One last post...

I think I have posted the most in the last few days as I ever have. Must be because school is out!! Well, after the second day of baking cookies and candy with children under 8, I decided to whip up the "Rainbow snake" that Lil requested. I must be high from all the sugar. I am cooking, baking and sewing everyday!!! Anyway, baby girl is a bit under the weather. I think catching some of what Miss M had last week. Right in time for Christmas, don't you love it!! So, she kept requesting a rainbow snake, this afternoon I pulled out some scraps and this is what I came up with:


Lil loved it. She woke up from nap just in time to pick out the white button eyes. Why do we buy so many toys?? Lil played with this snake all night and Miss M played with her Rosie doll all night. They even slept with them.
Now, to come up with a clone trooper plan for the boy....

Dolls..

I don't usually make softies and dolls. I really love this Black Apple Doll pattern from Emily Martin. I got the pattern here on the Martha Stewart website. It was fun to make. I first made one a couple of weeks ago (no pic) and Lil took it. Then I made one the other night for one of my sweet little friends that come over to make cookies with us. We used leftover Christmas fabric. (I mean, how much of that Michael Miller fabric will I use!!!) Then Miss M just had to have one so she picked out some fabric and we tried to make the hair longer, which turned out o.k. Not too much experience with this. She loved it though and named her Rosie!
Of course now, Lil has made a request for a rainbow snake??? Not sure exactly how that will work out. And the boy has requested a stuffed Star Wars Clone Trooper?? Definitely, not sure how I will do that. He has it all planned out, though. So, maybe I will let him design it and I will sew it!

Have a Blessed Christmas!!

Merry Christmas to self...

I thought this year I needed a Christmas Apron. All my kids have Christmas aprons and I make them for my neices and my best friend's daughter when they come to bake with us. And I don't even have one. So, I had ordered this fabric this summer along with the fabric I used for the girls pillowcase tops. I also had been waiting to use the Emmaline apron pattern from Sew Liberated. I think it turned out pretty cute. It is a reversible apron. Big G took the pics, he really did pretty good!!!

More Recipe Info

I am new to this blog thing and I don't want to do anything I am not supposed to like print recipes from books that are still for sale. Not sure about the rules on that kind of stuff, but I am sure there is some sort of copyright law about it. So, I thought I could at least give you more info about the books. The one where I have gotten so many great ideas and recipes is Southern Living Our Best Christmas Recipes. I have linked it to Amazon where you can buy it used for around $2 or new for around $8. There are many homemade gift ideas in there, soup mixes, cookies, breads, etc. We are using the Hot Cocoa recipe to give out at Lil's preschool class in individual plastic Christmas cups I got for like 4/$1 at Hobby Lobby. You can tell I have been spending way too much time at that store this fall!!

The Nutty Snack mix that I have modified for our family is from Christmas with Southern Living 2002. I also linked it to Amazon so you can check it out too. There will be many more recipes to come from the Christmas with Southern Living Recipe books this Holiday season, I will try to share my favorites and which Years they are from. Many recipes can be used throughout the year, but I use them a ton during the holidays.
I think I may just have a cookbook addiction!

Peppermint Ice Cream Pie and Christmas Snack Mix

This was soooo yummy. Even my hubby loved it and he doesn't eat many sweets. I got this recipe from an old cookbook. Actually, one night last week I decided to look at some cookbooks my in-laws brought me that were my husband's grandmother's. They know I love to cook. Unfortunately, when they gave them to me I couldn't think about using them - so they went straight to the basement. As usual, instead of getting to bed early, so I wouldn't be tired, I thought, "hmmm, I wonder if there is a good recipe in those cookbooks in the basement" Three hours later I was still going through them! Anyway, the one for the Peppermint Ice Cream Pie came from Southern Living "Our Best Christmas Recipes". The copyright was 1995, but the forward says it shares recipes from their first issue in 1966. It was truly delicious and I must have marked 20 other recipes to try!!!



