Winning! Dollar Store… Gymnastics Coach “Meet Survival Kit” Christmas Gift

bags ready to be put in gallon  ziplock bag wrapping (more on that in the card)

I feel like a winner in coach gifting.

I put together the CUTEST, BESTEST, most useful gift ever for my daughters Level 5 gymnastics coaches. I am proud of me.

Last year I felt like a heel when I assumed because we all put $10.00 in towards the coaching gifts I was done minus a small token and a card. Nope! All the parents seemed to gave gifts on top of that. One coach got a designer purse. I can't compete with that but my sense pf practical style will hopefully impress them this year.

JoAnn cosmetic bag in one of the 2 color options I picked

However, nothing brilliant came to me until yesterday and the stress of the date and no ideas was weighing heavy.  Three (3) total gift bags, items purchased at the dollar store and Joann fabric for a total of $40.00 that is $13.30 each. I may still add a roll of tape from the gym. The kind the girls use on their hands and feet. I have no clue where I could buy those other than the gym.

contents

JoAnn cosmetic bag with little flip front mirror

I used the printables at: 

http://www.shanty-2-chic.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Printable-Christmas-Gift-Tags-Square-2.pdf

The Content Breakdown:
Almost everything is from the dollar store. I am betting they had bags I could have used but I just didn't see them. Luckily JoAnn is right next door. I had planned a simple tool zippered bag, got lucky with a random rack of gift/notions including the cosmetics bag with a mirror built in. 

• Tylenol
• Advil
• Moist Wipes (purchased a box and split between the bags)
• Hair Brush (came with sturdy hairbands)
• uniball pen set
• Extra Gum (came in a 3 pack split between bags)
• 2 Bandaids and 2 alcolol wipes (These were purchased for our first aid kit I put 2 of each in a tiny bag)
• Clear hair rubber bands (purchased 500 pack and split between bags in small baggies for each)
• Angry Bird Hand sanitizer (I love treasures like this from the dollar store, cute and has a little carabiner to hang off the side)
• Mentos fruit flavor
• Sally Hansen emery board package
• Gift bag is a cosmetics bag from JoAnn fabric. I used a coupon for 40% off but they are only $2.50 each regular price. 
• Notebook (small 4x5)

Items I planned to buy, forgot or could not find with a brief 15 minutes before the store closed:)

• life savers
• sticky notes
• travel nail polish wipes (because girls are NOT allowed to have polish) 
• mirror (no prob the bag ended up with one)
• bobby pins
• Ace bandage (I know they have them at the dollar store but I couldn't find them... ugh)
• instant ice pack (little one I imagine exists but have never seen so who knows)

So really the options are pretty endless. These items were specifically selected because I have seen each used periodically during meets. I hope my genius is not isolated to only me. If however the value is lost on others I didn't waste much money.

Christmas Rope Light Original

VROOM! Our ORIGINAL and very appropriate (for us) Christmas lights!

We have a blow-up Christmas decorations out front. It is not a snow globe, penguin, or package. It is a chopper riding Santa. He rocks and should have accessories to fit his fab style. So this year I purchased 24 feet of red rope light from Target and set to creating a phase to fit.

I could not find a rope light tutorial that fit my needs of any fonts useful to trace for my phrase. With zero guidance this is what I came up with.

Supplies:

• 24 feet of red rope light
• 3x7 sheet of peg board (mine is two sheets zip tied in a row as one)
• wreath
• general Christmas lights

This is a simple effort. with lots of zip ties and the long pegboard base raised off the floor create your word and zip tie the rope light down at various places along the run.   Boom... you have vroom!

I added the wreath for extra pizzazz  The peg board was great for fastening the rope light and can be temporary or permanent. We are lucky and the natural color matches our house and I don't care if it get weathered. We tweaked the letters a lot in the process and just snipped the zip ties for that letter section and reworked it. Next year I am making a second Vroom. 

My Goal to Chronicle a Special Veteran

Thanksgiving is ahead of us and Veterans day just behind us. I am especially blessed to have so many veterans in my life. Words cannot express how much they each mean to me. This year I am tackling a big project to honor a special veteran... my grandfather. For the next several months I am going to scan, photograph, research, and document every minute, hour, day and month my grandfather spent as a Prisoner of War (POW) in the Bataan Death March.

