Happy Birthday Benjamin!

Yes, I have totally been lagging on my blog and I apologize for that one person out there that reads this ;) School and work have been keeping me busy. YET, when Benjamin's birthday came by I had make him something.  When he turned one he got a book.. but since this boy loves dog's so much I wanted to give him something canine related. So here is.. another rag quilt puppy!

With a "B" for Benjamin of course :)

Fourteen and Pupcakes

It's my dog's birthday! Well technically it was yesterday.

Fourteen years old and still going strong. I remember the day my dad allowed me to adopt her from the shelter. She was only six weeks old! Which I think is not allowed nowadays haha. She was a wild one but my eleven year old self was beyond ecstatic she was totally the best thing that ever happened to me. Even now when I come home she always gets up to greet me which I know is hard for her arthritic joints. I wanted to make this day special for her and I remember clearly the last time I went to a dog bakery the dang cupcake cost $8 AND THEN the party hat cost another $8. What a rip. So of course for this occasion (being the cheap person I am) I went on pinterest to look for some easy dog friendly cupcakes to make her and a tutorial on a party hat :) Which of course I found and am totally willing to share for those of you dog lovers who want to throw your own pooch a partay.

This recipe was really easy and the best part is I was able to use ingredients that I already had around my kitchen. I posted it here in case you were too lazy to click on the link. 

Banana Peanut Butter Pupcakes <-- isn't that so cute i love this! PUPcake :)

Makes 6 full sized cupcakes and 15 mini cupcakes

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1/3 cup rolled oats

2 ripe bananas

1/2 cup natural, unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup natural peanut butter

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

2. Mash up bananas.  Add eggs, vanilla, applesauce and peanut butter to mixture.  

3. Combine flour, oats, baking powder and baking soda.

4. Add flour to wet mixture and stir.

5. Scoop out batter into regular or mini sized cupcake tins.  Feel free to use liners but make sure that you take them OFF before you feed them to your dogs!

6. Bake for approximately 15 minutes and VOILA! 

I halved the recipe since my dog is not friendly to any other dogs except Skippy (my sister's dog) and so no-one else was invited to the party :/ I made it both in a mini muffin pan and a regular sized muffin pan since there was no way I was going to allow Skippy eat an entire cupcake. I also did not add on the frosting that the recipe had. I figured it was too much and diarrhea is not cool for an apartment dog, let alone an old and aging apartment dog. 

And yes. I did try it. It tastes like a banana muffin without any sugar. It wasn't too bad. 

Skippy and his mini pupcake. And totally hating the party hat. 

Birthday girl! She devoured the pupcake.

Here's the link to a party hat tutorial. Instead of the ribbon I used this elastic thread that I had on hand. Waay easier for putting on a dog. Which she actually let me for about 30 seconds before she knocked it off. Long enough for a picture at least :) 

Happy Birthday Pennybaby :) 

Christmas and Quilts

Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas! Well technically its no longer Christmas but its okay. I didn't make as much this year as I had the years before, mostly because I'm lazy and there hasn't been enough time. That and I also don't feel that the effort I put into making things isn't exactly appreciated. Anyhow I did make my first full-size quilt for my bf and his grandma as Christmas presents. I mean, who doesn't love blankets? I case you haven't noticed I DO! I have like a million that I just keep around at home. (which my sister never fails to remind me about) Dunno, there's just comfort in them. Like Linus and his blanket. Anyway.. 

The first quilt is supposed to be a 'quick quilt' in that it should be something easy, quick, and done in a day. I, however, beg to differ. I found the idea here  It was time consuming, and my sewing machine threads for some reason kept getting caught up and tangled. I wonder if it was just because I made it at a larger scale. It did take a day to make.. albeit an entire day but still a day nonetheless :) Anyhow here's how it turned out. 

Not tooo bad. I think the contrasting stitches make my mistakes stand out A LOT though haha. 

