T-Shirt Diaries and More

It is here, the contest you have all been waiting for: Project Recycled! Six excellent crafters tackling different challenges each week to see who can recycle there way to the crown. I am so excited to introduce the first round of projects. Check them out and then vote on your favorite. The polls will be open until 12 midnight on Friday. Please check out the projects after the jump and make sure to VOTE!

I went on an amazing ski weekend to Ellicotville, New York with a group of friends this weekend. When I planned the trip I was nervous, but not because I thought I would end up here: Bertrand  Chaffee Hospital Yes I managed to get myself checked into the hospital, scored a sweet IV, and lived to tell about driving for thirty minutes with the hubster in the middle of nowhere through a bunch of backwoods streets in a snow storm. I am still recovering, but I am back home getting ready to launch Project Recycled tomorrow. I had some great suprizes planned for tomorrow, but right now I honestly just want to get the contest up and running and go back to bed. So please check back tomorrow for the first round of Project Recycled! I can't wait. Now I am about to head back up to bed (I will spare you the details but I didn't break anything, it was just a complication that stemmed from having interstitial cycstitis) Peace, Love, and Recycling,

Don't be sad it is time to CELEBRATE. This is THE final Upcycled Awesome and everything else. I have enjoyed this feature on my blog for the last year and a half, but it is time to move on. So lets celebrate! Let's post as many projects (upcycled or not) and make it and amazing celebration of our upcycling awesomeness!

I can not believe it is almost here. I have been working diligently behind the scenes to got a new and exciting contest up on the Internet. That contest is Project Recycled! What I have been doing :) I have been building a little business taking shirts from mommas and turning them into dresses and for kidlets. I have been having so much fun I thought, what if their was a contest. A chance for other recycling and upcycling seamstresses to transform something old and mundane into something beautiful and wearable. So starting next week we will have seven wonderful contestants competing for the title of the first Project Recycled winner. Hopefully you will not only stay tuned and check out the amazing items that they create, but you will also vote. Your votes will decide each week who gets to go on to the next round. Everyone will have a blog button up on the side of the blog soon so please click over, check them out, and enjoy the contest!

So far so good. I haven't caved, although I am so drawn to the stupid sale signs at Target. I mean 70% off there has to be something that I need., right? My biggest challenge seems to be overcompensation. The thought that if an item is on sale I need to buy it because it is too good of a price to pass up, it will never be on sale again, and I am definately saving the family money by purchasing it now. Most of the time I do not even try these clothes on. If I did I would see that they not only didn't fit but they were not the quality of clothing I really wanted. These things I tend to purchase are not necessities and pretty much sit in my closet. They take up space, they are made cheaply, do not hang correctly, and for the most part are just waiting to get sent to Goodwill during a semi-annual purge. I do need something. I need a dress for an upcoming vacation. I bought a pattern and some material for this: Now I sew all the time for my kids, but frankly I neve...

I had all of these wonderful posts in my head, and then the power went out. So because of that I will leave you with one simple little picture. To the beauty that lies ahead....

It is the second to Last Upcycled Awesome Linky Party! Are you sad? Yeah mee too, it's been fun, but better things are coming your way so no worries. Since we are just about done Upcycled Awesome will be Upcycled Awesome and Everything else all in one linky party. Post what you want, have fun, and spread the love by commenting on fellow posters content! It's easy and fast. Let's end this party in style and go ahead and link up as many items as possible. <center><a href="http://www.thetshirtdiaries.com/"><img src="http://i795.photobucket.com/albums/yy231/rneorr/UpcycledAwesome-2.jpg "/></a></center> That's it! Thanks you. Upcycled Awesome 

It' almost hear and I had to get a new header to celebrate! The contracts are in, the contestants have their assignments, Now to wait for the fun beginning Monday January 30th! I am so excited to see what our awesome contestants come up with!

I am truly blessed. I know that.  I have my health and my family.  With Valentines Day coming up a dear blogging friend Kimberely over at Bugaboo, Mini, Mr., and Me asked me to share this with you: Late last week, my very dear friend Katrina lost her husband  due to complications from diabetes.   He was only 32.   They have four beautiful, young children.   Katrina lost the love of her life during the holiday season and is left to care for her children by herself.  Katrina has always been a stay at home mom.  She runs a daycare from her home and her husband - a jack of all trades who had been on disability for a number of years - was basically the sole provider for their family and had no life or health insurance.   I know she is fearful of being able to take care of her children now. Please help support Operation Valentines day to help Katrina during the Valentines Day this year. Proceeds will go toward b...

 Yes I am jumping on the bandwagon and starting my Slowwww…migration to Wordpress.  Getting to Know The Friendly People at Wordpress The Lovely People of Wordpress  I cannot wait to show you the new blog, but it is going to take a couple of months (hopefully just one) to get everything over to the new site in the manner that I like. Have any of you migrated? What words of advice do you have for me and what type of timeline do think is reasonable. Tips, tricks, and great websites I need to check out are more then welcome! Thanks,

I think it is a pretty common feeling. What to do? I have been running this blog for two years and I love it. I have my up months, I have my down months, I have a love hate relationship with the whole blogging world. One of my biggest questions is what are my goals? I have some features that work, and some that just  seem to take up more time then I am willing to give. Do I Really Need You? I have to make some changes to the blog because I need to focus on some new and beautiful endeavors. I have been dreaming of actually being able to make money selling my line of upcycled childrens clothing. I just need to get the "balls" to do it. To stop procrastinating, set up shop, and sell. I have been in the process of setting up an ETSY shop for about four years. I even had a few things listed, and not that it has been a miserable failure, but I never promoted anything, and hence never sold anything. You know you kind of have to promote things to sell them. (It...

Now on to Upcycled Awesome! It is still a weekly link up party of upcycled crafts and creations (furniture, toys, art, etc.) but.... I am adding another link for everything else. So if you have a link to an upcycled project post it below the Upcycled Awesome list, if you have anything else please share it under the Everything Else list.  When putting up a project make sure that: You made it. If it is upcycled link under Upcycled Awesome, if not please link under Everything Else. You link to the project you want to share with us. No linking to ETSY sites. (although if you sell things on your site through ETSY, etc. that is okay just don't link to your ETSY site.) Put my button somewhere on your site or on the post you are linking. <center><a href="http://www.thetshirtdiaries.com/"><img src="http://i795.photobucket.com/albums/yy231/rneorr/UpcycledAwesome-2.jpg "/></a></center> That's it! Thanks you. ...

I am a whopping nine days into the No New Clothes For Six Months challenge and I already ripped one of my three pairs of jeans that fit. I need to buy jeans. I guess I don't need new jeans, but the thing is I got a whole in yet another pair, and now what is a girl to do. ( Source ) I would try to make some, because it's a no new clothes challenge and how hard could it be to make jeans. Actually I would say it is way beyond my sewing talents.  The fabric alone would cost me more then buying a new pair. But alas, it is a challenge. I could just patch them, but inner thigh patches (Yeah that is one of the places they ripped) just look tacky. So nine days down of the no new clothes for six months challenge, and five months and 23 days until I can go out and buy a new pair of jeans.

All of your love, kindness, and good wishes mean more to me than you will ever know.  The kids are doing better and I am reminding them that someday again they will see their big Phugs.  Sadly it seems that a lot of my readers are, or have gone throught this very same experience recently. I am sure you have seen this poem but I just wanted to share it in case you haven't. Enjoy. Rainbow Bridge Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge. When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.  There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.  There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable. All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.  ...

Today was a sad day. Phugley 05/05/03 - 01/04/12 We lost a dear friend. We lost our dog. He was our pug.  A dog that is as stubborn as can be but will love your children to pieces. We had good times with him, and let's be real we had bad times as well.  He was a dear friend that the kids loved to pieces. He did not love getting his picture taken. I am at a loss for words. I don't know what to say, I didn't know what to say to the kids when I had to tell them he was in heaven, but I do like to believe he is in a much better place. Phugley, or big Phugs as we liked to call him is roaming around in heaven getting harassed by his two year old brother Seamus who we lost New Years Day 2007. The death of a pet is a hard thing. You love them so much you don't want to let them go, but in the end he was sick. He was blind, deaf, and lost complete control of his bowels (disgusting I know). He no longer chewed bones (he was a fan of nylab...

Now on to Upcycled Awesome! It is still a weekly link up party of upcycled crafts and creations (furniture, toys, art, etc.) but.... I am adding another link for everything else. So if you have a link to an upcycled project post it below the Upcycled Awesome list, if you have anything else please share it under the Everything Else list.  When putting up a project make sure that: You made it. If it is upcycled link under Upcycled Awesome, if not please link under Everything Else. You link to the project you want to share with us. No linking to ETSY sites. (although if you sell things on your site through ETSY, etc. that is okay just don't link to your ETSY site.) Put my button somewhere on your site or on the post you are linking. <center><a href="http://www.thetshirtdiaries.com/"><img src="http://i795.photobucket.com/albums/yy231/rneorr/UpcycledAwesome-2.jpg "/></a></center> That's it! Thanks you. ...

I know I have been absent from the blogosphere for a while, but it is a new year and I am back. First off is the No New Clothes Challenge! I did it more as a self imposed challenge to stop buying clothes and get back to my sewing basics by making them. I wanted to get rid of all the unnecessary "bargains" I buy in haste.  I am the worst kind of shopper, an impulse buyer. I see a shirt at Target on sale for $4.00 and it is in my closet. The problem is cheap clothes are cheaply made and ill fitting. They fall apart and just end up taking valuable space in my home. My "stuff" is beginning to take over my house and I need to do something about it. I am happy to announce that so far their are two other like-minded bloggers who are ready to accept the challenge and several more who will be shopping a little less because although they can not commit they were definitely inspired.  So lets give a round of applause to Creations By June a...