My Handwriting Font

I have thought about making my own font since I first heard of Kevin and Amanda who will make your font for you. I just never got around to doing all the steps to have them make it for me. 

Then today I stumbled on iFont Maker, an iPad app that lets you draw your font and then emails it to you! Yes, it's that easy and that cool!! It's not a free app, but it was something I really wanted to do so I bought it. I don't buy apps very often, but this one was worth it!

If you decide to use this my only tip is to make the lines thicker than you think you should. My first attempt turned out so light you could barely see anything. I redid it with a thicker line and it turned out like you see above.

Several hours of playing later... 

Hand-quilting

The store has started carrying Birch Fabrics, which I am SO excited about!!!

We got in the Scamper line to see if our customers would buy it. Since it's organic it's pretty expensive. But it feels amazing! I think it's selling pretty well.

 I paired a piece of the hexagon print with some cream fleece and then hand-quilted around the hexies with embroidery floss.

After about one week of quilting in the evenings it was finished.

 Just in time for a brand new baby! This is one of the families from our church.

Look at that face! How precious!

Homecoming

Today is homecoming, and Haven's first high school dance!

 The girls came over to get ready at our house since it's in walking distance of the base.

 That was great for me because I got to capture all the silly moments!

 Haven's boyfriend came to pick her up. 

 And brought a corsage. (They don't do the homecoming mums here.)

 AW! Haven and Antonio have known each other since around 1st grade! And his mother was Ethan's caregiver in the daycare! We've known each other a long time!

My group picture turned out blurry. :( But don't they look adorable?!? Oh LOOK! I just noticed that the boy's ties match the girl's dresses! How sweet!

The Hair of a Different Color

This post is for Tina! (Because she always asks about Haven's hair colors!) Haven has now tried just about every hair color that they make! Including the whole rainbow! (If you want to try hair chalking check out this post, which is how Haven does it.) It all began back in 2008 when we let her try red. Since then she realized that coloring her hair was a safe and fun way to express her personality without any permanent consequences! It's pretty funny when people ask "What color is Haven's hair today?" Which one is your favorite?

And now, just because it's funny, enjoy the Horse of a Different Color from the Wizard of Oz!

As Seen on Pinterest - Cooking with Pumpkin

Here in Germany fall is in full swing, and what better way to enjoy the season than cooking with pumpkin?!

If you like spice or carrot cake then you will love pumpkin cupcakes!

 I actually clicked on a link to a pumpkin praline cake, but that led me to the cupcakes which worked better for the event I was taking them to. I made a homemade cream cheese frosting, AND candied pecans to sprinkle on the top! Oh yeah, I even impressed myself with that one!

Last year when we went to Italy I had the most amazing pumpkin ravioli!

 When I found this recipe on Pinterest I was so excited!! I had never made fresh pasta before, and it was pretty fun!

 If you live where I live the commissary actually has the pecorino cheese! You can see the bag above so you know what you are looking for.

The noodles were a little thick in the beginning, but eventually I got the hang of it. The next day I browned the leftovers in butter instead of boiling them and then they were amazing!!!

Welcome fall!

PS. All the pics on this post were taken on my iphone. Please don't let the quality of my pics stop you from trying these amazing recipes!

Rainbow Birthday Party

Haven turned 15 last week. I haven't gotten to throw a big party for Haven in a few years, so I was eager to go all out. Plus it's the first party A.P. (That's After Pinterest, which is how time will now be remembered.) Pretty much everything you are about to see was pinned on my Party board.

Let's party!

The kids got a prize if they came with strange hair colors. Several did! We also had rainbow belts, shirts, and socks!

 Decorations:

 The tissue paper pom poms on the ceiling look awesome! I want to leave them up for a while.

We got the rainbow twizzlers and put them all in jars, and then colored the water in the glasses with the flowers. The sodas were also part of the decorations since they came in so many colors!

The Food:

 Rainbow cupcakes!! These were so cool! I ordered the rainbow airheads and rainbow twizzlers from this online vendor. I used a buttercream frosting and they tasted great!

 Fruit kebobs were a big hit. The girls actually made all of these while I cut up the fruit. They all stood around and talked about how they all wanted their next parties to be rainbow parties!

Activities

 We had two main activities, melted crayon art and a pinata. The kids also played one of the dance games on Wii and played on the playground near our house.

The crayon art was a lot of fun! By the way, Aleen's Tacky Glue, Rubber Cement, and glass and ceramic glue all work for holding the crayons to the canvas! Just in case you needed to know that....

 Even the boys really got into it!

