Happy Birthday Beech

Yesturday was my little guy Beech's 6th birthday--it has gone by so fast. We had a wonderful and crazy day. Here are some pix of our long day of celebrations....

Some kids request cupcakes for theirs school treat...Beech asked for a birthday alligator. This is Annabelle Karmels fruit skewer alligator--the kids always love it!

These were the little treats he handed out to his classmates.

Beech, Grand-dad, Mommy and Annie at Tenfu for Beech's birthday dinner and then Beech blowing out the candles on his birthday fried banana...

"Mom...all I want for my birthday is a nurf football and a snuggie". I just hope he does not try to play football while wearing the snuggie....

...."the party's over....all goood things must come to an end..." Beech passed out in the car after a long day of celebrating....Happy 6th buddy

It Made Me Smile

    Valentine skirts for Miss Annie and V. I am in the process of cutting and sewing a few special skirts for their valentines day presents. Here is one that I finished last night with a ruffle I made using my handy dandy ruffler…I would not normally pick this type of novelty fabric--but I know they will love it.

They-- meaning my daughter Annie and V, one of the neighborhood kids who often comes over because her mom is gone a lot. She and her brother come from a family of five kids, so how they are raised seems to be far different from how my kids are reared. –It is not better or worse, just different. Anyway, I had put up boundaries a while after they moved in because I know that I am the type of person to bring anyone into our family and adopt them. Also, selfishly on my part, they added more work to my mothering responsibilities when I am most tired--at the end of the day. They often appear at dinner time and then... it is one or two more kids asking for “more milk” “the pink plate” etc.. So, I made rules that they were only allowed over one night a week for dinner. Sure for a few months, I was happier, less stressed at dinner time, but… I did not really feel better.

   
    Then, a few weeks ago I saw a PBS documentary about how we can positively affect someone’s life who may need our help. That even the tiniest bit of attention could affect their life positively in the long run. As I watched and heard the stories of how people came out of terrible circumstances because they had some positive influence—I felt really heavy hearted. I realized that there was not a reason that I could not share some of my mothering spirit with these kids
   
    So, I have been giving a bit of attention joyfully to these kids without it being detrimental to my well being. I am just trying to make more of a point to ask them about their day, who they played with, what they ate for lunch. I have also been fortunate enough to have my sister in law’s support. Over the last two years, Elizabeth has lovingly gone through her daughter’s wardrobe searching for hand me downs for V.

    Anyway, long story short, tonight at dinner we all sat at the table and started to eat spagetti and then V reminded me that we needed to do our, “good bad day talk”. I could see that the ritual of sharing her ups and downs of her 6year old day had become important to her (it is a ritual we do every night at dinner) and maybe she would take that ritual with her as she grows up...and it made me smile.

May your hunting be inspiring, your gathering be with those you love and your stitching be blissful...

Valentine Making, Cooking Lessons and a Few Ruffles

     Happy Monday....I am not quite sure what happened to Friday? This weekend was a soulful weekend for me. I took time to do some visiting with my mom over tea--she is an avid knitter and she has a lovely home so I always love to go by and have a cuppa and a nice chat. I bought her a new book (she would never buy anything like this for herself) "Knitting Never Felt Better" by Nicky Epstein. It is a really beautiful hard cover book on knitting and the art of felting. My mom was so excited to get lost in it.
     We also stayed on our Valentine Making in the Middle of January path...the kids and I made some really cute mini valentine sugar cookies. They had lots of fun cutting them out and then decorating them. I loved that they were mini. We will probably make more closer to Valentines day itself. I think the secret to these was two things: one....we used pillsbury premade sugar dough as I was not up for the floury mess of making them from scratch and we used a deep, mini cupcake cutter; which created the perfect little cookie.

I also had a cooking lesson from my husband--I can not cook and find it is a shame fabric is NOT edible...Julian taught me how to make a French recipe he has made for us since college. It is really the dish that I believe made him fall in love with cooking. It is not actually very hard, there are just quite a few overlapping steps and you have to know how to make a roux...which is a new cooking technique for me. Anyway, I wanted to share the recipe and some shots of our cooking

you can even see the cooking splatters on the pages that have acumulated over the years. He has dragged this cook book around with us for over 15 years.

The ingredients are pretty simple and strait forward: ham, gruyer, mushrooms, flour, chicken broth and a few other basic ones.

