I started thinking about my son’s first birthday party months ago and was able to get my husband to agree to The Very Hungry Caterpillar as a theme. (To get my husband to love used to the idea I started off with getting my baby the book at Valentine’s Day.)

This idea isn’t terribly original, it came from the Pottery Barn Kids Design Studio. Like most things I do, I like to find an idea and make it fit my needs. I needed to use what I had and this is what I came up with. Keep in mind that I did a little bit of this everyday for a few days. It doesn’t take much work but you have to leave time for drying and such.

Directions:
1. Clean all of the glass jars

2. Get off all of the sticky stuff left on them. To do that you can put them in boiling water (with tongs!) and then scrape off the goo while it is still warm. Use a razor blade to scrape the glass. Dry everything off.

2. Spray paint the jar lids. Make sure your spray paint is good on metal. You may need a few coats.

2. Make caterpillar shapes out of your salt dough. Roll some very small balls and lay them next to each other and flatten them down. Add small antennas and then bake according to your dough directions.

2. Cut out leaf shapes out of your fabric or paper. Cut or punch a few holes along one of the edges, so that it looks like the Very Hungry Caterpillar ate through them. You can now write out the details of the invitation on your leaf.

3. Paint your clay caterpillars, this part is really fun, it’s just like being Eric Carle. Use your Very Hungry Caterpillar Book for a guide.

Once everything is cooked, painted and dry you can put the leaf and caterpillar in the jar and hand them out to friends. Keep your eyes out, I still have plenty of other plans and Very Hungry Caterpillar ideas that will be coming as the party gets closer!

For more Very Hungry Caterpillar Ideas check out these links:
Very Hungry Caterpillar Party Hat
The Very Hungry Caterpillar on Pintrest
Valentine’s Tradition

Shopping for a bikini is not easy, because one piece of the bikini is $14 on sale! I hate to break it to you people, but $14 for two tiny triangles and string is not worth it. Not to mention you still have to buy bottoms. At a fabric store when it’s not on sale you can get a yard of fabric for $14 and that’s exactly what I did.

I also have been wanting a more personalized bikini top, I don’t care much for the styles they have now. It’s either a choice between triangles or that weird bandeau twist thing, and both are halter top. I don’t have to hold up much, but it still hurts my neck. I don’t know how you more-blessed ladies do it! So here’s my super simple solution to making a bikini top that I feel comfortable in.

Material:
Swim/Dance Material (a blend of polyester and nylon)

Directions:
1. Fold your fabric in half and cut a square of fabric 9 inches by 20 (40 inches unfolded). Keep it folded in half and make the last 8 inches tapered, like a triangle. (Confusing, I know, check out the picture below!) Also, I got some of my inspiration from Martha Stewart’s New-So DIY Swimsuit found on Pinterest. There is a pattern on there, you can even use that to create this one.

2. Cut 2 strips of fabric 3 inches by 18 inches. Also a piece 8 inches by 12 inches.

3. Take the strap pieces and fold them with the insides together and pin them. Sew the long edge, and one of the small edges. Turn each of them inside out.
4. Take the finished small edge and pin it to the strap a few inches up. (Another confusing-sounding one, look at the picture!)

4.The medium sized piece is there for lining, and also a pocket for if you want to add padding. (Mine was stolen from an old swim suit) This needs to be lined up in the center of your main piece. You will fold the edges of the main piece over for a regular hem, but make sure to pin in the lining as well. Pin the entire length of the main piece. After that pin on your straps to the front. If you can, try it on and space the straps to where it fits best for you. Mine are about 7 inches apart.

5. Sew the edges of the bikini top. It should include the two straps and lining in the same stitch. If you have never sewn stretch fabric, it is easy with some practice but may not look great (mine doesn’t even after doing tons of stretchy stuff). The key is to do a zig zag stitch or to do a long straight stitch and pull the fabric tight so that it will stretch out that far when you go to wear it later. I practiced by making a headband.

