shopping list

24 ounces milk chocolate
sugar
walnuts
raw peanuts
light corn syrup
peppermint oil
evaporated milk
rice flour
confectioners sugar
unflavored gelatin
butter
peppermint candies
melting chocolate- milk, dark, mint and white
new candy thermometer (note to self: don't break this one!)
parchment paper


let the Christmas goodies making commence!

my nieces

i love these girls! they are so sweet and helpful and fun! we did manicures and pedicures, curled hair and made more headbands. a perfect craft for girls. quick and easy and the older girls were able to braid their own strips. the nieces love the headbands, they each thanked me over and over and you could tell they felt pretty.

Sarah, Sutton, Leah and Eliza

we are driving home this morning. i am so sad to go. we've had such a great time with the family. i struck gold in the in-law department!

thanksgiving

a few things i am thankful for today:

loving my sister-in-laws as much as my sisters
my husband
home
laughing until i cry
my sweet children
playing games late into the night
faith
nieces and nephews
macys thanksgiving day parade
pumpkin chiffon pie (with real whipped cream)
health
all of you, dear friends

i wish you a happy and safe holiday!

photo from here

Milla's kitchen

Yesterday Amy emailed me pictures of the kitchen her parents made for Amy's daughter Milla. They did such a great job! I love the addition of the microwave and refrigerator. Check out Amy's blog for more pictures, including the before.


I absolutely love to see what you dear readers have made. I makes me so happy to know that I have inspired others to create something. So If you have made something that was inspired by one of my projects, email me and you can be featured here too!

I am a master...

at wasting time. First thing tomorrow morning we are leaving for Alabama to spend Thanksgiving with Michael's sister. Instead of spending my day packing and cleaning I did some sewing. But not the birthday gifts or Christmas presents (sorry Anne!!) I did more refashioning. I know, I have a problem! And now I am blogging and baking cookies. What? I can't go on a road trip without baked goodies! Anyhow, I bought this dress a couple of months ago at Salvation Army for $2. It was three sizes too big but I liked it. The top anyway. On the body, the dress looks like pajamas.

before:

after:

I guess the JCPenney catalogs I modeled for as a child didn't help me develop hot modeling skills because my posing is lame. But Michael really liked this shot because he said "it looks like the smiley Erin I know and love." Ahh. So sweet.

All I did was hack off the bottom, take in the sides, hem it and make a tie. Super easy.

With all the left over material I got the bright idea to make a pioneer bonnet for Sutton. Which would have been adorable but apparently her head is MASSIVE! I used the small version of this pattern found at Pickup Some Creativity.

Ezra makes a cute little pioneer girl though. Anyone with a baby girl want this cute bonnet?

So I whipped up another one (it is a quick project) in the larger size and it fits perfectly! I love it. When Sutton first tried it on, she looked in the mirror and said "I look... great... sort of". Ha! She warmed up to it though.

Also Chris (the author of the bonnet pattern) is having her first giveaway- a cute little girls bag. Go check it out!

i know i said i was sick of ruffles...

but I had never done tuxedo ruffles before! I really like how this turned out except that when you sew five ruffles onto the front of your shirt it does nothing to minimize a large bust! Which shouldn't be a surprise to me, I've always had a large bust and should know how to dress for my shape but when I tried on the shirt after I finished it I was like "woah, hello BOOBIES!"


Last week, I helped my friend Meredith refashion one of her old shirts for her daughter. At one point we needed to use the seam ripper to pick out a mistake. Meredith said something along the lines of "I wouldn't think you would know how to use a seam ripper" as if my seamstress abilities are so great that I never have to rip out a seam. Ha! If only! I could only laugh at that comment. Case in point: when I was sewing the last tuxedo ruffle onto this shirt I somehow managed to also sew the the back of the shirt to the front. Oops.

P.S.- can someone come to my house and make me stop refashioning clothes? i have (way belated) birthday and Christmas presents to make for crying out loud!

copycat

Dear Steph, I loved your t-shirt refashion so much that I made an almost exact replica for myself. I hope you don't mind!


I did two things different. One- the neckline. I started a refashion on this shirt a couple of months ago but was unhappy with how it was going so I set it aside. After I saw your refashion I knew what I wanted to do but I was stuck with the neckline I had previously cut. I was sad because yours is prettier. Two- I used left over chiffon for the ruffle detail.



Thanks for the inspiration!

ruffle sweater refashion tutorial

After I posted about this sweater refashion I got several requests for a tutorial. I have a bit of a fear of tutorials. I am not great at explaining things. I also make things up as I go (a trait I inherited from my mother) and therefore do things different each time which that doesn't lend well to teaching others. But I aim to please so here is my attempt at a tutorial!

All of my refashions seem to be monochromatic. I wanted to do change it up a little this time but I am not sure if I really like this combination (dark brown and a sort of mustard-gold) and i might be getting a little sick of ruffles.

the sweater before-- from my closet.

one yard of chiffon. cut into strips on the bias. to find the bias fold the selvage to meet the cut side. cut along the fold line (solid black arrow) then following the new cut edge cut strips (the dotted arrows). 4 inches wide for this project.

sew your strips together. as you sew, make sure the raw edge of the seams are all on the same side of the strip.

once you have all your strips sew together, fold the strip in half lengthwise (right side in) and sew along the edge with a small seam allowance making a fabric tube.

turn your fabric tube right side out. iron with the seam in the center back.

making the ruffle-- using a basting (long) stitch, 5 on my machine, and the tension set to 9 stitch down the center of your fabric tube.

prepare the sweater-- cut the center front.

using lightweight fusible interfacing, make a interfacing, sweater, interfacing sandwich and fuse.

interfaced edges.

since the interfacing was white and the sweater dark brown i took to extra strips of chiffon about an inch wide. pin and sew over the interfacing.

pin on ruffle. some important details: my fabric tube was 190". after gathering it was 64". to cover the neck and front of the cardy i needed 57".

fold edge of ruffle under and then over the botton edge of the sweater.

sew on ruffle-- staying as close to the gathering stitch as possible.

hand sew on a hook and eye.

done!

cost: sweater $0, chiffon $2.50.
time: maybe two hours (this project is much faster if you choose a sweater that already fits you. unlike my last one!).

braided headband

I made this headband yesterday morning. It was so easy. I used scraps I had on hand and it took less than ten minutes to make. Seriously, so easy!



I used this tutorial at Smile and Wave.

art gallery hack

Here are the long awaited instructions on how-to create the art gallery. Sorry it took so long!


FYI- My instructions will make a lot more sense if you have the Deka curtain rod in front of you. Deka comes with a wire, two post screws, two cylinder thingambobs, two end cappers, and a bunch of clips (I just made all those names up because IKEA doesn't include actual words with their instructions). Decide where you want to hang your gallery. Screw the post screw into the wall. You will need to buy your own screws and wall anchors (IKEA doesn't provide those).

Tighten one end cap onto one end of the length of wire.

Insert end cap end into the cylinder.

Put a little curl on the end of the uncapped wire.

Insert curled end through one of the holes on the side of the cylinder. You will need to determine which hole before you insert the wire. Do this by twisting the cylinder onto the post screw that is attached to the wall. Put a tiny sharpie mark next to the hole that you want the wire to come out of. Don't skip this step! I did at first and had to start over.

Pull the wire out as much as you can. There will be a small loop left inside. That's okay. Now twist the cylinder onto the wall mounted post screw. Watch out for the wire as you are twisting.

Twist the other cylinder on the the other post screw. thread the end of the wire through the holes and attach the end cap (pulling the wire taught). This step is easier if you have an extra set of hands. Trim the wire.

Good luck! Please let me know if you have any additional questions. I will do my best to answer them!

j.crew knock-off

Earlier this week, on Tuesday, my husband Michael took me to Asheville, NC to see Ingrid Michaelson in concert (she was great!). Before the show we went to visit my Michael's youngest brother, Andrew, at the J.Crew store where he works. Andrew doesn't work at just any J.Crew store he works at the J.Crew clearance center. This is the last stop for unsold J.Crew merchandise. Super cheap prices, for J.Crew clothes anyway. This is a dangerous place to be, especially with Andrew playing salesman (he's good!). He tried to convince me to buy an $85 cardigan. $85 sounds like a lot, I know but this sweater is part of the "J.Crew Collection" which means that only 10-15 of the sweaters were made, practically one of a kind for a mass produced company like J.Crew and the original price was more than $200. The cardigan was simple with an embellished trim around the front. I loved the winter white color and it was 100% cashmere. It felt LOVELY but it was $85 and if you have read this blog for more than 2 seconds you know I am cheap! So naturally, I passed on buying the cardigan but not before snapping a picture so I could re-create something similar.

the J.Crew cardigan:

I went to the thrift store and found a sweater in perfect condition- $2. With $3 worth of chiffon I made ruffles because I like them better. The original had kind of odd silk triangles and circles trim.

the before:

I wish I had taken a picture of me wearing it so you could see how big and boxy it was.

my version:

i added a hook and eye so i could also wear it closed.

the ruffles

It's not cashmere but I think I actually prefer my version. Who needs cashmere anyway? I would always be worried that my kids would smear something on it. Total cost $5. Sweet!

three skirts

I love polka dots. Especially big polka dots. So when I spotted this mini-skirt at the thrift store I had to buy it. BUT I don't wear mini skirts so I decided I would turn it into a skirt for Sutton. It was an extremely simple thing to do and took less then an hour.

the before:

the after:

I think she likes it!

A little tip- To minimize rolling or twisting elastic in an elastic waist skirt stitch around the top of your casing (about 2/16" from the edge) before adding the elastic. Then do a vertical stitch down the width of the elastic on each side seam.

Here are two more skirts that I made for Sutton from junior sized skirts. Each of these skirts are all a little long but I prefer that because a) I feel like little girls skirts (and shorts too) tend to be too short and b) with the long length and the elastic waist she will be able to wear the skirts for a very long time.

last weeks thrifty finds

-Four lotus bowls. I am starting to get quite the collection of these things but I love them! These are the first ones I have found in orange. I also have another yellow one that is a bigger size.

-One milk glass vase.

-Two sets of paper dolls. Sutton is still a little young for paper dolls but we are going to give it a try. I still remember playing (very, very carefully) with my mom's Debbie Reynolds paper dolls she had saved from her childhood.

-Three embroidery hoops. I am starting a collection of these so I can do something like this.

-Five glass vases. I am going to do an awesome project with the vases. Well, I am hoping that it will be awesome but it could be a colossal failure. Wait and see!

All for about $8!

I also found a fantastic mid-century dresser for my sister-in-law. $25. Booyah!

halloween

I was so entertained by my kids while we were trick or treating that I forgot to take pictures! Bad mom! There were a couple of houses that went all out and were pretty creepy. Only I didn't realize they were that creepy until we were already close the the houses (our neighborhood has long semi-steep driveways). Liam would pull his hat low so he couldn't see the scary stuff. His plan back fired a little because he couldn't see to walk either! Sutton forced me to carry her. I was laughing so hard at the two of them. See? Laughing at my kids fear? I am a bad mom!

Anyhow these poorly lit and staged photos are all I have. Oh well!

Gandolf and Belle (notice the bottom of Sutton's dress? It's totally wet. Trick or Treating in the rain? Not so fun!)

Gandolf

The up-do (thanks Lindsay!) looked much prettier before the rain!

My beautiful Belle.