Guess I was good

I must have been a good girl this year because Santa was good to me. Actually, he was VERY GOOD to me.

Just look at what he brought me!!

It also came with an embroidery attachment, and he brought a quilting foot too.

My wonderful husband went and picked it out, bought it, and wrapped it all on his own. Quite frankly, it's far nicer than anything I would have bought for myself even if he told me to go get whatever I wanted.

He may have just earned himself a lifetime of brownie points.

I'm terribly excited to sit down and really play with it. I've done a little bit of playing but with all the family that's been at our house through the holidays I haven't been able to do much. I am so far beyond excited about it!!

Chocolate Hazelnut Snickerdoodle Cookies

These cookies were as good as they sound and were a hit with everyone that tried them. I got the recipe here.

And I should mention that it's super easy. Start with a snickerdoodle cookie mix and add a chocolate hazelnut spread on top. That's two of my favorite things......easy and delicious!

It's that time of year....

Every year I make about 100 dozen (yes, really) cookies for some of our monthly clients. Next week is that time so I've been busy using my family for taste testing. I don't know why it didn't occur to me sooner to share the recipes here, but at least it finally did.

The first recipe we tried was for Lemon Bars from Living Practically's blog.

Now, these are SUPER easy....only two ingredients! A single step (only add water to the mix kind) angel food cake mix and a 15(ish) ounce can of lemon pie filling. Boom! That's it.

 And we liked the way they taste. However, because they really aren't very bar like they won't be included with the boxes of cookies.

I really think it would have been better if I had cooked them a little longer. The bottom didn't cook quite long enough to hold them together when I tried to get them out of the pan. So we just scooped it out with a spoon and ate it that way.

Hey, whatever works!

Now, if you want to make these, go to her blog and read the instructions and follow them. You will find that there are a lot of comments and some of them might scare you away from trying this recipe, but if you follow the directions they're super easy and will work for you. I suspect many of the commenters didn't even bother to actually read the directions.

I would have included a picture but, like I said earlier, I never thought to post the recipe links here until now.

Many more to come.....

Quick Necklace

I put together a quick necklace over the weekend.

I really like it.

Too bad I never remember to wear necklaces.

DIY Coffee Creamer

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving (if you celebrate it.) We had a great time. The kids turned 14 the day before so we spent that Wednesday celebrating with them. Then everyone was at our house on Thursday and we all ate too much. Mostly on Friday we laid around trying to recover (and eating leftovers.) Then on Saturday Dax and I headed to Las Vegas for several days to attend an accounting continuing education conference......what? if you have to spend your days listening to people talk about accounting, there's got to be something fun to do at night so we don't go completely mad. :0)

We got home late Thursday night and it seems that it's been non-stop business as usual since.

But, some time ago, I found this super simple recipe for homemade coffee creamer at Mrs. Happy Homemaker's blog. Actually, I found it on Pinterest and followed the links to her blog.

It's as simple as these three ingredients.

Milk, sweetened condensed milk, and flavoring.

I used a mason jar and poured in one can of sweetened condensed milk, I refilled the can with regular milk and poured it in the jar, and added some flavoring. I think the original recipe said 2 Tbls. but I'm not really one for exact measurements so I just poured it in until I thought it looked good. Then I put t he lid on and shook it until everything was combined.

You get something that looks like this:

I've made the recipe several times now. I've made the dulce de leche, vanilla, and right now I have a cinnamon vanilla that I just made.

I love how easy it is to make, I usually have all of the ingredients on hand, and I can make the flavors as strong or as weak as I choose. Win, win, win!

Quick and inexpensive gift idea

I saw this some time ago on pinterest but cannot for the life of me find it again to give due credit. I'm sorry to the brilliant person that originally thought of it.


Anyway!!


Dax's mom has been telling me over and over that she needs a new soap dispenser in her kitchen because her other one broke. I bought her the kind that she wants, but decided that before I give it to her, she gets this one first.

I took a picture of Dax and printed it out in color on plain white paper. Then I cut around it and took it to Office Depot and had it printed in color on transparency film.

I cut that out and rolled it up enough to fit inside this bottle of soap, which I peeled all of the labels off of. I really didn't care what scent it was, I just wanted the soap to be clear.

