Birthday Prep

My cousin Melanie (& Aaron) have an adorable little girl name Lydia. Lydia just turned one. Being the "helper" (a.k.a. bossy/pushy party person I am), I offered my party services to Melanie for Lydia's 1st Birthday party.

She actually took me up on it and came over the next day to create with me.

We started by making a banner to hang from the patio and a banner for Lydia's cake, using some scrapbook paper and supplies I had around.

I forgot to take pictures of the final products, but here are some "in progress" shots. You'll have to visit Melanie's blog when she posts about the party to see how they turned out. :)

Tiny triangles (on the table)for the cake banner.
Big triangles for the patio banner.

Next, we went to Craft Warehouse and bought some cute fabric to make Lydia a "1" shirt... similar to Levi's, but girlie.

"Model for me Melanie.... nice."

I gave Melanie a bow (for a headband) that I had made and she purchased this little tu-tu to complete Lydia's birthday outfit.

Oh my goodness... she's going to look SOOOO cute!!!!!

I can't wait to see pictures of the party and the sweet little party girl.

Happy 1st Birthday Lydia!

Flower Pin Cushion

Continuing with the flower theme.....

I made my mother-in-law, a flower pin cushion for Mother's Day.

I'd been wanting to make one of these for some time now. It's made with cute printed fabric for the petals, a solid fabric for the middle, fiberfill, felt and a golf tee. The golf tee goes on the bottom, so that it can be put in a spool of thread for ease and convenience.

They were so fun and cute, I made several.

To Evelyn: If by chance, the moon, stars and planets have aligned just right and you are reading this, sorry for the spoiler... it's in the mail. Love you. Happy Mother's Day!

Silhouette

"How Does She" is giving away a Silhouette cutting system.

This would be so fun to have.

Maybe I'll win one..... it would be a Christmas Miracle. :) J/K

Mice!

Call the exterminator... we may have a problem!

I volunteer in Abree's kindergarten class each week. Her teacher asked me if I could do a little sewing project for the class.

Sure.

I didn't know what I was getting myself into. She needed 110 of these little grey rodents cut, sewn and glued together.

Although they don't look like much, they took me several days and hours to complete 55. The other 55 will be completed by another "sewing mom". Whew!

I've been told they will go into a Christmas mouse book, attached by their long, grey yarn tail.

Not pictured. :)

Scarecrow!

My friend Jilene was asked to make a scarecrow for her daughter's school class. The donated scarecrows were to be auctioned off, to raise money for the school. Jilene didn't feel confident in her scarecrow makin' skills, so turned to me for a little inspiration and crafty know-how.

Initially, we were thinking of making a full-sized scarecrow. As I was researching and looking on the internet, I found many smaller versions.... scarecrows as plant pokes, pins, made with candy, as shelf-sitter decorations and holding baskets. Many of these were super cute, so I asked Jilene if the scarecrow HAD TO be full-size. She called the school and found out that making a smaller version would be just fine, so we shifted directions and came up with a plan.

This was our inspiration. I've had him for years...unfinished and kind of sloppy. He was useful in our scarecrow makin' though. I used his general size and shape to make a pattern.

I have since done a few finishing touches on him and he now looks great sitting on my shelf.
I found these old dish towels, yellowed and stained. I don't remember where they came from. Probably from a grandma hand-me-down fabric box. Even though they weren't in perfect condition, I thought they would make a great head/body for a scarecrow.
Scarecrows are supposed to me rustic and dirty, right?

I cut out the body, making the arms and legs really long, so they could wrap around a basket. Next, we ironed on a nose and patch cheeks, stitched a mouth and used buttons for eyes. Then I arranged some raffia around his head and pinned the 2 body pieces together. I sewed around the head and raffia hair, then around the rest of the body, leaving an opening for stuffing. I was pleased and surprised when the raffia hair actually worked. It's a little crazy and Jilene may decide to give him a haircut, but I like him.

Then it was on to making his clothing. I used our inspiration scarecrow to make a pattern, once again. I was able to leave some raw edges and not get too particular about things...because it was a scarecrow for goodness sake. We tied jute around the neck, waist, wrists and ankles and left some raffia sticking out for cuteness.

Here's George..our finished scarecrow. Jilene will probably fill the basket with apples, mini pumpkins or candy for the auction.

I was very please with how he turned out, especially because he was our own creation.

Would you bid on George?

New Birthday Tradition

Just over a week ago, Jason approached me with an idea. He wanted to start a new family birthday tradition. ---The week before your birthday, would be an appreciation week. During that week, our family would write notes, make little gifts, be extra nice to the birthday person (including not fighting with them), do their chores, etc. --Abree overheard Jason and got really excited. She thought it was a grand idea, with her birthday coming up next. I too, thought it was a great idea..... and not just because, my birthday is right around the corner. :)

The next day, at my "Positive Parenting" class (taught by Carleen Tanner), we talked about TRADITIONS. Jason's new idea fit right in with what we learned that day.

