A dress for the princess - Sew & Tell Friday

Zoe's new favorite word is princess. We can tell how excited she is about something by the volume with which she expresses herself. She consistently shouts at-the-top-of-her-wee-little-lungs the words 'princess' (except of course in the video) and 'eat.' ('daddy', 'cheese', 'Lightning' (as in McQueen), and 'blue' (her toothpaste is blue so that's what she says when she wants to brush) are not far behind)

Now that I've lured you into hearing about out little Princess Zoe, I'll tell you about her gown... er, dress. I saw this fabric at the Lobby of Hobbies (30% off, thankyouverymuch) and thought it would make a cute dress for her. I went with the 3 year old size on the pattern because I always like to buy clothes big since they grow so quickly. From the looks of it, she'll be able to wear this dress for the next 2 or 3 summers (maybe as a shirt the 3rd year :) It was a pretty simple pattern - would have been simpler had I read more carefully and not done it wrong - now I know. I think I'll be making another with different fabric to see if I can get it right.

This is only the 2nd piece of clothing I've made so I have a lot of practicing to do. If you have a favorite free pattern or tutorial for little girl clothes, please let me know in your comment!! If you haven't already, please visit Sew & Tell Friday at Amylouwho's, and check out all the other great projects!

She didn't want to stop playing to try it on until I told said "but it's a princess dress"

the wheels on the box go round and round....

They entertained themselves with these empty boxes for a good 20 minutes. The had a few fights over who got to drive (or be the conductor, because Joshua said it was a train) but they were having so much fun that Zoe did not want to stop to put on a shirt. I didn't know when the fun was going to end, so I got a picture while I could. I blurred out her top :)

I'm sure it will only get worse in the summer, but these children do NOT like to wear clothes!!! They just randomly take them off, or Joshua doesn't put pants back on after he goes potty, or someone gets dirty and I don't have a chance to get them fully redressed. It's so bad that whenever I get all 3 of us dressed, Joshua wants to know where we are going. Usually at least one of us in in PJs (or for the kids, half dressed) whenever we're home. The other day, it was nice out so we were all outside. Joshua went inside to go potty and when he came back out, the neighbor was pulling out of his driveway. After we all waved, I looked down and saw that Joshua still had his underpants in his hand and no pants on. Oops, sorry neighbor!

in this one, Joshua rearranged the boxes into a helicopter. The green box is the refueling probe. Yes, that's really what it's called. You can see them flying it in the video at the bottom
Speaking of clothes, they were dressed for school so I decided to get a picture in their cute stripey outfits.
Awww...

Quilt for my Grandma - Sew & Tell Friday!

Welcome to everyone visiting from Amylouwho's Sew & Tell Friday! And everyone else too! Please go visit and check out everyone else's projects if you haven't already!

Here's the quilt that I have been making for my Grandma. I started it on Saturday night and have 1/2 the binding left to put on. I would have finished it tonight, but I had a hot date with the hubby. The binding can wait :)

It was going to be a rail fence pattern, but when I laid it out I got dizzy so I had to make the lines a little longer. I didn't feel like stippling because I felt like straight lines would be faster, so I did that. I got more than a few puckers on the front, so I'm going to try hand basting the baby quilt using this method that Anne told me about.

Well, it's far from perfect but I'm hoping that my Grandma will know how much she's loved every time she sees it (hopefully not in the back of her linen closet :)

Why didn't anyone tell me??!!

For those of you who know me and know of my affinity for nutella, imagine my shock and dismay when I found out that I had missed WORLD NUTELLA DAY! I think I now have a new favorite holiday! I've always been a big fan of all the others, but nothing made one stand head and shoulders above the rest. Well, I now know that the most heavily weighted factor in my decision making process must be nutella! I'm joking, of course, there are things more important to me than nutella. I of course prefer to celebrate Jesus' birth and resurrection, and my loved ones' birthdays over the invention of nutella. Or celebrate by eating nutella. Whatever.

Anyway, this website has a link to all kinds of nutella recipes. Personally, I just like to eat mine with a spoon or on a piece of crusty bread. Mmmm. Good thing we don't have any in the house or I'd eat it for breakfast! Some girls like it when their husbands bring them flowers, but I love it when Craig surprises me with a jar of nutella.

