I made these this weekend after seeing these ones here - I liked the idea of pastel colors for easter and I just painted mine. One little family will be going on a trip and hopefully arriving at their destination before Easter. Hazel wanted to play with these so badly, today I varnished them so now she can.
Whenever we asked Hazel what she wanted for xmas she’d say, “I want a little sewing machine so I can sit by mommy and make things.” (Awwwww, how cute!) At first she wanted a yellow one, but after she saw these Hello Kitty sewing machines she changed her mind. I wasn’t about to get her one, they cost more than mine (an old but solid kenmore from ebay) and I knew it would just be frustrating and probably dangerous for her.
At Target I found this sewing machine on sale for $10 and bought two $1 packages of Hello Kitty stickers to customize it - I had enough stickers to make the sewing machine picture on the box and the owners manual follow the theme also.
Tonight she decided she wanted to use it - she didn’t have a project in mind, she just wanted to use the sewing machine so I set her up with some fabric and helped her make two little bags - she is thrilled with herself and I think my fabric stash may be in danger!
(This is in the dining room - the stove behind her is not connected to any power source, just decoration.)
That’s what I’m calling this blanket. I started it last week after I was done with all of my running around, finishing things up, sending things off, buying one last thing. . .
I’m using all the solid color (as opposed to variegated) blues and colors derived from blue from my stash. Leftovers from other projects, hand-me -downs, and yarns that came sealed in bags with other stuff from Goodwill. I saw the pattern here a while ago and really liked the looks of it. It is basically the same pattern as the ripple and the babette blankets I made - lots of double crochet - but this one is even simpler since it is *only* double crochet and it is worked in the space of the previous row, not in the top of the stitch.
Basically this blanket requires no thought, no purchases, and I’m on no deadline to finish it. It will probably end up in the boys’ room, but for now it is by the couch - it’s too big to be a carry-along project. I’ve cleared out a bunch of yarn ends that were too small for much else and I’m using colors that I would never otherwise choose. I relax just looking at it!
Yesterday I helped the kids and the neighbors make stained glass cookies - sugar cookies that have holes cut in them and you put crushed jolly rancher candy in the spaces and it melts and looks like glass.
The kids stuck around for the first round of cutting and filling, and Hazel helped me out for a couple more rounds, but before too long I was left with a pile of dough, 5 bowls of crushed candy, and not a lot of motivation. (I personally think these cookies are kind of gross, but I let each of the kids choose a cookie to make this year and this was what D wanted to make.)
I realized that I should try to make something that used up as much dough and candy as possible and came up with this:
I balanced it on a window ledge this morning and now I really like it.
To bring you this Goodwill score-
12 embroidered linen napkins - no stains and they are all hand hemmed and it looks like hand- stitched too. And I have a project in mind for them!
I actually saw these yesterday but they were kinda on the pricey side for Goodwill (about .75 each!) so I walked around with them in my cart for a while and put them back. Last night I got an idea of what I could do with them so today we went back and they were still there. This proves that I was meant to have them if you are a follower of Goodwill karmic energy theory. (Scott and I are devotees.)
I searched for a link to the article online but couldn’t find it, so I ‘ll just say that I got the recipe for these from an old issue of Martha Stewart - Dec. 2003 - in which they made bird ornaments and coated them with glitter. Really nice, but I don’t have bird cookie cutters, cutting out templates takes too long, and I’d need about 15 colors of glitter and I only have 3. . .
Anyway, here is my version:
As you can see I used oak leaf and acorn cookie cutters and made them into ornaments and gift tags - and a few other things I’ll share in the next couple days. The recipe is 1 cup cinnamon, 1/2 cup white glue, 1/4 cup applesauce, all mixed together, bagged or wrapped up and left to sit for at least an hour. It sounds like a good recipe for kids, and I started out doing these as a kid project, but this dough is really hard to mix up and the frustration (their issue) and mess (my issue) factors had me sending the kids away while I did most of the mixing. (I’ve actually made these twice now, and the second time I had a better idea of how things worked and what the kids could help with so they were more involved.)
The dough was easy to roll out later, but I had to add a little water to it to get a good consistency. I rolled it out on parchment paper and cut the shapes out and used a skewer to poke a hole for threading. I left them on the parchment paper to dry out. The first batch was made during Thanksgiving week and I’d just slide the trays into the oven after something else was done cooking, between that and the heat being on they dried out in a couple days. The second batch I put in the oven at 200 degrees for several hours - small ones dried out in a couple hours (flip ‘em every hour or so) and the big ones took more like 4 hours.
Here’s a picture of the second batch, cut out and about to go in the oven:
We painted most of the second batch - and used gingerbread men, stars, and tree cookie cutters - or cookie punches as Hazel called them.
