Projects coming up

I have a huge pile of things accumulating that need to get done for the Holidays! I'm getting so excited! 

              I purchased this fabric from funkaliciousfabrics! The have the most cute knit all in one place that i've ever seen.  This will be our Christmas pajamas this year.  I plan on using PeekaBoo Pattern shop's pattern for pajamas for the girls.  Why did I chose breakfast fabric instead of cute Christmas fabric? well, I feel silly wearing Santa in July. I wear pajamas all year round and if I'm going to invest money in this, I want them to be worn enough to make it worth it and wear out.  :) plus, my husband is known as the Breakfast king in my house.  when he is home he ALWAYS makes breakfast, french toast, waffles, pancakes, breakfast burritos, eggs, bacon.. etc.  The only thing I make better is omelets! :) and that's a RARE occasion. so, it fits us! 

          And for my husband and myself i'll use New Look pattern 6765.  it's my go to pattern every year. it doesn't have a taper leg, it's super comfortable and roomy and like it says, it's easy.  :)  I love that I can sew and make sure I have long enough length for my husband.  His inseam is 38 and it's ALMOST impossible to find jeans for him, let alone pajamas. 

I also got two shirts for my husband and I to go with them:!  I'm super excited this year.  My credit card sure isn't happy about it though.  gulp.  I need to earn some more money fast so I don't feel so guilty. 

Next up Is something i'm super excited about! 

              I purchased these fabrics from xo.gigi fabrics  I love them!!! the picture doesn't give the colors justice! I'm super happy too because I washed some Walmart fabrics at the same time and when I took them out they were ALL tied up together with all those strings.  when I got them all apart, you could tell it was mostly from the Walmart fabrics.  You can always tell when fabric is cut straight because of how little they unravel in the wash.  THANKS GUYS FOR CUTTING SO NICE!  

          With this, I'm making a cute, girly and frilly apron for my daughter's Christmas present to go with her play kitchen she will HOPEFULLY get.  If there is enough left, i'd love one for me.  I know it's super juvenile, but it's fun and pink and girly!!! Who wouldn't want one? :) 

The tutorial for this pattern is found here. I will also use this idea with the Velcro tie and sorta use the size they talk about in this tutorial. 

UPDATE: TO CHECK OUT MY APRONS FINISHED, CLICK HERE. 

        Another thing I need to sew is a stocking for my newest member of the family! I have matching stockings I did a few years ago and I was thinking of doing something like this with it and not putting her name on it.  We still plan on having another baby or two and that way the baby can always use it.  when she grows, I can make a normal one with her name on it.  I don't know how much fabric I have anymore of the matching, but I figure i'll run out soon and be able to do all new ones in a few years anyway.  I just love this idea and it makes me laugh.  :) not even sure where I saw this, but made sure to save a picture.  maybe i'll find it before I post about it.  

I have a friend who asked me to make her some of my famous burp rags.  I say famous because she says it's all over Pinterest.  I had no idea! :) that's pretty cool.  My tutorial for that is found here. 

UPDATE:   I did finish this project, but forgot to take pictures of them. I ended up using fluffier chenille for this because I could not find chenille at Joann's anywhere.  I hope they wash and wear awesome! :) 

         These are in no particular order or anything, but something else I am pretty excited about and something that I feel very honored to be asked to do.  I am making 5 teddy bears out of clothing for a friend.  She tragically lost her son in a car accident about a year ago or so.  I sadly didn't know him, but I feel that he was a very special man who was needed on the other side to help others learn about the gospel.  I have some of his clothes here and I feel a sort of reverence about it that I don't really know how to explain.  I walk by and look at the clothes and feel my heart twinge a little. We hope to have his name embroidered on each of the bears' foot.  I HOPE I have the ability to make these turn out super special and amazing.

        I have never sewn a teddy bear before and I am afraid I won't be able to do it.  The pattern we have chosen to use is McCalls Craft 6135. The cheapest I could find it was on Amazon and still paid $11.00. It's a now out of print pattern. That ALWAYS happens to me! I fall in love with the stuff you can't have anymore.  I must have good taste! :) WISH ME LUCK on this one, I will REALLY need it.  

    With this fabric i'm making a cute tote bag for my daughter to take to her dance class and keep her shoes in it to and from and as she grows a little she can keep her dance skirt etc. in it. 

I purchased this fabric and then was asking myself what I was going to make with it.  I Google-d  ballet tote bag and this one came up.  It's exactly what I wanted to make.  This has instructions  pattern and ballet slippers applique pattern.  Awesome and so cute!!! Not sure how i'll use the fabric exactly, but I will.  funny thing is, on her blog this exact fabric is listed right above the links to her tutorial and things.  

