Holiday Challenge: Stocking Collection Complete!

Our two year-old will have his very own stocking this Christmas! I made it this afteroon in just over an hour, which made me wonder how and why I didn't fit it in during the holidays the past two years. But, sometimes during the holidays, even an hour is hard to come by.

I used quilted red fabric for the body of the stocking.

Mini Grasshopper Pies

With my older children back in school this week, I've had more time to focus on a middle child who sometimes gets lost in the crowd. My daughter loves to help me cook, so I enlisted her help to make dessert for our dinner exchange. It was a fun afternoon! Since it's been so hot lately, a cool grasshopper pie sounded good. We decided individual pies would be cuter than a big pie.

Felt Advent Calendar - HOLIDAYS Challenge

I had planned to post a few projects for the HOLIDAYS challenge, but making time for crafts had to come last this month. I started working on the Felt Advent Calendar in early August, but then I had to set it aside and concentrate on more important things.

Obviously it is not done. Not even halfway.

HOLIDAYS: Ice Cream Pie

I'm usually pretty good about planning ahead. It's one of my Type A characteristics that I'll claim as a talent. But there's something about the holiday season that sends My Plans out the door.

Personalized Porcelain Ware

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SPOTLIGHT- Shrinky Dinks Buttons

I almost forgot about our Spotlight feature this week! This blog, crafts and sewing had to move down on my list of priorities. We are back to homeschooling full time instead of the lazy summer schedule and that means I am occupied with thinking of math lessons more than blogging.

Here is a little something from my looooong list of  "projects to do":

"You Can't Always Get What You Waaant,..."

In our house, all of my boys know this famous song from the Rolling Stones. As a matter of fact, J. and I frequently answer with it when we hear something like this, "Mom, I want candy (gum, toy, watch TV, play X-box etc)!" But sometimes,  the kiddos do get what they want.

 Like when Mom caves in and

HOLIDAYS- Chocolate Mint Morsels

Every holiday season I search for new neighbor-teacher-acquaintance gift ideas. They must be nice, thoughtful, sometimes clever, but not expensive. Bonus points go to gifts that make any or all of the above people think: "Boy, I sure am glad I know Lor!"

Kitty Cat Hat- More Knitting on the Go

Last week, as I've written previously, I made a couple of water bottle covers on the go. After that, I wanted something I could sink my teeth into a little more. Luckily, I had a copy of this pattern with me, enough pink cotton yarn to make it with, and a little girl at home who loves cats.

Fish Hair Clip

I saw a cute ribbon fish on a greeting card this morning while browsing on Pinterest. I had thin orange ribbon on hand and made one to see what it would look like as a hair clip. I covered the clippy with blue ribbon.

Then I came up with my

Holidays Challenge- T-shirt Dress

Here is something from my youth: T-shirt dresses. My mother made for me and some of my sisters t-shirt dresses. This one that I made for my 3-year old looks like an Easter dress.

I went to Hobby Lobby when they had 1/2 off all t-shirts and had each girl choose from the

Christmas Tree Decoration from Cecilia -HOLIDAYS Challenge

Cecilia from So-Tei-Tei has joined us for the HOLIDAYS challenge. She shared these gorgeous ornaments that you can make using styrofoam balls, scraps of fabric, ribbon and gold cords.
 She even provides a great tutorial and pattern. Hop over to her blog to see the full instructions on how to make it.

Holiday Challenge: Cheesecloth Ghosts...and such

You can use this tutorial, Cheesecloth Ghosts. I don't remember which we used, but it's all the same. We used water bottles with rice in the bottom for weight. We stabbed skewers in the bottle for the arms and head with balls of aluminum foil on the ends. It helped to have more than two hands, one person pulling the cloth strips out of the bowl of starch as the other person used their gloved hands (a must) and squeegeed the excess liquid through their fingers. You drape the strips to your liking over your ghost mannequin and let it dry. There was three of us and each ghost turned out different, but all very cute.

