Wordless Wednesday - Whoopie Cushion

Santa brought a whoopie cushion.....

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A Belated Mele Kalikimaka!

Mele Kalikimaka = Merry Christmas!

Gotta love the palm tree next to the Christmas tree!

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas! This year we were truly blessed to be able to celebrate Christmas as a family. The last couple of years my husband was not with us due to deployments or us moving which made this year that much more special. Now if only my father and sister lived closer!

As I'm sure most of you experienced the week before Christmas was HECTIC! It was GO-GO and MORE GO for days! And just when I thought all the shopping was done my dear husband asks for me to pick up just a few more gifts for some of his office workers. Yeah. Like it's that easy...especially with two kids in tow! But we survived (barely). Now I am enjoying the quiet aftermath of all the craziness!

With all the errands we had to run I didn't have much crafting time but I did manage to make some reindeer dust/food for Kailani's classmates. I'm sure most of you know what I'm talking about:

Here's the recipe that I used:

1 cup of uncooked oatmeal

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup colored sugar

I had read somewhere to use the colored sugar instead of glitter - as glitter can be harmful to animals (personally - I think the glitter would've looked much better (and been much cheaper!)

I then attached a tag to the bag that said:

"Magic Reindeer Dust"

Sprinkle on the lawn at night

The moon will make it sparkle bright

As Santa's reindeer fly and roam

This will guide them to your home.

Kailani was super excited to take it to school. Some of her classmates asked, "Is this for real?" Kailani had no doubt that it was. Ahhh...the sweet, sweet innocence.

I also managed to whip up a drawstring bag for one of Kailani's friend's. I knew I had seen some Littlest Pet Shop fabric SOMEWHERE but of course when I was ready to buy some I couldn't find it anywhere! Of all places I found it at Walmart (our Walmart still carries fabric). Inside the bag were a couple of Littlest Pet Shop figures. The bag will be a great place to store them!

Currently I am working on a bag for Momo - a drawstring backpack with her all-time favorite character appliqued onto it. Can you guess who that character might be?

Hope your Christmas was merry!

Camera Strap & Doll Diapers

Four days! Four more days till Christmas! That is EXACTLY why I haven't been on here as much. Holiday rush has been in full swing here - but that doesn't just mean shopping. That means some sewing as well.

I made my sister a Hawaiian print patchwork camera strap. Haven't made one since about this time last year. I did learn something new - not all straps are made the same. I bought some straps off of EBay awhile back only to find that the connector pieces were made out of.....what? I'm not even sure but it tore while I was unstitching it. Not good!


I also made some baby doll diapers for Momo and her friend. I found a great tutorial with a downloadable pattern at Skip to My Lou. SUPER easy and takes very little fabric. A quarter yard of fabric makes at least two diapers! I also took the advice from someone who commented on the page and put an entire strip of velcro across the front of the diaper instead of small squares. That makes the diaper adjustable to fit different sized dolls.

Here's a picture of Momo's stash - I've included a front view, back view and open view with the velcro stitched all the way across:

Here is Momo's much loved PomPom modeling one:

Super fast and easy project!

I still have more sewing to get done before Christmas! Will post more pics soon!

Wordless Wednesday: Dear Tooth Fairy....

Enclosed in the envelope is her tooth.

Total count since September: FIVE teeth!

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Roll-Up Car Mat

Lake - House - Gas Station - Car Wash

I did it! I finally did it!

You may remember the take-along race track mat/carrier that I made awhile ago. Well, I wasn't too happy with it and really wanted to make the one that was featured on the Fiskars' website. Well, I finally finished it this morning. I am super stoked with the way it turned out - hopefully my sweet little nephew will like it as well!

Here it is all rolled up:

I have to admit - I did shed some tears with this one but it was my own fault. The last thing I had to do was iron out some wrinkles when my iron BURNED through the fabric! I was MORTIFIED. What to do? What to do? I could've left it and just said it was a pot hole. :) Thank my lucky stars I managed to find the perfect iron-on to cover it up! There are still a few little black sticky marks on the fabric that I wasn't able to get out but I'll live with it (it's hard, but I'll manage!) We can just pretend that it's dirt or asphalt. :)

Burn = TOTAL FREAK OUT!

