Felt Owl Tutorial #2

Here is the next installment of the felt owl tutorials.

You can see the first one here.

How would you like to make this?

or this?

Use the template below to cut out your felt shapes.  Cut two of the body and one of the belly and two of the wings if needed.  To make the eyes just cut circle of felt.  Play around with their shape and size to change the look completely.

For this cute fellow - 
Running stitch on the wings and nose
For the belly I just made long parallel running stitches
The eyes – Starting on the back stick your needle and thread up through the center of the eye and them back down on the outside edge. Repeat all the way around the eye.

To make this one -
Basic cross stitch on the nose
Whip stitch on the eyes, wings, and center contrast

For the hanging loop you can use ribbon, strips of felt, or a loop of embroidery floss.  When you use embroidery floss or thin ribbon tie a knot in the end to create the loop.  The knot will help ensure that the loop of floss doesn't pull out of the top.  

I like to sew the front and the back together on my sewing machine but you could do it by hand as well.  On both of the owls you will need to fold the wings out of the way when you stitch around the outside edge.


Use the templates on any of your favorite crafts. In the photos you can see how I made not only hanging ornaments but keychains, small stuffed animals, attach a pin back and you have a brooch, you could even shrink the size of the templates and make hair bows. Only use one layer of felt and you can applique the shape onto your favorite bag or the end of a winter scarf. Use your imagination and see what you can come up with.

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My skirt made it into the top 15 designs for the 

Shabby Apple Dare to Design contest

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Mine is #14

New Skills

I love to watch my children learn new skills.  Peter is learning to joy of cutting paper.   So far is he content to cut paper - mostly.  I did catch him trying to give the stuffed Elmo a hair cut.

I guess the next task is to teach him that it is not necessary to stick your tongue out while cutting.

Formula instead of Milk?

I did something a bit unconventional the other day with my mashed potatoes.  I was out of milk and didn't want to run to the store to get some right then.  But I needed milk for the potatoes.  I rummaged in the pantry looking for options and I stumbled on a can of baby formula.  I have never used formula on any of my babies but some how I got on a mailing list and was sent a free can in the last few months.    I know it sounds weird but I made up 1 cup of the formula and used it when I mashed my potatoes.  I couldn't tell the difference and the kids were none the wiser.  It was definitely a make it work or do without moment and I think it went well.

Have you ever used formula instead of milk in cooking?  How did it turn out?

As a side note I  mash my potatoes in my Bosch mixer with the wire whips on.  I like mashed potatoes that are smooth and creamy.  No lumps for me here.
 

 

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If you haven't voted yet please do.

My skirt made it into the top 15 designs for the 

Shabby Apple Dare to Design contest

You can go here to vote - PLEASE :)

Mine is #14

What Motivates Me

I am always coming up with a mile long list of things I need to change in my life and while
I could ignore that list it gets a little hard because every time I turn around I see one of my kids.

I have Tim who when I announce what is for dinner (if he is excited about it) give me a hug and tells me he loves me - food is the way to that boys heart.

Then there is Andrew who although a total goof ball can be so sweet and loves to snuggle.

Allison is full of creativity and is learning to sew.  A small compliment and she is beaming for the rest of the day.

Kathryn wants so much to participate in whatever I am doing.  She wants to be helpful and takes joy in being of service.   I am hard pressed to start working in the kitchen and she is not there asking to help.

Then there are the little boys - Peter and Jacob.  They are just a bundle of trouble and yet I can't help but smile every time I see them.

Recently I have been thinking a lot about my health.  I have come to the point in my life where I realize clearly that I am not getting any younger.  Not that I am old but I am squarely in my mid 30's.  I am about 50 lbs overweight and I need to loose those extra pounds.  I need to do it for my children so they can have a healthy and active mother who can keep up with them for years and years to come.  Yeah and I want to be thin so I can feel good about myself and look great in the latest fashions but really it is about my kids. 

My children are my motivation.  I need to put a photo of them on my fridge and pantry so when I am tempted to make a not so healthy food choice I will remember why I shouldn't. 

What motivates you?

Pinstripe Skirt Giveaway

I have received so much great feedback on my skirt and a number of request to sell it.  So.....  Here is your chance to own your very own Pinstripe Skirt with Pockets.

You get one entry for each of the following -

1. Vote for my skirt (#14) here
2. Become a follower of The Orchard in Bloom
3. Post about the Shabby Apple Dare to Design Contest on Facebook and encourage everyone to vote for #14
4. Tweet about the Shabby Apple Dare to Design Contest on Twitter and encourage everyone to vote for #14
5. Share the Shabby Apple Dare to Design Contest on your blog and encourage everyone to vote for #14
6. Post about this giveaway on Facebook
7.  Tweet about this giveaway on Twitter
8. Write about this giveaway on your blog and include a photo of the skirt
9. Pin one of my skirt photos on Pinterest.

There you go - You have 9 chances to enter.  For each entry post a comment regarding what you did.  So if you want to do all 9 you need to make 9 comments.

You have until September 10th.  The winner will be announced on September 11th.

