Daisies, Brownies, Quilting and Easter Crafts March 27, 2009

A little smattering of what I’ve been up to lately…

I’m anxious for Spring…winter, winter go away!

Although I can’t really complain since I do have a friends in Fargo and Bismark, ND in the midst of blizzard and flood warnings at the same time.

I’ve been putting my KitchenAid mixer to good use. What a GREAT xmas/birthday present from my hubby!

I prefer to use King Arthur Flour when baking. It is consistent and unbleached, and the company is 100% employee owned. I noticed the  The Best Brownies Ever Recipe on the back of the bag tonight when I was refilling my canister and since I’ve made brownies for everyone BUT my family, I thought I would give it a try. As the baker, I feel it is my duty to test the batter. This is a GREAT brownie batter – barely sweet, very chocolatey. The brownies are currently cooling, but look at this beautiful batch.

Last Sunday, Jack and I dyed some eggs, but because we are a little ahead of the Easter schedule, we used my Great Grandma Robinson’s egg blowing technique first. I forgot about this technique completely until I saw it on Martha Stewart. We used a sewing needle to poke the ends of the eggs and used our mouth and our air to blow it out. It was a lot of fun.

We then dyed them beautiful colors. The one thing that consistently was an issue was that the eggs don’t sink when the shells are empty which means that you need to be VERY careful to drain them properly before taking them out of the dye and transferring them to the container for drying.

I’ve joined the quilt-along over at Oh Fransson. I ordered my fabric online, all from the same designer’s line since I am awful and colors. I thought I was ordering all shades of red, but most was orange hues and some were red. I was disappointed, but after some reconfiguring and a hunt through Des Moines for two more suitable fat quarters, I’m back in. These reds are my favorite combinations.

I haven’t made a true quilt before, so I’ve learned a lot. Elizabeth is doing a great job in her instructions. Among the things I have learned is that I really dislike a 16 square quilt square. Those 1/4 seams are a serious pain to iron!

I’ve got one fabric square materials that I really don’t like at all, but I am trusting the process in how it will fit within the larger quilt. I’m hoping to finish the individual squares this weekend so I can begin working on the sashing. The square in the forefront is the combination I don’t like much at all.

I’m on the soccer board now, so I’ve been spending time learning about my new role as Vice President of the U8 division…wish me luck!! Field lines, nets, teams, bent out of shape parents, oh my!

Here’s a picture of a cute little crock my sister-in-law got me when she was working for Le Creuset. It is one of a pair. I broke my coarse salt canister and this little crock seemed just perfect!

Who Rocks? February 17, 2009

Saturday was my birthday, and I get a little selfish on my birthday.

I request a homemade cake baked and decorated by loved ones. I got this. Aaron baked my favorite cake from my younger girl days. It is called crazy chocolate cake, and I requested it every year for my birthday ages 9-16 along with the super sweet canned German chocolate frosting. This year I made the frosting because at least two people who were joining us do not like coconut. Unfortunately, I went a little overboard on the powdered sugar in the frosting because it was way too sweet for me in taste.

But it was just sweet enough in looks – this is how Jack decorated it for me!

Yeah, me, I ROCK!

He made me a lovely birthday card shaped like a valentine. (His is the only card I don’t mind getting that harkens to my valentine birthday.) The inside of the card includes this:

You tuck me in at night, and make me assume (awesome) quilts.  PMS (PS) You make ricecrisby bars and chocolate chip cookie dough bars too. I love you! Yes I do.

Then, we went out to lunch with Aaron’s family and came back to the house for cake. I was treated to a special birthday dance from our neice Quinn. It was awesome and full of exciting choreography! It was the highlight of the birthday party!

Later that night we all went bowling. Troy really made some strides in his form thanks to Aaron, and it showed in an awesome score for his second game. He is thinking about joining a league which would be great for him. It is a sport that he could do his whole life and enjoy.

Speaking of bowling, a couple years ago Aaron and I watched a documentary called A League of Ordinary Gentleman about the pro-bowling circuit. It was very interesting.

