TaylorMade

DIY, Home Decor & Sewing

A “Make Your Own Ornament” Party

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Ah sequins, so festive. 
I have a group of girlfriends who I have remained close with through the years and we all are living back in the same area again. We go by the “coyotes” – don’t judge I think we made up the name when we were 14ish. We grew up together and have been a group since 6th grade, some of us were even in the same kindergarten class! I am lucky to have them because I know its rare. Once a month, we take turns hosting “Coyote Night” and this past month it was my turn… craft hour and wine… yes please. 

How to host your own Ornament Party:
sequins, sequins, sequins – I got an array of colors and sizes

I also got a variety pack 

You need sequin pins, which are not the same as sewing pins and will be located by the sequins at the craft store. I bought gold and silver, and we were picky about which ones we used, then we realized you couldn’t even tell the difference.

Styrofoam Balls, these came in a 6 pack 

extras: ribbon for the hanging part, foam glue is optional, extra little dishes for each person

There doesn’t have to be any rhyme or reason to the ornament making and that is why it was fun. It is perfect for a girl get together because it it mindless so you can still talk, eat and drink :)

Some of us had a color scheme, some did a pattern, and some were totally random, I love them all!

Progress… it does take a while, thankfully for us we never run out of things to say.

A little later…

I wanted to keep all of them :)

This is the one I made, happy on my tree. 

 Has anyone else had a “make your own ornament party” yet? I think you should.

Cranberry Chutney Recipe

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Hello real world, did everyone have a great Thanksgiving? I felt like it was Saturday for five days, and I love Saturdays :) You might ask, why are you giving us a Cranberry Recipe the week after Thanksgiving? Well, cranberries are good for the whole holiday season. That and I made this for my Mom’s Thanksgiving which was the day after and I took pictures as I went, ha. 

A little back story: My aunt made this for Thanksgiving and brought it to my Mom’s house about six years ago. It was a REALLY big hit with us. Now, I wonder why every family doesn’t make it. It it the perfect accompaniment to every holiday feast. The citrus and black pepper cut the sweet and savory perfectly. Actually, just yesterday my Mom said. “I think I just need to have this on hand for life”. It’s that good. So, we emailed my uncle to get the recipe. Then I was curious and I googled it, I found many similar recipes that were named Cranberry Salsa but none exactly like this one. Does anyone make anything like this? If not, do yourself a favor and whip some up for Christmas. I followed my Aunt and Uncle’s recipe exactly. My Uncle called it “Hudson’s on the Bend Cranberry Chutney” which is a restaurant in Austin, TX, where they live. I wonder if this is some coveted secret?? My Uncle said “The trick to this recipe is to trust the ingredients…..don’t add to or subtract from”.

Hudson’s on the Bend Cranberry Chutney
12 oz pkg of cranberries
½ cup fresh lime juice and ZEST
2 shallots
½ tsp of salt
1 whole bunch of Cilantro
2-3 cloves of garlic
1-2 seeded jalapenos
1 ¼ cup light brown sugar
¼ cup coarse ground pepper
 

Blend together in food processor 
 

My food processor isn’t large enough so I mixed everything together in a bowl then “chopped” in batches
 

I put mine in mason jars and added a fake fall leaf with twine. But lets be honest, you could serve this out of some old tupperware with a plastic spork and it would be pretty. 

So… was this one anyone else’s Thanksgiving plate? All of the recipes I found online called for green onion and white sugar with no black pepper (which I have to say is a definite must). And does anyone have a secret family side that is out of the norm?

Octopus Costume

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In keeping with our “under the sea” theme this year… Clyde will be fashioning an Octopus Costume :)
 

Trying to get a crawling nine month old to sit still for an octopus photo shoot isn’t the easiest of tasks… but we got a few pictures. Just like his brother’s,  I made sure his costume is comfortable because my boys will rip clothes off if they don’t like them. 

This is what I started with…
-light blue onesie with a truck on it
-blue pants
-XL men’s blue shirt on clearance

My main problem was that all of the blues were a different shade so I tie-dyed all of them along with Poseidon’s pillow case. Also, I tried to seam rip that embroidered car which almost resulted in a major fail… saved it by adding felt octopus eyes. 

For the “octopus leg belt”, I created a sock shape and cut out 12 halves from the XL men’s shirt. Then I sewed them together but left the tops open. I stuffed the legs and made “bias tape” (not actually on the bias- just from the tshirt scraps). To close the legs, I sandwiched them into the bias tape. The whole belt has a Velcro closure. 

Lastly, I kind of cheated and fabric glued felt “o’s” for the suckers to the back of the legs… I mean after cutting 35 “o’s” out I wasn’t abut to hand sew them on… Halloween is one day people. 

and this pretty much sums up how he felt about this little photo shoot…  bye mom.

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Poseidon – King of the Sea… a costume

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If you ask Finn about his costume for Halloween not only is he excited to put it on (because it involves a Trident) but he will also tell you he is the King of the Sea. 

At first he called his Trident a fork and ran around trying to “eat” everything with it. I have to give full credit to my mom for the idea. I though of Clyde’s costume (pics coming later this week) and wanted an Under the Sea theme. My Mom came up with Poseidon… KING OF THE SEA. Finn loves it. He even cried for at least 10 minutes after I made him take it off.

I don’t have a tutorial because Poseidon is pretty obscure, right?
Here are the components:
-a tie-dyed pillowcase 
-gold pleather belt with felt waves hand embroidered with a Velcro closure
-gold pleather shoulder “wrap”
– black taffeta trident with gold pleather tips and a wooden dowel inside and stuffed to make it soft

The best part is that it is super comfortable for him so he can run for hours in it :)

(ps… our poor dog was not harmed in the chasing with the trident pictures :)

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