Christmas Stuff

I didn't do much handmade for Christmas this year but here are the few things that I did do. :)

I started the Stockings board at Amanda's craft night back in September and finally finished it yesterday. 

Last night after a fun Christmas Eve party I started and finished these stockings.

My friend Amanda made a cape for each of her boys. I helped her and decided to make one for Peter too. 

He'll let me put it on him but he doesn't like it touching his neck so it doesn't stay on for too long. 

Recent Sewing Completions

Lately I've been finishing sewing projects. It's nice to be able to mark things off my list. My main priority was getting Peter's monkey costume finished in time for Halloween. Last year I finished with less than an hour before it was time to go. I really didn't want to do that this time around so here's the monkey with no little monkey in it. :) He likes to play with it more than he likes to wear it. Hopefully that will change this Friday at the church party. 

I took a pattern for footie pajamas and left the feet off and just added the hood, tail and front spot. It's actually the same PJ pattern that I used last year for his dragon. I'll be sure to post pictures of him wearing soon.

Monkey front

 Monkey back

The next project that I finished is this nursing cover. I actually cut out all the pieces LAST October and finally got around to putting it all together after I finished the monkey. I modified the tutorial I used for the other nursing covers to make a lined nursing cover. The piece of flannel I wanted to use wasn't quite tall enough so I added the green to the top and the bottom and the back is the same green fabric. I think I'm really going to like using this cover.

The nursing cover

Last but not least is the fitted crib sheet for Peter's bed. He was using the neutral sheets I made for the nursery. I have only finished this one but I've got the 2nd one cut out and ready to go. I was having a few issues with straight lines and it being late at night so I stopped while I was ahead and will finish the next time Peter's sleeping. I modified my friend's tutorial since the mattresses we have are half the thickness of standard crib mattresses. I think I may go back to this sheet and tighten it up a bit.

At first I was looking for a larger sheet set to cut up to make the sheets but the ones I bought I returned because they weren't quite the right color I was looking for. So one day I happened to be at JoAnn's and found the perfect color fabric in the quilting broad cloth section.

The sheet on Peter's bed

A Bag for Lauren

I am the hugest slacker ever. I started this bag AGES ago and finally finished it last week. I used this awesome tutorial and real denim and some super cute pink skulls and crossbones fabric that matches her nursing cover. If I remember correctly from SO long ago Lauren's specific request was to have a drawstring backpack type bag. She also wanted to reuse some back pockets from old jeans she had hanging around. I finished the bag until it was almost done so she could sew the pockets on without interfering with the liner then she gave the bag back and I completely finished it. One thing that I didn't think about is how stiff new denim is... So the drawstring almost closes all the way after a few washes. Ooops! It's at least to a point where it mostly closes now so she can wear it as a backpack. So without further ado here are the pictures of the finished product.

The inside of the bag.

The front of the bag. 

The back of the bag.

Baby Blankets for Abi, Lyla and Aelyn

I realized while getting ready to post about baby Aelyn's blanket that I haven't posted about the blankets Kjerstin and I made for baby Abi and baby Lyla. So here's all three blankets, kind of. 

Last Christmas Andrew, Peter and I visited Aaron & Kjerstin in Dallas. While we were there Kjerstin and I decided that we should make blankets for the then unborn Abi and Lyla. We picked out the fabric at Hobby Lobby (I love their stuff!) and got to work. We picked purple and yellow for Lyla's blanket and green and pink for Abi's. 

I was shopping at Walmart the other day when I noticed the brown and pink fabric and it was so nice and soft that I had to buy it and decided that it would be perfect for a baby blanket for Aelyn. Although between December and now I had forgotten what a pain satin is to deal with. Oh well. I think they all turned out nice. :)

Somehow we managed to forget to take a picture of Lyla's actual blanket but we got one of the scraps

*UPDATE*

I got Tara to take pictures of the actual blanket. 

The back

The front

The super cute invaders that made taking the above pictures all the more special.

Here are the colors for Abi's blanket

Abi's blanket completed

Side one of Aelyn's blanket

Side two of Aelyn's blanket

See how nice they look together?

Craft Night - Crafts I Made

My friend Amanda and I put together a craft night and it was a success. I ended up making some bath salts, an FHE Board, Christmas Countdown Blocks and some Large Dice. Although I only worked on the Christmas Countdown Blocks on the actual craft night and Amanda is the one who actually made my FHE board, it was the example so it had to be done beforehand.

We're planning another craft night with more fun and different crafts for September 29th. Let me know if you're interested in doing some of our crafts. :) 

Unfinished No More

I decided a few weeks ago that our back bedroom/my craft room would be Peter's new bedroom when Baby Girl comes. I also decided that since I had a bunch of leftover paint from painting Peter's room that his new room would be the same color. That means that I have moved my craft room into our office and now just have a craft area. I found a desk on craigslist for a good price that was perfect for the new craft area. Since I have move my craft supplies to a more central area I am more inclined to do something with them. 