Here's a close up of the picture.

She'll get a big kick out of it.

And really, it only cost a couple of bucks to do. I think it would make a fun gift for anyone, even if the picture isn't this silly. It would be great for grandparents with pictures of the grand kids, or teachers, bachelorette parties,  or just about anybody and you can put any kind of picture in it. (Just remember that you might have to have someone else copy the picture when you take it in. HA!)

A little organization

Slowly but surely I'm going to get my house organized.

I think the key word here is really 'slowly'. But, hey, each little thing is a step in the right direction.

Here's what I did over the weekend.

Well, first of all, I cleaned out my pantry. That, my friend, was no small feat. I have a rather large pantry and it was crammed full of stuff that had no business being in there. It's just roomy and too easy to throw stuff on the extra shelves. There were so many craft things in there that it took me three trips to carry it all out to my craft room. I also went crazy throwing things out and that took another couple of trips out to the trash. In addition, I had a shelf that was nothing but cleaning supplies. I decided those had to go too.

So that gets me to my first organizing project picture.

 This shoe caddy used to hold my girls' hair clips and all of that stuff. But since they're older now and doing their own hair, they've moved all of that stuff into their own bathroom.

Why let a good organization tool go to waste?

I hung it on the back of the door in my laundry room and filled it with those cleaning supplies that I took from my pantry. Woohoo!! This one didn't cost me anything. Score!!

Oh, and I used the 3M removable hooks to hang it so that I didn't have to do any damage to my door. I love those things!!


Next.....

I have two sinks in the master bathroom. However, we only use one sink because the other one always has my flat iron and our blow dryer in it. Ha!

So, I was in Office Depot and bought a magazine holder that is metal to hold the blow dryer and flat iron.

I used more 3M removable hangars to hang it on the side of the bathroom cabinet right by the plug we use.

I LOVE IT!!!

How easy is that? I don't have to mess with the cords knocking things out of the cabinet if I put it in there and my sink is clear. I can't even remember that I can use the sink now because it's been so long.

Anyway, I can't begin to tell you how happy I am to have a clean pantry, organized cleaning supplies that are out of sight (because they're on the back of a door that I almost never close), and I can use both sinks in the bathroom (not to mention how much tidier it looks without those things in the sink.) It just makes me giddy!!

I hope it gives you ideas of different ways to use everyday stuff.

Upcycled Clothes

I took a couple of items and made a new shirt.

Here's what I started with:

A purple t-shirt and a pair of long women's socks.

I cut the foot part off of the socks, turned them upside down and sewed the edge inside the sleeve hem.

I also cut  a diamond from an old white t-shirt and attached it to the lower right hand side of the shirt and took some matching orange thread and stitched it across (like the white diamonds on the socks.)

I ended up with this:

(I know it's hard to see the stitching in the picture, but I assure you it's orange and it's there. lol)

Anyway, I'm really happy with it. It turned out really cute and I don't think anyone would actually think it's a pair of socks.

Back to Jewelry

I got a quick little bracelet made.

I got the beads on clearance at Hobby Lobby for around $2 (all of them.)

Dax asked me just the other day why I have to go to Hobby Lobby almost every day. Duh! I made a bracelet for $2 and they add new stuff to the clearance wall all.the.time! Will they every learn?

I also bought some similar beads in a sage green kind of color. I haven't made that bracelet yet, but you know I'll post it here when I do.

Still so busy.....

I haven't forgotten about my blog or all of you. I'm still just crazy busy and have several things almost finished. It's been so crazy that we didn't even decorate for Halloween! How pathetic is that?

Anyway, I'm trying to finish up several orders of these...

And then maybe I can get back into the swing of things.

Quick Skirt

I made a skirt out of some knit fabric that I've had for.ev.er.

No, seriously, I mean forever. And I had a ton of it. I made this swim suit cover out of the same fabric. So, yeah, a lot of it.

Anyway, I had seen a cute ruffled knit skirt and decided I should have on for myself.

I came across a couple of different life changing techniques for gathering fabric. And I do mean life changing. The thought of gathering for ruffles doesn't even make me want to scream anymore.

First I cut two pieces of fabric long and wide enough to make the skirt. Then I cut the remaining fabric that I had into strips that are five inches wide. I only decided on 5 inches wide because that's how wide my ruler is and that makes everything easier.

