Better or worse

I kept thinking there was something wrong with my argyle wreath. When I wore argyle socks, I realized my zig zag should be a complimentary color, not the same. What do you think?

7th Birthday

My oldest turned seven. He doesn't really like cake, but he does love chocolate chip cookies. So this year I made a Chocolate Chip cookie icebox cake. It was seriously the easiest thing ever, as long as you planned ahead.

I also borrowed a stamp set from my friend and made him cute little birthday cake bunting for his cake. It was so fun, but also took about TWO hours! I need to get a mini stamp set, it was super fun, I stamped all sorts of things!

Back to the icebox cake, I made the cookies Wednesday, and practically burnt them on purpose, and then stuck them in the freezer until Friday. You want your cookies crisp, to say the least, because by the time you eat your cake, they will be as mushy as mush. I put a ¼ cup less flour in my dough, used butter instead of butter flavor shortening (since it has a lower melting point) and baked my cookies for an extra 5 minutes or so. See the difference.  The top one is what my cookies normally look like, the bottom one is for the cake, maybe I should have used less flour. 

Then on Friday night I made fresh whipped topping, from whipping cream, I made four cups because the whipping cream comes in cartons of two cups, but three would have been plenty for the LARGE cake I made. We fed 14 people this cake, and still had almost half a cake left over. Next time I make this, I think I would only make half a batch of cookies for my cake. Once my whipping cream was made, I covered a plate in one layer of cookies, then put a layer of whipped cream, a layer of cookies, a layer of whipped cream, and on so until it was as big as I wanted. Then let chill over night. Just for the record I was going to make this on a cake stand, it was his 7th birthday after all, but my husband told me to make it on a paper plate. I thought it was weird he cared so I listened, well turns out he thought we were making it for the party we went on Friday night.

So yummy, so much easier than frosting a cake. Next time I want to try with oatmeal cookies. I think it will taste like a Little Debbie Oatmeal creme pie, without all the store bought chemicals. You can also make mini cakes with this. 

For the past two years I've made my son cookie crème sandwiches, for his birthday in school, but to make sandwiches for enough kids you need two packages of cookie crème, and that is almost $6 for just the crème! So I think next year, I'm just going to make sandwiches with whipped cream, and refrigerate over night, I personally like whipped cream better than the cookie crème. Remember my son doesn't really like cake, and he thinks all those cupcakes everyone brings into school are exciting which I get. But at the same time, I don't want to bring in cupcakes for a child who doesn't really like them, normal chocolate chip cookies are too boring for such an event as a birthday, but apparently cookie sandwiches are not too boring.    

I also ate a fourth of the cake in left overs, none one else in my house wanted it, and it was too yummy to waste in my opinion.  (I did give a fourth of it away.) But I got a little sick of the chocolate chips, I'm wondering how it would taste if you either use none or less chips, and made chocolate whipped cream.  Or if you ground up the chips, and then used chocolate whipped cream.  It has so many possibilities. The chocolate chip icebox cake idea I orginally found in Martha, but I found this recipe the most helpful. Back to Martha I did not use mascarpone cheese or whiskey. Mascarpone is apparently expensive and it tastes similar to cream cheese, and my kid doesn't like cream cheese.  I blame that on my husband's genetics, I don't understand how any human being can not like cream cheese. 

Argyle Shamrock Wreath

Well another holiday is come and gone, and its a month until the next catholic holiday, so I made an Argyle St. Patrick Day wreath for my wine rack. Ever wonder why the Saint Patrick and Saint Valentine are special enough for all of us non-catholic Americans to celebrate their days? Me not so much, I just love to decorate. Back to my argyle wreath, other than wrapping the yarn which always takes an eternity the wreath went surprisingly quick. I won't explain how I did it because there are many blogs that already have.
The wreath sort of reminds me if the Boston celtics during the early 90s. My brother was a fan when I was a kid.

Nattie Girl Cupakes

Back in December my daughter turned four. I made Nattie face cupcakes. I saw a similar idea on Pinterest. I made a million of these, including 20 gluten free ones, for preschool. I didn't give her a friend party so I also made them for playgroup.

Love Sign

Here is the end of my valentine crafts
A love sign, like the ones all over Pinterest. I recycled the letters from an old craft so I just had to glue! So easy!

I made these love birds for a wreath, but it just looked too old lady and kitschy, in a wreath, but I thought they were cute on their own.

Lastly these hearts I didn't make, I bought them years ago in clearance. Turns out they are my favorite decoration this year.

Valentine Envelopes

I made my family PB hacked felt valentine's envelopes. Then my daughter wrote all over hers. :(

Tutus in hair

I am so trilled, my daughter wears headbands! Which means as long as I attached bows to a headband, she'll wear a bow!! (She never in her life has worn hairpieces in her life. She has sensory problems.) The other day, I saw a tulle clippy, so I asked Pinterest and it delivered.
Sadly, this is the best picture my daughter would allow. What a stinker.

