Holding over.

I'm working on a long blog for tomorrow (I hope I can get it all together by then). It's a quick and easy dress I sewed for Evan Grace the other night when I couldn't sleep.

But until then how about Pumpkin French Toast? It's amazing and a perfect breakfast for the holidays. I usedsome of the pumpkin puree I had set aside a few months back when I was making Pumpkin Butter.

Here's what you're going to need:
2 eggs

1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp cloves
1/8 tsp nutmeg
2 tbls brown sugar
8slices of bread

Mix everything (except for the bread slices) in a large but flat bowl to make dipping easy.

Then dip each side of the bread in the mixture and pan fry for a 2-3 minutes on each side.

You can smooth on some butter and ooze on some syrup if that suits you. I'm not a fan of syrup so a little bit of butter and this was one tasty breakfast.

Keep your fingers crossed that I'll get everything together for tomorrow's post. 

Chicken Broccoli Casserole

Main Ingredients:
1-10 oz can of cream of chicken soup
1/4 cup onion, diced
1/4 cup mayo
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp curry
2 cups chicken, cooked & diced
1 cup cooked broccoli, drained & chopped
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
8 ounces refrigerated biscuits


Biscuit Topping:
1/4 cup sour cream
1 egg
1 tsp celery salt
1/2 tsp salt


Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a deep dish 8×8 pan combine chicken, broccoli, soup, onion, mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce and curry. Mix well.
Sprinkle cheddar cheese on top.
Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Meanwhile:
Separate biscuits and slice each in half.
Arrange biscuit halves around edge of hot casserole, cut/flat side down.
Spoon or pour topping over biscuits evenly.

Bake at 375 degrees for an additional 20-30 minutes or until golden brown.

One of the great things about this recipe is you can make another batch at the same time and freeze it for later. If you want to freeze it follow the directions below, it's just a little different.

In a deep dish 8×8 pan combine chicken, broccoli, soup, onion, salad dressing, Worcestershire sauce and curry. Mix well.
Sprinkle cheddar cheese on top. (DO NOT BAKE as you would above.)
Separate biscuits and cut each in half. Arrange biscuit halves around edge of casserole, cut/flat side down.
Place topping over biscuits.
Cover and freeze.

When you're ready to cook it up and serve, DO NOT thaw. Bake covered with foil at 375 degrees for 45 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking for another 20 minutes or until biscuits are cooked and golden brown.

Make your own Vinegar.

Remember all the canning of apples I did a month or so back? There were so many apple peels and cores I wasn't sure what to do. I set some aside and decided to make homemade apple cider vinegar.

My main use for vinegar is in place of shampoo.

Anyway, save a good amount of apple peels and cores and place them in a medium size bowl.

Use distilled water and cover the peels and cores until things start to float or you can clearly see everything is covered by water.

Place a lid or cheesecloth over your bowl. If you're using a lid make sure it's not sealed, you need air in order to make vinegar.

Now, in about 2-3 weeks your apple peels and cores will start to look like this mess below. Though it shows up white in this horrible picture it's really an ugly gray color. This is known as the mother. You can use this to start another batch of vinegar if you want to keep it going.



The longer you let this sit, the stronger your vinegar will be, though it's not strong enough to can with you can still use it for recipes and a hair wash if you're like me. Just strain it a few times with cheese cloth into a pot and just barely bring it to a boil. This kills the bacteria and stops the vinegar from fermenting any longer.

I store mine in a canning jar. Simple right?

Distractions.

I'm in one of those seasons where I barely have time to do day to day stuff, let alone time for blogging, and crafts. I'm trying to get back in the swing of things but with the holidays upon us it seems to be getting harder and harder.  I'm hoping to steal some time later tonight and maybe Friday to get my new blog posts in order. I'm just sorry I've went so long without a recent post.

(Some of my favorite books growing up where of the Little Miss and Mr series. I wish I still had them all)

Just one more beautiful pillow.

Yes, this is another tutorial on a pillow for my bedroom. I can't help it, I was on a kick and actually had some black fabric to use up, I never have black fabric.

My pillow was 14 x 14 so I cut two black fabric squares 15x 15.

I have this really cute sheer fabric below that I've been itching to use for months now. It was $1.50 a yard when I purchased it and I've had it on the top of my fabric stash ever since, just waiting for a project. I cut a rectangle out of it that measured 7.5''x16''.

If you're making a different size pillow then take one side measurement and divide it in half, that'll be the length of your short side of your rectangle. Now, for the long side measurement just add 1'' to however long your pillow is. Mine was 15'' so I just my rectangle 16'' long. Make sense? I hope so. It seemed a lot harder to try and type it clearly.

(sorry for the crummy photos). Now, I add a zipper to all my pillows so I can wash them easily, but you don't have to. If, however, you decide to add in a zipper do so first then move on to the step below.

On the front side of your pillow, on the right side of the fabric pin you contrasting or decorative fabric to the front of your pillow about 3'' down from the top edge.

Even though your contrasting fabric is an inch longer than your pillow make sure you pin BOTH of the contrasting fabric edges to the edges of the pillow fabric. You want it to be loser in the middle.

Once that is sewed on, turn your pillow right sides together and sew up all edges. If you add in a zipper make sure you remember to open your zipper a few inches before you sew your sides and bottom shut for turning inside out. If you opted out of using a zipper than just leave a few inches open for turning your pillow right side out and then hand stitch it closed after you stuff it.

