Scrap Challenge: Soft Snake

Steve loves snakes.

I do not.

He wants to own one one day, like in our house.

I do not.

This is as close as we're ever going to get. Inspired by this tutorial which you have to buy and I was too cheap. I like how it came out but I wish I hadn't cut the tongue so short. Oh well. I just made one long strip of 8 inch wide pieces and then sewed it into a tube, tapering as I went to create the tail. Then I seam ripped a couple of holes along the seam to stuff it easier. Hand sewed them closed and done. I also prearranged all the fabric strips so I liked the color flow and patterns. Henry doesn't love it yet. He has dragged it around a little bit but when I tried to drape it on him for a picture he wasn't having it. For the mouth I just improvised with some felt cut into rectangles and wool felt eyes and tongue.

Scrap Challenge: Fabric Balls

Henry is a true little boy. He loves cars, wheels, and balls. So naturally the scrap challenge would cause me to remember this tutorial and pattern from the purlbee on making beach balls.

Again I scrounged through the scrap bins and pulled out coordinating fabrics. I cut out my pattern, cut the pieces using a rotary cutter and mat and was delighted with how easily they came together. To make it fun I used an array of colors, patterns and textures. I had corduroy, suiting, thicker cottons and sheeting all mixed together. There is even a bit of one of Steve's old shirts in there. I stuck with the large and medium sizes. Sew the biggest one you intend on making first, I thought the bigger one was easier to piece together until I got the hang of it.
As you can see I couldn't stop at just making one so I made five.
Action Shot!
Henry loves them. He'll throw one and scream. And then you hand it back to him and he'll do it over and over again. Or tonight we came up with a new game. He sat on the couch and we tried to keep all the balls on the couch while he pushed them off. It was hilarious. We were all laughing and out of breath. Plus they are super soft so you don't feel bad when you (accidentally) hit him in the head.

Scrap Challenge: Fabric Matching Game

Our regular scheduled programming (Refashion Tuesday) will commence again next week in honor of the Scrap Challenge. Sorry for any inconvenience this might have caused.
Round Two of the Scrap Challenge. So far I am making a lot of progress on cleaning out the bins. The only problem is, the last project and this one took up very little fabric. But oh well.

While searching on Pinterest for some brilliant way to use scraps I found this matching game. Perfect. I have a large variety of patterns and this is a great way to keep those small pieces I love.

Again, here is the tutorial but I will share some tips from my experience.-I used both black and white paper (I made two sets and used what I had on hand) the white looks way better. It really brightens and unifies.
-For white paper, I just used a bunch of ugly scrapbook paper I had that was Asian themed but white on the back. Its a great way to use more stuff you have but will never use and should get rid of.
-In the tutorial she describes how she just glued everything together and knew it would not last forever. I took it one step further and decided to laminate my cards.
Pros for Laminating: last a long time, faster than really gluing securely
Cons for Laminating: you lose the charm of being able to feel the fabric, if the laminating gets messed up you are stuck with a sub par product, if you chose to hot glue your fabric quickly in place, the laminater will melt it through the fabric and you'll be able to see it (Note: Exhibit A), it could get expensive fast. (Exhibit A: Hot glue through the thin cotton fabric. Also badly chipped trucker nails. Please excuse me.)

Overall I am happy with how it turned out. I would do things a little differently next time. Next time, no laminating. I would just sew around the edges of the cards on my machine. To finish it off, I made another drawstring bag out of scraps to store it in and made Steve play me to see if it works. It does and I won.

Scrap Challenge: ABC

So I have a lot of scrap fabric. Four bins to be exact. WAY TOO MUCH for a normal person and even TOO MUCH for a crafter. So in the spirit of cleaning out stuff, like closets and such, I have started a Scrap Challenge. It is a personal challenge, no one else is involved. Just me and my fabric. The goal: from four boxes to one and a half. Why half? So I have room to keep some fabric going forward. So the first thing I did was examine my soul. It was kind of deep. I have serious hoarding issues when it comes to clothing and fabric. I have emotional attachments to these things until they become a burden. Case in point: Who feels they need to keep tiny little bits of wool felt? I do. I might need it one day. Lame. So its time to get real and clean it out.

