Simple Joy Crafting

Flannel Pillowcase for Baby's Room

2012-02-21T07:00:00.000-06:00

I love my Boppy nursing pillow for nursing on the couch, but it just doesn't work when I'm sitting in the glider in the baby's room. I prefer to use a regular pillow, but I had only boring plain colored pillowcases. I needed something a little cuter, and since I still had a stack of adorable baby boy flannel, I had to make a pillowcase. All my flannel was cut in half yard chunks, so one piece wasn't quite enough for an entire pillowcase, therefore, I made stripes! And it turned out extra cute! (Also see fleece pillowcases)

But not as cute as Joshua in his first button down church shirt and shoe socks!!!

More Flannel Burp Clothes

2012-02-17T12:49:00.002-06:00

Just a couple more flannel burp clothes I made. These are so simple, just two rectangles of fabric sewn right sides together. After turning, just top stitch around the whole thing and you're done! And below is a picture of Joshua snuggled in his flannel blanket I made him.

Cast Iron Skillet Cornbread

2012-02-13T07:00:00.000-06:00

My husband and kids bought me this cast iron skillet for my recent birthday. I have never used a cast iron skillet, so this corn bread was my first attempt, and it was delicious. I used this recipe, and also made some honey butter (just butter mixed with some honey). Yummy! Do you love your cast iron skillet? Do you have any recipes to share? I'd love to have some tried and true recipes!

My wonderful husband took on the challenge of making me a birthday cake with both kids as helpers, isn't he brave? The pic below is the final result! Rebekah's side has skittles and smarties on it since she can't have the chocolate candy. Sounds gross, but she thought skittles on chocolate cake was great!

Caleb and Rebekah made me birthday cards that they wrote on themselves, precious!

And of course, an adorable picture of baby Joshua.

Another Baby Girl Nursing Cover

2012-02-07T07:00:00.000-06:00

Yep, I managed to find a little time to sew this weekend! I was very motivated though. A friend of mine had her baby girl three days before our Joshua was born and I had promised her a nursing cover. I was hoping to have it done before Joshua came, but was unsuccessful. So, thank you to my awesome husband for being Mr. Mom this week for me! This is the third cover I've made with the black swirl fabric on the outside, it's become a popular choice!

Ee Elephant Homeschool Highlights in MFWK

2012-02-04T14:45:00.000-06:00

We finished up Ee Elephant a few days before having the baby, and now we are taking a couple week break to get adjusted to life with Joshua. The bible words for Ee Elephant, were "I will remember what God has done for me". We tried to remember all the blessings that we have been given. The picture above is one of the elephant masks we made. We also started a large mural of a zoo, which we will finish when we start school up again. We read the book, "If I Ran the Zoo" by Dr. Seuss, and then they made silly animal pictures, shown below.

We don't have a zoo with elephants near us (not to mention it's winter outside), so we had to settle for watching a nature video called Echo. We all really enjoyed it. The kids also thought the book Peanuts was hilarious.

We made large strides in the reading department! I found these little books, Clever Critters. They are short vowel readers, and Caleb was able to read the first couple books, with a little help from us. He was very proud and wanted to keep reading them, but they get harder as you go so we had to stop. The Bob books were a little harder and he got frustrated much quicker.

Welcome Baby Joshua

2012-01-30T15:15:00.001-06:00

I'd like you to meet our newest addition, Joshua! He was a big guy, 8 lbs 8 oz and 21 1/4 inches long! Isn't he precious? It's amazing how fast you can love a new little one. We're thanking God for our miracle baby, may he grow up strong and healthy, always knowing the love of God!

Caleb and Rebekah are thrilled with their new brother too!

You'll have to forgive me if my posts slow down for a few weeks as I get adjusted to the new baby. I do still have a few projects on my mind though...

Individual Serving of Microwave Brownie Torte

2012-01-29T07:00:00.000-06:00

I came across this recipe for an Individual serving size, microwaveable brownie torte, and it is heavenly! It's from Remodelaholic. Thank you so much for the recipe! I have tried it 3 times now, and I love it. This last time, I ran out of cocoa powder, so I used a square of unsweetened baking chocolate, still amazing! Try it!

Changing Table Pad

2012-01-27T07:00:00.000-06:00

I remember how often little boys pee when you take off their diaper! I made this cute little pad to put on the changing table, so at least I won't have to change the changing pad cover as often (I only have 2 covers). It is flannel on one side, and vinyl covered cotton on the other side. I've never tested iron on vinyl in the washing machine, so I'm hoping it'll be okay! I plan on air drying it though.

I made it 15 x 20 inches, and used iron on vinyl to cover the green polka dotted cotton fabric. Just sew around the edges with right sides together, turn, and top stitch around the entire thing closing the opening!

I was planning on making two, but I ran out of vinyl...

Crocheted Newborn Baby Hat

2012-01-26T07:00:00.000-06:00

What do you do when your feet are swollen and you can't sit at the computer anymore? You sit on the couch with your feet up crocheting a baby hat! I just did a simple double crochet and made a rectangle. I sewed up the edge, and then cinched the top. Easy! I considered adding a pom pom on top, but decided not to.

Business Card Wallet

2012-01-25T07:00:00.000-06:00

I finally decide to make myself business cards to promote my blog! I've had several people ask me about how I make things, especially at church! The other day I had to write my blog address on a napkin for someone! I used Microsoft Publisher, and just printed off about 20 of them. Of course, I needed a cute little wallet to hold them in! I found a tutorial online here, but I didn't use it when I went to make mine. Afterwards, I noticed that she used some fusible fleece inside, and I wish I would have done that.

Supplies:
Outer fabric 5 x 6
Inner fabric 5 x 6
Pocket fabric 2 pieces, 2 1/2 x 5
A button
A hair elastic (mine was all stretched out!)

First, hem one long edge of each pocket piece.

Pin the pocket pieces to the inner fabric piece, with the hemmed edges to the inside.

Sew the button on the right side of the outer fabric piece. It's about 1 1/2 inches from the edge, centered.

Pin your elastic to the pocket piece. When sewing, I pinched the end together as I went over it and back stitched to secure it really well.

Put the outer fabric piece on top of the inner fabric piece, right sides together and sew around the edge. I had a little more than a 1/4 inch seam allowance. You can see I left a small opening for turning. Then, cut the end of the hair elastic off.

Turn and press. Then top stitch around the entire thing, making sure you close your opening.

Finished!

Sharing a Bedroom

2012-01-24T07:00:00.000-06:00

Rebekah is officially moved into Caleb's room! I need to stop calling it Caleb's room! Right now, they are both thrilled to be in the same room. Rebekah loves sleeping on the big bed (she was in a toddler bed still). We moved a toy box to the basement, but otherwise everything fit perfectly. There's even extra room in the closet! They have yet to actually sleep during a nap time though...

See the lower bar in the closet that Rebekah's clothes are hanging on? That is the best thing in the world! Having all her shirts and skirts hanging low means that she can pick out her clothes and get dressed herself, as in, without my help!!! Sometimes she picks out some crazy combinations, but that's okay with me! Only her church clothes and a few out of season outfits are hanging on the top bar.

Do your kids share a room? How does it work out in your family?

Nursing Cover and Matching Burp Clothes

2012-01-23T07:00:00.000-06:00

Another nursing cover made as a baby gift! This fabric was picked out by the mom to be, and I think she made a great choice! To make your own, see my first post about nursing covers here.

I had enough fabric left over to make two matching burp clothes too! See this post for more information about decorative burp clothes.

Linking up with Keeping it Simple today. Go check out over 300 projects!

Lined Fabric Bucket

2012-01-20T08:18:00.002-06:00

Isn't this an adorable fabric bucket? It's going to go on the changing table in the baby's room to hold some diaper supplies. I followed a tutorial by Inspired by Family Magazine. I used a bowl to make the circle for the bottom, and then measured the circumference to figure out the length of the side. I already had some rip away interfacing, so I used that to make it stiffer, being careful not to rip it! I think it worked great!

I may make a smaller one, or maybe a square one after I figure out how to organize the changing table. We're a little behind on getting the baby's room set up, we still haven't moved Rebekah out of the room and into her brothers! This weekends project is moving her and putting up the crib... only 10 days to my due date!

Hh Horse Homeschool Highlights in MFW

2012-01-19T07:00:00.000-06:00

This week we learned about Hh horses! Both kids really enjoyed this unit. Our bible words were "I obey right away", we're still working on following them! My husband found this puzzle at the thrift store, and we worked on it as a family. Caleb's definitely not quite ready for such a large puzzle, but it was cute watching him get excited when he found a piece that fit. We also made toilet paper tube horses, found at DLTK.

Since we didn't have a horse farm to go visit, we stayed home and watched the movie Misty. You can find in on youtube.com like we did. Then I was pleasantly surprised to find that two of our library books were about the horses that live on Assateague Island in Virginia, I never realized it was a true story while watching the movie. The kids were thrilled!

We read a few more books, but I took the rest back to the library before I took a picture. Our lap books are a little bare, I'll have to glue pictures of our puzzle and toilet paper horses into the blank spot. I also had them obey my commands as I let them to a treasure (hard salami in a bathroom drawer), which they thought was great, and begged me to do again!

Caleb is really improving his drawing too, as in, he actually attempts to draw something other than scribbles! I love his horse on the bottom of the picture (I had to draw the hat though). The big and little h folders came from homeschool share.

Fabric Covered Wipes Case

2012-01-18T07:00:00.000-06:00

This started as just your standard boring plastic travel sized wipes case. But now it's adorable and fun, and it matches my diaper bag and accessories! I used another great tutorial from Make It & Love It. I didn't intend on the black ribbon stripes, but my hot glue showed through the green cotton fabric, so I had to add something to cover it up. I think it turned out great, I can't wait to start using all the stuff I've been making! Our baby boy will hopefully be here in less than 2 weeks!

The inside isn't pretty, but it'll be covered with wipes and no one will ever see! I didn't take a picture of the bottom, but it is just plain black.

A fabric covered wipes case would make a great baby gift for someone, especially paired with a package of wipes and diapers! And don't worry if you can't sew, only hot glue is used!

Pacifier Clips with Fabric Yo-yo

2012-01-17T07:00:00.000-06:00

Ahh, cute pacifier clips! I think Rebekah had the ugly dollar store variety, so when I saw this tutorial on Make It & Love It I had to make a couple. I did not have any cute buttons to use, so I made a fabric yo-yo instead. It was my first time making them, and I will definitely be making more! What a great embellishment! I followed the tutorial here, which was very easy to follow. One tip I have for you though is to sew close to the folded edge, not the raw edge, otherwise it doesn't gather nicely.

