Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Ornaments as gifts

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas, or other holiday that you may celebrate. I just love the times that family gets together because we have such a good time.

I made these ornaments for my mother-in-law. She loves things that are made with the kids' hand prints on them. I started doing it when they were little and since they just turned 13, I'm starting to run low on ideas that will still work.

When I say I'm running low on ideas on the hand print gifts I am totally serious. We have done everything I could think of on my own....reindeer with hand print antlers, hand print Christmas wreath, footprint fish, footprint ghosts, to name a few. It's been so hard to think of new things that when they were still little I put paint on their little butts and sat them on a t-shirt and turned those prints into butt-erflies. LOL Thank goodness for other crafters out there to keep me going with this. I wonder how much longer I can get my kids to still participate in this madness. HA!

Anyway, thank goodness for pinterest! ....which is where I saw the idea for these.

This is a Rudolph ornament made with a thumb print.


And these are snowmen ornaments made with three fingers. Their hands are too big now to do it any differently -- unless, of course, if I had bought giant ornaments for them to do these on. lol


I also made her a set of coasters but didn't get a picture taken of them before they got wrapped up. Then I forgot to do it after presents were opened. But, picture this: I used tumbled marble tiles from Lowe's that were about 4" X 4". I printed out a variety of pictures of the grand kids (both our kids and Dax's sister's kids). Using mod podge I glued them to the tiles. The pictures didn't take up the whole tile but I mod podge-ed the whole tile so that it would all be sealed good. I think I went over the top of the pictures with the mod podge three times to be sure to get them well attached and well sealed. I hope that putting a drink on them won't mess them up. (fingers crossed). But, my mother-in-law liked them. She couldn't wait to take them to work and show them off!

Monday, December 19, 2011

Just In Time

I had made this wreath weekend before last. However, I was too lazy to go and dig through my ribbon so that I could hang it.


Well, since we had family coming over the weekend I finally got around to finishing it on Saturday morning. I mean, I wouldn't want the Christmas decorations up too early. LOL


I just love these wreaths made with the ornaments but I'm too cheap frugal to buy one. I bought these ornaments a couple of years ago after Christmas when they were on sale for about $1 a box. I've had them just sitting around waiting for me to do this, but the last time I tried, the ornaments kept falling off.

I saw a tutorial somewhere (I can't for the life of me remember where) that showed stringing the ornaments on an old coat hanger that had been made into a circle. Could it get any easier than that?!

I hot glued the tops onto all of the ornaments and let them set before I strung them onto the coat hanger. Seriously, that took longer than anything else.

I wish I had known this two years ago when I bought these things. I could have had this wreath a long time ago!!

Oh, and here's a little lesson that I learned along the way. It might save you some drama. Either do this with your wreath laying flat on some surface or attach one side to something to hold it up if you want it up. My ornaments are the thin, breakable ones. I let one of them drop too quickly and it broke when it hit the other ornaments. One of my daughters was at my feet sweeping up that mess when I dropped one side of the hanger and about 10 ornaments fell on and around her. We have cement floors so you can imagine the shattering of ornaments that was going on around the two of us. 8-) Lesson learned!

Monday, December 12, 2011

Pancake Balls

I've done it again. I've managed to go ages without posting. Shame on me!!!  In my (slight) defense, though, Dax and I were out of town for 9 or 10 days. Does that count? lol

Anyway, I have lots of things in the works, but nothing finished quite yet......and honestly, I'm running out of time to get some of them finished. (read: Christmas gift giving panic is setting in!!!)

But, aside from that, there was this going on.


For their birthday, the kids got gift cards to Target. While Dax & I were gone, my parents took them to spend their gift cards. Addison got one of these:

 It's a cake ball maker. She's made lots of brownie balls and they're great.

Here's a little secret.....if you don't cook them quite as long as the instructions say and leave them a little gooey in the middle, they're like molten lava cakes! Heaven!!

Anyway, the other morning I decided to make banana pancakes because I had bananas that needed to be used but didn't have time for banana muffins. I had seen these banana bread pancakes and decided to give them a try.

And, just to make it completely different, I cooked them in Addison's cake ball maker.



I put a few in a bowl and drizzled syrup over them.


The kids thought they were great, and a little fun since they were in a different shape.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Furniture re-make

I know I haven't been very busy here on my blog, but I have been busy. :0)

My daughter has furniture in her room that belonged to my great-grandmother. It wasn't some beautiful furniture that left any fear of messing up the original finish. As a matter of fact, it had mis-matched fronts on the drawers which leads me to believe that maybe as things fell apart, two pieces were blended into one to make do.

So, I've painted a primer coat of white on everything. Then I painted the front of all of the drawers with brown chalk board paint. (She loves that!)

I had bought some drawer pulls but then decided that I just didn't really like them.

Of course, I didn't decide that until after I had filled in the holes from the original pulls and sanded everything down. Then (much later) when I decided I didn't like it, I had Dax come drill out all the holes I had filled in. LOL Figures, right?

Anyway, I had seen somewhere where they had just used fabric strips for the drawer pulls so that's what I did. I like the way it turned out and fortunately Abigail likes them too.


I also used some of the fabric to recover the chair at her desk. It's just a cheap little chair, but it's serving it's purpose right now. :0)

Now, I just need to order the paint and paint the desk and dresser. Oh, and she has a big wicker chair that needs to be painted too. It's starting to come together nicely and she's so happy with it that she's actually keeping her room clean so that she can enjoy it. Win-Winn!!

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Recycled crayons

Well, first things first.

Since I only had one entry for the My Memory Suites give away, Libbie is our winner. Congratulations!! You're going to have a lot of fun with this software. It's addicting.


I had seen a picture of this, but didn't have any of the instructions to go with it, so I was just winging it.

I dug out our tub of old crayons, markers, colored pencils, etc. The girls and I pulled out most of the old and broken crayons, peeled the paper off, and broke them into small pieces.


I had bought two different silicone molds at Target in the dollar section (although they were more than a dollar  lol) to use. One was a gingerbread man and the other a Christmas tree.


I decided that I wanted my recycled crayons to be thick so that they wouldn't break easily with little hands trying to color with them. So we filled the molds to the top.

We had to refill that little yellow bowl several times to get all the molds full.

I put them in a preheated oven at 225F. I really don't know how long they were in there because I got started cleaning the dinner dishes and forgot about them. lol I remembered when we were able to smell the wax.

This is how they looked when they came out.

The wax mixed together a little more when I was taking them out just from the movement.

And here's the final products.


I'm happy with the way they turned out. I had to make a second batch because my girls took off with most of the first one. I'm going to send one of each shape along with a Christmas coloring book to my nieces and nephew.

Some things I learned.....

The cheap crayons are easier to peel.

But, some of the cheap crayons won't melt well. There were a few green crayons that didn't melt no matter how long I left them in there.

A shorter melting time would probably keep the colors from mixing together quite so much.

The smaller the crayon gets, the harder it is to break.

It was a fun project for the kids and I to do together and now I've used up almost all of the old, yucky, broken crayons.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

How about a give away?

Have you tried My Memories, yet?


It's scrapbook software that you down load to your own computer. There are all kinds possibilities with this software.


I tried it out and in just a few minutes was able to put together a banner for my blog.



The only thing I came up with were the pictures and the layout. All of the other elements are part of the My Memories Suite package.

There are standard layouts that you can start with, or you can start with a blank page and build it any way you want.

Pretty cute stuff, huh?

I don't even do scrap booking and I'm pretty in love with this program. Just think of all the things you could do. You can design your own Christmas cards, make personalized cards for any occasion, postcards, bookmarks, business cards, and on and on. Any of those things can be totally and completely your design and you can do it so easily.

And seriously, I've only pointed out a few ideas for things to print onto paper. You can put it all together and have your own album printed professionally, or a calendar made (great holiday gift giving!!) But, they also have options for putting things together as a movie, burning dvd's, and even an option that says 'iPod ready' (haven't tried that yet, but I am curious.)

I swear I'm getting giddy with all of the new ideas that are popping into my head as I type this. I'm so far behind on all the other things I've got going on, the last thing I need is another distraction, but I'm going to have to spend some more time playing with this.







So, the folks at My Memories have been kind enough to let me give away one of their My Memories Suite packages. How great is that? Now one of you can have as much fun as me putting together all kinds of things.

Leave me a comment telling me your favorite layout  between  now and midnight November 14th and I'll draw a winner on November 15th. How much easier can it get?

If you get over there and decide that you can't wait for the drawing, or don't want to take your chances with not winning you can visit My Memories and use the code STMMS18654 in the coupon code for $10 off of the scrap booking software AND $10 off in the My Memories Store. An awesome deal either way you look at it!!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

New to Old

I can't believe how quickly time passes. I feel like we're busy about 20 hours a day every day......even though I know that's not true. The kids' activities keep us so busy and I've gotten sick once again. I really think it all came on because of the stress brought on for me in having a parent, teacher, principal, counselor conference at the school. I don't do conflict and confrontation well so this was a huge stressor for me.


Anyway, the kids are studying the Salem Witch Trial at school and have a project due. Two of them are making diaries and two of them are making photo albums.


Soooooo, I spent the weekend making copy paper look old and worn.

I first tried using tea but that really didn't make things stained enough. So I decided to go with coffee. I was going to use regular brew coffee but then decided to go with instant coffee so that I could darken it easily and to my liking.

Here's what I came out with.


I put the coffee into a 13X9 pan and just ran the paper through it. Then I put it on cookie sheets and dried it in the oven which was set at 200 F.  They kids were thrilled with it and that's really all that matters. Right?

Friday, October 21, 2011

Homecoming

Things haven't even thought about slowing down around here. If I had known it would be this busy I would have had kids when I was younger and had more energy. lol As crazy as it was when they were babies, I never would have thought it would get more hectic as they got older. To add to the insanity, Wyatt has been released to start physical therapy three days a week. No worries here about having too much time on our hands and getting bored. lol

This week is homecoming week at school so I made mums for the girls to wear. I was able to make all three mums for less than one would have cost if I had ordered them. That's just crazy!!

Here's Kirsten with hers.

(That's Abigail peaking around her and Addison in the background.)

There are several ribbons that they all have in common and then they each got ribbons that are specific to them. Like Addison got soccer and Abigail got band. Kirsten loves peace signs to there is one hanging from her mum. I was kidding her because there is also some ribbon with hearts on it that she picked out as well as a silver football. So I guess her mum stands for peace, love and football? They don't think I'm so funny. lol

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Good Food

It's been super busy around here which is predictable once school starts back up.

Addison is busy with soccer 3-4 days per week.

Addison and Abigail both have cheer leading at least 2 days per week.

We just signed Addison up with Kumon because she's needing some help in math and that's another 2 days per week.

If we throw in working, orthodontist appointments, and now doctors appointments since Wyatt dislocated his knee, that pushes us almost into overload.

However, I have been crafting in my spare moments as I find them. They mostly come while I'm in the car waiting for someone to their current activity. lol

The other morning I did make these s'mores crescents.

I saw a picture on pinterest and decided I could probably figure it out on my own.

(btw, is anyone else as addicted to pinterest as I am? It's an obsession, people!!)

I just took crescent rolls and places a few mini marshmallows and a few chocolate chips on top.


 I rolled them up (it helps to fold the sides in after the first roll--rumor has it that the gooey stuff can leak out and make a mess--not that I would know from experience) and cooked them just a minute or two longer than the directions on the package.


I guess they tasted alright since the kids ate them all and I didn't even get to try one. But I'll take those types of critiques any day.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Another one bites the dust.....

Another UFO, that is.


I had started this scarf a long time ago. And I do mean long. I was using plastic circular knitting needles to do it and because I stitch so tightly, I broke one of the needles, so I just left the scarf sitting. And sitting. And sitting.


Last weekend I was looking for something else when I stumbled upon it again.


After looking at it for a bit and wondering why the pattern wasn't still with it, I decided that it really was long enough just like it was.

Since I was in the middle of a row when my needle broke, I just pulled those stitches off. Then I finished off that edge, added some fringe, and called it done.

