Sugar Shop

Baby Blanket

Oops I didn't mean to be gone so long. I think I start a post with this sentence every year at this time. This time of year is crazy busy for me. Not only is it the end of school for Jumpy kid which means lots of school events and projects but it's the end of baseball (coaches gifts, games and team party's) and on top of all that work is crazy too. Since we do school contract photography there's a lot to wrap up with that. But it's all finished now, yay! Now I'm preparing for the upcoming seniors and school year for work, working on some new projects for The Peanut Shell and trying to keep jumpy kid from getting bored this summer. Oh, and we are trying to get a house built on our property in the country. We've just started the ball rolling on that so I won't say too much until it is actually underway. There's so many permits and hoops to jump through that I just don't want to jinx it but once it's actually underway I will definitely blog the process! 

In the meant time Steve calls me from work the other day and said there was a baby shower at work for a co-worker/buddy of his and could I whip something up for him that night. Oh sure, 'cause I have nothing else on my plate right now. :) actually I like when he asks me to make stuff for co workers, I like the fact that it makes him feel proud to take something his wife made to work as a gift. So leave it to beaver, I love it.

Once I agreed to make something and asked what are they into Steve said that his friend was really, really, really into Turbo 6 cars. Not sure but I think it's a Porche but don't quote me on that. Steve asked if I Googled "Turbo 6 Logo" I'd find the logo and could I do anything with that? At first when I saw the logo I thought Yikes yellow, orange and black are the colors I have to work with for a baby blanket?uggg. But it worked out. I went in to my halloween fabric stash and found the orange/polka dot fabric and then I pulled the checker board from a stack of Disney's Cars fabric and I had some yellow flannel for the backing and I was good to go.

I also had a package of onesies on hand so I ironed on a couple of logos to those and we had a little gift set! 

Rice Krispy Treat Pops Tutorial

Hey there! I get a lot of questions about how I made  My Krispy Pops so I thought I would put together my first tutorial. You can click on each page to make them larger or you can download a PDF file by clicking on the Krispy Pop button on the right.

There is also a button over to the right to download a PDF version. Since this is my first attempt at posting the whole PDF thing it would be awesome if you would help a sista out and let me know if the download worked for you and if there were any problems. I'm liking the tutorial thing...kinda fun. Besides I'm thinking that I need to be more giving on this site. I'm so happy, truly that you keep coming back when  all I do is blather on about my life and show you some photos that I feel I need to give you more! So please let me know if this tutorial was useful and if you would like to see more. Holla!

Recycle your Prom Dress

Look at me, all posting three times this month already!Holla!

So since I showed you how I like to Trash a Prom Dress  hopefully you'll allow me to redeem myself by showing you how I recycled a prom dress.

Devin here is one of my nieces friends and I have known her since she was a wittle girl. She bought this dress for a dance and never wore it because she decided she didn't really like it so much. Well her mama told her that she needed to wear this dress before she would by another. Since homecoming was coming up she told Devin to get creative, change the dress up. Smart Mama! So Dev got excited and she went to work sketching out her ideas, I wish I had scanned her sketches but hey these are the details that usually keep me from posting so in order to get this here post up I'm learning to let go of the details, which if you know me (Tara) it's sending me in to spasms. but that's another story for another time...

Here's the before:

... Ahem... I don't sew clothing.. I repeat I have nooooo clue how to even alter anything. Let's not even talk about the time Steve asked me take in a Seattle Seahawks t-shirt that was kind of big. He put the shirt on, came out to show me and gave me a sarcastic "how does it look" I died laughing as I had turned a perfectly good man shirt in to a tight babydoll tee. Not a particularly masculine look for a lean muscled guy. I told him I had some baby pink dove shorts he could wear to complete the outfit. Then he took of the shirt, handed it to me and said here homey I bought you a new shirt. 

So you can see why I didn't want to do this, well I did actually want to do it because it sounded fun but I must have asked Dev a million times are you sure? what if I totally screw it up? She's cool like that and kept telling me it would be fine!

Here is the Before of the back:

So Dev picked out the fabric she wanted to ad. It was a crazy cheetah print ... and it was SILKY & STRETCHY! Yikes! What should I have done here? As I was sewing it rippled which actually turned out cute so I am just going to tell you now that I planned it that way. but, seriously what do you do with silky stretchy fabric so it doesn't ripple? Loosen the tension? Different needle, Longer stitch? Help a sister out would ya!

Before: 

After ...although not yet hemmed:

before back:  look I did such a good job she tattooed my name on her back. riiiiight

Now for the back she wanted hacked and laced...did I say yikes yet? Yikes!

Did I mention I only had about two hours total to do this? We neatened things up a bit after this shot. But she was literally running off to get ready so we didn't get final shots but that was our project redo!

So let me know if this has inspired (the idea....not the sewing ) you to recycle a prom dress. How fun would that be. If there's an interest maybe I'll start a flicker pool. Let me know what you think! Holla at your girl! (a little project runway reference here )

Hope your weekend makes you happy!

Random thought... If you choke a smurf what color does it turn? I just read that somewhere and it made me giggle...

Their Gifts To Me

I was sitting and drinking my coffee this morning and I was realizing how all the things that I love to do, all my hobbies have been handed down to me. My father started our photography business in 1971 so that passion has been handed down from him. I still love to talk to him about what makes a great picture. Though he has been retired for over 15 years the passion still shows in his eyes when we talk about it.

My Grandma Lea (dad's mom) was a baker, cooker, canner, jar-er. You have heard me mention the ranch. When we build our house there, I will be the 5th generation to live on the land. When my grandmothers Hay Fever got to be to bad my grandpa bought here a house in town. They had her garage door sealed and she had bakers racks and deep freezers in there. When you went to visit she would give you a paper bag to go out to the garage and take some jars of jellies, Jams or Chili Sauce as well as frozen cookie dough or fresh baked bread... it was heaven. Her house always smelled of something yummy that was bubbling on her stove. Because of her I love to bake:

My Mother and Grandma Florence are crafters. They taught me to sew, they taught me to Crochet. Although, I only learned how to make a chain when I was little and couple of weeks ago taught myself to crochet from a pattern. The joy of sitting around my grandmothers table and crafting with her and my mom were such sweet times. We painted on tea towels with those ball point paints, remember those? We went to the ceramics shops and brought home chalkie ceramic things to paint. Remember that? I remember when my mom was into Macro-met and making apple dolls. Do you rember apple dolls?

we did needlepoint and embroidery and paint by number. My Grandmother also knitted and played the piano. Ahhh sweet memories. 

So I sit here today and realize what priceless gifts we give our children simply by doing something that we love... that we enjoy. By this we teach them to have passion in life to love and enjoy life. So tonight when Steve builds a fire and puts the Wall-E DVD on for the twentieth time for Jumpy Kid, I will sit on the couch with my boys and smile when Steve leans over to kiss me and calls me Granny again as sit with my ball of yarn and crochet. 

Sock Monkey

I have occasionally seen it posted about ones email being lost and while I have total faith in those writing about this tragic event I sometimes wonder if this is a "the dog ate my paper" situation. In other words a lame excuse for dumping ones In Box. Guess what happens to jackasses that think like that. They trash their In Box and have to plead with anyone that was kind enough to send me a lovely email to please send me another email if you haven't heard from me. So sorry but being a jackass is sadly sometimes just who I am. I will spare you the details about how it happened. Let me just say if you are new to Entourage (apples version of Outlook, a client email program) BE CAREFUL with the "send and receive" button. Let's leave it at that and move on. Shew!

By the way I love to get emails from you, they really make my day. Even if you just want to know where I got something, I'll help if I can. In fact I get obsessed if I don't know the answer. I had an email requesting the 411 on where I purchased the Mary Jane's I am wearing in my banner and when they were no longer carried in the store I originally purchased them from I spent a good 25 minutes searching the web for the exact pair so I could give her an answer.

ummm...
I just realized I probably should never post after I just drank a
VentiCoffeeFrappucinoLiteWithAnExtraShotBlended...
Sorry this is likely to be wordy...
is wordy a word?
What was I talking about?
Oh yah, Sock Monkey's

Me, Steve and Jumpy kid watched Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium and in it there is a seen where a crabby accountant is standing with his back to a bunch of shelves filled with stuffed animals and a sock monkey reaches out to grab his arm but he doesn't notice. With the saddest of faces the sock monkey slumps back in place. Jumpy kid is BROKEN HEARTED... to the point of silent tears rolling down his face. He said that the sock monkey needed him to love it and make it feel better. If you look real fast there is a bit of this scene where he is trying to grab the accountants arm.

