Link Love No. 15 -- Mini Clothes Reaction

Today I played with Rachel. I thought she knew I was making the clothes for her baby doll, but she didn't. (I sew a lot so maybe she thought I was just working on another project.) I went into the toy room with her and said, "Let's change the baby's clothes" and layed the clothes out in front of her.

Her eyes got big and she covered her mouth with both hands and squeeled in delight. She said, "What happened?!"

I said, "I used your old baby clothes and made these."

"Thank you Mommy!"

We played for a while. I was watching her change the clothes from one outfit to another. She carefully placed the head bows and such. She had three dolls total. Two of them would be a sleep while she dressed one and she would keep doing this giving each doll a chance to wear several different outfits. (If they were real babies, they would be crying their heads off.)

After we played for a while, she said thank you again and said, "Mommy, can you make more?"

I laughed and said, "Sometime..."

I guess I should start working on some more pretty soon before she grows out of this phase. She showed the clothes to Daddy after he came home from work. She played until she had to go to bed. It made me so happy seeing her reaction and how entertained she was by this.

Ok, ladies, it is your turn, here are the rules if you are new to my link party.

1. Please post something YOU made. It doesn't matter if it is crochet, quilt, clothing, anything would be fine. I want to see it! If you use someone's idea or patterns please give them the rightful credit.

2. Link to your specific post, that way it is easier for everybody to find and read it.

3. Please grab the "Tea Rose Home" grab button, and link back from your post. If you can mention the party in your post or place the button on your side bar, that would be great! I want more people to have a chance to come and show off their creation.


<br /><a href="http://tearosehome.blogspot.com"><img border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5462799092490427250" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 126px; height: 160px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtc9CFJR6Te5CpNgHYGsz2oQcSPEa7ev57prQmm-wO7bU5-IXOUTAJV08BvA-pbdpS2QCr864re5ljtzEGNU20emgmsiG0eSXBf9nArpxdnE1SRy7EGrrnSSMYTt3mS2C3S9d6A8bRk7E/s200/GrabButtonLinkParty.jpg" /></a><br />


Let's party!

Clothes - Memory Blanket - and Mini Clothes

When I first started blogging, I posted about Rachel's baby clothes and that I had a hard time saying good-bye. I ended up making a memory blanket out of them and I was soo happy with the results...



For other people, the story of the "I can't part with my kids clothes" will be ended here. Not me. Yep, you guessed right, I still couldn't throw away the scraps of the scraps of the baby clothes (Please don't roll your eyes...). I tucked them away and forgot about them.

Lately, Rachel has been into playing house, big time, and taking care of her baby dolls. She has three baby dolls, but I have never bought extra clothes for them. The other day, I have noticed that she is exchanging clothes among those three dolls and trying to come up with new combinations (maybe she wasn't thinking that deep, but at least that's what I thought). They looked really funny.

Then, those scraps came to my mind, I decided to make some clothes for her baby dolls.


I used two different fabrics to make this skirt.


Ruffle tunic and a couple of headbands


Polka dot is always my favorite. Apron and headband for doing house work...


Same dress with Rose scarf for going out.


Sundress with Apron also works...


I haven't given her these clothes yet, but tomorrow, I know I am playing house with Rachel accompanied by three baby dolls in their new outfits. :)

Link Love No14!

Wow, you guys have been busy sewing and creating! How are you all doing this summer? I thought my life would get slower when kids are out of school, boy was I wrong! They have martial arts classes, swim lessons, I keep a tab on their reading and chores (not to mention the doctors' appointments and such), I feel like I am busier!

Sitting in front of the computer is my "me time" to unwind and relax. It is nice to see all your creations. I am getting more and more links from outside of the country now, and sometimes I can't even read their language, but I am so grateful that you all take the time to link to my party. Thank you so much!

Here are the picks for this week...

I am not a big fan of hunting, and I can't see myself decorating my house with a dear head, until I saw this one. By Night shared this very cute "dear head", isn't it adorable? I think it will be so cute to use this in the boys' room with some toy guns and stuff.


I love everything delicate and pretty. This Knot & Pearl Necklace is both! Sooo pretty!


Erin from Decor Allure found this old cabinet at a garage sale and gave it some TLC... Look how it turned out! I love the color she chose, it looks amazing!


Check this out! This adorable bathrobe was made out of two dish towels (and they are from a dollar store). Very creative and cute.


Ever Lovely shares her Midsummer's Flower Vine Hair Wreath. Her tutorial is very easy to follow, and made me wanna make one for me and my little girl. I almost escaped to Jane Austin's world wearing this wreath and reading by a tree...


Thank you all for sharing your lovely creations. I will see you on Monday!

Four Shirts Four Ways ~Lavender~

I didn't have a particular design in mind for this "Four t-shirt makeover", but I remembered a shirt from JCrew that I found on their site (I couldn't find a link anymore). I used that as an inspiration, and came up with this shirt.


It is a little time consuming to cut out all the flowers, but the rest of the process is very easy to do. I will show you what I did.

{You need}

Two t-shirts of the same color

Matching thread

{How To}

1. Cut the t-shirt apart along the seam line.


2. From the back fabric, cut out 3 1/2" strips (my shirt was XS, and I was able to cut out 4 strips). Then, cut them into 20 - 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" squares.

3. From the front and sleeve fabric, cut out 3 - 3" wide strips, and 4 - 1" wide strips. Use the picture as a guide. (There is a leftover piece in the middle)


4. From the 3" wide strips cut out 20 - 3" x 3" squares.


5. Make the flower template.


6. Cut out the flowers.

 
7. Mark four lines lightly on the other t-shirt. They are 2" apart on mine, but after I sewed everything on, I wished that I did them a little bit closer (perhaps, 1 1/2" apart maybe?).

