Living on 4th Street

Elephant Skirt

2011-11-11T19:53:00.001-06:00

We were shopping at Walmart when we spied this elephant printed corduroy. We fell in love with the elephants so it had to come home with us.

My husband said that it looked like a Republican skirt.
Why do men have to make everything political?

It is so much more important that the elephants were bright and cheerfully cute and that the skirt twirls properly. Like it should.

Ah yes. . . she's a cheeky one isn't she?

Have a great weekend ♥

Just a little something because I like you (aka: It's a GIVEAWAY!!!)

2011-11-08T07:00:00.000-06:00

Giveaway is closed----------
This fall I was a vendor at two craft fairs. Lots of work. Tons of fun. I really enjoy getting out and meeting people as they come into my booth.

This is one of the items that I made to sell. One side is Mexican Oilcloth and the other side is chalkcloth. Sold like hotcakes.

This particular banner has 12 pennants. You can write any message you want in chalk on the chalkcloth side, hang it up and both sides will look pretty and festive.

Possible Messages:

Personalize it with a name

Garage Sale

Welcome Home

Give Thanks

Make a list of things you are thankful for.

It's a boy! or It's a girl!

Backyard BBQ

I want to give one of my amazing readers the banner pictured above. Just leave a comment and make sure I have a way of contacting you. If I can't contact you, I'll choose another winner. This giveaway will end on Friday evening (November 11, 2011)

Jalapeno Pepper Jelly

2011-11-06T22:00:00.000-06:00

A friend had bushel baskets full of peppers that they had picked before a freeze and offered some to me. I was excited because I have been wanting to try to make Jalapeno Pepper Jelly for a very long time.

I used this recipe from allrecipes.com: Hot Pepper Jelly

I didn't measure each type of pepper exactly, but made sure that I had 4 cups of peppers total and that worked fine. I just used what I had.

I learned a couple of lessons:

The recipe is perfect. A lot of the reviews suggested doubling the pectin. Don't do it. If you bring the jelly up to a rolling boil (which is a boil that can't be stirred down) it will gel. We panicked and added more pectin because it didn't seem thick enough. It will set up more with time. My jelly is now too gelled. (Does that even make sense????)
Many cooking experts tell you to wear gloves when cutting hot peppers. I didn't do it. Very bad idea. Please wear gloves. OUCHIE!
If you don't wear gloves, be of good cheer. Your hands will eventually quite burning after HOURS of pain.
This is a fantastic way to eat your vegetables, but the scale is telling me that it does need to be eaten in moderation. Dumb scale.

We used FlipSiders crackers. The ones with pretzel on one side and a buttery cracker on the other. And we had cream cheese, because I ♥ cream cheese☺

Is it snack time yet?

Tanganyika Wildlife Park

2011-11-04T12:03:00.001-05:00

Our family recently went to a local Wildlife park. It is unique because you get to interact with a lot of the animals.

We spotted a park employee taking a PORCUPINE for a walk.
AMAZING!
So each of the kids got to pet a porcupine.

Lemurs were the favorite. Apparently they like craisins. Who knew???

Fall Cravings

2011-11-03T09:41:00.005-05:00

I have been craving pumpkin. So far I have made at least 4 pumpkin pies and pumpkin waffles. Yesterday, I was in the mood for pumpkin but didn't have a whole lotta time to come up with dessert. So I tried Natalie's recipe for Pumpk in Crunch. Oh mercy.

Natalie recommends ice cream AND cool whip. I only had ice cream. I also was out of pecans. Boo. But we managed to choke down the whole pan anyway :)
Quick, Easy, and Yummy. What more could you ask for?

Growing up

2011-11-01T19:38:00.004-05:00

While my four year old is wanting twirliness, my nine year old is wanting to look more grown up. She is starting to act more grown up too. I'm really proud of her.

I wanted to sew something for her birthday waaayyyy back in September. Almost two months after her birthday, her dress is finally finished. Life got crazy with craft fairs and I don't know what all else so it got put aside for awhile, but it is finally finished.

The fabric from Amy Butler's Lotus line.
LOVE. LOVE. LOVE.
I think Lotus is my very favorite line of hers, although the new Lark line is gorgeous too.
I bought it quite a long time ago with no particular purpose in mind. I just knew I loved it and wanted to have some on hand. Kinda toyed with the thought of making something for me, but it looks perfect on my daughter so I'm glad I hung on to it for just the right thing.

When her Daddy saw her in her new dress, I'm pretty sure he got tears in his eyes. I think that means we succeeded in getting her to look more grown up.

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-29T20:56:00.004-05:00

Every year, we go to a free, local pumpkin patch.

They make a few changes every year. This year the slide was a little bigger and they added some fun barrel and tire swings.

The little man was big enough to do some of the same things that the others did. When I plopped him into the corn, he was so happy and didn't want to leave.
Ever.

I didn't even take a picture of the pumpkin we brought home. It was probably the smallest pumpkin in the whole patch.

While the older kiddos were let loose into the maze, our 4 year old climbed up on Daddy's shoulders and together they went in search of the perfect pumpkin.

She spotted it in the next patch over and directed Daddy to where it was. The little pumpkin clearly needed a home.

What are your favorite things to do in the fall?

Very Hungry Caterpillar

2011-10-24T21:35:00.003-05:00

Little Pumpkin turned 4 years old last week. Turning 4 is a very big deal. She is no longer a toddler. Sometime this past summer, she grew up and started acting more like a pre-schooler.

She decided she wanted a Very Hungry Caterpillar party to celebrate.

I wanted to celebrate the fact that even though she is getting older, she still likes to twirl.

So I made her a twirly, caterpillar skirt with red tulle peeking out the bottom. It makes me smile every time I see her.

I found the Hungry Caterpillar fabric at the Fat Quarter Shop.

Scooter Skirt and Shirt

2011-06-19T21:41:00.007-05:00

Maybe a better title for this post is: "It is more fun to start a new project than to work on one"

Maybe I'm the only one who does this, but I love dreaming up a project and buying new fabric. (Especially the buying new fabric part) Than I work on it all gung-ho for a day or two.

But when it is so close to being done and only the most mundane of details are left to complete, I abandon it for a new, more exciting project. It took me two weeks to force myself to finish the hem and the buttonholes on the shirt. Bah!

I learned there was a reason I don't usually make shirts. Tailored shirts are on a whole different skill level than I currently possess. I won't point out all my mistakes to prove it though. You will not find any close up pics of the collar and let's not even talk about the hem. . .

The buttonholes though are beautiful if I do say so myself. But I can't really take credit for them. I have an old treadle Singer that has been converted with an electric motor that has a buttonhole attachment. It makes the most bee-you-tiful buttonholes.

The fabric is from a collection by Timeless Treasures: Vespa Scooters on Paris and I used this pattern.

It's Strawberry Picking Time

2011-05-24T19:37:00.006-05:00

We went to a local u-pick strawberry patch, Jester Creek Farm, on Monday to go treasure hunting for red, juicy yumminess. My brother and sister-in-law own the patch and this is the first year that they are in business.

Once we brought the strawberries home, we had to decide what to do with them. I was hoping to make jam, but the kiddos had other ideas. . .

and their ideas were pretty yummy too.

I tried a new recipe and it was amazing.
You can find the recipe here
It was truly the best strawberry pie I have ever had.

Oh, and you should check out what Beki is doing with strawberries: S'mores with strawberries??? Oh yes please. Those ginormous "campfire" marshmallows jumped into my cart while grocery shopping so I'm all set for that fantastic idea.

Giveaway Day-Spring 2011

2011-05-20T15:50:00.007-05:00

Giveaway is closed

Sew Mama Sew is sponsoring another Giveaway Day and I'm excited to join in. Love any excuse to sew up something fun and I'm hoping to use it to kick start my blogging again. Thank you to all who have let me know that you miss my posts. I am hoping to blog at least once or twice a week. I have missed you all so very much too.

So let's get on with the giveaway:

I used Anna Maria Horner's Drawing Room Pressed Flowers in Teal to create the exterior of the bag. I'm so in love with this print!!! It is a decor weight fabric that should be durable as well as pretty.
The pattern is from Simplicity which can be found here. I really liked it and thought it sewed up quickly.
The closure is a button.

The interior has a gold vinyl at the top and gray cotton lining the bottom. It has one pocket.

How to enter:

Leave a comment-make sure I have a way of contacting you if you are the winner. I will choose another winner if I can't reach you.

Follow my blog and leave another comment telling me that you are a follower

I will use the Random number generator to pick a winner on Thursday, May 26. International readers are welcome to participate.

A bit of bragging

2011-03-03T13:58:00.004-06:00

Mom's can be obnoxious when bragging about their children. I totally get that, believe me.

BUT. . . I have to brag about my 8 year old anyway

She sewed this shirt all by herself! Talk about a proud mom moment! I gave her very limited help. In fact I often gave her instructions and then walked away because I have a tendency to want to take over. Crazy huh? I think that is a mom tendency too. . .

H. has been so patient. We gave her the fabric and pattern for Christmas. And then our family got sick. . . again and again and again. Blech. So many advantages to having a large family but it takes F.O.R.E.V.E.R. for a sickness to make it through the whole family and by then the next illness starts. Nasty sicky winter it has been too.

But last Saturday I told H. we were going to finish her shirt no matter what. She was so excited to wear it on Sunday to church.

The pattern is from Simplicity. They have created several patterns for people just learning to sew with extra instructions and simpler patterns. This pattern didn't have a set in sleeve for example, rather it is kind of like a short kimono sleeve that is just cut out as part of the bodice. Great for beginners.

So, yeah I'm proud of her.

Bucket Bag

2011-02-10T09:38:00.005-06:00

I bought Lisa Lam's book, The Bag Making Bible, several months ago and have been dying to try some of the patterns given. Actually, it is much more than a book with wonderful patterns in it (which it does have by the way. . .) because it also shows you a lot of techniques for making bags that you can then incorporate into your own designs. I have so many design ideas swimming around in my head it's not even funny, but because my sewing time is limited right now I decided to just make one of Lisa's patterns.

This would be the perfect bag to take to the library to get a stack of books, as a smallish diaper bag for those times when you need to just take a few things with you, to the farmer's market to buy some produce, to the craft fair to stash your amazing finds in. . . you get the idea. A perfect, not-too-big tote bag with a ton of great uses.

I used Heather Bailey Nicey Jane fabric for the interior and exterior. The binding, covered button, and bottom of the bag are from the Amy Butler Midwest Modern collection. It uses just 1/2 yd. of three coordinating fabrics so I could buy some of the fabric I had been drooling over without breaking the bank.

If you don't have the book, don't want to buy the book (I personally recommend buying the book if you like making bags), but LOVE the bag and really want to make one you are totally in luck! You can find the pattern for FREE (Yes FREE!) at Sew Mama Sew!

I had so much fun sewing and had a few scraps left over that I couldn't waste that I whipped up a zippered bag to go inside. I followed the same self-quilting technique that I used to make this birthday placemat.

Embroidered Card

2011-02-08T14:41:00.005-06:00

A couple of weeks ago, I received an invitation to a mail-in baby shower for my cousin who is expecting her first baby. I made her a hooded towel following my tutorial here and totally forgot to take a picture of it so you could see it-Sorry!

After I wrapped the gift and got it ready to mail, I realized I had forgotten to buy a card. With 5 children, running out to buy a card did not appeal to me. So I decided to make one.

I have been completely inspired by Aimee Ray's embroidery books: Doodle Stitching and Doodle Stitching: The Motif Collection. The Motif Collection has been wonderful in particular because you receive a disk with all of the designs on it that you can mix and match to make your own composition. But both books, have inspiring ideas of things you can embroider. One of the ideas in the books was to embroider gift tags. I expanded on that idea a bit and ended up embroidering a blank card.

I can't tell you how much fun I had creating this card. I printed off the design using my computer printer and then held the card over the design on a window so that I could see the lines and softly traced it onto the blank card. I'm so high tech you know.

Embroidering on paper has its problems because you can't see where your needle is going to poke through.

Now here is the key to doing this project that I figured out with much trial and error: Poke tiny holes in your outline with your needle so that you can embroider with a running stitch just like the sewing or lacing cards that kids like to do.

This method would only work with a running stitch though so if you are wanting to do the backstitch you would have to be a bit more careful and hold you project up to the light so that you can see the outline on the back of the paper and then carefully push on the needle until you see a bump on the front of the paper. If it is in the right spot you would continue to stitch, if not try again.

It would actually be a great beginning project for a child who is learning to embroider, but there was no way I was giving my project over to one of my children this time because I selfishly wanted to do it myself. But it would be a great idea for a grandparent's birthday card or maybe a Mother's day card.

The nest is not fully embroidered. I embroidered a few of the twigs and then traced the remaining twigs with a brown colored pencil. It was just a bit too many twigs to do easily on card stock.

A dumb question:

2010-12-31T07:54:00.004-06:00

Do you preshrink your fusible interfacing???

