iMac turned iCat bed!

 Meet Howie, an 8 month old "teenage" tuxedo kitty. I've never owned a cat before, nor am a "cat person", but he's a really seems to be a perfect cat in nearly every way, and we couldn't be happier to have him here.

Crappy iPhone pic, sorry!

Meanwhile, a few retro iMac monitors have been collecting dust waiting to be transformed into something neat, and Howie's arrival finally set that into motion! Of course I had to make him the turquoise one. :)

 The iMac was gutted pretty completely, and then I sewed up a bed cushion and pillow set custom to the dimensions and interior slopes of the monitor. I did add a wheat sac infused with catnip oil underneath the bed to steady iCat from potentially being tippy as the back end of the monitor tapers upwards off the base. You could even warm that up on cold nights and spoil kitty rotten with an extra cozy bed, ha!

Check it out, pretty neat, huh?! Im super pleased with how iCat turned out. 

Howie quite loves it too, much more than the picture allows, ha! He's not really sure yet what to do when the camera is pointed his direction. 

Now what to do with the other iMacs...?! 

Birthday season!

My babies are now TWO and FOUR!

Of course I had to make G a birthday crown since L already had one. :)

G had a joint birthday swim party with one of his bestie's from school. I made their cake. I wasn't fancy or anything, but it captured their personalities well, and they both G and KR loved it. (And KR's mom, too, whew!).

As soon as I saw these, I knew I had to make little fish soaps for G's little friends to take home after the party. I picked up the goldfish at US Toy, the soap base and fragrance at a local craft store, and used Wilton clear treat bags and a piece of ribbon to tie it all off. The soap sets in an ice bath pretty quickly, and you just sit the finished product out to harden completely overnight.

What an aweful pic! So yellow! But you get the idea ;) 

I love this next pic. What little one wouldn't want to be surrounded by balloons?!

And my silly little L on his birthday. 

What a crazy that boy he is. I didn't have an "official" party for him this year, but he did celebrate at home, with his classmates, and spent the afternoon/evening at the State Fair. 

Poor Gunnar got nervous at the start. Logan had no fear whatsoever, of course!
But G loved it and was all smiles soon after the first circle round. :)

Happy birthday to my favorite little men in the whole world. I love my boys so much! 

Reading Nook

  I decided to turn fairly wasted space under the stairs into a reading nook for the boys. Both G and L love to read, and I also figured it would be a nice 'quiet time' space for G to rest when he didn't want to nap, rather than inadvertently waking his brother. ;-)

The before space. 

  I saw this DIY pillow sleeping bag on Pinterest and altered the idea a bit to make the cushion. I bought a twin flat sheet and cheap pillows, folded the sheet in half (sides together) and sewed straight lines through it to act as "pillow cases" for each segment. The case opening is one one end, rather than nicely hidden in the center as the original tuturial. Now, if the cushion was going to function more as a mobile sleeping bag, then I would follow her tutorial closely, but mine will always be up against that wall, so I really didnt care if the opening was more 'finished.' Either way though, sooooo easy! Seriously took maybe 30 minutes to pull the whole nook together. G and L added some stuffed friends and filled a long basket tucked under the first stair with books of their choosing and voila, the reading nook was complete.

I also added some of those soft floor mats underneath for extra cushioning.

The boys were quite surprised and very happy with their new space. I'm thinking about also adding a little curtain in the future to give it more of a "fort" kid feel. :)

 I dont know why the pics are coming out wonky? Like they look smooshed? Ah well!

Lunch Sacks!

 Made the boys some new lunch sacks for school! I had been considering different patterns, and even drafting my own pattern altogether, but this one pretty much had everything I was looking for. I wanted something that the boys could each carry easily, that was insulated, that could actually hold containers flat (most have depths so narrow) and that the boys could open but not necessarily easily ;).

I used cotton for the interior and exterior (the solid is medium weight canvas) and an Insul-Bright layer to keep contents hot/cold. I even got a chance to use a few specialty stitches from my machine to add a little personalization.

So far the bags have held up great! And they are super cute, IMO. I think when I get around to it, Ill make a few in adult size as well.

You can link to the lunch sack pattern through here.  :)

Summer T's

The boys had a friend stay the day with us, so we wanted to do something fun and decided on making t-shirts. I already have blank shirts in their sizes and paints/brushes and freezer paper stashed away, so it was an easy go-to activity. Freezer paper is so easy to work with, and super nice for little ones because you can leave the rest of the shirt mostly covered since its harder for them to stay within the 'stencil' area. ;-) I used the same method as here. They all had a blast, it was a gorgeous day for painting outside, and their friend had something tangible to take home as well. :)

Sweet turtle friend

I made this little girl back in February, but never posted about her. Probably because I never took "real" pics, rather just quick crappy phone pics. But she was a special little turtle friend and I still wanted her on the blog. :)

Isn't she the sweetest?!

I bought the pattern from Ric-Rac, but seriously the "story" behind this little turtle (originally a boy, "Ernst") is the sweetest. What a fun little blog she has too, don't ya think?!

Moving up to sous chef.

I'm ready! Lets get baking!

Mixing? You need mixing?! I got ya covered mama!

Mmm mmmm, worth all that hard work. Definitely.

A necklace for Leila. Aka- I made a pup collar.

Meet Leila. She's a 4 month old little Labradoodle girl. Such a sweet thing she is, too. She's been with us for a month now and fits right in with the family. And she seems to be loving her new pup collar. :)

I didn't follow a pattern for the collar, but I do think I remember seeing one in Amy Karol's Bend the Rules book, although her's was all fabric.

To make the collar, I sewed a strip of 5/8th inch ribbon onto 1-inch webbing and cut that to Leila's neck size plus ~6-inches (to accommodate for her growth and for threading through the buckle clasp). I did sandwich a little vertical loop of ribbon between the webbing and ribbon so that I could hang Leila's vaccine tags (off a small D-ring, not shown).

I have the collar threaded with the tail on the outside to show best how it's made, but it can also be threaded with the tail on the inside, so that you don't see the underside of the webbing at all. It really doesn't matter either way. Also, Leila wears a harness when we go on walks, so we don't attach the leash directly to her collar. If I did though, I'd add a D-ring vertically next to the un-adjustable end of the buckle before sewing down the webbing. If that makes sense.?

And heck, if you make one, while you're already sewing ribbon to webbing, you might as well throw together a matching key fob as well.  These would make great gifts, too! :)

First birthday- and crowning my little prince.

My littlest one, Logan, celebrated his first birthday last week. Last month when I saw how much Gunnar loved the paper birthday crown that his teachers had made for him, I knew I had to make something similar for Logan.  I wanted it to be fabric though, and ideally adjustable. And then I remembered this tutorial I had bookmarked a while back. Perfect!

The crown should fit Logan's head for a while, too. It didn't quite fit on my head, but almost, so that's promising for longevity. ;)

We had a nice family picnic celebration on Logan's actual birthday, and then had a little celebration party at home over the weekend. Well, we celebrated until poor little Logan got tangled up in fire ants and suffered a pretty bad allergic reaction.  Yep. Not pretty at all. :(

I know, it's blurry. But I still love this pic. Big brother was so excited for Logan. Such sweet boys I have. :)

Happy birthday to my sweet, silly, beautiful little Logan! I can't believe you are ONE. 

Brown Sugar Salami Chips

Let me just start by saying these chips are FANTASTIC. They don't make it past 20 minutes max in my house without being devoured (and its really only that long because they need to cool a bit first!). Gunnar LOVES them, and when all the chips are gone, he'll sit there,  focused, searching out every last little crumb. But heck, if it wasn't him, his daddy or I probably would be doing the same thing! No waste here, not with these bad boys.

The recipe was in Jewish Living Magazine from 2008. Here it is with my notes interjected:
Arrange one layer of thin salami slices on a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 325ºF until edges are crisp, about 30 minutes (Add 5 or 10 minutes on if needed to get those edges crisping). Remove from parchment and blot dry on paper towels. Combine 3 tablespoons dark brown sugar and 1 tablespoon water in a large, microwave-safe bowl (You only need 2T if you are making just half the salami). Microwave about 30 seconds until bubbly. Add chips, stir gently, and return them to the oven on a fresh sheet of parchment to bake 3 to 4 minutes at 300ºF (My chips usually need 5-7 minutes, and I get impatient and will often up the temp to 350 or 400. Yep. Breakin' the rules..ha).

Make sure you slice the salami as thin as you can. Or if you get it from a deli, have them do it for you! My slices are thin but do vary in thickness, which is kinda nice, so some come out softer or more crispy than others. But you cant beat how thin the deli can slice them (more like regular chips!). And FYI, the slices will shrink to about half there size. I've always used Hebrew National Salami as it got the best ranking out of 5 salami's reviewed in Jewish Living Magazine, from a 2008 feature. But I'm sure any salami would work fine.

Hope you enjoy these as much as we do!

Third year birthday canvas.

Okay okay, I promise this will me my last third birthday related post. ;) But I had to share G's third canvas, of course! This year Gunnar was a bit more purposeful with his art.

I secretly cringed a little when he began mixing and muddling the paint colors together. But it's his painting, so I bit my tongue and let him have his way. I'm glad I did, though, because I think he makes beautiful art. 

He calls it "Lots of fish, and a bird." The bird is the purple-ish creation on the bottom right side.

I am so glad he wanted to smash his hands in paint. Those little hand prints are so special to me and really mark him as such a big boy, and still so little, at the same time.

Not a great picture, but here they are together, clockwise from first birthday, hanging on my bedroom wall above my dresser.  Logan's first birthday canvas will fill that fourth spot in less than a month (yikes!).