The neat thing is once you prep it, cook it and get it in the oven...you are done. Julian has always made it for us with a salad and desert and it seems to be enough.

Anyway, I really enjoyed learning how to make it. It was really nice to spend time with Julian in the kitchen. He is such a great cook and we laugh a lot as we cook along...All in all, it was a nice, quiet weekend. I did manage to get a few more ruffles made and I am working on a new sewing project and pattern to incorporate them into.

This is a ruffle made with a 1 stitch--so gathered stitch by stitch...it is pretty, but probably not as useful.

This sweet little pink one is for the project I am currently working on and it is gathered ever 6 stitches which seems to be may favorite setting.

So this weekend was a soul filling gathering of cooking and crafting projects and a bit of stitching ruffles.

     

    Happy Hunting for what ever inspires you, Gathering with the ones you love and Stitching with whatever fiber allows you to find your bliss

What Do You Get With Glitter, Glue, Stamps and a Good Cuppa Coffee...?

    Well the kids woke up insanely early this morning. Bleary eyed, with coffee in hand (me of course) we had quite a morning. We pulled out some of our crafting stash --glue, ink, stamps and glitter. We covered our kitchen table with our art table cloth. We have had it 5 years…it is covered in glue, paste, glitter and paint and it is still going strong(best 5 bucks I ever spent)! Then, I got out all of the stuff I had purchased for the kids to make valentines for their classmates and …away they stamped; while we drank our much needed coffee.

    The kids used this cool heart stamp that has four different heart shapes on it and they let loose on blank sheets of heavy paper. It was great because Annie (my 2 year old) had plenty of surface to get messy and creative with her stamping---some ink on the stamp…lots on her. Then the kids used glitter glue with hearts in it to paint over their pretty stamps. In the end, when they dry they can cut them out and tie them with ribbon to their friends little valentine presents.

    We also got our Valentine decorations out and the kids put them up all around the house. Die cut cupids and hearts are taped to the windows. A shimmery, red foil wreath is hung on our gate and heart shaped cookie plates are all strewn around the house. Needless to say, we are getting ready for valentines day around here….at 7am on Saturday morning….in the middle of January….

Yikes...Klink, Clank.....?

    So I have been playing around with my ruffler. However, I forgot to share that before we got this ruffler foot (for my anniversary present) we picked one up at Joanne Fabrics. It was just one of their standard ones. I tried to use it, but I heard a terrible clanging noise and promptly stopped running it. Then, I purchased one at a high end fabric store—again it was a standard ruffler and I brought it home, attached it to my Viking and “kink, clank, Klink, CLANK…” Ugh…So the next Saturday, I took my machine to the sewing/ fabric store and I purchased a Viking Ruffler. Alas, I brought it home, hooked it up and “duht, duht, duht” it went…nice and quietly. So, I wanted to share this information about Rufflers in case anyone out there also decides to go hunting for one….as my quest was so frustrating.
   
     The first thing I have decided to make with my ruffler is yardage of ruffle. I can use it on my little aprons, pants or skirts for Tuffy. So I took a few yards of different fabrics (I chose pinks, blues and browns) folded them, used a rotary cutter and cut 4 inch strips. I sewed them together (RS’s), ironed the long strips lengthwise WS together. Then, I ran them through the gathering foot.

I learned that the fabric must be fed through the bottom two plates, so that the small piece that moves the fabric can gather it ever so many stitches. You also have choices for gathering every 0, 12, 6 and 1 stitche. 12 seems to be a soft gather, 6 seems to be more boxy (and my favorite). Anyway, I am enjoying making my yardage of ruffles, I think they will be so handy to have in my sewing accessory box. Now I have to figure out how to sew them on to different things for Tuffy!

A Ruffler Please...?

    
       A few months ago I became very intrigued with ruffles and my husband bought me a ruffler for my anniversary present. I know….why not jewelry or chocolate right? Instead I ask for a ruffler foot for my sewing machine? Well I have to believe that a fancy sewing accessory for a crafter is like a pair of Jimmy Choos for a shoe lover or a Tiffany bracelet for a jewelry junkie.  As for me….my weakness is sewing or knitting accoutrements….such as a beautiful, antique thimble or a vintage darning egg…who knows? Anyway, I don’t have many fancy feet for my machine, so this was a wonderful present! And naturally I did what I probably would have done with jewelry---I took the ruffler out of its box, used it once or twice…ogled it and the put it away to use for a special occasion…..crazy huh?

