Sewing/Crafting Challenge

This is a Challenge to myself. I love Crafting of all kinds. Sewing, Crocheting, Drawing, Painting, beading......you name it! I also love to try new things and once I do I usually spend a lot of time on that new thing because its just like and addiction. Well I wanted to push myself to the limits. I want to make one project a week for the year. (why 1 project a week? well mostly because I have so much other things going on that one project a week might seem like no big deal but once you get going with Home schooling, Bible, daily chores, shopping, and whatever else that might get to the point where its overwhelming. Especially with the including of us house hunting this year. So here it is the challenge.....1 Craft project a week! I also want to see if I can make two quilts from start to finish this year. I usually get the top done and then leave it to sit for a year if not longer because I just get busy with life. So this is it, my challenge and results)

Week 1
Country Quilt:

Finished my country quilt

Top Before it was finished

Week 2

Rag Quilt

  Felt 10x10 in squares Easy and soft. I love the way it feels. Its the size of a lap blanket.

Week 3

Cushion for a toddler rocking chair 

This was a pretty easy sewing project And helps give the house that country decor

Week 4

We went to a place to paint Pottery (unfortunately I didnt get the Before Shot so you'll have to wait to see it tell I get it picked up)

Week 5

Ive been painting and its been a long time.  

Week 6:

 I am loving the western painting look. I just had to do more. These canvases I used are just pictures I had laying around that I havent put up in my new house as I didnt think they went well.

Updates to come of the next weeks Projects

Quilt shop and Sewing Fun

Christmas day my in laws flew in from California. We were happy to see them with our last visit being a little over a year ago. We always like when they come because we end up touring the area On top of that with five kids its nice to have a few extra pair of eyes and hands to hold down the troops.

The first day that we actually spent time with them we had our little Christmas celebration and of course just time for visiting fun.

On the second day my Mother in law who is more of a fabric-a-holic than I am wanted to see about the fabric and Quilting shops in the area. We headed to a town that had two places (one is a place she actually gets emails and such from, so she was really excited about that store) that we were both wanting to check out. The first one was more of a fabric store than a quilt shop, but whats better for quilters than fabric! I got quit a lot of pieces there and was very excited to start working on my next quilt.

But before I could do that I had to finish up one that had been sadly sitting in a box for over a year as I never got a chance (or motivation) to work on it while we lives in England.

(Here is the quilt that needed finishing up)

Here it is all finished sitting on my bed

But once that one was finished up then my new fabric was fair game! I had no idea what to do with the fabric, no patterns in mind. I had looked at just doing a bunch of 10in x 10in squares but that just didnt seem to fit my personality or the fabric. What to do? What to do?..... I checked out Pintrest of course but didnt see anything I wanted to really copy, but did pin a ton for later. So I decided to just to the 10 x 10 and I started cutting away. But like I said it just didnt seem like thats what the pattern really wanted to be. So I stared at my squares and then just started cutting, and sewing and cutting and sewing...... I was shocked that I didnt have a single thing to rip or cut or any sewing machine issues. It was like the fabric wanted it and the machine. Ok ok I might be carried away but if your a sewer you know its a big deal to get a project completed and not a single issue. (like the next project where I broke 3 NEEDLES??? and I am still not sure why)

But anyways here it is......My beautiful Quilt top with the new fabric.

The cow print trim was fabric I already had, man I am glad I keep that and if you look close their is a matching cow print pillow that I made the cover for on the couch. I have now sandwiched the fabric together and started quilting but I haven't got it completely finished. I will post a pic update when its all finished. 

All Finished:

I LOVE IT!

Its not what I had in mind when I started, But that's ok because its so much better then I thought it would be.

Contest of the Ginger Bread Builders

Trader Joes has a really great kit to make Ginger Bread Houses

And with my kids one of the best ways to get things done is a Contest!

My older two are very competitive so I never let them be on the same team. So they Always make great team leaded. (Shyanne is a little OCD so most of the time if your on her team your not going to get to much hands on, but we are working on that)

So here we go with a 50 minute timer.

Team 1 

Shyanne and Levi

Team 2

Allyson and Anika

46 minutes into the contest we didnt even have frosting yet! Come on slackers

Shyanne working hard on gluing the house together and of course Levi just looking cute

Team 2 looks like they are sure working together well.

Look at that Clean house.....Must be Team 1

Here Team 2 has already got a lot going on...Wonder if they will win with so much eye catching frosting! I think this team might just be hopped up on Sugar?

Amariah the youngest of the crew was not happy that she didnt get a team. Mommy wasnt about to let her out of the fun. So I grabbed some Ginger Bread cookies that she could decorate and I think it made her day. Just look at that SMILE-

And the concentration was impressive 

I am kind of surprised their was no tongue sticking out.

I think someone might be just as OCD as her sister?

Little hands are so cute and apparently skilled ;)

Team 1 has now finished and Entered this beauty into the contest

Team 2  Has also put up a good Fight, the choice wont be easy?.....

Team 1 Santa is no stranger to this house and whats winter with out Jack frost 

helping play in the snow with the kids and Grandma? 

Nice and Neat and Hard to Beat

Team 2 Also has a Santa who looks like he might have lost some of his goodies?

Creative but a little messy for the Judges taste. 

But we believe they had a lot of Creativity and a LOT of SUGAR!

But after all is said and done the winners were.....DRUM ROLL PLEASE....

