Happy Memorial Day 2011!

I hope you are enjoying this beautiful day!  We started our Memorial Day out the way we have the past several years, marching in our local parade with our church.  I thought I'd share a few pictures.

Fun hair flowers I made for the girls and I:

Last year I made these as dresses for the girls, they were tunics this year!  JuneBug is closing in on 5 feet tall at 9, next year it might be a belly shirt on her.

Here comes our crew!

My girls took turns carrying the crosses and the banner

We are always one of the last groups since everyone wants to take a shot at making a basket.  Here's IronFish giving O-man a little boost.  He is a huge basketball fan, he's even been known to sleep with a few basketballs in his bed!

Thanks to all who have served our country, past, present and future.  God Bless America!

Now it's pool time, baby!
Peace be with you,

Patriotic Wreath

I'm still in the start of summer mode.  My spring wreath needed to come down and replaced with something more fitting for the season.  Hmmm, something tells me I have a few million yards of ribbon just waiting to be used...

Gather your supplies:
A few miles of ribbon, scissors, lighter or candle, wreath form or refrigerator conduit, duct tape

Wait, doesn't everyone have packages of refrigerator conduit laying around?  Be creative folks, unless you have a wreath form laying around.

IF you are using some sort of wire or, like me, refrigerator conduit, use the appropriate tool to cut it, such as a pipe cutter, don't use your good scissors (or they will become your crappy scissors pretty quickly).

Use some duct tape to form your wire/pipe into a circle, I like to then cover the whole thing with duct tape... it's just so much fun to use!

I cut my ribbons 6-8 inches long, you may need to go longer if your wreath is thicker than mine.  Just cut tons.  Then cut a few tons more...

Once you have lots of ribbon cut, seal the edges by touching them to a flame quickly, I have decided a lit candle is the easiest way for me to do this.

Start knotting your ribbons on.  Yes, I'm a little Type-A and have to try to balance out the placement of my ribbons, trying not to get too much of the same too close.

Then cover the whole thing in ribbons, squish them together and squeeze some more in there.

Hang up and enjoy your 3-day weekend!

There you have it, super easy, super cute and super stashbusting!

Peace be with you,

PS - I'll be linking up to several of these parties, stop by and party with me!

WIMTWW: Side Stripe Shirt

If you are stopping by from Creating My Way to Success, Welcome!

Every Memorial Day our family marches in our town's Memorial Day Parade.  Since you can't march in a Memorial Day Parade in green, this tutorial came in handy.  Now my shirt coordinates with the tunics I made for the girls!

So simple and really should be done again... soon.

Peace be with you,

PS - I'll be linking up to several of these parties!

Memorial Trees

Thankfully the weather man was wrong today, it was beautiful!  But alas, my back is bothering me, so I laid low today.  O-man has been patiently watching the workers get the pool by my house ready and it occurred to me that this weekend is Memorial Day... which means that pool will be open this weekend!

With Memorial Day approaching, I decided to spruce up my "mantel" with a more summer-y theme.  We don't have a fire place, but we do have a TV cabinet in our living room with a nice big surface on the top so this acts as my mantel.  I've taken to changing it out periodically and since blogging, by season and holiday!

Many of my various holiday decorations are stored right inside my couch in the living room itself, so I pulled out a few of the trees I made for Valentine's Day, red and white.  Now we just needed blue.  In March when I made St. Patty's Day decor, I picked up some of the blue clothes line from the dollar store.  Glad I remembered today that I'd thought ahead! 

Now my "mantel" is sporting the right colors for the first half of the summer... I'll have to think of some new trees for after the 4th of July!

Peace be with you,