The first day the task was to create a “donation station” and the pdf file linked to a blog post The Red Chair Blog.  The idea is simple, use a set of basic shelves, some bankers boxes and you’re good to go

img source The Red Chair Blog

I only had one small problem – when I want to the store for the shelves, they didn’t have any, which was actually OK because I also didn’t have a closet to shove the ugly thing into so I wanted something that looked a bit nicer too.  So I browsed the isles to see what would hold my four boxes.  I found a simple three shelf bookcase in white that had dimensions that would hold the boxes and for an extra bonus it was actually less expensive than I was anticipating spending.

So home I came with all my supplies.

I put together the bookcase, but I added my own touch to the simple plain white with the help of my friends Mr. Fabric Mod Podge and Mrs. Thrifted Pottery Barn Sheet.  In the end our collaboration yielded these results:

Love it!  I am thinking I might go one step further and get some yellow paint to paint the thin front edge of the case to make the color pop just a bit more.

With the boxes.  I definitely want to get some spray paint to make the boxes a bit prettier and a bit less utilitarian.  I’m going to wait to label them or paint the shelf at all until after I’ve painted the boxes just so I know what I’m dealing with.  Either way though – feels good to get some stuff done!

Now I’m off to clean the kitchen so I can make dinner.  I’ll be back later this week with some new Valentines tutorials.  See you then!

So, last night I played around and tried to figure out how to make my own fashion compilation pins.  I wondered around ModCloth – which I KNOW I’ve said before how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE the style there.  As I found things I liked I tried to put them together into selections I might actually wear together.  I didn’t want to spend a lot of time on this a)because it was past bedtime anyway lol and b)because I wasn’t sure it would work anyway.

BUT IT DID!

So, I give you my very own (first) style pin:

(All items from modcloth.com)

Now I’m excited to start gathering looks from all my favorite sites and pairing them together – who knows someday I may even be able to afford them lol.

Happy Tuesday!

As I was digging out my small box of decor I also looked around my pinterest boards to see what ideas I’d been pinning and I rediscovered this pin

I remember LOVING this when I’d first seen it.  I love the spin on your standard lovey dovey mushy valentines day stuff and reminds us who our first true love is.  There were only two problems.  The original pin was uploaded by the pinner so it wasn’t linked back to anywhere, and even if it were, it appears to be a decorated bulletin board and not your standard home holiday decor.  SO – I fixed that and made myself a printable.  I ordered myself one from Costco’s photo center and havne’t had a chance to go pick it up yet (will be doning that later today) but I couldn’t wait to share it with you.  As it is I did all this before New Years and forced myself to at least wait untill after the first!  BUT I feel like I can start rolling out the Valentines day stuff now – because apparently people are already getting ready for it.  So, for anyone who may want it, here’s the free printable download!

Happy love season everyone!

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 13,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 5 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Thanks for everyone for making this year a totally awesome one.  Here’s hoping 2012 brings about a bit more dedication in the posting department from me lol.  Happy New Year!!

First – for anyone in the San Antonio Texas area, I want to let you know that Firefly Skys is having a trunk show this coming Saturday from 11am – 1pm.  Get all the info over on Facebook.

Along that same line – Firefly Skys is on Facebook! Head on over and Like the page for blog updates, shop updates, sale announments and more!

Speaking of sales – all hair clips for girls are 50% off in the shop right now!

Speaking of the shop – after the trunk show, I’ll have lots of new products (if they don’t all sell out) to list, so keep an out out next week for some fun new things.  Order by the 17th to ensure shipping in time for Christmas if that’s a concern!

So, now that all that’s out of the way – here’s another freebe printable for you!  Lately I’ve been doing my grocery shopping every two weeks instead of weekly, so I wanted to be able to menu plan for two weeks at a time – so I made a very simple but nice two week menu plan that has a place to plan Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.  Check it out!

 Click the link to download the PDF: 2weekmenuplan

Have a great day everyone!

~Courtney

So, along with making my menu this afternoon, I decided to make myself a MS Word weekly planner (I will probably make a monthly one as well, but not today) that I can easily edit (and spell check) using Word instead of Preview.

And since I did that, I figured I’d share with you too incase you’re looking for a new “look” for your menu planner.

PDF downlaod: Weekly Menu Plan

Enjoy

So, with only a small idea of how to accomplish it, I made this clip and how-to.  Hope it makes sense.

For this hair clip you’ll need:

Tulle (I had a quarter yard, it was MORE than enough)

Glass or other object to trace two sized circles

needle & thread

sequence (you could also use pearls or a button, but since the original on the dress had sequence, that’s what I went with)

hair clip

marker or something to trace your circles with

not pictured: scissors, hot glue gun and felt

Start by tracing and cutting four circles in both large and small sizes

One circle at a time, fold each circle in half.  You’re going to sew a long stitch around the half circle (rounded) part of each shape – not along the straight edge.

To knot the thread, double the thread through the needle and tie a knot at the end.  Then put the needle and thread through the edge of the tulle.  Before you pull it tight (it will just go through the holes of the tulle) put the needle back through the thread at the knot end.  I hope that doesn’t sound so confusing and that the (less then clear) picture helps.

Once you’ve stitched around the edge of the folded circle, pull the thread tight and knot.  Repeat this step with all eight circles, these will be your flower petals.

Stitch the four larger petals onto a small piece of felt (about the size of a dime is plenty big) in the shape of a plus sign (+).  Then continue to stitch the four smaller petals between the larger ones – also in a plus sign shape, but between not on top of the larger one.  Then stitch on your sequence or other accent pieces.  Use the stitching required here to help secure your other petals and tidy things up a bit if necessary.

