Summer Hair

 {what I did during my summer vacation}

my daughter gets lots of compliments on her hair because it's soooo long, she's 4 years old & never had a haircut.  with such long hair & the summer heat & humidity it needed to be off the face if not up off the shoulders, so we've been having fun surfing the net to discover new hair styles & here's a few we've tried...

first photo is hippy hair #2

 twisties

 bubbly ponytail

 long hair messy bun

 hippy hair

 lots ideas all over the web, but did you know there's even a book all about girls hair ?  it's got fun ideas, too...

I have caught up with blogging (meaning I'm done with my "what I did during my summer vacation" posts), yeah !  I feels good to be caught up... back to regular postings soon, until then (for those living in the USA) enjoy your Labor day weekend !

Gluten-free Reese's S'mores

{what I did during my summer vacation}

did you know that they now have jumbo marshmallows ?

to make these gluten-free, the key is finding or baking gluten-free graham crackers, try S'moreables by Kinnikinnick

or try this gluten-free casein-free homemade graham cracker recipe

from my gluten-free (outdoor) kitchen to your belly :o)

bon appétit !

Rapunzel dress details & cost

 {what I did during my summer vacation}

in case anyone is interested in sewing a Rapunzel dress (like the ones from my daughter's princess Rapunzel birthday party) following this free pattern I wanted to share my notes as I made a few changes & included more details (than the free tutorial gives) which are mentioned below.

first of all, this dress fits my daughter who is 4 years old.

I used a 1/2 inch seam allowance throughout.

front bodice ~ I used 1.5 inches of pink ribbon for the 10 ribbon loops. I did not seal the ribbon edges as they are hidden & enclosed, I felt that step could be skipped, saving time.

back bodice ~ I used 1.5 inches of velcro for each of the closures.

underskirt ~ I used 22 inches of purple fabric & 19 inches of 3/4 inch elastic.

overskirt ~ I used the fabric selvage to selvage & cut it 23 inches long. for the selvage edges I ironed down 1 inch, then used 5/8 inch Peel n Stick fabric fuse (permanent adhesive for hems) down almost all of the length of the 23 inch overskirt. the Peel n Stick was ironed down & makes a nice & very easy no sew hem. for gathering the top of the underskirt I used the zigzag over cording method. for the bottom hem I folded over 1/2 inch, then 1/2 inch & topstitched.

sleeves ~ for gathering the sleeves at the top I used the zigzag over cording method. at the bottom of the sleeves I folded over 1/2 inch, then 1/2 inch, topstitched around leaving an opening for the casing. I used 9 inches of 1/4 inch elastic per sleeve.

amount of fabrics used:
lavandar, a flat crepe-back satin solid (polyester): 1 yard
purple, a heathered suiting (polyester): 29 inches

amount of trims used:
white eyelet trim: 47 inches
pink cord: 42 inches
shiny pink ribbon: 84 inches
velcro: 6 inches

as I was sewing these dresses I became curious to know how much it cost to make each dress. you know as a sewist, not everything you sew is money saving, but sometimes you can sew for less...

these prices are pretty close, I know I made a few teeny tiny mistakes, but this gives me a good idea of how much each dress cost to make.

(see chart below) the total came to about $13 per dress !  what a deal !  I bought everything at JoAnn Fabrics, the fabrics were on clearance, I used a 50% off coupon on the eyelet trim & 40% off coupons on the remaining items. I must add that I did not count the thread nor the trim on the bottom of the underskirt (I got that free), & thanks to a blogger the sewing pattern & tutorial were FREE :)

I did a little research to see what princess dresses cost to buy:
$11-$15 here
$20 here
$40 here

interesting, huh ?

I think I will try to keep track of how much money it costs me to sew a garment in the future...

have you ever kept track of how much it cost you to sew a garment ?  please share...

