Pooh bear party

My baby turned 1! I can't believe it! When you are little a big party really isn't very important to the child.
It is more for the parents. We had a small party with cupcakes and crackers.
Yet a cute party for pictures to go in her memory book.

First I gathered up all the pooh bear toys we have collected over the almost eleven years I have been a mother. 

Some are vintage and some are classic but all are loved at our house.

My older daughters were in charge of making the cupcakes and they did a great job mixing and

pouring into cupcake papers.  I did the easy swirl of frosting on top then added a golden or orange 

gummy bear right on top.  

The next step was the most "work" for this simple party. Making crackers from scratch! 

I made graham crackers and cheese crackers!

For the graham crackers I used the recipe I found here!

The recipe says to cut them up in squares and you can, but I used a honey hive cookie cutter

that I thought matched my theme. This recipe is super yummy and we could hardly wait for 

them to cool and it was hard to save some for the party.  Remember if you want it more crisp

bake a bit longer. (unlike a cookie you bake less to have a softer cookie)

Here is the recipe for the cheese crackers it is really simple and we all love it!

I had fun making cheese crackers from two types of cheesesWhite Cheddar was my favorite

but the Dubliner cheese was the kids favorite.  Both make a more cream color cracker so the second 

batch we added some food coloring (I know silly) the kids really wanted them orange.

Then I cut out the crackers with carrot shaped or heart shaped cutters to go with the Pooh theme.

The cutting out is the most time spent. Suggest double batching because we ate ours so fast!

Or even keeping some dough in the fridge to make the next day.  YUMMMM.

My little one was celebrated and I got to have fun making a few new things.

She got to eat home made versions of her favorite crackers and feel love

from her family.  It was a good day!

Long live the King!

my King that is!
He is the guy I married and I wanted to give him a party.
I had fun preparing and this was the result.
Pretty cute I mean attractive set of cupcakes!

It was a nice family party celebrating our special guy! 

He smiled and so I think that is the best assurance of a success!

Preparing for Chess theme party

My sweetie is having a birthday soon!

Sometime it is hard to come up with something
cute attractive and fun for the one you love.  (especially a guy theme)

Lately he has been playing chess.  I catch him playing on his phone.

My daughter loves to play a game with him.  So there is my inspiration ~ CHESS!

I was lucky and found some fun links.

Here is the FREE clip art I used.

I made cupcake toppers and decorated the inside of my card with the clip art I found.

I used a FREE template for my cupcake wrappers.  I traced the template on black and

patterned paper.  I think it will look so sleek.  (Can't use cute for a grown man...)

Here is the FREE cupcake wrapper template.

For the cupcake toppers I punched out the clip art with a 1" circle punch.
Then punched out 1 1/4" circles to sandwich the toothpick between.

Played around on  Picasa to create a card insert sheet using chess clip art.

Found a bunch of great poems online.

I choose Battle Field of Life by anon for inside my card.

Here is where I found the poem.

My favorite line is

  ".. and I your Queen, a loving wife
shall guard my liege and raise my shield."

I hope my King enjoys his party!

9 patch summer sewing class

It's summer and tome for fun sewing classes! I invited each girl to pick a doll that needed a quilt. Then we determined the size and made patches accordingly.

Then I had each girl use a hand needle and sew the patches together. Once upon a time hand sewing was an art and tiny stitches were a girls pride. So practiced tiny hand stitching, running stitches.

They each had the freedom to pick fabrics from my cotton quilting fabric. I did go through it first and weed out any pieces I had big plans for. They loved being the one to decide what colors and where they went. 

I loved that we finished them in one day!

What you don't see is the finished quilt I haven't take a photo of that yet! We used the technique for self binding where you fold the backing over onto the front. You cut the backing larger than the front. Fold in the corners. Press then fold up edge and then fold over again over top pieced and pin in place. We zigzag stitched it on. You get lovely mitered corners that way.

Craft and Neon baby shower

Everyone loves "brown paper packages tied up with string"

A while a go I went to see my sister Lorajean and her new baby. 

These are pictures of the fun baby shower we threw her.

She has pictures on her blog here. (which look much better) and

I just couldn't leave this fun party off my blog.

We had so much fun putting it together for her.

Here is the mommy and her cute babe.

Bugs 'n Butterflies party

Had so much fun making a bug themed party for my two march birthdays.

When  I asked my daughter what she wanted for her party she promptly told me butterflies.

I immediately was for that.  I still want to have a joint birthday parties (as long as they still let me) 

with my son and daughter and bugs are so boy and girl friendly!  

Caterpillars and worms for him with Ladybugsand butterflies for her.

I love bright colors so I made frosting in lime green, bright orange and popin' pink.

Sugar cookies are a fun easy theme piece too.  You can make a cookie for any thing.

I took my heart shape cookie cutter and used it to make some cute ladybug beetles.

I also made butterfly cookies and some beehive cookies too.

I of course made "Dirt and Worms"

With chocolate pudding and crushed Oreo cookies and gummy worms on top.

That one brings back lots of memories for me.  

What I didn't remember was how sweet those items are all together.  

Sugar Over Load!  (but every birthday should be right;)

I also made chocolate cupcakes in regular and mini sizes.

The bigger ones I arranged as caterpillars.  They each were as long as their age.

That really thrilled my daughter, she is trying to catch up to her older sisters.

(I wouldn't recommend explaining how that will never happen...  it means tears)

All in all it was a sugary sweet success!

a Whale of a baby shower

I was delighted to help host a shower for a friend of mine this weekend

I was inspired by the baby shower eVite

working with that I made a banner with bright pink, orange, light pink and lighter orange

I drew free hand a whale and cut out a few.   I also made some picks to put in the treat jars.

Then of course I had to make something cute for this new baby girl!

A whale is a unique baby motif which I adored immediately.

I decided this baby needed a a "lovey" mini quilt with ribbons.
I appliqued the whales and waves with machine satin stitching
then I hand embroidered the spouting drops and hearts as well
as the faces of the little whales.

I used a cotton velveteen for the whales, so soft.  I also used some 

pink chenille and some dotty orange minky. 

This girly with have endless delight touching this mini quilt with 

all the different fuzzy textures and ribbon loops.

The baby shower was a success!

It was a fun group effort.  I made decorations and cupcakes and others did the food and shared the

use of their home.  That's the way to do it if you can and no one shouldered it all.

It turned out so cute! And of course the mama to be was so happy!

Maybe you are inspired and want to have a whale of a shower too.

 go ahead and use this whale shape for a template and have fun!

Sew it's a birthday

did some sewing this week...

for a birthday gift

made this cute mooshy rabbit from cute knits

re-purposed from one of my daughters tops.
I used a cute pattern found here.

I also made a cute top and skirt set

I made it pretty simple and using a pattern of my own making.

What do you think?

I had always wanted to try some bias ruffles
so I cut some bias and gathered and sewed it on
this top in the shape of a heart.

last I whipped together some ribbons to make a barrette.

What is it about ribbon with little stitches along the edge that I just love!

It was fun to share a handmade gift.

How about you do you like to make gifts for others?

Or how about when you receive a specially crafted present?

I love those!

What's needling you... blue

Knitting needles and embroidery needle.

This little baby shrug just came off my needles!

My first attempt at a garment in a lace stitch.  (I need to block it)

This cute baby ensemble has been on my needles.

First on a search for vintage I purchased this pretty blue broad cloth and cotton print.
The pattern has a yoke neck and I embroidered some lazy daisies.
I wanted to bring some of the pink up and tie into the floral at the hem.
I loved the idea of a shrug with this little sleeveless dress.

So much fun to make.

So what's needling you?

Happy Valentines Day!

Made pink fortune cookies for my family this morning!

They were yummy!

Easy recipie

2 egg white beaten until frothy and soft peaks

1/2 cup sifted flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp of almond extract

mix until smooth

2 Tbls water

red or pink food coloring

mix these in until thinned and pink

I use a small skillet 

on med heat

spoon a tablespoon or so onto the skillet

tilt around to make  thin layer  (like with crepes)

  you want it very thin about 4- 5 inches round

then you wait until it looks dry and starting to 

turn golden around the edges a bit

then you can flip it

the second side is only there for a second or two

then remove

I put on parchment and carefully place paper fortune inside

fold in half

and pressing middle on rim of a cup fold again

I then placed inside a muffin tin to aid keeping their shape until 

they fully crisp up.

If you cook too short they won't fully crisp up so be patient 

while they are cooking.  A few trial ones and you will have it down.

so much fun and supper yummy!!!