the Princess and the Pea

Princess Crown

2012-02-09T11:22:00.000-07:00

My daughter's friend had a princess party and my friend (the mom) told me I did not need to buy a present. So I made this instead.

I had an unwilling model so here is my lamp modeling it.

I based it off this pin I saw of tulle crowns, and J's crown. As I made it I thought either this is ridiculous or ingenious. Its a fine line. I couldn't tell if if it would look like a 70s headband.
Best part of this craft/present is I already had the material. The other two moms at the party loved it, so I guess it wasn't ridiculous.

Snow White

2012-02-09T11:07:00.001-07:00

Back in October I bought my daughter two dress up dresses at Goodwill. All her friends had princess dress and she did not. Individually they were a little less than $5 each. But both need a little bit of care. I was willing to do it to save $30. (These were $20 dresses new.) The first one was Princess Fiona from Shrek, and once I removed a few things that had frayed it turned out to be a beautiful dress. Her favorite is the Snow White Dress. It turned out to need more care, I asked my mom to help me over thanksgiving, and still by Christmas it needed more work. The bodice and skirt of the dress were fine, but the sleeves just kept shredding. Imagine my excitement when I search snow white sleeves on Pinterest and found this tutorial for the sleeves. I spent less than $2 on material to make the sleeves, still I was on top if it worked.

That is not her doll, its her friend's and boy was she excited when she found it!

By the time it took me six hours I don't know if was a top of a good deal, but considering it was christmas break and I'm a stay at home mom, it probably wasn't too bad of a deal. Not to mention I learned a lot while sewing these sleeves. I'm pretty sure these sleeves should have not taken 6 hours, but I'm not a seamstress I'm a crafter. Plus if you haven't figure it out yet on this blog I'M TERRIBLE at following directions!!! Not to mention you have to start by making your own sleeve pattern which totally paralyzed me.
Part of the reason it took a long time, is did french seams, because I didn't want the dress to fray and I wanted it to be comfortable. But part of it is I don't have a lot of practice with satin, it handles a lot different than cotton calico, so it was just hard for me. But like I said, I learned a lot.
Unfortunately now, I think the sleeves out shines the dress, well the bodice. I considered about replacing it, but decided it wasn't worth it, plus it made my daughter really nervous for me to be reworking her dress. She was quite upset until it was done. She loves the dress, and if I replaced the bodice she probably wouldn't love it at much, she LOVES the button. Snow White stories are now her favorite in her Princess Collection Book.
(She also likes stories about "the doggie"-- Beauty and the Beast)

Even though it is opposite I think she plays a good snow white even with her fair blond hair. Then again Marge Champion was the model for snow white and she definitely did not have hair as dark as a raven.

Mailboxes

2012-01-22T20:55:00.001-07:00

Remember these?

Yeah, I threw them away when we moved, there was no way I was moving empty kleenex boxes even if they were pretty. I don't regret not moving them, but I wish I had them, if that makes sense?
I want to make these to replace them.

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But I'm planning on getting a new car this year, and every dollar I don't spend on something means a dollar I don't have to pay interest on so, I got to like seriously budget, save and be frugal, and $10 on mailboxes, just is not in the budget this February. But oh how I love those mailboxes, more than like any other valentine thing on pinterest this year.
Instead I think I'll make these:

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But in different colors for everyone's favorite colors. I don't feel the need to make everything red. Plus it will add some valentines flare to make kitchen which often doesn't get decorated. I can't handle decorations and crumbs. Ahh, it makes me want to cry thinking about it!
While we are talking about valentine's I seriously love this pillow

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And I really would like to make a valentine tree, its great because its free. Will someone help me find and arrange my branches? Maybe one of my brown eyed boys will help me.

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But I got off topic, go stare at the mailboxes, I want to make, and pretend they are in my house.

Birthdays

2012-01-22T20:30:00.004-07:00

Whew, the middle of February is a busy time for our family, and I like things over the top. I'm trying to plan it so I know what to do eat day.
We have Valentines and my husband's birthday, then two days later is my son's birthday.
So part of me wants some sort of homemade valentine's treat for my kids, and then I need a dessert for my husband's birthday. I think we'll make cookies the weekend before.

Then for my husband's birthday we would preferably a strawberry dessert.

I will probably attempt his mom's strawberry pie, he always tells me I didn't make it right, but over the years I've realized I'm ok with that, his mom deserves to be glorified by him. (And in his defense, I do change it from time to time.)
For the first couple of years I always told him I wanted to make it for his birthday, and he always told me it wasn't strawberry season. Well this year I've decided who cares, globalization has made valentine's strawberry season, so who cares.
The following day I need to make something for my son to take to school, the next morning and he does not really like cake. Luckily I can make the treat this year. I was thinking I wanted to make chocolate chip sandwich cookies, but maybe they'll just get plain cookies

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The for his birthday, I was still thinking the chocolate chip cake, but will he get chocolate chip overloaded? I don't know, he never has before.

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But may its too hard to do all this in a week, so I'm thinking this would be a good idea for his birthday. My husband says it sounds gross, but I know my son will love it.

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All it is ice cream sandwiches and whipped cream frozen, I know my son will love it.

What do you think, chocolate chip cookie ice box cake, or Easy Ice Cream sandwich cake?

Then the following day we'll have his friend party, what to make what to make, for a child who doesn't really like cake?

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How about this chocolate chip cookie bowls with ice cream on top? I'm thinking ten 5-6 year olds will think it is fun, and my son will love eating it.
But instead maybe I'll make a giant chocolate chip cookie, and serve ice cream after we cut it up for the kids. The giant chocolate chip cookie is probably more exciting to kids than cookie bowls. The last time I made my son a giant chocolate chip cookie he didn't really like it, but that's because the recipe didn't put enough chocolate chips in it. If I got m&m baking chips he would really like that, although I wouldn't.

He wants chocolate dipped oreos, which is my own fault, but I don't really know how and I don't really have the energy to learn in the next four weeks.
What do you think? Chocolate chip cookie bowls, or giant birthday cookie?
I'm thinking I'll go easier, then hard on each one. If I only had event I would go over the top.
But I think the ice cream sandwhich icebox cake, and the giant cookie. My plan for his school birthday, is to make the cookies ahead of time and freeze them.
Oh on top of this I'm assistant room mom, and I think I'm in charge of the valentine's party in kindergarten. Plus my son's birthday is the 100th day of school, so we also have to do something to bring in for 100th day. Whew, are you tired just reading this post?
Good think I'm obsessive planner or none of this would get done.
And at one point I thought wanted to throw my husband a birthday party because its his 30th!
Although that still sounds appealing, maybe an open house the weekend before!?
It would be super fun if we rented a ping pong table, but I'm sure that is not in the budget.
Please readership I know most of you don't post, tell me your opinions and advice.

You don't want to know

2012-01-09T10:24:00.000-07:00

I have a sickness, its called obsessive Halloween planning.
My son has been talking about wanting to be grass for months. I know Halloween is not for another 10 monutes, but my son is obsessed with holidays. I haven't the slightest idea where he would pick up an obsession. He is planning other holidays while enjoying current holidays, which is all fine and dandy, as long as there are no tears involved.
So he wants to be grass for Halloween 2012, he thinks it would be so funny. He has an odd sense of humor for a 5 year old.
Well you know my brain, now I have a whole family theme. Will it last, will he still want to be grass in 10 months, only October will tell. Wouldn't be great though if my theme worked? Sorry no more details at this point.
By the way I just googled grass Halloween costume, the good mormon girl in me, makes me slightly naive sometimes. I should clarify, he wants to look like walking astro turf. He has no need to propagate a legal drug in the state of Colorado with a prescription.

Last Minute Sister Gifts

2011-12-29T21:04:00.000-07:00

At the last minute I decided I wanted to make all the sister/sister in laws that I would see at christmas a present. So a week before christmas I began franticly searching Pinterest for something I could make for cheap. Then I thought just get over yourself, get them monogrammed note cards, at least its something. But then all at once, or not at fast, it came to me, and I got super lucky and found four frames at Goodwill, and three quart-sized bags of legos for 6.50 each. I sanded and painted the frames the same afternoon, I found the frames. Then used this tutorial to help me make the fabric rosettes.

I absolutely love them, and can't wait to find another frame to make one for myself, I know exactly where I'm going to hang it.

This is the text of the photo:

Inthis home...

Wedo second chances.

Wedo Grace.

Wedo real.

Wedo mistakes.

Wedo I'm sorrys.

Wedo loud really well.

Wedo hugs.

Wedo fun.

Wedo family.

Wedo love.

I have been so in love with the text for a few months. I appreciate the idea to say its ok to make mistakes, but emphasis the sorries. I am like giddy in anticipation to make myself one. I'm going to make mine a little bigger.

Grammy's Present

2011-12-27T09:11:00.000-07:00

I have a sickness. I think Christmas should be more about sharing with people, then spending money. So then I end up making pathetic homemade gifts. There are lots of good things about homemade gifts but the worst is you feel bad getting rid of them. So I'm sorry all you out there who receive homemade gifts, probably the best is you know the person actually cares enough to spend way too much time on something that would be very cheap if it came from another country. This is obviously for my mom, when I saw the idea on Pinterest I thought it would be perfect since my mom got to have five out of her seven children at her house in December. Its probably been close to 10 years since that has happened.

