perfect little days

Happy day to all of you diaper changing, dinner making, everyday household triage managers. Do you sometimes feel like your house is an emergency room, too? Anyway, today is the day for appreciating moms. My lovely husband cannot understand why, on Mother’s day, every mother feels like they should have the day off. (It did not go over so well in the backyard last night.) I kind of get it, though. Shouldn’t we appreciate this fun amazingness as well. So I thought I would embrace the mom in me today. I am going to appreciate the people who have gotten me here (and who will likely get me into many other questionable situations in the future).

I got up before all of them to get the cinnamon rolls out of the fridge. They need to be room temp before going into the oven. I made them last night and put them in fridge overnight (you can do that instead of the second rise. Did you know that?)  Recipe is from my new Joy the Baker cookbook which I have been loving. I’ve already made Vegan Pumpkin Bread and Coffee Vanilla Ice Cream Pie and some of the cookies, too. It’s feeding my creative cooking juices. For me, cooking can become a little everyday hustle, but baking is fun and fancy-free. Right? PS If you don’t make these because they have yeast and you “don’t do yeast” you are dumb because its easy and tastes really good.

And to go with it…Jason got me a new coffee maker. He gave it to me yesterday, in true Jason fashion. He can never wait to give someone a present that he knows is good. I love the little smiley face he gets when he knows he has done it right. Silly. Well, he knew I needed one since the old one has been really slow and steaming and dripping everywhere for a few weeks. I’m the only one who drinks coffee around here, so I had been talking a bit about getting a one-cupper brewer.

So here it is. He got a box of Starbucks coffee to go with it (that won’t last. It’ll be I Costco brand by the end of the month). I have to say it feels a little indulgent (no cleaning or measuring) and I’m feeling a little guilty about the waste (a little plastic cup that you can only use one time and throw away after each cup) but the coffee is good and quick brewing. We really are nothing in this house if not on the cutting edge of technology (ha ha).Have a good day today all of you out there!xoxoxo

Strawberries from the garden! Early this year, and so sweet. As sweet as her. Hope yours was as good. xoxo

Evie needs about 10 of this dress. I made her one back in February and it has been worn a lot. There is something so simple about this dress on a baby girl. It doesn’t really need leggings, but they do look cute with it. Its easy to stick a long sleeve shirt under, too.

The pattern is Oliver + S Ice Cream Dress size 2T. The main fabric is something from Kate Spain that I got at SEWN last year and it has been in the stash closet. The linen is from SEWN recently. I really did not want to cut this all up. I did get a couple of outfits from my 2 yards and I am itching to go back and get some more. There are so many things I want to make with it. Sam pants, Evie pants, Will a shirt, a skirt for me….. I spied it in black as well… and I wonder if they have it in a natural/ khaki color…. xoxo

I want to start something new for the beginning of the week on the blog. Often we do so much over the weekend and I’m so tired of it all by Monday that I put off the blog altogether. So I thought that I will plan to post a series of photos with a little description to document the weekend. I will plan to do it early in the week. Inspired by the post that Soulemama does on Fridays. (If you don’t read that blog, you should.) I’m also hoping it inspires me to take more photos over the weekend and it will help incorporate some non-sewing things into the blog.

Weekending…

The biggest one had a great game and littles got love from Grandmas.

KCWC (Kids Clothing Week Challenge) Day One, Sunday: Picked out some fabric from my stash, some were even scraps.

I pressed and cut main fabric for 4 Oliver and S Ice Cream tops. I have made the dress version for Evelyn twice, but never the blouse. We could use some blouses as there are lots of skirts and shorts planned.

The top two are from the Hoopla line from Moda. The third is a very old Anna Maria Horner print from her Chocolate Lollipop line. I have had it forever and now I have some smaller scraps! The bottom is from Hobby Lobby sometime last year. I am hoping to get to Sewn soon to get some more Essex linen for the yokes. I may just give in and use Kona cotton from my closet. We’ll see. Planning to send two of these to my twin nieces. ( I plan to send stuff to them all of the time, but very rarely get around to sending it. Here’s to hoping for some follow through mojo this week.)xoxo

Not really back, but still here. I really don’t want this blog to be another place for me to feel guilty for not checking in and spend a lot of time apologizing. That said, it has been lost in the shuffle for a couple of weeks and I don’t like that. I have a lot to share. For today, it’s a new dress pattern and some Easter photos of Evelyn in her best model poses (ha ha.) I made the boys’ pants, too, but that’s for another day.

I’m going to start off saying that, while I have not started nor even thought about Wren Dress #2. By using this title I am declaring the future existence of such #2.  Not too soon. I think this dress was a little out of my league (in a small squeaky mouse voice) but someday it will not be. Of that I am determined.

