Shoe Fixup {SpongeBob Style}

Lachlan LOVES his SpongeBob shoes. Unfortunately they were falling apart. He's been wearing them broken because he just won't wear any other pair of shoes! So today i decided they were broken enough for me to fix them. lol

see?! all the velcro was coming off and the part up the front was broken so the strap had nothing to slip through.

First i cut off the straps and the middle strap holder(i have no idea what the real name for that part is) and cut new pieces out of black FOE. I also cut 2 new pieces of velcro(the fuzzy side).

Then i hand sewed the velcro on to the ends of the new straps and rounded the ends off so it wasn't spikey. I could have machine sewed it but i was too lazy to get lift my machine from the floor to the table. lol I used thick thread too and a nice strong needle.
Then i sewed the little middle strap holders on and i sewed it over existing stitching so you can't even tell. :) Then i threaded the straps on like they are supposed to be and sewed the ends onto the shoes. Finally i hot glued pieces of black felt over the parts i sewed so that it was hidden and it won't rub on his cute little feet.

One of my new favourite craft blogs is U Create. LOVE it. I found a cute tutorial for headbands. I am always on the lookout for grown up girly things since i haven't be blessed with baby girls as yet. So i was super exited to find something that I could wear!

The tutorial is here and this is my results -

Fondant Cake

My second fondant cake! I was asked to make a cake for the Relief Society Birthday Dinner. The theme was "If friends were flowers, i'd pick you" I thought straight away that i'd use fondant since i've been wanting to experiment with it more. I googled cake photos and tutorials and figured i could make roses. Looked easy enough. I decided to make the Pioneer Woman's chocolate sheet cake but in a round tin. Unfortunately that didn't work out. For some reason the bottom of the cake didn't cook. So it was back to the old faithful recipe that i've been using for years for birthday cakes - Chocolate Fudge Cake. It's the yummiest chocolate cake ever! I made the marshmellow fondant and put a little passionfruit flavouring in it. It's so yum. I have some left over which i may or may not get to eat. My kids like it too! I found a tutorial for fondant flowers and the woman doing it suggested putting bits of toilet paper in mini muffin tins. I did paper towel though in case you were wondering. I didn't think toilet paper was all that hygenic since the toilet paper is stored BESIDE the toilet and my boys can't aim that well all the time.
Anyways it worked so well at propping up the flowers while they dried. Here's a pic -

I made a vanilla buttercream to put between the layers of cake (2 layers) and over the entire cake so that the fondant had something to stick too. And then i layed the main pink fondant over, put the flowers on and voila! oh and i did add some sheer purple ribbon around the bottom.

And it was yum. super yum!

Recent Projects

Crocheted Necklace - you can find the pattern here. I think it's really cute! And it's so easy.

Memory Wire Bracelet
Earrings - the little blue beads match the ones on the bracelet - i LOVE drop earrings.

I've got a shop!

www.madeit.com.au/justjewell

Jam!

I love homemade jam. I did plum and apricot.

Success!



I have successfully made yoghurt!!! wooooo!! Ok so i wasn't putting enough water in the canister but i finally got it figured out and made some delish strawberry yoghurt.


I've also redecorated my lame-o kitchen. New curtains and decor. I found that awesome green vase for $9 at Lifeline. It was MADE for my kitchen.

Before -

After -

Still not quite finished. I need to put this pic in a frame and hang it up above the power plugs there on the left.

Feeling Crafty

I'm not sure if it's motivated by wanting to save money or just sheer boredom. The first thing i decided to do was make my own baby wipes. Instead of paying almost $5 for 80 wipes i get 180 wipes for just over $5. I searched for a recipe that i already had the ingredients for. No use making my own wipes to save money if i have to go and buy a heap of stuff that i don't usually buy, right? I found this recipe - http://www.essortment.com/all/howtohomemade_rhjg.htm and it's perfect! I added lavender oil and tea tree oil. I read somewhere that tea tree oil helps then keep longer. Who knows really? I just know that it smells good. So i had all the ingredients except for the paper towel. I found Viva paper towel for $3.49 for a 2 pack (120 'wipes') You need a good strong paper towel that won't fall apart once it's wet. I had an old Huggies wipe container which i reused. I unrolled the towel and refolded it back in the container. This takes some time and effort but worth it imo. I also experimented with a cylinder container i bought for $4. Both ways work really well.

Yesterday when i was at church i used some store bought wipes. I didn't like them! I prefer my own wipes. So much nicer. The store ones suddenly felt slimmey and didn't seem to clean as well. I'm sticking to my own from now on.

My next project involved a lamp. I am revamping my bedroom. I wanted it to be more inviting. I got new curtains, new bedding and de-cluttered the room. I needed a new lamp. I went to Target but nothing jumped out at me and said 'buy me'. Then i was cleaning up Lachlan's room and came across an old lamp from when i was a kid.

It's shade was long gone but it stilled worked. I thought maybe i could do something with it. Only problem is that is was pink. Very PINK. And it had no shade. I then happened upon a cane basket at the op shop. PERFECT for the lamp shade. It was $1.

I painted it in a reddish-brown shade and spray painted the pink bottom black. I think it's now perfect for my room!

The rest of my house is going to get a makeover because it's horrible. I need cute lamps for my boys rooms. And my kitchen needs a complete makeover. So stay tuned for that. :)

Also on the 'crunchy' side of things, my mum gave me a Easyio Yoghurt maker. The only thing i've successed in making is sour milk. I've tried it twice and still - curdled sour milk. I'll give it one more go before declaring yoghurt just one of those things i cannot make.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

So i decided to do some sewing. I didn't think there was actually anything that i wanted to make for myself. I found a tutorial for a very cute Very Hungry Caterpillar. So i had to make 2. One for Ethan and one for Nicholas. Aren't they cute?! Ok so mine don't look exactly like they should..but the boys LOVE them and that's all that counts. :)

Lookie what i made. Nothing fancy but I kinda like it.

And one more for good measure. lol

I've finished!!

My new beret. I'm not sure i'm really a beret person but i'll give it a go. It was a great project to work on.

Here it is! THE beret. I finished it and then had to undo half of it because it was wrong. There doesn't seem to be any decreases in the pattern when there should be. So i'm doing it again.

I LOVE the puff stitch.