Donuts!

My Dad emailed us all with this very tempting link. On how to make home made donuts from ready to bake biscuit dough (such as pillsbury).

So of course we had to try them!

Can I just say... mmmmmmmm donut......

They were really good! I just used the plain old glaze.. will try a new one next time. I also used my deep fryer rather than a pan of oil, very easy. If you don't have the luxury of owning a deep fryer, go out and buy one! ;-) Just kiddin, use the pan method, very easy also!

The picture is of the 2nd can I used, the first batch disappeared rather quickly!

FYI, I got a 4 pack of the small biscuits at Walmart for $2.72! Not bad! Happy donut making!

Big Cat Rescue

Here's the Tshirt I made for Rainie's b-day... This one was pretty fun!

Coin Purse Tutorial!

Welcome to my first attempt at a tutorial, I hope it makes sense!

I’ve been an admirer of the coin purses made by Kirie at http://shape-moth.blogspot.com for awhile now. I’ve made a few over the past couple of months, and have been in the mood to begin AND finish something quickly lately, so I thought I’d attempt a coin purse tutorial:

Step 1: Gather your materials. I've been wanting to use this retro flower print as a liner for awhile, so I dug through my felt collection to see what I had to match. I also keep a few zippers on hand, this one is made with a 4" zipper, but a 5" would work well also.

Step 2: Determine the size of your coin purse as well as your design for the front. I made mine 5” wide by the width of the felt sheet (about 8”). For the front, in the past I've made felt flowers, leaves, etc. I tried cutting a few flowers for this one, but didn't like how they turned out, so I decided on something I haven't done before... strips of various colors that I will "quilt" with my fancy stitches on my sewing machine.

Step 3: Complete your front design. This one was easy and fast since I just used my sewing machine. In the past I’ve hand sewn flower, leaves, branches, etc. with embroidery floss and occasional beads. That takes a bit more time, but the results are awesome! I’ll show some off at the end of the tutorial.

Step 4: Cut your liner fabric the same size as your coin purse fabric. Get your zipper ready to attach.

Step 5: Lay your lining and your felt shell WRONG sides together. Unzip your zipper and align it face down on top of one of the felt edges of the outer layer. Attach the zipper using your machine’s zipper foot.

Step 6: Fold the coin purse in 1/2 laying the right sides of the outer layer together. Align the unattached side of the zipper with the other edge of the purse. Attach the zipper to the inner and outer layers of the coin purse.

Step 7: Kinda hard to see here, but once the zipper is attached, zigzag stitch down the raw edge of the zipper and fabric layers on both sides. Don’t forget to swap your sewing machine feet back!

Step 8: Using extra fabric scraps or ribbon, make a narrow strip for the clip loops. I made this one prior to this tutorial, starting with a 3 inch wide piece, folding it in half, then each 1/2 in half again, sewing the clean edges together.

Step 9: Cut your strip or ribbon to the desired loop size and thread the clip or ring onto the loop.

Step 10: Insert the loop into the inner part of the purse, lining the raw edge of the loop with the raw edge of the coin purse. You may want to pin it in place at this point. Align the zipper edges together and pin as well.

Step 11: Sew the raw edges together down the side of the purse. Sew as close to the zipper stopping point as possible, or you could sew inside the stopping point. Trim the edges down to 1/4 inch then zigzag stitch it. If you’d like a second attachment or ring on the opposite side, repeat step 10, then step 11 down the other side of the coin purse.

Step 12: Invert your purse through the zipper, using a pencil to poke the corners into shape.

Step 13: Final step! Yea! As a purely decorative touch, find some cute beads to hang off the zipper pull. You could also use buttons. I used a wire flathead pin looking thing that I found in the beading department at my local Joann’s. They came in a bag of 100 or so for about $3. Less if you use your coupon! I used needle nose pliers to bend the top through the zipper pull.

Whaaa Laa! One completed coin purse! You can of course vary sizes, dimensions, zipper placement, etc. Endless possibilities! And as promised, here are some of the others I’ve made:

Arcadia Log Cabin progress

I finished my first honeybun of Arcadia Log Cabin squares...I have this pile of strips left over, I think I'm going to do either scrappy log cabin squares or piano keys with them.. have to see.

Two more honeybuns to go!

Spring Fever!

Lookee what bloomed at my house this week! Doesn't it make you just want to go out and plant something?

Spring fever is hitting hard with these almost 50 degree days! And all the snow is melted! Mother Nature is teasing us!

Jellyrolls2go

Just found this shop.. thought I'd share. It has more jelly rolls than I have ever seen before...

http://jellyrolls2go.com/

They have other stuff too.. haven't fully explored the site yet....

Turkey Cooker!

Stacie and Kyle picked up this awesome Turkey Cooker for us at Lowe's on clearance... scored a major bargain! Dudley put it together tonight with his "helpers". (I watched a movie on my computer with earbuds in...to stay as uninvolved as possible... having had 'help' earlier in the day...)

The end result is an awesome fryer! Drew eating the packaging, Douglas posing in his "Super Douglas... I did this!" pose.. and Dudley throwing assembly instructions at the photographer! Oh my!

And lastly.. Drew with a "What can I get into next?" expression going on....

I say it's bedtime.

Helper Drew

I keep all my sheets and a few blankets in my old trunk I talked mom and dad out of this summer. As I was changing my bedding today, I decided to fold things up neater. Drew decided to help. All the pillowcases he is rolling around on were just a few moments earlier nicely folded on that little shelf above him.... only took me 10-15 min. to pull 'em all out and fold them all the same size, then organize them by season/use/single or pair/etc. He was so helpful to pull them all off & play with them! To top it off he pretended to be asleep at first. My helpful little guy!

New Projects!

Over the weekend I managed to grab a few minutes here and there to start a log cabin quilt... I found a picture of this quilt online, and thought that would be a great pattern for my 3 Arcadia honeybuns!

So here is what I've managed to piece so far:


And then my neighbor came around with 3 beige couch pillows she was trying to find a home for… I told her I’d take ‘em! I’m planning to recover them in oh so cute fabric and give them away as gifts! My other neighbor calls me the ‘neighborhood horder’… I try to get her to understand I’m the ‘neighborhood recycler’… I’ll show her, she may be getting a recovered pillow soon!

Happy Monday all!

Nummy Pulled Pork! (Not sweet)

K.. so the pulled pork at Tc's was yummy, but the Dude doesn't like it so sweet.. so I came up with a recipe for not-so-sweet pulled pork that turned out REALLY good!

Steff's Pulled Pork

1 yellow onion - diced
2 garlic cloves - minced
1 can stewed tomato's
1 small can green chili's
2 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
3-4lb. pork shoulder
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

Layer everything in slow cooker...lay pork on top and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover and cook on high 5-7 hours or low 8-10 hours. Shred pork with 2 forks about an hour before ready.

I served it with white rice and black beans...

White Rice

1 Cup rice
2 Cups water
2 Tbs butter
2 bullion cubes

Combine ingredients and bring to boil. Stir until bullion absorbed then lower heat and simmer for 18min. Serve!

Black Beans

Open can of black beans... heat on stove... serve...(my hardest recipe..)

Coolest Christmas Card ever!

Check out this Christmas card Krystal from www.sassysanctuary.blogspot.com made this year... coolest idea ever!

Go check out her blog to see how she did it...

How cool is this?

I just found a way cool website selling Bandana's for cheap!

http://www.tansclub.com/

They have 100% cotton, double sided 22" bandana's in burgundy and olive! (and many other colors)

I'm thinking I may have to make a quilt to match my Blog page!

Stay tuned....

Earring Organizer!

I got my ears re-pierced sometime in November, and waited patiently for Christmas to roll around so I could start wearing some of my old and new (thanks LL!) earrings again. Now that I'm doing that, I realized the pile of earrings in my jewelry box is not the most organized thing I own. I finally got tired of spending 5 min. looking for two matching earrings this morning & started cogitating on a solution...
I'd pretty much resolved to copy LL and get a gauzy ribbon to hang them through, but then thought, "I should have something on hand that I can make work..." so wha la! I came up with my Burlap earring holder.

And I know it’s easy to figure it out, but here is what I used/did:

And here’s the before and after jewelry box shot:

Disney Movie Rewards

Something else I figured out today....

Go to:
http://www.disneymovierewards.go.com/member/index.htm
and set up an account so you can start entering your Disney Movie Reward codes to get free stuff!

To find the codes, look through your Disney movies for a red star outlined in gold on either the bottom left of the front cover, or the upper right of the back cover.

If you see this star, open the case and look at your insert for your 'magic code' which will be something like: NT4G99TMFTMJ.

When you set up your account you'll be awarded 25 points for filling out your name and contact info. To earn another 100 points, take the little survey they offer which is filling out your mailing address, and movie preferences. Then start entering any codes you've found! I managed to rack up over 1000 points with the movies I found that still had the inserts in them... 100 points per movie! And I had at least 5 movies that were missing the inserts...bummer...

Once you add up your points, go shopping! I spent 825 points for this:
http://www.disneymovierewards.go.com/rewards/toy-story-kids-games-set
(sorry.. not sure how to copy that image over yet...)

There was also the cutest necklace and bracelet:
http://www.disneymovierewards.go.com/rewards/peace-love-and-mickey-mouse-antiqued-copper-cuff-bracelet
(Peace, Love, Mickey Mouse)

I'm hoping to get the toy story games kit in time for Easter.. they do take 6-8 weeks to ship.

But not bad for stuff that has literally been sitting around the house for years!

(Note: I've got to learn how to make the links actual links, and how to copy images over from other sites....sorry, for now you can copy the info. and paste it into your address bar....)

BOM's

I actually managed to sew today! I got caught up on the last three block of the months! Yeah! Only took all day... in between cleaning, laundry, running after kids, etc... but they're done!

Up and Running! for now anyway....

Ok..
I'm giving this blog thing a go... I had massive issues just getting the background and header up an running.. thank you for all your help Stacie! And when the Dude comes home tonight, he'll probably look at it, say, 'that looks lame' and in under an hour make it look gorgamous! We can hope..

Anyway, here it is.. more to come...stay tuned...etc...