Sun Bonnet Sue Dish Towels

I'm feeling nostalgic today.  Growing up my mom always had flour sack dish towels with these cute girls sewn in the corner. I loved them. They were a wedding gift from her mother-in-law, my grandma and were showing their age. Fast forward to me getting married.  Grandma called and asked my mom what she could get me for my bridal shower.  I said that I would REALLY love some of her cute Sun Bonnet Sue dish towels. My grandma was thrilled that I would ask for something she could make.  I recieved 6 beautiful handmade towels for my bridal shower.

Fast forward to a hubby who loves to make cinnamon rolls. Did you know cinnamon stains? He uses my towels to cover the rolls as they raise.  How could I not sacrafice one towel for that yummy goodness that he bakes?  However, he doesn't use the same stained towel every time he makes cinnamon rolls, no matter how many times I ask, he always "forgets". So now all but one of my towels are stained and not so pretty looking. *sigh*

Before they are too far gone and have to be tossed, I figure I'd use a pin to the trace a pattern onto a sheet of paper underneath one towel. Then I connected the dots and used the pattern to create new towels since my grandmother no longer can lovingly sew me more.  They were easy to put together and I'm offering the pattern to you. So go ahead and whip some up for gifts or to enjoy their cuteness in your kitchen.

The basic how-to:
Print your pattern and cut out. (Right click on image below and print on 8.5x11 paper)
Pin to your fabric and cut out pattern pieces. (I stack several to cut at once.)
Sew eyelet trim to bottom of skirt.
Pin skirt to corner of towel and using a small zig zag setting stitch around skirt. Trim corner of towel off behind the eyelet trim and lower.
Pin and stitch around bodice and then finally around hat.
Paint (or draw with fabric markers) arms and flower boquet if desired.

Linking up at...
Crafty Confessions

Beach Bag Hide-a-Way

Ok. Technically we were at a waterpark, not a beach.

You have all seen on Pinterest the neat idea to clean out a sunscreen lotion bottle to hide your phone, cards, keys and money in. (I would post the pin here, but it has been hacked by some hungarian site that wants you to buy their stuff. I could NOT find the orignial pin and I refuse to support hackers!).

I prefer the spray cans of sunscreen, so I went off to the store to find the perfect lotion bottle. I hit a bit of a snag. I could not find a bottle with a wide enough neck (or that I could cut wider and not have it interfere with the snap on lid).  What to do?  I looked down below the lotion shelves and BINGO... found the deodorant sticks!

Now after standing in the water slide lines behind that one guy, don't you wish more people brought their deodorant with them to the water park!

After picking out a large one, without a see through cap, I headed home... well, after paying for it-- $1, yep, the dollar store! ;) 

After asking how long it would take Mr.L2D to use up this stick, I realized I really didn't want to wait.  So he just twisted up the stick and pulled out the insides. He pushed the inside stick out through the bottom and cut it off. Then he glued the twist dial back to the bottom. (He actually is correcting me saying that he melted the plastics together-- but you can just glue it, wink, wink.) 

Our park passes, money, and keys fit in it great. Sadly my cell phone wouldn't, so I'll still be on the look out for the right size lotion bottle. This works great for now!

$4 Front Door Mat

Front door mats... by golly they are expensive.  Here's a little "cheapy" ($6) I had on the front porch and ain't it tiny. Until I find one I absolutely love and am willing to dish out the dough for, I have to have something.

I went to the Dollar Tree to buy a box of ice cream cones-- did you know cones can go rancid? We pulled ours out of the pantry last night and blech!   I stumbled upon these carpet tiles.  I took up the whole isle laying out the squares in different ways.  I didn't like the square look, but a 2x3 rectangle was too big.  I ended up picking up 3 matching ones and a roll of duct tape.

After measuring and marking the tiles, I used a box knife and cut each one in fourths. 

Then I arranged them as a 3x4 rug. After flipping them over, I duct taped them together. I wasn't too impressed with the Dollar Tree duct tape. I'll see how long it lasts and then I might replace it with some "real" stuff. 

A much better size at almost 1/2 the price!  Wondering if a painted black monogram might look good on it too.  I just might try it.

EDITED TO ADD: It's been a month, and the dollar store duct tape has held up beautifully. Wondering if the sun melted it to the rug better. ;)

Circle Skirt...the easy way.

I love the look and... umm... twirliness of a circle skirt, so when I saw this on pinterest, I knew I had to make one-- DanaMadeIt: the Circle Skirt. Except I love easy and will cut corners whenever possible.  I also very much dislike hemming on a curve!  I headed over to the thrift store and picked me out a round tablecloth (Check for stains and wear!!). Now I admit this limits the length of your skirt--unless you want to re-hem it shorter or add a border to the bottom-- but then that negates the easiness of it!.  I chose a 70" round white tablecloth with a subtle stripe and ended up with a mid-calf length skirt on my very tall *wink, wink* 5' 1/2" frame. ;) Wish it was a bit shorter, but not enough to re-hem it! Oh, and it twirls beautifully for that inner little girl in me.

I followed Dana's directions in this tutorial, except I just skipped to the part where I cut the center circle for the waist and attach the elastic.  Then I was done. Super QUICK and EASY!! 

It is impossible (for me) to take a picture of myself in it-- I'm not a photographer and my point-and-shoot has been tossed around by kiddos and is currently being held together with a rubberband. (Christmas is coming, Mr. L2D!) I tried. I really did.

 HaHa...you can laugh! I am.

The 7 year old did better!

 Let's just hang it up outside!

I'm going to be on the look out for cute round end table cloths for when my daughter gets a bit older/taller.  For now, I'll have to hem for hers... yeah, I love her that much!

If you are a sew-er, or an aspiring one, go check out Dana's blog. There are fantastic patterns and tutorial for all sorts of cuteness!

Continous Green Onions

So we've all seen on Pinterest how to chop off the tops of your green onions, put them in water and watch them regrow. Never buy onions again, right!?

Ummm... not so.

I tried it. I chopped my green onions off, stuck the bulbs in a jelly jar and kept them watered on my kitchen window sill. Sure enough within in a few days they were HUGE. I was regretting the two rows of onions I planted in the garden and religiously watered for weeks by hand until the irrigation water was available.

I trimmed my forever green onions back again and waited.  It took about a week and half this time, but they did grow back.  Pretty neat. 

The third time was NOT the charm. I needed some more green onions for my yummy taquitos so I trimmed them a third time.

It's been 3 weeks since they had their last hair cut. They've gotten thinner and aren't coming back so well, the poor things. I think I might find some room in my garden for the little guys to get their strength back.  Guess my 5th grade science teacher was right. Plants need water, air, AND soil to grow.

They aren't forever onions, but one bunch stretched to 3, so it did save money.

Screen Printing--The Dollar Tree Way

I covet Yudu's Screen Printers. I don't love the price tag or the price of the supplies. I headed over to my neighborhood Dollar Tree and pickup some things that I thought might work for DIY screen printing.

I went.
I tried.
I painted...

And now you get to benefit from my trials and errors.  Here's what I did.  First, gather supplies...

(From Dollar Tree):                                   
Splatter Screen= $1
Princess Tutu= $1
Paint Scraper=$1
Alphabet Stickers=$1
Contact Paper= $1

(On Hand):
Fabric Paint
Small Embroidery Hoop
Craft Knife
Scrap Frabic/Paper for practicing
T-shirts (or whatever you want to print on)

(forgot the kitchen sink!)

Method One
Step 1:  This was already getting hard. I couldn't decide what image to print! ;)  Start simple. I drew a heart on the contact paper and cut it out using a craft knife. (see that cutting board-- it's the flexible ones from Dollar Tree, 2pk for a buck! They work great.)

Step 2:  Stick contact paper to the screen. I was worried it wouldn't stick to the mess but it did just fine.