For the past few days I have been completing previously started projects. So far I have completed: a pair of Christmas pajama pants for Peter (intended for last Christmas, they fit him perfectly right now), burp cloths, a St. Patrick's day sign, a cube pillow, a set of large wooden dice, a basket liner, a shopping cart cover, I hung my FHE board and I have started working on a Christmas present. 

There are quite a few more projects on my list to be completed including: refinishing a dining table and 6 chairs and painting 4 other chairs, two aprons, some mending, a pocket bag, a t-shirt quilt, a nap time roll with Peter's name on it, a nursing cover, decorating Peter's new room and the nursery, painting some wooden signs and frames and make and hang curtains and valance boxes (I can't think of the proper name for them right now) in the kitchen and living room.

Peter's PJ's

Modeling his PJ's and playing with his new pool at the same time

All I had to do was sew the elastic and close it up and finish the leg holes

I have two baskets exactly the same and I finished the cover for one AGES ago and cut the pieces out for the second one and never put it together.

Peter's showing what baskets are really made for

We did these at our last craft night and as an afterthought I decided to do some for Peter, he LOVES them!

The lighting is a bit weird in this picture. All I had to do to finish this was to glue the shamrock on, put the wire on and seal the paint.

A cube pillow for Andrew to watch TV on

I made a TON of these before Peter was born and got tired of sewing them with only 5 left. 

Doesn't it look so nice in our living room?

Canning

This year has really been a year of canning for me. It started back in January when the food co-op I participate in offered a case of pickling cucumbers. I thought that since I had done it with my mom when I was young I could do it by myself now. :) I did some research online and decided my course of action. The cucumbers were not as small as I would have liked but I canned them anyway. On average I was able to get 4-5 cucumbers per jar.

All my pickles minus 2 jars

The next thing I canned was salsa in February again I decided to can salsa because the food co-op offered a 20 pound box of tomatoes. I bought some roma tomatoes at the same time to supplement just in case. So I ended up making 3 varieties of salsa from the co-op tomatoes, I think they were beefsteaks, and a different variety from the romas. I got all my salsa recipes from the USDA guide to canning. Ironically the recipe made from the roma tomatoes was our favorite. 

All my salsa

Aren't they pretty?

All set up for the salsa tasting open house

Sometime in February I made blueberry lime jam with my friends Amanda and Jenelle at Amanda's house. I didn't get pictures of that but I do have my canning on display in my kitchen below and you can see the little jars of jam. I totally stole the idea of putting my canning above my cupboards from Amanda and I love how it looks and we're more likely to use it since we can see it.

So in March the co-op offered cases of apples, of course I was on a role by then I got an entire case of apples to can. I was originally going to make applesauce but the apples turned out to be granny smiths, so instead I decided to make apple pie filling. My friend Jenelle had also bought a case of apples and so together we made the apple pie filling. It turned out delicious! So far I haven't made a pie with it, but I have made many apple crisps. 

Together the two pictures below are two cases of apples turned into pie filling

Since I had done the blueberry lime jam in a group I discovered the fun of canning with people but also the advantages of multiple people canning. It's so much easier to have each person responsible for certain things in the canning process and it makes it go faster. Strawberries came on sale and Amanda and I got together and made strawberry jam and also a few batches of strawberry freezer jam. Then there was a lull in can-able produce available from the co-op. 

Then in May my friend Megan really wanted to make salsa. She had tried my salsa that I made back in February and loved it. So we got together and stayed up into the wee hours of the morning making salsa. 

So in June my friends Megan and Melony wanted to learn how to can and specifically wanted to make more salsa. Luck was on our side and the roma tomatoes were on sale again but there were also lots of berries on sale too. The week we were planning on canning the co-op offered cases of peaches for sale, so I got two. We got the peaches the Saturday we were planning on canning but they weren't quite ready so we just did salsa and strawberry jam with plans to come back on Thursday and can the peaches. 

I had bought blueberries, blackberries and strawberries and decided that since I already had blueberry jam and strawberry jam I wanted to make syrup with my berries. So Tuesday I took my blueberries and blackberries over to Amanda's house and we made my syrup. 

Thursday we got down to the business of peaches and we canned some peaches, and made pie filling, jam and syrup with the rest of the peaches. Again I forgot to take pictures of everything on the counter but all of my canning is now on display above my cupboards in my kitchen. 

I have decided that since all my cupboard space is taken up with canning, we have to eat a bunch before I'm ready to can again. Although we do want to do canned chicken next and I may have to make an exception to the space issue if we end up doing it soon. :)

Christmas Presents

I'm seriously late in posting this, but oh well. :) 

I made a spa basket for my mom for Christmas and I think that it turned out really well. I included a nail/pumice brush and a couple chocolate face masques. 

I made the basket, eye mask and the wash mitt using the tutorials from here.

The therapeutic neck wraps also came from the above tutorial. Although I used feed corn instead of rice; it's supposed to stay fresher longer and also stay hotter longer. The brown one is for my dad and the purple one is for my mom.

I had my sister McKenzie for Christmas and I made her some curlers and a shower cap but I forgot to take pictures before I sent them off.