UPDATE: I did not end up making this bag for Christmas, It got insane and I ran out of time. I also wanted to use maybe canvas or find a pink that matched the fabric above for this bag.  I just didn't get to it. also, she doesn't have anything to bring to dance yet. Maybe when she is a little older and has skirts or whatever than she will need it. i'll make it though, someday.. i'm not worried. :)

I also need to make some monkey bum pants in minkee fabric to go with some shirts and things for them.  we are a sweat pants wearing group when we have no where to go and nothing to do.. which is often.  ok.. my daughter changes clothes about 8 times a day and I can't keep an outfit on her, so she is exempt from that statement. :) If you don't remember what monkey bum pants are: 

Terras Treasures has a ton of cute patterns. 

also, this pattern from Sunnu is JUST the pattern piece and the fit is a little more loose and comfy than the previous pattern I guess.  I have not tried it yet.  

I see these ADORABLE outfits by funkey monkey all the time and love them! 

         That's it for now I guess! I gotta go because while I was on here, my daughter dumped a whole brand new box of cereal out all over the living room and was dumping them in and out of her pots and pans.  I know she was playing, but all I see is MESS and $$$$.  I really need a break. 

UPDATE:  I did make some of these, and I think for the baby I prefer the Sunnu"s pattern because there is more room in there for her chubby cute legs! (shown below) I wish the sizes went up higher on them though to make for my 3 year old.  I did make the Terras Treasures one for my 3 year old in minkee and they again are super tight in the legs.  she is skinny too. So, If I make more for her, i'll probably just do a lounge or pajama pant pattern for her. 

Canning apple sauce and pear sauce for baby food

       Yesterday and today I sent a few hours making some baby food. I noticed that a jar of baby food at the store was $1.00 each!! That ads up to be around $100.00 a month or more on food. I had this brilliant idea that I would make my own and it would be so affordable and less expensive! well, it would have been awesomely cheap if I would not have had to buy 3 cases of 8 oz jars.  gulp. I figure i'll reuse them though. AND one jar will last 2 days or so in the fridge until it's all gone. :)  

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      For my first baby I made a lot of her food too.  I'd mix up bananas and applesauce and all sorts of things and freeze it.  I never actually canned it before. The problem with freezing it is that I don't have a freezer big enough to store this stuff and it only keeps for 3 months.  I do have about 8 more jars in the freezer now not in this picture that are just Tupperware.  Also, my little one is not eating food yet.... close, but not yet. 

       ANYWAY, I bought a case of pears for $3.00 from the grocery store.  they were reduced because they were bruised and starting to turn brown.  I thought they were a lot worse than they actually were.  With that case of pears, I made a case and a half full of pear puree in the 8 oz jars.  I did not want to add sugar to it and I was afraid of it because I heard all these things to "not" do and I FINALLY found a tutorial that explained it to me. And I had a friend tell me she does it all the time.

       I did the first batch the way it says in the tutorial and mashed it up in the pot.  it worked well except I was distracted making jam at the same time and didn't stir it like I should have and it was less watery than I realized.  It ended up burning on the bottom a little bit.  I hope it still tastes good.  I'm not too worried.

You can see above that the left jar is thicker and more chunky. The right jar is the second batch I did and blended it in the blender before I cooked it.  Because pears are so watery anyway, it worked awesome. I ended up labeling the two different kinds Stage 1 and Stage 2 baby food.  More texture for older babies.





           I also did a whole half bushel of apples plus about two bags full of a different kind of apples.  I wish I knew what I bought because both were mushy type apples and don't have much flavor at all.  We don't really eat apple sauce much here anyway, so that won't bother the baby to eat it bland.

       The far left is apple sauce made with this recipe using sugar, cinnamon and water. I left out the cloves.  I should have read a little more first about apples before I bought them. she has a great description of apples before the recipe.  I was too impulsive and in a hurry.. also looking at the price of apples.  I've never really canned before other than last year a little and I hated the way all of it came out.  I just did what the other person did.  Live and learn.  Anyway, I don't know the best time of year to buy things and what is the best kind of things to use yet.  I'm still learning.  I totally missed the peach season this year. oops.

      The far right recipe is just plain apples I blended up. 

Like how I can't spell? How embarrassing I spelled cinnamon wrong. yeah.. I guess I can say I have my dad's spelling... it's genetic.. that's my story...  and i'm sticking to it. :) Thank goodness for spell check. 

               This is the middle apples.  I ended up boiling my apples in just enough water to use it all up in the blender without it being too watery.  about 2 inches in the bottom of the pot.  I covered the pot and boiled them about 10 min.  then I spooned them into the blender until it was about 2/3 full. I then took 1/4 cup quick oats and dumped it in.  then blended it up till it was nice and smooth.  then I dumped it back in the pot.  ( I had about 3 blenders full for the single pot of apples I did)  I dumped in some cinnamon and stirred it in on a simmer then spooned it in my jars.  I processed them about 20 min.  not sure if that was too long or not.  I figured it couldn't really hurt. baby food is supposed to be squishy. This can be eaten when she is a little older too.  I'm so excited to feed her my yummy food! :) i'm sure it tastes way better than store bought baby food. have you smelled it?!! gross. If you need some ideas for more baby food, here is a good link. 

This was all a lot of work, but how can I not want to for this cute little stink bug?

             I also made my first ever jam. I just followed the recipe on the inside of the box of .. now I can't remember the name of it.  The stuff you put in jam. Berries were also not cheap so I only made one batch.  they were $2.98 a carton and it too 4 cartons to make 3 jars full.  These are a little bigger size but not the quart size. It wasn't too cost effective, but it was a fun experience.  WE don't even eat jam here very often at all.  Have you ever heard of a 3 year old that doesn't like PB&J? FOOD STORAGE!! 

            We had case lot sales going on right now too and I bought a case of tomato sauce, a giant bag of rice, oatmeal, etc.. it feels awesome to get some built up. We're getting there little by little. 

 Tomorrow I have a whole case of pears to can and then i'm done! Yay!

Ballerina Birthday Party

I can't believe that my little girl just turned 3! It seems like yesterday she was learning to walk! Now she is potty trained, goes to a dance class by herself, and has a huge imagination! 

    Every day I find her changing her clothes 50 times a day and wanting to be in a dress to be a princess. She even goes to the bottom of the stairs and yells up to me "Repunzel, let down your hair!" She spends the day twirling around the house singing so I thought that a Ballet party would be awesome fun for her! 

This is not her info. I purchased her cute invite here.

    I reserved a dance studio for a party where the teacher would do a little 20/30 min class with them and we could use the preschool room there to do the actual party. It worked out perfect! 

    Before the party I had drawn out a leotard on pink paper, cut them out and glued them onto white cardstock.  I mixed up two colors of poster paint or washable paint and painted each hand in each color and  had them place their hands below the leotard to make a tutu.  I have not taken a picture close up of it yet and not finished it.  I plan on placing ribbon around the leotard waist where the top of the hands are to make it look more tutu like.  I was happy to find out the preschool room had a sink for just this purpose. :) If you want to see an example of a finished one, go to this link. 

         I also got a bunch of candy that had a hole in the middle and some pretzels. I cut up licorice and placed them in the bowls.  I then had stretchy  elastic for necklaces in all sorts of colors that I cut for each of them in their choice of color.  Then they had at it and strung on things they wanted.  then I tied them and they wore them! :) 

    Here they are wearing them.  I'm happy that I only had 4 girls to help at this party.  We invited a few more but they had other plans. This worked out perfect! I even put on the invite something about having them wear their tutus.  I thought about making tutus for everyone, but I didn't have the budget for it and didn't honestly feel like putting MORE effort into it. :) 

Before her Party, I got her all dressed up and took her in the backyard for a mini photo-shoot. 

Keep in mind it is just the backyard, I was just using my digital point and shoot and the sun has shadows all over the grass.  They still turned out pretty dang cute! Just a way to document it later in her baby book of what a pretty and sweet girl she is! I still cant believe something so cute came out of me. :) 

            For her Birthday party I made her cupcakes and spend HOURS cutting out mini leotards, hot gluing two back to back and placing a toothpick in the center and then glued on tulle for the tutu. I attached a little jewel on them and added some glitter around the waist. HOURS I tell you, hours.  I need a life. I hope my daughter knows how much I love her. 

I even tried out the cool swirl cupcake top using this tutorial. I had to buy a 1M tip and new coupler but well worth it! so cute! I like to use the whipped canned frosting. I would have made homemade stuff, but my hand mixer died on me in the process. I would love a bosch someday!!!! until then I'll just go buy another cheap hand mixer. they work. 

I have the patterns I made for these in picture form. I don't know if you can just save the picture and print it that way.  sorry for the unprofessional look. my daughter got a hold of it and tried to trace her foot. I didn't feel like redoing it all. 

For the dance lesson, you can see my daughter was really enjoying herself. :) she had a hard time staying focused but I think most of that was it was all new to her and she was happy and having a good time. She was also stinking tired. :) 

all in all, it was a good party! 

     My husband originally planned on going golfing for this Birthday party because it was so "GIRLY" , so I wanted to have a little party at home with a cake.  He ended up staying for it anyway and I think he really enjoyed being there. For the cake, I made big leotard out of glitter foam sheets found in the craft section of JoAnn's, hot glued two back to back placing a shish kabob skewer in the center. I then hot glued tulle all around it and used sticky ribbon for the waist and attached all those little jewels all over. turned out so cute! 

It makes me happy to work so hard and see it all pay off with a happy girl! I love that I get the opportunity to be a mom and to learn and grow with them. I'm not perfect and I make a lot of mistakes, but oh! how I love my girls!!!