Living In Upstate

How to Make Cute Reunion Shirts In A Matching Color Scheme

This summer my family and I had a reunion camping at Niagara Falls. My sister wanted custom shirts and we told her I could make them with the Cricut. I had a made a few custom shirts before. What was really important to me is they had a cute design and were comfortable to wear. She sent me the template that she liked and we came up with a design on Cricut Design Space.

Cricut Design Space really likes to get more money and has a subscription service. I already pay for the Adobe Suite and do not want to pay more money for fonts and simple designs. I found a picture of Niagara I liked and thickened the lines in photoshop. Then we found some fonts I had on my computer on designed the shirt. I tried using Adobe fonts, but they would not appear in Cricut Design Space. I could have designed the shirts in photoshop and saved it and brought it over, but we were short on time and I did not want to fuss with it.

After I got the design ready we found some vinyl, Target is a really good place to get vinyl. It is so much cheaper than Michael's. We did black for the light shirts and white for the darker shirts.

One of the most important things for us was that shirts were not all white and had some personality. Michaels and Joann Fabric have solid color shirts, but they are super scratchy. We decided to go to Target because I knew they had solid color shirts that are comfortable and cute fitting. My family were expecting bright color shirts. But the color scheme at Target was fall colors and I loved them so much more than the bright color shirts they were expecting. Here are all the light colored shirts with all the black vinyl. I did not have time to get all the dark shirts because we were making to the wire because we did not get the white vinyl until a few days later. There were no colors in toddlers that went with the color scheme. We found the toddler shirts at Old Navy.

I also wanted to incorporate the outdoors with the shirts and made sure to prominently feature the falls.

Here is my sister weeding the white vinyl. I really like the smart vinyl because I do not have to do any extra peeling. We ironed them on. For some reason they did not iron on as well this time maybe it's because we were making so many and just trying to get them done fast. I have to reiron mine and my daughters.

Here is my mom and dad wearing their shirts. We had such a fun time. I do not put pictures of kids on my website, but the family picture turned out so cute!

Decorating for the Holidays

Christmas is a special time for our family as I am sure it is a special time for everyone else. I decided that my Christmas decor needed an overhaul. Nothing matched and it was not any color themed at all. I picked out a bunch of things from Target and got some new pillows. For my living room I used the green, gold, red, black and white color scheme.

For the pillow I used a sham from Ikea that I found that perfectly matched my rug perfectly and a Poly-fil Premier Lumbar Pillow.

I think it looks great with all my Christmas decor.

Here is the tree with the pillow. I love it! I picked out all these ornaments from Target. Some of them are special ornaments we have picked up through the years too as our family has gotten bigger.

I used an existing vase that I had and filled it with gold bells from Target.

I got this great piece from Target to decorate my mantle.

I used this existing tin and I had an filled it with pine cones I got from Target.

I picked up this village set from Target and love it!

For our living room we have been cutting down real trees from our property. I decided to decorate this tree in white. The crocheted ornaments are made by my Grandmother who is no longer alive, the balls I got from Walmart and the snowflakes from Target. It is impossible to find a skirt big enough for this 12 foot tree so I used 4 blankets from Target to make a skirt. We need a skirt because the floor gets covered with pine needles.

The rest of the room is in greens. I picked up some new pieces for our mantle.

This tree was given to us by our church last year. I love its rustic look.

I picked up these trees from Target. I love the different shades of green with the white!

I hope you like my Holiday set up. I definitely feel more grown up with these set ups and it makes our home seem so cozy! I can not wait to add to it next year. Maybe we will get some stockings up since my daughter is getting older and will not pull them down.

Check out some other great ideas from other bloggers with holiday pillow ideas here!

I have teamed up with some other friends and there is an amazing giveaway for a $100 gift card plus a 10 pound box of Poly-fil!

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Make Something New by Thinking Outside the Box

Have you ever made something you did not like and your family adores? That happened to me in high school. I made the square container below in ceramics class in high school. When I brought it home I did not like it at all and gave it to my Grandma and Grandpa because they loved it. They thought it would be a perfect tissue holder and put it in their house for 20 years. That thing was there forever! It was kind of symbolic now that I think of it. Often times family members will love and cherish us despite our flaws. And they sure loved me.

My Grandpa died when I was in college and my Grandma died last year. I knew I had to take it when they died because it was something I had made for them that they cherished, much like they cherished me.

Here is a closeup of another side. It was an Ombre heart and star pattern ceramic piece.

They even found felt to put on the bottom they cared for it so much. There was NO WAY I could throw it away, but I tried keeping it on my counter with tissues and I really did not like it. I am a big proponent of Marie Kondo and she says to keep things that bring you joy. This brings me joy, but not with tissues in it. I decided I would put a plant in it instead. I was thinking I could get foam and stick the plants in. Or I could buy a prepotted plant from Target, take that out, get the foam and put that in the "tissue holder".
After I got the plant I realized it was a perfect size to put in the "tissue holder" as is. No foam or cutting required. My recycled project took me 5 seconds when I got home.This plant and "tissue holder" stays in my bathroom. Instead of making me cringe when it contained the tissue paper, now it brings me joy. I love the look of the plant I got and I picked out a cute clock from Target to go with. I can think of my Grandma and Grandpa and the love they had for me every time I go to my bathroom and that is several times a day.

I have joined with some other bloggers this week to showcase some more ways to recycle old crafts.

There is even a giveaway!

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