As an added bonus, I was able to make both of these without spending anything! I just happened to have the same badge clips that Ashley recommended from Walmart. I bought a box of them for homeschooling and only used 2 for my kids!

I did have to use velcro on the end of the ribbon instead of snaps, I need to look into getting a snap press, it'd come in handy. I ended up hand sewing the velcro on, which was a little tricky, but it looked much better than what the machine did!

Homemade Bread from Scratch

2012-01-16T07:00:00.000-06:00

Gotta love the smell of homemade bread baking! I decided it would be fun to learn how to bake bread from scratch. I have a bread machine, which I love, but I wanted to try to make bread that would be good for sandwiches. Homemade bread is usually denser and crumblier, which isn't always good for a sandwich. I found this recipe from Moonberry Farm. I love that Julie titles it Our Daily Bread! The taste is great, so I've been trying to tweak what I've been doing to make it rise better. This weekend was my best attempt yet (of 3)!

I was hoping that it would rise higher to be a taller loaf! The first time I think my yeast was too old and it didn't rise much at all. So, the second time I used a new jar of yeast and it rose great in the bowl, but after I punched it down and put it in the pans, it barely rose at all. Because Julie mentioned in the recipe that she skips that step if she's rushed, I thought I'd skip it too and just put the bread in the pans right away to rise. The loaves rounded on top, just above the edges of the pans, but somehow shrank some when I baked it... So, anyone have any tips for me?

Our house temperature is about 65 degrees, but I let the loaves rise on top of the stove while the oven was on, so they were warmer. Could the temperature be the culprit?

It did make a great pizza crust though! I let the dough rise for about 20 minutes and then baked it right away. After it cooled I wrapped it and threw it in the fridge. Sunday after church it was quick and easy to add our toppings and pop it in the oven until the cheese melted. Yum, I love pizza!

Linking up with Motivate Me Monday at Keeping It Simple!

Baby Boy Scrapbook - Getting Ready

2012-01-13T08:53:00.001-06:00

We're busy getting ready for our baby boy! The car seat came in the mail a few days ago, the kids were so excited! Rebekah's baby Mollie had to take a ride! Last night I spent quite a bit of time making a baby book. I bought everything a few months ago, but just now got to it. I am pre-making most of the pages, so I only have to enter in the info and add pictures. I also did this with Rebekah's book, and it made it much easier to keep up with. If you're not having a baby of your own, a pre-made baby book makes a wonderful baby shower gift! A friend of mine gave me one for Caleb, and I loved it!

Want to make one? Here are my blank pdf files for you:

Baby Book
Family Tree Baby Book
MY FIRSTS
Baby Book Growth and Favorites

I already filled out a lot of the personal information, so I had to cover up some of it when I took the pictures... I used my Cricut to cut out all the words for my titles, the Plantin cartridge.

Cloth Diapers and Wipes Case

2012-01-10T07:00:00.000-06:00

I think this is my last diaper bag accessory! The pattern I used came from Jan Andrea. I have used it so many times that I don't have to look at her tutorial anymore, but I do use the paper pattern still. You can see others I've made: neutral, baby boy, camoflage, and baby girl.

Cc Cows Homeschool Highlights in MFW

2012-01-09T07:00:00.000-06:00

This week we learned about Cows and where our food comes from. Our bible words were "God's word helps me grow". Milk helps us grow physically, and God's word helps us grow spiritually! Because Rebekah is allergic to cows milk, we also learned how soy milk is made. We also decided to skip having the dairy party recommended in the teacher's manual.

Homemade butter! This was fun for me as well as the kids. We put heavy cream in some glass jars and shook it until my arms were going to fall off! But it was pretty amazing when it just turned from foamy cream to butter and whey. We made cornbread muffins to have our butter on, it was delicious! (Rebekah has a special dairy free margarine).

Here's Caleb doing one of his worksheets. He still has a hard time sitting during the blend ladder, but we're working on persevering for 5 minutes at a time. He did get excited this day because he read a few of the words by himself! I have noticed that he gets mad if I try to point out words he should know in a book while we're reading, he just wants to hear the story. But, I pulled out some sight word flashcards, and he seems to like going through those, weird! I wish I could find some easy books that he could read, but all the ones I've found have letters/sounds that we haven't covered yet.

We made a paper farm, using printables on this website.

Our books, and one DVD I found at the library. Caleb especially liked The Story of Ferdinand.

The tactile activity we did was cover a C with cornmeal (above).

They painted a picture of the nursery rhyme, Hey Diddle Diddle, and we tried to do a letter C word search (a little too advanced for Caleb still).

Cinnamon Rolls with Bread Machine

2012-01-07T07:00:00.000-06:00

Being 9 months pregnant means that it's really hard to sleep some nights. My family was blessed when I decided to make cinnamon rolls for breakfast since I was up so early! I have never made homemade cinnamon rolls, and they were absolutely delicious! I will definitely be making them again. I came across Bread Machine Cinnamon Rolls, which seemed easy, but it called for milk in the dough, which meant Rebekah couldn't have them. I decided to look at my bread machine manual and found it had a cinnamon roll recipe with no milk in the dough! Yeah! So, I made the recipe from my manual for the dough. I seperated some of the dough for Rebekah, using her special dairy free margarine in the filling and a glaze using soy milk. I used the Bread Machine Cinnamon Rolls recipe for the filling and frosting for the rest of the family though. Looking at the picture makes me want to make some more right now!

My friend Allie recommends this recipe, but because it's loaded with milk and butter it didn't work for us. But she swears it's the best!

Waterproof Zippered Bag

2012-01-06T08:42:00.003-06:00

This is a waterproof zippered pouch that I plan on carrying in my diaper bag, also called a wet bag. I will use it for wet clothes, burp clothes, or dirty cloth diapers. It's finished dimensions are 10 x 12 inches. Would you like to make one for yourself? Here's how:

You will need:
Outside Fabric #1 Back 11 x 13
Outside Fabric #1 Front 4 1/2 x 13
Outside Fabric #2 Front 7 x 13
Lining Fabric (2 Pieces) 11 x 13
Iron on Vinyl (2 Pieces) 11 x 13
13" Zipper (or larger - I salvaged mine from an old ugly dress)
13" Piping
Thread

1. Sandwich the piping between the outside fabric front pieces as shown in the above and below picture. It helped me to pin the piping to the first fabric and then move the pins when I put the second one on top. Sew as close to the piping as you can.

2. Open it up and press it.

3. Follow the directions on the package of iron on vinyl to cover both pieces of Lining fabric.

4. Cut your zipper to 13 inches if it's too long, and sew a few stitches at the end so it can't come apart.

5. Lay your zipper on top of the outside front piece so that the right side of the zipper is laying on top of the fabric. Lay one of your lining pieces on top of the zipper, right sides together, and pin in place. Sew on the zipper using a zipper foot on your machine.

6. Open it up and turn it so the wrong sides are together and press near the zipper.

7. Repeat on the other side of the zipper with your outside back fabric and the other lining fabric. Once this seam is done, it should look like the picture below. It's a good idea to make sure your zipper works now too!

8. Pin the outside fabric pieces together, and then the lining fabrics together, like the picture below.

9. Sew around the entire rectangle leaving several inches open on the bottom of the outside fabric. I left about 5 or 6 inches open (see left side of picture below).

10. Turn the bag right side out. You should be able to just flip the outside fabric over the lining. Unzip the zipper to make it easier.

11. Hand sew the opening closed, and you are finished!

I'm linking up with Naptime Crafters today.

Pacifier Pouch Lined with Vinyl

2012-01-05T07:00:00.000-06:00

This is one of my most favorite baby accessories! It's a vinyl lined pacifier pouch! No more crumbs or lint from the bottom of the diaper bag on the pacifier! I wish I would have had one when my other kids were little, it would have been so much nicer than the plastic bag method! I used leftover fabric from my diaper bag and nursing cover, so this was virtually free. I bought the iron on vinyl from JoAnn's about a year ago, $10 for 2 yards, and I still have a lot of it left.

The first pacifier pouch I made can be seen here, and a few others here and here. The original had a loop on it so it could be attached to a diaper bag strap, but I decided that a velcro closure would be much easier. So, what do you think?

Prayer Box - Cardboard and Paint

2012-01-04T08:21:00.001-06:00

One of the goals we have as a family is to include our kids in prayer more often. We plan on using this prayer box to help. When one of us has something specific we want to pray for, we will write it on a note card with the date and put it in the large part of the box. When we have prayer time, we can pick prayer cards out of the box and pray for specific needs. If the kids are restless, we can only pull out one card, or if they are focused, we can pull out several to pray for. When God answers prayers, I plan on writing it on the bottom of the cards with the date, so we can see how God is working in our lives. I'm excited to put this box in action!

The box is just a recycled one that something else was shipped in. After cutting off the flaps, I used one of them to make the divider, using hot glue to keep the it in place. Then my daughter Rebekah painted the box!

What tools are you using to teach your children to pray? I'd love to hear what's working for other families!

Reversible Nursing Cover - Mine

2012-01-03T07:00:00.000-06:00

I finally had some time to make myself a reversible nursing cover. This one is so much nicer than the one I made when I had Rebekah. I love that it's reversible! I used black swirly fabric for the outside and green and white polka dot fabric for the inside. I wanted it to match my diaper bag since I'll be carrying it with me all the time. I also have some other diaper bag accessories on my list to make, like a diapers and wipes case, a pacifier case, and a waterproof bag.

You can see the other nursing covers I've made and the link to the tutorial here and here.

Only 4 more weeks until my due date! I'm hoping this baby surprises me by being a little early though!

Wish List for 2012

2012-01-01T07:00:00.000-06:00

January is here! Starting a new year is always exciting. And I want to make this blog even better in 2012.
The first thing I've done is to create an email address so you can contact me! It's simplejoycrafting-AT-gmail-DOT-com. I would love to hear from you!

There are several things on my wish list for this next year, but no hard and fast resolutions. This is mostly because I'm about to have a baby! The first thing we need to do this month is get ready for the baby. See Rebekah's room below? (I know it's a mess!)

It needs to move into Caleb's room below (It's a mess too!). They are going to share the bunk bed and the baby will have his own room for a while.

Then we need to put up the crib, buy another dresser, organize baby clothes and accessories, buy a car seat... the list continues.

I also have a list of baby items I'd like to make, hopefully I'll have time and you'll see some of these on future blog posts:

Pacifier pouch
Diapers/wipes case
Zippered wet bag
Boppy cover
Burp clothes
Wearable blanket
Crocheted Baby Hat

Exercise is on my wish list for after the baby comes! I'll need to loose baby weight, and a little extra too... Plus, we are planning a vacation to some national parks this summer, and I want to be in shape so we can do some hiking and exploring!