For Christmas, I gave my daughter this pattern and fabric and told her we would work together to sew it this week. I have been sewing for more years than I want to claim and I have never preshrunk my interfacing so you can imagine my surprise when the step-by-step-helping-the-new-little-seamstress kind of instructions said to preshrink the fusible interfacing by putting it in hot water for 20 minutes.
Seriously????
I do have one dress that I made where the interfacing went wonky on me. At the time I blamed it on the fabric which was ridiculously hard to work with, but now I wonder. . .

Locals: Don't forget about the scrapbook paper and sticker sale tomorrow, Jan 1. Details are here.

Hey Locals!

2010-12-28T21:25:00.002-06:00

Some friends had a wonderful opportunity to adopt this boy from Ethiopia earlier this year. It was truly an amazing experience to hear how God led in their lives to bring this little cutie home with them. To cover some remaining expenses they are having a huge sale on scrap booking supplies this Saturday.

DETAILS:
The sale is THIS Saturday, Jan. 1, 2011 (How can it be 2011 already????) at the Bethel College of Performing Arts located across the street from First Bank near the Library (123 E Broadway, Newton Ks) . It is a HUGE scrapbook sticker and paper sale and everything is under a quarter including Mrs Grossman stickers. The sale will be open from 9:00 am to 8:00 pm.

Even if you don't scrapbook there are so many great ideas for using pretty paper and stickers that this is a great deal. Here are a few links to get you started:

Banner
Ribbon Wands
Decoupaged Letters
Paper Beads
Cone Shaped Favor bags/ Place cards

If you have any more ideas feel free to leave a comment. Hope to see you there!

It's a good idea to read directions before sewing. . .

2010-12-21T09:56:00.003-06:00

I needed a gift for a 13 year old. I already had a gift to give, but wanted to add just a bit more to it so I decided to make Noodlehead's Gathered Clutch. It should have been so very simple. I have made this clutch before and had no trouble.

BUT this time I got cocky and didn't read the instructions closely. . .
or maybe I was listening to "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" too loudly. . .

Do you see the problem???
I'll give you a hint: the zipper
ACK!!!
I have the zipper tab on the right instead of the left! I had it fully sewn in AND topstitched before noticing the problem.
Why oh why do I do things like this???

I shamefully admit that I debated if it would be okay for the zipper to open in the opposite direction.
But then I remembered how much I love my niece, and so I re-did the zipper. I guess a little more love was just poured into the gift.

We filled it with Mood fingernail polish from Claire's because it is just so cool. I wish I had some. I wish I had nice nails to show off in the first place.

Anyhoo. . .if you need a quick stocking stuffer for a young girl here ya go. But for pity's sake read the directions.

Circle Skirt

2010-12-20T07:04:00.006-06:00

To make this skirt I used some black and white houndstooth from Hobby Lobby and this pattern. It would be a perfect project for anyone new to sewing, No gathers and no closures! So quick and easy with lots of twirling action girl's love.

Pumpkin wasn't thrilled with the fabric until she realized she could wear her boots with it. She is a boot girl just like her Mama.

I have another skirt that is already cut out waiting to be sewn. . .

Projects that can be completely sewn during nap time are a wonderful thing.

Christmas Dress #2

2010-12-17T09:36:00.005-06:00

For Pumpkin's dress we used the same pattern as Princess', but with different variations. It is one of the few patterns I could find with long sleeves or any sleeves at all for that matter. Do pattern makers not think little girls get cold in the winter?

The fabric is also an Amy Butler print , Bali Gate in periwinkle.

And the best news???

It's a twirly dress. That is important stuff to a 3 year old I'm telling you.

I was thinking the other day about how my sister and I would stand over the floor radiators to get our dresses to poof out. Little girls are a hoot.

Christmas dress #1

2010-12-16T11:40:00.003-06:00

I know I haven't been able to post as often as I like. The little man is a demanding guy, but he is starting to become a bit more social, and dare I hope, happy with a dash of contentment. Not too much contentment, of course, because he wouldn't want his Mommy to completely forget about him, but just a touch which is a great deal more than he had before.

We love him.

With Christmas programs and recitals coming up all December long, sewing needed to happen even if the little man didn't think it was as important as he is.

Amy Butler fabric was on a one day sale at Fabric.com several weeks ago and I jumped on it. I have been in love with this collection since it came out last year. I let Princess look at all the fabric with me online so she could pick what she wanted. Seriously can't go wrong with Amy Butler so I knew whatever she picked would be great. She chose Paradise Garden in periwinkle. I was supremely happy with her choice because it is actually my fav. I didn't want to jinx it and tell her that though.

The pattern we used didn't have the ruffle at the neck. The print was so bold, I felt like it needed something to give the eyes something to rest on so I found some of this blue Kona Cotton in my stash (I don't know the color-sorry) .

We came up with a ruffle for the neckline. It is a circular ruffle with no gathering.

I didn't need a very long ruffle since it is for a small girl so I drew a circle using one of our dinner plates and then a smaller circle in the middle of the first circle using a small bowl. Then I cut out the large circle with a straight cut to the interior circle and cut out the interior circle. If you needed a longer ruffle you would cut out a spiral. Then, when it is laid out flat the fabric will naturally ruffle. So cute and soft looking. I hemmed the ruffle with a small rolled hem.

If I didn't do a good job in explaining the ruffle, let me know I could try to do a tute sometime.

For her hair, I made a headband out of FOE (fold over elastic) and glued a flower to a hair clip. Crazy girl wanted the flower even bigger.

Apparently when you are 8, you can never have too many ruffles and super big flowers.

Family Portraits

2010-11-28T13:54:00.006-06:00

A couple weekends ago, we got together with a photographer from our church and had some pictures taken.

It means so much to me to be able to have a family portrait. Usually, I am the one who takes the pictures in our family which means we don't have many with all of us together.

We took one of the family portraits and using picnik.com , which is a free photo editing site, transformed it into our Christmas card. Walgreens was having a special deal last week with 50 prints for $5. So we are getting a great deal on our cards this year.

If you missed getting pictures developed last week, don't worry. I noticed they are doing 10¢ photos this week also which is essentially the same deal, but you don't have to buy 50.

My husband also writes a Christmas letter every year, but he hasn't done it yet. He is a lot more witty than I am so that job falls to him every year. He did put up the tree this weekend so hopefully that will get decorated soon.

Christmas is all of a sudden right around the corner and there is so very much to do.

Do you send out cards or letters during the holiday season?

Feeling a bit stifled

2010-10-31T14:47:00.004-05:00

There are many seasons of life.
Some girls are in the season of life where they are single and long to be married, some are married longing for a baby, some have children and are longing for some freedom.
Seasons change and they won't last forever.
I LOVE the season of life I'm experiencing right now, but with five children and one of them being only 3 months old I have been longing for a little creative time.
It doesn't happen often that I get time just for me. Immediate and necessary needs crowd out the wants. And it should.
For me sewing helps me to cope with the repetitiveness of my days. Dishes will get dirty again and have to be washed, food will be eaten and need to be prepared again (my 10 year old is consuming a shocking amount of food right now), laundry will always be piled up faster than I can get it clean and back into the drawers.
But when I sew something, I can use my creative energy to make something that stays done and I can feel good about what I accomplished.

This weekend it was time to make something for me.

I made this skirt out of fabric from Anna Maria Horner's Drawing room collection. It is Trellis in Ivory and is home decor weight cotton.
I love Anna Maria Horner. She has such an amazing sense of color and there are no rules about what colors can go together.
This fabric does have such a strong pattern that thinking about the pattern placement was a must. I almost ended up with a huge distorted flower centered over my bum. Clearly that wouldn't have been flattering. So when working with some fabrics, thought is required. Not my strong suit. Fortunately I recognized the problem before I cut the fabric.

The pattern is McCalls 3341. It was easily sewed in one day. I have to admit that I didn't even look at the directions so I have no idea if they are clear or not. I just sewed it together the way that made sense to me.
It was a bit shocking to figure out my size. The size I ended up sewing is 3 sizes bigger than the size I would buy in a store.
Gulp!
How the sizing can be that different is beyond me and makes sewing for myself a bit distressing, but just tell yourself that the size doesn't matter as long as it fits.

I have more fabric to sew for me and more coming for the girls so hopefully there will be a lot of sewing happening around here.

Random

2010-10-09T14:42:00.009-05:00

Today my kids sat on the floor munching kettle corn while I tried to make lunch. We finally sat down to lunch around 2:00.

I have been busy all week making more super hero capes because a local store is going to carry them on consignment. I have a nervous, butterfly feeling in my tummy just thinking about it. It is hard to open yourself up to the possibility of failure.

Moments like these remind me why I love being a Mom.

This past Wednesday I was sick and feeling crummy when my beautiful necklace came in the mail. It made me wish I felt better so I could wear it out and show it off. Love!

My daughter and I made a bunch of these ribbon wands. So much fun to make and tons of fun to twirl and dance with. . .
Ahem, not that I would know about the dancing and twirling part.

After cutting the dowel rod into 12 inch lengths we sanded off any rough edges and then using mod podge we put pretty scrap-booking paper around the rod to make it pretty.

What random things have YOU been doing????

Coffee Cake

2010-10-05T09:03:00.005-05:00

All summer long I avoid baking anything more than I have to. Our house, the kitchen especially, gets so hot in the summer that baking doesn't even sound fun.

But now that our house has a crisp fall breeze floating through it and we wake up with chilly noses, baking quickly becomes one of the things I enjoy the most.

This morning we ate this coffee cake still warm from the oven. Oh my. . . it was good. And the best part is that I put it together the night before. This morning, I quickly threw back the covers, raced barefooted across the chilly floors to put the coffee cake into the oven, and then raced back to bed for more snuggles with the little ones. Got up 35 minutes later to an amazing spicy fall-like smell in the house.

Perfect!

Barn Sale

2010-10-03T14:47:00.004-05:00

Beki hosted a Barn Sale at her farm this year and invited me to be a vendor. It was a new experience for me because I had never sold anything at a craft fair before, but my husband encouraged me to try it and I'm so glad he did.

We decided to make and sell superhero capes. I have been sewing like a crazy woman into the wee hours of the morning trying to get as many capes sewn as I could. It was completely worth it. I loved getting a chance to meet the people who were buying my capes and hearing feedback. It was so much fun seeing the children run around with their capes on imagining themselves being a hero. It made me smile.

Of course, it is always fun to see Beki although we didn't get a chance to talk too much since we were all busy. It was also fun to see the other vendors and admire all the amazing things they had created for the sale. They were a talented group of people!

It was a good day.

Thank you Beki for opening up your lovely farm and organizing this amazing event.

A glowing, unsolicited, unpaid endorsement

2010-09-22T09:41:00.003-05:00

I am an amateur, still learning kind of soap-maker who can't cut a straight line if my life depended on it. So when I saw the Kelsei molds, I knew I had to buy it. I have had it for over a year now and love it.

I was previously using those wax cardboard type containers that half and half, whipping cream, or buttermilk come in and it worked perfectly well. In fact, it was easy to unmold (just tear open the container), cheap, and little clean up (just toss it in the trash). But when I went to cut my beautiful log of soap, I totally ruined its appearance with my dreadfully uneven cuts.

But now with my soap mold, I have bars of soap that are actually all the same size and no one will know of my complete ineptness.

Spontaneous Homeschooling

2010-09-22T09:01:00.003-05:00

Sometimes the best homeschooling projects are completely unplanned by me.

P. found a caterpillar outside while he was playing and immediately brought it inside to show me. I tried to act excited while he dangled it in front of my face. . .

He set up a home for his caterpillar, from which the wily, little, squirmy, guy escaped two times.

Can you guess who had the misfortune of finding him???
Yep. It was me.

So we came up with a better home and now we are waiting to see what happens.

Researching information on his discovery was suddenly a fun thing to do.

We are thinking it looks like a monarch caterpillar. The last several years we have found black swallowtail caterpillars, but never a monarch so it would be fun to watch something different.

I love how the caterpillars seem to know that school has started and teachers everywhere need help in coming up with a science project. They appear at just the right time.

I'll let you know what we end up with after it emerges from its chrysalis.

Peppermint Essential Oil

2010-09-20T10:13:00.006-05:00

Sunday night my poor baby's tummy was hurting. Sundays are difficult days for my little man because he much prefers to stay home and have his normal routine. His tummy was all hard and he couldn't relax well enough to nurse.

Several weeks ago a friend mentioned that she used diluted peppermint essential oil on her baby's tummy in a similar situation. I tried it by diluting the peppermint essential oil in olive oil and gently rubbed it into his tummy and the bottom of his feet.

Complete miracle!

He immediately relaxed, closed his eyes, and nursed with no squirming. I put him to bed within 15 minutes.

The best part is that I also got to go to bed and didn't have to stay up really late trying to soothe a fussy baby.

By the way, I took this picture at another time when he was just pouting. I don't want you to think that I took it when he was actually in distress. ☺☺☺

If you need info on safety using essential oils, check out this link.

Shea Butter Soap

2010-09-20T09:39:00.006-05:00

I can not tell you how excited I am to be soaping again! I wasn't sure it was safe to soap during pregnancy because there can be some pretty strong fumes from the lye and water mixtures at first. After the lye fully dissolves into the liquid the fumes dissipate and it is fine .

