Unplugging.

Since Christmas is in just a few short days, I think I'm going to unplug from the internet world for a little bit.  I'll be back next week sometime, promise.  But before I go let me wish each of you a very Merry Christmas (and a Happy Hannukah as that is occurring right now too!) surrounded by those that you love and hopefully some good food too!  

My three little elves have opened their Christmas PJ's, our family tradition every year, and are breaking them in nicely for Sunday :-)  Noah was über excited about this year's pajamas as he thinks they are real "Elf" pajamas...I guess they do look like elf clothing ;-)

They tore off their clothing and were racing to put them on the night we gave them as part of our Christmas Advent.  I love Eloise's belly in this shot, she really is our little 'Ellie Belly'!

I still can't believe we are only days away from completing the kids' Nativity with the Birthday Boy.   I still need to wrap him up and get him under the tree on Saturday night after my littles are snug in their beds.  Oooh, things to do!

Well, I hope you have all your holiday shopping done, your handmade gifts finished, everything wrapped and ready to place under the tree and if you don't you still have a few days left...ahhh, it's almost time. 

From my family to yours, Merry Christmas!!!

XOXO,

Fabric-by-Fabric One-Yard Wonders-BOOK REVIEW

I was lucky enough to get a copy of the new Fabric-by-Fabric One-Yard Wonders book from the publisher not too long ago and I just wanted to share a bit about it with y'all in case you needed to buy a last minute Christmas gift for a certain crafty someone...maybe that's you?

I own the first One-Yard Wonders book and I loved it like many of you.  But can I just tell you that the second book is even better!  First off, this book has a ton of projects (101 to be exact!) that use a variety of different types of materials, not just cottons but knits, voiles, corduroy, oil cloth, home decor, and more.  And the book is broken up into sections of projects that work with each one, ahhh, it's organized so everything is easy to find, me likey a lot.  Secondly, it comes with a whole slew of patterns in one of those handy dandy pattern pocket holders in the front of the book.  YAY!  I love when a book includes patterns.

There are so many great projects, some that I have dog-eared for my To-Do-Now list include:  'The Camp Shirt'.  So adorable and perfect for my little Noah.  

The 'Work in Comfort' Travel Set but mainly the lap desk.  I have been wanting to make a lap desk for Noah and Penelope to use in the car.  Especially to use during our long cross-country drives when we visit my family.

I absolutely love these 'Pajama Boots'...how cute are they!  If I didn't run out of time, these would have made great Christmas gifts for a few people I know.  Do you think Ryan Gosling would make me a pair? 

"Hey Girl.  

I noticed you dog-eared those Pajama Boots in the new One-Yard Wonders book so yesterday I took a day off of work to make them for you."

And lastly, I think this 'Umbrella Redo' is so cool.  I really want to make raincoats with matching umbrellas for Penelope and Eloise.  They would be so cute splashing around in puddles this spring in a cute laminated cotton print.

Well, I hope you enjoyed a peek into this great book.  I think it would be the perfect addition to your crafty library and with 101 projects in it there will always be something to work on!  

XOXO,

Patchwork Mug Rug-TUTORIAL

I thought I'd bring another one of the tutorials I did for Delish magazine home again today.  This mug rug would be the perfect gift to make for someone this Christmas, especially nice because you could even use up some scraps!  Plus, you could certainly get a few done in under an hour...yay for gifts done in a flash!

Patchwork Mug Rug

(10) 5 x 5 inch fabric squares from a charm pack or scraps of the same size

(1) 10 x10  inch piece of cotton batting or felt

1 package of coordinating extra wide double fold bias tape

coordinating thread

sewing machine

rotary cutter and mat

straight needles

iron and ironing board

Gather your ten pieces of coordinating charm squares or scraps and decide how you would like to have them situated on both the front and the back of the mug rug.  The front will consist of two 5 x 5 inch pieces of fabric and five 2.5 x 5 inch pieces.  The back will consist of four 5 x 5 inch pieces only.  For this mug rug I used a charm pack from the beautiful Bliss by Bonnie and Camille..love this line!  If you remember, I used this line in Eloise's first birthday party earlier this year too :-)

Take two 5 x 5 squares that will be on the front right side of the mug rug and sew them right sides together at one end using a 1/4 inch seam allowance.  

On the wrong side, press the seam apart like the picture above.

Next cut four of the charm squares in half into 2.5 x 5 inch pieces.  You will only need to choose five of these pieces for the front side of the mug rug.  

Sew two of these pieces of fabric, wrong sides together, along the longer 5 inch side using a 1/4 inch seam allowance.  Continue to do this until all pieces of fabric are joined together.

With the wrong side up, press each seam open.

Next take the strip of fabric you just finished and the first two squares you joined together earlier and sew them together with right sides facing along one of the longer sides only.  

Now take the remaining four pieces of 5 x 5 inch charm squares and sew them all together like we did earlier, making sure to use a 1/4 seam allowance and pressing the seams open when done.  

You should have both front and back pieces finished now!

Next take the piece of cotton batting or felt and sandwich it between the front and back pieces, making sure both pieces have their right sides facing out.

Pin around the outside edges to keep the batting from moving while sewing the next step.

Time to quilt the mug rug!  Starting down the center of the mug rug, sew a straight line down from one edge to the opposite side.  Then move your fabric over about 1/2 inch from your center line and sew another straight line.  Continue sewing straight lines until you have quilted the whole mug rug.  

Using your rotary cutter clean up the edges of the mug rug by cutting it down to a 9 x 9 inch square.

Take your bias tape and sew it around the mug rug making sure to catch all the raw edges while you sew.  

If you need some help with how to sew with bias tape, check out my tutorial here!

All done!  And perfect for gifting to someone special this holiday season :-)

Happy sewing my friends!

XOXO,

Holiday Cornflake Wreaths-RECIPE

One of my favorite holiday treats to make (and eat!) this time of year are Holiday Cornflake Wreaths.  Maybe you make them too?  Oh man, they are so good.  We made these every Christmas when I was little and now I make them with my littles :-)  Making them is a great activity for the preschool set too as they can help you pour the cereal, count out the marshmallows and of course lick the spoon and bowl when you are done...every kids favorite part, am I right!

I always drop mine by the spoonful into individual mini wreaths because they are easier to add to our cookie trays we hand out every year but my momma always made one giant circular cornflake wreath for our family to enjoy.  

Holiday Cornflake Wreaths

30 large marshmallows

1/4 cup butter

1 tsp vanilla

2 tsp green food coloring

4 cups cornflake cereal

red decorating sprinkles or sanding sugar

Place the marshmallows and butter in a large microwavable-safe bowl and heat for 1 minute in the microwave.  Stir until butter and marshmallows are completely melted.  Add in vanilla and green food coloring and stir until the color is mixed throughout.  Add in 4 cups of cornflakes and stir until completely coated.  Drop by spoonfuls onto a greased sheet of wax paper.  While still warm, add red sprinkles or sanding sugar for the holly berries.  Enjoy!

Grab yourself a bag of large marshmallows and count out 30 little puffs of happiness. 

Place them in a microwave-safe bowl with 1/4 cup butter and microwave on high for 1 minute.  The marshmallows should puff up pretty big when done.  Grab a spoon and stir them until the marshmallows and butter are nice and melted.  

Then add in 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 2 tsp of green food coloring and stir until the food coloring is nicely incorporated.  Yup, as you can see I ran out of green coloring, hrmph!  I ended up using 1 teaspoon of yellow food coloring and 1 teaspoon of blue food coloring for this batch instead...yeah, we've been making these a lot this week :-)

Then add in four cups of cornflake cereal.  

Stir it up until the cornflakes are well coated...nice and GREEN!  Then drop by spoonfuls onto a greased piece of waxed paper...Mmmm!  Now just to warn your this is only slightly a sticky mess, well okay, it's a huge sticky mess but a good one none-the-less.

Then grab some festive red (and/or green) jimmies, holly bits or sanding sugar and lightly sprinkle them over top of each wreath.

Just perfect, I say!

Make yourself a whole bunch of them and then have at those babies if your being naughty.

Or share if you're begin nice!

Merry Christmas to all!

XOXO,

Ginger Kids and Ornaments.

Just ten days until Christmas, is that right?  Well, we continue to be knee deep in Christmas activities that are keeping sweet little hands busy and sweet little faces full of big smiles, how about you?  Last year I found these ginormous Gingerbread men, you might remember them from this post here.  Well, I went and bought them again, thank you Trader Joe's, and they prove to still be a big hit.  Dare I say I might even like decorating these better than Gingerbread houses as there is no wait time for icing to dry after house construction, y'all know what I mean.

Noah is so in love with the movie Prep and Landing and if you hang around my Facebook page you know that I am too, it's just too cute!  He wanted to make his Gingerbread man either Lanny or Wayne but really I think he just wanted to put those green goggles on him most!

Here are the completed Ginger Kids.  Noah's on the left and Penny's on the right.  Yes, those are sprinkles.  Everywhere.  You can still find them on my kitchen floor as they bounced all over the place during decorating.  Oh boy!

Our Christmas Advent yesterday was for the kids to pick out their special ornament for this year although I changed it to be that they would just 'Open' their special ornament.  I thought it would be more fun if they had a little package to open so that is what we did.  Every year we try to find an ornament that suits their personality.  My parents did this for my 3 siblings and I and it was always so fun to get our ornaments out every year and ooh and ahh over them saying, 'oh, I remember this one' and 'this one is my favorite!'  

I always like the Hallmark Holiday Keepsake Ornaments, they always have something cute and, so far, fitting to each of our kids every year plus I like that they are package so carefully in their own little box.  We write each child's name and the year it was given on the box along with a little note from mommy and daddy.  The box makes it easy to put them away once we take the tree down and then we can easily remember who's ornament is who's the next year.

This year, Noah received a Prep and Landing ornament, of course.  Totally fitting for him this year.

Penelope, our little ballerina, received a Barbie Ballerina ornament.  She is In Love to say the least.

And little Eloise received a Curious George ornament as she is quickly becoming the George fanatic of the house.  Good thing we have lots of stuffed George's from Noah's hey day.  

So, just 10 more days.  Are you ready?  

XOXO,