felt flowers and spritz

 

So, here I am, back with the second craft that I did for my Awana girls’ goody bags.  I can actually keep a blogging schedule with no children underfoot!  Thanks, Mom!

So these felt flowers are pretty simple.  The how-to was featured in Woman’s Day Magazine and can be found online here.  Their colors are so pretty – you should check it out for better color inspiration.

 

Simple cast of characters… 

 

Some pinning, sewing and snipping…

 

Gathering the felt to one end, folding in half to stitch the ends together to form the circle which will be each flower…

[that picture looks like I am sewing through the loops – I am not, I don’t know why I stuck the needle there.  If you are going to make them, see the instructions.]

 

Once you have your large and small flowers made, hot glue them together and then hot glue a felt circle to cover the hole in the back and stitch your buttons on the front, through the circle on the back and tie off…

 

And, then you get…

I didn’t sew close enough to the edge and didn’t have buttons large enough to cover my stitching, so I had to put a felt circle on the front as well.

I was a little sad that I only had white felt, and Sarah brought a few colors and we didn’t to use them!  But we did the girls’ flowers up with bright buttons and put them on headbands for the girls…

I found some bright, cheap gift bags at Target and looped the headbands around one of the handles on each bag, so the flowers showed…

By the way, the gift bags are part of a line at Target I recently noticed on the party aisle, called Spritz…

I tried my best to link you to it but can’t find any of it online – not sure if they just don’t sell it online or if it is too new.  But I love it!  I was on one of those trips where I am “just getting these two items on my list”… Well I just got those two items and these…

I purchased a tablecloth (biggest, $2.59), napkins (blue border, $1.39) and stickers (pink border, $1.99).  I could not resist.  So Susie’s second birthday party is 7 months away, but it will be full of cupcakes and flags!  There was even a bunting with cupcakes on it, but the cheap crafter in me came out and I’d rather make a fabric one that she can have for ever than buy a plastic one.  But it was cute.

I can’t wait until that party.  They also had other ‘themes’ and boy ones, too.  Impressed.

Okay, I really don’t want to be one of those people who post their cat photos online, but I do want to be helpful and let you know that if you have a) children or b) a kitten, a plastic bin will keep them entertained for most of the day.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Exhibit C:

And they’re also good for organizing.  Mark puts his annoying toy sets -with lots of small pieces and guys which make a huge mess  all over the house and drive me crazy- inside the boxes.  He has about eight boxes.  He knows that he can play with one set at a time then has to put them back in the box and put that one away before he gets out another one or I put the boxes he leaves out and the toys that belong in them into hiding for a week.  So far it is going well and saving my sanity! 

Well go have a good weekend in the sunshine… or sunbreaks… or non-rain… this day is going downhill; keep your chin up!  Peace out.

bookmarks and little ones

 

First off, this is my little spring windowsill…

Even though I recently put in wood blinds on this window and I have to move all the junk out of the way to put them down every night, I still love the cheery stuff there.  My grass eggs have since been tossed.  I thought Mark would be all excited to give them “haircuts” before I tossed them, not so much.  He thought I was really weird.  Those tissue and pipe cleaner flowers are so cute!  Mark made then in children’s church, one for each person in our family, even Susie.  I think I might leave them out for the rest of my life.  Or at least next week.

Okay, so this past Wednesday was awards night at Awana, which I dread all year – truly, when they ask me if I will lead an Awana class, the first thought that goes through my head is, “Crap!  If I say ‘yes’ then I will have to use a microphone and stand in front of all the kids and parents at the awards night at the end of the year and remember peoples’ names with everyone staring at me and hand out awards!” And then I proceed to say ‘yes’ anyway and worry about it all year and then praise Jesus that I don’t say anything stupid up there (yet).  It is one of many faith builders He so wisely puts in my life I guess.  So Sarah (my wonderful co-teacher) and I got together and made up a couple crafts for the girls’ goody bags; one of which I will share today, and I’ll be back to share the other one tomorrow or Monday.

We made bookmarks, inspired by AshleyAnn’s layered paper bookmarks…

For the most part they are made of simple materials you probably have around the house…

It looks like she used an old gardening book, but I had a music book I picked up for crafting from Goodwill.  You could use all glue stick or all double-stick tape but I liked a to tag team it with both.  Then paper and ribbon scraps and I used paper doilies and baker’s twine.

This was so simple…

We finished them off by referencing a Bible verse on the doilies.  This is my favorite of Sarah’s and my favorite of mine that we made for the girls…

And some more I made later…

You could use any scraps or supplies you have in your stash that inspire you.  On some of ours we used fabric strips as ribbon and even some flat eyelet trim. 

