Ear warmers, mittens and cinnamon applesauce ornaments

I made these for 3 kids in a family that my church small group adopted for Christmas.
This is Evie mixing up cinnamon applesauce ornament dough.

One that Evie "made" for her little friend Miciah - they both love Thomas the Train.

I had a request to put the ornament recipe out here:

1cup applesauce(I used unsweetened) and 1 cup ground cinnamon (I saw another recipe that did 1/2 cup cinn and 1/2 cup flour but haven't tried that)

as you can see I put the ingredients in a zip loc baggie and mush/mixed them till they were forming a dough then just sprinkle your work area and rolling pin with some cinnamon and roll out to about 1/4 inch or maybe a little thicker (if you roll it too thin its hard to get off the counter and is more brittle when dried), use a straw to make holes for hanging later, then you can either air dry or put in a 200 degree oven turning often till dry... then you can just string up or decorate with glue/glitter/etc.

Hers and Little Hers Gingerbread Aprons

I just got done with these tonight - it feels so good to have some sewing projects completed. I have been so bad lately with getting multiple projects prepped and partially done but not getting all the way through them. One of these is for me and the other is for Miss Evie. Hers was done before she went to bed so she is modeling it below in her cute reigndeer jammies. I didn't take a close up the the green fabric has little yellow stars, and gingerbread men holding candy canes so the red and white seemed fitting. I didn't use a pattern, just kind of winged it. I even used my serger for part of it.

Zero to lots in two days

Our blizzard... this was after we had shoveled.
Yesterday when we got just a few inches - the bald spot is where my husband was parked when it snowed.

Practicing her snow driving.

This was the night of the first real snow - she didn't want to come back in... no, seriously we almost had to drag her back in.

A glimpse into Life with Evie

Really, I have been meaning and wanting to do some sewing... and I actually have done a couple of things (those pics are on my other memory card and I just don't feel like getting up right now). I made a pair of custom fleece slippers for Evie, they are a touch small and I need to put some elastic (maybe I should try the FOE) but super cute none the less. I also have cut out the pieces for a t-shirt refashion to a newborn gown and now just need to do the sewing part. I do have an excuse for this week though. We were at my parents last weekend to go to the apple orchard and for Evie to get a hayride from Grandpa and pick out pumpkins. Then we were reorganizing our basement and getting ready for family to come stay. My brother and his wife and our niece Violet(see pic at bottom) are staying with us because they have a work convention where we live and so stay with us and I am watching Violet during the day while they are gone. So, not much getting done when chasing two toddlers :) Maybe next week... in the meantime here are some cute pics from the last month or so.
so tired but must draw

she climbed in there on her own - I guess that'll teach us to put a big bowl on the floor

hayride with Grandpa (Poppi)

Grandpa showing her how to start a fire.... great

With cousin Violet who is 13 months (Evie is 20 months) - syncronized sippies :)

Seriously? Its SEPTEMBER!

This was what we saw Sunday night driving home from a friends house. Yeah, and you can't see it very well, but the table that is outside to the left of the picture... it has garden plants for sale. I just don't know what to say. Wasn't there a time that they waited at least until after Halloween?

Septemer 27, 2003

Worst blogger ever!

