America's First Black President

Operation Christmas Child

Christmastime is upon us and I was reminded so this morning while shopping at Wal-mart for groceries. This Christmas season the kids and I will make cristmas boxes for Samaritan's Purse to Operation Christmas Child. The idea is simple and easy. All you do is take an empty shoe box and stuff it with goodies (of approved items). Kids from all over the world, who might not have a Christmas with presents, will receive your goodies and be happy. Care to join us? If you are local and want to know where to drop off your box send me an e-mail at heyitsdrea at yahoo dot com. If you are not visit this link to get more information on helping out.

-Andre'a

A Tutorial From The 5 Year Old!

Here is an activity that should keep your little ones busy for a minute while working on their fine motor skills. What you'll need:

1- out of date calendar

1- pen or pencil

1- eager child


The activity #1: Let you child practice writing his/her numbers in the empty box. How easy is that? I've bought ton's of activity books over the years and my little one thought of this one all by himself!



The activity #2: Play Bingo!



The activity #3: Play Number Polo! Roll all 5 dice in a cup and what ever number you roll that where you place your marker. You have to say "number polo" after you roll your dice or you loose a die(but you can pick it back up the next go around, instead of loosing a turn and because you want to be able to get the lower numbers also.......you might want to forget to say "number polo" a couple of times to get the lower numbers!) Roll You need:



5- dice

1-cup

15-30 number markers(beans, paper circles, dots, stickers)



xoxoxo,

Andre'a

Hi!

I miss you all! Jon is turning the big 5 on friday. No more babies in my home, He is officially the big boy.

I have a test tomorrow....wish me luck! I also have two papers due tomorrow, and two papers due for Friday! Yeah me, lol.

This fabby headband needs a good home. $7.50 shipped to the first person to e-mail me at hairflairs at yahoo dot com with the headline "Spooky Headband Sale".

xoxo,
Andre'a

Hello September!

Get Paid For Your Trash

School has just started for us and will soon start for many others. Lunchtime is a time that creates loads of trash for many schools. I found a program that will pay you to upcycle Capri Sun, Honest Kids, and Kool aid drink pouches for $.02 per pouch and $.01 for other pouches(they'll pay for the shipping too!). And they don't stop there! The smart company is called Terracycle, and they will give you money to send in your drink pouches, 20 oz soda bottles, cookie wrappers, energy bar wrappers, yogurt cups, and corks. Now you might be thinking that $.02 might not be alot, but when you add it all up those cents start to make dollars. If you choose to do the 20oz plastic bottles you'll get $.06 per bottle and the other items yield different prices. You can choose to keep your money or choose a school or organization and Terracycle will donate the money on your behalf.

Now what do you think these people at Terracycle will do with these items? Send them to a recycling center? Terracycle will turn your trash into beautiful bags and awesome upcycled goodies and turn around and sell them. Target has some of these bags ready to buy online but not in stores.

Many of us crafters have already been doing this for a while. If you search Etsy for upcycled kool-aid pouches you will see many lovely items made by individual upcyclers. (this link will take you to a yahoo group)

It Happened!!

It came and went! The first day of school. I didn't get to make Zoe an outfit, she wore her princess outfit that her dad picked out while at Disney. Still equally special indeed.

And then it was the first day of KINDERGARTEN for Jon!!




I did get to make something! I made Jon a nap mat cover from the left over Cars fabric, some extra soft minky fabric and a fleece blanket.

More Disney Pictures

Finally some pictures

Remind me to never take a vacation right before school starts, lol. No time to adjust for the kids makes me an unhappy mom.....

Do you remember that problem I was having trying to post the pictures to my blog a couple of posts ago? Well I figured out the issue....I forgot to resize the pictures before posting. Now I have a memory issue with my computer because of all the stuff I have loaded(stuff I really need) and my photos. I didn't manage to gather some photos. Here are a few from Orange beach in Florida.

Postcard Winners!!

We have two winners for my postcard giveaway! The postcards will go out to Kira and Tyra's Family! Yea, I only had two people send me their info so I just included both. Your cards will be send off today.

We are home and getting adjusted to life after vacation, lol. We are also getting ready for school on Wednesday. Where did our summer go??