My husband and I have also decided that it's time to start saving for a house! One way to save a little extra is by using this drying rack more instead of the clothes dryer! (A big thank you to my MIL.) I'm also going to attempt to cut our grocery expenses by $50 a month!

I hope to clean and organize my craft area in the basement too! I need some more shelving and a way to organize things so I know what supplies I already have. I need to increase the cuteness factor!

I want to challenge myself this year to learn new sewing and crafting skills! I'd like to make a shirt from scratch for myself, a cloth basket, a denim picnic blanket, a wall organizer for my craft supplies, and maybe try a braided rug for the basement.

What's on your 2012 wish list? Do you have any craft projects that you'd like to see me try? I'm always open for ideas and suggestions. Leave me a comment or email me at simplejoycrafting-AT-gmail-DOT-com.

A Look Back at 2011

2011-12-31T07:00:00.000-06:00

Wow, it's already the end of 2011! So much has happened this past year. We had an early miscarriage in January, but God blessed us with another pregnancy and we are anxiously awaiting our baby boys arrival this coming January. Kevin and I taught two Financial Peace Unniversity classes, which encouraged us to pay off my student loan early. Recently, we were able to purchase a 2005 mini van for cash! God has blessed us so much this year! I also began homeschooling Kindergarten!

I am amazed at how this blog has grown, and how my own sewing, crafting and blogging skills have grown along with it. This is my 157th post for this year! Thank you to all my readers for your support and kind comments, every one makes my day and gives me encouragement. Here's the list of the most viewed posts this year, some might surprise you!

1. Pipe Cleaner Bugs (This one surprised me!)

2. Fleece Tie Blankets for Charity

3. Draft Blocker

4. Little House on the Prairie Dress, Apron and Bonnet

5. Beaded Christmas Ornaments with Kids

6. iPod Touch Fabric Cover with Armband

7. Apron

8. Homeschool Space (it actually still looks like this - almost!)

9. Morning Board for School

10. Hot Air Balloon Birthday Cake

11. Diaper Bag (This is my favorite project for this year so I had to include my #11! I'm so excited to use my new custom diaper bag!)

My other favorites were: Plastic Shopping Bag Holder, Frilly Apron for a Pregnant Belly, Apple Pie Filling for the Freezer, Bunk Bed Tent, Maxi Skirt, Farmall Tractor Cake, and Reversible Nursing Cover.

Did you have a favorite post from this year? I'd love to know what it was!

Happy New Year! May 2012 be your best year yet!

Gg Goat - Homeschool Highlights in MFWK

2011-12-30T07:00:00.000-06:00

This week we learned the letter G, and all about goats. We learned about sacrificing goats in the old testament in the bible, and how Jesus took the place of the goats. Our bible words were "Jesus died for my sins." We also took a look at how farms work, and all the different animals. We made the puppets above and used them to sing "Old MacDonald Had a Farm". Caleb was also a sheep in our churches Christmas program. His class sang "The Friendly Beasts", and Caleb had to say the lines for the sheep. We listened to this professional version of the song, The Friendly Beasts, which is actually quite funny!

Here is the cover of our lap books. They cut out the letter G from magazines and glued them to the top, then added grass and a goat. Our printer ran out of ink, so I wasn't able to print out any other activities, but it turned out okay since it was the week before Christmas and we had lots of other things to do, like make cookies with friends and go shopping!

And this week I remembered to take a picture of our books.

I'm hoping to get in 3 more units before our baby is born at the end of January, Cc Cow, Hh Horse, and Ee Elephant!

Plastic Shopping Bag Holder

2011-12-28T07:00:00.000-06:00

What a cute way to store your ugly plastic shopping bags! The tutorial I followed came from Make It and Love It, a wonderful blog full of tutorials. This was so easy to make! I planning on making myself one too, and I think I'll make a couple mini ones to put under the bathroom sinks and in my craft area. Instead of using ribbon for the hanger, as the tutorial suggests, I used a piece of the checked fabric, only because I didn't have any matching ribbon.

I made this for my mom, below is the entire gift set, including the table runner, pot holders, and dish towels. It matches her apron and recipe binder cover that I made for her birthday.

Now, go make one for yourself to get more organized in the new year!

Quilted Table Runner and Pot Holders

2011-12-27T07:00:00.000-06:00

This is a short table runner, more of a centerpiece I suppose, with two matching pot holders. I used a pinwheel block for them all. They are machine pieced and quilted. The pot holder on the left is quilted inside each triangle block, but that left a large hump in the middle where all the triangles come together. When I did the second pot holder (on the right) I decided to stitch in the ditch instead, and I think it turned out better. I did the same thing for the table runner. These were gifts for my mother, and they match her apron and recipe binder, which were birthday presents this past year.

The idea for the pot holders came from watching a DVD called Homestead Blessings - The Art of Quilting. In this DVD, the West ladies show you how to make the pinwheel blocks and then how to make the pot holder, as well as several other quilting techniques. I also enjoyed their sewing and cooking DVDs.

Christmas Highlights and Gingerbread Houses

2011-12-26T13:18:00.001-06:00

We had a wonderful Christmas this year! I hope all of you did too! Kevin, the kids and I celebrated as a family on the 23rd before heading out of town to visit family. The first thing we did was make gingerbread houses, our tradition for the past 3 years. (See last years houses here, and the recipe here) We had a little trouble this year with our houses staying together, so Caleb's became a saggy A-frame instead! But we persevered and had a great time (and a sugar buzz). In the picture above from left to right is Kevin's, mine, Rebekah's, and then Caleb's.

Before we open presents, we always read the Christmas story. We don't ever want to forget the true reason for the season!

They loved their aprons!

I think Caleb liked his tie too.

And here's baby Mollie all decked out in her new pajamas.

The paper dolls were fun, but it was hard to share the board...

Bean bag tic tac toe went over well too. I reused a box to wrap it in, and you should have seen the look on Caleb's face when he thought he was getting dishes! Priceless!

The rest of the Christmas holiday was spent with family, being spoiled with presents, good food, and treats galore! Here is one last picture of the kids playing with their cousin, isn't he a cutie?

Paper Dolls

2011-12-23T09:48:00.000-06:00

These are the cutest paper dolls ever! I used my Cricut to cut them out, using the Everyday Paper Dolls cartridge. Then I laminated them using a new laminater I just bought! I wanted to use it for this project, and I know it will come in handy for school. Velcro dots (a lot of them) make them stick to each other and the board. The board is one of those thick foam poster board. I covered it with felt, using rubber cement and hot glue to stick it down. I used only scraps that I had already, so I was impressed with the scene I was able to create! The back of the board is covered with plain pink felt. The rough part of the velcro sticks great to the board!

Here are all the pieces I made for them. The top set is for Caleb, and the bottom is for Rebekah. I would love to make more pieces, including more animals, buildings and trees, etc. I ran out of time for more though. The Everyday Paper Doll cartridge has so much on it, it's my favorite!

I have to admit, they took longer than expected to make, and my hand was really sore from cutting them all out, but aren't they cute?

Little Boys Tie with Velcro

2011-12-21T09:31:00.003-06:00

This tie is for my 5 year old son. He likes to wear ties to church to be like daddy. I used leftover fabric from another project, and some velcro from my stash, so this tie was free for me to make, yeah! I found the tutorial on Very Homemade. It was very easy to follow, and didn't take long at all. It's a little difficult turning it right side out, so she recommends using a safety pin to help, which it did. I might make another one using one of my husbands old button down shirts. I didn't think of that idea until this morning...

The neck strap has velcro on it, so the tie never has to be undone and the little boy doesn't have to stand still while you try to tie it, a great feature!

Bean Bag Game

2011-12-20T14:32:00.003-06:00

I can check another Christmas gift off my list! I just finished this bean bag game for my kids. The bean bags are jean pockets filled with lentils and rice (I ran out of beans), and just sewn closed. I found the idea on instructables.

Because this game will be played indoors, I didn't want pottery to be what they were throwing at, so I made my own game mat. I used a heavy duty brown fabric that was in my stash, and used a blue jean leg to make the binding. I used fabric markers to make the circles and numbers. A bowl worked well to make the small circles, and a 14 inch cake pan was used to make the middle one. I couldn't find anything bigger, so I drew the large circle free hand.

I flipped it over and drew a tic tac toe board on the other side! The marker did bleed through the fabric in a couple spots, but not too many. You could avoid this by using two pieces of fabric and drawing on them before sewing them together. Then I drew X's and O's on the back of the bean bags. The blue O's are Caleb's, and the red X's are Rebekah's. The front of their bean bags have the letters of their names. I hope Caleb won't be upset that Rebekah has a few more, but her name is longer!

Do you think they'll like it?

Baby Doll Jammies

2011-12-18T07:30:00.000-06:00

I made these doll jammies for my daughter, she's going to love them! She adores wearing her own jammies, and right now her favorite baby doll's jammies are just a onsie, which she changes daily. I'm so excited to give this to her for Christmas! I used this Simplicity Pattern #3572, which has several other outfits in it as well, in small, medium and large doll sizes (Our baby doll is the small size). I used a lightweight knit fabric that I found on clearance, some left over binding, a 9 inch zipper (could have used a 7 inch), and an iron on rainbow for added cuteness. To see other baby doll clothes I've made, see baby doll jumpers, tights and shirt and baby doll skirt.

Ii Insects Homeschool Highlights in MFW

2011-12-16T08:00:00.000-06:00

Ii is for Insect! We started our insect unit a week early when our ants arrived early! It has been fascinating for the whole family to watch these ants, they're constantly changing their tunnels. Several times we've thought they were dying though, but they keep on going. This weeks bible words were "I am a wise child, so I work hard". The ants modeled this principle for us.

I found these great 3D insect puzzles on clearance for $0.40!

A few of our lunches went along with our theme. When we studied the ants, we had ants on a log, the non traditional way! Our log was a hot dog (my kids won't do celery...) Then they asked me to cut their hot dog and they made ants on a rock (Caleb's idea!). We also taste tested honey when we talked about bees.

I also made them apple lady bugs. It's a half of an apple with peanut butter to hold on the raisin spots. The antennae were raisins stuck on toothpicks.

We painted rocks red and then added spots with a black marker to make several lady bugs. They have both really loved painting lately, so this was a great activity.

Here are our lap books. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of all the books we read before taking them back to the library...

Rebekah has just started to write her own name. I love that the letters in her name are all over her paper! I still have to make the K and the A for her, she thinks she does a bad job on those letters.

