My first GIVEAWAY!!!

Ok ladies, as promised here is my first GIVEAWAY!! Yippeee!! Enter to win this beautiful canvas bag pictured above or the 2 items pictured below, a small clutch and apron for your little one or a $30 credit towards anything in my Etsy shop!!! The best part is if you don't see something you like or need I will custom make something just for you or your little one!!! Say what?!?! Yup, that's right, anything! As long as it's something similar to what you see in my shop, example: fabric flower clip/pin, jewelry, brooch. If you pick something that is under $30 I can work with you to figure it out ;) Contest ends May 3rd at midnight! Just in time for Mothers Day!
Here are the rules...
1. Make a comment on this blog post = 1 entry (limit 1 comment per day please, comment on what item or items you would like if you won :)
2.Mention this giveaway with a link on your facebook page or tweet about it = 1 entry (for it to count as an entry please write "Facebook " or "Twitter" as its own comment in the comment section) example: 1)follower
                             2)follower
3. Add my shop as a favorite = 1 entry (go to my shop to find out how to open an etsy account if you don't have one yet, there is a link there that will guide you)
4. Become a follower = 2 entries (write follower as its own comment in the comment section, make sure to do it twice in order for it to count)
5.Blog = 2 entries (mention this giveaway on your blog and include photos of the giveaway items with a link to my giveaway. Make sure you write "blog" as 2 separate comments in order for it to count)

OK, I hope I didn't leave anything out! If I did (seeing that this is my first time) please feel free to email me with any questions, princynparis@gmail.com. Thank you and good luck!!!


*CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED!!*

Tutorial on how to make a sweet apron and clutch for you little one!!

Wanna learn how to make a sweet apron for you little one? Then read on ladies!! The awesome thing about this project is that you don't even need a sewing machine, just needle and thread!! Yippeee!! For those of you lucky ladies that do know how to use a sewing machine, this will be even easier and faster than the rest of us that don't know a lick about those dern machines! Oh wait, that's me that's so clueless. ;)

Here is a picture of your apron when you are done! Perfect for when your gal wants to help mommy in the kitchen or daddy with the grillin!!:) Or when she just wants to make a beautiful masterpiece!!

Here is a pic of the clutch! Small enough for her to use for her art supplies, snacks, a change of clothes, her dollies, ect.....on and on the list goes :)

It all started when I found this fabulous etsy shop named Olive Rue. I fell in love with her images and finally did something about it! Here is a list of the main items you will need:

1. Image from http://www.oliverue.etsy.com/

only $3.50 an image!! Awesome!! And you can use over and over again!!

2. Avery transfer paper found at Wal-Mart

3. Basic apron, I found mine at Ac Moore

4. Pretty ribbon, I like black and white with the black images, very chic! {All embellishments are found at your local art/hobby store. I get most of mine at Michaels or Ac Moore}

5. Scissors, thread and needle.

6. Scrap floral material if you have any. I like using dresses or shirts that my little one has grown out of and I don't mind cutting up {it's not like I'm gonna have any more kids!!} and cream or off white felt.

7.Buttons or fabric buttons , I happened to have some of those on hand.

8. Some sort of lace to create the ruffles

9. Any other embellishments that you would like to use

After you print image on Avery paper {make sure you switch your image to mirror when you print!!} follow the directions that Avery has for ya.

Next I cut off the straps to the apron {cause I prefer prettier ribbon straps}.



Make sure you leave enough to fold over and sew together to prevent any fraying. I had a picture #3 and when I went to add something else to my sentence on pic #2, I backspaced and pic #3 totally disappeared!!?!?! This has happened to me before and I do not know how to fix or prevent it from happening again!! I am SO MAD at blogger right now!!GRRR!

Ok, on with the tutorial:) {smiling sweetly} Pic #3 was of the apron with the straps all cut off, no biggie.