The pattern is from Clever Charlotte. It is the first pattern I made from their line. (I also have the Raven Hoodie and Pants pattern.) I came across Clever Charlotte by way of the Oliver + S Flickr group. There are some really talented ladies posting a lot over there. Once (really a lot of times) I clicked on someone’s personal photostream and saw that they were sewing from these patterns too. I headed to the site and realized that the company is based in Cleveland, Ohio (go Ohio) and also that the designers, like me, were inspired to sew when they had kids to sew for. (One of them was even a lawyer in her former life!) They have a great blog, too and some other great patterns that I hope to show off someday.

Without further ado, I present my version of the Wren Dress. Things I liked: Something new, not O+S. Only 3 pieces to cut (self facings make for less cutting and less sewing.) The pattern includes sizes 2 through 8. Great for me because I can make this for a while, ahem, cough, cough.

Things I didn’t like: I followed a tip by the designer for marking the pleats with a hand sewn thread through all layers with long ends so they don’t come out. Well, they still come out. And I was fretting about them the whole time I was sewing until the end when you finally do the pleats. Next time I will just mark them with a water erasable marker. Problem diverted.

It also is a little big. Evie is pretty well into 2T in RTW but some of the O+S stuff is still big in 2T as well. Not really something I can fault CC for. I guess I should have measured her. On the upside, she can wear this through the summer and maybe even fall.

All of that said, I wish I had not chosen this fabric. It is too serious or something. Its one of my favorite prints from Anna Maria Horner’s Loulouthi collection. I’ve been sewing with this stuff like crazy and loving it. Thought it would be perfect for Easter. Nope. All I can see is brown. And it looks like drapes with those pleats at the top I think. Not dainty enough. I will know better next time. Maybe soon…xoxo

It’s Monday. I really love them. So weird, I know. I just like to know that whatever circus I am working on the weekend, we will have peace on Monday. Right now, the dishwasher is running, the clothes washer is running, the baby is (back)in bed, and the boys are playing with their weekend loot of new Legos.

I am enjoying this (not)healthy breakfast. I love Mondays, (did I say that.)

I thought I would send this recipe out to you today. We actually had it twice this weekend and it’s a summer favorite, so…many more healthy Monday breakfasts. I love that it makes a big 9×13 cake. There is always just enough left over. I rarely eat it when I serve it, so its fair, right.

Banana Split Cake

Ingredients

• 4 cups crushed graham crackers ( I use a whole box of Keebler graham cracker crumbs) 
• 3 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature (melt one for the crust) 
• 2 eggs
• 16-ounce box powdered sugar
• 20-ounce can crushed pineapple, drained
• 2 to 3 bananas, sliced
• 12-ounce container whipped topping
• maraschino cherries for topping

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

For crust, mix graham cracker crumbs and 1 stick of melted butter. (you may want to reserve a bit of the crumbs for topping.) Line bottom and sides of a 13 by 9-inch pan with mixture. Bake crust for 5 to 8 minutes. Let cool. (Don’t ignore this. The crust needs to be totally cooled.)

Beat the eggs, 2 sticks butter, and the powdered sugar until fluffy. Spread mixture on cooled crust. Add layer of crushed (drained) pineapple and layer of sliced bananas. Cover with whipped topping and sprinkle with any leftover graham crackers. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Top with a few cherries when serving.

Recipe from Paula Deen with some added commentary from me! ( I think I added the cherries, too. Who wouldn’t?)

Happy Monday out there. I’ll be back to share the weekend, but for now, enjoying the peace of today.xoxo

Its 80 and sunny. Not bad for the first days of spring. We went to the zoo yesterday. We took long naps.

When presented with a few unscheduled moments of silence, I am at the sewing machine. I whipped up this sundress for Evie while she slept. It’s a free pattern on the oliver + s website, called popover sundress, but I am renaming it the naptime dress. If you get a decent naptime, you can make this dress. I cut two more bodices, but need more fabric for the trim on those. You will see them in a few days I suspect, as soon as I can blow over to Sewn. The bias trim really needs more than 1/2 yard to get it really on the bias, and most of my cuts are not that big. We have been tearing through the stash, lately.

Before I go to the store I really need to decide on a pattern for an Easter dress. I think I’m going to use Loulouthi fabric, one of the big prints. I’ve narrowed it down to two patterns (not o+s, I’m trying to branch out!)

http://figgyspatterns.com/patterns/sunki/

http://shop.clevercharlotte.com/product_p/p11104.htm

If anyone is out there, what do you think? picture them in pretty spring colors and small size…