RAD Mama Designs

Sewing Circle–Dolls, Pillows and Quilts

Posted on June 7, 2012 by radmamadesigns

My friend Cara and her co-worker Kate recently took a sewing class at a local shop. They immediately fell in love, as I am sure most of us have, and came up with the idea of a sewing circle. I said sounds like fun and a chance to get away with girlfriends. Cara is very philanthropical and found a project online, sewing dolls for disadvantaged children around the world. This sounded easy enough to me so we met at my house and began the circle. Now I am not really sure if a sewing circle needs a mission but ours was filled with gab and girl time. Worked for me.

Not too much was accomplished the first evening but I believe Kate made some pillows, Cara began a few dolls and I started a couple of pattern weights. Which I have yet to fully complete! Here are the arms and legs of the dolls. If you are interested in reading about this doll project check out this blog.

The second sewing circle had a quilt theme! Now none of us had ever quilted but this sounded pretty easy. Just sew a bunch of squares together, right? So we ordered pizza and the machines were humming. Now Cara’s machine made more of clunk clunk sound so we decided she would cut and I would sew. Here is the vintage beauty!

Now the quilt idea came from Cara who found another great cause, Quilts for Kids. Check it out if you want to make a little one in the hospital smile with a quilt. They really are simple and will brighten a sick child’s day.

Our finished (almost finished) product.

For not really having a clue what we were doing I think it turned out well. Just need to finish it off with a binding and some quilting. I hope it makes a little one smile.

The third meeting of sewing circle Cara made more dolls, I made some cushions for our fireplace since the little one is on the move and Kate made more pillows. Now her pillows are AMAZING. She is meticulous with cutting and sewing. These will make great gifts for her family and friends.

After the sewing circle my hubs comments, “It doesn’t really sound like much sewing is getting done!” I said happy wife equals happy life! I am very proud of our sewing circle (almost) accomplishments. It seems I have several projects to finish, Cara has oodles of dolls to make and Kate will have back support for every chair in her house!

Be sure to check out Cara’s blog. Lots of pretties and other musings.

Until we circle up again…

RAD Mama

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Posted in Uncategorized and tagged dolls, pillows, quilts, sewing circle, sewing with friends. Bookmark the permalink.

Recipe–Blended Coffee Re-make

Posted on June 6, 2012 by radmamadesigns

Ok so a few weeks ago I did a iced coffee drink. Check it out here. I made another using the same coffee ice cubes and it’s even better! Watch out Starbucks I am keeping my $6 and making this one!

6 coffee ice cubes

1/2 cup half and half

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

1/4 cup powdered sugar

Blend all of these in the blender and voila, you have a tasty treat. Now I splurged on the half and half so you could use milk but the half and half makes it amazing! Just do an extra 5 minutes on the treadmill and enjoy! Yields about 12 ounces.

RAD Mama

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Recipe–Sweet Potato Mash

Posted on June 4, 2012 by radmamadesigns

This is a great side dish for pork, chicken or beef. Since I have been making veggie mash for my little one and I thought we could have an adult version of sweet potato mash. Hope you enjoy this side dish.

6 medium sweet potatoes

4 tablespoons butter

1/3 cup cream or half and half

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon brown sugar

Peel and dice the sweet potatoes. Boil until fork tender. Using a hand mixer cream potatoes, cream and butter until smooth. Mix in cinnamon and brown sugar. Yields four large servings.

Yum!

RAD Mama

Wreath Week–Day 5

Posted on June 1, 2012 by radmamadesigns

Well its been a great week of wreaths and here is my final one. I chose a cork wreath for the last day because I have been saving corks for 10 years and now have a reason to use them! Now I didn’t personally drink all this wine but family and friends have also donated to my stash. Here is my tutorial for a cork wreath.

1 straw wreath

100 or so corks

hot glue gun

glue

bow

wreath hanger

I used a ordinary wreath hanger and inserted this onto the wreath before I started glueing corks. This wreath does get fairly heavy so I think this is the best way to hang the wreath. Start glueing by adding a strip of glue to the back of each of your corks and go around in a circular pattern creating a base.

Once this has dried and you make sure none are going to fall off then you are ready to start glueing on the next layer in a hodge podge fashion. Note: I did have a bit of trouble with the smooth corks from Yellowtail.They don’t take the hot glue well so I used a little gorilla glue and it worked fine.

