SNAP in a Nutshell

Back in September of last year, I found out that there was going to be a blog conference called SNAP at Thanksgiving Point in Utah and although my blog was on the smaller side, I decided that I would take a leap and sign up to go. I begged my friend Rach to come with me so I wasn't a total geek showing up to a blog conference all by myself. She agreed and we started planning and anticipating how much fun it was going to be to be able to meet all of our favorite bloggers in real life!

So... I am going to attempt to give you a recap on my favorite bloggers that I was able to meet at the conference!! (You will notice my bestie Rach in pretty much all of the pictures... we were together everywhere we went pretty much and I am going through withdrawls without her by my side now! Love ya Rach!!)

Let me start with my fabulous roommates!!
I was one lucky gal... I had the pleasure of bunking with Kristy (Diary of Dave's Wife), Rach (Family Ever After), and Kelli (Lolly Jane)... Can I just say that I had the best roommates at the conference! I loved each of them so much. They spoiled me rotten with pj's, a sleeping mask, earrings, rings... the whole nine yards. We stayed up talking till 4 am most nights and laughed out heads off none stop! They are so much fun!! 

 Kelli and Kristy made this darling sign to go on out hotel door to our room! How cute are they??

Probably the person I was most excited to meet was Kristyn (Lil Luna)... She has seriously been my blog mentor and has taken me under her wing and taught me the ropes of blogland! We had emailed, texted, skyped, etc so it was high time we met in real life and she did not disappoint! I just love her! She is seriously one of the funnest people I have ever met! She has the cutest personality and is so kind to everyone she meets! Love ya girl!!

I was so excited to meet Vanessa (See Vanesa Craft). I have participated in one competition (which I took dead last place in LOL!) and it was on Vanessa's blog (here is my entry). She is so sweet and so gorgeous!! I wish we could have hung out more at the conference!

I got to meet Steph (Crafting in the Rain) and it was so much fun! She even had her darling bag that she made from a tutorial on my blog to show me. How fun is that?

Tam(Sew Dang Cute) was just that... SEW DANG CUTE! I love her! She is so funny and we had fun one night hanging out with a bunch of bloggers telling stories laughing our heads off! Loved her!!

Oh my goodness... I was so excited to meet Kirsten (Kojo-Designs)... She was the 1st place winner of So You Think You Can Sew competition in January. She is absolutely darling, sweet, classy, hilarious, fabulous, and I could go on and on! She is such a talented lady on top of all of that! I just love her and had so much fun with her at the conference!

I also met Heidi (Sew. Craft. Create.) and Kate (See Kate Sew) and I am in love with both of these ladies... Let me start with Heidi. Ok... can I just describe her in one word?? H.I.L.A.R.I.O.U.S.!!!!!! Oh my heck... she made me laugh so hard the entire conference long! She is so sweet and darling. I just love her!! (She was the winner of that competition I took last place in by the way! ha ha She is super talented!)

And Kate... I was in awe at meeting her! She is such a sweetie! I have been blog stalking her for a while now and I was so excited to meet her! She is definitely one talented gal! And did I mention GORGEOUS and classy- love her style!

Ok... enter UBER talented photographer: Kristen Duke... Umm... words can not express how much I loved meeting this gal! She is so cute, funny, talented, sweet, and I could go on and on. She is so much fun to be around and I am in awe of her photography skills... I am going to be reviewing her book Say No to Auto soon so be watching for that!

Next up was the FABULOUS-ly gorgeous Letter 4 girls (two of the four- Janae and Jamie) they are so much fun. And I totally felt out of style every time I stood next to them! They are both so darling! 

I was so excited and searching for Kari (Ucreate) the entire blog conference and finally met her on the last day. She is the nicest ever! She gave me my first big break with my blog by letting me guest post for her. She had been so supportive of me and my blog and I can't thank her enough! She was so sweet in person and took the time to talk to Rach and I for a while even though she was headed to teach one of the classes! Love her!