 Step 3: Grab your paint scraper (I left the rubber edge protector on). Squirt a row of paint above the image on the contact paper.  See how much I did?... double, maybe even triple it! It wasn't nearly enough.  Also make sure the ends of the paint line goes past the image on either side.

Step 4: It is impossible to do this step and take a picture! (I enlisted my 7 year-old to help later on.)
Put screen on top of your scrap paper or fabric. Starting with the scraper almost vertical, drag it through the paint and across one side of the heart to the bottom of the image.  Then repeated for the other side. (See not enough paint!). I did need to go back over it one or two more times to smooth out the paint. 

Carefully lift screen off. The thickness of the screen gave the paint a nice thick texture.

 Step 5: Time to try it on the real thing. Same as above.

Awww... pretty!

If you clean the screen immediately before the paint dries you can reuse it. I used an old toothbrush to scrub it.

The textured look was fun, but it probably wouldn't work for small details. I moved on to the purple Princess Tutu. Really I was just looking for small holed netting while walking the isles of the store. They had some tulle in the wedding section, but I wasn't sure if it would fit in my hoop frame.

Method 2
Step 1: Cut the tutu to fit in a small embroidery hoop. (If you don't have one, tape the tutu fabric to a small cardboard frame cut from a sturdy box.) Pick of the glitter spots inside the hoop. They come off easily.

Step 2: I wanted to print words so I picked up this sticker pack and spelled out my phrase "Cutie Pie". I needed a border for the paint so I cut out another heart from the contact paper and placed it around the words.

Step 3: Lots of paint and drag the scrapper through it like I did above.  Next time I'll drag from the edges to the center of the design. There was a bit of seepage at the bottom. The more you go over the image with the paint the more seepage you'll get. That's why it is so important to start off with lots of paint.
**Remember that plastic cover I left on the scraper, well it was a pain to clean the paint that seeped under so I covered the edge of it with a scrap piece of contact paper. Great for easy clean-up too!

See the bottom of the heart? Need to fix that.

Ah. That's better.

Then I wondered..."Stickers on the wire mesh screen I used first?" They stuck pretty good and the paint had that thicker, textured look.

I printed 3 more hearts using the same pattern. On these I used two colors of paint. Pink on one half, white on the other. Squirted at the top like before, they blended nicely when drug across the screen.  By the 3rd time the pattern wasn't as sticky and it really seeped. So I had to embellish that one too. ;)

My mind is already turning at what I could do next.  I picked up a bunch of reusable shopping bags in a solid color that I'm for sure going to screen print for a fundraiser for our elementary school.

**I'm entering this project on Dollarstorecrafts.com 's July $5 Craft Challenge sponsored by The Dollar Tree.**

Also linked up at:
http://www.craftyconfessions.com/2012/07/tuesday-confessional-link-party.html
http://somedaycrafts.blogspot.com/2012/07/whatever-goes-wednesday-124.html

Cake Mix Pudding Cookies

One of my favorite blogs (The Mother Huddle) posted this recipe for Cake Mix Pudding Cookies. They looked delicious and super easy-- just my style.
Destri used a white cake mix and vanilla pudding. I tried a different combo... with excellent results!

Here's my recipe:

1 Butter Pecan cake mix
1 box vanilla pudding
1 stick margarine
2 large eggs
butterscotch chips (I didn't measure, probably 1 cup or so)

I used my tiny cookie scoop (because you can't just eat one cookie and this way I can!).

After 7 minutes my cookies were still a bit raw, so I left them in for about 9-10 minutes. I removed them immediately to a cooking rack and then once cooled I put them in a tupperware so they'd stay moist.  Perhaps 7 minutes would have been long enough if I left them on the hot cookie sheet when removed from the oven to continue baking, but when you need the occupied cookie sheet for the next batch and you don't want to be baking ALL night long, I cook 'em longer and remove 'em quicker so I can get the next batch in.

These are the cake mixes I have in my pantry: red velvet, double fudge, carrot, and pink lemonade. What shall I try next? 

Thanks, Destri, for the great recipe!