Other worthwhile documentaries available on Netflix include: Word Wars about people who play Scrabble for a living, Grizzly Man is a surreal movie about a guy who moved to Alaska to live with grizzly bears and eventually gets eaten by one, Air Guitar Nation is about the world air guitar championships (yeah, who knew!), Mad Hot Ballroom is about an inner city NYC school whose students win big in the citywide ballroom dancing competition, Jesus Camp could make you furious or incredulous depending on your point of view, Spellbound is about the national spelling Bee spell-off, and Born into Brothels about kids living growing up with their parents in brothels in Calcutta, India.

Whenever I go to my camera to download pictures, I always find exciting “finds” such as these ala Jack.

I was busy last week working on a sewing project I’ve wanted to do for at least a year and a half. It is from Lotta Jansdotter’s Simple Sewing book. It is called a bed pocket and you set it between the mattress and the box spring and the pocket hangs over the edge for books and whatnot. It was my goddaughter’s birthday, so it was a good opportunity to make it. It turned out really well even if the M is a bit crooked. The bird’s wing is a funky button.

The first time I sewing the M on, it was SOOO crooked. I worked hard to remember that the seam ripper is my friend.

I couldn’t understand why the whole thing needed to be lined, so I sort of made some changes to the original pattern. It is now VERY clear to me why the lining is necessary. I won’t be making that mistake again!

Sunny Sundays and Sewing February 1, 2009

This weekend was beautiful which means everything now is wet and slushy. We still have plenty of snow left, so it isn’t as if we are in the home stretch. I did begin thinking about the garden this weekend though. We don’t have a plot of our yard set aside for this, but we do have some room in our flower bed for tomatoes. I’m thinking that maybe a couple large pots for some container gardening might be the way to go this year. I also need to put the bug in my husband’s ear about a compost pile too.

Sunday mornings I always look forward to a cup of coffee while reading the newspaper. I sit in the back living room on my rocking chair that I bought specifically to nurse my son in and drink and read. That is how I spent this morning.

I got very ansy to sew today seeing as Jack has been sewing like a madman lately. I have been wanting to sew coffee sleeves which I found in the Sew Pretty Patchwork book I got about a month ago. We finally got a printer which meant I could copy off the template and enlarge it by the required 200%! Though I spent about 45 minutes searching for the stupid cd and loading it, it worked great.

These little things went together in about 20 minutes each plus a little time to handsew the ends together which I did while watching the Super Bowl. I really love the little birdie on them. I used scrap fabric from a quilt I made for Jack. Tomorrow I will be purchasing a coffee at work so I can see if they fit the cups. I am very excited…both for the test and the coffee.

While I was sewing, Aaron took the kids sledding for the second time this weekend. Each time the kids came home soaking wet, but they were glad to have had gotten some fresh air. I also took the dog for a walk today which was nice except for having to cross the people’s sidewalks that never shoveled. I nearly slipped and fell twice. Drake nearly slipped once as well. I’m sure the people driving by had a good laugh at our expense.

We are in the Loop January 29, 2009

The modem is in the craft room, so tonight Jack saw it and noticed that it was from Qwest. The conversation that ensued follows:

J:  What is that for?

Mom: For the internet.

J: ARE WE IN THE LOOP????? WE are IN the loop!

Mom laughed and poked her finger with a stick pin because she was pinning fabric.

Seriously, how does he know all these commercials?

We were in the sewing room because Jack has taken up sewing lately. He has finished two projects, one project each night. His grandmas will be so proud! The first project he wanted to make was a bag which is good because, if there is one thing I can sew, it is bags. He picked out the fabric from the stash, and we designed as we went along.

I thought that it would be really hard for him to sew through his finger, but honestly thought it was a distinct possibility because he is as clumsy as his mother.

He is such a perfectionist which, in general, makes for a very good sewer. He selected a detail stitch for the edge and a straight stitch for the seams. The detail stitch can be seen on the picture next to the finished product.

He threaded cord through the bag and attached a cord lock with my help. It turned out GREAT!! He filled it with candy, and we’ll deliver it to his cousin Ty this weekend.

Tonight he wanted to sew again, and since his cousin Riley was in the hospital overnight to get some tests for his migraines (he is 6), we decided that making him a bed buddy was a good idea. What is a bed buddy you ask? Well, we didn’t know either until Grandma Babs came over last weekend and told us.

