Makeover (or maybe make under...)

I have some crafts coming, I promise. I just can't post them yet because I'm still deciding which craft I want to enter on this one site. Umm...More on that later.

For now? I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to be trying to make a few changes to Oops! I Craft My Pants within the next cuple of days.
Nothing spectacular, of course (after all, I'm teaching myself and not bringing in some special designer)
So anyway, don't be too alarmed if you try to get on here and realize that it looks awful. I will figure all of this out eventually!

Anyway guys, have a GREAT New Years Eve! Be safe!

Another post on the quilt

So, I'm back to show you the front of the quilt my mom made me for Christmas.

Isn't it beautiful? I am in love with it, and have a hard time letting anyone else cuddle with it. I'm pretty sure this is one of the best Christmas presents I've ever gotten.

Hopefully she'll update her blog soon and let you see the cute cute cuuuute quilts she made my nieces to wrap their baby dolls in.

Look What My Mom Made Me! (Preview)

Here's a little sneak peak of what my mom gave me for Christmas.

Isn't that tag cute? You'll definitely want to stay tuned to see pictures of the whole thing. She's so talented.

(Try to ignore my pajama shirt in that picture, okay? Pretend I'm dressed all amazing so I don't seem like a lazy bum.)

We have a winner!

Wow you guys, thanks so much for entering my giveaway. You guys are THE best. I'll get straight to the point. The winner was...NUMBER NINE!

2tontansy who said:

Not only did Tansy tweet all about the giveaway, she became a follower and facebooked about the giveaway. If that's not dedication, I'm not sure what is!

Tansy, email me (or facebook me, whatever) your mailing address and I will pass it onto the sponsor of this giveaway. I'm so excited for you (and your lucky kids).
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Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you have a great holiday. Thanks so much for reading.

Abbie post # 5 woohooo

Don't forget, the giveaway ends tomorrow at 8:45 pm! Hurry! Enter enter! (Was that enough exclaimation marks for ya?!)

Okay, here's Abbie's post!
ps. I get to see her in a few days!!
(Dang. Exclaimation marks are addicting)
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So, I haven't done a lick of crafting this week. I have, however, been making a lot of treats and assembling little treat plates for our neighbors. Oh, and I've been spending a lot of time eating those treats. More reasons this is the most wonderful time of the year: sugar, butter, & chocolate!

Anyway, I'm going to do a little flashback to 2008. These are the gifts I made* and gave to my moms (real, step (TAMI!), and in-law). They're magnetic boards. It was a lot of fun finding stuff to put on them: pictures, little books, ornaments (which I made*), & gift cards.

Sorry the picture is so bad. I snapped it in the dark right before I packaged them up to mail them (the bubble wrap). And that's my vacuum cord in the left corner.

Merry Christmas!!!
-Abbie

P.S. I get to see Erika this weekend!

*the idea of the boards and ornaments came from the genius minds of our old Super Saturday team. I can't take any credit for the idea. I just showed up, painted, assembled, and found the little things to go on the boards.

Fahrenheit 350

Hi! It's Kitty from Fahrenheit 350°! I'm so excited to be posting at Erika's fabulous blog! I thought I would share with you the way one of the ways I celebrate Christmas....

A Christmas Tree just isn't right without a star adorning the top stem. For me, a star symbolizes everything that constitutes what Christmas is. When Christ was born it signified His birth, the very birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ; it led the shepherds and the wise men to Him; and it is today representative of His guiding light and wisdom. The first year Gabriel and I were married, we didn't have money for ornaments or decorations, much less a star to light the top of our tree. Instead I stitched together a little homemade star, and sewed a small loop on the back out of yarn. 6 years later, this is what happened to our star...:


In this photo, Scooby Doo is representing Tipsy our 1 year old Lhasa Poo who should be aptly named for the untold amounts of mischief she conducts... or so I thought, until this morning when I found our star hiding below a smattering of ribbon rolls. I was elated! I hope that this star will last as long as we can perch it atop our tree. It is representative of our marriage, a shining beacon of what celestial glory we can attain as we place the Lord at the helm of our lives.

I love Christmas! In our home, decorating the Christmas tree lasts as long as the season itself. Of course we have one big trimming party to kick start the festivities, but like much of the rest of the season I just can't get enough of it. Plus of course, as the season progresses items are placed on sale, especially whole cranberries, and nothing is better than red strung cranberries on a green Christmas tree.

