Birthday!

My first born came into our little family 7 years ago! I can't believe how much he has changed my life, and all for the better! Funds are a little low this year, so we couldn't have a party, but we did have a mini-party with just us, Aunt Kirsten, and Grandma and Grandpa via Skype! It was pretty awesome.

Firstly, Dylan's birthday is May 6th, and I got paid on May 5th. So, I had a limited amount of time to purchase gifts. Luckily, Sydney and I were able to go to Target while he was at school on Friday, and got everything we needed in one trip (rare)! Oh, wait. I didn't have any wrapping paper. I figured that out exactly 30 minutes before it was time to open presents. No time to go get any, so I had to make do with what I had. I also forgot wrapping paper for Sydney's birthday this year, and ended up "wrapping" her presents in the Target bags they were purchased in. I am the worst mother. Well, Dylan mentioned that fiasco, and hinted that he would not be happy if he had grocery bag-wrapped presents, so I had to think of something else. The last time I was using my allowance at the fabric store, for some reason I decided to get a big bunch of felt sheets. So I had those laying around, as well as some random big pack of tissue paper (I know, no wrapping paper, but a whole unopened pack of white tissue paper, right?). And I always have yarn, of course. So...

I love accidental successes! I used a Sharpie marker to draw simple block letters on my felt sheets and cut them out. Then I wrapped each present in about 5 sheets of tissue paper (so it wasn't completely see-through), tied white yarn around the package, and tied my little felt letter to the top. Dylan LOVED his wrapping paper. I brought down the pile of presents before we had dinner (mostly for incentive to eat dinner quickly), and Dylan insisted on laying the gifts out on the floor in the correct order before we ate. Then he just looked at them for a minute. I was so happy!

The 'A' was my fave.

After dinner, opening presents, and the Skype party, we had these awesome little treats. Dylan wanted me to make these for his entire school class, and I was reluctantly willing. Then after purchasing all the things I needed, I double-checked with the teacher, and she said we could only bring store-bought treats. Oh, joy...er, darn! So I ended up making them for just us (and only having to make six instead of 24). They turned out SO incredibly amazing! They really weren't that hard, and they were super cute and delicious! Here's the recipe: http://www.bakerella.com/fast-food-fun/

I love it when things don't work out how you expected, but end up way better!

Bittersweet

One of my dearest friends (who I only met 2 years ago - one of the reasons I know we made the right decision in moving to Utah), Kristi, is having her 3rd baby girl in just a couple of weeks! Until last week, Sydney had been attending her preschool, and I had been co-teaching there once a week for the last 2 years. It was kind of a relief to be done with that big committment, but very sad because I wouldn't be seeing those 12 amazing 4/5-year-olds and Kristi every week anymore. So I cried - A LOT - and made a baby present!

I used this pattern for the hat, and this one for the booties. I used my favorite crochet flowers on the booties, and modified a pattern for a lace pillow with 3D flowers out of this book for the flower on the hat (you can see the light pink lace pillow on the front cover of the book). "Modified" is a strong word, as it implies some sort of skill, since I just crocheted the flower section and stopped before the lace in the pattern.

I also found some really cute fairy print fabric at Jo-Ann's, and used some Heat n' Bond and a tight zigzag stitch to applique one fairy onto a onesie. So sweet and homemade!

Happy Easter!

Here're the classic "Kids at the church in their Easter clothes" pics. Dylan wore his shirt from Jana's wedding with some khakis from Gap, and Sydney got a new dress that I MADE! I could not believe that I actually made a dress. And how easy it was! I participated in this multi-part sew-along, which was way fun and helped me learn a lot! Just don't look too closely at my stitching ;). I also used this tutorial (again!) to make a matching little purse. So adorable! Notice the little crochet flower addition as well. Yay!

Easiest Cinnamon Rolls EVER!

I wanted to make some cinnamon pull-apart bread today, so I made my dough...and it didn't rise. Sad. I suck. Luckily, I had some crescent roll dough in the fridge, and it saved the day!

