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I have been on pins and needles to make this post all week!.  I completed my first project with my scroll saw on Wednesday afternoon.  But, since it was a gift for my sister's birthday today, I didn't want to show the world before her!  So, today I get to reveal my creation.

I made my sis these cute HOME letters with 12 interchangable "O"s.   She has a different O for each month of the year.   I saw something similar at a craft boutique more than a year ago.  But those letters were much larger at 9" tall and 5" wide.  My sister is newly married, living in an apartment.  So, I thought something on a smaller scale would be better.  I made my letters 5" tall by 3"wide.   I stained the sides and backs of each piece with a walnut stain.  Then I decoupaged scrapbooking papers to the faces of each piece.  After the mod podge was dry, I varnished each letter.  Once the varnish was dry, I added various embellishments such as tulle, ribbon and buttons to the "O"s for the cuteness factor.

January: Snowman

February: Heart

March: Shamrock

April:  Easter Egg

May: Purple Flower

June: Watermelon

July: Star

August: Sunflower

September: Apple

October: Ghost

November: Pumpkin

December: Christmas Tree

Did I really give something so cute away?  I might just have to make another set for me...

Friday Fashions # 2, Nubby Scarf

My inspiration this Friday's creation came from a mixture of need and desperation.  Most of the time, I would agree with everyone that a craft space doesn't need to be tidy.  In fact, if your crafting area is clean, it means you probably haven't been crafting.   But there also comes a point where the mess is so extreme that crafting is completely inhibited! That is the point I reached with my craft room this week.

It totally looks like a tornado blew through here.  There is debris everywhere, and I can't find the items I need!  I have to admit, it is time for me to clean my room.  Problem is, I'm so busy with keeping up the kids and the rest of the house, that cleaning up my craft space is at the very bottom of my to do list.  The only time I could have cleaned it up this week would have cut into my precious naptimes when I am supposed to be CRAFTING, not cleaning.  I was not about to clean when I could create!  So, the mess is still there and I didn't have room to sew.
Now, my neck has been feeling a little naked while I've walked Anakin to and from kindergarten, so I knew I wanted to make a scarf.   And, to knit I don't have to have a clean room.  I can knit to my heart's content in the family room in front of the TV with Mr. Right; I can take my knitting with me to work on at work breaks, etc.  In short, knitting a scarf seemed like a great idea for today's fashion creation.
When I dug through my yarns, I found this awesome nubby yarn that I purchased a couple years ago on clearance.

Its a nice, chunky wool.  (I love knitting chunky yarns because it makes the projects go faster!)  I've never really known what to do with it, but at $1/skein I couldn't resist it.  When I came across it yesterday, I fell in love.  I knew that it would make a really fun, flirty scarf.
For my scarf, I used my favorite pattern, just knit across, anywhere from 5-15 stitches depending on the width desired.  I grabbed my largest needles and set to work.  I knit 5 across, and I used 2 skeins of the yarn.  I love the result!

Scroll Saw!

I was a very good girl and Santa brought me what I wanted for Christmas!  Santa actually surprised me with a better saw than I was hoping for. It is wonderful! 

 Santa forgot to get me a stand for the saw, so I had to order one online.  It arrived last week and we set up the saw on Saturday. So, a month after Christmas, I am finally getting to use my scroll saw.  I am having so much fun cutting wood.  On a whim, I cut out the boys' names with some scrap wood pieces. I was going to stain and mod podge the names, but the boys really wanted a painting project today. So...

 I let the boys paint their names any way they wanted.  They had so much fun.   They are now proudly displayed on the top of their dresser.

Friday Fashions, My First Series!

How often do you look in your closet and feel like you have nothing to wear!  I almost always feel that way!  I have been suffering from the wardrobe blues.  My closet might look packed, but looks can be deceiving!   If you were to divide my clothes into categories, you would come up with 5:  Doesn't Fit, Out of Style, Worn Out, Boring, and Fits Fashionably.  Now, some of my clothes fit into more than one category.  for example I have a lot that I could label "Worn Out" as well as "Boring".  But I have very little that could truly be labeled "Fits Fashionably."
You see, I have fallen into a fashion rut.  It was quite easy to do actually.  First I was pregnant, (I actually have really cute maternity clothes) but after Anakin was born, I didn't go and buy myself a new wardrobe.  I wore the few things that fit my fatter, curvier shape and saved my old premother clothes with the hope of my shape returning quickly and regaining my wardrobe.  Yeah, that didn't happen.  I finally ended up buying clothes that I would label mostly in the "Boring" catergory.  A few simple shirts and jeans.  Nothing fun, feminine or stylish.  At least, not very often.  I would occasionally make that fun purchase or create that fun sewing project.  Well, I got pregnant again.  Repeat Cycle.  And then I got pregnant again.  Repeat Cycle.  Stop!  I do not want to continue to look like a worn-out dishrag momma!
 As I reflect on my current wardrobe situation, a couple things stick out.  First, I need to embrace my shape right now and stop waiting to return to a certain size before I go shopping.  Mr. Bean is now a year old, and I am not at my desired weight or dress size.  But maybe, if I dressed with a little more care and felt like I looked cute, it would be easier to resist those extra cookies and candies.  Second, when did I stop sewing?  Now, I have never really stopped sewing. But, when did I stop being a seamstress?  When I think about all of my projects in 2010, I realize that I didn't sew a single thing for me in an entire year!  What about 2009? Well, I sewed a skirt that I wore exactly 1 time before I realized that I was pregnant with Mr. Bean and then it didn't fit anymore.  All of the other clothing items I have made have been for the boys.  And, as I have boys, I'm really not doing that much clothing construction.   Maybe I'm not thinking creatively enough, but sewing for boys is not as fun as sewing little girl dresses would be.  So much easier/cheaper/faster to buy tshirts and jeans for the boys than to sew them.  I really miss sewing clothing.  Its fun.  Why shouldn't I sew for me then?
 So, as a solution to my fashion woes and rusty seamstress skills, I have decided that I am going to start my first series, Friday Fashions.   My plan, is to post every Friday a project that relates in some way to my wardrobe.  I expect that many of my projects will be clothing items that I sew from scratch with/without a pattern, some will be items I buy that I embellish/change and finally others will be accessory items.  By doing this for a year, I hope that my wardrobe will undergo a transformation while I enjoy time that I have specifically set aside for sewing for me!  I am sure that this series will force the creative juices to flow, because I will have a deadline-I must come up with something each Friday to share.  And as an added bonus, I hope that doing a series will increase my followers and blog traffic :)

So, are ya ready for my first project?

Breezy Green Tunic.

I love the color green.  I can't wait to wear this tonight for my date with Mr. Right!
This tunic is made from McCalls Pattern 5388.

Now, I realize that the trend right now is to sew clothing without a store bought pattern.  Why?  I really do not understand.  Most of the time, if I see an item in a store that I like, I can find a pattern that has the same shape as the premade clothing item.  Why not buy the pattern and use it? Fabric stores have pattern sales at least monthly, with prices either $.99 or $1.99.  That's a steal because it takes out the guess work and time needed to take the prepurchased item and trace it.  What if you lay out that shirt just slightly crooked and then cut the new fabric crooked too?  You end up with a wonky looking homemade looking shirt! Now, enough of that soapbox...
I did customize this tunic by adding the flowers to the top and wearing it with a belt.

The flowers were fast and easy.  Plus, I used small scraps of left over lining fabric from another project.

To top off this outfit tonight, I am wearing my new skinny jeans and these new fun boots.  I feel cute, sexy and stylish tonight!

Fabric Flowers

 On Monday morning, my niece and I did a craft together.  Its not often that I get to craft with a little girl, so this was really fun for me.  We decided to make fabric flowers to glue onto hairclips and headbands.   I taught her how to make the flowers.  Then she found fabric scraps she liked and twisted and glued them together!

Temple Blocks

Last fall, we had a Temple focused Relief Society activity.  I had seen these temple blocks at my sil's house and around in blogland.  So, in our committee, we decided to have these blocks to offer as the activity's free craft.  The women loved making them!  They are super simple to make.   I cut 2x6 boards into squares and then painted them black.  After that, I sanded all the edges to smooth out and distress.   Then, I had the temple picture printed and cut out.  All the women had to do was mod podge the pic on and then add antiquing stain if they wanted it.  Then, hot glue the knob and tie the ribbon.  Done!
I love the simplicity of this craft.  Even the many non-crafty sisters in my RS had a fun time completing this project.

