I should be packing...

So much has happened since the hubs returned from the sandbox :)  I could blog for days.  But considering how often he is home, I'd rather be snuggled up with him.  Sorry if I'm being selfish :P.  We are about to take a mini-vacation for a few days, so I thought I better get a blog up before I get too behind!  So here-goes...


My Halloween photo smash-up!

1) Gettin' Crafty: In my ongoing battle with my desire to have a daughter, I continue to live vicariously though my friends, making girlie outfits for their little girls.  I crocheted a hat and sewed a matching pillowcase dress for my little Haileigh girl.

2) BOO at the ZOO:  Last year, just a few days before the hubs departed, we took our boy to the local zoo to do some trick-or-treating.  While it is nothing in comparison to the Halloween Party our hometown zoo puts on every year, it was still a very enjoyable event.  And considering it would be so close to his homecoming, I've been looking forward to partaking in this for last 365 days!  My son demanded months ago that he would be Robin and daddy would be batman.  Daddy did not argue, but insisted I be his batgirl.  While the hubs and I did not go all out costume-wise for the zoo's event, we are attending a friend's party soon, where we intend on going in full batman/batgirl costume. My son has sense changed his mind on his costume and has chosen a new costume for the 31st.  Considering my love for Halloween costumes, I had no argument in a costume change request.   I'll keep this costume a secret until a later posting.

3)  I made little pumpkin and bat cookies to go in gift baskets to give to the neighbors.

4) Cake jars for the gift baskets...I'll try to post more details about these baskets later.

Homemade Cookbook

When my husband and I were first married, I scrapbooked a lot.  So when I started accumulated a lot of recipes, I thought it'd be a neat project to make a scrapbook/cookbook.  At the time, I had never heard of anyone making one of these, so I was pretty proud of my unique project idea.  I see them more and more in scrapbook stores nowadays, but I promise, I thought of it first : P   Well anyways, after 5 years of marriage, the scrapbook has became fairly thick.  It's filled with recipes from blogs, neighbors, friends, family members, magazines, etc. In the beginning I used a binder with the plastic slip-in cover so I could slide in a pretty cover.  But I got bored last night and decided to sew up a new cover.  I attempted a tutorial of this project, but I'm not a very experienced seamstress and I'm not so good at tutorials, so forgive me if this isn't the greatest tutorial ever.  I did my best.  The cookbook isn't completely finished, however.  I'd like to add some embroidery to the side and perhaps a button clasp.  The pocket shown on the front is not actually sewn on yet, in case I decide to have it embroidered.  If you want a pocket on yours, make sure you sew it on before step 5.

 Supplies needed: At least 2 colors of fabric about a yard total should do.  You'll also need a binder.  Buttons and ribbons are optional. 

 

For the first step, lay your fabric out flat and place your binder on top.

 Leaving about an inch of edging, cut around the binder

 Now fold that edge inward, meeting at the binder edge and pin them in place.

  

Sew the trim down all the way around. (If you want a pocket or ribbons or buttons on the cover, do this before moving on to the next step.)

 Lay the fabric down again (facing up) and place the binder back on top.  Cut your second color of fabric  to match the size of one side of the binder, leaving about an inch and a half of space from the center like shown above.  Face the material down (like I've shown you above) and fold the edge over, pin and sew down.

 Pin the edges of the top and bottom together.   Slide the binder out and sew the edges together. 

 Repeat on the other side and flip the fabric inside out.  Slide your binder back in and tada!

 

Here's the inside of my cookbook.  To keep it personal, it includes photos of family members baking cookies...I'll go into more details about the contents of my cookbook on another day. 

 

Who gives a hoot?

So this week's care package is still a secret, but here's a hint...I made the hubs some owl cookies.  These were not easy to make, I couldn't find an idea on google that I liked, so I had to come up with something all on my own.  I'm not a creative thinker like that, I need visuals!  I also decided to only make 7 cookies this week as opposed to the typical 2 dozen.  My husband is a health nut, he doesn't even eat these cookies, I'm pretty sure he gives most of them away.  But he enjoys the surprise of the cookies, and I'm just making them for fun. So what's the point in making 24 at a time?  I decided to freeze the remaining cookie dough for next weeks' cookies.   It was nice only having to decorate 7 at a time, but it left no room for error. Luckily, I only screwed up 1.  I wouldn't really say I screwed it up, actually I forgot to decorate it all together, haha.  Luckily, my son didn't mind disposing of the sad forgotten cookie.   The cookies are ready, the box is ready, but I'm not headed to the post office today.  I have another batch of cookies to bake tonight.  Yes, you read that right another batch for the non-cookie-eating, health nut soldier.  Well, I can't help it.  This recipe was perfect for the box theme, plus this batch isn't going to be for show, they're all about taste!  I have a feeling my husband won't be sharing these so much.  You can read all about the in my next post...leaving you won't hint closer to figuring out the theme to the mystery box.

For now, here's my hooters...

The Coolest Care Package Ever

Yeah that title is a pun, but you can take it literally too...because Penguins are awesome! You would already know that if you had read my previous post.  Anyhow, as I've already noted, my husband loves penguins, so I HAD to send him a penguin themed box this month.  To date, this one is my favorite :D  Honestly, I think the boxes just get better and better.  I've got about 9 stacked up in my office, every other day I'm adding a couple items to each box until they are filled.  I have a box that is just about filled to the top, so I just need to make some cookies this weekend and I'll have it in the mail Monday.  I can't discuss the details of the box yet though, it's Top Secret.  Well, really it's because I think my husband has been checking my blog lately, spoiling his themed box surprises.  So you'll have to wait until he sees it before I can discuss it.  But to hold you over, here's this week's box.

