How to make a campfire

You won't see this technique on any of those "how to survive" reality shows! LOL But like on those shows, a few design and material changes and now we have fire! I imagine my relief to be much like that of early man when he learned to control fire.

First some background on why I did this project.

Every so often we do a family "camp out" in the living room. Why the living room? Well because my idea of roughing it is a Marriott that I can't connect to wi-fi in the room.

My daughter (age 3) has a really cute little play tent that we set up, she and the hubby sleep in it on an air mattress. My son (under 1 year) sleeps in the PnP and I get the couch.

Hubby wanted a fire for the inaugural camp out several months ago. So I threw this together using toilet paper rolls, construction paper, tape and flickering battery powered tea lights. Hubby cut the flames out of construction paper. However Baby Girl likes to play with the tea lights and I can never find them.

I found this campfire on Pinterest. Followed it to a store on Etsy. Love it! Super cute and perfect for us.... and then I saw THE PRICE. It was $85 plus $15 for shipping. Now I get that folks need to make a living and that hand crafted stuff costs lots of time and money. But this seemed insane to me to charge this amount. Although great attention to detail and from all the reviews it was worth the money.

So I set out on a mission to make a campfire, similar to this and one that my family can enjoy just as well as if I spent $100. My goal was to spend under $25.

Materials: 2 packs of fabric dye- $6

3 fat quarters(used in quilting)- $6
Bias tape-$2

Felt squares-$1.50

Fabric remnants from previous projects

left over bean bag toy filler

Grand total= $15.50

I actually messed up some on how I prepped the material for the stones, so I had to start those all over. And at that point I decided not to base their shape on the football & tennis ball. I cut them into squares and then just stitched them together. I used some bean bag pellets to give them some weight and so maybe we could shape them some.




I used a tennis ball container to form my logs. I stitched the material together on the sewing machine. Using the top of the container I cut the log ends and using the brown pen I drew the age rings on the beige material.

Hubby found some cute flames on google, printed them out as a template and I placed it on the felt to cut out the shape. I made the base so that the flames will stand up. I used some left over felt and bean bag pellets to give it weight. and then by this time I am so sick of this project I used the hot glue gun to glue the flames together and then glued them to the base.

Completed campfire! Can't wait for Baby Girl to see it at our camp out this weekend!!!!

Travel/snuggle pillows

Some ideas are so simple you wonder why you never came up with it. This was one of those projects.

We are moving to Wisconsin in a few short weeks. Its an 18 hour straight drive from Southwest Georgia to the middle of Wisconsin farmland. Lucky us... 3 days of travel on unfamiliar roads, in states that we only know by name, at the beginning of winter. Did I mention that we have a almost 4 year old and a not quite 1 year old?

I discovered this project on Pinterest (where it seems all good ideas live) and followed it to this blog: http://www.superjenn.com/countdown-to-disney-seatbelt-pillows-for-the-trek/.

I pretty much followed her directions. Except for a few changes. I did not add the straps to secure it to the seat belt because I also want to use these as just snuggle pillows. And I used flannel fabric instead of fleece for the pillow cases. I used the flannel for several reasons: 1. it was on sale so it was cheaper 2. its lighter weight so easier to work with 3. I liked the patterns they had better than the fleece 4. being a lighter weight fabric I felt like it would be more comfortable

So in short here is what I did and how.

Queen size pillow case. I cut it into roughly 3 even sections. They are roughly 6 inches wide and the length of the pillow case.
Stitch up the sides using a sewing machine (it doesn't have to be perfect no one will see this part).

I had an old pillow that I was going to throw out because it was all squished flat. But I decided to use the poly-fill from it on the kids pillows. I made their pillows kind of soft and flexible so they could handle them better.

My pillow (not seen) is a bit different. I took one of those spandex pillows with the little itty bitty beads that was worn out. Cut it open and SLOWLY poured the little beads through a funnel into the pillow case. Yeah, I don't recommend this because those little beads make a huge mess. But it makes a great snuggle pillow. Just to much of a mess to take pictures. Hubby's pillow is a work in process, I had to wait for him to make up his mind on if he wanted beads or soft stuffing. And don't forget to sew up the stop of the liner when done!

To do the pillow cases I just went about two inches wider and longer. Did a cuff on one end and then just a basic quick stitch on the sides and bottom. Used almost a yard of fabric for each as I made a back up pillow case for each of the kids. My pillow case is a bit different. Couldn't find anything in flannel so I used a remnant I had bought of just a cotton material with the wild butterflies.

Now we have pillows to use when traveling in the car AND just to snuggle with, my daughter's also doubles as a support to keep her from falling out of bed or off the couch during naps.

No Sew Stump

So when we found out that our second child was going to be a boy we had the fun of

designing the nursery. Hubby is an avid hunter and fisher so we decided to do a camo theme. Well I changed my mind when I saw the price of the 3 piece camo set versus a 7 piece woodland theme bedding set. So now the theme is Woodland and Woodland critters (deer, fox, bear, raccoon, you get the idea). So what does every forest have? Stumps of course.

Surfing on Pinterest I found a really cute stump, followed it to this blog http://createdblissfully.blogspot.com/2010/09/first-off-i-would-like-to-say-i-have-no.html. She gives good instructions but not a lot of progress pictures. So with this as inspiration I can began the search of the supplies I needed.

I bought a foot stool for about $20 at Walmart along with felt, ivy leaves and ribbon. Everything else came from Hobby Lobby or JoAnn's. I ended up changing my mind as I got started so not all the supplies I have shown below ended up being used. I decided not to add more liner to the inside of the stool as it was already lined. I decided not to do mushrooms in the side and the blog above shows an owl painted on. I can barely paint my nails much less an owl so that was out.

(supplies: colored felt/leaves for decorations. Foot stool this one came with a lid so that things can be stored inside it, you don't have to get that kind its just what the store had. Patterned or plain cotton fabric for a liner, if desired, the one I almost used has little forest critters on it, but I changed my mind and didn't use it. Dark brown and khaki flannel fabric)

So the original I saw the lady used wool roving, I have no clue what that is and got funny looks asking for it. The flannel was my next choice, its light weight and easier to deal with than fleece, in my opinion. My foot stool is 12" tall so I cut the flannel at about 18". I needed to be able to do 2 seperate sized strips and have room to attach them. My long strips were about 4.5" inches wide by about 15.5" long. The short strips where 4.5" long and 2.5" wide. The almost circle shape you see goes into the center of the top and its 2.75" in diameter.

(cut strips. It took 15 strips of each to circle the foot stool)

Since I don't really have space or time to sew on a project of this magnitude I decided to use an iron on adhesive tape (any kind should do this is just the cheapest one they had in the width I wanted). I followed the directions on attaching the fabric according to the directions on the Heat & Bond package. (Side note: the pictures of the lid for this thing dissappeared from my camera, however I use small strips all around the top and into the middle so that the khaki fabric is fully attached on more than just the sides.) I did my best to have all the pieces overlap so that it would have a rough, semi rustic appearance. The ends of the fabric are unfinished as well so that they can get a little fray to them.

When I got to the part of attaching the smaller strips to each other I had to line them up with the longer strips so that they all had the same over lap and would "blend" when the lid was put on.

So here is a decent picture of the lid. Because its padded I did have to hold the iron down considerably longer than directed to attach the khaki and center of the top. I had planned on using brown ribbon or some thread tied like a friendship bracelet to make the rings, but got frustrated. Instead using a pin to hold the ribbon I tied a brown sharpie marker to the ribbon and made progressively larger circles

so after getting the stool wrapped in the fabric strips and the lid on I changed my mind on doing mushrooms. By this point my back hurt, I was sweaty, it was 3am and I was starting to cuss like a.... well like the Army wife I am. So while I took a short break (and some medicine for my back) the hubby cut me some grass out of green felt. It wasn't the picture I had in my head of how I wanted it, but since I didn't get much direction other than "please cut me some grass, it doesn't have to be pretty or perfect" he did and I was actually happier than if he had followed the picture I had in my head. So little more heat and bond and the grass was attached.

After attaching the grass I felt like it still needed "something". Enter the silk ivy leaves. Down here in the South we have a member of the ivy family called kudzu. And it takes over everything. While these aren't kudzu leaves I knew I needed to add them just for effect. Ended up using the hot glue gun as I was sick and tired of the iron.

And finally all ends were secured using hot glue and pressing down flat. Here is the finished product. I hope my son will enjoy it for years to come.

DIY No Sew Steering Wheel Cover

So cruising around on Pinterest I came across this DIY steering wheel cover (check out www.abernathycrafts.com/2012/04/diy-steering-wheel-cover.html?m=1 its a fantastic tutorial). However I don't really have a lot of time or space to drag out the sewing machine. I should also pause and mention that my sewing skills are still minimal and this project far exceeded them. So how to protect my hands from hot leather in this Georgia heat (as well as the soon to be severe cold of Wisconsin)?


Enter the ratty steering wheel cover I used in my previous car. How hard could it be to make this over I asked myself? So using the above tutorial I picked out my material, did some "measuring" with the wheel cover I had. And by measuring I mean I laid the material over the ratty wheel cover and marked off where I needed to cut using a piece of chalk.


(supplies that I used)

Then I took my pieces of material and applied some iron on adhesive tape (in the picture I have Heat & Bond Ultra Hold just because it was what I had, you can use any of these type products) to one end of each strip of fabric, except on one of the 3 strips I applied it to both ends so that I would be able to complete the circle. Then I applied the iron to the fabric and adhesive tape following the directions on the tape package.

(my 3 year old modeling the completed circle)














From this point I was able to slide the fabric over the original steering wheel cover and tucking the edges into the inside portion of the steering wheel cover I applied hot glue in small sections (no more than 1 or 2 inches at a time) then would push down on the fabric so that it would lay flat and I repeated this action all the way around. Yes my fingers got burned a couple times but I have gotten burned worse pulling a pan of biscuits from the oven.


(completed cover)

















And then finally it was time to put it on the steering wheel in my car. However the previous car that I had the original wheel cover for had a much smaller steering wheel. It actually took my hubby and a flat head screwdriver to pry this onto my steering wheel.


















So far it has kept my hands cool during the heat. Now to wait for the move to Wisconsin to see how well it keeps my hands from freezing.

Opening Day

Sorry no sports listed in this entry (although we are partial to SEC football).

I've started a couple blogs and not finished, mainly because as time has gone the blog itself just didn't seem to fit our growing family.  Finally I think I have a title that works and a concept, so first hurdle down.  But there has also been the thing of we are incredibly private people and a blog felt like a diary and after having had someone violate my privacy by reading my diary I've had issues with blogging.  And finally with 2 kids under age 4 I have been to busy to tak the time to blog.

We will shortly be moving several hours away so I decided I needed a way to tell stories about us that everyone can read and not feel left out.  I've also gotten hooked on Pinterest and will be adding some craft projects on here and who knows what else I will come up with when the mood strikes!

In the mean time I hope you enjoy our little Webb as we weave, I know we will!