Egg Dying

This year I decided to try my hand at making natural egg dyes,

 just for fun.

(pickled beet juice, grape juice, pomegranate tea, passion tea, green tea, chili powder, and red cabbage)

Here is how they turned out... 

(from top left:  red cabbage, grape juice, green tea, passion tea, pomegranate tea, and pickled beet juice. The chili powder is pictured in the center of the bowl...a golden brown)

And a very excited little girl! She insisted on eating the pink egg first...it was quite tasty!

It was definitely a fun experiment.

Spring is Sprouting

When life gives you clouds and rain,

make your own rainbow.

Happy Spring!

Happy Hallo-week!

What a great week. Our Hallo-week started with an Adults-Only party. T-Daddy and I were the Time Life couple...aka Kissing Sailor. The week continued with pumpkin carving with Auntie and Great-Gram, trick-or-treating at a nearby senior living apartments, multiple parties at school, a party with friends, quick crafting by Yours Truly and of course...trick-or-treating on All Hallows Eve.

We were lucky enough to have a buddy to collect candy with us this year...of course there were times where we thought we were watching Preschooler Smackdown as they ran to see who could ring the doorbell first.

All-in-all, it was a great week...full of fun and sugar!

Sew Happy!

After searching for just the right fabric, procrastinating long enough and a lot of help from CiBaby, I got CiBaby's "Minnie Mouse" dress done in time for WDW 2009!

Princess for a Day

Years ago, I made a killer Snow White costume for a girlfriend's daughter's birthday party. Well, it has been sprung from its closet to make a special appearance at my goddaughter's 5th birthday party! (E is front and center)

CiBaby even got into the act.

Prince Charming* (of the day) even showed...

but here is my permanent Prince Charming

It was a very fun day.

*Yes, I made this costume as well. Just a little "fun" fact...there is almost 10 years between that bottom pic and when all of the rest were taken. yikes. And my PC for the day, yeah, well he decided he wanted to be something "scary" for that Halloween ('99). Boy did he pull that off. He came as one of the scariest looking women I've ever laid eyes on!

My original mosaic project

When I started my mosaic class, this was the project I was going to do. However, my first order of business was to "whip up" an angel. After that was done and shipped, I snipped, clipped, glued, grouted and painted up until Christmas Eve in order to give this to my grandmother.

My grandmother loves flowers and her family. So in the corner I created a flower that has a picture of my grandmother as a young girl, then starting with CiBaby (since you all know here beautiful face) going clockwise: CiBaby, G-Mama (my mom), Auntie, Auntie Cat, and yours truly...all as small children. And in the leaf is my uncle.

I really like how it turned out.

It arrived in the nick of time!

I am a lucky gal as I have a group of girlfriends that live all over the world. Each year we either do Secret Santa or an ornament exchange, as was this year. I was lucky enough to get my beautiful friend, J9, who lives in New Zealand as my recipient.

J9 and I have an extra special bond. Not only are we mothers to wonderful, beautiful daughters, both of our daughters came into our families through adoption. Last year, just before Christmas, J9's Christmas Miracle, her little angel, came to be.

Well, the ornament that represents her precious daughter arrived today, Christmas Eve Day (in New Zealand). Whew!

Merry Christmas my friend.




*This was the project I almost burst about several days ago. You can see below the process, pre-grout, during grouting and the finished product (above).

A little diddy, by me

Late to bed and
early to rise, makes
one sappy, feel crappy
with bloodshot eyes.

*Original quote by Ben Franklin

Crafting crafting every day

This Crafty CzaMama's fingers have been working over time. If I'm not sewing or beading or crocheting, I'm doing mosaic...my newest endeavor.

For T-Daddy's and my anniversary this year he got me a mosaic class to get me away from the house and expend some of my creative energy. Originally it was set up for July, but the timing didn't work so I saved it until the day before I went Westward. Technically, it was a 4-5 week class that met on Thursday evenings but also included a studio pass to come in any time during the class session. It was great! I love it so much!!!

I'm ready to burst as I want so badly to show you my first completed project. However, it's an ornament and the friend has not received it in the post yet. I really hope she likes it. I like it so much that I'm going to make one for our tree too...after Christmas.

I also am working on another project for Grams (as she doesn't currently have internet access I'm not ruining the surprise). It's going to be a Christmas present...I really need to get clipping and grouting! I will post pictures of both a little later.

Craft Swap!

While I was out West, I was trying to think up what I was going to make for an upcoming craft swap with some of the ladies in one of my Moms groups.* I got the following idea from a little gift at E&F and ran with it to make them my own.

Each coin purse measures about 4 x 5 inches, and include a zipper, coordinating** fabric for the lining and their own sassy saying.

*The purses ended up being a big hit. I'm now doing a little "swappy swap" with one of the other ladies because we didn't end up with each other's items and loved them.

**I now have flame fabric for the firefighter print.

Happy Halloween!

This year we celebrated our first Halloween! Last year we had been home only 5 days when Halloween rolled around and between jet lag and pure over stimulation we took a break from it...we were one of those dark houses.

