Tuesday, June 24

DIY Sequin Bow Headband

Spring cleaning was in full force at my house this past month.  Josh and I had accumulated so many articles of clothing that our closet was bursting at the seams and we weren't even wearing HALF of the clothes in there.  We knew it was time for our annual purge and over Memorial Day weekend we finally took the plunge.  I decided that if it hadn't been worn it in a year it was time to donate.  While cleaning I stumbled upon this little beauty and took a stroll down memory lane to a life pre-children, pre-mommy.  I bought this dress as a Halloween costume back when my body was just a tad bit tighter and tried to pass myself off as a disco ball.  What was I thinking?! 

Well, I'm a typical woman; completely and utterly attracted to anything that glitters and couldn't bring myself to throw it out.  Instead I decided to do a little up-cycling.  I have been seeing these deliciously sparkly bow headbands everywhere these days and decided to give it a go for myself... Here are my step-by-step instructions for those of you who would like to try, too!  

What you'll need:
- Pre-mommy sparkly dress (or any sequin material)
- Black jersey knit material
- Scissors
- Hot glue gun
- Sewing machine
- Sewing thread 
- Rotary cutter (optional)
- Cutting mat (optional)

I took my dress and did a little surgery using fabric scissors.  Turning it inside out I cut the sequin material from the black jersey material.  

Next I cut the sequin material into a 10" x 7" rectangle.
 
Next you'll take the black jersey material and cut it 5" x "17 (or however long you're needing to fit) Callie is 2 years old and the material stretches quite a bit, this fit her perfectly.  

I also cut a piece of sequin material 2" x 4" (not pictured) to act as the center of the bow.  Next you'll take your pieces to the craft table to glue and sew...

Taking your large sequin rectangle, fold the bottom up to the center (right side down).  Add a strip of hot glue to the edge and fold the top down to meet in the center. 


Turn the material vertically (so it looks like an I) and repeat the last step; fold the bottom up to the middle, glue across and then fold the top down to meet it in the center.  It will now look like this (the back of the bow).

Put this aside and grab the black jersey material.  Using your sewing machine and a zig-zag stitch sew the right sides together straight down lengthwise.  

Turn right side out. 
And now sew the ends together. I used blue thread for a visual, but of course, you'll use matching thread.


Using the smaller sequin material, glue the long edges together right side down.  You'll now have these three pieces :

Turn the larger sequin piece right side down and pinch length wise in the middle so that when you turn it around it looks like this (are you starting to see the bow?):


 Then using your glue gun and the smaller sequin piece, attach it to the middle of your bow (nice and tight!)



Now all you have to do is attach it to your black jersey headband.  You can also use your choice of elastic if you so choose.  I think it would look adorable on some black glitter elastic, too! You can either hot glue it to the headband or sew it on.  I choose to sew mine just to make it a little more sturdy.  Then put it on your little model and snap away!  


And that's it!  Pretty simple, right?!  I LOVE that it was an up-cycle.  There is still plenty of material left for other projects, too. My brain is just twitching at all of the possibilities... I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, feel free to comment with any questions as well!  And don't forget to stop by and "LIKE" my Facebook and Etsy pages, too.   Happy crafting! If you like it, please consider pinning it! 








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Wednesday, June 18

Kellan Joshua - 3 Months


This little cutie just turned 3 months on the 14th!  Boy is he becoming sweeter than sugar!!!  Here's a little bit about his third month....

Weight: Roughly 11 lbs even.  We didn't have a doctor's appointment this month so I had to do my best with our home scale.
Height: 22 inches - again this could be a little off because I was the one to do it :)
Head circumference: ??
Percentile: ??
Eating schedule:  You're nursing every 3-4 hours for 8-20 minutes. 
Sleep:  This month you gave Mommy her first full night of sleep!  On June 4th you slept 8 hours... It was glorious - minus the insanely painful rocks on my chest in the morning.  19 ounces and a nursing session later I felt much, much better.  After that one night you went back to waking up once around 2:00 or 4:00 am. 
Favorite things: You're starting to discover your voice and it's flipping adorable.  Little coo's or attempts at fake crying are the cutest things ever.  Your little eyes follow anything around you, especially when your sister is trying to show you one of her many Mickey toys.  Mommy can kiss your chubby cheeks and a smile appears 9 times out of 10.  Mommas boy?  I think yes.
Milestones: Slept through the night (once).  More awake/alert during the day.
Clothing/Diaper size: 0-3 months and 3 months.  Size 1 diaper.  Although you desperately need to be upgraded to a two, but I refuse to make the move until we've used up the current 1's we have! Call me cheap frugal. :)

