Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Cute Kiddie Stuff!

I've found the cutest handmade kid stuff online you can't find anywhere else! Here's a list & links of a few of my favorites:

Toddler Pettiskirts by TwinStitches Boutiques:

The Izzy Top by ZozoBugBaby:

Leotard Tutus by WhimsyRanch:

Recycled Flutter-sleeve Tunic dresses by courtneycourtney:


The Moster Tee by Nissalisa:


Stackable Petal-filled Tutus by FairyWonderful:


The Tee Suit by Xmarksthetot:

Discovery Denim's Little Hero Capes:

Fairy Wings from StarDustPrincess:

Twirly Apron Skirts by Gocks Frocks:

Girly art by Lulu:

Yo Gabba Gabba Crochet Pattern Set by Crafty is Cool:

Next Post: My attempt at hair cream for Serenity!






Monday, April 27, 2009

My Favorite Blogs

In this post I wanted to talk about some of my favorite and crafty blogs. There are so many talented people out there and I wanted to share some of the wonderful blogs I found.

ZozoBugBaby - was created by Julie. She sews the prettiest children's clothing and creates beautiful patterns. She's been featured on so many different websites for her creativity and designs. I absolutely LOVE the way she combines different fabrics - you've got to check her out! Her designs are modeled by the cutest little girls and the eye-catching photos were taken by Pascale Wowak Photography. I made Serenity's mermaid dress using her pattern and Julie even dedicated an entire post to Serenity on her blog! ZozoBugBaby also showcases different Etsy sellers who design children's clothing. A seller I found on her blog is courtneycourtney. She designs all her own patterns and prints to make the cutest little dresses - absolutely one of a kind! I bought a pirate and a cute fishy "I am 2" flutter sleeve twirl dress for Serenity. When they arrive I'll be sure to post pictures of her wearing them. Another of my favorite sellers I found on ZoZoBugBaby's site is Whimsy Ranch. Marie sews all her own leotard tutus so the colors are bright and unique! She attaches pretty crochet hearts & flowers and hand stamped designs to create something completely fresh and new! I bought a leotard tutu from her too and will post pics of Serenity wearing it. Stop by ZozoBugBaby's blog to check out her beautiful clothes, patterns and other cool places to shop!


Adopt a 'Do is a blog created by Mindy who has four daughters, an adopted son and makes the most creative hair styles for her little girls. She shares wonderful, step-by-step pictures detailing how to recreate her cool hairstyle designs for practically every occasion. Where she finds the time I'll never know - but her blog is a helpful tool for any Mother of a little girl!

Futuregirl makes beautiful & totally unique crochet handbags. She posts tips and even a few tutorials. She's about to release the pattern to her most popular handbag and I can't wait to get it!

The Pioneer Woman is a cooking and photography blog created by Ree Drummond. The pictures of her yummy food will have you licking your monitor! Well, maybe not - but don't be surprised if you find yourself doing it after looking at all that heavenly food - I swear you can almost smell it! I love pictures so that is always one of the first things I notice about a blog, and the pictures Ree takes are gorgeous! She says she's not a professional photographer (self-taught), but her pictures tell a different story! She has posted all kinds of Photoshop advice, tips and tricks and if you're anything like me, you'll spend FOREVER exploring her blog! Go check it out for some great recipes and pictures.

Frugal Upstate is a blog created by Jenn Fowler. She gives the advice on conscious spending, laundry care (includes a detergent recipe), and even lunchbox philosophy. Check out her blog to find out what that means! Helpful free advice that will save you tons.

DigiFree - is a digital scrap booking freebie search engine site that I've found be a must when I picked up the hobby. As many of you know, ANY scrap booking projects is going to cost a pretty penny. This site helps a novice or a dabbler find just enough free stuff to do lots of different projects without spending a fortune. You can find tons of free digital scrap booking stuff and learn how to do a cool new hobby.

