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A party favor bag to hand to each child is a must in my book. It’s a nice way to say “thanks for coming to celebrate with us”. Plus and this is a BIG plus, most children expect something! haha! We once left a party empty-handed and my daughter was SO confused…never mind they fed us and entertained us, she didn’t understand why she was not given a favor (granted, she was 3 or 4 at the time).
The dilemma is always do I just buy them or do I personalize them by making them? I’ve done both but always have the need to decorate the paper ones still! Sheesh! What’s wrong with me?! So, I decided the week of the party that they would be made! My twins were sweet enough to let me use fabric I had stashed away instead of making another trip to the fabric store.
So this is where it pays off to buy fabric by the bolt 
I measured the widest party treats and added a few inches on the sides for the bag. For the length, take your longest treat and add 5 inches extra to the height of your bag. My bag measured 7 x 9 inches.
MATERIALS:
- Sewing Machine
-
Fabric
- Pinking Shears
- Grosgrain Ribbon to match your fabric
- Marking Pen
HOW TO:
1. Cut 2 pieces of your fabric using your pinking shears, which will minimize the fraying. Mine measured 7.5 x 9.5.
2. Cut a piece of ribbon; ribbon should go around the bag and be long enough to tie into a bow. Mine measured 20.5 inches.
3. Pin the ribbon at the center of the bag, approximately 4 inches from the top. I realized after the kids had packed up their goodies, that the top was too short and slipping out of the ties. This measurement will ensure that you have enough fabric above the ribbon so that it will not slip out.
3. Mark with your disappearing ink where you will stitch up the ribbon. I just eyeballed the center and spaced the stitches 3/4 of an inch apart.
zig zag stitch or
straight stitch
4. Pin wrong sides together and sew the two sides and bottom using 1/4 seam allowance.
5. Clip the corner and turn the bag inside out.
completed bag!
bag filled with party favors!
big sis
I’ve made this stock several times and I thought I’d share my recipe b/c it never fails. Husband, who is not Korean, says it reminds him of Chicken Long Rice, a Hawaiian dish. In my book, it is the perfect comfort food! and my lil ones eat it up!
INGREDIENTS NEEDED:
- 4-5 lb whole chicken (this will serve a family of 4 and you will have plenty of leftovers!)
- 1 whole onion
- 4-5 inch piece of peeled ginger
- 10-15 garlic
- 3 green onion
- 4-5 hours!
HOW TO:
1. Rinse your chicken thoroughly. Throw away the giblets. Trim all the excess visible fat and cut off the bum tip. I also like to remove some of the skin to reduce having to repeatedly skim off the fat later on.
2. You need a pot big enough that when the chicken is placed inside, the chicken is fully submerged with water like so. Now I’ve read on other sites that to reduce the fat/grease, you should boil the chicken once and dump the water. I’ve tried this once but I do feel that you lose some of the flavor this way.
So the choice is yours… retain the full flavor (go to step 3) or get rid of as much fat/grease as possible. If it’s the latter, this is what you will see.
Not a pretty sight, I agree. After it comes to a boil, dump the water, rinse the chicken, clean your pot, and submerge again in water.
3. Place your onions, ginger, garlic, green onions in the pot. This will really flavor your stock! Cover and let it come to a boil for approx 30 minutes. Stay nearby…otherwise you risk having the water boil over and creating a big ol’ mess Once it comes to a boil, lower your heat to about medium. Cook for another 45 minutes.
4. Remove all your veggies. and at this point, they will fall apart on you. It’s easiest to use a slotted ladle.
what your stock will look like. Yes, it is greasy! I just use a ladle and start skimming away. This step I do quite often b/c I’d like to get it as “clean” as poss.
5. After cooking the chicken for 2.5 hours from the start, remove your chicken. At this point, your chicken will also to start falling apart. I use a pair of tongs and slotted ladle.
your chicken will be SUPER moist and delish!
6. Once your chicken has cooled, you can shred it or cut it into pretty pieces to have later on with your jook (porridge).
7. Clean off the bones and you can add it back to your stock to make it milkier!
after 1.5 more hours of boiling with the bones!
THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS!
1. Julienne veggies (onions, squash, potatoes) and make kalgooksoo!
2. Add rice to make jook (porridge). Soak your rice in water for 1 hour. Drain and add to stock. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.
3. I’ve used orzo which husband loved! and I’m thinking of adding egg noodles next time.
ENJOY!
Thanks for stopping by! and have a great weekend!
big sis
So after I had transplanted my orchids, I did not expect to see any bloom for a few years but look what I found…
They are so beautiful! I’m so proud of myself for not killing them and so thankful that I learned how to transplant them from an awesome teacher!
