Fall is Here....All the Holidays are Coming!

How exciting that Fall is here, the kids are back in school.  Gosh, I already have my employer's Christmas gift selection catalog to choose from.  I have started to get excited about Halloween (although, not ecstatic) but since I have a granddaughter...the spirit of Halloween somewhat creeps up on you.  I have found some amazing decorating ideas and crafts from Pinterest.com that I am really beginning to get excited about.  There are so many creative people out there that are sharing all their talents.  So it's time to get excited....do some "Fall" time cleaning and get to work!

Here is a preview of our American Girl doll Halloween costume that we are working on....not quite finished.  I'll add her finished costume when it is completed....hopefully this weekend.

This long red hair I got at the Dollar Tree and feathers and hat from Michael's.  Still need to finish stockings and shoes, broom and final touches.  My mom just gave me a pre-Christmas gift, a new sewing machine, so I now have the get-go to do some special sewing projects. 

I already have the idea of how to decorate the front door entrance....can't wait to complete and show the pics.  Time to finish up and call it a day.  Come back and visit and get ideas for your holidays.  Take care and keep letting that sunshine peep in!  Bye for now!

Pet playgrounds...for AG & LPS *WOW*

Over the weekend we decided to add to our play things....so we trotted about the house looking for things we could use and came up with the following for our American Girl doll house.  Hope you like!  If you want to see how to make see our Youtube video.  Pretty soon if we keep on making things for our AG dolls, I'll have to build a 3rd story on to my house.  LOL!

So we couldn't leave out our LPS friends...so we made a playground for them too.  We made this in about a half an hour or less.  This was just the start of our play area and we will add to as we go along.  If you have any suggestions, please let us know as we are always looking for new things to make.  This came out cute also and it was soooooooooooooo easy.  If you want to make you can watch our brief "how to" video. 

So school has started and it's back to the hustle and bustle of school and the upcoming holidays.  We are already working on some Halloween things.  Can't wait!  See you next time and let the sun keep shining in your life.



A New Cat Condo for Ginger *Our American Girl Calico Cat*

With a little time last week, and waiting to see which path tropical storm Isaac was going to take, I was looking at cat condo's to get an idea for building one.  I picked my model and went to work.  Bright yellow and teal blue makes this condo fit for a "kitty queen".  I used paper towel rolls for the pillars and Lysol wipes canisters for the tunnel and the rest on the top.  All covered in felt, some trim, a scratch post, and a ladder made with popsicle sticks....we have our new kitty condo.  If you want to see how to make from start to finish take a look! Hope you enjoy the pics.

Thanks for taking a look....and let that sunshine bring you a brighter day!

American Girl Doll Recording Studio - Take A Look

Music is the universal language.....so we had to make a "music" room for our American Girl doll house.

     I started out with a piece of fiberboard and decorated it with scrapbooking paper as the back drop.  I used a tall box from a vacuum cleaner to make the sound booth and cut it to size and made an opening for a window.  I covered that in scrapbooking paper and used a clear paper cover and glued it to the opening for the window.   A piece of cardboard was cut to use for a shelf inside the sound booth to hold music sheets, microphone, etc. and necklace beads from the party favors section of Walmart were used as curtains for the booth.  I printed out some music themed photos like the keyboard and everything else you see on the board.  I used 2 straws and wrapped them in black electrical tape for the legs of the keyboard.  I cut a Lysol Wipes canister in half, wrapped it in scrapbook paper and sewed a small cushion for the seat.  A placemat was used for the rug.  Finally, the beautiful guitar and violin from American Girl and poof.....we have our recording studio.  We, my granddaughter and I, are very proud of this project! 

Hope you enjoyed these pics!!...and yes the sunshine keeps shining!

CHANDELIERS FOR OUR AMERICAN GIRL HOUSE

It is very soothing to finally sit when everything is quiet and it's almost the end of the day and you can focus on good things and accomplishments.  Well here I wanted to show you our "homemade" chandelier (thanks to MyFroggyStuff) so here is our version that we made for Kanani's room.  The 3rd & 4th pics was store bought but gorgeous, in our eyes, because it is battery operated and looks amazing when it's dark.  It was purchased at Walmart in the Back to School items as things you can purchase for your locker.  Not sure who would use this at school, none the less in a locker, but it's perfect for our dining room.  For our homemade chandelier we have a "How To" video on how we made Kanani's chandelier.  You can add so many types of trims to it and make it special and now that Christmas things have started to show up in craft stores, they have many bead type garlands that would make it look very elegant.  Enjoy the pics and if you are inspired, watch the video!

Keep the sunshine in your life!  Take care until next time.