new cat behavior

At last!  I can finally say I am totally, 100% done with my son's Superman costume.  Now I just need to hide it away so it won't get trashed or lost before Halloween!  That is, if there is ever a time when he's not wearing it...

Now I just have to finish my costume and make a new shirt for my daughter (she had a growth spurt and now it's too small!).  Soon, very soon!

After that I can post about the dress and belt I made to wear to my 10 year high school reunion, which happened this past weekend.  I had such a good time, it was awesome.  I really liked how everything I made turned out, and think I looked pretty darn good. 

So, back to the superheroes.  One of you, my fabulous readers, asked for a tutorial on the pants, so I'll do that plus the cape since I had to make a new one anyway.  Click here to go back to the tutorial for the logo t-shirts.

When looking at lots of superheroes I've discovered that most of them have the same style of pants, which makes this pattern very versatile since you just need to customize with your particular hero's colors.

For the pants I started with an existing pattern for a pair of pants in my son's size.  I drew the shape of the contrasting colored brief and "boots" (just below knee level). My son was very insistent that he wanted the "pointy part in the front" on the boots, just like in his Superman coloring book.



I traced the shape of the brief on separate pieces of paper, without any seam allowance on the bottom where it transitions from the brief to the pant. Same thing with the boots, except no seam allowance on the top where it transitions from the boot to the pant.





You can either cut out a full pant and just lay the contrasting color pieces over the top and sew them on (I did that for the brief). Or you can just cut the part of the pant that shows, with seam allowance to overlap and sew together with the contrasting pieces, which is what I did for the boot area. [I really hope that sentence made sense to you!] Once I had the pieces cut out I laid the contrasting pieces on top of the pant and pinned it.


I also pinned a piece of tear-away stabilizer underneath and sewed an applique stitch over the edge of the contrasting pieces. NOTE: Be very careful about the direction of the "grainline" in the stabilizer. Make sure it is going in the same direction as the seam you need to sew. If it's going the opposite direction it will pull, stretch and pucker your seam when you try to tear it off.


Make sure it is going in the same direction as your seam and you'll end up with a nice finished look.




After I finished all those seams, sewed the front pants and back pants together at the center seam. Then I clipped the curves to make sure it fits well and doesn't pull.





Then I sewed the side seams and the inner leg seam.



I left the cuffs unfinished to make sure they were long enough, folded over the waistband, and stitched around it, leaving a space to insert the elastic. I inserted the elastic and finished the waistband in the same way that I did in this tutorial.

Now on to the cape! I started out with 1 1/2 yards of cotton broadcloth. I folded it in half with the selvedges on the top and bottom, then cut from 18" at the top to the corners at the bottom.



Of course after that I measured my son and discovered I needed to cut about 6" off of it (which I did at the top). Then I folded the edges over twice, to conceal the raw edge and keep it from fraying, on the sides and the top. The bottom was the selvedge so I just left it alone.



Then I measured on my son's shoulders to see what would be a good width of cape for him. In his case it was 12". Then I pleated the cape on one side to get it down to 6", then mirrored the same pleating to the other side. I didn't measure, but just played around with it until it was right and looked good.



[I apologize for the photos... I haven't quite figured out how to shoot red effectively!]

Next I added little squares of Velcro (okay, it was generic "hook and loop") to the corners of the cape, and the corresponding spots on the shirt. And then I could check one more thing off my never-ending list of things to make!





I cannot tell you how excited my son was to have another cape! He spent the next 30 minutes running up and down the hallway seeing how his cape would fly behind him as he ran. I think he likes it.





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I'll be linking up to these fabulous link parties:

 Monday -  Craft o Maniac Monday -- Craftastic Monday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party  --  Tuesday -  Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Upcycled Awesome -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Tuesday Talent Show --  Wednesday -  Seven Thrity Three -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Create and Share -- Whatever Goes Wednesday --  Linkin’ with Lil’ Luna -- Thursday -  Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Transformation Thursday -- Thrilling Thursday -- House of Hepworths -- Friday -  Remodelaholic Friday -- Flaunt it Friday -- Frugal Friday -- Weekend Wander -- Show and Share Day -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Catch as Catch Can -- Friday Flair -- Feature Yourself Friday -- Simply Link {Party} -- Pity Party -- Design Dazzle --  Saturday - Saturday Spotlight --  Sunday -  The DIY Showoff Project  Parade --  Sunday Showcase Party -- Creative Bloggers Party -- I Heart Naptime -- Think Pink Sundays

A while back I picked up some vintage books to have on hand for various projects. One of them had an eagle and crest debossed on the front cover which I immediately thought would make a great Independence Day decoration. Well, seeing as how it's only four days away I figured I should actually finish it and put it on display!

