Feelin Crafty

As I was browsing Pinterest last night, I came across this link for 101 Handmade Christmas Ornaments. There were a lot of cute ideas, but #45 caught my eye right away. Anything involving felt and birdies is  right up my alley! 


After reading the tutorial at A Feathered Nest, I was surprised to find that it didn't seem too difficult. I pinned the link, thinking I may come back at some point totally intending to come back and make some of the ornaments. ;)

I don't know what got into me, considering it was after 11 pm. I think it was a combination of boredom, frustration with the Pinterest app and inspiration from all the pretty Christmas-y pins and tutorials. But anyway, I got the idea in my head that even though I can't sew, I could totally make one of those little birdies!


I gathered up my supplies from random drawers and boxes around my house. I found some soft, pink cotton fabric, red and white felt, and a few random spools of thread in red, pink and green.

Now, I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that this took me about 2 hours to complete... I think most of that time was spent threading needles and trying to tie knots! If you can sew, it definitely wouldn't take you that long!


I deviated quite a bit from the tutorial, based on what supplies I had on hand. I didn't have a fancy vanishing fabric marker, so I just used a pen to draw a wing shape on the white felt and then freehanded the stitching. I did use her stitch guide to get some ideas and help for the wing embellishments, but mostly I just did whatever I thought might look cute. Then I made sure to cut inside the pen line so that you wouldn't see the tracing.
For the body, I found a picture I liked online and then just traced it onto a piece of computer paper. Then I layered the stencil onto two pieces of the pink fabric and cut it all out. So easy, and no pen marks needed! Oh, and I didn't use an embroidery loop, because 1- I didn't have one, and 2- I honestly don't know what she used it for! :) 


After all the parts were cut out, I used felt glue to attach the wing to the top piece, cut out a little beak from the red felt and glued it in between the two pieces and then just started stitching both pieces together. I had no idea what I was doing, really, so the stitches are all randomly spaced and uneven. But we'll just call that, along with all the frayed edges, "shabby chic". :)
I forgot about the eye until I was almost at the end! Oops. I tried to read several stitching tutorials, but I could not figure out the "french knot" for the life of me! Instead of getting frustrated, I just used black thread to make a little X and called it good.


I stuffed it with some tissue and that was it! I was pretty happy with how it turned out, although it isn't as Christmas-y as I hoped. I like it even more this morning. She's so cute! 


Pretty good for someone who can't sew, huh?

Very Pinteresting

I made something that I pinned on Pinterest! It almost makes me feel justified in all the time I spend on there. :)


I had pinned these Pizza Balls a long time ago and have been thinking about them all week. I was thinking they might be like the pizza rolls from Old Chicago, but easier!


I didn't have any canned biscuits, so I decided to try it using this recipe from Baby Loving Mama (which I had made once before and they were delicious!).


Because I don't like to get my hands dirty and gooey, I decided to mix the pepperoni and cheese into the biscuit dough with a spoon. I added the melted butter/milk, stirred it a few times, added the pepperoni & cheese and then finished mixing it all together until it was all combined.

I spooned the dough into a cupcake pan sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Then I topped them with fresh grated parmesan, because I like to be fancy sometimes.

Now cooking was a little tricky... The biscuit recipe said to bake at 450 for 8-12 minutes, but the pizza balls recipe said to bake at 350 for 15-17 minutes. If you use the made-from-scratch biscuits, I would definitely recommend going with the 450 degree oven. I tried it at 400 and they weren't cooked after 15 minutes. I bumped it up to 450 and they were golden brown in 5 minutes.

They came out more like pizza muffins instead of balls. And I thought I had used a LOT of pepperoni, but when I cut into the biscuits, I could hardly find any! Next time I would use more, or at least make sure they are more evenly dispersed through the dough. And add lots of cheese.


Serve them with marinara sauce.

Overall, they were not as good as I had hoped. If I make them again, I will probably use canned biscuits. 




Anyway, I still ate them while I watched Eclipse. I'm having my own Twilight Saga Tuesdays at my house. Except it's more like "Twilight Saga Wednesday, Thursday, Fridays" because frankly, I don't want to wait a week in between watching each one. :)


Okay, I'm off to go find more things to pin!
Happy Weekend!