And now we know now that I'm no longer making christmas gifts that I should spend my time touching up my baseboards.

Teacher Gifts

2011-12-19T22:04:00.004-07:00

The other day at staples I was looking for christmas cards to give to my son's teachers, but they were so expensive! Then I found red thank you cards and a light bulb went off in my head! I found these printables online and made my cards. (Isn't the internet great, people so willing to share their talents.) I thought they were perfect because the whole reason you give teachers gifts is to say thank you.

I ended up making more cards to give to my sunbeam parents. It was a hard half year for me which I think the parents knew, but I wanted the parents to know I appreciated teaching the kids, because it taught me so much about our Savior's love for us.
But back to the teachers, so my son has a kindergarten teacher who teaches two half day classes so she teaches 45 student every day, then she has a full time teaching assistant, who goes to church with us and all the kids absolutely love her. So in addition to the ornaments, I also made them ruffle scarfs. There are so many tutorials out there about how to do ruffles easily. I tried so many and none worked, I went through so much thread on the first one. It took me about 2 hours, the second one took me 15 minutes. So easy once I figure out the best way to ruffle on my machine. I just wadded it up and tried sewing in a straight line. Yeah like the tutorial for ruffle scarf says, I should have listened instead of trying everyone else methods. I absolutely love the one on the left and wanted to keep it for myself. I can't wait to make myself a ruffle scarf, they are so trendy. But who knows if the teachers like them. Oh well not my problem.

Christmas Insanity

2011-12-15T17:41:00.002-07:00

Sometimes I have insane ideas, like being so impressed with my son's teachers. As a five year old you would be amazed at how many he has. A kindergarten teacher, a kindergarten assistant, a PE teacher, an Art teacher, a Music teacher, two librarians, a counselor (who meets with them every other week, to teach good citizen lessons), a technology teacher, and a primary (church) teacher, who he adores. That is ten teachers, I obviously couldn't buy ten presents, even at $5 a piece that is $50, but lets be honest by the time you add in the .99, and tax, it would be much closer to $75. But I still wanted to do something for them. I've been super impressed with all his special teachers, he LOVES specials of course, but the surprising thing is, most of the teachers know him by name! How a teacher who see 500 kids a week, knows the name of one kindergarten is beyond me, but I'm grateful for their effort. I loved specials as a child, but they weren't actually fun, nor did the teachers ever know me even after years of seeing them. It was a lot of alphabetical order and teachers not letting us talk. They have enough xylophones for every student in music class AND they actually get to play them on a regular basis! His tech teacher, encourages them to walk around the room and see what their friends are doing on the computer, she believes computer time should be a social thing, you should never do it alone. Nor do they have sit, they can stand at their computer the whole time if they want. Let me assure you I was not allowed out of my seat in computer lab, only occasionally did we try to whisper to the person above or below us in alphabetical order. So what I decided I could do was make them ornaments. I made ten ornaments by hand! What was I thinking? That I was really impressed with these ladies, and it was the only thing I could do was to make them something out of my scrap material.

The worst part was cutting out the material, but I endured and I made them each a flower ornament. Then I wrote them each a thank you not/happy holidays card telling them how I appreciated them in my son's life.

But then I loved the flowers so much I made to make one for me!

On a side not encase you didn't realize how awesome our school is, he goes to most of his specials twice a week next year once he goes to full day school. He has six specials that is more than one a day, and then half of them he will go to twice a week next year. Yeah its a great school. Not surprisingly we have less homework, shorter days and the highest test scores in the Springs area. (That and affluent population, although we hardly THE richest school district.)

And if you look at the four posts previous to this, you now know why this is titled Christmas Insanity.

Second Set of Presents

2011-12-15T17:39:00.000-07:00

My daughter has been obsessed with Pinkalicious since about September.

And since I only spent $4 on her other presents, how could make her more presents I knew she would love. Not to mention she kept telling me she needed Pinkalicious's cupcake. She pretends to eat this one non-stop. Unfortunately I spent about $5 making these presents, along with buying the book.

Then we bought a pink dress. That was another $9. So her free birthday wasn't so free. But I thought it was all so perfect. Not to mention she loves pink dresses, and doesn't have many. Plus it was from Ross, plus doesn't every frilly girl need a birthday dress.

Minus the pants, what do you think, just like Pinkalicious without the Brown pink-tails.

By the way I didn't quite want to embroiderer Pinkalicious on the crown but I was running out of time and couldn't come up with anything better, because I didn't want to do Happy Birthday again, although I probably should have. Pinkalicious is better than Princess in my opinion. Once I realized I made my son's crown on his third birthday I was very happy with my decision to make my daughter more birthday presents. Its just decemeber birthday are insane!

First set of Birthday Presents

2011-12-15T17:21:00.003-07:00

My daughter just likes baby stuff, so I figured why buy her presents. I bought her a used toy baby car seat. But it had an ugly princess torn cover so I figured I could easily make a new cover. I made a new stroller cover a year ago. Yeah the carseat cover was hard than the stroller if that is possible. They were both hard and I wouldn't suggest anyone do it unless they are committed. Then I made a matching backpack, after seeing Candice's post, in which she gets her directions from this site, I added width, but I also sort of wished I added length. I also am bad at following directions so I actually made the backpack one and half times. Long story.

But come on doesn't ever mom need a matching travel system for her baby?! At least once in her life.

She has been wanting a baby carseat for about two months now. Everytime we were in the store and her brother looked at legos she asked for the carseat.

Just for the record, I still have at least two yards of this duck material. Does anyone wants some?!

Butterfly Cake

2011-12-13T16:58:00.003-07:00

We had a butterfly birthday party for my three year. The girls all go butterfly wings, and butterfly wands. Then we ate butterfly cake. I made it myself, from a round cake.

My son was very concerned about eat pink cupcakes so I made three green cupcakes, which I realized could make into a cute Caterpillar. Not to be conceded but I was surprised at how well my butterfly turned out. Just so you know if you cut up a cake to form a new shape it is necessary, no vital to freeze your cake, do a frosting crumb coat, freeze again then frost a finished layer.
Even though she was all over a butterfly party, my daughter kept talking about hello kitty cupcakes. I could not find any cupcake toppers with hello kitty that were actually cute, so I made my own. They are a little large, I didn't realize that at the time. Problem is you make the cupcake toppers before the cake.

Hooray for 3rd parties.

I'm amazing

2011-12-09T11:28:00.001-07:00

Yes that title seems a little self absorbed but if you read this post, you'll agree. Ok, maybe not, but isn't it nice when people think you are so fantastic. Its always nerve wracking when you send someone homemade presents, because you invest so much of yourself in a present, so its always nice to see them gladly received

If you read Alisa's post, then all these pictures will be repeats, but Alisa's pictures looked so much better than the ones I took, so I borrowed hers. I think I need a new camera.

First I made her pillows, with ruffles, because ruffles are big right now! Then I made her a smaller pillow with a flower, because flowers are so fun. When I made those ruffles I only broke one needle, so you know not bad.

Before I went shopping for fabric, I hunted Alisa's entire blog to find out what color her couch was for the pillows, how she decorated her tree.

Alisa seemed to favor on red ornaments, so it seemed only fitting to buy red and white Christmas material for the skirt, not to mention based on the ads it was the height of fabric fashion this holiday. But in my mind the skirt should be green like the tree. So I did both, and made a reversible tree skirt.

Then if you look at crafts on Pinterest at all you know that Monogram tree skirts are beyond the height of fashion, so I had to add it.

See aren't her pictures pretty!

New Ribbon

2011-12-03T15:17:00.001-07:00

I made this glass believe block a couple of years ago. Ok, I didn't make the glass, I put the vinyl lettering on it. It had an ugly ribbon originally. I never could find ribbon I like to replace it. Finally two years ago, I use some ribbon from a present from my grandma gave to me. I still didn't like it. This year I was determined to find ribbon I liked. I didn't find what I was looking for but I did find some I liked. 6 yards on the spool worth. I had more than enough to make a pretty bow. I love it now!

Luke 2:10-11 Printable

2011-12-03T13:45:00.001-07:00

I decided I wanted a printable that read, Luke 2:10-11. "And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." We are big Charlie Brown fans, so when I read it I hear Linus's voice.
A google search came up with nothing, come on all y'all Subway art, fanatics! So instead I found this picture on google, and made my own printable. (The picture came from Free Christian Clip art, and I think I am allow to post this, because I am an "individual believer of the Christian faith" and I'm not selling it, and I linked it back to them.) I really wanted Shepherds or sheep with the star since its the Angel talking to the Shepherds. But you get what you get and don't throw a fit.
Here is what I came up with:

I think I'm using this one in a 4x6 frame.

(By the way I do know this isn't subway art.)

Update as up 2:02 pm I actually made a new one, this is what I'm using.

Play kitchen-- what I'm not doing

2011-12-02T08:00:00.001-07:00

I so wanted to make one of these nightstand play kitchens.

But then I saw the TV stand kitchens.

