More Hearts

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.