How We Wear It - Sneakers

You might think I’m going through a blog identity crisis.  Fashion?  DIY?  Momhood?  Make up your mind woman!  Well, I assure you, I’m not.  My heart lies in DIY and while I’m not wrangling two monkeys (taking more and more of my time these days), I’m deep into painting, crafting, and dreaming up the next project.

This ain’t no fashion blog even though I love me some fashion.  Occasionally/regularly my DIY intermingles with fashion of the alteration type and finds it’s home here on Bean In Love.  I’m all for dabbling in all aspects of DIY.  :)

With that said, I’m taking another step down Fashion Lane  and linking up with Life in Mod and Ain’t No Mom Jeans for their “How We Wore It” partay.  This month’s item is sneakers.  Not my most glorious wardrobe accessory considering the only pair ‘o sneaks I’ve got are a pair of platform, backless whities I’ve had since high school that, after seeing them on my person via the following pictures, are going straight to another loving home via Goodwill asap. 

picstitch 
[Anthony asked me why my foot is cocked like so giving the impression that I’ve got a club foot.  I gave a shrug of the shoulder and kept typing away…]

White:  Gabriel Brothers
Aqua:  Target
Cobalt:  Target
Club feet:  I don’t even remember…

I’m pretty sure there’s a rule that states that “the toe of one’s shoe should never be wider than one's calf muscle” and either my slim calves are going to have to start pumping some iron or these shoes are bidding good riddance.  As much as I wish I had some nice curvy legs, I’ll take the latter. 

Me and my sneaks, signing off.  :)

Easiest Sunburst Mirror Eva

For months and months and months now, I’ve seen this round iron piece at local treasure trove called Old Time Pottery and have always thought it’d make a cool sunburst mirror.  But, I’ve never been motivated enough to dish out $16 for it.  Well, the two and I made a pit stop to OTP last week and here it was in the clearance aisle for $9.  I couldn’t resist so I swiped it up and away we went.

Here it was:sunburst 001

Here it is now:   sunburst 007

All I did was spray prime it, spray paint it (went safe with white), and glue a six-inch mirror I picked up at Hobby Lobby ($2 with 40% off coupon) onto it with some craft glue.
 sunburst 002

I thought I had more in-process pictures but I can’t find them which is totally okay because it’s so easy you don’t even need them, right?  All you have to do is find any sort of round iron-work decor and glue a mirror onto it for an instant sunburst mirror and that’s that.
 
sunburst 006

It fills up this space a lot better than the little mirror did before:dec12011 011

However, it doesn’t stand out against the blue walls as much as I would like so, being that I smell a bedroom mini-makeover in the future, it will probably be painted another color – gold?  a citrony-green?  gray?  Follow along and you can be sure to find out!

sunburst 010

Have a great weekend!

Sweater to Cardigan: Round 2*

*Also known today as What I Wore Sunday.  Linking up with Fine Linen and Purple for their weekly fun.

Saturday I wrote about one sweater turned cardi and today it’s on to number two:

thrifted bandw

Here’s how it clothed me for Mass yesterday:
pattcardi 007 
[Where’s Waldo Cecilia?]

This one was a little easier to convert since it was already my fave cut – a v-neck.  All I had to do was cut down the middle,
 pattcardi 001

sew a zig-zag stitch for extra fraying protection,
 pattcardi 002

fold each edge over twice and pin,
pattcardi 003

and sew a straight stitch along the inside edge.pattcardi 004

It took me all of 10 minutes to get a jazzy new cardigan that’s now bumped up to favorite.  Anyone else into clothing conversions?  My fave is Grace’s skirt from skorts.  Talent, pure talent.

I won’t sign off before giving a glimpse of the twins' garb.  Mommy invoked their true southern sides with a little crab action, courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa.photo (2) 
[Playing monkey to crack a smile.  Half are amused.  Half think I’m nuts.]

Have a great week!

