Pop Tab Bracelet

We made pop tab bracelets at church the other night with the young women. They were really fun to make and easy.

Sloan used a blue elastic which is a little different than the video below, we also used little crimp findings with the knots when we tied both sides together.

 

Just wanted to share a Craft, A Simple Sewing Project and our Christmas Tree!

 

This is the dragon hoodie I made for my grandson for Christmas. His mom said he loved it! I’ll post a picture of him in it soon!

This was really easy to make with a hoodie I purchased at Walmart and white felt for the teeth and eyes.

This is one of my flour bag gift bags I made. I just added a little wrapping paper trim at the top and ribbon handles. I saved all my flour and sugar bags to make all different size gift bags, because, all my friends and family know that I love to bake!

This is our tree this year. My sweet hubby cut a piece of plywood and painted it, then mounted a little train track on it!

I love that it is an electric train!

Next year we’re going to add another track and train!

Homemade Bracelets out of Shoelaces and Pepperoni Pizza!

I'm hooking up with My Frugal Family for Talented Tuesday! Be sure and check out all the other projects!


I found this great tutorial on Obsessively Stitching a while back for these super cute, super easy bracelets! They're made out of shoe laces from Dollar Tree! Yup, $1 made 5 bracelets! I made them for Sloan, and she gave one to a friend and I still have the other shoe lace left to make more! You just need a little bit of elastic and some rhinestones. I couldn't find the rhinestones at the Dollar Tree the day I was there, but they did have silver metallic puffy paint in a package with some other colors, so I just bought that. It gives it some sparkle and it's easy. I just put it on the shoe lace the night before and let it dry overnight.


Pepperoni Pizza Crust

1 cup hot, but not super hot, water
1 tablespoon yeast
2-3 cups flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Toppings

1 small can tomato sauce
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1 package pepperoni, we like the Kroger brand
3-4 cups mozzarella cheese

For crust

In a mixer fitted with a dough hook, place the hot water. Sprinkle the yeast and sugar over the top. Let sit for 5 minutes. Add 1 cup of flour and the salt and mix, adding more flour to make a soft dough that just pulls away from the sides of the mixer. Knead for 5 minutes. Put in a greased bowl and cover with a towel and let sit for about 20 minutes.

Heat oven to 425 degrees and spray a cookie sheet with Pam. Work dough out onto cookie sheet with your hands.

Mix the tomato sauce with the seasonings and spread half of it onto the pizza dough, cover with pepperoni and cheese. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until it starts to brown.

I made a necklace and Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes

If you haven't entered my giveaway for this cute Songberrie Necklace, you can find all the details here!



This is my gold lace bib necklace that I made. I'm kinda proud of it! I had so much fun making it. I haven't done beading since I was a teenager. I think I'll have to do some more of it!

I found the idea over at Ruffles and Stuff. Disney has such great ideas. I changed it a little, and I'm thinking of still adding something.

I found this recipe over at Our Best Bites. The kids loved these pancakes, but we forgot to take a picture. But you know what pancakes look like, right?

Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes


3/4 cup wheat flour
3/4 cup flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon oil
1 large egg
1 large egg white
Cooking Spray or butter for pan

*As a substitute for 1 cup buttermilk, place 1 Tbs lemon juice (or vinegar but I prefer lemon juice) in a 1 cup measuring cup and then fill the remainder with milk. This recipe calls for 1 1/2 cup buttermilk, so do the same thing with 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice and remaining 1/2 cup milk.

Combine flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a mixing bowl and whisk together. In a separate bowl combine buttermilk, eggs, oil, and vanilla and whisk well. Add the wet ingredients into the dry and mix just until moistened and combined.

Heat a nonstick griddle or skillet to medium heat. Coat pan with non-stick spray or a little butter and then pour on pancake batter. Use about 1/4 C batter for large pancakes (5-6") and 2 tablespoons for kid-sized ones (2 /2-3"). Wait until bubbles form and edges are set and then flip.

Makes 12 large or 24 small pancakes.

Be sure and stop by Tidymom and sign up for a great giveaway for a $30 gift certificate from the Rusted Chain.

I Made Fabric Flower Headbands and Chicken And Rice, My Way

I'm linking this post with The Shabby Chic Cottage for Transformation Thursday.


These are the new headbands I made. On this one I used scraps from a drop cloth to wrap the headband.

The flowers are made from leftover lace.

This one is made just from drop cloth scraps.

I thought they turned out pretty good!

Sloan loved them and wanted to keep both.



This is Chauncey's late night snack. Yup, that's green beans on top the whipped cream and chocolate mint ice cream. Makes you want a nice bowl of ice cream and veggies, huh?


I've always liked chicken and rice when someone else made it. I didn't like it so much when I tried it. The rice would never cook all the way! So I thought about it the other day and decided to try it a little different. It turned out great and I loved how easy it was!

Chicken and Rice, My Way

1 chicken, cut up
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 can chicken noodle soup
1 1/2 cups regular rice

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

In a 9x13 pan mix the cream of chicken soup and the chicken noodle soup, add in 1 1/2 cups rice and stir around. Top with the chicken pieces. Cover with foil. Bake for 2 hours.

Do you like shoes? OOoh, I do! Just for Me..and you is doing a giveaway with ZooShoo.com and you could win a great pair of slouchy boots! You can get a 10% discount if you want to buy some. I did! Sandals, because summer has to come sometime!

