Ashley- Finished Quiet Book!!!!!

     Hi everyone! Sorry for the long wait between posts life has been..... well life lol. I will it explain all that at the end of my post, BUT I want to share with you the finished product, Melody's finished quiet book! We leave Saturday afternoon out to see all my family back home and I am so excited I can't wait to get home and give my niece and nephew a big old squeeze. My little 4 year old niece is even counting down the days <3 She melts my heart. Anyways back to the book, here it is in all it's glory!

    It turned out great didn't it?!?! I'm pretty dang excited that I got it done. And it wasn't hard, it's just a little time consuming but it honestly was a lot of fun because you can create almost anything with felt, it's great.


    Now to fill you guys in, I have been really busy with my little girl, we have been doing speech therapy and been seeing an occupational therapist. We went to see a developmental pediatrician today and my daughter was diagnosed autistic. So I'm sorry for not getting this up sooner, we've been a busy crew. So since it was such a long grueling day and they poked, prodded, drew blood, and pretty much anything else you can think of, my husband and I took Melody out to build a bear and we got her the autism awareness bear.

    Well we are hunkering down for the night but I will be back on sometime soon, Alisha and I will be crafting for an upcoming book fair that she is the head of so be sure to check back! Pin It

Ashley - Mickey Mouse quiet book page

     I am so excited for these two ages I'm planning. Since I found that doll and I realized I could use my embroidery machine to add to the pages, I have beenn just coming up with ideas left and right. This is one of those ideas. My machine came with quite a few disney designs on it which included all 6 of the Mickey Mouse gang. I wanted to incorporate them so I started brainstorming and came up with a great idea. My daughter loves the finger puppets from the barn page so what I have been doing is running the designs and then backing them and gluing them to popsicle sticks. These are the ones I have finished so far.

Now just to finish the other three and make the back drop for her to play with them at :) I can't wait to show you! BUT you're going to have to chack back to see it all done! Come back soon! Pin It

Ashley - Quiet book pages part 4

     Ok so my loves and I were walking through Joanns (dangerous I know) and I stumbled across chalkboard fabric. I had seen it on blogs and pinterest so when I saw it in person I had to get some. I believe it was only like 5 bucks a yard too so not bad and that's a lot of chalkboard mats lol. So with my chalkboard fabric I set to work to make Melody a chalkboard page.

I may add to the little desk in front of the chalkoard but we will see. The desk lid lifts up and that's where you store your chalk. Very simple but I showed it to Melody and she loved it so it gets the job done lol. Check back for more pages! Pin It

Ashley - Quiet book pages part 3

    Hey everyone! so I have been trying to get cooking on the rest of this quiet book because I fly home to see my family in less then 3 weeks now! So aunt Alisha has been poking around online and found an adorable site with a felt doll pattern for my embroidery machine and well I just had to get it and make it for Melody. This is where we got the pattern: http://www.dejahvuedesigns.com/category_11/In-The-Hoop-Projects.htm Make sure you take a look around because she has some amazing designs! And here is my finished product.

I added the little wardrobe (yes it does hold all the outfits) and the mirror. It turned out so incredibly cute. I'm thinking I might add a little rug or something to take up some more of that free space but we will see what I have time for. I can't wait to make more outfits lol That Sleeping beauty dress is SO cute! I have a Cinderella kind of dress too to make and I'm thinking of buying the other princess dresses she designed too lol.

lol all the other patterned felt I have to try. I really want to make the Rapunzel dress out of that purple and pink ond in the middle :) Check back for updates and more quiet book pages! Pin It

Ashley - Minnie Mouse backpack

     Hey everyone! So now that we have our tax return I am getting ready to fly home to see the family. You've seen my progress so far with the quiet book I'm making for the plane ride (I have more pages to post I promise I will get those up soon!). So since I have to buy a ticket for Melody too now, which is why I waited for tax season to go home because it's so spendy now lol, I have been panning on having luggage for her so I don't have to try and pack everything for both of us just in my bags because if I'm paying for the seat I'm going to take advantage of that space lol. I have a suitcase for her but I wanted a backpack for her that could be the bag under her seat that would hold toys and snacks so I got to work on a Minnie Mouse backpack for her.

 

 

 

 

     Didn't turn out amazing?!?!?!?! I put Minnie heads on both side pockets and also embroidered the M on the front too :) I LOVE my new machine!!! It's lined with the polka dot fabric on the inside. I can't wait to take it on our trip. Let me know what you think!

 



 

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Ashley - My new miracle machine!

     I have been making hand bags as you have seen for a couple years now but I have always wanted the ability to customize my bags more then just fabric choices. So needless to say that got me wanting an embroidery/sewing machine. One machine that could do everything I wanted. My loving husband agreed to set aside part of our tax return just for that. Now if my business shoots off from the embroidery I really want to buy a Bernina 580E because they are an amazing machine ( they can bedazzle and paint designs on your projects, I kid you not) but way above our current price range. Since I already had a brother I looked into them and found my new love the Brother Innov-is 1250D. It came with 35 Disney characters over 100 other embroidery designs and sewing stitches. Very awesome.  As soon as I got it I put that baby to work!

Melody's favorite part of the machine.... the box it came in lol.

My new baby all set up!

Melody's favortie movie is.... yep you guessed it Monsters Inc. 

So we went to Walmart got a few cheap plain t-shirts and started making adorable little shirts. I'm in LOVE with this machine and well I just had to share! So now you know what I have been up to for the last week. Check back soon to see more awesome projects!

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Ashley - Quiet Book pages part 2

     So I saw a variety of ideas that I loved but I didn't want to make a page for each because this quiet book would become a quiet encylopedia lol so I combined the apple tree and garden page I wanted to do and I love the end result! Then I paired that page with the barn page that I loved from the blog I linked you to in the last quiet book post. I didn't use any template for either of these pages, I just took the ideas and ran with them and this is my end result :)

     I made a horse, cow, pig, and a chicken. Melody can pull out the vegetables in the gaden (radishes, carrots, onions, and potatoes) and the apples usually start up on the tree but I showed someone and she put them in the crate lol. She got the idea for sure. Melody also got mad when I made her put the carrot away (her favorite vegetable). I can't wait to get the rest of the pages done and to put it all together! Keep checking back for more quiet book pages :) Pin It

Ashley - hand held I-Spy

     It's hard to describe what I mean lol Melody's speech therapist let Melody borrow this little handmade pouch another mother hand made and she took clear beads and then hid little things in the beads. So when the kids play with it you tell them to find certain objects by searching in it. That's why I call it a hand held I-Spy. The one on the left is the one I made and the one on the right is the one that we were given to borrow. The beads inside I used were a little bigger because Melody got frustrated searching so it's a little easier for her with bigger beads. I also put more things in there jsut to keep her attention. Be carefu if you make one just because if you over pack it it will be too hard for the little one to search.

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Ashley - Quiet Book part 1

     So I am getting ready for the long journey home to see my family back in Oregon! I'm so excited to see Alisha and the kids along with my mom, dad, grandparents, and friends. But getting to Oregon is a long flight. It's almost 7 hours flying and that doesn't include the one or two layovers I have along with that. And now that I have a little girl that is two she needs some form of entertainment. That's when I started poking around pinterest and found the quiet book and I instantly fell in love lol. So I pinned some templates and then got to work!

This is my first page.

You can find a template on this awesome lady's website http://jocelynandjason.blogspot.com/2011/11/mr-potato-head-quiet-book-pages-10-11.html This was super simple. I made a couple little changes to it, the little pouch she made to hold all the pieces was cute but I wanted to make something where Melody could see what she was grabbing so I used vinyl. And the only other different thing I did was I just used white thread from everything instead of changing out all the time. Its hard to find bobbins  for my maachine lol so I didn't have the extras to load all the different colors. When I make the front cover and the next pages I will put an interfacing between the pages to keep them sturdy. Turned out pretty awesome right?
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Ashley - Minnie mouse wall art

     Hey everyone! I hope you had a very happy holidays! I have been working on getting my little girls bathroom all set up for her. We are starting with introducing her to the potty so I want to make her bathroom a little more hers and make it somewhere that makes her want to go use that potty lol. So one of the few projects that I have been planning to do was find a form of wall art to put in there. Then I remembered Melody received a duplicate set of Minnie mouse puzzles at Christmas time.

     So instead of returning them or letting them just sit and get no use I decided to use those as my wall art so Melody could still enjoy them and they would get some use :) So I rounded up my supplies.

Supplies:
1 20 X 30 foam board
Black paint
Staple gun
7/8 in. molding
and I used my glue gun too

     So first off I got my loving husband to cut the molding for me, I have a hard enough time cutting my own fabric haha so I asked him to handle that one. While Ben was cutting I got to work cutting the foam board. Just take your time and be sure to measure twice, cut once ;)

Next came the painting. Now these puzzles aren't made with the most precision ever so when we were fitting the molding we notice little gaps where the puzzle warped a little so what I did was I painted the edges of the foam board as well as the molding so if the puzzles and the molding didn't meet absolutely perfectly then it would be no big deal because the white wouldn't show through.

     Once these were painted and dried I just decided to hot glue everything because well I couldn't find my wood glue haha. First I hot glued down the actual puzzle to the foam board.

     After that was taken care of, one by one I fit the molding pieces and then glued them down. When I was certain the glue was cool and everything was secure I took the time to touch up any little spots I missed painting. Finally for the last step instead of buying hangers what we did was we just put a couple staples in the back and cut a little of the foam board away by the staples. It's easy, quick, and you save money buying special little hangers. These are very light so there is real risk of it coming apart.

     And there you have it, your ready to hang up your brand new wall art and brighten up any space! 

     Here is a little sneak peek of the bathroom but my big project isn't done yet so you will just have to wait until I get finished to see the whole finished product. But while you wait I want to show you the other puzzle that we have done this with. This hangs in our dining room and you have seen pictures of it but you probably didn't recognize it. 

     See? A puzzle my husband and I finished and didn't want to put away :) Enjoy everyone!!! Pin It

Ashley - Minnie Mouse Party Window Valances!

Hi all! I have been wanting to do these window valances ever since I got the idea for them when I did the table runners so I actually took the time and sat down to do them. Originally I was going to just sew those few seams and call it good but I thought that was just a little too plain and so I brainstormed and this is what I came up with :)

( Don't mind the one broken slot on the blinds, someone found out they were tall enough to reach them) Anyways this is totally adorable right?!?!?! This is how I did it.

You will need:

Enough fabric to reach all the way around your window

1in. white grosgrain ribbon

Black and pink felt

Valance rods

First I took my fabric and cut it down to 15in X 84in. I then folded both ends, pressed it and started sewing. Quick tip if you use fabric like this the polka dots will help you line things up and will help you sew straight lines so watch the polka dots!

After I got the edges done I moved onto the ribbon. When I sewed the ribbon on I loosened the tension a bit (between 2 and 3) and made my stitches longer.  

When I was done with that I moved to the next step, the Minnie head. Cut out your Minnie head of your black felt. I left the stitches long and just switched out my top bobbin to to black thread. Sew on your Minnie head.

And for the cherry on top, the bow. Get your pink felt and cut out the shape of a bow. Now with my bow since the head was sewn on all I did was glue the bow to the black felt of the Minnie head just to make it easier and since it's going to be just hanging you can cheat lol.

I had my husband put the valance rod up for me while I was finishing up and boom!



You have an amazing looking party decoration that you can move into your princesses room after the party is over :)





Enjoy!

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Ashley - Minie mouse felt head

Now I'm using this for Melody's party but I thought I would also put it in her room after it was all over too so she could have it to play with. I have seen pins on pinterest of women making them in the shape of christmas trees and other things so I wanted to try my hand at it.

Now these are the things that I used to make this head. The few things that I do not have pictured is the foam board,the glue gun, and the clasps that I will use to fasten it to the wall ( I am looking for the clear plastic clasps that hold mirrors in place but I have yet to find them. I will look some more tomorrow. ) 

I used a pizza pan to trace along for her head and a pot lid for the shape of her ears and everything else I pretty much free handed. I suggest that when you do this project pull up a picture of minnie when your cutting for reference.

This is after all my pieces were cut. I glued the ovals of the eyes together, the tan of her face together with the balck head shape, and the tongue into her mouth. 

you can also make your minnie mickey if you would like. I cut out some other bow and some polka dots so Melody can change out those. 

And there you have it! The end result. Like I said I will be hanging this differently once I find those clasps but I just wanted you to see it hung up and put together :) Until next time!!! Pin It