Wishing you a fabulous fourth! God Bless America!
If you’re still looking for a recipe, check out this cute one linked on How About Orange. Not sure I would want to eat chocolate chips in jello, but the kid’s would love it!
You know, to make up for all the ice cream we’ve been eating! 
Growing up, I was often a little bit annoyed by my mom’s attempts to make our food healthier. It wasn’t until I had kids of my own that I understood. We don’t eat perfectly by any means…pretty badly by some standards. We go through a fair amount of white sugar, eat white flour in quite a few things, and eat quite a bit of red meat. But I do try and serve a wide variety of fruits and veggies and I attempt to incorporate whole grains as much as possible. Lately I’ve been doing a lot of reading about soaking whole grains. I had heard of this before but had kind of dismissed it as not necessary. But the more I read about it, the more I was convinced that if I was going to go to the trouble of whole grains, I should do all I can to get as much nutrition as possible out of them!
So far I’ve tried oatmeal (a little tart from the yogurt, but great texture and the kids didn’t mind), granola (Not so good….very hard to chew and I’m afraid we like a bit more sweetener in ours), pancakes (good, but I want to use real buttermilk next time), and whole wheat bread (yummy….every bit as good as un-soaked!). I’m really wanting to figure out the granola bit, because I really don’t love oatmeal that much, especially in the summer. But I am so thrilled to have perfect whole wheat bread. The first recipe I tried was okay, but not nearly as good as our normal bread. And some of the loaves I’ve seen pictured on the internet…well….I’m glad they like them, but they looked more like quick bread to me! But these loaves were easy to shape, rose beautifully and are so yummy!
Soaked Whole Wheat Pankcakes (Can’t remember where I got this)
2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour
2 Cups Buttermilk
Stir together and let sit covered overnight.
In the morning add:
2 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Tsp Salt
2 Eggs
6 Tbsp Melted Butter
Cook on griddle or in greased pan.
Here is a link to another granola recipe. I haven’t tried this one yet, but her bread recipe was so good, I have high hopes for it.
Hard to beat homemade ice cream!
Rocky Road Ice Cream
1/3 c unsweetened cocoa powder 2 c whipping cream
1 c sugar 1 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped into little bits
2 c milk 1 c mini marshmallows
1 tsp vanilla 1/2 c chopped nuts
In a large saucepan, mix cocoa powder and sugar. Stir in milk and heat on low until sugar disolves. Let cool to room temp and stir in remaining ingredients. Freeze according to your ice cream maker’s directions. Enjoy!
(anyone have any advice on inserting videos into WordPress blogs? I’m not really happy with how this one looks like an advertisement, not to mention it took me almost a half hour to format this post and it still doesn’t look the way I would like!)
Like I mentioned before, during the last month and half I worked on sewing for a SWAP on Sewing Mamas. SWAP stands for “Sewing with a Plan”. So instead of just randomly sewing up clothes for yourself that don’t go with anything else you’ve made, you actually plan it out beforehand. I’ve been trying to learn to sew for myself, so I decided this would be the perfect challenge for me. I honestly don’t think I can say that I “LOVE” any of the things I’ve made. I would probably make little (or not so little) changes on every single piece. But it was a huge learning experiece for me and I’m glad I did it.
Part of my challenge was using mostly fabrics I already had. This wasn’t required (or even encouraged), but I certainly have enough fabric already. I don’t have all that much mama appropriate fabric and I think my SWAP would have turned out better if I had bought fabric for it, but it was nice to use up some long-stored fabrics. We had to make 4 knit tops, 2 woven tops, a dress, a jacket, and 4 bottoms.
For the knit tops, I sewed one new pattern, one already tried pattern, and one copy of RTW. I reviewed several patterns on Pattern Review and all of them on Sewing Mamas, so I won’t do a real in-depth review here.
I used Jalie 2806 for two of my tops. I ommited the gathers and raised the neckline for one and followed the pattern exactly for the other. This pattern didn’t fit me without some tweaks, but they were easy enough and I know I will be coming back to this pattern again and again. The neckline is too low for my taste, so next time I do the gathered version I will be raising it.
As you can see on the hearts version, I did a really poor job with the neckline. I’m still learning how to do knit binding (actually, any binding is my nemesis!) and this was probably my all time worst example. I didn’t serge it, because I plan on ripping it out and finishing it on my mom’s coverstitch. We had sick kids when I was finishing this up and I wasn’t able to get over to her house to do that the first time. I copied one of my favorite shirts for the arms and hemline. You can’t see it in the photo, but you just take two strips of the fabric, about 1″ wide or so (I can’t remember the exact width) and serge them on (length will depend on the stretchiness of the knit). It gives kind of an interesting raw-edge finish.
