Merry Christmas Eve, Ya'll!

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone!  We started the day off with some YUMMY buttermilk pancakes, made from scratch, thankyouverymuch.  Seriously, they were delish.  I got the recipe from the packaging of these:

They are so cool!  I didn't use the molds today, we just did normal pancakes.  Super yummy!  My crew loves pancakes and each kid will eat their weight in them if I don't stop them!  I made enough for tomorrow morning, too!  Since we have church services tomorrow, this will save a lot of time in the morning.
I still need to finish a couple of handmade gifts.  I know, I know....but procrastination is a fine art, and I am an artist.  :o)  Two of those gifts are to be given tonight (yikes!) when we open presents with Mr. Fiddle's family.  I should probably jump on those, ya think?  It'll happen.....no worries.
For the last several years, my oldest has read the story of Jesus' birth on Christmas Eve to the family.  I love hearing the word of God come out of my child's mouth.  I love that we are actively teaching our kids about the TRUE meaning of Christmas.  Kids are naturally selfish, and the commercialism and consumerism that surrounds us makes it that much harder to instill a concern for others in children.  I won't give up on trying, though!  My oldest (12) once told me that his eyes tear up when he does something nice for someone else. I told him it is a powerful feeling when you put someone else first, making them feel special.
The little ones are beginning to grasp the concept, as well.  The 4-year-old asked the 6-year-old last night why people put Christmas lights on their houses.  Instead of saying something like, "So Santa can find them," he calmly said, "To let everyone know that it's Jesus's birthday."  Score one for truth!
There are a few bittersweet aspects to this season, though.  My grandfather passed away on Christmas Eve many years ago.  I know my mom always misses him even more at this time.
This is our second Christmas without Mike's dad.  I'll tell that story in another post, another time.  We miss him terribly.
Mike's cousin, Josh, developed Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, and is now in intensive care in Houston.  He is sedated and on a ventilator.  He is only 24 years old, and I know his wife must be beside herself with worry.
Despite these things, we know that God is in control, and that we are all still very blessed.  I pray your Christmas will be full of family, laughter, fun, and remembrance of the amazing, undeserved gift God gave us in His son, Jesus! 
Merry Christmas to all!

DIY Year-round Wreath tutorial

Hello, lovelies! Bloggy Slacker here! Good gracious, my poor little unloved blog! I reaaaalllly need to be better about posting regularly. For real this time. Really. For realzzzz.
Aaaaanyway, I have a great tutorial for you! I have recently fallen into the abyss that is Pinterest and have been SO inspired by all the wonderful ideas in one spot! I have been a crafty blog follower for a long time now, but Pinterest lets me collect all my favorite things from those blogs in one place! If you don't pin, you should pin. Just try it once.
All the cool kids are doing it.
I have never really decorated my porch with the seasons. I always have a plant (or empty flower pots waiting to be filled with plants) and some other junk randomly placed out there, but I have never really put in much effort. I decided this is the year of the porch!
I want to have a few pieces that can transition from season to season with just a few tweaks. I've never put a wreath on my door before, and have seen SO many delightful handmade wreaths on blogs and (of course) Pinterest.  Like this one, and this one.
There are TONS of yarn-wrapped wreath ideas out there.  It's a great idea because you have an infinite color palette, variety of textures, etc.  You can really customize this to fit your style!   I know Thanksgiving is sooooo two weeks ago, but I'm going to share my fall wreath, since that's the one I have pictures of. :oP
First thing, gather your materials.  For my wreath, I used a bare foam wreath purchased from JoAnn's, but you can also make your own (monster cheap) with plumber's foam tubing and some duct tape.  No lie.  You also need some fabric scraps, trims, anything you want to throw on there, and straight pins.
The coolest thing about this wreath is that everything is simply pinned on...therefore, REMOVABLE!  No need to make a bunch of different wreaths!  I chose a neutral grayish-brown yarn for mine, so it would match pretty much anything I decided to put on there.

Pick a spot and start wrapping your yarn tightly around your wreath form.  I wound my yarn ends a couple of times around a straight pin and pinned it to the wreath, so even the yarn isn't permanent!

The pins are on the back of the wreath, so no one will ever know!  Warning:  This part is time-consuming!  You need your strands to be close together.  I wrapped a few, then pushed them as close together as I could.  When you're done, you can start embellishing according to the season!  I chose to use rolled fabric rosettes, some ready-made trim, and ribbon.

You might need a few pins around the sides of the rosette to make sure it stays close to the wreath.  Just tuck the fabric over the top of the pin so it can't be seen.  Once you have all of your embellishments the way you want them, cut a strip of ribbon and pin it on either side of the top of your wreath, on the back side.  Like this:

You are ready to hang it up!  Here's my finished product hanging on my front door, with a "Happy Thanksgiving" magnet in the middle.

Yay!  As of this post, I have already taken everything off of it (except the yarn, DUH!) to re-dress it for Christmas!  Here's a peek at what it looks like so far:

I'll post a picture of the finished masterpiece soon!  If you try this yourself, I'd LOVE to see what you come up with! :o)

Nursery Valance Makeover!

Today I am a gimpy typist.  While cleaning Z's room, I unearthed an outlet cover...ya know, those little plastic thingies you stick in the outlet to keep little ones from zapping themselves?  Well, our chocolate lab found it and was chewing it up, so I tried to get it out of her mouth.  She chewed one last chew while my fingers were in her mouth and WHOA MAMA she caught my right index finger in between her teeth.  ow, OW, OW! I jumped up and ran around and jumped up and down and tried really hard not to say the dirty words I wanted to say.  She broke the skin in one spot and my finger is throbbing and swollen now.  OUCH....and eeeewwww!  I slapped some antibiotic stuff on there, so hopefully my finger won't turn green and fall off. Yuck.  Also frustrating, because I have mountains of sewing to do!  UGH!  