Warm Fuzzies FHE

This month's Friend magazine had an article that talked about Warm Fuzzies and how to make them. For Family Night last Monday, we made some. Here is an easy, fun craft for everyone:

Cut 2-1/2 inch square of cardboard. Cut an 8 inch piece of yarn to tie it later. Wrap yarn 50-100 times around. I did it more than that so it would be more poofy, and added more colors. (For multiple colors, just wrap a few times, cut, wrap a few times, cut, over and over.) Carefully slide it off and tie the yarn piece around the middle very tight.

Spotlight - For A Book Lover

I know what I want for my birthday. Or Christmas.

I do not know who made it, where it stands, or the people who get to enjoy it every day. I envy them.

Holiday Challenge- Halloween Witch

Yes, August does remind us the Holidays will be here soon. I am not a Halloween lover. But over the years I've done my share of trick or treating with the kiddo's- I've lived in the country for the past 10 years where we didn't get ANY halloween candy seekers and I did miss the ringing of the doorbell.

AUGUST CHALLENGE--Holidays

I realize we're barely starting to wind up the summer, but for me, as soon as school starts, it seems that I blink and the holidays are upon us. So, my challenge to you this month is to think HOLIDAYS.

Holidays Challenge- School is a holiday, right?

I found some cute bargain fabric at Walmart a couple weeks ago ($1.50-2.00/yd.) and had this pattern I bought last year on sale for 99cents somewhere (Hobby Lobby or JoAnn's). I finally made a shirt for each of my school girls. The shirts were very simple to do. The knit was pretty stable, having a good 'stretch-back'. (Sorry I'm bad at vocabulary.) I made each one probably under 2 hours after cutting.

Knitting on the go

I'm not posting this project because it's unique and brilliant (it's not), but to make the point that knitting is a great hobby for people on the go.  Even if beading or sewing or woodworking is your drug of choice, it pays to invest some time in developing your knitting/ crocheting skills, because knit/crochet is super portable. 
Case in point.

Sewing/Craft Shelf Is DONE!

I did not like painting this shelf. The heat did not help the experience either. I should have just stained it and that's it. It also would have been much cheaper, but I had my ideas and I did not do enough research. I was simply impatient which cost me time and money. Don't get me wrong. I love the shelves, having a place for everything within an arm's reach instead of having to get up to fetch needles or buttons from the closet. Plus, I have room for craft supplies in front of me. If they are tucked away somewhere, I forget about them. I have not done any yarn dyeing since my  mom was here and now having the dyes on the shelf in front of me is great motivation! I am still not sure I love the color. In small amounts I love the Burnt Acorn I picked out, but I felt it was a bit too much having that big shelf painted with it. Now that I have books and bins and craft supplies on the shelves, it is not quite as shocking, but I think I may re-paint it one day. When I get a good desk or table to go with it. I think I will paint it a cream-eggshell color and distress it to show the burnt acorn (which is 'just orange' according to my husband.)

Nutella Doughnuts

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Spotlight - Bookmaking Blog

Today, I am spotlighting the talented Elyssa J. Kirkham. A year ago, Elyssa graduated with a degree in journalism and married her sweetheart. She has since had a few articles published in the New Era, a magazine for teens. Elyssa has many talents and varied interests, but one of the most fascinating is her unique talent for and interest in bookmaking, and she has started a blog about it called HandmadeLibrary.com. She kindly agreed to some Q&A...

Pavlova- An Easy And Elegant Dessert

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Ladybug Tag Toy

I've been on a ladybug theme lately. I made a turtle tag toy a while ago, and wanted to make more. I wanted to give a couple of these to someone who just had twin girls.

RATIOS!

This week I had one of those exciting moments when a swirl of tangentially related thoughts and impulses comes together in an instant, when desires you were only half aware of become clear, and finally, you're able to put them into words. It was a conversation with my good friend (and co-author of this blog) Dora that brought this miracle about.

Florence Flask Birthday Cake

We've Had a Birthday, Shout Hooray!

My oldest turned 10! and that means, CAKE. I gave him a list of ideas and he loved the Flask cake. I got it off of Family Fun recipes, but am not going to link you to it, because of course it's perfect and I'm not here to compare. It was a great cake to make--fun and easy. My son suggested the idea of using the measurements to show his age. Brilliant! 

