.:Market Yourself Monday:.

Whew!

Better late than never, right? 

This weekend was just really, super, insanely busy (with great things!) and we've been on the go non-stop. Throw in a fussy teething baby (who also lost a match against the stairs today) and it's made for some craziness around these parts. 

But no more blabbing. Let's get to the good stuff.

The most viewed link last week was:

What I Wish I Had Known Before Joining Pinterest

Now let's get to partying, shall we? I'm reeeaaallly hoping to start back up Showcase Saturday this week, but my mom is coming to visit this week, so no promises. There will be lots of sewing, Diet Coke drinking, laughing, talking, and playing, so it might not happen. (Love my mom!)

Happy Linking!

.:Tutorial Tuesday - Checkered Shower Curtain:.

As you know, we moved into our new house recently. We are absolutely loving having all of the space for our kids and all of our stuff! You know, a two bedroom townhome doesn't really work for five people. I'm just sayin'.

We are loving our new house, and the green stucco really sets us apart in our neighborhood. The one thing we wish we could change is our garage door. We really wanted a black garage door, but the garage door company didn't offer anything in black. Really? Forest green but not black, eh? 

Luckily there is a site called Garaga, who specializes in all types of residential and commercial garage doors. I've been doing a little looking around and did find a black garage door! I'm going to keep this in mind for the future when we are able to do some upgrades on our house. 

Even though doing outside upgrades and changes can be a bit expensive, there are ways to upgrade the inside of your home and today I'm going to share one thing that I made to change up our master bathroom.

Are you ready to make your own checkered shower curtain?

I promise it’s easy, and it’s fun to create something custom for your home!

All you need are two different fabrics and your sewing machine and you’re ready to go!

I based this shower curtain off of a standard curtain at 72”x72”. I wanted three blocks down and three blocks across. Again, I made a highly mathematic sketch detailing how to divide the checkers into equal parts.

To account for seams, I cut each block to 25”x25”, which will give me nice blocks around 24”x24” like I want once the shower curtain is finished. As my notes say above, you need to cut 5 of fabric ‘x’ and 4 of fabric ‘o’.

Lay out your fabric to see what your pattern is going to look like.

Take each row – vertically or horizontally (I obviously chose vertically) – and sew the blocks together, finishing your edges. Iron your seams down.

Do this for your remaining two rows. Then attach those rows together, again finishing your edges and ironing down your seams. Hem the curtain all the way around.

Now it’s time to mark where you’re going to make your button holes to put your shower rings through. It’s tough to see, but there are small dots that are my markers. Space them evenly across the top of the curtain.

Sew your buttonholes at each mark.

That’s it!

Now wait a few weeks before you move into your new house to hang it up. Okay, hopefully you won’t actually have to do that.

I love the gray and yellow together; it’s been a favorite combo of mine for a long time. The yellow is just so cheery!

And I’m loving it with my zebra towels from my favorite store, Target.

Are you going to make one? Would you do smaller and more blocks, or do you like the bigger blocks?

.:Market Yourself Monday–Checkered Shower Curtain:.

Happy Sunday!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend.

We spent time with friends, and it is always nice to get together and share some laughs. We also did some work around the house, just more settling in. It’s like pulling teeth to get my husband to help me hang things up, but we’re slowly getting there.

Speaking of my new house, this week I’m sharing one of the projects I did for preparation of moving in: our checkered shower curtain!

Tutorial to come!

Let’s get this party started! The most viewed link from last week was:

PVC Pipe Pumpkin

Get your link on!

.:Review - Undercover Mama:.

I’ve been lucky to be able to breastfeed all three of my girls. Still going with number three in fact! My oldest had a really tough time nursing in general, so we didn’t do a lot of it in public. But my middle and youngest have both been champs, so it’s been easy to do what we need to do, wherever we are!

The only trouble with this has been making sure that I am sitting somewhere that I’m not going to be flashing my back fat for the world to see while I’m all covered up in front nursing my babe.

Undercover Mama to the rescue!

I was able to review a nursing top from Undercover Mama, and I might be a little in love with it. I wish I would have had this for all three of my girls!

Here’s how it works. The tank comes without straps, but has hooks instead so that it can just hook into your nursing bra. Then, when it’s time to nurse, the tank and bra go down together, eliminating the need to pull your shirt up for baby to access the goods.

It’s a little bit genius, right? No flashing back fat, or having to worry about grabby older babies making you flash in the front when they are playing with the nursing cover. (I know I’m not the only one this has happened to).

Now, when we’re nursing at home, I just let it all hang out. My kids are little, and my husband’s seen it all. But let’s be honest. I’m not doing myself any favors, sitting all slouched on the couch, and baring all in the front while the baby nurses. Undercover Mama rescues me again!

Totally awesome. I know.

I chose a tank with the lace detail at the bottom. I love how long this tank is, and love that I get a little extra bit of style flair when I wear it. Those little details are just icing on the cake to an already fantastic product!

Nursing in public has never been easier!

If you have a nursing baby, think you’re going to have a nursing baby soon, or know someone with a nursing baby, you’re going to want to take advantage of this deal. You can get your own Undercover Mama nursing tank for 25% off using the code SWEETSTUFF25! The code is only good from today through September 22nd, so go make your order right now! (Offer is not valid on previous purchases, cannot be combined with any other offers, and only one per customer).

** I was provided with an Undercover Mama tank to review, but the opinions are my own. These things rock.

.:Silhouette Promo–Foil Cake Labels:.

Silhouette is back with another fantastic promotion!

I was super excited to get to try out the printable foil and printable sticker papers. These products went fast last time they were released, and they are just newly back in stock since then. So if you are interested in them, you better snatch them up while you can!

As soon as I saw the foil, I knew the perfect way to use it. My daughter is turning four next week (ahhhh, when did that happen??) and we are having a baking party for her. All of her little friends are going to come over and decorate aprons and cakes. I went to a local grocery store and picked up some legit plastic cake containers, and knew that the foil would be the perfect finishing touch.

Doesn’t it look like it came from a real bakery?

How special are those little kids going to feel taking this home after the party?

And guess what? It was super easy to use. I used this awesome video that really details how to use the cut settings in the Silhouette software, as well as using the registration marks. You just use your printer to print out your design,

and use your CAMEO to cut them out. Peel off the backing and you’ve got yourself a shiny, beautiful label!

I really couldn’t be happier with how these turned out!

Here are some other places you can get see more of how to use the foils and the sticker paper.

Wanna hear the deal now?

This month, Silhouette is offering up:

- CAMEO digital cutting machine

- 1 package printable gold foil

- 1 package printable silver foil

- 1 package printable sticker paper

all for the smoking price of $269.99!

That’s a savings of almost $57!

Already have a CAMEO? No worries, Silhouette still has you covered. Grab the bundle of printable specialty media for only $19.99. Imagine the possibilities!

Use this link and the code SUMO to grab either of these great deals! Take advantage of these deals from now through September 30th!

.:Market Yourself Monday:.

Whew!

We closed on this baby this past Thursday and have spent the last few days moving in and un-packing.

Since we’re busy with that, I’m just going to get the party up for all of you lovely people! I do have a tutorial to share with you this week, but it might have to wait; our internet is not working at our new house, and I’m not sure when we’ll be able to switch service (I’m posting this on sketchy, borrowed internet from a neighbor!)

Hope you all had a great weekend!

.:Tutorial Tuesday - Important Dates Sign:.

Hmmm….who forgets to post Tutorial Tuesday on, well, Tuesday?

Yep, that would be me.

Sorry guys. This whole moving thing has really thrown me off my game this week! My kids are going nutso because most of the toys and movies are packed up, we’ve been eating canned goods out of the pantry because I don’t want to grocery shop right before we move, and let’s just throw in some headaches and backaches in there.

BUT. We close tomorrow, and will be happily moved in and mostly un-packed by the end of the weekend, so things should start to get back to normal a little bit around here.

