DIY Sweater Slippers

While cleaning up Princess Petunia's room the other day I can across a large tote with a whole passel of clothes that was gifted to us from a lovely family we know whose daughters had grown out of them. Most of it was for Princess Petunia. Jammies and cute little jumpers. All for next year! Yay!

There were even a few things for Princess Peony. She found a sweater and decided instead of wearing it, she would try a project she had seen somewhere on Pinterest. She hadn't pinned it but had read through the post and kept the idea in her head.

She disappeared to her crafting area (aka: Her Room) for 40 minutes, appearing once to ask wear the glue gun had gone and wear did I put all those flip flops from last summer. She then came up sporting these!

Sweater Slippers!

Aren't They Cute!?

I didn't even know what she was making or I would have documented! So here is the quick and dirty version. I'm sure you could make these even nicer and neater but I like them just like this. We kinda like messy and homemade around these parts. :) I think I need to find myself an old sweater.....

Cut the long sleeves off of an old sweater. She cut on the seam.

I think this was a size large sweater. She is slim so a plus size sweater might work better for a plus size mom. Like ME!

 

She lined the sweater arm with quilt batting. Once it was measured she hot glued it to the inside of the sweater arm.

 *mom note: I think if you turned the arm inside out and then glued you could just flip it right side out. Much easier. Also, don't line the entire length of the arm. Only line half of it so you can cuff the other half down. Like so:

Notice the sweater seams? That is the 'wrist' section of the sweater arm folded down to the 'ankle' of the sweater slipper.

Here is wear the flip flops come in.

*mom note: The thong part of the sandal should be ripped out so you just have a 'sole'. Otherwise it could get uncomfortable unless of course you put batting over it. You decide! :) Pull the shoulder section of the sweater arm over the sole and glue in place. This is messy but it's on the bottom of your foot so that is okay!  :)

DIY Sweater Slippers
One old sweater with arms cut off ( I would use a tightly knit sweater with some seams.)
One pair of old flip flops
Cotton  quilt batting
glue gun

Cut the sleeves off of an older sweater. Turn these inside out. Hot glue quilt batting half way up the sweater arm and all the way around it. Make sure you are gluing from the 'shoulder' of the sweater to the half way point. Once dry, flip the arm right side out. Rip out the thong piece in your flip flop (if you want). Pull the 'shoulder' of the sweater (now lined with the batting) over the bottom of the flip flop and glue in place. Slide onto your leg and fold the top of the sweater, the 'wrist' portion , down. Like a very long cuff. At this point you can glue the cuff down if you want. We also thought some buttons sewn on the side seam would be really cute.  Experiment with it!

This pic is awful but they really look adorable with her leggings and a tunic.

 Any questions on my totally uncrafty explanation please jot below and I will try to explain better!

Let me know how it goes and what coolness you added to make them your very own creation!

Always Blessed,
Gretchen :)

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Attempting Organized Planning

I love planning. I like lists of any kind. I love beautiful, crisp pages printed with lovely colored designs. I like to see headings and titles with lines to fill in. I am a sucker for binder with quotes and calendars. I like to color code things and have labeled tabs and dividers.

Those are quotes and a couple love notes from my boys. :)

I like to search out the best of the best for planning pages provided by other planner type people. I have been known to even make my own if I can not find what I am looking for. I poured over websites all summer trying to find ways to make myself more organized. I printed and printed and printed some more! Determined to Be Organized.

Isn't it pretty?

 
With a family of seven, kids coming and going, husband working out of the zipcode most of the time and a homeschool I Need Organization.

I need a plan. I need a piece of paper I can checkmark things off of to say I accomplished something today other that brushing oatmeal out of Petunia's hair and duct taping the sink hose together. I need some guidance that says in non-threatening terms 'Number three under cleaning isn't checkmarked! Please clean the sheets this week!' or 'Prince Ray really needs to clean the cobwebs from his entire room and since he is out of underwear perhaps he could pick up his dirty clothes and place them in the laundry room.' I need to be reminded that the four loads of dishes, 3 loads of clothes hung on the line, bathroom cleaning, meals made, devotion read, homeschool lessons half finished and a moment of scheduled quiet time is A Great Day.

One of 10 calendars in my School Planner... yes 10.

I love lists. I have made lists since I could write. I suppose it helps me break down the million things that are in my mind into useable and workable mini-goals. Then I can systematically check them off or postpone them if I am feeling a bit like Scarlett O'Hara and don't want to think about it till tomorrow.

