Playing with yarn & felt

Hi.  I’m Burgess.  Remember me?  I’m the Older Sister half of HicksGirls.  I’ve been MIA.  I have a 4-year-old and a 6-month-old.  They are my excuses for not blogging.  But I have been crafting!  And I am bound and determined to find more time to document my projects.  Sister was here this weekend and we went to our first craft show of the season, and that got us both in the autumn/creating/fall-decorating spirit!  I have a couple of things to share, and they kind-of lead one into another, so bear with me.

Last Christmas I came across a couple of Etsy shops that sold yarn wreaths, and I fell in love with this poinsettia one from the ItzFitz shop:

But, in the HicksGirls spirit, I thought “I could make that!”  And finally in July, I did!  Behold the Independence Day wreath!

I don’t have pictures of the project-in-process, but I’ll tell you what I did:  I took a foam wreath form that I bought at Hobby Lobby.  I wrapped white yarn around it about a zillion times to cover all the foam and get it looking the way I wanted it to.  (That’s the time consuming part!)  I secured loose ends by gluing them down with my hot glue gun.  Then I made red stripes by wrapping red yarn.  I cut different sizes of stars out of blue felt and made little star “pillows” by blanket stitching the edges of two stars together with contrasting thread and stuffing them with polyester fiberfill.  I then glued the stars to the wreath, and voila!  Independence Day wreath! 

I would LOVE to make one for every holiday or season.  We’ll see how that goes.  But, for the time in between holidays, I found a “B” at Joann’s (my married name is Brown), that I thought would be fun wrapped in yarn. 

Now let me say that this did not go nearly as easy as the Independence Day wreath.  Because of the smaller openings in the middle of the “B,” I had to make small yarn balls from my skein first, use those balls to wrap the “B,” then when I ran out of yarn, make another ball, and so on.  Also, there were parts of the “B” that could not be easily wrapped.  So I actually cut smaller bits of yard and hot-glued them to the letter to achieve the “wrapped” look.  This one took me a while (hmmm, I actually started it the week before Part 2 of the last Harry Potter film came out, back in July, because I remember watching behind-the-scenes type shows about the movie franchise on the History Channel while wrapping the letter.  Why do I remember this?  I don’t know.), and then I got side-tracked with other projects, and just finished it a few days ago. 

I added the adorable felt flowers with, again, my trusty hot glue gun.  I found the tutorial for these cuties via Pinterest on the blog From will you? To I do!  You may start seeing these all over accessories for my Baby Girl.  Love them!  This leads me to a project I started just this afternoon…Baby Girl’s Halloween costume!  I decided she should be a witch.  Again, I got this idea from Pinterest (my new obsession!  Have you discovered it?  You should!).  The baby had on a tutu, black shirt, and a small witch hat attached to a headband.  I’ve been dying to make her a tutu, so this is as good a reason as any, but the witch hat is what I’m really excited about!  I should wait until the whole costume is completed to post pictures, but I’m too pumped about how the hat turned out to wait! 

I used the felt flowers from the above tutorial, made loops with sparkly black tulle, added some sparkly ribbon, a couple of feathers…this yields one awesome baby witch hat!  I won’t post pictures of it on Baby Girl until she’s wearing the whole costume, but suffice it to say, she looks ADORABLE with it on! 

And, Sister and I have decided to make witch hat fascinators for our annual Breakfast with the Witches at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis at the end of October.  Stay tuned for those pics!  Happy Fall!

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lake of the ozarks.

Have I mentioned that I pretty much have the best friends in the whole world? Well if not, I do. Be jealous. All of you.

So my bestie Mel and her sweet hubs Brian (who I went to high school with) invited all of us "How I Met Your Mother" gang (that's what I call us because...well...it is the perfect description for all of us) to Mel's grandparent's lake house at the Ozarks for a long weekend.

It was pure bliss. Coffee every morning down by the lake. Laying out. Swimming. Jet skis. Perfect perfect weather. I loved every second of it.

Me and BriBri.

the gang.

besties: me and Mel

Diana and I on the jet ski. Yes. We took the jet ski out to gawk at all the amazing houses on the Lake. And we totes got lost. For an hour. On the middle of the lake. We just couldn't find our cove at all. P.S. None of our friends came looking for us either. Except for Brian who floated out to the end of our No Wake Cove on a raft. Thank you Search & Rescue.

At dinner one night. The best drinks in the world.

Eric and his Beer Margarita. I may or may not have vomited in my mouth when I tasted that thing. Dis.Gusting.

The ladies. Diana. Me. Sarah. Mel.

For some reason, Brian always makes this face.

Tubing.

While the boys tubed, the girls basked in the wonderful rays.

Probably one of my favorite shots of the whole weekend.

Playing Kings on our last night.

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a quick fix.

Ok...we're all friends here, right? Right.

And because of that...I'm going to tell you a little tiny secret.