Secret Recipe Chocolate Chip Cookies

I found these cute little tins at a garage sale a few years ago and I've kept my herb tea in them. This keeps the tea from picking up other flavors and makes the tea last longer. The problem was I could never remember what flavor the tea was. I noticed all the fun things people are using blackboard paint for so I decided to spray the front of my tins with it. First I painted them white, then I used paper and painters tape to cover the area I didn't want the spray on chalkboard paint to cover. Be sure and push your painters tape down real well, I forgot to, so I used a white out pen to touch it up a little. I also covered the blackboard paint with chalk once it was dry, then wiped off the chalk before I wrote on it the first time. It seasons the chalkboard that way. This is really working well for me! Now, after you check out my recipe, head on over to We are That Family and see what great tips everyone else has!




I got this recipe in the mail in a set of recipe cards. You know the kind where they want you to sign up to have a set mailed out to you every month for a fee. Well, this recipe just looked like I had to try it. It said that the lemon juice activates the baking soda making a softer chewier cookie. Yum! Well, it was right, the kids are just gobbling these up! I loved the hint of cinnamon, not to strong, just a subtle hint.

Secret Recipe Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 cup quick oats
2 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 eggs
2 cups chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

In a blender pulse oats until powdery. In a bowl whisk oat flour, flour, soda, salt and cinnamon.

Beat sugars and butter for 3 minutes until fluffy. Add eggs, vanilla and lemon juice and beat. Blend flour mixture into egg mixture and mix well. Add chocolate chips and mix again.

Drop onto cookie sheets with a coolie scoop. Bake 13-15 minutes or until lightly browned.

More Homemade Christmas Presents

Here's some more Christmas presents I made. I have had so much fun sewing presents this year! I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!



A decorative Andes Mint Tin


Decorated gloves


Decorated cosmetic bag.




This is a camera case I made for Chauncey's camera we got him for Christmas.



This is the REO emblem I had embroidered on Ken's leather jacket. This is his Christmas present. I had it done at a local shop.


This is an Altoid Tin I decorated for a friend.



This is a rock necklace I crochet and goes in the tin.



These are some gloves I decorated with yo-yo's and buttons.



This is a little cosmetic bag decorated with yo-yo's and buttons.

Easy Smores and Some Gifts I Made

We decided to make smore's the other night without a campfire. First we crushed some graham crackers in a baggie, then poured it into a small bowl. Then we melted some chocolate chips in the microwave in a small bowl. Then we put a couple of large marshmallows on a small plate and microwaved them for 10-20 seconds. Then we put a fork in them and dipped a spoon in the chocolate and drizzled it over the marshmallow. Then we sprinkled the graham cracker crumbs over the chocolate, Yum!

So when we were done we had all some lovely melted chocolate left and not wanting it to go to waste the kids decorated their faces!


Here's a Chocolate Chauncey!


And a Chocolate Sloan!


I wanted to show you some presents I made for a dear friend of mine. I gave her a gift certificate for a new purse and these are the accessories I made to go in it. I found this pretty green floral print fabric at DI for $.50. I decorated everything with fabric yoyo's and buttons from my button jar and some yellow gingham fabric from an old crib sheet. I got a little carried away, but it was so fun!


On the left is a insulated water bottle holder, an Altoid tin filled with Milk Duds (her favorite candy) to the right of it is a package of Trident Gum decoupaged with the fabric, then below is a checkbook cover, below it is a wallet that I made (I took an old wallet apart for the pattern and zipper) a business card holder, to the right is a tissue holder.



The notebook has a decoupaged clip on it and a hair elastic to keep it shut and pen are decoupaged with the fabric, a cosmetic bag, a bottle of green lotion, a Burt's Bees Lip Balm decoupaged, a sewing kit and a key chain.


There's a great giveaway over at Tea Rose Home!

I've been busy sewing!

I thought I'd show some of the things I made for my daughter and my 3 grandkids.




These are the ballet flats I bought for Jennie, then my sweet hubby pounded the snaps on the shoes and I made her 2 sets of charms. The shoes are silver with copper trim, so these charms are copper satin ribbon with a sparkly button in the middle, then the snap is underneath, and they just snap on the shoes. I also made her a black crocheted flower charms to snap on.
This is the cape I made Amelia. It was the no sew pattern that Disney over at Ruffles and Stuff made. I used a fleece blanket that I found. I couldn't find a fleese fabric that I liked. I thought it turned out really cute!

This is a hot chocolate can that I covered with pretty scrapbook paper. It says Jilly Beans on it (my granddaughter's name is Jillian but they call her Jillybean).


These are the cute little tag bean bags I made to put in the little can. I remember how much fun Chauncey use to have putting tennis balls in a tennis ball tube and then putting the lid on it. Of course that was a long time ago!




I made the black crocheted flowers for these gloves, then I sewed silver buttons on for the centers. There are two different size flowers stacked together. I really love how they made the gloves look!



These are super hero capes! Reese loves the Cars Movie so I used Cars fabric for his and Amelia loves horses, so hers is the horse fabric.




This is a car cozy I made for Reese. Chauncey use to collect hot wheal cars, so he gave me 6 cars to put in it!




This is how it looks opened up. The black fabric is a little road to drive the cars on, then they can park in the pockets. I used some different Cars fabric for this.

I also made them crayon cozy's and I gave them coloring books to go along with them. It was so much fun to make them things for Christmas!