Ahhh....that'll do.

By the way, my girlfriend Amanda made the "original" take along car carrier mat and was successful. I've seen it in person and it looks great! Take a look at hers here.

19 Days Till Christmas! Are You Ready?

Nineteen days. NINETEEN. I am so not ready. Usually by this time I've taken a Christmas photo, printed, addressed and mailed by now. But not this year. Nada! Nothing! I gotta get on it...or just the opposite - not send cards out this year? Bah-humbug!

As you can see it's been about two weeks since I last posted. So much has been going on. I wanted to blog about a lot of it to get some feedback/support but didn't want to bombard the Internet highway with my neurosis. Here's a little recap:

STRESS #1: Taking the girls to the dentist. Enough said? Thing is Momo (2) did FANTASTIC while Kailani (7) had a major freak out.

STRESS #2: I am seriously considering applying for a geographic exception for Kailani to attend a different school next year. Don't get me wrong - I LOVE her teacher and have nothing but good things to say about her. However, there are other things that are going on at the school that I am not so happy about. It's a long story....

STRESS #3: Could be related but l think aliens have abducted my daughter and left me with a mean look-a-like. The clone often makes an appearance when it's homework time and truly tests my patience. I definitely need a light saber or something to zap the evil curse...

STRESS #4: Again, probably related but I caught the look-a-like clone saying some MEAN THINGS to a classmate! MY DAUGHTER? My sweet, sweet, Kailani? Oh no, no, no, no. My daughter is NOT going to be a "mean girl". Where is that light saber? Zapping that one in the bud IMMEDIATELY!

STRESS #5: HOLIDAY SHOPPING with a two year old in tow.

STRESS #6: A HALF GALLON of milk spilled in the back of my van. It STILL smells like vomit.

*Sigh*

But on a good note I have actually been doing some sewing! YEAH!!!

First of all I have to thank my father for helping to make it all happen! He mailed me THREE LARGE boxes of my sewing stuff. Not large as is the largest box you can buy at the post office but large boxes as in MOVING boxes! Almost 150 pounds of sewing supplies and fabric that I had at stored his house. YEAH BABY YEAH! Thanks dad!

So what have I been sewing? I'm embarassed to say that I finally made the keyboard covers for Kailani's classroom. I had already made the monitor covers and quite frankly forgot about the keyboard covers until her teacher kindly reminded me. (Whoops!) The covers are made like a pillowcase pocket so you can easily slide it over the monitor and place the keyboard into it. Not the best picture but at least you have an idea:

I've also decided to ATTEMPT to make a quilt! I've always wanted to but never knew where to start (and fully admit that I do not have the initiative to learn on my own.) About three weeks ago I finally met (live and in person) Amanda from Patchwork in Paradise blog. She is a talented quilter that I have gotten to know via the Honolulu Mommies website while still living on the east coast. She was also a contributor to my Barium Springs project and donated three handmade blankets! It was so great to finally meet her. She kindly offered to help get me started on my first quilt. Here are some of my pieces all laid out on her bed:

Asyou can see I'm going for the girly-Aloha-print look. I think the fabric I picked will help achieve that look. (By the way - can you see the blue batik under my pieces? That's a quilt that Amanda made. It is unbelievably G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S! )

So there. It's out there. I am going to make a quilt. Granted it may be my first and last, only time will tell. Meanwhile it has to be put on hold as I finish up some sewing for Christmas projects. Again, NINETEEN DAYS. I'm hoping to finish up two projects today - I hesistate to post them because I'm afraid that the recipient of these gifts might actually look at my blog before Christmas. Oh who am I kidding - I don't believe she has any interest in my blog! We'll see. Let me just get them done first!

Are you making anything for Christmas presents this year? Do tell!