first cricut cake

My cricut cake arrived in time for father's day.  I didn't have a ton of time to play with it, but this didn't take long.

 Not a lot of planning here, hence the off center saying as I did the stars first.

 The sides were tricky, but for a first cake I think it was a success.

fish mobile

Paper mobiles are huge right now.  But they charge you an arm and a leg for something you can customize and make pretty easily.  After a trip to the Camden Aquarium where they have a huge scale version of this I was inspired.  It took some time, but I love the out come.

First I got a wire wreath circle from the craft store.  Then I found my shape and used a die cut machine to cut out my fish.  I think I cut somewhere around 150 as I wanted this to be very full. 

 I bought some clear  thread from the jewelry section of the craft store and started putting the fish on.  I poked a tiny hole in the middle of each fish then I used a mini super strong glue dot to make the fish hang vertically.  I also Put a small piece of cardstock on the other side of the glue dot since they were starting to all stick together.  (As this was for my baby's nursery I went a little nutty and punched tiny little hearts to attached to the back)

NOTE:  I have seen tutorials where they actually sew across the paper with the clear thread.  I think this might be a better strategy, but mine was done when I saw this.

I kept attaching fish and wire all different lengths around the wreath.  I ended up with 3 rows of varying lengths.  On the end of each string I added a few beads and sealed off with a crimping bead.

Use some ribbon to attach to the ceiling and you are all set.  Minimal cost, not labor intensive, utterly beautiful for your babies nursery - or where ever you need a mobile.

Hats, Hats and more Hats

My favorite thing to knit is a hat...it's easy, looks cute, and it's useful.  

Here is a gallery of kids hats...this might be where you start to understand the obsessive part...

I have a thing with variegated yarn - it just looks so awesome in the ball - so many colors.  Unfortunately it usually doesn't turn out so great, but I keep trying.

 I love a good cable...

 This is just a simple knit hat and I embroidered the baseball stitches on it

 Making your own hats is especially useful when you want to match a jacket.

 When I was pregnant with my second son I learned to crochet.  This was my first crochet project.

 it was perfect for his little newborn pictures

Once I started crochet it was too fast to stop - these hats take a night or two - ok, they aren't functional, but so cute!

I tried to make this one functional - I made him wear it this winter - I can't help it - so cute!

 Animal hats take it to a whole new level.  This froggy one came out a little big, but we made it work... he shared with Daddy for trick or treating!

Owls were huge this year - and I caught the trend.  A big owl for my big kid

 And a little subtle owl for my little one

 Shrek hat is a great time - this was for the older boy, but he wasn't feeling the modeling that day.

 This is a fan favorite.  Lightening McQueen is a big deal in this house - so I created this pattern for him and he wore it out

 A few days before we went pumpkin picking I NEEDED to have pumpkin hats for both of them.  Probably the last year my older one will let me put a pumpkin hat on him.

 These were the pumpkin hats that were one of my first knitting projects

 These were super fast elf hats for Christmas pictures and Christmas Eve

 The baby needed some cables too

 Double knitting opened up a whole new world of ideas.  A quick knit cap can be customized into anything.

 I made a little chart for this "Mom" hat so that the little one could show some love.

 Sock monkey hats were big this year too - this one was made from super bulky yarn and was really warm.

 The St. Patricks Day hats were a quick fix (the holiday falls in busy season for us auditors - it's gotta be fast).  I  used the double knit to put their names on the hats.

 The giraffe hat was a personal favorite (mine and his)

All my knit and crochet items are logged on Ravelry with links to the patterns.  My Ravelry name is 2boymommy if you want to use any of the patterns

Applique

Applique is the best way to get  cute t-shirt for a specific event.  There are a couple methods I have used

Wunder Under with machine sewing on top (I never had luck with wunder under alone)

 I used a tutorial found here  to cut this from my cricut.  The head and bond is more secure and I did not sew this one.

Again with the heat and bond and my cricut, but I did hand stitch these letters as they were a little smaller and I like the stitched look.

 This shape I bought from etsy precut, but it did not last long.  The colors bled all over the white shirts and the appliques fell off after a few washes... (pillow next to him is one of my cross stitch creations - lots of Christmas decorations in cross stitch)

Applique is a quick and easy way to dress up a cheap t-shirt just the way you want it.

Cakes

I love baking.  But even more I love decorating cakes. This habit is about to get worse as a cricut cake arrived on my front porch today (I love ebay).  I don't have pictures of a lot of my cakes, but I do have my lightening mcqueen which left dye all over my kitchen for days...

For the third birthday I was pregnant with number two so I went with the easier route and did a dirt cake - and of course a dirt cake can only be served in a dump truck..

More cakes to come in the near future.

Halloween Froggy

I love Halloween.  When we were little my mom used to make all our costumes.  For my son's second Halloween I decided I should do the same.  I found a pattern for a Tom Arma tree frog and knew I needed to make this.  It took a lot of time, and a lot of help from my mom, and at the end it probably would have been cheaper to buy, but I did it.  I made a damn cute frog costume..

This may be a rare item as last year's halloween attempts ended up half sew in a crate in the basement.  I'm not a great seamstress and it takes a lot of coordination to get my mom's help with no little people involved.  At least I can say I did it once.