Exciting News...

First, let me apologize for my absence. It has been way too long since I have posted. Lately, I just haven't even been on my computer which means I haven't even been visiting all of your lovely blogs either. Ok, so here's why: I'm EXPECTING!!! The news came as a complete shock to my husband and I. In fact, we've know for about 3 weeks now but haven't said anything to anyone until today. It goes without saying this was not our plan to have another child, but it must be God's plan :) We told our family the good news today at Thanksgiving. We got Nolan (now 18 months) a shirt that says "Big Bro" and he wore it as we visited our families today. I loved seeing everyone's reaction as they figured it out. So, now the cat is out of the bag and I can stop saying "oh I must be coming down with something," or "I must have eaten too much." Yes, I have been using those excuses. And yes, I have been feeling very nauseous and extremely tired. It doesn't help that Nolan is not a good sleeper and is in a "not sleeping through the whole night" phase :(. Now can you see why I haven't been crafting or blogging? I have some big plans with Christmas coming up so stay tuned... Thanks for stopping by At Home with Sweet T -Tracy

Sports Ribbon Display-Option 2

Do you remember the free crib I got from Craigslist? Do you remember the 1st project from it? The Sports Ribbon Display I made for my daughter from the free crib? Well, today's project is the same but different. Using the same free crib I have made a sports ribbon display for my son.

My son, Jackson is our track star and has a ton of ribbons from his 2 years of middle school track. He did like his sister's ribbon display, just not for himself, "it's too girly." So, instead of using the side of the crib I used the bottom-springy part that holds the mattress. I can't find my before pictures so just imagine the above photo in black. It would have been fine to hang it without painting it but he wanted to use a school color, so it got several coats of royal blue spray paint. My advice to anyone wanting to paint one is to spray a couple coats, let dry, then move it. Turn it upside down or something to get the springs to wiggle just a little or you could end up with unpainted lines under where the springs attach to the frame.

My husband hung the whole unit on the wall using 4 "L" brackets. I think you could hang it with 2 brackets at the top and let the bottom rest on the wall if you wanted. I like how the whole thing stands out from the wall. My son is 15 and in high school, if he hurts himself on the screws or any part of it then I might have to take the display away from him. (kidding) Seriously, if you do make this for a younger child it would probably be a good idea to put caps on the screws and have a no climbing rule.

None of the ribbons he earned came with a string to hang them with so we punched small holes in them and added some string. While I added the string Jackson put all the ribbons on his display. It was his idea to line them up, I think I would have just randomly put them here and there. He's already asked me to paint some frames to put certificates in around the frame-that's my boy! 

Now 2 of my kids have reminders in their rooms that hard work pays off and that Mommy is very proud of them. 

Thanks for stopping by At Home with Sweet T!

-Tracy

Linking up to these fabulous parties:

Zipper Bracelet

What's a blogger to do when her husband finally gives up a badly tattered pair of shorts??? Salvage every last thing she can from them. Am I right? I could not believe how long it took for him to give up on these shorts, in places they were bare threads. Wish I would have thought to take a picture of the shorts before they were tossed. The left over fabric was so thin, it couldn't be used for anything. I kept all of the buttons (cargo pants have lots of buttons) and the zipper. As soon as I cut the zipper off I knew I wanted to make a bracelet from it. So here's what I did:

I cut as close to the teeth as possible to remove the zipper. I wanted the bracelet to mainly be the teeth and the pull. I loved this bronze-y color to the zipper.

Insert a jump ring at the end of the zipper between the last of the teeth and the stop. I used a pair of pliers to open the jump ring (I don't have jewelry tools yet) and it worked fine.

This mess is supposed to show you that I sewed another jump ring onto the other end of the zipper. It was sort of like sewing on a button.

From here I added a clasp to one of the jump rings. You could use the hole in the zipper pull instead of one of the jump rings but then you would have to wear the zipper open or closed depending on where you put it. I wanted to have an option.

Which way would you wear it? Zipped?...

Or unzipped?...

I ended up wearing it zipped for the evening.

Thanks for stopping by At Home with Sweet T!!!