Quilt for my Grandma

My Grandma was very impressed with my first few quilts, so I decided that I should make her one of her own. I have to admit that I got this fabric for $1/yd at walmart, so it's not the most beautiful or highest quality; but, as 'they' say, it's the thought (and hours I spent making it) that counts.

This rail fence pattern is what I had wanted to do, since I only had 3 different fabrics. I'm obviously not very good at choosing fabrics, because I picked the wrong one to put in the middle. When I laid out all my squares, it just looked WAY too busy, so I adjusted...

I have pictures, I'll post about it again when I get them uploaded!

MY QUESTION IS... I have the sandwich done, my question is, can I quilt straight lines without a walking foot, or will that make it all wonky? If the answer is no, I'll have to stipple (yet again).

watch out!

we were going through boxes in the garage and came across these bag gloves. believe it or not, they were mine, not Craig's :)I guess they're Joshua's now though. Craig wants to get a heavy bag to add to the garage gym. Sounds fun! We can send Joshua out there for anger management when he gets grumpy :)

Re-crocheted water bottle 'koozie' -modeled by Zoe

I don't know why, but I love the word 'koozie'

I say it whenever possible, and felt like making a koozie of my own so that I could say koozie throughout the process of making and blogging about my koozie. koozie koozie koozie. Isn't it fun? OK, as usual it's probably just me.

Booties. Yet another word I love, and even moreso when Zoe says it. She brought Craig his big dirty Man boot this morning and tried to put it on him saying 'bootie. bootie. bootieeeee!!!!' in her little robo-baby voice. SO cute!!

Where am I going with this? I repurposed some crocheted baby booties from Rosemarie into a crocheted water bottle koozie. If I can remember and find the blog from which I got the idea, I'll update this with a link. The purple yarn in the koozie is from the bootie :)

I don't have a pattern, I just crocheted a flat circle, then turned it so that I was crocheting in the top of the round so that my stitches would work up instead of out. I did the flat bottom in single crochet and the sides of the KOOZIE in double crochet. When I felt like it was too loose, I skipped a few stitches every round. I also skipped a bunch in the top few rounds so that the opening would taper. I added a handle that was 4 sts wide, DC, I think. I got tired of quilting after the super bowl, so I did it while watching undercover boss. It was quick, about 30 minutes. Perfect for a water bottle, Zoe agrees.

Zoe had fun carrying it around. She likes to walk around carrying a bunch of things, and usually, if a blanket is among them it is trailing between her legs and she waddles. What a HOOT!

She repositioned everything, but still walking around with it all.

Uh Oh, looks like she's about to get mugged...

Blush quilt top for a baby girl on the way

** a couple edits here, folks.

1. NO, I am not pregnant.

2. Blush yardage is on sale today at piece n' quilt! **

Here's the layout for my quilt top. I need to go to the LQS for backing & binding. I'm not going to add a border since it's already about 40"x40". It's made with the new moda blush, tumbled 9 patch (or whatever you want to call it) with layer cake squares. I made 2 x 9 patches, and made one last square (bottom left) w/ two layer cake squares and a charm square. I started it during the Super Bowl and sewed it together yesterday (that was Tuesday) while Craig was home from work (YAY!) I had planned on adding a picture of the finished top, but I left it at my neighbor's house (Booo)

I forgot to submit my finish for last Friday, so if you're visiting from Sew & Tell, please check out last week's finish if you have time! Go Here

Go visit amylouwho's to see everyone else's Sew n' Tell Friday projects

**I'm not really out of my blogging slump, I've just been scheduling my posts so it seems like I'm blogging a lot :)**

Snow Angel

(I updated the chicken nuggets post from yesterday with our reviews. 8 thumbs up)

Here's Craig getting his little snow angel ready to go out to play in the snow.

Guess who loves Daddy?!

Snowy Zoe!

Snowball fight!!

Maybe Zoe's a southpaw?

I gave the boys a lesson (from the snow-free front porch) on how to make a gianormous snowball when the snow sticks well. I'm obviously a great teacher :) The snow was so wet that it left grass underneath when they rolled it (as instructed :)

Dear Chicken Nuggets, I hate you. - recipe review included

Anyone else have a love/hate/guilt relationship with chicken nuggets? I'll give you the rundown on mine:

Love: quick, easy, my kids will eat them at least 80% of the time. 90% when they're shaped like a dinosaur. Sometimes, their leftover chicken nuggets may be all I eat for lunch or dinner, and they're not bad with red hot. Anything I can use as a vehicle for red hot is a-ok with my tastebuds.

