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.

Gobble Till You Wobble (revisited)

This is an old post that I wrote two years ago, so therefore this idea is four years old!! Ugh that makes me feel old. I should definitely redo them.  However, it's cute and easy to do, especially with children. These would be the perfect addition to school thanksgiving feasts. 

These cupcakes are old and these photos are blurry. Now you know where I stand.

I made these cupcakes two years ago but I found the pictures tonight when I was going through the old pictures on our hard drive. This is the perfect time to show you them! You will have time to make them for your kids thanksgiving feasts, well some of you might. These would also be the perfect dessert to bring to a get together this weekend.

They are so simple to make. Frost a cupcake with light brown frosting. If you want to use canned frosting (yuck.. agh. .uck...) just mix chocolate and vanilla together to get lighter brown. Ice the cupcake with a thick layer of frosting on top.

Take gel icing colors you buy at the store and make big rainbows using different colors. Now take a toothpick and drag from the outside of the cupcake into the middle, going around the outside edge of the cupcake. This makes the tail feathers.

Next, top the cupcake with a Nutter Butter cookie. Add eyes and the red hangy thing (I don't know the name of it) using the gel icing. I added a beak using banana laffy taffy cut into a small triangle.

Voila'! Finished Turkey cupcakes. Now go out and Gobble till you Wobble!

                                                      

To Water and Health....

Sunday our Pastor preached on being thankful for what you have.  In the message, yes I really did listen, he specifically mentioned two things. 1) being thankful for your health and 2) being thankful for your home and water. He probably did mention a few other things but I was busy smelling a gorgeous baby's head.

It was a great sermon that His Royal Highness and I both gleaned stuff from. Sometimes you listen to a sermon on sunday and file it in your brain to revisit later and sometimes you listen to one and then the truth of it smacks you in the face later in the week. This week the truth of the sermon has just showed up and it has showed up big, mainly because God is big. He is too big to fit on a piece of paper, right Pastor Amish Beard? See, I was listening!

If you read my blog yesterday than you know that I was slightly injured sunday evening which resulted in my kids eating pie for dinner. Yeah, it's a funny story and slightly trivial to some but when you look at the grand picture of things, it's a great story of thanksgiving. Most of all, I'm thankful that I still have working knees. If they occasionally want to pop out of joint and take a small hiatus, they probably deserve the vacation. We've heard for years about the explosive mines that were left over all parts of Africa after various wars and children that were loosing limb after limb because of the mines. We have soldiers everyday returning from overseas without limbs. I have two knees that work, not the best but they work and I'm thankful. I'm also thankful for that apple pie that our church gave us on sunday. Again it seems trivial but I haven't gone grocery shopping for this week since we are going out of town. I didn't have anything to quickly fix my kids for dinner and it was really late. Not only that but they had been trapped upstairs having to be quiet while His Royal Highness and I were trying to get my knee back in place. They deserved a special treat and it was provided.

Now we come to yesterday when I was sitting at the table working on a craft project. The doorbell rang and I opened it to find the company that takes care of our water. The county does not  take care of our water here, a private company does. The guy told me that I had a major leak down by the street and I would have to call a plumber to fix it. Mass panic between HRH and I ensued because we just don't have the money for a plumber right now. I started digging the hole to fix it while HRH rushed home from work. Well, he commutes an hour each way so he slowly made his way on the bus. No rushing available when it comes to Houston public transportation. The hole I was digging kept filling back up with water so I had to call the water company back out to help get the water out of the hole. The guy that showed up helped HRH locate the leak but told us several times that he could NOT help repair it but he just stayed at our house, he never left. To make a long story short.... At one point I was outside supervising and the guy was just standing by the hole, watching HRH work, then I went inside to do something. When I came back out, 5 minutes later, the guy was in the hole helping HRH. We were trying to figure out everything we would need to go buy to fix the pipe when the guy pulled it all from the back of his truck. We never had to buy anything. We never had to call a plumber. It was all provided. God provided. HRH and I couldn't keep the grins off our face. We were so blessed and we are so thankful.

Today I watched a video of a healing that happened at our church a few weeks ago when we were out of town. It's not for everyone because we do go to a charismatic church but I believe it was truly God providing for our worship leader who was starting to have a seizure. I cried, which I do often and freely. But I did cry because God is just pouring out so much to be thankful for right now.

I have a new saying that I'm starting with the princesses. Whenever they fight over something saying, "that's mine,". I tell them, "that is not yours, that is God's, He is just letting you borrow it."

Some of you may not believe in God but for those of you who do, open your eyes, look outside the box and see what all He has provided. Then let's give thanks together.

Monkey Shirt

Princess Goofy loves monkeys. I found her sister the perfect dress for thanksgiving at the resale shop but I couldn't find a dress for Princess Goofy. We finally found her a brown skirt that would match her sister's outfit but couldn't find a top for her that would fit her personality. So I knew immediately what I could do.... a MONKEY applique. Because of time constraints, I just used some regular felt that I had here at the house. It worked great!

All you have to do is cut out the shapes that you want and sew them down! No turning down edges, no interfacing.. nothing... Monkeys are basic shapes. Just a ton of ovals and circles.

I actually lightly glued the shapes down with fabric glue just to hold them in place while I sewed around them. I could have used pins but the glue was just there. That's how I work, it was there, I used it.

She has now worn it several times and it's got a few piles on it but it's holding up well.

The perfect shirt for my monkey.

House cleaning tip of the month

Today we leave for Dallas for the night and then we'll be west of Fort Worth for the rest of the weekend. We have lots of food planned and the best part is that I won't be cooking any of it. Sure, I love to cook but everyone needs a time off from cooking. My time off just happens to be on one of the busiest cooking weekends of the year.

So today.. in the spirit of getting your home ready for company.. here's a tip that you can't live without.

To clean out all that gunk inside your microwave, simply micro a cup of water for 5 minutes. I just use a coffee cup full of water. After 5 minutes, open your microwave and simply wipe it away. No more fancy cleaners, no more brilo pads, just a cup of water and a cloth. If you're busy at the end of 5 minutes and can't get over there to wipe it out, don't worry.. just do it over again when you can and it will still work.

Let's face it, when you have a two year old and a three year old, your microwave stands the chance of being the only clean thing left standing at the end of the day.

Be safe in your travels and Happy Thanksgiving!