Maleficent

I know I'm a little behind posting my Halloween costume but thought I should do it now before I forget.  Typically I go for the princess/happy type. But this year I wanted to be a villain, hence Maleficent was born. I did it based on the Sleeping Beauty character, not the Angelina Jolie movie. My friend Katie is my crow.

I made my own pattern for the coat and used purple and black sheets.  The hat I made. I shaped aluminum foil around my head then taped it with electrical tape. The horns are a heart-shaped styrofoam wreath that I cut in half and glued to the aluminum foil then also covered in electrical tape. My ring is a large black button that I glued to a ring. My staff is a 48" dowel with a cardboard shape and wooden ball hot glued to them then spray painted gold. Total cost was right around $30. I won the scariest costume award at work.

virtue aprons

For my young women's lesson on Sunday I made aprons for the lesson handout.  It was based around Proverbs 31:10. I made them red to remind the girls their value is far above rubies  and white to remind them of virtue. The girls loved them. And I just can't decide which one is my favorite. 

Young Women's Baptismal Covenants July Lesson

 They changed my calling at church and I'm back in the Young Women's organization. I have the Come Follow Me lesson on our baptismal covenants.  The talks really focused on service so I did these service journals fir tge girls.  They are the composition notebooks I put some scrapbook paper and printed the quote on some shipping labels. I had some little bee stamps and used the ribbon I had on hand. Total cost if doing ten handouts was less than $6. The notebooks cost 50 cents at Wal-Mart.

The quote is from the talk by Carol M. Stephens that was part of the lesson. The quote really stuck with me so I put it on the journals. 

Cleopatra comin' at ya

I work with children and adults with disabilities.  Right now we're in the middle of the summer program.  Each week there is a new theme for the activities that week. Next week us holiday week and ine of the days we are celebrating Halloween.  I didn't get my  for my mother-in-law done yet. Or really evreallyven close but I did get my Cleopatra costume done. I had most of the materials.  The only things I had to buy was the gold metallic thread,  sone regular gold thread, and the gold beads for my headpiece. The dress is made from white knit. I bought the fabric several years ago with no real project in mind but was glad I had it available for this.

Red and White Pinwheels

I started these blocks a couple of  weeks ago. They were meant to be a blanket for my mother-in-law's 60th birthday. I had the idea at the last minute and was still in the middle of making the Hulk and butterfly quilts so I wrapped the squares that were finished with a promise to complete the whole blanket soon. In 3 weeks this is all I have to show for it. but they are 13" squares so they are working up quick. I'm just swamped with so many other things, but thought I'd show these off. And keep track of the progress.

Butterflies and Hulk

It seems like forever since I have posted. With starting school, moving, and two grandparents dying it's been a little crazy around here. I finally managed to squeak out a couple of finishes.

My husband just got made the ScoutMaster at church. Each year the young men and young women do a service auction and the adults at church offer up services as well. We had a bake sale so the hubby made 3 dozen of the same cake pops we made together here. Which were apparently a big hit since they were sold out by the time I made it to the bake sale table. 

Since it was an auction for the youth, I decided to make one boy themed blanket and a girl themed blanket that wasn't especially girlie. 

Both came together fairly quickly and are about twin sized blankets since I used twin sized sheets for the backings.

I L-O-V-E the colors in this one. I would probably do it again. It was made with 8 1/2 inch squares (With the sides trimmed down to about 6 inches on the side squares) with 1 1/2 inch white strips to separate and two 4 1/2 inch strips separating the 9 patch squares.

Once I got the butterfly down it went pretty quick. I'm hoping one day to get better at quilting, but since I was on such a short deadline, I went ahead and tied this. I still like the look of tied. I think it gives a certain homey-ness to them. I don't have an embroidery machine so these were done all by hand by drawing the design on the fabric and going over it with a very tight zigzag stitch. 

This came together quickly also. I did both of them in less than 5 days. I had them both tied and bound in less than 4 hours.

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts. Go check it out. Amanda Jean is amazing!

P.S. I'm working on a red and cream pinwheel quilt for my mother-in-law that I can't wait to show to you all!!

They Come Cheaper by the Dozen

We had another Relief Society activity like every month.  For those of you unfamiliar with what this is, it is the women's organization at church. This month we did a dinner and I made these little babies.  They are my first attempt at cake pops. You know me. Go big or go home. I made about 14 dozen but only took 12 1/2 to the activity since I ran out of sucker sticks and dipping chocolate.  The chocolate coating is almond bark and is so yummy!!! The cake flavors are yellow, German chocolate,  red velvet, and cherry chip. The red velvet was the most difficult to dip but was the most popular flavor. The hubby bought me the cake pop pan a couple years ago for Christmas and this was the first time I got to use it. It was still in the plastic. He was such a big help. I could not have done it without him.  He drizzled all the chocolate and helped me dip them. After we were finished he asked if I wanted to open a bakery. Nope. Don't see that happening in the near future or ever.

                      They were a big hit!!

Linking up with Ashley @ Make it & Love it and Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts