Leap Frog Giveaway at My Organized Chaos

My Organized Chaos has another great giveaway for a Leap Frog Tag.

My reading-loving daughter will love this! I already bought her one for Christmas (ssshh). I suppose if I win we can take it back (but probably my son who wants to do everything his big sister does will be happy to have one too, even if he is a year and a half younger than the recommended age). Go over there and check it out because probably your pre-schooler or 4-8 year old would love this, too.

12 Layer Mocha Cake

I'm a little late posting today because I was very busy preparing for my wonderful husband's birthday party. When your birthday falls on a weekday, it can be an extra bonus because then you can be celebrated on 2 days! Yay!

I had been busy for the past 2 days preparing this cake.

It is the 12 Layer Mocha Cake that I found on Epicurious. It was delicious. It was unbelievably rich. We served 15 people this cake and are only 1/2 way through it. My co-workers may get some after all! I found the buttercream layers to be a bit too rich. I would have preferred a mousse layer in there instead of a couple of the buttercream layers. The hazelnut meringue was so tasty with a bit of crunch that was fun.

Here are some of my prep pictures, just because I like foodie shots...

The cake layers

 Chocolate for the souffle layers

Melting chocolate for the souffle layers

Egg yolks for the souffle layers

Melted chocolate (mmmm... chocolate)

 The souffle layers

Hazelnut meringue layers

More chocolate melting for the mocha buttercream

Layers ready for assembly

Assembled, ready to chill

Edges cleaned  up

Delicious clean up

Paper Portraits

I am a huge fan of Dude Craft. He finds the greatest stuff. And he shows us all that men can craft. Cool stuff, though.

He has a tutorial to make these stunning paper portraits, which I totally want to try out.

Yarn Christmas Trees

Back to the world of things I might actually make. I love these yarn trees! Pretty Ditty has a great tutorial on how you can make them yourself.

I subscribe to the Pretty Ditty blog, but I also saw these on Whip Up. I think I even have some leftover yarn that would be perfect for this project.

Oh, and on another note, will you take my poll for me? It's over there on the right. I'm wondering if you have a preference with how links open. Personally, I like them to open in a new window, but I have heard that people get confused when they get multiple windows opening.

Pants from shirt arms

Now, I'm certainly not the first person to do something like this. But I had not seen them just like this. I made it up as I went along, from other pant making tutorials. Pretty easy. luvinthemommyhood has a good tutorial.

Here is how mine turn out. Z basically just wears them for bed and wearing around the house.

I had to leave the shoulder seams on the arms of the shirt and cut into the body of the shirt a bit to get the width I needed. I think they turned out pretty neat, even if they are just around the house kind of pants.

Pac Man Ring Set

Check out this sweet Pac Man Ring set by Rachel Pfeffer. I would probably never wear it, but I would love it if you would! How come I can't be funky? I want to be funky.

  Found via CRAFT.

Well I did Sew Something

As I mentioned earlier, I was joining in with Creative Little Daisy for a challenge to Sew Something in November. Well, I did not sew the pants I was hoping to sew this month :( It looks like I will not hit that resolution after all. I did manage to have a lovely, successful shopping day with my girlfriend when I went out to the lower mainland this month, so I am not in need of pants as I was before.

Even though I did not sew the pants, I did sew something. I sewed a couple things for my friend, E. She needed a duvet cover made smaller to fit a quilt she had. Also, yesterday we worked on her family advent calendars together. I sewed those too. I did some hand sewing as well, finishing up the sneak peek project that may or may not have been for a certain spouse's birthday, which is today. (Happy Birthday, my love. We'll do it up right on Saturday.)

Here is how it turned out.

I'm actually pretty pleased with how it turned out. I was quite concerned as I was knitting it up, that I was knitting too tight and it wouldn't fit properly. How annoying would that be? Blocking was exactly the right thing to do. Its recipient is also pleased with the result and he claims not to have guessed ahead of time.

 

 The pattern came from the Canadian Living website. It was a little challenging for me to knit. No new skills; it just required my attention as I knit. A lot of things I like and end up doing are fairly simple to knit. How much more complicated does knitting get? Follow a pattern... it's pretty straightforward.

Argyle Applique

This probably tops my list of cute things that I really like, but will probably never actually make.

Though, you never know. It could happen. Maybe you could make one though. And then you'd have a nice Christmas gift for me... or someone else, I suppose.

It's very similar to this idea which the crafty internets were all over in August:

While I also think this is incredibly cute, it is probably less likely that I would make this because I don't know where I would put it. Maybe in Z's room. Maybe I would give it as a gift. I guess it might make a nice housewarming gift, hmm?

Advent Ideas

As a child, I remember having those chocolate calendars that now you can buy for super cheap and are filled with gross, waxy, cheap chocolate (gee, can you tell how I feel about those now?) At least I remember a year or two of those. I remember better, though, my mom making an advent calendar for our family (and then for the families of all her siblings) and filling them with treats and activity sheets for the whole month. We have an advent calendar that I made for Z a couple years ago at a church event, which has little pockets that I can fill with small treats. I can't really fill it with treats, though, since our little sweetheart has a sweet tooth and has, on more than one occasion, helped herself to the days ahead.

I found a few ideas that could solve our little problem of not being able to wait for the day to come to have another yummy treat.

 This lovely little idea has me intrigued, little reusable links at Stitch-Craft. Found via Ohdeedoh. I love the idea of creating traditions by doing activities together as well as having our children look forward to a family activity instead of just a piece of chocolate. I'm just trying to figure out how we make it work as part of our routine and don't end up forgetting. Roxanne at Craft Addictions has a great starter list of advent activities that you can include in your calendar.

Also, Amber at giverslog.com has a great post full of advent ideas. I love her family tradition of hanging an advent wreath, chandelier-style over their table.

Nope, nothing happening over here

Actually, quite to the contrary. I know it doesn't look like I've been all that busy lately, what with all the posts of old things that I've done and give aways, but the crafts that I've been working on are gifts. Gifts for people (or the children of people) who may or may not read this blog. What's a girl to do?

Link to other people's wonderful crafty ideas with their how-tos. That's what!

Whip Up posted this really great link to this german star tutorial. I love stars and snowflakes at Christmas, even though they're not that overtly Christian. The star is, though. Warning: there is music playing on the tutorial website.