I do organizing chaotically. Often I have three list going at one time. Not the most productive to some folks but things do get done. Especially when I make Kid Cleaning Lists! :)

The problem is that I love the pretty printables but I can't make them all work. Out of all those beautifully colored daily goal sheets I printed in August when I was determined to break up my day and use every minute wisely I have used two. I couldn't schedule in the time to fill them out! I ended up changing my homeschool weekly planner sheet three times and I am still not completely satisfied. I have tried to plan menus and I just can not be disciplined enough to follow through! What if I don't want to make beef stew on Thursday?! What if we have unexpected company or the basketball game goes late and I can't make spaghetti and sauce?! I have then failed to follow the schedule and then I feel like I have personally failed. I need to find a chaotic-friendly, flexible, organization sheet. For everything.

Notice its is only half filled out... December was a bit lax...

With the coming of the end of the year and the continuation of our homeschool year starting up again in January I got the organizer itch. AGAIN. I'd like to challenge myself to do some more during the day that I want to get done and be okay with what I don't get done. I want to hone those three lists down to one I can manage.

So is planning is it not?

So I began the search and thought I'd share what I found!


If you Blog, here is a nice, simple, free, weekly planning sheet from Living Locurto! Or you could just sit down and write completely unplanned stuff like me....

Find it here.

This is a pretty basic Daily Goals sheet for free. Find it at Life's a Journal!

Freebie!

Plan of Attack for your day! I love these and they are customizable! Thank you Jessalyn at Desiring Virtue!

They come in many colors, too!

Also customizable are the Daily Docket sheets from Money Saving Mom!

Customize!!!

Gricefully Homeschooling has a Mom's Everything To Do List!

A sweet looking little list sheet. I like it!

This is the one for me. I have fallen head over heels with the simplicity of it. And it prints in black and white. ;) Thank you Ann Voskamp from A Holy Experience for the freebie.

Planning Love.

I will sip my morning coffee and fill out my Day's Draft.

I will set daily goals.

I will try to finish it all in the few hours we have during our turn in the sun.

And if I don't complete it... God will forgive my messiness.


Always Blessed,
Gretchen :)

 This post was featured at:

The WholeHearted Home!

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Wholehearted Home
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The GingerMan Cookie *Recipe!

GingerMan Cookies!

My personal decorating abilities leave much to be desired.

 Last week one evening we had a gingerbread party. It was full of ruckus and loud boisterous chatting amongst The Littles. Eggs were beat and flour sifted. Molasses was tasted and brown sugar measured. Raisins and mini M&Ms sprinkled my floor. We read two books and had Cookies With Supper! A good time was had by all!

The pans look like they have seen better days...

Soup, homemade bread, and cookies for supper!

He looks a bit like The Blob, but a GingerMan is hidden beneath that Maple Glaze exterior.

Find It Here!

They had been begging me to make 'GingerMan' cookies ever since we pulled out the Christmas Book Box and read through The Gingerbread Man by Jim Aylesworth and Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett. I have hesitated to make the little men the last few years because they never eat them! They like the idea of decorating little people but they don't like the richness and heartiness of gingerbread and so I end up eating them all. :/

Find it here!

This year, though, I caved and we pulled out all the ingredients and on a whim used the recipe from the back of the book. Mostly because Sir Bean really, really wanted to make the little yellow trousered, blue jacketed, GingerMan that stars in The Gingerbread Man and it came with a recipe. He gave me the eyes and upon looking at the recipe I decided it a worthy trial run cookie.

So Glad we did! It was perfect! They have emptied the Jar in one week! Perhaps their tastes are changing due to us eating less refined foods?! {Secretly Jumping For Joy!}

Oh So Empty!

And So with Full Credit given to Jim Aylesworth I give you:

  

The Best GingerMan Cookie

 Sift into a big bowl and mix:

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon gound cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

Beat together in another bowl:

1 lg egg

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

2/3 cup dark molasses

6 Tablespoons softened butter

Add dry ingredients slowly to the wet mixture until well blended. Cover and refriderate for one hour. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Use flour on your rolling pin and cutting board to keep dough from sticking. Roll out a portion of the dough 1/4 inch thick. Cut out your GingerMen with a floured cookie cutter. Decorate with Raisins, M&Ms, chocolate chips and whatever else you can think of! Place 1 inch apart on a buttered cookie sheet and bake 8 minutes or until slightly firm to touch. Cool on pan one minute and then transfer to wire rack (if you have one :)) 

We did decorate some of our men with a simple Maple Glaze.

