More felt food.....pasta

In continuing with the felt food I'm making for my niece, I've made these cute little bow tie pastas.

They're so easy to make.


Just cut rectangles of cream colored felt with pinking shears. Then gather them in the middle and wrap your thread around.

Of course you'll want to remember to knot your thread at the beginning and the end. :0)

It's just that easy!!

Halloween paper pumpkin

I recently made this from an old book. (okay, maybe it wasn't that old, but I read it and didn't really like it, so I did something else with it that I did like.)

The directions on how to do this are here. It's really easy to do.

The mouth didn't quite turn out how I like, but it'll do for now. I used a little bit of floral wire for the curly parts and some green fabric for the leaf.

It was quick, easy, and cute. What more could you ask for?

Cookie Options

I bake cookies for my kids' lunch every morning. I make the batch of dough and then only bake 8 cookies each morning.


I love the options that the cookies using cake mix give me.


If you haven't tried them, they're the easiest cookies in the world to make.

1 pkg. cake mix (flavor of choice)
1/2 c. vegetable oil
2 eggs

Mix together. Drop by teaspoonful onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350F for 9-10 minutes.


How much more simple can you get?


Anyway, this week I made a french vanilla cake mix into cookies.

These I sprinkled with International Foods coffee in the dark mayan chocolate flavor.


This week I've used this dough base and made cookies with white chocolate chips one day, caramel pieces the next, sprinkled with brown sugar and cinnamon the next day, and finally with peppermint chips. All of those from one box of cake mix!!

That's what I LOVE about these cookies. They're so versatile so you can make them over and over and not get bored with them.

Felt Popcorn Tutorial

Awhile back I posted this picture of the felt popcorn I had made and promised to post a tutorial.

So here it is, I guess. 

I've never done a tutorial so forgive me if it makes no sense. :0)

I am making a bunch of felt food for my neice for Christmas. I thought it would be great for her to play with in the little kitchen she got last year. I looked all over the internet and couldn't find a popcorn pattern that was quite what I wanted. So, of course, that left me with having to come up with something on my own.

I started with just a circle of white felt (actually I tried several different sized circles) but still didn't like the finished product when I got them all sewn up. I spent so much time cutting it into the shape I wanted (after I'd sewn my circle) that I decided I needed to start with a different shape altogether.

I cut several shapes out of paper and tried them and finally settled on this flower looking piece. To make it a little more sturdy, I cut it out of heavy plastic (it's the top off of a small plastic container that had scrapbooking ribbon in it--I like to use what I already have around the house if I can.)

Then, I used a yellow colored pencil to trace my pattern onto the white felt. I figured since I would be 'buttering' the popcorn later, yellow was my best bet.

 Then cut them out.

Using white thread I stitched one long stitch in each petal.

I rolled up a tiny ball of stuffing.

And placed that in the center of my piece of popcorn.

Then pull the thread tight so that it gathers up all of the petals.

You can adjust them around if you need to.

Then I wrapped the thread around the outside of my piece of popcorn while pulling it even tighter.  I wanted to make sure that the stuffing would stay put inside. The thread should wrap around above the stuffing but still at the base of the petals.

Next, I ran the needle up and through the center of my piece of popcorn so that I could knot it on the inside. That way the knot could be hidden.

After the piece of popcorn is all sewn, I hit the edges with a yellow marker. There is no right or wrong way to do this. I just wanted a little yellow here and there so that it would look buttered. I still wanted it to be mostly white. Be sure, though, that the marker is a non-toxic one. Don't want anyone getting sick if the popcorn makes to their mouth. Although, these pieces are really popcorn size so it would be wise to keep them away from little ones that don't know yet not to put things in their mouth.

And that's it! I love the way it turned out. It looks really authentic and you don't have to guess what it is. lol

One word of caution though........since this is working with white felt, wash your hands before you start working on these. Otherwise, your popcorn will be dingy and nobody likes dirty popcorn.

I'm linking up with Tea Rose Home's Wednesday linky party. Be sure to check out all the wonderful things you can find there.



Baking fail

Usually, I make bread for my kids' lunches (and to eat in general). They go through a loaf bought at the store much too quickly so I try to save a little $$ by making it myself.

I love  Craft Gossip and saw this post and decided to try making the panda bread myself. She used cocoa to color her bread but I didn't want the flavor so I just kneaded in some gel black food coloring. That part worked out fine. My fail was the overall outcome.

See?

He's only a panda if he's really messed up.

Poor little thing. lol

And yet another shirt...........

I bought this shirt to go with something else, but it didn't work for that. I found another one that I liked better.

I found some bling (I don't know what else to call them because they're not really beads) on clearance at HL which I bought in several colors.

(I bought them just becaue they were on clearance and I was sure I could do something with them....we've all been there haven't we?)

Anyway, it took a few days for me to put the two purchases together in my head with an idea.

I used a fabric pen to mark my placement points. Then I hand stitched them into place.

I've already worn the finished product and I loved just the touch of flash that it gave to the shirt without being over powering.

Back to shirt refashioning

Ha! I guess I can't go too long without showing a shirt make-over.


I wonder if there is a twelve step program for this? lol


Anyway,


I had these two shirts that I didn't wear much. One was too short and one was too low cut.

(Pardon my helper in the picture. She doesn't quite understand 'move' when I say it.)

I've been seeing all these posts from other bloggers that put ruffles onto shirts to re-do their look. I'm not usually much for ruffles so when I tried it I didn't make them terribly full.

I gave it my best shot at making some little gathered roses at the bottom of the neckline to help make it even a little less revealing.

I still need to work on that technique a little, but at least I have a shirt I'll wear now.

And what's even better is that I only used the sleeves off of the shirt that was too short. That still leaves me with options on doing something else with it. woohoo!