Perry Blanket

My husband tried to be crafty. He didn't realize what a pain these no sew fleece blankets can actually be.

I Spy... Perry!

So I've wanted to try these little things called ispy bags since I first saw them out on the internet. I adored them. Simply and completely. However, one thing always bothered me about the "themed" bags that I saw on etsy. Someone would be a selling a bag that they claimed was Cars themed, but only the bag itself was made of Cars fabric or had a Cars character embroidered on it. The little items to find inside were unrelated to Cars. It bugged me.

So I thought about it. I've slowly been collecting odds and ends (Target, Michaels, etc.) to put in my ispy bags and then I had a thought. Why not make my own? So I went to Wal-Mart and looked for stickers for my son's favorite cartoon characters. Boy did I find them... and they were cheap. So started with the tools I had on hand: cardstock, laminator, the fabric, etc. and went from there.

I stuck a sticker on a piece of card stock and cut out the cardstock as close to the image as I could. Then on the other side I stuck the same sticker (the packages come with upwards of about 100 stickers a package - most packages only cost 97 cents). I then cut out a piece of cardstock in the shape of a rectangle or square and stuck another stick of the same image on the square. I fed all of these through my laminator.

Then not only did I have my list, I also had my items to stuff the bag. I started with, of course, the Phineas and Ferb bag.





The rest of the steps were the same as any other ispy bag. I then beat the living crap out of the bag to make sure that not only was my sewing secure, but that the laminated stickers were going to work. Boy do they ever.

The one thing that I really like about the way my bags are constructed is the way in which the find list is attached. Its laminated so kids can write on it with a dry erase marker when they find what they are looking for. The list is also removable. So if you have a younger child or a child that wants more of a challenge, you can simply say, "How many items can you find?"





This project was easy and fun. I can def. see why people are addicted to this little crafty item. The Phineas and Ferb was easy enough. Cutting squares. So I decided to up the ante in the next one, if you will. I traced a spool of ribbon to cut out a circle and then stitched is using one of the fancier items on my sewing machine.









What I liked most about these two items were the themes. I just think its so stinking cute. I find it a fun challenge to dig through the sticker isle or the foam area, or online clipart to find theme related items. My next challenge, I think, with these ispy bags is to create holiday themed ones filled with appropriate items.

Oh! And this is my 100th post. Wow. *throws confetti* That is all.

Birthday Madness

Trying to plan a birthday part for a one year old was painful, considering I've never even attended a birthday party for a one year old. However, Party City and the fact that the only cartoon my LM will watch is Phineas and Ferb on netflix, made my life a little easier. Add to that some wonderful "Where's Perry" cotton fabric that I found at JoAnn fabrics and you have yourself a one year old's birthday party!



























Albertson's grocery saved my bacon with this birthday cake. I was really getting scared that I was going to have to make my own.



Everything was commercially bought (hangs head in shame) expect for the high chair kit which you see in the picture above. The only ones we could find were boy or girl themed. So using the "Where's Perry" fabric I found, I created the birthday cake kit. I sewed a flag banner that got taped to the table, cut out a large square for a floor mat (no sewing involved, I was a working mother in a hurry!), and made a bib (complete with snaps.)

And yes, everyone had a great time at the party. Of course my LM wouldn't eat his birthday cake. It wasn't until two days later, he actually tried a piece. Good times.

Picture Dump

I have been very busy crafting, however, I've been very bad about posting. However, I feel that being a full time mom, wife, teacher, and part time student earns me a little bit of a reprieve. Life has been busy!

My husband and I took the little man up north (where it was about 27 degrees outside) and he needed a winter hat and mittens! So on the drive up (it helped that we got stuck behind an accident - no one was hurt - that shut the freeway down for two hours) north I completed two hats and two pairs of mittens for him to wear on his adventure to see Santa.





Both of the above hats were done on the pink KK loom. All the blogs and tutorials online for knitting baby hats on the loom said to use the small one, but sorry, my son was born with a 14 inch head, there was no way this loom was going to make a big enough hat. It took some experimentation to finally figure out which size was good enough.

