While at JoAnn's Fabric & Craft Store, I was looking at some quilting quarter bundles when I saw this really cute and simple "ABC Quilt Panel Kit." As soon as I felt the flannel, I knew I had to make this for my cute little nephew, Cruz. I've never been much of a seamstress. My sewing machines have been somewhat neglected, so this simple project seemed like a great way to get reacquainted with them. Since spring/summer is approaching I thought the bright cheery colors were great and that I would skip the batting. I picked up a few extra pieces of coordinating material. Perhaps, I'll try to make a bib next. For dinner, I made a quick & easy beef stir-fry with broccoli and carrots with a little peanut, sesame, and fire oil. Plus, you can't forget the sauce! My favorite sauce is House of Tsang's classic stir-fry sauce. While the stir-fry was on the stove, my rice cooker was doing the rest. We enjoyed the stir-fry over the rice.
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My kids have called these "salad boats" for years, but the real recipe I use is entitled, Asian Lettuce Rolls from my copy of The Pampered Chef's Cookbook, All the Best (2003, p. 52). It's a simple recipe that can be tweaked easily enough. I can't always find Boston (or bib lettuce), so I use Romaine just as often as not. When I don't have fresh garlic or ginger, I have substituted ground seasonings, which have worked well enough for our palettes. My family also enjoys having additional soy sauce for dipping & using less of the sweet & sour sauce. As you can see from my picture, sometimes I leave the veggies out of the chicken-noodle mixture...unfortunately not all my kids love peppers & green onions as much as I do. My family loves dessert! So, I had thought since my daughter had just gotten back from camp we could enjoy a meal and then some dessert together (a bit later). I decided not to make the same glaze that the recipe called for, but made up my own - a thicker cream cheese glaze to top the cake. This is another microwave recipe, Quick Pumpkin Spice Cake from The Pampered Chef cookbook, All the Best (2003, p. 123). My stoneware bundt pan is getting some use lately...it's been far too long. Plus, nothing like a happy family feels quite so good. Seeing their faces excited for some home-made meals and desserts makes it all worth it. Not to mention, the things I have been making aren't difficult and don't really take that much time, either. Hmmm...guess I'd better start thinking about tonight's dinner. I hope you enjoy your day! I never thought that my front living room should be anything other than what it was meant to be. However, my creative self needs a place to make stuff. Thanks to my husband's suggestion, I know have a new home for my craft things. My new craft area is still a work-in-progress, but now I have a place all set-up so I can put my things to some use. The space before - from empty until recently:The space now with all my craft stuff in residency:I seriously should've taken a picture of the awesome sandwiches and home-made fries my husband made us yesterday. He made the best Reuben sandwiches...or in this case, they might actually be called "Rachel sandwiches" since he substituted the corned beef with pastrami. Mmm...good stuff. Rye bread piled with pastrami, swiss cheese, Thousand Island dressing, and sauerkraut. We had originally made other plans for our St. Patrick's Day dinner, but this worked out just great instead. I did take pics of some other things I have made recently, though.
Now, I really need to finish organizing my new craft area so I can post a few new pics. It's probably time to get going on that now. Wish me luck, please. Hopefully, everyone has a wonderful day!
Using felt, I made some flowers. I'm not even sure what I will end up using them all for, but just "felt" like doing something. I think they turned out pretty cute. First, trace out some circles using a bowl and a large plastic cup (or whatever you have around for different sized flowers). Second, cut a spiral starting from an outside edge towards the center use scissors or pinking shears. (I used pinking shears on the pink ones, but opted for a smoother cut with the white ones. I even made the edges on the white ones a little wavier after I finished them.) Third, stitch the inside edge of the spiral from the center outwards. Fourth, pull the stitches tight and work the material into a spiral flower as you tighten. Do not cut the thread yet. Knot it tight if you would like, though. Lastly, hand-stitch the bottom of the flower together to hold its shape. The white circles above are cut for the same size as the smaller sized pink rosettes in the photo. I even left the pink outline on the white rosettes...I thought it added to them. Overall, I think they all turned out great. No-sew felted glove-ettes! All three of my kids wanted fingerless gloves which they have always called them glove-ettes. So, I made a trip to a couple local thrift stores and found some wonderful wool sweaters to use for this (and other future projects). I ran the sweaters through the hottest wash & dry cycles a couple times to be sure they were shrunk as much as possible. Afterwards, I cut the sleeves off a couple sweaters, made sure the seams and stitches were still intact, and measured to cut thumb-holes in each. One of my daughters wanted pink rosettes on hers, so I obliged. The other opted for solid color & no decor what-so-ever. Food for thought.What else have I been doing instead of posting? Hmmm...for one, probably indulging in some yummy food. I've been trying to cook and bake more lately. Although I don't eat these foods every day, I sure do like them. Home-cooked breakfast of eggs, turkey sausage, and French toast, a banana-chocolate, chocolate-chip pancake breakfast topped with whip cream for dinner, and my sweet husband made me my favorite chicken scallopini dinner the weekend after Valentine's Day. I am going to try to start posting more often, though.