The brown top is another version of the Puffed Sleeve top from Ottobre 2-2008. I don’t love it and I’m not really sure why. I loved this fabric and I love the style, but for some reason I think it looks kind of sloppy. I could have added an inch of length to it, too. I must have deleted any other photos of this top, because this is the only one I can find.
This red tank was a copy from one of my favorite shirts. It has a cute gathered detail at the shoulders that you can’t really see in the picture. I think it would have worked better in a lighter weight knit…it didn’t really gather as nicely as the original. I only had a small piece of this red knit, so I had to add the brown at the bottom.
Well, lazy me is finally sitting down to write this long overdue post. I haven’t felt like blogging lately, and as many times I’ve tried to make myself sit down and write, I’ve just given up every time. But enough procrastinating.
First off, I wanted to thank a few people for awards and giveways. Ok…I’m sounding like I’m accepting an Oscar….anyway.
Thanks to Peggy for the Renee Award.
Thanks to Jennifer at CraftSanity for Alicia Paulson’s “Stitched in Time” and to Diane at CrafyPod for Betz White’s “Sewing Green“. I feel very blessed to receive such lovely books!
I’ve been doing a lot of sewing for a SWAP that just wrapped up on SewingMamas. SWAP stands for Sewing with a Plan. The idea is to sew a 12-piece wardrobe of mix and match items. This particular SWAP consisted of four T-shirt tops, two woven tops, a dress, a jacket, and 4 bottoms. I didn’t win (umm….I think I came in last….sigh!), but I did learn a lot and I came away with some new clothes. I’ll be posting about the things I made in the next few days.
I also want to come back and post about the tutorial requests that were made in the giveaway comments. Many of the tutorials that you are looking for already exist. So I’ll be posting links to those. Perhaps I’ll even find time to work on a new one of my own.
This little guy stopped off in our lawn. We thought he might be hurt, he sat there so long, but a little later he flew away.
It’s been much to nice out here to sit inside and blog, but I can’t miss up the opportunity to mention this giveaway. If you’ve never visited Shabby Apple, you are in for a treat. They have some of the most adorable dresses I’ve ever seen! This dress is one of my favorites. The best part, they’ve giving away a dress on Grosgrain. Click here to enter.
Comment number three!….Katherine! How cool is that!….she’s one of my Sew Craft Blog Group.
I think I got enough comments to merit a second giveaway. This one is a surprise yard of another Alexander Henry print and it is going to number eleven….Janet! And bless Random.org for giving me such easy comments to find! I sure wish my blog theme came with numbered comments! Be sure and check out both of these ladies blogs. I’ve only visited Janet’s blog once, but she entered my giveaway, right, so she must have good taste! And I know Katherine is a talented gal.
Thanks for all the comments. I’m looking forward to checking out all your blogs. I’m also going to do a post of tutorials, featuring some of the ones you’ve been looking on. And hopefully one of these days I can add another tutorial of my own! Now I’m heading outside to enjoy this sunny weather we’ve been having.
CLOSED TO COMMENTS! I’ll be drawing a name later today.
Welcome, those of you visiting for the first time from Sew Mama Sew. I’m glad you’re here!
I’m using this giveaway post as an excuse to get back into blogging. I haven’t posted since the beginning of May *blush*, even though I’ve been sewing quite a bit.
For those of you who are new here, I’m a Christian, wife to my smart computer husband, mommy to three sweet boys, sometime Etsy shop owner (umm….kind of pathetic when my last update was!), seamstress/sewer/whatever the right word is, quilter, baker, homeschooler, reader, babywearer, a little bit crunchy, country girl living in the suburbs. I mostly blog about my sewing, though I reserve the right to post about whatever I feel like.
And now, the real reason you came here! I’m giving away one yard of this sweet Alexander Henry print, Very Berry. This would make a cute little girl’s dress. I’ll also throw in some random goodies. If there are a lot of comments, I might even do a second giveaway.
To enter, just leave a comment. Edited to add: If you already entered, you’re all good. But if you haven’t, when you leave a comment let me know what you would like to see a tutorial for. Or, if you have no idea, just let me know your favorite thing you’ve ever sewed! To earn 10 extra entries, link to this entry on your blog or Twitter. Just let me know by leaving another comment. Disclaimer garbage: sorry, only open to USA (unless you want to pay shipping difference)! Giveaway ends Sunday night or when I pick a winner, whichever comes last!
Come back later this week (or maybe next week….I’m trying to finish up a mini-wardrobe and I’m making jeans!) for an even better and bigger giveaway!
just in case you were wondering! Is it just me, or has it been crazy busy lately? I still am planning on wrapping up last month’s scheduling posts, not to mention the giveaway I keep hinting at. But in the meantime (and no promises about when I get around to posting!), if you want to vote for me I would sure love it. Sorry for the tiny picture….I should have cropped it. I’m in group 4, if you care.
