Guest Blogger at Miss Crafty Pants

Hello lovies!  Today I am guest blogging at Miss Crafty Pants so go check it out.

I'm sharing how to make these...

And these...

So before you start your weekend, go check it out!!

Come what may, and love it.

Saturday was my birthday and my hubby had training so he took Friday off to suprise me.  It was a wonderful suprise!  He arranged babysitting for the kiddos and whisked me away to my favorite place on earth.  I can't tell you how nice it was to have some time with my husband without any interruptions.  We had the best converstation on Friday morning and I am still smiling becuase of it.

We are coming up on our 10th anniversary and looking back it's been quite a ride.  We've had some really amazing times and some really not amazing times.  Through it all, my faith in my Savior and a sincere desire to find happiness, peace, and love have carried me through the easy and the hard.  We have been truly blessed with more than we could wish for and I am so happy to be me right now.  We know that hard times will come.  When they do, we will welcome them as a chance to learn and grow and turn our hearts upward.

As we spoke we were both reminded of a story that we heard a couple of years ago.  I hope it fills you with encouragement and a resolve to choose happiness.

"When I was young I loved playing sports, and I have many fond memories of those days. But not all of them are pleasant. I remember one day after my football team lost a tough game, I came home feeling discouraged. My mother was there. She listened to my sad story. She taught her children to trust in themselves and each other, not blame others for their misfortunes, and give their best effort in everything they attempted.


"When we fell down, she expected us to pick ourselves up and get going again. So the advice my mother gave to me then wasn’t altogether unexpected. It has stayed with me all my life.

“Joseph,” she said, “come what may, and love it.”

"I have often reflected on that counsel.

"I think she may have meant that every life has peaks and shadows and times when it seems that the birds don’t sing and bells don’t ring. Yet in spite of discouragement and adversity, those who are happiest seem to have a way of learning from difficult times, becoming stronger, wiser, and happier as a result."  -Joseph B. Wirthlin

Infant Seat Tent Tutorial

My sister just had a baby a few weeks ago and she asked me to make her an oh-so-girly car seat tent.  No problem!  I took pictures through the whole process, so I could offer the tutorial.  This is a super easy project and didn't take much time.  Happy sewing!

Materials

• 1 1/4 yard of fabric A
• 1 1/4 yard of fabric B
• a bit of velcro
• matching thread

My fabric was 44 in. wide, so I just let that be the length of my tent.
With the fabric still folded in half, cut 37 inches.

Open up both pieces and lay them right sides facing and trim any parts that don't really match up.

Take a large bowl and place it on your corners.

Trace around the curve of the bowl to give yourself some rounded corners and cut along the pen mark.

Using 1/2 in. seams, sew your pieces together leaving a small hole to flip it right side out.

Clip your corners so that they will lay flat when you flip it.

Iron the seams and the body of the tent.

Top stitch all the way around

Lay it out in front of you so that it is longer than it is wide.  Now fold it in half.

Mark the center and go 4 inches out on either side from the center.  Mark those spots.

Mark on the outside edge of the 2 outer pins.  This is where your straps are going to go.

Of contrasting fabric, cut 2 rectangles 5 in. by 10 in.

Fold in half and iron.  Then open back up fold each long edge in 1/2 in. and iron.

Fold each short edge in 1/4 in. and iron.

Fold back in half along your iron mark and top stitch all 4 sides.

Cut velcro to fit and sew or iron on making sure that you put it in the right spot so it will close properly.  See the picture for correct placement.  (Make sure you don't iron over sew-in velcro.  I promise it isn't pretty.)

Fold straps in half and mark center.

Go back to your tent and place straps directly over the pins you have marking where they go.

Sew straps on using a reinforced box stitch (a box with an x inside of it).

Step back and admire your handiwork!

We are fresh out of infant seats (sniff sniff) so I strapped the tent to the legs of my ironing board.  You get the right idea...although it would be WAY cuter if I had a little munchkin peeking out from under it.

There is still time to enter my Messy Monday and/or my Transform Tuesday link parties.  I'd love to see what you have to share!

