Family Pictures...wanted this, so I made that.

In preparation for family pictures, I look for coordinating clothing.  Recently I was accused of being "one of those".  Who puts thought and effort into photos that will hang on my wall for years to come??  Thanks?!?!  I will take it as a compliment that I have attention to detail and not as a criticism.   Now, I don't necessarily want everyone matching.  In fact now, I would like no one to wear the same outfit (as you will see that wasn't possible).  So I start "shopping" in my kids closets and also search Pintrest for different color schemes.  After searching Pintrest, I knew what colors I wanted...Navy, gray and a splash of yellow.   Yellow was going to be hard, very hard.   I also didn't want to buy a new outfit for everyone (hence shopping in their closets).  So after many texts back and forth between my good friend (who I mentioned before in previous post...I should just out her) I had the outfits for the kids.  Now for my clothes.  Cream sweater with jeans and boots.  It goes, but I wanted to tie in.

Now remember my original color scheme...well green had found a way into the mix (thanks to Brady's shirt).  So my girlfriend searched another site for mainly hand made items for purchase, and found this scarf...

 

 NOW we are talking!!!  I LOVED it...however wasn't fond of the price tag.  Since my sewing machine is out from making the ruffle curtains (I am SO loving having a basement!!!) the hunt began for the fabric.  I searched JoAnne's online.  I didn't see it, however they had many plaids (or Tartans) so when the bigs got home from school I could NOT wait and loaded them to search.  I HAD to know.
When I say crafting is like an itch I need to scratch....it is!!  I also just got done being affected by the poison oak plant...so I know real itching...and I just need to scratch (please don't...it is so bad and can lead to infection...PSA over).
So at first pass I can't find it.  Bummer.  I walk around and around..finding flannel in multiple locations...then I spot it....insert angles singing!  I proudly gather my fabric and go to the cut out station.  Having not really researched a tutorial yet, I guess at the yardage.  I got 2 yards...fingers crossed!!
We get home and I can hardly wait, but the kids are hungry so dinner is done and then the start of bath time...so finally I get to start researching the exact tutorial I wanted.  I looked at a few but this by far appeared to be the easiest and quickest (to me)...HERE.  So I jumped in and after being a bit too rash, I had two scarves made one for me and one for my dear friend helping me.  Plus I had some scrap left over.
Here is it is!!  Super happy (don't mind the non matching shirt..)

After making the scarf and putting with my outfit I think I am done...no, not quite.  Juliet's dress is too summery and then I find this amazing yellow skirt in corduroy on clearance at Target...in her size!  So I bought it...I HAD to.  Now I am happy.  I also decide to use the scrap to make a sash for Viv's denim dress, to tie her in.  So days before the photos I make the sash, only to find out that Viv says her dress is too small....ugh...off to Old Navy to get a new one (at least I can hand it down...right?).  Ok...NOW I am happy...? Then I start putting everyone's clothes together and Jillian's shirt adds too much pattern to the new skirt paired with a polka dot sweater...AGHHH!  Insert matching dress to Viv...we had one already.  So I have two girls in matching denim dresses and only enough fabric for one sash...
To make a long story short (as you can see I am long winded) I decided after a painful decision (because I knew it would be a pain!) to add the fabric to the cuff of each girl's dress...don't ask..ok if you really want to know comment below and then I will post how I did it.  When I get the photos from the shoot I will post how it looked here..it is super cute!  The girls loved it!  The best part...I had extra fabric to tie Juliet in with all us girls...
I started researching rosette's with fabric and ribbon..I quickly twisted and turned and made a rosette...now hopefully when I get the glue gun I can do the same.  So out came the glue gun and I started over and this is what I  got. 

 I still had some fabric left over and I played until I created a bow...again if you post you want a tutorial I will be happy to post!

The morning of the photos I ran to Target to get headbands and attached them with some felt from another project (no one will miss it..right?!?!)

Voila coordinating headbands!  NOW I am happy....which is good because I had to leave in a couple of hours and had three girls hair to do and my own!!

So from two yards of fabric I made two scarves, four sleeve inserts, and two head bands.  Did I mention I had a coupon!?!?  I think it totaled about $14.  I can't wait to share the pictures with you.  I saw a preview and love them!!!

Remember comment here or on the FB page if you want to know more information about the sleeve inserts or the headbands.
Meanwhile, go get some flannel and make yourself a scarf!! The other can be a gift...maybe for a teacher or family...it's that time of year.  Nine more weekends before Christmas....


