No-Sew Adorable Owl Costume

My little gal isn't a fan of anything restricting, so I knew her costume this year would have to be simple and adorable. She loves birds, so a whimsical owl is very appropriate. Plus, a glue gun is all you need to piece it together!
I used:
*A hoodie I got on clearance last year. ** Check thrift stores or walmart for a cheap one
* About 1/4 yd each of three coordinating fleece solids to go with the purple hoodie. (Joanns has them on sale all the time)
* A small square of felt in white, black and yellow, for the eyes, stomach, and beak.
* A glue gun with lots of glue 1. Here comes the cutting! Out of the white felt, cut an oval for the belly, as well as two circles, and small half-moon shapes for the eyes. Cut smaller eye circles from the black felt, and a beak from the yellow. (It is not shown in the picture, but I also cut out some feet shapes, with holes just big enough to slip around her ankles)
Make a feather template from paper (my feathers are 5" tip to tip, and 3 1/2" across.) Start cutting out feathers till you have enough. ** I used 20-25 of each color for a toddler-size costume.
I cut the stomach oval in half and glued one to each side, keeping space open for the zipper. Then starting at the bottom, glue one color of feathers in a row, their sides barely overlapping. Make sure to only apply glue to the top half of the feathers, so they can flutter about as your cutie is moving. Continue layering up, in different colors, making sure each new row is placed adjacently, filling in the spaces between the feathers underneath it.

When you are finished with the body, start at the bottom of each arm and work your way up. Then, finish the back the same way. Fill in additional feathers wherever needed.

Lastly, glue on the eyes and beak.

Your little one is sure to be cozy warm and flying in style the Halloween.

**Although she didn't mean to do it, the bulk of this costume made little E hold her arms out, just like a soaring birdie! Oh how I love her!

Leopard Skinnies

You better believe that if I could find them in my size, E and I would have matching leopard skinny jeans! Is there anything cuter?!

So many fabrics, so little time

I apologize for not being very present. Our hard drive crashed and we've been trying to get by with using the computer at the library. I am so thankful for new followers and nice comments. Look for a giveaway next week!
Beautiful fabric is my weakness, my favorite eye-candy, my obsession. Here are a few patterns (all found at Fat Quarter Shop online) I'm drooling over right now:




Sweetwater Hometown
Supposedly you can find basically any town's name in the fabric. Can you find yours? I love the vintage-y feel this gives. If it wasn't so dang expensive, I'd make a new body pillow cover out of it to go with the new grey theme of our bedroom.



Farm Fresh by Riley Blake
Wouldn't this collection be darling for a baby boy or girl's room. I especially love the animal prints! I think I'll use it for our next baby if we don't find out the gender. ** It comes with a green background (Grassland,) or a blue background (Prairie.)

Organic Soul Blossoms by Amy Butler
I'm always a fan of Amy Butler's funky prints. A couple choices from this collection would go great with the Kelly Green Anthro bedspread I'm making.
**More on the Anthro bedspread is coming soon. It has taken longer than expected to put everything together. Guess you know what I'm doing this weekend!

Soup Anyone?

While Princess E’s computer is on the blink, her Grammy B has been given permission to put up a few posts. Here goes…

Fall is just around the corner and that means: Soup Time! I found this soup recipe in the LDS Living magazine today and with my overflowing basket of zucchini decided to give it a try. And…it is a yummy appetizer. I tweaked the recipe a bit:

Easy Cream Cheese Zucchini Soup

4 cups sliced zucchini

4 cups water, 1 cup ice cubes

1 (8-oz) package cream cheese

1 envelope onion soup mix or vegetable soup mix

Cook zucchini and soup mix in 4 cups water until very tender. Take off stove and add 1 cup ice to cool. Pour into blender. Add cream cheese. Blend until smooth. (My blender was too small to do this all at once, so I did it in two bunches.) Return to pot and heat through. Slurp.

Serves 6

I'm guest posting today!

I'm just thrilled to be guest posting over at Lolly Jane Boutique today. These twin sisters have an awesome vinyl shop, share tons of great tutorials, and have weekly link parties. Here's the cute and unique cuckoo clock with one of their vinyl designs that I'm looking forward to making soon. It'll be adorable in my kitchen. Head on over and check me out!

Easiest Ruffle Dress Tutorial

**** Originally posted on Lolly Jane****

My Princess E. is already all girl. She loves putting on mommy's jewelry and filling her purse with "treasures." I'm always on the lookout for new "pretties" to make her. Today I want to share a super simple tutorial for a boutique-looking baby/ girl's dress. This dress will look so fancy on your little sweetie, and it will take 1 hour at the most to make. I found this already ruffled, beautiful fabric at Hobby Lobby for $7.00 a yard, and knew it would be perfect! Just look at those yummy ruffles!
1. For the dress width, I measured E around the chest, (19"), then added 2" for seam allowance and a little room (21".) Since I cut a front and back panel, I divided 21" in half and made each panel 10 1/2" wide. I decided how long I wanted the dress, and added 1" to be able to hem the top and bottom when finished. For the straps, I cut two pieces 9" long by 5" wide. (They'll be sewn into tubes)
2. Lay both dress pieces right sides together, making sure ruffles are facing the right way. To ensure that, after each pin, pull up the dress vertical and shake it to help them fall the right way. Fold the strap pieces in half, with the right side of the fabric on the inside. Sew the straps to form two tubes, and turn right side out. Sew both sides of the dress together, making sure to start at the top, to make sure the ruffles are sewn down correctly.

Keeping the dress inside-out, fold out the top and bottom openings 1/2" for hems, iron, and pin.

Then pin the straps to the front and back of the dress, 1" from side seam lines. Make sure you can see the seams on the outside, so they'll be hidden when the dress is right side out.

Sew the bottom and top seams, making sure not to catch any ruffles in the stitching. (Mine didn't turn out quite perfect, but it's really hard to see on this fabric!) Turn right side out, trim threads, and iron if needed.

Now what's a plain old black dress without a pop of fab color? I rolled a few fabric rosettes and made a matching necklace and hair clip set with them.

Isn't she such a dolly? It's easy to make things when you've got someone cute to wear them!

Super Saturday Centerpieces

Once a year, the women at church gather for an all-out crafting bonanza called Super Saturday. I had the opportunity to plan several aspects of the day, including decorations for lunch tables. With no money, I had to use already accrued items. Since I love glass jars, I thought it would be great to fill them with collections of cute craft items. Here are a couple examples. Didn't they turn out cute?