..non*sense..

Valentine stuff

2012-02-13T00:00:00.001-06:00

I found an awesome dessert to try for Valentines day :) Dulce de Leche mini cheesecakes! it's really good. it's pretty easy, too. I substituted Nestle's La Lechera Dulce de Leche that I found on the Mexican isle at the store instead of making my own from sweetened condensed milk like the recipe says to do.

I baked mine in silicone baking cups instead of in a muffin tin because I thought it'd be easier... but I ended up having to cook them for a LOT longer than the recipe said to, so next time I'll put them in something metal. lesson learned!

I made some cupcake boxes at the last minute from some small shirt boxes I got from the Dollar Tree and some stuff I already had. it was a pack of 3 for $1 and I made 2 boxes that held 6 mini cheesecakes each!

while I was at the Dollar Tree I couldn't help but look around for other stuff because it just seems silly to not browse! I found a hand held fan that was white with striped blades and a red blinking light. looked very 4th of July, but Leo has always loved fans. it's the first thing he looks for in a room. not sure why. anyway, it wasn't very Valentine-y, so I took the blades off (they had a stiff plastic coating on the front side of the foam that hurt while it was spinning :\) and replaced them with plain red craft foam. I added some Hoops and Yoyo stickers to the white handle part and called it done. I think it came out pretty cute :)

I also found some real photo picture books. I never liked this type of books, but Leo really seems to enjoy them more than cartoon lookin' books.

I found a cup at Wal-Mart for a buck that's a frog hugging a heart that I had to get. I was gonna fill it with candy, but the opening is small so I might just leave it empty and keep the candy separate.

I made Matt something that I might show some other day - it's up in the air weather or not I'll give it to him on the 14th.

happy valentines day!

accordion sewing box

2012-02-06T00:00:00.003-06:00

for my sister-in-law's birthday I found a nifty wood sewing box on ebay. it showed up late and the handle was broken in shipping :( but I fixed it up a bit.

I buffed the wood out smooth with steel wool and rubbed walnuts all over. the oil in them stains the wood and hides scratches - pretty cool, huh? I glued and clamped cracks here and there, filled chipped spots on the inside with glue and sawdust (makes a great wood filler if you don't have any on hand... but happen to have glue and sawdust) and cleaned up the hardware a bit.

then I removed the old, tacky, shelf paper printed to look like marble and replaced it with embossed felt.

I needed to cover the parts on either side of the box that the handle was on since I decided to just remove it altogether, but it was kinda icky looking. I took ornate little bookplates I found at Michael's and inserted some embroidery I did on faux suede - they came out better than I expected! I want to do more embroidery now :) and I just happen to have a small mounting hoop I bought the other day for a buck!

I'd really like to try my hand at making my own box like this one, and I really wanna use dovetails. this guy makes it look easy. if you don't watch it all, at least skip to 5:08 - it's a great shot... of nothing noteworthy! but nonetheless a great video. I could watch instructional videos all day - I love how inspired I get after I watch someone make something cool.

and he's off!

2011-12-07T13:16:00.000-06:00

Leo is finally walking. I've been told for a while now that he takes steps, but I never seem to see him doing it... which is odd being that I'm the one who's around him the most! this morning he finally took off, and he just goes and goes! he can't pick himself back up unless he has something to climb up with, so I've been following him around and picking him back up so he'll keep going O:) my camera battery died (of course!) so while he's napping I'm recharging and hoping to get more video later :) in the meantime, here's the 12 seconds I manged to get.

our lovely car

2011-12-02T16:07:00.000-06:00

we tried to go to the park after Thanksgiving and swing... but it was too cold, so we went muddin' instead.

it was the first really good off-roading we've done in our Subaru. it did FANTASTIC! I got video, but I've misplaced it :( Leo slept the whole time. it wasn't as smooth as driving down the road, but it was pretty good for going over 1ft deep ruts in the mud! didn't get stuck, and didn't really have any problems. I love that it's a really smooth and comfortable ride for everyday, and that we can just pull off the road and haul through the mud :) what I also love, because we bought it at Subaru of Plano we get free car washes for life :D so, after wearing the badge for a few days I took it in and they cleaned it all up for me. very awesome! luckily it's gonna be wet again this weekend so we can do it all over again O:)

advent calendar

2011-12-02T15:40:00.001-06:00

I totally went in a different direction than little boxes like I was planning on doing for my advent calendar when I saw these pictures!

I found a hanging basket hidden in the lawn and garden section that I hung from my kitchen light, took some gold floral wire and wove little swirls around it, hung some fillable ornaments from ribbon with number tags on them, and loaded it down with candy, cookies and some other surprises for Matt and Leo :)

I ran out of time (I was still working on it last night!) so I just pinned the ribbon with some decorative straight pins I made a while back.

it's not quite what I had in mind, but I still like it. maybe next year I'll decorate the ornaments so they looks prettier, find better ribbon and put Velcro or some other closure on them, and have a better design of how they hang. they look sorta jumbled to me, but I was trying to make them look random... I dunno. it was fun to make and it'll be fun to eat on all month long!

cookie review

2011-11-30T08:15:00.000-06:00

I recently tried Kroger's The Truly Awesome™ Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies through a Bzz Campaign I participated in. they sent me TWO free boxes of cookies and some coupons. I was so excited to try these "tastes like home made" cookies.

" Exclusively available at Kroger, Fred Meyer and Ralphs stores (the Kroger Family of Stores), a wholesome, irresistible chocolate chip cookie your entire family will love. "

when I opened the box the cookies were twice the size of normal store bought cookies, (gotta love a big cookie!) but there were only 8 to a box, and I imagine because these are marketed as "wholesome" they cost more than a normal name brand cookie. I have yet to go buy any, so I don't know that for sure yet... but I often don't frequent Kroger because they're more expensive. Anyway, these didn't taste any different than Chips Ahoy. I was expecting a home-made-type of cookie, but these were dry and crumbly - not a milk-dunking cookie at all. I was disappointed by that, but the cookie itself was good for a store-brand product. I'd eat them again (assuming the price is right) but not if I was wanting a cookie that tasted like it was baked from scratch.

Christmas goodies

2011-11-24T12:37:00.000-06:00

last year was Leo's first Christmas, but he didn't really know what was going on so it felt like it didn't count. we took advantage of that and didn't get him anything O:) he did get clothes and practical things, but nothing fun. this year I think he'll enjoy it, which has made me get more into the shopping and planning mode which has seemed to fade for me the last few years.

I've been wanting an advent calendar with surprises to put inside, but all the ones I like are pricey, and all the diy ones I've seen online seem too disposable. I want something hardy that we can keep for years and I like the wood kind that have doors that open up. I haven't looked around at the craft stores yet to see what sorta unfinished wood stuff they have that I can make something with, so I think I'll need to do that soon so I have time to work on it before the 1st!

while browsing through the toy section at Target Leo spotted a smart phone. his eyes lit up when I handed it to him, so I had to get it... even though he already has a play phone.

I was looking for a See & Say for his birthday, but the only one I was finding in stores annoys the crap out of me. the search continues for a different one for Christmas. an old one like what I had growing up would be fun to find. we'll see.

I've been wanting to get these non-skid rubber sole socks for Leo for a while. he's starting to toddle around, and he slips pretty bad in just his socks, but regular shoes seem to be holding him back because his feet are so big - he's already in a 5! I saw the sneaker print pair in passing the other day so I grabbed them up.

since I can't give him traditional chocolates and hard candy in his stocking I'm going the snack route and getting him some vitamins and regular gummy fruit snacks. he also loves the little Chips Ahoy mini cookies. might sneak a few of those in there, too ;)

I thought I might put them in a Boon ball or some other cute snack container, or maybe find something holiday-ish that might double as a toy or ornament.

he LOVES to swing and going out in the backyard, so I'm hoping to find (or make) a simple swing set for the backyard to put a cool swing in.

I know his grandparents will spoil him, so I'm trying to limit myself on what we get him. he seems to enjoy non-toy things still so I might just wrap up a few toys he's forgotten about just so he can rip into them Christmas morning. he's been into boxes lately - putting things in them and pulling stuff back out - so that's another option that will last for just a little while and can be thrown away and not stored! it's more about having fun than what ya get, right? :)

doughnuts!

2011-11-23T08:58:00.001-06:00

I fried some canned biscuits and made doughnuts for breakfast. just like mom made. I remember "helping" as a kid, but none of the important details stuck with me, so I had to refresh myself by searching online.
the biscuit type doesn't seem to matter. I used the kind with butter pieces in it and without - both came out the same. I flattened out the dough and stretched a hold in the middle instead of cutting one out because I didn't want to mess with a bunch of little holes. the main key is the oil. it needs to be at 375F. if your oil is too hot or the dough is too thick it won't cook on the inside before the outside burns, but if the oil isn't hot enough it'll be too greasy. the setting on my oven between 3 and 4 gives the best results for me, but I had to test the temp with a candy thermometer before figuring that out. let it fry for a couple of minutes and then flip and fry the other side for a few more minutes - pretty easy, and not as messy as you'd think. it's nothing like frying bacon where ya get a lot of splatter. these are a low, fairly slow bubble.

I dusted mine with powdered sugar like when I was a kid. they need to be eaten fresh when this is done because the sugar turns to liquid when they sit for a while. which is fine if you like a glazed doughnut better than a powdered one - still tastes good to me!

pumpkin spice cookies

2011-11-07T15:17:00.000-06:00

I'm in a baking mood (even though it's sticky and warm today), and when I saw this instructable for these cookies I wanted to give them a go.

the two ingredients are pumpkin puree and a spice cake mix. you can also add chocolate chips, but I did pecans and then drizzled the tops with leftover cream cheese frosting I made from Leo's birthday. yums.

most nights Matt has been disappointed if we don't have anything sweet to eat after dinner, and last night was one of them :( so he is in for a surprise tonight! :D

nutcracker 2011

2011-11-03T14:50:00.000-05:00

as I was starting on my mom's nutcracker for this Christmas, I realized I never posted any pics of the one I did last year... and I remember why! I forgot to take the final pics!!! so, when my mom pulls all her Christmas stuff out I'll get a picture of it.

this year I'm doing 6 nutcrackers! but they're not really nutcrackers (not that nutcracker soldiers are really nutcrackers either...) they're nesting nutcracker soldiers. I wanted to do something like these.

I got the raw wood nesting dolls from Hobby Lobby - used a 40% off coupon and got them for less than $5. ya get what ya pay for. I had to do some sanding on them so they opened smoothly, the outsides were nice and flush at the seams, and most importantly that they fit inside each other once they had layers of paint on them. what's the point if they don't nest?

I did some sketching to get an idea of how to paint them

marked and drilled holes in the body of the main one to attach the arms that I made from dowel and pegs

made a nose and crown from polymer clay

painted the details and sprayed them all with a clear coat

added the rabbit fur for the hair and beard, glued the arms on and sanded down the dowel on the inside of the body

I'm happy with how they came out :)

the party & stuff

2011-10-29T18:08:00.001-05:00

Leo's 1st birthday was so much fun :) it turned out great despite being just a few days after we got back from Galveston. that was very stressful! I gotta be more on top of things next year and give myself a whole 2 months to get everything solid. oh, and Leo hates the beach. maybe he'll be more excited about it next year when he can walk and isn't having to crawl through the sand.

for the invitations I made a photo mosaic on a magnet sheet that fit into a sleeve with the lettering cut out so the magnet peeked trough. (I thought I bookmarked the page I saw this on, but I guess I didn't :( sorry lady who's idea I used and can't give credit to!) I found some pocket magnifiers to send along with them from DealExtreme so the recipients could see all the tiny pictures of the mosaic.

Leo's birthday shirt is was one of my favorite things I did for his birthday. I used iron-on vinyl on a black shirt. I put big 1's on the front and back, and small 1's on the sleeves, added a Lion to the front, some stripes on the sleeves, and Charlson across the back. I even did his name, and birthday with the year inside where the tag goes. I love that detail!

I made carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, and an extra big one for Leo. I put them in an apple tree I borrowed from my mom and topped each one with a different party favor toy from Party City. I figured I could get away without colorful frosting that stains everyone's teeth and just bring color in through toys. I think it came out really cute :)
I made a fruit frog that I saw here, and made punch like the Ecto Cooler from my birthday, but without green food coloring. also tried infused water for the first time. Matt just cut up a cucumber and threw it in some water with ice. came out really well.

we had a slideshow running on the TV of all the best pictures from his first year, and I put all the monthly pictures labeled with the month on a digital photo frame.

Leo got a bunch of toys and clothes - this boy's loaded! I'm afraid to see what Christmas brings!! we're gonna need more room ;)

I completely forgot about the party favors I made and had to give half of them out the next day!
I put a cover on some small note pads and did a matching insert for some black BIC pens, put those in a cup with some goodies to eat on the car ride home... or just whenever the next day for those who didn't make it home with theirs!
and I finished off the pack of magnet sheets I got for the invitations and made more with a picture of us from the party in a black frame to send out with the thank you notes.

I think it was a wonderful 1st birthday and a good warm-up to the years to follow when he'll actually remember the party!

Leo's wall of fame

2011-10-29T16:08:00.000-05:00

I wanted to get a bunch of Leo's pics on the wall in the living room before his birthday, but I ran short on time. a week late isn't too bad!

I tried to work around the thermostat, and it's not as noticeable, but I need to come up with something to cover it with.

I love that I got the bigger photos for free and didn't pay much for the frames. I paid less than $40 for this whole project!

solar bottle bulb

2011-09-23T15:42:00.000-05:00

this is the coolest thing.

http://isanglitrongliwanag.org/

free poster!!

2011-09-21T13:39:00.000-05:00

I get email from woman freebies. they send links to coupons and free samples. today I got a coupon for a FREE 16"x20" poster from Wal-Mart! I can't wait for my frame to come in so I can put it on the wall :D

all ya do is print this coupon, personalize and order a 16X20 poster(for some reason it has to be matte finish), choose to pay in-store at check-out, pick your store location and wait for them to tell you it's ready(mine was ready in an hour), when ya pick it up at the photo center just give them the coupon. the offer is good until 10/31/11, so hurry and get one!

photo book

2011-09-20T15:21:00.000-05:00

I finally got around to putting a photo book together for myself of Leo. I gave the grandmother's one on Mother's Day from Mixbook and I like it so much better. I did Shutterfly this time because they sent me a coupon code for a free book. it was a headache! the program is so much slower than Mixbook and the website settings are awful as far as being able to see all the controls on the page. I do my books from scratch, so if ya use the pre-designed books I'm sure it's better. I like the embellishments at Mixbook better, and they seem to have a lot more options for effects and stuff, too. but I got it done and it was less expensive 'cause of the coupon, so it's all good. I'm so excited and can't wait to get it!! :)

Click here to view this photo book larger

I should probably start working on 2011 so I have something waiting when I get another offer like this one. I just have so many pictures now that I'm gonna probably need to break it up into 2 books!

gettin' up there

2011-08-23T21:46:00.001-05:00

ten months

when I need a good milestone picture with a smile I can't get one, but when his clothes are messy or the background or lighting is crummy he gives it all he's got! it's okay. these will remind me that he wouldn't look up because he was so curious of the things around him when he was outside. he had his first taste of mulch... and liked it. silly boy. we watched a dragonfly circle us for a while. pulled some weeds. listened to the cars go by and the dogs play. then got hot and fussy and decided to get a bath.

Leo's been taking his baths in the backyard lately. he's always done well with them and seems to enjoy himself inside or outside, but he can make as big a mess as he wants outside and I can just leave it... which is nice! probably have a few more months left to do it this way.

he gets a little too excited and I have to make sure to stay out of the splash zone. he's figured out what I'm doing, though, and tries harder to get me when I move away. or so it seems ;)

cool find

2011-08-20T10:11:00.000-05:00

I was out shopping for specific things yesterday and I ended up buying a bunch of other stuff I wasn't looking for! O:) way it goes. I came across these cool little things(be sure to watch the video on the site - it's kinda funny :P) at Big Lots for $2 each.

they seem to work as far as I can tell. can't be any worse than a twist tie, anyway! I got one in each color (green, orange, and red) but I don't have many bagged things in the kitchen to use them on, so one might end up being used for craft supplies or something("screws and bolts" ;) who keeps that stuff in a bag?? no one.) or maybe this would be a good topper for a fabric bag for kiddos to put marbles or coins in. I dunno, it seemed too nifty to pass up.

mixed

2011-08-08T14:00:00.000-05:00

I tried to mix my nail polish (I know... back with this again) to make a better shade of yellow. I thought maybe a lighter shade would work better. it didn't. it looked really funny, actually. BUT, I think it was the flat color - it had no shimmer, and something that light needs some shimmer. it was a little grey looking (I mixed it with silver) so I made it a little more orange and finally after dumping all sorts of stuff together I got a color I can live with. it reminds me of a banana moon pie, or lemon taffy... which both were options I was considering naming it, but I think I'll go with "this day is bananas" since that's all I could sing to myself while painting my toes the final shade :)

no-bake cookies

2011-08-07T14:00:00.000-05:00

since we've had 30-something (36? 37? I dunno, too hot to keep track!) days of 100°F+ weather I can't bear to use the oven, but I REALLY wanted some cookies last night :( I didn't want to leave the house to go get some or get ingredients to make cookies, so I remembered back to the days I lived at home and the no-bake cookie my mom made. it was chocolate, peanut butter, oatmeal... and it was pretty quick and tasty. I looked for a recipe online and it's EVERYWHERE. I only had about 3/4 of a cup of oats so I chopped 1/4 cup of pecans and scaled down a recipe to 1/3 of the ingredients. I mainly did it by eyeballing and it's so dummy proof they came out just fine! it took more time to clean up my mess than to cook them on the stove and wait for them to cool. it made about 12 cookies, which is just enough for the weekend cause I'm still trying to shed the last 10lbs I packed on carrying Leo O:) but after a week of healthy food and only drinking juice and having a tomato for dinner I'm ready for something that's terrible for me!

so basically you boil sugar, milk, cocoa and butter in a pan on the stove, remove from heat and add some peanut butter, oats and vanilla. plop little balls out on a sheet of foil and let them cool and harden. way too easy. for a real recipe with measurements and everything just click on a picture of a yummy cookie - here's just 5 different recipes (MANY more online if you do a search) and they're all pretty much the same. I added nuts to mine to compensate for missing oats, so I'm sure you can substitute with other stuff too. maybe coconut if you're not an oats person. I think I might try that next weekend!

UPDATE:

I made these again using the full recipe and it took a looong time for them to set up. then someone sent me a message and said the same thing! I left mine out on the table to set up and a long time later they finally did. probably has something to do with how much butter is in them and how long it gets boiled for. some recipes say you have to boil for a minute, others don't specify. a whole stick of butter is a LOT and there's going to be a lot of liquid once that butter melts, so it makes sense that it needs to cook some of that out for them to set up. I think I'll just cut the butter down to half next time and maybe add more peanut butter (I think it could use a stronger flavor) in addition to boiling longer.

toenails

2011-08-07T08:42:00.000-05:00

I've always painted my toenails. it's very rare for me to not have polish on them. I hardly ever paint my finger nails, though. looks odd to me for some reason to have colored nails. I've been doing a lot of clear lately, though. but I've tired of the same old polish I have in my Kaboodle - yup, I still use mine from 1990! I saw a bottle of yellow at the Dollar Tree the other day and just had to get it. I can only do certain colors - blues and purple mainly - yellow is NOT a color that looks good on my feet :( what's funny, though... all the Googling I do on yellow nail polish is appealing to me, and it doesn't look different on me (the color I got is like this one), but for some reason I don't like it when it's on :\ might just need some getting used to.

then I just Googled nail polish videos to see if I could get an idea for something new to do. someone was mixing together their own glow in the dark polish - what a great idea! so I Googled the glow in the dark powder... jeez! it's expensive. being that it's not Halloween it's a little harder to find glow in the dark nail polish, but Deal Extreme had some! so I ordered that. it had one good review (by a girl) and a bad one (by a guy).. so we'll see how it goes... in 5-16 weeks! only drawback to Deal Extreme :(

so while I wait, I thought I'd try this other nail technique for transferring news print to your nails. it looked really cute, so I hope it works for me!

9 months

2011-07-26T13:51:00.000-05:00

Leo went for his 9 months checkup today. the doctor said - and I quote - he's a perfect baby. I knew it!! ;) his weight, length and head are all going right along the curve of the chart as if his growth pattern is the one they based it on. she said that doesn't usually happen and it can be all over the place. she seemed kinda excited and was all smiles about his development. she ended the visit with "keep doing what you're doing" - you mean going along blindly? can do! ;)

flip flop makeover

2011-07-24T10:34:00.000-05:00

I had some old flip flops I was gonna toss. they were cute when I bought them 7+ years ago, but the woven insole stuff started looking really ratty (more so on the left than the right, I just noticed!) and parts would fall off every time I wore them. I figured why not see if I can change them before they go? if it didn't work out, I could still toss them.

so, this is what I started with. Old Navy flip flops - I think I paid $5 for them, and I've definitely got my money's worth over the years.

they have a woven mat on top of a foam base and there's a strip of foam wrapped around the edge. to get the woven mat out I cut the straps at the toe leaving enough so it didn't slip between my toes, and pulled the straps through the holes of the mat.

I traced and cut two pieces of craft foam the size of the mat for each sandal and did a dry fit to see what needed to be trimmed. I measured the straps across the top of my foot, cut them to size, and stitched them together with some heavy duty thread I had.

I was going to go strictly on supplies I had in my craft closet, but when I decided I didn't like the red and that it might be hard to paint on top of, I broke down and popped over to the new Dollar Tree down the road and bought a $1 roll of white foam. I pulled the red out and cut new white foam pieces, then I traced a butterfly wing pattern onto it with a pencil. I cut holes for the straps and toe post and made slits to access them. one more dry fit and trimmed the overhang.

then it was time to paint. I watered down some acrylic paint and painted inside the lines, then went over the lines with dimensional paint after it was dry. it still looked plain with just the outline, so I did some more lines and dots to fill in.

I was a little stumped on what to use for the toe post. I didn't have any buttons big enough, so I went with polymer clay. I wanted to add a domed cap to it, too, so I searched my bottle cap stash for some solid gold colored caps.

before they're domed they need to be trimmed down to a flat disc, so I used pliers and bent the edges down. once it was easier to get my scissors around the rim, I trimmed a rough circle, then followed the inner plastic ring to get a more round and flat shape.

the inner plastic needs to come out or it'll make an uneven dome, and lucky for me these peeled right out! some types are a little more stubborn and require a razor, heat, throwing of tools and swearing ;) but not the case this time :D anyway, so then to shape it. I would explain this process, but ya just hafta do it and get a feel for it. you can watch me use my dapping block here.

so then to make the actual toe post cover thing. I rolled out some yellow and brown polymer clay and used an old plastic egg to cut the circle, then I pressed the gold domes in the center and baked them until the clay was hard. while they were still warm and flexible, I pried the domes out.

for the straps I wanted a 5 strand braid, so I needed 5 different colors... but I didn't have the colors I needed, so I took an old white t shirt and painted some stripes about 2" thick across it, cut them out into 1 inch strips, stretched them until they rolled, and braided them together. the paint made the fabric a little stiff, but it wasn't going to be directly next to my skin so that didn't bother me.

once I had the length I needed to cover the strap, I sewed across the ends and trimmed the rest. I added some leather to finish the edge off and sewed that in place, too.

I used contact cement to adhere the 2 new layers of foam to the sole of the sandal. very smelly and sticky, but it did the trick! once the sole was in place I drilled some holes through the old toe strap piece and the polymer button, sewed them together, and hot glued the domes back in place to cover the stitches. then I glued the braids to the straps and she's done!

I'm pretty happy how they came out - time will tell how much more wear they'll be good for.

I know all the work of painting the wings on the insoles is hidden when they're worn, but I like knowing it's there. kinda like a fun little secret for my feet to keep :)

bag for Hailey :)

2011-07-18T20:55:00.000-05:00

I made a doodle painted purse for my friend's birthday. I got a regular black canvas tote from Hobby Lobby (on sale for half off :D) and some silver dimensional paint.

I cut the tote down a few inches from the top and gave it a new hem, then painted my doodles on it and added grommets for the handles on the front and back to attach chains to.

I found one of those small Zip It bags in the clearance section for $4! I removed the handle it came with cause I wanted to use it as a make-up type bag (since there's no pocket in the bag itself) and reused the part I cut off as the top part of the purse handle to tie the look of the bag to the tote. I attached D rings to the zipper part of the handle, added chain to it, then split rings at the other end to put through the grommets.

I think it came out pretty well and I was sad to give it away! but that's the perks to being able to make stuff yourself... you can do it all again! and I already have 3 more totes waiting to be done over :)

sale!

2011-07-05T22:13:00.000-05:00

until the end of the month I'm offering
25% off everything in my DaWanda shop!

I've added a few new items, so go check it out here,
or by clicking the DaWanda widget to the right.

'like' a savage of an idea on Facebook to keep up
with new items in my shop and sales like this!

placemat

2011-06-28T13:12:00.001-05:00

Red Ranger Ray Guns is having a coloring competition - it ends today so if you're interested hurry and get your kiddos coloring! I knew Leo wouldn't color and paint on it since everything goes in his mouth, so I printed the picture off and "laminated" it with contact paper and let Leo go crazy at lunch on it. he had more food on him and the rest of his chair than the place mat, but it was fun!

onesie to t-shirt

2011-06-23T11:59:00.000-05:00

I stopped liking onesies when Leo outgrew them really fast. we could make them snap, but he'd get that really low neckline even though it wasn't that much of a stretch to get it to fit together at the bottom. once he got to the size that he could wear t-shirts(why can't they make them in smaller sizes??) it was so much easier to dress him and keep his clothes clean without doing so much laundry - don't have to change the shirt when a diaper leaks. a lot of his stuff is still the snaps, so I went looking and found this tutorial on fixing that and it worked great! I'm not good enough to get it done in 5 minutes like she was, but I think I managed in 10.

more fun with a dapping block

2011-06-15T17:40:00.000-05:00

I found a round box clasp with green acrylic gemstone in it. I thought it'd be perfect for a domed bottle cap... and I was right! I used a Henry Weinhard's soda cap for the clasp insert and some recycled saddle leather for the band.

I'm really pleased with how it came out :)

more of Leo's cards

2011-06-15T16:09:00.000-05:00

father's day sorta sneaked up on me. I made cards yesterday to send out today! hopefully they all get there in time. I got my brown card stock and green paper at Hobby Lobby (on sale :D) and after combing the store... twice!, I found the little gears and sprockets. I didn't think those would be as hard to find as they were. I was hoping to find some stickers or something, but I had my mind set on these so metal was gonna hafta do. I hope I don't find them all in my mailbox marked as "un-sendable" or something.

I don't know where I got this font (nope, it's not stamped!) but I love it :) I'm not much of a stamper - I don't often use the same designs twice so stamps don't make sense for me to have - and I'm so prone to just print something off. I also love textured paper. this is leftover cotton paper I used for my wedding invitations forever ago! can't see it in the picture, but it's got a subtle weave to it. I use it whenever I'm making cards.. and I make a lot of cards, but somehow after 100+ invitations and 7 years worth of cards and crafts I still have 1/4 of a ream left!

this past weekend

2011-06-06T18:09:00.000-05:00

for my birthday I asked Matt to get me a dapping block... and he did :) I found a small wood one at Hobby Lobby for $8.

I have a container full of bottle caps I've collected from the various soda we've tried (there's a place where you can buy it by the bottle and make your own variety 6-pack.. it's pretty cool) so I cut a couple down into small circles and domed them with my new block and made me some rings like these :)

the bike one is from my last birthday, I think. my in-laws brought over some beer for our last backyard movie night, so that's the only place I can think I got it from! I love the colors, though.

and speaking of birthdays and movie nights...
I wanted to do another backyard movie - this year it was ghostbusters! I haven't seen that in sooo long. it was a lot of fun :) I made Ecto Cooler punch from a recipe I found online.

the drink was a hit! I even did the little Slimer picks like the girls did in their video. I also made a trap out of a shoe box and put a push light in it, and drew ghosts on balloons and put them around the house.

