The Ornaments

Last Christmas my best friend and I decided we would bake cookies as gifts. We planned a 'Cookie Day' which included baking and eating lots of cookies and drinking lots of wine. Our 'cookie DAY' quickly turned into a cookie WEEK as neither of us realized how much time making, baking and wrapping (and eating!) a gazillion dozen cookies took! We did have a LOT of fun doing it and the cookies were a HUGE hit!
Here is a picture of our results:

I think we ended up with 8 or so of these platters? 

So, this year will be our second annual cookie baking WEEK and I got to thinking, this is a nice gift, but once it is gone, it's gone. Around the same time I started noticing DIY ornament tutorials on Pinterest and various blogs I follow. THEN my Mom informed me that she wanted to 'order' a few platters of cookies to give as gifts. Soooo... I put all this information together and came up with the idea of sewing ornaments to attach to the cookie platters. I figure that the ornaments will not only make part of the gift keep-able but if I make them for my best friend's platters along with my own, it will cover the extra work we will endure, (read: fun we will have) making extra platters for my Mom, along with our own.



Here are the ornaments I have made so far, the links to where I got the ideas and/or tutorials are in the caption of each image:

I think my favorites are the coco and the gingerbread house. <3

The Candy Cane, Bell & Star
Ornaments come from HERE. 

The Candy Cane, Bell & Star
Ornaments come from HERE. 

The half eaten Gingerbread Guys are from HERE. 

The Peppermint comes from HERE. 

The Snowman & Mitten come from HERE. 

This one was a lot of stitch work  and quite time consuming for me,
so I gave it to my best friend as a gift as she has and loves horses.
The original is HERE. 

The Hot Cocoa and Marshmallows come from HERE. 

This Reindeer came from HERE.

The Ballet Slippers came from HERE. 

The Gingerbread House came from HERE. 

These guys were adapted from HERE. 

Needless to say, I've been quite busy, and enjoying every minute of it!  I hope the ornaments are a hit this year and i'm looking forward to COOKIE WEEK!!! 

The Sewing Machine Pad & The Name Discussion

I have been looking for a while for a pad to go under my sewing machine, with pockets that don't look like pockets (yes, I have a two year old that likes to touch all my stuff!) and I recently came across this PIN which will eventually lead you to BLOOM. 
Bloom is a great site with lots of neat projects and even a few free ones. 

I did purchase the 'pattern' for this project, in .pdf format. I was a bit disappointed in it though. It wasn't a pattern at all, it was instructions. Cut two of this size and one of this size, etc... I wanted an actual pattern, you know, the ones you cut out and pin to your fabric? *Sigh* oh well. 

So here is my finished sewing machine pad and thankfully, my two year old has NOT realized there are pockets in it yet (YET) !

I did remove the pencil, as that would have been a dead giveaway! 

The pockets start where the bright green binding is

Laid out flat.

It came out great! I didn't make the matching thread basket, as I already have one. I would like to eventually make a matching cover for my machine - I seriously dislike the one that came with my machine - but I won't be buying the matching 'instructions'. I think i'll wing it... which brings me to my next subject....

When I started this little blog, I really thought I would make a few things, fail miserably at it and give it all up. I've quickly realized that it isn't quite going in that direction at all. I'm way craftier than I ever thought I would be and I LOVE doing projects!!! I'm certainly not great at this sewing stuff, but with lots and lots more practice I may not be too shabby at it. Certainly not Uncrafty. 
So... the point you ask? 
I need a new name for my blog.
I have a few ideas but am not sure how they would work or if there are other blogs by the same name so I've got to do some research.
I would LOVE to hear from you!!! 
Any and all suggestions will be greatly appreciated!!!

You can post below or send me an email here

The Halloween Costumes

I found this AMAZING blog called "Whitney Sews" and she had some really easy tutorials on how to make a bow and a circle skirt, which is exactly what I was looking for for my Minnie Mouse costume! I added a layer of tulle under the skirt, and made a matching scarf to complete the outfit.

For my husband, I TRIED dyeing a pair of white pants red but they came out VERY PINK, so I just sewed some red felt over the pants and added the white circles.

Here's a picture:

Mickey & Minnie Mouse!

I think I added a bit too much tulle, as I felt much puffier that I wanted to feel! But all in all, I think the costumes came out pretty good and together they cost me under $40.00! (would have been less if I skipped the dye step)


Here is the PIN
and here is the website for "Whitney Sews"

The Magic Wands

I have a good friend who has two adorable little girls, twins, who are 2 days older than Collin, so they just had a birthday. I wasn't able to make their party as my little one was under the weather BUT I made these cute little wands for them:

They were soooo fun to make!!!

I got the idea HERE but I made my own template for the shapes and I think they came out pretty good. I can't wait to give them to the girls!!! 

In The Works...

I find absolutely AMAZING that I went from not ever having any craft projects going on to having MULTIPLE projects going on at a time! 
HOW did that happen? 
WHEN did that happen? 
WHY did... haha, just kidding.... 

Any who, here are some glimpses as to what's going on in my "Uncrafty" world.... 
Can you guess what they are going to be?

This is ECHO, one of our two kitties.
She LOVES my projects! 

I didn't have any paper to make my pattern out of,
so I used the next best thing - wrapping paper!
When without, improvise!

