The other weekend, one of Jack's buddies turned the whopping age of 4.  (Given my chagrin at Jack's approaching 2nd birthday, it's fair to say that I can't even count that high right now.  But, anyway.)  Connor's mom deftly threw him a superhero birthday party.  What kid, or what fun-loving adult, could ask for more?

Given how *crafty* I've been lately (again, heaping the praise onto Pinterest), I offered to make capes for the kiddos.

This post is not about how awesome I am, because it was not very hard.  The post is about how awesome the capes, and the party, were.  (Here is a link to the tutorial I used for the capes.  Note that I didn't do the Velcro step.  Which makes an easy craft Even Easier.)

Exhibit A:  SuperJack

Exhibit B:  Super Connor, The Birthday Hero

Exhibit C:  Super Heroes at the Pinata

Exhibit D:  Super Jude wants to be just like Super Dylan when he grows up

Exhibit F:  Superheroes Love Quesadillas

Hope your day is all that and more,
Heather

Arts and Crafts

So, I inhabit the world of Pinterest where everything is DIY-able and really cute at the same time.  It's a lot of pressure.  And you know what tomorrow is?  Valentine's Day.

People go Craft Crazy for this holiday.  To wit:

[image credit]
Idea:  Buy candy bars and put custom wrappers on them.
With ribbons and handmade paper flowers.

Design*sponge suggests making 3-D Valentines.
I adore anything that involves cigar boxes.
(But the thought of this exhausts me.)
(And holy crap, what's inside?)

Ooh, I have a weakness for Oreos... [image credit]
But I'm not sure my red icing hearts would look even that good.

Do you see, though, how this gets out of control?  Very  much so, very quickly.  So, what's a mom to do?  I had already decided that I would have no guilt at all about not giving out Valentine's at Jack's school.  He is not yet two (though we're careening toward his birthday -- eek!).  He has no idea.  His buddies have no idea.  Valentine's for two year old are for the edification of the parents.  

And I say that, but guess what I've spent the weekend doing? [brace yourself for a contradiction]

Yup.  I sure did.

But, that's not actually true.  I've been working on these for a while, ever since I realized that I would love to get all Tiny Prints up in here for cute photo Valentines but am *not* willing to spend the dollars on their insanely awesome products.  So, I said to myself, self, what if you make endearingly simple ones for free?  

You see, a few years ago, I started buying scrapbooking supplies before I faced the cold, hard, indisputable personal truth that I Am Not a Scrapbooker.  That paper sure did come in handy, though.

Um, you can see that I stayed *minimal* with the design.
I was an English major, not an art major.

The clincher is on the inside.

Jack's super cool dude smiling face wished all of his teachers, buddies, and family a Super Cool Valentine's Day.

And he wishes you one, too.
Heather

Crafty Crafterson, Part Two

Durel and I both come from families of serious dog-loving people.  Our canine buddies are indispensable parts of our families.  Love them and their furry little selves to bits.

This means that it made perfect sense for me to undertake a homemade doggie gift for Christmas this year.  As I contemplated the gift boxes that I would be sending to my siblings and the presents I would be giving in person, I thought it would be *so cool* to also have a present for the dogs!  Pinterest was more than happy to oblige this thought, as Pinterest is so helpful that way.  I decided to make adorable little jars of dog biscuits.  And I was off.

Homemade Dog Biscuits

The recipe I chose was simple.  I had perused some that had longer lists of ingredients, but ultimately just went with what sounded good and delish.

1 cup oats
2/3 cup peanut butter
2 cups flour
1 cup hot water

Mix.  Knead into dough.  Roll out.  Cut with cookie cutters.  Bake at 375 degrees for 20-30 minutes.  Keep an eye on them.  Let cool.  (If you want to get fancy, brush the tops with an egg wash before baking.)

I tinkered with the ratios a bit.  I found that I needed more hot water to get the dough to a good consistency, and then I floured the hell out of my rolling surface as I rolled out the dough.  That's just what worked for me.  The recipe I found said to bake these for 45 minutes, which would have been far too long for me.  Perhaps I rolled my dough thinner than they did - who knows?  Long story short, these are easy.  When the dough is doughy, you're good.  When they look done, they are.  

Here is the problem that I encountered with this situation.  If you plan to make jars of homemade dog biscuits for a lot of people, that is a lot of biscuits.  If you need to make a lot of biscuits, that takes a lot of time.  If you are me, you do not realize this until you are way too far in to stop.

The dogs that benefit from my diligence are, in no particular order:  Zooey and Oscar (Delaware); Schatzi (Albuquerque); Louie and Charlie (Austin); Honey (Austin); Britney (Austin), and Pablo and Lucy (my house).  Pablo and Lucy weren't even supposed to receive these, per se, but they got the slightly burnt or misshapen ones, which they think taste just fine.

