A Whole Lot Of Princess Pink

We're thinking pink today. Lots and lots of pink.
Youngest is having a Princess Birthday Party today.
Wish me luck.

I made up these cute little princess crown headbands for all of her friends.

I'll be sharing a tutorial next week.

They are super easy and NO SEW if you can believe it.

After making 6 of them I decided they were too tall but Sweet Cheeks liked them this way so I left them.

However when I share the tutorial I'll share two options for crown style and size.

In the mean time bring on the Princesses!

My Universe and the Moral of the Story

In My Universe the Cadbery Mini Egg I just ate has no calories because I just exercised for 30 minutes and then ate the egg.
In my Universe I'm hilarious.
In my Universe I don't notice the pile of dirty clothes sitting in the laundry room.
And
In my Universe my favorite authors are Rock Stars! Seriously - Rock Stars!
So my S.I.L. called Saturday morning and said, "Your favorite Rock Star thinks you're awesome and  wants to hang out with you and sign your book this morning. Lets go!"
Okay Not Really, what she said was, "Shannon Hale is having a book-signing this morning do you want to go with me?"

If you're wondering who Shannon Hale is she wrote The Newbery Award Winning Book,

Princess Academy.

The Goose Girl and 

The Books of Bayern

as well as more adult themed books such as

Austenland

This past week the sequel to Austenland was released and I have to admit I've been a little excited.

So when my SIL said, "Lets Go!" I just might have giggled and done a happy dance as well as a fist pump.

Just saying maybe......

So we went, we stood in line and discussed what we should call our fan club should we choose to form one.

My SiL came up with Hale-yeahs....that made us laugh really hard...

Later MDH came up with Hale's Angels, which is awesome because then we

could do a Charlie's Angels pose when we had club meetings.

Maybe I should email Shannon and ask her what she thinks ;)......

Anyway, we had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs while we waited in line.

We didn't have to wait a long time because our group of  3 was second in line but the lady in front of us had a stack of books about 2 1/2 feet high for Shannon to sign.

We began to wonder if Shannon's hand was going to get cramped up before she got to us.

But we had faith in her book signing skills.

We decided that all authors must do hand strengthening exercises, how else could they sign so many books and not have their fingers fall off or have nerve damage?

So we laughed and joked and were, well, hilarious, in line.

Then it was our turn and I choked......I couldn't think of a thing to say.....then I blushed bright apple red.

So did my daughter.

I did tell Shannon we were going to go see the Muppet Movie that evening and I thought she'd appreciate it because she always writes on Facebook how much she likes the Muppet Movie

Pretty darn witty I know.....

She was gracious and told us how the man who had written on of the songs in the Muppet Movie was nominated for an Oscar was going to be in the Austenland movie and she adores him.

She tried to talk to my daughter about school but she was blushing and shy too.

Ahhh the family curse.

Needless to say Shannon Hale was charming and gracious.

Her book Midnight in Austenland has captured me

and

We had a great time at the book signing.

And when I say we had a great time I mean to the extent 

that

My daughter didn't complain about cleaning up the dog poop in the back yard when we got home

and that's saying something

Not that she usually complains a lot but all of the kids complain when it's their week

because, well, it's gross.

But she didn't complain and there was a lot of poop this week.

So the moral of the story is

A good book

A good time

A good book signing

A good laugh

A good & friendly author

And good friends

Can carry you through...

..even if what you need to be carried through is a lot of poop.

P.S. The Photos from the outing are thanks to my SiL's well insulated and sport sock protected camera! Thanks Tawnya for being prepared and for using a clean sock and for inviting us. You Rock!

Sewing Technique: Mitred Corner Tutorial

Like I said yesterday, I was feeling like I needed some spring in my life and what better way to feel spring-ish than a new spring-like table cloth.

After I finished I thought it might be good idea for me to share how I make mitred corners on a hem.

This technique can also be used as a binding for blankets and burp cloths.

A mitred corner gives your project a crisp, clean, professional finish. It's perfect for handkerchiefs, napkins, tablecloths and table runners.
And the bonus is they're not hard at all to do.

