Chalkboard Backdrop

I also do a little photography on the side Mommy Creations Photography and love to find new ideas to jazz up indoor portraits. So, for my sons 6 month pictures I decided to make a Chalkboard backdrop.
I went to the local hardware store and picked up a 3 feet by 4 feet board. Mine happened to be whiteboard material on one side. So I took it home and painted the opposite side with chalkboard paint.
It was that easy just a couple of coats of paint and I had a double sided photo backdrop.
I use it to write stats on so I can remember how big he was and specific milestones he had reached. I also used it for the backdrop of my crocheted bracelets found here and I used the white side as a backdrop here.

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Easter Bunny Egg Hat

I know I promised more of the Dora party details, but we are a little Dora out over here so we will let birthday party jitters die down a little and turn our gears to Easter with this cute little egg hat.
This little hat is my own pattern and came as a result of me stressing over another project. I use crocheting as a stress reliever. And today it was much needed. So I decided to take a break from the day and finish up another Easter project I had been working on over the weekend. It was an aurigumi bunny and was not turning out how I wanted and I didn't like the pattern much and couldn't find a pattern that I liked any better so I thought hey maybe I could make my own pattern. Well in short a large project is not where I should of started my pattern making career. Trying to create my own pattern with an attention needing 9 month old getting tangled in my yarn was not the stress relief I wanted so I switch to a small easy project that I could practice my pattern making skills and finish in the amount of time it took my baby to finish his lunch. And that is how the Easter bunny egg hat was born.
As I was taking pictures the egg was a little wobbly and I said to myself I wish I had some cute egg holders. So I made my own out of an empty egg carton that I just so happened to have on hand since I was using the last egg to try my little hat on. I just cut 2 wells from the egg carton glued the bottoms together and painted adding a little ribbon in the middle.

Now back to the egg hat (lucky you get a 2 for in today's post). This really took me minutes to create and it is really simple. So here is the pattern for all of you to try out. I used a size G hook and regular worst weight yarn.

Base
with white ch 2.
Rnd 1: Work 6 sc in first chain.
Rnd 2: Work 2 sc in each sc around – 12 sc.
Rnd 3: *2 sc in next sc, sc in next sc; repeat from * around – 18 sc.
Rnd 4: *2 sc in next sc, sc in each of next 2 sc; repeat from * around – 24 sc.
Rnd 5-8: Sc in each sc around.

Ears (make 2)
with pink ch 5
sc in 2nd at from hook and in each of the next 3 st
fasten off switch to white yarn.
sc up one side in next 3 st
2 dc, ch, tc in next stitch (you will now be at the top of your ear and will start going down the other side of your pink strip)
tc, ch, 2 dc in next st
sc in next 3 st
fasten off attach ears to hat base

easy enough right? I hope that makes sense if not feel free to ask me questions.
dc=double crochet
tc=triple crochet


Oh wait I said I didn't have an egg holder. Like I said I was using my last egg which was not hard boiled and my curios daughter started to play with it when I wasn't looking and cracked it so I headed to my basement to see if I had a plastic egg for her to play with and found this cute little holder that my mom sent me and thought I should include it so I don't get a comment from my mother that I do indeed have an egg holder.

So go on relieve a little stress and whip up a few little egg hats to put on your Easter eggs.

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Dora Adventures

I have been missing all week I know. My husband was gone interviewing for jobs which is exciting except that means no break for me while he is gone. It is also March which means I am officially in birthday planning mode for my little girl. I did realize that it would be so soon that she would have her own opinion about her birthday party. And since she loves everything Dora (and Diego) we are having a Dora Adventure birthday party. I have it all planned out and spend my week designing party invitations and a pattern for Dora backpacks. The Dora backpack will have to wait a little I wasn't to impressed with my first attempt so we will try again, but here is what I came up with for the invitations.

