Trying something new

We wanted to try something new for dinner and my kids tell us that we have a winner.

Shish-ka-bobs.  I know, my spelling is horrid.  But you know what I'm saying and my kids just loved them.  Everything but the peppers and mushrooms.  They ate the chicken.  We just threaded it all on and then basted them in Roasted Red Pepper Italian Dressing.  So yummy!  And the Au Gratin Potatoes... so good.  Thanks Amy for recipe.

My New Purse

I have to admit something.  I love purses.  I mean, I really LOVE purses.  I have a huge tote full of just purses.  I have been really good and when I bought a purse for over $150 a few years ago I promised my husband that I wouldn't need another one for a while.   A while is up.

I found this pattern when I got all the other ones for a $1!  I know, right.  I bought this fabric when I was picking up the last few things I needed for the wedding dresses I just made and my Mom was with me and looked at me and said, "You're not going to make that til you are finished with these dresses right?"  So I waited ever so patiently.  

I am so in love.  I love the fabric I got.  I did change the pattern a bit.  I like pockets.  Lots and lots of pockets.  The pattern only had one on the inside, I made two.  I wanted to put in more with some zippers but I really wanted it finished so I just put in the two.  I ended up putting some velcro on the pockets to hold them closed to keep all my junk in and make it easier to put my planner in.  I want to make another one and I will probably tweak it a bit more.  Make it bigger in the bag part so that my planner and all my junk can fit easier, put in the pockets with zippers and make the straps a bit bigger and put in some heavy interfacing instead of the lighter.  All in all...Its a winner!

Stay at Home Mom's

Stay at Home Mom's

A man came home from work and found his three children outside, still in their pajamas, playing in the mud, with empty food boxes and wrappers strewn all around the front yard. The door of his wife's car was open, as was the front door to the house and there was no sign of the dog. Proceeding into the entry, he found an even bigger mess. A lamp had been knocked over, and the throw rug was wadded against one wall. In the front room the TV was loudly blaring a Cartoon channel, and the family room was strewn with toys and various items of clothing. In the kitchen, dishes filled the sink, breakfast food was spilled on the counter, the fridge door was open wide, dog food was spilled on the floor, a broken glass lay under the table, and a small pile of sand was spread by the back door. He quickly headed up the stairs, stepping over toys and more piles of clothes, looking for his wife. He was worried she might be ill, or that something serious had happened. He was met with a small trickle of water as it made its way out the bathroom door. As he peered inside he found wet towels, scummy soap and more toys strewn over the floor. Miles of toilet paper lay in a heap and toothpaste had been smeared over the mirror and walls. As he rushed to the bedroom, he found his wife still curled up in the bed in her pajamas, reading a novel. She looked up at him, smiled, and asked how his day went. He looked at her bewildered and asked, 'What happened here today?' She again smiled and answered, 'You know every day when you come home from work and you ask me what in the world do I do all day?' 'Yes,' was his incredulous reply. She answered, 'Well, today I didn't do it.

Lisel's Carmel Popcorn

I love this stuff!  I was able to talk my friend Lisel into giving me her recipe and I wanted to share it.  I hope she doesn't mind.

Lisel's Carmel Popcorn

1 stick butter or margarine
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup Karo syrup
1 can sweetened condensed milk
5 bags popped popcorn or if you pop your own I used 4 cups of cornals

Boil all the carmel ingredients for 3 minutes.  Pour over popcorn.

So easy and so good.  It is really easy to half.  Just use 2 1/2 bags of popcorn or 2 cups of cornals and half everything else.  Store in ziplock bags.  But I promise, it won't last long. :0)

Duffel Bag

I think I really like this pattern.  This is just the outside. I still need to do the liner but I love how big it is.  I made these for my kids to go camping with to put their clothes in.  I was nervous that they wouldn't be big enough but they will be.  I will post the boys when they are done too.  I'm trying to get 3 of them done in the next 3 weeks before our first camping trip is schedule.  I'm excited.  Wish they weren't taking me 3 days to get one done though.

2 dresses and a bag

 Here are 2 of the dresses that I have been working on.  This is one of my favorite, (okay, every little girl dress seems to be my favorite) little outfits to make.  I made my other daughter a ton of these and when I looked for them for my baby, I couldn't find one.  I think I gave away all my favorite outfits thinking that I wasn't having any more babies.  I am so very sad about this.  But on the up side, I got to make all new ones. :0)

 

I love how it makes her look like a little flower.  This was made out of a ton of scraps that I had.  I didn't have anything to match for the shorts so I did have to go get something to for those but they look better than I thought they would.  My favorite part about making this one... being able to do the button hole on it myself and not having to take it to my Mom and having her do it on her machine.  :0)

Here is the backpack I made for myself for my anniversary trip coming up.  It is our 10th anniversary and we have a Amtrax train ride planned and a few days in a little town in Colorado planned.  I can't wait!  But we didn't want to be carrying a lot of luggage around because we will be walking everywhere when we get there.  I'm a big sucker for 4th of July things. (Our anniversary is the 2nd.)  I have some dresses cut out to my make my girls that are 4th of July material.
 

My flap is off center but it doesn't bother me.  Until I took a picture of it.

This next outfit for my baby is the one that made 7 dresses for my brother's wedding turn into 14.I had finished all the dresses for the wedding and there was enough material of this butterfly that I asked my new sister if I could make the baby an outfit for the open house.  She told my I could so I told my Mom.  My Mom then says, "There is enough brown left over, why don't you make your other daughter one."  I was all for that!  Then the clencher.  She thought that if I was making my girls dresses for the open house that it would only be fair to make all the nieces a dress for the open house.

Any who...  Here is this outfit.  I bought this pattern when my sister-in-law first found out that she was having a girl.  It was on of the first things that I started sewing.  And I hated it.  I swore that I would never sew it again.  I hated doing the ruffles.  I decided to make it again when I had my last baby and 5 years of sewing under my belt... I LOVE it!!!  The ruffles weren't as terrible as I remembered and they look so darn cute!

This is the pattern I made for the baby niece for the wedding too.  So very cute!  And of course my little modal is the cutest thing ever! :0)

April

Oh - My - Gosh!!! I didn't post at all in April? Believe me, I've been doing so many fun things, I just haven't had time to post or take a lot of pictures. I have just two pictures. One is our dinner when we went camping the first weekend in April.

Chicken and Rice in the dutch oven. So good!A little chicken, some milk, cream of chicken soup, carrots and instant rice. We used brown rice this time and it was amazing!

This is the Mini Wallet I made for my self. I also made a backpack to go with it. I'll get a picture of that and the one I made for my sister for her birthday which was on May 2nd.
I have been sewing for my brother's wedding which is this Thursday. I made all the dresses for the nieces and ended up making dresses for them for the open house too. That was last night. I didn't take any pictures but there were a lot taken. I'll steal some when they get posted on Facebook. :0)
I've also been cooking up a storm too. I'm making 150 cream puffs for the wedding luncheon plus a few jello's and some brownies. I'll post those pictures and recipes. You'll want them. :0)
For now know that I haven't forgotten to be doing fun things instead of chores, (I really have let my house go while working on all these dresses and it Really needs some attention this weekend) and I'll have a ton of pictures to show you in about a week or so.