Today's project is another Christmas present.  I actually made 3 of these for 3 of my 6 nieces.  But I'd have to say Ellie (pictured above), fell in love with this little frock the most!  It's kinda right up her alley.  It's a tshirt dress.  A dress made mostly from recycled tshirts:) (mine).  This is on Christmas day soon after she opened it.  She tried it on with jeans too and it was adorable.  But paired with some cute little boots, the tights work too.

This is the one I made for little Hannah.  I didn't get a picture of her in it though.

Maybe Josie wasn't too sure if she liked it... JK.  I'd love to take credit for this, but I didn't come up with this idea on my own.  I found it on Cheri's blog, here.  Check it out to get the full tutorial on how to make these cute little dresses.  Too bad I'm the only girl in my house:) Really, it was super easy and it helped me stay within budget for buying Christmas gifts.  Hope you like!

So, you may be getting sick of freezer paper stenciling, but what can I say... thats what I did on a lot of my clothing Christmas presents.  If you don't know what it is, read this post. One of my nieces is a little tomboy and she loves John Deere.  I bought the plain green shirt at Hobby Lobby for maybe $3.  I used the freezer paper stenciling for the logo and words on this shirt.  For the hearts, I used little foam stamps that I bought in a pack at Hobby Lobby for a couple dollars (you'll see some more of those in next Friday's Project Post) just to give it a tiny bit of femininity.  Anyway, I just painted on the stamps with a little fabric brush and stamped the shirt.  It was okay with me if the green was still peeking through.  I think that gives the shirt a more vintage look.

And this is the sweatshirt I made for my mom.  She asked me to make her one with all her grandkids names (she didn't have one that included sweet little Baron yet), so this is it. I bought a plain gray sweatshirt and looked at a few Grandmother shirts and liked this one.  Austin is anti-peace sign for whatever reason.  He calls me a hippie, but peace signs are "in" right now, so I made her this one that I thought was cute.

I freezer paper stenciled everything except for the kids names.  For those, I just used a fabric marker.  Here's a closer look.

Let me know if you try the freezer paper stenciling and how you like it.  See ya!

Well, I decided I'd continue with the Project Friday postings; so, hopefully, every Friday, I'll be posting pictures and how-to's for some kind of project I've been working on.  Above is the shirt I made and gave to my brother-in-law for Christmas.  Under DADD it reads Dads Against Daughters Dating.  As a father of 3 girls, this suited him well;)

They always have plain colored men's tees at old navy.  And you can usually find them on sale if you're patient.  I bought this grey one for $5.  I saw this shirt before and thought it was too cute for dads of all girls, so decided to make it myself.  It was super simple. I found the font I wanted to use on Word (not exactly like MADD's but similar), then printed DADD and Dads Against Daughters Dating in the size I wanted.  Then I used the freezer paper technique to paint it on.  I've done this before.  It works great if you don't need perfection!  Just put Reynolds freezer paper down over the image that's printed on regular printer paper (shiny side down), cut the image (or letters) out with an exacto knife.  Iron the stencil onto the shirt and use fabric paint to paint it on.  I used a foam brush but you can also use a fabric brush.  It usually takes a couple coats.   Once dry, heat set it by laying a cloth down over it and ironing.  All done!  Here's a closer look....

I think Dan liked it.  If not, he faked it well:)  Anyway, I'll be sharing some more Christmas presents I worked on in the coming weeks, and then hopefully some house projects.

A couple other things I'm thinking about...one more consistent weekly blog posting.  The past few months since I started posting more than just pictures has been fun for me.  It seems to be a sort of creative outlet that I've been missing since I gave up my paying job.  I like sharing my experiences with you.  And I enjoy seeing fresh new ideas or maybe old ideas through a new light when I read other blogs.  My goal is to do the same for anyone who reads mine;)  Soooooo, stay tuned for what I think may be called More than Mediocre Mondays where I'll share about something, someone, or anything that I think is more than mediocre!  

The other thing I've been thinking about...running a half marathon.  Thanks Marissa for planting the seed in my head.  It keeps nagging me now.  It's only 7 1/2 weeks away and I'm more out of shape than I've ever been.  I started running this week to try and measure just how far behind I am.  Let's just say, I'm pretty behind.  I haven't decided if I think I can be ready by then yet.  I'll keep you posted;)  Stay tuned...

  I finally got to use the circular saw I bought on black Friday.  I'd been wanting one for awhile and tools rarely go on sale, so I took advantage of Sears great sale price!  I bought lumber for the first time on my own at Lowes and cut all the wood.  Austin helped me assemble everything, then I painted and filled it up.  For the how-to on this, I used Ana White's design plans which you can find here.

It holds all your gift wrapping needs; scissors, tape, ribbon, name tags, and, obviously, even the wrapping paper.  I used a couple different pegboard hooks to hang these items, but you could do it however you wanted!  This is the gift I took to the girls party.  I have supplies to build one for myself though, too.  Here's one last look.

This wasn't too terribly difficult to make.  Austin did have to help me hold and screw it together though.  I couldn't do that by myself.  Then I primed and painted it.  (again, go to ana white's website for the how-to on this project).  Hope you like it.  Happy building!