Ok... These next ladies are definitely on my favorites list- Jennifer, Jamie, and Jodie (eighteen25). I was so in awe to meet these talented ladies because I love everything they create on their blog. Then I started hanging out with them and realized just how fun they are to hang out with! We made late night runs to JCW and laughed our heads off with all the bloggers and their hilarious stories! Loved these ladies!!

Ok... next up is two of my favorite people I met at the conference... Landee and her sis in law Shelly (Landee See Landee Do) OH MY HILARIOUS! Let's just say that these ladies made me laugh harder than I have laughed in a long time! Can you guys adopt me into your fun family?? ha ha Love you ladies!!

I was so excited to meet the fabulous Mique (30 handmade Days) She is another person that has helped my blog along and had given me pointers along the way in my blogging journey! I just love her! She is so talented and so sweet!!

One of the surprises of SNAP was meeting Nikki (Chef in Training)... I believe that at times in your life, certain people come into your life for a reason- I know that I was supposed to meet her. She helped me so much... The first night at SNAP, I was having a hard time (it's been rough since my brother passed away) and I was feeling guilty for leaving my family to do something frivolous like attending a blog conference and I met Nikki and talked her ear off like we were lifelong friends- telling her my troubles and worries... She sat there and listened and let me cry to her while everyone else was having fun (I still feel bad she missed out on all the fun that first night) She is seriously the sweetest person ever! I just love her! And her blog- have you seen it?? Holy Cow... she is amazing! Love you girl!

These 3 ladies are fabulous! Jamielyn (I Heart Naptime), Mallie (DecoArt), Linda (Craftaholics Anonymous). They are all so darling and talented!! I am a total blog-stalker of Jamielyn and Linda's blog so it was so much fun to meet them in real life!!

Meeting Cheri (I Am Momma- Hear Me Roar)was so much fun! She is so so talented and look how gorgeous she is! I didn't recognize her at first and then when I found out who she was I was speechless! I love her blog!!

This next lady needs no introduction in the craft blog world! Jen (Tatertots and Jello) is SO FABULOUS! I was so impressed with how sweet and kind she is in real life! I have emailed her (aka bugged her) a few times and no matter how busy she is she always takes the time to help me out! She is so genuine. I loved meeting her and watching her in action!

Amy (The Idea Room) also needs no introduction! She is so awesome!! I loved meeting her and had so much fun chatting with her. I am so impressed by her. You can just tell she is such a good mom and is so genuine! She is so so talented too! Love reading her blog!

As you can see... I had such a fabulous time at SNAP and it was just the thing I needed right now in my life! Everyone I met was so inspiring. One of the things I loved most is that all of these fabulous ladies/bloggers are just normal people like you and I. They are kind, they care about their readers, and they love what they do. Which is why we all love reading their blogs. 

Thanks to all these fabulous ladies for putting on a wonderful conference! 

Hello Luscious Quilt

My darling baby sister is headed off to college. Even though I live far away from her anyways, it's weird to think that she isn't going to be home when I go home to visit and it is totally so crazy that she is old enough to fly the nest and head out on her own! Seems like yesterday we were playing barbies together! ;) 

(p.s. I am six years older than her... but we both totally look like we are 12 right?!? ha ha)

As a going away present, I made her a comfy quilt to wrap up in when she is homesick and missing us! It worked perfectly that I was coming out for the SNAP conference (post on that to come soon... sorry it's taking so long!) and so I was able to bring her quilt home on the airplane and give it to her in person instead of mailing it to her. She LOVED it! 

I used the a Hello Luscious layer cake (by Basic Grey for Moda) paired with a White Moda layer cake to create the zig zags on the front of the quilt and then I used soft minky fabric on the back so that it is super soft and cuddly! 

I mentioned a few months ago that I have become a quilt addict... This was the first "big" quilt I have ever made... I even did the actual quilting myself too! It isn't perfect but it was made with love:) 

I am loving the way that the quilted zig zags look on the backside of the quilt in the minky fabric! 

