Easy No Sew Fabric Wreath Tutorial-- Impatient Craftaholic Series

Ahhh, fabric...it's beautiful isn't it? But sometimes you don't WANT to sew but you want to get your hands on that pretty fabric. Or you need a quickie project? Well, here you go!

I shall teach you how to create a nifty NO SEW fabric wreath. No ironing either (unless you're just a slob with fabric and well, then...you deserve to have to iron for that fabric abuse.).


Seriously, SUPER EASY wreath that looks like you spent a fortune.


To help those with slower internet, I've uploaded this tutorial with more details on Flickr. Let me know if there are any questions!

The best part about this fabric wreath? If you really want to save some dough, you can actually pull out each of the pieces of fabric and ribbon and replace them with new fabric for each occasion!

Check out the FLICKR TUTORIAL HERE.

A Tip to make the wreath Permanent from my friend Sharon: Use fabric glue on the tip of the fabric as you shove it in and it will permanently stick :)

My Who Dat Saints Wreath:

My July Fourth Wreath, a different way to do it:

You can even use this method on those nifty styrofoam balls!

Enjoy!!! I'd love to see your wreaths!

Adventures in ABA Therapy: Part One

So, we're 1.5 weeks into our ABA therapy. A little background if you're not familiar, my 2.5 yr old was diagnosed with Autism at 18 months. He's very high functioning and making leaps and bounds.

First off let me say, I am incredibly thankful for this opportunity. We were blessed enough to find a therapist in training who needs to complete her hours and is generously working with Eli for free! Granted, most ABA therapy is 15 or more hours a week, but I'll take what I can get! Mrs. M comes once a week and so far I'm happy! We had a good session last week. His homework for the week was:

1. When he pulls on me to lead me to what he wants, he must point and then give a verbal request, preferably, "I want _____."

2. Point at things he's excited about.

How'd he do? Well, he's done great!! For example:

He has seemed to gotten the knack of pointing and has pointed many times at what he wants or something he loves like school buses, flags and cars.

He's also done this several times,  lead me to the fridge/pantry, pointed to what he wants and then I asked, "what do you want?" and he said, "I want Milk!"!! Once he walked to the pantry and UNPROMPTED he said, "I want fish!" (swedish fish).

Last night as we were going to bed and I walked out the room and said, "Nite nite boys" He called out, "Nite Nite Mommy! Nite Nite Daddy!". Pretty darn awesome I tell you.

I am very confident that in time, when he's in school no one will ever know he had a diagnosis of Autism. In my opinion, this won't mean he never had it. The way I look at Autism is this, its much like cancer. You get a diagnosis and you work on a plan. Sometimes, you can put the cancer in remission and live a normal life...sometimes you can't. Either way, it never takes away the diagnosis...you had cancer. Now you're just living in remission.

That's how I view Autism. Eli will always be autistic. But with the right therapies, gluten free diet and behavior modificiations, he can live a full life in "remission" of Autism. I hope that makes sense.

So, we shall see how this week goes! I'm very happy to have made my decision to stay home with him and not work full time. I think we'll get a lot done in his progress so he can be more ready for the Preschool Early Intervention school he'll be eligible for in January.

I'll keep you updated! :)
~~Amy

This is a big deal, he hated coloring just a few months ago. :)

Content Decision....

I am sooooo happy to report I've made a decision...if you recall I started a new job back in February that was a temp position through the end of May. The job was among a company I formerly worked for and very much enjoyed. It worked out great that I could work at Harrison's school and my mother in law watched Eli.

Well, the time has come to make a decision...keep on working or stay home? After a short deliberation I decided to stay home! It's not even decided yet if the position I had would be returning or not, but that's okay with me, I'd already made up my mind. It wasn't an incredibly easy decision, I do love the job, it's in social services so I got to work with children but help families also. And I greatly enjoyed my coworkers. They were a blast and made me feel very welcome!

But I have to be real, my family is most important. Eli is only 2.5 yrs old. He has Autism, albeit high functioning, but he's just begun ABA therapy and that is extremely important to helping 'retrain' his brain. The problem is, it takes a lot to DO ABA Therapy and we feel its best that I be home to follow through with what the therapist says to do. He's already made great strides in it in a week's time!! His 'homework' this week was when he pulls me to something, I'm to get him to point and say "I want milk" or whatever it is. Well we've been doing that over and over, and earlier tonite he walked up to the pantry, pointed and said, "I Want Fish!" (Swedish Fish) without me prompting him at ALL. HUUUUGE Step for him!! He's been talking more and it's like he knows that it's on like Donkey Kong and I'm going to stay on top of this!!

So I am very happy with my decision, very content. My online handmade businesses are doing good to the point I can have a little bit of spending money for me (okay for more fabric buying...) and I enjoy doing it! The challenge of new projects, the comfort in making familiar ones, are all reasons I like creating handmade. So the beauty of staying home allows me to get that stuff done while Eli naps.

Harrison also starts kindergarten this year! (YIKES!) I'd like to be involved in his school. When Eli turns three in January there is a chance he'll go to school full time also. Perhaps then I can revisit the work situation. But right now, I'm happy to substitute from time to time, do my handmade thang, and be a MOMMY! :)

So I guess you'll be hearing more from me than the past few months!!
~~Amy

Redoing a Bathroom in Two Days!

Don't say I can't be productive on MY summer vacation!!!!

I'd chosen the shower curtain several weeks ago, then had to find the time to buy the paint, towels, rugs, etc...but once I sat down....I got my guest bathroom done in two days!

It used to be purple and green, my clinging to a last hope of having a girl...but recently hubs and I decided that we were definitely done having children, so I decided it was time to change the bathroom to its real purpose---the boys bathroom/guest bathroom.

I'm not a fan of the super kiddy bathrooms so I loved this shower curtain when I found it...the rest of the bathroom just came together :)

Yes, I busted out my Cricut and made some super cute (and removable when I get bored!) vinyl decals!!

Squirrels protecting my mirrors :)

I love this Cricut cartridge, "Give a Hoot"!! Yes I know the trees are not the same size...it wasnt on purpose at first but then I decided I liked it!

Mama approves!! :)

I even decopouged the lightswitch cover (forgot to take a pic tho)

And I forgot to tell you about the Super Mario cake we had for Harrison's preschool graduation party! My awesome friend made it and YES it was GLUTEN FREE!!! :)

Hmmm I need to go eat another piece of that cake...

~~amy

Stylish Poop....

Who knew Jeans Diapers could get me out of my blogging rut??

Yup, I bought the Jeans Diapers. I had to...how could I not?? I'm also contemplating buying a pack in every size and hanging on to them in case they do become desired and then pawning them off on Ebay for a higher price....I suppose that could be wrong..but ehhh, if you want an item enough you'll pay for it right???

Ok enough about evil world domination plans via cheesey diapers...

I did get em. (Smartly purchased with my CVS card for a discount!). I gotta admit...they're cute. See my child likes to be pretty much naked as is, and seeing as we live in "Oh my God, can it get any hotter" Louisiana, Eli usually just sports a diaper anyway. (I have visions of him reading this when he's 16...ahh good times..)

Anyhoo..I got at least one pack and here is my man sporting them...sorry for the bleh pics..my camera takes horrible inside shots.

I think they're pretty cute...not something I'd buy all the time. Honestly I wish he'd still wear cloth diapers. I LOVED doing cloth but around 14-16 months when his "Autisms" started to really come out, he decided he was NOT wearing cloth and threw a fit each time I put them on. (he hates all diapers as it is!) So I had to pick my battles and go back to sposies.

Now I wanna see a Jeans Cloth Diaper!! Come on diaper makers of the world...make it work!!

~~Amy


EDITED TO ADD:
OMG they DOOOOOO have jeans cloth diapers!! HOW FREAKING CUTE!!!!! GO check this shop out!

Stuck in a rut....

I have NO idea what to blog about anymore! I'm stuck. Writer's block to the extreme!! I just sit here...thinking..what the hell can I tell these people that I haven't already said??  So what do I write about?

The Oil Gusher? Scoff! I can't even write that calmly enough...although I suspect in time I will. (I do encourage you to check out www.handmadelouisiana.etsy.com where we are donating all our profits to oil spill cleanup!)

The kids? I could write about them, but does anyone even read it? You know Eli has Autism and Harrison has sensory issues...what else can I write about? Is this the dilema of social networking, we're all SO connected we've got no secrets anymore?

So what if I wrote about a secret? Well then it'd be out forever in cyberland and surely come back to bite me?

I could tell you I made up with PussDaddy awhile back. But it was really uneventful...we just chatted, she's a nice person and although I'll never necessarily agree with HOW she says things, she admitted she misjudged me and things got out of hand. She's a good person and I wish her the best. See, that's not even that exciting!!

Music?  Ya'll know I love my musicians...but most of them no one has ever heard of. So I'll tell ya I saw an awesome Amos Lee show back in April and a equally awesome Marc Broussard show in May. Click those links...hear their tunes. Enjoy the vibe.

Sewing/Crafts/Selling? Ah heck if I haven't pimped myself out to ya'll enough yet, you don't read this anyways!! What's new? Um, I opened 2 new Etsy shops (SHOCK I know). Badge Reels for fabric covered badge reels and Micro Mops is a shop collab with my friend Dee and a place for budget friendly cleaning products :)

Sooooooooooooo what does that leave me? Politics? Ehh not enough energy today. Religion? Not enough time.....Quantum Physics? Sure...right.

So I've got nothing left right now but THIS:
Disposable diapers that look like jeans....
Thoughts?
Stupid? Funny?

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