(party details blocked out for reasons I'm sure you understand)

What do you think? I had so many ideas running around in my head that it stated getting complicated and messy so I simplified it down and got this. I added the "presents not needed" because she does not need anymore toys and things and we are in the process of getting rid of things since we will be moving. Is this the best way to say this. I don't want them to think they can't bring a present if they really want to, but they most definitely do not need to. Any advice would be good. I also think I am going to offer this to people for a small fee (only because it needs to be personalized) if anyone is interested.

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Giveaway winner

Ok so this is only like 2 weeks late, but I am finally announcing the giveaway winner. The lucky winner of a $35 gift card to CSN stores is lucky number 6.

Carol W. said...

I'm a GFC follower. I'd like a Bosu Balance Trainer.

Congrats Carol I will email you your gift.

You may have noticed I am only one away from 100 fans on facebook. I am planning a big giveaway for all my facebook fans and blog followers. What would you all like to see as a giveaway?

Chocolate Withdrawals

I think I am going through post Valentines Day chocolate withdrawals. I ate my whole box of chocolates in 2 days not to mention my husband bought 2 big bags of kit kats last weekend that I helped eat. I was out of it today. I was so tired that as soon as I put the baby down for a nap I fell asleep on the couch watching TV with my daughter (both morning and afternoon naps) my daughter watched way too much TV today. Anyways I blame it all on the chocolate. It reminded me of this I {heart} Chocolate dress I made last year after Valentines day.
I never blogged about it so I guess now is as good of time as any. This dress was made from a clearance t-shirt and 2 skirts from walmart. Both the t-shirt and skirts were to big for my daughter so I cut them down to her size then attached the skirt to the bottom of the t-shirt withthe brown skirt longer than the striped skirt giving it a layered look.

It is the perfect dress for my chocolate loving daughter and she still wears it now. Its all knit material giving it a stretch so it has grown with her over the year.
I made a simple bow in cordinating brown and red ribbon that can be clipped on a head band.
or a hat. So look out for clearance clothes as you do your shopping you never know what you can find, even if they aren't the right size. I paid only a dollar for each piece making this dress $3 and about 30 mins. So heres to coming out of the chocolate coma and getting on with my life.

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Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Happy Valentines day to you all. I LOVE valentines. I always have even when I was single. Not that I need a special day to show those around me how much I love them, but its nice to have an excuse to make my loved ones feel extra special. Plus I don't mind the excuse to eat lots of chocolate. I know you must all be sick of my crocheting projects with this pink yarn, but I had to share one more with you. Yesterday morning I was browsing around the log world and came across a blog called Easy. I like easy project so I looked around and found this pattern for a puffy heart so I tried it out and it was easy and super cute.
Once I had my cute little heart I didn't know what to do with it, so I attached a simple crochet chain to each side of the heart and made a cute little necklace that my daughter wore to church yesterday (but I forgot to take a picture :() If you still need something special for a special person in your life and you know how to single crochet you can whip up one of these in about 15+ min.

More Crocheting: Bow-ties and Headbands

Warning: There is some serious cuteness about to be revealed
If you saw my post a couple of days ago you know I have been into crocheting lately. It has been a great stress reliever you should try it. I moved on from the hearts (but I am sure I will go back to them soon) and I moved on to bows. These are even easier than the hearts all you need to know is the basic single crochet and you can make this adorable bow-tie.
I love it and I love my little man. I get to kiss those cheeks everyday.
For the bow-tie I did 8 rows of single crochet and each row is 18 stitches long. After your last row continue sc around the whole square. The middle piece is 2 rows of 10 stitches. I wrapped the smaller piece around the middle of the bigger piece and tied it in the back. I attached it to a clip and clipped it to his shirt, although it wasn't long before it ended up in his mouth.
Then I made a headband for my daughter. For the band I made a chain that would fit exactly around her head. Then I join the chain, chained 2and half double crochet all the way around (you could also just single crochet around a couple of times).
I made the bow the same way as the bow-tie but slightly smaller and I didn't make a center piece. I decided instead to put the bow on the headband and wrap the yarn around them both several times. I like this look a little better for the hair bow.
Now my kids have their accessories for Valentines day. Cute right?