I'm in a mad dash to find some quick "school" inspired fabric or maybe just some cute fabric to make Zoe's first day of school outfit. Speaking of fabric, I made all of the kids a Disney inspired outfit to wear to Magic Kingdom. The girls got a pair of shorts and a tank-tee with an iron-on applique of 3 mickey heads. The boys just got a few iron-on applique mickey heads made from Cars fabric. My hubby went to the store for me to pick up the fusible backing for the appliques and he bought the kind that doesn't/ can't be sewn in...only ironed on. I didn't even know such a thing existed. It is out there and it works rather well. The kids outfits have been washed and dried with no movement from the applique. I started off making twirls skirts for the girls but the skirt was ruined by the serger when the knife refused to cut anymore! I was almost done, and it was rather cute for a rush job.

Pictures will come shortly after I figure out whats wrong with blogger. I keep getting an error message after I try and load some of the pictures.

Chow for now!

-Andre'a

Magical Indeed!

We are currently on our Magical Vacation...We even stayed an extra day (today). I received a few e-mails asking where we were so...tada! We are headed to eat at the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney. Many pictures will follow. I think................................. we'll be home tomorrow, lol. We are having too much fun. Anyone want a post card? Send me an e-mail to hairflairs@yahoo.com and I'll select the first sender with the subject title "Magical Vacation Postcard". Your choice will be Mickey and Minnie themed, Princess themed, or Florida themed. Good luck!!

Love,

Andre'a

Tutorial Saturday!

Summer is in full swing and it is almost time to go back to school! Where did our summer go? We don't know but Aug. 6th the kids will be back in school (ALL of them!!), and I will be starting school Aug. 25th!!

I've searched the net for some fun and fabby tutorials that might interest you....and the all have to do with hair accessories.....Yeah!

First we have a tutorial from Laura Gunn from paint in my hair blog. She is going to show you how to make a cute snap clip button clip using scrapbooking button brads.

You can find in on the right hand side titled Button Top Brads. Click here.

Next is a few type of bows from the Ribbon Retreat. They are all in PDF format so you can download and save them. Click here.

And lastly we have reversible headbands from KCQuilts blog. You don't have to download anything for this one just click here.

Let me know if you decide to make any of them. You know how I love pictures!!

-*Ann Dray Ah(Andre'a)

*That's for you Julie!!

Mother I Am.......

The Spoken Word * for those who are unaware

Here I stand in a place where diapers and wipes are an everyday reality. My coach bag that was once filled with high hopes and unending dreams is now stuffed with a four year olds screams and a sippy cup filled to the brim with "mommy can I" and "she won't leave me alone".

Yet I drudge on. Trying to find that one sock that was stuffed with cheerios and dirty diapers that just didn't make it in time into the trash can. And if I'd gotten that extra hour of sleep that my four year old promised he'd give me....like the unidentifiable rash that lurks in my ash tray, like old cigarettes butts accidentally knocked to the floor by a 2 year old rage and wrath.....inside the bath tub that carries the ring that I so desperately needed from the man that carries the other half of my heart.

Traveling through the kingdom of unwashed clothes and wiping dirty noses, I come to the realization that one day this will no longer be. I will look back and smile the smile of the cheshire cat and poke my chest out really far while gazing into the distance of long gone trips to the potty when he just wanted to sit and multiple details for my car when she just couldn't help but to get sick. When Power Rangers held the key to momentary happiness and bliss all sealed together with one single kiss.....Mother I am.

This is a poem that I wrote sometime after becoming a mom. I was 20 something and had just had a baby boy, my last. I was on a small dose of an antidepressant and trying to find my way through postpardum depression from my second pregnancy. I'm glad that I chose to pick up a pencil. The original poem had no periods, commas, or quotaton. Just pieced together like floetry.

***All my work is protected under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 2008.

Zoe is 6

She reminded me that I forgot to add her 6 year picture to the blog, lol. She is officially six. Here is her outfit I made for that special day.

Cupcake With Sprinkles For Dinner

Not to be confused with taking a cupcake from your last party or birthday and eating it for dinner. This cupcake is made from ground turkey, mashed potatoes and corn. Yummy! All you have to do is mix your favorite spices in with the ground turkey or ground beef, we used meatloaf seasonings,mix it up and place some ground turkey into the cupcake pan. We cooked the ground turkey at 350 for about 20 minutes......give or take a few. Took them out of the oven when they were 5 minutes away from being cooked. Placed them on a cookie sheet and then back into the oven for the remaining 5 minutes. This way you take them out of their juices from the cupcake pan and cook off the rest of the juice. Cook and mash your potatoes. Put the mashed potatoes in a plastic bag after they have cooled. Cut the corner off the bag and pipe it onto the meat. Sprinkle with corn and Bam....you have your dinner cupcakes!