Hate: They can actually be quite disgusting. Especially when microwaved. Or... certain brands, in my opinion, taste like sweat. I also hate them for all the above reasons, because it makes it hard for me to 'quit' chicken nuggets.

Guilt: They are so incredibly BAD for my children! I cringe when I feed them chicken nuggets. I swear up and down I will never buy another bag. Then Craig deploys, I get tired, have a bad day, end up at the grocery store, and voila, chicken nuggets for dinner all week long!

Here's what I'm making for dinner tonight. Hopefully I can figure out a way to freeze them so that they're as lovable as their predecessors, thus eliminating the latter from my kitchen, forever. Assuming we overcome the small matter of my picky eaters. I'll let you know.

p.s. Chick Fil A nuggets, I'm not talking about you. I love you, you're great.

***These have great potential! I totally recommend you try this recipe. We all liked them. Craig and I ate ours on our spinach salads. Yum.***

***I did all the stuff for the coating in our coffee grinder (the mini cuisinart was in the dishwasher). Didn't have oat bran, so I ground up oatmeal. I used a whole egg b/c I was lazy. I used a chicken boullion cube for the broth. I made most of them according to the recipe, then at the end, I put some red hot in the egg/broth mixture, and made my own special nuggets. I baked them all for 15 minutes or more. When I took them out, some of the coating stuck to the stoneware. Grrr. They also didn't seem too crispy, maybe if I had let them sit a little longer before trying to take them off it would have helped. I also don't think they needed that much liquid in the egg mixture. Confession time: I took nuggets off for Craig and myself and crisped them up in a frying pan with a little olive oil. I prefered these over the just baked version. Next time, I will brown them all in a pan w/ olive oil Pam before baking, just to help with the crispy-ness. I also preferred my red hot nuggets over the others, of course :) We only have a few left over (always a good sign), so I will try a freezer experiment with them. My plan is to see how long it takes to bake them after they've been frozen. I'm sure they'd be pretty gross microwaved b/c I kinda hate chicken reheated in the microwave. Any questions?***

My first mod podge project

but first, one more hairbow

I've been wanting to make one of these wipes cases since I saw this tutorial forever ago. My first experience with mod podge, and I'm sure it won't be my last. This was pretty easy, and her instructions were good. Just make sure your batting it not too thick, or your wipes case will multi-task as a pillow, and the fabric won't fit, and you might need a bigger diaper bag... not that I'd know, because mine came out perfectly the first time :) I also did not burn my finger with hot glue, several times. Promise.

http://www.according-to-kelly.com/2009/06/diy-boutique-wipes-case-tutorial.html

Not sure which she likes more, blueberries or cheese. We were out of fresh, so I was feeding her frozen blueberries one at a time with a spoon. Her lips turned almost black, it was kinda creepy.

Hairbows

The day I found out that my Grandpa had passed away last week, I didn't quite know what to do with myself. So, I just sat around with Craig and the kids, and made a whole slew of hairbows while I pouted. I remember before I was even married, my Grandpa told me that he couldn't wait to see my babies. When I visited him in the hospital a couple weeks ago, he talked about how he had had a great life, and a wonderful family, and how now I have a wonderful family and someday I will get to see Joshua and Zoe have children, and grandchildren (EEK!) like him. I hope I am so blessed to live until I'm 94, or be married to the love of my life for 68 years, or see my children (he has 5!), grandchildren (9) have my great grandchildren (10), and hope they will all love Craig and I half as much as we all love my Nonna and Grandpa.

Anyway, here are the hairbows... Maybe I'll think of Grandpa every time Zoe wears one.

I crocheted the headbands the weekend I went to visit him in the hospital. I traveled alone, so had lots of time to crochet on the plane! The 3 pink ones on the left went to Masie, Presley & Darby, along with some off white crocheted flowers. Can't wait to see pictures of them being modeled!

Zoe was engrossed in coloring and drawing circles, so I got her to model most of her new collection

Joshua wanted in on the action too