Draft Blocker

2011-12-14T07:00:00.000-06:00

With the weather turned colder, we noticed a draft coming in though the front door, and another coming through the door to the garage. I was able to quickly make a draft blocker for both doors with materials that I had on hand. I copied a similar product that I saw in Walmart but didn't want to pay for. Do you need one for your door? Here's how I did it:

You will need:
1 piece of fabric 10 x 40 inches (I used scraps of a sheet left over from another project)
4 pieces of fabric 5 x 10 inches
2-3 cups of dry rice
Stuffing or fabric scraps to use for fill (I actually dug in my crafting garbage and pulled out all the scraps of fabric I had thrown away and used that because I didn't have enough stuffing - a very frugal option!)
Thread

Cut your fabric. Fold the larger piece in half so the long sides are together, right sides together. Sew one of the short sides and the long side. Turn it right side out, it should be a long tube with one open short side.

Now, we're basically going to make a bean bags to put inside to add weight so it will stay where you put it. Fold one of the small fabric pieces in half to form a square. Sew around two sides, leaving one open. You can turn it right side out and make it look nice if you'd prefer, but since it's going to be inside our draft blocker, you don't need to, I didn't even trim my threads!

Fill with approximately 1/2 cup of dry rice.

To make sewing the bag closed with all the rice inside, it's best to put a couple pins in. Then sew the bag closed.

Here's a finished bean bag (the first one I made I turned it right side out and made it look nice, then I realized no one would ever see it). The white stuff you see on the bag is just rice dust from filling it.

Start stuffing your long tube. Put one of the bean bags in first, then fill with stuffing or fabric scraps, about 8 inches worth. Use a long knitting needle or pencil to help get the stuffing in. Alternate bean bags and stuffing until you are at the top of the tube, end with a bean bag. To finish, turn the ends under and pin closed. Carefully sew the end closed with a top stitch, or you can hand sew it closed so you can't see the stitching.

That's it, now go put it in front of your door!

Peanut Butter Popcorn

2011-12-13T08:42:00.000-06:00

I came across this recipe for peanut butter popcorn and had to try it. It's from Frugal Granola. As an added bonus, it doesn't have any butter in it, so Rebekah was able to enjoy it with us. The kids and I really loved it. Kevin thought it was a little soggy and didn't care for it, but I'll be making it again!

My Favorite Christmas Songs

2011-12-12T15:22:00.001-06:00

What brings more joy at Christmas time than the wonderful music being played everywhere? I'm not talking about Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer or Frosty the Snowman. There are wonderful Christmas songs about the true reason for the season, Jesus. We are celebrating his birthday after all, right? These are my favorites, I hope you enjoy them.

Mary Did You Know?

I Need a Silent Night

Where's the Line to See Jesus?

O Holy Night

Look What We Bought This Weekend!

2011-12-12T09:03:00.000-06:00

We bought a mini van! It's a 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan, I love it! It has everything I wanted, but didn't expect to get! Like the stow and go, automatic doors, and bucket seats in the middle! The kids love it too, they're able to see out the window better because they are higher.

My husband and I are facilitators for Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. His most basic principle is that you should never buy anything with credit. So, we have saved for several months, and were able to purchase this van with cash! I really didn't think we'd be able to get anything this nice, but God really blessed us with a good deal.

I also made another therapeutic hot/cold rice bag. You can see my first one and the directions here.

Homemade Granola

2011-12-10T07:00:00.000-06:00

My son helped me to mix up a batch of homemade granola. He wasn't sure what granola was, but he decided he loved it! I used this recipe for Baked Honey Granola. Next time, I need to use the regular oats instead of the quick cooking kind, but other than that we followed the recipe using olive oil so Rebekah could have some. I can't wait to have some in the morning with milk! I also think it would make a great gift if put in a mason jar with ribbon tied around it, much like Sew Stylish Boutique did!

Ww Water Homeschool Highlights in MFW

2011-12-09T07:00:00.000-06:00

This week we learned about Water. Our bible words were "Jesus gives my spirit living water to drink". The kids had a lot of fun experimenting with water: like watching ice melt (playing with ice) and dissolving things in water (juice!). Unfortunately, I didn't take very many pictures this week, my apologies. The picture above is of our "oublick", which is just corn starch and water. The cool thing was it was kinda a solid, kinda a liquid! The picture below is the chart we made of solids, liquids, and gases.

And our books:

Even our lap books were a little sparse this week...

We did have some great family time this week though! We taught the kids how to play Mexican train dominoes, which they loved!

Therapeutic Hot/Cold Rice Bag

2011-12-08T06:00:00.000-06:00

This is amazing! It's a long bag that's filled with plain rice. You heat it in the microwave for 1 minute (2 minutes if you have an old one like mine), and then put it on your neck, shoulders or back. Amazing! Perfect for those pregnancy aches and pains. You can also put it in the freezer for a couple hours to make it cold. I followed this tutorial on Make It & Love it. It only took me 30 minutes to make, and I was able to use fabric, ribbon, and rice that I already had! My only suggestion is to not fill the sections too full with rice, otherwise it's a pain to sew. Now, go make one for yourself and then relax!

Credit Card Cake II

2011-12-06T15:42:00.001-06:00

My husband and I have been facilitating another Financial Peace University class that ends this week. We have 5 families graduating this time! I made this credit card cake for our end of class celebration. See the credit card cake from our last class here. This cake is smaller and actually cut in half instead of a big black line down the center. How do you think it turned out? I'd love to hear about your experiences with Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University too!

I'm linking up with Frugally Sustainable this week. You'll find tons of ideas for living frugally on this blog, and the link up is full of other bloggers with great ideas.

Fleece Ball Toy

2011-12-05T17:57:00.001-06:00

A quick and easy baby toy made from fleece scraps. I found the ball pattern on Tip Junkie. The fleece turned out to be a tad difficult to hand sew, so I probably would just use regular cotton fabric next time. I also added a jingle bell inside to make a little noise. I also made a stuffed block, but it turned out a little wonky!

Child's Apron

2011-12-04T13:53:00.001-06:00

I have started making Christmas gifts! These aprons will be gifts for my kids. They love to help me in the kitchen, and they have really started to love painting, so I thought a cute apron would be perfect. I found the free pattern over on Sew Liberated, a great blog you should check out. Here's the link for the pattern: Montessori Child's Apron. The pattern says it's for a 3-6 year old child, however I thought it looked a little small, so I added an inch to each side, and two inches to the bottom. For Caleb's, I added an inch to the neck strap, which probably wasn't necessary. I also added several inches to his waist strap, but then ended up shortening it to the recommended length after it was done. I should also mention that it took me less than an hour to make one and used a small amount of fabric, so it was a quick inexpensive gift.

Oo Octopus Homeschool Highlights in MFW

2011-12-02T08:00:00.000-06:00

Here's our Oo Octopus lunch! Cut a hot dog so there are 8 legs, leaving an inch or two on one end intact. Drop into a pan of boiling water for 1 minute, and you have an octopus. The seaweed is ramen noodles with some green food coloring. We also had plum clam friends. We had a lot of fun with our Octopus unit! The bible words for this week were "Even the octopus praises the Lord". Cheerios made the perfect letter O suckers for our octopus arms!

Their favorite activity this week was making an ocean mural. I cut open a paper grocery bag and they painted the entire thing blue. After it dried, we added ocean animals (I found a coloring page online), fish stickers I had on hand, green streamer seaweed, and more Cheerio "bubbles".

Here are our books, and one dvd that they enjoyed watching.

And our lap books.

Beaded Christmas Ornaments with Kids

2011-11-30T14:17:00.001-06:00

My kids loved making these beaded ornaments for our tree! Our supplies included pipe cleaners and tri-corner beads (we only had white and red beads). First, I threaded one bead onto a pipe cleaner and bent the end around it so the rest of the beads wouldn't slip off. Then the kids went crazy threading beads. When there were enough beads, we bent the pipe cleaners to make candy canes, wreaths, and Christmas trees. The hooks are just made out of pipe cleaners, twisted onto the ornament. Some of the bows you see are also made out of pipe cleaners, and one ornament is just a bow made out of three pipe cleaners twisted together. Two of them have silver ribbon bows that I hot glued on.

I actually tried this activity when Caleb was 3, and we invited a few other friends over to make them with us, but the kids got really frustrated because the holes on the tri-corner beads weren't big enough to string them easily. This year, Caleb is 5 and had a lot more patience. However, my 3 year old daughter was able to do it with no problems, and really enjoyed it. So, while a 3 year old should be able to do this, it will probably depend on their personality.

Are you making any homemade ornaments this year? I'd love to hear about them!

I am linking up today with:

Shoe Box Ministry

2011-11-29T15:02:00.001-06:00

Have you heard of a shoe box ministry in your area? We participated last year in a local ministry that distributed shoe box gifts to local homeless shelters and hospitals. The idea is to wrap a shoe box, top and bottom separately, fill it with gifts, and drop it off at a collection center in your town. Ours will go to our local grocery store. Today the kids and I picked out items to make 4 boxes this year, one boy, one girl, one man, and one woman. The kids boxes will have coloring books, crayons, a puzzle, a toy, a hat, stickers, and candy. The woman's box has a bible, sudoku puzzle book, socks, hair accessories, chap stick, gum, kleenex, and candy. The man's box has a bible, sudoku puzzle book, socks, beef jerky, a flash light and batteries, kleenex, gum and candy. Before we went to the store, I talked with my kids about how some people don't have homes and won't be able to have Christmas presents, or some kids are sick in the hospital and their parents can't afford to buy presents, so we wanted to help them.

Would you like to participate in a similar ministry? Operation Christmas Child is a similar ministry that ships shoe boxes overseas. I would love to hear what other charitable giving your family is doing this season!

Who doesn't love Christmas music? K-Love is giving away 3 free songs on iTunes right now.

Baby Boy Shower Gift

2011-11-28T08:15:00.001-06:00

Rebekah and I went to a baby shower this weekend. This was her gift: a reversible nursing cover, a diaper and wipes case, two burp clothes, and a tag blanket. If you want to make a nursing cover, see my post reversible nursing cover. Look here for the diaper and wipes case and burp clothes.

The tag blanket was really easy to make. I used two squares of fabric, one cotton and one fleece. Cut several 4 inch ribbon strips, fold them in half and pin them with the ends towards the outside of the square (on the right side of the fabric). Put the fleece on top and sew around, being careful at each ribbon. Leave a two inch opening for turning. After turning, top stitch around the square to close the opening, and you are finished!

Happy Thanksgiving & Sweet Potato Casserole

2011-11-24T08:00:00.000-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thank you Jesus for all the blessings in my life! This year I am especially thankful for our baby boy that is on the way! At 30 weeks he's as healthy as can be, which is a relief after having two miscarriages. I am also thankful for my amazing husband putting up with a cranky pregnant wife!

I made this sweet potato casserole for our Thanksgiving celebrations. It's from my good friends, Janie and Phillip, thank you. It is a very sweet casserole, really, it's more like a dessert! Yum!