After you look into your soul and realize you can't let the box of scraps ruin your life, you'll need a diet coke. Drink in hand, I began to brainstorm all the projects I could do and wanted to do with my scraps. I searched pinterest, bookmarks and came up with a list.

Here it is:So this week we're kicking off the challenge with a new project everyday. And over the course of the next months you will hopefully see all of these things come to fruition.
Getting down to business I first went through all the scraps and tossed about half of them. If I couldn't envision using it in one of the projects I threw it away. It felt great. Then I went through and sorted for the first project. I saw this plush alphabet on Pinterest and thought it would be a perfect use of tiny pieces that I loved. The link has complete tutorial plus template download for free.
I chose to do one set of the ABC's in rainbow and then I made another set plus extra vowels. I also opted to make them magnets since I thought that could be fun but I didn't use a circular magnet. I knew Henry would be able to pop a bigger magnet out and swallow it. Instead I cut small squares from a magnet sheet I have had since high school. No joke. I have moved that thing like 12 times and finally am using it. I also did solid white backs on all the letters instead of a patterned fabric. If it is a magnet, who is going to see the back?
I love the way it turned out. And Henry loves it too. He likes to take them all out of the bag and place them on the ground, color side up. I made a small drawstring bag from more scraps (!) and now have them stored away until Henry is a little older and can use it properly. Since I have some magnet sheet left I think I am going to do numbers and maybe some figures like people and cars and trees. We will see where the scraps take me. Oh and my friend Emily also made these but made her set HUGE and I am a little jealous of how much I like them. So if you are going to do this project give "bigger" a thought.
So has anyone ever used magnetic paint? I want to have a place for Henry to eventually play with his magnets that isn't in the kitchen. Our kitchen is narrow and I have a feeling it would just be too tempting to not stuff all my hard work under the fridge.

And finally a big thank you to Andrea for helping me cut them out on the drive to Myrtle Beach!

Girl's Weekend: Myrtle Beach

Where do you begin when you had a wonderful weekend? I was hesitant with the thought of two 5 1/2 hour drives to spend one day at the beach but with such fun company and conversation, the drive sped by. The first day was a little overcast but warm. No sweating! which was nice. The water was pleasant and the sand was soft. Our hotel was right on the beach and had a pool and a lazy river.
After lounging, we showered and went to dinner at P.F. Changs. We ate dinner at 9:30 pm, I don't know the last time I have had dinner past 6:00. We talked late into the night and walked on the beach in the moonlight. Sounds kind of romantic for a girl's weekend.
Saturday we got up early and settled on the beach again. Alternating between beach, ocean and pools we lazed the day away finally leaving for home at 4:00. I tried to enjoy it as much as I could because a weekend at the beach is so not Steve's vacation style. The Girls: me, Sara, Stacey, Stephanie, Wendy, Emily and Andrea

Hope you have a great weekend! Stay tuned next week for a super fun project.

Father's Day

For Father's Day, I gave Steve the ultimate gift of having him take care of Henry alone for two days. Arriving home late Saturday night, I was glad that I had prepared ahead of time and had a roast in the freezer. We kept it low key but we still wanted Steve to know what a wonderful dad he is, I mean how many men would just let their wife leave for a whole weekend like that?
Henry's first day of nursery also was Sunday and he walked right in, didn't even give us a second thought and was fine the whole two hours. He even decorated this tie for Steve that says I love (heart) you. Of course, his only real decorations were tiny little faint scribbles but it was cute nonetheless.
See how proud he is of it. I'm so glad nursery was a success and now I have to remember how to sit through three hours of church again without an excuse to leave Sunday School. Being in the R.S presidency, we put together something for the fathers in our ward. I guess in years past they haven't received anything. Lame. So I made 50 huge CD sized chocolate chip cookies, packaged them in cd holders (an idea from Pinterest) with a Happy Father's Day sticker on the back. The men loved the geeky tech reference and the cookies got rave reviews. Find the recipe here.

