Friday, January 27, 2012

Goodies!!

Today, I AM EXCITED! I'm going to warn you that this post is going to have a bunch of pictures :) Earlier in the month the wonderful Stephanie had a giveaway on her fantastic blog, Spontaneous Threads. If you haven't been there go check it out! I ended up winning the giveaway. First of all, I have to say I had no idea how big a "large" flat rate box is! Here are all the wonderful goodies that she managed to pack in the box.

Some fun flannels, I really like the purple with the elephants! And a funky cotton on the bottom of the bigger pile.


Next up are some smaller cuts! I totally love the little hedgehogs in the back on the left. All of these are great fabrics!
Now we have the notion type stuff. There are some ribbons, some clear thread (which I don't have), floss,  rick rack, a tassel, a little bag of fabric flowers, a heart shaped paper punch, some wavy trim (don't know what it's really called), a little note pad with fabric at the top, an eye mask (made by Stephanie), a heart shaped keyfob, and a fabric bracelet. Did you catch all that?
There's still more!
Two bigger cuts of fabric and some felt hearts! I kind of love things cut out of felt. I'm totally going to use these for Valentine's day!
Here we have some papery stuff. Three different kinds of envelopes, which I will totally use because I generally make all of my own cards, a little memory book, some tiny cards with envelopes, 2 packs of pre-cut shapes, and an iron on daisy!
Yes, there IS more! This is a huge cut of some fun frog flannel. I think its about 2 yards. I have plans for this little gem!
Last but not least we have three skeins of yarn. I'm pretty sure the are all wool, only one has a label, I don't know if they are all the same or not but they all look similar.
I serioulsy didn't think there would be so much stuff in the box. I was completely surprised when I openend it up and then started taking things out. I think she is going to have another giveaway in Feb. so I would advise you to keep an eye out for it and then enter it when she puts it up.
The next goodie I received was my book that I won over on Sew Mama Sew.  I won this book in November so I had to wait a long time for it, and then they had some issues with publishers sending out the books, so I just continued to wait.

A sewing book. I don't have a ton of books about things, and I have none about sewing so now I have one! This was a great week! I didn't make anything, unless you count the sheets and outlines I made for work.. But it was a great week anyways! I hope you all had a great week too and have a great weekend! Hopefully I'll have something crafty to post next week!

Monday, January 23, 2012

Play time!

My nephew was here over the weekend. He's 5 and he loves Legos. He has a bunch at his house, but I really liked (still do) Legos when I was younger. I have a castle, complete with guards, archers and a jail. I also have an outpost, it's supposed to look like rocks (I think) it has a secret entrance and the front flips open to reveal the inside. I also have a ton of minifigures! We spent some time this weekend looking for the proper faces for the pirates. My nephew was only here for about 4 hours but he spend the whole time playing with the sets. After he left my Mom asked me "how long so you think he could spend playing with Legos?" and i was like "all day". In fact, I have seen that happen. When I watched him over Christmas and we built and then played with Legos all day, two days in a row. He's such a great kid, so I'm not complaining!
Some of these are my boyfriend's, the police, spacemen and race car drivers. Today I decided I'd take some pics. So I built some "steps" for the guys to stand on. I had to make 2 sets and I left out a lot of guys!

My favorites are the skeletons. I went all the way to Mall of America (which is only like 30 minute drive) to the Lego store to get them.

I also like the horses. The two in the middle have special "clothes" because they are the ones that go with the castle. I didn't take any pictures of the castle and the outpost because my picture set up is really small and so it just wouldn't work.
As for crafty things I didn't do dittly squat. I take that back! A few years ago I made a grocery style re-useable bag, she gets compliments on it ALL the time. So I decided that I needed to make some business cards. I just used a free template from the Avery website, it's nothing fancy. And yep it's a picture of my computer screen because I hadn't a clue on how to show it any other way. I did one and then sent it to my sister and then she changed it..so which one do you guys like??

Number 1


Number 2

Leave me a comment with which one you like, advice, tips or anything else you think might be helpful! I've also been thinking about opening an Etsy store. I'm really torn about it though because I feel like no one would buy anything I make so it would be a big waste, but I might feel better about it later in February because that is when my tutoring assignment ends (maybe??).
The only thing I have in the works is one in my head for a knitted ear warmer. We will see where that goes, since I might not have any time to do much until Weds. So happy Monday to you all!!

