Old to the New Navy

We are back from the Mile High City and let me tell you, traveling with toddlers is no easy undertaking!  We spent two hours on a bus and two and half hours on a plane, both ways.  I won’t go into details on the crazy but let’s just say we’ve sworn off major travel for severalllll months until there’s a little more independence amongst the toddlers in the fam and, therefore, a little more sanity amongst the adults.  ;)

So, moving on…

I’ve been drooling over these K & Elphy sandals for the girls:
 
[image via K & Elphy]

But, at $56 a pair, they’re way out of the park when it comes to our tiny budget.

So, armed with a gift card I’ve had since Christmas, I bought a couple of pairs of these from Old Navy:

[image via Old Navy] 
With a 30% discount code, I got them for about $11 each.  The thing about them though is that, while they’re cute with the fabric flowers, I feel like they’re a little too top heavy and being that the flowers are very notneutral colors, I’d have a hard time pairing them with every outfit I bedeck the girls in.  So, I bought them with the intention to change things up a little. 

And change them I did…


  A little bit different than how they came packaged, right?  Improvisation at it’s finest.  When I can’t have the ones I really want, I get them in a slightly different way. 

I was 90% sure I could take the flowers off the sandals when ordering them since I removed the bows off these shoes last year pretty easily and I was right.  All I had to do was remove the stitches holding the flowers on using a seam ripper.

See the stitches?

The stitching around the outside of the bottom of the felt piece holding the flower on was the same color as the stitching along the faux leather sides of the t-strap (does that make any sense?) so I had to be really careful that what I was ripping was the flower stitching and not the actual stitching holding the shoe together.

One down, one to go:
 
The flowers will make some cute headbands or clips sometime in the future.  :)

After I had both flowers off, I measured the t-strap into six even sections and painted those sections starting with white.  I didn’t paint the very top of the t-strap, where it meets the top strap, for no reason other than just because.  I just stuck to painting inside the stitching on the strap.

When the white was dry, I went in and painted on the black.  I used regular acrylic paint so the paint dried pretty fast and I was able to get both shoes done in about 20 minutes.  Originally I was going to use puff paint so you wouldn’t be able to see the tiny holes left behind from the stitching but the paint filled them in pretty well and I’m really loving the matte finish of the acrylic so we’ll see how it holds up in the long run.  So far, so good!

I love how they turned out!  Anthony isn’t the biggest fan of them but I’m hoping they’ll grow on him.  :) 


(Side note:  Old Navy also has these sandals which, if you painted the front strap, would imitate the K & Elphy’s even more but I wasn’t sure if paint would stick to the patent faux leather so I went with the t-straps instead.)

I took the girls outside in the rain this morning to grab the ‘after’ pictures and caught more than I needed so it’s only makes sense to share them.  I don’t like black and white stripes at all apparently…



My bribe of “I’ll let you hold my umbrella” was a winner and they leapt out the door to do so. 


 

Oh and their scarves!  I debuted them to Instagram a couple of weeks ago but I might as well give the low down here since this is supposedly a DIY blog or something…  I found this long-sleeved tee on clearance (I found it for 70% off in-store but click the link to find it 50% off online!) at Target last month and knew it’d make great infinity scarves for the girls.  I grabbed the biggest size they had.  To get the scarves out of it, I first cut off the top portion by cutting off the bottom of the tee right under each armpit.  Then I cut the big square that gave me down the middle so I had two halves of the bottom of the tee. 


Placing the right sides of fabric together for each piece, I sewed the two cut sides together and that’s it!  You could totally do this with no-sew tape too – see this tutorial.  Since it’s cotton, I didn’t hem the top (the bottom was already hemmed since it was the bottom of the tee) because it won’t fray.



I’m kinda wishing I’d have gotten another for myself!  :)

.           .           .

I hope it’s nicer in your neck of the woods than it is in ours.  Our forecast shows nothing but rain and thunderstorms for the next five days and that just makes this moms cabin fever warning siren go off loud and clear.  The last time I took the kids out in the rain I lost my car keys so I’m going to pretend I learned from that mistake and stay inside the casa…until desperation plays devil’s advocate and I suddenly find myself and the kids wandering those dangerous-to-the-wallet aisles of Target…  ;)

Kisses to you and yours!  :*

Infinite Nursing

That’s kinda what you get when an infinity scarf doubles as a nursing cover, right?  Or maybe I’m just confused with what nursing sometimes feels like.  And maybe those feelings are taking me back to nursing the twins at which time it did seem like I spent infinite amount of time nursing.  And maybe I’m just getting way off track here.  Focus. 

Right.

A few months ago I was strolling the clearance area of our local Hancock Fabrics when I spotted this striped jersey knit, marked at $3:
 
It was about a yard of fabric, 60” wide, a deep olive and white (though it looks black in the pictures), and I scooped it up because I can’t say no to oh-so-soft stripes.  A couple of days later I turned it into a nursing cover/infinity scarf and this is the story of how I did it.

First I squared off the fabric.  The long edges were cut a little quirky so all I had to do was cut along the stripes/sides to get a nice straight edge.  See the crooked edge before?

A cut along the lines made everything much better.
 
If you’re working with a non-striped pattern, using a cutting mat or a squared edge will help you get straight, 90 degree edges.

Now I had a big rectangle of fabric measuring 36” x 60”; the two shorter ends were the factory-cut edges (or selvage edges) and the longer edges were the store-cut ones/the ones I evened out.  Since the fabric was jersey and wouldn’t fray, I just left these outside, long edges alone after they were cut; no hemming.  To get the infinity scarf, I sewed the two short edges together.  However, this could easily be done minus the sewing with some no-sew tape.  Here’s how:

The No-Sew Version

Place a long piece of no-sew tape along the short edge of your scarf (I used some white ribbon just for a visual).
 

Making sure your long piece of fabric isn’t twisted somewhere in the middle, bring your other short edge over and lay it on top of the sewing tape.  Your fabric should be laying flat and should be a large tube.  Make sense?

Last, using the steam option on your iron, iron down those two, overlapping ends.  The no-sew tape will do its magic and make those ends stick together and you’ll be good to go!
 


The Sewn Version

If you decide to sew your edges together, simply overlap them a half inch or so and pin them together.
 

No need to fold anything; the jersey won’t fray.
 

Then sew a straight stitch right along your overlapping layers, making sure to backstitch at each end and that’s it!    
I wear the seam at the back so it’s not noticeable at all.

No baby:

I couldn’t decide which shoes to wear…
 

Baby:


And I was going to crop this one but then I just couldn’t because it’s kinda the story of my life – I sit down to nurse and somebody has to go.
 

What’re you lookin’ at?

Here’s the funny thing about this little project, I was so excited to share this with you guys a couple of months ago when I made it because I really thought this infinity scarf/nursing cover was a genius idea and I thought I was the first to discover it but alas, there are those who have been there, done that.  :)  So great though because, if you don’t feel like making your own, you can find them at these fine shops:

Hold Me Close

Nursing Time

Three 4 Design

.           .           .

Happy TGIalmostF

Goldie Toes Jr.

Bethany made me do it.  Okay.  Maybe it was my own fault, especially since I’m now a repeat offender.  Paint, you guys.  It makes the old new and the new old and the boring fun.  Take for instance, these shoes:I bought both of them secondhand for $3.50 each awhile back.  So cute for cheap, right?  The pandas had the girls at hello but the pink?  The pom on the toe, while it was cute, needed to hop on the next plane back to Whoville….making these little shoes the perfect specimens for some cap toeing.

So, for starters, after I got the pom off the front of each (I just used a seam ripper), I gathered my supplies – a paint brush, some painters’ tape, and gold paint (I love my Martha metallic gold!). 
   

Then I taped off the fronts where I’d be painting the toe.

Last, I painted the toe and ripped the tape off right after I was done, while the paint was still wet.
(I went back in later and pulled out those leftover threads you can see in the above pic when I was done and touched up the paint.  Also, the paint I used dries a lot more metallic than it looks when it’s wet.)

The shoes have a strap, as you probably noticed, but the girls can get them on easier by themselves without using the strap and the shoes stay on great without it, so I ended up just cutting it out a few weeks ago. 

I did this one day in the five minute time span I have between giving the girls their lunch and them yelling “all done” (little bro was napping).  It was so simple!


Top >> Kohl’s,  Cords >> Thrifted (Old Navy), Sweater >> mine from Rue 21 (XS on me, XL on her :p  ), Beanie >> mine  

I love them because they go with pretty much everything the girls own.  And did I mention that I painted these a few months ago?  I’m so behind on posts y’all.  Point is, they still look awesome and they’ve probably been worn over 30 times outside of the house on one twinkle toe or another.

Soooo, any card-carrying shoe painters out there?  What about other random items?  Profess the power of paint!

Southern Charm

Get a load of these guys:

Pinchable, no?

So let me tell you, I/we are anti-decorating for Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving BUT this year we made two exceptions.  One – our tree.  We bought a new (to us) tree off of Varage Sale (sorta like a glorified Craigslist) and it’s currently in its spot in the living room because, hey, we have a week and a half and we’re not hauling the nine-footer to and from the attic twice in that span.  And two – our kids.

[Half-smile on the left and right…the only ones you’ll see in this whole post.  Happy children have we but you’d never know it in pictures.]

Feltman Brothers sweetly sent each of our tots his/her own holiday outfit (this dress and this suit).  The girls have three Feltman Brothers dresses from their infant days and so I was excited to receive more because, not only are they beautiful and a staple in Southern children’s wardrobes (smocking is BIG down here), but they are dresses that are timeless and that the girls can pass down to their own daughters someday (and Sebastian can suit up his son(s) too!)  They’re investment pieces that’ll be handed from generation to generation and if you love history as much as I do, that is really awesome!  (I have a nerdy side and you just witnessed it.)

Before all that happens though, we will get our use out of them while they fit and so Sunday Mass-goers with us will see them quite possibly every weekend for the next several weeks and of course, we’ll throw a couple of tiny cardigans over them on Christmas Day and, as much as Anthony might shake his head on this one, I might have to find Sebastian some knee-highs… ;)
 
Last Sunday we took advantage of the 70 degree weather and got some stills of our munchkins.  
[Nope, it’s not a dirt smudge on her cheek; it’s a bruise.  As sweet as she looks, rough and tough more closely describe this one.]


 

[Exactly two seconds before Seb made an attempted lunch of the acorns in his grasp.]

This one might be my favorite:
 

Go check out Feltman Brothers and “ooh” and “aww” over all of their adorable clothes!  Every outfit includes hand-embroidery and the quality is incredible!  I couldn’t get over the intricacy of the lace stripes in Sebastian’s suit!  And the fabric the girls’ dresses are made of is great!  Usually when you think white you think see-through, but these dresses were thick enough to hide tiny, colored undies but thin enough that they didn’t look or feel stuffy.  Besides the holiday garb on our kids, I am in love with these bubble rompers and their adorbable sweater sets!  Dressing the little humans never gets old, does it?  :)

Have a great weekend!  I’ll be back Monday with an Advent calendar idea for you using this beauty from Inspired Life Shop!  Kristin is a friend of mine from college and she and a friend designed it.  If you don’t have a calendar yet, I highly recommend this one!  It’s a printable so you can have it up and running by next Sunday!  :)

eShakti

I’m many things but an online shopper is not one of them.  I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve ordered an article of clothing online.  Two times I can think of off the top of my head is the time I ordered two pairs of the same gap maternity jeans in two different sizes knowing one would probably fit and the other wouldn’t.  I didn’t have to pay shipping because the total cost was over a certain amount.  Second, Target used to carry what are my all-time favorite tees and now that they don’t, I’ve been known to order them off eBay (here!).  Is that crazy, especially since we live in a technology-saturated world and it would be so much easier than packing up three kids to get to a store?  Are you an online orderer?  Here’s the thing, I have a paranoia that whatever I’ve ordered and paid shipping costs for won’t fit so I’ll end up returning it, possibly paying more shipping and end up having paid shipping costs for something I didn’t keep.  It’s a real fear people.  So tangible clothing shopping it is for me.  Enter eShakti - the only online women's fashion apparel company offering sizes 0-36W & custom clothing.  When they contacted me a few weeks ago asking if I’d like to customize a dress to fit me, it was like they were in my head and knew exactly how to quell that fear.  I jumped at the opportunity, hoping for a good outcome and wasn’t disappointed.  I chose the Scallop Neck Faux-Wrap dress in prussian blue:
   

I threw on my leopard heels (Target, two years ago) and couldn’t decide on a necklace because I didn’t want to take the show away from the scallop neckline, which had me at hello.


And the pockets!  I love me a dress with pockets and appreciate them even more now that I have three chicklets who need stuff stowed every once in awhile so they had me at hey, how are ya?

The quality of the dress is outstanding!  Their prices aren’t too different from higher end clothing stores like J. Crew (unless you shop sales, in which case they’re a lot more affordable) but the fact that you’re getting a quality-made garment that’s specifically made for your body is genius and a great (dare I say better?) way to spend your money, in my opinion.  The customization process was very simple – measure all the places on your bod they ask you to measure, insert said measurements, and wala.  I also got to choose the dress length – above or below the knee or mid-calf - and the type of sleeves I wanted on it – none, short, cap, or elbow length.  I choose below the knee and loved the cap sleeves the dress had in the online image so I kept those.  I had the option of subtracting the pockets too but I’m not that crazy.  ;)  I felt so regal constructing this dress online.  It was like I had my own personal tailor for five minutes!  My only, very small, complaint is that the measurements in the drop-down boxes where you could choose your number were only whole inches; no half-inches.  There were a few times I came up with half-inch measurements, one being my waist size and, for fear that rounding down to the nearest inch would yield me no breathing room, I rounded up.  I wish, now that I have the dress, that I would have rounded down instead because the dress fits me in the waist for sure but it could stand to be a little more snug.  Lesson learned for next time.  And speaking of next time, I’m crushing on any and all of these (Christmas is coming y’all!):

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5

Just a budget-conscious girl’s tip:  For registering with eShakti, you get a free $25 credit towards your first purchase.  (Just be sure to register right before you buy because I think the credit expires not too long after you register!)  Also, there’s a $7.50 fee to customize a dress (which is nothing when you’re talking a dress that’s made for YOU) but your first customization is free, so take advantage of that!  AND, last but not least, eShakti generously is offering a 10% discount to all Bean In Love readers!  Just enter code ‘beaninloveblog’ at checkout!  (P.S.  The reader discount is only good until 12/04/2014, needs to be entered in the ‘promotional code’ box, can be used as many times as you want, and can be combined with other offers unless otherwise specified in other offer conditions, but can’t be used on clearance/sale, gift cards, or overstock categories.)

Have you ever purchased from eShakti?  If so, what was your experience like? 

.           .           .

Find eShakti elsewhere on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest!