retro tv t-shirt

My sweet husband, Michael, celebrated his birthday last month. One of his presents was this retro t.v. t-shirt.

The t-shirt was inspired by one of our all time favorite TV shows, The IT Crowd. It is available on Netflix Instant. I definitely recommend it with one caveat- British TV allows much more foul language than American TV. There are a few F-words sprinkled throughout the series-- less than one an episode. It's like a PG-13 movie. Anyhow, one of the main characters, Roy, wears lots of great t-shirts. This one was my favorite:

I recreated it with freezer paper stencils and fabric paint. This was my first time doing a freezer paper stencil on an adult sized t-shirt. I struggled getting it centered and level, as I am sure you can tell! Little kid t-shirts are much easier. If I hadn't left it to the last minute (literally- I did this the morning of his birthday!) I would have bought a new shirt and tried again. Live and learn, right? I also wish I had made the t.v. a little larger.

I do really love how the antennas and the details of the t.v. (the switches and speaker and legs) turned out though.

Michael was very happy with this present. He put it on immediately and wore it the rest of the night. See all those candles? He's OLD! :)

easy christmas shirts

My kids love having holiday themed shirts. In fact, I was able to get Liam out of bed today, with a smile on his face, by reminding him that he gets to wear his Rudolph shirt to school (he takes after his mom and is NOT a morning person!).

I like to keep the shirts simple, white T's with a one graphic image, for two reasons: I like the way it looks and they are EASY.

Liam requested Rudolph. I did a google image search and found a cute silhouette and made a freezer paper stencil. I didn't feel the need to do a tutorial. This idea has been popular for a while but in case you have never tried it need a tut you can find a good one here.

Liam's shirt is a little small. Rather than buying a new white shirt I decided to use his Mime shirt from Halloween not realizing he had grown so much in less than two months! Oops! Too late now.

Michael was the inspiration for Sutton's shirt. It was the night before her class party and I realized I had forgotten to make her a shirt. Michael suggested tying red ribbon into a bow and gluing it to Sutton's shirt. Then I remembered that I had left over fabric from the ribbon candy pillow and thought it would make a super quick and cute candy cane applique. I just stuck the (untied) ribbon under the applique and ironed and sewed the applique on like normal. Tied a bow, did a couple of stitches by hand into the knot to keep it tied and heat sealed the ends of the ribbon.

Ezra's shirt is a hand-me-down. Sutton wore it last Christmas but I actually made it for Liam when he was in preschool back in December 2007. It was probably one of the first freezer paper stencil T's I ever made. I did touch up the paint because it had faded a bit from being washed so much but it's holding up great considering.

So if you have a kid and a white T laying around whip up a Christmas shirt for him/her. It'll take a small amount of time and it will make their day, I promise!

I love this picture! Liam's belly showing, Sutton and Ez looking at each other... it's one that makes me smile and think about how much I love them. A fact that I occasionally need to be reminded of! :)

end of year teacher gifts

Yesterday was Sutton's last day of preschool for the year. I am excited for the freedom from a schedule that summer brings but I am a little sad too because the end of school also means I won't be thrifting and running errands with ease.

At the end of each school year one of the mothers organizes a group gift for each teacher (there are two). I decided this year to do my own thing. In the May 2010 Martha Stewart Living there is a Mother's Day craft where you iron-on flowers to a store bought tote bag. I thought it would be perfect for the teachers. I made the tote bags myself and instead of iron-on I used Martha's template to make a freezer paper stencil. Sutton even helped paint the flowers. Find the templates here and here.

I finished the purple flower bag yesterday and the blue bag this morning just in time to make it to the 'farewell to school' picnic! This project was super easy and cost about $5/per bag. I even have material leftover.

I am going to make one for Liam's teacher too but he has a couple more weeks of school. How much do you want to bet that I will be finishing it up the night before the last day of school? Ah, procrastination!

more throw pillows!

The morning I announced the winners of my giveaway I got a comment from Megan saying I won her giveaway. I was so excited! I never win things. Thanks again Megan!

The giveaway was from AllModern.com and I chose an awesome zig-zag pillow. I love it.


I must be suffering from the winter doldrums because I am craving yellow. Yellow, yellow everywhere!

In an effort to satisfy my craving, I made a little yellow pillow today (it looks more yellow and less beige in person). I used freezer paper stencils I cut out loosely based on this design. Instead of using the usual fabric paint, I took a tip from Vanessa and used spray paint. It was so easy and way fast.


And now my couch has a little bit of sunshine!

Linking to Strut Your Stuff Thursday at Somewhat Simple.

puppet theater in a bag

I did not intend to take such a long blogging break! We have been having so much fun spending time with family, I just haven't taken time to post. My parents were here for a week and now Michael's sister and her family are here. Everyone is off playing together but I took the morning off to let Ezra nap so I thought I would pop in here and show you the puppet theater I made for the kids for Christmas. I got the idea from my friend Meredith.

The theater is made with two extendable tension rods. It fits perfectly in a doorway but will also works well in the hallways (around 38" wide).

Freezer paper stenciled marquee.

Ahh, puppet violence. Liam had Sutton rolling with laughter with his play.

We bought the animal puppets about 5 years ago at the post-Christmas sales at Restoration Hardware.

They love it!

The theater and puppets all fit nice and tidy in a canvas bag. I love that!

and... a HAPPY NEW YEAR to you!!