I haven’t had as much time to craft in the past few months as I would like, as my youngest -who will be 3 in a mere 2 months- decided he is no longer in need of naps. That in turn has eliminated a good chunk of my crafting time. Bummer. But never fear I will make time for it somehow! I did, however find a bunch of things I have yet to post that I made quite a while ago so I will share those with you today!

I’m hoping that at the beginning part of this week I will be able to post what I did in the boys’ room while Gabe was at my parents house this summer. Don’t hold your breath though as I’m obviously not great at updating like I want to. I’ll just credit that to having 2 kids, a husband and a dog who all distract me.

Ok, so in going through looking for pictures of my crafts for this post I am finding all kinds of things I want to post! The quilts I made for my boys and all my purses being at the top of the list! Hopefully I will make the time this week to get those up here.

Ok let’s start with an item I made for a swap on Craftster.org, this is a piece of embroidery that started as just Eeyore and I was going to use it as a journal cover. However after finishing it, I knew it had to be it’s own piece. I added grass and clouds and adhered it to a piece of wood, used ribbon on the edges to complete it, and made it so it could be hung or not! I really had a hard time parting with it too!!!

Next is a set of place mats I made for my folks, to go with all the other John Deere goodies in their kitchen.
Front:

Back:

Here is a monkey pillow case I made for a friend of mine who had just had surgery and needed a little cheering up - This fabric screamed at me when I walked past it at JoAnns “make me a pillowcase for Tabby”, so what was I to do? It did it’s job in cheering her a bit and is probably still being used if I know her….

Next up is an embroidered owl stuffie and stuffed owl pin I made for a raffle swap on craftster. It was great fun as nobody knew who they were receiving from, and unless you had great sleuthing skills you didn’t know who you were sending to either! These now have a loving home in Arizona.

This is something I hadn’t done before, I recovered my rolling chair which I use for crafts, dinner, everything really. It had stains and was looking awful, so I got new foam for the seat and used some fabric I already had, and created this beauty!

One last crafty item for today! I made these coasters for the second round of the raffle swap, which will be finding a new home soon. The theme for the swap this time around is BLUE and there are many beautiful items. A couple of my favorites (really hard to choose favorites as they are all great items): this awesome owl bag and this lovely poppet. I look forward to seeing what I will end up with! Here are the coasters I will be sending someone this week:

Well that will be it for today, hopefully I’ll be back with more this week! We had our first day of school today and it went well, considering all the interruptions a toddler brings! We will be making back to school cupcakes yet this afternoon, then this evening I will take Gabe to Barnes & Noble to get his free book he earned by reading this summer, then off to Chuck E Cheese for some serious play time!!

I’m on a crazy organizing/cleaning out thing right now and unfortunately it is not leaving time for crafting, even though I have a list a mile long of things I need to make. I am however preparing for a new school year and as a homeschool mom that means picking out new curriculum and preparing all the necessary paperwork that comes along with it. I’ve found a great resource for all the printable things I use like calendars and planners, and I wanted to share it in case anyone else is looking for something like it, just click the link below.

We will be starting 3rd grade for my oldest and I’ll be doing some preschool stuff with my little monkey. I’m really excited about this school year and can’t wait to see what great things we all learn!!

Hopefully I’ll be able to return soon with some crafty stuff!

Well I have found yet another crafty love. Quilt blocks. I was unsure if I would have enough patience to attempt quilting on any level. The good news is that I do!! I’ve joined a quilt block a long on craftster to help me ease my way into it. I enjoy the challenge of putting the pieces together like a puzzle. Here are the first three I made, The snowman block is called “Annie’s Choice”, the other two are called “Prairie Flower”. I have gotten the patterns free at www.quilterscache.com if you use any of the patterns be sure to read their Terms & Conditions. These blocks will all end up being for personal projects such as quilts/throws or pillows for my home!

The reason there are 2 of the same block is because I am obviously learning the importance of color matching in quilt blocks. The fluorescent nightmare there is an example of my lack of matching skills. I feel a little more confident now but I think it will still be a challenge for a little while.