Next I take some of my fabulous black and white ribbon and sew onto my small little apron. {Trust me I'm no seamstress!!}

Here is a pic with all straps attached:)

Next I sew on {by hand} this quaint cream colored chiffon ruffle. {this is the part where a sewing machine would be useful!!} :)

I doubled up on the ruffle and added a coordinating black and white bow off to one side. {the damask button was an option until I thought of doing a flower instead}

This is where your felt and material come to use. I just cut, free hand, 3 flowers. Small, med., and large. They don't have to be perfect and if they edges start to fray, no problem. It will add character. For those of you who think otherwise you can either add fray check to the ends or singe the ends with heat. Over lap the large material pc to large felt pc and stack your flowers. Sew together and add a small button or pearl for the flower center.

Place flower to the other side and sew on. { I also added some leaves but this is optional} I took some of my floral fabric and used button covers to make the buttons that go on either side where the waist straps are. This covers where you sewed on the ribbon straps. If you don't have button covers (not sure if I'm calling them by the right name) you can use regular buttons:) Voila! Your done with the apron! Isn't she pretty!!??

Ok, on with the small clutch, once you've made the apron this will fly by!:) Iron on your image first. Add the same ruffle material you used for your apron and sew all the way around the top of your clutch.

You can use the same black and white ribbon to make another cute bow off to one side and make another flower like you did for you apron and add to the other.

I did something different though. I got a small wooden birdie (he's light weight) and traced him on the back side of my floral fabric, twice. Make sure you trace one looking one way and the other bird looking the other way, unlike mine in the pic. I did a boo boo.

I then took some spray adhesive and sprayed my birdie and attached the fabric cutout. Do the same for the backside. Then I took a nail and hammer and hammered a small hole on to the birdies back {unless your man has a drill and wouldn't mind helpin ya out}. I then threaded a skinny pink ribbon through and attached to one of the handles of my clutch.

Here is my home made birdie charm with a brass crown charm chillin with its homie ;) I just tied the ribbon on top { sew to make sure it doesn't come untied} and with its strings that were left dangling I attached the bird and brass charm. Ain't it schhwweeeet!!?

All right ladies, I have more to come using more of Olive Rues fabulous prints so stayed tuned, one includes a bag for us, yippee, and the other is using these prints as art work in your home:) Also I will be announcing my FIRST GIVEAWAY either this weekend or on Monday so stay tuned!!! I'm so excited!!

If you have any questions concerning this project just ask!:)

The Circus and a Wedding

The circus was in town and we decided to take the kids. All week long we were able to control Princeton a little better because he was so excited to go and all we had to do was threaten to leave him with Grandma. Is that mean? It worked to so well though! After the circus was done and over with Jorel and I wondered what were we going to use now to get Princeton to cooperate. Besides the disciplinary stuff the kids LOVED it!! We haven't gone the last several years because the circus has kind of gone down hill:( Not sure why. Paris couldn't stop screaming and squealing at all of the animals! She danced and clapped almost the entire time we were there:) Well worth it on her end. At some point in the show they had a clown throwing a large balloon in the crowd . Princeton has a HUGE fear of balloons and that kind of ruined the rest of the night for him. He was ready to go home after that.

Parade of the elephants:)

They had EIGHT motorcycles in that sphere!!

Paris loved this!

Last but not least, Sergio and Trina got married today! Sergio is my brother-in-law. It was a beautiful day at the beach, nothing but the minister, family and friends:) A very happy day!

What's in a name...

Over the years I've gotten a lot of questions about my name. The 1st question, usually, is

"Is that your first name?", or
"Is that your real name?",
"Is Prencie short for something?!?",
I also get,

"So is Prencie different for Princess?" { I usually got that one from the men} Ha!

