these are my entries for a contest a local brewery is holding.  each entrant gets a free 6-pack and the winner gets a years worth of free beer! i don't drink beer but my husband does so i thought i'd help his chances (he entered a painting).

wow. i haven't posted on craftster in years, literally.
hopefully this is in the right place.





i followed this tutorial: http://stilllearninglife.b​logspot.com/2008/01/diy-ho​od-to-headrest-mei-tai-tut​orial.html

i learned about this art project off of reddit...basically you can join this word press group (i made an account specifically for this project) where a community of people will create something for every day of june and post it. i thought it was a great motivational idea and knew i had to join! currently i believe there are 35 contributors. so if anyone's interested, head over to http://thirtydaysproject.com/!

some people are drawing, some are painting, some are sculpting...etc. i will mainly be sewing ^_^

so about 5 hours of hand sewing and a lot of sore/bruised/bloody fingers later, i finally finished my shoes last night

better pictures to come!
criticism welcome!





before (taken from the vans website):

http://shop2.vans.com/wcsstore/Vans/images/products/5561673B.JPG

okay, my friend is hiring me to make a bridesmaids dress for her sisters wedding. it doesn't look too hard, but i'd like to make a practice one out of cotton or linen just as a cute summer dress. we are different sizes by far though, she is bigger and quite endowed in the chest. i need a pattern that i could use that is very similar to this style of dress. or if not, i need some pointing in the right direction to some tutes for different parts of the dress. thanks guys!

here's the beautiful dress:
http://verawang.com/maids/Default.aspx?grp=Weddings&sub=CO#MA-CO-112

okay. i should have started this months ago, but i left it until last week. smart, hey? especially with a 2 year old...i finished it yesterday morning at 3 am. it's for my mom. it's a skirt for her christmas tree! what do you think?

this mansion up the hill from us was sold for triple the amount it's worth so that they could build condos on the land. it was tore down the other day. so what does my husband do at midnight the night before it is bulldozed? goes shopping of course! 

this house was apparently trashed inside with tons of weird stuff all over the place. but hey, if i was handed 4 million bucks, then i would be out of there too! one thing i'd do differently than they did? bring my fabric of course!

here's my newest stash. 

yeah yeah, i know it's not "technically" clothing, but who else besides babywearers are going to appreciate this? that's why it's in here. i would argue that slings/wraps/carriers are actually clothing, or at least in my house they are...they are a staple part of my outfit nearly every day! well...they used to be before my kid weighed 40 pounds. now they are a weekly part of my life. hahaha.
anyways!
made out of an old sheet.
took like. 25 minutes maybe?
modeled by haye







next time i'd make it double the thickness probably, and maybe a little smaller. my sister is about the same size as i am, and it's a little big for my liking, but whateves.

so my mom has made stockings for my nana and poppa, my cousins, my aunts and uncles, my dad (who has passed away), my sister and her husband and baby, and me and my husband and baby. like. LOTS.

she just sent me this picture of my sister and husband and baby's stockings! the baby is 2 months old, so his stocking is new, and andy's was just finished as well.
i'll try and get a picture of ours when we have batteries

[milk and white chocolate CAN NOT be heated over 100 degrees F or the cocoa separates from the rest of it and it does NOT work. it gets grainy and messy. you can NOT reverse this by adding milk or water to it, it makes it lumpy and burns. dark chocolate CAN NOT be heated over 115 degrees F or it does the same thing.]

my friend karen learned about my homemade christmas and offered this awesome little recipe up for me to use! 



you will need:

-a bag of melting chocolate pieces from the store. i bought mine in bulk. i imagine you could use any kind of chocolate, really.
-a box of candy canes
-skewers or stir sticks
-a hammer 
-mini-marshmallows
-a double boiler

unfortunately none of the little tips came along with the recipe because she hadn't tried it yet, but that's okay, i learned!
(***means i discovered this through trial and error and am imparting my wisdom on you lucky craftsters so you don't have to waste a bunch of ingredients and time)

okay. so. this is what you do:

1. ***PUT YOUR MINI MARSHMALLOWS IN THE FREEZER.

2. break your candy canes up and fold them into a tea towel or piece of fabric or something. take them outside. smash them to bits with a hammer. you want fine little pieces of candy, not big chunks.

3. bring them inside. put them in a bowl.

4. start skewering your cold marshmallows. we put 8 to a skewer and then chopped them down later on (making sure to cut the sharp ends off so people don't stab themselves on accident)

5. ***get 2 plates. put one in the freezer and one on the counter.

6. melt your chocolate. ***milk and white chocolate CAN NOT be heated over 100 degrees F or the cocoa separates from the rest of it and it does NOT work. it gets grainy and messy. you can NOT reverse this by adding milk or water to it, it makes it lumpy and burns.  dark chocolate CAN NOT be heated over 115 degrees F or it does the same thing.

***after wasting a LOT of chocolate trying to figure out how to melt the damn stuff, i learned that you need to use a double boiler. i didn't have one, so i made one. i took a pot, filled it an inch full of water, and put a bowl in it. the chocolate can not be in the bowl that is touching the water, it needs to go in another bowl on top of the bowl already in the water. (does that make sense?) you can not use a lid! steam will ruin the chocolate. make sure the water does not reach a boil, it has to stay on pretty much the minimum stovetop temperature and just simmer. the top bowl might not feel warm enough but if the water is simmering then it is warm enough. put your chocolate in and stir it around, it will melt pretty fast. (don't melt too much at a time!)

7. when your chocolate is sticky and gooey, pour it over the marshmallows making sure to turn them over and over and over. put them over the plate on the counter and sprinkle candy cane bits over top. IMMEDIATELY TRANSFER THEM TO THE FREEZER! if you don't, the marshmallows melt and fall off and your kitchen will be ruined. trust me.

and there you go! hot chocolate stir sticks!
we made 24 tonight for my husbands family (4 each) and 3 testers for us...and they were great!