Nursing cover tutorial...

Last year when I was pregnant with my daughter a friend pulled out one of these nursing cover type of things and then nursed her baby but could still see the baby.  She didn't even have to worry that the baby was going to suddenly rip the blanket off!  I thought it was a great idea especially when you live somewhere hot and sweltering like I do.  Then the baby won't be hot with a blanket on them and they are protected from the hot sun too.  I used this for a car seat cover sometimes too.  I decided to just figure out how to make my own since we don't have a store here in Japan that I can just pop in and buy one of these. 


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Little girls purse tutorial and Play Makeup...

Every girl needs a purse of her makeup!  So I saw this adorable tutorial for play makeup and thought it would make the perfect gift for a little girl.  But if you have makeup then you need a makeup pouch and of course you need a purse for the makeup pouch (my husband hates this kind of girl logic)

So I started by making the makeup.  Because when you are going to start making a little girls purse the most logical thing would be to mess with wet, smelly nail polish.  Right?  It was super easy.  I actually had to buy the containers since I did not have bunch laying around.  I got them at the 100 yen store which is like the Japanese dollar store.  But if the economy is bad it's like the Japanese $1.18 store because of the exchange rate.  Nice.



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Dresser Makeover

So our family is getting ready to move back to America this summer.  You know what that means?  It means that we have NO furniture for our four kids bedrooms.  When we moved here to Japan 6 years ago the government just gave us furniture to use instead of letting us bring any since it cost so much to ship it over here.  Which means that when we leave we have to give back everything and our poor kids will be sleeping on the floor and putting their clothes in laundry baskets.  Anyway since we have a few months I figured that I better start finding some furniture to redo for cheap instead of waiting until we move and add finding new dressers for kids onto the stress of getting a house and cars and moving.

I found this dresser set for my daughters bedroom a few weeks ago for cheap.  Plus it was all wood. Only problem is that it was icky.

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Tutu Tutorial...

I love tutus.  In fact I really wish that I could wear them to the grocery store with a tiara.  But I'm pretty sure people would gawk and stare.  At least more then they do already.

So this is what you will need. 1 roll of tulle.  I used a 100 yard roll of baby pink from papermart.com.  It's 6 inches wide.  Some ribbon (grosgrain because I find the satin too slippery) some scissors and something rectangle.



First start by measuring around the tutu recipients tummy.  I chose to do this while my recipient was distracted.



Then tie 2 knots.  One on each end where the ribbon meets.  You want to leave extra ribbon after the knots so you can tie the tutu onto the little girl when the tutu is finished.  I like to leave about 15 inches on each side.   It's better to have too much ribbon that you can cut off later then too little.



Then start rolling your tulle around your rectangle.  I chose this paper holder because it was about as long as I wanted the tutu.  Wrap around and around until you think you have enough tulle for your tutu. You can also find a more detailed tulle cutting tutorial here: Fast way to cut tulle



Then cut the tulle once.



Now tie your ribbon around the box.


I like my tutus super poofy.  I think that a girl can never have a poofy enough tutu.  So I take two pieces of the tulle and stack them on each other.  Then you fold the 2 pieces in half and push it underneath the ribbon so it looks like this.



Then take the bottom parts of the tulle and put it over the ribbon and through the little hole.



Then pull down until it's tight but not too tight.  You don't want to tear your tulle.



The very first piece I usually tie into a little knot so that it doesn't slide off over the knot in the ribbon.



Then repeat the same process but don't make a knot.  Now it should look like this.



Now repeat 800 or so times. Until your tutu looks like this!



So pretty!



Now tie the ends into a little bow.



Now go find your tutu recipient and show her the new fancy tutu she has.  Be jealous that you aren't
under the age of 6 and can get away with wearing a tutu and tiara to the grocery store.
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Fast, easy way to cut 6 inch tulle...

After 3 boys I finally had a girl last year.  One of the first things I decided to make her was a tutu.  Then I found out one of the ultimate tutu making truths.  As soon as one little girl has a tutu every little girl that you know is going to want one.  The tutu making is fast.  The tulle cutting was NOT.  I was measuring and cutting it each separately and it took FOREVER.  Then one day a lightbulb finally went off and I found something in my house to use as a template for cutting the tulle.

Now go walk around your house and find something rectangular that is the length plus about one inch as you want your tutu to be.



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