Easy Patchwork Pillow

I found a quilt at a yard sale that had seen better days. It had holes in it and stains all over it. Therefore I got a good deal. I took the pieces that were good and made pillows from them. They look like they took a long time but they only took about 5 minutes each. The smaller pieces that aren't big enough for pillows I think I'm going to use to make patchwork birds for christmas ornaments. Or I may think of something else before then? Who knows.

Happy Fathers Day

Here is my dh with my dd. She's so lucky to have such a good daddy. Happy father's Day!!!

New Food: Rachel Ray

Ritzy White Pizza http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/food/recipes/ritzy-white-pizza/

I love to watch Rachel Ray. She has a semi-new feature on her webstie called the food crew. I tried one of the recipes for Arugula. I thought it was really good. I had never tasted Arugula before or fontina cheese. I did substitute the proscuitto for ham. I recommend this recipe but I might use mozarella next time because the fontina is quite expensive.

Crayon Roll

Found this tutorial over on Skiptomylou. It's a great tutorial and it took about 30 minutes to complete. Great project! http://skiptomylou.wordpress.com/2007/04/25/on-a-roll/ I will probably make a lot of these for christmas presents. Would be cute to make it a little smaller for lip gloss too for teenagers on my gift list. Could also be used for make up brushes. Anything else anyone can think of?

July Banner

I made this banner to decorate for a 4th of July party. I cut the red and white striped fabric and star fabric into banner panels. Then I freehanded J-U-L-Y out of blue gingham pattern. Then use the zig zag stitch around the letters onto the panel and sew onto a length of ribbon to hang.

Pillowcase Envelope Pillow

I collect pillowcases. I just can't help myself when I see one with an interesting pattern I pick it up. It's already sewn so I usually just adjust it a little bit and make something else. I've made pillowcase dresses for my little girl, little skirts for her, and a few other things. Today I was playing around and made a 4th of july envelope case for some pillows I didn't like anymore. Here's how it turned out and it took about 5 minutes to make. Basically you stuff a pillow form into the bottom of a pillowcase. I had to add a little extra batting to make it fuller on one side. wrap the other end of the pillowcase like a present and sew around side that looks like an arrow before you fold it back and sew on a button. Then flip over onto the pillow form...Wallah you have a envelope pillow in less than 5 minutes.

Paint Chip Packaging

I participated in a scrapbook color swap over at 2peas. Basically you go through your craft swap and pick out items either by color or shape and send them in to a central person. Then they send you back one of each item from someone else in the swap. You were to place each category in a ziploc and put your name on it. I placed my items in a ziploc and went to the paint store to get the colors that matched to make cute little headers for the bags. The ones that weren't colors I used my punches to punch out the shape needed(ex. circle, squares, etc) Here is a pic of them all laying out together. I think you could pick up some red or green paint chips and package things to give out for christmas. Or use the cartoon character ones to use for goody bags for birthdays. I think there are a million uses for those paint chips. Anybody else used them in a clever way?

Valentine's Day Advent Calendar

We have so much fun with the Christmas Advent I decided to make a Valentine's Advent calendar. I placed candy and little trinkets in the pockets for each day of the month leading up to Valentine's day for Natalie. I made this with felt, buttons, and ribbons. It was a lot of cutting but the end result made it worth it. I love the birds and the hearts and I used Red and turquoise one of my favorite color combos at the moment. I have an advent for Halloween, Valentines, and Christmas now. Hmm, What other holiday or event can I do a countdown calendar for? I can see one of these being made for a disney vacation countdown with stuff to use on the trip. How exciting would that be for kids? Wouldn't it make the anticipation so great!!! Too bad we aren't going to disney this year. Maybe next year!

Christmas Mice - Preschool Christmas Party

Thought I should give some instructions on the Mice posted earlier. We took these Christmas Mice to the preschool for the christmas party. They turned out really cute and the kids had a great time with them. They were chasing each other with them and talking to them. It was a lot of fun. To make these you simply need cherries with stems, chocolate for dipping, hershey kisses, oreo double stuff cookies, slivered almonds, and red glaze icing. You drain the cherries and remove as much excess liquid as possible, dip them in melted chocolate and place on half of an oreo. then you place 2 slivered almonds in between the hershey kiss and the cherry, draw on eyes with the red icing and there you have a cute little edible mouse. And it's fun to chase people with. Note**The one pictured apparently lost an ear!