I cannot wait to see what colors the others are. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!
big sis
So remember a LONG time ago when I made these?
Well, I had been meaning to make a template and then realized I had no idea how to do so! But with so many inquiries on the template, I did some researching and figured it out…I think
Here is the template:
MATERIALS:
2. Bone Folder
4. Scissors
5. Xacto Knife
6. Cutting Mat
7. Glue
8. 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 Black Square Envelopes
(for Minnie Mouse invites)
10. White thread and needle (for Minnie’s bows)
HOW TO:
1. Download the PDF here and print it out on your white 8.5 by 11 cardstock.
2. Cut out the outline of the head. This will be your template.
3. On your cutting mat, take your template and using your bone folder, score it on to your black cardstock. If you use a 12 by 12 size, you will be able to cut out 2 heads per sheet. Cut out the heads with your scissors. I used my Xacto knife to make cleaner cuts where the ears meet the top of the head.
4. After you’ve cut out all the heads, cut out the inner white circle. Create your invitation wording on Word and play around with it until it is to your liking and fits in the circle. This will take some trial and error. Now, how will you know if it fits? My method…I hold up the wording printout and hold my inner white circle over it. The goal is to have all your wording fit within the parameters of the circle.
5. Print out the invitation wording on your 8.5 by 11 white cardstock. Trace or score and then cut out the inner circles.
6. Adhere them to the head. And there’s your Mickey invite!
7. If you would like to create Minnie invites, make bows out of your polka dot fabric and adhere them on the top of the white circle. You can try using glue but I wasn’t sure if they’d stick so I sewed mine by hand.
Enjoy!
big sis
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!
Over the weekend, my oldest and I made some more melted crayons, but this time we added glitter to them to give it a little something extra. We made these for Tabi’s classmates, and Lila’s classmates got some goody bags filled with snacks.
My little helper at work:
Baked these guys in the oven at 300 degrees for 17 minutes. Waited for them to cool for 20 minutes, and they popped out so easily.
Too bad I didn’t have more white crayons. I think they look so pretty with white mixed in!
Happy Love Day! You can find our melted crayon hearts pic on Instagram too. Finally created a lil sprinkles account, so follow us at @lilsprinkles. Next up is to sign up for the Vine app. Help! Can’t keep track!
xo – lil sis
After daughter’s 1st cooking class, the teacher requested for aprons too. I immediately started panicking. You know I’m all about planning my days out and a trip to Joann’s + sewing sessions were not on my to do list for that week. haha. Yes, it would have been so much easier to just buy one but heck I made her a “chef’s bag”, I might as well make her a cute apron to go with it, right? So I searched, pinned, designed one that would suit my big girl (and me!).
I referenced Tidbits Child’s Apron Tutorial and Made’s Gathered Pocket Tutorial. Let’s get started!
Sizing: 4-7 year old.
Pattern: You only need to draw up half the pattern since you’ll be cutting the apron on the fold. Top width of the apron: 3.75 inches wide. Length on the fold: 20 inches. Width of the apron: 8.25 inches. From top of the apron to the bottom of the curvature: 8.5 inches. Here’s an image of my pattern.
What you need: 1 yard of outer fabric and 1 yard of inner fabric.
Prewash your fabric. Fold your outer fabric and pin your pattern to it. Cut. Do the same with your inner fabric.
Now on to the ties. You’ll need 4 strips total. Cut 2 strips of 18 x 4 out of your outer fabric and 2 strips of 16 x 4 out of your inner fabric. You’ll use the same method discussed below on each strip.
Fold over 1/4 of an inch and press with your iron.
Fold lengthwise in half and press. You’ll do this to obtain a crease.
Unfold and there’s your crease.
Take the ends lengthwise and meet at the crease. Press with your iron.
like so
Then you’ll fold it again so the exposed ends are sandwiched. Topstitch 1/4 of an inch all the way around. I didn’t use pins but if you’re afraid that they won’t line up, by all means pin away.
Do this with all 4 strips.
On to the pockets. You’ll need to draw up a pattern for the actual pocket and a strip that will hold your gathered seam. The dimension of my pockets are as follows. Width: 6.5 inches. Length: 4.75. I also made a pattern for the strip 6 x 1.25. Here’s an image.
Cut 2 pockets out of the outer fabric. Cut 2 strips out of the inner fabric.
For the pockets, you’ll press 1/4 of an inch all the around (I recommend that you serge or zig zag stitch your ends before pressing. Lesson learned!). For the strips, you’ll meet the 2 long ends in the center and press with your iron.
Sew all the way around your pocket. Now we are ready to gather the pockets.