Zooey and Oscar are big dogs, so they got big bones.  My dogs are big, and they are eating the detritus.  The rest of these dogs, all five of them, are small.  That means I made small biscuits.  That means I cut more shapes, moved more dough, spatula-ed more little bones to the cooling rack.  Can you tell this was time-consuming?

End rant.

To finish the project:
-- Buy cute jars.
-- Buy cute ribbon.
-- Assemble.
-- Make your doggie friends very happy.

Wag wag to all the good things,
Heather

Crafty Crafterson, Part One

I'm not exactly sure how I decided to make all of our Christmas presents this year.  I think I would describe it as the perfect storm of revived frugality, a raging Pinterest addiction, and sheer, Type A determination.  Because, you know, it's not like I have a lot of free time, or ever have the luxury of getting too much sleep or feeling "bored."  No, it's not that I needed to fill my idle time with crafts.  I just ... well, I just decided it was a good idea.

Durel, of course, was on board.  He is infinitely supportive of my ideas, which range from ambitious to impossible to wacky.  He is supportive of them, I believe, because it's important to be supportive of your spouse; because he is frequently impressed with what I manage to do/create/pull off; and because he was excited that my toil over our Christmas gifts was, to say the least, financially sound.  He is a good partner.  

That said, here's part one of me getting all Crafty Crafterson.

1.  Homemade vanilla extract.

This was fun and super easy.  I had in mind a specific way that I wanted the end product to look, so I found this amazing website to order bottles from.  I bought cute, preppyish, holiday ribbon from Michaels.  I bought vanilla beans en masse from a spice dealer in New York (thank you, Amazon).  I used...wait for it...vodka.  And some brandy.  Because what isn't better with brandy?

The "recipe" goes like this:
-- Open jar.
-- Slice vanilla bean open, lengthwise.
-- Put vanilla bean in jar.
-- Pour vodka in jar.
-- Add splash of brandy.
-- Put lid on jar.

-- Let sit in dark place for about a month.
-- Decorate.

-- Give.

The up side to this gift is that it's yummy and everyone uses it.  And it's cute and easy to give.  And relatively gender neutral.  (The few dudes that I gave it to were appropriately psyched.)  The other up side to this gift is that it is handmade, which is cool, and totally affordable.  I am not sure I'm going to repeat it anytime soon, though, because I have to be realistic about how quickly people use vanilla.  I don't know.  If people start telling me that they've run out and how great it is, I'll definitely do it again.

2.  Wine Cork Monograms

This was super fun and pretty easy.  (Nothing is quite as easy as pouring vodka into a jar.)  Durel and I have been saving our wine corks for a looooooooong time (before you ask any questions).  We intended to take them to a local store for recycling, but as my Pinterest addiction gathered steam, I realized that I could, like, *do stuff* with them.

I decided to make wine cork monograms for a few friends and family members.  You can use them as a trivet, hang them on the wall, hang them on the wall and use them as a noteboard, whatever you want.

This project was noteworthy for me because it required me to buy a hot glue gun.  In all my life, I've never owned a hot glue gun.  As such, I thought they were much fancier and more expensive than they actually are.  Anyway, here the supplies:

-- hot glue gun
-- wooden letter thing (lots of variety at Hobby Lobby, FYI)
-- lots of wine corks
-- hanging thing to stick on the back so it can be hung on the wall (also from Hobby Lobby)

And here's how it went down:

1.  Lay corks out on letter.  Save the "good corks" for the outside edges.  It's also a good idea to alternate the red end and the not red end for the overall look of the thing.

2.  Open glue gun.  Realize how easy it is to use.  Realize how many corks this project will require.  Open bottle of wine.  Start drinking.

3.  Start gluing.  It's a good idea to put a strip of glue lengthwise down the side of each (or every other) cork, as well as putting glue on the bottom.  This will ensure the corks stick to the letter, but also to one another, which makes the entire thing sturdier.

4.  Let cool and dry.
5.  Give.

I, um, forgot to take a picture of the finished products before I sent them off.  But, they looked like this, I promise.

Source: greenisuniversal-reuse.com via Heather*Proper on Pinterest

Or, actually, more like this because I did the trick of flipping the occasional red wine cork for styling purposes.

Source: elephantstrunkllb.com via Heather*Proper on Pinterest

I've got to say, these were a huge hit.  But because of the unprecedented number of corks required, I only made two -- which were given to two of my brothers-in-law.  In fact, I have another wooden letter waiting in the wings for someone's birthday or something, or when I have amassed enough corks to start gluing again.  This is a craft I will definitely repeat!

Okay, so that's part one.  Thoughts?  Feelings?  Gift requests for Christmas 2012?

Ho ho ho,
Crafty Crafterson