Ugly Shoes + Ugly Sweater = Awesome Boots

So I've seen a ton sweater upcycle posts all over Pinterest lately. And, oh boy, do I love me a good sweater upcycle! 

Anyways, I've been in dire need of some new boots lately, but I just can't justify spending $50 on some crappy boots from Target that won't last the rest of the season. (And I can't afford to spend $150 on good boots that will...) What I can spend, however, is $3 on some ugly shoes from Goodwill and $2.50 on a sweater. Yay for half price day! Also, I just need to add that these are unused shoes from Goodwill. I guess the Target around here gives their things that they couldn't even clearance to Goodwill.

I think they turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. Wanna know how I did it?

Ugly Goodwill Shoes
(Trust me, they look cuter in the picture than they did  in real life)

+

Not Quite So Ugly Sweater

First, cut the sleeves off the sweater. When you're cutting them off, make sure you cut on the body side of the seam, not the sleeve side. This helps to prevent unraveling.

Put the shoes on and flip the sleeves inside out. Slide the sleeve over the shoe and position it how you would like to wear it with the shoulder part of the sleeve at the foot and the cuff at the top.

When you are placing the sleeve over the shoe, make sure the seam is just a little bit past the sole of the shoe. Maybe half an inch? Don't worry, it won't stay like this, but doing this will help hide that ugly seem that you left on when cutting the sleeve off of the sweater when you flip it inside out.

Leave a bit of the fabric overlapping the sole.

Pull the sweater fabric tight enough to give it some shape, but not so tight that you won't be able to put the boots on once they're finished. Pin along the back and CAREFULLY take the shoe and sleeve off. You'll be pinning back quite a bit of fabric near the ankle, if you don't pin back enough, your boot will have a funny shape near the foot and ankle when you're finished.

Don't mind my pasty leg. Eew.

Now bust out that sewing machine and go to town. Sew along the line you made with the pins. This part is pretty quick and easy.

When you are done sewing, trim off all the excess fabric. 

Here is where I kind of forgot to take pictures. With the sleeve still inside out, line the long seam of the sleeve up with the heel of your shoe and secure it in place with some hot glue. Make sure that shoulder seam is about half an inch up the shoe from the sole. This will get glued in to place and fold back over on itself. 

Working around the shoe, bit by bit, keep securing the sleeve to the shoe. I found it easiest to start at the heel and work my way around the sole up to the front on each side. Then I sent back and kept adding more glue, working my way up the shoe. 

Anyone who has worked with hot glue before knows that there is not a whole lot of room for error so adding little bits at a time is your best bet. Towards the end when I was gluing the sleeve to the top of the shoe, it was getting pretty tricky. I had to keep adding a little glue and keep turning the sleeve in and out, in and out. After the sleeve was glued to the shoes, I went back to the sole and added more glue to make sure that the sweater stayed in place at the base of the shoe (and covering up and bits of ugliness left over...)

The cuffs of the sweater that I had were already folded over and sewn in place when the sweater was made. If that's not the case with your sweater, you'll have to cut them off, flip them inside out and sew them back on so the cuffs fold over the top of the boot. 

Now you can add any embellishment you would like. I will probably be adding a button or two to each boot, but I didn't have any on hand so I'll have to find some and add them later. 

So there you have it, upcycled sweater boots. 

And Oscar was pretty impressed with my work too. :)

Christmas Time: A Blast from my Past

I'm struggling with holiday "emotionalness" tonight. First, you need to understand that I had an amazing childhood, and when I say "amazing", I mean darn near perfect. I had (have) two loving parents that brought my brother and I up in a loving, happy, stable home. Most of my best memories from my childhood revolve around the holidays, specifically Christmas. These were the times that my family spent together as a whole.

My brother and I
1994

Audri kept repeating "Santa, nice, Santa, nice" as if trying to convince herself
that it was ok to be sitting near Santa. Now, Mrs. Clause, she was ok with.
December 2012

Christmas was such a special time for me as a child. My favorite memories are of my family piling in to my dad's old red "wood truck" and heading to the tree farm to search for a tree. The smell and the sound of this truck are unforgettable and it was always a gamble as to whether or not it started on the first try (usually it didn't). After hopping through the snow in search of the perfect tree, I would watch my dad start up his chainsaw to cut the tree down- another unforgettable mixture of scent and sounds.

