Christmas Ornaments

This past Christmas I wanted to make our yearly Christmas ornaments. This is the first year Adison is able to enjoy Christmas, not being an infant and she helped me a bit. (Her “helping” was having fun shaking up the bulbs and making all the beads and stuff fall out!) I need another idea for next years ornaments; mom, dad, Adison, and we'll have new baby boy by then!

These were made with just a small glass bulb ornament. I added polypropylene beads (found at local craft store), some colored glass beads and some other little trinkets that would fit. Inside there are presents, candy canes, and a few other little things. Adison's has another bead with a little hand. If you shake them up it's easier to see the colors. I would suggest adding larger beads too if you want them to stand out. I just did not have any at the time I made these.

I wrote our names and the year with a permanent marker and used a different color ribbon to hang each one. I made sure to glue the tops on well so they wouldn’t fall apart while they hung.

“Hoo” Are You?!!

I missed last week, so here are the questions for both!

Last weeks questions:

1. What did you get/give for Valentine's Day?

A date with my husband! We don’t get to go out much w/o the kids, but my MiL came for a visit, so we did get to go out! We had a nice time!

2. Do you have a vacation planned in the next couple of months or in the summer?

Well, the kids and I will head to mom’s for a week over spring break while my husband studies for his National Board Exams. He’ll be taking them at the end of that week. Mom lives a couple hours away. Don’t know if it’s a vacation, because we visit her a lot, but it’s a trip!

3. What is one thing you do to pamper yourself?

Soak in the bath tub! Go shopping by myself..alone, quiet, thoughts to myself, no radio in the car..just me..ahhhhh. Usually after the kids are in bed.

4. What sparks your interest to other people's blogs?

hmm..I guess pictures. I follow blogs on my google reader, a lot of blogs..so sometimes, I don’t get to stop and read, just scan..when I see a pic of something that looks good, I stop for a few minutes!

5. What kind of a mood are you in today?

Good. I had a nice day at church. Although my son is driving me CrAzY!! He’s in a stage right now where he’s trying to test his boundaries, and my patience, and he’s totally has a -need to get out of the house syndrome..too much caged up for too many months..so he’s been hyper and bouncing off walls! and then he’s got this fake whine for no reason other than to get attention.rrrrr! lol! I’m about ready to sell him! :)

This weeks questions:

1. Where do you usually have your thermostat set at in the winter?

About 68-70 I guess.

2. What room do you tend to put off cleaning until last?

My room, for sure. Even with company, that is the room people don’t go in!

3. Do you like to clean with music on or off?

On, but I usually don’t think to turn it on!

4. When do you take time to blog?

Usually after the kids are down for the night, until the wee hours of the morning. I need to be better about getting to bed at a decent hour!

5. How much time do you spend looking at other blogs a week?

Far too much! I have a Google Reader with around 300 blogs I follow. Sometimes I have to skip, sometimes scroll quickly. I try to check it every couple days so I don’t get too far behind. But I really enjoy looking at other peoples and ideas. It’s so inspiring!

BACK TO {“HOO” AM I}

Tasty Tuesday: Amazing Dough #3: Pigs in a Blanket

Tip: When making this bread, the lecithin is VERY VERY sticky..even more than honey. I put my lecithin in a bottle with a point tip on it for easier squeezing. When you put the lecithin into the recipe, make a divot in the dry ingredients with the back of your teaspoon, then you can fill the divot with your easy squeeze bottle until the lecithin looks about the size of a quarter! No mess and no sticky teaspoons that you can’t get clean!

Pigs in a Blanket!

“A”

Last week I had the kids for preschool. We are worked on “A” this week, and for the month we are working on RED and HEART! I also realized that this Monday would be President’s Day, so I tried to work that in a little too.

Here are some tips on how I cam up with the week!

So first, I just made a list of a bunch of "A" words to start..

