My Newest Project

This is a continuation of last week's project. When I purchased the place mats at Walmart, they came with these "dish towels". I put the dish towels in quotes because they were too square to be dishtowels. After I made the purses, I was looking around on-line to find a pattern to make an apron and found directions on how to make an apron out of a cloth napkin. The towel was a little smaller, but worked. So, here is the finished product...
Here is the Napkin, before...And, after...


Liz was over here yesterday and we made another purse. Here are some pictures of the process if you didn't understand the written directions below. I'm a visual person, so here are some visual instructions.









If you want directions on how to make a napkin apron, click here. She has a few different aprons you can make. I liked the bigger sash from a different apron, so I combined two different aprons to make mine. Happy Sewing!!!!

'Tis Wonderful, 'Tis Fabulous

We made these cute "Place Mat Bags" last year for an Enrichment Activity. I have been wanting to make another one and finally did. These two place mats came together as a deal, so I made two. I will use one for Cora's stuff when she goes to someones house to be babysat and the other I am giving to my niece Julia. I decided that there would have to be something to tell them apart, so I found these little tags that can go onto presents to make the bags different. You could use these bags as a purse, diaper bag, scripture tote, gift bag and so on and so on.

If you haven't made these before and can't wait to make one of your own, here's how:

1. Purchase a place mat that you like and 2 yards of coordinating ribbon.


2. lay the place mat flat horizontally


3. to pin on the ribbon: place the end of the ribbon in the center of the place mat, roughly on the top third. Pin it there and then run it straight to the end of the place mat and pin it there. Lay out the rest of the ribbon leaving room for the handles. The ribbon should loop around and end up overlapping where it started.


4. Sew the ribbon on. When you start at the the end, sew and reverse it a few times to make the connection stronger and then sew to the end. Once at the end, sew and reverse it a few times as well.


5. Once the ribbon is sewn on, fold the place mat in half inside-out so the handles meet up. Sew each edge.


6. If you would like to be done, you could turn it right-side out and be done or you could do one more step to give it a little dimension.


7. While still inside-out, you can pull out each bottom corner to look like a triangle and sew a straight line 1 inch in. Repeat on the other side. This will give the bag a base.


8. Turn the bag right-side-out and you are done!
   

I did both of these in less than an hour. So, it's an quick, easy and inexpensive project. Have fun!

I thought this was a pretty good parody of Twilight. It's a bit long (9 minutes) but worth it. They put a lot of work into it. I also love the song they chose, it's a good fit for Edward and his "mood swings". Anyway... Enjoy!

Happy Valentine's Day! (I guess)

Happy Valentine's Day!

I am a little sad because I can't spend the day with my Valentine. He had to work in Sun Valley this weekend. I was going to drive up there with the kids today and meet him, but the roads are "difficult" (that is the word the web sight uses for the worst driving conditions). I just didn't think it would be worth the drive for one night, so I stayed home. As a result, I thought it would be fun to make the kids a fun Valentine's breakfast.

Here is their heart shaped breakfast. If you close your left eye, turn around three times, chant "Valentine's Day" twice and squint your right eye, you will be able to see that the eggs were supposed to be shaped like a heart as well.It was a Webkinz kind of day. They each got one from my mom and one from us. I don't know all of their names, but I am pretty sure that they are something original like Hearts or Hedgy. I do know that the bear and dinosaur have a little originality to their names. The bear is Forest and the dinosaur is Cocoa.

Special Olympics

Idaho was fortunate enough to host the Winter World Special Olympics this year. The World Special Olympics are like the regular Olympics and are only held every 4 years. We had the opening ceremonies this past Saturday and the Olympics will last for a week. My sister-in-law, Karen, is hosting some athletes and a coach from El Salvador. As a thank you for hosting these athletes, she received tickets to the Opening Ceremonies. She had an extra ticket, so Carter got to attend.

Here is a picture of Carter and Natalie with the flame behind them.
Here is a better picture of the flame.

Winter

I was extremely busy in December with Christmas, company and a wedding, so when January rolled around I was excited to get my blog up to date. That is when I received some news that put me into a "funk". That is the best word to describe it. Well, I think the fog has lifted and I am coming out of it. Here are a few pictures from Christmas and events around it. I have a couple of recent things that I am going to post soon. Thanks for checking my blog and hopefully I will give you more to look at in the future.

Turkey Story

Please read the following story and the procede with this post...

http://www.idahostatesman.com/localnews/story/585559.html

This turkey is my sister-in-law's turkey. She raises turkeys each year and then slaughters them just before Thanksgiving. This big guy got out a week ago and ended up less than a mile down the road. The funny thing about the article is it states that there aren't any farms in the area, but they have a big sign in front of their house that states "Fresh Turkeys for Sale". I guess he decided that since he didn't receive a pardon, he was going to make a prison break.

This turkey may have "ruined" Thanksgiving but will make for a Merry Christmas!

We did have one of her other not-so-lucky turkeys for our Thanksgiving.