After hauling in and setting the tree up in the stand, the second part of the fun would begin. My dad would drag up these huge barrels of ornaments up from under the basement stairs while my mom would start making the hot chocolate. After everything was up (I'm talking four or five big barrels and a few boxes and bags too), we got to the real work. My favorite part of decorating the tree was pulling the ornaments out one by one and asking Mom and Dad where it came from and why it was special. Every ornament had a story, and I always asked, even when I already knew the answer. Some were gifts from my parents to each other, some were ornaments my brother and I had made as preschoolers. Even looking at the ornaments we had made the year before brought up stories and memories that felt like they had happened half a lifetime ago. I suppose for a young kid, a year ago is almost half a lifetime.

This is me in one of the barrels

Then there was Christmas Eve. We always spent this day with my dad's side of the family at my aunt's house. If I haven't told you the story of the visits from Drag Queen Mrs. Clause, you'll have to remind me to tell you sometime, but that's a story for another day... After singing Christmas carols, eating a delicious dinner, and opening gifts brought by (you know who... ^) we would head home to get ready for Santa's visit. I remember driving home on these nights, and they were almost always clear, looking out the car window at the stars and moon, hoping to catch a glimpse of Santa's sleigh and wondering if, maybe, just maybe, this year, he had beat us home and we would get to open our gifts early. Eh, no such luck.

Grandpa, Me, "Mrs." Clause, Santa?, and Grandma
Christmas Eve, 1993ish

My mom and dad would help us prepare a plate of cookies and cup of milk for Santa. We would read a story together and then head to bed in anticipation of the magic that was sure to happen that night.

Christmas morning was always magical. I have no sense of the time now, but I do remember waking up super early on Christmas morning. How early? I have no idea, but I do know that PBS hadn't started airing for the day yet. I remember this so vividly because I would rush out to the living room to see all the loot, race to Mom and Dad's room and ask if it's "wake up time yet?" "Is Sesame Street on yet?", Mom would ask me. I already knew the answer, but I always turned on the TV to double check.

Nope. And I knew the rule. If it wasn't on, it wasn't wake up time. So there I would sit, staring at the screen, waiting for the guys at PBS to get their rears in gear and turn Sesame Street on so I could go wake Mom and Dad up already.

Finally, after hours and hours (or more than likely, 15 minutes) of waiting, it was go time. With the egg bakes in the oven (one for them and one for me without all the "icky stuff"), the bowl of Christmas colored M&M's in front of my dad and the seasonal songs on in the background, we got down to business. My brother and I would take turns each year being the one who got to hand out the presents.

I specifically remember being told "Now pretend you like each other
so I can take a picture." I think we were pretty good actors, don't you?
1995ish

Each time it came to be my dad's turn to open a gift, we would groan... Why? Because my dear daddy took FOR-EV-ER. He would grab the gift, feel it, shake it, turn it over and over, and while he was doing that, he was thinking of the most ridiculous pun that would describe what he had figured was in each box. And more often than not, he was right. I so wish I could think of an example now. I'm sure I'll hear plenty tomorrow morning. And I can't wait!

This probably isn't the best picture to illustrate our happy family Christmas times,
but considering we were both moody teenagers, I think this came out
pretty well... don't you?
Christmas 2000

My parents had so much fun with each other on Christmas morning. My dad loves chocolate covered cherries and my mom loves Turtles. They always give each other their favorite candies. But, it's not in the boring old in-the-box kind of way. They always come up with the most creative places to hide these candies. My parents have even gone as far as opening the candy package, emptying it, filling it with a different gift, resealing the cellophane wrapping, individually wrapping the candies and hiding them in another gift box. After resealing that box, of course, to look like it had never been touched. It was always so much fun watching them try to find their candies. This is another one of my favorite things about Christmas morning.

So here's where I am struggling now. I have all these memories of these great, silly holiday traditions that mean nothing to anyone else besides the four of us. I want to give the same to my kids. I want them to be able to look back in 20-something years and remember these days as some of the best times of their lives. But, I'm having trouble getting my husband to relate this desire to create traditions with our kids. He grew up in a very different place- geographically and culturally- than suburban Minnesota.

