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!  

If You Give a Mom a Mop, She Will Ask for A Broom, Dustpan, 3 Colors of Paint and A Wet Rag.....

My life often reminds me of the children's book, "If you give a mouse a cookie".  Today was a perfect example of what happens to me when I set out to complete one task.  I have a housework schedule, and each day I do something different.  Monday is mopping the floors.  Since I mop every week, and sweep almost daily, this isn't the huge job it could be.  It usually takes me 1.5 hours max to do the floors.  It probably took that long in total today as well, but I got side tracked along the way.  I see something that needs to be done, I have rag/whatever in hand or nearby and I think, "That will only take a minute to take care of, and I'm here anyway".  This happens to me ALL. THE. TIME.  And, know what?  I'm ok with that.  My OCD is out of control in crazy ways and I'm ok with that, too.  And whatever it is I find to do usually takes longer than a minute.....

Today.  Monday.  Floors.  Sweep and mop.  It's probably my favorite chore.  As I already mentioned, my OCD is on overdrive.  Each week I pull out the fridge and stove, washing the sides of the appliances and sweeping/mopping the floor and pushing them back in.  I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a weekly task or not, but I like knowing that there's not a lot of old food and dust bunnies under them to attract bugs.  I also move the table and the couch.  Pretty much everything I can move, I move, clean under and move back. I blame my mom.  She has OCD as well and passed it on.  I'm not complaining, it's not a bad thing, unless you're not supposed to do too much and your body is sick and your mind is bonkers.  Today started out like any other mopping Monday. I split the house in half(ish) and mop one side and then the other.  So I swept and mopped side one. Here's where it started.  I was moving the stand that the TV is on so I could mop under it.  Behind the TV are blinds.  Here's a picture:

While moving this, I noticed that the back of the TV was dusty.  Now, I dust frequently so I was kind of thinking I better get on that pronto.  I found a rag, cleaner, etc and cleaned the back of the TV and the stand it's on.  And then I figured since the TV was pulled out I may as well get the blinds.  And the Sills.  And the wall.  At that point some voice of reason told me to stop and go forward with the mopping. So I did. 

 Side one also includes under the couch.  While mopping the floor that is usually under the couch, I looked at the walls.  There was a repair spot waiting for touch up paint (Austin had fixed it weeks ago - I'm just a slacker and didn't get to painting it).  There were dings here and dings there.  So I decided I'd get the paint and touch it up.  After all, it will only take a minute.................................I found what I had hoped to be the right color.  While in the garage getting the paint, I also grabbed the two other colors in the kitchen.  Just in case there was anything else that needed fixing.  I started to paint the wall and was super worried that I had pulled out the wrong color paint.  But hey, I was painting so I went ahead and kept on painting.  After all, I didn't have all day and I needed to get the floors done.  But first!  I needed to get this wall and that wall, this ding and that ding, and wow the walls are either a different color or they're dirty.  My good friend, Mr. Clean and his stain eraser came by and I noticed that yes, my walls are very dirty.  (gross, I know).  I cleaned the big ickies with the stain eraser and then kept on painting.  The hall, the entry, the stair case, the front wall, the side wall, the back wall... I kept looking at the walls I had painted - hoping that my touch up streaks would somehow blend in.  Here's a little sample of what I HAD to fix today and the new paint over the old.

It's hard to see, but there are dings on the corner.  There were dings on all of the corners.  

And on the wall.  See the white spots?  Yah. Not supposed to be there...

And this one.  It's where the bar stool rubs against the wall.  You can see where Austin put some drywall mud over it.  There's more.  Lots more.  I just can't bear to show them to you.  This is embarrassing enough.  I can't believe you're making me tell you this stuff! 

And here's a wall with the new paint (the lighter color).  I was envisioning myself talking to Austin about re-painting the house, picking colors, and even the ladder to the vaulted cealings.  I was worried.  But not enough to stop painting 'cause I just kept on painting.  And then heaven and all of the angels shined down on me when I went back to see the first wall (the one that sits behind the couch).  The paint matched and looked like nothing ever happened.  YIPPEEEE!