Actually, when I began to wonder if I was pregnant I asked my husband to mix the lye and water together for me outside and then I did the rest of the soap and that worked fine. But after I discovered that I was definitely pregnant, I didn't want to run the risk. Come to think of it I also lacked the energy to care.

Fortunately, we found a great deal online with a friend who also soaps so that we could still have handmade soap. Once you have tried handmade soap you will never go back.

My husband used to have bad, dry, itchy, skin with eczema in the winter-time, but since using handmade soap it has cleared up. There are, of course, other reasons why a person might have eczema, so it won't necessarily be the cure for every case.

For this soap I used Coconut oil, Olive oil, and Shea butter. The speckles are from the natural colorant that I got at Emporium Naturals. I can't figure out if there is a way to not get speckles. I would prefer the color to be uniform, but maybe that isn't possible with natural colors. The fragrance is an essential oil blend, Bergamot Grapefruit, from Wholesale Supplies Plus .

The soap traced super fast because I used a water discount, which I have never done before. It was at a pretty thick consistency when I tried to put it into my mold. and would not smooth out. I decided to make the top of the soap swirled and pretend that is what I intended it to do. It's kinda pretty that way.

YAY for handmade soap. Now I just have to try and be patient and wait for it to cure. . .

Kansas State Fair 2010

2010-09-17T17:19:00.006-05:00

We love going to our state fair every September and are very fortunate to live only a short drive away. I was a little worried about how our 7 week old would handle being gone all day, but he actually did much better than I expected.

The KU booth has already started recruiting our handsome little guy.

I don't what it is, but every year I wish I could buy a pink cowboy hat. Then I saw a old lady wearing a bright turquoise cowboy hat with lots of feathers and the dream died. It wasn't good. I did admire her spunk though.

My husband was determined to try a fried Twinkie this year. He also wanted to try a Krispy Kreme burger, but fortunately for me he didn't find one. That just sounds gross.

This sign makes me laugh. I don't know why.

Our state fair always has a butter sculpture. This year it was a butter sheep which makes no sense. Ah well. . .it was still fun for the kids to see.

My 10 year old has started calling me Mom. What happened to me being Mommy?

What is your favorite thing to do at the state fair?

8

2010-09-09T10:07:00.006-05:00

This past week my oldest daughter turned 8. She is getting to be a beautiful young lady and I'm proud of her.

It is kind of hard to see her birthday cake in this picture. She wanted a cake with fruit on it. I have no idea why, but it was totally her. My husband is more artistic than I am, so he usually draws the design on the top of cake and then I decorate it with the frosting.

In Kansas, you have to sit in a booster car seat until you are age 8, so my daughter was excited not to have to sit in one of those anymore. It makes our van very crowded to have so many car seats. Now we only have 3 kiddos in car seats-Whoo Hoo!

I love making handmade things for my daughters birthday. Last year I made her a poncho, but this year she wanted a purple super-hero cape with a pink star.

Yes Ma'am!

The next gift was my idea. Really, its a gift to me, but don't tell her that. I made an apron similar to the one I recently gave away here on the blog for her to use to pick up toys. Good-bye pesky Legos! I made the straps long enough so that she can tie them in front.
Her aunt made her a lovely apron that she can use to cook in. I think she likes that one better. I can't imagine why. . .

I was teasing the boys that I was going to make them camouflage toy-picking-up aprons. I'm not sure if I will actually get that done or not.

So, tell me what you have been busy doing???

Priorities

2010-08-17T11:41:00.004-05:00

Our house is a disorganized mess,
supper is often late,
I'm ~~sometimes~~ often crabby from lack of sleep,
the kids are needing to learn patience because Mommy can't always come right when they call,
we are saving a lot of money because the baby does NOT like to go shopping,
finding time to finish a lot of normal everyday tasks that I have started just doesn't happen(clean laundry is so over rated anyway☺). . .

but we are finding a lot of time for cuddling.

I guess that's more important anyway.

We have a Winner. . .

2010-08-13T21:37:00.002-05:00

And the clothespin apron goes to. . .

RETRODIVA!!!!

Congratulations!

Crispy Peach Cobbler

2010-08-12T16:06:00.010-05:00

My parents went on a short trip to an auction and discovered a fruit stand along the way selling peaches. My mom called to see if I wanted any.

Be still my heart. . .

Peaches are one of my most favorite summer fruits. Okay, I love strawberries and cherries too, but peaches made into a crisp, buttery, peach cobbler is perfection and so easy to make.

To peel a peach, I drop a ripe peach into boiling water for about a minute.

Then you can put the peaches into cool water until you are able to handle them and they should peel easier.

To make peach cobbler, slice 4 cups of peaches.

Put a stick of butter into a 9x 13 " pan and pop it into your warm oven until melted. My kitchen was so hot that I just let the pan with the butter sit on the counter and it melted just fine. It has been so crazy hot around here.

Yes, I said a WHOLE stick of butter. When we are talking about a good peach cobbler, it is not time to count calories. ☺ Trust me.

Place the four cups of sliced peaches right on top of all of the melty, buttery, yumminess and then pour your batter made from 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/8 teaspoon salt, and 3/4 cup milk right over the top of the peaches.

Bake for about 40 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.

Serve warm with a lot of homemade vanilla ice cream.

It really is best served the day you make it, so we went ahead and ate the whole thing.
I think I could have eaten more if there had been any left. The crispy, buttery edges and corners are the absolute best.

Just looking at the empty pan makes me kind of sad. I might need to make more.

Crispy Peach Cobbler

1/2 c. butter (1 stick) melted
1 c. flour
1 c. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
3/4 c. milk
4 cups fresh or frozen peaches (could try other fruits)

Place butter in the bottom of a 9x 13 " pan. In bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Stir in milk and blend until smooth. Place fruit over melted butter in pan, and drizzle batter over the top. Bake at 375° for 40 minutes or until brown and bubbly. Serve warm with ice cream.☺

The Quickest Toddler Skirt. . . EVER!

2010-08-12T08:51:00.006-05:00

Found this adorable skirt pattern on Etsy this week along with a pants pattern that I haven't tried yet. It comes as a pdf file so it was almost instant gratification. Plus I didn't have to take a fussy baby out pattern shopping which is always a bonus.

This skirt went together with two serged seams: the waistband is serged together and then it is serged onto the skirt. The circle skirt itself has no seams. (No worries if you don't have a serger~knit doesn't fray so you can zig-zag your seams and it will be fine.)

The pattern recommends a serged rolled hem which I tried, but didn't do so well at so I zig-zagged a regular hem in place. I'm not sure if I need to practice a rolled hem more or if I can just blame it on my cheapo serger. I vote we blame it on the serger.

In less than 30 minutes my energetic toddler was jumping around in her new skirt.

Bonus: It has a great twirl factor which is so important to little girls.

You can find the pattern here!

Happy ONE YEAR Blogiversary w/ Giveaway!!!

2010-08-09T19:27:00.011-05:00

Giveaway is closed

Okay, I admit it. . . this is actually a bit late. Well, about 3 days late actually. I started blogging last year on August 6 so the actual blogiversary was Friday, but I didn't have anything to give away to all you lovely people so I waited until today to celebrate. You don't mind do you???

I am giving away a handmade by me clothespin apron. It has a huge pocket in front that you can fill up with clothespins. (It would also make a wonderful Lego-picking-up-apron or maybe a secret stash of candy carrying apron. Sadly, I don't think the pocket is big enough to hide a jar of Nutella and a spoon)

It is made out of sturdy printed cotton canvas and trimmed in handmade bias tape. It should be strong enough to use for a long time.

If you want to sew an apron yourself, I found a tutorial on this blog. I didn't actually use it because it just seemed easier to me to start cutting without doing the whole measuring thing, but it looks like a good tutorial if you don't want to just start cutting away on your fabric. There is also a similar type of apron in the A is for Apron book.

If you want to buy one, there are super cute ones in this Etsy shop.

To Enter This Giveaway:

Leave a comment on this post. Please make sure I have an email address to notify you if you win.
Follow my blog and leave a separate comment telling me that you follow.

Giveaway ends Friday 8/13/10 before I go to bed ☺

Too busy

2010-07-24T15:26:00.004-05:00

I know I've neglected blogging all week, but we've been busy:

cuddling
eating cake (just because I can☺)
snuggling
nursing
changing diapers
recuperating
and loving.

I'll try and get back to posting more regularly as soon as I can, but for now I wanted to share that he has arrived and I have fallen in love.

Nursing covers

2010-07-13T10:30:00.004-05:00

Yesterday, I quickly sewed up a couple of nursing covers. The cream one is for a friend who is due the exact same week I am and the blue one is for me. Super easy to make. It might become my go-to gift to give at baby showers.

The fabric above comes from Amy Butler's Midwest Modern collection. When I received it, I was a little disappointed in it. (I know! Who do I think I am critiquing Amy Butler fabric???) It just seemed thin and limp to me. I knew I wanted to use it for a gift and it didn't have the wow factor I had hoped for. I loved the pattern just not the thin fabric. So I had to line this one with a cream colored cotton. Lining it gave it a lot more body and I think I might like it better than the one I made for me now.

This fabric is from Anna Maria Horner's Good Folk's collection. I love her fabric. I did not have to line this one, but rather just hemmed each of the sides.

The top of the nursing cover has 16 inches of boning inserted into the center between the straps so that it curves outward. This allows the nursing mother to see her baby while remaining completely modest to the world.

The straps have a d-ring to connect them together. You can just leave it together, slip it over your head and then tighten up the straps as needed.

Many people put a piece of flannel or minky in the bottom corners to use as a burp cloth. It seems like a nifty idea, but I would rather just wash the burp cloth instead of the nursing cover all the time. If you have more than one nursing cover, it would probably work really well to include that idea.

There are a TON of tutorials on how to make a nursing cover. I'll list a few here, but I'm sure there are others.

Ta-Da Creations
Freshly Picked
Sew Much Ado
Shannon Makes Stuff
Made by the Mama Monster ~ I think this is the one I mostly used

Diaper Bag??? Check✓

2010-07-12T09:14:00.008-05:00

Another necessary item can be checked off the list, and I will have to admit it is my favorite so far. Probably because it is more for me than the baby.☺

For this diaper bag, I did not want a bag that looked like a diaper bag. Apparently after four other children the novelty of making everything look like it is for the baby wears off.

I absolutely fell in love with Anna Maria Horner's Pressed Flowers from her Drawing Room collection. (The best news is: I still have some left! I'll try and think up something to make to give away soon.) The fabric is tons more gorgeous in person. I was so excited when I saw it.

I decided to make the straps and the bottom out of gold vinyl. That was a tricky business! Vinyl wants to stick instead of sewing smoothly. I think you can buy a Teflon foot, but of course I didn't have one. I used cornstarch and it worked okay. I did not do a perfect job with it by anyone's definition, but hopefully it will still hold up. I really like the look of it so I should probably break down and buy the proper foot.

The strap also has rings that I thrifted off of a handbag that I found on a garage sale for 50¢. The vinyl on the bag was not in good shape, but it had tons of hardware I knew I could use so I was very excited about that find.

The interior has a zippered pocket in the lining on one side and a pocket strip divided into three pockets on the other. It is lined with gray Kona cotton. It is the first time I have ever put in a zippered pocket. I found a tutorial here. It worked like a charm! I will be making more of these in the future. The closure is a magnetic snap.

The pattern I used was my SewBaby Double duty Bag pattern. But I altered and changed almost everything about it so I'm not sure that it would help you if you wanted to make something similar. My advice would be to start off with a really simple pattern for a tote like the Double Duty Bag, and then just re-draw the shape to suit your vision. Don't forget that things like the pocket strip will also need to be changed if you change the exterior shape like I did. Yeah. . .that was an "oops" moment for me.

So there you have it! One finished diaper bag? Yes indeedy!

Craziness

2010-07-08T19:00:00.004-05:00

I don't have any pictures for this post. I'm sorry about that as I generally like a picture even if it is unrelated, but today I've got nothin'.

Yesterday, I went in for a non-stress test for the baby. I have those about twice a week because of the gestational diabetes. Anyhoo, they decided that the baby was "non-reactive" meaning that the heart rate didn't show enough accelerations and had some decelerations which I guess is worrisome. My doctor shipped me off to the hospital with plans of inducing me immediately. She wouldn't even let me go home to give the kiddos car seats to my husband so that my parents could use them. Poor man had to figure out a way of getting the car seats and the kiddos packed for an overnight stay and all sorts of crazy things like that.

My first thought was, I can't be induced! I don't have the diaper bag done! Now, I ask you, who thinks like that???? I know. . . I'm crazy. I was completely in shock that they planned on inducing me right then and there.

But after I got to the hospital, and they hooked me up to all their monitoring stuff the baby appeared to be quite happy right where he was. So my doctor came in and said that I could go home after all. I was glad and sad all at the same time about that piece of news.

See???? Craziness, I tell you. Absolute craziness.

How can one little guy cause so much trouble????

Now, I better hurry and finish that diaper bag. And maybe we should get the crib set up. Oh, and I should maybe pack for the hospital. . .

Some thoughts from the long weekend. . .

2010-07-06T11:24:00.005-05:00

It is probably best if you don't know the huge pregnant lady, that you don't tell her that she looks miserable.

