Tutu

I want to make a tutu for my precious little baby girl for some pictures.  So I looked it up online.  Then I decided since Kara and Carolynn's birthdays are coming up I would also make them one.  I had posted Kara's a little earlier when I posted about her birthday party.  Below is Carolynn in her tutu with her doll also in her tutu.  Both my sister and Polly love purple so that worked out nice (that I could do them all with the same tulle.)

They are super easy to make!  Just about every website I went to said to cut the tulle in strips, I did 3 inches wide.  You make it double the length you want it because you tie it around the elastic.  I had a hard time sewing the elastic with my sewing machine, it just wouldn't do it.  So I finally just hand sewn the elastic together.  That's all the sewing you do, just the elastic band.  For the girls I used a 3/4" wide elastic and for the dolls I think it was 1/4" or 1/2" inch, sorry I don't remember.  I had 3 yards of the dark purple and 3 yards of the light purple and I got 2 tutu's for little girls and 2 matching tutu's for their dolls.  If you want to make it puffier, just double your strips of tulle when you tie them on.  This was the first time I made them, so I wasn't sure how puffy it would be with just a single layer.  If I make a longer one, I think I'd double it.  But for now I think it's puffy enough.  To tie the tulle on, I put the elastic over my leg, it made it very easy to tie the tulle on.  I didn't do a double knot, I put the ends of the tulle together, made a loop around the elastic and pulled the tulle through.  I think it lays nicer that way then making a double knot.

 The day I made them, March 14, 2011, Jayden wanted to try Carolynn's on.  So below are 2 pictures of him twirling in Carolynn's tutu back on March 14th.

Tanner didn't want to put Kara's on, but Jayden enjoyed twirling around in the tutu for a little bit.  How fun to have these pictures to show his future girlfriends!  :)

Frog Cupcakes

Jayden had treats at school and I wanted to do something fun instead of just a bag of pretzels.  They are talking about spring this week, since it is the first week of spring.  So I looked on Familyfun.com for some ideas.  Jayden really wanted to bring in cupcakes.  I had seen these cute frog cupcakes but I just didn't understand why the icing was blue instead of green.  Finally after like my 5th time looking for something I realized... it's blue because it's the water and the frog is peaking above the water.  So we decided to make these.

When I was shopping for some of the stuff and just groceries in general I wanted to get some blue food coloring because I didn't think we had enough at home.  Where I was you can only buy blue in the pack of 4 colors.  Well, I knew we had a big bottle of red and yellow at home so I didn't want to buy the blue in the pack and have more red and yellow.  So I grabbed the big bottle of green thinking "I can just make blue because I have yellow at home."  It wasn't until on my drive home that I realized, green and yellow do NOT make blue!  I couldn't believe I even thought that!  I blame it on the pregnancy hormones.  Luckily my sister in-law had some I could borrow and we were going to her house that night to celebrate my nephew's birthday, Rhett.

When I put the green food coloring away in my cabinet, I realized that I also had a big bottle of green too.  So now I have plenty of green food coloring.

Instead of making cupcakes, especially because a girl just brought them in yesterday for her birthday, I made Hershey's Triple Chocolate Chunk Brownies in cupcake wrappers.  My original thinking was that the brownies don't make as many crumbs as cake does, and they are yummy!

Jayden helped put the icing on about 3-4 brownies and then he was done.  He couldn't get it as smooth as he wanted too, so he was done after only a few.  I also think he just wanted to lick his knife and I told him he had to wait until he was done.

 But he came back to help me do the eyes.  He placed almost all of them on the brownies and then I added the black dots.  (The website tells you to buy a small tube of black icing.  I just saved some of the white icing and died it black with black food coloring, put it in a small baggie, cut a hole and squeezed it on.  No need to spend like $2.50 on a tube of icing when you spent half that on a jar of icing.)

Sports Burp Cloths

I made my cousin an Eagles and Phillies burp cloth.  He loves those teams and I had the fabric.  I put the light blue terry cloth on the back because I already had it.

Now he can be a cool dad burping his new baby boy (just born on 3-10-2011).

Girl Changing Pad

I finally finished the girl changing pad I made for myself.  Here it is...

Here is a better view of the back fabric...

Here it is all rolled up...

As I mentioned with the boy one I made, you can easily stack some diapers and wipes inside and then roll it up.  And for quick trips that would be all you'd need to bring.  I had thought it would be nice to put some pockets inside for the diapers and wipes, but then decided against doing it.  We'll see how it goes using it, maybe it will be nice to have the pockets.