A bed buddy is a bag filled with rice or dried beans and sewn shut. Bed buddies can be microwaved for 30 seconds to get warm and are perfect for little boys (and girls) to fall asleep snuggled with. As it turned out, I had one made out of my dad’s sock when I was pregnant because my midwife recommended it for back pain. I think I like Jack’s version better.

Jack selected his fabric, then considered an R applique. I have always wanted to applique, but haven’t tried it yet. Given the fabric was flannel, it was a must for this project if the R was going on. I cut the R and Jack did the rest! I am very impressed at how well he did…he took his time and was very precise.

Because homemade sewing articles from our house also come with tags most of the time, we made Jack a tag too! I didn’t think of it until tonight, so we didn’t get one on the bag. Unfortunately, we don’t have a microwave, so we couldn’t test it out.

Troy got Stratego for Christmas, and we got to play last night. I remember playing my step dad all the time when I was a kid. Troy is really good at it and has some good strategies. I am always amazed at ALL the things he keeps track of in his head like complicated rules, detailed plot points, random musings, everything! He does really, really well in school as well, so I don’t know how the heck he has so much room for all that stuff in his brain!

Addictions and Procrastinations January 13, 2009

I discovered that you can play Shaun White Snowboarding on Wii without the balance board and only the remote. That makes me a LOT better at the game! Jack and I have been playing in co-op mode most the of weekend. I’m able to do loads of crazy things that my body aches just thinking about in real life.

I promised Julia I would sew her a zippered pouch in October. I made one pouch in November, then sewed on the zipper. Then, I had to rip out the zipper and start over. I made another pouch and sewed in the zipper, then had to rip out that zipper. It has been sitting on my craft table ever since. It has been staring at me and flapping its flap at me as if to say you SUCK at sewing in zippers. As a result, I have completely avoided sewing altogther because I feel guilty sewing anything else until this overdue project is in the bag.

Well, last night I finally took my own advice (suck it up, buttercup!) and re-sewed it. It worked very well, and I did a great job (in my own humble opinion anyway). I even successfully recessed the zipper! Now, I can get it to Julia!

Here is a picture of my new lampshade positioned directly over my sewing machine. I’m going to make some beautiful curtains to accompany this. Thanks, Ikea!

It is official and I can no longer act like it didn’t happen. I’m not bloated…I’ve just added 10 lbs (at least) thanks to a variety of things which I will simply call HOLIDAYS! Yesterday, Jack and I found a new sledding hill which made me feel better about the whole thing, but I came home and drank some absolutely fabulous hot chocolate given to me as a gift from a great chocolate shop in New York. I figured if I was going to waste all the exercise, I might as well go big, so I added a shot of Kahlua to it too.

I discovered two great blogs over the weekend while trying to pick out the perfect pattern for a purse to make out of this AWESOME fabric! I can’t wait to find it, but I love it so much that the thought of cutting this makes me nervous.  I found great ideas for mother’s day gifts and great ideas for neices and god-daughter gifts for this year. All these crafting ideas in my head makes me think I am craftier than I actually am.

My Spare Time is one of the blogs you should check out. Tara Whitney Just Be You is another good blog.

Speaking of crafty, Aaron spent all weekend working on Jack’s derby car. (This picture is in the middle of the painting process.) Jack designed the car, Aaron cut and shaped the car, Jack sanded, Aaron sanded, Jack painted, Aaron painted. The big race is Saturday with the weigh in on Friday night.  Thank god we’ve got Aaron because looking at my version of a derby car would not be very pretty.

Here is a picture of one of our family christmas’s. Oh what fun!

Sewing, Cupcakes, Politics…Don’t Get Me Started October 5, 2008

This weekend has been full. First off, I’ve been VERY anxious about posting about my first attempt at making a skirt since 7th grade sewing class. Thanks to my stepmom’s help making some adjustments to remove the hem and still get the right length, I think it turned out really well! I wore it for the first time last Thursday.