I'm linking this to these sites.  Go check them out!

• Show and Tell @ Blue Cricket Design

• We did it Wednesday @ Sew Much Ado
• Transformation Thursday @ The Shabby Chic Cottage

• Strut your stuff Thursday @ Somewhat Simple
• Favorite Things Friday @ A Few of My Favorite Things

• Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest

Window Seat Transformation

This window seat is one of my favorite parts of our home.  I love it.  When we moved in it had some spectacularly awesome 80's curtains that certainly did it no favors.  This is the first room we re-did and I'm pretty sure those curtains are the first things I took down.  (you can click on the picture to get the full effect of their lovliness.)

Before:

After:

I made the pillow covers and curtains out of the left over fabric from our couch.  I'll show you the couch later, but here is a close up of the fabric.

These curtains were the easiest I have ever made.  I just made rectangles with the decorative fabric and white cotton on the back.  For the 2 side windows, I took a strip of 1 x 2 and stapled the scratchy side of some adhesive velcro onto the front edge of it.  Then I had my hubby screw it up into the underside of the window frame.  I sewed the soft side of the velcro onto the curtains and stuck them on.  Now I can take them down to wash if I need to and they go right back up.  For the center window, there was already trim around the window, so I couldn't use a board to attach velcro to.  I ended up just stapeling it to the trim and it works like a charm.

And here is the window seat with more pillows.  My neighbor really likes it this way, but I think I like it with only 4 pillows instead of 6.

What do you think?

What have you done for Transform Tuesday?  Link it up!!

Here are the rules:

1.  Add the link to your blog post, not the address to your blog.

2.  Copy the html for the Messy Monday button and put it on your site or in your post.

</P> <P></P> <P><BR></P> <P><center><table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://pumpkinpatchdesigns.blogspot.com"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBexbGxjHpZL6JzMWtJ6LjXwuOx1CYQvDi0AFQQtF5zCoYwRsjXfOuA01XuiMO7z9zWoFtrin0AtP_TO7tpxiEIDlNZ4c8yJGSGtH0pRC8EL_yBBhK-9zMey09kRZhyQ-m-kP5p8viTrSg/s1600/Transform+Tuesday+button-2.jpg " /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right"> </td></tr></table></center></P> <P><BR></P> <P style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none"> </P> <P></P> <P style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none"><BR></P> <P><center><table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://pumpkinpatchdesigns.blogspot.com"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipsCDvqby2iTPyQizTydbTZVZiArP7G4TNduTxKoM0o-jG-kXeSc5h7_cdRCJ_FmC4QXK4uFssdefoPMzIrg6UPrhnLzHkGYgTKvl5RHR6giopvCZ5Cp4BAkUQ-MnPnIkfgw3yu4wSQjw6/s1600/Button+Transform+Tuesday.jpg " /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right"> </td></tr></table></center></P> <P><BR></P> <P>

3.  Check out what everyone else has done and leave them some comment love!

I'm also linking this to these sites.  Go check them out.

• DIY Day @ A Soft Place to Land

• Talk About it Tuesday @ Blogger Chix Designs
• Take a look Tuesday @ Sugar Bee Craft Edition
• Show and Tell @ Blue Cricket Design
• We Did it Wednesday @ Sew Much Ado
• Furniture Feature Friday @ Miss Mustard Seed
Modern Craftswoman Monday @ Tools are for Women Too!

Cornstarch Gloop

First, the winner to my Birthday Giveaway is {Erin}.  Email me and we can work out the details.  pumpkinpatchdesigns@hotmail.com

This stuff is really cool. It is super easy and cheap to make and cleans up amazingly easy. You can also reuse it multiple times. I think it is the perfect messy fun.

Cornstarch Gloop

• 1 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 cup cold water
• food coloring (I used 7 drops)

1. Mix the water and food coloring together in a cup or bowl.

2. Put cornstarch in a bowl.

3. Add liquid while stirring. It is hard to stir, but just keep mixing it with a spoon until all of the cornstarch it mixed in with the water.