Starting with our first Christmas together we have retained, not only our tradition of keeping our scratch made star, but our tradition of scratch and earth made ornaments for our tree. The smell of fruit and pine couldn't appease my senses more delightfully. In addition to strung cranberries we slice lemons, limes, grapefruit and oranges sprinkled with a little bit of sugar. We leave them to sit overnight, and hang them to dry on the tree throughout the season. The tree lights shine through them and cast a beautiful glow upon the room. You can see a bit of a grapefruit ornament behind Scooby.

Even better,... you can reserve a few limes and make a lime tart; a few oranges and make Italian Cake, a few lemons to make Lemon Pudding Sandwich Cake, and save some grapefruit for tomorrow's breakfast brunch!

Lime Tart
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 cup butter
Cut ingredients together until they resemble small pebbles and then press into tart pan

Whip together:
4 eggs until they turn light yellow
14 oz. sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup lime juice (2)
Grated limes (2)
Pour into crust. Bake at 350° for 12 minutes
Remove and cool

In addition to our fruit ornaments, this year, we wrapped up candy ornaments.

Cut out 4x4/5x5/6x6 (depending on the size of ornaments you want) squares of fabric
Place a handful of assorted wrapped candy in the center of the fabric
Tie with an adorable ribbon

These are a colorful addition to your tree, plus double as a treat whenever you get the urge for something sweet!

Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Happy Kwanzaa!

Last Minute Stocking Stuffer

**Don't forget! The giveaway is still going until Christmas Eve. You still have time to enter!**

As I was browsing the toy section at Walmart (in search of something for an upcoming craft), I came across some magnetic letters for just a dollar! I decided to buy them, in hopes that I would find something to do with them.

I decided to Mod Podge wrapping paper onto them. Perfect!

For this project, I didn't really want the paper to lay totally flat. I wanted a few wrinkles, just so that they wouldn't be so plain.

(do you see the hidden word?)

They were so easy to make. All I did was Mod Podge the front of each letter and press them on the back of the wrapping paper. Once I got a good stamp of the letter onto the Mod Podge, I peeled the letter off and cut out the outline that my letter left. Then, I just Mod Podged the wrapping paper letter onto the magnetic letter.
(Did that even make sense? I'm trying to hurry! I have a Christmas party I need to go to!)

The only thing that would make these better is if I would have painted the sides so that they matched the paper. Or, if I had lots of time, maybe I would have wrapped the sides as well.

Wouldn't these be fun as a stocking stuffer? Or, even as a birthday present if you used some different wrapping paper.

Giveaway hey hey.

Disclaimer: this is the longest post ever. Also, I didn't use spell check because it ruined my post a few weeks ago. I just didn't trust it with this novel. Please don't judge me for crazilly spelled words.

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by CSN stores (specifically http://www.allmodern.com/, http://www.allmodernbaby.com/, and http://www.allmodernpet.com/) about hosting a giveaway for them. Immediately I was in. Their online stores are the best. Nothing but the greatest quality of products at great prices.

I decided that since Christmas is coming up (can you believe it's almost a week away?) that I would do a toy giveaway from All Modern Baby. So, ONE lucky winner will win this Boon Frog Pod Delux ($40 value) AND these great wood blocks ($27 value). Here's a little about the items.

Boon Frog Pod Delux Features (copied from the link above):

•Comes with 15 designer bath appliqués, three balls and two mini-scrubbies
•Makes bath time clean-up fun & easy
•Adhesive strips included for easy application
•Drainable scoop for draining and rinsing toys
•Keeps bath products safely out of reach
•Stores & organizes bath accessories
•Reduces mold & mildew
•Featured on HGTV and in countless magazines!
•Award winning: iParenting Media Award Winner Best Products of 2007, Preemie Magazine's Cool Stuff Award Winner 2006, JPMA Innovations Award Winner 2005, Baby Zone Amazing Toy Awards 2005

notNeutral Wood Block Set Features (also copied from above):

"Go beyond garden variety alphabet blocks with notNeutral's beautiful wood block set. These versatile modern blocks actually form letters, numbers and puzzles! The letters combine vintage and contemporary fonts and simple equations can be solved using the dual-toned graphic numbers. The signature notNeutral apples pattern creates a puzzle, and the last two sides form recognizable Season pattern elements: the flora and fauna pattern and the tree structure. Combine the sides to create three-dimensional stories using words, numbers and pictures. A great gift for all ages!"

•Set of twelve wood blocks
•Includes wood tray
•Made in the U.S.A.
•Dimensions of each block: 1.75" x 1.75"

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Want to enter? Great! Here are a few ways to get entries:

1- Comment and tell me who you'd give these awesome toys to.
2- Become a follower, or tell me you already are one. I'm going to check so be honest kids!
3- Blog all about this awesome giveaway and leave me a link.
4- Tweet about this giveaway and leave me a link.
5- Facebook about this give away, and you guessed it, leave me a link.
6- Write about this giveaway on your favorite message board and tell me all about it/leave me a link.