On our way to shop for A's birthday present yesterday, our van broke down. My dad came and rescued us in the pouring rain. So thankful I wasn't in labor with a broken down van.

Our children are attending VBS (Vacation Bible School) this week at our church. That means for 2 hours and 15 minutes each day I have only one child to take care of!!!! Whooo Hoooooo!!!!

It was a beautiful weekend with cooler weather and a ton of rain. As a pregnant lady with approximately 3 more weeks to go, I was totally loving it. Those who wanted to set off fireworks instead of sleep were probably disappointed.

If you want a low-carb snack, blending milk with peanut butter, a half of a banana, spoonful of cocoa powder, and stevia into a shake is not too bad. If you really want to live a little substitute half and half for the milk. I'm not telling which one I made.

Picking up a DVD of Popeye the Sailor Man at a garage sale for 50¢ can be worth its weight in gold and give a lot of needed sewing or nap time to a tired Mommy. But you do have to live with the kids quoting it for the rest.of.the.day.

My husband is absolutely gorgeous while washing the dishes.

One of the scariest projects I've ever done

2010-07-01T09:53:00.003-05:00

This particular baby project was oh-so-very scary to me. I'll be honest, I would have never been brave enough to attempt it if we could have afforded any other option. But we couldn't.

Our infant seat has been through 4 previous children and the cover was in horrible shape. Yes it was ugly, but I could have lived with that if I had to, but it had also started tearing in places. That I could not live with.

We thought about buying a new infant seat, but they are actually fairly pricey. Totally shocked my husband☺ Because he had been without work for a year, we just don't have the money to spend on a lot of new baby equipment.

So he told me to go ahead and try to re-cover the car seat we have. I spent between $12-$15 (fabric was on sale ☺) and a couple of days figuring it all out. Completely worth it to us.

I completely took apart the existing cover and then just put the new fabric right over the top. So the car seat has the exact same padding that it had originally. I re-used everything that I could including the frame on the hood and the plastic hooks to attach the cover to the seat.

I should have labeled pieces well as I took them off. It all seemed so logical until all I had were strangely shaped pieces staring up at me and then I had no clue how it had come apart. So if you attempt this, a word of advice is label, label, label! Maybe even take pictures as you take it apart.

Disclaimer: I know the re-covering of infant seats is a bit of a controversial subject with strong opinions on both sides. If you are thinking of re-covering a car seat do your research about warranties and safety and make your own decision. Please don't leave any negative comments about our personal decision. Okay??? Thanks.

I never saw a Purple Cow. . .

2010-06-30T06:54:00.003-05:00

A. likes to cook and experiment in the kitchen so I gave him an easy recipe for a Purple Cow and let him go to it. It was a great cool snack on a hot summer day and very kid-friendly.

I was on hand to make sure that the lid on the blender was on right. It almost wasn't~Can you imagine the mess that would have made??? It makes me shiver just to think about it.

PURPLE COW

1 6 oz. can of frozen grape juice concentrate
1 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
ice cubes (10-12)

Throw it all in the blender and blend it up until smooth. Drink it right away.

Please try to share with your siblings if you can. ☺

More sewing for the baby

2010-06-29T09:03:00.005-05:00

Ahhhh. . . a couple more things to check off the "must sew" list before baby comes.

Usually I sew a nursing pillow and then stuff it myself. The problem with that is that when it needs to be washed, you have to throw the whole thing into the washing machine and it usually comes out a little lumpy.

This time I splurged and bought a nursing pillow form at JoAnn's (well, it was 40% off so it wasn't all that big of a splurge) and then sewed up a cover using a 14" invisible zipper across the top of the pillow to make the cover removable. YAY! If he spits up all over the pillow, I can just toss the cover into the wash. The cover is made from that minky-type fabric that you can also find at JoAnn's. It was recently on sale just under $7 so I bought several yards of that.

I also made 6 burp cloths. Two of them have an appliqued inital, one of them has his first name embroidered on it and the other three are just plain flannel with the minky-type stuff on the back. I like fairly big burp cloths having been spit up on so many times, so I made them 11" x 14".

The flannel was also on sale at JoAnn's. I dearly love a good sale on fabric.

Hooded Towel Tutorial

2010-06-27T21:47:00.013-05:00

I know there are a lot of hooded towel tutorials out there, but I have never seen my version. Our new coming baby needed some hooded towels so I thought I would see if I could make a tutorial while I was at it. I'm a little nervous about this because I'm not sure if I can explain everything very well, but I'm going to try. If there is something I didn't explain clearly, please let me know and I will try to explain it better. Click on any picture to enlarge it if you need to see it better. Okay, here we go. . .

Materials: (makes 2 hooded bath towels)
2 bath towels
1 hand towel
matching thread
any trim you want to use on the hood (optional)
sewing machine ☺
scissors
pins

First take your hand towel and fold it in half width-wise so that the two narrow ends are together. Take your scissors, and cut it up the middle on the fold. You should now have two rectangles. This will become the hoods of your two towels. Now is the time to add any trim you wish. I used some jungle animal ribbon.

Next fold the two rectangles in half width-wise again and mark the middle. With the wrong side up, fold the bound edge (not the cut edge) up to the middle mark.

Fold it again over itself for 3 inches back toward the side edges making a right angle. Pin this fold in place and repeat the process on the other side.

After you have everything pinned in place, take it to the sewing machine and zig zag stitch over the bound side edges that have been folded over. I zig zag several times to make it secure. The terry cloth fabric hides most of the stitches so it won't ruin the look of the towel at all to stitch several times. Repeat on the other side.

Your hood should now be finished. ☺

Okay, now onto the body of the towel. Lay your towel right side up with a long edge at the top. (the traditional top and bottom of the towel that usually has a decorative edge will now be on the left and right sides and the long side edges will be the new top and bottom-clear as mud???) Mark the middle with a pin.

On both sides of the middle, we are going to make a 3 inch pleat. Fold the towel toward the middle stopping when the folded edge is 3 inches from the middle,

then fold it back over itself to make a 3 inch pleat. Repeat on the other side of your middle mark.
You can baste these pleats together. In fact that is probably the smart thing to do, but I must confess that I didn't do it.

This is what the front of the towel should look like after you have the pleat pinned in place.

Matching up the center of the raw edge of your completed hood with the center of the pleat in the towel, pin the hood in place with right sides together. Zig Zag using about a 1/4 inch seam allowance with your sewing machine several times. The area with the pleat is fairly thick so go slow. I tend to zig zag at least twice to make sure it is secure.

Now to finish the raw edge on the hood, you can turn the bound edge of the large bath towel up over the raw edge of the hood (over the zig zag stitches you just sewed) and using a straight stitch, stitch it in place. Now you should have no raw edges showing and your towel should be complete.

Repeat all steps if you have decided to make two towels and you will have the perfect gift for any upcoming baby shower. These towels are big enough to be used all through toddler-hood and beyond and warm and cozy enough to keep an infant from getting chilly after a bath.

Again, please let me know if I didn't explain something clearly okey-dokey?

NOTE: Use this tutorial however you want, but would you be so kind as to give me credit??? Thanks!

Harvest Time in Kansas

2010-06-24T22:31:00.005-05:00

Sewing for Baby

2010-06-24T10:34:00.005-05:00

I have a confession:

I haven't been sewing for our new coming baby until now. Yes, I'm a crazy woman who decided to wait until she is 35 weeks along to actually begin sewing. (For the record, I do not recommend this if a pregnant woman wants to keep her sanity, but because I have no more sanity this is what works for me.)

At first, it was because I had plenty of time.

Then, it was because life became crazy and I couldn't get anything done that I actually wanted to do.

But after my last sonogram I measured quite a bit bigger than I should have. At 33 weeks, I was measuring at 37 weeks. EEEKKK!

Hmmm. . .we are either having a really big baby (which is entirely possible as our first baby was 10 pounds) or this baby is coming a whole lot sooner than expected.

Either way, I needed to get busy.

With Pumpkin, we discovered the absolute wonder of a pocket-type swaddler. She would sleep so much better in her Kiddopotomus than without it. She loved it and as a result so did we. Well, we loved the sleep it gave us anyway.

So I decided to try and come up with my own version because it seemed fairly simple to make. It wasn't too difficult but after working on drafting my own pattern and cutting it out of the flannel I found this pattern online . And I have to say, I like it better than what I came up with.

Ah well. . . Hopefully I will have time to make one of those too and if not it would make a wonderful baby shower present sometime down the road.

Here is what the blanket looks like with the help of Princess's baby doll, Jennifer. Hopefully our baby won't be too big to use these blankets, but if he is it will work great for all the other little doll babies and stuffed animals that my children love.

Well, I've gotta get back to sewing. What projects are you working on???

Trying to stay cool

2010-06-22T10:16:00.005-05:00

Our town recently built a free splash park in a local housing development. This weekend was the first time we were able to find time to go and the kids had soooo much fun.

Gotta love free entertainment. ☺

Even Super P. enjoyed it. We just wrapped up his arm in a french bread bag and sent him in to get wet. (That's the fashion now at all the splash parks you know. If you aren't wearing a french bread bag you just aren't styling. ☺)

I wasn't sure Pumpkin would enjoy it as she doesn't even like our hand-held shower, but she loved it.

This was the kid's favorite feature. Once you got under the "mushroom" of water the water didn't touch you in the very middle so they would hang out in there for a long time.

With our temps being in the low 100's it is great to have a place where the kids can go to cool off and have fun.

Orange-Carrot Cookies

2010-06-21T08:09:00.002-05:00

I personally don't feel like the name of these cookies does anything to describe these tiny drops of heaven. I mean there are carrots in the cookies and you do frost them with orange frosting, but that really doesn't sound good does it? But truly, these are a delicious cake-like, soft, and yummy cookie. I think it is the almond flavoring that I adore. Love almond extract. They are even better the next day if you can wait that long, which I usually can't manage to do.

(Now, for those of you who know that I have gestational diabetes, let me reassure you that I did not eat any of these cookies. I actually made them for a gift to my Dad for Father's day so even the kiddos didn't get to try one.)

Orange-Carrot Cookies

3/4 c. sugar
1 cup shortening (I used butter because I ♥ butter)
1 egg
1 cup cooked, cooled, and mashed carrots
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. almond extract (YUM!)

ICING:
juice and grated rind of 1/2 orange
1 tsp. butter, softened
powdered sugar for spreading consistency

Beat shortening (or butter) and sugar. Beat in egg. Then add carrots and almond extract. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Chill dough. Drop by spoon onto lightly greased or parchment covered pan. Bake at 350º for about 12 minutes.

Ice cookies while warm with the icing.

I store these cookies in the refrigerator because of their cake-like texture. They seem to stay fresh much longer especially in this super hot weather we have been having (100º! Yikes!)

Hooligans

2010-06-17T09:34:00.002-05:00

That's what I've got you know. Absolutely crazy children.

We have had a lot of rain lately so our shady backyard is muddy and the children were getting a little tired of being inside. Yesterday they were racing around the house rough housing with each other.

Super P. is always the one to get hurt. I don't know why. All the kids were being naughty, but only P. got hurt. He apparently fell down the steps banging his elbow on the wall causing his bone just above his elbow to be fractured.

The doctor said he had never seen anything quite like it. Trust P. to be creative when it comes to fracturing his arm. Because the fracture was headed toward the elbow, the doctor decided that making sure it couldn't get worse was the best course of action so P. also has the distinct honor of being the first of our children to get a cast.

All the children had to come with me to the doctor's office where we spend a lot of time waiting:
waiting to see the doctor, being sent to get x-rays and waiting for those, back to the doctor and waiting for him to analyze the x-rays, and then finally waiting for the cast.

Pumpkin does NOT enjoy waiting. It didn't help that she was expected to wait during her nap time.

Finally about 2 hours later, we were finished and P. was the proud owner a brand new glow-in-the-dark cast. He will get to keep it for about 4 weeks.

Fortunately we didn't miss Happy Hour at Sonic and it was right on our way home.

Hopefully today will have a little less excitement. I'm not sure how much more this Mama can take.

Little Gifts of love

2010-06-10T12:24:00.003-05:00

My niece has been sick for about a week and they decided to admit her to a hospital because they weren't able to figure out what was going on at our local clinic. She has a high fever and a rash so I think one of the things they are suspecting is Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever which is apparently passed on by ticks. Hopefully they will figure it all out soon so that she will get well.

My children and I were brainstorming yesterday about what we could do for her. I decided to make her an eye spy bag. Hopefully it will make the long hours at the hospital a little more interesting.

For the back I used printable fabric made by June Tailor to make a list of objects to find. My printer was NOT happy and I had a terrible time trying to get it to print correctly. Any tips???

Yelling at it didn't work.

The kid's all colored cards for her. They used pastels which can be messy, but I love the vivid colors. It was interesting to see what each of them came up with. Princess's card was full of love and wishes for her cousin to get better.

A. invented superheros that are supposed to ZAP the illness away.

Super P. drew a picture of my niece and him hanging out together.

And Pumpkin. . .well what can I say, she just colored with her whole heart.

