Happy 100th

This here is my 100th post at this blog. Woohoo!!

My list of things I have a 100 (or more) of:
Toothpicks
Q-tips
FHE Packets
Rubber bands
Thumb tacks
Pennies
Buttons
Yards of Ribbon
Yards of Thread
Sheets of Paper
Sheets of White Card stock
Sheets of Colored Card stock
Crayons
Beads
Diapers
Beans
Rice
Chocolate Chips
Dried Blueberries
Pecans
Glass window panes
Pictures of my family
Socks (not pairs, individual socks)

Things you missed, Part 3

Charlotte thinking the race car driver on the Cheerios box is you, last day of school, root beer floats, soccer practice fiascoes - thank you Lymans, more late night sewing (I have only had the TV on twice in the past four weeks), the bike in our room, more fast ones by Grahm, more pumpkin pancakes (their new favorite), noisy neighbors, bad dreams, three kids in your bed, new clothes, first day in nursery, Chicken Tikka Masala (different, but yummy), Nazi Germany stories (very cool), cool evenings, lots of love and support.

I officially decided last night that I don't mind our noisy neighbors. You might have to remind me of this as early as next Saturday night. I am sure I will be lying awake at midnight seething and wishing the entire US Army to march on them and kindly escort them away.
When it is late at night and the nerves are starting to react to every creak and bump in the night. Suddenly I am not alone, there are noisy people right outside. It is nice to not be alone. I do believe in the good of humanity and that they would respond should I have to scream out in the night because some crazy person has somehow made it up my creaky stairs unnoticed and is at my door. Or maybe my mind is simply diverted from imagining bumps in the night to being angry at the thoughtlessness and total disregard for other people. Either way, they have been a wonderful blessing while you have been away. I am glad they were there to keep me company when I needed it.

Houdini

In early May Charlotte started standing up in her highchair. This was starting to worry me, but not enough to reattach the seat belts. Until...

One day after dinner everyone was done except Charlotte and Jason was upstairs. I needed to ask him something, so I ran upstairs. I ended up distracted (no surprise there), mid-sentence I remembered she was down there alone and not buckled. So I ran off leaving my sentence in the air behind me. I arrived breathless at the kitchen door and this is what I found...

She climbed on to her tray and then on to the counter top.

She is a stinker and she knows it. She wanted the cereal in the baggie.

We got Lucky!! The seat belt is back in!

Little Girl Ruffles!!

Here is a darling picture of my Mom playing as a little girl. Isn't she so cute! They had the cutest baby girl clothes back then, didn't they? Look at those ruffles!!!

Okay, they did have the cutes baby girl clothes, but this is Charlotte!!

Here is my latest completed sewing project for Charlotte. I need to find something to sew for the boys, it is just hard to find good boy patterns and things they want.

This one was really fun to make. It took me awhile to finish, but I was experience a severe case of sewing ADD. I started the play suit, switched to the dress, made 2 pajamas and a tutorial, started a tutu, made two pairs of shorts and then came back and finished the dress and play suit. I still need to finish three more pajamas, the tutu and make a skirt and a couple of play dresses.

Since I have been asked and probably others will want to know. The fabric is a set of Urban Chicks for Moda. The pattern is circa 1940's (by the way my Mom was not alive in the 40's).

What is so nice about this outfit is she can stay cool in the backyard and then when it is time to go to town (ha, sound like I am living in rural Idaho - go to town, we live in town) just add the dress and she is ready to go.

PJ's Tutorial

I am sure there are lots of tutorials out there on how to make a pillowcase dress. But, I thought - hey why not try something different. This is my tweaked version.

What inspired this post is the fact that I hate....HATE... spending $10 or more on pajamas. I remember having really cute pajamas growing up (made by my mom) and I also remember sleeping in my Dad's T-shirts.

The problem... I don't want to spend a ton of time on pajamas right now (Charlotte has no summer clothes) and she is way too little for Dad's T-shirts.

Solution...Take Dad's T-shirt and with a little tweaking make it work for her little body, and it doesn't hurt that it is cute!!

I didn't take enough pictures the first time, so fabric changes during this explanation. If you make one I would love to see pictures, also leave comments about how confusing this is or ask questions (you can be anonymous). I will clarify in the comments.

Step 1: Measure how long you want the dress to be on the child. I like Charlotte's pjs to hit around the knee. I want it be about 15" long.

Step 2: Measure the length on the t-shirt. The existing hem will be the hem on the finished dress. Mark the line with pencil, disappearing ink pen, tailor chalk, etc..

Step3: Cut along the line.

(OPTIONAL) Step4: This old T-shirt has some labeling near the hem that I don't want, so I cut it off. Trim off the entire length. Now it will need a seam.

(OPTIONAL) Step 5: Pin the cut edges right sides together and sew. Make sure you use a stitch that has some stretch (check your machine manual for what it recommends) since you are sewing on knit.


