He Lives!

"What praises can we offer

To thank thee, Lord most high?

In our place thou didst suffer;

In out place thou didst die,

By heaven's plan appointed,

To ransom us, our King.

O Jesus, the annointed,

To thee our love we bring!"

~ O Savior, Thou Who Wearest a Crown, K.L. Davidson
 

Happy Easter!

Feature Friday: 8 Cute & Colorful Free Crochet Patterns for Spring!

Today I'm sharing some of my favorite Spring-Themed crochet finds!

CLICK THIS LINK to go to the full article on my website!

Happy Spring!

What's New: Crochet Bunnies (and a pig and duck, too!)

I love the simple, child-like look of these little guys!  Can't wait to make more!

Click the link below to see more details about these little fellows!

What's New: Crochet Bunnies (and a pig and duck, too!) 

Guest Posting at The Saturday Evening Post!

Today I'm really excited to be sharing my Crochet Heart Garland Pattern over at The Saturday Evening Post!

CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO BE DIRECTED TO THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE!

Guest Posting at The Saturday Evening Post!

Easter...

Sorry I left ya'll hanging this week with the Make Something Monday Link Party...I needed a little vacation from my vacation if you know what I mean! ;)

I'll be back next week with another Make Something Monday party and a bunch of features...so stay tuned!

Until then...and on a much more serious note...This past weekend was the April 2012 General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

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It was a truly uplifting and inspiring couple of meetings.  I feel so blessed to be a part of such a wonderful organization, and would love to share that with you...

No pressure, of course!  Just click on the links above if you are interested in finding out more about the Mormons or if you would like to listen to any of the talks that were given! :)

And I'd also like to leave you with this inspiring video presentation on the Resurrection of our Savior. I feel so blessed to have the knowledge of my Savior's love and atonement for me.  It has blessed and shaped my life in so many ways.



Have a wonderful Easter!

Things to Make: St. Patty's Day Crafts ~ Revisited!

Well...It's just one week until St. Patrick's Day, so I thought I'd share a couple of past projects with you all to get ready for the fun!

Here's my:

Crochet Shamrock Garland Pattern

and my:

Paper Punch Leprechaun!

Enjoy!!!

Things to Make: Mardi Gras Treats - Revisited!

Looking for something yummy to share with your family for Mardi Gras?  Check out these YUMMMMMMY Beignets!  You won't be sorry!

Things to Make: Beignets!

I whipped some up for the family yesterday...and there's nary a beignet left in sight!

Happy Fat Tuesday! :)

Things to Make: Felt Happy Heart Pin

THIS TUTORIAL HAS BEEN MOVED TO MY NEW SITE, SARAHNDIPITIES.COM!

CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO GO TO THE TUTORIAL!

Things to Make: Happy Little Heart Pin!

I also shared this fun little tutorial over at BeccaWilhite.com!

Things To Make: Ginger Bread Pudding

One my favorite things to do with the kids during the Christmas season is making gingerbread houses.

This year I cheated.  I totally bought a Gingerbread House Kit, complete with pre-baked gingerbread and Royal icing mix.

It was awesome!  The kids had a ton of fun decorating it...and I didn't have to roll out any dough!

The one downside was that it wasn't as soft as the homemade variety...especially after sitting for a week on the dining room table.  It was like rock.

So...after the kids had scavenged the last bit of candy decor from the house, I told them it was demo time.

The kids really wanted to eat it...but I didn't want to have any extra dental bills this month.  (Sugar is bad enough...but add to that rock hard gingerbread?  You're just asking for broken teeth.)

My kids love bread pudding, so I took a risk and decided to turn the remaining rubble into Ginger Bread Pudding!

And our little house went from this:

to this:

I know.  Not a very good 'after' picture.  I had intended to take a picture of it right out of the oven...but I had to nurse the baby...and have you ever tried to keep four ravenous children (and one well-meaning husband) away from a warm dessert/breakfast?  By the time I was done feeding the baby, half of the pudding was gone!

Anyway,  for those of you who like bread pudding, I highly recommend trying this recipe out!

Ginger Bread Pudding

Ingredients:

5 cups of gingerbread crumbs (I threw pieces of our rock hard gingerbread house into our food processor - frosting, candy cane bits and all - and pulverized them into fine crumbs)
5 or 6 eggs, beaten
4 cups of milk
1 cup raisins, optional

(I didn't add any sugar, cinnamon, ginger or nutmeg to our pudding, because I felt like the crumbs were already sweet and seasoned enough.)

Directions:

1.  Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
2.  Spread crumbs in the bottom of a 9x13 glass or stoneware baking dish.
3.  Beat eggs and milk together.  Pour over the crumbs in the baking dish, pressing into the crumbs
4.  Place another baking dish filled with hot water on the bottom rack of the oven.  This helps the pudding to bake evenly.
5.  Place dish with pudding mixture on middle rack of oven.
6.  Bake for about 60 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Enjoy!!

Merry Christmas!

I love Christmastime.  I love the smell of cinnamon and pine boughs.  I love the peppermint candies and Christmas lights.  I love Christmas carols and giving gifts.

But most especially I love the reason we celebrate.  I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to celebrate the birth of our Savior at this time of year.  My heart is so full of the blessings that I have been given, and for the gift of the Atonement, from my Savior.

I love these new Bible videos that have been made by The Church of Jesus Christ of latter-Day Saints. They depict passages taken from the life of Christ from the Bible.  They are sweet, simple, and heartfelt.

I hope you'll take a moment to watch this beautiful depiction of the very first Christmas.

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas!

Things to Make: Crochet Holly Berry Pin

Here's a little guest post I did over at Good Knits!

Holly Berry Pin

THIS PATTERN CAN NOW BE FOUND HERE!

THIS PATTERN HAS BEEN MOVED TO MY NEW SITE!  YOU CAN STILL GET THIS FREE PATTERN BY VISITING MY OTHER SITE HERE!

Hope you all have a Holly Jolly Christmas!

Things to Make: Simple Upcycled Teacher Gift

In case you missed it here is the guest post I did over at Two Girls Being Crafty a couple of weeks ago!

My husband is a teacher.  He teaches the 5th grade.  Over the years he's brought home a lot of interesting gifts from students during the holidays:  body wash...candy...coffee mugs...hair gel...cocoa...and even a stuffed animal or two!

But guess what?  The best gifts he's ever received are the ones he can actually use in his classroom.

I asked him once what the best thing to give a teacher was and he said, "A raise."

But after that he said, "Hand sanitizer...and tissues."

He knows all about germs.  He's surrounded by them all day long...especially at school.

So when I was trying to think of a teacher gift for kids to give their teachers this year that's what I immediately thought of.

But how to make it cute...and something that the kids could actually help with?

Well, here's what I came up with!  It's soooo simple, and the kids can help with most of it (unless you don't want them to come anywhere near a permanent marker...which I completely understand, believe me.)

Here's what you'll need:

-  A Smallish container of some kind...I used an empty French's Onions can, because it was already white and had a lid...plus I have three of them left over from Thanksgiving meal preparations!
-  a couple packages of pocket sized tissues
-  a couple of sample size hand sanitizers
-  a bit of Christmas-y ribbon
-  a sharpie marker

First, remove the label from the container, and wash it thoroughly...you don't want it to smell like french fried onions, after all.

 Next, use your sharpie marker to draw eyes and a smile on one side of the container...

 ...and to color the lid black (like a hat).

 Next, tie a piece of ribbon around the base of the container.  You might want to secure it with a dab of hot glue or a couple of glue dots if you feel so inclined.

 Lastly put the hand sanitizer and tissues into the container, and snap the lid back on!

I included a note on the back of this little guy that reads:  "We TISSUE a Merry Christmas, and a HANDY New Year!"

There are so many cute ways to dress up a simple gift like this, but my kids loved that this was an upcycled project that they could REALLY help with!

Thanks again to Tristin for inviting me to be a part of the fun!  Happy Holidays!! :)

Guest Posting at Two Girls Being Crafty!

Hey!  Head on over to Two Girls Being Crafty to see my quick little tutorial for their 12 Days of Christmas series, on how to make this little guy as a teacher gift!

Don't forget to tell her I sent ya'!

Halloween

Hope you all had a fun and festive Halloween yesterday!  Hope no one is suffering too bad from a sugar coma...

This isn't really a how-to post, per se, but since I haven't had anytime to make anything new except for Halloween costumes I thought I'd share those with y'all!  (Warning: I have the cutest family in the world.  Don't be offended...but they really are.  I'm just giving you fair warning.)

First up is my hubby.  He teaches 5th grade.  He wanted to be something tough for Halloween.  He picked Wolverine.  But there was no way I was gonna make him a yellow spandex super-hero outfit...sorry, hon.

Here he is stealing a baby pumpkin...the brute!

He settled for a stream-lined trimming of his chops and beard, a white t-shirt with a flannel shirt over top and jeans.  He's pre-X-Men Wolverine/Logan.

But he also kinda looks like an over-worked dad who didn't get enough sleep...

Yeah.  My hubby is the best dad ever.

Next up is my oldest.  She's cute.  She's 10.  She's also a little odd.  She came in a couple weeks ago and announced that she knew what she wanted to be for Halloween:  Ludwig von Beethoven.  Yup.  My kid is awesome.

Here she is...

She really wanted to make sure she got his 'scary eyebrows' down.  I think she hit it on the head.

Next is my son, who is 8.  He wanted to be Aang, from Avatar: the Last Airbender.  He begged us to shave his head...so we got pretty close.  His costume was made from a thrift store bathrobe, and an old orange shirt of my hubby's.

His staff is a wrapping paper tube, wrapped with a piece of the t-shirt.  The funnest part of this costume was taping an arrow on his head an spraying it blue with colored hairspray!

Here's my next daughter...she's 5.  She wanted to be Toph Bei Fong, also a character from Avatar: the Last Airbender.  Her costume was also made from refashioned thrift store finds, elastic, and one of my shirts.

I crocheted her 'wig' and added bangs and a pom-pom embellished headband...she's so cute!

Here are the benders together:

Next up is my 3-year-old.  She's a doll.  And a bit dramatic.  And she wanted to be Rapunzel.  Of course! Her costume was a thrift store find that had seen better days...I made new sleeves and fixed the hem, and then made her a long yarn wig on a crocheted cap.

You should hear this kid sing "Flower Gleam and Glow..."  It's classic.

Here's my littlest squish.  She was a little bear.  Can you stand the cuteness?  I thought not.

I know it's a bit of a cop out to use a *gasp*completely store-made costume...but guess what?  I'm completely ok with that this year!  Besides...she's so. dang. cute.  She doesn't even really need a costume!

Lastly, here's me.  I was a gypsy (so baby could be my dancing bear, of course!)

My costume was just bits and pieces of clothes I already had...I bet you're jealous of that skirt, right?

And here's the gang all together!

Hope you all had a fantastic Halloween!!!