creativegal42

Traveling with baby food

2011-11-17T09:25:00.001-05:00

The holidays are coming and I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to travel this time with a 6 month old and getting him the food he likes. Last time I traveled with an infant, my daughter was closer to 9 months and we did just a couple of quick weekend trips. But at 9 months, she was doing more table food and I was using jar food that time and formula feeding. This time around I have been making my sons baby food - because you do what you learned about after having your first.

So my orginal thought was when we got to the in laws, I would buy some jar food, and a little cereal and hope he liked it and would get through the weekend. The more I thought about it, I wasn't thrilled with the idea. One he has not tried any jar food yet - so I was worried about him not liking it. Two, he would be stuck with the same flavor of cereal all weekend - unless I bought more than one flavor, but then I would have to pack the extra to take home (more packaging than I need). We do buy diapers when we get there - and I have a wipe contianer I left at their house the last time we traveled - so I'll be buying a refill for that.

Here is some of what my son eats

He has different cereals mixed with food, and I use little formula to mix with the food. I do breast feed, so we really don't need much formula. I do have some of the prepackage pouches to fill 4 oz bottle - but there are times he need a little 2 oz bottle to help him settle - even after feeding and I hate to waste formula.

And his food.

Here is an example of what his food looks like from the freezer. Now I know for the 5 days we will be gone, I don't need all of this. I need enough of about 5 breakfasts and 9-10 lunches and dinner.

So here is my solution --

premeasured cereal, for each meal and formula measured for 2 ozs bottles.
And --

premeasured quanities of his food. All of these have been vaccuum seals using this ---

I know people have made there own yogurt tubes and seeing the pouch food and premeasured formula sticks is what gave me the idea. I'm hoping that if I pack the food in a good cooler with lots of frozen water bottles we can make it on our 7 hour trip without to much trouble, and my son will enjoy the food he loves. I do have a small food mill that I will take with me to have him try some foods - but he will mostly have his favorites.

To do this

First you need to make the bag strips to fill. For the food saver they have premade bags and rolls. I don't have many bags right now, so I made bag with my rolls.

I measured off a nice size peice of the roll. There are marking on the side of the roll, and I cut at about the 4th mark. I wanted the strip long enough to get more than one serving size in a strip to save more room, also this made the strip the right size lengthwise to seal the sides.

Then you heat seal one side closed.

Once the one end is sealed to need to make the tubes. I laid the newly made bag back in the sealer and made seals so I had anywhere from 3-4 strips. I found later that I like 3 strip wide for the food and 4 strip wide for the cereal and formula. Here is what is looks like before I cut them apart.

If you look closely there are two seals close together. This allows me to cut the strips apart to fill. If they aren't cut apart then you would being trying to seal the whole piece and you might not want that. Also make sure that you seal across the bottom seal so you don't have any leaks on the bottom of the strip. I came a little to close a couple of times.

Then cut apart the strips.

Once they are cut apart then you can start filling.

Notes when you are sealing the first section. Because you are at the end of the strip - you have a lot of empty space at the top. Make sure other end of the strip is in the vaccuum channel. If it is not then your strip will not vaccuum and the machine will just keep running. Once you get closer to the top with your sections it gets easier.

For filling the bag of the dry items I used a funnel. Now for the funnel I got creative. I don't have a funnel big enough to allow larger item to go through. So I used the cup part for my breast pump that I didn't use.

The hole is big enough and worked well. You might have to shake the cereal and formula down on the first couple of sections, just be patience. Also when you seal these, make sure there is no cereal or formula where the seal hits. This happened to me once I had to add a seal because the cereal broke the orginal seal.

Now we will see how this work over the holiday weekend. I think it will be great. A couple of last notes. Make sure you pack a small pair of scissors in your bag to cut these open. Which means I don't think you can do this much for airplane travel. We are driving to our destination so I don't have to fight with TSA. My hope is with the items vaccuum sealed that they won't defrost as quickly. I plan on freezing some bottles of water and layer the food between them in a small cooler that will be in the freezer before we leave. I'll post how this worked after the holiday. But if I can save a little money, and some space in the car this sounds like the way to go.

Linked - http://www.momnivores-dilemma.com/ ; http://www.somewhatsimple.com; http://www.acreativeprincess.blogspot.com/; http://firefliesandjellybeans.blogspot.com/ ; http://tatertotsandjello.com/2011; http://junkintheirtrunk.blogspot.com/; http://www.positivelysplendid.com/; http://www.sugarbeecrafts.com/;

2011 Halloween costume crazies

2011-10-23T20:46:00.001-04:00

Ok - I love to make Halloween Costumes. I think it shows creativity in a world of let's go to the store and buy something mentailty. And the other best part is - so far my daughter loves her costumes and they will get a lot of love till she grows out of them.

This year I'm having trouble. Besides the fact that with a newborn/infant I can't always get to my sewing room. I chose a crazy pattern for my daughter and my son's I have had to make up since there wasn't one that I wanted.

So what is driving me crazy this year - Tangled! My daughter as Rapunsel and my son as Pascal.

Pascal was easier than I thought. I had bought a baby pattern set from Simplicity #5316 . What was nice is there was a hat and the overall romper that I could use. And I used Polar fleece - which is why I went with the sleeveless style and I'm pairing it with a long sleeve shirt. He will be plenty warm and I didn't have to finish a lot of edges since this is a costume. Pascal has a bumpy back bone. So to get this look I sewed the hat seam and the back of the over all inside out. I also added about an inch of fabric. Doing this allowed me to cut scallops going down the back of the outfit. For the hat I combined the two peices of the pattern into one big piece. I also didn't do the lining part around the ears. Again - Halloween costume doesn't need to be fancy. With doing this I got one contious look going on the hat of the hat. I also made the ear flaps longer so I could add a little velrco underneath to keep the hat on instead of ties. I also free hand cut a tail that can be removed with velcro.

Rapunsel - was my issue. I used Simplicity #2065 . Now I have been sewing a loooong time, which is why I don't mind buying patterns from the store. I know they have been tested and the sizing is the way I want. However I felt that this was the worst designed pattern I have seen in while. I feel like the numbers weren't figured correctly and things weren't tested. I wouldn't be surprised if some of this one gets relooked at (I hope).

Here are the MANY issues I had with the pattern. Keep in mind I did the size 6 and it does fit my daughter, but there isn't much more difference between the size 6 and the biggest size 8.

1. The side front and back piece. They have you cut 2 pieces on the fold of the lining fabric, the over skirt, and the main skirt. The part I have a problem with - is the piece measures 26" wide before gathering. You gather this down to 9". So the piece is almost 3 times width of where it is to go. This was very hard to work with and on little girls that don't need that much fabric at their waist. The thickness also throws other things off in the design. also when you are sewing two of these pieces on to the bodice pieces - there is to much fabric for the machine to handle.

2. Working with 3 layers of gather fabric, made putting in the zipper - extremely hard. The only plus is that the overskirt and main fabric are togther and the lining is loose and attached to the bodice lining, not the main bodice pieces. But it was hard to work with all around. With all the fabric to gather and fit in one spot, I didn't have enough ungathered fabric to put in the zipper. Plus the directions have you putting in the zipper a different way than you would normally put in a zipper.

3. I ended up with nearly 36 inches extra of trim for the skirt on both both trims. Normally - not an issue. But I went with the trims pictured - and the flower trim was $6.99 a yard! The pattern called for 4.5 yrds. Before my 50% off coupon this came to $31.46. Now remember all that extra fabric in the skirt - if you cut out some of that fabric - you can cut out even more trim. Also note all the trims that I purchased for this dress were Simplicity trims to go with the Simplicity pattern.

4. I question the use of the tulle. The pattern called for 1 1/3 yrds. They had you cut 3 pieces 15 inches wide. When you gather this up it barely made a pouf. The pouf of the dress really is coming from the excess fabric at the waist - not the tulle in the skirt - this could almost be dropped. Granted this is not expensive - I just felt that it was a step that wasn't needed.

5. The lining of the dress. They have you cut neck facing pieces - but have you use them near the end when you add the lining of the bodice. The way it ends up - I would sew the bodice lining in earlier and use the interfacing directly on the lining fabric. The facing pieces sit weird on the inside of the dress since you have the lining that could be used. In the dress I made, I used cotton fabirc for the lining (no need to go with satin), and having a piece of fabric just sticking out there doesn't seem comfortable.

6. Lining part 2. I'm use to in dress patterns working the bodice till complete and then adding the skirt. One - if the lining was put in earlier - you can use it to hide more things like the sleeve edges. As it was - working with the lining after the skirt of the dress was on the bodice made it very hard to manage on my machine.

7. Sleeves. They have you putting in the sleeves LAST. Again by the time you have the weight of the whole dress this hard to work with.

8. The yarn for the hair. They called for 16 ozs of 4ply yarn. The one I picked up was 1020 yds for the 16 ozs. They have you cut 38" inches of 180 strands and 18" of 180 strands. this equals - about 280 yds. by my calucation I have about 800 yds too much. Now I'm a knitter no big deal - but to someone else this is an issue. Well when I cut the 18" peices and braided them - guess what - it doesn't fit around my daughters head. so I have to re cut about peices at least 25" long. Again someone needs check their measurements, or give us measurements based on head size.