Note: It is important to make sure that the stretch of the fabric goes across the strips and not down the length of them.

To gather all of these strips you simply sew them as normal, but while they are going through pull the fabric away from the needle on both sides.

 I used both hands while doing this but couldn't take a picture that way too. lol So, does that make sense? With the right hand stretch the fabric to the right and with the left hand stretch it to the left. That's why it's important that the stretch of the fabric goes across the strip of fabric.

 Just doing that while you're stitching along the strip gives you a result like this.

Then, I attached them to my skirt. I simply folded over the top piece and stitched it down to cover the top of the top ruffle.

It was really quick and easy. (Please ignore that I didn't make sure all the ruffles were smoothed down in this picture. lol) I didn't even hem anything since it's a knit. It just wasn't necessary.

If you haven't tried gathering this way you simply must. It will change the way you feel about it completely.

Another bracelet....

OMGosh y'all!!! It has been so crazy busy around here that it's been impossible to find the time to take pictures and get them posted.

I've got all kinds of things either made or in the process of being made. It's just getting them from 'there' to here.

Anyway, here is a bracelet that I made.

I saw these roundels and just fell in love with them. I also like to wear several bracelets at a time so decided to make this one three rows so I could wear it all along.

I LOVE how it turned out. The picture doesn't do it justice because you can't see how shiny and sparkly it really is.

Okay, I promise I'll be back soon with more.

Besides being busy with my day job I've made several name shirts and have orders for several different felt foods waiting to be made. (Having the electricity off for 6 hours last night certainly isn't helping me to get things made, either.)

New bracelet from trash

The girls and I had some fun playing with some of the trash from the office. We have a candy dish at the office and I keep the good stuff in there--the fun size candy bars. I saved up several of the wrappers that didn't get all torn to pieces when they were opened.

I put them on parchment paper in the oven at 300F for just a few seconds (probably about 30-45) and shrunk them down.

Keep a close eye on them because once they start to shrink, it happens fast.

After it shrunk down (it was less than half it's starting size) and cooled, I punched holes with a small hole punch and put a black chain on it.

The daughter wearing it thinks it's the coolest thing ever....and I'm good with that.

I left some in too long and they got really small. I liked that but the stuck to the paper in weird spots and couldn't be read any longer, so I may try again and see if I can get them small enough to make charms.

Who knew trash could be so much fun? Besides, if clients don't come in and eat the candy, I'll just have to do it.....in the name of art, of course.

Totally unnecessary changes

I don't know if you're like me in this, but I just can't stand reusing the tubs for margarine, sour cream, etc. And it's not that I have anything against them, I just don't want to open five containers to find the one that really has the sour cream in it.

Well, there is an answer to the problem!! It is totally unnecessary but if you prefer to recycle AND save money it's a wonderful solution.

The printing on these containers can be removed.


For real!!

Here are my supplies.....

A bottle of acetone (nail polish remover), a bowl (I used glass), a clean white rag, and the container you want to de-print.

Soak the rag with the acetone and wrap it around your plastic tub making sure the rag touches it all the way around. Then put it in the glass bowl. I put mine into the glass bowl upside down and then poured a little more acetone on it just to make sure there was enough.

Then, I wrapped it all in a plastic grocery bag to contain the smell and to keep it from drying out while it sets.

I let it sit like this for about 15-20 minutes.

Note: If you use a grocery bag like this, be careful not to get the acetone on the bag. It will remove the print from it too. Maybe onto your counter. Not that I would know from experience or anything.....it's just a theory.

Once it's set for awhile, unwrap it and use the acetone soaked rag to wipe the tub clean.

I've been doing it to all kinds of containers: whipped topping, grated cheese, yogurt, etc. I might not have to buy plastic storage containers again. woohooo!!

Spider Challenge

This is my first month participating in a craft challenge. This month's theme was spiders.

Of course, my brain froze with the idea of having to come up with something.

I decided on a felt black widow spider.

My original intention was to make a pin with it. Then Kirsten told me that she wanted my to put it on a hair clip.

Both seem to be reasonable ideas, right? But my little spider didn't turn out so little. If I put it on a hair clip it would take up the whole side of Kirsten's head. LOL

So for now, this little lady just sits on the island in the kitchen waiting for Halloween.

