Craft Room Tip

Here's a little craft room tip I thought I'd share.  My husband had bought about 5 of these magnetic strips from Ikea a long time ago.  He was planning on using them in the garage (they're really intended for storing chef's knives).  I snagged one for my sewing room. 

Not sure about anyone else with kids, but needles and scissors and lots of small doodads don't really mix with well with my girls.  I was always trying to find a good place to hide them and keep them secure, but also keep them close at hand.  So here's what I came up with!  They're super cheap at Ikea, so if you have one near you swing by and pick one up in the kitchen department.  I put my bobbins, scissors, some needles, safety pins and even my zipper foot all nicely stored up and out of the way, yipee!

First Birthday

Yep, Emily turned 1 in August.  We had her party at a local park.  My brother was able to get some really great shots with his dSLR (I'm so jealous!).  Anyway.  I embellished her shirt with a cupcake and had sewn her a Market Skirt from made, check out the tutorial here.  I love it!

Love you!

Smooooooothies

Yum, just had to share this lovely little creation (recipe I got a long time ago from my mom) for smoothies.  You can use any type of berry, but they key is to have them frozen.

Here goes (pretty simple):
1/2 banana
1 c. plain yogurt
1 c. frozen berries
1/4 c. orange juice

Blend it up and slurp it down, my girls love it and it's pretty healthy, too.  Great for a snack or along with breakfast.

Side note: I usually make mine with 1/2 c. strawberries and 1/2 c. raspberries.

Road Trip Sewing

My husband had a business trip to Milwaukee this past week and the girls and I tagged along.  We got to go to the Milwaukee Public Market which ended up being pretty fun.  It's similar to an indoors farmers market with individual vendors that are there year long in an open air type setting.  I guess it opened in 2005, so it's pretty nice.  We also made a stop at the Betty Brinn Children's Museum.  They had a lot of fun exhibits including one where you could see yourself dance on a giant tv, a mechanic's shop, and a post office. 

On the way my husband drove and I did a little project - barrettes!!  This is the perfect project for the car, I was waiting for an opportunity to make these puppies, and this was it.  I like how they turned out and they stay in hair better than just the plain metal barrettes.

I followed this great tutorial from Mairuru. Yes, very time consuming (for me anyway, I'm still working on my hand sewing skills).

Attack of the jumbo muffins!

Our big project for yesterday - jumbo rasberry blackcap muffins! Yummy. I've used all different berries (raspberry, blackcap, blueberry) for these and the sour cream makes them really great. For those of you who don't know, blackcaps are a lot like blackberries, just smaller and a little less juicy and they grow in the woods around here. And lucky for us we have rasberries in our backyard. Free raspberries, how much better can it get? I like to add a little powdered sugar/milk drizzle after they're cooled off, it makes them so pretty. I also freeze the berries before I put them in the mix, they stay together much better. Here's the recipe:

2 c. flour
1 t. salt
1 T. Baking powder
2/3 c. sugar

1 egg
1/2 c. milk
1 t. vanilla
1/3 c. melted butter
1/2 c. sour cream
2 c. raspberries

topping:
1/4 c. sugar
2 T. butter (soft)
3 T. flour

mix together the dry ingredients and then the wet and add them all together, don't overmix! Divide into muffin pan and sprinkle with topping. Bake at 350 for approx. 20 minutes (my jumbo muffins take about 30 minutes)

Zippy Wallets!

Aren't these precious?  I just love them and want to keep them all to myself.  It can hold credit cards, some cash or change, some lip balm.  All you need for a quick run to the store or to slip into your diaper bag.  I love the handy outer pocket, perfect for my debit card!  If anyone is interested I think I'll be trying my first tutorial featuring these babies!

Hannah's Graduation Survival Pouch

Better late than never...a survival pouch!

Hopefully Hannah will be using this a bunch when she's away at college!  Her favorite color is green so I thought this Amy Butler print would suit her well.  I tossed in a bunch of survival supplies such as an address book, detergent wipes, first aid kit, some gum -- just a few fun things.  Go Hannah, we know you're having a blast!

Fall dresses for the girls

I just finished up both dresses for the girls.  I chose corduroy in super cute prints I just couldn't resist.  Emily's dress pattern came from Lotta Jansdotter's book "Simple Sewing for Baby" and I just added the placket ruffle.  Natalie's is from one of my japanese pattern books called "Girls Style Book". 

I think the japanese patterns and clothes aren't as tricky as I thought they would be.  Although I've only made two items from them so far.  Natalie spent part of the afternoon flipping through the book saying how pretty everything was, but we'll see if she actually wears them, that's a whole other story...

This is a cute one of Natalie swimming in fabric.  It's actually Heather Bailey's Pop Garden and I'm planning on making this awesome looking tree skirt before Christmas!  I'm hoping I have lots of leftovers because the colors are just so beautiful.

New serger!

I was incredibly excited and nervous about my new serger.  I ordered it from amazon and then left it in the box for a few extra days, read and watched the instructions, then decided to dive in.  I made a set of baby wipes tonight for a friend using really nice organic cotton flannel I bought from Vegala.etsy.com .  I made them 8x8 and used a 3 thread overlock and rounded the corners.  It was nice to practice on something relatively easy!