I finished this next block today it is a small part of something I’m making for my toddler and I am thrilled with my progress so far! This one is called “Indiana Puzzle” and I really like the design.

Be looking for some embroidery in the near future and maybe those stencils I’ve been promising for months!

So much for getting anything posted for the past couple months huh?? I hope you all had a wonderful celebration of Christ’s birth and the start of a new year! I stayed up to welcome in the new year with my furry child, a Netflix and some embroidery! All the boys in my house were asleep so it was a nice quiet welcome to the new year for me! There is very little quiet in this house unless the boys are sleeping as they both constantly talk!

We had a really fun Christmas, it is so amazing to watch the kids faces as they open their gifts. Gabe (7 1/2) made off like a bandit with tons of Lego’s! David (2) got some great phonics toys, mega blocks sets, books and some clothes. Gabe got some books, movies (Never Ending Story 1 & 2, Meet the Robinsons) and Star Wars stuff too. We also got the boys a little indoor tent & sleeping bag set. We also gave them a “Pretend Play Station” which I am very proud of! I took one of their old bookshelves that wasn’t being used for books and was a little damaged from David knocking the humidifier over on it and turned it into something cool & useful!

Here it is after I transformed it from a normal bookshelf:

Here it is with the play stuff on it (not totally full as some of it was strewn around the house)

There are clothes for them to play with most of which I picked up at Goodwill, the ties were my dads, and 2 western shirts were my grandpa’s. There are musical instruments, pirate sets, ninja sets, handcuffs (rubber & stretchy), play cell phone & pda and plastic play food. I got those things at Dollar Tree - one of my favorite places! The boys have continued to play with this stuff daily it is a great way for them to have creative play together! I’ll probably add things to it as time wears on and some of the other stuff wears out.

I also made a gift for the love of my life who is a big Patriots fan. I wanted to make him a fleece throw to use while he sits on the couch working or watching a game (or movie with me), but I had a difficult time finding the fleece. I was only able to nab a little less than a yard (but for 1/3 of the price - yay for remnants at Hobby Lobby!!) so I basically made a fleece quilt, which was not as easy as I had hoped, then again maybe I should have started earlier than Christmas Eve? He loves it and uses it often!

I also made gifts for my niece & nephews this year. I made a purse for my niece who will be 7 in just a few days, a treasure hunt bag for my 5 1/2 year old nephew and a crayon roll and bag to hold coloring books & crayons for my now 3 year old nephew. On the purse I tried my hand at a bit of embroidery for the first time, the treasure hunt bag was fun - it is filled with about 30 little things for him to hunt for through the rice, the crayon roll was a hit and a great way to keep crayons contained!

I think that is pretty much everything I made this year, I had hoped to do more but there just wasn’t enough time! I’m going to try to start early this year (I say that every year).

My wonderful hubby gave me a very crafty Christmas this year and it was all wonderful! I’ve been wanting to get started in embroidery so he bought me a couple of great books and a get started kit! If you’re interested you can click these links to check them out

Stitch it kit

Sublime Stitching

Doodle Stitching

I also got a great folding adjustable craft table and the boys each picked out a little fabric for me and Gabe picked out some awesome new scissors I had been wanting (his idea) so I have been in crafty heaven since then! Aren’t my guys the greatest???

OK well that is enough about Christmas! For the new year I have a few goals, For the past I don’t know how many years I have resolved to lose weight and last year was the first time I made it happen! I lost 50 pounds last year and I plan to do the same this year, I am still using www.fitday.com and highly recommend it! I just purchased a Gazelle fitness machine and can’t wait to get it so I can get back to exercising every day. I’m also wanting to get to a point where I always have stock in my etsy shop and I want to use up a lot of the fabric I already have. Another goal silly as it may be is that I want to use up all my Bath & Body Works products this year - I have a lot and yet I keep getting more, what am I thinking???

If you’ve stuck it out this long - thanks! I also hope to post here more often - no promises though!

I also want to say a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my mom who will be celebrating her birthday tomorrow (well actually she celebrates all month but tomorrow is the actual birth date)! I love you mom and I feel so blessed to be your daughter!