Hoping for cooler weather

I saw a recipe forever ago on how to make your own lip gloss. I bought everything I needed and never got it done.

Then, as I often do, I put the stuff away and couldn't find it again to save my life. I was recently complaining about it and Abigail thought she remembered seeing the little containers, and went to find them. She found them in the basket with all the cookie cutters. Why on earth I put them there I'll never no.

So, this time I got it made before I lost the supplies again.

All you need are petroleum jelly and flavoring. The original recipe used Kool-Aid but I wanted something that would have a sweet taste, not a lot of color, but no sugar. So instead I used the generic version of Crystal Light.

I just put some of the petroleum jelly in a microwave safe dish and melted it using 30 second intervals. When it was all melted, I stirred in a package of the drink mix. Then poured it into my clean containers and let it cool and set up again. And that's it!!!

I got these containers at Target. They were in the section with the travel size stuff and were in packages of two for $1. Can't beat that deal!!!

I like the fact that it goes on smooth, only takes a little, and is lightly flavored. Hopefully there will be no chap lips when the weather changes.

Playing with paper

I tried my hand at something new over the weekend.


I've never done any kind of origami at all. But I saw this video tutorial for paper dresses and I couldn't resist.


Here are some of my finished dresses....

 

I used pages from one (of the million) old books i have in boxes in the garage. I also used thin pink ribbon at the waist.

Once you get the hang of it, they really are fun to make.

I think they would be great for scrap booking or as a garland. There are tons of possibilities!!

Time for lunch

Well, I finally got lunch bags made for all of the girls.

I used different fabric inside of Kirsten's....

The outside of it is the same as Abigail's. I also used a snap to close hers (since I finally bought a snap tool for myself.)

Addison's is the one with the apples on the outside, so i thought some more apples on the inside would be perfect.

But, I still need to get bags made for Abigail and Addison. I haven't been too concerned with it since they both bought bags to start the school year off with. That gives me a little more time to procrastinate. LOL

BUT, it's national sewing month so I have to get something accomplished this month, right?

Back to school...

My babies started 8th grade today.

I can't believe how quickly they're growing up!!

Jewelry

I found the cutest mustache charms on Top Hatter. Abigail is crazy about mustaches and I knew I had to make something for her with these.

I opted for a pair of earrings and a necklace.

I want to use some type of ribbon for the necklace but haven't decided what color yet. I was thinking black, but her favorite color is orange so that might be better.

I think she's going to love them.

Crossing them off....

Woohoo! I finally got to cross something off of my ever growing to-do list.


When I finally got around to crocheting the trim on this towel, I said that I didn't know where I had
put the towel bar that I wanted to paint and put up in my kitchen.


Well, I found it and actually got it painted and hung up over the weekend.

It was a shiny chrome before I painted it red.

I hung it on the side of my island and I love it with my towel on it. I know it's such a simple little thing but it really makes the kitchen feel more home-y. Isn't it weird how that works?

Anyway, my girls noticed it right away. My husband and son haven't noticed it yet. LOL

Getting ready for school

My kids start back to school next Monday.

I guess that means that I have to buckle down and make the things that they'll need for school. I've put it off just about as long as I can.

This morning I finished up Abigail's lunch bag.

I used the same materials that I used in this bag (a vinyl table cloth and an old sheet.) That bag was supposed to be a lunch bag but I missed one small detail in the directions (cutting my fabric piece in half) and wound up with a group sized lunch bag.

This one turned out much better!!

I didn't follow a pattern for this one. I cut the fabric to what I thought was about the size of the bag I wanted, making sure to make one side much longer than the other so that I could have a flap to fold over. I used a plate to round the edges of my flap, and put button holes in it so that my ties would fit through and tie it closed.

I think it turned out really cute and I just love that the pattern is silverware for a lunch bag. Abigail likes it too, and that's what matters most.

Another cloth...

I crocheted another wash cloth.

I don't think that was really what the pattern was intended for, but that's what I wanted it for.

