Upcycled Creations

I love changing old clothes into something new especially for the kids and especially when it costs nothing! My husband had gotten a bag full of nice golf shirts unfortunately they were much bigger than I would ever want my husband to be. So they were going in a bag for Goodwill but I hoarded a few and have been holding on to them for a while with a couple pairs of ruffled leggings in mind for my girls. So when better than a rainy day to create.

First you need large shirts.

Those stripes on the left will make you dizzy by the time your done. Remember to match your stripes or at least bigger stripes the pants on the right are a little wonky.

Next you need a pair of leggings to use as a pattern.


Save the bottom strip of the shirt for the ruffles this way there is no hemming involved.


Don't they look sweet and comfy:

Things that torment me!

Its that time of year again for spaghetti straps and skirts, sidewalk chalk and sunshine.

And apparently snow boots in sub-tropical climates.

Lots of things on my brain

I have so many things I want to write about that I just give up and write nothing because it is just to much. I would love to write about school, plans for the summer, curriculum choices for next year. I would also love to write about all my crafting but when I busily crafting I forget to take pictures and what good is talking about craftiness without pictures. I was starting to get inspired to write about my sugar crafting I even remembered to take pictures and then my first wedding cake in over a year the one that meant more for me to make than anyone I have made before it crumbled in a clash with Florida weather and all the inspiration crumbled with it. I need to write because it is getting crowded and I need to leave somethings on the page, but I am finding it hard to just be long enough to write.

A rough start

We have been homeschooling for half a school year thus far. To be real the first half sucked. I feel like I am crawling out of the ick of it all. We decided on a whim, we hoped would help, to turn our house upside down to create a better space to school to fix a few logistical problems with our classroom. It put our schoolroom in the center of our home (our former living room)which means I can't fill it up with crap I don't want to deal with and then use it as excuse to not face schooling that day. Our playroom/office became a family room and the small dining room where we were schooling is now the playroom. After a month I love the new setup and I think the kids do to. We used this opportunity to setup the workbox system so it was functional for the older two, it is working out great. I am running out of "fun" ideas for the boxes but really like that we are getting through our day by 12:00 and that kids know what to expect.

Here are the pictures
These are the kids desks, I got small laptop desks from IKEA along with some organizing containers. They each have a clock (we are working on time alot lately) and a dry erase board via dry erase contact paper. The shelf in the middle is for workboxes I used IKEA magazine boxes and Cordelia uses a binder with a few of her "boxes".


This is the other side of the room we have our dining room table where we will eventually start eating at again. A giant dresser for all my junk I mean craft supplies. My desk and rocking chair which I hope to turn into a reading area. I also had to move my little one and her desk because she was being disruptive but she is very happy with the change and gets some extra special attention from "teacher" being so close.

10 Months Old

My little pied Piper turned 10 months old just days ago. She looks more excited than I am that she is closing in on one year of age.



This photo is currently the only photographic evidence of the perfectly Piperiffic nose scrunch present in any emotion that she expresses. Happy, tired, sad, pissed, hungry, trying to get attention, etc.

Weighing in at a mere 14lbs 7oz she is a tiny ball of energy, crawling, cruising furniture, screaming shrill high pitch squeals of both joy and anger for hours on end.

She can polish of bowl after bowl of baby food until she literally explodes or loses all mobility because of her giant full belly, she does not have an off switch or volume control for that matter.

She says Mama and Bubba which makes her Bubba very happy. She calls for Troy with a sound that resembles a gorilla trying to get your attention "uh" "uh".

She is piperly perfect in every way. And yes I use her name in place of many words because really everything she does is just so very Piper that they should be renamed when talking about her.

I am glad I didn't miss it.

She learned to swing herself and if that wasn't spectacular enough she leaned her head all the way back mid swing "to fly" she reminds me of how wonderful the simplest things can be. I still call her baby, but she is getting so big.

Something Yummy!!!

I found this recipe a while back and with an over abundance of black beans we decided to try it out. It rocked my socks off! I have eaten a lot of veggie burgers tried in vain to like them no dice, but this glorious mound of beans and rice was spectacular. A must try and let me just say it can be mixed any which way with different seasonings and still rock. We tried it with the addition of chili powder, red bell pepper & green chilies served on a tortilla for our meatless taco night. It tastes so good the kids didn't know the difference their only complaint was that it was too spicy (weak).