History in the Making!

What an exciting day, don't you agree!?! We now have a new President! Did any of you watch the inauguration this morning? I did and I have to admit that it got me all teary-eyed! This is an exciting, historical day for our country and hopefully the beginning of good times ahead!


Yesterday was also an exciting day for me as I sewed a new blanket for my son. Jake is OBSESSED with the movie CARS, and especially Lightning McQueen, so I made him a new snuggly blanket. I sewed it all by myself... without any help from my Mom and no pattern. I know those of you that are really good at sewing won't find it too impressive -- how hard can it be to sew two rectangular pieces of fabric together, right!!! Well for me, a sewing novice, it was a great accomplishment. And Jake LOVED it -- he was beaming ear to ear when I gave it to him and he said "I love it Mommy!" -- aaaaaawwwwww!!! He hasn't put it down since I gave it to him! Here he is showing it off...





It is a cute Cars fabric on one side and the other side is green (his, and my, favorite color) minky fabric. It came out really well and I am now even planning to make a cute girly one for a friend's daughter's 1st Birthday this weekend! It gives me an excellent excuse to go back to the fabric store tomorrow at any rate!


Of course now Kierstyn wants to know when she is getting one too! I explained to her that she is getting to be a big girl and she doesn't need a blankey, so I'll make her something else. I am thinking I will go ahead and try out those Easy Fit pajama pants that I had wanted to get done before Christmas, but never got to!


I still need to catch up on my quilt project and I had intended to get more done last night, but we were having terrible weather and under a tornado watch, so I didn't really feel like it. Maybe tonight!!!


Karyn :o)

Time Flies...

Wow! I am so sorry for not updating sooner! It completely amazes me how fast the days go anymore. I have been super busy the last 2 weeks -- working on new designs for my Etsy shop (check out my link on the sidebar!) and several custom birthday invitations for clients, focusing on my diet, oh, er... I mean, my new healthy lifestyle (DIET is like a 4 letter word to me), dealing with the roller coaster of irrational behavior of the "terrible two's" as exhibited by my son Jake, planning a mini day trip to Disney in a few weeks, scoping out the after-Christmas clearance toy deals at Target, not to mention cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, etc., etc. etc.! Fun, fun, fun! Anyway, I apologize!

As for me and my resolutions, they are going pretty well. So far I have lost 8.5 lbs. since starting my Biggest Loser challenge on January 2nd - yay me! I am behind in my quilt project, but plan to buckle down and get caught up tomorrow (2-year old permitting, of course)! Luckily, it is a "No Stress" project, so I am not sweating it! I know I'll get there! I also have some other crafty projects in the works, so I'll share them when they are done.

I think I need to add another resolution -- to keep up with my blog better! I am really enjoying blogging and I look forward to keeping it up and having fun with it! I am also planning to have some fun contests in the future too, so watch for those! Who knew it would be so addictive?!?

So, I think that pretty much sums it up. I feel like I am forgetting something (other than the fact that today was my brother-in-law's birthday -- sorry Sean!) but I can't figure it out! Oh well, maybe it'll come to me later!

Type at'cha again soon!

Karyn :o)

So Far, So Good!

So, it's Day 2 of my Biggest Loser Challenge and I am off to a good start! Both yesterday and today I ate really healthy, watched my portions and got in 30 minutes of cardio. I am proud of myself so far!!! One resolution off to a great start!

Resolution #2 -- as per my previous post, I mentioned that I wanted to keep sewing. Sooooo, I have decided to start a new project. A quilt!!! Pretty risque for a novice at sewing, eh?

Kim from www.youcanmakethis.com is looking for some sewing buddies to sew along with her on a simple quilt and I decided to go for it! You can read about it here: http://ycmt.wordpress.com/ -- I am kinda nervous but super excited at the same time. I am looking forward to seeing what I can do -- following Kim's instruction of course!!!

So stay tuned for all the exciting details and to see how I continue to do with my resolutions!

Karyn

Happy New Year!

I am so sorry that I have been MIA for the past couple of weeks! Unfortunately, my Grandfather passed away on Christmas morning and it made the holidays a bit more stressful than usual.

For those wondering, everyone loved all of my handmade gifts this year. Because of my Grandfather's ailing health the last few days before Christmas, I did not get everything accomplished that I had wanted to, but I made way more than I ever would have if I hadn't been part of the challenge, so I an thankful for that! Being part of the challenge has re-ignited my passion for crafting, so one of my resolutions for this year is to do more... especially sewing!