Sweet Potato Casserole
3 cups of mashed sweet potatoes
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups of white sugar
1 cup coconut flakes
1 tsp vanilla

Topping:
1 cup of brown sugar
1 cup of broken pecans
1/2 cup flour
1/2 stick of margarine or butter

Mix the first 5 ingredients and pour in a casserole dish. Mix the first 3 ingredients of the topping and spread over the potatoes. Slice the margarine or butter in little pieces over the top. Bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes or until golden brown. If you'd like the topping to be a little crispier, bake a little longer.

Thanksgiving Homeschool Lesson

2011-11-23T08:00:00.000-06:00

I am thankful for homeschooling! I enjoyed teaching my kids about the first Thanksgiving, and then we did a few crafts. The picture above is our Thankful Tree. I used my Cricut, the Plantin cartridge, to cut out leaf shapes to glue on our tree. I wrote down the things my kids said they were thankful for (and I might have given them a few suggestions). We also read a few books, and I found a few coloring pages online of pilgrims and turkeys.

And of course, we had to do a Turkey craft! I cut out the turkey using my Cricut and the Simply Charmed cartridge. Then the kids got a little crazy with the feathers.

Even my nephew had fun with a feather!

Sewing with Two Threads

2011-11-22T08:00:00.000-06:00

One of the skirts I showed you yesterday had gold thread! I was surprised to see this when I was ripping the seam out. The stitching on the original jeans was very pronounced. I was concerned how it would look if I just used tan thread like I usually do, so I thought I'd try using two threads, one tan and one gold. This was my first time, and it worked very well. First, I had to find my sewing machine attachment to allow the second thread to sit on top. For mine, it is a white plastic spool holder that just presses into a hole on the top of the machine. Then I just threaded the machine the same as always, but holding both threads together as if they were one. I used the tan thread for the bottom thread (on the bobbin). In the picture below, you can see the original stitching around the fly, and my stitching beneath it. My stitching is not quite as pronounced as the original, but I think it looks good.

Lots of Jean Skirts!

2011-11-21T08:11:00.001-06:00

I have been busy making jean skirts these past weeks. I have made 5 in the last two weeks! If you'd like to know how to turn a pair of jeans into a skirt, see my tutorial: Jean Skirt - Recycling a Pair of Jeans.

Mending a Hunting Coat

2011-11-18T13:47:00.001-06:00

Deer hunting season is almost upon us, and there has been a flurry of activity trying to get everything ready. Well, my husband has been scurrying around making sure he has everything ready. I do not hunt, I am the designated baby sitter. His hunting coat has been ripped for several years, so he asked me to fix it for him. You can see in the two pictures what needed fixing, one entire sleeve, and one velcro tab. Also not shown, was a pocket with a hole in it and some loose velcro.

I actually sewed some of the stuffing back together because it was all torn apart, and then I had to sew a zig zag stitch on top to sew the sleeve closed (I could not turn the sleeve inside out to hide my stitching). I think it turned out well. The stitching is on the under side of the arm, so no one will see it, not that the deer or other men in the hunting party will care anyway!

The tab, pocket and velcro were very easy to fix. I wonder why I didn't offer to fix his coat several years ago (it's been torn since before I met him...)

Best of luck to all the hunters out there! Stay safe!

Decorative Dish Towel

2011-11-16T14:22:00.001-06:00

I am participating in Tea Rose Home's link party this week, this is my first time, but I have spent lots of time looking at all the other great blogs that post their projects. So after you're done looking at mine, go check out some of the others!

Do you have some plain dish towels that need a little extra cuteness added? These make great little gifts too. I started with a plain white dish towel. Measure the width of your towel and add 2 inches to that. Make sure you measure each towel individually because they are not all the same. Then decide how wide you want your fabric strip to be, I chose about 3 inches. You need to double that and add 2 inches. My final dimension was 18 x 8 inches. Go to your ironing board and iron a 1 inch fold on all 4 sides, and lastly iron the whole thing in half with the long edges together. Then open your fabric back up and put your towel inside, the edge should be at the fold. Wrap the 1 inch side fold over the towel, and then fold the whole thing back up and pin. I hope that makes sense. Your fabric should be wrapped around the edge of the towel, with no towel showing, and no raw edges of fabric showing either. Sew the long edge of your fabric with a zig zag stitch, making sure that you catch the long edge of the fabric under the towel too. Then zig zag stitch the short ends. And that's it, a cute decorated dish towel. perfect for your kitchen or tucked into a cooking related gift.

Knit Fabric Headbands with Hairbows and Flowers

2011-11-15T13:26:00.001-06:00

This was a birthday present for a 7 year old girl. I made 3 knit headbands with 6 hair bows that she could attach to the headbands if she wanted to. I found the headband tutorial at Altered Cloth. It was a very easy tutorial to follow. This is a great project for using up left over knit fabric! Because my headbands were for a little girl, I decreased the length to 16 inches.

The best internet site I've found for making hair bows is Girly Things. For the pink flower clip, I just cut a fabric flower off of a bouquet that I got at the dollar store and glued it to the clip. Then I glued a rhinestone in the center to jazz it up a little. The black flower is actually crocheted, forgive the picture quality. Remember my winter flowered headband? I just followed the pattern for the flower, and then glued a black button in the middle.

Moving - Scrapbook Pages

2011-11-14T13:22:00.001-06:00

We moved to a new state in July of 2010 and I just now got around to scrapbooking our move. The part that's covered up is where we moved to. We spent the first couple weeks with family, and then in a hotel. You can see the picture of my husband on his first day of his new job. We are so thankful that we were able to move closer to family! I used the Plantin Cricut cartridge for the wording, and then the Everyday Paper Dolls cartridge for the car and suitcase.

And here's our actual move in day. We were so thankful that Kevin's new company paid for a moving truck for us. They even packed up our house for us, and then put some furniture together after unloading! The stickers on the page came from either Michael's or JoAnn's, I can't remember where I got them.

Dd - Dinosaur Homeschool Highlights in MFW

2011-11-12T21:06:00.001-06:00

We had our first snow this week! The kids were super excited to go outside and play. I love the picture below of Rebekah trying to get up!

In school, we learned the letter Dd and all about dinosaurs. Our bible verse to remember was "Big and small, God made them all". MFW included a wonderful book in the deluxe package called What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs? by John Morris and Ken Ham. It is a Christian book, explaining that the dinosaurs were created when all the rest of the animals were on day 6 of creation (in the bible). Did you know that a dinosaur is actually mentioned in the bible? Read Job 40.

I had a workbook about dinosaurs that I bought at Target for $1 last year. They had fun doing the mazes, but didn't bother with most of the other stuff.

I also found these lacing dinosaurs at Goodwill this week! I thought they would be perfect, but they proved to be a little too challenging to do by themselves, which meant melt downs...

My favorite part was making these giant stuffed stegosaurus's. They are made from paper bags stuffed with newspaper and stapled together.

We also made some dinosaur stick puppets and put on a puppet show, acting out some of the books we read.

I let them watch a Curious George movie that was completely unrelated to our school this week. George built his own boat in the movie. So, after Caleb begged me several times, I brought out our box of recyclables and let them try to build a boat. Caleb built a couple good ones, but Rebekah just really liked putting tape on a cool whip container! Then they played in the bath tub with their boats!

As usual, our lap book stuff came from DLTK and Homeschool Share. Rebekah's dog was glued on upside down... oops!

And here are our books from Dd dinosaur. We were also blessed to be able to take a day trip to a museum to see their dinosaur exhibit, even daddy was able to come! The kids loved listening to Danny and the Dinosaurs in the car on the way there... and the way home...

Click on the MFW Highlights button above to see what other MFW users have been up to this week.

Mommy / Daughter Day

2011-11-10T13:21:00.001-06:00

This past weekend my husband took Caleb hunting with him, so Rebekah and I had a whole day to ourselves. First, we went to the craft store. I bought her a scrapbook album, and then let her pick out some stickers and we found a paper pack to share. See those white stickers? She could color on them before putting them on her page! She was so excited to have her own "crafty stuff"! I usually order A LOT of pictures at one time, without planning scrapbook pages in advance. This system means I usually have pictures that don't fit on my pages, or ones that I wonder why I actually printed them? I put all these random photos in an envelope for Rebekah, and then she gets to pick the ones she likes.

And here are the pages she created with minimal help from me.

We also went to the thrift store and bought 2 puzzles, and McDonald's for lunch. Our afternoon was spent scrapbooking, doing puzzles, reading books, and I let her play on Star Fall (a rare treat since her brother always monopolizes the computer mouse and she usually only watches what he does). We had a very nice day.

I would love to hear more ideas for a mother/daughter day, what have you done with your daughters?

Thank You for Blog Award Nomination

2011-11-09T13:27:00.000-06:00

I was excited to see that my blog has been nominated for a blog award! Thank you to whoever nominated me! I've been nominated for Best Crafts, Plans & Projects! If you haven't voted yet, please go cast your vote (preferably for Simple Joy Crafting... wink, wink). There are several other categories to vote for, and a lot of blogs to check out! Happy Blogging!

Frilly Apron for a Pregnant Belly

2011-11-08T08:15:00.000-06:00

Like my frilly apron? My son told me it looked like it was from the Laura days, and it kinda does. With a pregnant belly, I really needed an apron to protect my clothes while cooking. It's so much easier to get stuff all over you when you're pregnant! I had some fabric in my stash that someone had given me, so I just used that (thanks Angel). To see a different apron I've made, click here. Would you like to make your own apron? I used the Martha Stewart pattern from my first apron to cut the top piece (the triangular one), then cut a large rectangle about 20 inches long by the width of the fabric. Then I cut two strips about 6 inches long to make the ruffle on the bottom. Lastly, two 4 inch strips long to make the straps.

First I made the straps. Iron your strips in half the long way, open and fold each side to the ironed crease and iron again. You should have 4 layers once it's all ironed, then sew the open side, turn and sew the folded side so they match. Then, I zig zag stitched around the entire top piece, and hemmed all sides except the bottom. Attach your straps where you want them.

Zig Zag the large rectangle, and then hem the sides. Sew a basting stitch on the long side of the large rectangle, and pull on one of the threads to gather it. Spread the gathers how you like them and pin before sewing. I kept most of my gathers in the middle to make room for my belly, but you could spread them out if you're not pregnant. Follow the same steps to add the ruffle on the bottom, and you're done!

Pumpkins!

2011-11-07T18:43:00.001-06:00

My mom gave each of the kids pumpkins out of her garden, thank you Grandma! I decided it was time to cook them up before they froze out on the front step. Here are pictures of Caleb and Rebekah picking out the seeds. Rebekah worked diligently at her task, Caleb mostly tried to carve his pumpkin with a spoon!

