Autumn in Vermont

We just got back from an amazing week in Vermont.  Though winter is tons of fun in Vermont, I think my favorite season is autumn.  Fall foliage in Vermont is breath taking and I love the fall activities.  We went to a country fair, apple and raspberry picking, to the Westin Country store, to a dairy farm (where we fed chickens!), on a hay ride, and to Bromley Mountain where they have tons of great summer and fall activities like an amazing alpine slide, mini golf, trampolines, etc.  But our son's favorite activity was probably picking up "rainbow leaves" and stuffing his pockets full of rocks every chance he could.  Here are a few pictures:

Easy dinosaur mittens

I came across a tutorial on MarthaStewart.com recently for embellished mittens and was so excited when I found an inexpensive pair of fleece mittens in our closest that were to big for our son last winter.  I think he will love his new dinosaur mittens this winter.

I tweaked the original design so that the spikes would stand up like and look more like stegosaurus and less like a dragon.  First, I sketched out a template for the spikes and cut out a green piece of felt and then pinned the same template to blue felt and cut it a little smaller than the green piece.  Then I folded them in half, pinned them together and hand stitched them along the spine.  This caused them to stick up when I tacked them to the mittens.  Lastly, I sewed on some buttons for eyes.  It was a little tricky stitching the pieces onto the mittens and I found that using a short needle really helped.

Giving a boring hat a little more pizzazz

The weather seems to suddenly have changed in New York but I have't uncovered the baby hats I knitted when my first son was a baby yet.  We needed a warm hat and I found this one but it was so plain.  I decided to give it a little "umph" with some embroidery.  I have absolutely no embroidery skills so I think this can be done by anyone as long as you sketch out your design first.  Here is what I came up with:

I used this print as my inspiration:

From boring to cute in about 30 minute!

How I Saved Dumbo

We recently took our three year old to one of those "paint your own ceramics" places on a rainy Saturday afternoon.  I was excited about it, but I am so controlling when it comes to my own crafts projects that I knew it would be hard to let him go crazy with all the colors (i.e. paint outside of the lines).  My husband had the great idea of only using one color at a time.  Brilliant!  We had a nice silvery grey dumbo in a short period of time.  Soon, he had nice pink ears.  But then, as our son got a little more comfortable in his surroundings, more and and more colors seemed to be appearing in his work space.  He was up and back from the paint station every few minutes and dumbo began to look as if he had been in a paint fight.

It was torture for me seeing him with huge paint brushes, sloshing colors all around.  There was little sign of our buddy Dumbo in the color swirl that had transpired.  But then my husband had yet another great idea.  He suggested I just paint in the eyes while my son was cleaning up.  So I quickly painted in the eyes (and neck ruffle and toe nails....but who's counting?) and voila!  Dumbo came to life.  Granted he still looks like paintball dumbo, but that is great because my son really did paint him.  I just added a few details and he was thrilled when he saw the changes.  He truly LOVES his Dumbo bank (and so do I)!

S'mores without a campfire

Yes, the s'more on the left is missing a bite.

I have a pretty strong sweet tooth and sometimes get over come by cravings for very particular sweet treats.  Today, that craving was s'mores.  I had all of the ingredients at home and decided to give it a go in the toaster oven (my appliance of choice for almost everything).

First, I melted some chocolate chips onto the graham crackers (less than a minute in  the toaster oven):

Then I spread the chocolate around:

I think it works best to toast the marshmallows last so they will be warm and gooey when you make your sandwich.  I cut my marshmallows in half because only the tops really toast in the toaster oven...and it is best to watch them in the oven because they go from perfect to burnt very quickly.

Lastly, smoosh it all together and eat quietly in the kitchen so you don't have to share ; ).

Giveaway at homemadebyjill.blogspot.com

I am so excited that Homemade by Jill is hosting a giveaway of my prints this week.  I am a huge fan of her blog.  I sent her a few prints for her new playroom and here they are:

Check out her blog to enter.

Lovely Bathroom featuring Just Bunch Art!

I was recently contact by a customer who shared these photos of her bathroom featuring my prints.  Lovely!!

Monster Bookmarks Tutorial

I recently came across this idea on pinterest (my new obsession) and was so excited to give it a shot.  It was very easy to do and would be a great crafts project for preschoolers (if you cut the template out for them).  I made one for my three year old, and one for me (the hubby's is still in progress):

And the great thing is, they really are functional bookmarks:

To make these bookmarks I measured out three equal squares (2.5 inches each) in this arrangement:

Then I drew a line through the two side squares:

Now cut out your shape (the shaded part gets cut off and can be reused as liners for your finished product if you'd like).  You will be left with one full square and two triangles.

Lastly, fold along the two sketched lines and clue your two together and decorate!  Happy reading!