You can’t see the beautiful designs, so here is a closeup. (I purchased the fabric like this!!) The edge is scalloped thus the need to remove the hem, and the fabric has butterflies sewn onto it. We also used 3 pieces of fabric (two back and one front) instead of four to eliminate the seam down the middle front. Zippers are really difficult for me and I can’t make them lay right unfortunately.

I was shocked to discover that the Simplicity pattern (9825) was twice the size of my off-the-rack size. This was VERY disheartening, but something to be aware of. Normally, I wear a size 5 or 6. The size 12 fit perfectly. I only knew this because of the measurements on the back…I thought I’d better take a look and compare before I go through the hassle of sewing something that may not fit. I am now making a size 12 dress.

I took Jack to Walking With Dinosaurs Saturday night…Troy wasn’t here this weekend, so he didn’t get to come with us. I bought the cheapest seats possible (third level) and used $10 off coupons for each seat, so this was the only way that we went. It was really neat! It is based off a BBC special and is real life sized robotic dinosaurs staged in an arena. Imagine Disney on Ice without the ice and the skaters, but with dinosaurs and a paleontologist instead. It really was something to see these dinosaurs next to a man. They always show you this in books, but it is entirely different in real life, even from the cheap seats!

One weekend ago, I left for work while the boys decorating werewolf cupcakes. Here are some pictures. They did a great job.

Troy found the recipe in his National Geographic Kids magazine. I just searched the website but couldn’t find the recipe online. The only thing helpful to know would be that you use a fork to make the frosting look like hair (using a sort of touch and pull method). The boys had a lot of fun. I got a book on gingerbread houses from the library so I think we’ll try to do something with that for halloween as well this coming weekend. Jack and I also have another Cub Scout cake auction cake to design, and we may try a gingerbread log cabin in honor of camp. We’ll see. I’ve never worked with gingerbread before.

Friday was a very busy day. I had lunch with Stephanie, and thankfully, she listened to me complain most of the time. It was so nice to see her again! She used to be my assistant at work, but her internship paid her far more than I could, so when they asked her to stay on, she left me.

Friday night, Aaron’s friends from college came over to our new house. It was the first time in a VERY long time we’d had them over. It was fun to see them all again. One couple brought Guitar Hero and that was fun! Aaron got a bit carried away, so I retired earlier rather than later.

This weekend in the Des Moines Register, they had an interesting article about something I’ve been wondering about for about five weeks – WHERE the hell Sarah Palin got her Minnesota accent!! I can’t find the article online, but evidentally, many Minnesotan’s left MN during the Great Depression and went to Wasilla, Alaska for opportunity. (Wasilla is considered the “bread basket” of Alaska.) So, the Minnesota accent is still strong there even though I never heard it like she speaks it while I lived in Alaska. It feels good to have that mystery solved though.

Now that we are on Sarah Palin, I have to sort of eat my words. In a previous post, I said I thought she was smart enough to pull this off…that it appeared as if she was truly quite capable of learning what she needed to know. However, after the Katie Couric interviews, I must say that if you cannot answer simple questions like what newspapers you read and what your running mate’s record is, then you are not capable enough to be a dead heartbeat away from the Presidency. At this point, I think that she has the potential to make George Bush look not so dumb. (I can’t believe that is actually possible.) Do I think she doesn’t know what newspaper she reads in the morning? No, I don’t think she reads newspapers because she is too busy getting her kids off to school and whatnot. I don’t blame her for that because that is what most moms want to do. But, I do not want a president who doesn’t read several newspapers every day and who only depends on aids telling him/her what to read from the newspapers each day.

With that said, when she is prepped and speaks from the stump, she really speaks well, appears confident and extremely knowledgeable. However, if you are not polished enough to do the political thing of answering a question by not answering a question OR by not revealing that you have no idea, then you shouldn’t be president or vice president. You shouldn’t be Speaker of the House or Majority or Minority Leader of the Senate either.

Speaking of Speaker of the House, I am getting VERY annoyed with Nancy Pelosi’s partisan remarks when they are unwarranted and non-value added as my friend Jakki would say.

Speaking of Alaska, I just finished Arctic Village by Robert Marshall. It is a book I have wanted to read since junior year of college. It is about Robert’s time in the TINY village of Wiseman, Alaska during the early 1930’s. This village is in the middle of BFE even today, much more so when there were no roads heading that way. It is an ethnographic study of the village made up of whites who came searching for gold and the native Alaskans who live there. It is more than an ethnography and really gets at the heart of what living in this area was like. I found it incredibly interesting, but it may be mostly because I am familiar with Alaska, the area and the goldmining experience there.

Jack, Burt’s Bees and What Men Like September 17, 2008

Jack was introduced to Burt’s Bees products beyond chapstick tonight. First in the store, he asked after seeing what presumably is Burt’s face, “Does he have a bunch of bees or something?” Then later, in the car while looking over the Peppermint Foot Lotion, he asked, “Do you put this on your feet so men like to smell them or something?”

I swear, I have NO idea where he gets this stuff!

Last night was the season premiere of The Biggest Loser. The fact that I am SUCH a dork is reinforced EVERYTIME I watch this show because it always brings me to tears! It is just amazing to me that these people are willing to put themselves out there in front of the world while they work their asses off to lose weight. I am not that brave. The green team was voted off this week and it was AMAZING when they showed how awesome they looked during the reveal at the end of the show.

I have been spending too much money on a fabric addiction. At least I splurge in the clearance aisle which means $2-$4 per yard. I could spend hours in the fabric store. Seriously. I have started to walk through three craft aisles lately but only because they are on the way to the fabric at one of the stores.

Jack wants to make a quilt with me and while we were looking through the Denyse Schmidt Quilts book he had a pattern idea. He promptly drew it out and of course it is full of curves! I hope he changes his mind because I need more time to be able to do them well!

The Modern Mom Diaper Bag… September 10, 2008

finally have my camera back to show the diaper bag that I made for my friend Dini who recently gave birth to two cute baby boys! Unfortunately, I was unable to sew this prior to her baby shower, so at her shower, I folded the fabric into a little pocket which held the pattern. I wish I’d taken a picture because I rarely think of things that clever! The trick was remembering to take it back when I left.

I chose Sew Baby’s Double Duty Bag after looking over many, many diaper bag patterns. She wanted an open top, so that narrowed it down. This pattern is reversible, and I really liked this feature. I rarely use patterns, but this pattern was easy to follow.

I found the fabric at a quilting store. The fabric called for a waterproof fabric, but I could not find anything I liked that was waterproof. I absolutely LOVE this fabric – it screams modern mom! I have some scraps left and I’m going to do something fun with them!The quilting store also suggested a different kind of interfacing that I hadn’t used before and it really gave the bag a certain “thick” quality.

I added a carabiner because moms need places to attach things, particularly moms of twins. This was very easy and turned out really nice.

The changing pad is what is sticking out. I bought tablecloth material that matched the material for the wipeable side. It wasn’t great to sew with, but it will work out really well I think for ease of use. I added some interfacing on the changing pad as well so little Ryder and Dylan’s bums and backs will be comfy.

It was a lot of fun to make this bag because I was so excited to give Dini something handmade for her new undertaking!

I still am here! August 18, 2008

August has been crazy around here, and I am officially exhausted. Even Drake is tired!

Today, was Jack’s first day of second school!!! How did that happen? Here he goes with his friend up the street. I can’t wait to hear about his day!

I am very pleased to report completion off two major sewing projects of late. The first was a shopping bag for my mother-in-law. It is her very belated Mother’s Day gift. She knew it was going to be late (not this late though) because of the move. It didn’t take me long to complete, especially since I made up the pattern again. I took ideas from two of my other bags and combined them. I also made sure to enclose all seams since it isn’t lined. I can’t remember where I saw another blogger do this, but it was a great idea for a clean finish.

It did turn out taller than I wanted, but it will still work. Because it is so tall, the top folds in, so I attached two buttons and a loop to pretty it up.

The second project was my friend’s surprise birthday party this past weekend. I made table runners from a fabric that I had that I knew she would like. As is always the case, the ironing it is what is important!!! You can see the table runner underneath the cakes in this picture. I made the cakes as well with two new recipes that worked very well.

The cake was Betty Crocker’s Chocolate Fudge Cake and the mock buttercream was made with marshmallow fluff and was found in Country Living Magazine. Note that there are only two cakes in the picture. The third cake bit the dust because someone let me carry it outside without supervision. I twisted, turned and finally fell into two chairs and landed on my back. I did NOT break the cake stand, and the cake landed perfectly on the ground after first bumping my breasts. A couple of advil and a drink and I made it fine. The next morning, I could barely move though. Thankfully, today I feel good which is very surprising.

We also spent time in August with family and friends in MN, then took the kids to Wisconsin Dells. They had a good time with all the go karts, roller coasters and water slides at Mt. Olympus. I have fond memories of cheap hotels, fresh cinnamon rolls and family style restaurants from my younger days of visiting the Dells. The downtown was almost exactly as I remember it. The waterpark area had changed quite a bit. The Trojan Horse was the favorite go-kart track.

Tinkering School…Aaron heard this Monday on All Things Considered on the drive home. It is GREAT!!! This guy started this summer camp for kids to tinker. If they want to learn how a dishwasher works, they take it take apart. If they want to build a boat, they make a real, floatable boat. Parents have to sign a waiver saying that if their kids are hurt or killed, they will not hold the camp liable. This audio is hilarious…listen for the girl hitting the tree (repeatedly) at the bottom of a saggy zipline a ten year constructed. Jack and Troy would totally love this camp!

MIA July 6, 2008

I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed of late because there is ALWAYS more stuff to find a home for in the new house. Right now, it is the little things that are bothering me such as stuff that we used to put into a cabinet that stayed with the old house, pictures, files, etc. True to my nature, I usually stay exasperated with the entire situation until about 9pm when I then enter a cleaning/sorting/organizing tirade until I am ready to collapse into bed anywhere between 11pm and 1am. In the old days, I used to decide at 9pm that I could whip up some curtains in an hour. Yeah right.

Speaking of sewing, I now officially have a craft room with a sewing table and everything!

All are happy that I will no longer have to hijack the dinner table in the middle of sewing projects. J is quite happy that he has a space to do his art as well. He really is turning out to be quite the artist!

Thankfully, Jakki came down over the weekend and we got some serious organizing and painting done. First on our to do list was organizing the kitchen cabinets. Our old house had really tall cabinets which increased storage room, while this one does not have tall cabinets. It also seems that all the lower cabinets are unfairly small even by my standards. Prior to Jakki’s arrival, we had a cabinet that even made A shutter with disapproval, and now, we have a beautifully organized and appearing cabinet.

Jakki and I also spent Friday painting the entryway a beautiful cranberry color. It was a tangy orange color that made you feel as if you should be in Florida, and we are not, so it is gone. I am not allowed to paint near ceilings for reasons demonstrated in this picture, and Jakki doesn’t do ladders, thus the orange stripe along the top that A will complete. (For the record, these are the only two ceiling spots that require A’s attention.)

The painting was a bit distressing because we used Ralph Lauren paint which splatters everywhere and has very poor first coat coverage. We were both very concerned that it would require three coats after seeing the first one. We were in luck though because the second coat covered very, very well.

We were able to take in dinner at the Cheesecake Factory that night and while I stuck with the original cheesecake, Jakki had an absolutely delicious chocolate coconut cream cheesecake.

Jakki dolled out advice on counter space and picture placement; I got to play the tooth fairy via telephone for her daughter who was very concerned that she’d lost her tooth when Mom was not home. I was quite good I must say and brokered a reasonable deal with Cate whose father referred to her as “beyond reason, into tired crazy girl logic” or something to that effect when trying to talk her out of calling the tooth fairy.

Since I found my battery charger, here is the checklist that J wrote the day we moved. I love it!

J and I have devised a system of security as well. His school is 1.5 blocks up the street, and since he likes to go when I am busy, we have discovered that our walkie talkies work beautifully. He calls me when he is at the corner prior to crossing the street, when he gets to the schoolyard, then when he wants to come home (usually only 6-8 minutes after having arrived). This system has provided much needed security for us both, and I am guessing that his 6-8 minutes away will gradually become longer.

T comes this week and will see his room for the first time. I am excited because I think he is really going to like it even though it isn’t organized as he’d like it. The idea is most of the fun!