After ripping off the cover I brushed white paint over the top of the design and wiped the excess off trying to keep some of the paint in the grooves of the design.



I thought it looked okay, but I wanted red in there, too. So I painted red, let that dry, then painted white over the top again.



I found a frame (in my stash) that was, thankfully, just the right size. Laying the glass on the book cover I traced it, then used a heavy-duty metal ruler and a Stanley knife to cut it to size.



For the frame I painted it with white craft paint first, then blue to make sure I would get a bright color. (By the way it was a major pain trying to get the paint deep down into all those crevices around the "carved" designs on the frame.)



Then I mixed up some light blue paint, dabbed a paper towel in it, and lightly brushed it over the top of the flourishes, corners and edges.



After that I put the two together and got this--







This may be the extent of my patriotic decor this year, we'll see.

P.S. Why is it that spell check thinks bazillion is a word, but not debossed. Look it up spell checker people!


I'll be linking up to these wonderful blog parties!

Remodelaholic Friday -- The DIY Showoff Project Parade -- Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special -- Sunday Showcase Party -- Flaunt it Friday -- Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Frugal Friday -- Seven Thrity Three -- Weekend Wander -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Transformation Thursday -- Show Off Your Stuff -- Furniture Feature Friday -- Show and Share Day -- Create and Share -- Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Thrilling Thursday -- Fun with Food Friday -- Take a Look Tuesday -- Saturday is Crafty Day -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Show Me What Ya Got -- A Crafty Soiree -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Whatever Goes Wednesday -- Craft o Maniac Monday -- Pink Hippo Party -- Craft Catwalk -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Let's Get Crafty Saturday -- Catch as Catch Can -- Craftastic Monday -- Friday Flair -- We Did it Wednesday! -- Creative Bloggers Party -- Your Whims Wednesday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party -- I Heart Naptime

Every year when I was growing up my grandmother (whose parents immigrated from Norway in the 1800s) would make Scandinavian cookies and treats at Christmas time.  The two I remember the most are Rosettes and Krumkake.  I've always wanted to continue that tradition and a few years back my husband bought me a Rosette iron.  Since then I've made them every Christmas.  I love them but they're rather time consuming!


When my family converted to eating 100% whole wheat and whole sugar I thought I was going to have to stop making most of my favorite desserts and treats, like Rosettes.  Not so!  I've discovered I can substitute nearly every time by using whole wheat pastry flour.  It's a finer ground flour made from a less dense wheat than regular whole wheat flour.  Sometimes it takes a little modification, but other times not.  I also used whole sugar (Sucanat) in the batter for this recipe.  Since it only called for a small amount the molasses flavor would not be a problem. The only thing I "cheated" on was the confectioner's sugar on top.  I wanted the white, but otherwise would have ground Sucanat in a small coffee grinder to use instead.  Maybe next time I'll try grinding up Xylitol.  I wonder if that would work...








Whole Wheat Rosettes

2 eggs
1 Tablespoon whole cane sugar
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt

confectioner's sugar to sprinkle on top

Place a sauce pan or low pot with oil about 2 inches deep and heat to 375 degrees F.  Combine eggs, sugar and salt, beating well.  Add flour and blend with fork or whisk.  Add milk, a little at a time, making sure to eliminate lumps, and stir until smooth.  Place the iron into the hot oil and and heat for 2 minutes.  Lift out and let excess oil drip from the iron for a moment.  Dip into the batter to slightly below the top edge of the iron and immediately transfer to the hot oil.  Hold the iron in the oil (keeping it off the bottom of the pan) for about 30 seconds, or until golden.  Lift out, turn upside down to drain excess oil.  Using a fork, gently push the rosette off the iron onto paper towels placed on a cooling rack.  Reheat the iron in the oil for 1 minute and cook the next rosette.  Repeat until batter gets too low.  Let rosettes cool, then sprinkle with confectioner's sugar. 

