From pants to shorts

Over the winter we slowly built up a small pile of pants that had holes too big to mend. It's unavoidable with boys. John comes home from school with a small hole in his knee, I'm lazy and don't make him take the pants off right away so I can patch them, and by the end of the day the hole is all the way across and starting to rip up his thigh and down his shin. So the pants go in the pile waiting to be turned into shorts.



With the warm weather we've had lately, this project was calling out to me. I essentially took scraps of material or old clothing, used them to make bias tape, then sewed them around the bottoms of the shorts.



Now we're all ready for this beautiful weather!



Joe was feeling left out of the photoshoot :)



You can go to the HBfabrics giveaway post from last week to see who won!

HBfabrics giveaway!

This giveaway is now closed.

Today I'm excited to bring you a giveaway from HBfabrics! Hilary and Chris sell designer fabric out of their home. Hilary also has her own line of products (Hilary Brooke Collection)... totes, wallets, iPhone and iPad cases, pack-packs, hooded towels, kids belts and ties... all made with beautiful fabric. In her own words:

Hilary Brooke Collection started out after I got together with a good friend and she taught me how to make a diaper bag. I was hooked! I quickly learned that many other women had the same desire as I did to have a bag that no one else had! That is when Hilary Brooke Collection began. I started buying fabric in bulk and filling up our formal dining room with wall to wall fabric. The small bag business quickly turned into our fabric store (HBfabrics) and Hilary Brooke Collection. I joined forces with my husband Chris and now we both love to find great fabrics and patterns and we continue to fill up our home with lovely fabrics and my own creations for HBC. We enjoy shipping great fabrics and unique handmade products out to our wonderful customers.

HBfabrics can be found online, on Etsy and on Facebook.



Today they are generously giving away a Charm Pack—42 squares from the "Ruby" line by Bonnie and Camille for Moda Fabrics, PLUS 2 yards from this line of your choice (valued at $27 + shipping!). It can be any combination in 1/4 increments... for example, 1 yard of one fabric and 1 yard of another, or 2 yards of 1 fabric, or 1/4 yard of 8 fabrics and so on. Oh, the possibilities!





Could there be a cuter line?! Can I enter the giveaway? :) I'm in love with these colors.



Here's how to enter:

Simply "like" HBfabrics on Facebook then leave a comment on this post (one entry per person, please).

The giveaway ends Sunday at midnight. Winner will be announced Monday morning. Good luck!

And the winner is...



Ellen! Congratulations!

The diaper bag

I've used the same plain black diaper bag since John was born, so when my friend Hilary said she wanted to make me a new one for this baby I was thrilled! And let me tell you, Hilary isn't just anybody. She and her husband started a company (HBfabrics) selling designer fabrics out of their home, and Hilary even has her own line of products (Hilary Brooke Collection) that she sells online and on etsy. But for this bag she used an Amy Butler Pattern, the Sweet Harmony Tote. I couldn't love it more.



Hilary let me choose the fabrics I wanted the bag to be in from her shop. I went with Full Moon Polka Dot Slate and Wallflower Sky from Amy Butler's Lotus Collection.



Thanks Hilary!
Check back tomorrow for a fabulous giveaway from HBfabrics!

Easter Egg garland

So maybe I'm jumping the gun here, but with the warm weather we've had I just couldn't help getting out the spring and Easter decorations... all 2 of them :) We put on the kids Easter pillowcases then made a garland with the Easter eggs we've decorated over the years. Every year we blow out a bunch of eggs and come up with a new way to decorate them. It's fun to look back and see what the kids have done. We started by simply drawing on eggs with permanent marker. The next year we cut up different colors of tissue paper and mod-podged them on, and the year after that we cut out pictures of things that reminded us of spring from magazines and mod-podged those on. This years eggs are yet to be decided...

Babysitter notes dry erase board

I got this idea from a small boutique in our town a few months ago. A dry erase board for babysitter notes. Why haven't I thought of this before?! Brilliant. You write all of the information that isn't going to change right on the paper, then stick it in a magnetic frame and use a dry erase marker to write what time you should be home and any special instructions (what to have for dinner, bedtime routine, etc.) If there's an emergency or if the babysitter has a question, she can simply refer to this.



Feel free to print mine, or create your own!

Jeans bucket

I've been eyeing these fabric buckets lately (also found here and a pattern found here) and knew I had to make one. They combine my love of sewing, organizing and repurposing all into one perfect project. I used some old jeans of Pete's for the outside and one side of an old blanket for the inside. I basically followed the tutorial found on Design Sponge and then added handles.



For this large of a bucket I started with 13"x13" squares (oh, and I also used batting to help the sides stay a little stiffer... but I won't get in to that, it complicated the project quite a bit). If you're going to make a bucket this big just make sure to use fabric that is fairly stiff so that it will hold it's shape.



As I was sewing the bucket I didn't know exactly what I was going to use it for, but quickly thought it would be the perfect place for all of our stuffed animals that needed a home.



You better believe there will be more of these sewn up in the near future! Smaller buckets for the kids for Easter and buckets filled with diapers and baby essentials for baby gifts are now on my list of projects.

Nesting: mobile and nursery

Daniel came down from bed earlier this week with some toys strung together with a shoelace and told me it was for our baby. He was all too excited. Looks like it's not just me anticipating the arrival of this little one! That gave me the idea to help the kids make something for the baby. Since we've never had a mobile above the crib I thought that might be a fun project, so we got to work.