Next was the challenge of having to create mittens for the little guy. I couldn't find any decent pattners online for making infant mitts on the loom, so again I experimented and are quiet proud of what I created. Simple, but very effective.





I will draft up a pattern eventually for the mittens. If you've worked with the looms before you can probably figure out how I did it, it was really simple. Mittens were completed on the flower loom.

After all that, then I had to tackle Little Man's stocking for his first Christmas. I was just going to buy one, however, my husband instisted that I make his, since I made everyone elses.



A close up of the super cute fabric:



I made him several stocking stuffers (in addition to what I bought - he is such a spoiled baby!). The first batch is three different taggie toys:







The letter "A" is his favorite one I think. He's always grabbing for that one.

A few weekends ago I went on a diaper making craze. I wanted to have enough diapers to at least get us through a day. So I made several diaper stuffers and a few diapers.













I have many more photos to post but first I have to get them off of my camera.

Mom Days...

What do you do when you have a 3.5 week old baby, you're exhausted, and you need to make dinner? You dig through your pantry and see what you make with what you got. Here's what I ended up making for dinner last night. Simple, easy, and best of all it is something that my husband will eat again!

Chicken Alfredo!

Here's what you need:
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 egg
Bread Crumbs (I used Italian)
Noodles
Alfredo Sauce

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Dip the chicken breasts in the egg and then in the bread crumbs. Drop them in a 9 x 13 baking dish (I always line mine with foil first so that the clean up is easier). Drop them in the oven for 20 minutes.

While the chicken is cooking, cook the pasta, drain. Cut up the chicken breasts into smaller pieces, drop over the noodles, and cover with Alfredo sauce. Voila. Dinner in less than 30 minutes.

Onto the savings! As any good money saver/crafter knows, JoAnn Fabrics has fantastic deals over the holiday weekends. This weekend (being Columbus Day weekend) they had Simplicity patterns on sale for 99 cents. This time I was smart. I went into the store on Thursday (the day before the sale started) and wrote down the pattern numbers that I wanted. I went in Friday morning as soon as the store opened and while all the other ladies were digging through the books, I dug through the cabinets! Bwahaha!



Total spent: $10.98
Money Saved: $124.90

Woot! Woot! McCall's patterns go on sale Thursday. I've got the pattern numbers I want, so when my hubby gets home from work (or rather before he goes in) I intend to hit up the cabinets!

Earlier in the week I made a few bibs for the Little Man:


I had leftover fabric from his tummy pillow:


I had some Cars fabric in my stash that I picked up over a year ago at a Hobby Lobby and now I finally had a use for it:


I also had some snowman fabric left over from last Christmas.

I certainly won't be making any more bibs for the little man. Not that I didn't enjoy making them or that I didn't like them, but because he has so many of them! We've gotten bunches of them in the mail from family over the last few weeks, and bibs are certainly one thing he doesn't need anymore of!

Last but not least, some binky leashes:



These were made using ribbon I found in my stash and suspender clips (which were actually a pain in the neck to find! I thought for sure that stores like JoAnns and Hobby Lobby would carry them, but apparently not...)


And I put my new snaps and snap plier to good use:


I don't know how much use we'll actually get out of the binky leashes though, because so far he really doesn't use his binkys.

Okay, whew, I think I'm all caught up on things that I have completed and finished. My husband goes back to work tomorrow so I doubt I will get any crafting done while he's at work. Although Little Man has more or less slept through today, so here's hoping he sleeps most of the day tomorrow. I need to get his diapers done!

More Cross-Stitch

I just love these mini cross stitch kits you find at the craft stores for $1.99. They are nice, quick projects to work on. I like to use them to take a break from the big projects I'm working on.

First up are the Disney ones: Ursula (from The Little Mermaid) and Piglet and Winnie Pooh from Winnie the Pooh


A second Disney batch: Little Nemo (Finding Nemo), The Wicked Stepmother (Snow White), Lightening McQueen (Cars), Eeyore (Winnie the Pooh)


I Love Dogs:


I think the Racoon is absolutely adorable!