Thursday, November 29, 2012

boutique!

I'm super excited for the opportunity I have to participate in a local boutique this weekend! I dropped off two big bags full of puppets, ornaments, and hand warmers this evening, and got a sneak peak at some of the amazing items that will be available. If you're in the area, you should definitely go check it out!

Traditions Boutique
445 North 900 East American Fork Utah
November 30 and December 1
10 am to 6 pm

Prepping for the boutique was a little bit crazy... I had piles of felt, stacks of puppets, scraps and threads everywhere, and at one point I think six different pairs of scissors...


Here's a glimpse of the mess and the madness! So many puppets!!

But in the meantime, go check out the boutique! There will be lots of amazing things there!

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Happy Thanksgiving! I should be making pies... but decided to take a little break and write a quick post letting everyone know about my Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale.

From November 23 to November 26, I'm offering free shipping to all orders shipped in the U.S.! Just enter the coupon code FREESHIPPING at checkout.

And here's just a few items from my shop that you can get free shipping on Friday through Monday.





Have a Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow! And good luck to anyone brave enough to actually venture out on Black Friday!!

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

one year

I realized a few days ago that it's been just barely over a year since I opened my etsy shop and started this blog!

It's been a great adventure so far. I've learned so much, had a lot of fun, and grown my skills and my business. I'm still not entirely sure where I want this all to go, but I'm figuring it out along the way, and enjoying the ride in the meantime.

So today I say thank you to those of you who have ever read this blog, visited my shop, been inspired by my ideas, and shared your own ideas. Here's to more great years to come!

And I'll leave you with few of my favorite Thanksgiving projects.



Thursday, November 8, 2012

Daniel in the lion's den

I did another set of Bible story finger puppets - Daniel in the lion's den! It's always a favorite, and such a fun one to have puppets for.


I decided to test out the puppets with my two-year-old today to see how he liked them. So I told him about how Daniel prayed, and the king put him in the den of lions, and Daniel was scared the lions would eat him so he prayed and was safe. What did my toddler get out of it? "Lions eat him!" Hmm... I think I might need to tell it a little differently. (see Daniel chapter 6 for the full story) :)


 The king, Daniel, an angel, and two lions


I'm working on a bunch of new sets that I'm trying to get finished and listed for Christmas sales, so look forward to (hopefully) lots more posts and lots more puppets!

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

thanksgiving puppets

A few weeks ago I started on some Thanksgiving finger puppets. I was feeling so ahead of things! But of course I didn't finish them when I started them, and realized the other day that if I didn't get them finished and listed in the shop soon, I might as well just wait until next year! So I actually got them finished and listed.

Pilgrims, a turkey, and Native Americans Thanksgiving finger puppet set

I love the way this little turkey turned out. The colors are just so fall! I also love that my two-year-old runs around saying "gob-gobbo" whenever we talk about turkeys.

Native American finger puppets. (Is it ok to call them Indians? Is that offensive, or just not PC? I never know with these things...) I actually braided the felt for the girl's hair. I think that's my favorite thing about her.

Pilgrim finger puppets, with a buckle on the hat for the boy and apron and bonnet for the girl.


The whole set

I'm getting so excited for Thanksgiving! I absolutely love making pies. I might have to start trying out a few recipes now to decide which ones to make for the big day... :)



Tuesday, November 6, 2012

green hummus

Have any of you seen the Brian Regan bit about how cranberries are getting into everything? Well, first of all, it's pretty funny, and second, I'm kinda feeling that way about spinach. But you know, I'm ok with spinach getting into everything. It's so good for you, and it's one of the few vegetables I can sneak into my two-year-old's diet.

So I came up with another way to sneak in some spinach this week: Green Hummus.


And it was actually really tasty, really healthy, really easy to make, and my little guy gobbled up his "green sauce" and asked for more!

One of the reasons I decided to experiment a bit with food this past week is that we took Jack off dairy to see if that was the cause of some tummy troubles. And let me tell you, taking a kid off diary whose favorite food is cheese is quite a task! I had to get pretty creative, especially getting protein and calcium into him. Hence the green hummus.

