Repurposed

  Lately I've been reading the ReFashionista's blog.  I love how she manages to make something fabulous from something, well, not so fabulous.  She goes to the thrift store, picks up something funky, brings it home, and "repurposes" it.   I really like that word: repurposed.  I feel like I've been "repurposing" my life.  It started when I signed up for school, but it's grown from that.  I went from keeping the balance between mother and wife to being the only parent.  I'm trying to keep up with all my new goals, from working out to sewing, and school (the thing that started it all) will be beginning in a few short weeks.  With all this, I should be worn out, but I'm finally feeling great about me, about all my new purposes, and I'm loving my life.  I guess I've repurposed my life from one of hiding in fear to one that face fears daily, even the little ones.

   I'm proud to say that I'm finally tapping into those creative juices that I know are flowing around inside me.  Taking a leaf from the Refashionista's book blog, I decided to go through my closet and find something to repurpose.

Decisions, decisions

  I wound up going with this shirt/dress that I bought from Charlotte Rouse last summer for $5.  I've never worn it, although it's very cute.  It was too long for a shirt, but too short for me to be comfortable wearing it as a dress.

The Chosen One ;-)

   I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with it, so I just started ripping out stitches.

  It made for some very relaxing and peaceful work.  I was a little intimidated by the ruffle part, so I just cut those along the seam as best I could.

   At this point I knew I wanted to use the ruffles, and I was beginning to realize that this was going to be more or less a smaller version of the original.  I also stopped taking pictures because I had no clue how to go about all this, and I ended up throwing it all down in frustration before heading to bed.  This morning, however, I woke up refreshed and picked up where I left off.  And, this is the final result:

  I love this color on her!  She's so tan from this summer that it just looks perfect with her complexion.  And, of course, I have a Before & After picture:

        Monkey was such a big girl through all of this, being still so I could measure, trim and pin, and then being such a cute little model.  Now she's watching her favorite movie as I type this and get a few house chores accomplished.  Before I head off to do the latter, though, I wanted to share a couple games Monkey has been playing.  She's learning her number symbols, so these are a couple things to help her identify the symbol and recognize that it correlates to the amount.

  All you need for the first is a piece of paper, a marker or crayon and stickers.  Write the numbers on the paper, spaced out enough so that you have room for the stickers.  Monkey loves this one, and we hung it on the wall as a point of reference.  If she forgets what a number looks like, she can go count the corresponding stickers to figure it out.

Next up we did a game that requires an egg carton, a permanent marker and plenty of beads.  Write the numbers 1-12 into each of the egg slots.  Then let your little one place the correct amount of beads into each slot.

 
    Well the movie's coming to an end, and I still need to fold clothes, so I'll see y'all next time :-)