Very Hungry Caterpillar Costume

 I had so much fun making my daughter's No-sew Cup Cake Halloween costume last year that I knew I wanted to make my kids costumes again this year. (And I couldn't have been more excited that this year I got to make 2 costumes for my kid(s) plural! :) When it came to the baby's costume, I knew I wanted something super easy to wear and not fussy at all. Well, awhile back I pinned the perfect option! A Very Hungry Caterpillar, as inspired by Sweet Love Creates, found here. Can you find the "pin-spiration?"

Here was the visual I was working with...

While their set is absolutely perfect, it did not fit my budget for costumes, which I have decided should always stay under $20.00. So, I decided to put my crocheting skills to good use and make my own. It is nowhere near as perfect as theirs, but it should do just fine!

I started by picking out some of my favorite soft yarn from a local fabric store. I chose a heavier blend that I knew would keep the baby warm if Halloween turned into a cooler night.  The turquoise was the closest thing I could find to book image with some color variation. All of the greens were just too solid or too thin of a yarn to give me just what I want. I guess the turquoise is just my creative licensing at work!

Since the baby won't be more than a month old on the occasion, I decided to stick with making just a little hat and sack to put the baby in. The sack is nice and tight, like a swaddling blanket, so hopefully the baby will be nice and cozy! I like how the turquoise yarn created its own color bands around the sack. I didn't have to do a thing to make that happen, and it was fabulous.

I wish I could give a state of the art tutorial on how to crochet, but I am just not that adept with my crocheting skills! You can find all of the basics of the stitch here, a simple tutorial I used to refresh some of my skills too. To make the sack and the hat, I followed similar steps to the ones found in this tutorial as well. To make the sack, just make a really long hat!

 

I'll confess that for the eyes, I just made a long first crochet stitch and hot-glued it into a circle, lime green on the inside and yellow on the outside. For the nose and antennae, I just crocheted a couple of lines and pulled the stitch through the hat to secure them into place.

We were very pleased with the result. I finished the costume in all of two evenings at home, probably under 5 hours all together. The baby will be able to wear his own comfy clothes and we can just wrap him up in his little sack like a warm blanket! The hat will be sure to keep him warm on a cold night too! Now, I just hope when he comes he is standard infant size so it will fit just right. Fingers crossed!

What costumes are you working on this fall? I'd love to see what you have in mind!
Happy Wednesday!

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My Memories Giveaway

We have a great giveaway for you today!  

Are any of you scrapbookers???  Well, I was back in the day when I only had one child.  When I had my second, time and energy went out the window so I stopped.  I do the occassional mini album but there isn't much time for anything else.

We were contacted by My Memories to review their software and host a giveway.  I got the opportunity to try out the software and it is a super fun and easy way to get those scrapbooking pages done digitally. 

I completed this simple page of my daughter's first day of school...  

If you want to hear more about the software and have a chance to win, please click HERE.  

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Decorating With Portraits at Kristen Duke Photography

Have you guys been following along with this great series over at Kristen Duke Photography?

Each day throughout the month of September there is a different blogger sharing how they decorate with portraits in their homes, just check out the calendar below, and I was delighted to share my take on this yesterday.

Did you miss it? Check it out here, along with many other incredible tips.

As always, have a great week!!

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Friday Finds {Pinterest-My Style}

"That's a neat idea.."

"I like that one.."
"Me too!"
"I digg that one."
"I'll tweet that."
"Hmm.. where did I find that website?"
"Gosh..I wish I knew..."

These are all comments that many of us have had made a million times. Now, thanks to the wonderful world of PINTEREST we are all having {endless-gasps} of pinning our finds and sharing our ideas while we log everything!

I'm ecstatic to share with you today a couple of the TASTEMAKERS of Pinterest and I look forward to our Friday Finds as we peruse pinterest.


Sherry from Young House Love has been a favorite of mine for quite sometime; you can check her boards out here.
Some of her fabulous pinning inspirations are what inspires her DIY Board:

The next Tastemaker: Ben Silbermann is a pure pinn-ing genius as well as the Co-founder of Pinterest. He grabs me by the mouse and my heart goes click click click { or is it repin, repin, repin} when I login to his boards? I adore his board Gifts for Girl Friends.

You simply must check him out! Won't you? To do so, simply click here.



Pinning is my new found love and I can't wait to log in daily..I must admit I lie awake at night pinning and repinning.

Check out my personal obsessions here and I'm anxious to start following you as well.
Have a great weekend!

Jessica

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Fall Frame Wreath

Today's guest post comes from Jennifer at Dainty Posies. Enjoy!

Hello, I'm Jennifer and you can visit me over at my very new blog Dainty Posies! I do a lot of "redo" projects that cost very little but look very cute!

I want to thank the ladies of Lemontree Creations for letting me guest post today! Their blog is one of my absolute favorites and I'm so excited to be a small part of it!

Since fall is here I decided to take a stab at my first wreath. I really like square wreaths but wasn't sure I could make one so I decided to go with the nice clean look of a picture frame wreath.