........

........

Team 1

Shyanne and Levi!

Levi is sporting the team number and that they are #1

~Happy Crafting~

And 

Merry Christmas

Crafts for Donations

A lot of my family and friends already know that we are hoping and desiring to Host an Orphan. The plan was that we were going to have an 8 year old girl here for Christmas. Unfortunately the program got put on hold because not enough children got picked to be hosted.

We started raising money to host her about two months ago. We got 1/2 way to our goal which was great news! So we are saving that money and waiting to use it for her when the program is back on this summer. Hopefully more kids will get hosted and she will be able to come (We already have Christmas gifts for her along with a blanket and a few other things, so we cant wait to give them to her)

We also know that we will probably fall in love with her and want her to become part of our family. So in the hopes of that I have decided to make crafts to give out with a Donation of a set amount of money. My first idea is these Owl Pillows, or Rice neck warmers. I am not sure

if people would want them so I am asking my Bloggers what you think? I would give our the owls for a suggested donation of $15 plus shipping. What do you think?

I just love the owl fabric so my neck warmer shown here 

is also in the fabric and would be a suggested donation of $10 plus shipping

I even have a cute little model to show off the size of the pillow

I can make them in all sizes and colors more boy or girl 

Let me know your thoughts and if you want one. Contact me at in the comments :)

Maybe if we can raise enough money we can also bring another child to America from the same orphanage! Wouldnt that be awesome!

Burlap!

Who loves Burlap?........I DO!

Yet I almost missed out on knowing that I loved it so much. I always saw Pintrest post, blogs, and friends posting their burlap creations. I dont know what it was I just didnt really have any interest in using the stuff or messing with it. My almost 10 year old daughter just got a bunk bed renovation (you can find that blog post here:

 http://coffeeandkids.blogspot.com/2014/12/bunk-bed-renovation.html )

As we were walking the Halls of Hobby Lobby we saw some really cute stuff that she said she would love to have in her room. The Bunk bed didnt really match the style of the room anymore because of the color combos that was in there before and as children do, she is growing into a new style.

So I let her pick out a few items that she liked and we took pictures of them, so I could remember them later for gift ideas, etc... 

After awhile I was just looking at them and thought, hm how easy would that be to make myself? I went to my local Walmart and found the supplies and brought it home. I admit that I stayed up way to late. I think it was around 2 am when I finally went to bed? But I cut out the roll of burlap to make a banner and started painting away with the colors that matched her bunch bed.

Polka Dots

Flowers (this is free hand)

And in the spirit of my daughter 

who loves all things animal print I even tried to copy

a zebra print fabric I had.

I even took it into her room and hung it up while she was sleeping.

Notice the Eiffel Tower? She loves the idea of a French theme 

I then took some more Burlap and painted the words "Paris" on it and and painted on a bow- Lucky for the both of us I had a white frame that I didnt know what to put in it. So in the frame went the burlap Paris pic.

But it didnt look finished......what to do? Paint it!

So I started Zebra painting the frame and ended up with 

This:

To keep the pink, white, black and Zebra theme going I turned that Zebra fabric I had into a Photo board.

(Although its not quiet finished as I ran out of little bows and the store that carries

them doesnt have them back in stock yet.)

So her room is on its way to be fully decorated!

~Happy Crafting~

Happy Lamest Day of the Year!

So yesterday was Valentines Day, which I just think is a pretty lame holiday. Not because I don't think we should show love to people but because I think the whole buying of chocolate, stuffed toys (with hubba hubba on them) and boxer shorts with kissing prints is just silly. I would much rather have a suprise out of no where then feel like my husband was forced to give me something because its the have to thing. Although I did try to not be a total scrooge about the deal. I let the kids do a craft which was pretty fun. We made dough and added pink food coloring to it. Heres the link to the recipe we did.

http://www.busybeekidscrafts.com/Easy-Craft-Clay.html

Mixing the dough 

So here they are getting to work on there dough projects

And you were supposed to let them sit out and air dry (but for those of you who know me, I am really bad at waiting) So we through them in the oven.

This is what we got:

Clearly we should have waited ha ha, I think that is why they cracked? But I think all and all they came out ok.

After we did our craft I told them I would take them to lunch. We ran over to one of my favorite Mexican places and at way more then we should have. 

For my hate of lame holidays and stupid gift ideas I wanted to not get the kids anything at all. Not that I dont love them with all of my heart, it was more of a matter of not wanting to spend my husbands hard earned money on junk that would just go into the garbage eventually because I know it was not stuff that they would really want to keep for long. So I keep telling the kids over and over not to expect anything for V-day because I was not going to buy junk. Plus they really dont need the sugar, we have been pigging out way more then we should as it is. But my soft hearts for my kids wouldn't let me get away with not getting them anything at all. So instead of buying the usual stuff that you might get one on Valentines day I took my kids over to our Christian book store and let them each pick out a Bible.

What could be sweeter for their Soul then God's Love?

Although Levi got a Ferdinand book scene he is to little to read, or pick out a bible that he could understand. Although I thought it was a great gift Allyson still thought a toy would have been better, guess I can't blame a 6 year old for tying ;)

We finished the day with some Chinese Food, which was not the plan (Daddy at moms plan). Then we all shared in the Surprise Goodies I got yesterday (Covered Strawberries and Cheesecake) So all in all it was a pretty good day, Valentines or Not.