5…4…3…2…1…Blastoff!

A friend of mine asked me to applique a few onesies and make a hooded towel for her baby as their gift to him for Christmas. His room is decorated in rockets and so she wanted to use some of the fabrics that they used to decorate his room. I can’t take full credit for these because she did provide the rocket fabrics and the towels, but I think they turned out pretty darn cute. She loved them as well which made me happy.
Here are the onesies. My favorite is the one in the middle.
This is the back of the onesie that is pictured on the left in the picture above.

This is the first hooded towel I have made.

Making the towel itself was super easy. There are lots and lots of tutorials all over the internet on how to make them. You just need one bath towel and one hand towel that you cut in half. I used the other half of the hand towel to make the flame at the bottom.

Fun Girls Night Out Idea

Last night one of my friends hosted an Oprah style "Favorite Things" girls night out at her house. Each person brought their most favorite (inexpensive) thing x3 and a treat to share. We went around the room and had everyone tell about their favorite thing(s) and then we played games to see what order we got to pick out stuff from the stash. Each person went home with 3 other people's favorite things. It was so much fun to get to know a little more about each of the ladies and the score some really fun things. So round up your girlfriends, some tasty treats, and your favorite things and have a good time.

For my favorite thing, I actually brought gift bags with two things because I couldn't decide. So I brought homemade sugar scrub and an apron I made because I love hot baths/showers and I love to bake, plus I love aprons. I also love the make things, so I thought it was appropriate to bring stuff made my me.

For the aprons, I used fabrics I had in my stash so they are all a little different. I didn't have enough of any one fabric to do them all the same.

I also made these sugar scrubs as part of my kids' teacher gifts. I used a recipe found on C&H Sugar's Website. Here is the recipe:

1 cup - C&H® Dark or Light Brown Sugar

1 cup - C&H® Pure Cane Sugar*
¾ cup - almond oil
2 tsp. - cinnamon, powdered
2 tsp. - ginger, powdered
2 tsp. - nutmeg, powdered
1 16 oz. - glass container with lid
Cinnamon sticks, optional

In a medium-sized bowl, combine all ingredients until thoroughly blended. Be sure to break up any lumps from the brown sugar or from the spices. Spoon into the glass container and secure with lid.
 
*I actually used Sugar in the Raw because I wanted a courser texture. If you want a smoother texture, stick with the regular cane sugar.

Christmas Gifts

I found some cute ideas online to make for my sister’s kids for Christmas. (Alyssa-If you are reading this, don’t show the kids!)
First I made crayon roll for my niece. I used this tutorial to make it, but used a ribbon instead of elastic for the closure and I wrapped it up with a coloring book. I had a hard time keeping my own kids hands off of it. Maybe I’ll get around to making them each one too.



Then I made my 2 year old nephew a felt fishing set from this tutorial. Their family enjoys fishing so I thought it would be fun for him to be able to go fishing year round.

Candy Land Birthday Party

My twins turn 5 this week and we had a small party at home on Friday with a few of their friends. We decided on a Candyland theme. We hand delivered the invitations which had lolli pops attached. At the party, the kids decorated gingerbread men, played the Candyland game, guessed the number of gum drops in a jar, and played musical squares. Everyone went home with a whole bunch of candy and a few other goodies, including a toothbrush and toothpaste. For the cake, I just frosted it, piped the message and some really basic decorations and added bubble gum and gum drop borders and a couple of lollipop on top.

A baptism and a baby blessing cake

A friend of mine asked me to make cakes for her oldest son’s baptism and her baby boy’s blessing. They are having them both this weekend and wanted something special to celebrate with their extended family. The baby boy’s room is done all in rockets and she wanted to keep with that theme for the baby’s cake. We decided on a CTR cake for her oldest son’s cake.

Dog Food

My mom asked me to do a cake for one of her co-workers who loves dogs. We thought this was a fun idea. I ended up writing Happy Birthday on one of the dog bones, but didn’t get the camera back out at that point. The dog food is actually Reese’s cereal. I made the collar out of gum paste and used edible silver dragees to bling it up with her name.

My sister-in-law’s birthday is in a couple of days so I made her this make-up bag and checkbook cover.

Thanksgiving Pennant

This was really simple to make. For the letters, I put Heat N Bond on the back of some brown felt and then cut them out using my Cricut. I cut out the triangles using my pinking shears then I ironed the letters on the triangles. To finish, I just stitched a thin ribbon across the top of all the triangles, leaving some extra ribbon at the beginning and end to tie it up with.
Here’s a close up of a few of the letters:

Turkey Hand Print Shirt

I saw this turkey shirt idea online and decided my two year old had to have one. I chose to do a few things differently.  I used buttons instead of googly eyes and I stitched everything down after I fused it with Heat n Bond. I wanted to make sure I can wash it because my daughter is seriously messy and even though the permanent kind of Heat n Bond says you can wash it, sometimes it starts to peel up. Another thing I ended up doing was cutting off the thumbs before I fused the hands down. The way I had everything placed, the thumbs didn’t show anyway and they just added extra bulk so I opted to get rid of them.