The winner will need to provide me with a few basic measurements and I will make the skirt custom  to your measurements.

If you have any question just let me know.  This is my first giveaway so......

Week in Review

Highlights from my week.

Jacob is teething - such a sad little boy.

Jim and I have an agreement.  He is the potato peeler and I am the potato cutter.  It sure makes cooking with potatoes go so much faster.  Plus we get to visit while we work in the kitchen.  Not a bad deal at all.

Our wheat is stored in 5 gallon buckets with containers of sulphur in them to hep preserve the wheat.  I don't entirely understand the whole sulphur thing  (the wheat came from my parents).  Well to make a long story short the sulphur container spilled into the wheat and we had a disaster of a batch of bread.  The entire house smelled like rotten eggs.  It was nasty!

 

 The bread from the bad sulphur contaminated wheat was supposed to be for lunch.  I didn't have much else on hand for a quick lunch so I had to get creative.  I sauteed squash, broccoli, carrots, cabbage and green onions on some bacon grease (I always save it in the fridge) tossed in leftover black beans and rice.  I seasoned it with fish sauce and Thai curry paste.  The kids loved it so much we had it again for lunch 2 days latter.  I love that my kids will eat veggies.

 

Tim is camping with the young men in the ward tonight.  He is a good sport to let me take his photo on the way out the door.  He needs a hair cut.  It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't so curly.

School started this week.  That means that I once again have 4 math lessons to correct every day.  The kids do it sometimes but I like to do it to keep better tabs on their progress.  Andrew has terrible handwriting.  He has this thing about using as little of his paper as possible.  It makes it so hard to correct.

Allison was hungry and went scavenging in the kitchen.  She thought that Peppermint extract sounded good.  She was surprised by the flavor and will never do that again. 

Best Cookie Recipe Ever

In my humble opinion this is the best cookie recipe ever.

1/2 cup butter
1/2 teas baking soda
1/2 teas baking powder
1/2 teas vanilla
1 egg
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 cups flour

Bake at 350 degrees for 8 min.
(My oven runs cool so I bake mine at 365)

Be sure not to overcook them.  They should be puffy when you take them from the oven but as they cook they flatten a bit.

This is the only cookie recipe I use.  I alter it to suit the type of cookie that I want to make.  Today I replaced the brown sugar with white sugar and rolled the dough in cinnamon and sugar to make snickerdoodles.

These cookies are moist and chewy  - Never dry and crunchy.

 My mother made terrible cookies.  They were always crunchy and often burnt on the bottom.  She thought she was being efficient by cooking 4 trays of cookies at once but in order to put the 4 racks in the oven she had to place one rack  all the way on the bottom.  That tray of cookies ended up burnt to a crisp - ALWAYS.  You would think that she would have noticed this problem and changed her ways but no.

I remember my sisters and I learning to place burnt peanut butter cookies under a little water and scraping the burnt bottoms off to make them more palatable.  Wet soggy peanut butter cookies - yummy yuck!  We must have been desperate. Don't get me wrong she made other things that were quite yummy but  the cookies were not one of them.

________________________

If you haven't voted yet please do.

My skirt made it into the top 15 designs for the 

Shabby Apple Dare to Design contest

You can go here to vote - PLEASE :)

Mine is #14

Felt Owl Ornament Tutorial

Want to know how to make this?

Over the next few weeks I will be posting tutorials on a series of felt owl that I made.

Today lets start with a few very basic stitch.

When I give my kids a needle and thread to stitch with this is what they tend to do
naturally. A running stitch is very easy for even the most inexperienced sewer and looks nice when spaced evenly.

This stitch I call the snowflake stitch for because it reminds me of a snowflake.

The photos are pretty self explanatory -. Make a basic cross stitch but in a + shape. Then on top of that do another basic cross stitch slightly smaller. That’s all there is to it.

 If you can make a running stitch , a snowflake stitch and sew on a button you can make this.

 

Use the template below to cut out your felt shapes.  Cut two of the body and one of the belly.  To make the eyes just cut circle of felt.  Play around with their shape and size to change the look completely.

You can shrink or enlarge the template to suit your personal style.  These would make adorable Christmas ornaments.  You can even enlarge the templates and make something as large as an accent pillow or a stuffed animal.

Click on the above photo and you can see the details of the stitches. 

Stitch instructions -

Running stitch to attach belly and snowflake stitch in the middle

Nose is attached is a few running stitches. 

The eyes are held on only with the button in the center

For the hanging loop you can use ribbon, strips of felt, or a loop of embroidery floss.  When you use embroidery floss  or thin ribbon tie a knot in the end to create the loop.  The knot will help ensure that the loop of floss doesn’t pull out of the top

I like to sew the front and the back together on my sewing machine but you could do it by hand as well.

I don't do hand work as often as I should.  I always find it calming and therapeutic.   What are you feeling on handwork?

________________________

If you haven't voted yet please do.