If none of this makes sense you may want to checkout this tutorial at Happy Together, she does pretty much the same thing that I did.

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Valentines Rice Crispies

I had never made rice crispies before 2 months ago. Gasp! I know I make lots of treats, but some how managed to never try rice crispies. I finally tried it this last Christmas because my husband was missing his moms rice crispy trees that she makes every year. So I sent my husband to the store to buy all the ingredients and he came back with 3 big boxes of Rice Crispy and 5 bags of mini marshmallow. Well 6 weeks later we still had a box of Rice Crispies and a couple bags of marshmellows so I made some Valentines rice crispy treats.
I died the marshmallow butter mixture with some food coloring to make them pink. Then I topped the treats with some melted chocolate chips. I think all valentine treats need a little chocolate.
They passed the 2 yo test. YUM! I thought the squares were to boring and I wanted to make some heart shaped ones, but I didn't have any molds.
But I did have these heart ice cube trays. So I greased them up and used them as a mold.
It worked and I had bite sized, heart shaped, chocolate dipped, rice crispy treats.

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New favorite pass time:Crochet Hearts

Don't forget to enter my CSN giveaway.

I enjoyed crocheting. My mom taught me to crochet at a young age, but I haven't done it for awhile until I visited my mother a few months ago and we crochets some baby hats. Lately I have enjoyed crocheting these cute hearts.
Aren't they cute? I love them in the variegated pink yarn (sugar n' cream yarn). They are super easy. For my big hearts I used this pattern from Sip to my Lou. For smaller hearts I adjusted the pattern a little and only did two layers instead of 3.

I used this heart to make a valentine to send to my mother. So simple and easy yet still super cute. One you make a couple hearts you have it down you can whip a bunch out as you sit and watch TV at night. I find it very relaxing. Maybe I found it too relaxing and I ended up with a bunch of hearts and had to figure out how to use them.

I guess I could use them to make more valentines, but I thought I would try my hand at some braclets. I made 2 different types. One with a thick band and one with a double skinny band.

For the thick band I chained 35 and then did 2 layers of double crochet. I then added the heart to one end and a button to use to attach the two ends.

Cute? I think it almost looks like a heart watch. My daughter pretends its a video watch like Diego (Go Diego Go).

For the other bracelet I chained 70 then attached the 2 loose ends to the under side of one of my hearts. Then the loop can be placed over the heart to secure it to your wrist.

A more delicate look. Which one do you like better? I sent these 2 to my sisters and will let them fight over who gets which one (I think I know who will pick which one, but we will see). I am currently working on a St. Patrick design and will be giving it away to one or more of my facebook fans if I reach 100 fans. I only need 10 more so become my fan if you want to win one. Also I have 58 follower woo hoo. I am trying to come up with a really good giveaway for when I reach 100 if you have any suggestions let me know.

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Bummer and a Brownie

Enter my current giveaway here

First for the bummer. I didn't make it past the first round of American Crafter. It slightly embarrassing getting kicked off the first round, but I wasn't the only one. Five of us got the boot this week and I was only 2 votes away from making the top 10. I would have loved to continue on, but my husband is relieved that I didn't make it. Well what better to soothe my pain of rejection then a nice chocolate brownie.

A heart shape brownie no less. Isn't everything made into hearts this time of year? Have you ever wanted a brownie, but went to your cupboard and had no brownie mix? The old me would have called defeat and given up, but not any more. You may all think I am weird, but I had never made brownies without a mix before. I think I must have thought they were complicated or something. Then one sunday I was telling a friend how I had signed up to make brownies for something that night, but had forgotten to buy a mix. She looked at me and said do you have coco powder. Yes I did. She then wrote down a a short little recipe and handed it to me. How had I never thought of that before. So now we can have brownies whenever we need a chocolate fix. This new found knowledge was probably the most dangerous in my husbands hands (he is a chocoholic).

1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup cocoa
mix
3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
mix
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
mix
put in 8x8 pan and bake @350 for about 25 min

Super easy

To make into hearts just cut with heart shape cookie cutter. My husband likes to add chocolate chips to make it super chocolaty.