The pattern says to use fleece, but I used terry cloth.  Since I was buying the terry cloth for the burp cloths I just got the extra needed for the changing pad too.

The pattern doesn't mention doing any extra quilting through the center of the changing pad.  I was worried that after several washings and what not, the terry cloth will stretch and just kind of be separated from the back fabric and not look so nice.  So I measured 4 inches in from the side panels (the one quilting line the directions tell you to make) on either side, and sewed a straight quilting down.  I was tempted to do it to the side panels too, but I think I'll see how it does after using it.  I can always go back and add some quilting lines if I feel like it's separating too much.  I had also wanted to add some to the burp cloths too.  Well, I did add some along the sides of the ribbon but I felt it wasn't enough.  So again, I'll just see how it does after using them.

Click here for the pattern on sew4home.com

Gifts for Sarah

A friend of mine is having a baby boy and so I really wanted to make her some burp cloths, travel changing pad and "binky leashes."  I just love this fabric!  It kind of made me wish I was having a boy.  I made this stuff first and so I'm not done with my changing pad yet.  When I post the changing pad I'm making for myself I will post the link to the pattern and stuff.  But it's from the same website as the other patterns.

 Here is the inside of the changing pad, there is terry cloth in the middle.

 And it rolls up quite nicely.  You can even put some diapers and wipes inside and still roll it up nicely.  I had thought about adding pockets for the diapers and wipes.  So when you're in a public bathroom using the changing stations one end will hang over and the diapers and wipes have a place to be.  But I figured giving that you'd need some room around the pockets or whatever, it might need to be like an inch or 2 bigger to have a pocket and fold nice when the pockets are full.  But you can just stack the wipes and diapers on top of each other and fold it nice.

 I did a train stitch on one of the burp cloths.  And that too gave me problems and so I just did a straight stitch on the other 2.

 Here are the "binky leashes."

I followed the instructions to hammer the snaps on (the instructions come on the back of the pearl snaps you buy at Joanns).  Becky, my mother in-law had the tool, but the pearl snaps didn't fit in it.  Well I must have hammered too hard.  On one for Sarah and one for myself I cracked them.  I'm not sure what to do about it, so I'm just leaving it.  You can't feel the crack on the top, so it's totally underneath and I'm thinking other than the look, it's fine.  So if you use a hammer to attach the snaps, be careful.  On this one it was fine but I thought I'd give it one more hit to make sure it was on tight, and that cracked it.

"Binky Leashes"

Pacifiers, Binkies, Nuk's... there are so many different names for them...  I personally call it a Nuk, because that is what Gerber calls them.  But where I got the pattern they call them "Binky Leashes."

We used these with the boys and so I figured we would with the girl and so I made some of these too.

Go here for the pattern on sew4home.com
There is also a carrying bag pattern for the binkies with the pattern for the leashes.  I chose not to make one.  We have some hard plastic cases that came with the Nuks that I like better than a cloth case.  But I'm thinking of making one out of oil cloth, similar to one I've seen sold in stores.  Only time will tell if I actually make one or not.

Burp Cloths

A few months ago I had found some patterns for some cute baby stuff on www.sew4home.com and I copied and pasted them into a word document.  I actually remembered I had them and made myself some cute burp cloths!  I'm so excited to use them!  There is terry cloth on one side and 100% cotton fabric on the other.

 I am a very frugal person and so I bought myself the cheapest fabric I could find.  There were some more expensive (double the price) fabrics that I liked better.  But I'm so cheap, I just couldn't get the expensive stuff for myself.

 I attempted a decorative stitch but it turned out to actually be a pain.  I had to rip out lots of stitches and try to line it up and start over, so I only did it on one of the burp cloths.

 I'm also making a cute changing pad too, and so I decided to make a burp cloth with the fabric I will be using inside the changing pad.  After all, I really am a blue, green and brown kind of girl.  So I really like this one.  I have the same pink terry cloth on the back of it.

Go here for the pattern on sew4home.com

Hooter Hiders - AKA Modest Nursing Cover

I made a Hooter Hider (modest nursing cover) for a friend of mine who happens to be due the day after me.  She doesn't find out what she's having, but she said she's the one wearing it so it really doesn't matter what sex the baby is.  She likes purple and purple I think is a hard fabric to find, at least in our tiny Joann's store.  She works with flowers and plants and so I chose this fabric.  I hope she likes it.

