Cold Buster's

I've been a little under the weather lately. Maybe I can't really say that cause it is in the 90's down here, but my recent best friend has been my tissue box. A few weeks ago at church a friend had pulled out her tissues to share during one of those touching moments and she had an adorable cover over it. So simple, yet cute. I figured this was a perfect opportunity to make my own. The tutorial is here. I mitered the corners to give it more of a fitted look.

Pretty in Purple

The Small Fry was having trouble with her dresses- she was getting bigger and they were getting smaller. For a girl who could live 24/7 in a dress, this was a travesty. In a less than brilliant move, Mom took her to Walmart to pick out fabric. Small children and Walmart (especially when you have to wait forever for someone to be paged three times to the fabric counter to cut) are not a good combination. Fortunately, we all survived. I am claiming success because her big brother told her she was a "princess" (I didn't even know he knew that word). He also gave her a kiss. I think that is a first.

This would be the Butterick 3350, view E dress. I did add the middle bow, sort of. The pattern called for ties in the back out of the same fabric as the body of the dress. I merely made them out of the accent fabric and added a front stripe.

Letting Loose My Inner Seuss

I chose to use images and text from classic Seuss. My inspiration? One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and Green Eggs and Ham.
So here it is:

Puzzle Pouches

Problem: My children like to dump their puzzles on the floor and make a big mess
Solution: the wonderful people at the public library in Ogden Utah were the inspiration for these bags. They check out puzzles in ones that look very similar (just theirs are blue and black). I took some plastic sheeting (Walmart or Jo-Ann's), fabric, zipper, and bias tape, put them together, and hopefully won't have to constantly pick up puzzle pieces. It is a beautiful thing using the right tools for the job. This is the first time I have had a zipper foot. I also haven't had a rotary cutter and mat until this week (That also came in handy for the I Spy bag).

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Green omelets with Shamrock toast (I just took a cookie cutter to the already toasted toast and some food die to the eggs- easy but cute).

A fun simple treat. I put gold colored candies in the cups, covered them with pistachio (or any green) pudding, topped with whipped cream, and added some candy shamrocks that I had freehanded with green candy melts.

I Spy (Noah's Ark)

In a never ending attempt to keep my children quiet during church I made them an I Spy bag. Hopefully it works.

There is a pocket on the back to hold the picture card, but my camera failed me in my attempt to document it. Which might actually be better. I made it out of the same felt as the background, but if I was to do it over again, I think I would use the clear plastic instead.

Now how to make your own you wonder. Very simple. You get the plastic sheeting (Wal-Mart. I promise they don't sponsor my crafting, but they should). You take a scrap of felt. For this one, I cut out one sheet of plastic 5"x7", and two pieces of felt the same size. On one of the felt pieces I cut a "window" out leaving a 1" border. I then sewed it to the plastic. I actually just used my window piece of felt and sewed it on the back of the other piece of felt to make a pocket (note: use plastic instead so that the pictures will be visible). Then I sewed the two pieces of fabric together (right sides together), leaving an opening with which to turn the fabric out and fill with plastic bead things. I also sewed a strip of ribbon in to attach a picture card. For the card, I took pictures of some buttons, pulled them into Word where I created a card, printed them off on photo paper twice, and laminated two pictures back to back. I punched a hole and ran the ribbon thru and sewed it closed. The bag a I filled with the beads (these I found at Jo-Ann's in the doll stuffing section. Not the main section with stuffing and foam, but the crafting section.) and slip stitched closed. Because I had extra buttons, I sewed the ark on the outside for extra decoration. I also put a turtle on my ribbon (before I sewed it up) just for fun.