Wild Thing

Try as I might I haven't been in much of a crafty mood. Yes there has been a little knitting, a little baking, and some repetitive sewing going on, but not much that I'm truly excited to post about (OK maybe one thing, but it's a secret and you can't see it until after Christmas). Why might you ask this is? I have two words for you; Wild Thing.

Yes, Wild Thing. In this photo sporting her clown face paint (we do face paints a lot around here) she may look sweet and innocent. You may say "really how much trouble can a 19 month old get into?" and I will have to say "A LOT". This wild streak in here (which I'm adamant she got from M's side of the family) is what I feel is draining me from my previously overachieving crafty glory.

Could it be her fascination with knifes? Her ability to break baby latches? Her love of climbing everything several times her height? Or maybe the way she manages to unlock 5 foot high gates? No, it certainly can not be any single one of these amazing feats my friends, it is surely all of them and oh so much more.

Pray for me my friends that I may gain the strength I need to deal with this.........Wild Thing!

In other less wild new, here's some felt fruit I made for a side swap on Mothering.
This is from a couple of online tutorials from here http://mrmonkeysuit.typepad.com/mr_monkeysuit/files/microsoft_word_strawberry_tutorial_word.pdf and http://melissagoodsell.typepad.com/day_to_day/tutorial---felt-food-eggssliced-orange/ (hey, if anyone knows how to make my links all short and pretty would you mind sending me a comment or an email :D.
Also L and I made some yummy peanut butter cups during Wild Thing (P)'s nap time. I had to sneak in the pretty rose M got me from my mothers garden today, a little piece of everyday romance. The recipe is from here http://havecakewilltravel.com/2008/08/29/pb-cups/ which I found on this great blog http://a-friend-to-knit-with.blogspot.com/2008/09/getting-sidetracked.html

Autumn Bunting

With the help of chocolate and my little sister A I was able to make yesterday evening actually enjoyable. A is 10 years old and loves coming over and earning a few bucks playing with my littles. She also really loves my cooking, which seems very new and exotic to her. So, while the girls' played I got to do some crafting. This is something that I have been really wanting to make, but keep putting off because I have so many other time sensitive projects that always seem more important. I'm so excited to show you guys my autumn bunting.

You can't see the fabrics very well, but there are five different autumnish fabrics, two of which were my moms and the others were remnants and I bought one fat quarter. I spent a total of $3.60, not counting the bias tape and fabric I already had.
The pictures aren't the best because I had to use my back up camera, which take horrible pictures. M and I are just dying to buy the $200+ Nikon we saw at Costco last week. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

So, I thought I would stop in with a recipe I made today. I apologize for the lack of visuals, but my camera broke today. I haven't been having a good day, it's feels like one thing after another, so of course I had to get into the kitchen and bake up something, something with chocolate. This muffin has a nice mild flavor not to sweet, not to bready, and the slight bitterness of the semi-sweet chocolate chips made it really yummy.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

2 cups unbleached flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
5 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 eggs
6 Tbsp Canola oil
1 Tablespoon milk
1 1/3 cups honey
2 tsp vanilla
3 over ripe bananas
1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees
Combine all dry ingredients (except the chocolate chips of course) in a medium bowl, stir and set aside. Combine all wet ingredients in another bowl (feel free to use your mixer if you have one). Add your dry ingredients to your wet ones. Once well combined add in your chocolate chips. Spoon into muffin tin (with or without liners) about half way full. Bake for 20 minutes. Makes about 3 dozen (maybe a few more).

These are actually pretty healthy and low fat too. I would love to hear about it if anyone tries these!

Lovin' it.

I have been one busy little crafter this past week, I've been doing a few things for a craft swap on Mothering (no mass producing, just trading individual items I promise), and making this beauty (the carrier, not the baby).

P is modeling a wrap carrier I made for a pregnant friend. I think this is one if the nicest things I've ever made, I'm so lovin' it.
The woven fabric is much nicer in person, I can't quite capture the colors on camera.
I also made this cute tote bag to go with it. I never liked the little tiny totes that come with carriers, you have to be a magician to get the thing back into it, totally impossible to do when you are on the go with a newborn. This tote is big enough to fit it even if it's just wadded up into a ball. It also has a huge pocket on the front, to stash keys, and maybe a couple of diapers and travel wipes. Perfect for quite trips into the store where you might need these things.
I know I have rambled on way to much about this, but I really do like it. I wish I would have had one this nice for my littles. P is to big now for a new carrier, I think the four I already have will have to suffice.

Cruddy

As happens to so many a cold has sprang up and put a hault to my crafty fun. I had plans to make 2 baby wrap carrier with coordinating bags, some burp rags and maybe get a little baking done, the yummy kind. Instead I'm sitting here blankly looking through blogs wishing I could go back to my nap.

I've been meaning to post this once it was received in the mail, but forgot. I sent this outfit out to my little niece last month. I was missing her pretty bad, so I just had to make her something sweet. She'll be 6 months this month.
I hope you are all having much more productive weekends then I!

