Kind Of Excited!

Imagine my surprise to click on My Heritage Fabric's blog to see this picture and read this, "Bobbi's skirts were featured this morning in the local paper "HERS". section"! I squinted my eyes and said right out loud, "What the heck? Those ARE my things! Get out!" I ran in the kitchen, grabbed the paper, and sure enough....there it was. Kinda cool!!! That cute little gal with them is Nikki Weeks, the master mind behind Mindy Mae's Market.

Inside was a spread all about Mindy Mae's Market and the resurgence of "handmade"! You can read the article here.

Kind of exciting!

Hibernation Station!

Our home has officially become the hibernation station..... a place to snuggle down in and enjoy the sweetest time of year with the best people I know! I'll be back after the holidays.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL

picture courtesy of CountryLiving Magazine

Who on earth would be afraid of Carmel's?
ME!

Somebody, somewhere along the way must have told me that carmel making was hard, because I have never dared try to make them. I have always left it to sweet Sister Brown, our little widow friend, to provide us with our favorite holiday treat.

Until....

I was thumbing through this months CountryLiving magazine and saw this recipe. I don't even think it's the "easy" one, but for some reason I thought, 'Hello? You can do that, it's just like sewing, all you have to do is try.' So I did and can I just say YUM!!!!! They are, by far, the best Carmel's I have ever tasted. So rich and melty in your mouth, salivating here just talking about it! I had to hurry and wrap them up in their little gift bags before I ate them all.

If you have any time left at all.....
YOU "GOTTA" TRY IT!

A Little Midnight Blog Cleaning

Couldn't sleep tonight (this morning?) so I thought I'd do a little cleaning up of my little bloggy place. If you're wondering where your buttons went, don't worry, they're still here. I just put them under titles in the sidebar. Eyes are getting droopy now, good thing too since I have to be up in 3 hours!

Fun Shops

Just moving buttons to titles in the side bar....pardon this and the next post.

Features

Brilliant Kelsey!

I know you know this already, but I love teenagers. Especially those who are brave enough to think a little bit outside of the box and be themselves. You've read about Erika's adventures in refashioning old clothes (when I see her heading to my closet with scissors in hand I know that the creative juices are flowing!).

Now I want to introduce you to a cute little gal who has found a use for her old Barbie shoes. Meet Kelsey McKay, daughter of my bloggy/facebook friend Kristine. Kristine is amazingly crafty (you will definitely want to check out her web site) and it looks as if there's a little "like mother, like daughter" thing going on. You can read the whole tale here.

NOTE TO KELSEY: I told your mom this once, but I want to tell you..... you keep being your funky little self. I love that you aren't afraid to be yourself (especially as a 7th grader). What you'll find is that kids will naturally gravitate towards you. If you are comfortable just being you and not having to "fit into the mold" then they will feel comfortable around you. I have two girls (boys too, but they don't count in this post), a senior and a 9th grader, their favorite place to shop is the DI! For non-Utah types, the D.I. is a thrift store. Last Monday Erika (she's the 9th grader, and an SBO, so kids must not think she's too weird, LOL) sent this text to everybody (not just her friends), "Ugly sweater Tuesday, see ya at the DI". Sure enough, the next day there were about 20 ugly sweater kids at school and more that told Erika, "oh man, I should have known you would really do it....I'm wearing one next week for sure". How fun is that? So, you just keep being you Miss Kelsey..... cuz you rock!

Deep Breath In....

.....and RELAX!!!!

Oh my goodness....they are done!!!!!

Remember when I was so excited to make these?

I think they turned out so cute, but I will never make them again!

I am way too impatient. There were too many pieces (cut 4 of each), too much adhering (iron on and spray adhesive), too much having to pay attention to the grain and way too much thinking involved.

Am I glad I did it? YES! I think they are so cute and will definitely be unique. I got to practice some sewing techniques that I don't usually do.... and some I used to hate (bias)! I think I may actually be a fan of bias tape now, imagine that.

SHOULD YOU TRY THEM?

If you are an experienced seamstress.....yes.
If you are patient....yes.

If you realize you won't finish them in one sitting....yes.

If you are new to sewing.....no.

If you are impatient.....at your own risk :)

If you need them tomorrow.......no.

I was right about one thing though. The girls will difinitely go GA-GA!

Fun Friend Gift For Kids

It snowed ALL day today and felt so Christmasy, I loved it! After a little Christmas shopping, sledding and hot cocoa, Nater Gater and I sat down to make his friend gifts. This is not a new idea, in fact every one of our older kids made this same gift for their friends when they were little. But maybe some of you haven't ever seen it, so I thought I would share.