Let's get started.

Before you begin you need to decide what size of a hem you would like to have or at least how much of a hem you'd like to have showing.

In this demonstration and for my table cloth I decided I wanted to have a 1/2 inch hem showing on the underside and so I added 1 inch to each of my sides for the hem.

Example:  If I was making a napkin and I wanted the finished napkin to be 14 inches x 14 inches I would cut the fabric 16 inches x 16 inches.

On the wrong side of the fabric fold each side down 1 inch and press with a steam iron to create a crease.

Open the fabric back out. In the corner you should have a square creased into the fabric.
Measure 1 inch out and 1 inch down from the corner, mark with a pencil both spots.
1 inch out and 1 inch down should be right at the corners of the creased square.
Connect the dots and draw a diagonal line.
Cut along the diagonal line.

What was once a creased square is now a creased right triangle.
At the point of the triangle draw another diagonal line.
Fold the fabric down along this line and press to create another crease.

Fold the hem in again along the original fold line and press the corners.

Now fold the raw edges under to meet the original fold line.

The 1 inch hem should now measure 1/2 inch.

Press with steam iron.

Stitch close to the inside edge.

I like to increase my stitch length to 4.

At the corner leave the needle in the fabric (down position), lift pressure foot and rotate fabric.

Sew completely around the project and don't forget to back stitch at the beginning and ending.

Now, how this would work for a blanket or burp cloth is pretty simple.

I love to make blankets with minky fabric on one side and a fun cotton print on the other.

(Except I usually like to have a larger hem/binding, finished hem 1 inch showing, add 2 inches per hem or 4 inches per finished measurement.)

Prepare the hem of cotton fabric as explained above.

Before stitching...

Cut the minky or flannel the size desired for the finished product.

Open out the folded hem/binding.

Lay the minky/flannel wrong sides together with the cotton.

Match corners and fold the back over the raw edges of the minky/flannel.

(please ignore the nasty hair that made its way into the picture. I think I'm shedding. yuck!)

Pin and stitch close to the inside edge.

If I'm making a blanket I like to sew a little "x" or square in the center of the blanket to keep the front and back from separating and sliding.
For a burp cloth I usually don't.

You don't have to use a sewing machine to stitch the hem in place. You can always do it by hand with a slip stitch, which looks nice but takes time too.

Good luck. Let me know if you have questions.

Beethoven's 5 Secrets - OneRepublic (Cello/Orchestral Cover) ThePianoGuys

Inspiring.

Thinking Spring

Today I'm thinking spring as the drizzle falls outside my window.
So I made a new spring-ish table cloth.
It makes me smile.
Tomorrow I'll show you how I do mitred corners on a hem or binding.

Hair-Clips, Etsy & Creativity

The little hair clips are coming together. I can't believe how quickly they work up.
This is yet again a project 2 years in the making. Seriously!
I wanted to make them for youngest's friends when she was 3 but life....mostly sewing for my shop got in the way, but now I'm taking a break from Etsy I feel much more accomplished and satisfied in my family life. I feel like I can do the extra things for my family again.

Don't get me wrong. I loved Etsy and I loved my shop and I'm grateful for my short run of success on Etsy and it came when we needed it most. However, I discovered that success there was very demanding.

• Many days my sewing machine started running at 4 am and continued until 6:45am 
• I made breakfast and lunches, got everyone off to school and work, 
• I sewed from 9 until 11:30 
• I made lunch for little one, we played, I cleaned up, packaged and mailed & relisted etsy items
• 3pm the kids started coming home,
• 4pm I ran packages to the post office 
• came home and started dinner,
• helped with homework, 
• ate dinner with the family, 
• started sewing again, 
• 8pm put kids in bed and then 
• sewed again until 12 or 1am. 
• tried to get some sleep and start all over again the next day.

Some days I didn't get up quite so early or stay up quite so late but it was taking it's toll on me.

It's really sad when something you love becomes something you dread.

So I stopped.

I'm not sure when or if I'll re-open my Etsy shop.

For now I don't have any plans I'm just enjoying my family and enjoying creating on my schedule.

It's a very good feeling.

And I'm finally getting to these projects for my family that have been in the works for 2 years. Luckily in this case it's not too late.

Shrimp Gumbo Recipe

image from here

Yesterday I decided I wanted Shrimp Gumbo.
I'm not sure why. I've never had it before. It just sounded good and I'm always up for trying something new.
So I did some research for some recipes, found 3 I liked and combined them.
1. Alton Brown
2. Paula Deen
3. Betty Crocker
Probably Not the most authentic but I didn't have the time, want all of the ingredients, or have the dutch oven to cook in.
So I improvised.
And the results were delicious! At least it was to the those of us who've never had the real thing that live in my house.
Oh and the one of us who's had the authentic-real-deal stuff......well.....he like it too! He liked it to the tune of 3 helpings!
I call that a success.

I thought I'd write down what I did here so I can easily find it when I make it again. And I forgot to take a picture so that's why you get to look at Pepe the King Prawn.

Shrimp Gumbo
1/4 C. Butter or Margarine
1 med. onion chopped
1 red bell pepper chopped
1 banana pepper
1/4 C. chopped celery
2 cloves garlic mashed and finely chopped
2 Tbl. all purpose flour
3 C. beef broth
1 1/2 tsp. fresh thyme finely chopped
3 bay leaves
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/4-1/2 tsp. red pepper sauce
10 oz. frozen okra
1 (14.5 oz.) can whole tomatoes un-drained (I used one quart jar of my home canned tomatoes)
1 (6 oz.) can tomato paste
1 lb. cooked-frozen shrimp (thawed and rinsed)
1 lb. smoked cooked sausage sliced
3 C. hot cooked rice for serving

• In a stockpot or dutch-oven melt butter of medium heat. Add onion, pepper, celery and garlic. Cook stirring occasionally for 5 min. or until onion becomes translucent. 
• Add flour and stir well until bubbly.
• Remove from heat and add broth, thyme, bay leaf, salt, pepper, red pepper sauce, tomatoes and tomato paste, okra and sausage.
• Bring to a boil. 
• Reduce heat and simmer 10 - 15 min.
• Add Shrimp, cover and simmer an additional 5 min.
• Serve over rice.

It looks like a lot of ingredients but it came together surprisingly fast and was delicious on a cold February evening.

And just in case you are wondering....Yes it was hard to find Okra in Utah. No one had fresh (of course), No one had canned okra although I was surprised to find canned, sliced potatoes (what's up with that?) and I couldn't find any in the frozen section at a couple of supermarkets plenty for frozen peas, carrots and corn but no okra.

But the man that was ringing up my purchases at Fresh Market in Centerville asked me if I'd found everything I needed. I said "No, I couldn't find any Okra but I guess there's not much of a demand for it here in Utah."

He said, "We have okra. I buy it all the time. I used to live in Louisiana and love okra. I'll go get you some."

He came back with a bag of frozen okra....bless him because I don't think the gumbo would have been the same with-out it.

He wanted to come for dinner but lived too far away and wasn't going to be off work in time.

Maybe I should take some back to Fresh Market today for him to have on his break?

Would that be weird?

Probably.

Anyway, if you decide to try my recipe let me know!

P.S. MDH is already planning on us having it again in a couple of weeks. <3

Fluttering by a Valentine Printable

This one is going to have a butterfly hair clip attached at the center blank area.

You can download it here.

Trying my hand... (and a valentine printable)

...at making some of these today.

It probably would be easier if I had the right software but I'm making due with what I do have.

I thought this would be really cute printed up on cardstock and attached to a little cellophane bag with heart candies.

(I'm a sucker for those cinnamon hearts this time of year.)

(oh, and don't forget the Dove chocolate hearts....mmmm...good.)

Also I'm making some little crochet heart hair clips for youngest to give to her friends.

I thought they'd be cute with this too.

So, I'm making this a free printable.

You can download it here.

If you decide to use it I'd love to hear what you've done or what your plans are.

What are your crafty plans for Valentine's Day anyway?