To gather the pocket: Adjust your stitch length. Make sure you give yourself a “tail” (meaning, pull the thread out a few inches) before sewing so that you are able to gather the pocket.
Measure 1 inch down from the top of your pocket and sew. DO NOT backstitch on either ends. When you get to the end, make sure you leave enough of a tail so you are able to gather here as well.
Then using either the top thread or bottom (choose 1), gently pull on both sides and it should gather.
Then you’ll take your strip and pin it over the stitches. I just eyeball it and center the strip with the stitches. Fold over the hanging edges and pin as well.
Sew 1/8 of an inch at the top and at the bottom of the strip. This will ensure that no stitches get pulled out and your gathered stitch will stay put.
No measuring here…I just eyeballed it and placed the pockets evenly apart. Pin them down and sew about 1/8 of an inch around.
Now for the ruffles, you’ll need a strip measuring 30 x 3.5 out of your inner fabric. Fold over a 1/4 of an inch, press, and sew. You’ll do this on both sides. Then fold in half lengthwise and press. Here’s how you’ll gather the ruffle.
Adjust your tension.
Adjust your stitch length.
Sew 1/8 of an inch and you’ll see that your material will start to gather on its own.
Pin your ruffle to the bottom of your apron.
We’re almost done! Pin down your strips. For the top ties, pin them 3/4 of an inch from the edge.
Sandwich everything. Here’s what it should look like. Sew all the way around using a 1/4 of an inch seam. Make sure you leave an opening to flip everything out!
Notch the curves.
Flip it out and then topstitch all the way around, making sure to stich up the opening where you flipped everything out.
And there you have the completed apron!
My big girl, the chef!
Enjoy the tutorial!
big sis
I had so much fun with this project because I got to see my daughter’s creative side. She loves painting with her $2 watercolor set, so to upgrade to this large canvas with bigger brushes and more paint…she was in paint heaven! The artwork came out to be less than $50, and it was worth it because my daughter is so incredibly proud of having made it. It matches our pillows, and it adds that pop of color against our neutral colored furniture.
I still want to add a frame around this to make it not look so “kiddish”, and I found a great tutorial on how to create one here. I don’t have a miter saw though, so I gotta see if I can get Home Depot to cut it for me or my neighbor to do it. I wish Home Depot can just have a section in the store where you bring your project and rent their tools. Now I would be in heaven!
Our furniture is mostly black or brown and our wall paint colors are beige and brown. I went out on a limb a few months ago and bought some lime green pillows for our brown couch. Since our family room and eating area is one big area, I wanted to blend everything together with a painting with some similar greens, yellows, and blues. I think that’s the biggest hurdle – choosing your colors. Once you have that, it’s a pretty easy, painless project. Let’s get started!
With my Michael’s coupon, I purchased this 36×36 canvas and a few other items. I stood back in line to use another coupon because their policy is to only let a customer use one competitor’s coupon at a time, and I had plenty of items in my basket that were screaming for a discount!
Canvas: $20.99
Tarp (2 pieces) from Home Depot: $4
Paint Mixer Tray: $.98
Different tubes of acrylic paint: $3.99-9.99 (for the big white tube).
Several foam paint brushes: $5
Total: Less than $50
***Tip: Did you know that Michaels and Joanns have an app so you can just pull up coupons from your phone and not have to hassle with printing anything? You can use those in addition to the ones that come in the newspaper/mail/email!
Ok, here we go…
Spread out the tarp. The paper/plastic tarp was pretty flimsy but did the trick. It ripped in multiple places but luckily nothing spilled through. I didn’t have it the first day, so I cut up black garbage bags and secured it on my floor with some painter’s tape which is what you see below.
The process…
I liked mixing white to all of the colors to make it a little less bold. In the end, my daughter somehow mixed every color with one another eventually turning into brown. It was cool to give her an impromptu lesson about how certain colors mixed with others would make a new color. Red + white = her fave color.
We painted the whole canvas yellow first…
Even my baby did some painting but we had to cut it short because she started stomping on the paint with her feet. For a split second I thought it would be fun for her to just step over the canvas with her feet as her way of contributing to the painting…but nah! Not a good idea especially since I didn’t purchase the thick wrapped canvas.
Completely covered in yellow -
The second day involved more painting…
Making random shapes and swirls…
The touch up process. I only allowed white paint this time, and told me daughter to have fun making white paint marks everywhere.
