Clothing Re-Do - Aloha Dress

A few weeks ago I came across this blog -  New Dress A Day.  The blog author Marisa is creating an outfit a day for 365 days. That's 365 items of clothing for only 365 dollars. $1.00 a day. She shops at thrift stores and creates some amazing outfits out of the clothes that she finds. After reading her blog I was inspired to try this myself. Well, not the 365 days of it, but just refashioning clothes.


So off I went to my local thrift store and picked this muumuu up for $3.99.  Now this dress is way too long and way too big, but I love the color and I thought I could do something with it.

Before


For some reason I cannot get my camera to capture the true color of the dress which is more like this.

So to begin with I took off the sleeves -

 

Then I cut off the bottom ruffle.

After taking it in about 3 inches on both sides, hemming, and finishing the armholes I ended up with this......I call it my Aloha Dress.

After

Back

I paired it with a belt I got at the Thrift store for $1, and leggings I bought in Ireland for $4. A whole outfit for under $10. That makes me a happy camper :)

I would love to hear what you think. Your comments are always appreciated!

I'm linking up to -

The Creative Crate

Things I've learned....Getting rid of ants

I've decided that when I come across something I think is brilliant and I think you should know, I'm going to share it with you. So, I welcome you to the first installment of....

Ok, so I don't know about you, but in my front yard we have a crazy problem with ants. These little buggers are creating ant hill after ant hill and I can't  couldn't get rid of them. I've tried everything....

• foaming Raid
• dish soap
• borax
• liquid ant killer stuff
• cinnamon

I can't remember them all, there's been so many.  You'd think with all the rain we've been getting the little buggers would die. Nope.


So the other day my friend was over and I was telling her about my problem and she suggest something I hadn't heard before. I figured it wouldn't hurt to give it a try. I actually had some inside. I ran inside immediately and sprinkled a fair amount over each of the hills.

Here's one of the 9 ant hills I have on my front yard sprinkled with the secret ingredient.

I had completely forgotten that I put this on the ant hills until I was cutting the grass today.  I bent down to check it out and - the ants are gone!!! THE ANTS ARE GONE!! Yahooo!!

Are you curious? Want to know my my friends secret ant killer........

 Cream of Wheat

Yeah, Cream of Wheat. How awesome is that. It's safe, natural, and it actually works!!  Now I just have to find a way to remove the ant hills themselves.

Thanks Tara for the great tip!

things i love...

Welcome to the first edition of....

I've decided that once a week, I am going to share with you the 5 things that I love this week. 

1. craftgawker - Have you heard of this site? This is an amazing website to find inspiration on crafts, decorating, photography, sewing, etc. I love it. I have found tons of projects to keep me busy. Like I need any more projects :)  They also have weddinggawker for those of you who are getting married. If you are looking for ideas for your home, check out dwellinggawker. For the foodies out there, there is also foodgawker. It's full of links to amazing recipes for you to try out.

2. Pinterest - This is an amazing site that allows you to "Pin" things you like to your board. If you have a look, you will see tons of amazing boards that people have created. The inspiration you can get from this website is unbelievable.


Unfortunately, there is a downside. You have to be invited in order to get an account. You can request an invite but it doesn't seem like they actually grant them. I've been waiting for months. If you know someone who has a Pinterest account they can send you an invite. If anyone who reads this has an invite to spare, I would LOVE one. Thank you.


Besides not being able to create your own board easily, pinterest is still worth a look at.

3. Stumbleupon - Are you bored? Bored and stuck at your computer? Have you seen the entire internet? Have I got a website for you. :)  Check out stumbleupon. This is one of my most favorite websites. -You have to create an account to login but it doesn't take very long and well worth the one email they send you a week. After you're done creating your account you have to pick all the categories you are interested in and then you click Stumble. Bahahaha... this is awesome.


Stumbleupon randomly searches websites for what you are interested in. You can also have them search only one category. Like if you only want to look at crafts, you select the crafts category in your interests and it will only bring up websites with crafts.


If you like one of the websites it brings up you can click the thumbs up icon and it will add the site to your favorites. That way you can always find it again.


I cannot tell you how much I love stumbleupon. 


4.  Check out this awesome hair do.. Isn't it beautiful.

I actually found it on craftgawker. Here is the link to love Maegan. This website has the tutorial on how to do this. She has a lot of very good tutorials of pretty ways to do your hair.

5. Now, the last thing that I love this week is this flower that is growing in my flower bed. It's a Strawflower. When it gets late, the flower starts to close up and hides the yellow center.  Isn't it pretty?

Now tell me, what do you love this week?

 

If you'd like you can link back to the things you love this week and show the world what you love.

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Newest Hobby / Addiction - COUPONS!!

