Hello :)

Hello Everyone!! A lot of water has went under the bridge since I posted last. First of all we had a wonderful Mother's Day!! I am so blessed to have such a wonderful Mommy. I know you all probably think yours is the best, but I like to say that mine is the best!! :)

As far as normal life, well that has changed. I was once the main caretakers with all the dogs that come and go, but you can't guess what happened. I am no longer that person. That's right.. After all those years of doing the dogs I am finally finding myself doing something else. Jenny, Joanna and of course the boys have taken over and are doing a great job. I know you are probably all wondering what I am up too. First of all our neighbors had a terrible tragedy. Our friend Ronnie passed away very suddenly. It was a surprise to everyone, cause they didn't know anything was wrong. I can't imagine the heart ache of losing a mother and I pray that I will never have to experience such a loss. Steve needed someone to come in and take care of his two boys (Logan 13 and Connor 10) while he is at work. Someone that could help them with their school, make meals and keep up with the house cleaning, laundry, etc.. So I now have a full time job, 4 to 5 days a week 8-10 hours, and am loving it!! It is only a half a mile out our drive way, so being so close to home is very convenient!! I am really enjoying the time with the boys and I try to make life a happy one for them. :) So if you wonder why I haven't posted in a while, you all will know why! :)

Grandpa and Grandma Strite surprised us by showing up yesterday. They haven't been out from Maryland since, well I don't even remember! So it is special having them here! Wednesday we are leaving for Jasper, Texas. Really looking forward to that!! Will miss my job though! :)

Well, I need to stop chatting and get some stuff done. I sewed two dresses for Joanna and I for the youth banquet at Jasper. I am going to try to get some pics and put them on here.

Hope you all have a great week! Talk to you when I get back from Texas! :) 

T-Shirt Tutorial

Hi Everyone! I am here to give you a quick tutorial on how to dress up a plain t-shirt. I am sure there are many other ways of doing this, but I tried this for the first time and it turned out to be really easy and cute!

I started out with a grey t-shirt size XL. Way too big, right? so I cut the sleeves off close at the seam. I'm sorry, I didn't get any pictures of this. Any way, I cut the sleeves off. Save them, you'll need them later. I then took one of my favorite t-shirts and laid it onto the XL t-shirt. I cut it out, leaving about an inch on both sides to give me plenty of seem allowance. ( it is better to end up with a shirt that is a bit big, then one that is two little. Big shirts can always be taken in!) :) This also includes cutting out at the arm holes. Now you have a shirt that is only connected at the shoulders and still has the hem and neck in it. Open it up so you are only working on the front. Print out your flower and then cut out a piece of your different color t-shirt fabric. Put the flower on the front and your material underneath. It should look like the picture above. Pinning helps to  keep it from stretching.

You then sew along the lines. Making sure you don't miss any. (as you can see above I sewed in my tail :))  Back tacking is needed at every corner. To get the paper off, I started cutting it.  A slow job. Jenny walks and a gives me the brilliant idea. Make it wet? Really, why hadn't I thought of that! So if you take a wet rag or sponge and press it on the paper till it is all wet. You can then carefully pull it off and you have the perfect outline of a flower!

Now to cut it out. Be very careful here. If you cut the underneath material, believe me, it won't make you very happy! :) Pull the top layer away from the bottom layer and cut into the middle. Work your way to the sides and slowly working your way around. Don't cut too close to your sewing.

This is my finished product.

What the back should look like.

Ready to sew it back up! I use a serger, but I am sure you could just use your sewing machine. Sew up your sides

. Now your ready to put the sleeves back on. This is a bit tricky. First take a seem ripper and open the seem where it connected to the shirt. Your arm holes are going to be a bit smaller now, so you will have to cut some off your sleeves. Measure the opening and then measure the top part of your sleeve. Cut off any extra at the seem. Now sew your sleeve back together and then pin it onto your t-shirt and sew.

Doesn't that look cool!? I am excited that it turned out so good. Hope you all have fun trying it. If you have any questions don't be afraid to ask! :)

Have a great week!