flavored salts

I put together some homemade flavored salts for Christmas. I am quite excited about these.

The original recipe was for chile-lime-pimentón salt but I could not find dried lime zest. I didn't have the time to search multiple stores so I just omitted the lime. I think this is going to be amazing without the lime, though if the lime does need adding then a bit of lime juice can be added to the food directly.

I have to admit that the citrus-rosemary salt is the one I am the most excited for. Plus, it looks Christmas-y. It has orange and lemon zest. The recipe can be found here. 

I really hope that the person receiving this gift is up for a little spicy flavor. The sriracha salt was the simplest recipe. 

I am pretty impressed at how easy these were to make. The recipes do mention letting the salts sit for a day to really let the flavors set properly. This isn't a problem for me since they'll spend time being mailed across country and sitting under a tree until Christmas morning. 

Have you made flavored salts before? What are your go-to recipes?

Miss Mermaid

This little mermaid gal is headed off across the country to my niece. She even has a ribbon that goes along with her.

She is a little over 2 feet long. Smaller than her sisters, but she has to be mailed in a box across country. 

She has delicate and feminine features.

She is just lovely and oh so snuggable.

I had to find a way to wrap her up and fit her in the box with the other Christmas presents, so I whipped up this bag for her. It is a pink and white gingham with gold satin ribbon. Perfectly sweet for a sweet niece.

Skylar's Doll

Earlier this summer my friend contacted me to make a doll for her sweet daughter's birthday. I loved making it for her. Such a lovely doll for such a lovely girl. 

The dress material with cupcakes and polka dots is pure sweetness. 

And, of course, the cupcake ribbon headband adds a touch of decadence.

The thigh high boots with lace trim are one of my favorite parts!

Such a delight to make and send to dear Skylar.

embroidered Christmas

I embroidered this for my Mom and Mark for Christmas last year. I've been on a hiatus from blogging and am trying to get back into the swing of things and post crafts that I never got around to posting. 

I am a big fan of Miniature Rhino and her embroidery.  I was so inspired by her instagram photos of her embroidery that I embroidered this for them. It was wonderful having a project that I could work on while just resting since I was recovering from having my appendix removed at the beginning of December. 

Anna's bowls

These are the wonderful ceramic bowls that I received from the barter with Anna. They are beautiful and timeless. I am thrilled to own her pottery. There were 2 larger bowls and and a set of 4 smaller bowls. 

I really like how the bowls have so much character. 

They are just beautiful works of art.

I take such pleasure in using them in the kitchen and at the table. 

With the set of 4 nesting bowls she gave them an anthropologie look when she hand painted them. I adore them. These 4 are my favorite. The style is perfection. 

The swirls in the bowls are mesmerizing and beautiful, too. 

And, that yellow... heck yes. 

They're just so pretty and I'm grateful to finally have a chance to show these to you. 

And the inscriptions on the bottom are the icing on the cake. Each one has a sweet signature that also declares it mine! They just couldn't get any better. 

I dying to know when I get to barter with her again!

Alice Della's quilt

I made this quilt a few months back and it quickly became one of my favorite quilts. My friend found this quilt on pinterest and asked me to make one for her sweet daughter. I loved making this quilt. The colors, the striped binding, the quilting, everything. What is not to love about this beauty?!

Isn't the backing lovely, too?

The striped binding made this quilt with it's character.

It's awesome. 

Halloween Party Package

I sent this rather fun Halloween party package to my sister this past October. I found this pin on Pinterest and wanted to one myself. I sent a handmade card, candy wrapped in fun paper, and a handmade skull garland all in a fun envelope covered in skeletons and spiders. This was so much fun to do! 

sew on a button

Over Spring Break I taught Todd and Kate how to sew a button. It went pretty well, I thought. Kate at least knows the basics but Todd caught on pretty well. I was quite impressed with how well he caught on. 

This is the button I was sewing on for them to see as an example. 

He is such a cutie. And even more so when he is so proud of the button he sewed on.

This beautiful girl tried so hard but it would have been easier for her if I hadn't given her such a thick fabric. It was pretty hard to her to push her needle through the fabric and that frustration made learning how to sew on a button more difficult than it needed to be. Whoops. Poor girl, but now I know for next time. I'm just so proud of her for trying so hard. 

booster seat~ before & after

Todd's seat has been driving me crazy. I know he only has 6 months left in it, but I decided that for those last 6 months it should look alot better than it previously did.

Here is the before:

It's not in too bad shape but is well worn. But I decided that I wanted his cover to look like the cute ones I've seen for sale. 

Here's the after:

I just hand appliqued the fabric right onto the seat cover. I just laid the fabric onto the seat and curled the edges under and invisible stitched the edges. Thats it. 

And I'm loving how it turned out. 

doll quilt #2

Last year, in August I hand stitched entirely and hand quilted this doll quilt for Alice. It's gone now. :( SO SAD! I'm still hoping that it will be found under or in something randomly. But after awhile I realized that I just needed to make her another. This one is not hand stitched at all but I did alot of the same fabrics as the first one. It still needs a binding but that's not happening tonight. Alice is snuggling with it in bed. 

embroidered tablecloth

It's done!

I was asked late last year to come up with a nice table cloth for the table in the Young Women's room for church. I was asked to incorporate the colors of the Young Women's values. The Young Women values and colors for each value are: faith- white, good works- yellow, knowledge- green, divine nature- blue, integrity- purple, choice and accountability- orange, individual worth- red, virtue- gold.

I found this design here and traced it onto the tablecloth with pencil. Then proceeded to embroider it all by hand. 

a close up of the left

a close up of the center

a close up of the right

This has been the biggest embroidery project I have ever taken on. And I do all my embroidery by hand so it definitely took a lot of hours.

I really enjoyed seeing the design come alive with color and pattern. 

Our Valentine's

This is the valentine that Todd took to school. We found it on Pinterest here.

And Kate's valentine from Pinterest here.

The night before Valentine's Day I stayed up late cutting out tons of construction paper hearts in which to decorate our home.

There were hearts going up and down the staircase.

And a color spectrum of hearts above our t.v. on the mantle.

Hearts showing our love for our family wall. And many others. I heart attacked the children doors with ones that said, "I love you!" "You're my superhero!" "You are my beautiful princesses!" and so on. There was a heart on most doors throughout the house, too. The children really enjoyed waking up to a heart wonderland. :)