Stitch by Stitch

We went to the thrift store today. I love love love thrift stores because I love bargains. There is a goodwill south of where we live, close to an very rich part of town that always has great kids clothes. That's not where we went today. We went to a thrift store that I almost wrote off as a bust until we came to the book section and found these:

 Aren't they pretty? Vintage, old, and funky craft books about sewing, knitting, crocheting, needlework, and a few other things. They were all on sale for a ridiculous price so I grabbed every single one they had.

The pictures alone make them worth it.

This one is my favorite cover. It just screams "warrior princess from the future with just a hint of Asian influence.".

I am having trouble deciding which one of these Damion needs for Christmas;

 I'm partial to the second one. Just something about a man in cap sleeves... yum.

And for you salad lovers, why not wear it on your hat?

 I was thinking about whipping this up to wear for Thanksgiving but I'm afraid my sister Julia would be wearing the same thing.  Plus my butt would look more like two hogs wrestling under silk sheets.

There are some really great things in the books that could easily be made more modern. I'm really excited about taking on a few projects from there. You might possibly see these books again.

Now for the best news.....

My sister used to look like this except without the bad 70's hairstyle;

But as of this afternoon, she now looks like this;

Congrats to the Kirby Family and to my favorite niece, Emma, who became a big sister today!

Hostess Gift Idea: Scented Hot Pad Tutorial

I have a secret, not the same one from yesterday but a different one. This one I can tell you but I'm a little ashamed of it. I never cook thanksgiving dinner. Every single year we go to my aunt's for dinner. I don't even know how to make stuffing from scratch. I'll stick with crafting, you stick with stuffing and the world will be a happy place.

So today I'm sharing this tutorial with you for a scented hot pad. It's a great gift to take to the person who is hosting you for thanksgiving if you are not cooking yourself. Plus it's also a great gift idea to take to neighbors this coming Christmas. You can wrap it up by itself or put it in a basket with some tea bags and a small tea pot.

The best part is one that you can't see. This thing smells amazing, even Damion commented on it. Then when you add a nice warm dish to the top of it, the smell radiates even more and it's wonderful and homey.

So for this project you will need:
1 piece of cotton fabric - 3ft x 3inches
1 piece of flannel - 3 ft x 3 inches
uncooked rice
cinnamon oil or candle fragrance
plastic baggie

The very first step you need to do 24 hours in advance, so make sure you add that time into your equation. Take two cups rice and add 1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon oil or fragrance and then sprinkle with actual cinnamon. Put in well sealed container and let stand overnight or for 24 hours.

When your rice is ready, cut your fabric into two strips that measure 3ft (1yrd) by 3 inches.  Lay the cotton fabric, right side up on top of the flannel.

Next fold the fabric over until the ride sides are touching and stitch a line along the edge.

After you sew one straight stitch, go back and use a zig zag stitch along the edge to prevent the seams from busting when you add the rice. If you have a serger, that would be the best option. If you don't zig zag the seams, you might regret it.

I plead the fifth as to how that happened.

After your seams are sewn, it's turn to turn it inside out. I used a coat hanger with one end bent to help turn the fabric to the ride side facing out.

Next you need to stitch one end closed and then start filling with rice. I did not use the full two cups of rice, you will just have to play around with it.

Then it's time to start the rollin'.

To start, measure about an inch from the end and make an indention with your fingers, moving rice out of the way. Now turn it back onto itself to start the spiral. Do this one more time for the next turn and then it should start spiraling easily.

I started the spiral and then went back with my needle and thread to start sewing it once I had it layed out. I used a needle and thread to tack it down to itself from the inside every inch or two so that it would hold the spiral shape. I also hid the seam inside the spiral.

Tack it from the inside and no one will see your stitches! Keep going until you get to the end and then stitch that down to finish your scented hot pad.

Now you can sit down and enjoy a nice cup of tea.

Remember to always store your scented hot pad in a plastic bag to maintain the fragrance.

Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet

Honestly, I don't like Halloween. I'm not a lover of ghouls, ghosts, devils, etc.  I celebrate it with our kids because Damion wants to. If it was just up to me, we would not have done anything this year, which turns out would have been missing a great day.

Today was wonderful. I sewed all the costumes for the girls, a princess, a Tinkerbell, and a M&M.  This afternoon while Princess Newbie was napping, we did hair, make up, and our nails. It was fun, the kind of fun that I didn't think would happen until school dances come into play. (if Damion will put down his shotgun long enough to let them go)

Then we went to a carnival at a local church. It was the best one we've ever been too and we ran into our friend who married us while we were there! We're celebrating seven years next week so it was good timing for a little walk down memory lane. The carnival was a blast and the girls had so much fun. The older two played game after game and Princess Newbie just raided their candy buckets when they weren't looking. I think she had a better time than anyone else.

After a quick dinner, we went Trick or Treating in Damion's co worker's neighborhood. We walked around for a long time and Princess Newbie kept up with us! She would not let go of her candy bucket no matter what! We tried to get her to drop it but she wouldn't. Finally when came home and hit up the neighbor's house for one last candy grab. Princess Newbie finally admitted to herself that she couldn't keep up with the Halloween cheer and curled up on their lawn to take a little nap.

Today was great. The kids are knocked out since the sugar high finally came crashing down.. and now it's just two parents.. with three candy buckets. Hmmm.. I love trick or treating now.

My favorite verse of the bible is Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."  It's really easy to say that halloween is evil and I've said it many times. But I think today was all those things, because we made it all those things and surrounded ourselves with love and joy.

Introducing Sewing

My kids love to watch me sew. I don't know if it's because they wait to see what I'll accidentally sew together and then make up inventive words to vent my frustration or just because it interests them. So I decided that it was time to introduce them to sewing.

Before you can walk you gotta crawl and before you can use the sewing machine, you gotta know how to hand sew. It's true. I decided the first step to teaching them to sew by hand is to show them how you have to use the needle to go through the materials. So when I was at JoAnn's the other day I picked up a plastic grid and a package of plastic sewing needles. The needles are dull and should not hurt them. I already had yarn at home. If I had to buy yarn this project would have cost less than $5 for two children.

The plastic grid was a little large for small hands so I cut it into four pieces. Next I threaded the needle with a long piece of yarn and tied a large knot in the end.

First I just let both girls play with it for a few minutes to explore. Then I showed them how to push the needle through the grid and then back up again to make straight lines. I can honestly say that neither of them can sew a straight line yet and that they never did proper stitch but they really loved it. Princess Girly Girl worked the longest on her project and kept coming to me to get more yarn.

I had hoped that this would be a project that we could take on road trips with us for them to work on while I drove but they really sew too quickly and require more yarn every 5 minutes but this is a great way to introduce them to the basic stitches of sewing.