Pinwheel Skirt

The pinwheel skirt was not the easiest project I've ever come across. I found this project on U-create by a girl named Leanne who has a blog called Elle Apparel. When I saw this skirt I thought it was awesome! To think she just created this skirt without a pattern means she has some serious talent. So creative and different. I'd never seen a ruffle/pleat done like that. So I told my mom we should do it together in California. Well I'll fess up now and say my mom really did the majority of the sewing. It took us awhile to understand all the directions because some pieces of the construction were not part of the steps so we had to fill in the gaps. This is when sewing gets stressful. The material got rather thick and broke a couple needles as well. I could have never done this project alone. I definitely would recommend a more experienced seamstress (like my mom) to do this skirt.

In the end I'm happy with the final product. My mom rocks at sewing and she wasn't completely satisfied with her finished product because she wanted it more perfected. Ha, I could have never done this. I probably would have taken a baseball bat to my sewing machine before I had finished this project. Thanks mom again for your amazing talents. Maybe one day those skills will magically grace my being. Until than more mod podge, nic nacs, and simple sewing for me.

Apple Sauce Jar into Pumpkin Face

I've been saving up apple sauce jars, peanut butter jars and other jars to make a little pumpkin patch for my living room. I found this idea here. I love kids crafts.

Happy 80th

My grandma is one of the sweetest and most loving individuals I've ever met.

Every year for Christmas she gives each family a calendar with all of our birthdays and wedding anniversaries. Each year we get a birthday card from her and those that marry into the family also get a birthday card from Grandma A. I love that she always remembers us, even if the card is a few days late I know it's coming.

My grandma just turned 80. I decided it would be fun to put together a family photo calendar for her. My grandma had 7 kids so the calendar starts with the oldest child's family and goes down from there.

I used shutterfly.com to make this calendar. You can customize dates and add different backgrounds. I only wish they had more picture layouts or an option to customize. I hope she enjoys our calendar to her!

Projects I like but don't have the skills or patience for so I make my mom do it

Once I started noticing those cute quiet books at church I knew I would love to have one for my son. I also knew I would rather my mom make it than myself so I asked her if she would do it for my son's birthday. You can tell many hours of love went into this book. Thanks mom for an amazing quiet book we will always cherish. Check out her book below.

Check that off the wish list-Summer Scarf

I've created a wish list of crafts I would like to do and a summer scarf was one of them. Well I ended up being a side-kick with this project. My mom and I visited this huge fabric store in California. They had tons of cottons and other fabrics for under $2 a yard! This project required half a yard of fabric, regular thread and elastic thread. I've never used elastic thread so I let my mom work with the elastic since it was her sewing machine and lets face it she's much better at sewing than me!
I look sort of mad or concerned in this close-up pic so please ignore my funny face. For a tutorial go here. I got the tutorial from Made.

Feeling good about crafting

Months ago I was thinking it would be fun to get some friends together and make something for someone in need in our community. A great thought but I never got around to it. I became quite busy with the felt play house.

Yesterday I was looking at the website Made when I came across a new book called Craft Hope.
It's a book with lots of creative crafts that can all be given away to someone in need. The part I find really neat about this book is that at the end of each craft is a charity or organization that is in need of this object.

(Craft Hope by Jade Sims)

I'm in love!

I haven't bought the book but would definitely be interested in organizing a group of people that would be interested in crafting for a cause. I think it would make for a great church activity or a great way to get together with some friends or a great way to connect with friends via the web.

If you click here you can find more pictures and information from the website Made. I also learned Craft Hope has a website with projects to do on a continuous basis.

I'd be interested to know if anyone has any interest in doing a project together. Let me know!

Balloon Birthday Bash

Yes we gave our one-year-old a birthday party and yes we know he won't ever remember but we will. Parties are fun and I had fun planning my child's first birthday party. My little guy loves balloons so we decided to give him an overload of balloons for his party.

Theme: Balloons

Invitation: Evite-it's free!

Decorations: Helium balloons and a balloon garland around our apartment. I got the garland idea from Martha Stewart's website.
My husband set-up a balloon screen saver on our TV/computer.

Activities: "UP" play fort, toys, and bubbles.
Bean Bag Toss. Box-diaper box, wrapping paper, construction paper. Bean bags-old jeans, left over fabric, pinto beans.

Treats: We did kid snacks, and adult snacks and tried to find puffy, circular things like quiche, creme puffs, jalapeno poppers, lil crunchers, watermelon balls etc.

Cake: When we were brainstorming balloon cake ideas I remembered that one of my roommates from college recently made an "UP" cake for her daughter. We totally stole her idea. The big difference is she does cake decorating and we do NOT. However, my cute hubby was the chief architect and he did awesome!

First I baked three cakes on Thursday night and froze them in the freezer. I found some helpful cake tips here on the website Make it and Love it. Friday night Mike used an electric turkey carver to cut the cake and he began creating using butter cream frosting to glue it together.
I made fondant to use for the roof, windows, door, and bushes. I also found my recipe for fondant on Make it and Love it. The recipe and directions are here. I used 3 tablespoons of water and I live in a humid climate. It worked much better than 2 tablespoons which is the suggested starting point. After the cake was finished on Saturday we used a kabob skewer to hold the balloons in place. See below for our end result.
In the end the cake was destroyed by the birthday boy. A proper ending to a 1st year birthday cake.

Of course we couldn't let our guests eat this cake so I made some cupcakes. I topped with mentos and teddy grahams.

Party Favors: Balloon, Bubbles, and lollipops. However, in the shuffle of things only about half of the kids and parents got their parting gifts. Sigh.

Lots of leftover balloons!

Thanks to all our guests who came. You were adorable!