Saturday, March 26, 2011

Whew!

What a week!!! I may have taken on a little too much in the past few weeks. Either that, or Jellybean teething just threw it all out of whack. And those little boogers haven't shown up yet. Hmph. They are up into the gums and she seems to be less fussy, so hopefully they won't bug her and just pop right in! I know, wishful thinking.

In the past 3 weeks, I have planned my first bridal shower, made a few things to send to the auction at my little sister's school, and also jumped into an I-Spy square swap at the very last minute! 

Can anyone tell me.....What was I thinking?!? 

All jokes aside, I had a lot of fun. The car seat covers and bows were finished and out of the house by Wednesday, the squares were mailed Thursday, the church fellowship hall was decorated Friday night, and the shower was this (oops, it's Sunday now) Saturday morning. We had so much fun! It started to snow, but inside it was bright and springy! Yellow, white, a little bit of black and some fresh daffodils helped us ignore the junk snow falling from the sky outside.

To top all of that off, Monday morning the baby and I will be leaving Daddy behind (sniff sniff) to take a 10 hour trip to see family in Colorado! Not looking forward to the ride, but I am definitely looking forward to seeing family I haven't seen in years!

I would love to post everything about the shower today, but I am too pooped to fuss with the computer that much! I am going to fall into bed....as soon as I put the laundry away that's covering it.... Keep an eye out for a coming post dedicated to the shower and maybe a tutorial???

Good night to all and I hope you have a wonderful start to your week!

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

I Spy Quilt Swap!

I am so excited to have gotten into my first I-Spy Quilt Swap! 

For those of you who may not know what an I-Spy Quilt Swap is, it is a swap where a certain amount of people will cut out 20 4x4 inch squares of 10 different fabrics. Each fabric must have pictures on them, enough to tell what the objects are in a 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 inch square (1/2 inch seam allowance.) Everyone sends their fabric to a designated person, who then separates out everyone's squares and sends them back! You will end up with one of each square of each person and 10 of your own! You can then take the squares you get back and make a quilt or whatever catches your fancy! Here are my squares!

Like them? These are materials I've had for a while which also means the only money I will spend on this quilt is the postage to send, and the rest of the material and batting! YAY! 

Hope your Tuesday is great!

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Car Seat Covers

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you all! Today is my big brother's birthday! Happy birthday J! Our normal celebrations were usually more geared toward my brothers birthday than St. Patrick's Day. Does any one else have any traditions for St. Patrick'ss Day?

I finally got both of the car seat covers finished and pictures taken! Are you ready to see??

Canopy cover: 


This one is a thin light weight cover that attaches to the car seat handle by straps with velcro. The straps are dark pink on the outside and the inside is the same material as the back of the cover. Please excuse the wrinkles! I should have ironed it before the pictures. It will definitely be ironed before the auction!


The front is 5 stripes in 3 colors of pink. This was actually going to be solid, but I didn't have quite enough of the light pink, so I improvised a little. I am very pleased with the way it turned out! 


Here is a picture with the backing of the cover showing. The neat thing about this cover, is it is large enough to use as a blanket! Its perfect for the Spring and early summer! I will definitely be making another for my little one!

Peek-A-Boo cover:


I don't have a boy, but this turned out so cute it sure made me want to keep it for myself! This is a warmer cover but could be make light like the other if desired.


The outer material is a thin corduroy type material (sorry, don't know the specifics!). Elastic all around the edge keeps it on the car seat. I gave the peek-a-boo flap a solid green button for embellishment.


The inside is lined with dark green fleece and the peek-a-boo flap has a little bit of velcro to keep the wind from picking it up! That little alteration is from experience! We tend to get a lot of wind and my poor baby got wind in the face alot!

Can't wait to make a few more of these!

Happy St. Patricks Day!!

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 Craft Goodies







Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Apologies and giveaway!

First off, my apology:

I seriously had plans to post multiple times at the beginning of this week, but the little one is teething and we have had some fussy days and a few fussier nights! Needless to say, we're running on less sleep and not getting much done! Although I am putting the finishing touches on the carseat covers that are going for the auction, so keep an eye out for those to pop up!

As far as the giveaway goes, there is an awesome giveaway going on over at Homestiched!
Ellie is hosting this giveaway for 30 6x9 sheets of Benzie felt in a beautiful rainbow of colors! I've entered and you should too! The giveaway ends on Saturday at midnight!

Hope your Wednesday is wonderful!

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Things coming up!

I am really hoping to post more on my blog in the coming weeks! I finally have my house back together and the little one back on her regular schedule.

I have a lot of craftiness due by the end of the month which will make for some good blog posts! 
First, I am making a few things to donate to my sister's school auction to help them raise money. I am also hoping this may get my name out in the area and maybe turn into some extra income?? 

