Purse Tutorial from Sara Wills

I asked Sara Wills to post here today because she is a friend of mine and a super creative crafter, so I thought you would enjoy seeing one of her projects. You can visit her blog to see her other projects as well as her family's new life in Atlanta.

Hello fellow Krystle followers! I'm Sara, a fellow blogger and stay at home mom to an amazing little 16 month old girl! I never thought of myself as a girly girl until I had a daughter and now my life has become pink, pink, and more pink, with plenty of bows to go around -- and it was all my doing! I suddenly became a huge pink fanatic! My daughter, Eliana, is a spitting image of me and loves to mock everything I do. Recently she has started carrying a gift bag around on her shoulder, like a purse. So I figured what can be better than a cute little purse of her own, made by mommy!
I went to get my supplies and decided on some fun fabrics! I love bright colors and fell in love with this combo!

So I started my search online for a toddler purse tutorial. Let me start by saying, my sewing skills are VERY mediocre, at best! I haven't sewed in YEARS and even then, it was very minimal, with help. So, I needed a detailed tutorial and something somewhat simple. I found this blog and mostly followed her tutorial step by step. I found the tutorial very simple, until it got to the complicated part and then, it got a little difficult for me.

It could just me lack of knowledge, or maybe it was just that confusing. But either way, I ended up with the straps of my purse not sewn correctly so I had to kind of wing it a bit to correct the mistake, because there was no way I was unpicking all the stitches of basically the whole thing to redo it. So I ended up having to sew my straps on the inside of the finished bag, which made the stitching show on the outside of the purse. In an effort to cover the stitching, I decided to add some little ribbon bows to the outside of the sides and the result, in my opinion, is really adorable!

I added the fabric flower on the outside and embellished it with a little bling! The result, I think, turned out great! I was very impressed with myself, as this is the first sewing project I've done that hasn't looked like someone sewed it in the dark!

I had really intended to do a full tutorial for this, as I had trouble with the last one, but in my frustration of my mess ups I missed taking some crucial pictures along the process, and I think the tutorial would be really difficult without it. But the tutorial I used got me through most of it and hopefully it will be easier for the rest of you to understand. Now I'm anxiously planning to make my darling a little apron with the left over fabric! Happy crafting!

Thank you Sara! I think the purse is adorable, just like everything you create :) Thank you again for sharing it with us!

Happy 80th Birthday Papa

This past Sunday was my Papa's 80th birthday :) I found out while trying to purchase decorations that apparently the party decorating people don't plan on the human race living past 60. I could buy decorations for someone turning 30, 40, 50, or 60 but not 80. But I digress...

 This is my Papa :) Yes he has a game show hosts hair do & there is probably an entire bottle of hair spray holding it that way. Papa is a wonderful Godly man who the world has been lucky to have for the past 80 years :)

 This is Papa with one of his sisters & one of his nieces who came to celebrate with us.

 My Papa & Meme

 Someone got Papa a card that played the chicken dance...this was the outcome :)

For his birthday Papa wanted to be able to buy some chickens to raise in the coop he built in his back yard (only in Texas...) so Hubby made a chicken to clip money to so he can buy his chickens. FogHorn LegHorn is Papa's favorite cartoon :)
Happy birthday Papa! I hope you had a great day! And enjoy your chickens :)

Happy Valentine's

I love Valentine's Day! The love, the hearts, the chocolate...What's not to love?! I have always loved Valentine's Day! For the past many years Patrick & I have spent our Valentine's volunteering at a flower stand selling roses & raising money to help our youth group go to camp, give to Speed The Light, & other youth ministry needs. I am leaving this afternoon to go help at the flower stand, but the difference is Patrick won't be with me :( He is sick. I am sad that I am leaving him alone on Valentine's day to be sick all by himself, but when I get done with my shift selling roses I will come home & make him dinner & nurse him back to heath :)
So what are your Valentine's Day plans? Are you going to dinner & a movie? Are you going to cook a romantic dinner? Or be cooked for? Or are you like my crazy sister & think Valentine's is silly?! Love is not silly! ;)
Happy Valentine's everyone!!! I wish you wellness & lots of love!

Super Commercial Sunday

I hope you all had a great day yesterday, watching some great commercials, eating some great food, being with friends and family. Am I the only one who was wondering why they were interrupting the commercials to show those men run after each other & push each other around? ;)
I have always loved the commercials during the Super Bowl! Advertisers come up with some of the funniest ideas to keep us intrigued during this sporting event. So this year I decided to make a list of my favorites to share with you. These are, in my opinion, the top 7 funniest commercials of Super Bowl 2012:
7) Chase QuickPay - Little boy is going to be a kicker
6) VW - I absolutely love the callback of the Vader Kid!
5) E-Trade - Bobby is Speed Dating lol
4) M&Ms - I guess this is why they never cartoonized the brown M&M, until now.
3) Chevy - One question, why would you give someone a minifridge out in the yard?
2) Doritos - Bribing works
1) Bud Lite - Here We Go

Then the sweetest commercial, in my opinion, was:
Kia - A dream car for real life, I love that his dream was to go pick up his wife :)

And the commercial that gave me goosebumps:
Chrysler - It's half time America

Those are my favorites for this years Super Bowl. What were your faves?

Baby Blue Striped Hair Flower

This weeks theme for the Photo Challenge was Blue. So I took this photo

This is one of my handmade hair flowers. This one was made from a shirt Tiffany (Crazy Lady Downstairs ;) gave me because it was old & she didn't wear it anymore. So I took it from it's old unused purpose, and gave it a new life as a hair flower :) You can see more about it in my shop.
Next weeks theme is Crowd, so I'll let you know what I come up with.

I don't know about you, but I am enjoying some great commercials right now :) Have a great Super Commercial Sunday! ;)