Now I just need for it to get cold enough to be able to wear it. It's made with a cotton yarn and is super soft. And, of course, all three girls are arguing over who gets it and the answer is Me. lol

It always feels so good to get something finished that has been sitting there waiting for so long. Although, I also feel foolish for letting sit there for so long when I could have just finished it way back when. Oh well, it's done, right?

Friday, September 23, 2011

Quick Refasion

When I was just looking through Craft Gossip (which I often do) I came across a great tutorial for turning a hoodie into a cardigan. Of course I clicked over to check it out.

The tutorial for it is at Coca Cola Island (you can go directly to it here) and it really is super easy.

I asked the girls for one of their hoodies that they didn't wear too much anymore and Abigail was the only one willing to take the chance.

I didn't think to take a before picture, but it was just a hoodie. :0)

I also didn't print out the tutorial and my computer at home is sick with a nasty virus so I can't use it. I had read through the tutorial and had to go by memory and I still managed to do alright.

 (I couln't get her to put down the popsicle or change out of her pajamas for the photo shoot. LOL)
She's pretty happy with it. At least that's what I'm assuming since she's already worn it to school. That makes me happy. And really, it doesn't take long at all. 

I think the only thing I really did differently than the tutorial said was that I didn't 'cut' the zipper out, I used my seam ripper and took it out to keep the nice edge that was already in place and to save the zipper. Win - win!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Penny Mat 2

I finished my second penny mat from my mat of the month club (yes, that means I'm behind.....as usual) from Homestead Hearth.



I'm glad I got this one finished in time for fall!!

I'm really loving these because they work up so quickly. And honestly, it's nice repetative work that doesn't require too terribly much thought. Sometimes I just need that. *grin*

Monday, September 19, 2011

What next?

I posted before that I was going to participate in the stitch-along for Halloween at Feeling  Stitchy and I've actually done it.


Woo-hoo!

I decided to use the crayon technique again and then just outlined it with 2 strands of black thread.

I thought it came out pretty cute. And, certainly, using the crayons to fill in makes it a super fast project.

Now I don't know what else to do with it. I can't decided on framing, adding a fabric border to make a quilted wall hanging, or even using it as a table decoration or maybe even a pillow. See? Too many options.

What do you think?

Saturday, September 17, 2011

How cute are these?

I was browsing through some of the things on Etsy (I just love that place) and came across these.

Are those the cutest things ever, or what?

They are sold in this shop.


I don't even know how much they cost, what else she has in her shop, or anything else. lol I just saw them, thought they were adorable, and had to share.


I only wish I knew anyone that was still having babies!!

Friday, September 16, 2011

It's the little things.....

Do you find that sometimes the silliest little things can make you just giddy?


That's what happened when I saw this cute little whisk.


Can you see the little hearts?

And it's small.....maybe 6 inches long? I just think it's adorable.

Of course all three of my girls think it's super cute too. It's my son and my husband that think I'm nuts. LOL

But, hey, if a $1 purchase can thrill me then that should make every one's life easier, right? How about you? Do you get giddy over silly little things like this?

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Quick finish

I promise that I really am working on things, even if it has been a little slow here on the blog.

I had a few orders from whoopdwhoop that I had to get done. One of them was for felt bow-tie pasta and the other was for the name shirts that I make.

Here's a picture of the shirt.

She was hoping for a dark purple shirt but would be happy with white if I couldn't find one. Obviously I couldn't find one. And I would have thought that would be easy since the local high school's colors are purple and white. I was clearly wrong!! I went to just about every store in town and couldn't find a dark purple shirt. I'm sure the one store I didn't go to has an overstock of them and has marked them down to clearance prices. lol

Monday, September 12, 2011

For the love of cookies

...and easy cookies are even better!!

I bake cookies every morning to put in my children's lunches. They each get two cookies so one batch of dough will last for the week.

If I made all of the cookies at once, there wouldn't be any left by day 2!!

I know I've posted about the recipe using a cake mix before (one box cake mix, 1/2 cup oil, and 2 eggs--that's it!!) but they're sooooo versatile that I couldn't help bring it up again.

For these I used a red velvet cake mix and white chocolate chips.