Should I even be posting this? This is my darling husband.
Christmas, 1986 (I think), Mexico

My husband's childhood home

It's hard to get my wonderful husband to see that decorating the tree is an event, not a 20 minute chore. I need him to realize that there is a childlike ritual to Christmas Eve night that I miss participating in- it's more than shoving the kids off to bed so we can put out the gifts to he can go so his friends' house to share Christmas with them. I pray for him to understand that Christmas is more than a list of to-dos that needs to be hurried through and crossed off. It's a time to slow down, enjoy this time we have with our children, and create happy memories that will hopefully last their entire lifetimes.

December 2012

So while there are many days that I feel like I have not succeeded at being the best mom I can be, I so badly want Christmastime to be one of those times that I can say, without a doubt, that I succeeded in creating memories and traditions with my family that they will want to pass on to their own someday. Even if its just for one day.

30 Bags in 30 Days

30 Bags in 30 Days

My neat freak lovely husband has a rule that we have not stuck by in our house lately:

*If you haven't worn it, played with it, used it, touched it or even looked for it in the last year, we need to get rid of it.*

Which is a good idea, in theory. But that's a tough one for me, considering I come from a long line of pack rats. My grandpa was known to go to flea markets and auctions and come home with tools, old wooden pipes (we've found 13 so far), tools, glass electrical insulators (you know, the things that used to be at the top of power lines... I think. I don't know why he wanted those things), and more tools. He was a gifted wood worker and mechanic, so all of those tools came in handy.

I remember when I was little and my cousins and I would play in my grandparents yard, garage and basement. There was always so much stuff. But when you're 8, it's not stuff, it's treasure! There were places full of treasures! Garden sheds, tool sheds, storage sheds, 2 old Winnebagos and let's not forget the garage. The garage was the best place of all. It's not a conventionally good smelling place, but I love the smell of it and the memories it brings back.

My grandpa passed away about 5 years ago, and this past summer, his children took on the daunting task of sorting through everything at my grandma's house. And a daunting task it's been, it's taken weekend upon weekend to make a dent in that garage, but it's been interesting to see what's come out of it.

I wouldn't say my parents are anywhere near that level of "packrattedness", but it's not to say they haven't kept their fair share of unneeded items, especially in the basement. I'm pretty sure there are still Halloween costumes from 1989 in a bin somewhere down there. But who knows? They may just come in handy someday. 

I have a habit of keeping things too. My childhood things, baby things, things I found at Goodwill or on clearance that I never actually used.

Needless to say, my husband does not have my same feelings about "stuff", which is where that rule came in. It's not necessarily a bad rule, just one that goes against my pack rat nature. So, in an attempt to get ahead of the game, I made this list of 30 Bags in 30 Days after reading this post. I tried to come up with 40 places, but I just couldn't, so I knocked it down to 30. My goal is to organize one area each day and make an effort to get rid of (either throw or donate) the things we don't use or need. Some of these will be tough. 

By the way, I put my foot down on his one year rule: baby things and sentimental things are off limits. He knows better than to fight me on either of those. :)

So here it goes:

30 Bags in 30 Days

1.       Kids’ dresser

2.       Kids’ closet

3.       Kids’ book shelf and drawer

4.       Kids’ toy shelf

5.       Kids’ other toy shelf

6.       Jose’s dresser

7.       My dresser

8.       My hanging clothes

9.       Tupperware cabinet

10.        Pantry cupboard

11.        Junk drawer

12.        Top of fridge

13.        Our “random crap” cabinet

14.        Utensil drawer

15.        Under bathroom sink

16.        Linen closet

17.        Top shelf in bathroom closet

18.        Medicine cabinet

19.        Movie and game cabinet

20.        Movie drawer

21.        My crafty cabinet

22.        My car

23.        Front porch

24.        Garage toys

25.        Garage shelves

26.        Computer desk

27.        My book shelf

28.        Under basement stairs

29.        Basement storage

30.        Kids’ toys in basement

Little A's Owl Costume

Fall in Minnesota... you never know what you're going to get. Is it going to be in the 70's today or the 30's? Do I need a t-shirt or a parka? Can we go to the beach or go sledding today? Those are the kinds of questions one may ask on any given day of a Minnesota fall. Especially around Halloween time.