All that is left is to eat your 'heart' out. A little corny, but oh so good.

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Be Mine Valentine-American Crafters

Week one of American Crafters was Be Mine Valentine. When I found out this weeks theme I immediately thought of 'my valentine'. I was excited, because how often do I craft with my husband in mind? Face it like the rest of my life my crafting revolves around my kids. So I came up with this fun piece inspired by my husband and our love.



Do to sickness and the ridiculous amount of snow we have been getting I had to get creative and use only things which I already had (which I'm sure my husband appreciated). My mom has been into mix-media art lately , so I thought I would have a go at it. The background is a piece of cardboard with the wrapping ripped off to expose the corrugation, giving it more texture. Then I just started adding things until I felt it showed my vision.
I used the quote "Every Love Story is beautiful, but ours is my favorite" to create a art peice representing "Our Love Story". I used pictures that will remind us of different chapters in our Love Story.

I used lots of different media including crochet, paper, material, and even scabble letters.

I love vintage valentines they seem so romantic. My husband definitely holds the key to my heart.

This is my favorite section. I just love the little birds aren't they so cute? I added a clothes pin where my husband and I can put love notes to each other. Those flowers are made out of crepe paper. I love it you can make tons of flowers out of one roll of crepe paper that costs $1 for a 2 pack at the dollar store.

I paired it with these cute yarn pom poms. Do you think I have been a little pom pom crazy lately? I bought a pom pom maker which makes it even easier. I will have to show you all sometime.
If you love this as much as I do head over to American Crafter and vote for it.

Linking up here.

Good Fortune will come your way

[Don't forget to enter the CSN giveaway.]

Today is the Chinese New Year so I decided it would be a good day to try my hand at homemade fortune cookies.
Looks good doesn't it? They didn't all turn out this good, but I got more than half of them to turn out so I say it was a success.
Today is also my birthday. My husband had class so I arranged a girls night out. It was also 3 of my friends birthdays this week so I put little birthday notes in the fortune cookies for them.
I used this recipe but I used vanilla instead of almond extract and light cream instead of heavy cream, only because that is what I had on hand not because I was trying to be healthy or anything. The hardest part about these is that you can only make 2 at a time so even thou it only takes 8 mins it takes a lot longer to make a whole batch.
I used a cupcake tin to hold the shape. Like I said they didn't all turn out. You can't cook them too long or they are too crispy, but if you don't cook them long enough they are too soft. And if you get the cooking time right you have to make sure you fold them up fast enough. Practice makes perfect.
And if they aren't perfect you can always cover them in chocolate.
I found these cute valentines take out boxes at target.
And these little ones at the dollar store. The little ones only fit one big fortune cookie or 2 little ones which is perfect for a little valentine (or birthday) treat. I made some special ones for my husband. I love these because you can write whatever you want on the fortune, so go have fun and may your year be full of good fortune.

Update: My husband had his fortune cookies in his lunch and when he got home he said "By the way those cookies were awesome" cute and yummy what else could you ask for.

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Yarn Pom Pom Flowers

Don't forget to enter my CSN Stores giveway.

I found these cute little vases at Target and thought they would be cute in my entry way, but they needed something to go in them. After making my tulle pom poms I have been on a pom pom kick so I decided maybe I could make some yarn pom poms look like flowers. So I pulled out my yarn stash and started making yarn pom poms to see what would make the best flowers.
The first two were similar. Skinny yarn with some bulkiness every once in a while. I didn't like how they turned out. It just looked like a bunched up piece of yarn. They make cute scarfs not flowers.
Then I tried just regular plain old yarn. They make cute pom poms and I have plan for these else where.
Then I found this warm and fuzzy yarn. I liked the color and I liked the fuzziness so I went with it.
One cute little valentines flower. I took 2 green pipe cleaners and wrapped them together then stuck it in the middle of the pom pom to act as the stem.
The only problem with these cute little flowers is that my daughter loves to take them out and play with them so there is always at least one vase missing its flower.

Linking up here.