Another wreath...

...It's a different one, but this time I'll show you how to make it! Yay!

Materials: 

• sticks/small branches
• scissors
• eye protection
• hot glue gun
• foam core or cardboard, cut into a ring shape
• scrap fabric, cut into strips and/or ribbon (optional)

Glue one end of the fabric to the back of the wreath shape and begin wrapping to cover so that no cardboard is showing.

When it's completely covered, hot glue the end and trim.  Attach a ribbon for hanging, or leave the tail of the fabric and hot glue into a loop (which is what I did).

Now, take your sticks and begin breaking them so that they're about an inch to an inch and a half longer than the width of the wreath.  My wreath is about 2" wide, so my sticks are about 3"-3 1/2".  If it helps, use the scissors to score the sticks where you want to break them. You should be wearing EYE PROTECTION while doing this...

Do your hands hurt now?  

Begin placing sticks evenly around your wreath, hot gluing as you go....

Keep filling it in..........

......and voilà!  You're done!

What did you think of my first tutorial?  Did you find it helpful?  Did it all make sense to you?  Please comment!

...and thanks for reading!

It's the most [stress]ful time of the year....

Seriously now.  Aren't the holidays supposed to be a time to relax and get the kids involved with the fun?  I keep telling my girls (Moo is 7 and Rye is 5, both with birthdays drawing very near) to just get their room clean so that we can start decorating, watch a movie and eat some of the amazing mint brownies I made last night.  I've even checked to see which of Santa's lists they're on....  nothin'.  The room remains a mess, even though the threat of no Christmas gifts from Santa had Moo near tears - twice.  I have a feeling that Buddy, our "elf on the shelf" (who isn't an *actual* elf on the shelf, but is a cute little guy that Kitty Gramma, my mom, picked up at the North Pole last year) will be returning tonight while the kids are in bed....  or maybe even at rest time today.  

On a happier note, the kids *will* be getting gifts from me (even if Santa only bring them coal ::evil laughter::)....  I wrote up an actual list so that I don't forget anything.  It goes something like this:

Moo-

*slippers

*robe

*sketch books

*pillow

*rugs

Rye-

*slippers

*robe

*sketch books

*pillow

*rugs

O (my three year old boy)-

*slippers

*robe

*sketch books

*pillow

*beanbag chair

I obviously have quite a bit of work to do.  AND I'm working on handmade ::grumblesclearsthroatmmkmmm:: for other family members, which should be easy enough....  I'm making a point of doing different designs, but still the same actual product so assembly will be easy.  And then there's the fiancé ....  His will be easy to make, but difficult to hide.  

So, while I should have been doing all of this crafting of gifts, what did I actually spend my time doing last night?  I already mentioned the brownies (oh, the brownies...), but I also made a neat little wreath for our house out of an old Harlequin romance novel.  (Note: this is a rare case where I am actually okay with the destroying of a book.  Mostly because the book was pretty much garbage to begin with)  Pictures will come as soon as I can get one of the two cameras to work for me.  

Maybe if I can find another book that I'm okay with tearing apart I'll make a tutorial...?

Welcome to my world....

How does one start a very first post to a brand new blog?  Especially with little to no experience blogging....?  I'm going to start by introducing myself, I suppose.  My name is Kassy and I'm a stay at home mother of three.  I'm also a crafter in nearly every sense of the word, and I *love* cooking and baking...  Oh, and I don't like talking about myself (not that you could tell, huh?).  I also over-use punctuation........  especially periods.  Deal with it.

I guess I'm here because I want to be able to share what I do with, well whoever is interested.

Today I'm insanely over-tired due to staying up 'till 2 a.m. canning some turkey stock.  Thanksgiving was the day before yesterday so, after everyone left our house Thursday night, I stuck the carcass in the slow cooker and left it on low.  Then I let it cook and cook and cook, and moved it to my 12 qt. stockpot and let it cook some more.  Finally, around 10 last night, I decided that I should probably do something with it....  7 qts, are canned and ready for the pantry!  Oh, yeah.  ::yawn::

For anyone who might be interested, here is a pattern I wrote for a knitted cowl...  it's my very first pattern and it hasn't been tested yet, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated.  I'll add some pictures as soon as I'm able to take some, but for now here's the pattern: Oversized Chunky Cabled Cowl


Enjoy the pattern and thanks for reading!