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Who says you can't teach an old sock a new trick!

I love rice bags. They are so great. Sometimes it's the only thing that will make my headaches go away! I've been wanting to make a new one because the one I have is kinda weird. It's got sections and it doesn't conform to my neck, which is where I usually put it.  Last night I decided I had to make one. I remembered that Lil Blue Boo had a little tutorial about rice bags made with socks. I had just the pair of socks waiting to be made into something! Now let me just say that I bought these socks when I still worked at Target, I quit in 2004, they have been in my closet since then.. What's that 8 years? Yikes! And yes, they are Halloween socks!
I didn't use the tute over at LBB I just winged it on my own but really you can't screw it up to bad!

I sewed up the heal by just pinching it and sewing it ankle side to toe side. And sewed up the toe and added some twill tape for the handles. I didn't take any pics of the sock before I hacked it apart (it looked like you would expect a sock to look) but I'm planning on making another one, since now I have a lone sock. It's not super big, I'd call it "kid sized", only about 12 1/4 inch long and 2 3/4 inches wide. It's nice and stretchy though. I'm a little bit in love with it.
Well, that's all I have for today. Hope everyone has a great rest of Wednesday!!

Monday, January 16, 2012

Snack Bags!

I found a tutorial for these snack bags before Christmas and had wanted to make some of these for presents, but I just didn't have the time. Well I had the time during winter break so I made one, and then I wanted to make another one so here they are! This is the tutorial.

I used flag fabric on the inside. Does anyone know what the difference is between flag fabric and rip stop nylon? I think the rip stop is coated to be waterproof, but I was having a hard time figuring out the difference.

Here are the insides.

The black one is not sewn up on the inside (as you can see). Mostly because I was messing around with the seams. And the sun is out so I had to take the pics. I've really been trying to take better pictures. I have a nice little camera but if the light is crap so is the picture no matter what kind of camera you have.
Here's what I changed on these. The bird one started out with an 8x8 square (not 9x8). I cut my corner squares at 1 3/4 (not 2 inches). The black one is 7.5x8, and the corners are 1 1/2. I also omitted the ribbons on the sides because you don't really need them. On the black on I put the velcro at 3/4 inch down (not 1 inch). I used rip stop nylon instead of the laminate.
The first one I made pretty much according to the tutorial BUT I didn't sew the "flap" down because I didn't want to sew over the velcro. That part seemed strange to me, it says to put the velcro one inch down but in the pics it didn't look like it was the far down. When I did the black one I sewed the "flaps" down by just topstitching between the checked rows (some wavy and some straight as dictated by the fabric). This was a little bulky on the side seam but I just trimmed it a bit.
So there you have it. Maybe you'll make some, and if you do, let me know :) Happy Monday everyone!!

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Ragrug-a-long?

Do you guys read Jodie's awesome blog Ric-Rac? If you don't I suggest you fly over there.. I'll wait.. She makes the most awesome softies! The middle of last week she posted about a rag rug over on Moda. This is one of those things that I've wanted to make for like maybe 6 years, I even got a book from the library, I bought some fabric (horrible choices) and I started braiding it, and hated it so I stopped (that was about 5 years ago, maybe 4??)... I used the strips to make the cat quilt. She wanted to know if anyone wanted to make one, and I was on board right away. I don't know when I'll be able to start it since I have reports to write this week.. The choice I have to make is this: sheets like in the tutorial or t-shirts?  I have some shirts around, but I think I have a sheet or two also. Any thoughts from you guys?
Jodie has a tab for the Ragrug-a-long and a Flickr page too! If you are coming over from the RRAL page, Helllo!! Leave me a comment, let me know what you are doing! I've got a few finished things to show but I'm waiting for day light to take pictures so I'll do that tomorrow.. Sorry for no pics, boring I know. If you want to be part of the RRAL head on over to Ric-Rac. See ya'll tomorrow :)

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Mmmm.. Muffins!

I like to bake, I don't do it as much as I'd like but once in a while I make something. This weekend I was trying to think of alternatives to crackers, granola bars (which have gotten super expensive) or cereal bars. So I thought muffins (I love muffins!!) but what kind?? I asked my Mom about it and she had a recipe for some low fat bran muffins. Back in the day she used to make some kind of tasty bran muffin with 3 different kinds of bran cereal in it. I was being lazy and didn't want to have to go buy anything and we didn't have any "bran flakes" but we did have some raisin bran cereal, so I used that.

