J O Y

May you know the real JOY of the season this Christmas!!!!


Lee, Amber and Reese

Upcycle Goodness

Reese's collection of up-cycled dresses is started to get pretty big. I love them for a few different reasons...
1. It is a way for Reese to wear character outfits in a way I love (I am not a big fan of character clothes typically)
2. They are usually very inexpensive to make and a pretty quick sew.
3. They are comfortable(great for play but also cute enough for going out) and great for any weather due to the ease of layering over long sleeve shirts and leggings or ruffled pants.
4. Reese loves them!!!

Reese kept asking for princess dresses for Christmas. I threw around the idea of sewing a few cute dress-up dresses out of knit, but then she could only wear them at home (which I knew could possibly turn into a daily battle). I finally decided to find a few cute princess t-shirts and make them into up-cycled dresses. She was thrilled when she opened them on Christmas morning and insisted that one of them would be her Christmas day outfit. I, of course, protested and told her she had to wear the adorable knot top and ruffled pants outfit I made her. Then I realized that she was excited about her new dresses and that she should be able to choose her outfit for the day. At least she was still wearing something I made...hehe.

Here is what I came up with:



I bought the shirts NWT off of ebay, and they are originally from Gap (Junk Food t-shirts). I still wanted to give them a little of a "princess costume" feel, so I decided to add the pointed skirt on Sleeping Beauty and the sleeves on Snow White. Cinderella didn't have any "fun" additions, but she is my favorite. I love pink and blue together....and of course, the blue has polka dots!!! I also love how the colors pop with the black background of the shirt.


Here is the dress (in spinning action) Reese picked to wear on Christmas. It ended up being covered up most of the day with one of the many princess dress-up costumes she received as gifts.

Here are some of the other dresses I have made for her. I have a huge bin of shirts waiting to be made into a fun new creation and a tote full of knits to add to them. Lee loves the U of M dress, and I have a shirt that match the one I used to make the dress. Reese wore the Minnie Mouse dress to Disney on Ice.

I also have a few that I was lucky enough to win as giveaways. The horse dress and the Mr Bubble dress where from Melissa at Nookie Skooter. She did a referral contest on her FB page. She picked one name from the people who where refered to her page. Whoever she picked received a costume dress as well as the friend who suggested her page to them. Luck for me, my mom was picked....so Reese received both dresses. We like to pair the horse dress with a cute pair of pink leggings that have brown horses on them and Reese's cowgirls boots. I made Reese a pair of yellow ruffled pants last spring that look great with the Mr. Bubble dress. Unfortunately, the pants are getting to be a little short (which will be nice in the spring) and JoAnn's isn't carrying the yellow fabric right now to make her a new, longer pair. I won the cute doll dress from Sofia at Chimi and Change. She designs such cute designs!!! The dress on the left is from Trisha at Night Owl. She had my name for a swap we did last summer/fall. I am also planning on getting a couple adult pieces off of her for me. Make sure to check out and "like" her FB page. She is always doing sun giveaways and discounts!

Of course, the baby dolls love up-cycled dresses too!

Reese loves dressing up like Jessie from Toy Story. She puts on her Jessie costume, asks for her cowgirl boots and then runs around the house yelling YEE-HAW!!!! She has requested a Jessie dress as her next up-cycle. Here is the shirt I am planning on using (from the Disney Store).

Christmas Goodies....3 weeks late

Yes, I do realize that Christmas was over 3 weeks ago, but I still wanted to share a few Christmas goodies!!! I have been busy busy since Christmas (more on that later). Reese had such a fun time this year. She understood most of what was going on and knew that Santa was visiting us(and was sooo excited about it). The one thing she asked Santa to bring here over and over again was a Rapenzul dress. She LOVES Rapenzul and also loves to tell us about Rapenzul throwing her hair down daily.....I am loving this age!!! Don't worry, Santa pulled through!!! Reese ended up with tons of fun dress-up costumes!

Reese was so excited to leave cookies and milk for Santa. Of course, we had to leave a special treat for the reindeers as well. The excitement soon left after she realized the cookies weren't for her to enjoy...hehe

Christopher Pop-In-Kins is to thank for me being so busy. Christopher is Reese's elf who hid in a new place every night from the weekend after Thanksgiving until Christmas morning(his final hiding place....in the tree of course). Reese had so much fun finding Christopher's new hiding spot each morning. It was also nice for mom and dad since Christopher watched to make sure Reese was being good daily....and yes we did use this as leverage a few time. Christopher took all of Reese's daipers with him on Christmas night when he went back to the North Pole. So, as you can guess, we have been in full swing potty training mode since the day after Christmas(and it has been a loooonnnggg 2 1/2 weeks and we are still tackling the pooping part...sigh). Any suggestions are greatly appreciated :)

I shared a sneak peak a few days before Christmas of some the things I sewed. One of the projects I tackled a week before Christmas was bedding for a fun bunk bed for her dolls that Maga bought for Reese. Kerri from lovely little handmades and sew deerly loved put together a fun scrap pack(and boy was it full of some yummy fabric). I love how the bedding turned out. Here is Reese right after she opend it on Christmas Eve.

I like the quilts so much that for a minute I was tempted to keep them all to myself...until I realized they would be in my house for me to admire daily (but the next quilt I make will be all mine!!!).