Anyway what does any crafty mom do in this situation, especially one who loves vintage toys...which is most of you reading this, I know. Well if you're me, you immediately geek-out on the internet until you find out where to get The Original Sock Monkey Sox so you can make your jumpy kid a sock monkey to love. Luckily for us the local surplus store carried them and at 10 am the next morning the three of us went to the surplus store. Steve's heart was total mush over seeing his son so emotional. These two are not normally so sappy. They are loud and they are all boy running in the house and making fart noises and talking about dirtbikes...yes I'm talking about my son and my husband.

Seeing this guy turn to mush over our sons melted heart makes me seriously weak.

then because I made "Lucky" the sock monkey in just a couple of hours I went and pulled out this book
that I ordered a long time ago but never made anything from.

From this book "Petey" the dog was born. Jumpy kid sleeps with both of them every night.

Coming up next post (which I promise won't be so long): an update on my shop opening.

Now I'm going to go sew before this serious caffeine buzz wears off and I crash!

Krispy Treats

Tomorrow is opening day for little league and this is the Jumpy Kids first year of T-ball. Tonight I will be making lots of Krispy Treats for the cake walk and also a team banner. I don't think little league starts this early in other parts of the country but here in California the weather has been pretty darn close to 70 degrees and the birds are chirping.

The Jumpy Kid calls these Krispy Pops. Perfect name because they look like big lollipops.I made them last year for the Jumpy Kids birthday at preschool and again this year for his B-day in his Kindergarten class. They are a big hit. I wanted to make something that wasn't as messy as cupcakes and frosting for the little ones.

I decided to make Krispy treats a few years ago for easter and because I can never leave well enough alone I added sprinkles. Let me just say that once you add sprinkles to KT's you will never make them plain again. Sprinkles just make everything better. Then when I realized you can make these suckers in minutes they became my favorite thing to bring when asked to bring treats. The combos are endless. You can use all kinds of cereals, I have added chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, smashed oreo cookies. My 19 year old nephews favorites are plain ones frosted with Betty Crocker Rainbow Chip frosting. I could go on and on with all the variations that I've made.

FYI: Is your kid tired of getting their pictures taken? Bribe with a Krispy Pop. Jumpy kid would have rolled in mud, stood on his head... pretty much let me take a picture of him anywhere for a Krispy Pop! The hard part is making him pose with it and then shouting about 500 times "DON'T take a bite yet!" Ahhh the torture... poor kid. Don't worry I've already started his therapy fund.

For the Pops I just bought some cookie pop pans and inserted lollipop sticks. Then put them each in a cellophane bag and tied with a ribbon and voila serious kid fun!

I need your help , I'm running out of Krispy ideas. Have you made them? What do you do with them, any secrets??

Pine Cone Kids

Happy New Year everyone! Well,I planned on posting all through December of all the Christmas crafting and sewing, and I did do a lot of that. I took photos for posting but time got away and of course now it seems silly to post as most of us are christmas'ed-out! With that being said I had to post these because technically these are wintery... not christmas-y, not to mention so fun to make. I must warn you though they are addicting! I had printed out the directions here and I had the supplies ready and then I saw them on over at Bella Dia she 's to talented! Here are more of the ones I made:

I have a ton of wool sweaters that I collected from thrift stores after seeing Betz White on Martha Stewart Making These. I use bits of the sweaters to sew little caps and scarves.

These made fun Kindergarten teacher gifts.

I think a glue gun would work faster but I used FabriTac. I put all my supplies on a tray so I could sit on the couch next to Steve while he watched TV. I think I need to have my mom finally teach me how to crochet. I liked being able to make something with out being tucked away in the sewing room. Steve liked it too because he could watch whatever he wanted. Mostly the National G. channel. Some seriously cool stuff on that channel.