 We took the pinata down to the playground to bash, which turned out to be quite a spectacle.

 I guess this must be something the Germans don't really do because EVERYONE stopped to stare, including parents and random passersby. The teens shared the candy contents with the kids that all stood around watching the action.

The Cake

I tried marshmallow fondant, which turned out ok. It wasn't as smooth as I would have liked, but the kids all liked how it tasted. The buttercream wasn't white enough and I really wanted to be able to draw on the cake.

 Everyone added their mark to the cake.

 I love the hyphenation!

Today I had a house full of kids who feel like they need to color their hair, wear obscure clothing and listen to odd music to get attention. They get teased, looked down on and generally deal with feelings of insecurity and low self-worth. Today I had one kid say his parents don't let him be himself (which is gay), two say their parents were ready to ship them off to the states to live with relatives, and one ask to move in with us. Two of the boys gave me hugs when they left and all the kids called me Mom.

Before I cut into the cake I took the opportunity to tell them all that what's truly important in life is not what people can see on the outside, but it's what's on the inside that counts. I really want these kids to know that God loves them right now, just as they are.

As I started to cut they all started to shriek with anticipation to see what was on the inside of the cake! I have NEVER seen kids get so excited to cut into a cake! Seriously, they were screaming and there were some flailing arms! I was laughing so hard I had to put the knife down and compose myself before I could cut into it! The first slice came out and it was near pandemonium!

The rainbow cake!

I'm not the first person to make a rainbow cake, but I guess it was the first one any of them had seen! It really made the effort feel worth it though to see how excited they were!

Happy Birthday Haven!

PS. If anyone is wondering why Haven's hair changes color throughout the day, it's because she got some clip in hair extensions and she dyed part of them black to match her current hair color, and left the rest blond. 

Chicopee

The store is now carrying pre-cuts of the new Denyse Schmidt line Chicopee. The line has a very interesting style. When you look at all the pieces you wonder how they will work together, but when they are all made up they look really cool! I knew for this line to work it needed a sample, so I made this cute little table runner.

The pics are from my iphone, so not the highest quality...

I really like how this turned out! The pattern is called "Roundabout" from a line of patterns called "Schnibbles," which we also carry a few of. This was made using one charm pack, 1/2 yard for the backing, and about 3 1/2 yards of bias binding. It felt good to finish a quilting project! It's been quite a while since I did!

Shrinky Dinks

Ethan and I played with Shrinky Dinks today.

 They start off as a think sheet of plastic and then you bake it in the oven and it shrinks and gets thicker and becomes a hard plastic.

 I started with a tester sheet to see what markers worked best and to gauge the sizing. It shrank about 50%, so if you want something to be finished at 2" you have to draw it 4".

 Ethan designed his own Star Wars lego man and a colorful star.

 I wanted to make some pieces for a ring I got for my anniversary. It is from a designer called Charlotte. The rings are really cool. You can change out the pieces to get different looks, but you only have to buy one ring base.

 This is how the pieces look taken apart. The top part can have pieces added to it, then the pin goes through it and it clicks into the base piece. If that doesn't make sense, follow the link above and check out the website. It's really cool!

 I have a few pieces that came with the ring, and a few more from a copy cat ring system that screws together. But I wanted to see if I could make my own. Turns out I can!

Here are some of my favorites and how they look on the ring.

 With that last set I experimented with fingernail polish. It doesn't work to put the polish on before you bake it, but if you paint it on afterwards it turns out great!

And here's my favorite in use.

I had fun watching then curl and shrink, and watching Ethan watch them!

As Seen on Pinterest - Ombre Nails

So I tried the ombre nails. Yep, I did something trendy. It worked ok. I followed this tutorial, and even used basically the same colors. I'm posting process pics to show how mine turned out, not because I did anything different than the tutorial in the link.

Starting with the base coat. I only did one coat. Maybe two would have been better.

 One tutorial said to use vaseline to keep the polish off your skin. I used some masking tape because it was handy. I tried without anything too, and it just takes longer to clean at the end.

 Here are my two polishes on the sponge. Some tutorials show you dipping into the paint on a plate, but that turned out terrible. Painting it directly on the sponge worked the best.

 I never could get that seamless ombre effect. The polish kept lifting off the fingernail if I messed with it too long.

 After a applying clear coat the bumpy look and texture goes away.

 My second color combo worked better:

 Toes! Yes, ew it's feet. But I kept staring at them for a couple of days because it turned out so cool!

So I guess it's kind of cool, but I need a little more practice. Has anyone else tried it?