Christmas Party

 I made these yummy north pole cupcakes, easy and festive.

Each year we make an ornament for our kids Christmas party. This ornament was simple yet so easy to personalize.

9 Patch Pillow Cover

A few months ago I was able to get some great down pillows from TJ Max. The covers weren't my favorite, I didn't have the time to make a new cover. So, instead of cleaning my house for our annual cousin Christmas party I made a new pillow cover.

 The squares are 1 inch by 1 inch. 

 This was the cover I bought the pillow with.

 My quilting needs a little help.

I loved how fast this came together, and how cute it looks in my family room.

Baby Blanket

My hubby's cousin had a baby boy a few weeks ago, it is their first boy after having two girls. I made up a soft flannel blanket for the new little guy.

 I found several tutorials on pinterest for a self binding blanket- it's easy and fun to do. Make sure your layers are square and it will be an easy project.

 My mom gifted me a lot of fabric last time I was visiting, this fabric was from that stash.

Squaring the fabric before you start sewing=incredibly square corners after :D

Peppermint Pillow

After decking the halls and trimming the tree I looked at my couched and saw that I needed to change this pillow cover. I used some red velvet and cream fleece from my stash and made this fun pillow.

 Isn't it festive?

 It even goes well with our grinch

 I a tutorial on pinterest (that apparently I did not pin), and made it a lot bigger and sewed it on to a square pillowcase for my 20x20 pillow.

I'm sure a lot of you are enjoying weather like this-if this continues, I'm sure I will have a lot more projects done and ready to share.

Happy Halloween!

I love holidays! Especially with little ones around-they are just so much more magical.

The other day my oldest had their class Halloween/fall party. I was signed up to bring cupcakes. Normally I'm a make it from scratch-avoid any preservatives-kind of girl. But my time was so limited. I headed to the store and soon realized the amount I was spending on ingredients was too much...

 Yep-I bought the mini cupcakes from the bakery. The price was too good to pass up.

 I also snagged some fun eyes to make the cupcakes look more ghoulish.

 They were candy eyes-so completely edible.  And the kids loved them.

One more thing...

Oh Yeah!

Dropcloth Leaf Pillow

Fall is here. The leaves are stunning and we are enjoying the warm days and cool nights. To help bring some more fall into our home I whipped up this pillow for our living room.

My mom gave me a TON of orange corduroy, I've been thinking of lots of projects to use it on.

I found a clip-art of a maple leaf, then printed off and enlarged it as big as I needed it.  The pillow case needed to be at least 20 inches square.

For the main fabric I used washed drop cloth. Once the drop cloth is washed, it becomes very soft. I sprayed the corduroy with spray adhesive, then stitched it to the pillow case.  While watching a few shows I embroidered around the edges.

Happy Fall!

Wedding #2

Apparently I last posted over a month ago! School started in the middle of August for us. I have a kindergartner-half day. I was driving every two and a half hours. Then after only two weeks of school I really did not like the kindergarten teacher, and we couldn't switch...long story. So we switched to a different school just for him, which turned out great. Now we carpool and I am in the car less.

Besides a crazy first month of school, my hubby's only sister got married last weekend. I ended up sewing and crafting a bit.

Here's a smidgen of what I did...

4 vests, 4 bow-ties

2 Girls Dresses

Flowers: 1 bouquet for the bride, 3 boutineers, 1 corsage, 1 arrangement for the guest book table, 1 flower girl bouquet

Here's one more shot of the flowers.

We had a great time, and I thought the flowers were pretty. We had another family wedding earlier this summer, and I have been meaning to show you the dress I made for my oldest daughter--gorgeous!

Congratulations to my sister-n-law and my new bro-in-law!


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Chairs

Here's the backstory: Last year while visiting my family in Utah we stumbled upon our dream table. It's a beast, without any leaves it measures 60x60, with two leaves it is almost 100 inches wide. It didn't come with chairs, so I've been looking around- a lot!

My original cheap plan was to scour thrift stores and find different chairs, then just paint them all the same color. I found a cute wooden high chair in my months of searching, but nothing else worth buying.

