Something for Hubby while he's away

My DH is Navy, so it happens often enough that he's gone on sails. This most recent sail was our longest yet. It's only 7 weeks and we've been away from each other longer than that, but it's always tough not being able to chat every day. And since it is only 7 weeks, I wasn't sure if he was going to be able to receive mail. So just in case, I decided to give him a package before he left. It had letters, drawings from the kids and quotes to last the whole trip. I made cards for the special occasions that would happen while he's at sea like his birthday and Easter. I made sure that he had something to open every other day, plus special occasions. Some days it's just a great quote that reflects our life with some little comments from me, others it's a drawing from our kids. I thought he would enjoy something to look forward to. And he has said that he loves it. He's also said that I may be stuck doing this for every sail LOL. I don't mind, he's so worth it ;)

It really didn't take much, just some time finding the right quotes. I searched the sentiment I was looking for (love, family) and with Google, I was able to select to view images. There were so many to choose from. I picked those that suited us best and just re-created them in a Word format using different fonts. I had lots of envelopes laying around with no cards for them, so I took the opportunity to use them up. I had previously bought the blank card/envelope sets from the Dollarama and used the cards for another project.

I know that there will be a next time so I'm already working on that. So many ideas swirling around!!

Happy crafting!

A Pennant Banner

I have seen these cute material banners in people's pictures and on Pinterest. And since I will be doing a small type of business venture soon, I thought it would be a great addition to our set up. So I set out to make it. I picked up some material, you don't need much of it. I actually picked up some fat quarters and then some material from the discount shelves. I'll be honest, I didn't want to invest too much into decor as I really want my food to speak for itself! But of course the perfectionist side of me wants everything to be perfect and I think that decorating the table may help draw positive attention.
I was thinking spring/summer when I went to the fabric store, so that led me to pick these 4 different patterns.

Aren't they great spring colours?! I love them so much! 

I tried a few different sizes of triangles for the pennants and cut out the size I wanted onto a cardstock. I used my rotary cutter and mat to cut them out from the material. I am not making a huge banner, so I only needed 2 pennants of each colour. You need 2 pieces (front and back) per pennant. Put them wrong sides together and sew down one side, pivot at the tip and then back up. That's it! No need to sew across the top as it will closed up by the bias tape.

Then I pinned them to an extra wide bias tape that I had on hand. You could also use a wide ribbon, use what you have on hand. If you want a longer banner, then you will need more pennants. I placed the pennants on the inside of the bias tape and pinned them, slightly overlapping. And then I sewed down the bias tape and done! It didn't take long at all.

Once I have a picture of it pinned up at our table, I will definitely update this post to include it!

Happy crafting!

Finding the time to do it all

For some reason, I have no trouble finding the time to cook and bake. But I can't seem to find the time to sew. I can find the time to go material shopping and buy more material for projects that I hope to tackle soon.
Here's my latest purchases:

The dinosaurs are for a bib or two with the intention to sell them. The green w/ red and white candies are to make a simple skirt for my DD for Christmas next year. The puppies is for another simple skirt for my DD for this spring/summer. And the last material, pink and brown, is to make pillow case dresses to sell and if enough material is leftover, a bib as well. I just love this last material. So much so, that I want to make a dress for my DD with it. I also picked up some inexpensive ribbon and some clips to do mitten clips for my DS who can't seem to keep his mittens on.

Sorry for the glare.

And well, I really wanted to knit and for some reason, can't seem to wrap my head around it. So I picked up a knitting loom in the hopes that I could finally make something. Well, it's working. I am able to work on this when I'm sitting down relaxing at night once the kiddies are in bed. It's a simple scarf but I'm loving how it's turning out. The wool I picked up is so soft and chunky. Just loving it!

So we'll see how the sewing goes.
And of course with DH buying me a beautiful red KitchenAid mixer for my birthday, I really need to put that to good use LOL.
I think that I will have to pick one thing to do each day, either a recipe or a craft, and then work on that one thing instead of trying to get everything done on the same day.
I'll let you know if this works for me ;)