Homemade Trick or Treat Bags

OK so I made some trick or treat bags for the kids. Each child has a bag that matches his or her costume. I decided to do this a little old school because I don't have any kind of machine that cuts things out for me :( But they were really easy to make and only took about 1 hour for all three. I went online and searched images for a pumpkin (for Cinderella), scottish terrier (for Dorothy), and a can of spinach (for Popeye). I printed them out, cut them out and pinned them to my fabric. The next step was to sew and presto! Cute trick or treat bags. I'm so excited! I didn't take pictures along the way, but I found a tutorial online to share how I did them found here. I did mine differently from hers, but the concept is the same and it's still easy peasy!

I hope you make some for your little ones. They really are a quick project and your little ones will LOVE them! Mine said "Oooh Mommy, I love it!" I'm not kidding! It made my day!

 

 

Baby Dorothy Costume

So this year I decided to make my kiddos Halloween costumes. While I was going through bins of clothes from my oldest to pass down to my youngest I found a pair of red shoes that she could fit now which made me immediately think Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. Lucky for me I had some blue and white checked fabric from yet another unfinished project from this summer :) It was perfect for my little Dorothy. Also now Kohls has little Toto dogs which is PERFECT! So here's what I decided to do:

I figured the best bet for a little one is to make the costume in three pieces. I bought a long sleeved turtleneck onesie and sewed the "apron" directly to that, made the skirt seperate, and a belt to cover the elastic of the skirt to make it look more cohesive. I also wanted to do this in pieces because the skirt can be used as a regular skirt after Halloween. I didn't do any measurements for the straps or the center piece of the apron. I just cut the fabric and folded it until the proportions looked right, and I did the same thing for the center piece.

 

Again I didn't measure my belt I just figured out how wide I wanted it by placing fabric on the onesie then quadrupled that number to get my finished width. For example if the finished width is going to be 2 inches then you want to cut your fabric 8 inches wide. I made the belt the same way I made the straps for my carseat canopy HERE. As far as the length of the belt I just measured around my little one and doubled that number, but I think if I were to do it again I would go 2.5 times bigger.

 

For the skirt I used this tutorial and it was so easy, I will definately be making more of these! At the bottom of the skirt I added trim to make it a little cuter and it really did make a difference.

 

For the finishing touch I made a little bow from sparkly fabric and attached it to a headband which  really makes this outfit pop! My little one doesn't really have any hair so this bow is darling!

 

 

Here's the finished product:

 

Here's a close up:

 

 

As most babies are at this age, she was wiggly so the skirt shifted, but I do need to cut the elastic a little because it's just a little too big even for growing into.

 

This costume did not take much time at all and it is ADORABLE! I love it.

 

Next...Popeye!

 

 

Apple



 

 

Laminated Activity Pages

Once again, it has been a while since I've posted anything. I've been keeping myself busy lately. This time of year when things are starting to cool down, I get sooo excited because autumn is my favorite time of year. Since I plan on cramming my calendar full of fall activities, it's time to get my house organized so that I don't feel depressed looking around at a cluttered house when I come home from a fun day of fall stuff. Anyway, more on that later...

I have a confession, many of you may not know this about me, but I am a celebrity grandma. My grandchildren's names are Milli, Geo, and Bot...you may know them better as Team Umizoomi :)
My little one LOVES Team Umizoomi! For her birthday, she wants a Team Umizoomi party, she has the Team Umizoomi dolls (which I purchased HERE), she wants to watch the show all the time, and wherever we go, Team Umizoomi follows, whether I see them or not. The other day I told my little one that Team Umizoomi had to go help other girls and boys, when I was told that Milli, Geo, and Bot are her children and need to stay with her. I suppose they are going to be with us for a while. So I decided it would be a good idea to go back on Nick Jr.'s site and see what kind of Team Umizoomi stuff I could find. They have a lot of stuff. Here are the links to what I printed out...Bot's Belly, Hidden Picture Pack, Puzzle Pack. I have also printed out a bunch of Peppa Pig stuff too. Sometimes I'm Mummy Pig, she's Peppa and my husband is Daddy Pig, her little brother is George and her little sister is Peppa too. Anyway, I printed everything out, well not really, there is a lot more on their site, but I had to cool it because I printed out a lot of coloring pages and stuff from Disney Jr. too. After all of the printing, I decided to start laminating some of the stuff so it can be used over and over again. Here is a sampling:

 

And there is plenty more where that came from :)

 

I also found something that I thought was kind of cool. It's called "Counting the House" I found it here. So what you do is give this to your little one and have him or her go around the house and find and count all of the items on the page. I think it's a fun way to get little ones to grasp quantity and counting, so it also got laminated.

