Welcome Spring

    As soon as Christmas was finished I put my Spring wreath right back up. It makes me so happy and helps remind me that Spring is just around the corner.
   

 I made each of the colors a different kind of felt flower. The yellow was cut into a long strip, folded in half lengthwise and then you cut the petals the width you would like. The blue was the same method but wider petals. Then you wrap it around itself and glue. The orange is made by cutting small circles and folding them in half and then in half again. I cut off the point and glued them on a circle of felt. The rose starts out as a circle(about 5-6 inches). You cut in a spiral from the outside working your way to the center of the circle. You can make it a straight cut or like I did with a rounded zig zag, going up and down with peaks and valleys until you reach the center. Leave a round circle in the middle uncut so you can glue the flower as you wrap the petals around and around the outside.
       The wreath itself was purchased at Micheal's. It's the kind made of hay and very inexpensive. 

 

Lemon Meringue Cake

         I have to say how much I love getting our Food Network Magazine. Yes, you can just look up recipe's online, but when I get the magazine, I see so many fun things I want to try and would never think to look up. The January/February 2013 issue had birthday cakes for every month of the year. I tried out the Lemon Meringue Cake, one because I love lemon, and two because I'd only heard of lemon meringue pies. It sounded pretty fun.
        I have to say it turned out soooo yummy. I've already made it twice. Once for a church party and again for Easter. It was the perfect spring dessert.
        I did make a slight change the second time I made it. Instead of putting the lemon curd in between the two separate cakes, I cut each cake in half so I could put the curd in between 3 layers. That helped distribute the lemon flavor more throughout the cake.

What time is it? ADVENTURE TIME!

For Easter I usually do some sort of doll or plush item for my girls in their basket. This year I decided to make a doll from their favorite T.V. show, Adventure Time. We just watched an episode that has a little girl version of Marceline, the vampire girl. It turned out really cute. I pulled up an image online and sketched her out the size I wanted her to be. Since I was using fleece, I just cut it out the exact size of my sketch. I whip-stitched everything closed and filled with stuffing as I went.

This party was a total CIRCUS!

          It was my son's first birthday and it was such a fun day of celebrating. Since it was the big 1 and he's most likely the last child, I decided to really go all out for his party.
         My husband and I threw around a few ideas and we landed on a circus party. Let me just tell you, that you will end up spending hours looking at Pinterest when you do a search for "circus party".  

         I picked out the ideas that were just too cute to pass up and the ones that were financially feasible, and this is what we ended up with.

I used my silhoette cutting machine to cut out the circus tent on the wreath and the blue "H" .

The bunting was one of my favorite things. I tried cutting the letters out with my silhoette but that didn't go smoothly, so I just used paper letters to trace onto the felt. I also love the red and white striped curtains. I couldn't find any ready made striped table clothes, so I cut up those cheap rectangular ones from the party store and taped the red strips onto the white. 

Balloons are always fun and cheap and instead of helium(which can really make it expensive), I got those balloon sticks and holders instead. The sticks were .10 and the holders were .5. Then the kids could take them home after the party.

I loooove to do sugar cookies for every occasion. I found this awesome website (http://www.cheapcookiecutters.com/)that has just about every cookie cutter you can imagine. That's where I found my cute elephant, lion and tent. 

We had sliders, chips, kettle corn, cookies, red vines, cupcakes and animal crackers that the kids took home after the party. We used those red and white paper food trays as plates. It was all finger food so no utensils to worry about.

I always do a little cake for the birthday baby so here's Hank's. I just used the leftover batter  and frosting from the cupcakes and it was just the right amount for a sweet, little cake.

I used my silhoette to cut out triangles and then glued on  the pom poms and ribbon to make the party hat toppers. I have to say that the cupcakes were really yummy. I love this recipe book that I got. It's called Make Bake and Celebrate by Annie Rigg. I used the vanilla cake recipe, meringue buttercream and chocolate meringue buttercream. I'm a chocolate addict so that was my favorite frosting.

     

Knit that!

       Like I've mentioned before, one of my new obsessions is knitting. It's something that I've always admired but was always too intimidated to try. My grandma taught me how to crochet when I was in 5th grade and it was no problem at all, but the idea of TWO needles just kinda blew my mind. I had my mom show me how a couple years ago and it just didn't sink in. I decided that I was going to conquer that skill if it killed me and so my mom showed me yet again and...I got it! My 10 year old daughter and I both picked it up, so we had each other for support.
       I'm still a novice but I decided to expand my horizons beyond knitting scarves. I found a great blog that showed me how to knit this gorgeous waffle knit hat. http://www.pickles.no/waffel-hat/ 
       It's slightly intimidating knitting on the round for the first time, but it ended up being totally easy. I found a you-tube video that showed me how to cast on and connect the two ends. I've forgotten which video it was, but if you did a search I'm sure you could find one.

I'm so happy with how it turned out, and so was my daughter since she ended up with it. My next project is a hat for my husband that has different colored designs in it. I saw a book at the library that teaches you how to graph out a pattern for a hat. I think I'll try it out and tell you how it goes.

Felt so nice!

         I received the cutest book for Christmas. Big Little FELT Universe. It's one that I had checked out from the library, but after I took one look inside, I decided I had to make everything in it. My husband knew I would need more time with it, so it was under the tree Christmas morning. So as a thank you for being such an intuitive guy, the first thing I made was for him. 
        He loves bamboo and has tried to have it on his desk at work, but much to his avail, it just doesn't accept his work as a suitable living environment. So, for his birthday I made the little pot of bamboo. 

        The next thing I want to make is the campfire for my son's tee-pee, my girls are dying for the cake, and there's a laptop that are all just too cute for words. They're not quick projects. It's a labor of love but it's well worth it.

My name is Lindsay, and I'm addicted to hobbies

I think I might have a problem. I can't seem to curb my desire to try every and any hobby I can get my hands on. I love it all!
I do:
Sewing-embroidery, hand, and machine
Painting- house interiors, furniture, art
Drawing
Baking-preferably desserts
Knitting (my newest acquisition)
Crochet
Scrapbooking
Card making
Interior Design
Reading
Writing-poetry and little stories(these are generally things I do for my family)

On my to do list:
Watercolor painting
Upholstering
Quilting
Photography
Children's stories
Felting
Not to mention all of the different kind of foods I want to try baking and making.
Bead making

       What do I need with all of these hobbies, you ask? I find good uses for them, like gifts for people, expanding my horizons and probably most of all...keeping my sanity as a stay at home mom.
      Yes, I'm a mother of four and my children and husband are the best part of my life. They inspire me to be adventurous. I wasn't the most confident person growing up. In fact, if you ask any of my class mates they'd say, "Who"? But when I met my husband and then created our family, I found myself. I found out that I have a lot to offer and I'm never afraid to try new things.
      So this blog is dedicated to keeping my sanity, trying new things and maybe inspiring others to be adventurous. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.