So, my current flower obsession continues…but this time over at Becky’s Craft Closet where I was invited to be a guest blogger! So exciting! Feel free to check out my tutorial and learn how to make these cute felt flower hair clips!

Also, check out Becky’s debut on FloralShowers and learn how to make cute fabric roses.

So I have been on a little flower kick lately…believe me when I say there are more posts to come! This particular flower I made in celebration of St. Patrick’s day—due to the fact that my daughter does not have a wide selection of green apparel, I thought a green ribbon flower, to wear in her hair, would be perfect.

So let me show you how to make one! (I promise it is easy )

Step 1: First you need to cut a piece of ribbon. It doesn’t matter how long, because you can make a flower as big and as full as you want (or as small). I think my ribbon was about 18″ long. (ish?) Then you need to do a basting stitch down one side. (This is the biggest stitches your sewing machine can do…if you didn’t know :-O )

Step 2: Now pull on one of your threads to gather your ribbon. Make sure to hang onto the thread on the opposite side so you don’t pull it completely out. Keep gathering until you like the way it looks. (oh pretty)

Step 3: Tie off your threads. And I highly recommend using fray check on the ends of your ribbon…so uh, they wont fray. If you don’t have fray check, you can also use clear nail polish.

Step 4: Now you need to cut out a felt circle. This is going to be for the back side of your flower. I traced the top of a vitamin lid for mine…but since your flower may be a different size— yours might need to be bigger or smaller.

Step 5: Working in a circular direction, hot glue your ribbon onto your felt circle. Start on the outside edge and work into the center.

Step 6: Now hot glue your button on! (don’t you just love glue guns!?!)

Step 7: You can skip this step entirely if you want to0…but I like to glue ribbon onto my hair clips (I think it looks a bit nicer.) You can cover the entire clip, or leave one side uncovered which will actually help it to stay in ultra fine hair— oh, and pardon the glue that is stuck to my thumbnail…

Step 8: Glue your hair clip onto the back of your flower like so:

You want the flat part of the clip to be against your  head.

And Voila! You are done!

This post has been linked at:

Look What I Made @ Creations by Kara
Strut Your Stuff Thursday @ Somewhat Simple
Get Your Craft on @ Today’s Creative Blog
Get Your Craft on Thursday @ Life as Lori
St. Patty’s Day Link Party @ Craftaholic’s Anonymous
Made by You Monday @ Skip to My Lou

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of being a guest blogger over at All For This Penny…unfortunately so much stuff came up that I wasn’t able to blog about it at all. So sad. But now that things have settled down again I thought I would share the link with you!

You can check out my tutorial here and make sure to say hi to my friend Jessica (she has the cutest blog ever!)

This week over at Simply Modern Mom, she is hosting a Recipe Swap where she is collecting a bunch of “over used” recipes…you know, the ones that you seem to make over and over and over (and over) again and your family still loves to eat them. Anyhow, I thought I would post a few of my favorites and join in on the fun! So here is my first recipe…Yummy POT PIE! (Make sure to click on the button at the bottom of my post so you can check out some more fabulous family favorite recipes!)

Chicken Pot Pie

Crust: (Or just buy a pre-made crust, which is what I do 99.9% of the time)

3 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 c. + 2 Tbs. Shortening
6 Tbs. Ice water

Cut shortening into flour and salt until crumbly and shortening disappears. Add water and mix slightly with pastry blender. Lay sheet of Saran Wrap on large dish towel. Poor dough onto saran wrap and wrap up. Wrap towel around saran covered dough and beat on counter several times (20-30 hits). Unwrap and roll out for pies.

Filling:

1 package frozen peas and carrots
1/3 c. butter or stick margarine
1/3 c. all purpose flour
1/3 c. chopped onion
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. Pepper
1 3/4 c. chicken broth
2/3 c. milk
2 1/2 – 3 c. cooked and cut up chicken or turkey
2 pie crusts

Rinse frozen peas and carrots in cold water to separate; drain.

Melt butter in 2-quart saucepan over medium heat. Stir in flour, onion, salt, and pepper. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is bubbly; remove from heat. Stir in broth and milk. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Stir in chicken and peas and carrots; remove from heat.

Heat oven to 425. Bake for about 35 minutes or until golden brown.

Make sure you go and check out this awesome collection of “over-used” recipes:

This recipe has also been added to the MckLinky Recipe Blog Hop (enjoy discovering more recipes!)

I feel so bad that I haven’t blogged at all in almost a week…I have been so sick. My daughter has had this cold—almost all winter long. She gets sick, then kind of gets better, then gets sick again, and so it goes on and on and on. Oh, I wish Winter would just END! I totally blame all my  woes on Winter.

Well, after being thrown up on, and coughed on, and sneezed on (etc…I will spare you the chunky details) I am now sick as well, and this is one mean little bug. I haven’t done much in days. My house is a wreck. My husband had to eat his cereal (he’s lucky there was cereal=) out of tupperware this morning because of course there isn’t a clean dish in the house, and you don’t even want to ask me about my pile of laundry…

PLUS—I am going to be having 2 extra kids spending the week at my house (starting tomorrow). So, I will have a 4  year old (neighbor kid), 3 year old (my kid), 2 year old (neighbor kid) and a 10 month old (mine). And with my husband working 65 hour weeks…well, lets just say It’s going to be a long week for me too. It would be enough work if I was feeling well…now, I’m not even sure I will survive. ha ha.

So, I’m pumping my body full of fluids and vitamins. I’m heading off right now to take a nap. I’m praying that I will miraculously be healed by tomorrow. And I am looking forward to a fun filled week…that unfortunately does not include blogging. So, I will miss you FloralShowers…and I will miss all you lovely readers. Zzz. zzz. zzz.

This is Anne.

Signing off.

bye.