Have I really not posted in THREE months??? Dang, so much for keeping up huh? Much has happened since then!

September brought my 10 year High School Reunion and I’m glad I went. It was really good to get re-acquainted with old friends, and really funny to see some of the folks and where they are now. Really funny. I realized how happy I am with where I am in life and even more important - how happy I am with who I am. We spent the week at my mom’s cousins house and I got to know some of my cousins even better and really enjoyed that time! The down side of this trip was the flea infestation that happened - our dog, my folks dog, their house, it was awful. Thankfully that did end!

October brought the second birthday of my little Monkey, where has all that time gone and where is my cuddly baby? We got him a tricycle, which he promptly got on and rode around the house and has ridden it daily since! Instead of a party we went up to Albuquerque for a family weekend and went to the Biological Park - Zoo, Aquarium and Botanical garden. Fantastic! We had such a blast - we would highly recommend checking it out if you are ever in the area, but make sure you plan for a whole day. You can enter at the Zoo and they have a train that will take you to the Aquarium/Botanical Garden (and vice-versa) which means we didn’t have to load up kids & stuff drive down to the other and unload everybody & everything! You can get a great price for all three. Here is their website Albuquerque Biological park

Then there was Halloween, our church has a fall festival on Halloween night from 6-8 where the kids can dress up and play carnival games and win prizes and candy! My 7 year old whose passions are Star Wars & LEGO’s was Luke Skywalker. The 2 year old who loves Elmo more than anything was Yoda (you thought I was going to say Elmo didn’t you?). Now I couldn’t just BUY the costumes no no I had to make them and I finished Luke Skywalker at about 10am on October 31. Not only was my youngest Yoda he was a prize winning Yoda!! Those who know me know that I like my contests & sweepstakes, well when I saw Albertsons was having a costume contest for kids 5 & under I couldn’t pass it up. So we went to Albertsons and entered him in the contest, and wouldn’t you know 20 minutes later I get a call saying his costume won!! It made all that work and all the sewing injuries worth it! We won the Spiderman 3 DVD and a Thomas the train bucket filled with candy, fruit, fruit snacks & light sticks. Little man had a blast going through all his goodies!

November so far hasn’t had a whole lot going on other than day to day stuff, homeschool, dishes, crafting, dishes, laundry, dishes - you get the picture! Looking forward to Thanksgiving and my in-laws coming up for that. I’m also planning on making most of the Christmas gifts this year in an effort to use up my craft stash and avoid lead filled toys. I’m going to be a busy crafter! I’m also hoping to fill my etsy store with lots of winter & Christmas goodies! This Saturday I’ll be participating in a Women’s craft day at Church where I’ll be a spectator and a teacher, not only that but I’ll be fellowshipping with some awesome women!

I would also like to encourage you to check out a blog I’ve been following for awhile and I just love it. She is an amazing woman who has been dealing with cancer and is learning to see God’s blessings in it - I am always blessed by reading it. Click on this link to check it out Especially Heather

I’m actually going to make this post without pictures but I will try to get back soon (hopefully this week) to post some pics of stenciled shirts I’ve done lately - I’ve gone a bit stencil crazy!

Have a great day!
Karla

I realize I haven’t posted in a while, and I keep meaning to but life keeps getting in the way of my plans. Anyhow, today I’m just posting to show off where I’m selling my crafty products now. I opened the store a couple of weeks ago and meant to post it then…..

karlacreative.etsy.com

Let me know what you think - good, bad or ugly!

Today I hit my halfway mark of my weight loss goal. I don’t think I can put in words how amazing it feels. I have struggled with my weight since I was a teenager so that has been about 15 years which is more than half my life! I never want my boys to have to fight this - it is a horrible horrible battle. I want to set a healthy example for them so that they don’t have to deal with it! In honor of the halfway point I am treating myself to a pedicure! I am also changing the look of my ticker for the second half of my journey.

I’ve actually done a bit of sewing this week, I reconstructed a shirt and made some shorts for the boys & a shirt for me to wear to Vacation Bible School.

