APRONS! AND SOME OTHER RANDOM INFO...

Yah, I know.  I went from excessive bling and fancy period costumes to aprons.  Ha ha.  Makes me giggle - but mostly it just makes me smile.  It wasn't too long ago I was sewing, shopping and dressing all kinds of different people.  My mind just keeps going and going on all of these ideas and creations and things I want to make.  Everything from quilts to clothes for the grandkids to period pieces to embelish with beads and other embroidery.  All of these ideas and things are just floating around in my head.  With all of the air... ha ha ha.  I had decided to make myself an apron and attach a towel to it.  I'm always loosing hand towels and while cooking, it's nice to have one close by.  It's also nice to know it's clean!  I made myself one for cooking/baking, and I'm going to make one for house cleaning - one with a cell phone pocket and larger pockets to stash rags and some cleaning supplies and such.  Like my rubber gloves.  :/   I'm troubled, I know.  I once heard an author speak about her work and her stories.  She talked about how she has all of these characters living in her head and having conversations and such.  Hum... Kinda sounds like she's a bit skitzo but I understand where she's coming from because I have all of these creations living in my head.  Is there a name for that?  Crafting schizophrenia with emphasis on sewing?  Possibly.  Or perhaps just plain crazy.  I'll go with crazy.  

Not only do I love, love, love putting fabrics and trims together and making pretty things, I also have a raging case of OCD.  I think I mentioned that before.  Part of this SkitzOCD mental disorder I have is an overwhelming desire to finish things I start.  Part of this MS/Central Pain Syndrome whatever it is I have, makes it painful to sit in a chair for extended periods of time. I am also exhausted after minimal activity.  In my new life, I have prioritized the daily activities to make sure nothing is overlooked and I'm doing my best to not cheat the family of my "responsibilities".   - Mind you, I have made this list on my own and at any time I can ask for help and I'll get it, or Austin steps up and just does things, knowing I'm tired.  So, each day, I knock off the responsibilities as soon as I can and then I may or may not have a little while to sew or craft or bake.  Because of my unpredictable health and frequent visits to doctors, I have found that making aprons is a way to be creative, make pretty and practical things, and because they are quick to make, I can finish them and thus feel accomplished.

I started making them to give away to family and friends for gifts.  I'd be sewing and the whole time think about someone the fabrics or colors reminded me of.  Being so excited about it I'd give it to whoever it was I thought about while making it.  I have had lots of positive feedback,  and I have a growing stack of aprons of all kinds of different colors and fabrics.  My friend, Carrie was wonderful enough to set up an Etsy shop where I can display and sell my aprons.  One of the first questions she had for me was what to call the shop.  I had a few ideas and one of my favorites happened to be the one that wasn't already taken. 5 Fun Girls.  Because so many of my aprons have been inspired by my daughters, naming the Etsy shop after them just made sense.  Just a quick FYI - I also have a fun and fantastic daughter-in-law that  I love very much and has inspired me and encouraged me very much and 4 super fun boys and two sons-in-law that I love very much.  But these aprons are kind of a girly thing... 5 Fun Girls it is.

When you get a chance, check out the Etsy shop!  https://www.etsy.com/shop/5FunGirls?ref=search_shop_redirect

AND!  Make sure you like the facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/5fungirls

Check them out, let me know what you think and keep a look out for new aprons always being added.  Make sure you buy one or two!  They make a great gift!  Meanwhile, I'll be home.  Cleaning, cooking, baking and generally appreciating everything good in my life.  Ok, I appreciate the bad, too.  Because the bad is what I go through to become a better person.  Who knows - you may see something fantasticly awesome and creative coming from me soon!  Because every chance I get I'll be breathing life into the creations floating around in my head.

May your day/night be full of happiness and good.  Count your blessings - it's always amazing how many we all have.

Here's a peek at some of my favorite aprons:

 

Baking with Roo

It's that time of year again. Time to make anything and everything I can out of pumpkin.  Yum!  And what better excuse to bake than the annual neighborhood Chili Cookoff!  Roo and I wanted to make pumpkin pie, however it is not a good "picnic" food as it needs forks and plates.  We decided to try something new.  I'm sure someone did this before, but we ran a search online and couldn't find anything close.  First, we decided to use the mini muffin pans to make bite size pumpkin pies.

HOWEVER!   These pans were occupied with little chocolate cupcakes we made the night before... waiting to be frosted and accept their token pumpkin candy on top.   We whipped up some frosting and I frosted, Roo pumpkined and then we were right on the pumpkin pies.






Now, I LOVE to cook and bake.  I'm just too exhausted and worn out to do much of it these days.  I also love to bake from scratch and use fresh ingredients as much as possible.  This time we went the easy route.  (ha ha as if making all of these treats was actually easy!)  We took these delicious pie crusts!

Taking a mini cup cake liner as a pattern, we cut smaller crusts out of the large crust.  

We were able to make 11 circles out of one regular size crust. 

As I cut the circles, Roo gently put them into the muffin pans. 

And then we made the filling.  Again, we went the easy route and used good 'ole Libby's.  

I had thought we would use the scraps from the little pie circles to roll out and make more.  Roo had another idea.  She took the scraps and made an owl!  An owl with a purse.  Ben came over to see what we were up to and asked why we made Squidworth (sp??) from Sponge Bob.  Ha ha.  

Pie crusts were filled and put into the oven.  I knew the temperature and cooking time would need to be altered, so I lowered the temperature to 350 and cooked them for 25 min.  

They came out just right!  Crust's cooked, filling cooked - all just right!  Well, not as beautiful as I had hoped, but still delicious! 

We topped them off with whipped cream (which made them look so much better!)

Super yum!  The best part about it was spending such a fun afternoon with Roo!  Second best was the left over pumpkin pies!  All of the mini's were eaten and enjoyed at the neighborhood picnic, but we made two regular size pies for us.  We gave one to a friend, and enjoyed the other!  

AAaaannnnndddddd... since the twins birthday was coming up and we had a party to plan, I got to work investigating how in the world we'd make a Minecraft themed cake.  After perusing Pinterest for ideas I came up with an idea that would work with the baking pans we already own.  I purchased the fondant (sp??) and made some regular frosting, and then baked the cakes.  Here's what I came up with... well, I ran out of green fondant so tomorrow there will be more green grass.  

That darn Steve wouldn't stay sitting up straight.  It looks better in person, but I do really love my little piggie.  :)  

It's not perfect, and I'm not ready to take on Cake Boss - but for my first time playing with fondant and making anything Minecraft I think it is pretty sweet.  The boys are THRILLED and were so kind telling me how great the cake looks any time they came to check on my progress.  Sweetest kids ever!