9. One suggestion for working with the fabrics. In the pattern they mentioned sewing the seams and then serging or zig zaging the edges or sewing the seasm twice and trimming to keep the edges from fraying. I decided this time to do french seams where I could. Hopefully this will keep the seams from fraying and allow the dress to hold up to excessive wear.

I know once costumes were out I know could have found the Rapunsel dress cheaper than I made it. However, the way I made the dress it should hold up for a while with her playing dress up with it. She got to wear her costume to a dance already, and she got MANY compliments on it already, I can say it was a sucess. My only wish is I took some suggestions about making the dress that I had seen on online before - one would have made a simple dress and coat/robe with the detail to do over the dress. But having a 4/5 month old means lack of sleep for me and I didn't want to think to hard.

Now to see what she will want to be next year.

Costume history

2011-10-23T20:26:00.002-04:00

I love Halloween. The dressing up, decorating the house and seeing the costumes of the kids who come to the house. I love to make costumes and have fun with what I come up with. So before I do a post about this years costume headaches - here is a look at some of the things my daughter has been.

1st year - 2006 - K is 7 months old

This was an easy year. My MIL had seen a lion costume and bought it, before I knew what she would be. My MIL did this because her son was lion for his first costume. I would have liked to be consulted before hand, but I survived and went with it. She now realizes I make costumes, so she doesn't surprise me.

2nd year - 2007 - K is 19 months

This year I went a little easy on myself. K was seriously into Teletubbies. I know most people hate the show. The thing I liked about the show - was it showed the beginning of the day and at the end the Teletubbies went to sleep. K would watch this before nap and bed - and when the show was over she would come to us asking for her milk and would head upstairs to bed for nap or sleep without any fussing!

Anyway to make the costume I found a red blanket sleeper at a thift store. I took a peice of grey felt and painted glitter glue on the felt. For the hat I knitted it and when I got to the top I made a tube which I filled with polfil and sewed into the shape I needed. She gets a kick out of seeing the hat now when she runs across it in the dress up clothes.

2008 - 3rd year - K is 2.5 yrs old

This was the last year I could make the decision about what she was going to be. I made her a fairy costume. The pattern was McCalls 4887. I did spend too much on the fabrics, but I fun seeing how it turned out. Because I like to make the next size up when I sew costumes - there are still pieces of this costume that she can wear. This was also the year of naked baby - she didn't want to wear the costume and I had many fights getting her in it. To the point at our MOMS club Halloween party - she ran around in just her diaper! My friends called her the New Year's Baby for doing that. I have noticed that with a lot of my friends - between 2-3 yrs old thay do not want to get dressed up in costume.

2009 - 4th year - K is 3.5 yrs old.

This was the start of the princesses in our house. She said she wanted to be Cinderella. But when I took her to choose the pattern and the fabric she choose a basic princess dress - without it being a Disney design. She choose Simplicity 2569 . I will say that this dress got well worn, and now 2 years later, she can still wear the dress. The skirt is getting shorter on her, and it is fraying and the tulle is ripped - but she will wear it.

2010 - 5th year - K is 4.5 years

This was an interesting choice on K's part. Part way through the year she decided she wanted to be a

Veterinarian. She didn't change her mind once - and I was waiting. So I made the scrubs and bought a lab coat to go with it. My hubby and I found a cute dog carrier set and tool set for her. I should have done better making a name tag and sewed on some little anaimals - because everyone though she was a doctor. I was lucky this did get done - because I was pregnant in my 1st trimester with our 2nd child. So there were days I wasn't feeling up to things.

2011 - 6th year - K is 5.5, and A is 5 months

This is the big year - Rapunsel! After Tangled came out, she wanted to get the dress and hair. I kept putting her off. One because she was bigger than 4-6x you can find for most dress up clothes for girls and two I wasn't keen on fake hair.

I'll show you how this years costume turns out in the next post along with what I came up with for A, now that I have 2 kids I can have fun with the next few years of costumes on our house will be fun.

Kids crafts and more...

2010-06-22T23:01:00.000-04:00

I'm going to cover two things here -

First - my new favorite reason to love my Gypsy. I finally got a Gypsy for Mother's day this year, after I was spending to much time playing with my demo one for work. (hubby does notice these things). When I did my daughter's birthday party I did A LOT of layering. For the the Snow White and Seven dwarves I used my Design studio, which was great - but I had to move my Cricut down to the computer room and bring all the paper I needed. When I did the rest I was upstairs in my craft room, but for each of the designs, I knew the sizes, but I never knew how much paper I needed. Also I had to load each color individaully for the cut - which can lead to a lot of shifting of mats around along with wasted paper- which gets tiring!

So while playing with layers on my gypsy I realized some thing. If I don't overlap my paper, and cut smaller pieces based on the size I need, I can actually cut 2-5 different colors on one mat!!

Here is a screen shot of some fishes I did for my daughter.

These are off of Everyday Paper Dolls, Sesame Street characters, and Animal Kingdom - the other reason to love the Gypsy, cutting for 3 cartridges at the same time. On the Paper doll cuts, I had to use the real size function - or the fishes would be smaller and harder to figure out.

The next shot is how I laid out the paper on the sheet.

Notice they do not over lap. And notice that the one has a small peice missing out of it - since I know based on the gypsy picture that part wouldn't be used it is fine to be missing the piece.

The next picture is after the Cricut cut.

You can see how much paper was used and I don't feel like I'm throwing away as much paper.

And here is it after removing the excess.

I have been able to do the layers for character on one sheet - just not the base layer. I know I'll be setting a number of these up in my gypsy as I get ready to cut more out for my daughters friend.

The Next part of my love of Cricut and Gypsy come in the form of great kids ideas.

First I found a great idea on Pink and Green Mama Blog. Ocean in a box

This was a great idea taking senory boxes to the next level, and I agree with this gal - this would be a great birthday present.

Next I saw an idea on the DIY Dish blog. Making stand up designs for kids to play with. I have since created a couple of ideas for my daughter to play with.

Here is the first part of the ocean in a box. I picked up 2 bags of fish gravel some plants. I then made some cricut shells, fish and castle. Then after seeing the DIY Dish blog idea, I added more things.

Then I created seahorses on popicle actually add something to the piece. It looks like the seashorse are floating in the water, the gravel holds the sticks great.

Then I did some trees.

These I did with popicle sticks and air dry clay. I now see AWESOME ideas for kids projects for school in adding 3-D elements to projects. I also see a "cheap" way to add to sets that kids play with. And I can work on using up some of my scrap paper very easily without having to use my good paper.

THANK you to Pink and green mama blog for a great kids play project, and the DIY dish for adding to my imagination!

frugal fashion push

2010-06-22T15:45:00.000-04:00

OK, I love a good deals like any mom. But lately I have to curb my speading. Needless to say I was worried when my long legged kid put her big toe through her two favorite tights. I was hoping to back to late spring with these tights. But one - she wears them EVERY week (and sometimes twice) and her legs are long and one was a 2T-4T and the other 4-6x size (so she was pushing it on the tights). So I was happy to get most of the season.

Well I had seen that the footless tights were coming back and I decided to try and cut the toes out and hem the tights. I was worried that she won't like the look - but she did OK. I was happy to see I wasn't the only mom doing this. U-Creat link to this gal's footless tights , she took the other kind and added a rose with the cut part to the tights. The way I seamed mine - they ruffled a little more. I get some pictures shortly.

Teacher gift ideas

2010-05-23T20:26:00.000-04:00

Well things have been crazy in the this household. in the last month I have been hired as one for the Cricut Demo Army, and have been busy working on that and getting things done around the house.
One of the pluses of working with the Demo Army is I got to play with a Gypsy! I love it!!! If you have a cricut I highly recommend it. I have been using it for making some fun crafts.

For my daughter's teachers I made some fun albums.

So here is my end of the year gift for teachers. A Teach Album.

This was one of those projects that just comes together when you don't think it would. First I choose some old paper that I bought about 2 or 3 years back at Joann's in a paper pack. Well I had enough for one - but wasn't sure about a second. When I looked at Joann's paper thinking I would choose something else - I lucked out! They still carried the papers. Woo Hoo! lucky day for me.

The ablum is easy to do - with your gypsy.

I used three cereal boxes and 3 sheets of each printed paper and about 1 sheet each of the soild papers.

Binder rings and some ribbon.

Glue stick or favorite adhesive.

I used a "notebook" looking page from Gypsy Wanderings and the Letters are from Cake Basic - shadow size (but you can use any alphabet you like and have). The apple of the front was also from Cake Basic

I only have the small Cricut so mat is only 6 inches wide. So all of the images are 5.50 high with the letters being 4.50 wide by 5.35 high. I welded the letter on to the edge of the notebook design. I made sure that the notebook design changed width for every page so the letters would stick out each time.

I first cut the cereal box of the base design (letter and notebook paper welded). Then I cut one printed paper of the same welded design. I then flip the design and cut another paper the same size of the welded design but for the back side of the page. I then set up a mat for the letters, making the letters stand out. So watch what size your actual letter is and key that infomation in when you cut. Also when you cut, watch if there is a pattern to your paper. I had a little trouble remembering this at first.

So when you look at these pages, you will see that the back side of one page matches the front side of another page. I found that if I glue these pages down as I go it gets easier to keep track. If I was thinking I should have inked the designed and used a nail file to clean some cut up.

Here is the "E" page

the "A" page

The "C" page

And the "H" page.

Here are the tags I made for the teacher bags, again using the gypsy. I used the George Cartridge. I welded the shadow circle and shadow flower design at about 5.35 high. I then cut out two of the flower design regular cut. When I put the flower cuts on, I did one matched to the flower shadow base and the other was offset a little and I didn't glue the petals down for the second one. I then added a button in the center. I was amazed how many comments I got just on the tag!

T-shirt to backpack

2010-04-12T16:37:00.002-04:00

My daughter gets to attend our local zoo camp this year, and I was looking for an idea for a bag for her. Last year our Zoo offered string packpack for about $5 to the campers.

Here is an idea of what last years looked - I think last year they were black with the zoo logo.

Well I liked them - but I wanted to see what I could come up with. And this is the result.

** I do not know if this is an orginal idea - so I hope I don't step on any toes :) **

It uses her shirt from last year - which she is outgrowing, and will be useable for camp. Of course since I couldn't decide which twill tape to use - I spent more than buying the other backpack - Oh well

Supplies needed:

An old shirt

Your choice for the straps - I used one roll brown twill tape and one roll camo twill tape (both from Joann's)

and usual sewing supplies.

Supplies before - I sewed the two tapes to together so they look like one.

First cut off the sleeves. I know one this style it will make the top a little smaller than the bottom - but once the backpack is in use you really can't tell. Also cut off the neckline using the lower edge of the neckline as your guide - and cut from the open sleeve hole to the other open sleeve hole.

I realized once I cut off the sleeves - if I even up the sides and open up the sleeve - it would make a great pocket on the inside of the bag.

So I "serged" the egdes. I have a stitch on my machine that does a mock serge stitch - which I used for most of my seams. When I sewed the pocket down - I turned the serge edges under to sew them down.

Here is the pocket pinned in. Remember when you pin - leave room to do your casing at the top of the drawstring (this picture I didn't leave enough room and had to redo.) You will need up to 2 inches at the top for the casing. I did the pocket at this point because it will be easier to line things up before you sew together.

Here is the pocket sewn down with a couple of lines of stitching to make three small pockets. They aren't very deep - but will work for a couple of small items. Also note - this picture is correct in how far down the pocket needs to be.

Now put the right sides of the shirt together and sew up the sleeve holes.

Before sewing the casing together - you will have to plan for four button holes to allow you feed the straps through the casing. I made them about 1 inch long and put them about 2 1/4" down from the top. This way the button holes are on the outside of the bag - and they will go one on each side on the side seam on both sides.

Here is the button holes finished on one side.

Here is the start of the casing. You don't need to leave an opening on the inside - as you will be threading the straps through the sides from the outside.

Here is the casing done. Unfortunately since the printing of the shirt goes up to the neckline - I do lose the top part of the design - This is also a child size XS - so I didn't have alot of room either.

Next we are threading the straps. The twill tape came in 3 yd rolls so I was able to use 1 1/2 yds of each strap. I took one strap and threaded in one side and made it go al the way around till it came out the other buttonhole on the same side I started on - if you look the in the pictures - both ends are coming out of one side. You will do this on the other side - taking care when you are crossing the straps on the other side.

Here both straps are in.

Now to finish the bottom and gussets. First I sewed the bottom together, with right side of the bag together.

Then I turned bag right side out to make a gusset. This will be confusing - but I hope the picture will help. I want the straps to go into this triangle pocket you see above - that way when I sew the triangle, the straps will be sewn in.

Here is the straps "going into" the pocket. You will grab these from the inside and make straight seam that will catch the ends.

As you see how these are sewn I am making the gusset by matching the bottom to the side seam and sewing straight line to make a triangle edge. Most of this will be cut off to make the ends cleaner - but will also hold the straps. I did sew a couple of times over - to make sure they don't move.

When you turn the bag right side out - you see the straps coming out of the side and bottom. you also made the bag a little wider.

To cinch the top you pull both sets of straps and to open you pull the hole open.

I think this a great reusing project and will be a great reminder of various camps.

Have fun sewing. I would love to see if anyone tries this.

linked to:

fireflies and jellybeans

Skip to my Lou - made for you Mondays

Tshirt crafts part one

2010-03-30T21:49:00.000-04:00

Well a couple of weeks ago I saw a great post on CRAFT Magazine. They took old t-shirts and foam and made a Big Bean Bag. Well I loved the t-shirt idea - but wasn't crazy about finding foam - has I didn't have enough just laying around. I got thinking cap and remembered an idea I saw about filling pillows or bean bag with STUFFED ANIMALS. Well K had my old animals, plus animals people have given her and animals that other family members didn't want. What is great about this idea - is she has a number that are big animals and they take up space.

Well I ran with the idea. I had about 10 tshirts already put aside for a quilt - but I recently put a concert quilt together (that still needs a back and border done) - so I didn't need another quilt. I also found a craft for the scraps (another post, but check out the spring issue of Petite Purls for great ideas). Besides the shirts (you need 12) I found a couple of more shirts and I had a 24" zipper that I hadn't used. Their design doesn't use the zipper - but I wanted to be able to let the kids play with the animals.

So I made the template with wrapping paper and went to town. I used my fake overlock stitch on my sewing machine. And I cut up my shirts and put them together. I idea and making happened so fast that I didn't even get pictures of the process. I put the zipper in when I was sewing two sections together (but not as the last seam). These helps so you don't have to whip stitch the bag close- you use the zipper to help turn the bag inside out the last time. Just make sure before you sew the last seam - that your zipper is OPEN. :)

Here is one side of the shirts.

Here is the other side

And here is the opening with one animal peeking out.

I wish I had before and during pictures - if you have done a zipper before - you can add the zipper no problem.

I'm happy with the results and we will just have to see as time goes by - how the animals survive. To some it might not be the softest bean bag ever - but it is the best way to hide the excess animals we all have.

birthday party wrap-up

2010-03-15T15:03:00.004-04:00

What a party!!

Note many pictures to come here today

Above is the new birthday banner I did for K. I had one done for her 2nd and 3rd birthday, but I did it in primary colors and this party called for purple and pinks. I did this one on my Cricut, with Plantation schoolbook. I did the letters at 6 1/2 inches on shadow. I put eyelets in and ran ribbon through the holes. This way I can switch out the age each year.

I also did a fun backdrop!

This Castle is made of a tv box and two shipping boxes. I used a big sponge for the bricks and I tried use a foam stamp for the ivy. I was using wall paint that I had - with out buying more paint - so the colors didn't stand out. The flowers were from my wedding (7 years ago) They were in a box in the basement, and I pulled out what I needed. The flower will get out away, but the kids will still play with the boxes. The kids had fun playing around it and it gave me a great backdrop for taking pictures of the presents in front of. I wish I had a shot of all the kids with their crowns and shields.

Here is the carriage in use.

The mobile up - the funny part is my daughter's 2 girlfriends who came were dressed in Snow White, complete with the shoes. K started the day in her Halloween costume and went to Snow White later. Unfortunately I could only get a picture of a couple of Snow Whites together, not all 3.

The Princesses on the Wall. These will move to K's room later

The goody bags all filled up.

One of the guests with his crown and shield all put together. I did make my life easier but precutting items (the kids ranged in ages 18 months to 4 yrs). I precut construction paper to fit the shield. Then I Xyroned the dragon and swords so they were ready to use. I put out extra foam pieces that I had that were sticky backed for them to add more details. The boys got swords in the goody bag to finish the outfit, the girls got wands. The girls did picture frames and foam tiaras, with princess foam pieces I got from Oriental Trading.

The princesses working on their crafts. I also had jewels with sticky back to dress up the girls.

And the cake!!

I used the Wilton Princess towers to dress up her cake. Turns out you really need to have big cakes - mine didn't bake high enough even with two layers). I didn't use about 4 towers. It wasn't bad to put together. I did the flowers ahead of time out of royal icing, the "recipe"of the cake called to use fondant flowers, but I didn't want to buy the tools to do that. The cake was enjoyed by all.

And here is the backdrop being used. While K was opening presents a couple of the kids were playing in the castle.

I think K enjoyed her birthday - she certainly was spoiled and has been playing non stop with her new toys.

I'm happy with the results and I look forward to what I can come up with later. I'm also waiting to see, if I need to make some of these items for her friends later :)

Thanks for looking :)

Linking to:

The first views of the birthday party

2010-03-10T22:21:00.003-05:00

Before I start getting things set up for the party on Saturday - I'll give a sneak peek at the Cricut items I made for the party

First the invites -

These were made with one of the Disney Cartridges and the Alphalicious Cartridge.

I did the princesses at 4 1/2" and the words at 2". The card themselves are the 5x6 1/2".

