Tiny Turkey Hands

My little boy is currently in a crafting/coloring frenzy phase.  Any time his sister isn’t around he breaks out his marker and asks for paper.  He loves creating little “projects” or “systems” as he sometimes calls them.  Many times during one of the two naps V still has during the day he and I will create something.  Whether it’s just plain coloring in a coloring book, creating a story, or making something for dessert he’s always a happy boy with the one on one attention and some sort of product to show his daddy when he gets home.

This week I decided to base our project off of something I did as a first grader.  So a LONG time ago I remember getting to make up my own stationary using our thumbprints to create little animals, I specifically remember making a pig.  I believe this stationary was then given to my mother as a mother’s day gift.  Anyway with all the turkey crafts out there that involve cutting which S really isn’t all that good at yet I thought this could be a cute way to make up some pictures and maybe make a card to send to the grandparents.

Well S had other ideas.

He decided he did NOT want to just use a thumbprint or a fingerprint.  What he really wanted was to do a handprint (probably because the last time we had the ink pads out we did handprints to mark 6 months for V and 3 years for S).  So I obliged and we have our craft to share:  Tiny Turkey Handprints.  Fingerprint turkeys will wait for another day.

Begin with gathering your supplies.  We used kid friendly ink pads purchased at JoAnn’s (I wish I had made another trip out before we did this craft to get brown and some other colors but we made due with black, pink, purple, and orange), cardstock, scissors, and markers/colored pencils/crayons.  Baby wipes or a wet paper towels are a handy thing to have too.

First decide what your project will be.  S wanted to make just pictures so I left the cardstock alone.  However this could easily be made into a card if you wanted to fold/cut the cardstock to the size you want.

For the ink, I stamped S’s hand first with the black on his thumb and palm.  Then we did each finger up as a colored feather.  First time we did it with each finger being a separate color.  The second time I started with the first segments of his fingers closest to his palm with one color, then the second segment with another color, and finished up with the tips of his fingers with the third color.  NOTE: If you are going to do multiple colors on the fingers I recommend NOT doing the thumb/palm until last AND starting with the lightest color and moving to the darkest as there may be transfer of ink between the pads as you ink up the hand.

Press hand firmly on to the cardstock.  Making sure your little one actually puts their palm all the way down too (ask me how I know this… we had a few turkeys that were just tail feathers).

Now that the hand print is done.  Quick clean up before you have handprints all over your house!  Love how clean these inks clean up!

Add an eye, a beak, and wattle (the red dangly thing).  You can also outline with a black marker to bring out the features.

For one of our pictures I added a background per what S asked for/told me the turkey was doing- he tried to tell me the turkey was eating some ham but then we talked about what turkeys eat so then he decided on seeds.  Then we added some of the things he was grateful for.  Insta-fridge material!

Gobble Gobble!
Viever

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Yabba Dabba Doo!

Flintstones!  Meet the Flintstones… well just Pebbles and Bam Bamm.  Mr. Viever was a party pooper this year and said he didn’t want to dress up so no Fred and Wilma.  This is also the first year that I have made the kids’ costumes so I wanted to do something relatively simple, fun, and themed!

Bam Bamm

 I sent out an SOS to my sewing mama friends.  I needed a shorts pattern as I have none.  Sure enough they came through for me and pointed me towards Create Kids Couture’s Aidan’s Appliqued Shorts Pattern.  I followed the pattern as adding a fleece sash by sewing one edge down as I made the channel for the elastic.  The sash I cut based on the measurement from my son’s waistband over his shoulder and back to the waistband for length and then had it about 2.5 inches wide.  The bone I free handed out of felt cut two small slashes into the fleece sash and inserted the bone; I left the bone end of the sash unattached.  I also chose not to hem the shorts and just cut out ragged triangles instead. Rough and tumble kid is supposed to be from the stone age no hem required! I then stitched on several of the fleece triangles I had cut out to finish off the Bam Bamm look.  After he put on the shorts I then safety pinned the bone end of the sash to the shorts.  Gave him the club (directions on how I made it below) and we have ourselves Bam Bamm!!

