Gifts in a Jar and DD....

A. in some of her new digs, this dress is so cool it has a short sleeve sweater top that is attached to the skirt!

Getting ready for MOPS meeting and making Gifts in a Jar...
The jar above was the Dreamsicle Bar Mixture and it has Tang in it, sounds very yummy if you ask me! I'd love to try this one! The other one we made was an M&M bar mixture. We stayed away from nuts for two reasons, those with allergies and the jars only last for three months with nuts, without they can last up to six months.

Howdy...and Giving things away for free...

I love getting stuff for free, I think we all do. This week DD got a big bag of clothes from my friend Mary Ann. Well it was like Christmas all over again in this house. The first thing we found was a princess backpack, then a pink leotard, both of which she put on right away, then a skirt.
This week I gave away my DD's crib, for free, her Little Tykes Slide, two shirts I had gotten, one was brand new and still had the tags on it, I decided not to wear it and I think there are some other things I gave away too. The lady that got DD's crib said she was so blessed. I love making other people happy with things I don't need anymore and stuff that is just sitting in the basement making clutter in my home anyway. Everyday since we opened that bag DD has had something new to wear, I am always astonished and what good shape some of the clothes are still in, a Tinker Bell shirt from Disney Store that looks brand new. LL Bean Shorts that look brand new, Gymboree clothes. I never buy her clothes from any of these stores since they are too expensive brand new. Thanks Mary Ann, she is pretty well set up now with the new shorts for summer too!!!!! Stay tuned for pics of Miss A. in her new pretties! AND stay tuned for pics from the MOPS meeting craft that I did.

Checking in....

How was your weekend? We spent some of it at our land, it ended up being really nice weather with no rain, which I prefer when I am camping. We went to our towns 2 minute parade which is a tradition in our family. My aunt lives on main street in our town so we eat breakfast with her and then go out to watch the parade in her front yard. It is amazing how good a breakfast of eggs and toast tastes especially when you didn't have to make it! The parade is really sweet and short. A marching band (that I used to be in) a few fire trucks, vets, scouts, candy and all of the good stuff. Then we have another tradition on the SAME day and that is a picnic at my Moms house. All in all it was a good weekend.

On a crafty note, I made two skirts with the Sew What Skirts book. It is definitely a learning process for me, I am learning more about my machine, and style I like on me. I don't like the second skirt on my bod, too full, so you won't be seing a pic of that on me. Also remember this post well I have been wearing this necklace a lot lately and getting TONS of compliments, from everyone, perfect strangers, friends and family members. It is so great to say, "I made it." My ego is being stroked! :-)

sew what

OK I have been waiting and waiting for this book as I had it on hold. I finally got it and I have been a bit obsessed. I made a pattern for an A-Line elastic waist band skirt to fit me (picked this one because it is one of the easier type to make, when I get good I may tackle one with pleats and so on), after taking my measurements I plugged it into the formula in the book. Then made my pattern with DD hanging on my leg, ok not literally but kinda sorta. Then DH gets home from work and he is technical and has all the right tools for drafting and what not so WE made another pattern together and it came out real nice and about the same size as mine.
This is what it looked liked cut out, it looked WAYYYYYY toooooooo BIG!!!!! I couldn't figure out why!!!! I even looked online to see if someone else had the same problem and sure enough someone did. Go here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/sewwhatskirts_sewalong/discuss/72157600177968185/
I had to cut off 13 inches on both sides a total of 26 inches!!!!! How did I figure out to do that you ask, well I re-read the book at dinner and it said before you sew the waist band casing, which is were the elastic goes to try it on and see how it fits. So I did and I pinned each side and made sure I could still get it on over my hips.
This picture above shows how big my pattern is to the finished skirt and the pattern is only suppose to be a fourth of the skirt. I may now work backwards and make a pattern from my finished skirt.
SEW gratifying to make something that fits me well!!!!!! This could get addicting!!! Guess what I used home dec. fabric since that was what I had lying around, I thought that this would just be my practice piece but I actually really like it!!!! DD may get a matching one out of the left over part I cut off!!!!

As promised....

Here are the pictures of the sheets I received in the sheet swap. I also recently got the book out of the library called Sew What Skirts! and I am working on some different material for now, don't want to make mistakes on my new sheets.

Goslings...

We went to feed the ducks our bread ends and got the Canadian Geese instead, Aren't they suppose to be in Canada by now ???? :-) So we get there and we are quickly approached, they were aggressive, next thing we know, across the pond swimming towards us in a bunch with goslings, how cute, but we don't have enough bread so we jumped back into our family truckster! YIKES, we still watched them but felt bad we didn't have enough bread for all of them!
Description - young: Newly hatched Canada Geese look much like ducklings with yellow and gray feathers and a dark bill. But within a week they grow to be rather awkward-looking, fuzzy gray birds.

