#262 - Sock Monkey

Today in Anna's co-op handicraft's class they worked on their sock monkeys.

And tonight she made one with Holly. :)

They did almost the entire thing all by themselves....and did a great job too! It's not quite finished, but they'll add the ears, eyes, and lines for it's mouth tomorrow.
So right now it's a monkey that can see no, hear no, and speak no evil....hehe!

Psalm 15:1-3
"LORD, who may abide in Your tabernacle?
Who may dwell in Your holy hill?
He who walks uprightly,
And works righteousness,
And speaks the truth in his heart;
He who does not backbite with his tongue,
Nor does evil to his neighbor,
Nor does he take up a reproach against his friend;"

#88 - Crayon Melting

Today the girls and I did something that we've been meaning to do for a long time :)

Ever have any of those things?!

The girls did a lot of this ^ after school today!

I've had this red silicone mini-muffin pan for a few years and never use it.

Because I dislike it very much:) So I thought we'd put it to some use other than scraping muffin bottoms out of it.

After the girls unwrapped many broken/bad crayons, they broke them into pieces and arranged them in the muffin cups.

I liked this color combination!

Then we set them in the oven that was heated to 175 degrees for about 15-20 minutes. You want them to melt slowly or else it'll be very stinky! You're just meltin' - not cookin' em!

Here is the one I liked.

After they cool for about an hour or so you can pop them out of the pan and voila - they look like this when you turn them over!

The girls thought they were fun and we plan on making some more soon! Next time we're gonna break the crayon pieces up a little smaller so we'll get more of a rainbow effect when they color with them. But these turned out just fine for now. :)

2 Corinthians 5:21
"God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

How to Make Gift Tags from Christmas Cards!

A few years ago a good friend of mine shared this neat idea to make gift tags with old Christmas cards.

Just take your old cards and cut out different scenes or even verses.

Then cut a piece of card stock behind it to be a little bigger and hole punch the corner. Then string a ribbon through the hole and tie it.

You can double up the paper too!

The possibilities are endless!

Snow, Soup, & Sewing

We got our first accumulating snow on Saturday along with temps in the teens and all we've wanted to do is bundle up............

and eat soup!

Tonight the girls and I decided to get out the ol' sewing machine and make a few Barbie items.

Barbie wasn't very happy because of this:
The dress Anna made her didn't fit. Maybe too much soup?!

I found a great tutorial blog that showed how to make some cute clothes. Not being the best seamstress, it didn't turn out fantastic, but Barbie was happy!

We also made mini-quilts with a matching pillow that I found on this blog!

Anna did a great job!

Barbie was happy once again. When the temps get down to 10 degrees tonight she'll be warm!

Holly worked on her own quilt too!

I loved how hers turned out.

Hope you all have a great week and stay warm!

Saturday.....SaTuRdAy......SATURDAY!

Sissy spent the night with the girls last night and today they played dress up, then went outside for a picnic! Please notice our chickens in the background....hehe:) It was a country girl picnic!

I love these little girlies and the special bond that they have through Christ!

And here is pretty much what I did all day:

It's kind of hard to explain.
I've had this window for a few years and bought these quilt pieces not long after.

So I pieced them together to make a small quilt to fancy up the window a bit.
I'm still learning how to measure and get everything right before I sew. I tend to want to just start sewing......not a big fan of the prep work. Which is the very reason why the window and fabric pieces have been sitting in the floor for 2 years!

Here is the final quilt product.

This is what I was trying to accomplish. I'll tack the quilt piece on the back of the window and then hang the window somewhere in my living room.....eventually! :)

Hope you have a blessed Labor Day!!! We'll be in school since we took off last Monday (and Tuesday! :)

Low-fat Cake, Babies, & Quilts

We have had a busy couple of weeks around here! But we love it!

A few weeks ago I had read about baking a cake with only a can of pop and thought hmm...I wonder if it would taste good?

So I tried it and guess what......

It was scrumptious!!!

All I did was beat about 12 oz. of lemon-lime soda with a yellow cake mix and baked it for the amount required. I also added some lemon extract just to punch it up a bit. For the icing I mixed cool whip with some more lemon extract and a hint of yellow food coloring. I was so amazed that this actually worked! Next time I need to beat the cake mix for a little bit longer so that it will rise up a little more. With my calculations each piece had approximately 5 grams of fat.

Not too bad :P (For a chocolate cake mix you can use a can of Coke.)

This little girl has stolen our hearts!
Last Tuesday I got to keep her all day and then she spent the night with us! We were having revival so I was able to take her with us both Tuesday and Wednesday! I didn't want to take her home after Wednesday's service, but her mommy and daddy were missing her.

She is starting to smile and laugh a little bit. Absolutely precious!

This week we have been working on the girl's quilts again and we officially finished Tuesday!!!

They're not perfect, but with some more practice I'll get better....hopefully :D

This one above is Holly's for her doll Liberty.

This is Anna's for her doll Jubilee.

Here is Jubilee's pillow that Anna embroidered.

Holly is still working on Liberty's pillow.

Jubilee sure did like her pillow and quilt! She went straight to sleep ;)



Please remember Brian's Uncle Larry, his wife, Lora passed away early Tuesday morning. She has battled cancer for the past 2 years.

Thangles

Let me begin by saying that I am not very good at sewing. I am relatively new at it and really haven't a clue of what I am doing. My sister showed me "Thangles" a few years ago and I thought they were pretty neat. Back then I made a few and thought, "Hmm, one day I'll make something with those." Well, that day has finally rolled around.

The girls and I were cooped up on New Years Day so we decided to pull out the Thangles and start making a doll quilt. Then we realized that we had enough material to make two quilts. Small ones. We have a lot more to do to finish them, but I wanted to post our progress so far.

The thangles form a perfect square out of two triangles. You piece the good side of two pieces of fabric and then pin them to the pattern and I usually trim them around the edges if they need it. Then sew on the dotted lines.

Then cut the solid black lines and open up and voila ~ you have a square. You can get just about any size you want. These were for 3" squares.

Here are some lined up for one of our quilts.

And here is the other one.

Here is one of the top pieces almost finished. It is not perfect, but we made some great memories making it! That is what counts right?! I have a border I want to put on and then the batting and the back piece (you can tell that I have no idea what to call these pieces by their formal names!)

I'll post some more pics when I get them finished. Maybe... :D