Stash Busting: Crinkle Toy and Toaster Cozy

I've been a busy bee around here. During naptimes, I've managed to sew a few more things, using only fabric and ribbons already in the stash.

Problem: Ugly-as-sin Toaster Oven


Problem Solved: a slipcover!


I also followed Joy's tutorial to make some baby crinkle toys. My little one hasn't woken up yet so I've yet to find out if he likes them.


This red and white polka dot fabric began life as a skirt. I thrifted it awhile back for the fabric. Aren't red and white polka dots the best?


I'm such a packrat. I keep ribbons off of gifts, and even though they have text on them, I incorporated them into this project. Waste not, want not, right?!

99 Bottles of BBQ Sauce on the Wall

99 Bottles of BBQ Sauce,
Take one down,
Pass it around,

98 Bottles of BBQ Sauce on the Wall!

Hello to my friends and followers at Gap Inc Direct! Jason tells me that some of you (okay one of you) are quite enamored with my blog. I'm quite honored! I must tell you that it makes me feel like quite the celebrity. I'm practicing "the wave" .... you know the one, right? The one where the girl who won Miss Pork Festival stands on a float and waves that fake wave? Yeah, that could be me alright.

Anyway.... Jason told me I need to post about the BBQ Chicken- Asparagus Pizza in case any of you drop by looking for the recipe. Sorry I don't have any photos of it. I always mean to photograph my creations however I'm such a pig that I simply cannot take the time to take pictures of my food. Once it's out of the oven it goes promptly into my belly.

Without further ado, here's the recipe:

I used two store bought crusts like Boboli (though I used the Meijer brand). On top of that, I put a layer of shredded cheese then one chopped and sauteed onion (half an onion on each pizza). Next goes on a mixture of 2 cans of asparagus (though fresh would have been way better), about 2 lbs of cooked, cubed chicken, and a bottle of bbq sauce (about 18 oz). Finally top with parmesan cheese, and bake as directed on the pizza crust packaging.

Now breathe in the aroma of the pizza as it bakes because that's the best part! Okay, that's almost the best part, second only to the taste of it as you scarf it down!

Sewing up a Storm as it storms

Rain, rain, go away. Come back another day.

I can't stain the deck because it keeps raining. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it...

I stayed in today and sewed, sewed, sewed. T-3 came over, and we disassembled our bridesmaid dresses (T-2 got married, congrats!!) and turned them into, drumroll please....

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....

Tree skirts :)

We tried to follow this tutorial, however it just didn't turn out large enough, so we started to improvise. T-3 recommended that I use the shawl, cut it in half, and create a ruffle out of it. Superb idea, T-3 :) And then I decided to make a bias tape and use it to cover the unhemmed edge of the center circle. Here's how it turned out:


After T-3 went home, I worked on a few other things. Here's a long sleeve shirt of Joel's that I turned into a short sleeve shirt for summer:


Last but not least I started making a chef hat and apron for my little one. I realize he's not even four months old yet, but I like to plan ahead ;) One day all too soon I'll have a little tyke helping me in the kitchen as I bake homemade brownies, fish sticks, and macaroni and cheese. Yum. Except for the fish stick part.

Kathy, the author of the tutorials, did an A. W. E. S. O. M. E. job. They are so easy to follow. I actually followed a tutorial correctly for once. I shouldn't say that quite yet since I'm not finished. There's still plenty of time to do something wrong, er I mean different.

Here's the hat


And here's the first step of the apron

Notice the red fabric- it's the lining to the bridesmaid dress. I'm getting a lot of mileage out of that fifty dollar dress! I also cut out all the tulle fabric and kept it for some future project, kept the zipper, and am giving all the boning to T-3 because she wants to make a corset. The truck fabric were curtains thrifted a couple months ago. There's tons of it left.

Here's the apron almost complete. I'm on the final couple steps. I don't have any D rings, and so I had to stop for the night. All I have to do is attach the short strap to the upper left, and attach the front of the apron to the red backing.


