Bacon Weaving

I never thought I'd be posting about Bacon weaving.  Oddly, it really fits with the theme of the blog.  It's both crafty and cooking!  Anyway, my friend mentioned it the other night as a way to make BLTs and have bacon with every bite.  She sent me a link to this site Savory Notes.  I didn't follow the recipe, but used the picture for reference just to make sure I knew what I was doing.

So, you cut your bacon in half and weave it into a square.  Then bake it at 350 for 25 minutes.

And you get beautiful bacon squares!  The BLT's were delicious!  I mean, how can you go wrong with bacon?  Perhaps now I should give turkey bacon a try!

Doll Bed

A couple months ago, I found this doll bed at the thrift store for 3.93 (I seriously don't get their random prices, but that's beside the point).  I was super excited and immediately planned on painting it and making a set of sheets.  Fast forward a lot of cutting (how many times can I cut the sheet the wrong size?), sewing, and 4 coats of paint.

Tada!  Isn't blogging magic fun?  I painted all of the pink green, repainted the white, and then sprayed 3 coats of sealer on the bed itself.  I also made a full set of sheets and a fleece blanket.  The sheets are a mini set of real sheets.  Why not make teaching Peanut how to make her bed fun?  

Here's a closer look at the top.  I have a wider hem at the top of the sheet.  The fleece blanket is a basic piece of fleet that has been hemmed the whole way around.  I'm still thinking about adding something, but haven't decided yet.

 Here's a closeup of the pillow and the pillow case.  I'm real happy with how it turned out and can't wait to see what Peanut says on Christmas morning!

Bent Needle

I felt like I had to share this with you.  My machine has decided to go on strike.  I've been painfully sewing Munchkin's rag quilt the last 2 days and with the final line of sewing I had to do, my needle bent.  It didn't break like it has so many times the last few months (this will be the 4th needle I've killed), it just bent.  There were no pins, just 12 layers of flannel.  It has taken too much abuse and decided I was due for a wake up call.  Fortunately, I had spare needles (now only 1 left).  I forced it to complete the project and I will now reward it with a rest, for the night.  Tomorrow is a new day and with Thanksgiving being this week Christmas is very much weighing on my mind.

Good night everyone!

Fall Leaf Table Runner

So, I finally got it finished!  It only took 3 trips to the fabric store!  I am so excited for Thanksgiving and I can't wait to see my table with all the food on it.  I hope this table runner lasts and that we are able to use it for years to come.

I have to be honest, it did take longer than I had anticipated.  When I first started cutting the leaves took forever and I didn't think about the interfacing until after I started. It will go much smoother if you do the interfacing from the very beginning.  Another time consumer is the sewing of the veins.  The first time I timed myself it took me 15 minutes to do one.  By half way through, I had that down to 8.

Want to make your own?  You have just enough time to get it done before the holiday!  Here's how I did it!


Supplies:
1/4 yd each of 4 different color felts
2 1/3 yds of 20" wide fusible interfacing
2 spools of metallic thread
Fabric glue
Maple Leaf Template


Directions:

This picture is just to give you an idea of the layout.

Cut the interfacing into 4 10" by 43" strips and fuse them to your pieces of felt starting at one end.

Trace your pattern onto the interfacing so you have 5 leaves in each color.  I made sure they were all on the same side so the leaves matched.  You can do that or flip flop it so they look a little more different.  The interfacing great because the it lets you draw on the felt!    Cut out all of your leaves. (another great task for watching tv)

Draw the vein pattern onto the interfacing side of the leaves.  You can use the one I did or make your own!

Sew along the lines you traced.   I did the main vein in the center, then the two long ones from one side to the other, crossing in the middle.  Then did all the little "V"s. 

This is a finished leaf before trimming all the threads.  I really found it easier to sit and sew them all and then trim them at the end.

When you've got them all done, lay them out the way you want them, overlapping them whenever possible.   I did the four colors alternating left and right with each set. (I took this pic before I did the veins)

The final part is the fabric glue.  Glue the pieces together.  Sometimes its easier to lay the bottom part (orange) over the one that will overlap (red in this case) so you can see exactly where they will touch.

After putting the glue on, press them together.  (Now the orange stem is on the bottom and the red is on top)

Tada!  And now the table is set (almost) for Thanksgiving!

Here's some more pics

You can "almost" see the sparkle of the thread in this pic.  I so wish I had a better camera so you could see how the thread shines.

You may (or may not) have noticed my plates.  I'm very proud of my plates.  I've been going to yard sales and the thrift stores almost weekly for the last 4 months collecting random white plates in preparation for Thanksgiving dinner.  I have also collected serving bowls, plates, butter dish, and gravy boat.

Oh, and I am planning on scotch guarding it tomorrow.  I'd hate for it to get ruined after all this work!