A fun variation would be mixing in some food coloring with the potatoes. Something else fun to do is to cut or scoop a circle from the middle( without touching the bottom) of the ground turkey and replace with some ketchup. MMMmmmmn.

There is a breakfast variation made with sausage, grits, and scrambled eggs.........just in case you wanted to know.

No Postage Reguired!

I've receintly discovered a site called Hippopost.com. It is a website where you can send a post card for free! If you allow them to place a tiny advertisement(from one of their sponsors*) they will send a postcard to your recipient FREE of charge. All you do is upload a photo (or you can use one they have) and type a messege, enter your senders info and then hit send! Easy Peasy. Oh, and you have to register also. This might be a fun activity for the kids to send a picture and greeting to a friend or family member.

What have you all been up to as of late? We are hanging out enjoying summer. Yesterday we went to our local water park and tonight we are going to the movies. Monday's are library day. Oh, and we are learning spanish!! Our local public school doesn't have spanish, so Zoe missed out(AP kids in training here!!)....And you know that you have to learn a language to go to college so we are starting off with spanish. We also have Chinese, German, and Latin on the list, but I won't start that until were finished with Espanol. And I digress....What are you all doing to enjoy summer?

-Andre'a

*What is the advertisement? I don't know just yet. I'll let you know when I receive mine.

Giggle...Giggle...

I know you read the Wall Street Journal right? Chinese is the new black! Read all about it. Lol, good thing I took Chinese in high school instead of spanish - right.

-Andre'a

Your going to love this one....

The ever so talented Arlette from the Polka Dot Pineapple has a friend who is giving a way an awesome gift! Wait for it.....................wait for it................................wait for it.....(waving magic wand).........FREE QUILTING....(insert automatic "ooohing", "aaahhing", and over the top clapping sounds). She will take one of your quilts-up to a twin size- and quilt it. How awesome is that? I have my first quilt still sitting here. It belongs to my mother in law-which was promised 2 years ago! Lol, she new I had to find someone to do the quilting or wait until I bought a long arm quilting machine. So I'm entering....and if you'd like to enter, just follow this link to Canton Village Quilt Works-BTW, she is a professional quilter. Yes, all the better. Now off you go....(here comes that wand again)......Poof.

-Andre'a (Your Fabric Fairy God Sista!)

Happy Father's Day!

Friday's Fabby Finds

I have a Fabby Find for you this week. Danielle from the "Oh So Twirly Boutique" makes these cute pillowcase dresses from fun and designer fabric. If your a swanky mom and love all things posh looking, you are going to love the Oh So Twirly Boutique. Just in case you've been hiding under a rock, the pillowcase dress is one of the most versatile piece of clothing for girls. She can wear it as is on a hot summer day, with long sleeves and pants on a cold winters day, and with a short sleeve shirt and leggings. The possibilities are truly endless. Not to mention the pillowcase dress can go from a cute dress, to a pillowcase baby doll shirt, to a pillowcase top. You will get your monies worth and beyond with each purchase. Zoe can't wait until she receives hers!

And while you are shopping you might as well pick out a matching fabric flower flair for her hair. You've seen them here on my blog. They are fun, unique, and made by me, so if you are having a bad hair day - you could totally get away with wearing one too! Head on over and take your shopping code with you. Enter JUNEPROMO in the coupon box and you'll receive FREE shipping on your purchase of $50.00 or more. I happen to know for sure that you can buy more than just one boutique item for $50.00. So go and get your shop on!!

-Have a great weekend.

Andre'a

BOGO!!

Buy one and get the other half off! Today and tomorrow only.


http://www.andreashairflairs.etsy.com

-Andre'a

**Thanks for the heads up Kira!!

10 Things About Me This Week

1. Getting the house clean for Zoe's Birthday party on Saturday.

2. Making Zoe's Birthday dress. Don't know what yet, but she'll have something. I don't want to use the skirt I was embroidering because it's white. I'm thinking of a quickie stripwork 1 layer twirls skirt with applique "6" tank top.

