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Sunday, April 27, 2014

Plastic Easter Eggs

Hello friends! Welcome back!

I don't know about you, but we have lots of those colorful, lots of fun, hard to find storage space for, plastic Easter eggs.  Plus, they always seem to multiply each year, right?


I found a great way to store those eggs! 


I use a plastic zippered bag-you know the kind you get with some sheets sets or mattress covers?  Right, those things!


After all the activities are complete, I toss all the plastic eggs in the sink with warm soapy water and let them soak for a bit {I don't want to store residue from stick candy or dirt from outside egg hunting :) }  Then I rinse them off and let them air dry for the day.  Then I just get a cute little helper to close up the eggs and toss them into our storage bag.  Zip it up and save them for next year!




Enjoy a quick tip!
Jenny :)

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Rose Ombré Cake

Hello to you!

Recently I made a cake... I jumped on the ombré and rose cake bandwagon.  I'm glad I did!  It turned out pretty awesome, especially for a first try.

I made a strawberry cake with varying shades of pink icing.  I just used my red icing gel to make the color.  It took several batches of icing to make this cake.  It was just about an icing overload...
I love my blue mixer in the background! :)

I used a Wilton 1M tip to create the roses

Top of the cake: Got the hang of icing it by the end...



I love the ombré colors

The pretty cake plate is from HomeGoods.  My sister bought it for me for Christmas.  Thanks, sis! :)

Have a crafty day!

Jenny

Monday, April 14, 2014

Team(s) Spirit Wreath

Ok... so have we all heard about the "house divided" concept?  Two different favorite sports teams within the same family?

Yup- we have that over here too.  But ours is also a house divided, but the same state-kinda teams.

Go University of Louisville, (UofL) Cardinals!

Go University of Kentucky, (UK) Wildcats!


And here is (was) our public display of team affection...







Now that basketball season is over... I should take this down... maybe later? :)

Jenny

Saturday, April 12, 2014

New Pillows

Hello!

Recently we bought new couches for our house.  It's been almost 9 years since we bought our first and only couch.  Since we've moved several times, and our old blue had seen better days, we got two couches this time, and replaced our old friend couch. :)

I made some cute new pillows to match our colors.  I made the blue ikat and the yellow "irongate" (my phrase) pillows.  The funky geometric pillow in the back corner came with the couch.  I kinda like it as I'm into geometric prints right now.  ;)

They were supposed to decorative, but with a preschooler in the house- they quickly got re-purposed: pillow fights, fort supports, plastic fish cave (don't ask),  floor movie pillows... you get the idea!



Enjoy the crafty day!
Jenny :)

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Recap Part 2

Hello again!

Here's one more recap from 2013.  I told you I was busy, just not blogging, so sorry!  I've made other things, but not all of them made my recap. :)  It was already a growing list.

Let's roll...


1.  I made a quilt for my son for his 4th birthday.  He has loved all the quilts I've made, and really wanted his own "special mommy quilt".  So, I picked out a few patterns and let him decide what he liked best: arrows it is.  The patterns is called Every Which Way bi Gigi'sThimble.  I doubled the pattern and then added one more row.   (Patterned fabrics are mostly "Cruiser Blvd" by Riley Blake, with a bit of "On the Go" by Riley blake, with a few chevron patterns and other Riley Blake mixes. The solid blue is Kona Navy).

2.  Here is the back of my son's quilt.  Its a twin size quilt (appx. 68" x 92").  I mace up with the pattern design on the back myself.  I draw out my patterns on graph paper and figure out all the dimensions.  (I was inspired by the traffic light idea here).

3.  I tried my hand at my first tiered cake for my son's birthday.  We had a Cars theme party.

4.  I made a tree skirt for my new-this-year "fancy" tree (as my husband calls it).  I found a great tutorial here.  I used satin for my skirt so I made a small hem on the edges instead of serging them.  I love the look and drape of it.  Looked beautiful under my blue and silver tree!

5.  I was inspired by several different looks on this.  I have liked all the felt wreaths floating around on Pinterest.  So, I cut out brown felt circles and glued them to my styrofoam wreath.  I found these great tutorials for the sunflowers and mums.  I also loved the look of the leaves from this blog.

6.  I made apple jelly for the first time this year.  It tastes wonderful!  I also made TONS of great eats with the 80 lbs of apples we picked in October 2013. :)

7.  I made a mini quilt for my husband's Granny for Christmas.  It's 24" square.  I used a pattern called Kentucky chain, since that's where they live.  I found a great tutorial here.  (I did not paper piece, I cut the pieces out and sewed them the second way).

8.  Sorry, somehow I don't have a finished picture of this mini quilt.  But it was a paper pieced quilt: I picked up the pattern at a quilt show last year.  I taught my mom how to paper piece with this little design.

9-12.  I jumped on the mug rug/snack mat train last year and made several of these last year for Christmas gifts.  There are even a few more I made that I didn't snatch pictures of before I gave them away.  #10 I found a tutorial here, and the others I just made up as I went along.


Enjoy!

Maybe I'll finally try to keep up better this year, seeing as it is already April...

Jenny :)

Monday, April 7, 2014

2013... Where did I go?

Hello, long lost friends!

(Or maybe that was just me...)

I'm back, and I've some recaps of projects from 2013.  I'm not going to write about each one as a separate blog, but I'll show you a collage and then give some links under it with more info as needed.  Let's get started!



1.  I actually finished my Swoon quilt last April and we've been enjoying it on our bed all year long.  I did a "quilt-as-you-go" method because there was no way I was going to fit this massive quilt into my machine; it finishes about 92" x 92", a very generous queen size.  I quilted each block separately and then added borders and sewed the blocks together.   I've previously posted in progress work here, here and here.

2.  I cure little pinwheel card I made for my niece for her birthday.  I used my Cricut to cut out the pinwheels.  I believe I used the "Just a Note" cartridge.


3.  A card for Mother's Day last year.

4.   This is the front of my picnic pinwheel quilt.  I found a great free tutorial here from SewMamaSew.  The fabric was Catalina by Kanvas for Benartex, I used a layer cake.  (There are a few extra scrap pieces with stars I threw in the mix).  I used just the red, white and blue fabric colors.  I used a white background, and then used extra pieces to create a "piano key" border.  I used stabilizer on the border.

5.  Here is the back of the pinwheel picnic quilt.  I used states fabric from Joann's.  I made up my own pattern for a tic-tac-toe board as well as a checker board.  I thought all of these would be great for summer picnics!  I believe the while quilt finished about 72(ish) inches square.  I also sewed ribbon on one side to roll up the quilt and tie it shut.

6 & 7.  I got these great patio chairs from my mother-in-law.  They weren't using them anymore, so I snagged them up.  I used several cans of spray paint by Rust-oleum.  I used Summer Squash and Midnight Blue, both in a satin finish.  I then used a clear satin to help seal on protect the chairs.

8.  I made water sponges to play outside with.  I found many tutorials online, but this is a great one that uses elastic hair ties instead of string to hold the sponges.

9.  I made a Kitchen Aide cover for my Artisan mixer using... an old bridesmaids dress.  Actually it was just the shawl, and the dress is still intact for another time of creative crafting.  I found a wonderful tutorial here.  It has a template as well.  I also made it reversible, with a black and white damask fabric, should I choose to change it up.

11.  (Apparently I can't count when I make a collage late at night!)  I made a sign for my laundry room out of a canvas frame, free Home Depot paint and a free cricut cut one week.

12.  My mom asked me to make a card for my grandfather to give to her dad for his birthday.  He used to make beautiful and amazing stained glass projects.  I so made the card with torn bits of paper to look like stained glass.

13.  Again my mom wanted a card to give to her brother for his birthday.  He was turning a big 60, so the card says, "Maybe a cupcake would help?"  I was amused at least ;)

14.  I made a pillow for my bed with the swoon quilt with the HST scraps left over.  I found inspiration for the design from this post.


Thanks for sticking withe the long post and thanks for rejoinging me after my long hiatus from blogging!

Keep crafty,
Jenny