What was nice through most of my cutting I was able to use some old paper I bought when I first started scrapping (most were 8 1/2x 11" paper). I did purchase some Bazzill for the Princesses and Beast (as I didn't have good browns).

The carriage - My plan is to use plastic cups in here and display the silverware and napkins and such on the buffet table. The carriage was cut at about 11 inches. Again some old paper, the light blue is actually "marbled" looking paper from Westrim.

These ladies will hopefully be standing up around the birthday cake. I have some chipboard "stands" holding them up - if that doesn't work, I'm raiding my daughters games. These are at about 7 1/2" high

These ladies are at about 11 to 11 1/2" depending on the paper size. I had to make a beast because my daughter keeps telling us that Daddy has to dress like the beast. I'll be hanging them around the room.

Snow white - has a special place (if you were wondering where she was). I did these at 5 1/2" (I only have the orginal cricut and borrowed my friends for the rest). I did these guys over a couple of nights. I used the design studio to create a flip of each dwarf as well as a regular cut. Also using the software - allowed me to get the most for my cuts. I had a lot happening at once since some of the dwarves shared colors.

The shield will be something the boys will be decorating (it is a Knights and Princess Party).

I used the Paper Doll Dress up for the dragon and swords. I did the Dragon at 5 1/2" and the swords at "real size" 5 1/2" from the princes accessories.

And the goodies bags.

I used Paper Doll Dress up - Princess, knight, and castle. All at 5 1/2"

The tags are George and basic shapes

The names on the tags are Simply Sweet.

I didn't dress these up - since they are for 2-4 yr olds. I did put a little piece of paper in a couple of towers to make the castle stand out a little.

I'll have more pictures after the party. I know I'm going to be picked on for doing to much, but I LOVE being creative.

Birthday crazy

2010-03-05T13:30:00.001-05:00

Over the next week I'm going to try and post a little more. My daughter's fourth birthday is coming up and I have a lot of fun things planned for her and her friends that I want to feature.

Today I want to remember her past birthday cakes.

For her first birthday I did the cupcake tower above. I went through my pictures and printed wallet sizes of her from each month that I liked. I tried not to choose her professional photos, but those that showed what she was like each month. I used the party pixs from Wilton to hold the pictures. The pictures were mounted on white paper and I labeled how old she was in each picture. I did a simple striped frosting, piped with a star tip and sprinkled with pink sugar. For a first birthday it was cute.

Her second birthday was all about Elmo. I live in Fort Wayne IN and I have an excellent cake supply store in town. I made a basic 8 inch two layer cake with buttercream frosting. I used an edible image of Elmo and bright sprinkles to decorate. I loved how easy the image was to work with. Since my family loves cupcakes I also made small and large cupcakes decorated Elmo icing heads and Sesame Street picks. It was a fun theme for a two year old.

For her third birthday, we went to the jungle. I made the lion cake from the Wilton yearbook 2008. It is made with the daisy pan and the soccer ball pan (very high cake). I made chocolate curls out of orange (white chocolate) and chocolate. I also ended up making cupcakes at the last minute when my brother was worried there wouldn't be cupcakes (like I said earlier - they love my cupcakes). We laughed because when I striped the bag for the cupcakes I wasn't thinking - I did orange and green for the colors of the party goods, they looked more like the Irish flag (good since St. Patty'y Day was a couple of days away). I enjoyed how they turned out.

I won't list the party theme for the year yet - just enjoy what I did for the cake yesterday out of royal icing.

I have a lot to do in the next week.....

Enjoy

St. Patrick's Day

2010-03-02T20:56:00.002-05:00

Well as I am writing this, I get to drink a Shamrock Shake. Fitting don't you think?? I know there are a lot of St. Patrick's Day ideas floating around. I wanted to post quickly an idea I had for my decor this year. I'm hoping to do a recap of anything I try after the holiday.

I like the idea I used with the Christmas clearance garland and Valentine's Day. Well when I picked up the red I also picked up green (planning ahead and hoping maybe to add Easter to the green as well.) I cut out from my Cricut a bunch of shamrocks. I used my new Designer Calender cartridge. I did about 12 at 5 1/2 inches on my cricut and when I borrowed a friends to do party things I did more at 8 inches. I took the idea I got from Skip to my Lou Blog to sew through the paper again. This is a great way to get more dangleing items. I took 4 of the small shamrocks and made a string together and then did the larger ones by themselves. If I'm smart someday soon I'll get some invisible thread when I buy thread (or double check my christmas present - my grandmothers old sewing box full of thread). I think it worked out well again. I have to enjoy the St. Pat's decor for a little bit since I'll be decorating for a princess party shortly, with many pictures to come.

Sharing at

Made by you Mondays - Skip to my Lou

Thursday Treasure's at Treasures for Tots

Valentine's Day Recap

2010-02-18T20:40:00.000-05:00

Well Valentine's has come and gone and I didn't update some of the things I did. Olypmics has keep me busy - as it is MY favorite thing to watch and I'm working steadly on my Ravelypmics projects (for another post).

First the decor. I did get a few more things up.

Here is more christmas garland with the crayon shavings hearts.

I decided to save some of the doilies I got this year for next year - as I know K will get more into desorating over the next year with me. She did enjoy the projects we did. I'll post more if I missed the one in another post.

K also decorated this mailbox that I bough on Clearance at Target last year. I plan on letting her play around with it some more.

So that was it with decor - we did do some windows with Gel clings and such - but no more crafty goodies.

The last part of our Valentine's came with our MOMS club party. I host this year and last years. Both years I got contianers together for the kids to decorate and had PLENTY of foam shapes and stickers for both years.

Our last year party we did paper plate holders for the Valentine's.

Here is the before. I used red plates and I used my cricut and my opposites attract caritdge for the names. I used my design studio to weld the names so they worked better. I also had them labeled before the kids got there. I had a tile fireplace last year and used Command hooks to put the holders. I also punched holes around and whipstitches with white yarn the pieces together.

Here is the after. The kids used foam shapes and stickers to decorate. My kiddo wasn't into it as much last year.

This year we turned to recycling. I was talking to a friend and we were tossing ideas around about what to use for a card holder. I have a bags, tags and more caritidge for the Cricut, but I couldn't get something big enough (even on the expression) that I likes and would hold up.And we didn't want to reuse the last idea. She suggested food boxes. So we gathers some boxes - cake mix, crackers, pasta etc. Whatever was in the recycled paper bin. and here is the idea.

Here is the start.

and the side

and supplies.

I used recycled boxes - flatten and opened up

Colored duct tape

3/16" eyelets (big enough for the yarn)

scrap yarn

eyelet setter

scissors

I didn't take pictures - but you will get the idea. I opened the seams of the boxes up and turned the boxes inside out. I trim the tabs off top side. I used the duct tape to reseal the box inside out. I though about other adhesives - but sometimes the box tears a little and such and these were for kids for 18 mos to 4 yrs (not the most gentle sort). So I though the tape would hold the box well and add stability to the project, also the colors could dress it up some.

I then used my eyelet punch and made a hold about 1/2" to 1" down the side of the box. The Crop-a-dile was able to go though the tape no problem. I then set the eyelet (do both sides). I then strung yarn through the holes and tied to both sides. You could used ribbon - but I want to keep cost down. And they are ready to decorate.

For the party I precut the kids names with Simply sweet Cricut Cartitidge at 1 1/2" inches shadow cut. I also (to save time) ran the names through my "X" xyron so they would be sticky and ready to use (again young kids). I made a clothesline on one of my walls and hung the boxes up with clothespins and attached the names.

here they are ready to decorate. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture after decorating but you can see kiddo's here.

All in all the project was great and can work well for parties. One of the boxes we saved was a pasta box with the clean window in it. You could have a lot fun with that style.

Meal planning my style

2010-01-30T21:18:00.000-05:00

Lately there has been a lot of focus about getting the most from your dollar and spending wisely. Well I'll admit that I'm not a perfect planner on buying food or coupon shopping or running around town getting the best deal. I am getting better at trying to use what I have.

Couple things to note before I begin. One - I live in the Suburbs, so I don't have a farm or access to go planting areas (much less livestocks etc). I am going to try this summer with some veggies in some beds we built last year. We just bought this house in 2009, and our old house was on the market for a year - so we never tried a veggie garden (plus we had WAY to many rabbits at the old place - good sun though). So I missed some early chances to get some growing of food going. If I have trouble I have some friends I can barter with and I know of many local sources starting up Two - I also am known for bulk food buying, which you will see in a bit. And three - I have gotten better at freezer meals which helps my planning. And four - I'm going to start learning about canning this year (one of my mini goals)!

One thing I have found lately is I need to do a better job at writing down what I want to cook each day. I find that we don't eat out as much when I plan ahead. We also don't eat as many carbs. We don't go out as much (except our planned Fridays and right now Pizza Wed due to a ballet class at 4:30p). I also can limit leftovers better and do more cook for one day and use in another meal the next - ie when I do Chicken. But I can also plan for my husbands lunch if there is not as many leftovers and he doesn't eat the same thing for 3 days. I will note that from most meals I plan on making just from me and husband. Our daughter likes some meals - but we don't stress about her (shortly I will start making her eat with us).

