Chair Label

What a cool chair!  It was designed by Felix Guyon with La Firme.  It is a beautifully designed chair that folds to an inch thickness.  I just love the luggage tag label design.

Popeye Birthday Cake

My little boy had a birthday recently and I made a Popeye cake for him. He loves the Popeye cartoon and he makes a Popeye expression for the camera sometimes.  I found a picture online and drew the design of it on the cake.

Happy Birthday to my sweet boy!

Paintbrush Roll

For Christmas my mom asked for a paintbrush holder roll and I thought I'd try and make one.  I wanted one that wasn't just a plain white canvas and found this outdoor fabric in her favorite color.

I found some pretty good instructions here, but if I were to do it again I would adjust the length of the roll because I have longer brushes and this wouldn't work for them.  I had a little trouble with the elastic staying level and it did end up a little wonky.  What I should have done is tacked the elastic first before I sewed the pockets.

Christmas Beaded Wreath

Okay before you think I have too much time on my hands, I made this before I had kids or cable.  They took me forever to make and I made six of them that year for gifts.  I know, CRAZY.  I found this time consuming craft from good ol' Martha.  They really do turn out pretty when they are done.  It just takes lots of beads and time.

Lacy Rib Hat

We took a road trip to visit family and since it is a long drive I brought along some knitting projects.  I was able to get some knitting done when I wasn't being the referee for the kids.  I went to the yarn store before I left town with my daughter in tow, which she of course talked me into picking up yarn for her too.  This rainbow yarn caught her eye and she claims rainbow is her favorite color.  Ha!  I decided to make a hat out of it for her and found the pattern via Ravelry and it's free.  You can find it on the Yarnophiliac blog, here.  It's a wonderful pattern and knitted up easily.  I haven't done any sort of lacy type knitting and it turned out beautifully.  It also has a picot edge that I really like.

As you can see the owner of the new hat loves it too! It was a little cooler there and she was happy to have a hat to keep her warm while she climbed trees.

Christmas Stockings

I forgot to show you my son's stocking I made last year.  It literally took me the whole month of December and this year I added his name.  I've always liked the colorful and sequined stockings.  Growing up my siblings and I had similar Bucilla stockings and I absolutely adored them.  I thought my kids would enjoy the same type of stockings too.

Drawstring Bag

I'm not sure if anyone else is in the same boat as me, but I'm always scrambling to get my Christmas presents done.  I can say this one is done and headed out the door. I sewed up this drawstring bag to go along with a present I bought.  It just looks pretty all packaged up in a handmade bag.

Nesting Ornament

Here's something I did a while back with a set of egg shaped lions that nest within each other.  I thought they'd make cool ornaments so I drilled a hole into the top of each one and fished a piece of twine through the hole and tied it off.  The kids love these and have so much fun opening and putting them all back inside of each other.

Angel Costumes

Last week, I ended up taking on the task of making 23 angel costumes that needed to be completed for the Christmas pageant this Friday.  Oh my goodness, If I don't have to make another angel costume again I'll be happy.  They were very easy to make, but when you keep making the same thing over and over again it becomes tedious.
Here's a picture of my two angels in the costume.

Sock Monkey Hat

I found this adorable Sock Monkey Hat by Nicole Montgomery on Ravelry and just had to make it.  You can find her pattern for sale at her etsy shop.  I'm working on another one right now to send to my nephew. It's a great pattern! It also makes a great hat without adding on the sock monkey face.  When I started knitting the child size hat I didn't check my gauge and it ended up being too big, so I passed it along to my sister.  I definitely would have worn it, but you know we don't typically see cold weather down here in Houston.

Pan Organization

So, after 3 years I finally had to get this cabinet above my oven under control.  It was an avalanche waiting to happen.

I had plans to put in wood slats, but I found something at Ikea that would take care of the problem.  It's so nice to be able to find things in seconds.

Porch - Thanksgiving

Here's a glimpse of my porch decorated for Thanksgiving.  I thought I'd show you a picture before I change it to Christmas.  I re-did my wreath this year with a few floral items from Hobby Lobby.  This is why I love grapevine wreaths they are so easy to change up.  I probably spent all of $5 updating this wreath.

