PACountryCrafts

Snowy Sneak Peek Friday

2012-02-10T08:15:00.000-08:00

Wednesday we were supposed to get a dusting of snow. We got a bit more than that, and Thursday morning, the sun was shining so brightly that I just HAD to get out and take pictures.

pretty blue skies!

my wishing well

See how sparkly it is???

The dog managed to sneak in almost all of my pictures it seemed.

love the way it rounded up on top of these old flowers

SUNSHINE!!!

the old lattice

love the way it sticks to the pine trees

the wood pile

poor confused daffodils...

And here is your sneak peek for the week...

On Tuesday, Mom and I did some bargain hunting and I also picked up fabric for a gift and also for my girls' Easter dresses. They had the same cute print in 4 different colors- pink, purple, yellow, and green! As soon as I got it hung on the washline, it started to snow.

I am linking up over at StudioJRU's Sneak Peek in the Studio Friday!

SWEET!

2012-02-06T14:16:00.000-08:00

The girls and I did a little Valentine craft project yesterday (and it isn't even February 13th! How 'bout that!)

I saw these cute Tshirts made by using a paper doily as a stencil in the latest issue of Family Fun. I love the lacy stencil look of these and now I want to make some pillow covers with this technique, too!

Later, we made these footballish whoopie pies (idea courtesy of Pinterest) and watched the big game. Well, most of us fell asleep and I didn't really pay attention until the exciting finish, but anyway, YAY Giants! :)

Oh, and I am throwing in a cute baby picture to show off that little tooth poking up there!

Pretty valentinesy things, chocolate, and a cute baby. Seems like a sweet blog post to me! =)

Sunshine!

2012-02-04T18:02:00.000-08:00

We had some beautiful weather here in PA last week. Sunny and 60 degrees on the first day of February! CRAZY!!! But I'll take it!

Perfect weather for blowing bubbles outside...

Lydia (the red headed bubble girl there) thought we could just let Grace crawl around outside. I said that she would get muddy and she replied with, "It's OK! Just put play clothes on her!"

The cows were enjoying the warm sun, too. Unfortunately her hair must look like hay to them.

Since it was so nice, we let the chickens out to enjoy the sun. I snapped a quick picture as they were flying out at me (I may or may not have screamed like a little girl.)

Good girls! Four pretty blue eggs!

My poor daffodils are so confused, but we enjoyed this unseasonable weather. It really felt like Spring around here and we enjoyed the sunshine after so much grey lately!

Bless this home and all the little blessings who live here.

2012-01-25T11:06:00.000-08:00

After seeing all of these super-duper cute collage walls on Pinterest I got a little nagging idea. THEN, I saw a piece made by Jennifer over at StudioJRU with the CUTEST saying on it, and the idea grew. Well, this was back in October. Yeah. I know. BUT, little hassles kept getting in my way (needing another frame, printing the wrong size picture, glass being broken). I finally got sick of writing "collage wall" on my to-do list every day and these pictures were all over my desk waiting to be broken (again).

They are all (cheap Walmart) oak frames that match perfectly with the built-in wooden divider shelf thing that is beside this wall. I used all of my favorite baby pictures of the kids. Some of them had been spread out throughout the house but I really like the impact of having them all together. And did I mention that I love that saying? I carefully marked it all out in pencil and used level before I hand painted the lettering on (I tried to "antique" it a bit, too). I was feeling brave.

It is something new and it makes me happy. =)

P.S. I am trying to comment on people's blogs. I really am. Blogger is being stubborn for me and I am being too stubborn to switch from IE as a browser. I read posts if I can get them to open for me, though!

Finding Time

2012-01-13T08:38:00.001-08:00

Oh, how that bright yellow school bus brightens my day. I will surely be missing it when the kids have off on Monday, but in the meantime, when I am not cleaning or cooking or doing a bajillion loads of laundry (first time I have been caught up since before Christmas!) I have been sneaking in some crafty time. Or making time, really. People ask me where I "find the time" to do things. No one finds time. We all have the same 24 hours in a day. (But, really, if you find a big ol' bucket of time laying around somewhere I would love to have some extra.)

OK. Back to my little Sneak Peek Friday showing you the crafty things I have been working on...

I used THIS tutorial to make a little hat for Grace!

Well, I actually made three, because the first one was too big and then I made an even smaller one for a baby from church (it just needs its flower yet).

I did make some adjustments from the pattern for each one I made- like extra rows and stuff. The hats were easy. It was more challenging to get her to hold still for a picture (hence shots of me holding her near a window and pointing the camera backwards).

The other day, I made a mini-wallet from THIS pattern. It went pretty smoothly and is a great pattern! Something small and quick that I could complete in one sitting- just the sewing therapy I needed...

I didn't have the guts to do all different patterns of fabric, so I just went simple with two. It is for my niece's belated birthday gift and I embroidered her initial on there, too.

Besides this stuff, I am making some baskets and working on my nephew's quilt (which I can't show you because my sister reads my blog and I want to surprise her). That quilt has involved an awful lot of seam ripping this week. But, worse than seam ripping, is losing the seam-ripper (I do that ALL the time) and having to rip stitches out with a pin. So, YAY for seam-rippers! I hope I can find it soon- it is probably hiding somewhere with all that extra time.

Hoping to link up over at StudioJRU!

This day was alright after all...

2012-01-11T18:39:00.000-08:00

After a really rough start to my day (a lot of seam-ripping AGAIN, bad dog stealing wrapping paper, kid wearing snow boots to school cause she couldn't find her sneakers and the bus was here, same kid walking slowly and crying the whole way to the bus because I wouldn't let her take a noisy doll to school, etc., etc.) it has gotten a bit brighter...

My Pinkalicious dress was featured HERE. Thank you so much!!!

I also had some super delicious leftovers from the crock pot chocolate lava cake I made yesterday. The recipe is from the crockin girls website HERE.

I squeezed in some sewing time (but needed snaps and only had halves of the ones I had in my box, so pics will come later on).

And I did some super awesome clearance shopping at Target tonight! WOOHOO!

Source

I hope my online friends had a good day, too!

Pinkalicious!

2012-01-09T12:05:00.000-08:00

My middle child turned 6 last month, and I got sick the day we were supposed to have her party. So, we had a rescheduled Pinkalicious party this weekend. If you don't know, Pinkalicious is a book character who LOVES pink. She eats too many pink cupcakes and gets "pinkititis" so she has to eat green foods to cure it. Since this was a rescheduled one, I went the extra mile and made her a Pinkalicious dress.

I modeled it after her Pinkalicious doll (I didn't get around to making a crown or wings or a wand, though).

The top is some cheap costume satin (hate that stuff) made like a peasant top (tutorial HERE) with shirring added.

For the skirt I used the sheer overlay that I salvaged from an old dress that had fallen apart and ziz-zag stitched some ribbon on top (my choices are straight or zig-zag with my machine, so I went fancy with zig-zag). The underskirt is some nightgown satin from my stash that someone had given me a few years ago.

I used knit from an old Tshirt underneath to attach the two layers while keeping them stretchy (to be able to get the dress on and off) and covering the ever-fraying seams. (I also hate knit, so this was a labor of love for sure!)

We don't throw huge, all-out birthday parties- inviting just our close family for some cake and ice cream still makes them huge in attendance, though. I made cupcakes modeled after the ones in the book (those are Valentine peanut m&m's on top... of most of them. I took this pic of the leftovers the next morning so some are missing)

Besides cupcakes, and ice cream (we had homemade vanilla dyed pink and some other pink store-bought varieties) I try to put up a few balloons and some crepe paper (pink for this one, of course!) It makes the kids happy for about $3, so why not? I even did the tree!

I also made a doily banner that said "Happy Birthday" and matches the book illustrations.

Whew! That was enough pink for me for awhile....

Finish-A-Long First Quarter Goals

2012-01-08T13:30:00.000-08:00

We had a Pinkalicious birthday party here last night so I am totally pinkalicioused out! I will have pics coming later this week, but since it is a few hours from the deadline, I figured I would better get me Quilter in the Gap Finish-A-Long post up.

One of my 2012 goals is to finish at least half of the things on my UFO list (projects I have started and not completed). Soooooo... for the first quarter link up, here are some things I want to finish:

In that there pile you can see my new baby nephew's nearly done quilt top (just a peek 'cause my sister reads this blog and I want to surprise her), a sage and tan star quilt top, a fleece International Harvester blanket, a heart wall hanging, and a Christmas pillow. Yes, all that is in the picture, just use your imagination.

I would also like to finish my kitchen curtains and the braided rag rug, but we will see if I get there. I must recover from Pinkalicious first.

12in2012

2012-01-02T13:41:00.000-08:00

I am joining in with 12 in 2012 over at livedelightfully. It is really, really hard for me to come up with this list. The other day I talked about my 2011 Goals and I am going to continue on those again this year, but I want this list to be accomplishments that I can check off. Either they get done, or they don't. No wiggle room! It isn't a list of things I will do all year long (or start to do and then slack off) but a list of things I want to get done!

OK. Here we go...

1.Finish the kitchen curtains and hang the wallpaper.

2.Lose 5 pounds (isn't this on everyone's New Year's resolutions list?) The trick for me is KEEPING it off!
3.Organize my craft supplies.
4.Finish at least half of my UFO list over on the right sidebar there (blog post on those things coming soon ...ish).

5.Finish decorating the Strawberry Shortcake side of the nursery.

6.Paint my son's dresser.

7.Make a quiet book.

8.Attempt cathedral windows (probably just a pincushion).
9.List at least one quilt in my shop.

10.Clean my entire house top to bottom- walls, ceilings, closet floors... ALL OF IT!
11.Go on a family vacation!
12.Sew something for myself.

So, there is my list! I tried not to make it ALL crafty things (although I could have!) Ready? Set? GO!

a look back at my 2011 goals...

2011-12-31T03:26:00.000-08:00

I was taking a look back at my 2011 Goals that I set last year, and thought that I would evaluate how I did.

~GOD~

I did better at doing my devotions than I have before,especially if I had some of that instant cappucino to go along with them. =) I can tell you that the days I was at my wits end by 4pm (or earlier) and yelling at the kids were the days that I didn't start with God.

~Family~

I did more craft projects with the kids and we had a tea party once, too. We didn't do the library thing a whole lot- just a few times and I remember leaving abruptly because someone wet themself - not me, just to be clear. There are so many times I had all these fun things planned out in my head, but I just wanted them to clean up first. And they didn't. It would only take them a few minutes, too. If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them.

~Home~

Well, I have my kitchen curtains half done and I ripped all the seashell wallpaper down. I have made a few things like my fall pillow and the painted plastic Easter eggs. There are a few other projects in the works here, too. As far as keeping the house clean... well, that goes in spurts, but I am trying.

~Business~

God blessed my little etsy shop again this year. I definitely was more prepared for ornament season this year, too. Things that worked well: having snowmen ready to assemble, precutting color-sorted baggies full of hats/scarves/bows, switching over to flat rate boxes, and printing postage through Paypal. For next year it would help even more to have my thank you cards made ahead of time and keep my work area more organized. I also expanded my shop to include framed stitcheries, but there are more things I could make and I am still striving for the old farmhouse "look" in my shop.

Next year I am going to focus on these things again, of course, but I am also joining in on the 12 in 2012 at Live Delightfully as well. I am making my list so look for it to be posted sometime soon! Happy New Year!!!

Christmas 2011 Recap

2011-12-28T11:12:00.000-08:00

We had a really nice Christmas! I can finally show you the Christmas projects I was working on, but first... the cute kid pictures!!! The kids know that until I get a decent picture, nothing will be opened. Only took 2 shots this year! It was Grace's first Christmas and she loved being allowed to play with paper and trying to eat the paper and her presents. =) My nieces also found a way to keep the little kids from snooping around the presents on Christmas Eve Eve. And here are my girls on Christmas morning in the new dresses that their grandmother got them. So pretty and polka-dotty! OK. On to the crafty stuff... For my little niece with the pretty blue eyes, I made an apron! She liked wearing my daughter's apron when we made cookies a few weeks ago (OK, she ate dough more than anything) so I made her one of her very own and she wanted to put it on right away! The little blueberries look so pretty with her eyes. =) For my son, I made a stocking. It was the first one I ever made and I threw it together on Christmas Eve because with Grace being added to the family we were one stocking short. I bought this fabric a looooong time ago with the intention of making him a stocking and I know that since he is getting older, there are limited days of me being able to make something (other than food) that he likes. Finally, I made these little mermaiden softies for all of my girls' stockings. They all have different hair colors to match my daughters and the fins are made from scraps from things like Easter dresses and shirts. I changed the original pattern that can be found HERE a little bit and I wanted to embellish them, but I never got around to it. I am sure that I can always do that later if they really want.