When my hubby was gone for a week at scout camp I braved World Market with three kiddos in tow. I was actually looking for a neutral rug to replace the one on my living room.  So we looked around the store and saw lots of fun things. They were clearanc-ing their outdoor furniture, it was 75% off. I looked around just in case there were chairs I might like...

These chairs were 75% off making them $25 each.

I grabbed the four they had in stock, with a coupon of course. I paid about $21 for each chair.

They only had the black chairs left. When I got home I was so giddy, I called the other store in town an found out they had a lot more for sale.

After dinner we piled in the car again. I bought six more to make it an even ten!

With all the discounts/coupons I paid about $210 for 10 chairs. They are sturdy, and once my hubby got home he actually likes the chairs too.

Yippy!

Diamond Pintucked Pillow

I have been enjoying this summer. Today we went to the lake for one last hurrah before school starts and the weather changes. Last week my hubs was gone to scout camp. I really wanted to make over my living room, but my budget didn't allow for everything I wanted to do.  So I bought some pillows and decided to make some new pillow covers.

Here's the first one I made.

 This was so therapeutic to sew row after row.  

Once school begins next week I will have a bit more time on my hands to write up a tutorial.

I've entered the post over at CSI

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I am working on several other pillow covers and can't wait to show them to you too.

Tantalizing Tuesday-Monkey Bread

 I tried to do this on a day that wasn't over 90

 I like monkey bread-only when it is made from scratch.  I do not like it when it is made from pre-made biscuits. To me, it tastes like biscuits with brown sugar and cinnamon on it.  Here is the yummy recipe I found. I make my dough in a bread maker.

 I knew this would be a messy project for my kids. The only way they will learn to be great cooks is to get their hands dirty. I tried to set everything up so they wouldn't get frustrated.

 My little guy would sing the steps as he placed each ball in butter, then the sugar mixture.

This does make a lot of yummy bread. We invited several families over and before I could take a picture of the end result we had one morsel left.  This project took some time, but it was so fun to see my kiddos help out.

Make It Monday-Instruments

We have a short summer out of school. Our school did year-round last year, and is starting traditional in the fall, which means we get the short end of the deal.

We are trying to make the most of it-hence the lack of blogging on my end.

We are doing the envelope adventures again...

 I had been saving toilet paper and paper towel rolls, but my 1 year old decided she needed them more. 

 We happened to have two empty tissue boxes, and a bag of elastics.

 We tried to pick out different widths of elastics

 Once the elastics were in place the kids decorated. They have had fun making noise trying to play different songs.

Cedar

My hubby's coworker found a piece of cedar during a recent camping trip. She wanted to use the piece to make something for her hubs for Father's Day. So my hubby volunteered our family to help. My hubby cut and sanded the piece then turned it over to me to burn a saying into the wood.

 1st I traced the saying with pencil.

 Warmed up the wood burner.

 Then went to town.

You were my yesterday, You are my today, and you will always be my tomorrow.

Now I know how to use a wood burner.

Bloglovin...

It bugs me when things I like are taken away without much thought of consequences.  

Well, like much of blogdom I've switched over to Bloglovin.

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Follow my little blog too. If you haven't switched, I think you will enjoy the ease of Bloglovin.  Yes, it is different than Goggle reader-but after a day or two you'll enjoy Bloglovin a bit more.

Patriotic Paint Chip Wreath

During spring break my parents came in to town. My dad helped my hubby put in a tree ring--a fun project that required several trips to Home Depot...during a late night run they found that they were clearing out an entire section of paint chips. My little brother has used these in his artwork, so my dad loaded up tons of paint chips. By tons I mean he filled the trunk of his car. Before they left I filled a garbage bag full of chips...

I wanted to make a new wreath for the 4th and had a fun idea.

 I pulled out the red, white, and blue chips

 Traced and cut stars out of each one.

 Lots and lots of cutting.

 While watching some tv, I folded each star for a 3D look.

Then I pulled out my summer wreath from two years ago.

I used a glue gun and just glued to the crepe paper.

done!

 Isn't it festive?

Happy Independence Day!