Mommy's Purse

Since I made Amy Butler Birdie Sling bags for my sisters and myself (see here, here, here, and here), Mom wanted one, too. Except she wanted a zipper in hers and she is kinda picky with colors and patterns, so I drug my feet for a long time. Last week, I got her to pick her own fabric out, and then she decided a magnetic snap closure would be good enough.

I love the crisp, summer colors here with the aquas and blues. It still has some browns to make it more neutral and easier to match, though. I made the downsized version of the Birdie Sling like I made for my sister-in-law for Christmas. I added some extra pockets and loops on the inside, as well as the magnetic snap (which I should have put closer to the top= lesson learned). I think next time I will make the shoulder strap a little narrower, too.

It is HOT here, and I didn't want to leave the air conditioning in my bedroom sewing corner, which is why it has gotten done so quickly. I anticipate a lot more sewing tomorrow, too! :)

Flowers, Farm, Field Trip

I wanted to show off some of the pictures I took on Friday!

Some of my flowers...

Pink Peonies

I will only have a few this year since all the buds "magically" snapped off

Coral Bells

There is a long row of them.Purple Iris

Love the water droplets on this one!

Things growing on our little "farmette"...

Sour Cherries

They will be ripe about the same time as the baby, so I don't think I will can many this year.

Chickens

They have finally moved outside to a temporary cage.

Tomatoes

A few are already growing on the plants we got the other week.

And some pictures from the 1st grade field trip to Reptileland...

Turtles

We saw lots of these!

Lizards

He looks so bumpy! I just want to touch him!

Butterflies

They also had a butterfly house!

I got some really cool shots here, so I hope you like them!

Sneak Peek Friday #8

OK, so it has been awhile since I "Sneak Peek Friday-ed" but here is what I have been up to. I am crafting instead of nesting. Although, with 3 weeks to go, I had better start nesting, too!HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my awesome sister, Loni, this week! I made her a basket for her bathroom with a liner that matches her decor. Every time I use her bathroom I think "she needs a matching basket on this shelf thingy" and I bought the fat quarter a loooooong time ago. I even left it out on my sewing table in hopes of encouraging myself to use it faster. And the basket turned out so sturdy and nice I was really happy with it. And, a few weeks ago, I learned how to make rag flannel blankets and burp cloths (tutorial coming eventually). LOVE these, too! These, and one of my taggy blankets are on their way to my cousin who is due in 3 weeks, too! (only with her first instead of fifth) I made a wedding cake topper for a special custom request. I never made one of these before and I think it came out pretty cute!
Another custom order- these adorable little flower girl baskets! :)
Now, what I am working on.. It is my BIG project and I think it is kind of like nesting- I am redoing some things in the nursery, which will be shared by #5 and my 3yo-Strawberry-Shortcake-loving-girl. Here are some peeks at what i am up to there.
I am also hand quilting this for my 9mo niece: (can't show it all or my sister will see it!) I tried to machine quilt it and I got puckers and got mad and had to seam rip a lot. But really, I think God knows I need to take some time to prop my feet up and rip away.
And, of course, more baskets and more snowmen.
I know. The variety of it all probably makes your head spin (maybe I have ADD). I have LOTS to finish soon, because in 3 weeks, I plan on getting pretty much nothing accomplished craftwise. :)

I hope to link up here over at StudioJRU!

Strawberry Shortcake Dress

My 3yo is still on the Strawberry Shortcake kick! So for her birthday I made her a Strawberry Shortcake dress. I just blatantly copied Strawberry's dress by sewing a semi-circle skirt to the bottom of a white T-shirt. It turned out pretty good, but my brain does NOT function well lately, so I had a few snags. I accidentally made the skirt twice as big as I needed to (should have divided the waist by 4 instead of 2!) so I cut it in half and now I could make another one if I need to (and I might because this is a white shirt after all!) I originally wanted a full circle skirt, so it isn't as twirly as I wanted, but it is actually closer to the "real" one.

I appliqued the strawberry and diamonds on the shirt for the argylish pattern on the new Strawberry's dress. I did them by hand while at soccer practice so she wouldn't see it. (Everything else was done over a few naptimes).If I hadn't been doing this as a surprise I would have been able to catch that the T-shirt is a little long and it would be better if I had cut some of the bottom off before sewing the skirt on. But now it is big and if she doesn't destroy it she can grow into it and wear it longer.

Oh- and, completely unrelated to sewing, I kept things simple for her cake since I am on a major cake-flopping roll here. Just pink icing cupcakes with strawberry gummies on them slapped together at the last minute.

Happy Birthday!!!

Shnookie's Apron

Carrying on with my "finish projects before Baby #5 comes" rush here, I tackled another one, although it was still not without screw-ups. I made an apron for my youngest sister, who my Dad always called "Shnookie" growing up. We have no idea what that means, only that it sounds kinda PA dutchified. Anyway, I bought the cute BROWN cow fabric (I prefer brown cows over black and white ones!) with the intention of making her an apron for her bridal shower present. Now that she has been married for a few years I am finally getting around to it.