Blogger's Choice Fat Quarter Bundle

2011-12-28T06:21:00.001-08:00

I saw this contest to create your own fat quarter bundle going on over at Quokka Quilts sponsored by the Fat Quarter Shop and decided that I wanted to give it a try. So, here are my selections:

Kona Cotton Baby Pink YardageSKU# K001-189

Cupcakery Light Blue Tossed Cupcakes YardageSKU# 22567-LtBlu1

Cupcakery Pink Texture Stripe YardageSKU# 22561-Pin1

Perk Me Up Cream Coffee Steam YardageSKU# C7633-CREAM

Cupcakery Light Blue Texture Dots YardageSKU# 22563-LtBlu1

Cupcakery Tan Words YardageSKU# 22564-Tan1

Puttin' on the Ritz Blue Scroll YardageSKU# 2808-39

Aunt Grace Centennial Solids Brown YardageSKU# 5901-2715

Timeless Treasures Brown Icing YardageSKU# C8240-BROWN

Blueberry Crumb Cake Flour Berries & Vines YardageSKU# 2687-11

It's a Girl Thing Pink Quaint Cupcakes YardageSKU# CM4604-PINK-D

It's a Girl Thing Pink Doily Dance YardageSKU# CX4605-PINK-D

Heart Garden Pale Pink Swirling Swirls YardageSKU# 11908-121

Just Train Crazy Sky Blue Solid YardageSKU# 9617-102

Blueberry Crumb Cake Cake Small Dot YardageSKU# 2686-21

I went with a girly cupcake theme that I think is cute. I soooo wanted to include some Hershey kiss fabric in here (just 'cause) and it pained me greatly to take it out since it didn't match that well.

Anyway... this was a lot harder than I thought it would be! Consider yourself warned. I used Paint to create my collage (old school... I know) and if you want to design a bundle you can link it up over HERE and enter to win.

Merry Christmas... to you!

2011-12-25T02:18:00.000-08:00

This is our first family Christmas card pic EVER with all of us (not just the kids) and I am so excited to share it with you! And here is our Charlie Brown tree...

And the silly picture... Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas... to me!

2011-12-23T09:52:00.000-08:00

And Merry Christmas to you, too! Hopefully next week I will be able to show off all the top secret handmade presents I am working on, but with Grace now crawling and the rest of the family on Christmas vacation from work/school, we will see...

First, I have some people to thank for some things I was so blessed to win through blog giveaways! The first was a gift certificate to Sew Luxe Fabrics that I won by linking up my fall leaves pillow in their October Stitch and Share Challenge. I chose some of this lovely Late Bloomers fabric and I am hoping to make a bag and a quilt with them. Thank you!!!

Secondly, I won a giveaway for some Pear Tree fat quarters from the Intrepid Thread at a giveaway over at Our Busy Little Bunch! I have owned very little designer fabric in my life, so I am feeling very spoiled now. Thank you to these ladies, too!

Lastly, I won a giveaway from SewMamaSew's Giveaway Day over at Moonbeams in a Jar and received this lovely hot pack holder. It is not only lovely but so thick and cozy, too! Thank you!!

Last week (I think- things are blurring together these days) my sister-in-law asked me to go along to a discount grocery store and a fabric shop. YES! We don't really have any fabric stores nearby. The closest one is a little shop tucked away in the middle of nowhere and run by a Plain woman. It has a lot of fabric crammed in there, but I behaved myself! I got some fabric for a quilt I am working on, some IH fabric for more pillows, and the adorable farm block print (red tractors AND brown cows- I had to!!) BUT, what I was really excited about was that I found some fabric I was THIS close to actually buying online, but I didn't want to pay for a whole yard or shipping. I want to make some busy books with paper dolls- aren't they cute?!?

I got some sweet deals at the grocery store, too. All the dates are good on these things, too- so you know. Who doesn't love to get good deals, then come home and torture, er, entertain their husbands with the "Guess how much this was?" game? So, let's play!
These were 79 cents each! (Note- that is the BIG box of pudding mix and an 18 count of tacos.)

How about $1.49 each? (Oh, and we can get a free Cap'n TShirt cause I got 4 boxes of cereal!)

Best deal, though- 2lb. bags of Gold Medal flour... just look!
I came home with 20 bags of that. I bake A LOT. So, I got some pretty sweet deals. It was a good trip.

And, the other day, I finally let go of perfectionism. Why? Well, I have been wanting to make one of those cute card table play tents for my girls. My 3yo has been ripping my couch cushions off to make forts ever since she saw a play tent at a store (that wasn't sturdy at all). I decided that I will never get one made while she is in this phase. I threw some flat sheets over the card table and it entertained her for pretty long!

Merry Christmas to me!! =)

Brittany's Bag

2011-12-12T15:32:00.000-08:00

I desperately needed a break from ornaments, so I made another Buttercup Bag! This one is for my brother's girlfriend, Brittany and she is a Steelers fan. I made it larger than either of the ones I have made before. Like the last one, I added fusible fleece lining (which meant it needed gussets in the bottom so it won't fall over) and extra pockets and a magnetic snap, too. Some sewing time was very therapeutic- I had already cut all the pieces out- I used scraps from the apron I made for my secret sister. The true colors don't show that well in these pictures, though. I had told Brittany I would make her a purse last Christmas when I made one for my sister-in-law, so it didn't take too long. =) It just takes me FOREVER to choose fabric for projects like this. I am too picky. Does anyone else have that problem?

What's Going On...

2011-12-07T03:06:00.000-08:00

I am slacking on my blogging lately. Well, it is ornament season, so some things must be sacrificed. Blogging is one of them. Baking is another. But, hey! I lose weight just in time to gain it right back from Christmas cookies!

So... what has been going on around here? Well, we got a dog, who I showed you before. He is a black lab/German Shepard mix. His name is Bear and he is a BIG puppy! He is a pretty good dog (better than the kids actually!) and is about a year old. His owner loved him, but knew that he needed more time/space, so he is ours now. We have lots of kids to play with him and lots of room for him to run and lots of things he shouldn't chew on. It is a big adjustment for everyone.

I also got a new nephew! He's a CUTIE!!!! :D But he makes Grace look sooooooo bald! Speaking of my little Gracie, she is getting so big! She started cereal now, and she is getting on her hands and knees and rocking (Oh, MY!).

My son shot his first deer- an 8 point buck with a 15.5" inside spread. I am not sure which of my guys was happier, but my husband said it was even better than our wedding day. Hmmm...

If I really wanted to show you what I have been doing, I would post a bajillion ornament pictures (OK, not quite that many), but instead I will leave you with a few more cute kid pics!So, I am still around... probably with a glue gun in my hand somewhere, but don't worry. I will resurface when things settle down.

Autumn Secret Siblings with TeamCAC

2011-11-30T05:54:00.000-08:00

My etsy team, Team Christian Artists and Craftsmen, had a Secret Sibling exchange this fall. My secret sister was Christi of Christi'sCrochetCorner. We were each other's secret sisters!

So, just as the snow began to fall for our Halloween Eve snowstorm, my gift arrived in the mail. IMPECABLE TIMING!!! I had mentioned how I wanted a good recipe for hot chocolate mix, and my secret sister gave me a BIG tub full of homemade mix! I have been drinking at least a cup of this a day for the last few weeks and it is delicous! She even gave me some mini marshamllows to mix in! YUMMMMM... I have shared with the kids... a little.

She also crocheted a set of booties for my new nephew (aren't they sweet little things?) and that timing was great, too, because we had our little Baby Showerish get together the next day. Last, but not least, she made this cute little crocheted pumpkin. He looked adorable perched on my windowsill and I know he will be a special part of my fall decorating every year!

I was not sure what to make for Christi, but at the very moment I recieved my package, I was busy working on her gift. Since she is from Pittsburgh and seems to like the Steelers and baking, I made her an apron in Steelers colors! It is reversible with a pleated ruffle edge along the bottom. With some of the scraps I made a potholder, too. I wanted to make more, but the whole scrappy crazy-quit piecing thing is harder than it looks, so I gave up.

If you are looking for some crocheted items, you can find her shop HERE! Thank you, Christi!!!

Snowmen Sneak Peek Friday

2011-11-18T07:52:00.000-08:00

Well, since it is Friday and Mom always asks where my blog post is if I don't get around to it, I thought I would do a little "Sneak Peek in the Studio Friday" showing some of the snowman stuff I have been busy with lately. I did a custom order for a basket of snowmen for a retirement gift. The basket will fit a tissue box- I want to make one for myself, too, sine I got some ugly back to school boxes (good bargain). I liked getting to make some new stuff to include.

I saw the "Friends" letters at Michaels and had to include them since it was a gift for a coworker friend. And I embellished it a little, too. This week I also finished a snowman I cut out last year. I am really liking these berries! But, for the most part, it is just lots of snowman ornaments!

Merry Christmas!! :)

PACountryChristmas Ornament Winner

2011-11-16T03:14:00.000-08:00

Well, I was supposed to draw a winner yesterday, but I have some new things going on around here. Daylight savings time means my kids wake up ridiculously early, I have also been spending a lot of time with my new crafty apprentice, and we expanded our family.

More about the craziness around here later. In the meantime, here we go... I couldn't get the random thing to work on my blog, so here is the much less professional way to do it...
(please excuse the poor picture quality- it was early and I should've be sleeping, so I wasn't all that ambitious)

YAY! Congratulations to the winner!! Carly has a nice blog over at Faith, Family, and Frugality and an etsy shop, too.

Family Gatherings... Part 2

2011-11-11T18:46:00.000-08:00

So, that last few weeks, I have been making more memories than things. Well, and doing a lot of cleaning in preparation for the memory-making. :) Last Sunday we had my husband's family over. Another biggie! This side has LOTS of nieces and nephews!!! The younger ones came in their costumes and we had some picnic foods, then played lots of games. Bobbing for apples is always one of their favorites.They even eat (some of) the apples, too! Eating donuts off of a string (after the apples so they get something healthy first) is always good for some laughs. Breaking the pinata is usually the main event. This year, it looked pretty redneckish cause I didn't feel like painting it, reinforced the weak spots with duct tape, and used baler twine to make a web to hold it up. But it works just the same. For a new game this year, we had a relay race (boys vs. girls). The balloons had candy in them and the kids had to pop them without using their hands or feet. Then, we all bundled up and went for a hayride- kinda' neat when just our family can fill a whole wagon! It was Grace's first hayride. :) The weather was beautiful again and the kids had a blast! Kinda' makes you want to never grow up... :)

Family Gatherings... Part 1

2011-11-10T12:34:00.000-08:00

The last two weekends we have had family gatherings at our house. My husband and I each come from families with 6 children, so it is never a small family gathering. The first one was a chicken barbecue with my family (sorry, roosters, you had to go!) We used it to throw together a little pre-baby celebration for my sister and her husband. Mom and I picked up some polka dot baby boy plates at Walmart and I matched them by painting polka dots on the banner. My talented baby sister made a cake, which we polka-dotted with m&m's and a diaper bear (I never saw one of these before! Too cute!!!) Of course there were some balloons, too. We had a lot of laughs and even though we'd had a snowstorm the day before, the weather was beautiful!

PACountryChristmas Ornament Giveaway

2011-11-07T15:41:00.000-08:00

Today I hit 500 sales in my etsy shop!!! YAY!!! I don't talk about my shop all that much on this blog, but I feel so incredibly blessed in reaching this milestone, that I wanted to share. So, I am giving away one of my ornaments- your choice! Here are some of the ornaments I have made...

Make sure I have some way to contact you- if you do not have a blogger account you can leave an anonymous post, but make sure I have your email or I can contact you through facebook or something!

To enter:
Visit PACountryCrafts and leave a comment telling me what you would want for Christmas!

For additional entries (leave a separate comment for each one- each comment = one entry):

1. Follow this blog.

2. "Like" my PACountryCrafts facebook page.

3. Blog about this giveaway.

4. Tweet about this giveaway.

5. Spread the word on facebook- post about this giveaway.

This is my very first giveaway on this blog, so I am really excited! I will draw a winner on November 15. Good luck!!!

October Snow

2011-11-01T07:04:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we got SNOW! It was a heavy, stick-to-everything kind of snow. It was a little wierd having a mix of fall and winter this way. It looked so beautiful, though, with so many fall leaves underneath- a pretty contrast! When it melted off the trees, it made them stand out even more.
It is just about melted now, so we are going back to fall. We just got a sneak peek of winter, I guess! :)

Organizing Spree!

2011-10-28T08:06:00.000-07:00

I have been following 31 Days to an Organized Home and picking up some great tips!

It sent me on a super-ambitious homemaking streak which was then hindered by a little virus infecting our home. So, many things are started here and there, but these are a few sneak peeks:

This year, instead of lugging a big tote in with all of the mittens, scarves, and hats we own, whether they currently fit someone or not, and having them dug out and scattered all over in front of the door, we have a box for each child who is able to suit up on their own. Appropriately numbered...The brown paper packages and warm woolen mittens have me humming "My Favorite Things" (that song stuck in your head now, too? you're welcome.) This project cost next to nothing since I just wrapped diaper boxes in brown shipping paper.

I used a Sharpie to freehand the numbers-that technique is both daring and dumb sometimes, but I like a good challenge and a little pressure! AND I followed her rule of 3's: Each kid got to pick out (up to) 3 hats, 3 scarves, 3 pairs of gloves/mittens. A few extras snuck in there, but it is limited and when they lose them, I will grab the tote from the storage shed and replace.

Some other places I organized...

I limited my 3yo's PJs and folded the sets together. I love the bin for undies idea- I grabbed some empty wipes tubs that were laying on the floor, ripped the lids off, and used one for tights and one for socks, too.

I also cleared off my dryer and set up a changing area since baby Grace outgrew the one on the Pack-n-Play.I rearranged in some other areas, too, to neaten things up. Then I rolled up the rug in my older daughters' room (where it still remains-in a roll, blocking one closet door), ripped seashell wallpaper out of my kitchen (I thought it couldn't get uglier, but I was wrong), and generally bit off more than I could chew. Plus, I am cleaning and preparing for 50 people coming here tomorrow... if it doesn't snow. That meant I had to put all of my craft stuff away. :( BUT, it is nice to have a fresh, clean place to work again before I start going ornament crazy. :)

I am linking up at the following:

STUDIO JRU

(can't get the button to work- Sorry!)

I'm a Winner! Yay!!!

2011-10-20T14:32:00.000-07:00

I was fortunate enough to win TWO giveaways recently! Lucky me!!!

First, I won these pretty watercolor print cards from giftsofcreation.
Aren't they just lovely?

Next, I won a giveaway over at ChristieCottage's blog for this cute penguin ornament from Blue Morning Expressions.
Thank you so much to both of these wonderful, talented ladies!

In other news, the kids are passing around a virus (my fault-I am always telling them to share) so back to some craftiness next week...

Falling Leaves Pillow

2011-10-17T09:49:00.000-07:00

I was totally inspired by a pillow I found on Pinterest. You can see the original and tutorial HERE at Cluck Cluck Sew. (Great job!) I changed my tree trunk a little bit, though. Keep in mind I have done VERY LITTLE machine applique. I think I tried it maybe once... years ago. I was feeling ambitious. I even used brown thread to zig-zag stich the edges down on the leaves, too. A very bold move since it shows off my novice skills, but it was already threaded in the machine so I went with it. The extra leaves are piled up on the bottom (I had just randomly made a bunch of them and didn't plan so much). And when I was done my daughter found a leaf I had dropped, so I stuck it on the backside for fun.

YAY for Fall! I don't often make things for myself or our home, but I should, so I did. I am linking it up HERE for Sew Lux's Stitch & Share Challenge! Thanks for the extra motivation to make this!!!

Matchy Skirt for Grace

2011-10-12T11:56:00.000-07:00

My sweet friend, Anita made Grace this beautiful quilt and matching onesie. AND she gave me the leftover scraps of fabric! YAY!! So I made a little skirt to match. I haven't sewn clothing in awhile so I was rusty. It turned out OK, but I should have made it flare out a little more towards the bottom instead of using a straight piece. Here it is against the back side of the quilt so you can see better.Still- it is so cute and matchy! I had to do a little photo shoot with her then. LOVE those smiles!Thank you, Anita! :)

Pumpkins! (and some giveaways, too)

2011-10-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

We had a nice little pumpkin patch this year! The yield was OK and they make me especially proud cause I was a bajillion months pregnant with a sliced fingertip and still waddled up the hill to help plant these guys (cause it got me a few minutes away from rambunctious kiddos!) But the pumpkins and gourds are all awfully pretty, bright fall colors!
We set up a little sale in the front yard, but I cooked up the PA Dutch Crookneck pumpkins- you get way more out of those guys! I froze a lot, too, to make yummy pumpkin treats like cookies, muffins, and whoopie pies year round! And I am making my own butternut squash baby food- for Grace, not me- just to be clear.

Now for the giveaway links!

Lilypad quilting is giving away a beautiful jelly roll HERE!

Amkreations is giving away a pretty 8 fat quater set HERE!

Just one more stitch has a sweet fat quarter set HERE!

BIG giveaway at Lilypad HERE!

A pretty notecard set from giftsofcreation HERE!

It'sSewKiki has a giveaway HERE!

Happy entering!!!

Car Roll Tutorial

2011-10-03T04:00:00.000-07:00

In my attempt to be the coolest aunt ever (I have 22 nieces and nephews so far!), I made this cute little car roll. It is made from some fabric I had on hand (it’s hard to find non-girly stuff in this family!) and some size 4T jeans that were headed for the garbage. I was inspired by THIS tutorial, but I wanted to do a few things differently:
a) I don’t have duck cloth and I don’t know where to get it. Hence the denim.
b) Sewing on little bitty pieces of yellow felt didn’t sound like fun. So I channeled my inner quilter and made the road that way.
c) I rolled it instead of folding so I didn’t go all fancy on the outside and I skipped the stenciling cause I didn’t feel like it.
d) I made my own strap to velcro on from fabric.

So without further ado... here is my version of the Look at that- a title photo just for this post! I am going all fancy here (OK, so I just got a cool close up and wanted to use it). I took the best pictures that I could get since PA is seeming more like Seattle these days. Of course, the sun came out when I was done, but I am not complaining ‘cause I missed it sooooo much! So forgive all of the poor quality pics. I tried.

Materials:

Black cotton
Yellow cotton
Any cotton for the pocket
1 ½ legs from an old pair of kids’ jeans
3/4" piece of Velcro
Thread

Part 1: The Road

Do all the cutting first and get it out of the way. You will need 2 pieces of black cotton measuring 2 3/4" by 14" for the "lanes" and for the "dashes" in the middle, you will need one piece EACH of black and yellow measuring 1 1/2" by 14". Sew the 2 small strips of black and yellow together lengthwise, then cut into 1" strips. Sew them all short ends together, alternating yellow and black. Then sew this row between the strips and press towards the "lanes" and you are all done with the road! EASY!

Part 2: The Velcro Strip

You will need a piece of cotton measuring 4" by 6" ( I just used yellow cause it was already 4" wide). Lots of ironing here- press in half lengthwise, open, and then press the edges in toward the center. Open it all up, hem in the end 1/4", and then sew your loopy velcro on one side just after the hem so the little box will be hidden. Fold the sides toward the center... ...and press it half. Then topstich around three sides, leaving the non-velcro side alone. See? No box on the other side.
Part 3: The Pockets

Now we are getting into the denim. Cut one piece from the pants 14" by 5 1/2" and from your other cotton cut a piece 14" by 6". Press the cotton in half, wrong sides together, and sew the raw bottom edges of the denim and cotton together (Good way to cover up a few stains here!)Topstitch the folded edge of the cotton just to keep it in place better. Then sew lines for pockets - mine were at about the the following intervals: 2 5/8", 4 7/8", 7", 9 1/8", and 11 1/4"
Part 4: The Outside

Take the remaining 2 pieces of denim, cut them to 14" by 5.5", and sew them together lengthwise and press the seams open.Sew the fuzzy piece of velcro on at 6" from the left end of the bottom piece and about 2 1/2" from the bottom edge.
Part 5: Assembly

Sew the two inside pieces together.Sew the raw-edge end of the velcro strip to the bottom, velcro up, lined up with the edge of the pocket. Go over it a bajillion times.

Sew the outside and inside together, right sides together, leaving the non-velcro end open, and flip (push those corners out real good!)Fold the opening edges in and topstitch the whole way around and down the middle, too. I used white thread cause I didn't feel like changing it, but I like it! It's kind of like road edges.

Part 6: PLAY!

I was so disappointed that I could only find Sheriff Rosco's car and not the General Lee. :( But Rosco always loses! Fold. And roll. Secure with velcro. Perfect to tuck away in Mom's purse or a backpack!

Ninja Mantis!

2011-09-29T07:58:00.000-07:00

My son found a praying mantis (not in his underwear drawer this time- read HERE if you missed that one!) and it was pretty feisty! It looked like a ninja mantis, so enjoy the cool pics I took! So, wouldn't knowing that hundreds of these nasty, fanged things were all over your house creep YOU out?!?

The First Egg!

2011-09-27T08:34:00.000-07:00

Our chickens laid their first egg! Well, one of them did, anyway. It is a slightly-blue-ish green color. Our chickens are Araucanas so they will lay colored eggs- each hen lays her own individual color- one might lay blue while another lays green or brown or even (rarely) pink or purple. They call them "Easter egg chickens" and we can't wait to be surprised by the color of eggs we will be getting! YAY for eggs! :)

The Gratz Fair 2011

2011-09-26T08:45:00.000-07:00

My son is in 4-H and he took his two market swine to a local fair last week, so things were super busy around here! His pigs each got 4th place in their divisions, but he got 1st place in both showing and fitting! Woohoo! If you don't know what it entails- you have to wash the pigs up really well (and they usually let you know they do not like it- pigs squeal very loudly!!!), use a rag and clean those ears out (YUCK!) and then they go into a showring with a bunch of other pigs and their owners. You have to stay with your pig, tapping it with a cane to keep it moving. You have to always know where the judge is and NEVER get between the pig and your judge so that he can see the pig. Luckily his pig was calm for the first part, but sometimes pigs want to run, stay in a corner and root, or fight (this year it was WAY past their bedtimes so the cranky pigs had a lot of fights!)

We also had to go to the fair every day to feed and water them.We got a little bit of time to enjoy the other things at the fair, too. A local FFA sets up an educational center in the arena that my girls just love! They can pick apples and carrots, collect eggs and pack them in cartons, grind wheat, plant seeds, play with animal puppets (my 3yo LOVES goats!), dig potatoes, or play in the corn and soybean boxes (instead of sandboxes).
In the dairy barn they can also "milk a cow." My sister had some cows at the fair- here is her big steer, "Hercules"!
Finally, on Friday night my son sold his market swine at the livestock auction. It was a long week, but the kids had a lot of fun! :)

Mommy's Got a Brand New Bag!

2011-09-22T07:58:00.000-07:00

...in fall colors! She like the first one so much I guess that she wanted another. She picked out the fabric- pretty close to the brown version of what she already had. I made the pockets on a whim, sewing them however I felt like it at the time. She filled them up perfectly- pen, checkbook, cell phone, glasses case, etc.
I am still tweaking it as I go, but it is a down-sized version of Amy Butlers Birdie Sling bag. Thanks to Pinterest, though, I plan on trying a new design soon!