I thought if I'm going to make a kitchen I should make a kitchen.
But lets get real. I'm I crafter, but not a diy-er. I am probably physically incapable of making a kitchen from a TV stand, and would probably never finish my nightstand kitchen. I just learned how to put an anchor in the wall. Do you think someone who barely found out how to put in anchor knows how to use a saw?
Let me tell you the correct answer, no!
But we do need a new kitchen. Check out ours. That blue thing sticking out of the oven is the facet. Pretty good that its actually with the kitchen, unlike the facuet nobs or the sink, or the oven door. Not to mention it is pretty small, about a foot, by a foot, by a foot and half. But it work well in our tiny previous apartment.

Pretty
Then I found this ikea hacks,
I'm so excite about these:
stool to kitchen

This is just a chair!

I could actually make one of these. There is no sawing involved, just painting, and maybe some screws. But I just learned how to do that, so I can make these! Not only can I put in anchors, I can hang a curtain rod. Oh the dreams I am getting from these bad boys. This is not a christmas present, I wouldn't have time, these would take me probably a good two months. Not to mention our house believes in Santa Claus, so Santa, the Easter Bunny, etc do not bring homemade toys. Mommy is too needy for that, she needs the praise of eveyone knowing SHE made it.
Personally I'm thinking two chairs bolted together, one stove one sink. Plus I want to use bolts or screws or something, so our stove knobs turn.
Two Ivar chairs, and I guess this Ivar shelf to go on the bottom of the chair legs, and two more of these Bekcam spice racks, some blecka hooks, a bowl with a flat bottom that I would glue on the top for the sink (hey it works in my parents bathroom) (no one in my house can cut a circle with a saw), paint, glue, screws and lots of time, because I'm dense. Then I'm done!
But then of course we need, Dunktig toy sets, the baking, utensils, pots and pans.
Wow, this is getting expensive!

PS Ikea Hacks, tell me how to make a fridge easily. With no sawing, or anything.
There is this, made with this. But come on, $80 for a play fridge? I don't think so.

Oh I found this hack. I could buy Fullen Sink Cabinet, get a top for it, put different handles on and make a fridge with that.

Tom

2011-11-16T17:38:00.001-07:00

For kindergarten we had to disguise Tom-- he was feeling a little worried about the time of year. Can you guess what Tom is? I really kind of hate school projects like this. I think Kindergarten project should be projects they can do by themselves, but that is not the way school works, and nothing is going to change over the years. I guess I should revile that they are as easy as they are right now.

Here is J and Tom.

On a side note my son originally wanted to disguise him as a triangle. I drew most of the stuff, but had my son cut it out. I felt like I was being too involved, but that's the way these projects work.

Fluffy Apron

2011-11-10T11:17:00.000-07:00

Once again, I've been meaning to sew this apron for about a year.

Last year when I made this apron, for my daughter, I also made one for my sister's daughter but it got lost in the mail, so I sent her that one. I decided to make a really ruffly one to replace it. A few years ago for christmas one of my sister in laws made a christmas apron for Nan. It was by far her favorite so I decided I would make her a general through out the year apron. Except we moved and I didn't But now I finally did. It was pretty quick and easy, and my daughter loves it ruffly.

P.S. I always make the children's aprons neck strap too big. I don't mean to but I definitely don't want it too small, their heads are big in proportion to their body, and I just can't help it.

A little late

2011-11-09T10:55:00.000-07:00

I guess I should have edited this picture before I posted it, so it didn't have so much blank space. Oh well.

This craft only took me 13 months to make. I print and cut out the letters the previous Halloween, like back when my son was 4 when everything was ghosts for Halloween, including the soap dispenser. I got the letters from here. And this tutorial to make the rosettes. Rosettes are the accordion circle behind the letters. J loved it when I showed it to him, unfortunately he is going to have to wait 11 months before it stays hanging in our house.

Birthday Wreath

2011-11-02T08:32:00.002-06:00

In honor of my mom's birthday today, I'm finally posting my birthday wreath.

I'm absolutely in love with it. These wreaths are surprisingly expensive on etsy, and after finishing this one I know why. It took me three sessions of conference, two movies, plus some extra time to finish it all.
Although part of the reason it took so long is I made three bottlecap pincushions for the cupcakes.

The Robot Butterfly properly stuffed

2011-11-01T19:51:00.001-06:00

Here is my almost three year old in her robot butterfly costume. She is about the cutest thing ever, when she tries to copy her dad doing "the robot" (dance). I decided her pumpkin needed some frills, and so we glued a tutu to him too.

Finished

2011-10-27T22:27:00.000-06:00

Pink Butterfly Robot is finished, 24 hours before my due date. Hooray. For some reason I hand sewed most of the robot part of the costume. Instead of using a machine or a glue gun, so this robot took be the better part of two almost full days!

Does it look like our pattern?

I think I hand sewed it all because she wanted a soft front, not cardboard. She is about comfort.

I'm not sure if I like the black thread on the eye buttons. I thought maybe it would look like pupils, I might pull it out and put pink in its place. As I worked on the hat, and looked at the robots I had pinned for inspiration. I realized in sci-fi we love to humanize robots, eyes, and bolts or buttons for ears. When robots finally do take over, do think they will actually be as humanized as we make them in our imaginations?

Sneak Peak

2011-10-26T22:51:00.001-06:00

Photography blogs always have sneak peaks, why not craft blogs?

Here is a sneak peak of the robot addition to the butterfly. I love it. Nan-o-matic 3000, since this is her third year trick or treating.

Lego Rock Monster

2011-10-25T15:48:00.001-06:00

Before we started working on the butterfly robot, this is what we were doing.

Making Sulfurix the Lego Rock Monster, from Power Miners.

I was so ready to buy Halloween costumes, I had no desire to make a costume for the 6th year in a row. But then my son became dead set on Lego Rock Monsters. He had complete faith that I could make this costume, because I had made all of previous costumes. But I had no idea how to make this costume. Here is what the internet offered:
http://relentlessfury.lefora.com/2011/03/18/monstrous-comic-relief/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Lego-Rock-Monster-Halloween-Costume/
They helped a bit but overall I was very lost on where to start. I have only ever sewed a halloween costume.

We ended up making sandwich board costume.
I cut the cardboard the size of my child.
I painted the cardboard, with left over beige sample paint
Then I covered it in yellow cellophane, twice so it would be brighter.
Then I cut, and folded/molded cardboard rocks.
Spray painted them gray.
Glued them, lets hope they stay, fingers crossed.
For the helmet I used a left over ice cream bucket, and cut the front to resemble the teeth.
My friend helped me paper mache it.
Then Spray painted it gray
I cut the eyes from construction paper, and the red is crayon, then I mod podged them on the bucket.

My son thinks its perfect. If I ever did it again, which I won't, I would make the front of the sandwhich board wider, so it I could make the rocks have the proper room. I so wish the front board was 6 inches smaller, but J likes it that way.
By the way we didn't make lego hands, because how could he hold his candy if was holding lego hands.
I have to say, I ended up enjoying using the box cutter, and shaping the cardboard.

Butterflyrama Nanomatic 6000

2011-10-25T14:12:00.003-06:00

What we are working on right now. We drew our blueprint today.

Felt Pumpkins

2011-10-24T21:58:00.001-06:00

I needed felt pumpkins!

So I made them.

My son keeps drawing these skeleton faces all over my drive way with chalk, and I love them. So I put them on.

I've been using felt a lot this fall. I don't know why? I use cheap craft felt, not wool felt. I think I'm in to it, because Michaels is a lot closer than JoAnns and Michaels doesn't have material only felt.

My kids love them, and both claim the fat one as their own pumpkin.

Baking

2011-10-21T16:22:00.001-06:00

I read this article the other day as I was ripping it up for paper mache, about Americans become better cooks.
It won't happen until we are willing to cook instead of follow directions.
It won't happen until we taste our food as we go, instead of eating it at the end.
It won't happen as long as we are stuck to measurements instead of weight amounts.

Well that pretty much sums up why my husband is a better cook than I am and why he cooks when we have dinner parties. When he makes his bread he weights it all with a food scale, and doesn't use measuring cups. That being said, he can't keep up that stamina for dinner every night. Sometimes dinner needs to be on the table, not feasted upon. There is homework, and scouts, and baths, and books assignments, and shoes to learn to be tied. I can't experiment with food every night. Nor do I have a desire to change my cooking habits. I read that article and though oh well, I guess I won't be improving any time soon. That being said, I could never make frosting, if I followed directions properly and never tasted it. So I guess I occasionally I'm unAmerican in the kitchen, but rarely.
Not to mention I don't think I enjoy eating, or random food enough to be a serious cooker. I don't like branching out, I'm picky, I'll be honest.

Brent's Bread

2011-10-19T18:44:00.002-06:00

Look at this beautiful bread my husband made a few weeks ago.

He has made bread off and on for years, but lately he does it weekly.

SNAKES!

2011-10-13T11:49:00.001-06:00

A few years ago I bought my son a large stuff snake, and every kid loves it will. Well my son is good at sharing but my daughter on the other hand....
So I decided I could easily make her own pink snake. Partly, because you can never have too many snakes in your house. She loves it.

I don't know if it was easy, but it wasn't hard. I made it with pink fleece.