Sister Tanner feels that celebrating birthdays, should only be second to, celebrating Christmas. Celebrating birthdays gives us an opportunity to focus on the individual, who is an important part of the family group. I totally agree. I LOVE birthdays! Some of the things she's used over the years are; birthday balloon wreath, quilted birthday banners, birthday pillowcases, special dinner plate, birthday survey and a birthday chair cover.

I liked the idea of making a birthday chair cover.... doable and simple. It would also serve as a visual reminder to appreciate the birthday person, during their week. With Abree's birthday fast approaching, I got to work on it right away.

I printed out letters and a cupcake, traced them to Wonder Under, ironed them to fabric, and then cut them out.
Next, I made a slip cover out of pillowcase we had and ironed the letters and cupcake to it.
Then I sewed around everything, with these results.
I'm very new at applique. My stitching around the letters has room for improvement...although it's hard to see in the photo, it is quite uneven and funny looking in places.

I'm happy to report, I finished it before Abree's birthday and it works quite nicely.

Happy BIRTHday to our new Birthday chair cover and new tradition!

Halloween Tree

One afternoon, while ALL my kids were in school, I got a decorating whim.....

I took this little pink tree.

Spray painted it black.

Then made some garland.

I punched out cute scrapbook paper circles and sewed them together with my sewing machine.

I think it turned out cute.

Fits right in with my other Halloween decor.

So to answer the question, "What will you do with ALL of your kid-free time?"

....this week, make a Halloween tree.

Teacher Appreciation Week

In appreciation of my kid's teachers, I made these.

I love gifts that are cute AND useful.

I wrapped them in a brown lunch bag and stapled these tags to the outside.
We LOVE our teachers!!!

Photo Cube

A wooden cube, a little paint, some Mod Podge, scrapbook paper and B&W pictures, equals a cute Mother's Day gift for my mom.

Happy Mother's Day!

You'll have to imagine what the final product looks like.. I forgot to take a picture. Oops!

SPRING!

My Easter grass project, as promised.....
Originally, I was going to make a SPRING banner for my mantle, but then I came up with this great idea.

I LOVE it!!!!!

Lucky

Having one banner under my belt, I thought I'd try another... one for St. Patrick's Day. My idea was good, but my execution wasn't great. I don't LOVE how this one turned out.

In fact, I believe less in LUCK and more in being BLESSED.

I may try another banner for Easter or Spring.
Stay tuned......

PS- My friend Keri and I were asked to make a banner for a wedding luncheon (after a lady in our ward saw our birthday banner). That will probably be the next banner I attempt.

New Calling

I was recently released from my calling as CTR6/7 Primary teacher. I don't want to sound ungrateful or too excited, but yippee! I was REALLY ready for a change. Love the kiddos I taught, but am really looking forward to being with and talking to adults.

My new calling is, "Second Assistant on the Relief Society Meeting Committee". What?! Basically, I'm on the Enrichment Committee.

My dream calling. I'm not number 1 in charge and I get to help plan "parties"! Yes.

Our first "Relief Society Meeting" together as a new committee was the Relief Society Birthday dinner celebration.

My friend Keri and I wanted to make a birthday banner to decorate with. So we got together one day and came up with this.

We used 12x12 paper to make it big enough to be seen from a distance. She printed the letters using a ton of black ink...because neither one of us had a cool Cricut. Then we cut circles and squares and randomly mixed and matched them. We punched holes at the top of each letter and then used black embroidery string to hang them.

We hung it in front of the dark green stage curtain. The string blended in and made for a cool effect. It looked like the letters were floating. A happy accident.

I think it turned out cute.

More pictures to come.

Tote

This was "The Year of Electronics" at our house for Christmas. Rylee and Taylee received Nintendo D.S.'s and Abree received a V-Smile Pocket... or "INtendo D.S." as she likes to call it. The older girl's also got cute D.S. holders (that look like mini purses). Abree needed something to put hers in, so I made her this place mat tote . It turned out so cute!

L is for Ladybugs & Lollipops

When it was my turn for pre-school this month, I had the letter L.

The first day we talked about ladybugs. We colored a picture, made a counting book (with fingerprint ladybugs) and played a "site word" ladybug BINGO type game. (Some of the girls are starting to be able to recognize the site words! Some still don't really care.) :)

The next day we talked about lollipops. I had this idea about making lollipop sugar cookies.
Plan A : roll the dough into "snakes". Then wind them around in a swirl creating a lollipop.

The dough was WAY too crumbly to do this. Soooo....

Plan B: Form different sizes of balls squish them into circle shapes onto the sticks.

They were supposed to be edible, but they didn't taste very good in my opinion (a new cookie recipe that someone on the internet raved about). Maybe too much food coloring??? They were pretty bright! :)

We also made these little lollipop magnets. This was my last minute brainstorm that ended up being so cute.

I had the girls glue the circles together, sandwich the craft sticks between 2 yellow circles, put a clear plastic bag over, tie a bow and stick a magnet on the back.

---I was happy to use the little craft sticks and little plastic bags I bought on clearance... I didn't have a use for them at the time. I have LOTS more. Anyone NEED a lollipop magnet???