Now for wearing it! You noticed that the straps only attached once, because they have the loops in the back that you string the main part of the bikini through. You can move the straps wherever you want, have them straight or crisscrossed. If you think of any other ways to wear it or embellish it, let me know, I would love to hear about it!

If you need bottoms as well there are some no-sew ones in the same Martha Stewart article I told you about earlier, and there is also a great website called Pattern School where it teaches you really in depth of how to make swimwear or dance wear pieces. It is also free!

I hope you have fun swimming in your new bikini top! Don’t forget your sunscreen (My picture shows where I was burned while wearing a crocheted lace back tank top. It has a cool pattern )

I love fried food, and when I discovered I could make it myself I was so excited to do more! It started with my great-grandmother giving me a restaurant knock -off cook book called Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur. I didn’t care for most of the recipes but they did have some famous fried onion rings, and since making those, I’ve come up with the way that works best for me.

After doing onion rings for awhile, I discovered Mozzarella Sticks from Food People Want on Pinterest. I simplified her recipe a little bit.

Using both of those, we started doing fried pickles the same way and everyone that tried them said they tasted pretty good. (I don’t eat pickles, they’re gross!) We also tried fried bananas the same way. (I don’t eat those either)

Directions:
1. Set up your assembly line. Have a bowl of the eggs, whip them. Also have a bowl of the bread crumbs and a plate with everything you are going to fry. Put a fork into each bowl, and have tongs ready. Have a plate with a paper towel on it. Put your oil into your frying pan, it should be about 2 inches deep. Heat the oil at a medium level.

2. This part works better if you have help in the kitchen. You dip whatever, we’ll say the mozzarella, into the egg, then move it into the breadcrumbs. Make sure it is fully covered.

For the mozzarella sticks and onion rings they need to be dipped twice, so after the first time put it back in the egg and then back to the bread crumbs. The pickles only needed one dip.

3. After they are battered, place them into the oil. The oil should simmer when there is stuff in it. Keep an eye on the cooking, and flip them over when the sides look golden. Give it just a little bit of time on the other side and then put them onto your plate with the paper towel.

Now you can make all of your favorite appetizers at home. I also like to make some tomato sauce for the mozzarella sticks. You can just buy a jar or use a can and add seasoning. I never make any of this unless I have company, because it’s easier to make when you have help and it’s less fattening if you aren’t the one eating all of it! If you have any other helpful tips, let me know in the comments!

Whenever you go someplace and have a suitcase, it is likely that 431 other people have the same exact suitcase as you. There were/are issues with people stealing suitcases and the ones that are stolen are the ones that look the same as everyone else’s. (See AZ Republic: Suitcase Theft) I hate when I had to pull 3 different suitcases off of the baggage claim to see if they were mine. This is a cheap, easy and fun way to personalize a suitcase without having to spend the big bucks to get something designer and wacky.

Materials:
Plain Suitcase
Acrylic Paint
Jar Lid/Paper Plate (For the Paint Pallet)
Round Sponge Paint Brushes
Newspaper/Drop Cloth

Directions:
1.Stand your suitcase up on your drop cloth, it will be easier to paint all of the sides this way. If you prefer to lay it down, that is fine also, but you will be doing it in stages.

2.Pour your paint on the lid, and dip your paintbrush lightly in paint, making sure it is fully covered. Dab it where you want your dot. Do this again and again until the suitcase is covered with dots all over. You can decide to make them uniform like polka dots or put them wherever you want. Be sure to paint all sides of your suitcase, it will make it easier to spot when coming down the baggage claim belt.

You don’t have to stick to polka dots, but they are super easy and look cute! I also added my name, but that tends to be a problem when my Mother-in-Law borrows it. Next time I paint one, I’ll have to advertise my blog on it, because it gets noticed and people ask about it! I just used acrylic paint, instead of fabric paint, and it works fine. This suitcase actually predates any of my blogging, so it has been in and out of airports since 2009 and is only a little dingy for being a few years old.

Have fun decorating your suitcases, and have fun traveling!

