Braided T-Shirt Bracelet Tutorial

If you know me, you know that I don't buy anything if it isn't on sale so I hardly buy myself jewelry because usually a bracelet can be anywhere from $7 to $18 and I just think I can buy myself a shirt or a even a dress with that money! So I don't even end up getting myself anything and almost always come home with a cute little something for my kids that I found on sale.

Which brings me to this tutorial, I decided to play around with tearing up an old t-shirt and coming up with something to use it for. I didn't want to make another rosette so I played  around a little bit and thought "well maybe I'll add a nice ruffled collar to one of my shirts?"and then I began braiding a couple pieces and trying it on my wrist and thought it looked cool. So with a couple of tools I already had I came up with this:

A Braided T-Shirt Bracelet 

It's not the world's prettiest bracelet but it's comfy!

My bracelet is white and I am using B&W photos

because I took the pics at night and the lighting wasn't all that great

and you can see the details better in B&W.

I will show you how easy it is to make using any of your old tees. 

If it's stretchy it will be even better in the end.

You can use any color or pattern shirt you have or maybe 

try three different colors!

What you will need:

* one old t-shirt or tee (preferably stretchy fabric)

* glue gun (w/ glue sticks)

* needle & thread in color of your choice

* fabric scissors (or any scissors you have than can cut through fabric)

First cut out 3 strips of your shirt about ruler width
and about 18in or more length wise 

Grab all three of your strips and tie a tight knot at the top like so:

Then begin braiding your bracelet at a curve so that it will curve around your wrist

If you want your braid tight then braid tight or if you want yours a little loose do not

tighten too much as you braid. 

When you get towards the end tie a tight knot:

Then cut off the extra fabric coming out of your knots but DO NOT 

throw away!! You will need one of these for the last step!

Grab a needle and thread in the color of your choice, mine is white.

Measure the bracelet around your wrist. Pick a place where you want your

bracelet to end and begin sewing it together.

Grab your glue gun and glue your pieces together where you 

previously sewed just to make sure they stay together.

Once your glue dries you can cut off the knots

You end up with a bracelet like this

Now grab one of the pieces we cut off from the beginning

and tie it around the unfinished part and gluing with your glue gun

as you go around to end up with a clean finish like this

Do you like it? I plan on making more with different colors or patterns.

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Quick Candle Tray Makeover

While out shopping at Ross I found some cute little candle vases 

or holders whatever you wish to call them.

It was love at first sight, especially since the price was $2.99 for all three.

I put them in my blue shopping cart and couldn't wait to take them home.

I bought the candles from The Dollar Tree (because I'm cheap thrifty like that)

I already had two vases on a tray that my mom gave me as a gift and I loved the tray but was

never thrilled about the little vases.

It was missing something....

Oh by the way these lonely looking candle holders are sitting on my bathroom window sill 

(hence the privacy window film)

This is what my my little window sill looks like now with it's new candle holders...

I filled them with my cheap thrifty candles and added some decorative rocks to the plate.

What do you think?

I also purchased a couple more items at The Dollar Tree that I thought would actually look good

to decorate my house.

I will show you all my dollar store finds on a future post...

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Cabinets Stained and Installed

We couldn't agree on a stain color because I wanted something dark and my husband wanted something lighter that would allow for the natural beauty of maple wood to show through. So it took a while for us to finally agree on a stain and while looking through an Ikea catalog we found this:

Of-course our door style is much different but we loved the color, It's in between dark and light.

We tore the page out and sent it to the person who was going to stain our cabinets and he did an excellent job. While comparing this picture to our cabinets I can say he matched it perfectly.

I will only show you two pictures now of our new cabinets and will post the rest once

we are ready to show our final reveal.

Here is a picture to refresh your memory of what our cabinets looked like before 

(in a different angle but same cabinets):

and here are our new wall cabinets:

Our new cabinets go all the way up to the ceiling and you can't see in this picture but we used to have three cabinet doors next to the microwave and now we have four. 

Here is a not-so before picture of this wall:

and our new cabinets wall & base on this wall:

Our next step is getting granite countertops, tile backsplash and finally getting my sink installed.

Yes, we do plan on getting new stainless steel appliances but that won't be anytime soon.

I am loving my new cabinets! I can't wait until the kitchen is completely done, I actually miss cooking and washing dishes. I can't thank God enough for all his blessings because I know he is the one who provides and all good things come from him even though we don't deserve it.

Thank You Lord! 

My Recipe Binder

I finally got around to making my Recipe Binder to
organize my recipe mess I had in this container:

I got the idea from Prudent Baby's Recipe Binder. 