I have been given a lot of clothes from other folks who are losing weight and it has been a blessing to not have to spend a lot of money on clothes that I am shrinking out of. Sometimes the fit or style isn’t right for me so I reconstruct it - make it new again. I am really enjoying this and I’m constantly thinking up new things to do. This outfit started as a pair of pants that were a bit too short for me and a maternity shirt that was given to me to use the fabric from it. I used some other things from my fabulous stash and came up with a new outfit that I adore and received many compliments on.

So we have our VBS this week and our theme is “Game Day Central” so it’s all about sports. When I saw this great sports fabric at JoAnns on clearance I knew I had to make the boys some matching shorts to wear to VBS! I’m helping out also so I reconstructed a tee to match them. I used a pattern for the boys shorts but just winged the top, I’m not happy with how the neckline turned out so that is something I’m going to be working on with the next shirts I do. The picture of my shirt was taken in a mirror so it’s not fantastic but you get the idea.

Please excuse the glitter glue and food on the shirts as they were worn before I took these pictures!

I’m hoping I will soon be able to post a skirt made of fabric I purchased from jcarolinecreative.com using a gift card my wonderful hubby gave me for my birthday! Have a great day - I’m off to celebrate half way day!

…and I am a craft swap addict. It’s true, I love crafting for other people and receiving items they lovingly crafted for me. Most recently I organized an “I Love Jesus Swap” on craftster. In this post I will post pics of what I made for her and what she made for me. Keep in mind that the pics don’t do some of this stuff justice.

I had a great time crafting for Jamette, trying to create things she would enjoy!

I decorated a denim tote for her (I didn’t make the tote) one side has frog appliqués and Fully Rely On God and the other side has interchangeable Bible verse panels.

I made her a few bookmarks as she said she likes to read

I made her a headband in a style she was wanting out of some Icthus fish fabric, it has scarf like ties on the bottom.

Some magnets out of glass marbles with pages from a hymnal.

Last but not least is this shirt I designed for her. I appliquéd the skull & cross on by machine and used iron on transfers (for dark colors) for the verses.

Now on to the amazing goodies she made for me! She embroidered these fantastic shirts for my boys, I think they are my favorite things I just love them so much! She also crocheted me a dishcloth that has an egg in the center to remind me of New Life - if you have never used a crocheted dishcloth I highly recommend you get a hold of one! There are some beautiful earrings she made me that I just adore! She made me a whole outfit with a matching bag also!! I was very blessed by her generosity! The bag is the perfect size to put my church scheduling book in and so easy to carry when I have my hands full of toddler! The skirt is so light & airy and amazingly comfortable and the shirt is a very flattering length on me - how she did this from states away I’ll never know!!! Here are the pictures of all my loot!

Have a super fantastic day and thanks for checking out my blog!

Yes mom it’s been 28 years since you went through the Valley of the Shadow of Death to give me birth. I’m not exaggerating much on that either. Apparently since it had been 10 1/2 years since she had my brother her body forgot what to do, so basically I was a pain from the start! Every year growing up I would ask her to tell me the story of me. This morning she called around 8:30 and said “28 years ago I had already been in labor all night” she endured 16 long hours of labor before I made my grand entrance into the world and completed their family! I can’t imagine a better family to be a part of and I feel so blessed to have the family I do!

Seven years ago today my birthday dinner was a “last meal” of sorts. I spent my 21st birthday realizing that I was going to be in labor and give birth the next day. I actually started labor that night but it didn’t get hard until about 4 am on the 13th. More about that tomorrow!

Today’s entry is going to be reduced calorie cakes, my wonderful hubby celebrated his 31st birthday on the 3rd and I created a low cal carrot cake that turned out wonderfully!

Reduced Calorie Carrot Cake

This recipe is for 1 - 8″ cake

1 1/2 cups carrots, shredded
2 eggs
3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup Splenda
1/2 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

Mix the first three ingredients together in a large bowl. Sift the remaining ingredients together then add to the wet ingredients. Stir to mix then pour into greaed & floured 8″ pan. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes - check for doneness at this point, it may need up to 45 minutes or longer depending on your oven. Serves 8

Nutrition Info per serving (1/8 of the cake)
Calories 141
Total Fat 1.3g
Cholesterol 47mg
Sodium 478mg
Total Carbohydrates 29.4
Dietary Fiber 1.5g
Sugars 15.8g
Protein 3.2g

Low Fat Cream Cheese Frosting

4 oz fat free cream cheese
4 Tbsp light butter
2 1/3 cups powdered sugar

cream together and smooth over cake!

