Halloween is here at my house

I haven't been good about posting anything, so I decided to collage some of my fall/Halloween projects. I love the fabric pumpkins around and I had the perfect orange fabric. I filled mine half way with rice so it is kind of moldable and made the stem with rib knit for texture.  I want to make 100 of them but stopped myself at 1. The kids and I picked leaves and made leaf prints on burlap for our mantle.  We "carved" pumpkins which this year was just using those Mr Potato Head pieces and put in a pumpkin.  They are actually pretty cute and no mess. Today I made a dozen of these Frankenstein cupcakes for a party. And I coudlnt' resist the book pumpkin.  Mine already had an orange-ish hint to it, so I left it plain and made my vine out of quilt binding with wire in it.   I also have made 3 costumes, but more pics to come of that. Tonight the kids get to do a dress rehearsal and wear them to a party.  I'll have to post pics later.  I have to make 2 dozen cupcakes for Amelia's class party on Halloween. I liked these, I might do them again, or go a little simpler (and less food coloring) and do spider webs with candy spiders or plastic ring spiders.  Suggestions??

Another Birthday

 Here's another 1 year birthday gift. It's a little car mat that rolls up to take on the go. One side has a little scene and 2 wooden cars held in with elastic so little hands can get them out easily. This little old man that lives down the street from us carves them on his porch.  He must have Parkinson's because every time he reaches out his hands are very shaky.  It makes me even more amazed at these little creations that I can't help walking away choked up every time.  He gives us one every time we walk by and each one is slightly different and it just makes his day and ours!! Last time he gave us these 2 and I immediately thought of this idea for a gift.  So glad I finally got around to it and had someone to share it with. 

 The other side has a race car track. It's made with a chenille fabric and corduroy so it's really nice to touch also. 





















And the whole thing rolls up into a little bundle.  It is about the size of a changing pad so it would fit easily in a diaper bag or big purse.  Happy birthday Liam!!

Belated Birthday presents

 I like to make things, especially for presents. On my husband's side of the family there are a lot of kids. He is one of 7 and my kids are 2 of 17 grand kids. It is a little too overwhelming for me to wrap my head around gifts for that many people, so a few years ago I kind of decided that I would do a baby present when they are born and a 1 year present.  This month there are 2 nephews turning 1, so I wanted to make activity books for them. After I got about a week into the first one, I realized how long it would take me to get 2 done and had to revamp my idea for the second nephew. I haven't even started it yet, so I'll save it for another post. This is a little activity book made around his name, Owen.  

 

 The first page has vinyl pockets that I envisioned putting his family pictures in, but I didn't have any current ones, so I added basic colors and they can add what they want later. I made the large envelope to hold the extras papers or pictures like animals, letters, numbers, whatever they want him to learn, or at some point maybe crayons or other small toys. I will let the mom customize them her way. 

Next is the ocean scene with a removable shark and fish. There are snaps around the page that they can put the pieces in different places. There are a lot of textures for him to feel and the treasure chest opens to see gold coins (gold sequins). The grass is grosgrain ribbon hand sewn with bumps in it to look wavy and the ends melted to prevent fraying. The words are printed on fabric made for your printer I had bought years ago to sew a picture blanket for my sister and still had some laying around.

 The next page is the bird house. The eggs are removable with buttons and the bird can be tucked away in the bird house (or the eggs too). The bird is sewn to be used on either side with little wings that flap.

 The last is a race track with a little race car to zoom around. It is attached to the page with velcro. He could also zoom around other cars, or the other animals from the book!!

 I mostly wanted something that could be fun with lots of colors, and textures and letters and different activities for fine motor skills. I used a very stiff pellon which makes the pages stiff like a real book and the removable pieces are double sided so they can be played with on the page or separately and all are made with the same material so they aren't floppy like the felt kind you see around.  This is the first book I have made like this, so it was a learning curve. Lots of sketching, making things and throwing them away and lots of hand sewing, which is not my thing, but I liked the way it turned out.  Of course I am much more critical of my work and can see so many things I want to change, but that's a slippery slope that leads to never finishing anything!!!  It's not very long, but hopefully long enough to keep him entertained for a few minutes and small enough to tuck in a bag or have in the car. I made a few similar pages (but kept them lose so they could both pay with them and not have to fight over the same book) for my kids almost 2 years ago and they still fight over who gets which one when I pull them out. Their favorite is the race track and our ocean scene (I put some pics of them below if you are curious). I hope this is as successful.

 

Good Ideas??

Anyone have a good teacher gift idea.  I know I am super annoying about planning months in advance, but it gives me time to budget and create and re-do if necessary.  Plus when the holidays come around and I am not rushing around I have so much more fun just enjoying them.  So......any suggestions??

I can see the appeal of a machine

Most of the time my scrapbooking needs/skills are minimal, so I have never been one to see the upside to the cost of a cricut or the other kinds of cutting machines......until Amelia requested for her birthday that I make her a banner with her name on it since Ben got this one for his birthday.  In my husband's family his mom had a tradition of making treats and signs for when they came home and he liked the idea of keeping this tradition. Since her birthday was the day before school, I felt like we had just done a birthday celebration so another day of treats and decorations was a little much.  Instead of all that, I decided to make her a welcome home banner with her name so she could hang it on her wall like Ben. I had some cute school themed scrapbook paper and some cute letter stickers and got to work.  3 hours later (I am sooo not kidding, I was almost late in picking her up) I made this and vowed never again to tackle one of these without the die cuts. That's a lot of cutting!!  But I think it turned out cute and was totally worth it to see her face light up and it's something we can keep for a while to make it all worth it.

(I apologize for the unfocused and dark pics!!I was rushing to snap a photo and my house is the worst for candid photos, but not everything can be staged, right?!?)

I'mmm baack

OK, I have been out of blogging mode forever, as well as project mode.  But now with one less child at home (for 5 hours a day, can you tell how easily I adjusted to that!!!) I am finding myself getting back into being me again. So hopefully I am back at projects and postings.  First off,  my recent gifts to my Tangled crazed daughter, a Rapunzel costume and a hobby horse version of Maximus. Sadly, her birthday was an entire week ago and I just finished Maximus today, but luckily she is very patient and forgiving.  The costume will also be her Halloween costume, so I lucked out with 2 birds with one stone. I actually had most of the stuff on hand. The light purple was a damaged PB sheet from my UT trip a few months ago and the dark purple, velcro and the eyelets I had in my stash.  I just ended up getting the trims.  Since it is dress up, I wanted it to be a 2 piece so she could do it herself, plus a skirt and top was way easier without a pattern than trying to figure out a dress.  It will also grow with her more. The back of the top closes with velcro the whole way down so she can get it off easily, but it still stays on. And I wish I had an embroidery machine, but instead I bought variegated thread and used one of my decorative stitches on my machine to make the stitching down the front and hem of the skirt.  IF I wasn't burned out of this project, I think I would have liked to get a lacey fabric as on overlay on the top to be more true to the movie, but who's looking that closely?!?! It's pretty cute and she loves it.

 

Autism Research

My sister is currently doing research for Autism and needs some help.  If you or someone you know is interested in completing an online survey to help Autism research  please follow the link below

MOMS!! Help us learn more about Autism Spectrum Disorders...Researchers at the University of North Dakota are conducting a research study and would like to ask you about your experience with pesticides and pregnancy complications. If you have a child who has been diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder including Asperger’s and Pervasive Developmental Disorders, please consider completing this online survey. Participants will not only have the chance of winning an iPod, but more importantly responses may help prevent autism and other developmental disorders.
Click here to help autism research https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SCX9R2T

A little pick me up note

You know I love the No Big Dill blog.  She is AMAZING.  5 girls with baby #6 on the way, awesome sewer, amazing photographer and so creative. Today she had a note from her mother on there and it was such a good pep talk.  It's nothing I didn't already know or haven't hear before, but sometimes you just need to hear it from your mom, but since I don't have my mom in the picture, I will settle for listening to her mom!!!

Tried this

I made a recipe yesterday that is worth sharing. I love cheesecake and chocolate.  I would choose cheesecake any day over any other dessert. Not just any cheesecake, but thick no crust New York style. While that takes some skill and I needed to use some cream cheese and heavy cream I had in my fridge and found this recipe from Martha Stewart and thought it looked easy and required no baking and combined my loves.  I halved everything except the ganache.  I used a dark chocolate bar from Trader Joe's for the ganache and oreo cookies with the filling scraped off for the crust and more ganache drizzled on top.  It was a hit. It was even better as it sat in the fridge over night. Yum.  It was light but still a little rich and cold. It seemed like the perfect summer decadent dessert.