This quilt measured 64x80 inches so lucky for me I had the help of my two studly brothers to hold it up for me! Thanks guys! :)

<a border="0" href="http://mommybydaycrafterbynight.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff384/ashleysharee/QuiltAlongButtonMBDCBN.jpg" /></a>

 I am super excited to announce that at the request of some of you readers, I am going to be doing a step by step Zig Zag Quilt Along for the month of June. The quilt will be a quilt similar to this one, but I am only going to use one layer cake and add some borders around the zig zag center to give it a little detail... So be sure to check back for when I announce more and give you the supply list! It is going to be a lot of fun! I am teaming up with my friend Rach from Family Ever After and she will be doing a ruffle quilt step by step as well. At the end we will be doing a link party for everyone to link up their finished quilts! So get ready to get your quilting on!! :)

{Tip}: How to Shorten a Metal Zipper

When I was at my local fabric shop last year, I saw a basket of vintage zippers and fell in love with this pink one. At the time, I didn't really think about how long the zipper was but I went ahead and bought it. Every time I went to use it in a project, I could never use it because it was 20" long. Finally, I came up with a project to use it in, but it was still 6 inches too long. So I decided to figure out how to shorten it. Since it is metal, you can't cut it with scissors like a regular zipper. So with trial and a BIG error, I successfully shortened it and it worked perfectly for my project!

So here is how I did it....

Step 1: Lay your zipper face down and mark where your zipper needs to be shortened to.

Step 2: Use needle nosed pliers to pull out the teeth above where the zipper needs to be shortened. You don't have to pull all of them out, just enough so that you will have room to cut the fabric above.

 Ok... this is where I had a big error so learn from my mistakes!! 

My error was that I forgot to take the crimp/stop off of the top of the zipper and put it back on above where I had removed teeth and cut the fabric. So once I started sewing my zipper onto my little bag, the actual zipper pull flew off and it was super tricky getting it back on correctly! {Like- it took me a half an hour to put it back on! ha ha But maybe I am just not talented when it comes to putting a zipper pull back on though! ha ha}

Step 3: Remove the crimp/stop on top of the zipper on each side and then use your pliers to crimp the zipper stopper back onto the fabric so that the zipper pull stops once it reaches the top of the zipper teeth.

Step 4: Cut your excess zipper off where you have removed the metal teeth. {I used pinking shears to do it so that it wouldn't fray but after the incident of the zipper flying off and me working with it so much to get it back on, it ended up fraying anyways, so just use whatever you have}

So there you have it. A super simple way of shortening a metal zipper! Just be sure to learn from my mistakes before shortening your own metal zipper! :)

The Bustle Bottom Skirt + Tutorial

For Easter this year, I made my girls outfits to wear to church... For my oldest daughter, I made a this dress, and for my youngest, I made this little bustle bottomed skirt...

I have wanted to try something with a bustled look for a while, so Saturday night at about midnight (leave it to me to wait until the last minute) I came up with this skirt...

It was super simple... 

You will need to measure your little gal before buying your fabric. Measure the waist and times that by 2- that will be your width of fabric needed. Then measure from waist to the top of the knee (or wherever you want the length to fall.) You will need to add a few inches to allow for the hem and the waistband casing- and then after calculating that in- add a few inches to create the bustle part. (I hope this makes sense. For mine, I added a half inch for the hem, and inch and a half for the casing (I used 3/4 inch elastic... I like to sew at the top of the casing as well so I needed a little extra for that) and then I added 2 inches for the bustle effect)

Supplies:

-Fabric (amount determined by your measurements)

-elastic for waistband (I used 3/4 inch)

-either elastic thread or you can use 1/4 inch elastic like I did (this is for the bustled part... I only used 12 inches so you don't need much)

Step 1: Zig zag or serge the edges of your fabric (you will only need to do the sides of the fabric since the top and bottom will be finished off with casing and hem)

Step 2: Put your fabric right sides together and sew up the side and then press the seams open.

