Potato Head

I found a tutorial for a Felt Mr. Potato Head at Make it and Love it and I knew that I had to make one for my nephew for Christmas. The tutorial can be found HERE for the Mr. Potato Head.

I also made a simple bag to put the Potato Head supplies in.  On Make it to Love it she made a pocket on the back of Mr. Potato Head but I couldn't get mine to work and still look good.

Soup & Salad

I made these for dinner one night when the weather was cold and wet outside and I couldn't help but think about summer!  They were both so rich and flavorful.

Curried Zucchini Soup

PREP TIME: 10 minutes

COOK TIME: 20 minutes

2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

2 medium zucchini, sliced into 1/4-inch half moons

1 teaspoon ginger powder

1 teaspoon curry powder

1/2 teaspoon garam masala (optional)

3 cups vegetable broth

1/2 cup plain fat-free or low-fat yogurt

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Add onion and garlic; cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add zucchini, ginger, curry powder, and garam masala, if using.  Cook 3 more minutes.

Add broth and bring to a simmer.  Cover and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes.  Puree soup in a blender or food processor until smooth, or use a hand blender.  Whisk in yogurt just before serving.

Crab and Avocado Salad
PREP TIME: 10 minutes

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 pound lump crabmeat
1 large ripe avocado, pitted, peeled, and cut into 1/4-inch cubes
   Salt and Pepper

Combine cilantro, mayonnaise, lime juice, and cayenne in a medium mixing bowl, Mix in crab meat and season with salt and pepper.  Gently fold in avocado and serve.

(Both recipes were taken from The South Beach Diet Quick & Easy Cookbook by Arthur Agatston, MD)

Ornament Wreath

I'm sure you've seen these all around the blog land like I have and I was in the dollar store the other day and saw their ornaments and I couldn't resist making my own.  There are some great tutorials out there such as: Thrifty Decor Chick and Eddie Ross and Just a Girl. They all give some great tips on how to put the wreath together but the next time I'll make a few modifications. 

First, I would use craft wire instead of a hanger.  The hanger was a little thick for my cheap-o ornaments which made it hard sliding them on and also it was difficult for me to finish it off nicely, HENCE, the giant bow.  


Second, I might reconsider the dollar store ornaments.  It was nice that they didn't shatter on me (because they are plastic) but even after super glue the top to the ball part I still had issues with the "hook" breaking.  If I put a little too much pressure on the bulb it would snap and I ended up using super glue to put it back on the wreath.  

Car Cozi

I fell in love with the car cozi that Jill from homemade by jill made for So You Think You're Crafty challenge.  I knew I had to make one for my 2 year old nephew. Between Jills tutorial and the tutorial from My Little Gems I was able to make my own version.

I did a few things differently then the tutorials.  First, I used a really heavy interfacing that made the road part of the cozi really stiff so it could hold itself up if there isn't a hard surface to put it on.  Second, I decided to make my road windy instead of straight.  I thought that just a straight road might get boring sooner. I used No Sew Heat-n-Bond to attach the road lines, number and car decorations on the backing.

I had some leftover car fabric from the curtains that I made for my son's room that I cut up and appliquéd to the back of the cozi.  I put the cars just on the top portion so when the cozi is rolled up that is the part that shows.

I was able to make the entire thing from scraps that I had in my stash.  I love being able to use up my stash!

New Author!

I am really excited for the newest member of our team, my sister-in-law, Janelle Eyring.  Janelle is very talented and is extremely creativity.  I can't wait to see some of the things that she has been working on.

A Tribute To Cardboard

"3 -2- 1, BLAST OFF!" Yesterday my son told me that we should get in a rocket ship and fly up in the sky to find the moon (it was a cloud covered night). So since we pretty much live in his imaginative world all of the time, I decided I would try to make that possible for him. I stopped by an appliance store's recycling bin (FREE) on my way home last night and made this rocket ship for my little astronaut.

I've gotta tell you, we LOVE big cardboard boxes!

When I was in junior high, I saw an episode of Out of the Box on Playhouse Disney (while babysitting, of course!), and fell in love with cardboard boxes! I frequently dream of having my own preschool and having a whole closet full of broken down cardboard boxes so we can use them whenever and however we'd like.Earlier this summer, my nephew and I built a ship to sail the seven seas in!

