Recent Crafts

I always get the urge to craft during the Christmas season! I was looking through the Downeast catalog and saw this skirt and thought I could totally make that! Here is my take on it:
I've been loving the glamorous hair thingies that are all the rage right now (and have been for a bit) so I finally added a hair clip to this broach I found at a consignment shop like 6+ months ago! I felt very dolled up wearing it!
I have my brother Shawn for Christmas, and my mom mentioned making these shoes for his daughter Aviel. The pattern was originally sold in the 50's I believe and they were super easy and fun to do! I really hope they fit her!
Now I have some fabulous black polka-dot lace that I need to decide what I'm doing with . . . any suggestions?!

And a little bit of pixie dust . . .

I love Halloween! This only happened after I had kids and found a love of making their costumes! Here is a little sneak peak of this year's:I can't even tell you how much Jon has made fun of me because of these shoes. They were an ugly pink number that I bought from Marshall's which I then made worse by spray-painting them green! Luckily, after snipping off a strap, and sewing some ribbon around the worse part of the ugly, and then a giant pom and the rest of the ugly, we have Tinkerbell's shoes! (Jon says we could have bought the Walmart version of Tink's shoes for cheaper, and where I agree with him on that point, it's the principle of the matter!)

More pictures to come!

Thanks for the Idea Pottery Barn!

I love Pottery Barn. They always have the cutest things, but frankly, as students, I just can't afford basically any of it! That when I love stealing their ideas! It's nothing new for me. If you recall this post on my family blog, you see I steal their ideas often! So when I saw these Halloween treat bags:
I knew I had my next project! Jon loves sharks, and I loved these shark bags and that was it!
Here's my version of the treat bags. I have a tendency to try once, figure out what I would like to do differently, then do it again! (that's why I have 4 bags and only 2 kids!)
This is the one I made for Sevy in honor of her Tinkerbell costume (that I still need to make). I loved the pink bag in the above picture, but Tink is all about the green, so this was my take on it.
I had to get red felt for Teik's costume and I had tons extra and was itchin' to make a strawberry bag! you can't really see the detail here, but there's buttons for the seeds and my favorite addition--the little strawberry attached! Sevy will probably end up using this bag because she likes it too!
These were my first attempts and I love them! I learned after these that I need to double up the handle to make it sturdier, but other than that, they crack me up! The kids naturally love to put them on their heads so that the sharks are eating them! If you haven't checked PB kids, they also have a shark costume that is awesome (check it out here), but I'm not that adventurous in sewing!

Felt bags are super easy and super cheap (as compared to buying them). I think I made all four of these for under $10 total--and that's with enough material to make probably 4 more. Not bad for a little crafty project!

easy homemade granola

i checked out a great recipe book from the library called "baked: new frontiers in baking" by matt lewis and renato pliafito (check their website here). i've tried quite a few of the recipes and some were great and some failed miserably. i've been looking for a great granola recipe because my mom used to make the best granola when we were little. this one really is easy, and i've included my variations.

Yield: 1 pound

2 C rolled oats

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

3 T plus 1 tsp vegetable oil

1/4 C honey

1/4 C firmly packed light brown sugar

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/3 C whole almonds

1/3 C whole hazelnuts

1/3 C golden raisins

1/3 C dried cherries

preheat the oven to 325*F. line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

in a large bowl, toss the oats with the cinnamon and salt.

in a medium bowl, stir together the oil, honey, brown sugar, and vanilla. whisk until completely combined.

pour the honey mixture over the oats mixture and use your hands to combine them: gather up some of the mixture in each hand, and make a fist. repeat until all of the oats are coated with the honey mixture.

pour the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet. spread it out evenly, but leave a few clumps for texture.

bake for 10 minutes, remove from oven and use a metal spatula to lift and flip the granola. sprinkle the almonds over the granola and return the baking sheet to the oven.

bake for 5 minutes, remove from oven and flip granola. sprinkle the hazelnuts over the granola and return baking sheet to the oven.

bake for 10 minutes, then remove from oven. let cool completely. sprinkle the raisins and cherries over the granola and use your hands to transfer it to an airtight container. the granola will keep for 1 week.

*my own variations: i would lesson the amount of salt to 1/2 tsp (seems salty to me). i would also substitute sunflower seeds with the hazelnuts, and cranberries for the cherries. i am also going to try to make it a little clumpier next time. i think it would be fantastic over yogurt or over ice cream!

the skirt

i helped my sis-in-law with her first sewing project found here. The pattern was so simple and hers turned out so cute (check it out here), that i was itchin' to make my own. when ashley and i made hers, we thickened the waistband to like 3-4 inches so that she could wear it with a thick belt. i did the same alteration on my own. for my fabric, i used some purple broadcloth, and then layed this great black polka-dot lace over it. i sewed it just like the instructions called for, but in the end, i added about a yard of elastic to the bottom of the skirt to make it a bubble/tulip skirt more that the full skirt it called for. i love it! i want to find some sweet black tights with the seam up the back to fully finish the look!