Talk about good!!

Monday, September 5, 2011

New bracelet

I made this cute bracelet in a jiffy to wear at Addison's soccer tournament this weekend.



It's made from a strip of fabric cut from an old t-shirt and some pony beads. And when I say quick, I mean it. It took longer to string the beads than it did to crochet the bracelet. lol

You can see the tute for it over at The Stuff of Success.

She knotted hers together at the ends but I just left mine so that I could tie it in a bow when I wear it.

And, although it did look super cute and I got lots of complements, it didn't bring Addison's team any luck on the field. They lost all three games. As a matter of fact, they didn't even manage to score once over the weekend. *sigh*

Friday, September 2, 2011

Something else....

I've decided to participate in a stitch along over at Feeling Stitchy (like I need something else on my 'to do' list.)


But I can't help myself!! Look how cute this pattern is:


Click on over to her site and download the free pattern and join in!!

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Mug set

I made the mug mat for this set quite some time ago. It's part of a craft pay-it-forward that I decided to participate in at the beginning of the year. But after I got the mat finished I didn't know what else to make to go with it.

Why it took me so long to think of making a cozy with more fabric from that collection, I may never know. I guess things just come to me sloooowwwwly sometimes. lol I mean, it's not like I haven't read a lot of blogs with lots of people making these. It just didn't click for me.

But once it did finally click, it only took about 30 minutes to knock this one out.

 I love this button. It's from a tin of really old buttons from an estate sale that a friend of mine bought for me.

I didn't have any coordinating elastic so I dug around a little. I had these little strips that I had cut from an old pair of my girls' tights (I use them to twist their hair up to curl it) and decided it would be perfect. It's got plenty of stretch but is nice and soft too.

Here's the mat, again.

 And the set together.

I'm putting it in the mail today. I hope she likes it!!

Monday, August 22, 2011

Jewelry Making

Abigail spent a majority of her time this weekend making pendants and earrings.

She had requested that I buy her some clay (which I did) and she got to work as soon as I got home with it.

Here are just a FEW of the many things she made.
Dreamsicle
 from the side
 Fortune Cookies
 Hot Dog
 Chocolate pie earrings
 Cake pendant with slices earrings
and these truffle pendant and earrings were my favorite.
 

I'm just blown away by her ability to see something and be able to reproduce it. Or, more impressively, to be able to visualize what she wants and then make it. I don't generally have that ability. I need a lot of helps along the way. lol She totally gets this talent from my Dad. Wish it hadn't skipped right over me. lol

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Tried something new

Last week at We Love French Knots she had a guest post from Wendi Gratz at Shiny Happy World. Well, Wendi had included a coupon to get one of her patterns for free for a limited time. It was adorable and I thought it a perfect fit for one of my ongoing projects.

A little background. My girls' bathroom is painted in an awfully bright pink. Right now it has a lot of butterflies around but I've decided to re-do it. I'm doing things slowly as my budget allows. I decided to go with a retro theme. I'm using the 50's Barbie silhouette. You know, the one with her hair in a ponytail. And the stylized black cat silhouette from the same time period. I bought new throw rugs when they were on sale awhile back along with a few other things. (Ah, the lengths that I will go to just so I don't have to repaint. lol)

I guess now the colors will be the same bright pink but with black and white accents this time around.

So, here's that pattern that I stitched up (in a single afternoon, mind you!)

It's actually stitched on white but it glared too much in my picture with enough light on it to make it look white.

The pattern is called Betty's Beehive. Isn't it just adorable?!

The something new that I tried is the coloring. I had never done it before. My colors are much more intense than I had planned. I had read that you should color it darker than what you want the finished product to be, because a lot of the color will come out when you use the iron to set it. Well, almost none of my color came out. lol I don't know if it was because I was using twist up crayons instead of traditional crayons. But, regardless, I'm thrilled with how it came out.

Now I'm just trying to decide how to finish it off - like frame it, add a fabric border and hang it as is, etc. The girls love it too and can't wait to have their bathroom re-styled.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Birthday Gifts

My birthday was weekend before last. It was a 'take it easy' kind of day. That's what I asked for. lol With everything else that goes on and needs to be taken care of, those kinds of days don't come around often enough.