Nutrition Info per serving (1 /12 of the frosting)
Calories 120
Total Fat 3.1g
Cholesterol 9mg
Sodium 24mg
Total Carbohydrates 23.3
Sugars 22.8g
Protein 0.2g

We really enjoyed this cake and it was only 260 calories for a big piece with frosting!

For my birthday I am making a Strawberry Almond Swirl cake and I will be topping it with Extra Creamy Cool Whip and fresh Strawberries.

Strawberry Almond Swirl Cake

1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup Splenda
2 Tbsp + 2 tsp light butter
1 egg
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 pinch salt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
5 strawberries, sliced
1/4 cup water
Directions
1. soften butter and cream together with sugar & Splenda
2. in a separate bowl mix flour, baking powder & salt
3. add egg to butter & sugar mix well
4. alternately add flour mix & milk
5. remove 1/3 cup mix
6. add extract to remaining mix (not the 1/3 cup)
7. cook strawberries in 1/4 cup water with Splenda added
8. remove some liquid after berries are softened and add 1/3 cup mix
9. Pour almond flavored mix into greased & floured pan
10. swirl strawberry mix on top
11. Bake at 350 for 20 - 30 minutes depending on your oven

Nutrition Info per serving (1/8 of the cake)
Calories 118
Total Fat 2.9g
Cholesterol 30mg
Sodium 39mg
Total Carbohydrates 19.8
Dietary Fiber 0.5g
Sugars 7.4g
Protein 2.8g

We will be having this tonight after our dinner at Bennigans (signed up for their email and they sent me a free meal coupon for my birthday!) I will review the cake tomorrow.

Thanks to all my friends & family who have made my day special, especially my hubby who goes out of his way to make this day special for me! Since I can’t seem to make a post without a picture, here are the goodies (minus the $$) I’ve gotten for my birthday:

After 5 weeks of being spoiled rotten by my folks my soon to be 7 year old (June 13) Gabriel is home!!! While he was gone I re-decorated the boys bedroom. It’s 2/3 Star Wars and 1/3 Melmo (Elmo), paying homage to their individual obsessions. I’m still waiting on a Star Wars decoration we ordered but will post a pic as soon as we get it and put it up. Gabriel was absolutely thrilled with the Star Wars stuff, he walked into his room and said “MOTHER!”, he somehow knew I was behind it!

We looked at Star Wars bedding online and decided I couldn’t afford to give up a kidney for bedding so I decided I would just make something! I made him a pillowcase and decorated a top sheet to match. I also bought a night light kit at Hobby Lobby (using a 40% off coupon of course!) and decorated it to match the bedding. We purchased some posters for the wall at AllPosters.com and I got the pre-matted frames at Wal Mart. The middle poster is of tie fighters and is 3D - totally awesome it is! So without further ado here are pictures of the Star Wars side of the room. I had all kinds of fun trying to get good pictures so please forgive that they are not super fantastic.

I didn’t really do much for the Elmo side of the room, just a poster for the babe. We had a poster frame that I wasn’t going to use for Gabe anymore and so I decided to re - purpose it for the babe. I bought a Sesame Street puzzle and Sesame Street wrapping paper. I used puzzle glue by Mod Podge to hold the puzzle together - great stuff it dries quickly and holds securely. So I cut wrapping paper to fit the frame then laid the puzzle on two pieces of black construction paper and used rolled packing tape to put it all together. The babe loves it and like to point at it and talk to it.

Today I will be crafting like a crazy lady in order to send off my swap stuff for the “I Love Jesus Swap” in time! I will post all those goodies after she receives them so I don’t ruin the surprise! Tomorrow be looking for some fabulous reduced calorie cake recipes!!