Flourish & Fly: Babystep 2

I'm back today with more on the Flylady's beginner babysteps!

But first I wanted to do a little recap of how yesterday went for me. Day one was to shine your sink, and I have to say I did pretty well! We are ALL sick around here with a croupy cough so just shining the sink was a HUGE challenge for me. I even let my little ones "help", as in I filled the sink with hot soapy water and then let them come splash in it. It seemed to cheer them up a bit, which is good! We ended up with one shiny sink, and I got FOUR loads of dishes done. Yes, you heard me right, I had four loads lying around. I blame it on having New Years guests and then sick babies and sick me! The great news is that I now have all the dishes in the kitchen done, minus a few handwash things, and a beautiful clean shiny sink!

Now on to today's challenge! Not only are we going to continue to shine our sink like Flylady wants (It's her way of hugging us! And who couldn't use more hugs!!), we are going to....

You can find Flylady's lessons on it here, and here.

This is one I struggle with and I know some other ladies do to. A dear fried of mine lamented on her blog that her lace-up shoes didn't always match her outfit.Me, I just really don't like shoes. Well, I do, I like to BUY shoes... but wear them? FORGET IT!! I have at least two pairs of shoes that I have never worn, not even once. I have a problem, and I have been getting rid of some shoes, ones that don't fit well, ones that are damaged, etc... but with all the shoes I have only one of them are lace-up shoes, and I pretty much only wear them when I know I will be doing a lot of walking, or when I exercise. Put them on everyday? We'll see.

For today I am wearing apair of sketches slip-ons that have little straps over the foot. They are harder to get off than a normal slip-on, but comfortable and stylish. They work for me, for now. I swear I am trying Flylady!!

But shoes are only part of getting dressed. There's the clothes, the hair, the make-up, etc. It can be really hard when you are a stay at home mom to take the time to get all of that done. I hate to confess this, but when my husband was gone 17 hours a day five days a week and I didn't have money for bus fare, most days I would stay in my pajamas. I could literally go five days straight without ever getting fully dressed. I was pretty much a shut-in, leaving the house maybe once a week. Sad but true.

But all that is changing, and I am proud to say I have been fully dressed every day this year! Today it was even before six am!! I even have proof I am dressed today! See my fantastic self portrait? You can't really see it, but my hair is even curled!! i thought ahead to the fact that I wanted to look nice today to post my picture for you guys and did the fantastic hair tutorial for no heat curls below yesterday! It is one of my favorite things to do with my hair. It is fast, it looks pretty good while it is drying and making the curls, and who doesn't feel better about themselves when they have fabulous curls?

So I have one more thing today I would like to share with you! Today's beginner babystep says that in order for us to change ourselves, we need to remind ourselves of what we are doing. The Flylady did that with post-it notes, but around here beauty trumps easy. So I've got a little card made up for you guys to print out and put on your mirror to remind you to get dressed and make yourself up in the morning. I have it sized at 3x4 to be able to print on a project life card (you can find blank ones here on Amazon). I have plans to use more of these later in building my new Control Journal, because I like my things pretty AND functional. There is a tutorial here that shows you how to print directly on one of the project life cards, which is what I used to print mine. You can also just print the pdf and trim to size.

I designed the card with my blog's color scheme, but if you would like it in another color scheme let me know in the comments and I can try to accommodate! I like to make people happy! You can download the card here. https://www.dropbox.com/s/zhpghb32gw6j8d5/neverfullydressed_MFMD.pdf

I hope you all have a wonderful day! I sure am having fun starting back at the beginning of Flylady!

DIY Graphic Christmas Canvases

Today I want to talk about these cute little canvases I made yesterday. They are so simple, easy, and cheap! I'm going with a color scheme of red, green, gold, silver, and glittery this year for our decor, and they make such lovely additions!

Here's what you need:


2 Canvases- One 12x12, One 8.5 x 11 (I love the bulk value canvases at Micheal's)
Red glitter Chipboard letters ( I used these)
1 chipboard Ampersand in a contrasting color
1 flat glittery ornament (I found mine at Dollar Tree)
Hot Glue Gun and Glue Sticks


1. Decide on what two phrases/word you would like on your canvases, make sure you have enough of every letter you need (I forgot this step and ended up having to turn another letter into an "r" to finish merry & bright). I suggest one long one, and one short. For example Love & Joy + Noel, Jingle Bells & Snow, etc. You will likely have enough letters left to make a few more words (I am going to make a Santa and Snow one as soon as I can get out to Dollar tree for more ornaments).

2. Arrange the letters on the two canvases to your liking. I found it helped me to draw a light pencil line to line up my letters. Remember to leave space for your ornament on one of the canvases.

3. Once you have you letters arranged how you would like remove one at a time, place hot glue on the back and replace it in the same position. Do the same with your ornament. Allow to dry. Erase any pencil marks that may be on your canvases.

It's really that simple! it took me less than 5 minutes to do both of mine, and I love them. They are so graphic and simple! And I already had all the items I needed on hand, other than the ornament. I can't wait to do the other two!

