We've Been Crafting, Just Not Posting!

Lydia and I pulled out the sewing machine the other day and made this pillow for her baby panda bear.
Lydia also did some cookie decorating at a holiday party...
I think she did a great job. So detailed!
I didn't finish the frog cross-stitch for Christmas so now this is a birthday present for my grandma. Her birthday is January 27.
Once I finish this I plan to get back to the "Strength" (tree) cross-stitch. I learned that I had been suffering needlessly on this. When doing work on such a small thread count you don't stitch in EVERY hole, you do every other. What a difference that makes! WOW! No more need for dramamine when working on this project.

(The above picture is owned by monsterbubbles.com.
You can purchase the pattern from monsterbubbles.com.)

7th Birthday Celebrations

Well it's been more than two weeks since we celebrated Lydia's 7th birthday but when thinking about a crafty project to post, her birthday cake was the most recent thing I could think of that I have "crafted"! That is pathetic! I am going through a very long crafty dry spell.
Lydia and her friends enjoyed the birthday party very much. One of the games we played was a scavenger hunt. I took pictures of 12 items. I cut each of the pictures up and put each in a sealed envelope. The girls had to put the pictures together like a puzzle to discover the object they needed to find. Once they found the first item, they were given their next "clue", and so on. I split the girls up into two teams. The first team to find all of their 6 clues "won". This game was a huge hit with the girls and Ken and I had just as much fun watching them.

Big Cheese Week

Lydia was the "Big Cheese" at school this week. We visited her class on Tuesday, read a book and had lunch. The teacher decorated the bulletin board with pictures Lydia brought from home. She was line leader. It was a really big deal! We made these snowman pupcakes (what Lydia calls them) last night for her last day of Big Cheese Week. I got the idea from this recipe at MarthaStewart.com. The noses were carved from gummy bears (recipe calls for gummy fish...couldn't find 'em). I didn't have the recommended decorations for the eyes so I used what I had...food coloring and toothpicks. These pupcakes are a bit tedious but they sure are cute. Lydia was very proud to share them at school today.

Holiday Baking

I had a lot of fun with my cousin and sister today while doing some holiday baking. We made at least 12 recipes it seems like. I am not sure. I lost count. The first image is a picture of the owl cookies we made. The picture isn't that great but I think they turned out pretty cute. This particular guy seems to be missing an ear.

It's going to be a busy week. I am nearly done with the scarf I am knitting Lydia and want to finish it for Christmas. I have lots of quilting to get done before my next class on the 18th. I am at the point where I need to decide how I want to place all of the blocks and then sew them together. I am considering going with Lydia to a beading class this Thursday. Then, I was watching Martha Stewart earlier this week and they made this cute pop-up Christmas card that I want to try to make.

I was seriously considering these Singer sewing and knitting machines for Lydia for Christmas this year. She is 6 and may be old enough but I don't know if she has the patience or perhaps attention span yet. I tried to teach her how to stitch on plastic canvas this weekend and she didn't seem to be able to focus long enough on it to pick it up. I think she was interested but just wanted to know how to do it without focusing, if that makes any sense.

Hanging out at Home

We were invited to a few things this weekend but we all needed some down time so we stayed close to home. Today Lydia tried out her new apron and a recipe, Reese's Haystacks, from her Silly Snacks recipe book that she got for her 6th birthday from her friend Jurnee. She did a great job at making the haystacks and we had a lot of fun.

Yesterday I was able to spend some time at my sewing machine and got a ton of mending done. I turned two pairs of Lydia's pants into shorts because the knees were completely blown out on them.