Totally overwhelmed

2010-06-08T10:58:00.005-05:00

I'm sorry that I have not blogged much this past week. I have been discouraged and overwhelmed most of the week.

Some weeks are like that I guess.

At my last regular OB appointment, my doctor told me that it is highly likely that I have gestational diabetes. That is a concern of course, but what really bothered me was that she totally would not listen to me and my thoughts. I have been testing my blood sugar regularly for the past 2 weeks and keeping records, but she is still insisting that I have the 3 hour blood glucose test taken.

What busy mom of four has time to go and sit for 3 hours??? I asked her what would happen if I tested positive for gestational diabetes. She said that I would have to test my blood sugar 4 times a day and stay off sugar and be fairly low carb. (Good-bye Cherry Crisp and Reeses PB bars)

Ummm. . . that's what I have been doing. . .what do I need the test for???

Plus, because I'm measuring bigger than I should she is insisting on another sonogram. She implied that the baby could be unhealthy, but didn't really spell out what she was concerned about.

To be honest, it is not uncommon for me to measure bigger and it isn't uncommon for my babies to be big so I'm not really sure if I need to be worried or not.

That's just what pregnant mommies do-they worry.

On Friday morning the kids and I went to the homeschool convention to pick out some new curriculum for next year.

Talk about overwhelming!!!

Way too many choices and people trying to convince you that their curriculum is the best and your kids just won't learn near as well if you pick something else.

I came home totally exhausted and slept most of the afternoon.

And if that wasn't enough, I came upstairs today to use our computer and I had to wait for my two year old to be done with it.

What is this crazy world coming to???

Homemade Yogurt and other random stuff

2010-06-02T08:10:00.004-05:00

On Monday, my husband was home for Memorial Day. It was so nice to have him home. After almost a year of being unemployed and being able to work at home before that, he now has two part-time jobs. We are very thankful for the employment, but I sure miss having him home.

May 31 is also our anniversary. We have been married 13 years. I'm so thankful that God gave a man to me that I still love after 13 years. We've been through a lot, especially this last year, and we have only grown closer and more in love as a result. I'm truly blessed with a great man.

Lately I've been on a homemade yogurt kick. It is so easy and yummy plus tons cheaper than buying yogurt for 6 people. I had forgotten how easy it was so I hadn't made yogurt for a really long time. The weather in Kansas has been so hot and humid lately having a cold smoothie for breakfast sounded perfect to me. I make yogurt a half gallon at a time. The recipe I have been using can be found here. If you need a smaller recipe, you can find it here. I haven't tried this one, but it looks like it is similar to the one I used.

Measure out 2 quarts (8 cups) of milk. Heat the milk to almost boiling. Then allow the milk to cool to 120º.

Once the milk has cooled to 120º, whisk in a 1/2 c. of yogurt culture. That sounds really fancy, but it's just plain yogurt that has "active cultures". I'm pretty sure almost any plain yogurt you buy at the store would qualify and work fine. After you have made yogurt, you can save a half cup of your own homemade yogurt to work as a starter for the next time you make it.

After whisking in the yogurt, I pour it back into my huge measuring bowl that I measured the milk in, and cover with plastic wrap. Then I put it into my oven with only the light bulb on until it is set. You could also insulate it with towels like the recipe suggests. I think my mom used to put it on top of an electric heating pad. My kitchen has been really hot lately so it doesn't take 4 hours for me (which is what the recipe recommends) so check it occasionally. When it is set, pop it into the refrigerator to chill.

This morning, I took a couple of over-ripe bananas, frozen blueberries, lemon juice, a couple packets of stevia, my homemade yogurt, and a cupful of ice cubes and blended it up for a smoothie. Delish. You can use whatever combination of fruit and juice that you happen to have and that sound good to you. I had hoped we would have some leftovers to freeze into Popsicles, but we didn't.

I might have to make more.

Bedtime

2010-05-28T07:56:00.006-05:00

Hot weather sneaked in just this week and all of a sudden all of the spring pj's that the girls had been wearing were much too hot.

So yesterday I pulled out some of the sheets that I had thrifted last year and sewed light and cool nightgowns for them.

For Pumpkin's, I used the Miss Madeline dress pattern that I made here. I left off the apron and the waistband so that it would be loose and comfortable.

Lately Pumpkin has been taking off her Pj's to go to sleep, but last night she kept on the nightgown so I'm going to take that as a good sign☺.

Princess H's nightgown is the same peasant style, only I used a vintage thrifted pattern for it. Again I left off the waistband.

I also used the sheet's already sewn hem for both girls so I didn't have to do any hemming myself. Sadly, these sheets didn't have any cute borders like some vintage sheets do. That would have been even cuter.

These should have been very easy to sew, but yesterday nothing went quite right when I wanted to put in the elastic. Only Pumpkin's nightgown was finished yesterday. Apparently those tricky sewing gremlins were hard at work yesterday causing mischief because this morning I finished up the elastic on Princess's sleeves in about 5 minutes with not one bit of trouble.

Please sewing gremlins, go to somewhere else this weekend because I would really like to get more sewing done. Thanks so much.

Yes folks, we've got summer. . .

2010-05-27T11:32:00.007-05:00

Beware of the Mommy with a camera

2010-05-25T22:29:00.003-05:00

One day this week, I grabbed my camera and started taking pictures. I do it so often that my children think this is completely normal.

Princess H. was feeling all pretty in a dress I found on a garage sale ( I think I paid 50¢???) so she was easy to talk into posing.

Little Pumpkin doesn't mind getting her picture taken as long as she can see the preview of it afterward.

Clearly she doesn't care that her face is dirty and her hair is all over the place as long as

she gets to wear her red sandals.

Super P. does not like to be left out (I think it is a 3rd child syndrome) so he insisted that I take a picture of him doing several different things. ("Hey Mommy! Take my picture on the swing! How about by this tree?")

I actually had to tell him I needed to be done taking his picture because I was getting too many. His smile is so cute though that it is hard to stop.

A. on the other hand, had absolutely no interest in posing for me. He was way too busy studying the ants. That's okay. I'll get him another time when he least expects it. (mwahahaha)

Yep, you have to be careful when your Mommy has a camera (and a blog☺).

Something to smile about

2010-05-24T07:25:00.006-05:00

This weekend was so super busy. It was the kind of weekend where you almost looked forward to Monday. Our weekend was filled with all sorts of fun, but sometimes there is just too much and everything that should be fun just becomes one more thing to check off the list.

Today, I have to sort through and organize everyone's clothes. It has finally decided to get hot and so I can confidently put away all long sleeves and pants. I usually do it long before now, but we often had days that were quite cool so I put it off. Not my favorite job, but it will be nice to have everything organized again.

Here is the project I was working on a little while ago. Our bathroom needed a little cheering up or maybe it was me that needed cheering
up. . .I'm not really sure, but no matter what/who needed cheering up this fit the bill perfectly.

This bath mat makes me smile every time I see it.

I found the idea here. I decided not to trace and embroider my feet onto the mat though because I do not have cute and little feet. I did stitch in the ditch to kind of quilt it all together.

It is really a good project for people like me who are intimidated by quilts, but want to try.

Drumroll please. . .

2010-05-21T07:37:00.003-05:00

And the winner is. . .

Lindsay
of
Just Journaling

I am completely blown away by the response to my giveaway. 545 comments? Are you kidding me? You all are amazing! Thanks so much for participating. I had a ton of fun reading all of your lovely comments and chuckling over some of the things you eat for breakfast.

EDITED TO ADD:
Because I have not heard from Lindsay and have no other way of contacting her to tell her that she won, I had to choose another winner. The new winner is Heather . Congratulations!

Yesterday

2010-05-20T09:47:00.006-05:00

Yesterday we took our yearly trip to Pleasantview, Kansas. It is a good distance from where we live, but totally worth the trip.

The first stop was a beautiful greenhouse. From the exterior it doesn't look like it is going to be anything remarkable, but then when you walk inside an explosion of color greets you.

Every year I wish I was more of a gardener, but I'm just not. It's just not in me for some reason. Every year I'm tempted to buy a ton of plants intending to be different this year, but I've learned that come July and August the thrill of gardening seriously wanes as the heat increases and they will just die.

The plants in the cart are for my children to plant and take care of, my husband, and my sister-in-law who is quite a good gardener.

I bought myself a geranium. I can't kill a geranium can I?

Next we went to the Dutch Kitchen. I'll admit it. This is the real reason I'm willing to travel so far with my children. Again, the building does not look like it is anything special, but the food. . .

OH MY! This is their "child's portion." I couldn't finish it. The green beans are actually GREEN and not the usual puky color of restaurant green beans. Everything was homemade tasting without me having to make it-can't beat that!

And the pie is incredible!

We did manage to finish our pie. It was tough, but we did it.

The last stop is Glenn's Bulk Food's. So much fun to browse and get great deals on things like spices and steel cut oatmeal. They have quite a large selection, for being such a small store and much, much cheaper than a local health food store.

Pleasantview is in the heart of Old Mennonite/Amish country and it is not uncommon for a farm tractor to pull up to the store and an Amish mother and all of her children pile out to get their supplies.

The best thing I buy is a HUGE bag of wheat. My husband bought me a wheat grinder several years ago and I love it! Freshly ground wheat is the best!

I was tempted to buy a bag of quinoa, but I put it back. I just wasn't sure what to do with it. Do any of you use quinoa?

A little gift to send a lot of love

2010-05-19T06:47:00.004-05:00

I needed a little gift for a special little Kindergartner graduate so I decided to make another zippered bag and put colorful gel pens inside. (a bunch of fingernail polish colors would be fun too for an older girl or make the bag out of more boyish fabrics and fill with Matchbox cars! Hmmm. . . I think I'll probably end up making a lot of these. . .)

I still followed the basic instructions given in this tutorial for the gathered zippered bag that I made for me, but instead of following the dimensions given, which would have been much too big, I used the back of the pen package as my pattern for cutting out 4 rectangles of fabric. (2 for the exterior, 2 for the lining) and embellished the front with an appliqued initial and an eyelet ruffle instead of having a gathered front.

We filled the inside with fun pens perfect for doodling, and VOILA! an easy peasy gift that doesn't take a lot of time to make, but sends a little handmade love.

Adventures of Flat Molly

2010-05-18T06:53:00.006-05:00

My cousin's daughter has been reading about Flat Stanley in school (which I have never read and I'm starting to feel a little left out.) They were given a project to color a flat portrait of themselves and then send the portrait to someone else in the mail.

And so Flat Molly came to visit us all the way from Minnesota.

We had so much fun showing her all the sights on my father's farm to give her a real Kansas experience. First we stopped at the wheat field which is still green, but you can see that it is all headed out. By the middle of June or so, it will be a glorious golden color.

We arrived just as my father was about to feed the cattle, so the kids and Flat Molly hopped on board to have a ride.

Flat Molly really loved the cattle and politely introduced herself, but they were rude and just kept munching away.

Flat Molly also got to climb up the loading chute which was a little worrisome because it was so high and she is so little, but Princess H. took good care of her and she made it back down safely.

Princess H. thought that Flat Molly needed to visit the fruit trees. Here she is looking at a tiny peach which was much too small to have even a nibble of and we were all starting to get a little hungry. . .

so we all stopped at the strawberry patch to find a snack. Flat Molly ate very neatly and didn't get even one strawberry stain, but. . .

I can't say that Pumpkin was able to do the same.

A little something for me. . ..

2010-05-17T11:38:00.006-05:00

I saw this tutorial and had to try to make it. So I put off finishing organizing my craft closet again and started cutting and sewing willy nilly on Saturday afternoon.

I should have been exhausted that day because we attended a high school graduation and several graduate receptions which all had amazing food and lots of fun visiting. At the last reception I caved and drank some coffee because it smelled so amazing and it was a chilly and dreary day just right for drinking coffee. I love coffee. . .but apparently coffee does not love me anymore. I was kind of jittery all evening with lots of energy to burn so I made a cute pouch. (Pouch is a terribly annoying word isn't it? )

fabrics used: Freshcut by Heather Bailey and Olive Rose by Valori Wells

I did not do the optional pockets on the inside for credit cards, because I originally thought it would be great to hold my garage sale money, but it turned out a little bigger than I expected. I'm not good at translating written dimensions to what size it will actually turn out to be.

However, it is a great size for a small make-up bag which I really needed. Because I don't wear a lot of make-up it will be perfect. (Okay, I admit that I only wear make-up to church so if you ever see me in Walmart or at the library just walk on by and pretend you didn't see me ☺)

Now what else can I sew to get out of organizing?

Sew Mama Sew May Giveaway Day!!!!

2010-05-15T12:08:00.008-05:00

Giveaway is now closed!

Whoo Hoo! I love it when Sew Mama Sew sponsors its Giveaway Days! So much fun to go blog hopping and find other great blogs and possibly win some great loot.

I'm giving away a purse handmade by me. The exterior has a soil and stain release finish and is a home decorator fabric so it should be very durable.

If you want to make a purse yourself, the purse pattern/tutorial can be found on this blog.
(At the end of the second paragraph on Melissa's post is the link to download the pattern)

I have trimmed the bag with black soutache braid. The interior is a gray cotton with white polka dots, it has a magnetic snap closure, and pockets made from the exterior fabric. I have a smoke and pet-free home.