Changing Pad

2011-09-20T20:20:00.000-07:00

Just a quick show-off here...
I took the scrap pieces leftover from Grace's baby quilt, threw in a few more, and put together a changing pad. It is really just a little quilt. The back uses the striped fabric like my bag (which I am using as a diaper bag these days) and it all coordinates so nicely!

Now, let's just hope she doesn't mess it up! :)

Crafty Bits Sneak Peek Friday

2011-09-16T04:27:00.000-07:00

OK. Enough weather and kid posts already, right? Where are the crafts? Yes, I have been crafting, when I am not doing things like freezing 400 ears of sweet corn with Mom or making 14 gallons of applesauce with my sister-in-law. Out of the kitchen, I have been doing a little bit of everything lately when it comes to crafts. Dabbling, I guess.

Fixing a cheerleading skirt and making zebra hair bows for my sister's squad.

CUTE!

I have LOTS of new stitcheries!

Stocking up on ornaments...

...and creating some new designs, too!

OK, I just HAVE to squeeze some cute kid pictures in here!

Such a nice big sister!

Grace is SUCH a good baby! REALLY! And she smiles sooooo big!

I am hoping to link up over at StudioJRU!

A GIVEAWAY and PRETTY QUILTS

2011-09-14T09:57:00.000-07:00

My good friend, Anita is having a fantastic giveaway over HERE! You know you want to enter!!! I DID! It is for a qulting book that looks like it has a lot of great projects to try.

Oh, and she has two BEAUTIFUL quilts for sale in her etsy shop, too! This is the one that inspired me to create a baby pinwheel quilt for Grace.

And this one even has a tote bag to go with it!

I can personally attest to the fact that she is a very talented quilter! Click on the pics to go check them out! :)

Weather Part 2

2011-09-14T09:45:00.000-07:00

When I show you these pics you will think I am crazy...

Camping in the garage?

No. In my last blog post, I showed a picture of thunderstorms rolling in at dusk. Well, that rained out our camping and it didn't stop raining for quite some time it seemed. I finally got my tent set up to dry a week later, only for dark clouds to roll in.

And remember that bridge? Well, we had to pull them and now we have 2 bridges to nowhere and they didn't cost us taxpayers anything!A terrible downpour came down Friday night after the initial flooding. Our little stream overflowed on the road between the yellow arrows I drew on there. Crazy stuff!My sunroom got wet, and we had some of the road washed out and relocated...

But we are soooooo fortunate! We used to live HERE

(Source and more pictures HERE and the story of what they went through HERE.)

Little creeks that become raging rapids with very little warning also bring a lot of destruction and a lot of ROCKS! Flash flooding in the middle of the night is terrifying- we experienced that, but not nearly to this degree. It just as easily could have been us...

A friend of mine pointed out this Scripture the other day and it really sums up what I am feeling and seeing around here:

God is our refuge and strenghth,

A very present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear,

Even though the earth be removed,

And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;

Though its waters roar and be troubled,

Thought the mountains shake with its swelling. Psalms 46:1-3

Weather

2011-09-07T08:05:00.000-07:00

The seasons are changing, and so is the weather around here. Enjoy some random pics we have taken lately...

fog in the distance at dawn

a storm rolling in at dusk

cows grazing in the sun

an unexpected dam

Evening and morning and at noon

I will pray, and cry aloud,

And He shall hear my voice. Psalm 55:17

First Sewing Lesson- A Twirly Skirt

2011-09-01T12:15:00.000-07:00

My daughter wanted me to make a "First Day of School" dress again this year. I didn't feel like it. So, as a compromise, I let her help sew a skirt! She has been begging to learn to sew all summer.

I started out with one yard of a cute fabric and decided to make do with that.So I cut it in half selvage to selvage. And she posed.I was too lazy to get my overlock machine back out since I had just put it away so we pinned the selvage edges together.

And she sewed her very first seam. Kind of. She sat on my lap and I helped guide and I did the pedal part cause it is too easy to have a lead foot and go crazy! Here she is, so proud of her first seams!Then I did the dangerous iron thing and we made an elastic casing for the top. She tried to push the elastic through, but she mostly WHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNED! It was pretty hard because it was at this point that I realized there was about 90 inches of fabric there! Two-for-one: a lesson in patience as well!I hemmed it for her and TA DA! A poofy, twirly skirt! Could have been longer, but this is what I had and we made it work. Very nice for a first sew!

P.S. In case you saw my previous post and were wondering, she wore it for the 2nd day of school cause I couldn't find her white shirt.

First Day of School

2011-08-29T11:03:00.000-07:00

60% of my children went to school today.

Such a range of emotions.

Sadness.

Joy.

Maybe a little nervousness.

Anger.

Well, that was for the bunny ears.

It is so strange. And quiet. I don't know how to act. Neither does my 3yo. She still yells everything like she has to be heard over 4 other kids. My husband says she doesn't have an "inside voice." But she napped today! What in the world?!? So I will probably have A LOT more craftiness coming soon!

Have a GREAT school year!!!

My Own Cookie Recipe

2011-08-24T05:24:00.000-07:00

I like to just throw things together when I cook/bake. I saw Martha Stewart just dumping vanilla out once and was truly inspired! I NEVER measure vanilla anymore cause Martha doesn't do it so I don't have to! This non-measuring technique can get carried away sometimes.
I was so hungry for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and couldn't find a recipe. SO I just threw a bunch of stuff together and ended up with a DELICIOUS cookie! BUT this backfired because there was no recipe and it took about a half dozen attempts to recreate them perfectly. I finally got is, so here is the new recipe!
My Cookies
1 cup softened margarine
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups quick oats
1 bag chocolate chips (I prefer Hershey's Special Dark)
Blend together sugars and margarine. Add eggs and vanilla. Stir in peanut butter and mix until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients and lastly, the chocolate chips. Drop in spoonfuls on cookie sheets and bake at 350 degrees until the edges start to turn lightly brown (do not overbake) about 10 minutes.

I hope you like them! You definitely need some milk to go with these

Wedding Cake Topper

2011-08-22T04:30:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it is so nice to create something on a whim and just let creativity flow! My mom's cousin got remarried and since the family couldn't attend her wedding, they got a wedding cake made for them to surprise them at our family reunion. I got to make the cake topper! I told mom to just "trust me." :)
I snapped pictures as I went so you can see how I put together whatever popped into my head.

It had to be 8" around to fit the top of the cake. That was my only guideline. For the base, I cut the edge off of a paper plate.I wanted to use these pretty silk flowers I had on hand. I had to make the center flower bunch flat to glue it on, yet keep some height, so I bent the stem in a square.
I took all the leaves I had and spread them around evenly. (I NEED symmetry!)Glued the purple flowers around. (Hydrangeas are my FAVORITE!!!)

Of course I had some help!I was in the mood for glitter. So, I cut out some butterflies from glitter paper, and glued them to paper with wire sandwiched in between.
Cut them out and wrapped the wire around the flower stems.
I wanted them to stick up from the flowers and look different on each side.It still needed something, so I played around with the wire and made this:
I added a few more flowers here and there to even it out and this is the final result:

They were really surprised!

Two Months Old

2011-08-17T17:09:00.000-07:00

Showing off some cuteness!!! :D

Who? Me?

She was "talking to me" in this picture! It is so cute!!!

Funny to think that in a few years I will probably be telling her to be quiet!

BIG SMILES!!!

Naomi's Quilt

2011-08-11T04:11:00.000-07:00

Not my best quilt ever, but it is FINISHED!!! AND I got it done BEFORE her first birthday (with 4 hours to spare). I originally wanted to machine quilt this one, but since I can't lower my feed dogs, it was a failure. :( So, rip, rip, rip it was.
Then I hand quilted the cow blocks, but I couldn't figure out how to quilt the red blocks, so I gave up and tied them instead. The back is a cute farm print that I had and the reds are all leftover from a red tractor quilt I made a few years ago (I pieced this top in my "pre-baby rearranging use it or move it sewing stage"). I love the little "moo" fabrics on the border and the red binding, too.

Another project finished! YAAAAAAAAY!!!!!! Only about a million more to go... :)
(Notice the cow in the background looking at me like I am completely crazy!)

Pineapples!!!

2011-08-10T10:11:00.000-07:00

My son went away to camp for the first time ever! So, since he was being really obnoxious about how cool the word "pineapple" is (even though he doesn't like them) and he just generally deserves a little something special for being such a little bugger lately, us girls gave him a lovely pineapple-decorated room to come home to! He was completely surprised to say the least!

Besides being an outlet for our creative insanity, it kept the girls busy! I am talking pineapples EVERYWHERE! We made paper pineapple garlands, giant pineapples to hang on the wall made out of yellow posterboard, lots of green crepe paper, yellow balloons (there should have been a lot more, like 20 more, but the girls got to them first), a yellow tablecloth curtain in the doorway, with the leftovers for a bed canopy, and even pineapple sheets! I cut out a pineapple and a top from fun foam, glued it on a block of wood, and painted on an old white sheet. They came out pretty sharp!

Just a whole lot of pineappley fun! A camo-loving, hunting, fishing-type boy's dream room- NOT!(Ignore the non-matching tropical fish dresser - it matched his room at the old house. I haven't gotten there yet. We have only lived here for over 5 years now.)

His sisters missed him, even if they won't admit it! :)

Sneak Peek Friday- Girls' Week!

2011-08-05T04:01:00.000-07:00

My son was away at camp for the first time this week, so it was just the girls! (And my poor, outnumbered husband) So here is some of what I did...
I am not sure who took this picture of me, but it shows this growth on my arm that I seem to have all the time. ;)When she is finally chillin’ out on her own…I have to get stuff done like this:which is now more difficult to clean up after because of this:
Hope we can get a new one soon, especially since it is soon the heaviest part of "canning season" here. Plus, I cook and bake A LOT and now I just don’t have the ambition since clean-up will take longer. But, hey, maybe I will lose a few pounds this way!

The girls and I did a lot of girly and kid craft stuff this week, like the mermaiden softie I showed off yesterday. I tried to do some hands-on crafts with the girls to keep them occupied, so we made soaps...

I tried searching online for a trick to get them out of the molds (couldn’t find any, but the freezer for a few minutes worked, FYI).

Meanwhile my 3yo got into the pink food coloring and she turned her hands pink. We called her Pinkalicious!So much for a "clean" craft!

We are also working on a BIG surprise for my son when he comes home and I will be posting LOTS of pictures of this stuff next week. Here is your hint:

So, that is my sneak peek for the week. Check out the link-up HERE to see what everyone else is up to!

Mermaiden Softie Doll

2011-08-04T03:38:00.000-07:00

My girls LOVE mermaids, just like their Aunt Loni. :)

I came across this mermaid softie free pattern from Hilary Lang of Wee Wonderfuls. I have never finished a cloth doll, so I wanted to try this cutie out!I had to use felt for the hair (who has corduroy or velvet on hand?) and I think it is a little thick and stiff with 2 layers. Plus it was a pain to work with, so I have some ideas for what to do different next time.

Free-motion quilting is super tough if you can't lower your feed dogs, but I managed. I also need to learn to ladder stitch, and I might shrink the head width a teeny bit on the next one, but it came out pretty good overall.

I am actually going to give this one to my niece, since my girls saw me make it. I plan on making them some for Christmas, which is closer than you think!

Mermaid Maternity Top

2011-08-03T04:38:00.000-07:00

My sister LOOOOOOOOOOOOVES The Little Mermaid! She never outgrew it.

When I saw this fabric at Walmart I didn't see a cute little girl dress- I saw a maternity top (does that make me weird, too?) So, here is the tutorial on how to make a women's halter maternity top from girls' pre-shirred fabric.

1. Buy the fabric! How much? Well, after standing in Walmart wrapping it around myself and looking like a weirdo because I was surrounded by little girls, yet measuring Little Mermaid fabric on myself, I decided that I would get 34". She is a little broader than I am- probably about 36" and I wanted it to be snug on the chest anyway. You will need something for straps, too- about 1/4 yard, depending on how wide you want them.