A close up. Looking at it again, it looks better with more lines all over it like the tutorial shows. Oh well. Maybe next time.

The quilt I made for my bf came out so much better than I thought, and I was super happy about it :) The fabric is this really cute fabric (Camp Sur by Jay-Cyn Designs for Birch Organic Fabrics) I found from one of my favorite online fabric stores.. and reminded me of the trip we took to Yellowstone. An inspiration for a camping quilt! The pattern is loosely based on this quilt from a blog I frequent. Many firsts with this quilt. I ran out of basting spray.. and it being Christmas eve at 10 at night, I resorted to using my quilting pins for the first time. 

It wasn't too hard using them.. but I also ran out of quilting pins. I guess the blanket was too large. If I had a choice, basting spray wins. Even though it makes my room smell like glue. 

Aaaaand here's the final product! Love love this camping quilt. I would say it's almost a full-size quilt. 

 A close up of my favorite piece.. the tent and SUV and trailer :) 

Things to keep in mind for the next quilt. Don't make anything bigger than full-size. Unless of course I upgrade to a better sewing machine. My old Target Singer can't handle it. Too many lines to quilt and it kept jamming on me :( 

Also, I previously read tips on how you need to keep the back of the quilt and the batting larger than the quilt top itself. Which I didn't ever do with my baby quilts and didn't understand why it was necessary. Until now. The quilt top was so big that I guess I didn't realize I lined it up wrong and ended up with about two inches of the bottom part hanging off the edge. And I couldn't just cut that part off.. it was part of the design of the quilt! So what I did was take a two inch fabric remnant of the same color and added it to the backing. It worked fine but it was still annoying taking extra time that I didn't have. Surprisingly, the quilt didn't take too long. A day of cutting and sewing and second day of quilting and binding. I'm sure though, if I ever get around to making that chevron quilt it'll take a big longer :)

Chevron Stockings and Hot Cocoa in a Jar

Yay! So the holidays are here, and my sister and I decided not to get a tree this year.. mostly because of the canines in the home and the uncertainty of a certain animal that likes to make his mark everywhere :). Anyhow I still wanted to decorate a little to make the apt feel just a little bit more festive.

Burlap bunting and lights for the window

I made some felt chevron stockings to hang over the fireplace.. using the exact same technique that I used for Grayson's chevron quilt :) 

The layout. I made the minimal amount of squares needed haha. 

Annd cut out a stocking for the backing and used it as a template to cut the pattern out.. sewed it together and voila! A stocking ;)

I used my silhouette to cut out letters (smiley monster font) for an outline for the names. If you look at it up close.. you can see my squares are super crooked..

Buuuuut not from far away!! And yes.. I did not forget my dogs. I mean, they are my children after all :) 

I recently went to a Christmas party with my coworkers.. and since they already got the gifts I thought I would post it. It's a super cute idea I found here from pinterest A"Grown up hot chocolate gift" idea. I made my own hot chocolate mix with a recipe I found here . One batch that I made was enough to fill a dozen mason jars, using half a cup per jar. 

Here they are ready to be packaged. I added chocolate chips and marshmallows. 

If you add one and a half cup of hot water (or hot milk) it's enough for a full mason jar to drink out of :) I tried it myself with the jar just to test it out and realized that the glass makes it too hot to hold.. so I took extra felt and made some personalized cup sleeves! 

The finished product. It was pretty well received.

I added some tags with instructions on how to mix the cocoa and, of course, the Bailey's. Cute and simple. And you get a canning jar out of it :) 

Crochet Minion and Cake the Cat

So I've been really lazy and just been posting pictures on my Instagram rather than updating my blog. Must be all the thanksgiving eating ;) Anyhow I've been trying to crochet everything that I want before the holiday starts and I have to begin with the present making!