Apple, Animal, Alligator, Ape, Airplane, Astronaut, Arrow, Awesome, Ant, Arachnid, Ambulance, Aquarium, America

From that I wrote what we'll be doing that day..and paired it up with an "A" word if I could!

Snacks:

day 1: Applesauce & Animal Crackers in an ark (bowl)
day 2: Apple juice & ants on a log & arrows

Art:

day 1: Rock Ants, Airplanes
day 2: Apple Tree finger paints (talk about George Washington’s Apple Tree)

 

Songs:

5 little Apes, swinging in the trees..teasing mister Alligator…

The itsy bitsy Arachnid goes up the water spout ;)

day 2: Song about presidents: With picture of coins (sung to Mary had a little lamb) ~”Do you know who’s on the Penny, On the Penny, On the Penny. Do you know who’s on the Penny, Abraham Lincoln”, “Do you know who’s on the quarter, on the quarter, on the quarter, do you know who’s on the quarter, George Washington” and so on.

Games:

Pass the Apple (pass an apple around in a circle till the music stops. the one left with the apple goes into the middle..the apple patch)

How many apples am I? (cut out apples and lay them straight and see how tall the kids are)

Reading:

Dr. Seuss’ “ABC’s”

Day 2: Read a book on America, work on The Pledge of Allegiance

The kids have all been begging for more school, and are all so excited to begin their second week tomorrow! If you are interested in more outlines for letters let me know! I only do it every 5th week, but can come up with outlines each week!

I ordered my parachute from Oriental Trading!

Munchkin Monday ~3

I made this weather chart a couple weeks ago. I used Pelon for the fabric, then I just used colored, fine tip sharpies to draw with. A button in the middle holds the arrow on so they can rotate!

We had a few BIG snowstorms. When it finally stopped snowing, we played in it!

Building snow castles, and Snow heads!

Then we enjoyed some Hot Chocolate to warm up!

Chocolate Dipping Party

A friend of mine that moved here not too long ago had a Chocolate Dipping Party for Valentine’s Day! It was a blast! It is a tradition one of her friends did in the last town she lived in, and she is carrying it on. I think it’s a FABULOUS idea, and I hope to use it when we move as well! I always forget to get pics. while we are doing it..so, I didn’t get any of us dipping. I pulled out the camera when we had all the little kids sitting and eating their lunches, and I thought it was just too cute! Mine are the two cute curly red heads..green shirt boy, and pink shirt girl in front facing away!

  

mmm.. strawberries, marshmallows, rice crispy treats, Oreos, brownies, almonds, pretzel sticks and lots more! After we dipped, we drizzled white chocolate over the brown, or vice versa.. or put sprinkles, or dipped in the crushed Oreos!

This is what I gave my husband for Valentine’s Day!!

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine’s Day too.

Sushi

While my Mother-in-Law was here this past week, among other things, we celebrated the Chinese New Year. New Year was on the 3rd this year, but the celebration lasts for two weeks. A tradition I hope to build and grow on in the years to come! Her family is Hawaiian Japanese, but they enjoy celebrating and eating Chinese food. I think every time we are all together, we always go out for Chinese! While she was here, she taught me how to make Sushi! Just California rolls, and some with crab. None of the..non-cooked fish kind..I don’t think I could stomach those. They are pretty easy and fun to make. They take some time, and it’s hard to keep them on the plate before you are done making them in our house! Along with rice, seaweed wrappers and crab, we also had cucumber, and avocado, then rolled some of them in sesame seeds. The rice was mixed with some different sushi spices and dry vinegar sushi packets. We have a GREAT Asian store here where we live too. I love to go there, even though I can’t understand what most of the packages are saying! It reminds me of the days I lived in Virginia and had a lot of friends and knew a lot of people from Asia!

 

  

The next day, my husband made a few more from the leftovers, so we have been enjoying them!!

 

I wish I had gotten a picture of the other stuff, I feel another Chinese dinner coming on soon!