I am not sure what the best way to chronicle so much information is.  If anyone has an idea please let me know. I have photo's, letters, and documents that are already fading from age. I am scanning them myself. Nervous about turning them over to a service that they might not be handled carefully.

Articles about my grandfathers capture.

3 form letter/post cards that the Japanese Imperial Army provided to my grandfather to send to his family during his imprisonment. I am told the postcards are a bit rare as many were never sent. 
More to come as I keep working on this a little every day.

Realistic and Life Sized Mummy DIY

My Daughter is a Mummy!
How cute is it hiding next to our safe. Very spectacular and spooky. When people see it they are a little surprised. it is just realistic enough to surprise.

Last year my son gave me hard time about not decorating for Halloween. I scrambled for things to decorate with and promised him I would knock his socks off this year.
I started pinning a few months ago. So many cool idea's some easy some too creepy some too hard. I fell in love with a big mummy for sale online. I pinned it! But it was big, a little pricy, and had to be shipped.  So I gave it some though and came up with the following idea... Trace my kids in Cardboard and whip up a frame to simulate a body with cardboard.  Do it 2-D so I can store it in plastic sitting on top of the Halloween boxes in the basement.

This was really simple.

Step 1:  I purchased fabric pieces at Denver Fabric from the by the pound bin. Total cost $4.  I got a creamy color linen and a cotton that looked white gauze kinda. I snipped and tore all the fabric into strips.

Step 2: I laid the cardboard down on the floor and had my daughter lay on top of it like she was wrapped as dummy. Arms tight to her sides and legs and feet together.

Step 3: Cut out the body frame.

Step 4: create a half body frame with cardboard pieces and lots of hot glue. It is not perfect but hints at a body shape.

Step 5: Take a picture of my daughters face and print her eyes sized to add to the mummy frame. I pinched the nose a little on the center frame of the head. Not really 3-d but it looks a little more realistic for the eyes.

Step 6: Hot glue and creative wrapping of the new daughter mummy. This had me laughing so hard!  My son declared "TOO SPOOKY" no mummy of him will be made. He isn't laughing.

Effie Costume DIY

Effie Costume for the Hunger Games Tribute Training b-day party

"May the odds be ever in your favor" 

Originally I tried to make a dress like one Effie wore in the movie by refashioning a goodwill find. Turns out my sewing skills DO NOT extend to a refashion from size 18 to 8. But… the fabric from the dress was useful and utterly cheap ($3.00 for the dress) for an outrageous headband flower that doubles as a sun hat. I still have tons of failed refashion fabric left. Luckily I wear pink high heals and satiny stuff alot, so I just pulled something out of my closet. My hair needed a lot more teasing to hold but it got the idea across.

 

Headband
1. Cut petals in 3 different sizes with one squiggly long shape. I freehanded this cutting so each was a smidge different. The dimensions were roughly: 

4x7, 3x6, 2x3

  2x 12

Assembled in this order:
Outer row = 6 petals
Middle row = 4 petals
Squiggle = 1
Center row= 3 petals

2. Using a candle (with a fire extinguisher out and ready if needed) I burned the edges of all the petals. Burning the edges gives the satin a nice dimension and curl. The internet is full of tutorials and tips but I free handed this one.

3. Using a hot glue gun I fastened the petals to a square of fabric. Each petal I put a dot line of glue on the square base. Note: I should have put waxed paper or something under the entire project to protect the counter top.  Lesson learned.

4. I pinched, folded and manipulated the petal as I placed it onto the line of hot glue. I was really manipulating these petals so my fingers inevitable encountered the hot glue.  But the manipulating made it look pretty cool and kinda unique for each petal. Note: Set hot glue gun to low. I had it on hot and burned my fingers with this effort. I didn’t know the gun had a setting but luckily I noticed part way into this project.

 

5. Repeat gluing and manipulating for two rounds.

6.  The squiggle piece was fun. I glued and placed in 1 inch sections and swiveled the flower as I went fastening the squiggle into a circle.

7. Glue the final 4 petals into the center like I did the outside rows.

8. Attach to a headband.

Flower Broach
 Assembled a scrap of fabric as the base and then using safety pins I attached every flower I have in the pink colors. I have a lot of flowers. I wear them on lots of stuff.  Created a long broach and pinned it to my top. I made it on a long bit of ribbon to attach to the dress like a strap but it just went over my shoulder and no one asked.