Framed Baby Dress

Framing a baby dress can make a special piece of 'artwork' for a child's room.

While helping a friend re-design the room her granddaughters stayed in when they came to visit, I found an old baby dress that had belonged to one of the girls. It was such a darling dress, we decided to clean it up and frame it as artwork for the walls.

We wanted the project to be simple; this framing method doesn't protect the dress from damage or dust. However, it was easy to do and looks adorable in the room.

We measured the width and height of the dress (plus a little extra), then cut 1 x 2's for the frame and painted them white. We used a piece of luan for the back. We covered the luan with batting and yellow gingham fabric stapled onto the back side.

We then nailed the back onto the white frame and we were ready to hang the dress.

To hang the dress we simply used quilting pins -they are very short and don't show. We cut a piece of white poster board and folded it into an open "V" shape; we inserted this into the dress to make it puff out and used a little masking to attach it to the inside.

That's it!

This project can be adapted to make a frame that will protect the dress or other special piece, but we wanted to keep it simple. We hung the 'dress artwork' in the kids room and it makes a charming piece with family history.

Adorable Homemade Children's Costumes

There are some amazingly creative homemade costumes on the web and we have collected some of our favorites here.

This candy corn costume for babies is just adorable! There are no fussy bows or belts, etc. to get in the way. It is just perfect for a tiny one.

Most of the following costumes have been made with tulle which is fairly inexpensive and comes in every color you can think of.

You can buy tulle on rolls like ribbon; cut it the lengths you need and tie it onto elastic or other stretchy material.

These adorable costumes for kids will get your creativity flowing. Just add imagination!

Pocahontas was found on Dear Lillie Blog, here.

Little Red Riding Hood can be purchased at Your Sparkle Box; or you can create your own.

These precious little black cats were found on Pinterest. Can you say, "Meow"?

And one of my very favorites - this charming scarecrow is from Lauries tutu boutique, here.

These are just a few of the wonderful ideas out there. These can be easily made and you can make them your own.

The Best Birthday Present

When our youngest daughter was turning six we had many phone calls from grandparents inquiring what present to get her. No one knew - nor did we.

She was not a girly girl and never had a doll. She did not want to be a princess. She preferred being outside digging around for bugs or playing with a neighbor's dog. Yes, she was a bit of a tomboy; although she 'looked' like a girl.

I spent days pondering over what to get, and what to tell her grandparents. An idea came to me.

The morning of her birthday a dump truck came and dumped a load of topsoil at the end of our driveway! Plain old topsoil, not the nice stuff from the garden center.

Her grandparents gave her one of those short shovels with the handle on the end and a toy dump truck.

This was the best birthday present ever. Our daughter LOVED it. (I don't think we saw her again until she was eight). She and the neighbor's children dug in it for hours every day. They dug, and dug, and dug, and did imaginary things.

She is years down the road now from the 'dirt pile' but she remembers it as the best present she ever received. The only thing that did suffer a little was the plumbing in the bathtub.

Road Trip Must Have!

Taking a road trip and need to keep kids busy? We found the perfect thing... Chalk Mats. These designer mats are made with a soft 'chalkboard' on one side and designer fabric on the other.

Your kids will love creating their own masterpiece on the chalkboard surface while riding in a vehicle. They clean easily with a damp cloth, ready to start again.

These wonderful little mats are available at Bonita Boutique. Each chalk mat measures 14 in. X 18 in., and they roll up and tie for stashing in a diaper bag or backpack.

The Chalk Mats come in 6 different designer fabrics like the ones shown here.

For a road trip, or a trip to the grocery store, these are just what the Mother ordered to keep the kids busy and entertained.

You just may begin to wonder how you ever got along without them!

Graduation Invitations

My youngest daughter has finally graduated from college! This child has never been the 'typical' girl; not interested in shopping, clothes, or bling. She graduated in Equine Science... horses, almost her only interest. She also received a minor in psychology. Hmm, can't you just see the horses stretched out on a couch in her office...?

What is typical, for her, is that she never even considered graduation invitations. Until three days before they had to be mailed! Then she mentioned to me that she hadn't ordered any. Yipes! That meant we (I say we), had to make them ourselves.

Actually, this turned out very good. I already had some linen card stock and matching envelopes. Now I needed a design and the proper wording for the inside. I hunted around the internet and found a simple design for the front that my printer could handle. Her college website offered official logos that could be downloaded at no charge.


I found various styles of wording for college invitations, and chose the one I liked best. Then I had to make sure exactly how her degree was worded, where the ceremony would take place and when. Once I had the wording in place, I decided it needed a little something extra. I used a black graphic of a running horse and put it behind the wording. It was opaque enough to see, but faint enough to easily read. It looked great!

We had a good picture of her with one of her saddles in the background on a hitching post, so we decided to use it. In my photo program I turned the picture into a black and white, then copied it onto velum. We applied the picture inside the invitations with double-sided tape; after all the printing had been done.

Her college invitations were absolutely perfect for her! Doing the invitations ourselves meant we could customize them just for her. And my unfussy girl(?) was delighted with them.

It wasn't a difficult project, but I would suggest giving yourself more than three days to do it.