Wordless Wednesday

Random Tuesday.

I finally made the last of my red towel Drying Mats. This time I decided to put a red linen panel down the middle, just to change things up a bit. This one could be my favorite.



I picked up a bag of lace the other day at a Flea Market not really knowing what all was in it and was so excited when I pulled out this gorgeous piece. Though I have no clue what to do with it....any ideas? It reminds me of jelly fish for some reason, not that I want to sew up a jelly fish or anything but I do want to use it in something.

Another great find at the Flea Market. This Baker's Rack for $50!!! No kidding, $50. The only character it has is a few nicks on the 2nd shelf, but honestly, in my house with 3 kids it was going to end up with a few nicks anyway. :) Now I have a great place for my new spice rack on the top right, that I also picked up at the Flea Market, and my cross stitch basket on the bottom rack. I love this find!!!

Good Intentions.

Remember this gorgeous fabric I was so excited about getting months and months ago?

Well I never got around to starting this project but every time I went through my fabric stash this fabric seemed to cry out at me, questioning me why I hadn't taken it out and made something with it.

So I did, and I had some help from an Apple Head Chihuahua too. He was much more interested in sniffing my jeans than actually helping me sew but he's to cute for me to be upset about the lack of help.

I cut the lace pieces to fit the short sides of the long solid fabric blue piece. This material is slick so it was a little tedious pinning right sides together (even without the Chihuahua's help). Sew carefully, this fabric wanted to slip in and out of the needle even with the pinning.

Next I had some thick blue ribbon that came with the fabric, that I sewed on top of the seam where the blue lace met the blue fabric. I cut the ribbon about 1/2 inch longer on each side and folded it over on the ends to help give it a finished look.

Simply gorgeous. Now my next problem....what in the world to wear it with?

Of course I had to ask my model to help with the pictures.

From June 2010

A Simple Alteration.

Due to my recent weight loss, (Thank you for the round of applause) and it being Summer I needed a new swimsuit. Sadly though, most swimsuits are not as modest as I would prefer. But when I saw this Tank suit for cheap I not only fell in love with it, but new it was going to show off more of my...well better parts than I was comfortable with.

So I cut up my old swim suit to make a front panel for this one, pined it in place (sorry for the pink underthing, but you can see how low this suit was WITHOUT the added piece right???!!!!! yowwwwwza) and stitched it in place. It works great, was finished in less than 15 minutes and fits much more modestly.

Fishing for Strawberries?

My dad is a wonderful Fishermen. He use to fish occasionally but my mom let him buy a boat a few years back, (yes I said let..lol) and now fishing is his favorite hobby. Anytime he gets a chance to fish, he'll take it. We all went fishing a few days ago. Well, let me correct that sentence, my dad and I went fishing with Isaac and Evan Grace. Mackenzie sat on the bank and looked pretty the entire time, and my mom was the expert "take the fish off the hook and chuck it back' person and I have to give her props for being the "Jab the worm on the hook" person too, cause I'm not doing that, ever....for any reason....at all. The kids caught Pumpkin Seeds and Blue Gill.

Then Mackenzie spied some wild strawberries and all attention stolen from the fish and forced upon these tiny strawberries.

Lots of time was spent fishing for strawberries.

I'm sure we'll go fishing a lot this summer, the kids really enjoy it and Strawberries produce all summer long right? ;)

Dish Towel to Drying Mat.

I have this super absorbent thing (I'm not sure what it's called) that I use to dry my dishes on. I hate those metal or even wooden racks that you're suppose to somehow balance ALL of your dishes on at once to dry and then play a kitchen version of Pick Up Sticks with all the kitchen paraphernalia in order to put them up. I use to just throw down a dish towel. My mom, lover of Bed, Bath and Beyond, that she is, found this little ditty and I have to admit I really do like it. But....it's just so ugly.

