Craft Fair

I participated in my first craft fair for our church's Women's Christmas Brunch & Craft Boutique. We had an awesome speaker, Catherine Martin who is the Founder and President of Quiet Time Ministries.  Although I didn't sell much, I had a great time with my daughter who attended with me.  All is not lost though, we now have many handmade gifts ready to be given to my very large extended family. 

Troop 5366 Community Service Projects

Customize a free scrapbook

I put together a short scrapbook video of the girls cleaning up the beach and making pillowcases for Conkerr cancer.

Pillowcases for ConKerr Cancer

The girl scouts had a great time putting together their material to sew pillowcases.  Unfortunately, there was not enough time to complete sewing them in our meeting.  We will continue sewing our pillowcases at our next meeting and hope to complete eleven. 

Coastal Clean-up

September 25, 2010 is "Coastal Clean-up Day" and everyone is invited to help clean-up our beaches.  So, if you haven't signed-up to help out, go visit http://www.cleanupday.org/ for registration and more information.  I'm taking our girl scout troop to help clean-up Imperial Beach this year.  Last year, I went with my oldest daughter's troop and we had a great time.  You won't believe the things we found in the beach. 

Let's do our part to help clean-up our area beaches!  The girl scouts also earn a very cute seagull  patch for their vest.

Back to School

There are many messenger bag tutorials in blogland, but I found a great tutorial over at http://www.mmmcrafts.blogspot.com/  I made the messenger bag for my oldest daughter and she uses it for school practically everyday.  She stuffs it with her books, wallet and lunch and it has not fallen apart.  She has had it for over a year now.  This is her bag:

Since I am homeschooling my youngest daughter this year, I wanted to make her a very special bag to keep

her own notebooks and school stuff.  She picked out this very cute elephant fabric.

Mmmm!

In our home, we love anything sweet!  I recently came across a new recipe for sugar cookies and decided to give them a try.  My daughter, Isabelle, and I decorated the cookies with pink, lime green and white royal icing.  They were delicious.  My problem in the past with cut-out sugar cookies is they spread too much and loose their shape.  Because this recipe did not contain any baking powder, the cookies kept their shape very well.  This recipe is a keeper.  I found the recipe at http://www.annies-eats.com/ They have some great video tutorials and recipes.

Bright and fun pillowcase

My daughter Isabelle made this pillowcase all by herself (with a little help from mom of course).  She chose the fabric and sewed it all by herself.  She decided to keep her pillowcase but promised me she would help me make some more. 

I made this pillowcase for the San Diego chapter of ConKerr cancer.  My goal is to make a dozen more.  Join me in making more pillowcases for the kids at Children's hospital.  Please check out http://www.crafthope.com/ website for more information on this project.  

ConKerr Cancer pillowcases

It all started with this pillow (sorry for the wrinkles.  I took a picture of it after my daughter slept in it).  In one of Cassandra's dentist visit at Children's hospital (dentist for kids with disabilities), she received this pillowcase packaged in a clear baggie with a business card "ConKerr Cancer" San Diego chapter.  I thought it was a great idea to give handmade pillowcases to kids, so I kept the card.  A few months later, I came across the http://www.conkerrcancer.org/ organization through one of my favorite blogs http://www.crafthope.com/.  The goal of ConKerr cancer is to give bright, fun pillowcases to lift up the spirits of terminally ill children with cancer.  Although our Cassandra does not have cancer, receiving this pillowcase brighten up my day.  Cassandra uses this pillowcase everyday and everyone at home knows it is hers.  The pillowcases are easy to create with some easy stitching.  I taught my youngest daughter, Isabelle, how to sew one.   

Luscious Lemon Curd

I finally made lemon curd from a recipe I found a while back.  I bought some cute small jars at Walmart, printed some labels and added a yellow ribbon (Sorry to my friends that received jars with no ribbon).  I thought the jars looked so cute.  With this recipe I was able to make four small jars.  These make cute gifts.  My girls were not too happy with the tartness of the lemons.  I will tweak the recipe next time and make it less lemony.  This is the recipe I followed: 

1 1/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 Tbsp light corn syrup
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 stick unsalted butter, in chunks

Wisk the sugar and eggs in a heavy saucepan; whisk in the remaining ingredients. Over medium-low heat, stir constantly until the curd thickens and a bubble or two pops at the surface, 8 to 10 minutes.  Don't let it boil!  Immediately scrape the curd into a heatproof container or canning jars.  Press plastic wrap against the surface to create a seal.  Cover, let cool, and then refrigerate until needed, up to 3 weeks.  Recipe courtesy of Parade.com

Polka Dots Diaper Cake

I made this cake for a friend's baby shower.  It was super easy to make using a bag of diapers, baby socks, stuffed animal and blue polka dot ribbon.  There are many tutorials on the internet for creating a diaper cake.  I followed some of the instructions from http://www.handmadebyjill.blogspot.com/ to get me started.