I also made a mattress for each bed using a few layers of batting and some fleece I had in my stash. I sewed up a cover, slipped the "mattress" in the cover and stitched up the opening. Of course, every doll needs a fun little pillow... with a hedgehog patch!

I was hoping to give free motion quilting a try, but my machine decided to take a dump on me right before all of my Christmas sewing. My sister was so nice to let me barrow her machine. Since it was a different brand then mine, I didn't have the foot I needed for the quilting. I was also a little out of my comfort zone with a different machine, so I decided to let a local quilt shop do the quilting. My favorite is the coin quilt (the one on the left).

Santa (aka the hubby) also left me some yummy goodies as well. He left this adorable new camera strap cover from knittybitties in my stocking. It pays off to leave lots of hints I guess...hehe. I am also loving this strap (love her new hand embroidered patch option too) and also have been wanting to make a strap from this tutorial...I love Lindsay..such a sweet gal! There are so many options of camera straps. I think I could make one to use for each month of the year....hmmm...maybe this would be a good thing to add to an etsy shop when I ever get up enough nerve to open one!!!

Lee also suprised me with a new necklace. I love to get gifts that I didn't pick out but is so me. Didn't he do a great job!

AND....drum roll please....Santa (aka hubby, mom & MIL) really surprised me with....

A NEW SEWING MACHINE.....EEEEKKKK!!!!

Let me introduce Miss Jane........

We are still getting to know each other but I am so excited to start some new projects!!! More on the new projects in another post!!

Yes, Santa was so good to us this year!!!

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas!!!!

I would like to wish all my friends and family a very Merry & Magical Christmas!!! I hope you all enjoy every minute spent with your family!!!! Also, may we all remember the reason we celebrate this exciting time of year. Happy Birthday Baby Jesus!!!!

Sneak Peak......

I feel like I have lived in my sewing room the past couple of weeks. I have been busy sewing some fun Christmas gifts for Reese from us and from Maga, as well as a few gifts for others. Here are a few sneak peaks into what Reese will be getting on Christmas morning. I had such a fun time sewing them. Hopefully Reese has even more fun playing with them!!!

I decided that Reese's dolls needed some new clothes. Some of the dresses coordinate with dresses I have made Reese. The others are just because. Don't they look so cute sitting there together :)


Of course, I couldn't just make one dress per doll.....



I also decided that each doll need a new diaper. I used a great tutorial from Lindsey over at The Cottage Mama. She is such a sweet person and another blogger I hope to have the privilege of meeting one day. I know that Reese and her daughter, Savannah, would get along so well! I also love all of her fun and timeless designs and her use of trims (especially piping)! Here is the tutorial I used. I am also hoping to try out her camera strap tutorial after the new year!


I just want to squeeze them :) Of course each doll needs more then one diaper!!!


I love that Reese will have a few new, home-made things to play with....even better, they were free since everything I used was from my scraps and sewing desk!!!

AND....a little sneak peak at the project that Maga asked me to make for Reese. I will have to wait and take picture after Christmas since I didn't have the entire gift here at my house. I can't wait to see what Reese thinks when she opens this gift :)

I am so relieved that I finished Reese's last princess upcycle dress this morning. I hurried up and wrapped them while she was napping and forgot to take any pictures. I love how they turned out!!! I will post pictures of them as well after Christmas!

Now to go relax and enjoy the last little bit of this Christmas season!!!

It's Chritmas Time.....

Christmas time this year has been so much fun. Reese is starting to understand what is going to take place Christmas morning. She has also been having so much fun finding out what Christopher Pop-In-Kins new hiding spot is each morning. She has also really enjoyed taking a star off of our Christmas tree calendar each morning. She takes one off and gets so excited....because she only has "____" number of days until she gets her Rapunzel dress (her number one request for Christmas this year). I also love listening to her sing all the fun Christmas songs. My favorite though is when she sings "Happy Birthday" to baby Jesus. Makes this Mama's heart melt!

We have been busy busy here at our house....well, I have been really busy! But, we have managed to have some fun during this busy season. We had so much fun getting together with some of my mom's family for a nice, casual Christmas get together. It was nothing fancy, but was so nice to relax, talk and especially to laugh with everyone!!! Here is Reese modeling the Christmas out fit I made for her.

And of course, we can't have a Christmas party without Santa. We are so lucky to have a Santa in our family...Uncle Darrell!!!

HoHoHo......

Reese made sure she let Santa know she is expecting a Rapunzel dress on Christmas morning. She has been obsessed with her ever since Maga & I took her to see Tangled a few weeks ago.

Someone please enlighten me on when we will be able to get a good family picture again!!! It is pretty much impossible these days!!

Thanks so much Uncle Darrell for going out of your comfort zone and giving the kids (big and small) so much enjoyment!!! I also let Uncle "Santa" know how special he is. Reese was not in the least bit afraid or cautious of him......The mall Santa was a completely different story. He was a little strange looking though

We also had so much fun taking Reese to see Disney On Ice. Reese talked about it for days and was so excited on the morning of the show. Some of the characters she was familiar with, but the ones she did know....she went nuts about. Of course Mickey and Minnie are always a hit with Reese.

BUT the one person she asked about over and over and over again.....The Little Mermaid. She was awe struck when Ariel made her appearance!

Of course, Rapunzel had to be in the picture too :)

Now onto wishing and dreaming about what Santa is going to bring us in THREE short days!!!

Hope everyone is enjoying this magical time of the year!!!