I'm a 30 year female. (yikes...30! more about that later).

And I like stuff. Really any kind of stuff. Stuff. I love me some stuff.

Whew, ok it feels good to get that off my chest.

And because I love stuff, my closests in my little apartment (which I'm totes in love with) are packed the brim. Including (or especially) my linen closet. And then Target had to have an awesome sale on their towels a couple of weeks ago...so of course I bought 6 more towels. So now my already super stuffed linen closet had 6 more fluffy towels to squeeze in.

And that just wasn't working for me.

So I need a quick fix.

Side note: Momma Hicks loves kitchen stuff. Seriously. Its an obsession of hers. Actually, she loves kitchen stuff as much as I love yarn (if that tells you anything). So seriously, forever ago, Momma Hicks found these old Lay's baskets at an antique store. I have no more room in my kitchen for anything like this....sooooooo, I decided to repurpose this bad boy.

 And I hung it in my bathroom, right above the toilet.

 I'm pretty certain that this is NOT what Momma Hicks had in mind for this thing...but it works. And I like it.

 Add some towels.

 Ahh, I love decluttering closests!

VOILA!! It's PERFECT! I'm working on some more decor for the ole bathroom, so I'll post more pictures later.

P.S. The best part about this project. It literally took me 5 minutes to complete. Love quick fixes!!

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30for30: recipe #2 Lime Chicken Soft Tacos

Oh this is a GREAT recipe!! Definitely a keeper and will be immediately added to my ever-growing-recipe box. NOM.NOM.

Alright time for recipe #2 in the 30for30!! Only 50 more to go!

Lime Chicken Soft Tacos

Ingredients:

1 and 1/2 pounds of skinless, boneless chicken, cut up

1/8 cup of red wine vinegar

1/2 lime juiced

1 teaspoon of white sugar

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/2 teaspoon of ground black pepper

2 green onions chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon dried oregano

10 6-inch flour tortillas

Toppings:

Whatever taco toppings you like! I used Roma tomatoes, shredded lettuce, shredded cheese, a little taco sauce and light sour cream. But use whatever your little heart desires!

Directions:

Saute chicken in medium saucepan over medium high heet for about 20 minutes. Add vinegar, lime juice, sugar, salt, pepper, green onions, garlic and oregano. Simmer for an extra 10 minutes.

 

 Heat your tortillas, fill with the delicious chicken and all your fab toppings and enjoy!!!

 nom.nom.

Seriously. These were so good and super duper easy. I'm totes loving this 30for30 challenge!!!

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for Sophia.

So a co-worker of mine, Tony, has a cutie-patootie of a daughter named Sophia. And this little cutie is about to turn the big 0-1 on October 2nd. So Tony asked me to make a blanket for Sophia out of her favorite onesies from her first year of life. I quickly obliged.

But let's be real. I've only ever made t-shirt blankets...and those were my first sewing projects since 8th grade (circa 1995). So, this was a true test of my skill. (Wait, do I have skills? Hmmm....debateable.)

Regardless, I did my best. And I think it turned out pretty stinking cute ifIdosaysomyself.

 

BEFORE: A stack of sweet little onesies!!

AFTER: a cute little medium-sized cuddle blanket for baby Sophia!!

Fact: my favorite onesie to work with was the NY Yankee one. Duh. That's only my sweet pup's name. holla. 

 happy birthday Sophia!!

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30for30. recipe #1: chili chicken salad.

So. It's official. I'm 30. I'm in my 30's. I'm no longer a twenty-something. I've entered a new decade, a new chapter in my life. 30. It's all new and refreshed and feels somewhat like New Year's Eve...a chance to take the world by the balls and conquer it.

And to be perfectly honest, I'm totes embracing 30. I'm actually excited about this. True, my life is not where I thought I'd be...but it's still sososo great!

Anywho, remember my list of 30 while I'm 30? Well it's begun. And #8 on that list was to try a new recipe every week. So here you go with Recipe #1.

Chili Chicken Salad
Ingredients:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I boiled them)

1/2 cup of Greek yogurt (could also use fat free or light mayo)

lime juice (to taste)

1 teaspoon of chili powder

1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1/2 cup 2% reduced-fat shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup dark kidney beans, drained and rinsed (next time, I would probably only use a 1/2 cup because I'm not a big bean girl)

1-3 ribs celery, chopped

3 Tablespoons chopped green onions

Cut up cooked/boiled chicken breasts into small, bite-sized chunks. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine Greek yogurt, lime juice, chili powder, cumin, and salt. Stir to form a sauce.

Add chicken, shredded cheese, beans, celery and green onions. Stirl until everything is evenly incorporated.

Tada! Chicken Salad is complete. I chose to put it over a bed of shredded lettuce and eat it as a salad for lunch one day. It's so good and it is super low-fat and amazingly healthy for you!

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