DIY Tennis Racquet Mirror

This project is old.....REAL old.   Like I made this for my nieces' 13th birthday and she just turned 14 a few weeks ago old.

Better late than never right?  Or so they say

So my Katie is quite the little tennis star.  She's been taking lessons for maybe 4 years I think?.....somewhere around there

She was 13 and playing against 17 year old boys.  She was kicking ass and taking names like a champ....that's my girl!

I wanted to give her a tennis themed birthday gift and I came across this picture on Pinterest that gave me the idea

So I made my trip to Goodwill to hunt down an old racquet and found this (beware of crappy pictures to come)

I spray painted the whole thing a light blue

I don't seem to have any pictures, but then I put a few coats of  blue glitter acrylic on it

Then comes the mirror portion. I didn't have the time, patience, or ability to cut the mirror to the exact shape of the racquet like the inspiration photo.  I just went to Michael's Craft Store and bought a round mirror that would fit in the middle.  I kind of like the exposed strings because I feel like she could use it to hang earrings or something if she wanted to

I used the best glue in the world....E-6000 Glue

What I did was glue the mirror to the strings as best as possible, and then took a piece of cardboard cut to the same size as the mirror and glued it to the backside.  This way the strings of the racquet were sort of sandwiched in the middle and the mirror had something to stick to (the cardboard)


I decorated the mirror by gluing on some gems I had.

Get this.....those gems were from a kit I got from my older sister Heather for Christmas in the 3rd grade.  Katie was born when I was in 3rd grade.....so those gems are literally as old as her.  I've had them for over 13 years

But hey.....my theory is that it's not hoarding if you eventually use it......right?


Now I'm already a bad photographer....terrible.....no good

But damn it's hard to take a picture of s mirror! I honestly have no clue how to do it and make it look even remotely ok looking.  So they're pretty bad




Baaaadddd.......

Still bad

And you guessed it......bad

And while I was on this tennis kick I also made this sign for her bedroom

I hope that when she makes it as a big tennis star she remembers how her favorite auntie was so supportive of her tennis career.....remember that Katie! ;)


So now you know what to give the tennis player in your life.....I know how often people are on the hunt for a good tennis gift.....all the time I assume

DIY Bling Pet Collar

A few weeks ago it was my MoMo's birthday

You can see the festivities Here

I decided to make her a special occasion collar in honor of the big day

It was super easy and all came together in 20 minutes the night before her birthday (I'm the queen on procrastination) 

I bought a plain pink collar from the dollar store and attached gems and pearls with hot glue

Trying to get a cat to model for you can be a little tough.   She insisted on taking a shower in the middle of the photo shoot.  And not a simple lick the paw, rub the head kind of bath.  No no.  It was the head between the legs kind

This was the best I could get

Here's a side view of her wearing it during her birthday dinner

Now she has a fancy going out collar.  Not that she goes out or anything....but if she did she would be preparedd

MoMo Monday Week #6

All you hardcore Disney fans out there probably already know this....but this past week Disney Parks hosted a Monstrous 24 hour All Nighter 

It was a promotion for Monster University coming out June 21st where the parks were open for 24 hours straight.....awesome right?

I was already bummed that I was missing out on the fun when I started seeing all the pictures roll in on the internet.....that lead me into straight depression mode.   Waaaah!

Look at how cute all of them are in their jammies!

I would LOVE to go to Disneyland in my PJs.....I would rock my Minnie Mouse onesie

(Please ignore my ratchet hair)

Now for the MoMo portion of this MoMo Monday post......

Seeing all the characters all cute in their jammies made me dig through my pictures to find an old photo of my little love in her nightgown

I think she would have fit in well with the Disney crew!  They had mice, ducks, chipmunks, and even a dog....but no cat.  MoMo could have filled that void.  After all.......she is the Cats Pajamas!   (see what I did there? ;)

How to Make Ice Cream Cake Cupcakes

My niece Katie just turned 14 on Monday....yea....she's getting old!  My little buddy is getting all growed up and stuff :'(  Here's a picture collage I posted on Instagram

It's hard for me to even fathom the idea that she will legally be able to start driving a car in one year and 7 months.

Not that she should....she kinda goes into complete spaz mode in any kind stressful situation so god knows what would happen to that girl in traffic.  The point is though she legally COULD drive relatively soon....and that's just plain weird!

Anyway....all the men of the family went away this past weekend on a testosterone filled man camping trip.  It of course included beer, guns, off roading, and the pungent smell of man feet filling the camper.   

Us wives were so bummed to miss out...(yeeea....bummed) so we had to have our own fun.  We had a chickfest weekend which included mounds of sushi, drinks, pool time, and of course a little birthday celebration for Katie

After giving her some ideas she decided on ice cream cake cupcakes as her dessert

They're really quite simple

Start by spooning a tablespoon of the cake mix if your choice into your cupcake liner.  I used silicone liners but traditional paper ones work just fine

Bake about 12-15 minutes or until done and let completely cool

Then scoop softened ice cream (we used mint chocolate) on top of the cake and smooth.  You want it to come up to the top of the cupcake liner

Put in the freezer until solid

Then pipe on your whipped cream and topping of choice and put back in the freezer to set up the cream

That's it!

You get the best of both worlds.....and no cutting and scooping required!  It would be great for a kids party and make your life alot easier.

DIY Painted Floppy Hat

Last summer I fell in love with the floppy hats at the dollar store.  They seriously seemed almost exactly the same as the ones I've seen that are $10 and up 

Here's the one I made back then

And the tutorial.   In that post you'll see how I said I was tempted to buy a bunch and make a butt load of different designs

Welp.....I did just that.  I bought a bout 5....ok 6.............alright maybe it was 8

And now I'm having fun doing all sorts of fun stuff to them.  This first one I made was inspired by this look that I found at alot of different stores....stripes!

All I did was use acrylic paint to paint on the stripes using the lines on the brim of the hat as my guide 

You really have to sort of push the paint through the holes for even coverage

I just did one black stripe and one white stripe.  I'm debating whether or not I should keep going and paint the entire thing like the example above?   What do you think?   Or should I leave it?   I can't decide!!

Thanks to Elsa for modeling it for me

Can't beat getting a customized hat for around $2.

MoMo Monday Week #5

Last Tuesday was MoMo's birthday. 

Ok.....so technically I have no idea when her actual birthday is.  I didn't have her mom as pet or adopt her from a friend whose cat had kittens or anything like that (actually...she adopted me.  Another story for another Monday) but she needed a birthday. I took the month that I got her in and gave her the same birth date as me....so I deemed her birthday May 14th

Each year she gets a special dinner of salmon...this year was no different

I even let her eat it out of a fancy dish like one of those stuck up Fancy Feast cats.  Why they're on TV and MoMo isn't I'll never understand

She was a trooper with her party hat.  She wasn't a huge fan of it but the trick is to put it on her and then set her down right in front of her birthday dinner.....she forgets all about the hat

And of course....what's a birthday without cake???

MoMo got salmon and cake waaaasted!!!!!

Then she proceeded to curl up on the rug and fall into a deep birthday induced coma.  I think she had a good time

And here are the pictures I posted on Instagram that night

Come follow me.  TheBusyBroad

Happy Birthday little Mo!  Here's to many more years of a purrrrrrfect friendship.  (I couldn't resist a good cat pun)

DIY Custom Shirts Using Freezer Paper

I have been DYING to start making my own shirts.  My head is stuffed full of cool sayings and designs.....but I've been unsure of the best way to go about executing them

I really love all the cool shirts people make using iron on vinyl....but since I don't have a Silhouette Cameo or any other kind of cutting machine for that matter (This busy broad is also a poor broad) I haven't really felt like I should bother breaking into the world of vinyl.  Pretty much too depressing for me without a machine haha

So I decided to finally give the freezer paper technique of making shirts for an idea I had for my niece Elsa's birthday

If you follow me at all, you might remember that she had a camping themed party....so sticking with the theme I decided to make a "Happy Camper" shirt

First off I decided to use up some pink flower iron on letters I had left over from making the little girls flower girl shirts for the rehearsal

Then came the camper portion

I found an imagine online and printed it out.  Then I traced it with sharpie onto the freezer paper

I marked with an X what was to be cut out.  

CAREFULLY cut the entire image with an exacto knife as well as the X out areas....but be sure to keep the pieces..you're going to need those

Take the piece of freezer paper and iron it onto the shirt shiny side down.  It's the shiny stuff that makes it stick

Then position those little pieces you saved and iron those on too

Take your fabric paint and cover the whole area using a foam brush.  I did about 3 coats to get it even

Peel off the outside

And then the little pieces

Not perfect...but not terrible for a first attempt at a new technique.  You can see spots where I didn't have the paper ironed down good enough so paint seeped under.  Next time I will do a better job of checking that.  But once you put the shirt on a cute kid I think it  doesn't even matter....right?