4. Play!



5. If it starts to dry out, just add a bit more water.
6. If your kid you add too much water, add a bit more cornstarch.

If you grab a handful of it and squeeze, it feels like a hard ball in your hand, but it you open your hand and let it sit on your fingers it turns into a liquid and flows through your fingers. It is really cool. I had a hard time getting good pictures of it, so I took a little video. I hope you can tell what I'm talking about in the video.

cleanup: Let it dry and then scrape it off or wipe it off of the counter or table. If it gets on your carpet, let it dry and then "crumble" it and vacuum it up.

reuse: Let it dry out and break it into pieces. Put them in a container or plastic baggie. When you are ready to use, crush it up (with spoons or a cup or something) and add more water.

Have you done anything for Messy Monday? Link it up!!

Here are the rules:
1.  Add the link to your actual blog post and not your general blog address.
2.  Grab the Messy Monday buttona nd add it to your blog or to your post.





</P> <P></P> <P><BR></P> <P><center><table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://pumpkinpatchdesigns.blogspot.com"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1CFLPhXbrx2LwLWzztjTAKUbY1LxAgoeJAny5EEDMNSHbhAXaRJIA1p6uvwMEs0Kqoktrq1h1Ti3As1RnnSGu1JevQnSDIGRyzpm0ZTy5PSWo9mGBEOunpPHNweSfrr_iq0HmexXqyXah/s1600/Messy+Monday+button-2.jpg " /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right"> </td></tr></table></center></P> <P><BR></P> <P>   </P> <P></P> <P><BR></P> <P><center><table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://pumpkinpatchdesigns.blogspot.com"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8BD-VrmJKY6MT9xweSmOq7FX955VNIRkgJegyM8_wwQgXVr07TsgjhgO8jqjj_sUB3BGezI-cR-YD3aBXmRp3TRvYtMjCWBRd5_yjLg8teUOEG0Tkl1zVM-XLJx1EDo9nK6uwEjT5dTJ6/s1600/Button+Messy+Monday.jpg " /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right"> </td></tr></table></center></P> <P><BR></P> <P>

3.  Check out what everyone else did and leave them some linky love!

I also linked up to these sites. Go check them out.

• Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps on the Porch
• You’re so crafty @ Miss Crafty Pants
• Market yourself Monday @ Sumo’s Sweet Stuff
• Making the World Cuter @ Making the World Cuter

Oatmeal Cake

Anyone who knows me well knows that I love cake.  Seriously...I love it.  I think it would take all of my willpower to be stuck in a room with a piece of cake all day and not touch it.  Especially if it was Oatmeal Cake.

Isn't it beautiful?  Don't you wish you could open up your computer screen and take a bite?  It tastes a lot like a spice cake, but is more moist and has a much better texture.  The frosting is amazing.  The same frosting you would find on a German Chocolate cake.  Oh my yumminess!!!  I might have to make some this weekend.

Oatmeal Cake

• 1 1/2 cups boiling water
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs, well beaten
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

1. In a small bowl, pour boiling water over oats and let sit until completely cooled.
2. In a large bowl, cream shortening with sugars and eggs until fluffy.
3. Add oats and water mixture and mix.
4. Sift together dry ingredients (I don't sift) and blend into the wet ingredients.
5. Pour into a 9 x 13 baking dish. (no nead to grease the pan, but you can if you want)
6. Bake at 350F for 35-45 minutes or until cake tests done.  I start with 35 and go from there.  It usually ends up somewhere right around 40 minutes.
7. Spread topping on baked cake as soon as it comes from oven.  **This step is very important**

Topping

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup evaporated milk
• 1 cup sweetened, shredded coconut
• 1 cup nuts chopped (I use walnuts)
• 1 tsp vanilla

1. Melt butter and add sugar.
2. Blend well.
3. Add remaining ingredients and spread on baked cake as soon as it comes from the oven.

Place under broiler for a minute or two, if desired (make sure your dish can go under the brioler)
.
This cake is really good warm with some vanilla ice cream.  It is also really good cold.  Who am I kidding.  It is really good however you eat it!

Don't forget my Birthday Giveaway.

I'm also linking up to these sites.  Go check them out.