Posting

I just wanted to let everyone know that I will not be posting again until after Christmas.  I will be induced tomorrow and will not get out of the hospital until Thursday or Friday and then Christmas will be here.  So it will be the week after Christmas when I post again.  I will post with pictures of finished projects as well as pictures of our daughter. 

I hope that everyone has a wonderful week and a Merry Christmas.

Lacie

Tuesdays Recipe - Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip cookies

We absolutely love this recipe.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 C Flour

1 tsp Baking soda

3/4 C Sugar

1/2 C Applesauce

2 Egg yolks

2 C Whole Wheat Flour

1 tsp Salt

3/4 C Brown Sugar

1/2 C Butter

1 tsp Vanilla

Chocolate Chips

Mix everything together and cook for 13-18 minutes at 375 degrees.

I have tweaked this recipe a few times.  With the applesauce you can cut out a little more of the sugar if you want.  We still like a little sugar.  If you cut out the sugar I would start in small amounts until you find what you like.  These are very yummy and our favorites.  I do warn you though if you like to eat the dough.  This dough isn't very tasty but the cookies are.  You can either buy whole wheat flour or grind your own. 

I hope that you all enjoy these cookies.  If you make them and like them let us know by leaving a comment.

Christmas Dress finished.

Ok so last time I posted I commented on 3 new projects that I was working on and wanting to get done before Christmas.  One of them is finished, One almost finished, and one not started yet.

I started working on the Christmas dress last Monday and finished it yesterday before Church.  It was really fun to make and even better when it turned out so cute.  It is a little bit bigger than my daughter but that way she can wear it again next year.

Today I will finish her bathrobe and get the material cut out for the babies outfit.  I also think I'll sew some tabs on one of the baby blankets so it will attach to the top of the car seat.

I'll keep everyone posted and pictures put up when things are done.

Newest Projects

Sorry I haven't blogged much the last week or so.  I've been trying to get as much done as I can before this baby comes.  I've been trying to spend more quality time with my daughter, clean, sew, pack bags, finish getting things ready for Christmas, and doctor appointments.

This week after my doctor appointment my daughter and I went to Joann's to get some material for a Christmas dress and had so much fun.  We spent over an hour in the store.  I found 3 very cute patterns that I bought and then we had to get material for each of them.

I started out looking for material for the Christmas dress first but just couldn't find what I wanted so we started looking for cute material for this outfit.  I went over to the fleece and walked through the material and finally found a few that I liked and let my daughter pick which one it would be.  She chose this pink material and I think it will be very cute.

While in the fleece department I decided to get the material for this cute pattern.  My husband and I found some very cute ducky slippers in the LTD Commodities catalog and they even make sounds when you touch the duckies.  We ordered them for her for Christmas so I thought a robe would go nicely with the slippers.  My daughter even picked out the ducky material without help from me.  It was cute and she will love it.

When I was done getting zippers and bias binding tape I finally pulled this pattern out again and started trying to decide what I wanted to do for the Christmas dress.  The selection was getting smaller and smaller at Joann's so I wasn't left with much.  I wasn't sure I wanted green and red and they had some cute black and grey material in the Christmas section but this snowflake material kept catching my eye.  I asked my daughter if she wanted snowflakes and she did so we picked it out and then the long process for me of finding the lining material.  I actually forgot the contrast material for the tie ends and had this pretty sky blue already in my stash.  The dress I am making is the one second one down on the right that has sleeves and a bow.  I still haven't decided on the bow yet.  I have the top done and after looking at all the measurements for all the material I forgot to look at the Tulle.  So tonight I will be going back for more Tulle to finish this adorable dress.  I am very excited.

Since I didn't have enough tulle today I worked on the bathrobe and it was so easy and fast that in the 1 1/2 hours that my daughter slept I almost finished it.  I decided I had better blog before I forgot again.  I will take pictures and blog about the finished projects as soon as I finish each one. 

I hope that everyone is ready for Christmas and enjoying this Christmas season.

Tuesdays Recipe - Shepards Pie

Don't let the title foo you this is not a desert. :)

Shepard's Pie

3/4 - 1 lb Hamburger

1 Can Green Beans (Juice to)

1 Can Tomato Soup

Mashed Potatoes

Grated cheese (opt)

First you brown the hamburger and then add the green beans and tomato soup.

You should also make mashed potatoes.  You can use real potatoes or dried potatoes.

Pour the hamburger mix into a 9x13 dish.

Top with the Mashed potatoes.

Sprinkle with cheese if you want.