After church Steve let me nap all afternoon and then we had dinner and relaxed. Even though I didn't do much for him, Steve knows what a wonderful father I think he is and nothing makes me happier than to see my boys together.

Eaten: Sausage and Mushroom Lasagna

I love lasagna but I have not always loved the way I make it. I just kind of have thrown it together in the past and I never felt like it was great. It was usually dry. So when I saw this recipe, I thought "Why not? It can't be worse than my usual." It was amazing. The meat sauce was so thick and delicious, I was eating it straight out of the pot. And I loved the fewer layers of noodles. Yum. I also kind of doubled it and made enough to freeze. Here is the recipe from Joelen with my modifications.

Sausage & Mushroom Lasagna
recipe adapted from AllRecipes

1 pound sweet Italian sausage

1 pound lean ground beef (I used ground turkey)
3-4 large portobello mushrooms, diced (I used one box of the button mushrooms)

1 large onion, minced

4 cloves garlic, crushed

1 (15 ounce) can crushed tomatoes (instead of half crushed and half diced, I used 30 ounces of crushed)
1 (15 ounce) can diced tomatoes

2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste

2 (6.5 ounce) cans canned tomato sauce

1/2 cup water

2 tablespoons white sugar

1/2 cup fresh basil leaves (I used dried basil)

1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds (I left this out)

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

1 tablespoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley + more for garnish (I left this out because I forgot to buy it)

12 lasagna noodles (I used 16 and put 8 in each 8x8" pan so I could freeze one)

16 ounces ricotta cheese (I used low fat)

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 pound mozzarella cheese, shredded

3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Fill a large pot with hot tap water. Place dry lasagna noodles in the water and soak for 20-30 minutes. While noodles are soaking, prepare the meat sauce. (So nice, you don't have to boil water especially in the summer.)

To prepare the meat sauce, in a Dutch oven, cook sausage, ground beef, mushrooms, onion, and garlic over medium heat until well browned. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. Season with sugar, basil, fennel seeds, Italian seasoning, 1 tablespoon salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons parsley. Remove, from heat, stir and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese with egg, remaining parsley, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

To assemble, spread 1 1/2 cups of meat sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. (To make two 8x8's I used 4 noodles for each layer in two separate pans.) Arrange 6 noodles lengthwise over meat sauce. Spread with one half of the ricotta cheese mixture. Top with a third of mozzarella cheese. Spoon 1 1/2 cups meat sauce over mozzarella, and sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Repeat layers, and top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Cover with foil: to prevent sticking, either spray foil with cooking spray, or make sure the foil does not touch the cheese. Chill the lasagna for at least 3 hours or overnight for better flavor.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Bake chilled lasagna in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes. Remove foil, and bake an additional 25-30minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before serving. Garnish with chopped parsley if desired.

Refashion: Two Tees into One

So even though it has taken me about two days of naps to recover from my girls weekend, we had a blast and I am just waiting for the pictures to share. So for now, more refashions.

The next two shirts were in my clean out my closet stack. The tank is from Forever 21 and I loved the huge bright flower but I hated wearing it because I had to layer something over and under it. Too much work to make a tank work. Also I had this shirt that I loved when I was pregnant but is now too long and has a hole in it. Cheap H&M: love it and hate it. They were stacked together in my pile and I liked the color combo, so I thought I would make it work. I cut out the flower from the tank, used a little heat n bond to iron it to the shirt. Stitched around the design on my machine and...
Done! I even placed the flower over the hole so that took care of that problem too.

Weekend Away

Its Friday and by the time you are reading this, I will be on my way to Myrtle Beach for a much needed girl's weekend. I'm leaving my boys behind. I have a swimsuit, my huge hat, a stack of reading material and my ipod has been updated. See you Monday!

