Handmade Christmas--Felt Fun

I'm dedicated to making some gifts for my girls this year, in hopes that they'll be a) cheaper, and b) a happy memory for them to look back on.  I've made felt food off and on for the last couple of years, and it's so much fun and easy, too!  If you're interested in how to make this cute little cake, keep reading.  I've never done a tutorial before, so bear with me.

Overall, this is a super-cheap little toy.  Many people use expensive wool felt, but I'm poor, so I use the 5 for $1 stuff you get at your basic Hobby Lobby/Michael's kinda joint.  True, my felt food may not last years, but I'll just replace as needed.  First:

I picked up these styrofoam rounds at Dollar Tree.  They're about  4 3/4" across, and 3/4" thick.  You'll need both of them.

 

You'll need 2-3 pieces of felt.  Trace your styrofoam round onto your felt and cut out the circle.  You'll need to do this twice, as this is your cake top and cake bottom.  I used a sewing marker with disappearing ink.

Cut two strips of felt 7 1/2" long and 2 1/4" wide.  The sewing is about to begin, so if you're not familiar with the blanket stitch, go here.  It's the best one I've seen online.

 

Using the blanket stitch, stitch the ends of the felt strips together to make a circle.  Then, take one of the felt circles you cut out and stitch it to the bottom of the circle you.ve just made.  This can get tricky, but once you're about 1/4 of the way around the circle, it gets easier.  Voila:

At this point, you're going to fit the styrofoam rounds down into the felt shape you've created.  Now, if you're using the cheap felt like I am, you have to make sure you don't stretch it all out of wack.  The felt has a little stretch to it, but just tug gently to get the rounds inside.

Now, you have two ways to give the top of your cake a little fun "smooshiness" to represent frosting.  I cut three (I only showed 2 in the picture) circles from some thin quilt batting I had in my stash:

You could also just sew on the top felt circle, leave a little gap, and stuff it with Poly-fil or something like that.  At this point, you've got a cute little cake that's got a pretty sturdy bottom & sides:

Now you're ready to decorate.  You can pretty much do whatever you'd like at this point.  I've seen a lot of cute decorating kits where you cut out felt shapes and let your child decorate the cake however they'd like.  If you'd like to do the piped icing I did, here's how.  So easy!

Cut three leaf shapes out of a contrasting felt color, about 1 3/4" long.  You'll need 3 shapes for each "pipe".

Stack the three leaf shapes on top of one another, and sew them together down the middle (using a standard straight stitch).  Then, just sort of separate the individual pieces & kind of fluff them out to resemble icing.

You'll need to make 10 of these to fit around the top of the cake (cut a total of 30 leaf shapes).  Sew the individual pieces together, end to end.  It just takes a few stitches to secure them.

Stitch the circle of icing to the top of the cake.  Just a couple of stitches per individual "pipe" will work, you don't have to go crazy.

I tried to do another ring of piped icing around the bottom, but it didn't look right to me.  Instead, I cut two

7 1/2" long, 3/4" thick strips of the contrasting felt, stitched them together into a loop, and fit them over the bottom of the cake.  I didn't bother stitching it to the cake; it fit pretty snug.  That's pretty much it! 

It still needs a little something on the top.  Since I've made one for each of the girls, I'm thinking their first initial on the top.  If you're adventurous, maybe you can figure out a way to write "Happy Birthday" on the top or something.  Anyway, enjoy!  And for more DIY fun, go visit A Soft Place to Land or Just a Girl sometime today.

Sisters

My girls are starting to argue.  I imagined that having my girls 5 years apart would cut down on that sort of rivalry, but it looks like I was waaay off base.  Gone are the days when Sissy would look at her little sister lovingly and sigh, "Oh, Mama, isn't she cute?  She's cuter than all the other babies in the world!"  Now there's a lot of "Mom, she's in my room!  Get her out!"  Not to say that Sissy doesn't still cuddle Sassy and mommy her, but the bloom is off the rose, so to speak. 

Sassy is now almost 2 1/2, and her little (or should I say BIG) personality is emerging.  She is sweet-natured and loving, but has a hot temper and knows exactly what she wants.  Sometimes when Sissy wants to snuggle, she gets an emphatic "NO!" and sometimes even a push.  Of course, Sissy is outraged, and proceeds to huff away to her room.  She's no slouch in the "knowing-what-you-want" department either, I might add.  I keep telling myself that one day God will use these strong personalities in an amazing way.  Right now, their primary function seems to be to make me tired.

I know in my heart that all of this stuff is normal.  I know siblings fight, and it's all part of the deal.  It's still hard sometimes to let that idealized notion of sisters go.  I just need to go ahead and embrace the noisy, fussy, sweet, messy business of sisterhood.   

Friday Faves--Favorite Kids' Toys

So, favorite kids' toys?  We are NOT video game folks around here, but we broke down and bought a Wii a couple of weeks ago and every one of us loves it.  I can wholeheartedly say it offers exactly what it promises:  interactive family fun.  It's been a great way for Sissy to spend some fun time with her daddy, who is most grateful not to have to play Barbies anymore.

Anything and everything by Melissa and Doug.  Sassy got the Slice and Bake Cookie Set for her birthday, and all 4 of us play with it.  We've asked Santa for the Bake and Decorate Cupcake Set, so we'll see.  A tried and true toy for around the 9-18 month range is the Playskool Ball Popper, which is loads of fun.  Sassy played with it so much she lost all the balls and we had to find new ones.