Some info. from http://www.kidzone.ws/animals/birds/canada-goose.htm General: They are famous for their life-long mating, though a widowed goose will usually choose another mate. By nine to ten weeks old, they've grown their flight feathers and look like slightly smaller versions of the adult.The newly hatched babies (called 'goslings') are able to swim immediately. The male and female goose both accompany the babies during their swims.
Goslings can dive and swim for 30-40 feet underwater and they eat almost continuously to attain growth for the first migration flight.

Lilac Festival

Pansy Bed at Lilac Festival
Lilacs on Hill
More Lilacs On Hill!!!
First roller coaster ride shared with a friend!!!!

We have a fantastic festival here in Rochester NY called the Lilac Festival and even Martha Stewart paid the festival a visit, last year! It is a wall of gorgeous lilacs on a hill and it smells so WONDERFUL, they even have a perfume now to match, no joke! Last week we went thanks to the motivation of meeting some friends there, had it not been for that I am not sure we would of made it. In retrospect is was a lot of fun!!!! DH listened to the blues lady and we went and took the kids on some kiddy rides. The only thing I missed out on was the kettle corn, ran into some people and they said the wait was 45 min. long, no thanks not with a three year old, I don't need it that bad, to wait that long, in a line with a three year old, I do have my head screwed on straight ya know.

Since I am the Crafty MOPS chica and it is my charge to come up with the craft for each month. So I've decided that with the end of the school year approaching everyone always needs a thank you gift for one reason or another, a teacher, teacher's aide, pre-school teacher, and so on. So we are each going to make a "Gift in a Jar" 2 to be exact and we will also be making two handmade thank you cards to coordinate. We will have two recipes for your jars, one is and M and M one and the other is a Dreamsicle Bar recipe which include Tang. Yum Yum and soooo fun. I bought jars then found out my mom had a whole bunch so I may be able to take the jars I bought back and use hers for free! Just need to buy the lids.
This is the picture of the book that I am getting the idea from. I'm not sure why it posted sideways.

DH is working on a guitar for DD. It has been drawn up by DH, and made to fit her. The neck is Purple Heart wood, for now the body is pink however at some point that will have pink glittery sparkles ALL over it!!!! The wiring will all go through the small

hole in the back. She will have her own electric guitar that really works!!!

Sneak Peak...

My goal this weekend was to finish something....And I did! So proud, anyway, I made two necklaces from my mint green pendant beads I had worked on. I LOVE how they turned out and I am thinking of putting them both up on ETSY although that is hard to do because I love them sooooooo much. I feel like I could wear them everyday of spring and summer!!!!!

Duck Bill Platypus meets....

Flamingo?????? I took these on a trip to the Zoo yesterday. The good ole Seneca Park Zoo, which I might add has gotten a WHOLE lot better over the years.Shaking its head....
no
Awww, isn't he or she cute!?

Does anybody know what this is?

Mother's Day

DD got a kite for her bday oh back in January, so the poor kid has waited almost 6 months to fly it. The problem with kite flying is......

Nose Dive, although we did eventually get it to work and all three of us took a turn.
Me in my favorite PJ pants that I purchased at Goodwill!

Strawberry Shortcake is soaring NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-) Isn't that how crafting goes sometimes too?

Mint Green

IMG_2563
Originally uploaded by craftyfamilyblog

My latest Judy Picarello style beads. These took a long time to make. I love the colors, nice and spring like!! The green in them reminds me of Andes Candies mints! Also my sheet swap is going to be coming in the mail soon, when I get it I will let you know what I get, in the meantime go to PolkaDotCreations to see her blog about it.

Girls Day Out....

On Sunday we went to Girls Day Out click on this to see more about it.

at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center, they even let us park for free if we were attending the event! All of the benefits go to Golisano Children's Hospital at Strong which on occasion A. has spent some time there, so I don't mind a bit helping out. Isn't the poster wonderful art work!!!
Getting her makeup done for the first time ever!!!!! First she scrunched up her eyelid real tight! It was cute, then she got the hang of it.

Nails too! Pink nails of course!!!
Bouncy House Time!
Trying out some Yoga too.

It was a fun time for both of us. She even got to paint a tile from Color Me Mine. There were all sorts of free drinks and snacks, cookies, Abbott's ice cream, cake. The only thing I missed out on as a Mom was getting the massage I was last in line and they said they couldn't take anymore people after the person in front of me, bummer. Otherwise it was a great time!!!

Happy
To have a new Thrifted Sheet Skirt
Modeling her new skirt.

What doesn't go with new carpet?

My Fabric Tac Glue that DD has decided to play with and get out of my office and she knows it is a big NO NO. The past two nights when it was suppose to be bed time she went into my office to get it.

and

Blood, bloody noses, bloody fingers.

Hmmmm.

Just thought I'd share, maybe we should've just put tarps under us, it would have been easier :-)