There is no real method for this just glue to create a 3D look. You will need to test where you want the piece to go and then glue in the appropriate place. This layer will not need glue across the whole cork. Make sure you pieces are glued on well and add a bow if you like.

I really like the natural cork wreath. I leave mine up year round and just change out the bow (made from my ribbon stash) for the seasons.

Well I have enjoyed wreath week and I hope you have too. Please leave a comment and if you have a wreath you would like me to feature just contact me.

Have a great weekend.

RAD Mama

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Posted in Tutorials, Wreath Week and tagged cork wreath, seasonal wreath, wine cork wreath. Bookmark the permalink.

Wreath Week–Day 4–Rub-A-Dub-Dub

Posted on May 31, 2012 by radmamadesigns

I really love homes with color on the walls. I am always trying to find ways to add color because my hubs isn’t thrilled with painting. So I thought I could add some color with a wreath on the bathroom door. You might think this is an odd place for a wreath but I got to thinking after a party how many people asked me where our bathroom was. I think people were just being polite to ask because our house is not big and actually all on one level. So instead of giving weird directions of go straight then slightly right and it on your left, I could say just look for the bathroom wreath. So really it’s more of a sign and just fun to have a wreath on your bathroom door! Here is the tutorial.

1 pool noodle–same kind I used in this wreath

18 small loofas (2 for $1 at Target or Dollar Store)

wood letters

paint

rubber duckie

thick floral wire–same wire I used in this wreath

small sponge brush (circular for dots)

Again I used a pool noodle for the wreath. So bend it into any shape you want. I chose a somewhat oval shape.

Next I painted my letters B-A-T-H a light blue color. Now here is where your wreath might differ. I cut 17 five inch strips of my floral wire and wrapped it through the loofa string and then poked it into the noodle. This isn’t the sturdiest way to attach the loofas. If I were to do this again I would cut the wire long enough to wrap it around my noodle and tie in the back. Also only use 17 because you are going to take one a part and hang the finished wreath with it.

Just play with the placement until you are happy with the result.

Next cut strips of your wire and attach your letters to the wreath. You can use the loofas to cover up the wire.

Now I am the queen of rigging things up so to hang this wreath I totally did that. I took a part one of the loofas and wrapped it through the wreath and over the back of the door to my two towel hooks in the back.

Now I realized that not everyone has this set up so I think a Command Adhesive Hook or a regular ole’ wreath hanger will work. My rubber duckie is just sitting on top of the loofas but you could also wire this guy in there too.

I hung my wreath with solid blue letters and then decided to add the polka dots on the letter while it was hanging up. Just use a small circular sponge to make the dots. You could do this step when painting your letters.

It adds a punch of color for our bathroom. The baby loves looking at all the colors while bathing.

Have fun with your wreaths.

RAD Mama

Wreath Week–Day 3–Guest Blogger

Posted on May 30, 2012 by radmamadesigns

Today I am super excited because my dear friend Crista Taylor is guest blogging for wreath week. She has made a beautiful burlap rosette wreath. Although Crista doesn’t have her own blog you can follow her boards on Pinterest.

Here is her tutorial.

Just like RADMama….I never read directions so I want to begin by first saying I put this wreath together using several different ideas on Pinterest. Literally, this is combining about 5 different things I found on different sites. Also, I must give my disclaimer—-I am not the most crafty Mom on the block, just depends on the day. Hence why I have a board on Pinterest titled “Just in case I’m feeling crafty….”. So here it goes…

My inspiration for this wreath was definitely burlap. Recently, I’ve been obsessed with any color burlap and found a local store that carries wired burlap ribbon at a reasonable price that is perfect for anything! It’s called Home Accents. Everything for this project was purchased there. I wanted something for my front door and kept seeing burlap rosettes in all colors on Pinterest so here is my take…..I hope you like it! This project was very inexpensive to make and I have a ton of burlap ribbon leftover to use.

Supplies:

18” wicker wreath

Red burlap 1.5”

Green burlap 2.5”

Cream burlap 2.5”

One piece felt scrap $0.25

Fishing line

Glue gun

Fold burlap and roll until you reach the rosette size you prefer…I had 18” wreath so I used about 1 yard. Now I rolled then folded then rolled…once you begin to play around with it you will get the hang of it and actually begin to make it look like a rose. The burlap I used was very stiff which actually worked perfect for making rosettes.

