Felt for the Home

Disclosure: Leisure Arts sent me a copy of this book in return for an honest review. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. The links are affiliate links where I will receive a small percentage of any purchases made through them at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Crafty Moms Share!

We had a busy week back from our vacation and we are celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week a week early so my focus has been at school and not crafting. Ugh!! However I want to share thie fun book with you. It is Felt for the Home by Kimberly Layton. 

Celebrating Valentine's Day with 1 Corinthians 13

I love teaching Hazel about God when talking about love. I saw this wonderful craft over at Meaningful Mama: Heart Peacock Craft Teaches True Love. I fell in love with it and knew we had to do it. I love that it visualizes 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8:

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
⁸ Love never fails. (Source)

We used the patterns provided at Meaningful Mama. We added and eye for the peacock and some legs. Hazel told me it needed legs, so we used a pipe cleaner. To make the peacock, we used cardstock. I cut out 16 hearts and one body. Glue the hearts together so they overalp and then add the body. Hazel put the body on, so it is a little crooked. Then you add the words.

The words are of course from the Bible. We taped the pipe cleaner on at the end--folding it in half and then folding the ends to be feet.

Besides reading 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, we also love the picture book by Lisa Tawn Bergren, God Gave Us Love. We wrote about it during Advent for the week of Love. For some more Valentine themed ideas check out:

• Valentine's Day Crafts some with Scripture and Bible References
• Simple Felt Hearts for Garland or Wreath
• For the Love of Geometry: Geometric Love Poems
• Strawberry Heart Muffins
• Felt Heart Gift--Hand Sewn
• Lavender Heart Sewing Lesson (Hand Sewing)
• Preschool Made Simple Valentines
• Valentine Tea Party
• Valentine Swap & Lots of Valentine Crafts
• My Valentine's Day Pinterest Board

Multicultural Monday: Halloween

Now that the church's Pumpkin Patch with Holiday Craft Fair is over, I can focus my efforts on sewing Hazel's Halloween costume. Since I'm working on Halloween now, I thought I would look into the history of Halloween and how it is celebrated around the world.

Sew Useful -- Book Review

Disclosure: Search Press gave me a copy of these books free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Today I am sharing with you a wonderful book for helping you organize your house (and especially your craft room). The book is Sew Useful by Debbie Shore.

Little Loving Hands -- Product Review

Disclosure: Little Loving Hands sent me this month's box free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation. 

Have you noticed all the monthly box subscriptions out there? There are so many of them and they all have a slightly different theme, however here is one that teaches kids to about charity and giving. Little Loving Hands offers a monthly subscription where a box with a craft arrives each month and with the craft is also information about who the craft is for and an envelope (with postage paid) to mail it to the charity. The explanation of the charity was double sided

Sharing Saturday #37

Have you entered my current giveaway? You can win a copy of the fantastic book, Show Me a Story by Emily K. Neuburger. This is a must for anyone who wants to help develop their child's imagination and storytelling skills!

Don't forget to visit Dine Out for No Kid Hungry and check out the deals at your local restaurants to help end childhood hunger!!

Did you stop by and check out the great ideas shared last week? I did, and I must tell you I'm still in awe!! I have several features, but first want to apologize for the lateness of this post. I have my oldest and dearest friend visiting tonight and we went for a girls dinner out. (We have been friends since we were six-months-old!) Needless to say it is great to see her and we have been catching up a bit, especially since she arrived after Hazel was asleep so we could have some grown up time. Ok, on to this week's features.

I am finally starting to feel like fall so here are a few apple features!

1) From Reading Confetti: Paper Plate Apple Tree

2) From Repeat Crafter Me: Plastic Bottle Apples

3) From Annie One Can Cook!: Apple Pecan Pie Bars

4) From Tippytoe Crafts: Wormy Apples

Did you know that September is National Sewing Month? In honor of that here are a few sewing (and knitting) features as well as one of my favorites!

1) From Rae Gun Rambling: Princess Dress Bustle Skirt Tutorial

2) From About Blogging Time: The Elephant Softie

3) From Frontier Dreams: Kitten Mittens

4) From Earning My Cape: Tunisan Stitch Belt

5) From Wind of Imagination Is Here: A Paper Office

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I hope you will join us and share again!! If you are featured here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog.

Button Code:

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From Your Hostess: In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month starting September 15th, I am sharing our homemade Hispanic Heritage Musical Instruments

 

Now for This Week's Party   

A Few Simple Guidelines:
1)  Please follow both hosts via GFC (or one of the other ways that work for you).  

Hosts are Crafty Moms Share and Mama Mia's Heart2Heart. A reminder: Mia is taking a blogging break. Hopefully she will be back soon to host again!!

2)  Link any kid-friendly, child-centered post. Please no etsy shops or giveaways, etc.  Remember to link to your actual post.

3) Post the button on your sidebar or somewhere on your blog to help spread the word.

