DIY Owl Clock Design

 A few months ago I picked up this ugly clock from the thrift shop for $3.99. I took the gamble that with a fresh battery in it, it would be in working order. Sure enough as soon as I got home, I popped one in and it started ticking away. I've been wanting to make a clock for Jack's room, so I decided to make an owl since he has a "woodland theme" room.  I found this pattern for a felt owl Christmas ornament and was able to use the shapes from that to make mine out of paper. I resized her pdf pattern and decided to just draw the individual shapes on some white cardstock and color them with Prismacolor pencils. I used a gluestick to put the owl together. Then, I used some denim fabric I had to make the background and used double-sided tape to attach the owl to the denim. I used a light blue fabric paint to make the dots for the hours. I'm pleased with how it turned out, and I especially love how Jack says "whoo whoo" when he walks in his room and it catches his eye. ☺

Sitting on Jack's bookshelf, waiting to be hung up. 

Hanging on the wall.

We also hung up Jack's craft from Storytime this week. He loves trains (or anything "transportation" for that matter) so I thought we should showcase his glue-ing handiwork ☺

Stuffed Mushrooms Recipe and My Finished Tester Bag

So last Sunday was the Super Bowl and we went over to Tom's aunt's house. I wanted to make something to bring but they always have so many goodies already so it's tough to think of something that won't already be brought by someone else. In my family my aunt always makes stuffed mushrooms, and then it dawned on me, that usually nobody in Tom's family makes those! My aunt's recipe is super easy, so I thought I'd share it here! This recipe makes a lot of stuffed mushrooms, but for a big party they're perfect. You can always halve the recipe if you don't as many :) Also, apparently you can make these up to 2 days in advance without baking them. Then, when party-time rolls around pop them in the oven and add a few extra minutes of cook time. Yummy!

Ingredients:  

1 lb of spicy Italian sausage removed from casings

4 crates of mushrooms (about 4 dozen total)

block of cream cheese

1 Tbsp of Worcestershire Sauce

Directions:

1.  Carefully remove stems from mushrooms and trim off the woody part and throw it away. Chop the non-woody part of the stem.

2.  In a large saucepan, start cooking the sausage over medium heat. Break up the sausage so it's in pretty small chunks as it cooks.  Add the chopped up mushroom stems to the pan of sausage as it cooks.

3.  Add the Worcestershire Sauce to the sausage and mushroom stems.

4.  Once the sausage is cooked and the chopped stems are tender turn off heat. 

5.  Add the block of cream cheese and stir in completely. The heat remaining in the saucepan should help to melt the cream cheese a bit and make it easier to stir. 

6. Lay all of the mushroom tops upside down on a cookie sheet that has a lip so the juices won't run off of the pan. ( I also tried using muffin tins to prevent the mushrooms from tipping over

7.  Use a teaspoon to put a bit of the mushroom/sausage mixture into the mushrooms. 

8.  Bake at 350° for 30 minutes.

9.  Serve hot and enjoy!

 Waiting to be put into the oven!

All cooked and ready to serve!

I finished the tester for my mom's bag yesterday! Halleluiah! I love a good challenge, but trying to figure out how to construct this thing was tough for me! I know the fabrics/colors are not the greatest but keep in mind it was just a tester so I could figure out how to make it. Below are a few pictures of it.

Being displayed by my car. Outer pocket and straps are as long as she wanted. I don't know why the sides stick out a little like that, I think I'll need to interface those in the final bag I guess. :-/

Inside with dividers. My Mom wanted a skinny side (bottom part in picture) to put her laptop. Then 3 compartments for her water, papers to sit upright, and her coffee thermos. She gave me exact dimensions and I have to brag that it turned out exactly as she requested! :) Also there are two flaps that can be snapped on the top in case it rains or something, but when not in use just fold into the bag.

The bag sitting up on it's own.

What do you think of it? Any feedback/ suggestions are always welcome!

Homemade Gifts

Okay, okay so I know Christmas is long gone at this point, but I had to share some crafty things that I was working on over the holidays.

First up, I made a Gil doll for Jack.

If you don't have kids you may not recognize this little mer-boy(?) but he's a character from a Nick Jr show called Bubble Guppies. While we don't have tv, we do have a computer that we watch shows on. I limit how much Jack watches obviously, but this kid would love to sit on the couch, or as he says "cow" and watch either Bubble Guppies or Mickey Mouse Clubhouse all day. :)

Jack with his Gil doll, showing me where his mouth is :)

Grabbing Gil from me while I was trying to take a picture so he could give him kisses :)

Okay so this next one wasn't actually for Christmas but a week and a half later was Tom's birthday. I made him a paracord-wrapped hiking stick and keychain.  Well, I didn't make the stick, it was one that his Grandpa gave him a few years ago, I just wrapped it for him. He's been wanting paracord to do different things with so I bought some then made these things and he can use the leftover 65 feet to do whatever he wants with it. It came in a skein of 100 feet. I used about 12 for the keychain and 22 for the hiking stick. To wrap the hiking stick I used suggestions from this blog to make the Turk's Head knot at the top and bottom to hold it in place and did the middle with the Chinese Staircase knot. It took me about 3 hours from start to finish and I'm pretty pleased with how it came out considering I've never done anything like this before. I guess playing with lanyards as a kid probably helped out here :)

Paracord wrapped hiking stick

Turk's Head knot on paracord-wrapped hiking stick

Next up is actually a gift that was made for me! Tom knows that I love anything astronomy related so he made me this awesome Orion necklace! 

Close up of the front of the Orion necklace. He even drilled the holes different sizes to indicate the sizes of the stars. (He mixed up the sizes of a couple of them, shh don't tell him) :)

It's hard to see but on the back he wrote Psalm 19:1 which says "The heavens declare the glory of the Lord, the skies proclaim the work of His hands." What can I say my hubby is amazing!