 If you look close you can kind of see that layer of fudgy ganache covering the crust.  I am no dark chocolate fan, but this was good. I always laugh when I read recipes that say "use the best dark chocolate you can afford" and snubbed my nose at those chocolate snobs.  Well, now I know why.  This isn't the best chocolate out there, but it's pretty good and organic and still creamy for it being dark. I may need to buy a box of these to have on hand next time I am there. 

For my niece

Ta-da!!  I upcycled an old dress shirt of my brother-in-law's to make a shirt for their daughter who is 3 years younger than Amelia. This was my inspiration. I really intended to add the buttons, but I liked the open feeling of this. (Hope you do too) It's a little small on Amelia but I was glad she modeled it for me lots of times so I could figure out the fit. Did I mention, no pattern?!?!  I am rather impressed with myself. Just looked and made.  The shirt also had some little stains on it that I had to avoid, which made it a little more interesting to cut out.  The sides have a panel to make it wide enough to fit and avoid the stains.  (You can't see it in the pic) but it's one of the little things I really like about it.  I just struggled with the neck and finally gave in to putting in the ribbon.  Then voila, it bunched the way I wanted and was functional.  I made this while Philip was gone late one night and it was so fun to try 2 new things with my machine: sew with the elastic thread and use the double needle. I am totally addicted. It's not completely tailored, but not too bad for not having a serger. I just wish I had finished it for the 4th!!  Sorry little Audrey. Maybe she will fit in it again next year.  Hopefully it brings a little smile to her papa seeing his little girl run around in an old shirt of his.  Thanks for giving me a fun project Annie!!

Birthday creations

It was my son's 3rd birthday yesterday and I decided he needed some boy bling for his celebration and later used in his room (when he actually has his own and is not living in a sea of purple and flowers from his big sister).  I made this out of a favorite old dress shirt of Philip's.  I had made a pair of shorts for him previously and I still had enough left over for this. It took awhile to get the letters to what I wanted and I am unsure about the b.  I went back and forth between capital and lowercase, but ended up with the lowercase and now I am regretting it.  Luckily it will be an easy fix if I do decide to change it. Then I did something I have never done before, bought bias tape!!!! How commercial, I know :)  It cut this project time in half, so I just might be sold. I also used a really thick pellon so they are very stiff, which makes them hang nicely.  I absolutely love it once I got it all together and up on a wall.  My machine was having a hard time with the tension, so the back is not as good as I would want, but I was done fiddling around with it, and who sees the back??  Actually the back is made of the same brown and white polka dot the letters and and it would be really cute flipped around with something on that side too.  Maybe temporary things later.

He also is very into pirates.  It literally is his alter ego. I made him a pirate ship cake with the intentions of filling it up with a bunch of different pirates from cake pops. I hated making cake pops.  They turned out not so good, but they weren't so bad you couldn't recognize them, so I only made 3 and gave up. My candles were supposed to be the cannons.  The package said they were sparkler trick candles. I was imagining them sparkling like the end of a cannonball, but they were just plain old candle flames, and the trick park was that they were just hard to blow out. I expected them to go out then come back on.  Maybe putting them sideways effected their ability to be cool. 

My other project was a superhero cape.  I saw my sister in law make 2 of these on 2 different occasions and they were easy and cute and her boys loved them.  Ben was kind of talking about it after a visit, so I decided to try it out. His favorite color is blue, so I decided to go that route instead of the typical red and I did all black because I liked the flowiness (and it's what I had in the fabric bin). I attempted 2 swords (that's what the grey things are) but it got way to tedious to sew so I bagged the handles so they came out more like just things on the side. I had limited myself to make it in a naptime only from start to finish. The velcro was sewn on as he walked out to my sewing room!!!  Just in the nick of time.  So picking it out and redoing swords was not an option. Plus, it's just play clothes. I loved the fact that when I came out to breakfast this morning, this is what I saw. That makes it a success. 

I found yet another sewing blog

I drool over a lot of her stuff.  Her crochet work and photos and pretty adorable kids, and some of her sewing. She's a little fussy for my taste, and likes vintage patterns.  But, I love this blanket and I am always up for a good flannel blanket pattern.  I have made dozens of the strip flannel with the frayed edge and then I moved on to the squares. Hours of cutting little tiny snips with sweaty hands in apartments with no a/c!!!! I have to say that this is my favorite creation by far.  A happy mistake that turned out cool. A little nod to argyle. I love argyle anything.

But this is adorable and just the right kind of tedious I would like and can't be more tedious than this above???.  I have a stack of flannel waiting to be used and I think I just found the project!!!!

