Cute Chicks

 I have a great friend who's crafty, she's just my style.  She is also finishing her basement and has a plethora of bits of 2x4's.  With that in mind, she has found a couple of websites where they use almost only 2x4's in their crafts.  Super fun.  We had been planning to make pumpkins but we missed the Fall.  Then we were going to do Christmas trees, but alas that season also passed us by.  We were determined to do something for Spring/Easter though, and my persevering friend invited me over to make these little babies. 



 
We changed a couple of things.  I didn't really want to do a duck, so I did chicks instead.  I got one of those fuzzy feather boas from Hobby Lobby and cut it into strips.  It only took three strips to make the chick look really full.  We painted the boards and then used Elmer's glue to attach the feathers.  We hot glued the googly eyes, which, by the way, were purchased from the dollar store.  Beautiful.  We made the feet out of pipe cleaners and hot glued them to the bottom.  The beaks are a brown foam, also hot glued, and the bows (my own personal and wonderful idea) to make his and hers.  Love them!

The sheep we just followed the instructions from the blog, but we did add the bow.  Cutey, cute, cute and perfect for Easter. 

Butterfly in the Sky...I Can Go Twice as High

So, now that you hopefully have an awesome song in your head and a sudden crush on Levar Burton, I will tell you about these lovely little crochet butterflies.  I wanted to try these because it is my sweet Grandmother's birthday and she love, love, loves butterflies.  Whenever I see butterflies I think of her.  I haven't quite decided what I am going to do with these, but something awesome will come to mind, or, more likely, I'll find some great idea on one of the many wonderful craft blogs I read.  Until then, just enjoy.

The tutorial for this project came from the ever amazing Little Birdie Secrets blog, and the link directly to the crochet butterflies is here.  Also, really don't be afraid to try these, even if you don't know much about crochet.  I know the absolute, sheer basics and I had to google a couple of stitches, but the Birdies know their tutorials and this one is so fun and easy to follow.

Just for fun, here's a picture of my sweet Grandmother, my precious baby girl, and me.

**Don't be jealous of my awesome photography skills.  I mean, not everyone can be as good as I am at capturing the true wonder of real life through the magic of the lens.

A Little Easter Craft...or not

So I can't decide if I like my version of this or not.  I found this really cute craft idea at a lovely place called Positively Splendid.  Her version is amazingly adorable, but I tried to make one a little simpler because I didn't want to do the sewing.  I did a paper version and I think it maybe just turned out like I cut corners.  I can't decide.  I think I'll put it out for a little while, but I don't know that it will make it past one Easter season.  It was still fun to make.

What is even up with my awesomeness???

So this is my absolute first attempt at making any article of clothing.  I was incredibly nervous about it but my mom and I bought some Easter fabric last time she was here.  Unfortunately, my mom had to leave before we were able to do something with the fabric.  Normally I would just wait until she came back and have her do something awesome.  However, this fabric was time sensitive (ie Easter is in a month), so we needed to get it done.

I searched the internet for a simple skirt pattern that I thought I might be able to try to maybe attempt and accomplish.  Well, I ended up finding the most awesome website with the greatest ever tutorial for a super cute skirt. It's called Everything Your Mama Made and More.  The direct link to the skirt pattern I used is here.  I was so impressed with this tutorial.  It has amazing step by step instructions that were so easy to follow.  I was nervous to try, but this tutorial was the absolute best ever!  Seriously if you need to make a skirt or something else fabulous you should try here!

So here's my little project:

Supplies all ready, including a nice glass of diet coke, a must for any craft project.

So I had to change one thing threading the elastic and ribbon.  I used a bamboo skewer to thread the elastic and ribbon .  WAY EASIER!

Finished product.  So, so cute!

The cute tie.  Yes, I used a ribbon.

  I did make a few changes to the pattern.  I didn't fold the hem line over after I pressed the hem on the bottom.  I thought it needed a little more accent on the bottom.  Also, I ran out of fabric so I couldn't do an accent on the waistband.  I think that was probably the right choice for me because the waistband doesn't exactly look stellar, so it's probably a good thing I didn't draw more attention to it.  Finally, I didn't do the tie because, well, it seemed like too much work.  I had some cute ribbon on hand that I thought coordinated really well.  Way simpler than making the tie and just as cute, or even cuter.  Sweet!

Confession:  I totally skipped some of the finishing steps because, you know, that's how I roll.  Don't look at the back.

Kindle Case

So I got a Kindle for Christmas!  Whoa!  It is pretty much the most AWESOME Christmas gift I have ever gotten.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!  So I really wanted to make a case for it.  There are A TON of patterns and tutorials online.  There are a lot that you can buy already made both of the standard leather-ish variety and the cutesty fabric variety.  Anyway, I found about three different ones that I wanted to make, but I finally decided on this one.  And I love the result!

So I think it is so awesome!  The tutorial is beyond excellent and really takes you through the process step by step, which is good, because I needed a lot of help.  I am so pleased with the results though.  Also, these guys have the measurements for any version of the Kindle that you may have and they have a formula to figure out what sizes you'd need if you have a different brand of e-reader.  Enjoy! 

Another Sweet, Sweet Recipe

So I enjoy Chinese food, for the most part, but it is always super daunting for me to try at home.  Once a super awesome lady taught me how to make egg rolls and they are for sure a family favorite!  I also have a recipe for sweet and sour chicken that we have really enjoyed, but it takes FOREVER to cook.  So, when I found this recipe for Sweet and Sour Chicken on Mel's Kitchen Cafe I had to try it.  Um, WOW!  It was amazingly good!  Though it is still pretty time consuming because you have to fry the chicken and then bake it, it is totally worth it!  I loved it and my husband, who is not usually overly effusive, said we had to add this recipe to our standard, have-super-often meal list.  I can't say enough how much we loved it.  You have to try this!!  Awesome!

**Picture from:  Mel's Kitchen Cafe

Slacker FOR REAL! But here is an awesome recipe

Well, I decided that I wasn't going to feel guilty about not getting everything together and really running on this blog.  I'm abandoning my initial template so I can just do whatever I want and not feel guilty for posting for a couple of weeks at a time.  So anyway, with this small explanation complete here is what's been on my crafting mind for a while...



Cafe Rio Pork Recipe
from:  The Girl Who Ate Everything
So I made this incredibly delicious pork!  It was truly awesome!  I really like both Cafe Rio and Costa Vida.  We eat there pretty often and I have been wanting to try to make it at home for a while.  My sister recommended the recipes on this blog to try.  (By the way, you should check out her other recipes because they are awesome!)  I was worried about trying it, but it was really good.  The recipe was more involved than I usually do and I probably won't make it too often for that reason.  However, when I am in the mood for a little bit more of a time commitment then I am all in for this.  I also made the Cilantro Lime Rice which was DIVINE and not that hard.   

  So, for the meal I made some tortillas, also easier than I originally thought they would be.  So we had a tortilla with rice on top, then pork, then cheese.  We ate it like an open face taco and it was awesome.  Totally try it!

**Picture from:  The Girl Who Ate Everything