Easter Bags

The light is really terrible in these pictures so you can't get an idea of just how cute they are. Erin and I spent about 5 hours last week putting these together. It was really easy; we used this tutorial. Getting the ribbons on straight was a bit of a challenge, and you can see on the side seams which ones we rushed through because the ribbon ends don't match up. There's one for each child in the family, and for the young couples without children. Expect some Easter goodness in the mail soon!

Dress For Grace

This is the first piece of clothing that I have sewn completely from start to finish. It has lots of little problems here and there, and is too short for Grace to wear on its own, but it feels good to have made something all by myself (almost, with some coaching from Elaine)

Christmas Luminarias

Erin showed me how to make these. You fill an empty can with water and freeze it and then use a nail to hammer the holes through the metal and ice. Its really easy, though your fingers will get cold and the ice will start to chip out at the top so its best to do your holes at the top of the can first. They look really pretty with the lights out.

Christmas Wreath and Tree shirt

I skipped out on my Relief Society Christmas dinner so I could finish these two projects last night. The wreath I decided to do while at Erin's house last week and bought most of the supplies then. I used kidney beans and hot glued them to the wreath form. If I ever do one again, I'll try to find a bigger bean. It took me about 3 hours to glue them all on the wreath, but I had a book on cd to listen to so I was ok. The spray painting was quick and easy. I don't really like the bow... I wasn't thinking and bought glitter ribbon so now I have glitter everywhere, and I'd rather have something more full and bow-y, but I couldn't find what I wanted in the store and will have to do some research on how to make one. But it'll do for now.


I saw the idea for the ribbon tree shirt and this blog. I really couldn't find the kind of ribbon I had in mind for it at Joann's. They didn't seem to have a large selection of Christmas ribbon so I just had to make due with what I could find. I think I've seen Christmas ribbon at Michael's but I didn't want to make another trip out there. It was a really easy project. I ironed on interfacing on the back side of the front of the shirt and pined down the ribbons really well. I'm not very good at sewing on knit but it worked out well. I couldn't get Eva to sit still to get a good picture. I'm making another one for Grace so once that's done hopefully I can get the two girls together with their matching shirts!

**Update**

I found a tutorial for a quick bow online and used a twist tie to attach it to the front of the wreath hanger. I still don't love it, but it's much better. I think I need to trim the ends... maybe take out that back bow all together?

Halloween printables

I found these vintage Halloween pictures online. I printed them up on cardstock and cut them out, glued the circles back-to-back and hung them with black thread over the kitchen table. I like the look of them and the kids do to. It's all I can do to keep them from touching or blowing them. The tape doesn't stick so great to the ceiling so I've had to put a few of them back up a couple times.

Here's some closeups of the pictures. It was hard to get them in focus because they kept turning in the draft.

At the same website there was this bunting. I couldn't get a close picture but it says Happy Haunting. I used halloween theme scrapbooking paper for the back grounds and hot glued the flags to rickrack. Then I realized I had done the whole thing backwards so I had to cut the ribbon and re-glue it all together. It's not as drapey as I wanted because otherwise the flags get stuck in the cupboard doors when they close.

Halloween Table mat

I've had a book of crafts from Mary Englebright for years. I don't really like any of the projects in the book except for this one. I finally decided that this was the year to do it. It was fairly easy. I ended up I really big piece of yellow felt because the by-the-yard felt was twice as wide as normal but that ended up a good thing because I had a hard time squaring it up and went through almost all of it before I got a piece cut right. The stars were also hard and ended up bigger somehow then they were supposed to. There should be 5 stars in each square but my hand was starting to ache with all the cutting so I just left them as is. Also, Sam was quick to point out that real candy corn are orange with a yellow bottom but I was just following the pattern so not my fault.

Owl Ornament

I've had the pattern for this felt owl ornament sitting on my desk for months now. I finally decided just to do it already and move on to other things. This was mostly in the way of an experiment and I thought if it turned out well I could make one for Sally. Well, I just grabbed some felt and went at it. It was easy to cut out and sew together, though I was using an embroidery needle which was not a good idea because it was too blunt. The hardest thing was the blanket stitch around the edge. I've never done that before. I still need practice though I was improving as I went along. I don't plan on finishing this guy, but I do think he has potential with a better choice of color, thread, needle and embellishments.