2. Sew it in a tube, WRONG SIDES together in a 1/4" seam!3. Fold the seam to the inside and then sew right sides together with a 3/8" seam allowance. I pinned this in place before sewing to make it easier. TADA! A French seam! Eat your heart out, 7th grade home-ec teacher!4. Now to start on those straps. I would have made them thicker, but I was using up some leftovers from an apron that I made for my sister years ago. So, I cut 2 strips 2 1/2" wide by 36". Feel free to cut yours wider.5. Iron each strip in half and then press the edges in 1/4" towards the wrong side, being careful not to burn your fingertips. Then fold it back in half again. It's a little like bias tape.6. Sew 1/8" along the edges of both sides, and fold one end in twice and sew down to get a finished end. (Yeah, I know mine isn't that great.)

7. Last step! Attach those straps! To get the placement, I put her shirt on, considered keeping it for myself, decided my girls would me too jealous, and placed pins where my bra straps were. So, about 3" from the center on each side. Fold the ends up and sew it to the inside below the first row of shirring. I sewed it in a little box to make it sturdier and hold the ends down, too.(Ignore that extra line of stitching on the side there. Little mess-up.)

So, that is it! Since it is a halter you are done!!! Just tie it up!

Cute side-view! I made her do it. I just like seeing a pregnant belly on someone else for a change!

She says it makes her look bigger than she really is. (I disagree and it is my blog- HA!)

So, I hope I didn't terribly confuse or bore you to death with this little tutorial. I guess if you wanted to, you could make this as a halter style little girls' dress, too. But where is the fun in that? :)

I will be linking up at some places listed up at the top there!

The Dog Days of Summer - Sneak Peek Friday

2011-07-29T04:20:00.000-07:00

We are in the dog days of summer now!

But instead, a cat showed up! :) 1 kitten + 3 girls = a lot of fights!

So anyway, besides refereeing over the cat, here is what I have been up to...

Three big custom baskets...

A camo rag blanket and taggy for a new baby boy at church...
And my new kitchen curtains at the lightning fast rate of 1/2 a window per week!I am spending more time in the kitchen, too, since the garden is starting to keep me busy with zucchini and stuff like this...

The veggies aren't the only things growing around here. These cute little chicks...

have grown up into these...

The roosters crow now and in another month or two we should start getting those colored eggs!

Check out the Friday sneak peek link-up over here!

Tandy Cakes

2011-07-26T03:36:00.000-07:00

Here is one for all of you chocolate/peanut butter lovers out there! ;)

I love homemade tandy cakes! I think these are so moist and delicious because I bake them in a greased 10" x 15" glass baking pan. Here is the recipe:

4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup milk
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 Tbsp. melted butter
1/3 cup peanut butter
12oz. bag milk chocolate chips

Beat eggs and sugar together. Add vanilla and milk; mix well. Add dry ingredients and mix again. Stir in melted butter. Batter will be a little lumpy.

Pour into a greased 10” x 15” glass pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes or until the top and edges begin to turn golden brown. You will see popped air bubble marks all over the top, too.

Let cool about 15 minutes, then spread peanut butter over the cake. Melt chocolate chips in a microwavable plastic dish on 50% power, stirring every 30 seconds. Pour the melted chocolate over cake, spreading evenly. Cool completely and cut into squares. (You can freeze the plastic dish and then twist it to remove the bits of chocolate stuck to the sides- no wasting chocolate! That is just WRONG!)

***EDIT***Please note that this calls for a 10" x 15" pan! A regular 9" x 13" cake pan won't work, so please don't use that size and then call me to tell me that I have ruined your life with a failed recipe from my blog. (You know who you are! But I love you anyway!)

Thank You!

2011-07-22T09:15:00.000-07:00

I am a member of the very bestest team on etsy. TeamCAC (Christian Artists and Crafters) is a group of believers with a wide variety of talents from all over the world who meet on the etsy team forum to share in each others' joys and sorrows, encourage and pray for each other, and give advice when needed. Well, yesterday I was blessed with a visit from my teammate and friend, Anita and her children. We had such a nice time visiting while our kids played. AND, she brought a basket of gifts that she collected from TeamCAC members! Look at what a spoiled baby I have!!! :)

Thank you so much to Anita, Tracy, Liz, Teresa, Christie!

Quilt Feature...

2011-07-20T14:52:00.000-07:00

Thank you so much to Mandy over at Sugar Bee Crafts for Showing Off my quilt!!! :)

Yay!!! :D

http://www.sugarbeecrafts.com/2011/07/showing-off_20.html

Grace's Quilt

2011-07-18T06:10:00.000-07:00

TA DA!!!! I started Grace's baby quilt a few weeks before she was born (hence the bright, but neutral colors). I was inspired by Anita's beautiful quilt HERE, but since I don't like to do sashing, I decided to use this Moda Bakeshop pattern, except I cut my own squares instead of using a charm pack.
They are both sooooo cute!!!
See that red pinwheel? Those are what I was cutting when I cut my fingertip with the rotary cutter. :( I hand quilted this, of course. Just oulined the white triangles in the pinwheels and around the border.

When I saw that the 3D triangles were called prairie points I had to try them. Anything with the word "prairie" just sounds adorable and makes me think of Laura Ingalls!

But frankly, they were a pain. I couldn't get the spacing right and the more I tried to fix them, the worse it got. AND I couldn't hand quilt along this edge (which I thought it needed to keep them in place) so I had to stab stitch one stitch at a time the whole way around.
But it is still an awesome pattern and I love it!!!

Link Parties are found at the top of my blog and, if I get a minute here and there, I might be found linking up at some of those.

Sneak Peek Friday #11

2011-07-15T03:53:00.000-07:00

Well, I am getting more done craftwise anyway. Cleaning and weeding my pretty flowers, not so much...

With this sweetie around, who wants to clean and weed anyway?!?

BUT, I have started on my new kitchen curtains- half a window is done! And I am sooooo close to finishing my niece's baby quilt- if I hurry I may get it done before her 1st birthday in August! Of course I have been working on some snowmen, too. Here are some sneak peeks at some things I have actually finished and I will show them off with full blog posts soon! Can you guess what they are?

And I have made a few things for the etsy shop:

Starting to accomplish a little bit more anyway! I can't wait to see what everyone else is working on. Check out the link-up over HERE!

Sharpie Shirts

2011-07-13T03:53:00.000-07:00

Here is another fun summer craft idea- especially good for older kids. Ok, this isn't my idea- my sister is one smart cookie! She has decorated Tshirts with Sharpies for my kids, church volleyball, etc. It sounds wierd, but it really works! If you think about it- Sharpie doesn't wash out! You just have to be VERY careful to be neat when writing/coloring. Oh- and put cardboard between the front and back of the shirt or it will go right through!

I recently made this shirt as an inside joke for my nephew. :) It turned out really sharp! To get the font, I picked a stencilish one on the computer and printed it out. Then I just put it under the shirt and traced.And I helped my niece make these shirts for a candy-themed fundraiser field hockey game- each player was a different flavor/color.

The possiblities are endless...

Strawberry Shortcake Dresser Makeover

2011-07-11T04:00:00.000-07:00

Finally! The big reveal!!! This is the old dresser I refinished for my 3yo who loves Strawberry Shortcake. It started out as this:I bought it at a yard sale a loooooooong time ago and only paid a few dollars for it- I don't remember exactly how much, but I know I paid well under $10. It had some stickers and scratches on the fronts of the drawers and one of the knobs was cracked.First, I unscrewed all of the knobs and got the palm sander out for the drawers.I sanded them down and used wood putty on any really big scratches or dings.

When I went on to do the sides, I found a problem. One side had pretty bad water damage from it sitting in garages that occasionally flood.Luckily, right behind me was a piece of luan leftover from our bathroom that was already the exact right width! So I just scroll sawed to cut it to length and make the bottom match up.But, as I was putting the new side on, I saw that the feet were a little spongy, so I got out the reciprocating saw and starting hacking off the bottom. (Don't upset a pregnant woman when she is trying to nest, or she may go crazy with every power tool she can get her hands on!)Back to the scroll saw to cut new knobs out of some scrap wood.Then, I busted out the extremely PINK paint! I got a quart of the darker color and just a sample sized can of the lighter pink. The dresser got a coat of primer and then the dark pink paint...And the drawers were painted with primer and light pink. Then, when I was feeling artistic, I freehanded some vines and strawberry blossoms on them.And I did some more on the corners of the top and side.

The knobs were painted to match and assembled.

Finally, I made spacers out of dowel rods to go behind the knobs and put them on with long screws.It was a lot more work than I anticipated, but I think it is "berry" cute! :)

Sneak Peek Friday #10 - Not So Crafty

2011-07-08T04:00:00.000-07:00

Not too much craftiness has been going on here in the last month. Instead, I have been busy with Grace and trying to take it easy (NOT easy for me to do!) But we have been busy making lots of memories! We are spending lots of time with family and friends... picnics and parties and fun! Here are some of the things we have done so far this summer...

My baby brother (Yes, the biggest one in the middle there) graduated. Us kids (minus the Army one who couldn't be there) would not cooperate for a picture. Drives Mom crazy- just like kids are supposed to! (I am in the red dress and this is my BEFORE Grace belly)

We took the kids to visit a fish hatchery.

We met some friends at a local water playground.

We did some fishing.

Lots of farming stuff going on around here that the kids love, too. Catching chickens, picking rasberries, and tractor rides. (Don't tell hubby I posted a picture of him online! This is just too cute!!!)

And what is better than a homemade 100+foot slip-n-slide? Making it ramp into a pond, of course! (Can you tell there was testosterone involved in that one?)I hope you liked peeking at our summer fun. I am linking up over at StudioJRU HERE.

Eye Spy Bottles

2011-07-07T04:00:00.000-07:00

This was a craft project that was on the to-do list for a VERY long time! I keep all the little choking hazards that I find/confiscate (like tiny doll shoes, beads, buttons, game pieces,...) up high in a little snowman bucket. I thought it would be cute to make Eye Spy bottles with them. I used Powerade bottles because they are hard, sturdy plastic and made sure they were very clean and dry. Then, as a nice "take-it-easy-end-of-pregnancy" craft with the girls, I dumped out the bucket and let them choose what they wanted to put in them. There are alphabet beads to spell their names, too. I used a funnel to add rice every so often. To make it prettier, we also added a bunch of sequins. When we were done, I hot glued the lids in place (I DO NOT want this to spill!) and made sure I waited until it was cool to give them back.2 Powerade bottles+little junk+rice= 2 happy girlies! :)

My Welcome Home

2011-07-06T06:05:00.000-07:00

Do you remember the "welcome home" bunting that we made for hubby when he was away for a few days? (It is HERE if you don't.) Well, my kids made one for Grace and I before we came home from the hospital!They are so cute! (Er, sometimes anyway!)AND Hubby made my porch swing!!! I LOVE it! I was really surprised, too. (Pardon my disheveled appearance, but this is what I really look like after a long, hot summer day.)It is so nice to be able to sit and swing with Grace in the evenings when it cools off, watching the older girls catching fireflies (or "lightning bugs" as we call them around here.) He made the whole thing in 2 days while I was at the hospital- and he had all 4 of the older kids, too! (My 5yo says she made it, too, 'cause she handed him the "nails")

Maybe it is just my cooking (the kids were afraid they would eat nothing but Ramen noodles while I was gone), but I think they may have even missed me!

Grace

2011-07-05T04:55:00.000-07:00

A full blog post just for showing off my sweet new baby girl!Love the tiny hands...and feet!

I am ready to return to blogging now, after a few weeks of recovery, major adjustments around here, and soaking up newborn baby sweetness!

It's a GIRL!!!

2011-06-27T07:19:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to show off sweet little Grace Anne! She arrived June 17 and weighed 7lbs 11oz and was 19 inches long.

More pictures and lots of backlogged craftiness to come when I am recuperated more and things settle down around here...

Where did she go?

2011-06-08T09:56:00.000-07:00

Well, I haven’t even signed in to blogger for awhile, and it will probably be that way for quite some time now. You see, I got all inspired to make a cute, bright, neutral baby quilt last week. Saturday I was trying to cut my triangles and my ruler slipped. I think my big belly might have bumped it.