I think this purple one is my fave! She's a little sassy. The sweaters don't even have to be wool since you don't need to felt them. I have the word out to friends and family to give me their old or ruined sweaters. When someone gives you their old sweater make a pine cone kid from it and give it back to them.

I had to make a little boy. So he's a snowboarder....Steve's idea, he even went outside and found a wood chip to cut to shape for me. I didn't have any but tongue depressors would be perfect for a snow board.

I'd love to see pix if anyone else makes some, so let me know if you do!

Mad Scientist At Work...another Halloween Craft

Yes, I'm back with more Halloween creepiness. I never realized that Halloween is not celebrated in Australia so I hope this doesn't seem too morbid or weird to my new chicas down under. Lol! The little guy (who from now on shall be referred to as G...much easier to type) have been watching all the halloween "How To" stuff on the DIY network. When we saw this one G begged to do it. If you want to try it go here for the instructions

Here are a few tips

* I forgot we were supposed to spray paint the lids black first before applying the silver Rub n Buff product (see directions) so we used a big fat black sharpie pen which actually worked fine.

*Use Jars with metal lids if you can. We had a couple of plastic lids and they're molded with wording so the creepy jar is a little less creepy when you still see "Best Foods" on top :)

* If your creepy specimen floats it's hard to keep it from hiding underneath the lid. Notices we didn't fill the goblins eye full or we couldn't see it too well.

These were quick and easy and a lot of fun!

and the cool thing is that we can just empty the water and store these for next year. I'm sure we'll keep adding to our collection too.

ok...I promise...actual sewing and purse posts coming soon! :)

In a Pinch....

I was asked to make some cupcakes to be auctioned off at my friends charity event. I ended up only having about 2 hours decide what to make, bake, decorate and package. I was bummed of course because I wanted to go all out. I wanted to head to Michaels to pick up some Martha Stewart cupcake boxes but I had no time so I had to improvise.

Luckily I had this cute 12x12 gift box that I decided I could make in to a bakery box. First I cut out the top using an Xacto knife.

Then I flipped the lid over and taped in some clear plastic wrap

Then I added some Amy Butler scrapbook paper to the bottom of the box.

If I would have had more time I would have lined the sides of the box as well!

Then I baked some Red Velvet cupcakes and made a white chocolate and cream cheese frosting and rolled the sides in some chocolate sprinkles.

Then I wrapped a pretty polka dot ribbon around it and made a tag from the Amy butler paper and voila! Not quite as polished as a pretty storebought box but in a pinch it did the trick!

The winning bid was $300! I hope they tasted good. LOL!

Isn't this pretty pincushion adorable!

I won it from Laurie Taylor over at the wooden spool! Go check her out she makes the most adorable things!

Quick update on my my new sewing machine. I have been working on a new purse design and I was getting a little (actually a lot) frustrated because the thing kept beeping at me with a broken thread message only my thread was not broken and I could continue sewing. I broke out the manual and turns out I was not threading properly. Whew. So, still going good. I love haveing so many stitch options! I realize this is probably nothing exciting to most of you. Lol! But I have never had this before. This is the stitch I used on the inside pocket of my current project.

More updates to come!

Peeps in our Cocoa....Halloween is coming!

Things have been crazy around here...not too much crafting time. So many projects in line though. Just a fun quick post. Halloween is starting to take life in our house.
These mugs are from Starbucks. I past them up the first time I saw them because they're close to ten bucks a pop and there were plenty of them...the next time the little guy and I spied them, there were only two left and since there is a Starbucks in our Target and we already had our peeps in our cart, we had to have'em! And by the way I think peeps are DEEEEsgusting! Sorry peep lovers! I do so love them for decorating treats though and I guess I'm weird because most people like these little sugary blobs. I just love there cuteness. Oooh I see many ideas for future cups of holiday cocoa here they have so many for all the holidays!

We are on the lookout for the chocolate black kitty peeps I can't seem to find them. If you've seen these babies please let me know where. On Halloween night we will have the grandparents and aunts and uncles over. We will be serving these spooky cups o' cocoa for sure! Have you been watching Martha Stewart? I just started Tivo-ing her show again. She has the best halloween crafts! I'm sure I'll be posting some of those ideas!