Its eyes are just normal buttons, so it reminds me of a Muppet from the 70s, something off the first few seasons of Sesame Street. You know back when they were clearly puppets. Back when oscar only had one arm, because the puppeteers other hand was his head. Decades before Sesame street used computer animation.

Shiny Framed Pumpkin

2011-10-04T14:59:00.000-06:00

Turns out my husband is right, I like sparkly things. I saw this blog post and had to copy it. Except I got a shinny pumpkin. I was afraid my glued pumpkin would rip my paper, so I glued it on the glass, then I thought oh that way the paper could change if I got anything better.

It matches perfectly with my shinny fall sign. I love the 3-d art.

P.S. I'll be honest, I was really bad at cutting my pumpkin.

Trick or Treat Pillow

2011-10-04T09:13:00.001-06:00

Here is this season's newest pillow. I wanted a halloween pillow, but I wanted something I could pump out in an afternoon, so instead of embroidery I used fusible bonding, and my sizzix (think old school cricut).

I bought this halloween material last year, and its about my favorite halloween material ever! I'm so glad I found a project to showcase the material with.

Actually I thought I needed a halloween pillow, because I have more couches that I had last year, considering I larger living quarters, so I wanted more than my pumpkin pillows, I wanted another pillow for the other couch.

Not Birthday Wreath

2011-10-01T22:41:00.000-06:00

My husband was gone the weekend before my birthday. So I decided to pass my sadness away I would make a birthday wreath. I told you yarn wreaths were so trendy, I couldn't pass up a Friday night by myself at home to break into the trend. It ended up a Lesli wreath not a birthday, because I bought purple and green supplies instead of family birthday color supplies. Purple, green and gray are my favorite colors. Not to mention I love bunting-- the circle flag things.

I followed some bad blog advice and bought a straw wreath covered in plastic instead of a foam wreath. The blog said it is easier to cover the plastic than foam. Not to mention I found out cheaper. Down fall, my wreath is all lumpy like its filled with straw. Its the Eeyore of wreaths. I really have no need or place for the wreath, so it hangs on the outside of our powder room door, because the bathroom is pale purple and the kitchen is green. The extra added bonus is a can't knit or crochet so I never get to use yarn, but I got to! And I ended up with a cute little adorable yarn ball. Its like the pet cat I can't have.

New and Improved Fall Wreath

2011-09-30T14:34:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago I figured out that the hot crafts this fall are yarn wreaths, felt flowers, and burlap. Burlap is so vogue.
My fall wreath needed an update anyway, so I decided to make felt flowers to add to it. I was quite nervous about cutting my flowers, because I spent 1.25 on felt from loose change in my purse and didn't want to waste my loose change.

I was thinking I needed to add more flowers around the top corner of the H, but my friends assured me it was great like this. As I was petrified to cut my felt, I stared at a multitude of websites:
eighteen25
everynothingwonderful
thediydish
icandyhandmade
mrspriss
creativejewishmom
and here is a great template, but I'm sorry I don't know where it came from :(

So I know you are disappointed that my whole wreath is not yarn. I still like my fall wreath, it just needed and update. I'm also planning a yarn wreath, just not for fall.

and these wreaths were inspiring
littlethingsbringsmiles
nestofposies-blog
apumpkinandaprincess

Just in case you were wondering, I love fall, purple, orange and green. I wish I had a fall wedding so my colors could have been purple and orange. Oh October would have been a lovely time for a wedding, my husband felt it would be too soon, instead we had a blue and white snowflake post christmas wedding. It was lovely too, but not purple and orange lovely.

A Pinkalicious kind of week

2011-09-28T12:33:00.000-06:00

This post was suppose to be posted two weeks ago.

We accidentally had a pinkalicious week (two weeks ago). We had a party for my daughter's preschool families, there are five girls in the class so I thought pink cupcakes were only fitting. Then the next day my daughter picked out Pinkalicious at the library, we read it all week long, and which made the left over cupcakes she ate all week long that much better it was a fun week.

Juliette Dress

2011-09-23T12:46:00.000-06:00

I've seen a few juliette dresses for little girls on the internet, all for at least $100 more than I spend on clothes. But pinterest has got me thinking, why can't I make one.

source

School Bus Cookies

2011-09-21T11:11:00.000-06:00

The first week of school my son was obsessed with school bus cookies. He teacher made them for the first day of school snack. He told me we needed gram cracker cookies, mini oreos, yellow frosting and teddy grams. He had to make do with blue frosting that I had in the fridge. I bought him mini oreos and teddy grams but I didn't want to make more frosting. Can you see the school bus? I think they were suppose to look more like this? maybe? I don't know I let him make it all himself, then copied his for his sister.

Backpacking Beanies

2011-09-21T11:05:00.000-06:00

We were suppose to go backpacking about a month ago with another family. The morning of I decided I was not going to carry heavy knit beanies for three people on my back. Sleeping in beanies is necessary, especially at our elevation. So I quickly sewed up some fleece hats. They are slightly hideous, but still great for sleeping. I made them super long, because the only thing I hate more than being cold in an old sleeping bag (my husband bought me a new one last year) is waking up cold because my beanie popped off my head. That way we can roll the brim lower and stay warmer!

I used this pattern for mine.

The kids got bunny ones, because I knew they would think it was awesome. I relearned an important lesson with fleece, make sure the stretch goes the right way before cutting and sewing. Nan's was wrong :(

Natural State

2011-09-17T20:18:00.002-06:00

My sister in law was out a few weeks ago, and while she was out she took this gem.

I love to be in my kitchen baking stuff, assuming I know what to make. Sure I hate dinner time because I hate coming up with menus, but other than that, I truly enjoy feeding my family.
(Although after seeing this picture, I'm not too crazy about those two tops together.)

P.S. I came up with a new craft, and can't wait to start on it Monday morning with a trip to the craft store. Hopefully I have it finished by the end of next week.
P.P.S I am in the process of baking a cake before we finished off the last set of cupcakes. Belch, I guess I just invite too many people over, I keep having to baking deserts.

Girly Lamp

2011-09-08T12:45:00.000-06:00

Years ago I bought three lamps in a set. Two table lamps and a floor lamp. For three years, I had this ugly glue stain on one of my lamp shades. I could never really turn it completely to the wall because then the seam on the shade showed. (See bottom of the lamp shade.)

So I decided to dress it up for my daughter. There are a lot of girly DIY lampshade embellishments out there online, but I went with my own, because it was free, and a little less over the top than most.

A year or two ago, I bought a big bag of lace for $5 at a ghetto fabric store, so making this lamp didn't even dent my collection. I sewed the lace so I could gather it, then glued gunned it on the lamp. Took less time than nap time.

Its a little too girly for my taste, but it goes well with the bedroom, and I never have to see the glue stain again! The plain shade was a little plain for the room, and I didn't want to buy a new shade since I made this for free.

Kinder Crafts-scrapbooking

2011-09-04T08:49:00.000-06:00

Long gone are the days when I can pump out multiple crafts a week. But life changes, and so now, we'll be pumping out a kindergarten homework craft once a week. Our first assignment was a scrapbook page. I let my son have too much influence so we ended up with too many pictures for an 8.5x11 page. We made it work though. I asked him what he wanted on, reading the teacher's instructions and he asked, "Family like all my cousins?! or just us?" I said we can put your cousins on, well he has 30 cousins (the youngest of which is shown on the page) and so that definitely filled up the page. This assignment asked for a baby picture, and he wanted a picture of him hiking, and his birthday. FULL. J also added the stickers.

(don't mind my editing out the personal information.)

Treasure Box

2011-09-01T19:50:00.001-06:00

The whole reason we had bare wood and paint out. The whole reason we had pinkish/purple glitter: my son's friend turned 5. She like him, loves all things junk and finding treasures, and adoring what other people would toss. Since they share their love of treasure, sparkly things, and collecting, we had to do a treasure box for her birthday. My son picked out the glitter at the store to cover her treasure box with. The paint job is suppose to look antique so its white washed, err purple washed. It was a huge success. Everyone loved it especially the birthday girl.

We even put some treasures in to start with. But left plenty room for more. Stupid blogger won't let me fix the direction of this picture. I double checked it was flipped the right way before loading, and it still came like this.

Everyone loved it so much and it was so easy, I was thinking about making two more and giving them to my kids as christmas presents. They BOTH actually help in this creation, but it would be a surprise for christmas. They both adore the birthday girl.

I'm going there someday...

2011-09-01T19:38:00.003-06:00

If you remember how in April of this year during General Conference, President Monson said,

To you parents of young children, may I share with you some sage advice from President Spencer W. Kimball. Said he: “It would be a fine thing if … parents would have in every bedroom in their house a picture of the temple so [their children] from the time [they are] infant[s] could look at the picture every day [until] it becomes a part of [their lives]. When [they reach] the age that [they need] to make [the] very important decision [concerning going to the temple], it will have already been made.”

Well needless to say I've felt like a sinner since we moved in, because my daughter didn't have a picture of the temple in her room. My son has a picture of the Logan Temple, so I wanted my daughter to have the Salt Lake Temple.