More Christmas Presents

On Tuesday night I got inspired to start making another one of Ls Christmas presents. I made her a diaper bag and 2 matching diaper and bib sets. I drafted my own pattern for both, which I hope to share with you as soon as I get the time. I do apologize for the busy background, I had to sneak upstairs to photo these.


You can't tell, but there are very light classic Winnie The Pooh characters on this fabric.
The bag was a little harder, but only because I'm stubborn and really wanted to use this adorable stretch jersey fabric. Really not smart to pair it with denim, but what can I say, the cute factor out weighted practicality. Also, this picture was taken before I got the chance to iron out the handles.

Crafting In Small Spaces

In my blog reading travels I have come across many wonderful creators and artists. One of my favorite things is when they show off their glorious craft rooms. With Beautiful sewing tables, shelves of fabric all neat and color coordinated, ample work space, and above all expertly decorated. Now all these things are great and wonderful, but not all of us have entire rooms to dedicate to our art. A while back I started thinking about showing my spaces, but was a little frightened at the state they were in. So yesterday I set to work on my crafting closet, where I keep all things craft related. Seeing as we live in a 2 bedroom and have very limited space, so my "craft closet" is actually in ou Master bedroom where our clothing and shoes have to live too. Some people might be embarrassed to put their closets on the Internet, but me I don't mind. Anything that could possibly help make another crafty mama feel comfortable in her small space I'm all for.

M put a metal shelf in there for me to house all my fabric and other sewing notions. You can see how multi-purpose our bedroom is with Ms drum set to the side.
I usually try to buy only what I need for a project if at all possible. The only reason I have so much extra fabric and some extra yarn is b/c they were gifts. My mother is a compulsive shopper so I get whatever doesn't get used after several years. I have my knitting, paints and buttons on the top so that little hands can't get to them.
I have scrapbooking stuff on the bottom, felts and other scraps on the next row up. The boxes on the side are not in the best of shape those too were pass ons from my mom as well. They are filled with material to repurpose, jeans, shirts, old dresses and such.
Off to the side are my beading, stamping and other miscellaneous stuff in the box. I have candle making equipment and supplies and my dying bucket on top of that. Also there's my basket full of patterns and some jars for I'm not sure what.

Well, that's my small space, I didn't include a picture of the place where I actually sew, but soon I will. It's pretty much an old dining room table with the sides down in the corner of my living room. I can turn it sideways and put up one or both of the sides when I want to cut something out. I use it as both my desk and sewing table. I usually have my laptop, one speaker and my sewing machine on it.

M and I believe very much in simplicity. We try to make this belief a part of our everday life. I love the fact that we make it work in a 1000sq ft 2 bedroom home. I get a great sense of pride thinking about all the things I love in our small space and how our personality shows throughout. We have given up a lot of "stuff" that we or others thought that we needed in order to have room for the things we really love. I have room for my crafting, my hubbies drumming, our homeschooling books and a small backyard for my kids to play in. Now occassionly I do have my moments were I'm really wishing for a garage for Ms drumset or a larger yard so I can a have a veggie garden and some chickens. I just have to keep myself focused and remember what's really important to us, M getting his nursing degree and me staying home with the my children.

Our First Day of School

While it would be nice to say that our first day of homeschooling went perfectly, with bird singing and my children laughing and enjoying mine and each others company, sadly it would be a down right lie. In all honesty it was pretty rotten, although not as bad as last year when we tried out a co-op preschool and I spent 2 hours in a basement cutting out construction paper frogs. It started out innocent enough giving P some kitchen utensils to play with, and L sitting intently ready to gobble up every word I read. Then P started flipping out crying, climbing onto the table, distracting her sister and yeah we barely made it through. We only did about 20 minutes worth of actual stuff, but P made it nearly impossible. So after that I figured that we would do a craft afterwards, which I think I liked a lot more then the girls did. We made some crayon melts.

Crayon Melts:
Take old broken crayon and peel any remaining paper
Line muffin tin with baking cups (like the ones use for cupcakes)
Pile the cups full with different colored crayon pieces
Bake in a 200 degree oven until they melt
Take out and allow them to cool

After the homeschooling catastrophe I called my mom to complain (yep I'm a big whiner). She mentioned maybe giving P some play dough the next day. I said no way she just eats it, so she mentions making peanut butter play dough. WHAT???? Peanut butter play dough, I've never heard of such a thing (obviously I have since my mom made it for me as a kid, but I have no conscious recollection). So I got all excited and got up to make it right away, I didn't let the girls play with it so that it will fresh and exciting for tomorrow, although L did taste it.
Peanut Butter Play Dough
1 cup peanut butter (I used natural)
2 cups of powdered sugar
1/2 of honey

Mix together with your hands, until it looks like the picture above, you may use more powdered sugar to make it not as sticky. Store in an air tight container in the fridge.
Oh course I had to play with it a little just to make sure it worked!
Finally finished Ls birthday cape, why I decided to put some much work into a felt cape I have no idea, sometimes I need to think about these things before I just go flying off on my inspiration. I hand sewed the yellow decals all along both sides of the front.
This crown is hand sewn on the back right below Ls name which is also hand sewn on. It took forever, but I think she's really going to love it, and that make it totally worth it.