"Wouldn't You Think My Collection's Complete?"

Look at this stuff, isn't it neat? Wouldn't think my collection's complete?

What do you think do you think? Do we have enough sprinkles? We really don't have that many seasonal ones. So the other day at the store we had to buy a giant size halloween one.

Blueberry Pie Idea

My husband is watching Create TV channel, they are make a super yummy looking blueberry pie.  Instead of doing a lattice top, she had a plain top that she put six biscuit cookie cutter holes in it, about an inch and half apart.  I thought it sounded like such a good idea, and so cute too, I love polka dots. Here is the recipe from America's Test Kitchen. And I guess you have join, which is a total let down.  I'm not much of a pie person, but then again I am, I just don't like some (actually a lot) pies.  But I do love the right type of chocolate pies, and just cooked pumpkin filling (I commit a pie sin and throw the crust away if no one is looking).  And there are some fruit pies that are way good. But some pies just are not right for me, well a lot aren't, like all store bought ones unless they are chocolate with oreos and frozen, and a lot of homemade too. Anyway, maybe when it cools down, and its Fall, I might have to try making a pie, with real pie crust not just graham crackers. Now I'm sure this isn't the easiest pie ever, which might be a bad idea for a first try, but at the same time, I can't make a subpar pie, because then it will taste bad, and I won't eat it, and give up. It also has vodka in it, which they had a very convincing argument for it, and I'm sure it will bake all out, but I doubt you will find me in the state liquor store, sporting my ID.

Frugal Dolly

I have way too much fun with having a daughter and getting to buy girl toys. I wanted a new dolly dress, but I didn't want to spend $10 on an outfit for a doll, when I rarely spend that much on an outfit for my children. So instead I bought a second hand $2 newborn dress and shortened it (and slimmed it out).

With some scraps from the shortening I made dolly a matching headband, because Nan was so excited. Its not a turban like it looks. Ahh, green eye dolly, we love green eye dolly, because I have green eyes, and I think Nan's are going green, they are definitely not bright blue like they were a year ago.  Its hard to find anything other than a blue eyed dolly.

My daughter was trilled with dolly, and dolly's new dress, but when I said should we take a picture of dolly, she said no, so when I took one anyway, she got upset, and refused to hold dolly.

Yes, I did spend the WHOLE afternoon sewing.  It was great fun, my husband made hot dogs for dinner, while I sewed Dolly's dress.

Teenie Pot Holders

I've been planning to get make my kids pot holders for a while now.  I finally got the gumption to do it.  

Oh course we need a boy and girl set, because the skill of cooking is for all.

Yeah, it was a lot of work.  Sewing little things are hard.  But they were also time consuming because I wanted them too look authentic so they are quilted, machine quilted with my machine, see the crossed lines.

I wanted the pot holders to match, but once I added the pink bias tape I'm not sure if it worked anymore.  But that doesn't matter I thought they looked super cute.  I used flannel so it would be soft and thick like real hot pads, but these are only toys.

GoldBug Cake

My brother's birthday is coming up, so I made a cake for him yesterday. His favorite cake is lemon, so I decided months ago when I saw one on the internet that I wanted to make him a goldbug cake. Yellow frosting is so fitting for a lemon cake. If you don't know who Goldbug is from Richard Scarry's Busytown is, you missed out in your childhood. Unfortunately I can't link you to my muse, because I can't find it in google images.  But I did find this fine number, and I'm so jealous of this girl for thinking of it first. I first found that cool shirt when I was making goldbug the stuff animal.

I did goldbug for my adult brother, because J is too old for goldbug at this point, and N is a girl and might never find it cool. I wasn't even half way done with goldbug, when my husband glanced over and said, hey you doin' goldbug? There is a reason I love that man. But this is a picture of not my husband but my brother.

I loved the cake so much, I'm almost sad its tasty and we ate it. Which is why we have pictures, so I can always remember how cute my goldbug cake was.

In honor of the cake, N babe held the goldbug toy all through dinner.  She had just woken up from a nap and was quite lethargic.