Lil' Luna has a great tutorial of cute temple art. I've been waiting to try it for probably a year. I mixed it up a bit, you know I can't follow directions! Anyway, I "save as"-ed the picture from Lil' Luna, then turned it a pink/purple-ish hue, printed for 10 cents on Winkflash, to a 5x7. Then bought a frame at Hobby Lobby, painted it green and purple, with purple/pinkish sparkles. I love variegated paint jobs. Then I found some ribbon in my closet that was first used on the vases from by brother's wedding lunch, right after his marriage in the Salt Lake Temple. But the green was too green with variegated paint, so I streaked purple paint on the ribbon to match the frame.

I added the ribbon because I thought oh, it needs to hang on the wall, then it looked so perfect on her dresser, so thank goodness the ribbon is wired, because I love the bow.

I love it!
Lil' Luna's tutorial is so great, its everything that is wonderful about the internet. Great free pictures of the temple. I wanted a picture of the Denver Temple so I used the antique non- word for my living room.

Scripture Bag

2011-08-23T21:06:00.000-06:00

Without the title do you know what this is? I made it with my new found sewing desk space.

For months my CTR 4, has been asking for a scripture bag. He diligently brings his Book of Mormon to church. Where we use to live they encouraged all the kids whether they could read or not to bring their sciptures. No one seems to care here, but luckily the habit is set. So I finally, made him one. He of course picked this material out of my stores. Inside there is a pocket for his scripture marking crayons, and a pencil pocket holder thing, slots for three pens. Now he doesn't have to bother me for one.

I used no pattern, measured wrong, and my fusible webbing didn't work, so the bag took me twice as long as expected. Two nap times instead of one.

Beauty

2011-08-23T21:00:00.000-06:00

I'm sure this doesn't look beautiful to most of you.

But it is a thing of beauty.

A sewing machine and laptop all on one desk, my husband sure knows how to make me twitterpated.

Plenty of room to use both at the same time.

New and Improved Pillow

2011-08-18T10:00:00.000-06:00

Remember this pillow? Well over the last year and half, I've really come to hate it. In the picture it looks all nice and new in shiny, but in reality, it was old and pilly. So I tore it apart, and put this monogram H on the pillow. While pulling apart the flowers I was very nervous, and wondered if I was making a huge mistake. It ended up no mistake, but perfect. I love it.

I decided to pull it apart, because I still love these pillows and to it seemed like I needed three pillows so I had to do something, because I absolutely hated those felt buttons by now. My husband likes my new pillow because he doesn't like buttons on pillows whether they are felt or plastic.

I got the monogram H from this vase my mom's friend made me. I think your suppose to put a votive in or something, but I figured out it perfect for our puzzle pieces that don't stay together.

The monogram pillow idea came from, Martha Stewart September 2011 issue. I loved the spread about them, because I love monograms so much! But in true Martha form, the article is no where to be found online, only this tutorial. I found this picture so inspiring so I had to post it. I'm starting to dream up more monogram ideas based on this pillow, but who knows if I'll follow through.

Baby Stella

2011-08-17T08:15:00.000-06:00

My cousin just had her first baby, and in fact the first baby in their family, so everyone was obviously super excited-- the first grandkid. Since I had been with them during my others cousin's wedding. I had to make her a baby blanket, in a way to relive the fun of the wedding.

Alpha Wall

2011-08-12T23:10:00.002-06:00

Here is my last creation/completion. It took a few months, but I love it, and so glad I spent the money collecting the alphabet in our game room. I got the idea here.

I was so pleased with myself, when I hung 24 letters and had to finish making the last two. Two friends were over and one said, oh my sister-in-law did that but, all her letters matched color scheme, it didn't quite work. But I could see where she was going with it, I love the way yours turned out.

I think mine is actually extremely chaotic in comparison to the examples, but that is me right?!

The real eyesore, is that R S U are so large all together, but I loved them all, so they stayed.

P.S. I know this picture is too big for the template, but it needed to be done.

A Stenciling Plan

2011-08-10T16:16:00.000-06:00

I decided today that I want to stencil over my son's closet:

Scripture Power
everyday I need the power that I get each time I read

Although stencil is a loose term for me, more like free hand with a pencil, then paint.

Spray Painting Lights

2011-07-25T15:50:00.000-06:00

I hate the light fixtures in my bathrooms. First off, I figure I'm not trying to be a movie starlet from the 20s so why I have those mirror lights. Second off, two tone gold and silver is not my favorite. Easy enough to change right? No soup for me, when you take off the fixture the builders put in a left mount, instead of centering it over the sink.

So with the help of my mom we spray painted it a brush nickle and I bought smaller light bulbs. I'm amazed how most of my lighting problems in this house are fixed once, I get new light bulbs, usually smaller wattage. The previous owners had three 100 watts in most of the rooms.

Now I got to get cracking on painting the rest of my bathroom vanity light fixtures. One down two to go.

Learning more about Cookies

2011-07-22T19:28:00.001-06:00

Things I've learned lately.
At my altitude cookies turn out better with a tablespoon or two mixed in the dough.
I need to bake my cookies a minute less. I've realized if I pull them out before they look "golden", they aren't as dry.

Things I learned a long time ago.
Use butter flavored shortening, not butter, or the cookies will look like pancakes.
High Altitude needs more flour. Sounds no brainier, but I was raised at 500 ft, I had to learn that the hard way.

One last thought.
When in a quick fix Nestle's Break and Bake, taste like homemade cookies, unlike Pillsbury. But at almost 7,000 ft they turn out like pancakes. I have been known to use them before, but I recently got some with our frozen pizza, they tasted fine, but looked awful. But I like homemade cookies better than break and bake, creating from scratch gives me more satisfaction in life.
My husband's and my favorite chocolate chip cookies, are with Ande's Mint bits.

Learning the Skills

2011-07-13T11:28:00.002-06:00

My son is learning the skills of baking chocolate chip cookies, namely, putting the dough on a cookie sheet. He did a pretty good job.

Couch Pillows

2011-07-12T19:05:00.000-06:00

Right before we moved, we bought used couches from a friend for $20. I know most people would not be so ghetto and not pay to move low priced used furniture. But it seemed like a good idea for us, we already had a big truck, and we didn't have to waste time during the two precious weeks my husband had here before he went back to Utah for 5 weeks looking for couches. Not to mention they came with brown microfiber covers, which are priced well over $20. They are also actually surprisingly comfy for old couches, but there was just three problems. Three rough scratchy upholstery pillows that didn't fit under the slipcovers.

I cut the three pillows open and put their guts instead of this darkish material. I wanted to finish during the 2 year old's nap so I machine sewed the bottom up. If I would have known what I was doing I would have double layered my pillows. I didn't because I didn't have enough dark material, and didn't have any plain material, then when I finished I realized I could have used the multiple yards stripe flannel just sitting around, the material is dark enough no one would know what was in the inside. Life has lately taught me when you double up your material over stuffing, everything is much softer!

Tah dah!

The full view of the other couch. Yes, the point of the dark pillows was almost to blend it, but not actually. I didn't want a whole couch full of brightly colored pillows.

More Mini Quilts

2011-07-08T16:58:00.001-06:00

My daughter was pretty jealous she didn't get a mini quilt. So I let her pick out the material out of my stores, and she was pretty excited about the light pink the corners so then I picked the material around the pink. Part of the reason I used the black polka dot on my daughter's quilt was she was pretty excited about the pink and black home design items at hobby lobby.

Funny how the quilts ended up opposite. The matching four squares is the light in the boy quilt and dark in the girl quilt. The only think I know about quilting my mom taught me-- light dark. You have to put a light square next to a dark square and a dark square next to a light square. She taught me a lot of other things, but it falls on deaf ears because I can't cut straight and quilting is a lost art with out straight lines.

Look how happy my child is... homemade sewing means love according to my kids.

Backpack Backpack

2011-07-06T19:17:00.000-06:00

My daughter really wanted a backpack at the store the other day and so I told her I would make her one. Sure its ghetto and homemade, but its also free. She loves it, and everything about it: backpacks, pink and ducks.

Circus Flags

2011-07-06T17:40:00.002-06:00

For my five year old son's room, I sewed circus flags or bunting for his window. His room is a light yellow, then his window well and corresponding wall is the darker yellow. The window forms this little nook/ cut out from the rest of his rectangle room. Anyway I thought circus flags would be a fun thing for the room to make it juvenile without making it babish or girly. If you have a beef with the material bring it up with the 5 year old, he picked out the fat quarters himself. I bet you would never guess his favorite color is yellow.

Then while we were at Jo-Ann's getting interfacing, he saw a mini quilt on display. He wanted to buy it, so I made him one with left over material from the flags.

High Altitude

2011-07-01T19:05:00.001-06:00

I made some from scratch brownies the other day, they turned out terrible-- well the edible parts tasted mostly fine, just a little dry. Overall it was very disappointing, sometimes its challenging to live at 6900 ft.

The following day I had to break my funk, I made chocolate chip cookies, I knew I could make that over a mile high. They turned out beautiful and tasty. My five year old ran around the yard shoving his mouth full of cookies yelling, fresh baked cookies!

Girl Clock

2011-06-28T13:58:00.000-06:00

We were short a clock. My daughter's room needed a clock, because I need to know what time it is at bedtime to know how mean or relaxed I should be. I couldn't find anything I loved for under $40, so instead, I bought a new kitchen clock for $15, and recovered my kitchen clock, with this lovely girl print.

