Happy New Year!

I can't believe how has flown by. It seems like yesterday I was buying shorts and now it's almost New Years. I've been meaning to post, but things got hectic in my little castle. My poor kid has been a teething monster for what seems like years, and for Christmas, she got a molar. I did manage to get her little Christmas/Mrs Claus tutu done, and it turned out so easy! And super cute, too!

 She still wasn't entirely thrilled with the whole idea, but she wasn't entirely unhappy about it either. So, my next project is to survive Wynnie's first birthday this Saturday. My New Years Eve (day) baby. I can't believe she'll be a year. But, I'm debating on decorating for it. I don't want a party in the traditional birthday party with balloons and such because she's a year old. She kinda gets it, but not really. But I don't want it to be just a bunch of people hanging out and I really don't want her to look back on pictures and saw something. So, we'll see what I can scrape together in a matter of days. Y'all have a Happy (and responsible) New Years Eve! See ya in 2012!

Christmas tutus-A sneak peek

Good morning! It's a lovely winter morning here in Tennessee. Snow is falling, but not sticking, which is the best way to have snow.

This is my daughter's first Christmas, and I had to have something too stinkin' cute to do for her first Christmas. Plus, once we decided on this tutu, we thought how perfect it would be for Christmas cards! So, since all I had to go on for this was a picture, I had to figure it out on my own. So, while my tutu is a no sew kind, my friend Christy of Christy's Cuties has another version of this.

You'll need tulle, a white feather boa (I got mine at Hobby Lobby in the wearable art section), some black ribbon and a belt buckle, and an infants headband- one of the ones you can attach hair clippies too. And since I still haven't forgiven my sewing machine, I decided to use the stickable Velcro for the belt.

You'll want to measure the tulle to see how long you want to make the tutu, and then double it. I wanted Wynnie's to go from her armpits to her ankles, so that's 20", which means I cut my tulle 40". I doubled up the tulle and stuck the bite through the headband and pulled the tails through. I kept the tulle on the bottom end so I could thread the boa through the top of the headband. I ended up threading two layers to make it look fuller since I used a pretty dinky boa. The benefit of using the headband is that it's adjustable and so can fit a variety of different waist sizes, which means that as long as my super skinny mini stays super skinny, I can use the tutu for a few years, and all I have to do is adjust the boa.

Obviously, my poor daughter is traumatized. LOL She's teething, poor kid, and we're not sure if she's got 3 or 5 teeth coming in at the same time, but the point is that there's not a single thing that really made her happy last night. But, there's the tutu on my model. My next step is to thread my gorgeous ruffly black ribbon through the bling belt buckle I found (also at Hobby Lobby) and attach it. That's where the Velcro comes it. BUT, y'all will have to wait for the finished product. I ordered a Grinch diaper (I cloth diaper, BTW) to go under the tutu and I won't take any pictures of the finished product until that comes in!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I hope y'all had a fabulous Thanksgiving! I know my little family had an awesome day. We were invited to a friend's parents house down in Nashville, where we watched football, ate a ton of amazing food and just chatted with a great, welcoming family. In my normal fashion, I asked what I could bring. They said nothing, but I knew I couldn't leave it at that, so I had to come up with a quick thank you gift for them. I have a fondness for wreaths and had seen a bunch on Pinterest, so I thought I'd give one a Christmas one a shot.

 

This one turned out fairly well, but I wanted to go in a slightly different direction this time. I wanted something a little more modern, not quite so rustic. I only had a few days to put it together, and didn't want to drive across town to Hobby Lobby, so it was Walmart all the way. I got pipe insulation, 3/4", some squares of felt and some yarn. I bent the insulation to make a wreath form and wrapped it in green yarn. Nick mentioned about halfway through the LONG process that it might be a better idea to wrap the form BEFORE you bend it. Because, it was a long, tedious process-I think it took about 1.5 to 2 hours to wrap the whole thing. 

To make felt flowers, I'll save you the tedium of me trying to explain it to you without pictures, because once again, I didn't take any, and add a link. Pinterest Pin for felt flowers, since apparently the site I got it from isn't there anymore. *Note, I did NOT make the scallops in my flowers. 

I glued the flowers on my form, added a spring of coordinating holly berries, and voila! A gorgeous thank you gift for anyone! I will be making one of these for my own front door soon, with white yarn and a chunkier form. *Note, the wreath is hanging on my front door.

Bowholders galore

I finally was able to work on Wynnie's second bow holder the other night. She's been going to bed earlier so it's much much easier to get my craft on the last few nights. 
Based on her, our, okay, MY addiction to hairbows, the first holder I made is overfull. It's a simple, ribbon wrapped 'S' with ribbon hanging down from it. I chose a solid ribbon for the letter, but chose colors and patterns that would coordinate with her room. I don't have a theme for Wynnie's room, just a color palette of sage-y greens, pinks, and browns. So, the first letter was a lovely mint green, and the one I just made is a copper. 

I had every intention of posting pictures of how I wrapped the 'E', but it took so many trial runs that by the time I actually got a wrap that I liked, I was not about to take it apart to take pictures of it. If you wanna try this, you're going to have to figure it out on your own, unfortunately. I do wish that I hadn't started with such an intricate letter. I think it would've been much easier if it hadn't had all the curly cues. I like attaching the ribbons the bows hang from with velcro. That way, if you need to adjust due to letters not hanging straight, you can. Glue the two ribbons together, heat seal the ends, and you're ready to hang and enjoy the artwork you've made!

Ah, Fall, how I love thee

So, in my dabbling, I also bake. And that was on the agenda for today. Nick's unit has a turkey fry fundraiser every year, and it's tomorrow. Our section is in charge of bringing dessert, and I enjoy baking, so I thought I'd try out a new recipe. I found it on Pinterest here and was so excited to try it. As much as I say I don't like pumpkin pie, I sure do enjoy my pumpkin recipes! 
So far, I've got two batches out of the oven and my house smells freakin' fantastic! I'm waiting on batch #1 to cool off just a touch more before taste testing it. And....I think they're cool enough. 
It's good, moist and soft, exactly how I like my cookies. You can taste the pumpkin pie spice in it, but it's not what I was expecting. I'll have to see how it tastes with the glaze on them. 
Just as a word of warning, once you turn the oven on, make sure everything that's not heat resistant is off the stovetop. teehee Especially ziplock bags, they don't mix well with heat! 

I was hoping to get the second bow holder done for Wynnie today too, but she slipped on her clingy, don't want to nap pants on apparently, so we'll see how that goes. That's the first one I made, but there's too many adorable bows (which I don't make, by the way) and I have to make another one. The next one will be an 'E', and if I need a third, that'll be a 'B' for her middle name. FYI, her name is Sara Bronwyn, hence the 'S'.

Teething does not a crafter make

Crafting has taken a bit of a hiatus in my house right now. My very adorable daughter has decided that momma is the only thing that can make those awful teeth feel better. So, it's been a few weeks of clingy infant, and hence, no crafting. Unfortunately.
I do have a few projects I'll be starting up again on Thursday though. I've got a minky baby blanket for some great friends who are expecting their first child next month, and I've got a Santa dress made out of tulle for Wynnie, my daughter. She has to have something special for her first Christmas! I'm going off a picture with no tutorial so this should be interesting. I'll try and take some pictures since this is such a cute idea for little (and even some big) girls. 
Just so you don't think that I've been playing hooky while darling girl is teething, I did get my dining room back. Crafty goodness had taken over the dining room, all over the sewing table I had in the corner, the dining table, and various bags all over the floor. So now, my crafty goodness has taken over our guest room! I'm almost all set up in there, all I really have to do before I can resume my projects is to switch the desktop computer (that I never use) and my sewing machine. Then I'll be able to craft in style.

Hi.

So, a friend of mine told me today that I should start a blog since I'm so crafty. I don't know if I'm *really* all that crafty, but I figured I would give it a shot. Worst case scenario, it disappears into cyberspace. :) So, a bit of background, I guess. I'm Beth, I'm married to a soldier, and I have a 10 month old daughter. Wow, really? 10 months? Where did time go? I'm blessed to be able to stay at home with our daughter, and while it's got it's challenges, I wouldn't change any part of my life. 
As far as my crafting goes, I'm a self confessed dabbler. I do a bit with fabric, jewelry making, baking, felt. Basically, if I see something I want to do, I'll figure out a way to do it. I recently finished a etched glass lantern for an amazing woman, and made sugar scrubs as well, so I'm eclectic in my tastes. I'm addicted to Pinterest and that's where I get a lot of my ideas. I mostly teach myself how to do things, or else I just make it up as I got along. So, yeah, there ya me. Beth of all trades in a (very small) nutshell.