Anyway, two of the girls made gifts for me.

Kirsten drew this Snoopy for me because she knows how much I love Snoopy.


 Isn't it cute?

Abigail made this little t.v. for me.
Get it? Since my initials are T.V. that's why it says I 'heart' T.V.  And that cute little girl is her.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

ABC's

It's not that I haven't been doing anything, I just haven't been finishing anything. lol


That's what happens when you work on something bigger.


At the moment, I'm busy learning my ABC's....



I'm loving these blocks!!

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Last minute gifts

Two of my girls are cheerleaders for the school year that's just around the corner. If I make it through the whole year without doing harm to their cheer coach it will likely be a miracle. I've already been somewhere past livid with her and the year hasn't even started. Lord help me!


No, really, I mean that. I'm going to need help.


Okay, back to the point of this post. When I picked the girls up from practice yesterday afternoon they informed me that they needed gifts for their 'big sisters' for today.

Seriously? (Don't get me started again!)


Now, you need to know that I live kind of out of town of a small town. The next town is about 25 miles away. My gift choices here in town are the dollar store, the grocery store, hardware store, or feed store. Not many options right here for gifts a teenage girl might want. I didn't have the time, energy, or gas money to head all the way back into the bigger town again. The cheer coach's suggestion is always candy, but Addison's big sister is seriously ill and can't have the sugar right now so that wasn't even an option.


The girls threw out a lot of different ideas so we settled on these.

For Abigail's big sis I made a bracelet and a pouch to put it in.


 I had a Diet Rite can for this bracelet. Fortunately I already had the bracelet part made. I had another project in mind for it that didn't work out the way I had hoped so it was a quick project for this. All I had to do was make the charms and put them on there.

Then I made her this little pouch to put it in.

The picture does not do this fabric justice. It is a whole lot brighter than this. Think 70's psychedelic. Abigail picked it out of a bunch of scraps I had.


Addison decided to go with a pillow made from a tie dye t-shirt that I had in with my stash.


I thought the pillow was too plain when I got it finished so I cut two little scraps of fabric. On the top piece I put her name with a paint marker then used black thread to stitch it to the other piece. I sewed them onto the pillow with my stitch hidden under the the top piece and left the raw edges out. Addison put a little bottle of hand sanitizer from Bath & Body Works in a carrier and tied it around the pillow. Lizzie can't be around germs any more than absolutely necessary so Addison thought that good smelling sanitizer was called for.

I finished the two projects somewhere around midnight. I left the dishes in the sink so that these could get done. Wonder if anyone else did those for me today!

I hope the girls liked their gifts.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Insanity Update

We've been doing the Insanity workouts now for 5 weeks.

I have to say that I'm a little disappointed.

I've only lost a couple of pounds. I know that's better than gaining so I do try to look at the bright side there.

I do feel better after the workouts are over (read I don't feel like I'm going to pass out and die anymore) but this week we move up to a harder level.

Dax has done some research and found that for people who didn't have a lot of weight to lose (we're both hoping for around 10 pounds) that they didn't notice a difference until they got to this second level.

I hope that's true because this has been an awful lot of hard work for pants to just be tighter across my butt!!

Fortunately, we aren't doing measurements today because Dax is out of town. It's a good thing because my birthday was Saturday and it was our no diet day. We had Mexican food, cookies, and ice cream!! I don't want to know what kind of damage that might have done. But, we only have 2 no diet days a month. It's really the only thing that keeps me doing this. If I thought I would never get to have foods that I love again, I wouldn't be able to do this long term.

Wish me luck on the new workouts coming up. Dax gets back tomorrow night. Depending on the time we'll either start these on Tuesday or Wednesday. I'm a little scared because the first part is hard enough!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Another one done

I finished my 9th block in the Annie BOM from Daisy Cottage Quilting.

I couldn't get a good picture to save my life. Maybe I'll try again and replace this one.

It doesn't show up very well, but I used french knots to make the cuffs on her dress all nice and fluffy. :0)

I've got three more to go and I'll be done with this. I can't wait to get them all together!!