Pete, the Pumpkin Penguin

Meet Pete:

My brother-in-law's girlfriend absolutely loves penguins. Every time I see a penguin, I think of her. I was browsing blogs this past week, and I came across this penguin pumpkin... I knew right off the bat who I was going to make it for.

Making this little pumpkin was easy, and it sure was therapeutic after a hard week at work. If you get the urge to make one, the directions are on the Wyldhare's Hollow website.

Have fun, and Happy Halloween!

Camo Tag Blanket

It's been a little while since I've had time to sew. I had some leftover Mossy Oak hunting camo fabric from 2 years ago. I used it to drape over a gift that I gave Aubrey on our wedding day. It's doing no good just sitting, so I chopped it up and gave it a purpose.
I was thinking I could also do a blanket with hunters orange ribbons all around the blanket instead of alternating colors. Aubrey gave me the idea of doing sports colors like Alabama (crimson and white) and Auburn (blue and orange) around, too. Good idea!

Instead of sewing my tag on the front of the fabric, I sewed it into the blanket like one of the ribbons. Since this is a dark "boy-ish" fabric, I thought it would be an eye-sore if it were on the front. I think I like this idea. I may start incorporating it like this on all of the items I sew. We'll see.

Now the men have no excuse not to bring their babies hunting. Um, well, I guess being still and quiet may be a challenge.

Tailor-Made Tea Bags

Happy Mother's Day!

Wow! I haven't made a post since 2008... This is loooong overdue.
I saw this idea in the Martha Stewart magazine, and I knew it's what I wanted to make my mom for Mother's Day. She loves tea, especially mint.

I didn't use the embellishments that Martha used (yes, we're on a first name basis) because I really didn't want to spend money on tools that I probably wouldn't ever use again. I had some of these flowers left over from scrapbooking, and they worked out perfectly. However, I did buy the cotton string.

I wish I would have bought a larger tin so more tea bags would have fit, but I've promised the rest of the tea bags at a later time. I cut out some scrapbooking paper to fit the inside of the tin's top so the tea bags could be labeled.

Each flower represents a specific tea flavor

I used cheesecloth for the actual tea bag. I cut out a rectangle (8-in x 16-in) and put 2 TBSP loose tea at the center of the top. I rolled it up and folded both sides over and tied with the cotton string. Then I put a flower at the tip of the string and tied a knot so the flower wouldn't fall off.