Wrote her name on the corner like a true artist:
Raising a 8 month old baby and 6-year-old twins leaves me with very little time to craft. And although I had very good intentions, I just was not able to get to my sewing machine for their birthday party. So for the twin’s party favor bags, I ordered muslin drawstring pouches
and decided to decorate them. Beyblades…cupcakes… sigh…
For the boys, I found an image of Gingka Hagane (if you have no idea who/what I’m talking about, be glad! be. very. grateful.) and printed the image out on iron-on transfer paper.
Then I cut the image out so that the outline was the only thing visible.
This part is very time consuming but you want to make sure you get close to the outline. Otherwise, when you iron your image, the surrounding white areas will show up on your pouch. Not pretty.
Iron the image on to your pouch and there you have your one of a kind party favor bag!
For the girls, I found a cute cupcake stamp and stamped the images all over the pouch.
Based on my research, the best ink pad to use on fabric is VersaCraft and I concur. There is absolutely no smudging, the image is very clear, and once it is set with heat, it’s permanent! (well, so they say…I haven’t washed my daughter’s pouch yet).
So here’s the question…did I really save time by personalizing these muslin ones vs. sewing up my own fabric drawstring pouches??? Hmmm…
big sis
I survived my first week of work! It’s been great having my mother in law stay with us from Chicago to help out the first few weeks. The transition has been easy because of her! Wow…I have a new appreciation for working mothers. Once I come home, it’s pretty non-stop. My girls are hanging all over me (happy to see me which is something I LOVE!), helping with dinner prep, cleaning up after, getting the girls ready for bed, and then the hubs comes home after. I have about two hours of me time which doesn’t include going on the computer since that room is being occupied by my MIL.
That is why my tutorial for the ring bearer pillow has been put on hold. I’m using my hubs’ work laptop to blog, and we’re in the process of purchasing a laptop for myself. We bought an ipad thinking it would be a good replacement for my broken laptop…what was I thinking!?
Anyways, here is the ring pillow I made for my girlfriend. I couldn’t find a tute of a ring bearer pillow which included a silk bow, so I just made one myself. The fuschia fabric is really polyester shantung because Joanns was out of fuchsia dupioni. Shantung is similar to dupioni, but it’s much thinner and not as stiff. I don’t think you can tell just by looking at it, but once you touch and feel the texture, you’ll know the difference. It’s a cheaper option though than dupioni!
Tutorial coming soon! Hoping to post my tute once I get my laptop in next week.
lil sis
This is what we did on a HOT Monday morning…
MAKE TERRARIUMS!
I’ve been wanting to make one for the longest time, and I’m so happy we got around to creating these beauties. Big sis and I were saying how great these would be as house warming gifts or birthday presents. The big plus is that they are sooooo easy to make!
Materials:
- Cactus/Succulent Potting Soil
- Rocks – Purchased Mosser Lee Decorative Rocks which only allowed us to make two terrariums. I had to resort to some Pottery Barn rocks which I already had and some rocks from my backyard.
- Succulents
- Glass Container
- “itty bitty” figures for decorative purposes(as my niece would say). This is optional!
Close up of our succulents:
Ok, so here we go.
Pour a layer of rocks into the glass container. I had a cute lil helper handy too!
Break up the roots from the succulent pots . We think it looks better to have a variety of succulents in one container. Prettier.
Pour a layer of potting soil on top of your rocks. We also mixed in some of the soil from the pots.
Tip: Do not over do it with the soil. Once you arrange the succulents, you will need to pour more soil to keep the plants in place.
Scatter some more rocks on top of the soil. If you have moss, you can add that as well. I just purchased a small moss bag at Wal Mart for $2. I decided to add moss in the smaller terrarium.
Darn! I knew I should have bought another bag of the decorative rocks. I had to use some black rocks for this terrarium because I ran out.
Top View:
Top view of the bigger terrarium:
My niece was so nice enough to give me her plastic ducky because my daughter absolutely ADORES duckies!
Top view of big sis’ terrarium:
Easy, right? Did I mention they only need to be watered once a month. Another plus!
-lil sis
Edited to add big sis’ tips 
1. pour a bit of activated charcoal before the soil to prevent your terrarium from stinking! this step is completely optional and from what I’ve read, it really is only a necessity for closed terrariums
2. use your bare hands or a spoon to shovel the dirt in. Gloves…way too difficult!
3. if you get dirt on your succulents and start to panic (like me), just get a straw and blow the dirt away
Edited to add FAQ’s
Q: What kind of lighting do they require?
A: Terrariums require bright, indirect sunlight!
Q: How frequent do i need to water the plant.. how long will the plant live?
A: They only need to be watered 1x a month. Be careful not to water the actual plant but around it, if that makes sense. Sorry cant say how long they live…it all depends on the conditions of the plant, environment, so forth. Mine have lasted 6+ months.
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