A Blessed Christmas To All!

Enjoy your day tomorrow, praising God for sending His Son to earth as a baby for our salvation!

Alisa

Suzanne

We're So Proud

Our little sister, Karen (she's 19) made this fantastic quilt for her boyfriend for Christmas.  She did a really good job on it and we are so proud of her.  She's also made various other things this year too, but this was her big, big project.  We love you, Karen!  (And not just because you sew.)

Pattern is from a quilt-along at I Have to Say

Quick Change Trousers

I made these pants from Anna Maria Horner's "Handmade Beginnings" book one Saturday. Sebastian has this beautiful vest but had no pants that matched.  They are made from an old pair of his Daddy's pants and a too small dress shirt.  I love it when things are so thrifty they're free :)

I don't think he'll wear them this way but this is the lining.

Book Winner and a Jane Market Bag

Thanks for entering the giveaway for Easy Greeting Gifts.  There can only be one winner though and it is #21 - Saraccino!  Congratulations!  I'll be emailing you for your mailing address.

I made this Jane Market Bag recently.  It is a great pattern.  The only change I made was to add a piece of hard plastic into the bottom of the bag.  It is not a very photogenic bag though.  It is quite floppy, but that is because it is meant as a grocery/shopping bag and not a tote as such.  It is quite like the cloth grocery bags from Superstore.

Inside I used a linen that has been in my stash for 15 years.  I bought it it Brazil when I was 18 years old.  (And yes, that makes me 33!)   I had a skirt made for me and I've had the leftovers ever since.  I have been trying to use up what I have and this time I used my precious linen.  I still have some left though.

Again, my photos are uploading the wrong way.  Does anyone know why this is happening?  I never  have had this problem before...

I made a little pouch to go with it.  Taken from this pattern but changed.  It's a great pattern by the way.  This was made for gift exchange we had with our family a while back.  It's a game in which one can steal your present from you.  (It's a fun game!)

Seeing as today is my kid's last day of school before Christmas Break I will probably not be around much on our blog.  I'll probably pop back in once more before the end of the year.  Till then, Alisa

Caramel Popcorn

Every December I make a few batches of Caramel Popcorn.  It is so, so yummy and very easy.  This tastes way better than anything you can buy.  One of the kids would like to make this for her teacher.

Caramel Popcorn

3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter or margerine
3 tbsp corn syrup
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp vanilla
10 cups popped popcorn

Combine the first 4 ingredients over low heat until butter is melted.  Cook without stirring for 3 minutes.  Add baking soda and vanilla.  Stir well then pour onto popcorn and mix evenly until coated.  Bake for 15 minutes at 300 F.  Break into pieces when cool.  Try not to eat the whole batch in one sitting!

A sleepsack from Aunty Alisa!

This came in the mail last week for Sebastian!

It's already been christened with a good spit up so it's wrinkly from the wash :)

It fits him perfectly right now but he's a long little guy!  Hopefully he'll be able to wear it for a while.

Notice the beautiful blanket he's lying on?  That's another gift from a good friend.  I love the texture!!  Thanks again, Annette!

Thank you Aunty Alisa!

If you want to enter the giveaway click here

SMS Giveaway Day - Easy Greeting Cards Review

A couple of weeks ago I won a wonderful giveaway at the WileyCraft blog.  It was everything I need to create some super cute gift bags.  The project is from one of their new books, Easy Greeting Cards.  I am not normally drawn to paper crafting but now that my kids are getting older we like to do these things together.  I also got a copy of the book to review and I am also going to give one away!

My girls hard at it, making their bags.

They took the idea from the book and then 'made it their own.'

All of them together.  We are going to bake cookies for their teachers and wrap them in the bags.

Melissa's bag

They wanted a pose all together!

Mine.  I really deviated from the original.  What can I say, I don't like following instructions?

The original picture from the book.

I tried everything to get this photo the right way, but it just won't listen to me.  I though I'd post some of the cards I like.  I am drawn to the cards with buttons, ribbon and stitching. 

The stitching!  This could be a neat quilting idea too...

Again, sorry about the sideways photo!  I love this card!

Neat Valentines idea for the kids next year!

This card is so simple, but so effective!  I can see myself using this design for sure.

I mostly dabble in fabric but this book really appeals to me.  Many of the cards can be made without specialized tools, just some paper, glue, scissors and ribbon.  It's a great book for older girls and teens too.

Would you like to have your own copy of the book?  Just leave a comment on this post for a chance to win one!  Or buy one.

For another entry follow both our blog and the WileyCraft blog and let me know in a comment.

Have a wonderful week!

ETA - I'll pick a winner on Wednesday night

LTTS Puppet Theater - Nearly Finished!

Nearly finished the Little Things to Sew Puppet Theatre.  (Is theatre spelled wrong in the book, or am I just spelling it the Canadian way?)  I wanted to enter it into A Little Gray's Puppet Theatre linky party which is over tomorrow. 

This project wasn't too difficult to do and my husband feels part of the project because he bought the tension rod and the dowels for me.  Nice guy, isn't he.

I used some 4 inch charms to brighten up the front.  I didn't really want to do a house so this is what I came up with.  I'm not totally loving it, but it's too late to change it now. I was thinking that I could made another front for the bottom section to snap on to it for different scenes.

I'm not quite finished stitching all of the charms on yet.  You can see the pins I'm sure.

Now to find, or make some puppets.  Where can I find reasonably priced puppets?...

Thanks Jessica from A Little Gray for giving me the push to get this started and finished!

Moments in my sewing room - I'm quilting!

And loving it!

I'm having trouble with it pulling a bit with the straight line quilting. I've lowered the presser foot pressure...anything else I can do to help?

A Couple of Wreaths and a Winner

A couple more wreaths.  The top one I actually made last year but I put a new bow on it this year.  I love it!

Besides the ribbon, this one is made with all thrifted materials.  I picked up the vine wreath a few months ago and the ornaments just recently.  The photo isn't superb but you get the idea.  It's hanging in my family room.

And now for the winner of the Kamsnaps Snap Pliers....

#29 - Anne

Anne has a blogger profile but no email address.  Is it my friend Anne?  Or another Anne... :-)  Just email me if you are the one!

And now I'm off to finish a gift for tonight!

KamSnaps Review and Give-away - Now closed

Today I am happy to review the KamSnaps Snap Pliers and Plastic Snaps!

As you know, I like to make bibs.  I even sell my bib pattern.  I have made many, many bibs and all with a metal snap that had to be pounded in with a hammer.  Often the snap wouldn't work properly and I'd have to redo it, sometimes over and over.  I've even ruined a bib trying to get the snap in.  My friend Rebecca had a KamSnap Pliers and Plastic snaps.  I had my doubts that a plastic snap would work well in my bibs, as they are 3 layers thick but she offered that I try it out and I am so glad I did!

So, so easy to use!  And so professional looking too.  I have had a 100% success rate with these snaps and I am now having fun using them in all sorts of applications.

KamSnaps is a great company to work with.  They shipped my snap pliers and snaps right away.  They offer free shipping for US orders of $28 or more and on Canadian orders of $35 or more.

Not only that they give away a free set of pliers for every 100 new facebook fans & Twitter followers. For every 1000, they will give away a snap press!

http://www.facebook.com/kamsnaps   &  http://twitter.com/KAMsnaps.

Check out their blog where they constantly hold giveaways and post the latest sales and announcements: http://kamsnaps.blogspot.com/.

Soother straps are a fun and easy baby gift (or a baby gift add-on).  KamSnaps also sells the clips that I used to make mine.

Are you new to snaps?  KamSnaps has a comprehensive Getting Started page on their website.  Check it out if you are wondering about something snap-related.

They also have a great tutorial page which has a bunch of diaper conversion tutorials as well as a few other handy ones, such as this roll up tote which would make a great grocery bag.

I ordered the plain snaps but KamSnaps has an abundance of other fun snaps to play with too!  They offer star and heart-shaped snaps in many colours.  They sent me a few fun ones to play with, which I did.  But I gave the bib away before I took a photo of it.  Oops.  It looked very cute with the red star snap!

The engraved snaps are also super cute.  How about a VW Beetle in Gray?!

Or a turtle in Red?

Take a look at the many choices for engraved snaps, including Ooga Booga.

Now on to the give-way!

KamSnaps is offering one of our readers a coupon code for $20.95 good for the purchase of a snap pliers!  Shipping is free within the US on orders of $28+ and Canada of $35+. 

  Residents from any country may enter.

To enter, let me know what you would use your snap pliers for.  Would you make your own diapers?  Pouches, bibs...?  Let me know!

There are also 5 additional ways you can enter.  Please leave a comment for each one you've done.

- like KamSnaps on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/kamsnaps

- follow them on Twitter http://twitter.com/KAMsnaps

- publicly follow their blog http://kamsnaps.blogspot.com/

- add the button to their website or blog (button can be found on the bottom right sidebar of our blog http://kamsnaps.blogspot.com/

- join the KAMsnaps.com mailing list (left sidebar of kamsnaps.com).  They never share email addresses with anyone else.

Hope you all have a wonderful week!  I'll leave the give-away open until Friday 12:00 Noon, PST.

A Wreath and a Winner

I picked this twig wreath up at the thrift store a while back.  This week I got to work with some fabric and the hot glue gun to come up with this.  I'm pretty happy with it!  (Inspired by this one on pinterest.)  It isn't actually hanging on my front door though, I just put it there to get a photo of it.  It's in my living room in close proximity to my table runner.

Anyway, on to the winner of the give-away.  Thanks so much to everyone for entering and for the new followers.  We don't actually want new followers just to make us feel good inside, really.  But having a good follower base will allow us to do some product and pattern testing and let you all know about it too!

The winner is #11 - Sian, who is just getting back into blogging after a hiatus.  Congratulations, Sian and I'll email you shortly!

Come back Monday for a review and give-away for Kamsnaps!

My friend Rebecca is hosting a give-away at her blog today.

Moments in my sewing room 2

Two out of nine blocks done! It's making me happy :)

And this is what's been keeping me busy this week. Three girls with the chicken pox. This was taken before they got all their spots.  We're over the hump now though and they're feeling much better!

The Give-away is still open. It will be open until Friday sometime. Go here to enter!

Flurry Table Runner

A while back I bought a few charm packs at Pink Chalk Fabrics.  The other two were to make gifts with but I bought one charm pack for me.  And I love the bright, happy colours!  (And if you are from the Fraser Valley you understand why I need bright colours in the winter.)

Charm Pack is Flurry by Kate Spain.  I made this table runner at the Quilt Till You Wilt we had in early November and I'm enjoying it already.

The Give-away is still open.  I'll keep it open until Friday sometime.  Go here to enter!