Second, I am planning my first ever wedding shower. I'm a little nervous about it, but also excited! I have several things up my sleeves for decorations, but those posts will have to be after the 26th. Going to keep it somewhat simple, but hopefully it turns out pretty! 

On another note, a very exciting one, I won the {Sweet Giveaway Extravaganza} Party Package
 over at Sweet Craft Cakes!

I am so excited! My little Jellybean's birthday is a few months off yet, but I've already been looking at planning it whether I won or not. Now I have the task of trying to choose out of their many adorable options! Check out each of these talented ladies to plan your own party!

I hope your weekend is wonderful!



Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Cinnamon Doughnut Muffins

I was in a muffin mood this morning. Why, I'm not really sure, but I decided to go for it! Nothing better than warm muffins for breakfast! The recipe I decided to try out was Cinnamon Doughnut Muffins.

I love love LOVE cinnamon! I tend to put more than the recipe actually calls for! 

Here's how they turned out!



What do you think? Want the recipe??

Cinnamon Doughnut Muffins

  • 1 3/4 cups all purpose-flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • Jam
Topping:
  • 1/4 cup butter, melted
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon. In a small bowl, combine the sugar, oil, egg and milk. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.

2. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups half full; place 1 teaspoon of jam on top. Cover jam with enough batter to fill cups three-fourths full. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted 1 inch from the edge comes out clean.

3. Place melted butter in a small bowl; combine the sugar and cinnamon in another bowl. Immediately after removing muffins from the oven, dip tops in butter, then in cinnamon sugar. Serve warm.

*Recipe from The Taste of Home Baking Book

So I ended up making a few adjustments to the recipe. Of course, more cinnamon. I didn't have nutmeg, so I just left that out. And my husband isn't crazy about the jam, so I just left that out too. One more adjustment I had to make was the milk. My husband drank it all.....again. So instead of milk, I used sour cream in the same measurement as the milk, and added water as needed to make the batter more like batter and not dough. You couldn't tell! Cream cheese also works great.

The tops were absolutely the best part! The butter, cinnamon and sugar gave a sweet crunch to the top! Even the little Jellybean liked them!


"Tada!"

Enjoy the recipe! Let me know what you think and if you have any questions!




Linking up!
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Monday, March 7, 2011

Cyber Dust

Please excuse the cyber dust while I try to figure out my navigation bar!

As I have mentioned multiple times before, my internet is extremely temperamental and will randomly decide to work or not.

Keep checking back, I have fun things in store!


Sunday, March 6, 2011

5 Minute Denim Pencil Pouch

I have not been able to post nearly as much as I wanted this week. My excuses reasons are:
1. I had company in from Alaska
2. My computer has a seriously bad internet connection and its being plain stubborn. 
3. See number 1 and 2 again. :)

So since my company is gone and I beat my computer decided to cooperate, I thought I would show you a cute little pencil pouch my 11 year old sister and I made a few weeks ago while my parents were out for their anniversary. 

Miss E decided she needed a pouch to keep her pencils in and here's what we came up with!


Please excuse my legs in the picture.....And I'm not sure what's up with the gray??? Wasn't like that when I took the picture!

The bag is made of an old pair of jeans, so the denim is very soft. We I blanket stitched an E onto the pouch. The E is made of red fleece (Miss E's favorite color).



You can see the 2 pieces of velcro we used to keep it shut. Again, please excuse the legs...I wasn't thinking of this being posted at the time! I would have taken better pictures!

Hopefully the internet will be better this week!


Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Craft room

Just recently the extra room in our basement was no longer being used and I was able to take over use the room for my......wait for it.....CRAFT ROOM! :) 

I am loving having a room to myself so that I can make a mess cut, glue, sew, and whatever else I feel like doing to my hearts content! 

My husband's comment? "You really like having you're own room to craft, don't you?" Answer? "YES!!!" 

Its still a major work in progress but little by little it will get there. Want to see?



Art on the walls (finally got the dart board taken down and put in the garage), table to cut material, shelf with all my pens, thread, etc., and my little Jellybean playing in the corner! Not sure how that will work now that she's crawling! Yipe! 




A better look at the messy table and theres the desk across the way for sewing!!! :) 

Definitely has a long way to go, but it will get there! I should probably focus on it more, but my projects are so much more important fun! I'll post more pictures when it gets to looking better!


Tuesday, March 1, 2011

$0 Project!

I finally got my computer to cooperate so I could show off my 5 minute $0 project! I took these little guys:


10 Lug nuts, which I got completely for free....It helps to have a technician husband :)

Then I added a little ribbon, hot glue, spit and grit.....Okay minus the spit and grit!

And came up with this!


Tada! No more pinning my pattern to my fabric! Just lay the pattern down, put my weights on top, and cut, cut, cut! 

I got the idea here and put my own spin on it. 

What do you think? I can't wait to try them out!



Linking up here!
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