So yesterday took a left turn early in the morning and there was just no getting it back on track.  I’ve got a Wordless Wednesday to share with you on Thursday.  I guess it’s a Wordless Thursday?

Anyway, this is part of a writing assignment that came home with Liv from school yesterday.

My dad’s favraite [favorite] color is yellow.  My dad is a cat lover jist [just] like me and my mom. He is aloseo [also] bad at cusing [cussing]. He gets me donuts Satrday [Saturday].  That is all about my dad!”

I  think I may love Liv’s American Girl dolls almost as much as she does.  She’s into the pretend play.  (She’ll spend hours setting up birthday parties, school days, and other events for the dolls).  I get a thrill from making the clothes and accessories she can use for her pretend play.

Here’s my latest doll project:

I spent the past week sewing up enough little vests to outfit all of her dolls.  I got lucky with the brown fabric – it’s almost exactly the same shade and weight as Liv’s actual vest.   And the patches are tiny versions of the ones on Liv’s vest.  I created them by scanning her vest and creating a .jpg of the portion of her vest with the patches.  I scaled it down and printed it on inkjet printable fabric.  Then, I added fusible webbing to the back to turn them into iron-on patches.  I ended up making 7 vests, enough for a whole troop of 18″ doll Girl Scouts. 

Then, during her “troop meeting” last night, Liv asked if we could make tiny boxes of Girl Scout cookies.  At first I thought it would be too difficult, but then I realized that we had some boxes of cookies left in our freezer from last year.  So I scanned in the top of a cookie box and scaled it down.  Then, I used my Silhouette cutter to create a foldable box. 

The Silhouette is a digital paper cutter, kind of like a plotter except with a blade in place of a pen.  It hooks up to your computer and you can create custom cuts from paper and other thin media.  You can also do something called a Print & Cut, where you print an image first and then send it through the cutter.  This is what I used to create the tiny cookie boxes.

I already had a file to create a box that looked to be a good fit, so it was just a matter of inserting the image of the  cookie box on the top and filling the sides of the box shape with the right color of green.  Then, I printed the image and sent it through the cutter to create my foldable boxes. 

I’m really proud of how they turned out!  And Liv loved them, too.  Tonight I’ll be raiding the freezer to see what other flavors of cookies I have stashed in there.

It may be January, but February is just around the corner – and that means Valentine’s Day.  Here are some fun Valentine’s themed projects to get you in the spirit.

Paper or Felt Heart Chain 

Designer Betz White shares a couple of how-tos over at Craft showing how to make a garland of hearts out of either paper (shown here) or felt.  This is such a clever way of making a garland – check it out!

 Mailbox Decor

You know those little metal mailboxes you can find at the Target Dollar Spot?  Emily from The Anderson Crew paired one of them with a candlestick to make this cute little number.  She wrote up a tutorial showing how she did it.  Go to her blog for the tute .

[via Pinterest]

Printable Valentine Angel

Allsorts gives a free printable for this cute Valentine angel.  Just print, cut, and fold to make her.  An unassembled angel would also make a sweet Valentine to give to a friend.  Get the printable.

Waxed Paper Collage Heart Garland

I know I already showed you a heart garland you can make, but this one is also so cool how could I keep it to myself?  This heart garland by Crescendoh is made of waxed paper with collage elements fused in between the layers.  Wonky stitching around the edge keeps the edges from coming apart.  Get the tutorial at Crescendoh.

[via Pinterest]

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Yavonda from Baby and the Beasts has the Freebie Friday this week.  You’re gonna love it!  She has a free registration to Introduction to DSLR I (4 classes) at Bedford Camera and Video to give away to one lucky reader.  This is a $125 value.  Go to her post and leave a comment there to get yourself entered.

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[photos from Craft, The Anderson Crew, Allsorts, and Crescendoh]

Yesterday morning, I woke up as usual and stumbled my way to my computer to check the daily gossip on Facebook.  As I was scrolling through the links and cute kid quotes and the “I’m proud of my kid” posts, I saw a status saying that my dear friend Debbie’s house was on fire.  What?!?  That’s not fair!!!

