This Page

has been moved to new address

Clumsy Crafter

Sorry for inconvenience...

Redirection provided by Blogger to WordPress Migration Service
Clumsy Crafter: August 2010

Monday, August 30, 2010

Simple Roses in fondant (or playdoh)


The other day while we were playing with playdoh I thought that I could take a few pictures to show you guys how to make some simple roses to decorate cakes or cupcakes with. If you don't make cakes than you can just wow other moms at the playgroup when you pull out this beauty.

First You need one oval shaped piece of dough and several small circles. How many depends on how big you want the rose to be. Overlap the pieces starting from the right and going to the right. Place the large oval piece last as you can see in the picture below. If you are doing this in fondant for a fancy cake then you might want to use a small circle cutter and then a ball tool around the top edges to thin them out and ruffle them. However if you are doing a funky cake then just use hand shaped circles as I've done below, or to impress other SAHM moms.


Now the easier than easiest part. Simply start rolling the dough up from left to right. Try to keep the top edges even, the bottom doesn't really matter.


Please ignore the bad lighting and scratched table. We were just playing with playdoh.. no manicures required.

When it is all rolled together it will look like this:

Now you can use it like that or you can fan out the petals a bit...

Cut off any excess that you might have on the bottom. Add any other details that you might like and voila! You are fabulous and can make gorgeous flowers in a snap.

Labels: , ,

Friday, August 27, 2010

When blah met bland




This explains my day. You might think this is chocolate cake or some other dark delicious treat... But oh no.... This is zucchini bread. Very very burnt zucchini bread. One of my kids turned off the oven while it was baking. When I turned it back on, all the bread did was burn and then the middle caved in some.

Then Damion had to work so late that I drove all the way downtown to pick him up. The best thing that happened to me today was that I didn't have to go through the traffic circle on Washington Ave. more than once. I usually circle that thing more than a hamster hopped up on caffeine in a wheel.

We went to eat Mexican food at one of my absolutely favorite places for dinner and now it has made me sick. Sorry tonights post is bland but I'm blah and when blah meets bland... You get how I feel right now.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Memorial Moments - Pillow Tutorial


This is a great, easy, and fast keepsake. It would be a great project for mother's day, upcoming grandparents day, or even a fun slumber party craft activity.

Want to do it? Let's go.

First you need one square of white cotton duck fabric per pillow with one fun patterned fabric the same size. You can do them any size that you desire.  These pillows that I made are relatively small because they were for relatively small people. You will also need some fiber fill to stuff inside of your pillow. I stole my filling from an old pillow that I had saved a long time ago. You will also need fabric crayons or markers.

First let your children decorate the white cotton duck with the crayons. We also used some permanent markers because they grabbed them while I wasn't looking. Follow the directions on the crayon or marker box to heat set the design.

Next place the right side (the side you just colored on and the pretty side of the decorative fabric) together and sew around three sides. Leave a large hole in the fourth side.
Turn the pillow inside out where the decorative sides are showing and have your personal slaves stuff them while wearing princess gowns.

Stitch the last side closed using a whip stitch or your sewing machine and your pillows are done.


We did three pillows with a 5,4, and 2 year old in about 20 minutes. That's some quick memory making action!

If you want to do this for a group activity such as a sleepover or girl scout thing than I would sew all the pillow forms in advance, let them decorate them, and then stuff them and sew shut.

If you make this, send me a picture! I want to see!

Labels: , , , , , ,

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

I think I over did it.

Well I did not get the camera battery charged so there are no pictures today and no crafts to share.

But I did;

1. Clean the garage
2. Start refinishing our coffee table
3. Do a ton of laundry
4 clean out my kids drawers
5. Smell check all the clothes since they are known for putting dirty/ wet clothes back in their drawers
6. Pray to loose my sense of smell.
7. Make a quick trip to the grocery store with a kid that created a lovely dirty diaper.
8. Pray again to loose my sense of smell along with the person in line behind me.
9. Take care of FOUR kids all day
10. Homeschool
11. Find oreo cream behind my ear (thanks to the creative one)
12. Steam clean the upstairs carpet.
13. Feed the dogs. Dig dog food out of a Princess Newbie's mouth.
14. Water the garden.
15. Cook three complete meals.
16. Change way too many dirty diapers.
17. Pray for my sense of smell to leave me.
18. Scrub several feet of crayon marks off my floor downstairs.
18. Clean a closet.
19. Pass out cold.

I'm going to be so comatose in a few minutes that Damion will probably draw all over me like one of those drunk kids or stack large amounts of furniture on me.

