truckin'

Isn't it cute?!  He's just a little truck made from Lorna Doone cookies.

Each truck takes 16 Lorna Doone's, 4 round cookies, frosting, and anything else you like.  Start with one cookie for the front, then four along each side.  Put four Lorna Doone's inside to line the "cab" and support the hood and top sections.  Put the wheels in place, and then decorate to your hearts desire.

This same idea can be converted into a train by just leaving off the front section and adding box cars to the back.   

Make sure your frosting is good and strong, here's one simple recipe:

3 egg whites, room temp.
1 lb. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

-Combine all ingredients and mix for 7-10 minutes.

Toot.  toot.  c'ya.

untied bow headband

I have always found it challenging to tie a perfect bow.  It's almost impossible to get an even loop and have the tails go in the back...until now!

I will give the measurements that I used but you can eyeball it yourself, or make it larger or smaller depending on how you like it.

1.  Cut a 2 inch piece, a 6 inch piece, and a 10 inch piece of ribbon

 

2.  Take the 10 inch piece and fold it to the middle, glue

 3.  Fold the other side over and overlap them about a 1/2 inch, glue

4.  Attach the 6 inch piece to the bottom.

 

5.  Pinch the middle a little and glue the 2 inch piece to the middle of the bow.

6.  Glue the bow onto headband, or clip and wrap the middle piece around and glue in the back.

Tada!  All done.

simple halloween decorations

At the beginning of October I got out my box of Halloween decorations, and thought they looked really blah, so I didn't really put any up.  Last week (when I finally got into the Halloween spirit) I made a few simple decorations to spice up my blah house.  Here they are in no particular order...

 

 This printable can be found here.  Her pictures are much cooler.

 Next up, the classic paper-mask-over-regular picture.  I've been doing this since college and it still makes me giggle to see people looking like burglars! heehee

Bats, bats, and more bats!  I put these several rooms in my house.  I made them in a jiff and they are super spoooooooky!  Instructions can be found here.

window watching

The clouds outside my window at work are amazing today! They keep changing from minute to minute. I can't help but glance out often to see what they are up to.

mr. blue bird

I just made this sweet, little tweet, and I thought I would share his cuteness.  I found the how-to here (but I like the googly eyes better...shhhhh).  

It's really easy, so easy in fact that I made a dozen of them.

 

They make me want to sing that song...Mr. Blue bird on my shoulder, it's the truth, it's actually, everything is satisfactual, zippity-doo-dah...

falling for fall

Falling leaves, candy corn, apple harvest,  
sweaters, cooling down, new boots, fresh breeze... 

things to love about fall.

You can find this perfectly fall print here.

quick fix

Here's the before...

...and the after.

My sister wanted to embellish this skirt with a flower.  I never get sick of flowers, what a good plan.  She handed it over to me for the sewing, because she knows how much I love a quick project.  I added the flower with a decorative stitch on the back layer and topped it off with the button.  It still needed a little something to pull it all together so I stitched around the hem and pockets with navy blue tread.  Done and done.  Take note little sister, I will be borrowing that!