 



 

So anyway, that is a little of what I've been up to lately, but there is more to come.

 

Apple

Chicken Casserole

Sometimes I have a crazy craving for something to eat from my childhood. When I was little I remember going to a church function and my grandma brought this for the potluck. I had had it before, but for some reason it tasted especially delicious that day. From that point on I loved it when she made it. She used cream of celery soup because she didn't like cream of mushroom and canned chicken, but I am not really a fan of celery so I use cream of mushroom and I always make cook my own chicken. I'm sure everyone has a variation of this recipe, but I just thought I would share mine. Here's what I did:

1 large chicken breast, shredded or cubed
1 can of cream of mushroom
1 can of cream of chicken
1 can of milk (just regular milk poured into soup can)
1 small onion, chopped
garlic cloves, chopped (I used three because my family loves garlic)
About 1 cup of frozen sweet peas
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
About a half bag of egg noodles cooked

Open cans and put into a large bowl. Add milk and mix thoroughly. Add a little black pepper. I always use reduced sodium cream soups so I added just a little salt too.

Saute onions in a little bit of olive oil. Cook until onion starts to get a little color then add the chopped garlic. Cook for just about 30 seconds then add the shredded chicken. When the bottom of your pan starts to get a little brown because the oil has been absorbed add the peas. Stir for a few seconds as the peas start to unthaw. This will start to loosen up the brown bits a little. Then add a couple of ladles of the cream soup mixture. Scrape the bottom of the pan to get all of those yummy brown bits. Make sure you don't skip the step of really allowing browning in the pan because that adds so much flavor.  When you've gotten all of the brown bits mixed into the sauce dump the mixture into the bowl with the remaining cream soup mix, stir thoroughly, then add the cooked noodles a little at a time until you get your desired noodleness (totally made up that word, aren't I clever?).

Pour into a buttered dish and bake covered in 350 degree oven for about 30-45 minutes (until bubbly). Uncover and sprinkle on cheese then bake until cheese is melted. Remove from oven and let it sit for a few minutes.

Dish up and enjoy!

Homemade Sloppy Joes and Buns

My husband and I love sloppy joes, however, every time I made them with the canned stuff my hubby got really bad heartburn. I then made it my mission to make a homemade version. I've been making this for a while now and it's tasty! Here's what you need:

2 lbs Ground Beef
1 1/2 C Ketchup
2-3 Tbsp Brown Sugar
3 Tbsp BBQ Sauce
2 tsp mustard
1-2 C Water

I season my beef with salt, pepper, bell pepper, 3 cloves of garlic, oats, carrots, onion, and spinach. After it's cooked and drained I add the rest of the ingredients. Obviously everything can be adjusted to your taste. My amounts vary depending on how I season my meat. If I add more carrots I use less brown sugar for example and sometimes I don't need to add as much water. Cook everything for about 20-30 minutes and you're done! I freeze half of it for a quick meal some other time.

I decided to make rolls one day (I love my bread machine), but time was not on my side so my dough rose way too much. I thought for sure that it wasn't going to turn out right, but what ended up happening is really large dinner rolls that I decided to use as buns. Here's what you need:

3 1/4 C bread flour
1/4 C sugar
3 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp salt
1 C warm water
1 egg
2 Tbsp butter

I put water, egg, and butter into the machine first. Then I add my dry ingredients. I put the flour and sugar in (I combine them in a bowl first), make a well in the center and put my yeast in. Off in one corner I add the salt because you don't want your salt to touch your yeast yet. Put it on dough cycle and work it's magic. After it's done, take it out and make 12 balls. I put mine in a 13x9 glass dish and let it rise for 30 minutes. Brush with butter and bake at 350 for about 15 minutes and you have delicious soft buns!

Put your sloppy joe mix on the buns heat up some tator tots and dinner is served!

Enjoy!

Apple

Pacifier Clips

I have purchased a couple of pacifier clips recently, but I didn't really care for the way they looked. I never thought to make my own until I stumbled upon THIS. It looked easy enough so I made four. I switched it up a little. Instead of using ribbon down the center of the clips I used coordinating fabric. I didn't take pictures of how I made the strip for the middle, but this is what I did:

I took one strip of fabric that was 1.5"x10" and folded it right side together lengthwise and sewed a stitch all along the side. Then I flipped it right side out and ironed flat with the seam in the center. I didn't bother to finish the ends because I sewed it onto the main fabric before finishing the clip. Then just finish following the instructions for the remaining pieces. The only thing is I didn't have to add any ribbon at the end of the project because I added the coordinating "ribbon" in the beginning. Here's how it turned out:

Just make sure you put the suspender clip on the right way. I put it on backwards and now have to undo my stitches and re-attach it. Ugh! Luckily I only did it on one clip though.