-Tracy

Linking up to these fabulous parties:

Autumn Crunch

I would like to share a great sweet and salty snack with you. This recipe idea is everywhere and goes by a lot of names so for this post I will call it Autumn Crunch. You may have heard it called "White Trash." See why I changed the name today? Honestly though, white trash isn't far from the truth = mix white chocolate with whatever you have on hand. Oops, I just gave the recipe away-there is no real recipe.

I made this stuff twice this last week. The first time was just to have something to munch on. Two days later I didn't think there was enough in the jar to take to a family get together so I made a second batch. Ok, two batches are too much!!! I did make the second batch with 1 ingredient switch from the first batch.
Here's how I made the 1st batch of Autumn Crunch.
1- 16 oz. white chocolate/almond bark
1-12.6 oz M & M's
2 cups pretzels
1 cup Cheerios
3 cups Crispix cereal
2 cups nuts
In a large bowl mix all of the dry ingredients together. Melt white chocolate in the microwave. I nuke for 30 seconds, stir and repeat until completely melted. Pour over cereal mix slowly as you fold it into the dry ingredients. Stirring can crush the cereal. Pour onto wax paper or a Silpat and wait to dry/set. Break up into pieces and store in an airtight container.
For the second batch: I substituted the almond bark for 2 bags of Ghirardelli's white chocolate chips. And because the chips come in 11 oz. bags I added a little bit more cereal.

I prefer the mix with the almond bark but that's just my taste. I took the Ghirardelli's mix to a family get together and everyone loved it. This could be made with different types of cereal and candy.  Seriously, I need to start giving away all these treats I make-I have a belly ache tonight as I type this post because I can't keep my hand out of the jar. :( When will i learn?!?!
Do you make this snack? What do you call it?
Thanks for stopping by At Home with Sweet T!
-Tracy
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Baby Shark- dut do, dut dut

Do you know that song, Baby shark dut do, dut dut....??? It's a cute song and even cuter now that Nolan is attempting to sing it with me. Maybe by Halloween we'll have it down.
Lissy wanted to be a shark attack victim for Halloween this year, she settled on a "Soul Surfer" version. I found a really cute Goofy custom at a consignment shop for Nolan, only the head is too high and heavy for him and he HATES it. I wasn't going to buy another costume for him. While thinking of what he could be I decided a shark to go with his sister's costume would be perfect. So here's how I made a shark costume:

1. Start with a gray hoodie sweatsuit. How easy is that? I found this one at Walmart of course.
2. Using sticky back white felt fold along the longer length about an inch long. Don't remove the backing yet. Score the backing along the edge. Now remove the backing of the folded section and squish together. Doubling the felt makes the teeth stiffer and stick off the hoodie better.
3. Cut triangle shapes to make teeth.
4. Now remove the final backing and stick to the inside of the hoodie so that the teeth are lined up along the edge. I was able to cut 2 pieces to fit around the entire hoodie, probably depends on the size of the sweatsuit.

5. Cut 2 strips of 1 inch wide red felt. Using fabric tack apply the red strips to the inside of the hoodie over the white felt but not covering the teeth.
6. Find something circular and trace onto black felt then cut out to make eyes. I used an apple corer, but I think a Quarter would work well too. I was going for a beady eye for this shark.
7. Using fabric tack again to adhere the eyes.

8. Fold a piece of gray felt in half then draw a dorsal fin onto the felt. I tried to add a slight curve to one side of the fin and a rounded top. Cut out fin.
9. Using fabric tack glue around fin    Sew around the fin pieces leaving the bottom open. Fabric tack didn't seem secure enough for me. Turn the fin right-side out and stuff with fiber-fill.
10. Sit stuffed fin on remaining gray felt and trace around it- mine looked like an elongated tear drop shape. Cut that shape out then using a needle and thread make a blanket stitch around to close up the fin. Finally, add velcro tape to the back of the sweatshirt and the fin.

It really was very easy to make. I wanted his costume to travel and didn't think a fin on the back would feel good squished into a car seat, that's why I made it removable with the velcro. I think after Halloween I could probably remove the teeth and velcro and he could wear the sweatsuit still-Bonus!
Do you think my baby shark is gonna get lots of candy this year?

Did you know shark can run?

One last one-because he is so stinkin' cute!!!