Santa Ornament

As I was looking over this little blog, I was saddened that I had only posted 25 times last year.  Surely, I did more crafts than just 25!  You bet I did.  However, I just didn't post them.  Lots of things I simply forgot to take pictures of and these items were gifts.  Oh well.  But, some of the others,  I am going to go ahead and post now.  Better late than never...

For my ward's Christmas Relief Society Activity, we offered this free craft to the sisters.  I found the idea from Serena at Naptime Crafting.  We modified it a little bit to fit our budget and activity time frame. We used round balls instead of the square balls.  Serena also used pieces of red scrapbook paper that she rolled and then stuffed into the glass ball.  However, as we were planning on about 80 balls, that seemed like way too much work.  We decided to use strips of red curling ribbon.  Each ball ended up taking about 9ft total.  Still, it ended up cheaper and faster than paper would have been.  We also glued on black velvet ribbon for Santa's belt instead of painting on a black belt.   I love the result. 

Shadowbox Art

I recently finished 4 shadowbox frames for my family room. 

I found these shadowbox beauties just over a year ago one day when I was thrifting with my sils.   I knew they could look stunning with just a little fixing.  The large one was just $2 and the others were $.50 each.
I got as far as repainting, but then they got put on the back burner.  I finally decided to pull them out and finish them.

I knew that with some work they could look stunning in my family room.  We have our TV nestled into the middle nook.  I planned on putting the large box in one of the side nook and the 3 smaller boxes in the other side.
After painting the 3 small frames, I mod podged the backs with patterned papers in blues and green.  After that, I created stencils out of some left over contact paper that spelled Love, Family and Home

 And ta da : the finished product!

I love the result.  Quirky and fun.  

The big frame I struggled with.  I had vinyl letters that made the saying, "Family, A Journey to Forever" that I knew I would use when I bought it.  I painted the back and planned on mod podging fun paper just like the other boxes.  However, you could see the lines from one piece of paper to the next and I couldn't stand the result.  Next, I tried placing a sheet of patterned contact paper to the back.  Again, I disliked the result.  Thats when this project got placed on the backburner.  I finally decided that I would simply stencil a design for the background.  I hated the first result.  This looked too Native American, which just isn't my style.

But a simple harlequin is...

especially with a little antiquing stain around the edges.

I think the finished product is simply marvelous!

Gingerbread Boards

Of the gingerbread items my mom donated to my kitchen's Christmas theme, there were these 2 darling plate sized gingerbread decorations.  I don't really have a ton of wall space in my kitchen, so I didn't have anywhere to hang them up.  But I do have the space above my cabinets.  

So, I took a couple lengths of a 2x6 wooden plank, painted them red and then sanded the edges.  Placed a nail at the top, and then hung them on the wood.  They looked bright and cheery next to the other gingerbread items I will display there.

Cake Balls

One of the treats we made for my sister's open house after her wedding was cake balls.  They look and taste scrumptious.  Here is the recipe:

1 box cake mix
1 tub coordinating frosting
Melting Chocolate

1. Make the cake according to mix directions.
2. When its cool, crumble it up.  Then mash the cake crumbles with the tub of frosting.
3. Cool in refrigerator or freezer.
4. When mixture is cold, roll into teaspoon sized balls.
5. Using toothpicks, dip in the melted chocolate.  Pull out toothpick and dab hole with small amount of chocolate. Embellish with white chocolate streaks, sprinkles or serve plain.

This recipe makes about 75 small balls.   We tried chocolate cake with chocolate frosting (our favorite combo), white cake with white frosting and red velvet with white frosting.   The Ghiradelli Chocolate Candy Making and Dipping Bars worked the best for dipping the balls. We tried almond bark but it was not smooth enough for easy dipping.  It also didn't taste nearly as good!

Wedding Vests

My sister got married last week.  For the wedding, I made vests for my three sons as well as my new brother-in-law's 1yr old nephew.  The fabric was a silver, pewter and black brocade that matched the fabric of the groom's vest.  For Anakin and Buzz, I followed the Simplicity Pattern 4762.  For Mr. Bean and the other 1yr old, I followed the Butterick Pattern 6894.  If I had them to do over, I would add length to all 4 vests.  I made the right sizes according to the instructions and the width of the vests was perfect.  However, they seem a little short.  Other that that, I think the kids look extremely handsome.

Buzz 

Anakin

Mr. Bean

Mr. Bean's partner in crime.  These 1yr olds are actually only 1 week apart in age, and they share the same first name!