Rectangular Sewing Again!

Every time I make something, I think its the coolest thing I've ever made! Even better than what I made last week. Of course, that only lasts until the next time, but its a fun feeling! I have discovered a LOVE for sewing anything that doesn't require a formal pattern, gathers, pleats, zippers or even button holes. When I stumbled upon "The Idea Room" I found a ton of fun crafts to make, but since I was looking for a quick gift idea, I settled on this.

The Fashionable Fabric Keychain. Have you ever noticed when looking at other peoples sewing projects that they have the cutest stinking fabric you've ever seen??? I often feel like this, and sometimes is discourages me from starting the project, but this time I ignored the thought, dug through my stash for a minute, and came up with a pairing that I thought was pretty cute. I also already had the fastener on hand from previous attempts to make a binky clip. Boo Ya!

A simple craft with everything on hand; so perfect for so many reasons, no runs to the store and no money spent are my favorite two! Her tutorial was very simple to follow with lots of pictures. I think the most time consuming part was changing the thread and bobbin on the machine twice to match the materials!

Jewelry

Over the holiday weekend, I went to Michaels Craft and bought a jewelry making board. I have wanted one of these for the longest time! I have a good supply of beads and fixings, but never a long enough stretch of time to make an entire project!
I took a group of beads and layed out bracelets for each of the girls on Friday. I continued to work on these throughout the weekend whenever I had a few minutes to spare and they are almost all done! I will take pictures of them on the girls when I finish them. Abigails bracelet is a funny thing. She doesn't have much in the way of wrists, just a nice little fold, so she won't be able to wear her bracelet for long, as it could feasable be rolled off of her hand without much effort. But hey, little Chunks have the right to be adorned too!

Leftover Roll Dough?

Last night I attempted to make a new recipe for rolls to go with our soup. The recipe took over an hour to rise the first time, and over two to rise the second! Needless to say, dinner was quite late last night. After dinner I put in the second batch of rolls to bake and threw the rest of the dough in the fridge. Now it also happens that we made homemade fries over the weekend and I have a large pan of oil sitting on the stove. Combine those two and you get? Dough Nuts!

This was such a fast treat for the morning. The biggest key, other than yummy dough, is HOT oil. Make sure the oil temperature is over 375 with your thermometer before dropping in the dough. I did not have a donut cutter, so I used a small juice glass and made large donut-holes instead. Donuts fry up very quickly so don't walk away! I turned the donuts over after a minute, and pulled them out of the oil after two. Let them drain for a minute before topping them with a simple glaze or sugar-cinnamon combo. Simply Delicious! Now i'm only wishing I had saved more dough and made less rolls!

Faux Boppy

Because we chose to not find out the sex of this baby until birth, I had very little in the way of clothing and equipment. After all, if it was a girl, I would want to buy pink frilly things. Where as a boy needs lots of driving equipment printed on his clothes, and sweaters. There are few things cuter than baby boys in sweaters.
While shopping the past week, I looked at the prices of Boppy Pillows. Wowzers! $35 dollars. Their were also no super cute pink patterns, so it was pretty easy to pass up. Who pays that much for a pillow? You can make a pillow right?
A Googling I go.... and end up with this Boppy Sewing Pattern. I used some material I already had on hand to make the pillow form with. I must admit, my boppy is not as pretty as the commercial counterparts.... but I'm rather attached to my Franken-style stitching. Tomorrow I'm going to delve into the fabric stash and see what I can come up with for a cute cover.

Third Body Balm Attempt

I noticed last night that the lotion that I made up pre-Christmas for Porter and I was about gone. Since his skin has stayed at a small rash instead of full blown red pocks, scratched till bloody, I've considered it a success. I also used the balm on my poor tummy in the last month of carrying Abigail and was surprised how supple my skin felt. My hope is that my skin will repair better because of it...... We all need to hang onto those little hopes, they get us through the days.
So, I took my first attempt - a Massage Bar that ended up having too much beeswax in it. Once you rubbed really hard with it, your skin felt nice, but it was just too hard to be practical - and combined that with a few oils that I have since acquired in my stash. I added in Rape Seed Oil, Castor Oil, Aloe Vera Gel, Flax Seed Oil, and Evening Primrose Oil. Once all that was melted in the double boiler, I poured in a bit of witch hazel and took my hand held mixer to it. I had not used the blender on my previous batch of lotion but I think its a big key to making the lotion 'lighter'. Considering this was just a throw together batch, I am very pleased with the results. If you're interested in making lotions or balms, this is the recipe I (almost) followed the first batch. I didn't use any water, just used more witch hazel. I also used a few different oils to make up the 1/2 cup of almond oil. If you are adventurous, you'll definetily want to read up on the quality of oils so you can create you own concoction.