I saw this cute pillow case bed for kids on Pinterest awhile back. We recently adopted a dog and wanted to make a dog bed for him, and to do it for cheap. Lucky for us, I remembered this pin and thought that two pillows would be enough, and you can find pillows on sale for really cheap sometimes.

I, being cheap thrifty like usual, made my own pillowcases from some fabric that I had been given. You can make your own pillowcases or buy them.

To Make Your Own Pillowcase:
1. Cut your fabric, 44 inches by 28 inches.
2. Hem the long side.
3. Fold in half with front sides together, and sew the two un-hemmed edges.

If you want to add the letters to your pillowcase:
1. Cut out your letters out of fabric. Mine were all free handed, but you could use a stencil.
2. Pin your letters to your pillowcase (Do this after Step 2 while making your pillowcase).
3. Use a small zig-zag stitch and go around each letter very carefully.
4. Finish your pillow case, like in Step 3.

Sewing your Pillowcases together:
1. Turn one of your pillowcases inside out.
2. Put the other pillowcase in the inside of the other.
3. Sew the two seams together. Be careful to keep the other parts of the pillowcase out of the way.

Now to finish your dog bed you can turn your pillowcase right side out and put your pillows in both cases.

The dog loved it, he goes to the softest thing on the floor, and now he will stay off the baby’s blankets and keep to his dog bed.

Did you see my Coke Can Bracelets? My soda can necklace idea came from that idea, so take a look and then come back here!

The idea is simple, cut out your shape and fold over the edges with pliers. Push them flat so that they can’t catch or tear on anything. Punch a hole in the top and add a jump ring, and string it onto a chain. Easy!

To embellish there are a couple of different things that you can do. I was lucky enough to have won a metal stamping kit from beaducation.com. They have great online classes to show you how to do everything too. I stamped a heart using a 3 and a V and stamped too hard for the aluminum can and punched right through the first time. It was able to be saved and made a cute heart cut-out in the necklace. So don’t go too hard if you are stamping a soda can. You can check out the tags I made the same way for my envelope system wallet.

Another way to embellish is to add your own picture or design. I have been looking everywhere for a locket and they seem to have gone out of style, and there aren’t very many choices. I recently discovered dimensional magic and loved it! You can see my first post about it here. I’ve found that it works great for creating jewelry pieces! I put a picture of my two boys on the back and put some dimensional magic over the top. During the drying time the dimensional magic was smeared onto a newspaper but it was able to be saved and just had a thinner coat.

It was just a test piece, but it turned out surprisingly well, so I have been wearing it for a few weeks. It’s not sharp, but it is a little bulky for me. I sleep with it on and it has been fine so far, I would like a tiny bit longer chain. I found this chain guide on Pinterest for when I buy my new one. Overall it was a cute and easy project, and those are my favorite! Have fun making your new jewelry!

Here are some other DIY Jewelry Posts:
Coke Can Bracelet
Dimensional Magic Slide Charm Bracelet
Hair Scarf

With a scooting baby, we knew we wanted to do a little bit of baby-proofing. We want to try to just teach him to stay out of stuff, but there are some things that we wanted done around the house to go with it. One thing was that our entertainment center didn’t have any doors. It was a great thrift store find a few years ago and we didn’t mind the lack of doors until we were thinking about keeping little hands out of our stuff. So instead of buying a $200 entertainment center like I wanted, I spent less than $10 and made a curtain for it. It’s not completely baby-proof but it is out of site and out of mind (usually).

Materials:
Fabric
2 Tension Mounted Curtain Rods
Paint (Optional)

Directions:
1. Measure out how big your finished curtain needs to be (just height x width of the opening) add two inches to the width and four inches to the height.

2. Sew a hem on each side, just to finish the edge and keep it from fraying or anything.

3. Sew a larger hem on the top and bottom, so that you can fit the tension rods through.

4. (I haven’t done this part yet) Paint your finished project, I plan on adding a stenciled monogram and family name to mine, so that it compliments our decor but who knows when that will happen!

