Crayon Keeper

Finally!!  A new pattern to share with you.  This one works up really quick (one tester finished the entire project in less than half an hour!) and is a great project for scrap yarn.  The instructions have LOTS of pictures so that even a novice crocheter should be able to complete this as long as they have a basic understanding of the different crochet stitches.  So without further ado....here is the Crayon Keeper!

download now

You can download the pattern for free by clicking here or the button above.  Let me know what you think of it.  This pattern has been tested, but if you find any problems with it please let me know!


Until next time,

It's beginning to feel a lot like...

a birthday!  Today is H's 11th birthday!  I would do one of those photo montage things with pictures of her as a baby and through the years until now but to be honest, I am just not feeling it as I type this.  My little princess requested egg rolls and chicken alfredo for dinner and I also decided to get kind of fancy with her cake so I have been in the kitchen for quite a while.  That is with a sick 2 year old and a morning at church.  Not to mention that I was trying to hide the fancy addition to her cake from her.  (Look for pictures tomorrow because I am so not hooking up the camera to the computer right now!)  So right now I am tired, praying that Princess A will sleep through the night so that we can all rest before having to get up early to prepare for school after 9 days off. 

I did, however, remember to also put together a little something for todays musing and scripture card.  Starting to feel a little Christmas-y with the tree up already and even some wrapped presents underneath.  I hope you are feeling it too.  With only 26 days until Christmas you are either feeling Christmas-y or you are realizing you are running out of shopping days!  Slow down and take a deep breath.  Remember that Christmas isn't about the gifts but about celebrating The Gift. 

If you click the above picture it will open in a new window.  Click on the picture again to make it bigger then you can right click and save it. This prints as an 8 by 10 but feel free to resize it to whatever you need. 

I also wanted to share a video with you that was shared with me by a good friend at church.  Even if it isn't your style of music (to be honest it isn't really mine either) listen to the words because the message is a good one!



Until next time,

Happy Turkey Day!

Hope you are having a wonderful day!

Until next time,

Day 10 - Ten Days of Turkey

On our final day of Ten Days of Turkey I decided to play homage to the pumpkin

Such a wonderful vegetable!  It can be our Halloween trick or our yummy treat.  I LOVE pumpkins.  For me they are the symbol of Fall.  We like to make our own pumpkin rather than used canned.  It really does taste better!  Especially if you grow it yourself.  We grew mini decorative pumpkins this year and no big guys so I don't have any pics to share :(  To make your own pumpkin puree, cut the pumkin in half, remove the seeds and butter the inside of the pumpkin.  Place on a baking sheet and roast at 350 degrees until the flesh is soft, about 30-45 minutes.  Allow to cool.  Scrape the flesh from the rind and place in a blender.  Give it a whirl.  This makes LOTS of pumpkin puree so either be prepared to do some serious cooking or have some freezer bags ready.  I like to measure out 1 1/2 cup servings and freeze.
So on to today's recipes.  First up,
pumpkin pancakes

2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 egg
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons vinegar

Mix all wet ingredients together in a bowl. Sift dry ingredients into the bowl and stir together.  Allow to sit for a few minutes for extra light pancakes.  Heat a griddle to 300 degrees or a frying pan over medium high heat.  Lightly butter pan.  Pour batter by the 1/4 cupful onto pan.  Gently spread batter into a circle.  Brown on both sides. 

Pumpkin Carrot Muffins
These are REALLY yummy and my son who hates both pumpkin and carrots loves these muffins!

1 1/2 cup pumpkin

1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup oil
3 egg, beaten
1 1/2 cup grated carrots
2 1/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1  1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tablespoon baking powder


Beat together pumpkin, brown sugar, oil and egg. Add in carrots. In a separate bowl, blend together flour, salt, soda, baking powder and cinnamon. Add to the pumpkin mixture. Fill muffin tins about 2/3 full. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-14 minutes. Makes 18 muffins.