I'm pretty sure its super homemade looking, but that's ok, Nan likes that there is a drawing of her, complete with her butterby wings. I made a gross error, but the picture doesn't show it so we won't talk about it.

Not Canvas

2011-06-27T16:02:00.001-06:00

To add more uniform my kitchen and more specifically to my kitchen curtains, I decided to wrap some left over material around a canvas. But then I realized I could just recycle an old clock box. Which I think is actually easier because its easier to staple into cardboard than wood. Then I hung whisks up, I can't tell if its a cute inexpensive wall hanging, or if its a throw back to the 70s.

What do you think? Don't answer that unless its affirmative.

(My kitchen is looking so good but still in the works. I have to paint my chair rail and then hang it up. Our phone outlet is that ghetto brown color, nor we don't use a phone outlet, and one day we need a new table. Our current one is falling part and the chairs doesn't match.)

Kitchen Curtains

2011-06-27T15:22:00.001-06:00

All of our windows came with these weird blind things, that actually work great with open windows, which we always have since we have no A/C. All except our kitchen window. It was suggested I use a roman shade, but I have no modeling around the window so that was a no go. I watched a lot of Clean House episodes on Netflix before me moved, so I really wanted to have curtain rings, because the designer uses curtain rings on every episode. And even if I didn't like them before, after two seasons of seeing it, I wanted it. Just like that Big Mac.

So obviously I made these curtains, I wanted a light airy material, I was thinking like a white seersucker stripe with maybe a little bit of silver thread in it, but I found these material instead. I think I love it, I love the material, but I didn't want a bold print that was too in your face. My mom assured me this was not a bold print. I love having a kitchen curtain. I think it matches quite well with the rest of my kitchen, I think it helps pull everything together.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Icebox Cake- 6th Birthday

2011-06-25T11:10:00.000-06:00

So normally I post what I have done. But this is a plan. My son thinks he likes cake, but yet his pieces of cake go virtually untouched. One day he is going to grow up just a bit more and realize no matter how exciting cake is, he doesn't like it. What he does love is chocolate chip cookies, so I'm hoping to make this for his birthday next year. Yeah I'm planning like eight months in advance. Its from Martha Stewart's July 2011 issue. Its a Chocolate Chip Cookie Icebox Cake.

Can you believe I couldn't find a picture of it anywhere online? So this is snapshot of the magazine. I did find this blog that changed the recipe slightly, seems very useful. I'll have to try it earlier than 8 months from now.

Also, speaking of icebox cakes, I've always wanted to try this one. But it calls for Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafer cookies, and considering they are hard to find in a B&M stores, and amazon makes you buy in bulk they are a little pricey and I've never thought my husband would appreciate $53 charge from Amazon for cookie to make a cake. But then my mom came up with a great idea when I was talking to her about icebox cakes, use chocolate graham crackers, sure it would look different, and might taste different but I don't know what it tastes like anyway. Although maybe they would go totally soggy. I don't know, I'll have to try.

Subway Art Updated

2011-06-25T10:56:00.004-06:00

I took a picture of my house, and washed it out, placed the words on top, then hit sepia and print. I love it, I love seeing it in my bathroom.

Subway Art

2011-06-03T10:17:00.000-06:00

I figured I need more reminders around my house about what my goals in life are for my family. What better phrase than Joshua 24:15. But how to display? Once again, no access to vinyl lettering, and I'm not much of a crosstitcher, never finished the one I started at 11. So I decided to make subway art that I could frame. From all the blogs I see subway art is all the rage. Not professional but not bad for my lack of graphic design software. My lines are all skewampy.

Cover Up

2011-06-02T12:19:00.001-06:00

Above the door in my daughter's bedroom the paint was chipped and there was some large holes in the dry wall, so I figured it was cheaper to make a sign for above the door than repaint the whole room. I bought a sign at Ross for $3, because that was cheaper than buying a new board at a craft store. Then sanded off the previous phrase and painted with left over latex paint from painting other rooms. I picked light green because she has quite a bit in her room, from the backing of the flower clip board, to her baby quilt, to one of the layers of tulle in her dust ruffle. To see more pictures of her room.

The lettering is by far perfect, because I free handed it. Partly because this was suppose to be a low cost project, but mostly because I have no access to anyone who does vinyl lettering and partly because I wanted it to look unique. I had to hang it on wire because the previous plaque had holes for wire.

I think it turned out pretty cute. Its sanded a bit for the shabby chic look, but the picture does not show that. The phrase is, "Quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep, I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep." Sure my daughter is barely a baby anymore, but I thought it was fitting, since I want her to stay two forever, and we still do quite a bit of rocking her, because she loves to be wrapped up in her blankets and held. Not to mention I still think of my 5 year old as my baby.

Too much time

2011-05-26T18:35:00.002-06:00

The other day I just had too much time on my hands. You can only read, clean your house, and watch TV for so long, I did all of the above for at least 2-3 hours each, plus the previous day was will with the same. (I of course I interacted with my kids while doing two out of the three, I pretty much ignore them when reading.) But oh what was I going to do other four hours, that didn't involved feeding my children or sleeping? And was cheaper than buy useless stuff to fill up my void with? Make cupcakes of course.

I decided to go with a patriotic theme in honor of the Air Force Academy's graduation Thunderbird fly by. I think they are spectacular if I do say so myself.

Grandma Carol's Famous Strawberry Pies

2011-03-22T14:23:00.000-06:00

My husband, his siblings, and everyone they went to scouts with grew up making my mother in law's famous strawberry pies with a secret ingredient. My husband is totally easy going about everything, except his mom's pies. I tried to make him one three years ago after his mom gave me the recipe. He told me it didn't taste right. That is the one and only time he has ever told me that. He dreams about opening a strawberry pie shop, named "Grandma Carol's Famous Strawberry Pies". I was at my mother in law's the other day, and she sent me home with some red goo, she ran out of strawberries. I cut up the strawberries normally she keeps them whole de-stemmed. But it was her goo, and it still didn't taste right! I'm a pathetic.

I always wonder what Liz would think of the pie, in all her vast pie knowledge. But it would do no good to ask, because she could never tell me if she didn't like them. My husband could never forgive someone who didn't like his mom's pies, and I can't keep a secret from my husband.

Better Late than Never, Valentine Brownies

2011-03-18T14:33:00.000-06:00

About two weeks after Valentine's we finally made our heart shaped brownies. I was suprised how much the boys like brownies. I haven't made brownies regularly since before I had a colicy infant. Chocolate doesn't do well for colic. I was surpised everyone liked brownies, I only remembered me liking them.

Even though these are all cute and valentiney everyone liked them plain better.

All things Gold

2011-02-22T14:29:00.000-07:00

For the Gold Birthday party.

We decided we needed gold awards, and treasure. Instead of making all the awards gold, I decided to go frugal and had multiple colors. They were a big hit everyone was pleased to have one pinned on them. I of course made them in case there was any question in anyone's mind that they weren't homemade.

I thought they looked pretty cute on the kids, and I was glad they didn't end up looking girly when the boys put them on. For treasure everyone got gold crowns, which my son soon took off, for his more unique homemade crown.

For the rest of the gold we had a treasure hunt via birthday boy's request. The treasure they found was their gift bags. I couldn't find any gold gift bags I was impressed with, so instead I took lunch sacks and covered them in gold glitter. I went with normal brown bags instead of white or anything else because it was a boy's party. The bag was filled with "gold," chocolate gold coins, winners gold metals, big plastic money, all stuff the birthday boy picked out.

I also caught Martha Stewart's article in a recent issue about Number Themed Parties, so we made a big gold 5 with balloons.

We finished the party off with white mini cupcakes with gold sprinkles. I think mini cupcakes are better for kids, some kids only lick the frosting where other kids can eat two mini cupcakes, the amount of one normal size.

For course the party included a trip to the party store for gold colored supplies like plates and streamers.

Cookie Cake

2011-02-21T20:41:00.000-07:00

We have a lot of parties and birthday celebrations during the middle of February, so in an effort to think of dessert that my family likes other than cake, I remembered my son loves chocolate chip cookies. Then I thought of a big cookie pizza cake thing. This was my first effort, and it was fun to make but needs a little perfecting and more chocolate chips. It was removable from the pan, but then I realized I didn't have anything big enough to put it on. I guess I need a bigger plater. My five year old was thrilled to see such a big cookie.

Mini Cakes

2011-02-19T21:12:00.000-07:00

Mini cakes are my new favorite hobby. I've been interested in mini cakes for a long time now, made my first a year ago, but have recently become obsessed with the functionality of it, especially now that I have two mini (6") cake pans. I use two 6" cake pans from Wilton, with a box mix, then make cupcakes out of the left overs. I have a beautiful small cake, more than enough cake for us to eat, with just enough left overs. I freeze the cupcakes providing us with another desert on another day, preferably Monday night. A mini cake fits on a dessert plate instead of a dinner plate.

Now I don't have to eat a whole cake in one week! I love it. Plus they are so cute. Notice how that cake is smaller than my child's hand, and he doesn't even have large hands.

Valentine's Cards

2011-02-15T09:57:00.000-07:00

I had a lot of squares of material with hearts cut out of them from my heart garland, so I recycled some of them to make valentine's cards. I sewed the material on to paper to make the cards. We bought packaged valentine's for the preschool class, but sent these to grandma's and such.

