Three "Go USA!" decorations : Mode Podge USA, Star felt Garland, and USA Cut-out

(There are three projects in here so It's a little longer than my other posts . Please scroll down to see all of them)

I'm super excited to watch the Olympics. I love the swimming, gymnastics, and mostly the Equestrian events , which they put on at weird times because it doesn't make alot of sponsor money. It definitely on my bucket list of things to do someday, actually go to an Olympics.

I was all trying to get  some decorations made for the fourth of July and had everything bought but I never got to it and I thought to myself, well, it would kinda work for  4th of July/Olympics. So I went ahead and made them.

 I started off with these  wooden "college letters" they were called from Micheals. They were about $3.99 a piece. Normally, that's kinda pricey for me but hey were  exactly the size I wanted.

I also  found this craft tape on clearance for $2 a piece so I bought two not knowing how much I would need.I started off spray painting the letters white outside. It was 100+ degrees that day so think the paint kinda got baked on which worked to my advantage.  Then  that night  I took the tape and carefully wrapped it around the letters to the edge.  I didn't want to waste any tape on the back. Who would see it anyway?

Then  I bought this Modge Podge sampler pack also at Micheals and went about covering all of the letters with a layer of regular Modge Podge.  I can't wait to use the other kinds of Modge.

I knew I need something more for my mantle so I saw this awesome post by Amber at Crazy Little Projects  for a felt star garland.  Lately, I'm all about the garlands and the felt so this was perfect.


I went to Hobby Lobby and got three pieces each of red, white and blue felt rectangles, They have every color you can think of and they are 25 cents a piece which sounds like a good price to me.

The next day I cut out the stars out of the felt. This took a while let me tell you.  Having Amber's  templates really helped me out.  Then  I took the star and pinned them in the order I wanted, got out the sewing machine and started to sew them in a line. Being that I am a sewing novice, the star and the line across them is far from perfect but I really liked it.  Keep in mind the color of thread you use will be seen across all of the stars.  I liked the way the white thread looked. I capped both ends off with a little grosgrain white ribbon I had left over.

That also didn't seem like enough. I wanted something to go along with the whole USA theme.  I had an idea for a USA map  that was just the shape of the country . I found some blue poster board and a piece of foam core.


 My godmother had this awesomely ancient school projector that  she let me have to help decorate S's room.  Isn't it kinda cool and funky?

All you have to do is place anything , B&W or color in the drawer and slide it in and  ta-da... there it is on the wall.  I put in my map, traced it  backwards  ( so wouldn't draw on the front side) and  i was done. It was so much easier than free handing it.

 I cut out the map and then cut out the same outline on the piece of foam core.  They were glued together. The clear glue didn't work as well as I hoped. Don't use that! I would say a spray adhesive.I added a felt red heart over Saint Louis for our home town, of course.

Then everything was added to the mantle. I really like it but I think I still need something else. I feel like ti's still missing something. Hmm..... what else do I need?

I kinda liked it with the fence outside too.  A white fence would have been awesome.

Monday
What is the Gunny Sack -Making the world Cuter -Debbie Doo -DIY How Off
DIY Shop - Lines Across My Face -I should be mopping the Floor
Great Fun 4 Kids

Tuesday
How to Nest For Less - Tip Junkie - My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia -The Kurtz Corner
Sugar Bee - Romance On A Dime - Chronic Christian Crafter - Funky Polka Dot Giraffe
The Winthrop Chronicles

Wednesday
Oopsey Daisy - Thrifty Home - Someday Crafts - Sew Much Ado
- Junk in Their Trunk  - Southern Lovely


Thursday
My rePurposed Life - Beyond the Picket Fence - Somewhat Simple - Live Laugh Rowe
Loving this Crazy Life -Scrappy Crafty Happy - Fireflies and Jellybeans - The Shabby Cottage
Quality Cheap Home  - The Taylor House
House of Hepworths

Friday
Naptime Crafters - Stay At Home Nation
Young and Crafty -  My Turn(ForUs)
Delicate Construction
Serenity Now
Family Ever After 
Here Comes the Sun

Saturday

Six Sister's Stuff
Be Different Act Normal

Sunday
Nifty Thrifty Things

Other Fun Blogs

Things I Love about St.Louis: St Louis Cardinals

( This is number five in the Things I Love About Saint Louis Series. Click here to read more.)

