Monday, March 31, 2014

Sewing for my boys

Parece que cada uno de mis hijos ha sometido a una etapa de Mickey Mouse. Mi hijo mayor ha pasado de Mickey Mouse, pero mis hijos todavía realmente le gustaría. Vale, adorarlo!

Mickey ('Mou') tiene un lugar especial en sus corazones.

Entonces, hice cada uno su almohada especial de Mickey Mouse con la tela que compré en Jo-Ann.

Suministros de hacer 2 almohadas:

Corte cuatro rectángulos 16 inches de ancho por 12 inches de largo.






Colocar dos rectángulos lados derecho frente a frente.

Pin sus tejidos.

Cosa a lo largo del rectángulo dándole ½ pulgadas para el margen de costura. NO coser los rectángulos cerrados. Deja brecha 1en donde será el relleno de su almohada.

Consejo: siempre una copia de puntadas al comienzo de cada sección después de girar sus telas.    También regresan puntada donde terminas coser sus rectángulos antes de salir de la abertura.

Consejo 2: Después de coser los rectángulos en el margen de costura, corte las cuatro esquinas. Asegúrese de no cortar el hilo allí. 

Cosas de su almohada. Su hijo estará ansioso por ayudar a hacer esto con usted!

Mano coser la abertura cerrada mediante la puntada manta. También puede utilizar una manta puntada de la máquina de coser si usted desea.   Tenga cuidado y empujar el relleno fuera del camino, sin embargo. Usted será capaz de ajustar la forma de la almohada después de que haya terminado de coser.






Eso es todo. Usted acaba de hacer una almohada totalmente lavables que sus hijos les encantará.

Coser feliz,

Fabi 

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Playing and Learning with Shapes


Learning the shapes is fun. In our learning cabinet I keep different baskets containing manipulatives, amongst them there is a bag full of wooden shapes like stars, squares, circles, and triangles.  There are many ways we use them and I try to keep it different for the kids. Often times, they use them during their free-play time at the table and build towers. So fun. I love hearing them giggle as they try to keep the tower from falling. 

This time I got out the shapes, paint, and brushes to make a  Colorful Shapes Collage.



Supplies:

  • wooden shapes
  • washable paint
  • brushes
  • paper
  • painting smocks
  • towels



Instructions:

  1. Set the paint on the table and let the children choose their colors.
  2. Demonstrate (if necessary) how to paint using the brush.
  3. Stamp the paper
  4. Have fun! 

This was a fun, very hands-on, and interactive activity. 












Happy learning!

 Fabi



Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Crazy for Crochet Cupcakes for the Kitchen





Do you love cupcakes? I do! The yummy flavors, textures, and colors available at my local bakery are irresistible.  

Did you know you can use your yarn and hooks and make your own everlasting, calorie free cupcakes? Oh yes. Please. Sign me up! 

Let's get started! 

1. Cupcake Coasters: Crochet your favorite cupcake flavors and decorate your table for a birthday party. Find the pattern at Sweet Simple Stuff.

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2. Cupcake Crochet Pot Holder: Paid pattern by Doni Speigle through Ravelry. 

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3. Tea Pot Cupcake Cozy: Free Pattern by Crochet Today




4. Hanging Cupcakes Decor:  These originally designed as bibs are eye-catching decor to any kitchen! Find the free pattern here.  


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5. Crochet Cupcake Garland: Make a garland using your favorite toppings with this tutorial by Twinkie Chan. Find it here.


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6. Cupcake Mug Cozy: Spicy Tuesday Craft's created a beautiful free pattern available here


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For more inspiration by Twinkie Chan, check her site at this link

7. Cupcake Candy Holder: Use Nimoe's pattern to make your own just like Dagmar from A Cat in the Kitchen did.  Just skip the stuffing and you're all set! 

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8. Cupcake Dish Towel: Twinkie Chan's free pattern for Michael's is available online. 


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9.  Cupcake Pot Holder: Free pattern available through Crafters.org.


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10. Cupcake Drawstring Bag: Keep a chic cupcake purse in your kitchen to hide all your plastic bags. It'll look cute!!! Dedri shares a free pattern here


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If you want to see more posts like this one, give this post a 'like' and leave a comment below. OR if you are looking for more inspiration, tell me and I'll find it for you! Oh yes. We're all friends here. Ready to help one another! 

Have a wonderful sweet day! 