The past year had been brutal for Debbie and Richard.  Debbie had battled breast cancer – her second go-round with this disease.  And when I say “battled”, I mean all out war.  It struck her hard, but she fought and she fought and she fought.  Even when the doctors said the numbers were stacked against her, she refused to give in.   And while she was fighting her battle, her husband Richard experienced a major heart attack.

And yet in spite of these challenges, they made it through.  Everything was settling back into place and their lives were just starting to be normal again.  The new year meant a fresh start.

And then, in the space of 15 minutes, Debbie and Richard lost everything.  Their house was reduced to a pile of smoldering rubble, with only a hearth and a chimney to stand witness that this was once a home.  They lost their belongings.  They lost their two beloved pets. They lost their photos of their dear Jennifer, their daughter who died from Cystic Fibrosis.  It left us all saying, “It’s too much.”

Their story appeared on Fox 16 news (see their story here), and includes an interview with Richard.  The story and the photos are heartbreaking.  And yet, somehow Richard was able to say at the end of the interview, “We’ve really got a lot to be thankful for.” 

After all this loss, they can still say they feel blessed.  Which has me looking around my own house – sitting on my comfy couch with my pets safe and sound, my daughter in good health and having a typical day at school – and realizing how precious it all is.   And if it was all taken away, could I still look to the blessings instead of the loss?

Today’s Wordless Wednesday photo comes from Monday morning, when we joined others from our church (Quapaw Quarter United Methodist Church) to march in the Marade honoring Dr. King.

Olivia is the one on the far left.  Her and her friends are passing out candy to people along the Marade route.

I’ve got crafty weekend inspiration to throw at you.  Are you ready?

Animal Pom Pom Hat

This animal sweater hat is the cutest!!  The Pom Pom Emporium shares a tutorial showing how you can make one.   You start with an inexpensive knit hat and just add the pieces to make the animal face.  I’m loving the pom pom ears!!  Get the tute.

[via Pinterest]

Stenciled Initial Pillows

A new year, a new look for your sofa perhaps?  It’s as easy as making a set of new throw pillows.  Sarah from Sohl Design guest blogs at Mabel’s House showing how to make them.  You can create the oversized stencil letters with screenprinting or with a simple stencil.  Get the how-to at Mabel’s House.  

(Liz, the author of Mabel’s House, lives here in central Arkansas.) 

Wooden Bead and Hardware Necklace

This necklace looks like it stepped straight off the pages of a trendy mail-order catalog.  Instead of spending the big money on a designer version, you can make one yourself from inexpensive materials – twine, plain wooden beads, and brass nuts.  Get the tute at Sally J Shim.

[via Craft]

Book Page Heart Garland

Lizzie B. from Cotton & Curl shows how to make a heart garland out of recycled book pages.  Her tutorial will work with any shape you want to cut out, but the hearts seem appropriate given that Valentine’s Day is just a month away.  This would also be cute made out of double-sided scrapbook paper. Get the tutorial.

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Emily from Dys-Located has the Freebie Friday this week!  She has a copy of The Good Housekeeping Test Kitchen Cookbook to give away to one lucky reader.  Go to her blog and leave a comment there to get yourself entered.

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[photos from The Pom Pom Emporium, Sohl Designs on Mabel's House, Sally J Shim, and Cotton & Curl]

So I’ve made it one full week in my Project Life, and I haven’t missed a single day!!

Look, my book has one two-page spread all filled up.

That’s one week down, 51 to go.

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It’s Monday, but there’s still time to enter the Freebie Friday from last week!  Cindy from Mom on a Wire has 4 tickets to the Harlem Globetrotters to give away.  Go to her Freebie Friday post to get the details and get yourself entered.  The giveaway closes at the end of the day on Tuesday, January 10.

…with the cat box.  The face mask was entirely the little girl’s idea.