There is nothing more  Saint Louis and summertime  than  Saint Louis Cardinals baseball.  I've been  listening to, watching, and going to the games for all of my life.  I know there are plenty of people who live here who don't feel the same way as I do about our team and some others who are even bigger die hard fans than me.  I think if I moved somewhere else, I would still be a Cardinals fan.

There is just something about going down  to watch a baseball game with 40, 000+ of your closest friends, you are dressed alike, and you are ready to cheer on your team no matter what.  I am so proud that we are known as some of the best fans around. Most of us are not fair weather. We think they are going to win  the World Series every year. And as they did last year , it was magic.

Busch Stadium, home of the redbirds , is a great place to bring the family. There is a whole range of ticket prices from nose bleeds ( which are really nice ) to down on the field, almost. 

Around the stadium  are statues of great cardinal players : Lou Brock, Ozzie Smith, ad Stan Musial  to name a few.  When they built the new Stadium, they allowed fans to buy bricks  and have names and things engraved on them. It's really fun to walk around and look at them. I wish I would have done that when we were getting married.  It would have been fun to go and show the kids.

Getting There and Parking

Her legs "were tired" as soon as we got there...hmmm

There are a few ways to get to the game. You can drive or take the MetroLink . There are always buses and taxis too but I've never done those so I can't say how well they work.  Parking is  between $20- $10and less depending on how far away from the stadium you park.  There are garages and lots. We parked as close as we could so K wouldn't have to walk as far.

Watching the Metro Link train pull up right next to the stadium

The Metro Link is also great. She would have loved to ride the metro train but you need to factor in all the stops it makes and we didn't ,so not this time. It is a great way to not have to drive all the way downtown with stops throughout parts of the city ( not all)


Tickets and Promotional Items

There are always a bunch of great promotional days every year. This day happened to be  Kids T shirt day (15 and under) and North Star Ice Cream Sundays.  I would totally recommend  coming on one of these days.  Why not get a cool freebie with your ticket?  K got a Fredbird ( mascot ) t shirt and we went over to Ford Family Plaza got an free ice cream  and got our pictures taken with  the world series trophy for free. There is also the Family Pavilion on the first level with some family things you can do  like a batting cage.

Food

The tickets we got for this game were a special discounted price that also came with a hot dog and a soda with the price of the ticket. As soon as we got up to our level we got our free dogs and drinks. Remember when I talked about saving money buy bringing food to places when you can? I'm not sure how other stadiums operate but  it is OK for you to bring small soft coolers/ cooler bags full of  water and food if you want to cut down on costs. How great is that?  We saved so much money. We brought a cooler bag with 6 bottles of water, cheese sticks, and goldfish crackers. I love the  food there and there are some things that just taste better at a baseball game.  My hubby says beer is one of those things.  But it all adds up fast.

Souvenirs/Gifts
There a tons of places to buy Cardinal stuff including a Build a bear Store on site where you can build Clydesdales and Fredbirds. You  can't build them anywhere else in the city. You can find anything Cardinal and baseball you can think of. They even have the pressed pennies, one of K's favorite things.

 Kids and Baseball Games

We happened to go with some friends and family of ours so K had a whole group of people to talk to and play with.  You're probably noticing that S is not with us.  She doesn't sit well for more than 10 minutes at a time.  And with it being her nap time, she sat this one out. We hope she'll  be able to go next year. You'll see kids of all ages from  weeks old on up. It's all up to you and your kids.  There are plenty of rams so you can bring your strollers in if you need to.  She spent alot of the game looking for Fredbird, the mascot. He does walk around the stadium the whole game. He will even sometimes come and joke around with fans like put his beak over your head. It's pretty darn funny.

