Tie Wallet Wristlets

I'm posting!! 

I saw this on Pinterest and when I went to the link, it took me to Esty and wanted $22 for one.  No, thank you.  I had just gone through my husbands ties and pulled out all the ones that he hasn't worn in years and packed them in my craft box.  Luck for me, we haven't taken that box to storage yet. :0)

I made my own pattern and I'm very happy with the result.

Here is the one for my mom.  This purple matches her phone perfectly!

This one is my sisters.  I LOVE how it turned out.  Of course, it is the third one I made and the third one is always better. :0)

I have another one all ready to put together that I'm going to put here as a tutorial. :0)  After I get my kids Halloween costumes finished. :0)

Thinking of Attempting

I have never done a quilt before but I have decided that it will be one of my New Years Resolutions.  Back to my favorite web site, they just posted this free tutorial for this quilt.  I'm going to attempt it.  I have a ton of scraps in my boxes down stairs and the only thing I would have to buy would be the backing and the batting.  I think I just might give it a try.  I'll keep you updated on my progress and how it goes.

Bring on the new year!

Holiday Craft Ideas

I love this blog!  I wanted to share.  Every day this month they are having a ton of ideas for home-made crafts for Christmas.  This is the 3rd year that I have been glued to this site every day.  I got so many good ideas from them last year and I am really excited about some of them that they have already posted!  You should check it out. :0)

Sew, Mama, Sew!

Popcorn

So last night we had a family movie night.  We had just bought popcorn holders for our kids and my husband wanted to use them.  He got in the pantry only to find I had used the last of the microwave popcorn for my caramel popcorn last week.  He was very sad.  But.. I remembered seeing this post from one of my favorite blogs I like to stalk. :0)  So cool!  We had never thought of trying to pop our own before.  I grew up with my mom using a hot air popper and I have always wanted one.  But now I don't need one.

Look what just a little bit of kernels make!  I even put cinnamon and sugar on it.  I didn't have coconut oil but I think I might have to get some.  The baby loves popcorn and loved that she had her own holder.

My other kids were not fans of the cinnamon and sugar but my husband and I were!  So yummy!  And popcorn is a healthy snack.  Depending on how much cinnamon and sugar you put on it. :0)

Zupa's Cauliflower Soup

My husband and I are in love with Zupa's.  When we had strep throat in the spring, the only thing we could eat was this Cauliflower soup.  So good!  I happen to look through a ward cook book...

I found a recipe.  Made it.  Love it!  Tastes just like Zupa's!  Thought I'd share. :0)

2 celery ribs, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 medium carrot, chopped
2 Tbsp. butter
1 large (2 lbs) head cauliflower, broken into florets
6 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup flour
2 cups milk
3/4 cup half & half
1 Tbsp. minced fresh parsley
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. dried dill weed
1/4 tsp. white pepper

In large soup pan, saute celery, onion, carrot and butter for 3-5 minutes or until crisp-tender.  Stir in cauliflower and broth; bring to boil.  Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until tender.  Cool slightly.
In a blender of food processor, process vegetable mixture in batches until smooth.  Return to pan.  Heat over medium heat.  In a small bowl, whisk flour and milk until smooth.  Stir into puree.  Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.  Reduce heat; stir in half & half, parsley, salt, dill and pepper.  Heat thoroughly.

I made it just like this up to this point.  Tasted it.  It was good but missing something.  I called a neighbor over to taste it with me and asked her what she thought it was missing.  Cheese.

I added 2 1/2 cups of cheddar cheese, let that melt in.  Perfect!

I paired it with my beautiful pink ribbon bowl and plate, and a yummy, yummy rolls.  Pure Heaven!  It was surprisingly filling.  I thought I would need to make a grilled cheese sandwich with it but between a really big bowl of soup and a few rolls, :0) I was good the the rest of the night.

I will never pay for Zupa's soup again.  Or at least not any time soon.  The only thing I had to go buy was the half & half.  I borrowed the white pepper but I think I'll just leave it out next time.  Having everything else in the house was so cool!  Bountiful baskets are amazing. :0)

Now if I can just learn how to make Zupa's pesto sauce for their sandwiches, I'll be set for life.  Now I need to go make sandwiches with pesto sauce, sprouts, tomato, cheese.....

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)

A couple projects and some bread

First thing I want to show you is a dress I finished yesterday for my oldest daughter. I found this Simplicity pattern when they were for a dollar and I just couldn't pass it up. I decided to let my daughter pick the fabric for her "butterfly" dress. When I finished the top I was very un-impressed with it. I didn't like how the materials went together or how it looked at all. I even had her put it on and still didn't like it. I would have gone with some totally different fabric but it was her birthday dress so I went with it. But when I finished the pants and she put it on... Much better. It is very much her and I can't wait to make another one. ;0)

Next on the list is this.It is a grocery bag holder that I first saw on my friend Bonnies blog. Here is her's. I really liked it and to think of getting rid of all those bags under my cabinet was amazing. I made a few for my house a few months ago but I had a neighbor having a birthday right by mine and I wanted to give her something. I didn't have a lot of money to go buy her anything and I happen to have a TON of scrap material so I made her one. I hope that she likes it.

And since I promise my husband some garlic bread to go with our dinner tonight I thought I would make french bread to make it with. It didn't turn out so hot.
Here is the recipe. It is the yummiest bread that I have ever made. We love it and I can't wait for dinner now.

French bread (This makes one but you can easily double it to make 2)

1 1/2 cups warm water
1/2 T olive oil
1/2 T yeast

Mix and set aside while you mix;

4 cups flour (I do half wheat, half white)
1/2 T salt
1/2 T sugar

Add yeast mixture. Knead for 5 min or until soft. (Love my Kitchenaid for this!) Let this raise 1 hour. Roll out onto a floured surface. Roll into a loaf and let raise another hour. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. *IT WILL NOT BE BROWN* If you want a brown loaf you can put an egg wash on it before baking which is 1 egg, a pinch of salt and a t. water mixed.

Thanks for joining me in my project over load. And this is just what I've worked on for the last 2 days. Wait til you see what else I have in the works. :0)

Large Backpack

So here is the backpack that I've been working on for a week. It was a new pattern from HomeSpunThreads and I was really excited to make it.Please don't mind my children's homework in the background. :0)

There were just two things that I would have liked to be different about the pattern. It wasn't written out well. I ended up looking at the pattern for the small backpack pattern that was there to get most of the instructions. The pocket wasn't on there either. It had it to put in but not what to cut out. I like it though so I'm glad I put it in. I just did it a tall as a pencil.
And the next major thing, don't put adjustable straps in the pattern if you can't buy them anywhere! Seriously! I looked everywhere for these things and couldn't find them. I ended up using belt buckles. No joke.
I do love how it turned out though and I am so making my self one for my second honey-moon in July. My husband and I are going away and not going to rent a car. We just plan on walking the city and we don't want to be carrying around a lot of luggage. This will be perfect for what I need to the weekend. It's much bigger than I was lead to believe and I love it. I will even use the belt buckles for the straps. :0)

Instead of Chores

So as you can tell by my titling, I hate doing chores.  I would much rather be blog stalking, or crafting, or reading a good book.  So this will be all about what I'm doing INSTEAD of doing the things around my house that need to be done.  This is so much more fun! :0)  Just to start some things off I'll post on here what I'm working on today instead of the pile of laundry on my bed preventing me from going to bed tonight or the dirty dishes that are overflowing in my sink and starting to smell, the Mini Wallet and the Ruffle Checkbook.