I would have felt bad giving her a present (we called it a belated birthday gift) and then saying, "Hey will you model this for me for my blog" so my 5yo took some pictures of big old pregnant me modeling it. My sister is skinny, despite my constant attempts to feed her sweets and high-fat foods, so she looks really, really cute in it!





I used the Nae-Nae apron tutorial from CraftinessIsNotOptional as a basis for how I made the apron, but I changed a few things. I used a ruffle on the bottom instead of pleats (LOVE that I can do them on my serger now!) and I pretty much ignored the measurements she gave for the ties cause I was being lazy. Also, when I initially cut it out, I used my straight-sided apron and swooped up the back to get the cute shape. Then I held it up and made sure it looked right. Well, I had it all pinned together and tried in on before I realized that I was making it to fit enormously pregnant me and my sister is sickeningly skinny! I ended up unpinning and trimming in at least 12 inches from the sides.

I LOVE the waist ties in this cute bow tied around to the front (it hides my belly a little!) On her, the tails are much longer, of course. I interfaced the waist ties- a pain, but it was worth it in the end.
I backed it with a beige, unbleached muslin color fabric I had on hand - I just had to piece two pieces of material together for it. (Actually, everything I had was leftovers from other projects that I had on hand- YAY for stashbusting!!!)

It makes me want to make myself a new apron, even though I already have my own brown cow apron (different fabric) because the bows and ruffles make me feel adorable wearing it! :)

Flannel Button Quilt

So, my little girl went through a phase where she LOVED pink camouflage. I was on a flannel quit kick, so I decided to make her a pink camo one for her second birthday.
She turned five in December.
You see, I thought it would be absolutely charming and adorable to do a checkerboard pattern and use high-loft batting and sew a button on each square. I was picturing this comfy, cutesy, "Little House on the Prairie" effect. But sewing buttons is a pain in the neck.
So now, 3 1/2 years later, in my "finish up projects so I can make room for Baby #5 kick" I have forced myself to finish it! I only had 21 buttons left to sew on, and it probably took me less than an hour (hanging my head in shame here). The binding only took one dentist appointment and two soccer practices. It is an odd size and the pink in the squares doesn't really match the camo too well, but it was so long ago that I don't know what I was thinking anymore. BUT... YAY for another finish!!! And since she is older now, buttons are probably less of a choking hazard. :)

Cinnamon Rolls From SCRATCH!

Please do not lick your computer screen. I am not responsible for any dust on your tongue.

I get requests to make these delicious cinnamon rolls pretty often, but never requests for the recipe! I think it is too intimidating, but, REALLY, they are NOT hard to make! I got the recipe from an Amish cookbook, so a full batch makes 5 dozen. I am giving you the half batch recipe and much clearer directions than they included.

Soft Cinnamon Rolls

1 cups quick oats
2 cups boiling water
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) margarine
2/3 cups brown sugar
2 Tbsp. yeast- use the bread machine yeast that comes in a jar!
1/3 cups warm water
1 Tbsp. white sugar
5 cups bread flour
brown sugar
margarine spread
cinnamon
Icing (approximate measurements):
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 Tbsp. milk
3 Tbsp. margarine

Combine oats and brown sugar in a large bowl. Pour boiling water over the mixture and add margarine. In a separate bowl, mix yeast, sugar, and warm water. When the oat mixture has cooled to lukewarm, add the yeast mixture. Mix well and gradually add flour. Mixture will form a soft dough. Let rise until doubled in size. Knead and roll out to about 3/8" thickness- keeping it as rectangular as possible. Spread margarine over the dough, sprinkle with brown sugar so that the entire surface is lightly coated, then sprinkle with cinnamon. Roll the dough up into a long roll, and slice into 3/4" thick slices. Place in greased pan(s) and let rise again (about 1/2 hour). Bake at 325 degrees for 20 minutes. For the icing, combine milk and margarine and microwave until the margarine is melted. Add powdered sugar until a thick glaze is formed (a little thinner than pancake batter) and pour over warm rolls. If you want to reheat them later, just pop them in the microwave for about 10-15 seconds! Mmmmm...

After the rain...

After it cleared up Sunday afternoon I took some pictures around our little "farmette."

The calves are all doing really well! This is the youngest one, although he is the biggest. I call him "Dumbo" because his ears are so big! (Shhh... He is my favorite, too!)
Finally got some planting done this weekend! Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, sweet corn, and green beans.
The peas are looking pretty good!

Here is one of our ugly chickens... ... and our dramatic girl!

My flowers are really starting to bloom! I think these are really cool!

We have lots of different colors of azaleas. If you look closely, you can see the water droplets on them from the rain.

I found some wisteria growing in the fence row. All these years living here and I never noticed it before! I love these!!!

I had fun playing around with my camera. I hope you enjoyed these! :)