Because I have a daughter and a son, I know how super easy it is to shop and make things for girls, and how frustrating it can be to shop and try to come up with something to make for boys. I have made the Crazy girl skirts and headbands and hats. Every time we go to the fabric store I have to resist buying some unnecessary supplies to make her something (just yesterday I had to put back some tangerine chiffon, teal and white gingham trim and some white fold over elastic. I had a great skirt in mind!) But boys are different.  It's hard to think of creative, quick things to make boys. Luckily my boy doesn't really care. He never asks me to make him anything and he doesn't care that I make his sister like 84 skirts before I make him 1 "something." Really as long as the Sweet boy has his blue shorts with the stripes down the side and some sort of baseball themed shirt, he's fine. Oh, and his running shoes. Can't forget the (stinkin') running shoes! But I decided to make him something anyway, and with Easter coming up, maybe it's something quick and easy you can make your boy too!

In the last seven years the Hot Doc and I have lived in four different states. We met in California. Nice and sunny, "cool yourself off in the ocean" California. We married in Colorado, which is beautiful, and blue skied and big mountains, but it also snows there which scares the crud out of this California Girl! (I am scared to drive in the snow, I'm not scared of actual snow that would be weird.) We had our babies in Missouri. Missouri has super hot and humid summers and freezing, icy winters. (Ever bundle two kids up and strap them in their car seats while wearing huge puffy jackets? Not a mom's favorite thing to do.) And last, but not least there is Texas. Texas is...what's the right word...difficult. It's difficult to explain the weather in Texas, mainly because there is no consistency. Well, I take that back, there is one fact about Texas, it's hot. No, no, not like "wow, it's so hot out here, we should go to the pool to cool off," it's like, "Wow, it's so hot out here I am afraid that if we try to walk to the pool to cool off we might DIE! And that death would be in vain because once we got to the pool we would realize that the supposed "refreshing" pool is actually like a warm bath tub." When it's not summer, which is rare, the weather is all over the place! Last week we had a few days of high 70's, low 80's with humidity and now for the last 3 days it has been pouring rain and 50 degrees. It's confusing. But despite my confusion I decided we needed a bit of Spring in our lives, and I want to share with you this little Spring Chick tutorial!!

Here's what you need:

1.Yarn. I used yellow, pink, black and orange, but you could make your little chick whatever color your little heart desires.
2. Hook. I used a 4.25 mm, but once again it's whatever you want.
3. Felt.
4. Hot glue
5. Hair clip or headband

Stitches used:
ch- chain
sl st- slip stitch
sc- single crochet-
hdc- half double crochet
dc- double stitch
tr- treble- Yarn over hook twice, then insert hook into next stitch. Yarn over hook, then draw yarn through the stitch (there will be four loops on your hook) *Yarn over and pull through two loops (three loop remaining), yarn over and pull through two loop,(two loops remaining) yarn over and pull through last two loops.
dbl tr- double treble- Same process as the treble, except yarn over hook three times to start the stitch
trp tr- triple treble- Same process as the double treble, except yarn over hook four times to start the stitch

Are you thoroughly confused informed? Okay! Then we are ready!


Chick Body




Chain 4, sl st to form ring

Round 1- 10 sc into the ring




Round 2- 2 sc in first st, sc in 2nd st, 1 hdc and 1 dc in 3rd st, 2 dc in the 4th st, 2 dc in 5th st, 2 sc in 6th st, 1 sc and 1 dc in 7th st, 2 tr in 8th st, 2 dbl tr in 9th st, 2 dbl tr in 10th st.




Round 3- starting in the first stitch of the previous round, 2 dbl tr and 1 trp tr in st, ch1 and sl st in same st (this is your tail). I also pulled my starting string to close up the hole.

Wing




Chain 4, sl st to form ring

Round 1- (crocheting into the ring)- sc, hdc, dc, 2 tr, dc, hdc, 2 sc, hdc, dc, 2 tr, dc, hdc, sc, sl sp into next stitch.

Finishing





1. Sew wing onto chick
2. Use black yarn to make a little eye
3. Use orange yarn to make a little beak. (I just found the stitch I wanted to be the beak and attached yarn, sc, ch 1, sc, ch1, sl st all in the same stitch.)
4. Finish and weave in all your ends




Now, cut a piece of felt in a similar shape to your chick. Get out your hot glue and glue it to the back of your chick, hiding all your ends.




Then get your clip or headband and hot glue it to your chick. I like to put one last piece of felt over the clip or headband just to ensure it is going to stay.



Lastly, put it in Crazy Girl's crazy hair. Wonder where all that hair came from? (Just kidding, I know exactly where it came from. It's like lookin' in a mirror folks.)

Now go make some chicks! And as always, if you have any questions, please let me know!

Perfect for everyday wear!

 3. Next, cut your skirt to the desired length. Make sure to account for the length of the trim. (I ended up cutting off about 8 inches from the skirt.) Attach your trim. Make sure your trim is evenly pinned onto your skirt, you don't want your skirt gathering at the bottom.
 4. Sew on the trim. I also went back and top stitched the bottom of the trim, just because I wanted to. I also ran out of pink thread and couldn't find my white (who can't find their white thread?!) and I didn't want to drag the kids to Hobby Lobby, so I used yellow instead. I like it.
5. Trim off all extra thread and TA-DAH! You have an easy, cute little skirt.

If your trying this and you're confused, my apologies. You can always leave a comment and I will answer as best I can! Happy sewing!

So we live in Texas and the Rodeo is kinda a big deal. And by kinda, I mean it's totally a big deal! This year the Rodeo ran from March 1-20th and every single day there were two hours of Rodeo events followed by a concert. The concerts were performers like, Rascal Flats, Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, Lady Antabelum, Miranda Lambert, Tim McGraw and many many more. It's kind of ridiculous. Besides the rodeo and concerts there was also an entire carnival complete with roller coasters, a ferris wheel and an endless amount of (over priced) games and an extremely cool Livestock show. Jeff and I left the kids one evening and caught the Rodeo and the Gary Alan concert, which was great. And the kids and I met up with our good friends, the Allens, and headed over to the livestock show. The kids did the petting zoo, which Harper hated (so much of our dreams of her Mutten Busted), but Luke LOVED! We also visited the chick hatching station (so cool), we looked at cows and sheep and huge pigs, the kids ran and rolled down a hill (for like 20 mins) and then we grabbed a lemonade and went home!

Houston Rodeo!

Sweet Boy and his new friend

Lookin' at some Longhorns

I did not bring my camera, so my wonderful and picture obsessed friend, Angie caught a few of my kids (there were a few more, but either Harper or I had our eyes half shut. I thought I would spare you.)

Now on to "other stuff"

If you have boys, then you know it is hard to find unique clothes (on a budget) and if you sew, it's hard to find creative patterns and tutorials. HOWEVER, I have found two great blogs that have some great stuff! The first I Am Momma Hear Me Roar and the second is MADE. They are both wonderful and have full sections devoted to "The Boy"

I was going to make Luke a bow tie to wear on Easter (because, what else am I supposed to make), but then I found this great tutorial on I Am Momma Hear Me Roar...super excited! (Check it out! I would have posted a picture, but it is of her son, and I didn't feel right about using it without asking!)

Happy Tuesday!!

Wanted to share with you some free tutorials I found!

Find this on Simply Modern Mom

This is going to be Harper's Easter dress! I bought the fabric earlier this week. This dress is actually made from a pillow case, but I couldn't just keep it that simple, so I bought three different fabrics to make this cute little number! So excited! I am also going to make Sweet Boy a bow tie from one of the leftover fabrics, I'll post pictures when it's done...well, maybe...I'm so bad at that!

Go to Noodlehead to make this little beauty

I LOVE this little gathered clutch! I have used this tutorial and it is awesome! The finished product is terribly cute and makes a great little gift. Even if your new to sewing, this tutorial is extremely easy to follow and a great introduction to sewing with zippers!

Okay, go get crafty! Talk to you soon!