Sissy has mostly outgrown the toy stage, so this year we've had to branch out.  I don't have a link, but we picked up some great art supplies at Michael's last week, and each was under $5.  So for the price of a cheap piece of $20 plastic junk, we were able to buy her a set of pastels, real drawing pencils, real watercolors, and watercolor pencils.  If I can find a cheap easel, we're on the way.

Since I'm a little bit crafty, I've made some felt food for the girls as well.  It's so much more fun than plastic food, and even Sissy (who's 7 1/2) loves to play with it.  I'm hoping to post some tutorials soon, but there's adorable stuff like this and this if you don't have the inclination to make your own.  Go get your Christmas shopping done so you can actually enjoy this year, OK?!  Go see Missy to get more toy tips!

Works for Me Wednesday--Christmas is Coming!!!

I don't know about you, but we're cutting back around the S and S household this Christmas.  We have L O T S of family, and I usually go overboard trying to make sure everybody gets something, and that the gift reflects their personality/interests...then I run out of time and start mass-buying Starbuck's gift certificates.  Sigh.  This year, I'm setting a budget, and that's it.  So, in honor of having more time than money I'm directing everyone here.

There are 2 years' worth of archived projects, plus new ones every day this month.  I managed to make some of these last year, and people actually used them.  Ok, I didn't actually make the cute tote bag, I made the rice heat therapy bags and buckwheat cold therapy bags.  Super easy, and super cheap.  Stitch some up and cross some folks off your list this month.

For more to help soothe your upcoming holiday headaches, go see Kristin at We Are That Family.

Mommy Secrets

I volunteered to be Sissy's room mother this year (we've stopped homeschooling...more on that later).  Obviously, like many moms I want to be involved and helpful, but it goes a little deeper.  My mother, for lots of different reasons, wasn't able to participate much in our lives at school, and it always bothered me.  So, of course, I'm dedicated to doing everything "right" now that I'm the mom.

Only, I can't.  Really, I'm ill-equipped for room-momming.  It's hard!  Calling other parents and asking them to do stuff...I can do it, but I hate it.  Making elaborate snacks/treats for parties?  No fun.  Chaperoning field trips?  Happy to, but the teacher in me is always evaluating whether or not it's really a "worthwhile" educational experience.  And there are all these other moms who seem to be doing it all enthusiastically.

Hello, my name is Jennifer, and I'm a bad room mom. 

What is your guilty mommy secret?  Please comment so I can move on from my June Cleaver guilt!

A Little About Me

I've seen these questions a couple of places, most notably here, so I thought in the spirit of re-dedicating myself to blogging, I'd participate a little. Here goes.

 1) What's your favorite thing to snack on while blogging?  Umm, food of any kind.  I love almost everything, but if you make me pick, it would be Ben & Jerry's Cookie Dough ice cream.

 2) What is one thing you wouldn't want to live without?  Hands down, no contest...air conditioning.  I live in Texas, need I say more?

 3) Beach, mountains, or farm? Where would you live if you had a choice?  I romanticize the idea of living on a farm, but truthfully I know I could *never* take all the work that comes with farm life.  Mountains are beautiful, but I pick the beach, hands down.  Preferably Hawaii.

 4) What's your least favorite chore/household duty?  Dishes.  They depress me because they are neverending.  I often get the idea to bake or cook and get discouraged from actually doing it because it would mean more dirty dishes.

 5) Who do people say you remind them of?  I was once told Supernanny Jo.  Which seems to indicate my children should be way better behaved.

 6) Prefer parties and socializing or staying home with the fam?  Both, equally.  I love being at home, but am kind of boisterous, so sometimes I need to get out and socialize.  I'm a people person, definitely.

 7) What's your all-time favorite movie?  Because I'm a history teacher, it's Schindler's List.  Pretty depressing stuff, but really excellent.

 8) Do you sleep in your make-up or remove it like a good little girl every night?  I go for days without wearing any (which is not a pretty sight), but I often forget to take it off before bed.

 9) Do you have a hidden talent or a deep desire to learn something that you've never had a
     chance to learn? What is it?  I want to write a novel.  Really badly.

10) What's one strange thing you're really good at?  Debating/Arguing.  Not really a strange talent, but quite annoying to my husband, nevertheless.

11) What first attracted you to your spouse?  He's skinny.  I love skinny rock-star boys.

12) What is something you love to smell?  I love the smell of shoe polish.  I missed a great opportunity to be a huffer in my youth.

13) Tell me something about you that you know irritates people.  I can be too loud and way too opinionated.

14) When you have extra money, what's the first think you think to do with it?  Go on a date with my husband.

15) Are you a silent laugher or a loud laugher? What makes you laugh the hardest?  As stated before, I'm a loudmouth.  Tina Fey always makes me laugh.

16) Where is your favorite place to shop?  Super Tar-jay.

17) What's one thing you'd do more often if you had time?  Scrapbook.  I'm so behind, it's not even funny.

18) Are you a big spender or frugal?  Unfortunately, I'm a spender.  Big-time, but I'm working on it.

19) Who is your favorite character of all time (from a movie or book, can't be real).  Elizabeth Bennett or Elinor Dashwood.  I'm a Jane Austen kinda girl.

20) Would you want to be famous?  I think I would love it at first, then rapidly lose interest as I lost privacy.

Pretty standard-issue stuff, I guess.   

Halloween Cuteness

OK, I'm re-committing to blogging--some Halloween cuteness to inspire me:

And some pumpkin yumminess to inspire you. Happy Halloween!