Busy Monday: "Bits 'n Pieces by Kerry Goulder" - Hedgehog Softie Photo Tutorial

Hi everyone,

I'm teaming up again with Crafts 'n Things Magazine to bring you my new series "Bits 'n Pieces" during 2011. The series starts off with this little cutie, the "Hedgehog Softie"! Here is the photo tutorial to help you put your Hedgehog friend together.

Please be sure to get your copy of the Jan/Feb issue of Crafts 'n Things Magazine so you can get the pattern and written instructions, as they will not all be included here.

Due to contractual copyright agreements, this tutorial is no longer available on my blog. To get the Hedgehog pattern and instructions, please visit my Etsy shop.


If you have any questions at all - please do not hesitate to drop me a comment here to let me know! If you'd like to share your Hedgehog creation - you can visit my Kid Giddy Facebook page and upload a picture of your cute little Hedgehogs and all the fun places they are hiding in! Thanks for purchasing a copy of Crafts 'n Things magazine and supporting crafters like me! Have fun sewing!

Please note these photos are for home and personal use only, as is the pattern. All are copyright protected 2010-2011. These photos will only be up while the magazine is on the newsstands through mid to late February 2011.

Edible Wednesday: Butternut Squash & Apple Soup

Sorry for the long pauses between posts...I am trying to juggle life and kids, and volunteering in school and church, and working my craftiness...my blog seems to get the brunt of the "I have no time left"! Today and for the past couple of months, I have wanted to share this awesome recipe...tried and true...

This is the best soup! This was taken prior to being pureed! Enjoy!

My family took a trip this past fall, to the one and only Fryeburg Fair in ME. After a long day of walking the grounds at the fair, my husband decided it was time to go and we headed 45 minutes west to our hotel in NH. Within hours of eating lunch he got sick. As dinner time rolled around, I wrangled up my girls and took them out to get some yummy food at this near by (amazing) restaurant with a literal "hole in the wall". (Called Delaney's). We have been going there for a couple of years since first discovering it...but that night we got our dinner to go (because my hubby was sick and I felt bad he was in the hotel alone)...and they had this awesome soup that sounded too good to pass up.

I got a cup and of course went back the next day for lunch and got a bowl! lol! I was very brazen and asked the server if I could bribe the chef for the recipe and swore I wouldn't share it!

(ok - I know - first I mention my husband getting sick from eating something - and now I'm telling you I swore I wouldn't share the recipe - so why would any of you want to make this recipe now!)...but wait I'm getting to the point....

They didn't give it to me. The Chef wouldn't divuldge his secret recipe! The server told me only a couple of things that were obviously in there...The Butternut Squash and the Apples...and then I mentioned I tasted nutmeg and cloves. That was all I got - oh and the cream!

So I came home with the taste fresh on my mind and got to work. I scoured the internet for all the recipes I could find...but none that looked right according to the flavors I remembered.

Well folks...I did it. I just pulled up my sleeves and combined and fudged 5 different recipes to recreate the soup that I remembered and it worked! So - since it's not just one persons recipe and I fudged it all anyway...here is my recipe...

Here's what you'll need:
2 medium - Large Butternut Squash - diced into equal cubes (Man that Butternut is tough! Try to buy them already halved and peeled - save your back and knuckles!!)
5 large Macintosh Apples - peeled and diced into equal cubes
2 medium Onions - diced (use 2 large if you really like onions!)
3 cups of Chicken Stock (I used 2 cups the first time - and 3 the second time - I wanted it thinner than the above picture - 3 is better.)
1 1/2 cups of Apple Cider
1 cup Half & Half
3 tbsp Brown Sugar
2 tbsp Olive Oil
2 tbsp Butter
2 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Sea Salt
1 tsp Ground Curry Powder

1/3 tsp Nutmeg
1/3 tsp Cloves

Here's what you do:
1) Dice all your Butternut Squash, Apples, Onions.
2) In a large stock pot, saute your Onions in the butter until soft and golden - don't cry - just do it.
3) Now drop in your Butternut Squash, Apples, Chicken Stock, Apple Cider, Salt and Brown Sugar and mixing gently.
4) Continue to mix once in a while as the soup warms and comes to a boil. Once at a boil, cook on med-low until the butternut squash is soft to mash with a fork, stirring occasionally.
5) Add your spices: Cinnamon, Curry Powder, Nutmeg & Cloves.
6) Using a potato masher, begin to breakdown the chunks of Butternut Squash.
7) Remove from heat and let cool for about 5 minutes.
8) Slowly stir in your Half & Half.
9) Using any stick blender, or other food processor, puree all of your soup. (The picture above is prior to blending - I was so excited to eat it, that I forgot to take another picture!)
10) Now all you have to do is enjoy it. Probably putting it in a bowl and using a spoon would be most appropriate - but please do enjoy!

I've already made this again and it was well received as an appetizer for Thanksgiving! I've also frozen quite a bit to avoid the prep work each time. I don't know officially how much this yields - but it's alot - so you can halve it if you need to!

Thanks for stopping by and if you try this recipe - I'd love to hear your feedback! Have a great week. I'll post again soon!

Giddy-Up Friday: My First Craft Fair

Wow - am I tired. I'm typing this while waiting for the Polar Express to come on at which point I just might fall asleep after losing so much sleep this past week preparing for my first craft fair!

When I was little my mom and my grandmother would set up booths and sell at craft fairs in Eastern Long Island NY and my twin sister and I would roam around looking for inexpensive shell creatures to buy. I don't remember much else about the fairs - the prep work, the set up the clean up all that, and I certainly don't recall if I thought "someday I want to do my own craft fair"!? But going to the craft fairs with "Mom and Granny", left a sizable impression on me and now in my "older" age (since I'm not 10 anymore)...I knew it was something I wanted to experience with my own craft business.

So back in September or October my husband got an email at his office, about this craft fair today and it took me all of about 5 minutes to commit to doing it! Since then I've been sewing non-stop and had so much stuff! I was worried I wouldn't have enough. Sure there's things I would've done different, but all in all it was a great experience and I'm pretty sure I'll be looking for my next one very soon! (I'd also like to thank everyone that stopped by my table and to those that made a purchase too - you guys rock!!)

Have a great weekend. Enjoy the pictures. All my new items will be listed in my Etsy shop next week. My hedgehog tutorial will be up Monday I hope (if not monday - def. next week at some point!). I have a couple of custom orders to get working on too!  Thanks everyone!

Giddy-Up Friday: Jessie The Cowgirl Halloween Costume

Maybe it's my love of Texas or our love of Toy Story and my own personal obsession (ok - not that bad!)...of sweet cowgirl Jessie...that made my oldest daughter want to be Jessie this year for Halloween! YeeHaw!!!

SO while one girls is a sweet little garden gnome, my other is a ride 'em cowgirl! I just couldn't say no and wasn't about to spend $20 or $30 on a cheaply made costume for my sweet Jessie! If you'd like to make a Jessie costume, here's how I made it even though Halloween is now past...Giddy-up!

The Shirt:

It started with a handed down white shirt and some bright yellow fabric! 

 

I added a 1/2" twill ribbon along the bottom edge, and a thin rope to create the loopy loops (those were hard to sew).

 

I loosely cut each panel and then pinned them to the shirt, and then sewed it right up against the seam. There is a back panel too, but you just can't see it and I didn't photograph it.

The Sleeve:

To make the sleeves, trace the sleeve of the white shirt to get the right size and curve. Then stitch with Red thread, a series of decorative loops. Open up the sleeve and lay it flat. Lay the yellow cuff face down along the edge. Line it up by finding your center folds. Stitch 1/4" all the way around the cuff. (it will make the sleeve look longer, because it is going to be folded up and over the white sleeve at the end)

 

Once the cuff is sewn all the way around, sew the raw edges, right sides together. 

After you have sewn the edge, you need to make some covered buttons (follow directions on packaging) and then sew it on the inside of center fold of the yellow sleeve cuff. 

Now all you have to do is simply turn it right side out.

The Chaps:

 

A pair of $5 jeans with cow print fabric! I cut 4 panels and sewed 2 panels, turned them right side out and top stitched them. Then I laid each leg down (flipped up over the waist) handstitched them to the jean leg, and then flipped it back down and top stitched it (by hand also).

 

I used brown flannel (that was the only brown solid material I had) and used a piece of scrap leather for the "buckle". I'll post another picture of the finished belt and buckle in the near future!

 

Here's my horrible attempt at a hat...I used a hat box top for the measurement and Pellon stablizer for the hat.

 

I think I used a 3 or 4" height for the hat top, that I added it by machine after cutting out the center. I later attached the top by hand (ugh!) and then used a red fabric spray paint (double ugh!) to the top and ran out by the time I was ready to paint the underneath. (triple ugh!).  So I attached red fleece to the bottom (another picture that will be added later).

 

Just an FYI...I bought the wig. It was the only thing I bought. It was called a "Rag Doll Wig" if you ever need to look for one. I took the ponytails out and put the braids in with yellow scrunchies (I didn't have yellow bows). As I'm sure you can tell from my captions above...I wish I had found a hat...but searched high and low and just couldn't find one! Such a bummer! I will add photos later of the shirt sleeves, the finished belt...and another finished picture of the hat - since that was a last minute finish...and still never got to put the white rope loop around the edge!

So that's it and I guess I'll be seeing ya'll on the next post! Giddy up!