Pebbles

I used a tried and true pattern for me: ModKid’s Baby Hannah.  This is the fourth set I’ve made for my daughter.  Perfect outfit for California summers.  It’s fall now but during the day it’s warm enough to wear and in the evenings I’ll pair it with a long sleeved shirt and leggings. I did learn something from doing Bam Bamm’s costume first.  This time I STARTED by sewing on the fleece triangles to the fabric THEN I sewed up the pattern.  So much easier then doing it the other way around!  To finish of Pebbles look I cut out a felt bone and attached to an alligator hair clip.

Bam Bamm’s Club Tutorial

I knew Bam Bamm needed to have his club but didn’t want to go buy a plastic one that would gather dust.  So I grabbed a small baseball bat that S got last year for Christmas and decided I would wrap it!  When S saw it this morning, he asked me what it was.  I told him it was a club for his Bam Bamm costume.  He then asked me if he could open it.  I guess my gift wrapping skill could use some work but for club making they are just fine!

Supplies: Small bat, 2 paper bags and Scotch Cover-Up Roll

I used a gift sized paper bag to start and ripped it open along the seams. Then I used that bag to cover the large part of the bat to create more bulk. Secure with scotch cover up roll.

Opening the second full sized paper bag along the seams I then wrapped up the whole bat.

Starting at the handle of the bat I made small strips and wrapped with the cover up roll.  Make it tight as you can for a good shape!

Using a square portion of the cover up roll cover up the large end and then use more of the cover up roll to go around the large part of the bat.

Squish, crunch, and “bam bam” a few things for the wrinkles and to make sure your cover up roll is sticking well.  Use additional strips as needed!

Happy Halloween!

Viever

Tricks or Treats? It’s a party!

Sometimes I’m lazy, sometimes I’m really lazy and sometimes I’m just a little lazy.  When it comes to parties I vow to not be lazy.  I try my hardest to come up with awesome ideas and work hard to make sure everything pans out.  There are those heavenly times, though, that I can mix lazy and not lazy and still seem really cool.  That’s what happened for the husband’s 31st birthday.  Dan’s birthday is exceptionally close to Halloween and Halloween also happens to be his favorite Holiday.  It didn’t take much to summon the lazy bones out of the grave and combine the two occasions.  Then there was the phone call to the spirits of Martha Stewart and Monica Geller to pull it all together.  I decided to have a “Tricks or Treats Halloween Party” and this is what happened

Here’s the lowdown. I wanted to have food that looked like one thing and COULD be another.  I’m not very good with “treats” though, so I made them all tricks.  Here’s what I made:

There was the Kitty Litter cake.  Not many people were brave enough to eat it, but I did and it was DELISH.  This is where I found the recipe.  It was a treat, but a trick on me since most people were too grossed out to eat any.  It’s just fake poop people.  It was doody-licious.

Next up was the Meatloaf cupcakes with mashed potato frosting.  I’ve seen many variations of this, but the one I used and I thought  was sooooo tasty was from the Every Day with Rachel Ray October 2008 issue. Recipe here. NOM NOM.  I dyed the potatoes, but next time I’d use blue or something less cheesy looking.

I called the punch “toxic sludge” which is not very creative nor was it fooling anyone, but I needed a drink and this was really freaking delicious, so BAM!

To me, the creepiest thing I made was this BBQ hot dog mess.  They really look like worms and EW.  Just EW.

And the coolest looking TRICK goes to the “pizza” which was just a strawberry Jam tart.  I loved this one and it was also very yummy, too.  It made a fool out of everyone.  I love that.  FOOLISH MORTALS!  I made this also using the October 2008 issue of Every Day with Rachel Ray.  The recipe is here.

I also made some Meatballs called “Sweet Balls of Fire” (enter giggle here).  instead of a tablespoon of  hot pepper sauce, I added like half a bottle of Chili sauce.  Of course I didn’t tell anyone else that and when they ate them, they hated me with the burning of their tongues.  I’m telling you…AWESOME.

Overall, it was a really fun get together full of eating and games.  I had a blast watching people try to figure out if they were being tricked or treated.  No one should have that much fun scheming.  If you can get a hold of the October 2008 issue of Everyday with Rachel Ray, there are many more fun “Trick” recipes to try.  This would be so fun for the kids for Halloween OR April Fool’s day.

Oh yeah!  And I made all the costumes for us that year. I was still really new to sewing and it was a very risky move.  I looked like Wilma Flintstone who decided on a career in bee keeping but after a few stings and a lot of swelling, had to quit and be a stay at home mom.  In other words, my costume was NOT flattering  But the rest of the Flitstones and the Rubbles looked great!