My DIY Project-- Doll Stroller

I'm so trilled, I have a DIY project. Last night my husband inspired me, (isn't it nice to have a muse). Six months ago or so I bought my daughter a doll stroller second hand for two bucks. One of the straps that connect it to the stroller were broken, but I'm crafty I could easily fix it. And I did, three times, my daughter likes to sit in her stroller so it kept re-breaking from the weight, its made to hold a half a pound, not 20. My husband was discussing ways to fix it, when he said or you could just make a new one using something like canvas. My response "DUCK" I had some pretty pink duck waiting for just an occasion. I think it is so cute and darling. He is not sure it will hold up to her weight, but really what will?  So much cuter than any doll stroller I could buy.

Then I was having so much fun and the kids were in bed, so I thought why not make a matching diaper bag for the back.  My daughter isn't quite old enough to understand the joys of shoving things in bags, but she will in a couple of months. Just for the record, I looked up how much a new doll stroller would cost, and realize two bucks was a really good deal.

Then I realized it could hold two babies that way.  What is better than holding two babies?

Needless to say she was trilled when she woke up and found it.  As my husband said as we went to bed, its like Christmas.  She kept touching each baby, to show how happy she was it held two.

The funny thing about this whole project is, I didn't think the other doll seat would come off without cutting it.  Each time I had tried to fix the loop strap by the handles, I had done it with the seat attached. Then in the middle of making this, after measuring with it attached I realized it just slides right off the handles.  Silly me.  For six months, I thought this was unfix-able with a machine. Here is a before.  Thank goodness, I have such a fantastic inspiration. I love the fact that my husband inspired me last night.
Now I'm back to wanting to recover the ugly dora chair. Oh look more before stroller shots.  Not to mention I ordered too much material, so if my daughter got her own room in the next year or so she could have matching curtains.

Needed More

This apron needed more. The pocket was too yellow, it needed an embellishment. I decided to go with buttons, because I thought they would be fitting with the depression era colors in the material being. It looks so much better now, it my opinion.

Turns out half aprons can double as full aprons, for toddlers. My daughter requested to wear it.

Just involved some jimmy rigging of the back straps, and going around the shoulders instead of her neck.

She and her sticky hair look good.

 

Tah dah the finished product. Like I said much better with the buttons.

For an Old Roommate/ I love Toile

When you get married as young as I did you have few roommates in your past, and like anyone else you have fewer roommates that you have any interest in getting a facebook message from a five years down the road.  Well one of my roommates is have her first baby soon, and since I was invited but I won't be attending her baby shower, I decided to send her a blanket anyway.

I have no idea if those materials match, but I like it.  I had a hard time with material for a boy.  My old friend probably would have like something blue but none of the nursery calico were on sale, all the rest of the bolts, but none of the nursery.  So I picked this cowboy toile, I have loved this material for months and so I got it. I love any and all toile.

Who knows if she will like it, it clearly is boy, but who knows, I barely even know her anymore.  I doubt the girl she was six years ago is still her, but none the less she got a blanket.  I wondered why... when I was sewing.  And I thought I hated college, I hated being single in college, and if nothing else she was there during a really rotten year of my life.  No I did not get married to not be single, I got married because I fell in love with my platonic best friend who happened to be a boy.  The added bonus was I no longer had to be single. Doesn't that deserve a blanket?  She slipped me a note under my door one night, saying sorry other other roommate was being so pyscho.  And that just like the road not taken, has made all the difference.
Please admit it, those cowboys are cute!

Cars and Church

At christmastime my mom and I made car caddies. Thanks to a comment on my cousin's blog, we found this tutorial. We used denim and canvas so it would be sturdy. They are in nice dark boy colors.

We didn't do everything the tutorial said like we have no numbers, and we didn't do a car applique, but I did think a stop light would be fun, but it wasn't so fun, because sewing circles are never fun. But we didn't make enough car caddies, more boys loved them and wanted them.

So what were we do to but make more car caddies.  Since we were at, we made two one for my boy and one for my girl, we usually use these in church and my kids fight over it.  Usually I'm not a mom of buying two toys, but toys for church are different.  The previous ones were too fat too fat in my opinion, they did get thinner over time as it was played with and squished, but still this time I used denim and calico.