It's a sunflower pattern. And, I should make note that it's not finished like the original pattern. And this time it's not because I just can't follow the instructions. It's because I was working on this in the car when we were taking the kids to spend the week with their grandparents. I was following along with the pattern on my phone. I found it on pinterest and I thought I had either liked or repinned the pattern. Well, it appears that I didn't do either of those things. I had made a mistake in counting somewhere along the way and when I went from my circle to a square I wound up with a pentagon. LOL So I pulled all of that out and then set it down. In the meantime, I closed the app on my phone without even thinking about it and lost the pattern. I tried searching everything I could think of and haven't been able to find it again so I had to do some of it by memory and then some of it I just had to make up.

But, here it is never the less. And, if I can't find the pattern again, it's totally one of a kind. But, it's a really nice pattern and I would like to give the designer her due credit and link back to the pattern in case someone else wants to make it. I'll keep looking and update here if/when I find it.

And another one done....

Over the weekend I managed to get another one of my penny mats completed. It's part of a mat-of-the-month that I joined last year. I'm just a little behind on getting them made. And by a little, I really mean that this is the fourth one I've completed and they've already finished sending them to me for the year that this was supposed to take. Am I the only one that has this problem?

Here's the finished project....

I also got some felt and tulle tea bags made for an order I had.

Wow, a weekend where I actually got some things accomplished. SWEET!!!

In addition, we dropped the kids off on Sunday to spend the week with their grandparents. Maybe I'll get some other things done too........maybe. Actually, my goal is to get the house cleaned and in order before school starts. You know, get things started on the right foot.

Just a little extra

Awhile back I bought a cute cotton dish towel at Target (my second home) that has red apples all over it. It's been sitting around waiting on me because I won't let anyone use it. But really, I've got a ton of old, stained dish towels to use. I want this one to just hang there and look pretty.

I'm sure you know what I mean!!

So, I finally got around to adding a little crochet trim to it.

Now, isn't that better?

Hopefully some day soon I can find where I put that towel bar that I bought to display some pretty kitchen towels. HA!

All in a name

 The only thing I've actually managed to get done this week is a name shirt that a customer ordered.

I have to admit that this shirt was more difficult to sew. That's a lot of tiny letters for a 5T shirt.

I had trouble getting a good picture.....as usual. I'm certain that I need a big, fancy, expensive camera. Don't you think so too?

The last couple of shirts for little girls that I've made have been requested in purple. So I'm thinking the popularity of purple is on the rise.

My husband and I did have a little trouble with the police, this week.

Here they are trying to get my husband to leave. You wouldn't think it would take that many deputies for one guy!

Just kidding, now. That's part of the strike force that handles crowd control and they were doing training exercises. We were part of the volunteers that were there to be disorderly and refuse to leave when told. It was fun. It's not often that you get to ignore the police with no consequences. HA!

I've got a list of things to get done this weekend, so we'll see what happens.

Funny

I don't know if you've seen any of these or not. I've seen these about all kinds of things, but I think the craft ones are the funniest.

Maybe because I relate to them the most?

They just make me laugh.

Old to New

I've seen other examples of this several places on the internet.

I had a print that had been done on a really heavy paper.

I stretched the print over some canvas stretchers. Then I used some vinyl letters I got at Target (money saving tip: I got the letters in the teacher supply section - across the aisle from the craft section - for about half the price of the stick on letters in the craft section and I got about twice as many letters.) to  put my chosen saying on it.

After that you paint the whole thing (I chose white) and let it dry. Then remove your letters.

I ended up with this:

I think that at the very top I'm going to attach a family picture. I chose my saying because that's how Dax and I met. I asked him to dance.

I wonder how often he questions his sanity for saying yes to that dance. LOL

Back to school

I'm trying to get some things done for back to school before the craziness starts.


I made this bag for Kirsten. It's not big enough to be a book bag, but all three girls like to have something to carry around school during the day. (They're not allowed to carry their backpacks from class to class.)

 The strap just ties at the top so that she can adjust the length to her liking.

And it's reversible!

 

The fabric in the first picture is some I bought a couple of years ago to make a bag to surprise her with. Since they come into my sewing room when I'm in there and snoop around, I hid it so that she wouldn't find it. 

I just found it again myself!! I tell you, when I hide something, it's for real! LOL

She's gone right now to her grandparents' house so she hasn't seen the bag yet. I hope she'll like it.