Okay, so maybe not THE worst but I think I rank up there! I have to say that I just don't feel like I am good at this. I keep saying I need to post and as things happen in life I think "oh, that would be a cute post" but then by the time I get close to the computer my motivation has subsided and I put off posting once again. I don't know how many people actually read this but if you don't know me in person, then you probably don't really feel like you know me at all!
Well, how about this... today started out pretty rough. When Evie and I got up this morning she had a short fuse for reasons still unknown. After unsuccessful attempts to communicate with her to find out what was wrong (yes, I know she is only 19 months old but usually we find a way past the lack of language barrier) and also multiple unsuccessful attempts to console my screaming child I left her crying on my bed and went downstairs to call my hubby. I think at that point I just needed to hear from someone who wasn't going to scream at me. This was soooo out of character for Evie and all the go to remedies had failed. He heard her in the background and said if I needed he could come home for a bit... I was refreshed by the potential for backup should I need it and so I told him to call before he was able to leave just to check in with us in case she had come to her senses. I then headed back upstairs to try again... within a few minutes I was able to calm her down and called off the backup when the offer came around again. This was not the only challenge today. A little later during a diaper change she decided to kick at me the whole time I was trying to change her... I am not a spanker (really the only time I want to spank her is when she has me all worked up and that is exactly when "they" say you should not spank your children) at this time I am usually able to find an underlying reason for the times she acts out and when I let her know I understand that she is (tired, hungry, teething, etc) and we work to alleviate that issue she immediately changes her behavior. She has even started to try to communicate more before just acting out I think because I have worked so much with her. Okay, so a bit off subject here... so back to the diaper change... she had me so frustrated after I tried several times to tell her that it was not okay and that it was not making me very happy etc that I finally just said to her "if you do not stop kicking me, then I am going to swat your bottom". I didn't yell it, I just said it very calmly but seriously. I am not sure if she knew what it meant exactly but some note of it got through to her and she stopped. At this point I thought that we both could use some time out of the house so we went for a run/walk for about 30-40 minutes. I am still trying to get more consistent with my exercise as I have not lost all the baby weight and I think I might be out of range for that excuse now. Nevertheless, I have decided that I would like to get to a more suitable weight before I would get pregant again so I better get going! On another topic, I never get sick, except that two Sundays ago I went from being fine at church to not feeling so hot and taking a nap after lunch and then ending up with a fever of 103 overnight and a sore throat (I mean, it was nasty looking - white spots and everything). Well, the fever went down to 101/100 on Monday and D stayed home from work to take care of Evie because, well if you have ever tried to do anything normal with a fever you know it is not fun. By Tuesday I was much better with just a slight fever maybe 99 ish and no sore throat. Well, then by Wednesday I had a cough but was pretty much better besides that... a week and a half later, I am still coughing. I probably should get checked out but I never expected it to last this long because like I said, I never get sick - really the last time before this that I got sick, I took all my homeopathy and herbs and stuff and was completely better the next day, I mean I woke up and felt like I had never been sick. Now looking back on this go 'round, I was not as stringent with my attack and maybe that had something to do with it? So the cough, it is in my chest and kind of itchy tickly feeling and so if anyone has any natural tips please share! Okay, so now that I have completely rambled on I will say goodnight because it is now 1:04 am here and I am slightly out of it. I will try to post in the next couple of days as it is our 6th anniversary on Sunday and we are going out to have some couple time Saturday while my parents come spend some time with Evie.

seriously? does she look like she could cause trouble?

The one with the gifts

This is the front of a baby quilt that I helped piece for a friend.
This is the back of the quilt.

Evie "modeling" the chef's hat and apron that I made for my nephew Isaiah's birthday gift. This is the shoulder bag I made for my sister-in-law for her birthday... I loved the fabrics together, I hope I can find more of the outside fabric.

What a character!

Okay, so this is my sweet sweet girl! I love her so much. I just have to tell this story that of course has no back up photos. We were out shopping at Old Navy yesterday and little miss was intrigued by the mannequins... she gave them hugs every time she left them and petted the dog. Then we went to Scheels and in the bike section they have kid mannequins too (a little creepy though - they have huge Precious Moments type eyes) and she was grabbing their hands and wanting to take them to show them something I guess. Such a sweet girl, love love love her!

T-shirt skibbies

Tonight I tried making a pair of undies from one of my hubby's t-shirts using a fave pair for the pattern. This is the before pic...
This is the front after... I ended up cutting too close to the words and so the elastic waist is not like it should be... also the pair I used for the pattern have a bit of spandex in them so the fit is different with the ones I made from a 100% cotton tee... we will see after I wear them a couple times.

This is the back view. I didn't use any elastic around the legs for this try, depending on the material for future pairs I may or may not. It was really a pretty simple project, the longest part was when I had to refill my black thread bobbin on the second leg (I found out it was empty after "sewing" about 2/3 of the way around it... if I hadn't been using bright yellow for the spool thread I probably wouldn't have noticed it until I was all the way around - oh well, minor set back).

Anyways, it was a pretty crafty day all around, I spent from about 10:30 this morning till around 3pm working on quilts with a gal from church who is teaching me, then did the tshirt refashion tonight. Yay me!

Just a note that next time I will try to find a shirt with a bit more stretch or rethink my elastic or style of skibs.

There are no words...

I happened to have the camera out and caught this little move just in time... boy that will be great for future embarrassing slideshows :) Love her!

Matching Dresses

I was wanting to make something fefstive for Evie to wear for the 4th of July celebrations this year and had gone back and forth about different ideas like doing a red white and blue tutu, or recycled t-shirt into skirt... then I saw this easy peasy dress tutorial over at Lil Blue Boo and thought hey I can do that... I added elastic in the back of the top part of the dress and made it a little bigger and then I shrunk it down and made a matching dress for her baby as well. It ended up a little longer than I wanted because I was not able to get my model to sit still long enough to measure well or try it on before we left for my parents'. It was chilly and rainy almost all day on the 4th though so she was wearing it only for the parade :( You will have to forgive me for the pics, she doesn't hold still very long! Those were the best I could do!