I linked up at:

Sponge Bob Square Pants

My cousin’s sweet little girl, who recently turned two, loves Sponge Bob. This was the cake I made for her party.

Nutty Wreath

After seeing a few really cute acorn wreaths out in blog land, I decided I wanted to make one. All the tutorials tell you to go gather some acorns from your yard or a nearby park. Unfortunately I live in the desert and acorns are nowhere to be found. “No big deal,” I thought, “I will just buy some online. You can get anything online, I’m sure I can find some acorns for sale.” I was right, you can find acorns for sale online…FOR $20 BUCKS A POUND!!! No thanks, I needed a cheaper alternative.
The very next day, I got my daily craft email from Martha Stewart and she had a great wreath made from hard shelled nuts so I decided I would do this instead. The grocery store had assorted hard shelled nuts for $4 a pound. I bought approx. 4 pounds and  I got a flat wooden wreath form from Michaels and started hot gluing the walnuts to it.

After covering the whole thing with walnuts I just filled in the spaces randomly with the other nuts.
When I was all done, I just tied on a bow and it was done. I am not loving the bow. I think I might look for some wider ribbon and do a regular bow instead. But here it is for now:

I like it because it reminds me of my grandma’s house during the holidays. She always had a big bowl of these nuts sitting on the hearth. I would sit there by the fire cracking and eating nuts for what seemed like hours.

I'm linking up at:

Halloween Cupcakes

I made these for Hailey’s Halloween party today. For the stems on the pumpkins, I used a Tootsie Roll, then I just piped on the leaves. The bats were made from a candy mold.

Spooky Birthday Cake

Kennady was invited to a Halloween themed birthday party that a friend of mine was having for her little boy and I offered to do the cake. I didn't even start baking until 8:00 last night so I didn't have much time as I was tired and the party was this morning. I cheated and used Brach's pumpkin candies intead of making my own, but I did pipe some leaves and vines on and around them to make them more realistic. I am happy with the way it turned out and Drew liked it so that's all that matters.

Kennady's Halloween Costume

After spending too much time and money last year making Hailey's witch and Payton's Tinkerbell costumes, I decided to keep it simple this year. Luckily the costumes I made last year still fit them, so they have no choice but to be the same thing again. Kennady decided she wanted to be a witch like her big sister. I bought some cheap, black fabric on sale at JoAnn's and made a pillowcase dress. The best part about it is that the fabric doesn't fray so I didn't even bother finishing off the edges. I also found the silly witch headband on sale at JoAnn's for a couple of dollars. I think the most expensive thing I got were the tights.

If you have never made a pillowcase dress before, they are really simple. There are great, detailed tutorials all over craft blogs if you just google it. Basically, I just took 2 rectangles of fabric and folded over the top edge on each rectangle a little more than an each. I sewed about an inch down from the fold on each rectangle to make a casing. Then, placing the right sides  of each rectangle together, I started sewing about 6 inches down from the top on each side. After that, I just fed the ribbon through the casings and her costume was ready to go. So EASY!!!

Smores in a jar

I found this idea online and just had to make some for my girls’ teachers. They are super cute and easy to make. I also figured that with all the sweets we eat this time of year, these would be great because they can be saved and made a little later when all the other sweets have run out.

 

After assembling the jars, I printed out the directions and made a tag that tied on the jar.

I'm linking up at:

Spider Web Cake and Cupcakes

The cake is decorated in all buttercream, except for the big spider on the top. I made him from fondant. I used candy corn to make the border. It adds to the festivity and is so easy. The cupcakes have plastic spiders. I will probably make the same cupcakes for Hailey’s Halloween party on Thursday.



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Halloween Wreath



I've been so busy making cakes lately, I haven't had much time for anything else. I've had this idea in my head for a while now and finally got around to finishing it. It was super simple. I just bought a styrofoam wreath form and spray painted it black. Then I bought the letters from the craft store and painted them orange. Then I mod podged some Halloween scrapbook paper on them and sealed it with a clear coat of spray paint. I hot glued the letters on and tied the hanging ribbon where I wanted it to be. Then I tied small ribbons around a whole bunch of Tootsie Pops and inserted them randomly into the styrofoam. I had to cut the sticks shorter on a bunch of them so they didn't poke through the back. After I got them where I wanted them, I went back and hot glued them in so my kids don't walk off with them everytime we leave the house they stay put.

I'm linking up at:

My First Wedding Cake and Cupcakes

I did my very first ever wedding cake accompanied by 150 cupcakes today. Luckily, the bride wanted a very simple cake covered in fondant and trimmed with ribbon. The cupcakes are a variety of chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla cake and icing. I colored the strawberry to match the plum color in her wedding and colored the chocolate black. I was pretty nervous, but there were no disasters and I am very pleased with the way it all turned out.