Too many

I ended up making way too many valentines wreaths! So I gave one to a friend-- she was very pleased.
I cut a heart shape out of cardboard and with the help of a glue gun, I covered it with yarn. Yarn I already had. I used old valentine plaid fabric for my rosettes, and of course a glue gun! Cost of wreath: free.

Heart Shaped Foam Wreath

Since I started putting wreaths on my wine rack, I need two valentine's wreaths right? So I planned on covering a foam heart shape wreath with yarn. Yeah that doesn't work. It has hideous so I gave up. I ended up with this wreath, I love it.

But originally it didn't look like that.  Originally I didn't know what to do once the yarn didn't work, then while sitting at my sewing machine, I realized I could cover it with strips of material. I then pulled out strips and made the insanely crazy valentines wreath on crack, it was a work on progress, so luckily I changed the material and made it look like the first one.

Unfortunately I like my ruffle wreath too much, so this wreath does not reside on my wine rack.

But I did add valentine bunting to my ruffle wreath. It matches perfectly with my valentines subway art.

Modest Barbie Dress

My daughter got a Barbie car for Christmas  It came with a barbie who had an ugly dress that also exposed her plastic panties to the world. So I decided to buy Barbie a new dress. Etsy has a fair amount of modest Barbie clothes, at prices comparable to a box store. But instead I bought an immodest dress that matched with the dress up barbie dress we already have. After about 2 minutes my daughter decided she did not like the halter strap on the dress, which meant now barbie was now exposing her chest.

 So after I dropped my dear four year old off at preschool, I sewed lace on barbie's dress for sleeves, then I figured she needed lace on her skirt.

I wasn't finished yet, I decided she needed a matching silver belt instead of black. It took me about an hour to do while watching tv.

 I think barbie now looks gorgeous now, instead of trampy, and the four year old loves it too.

Don't mistake my daughter's obsession with her thumb as dislike for the barbie dress, she really was pleased. So pleased in fact she now thinks she needs a Minnie Mouse dress up dress. 

$7 Headboard

I really wanted a headboard, but more than that, I really wanted to spend $0 on a headboard. There are some great ideas online on how to make headboards for cheap, but by the time you buy the supplies, its at least $50, if not $100.  Cheaper than buying in a store, but still not $0.  Sure there are garage sales, but you then have to refinish and such, and that is also more than $0.  So what I ended up doing was buying one yard of material for $7, using some left over batting, an old cardboard box, glue gun and a box of command strips for $5.  Sure its not the highest quality, but it was pretty close to $0, so I'm pretty happy.

I'm very satisfied with my results. I figured if a hotel could just have their headboard glued to the wall so could I.  Not only that, when I sit in bed at night and feed my baby, that cardboard and batting, do a pretty fair job of cushioning my head from the wall.

We just bought our down comforter earlier in the season, we love it. Our old comforter was a handme down my mother in law gave my husband before we got married! About four years ago, I put that normal comforter in a duvet cover, but it turns out after years of using a duvet cover, I hate them.  So I used my duvet cover as a dust ruffle to cover our box frame, which works well because I don't have a dust ruffle.  (Apparently spending money on my bedroom is not a priority in my life.  Our dressers are handme downs, of handme downs, four times removed, from my husband's great Aunt Anna.) One day before my children stain my comforter, I hope to remember to buy some spare white flat sheets to put on top of my down comforter, just like in hotels.  Yes, after staying in a hotel last spring, I thought this bedding is what better than mine, why not copy it.

P.S. don't mind the wrinkles.

Another pillow

I decided my couch needed another pillow, ascetically one was plenty for me, but comfort wise it was not. I had a left over form from cutting up my striped pillows, so last weekend I got to work. I kind of hate the pillow, but my children absolutely love it. I decided I wanted a "love at home" pillow to remind us to be more loving. Then I got the bunting idea on Pinterest of course. It ended up looking very 80s crafty to me with more modern colors. I guess that's what I get for trying to do a heart and a house, and now I am stuck with it because the kids love it.

Which is fine, because the message is good. Plus it matches with the other pillows.

Heart and Burlap

This is my new wreath. I kind of really love it, like I a lot. The heart shape grapevine wreath was sort of expensive, with a 40% off it was still something like $6, but the burlap and lace I already had.

Snowman

I wanted a snowman decoration for January, for the post holiday slump. After looking at Pinterest I decided I liked the yarn and twine snowmen the best. This is what I made, turns out these babies are harder to make then they look, at least if you want your yarn balls to look half decent.

Halved Pillows

I redid my pillows for our new arm chairs. I pulled them apart and cut everything in half including the pillow form and sewed it back up. I am trying to decide if I like them.

I also made green bobbles for my vase out of cotton balls covered material. Yarn would have been better but I didn't have spring green yarn.

Once I moved around my side furniture that definitely improved things. Still I think that wall could use some lighting up. All in due time. I have plans and my husbands willingness. Back to the point, how do the pillows look?

Hmm, maybe too matchy. Maybe this is better, I flipped one around so the stripes are different.  Yes, I love stripes.  Yes, I realize this picture is out of focus, no I don't care...

P. S. this is one of favorite pictures right now. It's a candid from the baby blessing.