Featured Post- The Letter 4 Sisters

A huge thank you to Dats So Cute for letting us take over her blog while she is busy with her new little one! :)

We are The Letter 4 sisters!
We are 4 sisters with a love for...well anything and everything that inspires us. All of us have different tastes and talents. Some things we have in common are: a lack of an "inside voice", an ability to be easily entertained (we laugh at EVERYTHING), and an insane talent of being able to hold an entire conversation using only movie quotes.

It's getting to be that time of year again. Where you want to think of the perfect gift for all your loved ones so I thought I would share with you one of my favorite posts from our blog

The Best Daddy Ever Beans!

The flavors are traits of daddy (strong, brave, unique). So cute right? My sister is a genius.

We give you the printables and tutorial on how to make it!

We also have tons of free printables, recipes, photography ideas, really there is something for EVERYONE in our blog!

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Thank you so much again Bobbi! So happy you let us guest post in order to enjoy your new little one!

--

The Letter 4 Sisters

http://theletter4.blogspot.com/
http://www.etsy.com/shop/theletter4?ref=pr_shop

Featured Blog- Happy Hour Projects and a Craft!

Hi, I'm Adrianne from Happy Hour Projects, and I am so excited to share a little bit about my blog with you mamas!  I am a new blogger, though I've been addicted to reading craft blogs for a while now.  It just took me a very long time to realize, you know, I could do that... :)


At Happy Hour, I create tutorials for quick projects - things you can usually do in an hour or less - and my motto is, use what you have. 


Most of my projects are made from things we all have in our craft rooms, or I suggest substitutions that might work.  In fact - these are a few of my favorite projects.  (Click an image to visit Happy Hour Projects for the post if you'd like to know more!) 
























I also host a link party every Friday and I would love to see you at Freestyle Friday over at Happy Hour to link up! 






But enough about me - you're here for some creative juices, right?  Well I am going to give you the tutorial on a nice quick project of mine that was quite popular and appropriately fall-themed:

The No-Sew Fabric Pumpkin

Time: 20 minutes






Supplies:

• 18" square of pumpkin-appropriate material. I used a rusty orange twill. This makes a smallish pumpkin, it's around 6" in diameter, so scale up as you like.
• 1 lb. beans. Or some stuffing of your choice. I wanted something heavy enough for it not to be toppling over. (Plus I'm out of polyfil... but I had a bag of beans.  And if you recall, we always try to use what we have!)
• Scraps of felt for leaves and coordinating yarn/string/twine.
• Scissors.

Optional but helpful in construction:

• Plastic wrap.
• Rubber bands.
• Hot glue gun.

I don't know if I'm being paranoid, but I want the beans to stay dry and not get gross later. So I wrapped them up in 2 layers of plastic wrap first. If you have another form of stuffing, this step is totally unneccessary. It might be unnecessary anyway, but I figure, better safe than sorry.

Use a rubberband (or if you don't have any on-hand, a piece of yarn would probably work fine too) to gather up a small point in the center of your square. This is the center underside. By creating pleats/ruffles here, your whole pumpkin will have more pleats instead of being smooth on the lower half. But test it out both ways of you want and see which look you prefer.

Put your bag-o-beans in with the rubberband side on the inside and draw the sides up, arranging your pleats as you like.

See? Pleaty.

Close with a rubber band. Once again, not essential, but having the rubbery surface will help things grip better.

Cut off your top to whatever stump-size you like the looks of. This can be a bit difficult with all the layers, but just kind of fan it out, and keep sawing away. :) I closed off with a second rubber band to keep it nice and gathered. I tied a bit of yarn around the bottom so I could begin attaching my felt leaves.

Cut some leaves to the shape you like, leaving a nice long tail so they can be wrapped into your stump for security, and over the top of the stump where yarn-wrapping isn't really practical. I am using brown yarn, so I made the brown leaf tail long and fattish, because I want it to wrap all the way over the top of the stump with fabric to spare. Doing this will ensure I don't have ends poking out at the top later.

Tie them on how you like them so that everything is fairly secure. See how the brown leaf tail will cover over the stump?

I used my hot glue gun to glue the brown felt around the stump. You can probably accomplish the task without hot glue (or any glue, for that matter) and just do a really snug wrap, but securing it now should make wrapping much easier without having to hold those edges down.

Then, I tied a bit of yarn underneath the leaves, and began wrapping the long end around the stump, wrapping upward.

Honestly, I don't know how much yarn I ended up using, since I unraveled it right from the package-thingy (what's yarn called? A spool? I have no idea.) but I would estimate it was a good 6 feet or so? When I got to the top of the stump, I wrapped it back downward, until I got back to the bottom, where I tied the yarn off with that loose end from the beginning. I trimmed the ends.

And that's it! I had myself a finished pumpkin.

The possibilities to make this your own are endless - you could use a different texture like burlap or velour, or a bold, funky print.  I think you'll find when you raid your craft-stash that you have a lot of options!






Thanks for having me, Bobbi, and all the best to you and your family!

~ Adrianne

Apple Pie

With Apple season in full swing, there is nothing better than a homemade apple pie!  Here is the recipe I use, and I even eat it, which is the ONLY apple pie I'll eat.

What you'll need:
7 apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp flour
1 1/2 tbsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 tbsp butter, softened

Pastry for double crust pie   (sometimes I just buy the pre-done crust in the refrigerator section)
2 cups flour
2/3 cup butter
1/2 tsp salt
Cold Water

1- Pastry- Combine flour, butter and alt with pastry blender or fork until balls are the size of a large pea
2  Add cold water by the spoonful and blend until bowl starts to clean itself as you work the dough
3.  Then it is ready for rolling
4.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees
5.  Combine apples with sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg
6.  Line pie plate with crust, trim pastry, crimp.  Fill with apple mixture and dot with softened butter
7.  Brush crust edge with water and place pie top on top, crimp to bottom.  Make slits in top for steam.
8.  Turn oven down to 350 degrees F and bake for 45 mins longer
9.  Enjoy

All tied up- craft

Hello blog followers. Today is Manday, and we have some manly bushcraft items that would make some great stocking stuffers. This will be the first in a series bushcraft items that I will be detailing in my blog. Todays not is very simple; it merely takes some patience and nimble fingers. This knot is a celtic button knot that can be tied as a key fob, or zipper pulls.

 

You will need about a foot and a half of para cord or hemp rope. Start with a Lark's Head Knot. This is done by doubling your length of cord and putting the loop through the ring of your keys; pull the tag ends of your cord through the loop and pull tight.

 

 

Then make two loops with your cord; make sure that you keep your two lenghts of cord flat.

 

 

With your tag ends from the second loop, create a third loop then thread the tag ends through your loops you have just made making sure that you go over then under as illustrated in the following photo.

 

 

Now, take your tag ends, create your fouth loop. The tag ends go over the third loop and under your first loop. This finishes your knot. However your job is only half done.

 

 

From this point you will need to tighten your knot evenly from both ends. Once it tightens up and begins to create your button you can then decide how long you would like your fob to be. This is done by pulling the cords attached to your keys through the entire knot tightening up as you go. DO NOT OVER TIGHTEN YOUR KNOT. Once you have your fob at your desired lenght you can then cut your paracord and burn the frayed ends to seal up your button!

 

 

If you double the length you can make a second button. Once you find the length that is acceptable you can cut the tag end and then you have zipper pulls that makes zipping up a coat with the gloves on way easier.

 

 

Be patient, getting the hang of this takes time. Stick with it and you will have something that you cannot buy off the rack. Keep following to see some other great stuff that you can make and use.

Barry

Silent Saturday- Apple Picking

Spider Web Bowl

Back in April I made a paper mache egg like the one my grandma had made when I was a kid.  If you haven't seen it, check it out here.  I always have warm memories of her crafts.  One day last week, I had the thought of why not making a bowl the same way.  It was pretty simple, and I love the way it turned out.  Here's what I did.

I used a smaller balloon,  liquid starch and a roll of yarn.

Wrapped the balloon with the starch dipped yarn.  I made the bottom fuller than the top.

 Let the balloon dry, then pop the balloon.

 Once it was dried and I cleaned it up, I cut the top off to make it like a bowl. I had Steve spray paint it to make it shiny.

I added a few Osage Oranges, a couple of spiders, and here is my adorable Spider Web Bowl.

I hope you all enjoy and have a great weekend!

♥ BJ

I would like to thank Steve for spray painting it for me, and Barry for going out in the rain to get my Osage Oranges.  I couldn't have finished it without them!

Virgin Buzz Lightyear drink and a Rainbow Sherbet Fizz

Here are two drinks for your little one's birthday party.

Buzz Lightyear
1 banana
1 Passion Fruit
3 fl oz Guava Juice
1 fl oz mango puree
crushed ice
Tall glass

Slice 1/2 banana and add to blender
chop and scrape 1/2 of the passion fruit
Add 3 fl oz guava juice
1 fl oz mango puree

Blend with ice about 10 seconds or until smooth.
Pour and Enjoy

Rainbow Raspberry Fizz

1 Rainbow Sherbet
Quart of Pineapple Juice
2 liters of Sprite

Add all ingredients into punch bowl, and enjoy!