Step 3: Iron your hem (roll over 1/4 inch and press, then roll over again 1/4 inch and press) 

and casing for waistband (roll over 1/4 inch and press and then whatever width your waist band elastic is be sure to allow a little extra for your to sew and still fit the elastic into the casing).

Step 4: Ok... like I said, I made this at midnight the night before Easter so I had to use what I had on hand so I made do with 1/4 inch elastic... If you are using elastic thread, skip the next few steps and improvise with your elastic thread...

Cut your elastic strips for the bustled part of the skirt. Since my skirt was 30 inches wide, I cut 6 2-inch strips of elastic so I could space them every 5 inches apart. So when cutting yours, decide how many bustles you want, how much you want them to bustle up, etc and then cut your strips the way you want them.

 Step 5: Space and pin your elastic strips evenly around your skirt. (tuck them into the bottom of the skirt and pin) Like I said, mine were spaced every 5 inches.

Step 6: Sew your hem to secure the elastic pieces. This is how it should look when you are done.

 Step 7:Put your presser foot and needle down to hold your first elastic piece in place. Pull the elastic back towards you as far as it will go and mark that place on the fabric with a pin. Then measure and place a pin for each elastic. (mine stretched 3 1/2 inches) Now when you start to sew the elastic while it is stretched, you can see that visual of where it needs to stretch to and it will be even with each of the 6 elastics once they are all sewn. (Your elastic may be bigger or smaller so it may stretch more or less than mine so take your own measurement to see how high to place the pin.)

 Step 8: Sew each of the elastics in place.

Step 9: Sew your casing. Be sure to leave an opening big enough to fit your elastic in. Thread elastic all the way through the casing. (I hook a safety pin to one end to feed it through easier)

Step 10: Put your elastic ends together, one on top of the other, and zig zag back and forth to stitch it closed. Make sure it is not twisted in the casing before sewing it.

Step 11: Once your elastic is sewn closed, pull it all the way into the casing and then stitch the opening of the casing closed.

That's it! :)

Simple Easter Dress + Tutorial

I have had plans to make my two girls Easter dresses for months, but just kept putting it off and putting it off and then when I had to go home for the funeral I thought that there was no way I was going to have time to make them. As I was walking through Joann's this week, I came upon the cutest fabric that was pre-ruffled on the bottom and smocked on the top and my plans of being able to finish dresses in time became a reality. 

I know that these dresses have been around the block a few times now, but this was my first time making them before so bare with me. 

This has to be the easiest thing to make in. the. world. And it looks like you spend to much time and effort to get the look.

The fabric comes like this. All you have to do is sew up the side to create the dress and add straps of some sort. It literally took less than a half hour to make. Umm... I think that is a record for a dress this cute! :)

So here is how I made the dress {for my skinny 3 year old}:

Keep in mind that you are going to have to take your own measurements to come with how much fabric you will need.

SUPPLIES:

-half yard of the pre-ruffle/smocked fabric

-whatever you want to use to make the straps; ribbon, extra fabric, etc.

-thread

To make my dress straps, I bought an extra half yard of the regular matching fabric because I have plans to make a skirt for my baby to match this dress {pictures and tutorial to come soon}.

Step 1: Zig zag or serge the raw edges of the sides of the fabric.

Step 2: Put the fabric right sides together and sew up the side to create the dress part. {forgot to take a picture of this step, but I think ya can figure it out ;)}

Step 3: Measure how wide and long you want the straps to be. For my little gal, I cut two strips of fabric that were 3 inches side and 10 inches long. {Keep in mind that you will be folding your straps in half so double your width.} Once your fabric is cut, take one of the fabric pieces and fold it in half (hotdog wise) right sides together and sew up the side of the raw edges creating a tube. Do this for the other piece of fabric too.

Step 4: Turn the tube right side out and and iron flat so that the seam is centered (instead of on the edge) so that you won't see it once the straps are flipped over.

Step 5: Try the dress on your daughter and pin the straps onto the dress so you can see where they need to be sewn. Carefully take the dress off her while the pins are still in.

Step 6: Sew the straps in place.

That's it!