Sew Cute Tuesday {2.16.10}

I'll admit it.....I was a little nervous last week. I was so sure that nobody would link up any sewing projects, and I'd have to chalk this up as an "atleast I tried". So imagine how thrilled I was to have 19 links....and all of them were great!

It was hard to choose favorites, but here's a few that I really liked:

Plush Flowers in Pots from Bird Crafts via Someday Crafts


Tic Tac Toe: 3 Hearts in a Row from Oopsey Daisy


Corduroy Purse from Seven Thirty Three


Thanks for sharing your great sewing projects ladies! Feel free to grab the "I Was Featured Button" on my sidebar!

I can't wait to see what projects are linked this week!! I have a feeling my "To Do" list is going to be growing longer and longer!





<center><a href="http://thecreativeitchboutique.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" t="CreativeItchFeaturedSewCuteButto-2.png" alt="Photobucket" src="http://i347.photobucket.com/albums/p461/stanmist/Creative%20Itch/th_CreativeItchFeaturedSewCuteButto-2.png" target="_blank" /></a></center>

Rules for linking:
**please link sewing projects only! (can be sewn with sewing machine or by hand)
**link to the specific post, not blog home page!

Rice Bags

My husband recently had surgery to repair a hernia, and the day after his surgery, he asked me if we had a heating pad. Well, we don't own a heating pad, so I did the next best thing. I whipped up a rice bag that he could warm up in the microwave! It did the trick for him, and was a big help in his recovery.

Of course, when our kids saw what I was making, they all requested one too.

There are lots of tutorials on how to make these, but since my husband needed one quick, I just made it up as I went. All I did was:

**cut 2 rectangles

**placed them right sides together and sewed, leaving an opening at the top

**turned right sides out and ironed them flat

**filled with rice

**sewed the opening shut

It was so simple, that my oldest daughter made 2 more rice bags all by herself to give to some of her friends at school! It was a fun project that brought some warmth and relief to those that I love the most!

I'm linking to:

The Girl Creative, Keeping It Simple, Making the World Cuter, Sumo's Sweet Stuff

Blog Swap with Keeping it Simple!

Hello all you Creative Itch readers! I am super excited to be here with you today!! From the first time I went on Misty's blog, I knew that she was amazing. She has such great ideas and she does such a good job! I don't know how she does it, especially with having 5 kids, wow!

Let me introduce myself, I'm Kaysi

from Keeping It Simple.

I'm the mother of three adorable little boys, ages 4, 3, and 1. I'm married to an amazing man, he is just wonderful. My family is my life! Those boys bring me so much joy and happiness!

I am a simple person, I don't like to over do anything. I absolutely love color, especially green, brown and blue. With many hours of painting, I finally don't have a white wall in my house.

Each day of the week, I have something different.

Motivate me Monday, that's where I have link party and you get to show me all the cute things that you have done.

Tutorial Tuesday, I give a tutorial of a craft that I have done

Whatever Wednesday, this is my day that I put anything up.

Tip Thursday, this is the day that I post a scrapbook idea or give a scrapbook tip

Fridays are the days that I do Blog swaps with other bloggers.

Here are a few things that you can see at my blog:

Home Made Valentines

Wall hangings made out of gift boxes

Utensil Holder

Painted Countertops to look like stone

Ribbon Bow Tie

You should stop on by and see what else I have!!

Thanks so much Misty for doing this with me!

*************************************************************************************

Isn't Kaysi great?! I know for sure that I'm going to try her "wall hangings made out of gift boxes" idea...so clever!!
Thanks for swapping blogs with me, Kaysi!

The Best Pumpkin Bread!

I love pumpkin bread!! I was craving some and went looking for my recipe, but couldn't find it. So I went searching for a yummy recipe and hit the jackpot!

You can find the recipe HERE from Allrecipes.

**I used applesauce instead of oil, and added 1 c. of chocolate chips to the batter. I also sprinkled the top with a cinnamon/sugar mixture before baking. It gave the bread a nice, sweet crunch!

Our Articles of Faith Reward System

For the past year or so, I've been trying to figure out a way to help my kids learn the Articles of Faith. Previously we'd work on 1 Article of Faith a month for Family Home Evening, but there was no motivation for them to work on them on their own.

As part of my New Year's Resolution to "work on my organization", we revamped our Family Home Evening schedule. For the past several years we followed the Primary Outline for Sharing Time, but we wanted to incorporate talks from General Conference too. So this year, our FHE schedule goes as follows:

1st Monday: Lesson from the Primary Outline for Sharing Time (OST)
2nd Monday: Lesson from a General Conference Address
3rd Monday: Lesson about an Article of Faith
4th Monday: Lesson from the OST
5th Monday: Our Choice

Since we're having a lesson on an Article of Faith a month, I decided to implement a reward system for memorizing them. I grabbed a #10 can, cute paper, and Mod Podge and went to work.

The kids can work on memorizing the Articles of Faith however they want. They can wait until our lesson on them each month, and then try to pass it off, or they can work on 1 (or more) a week. For each Article of Faith that they pass off, they can pick a treat from the reward can. And to make it easier on myself and my husband, we've designated Sunday afternoons as the 'pass off' days. That way we aren't bombarded every day of the week with someone wanting to pass one off.

So far this has worked wonderfully! The kids are excited about learning and passing off the Articles of Faith, and I feel more organized about it all.