Have a spookalicious  trick-or-treating Halloween Bash!!!

-Crystal-

Painting Pumpkins

Hey! I’m here to show off one of our most favorite Halloween traditions. Back in 2010 during October, we were debating how to make our pumpkins. The kids were too young to be allowed to carve and well, carving pumpkins wasn’t all that fun. Aevarie didn’t like pulling out seeds (it was far too gross) and there isn’t much else she could do. So my mother had the brilliant idea to paint our pumpkins instead. Perfect! And a tradition was born!

This tradition also started a “paint yourself along with your pumpkin” tradition.

We just use regular acrylic paint and random paintbrushes.  Both you can get at any Walmart, Target, etc for super cheap. And remember to make sure your kids wear clothes you don’t care about. The paint will not come out! It is also good to get paper plates and cups of water for the kids to put paint on and wash their brushes out with. You may also want to not actually let the kids have power over the paint…..I’ve let my kids and oh my the mess!

 Gavin has started “carving” his pumpkins, but the girls are still too little.

 This year was even better because we were able to use our “wishful thinking” pumpkins that just popped up and grew in our garden. 😀

And you may be asking, is that Paisley in a pair of Matilda Jane leggings??? Why on earth would I allow her to paint in those. Well, sadly those are the ones Paisley decided to cut a huge chunk out of and I couldn’t find any other pants for her to wear quickly enough. So, I’m not totally crazy and you may breath again.

 This is one of my kids most favorite traditions we have.

Thanks for letting us share with you!

– Karly

Note: The kids were supervised and no paint was eaten or ingested. Safety second folks! You know, because “fun” is first. And they all received showers right after this to get them all sparkling clean again. 😉

Knit 2, Purl 2

I’m a self taught knitter.  In college (fall 2005) I picked up a kit to make a capelet from Target thinking it would be fun to learn.  My college BFF was a knitter (taught by her mother or grandmother, I can’t remember) and I spent many evenings running down to her room (Okay, I’ll admit it I took the elevator, she was on the 2nd floor I was on the 7th floor) or IMing her on AIM (remember that?!) with an issue or a question.  Fast forward 4 years from then to the birth of my niece L and that would probably be when I picked up the knitting needles again post graduation from college.  I made her a blanket and baby booties and my in laws a baby blanket for their house when she was born.  I again picked up my needles for the birth of S to make him a baby blanket AND because I discovered the world of wool and cloth diapers. This is where my knitting frenzy took off.

S has many knitted soakers, shorties, longies, and sweaters all which V is now using.  But those are all in boyish or gender neutral colors.  After the birth of my girl, all the boy yarn I had left was sent off to a friend who was having a boy and I started acquiring girlie yarn.  And now I do a little show and tell as to what is fresh off my knitting needles and what projects I still have going on.

As you know V turned one this past weekend.  Well we have her pictures coming up this upcoming weekend.  So she needed something new and handmade from mommy.  Enter these adorable short-alls.  Yarn: Mosaic Moon’s Apple Picking w/Pink  Pattern: My Keiki Overalls

And for old time sake here’s a picture of S in his overalls.  Yarn:  Retro Baby’s Quinn

Almost finished: Shorties  Yarn: Mosaic Moon’s Deep Space with Burple Trim  Pattern: EviePants All in One

Never ending:  I started the coat of many colors for MYSELF July 2012.  That’s right it’s been over a year and it’s not finished.  It will get finished eventually though but to get it done I really need to pick it up more often rather than always finding some other crafty thing to do.
Yarn: Malabrigo Azul Profundo

Next on my list:  Caelum with Mosaic Moon’s Maren for a friend’s little boy who will be turning two next month!  This yarn is just gorgeous!  I hope my friend and her little boy love it!

You probably picked up on a theme with the yarns.  I love Mosaic Moon’s colorways.  So vivid and bright!  There are so many more I wish I had but I’ve decided no more yarn until I’ve gone through what I have.  So far I’ve been pretty good but that’s probably because I’ve been avoiding going to my ravelry groups and looking at all the gorgeous creations!