Valentine Birthdays

2011-02-14T10:08:00.000-07:00

I teach two five years in church. I technically have five kids, but two show up. One of their birthdays is today, just like my hubby, so I made him cupcake cookies. He is now six. The cookies turned out cuter than I expected. I was quite proud with myself.

I only made a few cupcakes because they were so much work, mostly I made valentine cookies.

Gold Sprinkles

2011-02-09T17:56:00.001-07:00

Two weeks ago I made this cake. I needed to pratice my birthday idea for almost 5 year old. I think the gold sprinkles are perfect for our gold birthday party.

My cake looks a little lopisided doesn't it? I think it is just the camera angle agaisnt the white, I don't remember it shapped like that.

I made whipped cream frosting for the cake, because I wanted it to be fluffy looking. It was my first time making it and it was so easy! Everyone liked it in my family, but the downside is the cake has to be stored in the fridge, which can take up a lot of space. I won't make it for the party though because I'm making cupcakes I think cupcakes are easier for kids to eat.

Here is what the Joy of Baking taught me about whipped cream frosting.

Whipped Cream Frosting:1 cup (240 ml) heavy whipping cream (35-45% butterfat content)1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract1 tablespoon (15 grams) granulated white sugarChocolate Whipped Cream: To the above add1 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder plus an additional 1 1/2 tablespoons (20 grams) granulated white sugarRaspberry Whipped Cream:Make the whipped creamAdd: 1/2 cup (120 ml) lightly sweetened raspberry puree or seedless raspberry jamStrawberry Whipped Cream:Make the whipped creamAdd: 1/2 cup (120 ml) lightly sweetenedstrawberry puree
Whipped Cream Frosting: In a large mixing bowl place the whipping cream, vanilla extract, and sugar and stir to combine. Cover and chill the bowl and wire whisk in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. When chilled, beat the mixture until stiff peaks form.For chocolate whipped cream: Add the cocoa powder and additional sugar to the above mixture and chill for at least one hour so the cocoa powder has time to dissolve. Beat the mixture until stiff peaks form.For raspberry whipped cream: Make the whipped cream but beat only until soft peaks form. Then add the sweetened raspberry puree, a little at a time, and beat just until stiff peaks form when the beater is raised. Taste and fold in more sugar or puree, if required.For strawberry whipped cream: Make the whipped cream but beat only until soft peaks form. Then add the sweetened strawberry puree a little at a time, and beat just until stiff peaks form when the beater is raised. Taste and fold in more sugar or puree, if required.Makes about 2 cups of whipped cream frosting.Source:Beranbaum, Rose Levy.The Cake Bible. William Morrow and Company, Inc. New York: 1988.

Read more:http://www.joyofbaking.com/WhippedCreamFrosting.html#ixzz1DVrvk2q7

More Hearts

2011-01-28T19:17:00.001-07:00

I love my heart garland so much I made to make more hearts.

P.S. Don't hate on the network cable. Everyone has things they care about, this family-- fast internet.

Pink Satin and Demin

2011-01-26T17:22:00.000-07:00

With some of the left over denim I made my daughter a pocket purse with pink satin ribbon for the straps.

She was pretty thrilled when I gave her the purse.

New Play Rug

2011-01-26T17:19:00.001-07:00

I sold our IKEA playrug last summer/fall because no one ever drove their matchbox cars on it, and it was all rough. We had a hard large plastic sheet that is quite thin under the rug, it came from a pallet of food storage that was delivered to some cousins. I kept the sheet of plastic, even though we didn't have the rug anymore, and pulled it out whenever the wooden train track came out. Then I found this Disney Cars material. It was so cute I couldn't resist.

Finally with the material I made a large pocket for plastic sheet, I put denim on the back. Cars is one of three Disney movies that my son will agree to watch. Now we just need a Lightening McQueen toy and a Mater car toy.

See the sheet isn't pretty, but it works well for the train. Since we don't have space for a train table.

Heart Garland

2011-01-25T18:56:00.000-07:00

I decided our house needed a heart garland. I realized in the middle of the project that I should have used Heat and Bond, but instead I had to sewed the hearts together. Luckily I bought a sizzix heart die for my old school sizzix cutter, so I didn't actually have to individually cut out the hearts. Heat and Bond should have been applied before the cutting, which is why I had to sew.

It was a little monotonous and repetitive to say the least but I love to look at it as I wait for my TV it to turn on. I also ended up making it about twice as long as I needed because I didn't measure.

January Cake

2011-01-24T12:51:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I just don't think there is enough time to consume all the treats you can make in December.

So I figured snowman wasn't just christmas it was all winter right? So we made this little number in the middle of January. J couldn't stop asking when we were going to make his snowman cake.

It was so easy!

Just a round cake, slathered in cool whip, blueberries for the eyes and mouth, and an orange slice for the nose.

Still Christmas?

2011-01-21T18:49:00.000-07:00

We visited my mom, dad, maternal grandma and Aunt for christmas. My mom told J she would make candy trains with him. We ran out of time, and the first thing he said when we got home a week after christmas was when are we going to make my train? So instead of making a christmas train we made New Year's Trains on the 2nd of January. You think we opened enough candy?

It was ridiculous, but it was also way easier than I was expecting and Nan did an excellent job of making one and not eating too much candy. I hate doing ginger bread houses, but I could do this in 11 months again.

I really was surprised at how much building she could do.

Gummy Bears were our passengers.

Christmas Wordles

2010-12-19T15:54:00.002-07:00

I spent months practicing with my ward choir's christmas programs, then came down with the flu yesterday. I missed the program, I was quite disappointed. But to make up for it, I made a wordle, because they are so fun to make.

Most of the song were not from Handel's Messiah, but I just love the Messiah, and have been rocking out to it all season long. High School is extremely lame in my opinion, but one of the highlights of High school was singing the Messiah in Choir. (Yeah, that might make me lame.) Then I was having so much fun, that I made another wordle.

You can print a copy out if you like.

Now I have to find frames for them, even if its only six days until Christmas.

My little Elves

2010-12-17T14:01:00.000-07:00

While daddy was at class, we painted ornaments.
I thought my children looked like little elves in a workshop sharing their paints.

The finished projects: (this penguin got his eyes eventually.)

preschool apron

2010-12-17T13:58:00.000-07:00

About last week at this time I realized every year of elementary school my mother would send me to school with a potted plant or two depending on how many teachers I had. Every year I gave my teachers a potted plant. Which mean my son needed a christmas present for his teachers! Ahh, what was I going to do? My mom would have told me to go buy a potted plant, live flowers are pretty much her advice on everything. But kill all live plants, so I couldn't in good conscious give J's teachers one. Instead I made a hostess apron for them, because thats what I do. My mom takes care of live plants, and I make aprons. I also didn't have time to go to the store so I had to figure out what I had on hand that would work. This is all I could come up with. I like it.

Time was growing short, and I didn't have any other material that matched in a big enough piece, so instead of making a second for the assistant teacher I gave her this one. I'm super lame, I know. But she is young and thin, so I figured she could work it. I had two aprons with the same material and I never ever wore this one except for the picture, so I did give her a new apron. J also picked out hand soap for the teachers because he wanted to give them soap with the apron. I don't know what is acceptable present, I didn't know if just hand soap worked?!

Sadness Strikes

2010-12-15T09:51:00.000-07:00

First off, last night I was sewing a Christmas present for J's preschool teacher when my needle broke. A normal occurrence on its on, but when I went to replace it I only had one left. Four years ago, I got my sewing machine from my grandma, she hadn't used it in years. It came with two packages of replacement needles, I used the last replacement needle last night. This is terrible, because now I have to go buy needles, I don't know how to, I have never in my life bought needles for a sewing machine. I'm a little nervous. Wish me luck.

Secondly, you see this beautiful stocking I made my niece? It was lost in the mail, we don't think it will ever be found again. I'm so sad, I'm in morning....

I really don't mind making one more stocking, but I'm sad this one is gone....

Its like misplacing your best friend. But not really.

I hope you didn't think this post was more serious than it turned out to be, because this is my craft blog, so you know.

Still I'm sad about both accounts.

Birthday Present

2010-12-13T10:21:00.001-07:00

I had this plain jane bear that no one ever played with, so I dressed it up all girly and pink for my daughter's birthday. I decided I wasn't going to spend much money on toys because I needed to start her a savings account. My son has one and although we pay my husband's tuition instead of adding to it, my daughter needed one too. So I made her a girly bear and put the toy money in a brand new savings account! Hooray she can collect a half a cent in interest!

This picture is terrible, but I even monogrammed the foot.

Christmas Hostess Apron

2010-12-13T10:09:00.000-07:00

I know I already have all the seasonal aprons I need. But I never much liked full aprons, I just kept making them because I enjoy sewing. But then this summer when I made a half apron, I loved it, I wear it at least weekly. Who knows which one I wear more often. So I wanted a fun christmas one, but I didn't want to buy new material so I had improvise. I love how it turned out. I want to wear it every day from here until christmas.

