Josephine's Butterfly Quilt

Sorry that I haven't updated my blog because I've been so busy getting everything ready for Christmas.  I thought I'd post a picture of one Christmas project.  I'm making Josephine a quilt for her toddler bed.

Here it is.  We've themed her room with butterflies.  I just need to quilt it and it'll be all ready for Christmas morning - but I'm not sure when I'll have time to do that. Hmm....

Merry Christmas to everyone!!

Sick Again?

Just when I thought we'd recovered from the cold, Josie caught the stomach flu. Thank heavens it was only a 24 hour bug.  My favorite thing when Josie gets sick is how much she loves to cuddle.  I could cuddle all day, and in fact, that's what we did all yesterday.  Nothing reminds me of how much I love my sweet little toddler than when she lets me rock her.  It's a lot like the book I'll Love You Forever.  As long as I can hold you in my arms, you'll be my little baby.

Seat Cushion Cover Tutorial

Buy foam and cut into desired size.  I'm making a window seat cushion, my piece of foam is 2' x 5' x 2".

Lay foam on the wrong side of the fabric and draw around the foam, use a pen or chalk that wont show through the fabric. I used a yellow marker, I could kinda see in on the other side.  You will add side length and seam allowance when you're cutting.

Using my rotary cutter I measured half the width + seam allowance away from the foam line (drawn in yellow) and cut.  My foam is two inches thick and I'm giving myself 1/2 inch seam allowance.  So I cut 1.5 inches from the yellow foam line.

 Then I mitered the corners.  I folded each corner into a 45 degree angle and sewed a line 90 degrees from the yellow foam line.

 I hate zippers, and every time I put one in I have to re-learn how to.  So this is how I do zippers, but if you have a better way -- use it.  I laid down my zipper and pinned the fabric where the zipper began and ended.

I sewed between the pins using a basting stitch.  I then picked every third stitch so it would come undone easily.

 I pressed open the fabric from where I just sewed and laid my zipper on the inside.

I pinned it in place, and used my  machine's zipper foot to sew it in place.  I back-stitched at the beginning and end.

Next I zipped it closed. Flipped the fabric completely over so the right side was up and started sewing the other side in place. You may want to place a few pins to keep everything in place.  I had to unzip the zipper to sew at the very top of the zipper tape.

 I then pulled the seam apart, here's where the picked stitches come in handy.  That's how I put in my invisible zipper.

Finally, I pinned the whole thing together, pinning the corners first and working towards the middle, and sewed it together.  Remember to open the zipper a little before sewing, so you can easily turn it inside out.  And TA-DA a seat cover.

 

Here is my princess laying on her finished window seat cushion.

Then I used Steam-a-Seam and ironed on some cute butterflies in coordinating fabric colors.

Giving Some Joy at Christmas

This year for Christmas Russell and I decided to give some joy to people who might be a little lonely.  That joy took the form of sugar cookies. I love sugar cookies! They are one of my three favorite cookies. Our list had thirty two families on it and that translated into 124ish cookies. It helps that I have the World's Best Sugar Cookie recipe, which makes 80ish cookies with one batch. Here it is:

 World's Best Sugar Cookies

2 c butter or margarine, softened

2c granulated sugar

3 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp lemon extract

6c flour

1 tsp baking soda

Cream together butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and lemon extract.  Add flour and baking soda.  Mix until all the flour has been mixed into the dough. Refrigerate for 2 or 24 hours. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease cookies sheet.  Roll dough to 1/4 inch thickness and cut out desired shapes.  Bake for 8 to 10 minutes (I baked mine for 12 minutes because my oven runs a little cold) or until edges start to brown.  Freezes well for up to 6 months.

 

Two batches later I had about 180ish cookies.  Then I like to make homemade butter cream frosting - it's also super easy. 

Butter Cream Frosting

4 c powdered sugar

1 cup butter, softened

2 TBS milk

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

Blend with hand mixer on medium speed until well blended. One recipe of this will cover one batch of the cookies.

Then we had three awesome families come over and help decorate cookies, put together plates, and play with Josie's toys.  It was such a great evening.  After we'd decorated them all, we divided the 32 families and everyone went out sharing joy.  This might become a new Christmas tradition, it was that good.