I love love Despicable Me and have been wanting to make a Minion forever. I mean, I already made Agne's unicorn!  As far as the pattern is concerned, it was simple enough to just make up as I went along but there are a couple of websites with free patterns posted. Like here and here.

AND theeeeeen.. I totally started watching Adventure Time mostly because I've had requests for crafts related to that show. Funny enough my first (and favorite) episode is Fionna and Cake. I was so confused and thought that maybe Fionna was Finn's cousin or something but it turns out it was just Ice King's fan fiction. Booooooooooo. Still gotta love a tv show that does its own gender swap. 

Anyway, since I already made Jake the Dog, here's his gender swap version Cake the Cat! It's funny how fast I can crochet something when I really want it done. I whipped up Cake in about 7 hours.. during the new episodes of Walking Dead, Once Upon a Time, Revenge, and a couple episodes of Supernatural.. 

I feel the makings of Fionna's rabbit hood coming soon to go with Cake the Cat haha! Maybe when the Christmas rush is over ;) We'll see. I'm becoming a hoarder with all these softies that I've made that I can't let go. I swore that Mac the unicorn was going to be the last one, but then I made the Minion, and Cake! Cake will be the last.. I swear! And yes, there's Hobbes still going strong! He's getting a little worn down but is the unofficial leader of this motley crew :) 

Hopefully I'll be able to get a couple of posts before the holidays. Maybe some easy peasy DIY stuff? Until then, Happy Holidays and happy crafting :) 

Modge Podge iPad Case

Anytime I get any electronic device (i.e. phone, Kindle, iPad) the first thing I do is spend all night making a case for it. For my iPad, I actually made two cases.

First one is like a notebook thing with a pocket for headphones and charger. AND its supposed to stand up but it was too flimsy and its a little bulky so I stopped using it after..

I made this envelope sleeve. It's a little snug but I love it!

And then my aunt came back from China and brought with her a bunch of iPad cases. It's ugly.. 

(case in point)

But it'll be good for school. So googled mod podging on fabric and went to work!

I read somewhere to modge podge the fabric first and then glue it on. So I painted a layer.. and left it overnight to dry. Then I glued it onto the case and left THAT overnight to dry. 

The end result. 

Not too shabby! I know.. you can still see the writing through the white pattern on the fabric. Should've used white fabric underneath it or something. Oh well! It's a little stiff from all the glue.. but it doesn't matter I'm only using it for school. :)

Baby Name Chevron (or Zig-Zag) Quilt

Here's my third quilt! And I am happy to say that it is getting easier. This is my first time using a blocking method.. from this awesome tutorial here. As soon as I saw it I had to make one for my friend Kris and her new baby. For a project like this, you just have to find the perfect person to give the gift to. I've learned that some people don't appreciate handmade gifts like they need to be appreciated. I mean, it wasn't hard, just very time consuming. Like I posted about before, I am in looooove with the chevron pattern. Which to some people say its technically not chevron.. it's zig zag. Whatever you want to call it, here it is! 

Getting the general layout before sewing it together. I double checked everything more than twice. I had no intention of using my seam ripper! 

Final product. Love how it came out!!! 

You can see some areas where the stripes are a little uneven. I have a feeling this goes back to my crooked sewing. HAHA. By far, the longest I've taken on a quilt. One day of cutting and sewing. One day of quilting and then a day of appliqueing and binding. I'm planning to make a queen-size one for my bed... which'll probably end up taking a week if I ever get around to it :)

I also made this car seat cover from this tutorial here. Super cute and super easy! My favorite combination  :)

Happy early Christmas Grayson! Hahaha

EDIT: I've been getting a few questions on how I did the name "GRAYSON" I basically followed this tutorial here.. using the font "smiley monster." I actually just reversed the letters on photoshop and held the heat n bond up to my computer screen and just traced from there (the lazy way hehe) I then ironed onto the fabric and sewed around the letters with a zig-zag stitch (my preferred way). Hope this helps! Thanks for the compliments :)