What to do when there's nothing to do, part 2

I am a boutique photographer and my favorite sessions are newborn sessions.  I LOOOVE little baby sessions.  Newborns are the best models, God has already granted them adorableness so all I have to do is capture that in my lens.  It's like taking a picture of a sunset over the ocean, you really can't screw it up...though believe me, there are some "photographers" out there who have the ability to do so.  Anyhow, because I love baby photography I love baby props.  Not the Olan Mills studio kind of props, I'm referring to boutique props like pettiskirts, tutus, bowls, baskets, blankets...all with a rustic, antique, or homemade feel.  My favorite prop is crocheted hats.  Sadly, hats can get fairly pricey, they go for about $20-$35 on etsy.  So one day I decided I'd try to make my own.  About an year ago You-Tubed some how to videos and after about 5 hours I gave up.  However, since my husband is deployed now I find myself with a lot of spare time on my hands.  So I visited You-Tube again and within 3 days I was crocheting my hands off.  It's not something I'd dedicate my life to, but it gives me something to do when there's nothing else going on.  And since I accidently over-budgeted and put all of our money in savings this month (I'm not taking it back out either), I'm kinda stuck at the house until we get paid again.  So since I can't mail any packages this week (for a lack of moo-la) there's no point in baking and decorating cookies or boxes, so I've pulled the ole yarn out of the cabinet.  Here's a taste of what I've been up to this week...

Along Came a Spider...

As mentioned in my previous post...this week's care package theme is Spider-Man.  Obviously, this choice was made by our 3-year-old.  He loves Spider-Man, but he's not biased, he pretty much loves all superheroes equally.  But back to the point.  Spider-Man was a fairly easy choice for the box considering there's a lot of Spider-Man items out there to be found.  As noted in the previous post, I began with Spider-Man Cookies, then I added some Spider-Man candy, Spider-Man gummy snacks, a Spider-Man toy and tossed in a Spider-Man movie to finish it off.  I think the hubs will really enjoy this box.  In the future I think I'll do a Hulk box and a Wolverine box as well.

Look out! Here Comes the Spider Cookie

So this week I let my son decide on the theme of daddy's box.  After a short debate, he settled on Spiderman.  Since I've recently decided that each of my husband's themed packages must now contain a unique homemade cutout cookie,  I Googled some Spiderman cookie ideas.  I decided to attempt the ones I found on this site.  They didn't come out nearly as professional as the ones I found, but I don't bake cookies for a living.  So I'm still super proud. Here's the process.  First, I made a template for the eyes and placed parchment paper (I was out of wax paper) over the template and used black royal icing to pipe over it.  I filled in the black outline with white thin icing using the colorflow (or flooding) technique from here.  I let that dry for about 4 or 5 hours.  While waiting, I baked the cookies.  Once cooled, I outlined them in royal icing and again used the colorflow technique to fill them in with red.  Once dry, I piped a spider web.  To finish the cookies, I carefully pulled the eyes away from the parchment paper and placed them onto the webbed cookies using royal icing as a glue to hold them in place.  And there you have it! Spiderman cookies.

Oh, Oh, Oh...It's Magic!

As a boutique photographer, I have an addiction to making tutus for use as an inexpensive and adorable photo prop for my toddler sessions.  Therefore there is a lot of scrap tulle lingering around my craft closet these days. I haven't had luck finding much use for these extra strands, until today.  This morning I discovered Pom Pom Wands. They're simple to make, cute, and they are the perfect accessory for the matching tutus I have all over this house!  They were a lot of fun to make, so I ended up going crazy with them.  I don't have use for 6 wands so I've put some of them for sale on my etsy page.  But if you'd rather make your own, below is a tutorial I've put together.

(Sorry if it's not a great tutorial, but I've never put one together before).

Step 1) Gather supplies.  Tulle (3 inches wide and approximately 10 ft long, or you can use several cut pieces that equal at least 10 ft long--the longer the fluffier your pom pom will be), glue gun (& glue sticks, duh), 12 inch dowel rods (I used 36 inch dowel rods and cut them into 3 equal pieces), & a couple spools of ribbon.

Step 2) Use the glue gun to adhere the main color ribbon to the dowel rod by applying a dab of glue every couple of inches and rotating the rod.

Step 3) Completely cover the rod until no wood shows through.

Step 4) Apply another color of ribbon to the rod by repeating step 2 (space this color out a bit).

Step 5) Continue adding different ribbon colors until you are satisfied with the colors of the rod, then set the rod aside.

Step 6) Cut 2 12 inch pieces of ribbon and set aside.  Pick up your strand of tulle and begin winding it around your hand over and over again until it's all wrapped around your palm.

Step 7) (This part can be tricky) Carefully slide the tulle from your hand and tie knot around the middle with the 12 inch pieces of ribbon you cut in step 6.

Step 8) Insert one blade of your scissors through the tulle on one side of the ribbon and cut the loops open and fluff the pom out.  Then repeat on the opposite side.

Finally, use to glue gun to adhere the pom to the rod and TADA!! You have a pom pom wand!  No go make some magic!