Crafty Maggie

Fill in the Blank: Spring Break Edition

Posted by Margaret on Apr 27, 2012 in Blogging, Crafty Maggie, Family | 2 comments

Welcome to Fill in the Blank, the Spring Break Edition…

Here in Pondunk, and in many towns in New Hampshire, we’re day five into the April Vacation week. 

Aliens and runaway cows

Posted by Margaret on Dec 14, 2011 in Crafty Maggie, Humour | 4 comments

We made gingerbread houses this past weekend.

Though I did have to spend quite a bit of time prepping, (something I could not have done when Bubba and Daisy were younger) it was worth it.  Not just because they all came out so nicely, but because we all had a lot of fun doing the decorating.

Originally, this was supposed to be a train.  The guys decided it was a tractor and decorated it accordingly.

The house that Maggie built

Here is the runaway cow.  He’s nibbling on a peppermint tractor wheel.  Mostly because he can’t stand up on his own.

The is the farmhouse Daisy built–I think the cow ran away when the one eyed alien landed on the roof.  Note the gingerbread man who seems to have fainted

I don’t think these two even realize that there’s an alien, nor that the cow ran away.  Clearly they aren’t yet aware that the third gingerbread man has been abducted.  I mean, look at those smiles.

>Make a Spider Costume in Less than an Hour

Posted by Margaret on Oct 4, 2011 in Crafty Maggie | 0 comments

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Was he really this little?

This post was first published in 2007, back when Bubba was about to turn four.  This costume came together in really short order.  He wore it over and over and over again long past Halloween.  It was so easy, and I’m getting a few hits on the original post, so I thought I’d revive it for all of you today.  

As I mentioned in my “crafty” post, often I get these ideas someone else has already done. In this case, I may well have read this one years ago, and retained it or maybe I’m a costuming genius, either way, I thought some might like an easy costume idea (and this could be easily modified for an adult costume as well!) I just created a Spider Costume for my son.

I bought a pair of black sweatpants, a black long-sleeved shirt, a pair of black gloves, two pair of black dress socks (men’s crew length;  use tights for an adult costume) . I had kicking around the house a BUNCH of plastic grocery sacks (I use them for packing material when I ship for eBay) as well as a length of elastic, a sewing needle and black thread.

First, I stuffed the four men’s socks with grocery sacks, all scrunched up. The heel of the sock makes a natural bend so these really look like spider’s legs when they are evenly stuffed with the grocery sacks. The sacks are easy to stuff in the socks, and are easily squeezed into the right shape once you’ve filled the sock. I stitched the top of each sock onto the sides of the shirt under the sleeves (see the photos).

Then I sewed a short bit of elastic running from the bottom of the bend on the top ‘leg’ to the top of the bend on the bottom ‘leg’. Another short bit of elastic went from the cuff of the shirt sleeve to the top of the bend on the top leg. I stitched it all by hand–messy, nasty stitches that Martha would NOT be proud of, but they are firm, they’ll stay put, an accomplishment that most MOTHERS would in fact be proud of. Especially since with black on black, no one’s the wiser!!

Now you have a shirt, with two real sleeves, and then four additional ‘sleeves’ (the socks). With black sweatpants on, black gloves and black shoes or sneakers, your spider is nearly complete. Take a black knit hat, and hot glue eight large pompoms or googly eyes, evenly spaced around cuff of the hat. (2011 note:  this hat is *still* a favorite.  It’s the only part of the costume that we still have kicking around.)

Voila…a spider costume in less than an hour. Now, if I could just get the boy out of it, so that it’s still presentable for Halloween!!


Final 2011 note:  You can modify this idea for different insects–lose a pair of socks and add a pair of wings and you have a butterfly.  Change up colors…whatever inspires you!  Oh, and come back and share a photo, too!
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Supply List for Spider Costume:

• Black Sweatpants
• Long sleeved Black T-shirt
• 2 Pair Black men’s dress socks
• Stuffing for four spider legs (I used plastic grocery sacks, but you can use batting, or other filling as well)
• 1 pair of black mittens/gloves (optional)
• Black knit hat
• 8 pompoms or Googly Eyes
• 24″ elastic or cording
• Glue/Hot Glue
• Black Thread
• Needle

>My latest creation

Posted by Margaret on Sep 3, 2011 in Crafty Maggie | 4 comments

>My sister and her husband are about to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary, next week.  Last night we hosted a dinner party for them–yes, complete with cake…

I had issues with this one, but it came out OK overall…

I’m learning a little something from each one I do. This is the first cake where I made fondant myself–I made the Chocolate Fondant (the white, I purchased).  My first batch came out a little runny:

But the second came out all right.  I think it was a touch dry, and it cracked easily (hence the white fondant). 

One day, I’ll create the perfect cake, with no screw-ups…

>Lessons learned from my latest fondant creation

Posted by Margaret on Aug 22, 2011 in Crafty Maggie, Yum! | 8 comments

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I made this cake over the weekend…lemon, with lemon icing under lemon fondant.  The white accents are plain fondant.

I used one 13″x9″ lemon cake for this one.

I topped the icing with lemon curd–warmed in the microwave to make it easier to spread on the smooshy icing–and topped with the second layer.

Then I repeated the process with a 4″x4″ square from the remainder of the cake.  Both layers got frosted around the sides after they were stacked.

Then I rolled out the fondant and placed it on the frosted cake layers, tried desperately to center the 4×4 tier (I didn’t succeed), added embellishments and voila~

A few of things I learned:

• Don’t use tub frosting to coat the cake prior to the fondant–it’s too soft and sort of runny compared to good old fashioned butter cream.
• Also, be sure to make your ribbons long enough to cover the circumference. Then you don’t have to meet them up in numerous spots around the cake.
• The lemon curd I layered on top of the frosting in the layers (two layers per tier) was kind of a wasted effort.  For me to say it’s too much lemon is really saying something.   
• Extra cake is never a problem in our house.