First buying meat. I usually buy our beef at our local butcher. I can get a boneless assortment and 25# of ground beef for about $350. Now this may seem high - but there is only two adults and one small child eating this and I can usually only buy twice a year. I will pick up boneless chicken breast at Sam's or Meijer on sale and I buy pork chops, ham or ground lamb to break up the beef. I also buy some items at My Menu, a small store of prepacked items that are made striaght from the freezer. I am mainly doing this because my daughters school gets money once a month when you buy from there. This helps break up what I can make.

Beside the meat I do freezer meals. When I make a meal like spaghetti, sloppy joe or taco I take 3-4 # of ground beef out of the freezer to brown. After I mix in the sauce/seasonings I separate out the servings into gladware containers. These have been good for stacking in the freezer and hold 2-3 cups per container. I know some use bags and flatten them - but I have a full upright freezer and room to spare. So can usually find many easy meals in the freezer to break up my cooking.

I also have a recipe for meatloaf that uses 6# of meat and I can make 3-4 loafs out of. And I have a recipe for ham loaf that makes 2-3 loafs (more if I make mini loafs so we have less leftovers.) I also have tried premaking lasagne with the no cook noodle recipe - that works great because it is time consuming to make and easy treat when you can pull it out of the freezer. We use to have in town (before the recession) a couple of meal prep places. I learned some great things there about doing meal planning. So I some times can take a favorite and find a way to make it a freezer meal. Keep in mind - I don't take a weekend to make 30 meals, I find that with some pre planning I can take what I buy and starting building up a set of meals that I can pull from.

On to planning - I make a list of all the meats and meals in the freezer. I need to get a list down of possible meals to pull from - but that will come. Them I sit with a calendar and start putting in meals. Example last Saturday I made Spaghetti - and it was a time that I had to restock my sauce.

(Note - I only have one big burner so I make my sauce and then have to heat the noodles, so I love having premade sauce that can be heating in the micro). So that day I took 3# of meat our and made 5 contianers of sauce (4 to freeze and 1 to eat). So some time in the next week I know I can have spaghetti again I and I know sauce is ready (so it can be a weekday meal).

I do keep in mind that if it a recipe that needs time, ie stews and heavy meal prep I keep it to the weekend. If I make chicken breast one night I can plan to make extra and then plan a pasta meal with chicken the same week. Also I keep a number of frozen veggies on hand, but if I plan something like Stirfry I know I need to make a fresh produce shop. As I plan I will make a list of any pantry items I need, so I can save time. I will say when I pla more more - the less we have of hamburger helper!

Back to the list - When I meal plan I also can have things days like steak night - but know one week it is filet and one it strips steak etc. I also can not feel like we have spaghetti every week - because I can space it better. So right now as I plan I can have a steak (at least 3 meat choices), a chicken night (or lamb, or ham), pizza night (due to activities), a ground beef night, a going out night, a meal prep night (to get ahead on meals) and an easy night (meatlaof, premade meal etc). Right there are 7 days and if I have a list in front of me I can vary the month so I don't feel like mine eating the same things. I also know I can shake things up with a breakfast dinner or something special. If I have recipes in front of me I can try new things - or remember a favorite that I forget about in the rush of things. Example last weekend I also made Ham loaf from leftover Christmas ham and ground pork, last year because we moved at Easter our leftover Christmas ham was used at Easter and I didn't make ham loaf - it sure tasted great!

As you can see from my ramblings you can make things easier with out buying and cooking in one weekend for a whole month. If you can look ahead a little, you can plan a little. I will note again I do only have one child and not a lot of extras yet. I like to think I can keep it easy, but I know life gets in the way. Either way I know what I need out of the freezer tonight for tomorrow and it will mean my day will be a little easier during the witching hours!

Easy Garlic bread - This was how my mom made it - but she used french bread. I hate remembering to buy bread the day I make spaghetti or such.
One Hoagie bread (I buy a six pack from Sam's Club for $3.84 and keep in the freezer.)

Defrost and cut 1" slices diagonally through the bread - leaving a little still attached at the bottom.

Mix 1/4 cup melted butter and some garlic powder (or garlic salt to taste)

brush the slices with butter mixture and any extra brush on the top of the loaf

and wrap in aluminum foil with the top open.

bake 350 degrees for about 15 minutes.

Take out, break apart and enjoy!!

crazy feelings

2010-01-28T23:03:00.002-05:00

I love the way people and items are getting linked everyday on the internet. I have had some great experiences recently. Since some of the craft blogs are doing a weekly links to projects I have gotten some people to my blog and I have found some amazing blogs and ideas. I was listed last week in Nettacow blog about my towel skirt. I was blown away. I know this will happen more and I'll be linking more as well, just so I can keep track of all the great ideas I'm seeing and want to do. I might have to start a sidebar on projects I want to do.

I then had an interesting experience on Ravelry. I love the favorites and comments I get on projects I do there which is great. I have also friended some people - because I know them or because I want to follow there work. I haven't tried to friend any of the "big names" on the site, I prefer to stay in the background, but if I stumble on their work - great! Well I had friend request yesterday that blew me away. Now it isn't a famous designer, but it is an author. Barabra Bretton friended me !!! This is a gal who I have read some of her fiction books and I'm following her current series that takes places in "supernatural" town with a yarn shop. It just amazes me everyday how small the world is getting. Which reminds me, one of these days I need to upload pictures of me with "famous" people. I actually have some interesting stories to tell.

I forgot one other funny that happened this week. I was hanging out at a friends house with our MOMS Club group, and it was time to go so us moms were doing a quick pick up. A friend turned to me with a bowtie pasta felt food piece - and said "hey look at this, you could totally make this", to which my other friend and I replied - "I did". My one friend though the other friend bought them! I can chalk it up to another moment where I need to start building my craft fair items back up!
Off to other things. I'll be getting some post together shortly. I think tomorrow I'll start on some of my meal planning and money saving ideas - since Frugal Fridays abound!

Happy crafting.

some of the Valentine's day ideas I love

2010-01-27T21:13:00.000-05:00

Heart garland from Skip to My Lou

Glitter hearts from Skip to my Lou

I have started playing with this on ealready with my daughter. We were in the craft room at 8am this morning getting a layer of paint on ours - because I have some valentine glitter glue that I want to try. I love the idea of using my cricut and the idea of sewing the hearts before painting. This will allow me to use the heart on the bead garland since I have "built-in" hangers. I love it when things work to help you. Note for using the Cricut. I used my Deep cut Housing blade and holder on setting 6 to get the cereal box (or in our case fruit snack and cake box).

Glitter heart with cookie cutters from No time for Flash cards

I agree with this gal - in the toddler house of nothing looking recognizable it is great to use items to help them make shapes. I look forward to trying this project soon. I need to find where my "regular" glitter is, I have a lot of glitter glue.

I'll lok for more ideas - I love what I'm seeing and with only 18 days out - I'm running out of time. I'll need to post in the next few days what we did for our MOMS club valentine's day party last year.

Valentine's Decor part 1

2010-01-25T18:42:00.003-05:00

We are starting to get into Valentine's Day decorating. This year I'm hoping to more crafts with K, so I hope to have more posts as I go.

My first part is a Christmas clearance meets Valentine's day. I saw during the holiday season a cute idea using doilies as snowflakes. (I wish I remembered which blog I saw it on) I knew I wanted to use the idea for Valentine's day since there is always heart doilies available. Well I was also seeing a lot of bead garland on clearance at Walmart with cute snowflakes in the garland. So I decided to combine the two.

I decided to hang the garland like rope around our fireplace to start. Then I tape doilies to the garland. What I like about the idea is as K and I make more hearts we can hang them off the garland by tying string and letting them hang down - using the beads to help anchor and separate the hearts. I also picked up the garland in a green so I can make some decor for St. Pat's Day and Easter.

Looking for more hearts!!

I need to add I spent about 75 cents for each garland (I bought 2 red and a green and a pink)

I found the doilies at Hobby Lobby for $1.47 for the plain 6" hearts and I did find a package in the Target dollar spot. I have plans to add garland around our one window in the family room and MANY more hearts!

Cricut project #1

2010-01-23T12:07:00.001-05:00

I wanted to go through and start posting some of the cards and such that I have made using my Cricut. I will add right now I only have the orginal Cricut. I got it about 3 three christmases ago - but from April 08 till April 09 alot of my crfat supplies were packed while we tried to sell the house. So it has been since April 09 that I have been able to get only on my many projects - hence a lot of craft goals to get the many projects I have worked down.

So first project I'm posting is an Address Book. This became the Aha moment of my Christmas 2009 crafts. My husbands grandma is 87 years old and doesn't need anything. Well, when we were visiting her for Thanksgiving she had off handedly mentioned that her address book had just broken. So I grab the idea and went with it. I know how hard it is to find address books these days - since most of us keep things on the computer, and many address books these days have small lines and more info than people without computers need to fill in. So I decided to make a custom printed address book for her.

