schrute farms beets

I tried something new, freezer paper stenciling. I was nervous. It took longer than I wanted it to. But in the end, I am happy with my results.

Thankfully my fussy printer worked well enough for me to print off "Schrute Farms Beets" exactly how I wanted it. I taped the printed paper facing the waxy side of the freezer paper and cut around the letters with a blade. I didn't do a very good job. Oh well.

Then I removed the printer paper and ironed it, wax side down, onto my washed t-shirt.

Next I dabbed on fabric paint I had leftover from our 4th of July t-shirts, then left it in the sun to dry.

I peeled off the paper & heat set the paint with the iron. I'm very happy with how it turned out. I decided to use the brown paint instead of the white I had because I wanted a more subtle look. It's a gift for a fellow fan of The Office. I hope he likes it!

(Schrute Farms & Dwight. Also, my shirt was inspired by this shirt)

You Bet I'm Proud

This was made by my 13-year-old daughter.

Now don't get me wrong,

I am proud of her school achievements,

she gets good grades and is in advanced classes.

She is gifted in music and art.

She is funny and sweet and helpful.

She bakes.

But this? This might be IT.

Good job, Birdie!

new friends

eddie (giraffe) & quintin (bird)

friends made for the first birthday of a little girl who did not live even to see her first christmas. little kenzie's story is heartbreaking. her parents had a fund raising carnival to support research into the disease that took their beautiful daughter from them. we were unable to attend, but i was able to donate a few items to their gift shop.

lunch!

more food creations:

Every kid's favorite (well, except Tessa)

PB&J

The sandwich was made with mostly acrylic yarn (the PB is cotton). The bread is two strands thick and even still I am not sure it is thick enough.

***

Another crowd pleaser

pizza that could be either pepperoni or cheese.

I may be slightly addicted to making play food. Tessa loves them and is sad these are not for her. Luckily her birthday is next week and I plan on making more as a surprise.

t-shirt mistake fixed

My sister saw a great idea for a patriotic t-shirt in an issue of Family Fun Magazine. She organized an effort to make them with a whole bunch of cousins a couple of weeks ago (why didn't I take any pictures of that?!).

All was well until 11 pm the night before the Independence Day parade (which wasn't on Independence Day this year, but the day before). This was when two of my girls realized their shirts had accidentally been mixed up between the hand-stamping and name-painting phases. Oops. Lizzy's name ended up on Tessa's shirt and Tessa's name ended up on Lizzy's shirt. And they are dramatically different sizes. What's a mom to do with one girl in tears and another not far behind?

Well. I remembered fabric I had leftover from a few years ago when I attempted jumpers for the 4th of July.

And I made a plan.

They turned out very cute and I had requests from two other girls to add stars to their shirts even though there were no mistakes that needed a band-aid.