Source

Anyway, I ended up cutting my fingertip good, so I have 2 stitches and lost some of my fingernail. Oh, and those tetanus shots do not agree with me, either. And I am supposed to stay off my feet now, too (only 9 days to go!!!) So, I probably won’t be blogging for awhile, but I haven’t fallen off of the face of the earth or anything. Just so you know…

Sneak Peek Friday #9

2011-06-03T04:17:00.000-07:00

It sure feels like summer is here!!!

I spent most of the week trying to stay cool. I was hiding in my bedroom a lot with the AC sewing things like Mommy's purse (here). I got quite a few other things started, just not a lot finished. (And more big ideas, too!) I can't take pics of the sewing things this early morning, though, since kids are sleeping upstairs and I am really enjoying this peace and quiet! Here is what I can show you...

I am planning ahead for fall in my etsy shop, so I got some reed dyed to make Indian Corn baskets.AND, I am nearly done with my BIG secret project. I need to finish it this weekend. Then there will be a big, long blog post all its own. Your hint is that it involves these and a whole lotta PINK! I am linking up HERE at StudioJRU. Can't wait to see what everyone else is working on!

Mommy's Purse

2011-05-31T04:00:00.000-07:00

Since I made Amy Butler Birdie Sling bags for my sisters and myself (see here, here, here, and here), Mom wanted one, too. Except she wanted a zipper in hers and she is kinda picky with colors and patterns, so I drug my feet for a long time. Last week, I got her to pick her own fabric out, and then she decided a magnetic snap closure would be good enough.

I love the crisp, summer colors here with the aquas and blues. It still has some browns to make it more neutral and easier to match, though. I made the downsized version of the Birdie Sling like I made for my sister-in-law for Christmas. I added some extra pockets and loops on the inside, as well as the magnetic snap (which I should have put closer to the top= lesson learned). I think next time I will make the shoulder strap a little narrower, too.

It is HOT here, and I didn't want to leave the air conditioning in my bedroom sewing corner, which is why it has gotten done so quickly. I anticipate a lot more sewing tomorrow, too! :)

Flowers, Farm, Field Trip

2011-05-30T05:52:00.000-07:00

I wanted to show off some of the pictures I took on Friday!

Some of my flowers...

Pink Peonies

I will only have a few this year since all the buds "magically" snapped off

Coral Bells

There is a long row of them.Purple Iris

Love the water droplets on this one!

Things growing on our little "farmette"...

Sour Cherries

They will be ripe about the same time as the baby, so I don't think I will can many this year.

Chickens

They have finally moved outside to a temporary cage.

Tomatoes

A few are already growing on the plants we got the other week.

And some pictures from the 1st grade field trip to Reptileland...

Turtles

We saw lots of these!

Lizards

He looks so bumpy! I just want to touch him!

Butterflies

They also had a butterfly house!

I got some really cool shots here, so I hope you like them!

Sneak Peek Friday #8

2011-05-27T04:00:00.000-07:00

OK, so it has been awhile since I "Sneak Peek Friday-ed" but here is what I have been up to. I am crafting instead of nesting. Although, with 3 weeks to go, I had better start nesting, too!HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my awesome sister, Loni, this week! I made her a basket for her bathroom with a liner that matches her decor. Every time I use her bathroom I think "she needs a matching basket on this shelf thingy" and I bought the fat quarter a loooooong time ago. I even left it out on my sewing table in hopes of encouraging myself to use it faster. And the basket turned out so sturdy and nice I was really happy with it. And, a few weeks ago, I learned how to make rag flannel blankets and burp cloths (tutorial coming eventually). LOVE these, too! These, and one of my taggy blankets are on their way to my cousin who is due in 3 weeks, too! (only with her first instead of fifth) I made a wedding cake topper for a special custom request. I never made one of these before and I think it came out pretty cute!
Another custom order- these adorable little flower girl baskets! :)
Now, what I am working on.. It is my BIG project and I think it is kind of like nesting- I am redoing some things in the nursery, which will be shared by #5 and my 3yo-Strawberry-Shortcake-loving-girl. Here are some peeks at what i am up to there.
I am also hand quilting this for my 9mo niece: (can't show it all or my sister will see it!) I tried to machine quilt it and I got puckers and got mad and had to seam rip a lot. But really, I think God knows I need to take some time to prop my feet up and rip away.
And, of course, more baskets and more snowmen.
I know. The variety of it all probably makes your head spin (maybe I have ADD). I have LOTS to finish soon, because in 3 weeks, I plan on getting pretty much nothing accomplished craftwise. :)

I hope to link up here over at StudioJRU!

Strawberry Shortcake Dress

2011-05-24T05:00:00.000-07:00

My 3yo is still on the Strawberry Shortcake kick! So for her birthday I made her a Strawberry Shortcake dress. I just blatantly copied Strawberry's dress by sewing a semi-circle skirt to the bottom of a white T-shirt. It turned out pretty good, but my brain does NOT function well lately, so I had a few snags. I accidentally made the skirt twice as big as I needed to (should have divided the waist by 4 instead of 2!) so I cut it in half and now I could make another one if I need to (and I might because this is a white shirt after all!) I originally wanted a full circle skirt, so it isn't as twirly as I wanted, but it is actually closer to the "real" one.

I appliqued the strawberry and diamonds on the shirt for the argylish pattern on the new Strawberry's dress. I did them by hand while at soccer practice so she wouldn't see it. (Everything else was done over a few naptimes).If I hadn't been doing this as a surprise I would have been able to catch that the T-shirt is a little long and it would be better if I had cut some of the bottom off before sewing the skirt on. But now it is big and if she doesn't destroy it she can grow into it and wear it longer.

Oh- and, completely unrelated to sewing, I kept things simple for her cake since I am on a major cake-flopping roll here. Just pink icing cupcakes with strawberry gummies on them slapped together at the last minute.

Happy Birthday!!!

Shnookie's Apron

2011-05-23T07:00:00.000-07:00

Carrying on with my "finish projects before Baby #5 comes" rush here, I tackled another one, although it was still not without screw-ups. I made an apron for my youngest sister, who my Dad always called "Shnookie" growing up. We have no idea what that means, only that it sounds kinda PA dutchified. Anyway, I bought the cute BROWN cow fabric (I prefer brown cows over black and white ones!) with the intention of making her an apron for her bridal shower present. Now that she has been married for a few years I am finally getting around to it.

I would have felt bad giving her a present (we called it a belated birthday gift) and then saying, "Hey will you model this for me for my blog" so my 5yo took some pictures of big old pregnant me modeling it. My sister is skinny, despite my constant attempts to feed her sweets and high-fat foods, so she looks really, really cute in it!

I used the Nae-Nae apron tutorial from CraftinessIsNotOptional as a basis for how I made the apron, but I changed a few things. I used a ruffle on the bottom instead of pleats (LOVE that I can do them on my serger now!) and I pretty much ignored the measurements she gave for the ties cause I was being lazy. Also, when I initially cut it out, I used my straight-sided apron and swooped up the back to get the cute shape. Then I held it up and made sure it looked right. Well, I had it all pinned together and tried in on before I realized that I was making it to fit enormously pregnant me and my sister is sickeningly skinny! I ended up unpinning and trimming in at least 12 inches from the sides.

I LOVE the waist ties in this cute bow tied around to the front (it hides my belly a little!) On her, the tails are much longer, of course. I interfaced the waist ties- a pain, but it was worth it in the end.
I backed it with a beige, unbleached muslin color fabric I had on hand - I just had to piece two pieces of material together for it. (Actually, everything I had was leftovers from other projects that I had on hand- YAY for stashbusting!!!)

It makes me want to make myself a new apron, even though I already have my own brown cow apron (different fabric) because the bows and ruffles make me feel adorable wearing it! :)

Flannel Button Quilt

2011-05-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

So, my little girl went through a phase where she LOVED pink camouflage. I was on a flannel quit kick, so I decided to make her a pink camo one for her second birthday.
She turned five in December.
You see, I thought it would be absolutely charming and adorable to do a checkerboard pattern and use high-loft batting and sew a button on each square. I was picturing this comfy, cutesy, "Little House on the Prairie" effect. But sewing buttons is a pain in the neck.
So now, 3 1/2 years later, in my "finish up projects so I can make room for Baby #5 kick" I have forced myself to finish it! I only had 21 buttons left to sew on, and it probably took me less than an hour (hanging my head in shame here). The binding only took one dentist appointment and two soccer practices. It is an odd size and the pink in the squares doesn't really match the camo too well, but it was so long ago that I don't know what I was thinking anymore. BUT... YAY for another finish!!! And since she is older now, buttons are probably less of a choking hazard. :)

Cinnamon Rolls From SCRATCH!

2011-05-18T10:08:00.000-07:00

Please do not lick your computer screen. I am not responsible for any dust on your tongue.

I get requests to make these delicious cinnamon rolls pretty often, but never requests for the recipe! I think it is too intimidating, but, REALLY, they are NOT hard to make! I got the recipe from an Amish cookbook, so a full batch makes 5 dozen. I am giving you the half batch recipe and much clearer directions than they included.

Soft Cinnamon Rolls

1 cups quick oats
2 cups boiling water
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) margarine
2/3 cups brown sugar
2 Tbsp. yeast- use the bread machine yeast that comes in a jar!
1/3 cups warm water
1 Tbsp. white sugar
5 cups bread flour
brown sugar
margarine spread
cinnamon
Icing (approximate measurements):
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 Tbsp. milk
3 Tbsp. margarine

Combine oats and brown sugar in a large bowl. Pour boiling water over the mixture and add margarine. In a separate bowl, mix yeast, sugar, and warm water. When the oat mixture has cooled to lukewarm, add the yeast mixture. Mix well and gradually add flour. Mixture will form a soft dough. Let rise until doubled in size. Knead and roll out to about 3/8" thickness- keeping it as rectangular as possible. Spread margarine over the dough, sprinkle with brown sugar so that the entire surface is lightly coated, then sprinkle with cinnamon. Roll the dough up into a long roll, and slice into 3/4" thick slices. Place in greased pan(s) and let rise again (about 1/2 hour). Bake at 325 degrees for 20 minutes. For the icing, combine milk and margarine and microwave until the margarine is melted. Add powdered sugar until a thick glaze is formed (a little thinner than pancake batter) and pour over warm rolls. If you want to reheat them later, just pop them in the microwave for about 10-15 seconds! Mmmmm...

After the rain...

2011-05-17T04:00:00.000-07:00

After it cleared up Sunday afternoon I took some pictures around our little "farmette."

The calves are all doing really well! This is the youngest one, although he is the biggest. I call him "Dumbo" because his ears are so big! (Shhh... He is my favorite, too!)
Finally got some planting done this weekend! Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, sweet corn, and green beans.
The peas are looking pretty good!

Here is one of our ugly chickens... ... and our dramatic girl!

My flowers are really starting to bloom! I think these are really cool!

We have lots of different colors of azaleas. If you look closely, you can see the water droplets on them from the rain.

I found some wisteria growing in the fence row. All these years living here and I never noticed it before! I love these!!!

I had fun playing around with my camera. I hope you enjoyed these! :)

Quilt Embroidery Pillow

2011-05-11T16:18:00.000-07:00

Another recovery here- this one turned out really pretty I think!

You see, I stitched this cute little embroidery, only to get carried away with the plants and then it was too big for the frame. So, I used the frame for a piece for my etsy shop

and turned the embroidery into a pillow. It is for my mother-in-law for Mother's Day and I used some of the same fabrics that I used in a quilt I made for her a long time ago. I wanted a muted patchwork effect, so I used all blues and they are fairly close in hue.

Whew! Another save! I still wish I would quit screwing up all the time, though!

Handprint Stepping Stones Success/Failure

2011-05-11T05:12:00.000-07:00

I came up with a brilliant idea to make handprint stepping stones for Mother's Day and got my little sister on board. The first ones turned out so badly that we had to redo them. Here is what we learned:

Primitive tools such as an old stake and a bucket are not the best for mixing. And mix QUICKLY!