Maple Glaze

They smelled so good!

1 Cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon maple extract

water

In a small bowl add sugar and extract. Slowly add water a little bit at a time until you have a thick pasty glaze. Spread on cookies and let harden. Can add decorations to the glaze before it hardens. :)

No, they are not aliens or cyclops. They are GingerMen.

  
Try them and let me know what you think!



Always Blessed,
Gretchen :)

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Wholehearted Home

A Messy House Means I'm Okay

My house has been kind of messy lately. Not dirty or grimy. Not problematic. Just kind of messy. Which in my world is a really good thing.

I am an emotional cleaner. When life gets tough I clean like physician pre-surgery. It is my way of thinking things out. The Hubs even knows its been a rough time when he comes home to a house that is fairly glowing in lemon and oil dust spray and orange vinegar.

So, how was school today, honey? I see you are scrubbing the picture frames and detailing the electronics....

In my B.C. life (Before Christ) I could be found cleaning the tile grout in the bathroom with a bottle of wine for company at 3 AM. I went through a time when I felt I had to clean mirrors and dust the end tables daily! My children have all been trained in quite well and when my oldest daughter was about 2 she would 'vacuum' and wash floors with me. We clean.

Cleaning for me is therapeutic. I can think things through or avoid thinking things through. While I am taking apart the fridge and digging old, spilled, jelly out of the veggie drawer I can try to work through some solutions to the problem. The more problems= the more washed walls.

Slightly messy and disorganized is a good thing. I am either too busy teaching my lovely children, running our family taxi service, Gretch-cab, or I'm just in a pretty good place emotionally and I don't need to be working the junk out.

I have been striving to trust the LORD with my burdens and let go of the worries. He tells us that we need to trust Him to provide; so there are NO worries.

Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
 “Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! ~Luke 12:26-28

My Lord will take on my concerns and problems. My illness and my frustration. My weeping heart over a child. My raging anger because I felt wronged. He will connect himself to my mess and carry it for me. I am far to weak to do it on my own.

"...Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” ~Matthew 11:29-30

He even commands us to bear others up and help them with their troubles. Or to be the one that is helped...

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.~ Galatians 6:2

So this I know.

Then this week happened. One little pile of stuff that threw me for a loop, on top a stack of yuckiness in the form of a phone call, placed next to frustrating eek, and covered with some family holiday planning and I am entering into the Twilight Zone of cleaning cravings.

My week crescendos into a full sized master mess party today at my sister's house. I will love seeing all my sibs and family again for another Big Family Style Eatfest. The kids will play and be loud and obnoxious. We will visit and laugh till our stomachs hurt and drink copious amounts of hot coffee. It will be divine.

It will also be hard. I will see my Pa for the first time in quite some time. It will be awkward and we will discuss the weather. We will chat about football that he used to hate. We will politely describe how all the children are doing. We will NOT discuss many things.

I love him. I miss him. Somewhere in the business of my parents divorce we all lost him. He is just a mystery. He is just kinda not there... or here... He has a new life with very close connections and we have never many any except his wife.

I wish we all knew him better. Like when we were kids. When he would point out stars to us and give them names. When he used to pluck bits of pretty flowers from the roadside and tell us the names of them. When we were young he was gone a lot, but on Friday nights in the summer he would give us wagon rides and challenge us to catch fireflies. He would stand in the front yard, beer in hand, and throw a ratty ball to whichever dog we happened to have at that time. I think Sammy was his favorite.
We would make him carrot cake for his birthday and he always said, I don't know. Oh, Okay a little piece. And then eat two. He would make meat spreads and put them on saltines and leave crumbs everywhere. Coffee black. Tuna smothered in mayo with potato chips on mom's homemade bread. Dancing at weddings. The Teal Suit for church on Sundays.

Ah. When did life change so much? My children don't know that man. It is sad. It is however all to often a part of life, is it not? I turn to My Father in Heaven to help me wade through this miry place.

Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.  Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.  Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.  For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future.  There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism,  and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all. ~Ephesians 4:1-6


Be Patient, Gretchen. Be Forgiving. Be Humble in spirit. Pray. Breathe. Love.

Love him where he's at.

Love.

...not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these..

Always Blessed,
Gretchen :)

Possibly Linking With:
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Raising Arrows 

Modest Mom Blog 

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