Whale Baby Hat

I love to make things for my two sweet boys.

However, I sometimes get in a rut when it comes to embellishment ideas for their clothing.

Flowers and ribbons are so cute but just don't cut it. And I find trucks, cars, and many animals far too detailed to cut out well.

I wanted to make my 3 month-old a hat for fall. [One that actually fit his large head.] I used an old t-shirt.

I used this tutorial to make the hat but drew a larger pattern.

I decided on a whale made from fleece.

I hand-sewed it onto the hat after free-hand cutting it.

I think anything would look cute on him. But maybe I'm a little biased.

My {Newest} Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

I am always up for trying a new chocolate chip cookie recipe. I'm constantly seeking the 'best'. If you've followed my blog, you'll know I've touted this one as the current 'best'.

All that has changed, my friends!!

I found this tremendous recipe via my friend Kristen’s blog, 'Confessions of a (Not-So) Domesticated Newlywed'. Kristen and I have known each other since second grade. She has a blog and has great recipe ideas.

We just saw each other two weeks ago at our ten-year class reunion. I figured I didn’t have much of an excuse not to go since I now live in my hometown! I’m so glad I went; it was great to catch up.

At first, I laughed a little bit that the planning committee thought we needed name tags. I mean, we only graduated with about 150 others in our class! I recognized most of the girls that were there. But I was surprised to find I did need name tags to ID some of the guys!

But here are my friend Kristen and me:

This recipe for puffy peanut butter cookies was amazing. I’m always looking for the best chocolate chip cookie recipe and right now, this is it!!!

I'm convinced that the recipe rocks because it starts by having you melt butter and peanut butter together and yields a very chewy cookie.

You have to try it.

Pumpkin Crunch Cake

Here's a fantastic dessert (found on allrecipes.com) that I've already made twice this fall.

Ingredients

• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 cup margarine, melted
• 1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease one 9x13 inch baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine pumpkin, evaporated milk, eggs, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Mix well, and spread into the prepared pan.
3. Sprinkle cake mix over the top of the pumpkin mixture, and pat down. Sprinkle chopped pecans evenly over the cake mix, then drizzle with melted margarine.
4. Bake for 60 to 80 minutes, or until done. Top with whipped topping when ready to serve.

Felt Travel Car Mat Tutorial

What did you do with your extra hour?

This morning, courtesy of the end of daylight savings time, we were up at 5:30 A.M. Before church, my super duper husband took our two-year old on a hike at 8:30 am. The baby fell alseep for a little nap and I found myself with an hour on my hands.

So I made this.

I started with my abundance of felt.

I chopped up a few pieces. I have a big scrap of blue felt from a bolt (not the little squares) so I cut two 10” x 18” pieces for the base and back. I cut a 4” x 12” piece of gray to hold the cars and a smaller brown piece for the road. I used yellow scraps for the yellow line.

I started by sewing the yellow pieces onto the brown road. Then I sewed the road onto the blue base.

For the gray, I sewed just the vertical lines (I did mine at 3” increments). The horizontal bottom will be completed when sewing on the back blue piece.

To make a connection piece, I used an elastic hair tie sandwiched between the base fabric and the back fabric.

Next, sew the back fabric onto the base.

I added a button to keep the whole thing closed.

I let our little guy take it to church. He liked putting the cars into the pockets. It kept him occupied for a good portion of the service!

My Favorite Jeans: Fixed

This would’ve been the third pair of jeans in about a year that have worn out. I’ve already made two of the pairs of jeans into shorts. Seeing that it is October, I don’t really need any shorts.

To prolong the life of these favorite jeans, I put a patch of denim behind the hole and just stitched some straight lines across the patch.

It isn’t all that noticeable.

If you want to do this to your jeans, the hardest part is getting the knee onto the arm of the sewing machine. I recommend rolling up the pant leg neatly as high as possible to get it around the sewing machine’s arm.