Now to make a Soul Surfer costume fit for my Lissy. How do you make a beach like outfit appropriate for a cool (probably cold) Indiana Halloween?
Did you make a costume last year? I'd love to see what you've made. You are welcome to email it to me or share it on my Facebook page.

Thanks for visiting At Home with Sweet T!
-Tracy

Linking up to these fabulous parties:

Social media-here I come

First of all, I want to say a very big THANK YOU to all of you for Visiting At Home with Sweet T. My stats for September (my 1st month of continually blogging) were so way more than I could have ever dreamed. I really mean it from the bottom of my heart- Thank you!
I am proud to say that September was a huge success here. I stuck to it and posted 2-3 times a week. There is so much I have learned from some really fantastic bloggers. I know there's a ton more to learn, I'm trying not to let it all overwhelm me.
I honestly thought my page views wouldn't hit 1000 until later this year, but you all showed me. I hit that mark in just a few weeks. Wow!!! One thing I wanted to learn more about was social media and how it can help me grow my blog. I got overwhelmed with the subject so I put it on the back burner and made an agreement with myself that I wouldn't need social media right away so I could hold off until I reached that 1000. Panic attack when that magic number happened so fast. I quickly decided to hold off until 1500 to give myself some research time. That new magic number happened last week. You guys are so awesome!!! Another reason I was holding off was because I wanted to give the blog a makeover before I went social media wide with it. My sister is a graphic artist and I know she could help me but she is an overworked momma and I couldn't help feeling like I was wasting her time. I wish I could pay her or another awesome designer familiar with blog design but it's just not in the budget right now.
Well I took the plunge, used the blogger templates an created a design I could live with for now and a starting point to create a Facebook page. Yep, I did it, I now have a Facebook page. I've had those cute social media buttons(that I got here,) in the side bar for awhile now but not sure that anyone has used them so please follow me. If you do follow me please let me know you're a new follower and how I can find and follow you. I would love for you to share your projects on facebook-I wanna know what you're working on too :)
THANK YOU ALL SO VERY MUCH!!!
-Tracy

Fall Hutch

We don't have a fireplace or mantle (boo!) so I decorated our hutch for Fall.

Can I just say how difficult it is to decorate with a toddler in the house! If he gets up on his tippy toes and reaches he can get his cute little hands on a lot of no-no's. 

I really wanted to just stuff the middle shelf with as many of those Sweater Pumpkins as I could but it was way to crowded. They are just so darn cute though. What do you think, too many?

The plate, tray, and candle stick from the top are from a long time ago when I was a consultant for Southern Living At Home (called something else now.)  I thought the colors on them were perfect for fall and they matched the sweater pumpkins so well. The 3 little ceramic pumpkins down front were a great find at the Dollar Tree!

 I made the "Fall" banner at my Craft Party from the tops of brown paper sacks and paper doilies. I'm happy with the final look for now. I have more project ideas in mind just not so much time to do it all.

Thanks for stopping by At Home with Sweet T.

-Tracy

Linking up to these fabulous parties:

Scareman

Every Halloween we make a Scareman to guard our home during Halloween. At least, that's what I believe he's doing sitting out there for the whole month. Scareman has made some changes and improvements over the years.
Here's what you'll need to make a Scareman:
newspaper or any paper from the recycle bin (we used old phone books this year)
Clothing-pants, shirt, shoes
Plug-in pumpkin
twine or rubber bands
1. Tie or put rubber bands around the ends of both pant legs and shirt sleeves.
2. Crumple and stuff, crumple and stuff, and crumple and stuff some more. You want to be able to bend your Scareman at the knees, bottom, and shoulders.
3. Assemble your Scareman.

This year in order to get him to sit on the chair I had to duct tape the back of the pants to the chair. For us it works to just set the stuffed shirt on top of the open stuffed pants. To help keep the pumpkin head in  place, run the cord down the back of the shirt. For a few years this was our Scareman, not really scary but I think Jackson thought he would scare someone. We've had different pumpkin faces, different clothes. At some point we went scary-er by adding a werewolf costume.

Yes, Scaremen wear Nike tennis shoes. They do if that's all you can find that you want to leave to sit outside all month.
We probably should have stopped at just the pumpkin head this year. Nolan is terrified of our Scareman. (This was the only picture taken and I quickly took him away, I'm not a mean mommy)

I jokingly said something about sitting on the Scareman's lap and tell him what your favorite kind of candy is. Hey! We might be on to something-works for Santa. I hope Nolan learns to like the Scareman tradition because the older kids aren't that into it anymore.  Scareman is the beginning of Halloween decorating here.
Thanks for stopping by At Home with Sweet T
-Tracy

Make some Ghostie Cookies!

I have been making these Ghostie Cookies for a long time now and couldn't wait until October to make them. I make myself wait until October before I decorate or do anything for Halloween.

When my oldest saw the Nutter Butter he knew exactly what was coming. 

These are so easy and oh so Yummy! 

You only need 3 ingredients:

Nutter Butters

White Chocolate/Almond Bark

and Chocolate Chip regular or mini's

I'm sure you really don't need directions but here they are anyway.

1. Melt white chocolate

2. Dip Nutter Butter into the melted white chocolate

3. Add 2 chocolate chips for eyes

4. Allow to dry

5. ENJOY!!!

My daughter helped tonight and put all the eyes on. We tried them with the pointy end up and down. My daughter like them with the pointy end up, I liked them with the pointy end down. Which way would you add eyes?

Thanks for stopping by At Home with Sweet T!

-Tracy

Linking up here:

Sweater Pumpkins/Gourds

Can you believe October is here? Whew, where has the year gone? I'm not really complaining because I love fall and Halloween so much that I'm excited to welcome October.
Several years ago, I worked as a teacher's assistant for Mrs. Brandt's functional skills classroom. I loved and hated that job every day. The teacher was extremely creative and we did lots of neat things with the students. One thing we did was to make pumpkins using fabric, "fluff", toilet paper, mulch, and hot glue. The pumpkins were so cute and I thought she was a genius, I have no idea if she came up with this idea on her own or found it somewhere. Well, as soon as fall weather hit I knew I needed to make some of those for our house. I thought some cheap sweaters from Goodwill would be perfect and would sort of update the craft. Then, wowza all these creative bloggers I follow and linked up with were posting sweater pumpkins. How cool is that to have an idea like someone else?!?! I hadn't even bought sweaters- those creative ladies are on it!

I finally bought some sweaters-all 1/2 price at Goodwill-in orange, yellow, and green and got to work. I started with a short sleeve, orange shirt that had whimsical stitching on it making a pumpkin from the front and a pumpkin from the back. I just used scissors to cut the shirt, seperating the front and back and discarding the sleeves. I placed a roll of toilet paper in the center of the panel then added fiber fill around the toilet paper. Using hot glue tuck the ends of the shirt into the center of the roll working all the way around. Instead of using mulch like Mrs. Brandt I cut short pieces off of branches. Then glue the stick in the middle. For a leaf I used the belt from a green jacket that I never wear. I ended up only doing the toilet paper roll process for those 2 pumpkins. When I started using the sweaters I started with the sleeves. Since it was a tubular (dude!) shape it was easier and they made cute lil pumpkins.

To make the sleeve pumpkins I cut each sleeve into 3 segments. Turn the segment inside out then hot glue into a +, then turn it right side out. Stuff. To glue the opening shut I added glue in 4 equally spaced spots and pinched closed but it still left an opening. Then glued these pinched flaps down all going in the same direction.This made it easier to add glue to the branch and insert it so that the glue pulled the glued spots inward. I know that's not completely clear but I couldn't figure out how to apply glue, pinch and hold the camera at the same time-I only have two hands. :)

The striped gourds are from a scarf that again I don't wear. I'm not a scarf person, sometimes I wish I was because I am jealous of how cute some ladies look in them-on me it's a huge FAIL! Anyway the scarf was knitted and tubular and had fall colors so I thought why not. They aren't my favorite gourds from the patch but I think they fit in with the others. 

Once I got started on making these lil cuties I couldn't stop. I still have an orange and green sweater that I haven't cut yet. Honestly, I'm thinking about saving the orange sweater to wear myself because it's an accent color for the kids' school colors (don't ask, lol)

Now that October is here that means it's time to get the Halloween decorations out too! Woohoo!!!

Thanks so much for stopping by At Home with Sweet T!

-Tracy

I will be linking up to these fabulous parties: