Baby Angry Bird Costume

I'm letting the cat out of the bag a little early this year.  Our family, well most of us, are going as Angry Birds this Halloween!  And I don't know if you've priced out the costumes, but, uh, they ain't cheap!  So it was time for Mommy to think outside the box.

And I started with out youngest.

The yellow angry bird.

Here's what I found online.

And it would never do.

So I bought a long sleeved onsie.

And some lemon yellow Rit Dye.

I couldn't find a face online really, so I drew one.

(feel free to print it out and enlarge it as you see fit.)

I dyes the onesie and cut the face out of red, white, black, and orange felt.

I ironed some interfacing onto the wrong side of the front and appliqued the face right on that little onesie.

I also sewed on a little ribbon for the feathers and secured it with a button.  I think it makes it a little more girly.

Now, to add to the adorableness, I made a tutu, using my favorite go to pattern.

I cut a ribbon, black of course since the yellow bird has black tail feathers, and tied knots with about 20 inches in between.

I cut 3 yards of yellow tulle into 6" strips that were 12" long.

I popped in a movie turned on Netflix and tied and tied and tied.

And ended up with this.

Could you just die?!

Now for the cherry on top, I made a little bow.

I used a combination from two tutorials, found at Craft Rookie and Funky Polkadot Giraffe.

And looky looky what I made!

Cute little tuft of feathers if I do say so myself.

Add a black headband and some black tights and we're ready to charm the pants off of anyone we meet!

Halloween here we come!!

Something Special

** Contest closed!  Check out the winner here!**


It all began three years ago.  I was sitting on the couch in my family room and I decided I would jump on the bandwagon and start blogging.  I know, I know, everyone in the world had already discovered it.  I am usually a little tardy to the party.  I like to think news travels slow in Wyoming.  You know, I didn't even hear that song Baby Got Back until I was in college.  We're talking the year 2000 people!!   I mean, when did it come out, like 1992?! Yeah, I'd like to just say I was sheltered or something, but there were a lot of movies and songs I never even knew existed until I went out into the world.  *cough* Dirty Dancing... *cough* ...Top Gun... *cough* ...Fight For Your Right To Party... *cough cough*   


Yeah, so as you can see, I can be a little behind.  Well, I think in honor of my third blirthday (ha ha, clever, right?!  I mean anyone can have a blogiversary, but a BLIRTHDAY?  Now that's something special!) we're gonna have us a GIVEAWAY over here!  That's right, folks!  The time has come for me to reward you all for sticking by me and my fashionably late ways.  You, who have been there from the beginning.  YOU, who I've picked up along the way.  YOU, who stalk me and never say a word...(that's right, I know you're out there)...It's time to be seen and play along because I have something seriously fun to give out today!


Have you heard of My Memories?  Well, I think it's high time you learned about them because they are seriously AWESOME!  They are so AWESOME, in fact, that they have given me a free copy of their digital scrapbooking software, and and additional copy for me to 

GIVE AWAY TO ONE LUCKY READER!!

Blah blah, you say?  I've seen it all before you say?  I have my OWN digital scrapbooking software you say?!?!  Well, don't be so quick to judge.  Because I had NO IDEA just how amazing this program was until I downloaded it and played with it myself.

As some of you know, I used to LOVE to scrapbook.  LOVE IT.  I have all my supplies downstairs gathering dust.  I am SO VERY behind it's ridiculous!  I think the last thing I actually sat down and scraped was my wedding...which was 8 years ago.  So let's just say I've got a lot of work ahead of me.  My biggest problem is that I don't have my own space and you and I both know what a PAIN it is to drag everything out just to work on it for a few hours and then have to put it away again so we can actually eat up to the table.

BUT

I do have a few extra minutes today while the kids are sleeping, and my chores are done, so I sit up to my computer and BLAMO...

Some beautiful pages that took 15 minutes to put together and I don't have to put all my crap away.  And when the time comes to actually get them printed and put into a physical book, My Memories will actually make a professionally bound book for you!  (I haven't done one yet, but I think it is happening in the very near future.)  If you'd rather just get the whole page printed and add it to your own scrapbook, I know that Costco does it for a fairly low price, but I just heard about another place online that is actually CHEAPER than Costco, if you can believe it!  It's called ScrapbooksPlease and they do a FABULOUS job.

But say you don't wanna convert to the digital way of scrapbooking.  You have your own space and love the way the handmade pages look.  That's great!  There are a billion other things this amazing software can do!  Think of it like the easiest form of Photoshop you'll ever use!

Say you need to make a quick thank you card for everyone who came to your son's birthday party.

Done and done.

Or maybe you're in Young Womens and you need a handout for this week's lesson.

No Sweat.