I'm so tired. There's two no. 18's and I don't care. I can't feel my feet either but I can still smell.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

No Coffee

I'm having Internet issues with uploading pictures tonight. Ugh. That drives me crazy.



I took the best picture of all the kids and Damion tonight. Everyone was still and smiling. Then one of the girls accidentally deleted it.



I have two awesome crafts waiting to show you but my camera battery is dead.

I should be charging that.

How was your night? Is your camera battery charged? Can I borrow it? Can you bring me some coffee too? I'm out and tomorrow might be rough. Probably more so for my kids who have to put up with the monster known as mom with no caffeine.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Monday, August 23, 2010

The Attic Drama


Just a little recap for those of you who didn't know.... Wednesday our outside AC unit went out but was repaired later that day by a lovely AC repairman who charged lovely prices. Lovely for him, not so much for us.  Thursday as we were getting ready for bed, we smelled smoke and all kinds of bad things. It turned out that the motor to the AC unit in our attic had gone out. Which basically means that we had cold air but it just couldn't be pumped into our house. Thursday we were in the attic until 2am while Damion took apart the old motor and then we both got up at 6:30 the next morning. He put a new motor in that morning that was working but not that well and it was vibrating very loudly. You couldn't hear it downstairs but you could definitely hear it in our room. It sounded bad.  This past weekend was hot in this house. It was much better than not having AC at all but wow.. still hot.

Lately we're trying to save money. We haven't been going out to eat more than once a week and only if it's a great deal. I haven't even stepped foot in a retail store for some time. No new clothes, no new books, nothing fun, no ice cream. It's been skin and bones around here but I'm not complaining about that. We're doing it with the purpose to save money and so at the end of the day we should have the good reward of having money in our savings account? right?

Until your AC breaks twice in one week and for some reason all your bills have gone up. Mixed with the costs of having to hide from the heat of your non air conditioned house at chikfila or some other fast food joint that has a playground.  Basically that leaves you with nothing to show for all your hard saving work. And at the end of the day, you're house is still hot.

It was beginning to be a loose loose situation and I was down about it. I started doubting our ability to save and doubting God for leaving us high and dry.

HA! don't doubt God.

Yesterday someone blessed us with almost the same amount of money that it took to fix the air conditioner. They don't really know us, it's not family or a good friend. It's just someone that said that they wanted to bless us and gave me a wad of money. Let me say again, "don't doubt God."  I wanted to pass out when I saw that it was not just a five dollar bill.  I also sold a few old things on craigslist this week and I'm watching a little girl this week that should help us pull through this week with money in the savings account. God is good and He provides.

Not only that but last night Damion was able to get the AC working 100% with no vibrating. We're not sure how he did it. He was getting frustrated and about to give up when he took his frustrations out on the fan one last time before putting the lid back on it and giving up. He turned it on just to make sure it was still working after he had hit it a few times and the rattling was gone. Funny huh?

One good thing about being in the attic so much is that I was able to write on the beams the names and birthdays of all our daughters who were born here at this house. I think it will be awesome to leave their birth legacy here when we're gone one day.

So this is a long post that's kinda all over the place, so let's review.
1. God provides
2. don't doubt God
3. My husband is a hunk
4. God provides

Labels: , ,

Friday, August 20, 2010

Forever 25

1. I like lists. They are good for many things such as coloring pages in the waiting room and confetti for a bored kid while grocery shopping. Organized people also like them for the organizational factor.

2. I am not organized.

3. It's 9:39 and Damion is asleep. He must be getting old.

4. I'm turning 25 this year. (again)

5. Our outside AC unit broke on Wednesday. It was a hot day. Hottest day on record so far this year to be exact.

6. Our hvac unit in the attic (AC blower thingy is the technical term for it) broke Thursday night and we were up until 2am trying to fix it. Then we had to get up at 6:30 am this morning.

7. Damion fixed the AC this morning in the extremely hot attic. He is my hero. I would take back the old comment but I like older men with a little salt and pepper coloring. George Clooney might possibly be a good example of this.

8. My goal for tomorrow is to hold down the couch. The little booger has been trying to escape for some time now.

9. I forgot to call my grandfather yesterday for his birthday. He is 81. I am a bad 25 year old granddaughter.

10. Being 25 for this many years in a row is hard work. I'm tired and going to bed.

Labels:

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Before and After


I saw this sad little chair on the side of the road, in someone's trash. As I circled back to get it, another truck pulled up next to it like they were going to take it. I started yelling, "don't take my chair!" Of course they could never have heard me. Princess Girly Girl said, "why are they taking your chair mama?"

Turns out they were just going to the house next door. So I stopped and put this decrepit old beauty in the back.

