Merry Christmas and Happy Crafting!

Christmas is a week away and my tree is up and decorated (thanks to my honey who did it while I was at a meeting!) If you are like me, you are getting those last few gifts for family or friends to finish off the list. I have been making presents for the past few weeks and I think it is now time to put my sewing machine away and just enjoy the magical holiday feeling that comes this time of year. I hope you all enjoy your festivities and have safe travels.

Merry Christmas,

Sarah

Christmas Crafting

Christmas is not to far away and I have been busy making gifts for family and friends. Last night my friend Rebecca and I got together at her house for a night of sewing, it was lots of fun! We worked and talked into the weeeee hours of the morning (2'ish) when I decided it was time to head for home and a warm bed. The best part of having a good friend is the unstructured moments when you get to chat and talk about life and also those not so important things such as the spoofs on "Twilight" and "New Moon". We are both fans of the Twilight series and she showed me some hilarious videos that seemed even funnier at 2 am.

So, I have been hard at work getting Christmas presents made but I can't post anything until after Christmas or else you might know what you are getting...until then, here are some other projects I have done over the past year that haven't made it to my blog yet.

My Past Projects

I made these pillow covers to hide our brown and green well worn pillows. I got the fabric from IKEA, however, I picked out the fabric this summer and I 'm not sure the bright green matches my decor or the season. But hey, they work. Now when someone takes a nap on them and slobbers I just slip off the cover and toss it in the washer instead of trying to stuff the pillows in my washing machine and then having to listen to it as it thump, thump, thumps off balance. Pillow covers are a pretty smart ide if you ask me, especially since I have heavy sleepers who are bound to drool. I finished these just last month.

(Lauren helping me measure out the material, she is the best little helper!)

This is a baby quilt I put together before Lauren was born, over a year ago. I found a supper cute pattern and down sized it and changed the colors to fit a baby girl.

A little Valentines card from last year.

And of course, the two best creations I have ever made!

My Sweet Girls.

Katelynn (almost 4) and Lauren (1)(Picture taken Nov. 2009)

Happy Crafting!

Menu Makeover

~ CRAB CAKES ~

I tried a new recipe to add some ZEST to our menu. They turned out really good! I got the recipe from MarthaStewart.com here is the link

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/zesty-crab-cakes?autonomy_kw=zestycrabcakes

I tweaked the ingredients a little to suit our family's tastes. Instead of breadcrumbs (we didn't have any) I used some white bread I had chopped up in my Pampered Chef chopper I also added crushed up saltines because I didn't have enough bread slices to make 3/4 cup.

You make due with what ya got, right!

I skipped on the hot peppers because my hubby doesn't do "hot" but I did add the cayenne pepper which was just perfect on the flavor scale. Another difference was that I used canned crab meat, I wanted to see how it went over the first time before I went a little more spendy on the "good" crab meat.

With all of those changes they turned out great!

I Loved them and my little one year old gobbled them up!

Good job I say...it is worth a pat on the back! Another successful adventure.
Happy Cooking :)

Bathtime Hoodie

I made this cute little bath towel/ hoodie for my little one year old's first birthday. I made her one because she was always shivering when I got her out of the bathtub. I saw a little kid wearing one of these after swimming lessons this summer and I asked the kids mom what it was made of and how it was made. It only takes a bath towel and a washcloth for the hood plus whatever extras you want to add to it. I think the one I originally saw had little bear ears on it, SUPER CUTE!

This is my version of what I saw. I bought a towel for $1.50 and a washcloth for $1.00 and used some little pieces I had at home for accent. I sewed the accents on first to both the washcloth and the towel. Then I folded the washcloth about 3/4 of the way down and sewed the sides together to make a hood which I tweaked a little by sewing the corners at a diagonal to make it look "rounded" to fit her head.

I attached the unfinished edge of the washcloth to the middle

of a long side of the towel and VOILA!

It is super easy to make and works wonders!

Laurens 1st cake...and mine too!

