Homemade Birthday Cards

I gave up making and giving birthday cards out for the most part. But I can't deny my grandparents or parents, just so happens that my father's birthday is five days after my maternal grandma's birthday, so I only had to come up with one design. But in a moment of ingeniousness I used thank you cards, and glued the pictures on top to hid the thanks, but that way I didn't have to fold or cut paper, just pictures. I also used a plastic label machine for the words. 

The cookies the kids are holding were free after finishing the summer reading program at the Library. Pretty awesome.

Wahoo, happy birthday. Grandpa and Great Grandma. Unfortuantely I apparently can't take in focus pictures. 

Mini Purse

I made a mini purse for my daughter's dolly dress, out of the pockets that I cut off the dress.  Nan loves the little purse, and yes, it looks that bad in real life.

The picture is out of focus, and she has water down her dress, but still she loves the purse.

And the dolly.

More Racecars

While I was with my mom, we made more car caddys!  I'm sure one day this will madness will end, because think all my preschool/toddler nephews now have one, or will after christmas.  I don't know when my mom is giving them out.  Shh, don't tell my nephews, I don't even know who these are for, hopefully my mom remembers. 

These are by far my favorite design.  I love this material, so little boy cute.  Bizarrely enough after months we could barely find anything with cars at JoAnn's, I found this material at wally world.

With some of the left over, I made my son a race-car flag.  He has been wanting one.  This child has interesting wants.  Oh the joys of a mom that sews.

Birthday Aprons

I made some aprons over the summer.
I used this tutorial, because the tutorial was so cute.  

I really loved this pink and brown baking material. Not to mention polka dots, who doesn't love polka dots?

Black Apple Dolls

I've been wanting to make some Black Apple Dolls for a while now. I showed my mom the Martha tutorial, she said lets do it now.  I also showed her my favorite set on Inside a black apple blog, of a doll and her bear.  She said lets do it again, I hadn't thought about the possibility of making a bear myself, I just wished she had one for sale on her etsy site. But here are the finished dolls, of Nan dolly, and her bear.

Sure they aren't quite as great as the real thing, but she did the tutorial with Martha so you don't have to feel guilty at all about making them. Not to mention most of her things for sale is her art, not dolls.  I really love some of the art, like Red Riding Hood, do you think Nan will dress up in a red cape for Halloween one year?  I hope. It would be super great if I could get J in a wolf costume, but I won't hold my breath. 

She loves the dolls like all dolls. (These pictures are not posed.)

She loves them and its perfect, because she is in a Goldilocks stage of life.  (You know consuming everything anyone has to give.) Here is a close up of the Nan doll, with her short yellow/goldilock bob. Unfortunately her close up doesn't show her stripy legs/tights.

  

The bear's close up, if I were to do it again, I would use two layers of brown for her face, so the stuffing doesn't get poky.  But I love her crochet collar, we cut it of a handkerchief/doily.

She really loves the bear so much, my mom also made a set of dolls and while we were in Texas, Nan would carry both bears around.

Pirate Maps

When your mommy sews a lot of your life, you want her to sew you things. Not to mention you don't realize its not cool to want to buy material yet, so you want to get some for yourself. But you don't actually like going to the fabric store and cry when you pull in the parking lot, and sometimes just mention as we drive past that you don't want to go there today. Anyway, so we have pirate material, because it is what my son picked out a year ago. There is only so long, I can handle an unsewed frayed fat quarter so eventually (months ago) it got made into a pirate map. Arg! Mateys.

While at my mom's house during the great sewing extravaganza. My son picked our more pirate material. Arg Mateys. This map is smaller. He likes to try to teach his friends how to play pretend games with pirate maps, but they don't get it, I've realized all those hippy parents are right.  Wooden toys, cloth toys are different, they require a different skill set.  But don't worry my kids have plenty of plastic toys, so they blend in with the rest of the world. And don't you fret you non sewing non crafty moms, I have seen no difference in playing with store bought wooden and cloth and homemade.

Yes, those are the manly versions  of dolly blankets. They also double as great old bunny blankets. As does the dog dolly blanket. I'm pretty sure my daughter has more than enough dolly blankets and pillows. We don't iron dolly blankets, although I do occasionally launder them.

But if its one thing my kids love its little pillows. They would love to have their beds full of pillows of various sizes all outfitted with material they pick out.  My husband would claim they get that from me.

A Sweater for when my Sciptures Get Cold

Winter will be here in a little while and I didn't want my scriptures getting cold on the walk to church. Just kidding, I wanted to try a felting project made from an old wool sweater.  I found this tutorial, but my mom and I were really feeling it, so we took our own route. I did the machine sewing, and my mother hand sewed the top seam.  I was grateful, she does invisible stitching much better than me. Then I embroidered the L after her suggestion.

It would be the perfect size bag for a regular size set of LDS scriptures, but I have the small quad so it leaves plenty of room for pens, keys, a cell phone on silent, and other such stuff.

SWEET!

While visiting my mom, we made a list of 13 crafts we wanted to do, we almost finished them all!  Sweet huh!  It was a crafting bliz, and I'll only have minimal finish work when I get home.

Wondering

Are you wondering where I have been? Me and crafts are having a difficult time right now. Don't believe me? Look below,
 

yes, I burned an iron mark in my material, I don't think I have ever done that before.

"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.