Amazing Marshmallows!

  Today I am bragging about Amy!  It is actually easy to brag about her most any day, but today she made the most amazing marshmallows.  These days she experiments with a lot of grain free recipes and found this Organic Marshmallows recipe that has no corn syrup or the eggs that you find in packed marshmallows.

Photo by Sam O'Brien

The recipe calls for "mild flavor," so she used good ol' vanilla flavoring.  We also use a gelatin from Great Lakes Gelatin that is, in my opinion, much better quality than Knox brand. I look forward to using these in a s'more sometime.

Something About This Print

Each year when I have made corn bags, there is usually a print of fabric that is more requested than others.  One year a very pink fleece was popular; another year was an owl print, but this year seems to be this "northwestern" print.  What I like about this flannel fabric is how versatile it is.  With one cut of the fabric, we can make a 15x5 inch bag look like this-

and with another cut we can have a bag look like this-

I have also made a 10x10 inch size that has a little of both prints in it similar to this-

So far, the 15x5 size has been requested more often.

Now that winter break is here I hope to being sewing more.  We will see what time and life allow :)

Spring Flowers and a Creative Boy's Eye

David, who is 12, loves to take pictures.  He has such a creative eye (at least much more creative than his mother).  Here are a few pictures he took a few days ago:  www.hisworldinpictures.blogspot.com

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do :)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Here is a fun creation!  I followed these instructions to fancy up my plain old pair of flip flops.  They turned out so cute that I want to do more!

Satin Bows and Silver

Today's fun was making satin bows and attaching them to this metalic silver flip flop.  The embellishment in the center of the bow has a single rhinestone and adds a little extra charm. ( no pun intended :)

Key Lime Pie

My Key Lime Pie

I found a new recipe that my whole family LOVES! It comes from the back of this bottle:

Nellie & Joe's Famous Lime Juice


Nellie & Joe's Key Lime Pie

• 9" graham cracker pie crust
• 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk
• 3 egg yolks (whites not used)
• ½ cup Nellie & Joe's Key West Lime Juice

Combine milk, egg yolks and lime juice. Blend until smooth. Pour filling into pie crust and bake at 350º for 15 minutes. Allow to stand 10 minutes before refrigerating. Just before serving, top with freshly whipped cream, or meringue, and garnish with lime slices.

I like to add about a 1 teaspoon of lime zest because I like the extra zing.

So simple!


 

Korker Hair Bow

Today I am digging out all of my unfinished projects - well some of them, not all of them.  I found a pile of ribbons I had prepared for korkers last winter but had never completed.  I picked these colors to match one of my daughter's outfits.  Korker bows are surprisingly easy to make and look quite festive!

Here is a simple, but extremely comfortable flip flop that I embellished today for a friend of mine.  The flip flop is bronze and the crystals are Capri Blue. 

It looks really nice together - good choice!

Frills and Fluff

My daughter is such a GIRLY girl! She loves anything frilly, fluffy and furry. So of course, she wanted a tutu.   After all, it makes twirling and dancing so much more fun!

So last night was the night to create her tutu with the colors she picked out - pink, purple and green. I gave it lots of delicate ribbons and attached lots of little roses on it since she loves her middle name soo much. ROSE.

This tutu is not made with elastic, but with a long 1 1/2 inch wide ribbon that I can just tie around her.  This makes it much easier for me to help her to get it on rather than fighting with the frills while pulling the elastic up to her waist.

(You can see her shorts in the back - her tie needed to be tightened.  It does cover all of her :)

Super Sized!

17 x 6 inch flannel heat pack

    Over that past few months I have had a few requests for larger heating pads and one client even special ordered some.  I've always hesitated making them because I wasn't sure how they would fit in a microwave. Well this weekend I finally experimented with making a some.The bags fit in the microwave just fine if you fold them.  The heating time is, of course, is a couple minutes longer.  I let my husband try one out for his neck and he liked how it wrapped around better than the shorter ones I have.

22 x 5 inch heating pack with removable cover. 

This is what the heat pack looks like without the cover. All of these bags are double-stitched to last longer.

When I have more time I will make larger square shaped packs : )

Got Pets? Pouches Perfect for Pooches!

This week was one of the busiest of the year, causing me to race like a super mad lady gone electrocuted. I've just completed this bag for a client whose dog who just had puppies. One of the facts about corn bags that many people forget is how well they keep newborn animals warm. A friend even used to use one for her "elderly" cat.  What a perfect gift for your pets, or for your friend who has pets!

Blog Hop

Helpful Tips for Keeping Warm

Here are the latest patterns of microwavable heat packs. 

