The Gingerbread House & Romeo.

Last week, I bought this pre-fab gingerbread house. The girls were in no mood to wait for the frosting to harden, so there is no way they would have tolerated the waiting time required to bake a gingerbread house from scratch.


And here is Romeo, thinking that the Nativity scene is really quite comfortable, thank you very much.

Clothespin Dolls.

Christmas gifts for my 3yo’s preschool teachers!

Nativity Idea. New Moon.

Earlier today, the girls and I decided to make some clay. The last time we made clay (about a year ago) it was really gritty and coarse from the huge amount of salt, and I wanted something more smooth. After much internetting magic I tracked down this recipe which looked pretty encouraging. As I write this, the clay is drying, and seems to be cracking a bit, but is certainly more smooth. My 3yo made various Christmas shapes from cookie cutters, and my 5yo and I tried our hands at Nativity scenes. My figures are inspired by Russian nesting dolls – I plan to paint them, hopefully in detail, so I’m crossing my fingers that the clay holds up well.

Posting this sketch reminds me... I have the Twelve Dancing Princess mural almost finished. Just 3 more princesses and a little more background...

Oh! And this weekend, we have secured a babysitter!

Wooooooohooooooo!

Canvas Knitting Tote.

After having a bag with a velcro closure that kept grabbing the yarn of my knitting projects, I decided to make a tote bag so that when I run out the door, I know my latest project is in there and ready to rock. I had some leftover canvas from 10 years ago that I had used to make an oil painting that I later sold at a garage sale, which is now hanging in some boutique (and when I say boutique, I mean a totally weird alley store with lots of incense and mood lighting) gallery in Hartford. It took three days of flip-flopping over how to decorate the canvas, and I decided to stamp it with circles using sparkling silver fabric paint. For me the result is a little underwhelming, but c’est la vie. The bag suits it’s purpose!

Oh! And here are the girls from Halloween:

Halloween, Autumn & The Hunger Games.

So here is what I have been up to!

I have finished my 3 year old’s Tinkerbell costume (Simplicity 2872), and I’ll post pictures of it after I take some on Halloween. (My 5 year old is going to be Dorothy, a costume from her Grandma.) So this was a difficult pattern, at least for a beginner like me. There were numerous layers of tulle, sheer organza and other fabric... it became slippery and confusing and at one point I stopped being careful and just put the pedal to the metal and basically sewed without looking. And it showed in the end, but I put a big tulle bow on top of the biggest mistake and it looks just fine!


Here are some beautiful autumn leaves from my neighborhood. I thought that it would be nice to walk home from school with the girls, since it was a stunning fall day, thinking we could admire nature’s bounty and record these precious moments together. Or we could annoy the heck out of each other all the way home. Which is what we did. This photo about sums it up:
Oh well, we tried : )

Today the girls were both home from school, Five was sick and so we just did a ton of crafts. Here is one of many that I found through this awesome site, The Crafty Crow, which pointed me to No Time for Flashcards who originated this neat idea. I love the Crafty Crow because it’s a collective that includes a) super cute & clever ideas for crafts and b) a way to search crafts by kids’ ages. So here is Cardboard Tube Frankenstein, perfect for three & five year olds:


If you want to read an amazing story, try these books (third book in the trilogy not yet released):

The cover designs make them look like spy thrillers, which they are definitely not: here is a review.

Doll Clothes & Renegade Craft Fair.

I finished up two more dresses from another Simplicity Pattern (5785). It’s getting a little easier and I think I’m getting faster. Maybe. And although she has changed her mind a dozen times on her costume, I started my 3 year old’s Tinkerbell dress for Halloween. For my 5 year old, I’ll just be mending a few tears in a Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz dress that was given to us by Grandma.


Today I went to the Renegade Craft Fair, which was really awesome. From the website: “Over 300 artists are traveling from all over the country to participate and sell their handmade goods: from clothing and accessories, to stationery and concert posters, with everything from bath-products, ceramics and housewares in between.” Wow! Organizers handed out a booklet with the names of all the participants and their websites so now I can check out every last one online : ) Pushing a stroller through that crowd was a little challenging, but honestly, it was just fun to be there with all those crafty folks. And the weather was gorgeous. Chicago is the greatest city.

* p.s. I bought a really cute headband with a felt heart from Get Felt Up.

Barbie Dress.