We did the elastic and button finish this time, I just barely found these closures on blogs, and so I was excited to try, so much easier than tying bows. The first set of car caddies didn't have bows, but the my crayon rolls did, and its a pain to tie, I love the hair elastic sewn in with a button so much more. Speaking of crayon rolls if I was to make another I would have a folder over flap, like the car caddies, or the dry erase cozy.

They were so much fun another nephew of mine was playing with it at church at great grandma's ward and so we now have another order.  Oh the other thing we did differently is we made the pockets for the cars bigger, we did 17x8 instead of 6. I also try to fill the caddy with cheap off brand cars, they are lighter weight and so it doesn't make our carry bag as heavy, plus it folds up smaller.  We have lots of off brand cars mixed in with matchbox and hotwheels so...

Everlasting Cupcakes

I finally finished my kids play cupcakes.  I tried to be green and reuse stuff instead of buying a $15 cupcake set.  I ended up buying two spools of ribbon and silicon baking cups, so I probably didn't succeed in being green, but I did spend less money.  If you look at the pictures closely, you can see I gave my kids a used cupcake pan.  Its cleaned but slightly stained. There are two chocolate cupcakes, two yellow cupcakes, and two white cupcakes.  Chocolate cake goes well with chocolate frosting or white frosting so then I didn't have to buy more ribbon, after using my ribbon on the shirt.  I used this tutorial, expect I used calico not felt. The most useful part, machine sewing the top on first and then hand sewing the bottom, I was trying it the other way and it didn't work.

I think the chocolate frosting is my favorite.

 

Circles are extremely hard to sew, they turn out looking like rounded rectangles.

 

My baby loves them, most kids just love the cupcake tin and silicon baking cups, I should have saved my time, my kids love silicon baking cups, they play with them for hours.

I made an apron yesterday.

I made an apron yesterday. I have been in need of a half apron, it is so hot when you bake in the summer who wants a full apron, but that being said, when I use flour I almost always get some on my waist. The tutorial was true to life it was super quick. I obviously being me made some modifications, I did not have a full half yard so I couldn't make my strap as long, not to mention the ruffle instead of the straight bottom, a pocket-- its nice to have some where to shove my camera after I snap a shot of my junior chef, and I tapered the apron, the top is slightly more narrow than the bottom, which is why it doesn't lay against my legs until like the photo in the tutorial.

 

The apron would suggest I love yellow, not the case.  I loved the fat quarter and the yellow was the only thing I had that matched.  I tried about every other material in my stores but had nothing quite matched other than the yellow. If I would have gone to the store I wouldn't have had time to make it yesterday.

You Think...

...I made a big enough purse?

 

I need to fix my flower and my straps.

A for ...

We have a lot of baby blessings in my family because my husband and I have a lot of siblings so a lot of babies are born.  My sister's daughter was blessed a few weeks ago, I of course made desert, A is for her name, and green because its the new pink. 

 

And why not a chocolate cake because my dad's family likes chocolate cake.

 

 

Before it is Unseasonal

 For the large third of July BBQ we had at my grandma's house, my son and I made Jello flags, with strawberries, blueberries and cool whip.  He had been asking to make these since anyone who gets a magazine for families, children, mothers, women anything has probably seen this design advertised. 

Our of course our jello flags don't look perfect, but at least my kid does (sort of minus the bruised face, messy hair, and dirty shirt). Isn't he cute? My son almost did the whole flag design himself, I helped a little bit with when to start and stop, but he filled it in himself.

Don't believe me, he later showed me this, he made sure to find a white floor to built it on. 

I'm sure my sister in law is grateful for a cameo on my craft blog.  J was pretty disappointed that both things of jello were eaten so when  my sister in law asked me to bring a dessert on the 5th to her house, I quickly made a box cake and repeated the design this time with raspberries, I like the raspberry look better.

In the words of my brother I got a lot of millage out of this design.

More not Yo-Yos

I have officially decided to give up on yo-yos. Instead I made this:

Looks like yo-yos huh? but easier I used ribbon, just in circles as flower type things.

Just sewed around the loop of ribbon and pulled tight, so much easier.

My daughter wearing her not yo-yos, with her grandmas.