How about an invitation?

Awesome.

Birth announcement?

Got it covered.

Calendar?

Easy.

Christmas card?

It's only September and it's done!

Birthday party decorations?

Ta-da!!

Blog Header?

Heck yeah!  Even a blog header!!

The possibilities are endless, people!  Endless!

I know you want it, am I right?

Well, my friends, you are in luck because one of you can WIN a FREE COPY of My Memories Suite Digital Scrapbooking Software right here, right now!!!  (And by the way, it costs $40, so a free copy is nothing to sneeze at!!) I will draw the winner next MONDAY morning, September 26, 2011.

BUT...

If you gotta get your hands on it right now,which I completely understand because it is so totally fun, I am giving you a code for 

$10.00 off

the purchase of My Memories Suite software...

(which makes it only 30 bucks!  WAHOO!!)

and (as if that weren't enough) another

$10.00 off

the purchase of anything else fun from the MyMemories.com Store! 

Please let me explain something here.  This is pretty awesome because all the paper, elements, alphabets, etc work in Photoshop and GIMP and the like!  So uh how awesome is that?!  

The special code you wanna use is:

STMMMS80924

Just copy and past the code STMMMS80924 your shopping cart when you check out. 

OR YOU CAN ENTER TO WIN ONE FOR YOUR VERY OWN SELF!!


Head over to my other blog for the details!
Do it!
Do it!

Another Use For Snappies

Remember the invasion of the Snappies?
I have defeated them.


Victory is mine…

New Beginnings 2010

Yeah, I know.  New Beginnings is supposed to happen at the beginning of the year.  But our stake had a giant reorganization so after things settled down a little, we had ours on April 6th.

The mutual theme for this year is  "Be Strong and of Good Courage" (Joshua 1:9) and I found an amazing program idea here.  She has it all planned out, lined up and ready to go.  I have to give her mad props because she helped us out so so much!  THANK YOU, MELANIE,  FOR SHARING YOUR AMAZING IDEAS!!!!

The theme was sort of Olympic centered.  We had the Olympic theme song playing and all the girls came in wearing each value color.  Our ward has very few Young Women, so we used each and every one who came and even a visitor!

I made a torch using a flashlight and can light gels, although I’m sure you could use anything.  On the blog, she suggests using tissue paper.  Then I took a piece of brownish 12x12 paper and rolled it to make a casing.  I dropped the flashlight into it and there we had a torch!  I didn’t get a really good picture of it, but here I am holding it… I think it turned out well.  I also think I am a giant dork.

For the metals, I wanted them to look nice but my resources here were very limited.  So I did what I could and it was a lot of work, but I am very happy with how they came out!

I went to the hardware store and bought some big washers.  Then I measured them and added a little extra around the edges so I could wrap the paper over the washer.  So I cut all the paper.

Then I wrinkled all the circles up so the paper was a little more manageable and pliable.

Then I centered the washer on the paper circle

And hot glued the paper down all the way around the washer.

Then I printed “Be strong and of a good courage” onto the same paper and cut out those circles.  I Mod Podged those babies on there and it gave them a little sheen.

 

Then I took my dollar store metals, took the ribbon off (they came with red, white, and blue ribbon) and glued them onto the back of the washers.  It gave them a little more weight and also a place for me to thread all the ribbons through.

  Then I took a ribbon from each value and threaded it through the hole, along with the original ribbon that came with the metals.  It worked out well that I didn’t have to buy red, white or blue ribbon because it was already on there!

They were a lot of work and I’m sure there is an easier way!  But I think they worked and looked quite nice.

I also made fruit pizza and it was so so so yummy!  I didn’t get a picture before it was devoured, but take my word for it!  It was beautiful!

Fruit Pizza Recipe

Crust: (I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe, found here.)

Blend together until smooth:
1 1/2 Cup Sugar
1 Cup melted Butter
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
2 eggs
1 Cup Sour Cream
Combined in separate bowl:
5 Cups Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder

Add dry ingredients to wet and mix until combined.  Make a ball out of the dough and wrap in plastic wrap. Store in the fridge 2-3 hours or until firm. I made mine the night before.  Roll it out to fit pan size, not too thick.  I was able to make 2 pizzas, one on a cookie sheet and one on a pizza pan.  Bake @ 375 for 15-20 min.  You want them just slightly golden brown to make sure the middle is done.  Let cool.

topping:

1 package cream cheese

1 12 oz package Cool Whip

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Blend until smooth.  Spread over pizzas when cool.  Then arrange fruit on top.  I used strawberries, mandarin oranges, bananas, pineapple, blueberries and apples.  Mmmm.

All in all, it was a successful evening!  Thanks again to Melanie over at her blog!  You are a lifesaver!