This year, I will be giving  my neighbors fleece throws. They are perfect for snuggling, for the kids, or to keep in the car. And the best part is that you can usually find them for pretty cheap this time of year. I’ve seen them at Target, Wal-mart, and Old Navy for around $5.00 each.

Easier than making a hundred thousand homemade cookies or even attempting anything fudge-dipped (last year they ended up in our tummies, not our neighbors’)

.

And, I’d like to share these tags I will be tying around the blanket with you for free!!!

You can right-click on the image and save it to your computer to print, or download on the links above the photos.

The tags are sized to print as a 4×6. Easy to print at your local photo center or on your home printer.

download the single 4×6 tag {here}

download the 4 tags on a 4×6 {here}

 If you have any troubles with my free printable tags, please email me:

MyCorduroyDreams@gmail.com

Every year I say I’m not going to send out a Christmas Card, but then when it comes right down to it, I always do.

Here is our family’s Christmas Card this year.

The reason I hesitate sending cards is because I always feel like I need to send out something cute and personalized. So I made a whole bunch this year and now I won’t have to make anymore for a few years. HA!

I would love to share them with you… for free!

All cards are 5×7 sized, except the stocking card (at the bottom), which is 4×6. They are easy to print at your local photo center. I love printing mine at Costco, 39 cents each! Or you can print at home. Make sure you save your photos as a .jpg to print at the photo center!

All files are downloaded as a .psd (unfortunately, you have to have Adobe Photoshop to be able to use these cards. You can download a free trial {here})

Here are some good tutorials on how to use these cards in photoshop:

Misty Cato Designs

Alibony.com

 All cards are for PERSONAL use only. Papers and embellishments used, by permission, from ShabbyPrincess.com

Click on the link above the card you would like to download.

{Black and White Snowflakes}

{Blue Snowflakes}

{Happy Holidays Blue and Red}

{Lotsa Ornaments}

{Merry Christmas Scroll}

{Simple Merry Christmas, Verical}

{Simple Merry Christmas}

{Snowman}

{Stockings}

If you have problems with any of my digital cards, please email me:

MyCorduroyDreams@gmail.com

My little girl, Molly, is very much a girly-girl. She loves everything pretty and sparkly. One of her aunts always lets her play with her makeup and put sparkles on her face. It has been really fun for Molly, especially since she rarely sees her own mother put any makeup on at all.

When we were thinking of what to get Molly for Christmas, one of my first ideas was play makeup. Of course she would love it. The problem is that she isn’t even two years old yet, and has NO concept of where makeup should and should not go. (see below)

(Yes, she almost always has CRAZY hair! That is a whole separate issue in itself.)

Since the thought of letting this little girl loose with anything brightly colored to smear on her face seemed a little messy to me, I knew I had to come up with a mess-free makeup for her to play with. One of my cousins shared this idea with me, and I loved it so much that I wanted to share it with you.

Pretend makeup… Replace the powder in your makeup with fingernail polish. Once the fingernail polish dries, Molly can pretend to smear it all over her face, and she’ll feel like she’s using real makeup, without the mess.

If I ever put makeup on, I might have some old makeup containers. But since I can’t even remember the last time I even wore makeup, I had to go to the dollar store and buy some. I also got some brushes, mirrors, and chapstick for her to play with. And of course, fingernail polish to replace the makeup in the containers.

I broke out all of the makeup.

And just poured in the fingernail polish. Pretty simple.

I knew that once I had all of the fingernail polish in the makeup containers, I would have to put them out of sight for a while to dry. So I put them on a foil-lined baking sheet so I could move the makeup without spilling it.

We only had one mishap when Molly fell and landed in the filled makup containers. I’m pretty sure this is NEVER going to come off of her hands.

(Yes, she knows what she is getting for Christmas, and even tried to help me with it.)

Here is the finished product.

You can see below, where some of the fingernail polish spilled on the edges when Molly fell into it.

Next, I am going to sew a bag to hold all of the play makeup, brushes, sponges, combs, and mirrors. Just like Aunt Shanna has.

Bathroom re-do.

This is what it looked like before we moved in. VERY PINK!!!

This is what it looked like for a long time. No carpet, no baby in the tub. Chocolate brown and pink.

One day, The Mr. came home to this! He had ok-ed the painting, but I made it permanent!

The Mr. was so good to cut and install all of the beadboard.

We did the beadboard 5 feet up, and installed new lighting and a new cabinet mirror.

The last step was installing the trim. I love what good trim does for a room!

Even when it’s not very clean, the bathroom looked and felt MUCH cleaner afterwards.

We are thrilled to announce that we are expecting baby #3 in April.

I am 13 weeks along, and feeling GREAT!!!! We aren’t going to find out the gender of this one, so expect lots of gender-neutral tutorials to start popping up!

Thanks for following!