I loved Halloween as a kid! I loved dressing up as Pocahontas or as a princess or a cute witch. One huge bummer of Halloween, though, was the fact that it's usually pretty stinkin' cold (especially at night) and my awesome costumes were always RUINED by the fact that my mother made me wear my winter jacket while running around collecting candy on these cold dark evenings (how dare she!). I promised myself that I would never make my kids wear their jackets over their costumes, so here I am 20 years later, on the hunt for the perfect Halloween costume for my kids.

So far, I've done really well with either finding a costume that's warm enough to be worn alone (I think it was pretty mild that year) or ones big enough that the kids could bundle up underneath. This year was tough though, not only because by the time I was ready to shop, the costumes were pretty picked over, but also because I refuse to spend $30 on something they'll wear out, at most, three times.

Big A was pretty excited to pick out his costume, but I have a rule: No Scary Costumes until... ever? I can't stand all those bloody masks or creepy things, and for goodness sake, he's five. He loves superheros and wanted a mask and a cape. Well, school doesn't allow masks, so choice #1 Spiderman was out, Superman doesn't wear a mask, so he's out. We ended up with Batman since it's only a half mask and has the required cape. Problem solved.

Little A was a bit more difficult. Dear Target and Walmart, how do you expect me to take my one year old out in the end of October in a tutu and tank top? Hello people! Sincerely, Me.

All they have for little girls are tutus and tank tops and considering she's a big girl, the warm fuzzy baby outfits don't fit her either. So I was on a mission to give this kid a kick ass (and affordable) costume! So I decided to make hers.

I found an adorable owl hat (about $6) at Walmart and a purple sweatsuit ($3.88 for each piece) (fashionable, I know, but it'll keep her warm).

Then we headed over to Joanne's for felt. Lots and lots of felt. I got purple, teal and hot pink.

Actually, I think the teal was called Peacock and the purple was called Orchid,
I don't remember what the pink was called.

I cut tons and tons of feathers. I probably got about 35 feathers out of each sheet of felt. I bought six of each color, not knowing exactly what my plan was yet. I ended up needing about eight of the purple, three teal and two pink. I think I got them for 4 for $1 on sale.

I bought tacky glue, being the novice that I am, thinking "Hey, this is a good all purpose craft glue, this will work perfectly!" Wrong. After gluing a zillion feathers, I realized that most of them weren't sticking. I went back and ended up re-gluing most of them with hot glue. It wasn't that big of a deal as the process went fairly quickly. I suppose you could sew them on, but I don't have time to sew each feather on. 

Here's what it looked like all laid out before I started gluing.

I ended up changing a few things, but you get the idea

After I started gluing, I made a few changes to the wings. I decided to use the teal to make an edge around the wings, which made them pop a little more. The first two rows of feathers on the wings aren't individual feathers, they are rows of five or six connected feathers. I figured they would be easier to put on the bottom of the sleeves if they were all attached.

So here it is, the finished product. Sorry the picture is so blurry. It's hard to catch a kid on a phone camera.

Who Needs Math Anyway?

Since my last post, I found out that I DO get to graduate! Woo hoo! Thank you changed graduation requirements! So after five years of not attending a single college class, I get to graduate with my AA degree. It doesn't do much for me now, but that means I can enroll in the next program...kinda. 

I need to take a couple classes before I can actually apply to the K-8 program because I need to get my GPA up one tenth of a point and because I have to take and PASS Math for Elementary Teachers...  Ugh. How I hate math! Like, with a passion!

But in order to take that class, I need to A) pass the math placement test and score in to a college level class (yeah right!) or B) take the math placement test and score in to the prerequisite class and take that one as a sort of refresher. 

Honestly, I don't want to, but I think it would benefit me to take the lower math class first. So, until I can get in to take that class, I'll be sitting here on the computer studying math after the A's are in bed each night. 

Woo.

Wish me luck!