Super Secret Invisible Ink kid craft

I've got a couple of kids who love the whole idea of spying and sneaking around. So for one of our crafts lately I pulled an old favorite out of my arsenal: Super Secret Invisible Ink. It brings back fond memories from my childhood.

Spotlight-Quilled Starry Night

I already started writing a post for this week's SPOTLIGHT. I loaded the pictures, kept staring at the screen, but it was not working. I started going through all my bookmarks, my Pins on Pinterest, but did not see anything I really liked. I wanted to SPOTLIGHT  something awesome. Amazing. Awe inspiring. And then, I found it. I stashed this under a folder on my Chrome bar. Funny that the folder was titled "MUST SEE". I clearly did not look hard enough to see it in all caps. I opened it and right away I was awed. Amazed. It was just as awesome seeing this for the second time as the first time. How could I forget  Suzy's Quilled Starry Night?

  

Holidays Challenge- Fuzzy Spider

 

Last Halloween my sister put together some Halloween crafts for her kids and my kids to do.

Simple and Adjustable Jewelry

I have been thinking about how to make quick and easy adjustable bracelets and necklaces. Easy to put on and take off, easy to make and easy to vary the length. I was playing around when I thought about a super simple solution.  I am not even sure a how-to should be written. It is really simple.

Clothespin dolls- Sanity Reclaimed

Yesterday afternoon we were all about insane because the kids were bored and were driving us crazy with nothing good to do. I looked at my boxes of craft supplies and thought, 'oh yeah- this is why I bought all this'. So I opened up the first box and found old-fashioned clothespins and decided on making dolls. I have a bunch of small fabric scraps, yarn, and lace. I even had little wiggly eyes I bought to make another craft (which I will post another time).

Sewing Tip- Ironing Down Hemline Made Easy

My least favorite part of sewing is ironing down the hem or making a fold to encase elastic. Because even though I have a nice little handy tool to measure hem depth, I always screw up somewhere. Now, you should know that I am not an expert or very experienced sewer. I am learning as I go along. After some thinking, I decided to make my own tool to aid me in making perfectly even hemlines. All you need is some hard paper, card stock or a manila  folder, pencil, ruler and scissors. Cut a rectangle, mine is 8 by 5 inches.

Then mark every half inch from 2 of the sides.( You can choose to mark at different intervals.)

Winner-July Challenge

I had great intentions. Really great. I went as far as purchasing all the fabric and thread too. Then life happened. I figure my track record concerning sewing is getting better...... 5-6 years ago acquiring a machine of my own, a year ago: signing up for a class, a month ago: pulling out the sewing machine and even buying all the supplies. So now who knows, one of these days I might surprise you all and post something I made :)
But that day is not today.

NEW CHALLENGE--Whole Wheat Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I recently bought a new cookbook, King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking, from Amazon.com, and I LOVE IT!!! Baking with whole grains has become my new passion because I am health-conscious but also like my healthy food to taste amazing. The recipes in here are so delicious! I love that the recipes have been tested and that they give so many helpful tips and so much information throughout the book. I happened upon this cookbook after finding a recipe for Whole Wheat Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins on the Sisters' Cafe Blog. After I tried that recipe, I knew I had to have this cookbook:

Best Ever Carrot Cake

Not that it's getting cool and crisp around these parts yet (I only wish), but we were in the mood for some good Thanksgiving spice. I'm not usually a big fan of carrot cakes. Raisins in baked things disturb me, and most carrot cakes I've had are too ... I don't know, sweet? But my mother-in-law has a recipe for carrot cake that hooks me in every time. She once made one while I was in the hospital delivering a baby. When she thoughtfully brought me a large slice, it was nearly the highlight of my day--second only to meeting my adorable son, of course. I made that one slice of heaven last my entire two-day stay, rationing out the bites as little rewards. Too much information, perhaps, but that's how much I like this cake! It's moist without being gooey, and not super sweet so the cream cheese icing gives a nice contrast.