Aren't they beautiful?

SO GOOD. And easy!

Make the crescents according to the packaging, but before you roll the dough triangles, brush each one with melted butter, then sprinkle on some cinnamon and sugar mixture (I made 1 cup sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon, but I had tons left). Then roll and bake, and right after they come out, dribble some powdered sugar glaze on (probably about a cup of powdered sugar and a few tablespoons of milk - add a little milk at a time to the sugar til it is as thin as you want it). Ridiculous how easy it is, and how gorgeous they are!

Kid approved!

Messy face = delicious! :D

Knitting!

I am WAY (too) excited about knitting! I've attempted to knit in the past, and I always seemed to have a hard time getting going. I think my biggest problem with both knitting and crocheting is that I don't want to do beginner projects. I really want to be able to do crazy fancy stuff, but I just don't know how. Enter YouTube. Thanks to many, many awesome tutorials, as well as this free pattern (again with the Lion Brand), I successfully created my first knitted project! It only took me all 4 sessions of General Conference to finish (that might sound like a lot of time, but I thought of it as a good thing). What's cool about this pattern is that it helped me to learn a bunch of basic knitting techniques that I will need for many other projects. K1P1 ribbing, Stockinette stitch (specifically the purl stitch), k2tog, p2tog, and even changing colors (click on each technique for the YouTube video I used to learn it)! Oh, and I used Lion Brand Cotton-Ease yarn, which I am completely in love with. Yay yay yay!

Random Camo Thingee

Our 7-month-old German Shorthaired Pointer, Baylee, is starting obedience training. All I have to say about that is WHAT TOOK SO LONG?! She. Is. Insane. So her first day is today, and I am way excited. One of the things on the list of stuff we need to bring is a bunch of small treats for positive reinforcement. My husband wanted to have a treat bag that he could attach to his belt to keep his hands free. So, we did some research, and found some little treat bags for $25 a piece. WHAT!? Since I'm being all sewing-awesome right now, I said, "I can totally whip something up!" And here is the result:

Not too shabby if I do say so myself (and I totally do). I used this tutorial (same one I've used before), and an old pair of the husband's hunting pants, and made a little treat bag with belt straps for FREE. Zero dollars. The pants had both the camo material, as well as some nylon, which I used for the lining, AND the nylon straps. Score! I even used a seam ripper to salvage the zipper fly. I also got to burn the nylon straps, which was so exciting. I am awesome. And humble.

Here it is all full of yummies for the puppy dog. Yay!

Holy Busy Wedding Crap, err Stuff (Batman)!

So. My husband's little sister got married this last Saturday (the 26th), and I put WAY too much on myself for the wedding. Most of it was my own insanity, so I have no room to complain. But it was fun doing a few cute things! Also, it was kind of nice to use the sewing machine for the first time in quite a while, as well as pretending I'm good at baking things.

1. Cake balls. SO delicious. SO adorable. SO TIME CONSUMING. I made 250 cake balls last week. I took no pictures because I had no love for the little buggers by the end of the week. I didn't even eat any at the wedding. The end. P.S. I might do them again, but NOT in batches of 250. No.

2. Sister gifts. Since the little kids always get matching dresses/shirts & ties, and the men usually wear tuxes (or in this case, matching shirts & ties), the sisters kind of get left out. I was not having it this wedding! I have 5 sister-in-laws (all of whom I completely and totally adore), and I wanted them to feel special, too. So I made matching plastic flower rings from supplies I got off of Etsy and clutches using this amazing tutorial (AMAZING) for all of them. Then I attached one ring to each clutch, and a cute little note using a big safety pin. So fun, and it made me so happy to see the other girls wearing their rings and using their clutches during the wedding day! P.S. The wedding colors were a purple/plum color and burnt orange - hence the fabric I used for the clutches.

P.P.S. I just re-fell in love with my sewing machine, and am having tons of fun sewing stuff right now. So, this blog might turn into an everything crafty blog instead of just a knit/crochet blog. Thanks for your patience with my craziness.