I'd love to stay and chat but I have a breast pump that is calling my name ...

An Eco Friendly Funeral?

I’m a cemetery buff. I admit it. You may think it’s weird, but it’s true. I love cemeteries and have ever since I was little. My grandma’s farm was right next to an abandoned one-room white church and small cemetery. My mom and I used to walk up to the cemetery and wander around looking at the graves. My dad used to mow the cemetery when he was younger. (Although this is where my dad’s ties with cemeteries end. My mom and I are working on him though!) Enter husband who also loves cemeteries, and you have the perfect family. For Mother’s Day, we went to a cemetery near my parents’ house that we had never been to before and saw some beautiful architecture, flowers, shrubs and graves (see below).

I ran across this website the other day, advertising an eco-friendly burial. It’s located just miles from where I grew up. I never knew such a thing existed. “What is it?” you ask. It’s a burial that doesn’t use a vault or embalming fluid, nor a tombstone. Everything is biodegradable. Basically it sounds like they just dig you a hole in the middle of a field or a forest, lower you in, and then cover you up with dirt.

Now don’t get me wrong. I love eco-friendly things. But as a traditional cemetery person, I just can’t jump on this bandwagon. I don’t like the idea of cremation either. I want to be laid in the ground and have a nice tombstone so my descendants can find me a couple hundred years from now. The genealogist in me just can’t imagine being buried without a marker.

What do you think? Yay or nay for eco-friendly funerals?

Baby Pics

I'm in the mood to post baby pics of my little sweet pea. Please bear with me, this will only last a moment!

The cousins, born 2 1/2 months apart. Mine is the shrimpy one!

The cousins again, after Joel had gotten a little bit bigger.

Projects One, Two, Three

Here's what I was up to yesterday and the day before, in case y'all are interested!

Feed the baby. Burp the baby. Change the baby. Pump breastmilk. Repeat. Repeat.
Put baby down for a nap. Get some me time. Yay!

Work on the kid stove:


Feed the baby. Burp the baby. Change the baby. Pump breastmilk. Repeat. Go to CVS and Walgreens and get some amazing deals like free-after-catalinas Colgate toothpaste (savings of $4.50). Hit a couple thrift stores looking for Hawaiian shirts for a themed wedding this weekend. (Found one for hubby and a dress for me though I spent ten bucks... a little more than I like to spend at a thrift store)

Baby fell asleep in the car so I get some more me time. Make a kid tool belt (Why am I having such a hard time finding a toy hammer? I saw one the other day at a thrift store but it was too babyish and didn't fit in with the other tools I had already thrifted). I altered the instructions... more on that at a later date.

Not quite finished- still have to attach the strap to wrap it around the waist. Aren't all the thrifted tools cool? Each one was about 50c.

Baby wakes up hungry. Feed, burp, diaper, pump. Put dinner on. Watch Life After People with hubby. (That show is fascinating). Hubby watches the rugrat while I have some more me time.

Do a wardrobe refashion. Take a beach coverup that doesn't fit, cut out the middle, and sew the hip part back on underneath the bust to make a tank top for this still-fat-after-pregnancy belly.

I know it's hard to tell, but this is not quite knee length.

The finished product! It hides the chubby belly pretty good. Good as can be expected, anyway.

Tough Meat Tuesday

Memes are all the rage now, aren't they? I had never even heard of the word "meme" until a couple days ago! I actually had to go to Merriam-Webster to even find out what it is. (I know I'm a dictionary nerd).

What about Tough Meat Tuesday? That's one that I don't think exists yet. With the current economy being what it is, we should all be making use of cheap meat. There's lots of people who do meatless days (especially Meatless Monday) but my hubby is a carnivore. He likes his meat, and I couldn't stand to watch his sad little face if I were to sit a vege pizza or some kind of tofu burger in front of him once a week.

Today I'll be crockpotting some pork shoulder to make barbecue pork. What's going on in your kitchen today?