A Bowl Full of Lemons Tuesday Linky Party

Bear Rabbit Bear Things I've Done Thursday

Sneak peak!

I've got a sneak peak for you tonight!   Tomorrow I'll be sharing with you a tutorial for a great fall craft!  I'll give you a hint and tell you its for our thanksgiving table.  I'm so excited!

Keiki

I have been soo busy the last few days!  Papa B has been out of time and so I've been spending my evenings at the kitchen table with my sewing machine.  I've made a pair of pajama pants for Papa B, a jacket, hand warmers (tute to come!), fleece blanket (tute to come as well!), and have done a lot of work on a rag quilt.   The first thing I made was this doll!  Peanut's real name is Hawaiian and my friend gave me the idea to make a Hawaiian doll for my Hawaiian named girl!  I don't think she could have come out better.  She's made completely out of fleece and I love to hug and squeeze her.  After finishing up I did some research and decided to name her Keiki! I hope you all lover her as much as I do!

Handmade Gift Pledge

Tonight I took the handmade gift pledge.  Since I am planning on making all the christmas gifts I give this year, it's going to be pretty easy to keep my word.  If you want to pledge to make gifts and/or support small business who do, take the pledge too!

Halloween Plaques

I want to start this post by mentioning Pick Your Plum.  It's a website that features fantastic one day deals on crafty items.  They feature one item per day with a steep discount.  They have limited stock each day and often sell out before the day is done.  They announce it at 9 am EST.  I'm fortunate to be up by that time every day.   It's a very dangerous website.  When you can get a crafting supply at a killer price it's very tempting, even if you have no current plans for it.  I'm not going to get into how much stuff I've gotten, but it's been quite a bit.

So, back to the craft at hand.  A few weeks ago Pick Your Plum featured a freebie!  They had a choice between a pair of decals.  You could get either "Eek!" and a spider or "Boo!" and a witches hat.  I quickly opted for the witches hat.  After a lot of tries, I finally got through and made my order!  I had no idea what I was going to do with them, but they were free!

So, a few days after I got my decals I started brainstorming.  I finally decided to make some Halloween signs for outside.  I went to Joanns my local fabric store (mine is one of the big ones) and got 2 wooden plaques.  This is what I did: (is the suspense killing you yet? Don't scroll down!!)

1) painted the edges of the plaques black. It took 2 coats
2) picked out my scrap booking paper pieces and cut them to size
3) modge podged them onto the top
4) glued on the wire to the back with hot glue
5) put the decal on
6) sprayed it to death with sealer

One of the perks to buying a big pack of fall scrap booking paper is that you end up with years worth of fall scrap booking paper.  This is going on year 4 and I still haven't used all of it!

Ok, enough suspense (It is almost Halloween, afterall).  Here are the pics of my Halloween Plaques!

Here they are next to the front door!  I'd like to add a wreath to the front of the door, but I haven't gotten there yet.  Hopefully in the next couple days I'll get that done.

Here's the Boo! sign

And the witches hat!

So, this is one of those times where hindsight is 20/20.  The decals where backed with a larger white piece of paper.  When picking out the background papers and placement of them I didn't think about the black on black part.  I think the Boo sign looks worse than the witches hat.  I think the witches hat turned out better.  Also, when cutting the paper I need to make sure they don't overlap.  The overlap is  especially apparent behind the witches hat.   Either way, I learned something new and I think overall they're pretty cool.  

Car Mat Briefcase

I finally finished it!  It's very typical for me to set a project aside for days, weeks, months, and sometimes indefinitely when I hit a block in the process.  This was one of those times where I needed to step back and contemplate for a while.  My main goal with this was to provide a "town" for Peanut to drive her cars on and also provide a way of storing the cars and tracks.  We don't have a good place for them now and it's been driving me crazy. I find cars and tracks all over the place.  This way they all have their place!  I'm really happy with how it turned out.  I think Peanut is going to love it and I can't wait to see her face on Christmas morning!

  

The one side of the briefcase with and without the cars

The other side of the briefcase with and without the tracks

Inside of the briefcase

This is a picture of the camel we rode at the zoo.  Her name is Angel.

This is our house.  The street sign has our street name on it and our house number is on the house.  I blurred this out for privacy reasons, but you can still see where they were.

This is Bun Bun and Mouse's houses.  Bun Bun is Peanut's favorite rabbit and mouse is her other rabbit.  (and Yes, she is fully aware mouse is a bunny. She'll tell you if you ask)  Since Bun Bun is pink and mouse is brown, I used that to distinguish the two houses.

Kroger and Target.  2 of our weekly stops

Costco is also an almost weekly stop.

A parking lot.  I used zig zag stitches to make the lines.

This is the lake we used to live near and we go to in the summer to swim.

And finally, school.  Noe's new favorite place to go!