I set off on an adventure last week, I decided to make Lauren's first birthday cake a little more than just a box of mix and a can of frosting. I have a great friend who does novelty cakes and we have been doing some fun stuff together. So, I thought I would try all by myself to make Lauren's cake and add fondant frosting with some decorations. Here is how it turned out...

The bottom layer is 8", the top is 6", and the cake itself is a strawberry cake mix with lots of good stuff added to it like a cheesecake pudding mix, extra flour, sugar, and some sour cream. It was really moist and yummy!
The lady bugs were a last minute addition and were just perfect! Lauren is a Halloween baby and she is only one so she really isn't going to care too much for witches, jack-o-lanterns, or anything scary so I made her cake cute and sweet.

The little birthday girl.

Close-up of a lady bug. They were pretty simple to make. I rolled a ball of black fondant and used two petals from the smaller flower as wings and then added tiny black dots. Cute and simple! I have to admit,

IT WAS A LOT OF WORK!

Hats off to those who make cakes professionally!

I didn't realize how much time it would take to put it all together; there was making the cake mix, baking the cake, making the fondant, dying the fondant different colors, rolling out the white fondant, covering the cake layers, rolling out the colored fondant, cutting out the flowers, placing the flowers, making the ladybugs, and then finishing off the cake with the white fondant rope on the edges. I didn't keep track of how long this took but it was a few hours...at the least! But it was worth it :)

Happy first birthday Lauren.

Zipper Critters

THIS is a little project I finished a while ago, it is called a Zipper Critter and the pattern is by Indigo Junction. The mouth is a zipper that opens and closes and inside is a little pocket to hide things. It is made of pieces of left over fabric from my scrap bin and buttons I bought on sale at JoAnn's. I have lots more scraps, zippers, and buttons waiting to be put together.

I made this one for my oldest girl as a little toy and she loves it. This is the first project I have sewn a zipper in. Fun and educational!

Mini Apron

I found a fun little pattern for this soap bottle apron

I have a bunch of scrap material to make more :)

Here is the web-site for the pattern and directions

Directions: http://sewing.about.com/od/aprons/ss/soapapron.htm

Pattern : http://sewing.about.com/library/graphics/dishliquid/7-31-01.pdf

A friend and I are doing a craft fair in a few weeks and I am going to see if I can get permission from the web-site to make and sell these there for a few bucks...it cleans out my fabric stash and makes me a few bucks. Not to mention more experience using my sewing machine :)

Happy sewing!

Creative to the last drop!

Hey there, it's been a while but as it seems to go I get one post a month...usually because I am working on projects and it takes about a month to get things done before I can post them. I was at my mom's house for two weeks and she gave me some fabric so I have been working feverishly...well as much as I can between chasing kids and making dinner...and trying not to stay up too late at night. After everyone goes to bed seems to be my "creative" time because it's just me and I can work on something uninterrupted...that is so nice! However, it has it's drawbacks, being a little "loopie" the next day for one and I am ready to crash after a few nights of 3am sewing sessions. I have no idea how I did it in college...oh, I remember now, no kids, that's right :) I love my little girls and wouldn't trade them for anything in the world so my late night sewing sessions are here to stay.

Just a few things I have done in the past two weeks since I got back from seeing my mom are:

~Project #1
I made a set of placemats (4) for my mom. If you are interested in seeing how easy it is here is the web-site called Sewing Republic by Bernina that has the directions and a quick video http://sewingrepublic.com/projectIdeas.html#/reversible_placemats/

~Project #2
I have a friend who just had a little girl, the same friend who helped me make the delicious cake in the previous post, and she wanted a nursing cover like the kind called "Hooter Hiders" so she sent me some instructions and fabric to put it together. It was simple and easy to finish quickly.

~Project #3
I have also put together a few aprons...full and half aprons.