I wanted to print out their pretty binder design but 

I ran out of ink and was too cheap to go out and buy more. 

So I found these pretty folders in Target aka my favorite store:

Don't you just love those red Target clearance stickers?

I know I do! These pretties cost me $0.39/ea!

I also purchased Post-It tabs to turn my folders into

dividers to organize the inside of my binder.

I began by cutting my folders in half and measuring the exact

size I would need for my dividers.

I then added the tabs to the cut-out folders to make

my dividers into three sections:

1. Appetizers/Sides

2. Main Dishes

3. Desserts

Here you can see the inside of my binder with my recipes 

neatly in their protective sleeves:

I also used one of the folders to decorate the outside of my binder:

Now my recipe binder is done and ready to be stored away in 

my new kitchen! 

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DIY Rosette Tank Dress

My little princess wants to wear dresses all the time now 

so instead of going out to buy her a bunch of dresses she will end up staining

I thought I would make something using one of her old winter shirts she outgrew

I got a vintage Sears Kenmore sewing machine from one of my husband's aunts

but I can't seem to figure it all out so I ordered the manual online and

hopefully that will help so I can begin working on little diva's birthday dress.

In the meantime, here is how I made this outfit using

1. a long sleeve top with a gathered bottom

2. a white muscle tank (my son's)

First I cut the top off of the shirt

I flipped the skirt over, pinned it, ironed it and sewed the hem.

Then I cut off one of the sleeves and cut the sleeve in two pieces

 to form one long strand:

I made my rosette and cut it out of the felt:

Using Fabric Glue I glued my rosette on to the tank.

I added a piece of paper underneath (Ikea Paper folded in half)

 to keep the glue from going through to the other side.

I let that set overnight until the glue was dry.

I then pinned the skirt part on to the tank while it was inside out and

began sewing the skirt and tank together by hand.

As you can see my stitches are far from perfect but until I can get 

my sewing machine to work it will do.

This little dress was easy to make and is perfect for her to wear around the

house once summer begins.

Here you can see my little model wearing her dress along with

her new leather house shoes that I found at Target for $3 

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Paint, Check!

It's been one busy weekend but our kitchen and hallway bathroom are 

now both painted and ready for their next stage.

We went to home depot and found our colors:

The color we chose for the kitchen is named Lime Light.

We also got a sample of the Silver Drop for our hallway but we

are not sure yet if we will paint the hallways or not.

I won't show you the whole kitchen painted until the kitchen

is completely finished but here are some sneak peeks:

Here is a glimpse of the grayish-brown color before and 

the Lime Light color after while painting near the windows...

...and this is the before color on top

 (which will be covered all the way up with cabinets)

and our new color on bottom:

We also painted our hallway bathroom which will be our next project once the kitchen is done.

We had the same grayish brown color in the bathroom but it was a bit dark

since it doesn't have any natural light coming in.

So we painted it the same blueish color that we used in the kitchen:

Here is the before:

and the after:

 It looks so much brighter already but it is not finished yet.

We are planning on removing the bathtub completely and creating a tiled 

walk-in shower, maybe get a new vanity cabinet/sink and mirror

and changing the lighting.

Here is the tile and decorative accents we plan on using for the bathroom:

As you can see we have lots to do, so many projects to be completed!

My Little Rosette Pillow

I saw this post by Lindsay last week: DIY Rosette Embellished Pillow

and I remembered I had some leftover fabric somewhere from a pair of curtains
 I shortened from IKEA. I bought these curtains last year as a part of our room remodel
and I saved the fabric I cut off thinking I would love to make a matching pillow someday...

well I started sewing my pillow by hand and I am no seamstress but I've 

always loved sewing. I would love to buy a sewing machine some day. 

I went to walmart and bought some stuffing for my pillow 

and it's not perfect as you can see but I'm very proud of myself :)

The fabric is very thin so you can see the stuffing and I didn't think about

 this until I had sewn it shut. I thought it needed a little something so I went 

out and bought my first glue gun and followed Lindsay's Tutorial 

and I decided to add some rosettes to my pillow:

It was easy and it didn't take much time, I did it while the kids 

were eating breakfast :) and then I glued the rosettes on to my pillow 

using fabric glue and this is what it looks like now:

Again, it is not perfect but I like it! BTW I don't like our current bedding 

but we didn't have any bedding  just sheets and bedding was not part of our 

budget last year so I went to Target one day and found this set for $11!

Yup $11 for a King Comforter, 2 Pillow Shams and a Bedskirt. 

It's not my favorite but it will do until I find the perfect 

bedding and until we are done with the kitchen.

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