I’m going to squeak this entry in so that the month of August has something to show for itself! I’ve been busy with different projects, but really have been negligent with the picture taking, so tonight I finally put batteries in the camera, and took a photo of the Barbie dress that I made. When I was young, my Grandmother sent me a bunch of hand made clothes for my dolls, which made playing with them so much more fun, and I thought that maybe my girls would enjoy that. So first, I went on Ebay to find some clothes, but they were selling for $25 to $80 per lot, and the clothes looked tired. And some were just not cute. Then a light bulb went on, and I figured I’d give it a go making them myself. At the 99 cent Simplicity sale at Joann’s, I found some patterns for 11.5 inch dolls, and started with a dress from “Sewing Patterns for Dummies” (Simplicity 7073). It was straightforward, but still took me about 5 hours (yikes!) from start to finish. Hopefully I’ll get faster with practice!

Homemade Princess Castle.

Thought I’d post this even though it was made awhile ago... This was so easy to make and worked out just as well as something you’d buy. I cut a box and painted it white and the girls decorated the walls with flower stickers and markers. The castle turrets are mailing tubes (I cannot for the life of me think of the real word for those things!) They played with this castle a lot for a few months but have since slowed down. I’m still hoping they will use it more, because they still play with the dolls (seen in the doorway) and now I am sentimentally attached to it.

In the meantime I’m continuing to knit my nephew’s gift, and I also made a mediocre tote bag that will probably never see the light of day. It was meant to hold current knitting projects but it turned out too small.

We’re also getting ready for this...

Source

Mural.

I’ve decided to paint a mural of the Twelve Dancing Princesses on my 2 year old daughter’s wall. Above is the sketch, and the first two of twelve princesses. When I was a girl, I was never big on princesses or dressing up like one – or dancing for that matter. But my daughter enjoys all of the above, so I thought it would be really fun to try and draw & paint this story. I’ll just have to post progress photos because this is going to take a looooooooong time!

Good Clean Fun.

We went bowling last night for my Daughter’s 5th birthday, just the four of us, and it was really, really fun for everyone. We had pizza & beer & juiceboxes, and we had practically the whole place to ourselves. 101 Dalmations and ESPN were on at the same time, and the girls were in heaven combing eating with an activity... they loved zooming back and forth between the couches and bowling. After bowling, we ate some cupcakes and headed home totally stuffed, exhausted and the kids were on a crazy sugar high.

Did you know that they make bowling shoes for 2 year olds?

I love it with the fancy socks! Well, now all we have to do is make it through her party on Saturday (why do these birthdays seem like they are week–long events?) The weather forecast says 70 degrees. In the middle of July. That is Chicago weather for ya.

Party Favors.

Wow, summer really charges by, doesn’t it? I guess time in general does. This has been a strange few weeks with some odd things going on, both here and in the world at large. My mom and I were discussing that there are times in life when things just seem out of whack... But anyway this is mainly a craft blog, so here it is: My daughter’s birthday party is next weekend, and we found these plastic canisters which I decorated with paint markers. Candy, playdough, bouncy balls, etc. are inside, along with a little picture drawn by my daughter.

*And I am happy to report, at 1:05 am, I have completed the design project for my husband’s company. Now I won’t feel guilty for working on other things! Hooray!

Party Invitations, Work, Knitting, Books.

This is the front of Christine’s invitation to her 5th birthday party. She did the illustrations - animals with party hats - in marker, as usual. We go through a set of markers every two weeks... for some reason the girls refuse to use the lowly crayon. Anyway, every year I tell myself that we will just buy the invitations, and every year I can’t resist doing them myself. This year Christine provided the artwork which was awesome.

I’ve been doing some graphic design work too... a project for my husband’s company. Plus I’m working on a knitting project for my new baby nephew Ian, but I cannot post photos until it is finished and mailed. So that may be awhile!


I’ve also been doing a lot of reading - I’m on the 7th book of the Sookie Stackhouse series, All Together Dead. They’re entertaining (not TWILIGHT entertaining, but still good). Here are the books in order:

1. Dead Until Dark
2. Living Dead in Dallas
3. Club Dead
4. Dead to the World
5. Dead as a Doornail
6. Definitely Dead
7. All Together Dead
8. From Dead to Worse
9. Dead and Gone
10. A Touch of Dead (to be released in October)

Cupcake Purse.

Here is a little purse made out of felt. I hand sewed it, and the trickiest part was assembling the zipper, but that wasn’t even too hard. This is the first thing of this sort I have tried, and honestly I am so tired right now that all I can think about is taking a bath and then going to bed. The pattern for the purse is found here, from a cool blog called paper-and-string. Goodnight : )

Back from Vacation.

We just got home from vacation in Denver (so beautiful!) with my Mother-in-law, Sister-in-law and nephew. We had a great time, and my husband and I even had a chance to play golf while Grandma watched the kids and made this awesome cake! There are a few things I’ve been working on, project-wise, and after we unpack and get settled, I will post them.

Relentless!

Source: justjaredjr.buzznet.com

Coasters/Dead Until Dark/Mittens.

My daughter graduated from preschool a few weeks ago and I made these coasters (from Bend the Rules Sewing) for the assistant teacher... luckily they are fast so I was able to make them the night before. For her teacher I made another version of the simple tote (previous post) – I used the same fabrics, but made it wider and a bit deeper, to be more like a purse.



Also, I started knitting some mittens from subliminalrabbit’s Bella’s Mittens pattern. I expect them to take me awhile because I’ve never knitted mittens and this is also my first time trying cables. The instructions say to use the “magic loop method” but I am using double-pointed needles instead. The gloves are beautiful, so I hope it goes ok. I have 6 rows right now.



I just finished reading Dead Until Dark, from Charlaine Harris’ Southern Vampire Mysteries on a recommendation from my sister-in-law. I thought is was really good, so I have the next one, Living Dead in Dallas, on hold from the library. The HBO series True Blood is based on these books – I have the DVD of season 1 coming from Netflix so I can’t wait to see how the show is.

Small Tote Bag.

My daughter has a “Fourth Grade Buddy” who comes to her preschool class to play, read, talk, and make crafts with her. Each preschooler has a Buddy, and my daughter’s is especially cool. All year long, her Buddy has made coloring pages, mobiles, cards, you name it. Everything is so sweet — I even had the chance to meet her last week, and she is so sweet too. Preschool graduation is this Wednesday, and so for the end of the year, we decided to make her Buddy something and buy her something too. So my daughter and I went shopping together this weekend and found a pretty necklace, and then I made this little tote bag. It has a fruit print on the one side and a brown and white (even though it looks black & white in the photo) polka dot print on the other. There is a long pocket inside — good for pens and/or sunglasses. I used the print from Amy Karol’s Bend the Rules Sewing.

On a side note, this is not my preschooler holding the tote... my littler one happened to hold it to the side I wanted to show, so her photo made the cut!

Felt Key Keychains.

Aren’t these cute? They are from the book Cute Stuff by Aranzi Aronzo. My library has a copy, and of course it is in the Young Adult section, the same section that houses Twilight where I sought all four books before breaking down and buying them. (The library hold queue was 55 people deep) Do you see how I can segue to Twilight from any topic?

Tulips!

Beautiful tulips from my neighbor’s yard!

So today I started getting things together for some mittens to knit, although I’m having difficulty finding the yarn: Cascade 109 in Pewter. I definitely need a new project to work on, especially after the time-waster tonight — I just saw Rob Pattinson’s movie on IFC Direct, How to Be and it was terrible. Not his fault by any means, I thought he was fine, but it’s an indie movie that seems to be trying too hard. Tell you what though, I think that movie may cure a lot of girls of their RPattz infatuation...

I also came across a really sweet project that I’d love to make soon for my girls. It’s a cupcake purse pattern and here is the tutorial.

I Found my T-Shirt:

Link to T-shirt.

For the Teacher.

My daughter made this for her preschool teacher for Teacher Appreciation week. This is the craft where you wrap a small piece of tissue paper around the eraser of a pencil, dip it in glue and stick it on the paper/cardboard. That’s really all there is to say about that!

A Man for the Ages: Edward Cullen.

Source: Summit Entertainment
Ok, since I have not really promoted this blog and it seems to be simply for my own enjoyment and whatnot, I am going to write about what I’ve really been up to lately: The Twilight Saga. Let it be known to all who happen to read this that there are many 30-somethings who love the books and movie (Twilight Moms) and as an aside, Stephenie Meyer did not plan for the books to be in the Young Adult section, the publishers just decided to market it that way. And while I’m sharing Twilight links, here is one to keep up with all the latest on New Moon.

I am really fighting the good fight and am trying not to purchase a Team Edward t-shirt. I think I could wear it around the house, but would find it difficult to go out in public. We’ll see though : )

Twirly Ladybug Skirt.

My daughter chose the yellow ladybug fabric for the twirly skirt, made from house on hill road’s Twirly Skirt Tutorial. And then she did this fierce pose that would make Tyra Banks proud! The skirt was easy and did not take too long to make, which are both prerequisites for me right now.

On another Twilight note, I am glad to report that my super cool mother-in-law and sister-in-law both loved the movie, and are starting to read the series. I know I’m not the only adult woman who loves the books & movie, but now I have people to talk to about it! Woo hoo!

*My Twilight Fog*

Whew! I just finished a Twilight Series marathon of book reading and WOW! I read all four (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn) in one week, while ignoring the laundry, dishes, eating, kids, husband, crafts, television, etc. The first three books were so enjoyable, but the fourth, Breaking Dawn was just plain weird. Felt like it didn’t even belong in the Twilight series – almost as if someone other than Stephenie Meyer wrote the book. Anyway, this all started a week and a half ago when my husband suggested we see Twilight the movie on On Demand. He thought it was a vampire/action flick, and who was I to correct him ; ) Little did he know it was a teen vampire/romance flick that has all the girls swooning. Well I was hooked, so I flew through the books, burning some serious midnight oil and having a blast. The movie New Moon comes out November 20, so I’ll be the 33 year old sitting with all the teeny boppers on opening night.

Sweet Things for Easter. Part One.

I came across the blog molly chicken, and she has some really clever and adorable things, and has kindly shared tutorials on many of them. I’ve never tried this type of thing before — stuffies I think they are called — but I couldn’t resist. It’s a chicken with a pouch in front that holds a stuffed heart or whatever else you would like to put in there. My plan is to make another for my other daughter and put them in the Easter baskets. While I was photographing this little guy in the beautiful 38 degree Chicago spring weather (note the buds on the tree!), my husband stuck his head out the door and said “Jill, what are you [this is where he sees that I am actually doing a photo shoot of a stuffed bird and there is a pause]... oh no.” And then he disappeared back inside. He really thinks I’ve lost it with the crafting and this blog, but I know he gets a kick out of it!

Sign ’o the Times Gift Bag.

When my kids (ages 4 & 2) are invited to a birthday party (which seems to be every other weekend) they make the birthday card for their friend. Not only does it save a few bucks, but it is truly fun for them – they keep busy for 10 minutes, and it is really nice to give something handmade to the birthday boy or girl. And now, at Michael’s, I have discovered kraft paper bags in a variety of sizes for CHEAP. The large one we bought in the photo was 99 cents. And honestly, I am going to start doing this to save money, because by the time you finish buying the wrapping paper/bag, ribbon, tissue, etc. it costs about as much as the toy! Anyway, I had the girls paint the bags and they had a blast, so this is going to be our new move... everything but the toy – handmade.

Super Easy Tie Blanket Tutorial.

This blanket is my go-to baby gift. My daughter received one from her aunt and we use(d) it all the time – mostly as a place to play on the floor, lounge and sleep. And babies can never have too many blankets. The best thing of all is that its so easy to make... I feel kind of silly writing a tutorial, but here it is!

THINGS YOU NEED
1.5 yards of fleece of one design
1.5 yards of fleece of a complementary design
sharp scissors
ruler

STEP 1



Cut the fabric into 2 rectangles of the same size.
The exact size just depends on how big you want your blanket. (I use as much of the 1.5 yards of fabric as possible, so baby has a lot of playing room, with extra room for playmates and even mommy when she is so tired she needs to pass out on the blanket too.) There are many ways to make the fleece pieces the same size, using rulers, t-squares, slide-rules, an abacus... but I like to use this very scientific way: I lay one piece [a] down on the floor, and cut off the rough edges until it could pass as a rectangle. Next I put the other piece [b] on the floor, and then put [a] on top, then just trim [b] to the size of [a].

STEP 2



Using sharp scissors, cut strips about an inch (or maybe a tad bigger) wide and 5 inches long around the entire perimeter of the rectangle.
To see what happens at the corners, see photo below. Some people cut the corners out first.



STEP 3



Tie the strips together as shown, knotting it two times (top fleece to bottom fleece) around the perimeter, and your blanket is done. Bravo!

Knitting and knitting and knitting...

I haven’t blogged for awhile because I have been knitting and unraveling the same hat (Mega hat) for a week and a half. I am in the process of knitting it for a third time. But this is the last time I’ll be making this Brangelina hat... I’ve finally figured it out and will be moving on. Oh — in the past week I also knit the hat in red, but cast on 50 versus 64 stitches, figuring it would have to fit someone in my family. And then something strange and fantastical happened – cue the creepy music – it fits everyone. So I gave it to my youngest, almost modeling it in the photo above.

One thing I learned this week for those interested: Jo-Ann Fabric stores do not carry a Clover bamboo double pointed needle bigger than 10.5. Like the Alamo having no basement, it is just one of those things they don’t teach you about in school.