For every entry, please please please pleeeease leave a different comment. It's hard to keep track of all your entries otherwise.

If you mess up on one of your comments, please delete it and write a new one, so that I don't accidently count one entry twice.

**This giveaway is open to US residents only (sooo sorry)... It has to do with the companies shipping policies. If you aren't a U.S. resident and still want to enter, let me know in each of your comments and we can work something out where you pay shipping or something if you win.


WHEEEEW. That's it, I think!

Giveaway ends on Christmas Eve at 8:45 pm MST and the lucky winner will be announced shortly after.

Good luck everyone!

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Still looking for that perfect gift for a special child in your life? Check out online toys. It's a great source for online toys You won't be disappointed in the selection. I promise.

Another Abbie Post

Renewing an old holiday craft:

I made this NOEL craft 2 years ago with a huge group of women (Super Saturday). I love them (so does my husband), but I always struggled to find a good place to put them - they're small and they fall down when propped against something.

So this year, during my craft extravaganza, I slapped some magnetic strips on the back and put them on my fridge. The fun colors totally work in my kitchen with my Christmas cookie & candy canisters (say that 10 times fast).

Do you revisit old crafts to make them better?

Shaped Crayons

The other day, I saw these way cute ice cube trays at Ikea. Immediately, I knew that they would make the best crayons ever.

So, I grabbed some crayons (what a great use for all those broken ones around your house!),

took all the wrappers off and put them in the trays,

and melted them in a preheated oven at 250 degrees.

When they were all melted, I carefully took them out of the oven and stuck them in the freezer to set. After that, they were easy to pop on out and use. Not that I tried them out (much)...

Sorry, no picture of the finished project. I gave them away before I remembered to get a picture. Dang. Next time.

EDIT: If you are going to try this out, make sure to use silicone icecube trays, not the regular old plastic ones. Those will melt in the oven, silicone won't.
Also, if you read my comments on this post you'll get some way helpful tips. Alexis says she made them with muffin tins. What a perfect size crayon for a little one!

The Promised Post

On Friday I promised to let you all see my Christmas tree. So, here it is. I copied the post from my family blog. I hope ya don't mind.

ALSO. If you want an ad on my side bar for FREE you should email me (sorry no comments, it gets too confusing to keep the exact count when I mix emails in and such) at erika.senneff(at)gmail(dot)com. There are only a few spots left!

Okay, the tree post.
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I'm not sure if you heard, but we got a cat.

...We didn't mean to get a cat (in fact, I hate cats). It just sort of happened. His name is McGonagall (after Professor McGonagall in Harry Potter, of course). I found him at work one day last month.

I was just standing in the office at the school getting ready for the class I teach, when this cute cat started rubbing against my leg. Poor guy was starving and apparently was living inside the school and mooching off all the kids during lunch. They would save food especially for him. So cute.

Anyway, that's not the point of this post. The point of this post is to tell you that he is the worst cat in the world.

One day, we came home and weren't able to find him anywhere. We were searching everywhere. I thought for sure he was gone (and, don't tell Tyler...But, I was kind of relieved about it. He kind of smells)...Then I looked in the tree and there he was.


It was cute. Until he tipped over the tree and broke all of the ornaments.

He decided this was his new favorite past time, and proceeded to tip over the tree over and over and over (and over and over)...It now looks like this. And, I'm depressed. It won't straighten out. We are stuck with a whoville tree.



Moral of the story? Never get a cat.

Another post on advertising

I've decided to have a Christmas Special for the first six readers to contact me. I will host your button on my blog completely FREE for the rest of December. Why? Because I love you and know that everyone could use a little more exposure!

Don't worry, if you aren't one of the first six, I'll still give you a rockin' deal.

I'm looking forward to your emails!

Advertising

Are you interested in putting your button on Oops! I Craft My Pants? I'm now offering advertising for super cheap. If you want in on the action, and would love to be a "sponsor" of this here blog, feel free to email me at erika.senneff(at)gmail(dot)com.

glitter reindeer

The other day, I found this awesome cardboard reindeer at the craft store (only 50 cents) and knew he needed a pick me up. Instantly, I knew that glitter (and a little Mod Podge) would be just what the doctor ordered for this guy.

I love how sparkly he is. I'm tellin' ya, glitter is the perfect remedy for those bland decorations. Sure, you'll be finding glitter all over your house for months, but it's worth it. I promise.


Um. yeah. That's a Christmas tree that fell over. Stay tuned for the full story coming Monday.
(or, if you read my family blog, (it's lame) you'll see the story there in a few minutes.)

Abbieee.

Last week, I was literally crafting my pants off! I took a tricky trip down to Michaels (a 20 minute subway ride with a 6 long block walk in the rain - not so easy), but it was so worth it. Plus, late hours painting, mod podging, etc. I think I’ll make next year a little more simple...or not. Anyway…

Reporting on the 4 crafts (in order of how much I like them) + 1 more:

The Advent Calendar:

This was a headache, but I love how it turned out. It took way too long and shows that I truly am a beginner (don’t look too closely - you can see dried gorilla glue oozing out from behind the boxes - I tried to paint over it, but it looks a little icky). It was tricky to find a way to get the boxes to stay on the painted canvas. Gorilla glue worked great, I just should have read the directions first - it’s toxic and oozes. Lesson learned. My kids have loved opening a little box everyday for some candy or prize. Advent calendars are the best!

Next, the ornaments:

Easy and fun. I love embroidery loops.

The vintage (buzz word) inspired yarn trees:

Okay, these make me laugh so hard. I saw this, did a few images searches, and got an idea of what I wanted to do. When they were finished, I was laughing so hard. I don’t know, I guess they’re fun for the kids to play with. And if I say they’re vintage inspired, then maybe that makes them look a little better, like I’m hip or something. But, let’s be honest, they’re a little goofy.

The boring wreath:

It’s just boring. I had to cut a lot off our tree to make it fit on the table, so I used the extra greenage to make the wreath. Maybe I’ll try to fix it/add to it next year. This was the last project and I think I was getting a little burnt out. Oh well. It’s something to put on our bookcase.

You can see the whole thing put together here in our apartment. I don’t leave all our Christmas decorations in our window - it’s just the best place in our apartment to get a picture with my old point-n-shoot.

+

My baby girl needed a bow to match a holiday outfit:

Only 16 days!!!

Tree Question

While watching America's Funniest Home Videos yesterday, it dawned upon me that some people don't decorate the back of their trees.
It seemed like a great idea. So, I wanted to try it out tonight when I decorated my tree.

I just couldn't do it, though. The perfectionist in me just couldn't leave the back of the tree bare, even if no one would be able to see it.

So! Now I want to know if you decorate the back of your tree. Why or why not?

Also, sorry for the lack of crafts up here. I have a few in process, they're just not finished yet because finals are coming up (ugh). I can't wait for Christmas break!

Abbie Wednesday

I just love Wednesdays because it means we get to see what Abbie has come up with. Isn't she just the best? I think we need a fun creative name for Wednesdays with Abbie, don't you think? I'll be brainstorming. You should, too! The person who comes up with the best name may just get a shout out on this here blog of mine.
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Just the beginning:

We live in 850 sq ft. Where to put the tree? On the table in the kids' bedroom, of course. Add some wrapping paper to the walls and a tablecloth with a hole cut in it. (See the table before December hit here.)

Reuse:

I wanted to do something with the (broken) star from our first Christmas together. Added a few balls and put it in a fish bowl.

I have four more crafts and a big trip to Michaels planned for this week. Hopefully I'll have a full report next Wednesday. Wish me luck!

- Abbie

Giveaway Winners

Before I announce the official winners, can I just tell you a little story? I was on random.org figuring out the winners, when number 40 won. I was so excited, that I hurried and counted all the way down the comment list to number 40. Who else would it be but my MOM? So weird.
I called her and explained my dilemma. She told me I'd better pick a different winner so that it wouldn't look like this giveaway was rigged. Isn't she cute?

ANYWAY!

The winner of the Mod Printables first prize goes to number 97, Carey!

Who said:

And, since Alisa is so amazing, she decided to give away THREE 2nd place winners. Bless her heart, right? So, all three winners will recieve a $5 gift certificate to Mod Printables. So, without further ado, the three 2nd place winners are:

ba and the boys commenter (is that a word?) number 1

Who said:

Comment number 37, from Heidi

Who said:

And last (but not least) is comment number 4, from Philip, Melissa, & Summer

Who said:

Congrats, winners! To claim your prize (and you'll definitely want to), just send me an email to [email protected] and she'll let you know all the deets.

Thanks so much for entering you guys. And thanks so much, Alisa for being so giving!

Stay tuned because in the next week, we'll be having another AMAZING giveaway, which you are not going to want to miss. I've lost sleep over this next one, people! It's that great.

Blog Crashing

I love myself a good party. Here are the blog parties you can (usually) find me crashing. Do you have a blog party on your blog? LET ME KNOW! Please? I would love to be invited.

Monday:

Tuesday:

Wednesday:




Thursday:

Friday:




Saturday: