My sewing nightmare!

So I have been working dilligently on making my first "baby" quilt.  It isn't for anyone so I don't have a real timeline or anything but I wanted to finish it quick because I am so excited about it all.

Well apparently I am working against myself.  First I sew two of my rows together wrong.  I took them apart and pinned and sewed them onto the correctly sewn four rows.  I sewed and sewed and when I was finished I triumpantly held it up to view my masterpiece.... only to find I sewed the rows on wrong!!! AAHHHHH

The top and bottom rows are in the wrong places...

I have since ripped them apart and triple checked that I pinned them correctly.  I am very proud of my work, now that its right.  The seams are pressed too.  Now I have to decide if I want to pre-soak my batting...  Any suggestions?

Mentor Monday - The one that got me tagging

For my second Mentor Monday post I felt that I should give props to the woman who got me into making things.  I had found her I believe from the New Dress A Day blog.  I think she had sent some clothing in and Marissa linked to her blog when she did the reveal.

SewTara  is the website and Tara is her name.  She had just gotten finished making a large group of taggie blankets when I started reading her blog.  And yes I had to read her blog from the beginning.  So back to the blankets.  They were so cute and looked so soft and I wanted them.

And it just so happened that I was invited to a baby shower for a coworker and I had my idea!  I posted about those two blankets already.

I can't wait to make a few more and hopefully find some of that minky fabric Tara used...

Thanks to Tara for her most wonderful blog... and letting me peek in on those cutie boys you have.

Pinterest Pick - Football Onesie

The Pinterest Pick of the week is a Football Onesie.  I had seen this and pinned it a while ago.  I have yet to make it but I not only have the brown onesie but also white fabric that I think would be perfect for the "laces".

I would want to actually make the laces look more like the circular laces on the football... I am not quite sure how to achieve that yet but I will make it happen.

I think it would be just so adorable on a baby.

Food Friday - Gluten-Free Muffins!

Being that I am allergic to wheat I have found that the best tasting wheat-free projects are actually gluten-free.  I recently have tried a new mix for muffins.  It is King Arthur Flour.  They have within the last year or so developed a line of gluten-free products.

I had brought several bananas that were perfect for making muffins home with me during Christmas vacation.  Banana muffins are so wonderful and I have not had any in a very very long time.

I mixed in the bananas and made 12 muffins and still had a lot of batter left.  The box said that it would make 12 so when I had enough to make 12 more I was excited!

I decided to crush up some strawberries to add into the remaining part of the batter.

Cooked them both up and they both looked great.

Sadly after I took the strawberry ones out I realized they were not cooked completely (it didn't even help putting them back in the oven).  My mom and I decided that the strawberry mix just didn't have enough actual batter to make them cook correctly.  They ended up being too soupy to cook correctly.

However, the banana muffins that I made were PERFECT!  Even my dad liked them. :)  I definitely will be buying another box in the future.

Quilting Bug via my Memere

My Memere (my mom's mom) was always doing something wonderful.  Whether it was cooking, baking, sewing, crocheting, or being a great grandma she always was inspiring.  She was also cute when she had her little old lady green curlers in.  See here for an example.

One of the things that she did a lot of was making quilts.  I am sure all of the kids and grandkids cherish the quilts that Memere made just for them (many with her signature embroidered at the bottom).  I have several that I would like to share.

This quilt that we are currently using on the bed was the last quilt that I received from my Memere.  I can remember working with her, my Matount's, and my mom.  We were all around the quilt putting the finishing touches on.  Using yarn or embroidery floss we were adding in the little frilly things.  Sorry didn't think to take a picture of those up close but you can kinda see them on the pink part.

The second quilt I am going to share is the quilt I made for my math class in high school.  We had a project where we had to make something that was geometric.  I chose to make a quilt.  My Memere helped me to pick a pattern, pick out the fabrics, and get it all together.  It is not much bigger than a lap quilt (hey it needed to be light enough to bring to school and back).  I am very proud of that thing.  It was the last thing that my Memere really helped me make.

So, now that I am in the process of making my first quilt alone I am often thinking of my Memere.  She made I believe 100 quilts to be donated to a shelter or a hospital.  I hope that maybe one day I can do something like that.

I will have to look around to see if I have a photo of her to share...

Onesie Bowtie!

When my co-worker asked if I could make her some tie onesies I thought I should try out making something different.  What was my idea you ask?  A bowtie onesie!

I apologize I don't have a picture of my templates, but just like with my tie I made my own template and cut out two pieces of fabric.

I pinned them together wrong sides out.  Sewed around leaving a hole for turning.  Turned it outside sewed it closed.

My favorite part?  Sewing it on the shirt!!

I plan to make more in different patterns, colors, and sizes.  :)

Kellee's Frame Reveal

My friend Kellee had a tough day at work one day.  Later that night we were hanging out a Jai Alai and she mentioned how she had thought if she had a visual reminder of calm it might help.  I immediately volunteered to make one.  I made sure to find out what word and what colors she would want.

I bought what I needed at Jo Ann's and got to work.

I printed a page with the word and sizing that I wanted (I made sure it would fit within the window of the frame).  I taped the paper to the sliding glass door and traced the word on the tear-away paper.

I then pinned the fabric to the tear-away paper and placed it into the hoop.

Yay tomato pin cushion!

 I used my blue thread, thinning so that I had three strands and the doubled it so that I was embroidering using 6 strands with the basic backstitch.

Once I finished embroidering the word I then had to tear away the tear-y stuff.  Getting it out from behind the tight embroidery was tough and I may rethink using it next time.

You got a peak at my duck slippers!

Once I got it all removed I admired the word. I ironed out the wrinkles from the hoop and put it into the frame.

I was so excited that she loved it.  I wished I had not pulled the thread so tight (I don't like the wrinkles around the working).  I hope that I can make some more and fine tune my technique enough to eventually sell some!

And because the Kitten was weird the other day I had to share this:

She was chillin' on my Publix bag.

Happy Tuesday everyone!!

Mentor Monday - My first date with the blog world

After returning to an 8 to 5 job at a university I actually was able to enjoy a full HOUR lunch!  It was such a nice change from the 25 minutes when I was teaching (where I could barely eat anything, no joke, ask my bf how much weight I had lost).  Oh and I was not FORCED to each lunch at 10:30 in the morning anymore.  So obviously I made sure to make the most of my time.

My sister, Jill, is very much into exploring the web and finding new and exciting things that I would like.  She kept telling me about this woman who was making a new outfit everyday for just $1.  I thought she was kidding but when I checked out the website I believed!  She was incredible!

Marisa Lynch had lost her job and realized she couldn't go out spending money on new clothes anymore.  So she made a pack to herself that she would spend $1 or less a day on a new clothing item for one year.  It was partly to curb spending money but more so spur her creativity.  She would manipulate, add, change the outfit into something absolutely adorable.  To the point that I wanted to BUY most of the things that she made.

The first outfit redo I read (after the insistence of Jill over the course of a few weeks) was this: Day 255 - 110 Days Left.  I read the entry and thought to myself "I could totally do this!".  I was hooked.  I read and read and read.  In reading the blog over the course of several months I ended up finding more blogs that had contacted Marisa.  Needless to say she was the one that got me beginning to think that I might want and need to find a creative outlet for myself!

Check out her stuff, she's got some good ones!

Pinterest Pick - 100 Running Songs

As I mentioned in my little bio thing I am basically addicted to Pinterest.  In thinking how I wanted to set up my blogging schedule (I must plan to be successful) I knew I had to involve the time sucking, idea giving, jealously fueling thing that is Pinterest.  So my plan is to spend one day a week showcasing something that I have found on Pinterest that I think is amazing, that I have tried to recreate, or wish I had thought of myself.

So first up is one that I hope to use is.... Drumroll please!?....

200 Running Songs

My itunes is pretty much a mix of pop, rock, rap, r&b, and some other fun things.  As I was going through the list there were a few that I would want to include on my own playlist for when I start working out (ie. going to the apt gym and running on the treadmill at 5:15 in the morning, bleh).  I will need songs that not only motivate but have a very fast beat to keep me running to the rhythm.