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P.S.  I’m still waiting to hear all about your kids and their big personalities!  Link ‘em up!  I’m giving full permission for bragging…and venting.  I know Lauren and I aren’t the only over-worked proud moms (& dads) out there!  :)

Sweater to Cardigan: Round I

It’s Saturday night, 9:41, and I’m just now rolling in with the regular weekend excitement.  I would’ve been posted this morn but I traded blogging for catching up on Downton Abbey (I’m only finishing Season 2 so you daren’t spoil it for me).  I’m obsessed and because of it, the rest of this post will be written with an English accent.  :)

I spent a small tidbit of alone time at a thrift store recently where I found this sweater for $3:
sweatocard1
[at ease soldier]

I’ve been craving some patterned cardigans recently and so I thought this sweater would make a great one with a few snips and stitches.  Here it is post-scissors:
stripedcardi 010
[apparently blurry, blinded, and wrinkled are in]

Worst ‘after’ picture ever.  I’m really awful at getting my picture taken when we’re talking modeling the clothes I’ve altered.  I’m all sorts of awkward and feel really self-centered and all that and I don’t know how to stand and and and…  Like I said, all sorts of awkward.  I guess I’ll get over it someday…maybe.

So, sweater to cardigan.  First, I turned the sweater inside-out, making sure it was nice and flat.   stripedcardi 001
Probably a highly unnecessary picture but just in case you’re in the mood for TMI.

Then I used a measuring tape to find the vertical midline and used a piece of wood.  (Don’t judge.  We have nary a yardstick.)
stripedcardi 002

…to draw a line down the center.
stripedcardi 003 

I cut down the line to give me a new cardigan with a funky collar…
stripedcardi 004

and thought maybe I’d stop there and start a new trend, the buttons were super cool anyway, right?  Sadly for me, I’m not the trend-setting type so off went the collar. stripedcardi 005

My loyalty lies in v-necks over crews so next I drew a large V (about 10 inches deep) and cut it out.stripedcardi 006

I’ve never sewn anything sweater-ish before so my amateur skills convinced me to quickly sew a zig-zag stitch along each cut end to prevent any fraying. stripedcardi 007

Then, I folded each edge over twice and sewed a straight stitch hem except for around the collar.  I cut off the sweater neck keeping it’s hem so all I had to do there was fold the collar edge over once and hem it.
stripedcardi 008

Last, I trimmed several inches off of each sleeve and hemmed their edges the same way, zig-zag, folding twice, and a straight stitch.

I might add some hook and loop closures just in case I want to close my new cardi, which probably won’t happen.  I like ‘em dangling open.  Some wood buttons might suit it as well.  I’ll be sure to give a button down if I decide to decorate more.  But, if that day never comes, I’ve got one more sweater-turned-cardi in my stash so stay tuned for more snipping and by golly, have a pleasant weekend!  :)

Happy Birthday Daddy!

It would be a big 5-5 for my dad this year!  He passed away suddenly when I was a junior in college and how I miss him so.  Even though he’s not physically here to celebrate another year, we’re over here celebrating him and all of the great memories he gave us.  I’m so sad the girls will never know their incredible Grandpa (in this life anyway), but I can’t wait to tell them stories of trampoline bouncing, boat driving, and even pass on his corny jokes and puns.  While we were “home” for Easter, we took the twins to see his grave and it was so special.  We were so close yet so far away.  Engraved in the marble of his headstone it says “Our hearts beat because yours beat first”.  Such a simple statement but so profound.  It’s true of my siblings and I and it’s true of my girls and I love that fact. 

9mo 017

Love you Daddy!  :)

Bean Sprouts: 9 Months (& a Link-up)

It’s getting real folks – they’ve now spent more time outside the womb than they did inside.  Nine whole months.  That’s three months away from one year, in case you didn’t do the math.  Crazy.

9mo 020
[heavy cheeks make for a nice perma-frown]

Both girls are masters in the army crawl and thisclose to crawling which makes me thisssclose to making me want to pull my hair out every minute.  I’m coming to terms with the fact that there are 785 things in our house that are going to have to be stored away or padded or locked up for more mature ages lest they provide harmful circumstances involving two overly curious tots and also hampering my decor dreams…ugh.

  9mo 024
[blurry hand going in for the ear]

We’re still going strong catching waste in cloth diapers, breast feeding, and making our own baby food (courtesy of the Baby Brezza – the thing is all kinds of wonderful).  I know it all sounds very over-achieverish but I assure you, it’s not.  If we weren’t saving literally hundreds of dollars doing each, I’m not sure the first statement would be true…

9mo 027
[vogue]

We’ve had several nights of eight plus hours of sleep which has been no less than amazing.  I’m pretty sure I can thank solid food for that.  Both girls are still skilled in synchronized napping – the one thing I’m adamant about – and saw logs twice a day.  Everyone wonders how I pump out projects while raising twins, well, that’s how.  They’re fluent in “da-da” and Seraphia just started gibbering “ba-ba” which makes scratch my head since I’m the only “ba-ba” she’s had the fortune of drinking from…

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<<< Cecilia >>>
9mo 028stats

Still a big eater.  You know how they say to watch your baby’s signs when it comes to figuring out how much they’ll eat?  She screams exception.  She’ll eat it if it’s in her face, no stopping until it’s up and back out.  She still gets reeeally impatient and growls to show it when it’s not her turn for a spoonful of food.  Still no teeth.  Still the chunkier of the two (even though the margin is slimming).   Still spitting up like it’s her job (will I ever not be a living burp cloth?).  Still chillin’ like a villian.

9mo 018

Her hair in back is still a wee bit longer than that on top so I’m still a wee bit scared of dealing with a future mullet.  It’s starting to get an inherited wave in it too which could either bode good or bad for said mullet.  I have my scissors ready for any necessary adjustments.

<<< Seraphia >>>
9mo 022stats

Eater?  Only if it’s real smooth-like and a little sweet.  I purposely started veggies first hoping to ward off any picky-eaterisms but it obviously didn’t work with this one.  She’s a slow eater too.  Every meal is a dinner party to her – take a bite, socialize, take in surroundings, take another bite, socialize, etc…  It’s a little frustrating since I have to make sure she’s down with her food before Cecilia lest Cecilia throw a fit that the spoon isn’t coming in her direction. 

She’s still a little skinny-mini.  Her height, weight, and head-size rival that of her little sis’, but she’s super narrow from the neck down.  Her hairstyle screams “I’m  a boy”, making it mandatory that she don a headband in public.  She’s a mommy’s girl 100% and not fond of strangers.  We just found out she has torticollis – a slight tilt of the head due to one neck muscle being tighter than the other due to limited space in the womb due to Cecilia sprawling out in their uterine apartment.  (And we just thought she was always deep in thought…huh.)  A few stretches every day and she’ll hopefully be on the straight and narrow asap.

     9mo 003

9mo 012

 9mo 014 


Anyway, I’m sorry if these monthly posts are cringe-worthy and “hey, look at my kids”.  I love keeping track of how they grow and it’s especially helpful when keeping distant family up-to-date.  But, I know I don’t have the only cute kids out there so that’s why I’m going out on a limb here and hosting my first ever link-up!  What are your kids like?  What are their quirks?  What did they inherit from you and what did they definitely not inherit from you?  What makes you swoon over them and what makes you want to post them on Craigslist?  I want to know personalities…they all have them!  Write and link because I can’t wait to read.  If you don’t have a blog, leave a rambling comment below or on Bean In Love’s Facebook page!  Or, if you don’t have kids yet, write about what you’re hoping they’ll inherit from you OR just humor us moms and write about how glorious it is to be able to be spontaneous and how you’re lucky enough to wear shirts more than once before they get tossed in the dirty pile or about how good margaritas taste or how awesome your two-door sporty is……………

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I’m off to get the diy ball rolling again with a frame collage I’ve got laid out on the guestroom floor and a diy sunburst mirror in the works.  My hands are itchin’ to hold a spray paint can again so I’m thinking today might be the day for that.  Keep on the look-out for a post about my sweaters-to-cardigans Saturday, assuming I see through this almost-crawling-and-getting-into-everything stage to the end of the week…

P.S.  Guess who just got a smartphone?!  Meee!  Instagram is about to get a little more busy.  :)


Crossing My ‘T’s and Dotting My Shirts

Tan looks awful on me.  It’s a smidge darker than my skin tone and a smidge lighter than my hair and when you put those three shades together on little ‘ole me, it’s a whole lot of blah.  With that said, I really have no clue what I was thinking when I plucked this shirt from my sister’s Goodwill pile several years ago:
dotted 001 
I mean, it’s cute but the color is all wrong.  Of course I could always dye it but that actually never crossed my mind until three seconds before I typed this sentence.  All’s well though because it became the perfect medium for a project I’ve been itching to try.  Here’s what went down:

First, I laid a couple of sheets of wax paper inside my shirt like so:
dotted 003dotted 004 