I also have a thing for white towels. It's the only color I buy. So imagine my dismay when I was gifted three RED, of all colors RED!!!! dishtowels. (Yes I know I only pictured two of them, I didn't think this blog post out as well as I should have, just stick with me)

I also had 2 yards of this oh so pretty white fabric with red and gray flowers on it, that I was intending for some kind of shirt I never got around to make. I love the fabric and have wanted to use it somewhere, somehow. So I measured my kitchen towel and cut a piece of this flowered fabric to the same size. Then I cut the same size from a yard of medium weight interfacing.

I ironed the interfacing to the back side of the towel. I pinned the interfacing to the towel  to hold it in place before I ironed it. I think the next one of these I'll do I'll cut the thick edge of the dish towel off so that everything matches up nicer and would sew with the machine a lot easier.

Then with right sides of the towel and fabric together I sewed around all 4 edges, leaving a small opening for turning. Then stitched that up and voila, a pretty dish mat for drying my dishes on.

It's much prettier than the beige one and it works just as well.  I have two more of these to do and I'm debating on whether or not I should use the same red flower fabric or switch it up a bit with different patterns but still in the red family. Hmmmm...decisions, decisions.

Wordless Wednesday

A New Look.

I was able to get this shelf and canvas boxes for $20 at a local flea market here in town. Though I liked it and loved how it fit perfectly into my bathroom the canvas boxes were dirty and after scrubbing and scrubbing were not going to get any cleaner. So I decided to recover them. Though the walls in my bathroom are not the colors I want I've slowly started doing a black and white theme in there.

The boxes are 7'' x 7'' so I took some fabric and cut a strip 9'' high by 30'' long.

Sew with wrong sides together a seam down the two short ends. This seam will go on the back of your boxes so it wont be seen and doesn't have to be perfect, unless you're the perfectionist type. =)

Slip this cover over the box with the seam in the back. Leave enough fabric hanging over the top and bottom  of the box to fold in.  

Start with the open end of the box. Using a hot glue gun neatly glue the fabric to the inside of the box as smoothly as possible.

Once the top is finished, flip the box over and glue the bottom fabric into place, kinda like you would a present. Remember to keep it nice and neat.

You can leave your finished box like this or.......

....you can get fancy and add in some pretty lace around the top with the glue gun.

Here's the finished project. The more I look at it, the more the red one just bugs me. I'll redo it with another black and white fabric of some kind. I was hopping the red pop of color would work but I'm not pleased. (Oh and try to imagine this in front of white walls with no flower border...that might be what's throwing off the red with the black and white!!! Hmmmmmm )

Fancy Food Friday.

I've started a new adventure with the kids...Fancy Food Friday. Even though the food isn't going to be super fancy (because I still want the kids to eat the food) it is going to be new food dishes with some ingredients we don't normally eat, but or cook with.

Our first meal was Mozzarella Chicken Roll-Ups with BBQ Scalloped Potatoes and Cucumber Roulades (pictured below). The chicken was amazing, that recipe is going in my recipe book and I'll post a step by step recipe on it later. The potatoes were so so, one of the ingredients used was Miracle Whip and I've never been fond of that flavor in anything.

Take one cucumber (seedless or full of seeds) and peel completely. Then cut into 12 slices. You can ask for your dogs help or just let her watch like I did. Daisy loves cucumbers so I was very proud of her for just resting her head next to the cutting board and keeping her tongue in her mouth.

Take a spoon or melon baller and scoop out the middle of each slice.

Place 1/4 cup of Chive & Onion Cream Cheese spread in a Ziploc bag. Seal the bag and squeeze a few times to warm up the mixture. Clip one corner of the bag with a pair of scissors and squeeze the cream cheese into each cucumber.

If you can put your hands on some thinly slicked smoked salmon do so. If not, then but a fillet from your local market and pan grill it like I did. Then thinly slice a few pieces from the top of the fish. Place a small piece of salmon on each cucumber slice then sprinkle with dill weed.