*******Update*******
So as promised here are a few photos from our photo shoot.  A huge shout out to Megan at A Beautiful Moment.  She is located in southern CA but I am hoping she comes east soon.  Her website is here.
Now for the photos.  I just picked quickly from the thumbnails...so I am holding on to some special ones for Christmas surprises...so sorry I can't share all of them (or my most favorites..) 

 Maybe a better view of the cuff??

Can you see the cuff embellishment?

May we always continue to keep having fun.....

Labor of love....?

I didn't realize that when we moved here, that I was afraid to really dig into decorating the girls rooms because the fear of us moving after only 2 years.  So other projects were put ahead of the fun stuff..painting, hanging pictures, moving furniture (which we actually have done a lot of switching of kids rooms...a topic for another day).  Toward the end of summer I started to tackle painting rooms.
An old friend had moved into the area and I was inspired to actually put this house in MY order.  So I tended to steal some of her ideas.  She sent me a picture of her sweet babies room and I just loved it.  Painting was the easy part...a can of paint is rather inexpensive.  I chose Benjamin Moore's Owl Gray (bc my friend did...and it looked great).  So I drove to the local shop, so I could take it to Home Depot to have them color match.  When I handed him the card, the clerk told me I didn't need the card, that they had the colors on file.  I don't know if that is true for all Home Depots, but I was excited about this because the closest Benjamin Moore isn't close...
But the curtains....

Those babies were from Pottery Barn Kids and I needed four panels.  No way with preschool, three kids in expensive activities could I fathom paying for four panels (remember I am a real mom with a real budget).   Then I remembered something I had pinned on Pintrest a while back.  Now to go find it.  It was Anthropology inspired ruffle curtains...I found it  HERE  PERFECT!!!  Her tutorial is pretty good so I really wont go do a tutorial but give you some advice I found.
First of all, she used a queen sheet cut in half to make the curtains and then three twin flat sheets for the ruffles.  I found something cheaper.  I went to Ikea (I am lucky to have one close) and bought two sets of their curtains, Vivan and 6 (I need to make four panels) twin flat sheets, Knoppa.  This brought the budget WAY down!  These total were $43.92 (plus tax).  Way better!!!  However this room faces the front of the house and gets the most sun.  So for privacy reasons and to decrease heat I decided to add a liner.  I opted to not get the full black out (because they didn't have enough in stock and I am inpatient) because they were almost to heavy for such light weight curtains.  I ended up going with something lighter..I believe it was called suede.  It was back by all the blackout liners.  It was on sale and I had a coupon...but it was still over $30.  I got 9 yards because I was cheap and had to do some joining of panels.
The first panel took the longest.  I cut the curtain to the size of half a queen sheet (so I could follow the tutorial).  If you aren't going to line the curtain you can leave one of the finished edges in tact.  I left the top until the very end, so I had enough length.
I followed the directions to make the ruffles from the tutorial.  This is definitely not a quick task...especially when making 40 ruffles (I had 10 per panel which is different from the tutorial).  I did the first two panels first and then many weeks later (because of traveling) I did the other two.  So I would make a goal, like hem 10 ruffles or as many as I could in an hour.  This is very time consuming project!!!  So take the pressure off, give yourself plenty of time and just bang it out an hour at a time.
To ruffle each strip I found it the easiest (of course at the end) to fold each strip of fabric in half and hang on to both sides of the bottom string and ruffle both sides toward the center (or to the bottom since they are folded in half).
Since I was making so many I measure where I attached each ruffle and did the same for all the other four.  If a ruffle was way off I just laid the panel I was working on, next to the completed panel and adjusted the height, so that the bottoms matched.
Attaching the liner is just like any other liner.  I have made curtains before so I just kinda winged it.  I am sure you can find a tutorial out there!
For the top...so for my last ruffle, I folded the fabric that was left (the top of the curtain down over all the ruffles and stitched just below where I attached the last ruffle.  The I folded it up...then attached my liner. After cutting off the top part of the original curtain, it was too long and I didn't need it.  I made a pocket rod with the liner and the curtain.  And done!

Don't mind the space around the windows.  I have been waiting for the hubby to put up the molding we removed before I painted.

Labor of love.....more like very, VERY frugal.  Now my eldest wants these....sigh.

I wrote this post while the kids were running around so if you have questions, please ask!

I hope you enjoyed the first post...my I wanted this, so I made that!

I am back....

Hello all! 
I have decided to return to my blogging...
The past two years have been incredibly busy for my family.  The list includes deployment, another baby, a move across the country and starting my own business.
Stay tuned for a new post in the next few days...