DIY Play Makeup

Getting dressed and ready for the day takes entirely too long in my house for having only one child. Drew insists on wearing only dresses, which makes me sad for her amazing skinny jeans that sit folded in her dresser. She also lines up every single one of my eyeshadows or blushes for me to put on her before she feels ready for the day. I pretend to load her face with makeup until she looks at herself satisfied in the mirror.

For Valentine's Day this year I put together a little makeup bag of her own so that we can both do our makeup at the same time. It has been a big hit. I was initially going to buy her a little plastic set probably of the Disney princess variety, which she would have loved too. But this little DIY version was much cheaper and I don't think she has realized yet that it is not actually real makeup, since it looks just like mine.



All you need to do is go through your makeup bag and pull out everything that is empty or you don't wear or use anymore. I found a lot in mine, like brushes that I never use, old Bare Minerals containers, and even an empty tube of mascara (more on this one later). I did not have any empty eyeshadows or ones that I wanted to give up, so I went to the dollar store and loaded up on some eyeshadows there.

For the eyeshadows, blushes, compacts, or powders, it is so simple. I just popped out the little metal trays of eyeshadow out of their plastic containers, then I cleaned everything (including the brushes) with hot, soapy water. Lastly I cut pieces of felt that fit into the containers and hot glued them in. Total cost was five dollars for the eyeshadows I bought.



Make sure you cover the blemishes on your chin...



And very important, don't forget the nose...



Sure, why not some purple eyeshadow on your neck too... That looks nice...



The mascara was definitely the trickiest, but is her favorite part. It is part of my makeup bag that she has never got to play with and now she has her very own. Of course I tried to think of how I could give her her own tube of mascara without worrying that she will poke her eye out. So I took my old empty mascara and took it apart. I pulled out the wand from the twisty tube lid and from the bottom container I took out the plastic piece that sits inside and wipes off the excess goop when you pull out the wand. This piece just sits right in the top and came out pretty easy. Things will start to get messy here, even if the mascara is old and empty.

Next, I actually dropped both tube and lid into boiling water. Warning: Do not use a pot that you will want to cook food in in the future! I have a glass pot I bought one year at a thrift store only for crafting and easter egg stuff. I let the tube boil for a few minutes and with tongs swished it all around in the water. Mascara gets nasty here. It will come out liquid, but cover the sides and everything with a film of black. It cleaned out of the pot, I just wouldn't want to boil spaghetti in it later or anything. When I pulled the tube out of the water, I wiped it down clean and used Q-tips to clean out the inside a little better. I did not get the inside of the tube completely clean like I wanted. Although boiling it must have hardened the formula and not a single bit of blackness has come out of it again.

Lastly, I hot glued a feather into the lid. She loves this part. She can pretend to put on mascara just like I do and I don't have to worry about her losing an eye.



I really love my little girly girl who always wants to look pretty. And her beautiful little face that I hope will never grow up to put actual real makeup on.

Drew's Room

I may as well just concede that these are going to be the best pictures I can get of Drew's room. Problem being, there is hardly any natural light coming in, despite that window. I can either go with the washed out look of flash photos or these non-flash super yellowy shots. I tried to adjust them in Photoshop although they still look like I ran a 1970's action on them. Any ideas, photographers?

Anyway, this is Drew's room. I finally feel like I'm finished. I have been working on several projects in here for probably the last year. I'm slow. When I'm sewing a ton for Bitsy Bear I don't usually feel like sitting behind the machine again to work on personal projects. But somehow the quilt and curtains got done.




This room had zero lighting when we moved into the house. No ceiling light or fan and not even wired for it. Before we hired an electrician to come wire a couple of our rooms for lighting, we decided to try out these swing arm wall lamps. They definitely give out enough light and we like them.




I saw this Favor print probably two years ago and had wanted it ever since. I got it here, where you can see how the colors actually look. I love the combo of yellow, purple, and red. And I love the girl doing her makeup on a motorcycle. It somehow just seems Drew appropriate.

Does anyone remember that old blue rabbit pillow on Drew's bed? I would still be sleeping with it if Jason hadn't kicked it out of our bed when we first got married. Heck, that thing made it all the way down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon with me at one time, strapped onto my pack. Jason doesn't understand. But I never threw it away like he told me to and now Drew sleeps with it. Actually I had to make a cut throat trade with her since she had been sleeping in my oversized U-shaped maternity pillow for so long and I wanted it back. She seems okay with the rabbit pillow for now but has made it very clear that she wants the big pillow back once baby brother gets here.




Another project was that tall white bookcase hanging on the wall. It was actually an old brown window shutter I picked up at Goodwill, put a backing on and sanded and painted. I will have to get a better picture of the seashell calendar to explain that. It is just like the spoon calendar I made for my kitchen, just using seashells instead.




Another shot of the ruffled curtains that I about strangled myself with they took so long. And that pop art picture I made forever ago hanging on her wall. Oh and since I took these pictures last week, Jason has also added a little ballet barre on that wall below the picture. It is so cute! Jason came to observe Drew's ballet class last week and noticed that some of the girls were able to hold their leg up higher on the barre than she. He has been encouraging her to practice ever since. I merely mentioned we should put a barre up on her wall and the next day I came home to one already installed. Those other 3-year-old ballerinas better watch out!

So there is Drew's room done on a very small budget in a very large time frame. Now on to the baby room. Hopefully he will have something finished before 2012.

Yellow Easter Tuxedo Dress Giveaway!

This is my very first giveaway I have ever done! I'm hoping to establish a Facebook following so I have a better way to inform customers about new dresses and items in my shop. Me and Twitter have never come to terms, so Facebook it is! I am giving away one of my most popular dresses, this banana yellow tuxedo dress.



The tuxedo dress is my all time favorite dress. It is made out of a cotton poplin fabric with just a tiny bit of stretch that really gives the dress a great feel. It is beautiful and appropriate for formal occassions and photo shoots, but is also extremely comfortable for everyday wear. The dress features tuxedo ruffles along the button-down front and a tacked on fabric tie belt. Also, the sleeves flip up to show off the coordinating yellow gingham fabric. It is the ultimate Easter dress!



You can win this dress in any size, from 0-6mo all the way up to girl's size 9. To enter, please leave a comment on this link only. The contest ends Thurday at 11:59 PM MST. The winner will be announced Friday.

**PLEASE PLACE ENTRY COMMENTS HERE ONLY**

I will use Random.org to select a winner from Facebook comments only.

My Valentines

Happy Valentine's Day! Check back tomorrow to start planning for Easter- I am giving away an Easter dress on my new Facebook page and will tell you about it here too. Follow the link to like Bitsy Bear on Facebook, or just like it up in the top right corner of my blog.

Also- I actually have several other posts lined up to share, including Drew's (finally) finished room and Drew's new ballet and tap class. She's wearing tights and leotards. You don't want to miss it.

Have a love-filled day.

I Spy

Drew has a bazillion miniature toys. The smaller they are, the better. She also has a batrillion cups, boxes, containers, tins, and bags that they gets sorted and resorted into. Often we find them in strange places hidden around the house. The other day I found a wise man from a small Christmas nativity set hiding in the crack of our sliding glass door. We are tempted at times to get rid of her messy collection once and for all, although it is about the only thing that will keep her entertained all by herself. There's only so much UNO Moo I can play, so anything else that entertains her is my friend.

Yesterday we decided to join two of her loves into a fun project... her collection of miniature toys and I Spy books. We set up a few I Spy scenes using some of her little toys and took some pictures. I was just going to get some enlarged prints for a little Valentine surprise, but now I am tempted to create more I Spy scenes and get printed a full photobook. Something I can slip in her Easter basket maybe.

I Spy...


a butterfly, dice, a lobster, Lumiere, a spool of thread, Dora, the letter L, and the American flag.




the letter M, a white flower, Cinderella, and a pink pitcher.



an elephant, a treasure chest, two puppy dogs, a princess shoe, a swan, and nail polish.


Now I have to get creative and see what else we can come up with.

Pregos and Bomb Dropping

Everyone who is pregnant needs to coordinate to have a pregnant sister as well right along with them, or two sisters in my case. It is a lot of fun. Not only will you get strange baby-bump-touching photos together (forced upon by your grandmother), but there are many other advantages as well. Such as discussing food aversions, then food cravings, comparing ultrasounds, eating doughy brownies and ice cream with, and talking about babies for as long as you want knowing the other will not get tired of it. Shawnda is due in five weeks and I have twelve weeks to go. Although someone should inform my large belly of this and tell it to pace itself.

My sweet, innocent Drew has been testing out some new words lately. Two of which are fat and ugly. The other day she shamelessly called me both of them. We had to have a talk about how we may read some words in books (the new bedtime favorite, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, contains both these words) but we don't use them when talking about people. I wasn't sure what to say though when watching Steven Tyler on American Idol she said, "Mom that boy is soooo ugly." Well that is very debatable, Drew. Very debatable.

Drew also pulled a teenager when after being told no, she walked away saying, "I hate my mom." What? How does she even know that word? And how to use it in the right context? Upon further discussion she informed me that this is what Nemo told his daddy. So thanks, Disney Pixar for the shining example. My daughter is telling me she hates me at least ten years too early.

At least she has not dropped these bombs again after being talked to about them. Except for the whole Steven Tyler and ugly thing and I am still baffled as to how to reply to that. Watch her jumping on the jump-o-line (as she calls it)...

She is too sweet to say such things to her mommy...