Caleb's was a really big pumpkin! Fro those of you that don't know how to cook a pumpkin, it's really easy! First you cut the pumpkin in half, quarters, or eighths like us (this depends on the size of your pumpkin). Scoop out the seeds and the pumpkin guts. Separate the seeds if you want to cook them. Put your pumpkin chunks in an oven safe pan, I used 9 x 13 cake pans. Put about an inch of water in the pans. Bake in the oven at 350 until the pumpkin is soft, usually about an hour, but longer for a giant like ours.

Here they are in the oven. This was only half of our pumpkin, the other half cooked later. Once it's cooked, just scoop out the flesh and either put it in a blender to puree it, or just smash it with a fork and put it in containers. I used ziploc freezer bags, full of 2 cups of pureed pumpkin. I ended up with a total of 23 cups. I actually put some in ice cube trays also to use in cooking (or rather hiding in my families food).

You can use your pumpkin in pies, cakes, breads, or whatever you desire. Try my Pumpkin Apple Upside Down Cake, or try Pumpkin Apple Bars (I made these this weekend and they were really good, but more cake like).

Here are our seeds, all washed and ready to be seasoned. I followed this recipe for Spiced Pumpkin Seeds. I took the recommendations of some of the commenters, and doubled the spices. They are very yummy!

Finished!

Uu - Us Homeschool Highlights in MFW

2011-11-05T14:26:00.003-05:00

This week was Uu - Us. Our bible words to remember was "God made us wonderful". We learned about our different body parts, especially focusing on our 5 senses. Here are the activities we did for each sense:

Touch: In the picture above, they were feeling a bowl of warm water and a bowl of ice water, then they stuck both hands in room temperature water. Both hands were in the same bowl, but they felt different! We also used a paper bag to put items in and then reached in and tried to guess what the item was without looking.

Hearing: We made instruments! Our tambourines were paper plates filled with dry beans, and we also made a simple guitar by putting rubber bands over a plastic box. (although I could only find 2 rubber bands, it was kind of a lame guitar!)

Sight: I put several objects on the table, and then had them close their eyes while I took one away. Then they had to guess which one I took away. For more of a challenge, I then used crayons in different colors and just moved them instead of taking them away!

Smell: I had them close their eyes while I put things in front of their noses and they tried to guess. They really loved these guessing games!

Taste: They closed their eyes while I put things on their tongues! This was a little tricky, and very funny. We tried salt, sugar, a chocolate chip, candy corn, and a teddy graham. I considered pickle juice, but I thought that might be a little mean!

Here they are painting an umbrella picture.

We continued with the blend ladder exercises this week, but Caleb doesn't like doing it at all. I try really hard to get him to focus for only 5 minutes, but he wants to play with the foam letters or bang his pencil, basically do anything but pay attention. I think this is because it's the first thing we've come to that he doesn't understand right way. It's difficult for him, so he just doesn't want to do it. I'm thank full that last week our bible words were "I don't quit, I persevere!" I've repeated them over and over! I also have the difficulty of Rebekah, who can't do the blending at all (because she's 3), but still wants me to help her do the worksheets and gets mad when I only focus on Caleb. But this was only the second week with the blending, I'm sure we'll figure it out. I know once Caleb gets it, he'll be trying to read everything!

The letter U (uncle) on our lap books came from DLTK. I think the food group activity and the sense booklet came from Homeschool Share, but I don't remember...

Lastly, the books we read.

I am linking up with Homeschool Highlights in MFW. Please go look and see what other homeschool families have been up to this past week.

All Flannel Burp Cloth

2011-11-02T17:46:00.001-05:00

I thought I would participate in Someday Crafts, Whatever Goes Wednesday link up party. This is the first time I've joined the party, but I love looking at what every one else is doing. You should go look, there are over 400 projects, recipes, inspiration, etc.

I made a simple flannel burp cloth that matches my simple flannel receiving blanket. I started with two rectangles of fabric approximately 18 x 12 inches. The size doesn't really matter, so use what you have. This is a great little project to finish up flannel scraps! With the right sides together, sew around the rectangle leaving a few inches to turn it. Once it's right side out, just top stitch around the entire thing, making sure your opening is closed. And voila, finished!

Flannel and Diaper Burp Cloth

2011-11-01T13:46:00.000-05:00

Here's another version of a burp cloth. It is a basic prefold diaper (the best burp cloth), which is then covered with soft flannel fabric. I think this dinosaur fabric is really cute! I found the tutorial here at Sew She Sews. So far I have have only made one, but I have a whole package of prefold diapers and a stack of flannel to make more. I'm thinking that a few of these would make great baby gifts too!

Crocheted Flower Headband

2011-10-31T13:57:00.001-05:00

I like to keep my ears warm in winter, but I hate how hats really mess up your hair! It's been quite a long time since I've done any crocheting, but I found this adorable pattern at Hancocks for a flowered headband. You can find the pattern here on Red Heart's website. It was very easy to crochet, I think it took me 3 episodes of Extreme Home Makeover! Even the flower was easy, although I did have to break out a book to refresh my memory of half double crochet and triple crochet. I think I might make some more flowers just to put on hair clips.

Tell me, do you like the new background? I thought it could use a makeover.

Randomness

2011-10-30T15:51:00.000-05:00

This weekend Grandma came to visit us! There was lots of joy while she was here, especially in doing puzzles. Who knew my kids loved puzzles so much. I think Caleb did this Cars puzzle at least 10 times, and Rebekah had a 24 piece Elmo puzzle that she did at least 10 times!

I also had the opportunity to teach a friend how to make a jean skirt out of old jeans. She found two pairs at Goodwill for a grand total of $5, not bad for a long jean skirt. It even has sparkles!

Lastly, here's a shirt I fixed for Rebekah. It started as a onsie! I don't know who thought it'd be a good idea to make a 4T onsie to go under a jumper. Rebekah was not pleased and refused to wear the dress with the onsie, and I can't say I blame her. I mean, how is she supposed to go potty when her shirt is buttoned between her legs??? A quick and simple fix, cut off the snaps and hem what's left.

Black Maxi Skirt

2011-10-27T12:59:00.000-05:00

I loved the gray maxi skirt I made (here) that I decided to make a black one too! I know the picture isn't the best quality, but it looks great. I adjusted my measurements and this one fits me much better. I bought the black knit fabric at Hancock Fabric for $10 (2 yards at $5/yard), and the 2 inch wide elastic was about $2, plus tax my total was only $13! Not bad for a nice black skirt. The original tutorial came from Sew Much Ado, which is a great sewing blog you should check out if you haven't yet!

Last Days in KC, MO Scrapbook Pages

2011-10-24T08:58:00.000-05:00

It was a little sad to look at the pictures of our last few days in Kansas City. I miss the people we knew, and of course we had a lot of good memories in our house. But we love our new home, new friends, new church, and our family that is much closer now! I used my Cricut to cut the letters in the title, the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge. The paper came from one of those paper packs that you can get at Micheal's or JoAnn's.

Tt - Turtle Homeschool Highlights in MFW

2011-10-21T16:45:00.001-05:00

This week was a pivotal week, we started reading (kinda). This week we started to learn how to blend letters, and read our first word "sat". Caleb was especially proud of his paper!

Our theme for the week was Tt - Turtle. Our bible words were "I don't quit, I persevere!" It was the perfect word to learn before beginning to read. I've already been telling Caleb that he's going to have to persevere!

We also illustrated this poem that we found in the teacher's manual. I was impressed that Caleb did it all himself (except for one arm of the man).

They finger painted turtles in the beginning of the week and then used them in our puppet show of "The Tortoise and the Hare". The hare puppet came from First School.

Our special snack was a marshmallow on top of a graham cracker, warmed in the microwave a tad. Then we used candy corn to make a head and legs.

The extra's in our lap books came from DLTK. I loved the Big T and Little t folders!

And lastly, all the books we read about turtles and perseverance. Caleb really like Mike Mulligan's Steam Shovel.

Scrapbook Fun

2011-10-20T12:48:00.000-05:00

I bought this 4 pocket scrapbook page quite a while ago. I made the one below right away to put in Rebekah's baby book, but I just now filled the back side of it with the pictures of all her homemade hair bows.

I also had time yesterday to make a few more pages, these are of my sister-in-laws wedding. I covered up most of their last name and wedding date so you don't get the full effect, but I think they turned out really nice.

I wanted to include a lot of pictures without using too many pages, so these are mostly just pictures.

Teething Pads for my Ergo Baby Carrier

2011-10-17T14:43:00.001-05:00

After trying several cheap baby carriers, a friend let me borrow her Ergo Baby Carrier and I fell in love. There is a wide belt that goes around your waist, and then it's like a backpack. There is no fabric between you and the baby, their legs go around your waist. The wide belt and wide padded straps means no back aches! Here's my husband carrying Rebekah on his back last month. She weighs 31 pounds and just turned 3 (although my son was a tank at that age and we wouldn't have been able to use it for him).

Back to the teething pads, can you see the pink ones on the straps in the picture above? They are to prevent the baby from chewing on the straps of you carrier. Hopefully, Rebekah didn't chew on them this day, but she did when she was smaller! So, I needed cute teething pads for a boy!Ergo baby sells them here, but for $14! We spent enough money on the actual carrier, and I knew I could sew cheaper teething pads!

Let's get started. You'll need two 5 1/2 inch strips of velcro and some fabric, flannel dinosaur fabric worked perfectly for me! The inside is white terry cloth that I had left over from some other projects. When I made the pink set, I cut up a flannel receiving blanket and a burp cloth that felt like a baby wash cloth.

Cut out two rectangles of both fabrics. You'll have to measure your baby carrier to get the proper dimensions (you can make these for a non Ergo carrier too!). My rectangles were 6 1/2 x 11.

Sew your velcro onto the right side of each piece. Make sure you sew the velcro on opposite ends of the rectangle as shown.

Pin your pieces right sides together and sew around the edge using a 1/2 inch seam allowance. Make sure your velcro is on opposite ends of your rectangle. Clip corners and turn it right side out.

Top stitch around the entire rectangle, and you are done! Repeat for the second teething pad.

Apple Pie Filling for the Freezer

2011-10-16T17:05:00.000-05:00

We have made a TON of applesauce (see here and here at the end of the post). I though I'd try apple pie filling for the rest of the apples. I followed this recipe: Freezing Apple Pie Filling, and it made 4 full bags (quart size). I think it turned out great, and I should have enough filling in each bag to fill one big apple pie and two small ones for the kids. I'd love to hear your recipes for desserts using apple pie filling though!