A few from this list that I think are a must have include:

Andrew WK - "Party Hard" - The bf loves this song and has played it enough to get  me liking it.
Bowling for Soup - "Ohio (Come Back to Texas)"
Boys Like Girls - "The Great Escape"
The Darkness - "I Believe In a Thing Called Love" - I just love this guys voice.
Electric Six - "Dance Commander" - Really anything from Electric Six could be on my list.
Electric Six - "Danger! High Voltage"
Fall Out Boy - "Sugar, We're Going Down"
Justin Timberlake - "My Love"
Juvenile - "Back That Azz Up" - Reminds me of band practice my sophomore year of high school (crazy lady trying to drown out or annoy the high school band kids by BLASTING the rap/hiphop station - she really was not very smart)
Ke$ha - Your Love Is My Drug" - Such a stupid song but so great.
Kelly Clarkson - "Since U Been Gone" - This makes me just want to scream sing along.
La Roux - "Bulletproof"
Lil Jon - "Get Low" - Another band memory, she played those radios for a while until she realized it was not doing her any good.
Michael Jackson - "Beat It" - There are a few others by him that that I would have added.
Morningwood - "Nth Degree"
Murphy Lee - "Shake Ya Tailfeather"
OK Go - "Get Over It" - LOVE LOVE LOVE OK Go.
Risk Astley - "Never Gonna Give You Up" - Funny thing is, this song was on my Dad's "Walking Tape" memories
Ting Tings - "That's Not My Name"

I have yet to make up my own playlist to get me thorough the torture of working out that early in the morning.

Must spend more time on Pinterest.......

Food Friday - Adventures in Crock Potting

For this Food Friday I will be sharing my first real adventure in cooking with a crock pot.  I received a 5Q one for Christmas (so exciting) and accidentally left it at home when I traveled back up to Orlando.  My sister luckily goes to school up here so she brought it up for me.

We had a Publix turkey dinner for our "christmas" dinner and when it was fullly heated/cooked the bag was opened and juice started crazy waterfall pouring out of the bag.  My Mom is not the best gravy maker and had already bought jar gravy for those that wanted some, so I declared the turkey juice was MINE!  The bf gratefully helped to separate the juice into two Tupperware containers (the whole time thinking I was crazy for wanting it).  Regardless of what he thought, my grand plan was to use the juice as a base for a turkey soup!

Fast-forward to this past weekend and I had a grocery list of all of the ingredients I wanted to add to my soup.

I had squash, zucchini, celery, sweet onion, stewed tomatoes (still in their full form) turkey tenderloin, italian green beans, vegetable stock, the frozen turkey stock, and a home grown carrot from the bf's parents garden.

Frozen turkey juice close up!

I chopped everything up to about the same sizes.

Yes this is a homegrown carrot.  Very delicious!

I heated up the turkey juice on the stove so that when I put it in the crock pot it would be ready to go.  As I was pouring the pot of juice in I realized I probably should have strained it... but I had already scrapped off the top layer of fat before I froze then.  So the more little turkey pieces the better.


I dumped all of the veggies in (at that point realizing I might have gone overboard).

I cut the turkey into chunks and cooked them almost all of the way through in a pan on the stove.

They were dumped into the crock pot too.  I tasted the broth and realized it was super salty so I added in some veggie stock, garlic powder, pepper, onion powder and set the crock pot to Heat for 3 hours.

After a while I just had to check on it so I lifted the lid

and saw....

At this point I felt it was time to add in the stewed tomatoes.  Now that is probably not a very common item to have in a soup but my Memere always made her chicken noodle soup (which my friends have tested and it does have cold healing abilities) with a can of whole stewed tomatoes.  The tomatoes were always my favorite part of the soup.  Cutting them in half in your bowl to see the red juice seep out into the rest of the bowl... yummy.

I stirred it around and let it cook some more.

After a while I pulled the lid off again (I know I know I am not supposed to have to do that) to stir and peek and the soup looked perfect.

 The last thing I added was a strained can of italian green beans.  We left for Curtis Earth Trivia with the soup on warm just to finish it up.

We came home to an apartment that smelt almost exactly like my Memere's chicken noodle soup.  Which in and of itself made me feel happy and successful.

I made myself wait a WHOLE day before I ate the soup.  Made the bf have it for dinner and I must say it was very wonderful (even though he thought it tasted too much like veggies and not enough like turkey).

Chicken noodle soup for the bf will have to be next since he "suffered" through this one without too much complaining ;)...

Christmas Present Reveal - Necklaces

For Christmas I decided to make my sisters and I necklaces using these owl pendants I bought from Pick Your Plum.

I asked my friend Missy to go with me to pick out some extra charms and rings to attach all of them to the necklace.  I ended up picking some leaves, gems, and other sparkly things.

These are mine.  Jill and Staci had red and purple ones.

I had a difficult time getting the necklace to lay so that everything was facing forward.  I used these two tools to hold the rings open and close them once I had then clipped on the necklace.