The amount this recipe makes is dependent upon the size of the iron(s).  I got about 18 large cookies out of it.  This recipe was adapted from a recipe submitted to allrecipes.com by  Pat Kersteter.
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I'm linking to all the fun link parties on my "Blog Parties I Link To" page, including

Today the kids and I decorated a gingerbread house.  I had thoughts of baking one from scratch, but honestly with my kids aged 4.5 and 2, they wouldn't have had the patience for it (and as a result neither would I!).  So I purchased a ready built house kit (with a tiny amount of candy) from Target.  I bought some additional nuts and candy to use to decorate it. 

I wasn't too concerned with perfection, but I was hoping it would look nice.  The kids actually did pretty well with it and didn't try to take candy off of the house.  Daisy, 2, put on a few pieces but mostly sat there eating stuff out of the bags.  Seymour, 4.5, did really well and put on lots of decorations. 

Yogurt pretzel roof, tiny gummy bear Christmas "lights"

Candy rock chimney

The back door

Seymour had the idea to make a Santa Claus, but for a while I wasn't sure what I was going to use to make him.  Then I decided to just put some things together and hope for the best -- and he actually looked pretty good!  I used two red candy rocks that were roundish, half a cashew for the head, a slice of small white jelly bean for the beard (and the icing just happened to make a nice little point in the middle), and a peppermint candy for a hat. 

Santa with a ... turban?

I'm glad we all had a good time together.  Unfortunately our card making session did not go as well... Such is life with small children, no?

Every year we get a fresh Christmas tree and I make a fresh evergreen wreath.  Here's how I do it...

Acquire bunches of evergreens.  {Boy do I love that smell!  Nothing brings Christmas memories and spirit to me like the smell of fresh cut evergreens.}  The most common greens are Douglas fir, noble fir, princess pine and cedar.  You can use any one alone, or combine them.  This year I just purchased two bunches of cuttings ($4 each) from the Christmas tree lot where we got our tree.  As it turned out I had to trim some branches from the bottom of our tree to get it into the stand, so I only needed to buy one bunch.  You can also use any evergreens you happen to have in your yard, although you tend to need more than you think you will. 


Get a wreath form of some kind.  Sometimes I buy a wire frame from a craft store or floral wholesaler (since I used to be/still kind of am a freelance florist).  Last year I bought a wreath from the dollar store, and this year I'm using a grapevine wreath I picked up at a yard sale for 50 cents.  You also need hand clippers (floral or garden), and wire (usually green, but I had silver on hand so that's what I used). 
Cut off sprigs of greenery varying in length, mine were about 4-6 inches long.  Gather the sprigs, lining up the bottom edges and wrap with wire.  (As shown above)  I usually wrap the wire around once, then twist the ends together like a twist tie, and wrap the rest around so it doesn't stick out. 

Repeat many, many times.

I ended up needing about 3 or 4 times this many bunches

Secure the beginning end of a very long piece of wire to the frame (I like to use the paddle wire from craft stores for this).  Lay the first bunch on the frame and wrap the wire around the frame, securing the bunch to it.  Lay another bunch down, overlapping enough to cover the wire around the first bunch.  Repeat going around the whole frame, angling some bunches towards the inside of the wreath, and some towards the outside edge to completely cover the frame.  Wrap the long piece of wire around each bunch, securing it to the frame.  (Although when I put down the first bunch I really liked the way the evergreen looked against the grapevines, so I may do some kind of variation in the future.)

Lay the bunches down pointing in the same direction and continue in the same direction on the wreath

Keep going around and around until you get to the beginning.  Lift up the first few bunches and tuck some more in underneath to make sure the wreath is complete.  Tie off the very long piece of wire and...

Voila!

Back View

You can trim it a bit if there are any sprigs sticking out too far for your liking.  Then it's time to decorate!  I gathered up some things I have used in years past for various decorations.  I had a bow and a couple glittery gold snowflakes I used on my wreath last year, some mesh garland I got from the dollar store years ago, and some pine cones, a wooden bird ornament and gold bead garland, all of which I purchased from Michael's this year.  The gold bead garland came with six strands, and was four feet long, but I pulled it apart so I got 24 feet instead of just four.



Total cost $8-15 (or less, depending what you have on hand)

My four and a half year-old son also made a wreath, almost entirely on his own.  He was very proud of it.  I thought it was pretty impressive for his age, too. 


We hung his wreath on the front door since mine wouldn't fit between it and the storm door.


Does anyone else use fresh greenery in their decor?