Mother's Day

Okay, I must fess up . . . I am no scrapbooker/ cardmaker. 
But I thought I would make my mom a Mother's day card and I am actually fairly pleased with it.
It doesn't have any brads, or flowers, or do dahs on it, but it does have some ribbon!

First, I printed a piece of clip art on some white card stock for the front of the card:

Then, I printed a fun picture of my mom jumping in a puddle on the back of the card, and then a picture of her in her gazebo for the inside of the card:

Then I added the paper trim:

(I was trying to achieve the effect of a shade awning of maybe a little cafe in Paris with the striped paper -- um, oh well)

Then, I added the ribbon.  It was a pain to glue, I'm sure there is a better "scrapbooker" way to do this:

Now all I have to do is write in it and stick it in an envelop.  Maybe I'll added some stickers to the envelop.  My Mom loves stickers!

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mother's out there!!!

Birthday Gift for my Granddaughter!

My adorable red headed granddaughter turned 1 this springtime month of April.

Here are some photos of the present I made for her:

I made all of the headbands or hairbands to have interchangeable flowers, which makes it fun.

I really like how the pink flower turned out.  But when I took it off and put the gray flower on the white headband, I liked it too.  She has a cute pink, gray, and white jacket that this headband with the interchangeable flowers will look great with.

The yellow and green headbands have three spots to attach the flowers to:

The green headband and flowers were made with regular Red Heart yarn.  The other 2 hairbands and flowers were made with Caron Simply Soft yarn (I like this yarn!).

Happy Birthday baby girl!

She LOVES birthday cake!!!

  

The Leaf and LUGGS!

I have had some requests for a pattern for the crocheted leaf shown in blog entry:
 How to crochet a flower

I found the leaf in a library crochet book in a city I no longer live in, so I resisted putting in the time to create my own leaf pattern, but after the requests I couldn't resist anymore and here is what I came up with:

 Chain 10 (I used a size "H" hook), then work 2 half double crochets (hdc's) in the 3rd chain from hook, then work another hdc in the next chain.

 In the next 3 chain stitches work a double crochet (dc), then a hdc in the next chain stitch. Work a single crochet (sc) in the next chain stitch.

 In the last chain work 3 sc's.  Now working the backside of the chain stitches, work one sc in the next stitch (or other side of the chain stitch -- middle photo), and a hdc in the next stitch, and a dc in each of the next 3 stitches.

Next work a hdc in the next stitch and then work 2 hdc's in the same chain that you worked the very first 2 hdc's in.

Pull yarn through last loop on your hook and pull tight to finish it off!  All done and ready to attach to a flower or anything else that needs a leaf.


Now you may be asking what are LUGGS . . .
They are a project I've been working on for months and months.  I'm so happy and pleased to have this creation finished.  The popular UGG boots inspired this project.  The "L" in LUGGS stands for "lazy" because after marching around in the snow in your UGGS you just want to come inside and relax and laze around in your LUGGS!  A cozy, snUGGly boot slipper that looks good on and feels good on with it's double comfy soul.  Here's a pic of them:

Aw, aren't they cute!!!

Finished Project for the Holidays

I have several projects that I have wanted to do before Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Guess what!?!  I actually got one of them done.  I'm so glad I put the thought and plan into action and did it.  It would have been such an easy project to think about and never do.

This little table has been in my mother's shed for years.  It used to belong to her mother and I had a spot in my house that it would be perfect for, but it needed some work.

I had to sweep it, vacuum it, wash it, then sand it, and fill in holes and gaps.
Now it was ready for some change. I painted the legs black and stained the top with mahogany colored stain (I later found out the color I really wanted was cherry--the mahogany was darker than I had wanted, but it was too late and I didn't want to re-sand it).

Next came the first coat of polyurethane.  I did this in the house because it was cold outside.  Oh boy, it took a long time for the fumes to die down!

After sanding it with fine sand paper and putting on a 2nd coat of polyurethane, it was done -- yea!!!

I couldn't wait until after Thanksgiving to get out this fabric/stuffed manger scene.  The table is short, so the grandkids can reach and play with this manger scene just like my daughters did when they were little.

Oh btw,

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

New for November!

I've been spending hours, days, weeks, months, on creating new patterns for my website, then suddenly when I'm almost finished with two new crochet patterns my website disappears.  Honestly, it is like it just vanished from the face of the earth.
I called my hosting provider and they could not figure out what happened (btw-this took three days of calling and going back and forth and being on hold, ugh!).

But alas! I now have my website back up, only because I had enough run around from my old provider (which I had for more than 7 years), and got a new one and I also had to get a new domain name.
I'm excited about the new domain name, it is the same as my blog ---- momof5daughters.com
This meant changing everything on my website from Ivy Stitching to Mom of 5 Daughters.

I'm so glad it's all done (whew!!!)

One of the funnest things me and my daughters and grandkids did, was a little video.  It distantly (very distantly) follows the "Billy Goats Gruff" story and  we are all wearing Aladdin like slippers that I made.
(The pattern is on my old yet new website).  It was a lot of fun, and I get a good laugh every time I see it.
I'll try and put it on this post ----- pause, while I try and do this . . . 

Yea!!! it worked! And it was easy.  After all the mess with my old host company and those computer challenges, I'm so glad inserting this video was soooo easy (knock on wood).