HOW TO WIN:
******I love my international readers also, so please feel free to participate.*****

Leave a comment on this post. It can be anything you want to say: You could tell me what you ate for breakfast, how much you love my blog, (Yes, I am shamelessly trying to get compliments☺) you know, whatever. . .
Follow my blog and leave a comment telling me you are a follower. Of course, if you already are a follower please leave a separate comment telling me that.

VERY IMPORTANT:
Please make sure I have a way of contacting you if you win. If I can not contact you, I will have to choose another winner.

I will choose the winner using a random number generator Friday morning, May 21, 2010

Project Hopping

2010-05-14T08:42:00.004-05:00

I have been trying to clean out my fabric closet and go through all the stuff in there. You wouldn't believe the mess and I didn't take pictures to prove it. Way too embarrassing. I still haven't completely finished, but on Wednesday afternoon, I got a project idea in my head that would not leave.

I have other sewing projects that need to be finished, but they seemed so boring compared to a brand new idea. New ideas are so much more interesting don't you think?

I abandoned all of the things I should be doing and blissfully spent the afternoon cutting out 88 2 1/2 inch squares. All the fabric was out anyway and it was fun to see which fabrics I could put together.

One thing I did notice is that because I usually sew dresses, none of my fabrics intentionally coordinate. I need to start thinking about coordinating when I buy fabric because I would love to learn how to make quilts.

Yesterday afternoon I sewed all of those tiny squares together. I was having so much fun sewing that I lost track of time and we didn't eat supper until 7:00.

Who needs to eat when there is fun sewing going on anyway.

Hypocrite

2010-05-13T14:02:00.002-05:00

If my kids did this, I would probably be upset with them

so please don't tell them.

Snapshots of our day

2010-05-12T09:39:00.006-05:00

I had plenty of help baking yesterday.

I was attempting to make sour dough bread and it turned out okay, but I don't think it was fantastic. If anyone has a recipe or hints I'd love to hear what I can do to get it right.

A. was determined, I mean absolutely determined, to bake a cake from scratch. I think he found the recipe on the PBS kids website with a Martha Speaks video or something. Frankly, I was a little worried about this one because I don't think Martha Speaks is a very reliable recipe source, but he did a great job.

I let A. do it all on his own with very little help from me. I tend to push in and "do it right" you know what I mean? I'm trying so hard not to do that, but when I see the mess it makes me queasy inside. So I just worked on my bread while he worked on his cake and tried not to look.

It turned out pretty good for his first cake.

A. was so proud that he made it all by himself. I need to let go a little more often. So hard to do. . .

Completely unrelated, but Sew Mama Sew is hosting another giveaway day this Monday, May 17. So you might want to find some free time at the beginning of next week to do some blog hopping and sign up for some free loot. I hope to participate, but don't have anything made yet. We will see if I can come up with something between now and then. If anyone has any ideas of something they would like for me to giveaway I am completely open to suggestions.☺

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-09T12:39:00.002-05:00

Children searching to understand truth

2010-05-07T08:40:00.006-05:00

We've been having a few discussions in our family about how we know God exists.

When the question came up, I admit I was terrified and uncertain as to what to say. It came up so unexpectedly at the supper table. (I was so thankful my husband was there so that he could answer☺) I think it is a question that everyone has to ask at some point and the conclusions they reach determine so much:

Can we believe the Bible?
Is the Bible really God's Word?
How do we respond to hardship and tragedy?
Why does it matter if we obey?
Is heaven real?

On the other hand, I was so glad that the child who asked was not willing to blindly accept or depend upon our faith, but clearly wanted discover his own. I have been thinking about this question all week.

My husband, was so wise and kept it simple. He reminded us that God is love so every time we see love demonstrated it is proof that God exists.

Yes, bad things happen that are often so hard to understand. Sometimes children are treated very cruelly at the hand of people they should be able to trust. Sometimes tragedy strikes and we lose someone to death when it seems to early for them to go. It is hard to understand why all of these things happen. But does God cause these things? No, he doesn't, but he does allow them. Sin has caused our world to not be what God planned when he created it.

I have been thinking that another way we can know that God is real is through His beautiful creation. Everything about God's creation demonstrates His majesty and power. Just the simple flowers that I have pictured are amazing in their detail.
The ants, (as annoying as they are in my kitchen) have a job to perform to faithfully gather food to help their colony. They diligently work hard all spring and summer and can lift 20 times their body weight.
Could these flowers be an accident?
Could the ants have just accidentally figured out a way of being miraculously strong? No, even these simple flowers and insects demonstrate clearly a masterful creator designed everything.

How do you know that God is real? Have you seen Him work in your life in a specific way? Love to hear your comments.

If you have a fingerprint of God, you can share it on Beki's blog every Friday when Beki hosts Fingerprint Friday.

Pretty please with cherries in the middle. . .and maybe some ice cream on top?

2010-05-06T08:44:00.003-05:00

Cherry Crisp is one of my all-time favorite desserts. The key for me is to thicken cherries myself rather than using cherry pie filling. If you want to use purchased cherry pie filling because time is short, it will work fine but it won't taste quite as good.

Okay so maybe that's just me being a little snobby. . .
But maybe we can just call me opinionated about cherries instead??? That sounds a lot better than snobby.

Cherry Filling:

For the cherry filling you need two cans of tart red cherries, cornstarch, sugar, water, and a little almond extract if you want. (I like it, but if you don't by all means leave it out)

Open the cans of cherries and drain off the juice into a small saucepan, add 1 cup sugar (can use less if you want it less sweet) and bring to a boil.

In the meantime, make a slurry (that's just a fancy way of saying mix the two together until its smooth) of 3 tablespoons cornstarch and 3 oz. water.

While the juice is boiling grab a whisk in one hand and the slurry of cornstarch and water in the other and slowly pour the cornstarch slurry into the boiling juice whisking so that it doesn't get lumpy.

Turn down the heat a little and continue stirring until the juice is clear and thickened.

Take it off the heat and add a few drops of almond extract if you want it. I used about 1/8 teaspoon. Oh so yummy!

Add the cherries and set it aside until you are ready for it.

Crust:

This is so crazy easy. . .Find a medium sized mixing bowl and dump in 2 cups flour, 2 cups oatmeal, 2 sticks of softened butter, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 cup brown sugar, and 1/2 cup white sugar. I usually add a little salt (1/4 teaspoon) too, but the recipe doesn't call for it so I guess that's optional.

Mix it all up until crumbly with your fingers or a pastry blender.

I have tried to freeze the crumbs before so that it was ready to throw together fast, but it really is important for the butter to be softened or else the bottom crust gets all crumbly and falls apart. Still tastes good, but it sure isn't pretty. So if you decide to freeze the crumbs, you have to let them come to room temperature before using them.

Take half of the crumbs and pat firmly into a 9 x 13 inch pan to make the bottom crust.

Pour the cherry filling unto the bottom crust.

Sprinkle the remaining half of the crumbs on top.

Bake at 375° for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Be careful not to over bake because the butter can burn.

We often have it for dessert with ice cream at supper and then the leftovers for breakfast the next morning. Hey it's oatmeal and fruit right??? Works for me☺

Cherry Crisp:

2 cans tart red cherries
1 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons cornstarch
3 ounces water
1/8 teaspoon almond extract, optional

Drain cherry juice into a small saucepan. Add sugar and bring to a boil. In a separate small bowl mix the cornstarch and water until smooth. When the juice comes to a boil, pour the cornstarch mixture into the juice stirring until smooth, thickened, and clear. Take off heat and stir in almond extract, if desired. Add cherries and set aside until needed.

2 cups oatmeal
2 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)

Mix together until crumbly. Place half of the crumbs into the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch pan and press down to form the bottom crust. Pour the cherry filling over the bottom crust and then sprinkle the remaining crumbs on top.

Bake at 375° for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Do not over bake.

And the winner is. . .

2010-05-05T09:00:00.004-05:00

Cindy of
Oakview Cottage is the
WINNER of the purse!!!!

(If you go over to her blog, you should check out her fun burlap table runner)

Doll Blanket

2010-05-04T08:51:00.004-05:00

On Saturday, Princess begged me to do a craft project with her. She reminded me that she had embroidered a little dog a while ago (oops! I just noticed it was all the way back in March that she started this project. . . She has been very, very patient waiting for me to help her) to make a doll blanket for her favorite doll Jennifer and wanted to finish it.

I decided the easiest way to make the blanket would be to sew the front and the back together with no batting or quilting involved. So she stitched the two sides right sides together and then left an opening to turn. After that we pressed it and then top stitched all around to close the opening.

Both Jennifer and Princess are very happy with how the blanket turned out.

Here is the embroidery that she did on the front. This is not her first embroidery project, but her skills have definitely improved.

I'm hoping that I can come up with a lot more sewing projects for this summer, but we will have to wait and see. I'm thinking this skirt should be attempted next. Any other ideas?

~~If you haven't entered the giveaway yet you can go here to do that. The giveaway ends tomorrow morning whenever I manage to crawl out of bed.~~

Giveaway!!!!!

2010-05-02T18:59:00.007-05:00

***GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED***

I appreciate all of you. I know I don't tell you that often, but it really would be no fun blogging if I didn't have anyone reading and commenting. Seriously, I love hearing from you. It truly makes me smile.

And that, my friends, is a good enough reason to have a giveaway!!!!

I want to give someone the above purse handmade by me. Are you ready for the nitty gritty details??? Well, here ya go then. . .

DESCRIPTION:
The exterior is a Spring Green twill and the interior is a multi-color paisley on a white background which makes me happy. The handle is approximately 22 inches in length and the bag is 12 inches wide x 7 1/2 inches tall.

The interior also has a magnetic snap for easy closure and two pockets.

If you want to make a purse yourself, the purse pattern/tutorial can be found on this blog. (At the end of the second paragraph on Melissa's post is the link to download the pattern)

HOW TO ENTER: (I love and appreciate my international readers too! Please feel free to join in)

Leave a comment on this post. It can be anything you want to say.

Follow my blog and leave a separate comment telling me that you are a new follower. Of course if you are already following, just leave a separate comment also.

If you blog, tweet, or spread the word in some other way about the giveaway, leave a comment.

I will choose the winner using a random number generator on Wednesday morning (May 5, 2010).

VERY IMPORTANT: Please make sure that I have a way of notifying you if you win. If I cannot get in contact with you, I will have to choose an alternate winner.

Don't mess with tradition

2010-04-30T16:41:00.009-05:00

I love May Day. I know it doesn't get celebrated a whole lot any more, but it is actually was one of my favorite holidays as a child. While growing up, my siblings and I would run across the field to Grandma's house on May Day to bring her a bouquet of lilacs in a homemade basket of sorts. We would ring the doorbell, leave the basket, and then run as fast as we could to hide. Of course we actually wanted her to find us so she would invite us in for a snack. (which is of course the best reason for going to Grandma's house) So much fun!

And every year my Mom would make caramels for May Day. I really have no idea why. She would make them while we were at school and then a little cup made into a basket with a pipe cleaner handle filled with caramels would be at our place at the breakfast table. Now every May day I crave homemade vanilla (completely unhealthy) caramels. I can't be sneaky about making the caramels, because my children are at home with me, but that's okay. Once you've had a homemade caramel you will think you are in heaven.

This year I tried to alter the recipe. I prefer not to use corn syrup so I tried to sub 1 1/4 c. sugar and an additional 1/4 c. of milk for each cup of corn syrup. It didn't work at all. The caramels tasted okay, but they had a yucky, sugary texture that just is not right. So I made them again following the recipe. I shouldn't try to mess with a good thing-a lesson learned the hard way.

Making Caramels is a labor of love for sure. I actually don't know if anyone in their right mind would want to attempt them, (I'm clearly NOT in my right mind), but I thought I would share how I made them anyway. Caramels are not hard to make, but you need a ton of patience. Maybe even more than a ton.

Chop the nuts as fine as you like. We used walnuts, but any nut you like would be just fine.

Add the butter, sugar, corn syrup, and evaporated milk to the pot and get out your candy thermometer because it will be your best friend for the next hour or so. Cook over high heat to 210º. Lower your heat and stir.

The first part goes rather quickly and you may think "Ha! This is going along just swimmingly", but be warned that it plateaus around 215º and won't budge for a long, long time. I think it took me about 45 minutes. I called my sister while I was stuck by the stove stirring and that helped the time go by a little faster.

I know, I know, I'm a crazy woman for doing this, but its tradition! What else could I do??? Plus, they are just amazingly good.

Make sure the pot you use is fairly big because as it boils it will want to boil over. Eventually it will condense down and thicken up, but right at the beginning it will want to boil over. Just continue to stir and turn down the heat.

Approximately an hour to an hour and twenty minutes after you started the caramels finally reach 244º. Turn off the heat and then add vanilla and your chopped nuts stirring quickly until it is all mixed in. The alcohol in the vanilla will cause some rapid bubbling as it burns off, but don't worry as long as your burner is turned off you'll be fine. (You did turn it off right???? Very important unless you want to have a flambe')

Pour the caramel mixture into a prepared 9 x 13 inch pan lined with parchment that sticks up over the edges. When it is cool you will be able to lift it easily out using the parchment onto a cutting board.