I first found some 5x8" tab dividers - since I felt that this was the right size. Then I was worried about finding a binder. Then the first Aha moment came. I had bought a binder years ago at Michaels that fit 5x7" page protectors - to hold the itty bitty paper pad that Provo Craft carried for while. The binder was plain white and I hadn't decorated it for any other use (lucky me - and stash busting my crafts). I then looked through my papers and found a paper pack of light papers that matched her decor and some ribbon in my stash that matched it!! As you can see this is coming together nicely.

Then to come up with the address pages. I was able to design on my word processing program and one page design that could be folded to make a double sided insert. To personalize this even more - I typed in the address and phone numbers for the family, kids and grandchildren with pictures of each group with their address. I also customized the tabs so that names she doesn't have alot of are grouped together and letters like "c" are their own tab.

I used the Cricut to cut the words Addresses for the spine and cover. My only regret for the project is I didn't ink or chalk any of the pieces before putting it together. I was focused on the project and had to get it done quickly. I used my Opposites Attract caritidge - with the upright curvise font.

Here is the cover

the spine and front. Since this was for an 87 year old woman - I kept it simple. The ribbon is used on the seams. I used my Zyron for the adhesive.

Here is what one of the pages looks like with the pictures added.

and here is what two pages side by side look like.

I'm happy with the creative result. I love that was able to make a very personalized address book without spending a lot of money - and was able to use stash supplies!!

Losing track of time

2010-01-22T21:28:00.001-05:00

I was looking at my goals for 2010 and realized I'm falling behind already!! I haven't blogged as much -- but I do have some things lined up to go I just have to upload more pictures. I wanted to get a Valentine Decor up this weekend - but of course I'm seeing more ideas than I can do.

I also went ona little yarn spending spree this week. Every year so far for K's birthday I have knitted her a dress. Well birthday number 4(!!) is coming up and I'm out of good yarn in my stash for a dress. Mind you this summer she will be a getting a striped dress I think with some odds and ends - but her birthday needs a different look. My husband likes one dress I made for her about 2 years ago.

Here she is wearing it as a 2 year old.

Here she is wearing it as 3 1/2 year old

You can see one reason we still like the dress, it has become a great sweater. Well K picked out a great purple yarn so I can remake this dress, but the yarn I used for the ruffle is actually leftover yarn from a project I did 20 years ago!!! Needless to say - no longer available and there isn't a great subsitute yarn currently available. Well I was playing on Ravelry getting ideas when I researched the old yarn and found someone in CA with 17 balls in their stash!! I email the guy and he was willing to part with the yarn. So Happily/sadly I can say that I have 17 more balls of yarn coming into my stash. At the same time I can say - that it is harder to get full projects out of my stash and I have worked it down A LOT. I have some ideas to play with this year and some yarns will make into my daughter crafts supplies to be used up. I can't wait to see out the new dress turns out.

Also this week when we were out running errands I was happy to hear K tell people proudly that Mommy made " " item that they were admiring. It is great to see that she enjoys the items I make for her and she proudly wears them. Which reminds me I need to take a picture of the well worn halloween costume from Halloween 2009, the poor thing is being well worn out - to the point I wouldn't be able to resell it or give as a hand me down.

I look forward to getting more posts up soon!

Snowman Party

2010-01-15T19:44:00.001-05:00

It January and cold and was a hosting a playgroup this week. I love having playgroup - but we are starting to get a few older kids. So I'm enjoying coming up with fun ideas for the kids to enjoy as a surprise during the playgroup. This week since It was cold I was thinking about snowmen. Our last snow fall wasn't the greatest for snowmen, but the kids made some a few weeks ago. I did Sloppy joes and cheese and crackers for lunch. I also had been having a craving for Puppy chow (Chex Mix Muddy Buddy or what ever you call it). So I made some Puppy chow - but since we had a snowman theme going I told the kids it is was snowman poop!

I first came up with a fun game for the kids. I converted a diaper box into a quick toss game. I have all the materials except beans for the bean bags. What is nice is I can reuse the bean bag and then recover the box for other occassions.

Supplies --

one box of choice, paint of choice ( I used house paint and craft acrylic and paint pens (for details))

assorted felt and chipboard (for the hat)

glue, scissors, and extaco knife

scrap material and dried beans

I painted the box and drew the circles for the snowman ( used our dishes for the circles). Since these are for little kids - the hole is fairly large. If you had a bigger box, you could get more holes.

I cut the hole after the paint - so I knew where I was going with it.

I made the hat out of chipboard covered with scrap felt and glued it on the box.

I poked holes at the neck for the scarf.

For the bean bags I cut my material 6" square and sewed a double seam. I filled the bag half full of dried beans. Have a piece of paper or a funnel to do this. and then sewed the seam shut.

The kids enjoyed it for the short attention span they have. I know it will be used more.

For the extra treat of the day - I made rice krispie snowman to decorate. I had some old Wilton Snowman Single pans for the shape. I did one batch of Rice krispie Treats and was able to get 8 snowman. I went through the treat cupboard and was able to find candies to decorate with and only had to buy the stuff for the hats and buttons (and I really didn't have to buy the buttons).

treats before decorating

Pretzel arms, mini oreo buttons,

candy corn nose, M&M eyes, licorice scarf and mini peanut butter cups and fudge stripe cookies hats.

I had a little leftover frosting that I melted for the glue. I premade the hats - because we had 3 and 4 year olds. Due to illnesses I only had 4 kids - BUT they had a blast!

My sample for them to use for ideas.

I loved the craft and I'm looking forward to my next playgroup for more ideas!

Dollar spot towels

2010-01-08T21:28:00.003-05:00

Back in October I ran across a great idea from treasures for tots using some towels from the target dollar spot. Well at the time K wouldn't wear the one I made for her (maybe next year). Well New Years Eve I was looking for a quick party favor and instead found the spring/valentine version of the same towels.

Well K recently became more into skirts and I decided the towels would work as a quick skirt. Of course it helped that the first one I chose to make was the blue-ish one (since we are in a blue faze).

gotta love cheezy grins!

I only ended up using 1 1/2 of the towels. and of course was excited and didn't take pictures - but will add soon since I did get two sets of towels

So you need the waffle weave towel set from Target (or any two towels that are as long as you like)

Elastic

Scissors

sewing machine

and other basic sewing supplies
I took both towels and cut them in half (through the center fold over). I made sure that I had three even pieces to sew togther. I planned so the cupcake design stayed in the front and the two plain sections went on either side of the cupcake piece, with them being seamed up the back make the base of the skirt. I did do a quick zig zag on the unfinished sides of the towels before sewing together. I didn't un do any of the towel hems (because I didn't want to "re hem" the skirt). after the zig zag, I sewed the pieces together as described above. Then I loosly measured a 1/2" to 3/4" inch fold over - so I could make a casing for the elastic. I only made it big enough of my elastic on hand - if you are using a 1/4" or so elastic - you could make two slots for a stronger elastic waist band. I kept this version simple - because I didn't know if she would wear it.

The good news is since you only used three of the four halves of the towel - you still have the part with the other cupcake. You will be able to this embellishment to decorate the shirt or make a bracelet to match. I plan on adding it to the shirt - once it is out of the wash again.

another look with another color shirt and tights.

I'm looking forward to making another skirt and will take more pictures as I go.

Advent Calendar

2009-12-12T15:52:00.002-05:00

Now I have seen MANY neat ideas for advent calendars. I pulled my idea from Family Fun Magazine a couple of Christmas's ago. They took kids socks and hung then on a ribbon and filled with goodies each day. I liked the idea, but never found the socks I liked. Then I saw on ravelry, Annie Purls idea for knitting a bunch of small socks for christmas - and BOOM the inspiration hit. Spring of 2008, I started knitting 22 small socks and a couple of bigger socks. I had them done last Christmas and I am reusing this Christmas. In 2008 K got a piece of choclate each day and a little animal. This year is a getting a fun size bag of M&M's and a small character from Wall-E, Cinderella, or Alddin. I have the character mixed, so she is getting a same set about every three days. I was able to find these sets at the Disney store when they were on sale. Unfortunately they had sold out of Sleeping Beauty already - which is K's favorite.

All the socks knitted up. The two larger one are for Dec 6th (St.Nick Day) and Dec 24th.

2008 hanging up

The first half of 2009

Last half of 2009

The garland is our christmas garland and I have have clothspins hanging up the stocking and they have numbers on so we know where we are at each day.

Stacks of Color

2009-12-10T21:43:00.001-05:00

Doesn't look nice! Rows of colors ready to be played with. This is 7 different favors of Kool aid made into play dough, ready to be given as gifts to K's friends. I am still trying to figure out how to divide up what I have and who is getting it, but I know it will get used. What I like about this recipe is how soft the dough is and how it smells.

The recipe for this is super easy.

2 cups of water

2 cups of flour

1/3 cup salt

2 tbsp of vegetable oil

and 2 packages of kool aid

Boil the water, and add in the oil. Then add the dry ingredient and mix up. it helps to knead the dough a little to finish mixing in the flour and color. I was able to fill 7 large size baby food containers (the gerber brand). I loved that I have reused some containers, and made a great gift for our friends kids. I even have labels on hand to use!