Not this year, no sirree! We whooped it up! We went to 2 Halloween parties and Trick-or-Treated twice, once at a Senior Living apartments and then on Halloween night.

We practiced and practiced our "Happy Halloween!" "Trick-or-Treat!" and, of course, "Thank yous." She also didn't want to keep her hood up at first either, as evidenced in the above pictures. But once we were out on Halloween night, every time we went up to a door she put up her hood and practically whispered "trick-or-treat." Most of the "thank yous" were a smile and a wave. It was so cute. She totally got into it and wanted to keep going and going for "more candy?!"

But by 7:45PM we were done and she had plenty of candy. She got to have one piece tonight and then it was off to bed to dream of more candy.

The Costume

"Mingos," as CiBaby likes to call, them are her most favorite animal, so it was appropriate that she goes as one this Halloween. As costumes go, a flamingo isn't one that is easy to find for a reasonable amount of money, so Crafty CzaMama got her thinking cap on (and consulted with her very crafty friend, Hippy Goodwife) came up with a plan on how to go about attacking this one.

First, I found a pink fleece jacket at Old Navy, then off to JoAnn's for matching fleece. Each "feather" was cut and individually sewn onto the jacket.

Recently, CiBaby received a Miss Mingo "Build-a-Bear" from Grams. Using that beak as a rough pattern I drew out a pattern on one of those annoying pieces of campaign junk mail and cut the pieces from fleece as well.

Before sewing and stuffing the beak, I added cording to the bill to make the "opening." The whites-of-their-eyes are done with white fleece and the pupils are large black buttons (that idea came from my friend M, thanks dear!)

To top off the outfit, I used a little fabric paint I had in my stash of crafts and made a coordinating bag for her loot.

I also made a pair of fleece pants, but the weather was so warm they weren't needed. She wore some pink velour pants instead.

There were some loooooong nights of stitching and cutting, but in the end it was well worth it. She was the cutest Mingo ever! And she loved it too.

Baby Baby

One of my sisters is having a baby soon! In honor of the occasion G-Mama and I threw her a baby shower on Saturday. It turned out so nicely. The food was awesome, thanks to G-Mama, and it seemed like everyone had a good time.

I broke down and put together some games. I'm not a game player, but they ended up being fun and some of it was for KT to keep as a memento as well. We did the match the Celebrity babies and their parents game. Just Ask Mama where you write a question that a new mother would have on the front of one card, trade cards and write the answer to the question...some of the combos were quite wacky. The other we did was I Predict, kind of like a Mad-Libs. (If anyone wants any of these let me know and I'll get them to you)

I was scrambling until the last minute, like usual. First I printed up the invitations and advice cards, then then games. Then of course I needed to make something (see #1 on the previous post) to go along with my other gifts. I made a memory box which then held part of the gift (onesies with really cute iron-ons!). The project turned out really cute, but I'm surprised I have any hair left on my head! Things kept going wrong with the box and the onesies and I had to keep fixing them. I almost threw in the towel at one point.


It was looking great, all I needed was ribbon to wrap it up and the gifts for the guests. Because our basement is in the middle of being dry-walled everything has been shoved into the garage, including a large box of ribbon. After about 30 minutes of trying to locate the box I gave up and ran back to the scrap booking store for some cute ribbon.

I grabbed my box so I could find some matching ribbon and off I went. This is the same store I got the paper to go on the outside of the box. Thank goodness they stay open until 1AM on Friday night/Saturday mornings! I started talking to the owner once again, she loved the box and had "just the thing to add to the top!" A cute amber knob! Oh yeah! Did I mention it had to be screwed in, thus I needed to drill in the cover? Did I also mention I had already glued in the little "Memory Box" saying with this really good glue the owner had also recommended? She was right! That 3M Quick-Dry Adhesive is awesome! But a bugger to remove without ruining something. You guessed it, I ripped one of the corners. Hence the reason for the "photo corners" I fashioned out of some of the paper I used around the rim.

I'm so happy she really liked it, it almost brought me to tears.

2 Nights in a Row!

Holy smokes! CiBaby has slept through the night, in her own room, 2 nights in a row. That makes 3 times in 1 week, and all in her room. That beats the 4 months before that when there was only 2 nights where she slept through...I think we're making progress!

Did I mention she's in her own room?! Yep. A little over a week ago I just couldn't take it anymore. She was in bed with us all the time and basically on top of me. Did I also mention that she's a little furnace??? Ugh. For awhile I was thinking that I was going into menopause with the night sweats I was having. With that I put up her blackout shades, moved in the sleep sound machine and night light and voila, she was in her room! She did quite well that night and it's been getting better each night. Of course there have been a few tears, some screaming, temper tantrum throwing and one bloody nose (I have no idea)...but it's progress right?

3/11/07 Pictures of the CiBaby abode!

I still have a shelf and pictures to add above her bed.




This awesome picture was a gift from a dear friend. Not only does it go with CiBaby's room PERFECTLY it also looks so much like her AND the kicker of it is CiBaby became a U.S. citizen in Hawaii!

There are a few things that still need to be done. The couch/daybed is still coming and I need to get crackin' on the curtains before the sun comes up really early.