Baking

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.