5. Slip the curtain on the tension rods and put them into place, at the top and bottom of your shelf. Now to get to your stuff you can just slide it to the side and slide it back when you’re done. It also hides the mess, and I was able to hide the power strip in there, and its more convenient to get to, so that you can shut it off at night.


The baby does try to get into the entertainment center still, (there are very tempting blue lights you can see through it still) but it gives me enough time to notice he’s trying to get into it so I can stop him before he gets to anything expensive or harmful. He is slowly, but hopefully surely, learning not to get into everything but I think it looks better than seeing all of my cords, so I plan to keep it! Hopefully this helps you out for any of your open shelving that needs a quick fix!

For other DIY baby articles check out these:

Cloth Height Charts
T-Shirt to Un-tucked Onsie
Car Seat Cover

I found a picture of a Coke can bracelet and a few other brand soda can bracelets on Pinterest. You can check out the original post here. I created a version of my own, I don’t think that the original picture was something that was handmade or very cheap to make. My version is!

Tools and Materials:

Empty, Clean Soda Can
“Crappy” Scissors
Pliers
Ribbon/String

1.  First, you have to cut the can open. Poke a hole with something (like a fork) and then you can take a pair of crappy scissors (I’m VERY picky about what each pair of my scissors are used for) and cut around the top. Cut as close to the top before the ridge. Be careful and cut slowly, if your cut is perfect it makes it easier later. Next, cut down one of the sides, I usually cut by the bar code and nutrition facts. Finally, cut around the bottom of the can, right above the ridge.

2. Decide how thick you want your bracelet to be and which part of the can you want to feature. Cut a little above the part you want and a little below. (Unless you are using one of the top or bottom edges that are already cut.)

3. Time to get to bending the edges. The way to do it is simple, but make sure you go in order, or you can bend it too far at one time and tear it. First bend one of the edges of your can to about 90 degrees. Finish the entire side that way. Now you can flatten it. Do this for each side, make sure it’s really flat and won’t snag on anything.

4. Now to get the holes for your ribbon, string or elastic you will want to punch a small initial hole and use a pen to widen it. Use the pliers to flatten the edges, and then you can put in your ribbon (or elastic or whatever you’re using). The ribbon was pretty but hard to tie onto your own wrist. I used the elastic so that the can bracelet would stretch but still fit around my wrist (I have small wrists) and I had the elastic from a pair of flip flops, so the entire project just cost me my time. (I count the coke can as trash, and trash is free material!)

Keep your eyes out because I will be posting a cute coke can necklace soon!

If you enjoyed this re-purposing craft check out these others:
How to Cut Jeans for Scraps
Sew a Cute Onsie Onto a Burp Cloth
T-Shirt to Un-tucked Onsie

I used to work at a sub shop, it was my favorite job.  I think I could eat it everyday and not be sick of it, even after eating it a ton with those pregnancy cravings! Now I’m too cheap and it’s too far away, so I try to make my own delicious sandwiches instead.

Ingredients:
Bread
Dressing, Sauce or otherwise(i.e. Salad Dressing,  Butter, BBQ, Mustard, etc.)
Meat
Au Jus or Marinade
Cheese
Veggies

Bread:
A good bread can make any sandwich taste a million times better. There are many varieties.  Thick, dense bread is usually the best tasting. Anything but the regular white or wheat bread will make your sandwich taste much better. That being said, I am cheap, so we usually just have white or wheat and our sandwiches still taste ok, but they could be better.

Dressing:
I am always drooling over everything in the dressing aisle. At the sub shop that I worked at this was another important aspect of how they made their sandwiches taste better than everyone else’s.

There is the problem of soggy-ness and nobody likes a soggy sandwich. When you are making your sandwich think about how thick your dressing is and how long it will be until someone eats the sandwich. If it’s something thicker like mayo, ranch or mustard and it will be eaten in the next 3-4 hours I will usually put it on the sandwich.