~ Fabi 



























Thursday, March 13, 2014

Creamy Spinach and Avocado Pasta










I'm all about using fresh ingredients and finding ways to eat food that makes me feel like I ate something healthy and nourishing for my body. I've browsed through Pinterest (follow me there) several times looking for such healthy options and I've been amazed at how easy and tasty so many of the meals there look. The first time I made this meal for my kids it was a huge success (yay!). They ended up eating all their food and loving it because it gave them green mustaches.  hahaha If my kids like it, then it is a winner recipe.

Since this is a true and tried recipe, I am about to share how easy it is to cook make Creamy Spinach and Avocado Pasta.

Please take a moment to like this post and give it a +1. If you enjoyed this recipe and would like to see more like it, let me know through a message at the bottom of this post.

Alright, let's get on it with it now!


Spinach & Avocado Pasta 

Ingredients:

1 bag of spinach
1 ripe avocado
4 cloves of garlic
1/4 heavy whipping cream (or any other cream)
1 tsp of oil
Salt to taste


Directions:

  1. Cook noodles as directed on box.
  2. Use a food processor or blender to combine and mix all the ingredients together. 
  3. Pour over cooked noodles and serve. 
  4. Sprinkle some cilantro or basil to garnish your dish if desired. 



Let me know how it turns out for you! 

Happy Cooking!

~ Fabi 

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

{Free Pattern} How to Crochet a Tic-Tac-Toe Board


Hi Friends! I designed a crochet tic-tac toe board game for my kids so we could have it available at all times. It is an easy crochet game to make in an afternoon to pack for a road-trip or airplane trip. You can also use it to take it with you to a restaurant to have something to do while waiting for the food.  Who doesn't love a game of tic-tac-toe? We store ours in our game cabinet to play once we are done with our homeschool day. 

This reusable tic-tac-toe is made of cotton yarn so that we can save paper. You can customize it to any colors you would like.  You could do reds and pinks, blues and aquas, there are so many possibilities. Let me know in the comments what colors you would choose to do.

You can make this crochet game for yourself, road trips, or to gift for birthday parties. There are so
many possibilities!!!

You could also use the instructions for this board to make a Checkers board and game as well. Just crochet a larger board.

Crochet Supplies

This post has my favorite crochet supplies that I have been using for many years.

For this pattern, I am using Clover crochet hook size I. You can really choose any size you would like. Using a smaller or larger hook will just change the final size of your board.




Crochet Markers will be helpful to keep track of the places where you want to stitch your lines for the board.

Suggested Yarn:


I really like working with Lily Cotton Yarn to make games and dishcloths like I used for my Summer Breeze Crochet Dishcloth pattern.  This yarn is easy to use, wash, and keep. There is a great variety of colors to pick from!

See more ways to treat cotton yarn in this post: How to Keep Dishcloths and Cotton Yarn. 
Pattern:
  1. Chain 33
  2. Skip 2 chains and make your first Half Double Crochet on the third chain from the hook. Half Double Crochet all the way across.  Chain 2 and turn. 
  3. Skip the first Half Double Crochet and continue crocheting HDC all the way until the end of the row.  
  4. Repeat step 3 until your piece measures 9 in. or 23cm.
Once your square is complete, use Crochet Stitch Markers to mark the places where you want to use contrasting yarn to crochet the lines for your board game. 

You will need to use the Surface Slip Stitch to crochet the lines for the board game. Moogly has a great video explaining how to do it.  

To make the horizontal lines:

From top to bottom, I measured 3in or 7.5 cm to crochet the first line.  
I crocheted the second line at 6in or 15.2 cm. 

To make the vertical lines:

I made the first line at 3.5 in or 8.8cm. 
I made the second line at 7.3 in or 18.5 cm 

To make the circles: 

I decided to make circles in green and yellow using the magic ring or magic circle. The circles are made on the round.  Make 4 circles in each color. 

  1. Using the Magic Circle -slip stitch, chain 2,  5 Half Double Crochet (5 total) Join with sl st at top of initial ch. 
  2. 2 HDC in each HDC (10 total)
  3. Work increases, meaning that you will do 1 HDC in the first HDC from the previous row, 2 HDC in the next HDC from the previous row and so on. 
  4. Repeat round 3
  5. Fasten off your yarn and weave ends. 
Note: In order to lay your circle flat, you can set a small towel on top of each circle and press a warm iron over it. This will help your circle lay flat permanently.  You can also look at this post on additional information to block your crochet
Have fun playing with your kiddos! 

As always, if you make a tic-tac toe board using this pattern, I will love to look at your creation! Post of my picture to my FB page or to Instagram using #fabimakes

See you next time! 

Happy crocheting! 

~Fabi 


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