I was able to get Staci's and Jill's done waaaay before Christmas and I was dying to give them their gift early.  Don't worry the did get to open then early :)  We did gifts the morning of Christmas Eve.

Soooo without further adieu THE NECKLACES!!

A surprise in the back!

Jill wasn't able to model for me.

The best compliment that my sisters could make is that they thought they looked like I bought the necklaces already made!!!  I am just so happy they liked them.

Now if I can only get mine made...

Baby Onesie - Tie

Once I found out that my friend J (Baby Shower Gift Take Two) was having a baby I could not help to begin thinking of all of the different baby things I had seen on blogs and etsy.  I wanted to make ALL of them!  But I realized that I would have to start somewhere.  The somewhere I decided to start was by making a onesie with a tie.  In searching around the internet I kept seeing ties that were sewn completely onto the shirt.  I didn't think that would be as fun as if the tie looked and acted like a real tie.

So I set out to pick out Gator fabric (since they are very big Florida Gator fans) and the perfect orange color thread.

Sorry this is all I had left of the fabric I used.  I didn't think at the time to take shots of the fabric.

In all of the blog posts I never saw a template that I could just print and go.  I was at square one in making a pattern as I had never made one before.  Using card stock I sketched what I thought would be a good sized tie for the 3-6 month onesie.

My make shift pattern.  The red is to indicate the sewing allowance.

Using the pattern I cut out all of the pieces (two ties and two "knots").  Matching the right sides together I sewed the tie, leaving the top side open for turning.  Once it was turned right sides out and the corners were pushed out (with a chopstick) it was time to sew the "knot".  This was a little trickier because the fabric pieces were small and it had to be continuously turned as it was being sewn.

Pinned and ready to be sewn.

 Once both pieces were turned and ironed nice and crisp it was time to attach them together.  I hand sewed the tie to the "knot" making sure the thread did not show through on the front of the "knot".  With the tie and "knot" now in one piece the "knot" part of the tie can be sewn onto the onesie.  I tried to catch the top of the tie while I was sewing the "knot" to make sure it would stay in place.

In making several of these, I have learned that it is best to go around two or three times to really secure the "knot" to the shirt.  Since the tie is movable it might become a target for little fingers to grab and mouths to chew, so the extra security is a good thing.

I am hoping to make a few of these to bring to the craft fair I may be going to with Ellie in April.  I just hope that people will think they are cute enough to want to purchase.

Blogging Schedule

I had mentioned in an earlier post that I had developed a little blogging schedule.  Three or four days after I had started the blog I realized that I had no idea how to keep track of what I was doing or what I wanted to do.  Lucky for me Mollie from Wild Olive posted about how she keeps herself of track.  I took her idea to use the Google Calendar and made one myself.  I plugged in the ideas I had written down and realized that there are a lot of days in a month!  I began to panic and worry that I would not have enough stuff to post a blog every day.

Then I remembered that Mollie and a few other bloggers that I read have days where they post about a certain topic or theme.  Well I took that and ran with it and now I think I might be able to blog everyday.

So I wanted to share my plans with you as you are going to be the one reading and enjoying (hopefully!) what I am writing.

Sunday: A day of resting.  Really it is so that I can make sure I get my chores done.  The bf kinda gets grumpy if they aren't done ;)

Monday: Mentor Monday.  I will showcase a crafty thing from one of the blogs that I follow.  I will write about how jealous I am they made something so cute, or that I want to try to recreate it, or whatever pops into my head.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: My crafting experiences.  I will share what I have been making or have made in the past.

Friday: Food Friday.  I will share something fun with food, a new recipe I tried, or a gluten-free review of a  new food.

Saturday: Pinterest Pick.  I will share something that I found that I LOVE on Pinterest.  Although I don't think that would be very difficult since I LOVE almost everything on there.  I hope to actually make some of the things on there.  One day I hope to have a craft room just for me and some of the designs on there I will have to incorporate into my room.

So what do you all think?  Does it sound like these ideas would interest you?  I am open to changing up the routine if I find something is not working out the way I had hoped or changing because I had a new/better idea to blog about.  :)

Sorry for no pictures today but I should have some tomorrow!!! :D

MLK Day Crafting Extravaganza!!!

Today I have been able to sit at home ALL DAY and be crafty.  I had some major plans for the day: an embroidery project for Kellee, more embroidery projects, beginning a baby sized quilt, and maybe throw in some time cleaning the kitchen.


