Last Week I...

What did I do last week? Well just this...

That's 34 of my one-sized cloth diapers.

That's over 20 yards of fabric

That's almost 20 yards of elastic

That's almost 1000 yards of thread.

PHEW...that was alot of work. Let me tell you, it took quite a bit of coke to get me through this project. Enjoy Baby Wolfie!

Monster Bash

My little guy's 1st birthday party was a monster theme. I thought this up when he was about 3 weeks old and I have been planning and picking stuff up ever since then. I found some killer monster deals after Halloween last year...


The Birthday Boy


Playing in the yard before the party. I made the overalls out of some fabric I picked up at Jo-Ann's.








Monster shoes




The Food


The snack buffet. We had Purple Monster Popcorn, Monster Mix, Cupcakes and Soda.








The smash cake




The Games


We played "Guess My Age"




And "Feed the Monster"




The monster ate cars, shoes, and dolls




The Favors
Goodie bags, fuzzy posters and taffy kabobs





The Decorations













I sewed this flag banner from felt and some of the same monster fabric as his overalls.





The Cake













Happy Birthday Little Monster.

Taffy Kabobs

My son's monster themed 1st birthday party was this past weekend. It was a blast, and more pictures are coming soon. Here is something I did for one of the favors. Taffy Kabobs.




I bought 3 lbs of taffy from the grocery store just after the 4th of July (they always sell it in bulk for cheap that time of year). Then I threaded them on bamboo skewers in a variety of patterns.

For my container I took the label off of a formula can and placed a green floral cube inside. (I was too lazy to recover the can so the ugly gluey part of the label is turned to the back) Then I attached some die cuts made with the cricut and some leftover Easter grass to cover the foam. Then I just stuck the kabobs in the foam. So cute, and very inexpensive.

Desk Transformation

My current craft/sewing table is a gem. It is a $20 card table from Wal-Mart (don't worry you got 4 chairs with it for that price as well. P.S. one of those is currently my craft chair; gotta see what can be done about that) Anyways... it has a big, ugly sheet of plywood underneath of it. Why does it have plywood underneath of it you say? Because the card table is so wobbly and my carpet is so squishy that unless I sew at the slowest speed possible my machine dances right off the table. The plywood only makes it possible to go one speed above a snails pace but I've been managing. Well after my cup full of pencils, rulers, scissors, etc danced itself off the table while I was sewing one day I'd had enough! I headed to the DI to find a good 'ol sturdy piece of furniture to transform into my new craft/sewing desk.

I am so pleased with this DI transformation. This started out as a banged up old desk. And a HEAVY desk at that. My sewing machine's dancing days are done! Although I picked it up at the DI for $20 it had come from a local university and had "PROPERTY OF WEBER STATE" printed huge on one side. Unfortunately I do not have a before picture. My sweet husband wanted to surprise me while I was out of town and he painted the desk for me while I was away. So sweet and much appreciated, but I am bummed I didn't get a before picture. But it looked very similar to this:

Fake wood Formica top, metal sides. The standard desk that I'm sure every teacher at your high school had. It had some deep scratches and dents where a chair had obviously ran into it over and over. He sanded the scratches out and pounded the dents as smooth as possible and then gave it a new coat of black spray paint. (Thanks hon!)

Then I went to work on the top.

I bought a variety of black and white printed scrap book papers and Mod Podged them to the top of the desk. After 2 coats of Mod Podge I started applying a satin polyurethane. 3 coats of that (sanding between each coat of course) and TA-DA!

I am very much in love with it. I would like to hang a big peg board above that desk to store all sorts of crafty things, but in the meantime the drawers will work great.

Total cost?

$20- Table

$4- Spraypaint

$5- Scrapbook Paper

$4- Mod Podge

$2.50- Polyurathane

$35.50 for a new, no dancing table! Whoot Whoot!

So long card table! You WON'T be missed!

Repurposed Entertainment Center

I CANNOT stop staring at this repurposed entertainment center. My jaw is literally on the floor right now. AMAZING. Sutton Grace is responsible for this masterpiece. Here are her instructions of how to make this yourself.

Cute Blog, Cute Purse

I am in LOVE with this purse from SmallFry & Co. What a great Blog. I am thinking of making this purse on a larger scale for myself. How fun!

Facelift

I'm out of town visiting family so no new crafty posts till next weekend. I have however been working on a new look for my blog. Go ahead and check it out and grab a button in the side bar. Have a great week everyone!

Felt Corn Stalks

As promised, here is a very crude tutorial. I started taking pictures at the beginning of the project, but I must have forgot I was going to do a tut, or I was way to tired (probably a little of both) So I'll apologize for only half the tutorial having pictures.

Supplies (for one stalk):
-3/4-1" wooden dowel
-green flannel- 1/4 yd
-dark green felt- 1/4 yd
-medium green felt- 1/4 yd or 3 precut squares
-golden yellow felt- 1/4 yd or 3 precut squares
-cream felt- 1 precut square or scrap
-velcro
-16 gage wire
-green thread
-orange thread

Steps for Stalks:

1. Cut your wooden dowel to 24" long.

2. Cut a piece of green flannel 2.5" x 26". I was making 2 stalks so 2 strips of flannel are pictured, but you only need one.


