Duncan's not the only one that makes Yo-Yo's

When Mr. Mac and I first started dating, he learned how to do several basic tricks with a good old Duncan Yo-Yo.  I remember watching him and my roommates boyfriend (husband now) do tricks like Walk the Dog, The Sleeper and Rock the Baby.  He even had a cool light-up one!  We still have several of those old Yo-Yo's laying around. And I even have a Duncan Glow-in-the-Dark Yo-Yo from my childhood!

I recently learned how to make a different kind of Yo-Yo out of fabric.  This is a GREAT way to use up some old fabric scraps.  It's also an easy 'take-a-long' project to do while you are waiting on your child during dance class or a sport practice.  There are many things you can do with these once made.  Recently, I made several hair clips out of them for our church's 'Martha's Market' sale. 

First, cut a circle from fabric.  The circle size depends on how large or small you want your Yo-Yo, I prefer a 6 inch circle and I just use an regular kitchen bowl to trace around on the fabric.

Next, fold over the edge about 1/4 inch and sew a running stitch along the edge.  Make sure you have enough thread to go around the whole circle and make sure the knot at the beginning is secure.

Once you sew all around the edge, start to pull the thread and gather the fabric.

Keep gathering until it makes a small circle and sew a few stitches to tack it in place and hold the gathers.  And there you have a Yo-Yo!

You can leave it like this, but I like to sew a large button or two in the middle and cover the hole.  I then take this and glue to a covered alligator clip to make a hair bow.

Here are several clips I made for the church sale.

'What I Wore' Wednesday - Stripes, Stripes & Polka Dots

So, who's up for a little pattern mixing?  I just love to mix and match patterns together and most of the time I think it works.

Here are two outfits I wore recently that demonstrate the idea.  It might be hard to tell from the pictures, but the button up is navy and white pin stripes

 Cardi-Hollister (via consignment - Plato's Closet); Shirt-American Eagle, jeans-Old Navy; shoes- Converse (via Target)

Next I mixed two strips and a little polka-dots in.

 Dress-Pink; Polka-dot button-up-Lands End Canvas; striped tee-Old Navy (thrifted); necklace-?? (thrifted); skinnies-Loft; boots-Aldo

So, how'd I do?  Were these hits or misses?
 

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Potato Soup

Every Monday at our house is soup night.  I typically make the soup Sunday morning and then just heat it up on Monday.  This is my recipe for potato soup.

Ingredients:
1 bag Oreida Steam and Mash potatoes
2 cans of Vegetable broth
1 Vidala onion, chopped
2 cups of shredded cheddar
2 tbs Dijon Mustard

Dice the onions and saute in a pan with olive oil until they are slightly brown.  While you are doing this, cook the mash potatoes in the microwave and prepare according to directions on bag.

Put potatoes and onions in medium size pot.

Pour in vegetable broth and add 2 tbs Dijon mustard.  Stir everything together and  bring to a simmer.  Simmer for 15 minutes.

Add 2 cups of shredded cheddar and stir in.  (I usually save a little of the two cups for garnish.)

Let simmer for about 15 minutes more and that's it!  The longer it simmers, the thinner the soup gets. If you want a thicker soup add less broth and don't simmer as long.

You can substitute chicken broth for the vegetable broth and you can also peel potatoes and make mashed potatoes from scratch if you like.  This soup also freezes well.  I sometimes double the recipe and freeze half for later.

Wine Cork Wreath

Here's a really neat wreath and a GREAT way to recycle all those old wine corks.  Don't worry, if you don't drink enough wine to save enough corks, a quick search on Ebay and you can buy boxes of corks for relatively cheap.  That's what I did!

Here is what you need....
Wine corks
Styrofoam wreath
Hot glue gun

I started on the outside edge by hot gluing corks all the way around. I use wax paper under anything I glue, so there is no chance of gluing it to the table.

Next, I added a second and third row to the outside and then did the same on the inside.

Then I just filled in the middle arranging the corks as I went.  If you need to, you can cut a cork in half to make the circle around complete.

That's it, pretty simple and quick to  make!  I chose not to add a bow or any ribbon, I liked the simplicity of just the corks.

'What I Wore' Wednesday - Navy and Green

Navy & Green...could a color combination get much better?  I have always liked these two colors and well..lately I seem to be pairing them up more and more.

When I was little, it was popular to have a sweater with your initials embroidered on the front.  Typically, they were worn with matching pants.  The sweaters were just a simple crew-neck cotton sweater, but the initials made them 'special'.  I was lucky enough to be given an outfit like this one year for Christmas from my godparents.  I was so excited to wear it and guess what?!?!  The sweater was navy with my initials in kelly green and the matching pants, well... they were kelly green too.  Wish I still had that little outfit.....

Whale scarf-Urban Outfitters, stripe ls tee-Old Navy, Navy Sweater-Lands End Canvas, skirt-Tommy Hilfiger, tights-Kate Spade (new via consignment-Plato's Closet), boots-Bandolini

Now this has got me thinking...I do have some kelly geen pants and a navy sweater.  I also happen to have an embroidery machine, perhaps I 'could' have that outfit again?

Hippie Flower Headband

Here is a pretty simple flower headband that you can make in less than an hour!  I made mine with felt, but any fabric will work.

Here is what you need for the one I made:
Two sheets of felt
Scissors
Elastic Headband
Glue gun
Something round to trace around
Marker
Dowel or pencil

Start by tracing around your circular object, I used the top one of my spray cans of paint.  Then just cut out a stack of circles.  I cut out 15, but ended up only using 12.  I used two colors of yellow felt.

Lay one circle on your table, this will be the bottom of the flower.  Using a pencil or dowel, wrap another circle around it.  Put a dot of hot glue on the tip and press it into the middle of the circle on your table.

Continue in this manner filling in around the bottom circle.  You may need to glue some of the circles together to get the shape/design you want.

Next turn your flower over and hot glue another circle to the bottom, this is to cover up anything and to add extra support. 

Next hot glue the headband across the back and cover with a rectangular piece of felt to secure.

And there you have a totally cool hippie headband!!

If you didn't want to make a headband, you could also glue this to a pin back and make it into a pin or glue it to an alligator clip for a cool hair clip.