Ok, so I'm pretty excited about this. I think it was just last week that I watch Extreme Couponing for the first time, and now I'm hooked. Have you seen it? These people go into store and get thousands of dollars of groceries for almost no money. They use coupons, and lots of them. Now this show is American and we can't get the same deals here in Canada, but we can save money. I want deals, and lots of them!

So, my first little coupon shop went like this. I was looking through the flyers this weekend and noticed that Sobey's had their bogo (buy one get one free) sales on which included the large tub of Silhouette 0+ Yogurt.

Regular price - $3.99

I had one of those coupons from inside of the cereal box for a free yogurt. I wasn't sure if I could use this coupon for my buy one and then get the second free, but I figured I would try.

I also had 2 - $1.00 off coupons for Black Diamond Cheese Strings which were also bogo. The kids love these and they are so expensive if they're not on sale.

Regular Price - $5.79

I headed down to Sobey's not knowing at all how this would play out and I ended up getting - Wait for it....

2 x Yogurt (the big tub) - $3.99 each - $7.98
2 x Black Diamond Cheese Strings (8 pack) - $5.79 each - $11.58

A total of $19.56 all for just $3.76....YAHOOO!!! *happy dance, happy dance*
How awesome are coupons!!

What are your thoughts on coupons ?  Can't be bothered? Do you use them? Where do you get them? I'm new to all this so if you have any secrets please post a comment to fill me in.

Thanks and Happy Summer!

Garden Markers

I am so excited to share this project with you, partly because I think it's so cute and partly because I need your help fixing it.

So the other day I was thinking about making garden markers for our little vegetable garden we have. I usually just write the name of the veggie on a long stick and poke it in the ground. Well, I thought this year that Emily could help me out.

I had her draw and colour pictures of the vegetables in our garden. After she was done colouring them and cutting them out I laminated them with these Avery laminating sheets you can buy at Walmart for around $10.00. Now they don't even compare to the laminator I have at work, but they do the job. After they were laminated we hot glued them onto some Popsicle-like sticks I had. 

With little input from me, this is what Emily came up with. Please remember she's only 5.

Try to guess what they are before you read the caption.



Pretty good carrot, hey!





Tomato!!



Oh I love this one...

WATERMELON!

Did you get it right?

Ha ha...try this one. Can you guess what it is?

It's....Spinach. I think it's great!

Here we have a yellow onion :)



And red onions



These are great too!

Yeah, they are radishes. You knew that right?

Can you guess what these are?

Here's a close up....

It's a pea. I told her we needed some peas and that's what she drew.

Now this one is tricky. But I think she did good.

It's a zucchini :)

Now you should be able to guess this one by what you see in the pot.





But isn't that the best damn picture of Lettuce you've ever seen in your life!

Ok. So I'm going to give this one to you.

I told her to draw a pumpkin :)



HAPPY HALLOWEEN



The kids put the stakes in all by themselves

And this guy wanted to help us too!

I snapped this picture after the bee left but thought I would throw it up here because I like it.







Ok, so here's where I need your help.  I kinda figured this would was hoping this wouldn't happen. 

hot glue + plastic + wood sticks + rain = fail.

This is what I came home to today.

Boo!!

So now I need to reattach these buggers.  I was thinking of stapling them on, but then they wouldn't be waterproof.  I could glue the crap out of them and hope they stick.

What do you think? Any suggestions?



Pink Shag Pillow

So the other day I stumbled upon a great tutorial for a Shag Pillow by V and Co and knew I had to make one for Emily's room. I've been thinking about redecorating it for a while now and this pillow will be perfect. 

Isn't it adorable

I had been planning on making this for a while now and I had the pink knit fabric in my tickle truck so when I came across a pink fleece blanket at the thrift store for $1.99, I knew it would be perfect.

This is what I came up with. I made it longer, more like a bolster pillow, and of course it had to be pink!

Now I'll be honest. I read the tutorial a few weeks ago, and sewed this from memory. Well my memory isn't as good as it used to be and I cut the strips 2 inches long instead of 4, so it isn't as shaggy as it should be, but I still like it and so does Em. What do you think?

Ireland - The Rest of the Days!

This will be my last post about our vacation to Ireland.  I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get it all up here.  I have posted about all the big things we did while we were there but there are still some things we did that haven't been mentioned, like dinner at Terry and Michelle's, the water park, shopping trips, etc but unfortunately I didn't take any pictures. Here are some of the outings that I did get pictures of.

Aoife and I went shopping one day. Well Dan came too, but he took off on his own. I guess he didn't want to spend the whole day looking at clothes. 

In Ireland they have this awesome store called Penney's. It is so great. Super cheap clothes and super cute too. Look what we found there.  Only 3 euros!!

Twins!!



 I snapped this next shot out the window of the car while we were out and about.  I didn't see the pot of gold or a leprechaun..go figure!