(OPTIONAL) Step 6: Iron the seam open.

Step 7: Grab a piece of paper or card stock (use junk mail - it doesn't matter). Grab a sleeveless item or jumper and trace the armhole (you can use a shirt with a sleeve, just a little harder to trace). You can also just freehand the shape, it is a J shape.

******The armhole opening on the dress does not go all the way to the top of the shoulder, it has ties. So the top is really the height of the neck line - make sense?***************

For an 18 month old over 2.75" and down 2.5". Cut out the armhole from the paper (see orange card stock below - label the top and side - because it does matter).

Step 8: Lay armhole shape on t-shirt dress, lining the neckline with the top and the side with...well the side. Trace. Step 9: Cut out armholes.

Step 10: Cut out your bias binding: You will need:

2 pieces for across the chest (measure on the child or an item of clothing). For double fold bias, cut the bias strip 3 inches wide by the length you measured. Mine was 3X6.

2 pieces for the arms (I usually have to seam two together, so this really might be 4 pieces)

Mix and match prints, you don't have match - use your scraps. Since these are the ties, I made single fold bias, cut 1.5 inches wide and about 36 inches long (longer is better than ending up too short to tie a bow).

There is a great video tutorial for cutting bias at http://rangercookies.blogspot.com/. Click Binding Help to watch the tutorial.

Step 11: Prepare binding for the chest. Fold in half and iron, now it is 1.5 inches wide.

Step 12: Gather the neckline of the dress or pleat it or whatever you choose to get it down to the desired chest measurement. On this one I pleated it with several small pleats, the look is not that different from gathering. It was a waste of time, bigger pleats would be better.

To gather, run a gathering stitch (I just use the longest straight stitch on my machine) along the neckline. 1/2 inch from raw edge.
Step 13: Pin raw edges of bias binding to raw edge of dress neckline. If you pleated then the neckline should be the same length as your binding. If you are gathering the neckline then you will need to pull one of the thread tails in your gathering stitch to gather the material. Continue to pull and make gathers until the binding and the neckline are the same length.

This is before there are enough gathers for it to fit the binding.

Now the neckline fits the binding.

Sew with 5/8 inch inseam.

Press binding up.

Fold over to unfinished side, pin. Make sure the folded edge just covers your stitching.

Top stitch down.

Step 14: Press 1.5 inch bias binding in half.

Step 15: Pin one raw edge of 1.5 inch bias binding to raw edge of armhole, right sides together. Sew 1/2 inch inseam.

Step 16: Press binding up, press raw edge of binding toward center (the center fold you pressed in step 14).

Step 17: Fold binding over the armhole edge, sandwiching the knit fabric in the bias binding. Pin to hold in place. (Same as neck edge).

Step 18. Starting at one end of bias binding (which is not attached to the dress). Make sure raw edges are folded to center and top stitch close to the edge, continue the entire length of bias binding (you will be top stitching the loose edge to the dress when you pass along the armhole).

Step 19: Put dress on child and tie shoulders. Trim excess off and knot the ends.

Step 20: Add an applique if desired.

Visiting a Farm!!

Grahm and Charlotte just love animals. They can make you feel like a bad parent for not letting them have some animals at the house. Grahm wants a cat, a dog, and a hamster (for in the house). Charlotte would take a dog, a cat, a lamb, a horse, or anything that moves.

Last week a sister in the area invited us to her farm for the morning. We enjoyed the animals and friends. Then sat in the warm sun and had a picnic. Grahm would have stayed all day. I am surprised he didn't ask to move in - I am sure he will next week when we visit another farm.

Taking a picture of two wiggly creatures was tough. I did not get a single one. Maybe I should switch cameras?
Grahm had time to get some "practice" in so he will be ready this summer.

Things You Missed, Part 2

Not having to mow the lawn or weed eat, free babysitting, Grahm hoping that just because you are coming home the "new food" wont stop, Jayce learning to roller skate and even though he didn't want to - ended up loving it, Charlotte and Lucas kissing, Charlotte making fast friends with Greg because she misses you, homemade chocolate chip cookies, Grahm trying to pull a fast one, millions of hugs and kisses, the boys doing dishes so they could make you cards (unloading and loading and cleaning up the BBQ pork they dumped on the floor - I was letting them do it their way - they did a great job), throwing up in the middle of the night, Falafel, Charlotte starting to let me know when she pees, more pudding pops, the usual - dirty diapers, Lego messes, Charlotte's signature Ya, peanut M&Ms, late night sewing, Saturday morning snuggles,

I promise....
That the second we see you we will slather you with hugs and kisses, (especially really long hugs - that say - don't you ever leave me for that long again).
The kids will be super noisy and crazy just for you.
Charlotte will run back and forth in the house, giggling and smiling to get your approval.
The boys will talk over each other at a 100 miles an hour recounting each adventure you missed and asking you to do a million things.
To have a babysitter for the next night, so we can escape and talk to each other (see above).
To cook you anything you want, so no chicken.
That the first time I do your laundry I will appreciate your clothes being in there (the next time, not so much).
To snuggle you until you reach an internal temperature of 104 (I still think that is brain safe) and then I will retreat to my side of the bed.
Not to grab my keys and run out the door yelling - "your turn" or "see you in a few hours".
Not to overwhelm you with 5 weeks of honey do's (I will wait until the next day!!!).

Falafel - It is so Easy!!

After eating at Juniper 61 and Cafe Lulu I have fallen in love with Falafel (along with many other good friends). Since we will not always be able to run down the street and grab some when I get a hankerin' (just wanted to use that word) I decided to learn how.

I started of course with a google search. This gave me thousands of recipes and some background.

Falafel - is a Middle Eastern dish (from Israel, Egypt, etc...) and it is "fast food". The next time you are in the Middle East and run into a McDonald's - order a McFalafel - sounds yummy.

I decided to give it a try the other night. We got home from soccer practice at about 5:30 pm and we were done eating by 6:30 pm. I had done one step the night before, but this is fast and easy!!!

This is essentially the recipe I used (I compared 3 recipes and whittled it down to the common ingredients among them).
1 cup dry Chickpeas, soaked overnight (don't use canned - can be too mushy)
1 onion
2 Tbsp Cilantro
2 Tbsp Parsley
1 tsp Salt
2 cloves Garlic
1 tsp Cumin
Salt and Pepper
~4Tbsp Flour
1tsp Baking Powder

Place drained chickpeas in food processor and onion, parsley, cilantro, salt, garlic, and cumin, Process until blended - not pureed. Sprinkle in baking powder and flour - pulse to combine, You want to be able to form balls without it sticking to your hands. Refrigerate (I only put it in for a few minutes - we were in a hurry).
Form small balls or patties and fry (375 degrees).
[options: coriander (some recipes referred to it fresh = cilantro others the seeds), hot peppers, options are endless.

I did not have time to make pitas and I can't find any worth buying. So we ate it on the side of a salad drizzled with Tahini. I love Tahini - but Juniper 61 does not use it - a recipe from Jess King does -but I could only find it in a large bottle. So skip the Tahini unless you are going to start making lots. You need a feta yogurt sauce - any ideas?

Jayce liked them and Grahn said he would try it again as a sandwich.

Pic to come when I make it again!!

Blessings!

Over the past couple of weeks I have had so many friends offer to help in so many ways and it has been so comforting to know that if I needed help, it was only a phone call away. I have received e-mails, phone calls, friends who have fed my children while I ran an errand and so many other ways. Thank you everyone.

Today I was royally spoiled rotten.

It started this morning when a dear friend came over with her three little ones. I was able to talk to an adult face to face, wahoo!! The kids played so well and did their best to ignore us. It was a nice relaxing morning - I didn't have a thing to worry about.

Then this afternoon I was ordered out of the house by the another wonderful friend- it was to get my grocery shopping done with out children. I was done in about 40 minutes (and this was with an extra trip back in) instead of the usual 1hour to 1.5 hours it usually takes. I had a few minutes to kill before Jayce would be let out of school so I read a book - no interruptions. Then her husband showed up and mowed the lawn and did the weed eating (I hate trying to start those contraptions). Again, my children were completely entertained by friends and I was able to visit. They also brought us dinner - which was so yummy. Charlotte has not been eating much of anything lately and she ate almost all of it. Jayce at 3 of them.

Then this evening we were visited by members of the Elders Quorum. They made sure the boys were minding and helping out. They shared some scriptures with us and prayed.

My heart is so full! Thank you to everyone who has remembered us in your prayers! They are being answered. We are truly being aided by angels; those seen and unseen. I suddenly thought of that poem footsteps in the sand, the part where the person asks why at times there was only one set. I find it interesting that they didn't even know there were being helped. I don't think I realized I needed until the service had been given.

Like I said my hear is full and I don't want to forget the sweet expression of my Father in Heavens love that I have received today. The Lord is very aware of each of us and lifts us even when we don't know we need it.

Ladies - kiss the man in your life and offer a prayer of thanks for the blessing that he is.

17 more days!!!!

Dress up!

I remember playing dress-up in my Mom and Dad's clothes with my sister Erica. It was fun to pretend to be them and make up other fun games. I am sure I spent most of the time bossing Erica around, notice who is dressed up in Mom's clothes and who is in Dad's! (Pics to come soon - I hope)

The other day while folding laundry Grahm and Charlotte decided to put on some "dress-up" clothes. They did not really get to playing -but mostly marching about and making cheesy faces. These are some of the moments to cherish.