These are teacher Christmas gifts. I have been making this Christmas Snack Mix for a few years now. My inlaws actually made it for years, but a slightly different recipe. I took the recipe from "Christmas with Southern Living 2002", Nutty Snack Mix. I have made a few changes. Like I use TLC cheese crackers instead of Cheese nips. But with this base, my family has come up with a snack mix that they can't stop eating! I'm glad I only make this at Christmas time, because everytime I turn around the kids are eating it out of a tin. I thought this year I would use it for Dance teacher, gymnastic coaches, and piano teacher gifts. Found these great bowls for a steal at Hobby Lobby. Bought some green card stock, printed out a sweet message, traced a Christmas tree and voila! a Christmas gift. I think everyone should make homemade gifts, they seem so special. The kids can actually say they helped make the gift!
I love to hear about other's Christmas Homemade Gifts also!!

Christmas Ornaments and Dresses

Miss M had an Ornament Party in her Kindergarten class this week. We did 6 ornaments! They used their thumbs to make the polka dots on the glass balls, I used Scribbles paint to paint their initials.
I painted the trains. This is a picture of what the girl train looked like. The boy train was red with lime green stripes on the smoke stack.

This Reindeer is one of two they made:

It was really fun watching 20 little ones make so many ornaments!

Finally, I finished smocking and putting the girls dresses together.


Now, to get my Christmas presents done!! Not to mention getting my photo cards done. I feel more pressure everyday as I get another Christmas Card in the mail, I feel more and more behind!

Thanksgiving Feasts

Yes, Feasts are what we had this week. Four to be exact. Miss M had her Thanksgiving Feast at school on Monday and had a wonderful time dressing up as an Indian. She learned so much this month and was quick to correct anything I had wrong. Like how many braids should be in her hair. Of course, the "goose egg" on her forehead wasn't part of her costume. She "accidently" dove under her brother's bed and hit the bed frame!!
Big G also had a Thanksgiving Program at school, but on Tuesday. The 2nd grade sang songs. It was very cute. G is not one to put a lot of effort into singing and performing, but was always cutting his eyes to see that we were watching.
The 3rd Thanksgiving Feast was at Lil's preschool. She sang a few songs and we ate a feast with her. She enjoyed having all the attention. I think it may be the first time parents and grandparents have come to see something that was only about her.
The best feast was today. We smoked the turkey and all our family came over. It was wonderful. I am so full, I don't think I will be able to eat tonight - but I am sure I will manage. I have to eat something, if only to justify why I need pie!

Christmas, Christmas time is here....

Everytime I say those words I think of the OLD Alvin and the Chipmunks song that -- yes as small child I had a cassette tape of.
Well, I am busy helping to get the kids class christmas parties ready. I just can't say no. I tested out the scented ornaments from Family Fun. They smell great. We made Gingerbread men so I can see how many one recipe made. (12) So, two recipes should be enough for the Kindergarteners. The ornaments are made from applesauce, cinnamon and white glue! You roll it out and use cookie cutters. They took about 48 hrs to dry in my house. If I had a window sill here, I think they would dry faster:


Anyway, I did manage to get some sewing in. I quickly made these fun outfits for the girls to wear in December. They are pillowcase dress tops and I just added a ruffle to some Target jeans that I got on sale. Both M and Lil loved them! Now to get their smocked dresses done!

Turkeys and Apron

I downloaded this really cute turkey applique from SWAKEmbroidery.com. Each girl loved their turkeys. Turkeys for my two little turkeys!!


I also made this apron for my best friends daughter. Her birthday is this month. She likes to play hairdresser. I was so glad to use this fabric. I have had it for over a year. She loved it!

Finally, PJ pants.

Well, I finally made the girls some pj pants. I only promised them months ago when I was doing their brothers. I also secretly wanted to try out the Boutique Bottoms pattern, I had to see if I liked it better than some of my other pants pattern. I think M's was the best fit. I was a little confused with the pattern (which is not hard to do these days) on how to do the length. I just continued the lines straight down until I got the length I wanted. Lil's pants seemed bigger. Could be because she pulls all her pants way down below her 3 yr old belly. May need to adjust that next time. They were happy with the Little Einsteins fabric and Hannah Montana. M said "FINALLY, MAMA"!!!