Snack days for preschool

2009-11-11T19:38:00.004-05:00

My Daughter's preschool has a policy of no sugary snack for snack time. Which is great. And they also set it up that about every 6 weeks your child brings in the snack and gets to bring in a show and tell item. For K's first snack this year I did grapes and pretzels. The other challenge is the snacks has to be individually wrapped so the kids can pass out the snack. So in my challenge to watch my use of items (ie plastic bags), I came up with a reusable solution. K likes yogurt especially the Dora version. So I have been saving the cups and sent her grapes in the washed out cups with a small amount of wrap over them. Pretzels I get a big container in the fall at Sam's club of the Bats and Jacks from Utz Chips. So snack time has rolled around for the 2nd time. This time it is Carrots and Pretzels. Lucky because I get to use the the yogurt cups for the carrots again and I happen to still have some Halloween Pretzels. I love when things work out.

Carrots all in the cups ready to go.

cleaning the lot

2009-11-07T15:16:00.001-05:00

A view of the NE corner of the lot

What do you with a wooded lot that needs some TLC. When we bought this house in April 2009, it had an awesome amount of stuff done on the inside, but the yard needed some TLC. I slowing am coming up with ideas. This summer I tried a crazy idea. I posted on Craigslist trees for sale. Now we had a number of young saplings that were allowed to grow, without any concern to where they were growing, or how thick the trees were getting. So if anyone was interested in the trees - they just needed to be able to come out and dig them out. One guy took me up in the offer and he bought his tractor in, and dug some trees out today. I liked doing this - becasue I didn't want to just burn trees, and I wanted to preserve some trees, since we have enough trees cut every year. So this crazy little offer on Craigslist allowed me to get rid of about 10 or 12 trees to be replanted. And today - I feel like I did my part to help make the world a better place.

A view of the west side - about 6 trees came out of here.

And the SW side - about 5 trres came out of here.

Hopefully next summer, the lot will dry out faster and I'll get a little extra sun to my new garden area. Which I now need to take dirt out and move it to fill holes made by the trees. Happy transplanting for me!!

Thanksgiving decor

2009-11-07T09:55:00.001-05:00

I few years ago I was working as a teacher at a major craft store. To help out I would do demos on the weekends. One weekend in between a couple of demo I played with an idea of a table runner of leaves. I think I had saw an idea in a magazine, but didn't want to buy it (I don't remember where I saw the idea). Anyway I looked around the store at the fall garlands and found some I liked. I got some peices of felt and was ready to create. I had my glue gun and glued the pieces of felt together in one long piece. I then cut the leaves off the garland and began to arrange them in a cool design. Working from both sides I worked the design toward the center. And in a few minutes I had a beautiful table runner. I will note that the garland I bought was at least $9 at regular price - but could have been higher since the leaves have a nice veletly look and feel. But if you score some garland on sale or clearnace in good shape - this can be very cheap!

here is how it looks

and the back with the felt.

Creating Halloween 2009

2009-11-04T21:46:00.001-05:00

Since we moved to a new house this year I needed some new ideas for my Halloween decoration. The last few years I had the porch and a walkway to decorate for Halloween. This year I have a longer porch - but not a great walkway to work with yet.

I first found an idea in an old Lesisure arts book "Sew No More - Holiday Decor". This from part of there hard cover book series. The idea found was to make large standing ghost for the porch.

In their version The ghosts were holding candy corn pieces with beads. I was looking for something to say Halloween; so I went with "Trick or Treat". I think I'll mix it up over the years with "Happy Halloween" or other things. Another thing I did differently was the heads. These ghosts were meant to be inside or well protected. The orginal idea had the ghosts heads made of poly fil and batting. I decided to go a little different. I was able to make Paper mache heads with balloons. This was a great project because it allowed my daughter to get involved.

So here we are getting started. I used a great recipe from family fun - paper mache recipe. It was easy to use and made a lot and could be saved for a little bit.

Here is Katie showing off her work.

and all of the finished pieces.

You might be thinking, there are only 2 ghosts there. Well we used two balloons there, and two more in the trees - pictures and info to come later. We also had a fun experiment with a pinata; which is another story for another day.

We used these balloons and did the next week a quick coat of white paint, so that alot of the newsprint wouldn't show through the fabric. I then took these heads and filled them with spray expanding foam. I did alot of experimenting here. I think next year when I fill them I'm going to have them upside down to begin with. When the heads were sitting in the boxes to be filled the foam didn't expand up as much. but I noticed when I tilted a few the foam moved more the way I wanted it to. This gave my heads with some wieght that when I covered them with fabric they didn't collasped and they held up over the season. I plan on making new each year, since the only thing I don't think will last is the heads.

At this point you can see the head on the tomato cage frame. The book suggested a 36" frame - but at the end of season I could only find 54". I think in the end it was better for me because they stood out better. I duct taped a couple of 5/8" dowel rods as arms to the head - since there was no bar to use there.

From there it is add the fabric. I love the way fabric is coming these days. I was able to buy basic white muslin at Joann's in 108" width. This meant for the 2 ghosts I got 6 yds, and with a coupon wasn't that bad. Even better I'll be able to wash the fabric when I take the ghosts down and reuse for next year - no plastic! I drapped the fabric over the frame and took some black grosgrain ribbon to tie a bow at the neck.

The words were an old project I love. Back a few years ago I saw a banner in made in Leisure Arts "Spirit of Christmas" book. They took illustration board and cut out letter made from blowing up a font to 600 pt. Well I took this idea and traced the letters on to fun foam and then cut out the letters. This way they are water proof and wear a little better. I then took my scrapbooking eyelets and made holes at the top for some yarn to hold the letters. I'll do another post about this later - since I have done these letters for many projects. Either way, they held up and look good to use for next year.

Enough about these - I'll do more posts on the rest of the decor shortly.

mitred football

2009-02-06T21:14:00.006-05:00

Football pattern

This pattern was created when I was working on mitred square blocks for my daughter. When I got the fourth block done it looked like half of a football. I like patterns when there is limited finishing and sewing – so I like to pick up stitches when I can. I hope you enjoy these as much as I have. The football makes a great gift for babies and toddlers as well as that favorite football fan in their favorite school/team colors.

Gauge – not necessary, I have found Worsted weight makes a nice size ball.

Supplies –
One ball of sugar and cream in Brown and one in white (or any Favorite worsted weight yarn in the colors you want)
Pair of size 7 needles or favorite needle for your yarn choice

First Square
Cast on 31 stitches in brown/MC
Row 1: Knit 14, slip 1, k2tog, PSSO, K 14
Row 2: knit 14, Purl 1, knit 14
Row 3: Knit 13, sl1, K2tog, PSSO. K13
Row 4: K13, P1, K13
Row 5: K12, Sl1, K2tog, PSSO, K12
Row 6: K12, P1, K12
Row 7: K11, Sl1, K2tog, PSSO, K11
Row 8: K11, P1, K11
Row 9: K10, Sl1, K2tog, PSSO, K10
Row 10: K10, P1, K10
Row11: K9, Sl1, K2tog, PSSO, K9
Row 12: K9, P1, K9
Row 13: K8, Sl1, K2tog, PSSO, K8
Row 14: K8, P1, K8
Row 15: K7, Sl1, K2tog, PSSO, K7
Row 16: K7, P1, K7
Row 17: K6, Sl1, K2tog, PSSO, K6
Row 18: K6, P1, K6
Row 19: K5, Sl1, K2tog, PSSO, K5
Row 20: K5, P1, K5
Row 21: K4, Sl1, K2tog, PSSO, K4
Row 22: K4, P1, K4
Row 23: K3, Sl1, K2tog, PSSO, K3
Row 24: K3, P1, K3
Row 25: K2, Sl1, K2tog, PSSO, K2
Row 26: K2, P1, K2
Row 27: K1, Sl1, K2tog, PSSO, K1
Row 28: K1, P1, K1
Row 29: Sl1, K2tog, Psso, cut yarn and secure

Here is what the first Square should look like

Second square
Cast on 16 stitches and then pick up 15 from one side for First Square in brown/MC.
Follow directions for First Square
What the cast on and pick up stitches for the second look like

The first two squares

This is the center four squares that make the center of the ball

Third and Fourth Square you cast on and pick up the same amount of stitches. You will have a row of four squares when you are done.

