Goodbye Bikini, Hello Mommy Suit

I am way behind the power curve finding a new swimsuit this year, but I have finally decided to retire the bikinis. After two kids, I think it's time. All of last summer, I felt very uncomfortable in my swimsuits and I want a few that are a little more mommy friendly, but I still want them to be cute. Sometimes it can be difficult to find a one-piece suit that isn't too matronly. Here are a few possibilities.

Target here

 



Target here

 

Target here

 

 

Old Navy here

Any favorites? Have y'all found any cute one pieces anywhere?

 

 

Minnie Mouse Birthday

Last week, my little girl turned 2. We are having a joint party for our kids in a few weeks, but I wanted to do something special for her actual birthday. I really didn't want to spend much money, but I still wanted to try to make it cute.
Here is the setup...

I already had the pink and white chevron fabric from a project I never got around to (I also had enough for her dress). I just bought some felt by the yard and traced plates and bowls to make the place mats (these are also going to be used for their party).

 

I got the idea for the centerpiece from pictures I saw online, but I wasn't really too pleased with how it turned it. I think it looks OK, but I don't really like it on this table. I bought styro-foam balls, attached them with toothpicks, and spray painted them black (this also might be used for their party). I attached the bow with a floral pin so it can be removed. I just placed the whole thing on top of a glass vase filled with paper shreds.

 

This chair garland is made from some free printables. You can find them here

I also use them to make the cupcake toppers.

 

I found a zebra print "Happy Birthday" banner on clearance at Walmart for $.50. It was a little too plain, so I jazzed it up a little to fit the theme.

 

Don't laugh! This is not my best work. I hadn't planned on making a Mickey Mouse head out of tissue paper pom poms. I was just going to have a few of the different colors hanging from the chandelier, but after I made the first two small black ones, they looked a little too small. That's when I got the idea to make them into ears. It is a little off, but oh well. You get the idea.

 

 

The birthday girl's morning started out with a bunch of balloons covering her floor. This was a real hit. I will definitely have to keep doing it for every birthday, probably with more balloons next time.

  

For breakfast, the birthday girl requested donuts. She doesn't get them very often, so this was a treat.

 

For lunch, she requested chicken nuggets and cheese. 

 

The birthday girl had never had her nails painted before, so I took her to the kiddie salon for a polish change. Out of all the colors, she chose neon pink! I would have picked the same one for myself. She seemed to like it, but the nail polish didn't last too long. I think 3 fingers were missing polish by the time we got home.

 

Snack time! I found the boxes on clearance at Walmart for $.20. I just added the mouse ears and bow. The juice box is wrapped in wrapping paper and I used a water label from the free printables.

 

I made Mickey-shaped cookies for them to decorate. Aren't they beautiful! Haha!

 

For supper, Mickey-shaped mini pizzas.

 

 

 I made her dress out of left over fabric from the table and other scrap fabric I had. I think it's pretty cute considering I didn't have to spend any money on it. This was my first attempt at sewing a ruffle, so hopefully next time will be easier.

I think the birthday girl really enjoyed her day. 

Now it's time to work on more party projects!

Mickey/ Minnie Party Part 1- Bow Ties

I mentioned before that birthday season is approaching. Please bear with me; I get pretty excited about it, so you will probably be seeing a lot of posts about all my DIY projects. For the kids' party, they decided on a Mickey and Minnie Mouse theme and I just knew that I wanted to try to create a "Minnie's Bowtique" area. Since the party is for a boy and a girl, I needed to make sure to include something that the boys can wear as well. I threw around a few ideas with my son (capes, sunglasses, gloves, and bow ties were a few of the ideas we had), but we settled on bow ties. Really, he wanted capes, and what little boy wouldn't, but making those was a bigger task than I felt like I could take on right now. I told him that I would make a cape for him and bow ties for the party, and he was satisfied. So, bow ties it is!

Here is how I made them...
You will need:

• Fabric
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Needle and thread
• Thimble (optional)
• Elastic (I used 1/4")
• Measuring tape
• Glue gun and glue sticks
• Iron

I looked through my stash of fabric scraps and I found some that went perfectly with the color scheme. I measured the fabric and cut it into 12x6 1/2 inch rectangles and 6x1 1/2 inch strips. You will need half as many strips as rectangles because you will be cutting them in half (if you want to make 8 bow ties, you will need 8 rectangular pieces and 4 strips).

I ironed each rectangular piece flat and then folded and iron it in thirds. Not in perfect thirds; each side just needs to go a little past the center.

 

 Repeat with the strips and then fold in half and cut so that you have two 3" long pieces instead of one 6" long piece.

 

I forgot to take a picture of the next part, but you fold each rectangular piece into thirds again with all raw edges facing the bottom to form the bow.

 

I had to play around with the pinch a little to get it right. 

Next, take your needle and thread and poke your needle through the center of the pinch. Just wrap the thread around the pinch a few times and poke the needle through again and tie it off. This sounds easy enough, but I actually thought it was the hardest part of the whole thing. Not because it is actually hard, but just because the fabric was so thick and you have to go through so many layers. I recommend using a thimble to help push the needle through.

 

I wasn't sure how long to cut my elastic, so I measured my son's neck and added 2 inches. I didn't want it to be too loose, but it needed to be big enough to fit over his head. I went ahead and cut all of my elastic strips and sewed the ends together to make a circle.

 

I hot glued the elastic at the seam onto the underside of my bow. 

Now, take your small strips and wrap them around the pinch and elastic. Hot glue the ends at the back of the bow. I folded my top piece under before gluing it to give it a more finished look.



 

And there you have it! Very easy and pretty cute.

 

Day Out With Thomas

I hope you all had a great weekend! We took the kids on a trip to Blowing Rock, NC to go to Tweetsie Railroad. They are having a special event right now called "Day Out With Thomas". As soon as I found out about it, I knew we had to take them. Our little boy is the biggest Thomas and Friends fan I have ever seen, and our little girl likes it too.

Since we were going to do something special as a family, I just had to make our kids matching outfits. And so, the typical appliqued shirt and pillowcase dress...

 

We went on a ride in one of Thomas' passenger cars. I think the kids would have liked it better if the whistle wasn't quite as loud. We will know to bring ear plugs for them if we get to go next year.

 

 

There are so many beautiful views of the mountains.



And...of course my camera battery died about halfway through the day. Thankfully, my mother-in-law had her camera so hopefully I can get some pictures from her.

They have a "Country Fair" area with rides for people of all ages, and we are convinced even more that our little boy is an adrenaline junky just like his daddy. I must admit though, I like a good amusement park ride too.

We all had such a good time. I hope we get to go again next year!