See!  WHEW!  

Time to move the couch back to it's spot and clean side 2.  

Here's the couch and stuff all squished to one side of the room.  Don't judge my half finished couch either!  I'll blog about that project another day.  

Moving the couches back was great.  But it opened up a whole new area of dings and nicks.  More paint.  More paint.  Paint a little here, paint a little there, oops!  Dont' drip! While that coat was drying I swept and mopped side 2.  I'm just gonna say this... what is up with STICKERS and MARKERS???? Seriously?  We've had the "only on paper" talk way too many times...

I'm pretty sure Chuck E Cheese isn't my kitchen motif.  And neither is this bizarre stick man I found under the bar...

It looks like someone tried to clean it off.  It's creepy.  And really, walls aren't white boards kids.  I left him there.  To ward off intruders.  Anyone would run from that creepy thing!  

I was pretty exhausted, but since the paint was already out, I better get a second coat on some of these bad spots.  So I did.  And I was sweaty and tired, but  4 hours later, the walls and floors looked AWESOME! But I looked like this:

Nice, right?  Time for a shower.  No, there aren't any pictures of that part.  I was pretty much wiped out for the rest of the day.  

Now, my life isn't all cleaning and looking nasty.  In the past few weeks I found a praying mantis in our front yard.  I caught him, and after I showed the kids, let him go. 

I have never in my life seen a praying mantis in person.  We named him Frank.  I hope it's not a girl. 

I also made fashion shrinky dinks with Rachel!                                

Shrinky Dinks have come a looooong way since I was a kid!  Roo had a whole fashion studio going on!  

Wait - you think I only spend time cleaning, catching odd insects and playing with Rachel?  Well you're wrong.  Because even though it took us a week, the twins and I made this:

That's right!  Lord Vampire's Castle.  In Lego's.  Awesome, right?  Ha ha - we made it on the kitchen table.  Once it was done we had to get it upstairs to their room.  I had them hold a cookie sheet next to the table while I scooted the castle onto it.  It worked great!  But the cookie sheet is still under the castle.  In their bedroom.  It didn't hamper me from making cookies though!  Today I made peanut butter w/chocolate kisses cookies and chocolate cookies with peanut butter m&m's in them cookies.  Don't tell the kids, but I didn't have dinner.... I just ate cookies...... SSSSHHhhhhhhhhh! 

Summertime 2013 in a nutshell...

This was the first summer I can remember being home with the kids and not working.  Because my energy level went from the energizer bunny on crack to a sloth on sleeping pills, there was a lot of TV watching and game playing w/the littles.  In between the resting I had the opportunity to get a few things done around the house.  While moving back home from the shop, we also moved my sewing room downstairs and the little upstairs.  And we turned the big bedroom upstairs into storage.  All of this moving around was quite overwhelming - and because disorganization and mess drives me nuts I pushed myself to get things put away.  I also took the opportunity to let the OCD run wild and deep clean everything in and out of sight.  I'm still working on the deep cleaning, but I'm getting so close to being done!

Amid all of the scouring,  I was able to do a few of the things I have been wanting to do, but didn't have the time.  The first project I checked off the list was recovering our bar stools.  Here's the before and after:

The before... just nasty. 

The after.  Nice!  You can't really see it in the picture, but we covered over the fabric w/thicker upholstery plastic.  Now, if there's a spill all we have to do is wash it off!  And the chickens (or roosters...) well - I'll talk more about them later...

The next project was SUPER fun!  And I'm not going to tell you what it is just yet...

First, I need to keep my hands busy or I'll loose the ability to do the things I love to do.  To keep them busy, I spend time beading or embroidering.  I was more than thrilled to do some beading for this project.

First, I picked out some lace that I could use as a gage to keep on track.  I used thicker (but not too thick) interfacing, and then muslin, and then the actual fabric, with the lace on top.  

Next I chose what to use to sew onto the lace.  I picked out a few old necklaces and broaches left over from the shop costume jewelry. 

 I took them apart and started on a design.

At first I was thinking to put these three larger stones at the center front...

but when I got this far I decided I didn't like it... So I picked it all off and started again. 

