thursday. A dream, nine years in the making, was beginning.

This is Bob. It is his job to excavate home sites. He does this every day. No big whoop, to him. But to us, this was his most important day of work. Because it is ours!

After school, Maeve and I went to check out the progress. We popped a squat on the neighbor's lawn and watched. Here's her reaction to the hole.

Lots of progress since morning! Bob was able to get half of the basement dug before he ran out of daylight.

By the end of the following day, Bob was almost done! In this photo, below, he is packing the dirt by going back and forth, over and over and over. I brought Bob his first-ever cup of Starbucks coffee! I don't know about you, but to me, Starbucks is the ultimate way to say, Thank You! ;)

In my next post...pouring the footers and setting the forms for the basement walls.

We're Building a House!

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie @ the Backless Shirt Blog) — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 14:49:00 +0000

I've put the Etsy shop on vacation and have begun to pack up the house to get it ready to sell...we've begun the house. I'm planning to document it here and hope you'll weigh in with your thoughts along the way!

Let me introduce you to our lot. We purchased it on September 19, 2010. It's about two miles from our current home. We love her. She's two parcels. A building lot of about .40 acres and an outlot of about 1.53 acres for a total of just under two acres. Love.

This pic was taken the month we purchased, September 2010.

In the Fall. A house has since been built on the other side of the trees to the left.

Winter.

Isn't she pretty? This has been our dream for more than a decade.

"We're really doin' it, aren't we, buddy!"

Make a Ruffly Table Skirt for under $10

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie @ the Backless Shirt Blog) — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 17:22:00 +0000

How to make your own ruffly table skirt for under $10! I've had several inquiries from this post asking how I made this table skirt, so here's a quick tutorial!

I made this to use on a table for my daughter's rainbow birthday party, hence the height of the ruffles. At the last minute, we changed plans and set this up here (covering a living room cabinet) to house the favor bags. It worked out.

And as a bonus, because this is made completely of plastic, it's weather-ready for outdoor events and easily wiped down (or hosed down in the back yard!). You could even hang it up in the shower for it's original purpose after the party was over...hmmm...why not?

On to the tutorial.

Your supply list:

54"x102" plastic table covers in your color scheme ($.97 at Walmart) for the ruffles
One white vinyl shower curtain (mine was 70"x72" - bought at Walmart for $2.38) or you can use a flat bed sheet, an existing table cloth, or a curtain panel. My first thought was to use a white plastic table cover, but I'm afraid it's too thin and will tear and bunch up when sewing on the ruffles.
Sewing machine + thread
Scissors + ruler

First, make a plan.

Width of ruffled section

My supply list calls for a shower curtain that is only 70" wide. If your table is wider, you'll need to adjust by sewing two curtains together to achieve your desired length.

Height of ruffled section

If you're covering a standard height table, plan to make the ruffly part about 28" to 30" to just hit the floor. If you're covering a counter height table, plan for about 36". Best bet? Measure your table.

Take your table measurement and divide that by the number of ruffly layers you desire. So for me, I took 30" (table height) divided by 6 (colored ruffle sections) to get 5".

Now, add a couple inches for overlap and error (5" + 2" = 7") and you have your measurement to cut your strips.

Measure and mark your shower curtain where you intend to sew (every 5" in my example) from the bottom, up. I didn't do this step and you can see my ruffles start heading uphill on the right. Don't do as I did... :)

Cutting the strips

I cut my strips on the long edge of the plastic table covers, so they were 7" x 102". Cut three strips for each ruffle. So, for my 6 ruffles, I cut 18 strips. Each ruffle will require about 2.5 strips to cover the 70" width of the shower curtain.

Making the strips ruffly

Enter sewing machine. Set your stitch length to the longest possible. Adjust tension to achieve the ruffle you like. Run each strip through your machine with about a half inch seam allowance. I noticed each strip ruffled up a bit differently, but don't be alarmed, you won't notice once it's all assembled.