We also ate Pad Thai, Pot Stickers, and some Manapua. As well as a Mango Bubble Drink..that was probably my favorite!

Do you like Sushi? Have you ever made it? What else do you like in your Sushi?!

Sunday Spotlight

WOW! This has been a VERY busy week. Trying to get our little “Mommy Preschool” underway, with family in town for the last week and a half, my husband has had Board Reviews for school and has been gone a lot, plus trying to keep up with everything else around here. Anyway..it’s been a little hectic! I have over 500 blurbs still to scan on my google reader! yeaahhh..I follow quite a few blogs :P

 

So, it’s still Sunday for another 3 hours, and I’m finally getting to this Sunday Spotlight! Here are a few great things I saw around blog land this week!

 

 

from Child Made Tutorials here is a Rainbow Heart Clover Bouquet, getting ready for March!

 

   

 

 

CUTE CUTE CUTE! From Simply Jenna, Owl Pops. These are covered Dum Dum suckers, but I have been eyeing a few designs for cake pops that I really want to make. Hopefully this week!

 

 

  

 

 

From Make it and Love It, here is a tutorial for a baby car seat cover. I love this! Such cute fabric too!

 

   

 

 

From Someday Crafts made this baby swaddler! So cute, and even on a bear!

 

 

   

 

Keeping it Simple has these cute Boy cuffs! I have seen a few cuffs and hats and such that I want to make for my son, he’s the perfect age for this,..I just need to make the time!

 

 

 

 

Last but not least.. this week we had:

 

BUTTERMILK PANCAKES for breakfast and they are TO DIE FOR!! from Our Best Bites..yet again! I just LOVE that site! The batch made a lot, so we froze the extras. They were delicious the second day as we just popped them in the toaster to warm them! Fast and just as yummy!

 

 

 

and to top it, I tried some Peanut Butter Syrup..mmmm, my mouth waters just thinking about it! Hope you enjoy!

 

 

 

 

If you were featured, feel free to grab a button! See you next week!

 

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.myswankycrafts.blogspot.com" title="My Swanky Crafts"><img src="http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/i480/ashleedunlap/BlogBUTTON-featured2.jpg" alt="My Swanky Crafts" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

 

Camera Strap Tutorial

I shared this tutorial a couple weeks ago over at Momma's Kinda' Crafty, and wanted to post it here as well!


Camera Strap Cover

Here is what you will need!
*Fabric (something soft so it will not rub your neck!)
*single sided adhesive Interfacing (fairly thick but not too much for stiffness)
*your Camera Strap
*Paper Bag (to make a pattern)
*Pencil
*Sewing Machine w/thread to match!
1. Start by cutting your paper bag lengthwise, laying out your camera strap on the paper bag to make a pattern. Trace around the camera strap, leaving about 1/2” for sewing and flipping. Cut out pattern! You can cut just one out and make it do, but I cut two out, cutting one 1 1/2” longer.

2. Cut 1 piece of fabric from the shorter pattern, this is for the top of the strap, and 1 piece of fabric from the longer pattern, this is for the bottom of the strap.

3. Cut 2 pieces of interfacing about 1/4 inch smaller than the shorter pattern all the way around. Cut the LONGER piece of fabric about 5 inches from one end, and one piece of interfacing about 4 inches from one end. Iron the interfacing onto the fabric as shown in the picture.

4. Sew the ends under.

5. With the fabric right sides together, fit the ends together, the underneath pieces of fabric should overlap just a little. (this will be the hole you put the strap through) Using 1/4” seam, sew around leaving a hole at both ends for the straps. (like the red lines in the pic).

6. Flip it through the hole, Insert camera strap, and you are done!

If you get this figured out, you can make more, adding ruffles, padding (by making just a little larger) or whatever else you can come up with! If you have any questions, please ask, I hope the instructions are clear enough!

 

Back to Tutorials