Jumping Back In

Between settling into a new area unlike anywhere I've ever lived and moving into my second year of homeschooling, I had to take a blogging break while I got myself together. I felt very overwhelmed by everything that was going on and really wanted to focus my attentions on getting my family moved and settled. And now that we are I have begun making new things, trying new recipes, and enjoying creating again. You don't realize how much you miss something until you start doing it again!

So just a quick rundown of what we've been up to...

We moved to Baltimore this past January

Got to play in the snow

Got to see the Cherry Blossoms bloom

We get to ride on the light rail into downtown to play

Started First Grade

Next post will be some of the things I've been working on recently... I've had a lot of fun with some recent projects and am excited to share!

Boiled Peanuts

Its summer time, and there's nothing better than boiled peanuts!

Typically, I've always made boiled peanuts by well, boiling them in a pot. But that takes a while and I have a gas stove, so the idea of leaving an open flame for an extended period of time makes me a little nervous. So I pulled out the crock pot!!

Using:
2lbs of green peanuts
1 cup of salt
12 quarts of water

I put all ingredients in the crock pot, cover and cook on high for 18 hours. 

Drain and serve! 

 mmmmmm....

Refrigerate in ziplock bags for up to 2 weeks, or freeze for up to 2 months. Reheat in microwave before serving.

Drawstring Laundry Bag

So my sister and her boyfriend just graduated high school, so for her graduation present she asked for a drawstring laundry bag. So I went hunting for cute ideas an found this great tutorial and made these adorable bags!!

 This tutorial made for a shorter bag than I was looking for. It called for about 2/3 yard of each fabric. I added the last 1/3 (because I bought a yard of each) onto the end of the bag to make it longer.

I did NOT do the monogramming... while I wish I could get the equipment to do it, I want a serger first! (If you looking for a great monogrammer in Charleston, contact me! She's amazing!)

 

Helpful tip:

Since the front and the back of the top seam were different colors, 

I put the pink thread in the bobbin and the blue thread on top of the machine. 

This way my thread matched the color of the fabric!

 Also, I finally got a label made! I hated not being able to put my name in my creations, so I found a label on namemaker.com that I liked and here is what I got...

I put a bird on it!

Pillowcase Dress with Ruffles

I love my pillowcase dresses! Its so much fun making them but I needed a challenge recently so I decided to try my hand at ruffling. Plus I had it in my head that this dress would be perfect with a ruffle.  I found a pattern for a ruffled bottom pillowcase dress and a to help get me started. I used my previous pattern for the dress, but I added an inner lining to cover the ruffle seam. Well I don't have a gathering foot or a ruffling foot ( I will one day but the sewing shop was out and I wanted to do it then and not wait to order one) so I decided to try ruffling by hand.  I went to google and looked up ruffling and a ruffling tutorial and some youtube videos and watched them until I felt like I understood. It took waaaay longer than it would have it I had the right foot, but it was fun to learn how to do it without one.

I started by cutting 5 strips each 3" wide x 22" long.

 I set my machine at the longest stitch and went across twice, leaving some thread at the ends. Hold the thread at the end and slowly ruffle the fabric between stitches until all done. My ends frayed so I ran a zig zag stitch over the end

 Then I attached all the pieces together and made one long ruffle.

I put the ruffle between the inner and outer lining of the pre-cut fabric (right sides facing) and sewed them all together and flipped so I could start putting the dress together.

 I also attempted fabric ties this time instead of ribbon, to match the ruffle.... Oh I loved it!

 Here was my final product.... Perfect little July 4th dresses!

Also, I've found this amazing sewing shop called Five Eighth Seams. They do sewing classes, they sell beautiful fabric, and the staff is just wonderful. Well I'm in love with their fabric! And they are so helpful that you just can't resist going to the store, not just for fabric but for great tips.

Well I was hunting for a pattern for another pillowcase dress I was making and I found some beautiful fabric that I just had to use. While I was in there they gave me a great idea!  Instead of just a 2 toned dress, which was what I was planning on, do a 3 toned dress!

 

All I did was add a small strip of fabric between the 2 sections and sealed.  The strip was 6" cut and folded in half and placed between the bottom and top piece, I used a 1/2" seam allowance. I could have use a 1/4" but it was my first time doing it.

And it was just too beautiful to not make a headband to go with it!

I made a tutu!

It was my best friend's little girl's birthday a little while ago and I am late getting her present made...but i finally finished it!! I wanted to make a her tutu, so I found a couple tutorials for making them on Pinterest. It was actually incredibly easy! Which is awesome because I have so many little girls in my life to make presents for!

For the basic design, I used the tutorial on A Small Snippet's blog.

I did a few things different:
1. I wanted it longer so I made my cardboard 7"x 18"
2. My fabric store didn't sell the rolls of tulle (which I want to try next time), instead I bought 3 yards of each color (6 yards altogether). Then folded, wrapped, and cut to make the strips needed.
Tip: This pictures looks loose, but it actually needs to have no spaces or gaps between tulle. You don't want to see the elastic.

Then I added some flair using a skinny ribbon between every 2 slip knots from Twigs and Toadstool's blog.

Finally, I wrapped a satin ribbon around the top using the tutorial on Treasures for Tots. 

And I used Chatelaine's tutorial for tying the perfect bow! It was for tying on a box but I improvised.

This is my finished product! I am so excited!! :)

Front

Back

Alphabet Sugar Cookies

So it is that time again, where I have to bring snack to Jackson's class for a week! Now being the overachiever that I am, of course this can't be easy!

After some talking with Jackson and searching on Pinterest, I finally found my idea for Monday's snack!  Alphabet Cookies! Well the pin didn't have a link to a website, so I found another cookie pin and on it was a recipe for homemade Sugar Cookies (now let me just say the lady that does that blog has some of the most beautiful cookie creations!!! I can't wait until I have a chance to try out her tutorial for the Lego Man cookies)  Well, it was Sunday night and I was not set up for any crazy project. I had on hand what I needed to make just the sugar cookies with sprinkles, and of course my alphabet cookie cutters!

 Well, after making the cookies, we rolled out the dough and got straight to cutting letters!

 Here's where it got interesting.. I knew I wanted to bake the cookies with the sprinkles already on it but I wasn't sure how to go about it, so I started by lightly dipping the cookies in the sprinkles on a plate. It definetly got maximum sprinkles on the cookies but it was a pain because the cookie dough was so flimsy and the letters kept wanting to fall apart.

 Next, I tried sprinkling the sprinkles on top of the rolled out dough, rolling them into it with the rolling pin and then cutting the letters out. By the end, the sprinkles weren't just on top of the cookies they were in the middle too which was fun. Plus, I only had to move them once from the paper to the pan! I definitely liked this way the best!

 

Quick Tip: Her recipe calls for 7-8 mins at 400 degrees... Well I used tiny cutter and her cookies are bigger, so these only had to cook for about 5-6 min, while that may not seem like a big difference, that extra minute or 2 burnt a whole batch of cookies!

One More Tip: Rub a little bit of shortening to cover the cookie pan and sift a little flour on top and your cookies will come off easy every time!

Cooling racks are such a great baking tool!

mmmm... tastiest Alphabet ever!

I think my favorite part of all of this was how much Jackson got into it! He was so excited he kept telling me I need to make a the first letter of everyone in his class's name, but the problem was he could only remember 5 names and there is 17 kids in the class! So I did may best... :)  And tomorrow at snack time he will be so happy to eat and share the cookies he helped me make.

Creative block... well sort of...

So lately I've been juggling a lot! More so than I'm use to it feels like.  I've felt kind of stuck in a rut... unable to get my creative juices flowing. But as it turns out they just need a redirection.  I've been struggling with organization lately.  I feel like I have too much stuff and not enough space. And it wasn't always like this, I think it got worse after Christmas. Which I guess is understandable.  But now I'm needing to begin my spring cleaning. I am on a mission to declutter my house and get rid of stuff that I don't need or at least store it properly until I do need it. And also to rearrange a bit and add some more color. I was called out the other day because I haven't really ever took the time to "decorate". Yeah, I have a few curtains and some pretty candle pieces out but not really enough to make the place interesting and I feel like I need a little more interesting while looking around my house. So I started by getting a tablecloth for dinner table! Its amazing how a little bit of color can brighten a whole room. And I cleaned my oven (there's nothing quite like a clean oven!). Next, my goal is to rearrange and organize my kitchen cabinets for better functionality, and clean out anything that doesn't need to be there.

So while still juggling my 2 kids, my sister's baby that hangs out with me a couple days a week, Jackson's first year of school, my husband recovery from ACL surgery, all our activities, all the projects I so want to do and now decluttering my stuff, I've got a lot going on but it will be so worth it in the end.

But if it takes a while in between posts, this is why! I will be posting though.. because I'm in the middle of another pillowcase dress project which of course I will want to share once I've finished and I have more curtains to make, I'm still always experimenting with food. So I will be still be here as best I can be. But just know I'm working hard now so that I will have more time to get creative later... but whoever said spring cleaning can't be creative! :)