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4. Optional: Like us on Facebook and Google+
Disclaimer: By sharing here, you are giving Crafty Moms Share and Mama Mia's Heart2Heart permission to use your photos for features and to pin your craft at Pinterest. 

All right everyone...This is a PARTY!! Have Fun!!

Doll Dress Boutique -- a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Have you entered my current giveaway yet? Only a few days left to enter!!

Disclosure: C&T Publishing sent me this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own! I will receive a small stipend for purchases made through the links in this post. Thank you for supporting Crafty Moms Share!

It has been a crazy week like usual. I have been really wanting to try one of the patterns in today's book, but have not pulled out my sewing machine in quite awhile. Today I am sharing a new doll clothes pattern book. It is Doll Dress Boutique by Erin Hentzel. 

A Little Women's History: Amelia Earhart, Maya Angelou, Coco Chanel, Nell Richardson, & Alice Burke

Disclosure: I was sent these products free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the book for your convenience.

Today I am going to share four great books about five amazing women!! We will start with some women suffragists and they are not the ones most think of right away. The book is Around America to Win the Vote: Two Suffragists, a Kitten and 10,000 Miles by Mara Rockliff and illustrated by Hadley Hooper. With the upcoming election it seems the perfect time to look at the history of women voting. 

Sock Animals

For Hazel's half birthday she received a sock animal kit. It included one sock, two buttons, a piece of batting and a copy of Socktastic!  The other day she decided she wanted to make some sock animals. We opened up the kit and looked through the book.

Sew Small a Crafty Weekends Review and Link Party

Disclosure: C&T Publishing gave me a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. The links are affiliate links where I will receive a small percentage of any purchases made through them at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Crafty Moms Share!

Today I am going to share a wonderful book to make 19 different little bags. It has everything from card (credit or business) holders to coin purses and more. The ideas are creative and unique. The book is Sew Small by Jennifer Heynen. 

A Merry Christmas with Kim Schaefer -- a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure:C&T Publishing sent me an e-version of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. The links are affiliate links where I will receive a small percentage of any purchases made through them at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Crafty Moms Share!

Last week I had the pleasure of sharing Sew Yourself a Merry Little Christmas and this week we are looking at another sewing and quilting Christmas book. This week it is A Merry Christmas with Kim Schaefer. I had big plans this week to make one or two of the projects in it, but Hazel's cold got passed to me, so I struggled to stay awake and do anything extra than what was needed. Sorry!! However I will be able to share some of the amazing projects and give you my planning of projects and reading instructions review. 

Heritage Doll Clothes -- Making 1930s Doll Clothes -- Crafty Weekends Link Party

Hazel has discovered the American Girl books. She is loving the mysteries for older children. She also has fallen in love with Kit Kittredge. She really wants to get an American Girl doll. She has begun saving her own money for one. She is struggling deciding between getting Kit, Samantha or Rebecca. She really LOVES the Kit stories but likes the looks of the other two more. She has begun reading the other stories and is really just enjoying them all. Since it will take her awhile to save enough money to buy an American Girl doll I thought I would make some clothes from the various eras for the dolls she has. Since Kit is her current favorite I thought I would start with something from the 1930s. I pulled out Heritage Doll Clothes by Joan Hinds. I bought it awhile ago to get the pattern for a prairie dress and bonnet when Hazel was really into Little House on the Prairie. I still need to make it for her doll and the matching one for her.

Making Books with Kids -- Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Be sure to check out my on-line Thirty-One Review & Party!! Get all your summer organizing essentials!!

Disclosure: I was sent this book to review free of charge from Quarto Books USA. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

This summer I am running a Summertime Fun Series and today's book has a great activities for this series. The book is Making Books with Kids by Esther H. Smith and illustrated by Jane Sanders and type-o-graphics by Dikko Faust. 

For my little ukulele player...

Have you heard about the Waverize It! Facebook contest over at Jo-Ann Fabrics? I have been waiting to tell you all about it. Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts and Waverly Fabrics have joined together to celebrate National Sewing Month and Waverly's 90th Anniversary to bring this amazing contest! To help advertise for the contest Jo-Ann's sent me two yards of Waverly fabric to make something outside the box. Well I thought the perfect thing to make would be a case for Hazel's ukulele. Now I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, since I have not shared about her ukulele yet here. 

Back in June, we were at the Cape visiting my parents and my sister and nephew came up. My sister was dropping my nephew off for his six week visit. Well my sister has started to learn to play the ukulele and she had hers and her son's with her. Hazel loved playing her cousin's ukulele so much. Well my sister had happened to buy a ukulele before finding her son's and didn't know what to do with it, so she mailed it to Hazel. Talk about a wonderful surprise package!! Hazel was so excited!! All we had to carry it around and store it in was the box that it was sent in. Not all that pretty or exciting. I also didn't like to take it to too many places since I didn't trust the box to last forever. However Hazel had other plans. She wanted to bring it to both sets of grandparents and then she had an invitation to play at the library with some of the librarians.  The first week, the librarians forgot their ukuleles so Hazel played by herself. The next week, only one remembered hers, so she and Hazel played together. She happens to be the children's librarian so she tried to teach Hazel a bit. (Note: Since I did not ask permission of the librarians I am blocking out their faces.)

