The Prince is in the House

 

I consider myself a pretty crafty person (hence the blog), but using a sewing machine has always been outside my realm.  Most likely because I didn't own one, and I have a short patience stick (no wonder the kids have zero patience).  But I gave in this year, and I bought myself a pretty cheap sewing machine that would fit my needs of making a few pillows and maybe attempting a pair of pj pants (high hopes, gotta have 'em).

Enter Halloween.  And a daughter who I will do anything for, and you've got me making an Ursula costume and a Prince Eric costume.  Why? Because to say that child is obsessed with the Little Mermaid is an understatement.  She asked me if she could be Ariel, her little brother Prince Eric and mommy? Oh I get to be the bad girl, Ursula (maybe I sent her to time out that day?), yay me!  Sidenote* she asked if daddy could be King Triton but it is too cold here for him to be running around shirtless.*

We decided to buy her Ariel costume from the Disney store because we are planning a trip to Disney in April (don't worry I'll post on that soon enough too) and I want her to have one I know will hold up.  And trust me, she's already wearing that thing every. single. day.  Prince Eric on the other hand? Nope, they don't sell toddler size Prince Eric costumes, at all.  Even the ones on Etsy.com were close to $100 and sorry, momma don't roll like that.

Even Pinterest failed me on tutorials for a Prince Eric costume.  Good thing Little Miss has a doll so I knew what he looks like all fancy and such.  I found this awesome tutorial of a Prince Charming costume that I followed closely, changing up where they differed (like the front of the shirt).  She does an awesome job detailing how to do everything, including linking back to how to make pants (which I totally used, first time sewing machine user over here).

I wasn't sure how to sew the gold lining on the pants, so I cheated and hot glued it on (he doesn't play dress up like his sister so he won't be wearing it a lot), along with the gold neck liner and cuffs.  I think for my first attempt at pretty much anything, I did a decent job. I wasn't brave enough to try making the fancy shirt with the tails that Prince Eric wears, so I bought a $4 long sleeve tee and went to town on that sucker.

I wanted to share this costume with you guys because there are so many times I see someones post on Pinterest and I drool (and drool some more), and then chicken out when it comes to actually attempting.  It wasn't that hard.  And the best part? I spent less than $17.  SCORE!! And don't worry, I'll update with a picture of Little Mister actually in the costume as soon as he will cooperate and wear it.  Happy Halloween ya'll!

Enjoy~
xo Stacie

Guess who's back? Back again!

The morning I left for Michigan my computer started to act funny. And by act funny I mean it stopped working. When we got home, myself and the kids were on fall break so the broken computer took a back burner to trips to the park, crafts at home, and just reconnecting with each other (who am I kidding, one was sick, the other had a doctors appointment, and I had a ton of laundry to do). 

Serious fun at our house. Either way you look at it, we were busy and blogging was no longer in the top ten of things I needed to worry about. 

The computer is still broke because so is our bank account. Which also means all my awesome pictures I've been snapping away at (you know, trips to the park and crafty things) are stuck on the camera. So for now I will grace you with crappy iPhone pictures, like this selfie Little Miss took:

She's got real talent that one! 

We also haven't been very productive lately on the house, but I am hoping for that to change. I have a TON of ideas for the house and the hubs has actually agreed to some of them (time to play the lottery). 

So here's a few crap pictures to hold you over till we win the lottery (kidding, but not completely): 

Selfie! Isn't he so handsome??

Practicing her dance moves before the wedding (she was most definitely the bell of the ball [ps I had to spell definitely about five times before I got it right-seriously]).  

Found a new use for the console table. Who needs baskets when you can store your kids there?

Got to go backstage and meet my favorite band American Authors!! These guys totally rock and are as down to earth as most rock stars are! 

And don't forget we went to the park. Twice. Watch out. 

I have huge plans that I've set aside while we focus on our little family because that's number one. So be prepared to be wowed soon. Kids craft table? Working on it. Ursula and Prince Eric costume? Attempting to sew those bad boys. Chicken noodle soup? That's on the menu. And yeah, the pictures are probably going to be horrible and un-staged. It happens. 

Thanks for being patient with me and as always, follow me on Pinterest Facebook and Instagram! 

Ps. Leave a comment! It makes me feel warm and fuzzy on the inside!