Little shout out

One of my college roomies is having her first baby girl (second child) in 43 days (according to her baby counter on her blog!!!) She is obsessed with U2, the band.  She lived in England for a year or 2 and while she was there she basically jaunted to Ireland to stalk band members and check out local bars and U2 history spots.  She also does not want pink or anything with big flower headbands.  Just not her.  So I wanted to make her something sweet that still gave a little shout out to U2 without being to obvious.  So here is my creation: a little sun dress with little leggings to match.  This pic makes it look so long.  I imagined it to be a newborn size, I hope it's not ridiculously too long. The leggings really will only show when the baby moves, but for the pic, they hang out making it seem long.  It's hard to make clothes for something you can't model!!

 Here's a close up of my Ireland with the heart over Dublin (that's where U2 is from for those not in the know about them).  It's not a perfect match, but that country has a very jagged coastline which makes for very hard stitching!!! Philip thought maybe I should stitch the word Dublin or Ireland on it to make it more clear.  I am torn.  I kind of like the cryptic nature of this, making it an inside thing for her and her close friends.  But then again, will it be embarrassing for her to take her baby out in it and have people think she is wearing some totally horrible interpretation of a bear??  That's what Amelia was calling it. Thoughts????

 The over the shoulder bow unties completely to help it get over little heads without stretching or being too low.  I used this tutorial but wanted it to be higher on the neck, so the usable bow was a good solution for me.  It's all jersey knit tee material, so it's soft, comfy, washable and breathable.

 I was going to make the leggings ruched, but they were so tiny, it wasn't working.  So I decided to leave it raw.  I kind of love the way raw jersey curls and looks too.  Plus it's easy with no serger!!

Hopefully her little baby looks cute in it and she can get some use out of it before it gets too cold. 

My finds

I have been slacking in posting, but I figure like 3 people look at this, so whatever.  Anyway, I went to UT and got some awesome deals at the downeast clearance center. I mostly have to share with Claire who was asking me what I get there. They have all the mess ups and damaged items (and occasionally some good ones) from Potterybarn and sometimes some other retailers, but you have to dig.  I went with a mission.  A potterybarn backpack for Amelia and some sheets I could cut up to make a quilt for Ben.  I dug through the bins of backpacks and I scored these!!!

 

I was so lucky. Amelia already has a lunchbox with the same pattern, so I love that we found something to match and it only had a small "M" embroidered on it which can/will be easily covered up with an iron patch of some sort. It still had the paper inside and the tags on it. It is the smaller kindergarten version which was also really good since she is so small, all the other backpacks seems to be impossible for her to wear empty.  How could she do it with a notebook in there??

The next was Ben's.  I mean how lucky to find a simple colored one with no design with HIS name on it. Luckily he has a very common name (and I am finding Amelia's is also getting more and more common)  My only concern is it is huge and my kids are tiny.  So I hope by the time he can carry it without toppling backwards, he will not be embarrassed by the fact it screams his name. And, does anyone else find it crazy that some of these little tiny kindergarten sized backpacks have cell phone attachments and holes for headphones for your mp3 player???? 

Last, I found this one with my nephew's name on it.  He is also obsessed with sharks.  I mean how lucky is that?  I think it was worn and then returned because it has a name inside and the bottom is a little rubbed.  Nothing that wouldn't happen the first week of school, so hopefully he won't mind.  And, drumroll please, I got all 3 for the grand total of $21!!!  These typically retail close to $30 especially with the monogram.  I would have paid full price for them because they are such good bags, but it's nice to test run them at a great price so I know if I want to get them full price when it's time to replace them.  I am pretty sure I already know the answer.  I have a diaper bag that just keeps going and the kids have little mini backpacks that have been hiked with, puked on and peed on and just throw them in the wash and they are like brand new.  These are seriously some good backpacks PB!!
 

I also wanted these specific sheets with airplanes on them and turned around to look in the sheets bin and right on top was the one.  It really was my day.  I actually ended up finding some other ones that will work out better, along with a sham and a couple other sheets I liked the feel and color of.  Then I found 2 shade shirts for $5 for both.  And Ben really wanted a boy hooded towel since all of ours are girl.  Poor thing. He gets all the girl hand-me-downs. I found a super soft shark hooded towel with only 2 letters stitched on it, "NO" which I thought was funny.  It is pretty cute and has a fin.  I would totally pay full price for these too.  They are so soft and a good size.  So glad I tested them out for cheap so now I know.  This shopping trip has changed my mind about PB goods.  A little over priced, but if you get a sale, totally worth it.  Great steal and loving all of them.  So for $65 I got a ton of what I would consider fun stuff for the kids and me for projects.  Stay tuned to see the blanket I make out of my sheets.

Model

So I make a lot of projects and then mail them off to people far away and very rarely get to see it on the baby. Remember this,

I sent this to my sister to give to a friend and I got this back. Pretty adorable, right.  This baby definitely helps!!!
I have some cute projects coming up.  Anyone want to volunteer their baby to model them!?!?! 

Upcycle projects

Before and After

Here are 2 of my upcycled projects. I was totally inspired by this outfit.  I didn't take a before pic of the shirt before I started cutting and ripping it apart.  Too bad because it is such a good transformation.  It was pretty unflattering and actually in my maternity clothes because I thought maybe I could pull it off when I had a baby bump, but let's be honest, it still wouldn't have been very flattering.  It was baggy and had long turned up cuffed sleeves and a wrap around front with this tie that was literally 3 feet long.  My sister actually gave it to me because the woman who bought it had bought a bunch on sale and thought she would like some.  (That's a story in itself)  So she passed one on to me years ago and there is has sat in a box and I hate things sitting in boxes being unused.  I am a regular de-junker.  So I decided I would have a go at it and see what I could do. I altered it to actually flatter and fit my shape, made a button-up front, made the ruffles down the front and shortened the sleeves and re-cuffed them.  The material is a stretchy dress shirt fabric and was really nice and forgiving to work with.
The skirt I bought in probably 1997 from Old Navy.  Can you believe I am still hanging on to it.  Every time I wore it, I felt like I should be on an episode of 19 Kids and Counting so it has just sat in my closet unworn for too long.  I have put it in my donate pile many times but always pull it back out because it's so simple and in excellent condition and I never find something I like to replace it.  My solution, to lop off a good 20 inches or so and bring it more in the now.  Simple hem job for this but now I have a brand new outfit, tailored to me and with no shopping.  Stay tuned for what else I can manipulate into something I will actually wear.  I have about 10 shade shirts that are calling my name.  I just need to find the right project for them.

Changed my mind.....

 So I was too worried that my headbands would not be age appropriate or "cool" enough for the girls here, so I decided to go with something a little more safer and whipped up 10 of these "sailor knot"bracelets.  I used my favorite 100% cotton yarn so they are soft and totally washable and a little flexible to fit over your hand but still be snug on your wrist.  I love the white and have one for myself, and the green is nice on too.  Not a huge fan of the pink, but some girls are into pink, so I threw it in.

Great de-stash project for the ends of a yarn ball you have laying around or strips of fabric.  You could do this with really anything. (I have some leather cording I think I am going to do next and see how it is, but I kind of am in love with the white one, so it might be hard to beat)  I followed this tutorial to make the knots.  She uses cording or thin rope.  I just chain crocheted a long piece to give the yarn some substance.  I wrapped mine around a tapered glass instead of a can and it worked great to slide off and on and to make different sizes.  Here's a hint to figure out how much string or yarn you need: wrap your yarn around the object you are going to be using to make it (or your hand balled up) 7 times and that seems to be a good length. I kind of felt like a little girl making friendship bracelets again.  Amelia and I have matching ones, per her request.  She seriously loves matching and it's a little embarrassing to me, but I suck it up because she loves it so much and it makes it kind of sweet.  But these are the grown up version of friendship bracelets!!! (at least that's what I am telling myself)

Results of not checking my gauge

I have made enough botched hats to know that patterns end up way bigger than you want them to, at least for me.  I figured it would probably be a little big for a 4-8 year old like the pattern said, but I intended it to be more my size.  This was even huge on me and I even reduced it 6 rows when I started to see how it was shaping up.  Can you imagine it 2 inches longer??  It makes Ben look like a Bob Marley fan. It's still pretty cute, and the newborn size will be adorable for a little baby, but I was looking forward to a new hat. I tried felting it, but it was only 20% wool so it wouldn't felt even a little.  No biggie, we just added this to the dress up box.  It was quick and fun and can't wait to redeem myself with making the appropriate size!!

Can I make one of everything off here??

I love her quilts and lots of other stuff too. This is from V and Co.  I wish I had an orphanage (for lots of reasons) but one of them is so I could make baby quilts over and over again.  I'll take one of these,
and one of these