The answer to all of the above questions is NO. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind the questions, I like my name:). My name is a family name. My grandmother had a cousin who died at the early age of 18 from pneumonia. Her name was, Pencie. My grandmother always wanted to name her daughter Pencie but had my father and his brother instead. When I was born my parents decided to give me that name. Well, it didn't quite work out that way. While getting the spelling over the phone my father accidentally spelled my name with a R so my name ended up being Prencie instead of Pencie. I actually like the mistake ;)

When I was pregnant with my daughter, my husband and I knew we wanted a "P" name but couldn't agree on ANYTHING!! Coming up with a girl name was much harder than I had anticipated. With both of my boys it was almost an instant decision but not this time. We were at the hospital still trying to figure it out. I knew all along that I wanted the name Paris but the hubby wasn't to crazy about the name. I knew that it had to do with a certain person in the media that had that name. When I think of the name Paris I think of the city of love, fashion, beauty....all of the things that I love. I think that the name began to grow on the hubby. So since our beautiful baby girl was born around Christmas time we named her, Paris-Noel:)

When it came time to find a name for my shop I actually just wanted the shop name to be "Princy" {I like the way Princy looks} but the name was taken. Grrr!! Back to the drawing board. A good friend of mine suggested that I do "Princy and Paris". I had thought of that too but wasn't 100% sure. Well I had dragged my feet way too long and what better name could I find than a shop name that has to do with me and my daughter, Paris-Noel:) So I decided to go with "Princy n Paris" to incorporate both of our names with a small play on words :)

Dear Lillie: Another Give-Away!!!!

Dear Lillie: Another Give-Away!!!!

I just love spreading good news! Click on the link above to see how you can enter to win one of these beautiful clutches made be Dear Lillie:).

Happy Easter!

Paris was more interested in dumping her straw out...

then putting it back in the basket....

only to dump it all back out again. :)

Angel was concerned, he was wondering why his silver egg didn't have any weight to it. He thought he got jipped. Little did he know that it was one of the eggs with money in it;)

My sweet little boy looking for eggs, trying to beat his older brother to the punch:) {We helped him find the gold egg because he was getting frustrated that Angel was getting all the candy eggs} Is that wrong?:)

Here are the boys hunting down some Easter eggs:)

Don't know how the pic above got there but I can't figure out how to erase it...grrr. I'm so technically challenged!

Princeton just loves his baby sister!!!

My hubby showing his lil girl some love:)

Here are my babies:) I love them so much!!!

I'm so blessed to have them in my life!!

So usually we tend to say "Happy Easter" in passing. As my husband and I were taking our walk with the kids we bumped into our neighbor down the street and said "Happy Easter". Well, she corrected us by saying," No, not Happy Easter, Happy Resurrection Day". I never really thought about it but she's right. I just never thought to say "Happy Resurrection Day". I am so thankful for all that God has blessed us with. He did so much for us, laid down his life for us so that we may be saved. What lucky children we all are!

New Blog Name

Ok, so I've been thinking for some time about changing the name of my blog. Originally when I started thinking about opening an Etsy shop I had a name picked out but it was already taken. So I checked and Chic Garden was not taken so I went ahead and named my blog "Chic Garden". A lot of time went by and wasn't so sure about the name any more. So when I went with the name "Princy n Paris" I wanted the option to blog about my shop but my blog name didn't coordinate. So I finally changed the name. I want to get better at blogging and start building up my followers so that they, you, will be in the know about what I'm doing and what I'm working on. It also gives followers the opportunity to ask about certain questions about my products and builds a relationship with my customers or future customers;) I will be blogging later about "Whats in a name". Stay tuned:)

Dear Lillie: Our April Give-Away.....THE ADELIENE DRESS!

Dear Lillie: Our April Give-Away.....THE ADELIENE DRESS!

Ok, WOW! This is quite "THE" giveaway!! Click on the link above to enter to win a sensational dress! Not only do you have the chance to win a dress but then you get the option to choose what color you want!!! It doesn't get much better than that!! Ok if I win I totally would go for the gray and rasberry one! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!

This past weekend my oldest son, Angel, participated in a Bridge tournament for his school. They held the tournament at the Womans Club of Norfolk in a beautiful old house that is a little over 100 hundred years old. It was beautiful! The picture below is a sketch of the house.They did such a good job! Angels and his partner won almost every round. I would try and explain the game but it would take way to long and I don't even get all the rules. They ended up making 3rd place among all of the local schools. The kids were so excited to bring a trophy back to school to have displayed in their trophy case:)

The picture above is a picture of 4 of the students that played from Landstown elementary. {Angel is the one holding up the peace sign}

Here he is getting ready to play!