One night a few of the adults went out for dinner at a great French restaurant, then we went to O'Neills for a pint of Paul's beer. Unfortunately they were all sold out. While we were there Auntie Dierdre asked the band to play a song for Dan and I for our anniversary.  It was "You say it best when you say nothing at all by Allison Krauss and Union Station.  It was great. We were on the dance floor all by ourselves. :) 

After the pub, Dan and I took off on our own to go a few pubs.  If you ever make it to Dublin you have to check out the Temple Bar.  So great. They had a live band in there that had everyone up on their feet. The place was packed! A must see of Dublin.

Me in front of Temple Bar!

I can't remember the name of this street, but it's the street that Temple Bar is on

Temple Bar at night

Con and Dymphna had us over for dinner one night and Auntie Dymphna had a special treat for the kids.  She had to take them to the park to feed the ducks. Now, I have never seen ducks so eager to be fed in my life. There were tons, and they came from all around the pond to be fed. There were two swans too!! Check it out!

The ducks and swans on their way over to be fed

And of course, one of the things we had to do was take the kids to a pub for lunch.  Kids are allowed in until a certain hour, then it's adults only.  The kids had sausages and chips (fries).

Lastly, I just want to say thank you. Thank you to everyone who made our vacation one we will always remember. Thank you to Auntie Dierdre and Paddy for allowing us invade their home, and making us feel so welcome. Thank you to all of the cousins and aunts and uncles for taking time for us, making us feel like family and taking us to take us to the greatest places in Ireland.   Last of all I want to thank my mother in law, Anne. She is such a wonderful lady, with a heart of gold. Our trip would not have been possible without her. And thank you for reading about it.

~  I can't wait to do it again!!



May 18 - C'est Paris avec Dan and Sarah

Today we were off to Paris, just Dan and I, to celebrate our 6th Wedding Anniversary (which was on May 14th).

My don't we look young

Having to wake up at 4:30 am to leave the house by 5:00, we should have known that going to bed after midnight would not be a good idea. We were so tired, but made the best of it.


So, we had booked our return flight from Dublin to Paris before we had left on our trip, and got such a great deal with Ryanair. Less than $180 for both of us to fly return.


We had a few snags when we first got into Paris. The 1st snag in Paris - We didn't know that the airport that we flew into was an hour outside Paris and that we'd have to take a bus the rest of the way. (Not really that big of a deal).

A shot out the bus window

This next picture is where the bus dropped us off. I took this picture in case we didn't ever find our hotel and wandered around Paris aimlessly until we had to catch the bus back to the airport. I was thinking I could just show it to a cabbie and he would take us there. I'm glad I didn't have to use it for that purpose.

The BIG SNAG in Paris - Not bringing the address to our hotel with us - pretty big deal when no one is willing to speak English and you can't really speak French. After spending about 45 euro on cabs we figured out where we needed to go and finally reached our hotel.

We couldn't check in until 2 and we had a date with the Eiffel Tower at 1:30 so we were on our way. The lady at the front desk explained to us how to use the Metro (Subway) and we were on our way. OMG the metro is the way to go, so awesome!!


Did I mention that is was almost 27 degrees outside. Yahoo for warm weather. Warm weather and the Eiffel Tower are a perfect mix!!

So we waited in line for probably 30 minutes for the elevator to take us to the 2nd floor. We could have taken the stairs but we had already bought our elevator passes online and it was hot, and it's a long long way up when you're super tired. So finally we get into the elevator and see this sign -

Beware of Pickpockets!!

 When we made it to the 2nd floor it was almost surreal. We were on the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Eeek! I did not know that Paris was so big. It's huge!!! There is city in every direction as far as the eye can see.



Looking up from the second floor

Now we didn't go to the top, there was a 45 minute wait and well, we were tired. So we took the stairs down to the first floor (which you bypass on the elevator) and found ourselves a tequila margarita. :) Perfect!



After the tower we made our way back to the hotel and had a lil' nap. Then we were off again. We went to snap a few shots of the Notre Dame Cathedral. The architecture and sculptures are amazing!

Look at the detail in all the carvings. They are all different.

We stopped for supper just outside our hotel (We honestly didn't get very far from our hotel area, (but that's ok) and ate some escargot. Well we both tried one. Next time I'll pass. The meal was tres bon. We had the escargot, french onion soup (deliciouso) and cheese fondue (mmm). And for dessert I had creme brulee chocolat. Melt in your mouth delicious.


We wandered around the Latin Quarter after dinner, looking in all the different shops, checking out the different fashions. So interesting to take note of the difference between their culture and ours.

After dark we made our way to the Louvre. One thing that I wanted to do while we were there was take pictures of the Louvre at night time. Absolutely stunning.

And the Eiffel Tower at night.

And that was Paris. Let me know what you think!! Au revoir mes amies!