Thomas Birthday Cake

2011-10-14T08:00:00.000-05:00

Caleb requested another Thomas birthday cake. I wanted to do something a little more involved, but it was a busy week, so I just broke out the Wilton Thomas pan for the second year in a row. See last years here. When I was done frosting the cake, I let my kids use the extra frosting to fill the cake pan. They had a blast, and were sad when they ran out of frosting. Cake decorating lesson #1!

I can't believe I have a 5 year old!

A Love That Multiplies

2011-10-13T08:00:00.008-05:00

I just finished this book and I found it truly inspiring! There are a lot of helpful tips and just plain interesting facts about the Duggars, but the part that spoke to me is how Michelle relates to her children and how she encourages other mothers. I admire her soft spoken attitude with her children, even when they are misbehaving. She shares some sample dialogues of how she corrects her children, which has inspired me to attempt to do a better job in this area. This scripture has been speaking to my heart the last few days:

Proverbs 15:1 A slow answer turneth away wrath, but greivous words stir up anger.

I do not want to stir up anger in my children, or my husband. I need to be aware of the words I speak, and the tone of my voice as I say them. I need to remember that my attitude sets the tone of my home, and I want it to be a happy one!

Michelle also shares a poem called Continue On by Roy Lessin (see below). I never considered that my investments in my children and husband were an offering to God, an amazing revelation!

Continue On by Roy Lessin

"A woman once fretted over the usefulness of her life.
She feared she was wasting her potential being a devoted wife and mother.
She wondered if the time and energy she invested in her husband and children would make a difference.
At times she got discouraged because so much of what she did seemed to go unnoticed and unappreciated.

Is it worth it? She often wondered.
Is there something better that I could be doing with my time?

It was during one of these moments of questioning
that she heard the still small voice of her heavenly Father speak to her heart.

You are a wife and mother because that is what I have called you to be.
Much of what you do is hidden from the public eye.
But I notice.
Most of what you give is done without remuneration.
But I am your reward.

Your husband cannot be the man I have called him to be
without your support.
Your influence upon him is greater than you think
and more powerful than you will ever know.
I bless him through your service and honor him through your love.

Your children are precious to Me.
Even more precious than they are to you.
I have entrusted them to your care and to raise for Me.
What you invest in them is an offering to Me.
You may never be in the public spotlight.
But your obedience shines as a bright light before Me.
Continue on. Remember you are My servant.
Do all to please Me."

Nn - Nest Homeschool Highlights in MFW

2011-10-11T12:49:00.002-05:00

First of all, I am so thankful for this curriculum, My Father's World. It has already been such a blessing to our family. Not only are my children learning God's principles, but I am learning so much right along with them. We all need to be reminded that we are lights to the world, that we need to live and grow in Jesus, and that we need to have the fruit of the Spirit working in our lives. I now have the fruit of the Spirit memorized and have been praying about seeing more of them in my own life, as well as in my children. How amazing this journey has been! How awesome God is!

We just finished lesson 5, Nn Nest. Our bible words for this week were "God takes good care of me". We learned about bird nests, and other animal homes, and how God takes care of us like he takes care of all His creation. Here we are gathering supplies to make our own bird nests out of grass clippings and mud.

We also made chocolate birds nest, with giant marshmallow eggs!

We start each day with our calendar, and then add a number to our 100 chart. Here's Caleb counting our popsicle sticks, both kids have really learned how to count much better these past few weeks. They get excited about counting, and several times a day I have to stop and listen to them count to whatever number is on their hearts. In the car the other day Caleb counted to 72! (with just a little help).

Here we made trees with nest full of blue eggs. We used torn pieces of paper for the leaves.

Here are our lap books this week, the Nancy N on the cover, the Animal Homes book, and the cards all came from DTLK. Caleb is really getting good at his writing, and you can see that Rebekah likes to write the H on the end of her name!

Here are the books we read. Today was literature day, and we read "Are You My Mother?" My kids really liked the book, but then we tried to retell the story and make our own illustrations, which did not go well at all. Oh well. The weather has been gorgeous, so at least we were able to read outside a few days!

Remember our grapes from week 1? They finally turned into raisins! It took about 6 weeks, but they were in a windowsill that only got a few hours of afternoon sun, and they were inside the whole time. The kids were sad that they couldn't eat them.

Bunk Bed Tent

2011-10-10T09:04:00.000-05:00

I finally found something I could make for my son, Caleb! I found this tutorial on a lemon squeezy home, but I followed it very loosely. The blue fabric is actually a queen size sheet that I found at Goodwill that didn't fit on my bed like it was supposed to. I bought 1 yard of rescue truck fabric from Hancock's to add some fun for my son. Because our bunk bed has a full size bed on the bottom, I had to make the shape a little different than the tutorial's plain square one, but it wasn't hard at all. I wish I would have made it a little longer though so it would fit better around the frame. After cutting out the windows and door, I used bias tape around the blue sheet (you can see the green on the window), then I sewed a flap of rescue fabric to the top of the openings. I added velcro to the door and windows so they can be left open. For the ties, I used strips of fabric with velcro. I think I may go back and add a few more ties, you can see that it's a little droopy, especially the window area. My son loves it, and I was happy to make something special for him!

Maternity Jeans to Long Skirt

2011-10-07T08:00:00.000-05:00

These were two pairs of maternity jeans that a friend asked me to turn into long skirts for her. The bottom one has a frayed hem. Long jean skirts are perfect for the fall!

Flannel Receiving Blanket

2011-10-06T14:10:00.000-05:00

I love baby stuff! This receiving blanket started as two 40 x 40 inch squares. I just sewed around the square leaving an opening, turned it right side out, and top stitched around the whole thing closing the opening. Easy as pie!

Diaper Bag

2011-10-05T08:00:00.003-05:00

Here is my new diaper bag, I made it myself! I'm so proud of this bag, I even made my own piping! I found the tutorial on Warehouse Fabrics, Inc. after scouring the web for a good diaper bag. This bag is big and has lots of pockets! It wasn't hard to sew at all, but it takes time to cut out all the pieces, iron, and making sure every step is followed in the right order. All my fabric came from JoAnn's and is home decor fabric. I spent about $50 on all the supplies (and that's with several coupons!), but since this is baby #3, there really isn't much for me to splurge on!

As far as the tutorial, it was very easy to follow. However, I found that I needed 1 1/2 yards of the lining #1 fabric, and only 1 yard of fusible fleece, not 2 (maybe her fleece was not as wide as what I found). Then, I had two extra pieces that were not needed that she had me cut out, they were the bag sides, exterior, lining fabric #1. This could be the reason I used more fabric than called for originally. Lastly, make sure you get interfacing that is fusible, mine was not, and I spent a lot of time adding steam-a-seam!

Both sides of the bag have 2 large pockets on them. Inside, there is a main divider to keep things tidy. One side of the divider is lined with elastic pockets, there are enough to hold 6 bottles and then a larger elastic pocket to hold whatever I need. I don't ever plan on carrying 6 bottles with me, but the option is nice, and I can always fill them with other things, like diaper cream. The other side of the divider also has pockets, but not with elastic. I made two small enough to hold pens so I won't have to rummage around the bottom of the bag to find them.

Here it is with a few things stuffed inside.

Won't I look cute! I plan on making some accessories to match: a diaper/wipes case, a pacifier pouch, a wet bag for dirty clothes, and a nursing cover.

Maxi Skirt

2011-10-03T08:44:00.001-05:00

I made this maxi skirt this weekend, it took me about 2 hours from start to finish. I found the tutorial on Sew Much Ado (she has lot of other great tutorials too!). This tutorial is not for a maternity skirt, but the large waistband makes it comfortable as a maternity skirt too! Thank you to my friend Mindi for sharing this site with me. I found a gray knit sheet at Goodwill for $2, so this skirt was really cheap! I spent maybe $5 on 2 inch wide elastic, for a total of $7. I have enough fabric left over to make either a shirt, or another shorter skirt (or maybe one for Rebekah).

One thing I learned from this tutorial is to use a ball needle on your sewing machine when you're working with knits. It really helped so that the fabric wasn't pulling as much.

Remember my applesauce post? We went to visit my in-laws this weekend and picked more apples (Kevin promised to peel them all because I was sick of it!) We loved the strawberry applesauce so much, we decided to try blueberry. It's my favorite so far! I added 2 cups of blueberry's, a little less than 1 cup of sugar, and a 1/2 cup of water. If you try it, let me know how you liked it.

Aa Apple, Homeschool Highlights in MFW

2011-10-01T08:03:00.002-05:00

This week we learned the letter Aa, and about apples. Our bible words to remember were, "If I stay in Jesus, I will have much fruit". We discussed the fruit of the spirit and made fruit baskets shown below.

This on is Caleb's. He's really been loving copying letters, so he wrote "Fruit of the Spirit" himself by looking at what I wrote first on a different paper. His recent love of writing letters started with making birthday cards and writing "Happy Birthday Grandpa" on about 8 cards!

Grandma and Grandpa have an apple tree, and gave us several bags of apples. We made a lot of applesauce, click here for our recipes.

To review letter names we played a matching game outside. I put all the upper case letters at the end of the driveway, and then gave them each a lower case card. They had to run to the end of the driveway and find the match, and then run back to me. They loved it, and it was good to get them outside exercising instead of fidgeting at the school table!

I bought a few different apples at the store and we looked for their similarities and differences. We had Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, McIntosh, and Granny Smith. We also cut them different ways to see what they look like inside. Caleb's favorite apple was McIntosh.

Cuisinaire Rods went much better this week, we were able to finish the page with no screaming and crying. I've noticed that both of them have really improved during school time!

Daddy got in on the action too! Caleb woke up from his nap and requested worksheets to practice his letters! Your wish is my command! Daddy helped him spell CAT, DOG, MOMMY, and DADDY.

Here are apple trees that we made. They traced their hands for the branches, and then we used a real apple to make apple prints. (Although my kids hate to get messy, so I ended up making their apples...) The poem at the bottom was in our MFW teachers manual.

Here are all the books we read:

Then we read this book:

So we had to make an apple pie with our abundance of apples!

Now hop on over to Discover Their Gifts and see what other MFW users were doing this week.

Applesauce!

2011-09-28T13:39:00.000-05:00

My in-laws have an apple tree and shared their abundance with us. No one knows what kind of apples they are, but they are very tart, crunchy and juicy! We've made 3 crock pots full of applesauce (very full!). The first picture is of cinnamon apple sauce with raisins. Kevin and I think it's great, but the kids don't like it... My aunt gave me the recipe, here it is:

Crock Pot Applesauce
3 lbs apples (I think we used more than this though)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup raisins

Peel and chunk apples, add all ingredients to crock pot. Cook on low setting for 8-10 hours.