Good Wine Under $20 - was created by Deb Harkness and is "an award-winning wine blog dedicated to celebrating everyday wine culture and helping you find delicious, varied wines from all over the world that are good value, interesting to drink, pair well with food, and are (mostly) under $20". Very absorbing blog.

New Orleans Daily Photo - is "
a daily photo of the life and images of New Orleans." I found this one the Good Wine Under $20 blog. I love pictures and since NO is just "right around the corner", this caught my eye. Beautiful photos! There are also links to other city daily photo blogs for you to enjoy.

Amazing Mae - was created by Traci and I love her helpful tutorials for the coolest kid stuff and the amazing
tutorials she finds! Definitely need to check out her blog!

Give Away Today - is exactly that! They give all kinds of things Monday thru Friday - all you have to do is post a comment to enter the drawings. Enter to win today!

Kid Trends Weekly Magazine - is a online magazine featuring the coolest kid stuff.

MCP Actions - was created by Jodi and is another wonderful photography blog with lots of great tips to make your photos have a more "professional" look.

Enchanted Studio Scraps - by
Trish is a fun digital scrapbook blog that will show you some fun and creative projects to make with all those cool photos you learned to tweak in Photoshop!

I'll update this post from time to time with more awesome blogs I find!


Next post: Cute kiddie stuff!

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Diaper Cakes by Paiger

I love finding interesting and unique things people make, sell and blog about on the internet - but not just the internet. 
My baby sister Paige makes really cute diaper cakes and I wanted to show off her pretty creations. 
She's made a few of them so far for friends and family, but I think she should try selling them too! 
I'm trying to convince her to start a blog and call it Paiger's Bootiques (her last name is Boudreaux) - cute, huh? 
But she doesn't have to call it that! 

We'll see!

To make her cakes, she uses one 96 pack of Size 1 Pampers Swaddlers. 
You can find them on Amazon.com with for only $23.33 and free shipping. 
The Swaddlers are her favorite diaper to use because they smell so good (like baby powder) and they don't have any designs or cartoon characters on them. 
I find that makes her diaper cakes much prettier than most - and of course all the time and care she gives to the smallest detail! 
For example, every single one of the diapers in her cakes can be used! She doesn't use a single pin - so no diapers are messed up while making the cake. 

Very nice! 

Everyone knows that new Mothers need lots of diapers!

Three different views of this very girly cake:


She also adds (inside and outside) toys, clothes, teething rings, pasifiers, flowers, ribbon and just whatever else she thinks will make the cake beautiful. 
She can make a very fancy, three tier cake that is packed full with all kinds of baby stuff...


Here's one I helped her make for a friend of mine's baby shower:


Paige even made the pretty baby tutu on top of the cake using my NO-SEW tutu tuorial!


Or she can make a simple cake with just a few toys and flowers (for those on a budget), but rolled differently so it still a very pretty and unique cake.

Like this one:

Here is a diaper cake for a someone expecting a baby boy (I helped her make this one too!):


And here's another beautiful diaper cake for someone on a budget:


She also makes little Diaper "cupcakes" - perfect for someone who can't afford to spend too much but still wants to give a very unique and special baby gift. 
This one is made with a little prayer bunny, a few diapers with a couple of onesies inside, and a swaddling blanket. 

Too cute!

I helped her make this too!


Right now Paige makes her cakes for just friends and family and doesn't charge us for all the hard work she puts into her beautiful cakes, but maybe she'll be selling them soon and start a blog to showcase her creations. 

Hope you enjoyed looking at Paige's pretty diaper cakes!


Have fun!

Ladybug Ball

I'm finally getting around to typing up a new post. First of all, on Thursday my husband Terry came home early from offshore. He was home in time for us to spend our 10th Anniversary together on Friday! WOW! Ten years already! He boiled some of his delicious crawfish (nobody boils crawfish better than Terry!) and Serenity played all day in her new pool. It was a good family day!

This morning Terry, Paige and Serenity and I went to the 10th Annual Ladybug Ball at the Southdown Museum in Houma. At Noon they released over 100,000 ladybugs and over 200 Monarch butterflies. All the kids crowded around when they cut open those ladybug sacks!