       So, I have decided I probably will not be attending any black tie ruffle events anytime soon. So I am going to spend some time on ruffles learning about what makes them tick. They are such a neat thing to have around for the types of things I like to sew—they are a great accessory for my aprons, skirts and little pants that I like to make for Miss Annie AKA “tuffy”. So now I have it out, I just have to figure out what to do with it?

Yummy Golden Pancakes

This weekend my little boy, Beech had his first sleepover with his best buddy Steven. They had a blast playing the Wii, hanging out eating dinner and coloring--I could not believe that we are here already. It seems like yesterday I was taking him for his first day of preschool. Anyway, when the boys went to sleep, I stayed up chatting in the kitchen with my husband, flipping pancake attempting to carry on my moms pancake tradition.

When I was a young girl and had sleepovers with my buddies, my mom would make piles of chocolate chip pancakes for us. (She worked more than full time supporting my brother and I on her own, so weekends were treasured moments with her). And...now I could not wait to make my own pile of pancakes for the kiddos. It was so cool to watch them wake up the next morning—walk into the kitchen bleary eyed and find lots of yummy pancakes.

I don’t know why moments like these are always so special…somehow stepping into my moms shoes and carrying on tradition is always so important to me.—thanks mom for instilling them…. I love this Golden Pancake recipe so much I wanted to share it. I found it online a few years ago. (I can't make my moms pancake recipe because she just uses a pinch of this and a bit of that for her recipe and I have never been able to successfully replicate it.) The recipe below was submitted by Ann Thomas. Thanks Ann... my little kiddos just wolf these good, ol’ cakes down!

Golden Pancakes

SUBMITTED BY: Ann Thomas

"My mother made these delicious pancakes way back in the Depression years. She beat the batter by hand, but I use my blender. It does a great job in breaking down the cottage cheese for a smooth batter. -Ann Thomas, Telford, Pennsylvania"

Original recipe yield:

5 servings

INGREDIENTS

• 6 eggs

• 1 cup creamed cottage cheese

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

• 1/4 cup milk

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS

1. In a blender, combine all ingredients. Cover and process on the highest speed for 1 minutes. Pour batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto a greased hot griddle. Turn when bubbles form on top; cook until second side is golden brown.

***for a special treat, I add the mini chocolate chips…and they freeze beautifully

Ahh..Lots of Neat Storage...

     A hunting we will go....a hunting we will go...Lately, I have been looking for some different type of storage solutions for my MAD room. I have little things that I have to go looking for when I am finishing an apron order such as; safety pins, iron on labels, stamps etc. I have decided that these things need a more organized home. Currently, I have a large butcher block in my studio and these little bits and bobs float around in various drawers. However, I also am learning from having a fledgling buisness that not being well organized can indeed hold me up. When I am finishing aprons, I often have to hunt for all of these little things, get them out, use them and then put them away.

   So, I went on a mission, latte in hand, searching my favorite haunts for unusual, yet practical storage containers and I found some charming things. Whenever I am shopping for eccelctic stuff, I do not think very much about what I am purchasing—Rather, I buy a load of things that look interesting and I figure out what to do with them when I get them home. So, I found a spice rack on a lazy Suzan, a neat wooden box and an old cigar box.—Ahh…lots of neat storage…

And while nursing a cold this weekend, I have been puttering around my little studio trying to figure out what to do with these new treasures ( I have been too sniffley to sew). For the spice rack, I decided to use it for those little things that float around. I re-labeled the lids with white pinked, white labels and put pins, glitter, safety pins, beads, sequins, and bobbins in the little glass jars---I LOVE that it turns around on the lazy Suzan.

Now the wooden box is my coolest treasure. I suspect is may have been a tailoring supply box for a sewing company and it fits all of my scissors beautifully! It is sized perfectly for scissors.

        Last, there is my cliché cigar box. I have recently started adding glitter to my labels or vintage items to add a bit of magic to them and the cigar box holds the glitter tubes like it was made for them.

