Rosie's Feeling Generous!

I have been so excited for this giveaway. I have blogged about Rosies before. Rosies is the brainchild of my sister and her daughter, but I promise you...I rave about their stuff because it's adorable, not because I'm biased! If you get to know Deana and Brandi (read the purpose of their name- it's about my mama) you will quickly see that we're cut from the same cloth (no pun intended). Just like me they are all about taking a little piece of nothing and turning it into something adorable. Just like me they would rather take something old and turn it into something new.

Just yesterday at church a girl came up to me and asked where she could find the cute little chef's outfit that we had at our outdoor fair. Rosies....duh!
Another of my neighbors commissioned them to make up some college tutu's. This one is from the University of Utah, but they can replicate what ever school you choose.


Well, and.....I don't know what's cuter....Max or the bow tie. Is that BYU Max??? Tsk,tsk,tsk!

It is your lucky day because Brandi and Deana are offering you a free gift card for 20$ to go towards anything in their shop! That's right....ANYTHING! They've got a bunch of cute stuff, so be excited.

Here's the deal..... to enter you must

• visit their shop and then post a comment here on my blog about what you think their cutest item is.

For additional entries you can

• Become a follower of my blog
• Become a follower of their blog They choose one of their followers every month as a winner of something in their shop too, so that's a good thing to do.
• Heart their etsy shop
• Tell your facebook friends about the giveaway.

Make sure you leave a comment below for each entry, telling me what you did (facebooked about it, etc). Also leave an email address or some way to contact you in one of your comments!

This giveaway will end Friday the 13th at midnight.

Good luck!!

How To Make Cute Butter

"Do Your Part To Make Your Butter A Cuter Food To Eat!"

Most of us have a fancy dinner coming up soon. If you are like me, you have already started thinking of ways to make it special for your family. I thought I'd share one of our children's favorite parts of Thanksgiving dinner.......CUTE BUTTER!

You begin with a plastic candy mold and room temperature butter. I used to have a turkey mold, but I can't find it, so I found a rose one that works almost as well.

Fill the mold with the soft butter. Make sure to get it in all the little nooks and holes of your mold.

Pop it in the freezer and in about 15 minutes it will be ready to pop out of the mold. I just turn the mold over and hit it down onto the counter. They usually fall right out, if not just keep whacking....they'll eventually fall out.

And there you've got it.....

CUTE BUTTER!

Holy Photography Batman!

You HAVE to check this out.....my skirts have never looked so cute! Tammy Mitchell is hosting a product review and giveaway of one of my skirts on her photoblog. Amazing talent Tammy!

Midwest Adorable meet SoCal Cutie!

I've got the cutest customers in the whole world.

Just look at these little dolls!

Here's my cute little friend Viv, who lives in Michigan.

Her mommy, Jennifer, has dubbed me Viv's honorary

"Auntie Bobbi". That just tickles me. They bought this

outfit for a photo shoot and...oh my goodness those pictures

turned out so, so cute. You can see her whole shoot at

captureproductions.typepad.com.

This little So-CAl cutie is the daughter of Tammy from

Tammymitchellphotography.com.

Tammy is doing a product review and giveaway for me right this very minute on her web site. This girl, Tammy, is one talented

photographer. I could sit and look at her pictures forever.

She even makes mac-n-cheese look good.

Thanks girls for sending me your pics.

It makes me happy:)

Cut It Out!

A month or so ago, Scissors and I went window shopping at Urban Outfitters. (For those new to my blog, "Scissors" is my 15 year old daughter who loves to cut up all of our old clothes and turn them into new clothes). We love their funky, outside of the box kinda clothing. The problem is that it seems like their cutest things are almost always immodest, so we rarely shop there. We just look, get ideas and then go home to recreate them in a more modest version.

Well, on that particular hunting trip we came across an adorable embellishment idea, but it was spread across a tank so tiny that you could see the girls (not my girls..."the" girls) and all their neighbors!!

So, I took about an hour tonight and turned a plain T into something

not quite so plain and definitely unique.
First I cut the neck band off which took it from sporty
to something a little more feminine. The great thing about
knit fabric is that it doesn't fray. For this particular look you don't
need to re-enforce it or hem it, just cut away. The original shirt
also had raw edges.

Taking a cue from my girls, who always cut a V into their t-shirt
necks, I too cut a little notch in the middle of the neckline.


Next I ironed "Wonder Under" on the back side of a large rectangle of cotton. I didn't measure, but you will get the whole size idea in the coming pictures.


Lay the cotton on top of your t-shirt and cut a rough pattern of the neckline. You don't have to be precise at all because in just one minute you are going to cut the heck out of it and you can fiddle with it throughout the process to get it right where you want it to be.

pardon the fuzzy picture, I'm still kind of shaky from the flu.

Now the fun part begins. Cut a random, uneven shape all around the outer edge, then cut little holes out of the center as shown below.

fuzzy again, sorry!

I took it up and over the shoulders as well so that it spills out a little on the back.

Next, you peel the Wonder Under off of the back side.

Position it exactly where you want it on the shirt and iron

it on. You could stop there, but I think it looks

tacky if you don't sew it on as well. So.....

Rev up the old machine and stitch along the center of the whole embellishment piece. Clip all of your threads and there you have it... a unique little T.


I think it will be cute under a Levi jacket with some silver jewelry, or with a big old fabric flower pinned to one side. I saved the neck for just this reason, but haven't gotten around to turning it into a flower. Just think of all the applications for this. You could do it all around the hem of a T or down the sleeves. You could punch it up with color, use patterned fabric as I did or go with plain fabric. The possibilities are endless. Now you go out and try it and remember what Scissors says, "don't be afraid to cut"!

She Lives!

Hallelujah, raise the roof, I'm better!

All my poor little forgotten customers who have been

waiting for your orders, wait no more. They are finished

and flying to you as I type.

I also just put a couple of brand new skirts in the shop.

Well, they aren't brand new, both of them were made before

I got the flu, they've just been waiting patiently

to be adored!

The Black and White one I call "Opposites Attract" because it is such a mix

of taylored, clean lines and funky, raw edge ruffles. I love the waist tie, which is

meant to be tied just like Daddy's necktie. Everytime I look at this skirt it

reminds me of something you would see in Urban Outfitters. Classy and hip, all at the same time.

Then there's this little baby! Holy cow, there's so much

twirlability in this skirt your little girl will be absolutely giddy

(probably dizzy too)!!

Do you want to know the trick to super twirly skirts????

Each panel is slightly triangular!

Now you know!

Livin' The Swiney Life

Now Daddy has it.......ARRRRRGH!

That's 5 out of 6