Assembling the skirt

Start from the bottom and work your way up. So for me, that was the purple ruffle. It is not difficult to sew it up, rather it is a bit unwieldy. Make sure you have plenty of room around and behind your machine. You'll need it. As you add more ruffles, you'll have to roll up the excess to help guide it through your machine. Take your time and adjust as you go along.

Then hang it up and admire your work. You can really see my uphill to the right in this pic. Take the extra 5 minutes and mark some lines on your shower curtain to avoid this rookie mistake. ;)

A cheap, but very high-impact, party decoration for less than $10. And I had plenty of strips left over to make a coordinating poof to decorate the front door!

Let me know if you have any questions!

linking here.

Rainbow Party Favor Bags and Bracelets

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie @ the Backless Shirt Blog) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 14:31:00 +0000

These are so simple, they don't need a tutorial, but I wanted to share some details with you so you can make your own Rainbow Party!

Simple favor bags.

This could be done with any color scheme, but I thought it looked like a rainbow coming out of the bag so it was perfect like this!

Get these spools of ribbon at your local craft store for cheap! These were from Michael's and were 3/$1.00 on sale. I think they are normally only $.50 each. So, my 6 colors were $2. Can't beat that. I already had these little handled bags, but any bag would work. Try brown or white lunch sacks!

Use a couple inches of scotch tape, line your ribbons on the tape in the order you want, then just tape it to the inside edge of the bag. Easy.

Rainbow Personalized Bracelet Favors.
The bracelets were simple, too. I purchased letter beads and multi-colored beads at our local Hobby Lobby during a 50% off sale. I already had the 'Stretch Magic bead and jewelry cord' and a needle with a large enough hole to string the elastic. The elastic cord I had was 5mm. Pretty sure I saw similar stuff at Wal-Mart.

String on your beads, adding the names, or a word that goes with your party theme. Even Ethan (almost 9 year old brother) got in on the action making himself one in purple and yellow with the word, "Vikings" (after his love for the Minnesota Vikings) and a yellow one with a Pokemon character name. (are your kids into Pokemon?)

I sized the bracelets using Maeve's wrist as a guide. You just don't want it to be tight. Otherwise, these are pretty forgiving. Knot the elastic several times over and then clip the ends about a 1/16" from your knot. I gave it a tug before clipping the ends, just to be sure it wouldn't come undone.

See the whole party here. And a pinata tutorial here.

Pretty Piñata on the Cheap

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie @ the Backless Shirt Blog) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:00:00 +0000

I'm ~~cheap~~ frugal.

I will do almost anything to avoid paying full price for anything.

And after seeing Becky of Infarrantly Creative's tutorial for a paper bag pinata, there's no way I was spending $15+ on one (that didn't match the rainbow theme, no less)!

Here's how mine came together.

I must give credit to Dana of MADE, because she showed me the magic that happens to crepe paper streamers when you feed them through your sewing machine!

Now that you have ruffled your streamers, let's build!

I used a paper sack that had a handle on top so I could hang the pinata (from the swingset!). It wasn't part of the plan, but as it turns out, the stripes on the DSW sack were very helpful in keeping my layers straight. Bonus!

Plug in your hot glue gun.

Start at the bottom (not on the top, like I did in the pic below -- oops!).

You could leave it as is, or if you have extra ruffles, glue them to the bottom for added color!

Easily hung from the rings on the swing set and ready for a good smashing! It made for a pretty sturdy pinata, given all the thread and hot glue. I recommend candy that can't be pulverized...a pretty shower of Smarties powder sprinkled out of the pinata as it was whacked!

Disclaimer: Buying yourself an incredibly cute pair of flats at DSW will drastically increase the cost of this project. :)

linking here and here.

Maeve's Rainbow Birthday Party

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie @ the Backless Shirt Blog) — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 14:48:00 +0000

My baby girl turned six this month and we celebrated with a colorful Rainbow Birthday Party!

The invitation is my first-ever made from scratch using Photoshop Elements. I'm slowly learning the basics, so here's my simple invite!

We invited kids from Maeve's kindergarten class and had a party of eleven including the birthday girl! Maeve greeted each friend with a handmade rainbow bracelet with their name on it. It also helped us keep track of who had arrived!

bracelet details here

Food was simple (and store-bought). gasp! I simply ran out of time, so I assembled the pretty rainbow fruit platter from pre-cut fruit. I cut the fruit into smaller pieces so they'd be kid-bite-sized.

I pulled out the handy tiered tray from the tutorial I did last summer. It made a perfect display for colorful sugar and M&M cookies!

If you do a rainbow party, you must get the rainbow Twizzlers. They were a huge hit with the kids. I cut them into thirds; don't they look like tasty confetti?!

My husband made tissue paper poms last year and Maeve ordered them again this year. They even have scalloped edges! ;) And they look great on the railing.

We covered the living room cabinet with my ruffly rendition of the rainbow table skirts I've seen all over blogland. All for just $9 in materials. It was so colorful!

Click here to learn how I made this table skirt.

A balloon swag filled the hallway and invited guests into the party. There's the birthday girl showing off her balloons. She and her brother worked hard blowing up a lot of those!

For activities, I picked up a few rainbow scratch art kits from Michael's. Each pack came with 6 bookmarks and was only a dollar. Also at the art table was dyed ditalini pasta and Elmer's glue. I soaked the pasta in rubbing alcohol & food coloring for one hour, rinsed, then dried overnight.

I found these small pails at Hobby Lobby for a quarter a piece on the clearance shelf b/c they had initials on them. All that was left were "i" and "u". Nothing a little spray paint can't fix! They were perfect for holding the pasta for the art table.

It was a whopping 84 degrees here in Iowa in the middle of March! That's ridiculous...but we took advantage of it by having outdoor activities, including the art table (translation: less mess)!

Two clear boxes filled with skittles and M&Ms asked the kids to guess how many. The guesses ranged from 20 to 2000! The winners got to take the candy home!

Maeve didn't want (another) birthday cake - "because we had one for my family birthday party" last weekend. Instead she requested jello! These were topped with whipped topping, if the kids wanted it.

And then it was pinata time! I loved the idea of a homemade pinata -- not so much the idea of paper mache, though. Becky at Infarrantly Creative has a great tutorial for a paper bag pinata. Love. Fastened to the swing set. Easy. Here's how mine came together.

paper bag pinata details here

The favors were simple, handled white sacks with a line up of ribbons 'rainbowing' out of the top. (pretty sure that's not a word, but I'm going to use it anyway). The bags are filled with gum balls, flavored tootsie rolls, balloons, Twizzlers, and stickers - all of the rainbow variety, of course!

favor bag details here

It was such a fantastic party! And what generous gifts she received from friends! (And a special day for mom and dad, too!).

linkin up at the usual places and here

A Scrap-tastic Fabric Cuff - a quick & easy project!

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie @ the Backless Shirt Blog) — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 21:32:00 +0000

This is such a quick and fun project! And great for that growing pile of scraps under my sewing table!

It's also a great way to practice my quilting skills. I decided I should work on that a bit before I dive into my first quilt. Thanks for all the wonderful suggestions for layout. Once I make a decision, I'll give you a peek!

For this scrap-tastic fabric cuff, you need various scrap pieces that are of similar size. These are scraps from Melissa's beach wedding totes and wristlets designed by Anna.

Sew them together with a plan (or without). Press your seams open. Trim it to your wrist circumference + an inch for seam allowances and overlap.

Cut another piece of fabric for the back (the part that'll touch your skin). I chose a fine wale corduroy that has a nice soft touch.

Sew the two pieces RST (right sides together) leaving a 1 1/2 inch opening for turning. I left my opening on one of the long edges to avoid a mess at the corners.

Press again. Top stitch. I wanted mine to have a quilted look, so I top stitched each section. You can do it how ever you'd like!

Lastly, use a snap plier set (got mine at JoAnn's for $10 or so using a 50% off coupon, of course) to install a simple snap. I only put one on this cuff (I used a white one, so it's a bit hard to see in the pic below); it would look cool with two snaps placed side-by-side as well.

