Halloween Costumes

Last year was epic when it came to Halloween Costumes. This year I didn't go all out because my kids found costumes at the thrift store that they liked. The only costume I needed to make was for my oldest, he wanted to be a medieval Spear man. I found an old curtain that I used for his tunic. The chain mail armor I crocheted with gray yarn. There was no pattern to follow but I did see this pic which gave me inspiration. My hubby made the spear out of an old broom handle, cardboard, and black duct tape. He received many compliments as he tricked or treated.

 Now, my husband's costume was EPIC! 
It scared so many people and its all because of this awesome 39 lb pumpkin. 

This is how it looked at the Trunk or Treat. He had false legs and when people reached into the bowl he'd grabbed their hands.

 

I made the ghosts out of Geo mesh.

Crochet Dresses for American Girl Dolls

I have a TON of yarn, totes filled to the brim! hehe The totes need to be used up. Most of the yarn isn't the fancy kind, just plain Red Heart yarn, but it works perfectly for doll clothes because it holds up well and washes easily. I found this adorable dress pattern for American Girl dolls. My girls wanted a regular dress so I extended the length of the skirt. 

Filet Crochet Name Doily

I wanted to do something special for a family member and I had seen filet crochet name doilies in the past and had thought they were really cool. For some reason I always thought there was no way I can do that, it looks so difficult. Guess what....THEY'RE NOT!!! I found these great instructions and because I'm a visual person I also watched a few videos on YouTube to make sure I understood the instructions. This video was a nice and easy one, though be mindful she uses European terms. I chose this alphabet, but omitted the little dots on the sides of the letters. There are SOOOOO many different alphabets to choose from. I did transfer my letters to graph paper so it would be easier visually to make sure I kept on track.

 I used a #4/2.0MM hook and size 10 crochet thread in white. My one suggestion would be... be mindful of your tension. Because it was the first time I had done filet crocheting I was crocheting rather loosely in the beginning but as I got going I noticed I was tighter in my stitches. For those like me who have the critical eye to their own homemade work I noticed the difference in height of my doily from the beginning compared to the middle and end. Friends said they couldn't tell. 

 

 There are a lot of great edges that can be done too, but I decided to leave this one simple to make sure the letters really pop. After I was done I lightly starched and ironed it. 

Wizard Wands

When you have four kiddos you need crafts that can encourage their imaginary play. My kids love to pretend and my eldest has read all the Harry Potter books. The younger kiddos have watched the first two movies, but are a bit too young for the rest. Of course they all caught the wizard's bug. We came across this great pin. We had all the supplies except for chopsticks. We found at a the local craft store dowels that we're the perfect size and then we shaved  one end to a point with a pencil sharpener. Here's the end results.

The kids still talk about making more, they had a blast making and painting them.

I've been crafting...just not posting. Oops!

There are so many crafts that the kids and I have done over the past three months but I became a complete slacker when it came to posting on here. I'm going to try this week to play catch up to a certain degree and let ya see what we've been busy doing.

An American Girl Fixer-upper

My daughters have discovered American Girl dolls, I was a little taken back with the price. I kept watching Craigslist and Ebay hoping that I might get one for a good buy. To my joy on a local sale site I purchased a Kaya doll and horse for $50. It was in great condition, but my youngest daughter wanted a doll too. By chance I found this gem for $2 at a local thrift store. 

 

Though she looked like she was in rough shape her limbs weren't loose and her body was clean. She did however have bright orange marker marks on her chin, cheek and arm. Her hair was also badly cut, beyond repair. I contacted American Girl and it would have cost me $40 for a new head. I debated, but thought I'd go Googling and see if I could find other options. Two sites came to my rescue. I love this video about getting permanent marker off the doll. 

 

It worked, I probably should do it one more time since the spot on her chin is still faintly there.

The next thing I looked for was wig ideas, I came across this tutorial, how to re-wig a doll. I ordered a wig on Ebay for $12.99. Here's the finished doll.

Cleaning House!

So we recently moved and of course the nice thing about moving is you de-junk more than you would normally. I decided since I've been so busy lately that I needed to de-junk my Pinterest boards, keep what I really would like to do. Pinterest has been acting a little wacky for me lately, my numbers are not adding up for me. But I still hope to be able to have a least half of the pins done by my blog's one year anniversary in September.

Teacher Appreciation Gifts

I never know what to give my kiddo's teachers at the end of the school year. I know they get a lot of little items they may not use or plants and they may not have green thumbs. Last year I saw on Pinterest small S'more packs, which I thought were cute, but I decided to make larger versions of them for each teacher. 

 This year I wanted something the kids could help me make and weren't time consuming since the last couple of weeks of school are crazy enough. I know my kiddo's teachers like to read, so I searched online and Pinterest for a couple of book mark ideas. I came across this tutorial. 

I ended up making 18 of them.

All of them reversible.

Because I was making so many I made my life a little easier and cut the material and then put them on interfacing sheets and ironed them on. 

The teachers and staff all enjoyed them. I hope to make some more for myself and kiddos.

Baby Sweaters

 I wrote last month about a blessing dress I made. This is the little sweater to go with it. They wanted a long sleeve one since its still cool in Washington. 

  

Without knowing how big the baby will be for the blessing I made the sleeves long, figure they could roll them up like this if they were too long.

This isn't the first time I've made this sweater, I used this pattern three times. I like it so much because you can make it look completely different with a few tweaks. 

I forgot to take a picture of the one I made my niece, so my sister in law took one for me.

 Here's another little sweater I like both with and without sleeves.

A Blessing Dress

I haven't accomplished much on my pin list and this is partially why...25+ hours of crocheting. 

Its for a friend's grand baby. This is it with a slip underneath it.

It has a matching bonnet to go with it.

