easter!

so in the hussle and bussle of everything that is going on right now, i completely forgot to post easter pics from this year! 

what a great day! god really has blessed us with wonderful family and friends!

it all started with mason opening his gift from "the easter bunny".  he got a lot of goodies in the back of a dump truck.

easter outfit! :)

then we went to sunday school and then headed to flaherty for the day!  we stopped and saw mason's grandmama and papi ( :( no pictures ), and then we went to visit his nana and papaw and the rest of my side of the family.

the men :)

aunt katy and mason

the cabbage plant that i gave my papaw...he let it DIE!!!

we had some great food and mason got to do his first easter egg hunt!!! (he wasn't too thrilled!)

mason and hannah!

mason and daddy

love these boys!

it made for a long day, but it was well worth it! :)

it's spring time!!!

it is such a beautiful day outside today so mason and i decided to go outside to play! :)  here are some photos (commentated by me ) i took :)

mom...can we please go outside!?!?

vroom vroom

what is this stuff?

yuck!!

it's gonna get me!!!

mommy...help me!

i'm really getting tired of getting my picture made!!

oh, there's lily! high-five lily!

two peas in a pod

lily made everything all better!

can you see my tonsils mom?

humm...wonder what this thing does?

i also saw this great idea on pinterest to do with your kids every year.  i decided to do it today after i got a great picture of him.  click here to visit the blog i found it on. :)

mason's first haircut!!

my little monster got his first haircut today! he did such a great job sitting in the chair by himself.  the only time he cried when when i took the sucker away from him for a moment so we could clean his face! :) 

he is growing up so fast! it seems like only yesterday when we brought him home from the hospital and now i am starting to plan his first birthday! oh how time goes by! i wish he would slow down a little bit, i almost can't keep up.

here are some pictures from his haircut!

he would not drop that paci! :) 

 he wanted to know what she was doing back there. :)

he got a sucker when it was all over! :)

smiling with his certificate! :) :)

his certificate that goes in his baby book :)

i'm so proud of how well he did! i love this monster!

printables

here are some printables that i made. we use them in our home daily to help keep organized. :)

click here to open and download my weekly menu planner

click here to download my weekly cleaning schedule

click here to download my family budget planner



pillow case dress

i was thinking about what i wanted to do for my next project...i decided to make a pillow case dress.  on top of that....i decided to create a tutorial so i can show everyone how i made it. :)

i found a tutorial on pinterest (where else would i find one, right) and decided to follow it.  i did a couple of things different, including the size.  she made a 2T while i was trying to make a bigger one...size 6.     i love a lot of melissa's ideas on her blog.  click here to see her tutorial.

first thing you do is get your fabric.  i found three fabrics at the store today all 30% off!!! (side note: did you know you could use a michael's coupon at jo-ann's?  i didn't until today!  they accept competitors coupons. :)

i chose to start with the brown fabric first.

i then cut of the little white piece on the edge of the fabric...i am sure this has a technical name, but i don't know what it is. :)

then you put the edges together and iron all of the wrinkles out of the fabric.

then cut along the fold.

the next step doesn't have many pictures with it...so don't get lost, just follow the directions. :)

fold each of the two sides of the dress over about 1/2 an inch and iron down.

then sew them down.

now it is time to do the top casting part for the ribbon to go through. i made mine 1 1/2 inches long because i had 7/8 inch ribbon.  all you have to do is make sure you make it wide enough to fit the ribbon you are using. :)

fold down the top of the dress 1 1/2 inch and iron down.  then repeat and fold it again.

do the same thing to the other piece.

then sew at the bottom of the fabric.

now it is time to sew the two pieces together. :) :)

you need to determine how long the arm holes need to be.  with the size 6 that i made, i measured down 8 inches and pinned it in place.

now you need to sew the two pieces together right inside the other stitch.  i pinned the bottom of the dress as well to help me keep it together and straight.

oh...here is my new sewing machine! my old one broke :( but i LOVE this one! it is even martha stewart recommended...ha ha. ;)

then you need to open up where you just sewed and iron down both sides.  this helps the dress lay and hang right.

now i only sewed one side together at first and then did the bottom hem.  i went back after i hemmed the bottom and sewed the other side of the dress together.

to hem the bottom, fold it up one inch and iron.

then fold again and iron.

then sew at the top of the fabric all the way across.

(this is the time i went back and sewed up the other side of the dress. it is easier to do the hem with only one side sewed) :)

we are almost done...

time to cut the ribbon.  i cut each piece of ribbon double the width of the dress.

you need to have two pieces the same size.

now it is time to feed it through the top. 

i, cari, did not have a safety pin in this whole house nor in any of the craft stuff that i have.  so i had to come up with the next best thing to feed the ribbon through....a clothes pin! :)

it worked great!

feed one piece of ribbon through each of the top castings, tie your bows and violla!!

you have made a pillow case dress!

let me know how it works out for you! :)