How To Make Money Soap

You will need:

• Clear glycerin soap and soap dye (I got both at Michael's).
• Some sort of mold. I used a Christmas tree cupcake mold but you could use ice cube trays, muffin tins, really any small container.
• Coins.

The glycerin will come in a great big block. Cut it into small squares. It is soft enough that Nate could cut through it with a butter knife, otherwise I would have done the cutting.

Put glycerin cubes in a microwave safe bowl and melt according to directions on the box.

Add desired color and stir.

Carefully pour melted glycerin into molds. It is hot so you might want to do this part if your children are very little.

Slip coins into the soap before it begins to harden. If you have waited too long just skim the hardened top off and slip the coin in.

Nate used the left over soap to make himself a funky tie died bar in a condiment bowl. He put a couple of drops of blue into the green glycerin and swirled it around a little with a knife. You can't really tell in this picture, but it looked kind of cool.

The soap hardens up after about a half an hour. We'll slip them in cellophane bags with a wash cloth and call it good!

Tortellini Anyone?

I'm sure you all know that felt food is all the rage these days when it comes to toys. Angie over at Treasures For Tot's sent me a link to this tutorial she created. Now you can learn to make your own no sew felt tortellini!

For Jennifer

How To Make Vivian A Tutu :)

You will need:

• About 6 yards of tulle (netting). I like them super fluffy and end up using somewhere between 5 & 6 yards. If you have extra, just make a tutu for her baby.
• Non-roll elastic 1" wide. Cut a piece 1" smaller than her waist.

OR

• You could tie the tulle onto a long ribbon and tie the tutu around her waist. But I know you're dying to try out some mad sewing skills!

If you are going the elastic route, sew the ends of the elastic together. I sew a square so that it is really secure.

It's easier to cut if you do it as follows. Lay your tulle out as shown. One end is raw, the other end is a fold.

Cut a 6 inch strip.

Snip through the folded end, which would give you two pieces of tulle.

Fold the strip in half and lay it under the elastic (or ribbon), creating a loop at the top.

Pull the two ends up through the loop and pull taut.

There you go..... now just do it a zillion more times until you fill the elastic up!

Super Duper Easy!

Letting the house go to pot today while I figure these little puppies out....

WISH ME LUCK!

POST SCRIPT: 3 hours later.....almost time to pick up Jr. High carpool.....only half way done with one pair.....have to hide them.....must finish another day.....but at the rate their going I should say "finish after another 4 days".......GRRRRRRRR. My inner Grinch is showing!

Modern Essence Purse Giveaway $36.00 value

Offering giveaways is kind of a "pay it forward" thing for me. My etsy shop really took off when a couple of bloggers were interested enough in my skirts to feature them and offer a giveaway. So, in return, I surf etsy looking for shops that haven't had many sales yet and offer them some exposure, no strings attached.

You're going to LOVE this one.

Modern Essence is offering a free mini purse ($36.00 value) to one of my lucky readers. Check out how cute her work is.

To enter you must:

Visit her etsy shop and leave a comment here, telling me what your favorite item in her shop is.

For extra entries you can:

• Heart her shop
• Facebook or Twitter about this giveaway
• All of my followers get an extra entry

Make sure you leave a comment for your original entry and all extra entries. That way Random.org will count you. Also leave me your email address so that we can get in touch with you! Giveaway ends at 10:00 mst

GOOD LUCK!

Here's something festive and fun for you to do while I'm off to market....

Click here to Check out 30 of the best advent calendars over on Whipup.net

Mindy Mae's Market..... Friday night and all day Saturday in Clinton. If you plan on coming make sure you stop by and say hi. I'll be the girl with the door full of skirts! It's going to be a great show, 70 vendors, all super cute stuff. Click below for directions

Who Said Money Doesn't Grow On Trees???

Does your family help a needy family each Christmas? Looking for a creative way to share with others? How about a money tree? Wouldn't it be fun to find a family having a hard time, put a money tree on their porch, ring the doorbell and run?

This little tree was a graduation gift last May to a family friend. You can "winterfie" the idea by:

• choosing a bare branch and spray painting it red.
• filling the vase with red and green M&M's.
• wrapping a pretty red ribbon around it.
• You could get all crazy and fold the money origami style (I probably won't, but you could)!

My kids love getting money from Grandma and Grandpa each Christmas, this would be a fun way to give it. What about that starving college student you know? Bet they'd appreciate a money tree.

Now that I think of it..... I want a money tree! Saaaaantaaaaah!!!

Sewing 101 and a Christmas Idea

I have come to find out that many of you are young mom's, either wanting to learn how to sew, or just barely beginning. I think that is so great! So, in honor of you, I am posting a tutorial for the easiest thing in the world that you can sew..... a pillowcase.

And.....stay tuned at the end of the tutorial for a fun Christmas idea you can use this pillow case for. So, let's get started.....

Most store bought regular size pillow cases measure about 24" x 19".

You will need:

• 1 rectangle, for your main fabric, measuring 20" x 38".
• 1 rectangle of fabric (red in my case) measuring 38" x 8"
• 1 rectangle of fabric (green in my case) measuring 38" x 1.5"
  

Next you will lay the red and the green strips out and fold them in half (wrong sides together) so that they now measure 38" x 4" (red) and 38" x 3/4" (green). Iron them with a nice crisp crease.

Pin the two together as shown with the folded edge facing up, the raw edges together. If you would like you could baste them very close to the edge or....

...Skip that part and lay them on top of the 38" side of your big rectangle (right sides together) and sew all three pieces together about 1/4" from the edge, as shown below.

When you are finished it will look like this. Give it another once over with the iron, this will make it lay nice and flat once it's finished. You should now have one big 38" x 24" rectangle
.

Fold that in half with right sides together. Sew along the bottom and the long side, obviously leaving the red side open for the pillow. There you have it. The easiest thing to sew!

HERE'S YOUR CHRISTMAS IDEA.......

Every year I come up with some sort of fun "gimmick" (that's what the kids call it) that will get them excited about serving each other. After all that's what Christmas is about and if you can't be nice to the people in your own home then what's the point of being nice to anybody else. That seems kind of hypocritical to me.

So, tonight for family night, I introduced the kids to the "gotcha pillow" (oh yeah, there was eye rolling!!! but also smiling and laughing, so we're all good). Here's how the "gotcha pillow" works. I will start it tomorrow by doing some sort of kind deed for someone in the family. When I'm done I will slip the pillow case on their bed pillow (kind of like saying "gotcha!"). It will then be their turn to do a kind deed for someone else and give them the pillow case.

My prediction is this .... they will humor me for about 2 weeks, then we will slowly forget about it. We'll find the pillow case next season when we unpack the Christmas boxes and someone will say, "Hey mom, wasn't this last years gimmick?" But that's OK, because one day when they're parents I KNOW they will be asking, "Do you still have that gotcha pillow? Can I borrow it?"

Tear Jerker Giveaway

I am an adoptive mom. I am naturally drawn to childless couples, birthmom's, and adopted children....I just am. So, last week I was stopped in my tracks during Studio 5 when the following segment aired. (You have to watch the tail end of an add before the real segment comes on...sorry about that).

I was so touched by Kelly's positive attitude that before they could move on to the next story I was on her blog asking if I could introduce her to you. Not only did she say I could share her story, but she told me she would like to offer you a giveaway! The winner may choose the card design of their choice and Kelly will email you the pdf file and send you a disc so that you can have them professionally printed or print them out yourself.

HOW TO ENTER: Check out her blog and her etsy shop and tell me what you think. That's all you have to do to enter. You can get an extra entry by facebooking or tweeting about Kelly. I really want to help her get the word out...not just about her cards, but even more so about her desire for a child. Somewhere out there, there is a birthmom who would be the luckiest girl ever to find Kelly and her cute husband.

Make sure that you leave a comment about your initial entry and one about your extra entry. Please have an email address in one of your comments so that I can get you and Kelly together.

GOOD LUCK! Giveaway ends Friday Dec 4 at 10:00 pm

$100 Gift Card!

I'm totally breaking my holiday rule (no bobbity-blogging over the long holiday weekend), but I really need to let you locals in on this.

You know how I've been getting ready for Mindy Mae's Market? Well I just found out that there is a $100 gift card to Mindy Mae's Clinton show on Pinching Your Pennies. Check it out here.

This is going to be one amazing gift show. It is so big that they are using TWO model homes to house all of the booths. Click on Mindy Mae's button on my left sidebar to see some of the vendors.

I'm going to cross my fingers that one of my readers wins the gift card.... how cool would that be? GOOD LUCK!

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving. See you on Monday. Don't for get to enter Budz and Blossoms giveaway, it ends Friday night.

Hope you enjoy this Thanksgiving thought. I hope you watch it to the end. It makes me a little tearful every time I watch it. It is sweet.

While The Bread Sticks Baked.....

...We made some leg warmers.

(just that fast)

Liesl found this bright, big, bulky sweater at the D.I.

She bought it, not because it was cute, but because she saw

something else in it. Leg warmers and a sweater vest.

So, we cut off the sleeves.

Zig-zagged the raw edge. This was one loosely woven sweater.

We then turned the zig-zagged edge under about an inch and
a half. If she had wanted them to stay up I would have slipped
some wide elastic in the casing. But she wanted them to
slouch down so we just left them with a wide hem.

And before the dinger dinged (bread sticks remember)
......she had some leg warmers.