Addicted to Re-Purposing

I should thank my friend Ginny who introduced me to that re-purposing blog I mentioned in my last post, but my new found love for re-purposing projects is becoming an addiction so today I made one last fall outfit for Hallie and have called it quits for a while as I put my sewing machine back in it's bin and bid farewell as I had to reintroduce myself to my children again since these projects have consumed a lot of my time :( And I vow I won't touch my sewing machine until Halloween costume time, which is soon approaching already!?

But before jumping to my sad but needed farewell to my sewing machine, I of course tried some of the Make It and Love It blog's other re-purposing projects.

I turned this Hollister shirt from Goodwill (I had already started cutting when I realized I needed a before picture)...


into this long-sleeve shirt for Hallie with added ruffles on the front (sorry it's sideways)...


Here's what it looks like on. And notice the white and gray striped leggings, I made those as well from another lifeless shirt.

When you put the two together this is what you get, a dang cute fall outfit for my preschooler.

What Do You Do With an Old Shirt?

I had this old shirt that I've outgrown a little in the sleeves, but it's still in really good condition and I didn't want to give it away, so I stumbled upon my new favorite blog called "Make it and Love it" which taught me how to re-purpose this old shirt into a dress for Hallie which she is in desperate need of.

Here's before...
Here's after...

It was so easy and I'm not a great sewer and the whole project took about an hour and a half! I added cuteness with the flower I made from some of the extra fabric from the shirt. I just bunched up the flower the way I wanted it to look, then hand-sewed the stem part to the dress.

I'm off to Goodwill to see if I can find a sweater to re-purpose into a winter dress!

An hour later... I went to Goodwill and found the below Old Navy shirt, size XL, believe it or not, and I made it work. So in case you were wondering it doesn't matter the size of the shirt since you cut it down anyway to fit your child. However, having said that, because it was a bigger shirt, I did have to hem the neckline a little and I didn't want to have to cut into it cause I could see how that could become a nightmare, so I just doubled it up in front and covered the hem with two big buttons and waa laa it looked like it was meant to be!

And bonus, the shirt was 50% off at Goodwill today, so I paid $2 for the shirt, how can you beat that?!

I didn't take a before picture, but here's after... and yes, I made the belt from the extra fabric from one of the arms. Hallie really wanted a belt so there you have it.

Drake's... Meet the Voge's Neck of the Woods

After we all spent a week in Michigan for Ryan's homecoming, it was time for the girls and I to drive back home and we took Justin, Brittany, Ryan and Stacey with us to our house for a week to show them where we live! This is one of the perks about living within driving distance from my parents, it was so much fun showing them our house and our city. The first thing out of Justin's mouth when we arrived at our house was, "I'll try not to eat you out of house and home," and I must say, he kept his promise and if you know Justin, eating is one of his many hobbies :) But we did eat a lot of good food the week they were here.

The first night, we took them to a Tin Caps baseball game with fireworks at the end. During the game, Justin caught a ball and so did Cameron who gave the ball to Sydnee. We had the best "foul ball" seats! The fireworks at the end were so pretty over the city skyline.

At the end of the game, we all got to run the bases and Justin and Ryan were planning on sliding into home plate, but as they let us on the field, the workers told them, "No sliding into home!" I can't believe they said that right as Justin was heading on the field, it must have been written all over his and Ryan's faces. Here's the gang waiting to run the bases: Cam and Sydnee, Stacey and Hallie, and Justin and Ryan at the end.

Here they are crossing home plate...

Here's a video of them crossing home plate:

Brittany, Stacey and I kept busy doing crafts like making necklaces, a clock from old CD's and other crafts.

I caught Justin giving our clocks a second coat of paint... there's a crafty man hidden deep down inside of him, and here's proof!

We took them to the disc golf course to play and Justin and Ryan got hooked.

We went swimming at the beach too and we had the beach all to ourselves which was so fun!

Justin and Brittany reenact the water scene in Dirty Dancing...


We tried catching little minnows in the water, and while Cam and I were focused on catching one, Hallie screamed, "Look Mom! I caught it!" We were stunned thinking she had caught a fish, but she had put a leaf in her cup with rocks at the bottom and said, "I finally caught a leaf!" It was so funny.
We laughed a ton (thanks to Justin and Ryan's witty humor), sometimes at their expense, but it was so much fun and before we knew it, it was time for them to leave back to Michigan for a few more days before heading back out to school. Hallie cried pretty hard when they left. It makes me wish we lived so much closer to everyone, but I'm so grateful for the time we spent with them. Thanks Justin, Brittany, Ryan and Stacey for visiting us at our neck of the woods, we'll miss you guys, see you at Christmas!!

Uncle Ryan's Homecoming!

My brother Ryan came home from his Spanish-speaking mission in Colorado Springs, CO a couple weeks ago and we were able to be there at the airport when he arrived home! A couple days before we left, Hallie and Sydnee made "Welcome Home" signs for Uncle Ryan to hold up at the airport for him. Here's Hallie holding up her sign, she looks tired because she is. His plane was supposed to land at 9:00pm but missed his connection so he got on the next flight which didn't arrive in Detroit until close to 11:00pm but despite it being so late the girls were such great troopers and were as happy as could be. No, we didn't give them sugar or drugs to keep them happy, just lots of happy thoughts! haha.

Welcome home Uncle Ryan!!

Ryan's homecoming brought all of the Drake family back together again. My brother Justin and his wife Brittany flew in for his homecoming as well for a couple weeks. While we were in Michigan, my Mom taught Brittany and I how to frost and decorate cakes. Hallie was so happy to be reunited with Aunt Brittany again, she has missed her dearly since her's and Justin's wedding last year, so every chance Hallie got, she was at Brittany's side.



We visited the Detroit Zoo where Syd and Uncle Justin became best buds. Sydnee's saying, "Cheeeese" in the picture, so exaggerated but so dang cute.

Hallie's favorite exhibit was the polar bear exhibit, where we saw the sea lions, polar bears and the penguins. There was a wall of ice that you could touch to feel how cold it really is where polar bears live.







played cards, "1,2,3, Myself" (a game we made up when we were kids, it was fun acting 10 again!) and Sardines (a favorite of Brittany's). In between the fun I had to come up with some fun ways to entertain the girls. Hallie wanted to play in the water one day really badly so my Mom and I went to so many stores looking for little pools or sprinkler's and they were all sold out so we got creative and luckily the girls had a blast...


Papa missed his girls...


We played lots of ping pong and air hockey and in case you were wondering who that other guy is next to Ryan, he's Justin and Ryan's number one fan, Michael Corless. He was at the house just as much as the rest of us were, he just went home to sleep every night, but we had so much fun with him there too!


While we were all together, we visited the Detroit temple and since my Dad is a temple worker he got to officiate the session we were in which was so neat. Cam wasn't able to be there since he had to go back home to work for the week, but we missed him terribly! I like how the side that my Mom is on is so posed with their hands perfectly placed on each other's arms, and on my Dad's side we're just standing... can you tell which of us hating taking yet another picture!?

Speaking of pictures, it's not a Drake reunion without family pictures.

Sydnee's classic "Cheeeese" face...