Bake for 20 minutes at 350.

This dish is very easy and very quick to make.  It can feed many people.  It can be used as the entire meal or you can also make other sides to go with it.  We make this fairly often because we really like it and it doesn't take too much effort on my part. lol.

Hope you enjoy.

My randomness....

So, I'm laying in bed last night and ask my husband...."When does winter actually start here (in Owasso, Ok)?"  There was a pause and then he answered "This is their winter".  Well that was a bummer because I love cold weather during the winter months but at the same time it will allow me to continue to exercise outside after the baby is born.  There are days when it gets pretty cold and then after a couple days it warms back up to perfect weather.  I am from Idaho and we get snow and ice and cold weather and I will miss it. 
Here I hear that they get maybe a snowstorm a year and periodically ice storms.  So we shall see.  The other thing I'm noticing is that I can't seem to find any of the yummy chocolate oranges that are around for Christmas.  I have looked at Walmart each week, CVS, and Walgreens.  Someone recommended Target and low an behold they had them but all they had left was the mint ones.  It is interesting how places are different.  We actually really like it here in Owasso.  Very nice town, not too big, and very nice people here.  Lots of trees which hide the fact that it is fairly flat here.

I am so excited to start running again.  I have already started looking for races next year.  I would like to eventually run a full Marathon but I think my first goal will be to run half a marathon.  I ran a 10K and loved it.  My husband doesn't really like to run but is thinking about starting when I can start running.  It would be so nice to run together. 

Christmas is coming and we are so excited.  Each year gets better and better the longer we are married.  We are excited to watch Sarah come out and see the gifts from Santa on the couch.  Last year she opened her gifts really well but now that she is older there should be more enthusiasm.  She has done very good at not trying to open the presents under the Christmas tree.  She periodically asks if she can and I tell her she can't until Christmas and she goes off and plays with something else.  I think the fact that she knows she will get to open them is why she hasn't tried opening them yet.  I'm sure each year will be different especially as we have more children. 

Well I am 37 weeks and 5 days pregnant today and very much ready for this lil girl to come.  Yesterday I was so tired and felt like I was getting sick and I felt like I did after I had had Sarah.  I was so sore and achy.  I got a few things done in the morning but the afternoon was pretty much dead.  I can tell that she is cramped.  Last night she was proving that.  She has already dropped which should give a little more room but she was hitting my bladder and kicking my ribs at the same time.  Normally she just bumps into my ribs periodically but it was like she was trying to tell me that she is way too cramped......I keep telling her that she is in charge of when she comes and Sarah keeps asking her to come out so she can see her.  So if she is cramped it is her fault lol.  Today I have had so much energy and although I still feel a little sore and achy it is not nearly as bad as yesterday.  I am slowing down as the day goes on.  I don't remember nesting with Sarah but I think I have nested this week.  I started Wednesday and got some stuff done and yesterday nothing and then this morning I cleaned the entire house including showers and tubs, door knobs, floor boards, dusting, vacuuming, mopping, laundry, disinfecting, etc.  I just keep finding things to do.  I need to sew but I just feel like I should clean first.

Well I think I could ramble a book so I had better stop here.
Oh and I will probably not be posting anything else to my store until January.  I will try to keep everyone updated on that.  I am going to start sewing more table runners and leave the bibs alone unless I get any requests.  I will start doing kitchen themes.  Here are a few themes that I have come up with or have heard about : Apple, Rooster, Grapes, Pigs, Bears and outdoorsy.  If you have any other ideas or know of any other themes please let me know so I have more ideas.  I'll do each theme as I find cute material. 
I am also thinking about making reversible holiday table runner for the upcoming holidays.  I'll keep y'all posted as I am working on them.

New posts to my store

Ok well you saw a picture of the different towels that I was turning into pull over bibs.  Now they are finished and posted at my store.  Come check them out.  They turned out very cute.  I went with a different softer towel than normal and loved it.  I think I will stick to that in the future.  They shed a lot but when I was done serging they stopped shedding. 

I have listed 4 new pullover bibs.  One pink baby girls bib, one pink striped toddler pullover bib, one solid red bib that can be used for girls or boys, and one green striped bib.

They are great to have at your house for your own children or if you babysit.  If you watch your grand kids they are also great to have on hand.  They are all machine washable and very durable.

They have knit collars so they are soft on the neck and very easy to put on and off.

Come check them out and spread the word.

These are only two of the 4 bibs.  Check out my store to see the other two.  www.IdahoAtHeart.etsy.com.

