o' fun for... endless crafting

Sorry it's been so long! To make up for it, I will post something new every weekday this week. Oh yes.

To begin, here is a link that you will love. (Or else!) It's the Top 100 Tutuorials of the year as ranked by http://www.thelongthread.com/ It is full of crafty goodness, so stick your kids in front of some Disney and get to it! (What? No.. that's not what I really do... that was just a joke...)

I recently made the kimono from a tutorial on the list. It is the 0-6 month size for a friend's baby shower gift. (I missed the shower, but late gifts are still fun, right?) Now I just have to deliver it before I decide to keep it for my baby...



No, I won't keep it. I'll just make one for Ellie also and then my friend and I can have matching wise-yet-comfy looking baby girls.

Enjoy the tutorial fun!

O' Fun For... people with very vivid imaginations

...because I didn't take any pictures of what we made to go with this post.
Sorry.
We were just lucky to get everything completed and come out alive, let alone take any pictures of the finished products. I can, however, offer links or recipes.

All week I have been printing these gift tags (from Amy Karol last year on the angrychicken blog) out on cardstock, hole-punching them, grommeting them, enveloping them, and finally delivering them for neighbor gifts this year. So much for my simple idea! Somehow I thought the lack of baking and not having to purchase a bunch of supplies I didn't have would speed this one along. Oh-well, it's done now, and my grommet-er is thanking me for the break. Plus, the gift tags are so freaking awesome, I had to share them.

Monday night we went to Grampa T's (my Grampa, the kids' Great Grampa) to make graham cracker houses. I withheld and did not make my own this year. That may be the first time in my life I have passed up that opportunity. I tend to get a bit... ummmm.. involved.. in making my house, and perhaps neglect my kids' frosting-placing needs as I decorate my own house. This year I decided to be strictly a frosting-squeezer for my kids. Sigh. It was still fun, though. This year's trends were adding peppermint wheels to the houses to make them mobile homes and using spare crackers to create garages. You have to enjoy the house building, because the eating part never happens. The origins of Grampa's candy are unknown, but we recognized most of it from several years past. Nothing like vintage candy for some teeth-breaking fun!

Also, we made sugar cookies o' yumminess to decorate last night. Man! That is quite the project with kids! I made the dough in the morning and put it in the fridge. That was the easy part. Then, after dinner, I took a deep breath, washed everyone's hands, and dove on in to the cookie-making adventure. James was very nice and joined the chaos in the kitchen as well. About an hour or more later every surface in the kitchen, as well as every part of us, was covered in flour, dough, cookies, sprinkles, and frosting, but we had enough done to deliver to teachers and home teach-ees, so I sent James off with the kids and the cookies and tackled the mess while they were gone.

Ahhhhhhhh. I remember now why we only do that once a year.

Here is the recipe for the best sugar cookies ever. They are like the pink cookies we would eat instead of lunch in high school. Mmmmm...strange eating disorders.....

Pink Cookies o’ Yumminess

1 c. butter, softened
2 c. sugar
4 eggs
1 c. sour cream
5 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
4 t. baking powder
2 t. vanilla

Beat the butter, sugar, eggs, and sour cream together in a huge bowl. Mix in the rest of the ingredients. Chill overnight. The dough should be sticky. Roll out ¼” to ½” thick. Bake for 12-14 min. at 350. (If I preheat my stoneware pan, it takes 12 min.) You know they are done when the top feels like a wet sponge when you push on it lightly. (They don’t taste like a sponge, don’t worry.) If they are getting browned, they have cooked too long.

I do have one picture for today. Santa stopped by our house while we were mid-cookie-ing! It was about the most festive moment possible: snowy night, baking Christmas cookies, Muppet Christmas Carol soundtrack a-playing, and Santa dropping by for a visit. It would have made the Grinch scream out in horror. Here is a picture of the flour-y kids sitting on Santa's lap:



I am now almost done with Christmas projects. Woo-hoo! I only have to make pajama pants, and something for James that I will not mention on the off chance that he reads this and I spoil the present. Oh- and also some shirt-stenciling for my brother and James' brother. I can't seem to get away without making anything at all, but I did much better this year than I did last year. I am actually getting sleep this year.

O' Fun For... complicated quilters

Last year I made my family quilts for Christmas. I used fabric from my Grama T's sewing room scraps. This year I decided it was about time to make one for myself. I scoured the internet to find the most complex, time-consuming quilt pattern out there. Not really. I wanted something that would look cool with bright colors on white, and the part of myself that hasn't learned to simplify found this pattern. This blog simplified the process compared to other instructions I found for cathedral window quilts, but it still has a ridiculous number of steps. Why can't I learn to enjoy nice, simple projects? What is this crazy part of me that thinks cutting, folding, ironing, pinning, cutting more, folding more, and then sewing is a better plan than cut, pin, sew?

For my quilt I used Grama T fabric for all but about 10 of the 500-ish bright squares, and bought a ton of white quilting fabric for the rest. I made my white squares 12" instead of 9" since my quilt has hopes of becoming queen-sized, so enlarging the pattern made it 3" easier. (What?) Hmmm... what other changes.... I don't pin the white fabric "frame" down, I just fold while it is under the sewing-machine foot then quickly lower the foot and sew, taking one side at a time. When you have a few blocks sewn together, you'll notice that there is a tiny hole at the point where the "window" tips meet up. I sew a few stitches back and forth across this, just because it makes me feel better inside. My sewing motto is "Sew the crap out of it." Then I don't worry that the things I make are going to fall apart. Somehow they still manage to, though...

Here is where I have pinned my "window" squares up so I can choose which ones to use as I sew. I have a post-it where I keep track of the number of each color I have left, so I can make sure I don't end up with a bunch of reds at the end or something not awesome like that.



I cut and fold the white squares about 6 at a time, since this is the most tedious part. Getting them nice and square with clean, pointy corners is a freaking pain. Besides the occasional swearing to myself over the folding part, I have really enjoyed making this quilt so far. (Probably because I'm only about 1/20 done with it...) I like the fact that once you are done, there is no batting or backing or binding to deal with.



While I quilt, I listen to audiobooks on my IPod. I recommend books or short stories by Alexander McCall Smith- especially the Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, and the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. The first one of that series has a brief languagey moment- don't hold that against me! (she says, shaking her fist threateningly...)

Wow. I sound so grown up and dull, discussing quilting and recommending books. Poo. There, now I feel better and less grown-up.

Now I just need to load a new book on my IPod, and I can use all this feeling-gross pregnant time to get a bunch of this giant project done. I'll post a picture sometime in 2018 or so when I am finished.

O' Fun For... nerds who like funny old stuff and cooking

This is not about something I have made, but something I discovered on another blog I frequent. It is a site full of old cookbooks, scanned and made into pdf files, collected and posted by the Michigan State University Library and the MSU Museum. It is so much fun! I know I more or less stole this post from angry chicken, but I give her all the credit for this discovery, and thought I'd pass along the fun. I'll probably be at this for hours, and when I make something from one of the recipes I'll post it. Enjoy!