Apple

Gumbo?

I don't know if what I made is gumbo, but it sure is good! I've never had gumbo before but I've been wanting to add more rice dishes to our menu. The only thing is I hate okra and I don't eat shrimp. For dinner tonight I made red rice and used 1/2 pound of smoked sausage. I had a grilled chicken breast leftover from the other night and decided I needed to do something with it so I thought why not gumbo?  I didn't take pictures, but here's what I did:

1/2 lb smoked sausage
1 grilled chicken breast; shredded
2 cans chicken broth
1 can diced tomatoes
1 onion; chopped
1/2 bell pepper; chopped (you can use more if you want, but I'm not a huge fan of green peppers)
3 cloves garlic; chopped
3 T oil
3 T flour
cooked rice
salt and pepper to taste

Saute your smoked sausage in a little bit of olive oil until browned. Add onions and peppers and cook until crisp tender. Add garlic and cook just enough to take out the "rawness" of the garlic, probably about a minute. Take everything out of the pot and set aside. Add 3 Tbsp of flour and 3 Tbsp of oil to the pot (I added a little more flour because I had a bit more oil in the pot from the onion mixture). Stir the flour mixture until it turns a nice reddish brown color, it took me about 5 minutes for this to happen. Start adding chicken broth and whisk to keep smooth. When it stops looking like a gravy add the rest of the broth and tomatoes. Next add the sausage/onion mixture. Then add chicken. At this point everything smelled delicious! Let it simmer (covered) for about 15 minutes. To me it smelled like Chinese food which made me think Jasmine rice would be tasty with it. I think in traditional gumbo you're supposed to put the gumbo over rice, but I just dumped in 1 cup of uncooked Jasmine rice. Let it cook for an additional 15-20 minutes and it's done.

Oh my goodness! When I tasted this it made me smile. I couldn't help it. I thought it was really good. My hubby agreed and my little one agreed also. To me it was a Chinese/Southern cooking fusion and it was yummy. Not a bad use of leftovers.

No Sew Cart Cover

I don't know why I have such a hard time going shopping by myself with a new baby or babies. With my first born I didn't feel completely comfortable with going somewhere with a little baby until the six month mark. The same thing happened this time around. But now my little ones are older and I come and go all the time with the three of them. The only place I can't go by myself is Sam's. The carts are huge and it's impossible to push a double stroller while pulling that giant cart with my oldest sitting in the front of that one. So I figured the only way I would be able to conquer Sam's by myself is with a cart cover. I'm a bit of a germophobe..some would say I am more than a bit of a germophobe :-)...so I needed something ASAP. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a cover because I just needed one for Sam's. I saw a no-sew cart cover on Pinterest and decided to make one for myself. The only problem is I didn't have the dimensions of a double cart. So what did I do? Well since I didn't have the nerve to go and actually measure, I called them. I know I probably sounded crazy asking this but here's how it went...

Sam's: Thank you for calling Sam's Club how may I help you?

Me: Hi, I have kind of a strange question, but do you know how wide your cart seats are because I want to make a cover for my kids.

Sam's: Uh...I have no idea...could you please hold while I have someone check?

Me: OK.

(Three minutes later...)

Sam's: Umm, everyone is guessing about three feet.

Me: OK. Thanks!

Sam's: You're welcome ~chuckle~

When I got off the phone I felt kind of dumb for calling them, and figured during the three minutes I was on hold they probably had a good laugh. But I have to say, this all happened AFTER I looked online to try to find the dimensions. So the next step in this process was to actually measure because three feet seemed excessive to me. We left the house (hubby was with us) and went to another store by Sam's. Since we were so close my hubby suggested we go and measure the cart. I didn't want to and here is how that conversation went:

Hubby: Why don't we just go? We're right here! You'll be happy that you have the actual measurements!

Me: No. What are we going to do? Just pull up next to a cart and try to measure? Don't you think that's gonna look kind of shady? Anyway, what do we have to measure it with?

Hubby: I don't know...look in the glove box.

Me: The only thing in here that we could maybe use is a bank deposit envelope.

Hubby: OK.

So we pull into the back of the parking lot where a stray cart is parked. I tell hubby he's gonna measure it because it was his idea to do this.

Hubby: Fine...I don't care.

Me: What if someone asks us what we're doing? They'll just see you standing there with an envelope in front of a cart and you'll say "Oh I'm measuring for a cart cover". They won't believe you...

Then I start laughing because he looked at me like I was crazy. Anyway he's measuring away and tells me to start speaking into the phone with the talk to text. So I did and it kept coming up with some really funny things that weren't even close to what I was saying. So then I call home and leave the message on my voicemail and we proceed on to Joann's.

A couple of days go by and I notice Hobby Lobby has Simplicity patterns on sale for .99 so I decide to look through my patterns before I buy more. What do you suppose I find? A PATTERN FOR A DOUBLE CART COVER!!! All I could do was laugh. So I put the pattern on my fleece and cut out the leg holes. That's the only thing I needed to know out of this whole ridiculous process! Which by the way I looked "double cart cover" up online too and the only thing I could find was patterns with two leg holes not four that was big enough to cover a double cart.

Anyway, here's what I did:

I cut my fleece 56"x56". Measure up 18" and this is where the bottom of the leg hole begins. I folded my fabric in half for the cutting of the leg holes. Go in 1" from the fold and cut a 5"x5" square. Go over 1" to the left and cut another 5"x5" square (although if I were to make another one I think I'd go over 2"). From the center of the leg hole measure up 12" and make a 3" slit. Repeat for other leg hole. This will give you a place to pull the straps through from the cart.

Now you're ready for the ties. While your fabric is still together cut a 4"x4" square out of the end corners (NOT the folded side!). This will make everything look tidier when you're finished. Then just start cutting 4" high by 1" wide strips all the way around. Then open it up and start knotting.

I know this says no sew, but I did sew...I had to do some reinforcing. All of the cut areas seemed too flimsy so I basically did a zigzag stitch around the leg holes and the slits for the buckles. Now it's all done...finally! So I had to try it out. I really had no reason to go to Sam's other than to see if everything turned out OK. So here we go again...

Me: We need to get out of here before they close!

Hubby: Do we actually need anything?

Me: No.

Hubby: ~Blank Stare~

We get to Sam's...

Me: Start getting them out of the carseat while I get a cart.

A few carts later...

Hubby: What are you doing?

Me: What is the deal with these stupid carts? The first one only had three belts, the second one had four belts but one of the buckles is broken. Oh, here's one where the buckles are fine...wait a minute! It only has one seat thing! Whatever, lets just put them in there so I can take a picture.

Hubby: OK.

Babies get put into the cart and I take a picture, then my oldest says, "Can I get in?"

Me: Yeah go ahead. We're gonna go in.

Hubby: I thought you said we didn't need anything.

Me: We don't but I don't want to be seen putting on a cart cover and taking pictures then getting in the van and leaving. I'm sure there is something we need.

Hubby: ~Silence~

A few minutes and a pack of Pepsi later...Here is the cart cover:

Wasn't it worth it? You can actually tie the little ties to the cart so it won't move. I think I'm going to sew a little loop to the top so toys can be attached, but as for now I'm done with this project!

I have the dimensions to the cart and I will post that info seperately in a post called "Double shopping cart dimensions", so that if some poor mom is looking for that information, she won't have the same crazy experiance that I had.

Although it is kind of funny!

Apple

Felt Chore Chart

Wow, it's been a long time since my last post. I've been busy with my little ones and have had no time for crafty things. It's amazing how much a house can get out of order from pregnancy through birth. Well now my two new little ones are a little older and it's getting easier to do things. I have been playing catch-up with house work and I'm slowly getting everything organized again. Now my oldest little one is at an age that chores will be introduced, it really isn't anything big but simple little things that will teach responsibility. I saw a felt chore chart on pinterest and thought it was a really cool idea. The instructions are here if you want them. I didn't follow the instructions, I just modified it to my liking.

My large felt piece is 18"x19", then folded it down about 2" to make a rod pocket. I purchased printable fabric and printed out images since my little one isn't a reader yet. After I printed the images, I cut them out with pinking shears and sewed everything together. You can see how I pieced everything here:

I decided to add a few more embellishments:

The green is for feeding the pets and the orange is for setting the table:

The yellow is for picking up toys and the blue is for putting clothes down the laundry chute at night.

This is how it looks hanging up...pay no attention to my upside down "S" for Saturday ;) 

It took me a couple of hours to pull this together because I sewed everything, but it was worth it. I think it turned out awesome!

So the concept is everyday a particular chore is done the coordinating stick gets put into that day. At the end of the week an allowance will be given. We will be giving real money and "home" money. Home money can be used for goodies that I will have like fun size candy bars or stickers. Home money can also be traded in for real money for the piggy bank. I want to teach the concept of saving, but also I want there to be a lesson in spending (hence the "home" money).

I'm looking forward to trying this. I haven't been particularly successful so far in getting my little one to pick up toys, so we'll see how this goes!

I hope you try this with your little one!

Apple



Nice Story

I just saw this video and it made me smile. I decided to share it with you. It's nice to watch something happy. I have included the link to her blog found HERE. Check out the video first, then read her post from that day.

Can you imagine that? Isn't it funny the things we take for granted? Watching this made me feel so happy for her. I hope this makes you smile too!

Apple

Resurrection Garden 2

I hope everyone had a great Easter!

Easter morning was just as exciting as I was hoping it would be for my little one. When we came downstairs we looked at the garden and the stone had rolled away. My little one looked inside and said with absolute excitement "It's just the cloth!". It was AWESOME! I'm so happy we did this.

Remember this is what it looked like originally:

When we went to bed Saturday night everything looked a little sad and this is what we saw:

This is what it looked like Easter morning: 

And here is a closeup of the stone rolled away and inside the tomb is just the cloth.

This was such a wonderful way to bring the Easter story to life. My little one had a lot of questions about what happened to Jesus and why. My husband and I were so proud because the questions were asked in such a way that we knew there was understanding. A happy day indeed!

Apple

Resurrection Garden

Quite some time ago I heard about something called a resurrection garden. Now that my little one is old enough to understand I think this is a great way to teach her about why we celebrate Easter. Since today is Good Friday, we went out as a family in search for plants for our garden. We filled a flower pot with topsoil and all of the pretty things we could find. As the rest of the day goes on and all day Saturday, I'm sure the garden is going to start to sag. On Easter Sunday, my little one will wake up to a beautiful garden and all that will be left in the tomb is a cloth. I'm so excited!

Here are some of the things we collected:

It's partially assembled here: 

I went to Hobby Lobby and bought a wooden "man" to represent Jesus. I asked for a sample of satin-like fabric also, so I could wrap Him before placing Him in the tomb. 

I also bought some clay that baked in the oven for 15 minutes after molding into the tomb and stone.

I'll update this post after Sunday to show how the plants look and then the new garden. I hope I've posted this in time just in case anyone wants to do this with their family.

Apple

Envelope Pillow

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. Going from a family of 3 to a family of 5 has kept me very busy so I haven't had much time for anything but taking care of my family. Things slowed down a little bit yesterday so I was able to actually sew something really fast. I went to Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago and was so excited to find Fancy Nancy fabric. My little one loves Fancy Nancy. I decided to buy a yard of fabric not really knowing what I was going to do with it. Well last night I decided to make a pillowcase. This project takes just a few minutes and is almost instant gratification. It probably took me about a half an hour to finish the whole thing. I even tried out a new stitch to make it "fancy", since it is a Fancy Nancy pillow. Anyway, here's what I did:

My pillow was 14x14 so my first piece of fabric was cut 15x15. For the back I cut it 15x22. The 22" is one and a half times bigger plus 1" for seam allowance.

Cut the long piece in half and fold down one end on each piece. I just ironed it to keep it down. I didn't bother with pinning. Sew this piece down.

Now just arrange everything. Lay the pieces right sides together. If you do "fancy" stitching make sure that piece is directly on the 15x15 fabric and the other piece will lay on top of that. When you flip it out, the fancy piece will show and the other piece will be hidden behind.

Then all you have to do is sew all the way around. Trim the excess paying attention to the corners. Insert your pillow and you're done!

I have some Dora fabric that I plan on making too. I need to buy another pillow though. I think I might buy a rectangular one, or I might just go ahead and make another square one and when my little one wants Dora, I'll just change the pillowcase.

I hope you make this. Enjoy!

Apple



Smothered Chicken

Last night I made something I haven't made in a long time...Smothered Chicken. It is pretty tasty. It's easy to make, but does take a little longer to make than some of the other meals I've posted. Here's what you need:

Chicken
Mushrooms
Spinach
Onions
Garlic
Bacon
Cheese

I'm not putting any sort of measurements on here because it all depends on how much you need for your family. Just use these ingredients and adjust to your taste.

1. Saute your mushrooms, onion, garlic, and spinach.

2. Cook and chop your bacon (I used turkey bacon)

3. Season and cook your chicken. Go light on the salt because when you put everything together, if you use your usual amount of salt, it will be way too salty. I only seasoned one side.

4. Cover your chicken with the mushroom mixture.

5. Cover with bacon.

6. Cover with cheese.

7. Melt cheese in oven.

8. Dish up and enjoy!

Apple