Then this past Monday, three of the librarians brought their ukuleles in. (We had only planned on two, but a third was working at a different time and brought it in since she knew we were on the schedule.)

Oh, and then there was one of Hazel's friends at Trader Joe's (yes, my daughter has friends at every store) who wanted to hear her play, so we stopped there one of the Mondays, but she wasn't there, so Hazel played for other friends there. Needless to say with all this public playing, I wanted Hazel to have something besides a cardboard box to carry it in. Oh, she has also been told she can play at church anytime as well for a service.  Now enters the Waverize It! Contest. (If you would like to hear Hazel play and sing, you can go here.)

Now I had been contacted to see if I would I would like to help promote this contest for National Sewing Month which is September. It is put on by Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores and Waverly Fabrics. Waverly is celebrating its 90th anniversary.  I of course jumped at the chance. They sent me two yards of fabric.

They asked the bloggers to Waverize their lives by making something with this fabric for every day use. I thought a ukulele case would be perfect. Then I thought about what I would want. I wanted it to be padded on the inside to protect the instrument and to be stiff on the outside to protect from banging, etc. I decided to put between the lining and the exterior, quilt batting and plastic canvas. This way the case is fully washable. I also envisioned it having a zipper. I called my sister and talked to her about it and she said to make sure the zipper went around the head of the ukulele, so I did. 

My first idea was to use the box as a pattern, but I decided to be more sophisticated. I traced the ukulele and added a bit for seam allowance and give and used this for the base. I also wanted to give it a pocket so she could store something small like her picks. Then I made a little bag to put the picks in with some of the scraps. I attached a ribbon to it so we can attach it tothe case so she doesn't lose them. She doesn't really use her picks anymore, but my sister sent her some, so she has them. 

I put a pocket with Velcro closure on the front. I also added some iron-on flowers and star to jazz it up for my sparkly girl. 

Now if I had this to redo, I would sew it in a different order. I was not sure which to do first with the plastic canvas as part of the lining. I should have sewn the zipper in first. Oops!! It is a little messier than I had hoped, but it works.

And Hazel loves it!! I used a parachute clip to make the strap adjustable so it can grow with her. I put a flower pin on it to make it work a bit better for her now. 

With some of the remaining fabric, I made Hazel a tote bag so she can bring her music (if she ever officially learns how to play and read music) with her and a little zippered pouch to keep money or a key in. The pouch fits in the pocket on the case as well as on the tote.

Hazel asked what she could use the bag for and I suggested music or library books or to take her toys to Nonni's. Then she got really excited about it.

So that has been one of our main forms of entertainment this summer. Hazel LOVES playing her ukulele. And now she has a wonderful case to take it places. The music teacher at her new school already told her to bring it in when they have music class. Needless to say, Hazel is very excited.

Now it is your turn to head over and Waverize your life. To enter the Waverize It! Facebook Contest, just sew something unique with Waverly fabric and take a picture of it. Then head over to this Facebook page to enter. You can also check out the entries that have already been submitted there. The Grand Prize is 30 yards of your favorite Waverly fabric and a $250 Jo-Ann Gift Card. Then there are nine Second Place Winners who get 9 yards of their favorite Waverly fabric and a $150 Jo-Ann Gift Card. You can get more details here.

Sewing, Serging, and Baking

So last night I decided to make a dress for Hazel. I stayed up late and followed a pattern from Simple Sewing for Baby: 24 Easy Projects for Newborns to Toddlers by Lotta Jansdotter. I lengthened the dress pattern and wish I had Hazel awake to measure it to her. If I use this pattern again I would enlarge it more in width as well as length. This book is definitely on the baby and young toddler side of sizes. However, I'm happy with the outcome of the dress and Hazel wanted to put it on right away when she saw it. She also loved the pocket buddy and having a pocket.

Of course, I stayed up late finishing it so it would be ready for her this morning and I promised Steve I would get up with her this morning. I don't know what I was thinking, but I certainly did not get enough sleep. Well, we got up around 5:20 and made banana muffins for breakfast. I had three very ripe bananas to use up.
Banana Muffins
1 1/2 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c oat bran
1/4 c flax seed meal
2 t baking powder
1 t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg
1/2 T brown sugar (I didn't add this but will next time)
1 egg, beaten
3/4 c non-fat milk
1/2 c applesauce (I used mostly carrot applesauce, but either will work)
3 very ripe bananas pureed

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside. Mix the rest of the ingredients in a different bowl. Then combine the liquid mixture into the dry mixture and mix well. Spoon into sprayed muffin pans. Bake for about 20 minutes. Should make 12 muffins.

Enjoy your Saturday!
Carrie

Valentine's Day Crafts

We have been so busy with other February events, that I haven't had time to share some of the Valentine's Day crafts we have been doing. Here are three simple crafts.