Anyway, this  tutorial isn’t really much of a tutorial; it’s quite simple if you know your way around with a digital cutter, but I’m giving it to you anyway!

Here’s what you need:

- empty frame (I recycled an old one, score!)

- vinyl (I went with mint and gray)

- digital cutter (CAMEO baby!)

- a good memory (hey, sometimes remembering dates can be hard, I understand)

Start off by deciding what dates you want to include. I might have included my husband and my birthdays, but that would have made my fonts be too small given the size of the frame. So I just did the day we were married, and our girls’ birthdays; all the days our lives keep changing for the better. Play around with fonts and spacing. Here’s what I ended up with.

Now it’s time to get cutting. Since I’m using two colors, I needed to move off all of one type of font. Then I cut it.

Now move the other font back in.

\

And move the other font back out. Cut.

Now that your vinyl is cut, peel off the negative space, and use your transfer tape to pick up one of your vinyl cut outs.

If you are super amazing, you should then be able to lay that over your other cut of vinyl and have your spacing be just right. I, however, am not amazing and totally biffed it up so I had to do it the slow and annoying way. But it still looks pretty, right?

I clearly had some spacing issues, so some sort of flourish will be going on the bottom there. But that has to wait since my vinyl is all packed up somewhere in the mess of our garage.

What dates would you put on your sign?

.:Reivew–DownEast Home & Clothing:.

Raise your hand if you love DownEast.

I’m just going to assume that you are raising your hand, because really, how could you not love DownEast?

I practically jumped off my couch and did a little jig when I got an email asking if I’d like to do a review for DownEast. There’s really only one answer to that sort of question: OF COURSE!

So of course, I loaded up my three little ladies and we headed out to do some shopping one morning.

We walked in the store, and since we have been in the process of building a house, I was immediately drawn to the home section. The first thing I saw was this table. I pretty much love everything about it. The white chairs, the black legs, the decorations on top. It would look super pretty in my new house. Just sayin’.

A few more steps and I started drooling over this hutch. I don’t really own any nice dishes, but if I had this hutch, I’m pretty sure I would need to invest in some. This hutch just deserves something nice in it.

I know I already shared a table, but I also really loved this one. I love the different directions of wood on the table top, and the different colors of chairs.

We wandered through the bed section, and we found this adorable toddler bed and hutch. I know the house of three cute girls that would love to own these!

DownEast also sells backpacks! I had no idea. I love this black and white one!

Another thing DownEast sells that I did not know about? Costumes! If I didn’t have costumes already planned out for my girls, I really might have bought this. We are popcorn lovers in our home and this would go perfectly for my popcorn eating gals!

After spending some time browsing the home section, we found our way into the clothing section. It was a feast for the eyes! I love this skirt, especially if I had different hips.

This dress has been on my want list for a loooooong time!

I love this shirt with the cute belt.

And we can’t leave out the accessories! I always love the jewelry at DownEast.

Another great thing about DownEast? They have a dressing room big enough to fit me, my stroller, and three crazy kiddos! I tried on this sequin chevron shirt first. Sparkly and chevron? Um, yes please!

And I pretty much loved this slouchy gray shirt. Perfect for dressing up or down!

Then I tried on the cute dress. (Do you like how my kids are getting progressively more wild looking in the pictures?)

Want to see what made it home with me?

Continuum Top

I really love it. And so do my kids, we are all about the sparkle around these parts!

I also grabbed this baby:

Backroads Top

Don’t judge my hair. We’d been running errands all day. With our kids.

But the shirt is still cute, and I sure felt stylish while doing so.

Bottom line: DownEast has a lot to offer, whether you are shopping for you, your kids, or your home. Head on in to DownEast to snag up some of their new items. Here are a few I’m loving right now!

Days of the Week Top

Westward Top

Tri-City Hoodie

Circulation Desk Cardi

Staggered Style Skirt

Intersection Dress

Head on in to DownEast and treat yourself to something new. I’m sure you deserve it!

**Disclosure: I was provided with a gift card to purchase items to review, but my opinion of DownEast is all my own. I love this store and would take one of each of everything!