*****************************************************************

I went with greens and browns* as this project,
when finished,
 will reside in my living room
where I have a brown couch and lots and lots of green plants.

Fancy, huh? I didn't think I could do this!!! 

Stay tuned! I'll post the completed projects as I finish them! 

* Why can't I do BROWN text? Am I missing something - are the other colors hiding somewhere? 

   All you blogger people - help?!

The Embroidery Hoop Fabric Storage Bags

So I have come to the conclusion that I am not very good at measurements. 
It seems that no matter how many times I check, i'm always still off by a little bit. 

I made these adorable storage bags, partially because I can use all the storage space I can get, and partially because they were just so cute!

LOVE the one on the right!
HATE the one on the left!

8JBVAWRSE774


As you can see, the bag on the right came out pretty good! I was pretty proud of that one!!! Unfortunately, and maybe because I was full of myself from making the right one so well, or maybe because I was yet again rushing, the second one came out quite lopsided. *sigh* I really did think I was doing it the exact same way as the first one, but obviously not. 

Here is a shot of where I put them
                                          - one of the only blank spaces left on my wall :)

This is my computer/storage area.
My sewing machine sits to the right.

I actually did make three bags and the last one came out as well as the first BUT when I went to Joann Fabrics yesterday to get the embroidery hoops, there were only two in the whole store (of course). haha :)

Maybe I wasn't meant to hang the lopsided one?


You can view the original pin HERE.
This pin originates from Always a Project, written by Rachel
Thank you Rachel for the inspiration!!! 

The COMPLETED Quiet Book!

Last night, as my husband and I watched 'The Secret" again, I finished my very first attempt at a Quiet Book! Whoot! Whoot! *BIG grin*

It really did come out good and i'm pretty proud of it! :-) I don't have any pictures of it being played with yet as my youngest turns two years old in only seventeen more days, I put The Quiet Book away and will give it to him as part of his birthday gift. 

I look back over my first few posts about making the Quiet Book and realized that I didn't make nearly as many pages as I wanted to make... but you know what that means, right?! It means there must be a Quiet Book #2!!! *giggle!*

I did add a page or two that I haven't blogged about and they are pictured below with the pictures of the finished product! 

I'd love to hear what you all think!!!

TA DA!!!!!!

This was an adaption from Imagine Our Life's Site - check her out - she's amazing!!!
I used a pair of my 12 year old's outgrown jeans for the pockets. 

Here is the Letters Page - Yes, Our last name is still missing one letter "L"
but I do have a third set of letters to finish making as his name has THREE L's! 

SIGH. This was my only BIG oops. See it? SIGH
Putting the pages together was pretty confusing to me. Is there a way to mark them better?
I tried so hard to get them right and this was my only error.

Colors and shapes! More info HERE

The FARM page and the SEASONS page! 

The BUCKLES Page (My little one LOVES buckles!) and the MAIL Page
For the buckles page, I cut up a set of overalls that my little one outgrew
and an old cat harness that my cat refuses to use.

My Awesome Mom gave me these little thingies with: "Made with Tender Loving
Care by Jessica Trabulsie" on them when she gave me my sewing machine and they are just sooo cute!!!

Please check out the links above to see where the ideas and templates came from for each page!!! And stay tuned for my next project!!! :)

The Quiet Book - The Mail Page

This page was so much fun to do! 

My favorite part is the little letters. I printed them out on PRINTER FABRIC! 
I didn't even know they HAD any such thing!!! WAY too cool! Defiantly going to use it again!

No snags with this page... it was pretty easy, thanks to the template and detailed instructions from Stephanie from Imagine Our Life who is SO very very talented! My page isn't as neat and crisp and professional looking as hers is, but I am pleased with it. 

Here are the pictures:

The mailbox on the page

You've got mail!

The front of the envelopes

Back of the envelopes

Letters in envelopes

My favorite part! The little letters!

Cute, huh? I love this page!!!! 

I would HIGHLY suggest checking out Stephanie's blog at Imagine Our Life even if you have no desire to make one of these books. Her imagination and talent is a sight to see! The pages she designs are so amazing!!! Thanks Stephanie for all your inspiration!!! 

The Gift Of Money

My oldest turned 19 years old the other day. (writing that statement and seeing it in print doesn't make it feel possible or the least bit real!) 

I had a really hard time deciding what to give her for this year's birthday. I really love giving sentimental gifts so at first, I thought that even thought I knew she wanted it, cash was out. I considered gift certificates, gift baskets, handmade gifts, etc... but kept coming back to the cash.

THEN as usually happens, PINTEREST came to my rescue!!! 

I found THIS pin, and got to work!

I used a small kleenex box and some leftover red satin fabric left over from The Quiet Book - The Barn Page, to wrap it and some pretty colorful ribbon. Here is what it looked like:

See the little tag that says 'Pull'?

Fabric is NOT easy to use as wrapping paper! 

I think she liked it... it was soooo fun to watch her pull out all that money!!! I taped 70ish ones end to end with scotch tape and rolled them all together. Here are some photos of her pulling and pulling and pulling:

As you can see, she seemed to enjoy the fun and so did my 12 year old. :) My husband and I got quite a kick out of watching this! I wish I could have put in a few hundred dollars!!! haha!

So, Thank you to LOVEZILLA for your idea!!! What fun!!!