Can I just make a Public Service Announcement? Never throw old chairs away. There's so much you can do with them! See this one above? The paint is from the 70's, the fabric on the seat was extremely stained and all the cushioning had died a decade before.

I added more padding to the seat, recovered it with a pretty green and white brocade and then painted the chair a bluish/ gray color. I also used a few screws to reinforce the wobbly legs but you can't see that. Now it's sturdy and pretty again.

Best part is that it was free. Totally. I used only what I had on hand to refinish it.

Labels: ,

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Hot Summer.. Big City...

So today was wild.... Damion woke me up at 6:30 am to tell me that the AC must not be working properly since it was 79 degrees in our house before the sun even came up for the day.  By 8am it was 82 degrees in the house  and starting to feel a little warm, at 10am it was 85 in the house and feeling hot, and by the time the AC repair guy got here at 11:30 it was 87 degrees in the house felt like there was a solar flare in the living room. It was hot. Air does not circulate well in this house. I realized how hot it was when I went in the garage, which is not insulated, and it was cooler than in the house. Actually I thought about throwing a nudist party for 1 in the garage but the kids would have found me eventually.

The AC guy said that it would take a few hours to get the house cooled back off and recommended that I go do a little shopping. That's a great idea but all my shopping money just went into your retirement fund  Mr. AC guy!

Friday I was supposed to take the girls downtown to the discovery green park for our first homeschooling field trip so I just decided to go ahead and do it today. Discovery Green is a great Urban park in the middle of downtown Houston. It's a great idea to get cooled off by going out into the direct sunlight huh? I am a brilliant but a little heat fried.

I had planned for us once a week to sit down and sketch our surroundings as a small art lesson. It sounded like a great idea. So I gave the girls each a blank paper pad, colored pencils and told them to draw their surroundings. In my head I had pictured them sketching out Discovery Green's cool architecture or the surrounding skyscrapers. Princess Girly Girl drew a picture of  one of the guys cutting the grass and Princess Goofy drew a snail. I never saw a snail. Then about two minutes into the whole process Princess Newbie decided to take Princess Goofy's place and steal all the pencils. Then someone else had to go potty.... "wreally, wreally bad!". So we were done! Voila! Art!

We wound up just playing in several of the water features they have there, which was a great way to cool off. Then we picked up Damion from work and one of his coworkers who hitched a ride back to the bus station with us. Nothing like making a grown man unwillingly watch Miss Patty Cake on the DVD player over and over. The girls really loved him though.

This day could have been horrible but it wasn't.  Overall it was an amazing day and we were blessed with it. The AC is fixed, we spend time together as a family and no one suffered heat exhaustion. Once again I will say, "I am Blessed".

Labels: , ,

Monday, August 16, 2010

Got to Wear Shades


This is my entry for the I Heart Face's Challenge, "Got to Wear Shades."

This is Princess Goofy when she was three. She still have the little three year old baby hands.

Can you believe that she started kindergarten today?

I have a feeling I'll be looking at graduation and then wedding photos before I can blink.

I miss the baby hands.

Labels: ,

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Welcome to the Looney Bin

Sometimes I think that the hardest part of being a mom is giving more when you  feel  like you have nothing left.

For example:

You make a choice to do a quick Sunday night run to the grocery store with your teething toddler because you husband is home to watch the other two. So taking one grouchy kid to the store should be much easier than taking three possibly grouchy kids to the store the next day.

You literally sprint through the store, singing ABC's and all the Miss Patty Cake songs you can think of while all the single men stare at you like you're the latest escapee from the state mental ward. The teething toddler's pain medication wears off somewhere around the soup/ pasta aisle and she decided to start biting you, the cereal box, a random carrot, you again, and then back to whatever else she can get her chubby adorable little hands on. When that still doesn't soothe her sore gums, she starts to bite the handle of the grocery cart. This is first gross as all get out and second making you grab your hand away from the handle at lightening speeds to keep from being shark bait yet again. Finally when she has reached the end of her rope she decides to just bang her entire head as hard as she can on the handle of the cart.

All this is happening as you sing, dance, and act like a circus clown while you are so stinking tired that all you really want to do is push the 5 gallon buckets of lard to the side and curl up behind them for a little nap.

When you finally reach the checkout lane there is no guy to bag your groceries. So of course the guy in line behind you that only has a microwave dinner in his hands just stands there and looks at you while you balance a baby piranha, I mean toddler, on your hip and grab and bag as fast as you can. The buckets of sweat pouring from your head will probably be the cause of clean up on aisle 1.  The same guy walks out right behind you while you push your cart and balance the piranha on your hip still out to the car in the extreme heat, even though it is now dark outside. Gee, I wonder why he only had a microwave dinner for one?

