Girly Birthday

My neice's first birthday is this weekend and normally I give a homemade Bit of Whimsy doll but since I gave her one of those for Christmas and she really needs clothes for summer, I decided to make her a couple dresses, a skirt and a pair of shorts.

I made this reversable dress with a Cinderella Princess print on the opposit side.  I found the tutorial and pattern here.  It is super simple to make with only about 5 steps after cutting your fabric.  I did make a few changes, as usual.  The top of mine does not have button holes, the buttons are just sewn on.  I figured because it ties in the back this was one step I could easily skip (and therefore I wouldn't have to hunt down my button hole presser foot).

Here is the back.  My favorite part is that it's reversable so it's like a two for one deal.

The second dress I made was a pillowcase dress.  I'm not all too crazy about it so I'm waiting for Sophie to be at the house tonight to try it on and see if I get any crazier about it.  The ones I've seen online are so cute but I think mine looks a little plain.  I didn't use a pattern just measurements.

I'm anxious to try it on her and see how it looks.

The skirt I made I somehow measured incorrectly and instead of a 12-18mo skirt I ended up with more like a 6mo size.  Needless to say I had to do alot of seem ripping and am in the process of fixing it.  The shorts are finished but are currently MIA.  How does that even happen? My one guess is my little one Grant probably decided to play hide and seek with it.

It felt so good to start sewing again that I can't stop now.  Mother's Day is coming up and my mom has requested I make her a case for her new Kindle.  I'm so excited to go look for fabric, so stay tuned!

Thin Mint Cupcake

I have not been doing any sewing recently and I have to confess I'm having some major withdrawal symptoms.  Most of my sewing supplies are in my mom's basement in unmarked boxes mixed in with about 50 other unmarked boxes stacked to the ceiling.  Finding my supplies would be like searching for that one missing sock that you swear the dryer ate.  Every time I get it in my mind I'm actually gonna find my sewing stuff, I stand in front of the piles and piles of boxes and just stare at them for a good 10 minutes before deciding I should just start rebuying the needed supplies.

Anyway...

What have I been doing with my time you ask?  Baking cupcakes!
My mom and I are signed up for our local Relay For Life in June.  My family has been deeply effected by cancer with 2 of my aunts and my mother having gone through treatment for breast cancer and my grandmother dying of lung cancer, so this is close to my heart.  We decided we wanted to try and raise money for our team and my mom came up with the idea of Cupcakes for a Cure.  Every Wednesday for the last 3 weeks she has taken cupcakes to her school where people donate money for my cupcakes.  I was so super excited to try out some of my recipes and I wanted to share my Thin Mint with every one.

Since it is Girl Scout cookie season and my favorite are Thin Mints.  I've been wanting to make a Thin Mint cupcake forever and it came out perfect!  I adapted this recipe using the WASC version I found at Cakecentral

Thin Mint Cupcakes
2c chocolate cake mix
1/2 c flour
1/2c sugar
1T cocoa powder
1/4t salt
2Tchocolate pudding mix
2 egg whites
1/2 c sour cream
2/3c coffee
1/4 c chocolate milk
1T oil
1t vanilla
1c crushed thin mint cookie crumbs
approximately 1/4t creme de menthe Lorann flavoring (the flavoring should be very light since a thin mint does not have a strong mint flavor.  Be sure to add this flavoring to taste)

wisk all dry ingredients together then add all other ingredients and mix with hand mixer.

Chocolate Mint Buttercream
1/2c soft butter
3T milk
2 cups sifted powdered sugar
1c melted semi sweet chocolate chips
approximately 1/4t creme de menthe Lorann flavoring (once again taste your frosting and add just enough flavoring to lightly flavor your frosting with mint)

cream the butter with a hand mixer until its fluffy. add 3T milk and mix. Add powdered sugar in small amounts and mix well.  Pour in melted chocolate chips and mix. Add flavoring to taste.

Yummy!!!

Felt Food and a Birthday

My friend's daughter turned 2 last week, Santa brought her a play kitchen and she absolutely loves it so I decided to make her some felt food.

I looked for tutorials but ended up just winging it.  If you google felt food you will find a ton of pictures and how-to's.  I had planned on having a few other food items in the collection but Grant not going to sleep until after 10 and not napping during the day, I had very little time to sew.  I ended up with 2 Pop Tarts, 2 chocolate chip cookies, 2 fried eggs 2 heart shaped sugar cookies, 1 round sugar cookie, and 3 doughnuts.  For the round cookies and doughnuts I did use a small bowl for a template to cut the circles, other than that it was all free handed. I think they turned out cute and I really hope she loves them.

Light Posting

Posting around the Homemade house has been extra light the last few weeks, sorry about that.  What is the reason you ask?  Let me give you my list of excuses:
1. Myself, my husband and our little man have all been battling colds since we moved up north.
2. The job hunt has taken over our lives and by the end of the day I am exhausted and the thought of getting on my computer makes me physically ill.
3. All my craft supplies are in various boxes in a room in my mom's basement, and every box looks exactly the same, and piled to the ceiling.  The chances of me finding everything, slim to none.
4. My wonderful son has decided naps are unnecessary as well as going to bed before 10pm.  Which means he is extremely cranky!

Despite my excuses my friend's daughter's birthday is the 21st of this month and I really want to make her gift.  Santa brought her a kitchen set and she absolutely loves it so I immediately thought she needs an apron, chef's hat and some felt food.  So hopefully I will be able to find my fabric and felt and get started, especially since the 21st is coming fast.

Kayli's Recipe Box

My sister got engaged over Christmas and has been trying to learn how to cook.  I decided to use my Cricut and crafting skills and made a recipe box, coupon holder, and a basket full of sauces, spices, and seasonings.

I bought the box at Hobby Lobby for about $3 with a 40%off coupon.  I used Mod Podge to adhere scrapbook paper around the outside as well as the ribbon.  I used my Cricut and the From My Kitchen Cartridge to cut out the word Recipes as well as the recipe dividers shown below.

I cut the dividers at approximately 3.5 inches and decided to leave them blank so Kayli could decide how she wanted to organize the recipes.

When thinking back to being young and starting out I remembered how expensive sauces, seasonings, and spices were and decided to collect some in a basket and add that to her gift.

Sophie's Doll

I had a few Christmas gifts I didn't get to post before the holiday one being Sophie's first doll.

I'm so excited with how she turned out.  I had originally cut out a plaid fabric for her dress and blond hair but just wasn't feeling it.  So glad now I changed my mind.  I used the Jean pattern from Bit of Whimsy.  I have to say I've gotten so much use out of my patterns they were well worth my money.

We Have Arrived

We have arrived and are somewhat settled in our home.  The move was a long one and I'm so glad it is over.  I have no desire to ever move across states again.  I have a friend who has done it multiple times and I have no clue how she does it, I think I would go crazy.

I have a few posts coming up of Christmas gifts I finished last minute before the move and just hadn't gotten the chance to show them to everyone. Unfortunately with the job hunt going full speed I have not even had the time to load the pictures to my laptop so I guess you will just have to be in suspense for a day or two more (I know it's killing you, lol).

I hope everyone had a happy New Year's, and sticks to those resolutions!