Image from Pinterest

Cardboard City Block Tunnel

Remember how months ago I made this cardboard house for Henry? Well the original idea had been something else completely but I hadn't gathered enough boxes yet. My mom and I had been brainstorming all the fun things you could do with cardboard and the city block tunnel was born. After sitting on the idea for weeks, I finally finished it and I love it! Here is what I did:

First, figure out where you are going to put it, this will determine how many boxes you'll need. Get your boxes. You'll also need an exacto knife, (I got a new blade for my knife and it is a miracle, so much better!) packing tape, butcher paper, paint, brushes and markers. Total Cost: FREE (I had everything on hand)After I had all my boxes assembled, I began to cut out the central tunnel. I just kind of guessed what size hole Henry would need and went from there. My first cardboard cut out piece I used as a template for the rest of the holes so they would all match up for easy taping purposes. I cut window holes and a front entrance as I knew I'd be placing this in a corner in Henry's room. Once everything was cut, I lined the boxes up and taped them together on the inside. Any way will work as long as it is secure.
I made sure to tape over any areas that might be rough, like freshly cut holes and interior flaps. Henry hangs out mostly in shorts and onesies and I didn't want his little legs to get all scraped up.
My second story box wasn't wide enough, so I problem solved by folding it to make it a six sided polygon. I also trimmed the bottom flaps so it would rest on the first story box.
After taping the circular box to the top, I cut out the middle hole. See.
The shape is done, complete with tower and second story windows. Now, Henry and some friends had plenty of fun playing in it just like this but the next steps really do add more magic.
Once I had everything the shape I wanted, I covered the non-brown boxes with craft paper. I am pretty sure you could just buy butcher paper at any craft store. Mine I had from a fabric order. If you were smart, not like me, you would cover your boxes before you tape them together and cut windows. I am just saying, it might be easier than my method of unplanned madness.
I am pretty pleased with the results, if I do say so myself. I used basic acrylic craft paint and filled in small details with sharpies. Spray paint was my first thought on covering the boxes but cardboard soaks up spray paint like no other, just a heads up.
beckie's bakery serves up cakes and baguettes. I like the decor of bunting and a cupcake on the door.
Steve's Reads, the ultimate place for primary colored book bindings. But the bricks are cool and the box taped to the top allows Henry to drop things into the tunnel from above.
Henry's Toy Chest complete with teddy bear, mobile, blocks and colorful balls.
Clark Tower. It kind of looks like a parking garage but it was the last one I painted and I was tired and out of ideas.
And he loves it. I have it in his room now and every once in awhile I will hear him crawling through it and it just warms my heart to think he likes and appreciates something I have made for him.
Let me know if you have any questions on making your own tunnel. I just love cardboard!

Zoo Atlanta

We went to the Zoo Atlanta last Saturday with our friends and neighbors, the Gleasons. We scored a free family pass by going to the library, attempting to watch a video about the zoo, failing because of technical difficulties and then asking the librarian if she would just give us the passes for our valiant effort, which she did! Zoo Atlanta is way better than the Hogle Zoo and the best zoo I have been to in years, although I don't think it would have been worth the $42. Yikes.
Henry especially loved the petting zoo action and ran right up to a goat and pulled its ear. He then pet a lamb and stared at some baby goats eating. Fearless kid!
He also enjoyed watching playful lemurs and the baby panda bears. Most of the time he spent in his stroller but we got him out to walk around and see the sights from a better vantage point. When he was free, he would run away and try to push stranger's strollers. We have to work on that one.
Steve was excited to learn that Atlanta has the largest gorilla habitat in North America. Gorillas are his favorite besides the Reptile House.
It made me so happy to see this large pretty area for the giraffes. Hogle Zoo's concrete cage makes me want to cry. We got to the zoo early to beat the heat and it was pretty pleasant weather-wise. Don't get me wrong, I was sweaty but I wasn't about to die. There was plenty of shade and AC spots to ease the warmth. We ended the morning in the playground to eat lunch before we went home. Henry went down the slide twice by himself. Fearless.