Bean Bags

After I made the bean bag to use with the hopscotch mat, I had to pry it out of Benjamin and Elli's fingers. They were having so much fun with such a simple toy. SO, I decided to make them all their own personalized bean bags because (1) I still had the embroidery machine out and because (2) if their names are on them there is MUCH less fighting. All I did, was take two coordinating pieces of felt, embroidered the name on one square, sewed three sides and then turned it right side out, filled it with some old beans that I found in my parents food storage room, handstitched the open side closed and DONE!

Quiet Book

I made this Quiet Book when I was pregnant with Jacob. I didn't really have a pattern - I kind of just made it up on my own as I went. I tried to remember some of the pages we had in the book my mom had made for me and my brothers when we were little. I haven't let the kids play with it much because (1) it took me FOREVER to make and (2) I let some older kids look at it at church one Sunday and they DESTROYED it (I had to redo a lot of things and some of them I can't fix). I'm trying to be better about it so my kids can actually enjoy it - afterall I did make it for them. I guess I will just have to let them look at it "under my supervision".

Title page

The apples are made of foam with velcro on the back

Beads on string sewn onto the page - this is one of the pages that got destroyed that I can't fix

Pocket full of letters

What you match the letters to

I just drew all the destinations freehand and then made a little car that is attached to a string that you drive on the roads

This one all the pieces come off of the clown face and then you remake it the way it is supposed to be

Pretty self explanitory

The flowers all come off and then you button them back on

Who doesn't enjoy a game of tic tac toe?

The game pieces are stored here

How to tell time

All of the shapes come off and then you match them up with the ones left on the page

A beehive - you open it up and it has some bees in it

My favorite page - the farmer and all animals are all velcroed on the back so you can remove them and play with them however you want to

My latest project.

I saw this fabric hopscotch online here: http://melissagoodsell.typepad.com/day_to_day/2009/06/fabric-hopscotch.html There were no instructions or anything so I had to figure it out on my own. I wasn't trying to copy this one exactly but I guess it worked out that way due to the available felt at the craft store I was at. I did add some of my own little elements - like the bean bag and pocket, the personalization, and the buttons and ribbon closure. I made it for my niece Jercie for Christmas from Kaden - hopefully she won't see it on here before then. It turned out way cuter than I imagined it would. It was kind of a pain to sew the number squares onto the fabric but it wasn't too hard to make at all and it didn't take that long to put the whole thing together.

Rolled up view

Up close view of personalization

Rolled out and ready to play


Up close view of beanbag and pocket

Up close view of numbers.

And the winners are:

Lynette and Audrey. I had Aaron randomly pick 2 numbers between 1 and 19 and the numbers he picked matched up to you two. You will be recieving your prize this week sometime. Be sure to keep checking back because another giveaway will be happening soon.

A couple of things

I got this craft from my SIL Leslie's Super Saturday. They NEVER do super saturday here so I ordered a couple projects through her ward. I love this one. It was way easy too. I just painted the boards brown, added some cute scrapbook paper, and then nailed the sheet metal cut outs onto the board. It turned out really cute and I can hardly wait for our new house so I can hang it up somewhere.

A watch band for my mom

A padded camera strap for myself - I ordered one online a month ago and have yet to see hide nor hair of it. So, I gave up and decided to figure it on my own. I got some help from this site:
http://www.cluckclucksew.com/2009/01/camera-strap-cover-tutorial.html

A sheet metal picture holder with homemade magnets - I got this one from my SIL Leslie's Super Saturday also. The wording was supposed to say : MEMORIES, but I didn't really like that so I had her change it to: A picture is worth a thousand words. Then I just put the vinyl on, made some cute little magnets (with Andrea's help) and added some pics and WALA!

My first . . .

GIVEAWAY!!

I am giving away a crayon roll to 2 lucky winners. All you have to do is leave a comment with your email address and whether you want the crayon roll made for a boy or girl. Also, if you become a follower of this blog you automatically get a second entry. I am going to announce the winners on the 24th. Good luck!

More Bottling

This past week I did two different bottling days. First, on Monday I made my grandma's old fashioned mustard pickles. My dad loves these things so I made a batch up for him. I got 9 pints and 1 quart so that should keep him stocked up for a while. It was the first time I had ever made them and they turned out really good. There are only a few people in our family that like them (me included) so I think we are set for a while.

Saturday I woke up and bottled salsa. I was trying to make it "hot" for Aaron so I left all the seeds in the the jalepenos and the anaheim peppers. My mom and I think it has quite a bite to it - Aaron on the other hand doesn't. He says it still tastes really good though, so I didn't completely fail. Good thing - because I got 24 pints out of one batch.

One for me

The apron was so cute I decided to try making one for me. I LOVE IT!! It turned out way cute. It is hard to tell from the picture but the trim fabric is actually denim (it looks black but its not). I love the look of the little monogram applique - I think it just adds so much more to it. (I got the applique letters from here: http://www.skiptomylou.org/2009/02/16/simple-applique-monograms/)

While I was sewing it Ben came in and said "Oh great! Do I have to try that one on too?" I just laughed and told him "No this one is for me to wear!" He gave a relieved sigh and went on his way.

I know, I know . . . .

I have no girls, but this project was so cute that I couldn't resist. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet . . . .

Anyway, I got the pattern and idea from: http://www.skiptomylou.org/2009/08/05/childs-apron-tutorial/ I changed a couple of things on the apron - like I made it to tie in the back instead of have velcro, simply because I had no velcro. It took me less than an hour from start to finish and the fabric flower was way easier than I thought it was going to be.

I asked Benjamin to model it and these were his exact words: "As long as you don't take a picture of my face because that's for a girl and I'm a boy!" So what did I do, I took a picture of his face - future blackmail material I'm sure.

It is really cute and I love how it turned out. Now I just have to figure out what to do with it.

Strawberry Jam and Live in the Moment

I made some strawberry jam on Thursday and it is DELICIOUS!! I love homemade jam. What goes better with homemade jam then homemade bread? The answer is nothing. I made bread on Friday - no pics of it because it got eating almost instantly. Not only did I make regular bread but I made some cinnamon bread (thanks to Kinz for the recipe) and it was just as delicious as I remembered it being.

Today I put together a frame with a quote on it and a college of all my babies at 5 months old as the background. I got the quote from another crafting website - somewhat simple - and then when I was awake in the middle of the night I came up with the idea of using the collage of pics for the background instead of fabric or scrapbook paper like the one I was going off of. It turned out way cute and it is much cuter in person. I am really happy with it. I just took an old frame that my mom had lying around and painted it black and then put the vinyl wording on the outside of the glass and the matted collage in the frame.

More Canning

I bottled whole tomatoes on Monday. It's so much easier and quicker to just do them whole then to make some sort of sauce out of them. I didn't feel like having it be an all day project, so I went for this way. Aren't they pretty? Just a sidenote - I tried to use one of the bottles the other day when making dinner and I got scolded by my dad. He said I HAVE to save them for the long, cold winter - what a nerd!

Up next - homemade strawberry jam. They had a killer deal on strawberries at GBF so I couldn't resist.

Crafting Giveaway

One of the blogs I follow is doing a giveaway. Go here: http://somewhatsimple.blogspot.com/ to check it out or just simply click on the somewhat simple button on the sidebar.

Crayon Rolls

I woke up yesterday with the need to make something crafty. I found the instructions for this online and decided to give it a whirl. The first one took me a while because, well, the first one always does on a new project. By the time I was sewing the 4th one I had it down to a science. They turned out really cute and I have learned that if I make one for one kid I have to make one for all the kids. Since there are now 4 crayon lovers in the house I had to make 4. The best thing about this project was that between all my crafting stuff and my mom's crafting stuff - I had all the stuff to put them together.

P.S. If you want to try a crayon roll - here is where I got the instructions: http://www.skiptomylou.org/2007/04/25/on-a-roll/