After making a rosette, I hot glued the end to side to finish the rosette. Then I traced the back of the rosette to felt, cut, and hot glued it to back of rosette. This makes it easier to attach on to your wreath. I wanted to make four so I alternated cream and red burlap.

I also had green burlap so I played around with it and decided to make leaves! In order to make the burlap leaf I simply cut two diagonal cuts on about a 4 to 5 inch piece. Then folded the ends backwards and hot glued…this as you see when attached to the rosette looks just like a leaf! Of course, after this I was feeling really crafty.

Now I had to figure out how to place the rosettes on my wicker wreath. I am sure if you wanted to use a Styrofoam wreath this would be so much easier to place but I love the natural look of wicker so it was harder to attach the rosettes. I didn’t use hot glue, way too messy…so I got some good ol’ fishing line of the hubs and it worked perfectly! Literally I roped/tied the rosettes on the wicker wreath. Then I thought this fishing line will come in handy for making wreaths….it’s invisible and holds a lot of weight! Now for the finished product.

You could simply hang it as is, but I took some leftover green burlap tied to the top and voila! My rosette wicker wreath….it might be a bit plain, but I love it! Once you get started you will be able to create something that you love too.

Thank you to RADMama for allowing me to be a guest on wreath week! Also, I must pay special thanks to my two precious assistants during this project…they are my true inspiration!

Thanks Crista for this beautiful burlap rosette wreath tutorial. Aren’t her two assistants precious! Crista is a working mother of these two and still has time to craft! Bravo to her and we look forward to more of her creative tutorials.

Enjoy!

RAD Mama

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Posted in Tutorials, Wreath Week and tagged burlap wreath, rosette wreath, straw wreath. Bookmark the permalink.

Wreath Week–Day 2

Posted on May 29, 2012 by radmamadesigns

My second wreath for the week is actually letters I made for my daughter’s baptism. This is seriously easy. I had this idea of doing my daughter’s initials to help jazz up a blank wall in our kitchen (where everyone stands when you host a party!). These are made of a pool noodle and some paper from the weekly ads! Check out the tutorial below and get to crafting.

1 pool noodle

paper

silver duct tape

1 roll silver flowery design duct tape

1 roll of pink design duct tape

scissors

scotch tape

coordinating flowers

a few inches of silver ribbon

I played with the noodle a bit to see about where I needed to cut. Mine was a D so I shaped the curved part of the D and then used a serrated knife to cut the noodle.

Shape the noodle and duct tape it together at the joints. You might need an extra set of hands to help hold the shape you need.

Wrap the letter with you favorite decorative duct tape. I chose a silver with a floral pattern.

Next I wanted to do the first and middle initial but smaller than the noodle. I had tons of weekly ads that I had collected for some project and now it was time to see what I could do with it. The L was really easy. I just rolled up several stacks of paper and put a little scotch tape on the edges to hold them together. The B took some shaping but it came together.

Then wrap with your choice of duct tape and attach at the joints to construct the letters you need. I will say the curved letters are a bit more difficult but just keep working with it until you get the shape you desire.

I was really happy with how the letters turned out but thought they really needed something else. So I clipped a few artificial flowers from the dollar store and poked them into the noodle. I added a few loops of silver ribbon I had in my stash and thought they looked even better.

Have fun with your wreaths! They don’t all have to be circular and formal.

RAD Mama

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It’s Wreath Week!

Posted on May 28, 2012 by radmamadesigns

I love wreaths but I feel like they are a staple for the holidays. I usually have one up for Christmas but that is about it so I decided to compose a whole week of wreaths for all kinds of occasions. My first inspiration is from Pinterest. You may have seen this patriotic wreath that has been all over Pinterest. I decided to do my own version of it since it’s Memorial Day and we were having people over to celebrate. Here is how it turned out.

So a confession, I rarely read directions. That means putting together toys, how to fix my blender, how to use any electronic, etc, I don’t read any of them. No difference here on a tutorial for a patriotic wreath. I saw the picture, scrolled down the directions and was off to Hobby Lobby. I really like this project because it doesn’t have to be perfect to turn out.