So at this point you have to decide... drive home or straight to the mental hospital? either way you are returning to a bunch of loonies.

Labels:

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Tinkerbell


urgent: if you remember me asking you to pray for Haven Grace a few weeks ago...well tonight she definitely needs your prayers. She is on her way to the hospital in Dallas to receive her new heart. P,ease pray for her and for the family that lost their child tonight and is so lovingly giving the heart to Haven.
********************************************************************************************



For those of you who are still willing to read this blog after thursday's lame story.. I have another dress to share with you. These below are the ones that I showed you yesterday. I used a tutorial from Create and Delegate to make these two dresses from old Shirts. I altered the tutorial to make each of the dresses a little long since we like our kids to wear longer dresses than normal. I also made my own bias tape instead of using store bought, which turned out really cute on both dresses. On the pink dress I also added a colorful pocket. They were both super easy and turned out fantastic.

So I also made Princess Goofy a new dress using some Tinkerbell fabric that I bought a long time ago. She loves Tinkerbell. The fabric is bright green so I paired it with a very muted purple fabric to downplay the vibrant colors. I did use a pattern and fully line the dress. However she wouldn't really try it on while I was sewing it and when all was said and done, I could honestly wear the dress myself because it was that big.

So I had to make some major alterations to the dress for her to be able to wear it. I still love how it turned out. You can't see the purple scalloping at the very bottom unless she's moving but I still love the fact that it is there and only peeks out like a fancy petticoat at times.

Here she is twirling and dancing in the dress...


Then she decided that she was done and stood on the sidewalk like this..
She also declared that she was very cold and wanted to go inside. (uh.. it was only 97 degrees at that particular moment)

I did happen to catch this shot from the back so you can see the fullness and length...


but she was definitely done with pictures for the day / month / year.

Labels: , ,

Friday, August 13, 2010

in·ter·est·ing ; [in-ter-uh-sting, -truh-sting, -tuh-res-ting]


Today has been.. well... interesting.

It started pretty normal..... Wake up, shower, get dressed, go to lunch with friends followed by shopping trip to Sam's club.  Normal day for us.

While we were at lunch one of our friends gave us their old stroller to use for Princess Newbie. It was a great blessing and Princess Newbie loves it. She loved it so much that she sat in it for over an hour when we got home while her sisters pushed her all over the house. 
See the ghetto mama moment when I ran out of bottle liners and had to use a Ziploc bag? Yeah, I'm down like that..

Yesterday it rained and I only do laundry on rainy days during the heat of the summer to keep the house from heating up. So I had nine loads of laundry that needed to be carried upstairs and folded. She just sat in the stroller the entire time.  That's still pretty normal right?

Do you consider doggie fashion shows normal? Because she sat in the stroller during the entire doggie fashion show.

Just a couple of ladies who lunch.. except they are dudes.  Yeah.. they loved it.

The rest of the day involved folding clothes for two hours, dinner, a trip to the store and then bedtime for the girls.

Of course the best days only end with a bang, at least in our neighborhood they do.

There was supposedly a "bomb" five houses down from us. There was firetrucks, the Hasmat team, cops, ambulances, the news crew. The county workers earned their tax money tonight!
At first we heard that there was a simple bomb that exploded when the people opened their door and covered the entire area in a white powder. All the houses around them (not us though) had to turn off their AC's and stay inside. The Hasmat team was called but they finally figured out that it wasn't a bomb. Apparently it was bored teens with some rocks and a fire extinguisher.


How was your night? Did it end with a bang?

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Willing Vs. Unwilling

Once upon a time in a land far far away, right next to the Earth's equator to be exact, there lived two princesses named Willing and Unwilling.  Their GORGEOUS mother had each sewn them a new dress and simply wanted to take a picture of them for her royal blog... uh... records.

So on a warm and sunny day she pulled them out the front door to frolic in the gardens.

Princess Willing was more than happy to oblige.
But she was so Willing and extremely hyper that she would have to be tied down with the royal duct tape to take a sharp picture.

Always on the go and always posing was that willing little princess.

So then the Gorgeous queen turned her attention to the other princess, known as Unwilling.


She refused to take a picture except she was allowed to play in the birdbath.

Instead Princess Unwilling decided to blow spit bubbles like all proper young princesses do stand there like a bump on ye royal ol' log.

So finally the queen gave up!
It was a useless cause.

But Princess Willing and full of energy wasn't finished yet.
She came bounding out of the house in outfit no. 2 and posed and pranced for the cameras.

One day she might just win a Royal Ol' Academy Award.

note: These dresses were made using a tutorial at Create and Delegate, which is an awesome blog for tutorials and helpful hints. 

P.S. sorry for the lame royal story. You shouldn't write when deliriously tired.

Labels: ,

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Things might get interesting.

Apparently I like to be a little out of the box with my life. My husband just goes along for the ride, most of the time. He still won't agree to letting me have chickens.

The big news is though that he did agree to homeschooling Princess Girly Girl this year. At first I didn't think he would and he actually said no. In my head I started this long speech with plenty of points and facts of why we should homeschool. I told myself that I was going to give it one last try with this speech and if he still said no than I would call and enroll her in public school. I never even got to give my speech, all that brain power went to waste... where it usually goes so it was familiar with the route. However, he came to me one night and said that he would agree to a one year trial of it. At the end of the year we will evaluate the year and then decide what to do. That sounds pretty fair to me.

So I'm preparing to homeschool her this year. I know there will be bad days, good days, silly days, confused days, more bad days.. but I believe in the cause so I can soldier through. I'm not going to list my reasons for wanting to homeschool on here because it's a personal choice.

The funniest thing about this is that the people in my life that I thought would be the most supportive have been the very least supportive. I haven't even told them yet that we're doing it for sure because I know they'll say, "oh goodness... enroll that girl in school. What are you doing?"  Pretty much the same thing that they said when I told them we were having our first kid at home. "oh goodness.. go to the hospital... have an epidural".  The next kid they said the same thing but with a little more oomph and with the last one.. well.. they basically said, "I thought you'd learn by now...." but I can't say it in the same words they used.  I haven't even told them we don't vaccinate our kids. Well, they might know now.

In the exact opposite, the person that I thought would not be supportive has been the most supportive and seems excited.  I think I've just whittled her down by now.

I have always marched to the beat of my own drum. I hope that's something I can pass onto my kids..I think it's special. My husband thinks I'm special. Not the loving adorable special, more like the weirdo that keeps asking him for chickens type special.

Labels: ,

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Domestic Goddess

Today I lived up to my name, where perfection is only but a vocabulary word and the pursuit of it is null and void.

First I decided today to make the girls Mickey Mouse smiley face pancakes. With banana lips, blueberry eyes and a strawberry nose, they were cute and lovable.

They were also raw in the middle. Just the batter, uncooked.

Then I sat down to finish resewing the huge dress I made for Princess Goofy. I almost had it done, I was just working on rolling the lining's hem on my serger when this happened...


Just in case you're not familiar with sergers, it doesn't usually pierce and rip the fabric to shreds as shown above. Apparently my Domestic Goddess powers are just too much for this serger.

After I finally finished the dress, although rushed and totally against all formal sewing techniques, I decided to touch up the paint on the front door. Just consider me the Can Do Girl. As in, the can of paint will drop on the doorstep.



You really can't see it in the pictures.. but oh yeah, it's there.  Apparently I need painting lessons, and a broom to sweep off that front porch.

Not to mention that I accidentally flashed my neighbors across the street while working on painting the front door... the ones that have surveillance cameras pointed at our front door. Yeah... look for me on YouTube later. I'm gonna be a star!

Somethings did work out tonight. I made Antelope meatloaf in the crock pot. (real antelope)  Princess Goofy's gigantic dress finally got cut down to a more appropriate size and I finally gathered up all those dead tomato branches out of my yard.

Clumsy Crafter, mastering the art of the uncoordinated dingbat... one mistake at a time

Labels: , ,

Monday, August 9, 2010

Having a chat...

I know it's a bad picture but I'm bored. I should be working on something but instead I decided to call Damion, on face time and have a little chat. It's still fun but he's sitting right next to me.


I have so much to do this week including fix a gigantic dress, pack to go out of town, paint and sand (in that order) and clean out my van without getting heatstroke. But I'd rather lay here and bug/ flirt with the one I love in face time.




Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Could it get any better?




Accomplishment.

This weekend I got two new dresses totally finished for the oldest princesses.  Of course they didn't want to take a picture in them. Maybe tomorrow.

I made one other dress for Princess Goofy too. I used a pattern, I promise that I did. However it is so large that I seriously put it on myself. I looked like a big girl in a little dress but it still fit! The problem is that I took my time and lined the entire dress. Ugh. So now I have to undo the entire dress to trim it down.

So we decided to celebrate get out of the house for a bit tonight. We went to dinner at Fudruckers because they have a sweet deal going right now for a family of 4. Then we went to an awesome park in Katy to let the girls get some energy out.


It was amazing.

I couldn't have asked for a better night with my family.