Changing the subject, today (while doing some shopping) I'm in search for gold tin foil.  If I find it, later on I will post the cool thing I'm going to do with it.  'Til then have a great day!

Halloween Pizza

For dinner my girls decided to make pizza. 
I threw together some dough and got distracted with something else.  The girls moved forward and made individual pizzas for themselves putting on their own pizza their favorite things.  They were anxious for me to make my pizza because they were getting very hungry and wanted to bake them all at the same time.  Since I was taking so long at whatever it was I was doing, they asked if they could make my pizza and get them all in the oven.  I said "sure!"

As the pizzas were baking I came back into the kitchen and moving from the kitchen to the dining room and livingroom I would catch little whispers, "has mom seen her pizza?"  "Did mom look in the oven?"  Then finally the timer went off and the pizzas were done.
The girls said I should take the pizzas out of the oven.  As I pulled them out of the oven we all started laughing.

They have great talent, don't you think!?!

Yes siree, this monster pizza is the one they made for their dear mother!
Perfect for Halloween.  I just gotta love my girls . . .

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Almost a year to the day!

This has been a crazy last year. I am glad it has passed and I'm anxious to start blogging again.  Wow, it really has been a year, I can't believe how quickly the days and weeks go by!!!


The most recent wonderful event was the blessing of my granddaughter.
She is adorable, no bias on my part either. 

Baby and her beautiful mom, baby and her proud grandma (me), and baby and her lovely great grandma. 

I made a couple of pairs of booties for her to wear.  Here's a picture of them:

And here are some pictures of my grandbaby wearing them:

Isn't life great!

Life is sooo good!

This is what we had for dinner last night.  We call it a German pancake, but I don't think it is acually German (kind of like French fries).
I wanted to post it because it is easy and very inexpensive to make, and feeds 5-7 people (plus kids love it, my youngest daughter wanted this for her birthday dinner).

In a mixing bowl whisk up 9-12 eggs (depending on size), add 2 c flour and 2 c milk and 1 tsp vanilla and whisk some more.
In a 9"x13" pan (in the photo, I used a 10"x15" pan), butter generously (use a couple of tablespoons of butter or margarine.  Pour egg mixture into pan and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
Serve with pancake syrup and jam.  YUM! 

This is the project I have been working on lately.  It's called Swedish weave and this will someday be a cute blanket/throw.  For now its a "work in progress".

I am reading a great book called The Dynamics Laws of Prosperity, by Catherine Ponder.  I want to share tidbits of the book in my posts (especially for my wealth building buddies!).  Here goes:
"I learned about the power of thought as an instrument for success or failure.  I came to realize that failure is basically the result of failure thinking.  I learned that the right use of my mind could become the key to healthy, happy, prosperous, successful living. . . . The word 'prosper' means 'to flourish, succeed, thrive, to experience favorable results.'  You are prosperous to the degree that you are experiencing peace, health, and plenty in your world."

So, let's change any failure thinking to prosperous thinking, starting right now!  We can do it!

Miscellaneous stuff

Life is constantly changing, but amid the changes and "busy" ness -- not to be confused with business, I did get the pink trim on one slipper done. I started in the back or the heel area and single crocheted all the way around until I was where I had started. Then I tied a knot with the beginning end and the ending end of yarn.

I haven't sewn on a button yet. I bought some pink buttons, but I think I'm going to get some different -- more colorful -- buttons to use.  Now I just need to make the other slipper to go with this one!!!!

On to a different subject --

Here are pictures of cookies we made (they were time consuming, but fun):

 We made little tiny tea party cookies . . .

 and some little leaf and apple cookies . . .

 and some flower cookies!

Here is something for the Wealth Building Buddies of WUN:

This quote is from Brandon B.

"I've used several different tracking systems over the past decade. I'm 1 out of 100 that went in every day and put in the information about my day's expenses.Since I started using currentsee™ to track my finances, I have cut my expenses down by over $400.00 per month. This is the ONLY system in the world that automates everything for you. I spend with my currentsee™ Mastercard™ all day, then login to my currentsee™ Dashboard the next morning to see that all of the expenses have automaticallly been categorized, my pie graphs and charts have automatically been updated and I know at a glance how much is left in each of my budget categories. I just spent the money. It categorized everything for me. Amazing!

On top of that, using the currentsee™ Rewards for just my grocery coupons, I am saving over $120.00 per month buying things I already buy and things I already love. I'm a single dad with two kids that don't even live with me all of the time and STILL I save $120.00!

That's $520.00 net gain to my bottom line on just two aspects of wakeupnow™.

Is the $87.13 per month really worth it? Ha!"

Have a super duper weekend.  For me and my family it is General Conference weekend.  We have been looking forward to this weekend for a long time.

More Crocheted Slipper

Let's see picking up from last week's crochet instructions . . .
Now you work 24 double crochets in the next 6-9 rows depending on the size/length of your foot.

Then choose which side you want for the inside of the slipper, and which side you want for the outside.  Turn inside out and fold the heel of the slipper in half and slip stitch the back together. Tie a good knot at the bottom and crochet yarn ends into the slipper.

Next, single crochet around the top edges and strap of the slipper to tidy up the edges. 

 I started this single crochet at the back of the slipper, then I went all around and tied it off in a tight knot.  Weave in the yarn ends.

Voila, almost done.  Maybe I'll get it finished tomorrow!