Day 345: Felt Christmas Ornaments

Time: A couple hours
Listening to: playing tv catchup

I made some felt Christmas ornaments to top off some present wrapping. I love how they turned out! I got most of these ideas from Pinterest...just search felt ornaments and you'll find a gazillion ideas!

Just for Fun: Mini Christmas Tree

Look at what I came home to yesterday:

Isn't it so cute? My hubby totally surprised me!

Day 344: Coin Magnets

Time: 15 minutes
Listening to: Amy Grant Christmas

I really like making a little something for my husband for Christmas. He loves traveling and exploring the world so we always end up with some spare coins laying around from other countries. When I saw this tutorial, I knew it was the project to make for him. And how easy! The longest part of this project was finding what coins I wanted to use!

I already gave them to him...I'm horrible at waiting til Christmas!

Stumbled On Favorites

A few of the favorite things I've stumbled on recently.

I'm missing the Swiss Alps these days!

I loved this walk down memory lane...gosh I love Freaks and Geeks!

Crop circles underwater?

I'd love to take a spin in a floating hot tub.  Awesome!

I am IN LOVE with this art from Laurent Chehere.

These are such great holiday fonts from The Perfect Pear.

Bicycle Taxidermy...hilarious!

Day 343: Microwave Puffy Paint

I try to do at least one experiment or fun activity with the kids I nanny for and today was a pretty good one! I saw this one over on Pinterest.  The boys I nanny for are 3 and 6 and it kept both their attentions for a bit...but mostly the 6 year old's.

Microwave Puffy Paint

You need: 

Cardboard pieces to paint on
1/2 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
food coloring

Once mixed, add in water to make a smooth paste that isn't too watery. Add in your food coloring. We split our paste into two bowls so we could use different colors. Paint on the cardboard pieces. Once ready, stick it in the microwave for about 30 seconds. It was super fun when a lot of the paste was glopped on. If it is really thick, you might need to microwave it even more.

Hope you have fun with it! 

Day 342: Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread

My super-talented-baker-sister sent me this recipe. I keep telling her she should start a blog (ok, ok, this is actually only the second time I've mentioned it...) so I wouldn't have to be the one to dish out her recipes. But alas, the weight falls on me so here it is...

Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread

 

For the bread:

• 3 over-ripe bananas, smashed up
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• dash of salt
• 1 1/2 cups flour

For the swirl:

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 Tbs cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Butter and flour a 9x5 loaf pan (or just spray it). 
2. Mix bananas, butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla together. Mix baking soda, baking powder and salt with the flour.  Add flour mixture to banana mixture. 
3. In a small dish, mix together the 1/3 cup sugar and 1 Tbs cinnamon.
4. Spread 1/3 batter in bottom of pan. Sprinkle 1/2 of the cinnamon and sugar on top (you'll totally cover it). Add 1/3 batter (cover all of the cinnamon and sugar). Sprinkle the last 1/2 of the cinnamon and sugar. Top with the last 1/3 of the batter
5. Bake for 50-60 minutes.

Day 341: Nature Photography

Day 340: DIY Spraypaint Chalkboard

Time: 1/2 hour
Listening to: Home Alone Soundtrack

I got this great framed mirror for $2 at a local art materials exchange a couple weeks back and finally got around to spray painting it into a chalkboard. It took a couple coats and a day to dry but it is looking pretty good. I still have to work on the frame, though!

Day 339: Glitter Magnets

Time: 1/2 hour?
Listening to: Home Alone soundtrack

I have a bunch of glitter left over from my reindeer project from day 336 so when I saw this tutorial...I jumped on it! And I think they are so cute! They will make the perfect gift for a certain someone I have in mind. Could it be you? ;)

On display

In use

My husband did make some grumbling noises when he saw these drying because he remembered how much the glitter spread from the last project. We literally had glitter all over our house. OOPS!

Day 338: Whale Painting

Time: 1/2 hour?
Listening to: Revenge

A while back I went to a friend's birthday party and after a couple of drinks he proceeded to tell me about his immense love of killer whales. Now every time I see anything to do with killer whales (like this), I think of him. To show my support for this love of killer whales, I decided to make him this little clothespin whale.

Day 337: Christmas Decorating!

It is official, folks! Our apartment is ready for Christmas! 

The mistletoe is hung and the garland is strung. Let the festivities begin.

Day 336: Glitter Reindeer on Canvas

Time: 1/2 hour?
Listening to: Christmas Mix

I saw this on Pinterest and wanted to make it desperately. So I did and here it is!

Day 335: Guest Book Quilt

Time: 5+ hours
Listening to: Ipod/Christmas Music/Oddities

The last time you saw this project was way back on Day 200 when I sewed up the top squares. With our big move, this project got set aside for a bit. I'll be seeing my sister-in-law for Christmas so I really wanted to finish it up before then. So I found a good back fabric, studied up on how I wanted to finish it and finally got to work!

I didn't want to top stitch it because I figured the handwriting would be skewed so I went with the tie quilt technique. I've made one quilt with this technique before so it went pretty smoothly. I did break one needle, though, and my fingers are still awfully sore from the whole project!

I also decided to have it be more of a throw because of the smaller size of it so I didn't add a layer of batting inside. I basically stuck the right sides together, sewed around the edges, flipped it inside out, sewed up the whole, then started in on the ties.

 I'm happy with how it turned out and I hope that my sister in law does too!

Day 334: Designing and Mailing Christmas Letters

Time: Couple hours
Listening to: Christmas Music

I love Christmas letters. We always sent them out growing up and we always received a bunch from friends, family, and even some people I didn't know. I loved opening them and reading them all. I was always so intrigued about what people decided to include, what they didn't include, and what crazy matching outfits they picked out for their picture. Anyways, even when I was single and in college, I was sending out my own Christmas letters. I like thinking back on the year and summarizing what is going on. I also love to make them interactive...like little puzzles. My previous favorites have been the crossword puzzle and the word search. This year we decided to do one that you have to fill in the blank and use the first letter to solve the puzzle at the end of the letter. It isn't too tricky this year, but I still like imagining people getting out their pens and filling in the little spaces.

Day 333: Sewing a Simple Tunic Shirt

Time: An hour?
Listening to: Christmas Music

I saw this shirt on Pinterest and figured I'd give it a try. I had this kind of sweatshirt material leftover from a previous project and have been wanting to do something fun with it. It was a lot of trial and error but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I can give measurements/instructions to anyone who is interested.

Day 332: Infinity Scarf

Time: Less than an hour
Listening to: Christmas Mix on Spotify

I worked on an infinity scarf tonight--and am happy with how it turned out! Isn't the print adorable?

Day 331: Adorable Furry Friends

Time: HOURS
Listening to: Murder She Wrote

Back on Day 306, I worked on cutting out some furry friends and I finally got around to stitching and stuffing them. Man, this was more work than I was expecting....but I'm so happy with how they turned out. I'm still not completely done with the project yet, so stay tuned!

Day 330: Felt Superhero Masks

Time: Just about an hour
Listening to: The Mob Doctor

Tomorrow is the soon to be 6 year old's birthday so I figured I should probably finish these superhero masks up! I decided to just use fabric glue instead of sewing on them--mostly because I didn't want to have to change the thread for all the different colors. Lazy, I know!

Anyways, I'm excited to give them to him tomorrow. Hopefully he will like them and get a lot of use out of them!

Here is the link again for the template that I used previously.

Stumbled On Favorites

Here are a few of my favorite things that I've stumbled upon recently!

I spent the weekend celebrating my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. I am so thankful for the time to reconnect with my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. What a great family I am apart of!

A good video on book recommendations is here!

I love these framed tree branches.

I want a trampoline sidewalk desperately!

This is an awesome about me section! Thanks for the link Swissmiss!

I love Modcloth's gift guides. Such great stuff!

My brother's birthday is today and I got him this shirt. We were obsessed with Home Alone growing up so it seemed pretty fitting! I'm seriously considering buying one for myself.

Days 323-329: Knitting Thick Headband

Time: Hours+
Listening to: Chit chat

I had a great Thanksgiving weekend...road trip with my parents! In 5 days I was in 6 different states! While we caught up and saw lots of family, I tried to knit as we went. Here are my results...