A word of waring if you attempt these - it makes a huge amount. For second batch I made a double recipe and I was pretty sick of cutting them out and flipping them over by the time I was done. And the dough looks like it would be yummy, but I was told that D and H licked some of the first batch but they weren’t good (LOL!) and Hazel actually put a small piece of the second batch in her mouth and promptly spit it out.
These made our house smell great while we were making and baking them, and whenever the heat comes on and blows over them.
Hazel saw these dolls at Posie one day - she loves to sit on my lap while I read blogs because she loves the pictures - and asked me to make her some. I was thinking about buying the doll making kit she was selling, but they sold out before I was done thinking so I had to get my supplies at Hobby Lobby. The kit calls for pinking shears to keep the edges of the fabric from fraying, and I don’t have any so I glued felt along the edges - I started with red bias tape but it was incredibly frustrating so there are only 2 done that way.
Most of them are made to look like girls we know - Hazel is the one on the upper left. I sent a few - including the one that looks like her - to Hazel’s cousin Rebecca, I hope she gets them today!
I made these out of felted wool sweaters. I did blanket stitch around the edges and made the poinsettias out of wool felt pieces.
And now hold on to your eyeballs - the light on this table in the afternoon is just right for pictures, but this combination is a bit much . . .
Wool sweaters again - with a little extra embroidery for fun.
James got a spiffy new bag so I thought I’d show off the awesome one that Helen made for me. It’s got custom pockets for my junk and everything. (And no, there’s not much our resident Renaissance Woman can’t do.) I jokingly refer to it as my “Man Bag” because it’s not a purse. As you can see I travel much lighter than Mr. Elwood, but then again I don’t work out of my bag. Pictured are the things I tote around on a typical work day.
My friend Claudia’s son wants to be Link from the video game Zelda for Halloween this year. Since I had 3 Links last year (in the game Zelda: Fourswords there are 4 Links all dressed in different colors) I told her I’d post instructions on how I made the costumes.
First, Link needs some basic clothing. White or tan pants - you could probably get away with khakis if your kids aren’t sticklers for detail like mine, or the pants from a karate gi would be perfect. Link also wears a long-sleeved shirt under his tunic - a lighter color than the tunic. I ended up getting my green Link an XS shirt from the women’s area at Target - light green is not an easy color to find for a boy - but a less picky Link could probably even wear a white turtleneck.
For the tunic I just measured from the front of one hip, over the shoulder to the back of the hip and cut a piece of fleece to the same length. The width was slightly larger than the measurement across his shoulders. This piece of fabric was folded in half and I cut a 6″ slit and the rounded it in the back and made it a v-neck in the front.
The only sewing I did for this costume was one straight line for the hat. This would have been really easy to do by hand, or staples or safety pins would also work. I measured Link’s head circumference and made a triangle with that measurement as the bottom leg of the triangle and the approximate height of the hat as um, that line that would go from the point of the triangle down to the line, I can’t remember what it is called! Anyway, just sew the two non-head-circumference sides together and trim the brim as needed to even things up.
As you can see from the back of this shield it isn’t high tech and requires no fancy materials. There is a piece of funky foam under the duct tape handle to make it comfortable and stable. All three shields are still going strong after a year of use, so no complaints about durability either. Making the handle off center makes it easier for Link to hold in front of himself, and these handle will also allow the whole wrist to go through - Link has a candy bucket to carry too, you know!
The shields are about 18″ tall and 12″ wide. First I cut the cardboard and spray painted it red (I actually had this darker red color from another project.) Then I put duct tape around the edges - half of the width of the tape is on the front and half is on the back - which makes the edge nice and neat. The swirls were drawn with a silver sharpie, the triangles are funky foam attached with white glue, and the eagle/bird/alien/whatever is cut out of white paper and glued on. Since I had plenty of time to let these dry I painted the whole front with mod podge to seal it, but that’s totally optional.
The sword is one of the free paint stirrers you get when you buy a 5 gallon bucket of paint. We had a lot of those around here, right Scott? Anyway, it is spray painted silver and the handle and hand guard are funky foam (glued on.)
The belt buckles are also funky foam threaded on a piece of brown fleece, these are tied over the tunic to hold everything down.
Looking again, I realize I did a bit more sewing. The boots are basically brown legwarmers - so just tubes - with a shoe-top flap on them the shoe flaps were attached to their shoes with rubber bands. As I tell the kids over and over - it is going to be dark, we can relax on the finer points!
Latest Comments
sarah, Helen, CabbitSD, Chris, Kirsty, Luigi lover, Luigi lover, Stacie, Rachel, Ben [...]
Zelda Chick, Zelda+Minda :D, Zelda Chick, steven, Rachel Rogers, Grneyedlady, Lynn, Helen, Tristan, Konner [...]
S. Williams, Scott, Will, Kerri, 68stationwagon
Carports, Johnni, Margaret, Helen, Jake, Kirsten, stormie, Emily, 68stationwagon, Helen [...]
Sondra
Angie Cheney, Valerie Milobar