Cut up the caramels and wrap in waxed paper or plastic wrap.

Vanilla Caramels
2 c. sugar
2 sticks butter
1 3/4 c. corn syrup
1 (14 1/2 oz.) can of evaporated milk
1 1/2 T. of vanilla
1 c. chopped nuts

Combine first four ingredients; cook over high heat until 210º. Reduce heat and stir constantly to 244º(this takes a long, long time-hang in there). Remove from heat; add vanilla and nuts then stir vigorously. Pour into a parchment lined 9 x 13" pan and let cool. Turn out onto a cutting board and cut into small pieces. Wrap in waxed paper. Makes approx. 2 pounds.

If you need May Day basket ideas, Skip to my Lou has a lot of cute ones.

Oh, and I also wanted to tell you that I'm planning a give-away the beginning of next week so make sure you stop by again then.

Happy May Day and have a wonderful weekend.

The Kansas Sky

2010-04-26T19:28:00.004-05:00

I know a lot of people don't think Kansas is pretty, but I completely disagree☺

Kansas doesn't have any mountains or beaches, and it may not have as many trees as other states,

but one thing we have that is incomparable to any other location is our amazingly big, expressive sky and wide open spaces. GORGEOUS!

What do you love about the state you live in???

There are times. . .

2010-04-24T08:01:00.005-05:00

when I completely ignore all the things I should do

and just bake cookies instead. My family doesn't seem to mind too much. (unless they can't find any clean underwear☺)

recipe can be found HERE

Substitutions I made to the recipe: I used softened butter instead of canola oil and the conversion on the back of the cocoa can for the squares of unsweetened chocolate (3 Tablespoons cocoa powder + 1 Tablespoon oil=1 oz. square of unsweetened chocolate).
I substituted only to use what I had on hand. I'm sure the recipe is great as written.

Delish and a whole lot more fun than washing dishes. Enjoy your weekend!

Earth Day at the Zoo

2010-04-23T08:49:00.007-05:00

Late Wednesday night I learned from from sister-in-law that the zoo had free admission on Thursday in honor of Earth day. So we quickly planned a very spontaneous field trip. (which is the very best kind☺)

I love that about homeschooling: plans can change at the drop of a hat and we can just roll with it and have fun.

GOD IS SO GOOD! We had been talking about how much fun it would be to go to the zoo for a field trip, but because my husband has not been able to find full-time employment for almost a year money has been tight.

It has been good for my children to learn that we can't do everything and to learn a little about spending money wisely and on a stricter budget, but this was one thing that it was hard to tell them we couldn't do.

BUT God gave us the opportunity to go to the zoo for FREE! I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was.

We had a wonderful morning. The weather was absolutely perfect. . . until the very end of our trip when is rained so hard that the paths at the zoo flooded and we became completely water-logged. But even that will be a good memory now that we are all warm and dry.

While the zoo was trying to emphasize the Creation and being responsible in our care of it, I couldn't help but marvel at the CREATOR. Who else could have created such diversity? Even the rain and thunder at the end of our trip showed the awesomeness of HIS power.

O magnify the LORD with me,
and let us exalt his name together!
PSALM 34:3

Beki sponsors "Fingerprint Friday" every week. Look around and see if you can see God's fingerprints this week and then link your post on Beki's site.

Talk about melting my heart. . .

2010-04-20T11:31:00.010-05:00

Princess decided she wanted to participate in the local PBS station's Young Author's and Illustrators contest. We have only been concentrating on Spelling and Reading this year not writing because I wanted to make sure that she had all the tools necessary to write before trying to put her thoughts and ideas on paper.

(The PBS rules stated that "inventive spelling was permissible-What??? NOT in my school thank you very much. . .)

So it was with some hesitation that I agreed. Princess procrastinated until the week it was due (where could she be getting that trait from? Yeah. . .okay so she does sound a lot like me.) and then came up with the following story:

Oh, my. . . I have no idea if she will win or not. Frankly I don't even care. I am totally in love with this story.

Goodbyes

2010-04-12T09:12:00.005-05:00

This weekend was bittersweet. My family said our final goodbyes to our beloved grandma and it was heartbreaking to have to do so. Grandma's family came from far and wide to attend her funeral giving testimony to what a great lady she really was. It was so much fun to see family that I haven't seen in a long time, to laugh about the memories (such as how horrible some of the Easter candy was that Grandma would put into our Easter baskets) and to make a few new memories. Grandma's family was counted and I believe they came up with 89 people that are direct descendants! She had an amazing impact on each one of us and we will always love and miss her.

Just 5 Ingredients. . .

2010-04-09T12:55:00.009-05:00

make the yummiest, quickest bars EVER!

This is a recipe that has been around a long time and you probably make something similar, but I thought I would show you how I do it.

REESE'S PEANUT BUTTER BARS:

I throw one package of graham crackers into a gallon-sized ziplok bag and then use my rolling pin to crush them. It's okay if you have a few bigger pieces because it will give extra crunch when you eat the bars.

To get the Peanut Butter to come out of the measuring cup, I first rinse the measuring cup under water quickly and then dump out the water to get the measuring cup wet. Then I measure out the PB into the wet measuring cup and that helps the PB to come out of the cup a little better.

It doesn't keep me from getting PB all over my fingers while I'm scooping it out of the jar.

But I'm just messy like that.

Every good recipe needs butter. I really believe that.

Most recipes tell you to melt the chocolate separately, but then you have something extra to wash. My mom taught me the trick of just sprinkling the chocolate chips over the top and then popping it into the oven until they are shiny. It takes about two minutes. If you start to spread them and they aren't quite melted enough, just pop them back into the oven for a bit.

If you want to save on your energy bill or if your oven is broken, and you live in a nice hot place like. . . oh . . . say Kansas in the summer, then you can take the bars out to the van or car and put the pan on top of the dashboard for a little bit and the chocolate chips will melt just fine there too.

This is all purely hypothetical, of course. . .

The cook gets to lick the spatula when its all spread out☺ I don't make these rules, I just follow them.

After taking the bars out of the refrigerator, let them rest for a bit so the chocolate isn't so hard that when you cut into them they crack. Of course if they do crack like mine did today, just eat them quick and don't tell anyone they ever existed.

If you cut them and put them on a pretty platter, no one will notice if a few are missing.

Reese's Peanut Butter Bars

1 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs
3 - 3 ½ c. powdered sugar
1 ½ c. peanut butter
1 c. (2 sticks) butter, melted
1 (12 oz) bag of chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet, but wouldn't dark be amazing???)

Combine the graham cracker crumbs, powdered sugar, peanut butter, and melted butter and mix well.

Press into a jelly roll pan. If you don't have a jelly roll pan, you can use a 9 x 13. The bars will just be thicker.

Sprinkle chocolate chips over the peanut butter mixture and put into a 350° oven for approx. 2 minutes.

Spread the chocolate chips evenly over the bars.

Refrigerate to set the melted chocolate. Cut into bars. Makes about 36 bars.

Random pics of our day. . .

2010-04-07T11:40:00.004-05:00

Easter 2010

2010-04-05T10:26:00.011-05:00

Last week was not the week I had planned. I feel so bad that I didn't post much last week, but truly every thing that happened last week caused so many emotions in me that I didn't even know how to voice one thought that I was thinking.

I still don't.

My grandma, who was 96 years old took a turn for the worse last week and late in the afternoon on Saturday she went to be with her Lord and Savior. It has been so sad for me and my family because we will miss her so very much and yet we are so thankful that she is in no more pain and was able to spend Easter in heaven.

Easter has had a very different feel this year and so much more meaning for me. "Because He lives I can face tomorrow. . ."

I still can't find the words to tell you what a special lady she was, but I will have to write a post about her as soon as I can to tell you about her.

We went ahead with our Easter celebration because we needed to be together. My parents had Easter dinner at their house on the farm.

I'm not sure how much I will be able to post this week either but I will try. One of the first things on the agenda for the week is finishing the girl's Easter dresses. I'm so glad I had already sewed a few new dresses that they could wear because the dresses I had planned for Easter didn't happen.

But that was okay, because as fun as new dresses and shoes are they aren't actually important for a meaningful Easter.

Easter is a time of remembering that Jesus paid the debt for our sin by dying on the cross. But the most exciting part is that he didn't stay dead, but arose from the grave the third day conquering sin and death once and for all.

All we have to do is believe on Him to be saved and have eternal life. (John 3:16, Acts 16:31)

Praying a special prayer doesn't save you, doing good works doesn't save you either because you can never do quite enough.

When I came to the realization that there was NOTHING I could do, that I deserved NOTHING but death and punishment for the my sins, Jesus saved me. It was a free gift freely given!

Amazing Grace!

One day I will get to see my grandma again!

Super P turns 6 (sniff, sniff)

2010-03-29T14:12:00.014-05:00

The number 6 sounds old to me. Too old to be my mischievous, darling, little red-headed guy who used to get into sooo much trouble. (think playing in the toilet when Mommy's busy somewhere else. . . yeah we're talking about that kind of trouble and oh so much more)

Don't get me wrong, he still has plenty of fun left in him. (but fortunately he only uses toilets for the correct purpose now.☺)

He falls off his chair for no explainable reason.

He's always hungry unless there is food in front of him to eat and then he's "so-full-I-can't-eat-another-bite-can-I-go-play?"

He's also THE BEST snuggler I've got, although he doesn't have as much time for snuggling as he used too.

He's a crazy combo of rough and tumble, and yet sensitive and caring.

He loves to draw and often draws pictures to give to people he loves.

When I asked what kind of cake he wanted, he said he wanted a "tree birthday"

That totally sounded like a theme P would come up with, but I was clueless as to what to do with it.

"Ummmm. . . a tree birthday???? Do you think you could draw me a picture of what you are thinking???"

He quickly drew out the picture and handed to me. So that is what we made. . .

Happy Birthday Super P! I'm so thankful that God knew just what we needed when he gave us you.

I LOVE YOU!

Growing Pains

2010-03-26T13:10:00.007-05:00

I love watching toddler's explore and experience the beauty that we take for granted. It gives me a fresh wonder for the amazing creation that God has given to us.

Pumpkin has been picking any flower she can find, which pretty much guarantees that they will all get picked. I have also received quite a few wonderful presents of leaves and grass.

I love watching her explore using all of her senses.

Pumpkin insisted that the flower "smelled sooo pretty." I couldn't smell a thing☺

She discovered one of my most favorite things, the fuzzy moss growing among the bricks on the patio.

(I also kinda love the little toes peeking out of their pink sandals.)

Pumpkin's knees are beginning to show evidence of all her adventures.

The baby knees I so carefully kept safe and protected for 2 years are now grass stained and have quite a few "ouchies" further proving that she can do things "by self."

(sigh) Letting go is so hard to do.

Monkey See Monkey Do

2010-03-23T11:02:00.007-05:00

I have recently begun to notice that my children like to do what they see me doing. A couple of examples:

I absolutely adore reading and will actually forget about the rest of the world and not even be able to hear people talking to me while I read-just ask my mother if you don't believe me.☺ I will often see A. pick up a book to read just for fun. I love seeing him do that. He learns so much from reading even the dumbest fiction books. Often he will ask what a word means because he has read it in a book and we get to have our vocabulary lesson right at the dinner table.

Little Pumpkin is only 2, but when we sit at the kitchen table to do our phonogram review (we use Spell to Write and Read in which you learn 70 phonograms) she likes to repeat the phonograms too. She speaks exceptionally well and to be honest a little bit too much. I truly think it is because she has heard these foundation blocks of our language over and over since she was itty bitty.

WARNING: A 2 year old who can express her thoughts clearly can be a bit daunting to parent. Yesterday she told me "But its not my fault!" Huh??? What in the world do you do with that???

Princess wants to do the crafty things she see me doing. I have been doing a lot of embroidery lately (I'm really starting to enjoy embroidery-so relaxing!) and so she has started her own project. I must admit to not being too excited about putting down my own embroidery to help her get started because I thought she would need a ton of help, but she is doing really well. She has only stitched her project to the sheets on my bed one time! Not too bad considering her teacher has done something similar several times before.☺

It makes me wonder what would happen if my children caught me reading my Bible more often or if they saw me being kind or going out of my way to be generous to someone who needed help?

Happy Spring!

2010-03-20T11:21:00.004-05:00

Can today really be the first day of Spring???

On Thursday the weather was absolutely beautiful. Highs were in the 60's and the kids had a jolly day of playing outside. Today, we woke up to a fresh layer of snow. Trying really hard not to be depressed about that. Even Max (the puppy in the pic) looks a little sad to me and a bit confused about the crazy weather.

I didn't cover any of my plants like the beautiful daffodils that already had a few buds on them. I know I probably should have. Hopefully they will be hardy enough to survive this little setback.

Our Spring Break was pretty lazy. I kept telling myself to clean kitchen cupboards, but once the drawer is shut who can tell that they really need to be cleaned? If you happen to come over, please don't open the drawers.