Pretty cute, I think :)

Anywho ...

These are most of the supplies I used



I started out with this beauty I found at the thrift store for $3 and painted it a nice antique white color.

Then I made my rosettes with some fall fabric and set them aside for later.

After the paint dried I turned the frame over and stapled the ribbon across the frame(measuring to make sure it's even because I can't tell what's straight to save my life :)
Then I started on my burlap flags. I just got some light burlap from walmart for really cheap. I cut out the word "fall" on my cricut and used the letters as a stencil. I positioned them over the burlap and put some mod podge and added the glitter (the finer the better) Shake em out and you're done!

Now it was time to glue everything on! I started with the rosettes and then moved on to the flags. Last I glued my little acorns that I found at my craft store for 50 cents. I used a big glob of hot glue to make sure they stay on. I think E6000 would work well too.

And now I'm ready for fall!

Thanks again to the ladies here at Lemon Tree for letting me share my project with you today! I hope you'll visit me over at Dainty Posies for more fun ideas!

And thank you Jennifer for sharing your project with us! Other LTC readers interested in guest posting? Email your submissions to ltc.guestposting@gmail.com.

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Flower Pot Ribbon Tree

The project I have to share with you today is very quick and easy. Recently, while I was at a friend's baby shower they had the cutest table centerpieces. They told me that they had seen them in this cute boutique with a hefty price tag, so they had decided to tackle making them on their own.  It turned out to be such a great idea, I just had to share it with you!

 

This project is so simple I will let the pictures do most of the talking!

Maybe you can use this great idea for your own sweet girl, a gift opportunity, or an upcoming shower!

Happy Wednesday,

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Silhouette Project - Ballerina Shirt

My daughter had a plain white shirt that was older and mainly used to wear under sweaters so I thought it would be fun to spruce it up.  

I started playing around in the Silhouette Studio and found a ballerina silhouette image that I loved.  I had pink heat transfer from Silhouette in the closet waiting to be used for something.

The image came out perfectly even with those little dainty ballerina hands.  I peeled away the extra pink leaving only my image and then ironed it in place on the white shirt.

Next I cut out a rough shape of the skirt from cardstock to use as a pattern.

I used the pattern to cut out several layers of pink tulle that I had in my scrap basket.

I cut a piece of pink ribbon just the size to fit the top of the tulle layers.  I put craft glue on the ribbon and placed my tulle pieces on one by one.

After I layered the tulle pieces, I folded the ribbon over and held it down for a minute.  Now I had a little tutu for the ballerina.  I trimmed up the sides and roughly scalloped the edges of the tutu to give it more life and make it fit better.

To attach the tutu on the shirt, I used three small buttons and pink thread.

Now the ballerina has a "real" tutu.

I wanted the tutu silhouette to still show on the sides a little.  I was so excited about the results!

A plain white tee transformed into a fun pink ballerina shirt...

Can't wait to surprise my daughter with her new ballerina shirt when she gets home from school.  I just know she will love it!  

I'll be partying at these blogs this week.  Won't you join me?

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Pinterest, We Love You

Well friends, I think it's past time that we talk about the new love of ours and yours, Pinterest.

If you have never heard of it before, Pinterest is a virtual "pinboard" where you collect images, and their corresponding links, to items that you love, want to remember, find beautiful and are inspired by.

It is the visual equivalent of a bookmark bar, the virtual equivalent of a cork board full of beautiful pictures. It's fabulous.

Here is a glimpse of my homepage this morning.

Pretty rooms, pretty clothes, pretty food, pretty decorations, just pretty all around. It is nearly impossible to walk away from it and not feel inspired.

It is constantly changing, and constantly updating. You can follow your friends (and blog friends) to see what lovely things they have found. You can go to the main page and see what the people who work for Pinterest are pinning. You can search for different things if there is something in particular you are looking for. You can add pictures from websites to your own pin boards at any time. It's fabulous.

Here at Lemon Tree, we love us some Pinterest, so we're going to be addressing it on a more regular basis.

Here is what you can be expect from us in the near future.

1.) FROM US: The first week of the month will be dedicated ENTIRELY to Pinterest. Each of our posts that week will be a project inspired by a gorgeous Pinterest find. Oooh, how I can't wait for the first of October!!

2.) FROM YOU: The first Thursday of the month we will have a link party dedicated ENTIRELY to your Pinterest inspired projects! Will we still give shout outs to our favorites? Of course! We'll be PINNING them!! It will be a great way to get traffic to your site, with pins of your projects on the LTC ladies' pin boards. :) We'll be spreading the love as best as we can!

3.) WEEKLY: Every Friday Jessica will be doing a "Best of Pinterest" roundup in a specific theme. This girl has a crazy great eye for finding fun things so you'll have to check it out. This will be starting this week.

Can you tell we're excited?! Are you excited?

Come follow us and see what the fuss is about!

Follow Erin here.

Follow Tiffany here.

Follow Patrice here.

Follow Jessica here.

Have a great week!

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