Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Fire!!!!!

I LOVE fires, you can roast hot dogs over it, it keeps you warm and it's the best way to make smores. The new camp sites at Rocky Creek park don't have built in camp rings so you have to bring your own or you can't have a fire. Since we had a drought last year and didn't get to have any fires my sweet husband bought me a fire pit. It might be 100 degrees outside but I want my camp fire. My grand kids love it too. It always makes me think of Tom Hanks on the movie Castaway dancing around the fire. And the sparks that fly off of the fire are just small fireflies dancing the fire dance. Dance little fireflies, Dance.

Monday, July 30, 2012

Honeysuckle in July

I'm driving down the road from my Mom's house and low and behold what did I see??? Honeysuckle. This honeysuckle is confused, it's not spring. That's the craziest thing I've ever seen. We had over 18 inches of rain in Waller TX for July and my yard isn't even crunchy. Along with all this rain came the crickets by the thousands and bugs I don't even know the name of. The watermelon fields flooded and there were watermelons floating everywhere. I saw one teenage boy lean out a window  of a car and grab a watermelon as it was floating by. Real nice boys too,  they offered the watermelon to me but I passed on it since it was floating through a horse pasture. I wish I had my camera, I usually take it everywhere with me. Next time...

Alivia's New Apron

Alivia grew out of her old apron and needed a new one. She liked the look of Amy's apron but I couldn't find the green and I figured she would like the pink just as much....maybe more. I added a rose broach from some of the left over material. Now all I need is a picture of her in her new apron.

Friday, July 27, 2012

Easter Church Photo

I've been meaning to post this photo for quite some time....since Easter! That's me in my Easter hat, my Mom, oldest daughter Sarah and her two, Tori and Bishop. I love Easter service with the family! As we are leaving Church, Father Juan asked my granddaughter "Are you the Queen"? She tells him "No". Now I can tell he is a little surprised with her answer. So I tell Father Juan "She is a Princess". So he asks her if she is a Princess and she says "Yes". Nobody wants to be a Queen. Have you ever read a Fairytale about a Queen? No!!! And Princesses live happily ever after.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

That Crazy Squirrel

 My husband and I went camping with my daughter, Melanie, her husband, Dave and their two boys, Payton and Paxton. She brought the ingredients to make some Solar Cone Smores....yum. Paxton put marshmallows, mini chocolate bits, dry cake mix and sprinkles inside of the cones. Payton lined the inside of a pizza box with foil and taped two sticks inside to hold the lid at an angle. To hold the cones up we cut out the bottom of small cups. The wind picked up so we covered two rocks with foil and placed them inside the box to hold it down. I hear stories of people cooking eggs on concrete but smore cups take a little bit longer. As we were waiting for the marshmallows to melt and it takes a while, this crazy squirrel runs over in front of us and grabs one of our smores and takes off under the travel trailer. He is sitting under the travel trailer just eating that smore, I hope he gets fat. Thank God my daughter made more than enough smores to go around or I might just have to go after him. Now we have to guard the rest of the smores from the crazy foaming at the mouth squirrel. Well, it's not really foam just melted marshmallows. Just a note for anyone who tries this, the marshmallows inside the cup melted but the marshmallows on top did not seem to be melted at all. I ate one anyway! I just want to say "Thanks" to the Attaway's for the smore experiment.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

New Apron

I saw this apron pattern on fleecefun.com and decided to give it a try. The pattern is for the top section only, you just print it and tape it together. I gathered 9" sections for the bottom but I think it looks a little long, maybe I should have overlapped the ruffles an inch more or just shorter layers. Doesn't that just make you want to bake something?

Monday, July 16, 2012

Fish Stamp

I took a piece of craft foam and cut the shape of a 10" fish. I had bought some carving tools to use on my clay projects and they worked perfectly on the foam. I use the tools to cut and scoop out pieces of clay but with the foam I used the tools to cut only. The tools are sharp, I didn't cut all the way through but I used a lot of pressure. I have
one tool that is a half moon and I just pressed the shape into the fish. If you look at the print I made you can see the shapes just fine. I thought I would have to carve the shapes open but foam does NOT carve. I used the straight edge tool to slice the fins and face line. I used Tulip Slick paint for the test, it is made for clothing. I think this would make a cute camping shirt with fish all over it. Here, fishy, fishy!