If, you are lucky and have more volume around your chest area, you will want more strips and have them closer together.

Stretch the 1" strips so they will become like rope. Lay them on the t-shirt where you marked.


8. Take the flowers you cut out earlier. Combine two of the same size flowers together(lay them so that the bottom petal is showing between the top petal). Pin them onto the strips and the shirt. Start with 3 1/2" flowers around the neck, then, 3" flowers towards the bottom.


9. Sew in a straight line on top of the flowers.


10. Cut the end of the strips to make the fringe.


11. For this particular shirt, I liked the sleeves a little shorter, so I folded the sleeve twice and sewed them.


12. ...and, it is done!




That's it! Like I said in the beginning of the post, if I am going to make this again I would sew those strips closer together, but I still love the shirt. It is a little different from my normal ruffle shirts, and still feminine...

Thank you for checking out my new t-shirt makeover. Meanwhile I am off to start thinking about the design for next week's t-shirt makeover!

Link Party No.14 and T- Shirt Makeover Month

First of all, I wanted to say thank you for those of you who left such kind comments on my last post about my family vacation. It is so fun to know that some of you had the same experience or interest like us.

I took a little break from the link party last week, but I am back safe, and you know what that means... it is time for "Wednesday at Tea Rose Home" link party! But, I have little fun announcement to make (I know you have fun things to share with us, but hold your horses...)

Just before the trip, I was at Gap and they were having such a great sale. Already marked down items were an additional 40% off! I found some t-shirt for $7.99 and they were an additional 40% off, isn't that great? Then, this idea came to me...

 
 
I bought four different colors of t-shirt, two of each color. I am going to do a t-shirt makeover every week in July. I will post the makeover at the end of the week. I don't have a design yet, but I am very excited about this challenge I am going to do (in other words, what am I putting myself up to?)

So, please be on the lookout to see what I can come up with!

Ok, ladies, it is your turn, here are the rules if you are new to my link party.

1. Please post something YOU made. It doesn't matter if it is crochet, quilt, clothing, anything would be fine. I want to see it! If you use someone's idea or patterns please give them the rightful credit.

2. Link to your specific post, that way it is easier for everybody to find and read it.

3. Please grab the "Tea Rose Home" grab button, and link back from your post. If you can mention the party in your post or place the button on your side bar, that would be great! I want more people to have a chance to come and show off their creation.


<br /><a href="http://tearosehome.blogspot.com"><img border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5462799092490427250" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 126px; height: 160px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtc9CFJR6Te5CpNgHYGsz2oQcSPEa7ev57prQmm-wO7bU5-IXOUTAJV08BvA-pbdpS2QCr864re5ljtzEGNU20emgmsiG0eSXBf9nArpxdnE1SRy7EGrrnSSMYTt3mS2C3S9d6A8bRk7E/s200/GrabButtonLinkParty.jpg" /></a><br />


Let's party!

I am back!

Some people might have guessed by the pictures from my last post... that's right my family has been gone the entire week last week! We went to Disneyland! At one point we thought that we might have to cancel the family vacation, but thankfully, my husband got a job offer soon enough that we were able to carry on with our plans.

We visited Disneyland for two days. I did some research on what to do and which attractions are fun for my kids' age group and such.

We attended the Jedi Academy... the boys were lucky enough to be picked to be young Jedis...


Rachel got to see her most favorite princess, Ariel, and take pictures with her and got her autograph. She was in heaven! (According to Michael, these princesses freaked him out. I asked him why. His ansewer: "Too much makeup!")


There was so much to see, and so much to do. There was no way that we could cover the whole park in just two days. Although, we were able to hit most of the attractions and rides we wanted to experience. We all had a blast.

 
The second day, we saw the fireworks and fantasmic (light and water show at night). I espescially loved the fireworks. Watching that I understood why people keep going back to Disneyland.


We also went to a beach. I lived closer to the beaches until I moved to Utah. Sitting at the beach, watching the waves, and feeling the wind made me realize how much I miss being near the ocean.




   
The rest of the week, we played in the pool at the hotel we stayed at, had dinner at Mideval times (Dinner & show where mideval knights wwould fight, and show off their skills, the kids LOVED this too).

Also, my husband totally dedicated one day for me to do a Japanese store shop-hop. That was so sweet of him! There are many Japanese grocery stores and book stores in the area. Oh... I was in heaven!!! I love books, and I read some books in english, but it's nothing like reading a book in your own language. In Utah, there are no Japanese book stores. If I buy them online, the cost of shipping is more than the actual price of the book.

I went to three Japanese book stores and one of them was a very large chain used-book store that I used to go to with my mom and my sister. I always have stack of books by my nightstand to read. There I found many books that I wanted to read for $1 each! I was soo excited!

Eventhough I love where I live now, I really wished that I could live right next to the beach and the Japanese bookstores.

On Saturday, we got home at 3:30 AM. And by late afternoon, we headed out to our Fourth of July family picnic.

We were sad to see our fun family vacation come to an end. Although, as I was tucking Rachel in bed she said "I missed my bed..."; I felt the same way. It is good to be home.

I guess we can enjoy our vacation because we know we have a place to go home to.

I Have Been Playing...

I have been playing lately with my kiddos.

I have taken pictures of their findings:

 
I've played with Rachel's hair more


Playing in the sand (this picture is Rachel's art work, I don't know what it is though)


No sewing this week, part of me is antsy that I am not sewing. Although, I know my sewing machine will be there next week, but these moments with the kids won't.

I am gonna keep playing until next week; I have a great idea for the month of July, so come back to see what I am up to soon. Have a great holiday weekend!