Viever

A Pixie Birthday Party

My little girl V is turning one on the 13th of this month.  It’s so hard to believe that she’s been with us a year while at the same time it feels like she’s aways been with us.  At the end of last month we used part of Mr. Viever’s paternity leave to travel to see friends and family and at that time through her birthday party celebrating her first year among our family members in Arizona at my in law’s home.  We did the same for S when he turned one and it was so nice spending time with family and being with those who loved us most to celebrate the life of our child so we had to do it again for V.

V is a bit on the small side and I call her a little pixie, so a party theme was born! Now some random background, I’m not a fan of Tinkerbell.  Just plain don’t care for her, her sass, or the fact that Pixie Hollow took over what used to be Ariel’s Grotto at Disneyland- I know I’m a bit of a freak but Ariel’s my favorite!  So when I was on my search for decorations, I wanted fairies but not of the Disney sort.  I found the perfect little cupcake toppers and matching garland on Amazon and suddenly two days before we were to leave for Boston for a week, (we’re a little on the nutty side and planned travel to Boston for a week, one day at home, then drive to AZ for the weekend of party fun and a relay triathlon) I was struck with a NEED to make V a party dress to match the fairy decor.

I used Zafarani’s Saffron Twirl dress (It’s still on sale price for $5, go get it now!) as my base for the dress knowing that it would make the perfect party dress and that with a small adjustment to the back button band I could create some awesome removable wings.  So I ran off to JoAnn’s during  naptime and bought fabric and all I needed to make wings– that’s right make the wings, never mind the fact that I ordered wings as party favors already…. crazy lady right here.

During her second nap, I used these tutorials (no sew wings and these gorgeous textured wings which when I have the time I want to fully do justice) as  guides to make my own wings. I didn’t quite follow either exactly as I knew I wanted the center piece to attach to the dress as in the second tutorial but I didn’t have the time to do the layers or the wire shaping of the second tutorial.  I did do some sewing for my wings as I used one set of panty hose and did the bottom portions of the wings separate from the top requiring a seam as I wanted more shaping than the first tutorial did.  Also to attach the pantyhose to the center I also hand stitched the panty hose in place there then used felt with my glue gun to cover up the wire and any panty hose ends that were sticking out.  I also used a glitter glue stick in my glue gun to add some texture to the wings before spraying it down with fabric glitter paint.  Thankfully I remembered to throw the dress fabric into the washing machine at this point otherwise sewing when the kids went to bed would have been postponed, whew!

Now to the dress.  I changed up a few things.  I added an additional skirt layer of a shimmery/glittery tulle material to mimic the look of the fairy dresses in the decoration pieces.  I also made it so that the button band was removable (rather than sewing in the band as instructed I made the whole dress and then did two button holes on the dress and attached two buttons on either side of the band) so I could use a band without snaps for the wings on days we didn’t want the fairy look.  The outfit was done with one day to spare for packing for our whirlwind adventure.

The food.  I knew I was going to need to pick something that would appeal to the toddler crowd and the great-grandparent crowd while also being easy to prepare.  So we went with the theme of brunch finger foods.  We made apple pie dip and cinnamon chips, bacon corn muffins, set out the fixings for fruit parfaits; bought a few different sweet dessert type breads (banana nut, pumpkin strudel, and pound cake), mini cinnamon rolls, BBQ wings, and a veggie tray; catered a few subs and our favorite slushy drinks Eegees (local to Tucson, if you are ever in the area you HAVE to try some my favorite combo is lemon strawberry and favorite flavor of the month cherry cider, and get some fries and ranch too, yum).  My in laws made a mu shu pork dish for lettuce wraps and my husband’s grandmother made sausage/potato/gravy burrito wraps.  All in all the food was GOOD and best of all we didn’t run out of anything.  My in laws actually informed us this last weekend that they were still eating down the leftovers a full week post party.

Lastly I made fruity cupcakes (used 1 banana and subbed the second for 3 medium strawberries and substituted the honey for maple syrup) topped with a little whipped cream sweetened with a little maple syrup.  Birthday girl was very happy with her first tastes of cake.  Kids and adults alike also got to have mini ice cream cups served with their cake though the birthday girl missed out on them (mean mama I know.)

Party ended post cake when the birthday girl declared (loudy) that it was naptime.  Our littlest guests left donning Peter Pan hats or fairy wings while our grown up guests were invited to TAKE FOOD HOME!  All in all it was a wonderful family gathering and a lovely celebration for  our girl’s first year of life.

— Viever