I can't wait until Leo is old enough for themed parties! until then, I guess I'll get them :P

Alvin shirt resize

2011-05-27T18:01:00.000-05:00

I pulled an old t shirt from my closet that I couldn't wear anymore and resized it for Leo. I lost all my pictures of the process but you can use one of the many tutorials out there to do one yourself.

diy paper matboard

2011-05-27T17:40:00.000-05:00

our anniversary is coming up, and Matt's been mentioning old maps lately - not like antique maps, just outdated ones.. dunno why. anyway, so I found an old National Geographic map from the 70's on Etsy, a large 33x44 frame on Craigslist... and then was stuck with wondering how to mat it without spending more than the frame and map themselves.I decided to use layers of paper! just used the back of some old wrapping paper and cut it into 2" strips or so and layered them around the edges of the map, then did the top layer in brown craft paper. it still looks great in the frame and didn't cost me an arm and a leg :)

paper pens

2011-05-17T11:31:00.000-05:00

this is a bit dated, but I came across a post about paper pens today and realized I hadn't posted anything from my baby shower! so here are the pens I did for my guests with just some printed computer paper and Bic pens.I reproduced the dots pattern from the theme my friend did with the invitations and plates and whatnot and did Leo's name and the year in the dots, printed them out, rolled them up and slid them into the pens. easy, inexpensive (I think 20 pens set me back a buck) and cute!
I didn't use glue or tape like One Pearl Button did in her tutorial - I did more what Happy Together said she did in her comment about rolling the paper around a bamboo skewer, but I just rolled it around the inner part of the pen.

my mother's day

2011-05-11T15:27:00.000-05:00

I showed Matt the cake I wanted to make and he immediately said "no, I'll do it." he's so sweet! he cleaned the house, baked the cake, and made dinner for the family that came over that night :) any time I tried to do something he'd tell me to go sit down... which got a a little annoying because I wanted to help! he's too good to me :) it was a wonderful 1st Mother's Day!

slips 3

2011-05-11T15:19:00.000-05:00

so my sprouts have rooted nicely and after a week (I've been busy!) I've finally put them in some dirt.as well as some others that I didn't get a chance to pull off but still grew roots while attached to the potato. they don't look as pretty as the sprouts I pulled off and put in the water, but we'll see if there's a difference in how they grow.

mixbook

2011-05-08T02:00:00.001-05:00

for Mother's Day, I put Leo's pictures from last year in photo books from mixbook for his Mé and Grandma :)

| View Sample Photo Books | Create your own Photo Book

mother's day jewelry

2011-05-08T02:00:00.000-05:00

this copper and blue crystal bracelet and earrings are for my mom. I used a byzantine weave and sorta just made up the pattern as I went along. I went with making my own rings for this one, which wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I've made jump rings before, but not 100's of them at a time! I used two different sized knitting needles and just wrapped the wire around until I got what looks like a tight spring, then just clipped them apart. nothin' to it! ;)

I did silver and multi-color stones for my mother-in-law's bracelet. I did a search online for pictures to go from for her bracelet and found one I liked on Dawanda. then I found the earrings I wanted to do - so much harder than they look!

I found a cool site that's a great place to start if you want to get into chainmail, but they didn't have the byzantine weave I was looking for. this particular weave was hard for me to understand with just pictures, but I happen to find a video! I dunno what I'd do without the internet :)

mother's day cake

2011-05-05T20:24:00.000-05:00

I decided, since I haven't done one in sooo long, I'm making a layer cake Sunday for Mother's Day, and this is the one I'm going to do!it's not totally from scratch, but I don't have time for scratch! and who can argue with something that looks this good? I can't wait :)

cluck cluck!

2011-05-05T15:01:00.000-05:00

about 17 years ago my dad asked a co-worker what this "cinco de gallo" he was hearing about was. the co-worker looked at him puzzled and said "the fifth of chicken?" every year since then I think of the good laugh we all had :)

Leo's cards

2011-04-30T16:50:00.000-05:00

we made some Mother's Day cards to mail out this week.
from trying paint hand prints with Leo in the past I figured
this would be a major headache, but it wasn't too bad.
as soon as I'd paint his hand he'd make a fist or grab his foot!
we had paint everywhere, but we finally got the 5 that we needed.

and I made myself a little keepsake, too :)

slips 2

2011-04-29T16:14:00.000-05:00

I got five good long sprouts off of two potatoes - the other four just mainly have long roots on the bottoms and tiny sprouts. hopefully they all catch up. this one sweet potato grew sooo fast this week. almost every time I passed by it the leaves were a little bigger and taller. it was pretty cool to watch! :) I have no idea why this one did so well.

they all had tiny little fingers coming off the ends of the stems when I pulled them off the potato. I'm assuming that's what turns into the roots now?

I suspended all five in a jelly glass of water with some thread taped across to hold them up. here goes nothing!

s'meeps

2011-04-20T22:34:00.000-05:00

this time last year I was laying on the couch snacking on peanuts trying to make it through the day. I'm so glad I get to enjoy some Easter goodies this year! :D I'm really wanting to have a Peep roast, but I don't know if we'll get around to that on Easter. we may cheat and do that the night before O:)

anyway, I tend to bite off too much when it comes to holidays and coming up with something totally handmade to give the family, but this year I slacked off a bit.I've been seeing Peep S'mores all over the Internet so that's what I went with this year. while I am pretty much leaving the assembly of these to the recipients - which was the main attraction! - I did alter the Peeps logo and print it on paper bags, so I don't feel too bad about not "making " anything.

feel free to use it for your own S'meeps gift :)

paper gift box

2011-04-20T22:28:00.001-05:00

I won't show the Mother's Day gifts I made just yet, but here's the packaging.

I made these paper boxes from this pattern I found online after tons of searching! and I used this print I google image searched for and tweaked the color to get the blue one.

I think they came out pretty cute for just some printed card stock :)

ninja bunny

2011-04-19T14:07:00.000-05:00

I wanted to make some sort of rattle for Leo for Easter. I kept seeing all these cute fabric eggs online and thought maybe I could alter one and make a bunny. two failed attempts later I decided just to cover a plastic egg in felt and stick ears on it. and to keep it from being too girlie and cutesy I went with black. we'll see if it lasts the day!

crinkle toy

2011-04-14T14:49:00.000-05:00

Leo loves his crinkle lion but I don't always remember to bring it along with me when we go out, so I decided to make one just for the diaper bag.

I used an old sweatshirt, hoodie, and some smarties wrappers

did a rough cut out of Kermit and a larger rectangle for the back

laid out the smarties wrappers and taped them together

(I should have either taped them more thoroughly or just found something larger for the crinkle inside because after I was done some of the pieces shifted inside.)

sandwiched the layers and pinned

sewed around Kermit

pulled away all the cellophane from the edges and cut him out

Leo approved :)

slips

2011-04-11T15:05:00.000-05:00

gonna try and grow some sweet potatoes this year. I read they do best when it's hot... so if I can't make them work I'm gonna just chop my brown thumbs off and be done with trying to make things grow!my potatoes tend to sprout when I don't want them to in my pantry or just sitting on top of the fridge, but I thought I'd see if the water method was any faster. guess I should have done half of these the other way to see for sure... oh well!
I cut them in half and shoved tooth picks in the tops so they'd hang in the glass of water. they should start sprouting on top and then I can pull the sprouts off and put them back in the water until roots grow to make slips that can then be planted.
supposedly, they'll just take over... I'll be happy if I get 3 small ones back to replace the ones I used here!

market bag

2011-04-04T15:28:00.000-05:00

got another craft swap in the mail from whoopdwhoop :D

this crocheted market bag is made by Robin from TN.

amazon mom

2011-04-03T18:14:00.000-05:00

264 diapers on my doorstep in 2 days, only $25 - yay!

amazon mom

squashed

2011-03-31T14:27:00.000-05:00

I will be posting more crafts I've done these past few weeks later on, but they're all Mother's Day gifts so I can't put them up yet! so I'll try to catch up with some other stuff to make up for it.

today during nap time I didn't get to make anything fun, but I did make something. baby food. I was buying jarred food for .46 for 4oz. I never thought to make it myself because I figured there was too much involved, but basically ya just mash it up any way ya can so they can eat it. someone told me they were saving quite a bit making their own so I thought I'd give it a go.
I started with carrots and sweet potatoes. boiled the carrots and baked the sweet potatoes, then after they were cooked just threw them into the blender and stuck them in my collection of baby food jars and put them in the freezer. carrots came out to .19 for 4oz - was happy about that :) sweet potatoes were .25 - little less enthusiastic about that since I had to spend so much time and electricity making them.

anyway, today I tackled squash.

the instructions for baking the butternut squash were right on the label, so I did what it said (minus the brown sugar and cinnamon at the end) and pre-heated my oven to 400°F.
I lined a pan with foil so I didn't have to wash it later O:) and I wasn't sure how much of a mess it'd make in the pan sticky-wise.

cut the squash in half.

scooped out the seeds.

laid them cut side down on the pan and baked for 30-45 minutes.
(mine could have gone another 15 minutes or so.)

the dark spots on the outside were where the hollow spots were - thought that was interesting.

scraped the flesh with a fork.

scooped out and put in the blender.

blended until it was as smooth as I wanted.

I filled jars cause that's what I had (I boiled them before I re-used them) and left a little room in the top for expansion in the freezer.

made (6) 4oz jars.
I was hoping for more since I paid $3 for the squash and that's about what I would have paid for 6 jars from the store.... but oh well.

lil man's tie

2011-03-18T13:50:00.000-05:00

I scored the cutest little tie onesie for Leo :)

and one for a buddy!

chainmail ring

2011-03-16T16:16:00.001-05:00

I was browsing google images during nap time today and found this cool chainmail ring:

you can buy the instructions for making this ring on this site.

I did my own quick version with a bead, bead cap and simple 4-1 chainmail for the band.

this video is super easy to follow for making this type of chainmail.

my lil bubby

2011-03-14T16:40:00.000-05:00

our boy's growin' up so fast! he's finally too large for his moses basket, so last night we put him in his crib... and now we're all exhausted! but hopefully once this week is over we'll be past the hard part. he's getting better at putting himself to sleep at night, it's just staying asleep that he can't seem to do. yet. he naps really well (even in the middle of the floor) so I know he can do it. we'll get there!

swap!

2011-03-12T21:44:00.000-06:00

I received my first whoopdwhoop swap in the mail today from InimitableLindsay.

check out her etsy shop!

whoop!

2011-03-08T18:05:00.001-06:00

I know I didn't post anything last week (already slacking off on my promise!) but I did work on something. it was a few somethings, actually. I cleaned out my craft closet and found a bunch of unfinished jewelry projects... so I finished them all!

then I found a fun place the other day. whoopdwhoop :) so this week I listed most of them as well as some older things I've made on there for swap :D I have my eye on a few things I wanna get, but I'm still loading stuff on and haven't reached my "whoop" goal yet.

baby washcloth rose... revised!

2011-02-25T16:55:00.000-06:00

I've decided to start doing some crafts during nap time that I can post on here. I'd like to do them everyday (yeah right!) or maybe once a week... but don't hold me to that!

after receiving a comment (over a year ago - sorry estelle715!) on my baby washcloth rose how-to about adding a spoon in the mix, I decided to revisit it and here's what I came up with:
also works great with a dinner napkin - using the old method without a spoon - and placed in a wine glass.

36 to here!

2010-10-30T17:56:00.001-05:00

it's been a short week. in fact, once going into labor it all just flew by!

pregnancy was definitely the hardest part.

Leo Austin Charlson

7 lbs 7 oz.

20" long

10-23-10

31 to 35

2010-10-08T09:49:00.000-05:00

I found my font! after week 30 I finally got my computer back from repair and have my regular numbers again :D

down side is I gained 10 lbs since then! :\ mostly water. I'm so sick of being swollen.

cuckoo clock

2010-09-22T16:43:00.000-05:00

I got together with a friend today and made a "cuckoo" clock for Leo's room :)

I tried to not buy anything for this project that I didn't already have in my craft closet, so I made it from foam core, shelf liner paper, a popsicle stick, beads, and I printed off the clock face.

for not spending anything, I think it came out pretty good!

26 to 30

2010-08-30T14:38:00.000-05:00

I'm so ready for this part to be over! 10 weeks seems like such a long wait right now. I've only gained 25 lbs so far and still no stretch marks :D hopefully getting back to normal won't be too difficult when this is over.

the nursery

2010-08-28T15:32:00.000-05:00

now that the walls are painted I finally hung up my picture collage.the other wall seemed a bit bare so I did a big tree in the middle of it.I used a dark wood grain contact paper so I wasn't committing to painting the wall if I didn't like it.

we'll see how long it stays up!

finally hung some curtains, too - love the blue.

it's just 2 $3 twin flat sheets from Wal-Mart.

I got cafe rings from Hobby Lobby and threw up a curtain rod and she's done.

Matt made me some shelves for diapers. I love how they turned out.

worked out to be around $5 a shelf, too, which is awesome.

later they can be used for CD or video game storage.

still deciding if I want to do a mobile over the crib.

I'm worried it'll be too much with the pictures now, but the animals I found at Ikea are just too cute to not do something with :)

shower gifts

2010-08-18T10:24:00.000-05:00

shower gifts for Chelle :)

I did some searching online and found the cutest stuff to make.

the "cupcakes" turned out better than I thought they would. I just rolled up some onesies and put little felt hair clips on top inside a cupcake box. I guess it's kinda hard to go wrong with such a simple idea.

the washcloth rose bouquet was even easier. the paper really makes it, I think.

the baby bunny was the least simple of the 3, but probably the most fun to see come together :)

mine came out skinnier and longer, but I like it.

like the bouquet, I think the print on the fabric made all the difference, but the embroidery makes it pop for sure.

birthday card re-do

2010-08-05T14:32:00.000-05:00

a shark in a sailor's hat + a speech bubble + Philip Seymour Hoffman + a cartoon pickle + Clint Eastwood = off-the-wall funny birthday card for my brother :D

when I saw the sailor shark a conversation went through my head and I decided to create it on the inside of the card. yes, I see the typo... so sad :(

as funny as that was (to me) I wasn't sure how to bring the card to a close - so Mr. Eastwood it was.

I can't wait to give it away :D

dealEXTREME!

2010-08-02T14:36:00.000-05:00

I recently purchased an "iridescent ball" (that's what the box said) and a glow-in-the-dark silicone watch from dealextreme.com - and they finally arrived today! it's probably the fastest I've received anything from them - 23 days. after all, I assume it's coming via little Chinese kids using the Hands-Across-America method, so that's really not bad! ;)

my favorite part about the watch is on the face between the hour and minutes where it flashes "HELLO" over and over :P I guess sorta like a seconds ticker so you know you're out of the settings mode and it's now keeping time? so far it's doing its job to keep accurate time, but it's only been about 3 or so hours so we'll see.

the ball is pretty much what all the user reviews said, so good job to those people.
I'm going to wire it so it doesn't take batteries (can't be buying those all the time) and hang it over Leo's crib for a nightlight/mobile.

the "instructions" on the box says "can be played in the darkness 7 dim light make more fun of your life." gotta love when things get lost in translation!

21 to 25

2010-07-28T12:01:00.001-05:00

more baby stuffs

2010-07-14T15:18:00.000-05:00

made this bib from an old t shirt and some leftover fabric. I'm running low on pretty thread colors, so I picked an image from my embroidery machine that would look alright with what I had - browns. decided on the ice cream and added the caption "nom nom nom". I know babies don't eat ice cream cones.... but I thought it was cute just the same. I serged the edges and put on a snap and called it a day.

these booties are made from the same pattern as the grey knitted ones I did. this is how they come out with fleece squares and embroidery stitches. I doubled up the fleece so they'd be thicker and baby won't feel the stitches on the inside. I think they may have taken as long to make if I'd just knitted them! just the embroidery took forever, not actually sewing them together - don't let it scare you away from trying them!

I used smartie wrappers again in the wings of this felt butterfly - I love how they crinkle :) - attached a ribbon and looped it onto a Link-a-doo ring.

I did this elephant with leftover fabric from my crib bedding, put eyelets on his feet and attached wood wheels on dowels through them. might be more of a cute thing to look at than actually play with because it's so tiny, but it was fun to make.

I can't wait to get these out in the mail... :)

a message from Little Goldfish

2010-07-14T14:46:00.000-05:00

finally a non-baby related project! :P

I've been wanting to make a picture frame dry-erase board for a while and decided this was a winner of an idea.

I used a simple glass paned (the glass part is very important) document frame from the Dollar Tree, swiped the thinking goldfish image for it from Dribble Funk... O:) glued some black felt to the end of an Expo marker for my eraser and we're good to go.

check out Brad's comic Donnie Rocket Toaster-Face.

16 to 20

2010-06-30T15:12:00.000-05:00

not a lot of change through these weeks, but I've definitely gained some weight.still no stretch marks :D

the crib

2010-06-19T10:33:00.000-05:00

I finally picked out a fabric! went with bright colors and animals. the sheets I made from flat sheets I got for $3 at Wal-Mart. I thought the stripes were perfect. much brighter than the store-bought crib sheets I've been seeing in stores. I used some of the leftover sheet fabric for filling in the triangles on the outside of the bumper. I think I'll use the same sheets for curtains and maybe trim them with other leftover animal fabric if I have enough.

I started making bigger bows for the ties, then decided just to put them on the corners and have thinner ones everywhere else. I've stopped thinking about if I like it that way or not :P

those cute green fabric boxes are from the .99 store :) my mom got them for me and they go perfect! now just to put up some shelves.

Matt's new playmate

2010-06-12T10:14:00.000-05:00

looks like I'm gonna be makin' some more peepee teepees!

♀ or ♂ ?

2010-06-09T17:21:00.000-05:00

I'm so excited for Friday morning to get here! we go in first thing in the morning to find out what we're having :D I really hope it's a baby ;)

are you one of those who thinks you know what it is? (yeah, you know who you are!) maybe you're just a good guesser? I've set up a poll on my facebook page if you wanna put in your 2 cents. feel free to leave a comment in the poll box on when ya think the birth date is, too!

11 to 15

2010-05-19T13:33:00.000-05:00

looking back at the weekly pictures they sorta look out of order.

it's so weird how much I shrink and grow from day to day.

so far no stretch marks, though... knock on wood!

wall decor

2010-05-12T14:29:00.001-05:00

I was looking online for inspiration for my nursery walls. I thought I'd paint something cute on the walls, but I'm now leaning towards just going solid and putting up pictures and stuff. I definitely want a cool clock, and I found some pretty cool stuff I wanna try. just gotta narrow it down to one!

I like the feel of all the different sized frames together.
I thought this was really neat. I like how they don't match, but still go together as a whole.

I love that this uses pictures and functions as a clock. I think I'd put pictures of animals in the frames, or try doing the numbers like the letters above.

this would be too cute with a stack of children's books.

might be more of something I'd like for my garage, but I thought this idea was really cool.

number of days

2010-05-11T16:05:00.000-05:00

as soon as I think I'm okay, it hits me again. and usually hard. and when I have things I need to get done. it's disappointing when you hit that 4 or 5 day mark of thinkin' you're out of the woods just to find yourself on your knees hugging the toilet again.

first booties

2010-04-22T12:29:00.000-05:00

I was searching for a cute pattern for some baby booties and found this one.

they are so simple, but if you're not a knitter you could make them with some fleece squares and just blanket stitch them together - which is what I'm going to try next!

what's in a name

2010-04-22T12:02:00.000-05:00

November 8th

2010-04-20T09:06:00.000-05:00

our little sprouting bean at 9 weeks :)

it moved for us and we saw its head rock back and forth and it waved its arm at us

its heart was flashing away on the monitor - 170 bpm

heard the heart again on the Doppler yesterday at 11 weeks - I can't wait for 20 weeks to see it again and stop calling it a it!

elephant "rattle"

2010-04-15T17:11:00.000-05:00

I found this cute frog rattle on a link-a-doo loop and wanted to try and make my own. it seemed simple enough... but I just couldn't get it right :(

I gave up on duplicating the frog and just did what worked best.

I put a jingle bell in his head, but it's sorta muffled :\

I also put Smarties wrappers in its ears and those came out sounding really good :)

new knobs

2010-04-14T11:04:00.000-05:00

I bought a $40 dresser on craigslist a while back for my nursery. it had silver knobs and looked alright, but I got some green ceramic knobs from my aunt Cindy years ago that I thought looked so much better for a baby. I was worried that since the knobs were a little larger they would scratch up the front of the drawers if they became loose and turned, so I used double sided tape and neon green felt to cover the backs of them before putting them on. now I can switch back to the silver knobs later if I want and don't have to worry about any scuff marks showing.

leaf bracelet

2010-03-26T16:20:00.000-05:00

CRAFT magazine posted a link on facebook to maya*made's how-to for a cute leather leaf cuff and I just had to make one for myself.

I didn't have green leather, but I had a beige colored scrap that was sorta ugly on the finished side but super soft and shiny on the other. I've been wanting to use it for something for a while, but I just couldn't get over the color :P I finally decided to try staining it with some green food coloring... and it worked! it's exactly the green I wanted :)

I sewed the leaves together on my sewing machine since the leather wasn't too heavy.

I think next time I'll put a faux button on and use a snap so I don't wear the button hole out.

bunnies don't come from eggs...

2010-03-24T16:28:00.000-05:00

but there is one in every peanut.

happy early Easter :)

baby slippers?

2010-03-14T12:11:00.001-05:00

I love these :D maybe next time I'm at the thrift store I'll see what I can find in the area of a size 10 for my odd husband who would SO wear these ;)

heck, I'd even wear 'em!

Roxie HATES flying sharks

2010-03-03T17:19:00.000-06:00

she was throwing a fit in the backyard yesterday and when I looked out I thought it was weird that she wasn't running back and forth along the fence like she usually does when the people walk along the other side. she was in the middle of the yard looking off somewhere else.

then I spotted the kite.

it took flight a little closer today while I was cleaning mud off her paws - it was all I could do to hold her back.

2010-02-26T09:43:00.000-06:00

I am super sensitive when it comes to spinning. I used to be able to handle all the spinning rides at Six Flags and they were actually my favorites.

my dad would get sick easy on them and I always thought that was odd, then one day I couldn't handle them anymore :( I rode some roller coaster with a few spiral loops in it and nearly lost it. I tend to black out on them now and then I hafta sit and wait for the nausea to pass afterwards... only to do it again O:) so yeah, I figured this onset of dizziness was just something I got from my dad - which it might be - but apparently is something that can be "cured". so, after reading this article on Yahoo! about how ice skaters don't get dizzy, I've decided to try and "get used to it".

straw shrimp

2010-02-16T16:24:00.000-06:00

make cute shrimp from a drinking straw! who comes up with this stuff?!

hmmm...

2010-02-12T13:06:00.000-06:00

got some more snow - rebuilt the snowman and then made a toilet.

I didn't think I could sit on it safely, so I decided throwing up was good enough.

I like the face Matt's snowman is making behind me :)

"oh no! are those my eyes and mouth in there??"

yay snow :)

2010-02-11T13:01:00.001-06:00

Matt made me a lil snowman to greet me on my way into work this morning :)

my boss didn't come into work while I was there, so I ran out of things to do and left O:)

I can work any day - how often do we get perfectly sticky awesome snow without it being super cold and windy out??

the answer is never ;)

I eat your nose!

the doggies didn't like the snow, but Roxi is obedient and came to me when I called anyway :P

I've never been able to roll up a snowman before - I got carried away and rolled up most of the yard... then it was too heavy to move!! I had to roll the 2nd part up a couple of hoes layin' around the yard to get it up there. I almost didn't get the head on top! he's already fallen over :( oh well. that's what a slanted yard gets ya.

BLORK!

2010-01-27T21:59:00.000-06:00

a HILARIOUS play! if you're in Chicago in April, GO SEE IT!
keep checkin' in on Bootstraps for more details.

a savage of an idea

2010-01-17T13:03:00.000-06:00

I just added some new stuff to my shop :)

BristleBot

2010-01-15T08:54:00.000-06:00

how cool is this?!

you were just too slow, kitty!

2010-01-09T21:48:00.001-06:00

this is my roadkill kitty bookmark... for all the books I never read.
no, I haven't read this one either :\ I got a great deal on it at a 2nd hand shop, though, and I like to get it out and smell it - smells like old book. yeah, I know.

jackalopes

2010-01-09T13:36:00.000-06:00

I've been looking at bunny drawings online that talented people are able to do and doodling my own crappy versions of them in jackalope form.

I finally came up with a stencil I liked, but even ended up making him more simple than this in the end.

I used shelf liner paper and drew on it with a fat sharpie, then cut all the black lines out and stenciled it on some felt - I think it came out well :) I'm starting to lose some of the sticky on the stencil, but it seems to still work well even if it's not completely stuck down to the fabric.

this is the first stencil I've done completely by hand - if I do any drawing by hand, I usually sketch something pretty crummy and then tweak the crap out of it in paint and photo programs until it looks decent - only thing I did on the computer for this was steal ideas from other peoples bunnies O:)

pin toppers

2009-12-18T09:56:00.000-06:00

here's a how-to on making the pins... as well as what not to do O:) I threw fire in there for fun, actually :P if you're going to intentionally set the plastic on fire (it does make nifty looking pin toppers, too) do it outside! I have ash floating around my bathroom still.

lil jar pincushion

2009-12-17T09:33:00.001-06:00

I saw a canning jar pincushion a while back and have been wanting to make one, but I don't have cute small mason jars.

so I used a pimento jar and poked holes in the lid to stitch the cushion to like a button.

similar to a baby food jar pincushion, just sewn on instead of only relying on the glue - and I like the little tufted part in the middle. the ring is a needle rest made from spandex and a ring blank with a bead cap I flattened out on the bottom.the pins are made from a #6 disposable plastic casserole lid I colored with pencils and cut out and melted onto regular straight pins via candle flame so I could shape them and to get that round look from over-heating the plastic without killing myself trying to do this in the oven.

sea glass

2009-12-17T09:11:00.000-06:00

Galveston sea glass I beach combed for, silver, and wire wrapped faceted crystals.

the teardrops reminds me of the wistful feeling I get on the last day of vacation when I'm looking at the treasures I've found in the sand and wishing I didn't have to go home yet.

copper and clay

2009-12-17T09:04:00.000-06:00

copper metal pieces and polymer clay beads

(Christmas gifts I wanna keep for myself!)

ornament project

2009-12-17T08:56:00.000-06:00

found this tutorial online and loved it :) but I made it a little easier with less fabric to pin. I might try another with all suggested 8 rows, but I think they still came out looking good as is.

paper calculator

2009-12-04T11:48:00.000-06:00

thought this was pretty cool... but I'd never seen it before, so maybe I'm alone on this one :P

Nutcracker 09

2009-12-02T16:08:00.001-06:00

after a few months, I finally finished my mom's nutcracker today :D

Sep. 16
sanded and stripped down the store-bought nutcracker

sometime between Sep & Oct. (yes... it's a big gap, shaddup)
painted him a solid white and stared at my blank canvas for a while

Oct. 29
finally picked out a beautiful Japanese paper for his "clothes"

Oct. 30
painted his legs and... mouth knocker-thing. I really should know what that's called

Nov. 1
painted his shoes and faux marbled his pedestal

Nov. 2
painted his head and gold trim, and cut out a pattern for the paper to put on his arms and torso

Nov. 3

decoupaged the paper on his body

Nov. 4

gave him blush - doesn't seem like much, but it was a headache to get it to look right. finally went with real blush instead of paint

Nov. 5

gave him a clear coat of paint

Nov. 6

made his hat from a paper mache box I painted gold and put a little round knob on, and painted his face... which was easier after he was sealed because I re-did his face soo many times! I learned that trick the first time I make a nutcracker

Nov. 9

added gold trim and blue pearl-like beads to his waist and added my mom's initials and the year on the bottom... which I know you're asking "why not your name?" but when I lived at home, we had all our nutcrackers out together, and one year decided to start putting our initials on the bottoms to be able to tell them apart (we had too many to remember), so I still do that to hers for nostalgic reasons

Nov. 10

made a cape from a table runner, cut out the beard and hair from a rabbit pelt, glued red jewels down the front of his "shirt" and attached his cape, fur, and hat.

at some point I added a scepter in one hand, and then he sat like that for a while until I decided what to put in his other hand.

Dec. 2 - today! :)

I got up in the attic and found an old key I found as a kid, sanded it down, painted it and put it on a red ribbon and threaded it through the other hand

Finished!

knitting needles

2009-12-02T14:45:00.001-06:00

I did similar knitting needles for a swap last year. the case is faux suede from a place mat I found. I love the blue :) I used 50 yen coins my brother brought back from Japan for the closure with a strip of leather and some blue pearl-like beads. staining the dowels was the hardest part. I actually started them back in the summer! but the case went together really quick. I might post a how-to if anyone is interested in doing one.

spiderman

2009-12-02T14:26:00.000-06:00

okay.... so I thought I'd give it another try. I still don't like freezer paper. I have no idea how other people are able to reuse the stencils, either. I had a really difficult time peeling this one off. it pretty much came off in small strips. and don't criticize.. it's suppose to look this way. Matt said he liked a sample I did from the other one that wasn't completely covered solidly with paint. I hope this is what he had in mind! I think the only part I like is the spider on the shoulder on the back. I guess I could always pick a random name from the phonebook and pawn it off on them! ;)

knit slippers

2009-12-02T13:40:00.000-06:00

my mom mentioned she'd like some slippers like ones I'd knit myself a long time ago.

I don't remember how I did them, so once again, going from no pattern other than my foot - don't ask how I did them 'cause I dunno ;) - I whipped these up.

I used 4 strands of a natural bamboo yarn. I think I like it and would probably use it again.
even made the buttons from polymer clay and metal buttons I found in my craft closet.