I'm back....

October is always a crazy month around here. Not to mention that we have 5 birthdays in our family in this month. Big G turned 8, I can't believe it. I actually can't believe I have an 8 yr old, I don't have babies anymore I have kids. So... Sad.

Anyway, I have been busy sewing. Sewing 20 Chair Pockets (cozies) for G's class. I got the pattern from Sew Spoiled. This has taken most of my time, I deliver them tomorrow and hope to get started on Christmas stuff soon. I can't believe it is almost November. Time is getting away from me.

I made these great "healthier" treats for G's class tomorrow. The school is pushing no sugar which is great. On the other hand, my husband has nicknamed Lil's preschool as "Candy School". I got the recipes for the spiders and pumpkins from Family Fun. I can always find fun stuff to do there with the kids. The spiders are two Whole Wheat crackers, then spread peanut butter and stick in the 8 pretzel stick legs, 2 raisins for eyes. Super easy and Fast.


Even faster, were the pumpkins. Just get a sun-dried tomato tortilla, spread on some cream cheese or whatever you like, roll it up and slice. Stick a toothpick in it with some cilantro or parsely for the stems. I love food with a theme!!

Jack O Lantern Skort

I bought 1 yard of this Jack O Lantern fabric last year. I have been just waiting to find something that I could do with it. I still have a ton of green gingham thanks to an ordering mistake that I made 3 years ago!!! I am definitely a fabric junky. Anyway, I got 3 skorts made out of this fabric. One for M, one for Lil and one for my neice! Then I embroidered their t-shirts. I have gotten my money out of this Children's Corner pattern, Sarah's skort. I make this easy pattern all the time. M wore it to school today. Now, I just have to figure out how to get all the stains out of her shirt so she can wear it again for the Kindergarten pumpkin patch. I guess mama should have checked the schedule to see that she had art today!

Girl Snake?

I just can't seem to keep up with blogging lately. I am really going to try the next few weeks to get more posts up. Anyway, the baby girl wanted to be a pink snake for Halloween this year. I can't explain her obsession with snakes, lizards and frogs. Big G liked dinosaurs, but his focus was always cars at this age and Molly just likes anything girly. Lil seems to be somewhere in between. She saw this fabric at Hancock's last week and thought it looked like a pink snake!(it is really pink giraffe print) She pleaded to have a snake dress up outfit. This is what I came up with. It is pretty hot down here most of the time, but I figure she can wear white tights and a T-shirt underneath if we need to. I somewhat used Simplicity 0571, view A Lamb costume (this is a far cry from a sweet lamb!). I made the jumpsuit sleevless and made it shorts. Then added a tail that can be removed for a car ride. Also, I took the hood for the lamb and omitted the ears. Added buttons for eyes and a felt tongue. I will say she was super excited, and had to try it on immediately. There are more pics on flickr.

On an unrelated note, I took this pic of Lil the other day. I thought this is how I feel somedays. Don't I wish I could fall asleep that easy, even while eating a fig newton?!

The Party is Over

Finally, the Tea Party/Birthday Party is over. It was my main focus these last few weeks. It was so fun. The birthday girl had a fabulous time, all the girls did. M picked out pink fabric and I made a table runner and napkins:

Of course, both girls needed a new long skirt to wear for the fancy party day. M picked out pink satin. Lill picked out pale blue crushed velvet?? She said it was so soft just like her lovey, and wouldn't budge. So, that is what we made. here is a pic before we added our pink feather boas and white gloves:

Such good manners by all the girls they really got into it! Here are a couple more pics that I will bore you with:

The little girls table:

B.E.A.R. Day

Well, it was Be Excited About Reading in 2nd grade today. They can wear PJ's and be comfy all day. Big G was super excited this morning when I showed him his Star Wars PJ pants, Pillow and T-shirt that I made him. He couldn't wait to go to school! I found the fabric on the 50% off table at Hancock Fabrics this summer and I knew I would have a reason for it.
Of course, I now have to get PJ's made for the girls - Hannah Montana and Little Einsteins!!

