We've got bling

We spent the weekend getting some bling on at our house.

One of my daughters competes in pageants. She's only allowed to do 'natural pageants' because I'm not big on the fake hair, fake tan, fake teeth, etc. kind of pageants.

So, she's got a pageant coming up with the theme of denim and diamonds. There really aren't a lot of rules to go by which is really hard for me. I generally need some kind of parameters to operate in. Just wide open gives me too much room to go crazy with ideas. LOL

Anyway, since my daughter has to pay for her pageant participation on her own, she's learning a valuable lesson about learning to work with what you've got to save money.

With that in mind, I took a pair of boots that Kirsten has outgrown (but they still fit Addison) and added some bling.

These are the boots before:

After blinging up the boots, I also worked some magic on a belt that I have *ahem* outgrown.

She has a denim dress that she'll be wearing them with and her Dad is going to polish the foot part of the boots tonight.

I'm happy with the way they turned out and so is she. I can't wait to see what the other girls in the pageant show up with. I will say this though, I went through a WHOLE LOT of hot glue getting all of that done.

Wash Colths

I told you that I have still been crocheting. I've seen on other blogs where people go on about how much they've fallen in love with crocheted wash clothes. I had some yarn left over from the camisole I made and since it was 100% cotton, I decided to make up a couple of wash cloths.

The two white ones are cotton. I happened to be in Hobby Lobby and touched some bamboo yarn that was soooooo soft I had to have some. That's the red one.

I haven't used them yet. So far I just like looking at them all folded and stacked. Maybe I'm just afraid that I'll really like them and then I'll go crazy with making more and more. LOL I'm thinking they're a great way to use up left over yarn and to practice new stitches. If you make gauge swatches (which I never do--I'm bad that way) go ahead and make them big enough to use as a wash cloth later. Maybe now I should start doing that. lol

For Father's Day

Since Dax was gone all weekend doing his training with the State Guard, Addison and I decided to do something different with his cake.

Here's his cake:

We did the inside in camo:

We could barely find it to eat it! LOL

Anyway, to get this effect I just colored vanilla cake mix and then put it in the pan in plops of color. I went over the colors to make sure the batter was deep enough in the pan and kind of mushed it around a little. I didn't really swirl it because I didn't want the colors to blend.

I saw a picture on pinterest of some pans with the batter, and this is what I figured out to do to get the same effect.

Dax thought it was pretty funny.

Baa baa little sheep

I've got more crochet stuff, but I didn't want you to think this had turned into a crochet blog. lol

I've had this fabric with hills and houses on it for some time now. I don't remember where it came from or why I bought it and I haven't known what I was going to do with it.

I saw a picture a few weeks ago with some sheep made from french knots and knew that's what I wanted to put on this fabric.

I think I'm going to make another, bigger one, and put a lot more sheep on it.

I thought it turned out cute and I still have a lot more of this fabric. And it's really quick too!

Crochet Camisole

I've been busy with crochet. I made this top.

Don't mind that it's too big on my skinny little model. It's for me, not her.

Look at her work it. LOL

I used 100% cotton yarn. I don't really know if it will shrink or not. I still need to wash and block it.

I got the pattern here. It really is a simple pattern with pretty results. If you think you'd like to branch into clothing with your crochet but have been afraid to try, this is a great pattern to start with.

The original pattern laces up the sides with ribbon. I didn't want it to lace so I decided to attach the second side as I went. I started at the bottom and worked my way up. When I got close to my last row at the top I found out I was misalligned on one side at the bottom. DRAT!! I had to pull it all out and start over. The second time around, I only attached on the one side as I went along. Once I was done, I attached the front and back along the other side. After all, what fun would it be to follow the directions and only have to make it once?

Saved from the trash part 2

I don't have a lot of these laying around because we don't drink wine. But I do use it for cooking so every now and then I have a bottle to use for something.

I've seen pictures around of the bottles wrapped with twine to use as a vase and I decided to give it a try with this one.

I only had very thin twine. I don't recommend it! LOL

Anyway, because of the very thin twin, I decided to just cover the part of the bottle where the label is. I just dotted hot glue here and there to hold it in place rather than trying to do the whole thing.

I think it turned out cute and a little rustic looking (and rustic totally goes with most of my house.) Now I can't wait to buy myself some flowers and use it.