They are really tasty.  For some reason bran muffins are good. Here is the recipe I used my changes are in parentheses.

Low Fat Bran Muffins
1 cup flour (I used unbleached)
2 Tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 cups Nabisco 100% Bran (I used same amount of Raisin Bran)
1 1/4 cups milk
1/3 cup packed brown sugar (I used 1/4 cup because of the sweetened cereal)
1 egg
1/2 cup applesauce

Preheat oven to 400. Mix the first 4 ingredients together. Then mix the cereal, milk and sugar (in a different bowl) let it sit for a bit, it says 5 minutes but I was on the phone so it was more like 10-15. Stir in egg and applesauce. Add to drys and stir just until moistened (will be lumpy). Spray tins with non stick spray and fill cups 2/3 full and bake for 18-20 minutes.
I have no clue where the recipe came from it's just clipped out of a magazine.

They are not overly sweet but they are dense next time I make them I'm going to put apples in there because they are sort of cinnamony and I think that the apples would taste really great in there. I also made a reusable snack bag but I don't have time to take the pics so I will post them tomorrow. It's back to work today. Oh, and its going to be in the 50's here today.. It's the middle of January and is typically one of the coldest weeks in MN. Ha! I'm loving it. We went for a walk in the park yesterday and I only had to wear a sweatshirt.. no boots, snow pants, thermal underwear, or gloves!
Lemme know if you make the muffins :) Have a happy Tuesday!

Friday, January 6, 2012

Sprockets anyone??

Do you ladies ever read Cluck Cluck Sew? I do, all the time. I found her lovely blog in the spring when I was looking for an easy skirt pattern. I never ended up making the skirt, but I continued to read her blog. Even if you don't read her blog you might have seen the awesome Sprocket Pillow. She also has a great little tutorial for a sprocket pin cushion :) So, I  made one.


I really kind of love it. The only thing I did differently was that I put a piece of warm and white under the pieced part. And then I stuffed a little bit around the edges and then added some rice and then finished stuffing it. It was a pretty quick project, took me like 2 hours but I was farting around and then had to make some calls for work so it wouldn't take that long for someone who could actually stick to one task and just get it done. It's kind of big though. It measures about 5 inches across. I guess it will hold a lot of pins :)
I just remembered it's Friday! I'm going to link up to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday! Yippee! Have a great weekend everyone!

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

It's been awhile...

Has it really been like 20 days since my last post? Wow! Did everyone survive Christmas and New Years with their sanity in tact? I did, we have a small family so I didn't have to go anywhere or really even do much of anything. I'm pretty lucky! I made a bunch of stuff for gifts and the sad part is that I didn't take pictures of any of them! But I'm planning on it.

Did anyone else have this sort of empty, feel like I need to be doing something feeling after you got all of your gifts done? I sure did. I had busted my but for a few days getting things done, and then I was so glad to be done and then the next day I was like "What do I do now??" Strange. Right now I'm working on my snow pants. I have this totally awesome pair of snow pants (really they are snow board pants but whatever!). I bought them because I needed a pair on the quick, but  they were to long so I just tucked them under and sewed them. They have been like that for like 3 years, but this year I wanted to get rid of the bulk and shorten them so that they don't drag on the ground when I walk. I'm also working on crocheting a cowl, but it's more like a neck warmer.
It isn't anything complicated, I just did 4 rows of single crochet  on the bottom and then I alternated single crochet and double crochet, this gives it some texture. And it is done in the round so each row the sc and dc don't match up. You can kind of see it in the pics how it looks like it has diagonal rows. I haven't made a hat this year either so I might make one using the same kind of pattern.
I also made this washcloth with the leftover yarn from the 2 fish shaped washcloths I made for my nephew.




I used the same stitch pattern (which I'm sure has a real name..but I don't know it) with the alternating sc and dc. This has a different look though because it's turned at the end of the rows so it makes it bumpy.  I like making washcloths, they are simple and quick. I have a giant stack of them because I made a bunch to sell at a market thing we did a while back (which was a major disappointment!). I think that's all I have for now. Hope everyone is having a Happy New Year so far :)