I made one for my Mom for late Mother’s Day (I will see her this weekend), and one for someone else…

Leah moved away from me and now every time I do a craft, I feel like I need to make one for Leah to cheer her up, but she’s probably doing just fine and maybe it is more to cheer me up…?  Not sure.  But I will get this in the mail today, Leah!  And I am guessing you will not complain about me coping by crafting for you!  =)

So the newest baby in the family is starting to venture outside under our careful supervision…

Cautious of every noise and flutter…

And look what I noticed going on after I shot these pictures…

Oh, hey, there little kitty, are you squishing Mama’s plants?

 

Wait, kitty, come back, you missed one…

 

There we go… almost got it…

 

Let me just help you squish it down a little more…

 

Um, maybe I should be a little less concerned with capturing pictures and pay a little more attention to what is going on!  Look at her squishing him down onto the plant!  What stinkers – both of them!  I saved the little broccolis before they were completely devastated.  And this was several days ago, so in case you are wondering, Nadine, I did get those lilies and herbs planted!  The tomatoes are going to be repotted and kept in my kitchen window for a bit and the broccolis will go in the garden this weekend when I get my layout figured out!  Thank you so much!

My wonderful mother has the kiddos, giving me a long, relaxing weekend, so I will be back some more!  Peace.

Dutch Babies and all my babies

I am so into these…

That photo is from Woman’s Day Magazine (by Con Poulous), where I found this recipe (some call them German Pancakes, some call them Dutch Babies). They are like a weird, thick, spongy, delicious pancake. We just add a bit of butter and a dusting of powdered sugar to ours but I can’t wait till I have my own freezer jam to top them with. Cooked apples would also be yummy! I only took a photo on my first attempt, which came out thin because I only have one cast-iron skillet and it was too big…

Next time I will make it in the proper dish so it really puffs and curls.

In kid news, Susie got her glasses…

And has boogers in her nose. She would not leave in barrettes when her bangs started getting in her eyes, so when the eye doctor told me she would figure out that the glasses helped her see then she would leave them on, I was more than slightly skeptical. Turns out, they were right. She only takes them off when the nosepiece bugs her and starts leaving an indent! Who could blame her? Hopefully with a little more adjusting we can get rid of that problem.

She likes to watch the chicks…

The edge of the trough is as close as she gets on her own right now because she thinks she might want to squash one with her boot. True story. Naughty, naughty. I hold them and let her pet them, though, which she does gently. She likes to say, “boc, boc, boc!” at them.

Little man got a new ride…

The logger got a big side job and couldn’t resist blowing most of it on Mark’s new bike. His other “dirt bike” is actually an electric trials bike, but this one is the real thing: gas powered = loud and obnoxious. I think our neighbors officially hate us now.

I made these when we had some friends over for lunch after church…

Did you know Italian sodas were this easy…

Three ingredients, people. I gave the kids tiny ones, probably less than a cup each, but they thought they were so special. Just fill a glass halfway with ice, add club soda about 3/4 full, then up to an ounce (shot glass) of your desired flavor, then top it off with a splash of half and half. Top with fresh whipped cream! Oh man, I have a variation of this drink that is amazing in the summertime, I will have to share that soon.

So this little booger has definitely settled into our home and our hearts…

That is one of the boxes with lids I got for Mark to sort his toys into. Mark started carrying him around in it and he likes it. Now he gets in them and plays all by himself. I took that picture after Mark brought him and put him in the box in my lap. He tries so hard to bug me while I am on the computer, but can’t last long…

getting sleepy…

Down for the count. I think his official name is Storm.

Lastly, my Mom helped Mark pick this book and this tiny cupcake stand out for me for Mother’s Day…

The cover photo are not the cutest ones, but there are some inside that look amazing, and I think they might just taste amazing, too, so I will let you know if I find a killer recipe. Thanks, Mark! ;)

The logger also got me a huge bouquet of flowers, which I can’t show a picture of here because it might make you jealous. ;) Just kidding. It is huge though – the hugest tulips I have ever seen. Is hugest a word?

Well that is all for now. Peace!

I have a new assistant…

 

But he keeps falling asleep on the job!  Actually, as far as I’m concerned, his job is entertaining Mark and Susanna, and he does that very well!

Some friends of ours got this little guy to be friends with their other kitten, but they didn’t exactly click.  Said friends called me, knowing I was on the market for a kitty, and asked if I would rescue him from having his face scratched off.  We were on our way home from a movie and immediately detoured  to go and pick him up.  He was very timid the first couple days but now he is settling in and acting like a kitten.  I think we love him!  Thanks, Amber!  =)

tidbits {scrabble tiles}

I saw this idea in MySweetSavannah's booth at the Ruffles and Rust shop and promptly came home and busted out my scrabble game...

Love it! Husband likes to come by and mess up my letters though! =)