Baby girl shower gifts

I had a baby shower to go to this past Sunday for the wife of one of my husband's old friends. I wanted to make something unique for them and this is what I came up with.

Rocker girl guitar onsie with matching tutu

taggie blanket - the green stuff is super silky soft fur like material!

Summer Love

Say CHEESE!
hanging out in the pool with daddy

hug for grandpa before they leave on the Harley

caught sleeping on the job

kisses for daddy

with her cousin Violet

Yummy Rhubarb recipe

So, my mom moved her rhubarb patch in her garden and in the process took out some for me to plant because she knows I heart rhubarb! The drawback to this is that I am not able to pick any for use this year from my newbies and all but one corner of my mom's is unavailable as well. Well, not to be alarmed, while we were back for a short trip on Saturday, my mom let me pick a bunch from her corner patch and so....
I give you rhubarb crisp/crumble pie! It is oh so yummy too! And just in case you have access to some rhubarb and like trying different recipes I will put my crisp recipe below. Also, check out Angry Chicken's rhubarb hand pies.

Rhubarb Crisp

-4 cups rhubarb (or apples, blueberries, cherries, peaches...)

-2/3 to 3/4 cup packed brown sugar

-1/2 cup flour-1/2 cup oats

-1/3 cup butter softened

-3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

-3/4 tsp ground nutmeg (tastes good without this too)

1. Heat oven to 375, grease bottom and sides of square pan 8x8x2 (I just use a stick of butter and rub it around

2. Put fruit in pan. Mix remaining ingredients and sprinkle over fruit.

3. Bake about 30 minutes or until top is golden brown and fruit is tender.

Sewing Machine Meme

It is sewing machine month at Sew,Mama,Sew!. If you want to participate in the sewing machine meme post go here. They are also doing givaways so look for those as well.

What brand and model do you have? I actually have two sewing machines. The one that I use is a Brother xl - 2600 i but I also have an old Kenmore cabinet model that I got at a garage sale for $10... but I have yet to get it oiled up and try it out.

How long have you had it? 2 1/2 years but it sat in the box unopened until about 9 months ago

How much does that machine cost (approximately)? around $100

What types of things do you sew (i.e. quilting, clothing, handbags, home dec projects, etc)?clothes, handbags, pillows, stuffies, soft shoes, blankets

How much do you sew? not as much as I would like... more when I am working on gifts that have a deadline approaching around Christmas I was sewing almost every day for at least a couple hours and did a couple all day sessions, right now though I am lucky to do something every couple weeks

How much wear and tear does the machine get? for the bursts of sewing I do, probably at least a couple hours minimum at once

Do you like/love/hate your machine? Are you ambivalent? Passionate? I like my machine, it is a good machine for someone like me that doesn't do a ton of sewing yet, it does enough that even as I get more experienced I can still do more difficult projects but there are a few stitches that I wish it had like an overlock or some more decorative stitches - I recently got a serger though

Does she have a name? no, but after reading this I am thinking about coming up with a name

What features does your machine have that work well for you?
Is there anything that drives you nuts about your machine? every once in a while the thread gets wrapped around the post and if I don't catch it and keep going my thread breaks

Do you have a great story to share about your machine (i.e., Found it under the Christmas tree?
Dropped it on the kitchen floor? Sewed your fingernail to your zipper?, Got it from your Great Grandma?, etc.!)? it was a Christmas gift from my in-laws :) they are pretty super

Would you recommend the machine to others? Why? yes, for the money it is a good machine and does enough for you to do most any type of sewing - it has a lot of add on feet you can purchase too

What factors do you think are important to consider when looking for a new machine? I don't know enough yet but I think a lot of it would depend on how much and what kind of sewing you are planning on doing

Do you have a dream machine? nope - I did really want a serger though and my husband let me get one for my birthday/mothers day so I am good for a little while :)

Evie's first trip to the zoo!

Evie going down the slide at the kids area in the zoo... her new method is sliding on her belly. I had to keep the little boy at the top from sliding into her.
Beautiful blue bird, he(?) was looking a bit threatened

She wanted to hug the giraffes

Pointing at the BIG kitty aka tiger

messing up her cousin Judah's hat

BIG bird

not sure what to think about the llamas

look at the giant turtles

jellyfish

excited even to see the birds