Pumpkin Dip

Are you looking for new ways to use pumpkin puree? I tried out a new recipe today and yum, I thought it was delicious.  You know I'm a fan of anything sweet.  It was from the magazine Cooking Light - October 2003.

Ingredients: 
6 oz. of cream cheese (light version)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
2 tsp of maple syrup
1/2 tsp of cinnamon


Add first 3 ingredients to a bowl and beat until mixed.  Add remaining ingredients and beat till smooth. Serve with apples.  


I also used graham crackers to dip into the pumpkin dip and it tasted yummy too. My little guy liked it too.

The Princess Basket

I forgot to show you the princess basket I helped assemble for my daughter's school.  It was seriously a hit with all the little girls.  What was funny is my daughter actually won the basket.  She was beyond excited when she found it in our living room that morning.  Look at how happy she is that she won. I had to explain to her that she won't win every year. 

Here she is posing in her new Little Mermaid outfit and scooter. 

Here is a picture of the basket before we put all the stuff in it.  I bought an storage bin and made a liner for it.  I'm glad I kept the lid so I can still use it as a storage container. 

On a side note, the lamp I helped the kids make ended up auctioning off for $750.  Hurray! 

3-D Turkey Craft

I was on the hunt to find a Thanksgiving craft for my daughter's classroom.  I found a fantastic 3-D turkey project with a pdf from Designs with Heart.  You can go to the Designs with Heart page here and download the instructions.  It's a great craft to do with the kids and makes a cute centerpiece or decoration.

Autumn Centerpiece

I'm trying hard to avoid getting the Christmas stuff out.  Don't get me wrong I love Christmas, but I think I would get tired of having it out after awhile.  I don't have too many things to decorate with for Thanksgiving and actually there isn't much in the stores for Thanksgiving.  They seem to skip it and go straight to Christmas.  I decided put together a centerpiece to put on our dining room table with some items I had on hand.  It's very simple and won't mold, since it's all fake.  I recently added some gourds to the mix and then a few days later saw that they were molding.  Ewww. So, off to the trash they went.

Tie Bib

I saw different versions of the Tie Bib on pinterest and wanted to make one for a friend who is pregnant.  Indietutes has a good tutorial on the tie bib and if you want to make one you can check out the tutorial here.
What was great about this project is that I had all the material on hand and didn't have to make a trip to the fabric store and could use up some of my leftover fabrics. I chose to use knit for the bib and the tie is made out of a material with some stretch to it too.  It was a quick project and makes a great gift for baby boys.

Felt & Gravity Collection

I came across this wonderful designer, Amy Hunting who makes this wonderful modern and colorful furniture collection, Felt & Gravity. I just love the nice clean lines with the pops of bright color.  She is based out of London, but you can view more of her wonderful designs at her website.

Halloween Aftermath

Well, I think we have all come off of our sugar highs in this house.  I've had to hide the candy from the kids otherwise they will devour it all in one sitting.  Although, I really need someone to hide it from me too.
I wanted to show you pictures of the kids in their costumes.  I was lucky that my daughter wanted to be Jessie since I made that costume earlier in the year for the Rodeo.  You can find the tutorial for her chaps here.  Thankfully, it all still fit her.  This just left my son's Woody costume to make.  I made the shirt and vest for the Woody costume.  The pattern I used for the shirt was Kwik Sew 3146, view C.  It turned out really cute and I used the pearl snaps on it to make it look a little more western.

The vest was pretty simple and you really don't need a pattern, but I had one on hand for a costume that included a vest so I used it. 

Here they are in their costumes from Toy Story. 

Yeehaw!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!  I had all intentions of posting the kids in their costumes, but I haven't been able to capture a good picture of them yet. Hopefully, I'll get one today before we head out to trick or treat. So, instead you will have to make do with more Halloween decorations. First up, a cat and owl decoration that I found on the Martha Stewart website.  Here's the link.

The bats are made from black cardstock and sewed all together in a strand. It was much faster to run it through my sewing machine rather than tie each bat to each other.

Last, is the Halloween tree that I found at JoAnns in their paint it yourself section.  I got it at a bargain price and I think it turned out pretty cute.