She really didn't watch the game too much but she loved the atmosphere,clapping along to the organ music and  when we scored. It was an exciting game. They won in the very bottom of the 9th inning.  There was such a roar that you could feel it. And they always set off fireworks when we win so that adds to it.

Cutest Cardinal Fan Ever

Go CARDS!

After the Games

There is so much to do after the games as well . Downtown has places to eat,  carriage rides to enjoy, and if you are without kids, casinos and awesome bars. Or you could always go to my  all time favorite frozen custard place, Ted Drewes. It;s just a shirt drive down highway 44. Well worth it.

Wow...bloggy friends are awesome!

 I couldn't believe it when I got a message from Sheila at Blissfully Shabby that she nominated me for a  Versatile Blogger Award.  After getting the Kreativ Blogger, and Sunshine Award,  I  was humbled enough.

I love to blog. It has shown me that there is a bigger world of kind and positive people.  I am so glad you are out there.  Blogging has been something that has brought me so much joy and fun since I started. I can't wait to see where it takes me next. I do what I do to share with everybody.

 Here are the rules for this award:

 1. Thank the Blogger who nominated you.

 2. Include a link to their site.

 3. Include the award image in your post.

 4. Give 7 random facts about yourself.

 5. Nominate 15 other Bloggers for the award.

 6. When nominating, include a link to their site.

 7. Let other Bloggers know they have been nominated.

Thank you so much , Sheila @ Blissfully Shabby.   I love her repurposing of things. It looks so effortless. And she has way more than that. Check her out!

 Now for the seven random facts..hmmm... It's hard to keep coming up with stuff. I'll never need an about me page because you all will know everything already.

1. The only surgery I've had was to extract my four wisdom teeth and I was so doped up that I was singing  Christmas songs before I went to sleep.

2. If  I could go back in time, I would meet my great grandparents and tell them where to buy property and some stocks to buy so they could have an easier life. (and maybe their descendants too)

3. I wear contacts/glasses.  I can't see more than  a foot from my face without them. Sigh.


4. I have seasonal allergies so the beginnings of spring and fall suck big time.

5. I think I've had the same haircut for 11 years at least but I love it and it works for me.  I may keep it until I'm too old to brush it myself.

6. I have 368  fonts on my computer and growing... I have a font problem. Is there a group for that?

7. I  cry more than anyone I know.  You name it....commercials, songs, movies, and  just life sometimes.


And here are, in no particular order and not that I don't love you all because I do, the 15 blogs I want to nominate for the award:

Natasha  @ Natasha in Oz
   
Simoney @ GreatFun 4Kids

Rhiannon @ being ( mom) me

Brooke @ Crazy Mama Drama


Ann @ Horse Country Chic
Laura  @ Cookies, Crusts, and Sawdust

Melissa @ Loving this Crazy Life

Randi @ Dukes and Duchesses

Rob, Megan, Wynn, Amy and Chris @ Our Pinteresting Family

Evelyn @ My turn for Us

Janice @ Janice's Footsteps

Marilyn @ 4 You with Love


Mackenzie @  Cheerios and Lattes

Trish@  3 Kids and a breakdown

Debbie @ Debbie does Creations


( and if any of you ladies has received this award already, please don't feel as if you need to do it again)

A Cute Saint Louis Cardinals Girl's Shirt

 We decided to take K to her very first Saint Louis Cardinals Baseball game. Up to this point she was so not ready to go. Nor did she care.  And when you go to a Cardinals Game you have to wear your cardinal gear/garb.  It's really great how we have such team spirit here.  But then I realized we had a problem.... I never see any cute Cardinal shirts for girls.  And since I have girls, gosh darn it, they are going to look cute and girly!!


What we did have were two generic Cardinal T-shirts  that had Albert Pujols name and number on therm.  And since he left our team,  J and I aren't very happy with him. But we don't need to go into that here.

I decided that I could reuse the Cardinal logo itself in a different way.  I went and cut the logo off the shirt.