There are tons of choices of what to put on your sandwich. You are only putting a small amount of whatever you choose on your sandwich, so it’s ok to try something bold and daring. I love raspberry vinagrette, chipotle dressing, and the classic ranch. Like I said, tons of choices and many ideas that may not be very common. You could even spread some salsa, guacamole or marinara sauce on your sandwich.

Meat:
There are tons of options of meat too. Check out your deli counter at your local grocery store, you’ll be surprised of the prices, they compare to the prepackaged deli meats and are sometimes even cheaper. (I used to work here too.) You also get more choice with the thickness and amount of meat.

Don’t just look at deli meat, chicken breast is easy to shred or cut into chunks or even put whole on a sandwich. You can also try meatballs or bacon too. Making your meat into a salad can be tasty with tuna or shredded chicken. Use a little imagination or just copy your favorite sandwich from the sub shop.

Au Jus and Marinade:
At the sub shop I worked at we had a container of hot au jus to dip all of the beef into for a few seconds to give it flavor. There was also some sort of marinade that we dipped the chicken into. You can also use that au jus for a great french dip sandwich.

Cheese:
Check out the cheese at the deli counter too. I tend to stick to my few favorite cheeses. I love mozzarella or cheddar on most of my sandwiches but I also really love Swiss, especially on chopped chicken. I love the way that Swiss melts. I usually choose sliced cheese, but my husband loves shredded cheese on top of that. Parmesan is another great topper.

Veggies:
You can really be creative with veggies. Thinly sliced anything can be good. I tend to go with a little bit of chopped onions, sometimes some sauteed mushrooms, sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, and a tiny bit of lettuce. Cooked and raw veggies are both really good depending on what you are going for!

Put It All Together:
The main thing that I learned was that you want every bite to taste the same, so be sure to spread everything out evenly. I also toast most of my sandwiches, just in the oven under the broiler, or on a skillet. If you have a toaster oven it’s probably easier, and I’m jealous! Hide some of your toastable veggies and dressing under your meat and cheese and toast it.  With the broiler, toast the sandwich open, then put it together and toast the top, and then flip it to get the bottom. Now you can finish putting on your cold veggies and enjoy!

What’s your favorite sub and where do you get it from? I want to hear about it and any awesome creations you come up with!

For more ideas check out these Sandwich Ideas:

Egg Salad Sandwiches
Fancy Sandwich Wraps
French Dip Sandwich Rolls

We collect those smashed/souvenir pennies from different tourist attractions. (They’re usually the cheapest souvenir there!) I always meant to scrapbook them, but the only scrapbooking I have been doing lately are the digital scrapbooks and the pennies don’t fit well in there.

I saw a lot of specimen art around the blog world last year and it inspired me to find a way to decorate with my smashed pennies. I knew we would keep collecting (and finding the ones we already had, I know I put them in a really good place!) so I needed a way to easily reorganize them to make them symmetrical every time we got a new one. A cute cork board was  the way to go. I thought I had quite a few more smashed pennies but so far they are no where to be found, so this smaller display is what I made for now, and the even smaller one was one for my mother-in-law for the two souvenir pennies that she had.

Materials:
Souvenir Pennies
Picture Frame
Cork (should be the thicker panels)
Super Glue
Thumb Tacks(the flat ones)
Fabric

Directions:
1. Super glue a thumb tack to the back of each penny, let them dry.

2. Cut out two layers of cork, glue them together, just with small dots of glue in the corners and one in the center.

3. Lay the cork in the center of your fabric. Glue it to the cork, on the back. Pull the fabric tight before you glue it.

4. Put a little bit of glue on the the back of the cork/fabric layers and glue it to the frame.

5. If your edges look a little dingy from being cut (like mine) you can now glue some rope or fabric rolled up around the edges.

6. Once everything is dry, put your newly embellished push pins into your new fancy cork board. Now when you get new pennies you can just do step 1 again, and reorganize all of the pennies. Have fun collecting!

If you enjoyed this project here are some others you might enjoy:

Souvenir Baseball Bat Display

Mostly Finished Nursery

Ribbon Memo Board