]]> http://www.corduroydreams.com/2011/10/announcing.html/feed 0 http://www.corduroydreams.com/2011/10/announcing.html?&owa_medium=feed&owa_sid= http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CorduroyDreams/~3/Cc2LKoLHoLg/ruffle-skirt-tutorial.html http://www.corduroydreams.com/2011/08/ruffle-skirt-tutorial.html#comments Wed, 24 Aug 2011 15:48:04 +0000 corduroydreams http://www.corduroydreams.com/?p=475 It’s no secret that I LOOOVE me some ruffles. It all started with my ruffle lamp and now I’m going crazy over ruffles on my little girl.

The other day, I was shopping with my good friend, and I saw a really cute silky ruffle skirt at Baby Gap. I was tempted to buy it, but the $32 price tag was a little steep for something she’ll wear 3 times and most likely ruin anyway.

So, instead of buying the skirt, I looked really closely at how it was made, and came home to make my own.

And you won’t believe how much it cost me.

Four Dollars.

Take that, Baby Gap!

 I paired the skirt with a plain, pink onesie. The black flower on her onesie is just a hair flower clipped onto the neck.

Her headband is made from nylons, and her hair bow was made using this singed flower tutorial.

And just cause you’re all dressed up, doesn’t mean you can’t play in the dirt!

Would you like to make a sweet ruffle skirt for your own little girl? (or even for yourself?)

Here’s How:

I started out at my favorite place on this planet, HOBBY LOBBY!!

My sister in law was so sweet to give me a gift card to Hobby Lobby. She really knows me! I would take a Hobby Lobby gift card over just about anything, including cash!  Thanks, Shawnee!

I picked up a yard of black Silky Polyester fabric for $2.99 and this waistband elastic for $2.59. I ended up using less than half of this elastic.

made this skirt for my very slim almost 2 year old daughter, so you might have to adjust the measurements according to the size of the child you’re making the skirt for.

I measured my daughter’s waist, which was 18 inches, and decided that I wanted the skirt to bunch a little, but not too much, so I made my skirt 1 1/2 times as big as her waist (27 inches), by 12 inches long (or however long you want your skirt to be.)

So, you’ll just cut a rectangle to those dimensions. (27 x 12)

Then hem under the bottom and top edges (this just shows the bottom edge, but do the top too.)

Now you’ll cut your ruffle strips. They need to be as long as the waist of your skirt. Mine was 27 inches.

I cut my ruffles 5 inches wide, and I used 7 of them.

Side note: Remember how I’m staying with my parents while we build our house? Well, that means I get to use my mom’s sewing stuff, which is a little antique. My mom got this measuring tape in 1967 and it’s been taped back together a few times. I love using her sewing stuff, it really makes me feel so special.

You’ll take your ruffle strips and sew them in half length-wise. There is a right and wrong side to this fabric. Usually you’ll sew right sides together, but for this skirt, make sure you sew wrong sides together.

 You’ll want to make a long tube.

Then take your skirt base fabric.

And pin your first ruffle on the bottom with the sewn edge toward the top. We are working from the bottom up.

(And yes, now I realize that these pictures make it look like I’m starting at the top… oopsie!)

Then you’ll top stitch your ruffle onto the fabric.

Keep adding layer after layer, adding the ruffles on top of each other.

Make sure that your ruffles are covering the seams underneath them.

soon you’ll have all of your ruffles sewn on top of each other.

And this is what it should look like once all of your ruffles are on.

Now you’ll sew your back seem. Right sides together. make sure you start at the top, sewing down, so your ruffles don’t get caught and wrinkled up.

It should look more like a skirt now.

Take the elastic and sew it, right sides together. Make sure the waist band is the actual size of your baby’s waist. So, mine was 18 inches.

Pin the waist band’s seam to the skirt’s seam (this will be the back seam). Then pin the opposite side of the elastic to the opposite side of the skirt.

The skirt is still inside out here, and the waist band is too.

You’ll want to pin the waist band all the way around, but it might be a little tricky because the skirt is bigger than the waist band, right?

So, just keep pinning between your two pins. So you’ve already pinned the front and the back in, now go to the sides and pin them in. Then go between those pins and pin. Keep going until you’ve got it all pinned around.

Now this is the really tricky part. Sewing on your waist band. You will top stitch your waist band to the right side of your skirt. But, you have to stretch the elastic as you go.

Set your machine to the widest and longest zi-zag stitch you have. This will allow the elastic to stretch once you’ve sewn it.

You’ll need to grab the elastic both behind and in front of your presser foot and streeeeetch it. Instead of letting your machine feed for you, you will feed it through the machine yourself.

I did a  pretty terrible job at feeding it through straight, so do better than I did. But, this is what your elastic should look like. Top stitched onto your skirt.

And…. the finished product.

This skirt took me about 30 minutes to make, and like I said, it cost around $4.00.

This is the perfect little dress-up skirt. The high-waist looks especially cute on the little ones.