And I made another HH for myself.  A dear friend, Natalie, made me one with Tanner and I loved it!  And she is the one who then gave me the pattern to make them.  I had bought this fabric for a college friend of mine and then found out someone else had already made her one.  So, since I'm having a girl I thought I'd use it for myself.  I still have the one Natalie made me, so now I have 2.  I can keep one at home for when company is over and one in the diaper bag for when we're away, or what have you.

Chocolate Lollipops

Jayden goes to preschool on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays, so the 10th of February was his Valentines day party.  I love the chocolate made from the chocolate wafers and so I decided Jayden would give one to each of his classmates, we gave like 5 each to his teachers and then handed them out to friends and family.  I had the rose molds and the hearts with the doves from our wedding.  Dave and I made these for our wedding, 9 1/2 years ago and I saved the molds.  And we bought two other heart molds for Valentine's Day.  So we were working with 6 molds (cuz we had 2 rose molds and 2 heart and dove molds).  And we had 6 pounds of chocolate wafers.

I started around 2pm when Tanner went down for his nap.  When Dave came home he and Jayden washed their hands and started helping.  I left the two of them to work on it while I made dinner and cleaned up from dinner.  And I finished them up when Dave left shortly after 8pm to go play basketball at church.  In all we made about 95 chocolate lollipops.  It took a long time to do it, but we sure love them!

While we were waiting for the chocolate in the molds to harden or while we ate dinner and whatever.  Dave had the brilliant idea to set the squeeze bottles of chocolate in a bowl of water on top of the coal stove.  This way it would stay warm and we didn't have to microwave it again.  He's so smart!

JJ's Preschool B-Day Treats

Jayden was so excited to bring treats to preschool for his birthday and to be the special helper for the day.  It had snowed the night before, but luckily the schools just had a 2 hour delay.  Since JJ goes to preschool in the afternoon, they still had school.

I made some individual dirt cake cups for him to take to school.
Here's the recipe…

Dirt Cake
1 (8 oz.) Cool Whip
2 small boxes chocolate instant pudding
1 (8 oz. pkg.) cream cheese, softened
1 pkg. (1lb.) oreos
Gummy Worms

Beat cream cheese until smooth.  Make pudding according to package directions.  Add cool whip and beaten cream cheese.
Crush Oreos (leave icing in cookie).  Use a flower pot (lined with foil or saran wrap) or any container.
  Put layer of crushed Oreos on bottom, add layer of pudding.
Repeat layers, ending with crushed Oreos on top.
Put gummy worms in-between layers if you choose.  Also put some on top of dirt and some half in it with the heads sticking out.
Put a construction paper flower attached to the end of a straw or a plastic spoon and place in the dirt cake.  Or you could put in some cleaned fake flowers and serve with a small garden tool.

Birthday Banner

A friend of mine (Cristina) had made one of these for her family and I just loved it.  What a cute little tradition to get this out for every birthday!  So I made one in time to have out for Jayden's birthday, which is on Friday.

It's made out of felt so it's super easy!

And it accordion folds so nicely!  I plan to keep it with my tablecloths and then it will be easily accessible.

I bought a 1/4 yard of all the colors I wanted and had plenty left over.  So I asked Liz if she wanted to make one too and passed on the extra felt to her.  And I bought 1 package of extra wide (1/2" inch) double fold bias tape for the top.  I thought it might be cute to make my own with cute colorful fabric, but that was too much trouble to deal with right now.  (And after I opened the bias tape I wished I had made my own, it would have been a little more perfect than the ones you can buy.  But it would take more time to make.)

You can use fabric glue to attach your letters, but I decided to sew mine on.  I have this colorful thread that changes color every couple of inches and I never use it and so I used it to sew these letters on.  I wanted to upload some close ups of letters to show you, but blogger won't let me at the moment.  Sorry!

I had also thought after I sewed the bias tape on with white thread I would use that same colorful thread to sew a train across the bias tape.  My sewing machine (which was my grandmothers) has a cute little train stitch.  But I decided I don't like sewing on the bias tape and I just wanted to be done.  Maybe one day I'll go back and do it.  And maybe one day I'll go back and spruce it up a bit too.

For the triangle, I did mine 7" wide and then 9" inches down.  I don't remember what size letter I used but I'm sure you can figure that out and do what you want if you choose to make one.  When I put the triangles under the bias tape I put them up as far as I could under the fold and I had the tips of the triangles touching, which makes it easier to fold and creates an even balance between triangles.

