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send a card to a service member

Have you heard of Holiday Mail for Heros? It’s a program sponsored by the American Red Cross to send a touch of home to members of our U.S. military, veterans and their families, many of whom will be far away from home this holiday season.

My daughter’s school is collecting cards this week and she made her card today. I wasn’t sure she really understood the concept behind this, but once again I underestimated her.

holiday mail for heroes

Pretty darn awesome.

Anyone can participate in this program. You can find more information at the Red Cross website. Make sure you scroll down and read the guidelines for making your card and get them in the mail by December 9th.

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thanksgiving thumbkin pumpkins

It never fails. Whenever I make pumpkin pie, I always have a little bit of squash and pie crust dough left over. I save the squash for muffins, but there’s not much I can do with the dough.

This year my daughter suggested we make thumbkin pumpkins with the leftover ingredients. She made them in school earlier this week and thinks they’re the perfect excuse for eating lots of whipped cream.

We rolled up the leftover dough and divided it into several 1-inch-sized balls. Then she took her thumb and made a little well in the middle.

thumpkin pumpkin recipe

Since I start with plain pumpkin and not pumpkin pie filling, I had to add some sugar and spice to my squash:

1/2 cup pureed pumpkin
2 1/2 T brown sugar
1/4 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t ground ginger
small pinch of ground cloves

thumpkin pumpkin recipe

We spooned a small amount of squash into the thumb imprints. Then we baked these on a foil-lined cookie sheet along with the pie.

thumpkin pumpkin recipe

They turned out great. Personally, I’d add more pumpkin, but I’ve got a whole pie. These are really for my daughter, so as long as she’s happy, I’m happy. She ate them with a very generous dollop of whipped cream.

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creative gift idea: make your own pop-up book

make your own pop up book

Last month I posted about my daughter’s suncatcher. Today, I’ve got another kid-approved creative gift idea: Create Your Own Pop-Up Books. The day after my daughter received this she was tearing into the box before I was even awake. She actually had a lot finished before she woke me up for help.

make your own pop up book

I was thinking we would actually plan a story before working on this, but her enthusiasm could not be contained. Each page is it’s own story decorated with markers, pop-ups and stickers. “The clams are happy. Mr. Owl is mad.”

make your own pop up book

There’s lots of potential here for kids of all ages. It literally kept her occupied all day long, with breaks only for meals. I’ve you have children in your life who like books and art, I’m guessing they’ll love it.

creative birthday gifts: You can find my first post about the suncatcher here.

p.s. I’m writing about these books because I think they are cool and my daughter loved them. I have no affiliation with pop-up anything. I’m just spreading some creative love.

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craft book giveaway: yarn harlot’s cast off

Comments closed. Congratulations Laura!

It’s time for another giveaway! This time I’ve got something for the knitting folks. Although, you don’t really have to be a knitter to enjoy Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s brilliant writing style. She’s terribly funny, and you can get a taste of her humor at her blog: Yarn Harlot.

This giveaway is for Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off: The Yarn Harlot’s Guide to the Land of Knitting.

knitting book giveaway

from amazon:
Using a travel guide format as her launching pad, Pearl-McPhee acts as tour guide extraordinaire, displaying her trademark razor-sharp wit as she describes and critiques every aspect of this land she knows so well — its people, native language, familiar phrases, strange beliefs, etiquette, and cultural customs. Readers will love her timeline of notable dates in knitting history and rarely celebrated knitting heroes, from the samurai warriors of Japan to the “Terrible Knitters of Dent.” And, while the land of knitting is a peaceful place, it does have its political arguments, such as the acrylic versus natural fibers and circular versus straight needles debates.

You can take a look inside the book at amazon.

How to enter: Leave a comment on this post. You don’t need to say anything but hello, but we could start a conversation on handmade holiday gifts. (Yes, it’s that time of year!) Have you started making gifts? Are you going to buy handmade? More of a gift card giver? I’m going to come clean right now and say I haven’t even started thinking about it. Yikes!

Bonus entry: Share this giveaway on facebook, twitter, [insert your favorite social networking site here] and leave another comment.

I’ll close comments on Wednesday, November 23rd. Shipping is free within the U.S. International folks are welcome to enter, but I’ll need a few bucks via paypal to cover sending it overseas.

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my creative space

I found my daughter’s scarf. It was on the lost and found table at school. She’s no longer wearing it, though, because she likes the fleece scarf better. You saw that coming, didn’t you?

noro stockinette cowl

Of course, I had just started working on a cowl to match her hat and mittens. Will she wear it when it’s finished? Maybe if I line it with fleece.

What are you working on today? More creative spaces here.

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felted wool sweater mug cozy

felted wool sweater mug cozy

Why yes, I did make a wool sweater for my mug.

Even though the Autumn temps are still beautiful here in Nebraska, the mornings are a bit chilly. My tea needed some help staying warm.

I tried not to over think this project — it is a mug cozy, after all — but a quick search on Pinterest and Etsy turned up so many cool ideas. Only problem was that while I was lost in cozy-land, my tea was getting cold.

So I dug into my stash of felted wool sweater bits and found a piece long enough to wrap around my mug. I secured it with a few buttons and embroidery thread. The buttonholes are just little slits. (You can cut felted wool and it won’t unravel.)

So there you have it. Cozy morning tea.

* * * * *

Thanks to everyone for sharing their thoughts on decluttering and congratulations to Erica Arehart on winning the sewing book. I’ll have a knitting book up later this week.

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this moment

Breaking the rules to say Thank You to America’s veterans, including my Dad.
There are a lot of flags flying proudly in our neighborhood today.

this moment

{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Join in the fun here.

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craft book giveaway: so easy home sewing

Comments closed. Congratulations Erica!

I’ve been decluttering a lot lately. The past few weekends I’ve focused on paper: books, magazines and outdated files. Yes, you read the first one correctly — books — and there are quite a few craft books. I pulled them from the donate pile and decided it would be much more fun to have a few giveaways. Everyone loves giveaways, right?

First up is So Easy…Home Sewing: 25 Fabulous Items to Make for Your Home.

sewing book giveaway

from amazon:
It covers all the basics, starting with the seams and hems, through to piping and borders and tassels and trims, with helpful information about fabric selection, stitches, a sewing machine guide, the essential equipment, scissors, notions and other tools, needed to get started. The book is set up as a series of workshops enabling the sewer to first learn the techniques involved and then go on to create simple projects using those techniques.

You can take a look inside the book on amazon and see both the table of contents, which lists the projects, and the index. Here’s a look at some of the projects.

sewing book giveaway

How to enter: Leave a comment on this post. You don’t need to say anything but hello, but I’m curious if anyone else out there has been decluttering. Do you do it regularly? Once a year? Once a decade?

Bonus entry: Share this giveaway on facebook, twitter, [insert your favorite social networking site here] and leave another comment.

I’ll close comments on Monday, November 14th. Shipping is free within the U.S. International folks are welcome to enter, but I’ll need a few bucks via paypal to cover sending it overseas.

If sewing isn’t your thing, don’t worry. Next up will be a knitting book. Good luck!

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five minute fleece scarf

no sew scarf

They are the words that all knitters, crocheters and sewists don’t want to hear:

Mom, I lost my scarf.

I’m not too worried. I’ve stitched her name and my phone number in all of her handmade woolens. I’m also in the process of replacing the lost scarf with something to match her kitty cat hat and mittens. I’m not too invested in this little brown scarf. Now, if it was one I made out of Noro Kureyon…

It will probably turn up tomorrow, but it’s going to be cold in the morning. Usually, I’d just give her one of mine to wear. However, the thought of one of my scarves spending the night out on the playground makes me kind of queasy.

So, I made a little stand-in scarf. It took more time to take a photo and write this post than it did to make the scarf. I used a fleece scrap from my stash, folded it from selvedge to selvedge, cut a 5 1/2 inch wide strip and trimmed off the selvedges. The fringe is 4 inches long and 1/2 inch wide.

It actually turned out really nice. So nice, that when her brown scarf finally makes it’s way home, I might have to keep this for myself.