When your kids get The Baby to wear the nerd glasses they made from old 3-D specs and medical tape, you just have to turn into a stylist and have a spontaneous photo shoot.

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Using heart shaped pony beads, we made the Beaded T-shirt Bracelet with a cute Valentines Day twist.

Find the tutorial for the Beaded T-shirt Bracelet HERE.

If you don’t want to cut up a t-shirt, thick yarn like Lion Brand’s Hometown USA would also work.

The lunch money cuff is still my go-to gift for the 6-7 year old crown.  Filled with a few dollars, it’s just as popular as Squinkies or Pet Shops (or whatever the latest trending toy is).

Find the Tutorial over at Lemon Squeezy Home.

Living in Southern California, I don’t have that many opportunities to run in snow. The snow I found up in the mountains of Utah during Christmas break put my New Balance Minimus Trail shoes to the test.  I was a little wary at first, being careful of every stride up and down the trail, but soon I realized these shoes gave me so much traction.  I’ve never felt so sure footed.  Kind of makes me want to find more snow to run in.  Kind of–I’ll always be a CA girl through and through (which allows me to be a fair weather runner).

Note: If you are considering transitioning to any New Balance Minimus shoe from a shoe with a higher heel, you need to exercise caution during the transition period to avoid injury.

**disclosure – New Balance sent me with a pair of Minimus Trail Shoes to review. Since I’ve loved the NB Minimus Road Shoes I purchased back in May, I was more than happy to do so. I was not compensated in any way and receive no financial benefit from sharing this product with you.  I just love them and was totally amazed how they performed under snowy conditions while my brother-in-law was slip-sliding all over the place in his running shoes.

I’m always attracted to the many brightly colored afghans at my local thrift store. I finally bought this one since it’s border and decorative flower just screamed to be made into a skirt.

Basic Steps:

-Cut a rectangle from the afghan for the skirt based on how full you want the skirt. The thicker the afghan, the less full you need to make the skirt to avoid bulk at waist.

-Sew rectangle together into a tube.

-Serge cut edge of skirt to keep the loose yarn ends in place.

-Cut and sew elastic into a circle to fit child’s waist.

-Divide waistband into fourths. Divide skirt into fourths.  Pin waistband to skirt (placing wrong side of elastic to right side of skirt. click here for more details on attaching waistband elastic), matching the quarter markers and dividing the extra skirt fabric evenly between the pins.

-While stretching the elastic to fit, sew elastic to skirt.

The benefits of eating together as a family are pretty well documented.  As small children turn into teenagers, the benefits (including better communication, higher grades and lower incident of eating disorders and drug use) become even more critical but getting teenagers to the dinner table becomes infinitely more difficult. I’m over at the Together Counts blog again today talking about four things my parents did to make my teenage self look forward to family dinner instead of dread it. I’d love to hear what has worked for you (if you have teenagers) or what worked (or didn’t work) when you were a teenager. I’m taking notes since I’m only a few years away from having a teenager!  Leave your comment HERE.

Women’s shirred top dresses and skirts are always easy and fun to refashion.  A dress that used to be mine (and I never really liked) looks so much better on Princess.

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Basic Steps:

1. Take in shirred panel on each side to fit chest. With so much fullness, you can blend to nothing about 4″ below panel instead of taking side seams in all the way to the hem.

2. Make sleeves or straps. This dress had shirred sleeves already.  I cut cut them off and repositioned them to fit a smaller frame. For sleeveless shirred dresses, I have sometimes been able to make the sleeve/strap out of the excess fabric from taking in the side seams.  If that doesn’t work, I make straps using pieces of decorative ribbon.

3. Hem if necessary. Luckily, this dress was an awkward short length on me, making it a perfect maxi dress for her.

When my brother-in-law heard about the First Annual Indoor Triathlon being sponsored by his athletic club in UT on New Year’s Eve, he knew it would be the perfect event for the family.  When he found out we could compete as two teams of four, it made it even better.  After 20 minutes on the spin bike, 15 minutes on the treadmill, a 5 minute lap swim and an hour of trash talking and friendly family rivalry, distances were added up, points were given and our team came out on top (barely).  Before accepting our award medals, we had to make proper podiums (of course). Hopefully the Ogden Athletic Club will continue to organize this race because it’s a holiday family tradition I’d love to keep.

Before: Two gold women’s sweaters, a women’s blouse and a piece of embroidered sheer curtain fabric.

After: Two 60′s inspired mini dresses for the holidays.

The embroidered sheer curtain fabric that once sat in Todd’s (recently passed) Grandmother’s sewing pile made perfect puff sleeves for Pumpkin’s dress.

Basic Steps:

Cut off sweater sleeves.

Sew up side seams to fit child.

Cut new puff sleeves from fabric or women’s blouse to fit new armhole.

Sew in new sleeves, hem edge and insert elastic to create puff.

One of the best moments of the 2011 holiday season was being able to take my mom and the girls to see The Nutcracker performed by the amazingly talented dancers from the Maple Conservatory.  It was Pumpkin’s first time seeing the ballet. It felt like a rite of passage worthy of the multi-generational girls night out.  The night was topped off with a meet and greet with the wonderfully talented Bryn Watkins who danced the lead part of “Dream Clara”. Remember that name folks. She’s going to be famous.