Lily's 1st Purse

Lily has become interested in everything girly in the last couple of weeks. She steals my purse everyday. I made her her very own purse for Christmas. I had in my head what I wanted it to look like and made it up as I went. I was excited to see how fast I whipped this up. I might make one for myself. Lily's measures about 7.5 inches wide and 4.5 inches tall. After I made this I realized that it looks just like the one on make it and love it. Maybe sub-consciously that is where I got the idea of what I wanted it to look like. I was thinking of making a tutorial if anyone was interested.

So You Think You're Crafty

Have you been to So You Think Your're Crafty yet?

I am loving it. It is a blog competition where 10 crafty bloggers are facing off. Each week they have a challenge with a theme, they create something and then we the people get to vote. It is week 3 and I about die every week at what these talented women come up with.

The first week the theme was Harvest and I loved what Mique for 30days created. I ran to the store, grabbed all the supplies and made one for myself. I have no ingenuity, so I pretty much copied it exactly. I bought a piece of scrap wood at Home Depot for $1. Justin cut it and sanded it down for me. Most of the other supplies I had on hand.

I want to make almost everything I see, but here is my to do list, just from SYTYC

(to see all of them click on the Week, to see the tutorial click on the craft)

Week 1: Harvest

• Wheat Throw Pillows from V&Co
• Dinner for Two from MADE

Week 2: Leaves

• Glitter Wreath from Homemade by Jill
• Modern Leaf from MADE
• No Sew Leaf Wreath from V&Co

Week 3: Green

• Cozy Car Caddy from we all know who (I am definitely making this for Tanner's stocking)
• Grocery Totes

There you have it. Go check it out and vote.

What is Under Your Bed?

This is what is under my bed:

I am not the best at collecting food storage but I do try. This is a great time of year to stock up on baking supplies and canned vegetables. Since we live in a small apartment most of our food storage is under our beds.
Under My bed: Food, Ziplocks, and Swiffer refillUnder Tanner's Bed: Toilet Paper and DiapersUnder Lily's Bed: Diapers, Cereal, Some Bathroom supplies, and her clothes drawers
To keep the food organized under my bed and for easy access I use produce boxes from Costco. They slide easily under the bed and they are free. Don't be shy about finding the box you want, they are perfect for under the bed.
Happy Storing!

For: The Chelseas

(Image from here)In nursing school I hung out with Danielle, Chelsea and Chelsea. Every fall when pumpkin season would roll around Chelsea squared would talk and swoon over all the different pumpkin foods, breads and desserts. They would even get teary just talking about it. So this post is for them. I found this recipe a couple years ago in Family Circle magazine (Dec. 07). We finally tried it this year and they are YUMMY! I didn't make the cranberry honey because of a lack of cranberries but the waffles were still amazing. Pumpkin Waffles with Cranberry HoneyThis recipe is copied directly from the family circle website. Click here for original source.

Ingredients
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/4 cups whole-wheat flour
1/3 cup sugar
2-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1-1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1-1/2 cups low-fat buttermilk
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 large egg
1 Tbs. canola oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 egg whites

Cranberry Honey:
3/4 cup honey
1/4 cup cranberry juice
1 cup fresh or frozen, thawed cranberries, divided

Directions
1. Waffles: Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. Place a large baking sheet in the oven.
2. Combine the flours, sugar, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl; stir to mix well and set aside.
3. Combine the buttermilk, pumpkin, egg, oil, and vanilla in a medium bowl; whisk until smooth. Add the buttermilk mixture and 1/3 cup water to the flour mixture; stir until a moist batter forms.
4. Beat egg whites in a medium-size bowl with an electric mixer on high until stiff peaks form. Gently fold whites into batter.
5. Coat a waffle iron with cooking spray and preheat. Spoon about 1/3 cup of batter for each 4-inch waffle onto the hot waffle iron, spreading the batter to the edges. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes or until the steaming stops. Transfer waffles to baking sheet in oven to keep warm. Repeat procedure to make 16 waffles. Serve with Cranberry Honey.
6. Cranberry Honey: Bring the honey and cranberry juice to a boil over medium heat in a medium saucepan. Add 3/4 cup of the cranberries and cook 5 minutes or until cranberries pop. Stir in the remaining 1/4 cup cranberries. Remove from heat and let stand 5 minutes before serving. Makes about 1 cup.

Little Red Riding Hood

For some reason I had my heart set on Lily being Little Red Riding Hood for Halloween. I also had the goal to make Lily a dress by the end of the year. I combined the two and made Lily her Halloween costume. It was my first time making a dress and following a pattern. It turned out far from perfect but I am still proud of my accomplishment.

I bought the pattern at Walmart. It was not the Halloween costume pattern. I wanted to make her a real dress. That she could maybe wear to church. I used the New Look 6448 pattern. I made a size 2 and it turned out pretty big so she might be Little Red Riding Hood next year too.

She was not fond of the cape and kept taking it off. I didn't have a pattern for that but just looked at some tutorials online and made it up as I went.

Kim's Halloween Placemats

A year ago I went to visit my family in Colorado. My sister and I thought it would be fun to have a craft day. We went to Joannes, picked out Halloween fabric to make a Halloween throw. We got back to my mom's house and while all the kids were watching a movie and running around she finished her quilt top. I however did not. I sewed and unpicked, sewed and unpicked, sewed and unpicked. Then my mom and sister felt sorry for me and my sewing abilities. I ended up with nothing by the end of the day. I brought the fabric home and tried again, determined to do it. I sewed some more and unpicked even more until I threw the fabric into my stash. I didn't want to touch the cursed fabric for a year.

So I didn't!

But all year I tried to think of something I wanted to make out of the fabric. Definitely NOT a Halloween throw. I borrowed Amy Butler's In Stitches from the library. I loved it. I wanted to make everything in there. But didn't. I just need to own it. I picked one of the easiest projects in there, the placemats. I finally used up my cursed Halloween fabric and I love how they turned out. I made 4 and gave them to my friend Kim. 3 people down 2 to go for my little giveaway.

Happy Late Halloween!