sweet hearts

it's time for a little love. so i made a valentine's garland to add some festive to the house.

I'm a big fan of felt garland because it's pretty much the easiest thing to make.

Just cut up some felt in your desired shapes and colors and then sew them together onto some embroidery thread or yarn.

I cut up hearts, birds, x's, and o's: 

I sewed the thread to the backside of my felt pieces in my preferred order:

And ta-da, my garland was complete: 

I made it a bit long so I pinned it up in three places to scallop it like so:

Now we have some sweet hearts in the place!

(hehe, get it?)

And yes, Ashley and I have already made all our valentine's this year, pictures on those after they've been received.

Hope you are crafting some of your own!

xoxo

stockings filled with cheer

No Christmas decor is complete without stockings.  So I had to make some for the Forum. 

I made one for myself, mike, megan, and jonathan.  Yes, it's true, the last two don't live with us, but we like them a lot.

I picked a red lightweight fleece (I think they call it baby fleece, or flannel...) with little white polka dots, and then a white and green linen for the trim and lining. 

I drew a stocking on cardboard and then drew a half-inch border around it and cut it out.  

Next I cut out all the necessary pieces.  This works out to be:

2 red cutouts per completed stocking, 

2 whites with an extra inch-and-a-half at the top, 

and 2 one-inch wide pieces of green 

**remember when cutting out the stockings to fold the fabric in half, with right sides out, so you will have a front and back piece

Your pieces should then line up as so:

The first step is to sew the green trim to the white lining.  You will sew them to the "front" of each white piece, as if the backsides were touching each other, so one stocking's lining should look like this:

Then when you put the respective white piece behind the red and flip down the trim you get this:

Then sew the green trim edge to the red, about an inch down from the top of the red piece:

Then iron all of the pieces.  

Fold each side of the trim over and put the two red pieces right-side in:

then sew around the edge of the stocking except for the top and trim edges: 

Flip inside out and ta-da:

Stockings for all! 

I then used some stamps and fabric paint to print our names on the stockings.

Hope everyone is ready for Christmas!

xoxo

Christmas Decor, Part I

(some supplies)

I do love decorating the house. And Christmas time of course requires a fresh set of decorations. 

So I'll just go through the sections.

The wreath: 

Crafted of course. The wreath is from Hobby Lobby and the sprag/picks (depending on your view) are from Hobby Lobby and Michaels. I attach mine with mini zip-cords. 

Ta-da:

Next up, the garland. You know I love a garland.  This one uses felt pendants, bells, and ornaments. 

I used a paint pen to write out be merry on the ornaments (frosted glass)

And sewed the felt pendants to some red yarns with a zig-zag stitch.  

(I did the same thing for the fall garland)

I then tied the ornaments and bells to the yarn in between the pendants:

There are three little scenes (i guess scenes, i don't know what else to call them) made from a variety of things.

On the coffee table, scene 1: pine cones, bowl with bells and gilded mini pine cones, cranberry pick, gold acorn pick, and a frosted white pick of mixed fruit and leaves, on a green felt pendant:

Other side of the coffe table: a pumpkin! (yes yes yes, deal with it) some felt in green and red, a candy-inspired pick, pine cone, glittered santa sign, and jar filled with mini ornaments  bells, gilded baby pine cones, and regular pine cones:

On the bar: a glittered noel sign, a bowl with bells, cranberries, and gilded mini pine cones, another filled jar, a felt stocking, white snowflake, and santa head. 

The stockings: (post to come on how to make these):

The mantel: 

In the middle, some candles, a leaf trivet, and a nativity scene ornament from the Wooley's:

On the sides: pine leaves, pine cones, and various metallic picks:

(Almost) All together now:

 

Hope you've had fun decorating for the holiday season!

xoxo

a wedding in arkansas

Ok, so this is even older, but back in the very beginning of November, two dear friends of mine got hitched back in Arkansas.

Jonathan joined me for a weekend in my old stomping grounds and got to meet my arkansas loves.

We stayed with Jake and Emmy, who of course loved us:

Emmy with her bow tie

The wedding was beautiful and in the Chapel of our College 

After the ceremony we gave Jonathan a tour, Megan and my handprints are still by VZ!

The reception was so much fun, filled with dancing, cocktails, adorable centerpieces,

and of course, a photo booth!

May I just say, they did this the right way: each visit to the photo booth produced two copies so you could keep one and then the other was put into a scrapbook, which you signed for the bride and groom.  So smart.

