My Morning

When I was at my Mom and Dad's house making coasters, my Mom hinted that she might want some. I told her that I just assumed she had all the coasters she needed, and wouldn't be interested in them. I offered to make a set for her while I was there, but she told me not to go to any trouble, and that if I had time some day I could make her a set.

Since my Mom obviously wanted a set of coasters, I searchd eBay and found some very pretty fabric already cut into five inch squares called "Hampton Blues" by Timeless Treasures. I was the winning bidder, and the fabric arrived earlier this week. I washed it yesterday, and brought it upstairs to await construction.

My husband didn't have to leave for work today until 11:15 today. I was awake laying beside a squirmy, but asleep, 11 month old for about an hour before my husband woke up. I guess it was around 8 o'clock. We both realized that since both children were still asleep, this was our chance to get some things accomplished around the house, so we quietly got out of bed.

People would be amused by the way I have to sneak out of the bed. I have to very slowly move out of the way and put a pillow in my place so that our daughter does not realize she is no longer holding on to me. There is a real skill involved in it, I think, that only those with such a clingy child would understand.

Anyways, once we were out of bed, I went to work ironing my fabric squares and getting them made into coasters. Since I had some fabric left over, I decided to make a tissue holder for my Mom too. She is the one person in the family that ALWAYS has tissue. Out in the woods behind my parents' house and have a runny nose? Mom is guaranteed to have a tissue in her pocket. In church, and sneeze? Not to worry - she's got a tissue. I wonder if when I get older I will be that person with the tissues. I've become much like my Mom in many other ways, so maybe this too will come.

About 30 minutes after we got up, our daughter woke up. Thankfully, my husband offered to let me continue sewing while he went to get her. He then went through what is ususally my morning routine with her - change the diaper, put her in highchair, give her breakfast while cooking some food for everyone else, act silly to entertain her while atempting to clean the kitchen, remove food covered baby from highchair and clean her up.

It's a very good routine, and works well for us. By the time he got to the cleaned up baby stage, I was finished with my sewing and was ready to take over for the next stage - baby plays on floor until she gets tired and wants to nurse.

Somewhere in the middle of all this our son woke up, and popped in the dining room (where I was sewing) with a "Boo!". I acted surprised, and gave him his morning hug. He was pleased that I was sewing, and enjoyed watching. He was waiting for the bobbin to run out, as I always let him press the pedal to wind it.

So with the completion of the coasters and tissue holder, I have officially finished with my Christmas gift acquisition. I still need to sew up some balls for my daughter, but I will do that at my parents' house this weekend. All other gifts are wrapped and ready for distribution. HOORAH!!

Shrinky Dink Disaster

Well, I guess it's not really a disaster. In fact, it's not even really bad. But, it has really frustrated me. In trying to come up with something I could make our parents this year for Christmas that was grandkid related, I found a tutorial on making Christmas ornaments with Shrinky Dinks. I decided to modify it a bit to make refrigerator magnets for our parents.

I soon discovered that you can't find Shrinky Dink paper in this town. When we took my son to Chuck-E-Cheese in a town nearby I stopped at Michael's to buy some of the paper. I wasn't thrilled that the price was so high not to mention that the packages only had 6 sheets of paper in them, but I had a 40 percent off one item coupon that I used to make myself feel better about it.

Last night I ventured into the world of Shrinky Dinks. I must say that it is really neat watching your pictures curl and shrink in the oven, and my son had fun watching the process. I was doing okay with everything until it came to sealing the pieces. I used the type of clear nail polish called for in the directions, but it gave the pictures a weird pink tint once it dried. Unfortunately, I had to use two sheets of paper during the testing phase of the project and the magnets used two sheets each, so I didn't have enough paper to redo the first set that was tinted pink.

I didn't seal the second set, and when I put them together I kind of used a combination of sealed and not sealed in both. The result is pretty sad. In fact, I must say that I am very disappointed in how this has turned out. But, I realize that because these have their grandchildren on them, the parents won't really look at it as a flawed piece of creativity - they will see the kids they love and that's about it. So, I will wrap them up and give them as gifts.



On a more positive note - when researching for this project (well, maybe researching isn't quite the right word) - when I was surfing the Internet reading about Shrinky Dinks - I saw several sites that explained how to make pins with them. I used a scrap piece of paper that I had left and printed on it a picture of a butterfly (I took this picture in the Spring of 2003).



I think the resulting pin is very cute!


(I do realize that the camera focused on the green fleece in this picture instead of the pin. I have a brand new digital SLR - my first one!! - but so far I haven't had time to read the manual or play with the camera, so all I have been doing is turning it to automatic and shooting. Soon...very soon...I will sit down and have fun learning all the neat things the camera will let me do.)



Were Christmas not so close and my husband not working six days this week, I might scrap the magnets altogether and make pin cushions filled with cute little flower and butterfly pins. Oh well...maybe next year!

A Productive Two Days

Thursday night I told my husband that what I needed was a babysitter for two days so I could finish the sewing I needed to do. My three year old can entertain himself while I sew, and he actually enjoys watching me, but the 11 month old makes sewing a challenge. My list of "to do" items included making my niece's Dora skirt, making six sets of coasters for teachers at church, and signing and wrapping the books we bought for the 3 year olds in the Sunday School class my husband and I teach. It was wishful thinking, of course, when I said I needed a babysitter for two days. That comment, though, led to the idea of traveling to my parents' house so they could have time with the grandchildren while I sewed.

At first, I didn't like the idea of calling my parents on Friday morning and saying "hey - can I come sew while you watch the kids?" It just didn't seem fair to me to spring that on them at the last minute. And what if they had plans for the day, etc. etc. My husband didn't feel bad about it at all though, and promptly called my parents on Friday morning. They didn't have plans, and were happy for the chance to spend time with the kids. HOORAH!! So...I drove the hour and a half to their house and spent most of Friday afternoon and Saturday morning getting my sewing done. And, after I signed the books my Mom even wrapped them for me.

I now realize that there would have been no way for me to get everything done that I needed to do had I not visited my parents. Here is a photo inventory of my accomplishments:

Dora skirt and a Dora ball:



Coasters:


Some of the books all ready to go to Sunday School tomorrow:



Whew! It feels good to have some things done. Now, the next big project is to wrap presents. I've been putting all the presents in the closet as they have been delivered (I do most of my shopping online), and haven't even started wrapping them. Maybe tomorrow we will make wrapping presents a family activity. That should be interesting...

Coasters

Many thanks to the Sew, Mama Sew! blog for posting a link to Jenny's Criss-Cross Coasters Tutorial.

I had some Charleston IV by Judie Rothermel for Marcus Brothers Fabrics charm squares that I knew would be just perfect for the coasters.



Today, I was able to get two sets of coasters made. This was a very simple and fast project, and the coasters will be Christmas presents - one set for my brother and his wife and one set for my husband's sister and her husband. The gift tags are also from Sew, Mama Sew!




I still haven't gotten that Dora fabric cut yet. Soon....very soon.

They're Not Good...They're Delicious!!

I am not a very good cook. My Mother is a wonderful cook - she just has a talent for cooking and baking. You would think I would have inherited some of that ability, but the reality is...not so much. I am trying to get better, though. I have a weird issue with smelling the food that I'm cooking and then not being able to eat it. I'm trying to get better about that too. It's just one of those weird things about me. I know that I'll never be one of those people who can just throw some ingredients together and have it turn out. My husband is one of those people. I need a recipe, and I need it to be very clear.

Last night, I decided it was time to try a recipe for sweet wafers that I have had hanging on my refrigerator for several weeks. Shortly after I started making the recipe I began thinking that it probably wasn't going to turn out very well. First of all, I don't own a pastry cutter. I used a pair of tongs with a serrated edge and a butter knife instead. Then, the dough just didn't seem "right" so I added a little extra cream. At this point, I was just ready to throw it all out, but I managed to get it looking o.k. and forged ahead. You have to leave the dough in the refrigerator for an hour, so while it was chilling, my family and I ate supper.

An hour later, the timer buzzed. Honestly, I wasn't feeling much in the mood to make cookies. I had a full tummy was rather sleepy. I asked my son if he wanted to help me, and his enthusiastic response caused me to perk up a bit.

My son got to be the "sugar man" - he dredged the cookies in sugar after I rolled and cut them out. He really liked this job, and liked it even better after my husband remembered the green sugar we had in the cabinet. Sugar is great, but green sugar is just the best!



So...we got the cookies cut out and sugared (I forgot to mention that I didn't have a cookie cutter to use so I used the lid from a baby food jar - that is the dark spot under the plastic wrap in the picture up top.). Now on to the oven. Our oven has always taken longer to cook things than recipes call f0r. This recipe says the cookies don't brown, so I was again feeling less than optimistic. How in the world am I going to know if the cookies are done if they don't get brown? So...I set the timer for the maximum time called for by the recipe and then let the cookies bake for two extra minutes.



They seemed to be done when I transferred them to wire racks to cool. I mixed up the cream filling, and can I just say that I could have eaten the whole bowl of that just by itself? I mean, powdered sugar, butter and milk - what more do you need? Yes, I have a weakness for frosting.

I assembled the cookies (they are like little sandwiches with frosting in the middle), and my son and I tested them.



OH MY - they were yummy. I gave one to my husband, and he said "these are good". I told him that "they're not good...they're delicious". My son thought that was cute so he said it too. He and I ate at least four of them a piece before I realized what we were doing and put a stop to the consumption.



When we were all done, I put the cookies in the refrigerator. This morning I had another, and another, and another. Did I mention how DELICIOUS these things are?

Here is a link to the recipe for these great little cookies. If I can make these, I know anyone can!

Running after a 3 year old and a 10 month old have left me little time for crafting the last week or so. Remember how I was bragging that our Christmas tree was going to go up the day before Thanksgiving? Well, the tree (allergies prevent a real one at our house) and the boxes of lights and ornaments all came up the day before Thanksgiving, but it took until yesterday for the tree to be completed. My contribution was to put the tree together. My son and my husband put the ornaments and lights on the tree this year. Here is the final result:




Oh, and remember that little blue tree my son and I put together? I finally made the star to go on top:




My next project is a tiered skirt for my niece. She loves Dora, so I bought some pink Dora material for her. I hope to get it finished within the next few days. I haven't even gotten the material cut yet, though, so we will have to see how that goes!