Dazzling Utah May Flowers

 POPPY'S!

Ready....

Get set....

 GROW!!!

 Here are some snapshots of flowers and shrubs that are displaying their beauty this month in my yard. Oh, how I love flowers. Each plant and blossom finds a way to my heart and energizes my soul! What would I do without natures beauty. I see the hand of God in all that nature has to offer.

 Georgia Blue Speedwell rockcress

 Variegated Dogwood Bush & White random flower

 Yellow Water Iris

 Variegated Dogwood Bush

 Siberian Iris

Purple Lamium

Variegated Hosta

 I am thankful for plants and the beauty they provide to this Earth. 

Love Shirt Refashioned

 BEFORE...

 I had this darling shirt for my little girl and I wanted to remove the peace sign.

After unpicking the peace sign I was ready to attach a fabric flower in its place.

 Using a needle and thread, I hand sewed the lacy flower onto the shirt. To make the flower, I layered circles of silk on top of each other and burned the edges with a candle flame. The flame singes the circular edges and makes a beautiful ruffle edged flower.

AFTER!

 My daughter loves this sweet shirt and the frilly flower.

DYI White and Orange Spring Wreath

I had a spring blossom tree I used each year as a Spring table decoration. The blossoms were falling off and I thought some of the twigs still looked good, so I used wire cutters and cut off each of the twigs to use in a wreath. The white blossoms made a perfect base for a Spring wreath.

The green stem above is what is left over from the tree and it went in the garbage. All the beautiful blossoms were reused in the wreath. I believe in the 3 R's.....so..... I reduced, reused, and recycled most of the spring tree decoration.

After wrapping each twig around the others I added a small twig of orange berries I had stashed in a box to give it a little spring color. Then I grabbed the only orange ribbon I own and tied a bow. Simple, yet perfect for spring.

Wreath scratching door???

 My wreaths scratch my front door when it is opened or the wind blows. So for the last 3 years I have just dealt with it and took my wreath off every time the wind blew. Then it dawned on me that I could solve the problem! 

FELT!!!

 I cut a felt circle and removed the center then glued it on the back of my wreath.

 It took a matter of 15 minutes and I could have done it years ago. What was I thinking?

 Blue wasn't my first choice of felt color but that is what I had on hand so I use it and it is not noticeable from the front of the wreath.

No more Scratches when the wind blows!!!

Refashioned Silver Dangling Earings

Take a look at my purchased jewelry for my sister-in-laws wedding reception! Pretty fancy and huge! 

The earrings were too long for the occasion and I didn't want to return them because they were such a good deal, so I took the earrings apart and made 3 sets of earrings.  I used my jewelry tools and made 3 different sets of earrings using the original set of jewelry.

ORIGINAL EARING

#1

Do the pearls look familiar?

#2

#3

3 pairs of earrings for $3.20! What a bargain!

Pink and Black Fabric Hair Flowers

After layering many fabric circles one top of each other and gluing them together with a hot glue gun they are ready for embellishments!

Walmart has inexpensive buttons to use for this project.  I cut off the bulging back metal loop with wire cutters then hot glued the buttons on the flowers. I love how charming the crystal buttons look in the center of these fabric flowers. 

Burning the edges of the fabric makes the circles curl up like a real flower.

Here are the finished flowers.

 I glued metal hair clips on the back so my daughter can wear them in her hair.

Refashioned Long Sleeved Black Dress

I was on the search for a Black sleeveless dress to go under my new blouse I bought for a wedding. I couldn't find one that I wanted to pay for, so I looked in my closet and found this dress hanging there, calling my name. I have only worn it a couple times because the sleeves are too long and it looks like I am going to a funeral. So.....the idea popped into my head...cut the sleeves off! Dress it up a bit! So I did.

The dress was too bulky when combined with the blouse I picked, so I got out my handy fabric tool and unpicked the both sleeves.

 Below is how it looked after I took the sleeves off. Not too bad!

After folding over the edges of the sleeve hole, I used a decorative stitch on my sewing machine and sewed around the opening. I don't wear sleeveless clothing by itself, but I do like to wear them under blouses, shirts, and sweaters.

Here is the finished product. I think it turned out nice and it fit well during the wedding. 

This dress looks good with just about anything over the top!

Homemade Valentine Heart Handout

SCHOOL VALENTINES!

 I layered hard plastic on top of purple felt and cut out heart shapes. Keeping the two layers together, I sewed around the edge of the heart leaving a small opening on the top to fill with candy.  My son filled the hearts with Valentine candy then I stapled red ribbon and a heart to close the gap. He handed the Valentines out to his school class on Valentines Day. 

Here is the finished project.

Young Women LDS Torch Handout

 I volunteered to make a handout for New Beginnings next week. So I got this brilliant idea from my sister to make an edible torch for the Young Women of my ward. 

 Our theme for the new year is ARISE AND SHINE FORTH. 

I love the theme and it reminds me of the color yellow so I placed lemon drops in the long bags. I purchased the bags from a gal in my ward who sells "Stampin up" supplies. I love these bags! They are perfect for small treats. You can use them for any Holiday or occasion. The ideas are limitless.

 After I filled all the bags, I assembled the torches toppers. After printing the "Arise and Shine" theme on Label paper, I stuck them on the colored card stalk. So the theme circles were like little stickers. It saved me time gluing each circle on the card stalk.

 Here are some extra handouts without the torch for the ladies. ( I ran out of torches).

 I love the look of the young woman face in the flames! It really does look like a torch. Plus, it is great way to reinforce the torch motto for New Begginings and to introduce the Personal Progress program to the girls with it's different values.

This is the basket of handouts for the Young Women to take home.

FYI: I printed the images on Office Depot white laser shipping labels. The actual size is the same as Avery 5163 labels. Measuring 2 in. by 4 in. Then I used a medium circle punch to punch out the circles. I hand cut each YW torch but if you had a large punch you could cut them out as a rectangle or oval. Sorry I don't have the link to access the printable at this time. 

The pictures below show the Gym and how the YW leaders decorated for our New Beginnings.
I love the theme ARISE & SHINE FORTH! 
We used the color scheme of the torch flame; Red, Orange and Yellow.

 We decorated with warm lamps and various sized flickering LED candles. The warm light added to the ambiance of the evening.

 Here is a view of the right side of the stage.

This is our food table. The Young Women Leaders brought the Yellow desserts out when the speakers were through. It looked really nice that evening.

Penguin Igloo Birthday Cake

 Fondant Penguin

 My family and I made this birthday cake for my sweet son. The whole cake accidentally fell over on the counter and got smashed up a bit and this is the cake after placing it back on the cake stand. It is a bit messy, but still cute for my son. My husband and I made the upper penguins and my 3 small children, ranging from 8 to 2, made the lower penguins. I thought it was fun to have them help with this cake. They loved it as well!