Wall Art

These were gifts for friends.

To make this one, I painted the canvas in all sorts of crazy colors and patterns. After that dried completely, I applied letter stickers and spray painted the whole thing white. After that dried, I removed the stickers and touched up the text with some colored Sharpies. I added the attribution in gold Sharpie paint pen, and sprayed the whole thing with clear coat.

To make this one, I painted half the canvas gold. After that dried, I applied letter stickers and painted the whole canvas lavender. After that dried, I added brush strokes in various colors. And after that dried, I removed the stickers and touched up the letters with a gold paint pen. Then a clear coat to seal.

And on a lighter note:

Love and Paint,

Leah Joy

Chevron Baby Quilt (#2)

You may remember the other chevron quilt I made here (I originally thought it was herringbone, but I have been corrected).

When I made that quilt, I took lots of notes about the process, in the hopes that I could make it again, but with different fabric.

Well, it worked! I hope to be sharing that pattern as a tutorial eventually (you know, in like 4 years).

The color scheme was chosen by the mother, but I chose all the fabrics.

It's so cheerful and sunshiny!

I actually used a different color top thread/bobbin thread in the quilting process because I really wanted the top to be done in yellow, but the back to match the backing fabric.

And my corners are improving! Two perfect, one acceptable, and only one a complete mess.

Love and HSTs,

Leah Joy

Pi Day 2019

My husband works in a very geeky office. Naturally, they celebrate Pi Day. In 2018, they had a few store-bought pies. You know, they're okay, but nothing like homemade. This year, I decided to rectify that.

By making 11 pies.

6 of these recipes I had never even made before:

Lemon Meringue - very good

Tart Cherry (made with cherries from our tree) - I've never been a fan of cherry pie, but this one was alright. SUPER tart.

Mississippi Mud Pie - Um, this is delicious

Banana Cream - Not a huge fan of bananas, but this pie was pretty good.

Key Lime - AMAZING.

Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate (I used Joe Joe's instead of Oreos, and Trader Joe's caramel sauce instead of making my own) - Rich and decadent.

I also made:

- Dutch Apple

-Triple Berry

-Apple Berry (my personal favorite)

-Strawberry Rhubarb

-Orange Meringue

It was a delicious day.

Love and Pie,

Leah Joy

Recent Baking Adventures

Fall 2018 - Apple Fritter Bites. Whoa, these were way too easy to make considering how unhealthy and delicious they are. Recipe here, best when fresh.

Jo's Birthday cake, made to her specifications. "Strawberry cake with vanilla frosting, and blueberries on top."

January 2019 - We got snowed in for a week, so to stave off cabin fever, I baked a few recipes from Mastering The Art of Baking. 

Palmiers (made with homemade puff pastry):

(Not as good as I hoped they'd be.)

Hot Cross Buns:

The recipe called for an apricot jam glaze, but as I had no apricot jam, I used strawberry instead. You can see the difference in color in the first picture. After baking:

These were very rich and filling, and tasted like British Christmas. I did use candied citrus peel (homemade) as the recipe called for, but if I made them again, I'd leave it out. It's not my favorite flavor.

Focaccia:

SO good. End of story.

Micah's Birthday cake (the smash cake, which he didn't actually smash):

And in mid-March, I made 8 dozen lemon cupcakes with raspberry buttercream for a baby shower:

Love and Butter,

Leah Joy

Tot School

If you're not already familiar with the idea of Tot School, let me fill you in. It's like pre-pre-school. It's not about trying to teach kids things too early, but it is about having a focused learning time each day (or, more realistically, once every week or so). I don't force anything, and the point is having fun.

(If you're interested in more information, just look it up on Pinterest. There are TONS of ideas for activities!)

I started with the idea of colors, so for several weeks, we picked a color (in rainbow order, of course), and talked all about that color all week.

Red Day (She didn't own any red shirts)

Each day, we'd wear that color (if we had clothes that color) and fill a bin with pom poms, buttons, letter beads, and toys we found around the house.

Jo and I would get out her shopping cart and go 'shopping' around the house for the appropriately colored items.

At some point, I started digging scraps of fabric out of my scrap bin for an added element of play.

We also did Pink Day, Black and White Day, and Rainbow Day (which I unfortunately forgot to get a picture of). 

We've done other themes, too. Here are a few other pictures of some activities:

This was Number Day. She was supposed to string the matching number of beads onto each pipe cleaner, but she got pretty bored with that, so instead we just strung beads.

Ocean Day: Play-Doh + fish cookie cutter + googly eyes (Dollar Tree) + rhinestones (garage sale find) = Rainbow Fish!

Also Ocean Day: Water, bubble bath, cups/bowls/scoopers, and some plastic ocean creatures

Snow Day: This was a huge win. "Snow" is made with baking soda, water, and a little glitter. She played with this for HOURS.

Also Snow Day: I punched 1" circles out of plain paper and we pretended to write with 'snowballs'. You may not be able to tell, but hers says. "I love you, Mommy."

Unicorn Day! I made unicorn headbands for us to wear, but Jo refused to be photographed wearing one.

Micah, however, couldn't stop me.

Sorry, kid. (Sort of.)

I've been enjoying doing Tot School. It's good practice for preschool, plus Jo is learning good skills (sorting, cutting, drawing, etc.). And I get to do a bit of crafts in getting everything ready.

Love and Felt,

Leah Joy

Life Update (and Oh Yeah, Last Christmas)

"Friends, it has been an abominably long time since I have updated this blog," was how she began every post.

So, since the last post, we've had Halloween:

Jo went as Daniel Tiger and Micah was Tigey. The hats were made by Caleb's sister, and I made the pants and tail for Jo/Daniel. Everything else was purchased secondhand.

Jo turned 3 in November.

Then there was Christmas. Here's how I decorated my mantel this/last year:

We did have an 'exciting' accident with the Christmas tree...

No one was even in the room, so I can't blame anyone. :)

Now in 2019... Lots of crafting in the first few months - much more on that later.

I sold truffles again for Valentine's Day, and once again, sold more boxes this year than last year. That was pretty exciting.

Keeping Jo busy while I made 200 truffles:

Micah turned one at the beginning of the month.

And that about brings us up to date.

I have many more posts planned and I hope to get those out soon!

Love and Long Lengths of Time,

Leah Joy