Easy Fish Recipe

As a girl from Washington State, with a father who used to be an avid fisher, I'm practically required to love fish. But in the words of Jim Gaffigin, "I love fish, when it doesn't taste like fish. So, you don't like fish."

Unfortunately, my husband does like fish.  So it's my job to make fish that doesn't taste like fish and this is how.

Ingredients:
-1 fish fillet
-Lemon juice
-Clove Garlic
-Thyme
-Basil
-Olive oil
Drizzle the fillet with lemon juice, mince your garlic and put it on top, sprinkle with thyme and basic, and lastly drizzle with olive oil.  I cover the fish and let it sit in the refrigerator for a couple hours. The secret to this recipe (which took me years to figure out) is to put the ingredients on the fish in the order listed. It looks like this:

I used to wrap it in a foil packet and bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes, but I recently started pan frying it.  I take the fish and cook it on one side on a medium heat.  Then flip it when the thickest part of the fish is halfway done.  I allow it to brown a little.  To make certain it's done you flake it with a fork.  This only takes 15 - 20 minutes, which is so much faster than baking.

For a complete meal I throw some rice into the rice maker and cook up some vegetables. Nice and healthy!

Stringing Beads

This year I hit a jackpot for Josephine at the Quilt Group Christmas party.  During the gift exchange I chose the present with beads, bells, wire, and thread.  This is for creating embellishments on a quilt (in case you were scratching your head).   However, as soon as Josephine saw what was in the bag she wanted access.

We took out one of the bags of beads and I showed her how to put the wire through the hole in the bead.   Then how to let it slide down the wire, so she could then put on another bead.

If you decide to buy some beads, a shoe string is a good option for beading.  Especially since Josephine complains about poking her finger sometimes.  Also, make sure that the beads you buy aren't a choking hazard.  This is a concern I have because when the next baby comes, these beads will be a choking hazard.

After posting this I realized that a great (and inexpensive) alternative to this would be macaroni noodles -- All circular noodles really.  Then your kids can string noodles instead of beads.

Plastic Grocery Bag Holder Tutorial

I've been meaning to make one of these for myself for a long time. So I ended up making one to give away instead (not very helpful). Here's how I did it. Please excuse my sewing jargon; I'm definitely not a master sewer.
I took a scrap of fabric and cut it in half. Its width is about 17 inches and its length can be as long as you need it to be. For my next bag I'll probably make it a bit longer, I think its length is about 24 inches.From a coordinating fabric I cut a circle using a cottage cheese lid. I picked my circle size by finding the largest circle my 17 inch wide scraps of fabric would fit around with a little space for seam allowances and some gathering.
I also cut a coordinating rectangle. My rectangle is about 2 inches by 5 inches.
I took the fabric for the body of the holder and sewed them together into a tube along both 24 inch sides, not sewing the 17 inch side. On one side I stopped sewing two inches up from the bottom, skipped one inch, and then continued sewing to the bottom. I skipped the space between the pins, back-stitching before the pin and then after the pin. This is the place the ribbon goes through.

Take the small rectangle and fold it over itself and pin. Then sew where the fabric end lies. For this one the fabric is right in the middle. If you don’t want the sewing to show you can fold it in half with right sides together and sew it together, then turn it inside out. I didn’t really care about being able to see the sewing – I just wanted to avoid the hassle of turning it inside out afterwards.Then I folded my circle in half and pinned the middle for both sides.

I lined up the side seams of the rectangle and pinned them to my middle points. Make sure you're pinning the circle to the side of the body that doesn't have the hole for the ribbon. I then pinned all the way around the circle, creating a fold where there was extra fabric. This will make it look ruffled when it’s complete.
After pinning all around you’ll need to place the rectangle for hanging. Do this by removing one of the pins (I put mine along the seam opposite from the ribbon opening), folding the rectangle in half (preferably with the raw edge on the inside), and then line the raw edges of the rectangle with the raw edge of the circle. The rectangle will be inside; it’s present in the above picture. Then you can sew it all together and turn the whole bag inside out. Next I took care of the bottom hem. First I pinned and sewed around the hole for the ribbon like it was a button hole, except I just used a straight stitch. I laid the seam allowance flat while doing this to reinforce the hole.Then I folded up my hem an inch, pinned it in place, and (using a zig-zag stitch) sewed along the top of it. This makes the case for the ribbon to go through.
Afterwards I cut my ribbon to 32 inches and, using a big safety pin, threaded the ribbon into the hole. Then I synched it slightly and tied a beautiful bow. TA DA! I felt a little silly bringing this to the gift exchange, but the lady who drew my name was super excited about freeing up her cabinet and I got an offer to buy one. So in the end I was pretty happy.

Favorite Things

One of my favorite things about Christmas is all the gift exchanges. Not only is it an opportunity for me to be creative and make things, but I also get to receive the fun things other people bring.

So, this week I had two exchanges and I made a plastic grocery bag holder for the kitchen and some coasters (from my pinterest).

I made six coasters for the set. The two close ups were my favorite. I decided to add vinyl quilting phrases to the coasters. Here are my two favorite.

Playdough

My day-care experience with Playdough has always been very messy. But, I have discovered this week that it's not so bad when there's only one kid playing with it. Not only that but Josephine was entertained for hours! That's awesome.

I also gave her four cookie cutters to use, that expended the play.




Recipe
2 cups white flour (I tried wheat and it was super gross)
1 cup salt
1 Tablespoon oil
3/4 cups water (add 4 drops food coloring to water)

Down and Out

Thanksgiving was great! The house was clean, the company was warm and welcoming, and the food was delicious. The shopping was also pretty good.

Perhaps it was all the people, but we've been sick in bed for the last two weeks (recovering from Thanksgiving). We all caught some nasty cold and Russell's has turned into a major sinus infection - gross. To put it simply, we had a good time with family and wish they hadn't shared their sickness.

We were all ready to jump into Christmas with both feet, but have halted all future plans of cookie making or visiting with people. Too bad. I feel like I'm missing out on Christmas this year, but I just need to remember that it's only the second week of the month and not to be melodramatic. Now that Russell is on anti-biotics he should get better and the festivities can continue.

That's what I'm waiting for!

Cleaning for the Holidays

Josie loves water play, but the cold weather makes it impossible. So, I see mopping as a chance for Josie to get some water play. I wouldn't normally write about it, but this time was more exciting than the last. I like to give Josie a bucket with water in it and a rag. I've worked on teaching her how to wring out the rag, but she usually only gets the top half. This led to many puddles on the kitchen floor. After Josie slipped twice, I put some socks on her for traction and kissed her all better. Then, as I was walking around the table, I slipped on one of her puddles and fell down. Being 6 months pregnant I was really worried about landing on Josie and maneuvered myself away, but ended up landing on my knees. Ouch! What surprised me was Josie's reaction. Toddler and mom switched roles.
"Are you okay? You okay?" Josie asks.
"Yeah, I just hurt my knees. Ouch!" I respond.
"Oh. Kiss them." And Josie kissed both my knees to make me feel better.

I'll be honest, the kisses didn't stop the bruises from forming. But the kisses did make me feel pretty special. I guess that's why a mom's kiss works better than a band-aid for my little Josie.

Vinyl Phrases

For Christmas this year I made some special vinyl phrases for my sister's family. Here they are:














For my brother-in-law who served two tours in Iraq. He's a real hero.
The words above are white vinyl, the picture is just low quality.




For my nephew Slade, who's a boy scout.
















For Sofya, who's growing up way too fast.


























Now, to make those into something like my Family blocks you follow these steps.
1. Cut wood to size of paper.
2. Sand wood
3. Paint back, sides, and a little of the front with black paint (you can use any color you want)
4. Modge-podge paper onto wood
5. When it's dry, modge-podge over the top of the whole thing

As for my other adorable nieces and nephews, they're getting homemade quilts.



















This quilt is quilted with the nursery rhyme "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star"

Advent Calendar

I've been looking for a neat Advent Calendar that I could make for Josephine this year. She can already count to 12, so I thought a calendar would help her practice. While at Thai Pan Trading with my awesome mother-in-law I saw something that sparked the idea for my Christmas Countdown calendar.

It took us a little while to throw the whole thing together (we were making 4), but I thought I'd give some simple directions on how to make it.

Supplies:
1 cookie sheet
Green paper for Christmas tree
Decoration for bottom of tree
25 large clear glass rocks (see last picture, may also be known as vase gems)
25 1-inch circles
Numbers 1 through 25
25 magnets
Hot glue gun
Modge-podge

1. Buy a cookie sheet. We bought the largest silver cookie sheet that Wal-Mart sold, we were a little concerned about 25 large rocks fitting.

2. Cut out a tree. We took parchment paper and drew a stencil for the tree, then we used 1 1/2 sheets of 12 x 12 paper to make the tree. If you're not sure whether your tree is big enough try putting all 25 rocks on.

3. Decide what you'd like at the bottom of your tree. We were originally going to put presents under the tree, but found this snowman paper at JoAnns.


4. Then modge-podge your tree and snowman to the cookie sheet. Allow the bottom glue to dry before modge-podging over the top, otherwise your paper will bubble. Also, we didn't modge-podge where their was no paper because it peeled off easily and didn't look the best.


5. Cut out 25 1-inch circles. We used several different sheets of paper. Some we cut out by tracing the rocks, and some we had the Cricut cut out. As you can see, in the end we had way more than we needed, but this allowed us to pick and choose which circles we liked best to go on our rocks. For fun we made a gold glitter star to go under the number 25, that way we'd have a star at the top of our calendar.


6. Cut out the numbers 1 through 25. I also had my Cricut do this. However, if you don't have a Cricut you could use number stickers or have your printer print the numbers directly on the paper you'll be using for your circles.

7. Modge-podge over the circles, place your number (unless you're using stickers, and then you should reverse these steps), and place the rock on top. Allow to dry. Pay attention to your numbers, we had someone end up with two 16 rocks because they weren't paying attention.

8. Hot glue magnet to the back of the rock. We bought a 52 magnet pack at Wal-Mart for about $3.

9. To hang the cookie sheet we drilled (using my husband's titanium bits) holes in the top lip and ran a ribbon scrap through it. Another option could be using a picture stand.

I wish you success with your own Christmas Countdown calendar.

p.s. It doesn't have a title on the cookie sheet because we couldn't agree on what it should say, or how to do it. But, I have future plans of placing "Countdown to Christmas " at the top of my cookie sheet.

Cultivating Genius

We have a family here in Boise whom we really enjoy getting together with. It helps that they have a child exactly Josephine's age. A month ago we were over at their house and I found some flash cards in their book drawer and Josie, her friend, and myself started going through the pictures. Josephine really enjoyed this, so we decided to get her some flash cards to look at. I was a bit disappointed with what I found, and started to make my own. I took my handy-dandy cricut and cut out shapes in different colors so we could practice learning them.

Josephine has really enjoyed the focused one-on-one time this brings. She likes the discussion, the sorting, the quizzing, and the new words she's learning. It's funny to hear a two-year old say "rectangle". Over the last month she has learned her colors and can identify them about 90% of the time. As for her shapes, she knows how to say about three of them, but can match two of the same shape. This is the rewarding side of parenting.

As for the not rewarding side of parenting: four hours of sleep Monday night. I wondered why I couldn't stop crying and when I counted my hours of sleep I realized the answer. It doesn't help that I'm six months along and can hardly sleep anyways. Throw in a toddler who got enough REM during nap time and welcome to the dark side.

We also managed to get pink eye the week of Thanksgiving. Not only do I have three people staying here for a week, but tomorrow we'll be surrounded by family of all ages. Awesome!

Now that I'm writing about it, it all puts a smile on my face, even the bad stuff. Funny what makes the heart grow fonder. Or perhaps I'm just impressed that I'm still standing to tell the tale.

Water Painting

When there are small breaks between events (like lunch and nap time) it's helpful to have small activities easily available. We have a random/art drawer and today she decided to do some water painting.

After she finishes her art we hang it on the bottom half of the fridge so she can remember, talk about, and share her art with the whole family.

I really enjoy using all my daycare experience and my Elementary Education degree in my mothering. It helps me feel purposeful. When Russell and I bought our home I felt unhappy staying at home with Josephine. About the same time I picked up the book Contentment by Maria Covey Cole. What a heart changing and eye opening read; it was what I needed at that moment. My copy is all marked up, here's one quote:

"She is truly happy who can see and appreciate the beauty with which God has ordained the commonplace things of life" Joseph F. Smith.

My new goal is to appreciate the small moments, like when Josie tries to feed Elmo her baby's bottle through the T.V. It's enjoying the small moments that fill my lamp.