Sweater Pillow DIY

A few days ago a sad thing happened. My very favorite sweater (and pretty much my only sweater at this point) decided to get a teeny tiny hold in it. Normally I would keep wearing it, but this hole happened to be right in the chest area, and showed my wonderful purple bra off to the world (I only have one bra right now too, boy do I need to go shopping!). I love this sweater, mostly because it is 3/4 sleeve. I genuinely hate long sleeves, and always roll them up, so this saves me a step! After much sadness I decided the sweater could no longer be worn and decided to throw it out.
Before I had even gotten it over my head I decided that it might be perfectly useable in some other way, and my mind decided that it should be made into a comfy cozy pillow cover so I can keep feeling it's warmth.

A few days later I tracked down some thread, a needle, and some scissors and went to work. I cut all the way across the sweater just under the arm pits so I had a tube top like thing. I also cut off the sleeves for use in a let project. Not sure what yet, but we will figure something out! I then turned it inside out and hand stitched the entirety of one side.
This would probably have gone faster if I had used my machine, but my white bobbin was missing and I did not have an empty one. So I sat and stitched while enjoying a nice glass of water and watching an episode of Pretty Little Liars.
I then turned it right side out, inserted the pillow, and carefully hand stitched all along the other side of the pillow.
It took about an hour altogether, but now I have a soft warm pillow perfect for the Holidays and cold weather.
Since it went so well, I grabbed a pillow whose cover had gone missing, and some green damask pattern fabric I had bought for Halloween and made up another little pillow.
They now both grace my favorite little red chair from Ikea (which needs a cleaning badly!). I imagine it will be the perfect little spot for sipping some Hot Cocoa this holiday season as I admire my Christmas tree and wait for my husband to get home late at night. It sure put me in a holiday mood, so I got out a garland that never made it into the Christmas storage and put it up as well. So now my house is slowly on it's transformation to a Holiday haven.

So What Do you think I should do with the Sleeves? I am thinking either some type of vase cover, or making them into rice bags. Any other suggestions out there?

Hero Up: Superhero Sign Tutorial

Sorry for the hiatus yesterday. My husband skipped school for the afternoon, so I was busy coming up with a few awesome projects to work on for a submission for a design team call.
 A few of the projects were ones I already had  in my head for other purposes, one being my boys superhero room. They have been asking to have a Superhero room for several months now, and my head has been spinning with a bunch of ideas on how to do it. I am not a huge fan of the Character sets you can buy, so I am trying to craft their room around primary colors, with a really graphic retro look.

The first project I worked on for their room is a pair of Superhero automotopia signs that say "Ka-pow" and "Wham". These were pretty easy, and they turned out so good that I wanted to share how I made them with you!

Materials Needed

• 2- 12 x 12 canvases 
• Mod Podge 
• Foam Brush
• 5- 8.5 x 11 Sheets Black Cardstock
• 3- 8.5 x 11 Sheets Yellow Cardstock
• 2- 8.5 x 11 Sheets Blue Cardstock 
• 1- 8.5 x 11 Sheet Red Cardstock 
• Silhouette Machine
• Ka-Pow cut shape
• Wham cut shape

• First thing you need to do is open up the cut shapes in the silhouette. They are sized to fit an 8.5 X 11 sheet, but  we want to make the bigger. Un-group the shapes (Ctrl+U) and layer them on top of each other so you have it made into the final shape. It helps to fill each piece with the color you will be cutting it from. It should look something like the picture to the right. Now re-group the layers (Ctrl+G), and re-size the group so that the largest side is 11 inches. Make sure you have "lock aspect ratio" selected so you don't get it stretched strangely. 

• Next we are going to un-group them again (Ctrl+U) and separate them. If you have a Silhouette Cameo you can just cut each layer as is. I have a silhouette SD, so I have to cut up the pieces so they will fit in my cutting area. Start with the bottom layer (Yellow on Ka-pow, or Black on Wham), and center it in the cut area. Then take you knife tool and slice down the center of your image. Repeat on all layers you cannot fit in the 8.5 x 11 space. It should look similar to the picture to the right. You will end up with five peices for the "Kapow" and six pieces for the "Wham". 
• Cut each piece from the appropriate color cardstock.
• Starting from the bottom layers, assemble and Mod Podge each layer on to a 12 x 12 canvas in order. Make sure you use plenty of Mod Podge! One all layers are added on Mod Podge the entire surface, or spray with an acrylic spray to keep your masterpiece in place. Let dry thoroughly.
• Hand them to your children and let them pretend to be superheros before you hang them (the pictures, not the kids!) on the wall.

There you have it! Super cute Superhero art work for your kids room! I would estimate that the pair of signs cost me about $5 to make. That is a super deal! :)


When the boys room is all done I will make sure to give you guys a tour! There will be lots of DIY and re-purposing  going on. Some of the currently planned projects are a superhero mod podged table, a superhero tea set, and a superhero dress-up station! Stay tuned for the details!