The sides
Along one of the long sides of the strip of 4 squares pick up 62 stitches with the white/CC yarn.
Row 1: K14, sl1, K2tog, PSSO, k28, sl1, K2tog, PSSO, k14
Row 2: Knit 14, purl 1, K28, P1, K14
Row 3: K13, sl1, K2tog, PSSO, k26, sl1, K2tog, PSSO, k13

Then Pick up Brown/MC Yarn
Row 4: K13, P1, K26, P1, K13
Row 5: K12, sl1, K2tog, PSSO, k24, sl1, K2tog, PSSO, k12
Row 6: K12, P1, K24, P1, K12
Row 7: K11, sl1, K2tog, PSSO, k22, sl1, K2tog, PSSO, k11

Then Pick White/CC yarn up
Row 8: K11, P1, K22, P1, K11
Row 9: K10, sl1, K2tog, PSSO, k20, sl1, K2tog, PSSO, k10
Row 10: K10, P1, K20, P1, K10
Row 11: K9, sl1, K2tog, PSSO, k18, sl1, K2tog, PSSO, k9

Then Pick up Brown/MC and finish side
Row 12: K9, P1, K18, P1, K9
Row 13: K8, sl1, K2tog, PSSO, k16, sl1, K2tog, PSSO, k8
Row 14: K8, P1, K16, P1, K8
Row 15: K7, sl1, K2tog, PSSO, k14, sl1, K2tog, PSSO, k7
Row 16: K7, P1, K14, P1, K7
Row 17: K6, sl1, K2tog, PSSO, k12, sl1, K2tog, PSSO, k6
Row 18: K6, P1, K12, P1, K6
Row 19: K5, sl1, K2tog, PSSO, k10, sl1, K2tog, PSSO, k5
Row 20: K5, P1, K10, P1, K5
Row 21: K4, sl1, K2tog, PSSO, k8, sl1, K2tog, PSSO, k4
Row 22: K4, P1, K8, P1, K4
Row 23: K3, sl1, K2tog, PSSO, k6, sl1, K2tog, PSSO, k3
Row 24: K3, P1, K6, P1, K3
Row 25: K2, sl1, K2tog, PSSO, k4, sl1, K2tog, PSSO, K2
Row 26: K2, P1, K4, P1, K2
Row 27: K1, sl1, K2tog, PSSO, K2, sl1, K2tog, PSSO, k1
Row 28: K1, P1, K2, P1, K1
Row 29: Sl1, K2tog, Psso twice
Row 30: Bind off

Complete second side.

Here is how one side look done with the second side ready to start.

Both sides done – before sewing

Sew up Side seam and stuff as you get to end of your seam. And enjoy the Football.

Any questions contact Sarah – Creativegal42 on Raverly.
For Personal Use only.

The circle afghan Pattern

2006-09-06T22:50:00.001-04:00

I have had requests for my pattern on the circle afghan. If you have the MDK book -- it is based on the technique used for the circle of fun afghan -- I just use stockinette stitch instead of all knit and did a knit only border as I went. I hope you enjoy it -- and if you have questions let me know!!

Circular Afghan Pattern

I used Worsted weight yarn and size 8 needles. My gauge was about 4 stitches to 1 inch. I used this to decide how wide to make this afghan – keeping in mind that the number of stitches I casted on is half of the actual size of the afghan. So if you want to adjust the number of stitches or type of yarn – keep in mind that the stitch count should be divisible by 2.

Cast on 100 stitches.

Row 1 – Knit all stitches
Row 2 – Purl 92, knit 8
Row 3 – repeat row 1
Row 4 – repeat row 2

There is a border of stitches that we will be keeping all the way through. I did 4 stitches originally – I am writing the pattern for 8 stitches to be used on the outside border. These stitches will always be done as knit stitches while the body is done in stockinette stitch. I am using the colors in my afghan as a guide to where the stop and starts are – but you can use any color!!!

Row 5 – K2 in black, turn work
Row 6 – Sl1, K1
Row 7 – K4 in black, turn work
Row 8 – Sl1, K3
Row 9 – K6 in black, turn work
Row 10 – Sl1, K5
Row 11 – K8 in black, turn work
Row 12 – Sl1, K7
Row 13 – K8 in black, K2 in red, turn work
Row 14 – Sl1, P1 in red, K8 in black
Row 15 – K8 in black, K4 in red, turn work
Row 16 – Sl1, P3 in red, K8 in black
Row 17 – K8 in black, K6 in red, turn work
Row 18 – Sl1, P5 in red, K8 in black

Continue adding 2 more stitches to pattern until you have K8 in black and K88 in red. You will have 4 black stitches at the end unworked. I left those to make the center cleaner looking. After purling back those stitches you will have done about 96 rows in the first “pie”, you’ll be at row 100 in pattern.

Now will start decreasing the color “pie”

Row 101 – K8 in black, K 86 in red, turn work
Row 102 – Sl1, P 85 in red, K8 in black
Row 103 – K8 in black, K84 in red, turn work
Row 104 – Sl1, P83, K8 in black

Continue decreasing the color by two stitches on odd row until you are back at 2 stitches done – row 200. Remember you will always have the 100 stitches on the needle – you are just not working all of them every row.

Row 201 – Knit all stitches in black
Row 202 – Purl 92, k8
Row 203-208 – repeat 201 and 202 three more times

Repeat rows 5 to 208 four more times. Choosing different colors for the “pies”

On the fifth time (there will be 6 sections to the afghan) – repeat rows 5 to 204.

Bind off stitches – but do not cut yarn. Turn work and pickup 48 stitches along the inside edge of the afghan; you will have 49 stitches counting the last bind off stitch. Then follow pattern –

Row 1 -- knit to last 2 stitches K2 tog. – 48 stitches
Row 2 – K2 tog across row – 24 stitches
Row 3 – Knit all stitches
Row 4 – K2 tog across row – 12 stitches
Row 5 – knit all stitches
Row 6 – K2 tog across row – 6 stitches

Cut yarn and weave end through the last 6 stitches and tighten yarn. This will close the circle up. Then sew edge of purple to edge of red – this will be the spoke so the seam will be slightly hidden. Weave in ends and you are done!!!!

The pattern is copyrighted by Sarah McDonald and may be use for personal use only.

the circle part II

2006-09-06T22:12:00.000-04:00

here is the picture of the circle afghan -- I couldn't get it in the last post right.

the circle of creativity

2006-09-05T20:21:00.000-04:00

it is amazing how one thing can spark our creativity. After getting into the MDK book this summer I started working on the circle of fun rug and making into a tree skirt for my MIL for christmas this year, I remembered a circular afghan my brother had as a baby. shown below.

And I got thinking what if I did my own circular afghan for my daughter. the one my brother had was crocheted and I haven't seen a lot of good ideas for circular afghans. I took the pattern of the circle of fun from MDK and adapted it. At first I did the straight knit like it called for and when i did all of the stitches I realized that I didn't want to stop there and I decreased back down the other side. I also decided to add spokes to break up the colors a little as well. My first try...

I didn't like the look of the straight knit and since I was testing with dishclothes I played with another. This time I did stockinette stitch and added a knit border as I went. Then when I finished I figureed a way to do a center with out binding off. This try made me realize I don't want the extra strings to weave in -- but it was a great start. As follows.

So now I was ready to start the afghan and get going. I decided to make this like a color wheel and use black to break up the colors. I then decided that I would use black as the outside border thus allowing my to carry the color along and I didn't have a lot of black ends to weave in. The only thing I would do differently is make the outside border thicker as it curls to much still. I use a variety of yarn that I was able to find at Joann's on my one shop. The red and blue are carons simple soft (1 ball each), the purple is Red hearts soft yarn (1 ball), the black, orange, yellow and green is Bernat Satin Yarn (2 each -- but if border was thicker 3 balls of black). The satin was the best to work with -- but Joann's didn't have the right shades I needed and I of course wanted to start right way!!! I hope you enjoy the results.

My Knitting history

2006-07-23T22:34:00.000-04:00

Since I am going to focus a lot of this blog to my knitting and other crafts I decided that I needed to give a history of my knitting.

My mom taught me to knit when I was about 10 or 11 years old. This was because I wanted to learn how to make sweaters. She learned to knit when she was 8 (and now has been knitting for 55 years!!). She taught me to crochet first, but I wanted to make sweaters and I didn't like the look of crochet. My first completed project was a pink v-neck vest which I wore for my 6th grade school picture. shown here to the left.

I keep knitting all through school and I could be found working on projects in school at the end of the year or on school trips.

For a while I worked on a yarn shop in high school. That is where I really got going on my knitting and then I also sold a design (the black and white) to Ungar yarn company. They never did anything with the pattern but it was a great feeling. I also did other designs like the sweater dress copying the hottest sweater pattern motif that was around at the time.

I sort of put my needles away for college and after college for a bit. one I didn't have as much time, two I could find yarn as available and three I couldn't afford what I did find. Then one major thing happened -- the chains started carrying Lion Brand yarns and they were making fashion yarn more affordable and you didn't have to use the awful arylic yarns. After that I was set again. I was working for Michaels at the time and after I left management there I started teaching more and I have been playing with more patterns and playing with more styles. And what fun it has been.

Mason dixon Bibs

2006-06-24T16:45:00.001-04:00

A friend showed me the new Mason Dixon Knitting book the other day and I had a blast looking at it. I couldn't wait to get home and start playing. I started with the baby bib since I have a 3 month old and alot of sugar and cream yarn to play with. I loved the pattern, but I didn't like one thing. My daugther doesn't like things digging into the back of her neck when she is laying down. So I decided to play with the pattern and instead of two straps I made one long strap that wraps around her neck and then buttons in front. Plus it is easier because we don't have to go back and make the second strap.

Ok world -- I am starting a blog

2006-06-24T12:30:00.000-04:00

After hearing about blogs and seeing them get started I decided it was time to satrt one. Mostly I how to concentrate on my crafts and knittting as well as my pride and joy - my daughter and all that she does.

As I have more time I'll get going on this