The Jozen One

No tutorial, sorry. I didn't really think it out or plan it, I just dug around in my scraps and made a taco...; ) I made the "tortilla" separately, with very little stuffing, the "taco meat" is the real pillow, but I added the stuffed tomatoes and lettuce into the top by sewing them into slices from the inside. I added the wide orange ribbon and white felt after for added texture and I sort of tie quilted the whole thing together with embroidery thread.  As you can see, my daughter thinks it's delicious!

My kids love the Nightmare Before Christmas, my daughter wanted some new jean shorts. I think the shorts are long gone now, but this has become a jeans patch for her leather jacket...because it's cool like that.  Fabric paint is one my favorite things. : )

Every year when school starts I have an anxiety attack about the cost of equipping my kids with "cool enough" things to start the new year. One thing I've been doing for years is to shop thrift stores in the heat of the summer when no one is buying fall clothing, and stock up on jeans, warm tops and sweaters. It helps...a lot. A couple of years ago I started this new practice: I hunt down old laptop bags, messenger bags, or backpacks and design whatever my child wants. A comparable bag would have cost me $40 at Hot Topic...this cost me under $10 for the bag and paint. She absolutely loved it. I made this for my son, he's a huge Full Metal Alchemist fan. He wanted something simple, but unmistakable, so he designed the bag himself, I just painted it. : )

Yeah, I started by making a snack…so I wouldn’t eat the bacon and shrimp along the way . The night before: I readied a whole picnic basket with candles, plates, forks, salad dressing, glasses and sparkling cider. Step 1: Bake the bacon, partially cook it, 350 oven for 15 minutes max, it ensures that the bacon is cooked ALL the way through. The initial recipe leaves the middle undercooked. Step 2: Muffin Tins, I was instructed to drill holes into my mini tin…I couldn’t do it. It was NOT cheap and I like my muffin tin, so I improvised and used aluminum foil to create a smaller tin and drip area. It TOTALLY worked. Step 3: Because I was also making chocolate covered strawberries for my bouquet, I wanted them to be pretty…you know without the flat chocolate side from drying, so I filled the mini tin with rice, and nestled the strawberries into them, to pose them. I drizzled the chocolate on top and they came out so nice! Step 4: I had decided that bacon roses alone...

This is my before picture (not the actual item, this is a stock image of what it looked like new) of a small chest of drawers I found on the street, it was falling apart and scratched up, so I took it home nursed it back to health and added my favorite design element to the face of it. Here's my daughters new dresser, she loves it, I love it...and I'll probably steal it someday.