Sew and Tell Friday.....

I had to go on a bit of a sewing hiatus this month, because my dear husband took over my sewing machine.  He volunteered to make my daughter this coat for Halloween.   I must admit, it was the hardest thing I've done in a long time!  It wasn't the having my husband sew it instead of me, because he is actually a good sewer and has sewn several of my son's costumes from scratch......as in he designed and constructed it without a pattern.  Something that I could NEVER do! lol  The hard part was sitting in my living room and listening to him at the dinner table trying to sew that coat.   Let's just say that the coat was made of vinyl, my machine didn't like it and didn't want to sew it nicely, the thread and tension was all messed up no matter what setting it was on, and he was very frustrated.  (I would have been, too, and have since promised myself to not touch vinyl unless it was a life or death sewing situation. lol)  So, just imagine sitting in a different room, listening to your poor sewing machine rev, hearing needles break, and having lots of not too nice words being said to it. lol  I tried to read, but it didn't work.  I tried to watch TV and that didn't work either.  But, he finally finished it, my daughter loved it and she looked great on Halloween!  

Whew.

Now I have my dear sewing machine back.  I've been treating it gently and giving it positive words of encouragement.....it's helped me sew 3 quilts in the past 2 months!  It's a trooper and needs a little TLC now. lol   

So,  I started out with an easy project that I've been wanting to make from a tutorial at Sew, Mama, Sew!  A case for my new cell phone.  The case is designed for a camera, iPod, etc., but it actually works just fine for my phone.  I guess I could have taken the sides in a bit, because there is quite a bit of wiggle room for my phone, but that's okay.  It was a fun and easy project and a great way for me to get back to sewing.  This project only took me an hour or less to make, and would have come together real fast if I didn't have my little helper by my side getting into all of my supplies. ;-)

I dove into my scraps for this project and used some Amy Butler fabric that was left over from a baby sling I made for my daughter.  I also used 2 vintage buttons stacked on top of each other and adde a bow to the elastic loop, because I didn't like that so much of my loop showed when I had the case shut.  Silly, I know, but I had to make the loop a little big because the button was so wide.  And, I do like bows anyway! ;-)

After I made the case, I started and finished a car seat blanket cover that I shared the other day and you can see it here.   Now I need to figure out what project I'm going to start sewing for Peanut next!  I have a very long list to choose from! 

I'm also excited to say that I finally started machine-quilting this quilt today.  I need to finish it soon and have had it pinned and ready to go for a couple of weeks.  Now it's time to get to work and get this one quilted and finished!   This is a special gift and I don't want to show any more of it until it's safely in the hands of it's recipient.  ;-)  

While I was in no-sew limbo and not working on the quilt I just showed you, I started cutting two Fruit Cake charm packs up to make this quilt from the Moda Bake Shop.  I'd really like to get it done by the beginning of December, so that we can enjoy it all month long.

And I just had to start this......I just couldn't resist.  I absolutely ADORE Pumpkin Spice Lattes and it was just a requirement for me to stitch this up!  I think I'm going to put it on a mug rug.....something else that I've really been wanting to make for quite awhile.  I just love all of the amazing mug rugs that I'm seeing at so many blogs!

So, once again, I have several things going on at the same time....lol  I'm not really sure if I can function with only one project going.  I need the fun and opportunity to switch from thing to thing, if I want to.  Guess that's just my side-tracked, right-brained nature. lol

I'm linking this up to Sew and Tell Friday's at Amylouwho's!  Be sure to visit her site and then go see all of the talented ladies who are sharing their amazing creations!

Take care and God Bless!

di

Simple Pleasures and a recipe share.....

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. - Hebrews 12:11

Dayle, from A Collection of This and That, has a wonderful link share every Thursday called, Simple Pleasures, and I'm so happy to be participating this week for my first time.


I chose the Bible verse above, because I have honestly been struggling with disciplining my prayer life for quite awhile now.  A lot of struggles have been hitting me one after the other and instead of sinking myself into prayer and trust in the Lord, I've been wallowing in despair and sadness.


When I started thinking about my Simple Pleasure for this week, the first thing that I thought of was pumpkins.  I've been making all sorts of yummy goodies since October using this humble squash.  And, pumpkins naturally make me think of Autumn and harvest.  So I went to my favorite online Bible resource, Bible Gateway, and searched on the word Harvest.  This verse from Hebrews really spoke to me, because discipline is exactly what I need and has been the hardest thing for me to do.  Reading this verse and it's promise of righteousness and peace for those who practice discipline is exactly what I needed to hear.  Isn't that the more important and special Simple Pleasure of all?  When the Bible speaks to you about what you really need to hear?


And, since I have been making so many pumpkin desserts lately, here is one that I made yesterday.....and has definitely been a Simple Pleasure for my whole family.....Spiced Pumpkin Fudge.  It is simply delicious and smells heavenly!

Spiced Pumpkin Fudge - 
(original recipe can be found here at All Recipes)

• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 3/4 cup butter or margarine
• 2/3 cup NESTLE® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk
• 1/2 cup LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 2 cups NESTLE® TOLL HOUSE® Premier White Morsels
• 1 (7 ounce) jar marshmallow creme
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• Line 13 x 9-inch baking pan with foil.
• 
  
• Combine sugar, brown sugar, evaporated milk, pumpkin, butter and spice in medium, heavy-duty saucepan. Bring to a full rolling boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil, stirring constantly, for 10 to 12 minutes or until candy thermometer reaches 234 degrees F to 240 F (soft-ball stage).
• 
  
• Quickly stir in morsels, marshmallow creme, nuts and vanilla extract. Stir vigorously for 1 minute or until morsels are melted. Immediately pour into prepared pan. Let stand on wire rack for 2 hours or until completely cooled. Refrigerate tightly covered. To cut, lift from pan; remove foil. Cut into 1-inch pieces. Makes about 3 pounds.

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you try the Spiced Pumpkin Fudge.  It's really yummy!  Also, be sure to visit all of the wonderful blogs who are sharing their Simple Pleasures at A Collection of This and That, you will be be happy you did!

God Bless, 

di

{Virtual} Coffee.....

{Virtual} Coffee at Lucky Number 13

I stumbled upon a really neat blog a week or so ago called Lucky Number 13 and every Tuesday Amy hosts {Virtual} Coffee.  Well, being a coffee addict, I naturally fell in love with this idea and after visiting a few of the blogs in this weeks link party (I haven't finished visiting them all yet!), I knew that this was a wonderful group of ladies who I'd like to get to know better.

I have to admit though, that I have struggled all day with trying to decide if I should sit and share coffee with you all or not.  Or  wait until next week or the week after that.  I don't want this post to turn into a pity party on my behalf and pretty much just a real downer for any one who might read it.  But, this is real life that we are talking about and it surely isn't always sunny and perfect.  So, since we are sitting down as friends and having some coffee and conversation, I guess I will slightly touch on what has really been going on in my life.

If we were sitting down for coffee......I would probably hesitate to tell you about these past few months.  More so from embarrassment and shame than anything else.  I'd tell you that I never thought it would be so hard to be a parent and that when I was holding my first child, I would have never believed that she would be putting us through the things that we've gone through the past 5 years.

I'd tell you that my embarrassment and shame doesn't come from anything that I did.....but from the effects of felling responsible for the things my oldest daughter has done and is still doing.  That we, as mothers, always feel responsible from what our children do, how they act, how they treat people, what they say, etc.....it's just part of being a mom, right?  We raised them, we taught them what was right and wrong, we nurtured them......how can it not be our fault when they decide to turn to the dark side?

I'd tell you that nothing has been harder than accepting that I am not responsible for my child's behaviors now.  She is 19.  She's an adult.  She moved out this past June.  She's making her own choices and she is the one who has to deal with them.  Not me.  Not anymore.  I have to move on.  I did my best and it's out of my hands now and only in Gods.  I have to make peace with that.

Then, I'd probably try to change the subject to something happier, like how wonderful and amazing it has been to watch my two other teenagers grow up into respectable and responsible young adults, who are caring and kind people.  See, I did okay.  I'm not a failure of a parent.  That's what I'd be telling us both.....trying to reassure myself that that's the truth.

Then I would probably start feeling a little guilty for taking over our conversion with such a deep topic.  I've been dealing with all of this hurt and pain for so long and it seems like the only thing I have to talk about.

But it's not.  So, knowing me, I'd be staring on my second cup of coffee by now.....either Pumpkin Spice Latte or an Egg Nog Latte (oh how I love the Autumn fun coffees!)  Do you need another cup?  I tend to ramble sometimes...... ;-)

So, I'd sit back and tell you of all of the blessings in my life that have been keeping me going and helping me stay strong.  My son, who is a senior in high school, who has a great job and an amazing girl friend.  My "bud man" who's grown up to towering at least a foot over me and still doesn't seem too embarrassed if I hug on him.  lol  Of my daughter, who is a freshman in high school, who is the kindest girl I know, an amazing artist and writer.  Watching her blossom into a young lady has been a joy.  I'd tell you about my little, surprise blessing GG, who's 3, and every bit a 3-year old. lol  She's my little helper and always by my side.   And then I'd tell you about Peanut.  Our little man who's kicking away happily in my belly right now.   I was so afraid we wouldn't be able to have him, because I had problems conceiving this time for some reason.....well, I have a feeling a lot of it was because of all of the stress I was going through with our oldest.  But, he's on his way, looking perfect in all of his tests and measurements, even though I'm high-risk since I'm over 40 (how I got over forty is beyond me! lol)

As we chat, I'd start feeling better......there isn't anything nicer than having a friend to talk to, especially over coffee.  And then I would be anxious to hear all about you.  Do you have older children?  Have you had any struggles?  How about a wide gap in children, like I do?  Are you thinking about Thanksgiving yet?  What are you plans?  Are you trying any new recipes?  Oh, how I love to cook and bake and try new things!  Do you have something yummy you could share with me?

Before we finish our coffee, I would thank you whole-heartedly for visiting with me.  I'd thank you for being there to listen.  Even to all of the yucky things I had to share.  I'd thank you for sharing about yourself and ask you to meet me next week for coffee.  I promise I won't always be this deep in my conversations.....it's just been one of those weeks. ;-)

Take care and God Bless,
di

Sewing for Mr. Peanut

Good morning!  We had a rough morning here with my little one, so I'm up and in a quiet house at 9 a.m. which is very rare!  She woke up at 4 a.m. with a bad dream and my husband ended staying up with her in the living room all morning.  She's asleep beside me on the couch still, so I have some time to share with you some of the projects I've finished these past few weeks for our little man who's arriving in February.  

I have been on a massive sewing book kick.....I'm pretty sure that I'm Border's favorite customer.....and this first project come from the book, "Simple Sewing for Baby" by Lotta Jansdotter.   This book has some neat projects in it and there are several more items that I am planning to sew soon.  I made the baby snuggler and the author has actually shared this pattern for free on Craftzine blog here.  This was a pretty easy to sew together and if I hadn't had my 3-year old helper with me, I could have finished it in a day.

Just some cute fabric I found at Hancock for the outside

And some snuggly flannel for the inside.  I am planning on making several more of these!  Especially since we're having a winter baby and it's frigid here in the Heartland during the winter.

The next thing that I made were these burp cloths.  I just couldn't resist.  It was the chenille that lured me into this project and just the pure snuggliness of these cloths.  The tutorial on how to make these can be found here at the Craftaholics Anonymous blog.  GG was playing well while I was making these, so I got four of them done in an evening.  My only recommendation is to use your walking foot, if you have one, to sew these together.  It's pretty much like sewing a quilt sandwich together (2 layers of fabric and one layer of batting) so my fabrics wanted to shift and move around a lot when I was using my regular presser foot.  As soon as I switched to my walking foot, the problem was pretty much solved.  Once again, saved by my walking foot!  I tell ya, it's the best sewing purchase I have ever made and worth every penny!

I used some super cute flannel that I found at our local quilt store for the front and light yellow chenille for the back.  I bought the chenille at Hancocks, because it's very pricy ($12.99 a yard!) and I'm a sewer on a strict budget.  It was kinda stiff when I bought it and not cuddly at all, but as soon as I washed it, wow, it's soft and I can't wait to make some more of these!

The last project I want to share with you is this car seat blanket/cover.  I was so excited when I found this tutorial at the Make it Do blog.  This is our 5th child and we have gone through many severely cold and blustery winter days toting around a little one in their car seat with a blanket draped over the top.   A lot of times the wind would blow it off and it was hard to hold the blanket in your hand as it was laying on top of the handle while you carried it.  Well, this great blanket attaches to the handle on your car seat with Velcro!  So, no more blanket flying off or hand full of fabric.  Plus, it's just super cute! lol

I lined mine with red fleece.  The tutorial calls for cotton fabric or flannel, but I know that two thin layers of cotton fabric is not going to keep out the horrible winter winds we get here.  So, I went with fleece.  I am planning on making another one of these in lighter weight fabrics for the spring and summer months. GG loved playing with the car seat and putting her babies in it, as you can see. lol

Besides adding the top-stitching around the outside edges, like the tutorial states, I decide to top-stitch on both side where the two different fabrics meet.  I think this makes it look a lot more finished, plus it helps keep the cotton and flannel layers from shifting.  I am just swooning over this vintage cowboy fabric, too!  It's another find at a quilt store.  The horse shoe fabric was a perfect surprise find at Hobby Lobby.

Well, that's all that I've sewn, for now. lol  I have a very long list of things that I'm hoping to complete before Mr. Peanut arrives.  I need to get busy, too!  These last three months always fly by, it seems.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope that you have been able to do something creative, too!

I'm linking up to all of these wonderful blogs link parties!  Be sure to visit them and all of of wonderful people who are sharing their projects this week!

Take care and God Bless!

di

My Plan Monday

Here we are, it's already Monday again!  I'm not sure what happened to last week, but it really flew by.  The best part of the week was making a quick trip to visit my good friend Jennifer and hand-deliver Mighty Max's quilt!  It was a short visit, but I am so grateful to have seen Jennifer and all of her beautiful children and to meet little Max.  What a miracle he is!

My plan for this week still isn't totally figured out.  ;-)  I spent all day yesterday doing laundry.  I mean ALL DAY!  I had really let things get behind and then being out of town for two days helped pile on to the mountains of clothes.  I actually did too much yesterday, because this morning I am really sore and still tired.  Sometimes I forget that I'm almost 7 months pregnant and carrying around this little guy.  The hardest thing that I did yesterday was to through all of my GG's baby clothes.  She's 3 now and we had 3 huge tubs of clothes in the basement full of her baby clothes.  I was hoping to find some neutral things in there, but EVERYTHING was PINK! lol  So, I need to start buying some clothes, bit by bit, for our little guy.  What made this hard, was that I boxed everything up to donate to charity.  Seeing all of her cute, little clothes and knowing that we weren't going to have any more children after Peanut is born was really hard. Well, unless God blesses us with another child, but in all honesty, I am just getting too old to have another one.  :-(   But, I just kept telling myself that all of these things would help someone and their little blessing and that before I knew it, I'd have drawers full of cute, blue, little boy clothes.

Our menu for this week is pretty simple, because we are recovering from our mini trip we took last week.  Plus, it's just getting to be too much for me to fix huge meals every day for dinner, so this week is an easy one.

This weeks menu:  

Monday - Cheese Ravioli with spaghetti sauce, whatever yummy veggie is on sale, French bread
Tuesday- Waffles, fruit salad
Wednesday- Taco Soup w/ sour cream and Fritos, Cornbread
Thursday- Grilled cheese, French fries, Pasta Salad
Friday- Payday- Carryout Pizza
Saturday- Still deciding on this one!  It's college football game day and our team plays at 6, so I'm trying to decide what fun snacks to make to eat while watching the game. :-)
Sunday- Three Packet Crock-pot roast, Loaded baked potatoes, Salad, Biscuit

Just for fun goodies:

Libby's Pumpkin Cranberry Bread from All Recipes
Spiced Pumpkin Fudge from All Recipes (I tried a recipe last week from my recipe file that I thought was what I had made before.  It DID NOT turn out. :-(  I had to throw it in the trash.  It turned into a grainy, pumpkin carmel.  So, I'm trying a different recipe this week and crossing my fingers!  I can't believe I didn't have the right recipe filed!)

Things to do:


There is only one thing that I'm putting on my to-do list for this week and that's because I need to get it done as quickly as I can.  I need to quilt and bind a baby quilt that I'm making for a friend who is due this month.   So, even though I have tons of things I'd like to work on at the same time, I'm not even going to write those down, because I don't want to tempt myself and get distracted from what's most important this week!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and a good week ahead!  I am hoping to share some baby things that I have made these past few weeks with you all soon.  I have the pictures taken and ready to go, it's just finding the time to write out the post! :-)

Take care and God Bless!
di

Falling for Autumn - a digital scrapbook layout

It's been ages since I have done any scrapbooking.......ages.......so much was going on and I just couldn't get myself to be creative in the scrapbooking way at all.   I think that's another reason why I turned to sewing so much.   My brain was dying to be creative and needed something to do and since scrapbooking wasn't working, sewing did.

But, I sat down the other day for some reason and actually did a page!  It felt great and I kinda had to reteach myself how to play around with Adobe Photoshop Elements a bit.

This is my little Gracie outside playing in the leaves a few weeks ago.   Everything that I used for this page is from the Autumn Flea Market Kit by Shabby Miss Jenn Designs.

I'm hoping that this will help me get back into the swing of scrapbooking again....heaven knows that I have a bazillion photos that need to be scrapbooked!  Either traditionally on paper or digitally!

Take care and God Bless!
di

My Plan Monday.....

I hope that you all had a wonderful Halloween yesterday!  I can't believe that today is November 1st!!!  Wow, what happened to this year?  I know that for me, it has been a very hard year and it seems like it was full of more downs that ups.  I'll just say that it is really hard to deal out 'tough love' to a child, but sometimes it just has to be done.  It took me quite awhile, but I finally accepted the fact that I wasn't a bad mom for having to put my foot down and be strong for myself and the rest of my family and let my 19 year old daughter move on, make her own choices and mistakes and deal with them.   Needless to say, it has been quite a year.  Add into that being pregnant and wow...... I'm surprised that I'm still sane. lol

I don't have a meal plan for this week, because we are going to be visiting a good friend of mine and deliver a very special quilt that I made, so we're pretty much going to be living out of what's in the fridge.  I probably won't be doing any baking either, but that's probably a good thing.  I've been on a huge baking kick and it will do our waistlines a favor to go a week without having tempting goodies sitting out on the counter all week.

I must tell you that I made the Toasted Pumpkin Seed recipe from Simply Recipes and it is AWESOME!   I had three, very large pumpkins worth of seeds and even though the seeds were larger, they turned out great.  This recipe boils the seeds in salted water for 10 minutes before toasting them and it made all of the difference in the world.   My seeds were perfect, crunchy and absolutely delicious!   So, be sure to give this recipe a try or save it in your files for next Halloween's pumpkin. :-)

I also made the Peter Peter Pumpkin Bars and they were delicious!   I substituted butter for the shortening and that's the only change I made.  Oh, besides putting candy corn on top instead of those candy pumpkins.  lol  It has an orange frosting on it and it was really yummy and a refreshing change from the typical cream cheese frosting.  This one will be going into my "Tried and True" recipe file as well.

My husband finished up my daughter's Kingdom Hearts coat, so I finally get my sewing machine back!  I sure have missed it.  Time to finish up a baby snuggler for Peanut and quilt a baby quilt that needs to be finished this month.  My to-sew list is getting very long and I really need to write it down here, because right now most of it is in my head and that's not good!

Wishing you all a wonderful Monday!
God Bless,
di