Happy 4th of July!!

Happy 4th of July!

This past weekend I took Serenity and her BFF Kayleigh to Oak Alley Plantation. 

Oak Alley sits on banks of the Mississippi in Vacherie, Louisiana.
Jacques Telesphore Roman built the house in 1837 for his wife Celina.

Several movies and TV shows were filmed at Oak Alley - including Primary Colors, Interview with a Vampire and Ghost Hunters.
Beyoncé's "Déjà Vu" music video was shot here too!

The girls got a chance to explore the beautiful grounds and I was able to shoot a few photos of them in their adorable 4th of July cournteycourntey dresses. 

I love how cute they look!

They are such great friends and have a wonderful time together!

They had a lot of fun acting silly and running around under the beautiful old live oak trees.
Amazing resurrection fern grows all over the ancient giant oaks and moss covers their knotty roots.

Some of the oaks are over 300 years old!
The magnificent double row of oaks in front of the plantation make up the oldest alley in America.

Oak Alley is the perfect spot for pictures.

The sweet one below was Kayleigh's idea.

There are several huge cast iron sugar kettles at Oak Alley.

They were used to process sugar cane.

Now they are filled with water, lily pads and lovely flowers.

Perfect spots for pretty pictures!

If you're ever in South Louisiana, I definitely recommend stopping by Oak Alley in Vacherie.

And don't forget to sign up for courtneycourtney's dress emails! 

Have fun!!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from My Family to Yours!

Have Fun!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

Have fun!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

My hubby is still in Brazil for another month - no flowers this year.  

But when he gets home, he'll have a whole month of no work to spend with us.

That does help to make up for the long time he's away! 

At least I get to spend the entire day with the other very special person in my life.

Serenity was so surprised and excited to see this waiting for her today!

Oh and this is the delicious breakfast I cooked for my Darling Stinker this morning!
Orange rolls in the waffle iron!

Super easy and super fast to cook!!
Who knew?
I won't ever cook them any other way now!
I found out about them on Pinterest - you can find the pin HERE.

Hope you and yours has a wonderful day too!

Have Fun!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope y'all had a wonderful day!

You can find my tutorials for Serenity's Thanksgiving Day outfit by clicking the links below:

Twirly Skirt 

Faux Petti 

Felt Turkey Applique 

Serenity's lovey matching headband is from Giella on Etsy! 

Shyloe's work is beautiful - such sweet personal touches!

 

Have fun!

Tiny Hands Turkey FELT Applique

I wanted to make another Tiny Hands Turkey shirt for Serenity, but wanted to do it little differently this year.

So I decided to use felt!

I've made a Gingerbread House shirt for Serenity using eco-fi felt and it work out great.

You can find a huge selection of eco-fi felt at Wal-Mart for only 20¢ each or in bundles for less than $4.

For the Turkey shirt I wanted to try wool blend felt.
It's nicer than eco-fi, but more expensive too.

Both types can be washed in cold water, but I suggest hanging it to dry only.

I also tried to do a tiny bit of embroidery, but I messed up on the beak.
It was a little hard to go through two thick pieces of wool felt!

Maybe next time some little french knots all over the beak would look cute?

Embellishments on the turkey's belly and the hands would look adorable, but I was worried I'd mess up.

I used the last of my orange and yellow felt on this shirt!

I do like how the felt shirt turned out.

Sewing of any kind isn't required, but small extras are fairly easy to do.

It's going to look great with the Thanksgiving outfit I'm planning for Serenity.

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Materials:

yellow, orange, red and brown felt

iron-on transfer web (I used Pellon)

permanent sewing glue (Hobby Lobby $3.49)

2 wiggly eyes (Hobby Lobby 99¢)

felt ric-rack (Hobby Lobby $1.99)

a template of your child's hand

turkey template (I used this picture)

lighter or fray check

red ribbon

2 buttons

Iron the transfer web to the felt.

Use a hot iron (wool or medium setting), NO steam.

Cut out all the pieces.

2 hands of red, yellow and orange, and a brown turkey.

Make sure the flip the hand templates so you have a right and left hand of each color.

I embroidered around the turkey's body and beak using a running stitch, and then attached the ribbon wattle.
I thought about making a running stitch around the fingers too, then realized I would probably be in for a huge headache if I tried!
I think it would look nice, but that's beyond my skills - for now!
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Before ironing the felt pieces to the shirt, try moving them around until you've decided you like the placement.

Iron down.

Take your time, press down firmly, and move slowly over the pieces.

Sew on the buttons using embroidery floss.

Glue down the eyes and give them time to dry before handling the shirt.

All done!