I was thinking on the one I left blank in between the words, that I can cut numbers out of felt or just print it on paper, and attach them to coordinate with the year of their birthday.  For instance, Jayden will be 5 on Friday so I'll print "5th" or cut out a "5" from felt to put there.

I'm very excited to hang this up for Jayden's birthday and all birthdays to come.  And I hope my kids look forward to it every year too.  Thank you Cristina for the wonderful idea!

Published Again!

 I sent another "Great Idea" to the Family Fun magazine and they decided to publish it!  Yay!  That makes two times in 11 months that I was published in the Family Fun magazine!  And every time they give you $100 to have your name and idea published!  I did think they would use a picture of both boys, because in the email they sent me to check the facts they asked if one of the pictures I sent them was with the older boy wearing a shirt that said "messy" and the littlest one holding the block.  Oh well, it's still a cute picture of Jayden.  Hopefully this link will take you to the page...

http://familyfun.coverleaf.com/familyfun/201102/?pg=54&pm=1&u1=friend

These first 2 pictures are the ones I sent them...

 I guess you can see the block better in this picture of just Jayden...

 Last time I sent them pictures of just the thing, that was what they published, I didn't want that happen this time.  I wanted a picture of my cute boys in there.  I took these pictures of just the block to publish on the blog back in August when I made it.

 If you want to read how it was made you'll have to find that post or one day I'll put the link here.

I copied the pictures from the digital version of the magazine so you don't have to go to the link if you don't want to.  Here is the full page...

 Here is the close up of "My Great Idea"...

 Okay, not so clear so maybe you do want to go to the link.

Easy Basil Alfredo with Chicken

I made a yummy recipe off the back of San Giorgio Fettuccine Florentine pasta and I wanted to share it.  While I was making it Dave was playing in the snow with the boys, but Tanner didn't like getting sprayed in the face with snow while they were sledding, so he came in to help me "makes."  He loves to help "makes dinner."  So I let him stir.  Ever since he burned all 5 fingers in the summer he has been so good about only touching the handle to the oven door and the handles of pans.  He will tell me when he touches it "it's cold momma."

 Here's the finished dish, with a side of broccoli...

Here is what the recipe says...

1 TBL olive or vegetable oil

1 Large onion

3/4 lb. boneless, skinless chicken

1 Cup milk

1 teaspoon dried basil leaves

1 package (3 oz.) cream cheese, cubed

1 jar (7 oz.) roasted red peppers, drained and sliced into thin strips (optional)

1 package (12 oz.) San Giorgio Fettuccine Florentine, uncooked

1/2 Cup grated Parmesan cheese

In large skillet over medium heat, heat oil; add onion.  Cook until lightly browned, about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add chicken; cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until thoroughly cooked.  Stir in milk and basil; heat just to boiling.  Reduce heat; add cream cheese and peppers, stirring frequently, until cream cheese melts and sauce is smooth.  Keep warm.  Cook pasta according to package directions.  Stir Parmesan cheese into sauce.  Toss hot pasta and sauce; serve immediately.  6 servings.

I used the 1/3 fat free cream cheese, and I don't know why it says a 3 ounce package, I've never seen a 3 oz. package.  I always buy the 8 oz, so I just the whole 8 oz. package and I thought it was fine.  I also drink skim milk and so I used skim milk.  I chopped my roasted red peppers in my Tupperware Quick Chef, I personally don't like chunks or slices of it, but I don't mind it if it's chopped.  And I like to cook my chicken the way I saw Rachael Ray do it, oh and I used 3 chicken breasts.  I cut the chicken up and when the onions started to caramelize I added the chicken to the pan.  You're not supposed to touch the chicken until the pieces start to separate on their own, I'm not very good at waiting and so I normally touch it earlier.  I peak at a piece and when it starts to get this nice brown color on the bottom, I wait as long as I can and then I stir it up.  It makes this nice color on the chicken and a wonderful flavor!

White Christmas Cookies

I finally started feeling better around week 14.  (I am 16 weeks now.)  Then I started getting terrible headaches that would last for about 3 days, go away for a couple days and then come back.  Then the weekend before Christmas I got what I thought was a head cold (and still think that is what it started as) and turned into a sinus infection.  And on top of that I had a terrible headache for 4 days.  Luckily I called my doctor and she gave me a prescription for the sinus infection so I could be better for Christmas.  But we need to wait for that to clear up before we can address these headaches.

And so I was in no mood or condition to bake Christmas cookies this year.  So Dave, being the super daddy that he is, bake 4 different kinds of cookies with the boys.  They made snicker doodles, chocolate crinkles, forgotten cookies and chocolate chip cookies with M&M's.  How awesome is he?

Finally on the eve of Christmas eve I felt well enough to make cookies with my boys.  And the only cookie I felt I could eat this year (that's the other thing, I have no desire to eat cookies or much of anything because it makes me nauseous) was my Mammy's (my dad's mother) White Christmas Cookies.  I looked forward to these cookies every year.  I remember after she passed away I gave it a try and my attempted failed.  And so I haven't tried since.  But I have learned a lot about cooking and baking since then.  I'm no expert, but I defiantly know more now then I did about 7 years ago.  From what I gather these are a real PA Dutch kind of cookie.  You cannot buy anything like these unless some old lady at a little church bizarre makes them.  And like I said, I grew up eating these every year.  And so for myself and my family (sisters, brothers and parents), we LOVE them!!!

And for those that don't understand how they couldn't have turned out the first time I made them, I will copy word for word what the recipe card I have says...

 White Christmas Cookies

 4 1/2 Cup flour

2 1/2 Cup sugar

1 Cup butter

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cream tartar

3 eggs

1/2 tsp salt

2 TBL milk

Chill dough - roll & cut

350 degrees 8-10 minutes

That's it, that's all the instruction I have.  When I first made these, I didn't cook or bake much, so... can you imagine what someone with little experience would do with instructions like that?  I'm not sure what I did, but I know they did not turn out well.

This time I mixed the dry ingredients together.  I used softened butter and creamed it with the sugar and then added the wet ingredients and then the dry ingredients.  And it seemed to turn out well.  A recipe I have for sugar cookies says to chill it for an hour, so that is what I did.

I was surprised to find out that the first batched that was rolled out and cut did not turn out as well as the next  batch, when I took the excess and rerolled it and cut out more.  The more it was mushed back together and rerolled the thinner I could roll it and it is the thinner cookies that tasted the most like my Mammy's cookies.

Anyway, the boys had so much fun cutting out the cookies and putting the colored sugar on them.  After they were done they loved to point out (especially Tanner) that they made those cookies.

 

Funny thing is I have aprons for them, and the aprons are hanging up right behind where they were working and I never thought to put them on the boys.  Oh well, maybe one of these times when they are helping with the food I will remember to put their aprons on.

I'm so glad these cookies turned out!  They were the only Christmas cookies I could eat this year and I did eat.  It just brings back so many memories to smell them and to taste them.  And all of the cookie trays we made had been made and given out before we made these.  So we had all those cookies to ourselves!  But my dad took about half the batch.  He too was also thrilled to have his mother's cookies at Christmas time.  They filled 2 ice cream buckets, that's about how many there were.

Christmas Card for Kids to Color

I wanted a card that Jayden could color for his teachers.  But in my quick search I couldn't find one.  So I quickly put these 3 together.  They say the same thing inside, but there are 3 different pictures.  I believe you should be able to right click on it and save it to your computer and print it.  If not, and you'd like one, send me your email address and I will email it to you.

These are cards to be folded in quarters, not half.  I did it that way because they fit inside of an invitation envelope nicely and I have those envelopes.

I'm also partial to the Nativity scene being on the Christmas card and those are most definitely hard to find.  Not that I don't like Santa's and snowmen, it's just... Jesus is the reason for the season.  However next year when Jayden is in public school I will make one with Santa or snowmen just not to offend anyone, but I will still write "Merry Christmas" and not "Happy Holidays."

Nativity Craft

In nursery the kids made this cute little Nativity craft.  (FYI- my mother in-law is the nursery leader and 2 of her grandkids are in her class, Tanner and Carolynn.)

This is what Tanner made and he just loves it!  He told me all about it and who the people were.  Then I hung it up and every time he'd see it he would tell  me he made it for me and all about the people in the picture.  And as I am writing this post he saw the picture and said "I made that for you momma!"

 Here is the back.  I'm sure granny wrote his actual name, but Tanner wrote the circle or the "o" as he calls it and the "T".  That's how he writes his name if you ask him to write it.  So far those are the only letters he can write and I don't even know who taught him how to write them.