Now my wreath calls for more than double the felt and I decided to use blue felt with glitter on it along with a pool noodle as the wreath. Here are all the supplies I used:

4 sheets glitter blue felt (HL)

13 sheets red felt (HL)

13 sheets white felt (HL)

duct tape (junk draw)

1 pool noodle (Dollar Stor)

felt stars–pre-cut (JoAnn’s)

2 1/2 boxes size 20- 1 1/4 straight pins (Sew-ology, half off at HL)

scotch tape

22 gauge floral wire (JoAnn’s or any craft store you have a coupon for)

Rotary blade and mat (my craft room)

Wreath hanger (craft closet)

Connect the ends of the noodle and duct tape. May need an extra set of hands to help but sometimes my hubs rolls his eyes at my craft projects (I can even see him thinking “Is this really going to work?”) so I found cutting a couple strips of duct tape first helps. Make sure you tape the noodle up good because the duct tape can tend to slip and trust me after all the time you spend pinning all the 2.2 squares of felt you might go mad if this thing comes a part.

My wreath is 16 inches from top to bottom. Now you are ready to start cutting the massive amount of felt in 2×2 squares.

Since I couldn’t remember all the inspiration instructions I just started pinning my squares on. I folded on a diagonal and then again to form a triangle.

Obviously due to the massive amount of felt I used I pinned them really close together. Pin the entire blue section first which spanned about 6 inches and each red and white section was 3 inches respectively.

Pin away!

Luckily it’s a mindless task, because it does take awhile!

The wreath is almost complete!

Ok so we need some stars. I found some pre-cute red, white and blue stars in the dollar section of JoAnn’s. I snagged a couple of packs and just used 3 white stars. To make the stars 3D I wrapped the wire around two of my fingers and then pulled off and reshaped from an oval to more circular shape. I went back to see what the inspiration blogger used and it was a crayon but I like the no so perfect look and frankly no one can see the wire. I also just scotch tapped the wire to the back of each of the stars. Poke the wire into the noodle and you are done.

Now to hang on the door to welcome our guests! I just used a wreath hanger that I had in the closet.

Some photos from our party.

She had fun playing in the bucket and is even learning to stand up on her own!

Stay tuned all week for other great wreaths!

Happy Memorial Day!

RAD Mama

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Posted in Parties, Tutorials, Wreath Week and tagged felt wreath, Memorial Day decorations, Memorial Day wreath, patriotic wreath. Bookmark the permalink.

Tablescape–Baptism

Posted on May 24, 2012 by radmamadesigns

I think a table settings really make a party something special. Since this week is the recap of the baptism I thought I would show you a bit of the tables and food. Now I had full intention of taking pictures of all my hard work but was so worried about getting the food out, perfectly of course, that I totally forgot. So thank goodness my step-dad captured a few shots.

I made the tiered platters and borrowed the tablecloths from my mom. I really like how flowery tablecloth looked under the tired platters with flowers.

Letters I made to display on the wall.

Here was the menu:

Sandwiches that included roast beef, turkey and ham

Veggie Tray with the Arkticoke Jalapeno dip from my Costco-ing Trip

Fruit Tray

Lemon Pound Cake Bites

Variety of Pound Cakes

Brownie Balls–Recipe HERE

Water with lemon

Orange Sherbet Punch with Spirit Zero

Coffee

The day was a wonderful time with family and a celebration of a baptism.

She received so many wonderful gifts and had a blast trying to get into them.

Baby girl in her great grandmother’s christening gown. It’s 100 years old!

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Recipe–Brownie Balls

Posted on May 22, 2012 by radmamadesigns

I love cake balls but thought I would do a twist on them for the baptism reception. I came up with these brownie balls and they are amazing! Impossible to eat just one.

Here is the scoop.

1 box of your favorite brownie mix

1/3 cup powdered sugar

6-8 ounces cream cheese

Bake the brownies according to the box. I used a box of Dunkin Hines. Let them cool completely. Mine turned out a bit crunchy on the side so I just cut that part off and threw away. Crumble the brownies into small pieces.

Whip the cream cheese and powdered sugar together and fold into the brownies. You might need to add a tiny bit of milk to loose up the mixture. Form into small balls, place them into small muffin papers and into the refrigerator.