I also went and raided my stash of old t shirts just waiting for the next t-shirt quilt and found a nice quality white shirt that I wanted to make a heart out of.   I traced the logo on a piece of paper and  made sure it would be big enough, then cut it out.

I  needed a plain red  tshirt so I went to Kohls and found, in the  boy section, a red plain t shirt with a pocket for $6.  I  borrowed my mom's seam ripper ( man I need one of those) and took off the pocket. You can see there was little outline but I knew the heart would cover that.

   I was going to use this stuff called Wunder Under that is sold at fabric stores that my mom had but it was really old and wouldn't stick :(    I used it for another project  before and it works great when it's not old.  At  Michaels , I  found  Aleena's Peel and Stick Sheets. It says they are for fabric , they are permanent, and washable. Hey, let's take a chance.  Since  I'm still a sewing newbie, I don't mind using stuff like this until I get better at it.

I laid the heart and the Cardinal Logo out on the sheets of stick and made sure I had enough to cover it.  The sheets are only 4.25x5 wide.

Then I had to cut around them and let me just tell you this is the stickiest stuff I have ever dealt with.  I tried the scissors and they kept getting stuck. I broke out the  X-acto knife and that seemed to work really well especially around the logo. You had to peel it off  and lay it down carefully so it wouldn't bunch up. 

 I put it on the shirt and it was  time to add a little border.   It looked so plain so I asked my mom about putting some kind of embroidery stitch around it and she showed me how to do a  blanket stick around the edge of the heart. You start from underneath and go up and through the loop you just made. BUt remember to come  up with your needle as close to the edge as you want your border to be. I didn't a few times and I had to redo it because it wasn't right on the edge. I hope the pictures below kinda show what I'm talking about.

The going up  part , right be the edge.

The going under/through the loop part

A close up of the stitch

All finished with the  blanket stitch.

After all of that I thought she still needed something else.  Rhiannon over at Being (mom)me made these firecracker  hair bows and  I thought...perfect.  I'll do a version  for K.  I had  bought some  red and white ribbon  at the store just in case.  I took a few strips and sewed them together adding a bow in the middle.

I got done with that and though the shirt still didn't look finished so I took some of the same ribbon ( which I though kinds looked like baseball stitching) and sewed  some bows on the sleeves.

Now.... I was happy with everything and when I showed it to K, she ran and told  daddy that mommy had made her a shirt for the baseball game.  I'm glad she liked it.  I'll post pictures soon of her wearing them.

Monday
What is the Gunny Sack -Making the world Cuter -Debbie Doo -DIY How Off
DIY Shop - Lines Across My Face -I should be mopping the Floor

Great Fun 4 Kids

Tuesday
How to Nest For Less - Tip Junkie - My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia -The Kurtz Corner
Sugar Bee - Romance On A Dime - Chronic Christian Crafter - Funky Polka Dot Giraffe
The Winthrop Chronicles


Wednesday
Oopsey Daisy - Thrifty Home - Someday Crafts - Sew Much Ado
- Junk in Their Trunk  - Southern Lovely


Thursday
My rePurposed Life - Beyond the Picket Fence - Somewhat Simple - Live Laugh Rowe
Loving this Crazy Life -Scrappy Crafty Happy - Fireflies and Jellybeans - The Shabby Cottage
Quality Cheap Home  - The Taylor House
House of Hepworths   The CSI Project

Friday
Naptime Crafters - Stay At Home Nation
Young and Crafty -  My Turn(ForUs)
Delicate Construction
Serenity Now
Family Ever After 
Here Comes the Sun

Saturday


Six Sister's Stuff
Be Different Act Normal


Sunday
Nifty Thrifty Things


Other Fun Blogs

Happy 4th of July!

We have drought like conditions here in Saint Louis so almost all of the fireworks have been canceled. We were lucky enough to go last week down the street from our house with our awesome neighbors. Here are my attempts at firework photography. I hope you all had fun with your fireworks.

 And of course one of my favorite pictures in the whole world of my beloved Charlie.  God love him. He always let me do what I wanted to him. I miss him.