Note: When slicing apples, make sure you cut out all the core parts, especially the hard rounded parts that are around the seed, otherwise you'll have hard shell like things in your applesauce. (like we did on one batch)

Then we decided to try strawberry applesauce using our frozen strawberries with sugar that we have in the freezer. We used the same amount of apples, and added a 2 cup bag of strawberries with sugar. That's it, nothing else. Thankfully, the kids love the strawberry applesauce! It is more tart than the cinnamon one, so if I did it again, I would add a little bit of sugar.

Since I have an abundance of apples, I made a pan of apple raisin bars to take to our Financial Peace class. They were amazing! Here's the link to the recipe, sorry no pictures. Apple Raisin Bars I made it exactly as the recipe says, except I didn't use cream cheese in the glaze on top.

Farmall Tractor Cake

2011-09-26T08:44:00.000-05:00

Another cake! September has been a busy month for us, lots of parties! My Step Dad loves Farmall tractors, so this was a perfect cake for him. I made a 9 x 13 cake to carve the tractor out of, then 6 cupcakes for the hay bales (or hay balls according to my son), and a smaller rectangular cake for the wagon. First, I drew a tractor outline on a piece of regular computer paper and cut it out. Then I laid it on top of the cake, and cut around the picture, it worked perfectly! My son decided that he wants a tractor cake for his birthday too!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownie

2011-09-23T14:19:00.000-05:00

This is one of the best desserts ever! I've been making a lot of cakes lately, so my husband decided that he wanted something else for his birthday. He requested chocolate chip cookies and brownies with ice cream. So, I put the cookie dough in the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch pan, and then poured the brownie batter on top! I baked it about 30 minutes at 300 degrees (although my oven cooks hot, so that would be 350 in a normal oven). It's amazing! We served it with ice cream too, yum!

Ll Leaf, Homeschool Highlights in MFW, week 4

2011-09-21T15:19:00.001-05:00

This week we learned about the letter L and leaves. The bible words to remember were "I will live and grow in Jesus". In order to illustrate this concept, we plucked a leave off of the plant below to watch what happens when the leaf thinks it doesn't need to be with the plant. The plant is like God, and we are the leaves, when we stay connected to God, we will grow and flourish, but when we try to do things by ourselves, we will shrivel up and die (spiritually).

We made letter L's out of cereal.

We also drew a big tree. They were supposed to draw leaves on it, but decided to make apples instead, oh well.

Our favorite activity was going on a nature walk to collect leaves. Then we pressed them over the weekend using paper towels and books. We made leaf place mats using contact paper (which was really hard work with since we needed such a big piece). The leaves in our area have only just begun to change colors, so we had to settle for mostly green ones. We also used this site, What Tree is It?, to identify them. We discovered that the very large green ones were Planetree Maples.

Here are our lapbooks for the letter L, that is supposed to be a leopard L on the cover from DLTK's (we also found the "What begins with L?" book there too. We also made some leaf rubbings using the sides of crayons.

We actually did some Cuisenaire Rods without screaming this week! I'm hoping next week I'll even be able to discuss some of the math concept they are learning with them, this week they mostly just put the rods on the spaces.

Lastly, here are all the books we've read this week. We are fortunate to have a wonderful library here with great online services!

And that was our Ll week. Hop on over to Discover Their Gifts to see what other MFW users are doing this week.

Welcome Baby Girl Cake

2011-09-20T13:59:00.001-05:00

A pink baby girl cake! I'm impressed with my cursive writing! I usually do the block lettering because it's easier to make straight lines, but I think I did a good job. I really wanted this cake to be pink and black, but the black icing just tastes so bad. Instead, I decided to use green and yellow to match the paper plates we used! This month is a big cake month! I have two birthday cakes coming up in the next couple weeks, so keep checking back to see them.

Girly Reversible Nursing Cover

2011-09-19T09:14:00.000-05:00

I made another reversible nursing cover for a friend as a baby shower gift. She had a baby girl, so one side is a pink fabric that says baby on it. The top side is black with swirls on it. I wanted a more grown up fabric for the mother. I blogged about the first nursing cover I made here, you can find the link to the pattern I looked at there. For this one, I just did everything by memory. Now I just need to find some cute boy fabric so I can make one for myself!

Credit Card Cake - No More Debt!

2011-09-16T08:24:00.001-05:00

I made this credit card cake for our Financial Peace University class. We had an end of class celebration. I think the cake turned out great! If you have any interest in becoming debt free, learning how to budget and save money, or build wealth, you need to check out Dave Ramsey's site, here, to find a class near you. It will change your life and truly give you financial peace!

Homeschool Highlights in MFW: Week 3

2011-09-13T08:10:00.001-05:00

I am linking up again with the Homeschool Highlights in MFW. We are in kindergarten, on the Mm Moon lesson. This has been our best unit yet. I love the bible words to remember "I am the light of the world". We talked about how Jesus is like the sun and we are like the moon, we reflect His love onto other people, just like the moon reflects the sun. We made moon cookies to share with our neighbors to shine some of Jesus' light on them! The picture below is them making phases of the moon cards.

Every day we add a number to our 100 chart, and add a stick to our 100 cup. Yesterday we added number 10 and bundled them in a rubber band.

This was their favorite tactile activity we've ever done! They have asked to do it every day since! It's just shaving cream. After practicing a few Mm's, they made construction sites (I think their hands were the bulldozers!).

This was not during school time, and Rebekah is not supposed to be on the arm of the couch, but I thought it was so cute that they were reading together. After I took the picture I made Rebekah get off the arm!

This was our favorite activity! We made a space ship out of a big wardrobe box we had left from our move. It was such a beautiful day, we built it out on the deck. Once it was built, we pretended it was headed for the moon. After blast off, I had them look out the window while I held up the globe, they were so far from the earth that it looked little!

Complete with controls inside!

Once we got to the moon, we space walked and measured how high we could jump. Then we made moon craters in the sand box and added moon rocks (and didn't you know the moon has moon pine cones!). We also added a flag to say we had been to the moon!

We were able to have a big nature walk with daddy this weekend too. We went to a nearby state park and hiked on a few trails, and climbed an observation tower.

Here they are painting to the song "Spring" by Vivaldi. They were supposed to be painting a spring picture, so we called them spring thunderstorms (my sons idea).

Their finished paintings:

Our mostly finished lapbooks. You can also see the backside of last weeks letter S lapbook. The M - Marshall on the cover is from DLTK's Alphabuddies.

The moon poem on the cover, the Mm book and the Let it Shine Light Bulb book are all from Homeschool Share in the lap book section. On each light bulb book page, we wrote what we could do to let our light shine on others, like making cookies and helping people with their work.

Lastly, here are the books we have read, or will read today. We are going to read Mooncake and then make a moon cake, and we are also going to read Happy Birthday Moon today and make paper hats!

Yet Another Jean Skirt

2011-09-12T15:37:00.000-05:00

I fixed another jean skirt for a friend. This one had a slit in the back that ripped, so I had to cut the skirt off at the rip and add some length. I added a straight piece, and then a little ruffle. I was a little nervous about the bottom add on being too light, but my friend said she liked it, yeah! (Hopefully, she wasn't lying!)

Today's Simple Joys
Church - How blessed we are to be able to worship Jesus with other believers, still thinking about the power of God I felt last night!
Zucchini Bread - I've made 3 batches today, some with raisins, butterscotch chips, and chocolate chips!
Electricity - Our power just cut out twice a little bit ago. With zucchini bread half done in the oven, I'm glad it came back, and that it's always there!
My Kids - I just put a picture of them right next to my computer, they are laughing, and I can't keep from looking at it and smiling!

Rainbow & Flower Birthday Cake

2011-09-09T15:06:00.000-05:00

Here is Rebekah's 3rd birthday cake. She requested a rainbow and flowers. The front has her name and the number 3, and the back side says "Happy Birthday". The bottom picture is right before we lit her candles!

Baby Doll Jumpers, Tights and Shirt

2011-09-08T08:24:00.000-05:00

Aren't these dresses just adorable! I made them to match dresses that I made my daughter. I made the patterns for the dolls exactly like I made my daughters and followed the same directions, see here. The first time I made the jumper pattern though, I forgot to make the armholes! I didn't realize it until the dress was almost done and I went to put it on the doll, oops!

For the tights and shirt, I bought this Simplicity doll clothes pattern. The tights were really easy, but you have to use a two way stretch material, which can be difficult to work with. I actually got it stuck in my machine and thought I broke my machine! Fortunately, my mechanical engineering degree came in handy and I was able to fix it myself. The little shirt I made was also fairly easy. The pattern gives directions for what part to sew first and in what order, like hemming the sleeves before you sew them to the shirt, nice! I actually bought the pattern because I wanted to make the pajamas, but I ran out of time. Looks like I have an option for Christmas!

Jumpers Made for a Little Girl

2011-09-06T14:47:00.000-05:00

This is jumper #1. It's made out of a purple denim fabric that I scored at a thrift store for only $1, along with the pink one below (and there's enough material left over of both to make several more things)! Below is jumper #2.

I made my own pattern for this dress. I started by taping several pieces of paper together, and then laid a jumper that currently fits my daughter on it. I traced the jumper, then added about 1 inch to the sides. I used an inch because I was adding a 1/2 inch seam allowance, and making the dress a 1/2 inch larger in each direction.

Here is a close up of my pattern. I extended the straps upwards, and drew in the front neck line.

When cutting out my fabric, I used the same pattern for both the front and back. I just folded down the straps for the front, and then used my drawn front neckline to redraw it on the fabric.

Pinned together and ready to sew! Before I began sewing, I zig zag stitched around both pieces completely, this was to prevent fraying. Then I sewed the two pieces together.

You can see in the picture below that I put a hem around the top of the dress, the arm holes, neckline, and straps. Then I folded my straps down until they were the desired length and pinned them in place.

Next came button holes and buttons. I have become a pro at using making button holes with my machine! I found these adorable heart buttons at Walmart.

For the pink dress, I added a pocket on the front, which was just a square of fabric. And finished!

For the purple dress, I added a ruffle to the bottom, and ribbon around the waist (with a bow). The ribbon was simply something I had in my stash of stuff. I had to hand sew the bow on. Here's it is finished:

Come back tomorrow to see how I made matching dresses for her baby doll!

Mommy Daughter Scrapbook Date

2011-09-03T13:14:00.000-05:00

Today I had a scrapbooking date with my daughter. She was so excited to use mommy's special paper and stickers (although I gave her the paper and stickers that I didn't really care for, shh). She made three pages of her own. I gave her all the extra pictures that I didn't have room for in our family scrapbook, and she went to town. Here's what she made:

I was able to create two pages in between helping her.