Thursday, April 29, 2010

Cranberry Salad

This is a staple in my life. There are weeks when I make one a day.
Lettuce
Feta Cheese (cheapest from Costco)
Crasins
Almonds (slivered or chopped)
Chicken breast (I boil mine...never dry)
Toss these 5 ingredients and top with dressing:
1/2 C Mayo
1/2 C Sugar
1/4 C Milk
2 T Poppyseeds
2 T Vinegar
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Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Project Nusery

Have you all heard of projectnursery.com?
My good friend Julie just introduced me to it - good find! Lindsay and I both have little boys turning 1 next month, and we have some party planning to do! If you need ideas, check out project nursery! Adorable ideas for sure.

Nursery Inspired Baby Shower
Ewan's 1st Birthday Party
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Thursday, April 22, 2010

Inspirational Farmhouse Bed

How cute is this farmhouse bed that Rachel MADE!! She got the plans here. Now all I need is somewhere to build it, and I would seriously attempt it. SO beautiful. Photobucket

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

fancy fancy

Lindsay and I are on the same wavelength with the ties. I promise we didn't plan these two posts together.. But here is the tie I made for my little man. Daddy's graduating from college this week and of course our boy needs to look super sharp for the festivities. So. I cut out the basic tie shape (you can make it super skinny or fat - but beware, you have to turn it right side out and that can be tricky if it's too skinny). I ironed on some thicker interfacing to the back of one of the strips for the tie, just from about where you'd tie it to give it some substance.
Sorry I didn't take more pictures, but basically, I sewed around the edges right sides together(about 1/4- 1/2 inch seam). I turned it right side out and whip-stitched the edge closed where I turned it right side out. Then I ironed it flat and we're done! Oh, except I did stitch on a little fabric behind the front to hold the end of the tail (is it called that? who knows.)
Of course I had to get Brenan to tie it on our eleven-month-old. Maybe I should learn someday.
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Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Applique {casual and sunday best}

This weekend I got a hankering to try my hand at applique similar to what Beth tried a few months back.
Since my big man is such a rock star I figured this was fitting.

{and he was really excited to take this picture, although he looks like he's in excruciating pain}
Here's how I did it:
First started off with some coordinating fabric strips sewn together with seams pressed.

Traced the image {copied from another onesie I have from the fabulous Rocker Roos} onto a sheet of white paper,

cut out and traced it onto the fabulous stitch-wichery or steam-a-seam.

Cut the shape out and followed directions on package to adhere the fabric guitar to plain Tee.
Zig-zagged around entire thing. Embellished with 2 rectangle felt pieces and 3 knit circles.

Added a little more character with these simple rectangles on the sleeves. I think it adds a lot.

Then of course, the next day I had to make one for my littler man as well. Now they can be twiners.
I struggle with dressing this same little man for church on Sunday so one scrap later, he was looking very dapper in his Sunday best. It was so easy, I'm planning on making 20 more.

Sorry for so many images. I know you can get the idea from one picture, but I couldn't decide on just one.

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Monday, April 19, 2010

more cake please...

I tried fondant last week and to cover a couple more oval cakes. I just made it out of mini marshmallows and water. You can find the recipe here. I only made half the recipe (it makes a lot - covered both little cakes and still had some left over). It is so cheap and easy to make! I first made a little graduation cake for Brenan who is graduating from BYU this week! I piped the Y with royal icing and made dots to cover the sides out of the same icing.



Next, I had seen this piping techniques used on TLC's 'Ultimate Cake Off.' They had done the piping with chocolate, but I did it with yellow royal icing right onto my blue fondant. It took forever but it was so much fun. I'm addicted and I pretty much want to bake cakes and decorate them every day.





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Friday, April 16, 2010

Paper Flowers


How cute is this little guy?? Thanks to the little birdies for posting it.
Loving all the paper flowers/scrapping with rosettes lately. SO adorable.

Have a great weekend!
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Thursday, April 15, 2010

Speaking of Burlap...

Lindsay's post the other day of the burlap wreath reminded me to post this project which now hangs in my front room:

Here's how I did it: First, I stitched a length of fabric down one side of my burlap piece.

Then, I folded my piece of burlap in half length-wise and tied a knot in one end of it. Then I made a rosette out of it by simply wrapping the fabric around the knot in circles, and twisting while I wrapped. Once I'd wrapped it, I hot glued the end to the underside of the rosette, and hot glued in a couple places inside the rosette to keep it together. Simple simple.
Next, I stitched down one side of a length of green fabric that I had ironed in half. Stitching down just one side gives it a little more dimension as it can pop off the fabric a bit.
Now for the leaves. Just free-handed them, and ironed on some interfacing between the front and back to give it substance.
Stitched around the edge of the leaves and actually hot-glued them into an accidental hole in my stitching of the stem. oops :)
I staple-gunned the red fabric backing to my wooden frame.
This is how it looked before I hot glued my burlap rosette onto it:
Hot glue to secure the rosette and a couple push pins in the wall to hold it up, and it's finished!


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Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Easy as pie...

I've never really understood that saying...but dressing up this bag is definitely easier than making a pie. The bag itself is sold at Joanns/Michaels for like $5. Then first I sewed the ruffle on the top (just black 2" grosgrain ribbon) same ruffle as shown in this post.
Next I found a bowl the same size as I wanted the completed flower to be. I traced that circle out 4 times on my fabulous damask fabric and cut them out. Next I folded each circle once in half and then in half again and glued them all down in the flower shape. Any fabric glue will work.
The finishing touch was a big black button sewn in the center.
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