 
Here are some of Kellan's 3 month photos courtesy of Mommy :)
Onesie // Tumbleweed TexStyles







And of course, some of my favorite IG pictures from the month.  You can follow me if you'd like! NickiLynne15



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Tuesday, June 17

Callie's Minnie Birthday Party

Birthday parties have become one of my favorite things to plan for!  Callie's first birthday party was so much fun and perfect for our little 1 year old and her friends.  This year we wanted to do something that would keep all of the kids entertained so that we adults could dive into actual conversations and enjoy the beautiful day!  Planning began while I was on bed rest with Kellan so I had plenty of time to browse Pinterest for fun ideas.  You can check out my party board here to see some of the inspirations for her big day.  

This girl seriously adores her some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  We try to limit her to 1 episode a day, but when she bats those long eyelashes at me and says, "more Mickey, pleeeeeaaassseeee?!" this momma melts into putty and caves... We decided to take it a little more specific and focus mostly on 1 character, Minnie Mouse "Mimmie."  Once that decision was made the planning became super easy!  

I wanted to go with the more modern Minnie Mouse, she wears pink instead of red.  This allowed me to use some decorations from her first party instead of having to completely start from scratch!  Her outfit was a great find on Zulily, perfect for being dressy but still allowing her to bounce to her hearts content!  I also had to try my hand at a Minnie inspired headband and have to say, I love how it turned out!  Super easy, friends... Simply take a black t-shirt and cut 1 inch strips, use your glue gun and roll/twist until you have a rosette.  Add two smaller ones to the top and finish with a ribbon bow!  To make it a little more party ready I added some feathers and a pink shabby flower and then attached it to a headband.  She LOVED her special bow!   This picture was right after I made it so there are still some pesky glue strings on it, but you get the idea!



Dress // here
Leggings // here
Headband // here 

Next came the decorations!  

{I used styrafoam balls and circles, painted them black and then added a pink polka dot bow to make these adorable Minnie Mouse centerpieces.  Add some flowers to pink confetti in a jar, wrap with ribbon and finish off with a chalkboard sticker!}


{The photo booth was one of our favorite parts!  Super easy with these awesome props from Etsy! Found here}


 {Then I made some pennant banners with construction paper, scrapbook paper and ribbon!  Again, so easy and incredibly affordable!}


{Always a great hit at kid parties; a blow up pool filled with balls, we topped it off with adding the slide!}
 {A view of the entire backyard pre-party}
 {I loved how her sign turned out!  We had the party in the backyard and didn't want guests to have to walk through the house so we made this fun sign to point them in the right direction.  I just used black foam core board, metallic markers, card stock, wooden dowels and foam letter stickers!  It took about 20 minutes to make and worked perfectly!}
 {This was our main attraction... A Mickey Mouse Clubhouse bounce house made specifically for toddlers!  There was a slide, characters and lots of room to bounce!  Even the adults had some fun jumping around inside!}

{I took black paper lanterns and tissue paper to make these adorable Minnie Mouse decorations.  Then I hung them with fishing line over the gift table.}
 {And of course, I had to make her a birthday "chalkboard" again this year.  This was before I added her weight, but you get the idea!  You can find my tutorial for a DIY birthday chalkboard here.}
 {We served hot dogs and "Minnie" caprese burgers for lunch along with some fruit and chips.}

 {Cupcakes made to look like Minnie Mouse made for the perfect dessert!  Thank you, Joanna!}


 {And more random pictures from her big, special day.  She was so tuckered out from jumping all morning that she could hardly muster a smile for her birthday song...}




I'd say the party was a HUGE success.  Everyone took a much needed, long nap that afternoon.  And the best part was not having to clean the house because everything took place outside!  We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful, Texas day!  A little windy, but we ARE in Texas after all. :) Happy 2nd birthday, Callie-Girl!

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