The words and logos are all done using fusible printer paper.  My mom got me a piece from a yard sale sometime ago.  You just put it through the printer and then iron it onto your fabric.  I'm a little sad to not have more of it.  I looked for more but was having trouble locating some.  On the other hand, I had that for about a year before I came up with a use for it.  Hopefully I wont have another need for it!  

Few notes in case you want to make one too.  

• Almost everything is felt.  Yes, I am a felt junky.  I'm proud of it too!  
• The lines on the road is a piece of ribbon threaded in and out of the felt.  I just cut little slits and then sewn on the felt on either side of the yellow lines to keep it steady. 
•  The hard middle is actually the bottom of a drawer.  My friend had a dresser fall apart right when I was looking for something to put in the middle.  She offered me the bottom of a drawer made out of press board.  I cut it in half and then turned them so it was more wide and less long.  
• The loops on the outside are elastic.

I'm sorry I can't do a tutorial on this.  It was really a figure it out as you go kind of project. If you want to make your own and have questions feel free to ask!  Also, if you make your own please let me know!  I'd love to post pics on here!

"

Sick and tired

Hey everyone,

Sorry to report, but I am quite literally sick and tired.  Munchkin is getting molars in and so has not slept (originally typed as sleeped) through the night in over a week.  And to add to my fun, I've got some nasty coughing cold thing.  My voice is now a squeak.  

In other news, I've been busy making stuff for Halloween.  I've got both costumes done and I've been making a bunch of decorations.  Hopefully one of these days I'll get to taking pictures and finally get them posted.  Also, I've gotten requests to show a tutorial of the fur vest, and you all know what that means!  I get to make a second one!  I really want to make a bright green one for munchkin, but i'll probably end up making her a gray one like Peanuts since I already have all of those materials.

Ok, now that I've found the missing keys (in the kids' play car, of course!) I'm off to bed.  I can't wait until Papa B gets home from hockey and I can share the good news.  He's been freaking out over the missing keys for the past week since he was the last one to have them.

Fur Vest

One day last week I went to the consignment shops in search of a variety of things including shirts and shoes for the girls, and some dishes.  One thing I wasn't looking for was a piece of fur.  However, I found this great piece of gray fur for $1.50.  I was too good of a deal to pass up and all I could picture was a little gray vest for Peanut.

A couple days later I was trying to describe what it looked like to my friend and started a google search for a gray fur vest for children.  This is what I found.  And only $62!

So, the next time I went to Joann's I found some lining to use as a lining (I know I totally just blew your mind there) and also to make the ribbon out of.  The polka dots really spoke to me. They just seemed like they popped.  I spent a lot of time debating whether to make the ribbon out of the polka dots or the plain gray.

Of course looking at the picture now I notice that my vest is certainly shorter on the body than the other one.  Oh well.  I'm just happy I was able to draft a pattern and make the vest to fit Peanut really well.  I've just got to keep practicing and I'll get better at it.  Also, this vest cost me about $5 instead of $62.  That always makes me feel good.

Mouse Tail

Peanut was so excited about her mouse tail she had to put it on right away.  This is during breakfast.  She also makes sure to tuck her tail into the crack in the seat.  I can't wait to finish the rest of the costumes!

Jack O' Lantern Shirts

Here are the girls at a local orchard.  I made them matching Jack O' Lantern shirts using the same method as the Flower Cut Out Shirt.  I've gotten some great comments on them and the girls really like them.  I'll try to take pictures of just the shirts soon.  I love fall!

Shopping Bag Holder Tutorial

You'll need:

1/2 yard of fabric, 24" of elastic and 14" of ribbon

1) Cut your fabric to 18"x20".  The 20" will be the length of the holder and the 18" will be the circumference.

Fold your fabric in half lengthwise and sew a 1/2 in seam along the open long edge to make a long tube.

Next, Fold over your top and bottom edges twice about 1/4" to make the casing for the elastic.  Sew around them close to the inside edge of the fold leaving an opening about 1 1/2 inches wide to slip your elastic through.

Here you can see the top and the bottom hems sewn with the openings going over the seam.

Cut your elastic into 2 pieces, one that is 10" long and the other to 14" long.

Next,  put a safety pin through one end of the 10" elastic piece.  This will be bottom of the bag.  Thread it through one of the casings making sure to hold on to the free end.

Machine stitch them overlapping  to make sure they hold.

Sew the opening in the casing closed.

Repeat for the 14" elastic.  

Next, take the ribbon and cut it to 14" in length

Sew the ribbon to the top of the bag placing the ends on opposite sides.  Stitch once along the stitch line from the hem and then again close to the top for added durability.  Turn right side out and your done!

Here are the before and after pictures of underneath my cabinets in the kitchen.  I love when I can sew to solve a real problem in our lives.  Well, that makes it sound like we couldn't lead fulfilling lives with the bags under the counter like that.  It was just a nuisance, especially since Munchkin decided she likes to pull them out and toss them all over the house.