Get all the larger stones to settle to the bottom and keep smoothing it out a lot (preferably NOT with a sand shovel)

If it isn't smooth, writing isn't going to show up anyway.

If your husband pours concrete all the time at his job, get him to help (much better!)

All this hard work of redoing them still can't compete with the chicken purse that Mom got from my brother and his girlfriend!

Knit is NOT my friend.

2011-05-10T08:14:00.000-07:00

I am trying to be brave. I found some knit fabric that was given to me and I tried to make some things with it. I don't like working with knit at all!

Well, here are the recovered creations: belly bands (instructions by Make It and Love It found here). This one is a little too short.

But this one fits pretty good. Not as good as the store-version, though. I have outgrown almost everything- my shirts are too short and my pants (the ones with the low elastic band that fit me) are sliding too low. So these belly bands are perfect to "fill in the gap!"

But they were born from failure. First, I saw a cute yoga skirt and tutorial HERE and saw that it was good for maternity wear, too! Well, I messed up sewing the skirt on (stretchy knit AND gathers are hard to sew and my gathers were not even), so I cut it off and redid it. I tried it on and reveled in how comfy it was, only to see that I sewed the skirt on inside out! So, I tried to fix it without removing the entire skirt again, but then I had a gatherless gap. :(

And it did not flatter my current shape anyway- it kinda draped funny in the front because of my low belly. Oh, and don't try to hem stretch knit when frustrated either. I spent quite a long time figuring out how to do the rolled hem on my serger only to discover that it won't work on the stretchy side of the knit. The front piece of my sewing machine is currently missing, too, so I couldn't feed it in right and it was the waviest, ugliest hem ever.

Every time I messed up the skirt got shorter, so I gave up and just made the belly bands.

Then, I knew my 7yo needed some nightgowns and this is actually knit from an old nightgown factory. I made her a Raglan sleeve nightgown (see THIS tutorial from ikatbag) but with extra long sleeves. I have made these before, but it still took me way longer than 45 minutes like it says because I had to make my own pattern and guess a lot since she wasn't home to try it on as I went.

Then I tried to make one without a pattern, just tracing a nightgown she does have (it used to be mine- Lady Lovely Locks is the bestest!!!) It turned out pretty lousy around the neckline (and so did the pics I took so just trust me on that) and somehow I cut it too short so I had to add ruffles.So now I am sick of knit. There are times when you just need to walk away from frustrations for awhile. This is one of them...

Movin' On Over

2011-05-09T17:46:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had an awesome Mother's Day!

Too awesome not to show off- my mommy got me these really cool flowers! (Thank you!!!)

I have had a bit of a break from blogging. Last week we had play dates and I did some nesting. I let a friend of mine borrow my sewing machine, so I forced myself to finish some things and that led to getting some projects off of the sewing table (mostly mending) to cleaning and purging to moving the whole thing over to a little corner of my room to make a spot for Baby #5. Hubby even stayed up late to hang them and do the heavy lifting for me (he made me the table many years ago, too!)

These adjustable shelves were my Mother's Day present. I am not done yet- it is still kinda messy. I want to wrap some of my favorite, larger pieces of fabric around some cardboard I found like mini bolts and I want to mount baby food jars under the bottom shelf, too. And maybe hang a curtain up so that I don't stare at it while I am laying in bed and get more crafty ideas that I don't have time for.

The other reason I took a blogging break was that I have had a lot of craft failures lately! Some have been recovered and so this week, I am going to blog about them. Stay tuned...

Sneak Peek Friday #7

2011-04-29T06:26:00.001-07:00

After a beautiful summer-like week, the weather turned nasty yesterday and we even had some flooding. This momma salamander got washed up and my daughter said the baby came out of her mouth! Do they do that to protect them I wonder???

The last few weeks have been CRAZY here so I didn't link up last week at Studio JRU. This week I don't have much to show off. I have been busy switching the kids' clothes around and I purged my fabric stash yet again. I have a lot of bright, fun prints that I don't love as much as I used to, so I am cutting them all into 3 1/2" squares. I think I will make some I-Spy quilts with them as a leaders and enders project. If you don't know what that is, it is a tip I picked up a few years ago from Bonnie K. Hunter of Quiltville and you can read about it HERE.

Really not much for this week, unless you want to see neatly stacked fabric and drawers full of summer clothes! I can't wait to see what everyone else has been up to, though!

Spring is finally here!

2011-04-27T12:32:00.001-07:00

The last few days have felt more like summer, but it has been beautiful!

We got another calf this week!

He is a really big calf- and cute, too! The chicks are in their awkward adolescent stage now (they're ugly!) Last night hubby got the field plowed up. The cherry tree is blossoming, too, and the peas and onions are planted in the garden.

The flowers are blooming (I am missing some tulips, though!)

Some of my Mothers' Day flowers came back from last year and have been blooming already, too!

Happy Spring!!! :)

Easter Basket Goodies

2011-04-26T07:35:00.000-07:00

When we came home from church on Easter, it was starting to spritz, so I rushed them outside for a very uncooperative picture. This year I made a few things for the kids' Easter baskets. They get enough candy everywhere else (isn't that what grandparents are for?)

My 2yo is still on her Strawberry Shortcake kick, so I made a little blanket and pillow for her doll. I should have used white thread to stitch everything down, but it was really late at night and I didn't care anymore. During Sunrise service, she finally got Strawberry to lay just so with her pillow and blanket, but then her sister tried to move it so she could sit beside me. So, just as the guy leading the service said, "Now we will turn the service over to our pastor" she let out a loud, "Nooooooo!" Everyone got a good laugh out of it, though.

I made a cute headband for my oldest daughter to with some leftover dress fabric, but I can't currently locate it. I also made all of the girls a whole bunch of hair bows.

I don't sew much for my 11yo son, but he asked for a belt to hold CO2 cartridges for his air pistol. I added little Velcro pockets for ammo, too. It was a thrown-together, day-before-Easter thing, so I wasn't real particular about the sewing. He was happy with it, though, and I might add a holster to hold the pistol itself, too.

Finally, I had already promised to make an apron for my 5yo and I even let her pick the fabric for the front. I got the directions here from tidbits and they were great to follow! I cheated and saved it for her Easter basket, but I also made her a pair of oven mitts, too! The directions for those came from ikatbag here.

She likes it and the fabric is as girly as you can possibly get!

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter!!!

In the Garden Twirly Easter Dress

2011-04-23T04:00:00.000-07:00

My 7yo daughter was also very opinionated about her dress style. She wanted a "poofy" skirt and straps instead of sleeves (she said spaghetti straps and I said "NO"). So, I checked out my bookmarked list and found this tutorial. She totally approved! The straps are the minimum 1" wide allowed in the school dress code, so it should be OK to wear to school if she wants, and the skirt is two full widths of the fabric- so it is very "poofy."

I was really nervous to do the shirring because I had never tried it before and it is the very last step! I saw it done on Martha Stewart a few years ago and figured I could handle it. Luckily, it worked just fine.

Thanks for bearing with me as I showed off my girlies' Easter dresses the past few days! Happy Easter!!!

Puffy Sleeve, A-Line Easter Dress

2011-04-22T04:00:00.000-07:00

My 5yo wanted "puffy sleeves" (I wasn't thrilled with that- I don't like sleeves!) and a "straight" skirt.

I traced one of her T-shirts to get the bodice pattern, but made the waist fairy high. Then I cut the skirt to be an A-line style.

The sleeves were a little trickier, but they turned out really, really well! I used the same technique as found here.

I prefer invisible zippers and I used a sash from the Easter dresses I made two years ago. Maybe later I will make another one, but for now this is good.

It is very simple, but it is what she asked for! For now there is a little room for her to grow (or the dress to shrink) so she should be able to wear it all summer long!

Ruffle Tank Easter Dress

2011-04-21T04:00:00.000-07:00

For the Easter dresses this year, I wanted to:

use things I already had, if possible

skip the commercial pattern thing

let the girls have a say in what style they wanted

I had one yard pieces of cotton quilting fabric in pretty calicos that I made work for the younger girls, but I had to buy some for the oldest one. All these addicting blogs gave me the confidence to "wing it" with the patternless approach, too. But for my youngest, who is not yet 3, she would have asked for something ridiculous given the option.

So.. I patterned the style after her favorite shirt -the one that she INSISTS on wearing all the time (she says it is her beach shirt, even though she has never been to the beach.) I made it longer, of course.

I love the cute little flutter sleeves on this. When I sewed the top ruffle on, most of the front gathering came out, so I just let it go cause I was lazy.

I also got my gathering foot to work for my serger, and I was so excited that I made ruffles until I ran out of fabric. So there are 2 rows of ruffles on the bottom.

She loved the pockets on her Leah tunic so much that I put pockets on the dress, too. And I added ruffles at the top.

It was very easy to sew up, so I may make another one and post a tutorial and pattern for it, too!

30 weeks

2011-04-19T15:15:00.000-07:00

For the last few weeks, every time I go somewhere, somebody says
"Any day now, right?" or
"Looks like somebody is ready to go soon!" or
"You are going to the wrong place for delivery!"

I just laugh and say, "I have 2 1/2 months to go yet!" Then I watch their eyes bug out of their heads while they stutter and try to make excuses. This is #5, so I know they ain't seen nothin' yet! :)

Chicks and Eggs

2011-04-19T03:57:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how fast these chicks are growing! I see them change a lot from day to day. One week ago they were all fluffy and fuzzy. Now they are growing little wings and tails and they have really ugly feet!

See the little wing feathers? This is only unfolded about halfway. They all hide now, too. Last week they just about ran into my camera lens and now they huddle in the corner! I had to wait really patiently for one to come close enough to catch.

Now for a little treat! I made these cute little bird nests with eggs the other day, inspired by this blog post here (Thank you!)I just used my own No-Bake Cookie recipe and after they cooled a little, I pressed Peanut Butter m&m's into them (cause they were the speckly-egg looking ones in the store). So, if you want it, here is my recipe:

No Bake Cookies

3 cups oatmeal

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup margarine

2 Tbsp. cocoa

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 tsp. vanilla

2 cups sugar

Melt margarine in a large saucepan. Add sugar, cocoa, milk, and vanilla. Bring to a boil and continue to boil for one minute. Remove from heat and stir in oatmeal and peanut butter. Drop by spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet covered in wax paper. Refrigerate until firm. (You can also freeze these to save for later!)

Sneek Peek Friday #6

2011-04-15T05:33:00.000-07:00

Well, I am back and running this week! Here is some of what I have been making...

I already blogged about the painted plastic eggs and shirt I made this week (click to see those).

I also finished up a custom order for decoupaged eggs. Love these! Here's the back:

And I finished that apron for my 5yo daughter- here is a peek at it- it is very wrinkly because it is folded up and hiding in my drawer until Easter. After that I will do a full post on it with her modeling. I think I am making some oven mitts for her, too.

Yesterday was BEAUTIFUL and SUNNY!!! So, I got a lot of painting done out in the sunroom where I can enjoy the sun because there are windows on three sides. I finished the pears…

…painted some frames for some embroidery pieces I have been making…

…and of course, while I am at it, I have to keep on plugging away at snowmen!

BUT, yesterday, I realized that I only have a little over a week until Easter! So, maybe I should start on my 3 girls’ Easter dresses. I picked the fabric out and started planning about 2 months ago! I have a busy week next week, too, so I had better get cracking!!!

I am linking up at Sneak Peek in the Studio Friday over here.

Leah Tunic Sew Along

2011-04-13T04:00:00.000-07:00

I participated in a sew-along with Jess from CraftinessIsNotOptional. She has an awesome blog with lots of great tutorials. It took me longer, but I finally finished it!! YAY!!!

The pockets are the best part- every little kid loves pockets and they are just the right size for her little hands!

I cut my fabric incorrectly the first time, so I had to get more (an excuse to go fabric shopping!) since most of my stash is really small pieces (1/4-1/2 yard). I LOVE this fabric!!!

Bias tape is not my friend, but I braved it anyway and it turned out pretty well. I even made my own double fold bias tape. Something other than white would have been nice, but I am still trying to use what I have when possible and this is all that matched.

I may end up getting a big daisy button for the back later, but for now, this works.

