Happy Blogiversary to Me!

Soooooo...I've been blogging for a year now.  Actually...I really don't like that word "blogging."  I really don't "blog," do I?  I just kind of share with you what we've done...

Anyhoo, to celebrate one year of blogging, I thought I would have a giveaway of something handmade.  What...I'm not sure.  Mark this one as the worst...giveaway...ever.

I would love for more people to leave comments inside the blog.  I think it's awesome that you all support me through Facebook, but those comments get lost on the Timeline, and I would really like to keep them forever.

So, beginning with this post and anytime in the month of March, leave a comment on a blog post, and I will enter your name into a drawing for something handmade by MEEEEEEE!

I've been chatty in the month of February, but there's no telling that I will keep that up for March, so you will be entered for your comment on ANY blog post (it could be one from seven months ago).  Comment on as many posts as you desire, but I will only enter your name once per blog post.  No commenting 15 times on one post!  Actually...you can certainly comment 15 times on one post.  You'll just only be entered into the drawing once for that post. :-P

Does that make sense?

Oh!  And make sure you sign your comment with your name, not "Anonymous," so that I know who you are.

Don't be shy.  It's really okay that you read my blog and other people's blogs. :-)

You could win an apron, crochet hook case, throw pillow cover, a purse or bag, or a wall hanging, etc...

I would like to cater to the winner's likes and desires...but know that you can't be too picky!  Ha.  We'll discuss it.  :-)

Thanks for reading, and thank you for being a friend!  (You're singing the Golden Girls theme song now aren't you?)

Blankie Repair

The favorite blankie in need of repair.

He quickly found the silky, yellow fabric at the store and it greatly met his approval.

Areas of Evander's favorite blankie were beginning to disappear!  The silky fabric used was basically disintegrating after years of sleep, play and wash, revealing the batting underneath and in some areas, the backing fabric.  It was a fairly easy repair.

Grab some Heat 'N Bond Lite.  I like the lite version so that you can reinforce your fabric with sewing, and add a decorative stitching.  The no-sew Heat 'N Bond will leave your sewing needle gummy and will cause your needle to break if you try to sew with it.  Take my word for it.  :-P

Iron the wrong side of the fabric, that you are using for repair, onto the exposed side of the Heat N' Bond.

Heat 'N Bond

Measure the area that you will be covering and cut your piece to fit.  Peel the backing off.

Iron on!

Then, top stitch to secure and give it a finished look.

Ta-da!  A happy blankie in the sun!  Couldn't resist taking the picture outside in the February sunshine.

If Emory's blankies ever need repaired, I am in trouble as I do not crochet.  They will be sent off to Grammie's house!  :-)

Have you ever had to make repairs on your child's lovey?  I remember I rubbed my favorite stuffed animal's nose raw with all sorts of love, and my mom tried felt, fabric, permanent marker...everything to make it brown again!

Fun With Fonts

I just discovered www.myscriptfont.com tonight and we've already had some fun with it.  :-)

You can turn your handwriting into a font in a few simple steps.

Evander's template

This will be a great way to preserve the kids' handwriting forev...well...for as long as the computer doesn't crash and for as long as we're using computers in this fashion.

Evander's handwriting:

Concentrating hard to stay within the designated parameters

One of my fonts:

I have a feeling I could play with this for a very long time.  I love lettering.  But, there isn't too much room for letter elaboration as you must keep each of your letters within about 1/2 square inch space on the template.

We used a skinny tip black permanent marker and scanned our writing in grayscale at 300 dpi.

Once you download your font, you must install it on your computer in order to use it. Follow the instructions under "How to install a font on your computer" on the "About" page of the website.

:-)

A Favorite No School Activity

It's been fun having Evander home from school for President's day today.  Emory and Marin definitely love him and love playing with him, and therefore are a little more content in their day.

One of our favorite activities for years now has been drawing huge scenes on giant pieces of paper.  This occupies my boys for owwwwwww-ers (saying "hoooooooooooo-urs" just doesn't flow off the tongue).  Calculate the time it takes to draw and color an intricate scene...then add play time with Hot Wheels and animals and little people!

Seriously, if you do not have a giant roll of paper, go out and get some.

"Car roads" and paths are always involved...and often train tracks.  Today, we created a jungle complete with monkeys, pythons and bananas.  It's always a collaborative effort.  :-)

Evander's monkey in a tree

Emory's Indiana Jones

Do you spy something Mommy drew???

P.S.  I just deleted three exclamation points and two smilies. Pretty sure I overuse those things.  Ack.  I wanted to add an "eh" smiley after that...and an exclamation point after, "Ack."

Oh, Yes I Did Make One.

Nothing like fake taxidermy to get me excited!

I bought two sheets of foam core board, (this project only used half...three more deer heads in the making?), traced the pattern, cut with an X-Acto knife and Mod Podged fabric onto the boards.  :-)  You can find the pattern and project here: Foam Core Deer Head  Oh, and it's stuck on the wall with Command Strips!

This was so easy to make and so much fun.  It had me thinking of other animals that could potentially be turned into foam core board wall mounts.  I think that would be a great art project for high school students---to design and build their own animal head.

After researching "other" heads, I came across this:  Cardboard Safari  How super cool are all of these things?

I really debated whether or not to make this with fabric that matches Marin's room and hang it in there, or to hang it downstairs.  Marin loves deer!  Her favorite stuffed animal is her Deerie and every single deer we see anywhere she yells, "MY DEERIE!!!!!"

If it's a deerie...she thinks it's hers.  :-)

I opted for downstairs.  If I hung it in her room, I wouldn't get to look at it as much, and right now, the deer head just makes me smile.  I used red and white fabric (instead of pink, green and orange to match her room fabric), so if I get sick of it, I'll just take it down and put it back up at Christmas.  I know, I know...reindeer, deer...not the same thing, but I don't care!

Check out these deer heads and other animals: Deer Heads

And these! More Animal Heads

Robot Cards Made With Love

He worked with diligence signing his name...

...Wrapped the candies with care...

...Glued a little...

...And then his brother glued a little...and his mother, too :-P

He gave each machine life...

...And in the end, he had some pretty sweet robot valentines for his friends!

Candy Cane Hearts

This was in Family Fun magazine last year or the year before... Candy Cane Hearts  I was on the look out for small candy canes during Christmas and actually didn't see any until after Christmas when I found them in the marked-down cart at IGA.  I think they still might have some if you hurry!  ;-)

So, I followed the instructions and set my oven to 235 and ten minutes later this is what we had:

One sure way to get your six-year-old angry with you is to mess up his candy for his kindergarten class and to not mess up his brother's candy.  I don't know why I didn't check them after a few minutes (okay...maybe I do.  Evander.  Emory.  Marin), but I would definitely not leave your candy canes in the over for ten minutes.  :-P

Second tray, for Emory's class, ready to go.

These I kept an eye on and only left in for less than five minutes.  Then, I pinched them together while they were still hot.  But...I'm pretty certain you can skip the oven ENTIRELY if you fill them with chocolate.  Like we did!

Are you missing pictures of the kids in this post?  Remember...one of them was upset with me...

Some Chevron Love

I painted our kitchen a couple weeks ago...and then I painted Marin's room, too.  Her new color is called, "Silver Leaf," and it's a beautiful light gray (you can see the pic later in this post!).  I love how it turned out.  So, since I fussed with the kitchen AND Girlie's room....why not the bathroom, too?  Was thinking green, but then I pulled out the current paint can to discover I still have half of a gallon left. So, no new paint for the bathroom....but a new shower curtain works for me!...in gray inspired by Marin's room...

Marin insisted her deerie and blankie lay on the floor in the bathroom...screamed if I removed them.  I don't like lovies on the bathroom floor...not even our own bathroom floor.