Until next time,

Day 9 - Ten Days of Turkey

With the big day drawing near, today I want to focus on decorations.  To be honest I found so many that I wanted to make that I will be making decorations until Turkey day 2011!  I wish I had found some of these earlier so that I would have time to make them for this year.  Like this one over at UCreate that was created by guest blogger Tammy from She Wears Flowers (gee that is a long list to get to the goodies!)

You can get the step by step directions and the pattern pieces here.  I love these and can't wait to make some for next year!

and then there are these adorable fall felt pot holders, although I would use them as trivets or make smaller versions to use as coasters even!

These are the brain child of Brett Bara over at Design Sponge and you can find the pattern and instructions here.  Looking at them again you could even enlarge the pattern and use these as placemats!

That brings me to this adorable couple:

I picture these cuties being used as placecards.  I made some similiar to use as table decorations for our fall church dinner.  I set one couple on each table.  You can find instructions to make both over at Child Made by clicking here. 
Then there is this turkey that I can picture in the middle of the kids table with rolls in it

Believe it or not this is crafted from a paper bag and construction paper!  You can get really basic instructions at Woman's Day by clicking here.  And in that train of thought I found this vintage inspired dinner roll holder that if you did in fall colors would look nice on the grown up table.

Virginia over at Gingercake created a pattern for this after finding a vintage one at an antique store.  Fortunately she decided to share her pattern as a free download that you can grab by visiting her post here.
Hope you found some decorating inspiration!  Would love for you to share any other ideas you come across so I can add them to my wish list!

Until next time,

Day 8 - Ten Days of Turkey

Thanksgiving week is here!  At my house that means a week of not having to pack lunches, get up early, trek the kids to school or pick them up.  We get to hang out together, play together, watch movies together and just enjoy each other.  Hubby gets a 4 day weekend also.  Thanksgiving week also means that H's birthday is near (the 29th) so we have to start planning for that also. 

Today, I have no scripture card for you.  Before your face falls, let me explain.  I have been seeing a lot of definition pictures floating around on the web.  Like this one over at Sayitonthewall.com

or word art picture like this one over at Craftily Ever After

or this one also at Craftily Ever After

So in keeping with our Thanksgiving theme I created something similiar.  Here is my version of this art.  Of course I had to include scripture on it!

You are free to save this and use it, if you chose to share it please include a link back!  I would greatly appreciate it.  To save it click the picture to open a new screen then click it again to make it larger.  Then right click and save it.

I pray that you have a wonderfully blessed week and that your family remembers to give thanks to the One who makes everything possible!

Until next time,

Day 7 - Ten Days of Turkey

Happy Sunday everyone.  I pray that you took some time today and spent it worshipping God.  Princess A LOVES going to church.  Not because of the preschool program because we attend a small church (average attendance is 50 people including kids!) and we only have one class for K-6 during the service so she is sitting with us.  She loves the songs and the prayer time.  Sunday and Wednesday when we tell her it is church day she starts singing "Let's go bye-bye, let's go bye-bye". 

Since this is the last Sunday before Thanksgiving, and since most of us with little girls like to dress them up for church (although ours is very casual and blue jeans can be spotted on any given Sunday in the congregation) I thought I would share a few cute ideas with you. 

These cuties are based upon directions from Vanessa over at Silly Eagle Books.  You can find her instructions by clicking here .  Mine are a bit modified.  Didn't have any ribbon but I did have some leftover fabric from my tabletop turkey decorations in this post that I thought would be cute but fabric tends to unravel and won't stand up to heavy usage without seaming it and that just wasn't on my agenda for the day.  Then I remembered having some liquid polymer clay.  So I cut some fabric, covered it in liquid polymer clay and baked according to the instructions.  When it was cool I cut it into strips.  The material is now ravel proof and feels kind of like thin pleather.  And just to give you an idea about how craft projects go in my house, I didn't have craft foam for the beak or wattle.  I did, however, have a package of Dollar Tree foam alphabet letters.  I sacrificed a few to create the beak and wattle.  Tried to do little feet also, but just couldn't do it with what I had.  They either ended up to small or to narrow.  Oh well, I think they turned out cute.  The big one is on an ouchless ponytail band for H and the little one is glued to a metal barrette for Princess A.  She has worn this once.  After we took it out she played with it and removed both eyes.  I glued them back on and the next day she brought me the eyes and the sightless bird and said, "I bwoke it again mommy".  Oh well, maybe I should listen to Daddy and just draw the eyes on!