We had fun! Serenity won a teddy bear for her costume and her picture is online at HoumaToday.com. HTV was filming and took some shots of her, so she might be on TV too. Cool! Here she is lined up for the contest with Paige and all the other little ladybugs:


I tried for the first time to create an applique. I'm pretty happy with how it came out considering it was my first try. I made a few mistakes, especially on the legs, but Terry said nobody would notice them but me - and he was right! I used How To Applique The Easy Way by Kimberbell Kids to show me the basics. I got a fat little ladybug graphic from the Ladybug Ball website:



Then I blew it up in photoshop, printed it out, and traced it on some Heat'n Bond to create a ladybug top to match with Elayne's pretty pettiskirt - don't forget to check out her other pettiskirts on Ebay! I added "Angel Wings" by Growing Up With Rosy - a wonderful and cheap idea to "dress up" a tank top. Serenity's cute clay ladybug earrings came from Elisa's shop, Coffishop on Etsy, one of my favorite websites. Elisa makes the cutest jewerly and miniature desserts for dollhouses!






Here's a front and back view of Serenity's ladybug outfit!











We got lots of compliments! It was very simple and not nearly as hard as I thought. It was cheap to make too. The tank top was $4 from Target, I used less than a 1/2 yard of fabric, a pack of black & white buttons of different sizes from Wal-Mart for about $2, 3 iron-on appliques from Hancock for around $2, and a small amount of "ladybug" ribbon I got half off for only $2 a spool at Hobby Lobby. It probably cost more to put gas in my tank to drive to all those places than it did to make Serenity's ladybug top - LoL!

Watching the tweens dance while waiting to get her tattoo:

Getting a ladybug "tattoo" - I think she thought it would hurt!

Playing in a real fire truck! She didn't want to get out!
There were tons of things to do at the Ball. Face painting, a "tattoo" shop (it was air brushed on), bubbles, ladybug nail painting, costume contest, a fish pond (it was really just goldfish in a plastic pool for the little kids), story time, exploring a real fire truck, food, free ladybug cake (yum!) and lots more! It's a wonderful event for kids and we'll be going again next year!

Serenity's at the ladybug nail station getting her dots on.

Catching & releasing goldfish in the plastic "pond".

Playing with bubbles! The wind was blowing pretty good so it did all the "work" for you.

She was a little sick with a runny nose and watery eyes from playing outside in the pool on a windy day yesterday, but she still had fun.




Next post: Diaper cakes by Paige!

Saturday, April 18, 2009

My First Post

Hello and welcome to my blog! This is my first post!

I will be sharing my creative side and some wonderful creations other people have made too. My daughter, Serenity, is my Muse and the pretty little model in most of my pictures.

First up is a beautiful pettiskirt by Elayne. She made this for my daughter for our upcoming local Ladybug Ball at the Southdown Museum in Houma on April 25th.


Isn't it beautiful! It's perfect for a Ladybug or Minnie Mouse costume1 She's a wonderful seller on Ebay and you can find her beautiful pettiskirts for sell here. She's very helpful and does custom orders too!

I think I might sew a ladybug matching top using Michael Miller's Ladybug Dot fabric. I get most of my patterns from youcanmakethis.com and the top I'm planning to make can be found here. I'm not totally sure yet what I'll do for the top, but once I have the outfit completed, I'll get Serenity to model it for me and post some pictures. I'm also making another Ladybug skirt for my friend's little girl Cobee Lynn, and I'll try to post pictures of her wearing it at the same time.

My newest creation is a pretty Summer top. The pattern is by Momma's Darlins and can be found at youcanmakethis.com. I used recycled blue jeans and fabric from Robert Kaufman's FRESH As A Daisy collection. I LOVE how it turned out! Here's Serenity modeling her pretty top:



So that's it for now! Later I'll post pictures of my other clothing creations! Thanks for looking!