My skirt made it into the top 15 designs for the 

Shabby Apple Dare to Design contest

You can go here to vote - PLEASE :)

Mine is #14

What the 3 yr old does when no one is looking

I took a few photos yesterday and while reviewing them noticed that there were pictures on my camera that I did not take.  From  the little finger in each shot and the fact that Jacob is being photographed in a few of them I am pretty sure it was Peter. 

 I suspect this all happened while I was upstairs moving laundry from one machine to another or an equally exciting core. 

Enjoy!

Peter sneaks the camara off the counter. 

Jacob is looking over the gate for me

Peter begins to explore

Peter is fond of playing with duplo blocks

The day is not complete without a little Sesame Street

More shots of his finger

Jacob has learned that Peter has the camara

Here he comes for the camera.  Jacob never wants to be left out of the fun.  

These two little boys are so cute but are quite the troublesome duo.

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If you haven't voted yet please do.

My skirt made it into the top 15 designs for the 

Shabby Apple Dare to Design contest

You can go here to vote - PLEASE :)

Mine is #14

$0.40 or $2.49?

Shopping for school supplies always give me a bit of anxiety.  Having 4 school age children gets expensive really fast.  This year is better because we are homeschooling and using a program called Harmony that is paying for all the kids curriculum but the notebooks, pen, paper, erasers......  all start to ad up.

I needed to buy 3 composition books for both of the girls and fell in love with some very cute patterned ones but was shocked at the price difference.  I could by a plain one for 0.40 or I could get the girls pretty floral or stripe ones for $2.49 each. Quickly doing the math I found that it would cost me $12 more just for pretty notebooks.  Sadly I realized that cuteness was completely out of my budget.  I bought the plain ones.

It wasn't until days later that I came up with a solution.  Scrapbook paper and Mod Podge.

I cut the paper to fit the front and back covers, added a bit of accent paper on the edge and used the Mod Podge to put it all together.  Allison and Kathryn did most of the gluing work with me just supervising.  Not only did I save $12 but my girls are so proud to have cute notebooks and we spent meaningful time together doing a useful craft.

________________________

If you haven't voted yet please do.

My skirt made it into the top 15 designs for the 

Shabby Apple Dare to Design contest

You can go here to vote - PLEASE :)

Mine is #14

Good, Better, Best

One of the things that keeps coming to me is the importance for me personally to write.  I have always known that I need to write of my thoughts, feelings, and day to day life.  I know that my children will be blessed because of it and yet I struggle to do it on a regular basis.  I started this blog with the hope that putting my writing out in a public arena would be motivation and that worked for a while but I struggle to know at times what to write about. 

So here I go again with a slightly new format.   Each day of the week will have a different assignment. On Sunday my task will be to write about something to think about and ponder on.  More info on what each day will be coming soon.

So here goes my first something to think about post -

I am always trying to decide what to do with my time.  It is not that I have too much free time ­– quite the opposite.  I worry about if what I am spending my time on is the best use of my time.  Some things are easy to figure out like should I really be wasting away time browsing the internet – no or should I play with my children – yes.

I often think about a talk by Dallin H. Oaks entitled Good, Better, Best.  It causes me to reflect on what might be a good use of my time versus what would be better or even the best use of my time.  

“We should begin by recognizing the reality that just because something is good is not a sufficient reason for doing it. The number of good things we can do far exceeds the time available to accomplish them. Some things are better than good, and these are the things that should command priority attention in our lives.”

Dallin H. Oaks

Time is such a limited resource as a parent that I need to try my best to make the most of it.  I need to be finding/making more time to spend engaging my children - Not just being in the same room with them while they watch TV and I read a book.  I know that I have a limited amount of time to be with them while they are young and I need to make better use of that time.  In this talk Elder Oaks quotes President Gordon B. Hinckley as pleading that we “work at our responsibility as parents as if everything in life counted on it, because in fact everything in life does count on it.”

My jumbo sized white board in the kitchen this week will have

GOOD, BETTER, BEST ? 

written across the top to help me to remember to think about this all week long.

________________

If you haven't voted yet please do.

This skirt made it into the top 15 designs for the 

Shabby Apple Dare to Design contest

You can go here to vote - PLEASE :)

Mine is #14

Design for Shabby Apple - Submission #2

 This is my second creation for the Shabby Apple "Dare to Design" contest.

 
This dress is so much fun.  It is simple to wear and has a very forgiving fit.  The entire front bodice has very small pin tuck seams that enhance the crinkly appearance the fabric naturally has.  The waist sits at your natural waist and is elastic.  It could be made with a matching sash but I chose to model it with a favorite belt that gives a nice pop of color.

The skirt is a full circle.  I love circle skirts because you gets lots of flirty volume on the bottom while not adding volume to your waist or hips (who wants that?). 

 I don't normally think of gray as a color for spring but I think it works in the dress.  The fabric is a very soft crinkly lightweight synthetic fabric that is wash and wear - huge plus.  I think it would look equally good in a floral like one of these. 

This dress in either a solid or a floral would be a great Shabby Apple dress.  It would be a great honor to design for Shabby Apple.  In the mean time I just need to make this dress for myself.