Fathers Day Silhouette Masterpiece!!

This year the boys were finally old enough to contribute to dad fathers day gift. I searched high and low for something special that they could do together. Finally where should I find my inspiration ....the fabulous women in my sewing group. Of course I would find it there! The Crafty Sewing Mamas never disappoint. One of the lovely ladies posted a sports themed canvas her little one had finger painted. It was adorable by the way. So off to Michaels I went and what should be on sale. CANVAS!! Yay! I got two 16 x 20 for 5 bucks and change, picked up some fingerpaints, and of course checked out the clearance section. Totally off topic but did you know they sometimes have good quality yarn on clearance for .99cents. Of course I got like 6 different yarns. Anywho, back to the project. So these were our supplies.....Canvas, painters tape, exacto knife, chalk pen, scotch tape, and the cut out images of their faces. My little E is so pudgy...you can totally see his double chin in his silhouette.

I taped the images onto the canvas with the scotch tap. Sorry no images. This took place when allot of my work does...the wee hours of the am. After tracing I started cutting and fitting the painters tape. If you do this make sure to run something flat over your finished taping to make sure it is down well and won't let the paint seep (you can tell on mine I missed a afew little spots).

I laid out an old comforter and let the boys at it. They had a blast!! K did most of the painting. E thought it was snack time and needed to taste each color. LOL Make sure you get the non toxic , washable paint!!!! Trust me on this one. When your painting is complete let it dry over night. I was itching to peel the tape off prematurely but that would have ruined the painting. It will be tough to beat the temptation but if you wait you will get cleaner lines and a better overall outline.

The next morning first thing K and I pulled all the tape off. Marvelous!! He was so proud of his work. We wrapped it up in some butchers paper and K happily presented it to Dad. You could see the happiness shining from his face.

Later that day I was looking for the painting to my surprise hubby had already found a spot for it. It now rest on the wall facing his side of the bed. Now every morning when he gets up they are the first thing he sees and the last thing he sees at the end of the night. They truly melt my heart!!

So in need of a quick cute gift that you can cherish for years to come....use your imagination. Your options are limitless! Feel free to share pics if anyone makes this.

(by the way spell check isn't working.....I am no english major so please excuse any mispelling or poor grammar)

Silhouette-itus....(free giveaway link)

Just found an awesome blog.....funkyjunkinteriors.blogspot. Her name is Donna and her blog has so many helpful tips and how to's. Her site is linked to the post title. She is doing an awesome Silhouette giveaway right now which crazy awesome. I have wanted one of these but being on a budget it isn't a necessity ;-( BOO! Anywho i went over to her blog to check it out and found some really helpful stuff. She has a whole section to making your blog more user friendly. I am half way through it and have done almost all of her suggestions. Great tool for the beginner blogger.  She has so much more I am going to check out later ....it is K's lunch time and if I don't feed him on time he turns into the plant from Little Shop of Horrors. Only he yells, " FEED ME MOM!!!"  So go check it out. Enter the great giveaway and take in all her awesomeness!!

Homemade POPTARTS!!!

So while surfing the web the other day I came across a wonderful blog called the Smitten Kitchen. She had a yummy recipe for homemade poptarts. Click my title and it will link you to her page. K loves poptarts but I hate buying the sugar filled (and god knows whatelse) ones from the store. So we went to town. Her recipe calls for homemade dough, however, I am a mommy of 2 boys under 2. I barely have time to open my eyes before someone needs something. So I cheated...oh the shame. Yeah right... if it helps me out I am a happy mommy. A happy mommy makes for a happy home...trust me. So i picked up prepared pie shells and organic preserves (working on canning). I had nutella on hand so that is what we used for the chocolate ones. So yummy! We also sprinkled cinnamon and a little sugar on top. Well that was K's job and he started out sprinkling and ended up butchering with the sprinkle jar. Crazy kid! If you have the time and love pop tarts try it out. Let the kiddos help out. They will love it. When I have some spare time I am going to make her pastry for the pop tarts so I can taste the proper recipe. We had blueberry, raspberry, and nutella. Here are some pics....

Can you tell which ones K sprinkled before mommy convinced him to let her try to sprinkle a few. Ha!

Left over dough was made into a heart poptart for my hunny.

Finally the finished product. So scrumptious. Truly,truly scrumptious, Scrumptious as a cherry peach parfait.  I heart Dick Van Dyke!  Love Chitty Chitty Bang Bang! Sorry my mind tends to wander every now and again. If you choose to use the prepared pie shell....I did roll mine just a tad thinner than they came. Believe it or not they are stiff just like the store bought ones. It is easy for little ones to devour them without poptart flopping all over the place. You can see I either added to much filling or didn't crease the raspberry ones enough. I had a little spillage. Sorry no pics of the blueberry ones but they didn't spill out at all. By then I had a fill for how much of the preserves to put in. I got 6 poptarts plus the heart one out of a top and bottom pie shell you get in the biscuit section at your local grocery store.

So if your little one loves these yummy treats try your hand at it. You would be surprised  at how much tastier they are. Enjoy!!

Mothers birthday/mothers day pillow!

