Miniature Pillow

Micah recently decided that he enjoys sleeping on a pillow.... he's not at all opinionated-- and no I have no idea where he gets it from. 

So being the awesome super on top of it Mom that I am (hahaha) I found a small 12"x17" pillow form at Joanns... it's super comfortable I think I spent the same $ on my pillow... ridiculous

So of course the miniature pillow needed a miniature pillow case. I just happened to have some of Denyse Schmidt's Joann's line that goes perfectly with his quilt... every time I see this pattern at the store I want to buy more of it... 

 Uber said he hasn't been laying on it at night : ( but he actually slept later than me this morning and I went to check on him and he was all cute and asleep on it. I tried to get a picture but I ended up just waking him up... ugh!

Beau was here

I know this isn't crafting related but I thought the family would like a few pictures...

It was great to see him for a few days

 during which we basically just did a whole lot of eating.

 and he caught up on his duties as an Uncle

 Micah loved every minute of it!

Garden Friends- Garden Tuesday

To those who are afraid of spiders..... I'm sorry. This spider is just too strange and wonderful not to share. 

She's called a spiny orb weaver. Some people call them crab spiders. You can see why. The are classified as beneficial spiders for the garden so she and/or her sisters got to live in the tree above the hammock.

I know she looks large here but she's barely as big as my fingernail.

Some of our other beneficial neighbors/residents are bats. This was the second of several we've found sleeping in our umbrella. I'd been wanting to make bat houses for them but now it seems unnecessary....

These guys are kinda cute and kinda scary, but I do like that they eat mosquitoes and gnats!

I never expected such a variety of "wildlife" in a city type yard.

I'm linking to Pam over at Sidewalk Shoes.

Thank You!

First of all, thanks so much for following us over to our new space! We hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. Ours was spent with family, friends and food. It was good.

So on to our winners!

For her choice of pouch from Mums shop number--

 Crafterhours - Adrianna


For her choice of garland from the my shop number--

 Sherie Lee

And for the Suprise number--

Kelly's Korner

So what is the surprise? Well Mum and I were feeling festive and I stumbled on this photograph for sale on etsy the other day. (shop here) 

It inspired me because I remembered Mum told me that the Cinnamon ornaments were very popular back at the Patch Craft Shop... (Mum still has the ornaments she bought from Mary) and I thought wouldn't it be awesome to make a cinnamon garland?! (I am not sure what they are made out of in this photo- maybe FIMO? )

So we got to work - and decided it was amazing and we must send it out to someone to enjoy or we'd be fighting over who gets to keep it... which would be messy... mainly because of the glitter but also because we both really want it! (I still think I would have won)

We enjoyed it so much we realized  we should just show everyone how to make their own because it's so easy and fun and it will make your house smell like Christmas.

Cinnamon Ornament Garland Tutorial

We used this recipe with variations (I bolded them below).

Ingredients

• 1 cup ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon ground cloves
• 1 tablespoon ground nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon allspice
• 3/4 cup applesauce
• 2 tablespoons wood glue

Supplies

ginger bread cookie cutter- we used the Dad from this set which we found at Michaels

Craft hole punch or circle icing decorating tip

Glitter - We used Martha Stewart Glitter in Brownstone

Glue/paint brush - We used Martha Stewart Glitter Glue which includes a brush inside

Ribbon

embroidery needle

Directions

In a medium bowl, stir together dry ingredients. Mix in the applesauce and glue. Work the mixture with your hands 2 to 3 minutes to form a ball. If mixture is too wet, add more cinnamon. If mixture is too dry, add more applesauce.

Lightly dust a clean surface with cinnamon. Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out gingerbread men. You can re-roll dough to get as much as possible out of each batch.

Use a hole punch or circle icing tip to make a hole for hanging with a ribbon.

Dry in a slow oven, 200 degrees F (100 degrees C) for several hours, or air dry in a sunny spot for 4 or 5 days. Some people suggest flipping to keep them nice and flat. 

When dry coat top with glue using a paint brush, sprinkle generously with glitter and then knock off  the excess for reuse.

When dry, string on ribbon. We used a continuous piece of ribbon and just went through each arm twice to create a loop, then ran the ribbon along the back to keep each gingerbread man from moving

Enjoy decorating your house with garland or ornaments- these things smell wonderful and with the glitter addition the sparkle like crazy

**Winners** Please contact us with your picks and address information so we can mail your prizes.
(jessica_m_m@hotmaildotcom)


Thanks so much for playing along!

Welcome to Created Blissfully!

Very good, you clicked over to see us- we love you! We know that you're most interested in knowing about the aforementioned bribe so let's get straight to the details. READY?

Follow us! Leave a comment that you did so - and you will be entered - it's that easy!

What are we giving away? Well we thought 3 prizes were better than one SO............ 

Mom's giving away a  pouch from the shop. I'm giving away 2 garlands from the shop.

These will be winner's choice!

We are giving away one addition surprise item that we will show you on the day of the draw.

Commenting will be open through next Sunday evening and we will announce all 3 winners Monday morning.

 Our goal is to try and blog on a more regular basis! We are having so much fun hanging out and doing silly things, sometimes we forget to tell you about all of it. (well, mom's just lazy)

Oh, and most of all we won't have to fight about who gets to post cute pics of  Micah!

Napkins

Years ago when I was lots younger, with young kids, and not a lot of cash, I still wanted to give everyone Christmas gifts. I decided to make napkins! I used the most lovely calico fabrics, enclosing each square with a mitered corner frame. As ugly as we'd all think they are now, I worked very hard on making them perfect, and I used mine untill they died. I think my Mom is the only one maybe still hanging on to a couple. (Love you mom!)

A few weeks ago I went to the Jacksonville quilt show. I had a great time wandering through seeing some amazing quilts, trying out long arms (oh how I miss you Millenium) and looking through shops. Jacksonville very few fabric shops for such a large city, so it was fun to see such variety in one place. 

At one shop I spotted this piece of Farmers Market by Sandi Henderson and not far from that I saw a fabric I'd not seen before. I found out it's by Hoodie, whom I've also never heard of, though she has been designing fabric for years. This line is called Vegie Patch. The eggplant fabric was all I could find at the show. There on the spot I decided to revisit my napkin making. We go through a lot of napkins but I also do a lot of laundry so why not combine the two.... After looking at the line, the eggplant is my favorite, but I want to get the others to make more napkins, four is not enough.

They finished out at about 22 inches. I love the mitered corners. I made these by just wrapping the fabric from the back and framing my focus fabric. The solid green is Kona Grass. Is there anything you made years ago that you've decided to make again? I wonder if in twenty more years I'll think this fabric was a "lovely" choice?

Shirts For the Boy

I love, love, love dress shirts on men, even/or especially on little guys. I purchased an extra large dress shirt while back in Germany because the fabric was a yummy Italian cotton. I thought I'd re-purpose it for myself but when Jess asked me to make Micah a shirt I knew that this was a better option. I used the Sketchbook Shirt pattern by Oliver & S again. It goes together so simply. Even though I like to use a real stand up collar on bigger shirts, this one is easy to make in a short time, and really, spending a lot of time making small clothes that will usually be outgrown before they are worn out is kind of silly. Now, ask me how long it took me to finish these...... no don't, because I don't want to tell.

Meet Mac, my size 2 kids mannequin that I got for $25.00 at a very cute shop that went out of business. I was very sad to see the shop close but since I didn't know it was happening, I was very glad that I went in time to rescue him. Don't make fun of him please, if I ever decide to dress him as a girl.

Oh how I love stripes.

I got very tired of trying to remember what sizes I've made for Micah and on these shirts with a yoke facing the solution was simple. Pooh to my machine for messing up the number 8.

I also had some gingham that I'd been gifted ( I cannot remember who gave it to me! It had been used for table clothes?) anyway, as some of you have already seen, it was put to good use for Micah's first birthday.

 It's so fun to see this little guy running around in things I've made!