I finished three Christmas presents.

 I finished these 3 toddler aprons for some friends of ours.  They have 3 adorable little girls and I wanted to make them for Christmas.  Each are different as you can see.  The top one has a ducky and some flowers.
The middle one has butterflies.

The bottom one has flowers growing out of the pocket.  They were fun to make and I'm learning more and more about appliques.

I hope to make more like these for my store but with Christmas right around the corner I think it will have to wait until the new year.

Tuesdays Recipe - Tater Tot Casserole

If your looking for an easy dinner try this.  There are two ways to make it and both are delicious.  The ingredients are the same just made a little differently.

Tater Tot Casserole

1 pkg Tater tots

1 Can Cream of Mushroom Soup

3/4 - 1 lb ground beef.

Grated cheese

1st way:  Brown the burger then mix in the cream of mushroom soup.

Add a little water so not so thick.

Put in greased 9x13 pan.

Layer tater tots on top of meat mixture.  Grate cheese on top.

Bake for 20 minutes at 350.

2nd way:  Do not brown burger.  Spread out on bottom of 9x13.

Chop an onion and mix with the Cream of mushroom soup.  Pour mixture on top of burger.

Salt and pepper.  You can add green beans or corn at this point.

Layer the tater tots on top and grate cheese on top.

Bake at 350 or 375 for 40-60 minutes or until burger is done and tater tots are cooked.

Either way tastes really good.  I started making it the second way so I didn't have to brown the burger first.  You can also shred cheese under and over the tater tots.  I say 350 or 375  because I haven't fine tuned it yet.  Basically you cook it until the burger is cooked and the tater tots are done.

You can eat this as an entire meal or as a main course and cook other vegetables as the sides.  Hope you enjoy.  If you try it and like it let me know.

New Toddler Pullover bibs available now.

I just finished four new Toddler pullover bibs.  They are available at my store.  Two are white with red and grey stripes and two are white with blue and green stripes.  They can be used for boys or girls.  They are made from kitchen towels and have been pre-washed.  The color is made from knit so it stretches.

They make great gifts to people who have toddlers or to grandparents.  They are great to have on hand when food is involved.  My daughter hates wearing the ones with ties, snaps or Velcro.  She was always pulling them off.  These pullover bibs however are so nice because she feels so independent.  She can put them on and take them off by herself and where she has favorite shirts now she doesn't like to get them dirty.

They are fun to make and fun for the kids to use.  We have saved several shirts when eating oatmeal and spaghetti.  When they get dirty just throw them in the wash.

A new Treasury on Etsy.

With all the Christmas talk and buying presents for Christmas lets not forget that there are a lot of people including children who have birthdays this month.  Here are some cute ideas to help get you all started with those wonderful birthdays.  Boys and girls alike are represented in this treasury.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4cfc6cf174626d9133675027/childrens-birthdays-in-december

Come check it out and spread the word to help others find those gifts as well.

Pullover Bib Tutorial

This is a post where I show you how to make pull over bibs.  I do sell them at my store to make things simple but for those of you who like to sew and learn new things.  I thought I would share this with you.  I have broke it down into 12 simple steps with pictures.

Step 1

Pick your towel.  The one in this tutorial is a hand towel from Target.  It was the perfect size for a baby pull over towel.  You can also cut bigger towels into smaller ones to make more.

Step 2

You need to decide how much of the bib you will want on the back of the head and then fold it that much.

Step 3

Before this step you need to decide how big your neck hole is going to be.  I have mine drawn out on parchment paper.  You only need to draw half of it and then place it on the fold and pin in place.

Step 4

Once you have it pinned in place.  Cut the hole out.

Step 5

Now you need to mark it evenly into fourths.  If you mark it while it is already folded and then match those pins in the opposite direction and mark the other sides it works really well and quickly.

Steps 6 & 7

Then you need to measure out the knit.  It needs to be 3/4 of the measurement plus 1 inch.  If you measure from one pin around to the last pin, leaving a gap between the last pin and the first it works really well. 

Then you need to fold the knit in half and serge the end closed.

Steps 8 & 9

Know you open up the knit and fold the edges up together.  Then you need to also pin it into fourths.  The serged edge can count as 1 of the fourths.  Then you match the pins up on the knit necking to the pins already marked on the towel.

Steps 10 & 11

Now you serge around the neck edge.  Make sure you stretch the towel to match the knit.  Keep all the edges nicely lined up.  When you get to the start - keep stitching for about an inch.  Then stitch until you get a tail so you can finish off the threads.