So for my moms birthday and mothers day I wanted to give her something special that had to do with the boys. I took their little hand prints and copied them on paper. Let me tell you getting a good hand print from a 2 year old and 8 month old is like finding a watermelon in a pumpkin patch....
                                                  IMPOSSIBLE!
I think they both had ants in there pants. After struggling for about 20 minutes I finally got two workable hand prints. Shew...what  a workout. Using some plain white muslin I cut out the hand prints. Applique  by hand is not a strong suit for me as of yet so I machine appliqued the hand prints to look like a flower on an envelope pillow I had sewn for her. Zigzag stitched stem and added some leaves. Viola! I pretty little pillow for Nana! She loved it.

Crochet Rag Rug....Check!

So I finally finished the crochet rug for the boys bathroom. I will say it is no where near perfect but it serves it's purpose....dry feet in the bathroom! I did take pics along the way and wanted to share them. I had loads of help from Miasboys blog in my blog list and from the Happy Hooker book(great for the visual learner like myself). Off topic my dad was visiting and saw the book ...you should have seen his face when he read the title. I just casually said, "Well dad I needed a part time job." Ha! Anywho here goes. I started off with a pile of old, stained white t-shirts. I bought some fabric dye and went to town. (if you haven't ever used this stuff it has the most horrible smell)

 I washed all my shirts and let them air dry. I did run an extra hot cycle in my washing machine with some vinegar just to get rid of any hiding color. Noone wants blue and green undies or socks. LOL!

 ~Sorry I totally flaked here and for got to take pics of the cutting process. What I did was take off the sleeves and neckline. I then cut one side of the shirt to make it one big rectangle of fabric. I cut one inch strips. So sorry I forgot the pics but you can find a ton of video tuts on youtube. Just look up rag rugs.~

Finally after making my balls of "yarn" I started crocheting.  I watched tutorials, read a few blogs, and read my book to guide me with the stitching. It came together ok but I still need a lot of work. Here it started to look like a rug.

When I finished it there were a few wavy spots but nothing I am too worried about. I know it isn't a picture of perfection but I am pretty proud of my wonky little rug. My boys love it too. Mental note ....I think I will stick to flannel or cotton sheets next time. The knit fabric was too stretchy and made some of my stitching uneven. I am sure it didn't help that the shirts weren't all exactly the same. Oh well that is why they call it learning!

 Now I know what works and doesn't work for me. I see many more of these on my future and even had a lady at a garage sale tell me to look her up if I ever started selling them.(I was looking for thrifted sheets for my next rug) She was very nice and gave K a toy car free of charge so I am thinking of doing her a little crocheted hot pad. Anywho I hope all that are reading it enjoyed my adventures in rag rugging. Thanks to all that helped through, blogs, vlogs, and books!!!

Potty Training

This is really cute and I just wanted to blog about it. So with my oldest K we are starting to potty train. He is 2 by the way. He did really well when we first started out but when E was born it all went out the window. LOL! We are starting to see a little progress here and there but we really have to be proactive about it. We ask him often if he needs to use the restroom and randomly throughout the day we ask him where poo and pee go. He usually tells me the hiney. Ha! So yesterday K floats off to his room where he is really quiet. It dawns on me that he is hiding to poop in his diaper. I go in and can tell he has already gone in the diaper. So I ask, " K, did you need to go potty?" He says, "No mommy", with a little smile. I then said, "Well what's in your diaper?"  He looks at me with his most serious face and shushes me and puts one finger on my lips while going SSHHH. He the says, "No mom, shhh",  ever so calmly. LOL! I was about to burst at the seams with laughter but I held it together.  So I say," Well what is in your diaper then?" He looks at me and says in a most casual tone, "It's poop Mom".  It was so stinkin' cute. Literally! If you have any funny potty stories or advice feel free to comment.

1,2,3, Sew

Okay the family has been and gone for their visit. My mother loved her pillow with a flower of the boys hands(will post pics later). I have allot to blog about but I am have a few things to do so I will try to get a few more post in tonight after i load all my pics. In the mean time I ran across this awesome book. It is called 1,2,3, Sew  by Ellen Luckett Baker . The title of my post is linked to her blog so when clicked it will take you directly to it. You can enjoy her blog thelongthread.com. She has some awesome craft inspiration of all shapes and sizes. The book holds 33 simple sewing projects with patterns and instructions included. For anyone looking for a cute easy go to book for simple sewing projects this is the ticket. Go check it out. There is also a link on the right for amazon where there is a video  review of the book. Okay I will try to get on tonight and post a little more.

Finally some progress!!

Well no pics to show just yet but I have gotten back into the swing of things. Let me tell you having a baby with a toddler is exhausting. My youngest is now 7 months and a doesn't need quite as much from mommy anymore. I have a few spare moments during the day and most of the night after about 8:30. I finally finished my moms b-day gift but can't post until after she gets it just in case she sees my blog. She's sneaky like that. I also have things in the works for a crochet rug for my boys bathroom. I had some old white t-shirts waiting to be up cycled into something. Well that something is going to be a green and blue crochet rug.  I got a couple things of fabric dye and the shirts are drying as I type. Let me tell you that dye smells horrible!!! I am very pleased with the colors though. I got allot of helpful tips from Mia's boys blog on my blog list...here is her link... http://miaandtheboys.blogspot.com/search/label/handmade.
Her blog is awesome by the way. Every time I go to it just to check something on the rug instructions I find myself still there an hour later reading about her garden or her awesome little boys and there great ideas(camera set to record scotch taped to a remote control car). They are smart little cookies! I can't wait for my boys to get to that age! Any who she has some awesome videos about making the rugs if anyone is interested. I am taking pics as I go. When I get a little further along I will post some pics. Ok it is midnight so night all!