Seriously so fun and so cheap! Next time you cross paths with a huge cardboard box, take it home and find a way to play with it!

Turkey Toes!

I watch some toddlers during the week and I'm always looking for fun crafts, especially during the holidays.  I came across these Turkey Toes from Chasing Fireflies

and also this really cute turkey template from Alpha Mom.  You can get the template that I used HERE.  Go to their site to get some more great templates for a coloring page, centerpiece, and a crayon holder.

I combined both ideas, added a large baby food jar and the clearance candy corn from Halloween and WALLA a fun but easy toddler craft!  I printed the template out on card stock and had the kids color the template first.  I cut it for them since they are still pretty young and tend to have too many oops moments.  They then filled up the jars with the candy corn which helped them work on their small motor skills.  Then they glued the turkey around the jar and the small turkey on top.

This can be done really cute if you decorate the lid (to hide the fact that it is a baby food jar) with twine or ribbon, mod podge, and paper.  With my minimal preparation this project was a great Thanksgiving toddler craft.  

Halloween Candy Bag

A few hours before I took my son out for all the Halloween festivities I realized I had nothing to collect candy in for him.  I knew I could have gone simple and just done a grocery bag or it's equivalent but I had a lot of orange fleece left over from Alex's costume so I gave a bag a try.  I didn't have a pattern but I'd seen enough tutorials for bags on the internet I knew I could figure it out. Granted it isn't the best sewing job but I whipped it together pretty fast.  This was also my first time every doing appliqué so don't look too close on the picture. For some reason I can't figure out what settings to put my sewing machine to make a good stitch.  Please let me know if you've done appliqué a lot.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

...to go trick-or-treating of course!

I found this costume on Martha Stewart and fell in love with it!  The instructions are so simple but I made mine a little more complicated.  I decided to make some orange pants and also some chicken feet instead of using rubber gloves.  I also made my own hat instead of buying one.  I had to make the thing around his neck because the feathers were in his face and he was NOT happy about it!

It is a great costume if you live somewhere that is cold because of all the layers.  Another modification I had to make was cutting a big slit half way down the back because we couldn't get him in the costume once it was stuffed.  I just put some Velcro on the back so once he was inside we could close it up.  Check out Make It and Love It's virtual costume parade to see my little chicken and get some more great ideas for next years costume.

This is what my floor and pants have looked like for the past month!  We have feathers all over our car and house from this costume.  I don't think even real chickens shed that much!

The extent of my Halloween decor...

I still haven't decorated my house so I found it VERY difficult to decorate for Halloween when I don't have anything to put the decoration on.  So after searching through Martha Stewart's Halloween Crafts, I came across several of her crafts that were made from paper.  She includes the templates for her projects.  I used THIS template for most of it and the rest I just found on Google images.  The picture above was taken at night from outside my home and the picture below was during the day from inside.  It is extremely easy and loved by 2 year olds!

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In a few days I'll post some pictures of my son's Halloween costume!

I'm still here...

I've got a lot of Halloween stuff that I'm working on....will have pics next week!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

Baby Blanket and Toy

I found both of these fabrics at a yard sale and thought that they would make a wonderful baby quilt when a friend of mine had a baby girl.  It is pink and black stripped flannel with black fleece on the back.  It is so soft and cuddly and will be perfect for the cold weather to come.

I did the baby quilt 30 by 35 with the back 1.5 inches longer and wider so I could us it as the binding.  I then took some scraps and ribbon and made a small taggy ribbon blanket.  I did it 10in. by 10in. with the same fabric as the other blanket and then I put the right sides of the fabric together.  I pinned the ribbon to the edges with the loops of the ribbon between the fabric.  I then sewed it together leaving a few inches to allow me to flip it inside out.  Finally I just closed up the opening by hand with a hidden stitch with a needle and thread.  If you would like a tutorial, go to Melissa Sews.  She closes her hole with the machine and then does an added top stitch around her blanket.

I just wrapped up the blanket and the taggy ribbon blanket together and wrapped it with ribbon and a small card.  I just clued the ribbon to itself and the card to secure it together.  Very simple but still looks nice.

Quilts

I've been trying to get my quilt project done but I just keep running into issues. PLUS, I'm not that happy with how the colors look together. In the mean time, I've found so many adorable quilts on other blogs that I want to share. These are some of my favorite sites for quilting.

This first quilt is from a blog called Side Notes that a friend of mine is an author at. I love the color combinations and the simplicity of this quilt. I can see pink and brown in my head for a baby girl quilt. Go check out this quilt and their other great quilts by going here.
This second quilt is from one of my favorte quilting sites called Moda Bake Shop by the author of my final favorite quilting site, Crazy Mom Quilts. Moda Bake Shop not only has wonderful ideas but they actually explain how to do it yourself! This quilt is one of many that I have loved from them. It is a sweet baby quilt measuring 45" by 54". Click here to get the instructions for this baby quilt.

This final quilt I love so much. It is from Crazy Mom Quilts called the tinker tape quilt. She made the quilt out of scraps. What a great way to use all of them up.
I absolutly love the ragged square top. So simple! I've also decided to stop by IKEA as soon as possible and hope that they still have the fabric for the back of the quilt around! How fun is that!!!

Pinata #2

Again, out of cereal boxes...took much more time than the first because I had lots of little areas to cover, but I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out!

Garbage Bag Dispenser

Since I've been married, we've stored all of our grocery bags under the sink. I've hated every minute of it but didn't do anything about it. The bags under the sink would always have that threat of having something really nasty on them or be all wet from water dripping. I FINALLY put a stop to that! Make It and Love It came up with a really good tutorial to make a multi-fabric grocery bag dispenser. I thought hers was adorable (like everything she does) and her tutorial is really easy to follow so I made mine one night.

I'm doing my kitchen in red, black and white and I had this fabric in my scrap stash. I'm not thrilled with my fabric selections though. I think that some of the red fabric looks more pink then red (especially in the picture.) Luckily no one is ever really going to see it...well except everyone on blog land!

I'm currently working on a project with these. Can you guess what it will be? I got all four books for $.25 cents at a yard sale! This picture doesn't show very well how much fabric is there. After I took the books apart I had a stack that was 5 inches high......FOR .25 cents!!!

Yummy Color Matching

The other day I was in a time pinch...needed to get the kitchen cleaned up and dinner started, but my son wanted to play a game with me. So I printed off these circles on a piece of cardstock and gave him a bowl full of fruit loops and told him we were going to play a cool matching game. I started out playing with him for a few minutes and then invited him to do it all by himself. It was yummy, educational, and occupied him so I could get my stuff done. Win! Win!

Bumper Border

Was doing some organizing of closets this morning when Ivan saw his old dinosaur crib bumper and wanted it back on his bed. There really was no space for it on his little toddler bed, so I came up with another use for it. I tacked it up on the wall as a border, so now he can look at it everyday. What do you think?

Daniel's Quiet Book

The idea for this quiet book actually came from a quiet book someone made for Keri's son, Alex. Each page's theme was derived from a letter in Alex's name. Another friend of mine showed me her quiet book, of which she only made one page. 10 women got together and each of them made one page 10 times and then combined them into adorable quiet books. So I merged those two ideas for a baby shower I threw a week ago. I picked the theme for each page, came up with a rough templates, cut out "kits" for each page, and then had each person at the shower help assemble the book. We didn't really play games, but spent our time eating and working on this cooperative quite book. Some people got really creative and went above and beyond what I could have ever imagined, and some did the bare minimum--and that is OK! Now our friend has something to cherish from her baby shower that each of her friends and family there had a hand in. It turned out to be pretty amazing (my scanner is smaller than the pages, so the pictures don't do the book justice) and a very fun and productive shower. I got many positive responses from the atypical baby shower I threw so I think I will definitely do it again.

D- Dinosaurs (felt dinos behind pockets of rocks)
A- Automobile (toy car in garage, roads, signs)-- I love this page because the 8 year old sister of the gal we threw the shower for sewed the lines on the road. I think she did a great job.
N- Noah's Ark (zipper pocket on ark with plastic animals inside it)
I- Insects (matching colors, magnets)
E- Eating (plate, cup, velcro silverwear, velcro food in fridge (doors open)
L- Letter (Envelope with paper, mailbox that opens and closes) The coolest thing about this project is that is cost me less then $3.00 to make. Now that is not an accurate estimate for the cost of this project, but when I thought of making it--which was only a day before the shower--I was calculating how much everything might cost and quite honestly, I didn't want to go shopping because it sounded EXPENSIVE! So I decided to see what I already had in my fabric and crafts drawers....I had everything we needed except for the bias tape binding! Pretty cool, eh? I thought that was a good reminder to check out all of your materials before you go shopping for project stuff next time...you might already have it on hand!

Ribbit

I love to make hooded towels for boy baby shower gifts! This was my most recent. I've also done bears, rabbits, dinosaurs, ducks. Guess I should have taken pictures of all of those. Well I promise I will make more in the future and post pics then.

Cool Canopy

Another project I did for my friend's daughter...she loves everything enchanted (fairies, princesses, elves, dragons, etc...). I found great instructions here. It took me about 45 minutes to put together and about 10 more minutes to sew the dragonflies and butterflies by hand. We picked up the sparkly bugs at the dollar store (2 for $1) which were actually iron on appliques. I loved it, she loved it, and now I want to do one to put up in my bedroom (maybe with some more neutral colors and minus the sparkly bugs). Total cost for tulle, fleece, hula hoop, ribbon, and bugs was about $15

Castle Pinata

I don't have a little girl and don't claim to be an expert in the "princess" department, but my friend's little girl turned 5 the other day and in a moment of desperation, my friend asked me to help her make a castle pinata. We didn't really have time to do paper mache so I started building one out of CEREAL BOXES! I just started playing around and realized that The top flaps (where the boxes open and close) were absolutely perfect for the top of my castle. I added a few embellishments like the tower, door and ribbon...but all in all a fairly simple project. I wish I could give you step by step pics and instruction, but we had left our camera at a friends house, so all you get is the final product. FYI: this pinata was tough for the little kids to break... would recommend using this type of pinata for older kids (like 8+).

Materials You Will Need:
Cereal Boxes (about the same size)
Masking Tape
Glue
Tissue Paper

1.) Tape boxes together in desired shape. Leave an opening somewhere to put the pinata guts in.

2.) Cut Strips of Tissue paper to cover the box. I cut strips about 2 inches wide and then cut 1 inch slits up about 1/2 inch apart to make the fringed look. Start gluing strips from bottom to top.

3.) Fill it.

4.) Close it up (and cover your hole--like the green tissue paper on top)

5.) Embellish.

6.) Let the kids smash it!

Sorry this is super uninformative...I will be better with my next posts I promise. I figure you gotta start somewhere right? Comment if you have any questions and I will try to help.

New Author!

I have FINALLY convinced, with a lot of begging, pleading, and promising, my friend Mandy to join me in this blog. She is unbelievably talented and I can't wait to see some of the things that she will post. I know that you will love her as much as I do! (No presure Mandy!)

If anyone else would like to be an author, please let me know.

Keri

Alex's Curtains

Alex's room is facing the afternoon sun and we have a really bright light on the back of our apartment. For the past few weeks I've pinned up a blanket to the window to make it a little darker so Alex and my nephew understand when it it time to go to sleep. The other day at a yard sale I came across this really cute car fabric that matches his room theme. I decided to use it and the other fabric I already had in my stash to make some curtains for Alex's room.

They were super easy to do. The hardest part was figuring out how far to space out my tabs. All I had to do is measure my window and then decide how much fabric I needed to cover it. The navy blue fabric is really thick so I didn't need a lining for it. With the blinds and the curtains closed it can get very dark in the room.

I spent a dollar on the car fabric and I think $1.50 on the dark blue fabric (and I still have some to spare for both fabrics.) I am just using an extra shower curtain rod for now until we have the money to change it.

I'm ready now to branch out and do a fancy design for my bedroom curtains. Wish me luck and pray that I will come across some more cheap fabric!