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Category Archives: Crafts
Craft Room
Awhile ago, I completed decorating my new craft room. The theme is fairy tale forest during the day. I am finally getting around to sharing the room here. Of all the various craft rooms I have had, this is my … Continue reading
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Gingerbread Japanese Shrine and Garden
This year was my 5th consecutive year making gingerbread for Sweet Creations at the Eastman Museum. This is a concept I have considered since 2016. I am glad that I finally made it. It will be on display at the museum … Continue reading
Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Crafts
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2020 Gingerbread Sweet Creations
For the 4th year in a row, I made gingerbread for the Eastman Museum’s Sweet Creations gingerbread show. Things are different this year because of COVID-19. The museum allowed less gingerbread creations. I received a letter in August inviting me to participate because … Continue reading
Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Crafts, Food
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Sequined Easter Egg Ornaments
My 20 year old niece and I have a tradition of making egg ornaments for Easter. This was the 9th year. I blew out the eggs the weekend before. On the night of our craft we got takeout from Panera … Continue reading
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Cricut Vinyl Letter Mugs
When my 19 year old niece stayed with me, she brought her Cricut machine with her. She designed and cut the vinyl for each of us to have our own name “K” mug.
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Fourth Flower Show
Two weeks ago, I entered my 4th Flower Show (“Celebrations in May”). I almost didn’t participate but I decided to enter a photo since it is more fun to attend when I have a personal connection to the show. I … Continue reading
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Wax Resist Dyed Easter Egg Ornaments
My 19 year old niece and I have a tradition of decorating eggs for Easter. I am so pleased that we just finished our 8th year of decorating eggs together! This year we used the Ukrainian wax resist technique. Many … Continue reading
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Gingerbread House with Candy Cane Fountain
My 13 year old nephew made a gingerbread house at my place. I love how it turned out! He did not have any special candy requests, he said he wanted to use my leftovers (from my creation for the Eastman … Continue reading
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2017 Gingerbread Sweet Creations
I am excited to have a gingerbread creation in a museum! I am part of the 2017 Sweet Creations at the Eastman Museum. This year there are 60 different submissions. I have visited this exhibit at least 5 times in … Continue reading
Posted in Adventures, Crafts, Food, Uncategorized
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Gingerbread Row Houses
My place smelled like gingerbread in October this year. I decided to enter a gingerbread house in Sweet Creations at the Eastman Museum. In September, I was accepted as a participant. My gingerbread had to be delivered by November 1. … Continue reading
Posted in Adventures, Crafts, Food, Uncategorized
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Punched Paper Easter Egg Ornaments
I am happy to say that this was the 7th year for my niece and I to make Easter Egg Ornaments. Both of our lives have changed and she is in college now so we ended up doing the craft … Continue reading
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3rd Flower Show Entry
This week I entered my 3rd Flower Show. I tried to think about what I learned from my 1st and 2nd flower shows when I worked on my entry. Some things I kept in mind were hiding mechanics, something to … Continue reading
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Halloween Treats 2016
I enjoy Halloween at my house. Typically on October 31 I receive 250-300 trick-or-treaters in a 2 hour period from 6 pm until 8 pm. I make it obvious that I am open to hand out treats – carved and … Continue reading
50 Summer Activities
Last year my nephews and I completed 100 Summer Activities. This year it was requested that we only do 50. I was surprised but it might end up being easier for me. Some of these activities are repeats from last … Continue reading
Posted in Adventures, Bento / Cute Food, Crafts, Party Planning
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Diorama Easter Egg Ornaments
This was the 6th year my niece and I decorated blown-out eggs for Easter. I am hopeful that we will do this project again but realistically it could have been our last time since my niece will go to college in … Continue reading
3 Gingerbread Houses and a Bento Lunch
My 11 year old nephew, 17 year old niece and I each made Gingerbread houses this year to enter in my towns contest. I won for my age category (19 and over) and for People’s Choice! My niece won in … Continue reading