Gingham Apron

I made a gingham apron for my daughter. She loves it! It really turned out cute. She has worn it all morning. I have had this green gingham for about 2 years and I still have a ton of it left. I really wanted to use it. I found this old cross stitch pattern that my mother-in-law gave me a couple of years ago. I had totally forgotten about it. I thought it would be cute on an apron. This is it:

I used, once again, Amy Karol's pattern, but made adjustments for a child size. I know I can't say enough times how much I love that book. Here she is in her new apron:

I hope to get working on some fall clothes for the girls soon, but I have to get on the Tea Party/Birthday Party that is creeping up on me!!!

Another Apron, more food

Well, I didn't manage to do much house cleaning yesterday. Though, I did clean the inside of the car out. Not to much recognition since school let out 30 min late on the first day because of a thunderstorm! And the kids were as Lil put it "soppin wet". At least all the trash was out!

Anyway, Lil and I made a peach and blueberry cobbler. I think it would have been better in a cast iron skillet, but it sure tasted good!

I got the recipe from here again. I tend to get obsessed with one cookbook or magazine and make a bunch of stuff from it and then move on to another.

During Lil's snooze, I finished up another apron for a gift. I am trying to make them all different, even though I am using the same basic pattern from Amy Karol's book Bend the Rules sewing. I thought this one would also be good to use during Christmas with the red and all. Bias tape is usually not much of my friend, but this worked out pretty well.

I've had so much fun making these aprons for birthday presents, I am thinking about making some for Christmas.

First Day of School

Well, they are off to Kindergarten and 2nd grade! They were so excited when they got up this morning. I can't believe summer flew by so fast, not too mention the last few years! We did have hair issues, big brother, was no where to be found after I sent him up to brush his teeth. I found him... with water all over his head. I said, "what are you doing".. G said, "trying to get my hair flat". This is the child that could care less all summer what he looked like and I had to argue with him to even get him to bathe.....

Then, of course, I have to take a zillion pictures of the first day. Big G decides he will pull some silly moves by messing with his sister's head. This was fine and all until Molly figures out that her hair is messed up!! Mama saves the day by fixing it.

We are all about to pile into the mommy van to head to school when baby sister starts crying, she wants a picture too. But would not stop crying so we could take the pic??....

Anyway, they are off. I hope they have a wonderful day. Lil and I are going to try to clean, clean, clean including the car. Maybe, sneak in a little sewing and ditch some of the cleaning!!!

Long week..

It has been a long week. I recovered 6 cushions for my mother at her lake house and made 4 throw pillows. No pics yet. Plus, getting ready for school to start next week. I am looking forward to having a schedule again, but not looking forward to trying to get everyone up at the crack of dawn!!

I did make a yummy recipe from the magazine EatingWell. You can find the recipe here. We needed to use up our veggies from our Veg Box this past week and this was great. We ate it as a side item - Yummy!

Also, I did get around to making two of the aprons I am planning to use as birthday gifts this fall. Our family has 11 birthdays between now and Christmas! Then of course you have to think of Christmas presents also. I used the vintage apron pattern out of Amy Karol's book Bend the Rules Sewing. I absolutely love this book and have had such fun making things from it. You can find it here.

And another one:

School Outfit

I can't believe my middle baby is starting school already!! It is sooooo hot here in August when school starts that I thought I would make a skort. I just love this pattern. I have used it tons of times, it is so quick and easy. I think I will make a few more, it stays hot around here until late October! This is the inside of the skort:

We're off to the lake this weekend with my parents. I am actually taking my sewing machine. Mom needs new cushions for her furniture outside. Not sure how much I will get done. Half the problem for me is remembering all the stuff I need to bring to be able to sew. More than likely I will remember my sewing stuff and forget to bring something for one of the children!

First day of blogging!

Well, this is my first blog entry. There will be no sewing today. I spent all my free time trying to figure out how to start this blog. Plus, turned off t.v. and video games for the kids (a.k.a. the babysitters), so they have been entertaining themselves for a long time now. Lot's of noise from the playroom, scared to see what they have been up to! I am very excited about sharing my sewing. Hope to be back soon!