Angry Birds fierceness!

Last week wasn't a very productive blogging week for me. A long-time friend came cross-country to visit, so I spent my week focused on that. However, there was still some crafting fun!

Inspired both by Big Bear's passion for the video game Angry Birds, as well as the incredibly creative work of Kristan at Confessions of a Cookbook Queen, I really wanted to make some Angry Bird cupcakes. Normally, I would never venture to try something as elaborate as this, but my visiting friend, Jarred, has mad cake decorating skillz. I knew we could do it!

So we baked some cupcakes (Yellow Spiced Cupcakes from the Fannie Farmer Baking Book... yummy!), bought some doughnut holes, and shopped for a variety of candy. Then we got to decorating.


Using Kristan's cupcakes as a starting point, we created our versions of the red birds, green piggies (known as "Penny Pigs" at my house), and yellow birds (known as "Nerb Gobs" at my house). The Nerb Gobs were definitely the most challenging as they are triangular-shaped. So instead of using a doughnut hole, we carved some extra cupcakes to size. It worked really well!

Behold the Angry Bird cupcake army!


And that's Jarred and I smiling in the background (I'll spare you our embarrassingly bad attempts at trying to look fierce like angry birds.)

The next morning, Big Bear enjoyed a Nerb Gob for breakfast.


He was definitely a happy customer!

Handmade goodness

My baby boy has been the recipient of some beautiful handmade gifts. They're so lovely and special, I just have to share...

From the talented and generous Carrie P.:


How cute are those??? We aren't quite ready for the bibs yet, but those burp cloths have already seen a lot of action.

From one of the amazing moms at my older son's preschool:


What a blanket! It is truly just beautiful. It is a great size, and I love the little ties she included-- it rolls up quite nicely for easy transport.

And from my best friend:


She knitted this gorgeous blanket. When I opened it up, I was truly speechless.


And there he is, up close and personal. Such a cutie! (Ahem. No bias here, of course!)

It just makes me feel so proud and happy and special that these talented people took time out to make something for my son. I'm truly blessed to have such amazing friends.

Handmade gifts are the best!

Crafty Friday

Yesterday the boy and I met up with E for a field trip to the Bellevue Arts Museum. They have a new quilt exhibit: American Quilt Classics, 1800 - 1980: The Bresler Collection. I wish I had some photos to share, but alas, no photography allowed. The collection included some gorgeous quilts. They grouped them into categories, including whole cloth, mosaics, albums, Amish, medallions, log cabins, and more. The boy precluded me getting to really focus too much on the details of each quilt (must be moving at all times!), but I really enjoyed the exhibit. There were some truly beautiful quilts on display and I came out feeling seriously inspired.

Later, the boy and I went over to E's house and we crafted it up! E saw some super-cute Valentine garlands being displayed around blogland (like this one) and decided it would be a quick and fun afternoon project.

Armed with my bag of red/white/pink fabric I joined E and her giant piles of felt, fabric, and trims. Now, though I do consider myself pretty crafty, the only garlands I've ever made have been paper chains at Christmas. I was feeling rather clueless as to where to even begin. So I sat back and observed as E got started on hers.


This is what she came up with. I love how she used the ribbon-- each heart is separate and then they can be chained together by tying the ribbons. And I also love the pinked edges. So cute!

Once I saw how hers was coming together, I got brave enough to get going on my own.


Somewhere in the center of the crafty chaos, you can see the start of my garland. Instead of ribbon, I went with a continuous strand of white rick rack. Each heart includes a backing fabric (I used the same fabric for each heart), two layers of felt or fleece (depending on what was closest at hand), and then a top fabric. To hold all the layers together, I used a decorative stitch around the perimeter of each heart (each one is different).

Fun fact: in doing this project, I realized I do not have a single heart-print fabric in my rather expansive stash. Crazy! Fortunately, E was happy to share a few of hers with me.

My garland finished around 9 feet long. I decided to hang it in my kitchen, over the pantry.


Right now it's being held up by tape. I might try using little tacks or nails at some point in the future. But overall, I'm pretty pleased with the happy little hearts.

Many thanks to E who helped me along, offering sage advice, materials, and great company. Yay for crafty friends!

On turning two

The Boy had a wonderful birthday. Thank you for all your well-wishes!


We had a small family party on Saturday with the grandparents and great-grandmas, plus a couple of friends and their little one. There were lots of smiles, lots of love, and lots of balloons. He loves balloons. He also received many wonderful gifts, including some fabulous handmade goodness from our crafty friend, E.


It's a roll-up chalkboard! How cool is that?

I even managed to get a picture of him with his new pillow.


He has been sleeping with it at night, and tossing it around during the day. So I count it as a success.

I still can't believe he's two!

With all of the birthday festivities, I didn't get much crafting done. But today I got to spend a little time on my Playtime quilt, sewing together the first set of blocks.


So far, I've managed to complete ten 4" ribbon stars, eleven 4" sawtooth stars, and one 6" Ohio star. That leaves nine more Ohio stars plus two 6" old windmill blocks to complete this first month of blocks. I'm feeling pretty good about my progress so far.

I also got news that my quilt guild has decided to delay the challenge quilt deadline by one month. So now I have until the March meeting to get it done. I'm not sure how I feel about that. It is nice to have the extra time, but knowing that I have extra time kind of makes me want to procrastinate. At this point, I've finished adding the borders. Next I need to piece the back, baste, and quilt. Now the trick is not putting it off until the end of February!

More gifty goodness!

Yesterday I got to hang out with my best friend (henceforth, she shall be called Duck). Woo hoo! I only get to see Duck once or twice a year as she is currently living in California. So it's a big deal to be able to spend time with her in person. We had lunch with some of her other Seattle-area friends, and then dinner with our college roommate (it was such fun to see her, too!). And, of course, we also did some exchanging of gifts.

My gift to her was a little collection of comfy stuff. It included a pair of pajama pants using McCall's 5010.


This is the same pattern I used earlier this year to make a pair for myself. I made a couple of changes this time around though. I made a size Large, left the length as is, and then used about 15" of elastic in the waistband instead of the 23" called for. The fit at the waist-area (the pants sit just below the natural waist) is much better now—not nearly so loosey-goosey. Hopefully, she'll be happy with the fit too.

I also bought a t-shirt and then used my machine embroidery attachment and some leftover fabric to customize it:


I'm really happy with the final result. I was not so happy with the 2.5 hours it took me to do get there. But, as I've not used my embroidery attachment for nearly a year, I kind of had a learning curve to get back into the swing of things. It also took me three practice runs before I was happy with my adjustments to the size and colors.


The embroidery is from Designs by JuJu. This design is included in the set, More Fun Patches Applique.

Another component of the gift was a mix CD.


I didn't have any jewel cases, so I created a protective sleeve using some more leftover pajama pants fabric.

Finally, I included a pair of purchased slipper socks (because keeping toes warm is always important in the quest for comfort). Overall, she seemed really happy with the gift. Yay!

Then I opened my gift from her...


...a fabulous knitted blanket! She said she used 5 strands of yarn and size 50(!) needles. It is super thick and snuggly and I love it (as do my cats!). Thank you, Duck!!