The total set, minus the little sweater I'm going to make for it since I didn't like the one I finished.

I really enjoy crocheting christening/blessing dresses. This is the first time I've used this pattern that I found in this booklet. Like always I tend to change up the dress a little bit...to personalize it, I shortened the sleeves and put the bow of the ribbon in the back.

Hair-dos

 Here's the latest attempts at cool hair styles. For Valentines day we did a double heart, but I forgot to take a picture. My daughter liked it so much she requested a heart with a fishbone braid.

 

 Upon seeing her sister's hair my youngest requested a "lil go fish braid"

For St. Patty's day we found this triple braid. It was super easy and I'll probably do it again.

Just for the fun of it we tried this braid in a braid, its very similar to things I've done on my own in the past, but I liked her suggestion of pulling the sides out.

 For Easter I wanted something special. I looked for ideas and thought an upside down french braid with a bun looked nice. I didn't follow a tutorial since I learned to french braid a few months ago. After doing it I wish I had watched a tutorial because mine doesn't look as pretty as the ones I saw when I googled images.

Yummy Recipes

Winter tends to be when I try out a ton of new recipes. Here are a few I've tried lately. 

 Crockpot Ham & Potato Soup*

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls 

Grilled Salmon I

 Spinach Lasagna Rolls

Dairy and Egg Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have two kiddos with food allergies so its nice to be able to find recipes where I'm not having to make a lot of substitutions, but I still omit things from time to time. The Spinach Lasagna Rolls call for an egg but I left it out and it was still very tasty. 

Memory Boxes

Everything in my house has its place, however it doesn't always get put back in a timely manner. I have keepsake totes for my kids, but they're in our crawl space so I don't get to them often. I end up with piles of kid artwork and school work in my bedroom. A friend suggested this pin to me. I knew it was exactly what I was looking for!! Since I don't share my kiddo's names online I can't show you theirs, but here's mine. 

 

I bought the file boxes from Office Depot when they were having a great deal...50% off. I don't own any of those fancy cutting machines, instead I found a font I liked and had the kids choose their scrap book paper and then printed their name backwards on the wrong side of the paper. I cut their names out and then Mod Podged them on the inside of the tote. 

Each of the family members have files that relate to their needs. Here's an example of my son's.

 

Of course this is before I started to file away his paperwork...it doesn't look as organized with all the different size papers peeking out of the folders, but its functional and better than what I had before. The nice thing about these totes is I can store them in my closet and have easy access to them, so ideally no more piles of paperwork on my window seat.

Doll Hair

My girls love their dolls they received for Christmas, but who knew their hair would get so crazy so quick. This was one of the dolls...hello stock treatment dolly. 

 

 Luckily for me I found many tutorials on taking care of doll hair. A lot of them suggested using a mixture of Downy fabric softener and water. I don't use fabric softener, so instead I used my girl's untangle spray. It worked well, but my camera wasn't at the time so I didn't get a pic of it nice and smooth and straight afterwards. 

Here's a pic of the doll's hair in twists while its wet to produce curls. 

 

 As you can see my camera was still acting funny. We let the hair dry and then took out the twists and here's the end results, pretty and tamed.

 

Braids

I have a niece who has long gorgeous hair and my daughter wants her hair like her cousin's. Of course then the movie Tangle came out and that sealed the desire for long hair. I do a lot with it, but there were a few skills that I needed to learn. 
Thanks to videos online I learned how to french braid.

 A friend had told me its easier for beginners to start with a small ponytail at the top of the head. She was so right, it was a lot easier. 

I also learned how to do a 4 strand braid.

Homemade Granola Bars

I'm behind on posting what I've been up to so I apologize. My kids have cold lunch at school and we try to switch things up. This past two weeks we tried different homemade granola bars recipes. The kids loved them and they went fast...so fast I forgot to take pictures of them. So sharing the links will have to do. 

Pumpkin Granola Bars

No bake, chewy Granola Bars

 Chocolate Coconut Granola Bars

PB Energy Balls

Chewy S’mores Granola Bars (no bake)

Pumpkin Butterscotch Granola Bars

The recipes are very kid friendly and my kids had a blast helping me make them.  

Scones and Cinnamon Rolls

One of our Christmas traditions is making scones every Christmas morning. I find different recipes to try, some are baked and some are fried. This year we tried this recipe and it was good! It made a ton. My kids like their scones like their dad, with butter and powder sugar. I however like mine with jam or a fruit butter. My friend gave me some AWESOME pumpkin butter. So delicious!! I need to get her recipe!

 

Apparently I'm behind the times because when I spoke to my mom about this cool trick using dental floss to cut cinnamon rolls, she already knew about it. 

This is what my cinnamon rolls looked like, I used my mom's recipe, some were plain and some had raisins. They were very yummy! I found this recipe I want to try out, she also had the example of using floss to cut her dough.

Look what I've done!

There are moments in our lives where we have to look back and see what we've accomplished, sometimes this leads to disappointment, sometimes it leads to a renewed vow that we'll do better, and sometimes it leads to great joy of empowerment. This blog is the latter for me. I wanted to become productive and learn new things and I have done that. In four months I have completed an additional 66 pins. I haven't shared every one on here, but man its amazing to think that before this blog I had only completed 31 pins in over a year, but now I complete at least one pin on a weekly basis, some weeks I'm super productive and do more, but the whole point of this is I'm DOING IT! I'm no longer pinning without doing. I think about what I'm pinning and I wont pin it unless I think I'll do it. I even changed the boards I was following and only follow boards that are things I'll do, I don't want to waste anymore time "daydreaming" and feeling empty that yet again a day went by and I hadn't accomplished much.  I look forward to my next goal which is to have at least half of my pins done by the blog's anniversary date. Happy Pinning!!