~Project #4
I bought a fun pattern from a company called Indigo Junction called "Zipper Critters" and made one for my oldest girl who is 3 1/2. I am planning on being in a craft fair in October and have permission from the company to make up to 10 of them to sell without any charge due to copyrights. The little critters are basically a little pillow with a face and zipper mouth that opens into a pocket. Supper cute! Here is a link to the pattern with a picture
http://www.indygojunctioninc.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=24&products_id=855

~Project #5
There are lots of other little projects cut out waiting to put together such as pillow covers to add a little spice to my living room, who says you need to buy new pillows, just recover the ones you have! I went to Ikea and got some fun prints to liven up the tan couch, tan chair, and tan carpet we have. A little blahhhh for me right now.

~Project #6

Body makeover: I will be turning 30 in a few months and have set some goals as to where I want to be physically by then. I have a brother who is a bodybuilder and have been getting some tips from him. It has been just a few weeks since I really started working out and I FEEL SO GREAT!! and it's only going to get better :)

It takes a lot of energy to create and maintain a home (house, kids, happy husband, mama (me), and our one pet fish, etc.) but it makes me happy and I'm going to do it with all that I have...to the last drop!

Well, ta ta for now :)
Happy trails until next time.

Sorry no pictures of my latest projects. Our camera's memory card is missing so I can't transfer any pictures to the computer. Consequently, all of the pictures I took while at my mom's house and with family are gone too. Boo Hoo!

Cake Anyone?!

This fun cake was for my sister-in-law's baby shower last month. A friend of mine Rebecca Tanner and I made it...she did the hard stuff. Rebecca makes novelty cakes and here is her website if you want to see what else she has done http://prettycoolcakes.com/ she has lots of other fun ideas and has gotten me hooked on a web-site called Cake Central http://www.cakecentral.com/ although I have decided to keep my cake adventures to a minimum...they taste way too good and I would eat everything I made, so, I'll stick to scrap booking, card making, sewing, and reading.

Here is the cake all finished but I took pictures of the process so you can see what we did.

The colors are a soft pink and black...simple, striking, and not to mention way cute!

It was made from Devils food cake with a raspberry filling...oh so yummy!

We started out with a huge sheet cake that was cut in half to make a two layer cake with raspberry filling in between.

Here is Rebecca putting the filling in between the layers. This was fun to make because she is expecting a little girl the beginning of September and is looking forward to pink girlie stuff too since she already has two boys.

The two layers are put together and Rebecca started carving

out the shape of the arms and tummy.

The chocolate frosting on the outside is for a crumb coat to keep the cake crumbs form getting on the fondant frosting...the pink frosting.

The fondant before Rebecca put it on the shaped cake.

Once the fondant was put on top it just needed a little trimming to fit the shape of the cake and allow for a little flowing ruffle at the bottom of the dress.

The black bow and flowers were the final touch!

The cake was so cute it made it hard to cut into but once it was sliced up it was hard to stop at one piece...I had a few myself :)

I have other projects I have been working on but they will be another post.

Until then happy trails :)

New Summer Projects

It's been a while since I posted any pictures. I have been working on a few fun projects and here are some completed ones. The dress I made for my little 3 1/2 year old and the skirt was a birthday present for a friends little girl.

Also, some good books I have read lately are "Robinson Crusoe" by Daniel Defoe and "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens. I recommend both books as a good summer reads.

P.S. I am thinking about changing the name of this blog to "Simply, Sarah Jane"

Reap what you SEW

Here are some fun aprons I put together a few months ago. I wanted to learn how to read a pattern so I askend my sister Ruth to help me with the first one and once I got the pattern and instructions down I made a few more and sold them at a craft fair.

New and Wonderful Adventures Await!

Hello~
Doesn't this yellow background just make you want to SMILE...it sure does!!
This is blog is a new adventure for me and I hope you are along for the ride.
I love to create and am truly the happiest when I see something in my mind and then give it shape and form through paper or fabric or whatever I find in my hands. This blog is a COLLECTION of my projects, creations, and thoughts as I learn a little bit more about my self and what my talents are and what they can be. I invite you along for the journey and hope you find some inspiration or even just a smile along the way.
~Sincerely Sarah