Enjoy~

Xo Stacie

A Console table even yo' momma would be proud of

Our living room is super odd shape, like there are some stairs just chilling, in the living room, sometimes they watch cartoons with us.  Decorating, and more importantly, furniture arrangement has been tough.  So much so, that we just didn't do it.  Don't get me wrong, we had some style in that room, but nothing like you see in a magazine (you know the ones, you sit there and drool over them and pin them and then pretend you can afford them).  Slowly, veeeerrrryyy slowly, we are upgrading the living room to be more of a family room.  

One new addition that we've put in is a new console table.  Most of these console tables will go behind your average couch, ours? Nope, it is chilling in front of those stairs that enjoy episodes of New Girl with me.  We needed something that would hold our DVD player and cable box and router and what not.  However, we couldn't have your average tv stand/media center due to the big hulking stairs and little ones whose goal in life is to scare the crap out of their parents.  Plus, nice tall tv stands were over $150 and well, that darn poor thing just keeps getting in our way.  

So finally, finally, I convinced the hubby to build me a tall table.  Ok, truthfully, I really wanted an old dresser there but the hubs doesn't care for that kind of style and this is what we compromised on (alright, I caved once he said, I'll build it myself, nothing is sexier than a man building you something).  

I just want to warn you, this sucker is built entirely out of 2x4's!! That's right, 2x4s!!! say whhaaaa?? 

Folks, this table is NICE.  I was playing researching on Craigslist and a very similar table was for sale for almost $200! This one cost us maybe $40 to make but we also had all the wood already.   We followed Ana White's tutorial a little but kudos to the hubs because he pretty much just looked at her design and went to town.  But then, again he is a carpenter for a living so he's got an eye for this stuff (but it also means he doesn't really want to come home and build things either, sad face for me).  Expect a tutorial on how he did this easy peasy in the coming days.  

You can see some of our Halloween decorations have already made the table.  I still need to find baskets to put on that shelf but can't decide on the look I want yet.  I am so excited to start decorating this for holidays (and don't you worry, Target is already getting rid of Halloween and putting out Christmas) and hang our stockings from it and love on it and give it a name and...... you get the point.  I love our new table, and the fact that the hubs hand built it, just means it's loved that much more.

the whole family got in on this thing! Sanding machine she was!

Hope you all have a great fall weekend! Go pick some apples or pumpkins! We are headed up north for that wedding I was telling you about here, and we are mighty excited for some family time!

What are your favorite baskets to decorate with, and where do you find them?

Enjoy~
xo Stacie

Playroom in Progress

A few weeks ago our house was invaded by toys.  Big toys, little teeny tiny toys.  So much that I decided the only thing these kids were getting for Christmas were clothes and books.  But then I remembered we had a basement.  A somewhat big, unfinished in all its glory, basement.  Where toys could go and die for all I cared (that's a lie, I care, and I clean them too).  The problem was, our unfinished basement had become our Monica closet.  You know, from Friends, how Monica was OCD about cleaning, but really she just shoved it all into her closet? Well, that was what our basement had become.  And it's not like we didn't go down there every single day either, our laundry room is in the basement.  But it just accumulated over time (no not really, it didn't take long at all).

We begun the process of finishing the basement a few years ago, and just got sidetracked with other things (like baby number 2).  So there is a room framed up down there.  Just sitting full of crap that we could sell.  So I finally bit the bullet and sold stuff, and cleaned down there.  Boy did I clean.  We decided a long time ago that "my" area would be over by the laundry, because that is where I spend a lot of time anyways.

The already framed up room would be either a guest room or a kids playroom.  Since we don't typically have a lot of out of town guests we opted to remove the closet we had framed up and expand the room to a play room.  But then we ran out of money again (typical right?).  So I improvised played on Pinterest for ideas.

what playroom currently looks like

what the playroom currently looks like

It's a work in progress and it's slowly coming together, but it's in the basement and I don't have to look at it if I want too (I just advert my eyes when walking to the laundry).  I've got a Pinterest playroom board if you want to follow along here.  I'll try to keep you updated as we make progress but for now, here's some of my inspiration:

Rug / CB2 small item storage / Little Felix Chair (Azure) / CB2 dining table / Fab round bean bag

I CAN'T wait to finish the playroom and the whole basement all together.  For now, I will slowly thrift and search for cheaper versions of the above while my kids out grow those super large floor toys (that I can. not. stand.). I enjoy the process of creating a room and can sometimes be impatient, however, the kids don't mind, so I will take a page out of their book and let it go.  For now....

Enjoy~
xo Stacie