This cutie is from Patty over at Life on the Ridge Side and you can find instructions for him here.  I didn't have the neat-o covered button thingy to make the head so I made one using a smaller yo-yo.  Gotta love the projects that let you use scraps to create beauty.  Of course if you don't have leftover turkey colored fabric pieces you can always raid your t-shirt drawer, or your hubby's dress shirts, or the clothes your kids have outgrown.

I loved this little cutie also.  You know, I may have to break down and buy some ribbon.  Nancy over at Nancy's Couture has shared her step by step instructions for creating this lovely with lots of pictures!  You can view it here. 

And while this may not work for church attire for some of you, it was to cute to not share.  This is another Nancy's Couture creation.  If you want to check it out click here.  And it isn't even a super frilly, girly shirt so it can even be worn by the little man in your life.  (My little man isn't so little anymore and won't let me put him in shirts like this!)

Jedda over at This Little Project created this version that I think would be adorable on an infant onsie.  You can get her instructions by clicking here.

I feel kind of bad not having any ideas for little boys attire.  Short of dressing like a pilgrim or an indian I don't have a clue?  Do you know of any cute boys wearable crafts out there?  I would love for you to share them with us!
 
Until next time,

Day 6 - Ten Days of Turkey

It's Saturday.  For me and my family that means a break from schedules and time to relax and enjoy each other and whatever the day throws at us.  For me it means I get to work on some projects and daddy can handle anything Princess A throws at us.  I tend to get alot done on my projects during the weekends! 

So today I decided to throw a bunch of knit and crochet projects at you to look at.  I hope they inspire you to pick up your hook or needles and get started on one.  I found LOTS that I want to try my hand at.  Especially since I have recently discovered that knitting isn't the terrible thing I had told myself it was when I was younger.
First the crochet projects:

This little guy is just adorable.  He can be found over at the BitterSweet blog or by clicking here

and I just couldn't pass this project up.  What a cute little guy on his candy corn wreath!  The pattern for this can be found at Donna's Crochet Design and by clicking here

and our final crochet example is indian corn.  I can just picture these hanging on a front door.  You can grab the pattern from Alicia Kachmar here

Which brings us to our knit projects and I have to start with my favorite, although I feel sorry for whoever has their picture taken wearing this when young.  I just know it will end up in a graduation slide show in years to come!

Seriously, this is just too cute!  It is called the Jive Turkey Baby Hat and can be found at Going Craft by clicking here

And this hat couldn't be passed up either!  You can get the pattern here

I can so see Princess A with one of these!  You can find this pattern over at Knitted Bliss by clicking here

I hope you found some inspiration.  Oh, and if anyone wants to knit up one of those little finger puppets for me I promise to love you forever for it!! LOL ; )

Until next time,

>

Day 5 - Ten Days of Turkey

I can't believe we are at the halfway point!  I hope you are getting inspired.  Todays project is an inspiration project.  I have seen cute block sayings all over the internet and in the stores and just knew I could make my own set.  This one came in at under $6 with LOTS of paint and about 1/2 the wood left over to make another project.  Here is what we are making:

and to make this you will need:
1 piece of 1 by 3 wood.  Now you can be all fancy and buy the expensive stuff, but I just bought a cheapy 1 by 3 firring strip.  This isn't top quality wood so be sure to look it over in the store and get the straightest, most knot free piece you can find.  It runs about $1.66 at our local store
acrylic paints.  I used some Glidden interior paint in linen for my base coat because I got a pint of it for free from Glidden and free is great!  For the actual colors I used a magenta, antique gold, hunter green and some brown mixed with black for my lettering. 
You will need a saw to cut the blocks.  I used my hubbies "chop saw" for the very first time ever for this project.  I have to admit that I kind of felt silly after I read the manual and then examined the thing for two days trying to figure out how to get the saw to release before I finally found the little release bolt!  No instructions were given in the manual for this!  If you don't have a chop saw any old saw will work, even a hand saw.
Sandpaper, I used 100 grit because that is what I had.
and of course paint brushes.

First measure your blocks and mark your wood.  Notice also that your wood is NOT 3 inches wide.  I really don't know why they advertise it as 3 inches because it NEVER is!  Not that it really matters in this case, just rambling here.  Okay, here is what you need to mark.  Starting at one end of the strip mark a line at 5 inches, at 10 inches, 14 inches, 18 inches, 22 inches, 26 inches, 30 inches, 34 inches, 38 inches, and 42 inches.  You will cut on each line and should end up with 10 blocks, 8 that are about 4 inches tall and two that are about 5 inches tall. 

Next begin sanding all the sides and especially the corners and the short ends.  You don't need to be perfect here but I wanted rounded corners so I had to do some work.  After sanding be sure to wipe each piece down to remove any sawdust or debris.

apply a base coat of paint to each block.  This will help keep your final color bright and should lessen the number of coats of paint you need to apply.  Although I think that my magenta color is either very old or has very little pigment to it because I didn't think I was ever going to get an even color!  Allow the base coat to dry.

Pick a pattern to your colors.  The two big blocks are going to be your "G" and "T" so you want to paint in a pattern that allows for that.  Or not, I am just a pattern kind of gal and wanted my colors to alternate.  Paint all sides of  each block.  You may need to apply several coats.  Allow the blocks to dry.

and the final step is to do your lettering.  You can freehand it, like I chose to do, or you can print out your letters and carefully cut each one out and ModgePodge them on, or you can use vinyl lettering etc.  If you paint your letters be sure to go slow and you may even want to thin your paint some so that it flows smoothly.  Allow to dry.

At this point you need to decide what you are doing with them.  I haven't decided yet.  You can leave them as is and have them sit on a shelf.  You can cut two pieces of your remaining wood, paint it and then use it as a stand.  Simply mark the letter placement, drill pilot holes from the bottome of the stand and then use screws from the bottom to attach the letters.  If that isn't your style you can screw cup hooks into the top of each block and hang from a fall leaf garland.  Your choices are endless!  I would love to see what you decide to do with yours!  You can add your pic to the Flickr Group 

Ohhh, and yes, in that final picture that is a rabbit ear that you see.  What with Netflix and free local digital signal, who needs cable!  Of course my kids are probably among the few in this country that associate rabbit ears with TV!

Until next time,

Day 4 - Ten Days of Turkey

I have my first ever guest blogger!!  (I know you can't see me but I am jumping for joy...come to think of it, it is probably a good thing you can't see me! LOL)  I would like to welcome Amber from Red Mommy Crafts.  This woman does some amazing things in her little neck of the woods.  She creates some really great recipes and some fun projects.  I am so thankful that she shares them with all of us.  Can't wait to see what she comes up with for Day 4 of our Ten Days of Turkey!  So without further ado.....heeeerrrreee's Amber!

Hi everyone! I just want to let you all know how exciting this is for Ginny to allow me to share one of my Thanksgiving crafts! I have all thought about what I am going to post all week. I went back and forth with myself on whether I should do a craft or a recipe. As you can see, I decided to go with a craft.

I am a SAHM with two girls, Jaiden 6 and Arya 3, so we are always looking for projects we can do together. This turkey craft is a fun and easy project you can do with your kids. We had so much fun making our turkeys last year that the girls want to make them again!

To make each turkey you will need:
Paddle ball paddle
Brown craft paint
2 wiggle eyes
scrap of red craft foam
scrap of orange craft foam
feathers
glue

1. Remove ball from paddle
2. Paint paddle with 2 or 3 coats of brown paint
3. Cut a triangle out of orange foam for beak
4. Cut a squiggle out of the red foam for a waddle
5. Glue eyes, beak, and waddle to the front of the paddle
6. Glue a feather to the top back of the paddle
7. Glue 3 feathers to the back of the paddle on each side

That’s it! It really is that easy!! Just be sure to have fun while you are doing this with your kids!

