Baby Blanket Wrapped Up in a Bow

This is already to go. It's a present I made for a friend who just had a little baby boy. I'd made one for her first son and I have to be fair and make one for the second child too.

I love the plush fabrics for babies too. I'd almost like one of these quilts just for me.

The most fun for me is picking out the fabric.

My daughter went with me to help me pick it out. We looked at monkey material, super hero fabrics and finally settled on elephants...don't ask me why. It just looked so cute and cuddly that we both agreed.

And for the flip side, we went with polka dots and believe me, we looked at all sorts of polka dots, big ones, small ones, green ones, brown ones but we finally settled on little brown and green polka dots.

Then I needed the binding...

I went with green.

These are "sew" fun to make and I'm hoping that the little boy will love it for a looooong time. I know my kids sure loved the "blankies" I made for them.

Bead Work

I bought some beautiful crystal beads because I wear glasses. Yes those two things are related. You see I wear reading glasses. And, I'm always taking them off and putting them back on because as a writer, I read . . . a LOT. And it's easy to misplace glasses but with this handy-dandy bead-work gadget I never misplace my glasses...well, almost never.

My hubby thinks it looks like an old granny contraption but I don't care. I think it looks like a piece of jewelry and it's not just about adornment...it's practical.

So, I love to find unusual beads for my glasses. How bout you? Do you wear a chain around your neck that holds your glasses in place? If you do, this is one idea that might help you never misplace your glasses again.

Blinging out the Beams

When we were redoing the upstairs room, we thought about using pretty hemlock beams but they were soooo expensive that we opted for 2X4s instead.

You can see the 2X4 at the back of this picture...Not so pretty.

But that didn't mean I was ready to give up the beauty of a hemlock beam. So, my hubby and his brother went to work making the 2X4s appear to be beautiful beams.

First they bought some beautiful hemlock strips of wood that were 1X5s. Then he built them into little boxes.

That he could slip right over the 2X4s for a fake facade. They still have to be varnished but I think they turned out beautiful.

May Day is Just Around the Corner

When I was a kid, we used to make May Day baskets filled with flowers. Really they were just paper cones that we filled with flowers from our yard and hung a little paper handle on them. We usually used Elmer's Glue but in a pinch we'd use a staple to hold them together. Then we'd stealthily sneak around the neighborhood and hang the baskets on doorknobs and wait...

We'd watch to see what would happen when people opened their doors and found a basket of flowers hanging on their door.

It was fun and no one ever seemed to mind finding flowers on their doorstep...but I wondered where that tradition came from.

So, I looked on Wikipedia:

"The earliest May Day celebrations appeared in pre-Christian times, with the festival of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers, and the Walpurgis Night celebrations of the Germanic countries."

It's a shame that we are losing this tradition today.

Eggs Goldenrod

In my house this is a tradition...especially at Easter.

Mom used to call daffodils "Goldenrods" and every Easter we had lots of left over hard boiled eggs. So Mom would chop up the whites and mash the yellows and make a white sauce. Then she'd pour the white sauce over toast and crumble some of the whites on top. She'd sprinkle the yellow yolks on top and put just a dash of paprika on top to finish the feast.

I still love to make this on Easter morning.

Making Your Own Easter Basket

It's easy to make a basket - even out of paper. Here's how you do it.

You take a piece of paper and you fold it. Then you cut the edges.

Then you staple or glue the folds in place.

Then you make a handle.

And you fill it with goodies.

Bake and Make

I wanted to make a dessert for Easter dinner but my family is pretty picky. I had to use whipped cream for the frosting and fruit for the filling. I wanted to liven it up with some white chocolate Easter Eggs and flowers and a few fondant blooms too. So I did.

I started off with four layer cakes that I tried to cut to make fairly even. Then I frosting the layers with whipped cream and used bananas and strawberries to liven up the filling.

In the end it turned out okay. Not as pretty as total fondant but it tasted better than a fondant cake.