like a rhinestone cowgirl

so get this...today marks my 2,200th post.  can you believe that?  i've been yammering away at you guys for almost a full decade - this november will mark this blog's 10th anniversary.  holy crap, that's just nuts.  i've written about all sorts of crap from being pregnant with the bean to the teen's 6th grade and then 8th grade promotions, milestones galore, wan-niversaries, cooking, sewing, vacations, a few heavy topics, everyday life.  sometimes when i'm truly bored, i'll go back and look at some of my oldest posts and crack up at how bad they were.  or marvel at how much my girls have changed over the years.  i'm constantly going back into the archives to find a recipe, or a photo, or even to remember a specific detail about something we may have done or somewhere we've gone.  this blog has been through so much of our lives, and i'm so glad i've kept it up all this time.

anyway, at this particular moment in time my life is all about rhinestones.  haha!  but really - i opened my fat mouth and suggested that we do troop t-shirts that the girls can wear to our upcoming outings. my co-leader and i had been drooling over the blinged-out tops that we'd seen others wearing, although after pricing out customized rhinestone iron-on transfers on eBay and etsy, i decided to do a little research.  when i turned to my friend pinterest, i found that i already had a very valuable tool for creating such things right on my desk.  turns out that the software for my nifty die-cutting machine has a rhinestone template-making feature built right into it.  with the rhinestone starter kit that i found on amazon for half price and bulk hotfix rhinestones heavily discounted on eBay, i was all set.  we found supersoft cotton tees at wholesale prices in the prettiest light blue, and i got to work once all of the supplies i'd ordered were delivered.

first step:  create the template.

once i finally had it the way i wanted it, i took a deep breath and fed one of my precious few template sheets into the machine.

as is typical of me, i still managed to screw it up.  after spending a few minutes trying to fix it and save the template, i gave up, tossed it into the trash and started over again.  this time, i slowed down a little, got it right, and placed the rhinestones correctly into the little holes.  look, so pretty:

the next step involves taking a piece of transfer tape and carefully placing it on top, pressing down to catch all of the rhinestones in place.  and of course, i dropped the sheet of tape and didn't catch it before it hit the template.  ooh, i was so pissed.

on the next try, i was successful at last.  i fired up my iron, pressed one of the t-shirts, and centered the transfer onto the front.

i ironed it down using a pillowcase as a presscloth, waited a minute to let the shirt cool down, took a deep breath, and peeled the tape off.

one down, 15 more to go.  i've already run out of rhinestones and transfer tape and placed an order for more.  luckily, both vendors are in southern california and i should receive it all by monday.  good thing too, because i need to finish these bad boys by thursday next week.

wish me luck and say a prayer for my sanity.  thanks.