One other thing that's nice about this recipe - in addition to being very healthy and fresh, it's also dairy-free, gluten-free, and soy-free, which I know is a big issue for a lot of people.

I looked at a few different hummus recipes, and then (as my mom constantly teases me for) mostly ignored them and came up with my own recipe. So here it is!

Green Hummus

Ingredients:
1 can chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
2 Tbsp lime juice
2 Tbsp tahini
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cumin
1-2 cups spinach leaves
salt and pepper to taste
water (if needed)

1. Place all ingredients in a food processor. (I didn't measure the spinach, I basically just filled the rest of the food processor with as much as would fit.)


2. Blend all ingredients until smooth, stopping and scraping down the sides as needed. If it seems too thick, add a little water for a smoother consistency.


3. Serve with pita chips, crackers, vegetables, etc.


You could also add roasted red peppers, sundried tomatoes, or fresh cilantro for a little variety.


Update: I recently decided to start a separate blog for recipes and food/cooking tips. You can see this hummus recipe and a whole lot more over at Modern Mommy's Kitchen!



Monday, November 5, 2012

tricksy little hobbitses

The good news is: I actually finished all of our Halloween costumes in time to wear them for Halloween! The bad news: It's hard to get good pictures of a two-year-old and three-month-old wearing their costumes. But they did look incredibly adorable, and I think we'll probably have to use these costumes again at some point because they really were pretty awesome.

So here we have Galadriel, Samwise, Frodo, and Gandalf.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find any witch hats that weren't covered in feathers and other nonsense and require too much work to make a proper Gandalf hat. And I certainly didn't have time to make an actual hat. So that meant that everyone thought my husband was Moses. Costume FAIL. But really, if you look at all of us together, it's pretty obvious who he is. Right? Right? Apparently these costumes were about a decade too late. Or we just live somewhere with people who clearly aren't awesome enough to appreciate LOTR.

Little Frodo ready to go trick-or-treating.  He looks so happy about it! (He was actually incredibly excited about trick-or-treating, just much less excited about taking pictures.)

I managed to make all four of our costumes for about $35, which considering how complex some of them were, I think was really quite cheap.  (I probably should have spent a few more dollars and gotten Gandalf a hat...Oh well.) Here's how I made them on such a small budget:

For Frodo's costume, I made him a cloak (check out my pattern and tutorial), and a shirt and vest (from a Simplicity pattern), and he wore a pair of 9 month pants that were very much too short, but could still stretch over his skinny waist. I was able to get the felt for the cloak on sale, the fabric for the vest on sale, and use some muslin scraps from a previous project for the shirt. That's one of the nice things about making clothes for little ones - a lot of times you'll have enough fabric in scraps from other projects to make something!

I also made the "leaves of Lorien" with some leaf buttons and silver jewelry wire, and a safety pin on the back. They're pretty small, but it was ok since they were for some pretty small hobbits! I used the same wire to make my headpiece - not nearly as fancy and pretty as Galadriel's, but it worked and it was cheap!

My little hobbits! Frodo and Samwise. Looking tired post trick-or-treating

For my little Samwise, I made the same cloak just a smaller version, and made the leaf pin, and the rest was clothes we already had. He just wore an off-white onesie, brown pants, and an old vest of Jack's that I took in a bit because it was way too big.

For Galadriel, I stole my sister's old angel costume. It was HUGE! So I did what I could to take it in a bit, altered the neck line, added a lace applique, and and found a lace ribbon to tie around my waist so it wouldn't be completely enormous. Oh, and I already mentioned the headpiece, but I also used the silver wire to turn a pretty flower button into Galadriel's ring.


Extra bonus: When I bought the buttons, they were buy one get one free, so the leaf buttons were free!

I actually spent more on the gray fabric for Gandalf's robe than on any other one item. The fabric was actually on sale, I just needed a lot of it! My husband is rather tall... But then we borrowed the wig and beard from his dad, who has a Santa costume, so that was free!  

So here are the keys to doing awesome Halloween costumes cheaply:
1. Use clothes/costumes you already have and just alter them if needed
2. Use scrap fabric
3. Shop sales
4. Borrow things

Some day I hope to have enough money to make more authentic and elaborate costumes... but until then, I think we did pretty well with these!

Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween!!