The finished cuff is just shy of 9" in length and about 1 3/4" in width. I had about an inch of excess past where I placed my snap. But I've been told I have freakishly small wrists. Bear in mind my wee-bitty wrists when you are planning your scrap-tastic fabric cuff. :)

There you have it! Go use up those scraps! I have a couple nieces who'll love these for their birthday next month!

linking here, here, here, and other parties on the "Party On" tab.

Making my first quilt - The Plan (sort of)

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie @ the Backless Shirt Blog) — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 19:24:00 +0000

I have a new love. It combines my simple, clean style and the satisfaction I get from creating things. Modern quilting.

bricks quilt

equilateral triangle quilt

I hear there's a movement underfoot, but I'm sure some of you stepped outside the traditional quilting box long ago. The rest of the world is just taking notice. I'm sure it helps that fabric designers are starting to put out fabric that is conducive to quilting in a fresh, new way. On the other hand, the best modern quilts out there are made entirely of solids. I used to pass over the solids thinking they were too quiet, plain, understated. Silly me.

After months of admiring the quilts of others, I committed to creating a modern quilt of my own. In fact, I made it my 2012 resolution. So for the last 6 weeks, I worked to introduce solids to my ~~hoard~~ collection of fabrics. Welcome, Bella and Kona!

I know I need to start simple. A basic, easy pattern. For me, that translates to:

a single shape to cut (squares, it is!)
a shape that is easy to cut (four straight edges, 90 degree angles - I have the rulers for that!)
a forgiving pattern (the plus sign seems basic, no?)

Thank goodness for free tutorials! In Color Order gives a nice step-by-step.

layout - via In Color Order blog

Feeling like I could handle it, I started cutting. Four-and-a-half inch squares, because I had half yard cuts and wanted to get the most out of them. I mixed in a couple simple geographic prints in the same color scheme. Stacked them in pretty uniform piles, then didn't touch them for a week. Ugh.

[fast-forward about a week]

I decided on a white background, so I pulled out a white table cloth, laid it on the floor and started arranging - then rearranged - then rearranged - then rearranged.

This is just a few of the iterations ~~worth photographing~~ that I came up with. Sorry for the 'great' lighting (where is that sarcasm font when you need it?). This is the best my basement has to offer. :)

At this point, I'd like to say I slept on it, pondered it, gave it a lot of thought. But the truth? I queued up a DVR'd episode of Toddlers and Tiaras and 'distracted' myself for close to an hour. [imagine how much fabric and uber cool sewing machines they could buy with the money they spend on pagents...I digress].

With a newly refreshed brain (ha!), I went with option 2 for it's gradient nature. Laid out two more rows and went to hang out with my husband for a while (after snapping a few pics with my iPhone - which I also love, almost more than I love a Starbucks Americano - which is a lot).

And that's where I am. I think I like it ah-laht (said in the voice of Lloyd Christmas in Dumb and Dumber).

Here's where I could use your help. Should I:

fill the rest with white blocks (keeping just these three rows of color) OR
fill in the rest with the repeating rows (so it's an overall pattern)

Help? Thoughts?

linked here

Happy Valentine's Day! a quick and cheap classroom valentine

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie @ the Backless Shirt Blog) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 04:57:00 +0000

Edited to add: Click here for the printable!

Happy Valentine's Day!

xoxo

Use your printer settings to print 4 per page. I stapled several sheets together (outside of my cutting area, of course) so the sheets would stay straight while I cut them out.

Other variations include:
"Our 'school' is cool because of YOU!"
"You make our 'school' cool."

The bags (bought a pack of 100 for $2.99 minus 40%) stuffed with the card stock inserts. Doesn't this pic look a little trippy?

The kids chose Goldfish crackers instead of Swedish Fish (which I was a *bit* disappointed by, btw).

We made about 50 valentines and used about 2/3 of the giant milk carton-shaped Goldfish package.

Print. Trim. Fill. Give. Eat.

It doesn't get any easier than that, right?
(well, maybe it would be easier to buy a huge bag of boxed nerds and just hand those out...but they aren't nearly as cute!)
(don't worry, we bought said bag of boxed nerds...they are slowly disappearing into my belly)
(just doin' my share to keep Wonka in business)

linked up here: http://todayscreativeblog.net/

Photo-a-Day Feb 6, 7, and 8: dinner, button, sun

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie @ the Backless Shirt Blog) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:52:00 +0000

My Photo-a-Day

via fat mum slim

Photo-a-Day Feb 5: 10am

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie @ the Backless Shirt Blog) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 03:41:00 +0000

My Photo-a-Day

10am team photo after 9am game (we won!). These kids improved *so* much since the start of the season. Yep, that's 'assistant' coach Josh over there!

via fat mum slim

Photo-a-Day Feb 4: a stranger

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie @ the Backless Shirt Blog) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 16:11:00 +0000

My Photo-a-Day

This guy has been a stranger to us all winter. Today was the first significant snow...enough for the kids to make a snowman.

via fat mum slim

Photo-A-Day Feb 3: hands

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie @ the Backless Shirt Blog) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 17:21:00 +0000

My Photo-a-Day photo

My hands at work after everyone went to bed. (got a bit too close to the zipper - love my seam ripper!)

via fat mum slim

Photo-A-Day Feb 2: Words

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie @ the Backless Shirt Blog) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:39:00 +0000

My Photo of the Day

I *love* this skit from SNL.

It makes me laugh when they break character and struggle to keep it together. Keep an eye on Jimmy Fallon in the background....come on...does it get any funnier? My photo is a tribute:

Day 2: [Words] This is on the side of the fridge in the break room at work.

via fat mum slim

February Photo-A-Day...Feb 1 pic, a day late

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie @ the Backless Shirt Blog) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:10:00 +0000

I found this Photo A Day Challenge over at fat mum slim. And in spirit of the new year and all things organization (and b/c I already take at least one pic a day with my iPhone) why not put some structure and purpose to my photo snapping!

Day/February 1: your view today

I kick off my birthday month being sick. Here's my view at work during an all-day meeting, complete with my morning bev of choice, an Americano, tissues, hand sanitizer, and Vaseline for my poor chafed nose. [insert tiny violin here]

Sweep it under the proverbial rug...

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie @ the Backless Shirt Blog) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 03:11:00 +0000

My crafting and sewing has seemingly taken over the house. The ugliest of which is in our dining area. Right between the kitchen and the living room. Translation: where everyone can see it. It's so convenient to have it close to the table when I drag it all out, but it's not pretty. So I finally did something about it.

What?! That before and after didn't knock you off your chair??? I'm still on mine as well. I would have liked it to hide a bit more. But I used what I had on hand. It turned out to be more of a distraction than a cover up. :) This area is such a high traffic area because it's a pass through to the living room.

It's a vast improvement over that (above)! And the worst part...I didn't even bother emptying the cabinet before I started piling my stuff in it.

This is the first time I've run plain ol' contact paper through the Silhouette. It worked best on these SD settings:

speed: 10
thickness:1
blue blade cap

I used transparent contact paper that I already had (bought at Target). If I had frosted, I would've used it instead. Then cut it to fit my Silhouette SD and fed it in (without the cutting mat). The new Silhouette Cameo's 12" cutting width would've made this project a breeze. Instead, with my SD, I had to cut three 9" sheets for each door and line them up with each other. Well worth the effort though!

I organized inside the cabinet, too. Put the china in a safer place, but still using the crystal bowl to hold miscellaneous stuff. I knew I registered for that for a reason. Ha!

Here's a better look at the contact paper circles.

This pattern of interlocking circles came on a CD with my Silhouette SD, but you could use any pattern you can find a .jpg of by Googling (or on Lougle - for any Hot Tub Time Machine fans out there!).

That is the beauty of the Silhouette...there's an easy "trace" function that can help you transform your design (or a 'borrowed' one) into a cutable file. It works best with black and white line drawings.

Here's a quick tip to filtering your results on Google, if you didn't already know:

In this example, I've searched for "interlocking circles pattern" and these are the initial results. Let's narrow this down.

The left-hand menu gives you options for filtering. First, select "Images". This filter will give you just the images that match your search criteria.

Then filter one more time by "Line Drawing" to make your search for the perfect file even easier:

There are a ton of free clip art-type images out there...just waiting to be made into something beautiful (or to disguise something not-so-beautiful in my case)!

Dear Blog,

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie @ the Backless Shirt Blog) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Dear Blog,
It's not you, it's me...I've just been really busy with work and the holidays and all. I promise to spend more quality time with you now. Really, this time I mean it. No more 3-week hiatuses. Pinky swear.
Love,
Jamie

P.S. Here's a bit of what you missed while I was neglecting you:

Christmas Morning at our house.

Playing with Dad's antlers (sorry, Bambi) at the farm.

Bacon and Egg headband for my bacon-loving niece.

I was only following instructions...

Maeve's first tooth!

Teachers Flash Mob at my kids' school!

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie @ the Backless Shirt Blog) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 02:41:00 +0000

I had to share this awesome video of the teachers at my kids' school. The kids had a sing along today and just look what happened! (the elf is the school principal!)

Happy Holidays...I hope you all enjoy your families and good friends this season!

The Winner is...

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie @ the Backless Shirt Blog) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 02:29:00 +0000

Thank you to everyone who came by and entered the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day. I was so pleased with the variety of geographic locations! I don't even have time to compile them right now, so I'll report that soon...besides, this is more important...The Winner of the wristlet from my etsy shop:

Lucky #10...Jennifer @ Ellison Lane Quilts! (If you're not Jennifer, and still would love the wristlet, they will be available tomorrow in my etsy shop!)

Jennifer blogs at Ellison Lane Quilts with a style that is right up my proverbial alley! She makes the most spectacular modern, fresh quilts and quilted projects. Here are a few that are simply beautiful:

My 2012 New Year's Resolution is to make (actually finish!) a quilt...new territory for me! Jennifer, if you have any tips, I could use 'em! Congrats on your win! I've sent an email to you.

Sew Mama Sew! Giveaway...week!

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie @ the Backless Shirt Blog) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 07:00:00 +0000

Welcome to Backless Shirt, the blog. Home to zero7one9 designs, my Etsy shop! I'm Jamie!

I would love for you to take a look around while you're here signing up for the Sew, Mama, Sew! giveaway...by the way, I'm in the "Handmade Bags" category.

Who doesn't love a practical gift? Especially when it's free and looks good!! Put all the essentials in this baby and go on about your business, in style! This is an exclusive fabric combination...not even available in the shop yet!

(Eek! See how new this is...I haven't even taken good pics of it yet!)

Giveaway will be open from December 12-16 at 5pm PST (that'll be 7pm central time). Winner will be chosen at random and announced (and contacted by email) here on the 17th.

To enter, it's so simple:

leave a comment and tell me what state you live in (I'm just curious). I'll post the results after the giveaway closes for everyone else who is curious! I need your email if you're the winner, so please don't forget that! Feel free to use a format like jamie at gmail dot com.

Also, it's completely not required, but if you look around and like my blog...be my friend, add me to your reader or subscribe by email (you'll find all of those things on the right).

I also tweet and pin, so find me there, too!

Good luck with all the giveaways!

Giveaway Details here.

Felt Holiday Bulbs...sewing with my 5 year old!

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie @ the Backless Shirt Blog) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 17:36:00 +0000

There are few things I love more than creating with my kids. Last week, Maeve and I did some hand sewing in preparation for the holidays. We made light bulbs that we'll string up on the front door (as soon as mom makes a few more).

Please know that a hand-sewing expert, I am not. I am more like a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of hand sewer. :)

It's so simple to do! I free-hand drew the shape of a bulb for a pattern, then cut the felt pieces. Stitched almost all the way around (leave about an inch or so), cut up an old lumpy pillow to use the for stuffing, then sewed on the "screw part" of the bulb (use a rectangle, fold it over into the square shape to save yourself a bit of sewing on one edge!). Then I stitched across the "screw part" to make it look more like an actual light bulb. Simple.

I had so much fun with Maeve on this little project! She said she *loves* making things with Mom. Melt. My. Heart.