Easter Carrots Tutorial

Recognize this post???  I thought I would repost
it since Easter is just around the corner!

I've been wanting an Easter / Spring decoration for my front door forever so I came up with (copied from a neighbor) this cute Carrot decoration for my door. The little girl that I watch everyday came over today and said that it was weird to hang carrots on the door. I told her that is how we get the Easter bunny to come to our house, she didn't think it was so weird after that. This picture makes me want to paint my door black!

I love it when projects turn out to be easier than expected and that's how this one was. It only took about an hour and a half and that is with me trying to take care of my crying baby too.

Supplies
* 2 orange tea towels ( or 1/2 yard of orange fabric that you like)
orange thread
* ribbon (what ever you have around the house, it wont be seen)
* small safety pin
* fake greenery (something that resembles carrot foliage)
* glue gun or craft glue
* fiber fill or stuffing (they are the same thing aren't they?)
* optional - brown wood stain and foam brush

Cut three carrots. They should be 6" wide at the top and 15 - 17" long. Mine are 15", but if I had to do it again I think I would make them a little bit longer. I would especially make them longer if you have a big front door, not the normal white generic one like I have.

Starting at the top, sew down the sides of each carrot using a 1/4" seam allowance. Then fold the top over 1/2" and stitch near the bottom (like picture below). Be sure and leave about a 1/2" opening to thread the ribbon through.

Turn the carrot right side out. It helps to clip the excess fabric at the bottom a little and use a pencil when turning it. Fill with fiber fill or batting or stuffing or whatever you want to call it.
Slide some ribbon onto your safety pin and feed it through the casing that you just made.

Group some fake greenery together so it resembles carrot stems and wrap some of the wire around it so it stays together. Now put lots of hot glue all around the end of it. Put it in the top center of the carrot and pull the ribbon tight and close and knot.

This is totally optional but I used some watered down wood stain to give my carrots a little more character. I didn't want them to look so new. It worked good, but my house smelled like wood stain for a while.

Group your three cute carrots together and tie some ric rac around. Use some fray check at the ends of the ric rac so it doesn't fray.

When your done you should have some cute carrots hanging on your door, and when your kids think you've lost your mind, you can tell them it's so the Easter Bunny will be sure to come.

My kind of March Madness!

Click on for a better view!

The long awaited Birthday Party!

These boys have been very patient. Both of them
had birthday's in February, but with the move and
everything we just barely celebrated their
Birthday's last Saturday.
My oldest is trying to show off his super cape that
was the party favors for the kids. A tutorial is coming.
It was super cheap and easy to make and a big hit
for the kids.

I FINALLY finished my project that I started way back
in..............well, I don't even remember.

Sorry, the picture isn't the greatest. It's hard to get a good
picture facing a window.

It turned out pretty cute and it was fun to have
a new entrance way to hang it in.

Speaking of new entrance way, we are
pretty much all moved into our new home. We are
loving it. Change is always a little hard on me, even
though we only moved a couple blocks North, but so far
it's gone pretty smoothly. There are some way
neat historical homes in our neighborhood that
I'm hoping I can bug the owners for a tour, I'll
take lots of pictures.

Another Birthday for one silly boy!

If you can't tell from the picture let me
fill you in. This is one silly boy and he
just turned 4. This guy likes to keep
us on our toes, and do his own thing.

You even decided to come into this world on
your own time. I had a routine doctors
visit and 35 weeks. The doctor informed me
that I was in labor and to far in to stop it.
Next thing I knew I was walking down
the hall to labor and delivery.

We called your Dad at work and told
him to hurry and get to the hospital. A few
hours later you were born. You had some
difficulty breathing so you spent about a
week in the NICU. While I was so thankful
it was only a week, it was one of the most
difficult weeks of my life. You were still
a good size baby though, 7 lbs 12oz's.

You are such a handsome little guy.
I love your big blue eyes and long
dark eye lashes. Your favorite
thing is to have your back scratched,
and it doesn't matter when or where.

You are constantly making us laugh. While
I'm already worried for Parent Teacher Conference's
someday, but I wouldn't trade you for the wold. You
keep me on my toes and help me to remember that
it's the little things in life that are important.

Happy Birthday! I'm so proud to be your Mom!

Amazing Fireplace - Before and After

This was supposed to be on post on my mom's awesome Valentine decorations but I sorta missed the boat on that one. So now...........it's a before and after post. My mom has been sick of this old fire place of hers forever. She has hinted to my dad for years that she wanted to redo it. Well, it just so happens that my little sister married a guy is who pretty terrific and working with wood and offered to give it a little makeover.

BEFORE

Are ya ready???????????

AFTER

Pretty amazing isn't it. You'd never even
know that it was the same fireplace.
And wow, check out that darling Valentine
Banner. I wonder which daughter loves her
the most and made it for her.

My little sister (who didn't make the garland),
happens to be pretty amazing at decorating and did
most of the Valentine decorating, pretty darn
cute isn't it!

There is a awesome place here in Utah called
the Wood Connection that you can buy darling
unfinished wood crafts at.....that's where these cute
hearts came from.

So if your sick of your old fireplace from the 70's, there is hope. It may take a few years of hinting, but eventually the man in your life will get sick of it and give in. Or like in my mom's case, she just made sure her daughter married someone who is very talented at working with wood.

In other news, I'll be taking a little break. We are moving tomorrow. We wont have the Internet again until Tuesday. We will miss squeezing 6 people into this little 2 bedroom apartment of ours. I'll miss the washer and dryer being in the kitchen and never knowing if I'll wake up to a cold or hot shower. Actually surprisingly is hasn't been too bad, but I am excited that our house is finished and we get to enjoy it and make more wonderful memories.

7 Years ago today...................

The sweetest boy ever came into my

life. It was Sunday and your Dad was at a

church meeting. I kept trying to call him to

tell him to get home, we were having a baby, but

didn't get an awnser. When he finally got home

I was really hurting.

We arrived at the hospital and a few hours later

your were born. You had tons of dark hair.

You were my biggest baby 8 1bs 4 ozs. The

night you were born there was a huge snow

storm in Logan. But we were in our

own little piece of heaven with our new son,

safe and sound in our little hospital room.

I am so blessed to have you as my son. You

are kind and loving to everyone. I love to come

help in your class at school, it makes me feel so

good when you beg me to stay for lunch

with you. I can't believe that snowy night

in Logan was 7 years ago. I wish I could slow

time down a little. Thank you for making

me such a proud mom. I love you and

hope you have a wonderful birthday!

Valentine T-Shirts

I feel bad that I didn't get this done sooner.
But honestly, if you decide to make it, it
works up super quick. I'm not even
going to do a tutorial because I've done a
million of these T-Shirts and your probably
sick of them.

I am learning some tricks that make this a
little easier. I found this new stuff called
Steam a Seam (Lite) and it's pretty much
wonderful. So much easier to work with
than whatever fusible web stuff I was using before.
It's sold by the yard in most fabric stores.

It seems like I get a lot of questions about what stitch I use.
I know this picture is horrible, but you can kinda
get the idea. It's stitch #22 on my machine.

If you could use a tutorial click on the
4th of July T-Shirt tutorial on the right
side bar of my blog. It will pretty much
tell you what to do.

I made these for my daughter and a couple
of her friends. They are all excited to
have matching shirts on Valentines day.
Oh, one other thing - I just bought plain
white t-shirts at Target and Walmart.
I think I like the Target ones a little better.
They are a little easier to sew on and only
$4.99.