Now take a strip of fabric about 1'' wide by 12'' long and slip it under the contrasting fabric, right in the middle and tie a knot. You'll be left with a beautiful, quick and easy bow pillow that adds a neat elegance wherever it's placed. I loved my bedroom before but with the addition of these new pillows, I'm in mad love.

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Fabric Rose or Magnolia?

Ah fabric roses, I'm in love with them. I see them everywhere online and on clothing in the stores, even purses and hair toys are sporting fabric roses. Part of me hates them though, because I have the hardest time when it comes to me making some for my own projects. Here's my attempt at making a fabric rose out of lining fabric.

Cut a strip of fabric 3'' by 46''. Then fold it over, with the fold on the left side.

Then using your rotary cutter, cut scallops along the top edge. (I think this is where I went wrong, I think if I had folded the fabric over on it's self a few more times and THEN cut scallops it would have turned out more rose like.)

Open up the entire length and on ONE END ONLY cut it into a narrow end, just like the picture below. This is the end where you'll start rolling up your fabric to form the rose, but not yet.

If you're using lining fabric like I am, anything that's shiny or flimsy that may fray easily you need to seal all ends of the fabric. Simple light a candle and hold the fabric high enough above the flame so that it starts to melt but not burn. Move quickly so the smoke doesn't discolor the fabric.  This actually gives a nice curl look to what will be the rose petals too.

Next sew a line down the non-scalloped end and pull the threads to form a pretty heavy ruffle.

Starting with the one end that's tapered start rolling the fabric, hand stitching in place as you go .  Here's my finished product, aside from it being a poorly lit photo I think it looks more like a magnolia than a rose.

*sigh* I'll just have to keep trying...and trying....and trying....and trying.........*sigh*.

Pillowcase PJ's

For some odd reason my mother has given me 5 or 6 new pillowcases in different colors and sizes. I'm not sure what she was doing or thinking when she picked them up but her craziness was my gain in this instance. Now I have an abundance of pillowcases, and some of them aren't in matching colors of my bedroom or the kids room. Evan Grace needed pj's though and this over sized pillowcase had more than enough fabric to refashion.

I cut the bottom border of the pillowcase off (the part that's open for sliding the pillow in). The top part of the pillowcase needs to be cut open, if you have an extra long pillowcase like I do you may want to take more length off, which you can do either from the top or the bottom.

Now, pick a side, the top of the bottom part of the pillowcase and turn down about an inch of fabric and sew into place. Leave a 3'' opening for inserting the elastic.

Measure around your little one's chest where you want the top of the pj dress to sit and add 1'' to your measurement. Cut your elastic this length. Snap a safety pin to one end of your elastic and thread through the pocket you created by turning down 1'' and sewing. (Excuse the crazy mess of threads, I did cut that off before finishing). When you've threaded your elastic all the way through, sew the ends together with a zigzag stitch to make it strong then sew the opening closed.

Take the border of the pillowcase that you cut off in step one and cut it in half length wise. I used these pieces to make the straps. Fold right sides together and sew down the outside edge. Turn right side out, fold up the edges and sew into place. I didn't take any measurement for this step because it all depends on your little tykes measurements.

I had so much fabric leftover I was able to sew a ruffle onto the bottom of the nightgown.

A tip to consider: Sew the straps to the front first, then try it on your little one to pin the back part of the straps into place, BUT pull the straps on the back in towards the middle some. This really helps keep the straps from falling off the shoulder.

Pleat and Button Pillow.

I'm on a slow mission to make my bedroom exactly how I want it, no exceptions, and I want the majority of it to be things and creations that I've made FOR my bedroom. I made some cool 3D Wall Art a few months back, that I simply adoreso it was time to move on to accent pillows.  I love my duvet but I wanted some cutesy, froufrou pillows.

When I made Boy Toy's messenger bag I had a little bit of the inside black poplin leftover. It was just enough to cover a 14 x14 pillow and I had a neat idea for a cover in mind.

Since my pillow was 14 x 14 I cut two pieces of the poplin 15 x 15 for the front and back of the pillow. Then I cut 1 piece 3 x 15 of a contrast color and fabric. My duvet is black, white and silver and I had a lot of white fabric on hand so I went with white.

Fold the white strip in half, wrong sides together and pin to the front of your fabric, vertically, 7'' in from the left side. Pin in place and sew to the right side of the front of your pillow.

Once it's sewn in place, turn the strip over to where the folded edge is towards the right edge of the front piece of fabric. Sew in place again along the left side of the strip. It's very much like making a French seam. You can press in place or leave the fold loose. Since I broke my cute little ironing table/board I opted to not worry with the iron on this one.

Here comes the fun part, or it was at least for me. I went for white buttons, but you can easily use different colored buttons and buttons that are different sizes as well. Whatever you decide on space them evenly down the right side of the white pleat and sew into place. (A trick I use to keep my buttons in place while placing and sewing them with the machine is to tape them down with scotch tape. Once you're finished sewing them on simply pull the tape off).

Take the other 15 x 15 piece of fabric you cut for the back and with right sides together lay it on top of the front of your pillow. Sew all 4 edges, leaving a few inches for turning right side out and stuffing. I had a pillow insert instead of stuffing so I added in a zipper on the side of my pillow, but that's optional. With 3 kids I like having the ease of zipping off a pillowcase to toss in the washer for when they spill or decide to nap on one of my pillows without washing the chocolate bar they just inhaled off their face first. :)

I really, really, really love how this pillow turned out. It has a bit of a masculine quality to it, and it super trendy right now. Not to mention that it goes with my duvet per...fect....ly!!!!


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