Sunday, July 15, 2012

It is somebodies first birthday and every one year old needs a growth chart. When I was young I remember my parents would stand us up in front of the sliding wood door and mark our height. When my parents moved, all of that was lost so I decided to make growth charts that can be folded and moved with you. My sister designed some and printed them but she has moved on from that company so I decide to buy some heavy weight canvas material and paint it. The paint made the canvas even stiffer than when I bought it so maybe next time I will buy some medium weight canvas. I sewed the green ribbon down the side and used E6000 to glue on a flexible tape measure. Add flowers and butterflies and she is ready to grow. Happy Birthday Sloan!

Window Garland

I wanted to make a garland to hang in front of my windows for inspiration. I purchased 24 pieces of white felt squares (on sale of course). I folded the felt in half lengthwise and cut 6  - 3.25" circles. Since I am folding the circles I didn't worry about making them too perfect, so I could cut two at a time. Fold the circle in half and then in half again. Take a needle with 1/8" ribbon and just start stringing them together. The ribbon slides right through most of them but some you will have to tug on. My craft room is becoming so stinkin cute but most of the time the floor is a complete mess. I usually have three to four projects working at the same time. Well back to the mess!

 

Watermelon Festival Hat Contest 2012

This is my entry for the 2012 Watermelon Festival Hat contest hosted by the Hempstead Garden Club. One of the girls at work saw the ad in the paper and told me about it and I just couldn't turn down any kind of craft contest. I gathered 72" of tulle, about an inch down from the top to fit the hat. I took some green rick rac I had on hand, sewed it to some light green ruffled ribbon and hot glued it to the tulle. I took some black Shrinky Dink, cut it into seed shapes, heat it up and hot glued it to the tulle. I took two pipe cleaners and a paper flower with a bottle cap center and hot glued them on. I will enter the hat in the watermelon theme category. Now all I need is for someone to take it to the contest for me since we will be out of own.

Monday, July 9, 2012

Tags

I always forget to buy tags for gifts so I decided to make a few. I printed the saying and cut it out with a 2 5/16" circle punch I have. Then I cut some scalloped circles 1/2" larger than the printed circles on my Cricut and attached them to the back. Punch a hole, add some ribbon and they are ready, some for girls and some for boys. The tags looked pretty plain until I added the two different ribbons, now they are C-U-T-E! 

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Bacon or Sausage?

This weekend we were camping with my daughter Melanie and her family at Lake Somerville, Texas. It was hot but we still had a campfire. Last year there was a severe drought in Texas and you couldn't even say the word campfire. So I don't care if it's 100 degrees, I want a campfire!!! I brought out the marshmallows while my daughter brings out link sausage and pre-cooked bacon. What'cha gonna do with that I ask her. She cut the link sausage into chunks and sliced it open, but not all the way. Then she folded a piece of bacon up and stuck it in the middle and put it on the end of my roasting fork. OH MY GOSH, it was so good. The only thing that could be better than that was jalapeno sausage and guess what she had that to.....yum. I was so busy roasting and eating sausage I forgot to take pictures. It was good, Thanks Melanie. 

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Ruffled Lace Broach

I have a collection of ruffled ribbons. So when I find projects that I can make using it I will usually try it at least once. I cut 12" of ruffled lace and ran a loose stitch along the bottom to gather it. Then I hot glued the button onto the front and a pin onto the back....snazzy. I found this darling button at Walmart, so I bought two. Now I need to make something else with the other one, maybe a matching ring.

Captain America Cape

My grandson Bishop just turned three years old and one of the gifts he got form me was a Captain America cape. I usually make capes that have to tie in the front but I saw a velcro design on oneprettything.com. His mom doesn't have to tie it for him any more he can do it by himself. Happy Birthday Bishop!! Just in time for 4th of July.