Easter is coming and so is Super P's 6th birthday so I have a very busy next couple of weeks. Easter dresses must be sewn very soon, a birthday cake must be decorated, the house needs to a least look clean, and my favorite part: I need to look for little white sandals for the girls. Totally love little girl shoes.

Enjoy the first day of Spring!

A little green. . .

2010-03-17T11:08:00.005-05:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Spring Skorts

2010-03-15T13:14:00.007-05:00

This week we are taking Spring Break. I'm not entirely convinced it is the best idea because there has been an enormous amount of bickering going on around here. It might be because of the time change though. That always throws young children off.

As you can see from the pictures, we have a lot of sun going on today so hopefully it can help us get rid of all the grumpiness. I noticed this weekend that we have tulips and daffodils coming up so Spring is definitely on its way.

fabric is from Anna Maria Horner's Chocolate Lollipop line

I made these skirts this weekend from Simplicit y 4206. They were a lot of fun to make. If I decide to make more though, I should take the time to figure out my ruffler foot. I gathered these skirts the old-fashioned pulling-up-the-basting-thread way. It would go a lot faster if I took the time to learn about the ruffler foot. I found a free ruffler tutorial at YouCanMakeThis.com so I have no excuses except laziness and procrastination.

(On a completely unrelated note, I really dislike the name "Sewing Patterns for Dummies." I almost didn't buy the pattern because of that, but the skirts were so cute. It made me feel stupid to buy the pattern. I really wanted to explain to the clerk that I am not a dummy, but I decided to spare myself the inevitable eye-rolling from the clerk that would cause. I can explain all of this to you though 'cuz I can't see you rolling your eyes at me ☺)

I used the short pattern to turn the skirts into skorts. As you can see it was completely necessary to do this. ☺

I used an interlock knit fabric to make the shorts even though the pattern isn't for knits. It worked just fine.

First, I sewed the skirt except for finishing the elastic waist. Then, I sewed the complete shorts except for its elastic waist. I serged the two pieces together at the waist and turned them down together to make a casing for the waistband. It worked like a charm.

I bought t-shirts from Target and appliqued designs on them to match the skirts. It is hard to tell, but Pumpkin's shirt has a giraffe and Princess has a flower.

Because we are on Spring Break, I'm not entirely sure how much I will be able to blog this week. Hopefully I can pop in occasionally just to say hi if nothing else.

The weekend is here!

2010-03-12T19:25:00.004-06:00

Hope you have a wonderful weekend with a lot of extra fun sprinkled all over.

Apron love

2010-03-11T15:15:00.007-06:00

If you've been reading my blog for a while you've seen this apron before.

I can't tell you how excited I was yesterday, when the designer of the pattern for my apron, Joan Hand Stroh, stopped by and left a comment on my blog!

You see, the whole reason I even bought the book A is for Apron is because I absolutely loved her aprons.

(Did I mention that I almost squealed with excitement? I didn't? Oh, yeah I'm trying to pretend that I'm nonchalant about an amazing pattern designer stopping by so I probably shouldn't tell you how I raced down the steps to tell my husband either. I don't want you to think that this completely made my day or anything☺)

Anyhoo, she mentioned the bestest news: You can now buy this pattern through Simplicity (which, by the way often go on sale at JoAnn's for super cheap) as well as this one which is adorable too.

Even though I have the book, I think I'm going to have to buy these patterns because there are a few different design options not to mention some children aprons. My girls would love having their own aprons. Hmmm, I should keep that in mind for their birthdays.

Why oh why do I love aprons so much?

A normal, rainy day at our house

2010-03-10T15:12:00.014-06:00

We did some studying because we have too.

Some sneezing and sniffling because colds are dumb and they sneak up on you. I was fine yesterday. Today. . . Ahhhchooo! oh, exuse me. . .

Some sharing just to show love.

Coloring because it's just a lot of fun.

Made some messes because that's what toddlers do best.

Mama did some crafting because sometimes Mama's need some time alone too. Alone time can be a precious thing.

Baking made the kitchen warm and smell good. Rainy days need something yummy coming out of the oven.

We'll probably do the same thing tomorrow if you want to join us.

Ahhhhchooo!

Well, okay, maybe some other time then. . .???

Hmmm, where did I put that Kleenex box?

I think I've got my motivation back. . .

2010-03-09T08:57:00.009-06:00

and its a dangerous, dangerous thing.

There are so many projects that I want to try:

Scottie Dog (free!) for our coming baby.
Patchwork pillows-wouldn't they be a wonderful touch of spring on our porch swing???
Shoes (free!) for our coming baby
Love, love, love this quilt! (free tutorial)
Buttercup or Phoebe purse for me. (both free tutorials!)
Fabric baskets (free tutorial) Wouldn't they be great for Easter baskets and then storage???
Easter dresses for my girls (to be determined)
Love this necklace! Wouldn't it make super fun gifts??? (free tutorial)
Really need to make a pincushion, but I can't figure out what to stuff it with. Most seem to stuff it with polyfill-is that the best idea or is there a better way???

There are probably more projects if I stopped to think long enough. This list was just what came to me in the 5 minutes I've been sitting here.

What new projects are you are wanting to try???

Baked Alaska

2010-03-08T15:27:00.005-06:00

My husband requested Baked Alaska for his birthday dessert last Friday, if "it wasn't too much work."

Now don't tell my husband, because I want him to continue to be impressed with me, but I almost laughed because actually it was one of the easier things to make and actually doesn't take too much time to do especially since most of it can be done ahead of time.

There are many ways to make Baked Alaska. You can choose any cake or flavor of ice cream you want. I made ours with Angel Food cake because that is what my husband likes the best. You can just buy the angel food cake from the grocery store bakery if you want. I used a cake mix. Homemade would be wonderful, but it would take more time that way. Do whatever works best for you. Your family or guests won't know or care I promise.

Cut about 1 inch off the top of your angel food cake all the way around. A serrated knife works best on angel food. Save the top to put back on after you have filled the inside with ice cream.

Now this is the best part. . . Pull out the center of the cake making a tunnel to put the ice cream. Leave about 1 inch of cake in the center and outer edges.

Quickly eat all of the yummy cake that you just pulled out before the kids catch you. (But don't eat the top of the cake that you cut off-you still need that part) I shared my treasure with my husband because it was his birthday, but if it had been any other day I probably would have eaten it quick and put an innocent look on my face before anyone else caught me.

Your cake should look something like the above picture. Don't forget to wipe the cake crumbs from your chin and pull out the ice cream from the freezer.

Allow the ice cream to soften so that you can gently fill the tunnel you made with as much yummy goodness as you can. My husband picked out strawberry swirl, but any ice cream you like will do fine.

Put the top of the cake back on over the ice cream and pop the whole thing into the freezer to get the ice cream good and hard.

You can do all of the above ahead of time.

Next you make a meringue:

Beat the egg whites, cream of tartar, and vanilla until soft peaks form. Slowly add your sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form and all the sugar is dissolved. Stiff peaks should look like the above picture. If you are brave you could even tip the bowl over upside down and the meringue wouldn't fall out. I'm not necessarily recommending that though so don't yell at me if you end up with meringue on your head.

Right before serving, frost the cake with all of the yummy meringue. Cover the cake completely as this acts as insulation to keep the ice cream cold while the Alaska is in the oven.

Bake the Alaska at 500°F for a few minutes until the meringue is a lovely golden brown color. It won't take very long so keep your eye on it.

The one in the picture above still needs to bake a wee bit longer so that sides turn a golden brown as well.

Slice and eat right away.

We managed to eat the whole thing in one sitting.☺

Baked Alaska

1 Baked Angel Food cake
1 quart of ice cream any flavor, softened (you probably won't use all of the ice cream)
Meringue:

5 egg whites
1 tsp. vanilla
½ tsp. cream of tartar
⅔ c. sugar

Cut 1 inch off the top of the angel food cake all the way around. Set the top aside to use later.

Pull out the inside cake to make a tunnel leaving 1 inch of cake all the way around.

Fill the tunnel with softened ice cream.

Put the top back on the cake and pop into the freezer until the ice cream is firm again.

At serving time, beat together egg whites, vanilla, and cream of tartar to soft peaks. Gradually add in sugar beating after each tablespoon is added until stiff peaks form.

Place cake on a baking sheet covered with foil or parchment paper. Spread with egg white mixture, sealing to edges of cake and baking sheet all around. Swirl the meringue to make pretty peaks.

Bake in a 500°F oven about 3 minutes or until golden brown.

Happy Birthday!

2010-03-05T15:23:00.005-06:00

The children have been busy making handmade cards.

Princess H. made up a song on the piano just for Daddy.

I "generously" told my husband he could have the last piece of bacon at breakfast because it was his birthday. We were all eying it hoping we could snatch it before anyone else could, but I guess you have to show extra love to the birthday guy.

I learned that men who enjoy hunting as my husband does have a weird sense of fashion, (did you know the different camouflage patterns have a name???? I certainly didn't. It is absolutely insane! Why oh why couldn't a nice shirt have been on the birthday list instead of all of the strange hunting gear I knew nothing about???).

Today I'm busy making a supper I don't like, but my husband requested as his special birthday meal.

All in preparation for this special day of honoring the one we love so much.

Happy Birthday Sweetie! I love you!

Fixed!

2010-03-04T07:06:00.005-06:00

After reading all of your lovely suggestions and talking with my Mom, who is quite a good seamstress, I finally fixed this dress.

I ended using the shirring idea, only instead of doing the whole neckline I added elastic just by the shoulder seams. It would have been best to do it under the bodice lining, but I had already completely finished the inside of the dress and it would have been difficult to re-do. So I zig-zagged the elastic over the lining.

I'm happy with the dress now and so glad that Princess H. can wear it. Thanks again for all of your help. It really did help get the ideas flowing as to what could be done and helped me to get over my complete paralyzed panic.

You all are the best!

Mustache Smiles

2010-03-03T08:39:00.006-06:00

A lot of mornings we have eggs and toast for breakfast. We don't eat it every day, but we do eat them often. I love eggs and toast. My husband loves eggs and toast. The kids think it is completely boring. They get more excited about oatmeal than they do about eggs and toast.

I know. . .I sometimes question whose children they are too.

So this morning as they were groaning about having to eat eggs and toast (poor deprived children) I whipped up an Orange Julius and the groans turned into mustache smiles.

Orange Julius

6 oz. can of frozen OJ concentrate
1 cup milk
1 cup water
1/2 c. sugar (can use less)
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
12 ice cubes
(or the big chunk of ice in the bag that you can't get to break no matter how hard you try.)

Toss it all into your blender and blend until smooth. Don't double the batch. It won't all fit in the blender. Don't ask me how I know this. Just trust me.☺

Hello March

2010-03-02T11:25:00.003-06:00

I'm so thankful that March is here and the end of winter is in sight. I was looking out our window a couple of days ago and just gasped in complete delight:

Our neighbors tree has tiny buds on it!

It is not the best picture, but I had to try and capture the proof that winter will not last forever and spring will come.

Typically, Kansas weather teases us with promises of better weather and then crashes all hopes with another storm so I'm sure we will see more winter yet, but still. . .spring will come eventually and all of the brown in our landscape will be banished by the coming green (which in my yard is most likely weeds, but dandelions make the children very happy)

I'm not a gardener. I can't make things grow at all. I must shamefully admit to having zucchini die on me one year. I don't think anyone else could kill zucchini, but I managed.

So my husband has decided to take up the gardening in our family. He has been building Square Foot Garden patio boxes, because most of our yard is quite shady. And now we are having spring come indoors as well with the little seedlings that he has started in our living room window. Hopefully my husband will succeed in gardening where I have failed. He certainly can't do any worse. ☺

Our Weekend

2010-02-28T15:33:00.004-06:00

On Saturday, we cleaned. I mean really cleaned. Our house has been "barely maintained" for several months now. I was totally horrified at how messy our house had become. I love a clean house, but really don't like cleaning a whole lot.

I'm sure I'm not alone.

I sometimes feel like in order to maintain a really clean house I have to spend my whole life doing nothing but cleaning. I have looked at Flylady.com and she has some great ideas. I tried her ideas for a time, but have gradually quit because yeah I can accomplish a lot in 15 min., but boy howdy can the kids make an even bigger mess in less than 15 min.

It seems like I am just a hamster on a wheel going nowhere. How do you keep a clean house without spending your whole life doing it???? That is the question I would love to find the answer for.

The reason I was finally able to get everyone motivated, myself included, into getting the house cleaned up was because we invited family over to help celebrate hubby's birthday. I won't tell you how old he will be this week, but he is definitely getting older so clearly we needed ice cream to help cope with that. Lots of yummy toppings are always a plus too.

I found recipes for Peanut Butter sauce, Chocolate sauce, and Caramel sauce on Recipezaar.com ~~which I can't get to come up right now for some reason to make links~~. All the toppings were delish and I recommend them as being totally yummy. ~~I'll try and get the links posted as soon as I can.~~

And the best news??? We have lots of leftovers☺ I'm thinking apples dipped into the caramel or peanut butter sauce, maybe a little caramel drizzled into coffee or bananas with chocolate and nuts. Oh the possibilities that could add even more to my already expanding
tummy. . .