I planned out a little list of things I wanted to accomplish:
~ Embroidery project for Kellee
~ Embroidery projects for possible sale
~ Figuring out sizing of squares for a quilt
~ Cutting out all of the squares for a quilt
~ Drafting up some future blogs
~ Making soup in the new crock pot

Quite a list?  Yes, but one that I knew I would enjoy working on.  I let myself sleep in because I am so tired of the cough/cold that I have.  I hoped getting a little more sleep might help me finally kick it.  I started my lazy day with a trip to the grocery store since I wanted to make a turkey soup.  I went with a list and didn't stray from it.  I got home in time to head out to meet the bf for lunch at Sonny's.

I just LOVE their sweet tea...

I stopped on the way back home at Jo Ann's (I know I just went there Saturday but I found something else I wanted) to buy a fabric cutter since they were 40% off!

I was so excited that this was on sale!

I chopped, sliced, browned, and defrosted everything I needed for the turkey soup.  It is cooking right now!!!  I am very excited about that.  I'll share if it is good or not later in the week.

I can not wait for this to finish cooking... I am even going to add in some stewed tomatoes too.  YUM!

I then focused by attention on the embroidery project for Kellee because I would love to get it to her by Thursday.  I am making progress and am very pleased with how the stitches are looking.  Sorry no pictures because I want her to be surprised.

As far as the quilt... I have to say that I was successful in that I now have a rotary cutter to make the square cutting faster!  I am going to have to work on that one throughout the week  Just be ready for a picture explosion when I share it because I am planning to document my work very well.  :)

I very much enjoyed watching the kitten examine and smell the outside world from the open sliding glass door.  I think she liked being able to beg for pets whenever she wanted too.

Oh and I got some boring things like vacuuming the bedroom and laundry done too.

What did I do today?

SHOPPED AT JO ANN'S!!!  I probably spent an hour walking around checking out different fabrics and things.  It was so wonderful.  I ended up getting lots of different things to work on Monday.  Actually having the materials to create the things floating around my brain makes me really can't wait to spend the whole day by myself crafting and hopefully making things to blog about!  I will give you a glimpse of what I bought.

My JoAnn's haul. :)

Love that the fabrics are all the same colors but NOT the same patterns!

Love the girlyness of it all.

Planning up some embroidery.

Food Friday - Kobe Knockoff

The boyfriend and I made a fancy dinner copy catting one of our favorite restaurants, Kobe Steakhouse.  They make dinner right in front of you, it does help that they have an AMAZING white sauce.  I personally witnessed a family of 12 devour a whole canister (probably almost a gallons worth) of white sauce one night... kinda gross but true. 

Anyway, back to the knockoff.  A friend of ours told us about a white sauce that you can buy in the store that "tastes just like Kobe white sauce".  See below:

Since I recently learned that there are gluten-free soy sauces I made sure to purchase one of those.

I bought all of the necessities: meat, carrots (yes those still have the leafy tops), onion, broccoli, pea pods, zucchini, and especially for the bf crunchy noodley things.

The bf learned how to make the "Coke-a-Cola" sauce they use at Kobe (heat to a boil - soy sauce, water, and sugar).  He got that going as I began to chop chop chop some veggies.

He got to cut up the turkey we were going to use for the meat (lucky me since I am allergic to chicken - yes I know it sounds crazy but I won't argue with the massive migraines I get).

We heated the veggies and meat seperately at first because I wanted ot make sure the meat was cooked fully.

Once the meat was ready we added it to the veggies, threw in a bit more "coke-a-cola", and stirred them up.

Meanwhile the bf started heating the gluten-full noodles he has secretly cooked before I got home with some of the soy sauce creation.  They looked very delicious, I must say I was kinda jealous.

I had a choice at the store to have Jasmine rice or plain ol' white rice.  The bf's vote won and we had white.  Mixed with an egg and plenty of soy sauce stuff of course!

Once everything was sauced up and cooked we were ready to serve.

It was a mighty fine dinner.  Thanks for the idea sweetie!

Oh and my opinion on the white sauce... not as good as Kobe, but once you started eating it with the food it was okay.

**Editors note:  As I was trying to write this lovely review of my dinner my sister, Jill, was very rudely asking me to listen to some song.  So if anything sounds weird in this post I blame it on her because in her own words that she wanted me to put:  My sister is being so annoying about trying to enrich my life with great music.***