Update:
I forgot to put the glue I used in the list of materials picture.
I found this at Hobby Lobby for only $3.49.
It worked very good, it's cheap, dries quickly and bonds permanently without heat and can be washed.

So far I like it better than the liquid stitch I used previously, but I still have to try the wash test to be sure.

Have Fun!!

Petite Fours by Up the Creek

Tiny Petit Fours!

Aren't they beautiful?!

Would you believe they are made using bottle caps?!

Each piece is handmade and then exquisitely embroidered by Cindy from Up the Creek on Etsy.

She makes tiny pincushions (with matching pins) that are totally adorable (I have one!), but I asked her if she'd be willing to make Petit Fours for Serenity too.

She replied back immediately that she would.

She handcrafted an entire yummy set of sweets for Serenity's tea parties!

Cindy was extremely helpful and absolutely wonderful to work with.

All of her work is expertly made and close attention paid to each and every lovely tiny detail!

Serenity was so happy to get them - she loves playing tea party with them!

She thinks they are very pretty - me too!

You can find more of Cindy's sweet treats HERE.

And her oh so cute pincushions HERE.

Up the Creek is also on Facebook.

Cindy shares lots of pictures of her beautiful creations on her Fan Page!

Have fun!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Here's my little Blossom!

All ready to "Save the World"!

You can see how I made Serenity's Powerpuff Girl Costume by clicking HERE!

Have Fun!

DIY: Powerpuff Halloween Costume

This year Serenity wanted to be the Powerpuff girl, Blossom.

I looked - but I couldn't find a costume that would fit her anywhere!

That meant I would have to make it.

That meant I would have to sew my very first A-line dress.

I didn't want it to be reversible - so THAT meant I needed to learn how to install a zipper (video) for the first time!

I ended up using a store-bought pattern (Simplicity 2194), but I seriously don't like store-bought patterns.

Next time I make an A-line dress I'll buy the Shannon Shift Dress PDF pattern!

It looks so cute, and I love PDF patterns.
The whole sewing process looks so easy because most of them have tons of helpful, detailed step-by-step pictures that guide you from start to finish.

Okay, here's how I put together Serenity's Blossom's costume.

After cutting out the dress, I cut off the bodice and a "block" out the middle.

I made a couple of templates for the middle piece.

I added 1/2" at the top and bottom of the templates for the seam allowances.

Then I cut out the black pieces for the waist.

I sewed the waist pieces to the bottom of the dress pieces first.

Serged the seams, ironed the seams UP, then top stitched.

Then I sewed the bodice pieces on.

Serged the seams, ironed the seams DOWN, then top stitched.

Next I installed the zipper (pic tutorial).

I had the thing on - sewed up nice and pretty, but when I tried to open the seam with my seam ripper, I made a BIG mistake!

I didn't realize I'd caught the zipper instead!

I had to drop everything and run to Hobby Lobby to get a new zipper before it closed.

NOTE TO ME: Always be careful ripping the zipper seam!!!

Because I'd messed up, installing the second zipper was a little difficult - and very time consuming.

But I got it!

For the final steps, I sewed the facing around the neckline of the dress and used bias tape facing for the sleeves.

I didn't like sewing that big piece of facing around the neckline - it really wasn't required for this simple costume, but I was following the pattern and didn't even think about it until it was done and I got to the following step - bias tape facing for the sleeves.

Oh well - next time I'll know!

I rolled hemmed the bottom with my serger.

Do you see how my zipper is a slightly off?

Not really sure what I did wrong, but I'm just glad I got the thing working!

Okay now for Blossom's ridiculously big red bow!

I zoomed in on this picture:

Then used my monitor as a lightbox to trace around the bow and created a template.

I used red broadcloth for the bow.

Actually, I used broadcloth for the entire costume, since it was 30% off at Hobby Lobby this week.

I sewed 1/4" around the edge, and clipped all the corners before turning it inside out.

Next I stuffed it with some polyfill.

Finally, I used to my glue gun to close the opening, and triple stitched in the middle to create the "knot" in the bow.

I'll probably hot glue the bow to Serenity's orange wig.

I found some white tights on Amazon.

And Serenity will be wearing her little black Mary Janes!

It was very late by time I finished, so I couldn't get any good outdoor pictures, but here's one I took with my cell.

I plan to get more pictures will my Canon tomorrow.

Serenity is so HAPPY that I made her Blossom costume!

She was doing some practice high kicks and punches - pretending to get the bad guys!

She said, "Mommy I'm going to SAVE THE WORLD!"

That's my baby!!

Happy Halloween!!

UPDATE: You can see pictures of Serenity in her entire costume HERE.

Have Fun!!