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Corn Husk Angel Tutorial Food and Crafts
Sometimes I pick a topic I am interested in and present it to my garden club. It saves money on a speaker (I don’t accept payment from my club) and it gives me the opportunity to research a topic. In … Continue reading
Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Crafts, Food
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100 Summer Activities for Tween and Teen Boys
Update: See the end of this post for an update on the changes we made to the list. We completed 100 activities but we did make many changes along the way. This summer I will have my nearly 11 year … Continue reading
Posted in Adventures, Bento / Cute Food, Crafts, Food, Party Planning
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Gardening Trivia Game
I created this Garden Themed Trivia game similar to my Tea Party Trivia Game. You can print (cut and glue or tape) these and use them at a party. There are 59 cards in this set. The photo on the … Continue reading
Posted in Crafts, Party Planning
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2nd Flower Show Entry
My Garden Club district had a flower show and I entered in the Special Exhibits (Arts & Crafts) category. There were 4 advanced reservation spots available to decorate a door panel. The name of the Class was “A Warm Welcome”. … Continue reading
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Marbled Easter Eggs
My niece and I have a tradition of decorating blown out eggs for Easter. Each year we try a different technique but keep with the blue and white color scheme. For this year (our 5th time) we experimented with 4 … Continue reading
Gingerbread Houses and Bento Lunch
This year my 10 year old nephew and I each made Gingerbread houses for a contest in my town. Rules: they need to incorporate a candy cane, they can’t be larger than 12 inches by 12 inches, only the base … Continue reading
Birthday Bento Lunch from Niece
When my 15 year old niece asked me what I wanted for my birthday this year I said painted clothespins to use as clips or a cute bento lunch. My thoughtful niece made both for me! I was delighted to … Continue reading
Easter Themed Dinner and Ribbon Egg Decorating
My niece (15 years old) and I have a tradition of decorating eggs for Easter. Each time we focus on a different technique while keeping with our initial color scheme of blue and white. This year we decided to decorate … Continue reading
Stitched iPhone Case
For several years I have wanted to cross stitch a cell phone case. But I did not have a popular smart phone model and it was difficult to get the right type of case. I could not even find a … Continue reading
Decorated Gourds
Every November my garden club makes some type of arrangement for the Skilled Nursing Facility in our county. Last year we made this arrangement. This year we decorated a variety of orange, white, and multicolor miniature gourdes. We had raffia, … Continue reading
Paris Themed Birthday Party
My niece had a Paris themed birthday party for her 15th birthday party with family. The party colors were purple and white with some black accents. The birthday girl’s favorite color is purple. 25 family members attended the party and … Continue reading
Halloween Treats 2013
We normally get about 250 trick-or-treaters. I usually like to prepare something special for the first 25 kids. This year I prepared special bags for the first 20 kids. I also prepared 111 bundles this year. I took industrial size … Continue reading
DIY Miniatures Frames and Pie
My 11 year old niece and I had a delightful time creating miniatures. We scanned, re-sized, printed, and framed miniature photos of her Grandmother (my Mother). For some of the photos we used Foil Embossed Stickers from the Dollar Tree. … Continue reading
Crafty Birthday Gifts from Nieces
My nieces gave me amazing handmade gifts for my birthday this year. I received this hand decorated pillowcase (see above and below). My 8 year old niece used fabric markers to decorate both sides of a pillowcase. I love it! … Continue reading
Mini Stuffed Animals
My 11 year old niece and I made these miniature stuffed animals. We used a large moose cookie cutter to make the pattern for the moose. My niece drew the pattern for the Teddy Bear. My niece stitched the eyes … Continue reading
3 Easy Pony Bead Projects
Edited: The links I previously shared to the making friends website are no longer available. I now link to a watermelon pattern on another site. For the Smile Face and Ladybug, you should still be able to make these projects … Continue reading
Tanabata Party
Tanabata is a Japanese star festival. According to a folktale, Hikoboshi (star Altair) and Orihime (star Vega) were lovers and separated by the Milky Way to only meet once a year. Typically people celebrate on July 7. Since I was … Continue reading
Under the Sea Day Preschool Camp
The theme for our fourth and last day of Aunt Kathy’s Preschool Camp was Under the Sea. Our previous themes were Australia, Dinosaurs/Volcanoes, and Outer Space. I made this lunch for my 28 month old nephew. I was running out … Continue reading
Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Crafts, Food
Tagged bento, under the sea preschool, vegetarian
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Outer Space Day Preschool Camp
The theme for our third day of Aunt Kathy’s Preschool Camp was outer space. Our previous themes were Australia and Dinosaurs/Volcanoes. This Astronaut lunch was prepared for my 28 month old nephew. He loves pasta! He did not eat the … Continue reading
Dinosaur and Volcano Day Preschool Camp
Dinosaurs and Volcanoes were the topics for our second day of Aunt Kathy’s Preschool Camp. This Volcano with Dinosaur pizza lunch was prepared for my 12 year old nephew. He was one of my two teachers for our preschool camp. … Continue reading
Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Blog, Crafts
Tagged bento, dinosaurs, preschool, vegetarian, volcano
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Australia Day Preschool Camp
Two of my young nephews are staying at my sister-in-laws house while their parents are on a business trip to Australia. I am hosting 4 sessions of “Aunt Kathy’s Preschool Camp” at my house. My 12 year old nephew and … Continue reading
Posted in Bento / Cute Food, Crafts, Food
Tagged Australia themed preschool, bento, vegetarian
17 Comments
Sashiko Pillow
This is my first experience with Sashiko. I found it relaxing and fun. Sashiko is a type of embroidery stitching from Japan. It uses a running stitch. In 2011 I took a Sashiko class at the City Quilter in Manhattan. … Continue reading
Tissue Box Die
When my 8 year old nephew and I spent the day together recently, we created a craft for JDaniel4’s Mom: 3rd Annual Tissue Box Challenge 2013. The challenge was to “decorate or build a tissue box(es) with or for your … Continue reading
Around the World Birthday Party
I hosted an Around the World birthday party for my husband’s birthday. I invited his family and friends. My husband picked the countries based on the food he wanted to eat. Our countries were: Mexico, Italy, and Thailand. Decorations: I … Continue reading
Posted in Crafts, Food, Party Planning
Tagged around the world party, italy party, mexico party, thailand party
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Tea Party Trivia Game
I am part of a small women’s group. We get together at each others homes for some type of activity. Last month our get together was a tea party. The hostess did an amazing job with the food and table … Continue reading
Irish Heritage Card
For St. Patrick’s Day this year I made cards for my 2 nieces. Both cards are the same except for the recipients name. This one of course is Ella’s. I am not sure if the idea of a custom heritage … Continue reading
Sheep Embroidery Floss Organizer
I was inspired by this and my love of playing with shrinky dinks to create this project. I used a sheet of white shrink film. I had it left over from an angel place card/ornament project my niece and I … Continue reading
Posted in Crafts, Embroidery
Tagged how to make an embroidery floss organizer, lamb, sheep, Shrinky dink, tutorial
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Stitched Valentine’s Day Cards
I stitched these simple cards for Valentine’s Day this year. There is something very satisfying about stitching on paper. I prefer fabric but I can see myself making more paper stitched cards in the future. Basically I followed this tutorial … Continue reading
Farm Themed Quiet Book
My 14 year old niece, my husband and I made quiet books as Christmas gifts for our 2 youngest cousins/nephews (in different families). We designed and created two identical books. One book has a blue cover, the other red. We … Continue reading
Pumpkin and Corn Centerpiece
My garden club has a tradition of making 36 arrangements for the Thanksgiving meal at our County Skilled Nursing Facility. The design and assembly of the arrangements was a group effort. A garden club member came up with the concept … Continue reading
My First Flower Show Entry
My garden club district held a flower show during their semi-annual meeting. I am glad that I entered. It was a great experience. I made the above three brooches and picked the one to submit in the parking lot of … Continue reading
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Halloween Treats 2012
This is some of what we will be handing out to trick-or-treaters this year. Typically we get about 250 kids come to our door seeking treats. I like to give something special to the first 25 trick-or-treaters. This year my … Continue reading
Napkin Ring Tutorial
This past summer my in-laws celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary with a country barn dance. It was held at their farm and my mother-in-law self-catered a majority of the meal for 300 guests. I designed and created napkin bundles. The … Continue reading
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Eclectic Lamb 