I may be a little biased, but come on, that is one stinking cute little high-waisted ruffle skirt!!!!

Thanks for following, gals! Please leave a comment or email me with any questions you may have. And, if you really do make this skirt, please send me a photo. I’d love to see what you’re working on!

Nat@CorduroyDreams.com

We got ourselves completely moved out of our house and turned over the keys yesterday.  I hugged my sweet neighbors goodbye and looked at their kids faces one last time before I burst into tears and got in the van, totally distraught about the entire ordeal. I was honestly surprised that I am the only one who had a hard time with leaving our home sweet home. The Mr. was too worried about the trailer and the tie-downs and getting everything squared away, Molly was too tired and too young to know what was going on, and Benson was only sad about the ice cream that we couldn’t take with us, so we left with our neighbors. It was, after all, play-doh ice cream, and I was a little sad about that part too.

Here we are, on our last day of moving. Ready to hand over the keys and move on.

Although I am sad at times, we really are happy to be out of that house. We had outgrown it, and we are SOOOOOO excited to build a new home, and to live in a better (for us) area.

When we left our house for the last time, I was in a bit of hysteria. The Mr. asked me why I was so upset. I had 2 reasons:

1. I know I am going to miss my neighbors.

and…

2. I’m leaving the house that we made our home.

The Mr. and I have really put a lot of work into that house (actually, it’s a duplex), and I felt sad knowing I was leaving all of MY special spots behind us.

That house has been like a project for me, and today, I want to share one of my favorite things we did while we were there.

Our KITCHEN re-do.

Here is what it looked like when we moved in. When we bought it, all of the walls were pink. They were quickly painted a very neutral beige, and this is what we had.

It was a lot of work (mostly for The Mr.), but I honestly LOVED how it turned out! It really felt much brighter and cleaner once we had everything fixed up!

You’re welcome.

Now, I know I’ve been gone for a while. Honestly, it’s because moving sucks, and I was busy.

But, I promise I am back! Since we are staying with my parents while we build our house, I’m not sure what kind of projects I’ll be doing… But, I promise I will be here.

We have had our house under contract to sell for a couple of weeks, so we knew one day, we’d have to live somewhere else… Except, the buyer just contacted us and is pretty excited to move in. So, our moving day is coming MUCH SOONER than we had originally anticipate. And guess what? Once we are out of our house, we still aren’t sure WHERE we are going, so we are moving our stuff into storage and crashing at my parents’ house until we have it all figured out.

As of now, we are planning on building, which is SUPER exciting! And also, SUPER stressful!

So, I haven’t been blogging because, let’s face it, I’m stressed out of my mind.

Please keep following me, though, because guess what?

A new house is like a fresh canvas, ready to be slathered with decorations and all that jazz. And, of course, I’ll share all that “jazz” with you guys when it happens!

So, here’s what I need from you:

Please leave me a comment on this post telling me things you love about your house, things you wish you had in your house, and things you absolutely HATE about your house. I’m designing my own houseplans, and I need some advice of things to do, and things not to do.

Thanks, in advance, for your comments!

And, I promise, I will blog again. But maybe not until I have a house to put all of my crap crafts in.

Ha!

Thanks for supporting my blog!

Not before I messed it up a few times first, though. {click here to see how many different times I tried to make this lamp cute… and failed.}

Even though this lamp has been ugly for a few months now, I never gave up!

Here is the finished product! Cute, right? Yeah, I think so too.

If you want to ruffle your own lamp, all you’ll need is some spray paint, ribbon, and TONS of hot glue.

Here’s how I did mine.

I took this $6 thift store lamp…

Yes, in my attempts to make it cute, I even spray painted the lamp shade. Needless to say, it didn’t look cute.

It took me a while to figure out that there was an accordion-type cover on it. Once I got that off, it was smooth sailing…

Once I got that ugly old thing off, my lamp shade was still sticky, and globby, so I new I needed to cover it up instead of trying to paint it.

Enter my favorite ribbon EVER!!!! I got this stuff at Hobby Lobby for $1 a roll.

I took some ribbon and hot glued it around the base of my lampshade.

Then, I took the rest of it (6 rolls in all), and cut it all in half, length-wise.

I did this because I wanted to use half as much ribbon, and because I wanted it to lay flat on my lampshade.

Then, I just hot glued the strips onto my lamp, one on top of the other.

Once I got about 3/4 of the way up, I ran out of white ribbon, and so did Hobby Lobby. So, I decided I would do a blue stripe to match the base of my lamp.

Once I got all the way to the top, I added my final strip of ribbon, except I did NOT cut this strip down the middle. (I wanted ruffles on both sides of the ribbon).

And that’s it!

I love that this lampshade has just enough ruffle, but not too much that I want to gag.

And, it’s even cute with the light on.

It’s gonna look so cute in my little girl’s room, once we get into our new house!