I want to use the main material because it almost looked cookie like but I didn't have a full fat quarter so I did a red strip of ruching to make it look better than a seam, I love the ruffle in the middle instead of the bottom. This opens up all new possiblities. I found out I NEED a pocket, the other day I was wearing my birthday apron and didn't have a place to store the camera.

Now I'm sure someone out there is wondering how useful is a hostess apron for actual cooking? I'm tall enough that I find it very useful, I only ever get my waist messy. Occasionally my pants when I grab a messy kid to wash up. So I just wear my apron up at my true waist (high waist things are fashionable right now, right?!) and I never get messy anymore. Plus I don't get hot. Not to mention I never remember to put the apron on first, so things are usually starting to spill and its much easier for me to just tie something around my waist then get an apron over my head with all my long hair.

Baking Buds

2010-12-12T22:32:00.000-07:00

I now have two helpers in the kitchen, and luckily they usually don't both help at the same time. Three's a crowd.

My first helper is looking old these days. He was has lost interest in stirring but was quite helpful in decorating the gingerbread boys after I iced them up.

Remember in the song with the littlest one in the bed that makes everyone roll over and fall off? That would be my littlest one in the kitchen- boy is she bossy! Don't take away what ever she is stiring with or you'll pay.

Quick antidote, she is bossy enough that I often shied away from baking while she was awake. Then my mom was baking something with both kids and it was utter chaos, to the Nth degree. I could barely handle watching. My mom said, Grandma Gibbs (her grandma) would have loved this! She loved enthusiastic children baking, she just put them on the stool and stood behind them. Since then I've been more apted to letting my daughter help, but I learned a good lesson. My son always was next to me and a relaxed helper, my daughter takes baking as a full contact sport, and I have to stand right behind her or fights break out.

Birthday Treats

2010-12-12T21:58:00.001-07:00

My daughter turned 2, so I spent a whole day baking.
First these:

Then these:

To get this:

(she is my christmas baby that is why she has the name she does, so I wanted do a christmas theme cake before she is old enough to talk and request something.)

I left over cake batter so I made a small cake to eat the day of her actual birthday. Her party was the day before. Sure its lopsided, part of it didn't come out of the pan... but it tasted good.

I don't know what anyone else thought, but I thought it was all super yummy, homemade gingerbread cookies, with spice cake and cream cheese frosting. The frosting was some of the best I've made, in my opinion, just the right about of cream cheesy, I don't know if all 6 cousin that attended are just polite or if the tartness of the cream cheese didn't bother them. None of them complained!

Another Wreath, but Christmasized

2010-12-06T10:34:00.001-07:00

I liked my last wreath so much, I made another, but this time for Christmas. I needed an evergreen wreath, even if its fake. The best part is the wreath was only two dollars, unfortunately my H wasn't as cheap.

Christmas Pillows

2010-12-03T19:37:00.000-07:00

Even though I love the pillows I made a few months ago, I needed Christmas pillows to match my Christmas Wall Quilt. I thought about all the different cute things I could do, but then ended doing quick and easy. Which makes sense since, I'll only have them out for 20 days. I used material I already had that was plenty busy by itself.

I love that they match the season, and my decorations.

Stockings for the Nieces

2010-12-02T15:16:00.000-07:00

This year I had three neices, and I made them all stockings.

The first stocking I used tulle for trim, because I liked how that turned out last year, plus it goes with that family.

But then I completely dreaded making more stockings, eventhough I love tulle, I couldn't handle anymore gathering. I still two more nieces that need some stockings, plus two more on top of that for my parent's collection of grandchild stockings (they only had two granddaughters, the third niece belongs to a different grandma.) So Instead I went to the store and bought rick rack.

I decided for my parents collection, it would be fun if they had completely opposite stockings with the same material. Bonus, is I used up absolutely all of this material, no left overs to store. Also I'm fairly lazy, so I don't embroiderer the whole name if it has a shortened name on grandchildren stockings. I rarely call my son his shortened name, but yet his stocking at grandma's is shortened. Bonus, is I used up absolutely all of this material, no left overs to store.

They all get scotty dog stockings, because I was at the store with my mom when I picked out the material, and she likes scotty dogs.

Teeny Stocking

2010-12-01T14:33:00.001-07:00

With some scraps my mom and I made this teeny stocking.

When I hung it up, I asked my son if it was cute, he said yeahh... cuter than Nan. I laughed so hard. Normally he thinks his sister is the cutest thing, especially when she is in dresses and wearing things like flower clips. He likes 'em girly.

Another Apron Craze

2010-11-29T14:24:00.000-07:00

About a month ago I went on another apron craze. I sewed this for my daughter. She didn't have an apron, and always fought over her brother's with him.

Then I made this one, which is unisex (I think) for a child.

And come on, how could I not resist making another polka dot, cupcake apron.

I love these two materials, I guess there is actually three, oh wait four.

Back by Popular Demand

2010-11-19T12:41:00.005-07:00

Yes, one request of pictures a baby blanket is popular demand. Here it is, a little more colorful than the previous one I made for this mom, but not as loud as the first one I made her. (That was before I photographed my art work, it was purple with cartoon ballerinas everywhere.) Since I made it before the baby was born, my sister in law was not able to change the name after she was born. Sorry for the inconvenience.

This picture is awful, and makes the materials clash, but I wanted the entire blanket in one picture.

Here is the question, obviously I have the blog so I can show off my crafts no matter how good or bad they may be. I think I'm a fairly good hand embroidery, but I'm always nervous about posting it because I don't want people to be annoyed that I posted their child's name on the internet, even though I never post a picture of said child to go with the name.

My gratitude Calendar

2010-11-18T15:24:00.000-07:00

All the cool kids are making a list of everything they are thankful for this month, so I wanted to jump on the wagon. Here is mine, a calendar, each box is a different day.

Although the squares don't say who said it, the list is a mix of everyone's thoughts. I assume the responses don't need names. Clearly we know who is thankful for toy bunnies, who loves baby dolls, and who likes conversations with other grown-ups.

Birthday Baking/ Birthday Apron

2010-11-12T11:38:00.001-07:00

I found this cute material, and wanted to make an apron for birthdays. My daughter turns 2 in a month, and it be so great to wear my fun new apron.

Dragon Hide Dolly Blanket

2010-11-11T16:35:00.000-07:00

When my son was a baby, his Aunt Teresa made him a green silky blanket with the soft raised polka dots on the other side. I have no idea what that material is called, and my husband told my son years ago that it was from a dragon, it is call the dragon hide blanket. My daughter loves silky soft things, so she always wants the blanket, and yet my son refuses. We had a brown scrap from my mom, and then we had a pink scrap of some sort of silky stuff, and tah tad, we have another dragon hide blanket, a little more girly this time. (Three pieces pieced together.) After watching How to Train a Dragon we know that dragons are more colors than just green.

This blanket is only big enough for a doll.

She is a very conscientious mother.

Little Cupcake Apron

2010-11-11T12:46:00.000-07:00

I love cupcakes, I love material, I especially love material with cupcakes on it, and since I'm also enjoy sewing aprons, I made my daughter an apron. We only have one child apron, and the kids fight over it now when we bake, so I whipped up another one.

My Monogram Wreath

2010-11-10T19:14:00.002-07:00

I found this tutorial, and really love the Monogram, I love all monograms. I finally got around to buying my supplies. It was cheaper than I expected, the H was the same price as the wreath, only $3 and something. The great thing is I can change it for the seasons, by pulling off the flowers and gluing different seasonal embellishments. This might be a reoccurring post. I love the wreath.

Not my creation

2010-11-01T16:53:00.002-06:00

Remember Nannie Doll? Well my mom made one for my niece with dark hair. Isn't it darling? I want one, (not really). I didn't make this doll, but I did draw her face. I thought the dark hair version was so cute I had to post it.

The Last of the Halloween

2010-10-27T16:49:00.000-06:00

I think this is the end of my Halloween crafts. As mentioned my daughter is little red riding hood for Halloween, and so I'm dressing up as grandma. I needed an old fashion sleeping bonnet, so of course I googled it. I found the directions on how to dress up like Mrs. Claus.
You start out with a 18 inch circle, and then I changed the directions, I folded the edge of the material over two inches, so it gave me a inch wide hem.
Then I sewed bias tape on top of the hem in a circle so I could thread skinny elastic around inside. My hat was not such perfect circle, but my bias tape was a beautiful circle, so I had to photograph.

I thought 18 inches in diameter would be too much material, but it actually turned out a tad small, but it will work for a few hours. My daughter loves the sleeping bonnet, it could become a favorite toy after Halloween. It fits much better on her head then mine.

Everything Ghost

2010-10-27T16:12:00.000-06:00

Its everything ghost in our house this October. The year of the ghost. So when were asked to bring 15 small things to share with all of J's classmates for Halloween, I remembered kleenex ghosts. Sure its hardly an original craft, but he is young so its new to him. He had fun making them for his friends.

He drew spooky faces all of them. He also drew blood all over his kleenex ghost but not his friends, because it is so spooky and he didn't want to scare them. His dad and I thought that was very respectful of him.

In our small bag of of tootsie roll halloween candy we only had 10 lollipops, so we just tied kleenex to the large tootsie rolls, it worked fine.

He also drew fifteen pictures of spiderwebs and other spooky things to give to his classmates, drawing the pictures was his idea.