It's amazing how much a simple change, like a shower curtain, can change a room completely.  The one that was hanging in our bathroom we received when we got married eight years ago.  Relax!  I change the liner a couple times a year.  ;-)

Before

Did you know that this curtain from Bed, Bath and Beyond was seen on That 70's Show???  Not quite the look I was going for... :-P

I used an old sheet my grandma gave me and some old gray fabric that I grabbed at a quilt club one time.  :-) The sheet was in its original packaging, and by the label...I dated it to the late 1960's or early 1970's.  Yikes. It certainly smelled old when I ironed it.  Although...the packaging said NO IRON IS NEEDED because of the new fiber that was used.  For the first time in my life---I ironed sheets!  Ha.  I am thankful that ironing our bed sheets is no longer expected today.  :-P

I used 9" x 9" squares to make the chevron pattern.  The curtain measures approximately 72" x 72" so I needed 81 squares (half of them gray, half white...okay...so I cut 82) to cover the pattern (the seam allowances cut the size down).

And here's how to make the block:

Start by drawing a straight line with pencil from corner to corner of every single one of your white squares.  Draw the line on the wrong side of the fabric.

Place one white square on top of one gray square (with right sides of the fabric facing each other).  Sew a line 1/4 inch to the right of your pencil line, and 1/4 inch to the left of your pencil line.

Cut down your pencil line.

Open them up and you have two triangle blocks.

Then you can assemble your smaller squares into a big block using four squares like this:

Or, like this:

Then sew your big four blocks together in strips to make the curtain.  I needed to add an extra column of small blocks to complete the size of the curtain.

Top-stitching the seams is a good idea since the shower curtain is likely going to get tugged on from time to time.  Likely...pffft.  Inevitable!

Ha...I slacked at the end of this "tutorial."  You're smart you can figure it out.  Just use a note pad.  ;-)

Here's a picture of Marin's old room.  Slime green from when the boys had it:

And her new color Silver Leaf:

Homemade Goldfish Crackers

I have a weakness for crackers. Oh, goodness these are tasty.

I've wanted to make these with any number of the kids since BEFORE Christmas.  But, when I bought butter...it always ended up in some Christmas cookie or other yummy Christmas treat.  Well, today was the day----a sunshiny February day.  Sunshine makes you do all sorts of crazy feel-good things, you know.  ;-)

We used the recipe found here: Homemade Goldfish Crackers

And here is what you need:

GOLDFISH CRACKERS

1 c all-purpose flour
1/2 t onion powder (I used garlic powder...onion is too mild for our tastes :-P)
3/4 t salt
1/2 t finely ground black pepper
1 t baking powder
4 T cold, unsalted butter, cut up (I used stick margarine today and the crackers came out fine!)
8-oz shredded cheddar cheese

Pulse the flour, onion (or garlic!) powder, salt, pepper and baking powder in a food processor.  Add the butter and cheese; pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal.

Add 3-4 T of water, one tablespoon at a time and pulse.  Add only enough so that the dough forms a ball and rides the blade.

Remove, wrap in plastic and chill the dough.

Roll out dough to an 1/8th inch and cut shapes with a teeny tiny cookie cutter.  Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 350º for 8-9 minutes (the recipe I linked to says 13-18 minutes, but only do that if you like the taste of burn).  Transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool.  Store in an air-tight container.


Yum, yum and yum.  Can you imagine the flavor possibilities?  I can't tell you how many crackers this recipe makes because we've been eating our share along the way... :-)

This dough was AWESOME to work with.  Normally cut-out dough is tricky for the kids...but Emory navigated his shark cutter just fine and could transfer the cut out to the cookie sheet with no problem.  This makes for a happy cooking experience, not a frustrating one!

If you don't have a tiny cookie cutter, then use a pizza cutter to cut strips of the dough and then cut triangles or squares. :-)

The dough ready to go.

Daddy's not the only one that has a painful expression on his face when he's working hard!  Oh yeah, and that's paint on his sleeve.  We like to paint things.  :-)

I used the star cookie cutter since Emory wanted to use the shark cutter because, "Girls are afraid of sharks."

Yummy!