On to another resolution for this year... believe it or not, I am now taking part in a new challenge! A challenge to lose weight and get healthy for the new year... and the rest of my life. I have gained so much weight since having my kids and I have been so unhappy about it for such a long time! I am taking part in a "Biggest Loser" challenge over the next 12 weeks with a group of ladies from a Mommy forum that I am part of. My goal over the next 12 weeks is to lose 30 pounds. After the 12 weeks is over, I would like to lose about 16-18 more to get back to my old pre-baby, pre-husband weight! LOL!

I will post my progress here on my blog so that you all can help cheer me along! I can use all the encouragement I can get!!! I have never been this heavy before and never had so much weight to lose, but I know that I can do it. Being part of this new challenge will be fun, challenging and exciting!

Thanks for catching up with me! I hope you are all well and I wish you all a Happy, Healthy & Safe New Year!

Karyn

Cinnamon Ornaments Recipe

As promised, here is the recipe to make the cinnamon ornaments:

INGREDIENTS:
3/4 cup applesauce
1 bottle (4.12 oz) ground Cinnamon (I used McCormick)
Supplies needed: cookie cutters, drinking straw & ribbon to hang ornaments

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.

2. Mix applesauce & cinnamon in a small bowl using hands until a smooth ball of dough is formed (this part is messy). Using 1/4 of the dough at a time, roll to approx. 1/3" to 1/4" thickness between 2 sheets of plastic wrap (I used wax paper instead). Peel off top sheet and cut dough using cookie cutters. Make a hole in the top using a straw. Place ornaments on baking sheet.

3. Bake for 2-1/2 hours. Cool ornaments on a wire rack.

4. Insert ribbon through holes and tie to hang.

Your house will smell wonderful while these are baking!

Have fun! This is a fun project to do with the kids!!!

Karyn :o)

The Final Count!

So, the challenge ended on Monday night at midnight. Although I did not get everything done that I wanted to, I still did pretty good! Here is my total: 37 gifts for 9 people costing $28.10 total! Not too shabby!

It was so much fun going through my stash and coming up with ideas on how to use things I already owned in this challenge! It really got my creative juices flowing (not to mention how much stuff I found that I forgot I had)!

Here are a few of the final things that I made:

Two more different versions of my ribbon ornaments -- a stocking & a star.

I made a total of 13 ornaments in all. They were so much fun and I think they will make great decorations for any holiday! I plan to make more for Valentine's Day, Easter, July 4th, Halloween & Thanksgiving using cookie cutters for each holiday! The possibilities are endless!!!

I also made these cute Cinnamon ornaments -- I have been wanting to make these for years but never found the time. This year I finally did and let me tell you how wonderful they made the house smell! It was amazing! I'll post the recipe a little later!

This is a decoupaged frame that I made for my Mom from the kids (inspired by Kim's tween posts on the YCMT blog). I will take a photo next week when we are doing our Christmas baking and put it in before Christmas!

And here are some cute treat containers I made. Can you guess what they are made out of??? Crystal Light containers!!! Talk about being thrifty! All I did was use some leftover scrapbooking paper and embellishments and decoupaged the containers! I am going to make several of these to put my homemade chocolate pretzel rods and peanut brittle in. So cute!!!I knew there had to be something you could make with these containers! We drink a lot of Crystal Light so I always have them on hand! They are also great to put little presents in (markers or crayons, socks, puzzle pieces) -- great for stocking stuffers! Such a cute way to wrap your holiday gifts, don'tcha think!?!?

And last, but not least, I made this print in Photoshop & framed it for DH from the kids:

So, that is it for my challenge. I am not done crafting by any means. I have several more projects I want to do before Christmas, so I will most likely be working right up until Christmas Eve! LOL!

I want to try to make some pajama bottoms for the kids (and possibly myself & DH) and I have yet ANOTHER ornament idea that I saw on another website I frequent that I want to try. So, keep checking back! I'll post anything new I complete in case any of you are looking for some last minute ideas!

Karyn :o)

The Thrifty Fifty is Soooo Nifty!

Well, the challenge officially ended on Monday the 15th at midnight! I will post more about all of my completed projects later today when the kiddos are napping, but I wanted to share some exciting news in the meantime!

Kim, my team leader and the owner of www.youcanmakethis.com, went to Salt Lake City yesterday morning to be on a local television program called "Good Things Utah" to talk a little about the challenge and to showcase a few of the projects that were made!

Here is the link so you can check it out! http://www.abc4.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoid=89908@video.ktvx.com