3. Washing, blowdrying Zoe's hair and finding a hairstyle that is suitable for a pool party.....Probably braids.

4. Starting training for Shop NBC(I work for West Teleservices at home). Took 2 test, both 100%....soooo much information..

5. Not talking about my husband on my blog.....(smooches...)....maybe a trim and not a cut?

6. Teaching my 9 year old how to wash dishes...and keep a clean kitchen.

7. Making a list of baby items I get to make for my best friend and her twins.

8. Backing up my photos.

9. Updating my portfolio.

10. Hoping I can get half of this stuff on my list done...

-Andre'a

A Girl In All Of Her Glory

What are you doing on this last night in May? I'm trying to decide what to do with my hair. It has been this way for sooo long. When it gets too long I chop about 3 inches off only to have it grow back again and I keep repeating the same ole process...... But atlas, I am longing for something more glam/sophisticated. Maybe a bob, highlights, a lighter coloring. What ever it is, I'm ready for it. My hubby likes my hair down and long. I prefer it up and out of my face. I'm thinking about lightening it up and getting some layers. What do you think? Should I go blonde(Zoinks) or perhaps a shade of red? What ever happened to those sites where you could load up your picture to see what you look like with a specific color or cut?

-Andre'a

My Guerdon.....

are my children's accomplishments and we made it through another school year. I'm so proud of them. Ian my eldest and favorite 9 year old received 3 awards 1- for A+B Honor Roll 2- Star Reader 2(Part of the accelerated reader reading program at the school) 3- Millionaires Accelerated Reader, which basically means that he read 1,505,453.00 words this school year. He was the only one in the 3rd grade to receive this award and the only one in the school to do it in just one school term. The others had last years average added with this year. Can you tell we love to read?? If you don't believe me I have the $78.00 receipt that we paid in library fines!! We love reading so much that we don't like to give the books back, Lol....Gotta make a joke out of that one....

Zoe graduated from kindergarten - she is now officially a FIRST GRADER! She feels so accomplished. She walked away with 3 awards also: 1-Kindergarten Diploma 2-All S Honor Roll 3-All S in conduct. And now you get to see the dress(sorry for the crappy photos-6 to 8 weeks and counting before I get to see my Nikon again...)! McCall's 5568. It was very easy. I used size 6 because I wanted it to look big like the pillowcase dresses look and added an extra 1/2 under the arms because she has personal issues with materials close to her skin...she only likes knits and briefly tolerates anything else I make her wear. If I would have cut it based on her measurements it would have been to close to her under arm. You should have seen how fast that green gown came off, Lol!! I added the striped fabric at the bottom because she had to sit on the stage on a bleacher and I was afraid she'd forget her manners and wouldn't keep her ankles crossed like young ladies should........how can you sit on a bleacher and cross your ankles..hmnn. Any way I let Zoe pick out the zipper at Hancocks and we were in a hurry so I didn't see that it was not an invisible zipper....opps! I would make this again for her in a knit top instead of dress and draft my own neckline, omitting the zipper.

The polka dots and stripes belong to Robert Kauffman. I paid $8.95 for 1 yard of each print, $.88 for the pattern, $1.27 for the zipper, and used the thread and interfacing I already had. Total cost of this dress is 20.05 not included my time. If I was going to sell this I would list it at $65.00....which includes the flower pin and or hair bow(size 6).
So what do you think?

10 Things About Me This Week

1. I'm making Zoe's Graduation dress.

2. I just seen the preview of M. Night Shyamalan's new movie "The Happening". I'm still straddling the fence on this one. I love scary movies and I hope this one is scare worthy.....(I Am Legend was the last scary one I saw....yikes!!)

3. Just saw the trailer for "Hancock", Will Smith's new movie. Excited that I get to see him in a tight black leather suit.....

4. Thinking about cutting my hair. It is down to the middle of my back. I'm tired of wearing it in a ponytail, but I think that is the only relief I'll get this summer if I don't cut it.

5. Getting ready to do my first "Master Cleanse". I'm thinking the middle of June for

6 weeks. I'm excited. I don't have an attachment to food(which I think will help a lot) and I love lemons so my hopes are up.. We shall see how long I last.