Thanks again to Ginny for allowing me to share one of our family crafts!!

Amber

Didn't I tell you she came up with some really cute crafts.  And to think I was just at the Dollar Tree and passed up the paddle balls.  Looks like Princess A and I are heading back in the morning!

Until next time,

Day 3 - Ten Days of Turkey

This being Wednesday, it's time to share a recipe.  Only this one isn't so much a recipe as it is a concept.  If you are a follower, you remember reading about me purchasing some leaf cookie cutters in this post.  They were actually sought and bought for this project. 

I wanted to have some fall cookies for the kids. I had visions of beautifully decorated sugar cookies nestled into my children's lunch sacks.  Me in an apron with many bowls of tinted decoraters icing delicately decorating these cookies.  Then reality hit.  I don't own an apron, and I am so NOT a patient person.  So instead I came up with these:

I think they turned out very "Fall-y"  although I came to another realization while rolling and cutting out the cookies.  I don't particularly like rolling and cutting cookies!  That lead to the creation of these:

which may not look as appealing, but in my opinion these were the better of the two.  So this weeks Wecipe Wednesday is a 2fer.

You will need your favorite sugar cookie recipe.  Here is mine

Prepare your recipe.  For the leaves roll out the dough to about 1/4 of an inch and using a large cutter, cut out your leaf shapes.  Bake according to the recipe directions and allow to cool.
With the remaining dough, form round balls using about a tablespoon of dough each by rolling it in the palms of your hands.  Use your thumb to create an indent in the top of each ball.  Here comes the twist.  Open a can of cranberry sauce (regular or whole berry, your choice)  spoon about 1/4 teaspoon of sauce out and place it in the indent of each cookie.  Flatten the sauce out slightly.  Bake using the same time and temperature as for the cutout cookies.  When they come out of the oven you may need to press the jelly down again. 
Back to the leaves.  Put about 2 tablespoons of corn syrup in a small bowl.  (one bowl per color you want to use)  add about 1/2 teaspoon water and a few drops of food coloring.  Mix.  Using a clean, never used for paint paintbrush apply the lightest color first.  You don't need to be neat, just brush it on and cover the cookie.  I will say that you don't want to soak the cookie, but you don't need to be neat with this either.  Once you have painted all the cookies, go back and add another color.  I found it best to add the second color to the outside edges of the leaves and then kind of drag the color towards the middle of the cookie.  But feel free to experiment.  When done painting allow cookies to sit and for the color to soak in.  The syrup will leave the cookies with a glossy shine and depending on how much syrup you applied they may be tacky.  To add veins I used a food safe marker but you can also use straight food coloring and a toothpick.
Our favorite of the two is the cranberry cookies.  They are sweet with a tang to them.  But H claims that her classmates liked the looks of the leaves better.  Would love to see your leaves!

www.flickr.com See more in the Sunflowers At Home pool tagged with leaf

Until next time,

Day 2 - Ten days of Turkey

Welcome to day 2 of the Ten Days of Turkey.  So glad you made it back.  Today I am featuring a craft project from the lovely ladies over at Paint it SEW Thrifty.  They have created so many fun projects for just about every season and definitely every budget and ability level!  I tend to lose time when I visit their blog.  I start browsing and the next thing I know H is home and it is time to wake up Princess A to go pick up J from school and I am still in my pj's and slippers!

Today I wanted to especially draw your attention to their Thanksgiving Friends blocks pictured below.

Aren't they just adorable!  And I bet if you are a crafter you have a lot of the things you need to make this in your craft room already!  Amanda and Lorraine list the cost to create this as being around $2 and takes less than 2 hours to create.  Can't you just picture them sitting on a shelf in your house?  And this is one the kids can help you make too!  What are you waiting for?  Get going!

Until next time,