New Reversible Skirt Pattern released by Seamingly Smitten!

I had the pleasure of testing another pattern for Jenny over at Seamingly Smitten!

Introducing the Girl's Reversible Skirt Pattern!

This was a super simple sew and quick too!

Jenny creates the BEST patterns EVER! Seriously, I love ALL of her patterns and every time she comes out with a new one, I can't wait to get my hands on it! (and if you know me, then you know I am not a "pattern" gal! - her's are THAT fabulous!)

Harper LOVES her new skirt (and I do too!)!

Did I mention this skirt is REVERSIBLE?! So you get TWO skirts in one! What could be better than that?!

And it is super comfy so she can wear it no matter what she wants to do:

Of course I HAD to make her a matching onesie!

Aren't the ruffled sleeves sooo cutie?!

So click on over to Jenny's shop and get a pattern for your little one!

You'll be so glad you did!

Tea {time}

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!

I want to take a moment to thank all of the men and women who are serving or have served our Country! We are so grateful for the sacrifices you and your families have made or are currently making!

THANK YOU!

Ok, now back to the scheduled programming...

On my kitchen counter lives this cutie:

My mom gave me this horrendous, old, rusted tea kettle that she found:

It is really heavy and was screaming with potential...

So after a little work (inside and out) this is what we have:

Thank you Silhouette for cutting out these fab letters!

I even spray painted the handle to give it a little sprucing up.

And because I know a ton of you will ask, I used Krylon Jade (one of my all time faves)!

What have you revamped lately?!

I am linking this post here  here and to these awesome places!

Post OP week 28.

Since we were in the Keys last week, Cliff pretty much refused to walk.  I guess it was the only thing he could really control - he was not going to walk and that was that. So when Ross and I got home, we were concerned because Cliff was sooo weak and was still refusing to walk. After TWO whole days of trying everything in the book (bribing, threatening, ignoring, time-out, praising, pleading, begging and lots of praying...) Cliff FINALLY decided he wanted to walk and just like that he was off! - although he is still a little weak...

The boy is a total ham. He knows exactly how to distract us in order to get out of anything he does not want to do.

So this past week we focused to strengthening, walking, basic exercises (and lots of praying). We are amazed at how fast Cliff regained his strength and endurance. He is amazing. We did not realize that 10 days of not walking to him is like three months of doing nothing to us as far as muscle loss is concerned and it is more important than ever for Cliff to continue to make progress.

One of the most difficult things Ross and I struggle with is knowing when to push Cliff and when to back off. It is so hard when you little boy is screaming, crying alligator tears, pleading for us to allow him to "take a break" because he doesn't want to walk or it hurts him to stretch or do exercises, but YOU have to MAKE him do them. We have to decide when Cliff just doesn't want to do something and when he is actually hurting.  It breaks our hearts and although he doesn't know it Ross and I do a little switch off so we can walk out of Cliff's sight and cry with him without Cliff knowing - we know when one of us needs a moment, but we also know that Cliff needs us to be strong. So the delicate dance we do with one another of smoothly switching off while pushing Cliff  to keep going is our way of coping. It is our little system and right now, it works.

Please continue to pray for Cliff. He needs strength, endurance and we want to make sure that he understands as best as he can that Ross and I are helping him when we push him. Cliff is one awesome little boy. We are so blessed!

The Swtich.

As many of you know, Blogger is having a TON of issues.

So, now I am considering switching from Blogger to Wordpress, but have NO clue how this is done...

Have you ever done this or know of anyone who would be willing to help a gal out?!

When Blogger messes up, it is YOU who loses out and YOU, my readers, have become like my littles, I love y'all, so of course I want to give you the best I can. And right now Blogger is NOT the best...

If you have made the switch or know of anyone who has please email me!

Thank you for understanding.

Be Inspired by The Keys.

One thing I learned about the Florida Keys is that the people down here LOVE color and they aren't afraid to use it! I mean seriously, I think I took more pictures in 9 days than I have in my whole life - inspiration was everywhere and it was awesome. So, of course I wanted to share it with you!

Here goes:

Reds and blues were everywhere. I think this color combo just may be my new obsession.

Even Ross's fishing gear was beautifully bright and inspiring. (I never though I would call a fishing lure beautiful.)

Piles of junk on the side of the road were screaming with color. Everything was perfectly imperfect and I loved it all. 

Inspiration. It was everywhere.

Guess what I learned from The Keys?

Color.  Use it. Embrace it. Love it. 

The art is amazing. Pure talent.

The most beautiful things in The Keys are in nature. Be inspired.

It's official. I am going to have to make a funky sign for my yard.  

Color. Use it. Embrace it. Love it.

Johnny In A Dress via Email!

I finally got on board with FeedBurner!

Now you can get the latest posts sent directly to your email!

So, enter your email address, you'll be so glad you did!

Tote Bag.

My aunt gave me these super cute Tote Bags! They are fun colors but plain and I can't have anything that's plain. So, I did this to it:

I made a ruffle pinned it around the top of the tote...

Stitched it on with two lines of stitches to make sure it stayes in place and doesn't flop over.

Then my Silhouette cut out the "n" and I appliqued it right on the front of the tote.

Seriously I think this took about 15 minutes total! So simple and quick!

Now I have a cute tote to hold all of our sunscreen this summer!

Chairs.

  This post was supposed to go live about two weeks ago, right after the Dinning Room post, but then Blogger crashed... and the post was deleted... so here it is - almost two weeks later...

Now that you have seen my dinning room, I want to show you how I upholstered the chairs. The truth is that we have been sitting on hard chairs with no cushions for a few months... I decided to finally do something about it and this is what I did:

In case you forgot, our chairs began like this.

I took Ross's hammer and carefully pried the wooden seat off of the chair. I made sure to leave the little nails in the wooden seat throughout this entire process.

I took foam (bought from JoAnn's) and traced around the wooden seat.

Then cut the foam.

Then I traced around the wooden seat adding about 4 inches around the seat (that way you will have plenty of fabric for covering the foam and the seat.).

Layer fabric, foam then the wooden piece.

I stapled the center of one side then the center of the opposite sides until all four sides were stapled, leaving the corners open. Pull tight, but not too tight or else it will cause ripples in the cushion - and that's not cute. (Confused? See next pic)

I staple in this order:

Make sure to leave the corners out like this:

See?

For the corners, I pull the fabric to one of the sides:

Then pull back to the center, making sure the fabric is folded nicely and staple very well.

Then you have a pretty corner and a newly upholstered cushion!

See the little nails that are poking through the fabric? Line then back up with the nail holes in the chair.

And hammer that puppy back down! Then...

You're Done!