Then, I threw fabric medium (70 some cents at Michaels) and leftover paint together (1 part medium to 2 parts paint) in a little medicine cup I use especially for painting,
dotted 005

pulled out a cotton swab and dipped,
dotted 008

randomly dotted,
dotted 010

and let dry, repeating the same process on the back of the shirt.  The directions on the fabric medium say to heat set it with an iron when you’re done but I took the lazy road and threw the top in the dryer for a few minutes, calling it a done deal.

 dotty

A new shirt for a few cents…just the way I like it.  Even though it’s still a lot of tan, I feel like the polka dots break up all that brown…or maybe it’s just all in my head.  Either way, I love how it turned out and how easy it was to create.  I’ve used latex paint minus the fabric medium to stencil pillows before and they’ve held up really well, even after repeated washings, so I’m not sure what the benefit of adding the medium is (can somebody enlighten me?), but apparently it’s the proper way to paint fabric.  I’m envisioning some more potential paint-meets-fabric-medium victims in my closet as I type – maybe an aztec design?  Stripes?  Words?  Whatever it is, you’ll be the first to know about it as usual.  :)

Anyone else painted with fabric medium?  Do tell.  I’m on a roll with this stuff and need some more ideas.  Nothing in my house is safe, nothing.   

Made by Alicia

Traveling and teething and increasingly mobile childrens and lots of other bad excuses have kept me from some projects I’ve been dying to tackle like three frame collages that need to go up on three different walls, an upholstered headboard, turning our new/thrifted coffee table into an ottoman, and lots more ideas waiting to be born.  I’m a pretty patient person except when it comes to matters of decorating and doing-it-myself.  I have a “need to make it happen now” attitude that is only hampered by the fact that harried runs to Lowe’s and other diy palaces is close to impossible with twins always at my side.  Hmmph, the life of a mother…absolutely, without-a-doubt wonderful and very, very good at teaching patience.  :) 

To make up for my lack, look what my sister-in-law Alicia and her hubs did to their dining chairs:saachairsb

saachairsa

Don’t they look incredible?  They reupholstered them just like we did our dining chairs awhile back.  Remove the seats, remove the old fabric, cut and staple on the new, put the seats back on and, BAM, your dining room gets all funky-cool just like that.  When she sent over the pictures, they were just enough to satisfy my diy-deprived heart until I can get a free naptime to do and do and do some more.

Speaking of naptimes, we’re in the midst of one right this moment which means that I probably should be taming my mane and finding something to wear for the Matt Maher, Chris August, and Bellarive concert we’re rockin’ to tonight!  With Lightning McQueen ear plugs in each canal (courtesy of Lauren), it’ll be the twins first-ever concert!  I’m pumped and the twins are too…I think.  I hope your night is as great as mine even though, if you’re not going to the concert, chances are it won’t be.  Juuust teasing.  Or not…  :)

Hope to see you tomorrow!  I’ll be the one in the polka-dotted shirt!  :) 

Three Ways to an Infinity Scarf

I love scarves, especially infinity scarves.  They’re my accessory of choice over necklaces any day.  That’s why I figured out how to turn just about every scarf I own into an infinity, whether it’s a plain, oblong scarf, tasseled, or a simple square.  Here’s how: 

oblongtoinfinity

For this one I simply lined up the short edges, pinned them together, infinity 002

and then sewed them together, stitching as close to the edge as I possibly could. infinity 005

Easy peasy.
 infinity 006

No sewing machine?  You could easily hand-sew the edges together or even use some heat ‘n bond tape depending on the fabric your scarf is made out of.
 infinity 010

 

tasseltoinfinity

With a tasseled scarf, all you have to do is tie the tassels on each end together.  If there are lots of tassels, you can get away with tying every other or every third one or even grabbing a few from each end and tying them all together all along the edge.  I tied the tassels on this scarf in bows in case I ever want to ‘un-infinity’ it…which will probably never happen.

infinityscarves2 005

 

squaretoinfinity

My mom bought me a few square scarves last year and I didn’t know how to wear them until I figured out this little trick – fold the square into a triangle and then tie each end of the long side together.  Throw it over your head and wrap it around twice or three times and it’s “to infinity and beyond”.  Think of how easy it would be to grab a square of a fabric you love at a fabric store, hem the edges, and turn it into an infinity scarf using this tiny tutorial!  Endless options…endless I tell ya…and cheap to boot!

infinityscarves2 003

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Anyone else have any little tricks they’ve used to whip up an infinity scarf?  Anyone else prefer them over necklaces like me or are crazy enough to wear them (light ones albeit) during the hot summer months?