 Anywho....let's move on, shall we?  I have a great project to share with you!  The Nusery Valance Makeover!!! 


Z had the CUTEST bedding set in her nursery.  It was green gingham, trimmed with red gingham and scalloped eyelet lace with little ladybugs embroidered on it.  When we changed her room to Little Girl instead of Sweet Little Precious Baby, I couldn't bear to get rid of the bedding..the fabric was just too cute!  Soooo, I decided to do a little refashioning, using this:

   This was the window valance.  So cute!  I opened the side seam from the top down about an inch, and inserted some elastic cut to fit Z's chest.  I removed two of the ties and put them an inch down from the top of each side seam...and VOILA!

A seriously cute little apron style top!  YAY!  Here's the back view:

It's also majorly twirly.  She loves twirly.  She covets twirly.  She DEMANDS twirly!  Mama delivers! 


I am linking up with the party over at Somewhat Simple!  Go check out all the great links!

Patchwork Dress Giveaway at Simply Annie Kate!

Who doesn't love one-of-a-kind pretties, made just for your sweet girl? Go check this out here
and enter to win!

Linky Party with Somewhat Simple!

One of my favorite blogs for crafty inspiration is Somewhat Simple.  Stephanie has some great tutorials for all kinds of things!  I decided to link up to her Valentine's linky party to share my Love Candles.  Hop over there by clicking the button below and check out the other amazing ideas for Valentine's Day!

Giveaway at Evy's Tree!

Do you love hoodies?  I love hoodies..so comfy, so versatile.  Wanna win one?  Go check out http://evystree.blogspot.com/2011/02/pol

ka-dot-brillas.html  to learn how to win a sweet handmade hoodie!  I like this one:

 And this one!

Go check it out!  You can also become a fan of Evy's Tree on Facebook! 

PaPeR HeArTs & LoVe CaNdLeS

We survived day 2 of being iced in!  Our afternoon craft project turned out great, though my kids' tendency to jump ahead of things tried my patience a bit. ;)  Check out these fun paper hearts we made!

  Z's turned out a little different, since I let her cut the pieces herself, but I think that's part of the fun.  These are SUPER easy to make, and a great way to upcycle a few magazine pages!  These would also look great with double-sided scrapbook paper...hmmm.  Perhaps we need to make more today!  I found instructions for these here, at this charming little blog.

  We also have these on display:

 
  Aren't they cute?  This is another great project to do with your kids, and they hold up great!  I made these two years ago and they still look perfect!

Supplies:

Stage 2 baby food jars, washed and labels removed
Pony beads in desired colors
Letter Stickers
Tea light candles
Ribbon or trim
Glue

  If you are doing this project with kids, it helps to pre-cut the ribbon to fit around the jar.  I did this project with a class of 3-4 year olds and it went very well.

   Fill each jar with beads, allowing enough room for the tealight to fit into the top.  Pop the tealight in, which will seal the beads in the jar.  Add one sticker per jar to spell out "love,"  then glue ribbon and trim around the threads of the jar.  DONE!  We also have one that says "winter" with blue and clear beads, snowflake stickers, and adhesive crystals.  These are great teachers gifts, as well, and can be made for any season or holiday!  I'd love to see any pictures of candles you and your kids make!  Email pics to FiddleNBowBiz@gmail.com!

*NOTE:  do not use fuzzy trims if you are planning to actually light the candles! 

Ice Daze

It is icy and ridiculously cold here.  RIDICULOUSLY cold.  While parts of Texas get snow every year, North Central Texas is not one of those parts.  We are now suffering enjoying our second blast of arctic fun within the last few weeks.  The first one was kinda fun, we got a few inches of snow on a Sunday, lots of fun to play in and make snowpeople out of.  My kids had a great time:

     No idea why I can't get this picture to turn upright..grrrrrrrrr!

  This time around, they haven't gone outside ONCE..and I'm ok with that.  It is roughly 20 degrees outside, with a wind chill of  2!  TWO!  No fluffy fun snow this time, either.  Just ice.  It arrived in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, sounding like Sonic ice (yum!) raining from the sky and pelting my windows. 
  Our schools are closed for the second day in a row (also an extremely rare occurance) and most likely will be closed again tomorrow!  This is what outside looks like right now:

 Solid ice.  Idgie won't even get off the patio!  I think since we are trapped in the house, my three monsters  angels need something crafty to do.  After their quiet time (ah, sweet quiet time!) is over, we will make some Valentine's Day decorations for the house.  Stay tuned to see how it all turns out!

bLoGgY sLaCkEr

Oh, my...I SO did not intend to let such a long time pass between posts!!  Ah, such is the life of a wife, mom of three, teacher, and crafter/sewist.   By the way, those are all me. :) 

The last several months have brought many changes to our band of five.  Hubby got a new job, right here in town (YAY!) which will lead to a higher position next year.  In September, we very suddenly lost my sweet father-in-law after he suffered an aneurysm in his brain.  He was 54 years old. 

The holidays were a bit different this year, and myself and all three kids had a wicked flu during Christmas!  Things have been very low-key during break, as we rest and recover. 

On an exciting note, on December 20th, my new nephew was born!  He is round and sweet and I just adore him!  His bedroom theme is sock monkeys, which has inspired me to try and make one...I think every house needs a sock monkey.  The Kia commercials make me think that our sock monkey will need a tattoo sewn on his arm. :)  I love that commercial!

I have nothing particularly crafty to post right now, but I have lots of new projects I am trying and will be posting about those soon!

Happy New Year, everyone!