Skull Shirt for Emily

I made this yesterday! I had so much fun and I LOVE it and so does Emily! I got my inspiration from this shirt I pinned on pinterest.

Here are the materials that I used to make my version of the shirt.

Then I traced the skull onto the back of the felt . I chose the sticky kind of felt so I didn't have to buy heat and bond since I knew I was going to put some stitches into the felt to hold it onto the shirt. If you aren't going to put stitches around the skull then you will need to use regular felt or material with heat and bond.

I cut out the skull and placed it onto the shirt. Then I went around the skull with the embroidery thread. I used purple but you could use whatever color that you want.

At the end I added the bow so it was a little girly and I didn't have a fabric flower. I really love how it turned out. It's the first crafty thing I have made in a long time. I will post a pic of Emily wearing it when I give it to her. :)

New blog

I have a new blog. Come by and check it out. It's called The Road. This new blog is going to chronicle my journey down a new road. I hope to see you all there soon!

Favorite Blog of the Week and Giveaway

My favorite blog of the week is Treasures for Tots. I love this blog because Angie always has great ideas, tutorials, and cute stuff for you to buy! :)

She is having a giveaway right now for a beautiful dress for a special little girl in your life from the Shabby Apple. If you go and like their Facebook page you can get an entry. There are are a total of 15 ways to get entries.

Head over to Treasures for Tots and take a look at all the cute stuff she has!

Perspective

Age brings perspective. This is a truth whether we want to admit it or not. Getting older and looking back over the experiences of our life give us perspective. I feel that sometimes our perspectives can be clouded with sentiment, expectations, and emotions. I also feel that I have not always used my perspective for my advantage.

At the moment I am at a crossroads in my life. I have come to the crossroad of early adulthood and middle age. I feel as though I have just grown up in the last two years. I have technically been called a grown up for eighteen years now, but I have not acted like a grown up. I have gone to college, been married, gone to graduate school, had two careers and working on the third, two kids, owned two houses, three or four cars, and now about two acres of land. However, I have never really grown up. I can act like a grown up for a little while, but I have a hard time sustaining it. I am stuck in all my muck and mire.

Sometimes the mud gets so thick that I am just wading through it. I am not actually living. I am only existing. I have gotten caught somewhere in my conflicts of my past. Our past is supposed to shape our lives and our future, but I am pretty sure it is not supposed to consume it. However, that is just what has been happening to me. I have been allowing my past to happen to me over and over and over again. I relive each portion of my childhood over and over and over again. Mistakes I have made in my adult life are repeated, and I get caught in this spiral of unhealthy choices, emotions, behaviors, and actions.

I believe that my perspective is allowing me to take a good look at myself. Surprisingly, I don't know if I like what I see.

Book Recommendation

The Cow in the Parking Lot.

This is what I have most recently read. I have a problem with anger. This is not really a shock to those closest to me. It is part of my bipolar issues. My mania come out in anger. I have been working so hard on controlling it and learning new strategies to help. Medication does a lot but I still have anger issues. I have read ALOT of books on anger management. I have taken a little here and there, but this one is by far the best. If you have problems with anger or know someone who does... GET THIS BOOK. It says something about Zen in the title. Please don't pass it by because you are not Buddhist. I am not Buddhist, and this book did not make me become one. It is just good sound advice about anger and managing it.

Enjoy, its a great read!

Star Wars Birthday Party

Ben had a Star Wars birthday party this year. I got lots of ideas from some of my favorite bloggers. Here are the blogs that were most helpful...
Tip Junkie had some of my favorites for games and she had an agenda for those of you who like to plan ahead. It really helped me stay organized
Make and Takes also had some good ideas.

I will tell you the ones I used for our party:

• I made the light saber pretzels.
• I put my own spin on the cupcake light sabers.
• We walked on lava.
• We destroyed the Death Star with our water balloons.
• We went on a relay race for Clones and Droids.
• We had a Jedi Training Course (obstacle course)
• We played pin the light saber on Yoda.
• We had an asteroid hunt through the house.

The kids had lots of fun. I was glad that only a few showed up though it was hard to keep all those boys on task. That is the teacher in me I suppose. We had two girls come, and Cadence, Ben's lifelong friend made the drive up north!

Here are some of the pics of the day:

Birthday boy has to have some presents to open!

We had a blue and red side of the table with Star Wars fruit snacks we found at the Dollar General and the pretzel light sabers. These were so easy to make. I got red and blue melts at Hobby Lobby and dipped the pretzels in halfway. Didn't they turn out cute?

This is the light saber cupcakes. Thanks to Mary for helping create my idea. I loved her idea of putting aluminum foil under the cupcakes for the effect. She iced them and set them up. The blue was easy, but red and grey were a little more difficult. I didn't really feel like I perfected the grey it looked more like purple black.

Pin the light saber on Yoda

Cadence getting ready to pin the light saber on Yoda.

Peanut and the Death Star. (and a few other chalk creations on the driveway)

Kids getting ready to throw their balloons to destroy the Death Star.
This was by far the most fun of the day. The kids loved throwing the balloons to make the Death Star disappear. We ran out of balloons if you do this I suggest lots and lots of balloons.

This is what it looked like when we were done. I had also just sent the kids on the Clone and Droid relay race to find the dark blue and light blue cards that said clone and droid on them.

Here we are counting up the cards making sure we had them all.

Emily walking on lava. This was pretty easy. We had an extra red tablecloth and some rocks. The kids had to walk on the rocks or fall into the lava.

Here is Dominick running through the obstacle course. When the kids were done they had completed their Jedi Training Course.

Here is Ben opening some of his presents.

We did eat the cupcakes but I am not sure where the pictures of the birthday boy blowing out the candles went. At the end of the party the kids went on an Asteroid hunt around the house. This was small pieces of aluminum foil with pieces of candy in them. They got to keep the ones they found and put in their treat bags. The favors were pretty boring this year just store bought stuff. I had good intentions........BUT....I let it go.

Favorite Blog of the Week

I found a favorite for this week!
This is a crafty blog with tutorials for kids and adults to do. I found her on Skip to My Lou. She posted 31 Valentine Crafts for you and the kids. Go take a look and let me know what you think.