Soccer Mom to Flash Dance!

From time to time I’m asked to help out with a certain insurance agency in town (the best agency if you ask me but I’m biased) anyway I was given a t-shirt to wear for the upcoming event.

Very soccer mom right?

Just look at how high that neck is? And the length of those sleeves!!!! Ugh! Since I was given this shirt the night before the big event the next morning I didn’t have a lot of time to do what I really really really wanted to do with the shirt.

What I did do was take it off, rather quickly, fold it in half with the logo facing up.

Decide just how much you want out of the neck by deciding how much skin, shoulder, chest you want to show. I only wanted to open the shirt a bit so it wasn’t so stuffy.

I cut about an inch away from the sew lines already in the collar part and followed the curve all the way around. You can totally make this an off the shoulder t-shirt too by cutting more than an inch away but don’t go to far away from 2 or so inches or you’ll end up with a shirt sack that falls to your elbows!!! Eeeekkkk!

Since t-shirt material will NOT fray there was no sewing required for this look.

Now I’ve left soccer mom behind and moved straight into a Flash Dance t-shirt! Cause ‘I’m a maniac, maniac….’ Oh sorry, back to the shirt! My event co-helpers were somewhat envious that they were stuck in a drab, off the rack t-shirt and I wasn’t!

There’s a slight pucker in the front of the collar but it was only the way I was standing. If you cut nice and neat the collar will be smooth and straight.

I really wish I had enough time to remove the sleeves, then shorten then and sew them back on. The insurance agency logo was on the bottom edge of the sleeve (you can see it in the picture) so I couldn’t just cut off the ends.

A quick fix to avoid run of the mill t-shirts!

Happy non-sewing!

~Jess

Recover.

I recovered my couch cushions two weeks ago. It was an easy project, almost like making pillow cases, but on a bigger scale with long zippers. Trying to get a picture of just the new couch cushions by themselves proved harder than actually making the covers. Why you might ask? Daisy!!!

I swear she's posing for this picture. It's her innocent look..."Who me?"

Me: "Daisy come here. Off the couch. Off! OFF!"She actually listens. I pick up the camera, get everything just so so in the frame and get ready to snap the picture....then BAMM! She's back and posing again!

So I move from in front of the couch to the side to maybe sneak a picture. No such luck.

Finally!! I think I got it, a good picture of the new covers with no dog in site. Only when I uploaded this picture to my computer did I see Daisy's TAIL IN THE CORNER !!!! Regardless, you get the idea and overall look of the covers. I love it. Maybe one day I'll attempt an actual slipcover. The thought of jumping into that trap scares me!!!!

S’more Cups.

Here’s a neat recipe on a different way to do s’mores without the campfire and sticky, gooey mess.

For this recipe you will need the following:
7 whole graham crackers, 1/4 cup powdered sugar, 6 TBS butter, melted. 4 Hershey bars, divided and 12 large marshmallows. Have you seen the new stacker marshmallows like the ones I have in the picture below? How neat are they? You have to give them a try if you make s’mores over a campfire they work so much better than the original!!!

Start by placing 7 whole graham crackers into a ziploc bag and sealing it tightly.

Now crush them up by rolling a rolling pin, hard water bottle, drinking glass, really whatever you have that will get the crushing done, all over the bag. You need 1 cup of graham cracker crumbs total.

Turn your oven on to 350. Mix your graham cracker crumbs, melted butter and powdered sugar in a bowl.

Once that’s all mixed up use a Tablespoon to place a very small amount of the mixture into each cup of a mini cupcake pan. Press the mixture with your fingers so that it packs in tightly.

Bake this for 4-5 minutes, or until edges are a little bubbly. Meanwhile, break 2 Hershey bars into individual rectangles and cut ALL the marshmallows in half.‘

If you’re having trouble with cutting sticky marshmallows you can dip your scissors or knife in cool water between each cut and that should deter the sticky.
Take the Hershey bars that you broke into rectangles and place one rectangle on each of the still warm graham cracker cups.

Place a cut marshmallow on top of each chocolate rectangle and pop back into the over for a minute or two so the marshmallow gets soft.

Remove from the oven and let cool for at least 15 minutes.  Take the other 2 Hershey bars and break them up into a microwavable bowl. Cook for 1 minute to 1 1/2 minutes, make sure you stir ever 30 seconds or so.
Now take a s’more cup and dip the marshmallow top into the melted chocolate then set aside. Let these set up for about 40 minutes or you can stick them in the fridge if you want them done faster.

We took these to Raven’s Cliff and it was a pretty prefect snack for a picnic.

~Jess

Best Creative Writer.

 

Mackenzie's first year of public school is coming to an end this week. She's had a few goof ups along the way but she's ending the school year on a good note. She was even awarded Best Creative Writer of her entire 9th grade class by her English Teacher. How proud is this Odd Duck now? I was hoping one of my kids would get their mother's writing genes. :)

Where have I been?

My poor blog. I use to hate going a few days without a new post yet here lately I’m hardly ever posting. Heck, lately I’m hardly even on the computer at all.

I’ve been busy though.

Busy growing Basil…

…and Oregano…

and Parsley.

Evan Grace wanted to take care of her own Sweet Pea plants so we planted a few along with the flowers. She and I are both amazed at how fast these peas are taking off.

Then there are the roses,

And lucky me, I now have two strawberry plants, that are really producing! (This is just a picture of ONE of my plants!!!)

The kids and I planted a small garden this week full of bell peppers, cranberry beans, corn, cantaloupe, cucumbers for pickling, sweet peas and green beans. As soon as everything starts sprouting I’ll take pictures. I’m excited to have my hands in the dirt again but I’m bummed that it’s taking away some much needed blog time!!!!

~Jess