Eastern Box Turtle... Nature on the Driveway...

These turtles are pretty common in Ohio, and are so beautiful in their colors & patterns.

We moved him to the creek. He seemed pretty happy & quite relieved to be put there after hissing at me for picking him up in the first place.

:o)

Good Mail Day!!!!

Looky what came in the mail today! Super fun summer clothes for the kiddos from Elvisatx! She also sent me tons of kid clothing patterns & yarn she'd spun herself & the most awesome Elvis Christmas ornament!

I should have taken photos of everything, but my camera batteries are dead after a huge photoshoot I've done for a client over the past couple of weeks. I have to remember to put one dang battery in the charger when the other one is in use! Ah well.. I will update with photos of all later...because it's all awesome!

Thank you so much Elvissa for the super fun mail day!

BTW... babygirl slept in that outfit last night. I couldn't get it off of her! Now that's love!

:o)

My next embroidery project... Chipette!

Isn't this a happy scrappy pup? I saw the original cuteness in someone's flickr stream & contacted the photographer/owner to see if she'd mind if I made a pattern & stitched it up. I'm happy to say she was thrilled at the idea & so I've drafted this pattern.

I can't wait to get stitching!

:o)

Mmmmmmacaroni Salad!

With hot days becoming more the norm around here, I like making things to eat that don't require me to turn on the oven. This macaroni salad will feed an army & the best thing about it is the longer it lasts...the better it tastes due to the flavors melding, although I wouldn't eat it if it's more than 6-7 days old.

Ingredients:

1 box elbow macaroni, macaroni spirals, or multicolored macaroni twists (which is very eye catching) ...whatever macaroni shape you like...go for it!
1.5 - 2 cups of miracle whip
1 medium onion chopped fine
1 small package frozen peas
1 package cubed ham chunks
1 package cheese cubes ...we like colby or sharp cheddar

Cook up macaroni until al dente. Rinse with cool water & drain well. Put in big bowl. Cook frozen peas in salted water until desired firmness, rinse in cool water & drain. Add to macaroni. Dump in ham, cheese cubes, & chopped onion. Mix in miracle whip. Add a dash of black pepper to taste. Mix well & chill before serving.

Enjoy!
:o)

Wordless Wednesday...

Just had to share this with y'all...

She's something else!

:o)

Working on custom name jewelry...

This weekend was pretty busy, but I made time to work on some custom order requests.

First I'd like to give a shout out to Old Tappan, New Jersey!
The girls there are really loving my unique custom name sprinkles necklaces & I appreciate their love & keeping me busy!
Aren't these sweet? I love the variety of names I get to surround with sweet rainbow cupcake sprinkles! These are a perfect gift for someone who doesn't have a plain Jane name.



I love the sprinkles mix in this one...it's similar to my 'sweet girl' necklace available in my etsy shop now. Only difference is the word isn't so sweet in this custom made piece...which makes it kind of funny!

(I edited photo to be more family friendly for the blog)

:o)

Mary Had a Little Lamb Embroidery... for the hoop up swap.

This piece is going out to Missy for her Mother Goose theme for the Hoop Up swap on flickr.
I love it so that I may redo one for my DD's quilt! The little french knots on the lamb were a blast to stitch.


Pattern will be available in my Etsy shop 'I Sew Cute' very soon!
Promise!

Taste the Rainbow...Rainbow Cupcakes!

So many folks have asked how these were made...so let me share with y'all how I did it!

In one big bowl make the batter for your fav. chocolate cake. I made devil's food...for my father in law. (if you don't love chocolate...then you can go ahead & make 2 batches of white cake...it's worth doing 2 because there will be plenty to share!)
In another big bowl, make the batter for your fav. white cake. I'm not persnickety on whether or not you use grandma's secret recipe...or make it straight from the box. Either way will give you beautiful results...because these are all about the color!

Separate your white cake into 5 or 6 equal parts & color with food coloring as desired. I love my colors to be super bright when doing this in combination with the chocolate cake. (if you're doing just the white cake...pastel colors look so lovely!)

First spoon some choc. cake batter into the paper lined cupcake tin...filling just less than halfway.

Then start layering your colors in the middle of that one spoon full of color at a time & try to keep it centered to get a good rainbow effect at the end. Just an FYI...this is the color order I did with 5 colors: green, blue, purple, pink/red, yellow.

Bake them according to the directions on your recipe until a toothpick stuck inside comes out clean.

Voila! You've made edible art! Frost & decorate as desired!

Mama Sewed Cute! Babygirl's New Elvis Sundress!

It's been ages since I've posted something new on craftster...so very happy to share my babygirl's newest dress made from my highly coveted blue Elvis fabric!

The pattern is an easy McCall's sundress #M5613 ...sent to me by the dear Elvissa! She sent me some patterns that her niece has outgrown & I found the time to put this one to use while my inlaws kept my kiddos busy.

The one thing I did differently from the pattern was to switch the buttonholes to the top panel rather than having them on the straps...so I can just adjust the position of the button on the straps as my girl grows to get more wear out of the dress.
I'm happy to say that I conquered the button hole setting on my machine for the first time...with a little encouragement, because I was ready to set the whole thing aside & stitch them during daylight hours by hand. Can you tell I used to hate doing buttonholes so much? I'm used to sewing toys & dolls & quilts... not buttons...but now I can't wait to come up with another button encrusted project because my fear has been put to rest!
The pattern is a winner because it's very twirly & I don't know a 3 year old that doesn't thoroughly enjoy a good twirl! ...and the big pockets for little hands! My girl discovered them right away!

I'll be making black and white polka dot bloomer shorts to go under it...eventually!

Time for More Fun With Bubbles!

If I knew how awesome that bubble wand would be... I would have grabbed a dozen of them & then had everyone over to fill the backyard with these seriously amazing bubbles!


I was thinking about that last night...and realized we 'could' make our own wands in any size we want! I'd love to try it with a hula hoop and try to get my whole body inside a bubble...but the drawback to not accomplishing this goal is I need a shallow pan as big as the hula hoop for the bubble stuff.
We may have to make a quick run to the toy store for supplies to realize this goal.

What we'll need:
a hula hoop
a kiddie wading pool
enough bubble stuff to cover the hula hoop when it rests in the bottom of the kiddie pool... OR ...we can make our own bubble stuff!

What we need for home made bubble stuff:
liquid dish detergent...for handwashing dishes...not the stuff for dishwashers(dawn is the brand I've used & it works fab)
some glycerine...found at the local pharmacy
a bit of water

Mix 1 part dish liquid to 3 parts water and add a few capfuls of glycerine. This has given me excellent results. Use caution with kids however because if they get it in their eyes, it does sting! I wouldn't recommend this for kids under 3...just to be safe. My kiddos are 3 & 5 ...going on 4 & 6 ...and I've instructed them to not touch their face when they're playing with the bubble stuff. We take precautions & have a damp towel nearby to clean up during those times when a bubble pops too close & splashes their faces.

Stay tuned for a bubble fun update! I'm thinking we may do this over the weekend if the weather is agreeable!


Cheers!