 After a few re-starts I finally got something I liked.  Here it is, almost done.  There's the necklaces as well as broaches, sequins and lots of szwarski  (sp?) crystals.  This is a bad picture - it really looks so much prettier in person!  I'll bet you're wondering what it's going on... unless you cheated and looked ahead...






The beaded piece goes around the neckline of this beautiful girls wedding dress!  I was so thrilled to make this beautiful dress for my beautiful and amazing daughter, Christina.  She looks simply stunning!

and here's the train in the back. 

This is the finished gown.  She is just breathtaking!  

Now, in the middle of all of this funness we had a new little guy join the family!  Grandchild #2 - Little Jackson.  This guy is a charmer!  Cuddly, all smiles and simply a love!  

After making Tina's wedding dress, I made matching dresses for Rachel, and Kelsey (Tina's new sister-in-law who's close to Rachel's age).  Here's Rachel modeling the dress.  And one of the little matching purses I made for the girls (for fun!).

                Summer vacation went by all to quickly!  I can't believe these little awesome kids are back to school now.  The house is quiet during the day.  I can get things done faster (though still in slow motion) and I can accomplish more with them in school but I do miss their crazy funness!!!

Part of going through and deep cleaning everything meant that I took the chickens off the shelves and cleaned everything.  So here's the scoop with the chickens... ok, they're mostly roosters - and yes, I've heard all of the funny jokes about collecting roosters.  Anyhow, when Austin and I got married, I was asked how we'd decorate the kitchen.  I wanted our home to be comfortable and cozy - so I wanted a country look.  My reply was something like, "I want a country kitchen - with roosters and stuff".  For our wedding shower I got lots of rooster and chicken things.  That was 11.5 years ago - and since then it's become somewhat humorous to give me chickens for any gift giving occasion. It is nice because I have some that the kids made for me, and some that we picked up at special places.  Needless to say, I have a country kitchen with many different roosters and chickens.  Thus the rooster fabric on the stools.  This leads into my next project to keep my hands busy:  embroidery!   I found this beautiful panel fabric years ago at a fabric store that was closing down.  FINALLY I was able to make a pillow with one of the panels!  

 I embroidered the rooster and the yellow checks w/stripes, and around the edges.  I LOVE it!  Now I'm working on the companion panel -

I used the same technique with this pillow as I did on the rooster.  I started by cutting a piece of batting the same size as the panel.  That adds to the quilted look as I embroider through both the batting and the fabric.  Hopefully you can see what I've embroidered,and what I haven't yet.  It is quite fun, relaxing, creative and enjoyable! 

Now more on the roosters... I've finished cleaning most of them, and the leaves and other decor that goes with them.  Here's what it looks like above some of our cabinets:

 You can't see a couple of the chickens as they blend into the wall behind them in the photo.  But I think you might get the gist.  We have another ledge to put the roosters on as well.  We took all the decor (roosters, baskets and floral) down to clean them.  We put a few bigger roosters up kind of just up there 'cause I have a plan!  You see, my amazing and crafty husband made me some of these crates:                                    

They're up in the upper right corner, and theres a third behind the huge iron chicken on the left.  I wanted to get some raffia (sp?) to put into the crates like nests but I don't get out much anymore to shop, and I didn't want to spend money so I came up with a way to make it myself.  I ripped up a cardboard box and used the pieces as bases.  Then I grabbed my shredder bin...

because seriously this looks better than raffia.  

 And I glued the shredded paper onto the cardboard in nest like formations.  I'm letting the glue dry, and tomorrow I'll use some left over spray paint in yellow, gold and tan to paint the nests!  Then they'll go into the crates, and I'll resume decorating the chickens and roosters that live on this ledge.  :)  And please don't ask how many chickens are in our kitchen/family room.  There's a lot.... and it is so funny when new people come over and comment to each other that we have lots of chickens - and then try to count them.  ha haa.  

That's all for now!  I found some pictures from the last few months as well, so we will jump into the blogging time machine and I'll show you some things from the past (few months that is...) 

See you next time!