3. Create a pattern for your leaves. I traced an actual leaf from a corn stalk in my garden but you could just eyeball it to a similar shape. Cut 12 leafs out of dark green flannel for each stalk.


These next steps do not have pictures. Sorry :(

4. Sew 2 leafs together with a 1/8" seam allowance.

5. Sew 2 parallel lines 1/4" apart centered lengthwise down your leaf. Insert a piece of wire into the casing you just made. The wire does not need to be the same length as the leaves. My wire was about 12" long. After your wire has been inserted make a small stitch at the bottom of the casing to keep the wire from escaping. Repeat to make 6 leaves.

6.Making the tassels: Cut your cream felt with pinking sheers into 1" by 6" pieces. Attach the tassels to your green flannel using this (step 7) method.

7. Randomly sew your leave onto the green flannel leaving 1/2" seam allowance on your flannel. I did 2 rows of zigzag to attach my leaves. One row at the bottom of the leaf and the other row at the bottom of the wire. Stitch across the entire width of the leaf.

8. Sew 3- 1" squares of hook velcro to the flannel above three of the leafs. This velcro will hold the cobs.

9. Using a ladder stitch, hand sew (sorry) the flannel around the dowel.

10. Optional: After finishing I was having a hard time getting my stalks to balance in the dirt. I cut a 3" x 3" piece of wood and nailed it to the bottom of the stalks. This helps balance the stalks.

Cobs You will need 3 cobs for each stalk:

1. Create a pattern for your corn. I just eyeballed a skinny-eyeball-sort-of shape. Fold your precut square of felt into four sections. Trace and cut out your pattern. You will need 3-4 pieces for each cob.


2. Using the same pattern cut 3-4 pieces from golden felt. (I used 4 for this tutorial but when I finished the cob was a little to fat. My other cobs used only 3 pieces)



3. Sew parallel lines 1" apart using orange thread.

4. Following the curve of the felt sew 2 line 3/4-1" in. Sew a straight line down the middle.

5. Using a 1/8" seam allowance sew all 3-4 pieces together. Leave an opening for turning.

6. Turn and stuff. Hand stitch the opening closed.

Husks: Sorry no pics :(

1. Sew a 1" square of loop velcro to 3 of the husk pieces.

2. Using the same number of pieces as you did for the cobs sew with right sides together using a 1/8" seam allowance. Only sew half way up the husk pieces.

3. Turn and stuff corn inside the husk.

4. Attach husk by velcro to the stalk.

I hope this half-picture tutorial makes sense. Leave any question in the comments and I'll be happy to answer them.

Happy Harvest!

I'm participating in...

Who Knew?

Did you know you can make your own chalk board paint? So long Rust-Oleum and your $15 price tag! Find the recipe here.

Would Have Baby Shower

I WOULD HAVE thrown a great baby shower.

My mother-in-law and I had been planning a baby shower for her niece (my husband's cousin) for quite some time now. We were doing a clothesline theme, and it WOULD HAVE been great. At 8:30 a.m. just as I am finishing up my tortellini salad and getting ready to hop in the shower and get ready for the guests to arrive at 11:00 a.m. I got a phone call from my mother-in-law. Her sister, the mother-to-be's mom, had called her announcing that her daughter had been in the hospital all night and part of the previous evening due to pneumonia, which had then started contractions. The mother-to-be's mom had went ahead and called all the guests and canceled the shower.

So after crying to my husband and then sulking around the house thinking about all the hard work my mother-in-law and I had done for nothing, I decided I'd go ahead and post what I WOULD HAVE done at the shower. (If only to make myself feel better)



This is what the guests WOULD HAVE seen as they walked in the front door. And where the gifts WOULD HAVE gone. My wonderful husband made those clothesline poles for me which will later double as balloon trees for future parties.



The plates and utensils the guests WOULD HAVE used. I wrapped the napkins around the utensils and then secured them with a strip of paper like in the restaurants.



The cupcake stand I WOULD HAVE put the cupcakes on.



The cupcakes I WOULD HAVE served. I WOULD HAVE topped them with a miniature clothesline made from bamboo skewers, string, mini clothespins and die cut onesies. Don't worry, my husband's birthday is tomorrow. He will be having clothesline cupcakes (lucky him). Check back for pictures of the cupcakes completed.

The banner the guest WOULD HAVE seen hanging over the buffet.

A close up of the banner. Letters cut from the cricut were hung from a ribbon with clothespins.

I WOULD HAVE finished cleaning up my living room and put the toys my son got out away.

The diaper cake I WOULD HAVE given to the mom-to-be. (Actually I guess I'm still giving it to her)

The table where the children and/or guest WOULD HAVE sat to eat.

We WOULD HAVE served:

-pulled pork sandwiches

-tortellini salad

-avocado dip and chips

-fruit salad

-clothesline cupcakes

-white chocolate mouse in mini chocolate cups

-mini blueberry cheesecakes

We WOULD HAVE given bars of soap wrapped in a diaper with a diaper pin as favors (my mother-in-law was bringing those with her so I didn't have them to photograph)

It WOULD HAVE been really fun!

P.S. Anyone interested in coming over this weekend for pulled pork sandwiches and salads?