Brown Corduroy Peasant Dress MiniBoden copycat

I love Boden and miniBoden. Thanks to my cousin Alison for turning me on to them! When I saw this post at Pink Picket Fence I knew I had to try it myself.

I think it came out pretty cute. I feel like pairing it with tights makes the outfit for sure. I went to Joann's to get a pattern that was similar on sale and they were sold out. I was trying to find another one when I realized Katie was wearing a similar dress in denim. I whipped out the freezer paper and drafted a pattern using the other dress as a guide. It came together pretty quickly. I added pockets after this fashion shoot. They are very wonky so I need to rip them out. I am debating if I am going to put them back on or not. Can't wait for it to cool down so she can wear this! I want to make some in some bold prints too. I think I am going to try and make some leggings out of her old tights too. So fun and rewarding to make!

Felt Food

I have been meaning to make some felt food forever. Finally got around to it, and it is addicting. Not as addicting as Coffee Heath Bar Crunch ice cream (my all-time favorite) but up there. Like shirred dress addicting. Quick - Easy - Rewarding. I made an apron and pot-holder to go with one set...no picture. I also made 2 capes for little boy birthdays...again, no picture. Maybe I can get some...probably not:)

I found a sweatshirt pattern that I am dying to make here.

I have a bunch of catch up crafting to do to. I am debating about just combing this blog with the other blog. At least maybe one of them will be regulary updated!

Summer Craftin'

A t-shirt dress refashion. I used elastic thread to cinch the top and added flowers from extra strips from the t-shirt I used.

Freezer Jelly. I have been wanting to try this forever and am so glad I did. This was so easy, Katie got to help and it is yum-eee! I had just been to Sunflower Market and had tons of blueberrie and raspberries. I just put them in old baby food jars. I don't plan on freezing them so I wasn't worried about the glass.

Katie helping mash with a ziploc baggie. This worked so well and really cut down on the mess. I just cut the tip off the baggie to pour into the jars.

We started out mashing with a potato masher. It didn't work that well. The masher was too big for the bowl.

Towels I made for a friend. Whale, Duck, and Puppy.

More towels. Whale, Duck, G for Grey and Bear.

Watermelon Ice! I learned to make this while on a trip to Virginia from my Aunt. I do not pronounce it "ant." :) I used about 3/4 of a watermelon. Blend it in the blender. Stir in 3/4 cup of sugar and 1/4 cup lemon juice. Put it in the freezer and stir every 20-30 minutes until all frozen. The stirring makes it slushy and not a giant ice-cube. So good in this hot summer weather!

My first visit to Anthro! I had to buy something, so I got this mug. I could have bought the whole dish set. I love poppies!

We started a new family tradition. Every night we fill out a "card." It is a large index card. I write the year and the days highlights. Silly things Katie said. Milestones for Levi. Accomplishments or the mundane. We then file in date order. Next year, we will add 2011 and be able to look back on the year before. It has been really fun to do these past few months. I have already looked back and some of the things I had written I never would have remembered!

Our cool treasure box:)

I found a scrumptious bread machine recipe. I haven't had much luck with the bread machine but this recipe makes great bread. Easy and delish!

2 dresses and some bibs

I have been one crafty gal this week. This is more due to the fact that I had a baby shower deadline approaching than a motivational surge . . . but still! Animal print bibs. I used ribbon and leftover terry that I had on hand. They are not true toddler size but should be just right when baby Meg starts solids:)

I heart elastic thread. It rocks my world. I feel like you get wow-factor with very little effort at all.

Katie is not what I would call "model-material." Especially right before a nap when she wants Mommy to back off with the camera. Don't you love the socks she picked out! I have been meaning to try a shirt-dress refashion forever. Finally here it is. I just improvised as we went and had to add elastic to the front and a box-pleat to the back so it would fit. Not perfect but I am excited to try this again. I tried to make a shirt for me . . . hahahaha. It is going in the scraps bag. I don't know what I was thinking using a knit shirt for a pattern I wanted to use linen fabric for!

Here she is perfectly modeling the box-pleat . . .trying to escape into her crib:)

As a little motivation to get some more projects done . . . I am also working on pj pants for my sis, fabric coasters, a t-shirt shirred dress for Kate, and a bunch of mending! I have so many half-done projects it is embarrassing! No more shopping for me until I finish some of them!

Bubble Fun!

We ran out of the store-bought bubble mix and I decided to see if I could make my own. I didn't have the Joy dishwashing soap, so just used what I had on hand and it worked fine. I also used corn-syrup instead of glycerin. We made these bubble blowers that produced huge bubbles! Go here to make your own and find a recipe for the bubbles. The high-tech bubble blower was definitely worth it. Katie was even able to blow bubble.

All it takes for do-it yourself bubbles!

Bunny Cakes

You'd think all I do is cook over here judging from the past few posts. . . I made these cakes for Easter and loved how they came out. I cooked the cakes in three oven-safe bowls. The recipe I used was a doctored cake mix recipe and came out soooo delicious. I mixed in peanut butter chips instead of chocolate chips and varied the cooking times since I was using smaller bowls. I think the cake without the frosting was plenty sweet enough, but the white bunnies were sure cute to look at. I made the ears out of scrapbook paper I glued to toothpicks.

Budget Art

I love signs with sayings or verses on them. As my house budget right now is pretty much non-existent I decided to try and make them using only my printer. They aren't perfect but I am pretty happy with how they turned out.



I got the fonts here. This site is so cool. Hundreds and hundreds of FREE fonts! For the bible verse I used the Jane Austen font and added a clip-art from Word to the background. I need to reprint it a tad smaller so it isn't running out of the mat. Sometime I'll get around to it . . . The mat was a lot smaller than what I wanted so I used a rotary cutter to trim it to the right size. Thanks to my sister for that great idea. I was tearing it to shreds trying to use my dull exacto knife. The first saying is by my desk to try and motivate me to stop reading craft blogs and clean my house:) I used the Inked God font for that one.

Cake Balls

I made these treats for Katie's birthday and love how they came out. Easy and looks like you have real baking skills.

Ingredients:

1 box of cake mix

1 can of frostings

candy coating or almond bark

Directions:

Bake the cake according to package directions.

While the cake is still warm crumble it into fine crumbs.

Mix in the frosting. I let the crumbs cool before doing this step.

Now, take your cookie scoop and drop rounded balls of the mixture onto wax paper. I then roll them by hand to make sure they are smooth and rounded.

Put them in the freezer to make dipping easier.

Dip the balls in the candy coating, almond bark or chocolate. I researched online for the best way to do this. I had tried dipping them with a toothpick which was really frustrating for me. I found that it worked the best to coat the cake-ball and remove it from the bowl with a fork, scraping the excess coating off the underside of the fork when you take it out. Then jiggle the fork to roll the ball onto the paper. I ended up with some coating puddling around the bottoms. I decided not to bother trimming it.

As the last step I put the extra coating in a pastry bag with a small circular decorating tip and just squiggled it all over the cake. I also made some 2's for the birthday girl.

I made chocolate cake with cream cheese icing and Katie picked out strawberry cake with rainbow chip icing. I found the strawberry ones to be way too sweet. The possibilities are endless with the variations of cake and frosting you could try.

Have fun!

Copy-Cat Red Lobster Biscuits and Valentine's Day

Red Lobster Cheddar Biscuits

So I was totally craving these the other day and decided to try and make them myself. They came out so close the real thing! Easy and definitely will be making again. I used two different recipes I found and tinkered with them a little. My recipe and the two links are below . . .

BISCUITS

2 1/4 c. flour

3tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

3 tbsp. shortening

4 tbsp. COLD butter

3/4 c. milk

1 c. heaping shredded cheese

1/4 tsp garlic

BUTTER FOR TOPS

2tbsp. butter

parsley to taste

garlic to taste

Bisquick can be used first but I didn't have any so I made my own. I used the recipe from the 2nd link.

Mix dry ingredients together - cut the Crisco into the mix.

Now that you have your mix, follow this recipe.

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. Combine Bisquick with cold butter in a medium bowl using a pastry cutter or a large fork. You don't want to mix too thoroughly. There should be small chunks of butter in there that are about the size of peas. Add cheddar cheese, milk, and ¼ teaspoon garlic. Mix by hand until combined, but don't over mix.
3. Drop approximately ¼-cup portions of the dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet using an ice cream scoop.
4. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes or until the tops of the biscuits begin to turn light brown.
5. When you take the biscuits out of the oven, melt 2 tablespoons butter is a small bowl in your microwave. Stir in ½ teaspoon garlic powder and the dried parsley flakes. Use a brush to spread this garlic butter over the tops of all the biscuits. Use up all of the butter. Makes one dozen biscuits.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Recipes/story?id=2788706

http://blog.erikajurney.com/make-your-own-bisquick-substitute-because-thats-about-as-home-made-as-i-get/

So I made Katie a Valentine's Day dress from an old sweater and added tulle ruffles. It came out great but the camera batteries went dead before I could get a good pic. Here is the bad one and I will get more hopefully later this week. I also made the purse as a last minute gift.

Levi's Nursery

I love that I was able to decorate a boy and girl room. For Levi's room I wanted to copy a crib set I had seen in Pottery Barn. I didn't want to pay the price for it so I found some fabric I loved and had my wonderful, amazing Mother-in-Law whip it up for me. Thanks!!! She made the crib bumper, dust ruffle and curtains and they are much higher quality than what I would have gotten at PB. We used the same color paint that we painted our bedroom with to paint his walls. It is a creation we made when I bought two gallons of the wrong paint for our bedroom. Don't try to color-match shiny fabric! Somehow when they were mixed in equal parts it came out a really cool blue-green. I painted an exisiting frame brown to match the crib and bought and painted the letter for Levi's name. I like how crisp and modern it looks but am still playing around with adding something to the cream background. I got these awesome prints from a seller on Etsy. She color matched them exactly to the bedding. I got the matting in a remnant stack from Joann's and they just happened to have two pieces of the most perfect green! I love them! Levi will have these until he is in High School:)

I love how the picture look side-by-side over the dresser.


My aunt made me this hook-plaque. (There has to be a better name for it:) I love having home-made things in my house! What a great little cowboy!

A close-up of the curtains and fabric.

Not the greatest picture but gives you a feel for that part of the room.

The last of the "before the baby" crafts

Boppy slipcover in fleece. One of those uber-satisfying projects because it was completely done in such a short amount of time! I used a cover I already had as a pattern, cut out the fabric, stitched it up and here it is! I cut one of the ends off, hemmed the edges, and sewed it together to make the pocket to slip the pillow in. No messing with zippers for me. I made a similar cover for one of those huge maternity pillows a friend let me borrow while I was pregnant. It took a 1/2 yard of fabric to make the boppy cover. Car seat slip cover. I LOVE how this came out. I again used the old cover to make a pattern on tracing paper. I cut out all the fabric pieces and then pinned them in place over the car seat before I sewed to make sure the fit was accurate. I sewed it together, added brown trim and the newest addition gets to ride in style, instead of the girlier seat cover we had previously.

Katie's new big girl room. Grandma cut out the middle of an magazine rack we had, painted it white, and now we have a really fun doll crib.

We repainted a dresser we had white and I hand-painted the knobs to coordinate with Katie's bedding. The paint was thick and hard to add small details. I ended up using scrapbooking markers to do some of the knobs. Next time I would try those paint markers. Since it is such a small detail of the room I decided not to obsess about it and just left them.

Projects to come . . .

I have a ton of ideas in my head for crafts to come . . . I got a ruffler foot for Christmas (thanks Kevin!) and want to make a fun dress for Katie. I also am scrapbooking away like a mad woman trying to get caught up before I have all the new baby pics to start adding. My scrap basket is overflowing and I need to make more reusable totes and try to make some coasters as gifts. Though I love Christmas, I also love all the Valentine's day and Spring decorating and crafting things that are in the stores now. I found a new favorite blog: http://www.rufflesandstuff.com/ so many fun and girly crafts! I want to make this bubble skirt, and these adorable knee highs, and this dress, which I think I can use the ruffle foot for! I am trying to be more consistant with blogging and crafting this year instead of just watching TV! Might be a hard resolution to keep with Levi hopefully only days away. Oh well, I love making New Year's resolution even if I have to keep making them all year!