   Anyway, my studio has morphed over time. When I first set it up, I did not know how to make creative and inspiring choices for furniture or storage. Orriginally, I went to IKEA and purchased a few things, but over time I realized that was not my taste and I needed a surrounding that was more asthetically pleasing. So, I turned to flea market books and vintage living blogs to see how other people set up their studios (I would get lost in the ecclectic images of the blogs). Now time has passed and I have made many changes based on what does and does not work. I thought I would share some of these ideas in case there is anyone out there who is new to creating a room of their own…

A Prayer for Haiti

These past 24 hours have really made me think a lot life and what I contribute as a person, as a mom. I have been watching the tragic footage on tv of Haiti--and I have shed many tears. Haiti was already so challenged as a country, I can not fathom how it will regain its strength? The images on TV of people helping each other just to stay alive and all of the millions already donated to the Red Cross have been amazing and truly moving. Anyway, I wanted to dedicate my post tonight as a gathering of prayers and strength for anyone searching for loved ones in Haiti and to all of the Haitians.

There are many ways to donate to the red cross and today is a vital day to make the donation--as the Haitian search and rescue time is running out. http://www.redcross.org/

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tunes without the words, and never stops at all.


Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) American poet.

A Good Days Work...

A few days ago I took some pictures for my little etsy shop. I was photographing the pink girls cupcake apron. I added some cupcakes with butter cream frosting and pretty pink balloons to the picture.

 After my picture session, I picked up the kids and ran Beech to the hospital for his doctors appointment. He has a myriad of medical issues, so he goes the childrens hospital. After his appointment, we went back to Nan Nans house (that's my mom). She lives near LPCH childrens hospital and we had a little tea party.

My mom grew up during the war and very poor. She never had any childhood, so she is always doing wonderful things to make our childrens childhood....MAGICAL (never letting her inner child go). A few years ago, she transformed one of the rooms in her house into a Alice in Wonderland Tea Room. She has all of the costumes and accessories to boot. If you are invited to a tea party, she decorates her house with trees, snow and signs that say...."This way to the rabbit hole...". Her little tea parties are magical--she bakes little treats, serves real rasberry tea and ice cream. On the table, she has several antique shakers in the form of the Alice characters with different flavors of powdered sugar for the ice cream: chocolate, strawberry, vanilla....

So, I decided to take the cupcakes from my little shoot for the apron to my moms. After Beech's doctors appointment, we all went into the rabbit hole and ate the piled high...butter cream frosted cakes and had berry juice. It was charming to see the kids enjoying the MAD cupcakes that I had photographed earlier that day. --

To complete the whole adventure for the children, Nan nan even had a hole cut into the door that you must climb through if you want to have tea because once apon a time...Alice fell through therabbit  hole and went on an amazing adventure---just as my children always do at their Nan Nans house...

New Years Resolution--How Sweet it is.

    


I have been thinking a lot about new years resolutions. In the years past, I have never really bothered to make any. However, this year there is a lot of change for me and I thought it would be appropriate to make one or two really meaningful resolutions. After much thought and consideration about this juncture of my life--Beech having just started elementary school and now Miss Fancy Pants starting preschool--it feels like the kids are launched into a new place in their lives. My little MAD Stitches is slowly growing a bit more and I am gearing up to settle in for the winter and sew, sew, sew for spring. As for my J, all seems to be status quo with him too. So after much reflection, I feel the two things I would love to tackle and improve are 1) my ability to finish up little things before I head onto the next thing 2) To learn to cook...... I would like to free my family of the only four recipes I know how to cook--ribs, spagetti, chicken legs and mac and cheese. There have been times I have actually considered that I am missing the "cooking gene".

    I think the problem I struggle with is I need to embrace cooking like anything else that is creative--So, a few days ago I hit the book stores and found the Farm Chicks book to be increadibly inspiring and SO cute! I have already started to collect, cute vintage glass jars to store flour and sugar in.
                                                                                 

I also found, "Apples for Jam" by Tessa Kiros. The book itself is really beautiful. Along with handed down recipes, she also offers sweet pictures and stories of her childhood. It is divided up by colors; whites, browns, and so on. Tonight, for our family meal ( our parents come over for Sunday dinner...usually ribs or spagetti) I made her Cottage Pie with beef, onions, potatoes and lots of really cool spices. As for dessert, I baked her Honey cake. The picture in her book is so cute--it is truly a happy picture. I had to use a bundt pan instead of a spring form pan which she suggests. After it came out of the oven, everyone came into the kitchen because they wanted to smell it--it made my kitchen smell like warm milk and honey.
                                                                                 

Beech helped me make the frosting which was a fresh lemon butter cream--he absolutely adored putting all of the little heart candies on top! I am looking forward to trying more recipes as the year progresses.