O nce you have all the petals and sequence sewn on you’re ready to attach a hair clip or pin to the back.  For this you’re going to need two more small circles of felt about the same size as you used to sew the petals onto, a hair clip (or pin if you prefer) and your glue gun.

Place a large glob of hot glue onto the felt with the petals stitched to it.  Make sure that your thread ends get wrapped into the glue – that way you don’t have to knot the thread after you finish all your hand sewing.

Place one of the other felt circles on top of the glue to sandwich in the stitching and thread.

Then center your hair clip onto the felt and hot glue your last circle over the bottom of the clip to hold it in place.  Optional: cover the hair clip with ribbon before attaching it to the flower for a more finished/decorative look.

Now you’re all done!

And you’ve got a bright shiny tulle flower for your (or someone else’s) hair!

It’s the nature of tulle to kind of go where it wants, if you want a neater, more tailored looking flower, you could substitute fabric circles for the tulle, and/or use more petals for a fuller look.

As always – if you make something using this, or any of my tutorials, I’d love you to add it to the Flickr stream!

I can see now why Dana loves this stuff so much, it’s so breezy and comfy is easy to dress up or down, and you don’t have to iron it!  Extra bonus using the bias tape as the hem makes that a lot easier to do too!

I also tried to make a dress using the same McCall’s pattern, but the neckline doesn’t fit right and I’m still trying to figure out how to adjust it.  Hopefully I can get that figured out soon, because otherwise I LOVE the dress and can’t wait to wear it!  Hopefully I’ll have that one and a couple more to show you before summer’s end.

First, I have a chore chart.  We just started using one this week, and so I can’t really say how its working for us – but so far it’s OK.  Mommy and Daddy sat down and decided we wanted little girl to do about four or five things a day including basics like getting dressed and brushing her teeth.  So after we settled on our five daily duties, I went through and found pictures with her that she associated with the jobs she needed to do – so that she could look at the pictures and just know what they were without having to ask, which ended up working well, because the pictures I would have chosen she didn’t see the same way I did and vice versa.

Secondly, I wanted to share my grown up version.  Recently I’ve been having some medical problems, and last week my doctor put me on a new medication – unfortunately, as my body is adjusting I’m feeling totally out of it.  Previously I wasn’t feeling motivated to do things, but now I’m just down right exhausted for most of the day and very lethargic in general.  So for the past few months, and certainly this week, it’s been really difficult for me to get through my daily routines and our home is looking very derelict!  So, I figured out what five or six things were most necessary to accomplish each day to help keep our home running smoothly and not be a total disaster.  I thought I’d share the generic version of it below, of course, your routine may look totally different and the things you need to accomplish each week may be different, but it’s still a thought.  PS – I do my cleaning on a weekly rotation, so I may focus on the bathroom(s) one week, then the kitchen, then the living room etc.  That way I only have to spend a few minutes in a room over the course of a full week and it gets a deep clean.  Another 15 minutes daily helps me to keep other spaces picked up so I’m not starting over from scratch the next time I get back to a room for a focus week.

I hope someone finds them helpful.

For me – the easiest part of any outfit is the shoes, and I’ve totally fallen in love with a pair already.

Now, anyone familiar with Christian Louboutin shoes will recognize this as a $750 pair of shoes.  Obviously I’m not buying them – anytime in this life lol, but I have figured out a way to recreate them for about 95% less expensive!

The challenge is always going to be a dress for me.  For something like this I want a dress that really fits well and looks great.  Basically it comes down to spend more money that I want on something I may not be 100% happy with anyway or sew it myself.

I’m going to admit right off the bat I’ve never sewn anything like this before, especially for myself!  But I spent some time looking around Mod Cloth and Anthropologie to see what was on trend, what I liked, and get inspired for some major knock-offs.  Heres what I found:

1)Source 2)Source 3)Source 4)Source

1)Source 2)Source 3)Source 4)Source

1)Source 2)Source 3)Source 4)Source

Here’s my biggest issue – I don’t believe in wearing black to a wedding (black is for funerals, not celebrations) and I require a dress with straps so I can wear some sort of bra that will prevent “most embarrassing moments” on the dance floor lol.

I find three basic things to be true – I really prefer long dresses, I’m loving the look of lace overlays and accents that is so prevalent right now, and I’m kinda digging the sweetheart neckline – although I’m not sure it would work with my figure.

So, the next step after finding my inspiration boards, is finding a pattern – or patterns that I can alter to fit me and get the look I’m going for.  This is where I’m a bit stuck.  So far I’ve found a couple possibilities, although with any of them I’m going to need to either alter the size, the style or both.

1)Source 2)Source 3)Source 4) Source

1)Source 2)Source

Source
So now I just have to spend some time figuring out what overall look I want most, and what fabric I would prefer, then narrow down the selections to those.  Right now my most favorite pattern ideas are the very last one (the blue dress version) and the two bottom from the first set (both versions that the model is wearing), the second set patterns are close runners and the first two are my least favorite I think, but we’ll have to see.  I do like the patterns in the second set both have looks that I could make for “everyday” type dresses as well – so I can use the pattern again, which would be nice.

I guess I need to spend some time looking at them in more detail, and starting to look at fabric selections to get a feel for what I’m looking for – and in what color, since my preferences are out (I would love an ivory under dress with black lace overlay, but those are both taboo colors at a wedding IMO).