Your finished and it looks great.



Now that you have finished serging just check the top side to make sure that you don't have any bunches and that you haven't missed any parts of it while serging.  When you iron it just don't iron the folded edge of the knit and it will look really good.  Now you can embellish or leave as is.

Some other options

Something else I like to do is buy the bigger towels and cut them in half.  Then you can fold and sew the cut edges and make two of the toddler pull over bibs out of one towel.



I hope that you have enjoyed the tutorial.  Like I said, I do sell them at my store for your convenience.  If you have questions please feel free to contact me.  The bib seen in the tutorial is a baby pullover bib and will be available Monday in my store so come check it out.

I finally finished the Cushions!!

Ok so I know that a few weeks ago I posted a picture of a cushion that I was planning on covering.  We have two cushions and we bought enough material to cover both of them.  We ended up standing them up in the corner in the living room so I wouldn't forget they were there. Well a week or so went by and I hadn't even started on them.  I had other projects that I deemed more important.  One weekend my husband really wanted me to work on them so he took care of our daughter and allowed me pretty much the whole day to work on it.  After a few trials and errors I finally got one finished and figured out how to do it.  I figured that the second one wouldn't take more than a couple of hours to sew plus the time to cut the material.

So my original goal was to have them both completely done by the end of November and I was one day late.  So I can't be too hard on myself.  They turned out great and we love them.

We used heavier more upholstery like material and stronger thread on them so they would last.  We did stripes on the top and sides and solid colors on the bottom.  One has a brownish cream color on the bottom and the other has a dark brown on the bottom.  We wanted them to match but the store only had so much of each material.  In my measurements I added just a little to allow for pulling on the material when moving around on them.  That is the ripples that you can see in the pictures but when you lay on them it tightens up but doesn't rip anything and it allows for the movement.

I also put a zipper in it.  The original cushions that my Grandmother in law made didn't have zippers and they worked great but we would wake up with a gap in between the cushions and one of us would inevitable be sleeping in that crack.  So I sewed a sleeping bag zipper to them.  When we zipped them up we were very proud of our idea.  They will not be spreading apart any time soon.  Also because of the placement of the zipper they fold on top of each other without having to unzip them for a double layer and for storage under our bed.

I learned a lot from sewing these.  I learned that sewing 3D isn't as hard as it may appear but it just takes time and thinking before acting.  That was my problem with the first one and the trials and errors.  I would sew and then go "oops" ad start picking.

I even have some left over material so I might be making some other cushions with the left overs.

Tuesday's Recipe on Wednesday

Sorry for going MIA for the last few days.  I have had no energy and when I do have energy I've been finishing up some Christmas gifts and spending time with my daughter.

The recipe that I want to share today is one that I hadn't eaten in probably 8 years.  My mom used to make it after we would cook a turkey - so usually after Thanksgiving.  It is a good use of left over turkey.  I don't know what the original recipe is so I'll call it:

Broccoli, Turkey and Rice dish

Turkey cooked

Broccoli

2 C rice cooked

1 Onion chopped

2 Cans Cream of Chicken soup

1 1/2 C sour cream

1 C butter

Sunflower seeds

1/3 C lemon juice

Ritz or saltine crackers

Shredded cheese

You can use as much or as little turkey and broccoli as you want.  My mom used to put the turkey in sandwich bags and freeze them.  Her recipe calls for one bag from the freezer.

I bought the broccoli prepackaged at Walmart.  It came with two heads.  Chop the broccoli up into smaller pieces and boil until soft.

Add turkey and onion to the broccoli and cook.

Once everything is cook mix together in bowl with sour cream, cream of chicken soup and 1/2 C butter.

Also add sunflower seeds if you want them - I added about 1/2 C, and Lemon juice.

Pour mixture into cake pan and shred the cheese on top.

Crumble the crackers and spread on top of the cheese.

Melt 1/2 C butter and pour over the top.

Cook for 1/2 hour at 350 degrees and then enjoy.

This recipe is very tasty.  I really enjoyed it and it made lots of leftovers.  We had it last night as the whole meal and were very satisfied when we finished eating.  You could also make a side if you wanted and spread it out farther.  It is really easy to make.  It takes just a little bit of prep time to get everything chopped and cooking but not too bad.

As for things in my sewing room.  I have a few more Christmas presents to get sewn and then I'll be back to sewing things for my store.  The first thing to be sewn will be the toddler and baby pull over bibs that I have already started.  I might throw one or two into the mix just to post a few things.  Hope that you all have a wonderful week.