Peppermint Marshmallows

I have always wanted to try making homemade marshmallows.  So this year, as a gift for all the teachers at my kids' preschool, I decided to pack up some peppermint marshmallows with cocoa.

I used this recipe.

They are very easy to make and are really yummy in a cup of cocoa.

I swirled in some red food coloring just after pouring the mix into the pan.

I may have gone a little overboard on my packaging, but it was so fun!

Fluffy, minty, yumminess.  These chocolate marshmallows are next. 

Nutcracker Dress

Every year daughter's great aunt takes us to our local ballet company's performance of the Nutcracker.  And every year, I make my daughter a dress of her choice for the show.

She's not so into dresses, so I let her pick the fabrics and the style. 

Here's her dress from last year.  

A year later, she looks so much older (to me at least). 
She chose all the fabrics, and though I wouldn't have put these colors together, I think they look beautiful.  


She looked beautiful. 

A beautiful dress for a beautiful girl and a beautiful tradition.   

Ruffled Trees

I don't usually get too into decorating for holidays. I figure, no sooner do you put the decorations out but then it's time to put them away and get out new ones. But this year, I was feeling festive and decided we needed a few extra. I've seen a couple of variations on this cute ruffled tree here and here.

Both tutorials use a foam cone. I didn't have one and didn't feel like going to the store, so I dug into my plentiful stash of file folders. I work at a university and the ladies in the office call me whenever they have a box of file folders they're getting rid of. It's pretty amusing since I'm a research biologist to have the secretaries call me when they want to get rid of folders!

Anyway, I just rolled up a folder, ruffled my fabric and got out my glue gun. It was so easy and fun, I made 3.

A gift for a dog

Yesterday we went to visit a good friend's new dog, and of course, we had to bring a gift. I found this cute tutorial over at Laura Griffin Designs showing how to make a doggie bone.

Instead of ties on the ends, I braided some clothes-line rope and added it to each side. It was really tough to sew over the braids, so I'm sure it's not the sturdiest dog toy ever made.

Paddy grabbed it right away....

And by the time we left, she'd already chewed through the rope, and made it her own. What a cutie!

Fingerless Mittens Tutorial

With kids running around and always needing their noses wiped or help with toys, I find myself constantly taking my gloves on and off.  So I decided to make myself some fingerless mittens and thought I'd share.  They are super easy.....here we go.

I made mine with fleece and then embellished with some jersey scraps and buttons I had around.

First, I traced my hand, adding about 1/2 inch all the way around.

I outlined a pattern with marker.  You want to leave extra at the top of the finger and thumb part since it's going to get folded over and sewn.  I made one set just leaving the raw edges and though it looks okay, it doesn't hold up well over time. 

Fleece definitely has a right and wrong side and one way stretches more.  So make sure you figure out which side is the right side and how it stretches.

Fold the fleece in half and cut 2 pieces for each mitten.  Sorry about the pink background, taking photos at night is tough!

Fold the top of the finger portion and thumb portion 1/4 inch to the wrong side and sew with a wide zig zag so that the seam will stretch. 

If you want to embellish, do it now!  Make sure you do the mirror image halves of the set.

Put the front and back together (1 embellished piece with 1 plain piece) and sew as shown.  Don't sew across the top or the thumb piece for obvious reasons :)

There you have it!  A cute pair of fingerless mittens!

Make a pair for yourself....

And for your favorite photographer friend.  Figuring how to to trace your friends' hands without them getting suspicious is the trick. 

Let me know what you come up with!
 

A Halloween to Remember

The day before Halloween, we woke up to almost a foot of snow and no power.  In 9 years in our house, we've never lost power.  We knew this wasn't good.  But, we had no idea just how bad it was until we tried to leave.

 Snow is nothing new in Massachusetts, but the combination of wet snow and leaves on trees was disastrous. 

 The main road in town was barely passable with tons of trees and power lines down.

 Almost 48 hours later, there were still crushed cars in the road and few people had power back.

 In all the destruction and loss, there is still some beauty. 

We were fortunate and our power was restored relatively quickly, but we still have family and friends patiently waiting.  
It's amazing how a community can come together and how loosing power for a few days can make you really appreciate everything you have. 

Jack O'Lantern Jars

 A friend of mine made these with her kids....so of course we had to try it.  Very easy and fun.  There are a lot of tutorials out there, we followed the instructions here.    

 So fun at night.  We light ours with some battery operated candles.  

 The kids were so excited to wake to snow on the ground.  Unusually early for Massachusetts.

They are predicting more for tomorrow night.  Looks like we'll have to put on our snow boots this Halloween.

What a Hoot

I made these cute owl cupcakes for an annual Halloween bash at a good friend's house.  There are a lot of owl cupcake ideas out there, but these were by far the easiest.  I followed these instructions. 

I can't help but smile every time I look at them.  Easy, cute and delicious. 

Something I've Been DYEing to Try

Now that the Halloween costumes are done, I've had some time to work on some more fun projects. As much as I enjoy sewing Halloween costumes, it feels like a lot of work, for one dark, cold night where (at least here in Massachusetts) chances are good you'll have to throw a coat on.

I've been hoarding onesies and fabric dye for a while now and finally got the courage to try it. I mainly followed Dana's instructions with a few modifications along the way.

I used Dylon permanent dye that I bought at Joanns. The only part of the instructions I followed was to add the salt. Here's what I did differently

• They recommend 4 cups of water, I used about 8-10
• I used more fabric than they recommend
• I left the fabric in dye overnight instead of 45 minutes
• After rinsing in cold water, I washed in the washing machine
  
• I dried mine in the dryer. The instructions say to dry "away from heat"
  

I used a few different brands of onesies and definitely noticed a difference in the color absorption. I didn't pre-wash them though, which I've read can make a difference. I dyed maybe 30 onesies total and found that the Target brand worked the best (without pre-washing)

For whatever reason, I had the most trouble with the pink. By the last batch (the yellow) I felt like using enough salt and mixing a lot is key. The salt is supposed to help the fabric absorb the dye, so for the yellow I added more salt since I was using more water than recommended. I also mixed much more than I did for the previous batches and I felt like the end result was the best.


I also tried some woven fabric. I had a white fabric with white polka dots that you could hardly see. It dyed really well and I like it much better than before.

So fun, and much easier than you'd think!