Length	Material	Unit Price	Full Price	Discounted price
42”	Pink Cord	$.79/yd	$0.92	$0.55
84”	Pink ribbon	$.11/ft	$0.77	$0.46
47”	Eyelet trim	$2.99/yd	$3.91	$1.96
8”	Velcro	$3.49/30”	$0.93	$0.56
40”	Fabric fuse	$4.49/20ft	$0.75	$0.45
18”	1/4" Elastic	$.49/yd	$0.25	$0.15
19”	3/4” Elastic	$.99/yd	$0.52	$0.31
1yd	Lavender fabric	$14/yd	$14.00	$5.25
29”	Purple fabric	$12/yd	$9.67	$3.33
		TOTAL:	$31.72	$13.02

DIY painted chandelier

 {what I did during my summer vacation}

this was the pink chandelier that was at my daughter's princess Rapunzel party and it was super easy to do... I got the idea here

 in our kitchen dining room, this chandelier was way too big & formal for this space

 so I took this old ugly green faux-marbled and gold outdated chandelier, spray painted it with white primer, then spray painted it with pink paint. I told you it was easy !

 cost for this project:
chandelier $0
2 cans spray paint $7.96
which brings it to a total of $7.96

the chandelier was free because it came with the fixer-upper house that we purchased, but I recently saw a smaller gold chandelier at a garage sale for only $5 !

now the pink chandelier is hanging in my turquoise studio ~ when I look up in front of me as I'm typing this, there it is :)

Princess Rapunzel party

 {what I did during my summer vacation}

3 little dresses for 3 little girls... here is the second birthday party we celebrated this summer... my daughter turned 4 years old, has very long hair since she's never had a haircut & she enjoyed the Tangled movie, so a princess Rapunzel party is was...

 simple homemade invitations (I used a hot glue gun to attach the flowers to the braided ponytail)

 inside the invitations:

Hear Ye, Hear Ye. You are cordially invited to a Princess Rapunzel party to celebrate {girls name} 4th birthday. The party will be held at the Castle {last name} in the Kingdom of {city}, on {date} at {time}. Come and be a princess for a day with a princess dress-up and princess luncheon. If you would like you can come dressed in your best princess attire, but there will be princess dresses provided. Princess {girls name} can't wait to see all of her princess friends.

 4 pompoms for the 4 year old

 pink ruffle paper baking cups were bought at Michael's

 can you tell my daughter's favorite color is pink ?

 I sewed all the 3 girls a dress (this took me 1.5 weeks) using this free Rapunzel dress pattern (I blogged more about the dresses here)

 I knitted & wet felted my daughter this purple princess Rapunzel hat using this free felted princess hat pattern. I knitted a pink one for my daughter's first birthday :)

during the birthday party we did braids in the hair, painted finger & toe nails, putting on little flower stickers that go on nails, then we did a few little crafts. the girls were thrilled playing tea party in the shade of a big tree with a pink chandelier. it was a very hot day, so later after they put on their swimsuits they ran through the sprinkler & threw water balloons.

if you plan on throwing a princess birthday party here are more ideas:
from books:
Pink Princess Cookbook by Barbara Beery

 Pink Princess Cupcakes by Barbara Beery

on the web:
Rapunzel hair that could be used as a decoration

medieval princess bag

cardboard Rapunzel photo booth

Tangled Tower Cupcake

Tangled inspired birthday party

PS next summer we're planning a ballet theme, I plan to sew all the girls a tutu

octopus themed 8th birthday party

 {what I did during my summer vacation}

in our family we have 2 summer birthdays... here was the first party we had this summer & be sure to come back tomorrow for the second...

so when your child's favorite animal is the octopus, you just have to throw them an octopus party for their 8th birthday, right ?

it was my second son who turned 8 and his favorite colors are yellow & red as you can probably guess from these photos

 simple homemade invitations & wall decorations

and lots of yellow, red, & octopus food:

hot dog octopus, banana octopus, octopus legs (white cheddar cheetos), potato chips, fruit kebobs, white cheddar cheese shell pasta, fish crackers, Swedish fish, yellow punch (in a fishbowl shaped punch bowl), yellow cupcakes.

more octopus ideas I came across: octopus bell pepper in dip, apple & grape octopus, and a craft of an octopus made out of a toilet paper tube.

PS next summer we're planning a LEGO theme... I'm already getting so many great ideas here, here, here, & here.