The sleeves are a little stiff and science fiction movie-ish, so I hope they settle down a bit after I wash it.

Thank you, Jess, for an awesome tutorial!!! :)

Painted Plastic Easter Eggs Tutorial

2011-04-12T04:00:00.000-07:00

I get these crazy ideas in my head and I just have to try them. This time I thought, what about painting plastic Easter eggs? I wasn’t entirely sure that it would work and that the paint would stick to the plastic, but I gave it a shot anyway. I was pleasantly surprised that it DID work and that the texture was very nice- much more like real eggs. So of course I made a whole bunch of them!!! Here is the step-by-step tutorial of how I did it:

I used regular old acrylic craft paint in some pastel colors and an assortment of old plastic Easter eggs that were in the Easter box. Separate the eggs so that they can sit on the newspaper to dry and you can hold them from underneath to work with them. Apply the paint with a foam sponge brush and wipe it on pretty heavily, but evenly. After the first coat, you can still see a lot of the plastic.

Let it dry COMPLETELY and then apply a second heavy coat, brushing in the same direction as before so you don’t pull the first coat of paint off. The coverage gets a lot better.

After that coat dries, dab and sponge the paint on heavily for the third coat. This gives it the nice eggshell texture later.

If you can still see a little plastic when this dries, you may need a fourth coat to touch it up.

Then, SPECKLE! Take a toothbrush and dip it in chocolate brown paint. Go pretty heavy for some big splotches, and flick the brush with your finger about 12 inches above the eggs. I practiced on the newspaper first (like Mommy said to) until I got the hang of it. This part is messy, but fun! My son saw me speckling and said “Whose toothbrush is that?” I think they turned out pretty cute! The speckles remind me of candy eggs. Yummm…

Spring and Chickens

2011-04-11T10:42:00.000-07:00

We got our baby chicks today! They are sooooo cute!

The breed we got is called Araucana and when they grow up, the hens will lay colored eggs. How cool is that?!?

So after I photographed the cute little chicks, I took a walk around snapping some pics of the beautiful Springiness around us. Spring has been late this year, and today it is sooooooo much warmer than it has been lately (80's!!! WOOHOO!) I really needed a refreshing, warm day like today. Not only to dry my laundry since my dryer is still out, or to be able to open my windows because the house filled with smoke and smell after the girls put cookies in the toaster, but just to lift my spirits after all the dreary cold, rain, and sickness last week.

The lilacs are budding (and I love playing with the macro on my camera!)

We planted more fruit trees on the hill, in hopes of having a nice orchard there someday. We have not had much luck so far, but the trees are budding and you can see our garden plowed up and ready to go in the background.

Our calves are doing pretty well. These three came right on up to pose for a picture (OK, they probably thought I was going to give them bottles.) I plan on posting more pics of our farmish ventures as things grow. So stay tuned...

Sneak Peek Friday #5

2011-04-08T03:10:00.000-07:00

Well, I had an awfully unproductive week here since we were sick, but I did manage to get a little bit of crafting done.

Here are the wood crafts I worked on out in the sunroom when I needed some fresh air.

The little bunny I showed you all before got a new face -I tried carving the whiskers the first time and it didn’t work. I am still not happy with the whiskers, but I am picky.

I started some baskets for my last Easter order…

and I made a liner for this basket: Don’t let the picture fool you- I think this was the only time we saw sunshine the whole week!

I also read some books while I was laying around. I highly recommend Karen Kingsbury novels. Years ago I read the Redemption Series (EXCELLENT!) and continued with all of the spin-off series. The latest installment is called Leaving and it was really good!

Hopefully next week is better. I can’t wait to see what everyone else is up to! I am linking up at Sneak Peek in the Studio Friday over HERE.

This just made my day!

2011-04-07T04:02:00.000-07:00

Have you missed me?

Our family has been sick all week. Ick.

The clothes dryer is not working and it has been raining all week. And sick kids = extra laundry. Ick.

I was the last one still sick and the kids got into sooooo much trouble. My 2yo got another bad haircut and made "puddles" all over the girls' bedroom floor. And they microwaved leftover soup- in a metal pot with a plastic handle. Ick.

BUT, hubby brought me popsicles and chicken noodle soup last night and helped clean up!

And now, after finally getting some sleep last night, I found out that my butterfly quilts were featured at a great link party over here:

Thank you soooooo much! It really cheered me up! :)

Sneak Peek and SURPRISES in the Studio Friday #4

2011-04-01T05:39:00.001-07:00

Well, this about sums up my week...

I am getting tired of Easter baskets. I am longing to cut out snowmen, so I know I must be burning out!

I made a little basket from scrap pieces, too. Other things I am working on...

I PROMISED my 5yo I would make her an apron and I let her pick the top fabric (the rest I had on hand- using up stash!). I worked on it some, but I still have a lot to do.

I painted some plastic eggs just to see if it could be done. I plan on speckling these and I am going to get some more today because this was actually fun (and a nice break from baskets)!

I am finally finishing these taggy blankets from the pile on my cutting table soon to return to changing table (the babies they were originally going to be for are much to old now, so I will just keep them on hand for when more come)

Now, for the SURPRISES!!!

Yesterday, I got a FABULOUS surprise in the mail! You see, I won this giveaway:

And when I opened my mail yesterday, I could not believe how many goodies she stuffed into that envelope! Beyond the book and fabric, she also sent one of her pretty tea wallets, a gorgeous jewelry set, some flower seeds that the girlies and I are going to plant soon, a project card, a sweet note, and a PEANUT BUTTER EGG!!! I was babysitting my teething niece, so that bit of chocolate was quickly devoured while the baby stopped her screaming to stare me down for it (I didn't give in!)

Thank you soooooo, sooooooooo much, Anita!!!

And another surprise- it is APRIL! But this morning, does it LOOK like APRIL! NOOOOOO!

I am linking up with Sneak Peek in the Studio Friday- you can find it HERE and see what everyone else has been up to!

Pirogi Casserole

2011-03-31T04:00:00.000-07:00

This is such a quick and easy recipe that I wanted to share it here. It is a great way to use up leftover mashed potatoes (or plan ahead and make a little extra!)

Pirogi Casserole

12 lasagna noodles, boiled

2 cups mashed potatoes

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

½ cup butter

You can also add some chopped onions, salt, and pepper to the mashed potatoes, but I don’t.

Place 4 lasagna noodles on the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Top with half of the mashed potatoes, dot with 1/3 of the butter, and sprinkle the cheddar cheese on top. Make another layer of noodles, top with remaining mashed potatoes, 1/3 of the butter, and mozzarella cheese. Put the rest of the noodles on the top. Put the remaining butter in microwavable cup, melt, and drizzle over the casserole. You can sprinkle it with parsley if you want to. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

This is sooooo yummy! Definitely not a diet food, but…

Our New Calves

2011-03-29T04:42:00.000-07:00

Hubby went to go pick up three new bull calves for us on Saturday, and he came home with four! One was born three weeks early on Friday night so he is just a little guy. Now there are enough for each of the kids to "claim as their own." The girls are so super excited and they have named theirs Brownie Cutie Pie Bucky, Blackie, and Polka Dot. When we went out to go check out the new additions I snapped a bunch of pictures, so enjoy...

This is "Blackie" - Look at that face! :)

I got them all in one shot- Brownie Cutie Pie Bucky in the back, then my son's 4H project calf, then Blackie, and Polka Dot is beside Isabelle.

Watch out! They are curious!!!

They are all less than a week old and still a little wobbly-legged yet. Caleb's 4H calf is definitely the friskiest one.

Somebody is JEALOUS!

Showing off "their" calves.

The girls with Polka Dot.

Butterfly Quilts

2011-03-28T05:00:00.000-07:00

I try to make quilts for my new nieces and nephews when they are born. For my niece, Eden, I made this beautiful butterfly quilt, and I used some extra blocks to make a doll-sized version for her older sister, Anna, too.

I used only fabrics I had on hand- I didn't have to buy anything, so it was some major stash-busting! I even used up extra binding that I over-cut from the last quilt and just cut a little more.

I have made butterfly blocks before, but I was inspired by the Moda Bake Shop quilt pattern here. I changed the measurements of my blocks some, though.

I hand quilted inside the butterfly wings and up the middles, and just did X's on the empty blocks (Yes, I am getting lazy here, but that flower one did me in!)

Another finished quilt- actually two!!! YAY!!!

See my link party list at the top for all of the great blogs I link up with!

Sneak Peek in the Studio Friday #3

2011-03-25T04:00:00.000-07:00

Lots of crafting this week! I am just plugging away!!! (Guess this is my version of nesting since the more things I finish the closer I am to moving my sewing stuff for Baby#5)

This pretty basket and the quilt it is sitting on (full blog post on the quilt next week when I finish its complimentary doll version)...I LOVE SUNFLOWERS! I finished this embroidery and frame for my etsy shop.I went through a patriotic quilt phase a few years ago. Here is a little one I made and finally did the binding for. I never had navy blue to do it, and never remembered to get any. For the sake of getting something off the pile I used white. I am still thinking about tea-staining the whole thing...

Now on to the newly started things...

Some baskets for a custom order- this is how I flatten out the bottom!

On Saturday afternoon (I have been sewing on Saturdays a lot lately) I made the entire quilt top for my other baby niece (only 7 months old now), but this is all I can reveal because I don't want my sister to see it yet!

I am linking up at StudioJRU's Sneak Peek in the Studio Friday which you can find here. It is a great motivation for me to finish some things to show you all on Fridays! :)

Homemade Sandals?

2011-03-24T04:52:00.000-07:00

I am a little concerned about my son. Either he is creative or crazy. I guess he must get both from me. I was letting his little sisters make paper flowers and he decided to make his own sandals.

He used paper scraps, cardboard from squirt-gun packaging, LOTS OF TAPE, and I let him raid the scraps from a quilt I had just made. They are even padded with batting.

This is all his own photography, too.

Still scratching my head here...

My Buttercup Bag, Modified

2011-03-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

As promised, I am showing you all my modified Buttercup Bag. I got this LOVELY fabric like I used in my sister-in-law's purse for Christmas (I just reversed the outside and lining for mine). After making one for my daughter as a trial run, I realized the original pattern was too small for me, so I made mine a bit bigger (still a bit too small for me, but I am trying to size down from my HUGE Birdie Sling Bag). I made quite a few other adjustments from the original pattern...

I used magnetic snaps like the pattern called for this time. It was my first time using these -they are really nice! I also added a loop to hook keys or whatever onto, and added an additional pocket (on the other side) just the right size to hold a pack of tissues and my cell phone.

The biggest change I made was that I interfaced the outside and strap, and used fusible fleece to line the inside. I had to take the lining in about 1/4" to account for the bulk of the fleece, but I made sure the band and top of the lining were still the same size so that they would line up when sewing it together. It definitely made the bag sturdier, but I soon discovered that, because of the heavy fleece lining, when I filled the purse up and went to sit it down, it would flop over to one side. So, I had to add small gussets in the bottom.The busy print of the fabric hides the pleats, but it is still a great little bag! :) Unfortunately, I have decided that the purse is also too small because it makes my pregnant belly look much bigger! :)

(And I even look pretty small in this picture!)

Monster Cookies

2011-03-19T11:11:00.002-07:00

Yummmmm...

I LOVE these cookies! I like to say that they are just about everything you could want in a cookie. Oatmeal, peanut butter, chocolate chips, m&m's,...

This is a modified Amish recipe, so you might want to cut it in half! This would make about 10 dozen cookies! It took FOREVER to make a full batch Saturday night, but hubby ate a lot of dough to help me out! :)

Monster Cookies

6 eggs

2 cups brown sugar

2 cups white sugar

4 tsp. baking soda

1 cup margerine

1 cup peanut butter

4 cups Quick Oats

1 tsp. vanilla

4 cups flour

1 bag chocolate chips (or more!)

1 medium bag m&m's (I like to save some to put on top before they go in the oven to make them prettier!)

Mix in order given. Drop by spoonfuls on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. DO NOT OVERBAKE! Take them out even if they look a little underdone - if they get to be golden brown they will get hard and crunchy.