Disclaimer...All of the pieces above were made without a pattern.  So technically these are Kid Giddy Original patterns and therefore cannot be created for resale purposes. I am sharing this tutorial out of the kindness of my heart to satisfy all the Jessie Cowgirl loving children out there. You can use this tutorial to make a costume for yourself or your child. So PLEASE do not copy this and sell it for your own use! Likewise, please do not copy the tutorial by retaking all of your own photos and posting it on your blog as your own. I've seen it happen - so please give credit where credit is due. Thanks!

Busy Monday: Gnome Costume

My youngest daughter is not "obsessed" with Gnomes, but really enjoys going to Grandma's house to search for a little kitchen Gnome that wakes up every night and travels around the kitchen getting into things and making messes. She loves finding him in the morning and tries to determine exactly what he was up to while she was sleeping!

After having our landscaping done by "Gnome Landscaping" we got a Gnome (named Forest) left on our doorstep for our garden! He doesn't travel at all because he's "too old" but does a great job watching the deer eat all of the tomatoes, peppers and everything else we planted this year! He's not much of a "guardian" garden gnome because those deer got away with everything!

 

Naturally amongst all this - she wanted to be a Gnome Girl for Halloween this year. She wanted to be a Gnome last year, but the thought of making it then was too daunting for me! This year I knew I couldn't get away with buying another princess costume, so I pretty much had no other option but to make it!

So here's the costume and brief descriptions how I made it....We'll start off first with the "vision" drawing...

Here's the Jacket:

 

Start with 3 pieces: 2 front sides that are the same, and one back piece that is the same size as the 2 fronts.

 

After sewing the side seams and the top shoulder seams, turn right side out.

 

Cut sleeves to desired length and sew to arm hole and then sew the length.

 

Attach Ruffle to edge (I rounded the corners as I went!) and to the sleeves (see the skirt).

 

Add the Fabric Covered buttons for decoration.

 

Cute fabric covered buttons of Gnome Girls is from Michael Miller Gnoming Around Yellow Fabric.

Here's the Skirt:

Cut out 2 pieces of a skirt. I used Pattern Ease for making a rough pattern. When in doubt add a few inches to sides and length! I also cut the fleece with the stretch going from side to side!

Turn down seam and stitch leaving a small opening for the elastic.

I used 4" width ruffles. Fold in half & hand or machine stitch a basting stitch and then pin your ends and center in place.

Keep finding the center points and pinning them, so it's easier to know the ruffle will be consistent!

Sew on the Ruffles and turn skirt right side out.

 

Here's the Hat:

Who doesn't want a cute pointy polka dot hat with a matching fleece flower. 

Here's the Apron:

I added ric-rac to the apron for cuteness factor!

Cut 4 straps for the neck and waist ties. The ties will be facing inway and wouldn't be seen technically - but I showed them so you know to make them! This is the Michael Miller "Gnomeville" Red Border fabric panel! Way cute!

After sewing all around the edge (leaving a couple inches open), turn right side out and top stitch all the way around! I'd use a more rounded inside corner up by the waist straps (where the top meets the bottom).

All of the pieces were made without use of a pattern. These are Kid Giddy Original patterns and therefore cannot be created for resale purposes. I am sharing this tutorial out of the kindness of my heart to satisfy all the Gnome loving children out there. You can use this tutorial to make a costume for yourself or your child. PLEASE do not copy this and sell it for your own use! Likewise, please do not copy the tutorial by retaking all of your own photos and posting it on your blog as your own. I've seen it happen - so please give credit where credit is due. Thanks!

Giddy Up Friday: HALLOWEEN Sudoku - Printables

Boo Boo to all you ghosts and gobblins out there! (That's hello in halloween!). I have received a little help from my own little ghost and gobblin here in my house - to help bring you these really spooktacular Halloween Sudoku puzzles! This time - in 3 Levels, with Pumpkins, Black Cats, Scarecrows, Spiders, Bats, Ghosts, Green Witches, Skulls, and of course - Candy!

As with the other puzzles, I would highly recommend you print them, cut out the images, trim up the board, and laminate them all, for more prolonged use! Before laminating it, you can put the puzzle board on a piece of colored construction paper or scrapbooking paper, and glue the answer key on the back so you don't lose it!

My girls had so much fun making these drawings for you. They are not as brightly colored as the original Sudoku Puzzles I created for you on my computer, but these Halloween images were tailor made and are so fun (and so not scary! my girls don't draw scary - I even had to draw the skull! lol!)

If you print off the Level 3, you'll have to print off the 4th page (with the answer key) to have the remaining pieces for the game too.

Check back for even MORE holiday versions coming in early December! Thanks for reading and sharing a link, but please don't copy my work (and my daughter's works!).