6. Bought my first pattern for me. McCall's 5528 and I plan on making view A and using the sleeves from view C.

7. Stopped embroidering Zoe's tribute to 5 skirt. She is having a pool party for her birthday now. No need for a skirt, right?

8. Started cleaning up the sewing studio and organizing stuff.

9. Happy that school is about to be over and sad that this will be my last "season-summer" as a stay at home mommy.

10. Don't look for me this week. It is already started off to be a challenging one and I doubt that I'll have a lot of 'puter time. I'm thinking about you and I'll keep checking your blogs to see what you all have been up to! Have a great last week of May.

later,

Andre'a

Tada! Very long post.......

I've been up to sew much and now I have a little show and tell. First up I've been making pillow cases. I'm trying to perfect my tension on my sewing machine(along with other techniques) and I started on one pillow case saying to myself..."Well that was easy. Maybe I should use up some of my fabric scraps". I hardly ever make my boys anything so I focused on them this time.

They both come complete with ribbon tabs(yes, my dear hubby I'm keeping them! I don't care how girly you think they might look). I still trying to decide if I want to include a button closure on the side to keep the pillow from falling out. It is one of my pet peeves! You know, you go to sleep and then wake up to find that your pillow case is all twisted and jumbled up? Ugh..... These fit the pillow perfectly and leave a 1" hang over the pillow.

It seems as though I had a bit of OCD with matching up the seams!! I'm glad everything turned out so perfect.

Even made some for a friend's son who is having a birthday tomorrow!
I also finished my second fabric photo! Pleat you very much:) Even made a material girl sign to hang with the picture. I tried to go with the graffiti kind of look while working on the signs. You can hardly see the "material" because I used the wrong background paper. Oh well, I'll try again later.....it will have to do for now. I love how you can fold a piece of patterned fabric and make some unique design of your own! I think that is what my hair flower obsession is all about.

Jon-Robert decided to do some crafting of his own....or some type of experiment actually. I couldn't even get mad at him. Instead we had to count the number of squares.......67. He really stopped at 20 but he was so proud of himself. I believe that every moment can be a learning experience. Yes, I could of gotten upset that I had to sit and wait 30 minutes again, yell for someone to bring me tissue, only to find out that we were totally out....But instead we will remember this day as being the day that Jon almost counted to 67.....but made it to 20. God bless us everyone.

I bought some soap from Cozy Moments on Etsy. It's a great store run by a husband and wife duo. Let me be the first to tell you that these people are just very good at what they do. This soap smells way to good to actually be soap! I bought the vanilla bean and the L.A.M.B(inspired by Gwen Steffani). I did look at her feedback first and determine that she was a stellar store worthy of my husbands hard earned money. What I did not know was that her stuff is actually better that Bath and Body Works....I know, pick your chin up! Those might be fighting words to some. -You know you have to use the shower gel, the lotion, and the spray just to have that particular "scent". And then it only lasts for 1/4 of the day. Well this stuff is off the chain. Not only does it smell "wonder-riffic-ly" pleasant, but it has a glorious lather and leaves you skin so soft, oh so soft. I have 1 sample left. If you want it it's yours....Do not blame me if you use it and babies start sucking on you, grown men won't stop following you, and women come out of the woodworks to ask you what your wearing... The soap is made with goat's milk and the soap scent that I have left is Peppermint Chocolate Oatmeal. Smells dreamy....First one to leave their e-mail addy and a comment will get it!!

Last but not least, I finally had some time to sit with my serger and figure out 99.7% of it's functions. Went through the entire book and practiced all the techniques. Here are a picture of the pintucks done with the serger. Don't know if I like them yet. The regular sewing machine pintucks look a little better - more chic, in my opinion. What do you think?

-Andre'a

Wordless Wednesday....

For The Posh One

I know your out there. You like anything unique and eyepopping. You want to have it...no matter what the cost(or maybe within reasonable cost). When you get it, you love it, and know just what to do with it. My dear friend, I have something your going to love.

Introducing my new line of Fabric Pictures. The first one is a Heather Bailey Fresh Cut and Amy Butler Lotus Dots combination. Nine quilted blocks of fabric fun and 4 bitty fabric flowers for your visual pleasure. Enjoy, the next one will be from Sandy Henderson's line Ginger Blossom.