It was a lovely wedding and so great to see everyone.  

Congrats Mac and Amelia! 

We are so happy for you.

xoxo

'grammed

Easy craft time:

Those chipboard/wood letters were on sale at the craft store so I picked up a 'g' thinking I would paint it and put it up somewhere. 

It sat in the to-be-crafted drawer for a while until I was in the mood for a quick craft. 

I kept it in line with the other colors of my bedroom and painted the base gray (with basic acrylic craft paint) and then after it had dried, used masking tape to make some stripes and paint them teal and gold (also with acrylic craft paint): 

And then I couldn't decide where to put it...I've been in need of something above the bed so I decided to frame it.

I put it directly on the glass of a frame (that I had already painted a dark gray) and then put a piece of ivory linen behind it, followed by the back of the frame.

I used a hammer to push down on the metal pieces to hold it all in since the wood 'g' is a bit thick.

All done:

And above the photo garland that is still in progress, of course...

xoxo

wrapping up october

October was pretty packed with fun fall times.  

And it wrapped up in full fall fashion with a visit from Casey.  

We drank some beer.

Well, they drank a lot of beer,

And I drank a little:

aaand, Jonathan and I carved our pumpkin patch pumpkins

he did a pumpkin, in a pumpkin, in a pumpkin,

and i did a cat face saying boo! 

and now we are well into my birthday month! crazy times.

xoxo

pumpkin potluck

Megan and I hosted a pumpkin potluck on Sunday to celebrate the best gourd, and the wonderful fall season.

It was pum-tastic! 

(this is now the 100th time I've made this joke, it never gets old)

We had the fall decor ready to go!

 

Along with some mood lighting of course,

I made pumpkin lasagna (recipe below), and others brought delicious pumpkin dishes like chili, pasta, cookies, milkshakes, and beer. We also had some wonderful dishes that were not pumpkin, since variety is the spice of life -- fruit salad, chicken, and chocolate cookies. 

oh yes, a winner of a night.

Part of the feast:

It was so delicious, we were so full.  We couldn't even decorate paper pumpkins or play games as we had intended, the pumpkin feast was too much for our meager stomachs to handle! 

But so worth it.

PumpkinPant's Pumpkin Lasagna Recipe:

Layers (from Bottom to top):

Butter, Noodles, Onion-Spinach Mixture, Noodles, Pumpkin-Cheese Mixture, Ravioli, Onion-Spinach Mixture, Noodles, Pumpkin-Cheese Mixture, Noodles, Parmesan & Breadcrumb Topping

Ingredients:

Noodles: no-boil lasagna noodles, 1 large package of cheese ravioli

Onion Layer: 2 T butter, 1 onion chopped, 2 garlic cloves minced, 1 bag of fresh spinach, 2 links of faux (or real) italian sausage chopped, 1 cup of mushrooms chopped, salt, pepper, nutmeg, sage, thyme

Pumpkin Layer: ½ cup parmesan, a 14 oz package ricotta, 4 oz goat cheese at room temperature, a 15 oz can pumpkin puree, salt, pepper, nutmeg, cayenne, garlic & onion powder, 1 egg

Topping: 1 T butter, ½ cup shredded cheese, ½ cup breadcrumbs

Directions:

1. Grease a 9 x 13 pan and preheat the oven to 400.

2. Sauté onions in butter until translucent about 5-8 minutes; add garlic and seasoning followed by meat and mushrooms and cook for another 3-5 minutes until brown and delicious.  Add in the spinach in batches until it cooks down, 2-3 minutes. Set aside. 

3. In a bowl, combine pumpkin layer ingredients and whisk until combined. Set aside.

4. For the topping, melt the butter and mix in breadcrumbs. Set aside with cheese.

5. In the pan: layer noodles, ½ of the onion mixture, and another layer of noodles. Then ½ of the pumpkin mixture followed by a layer of ravioli, then rest of onion mixture, followed by another layer of noodles and the remaining pumpkin mixture.  Top with one last layer of noodles and then breadcrumb mixture and shredded cheese.

6. Bake covered in foil for 20 minutes, and then uncovered for 15 minutes. Enjoy!

The halfway point - topping with cheese ravioli! 

The final product before it goes into the oven:

And out of the oven and ready to eat!

I hope you have been taking the time to celebrate the best gourd. 

'tis the season.

xoxo