This little Valentine project probably took me longer than necessary, but I was having fun hand-making the envelopes out of brown paper lunch sacks. First, I cut the sacks open & traced an old template/stencil onto them. After cutting out the envelopes, I cut & glued in liners that would coordinate with the note cards I planned to make. They looked adorable after they were folded and adhered together. I used my Cricut (personal cutter) & Design Studio for the letters, numbers, larger hearts, and cards. For the smaller hearts (I layered), I used an old Creative Memories punch. The hearts with the dates are just attached to the lower portion of the mini-envelopes to hold the flaps shut. Plus, I wanted to use some Valentine-themed stamps. So, I hand-stamped the poster-board with some of Close To My Heart's acrylic stamps. Using the little note-cards, I hand-wrote little quotes or caring messages to my family. Now it's hung up and looks super cute! However, I can't take the credit...I got the basic idea from a tutorial on Smashed Peas & Carrots.
So, I finished my two laundry room plaques and got them hung up this weekend. When I made them, I tried choose colors that would compliment the paint in that part of my home. What could be better than thinking they turned out pretty cute?To know that they have both already been put to use. They work great. I have a couple loose socks that are looking for their mates hung there now, and it helped to match up a pair of gloves and several sets of socks already. A few miscellaneous items ended up in the pocket board's jar until they were claimed by their owners. Today, was my scheduled art docent day for my daughter's class. I'm given about an hour for a quick lesson with an art project or craft activity. Usually, I like doing something themed around a holiday, event, or season of year that is coming up. So, today I talked about "still life" art and titled my lesson "Still Love" since it was all Valentine-type stuff that I put on display. I enjoyed spending a few minutes "drawing along" with the students today as you can see from my pic. Try not to laugh at my sketch...ok, you can laugh, but please don't do it to my face. The kids told me it looked good. It feels great to see the students excited each time I come to their classroom. So, I'm definitely not the best seamstress. It would probably have helped if I had taken a sewing class. Maybe someday I will. I've bought a few patterns over the years, but they usually don't even get opened. LOL. However, every so often I decide to pull out my machine and play with it. Plus, every time I try to sew, I feel like I learn something new. I'm not quite done, but I have been working on a few other little projects, too. There were a couple signs that I thought would be (cute & handy) for my laundry room. The ideas came from a missing sock board and a check your pockets board that I had seen on Pinterest. No, they are not exact copies...I had to make them my own. The clear-coat is probably still drying right now. Plus, they aren't hung up yet. I still need to attach the saw-tooth hangers on the back of both, and to attach a jar to the "pocket" board. Looking forward to getting them on the wall this weekend. Of course, I hope they look as cute on the wall as they do laying on the counter. ;)
Either way, these little projects gave me a reason to get messy with modge-podge, play with my cricut, and even make a few extra cute clothes-pins. “A simple life is not seeing how little we can get by with—that’s poverty—but how efficiently we can put first things first. . . . When you’re clear about your purpose and your priorities, you can painlessly discard whatever does not support these, whether it’s clutter in your cabinets or commitments on your calendar. (148)” I've been working on simplifying my life...it's a perpetual work in progress. In my opinion, life should be fun and filled with people and things you love. Getting rid of the clutter (physical and emotional) can be hard to do. It takes work and making changes. Sometimes, it's just a little change that can simplify things. It's amazing how fast people can get burnt out...grow tired of doing things they once loved. Changes, even little ones, can help.
One of the ways I have simplified my life, is by volunteering for things that I can do from home. So today, was spent doing work for my PTO...while at home. "We" recently made changes to our organization. So, I figured it was time to create a new email account, make changes and updates to our website and other social media accounts. This was my main priority for today and I thought it was most efficient to sit down and get it done all at once. Seriously, it feels good to have accomplished my "first thing, first" for today. |
About me...My name is Candie. Many labels describe me including wife, mom, friend, and independent consultant. However, alone, none of them capture all that I am or love and there are too many to list. Some of my likes include cooking, crafting, and creating. Reading, camping, and spending time with my family also bring me joy. I love my life... My LinksArchives
January 2017
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