The packs shown are made with a removable fleece cover. The great thing about the cover is that it can be washed when soiled.

Now that the weather is so chilly these days, we use our heat packs often.  I heat one up to put in my bed before I climb in it at night.  It keeps my feet warm.  Some of my children heat them up to take in the car with them. You can keep them in your lap, put them behind your back or sit on them even!  It sure beats shivering while waiting for the heater to warm up the car.

Keep warm and enjoy winter!

Fleece Corn Bag Covers

Fleece is soo cuddly!  At least half of my corn bag covers are made out of fleece.  Here are the latest patterns I have added to my collection:

These will be listed on ebay this weekend.  Enjoy your weekend :)

Reasons for Not Blogging................

• Someone put the black food coloring container on the kitchen window sill - laying flat with the lid ajar. 
• Put Dad's "Do not dry-Lay flat" sweater in the dryer and am trying to stetch it out before its fully dried.
• Had to catch the parakeets that were accidently let out.  
• Teaching Sam the right way to head a paper for spelling.
• John wants to drive me to the bank to get driving practice.
• Cooking two different dinners - one for Dad and one for everyone else.
• Teaching kids how to deep clean (so I don't get so overwhelmed doing it myself.)
• Reminding Pete and Ben they love eachother more than they know.
• Re-organizing computer area to equip Amy how to help in Dad's business.
• Molly wants me to hold her and play Mommy Deer and Baby Deer.
• Bread maker smelled like it was making burnt toast. I think it's time for a new one.
• Got lost in Joanne Fabrics (not really, but I forgot about the time.)
• Correcting school papers.
• Playing Spider or building birthday puzzles after dinner clean-up; sometimes it helps my brain relax.
• Teaching boys the right way to open a pomegranate (and that it STAINS!)
• Trying to finish the laundry before the weekend, but this is only load six.
• I (not the kids) spilled 5 pounds of sugar all over the floor!
• Cuddling David's soft ears before he thinks he is too old for that kind of stuff.
• And the list goes on...............................................................................

"Actually, Godliness is a great source of profit when it is combined 

with being happy with what you already have.

1 Timothy 6:6 (CEB)

Plaids!

A customer ordered this plaid print today.   Plaid can be a little tricky to work with if you want your lines matching together on the front and back.  The nice thing about this fabric is that it didn't do much shrinking during the prewash, which sometimes makes it difficult to keep the lines straight for a project.   I happen to like this particular plaid with the brown and grey colors. My first thought about this color combination is that it wouldn't match well together, but seeing it together like this changes my mind - this print looks great! 

Football Season

We picked up some fabric for our local football team today.  I want to make heating packs with it.  This is a fleece fabric so it is very cozy; perfect for keeping you warm on chilling evenings.  The size for this heat pack is 12 x 8 inches.

Eventually I want to get fabric for other teams.  Each team will most likely be have a different size heat pack since the fabric and logos vary.

I found this Green Bay material from a couple of years that someone special ordered for a heat pack. This particular one is a 13 x 5.5 inch size.  It's also a cozy fleece.  I'll post others as I make them.

No Time for Crafting.............YET

This past month has found me upgrading around our home.  So rather than creating with fabrics and flip flops I have been up to my elbows (and hair) with paint!  My son asked if he could paint his room (it needed it) so he and I went to get paint.  His idea was to use black and red!  My ideas were a little less radical.  So between our brainstorming we came up with what I would call chocolate pudding.  The color is a very dark but nice brown and the whole time we were painting I kept saying that I felt like I am painting pudding on the walls!

After painting his room I remembered I had paint for the hall so I painted that.  Then realized I had paint for the laundry room too, so that was next.  Which then, of course,  led me to the boys bathroom, touch-up in the living room and so on!

Now after all of that we are endeavoring to redo our porch, which is somehow making me think of painting our ceilings.............I don't know if I will go that far.................yet. :)

I am glad for summer upgrades.  Crafting will come soon enough as does winter around here which is when I seem to have more time for crafting.

We have also had some family time which you can view here:    Beach Trip

Photo Floundering

Our weather is warming up.....finally!  At least today is nice : )  Seeing the bright blue sky today inspired me to take inventory of already embellished flip flops and to make a few more pairs.  My main task of the day though, has been researching how to take pictures of crystals.  I'm not that great at it and am looking for any imput I can get.  Here are some (experimental) photos I took today while trying to apply some suggestions from my intenet research.  My first goal is to not have all the twinkles and glare.

The pictures aren't perfect, but at least the crystals don't have as many twinkles and/or glare. And the colors look true to color now.  That's one small step for capturing crystals.