Long time. Lot's of changes!

It's been a while since I've stopped by to say hello. I've got a few more little ones to take care of now, I think 4 more to be exact since I last wrote... 4 boys, 3 girls. That's 7 kids. Who'd a thunk it huh? I'm still here. And I'm still working on learning and growing each day. How can I not? I've been  messing with the idea of self-publishing an e-book. Anybody have any thoughts on that?

I'll try to keep in touch on this blog.  In the meantime, how do you like my family?

Little girl reversible apron

I haven’t been on here a lot. I haven’t really made, or cooked a lot. Well, that’s not true. I do cook a lot! And I’ve tried lot’s of new things, just haven’t been faithful with posting on here.

I’m going to a baby shower for a new friend tonight and wanted to give her something homemade (mostly because it’s cheaper… I won’t lie.) I hope she doesn’t look too closely at the sewing job, because I’m no pro- far from it! But, I think it turned out really cute!

The last picture shows some of the imperfections… like I said, I’m no pro!

I copied the idea from this apron that Derek is wearing. I think my mom got it at a little craft fair:

I’m going to give it to her with a cute card with this poem, that I wrote:

From baby to toddler:

We love their tiny toes, their fingers and their nose

We love the way they steal our hearts and wipe away our woes.

But let’s not lie, babies make a mess

We definitely don’t love poop and puke stains on our dress.

And can you guess what’s worse than messy baby faces?

Messy toddlers, who can make messes- in lot’s of places!

So, even though now, she is tiny and precious-

She’ll grow up way too fast, and make lot’s of those messes!

But when the day comes when a bib is not enough.

When she’s bigger and mobile, and eats lot’s of colorful stuff,

When she eats Spagettios, ketchup, grape juice and fruit,

You can put her in this apron, and at least she’ll look cute!

Kind of silly. I hope to get at least a small laugh.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch (or the townhome… I guess…) Christopher wanted to show everyone his dinosaur fruit snack. And Caleb… he’s still one of those messy toddlers!

I love July 4th!

Tomorrow is Independence Day. I decided to make myself an accessory to go with my $4 girls t-shirt that I got from Shopko, it looks like this!

So, I made this:

I know, I know, I desperately need a little girl to model (or wear it!) for me.

But the boys seemed to enjoy it. for about 2.4 seconds.

I need to go find my awesome earrings to go with it too!!!

Happy Fourth of July everybody!

Oh, and I made my own cut-off shorts. Nothing special, but I didn’t want to pay $18 for some that were a bit too big! (yea!) I just cut off my pants, and made a new little decorative hem! I’m ready for tomorrow!

Rock candy suckers

Another Pinterest find!

http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2011/10/how-to_homemade_rock_candy.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+craftzine+%28CRAFT%29

This was fun! It took just more than a week, for the sugar to crystalize enough to make our rock candy suckers! The boys enjoyed checking them each day to see how they were coming along. (I didn’t let them touch them… that would’ve been nice and messy..)

They didn’t taste very good, just like pure sugar. But the boys suffered through them LOVED them!

Burlap Wreath

My wall was bare. I took down family photos, in anticipation of putting our house on the market. I hated it. It needed something…

So I made this:

It’s not exactly the best thing to go on the wall (family  pictures are always way better…) but I like it.

It was easy to make. I had seen a few pictures like it, but figured it out myself. I didn’t even go to any other blog, or tutorial to make it.

Cut the burlap into strips. Unwind a wire hanger (make sure it’s a flimsy one, that works much easier.) Poke the burlap through the hanger, and fold it back and forth…

I glued some little dots of hot glue in between the burlap in some different spots, so that the burlap wouldn’t all fall to the bottom of the wreath.

The flower is just a rectangle of fabric (green burlap in my case.) Fold it over onto itself and do a basic stitch by hand, then pull the thread tight. Sew it closed when it’s how you like it.

I think I like it better on the door…

Freezing strawberries

I just posted about raspberry freezer jam, then remembered that I froze some strawberries earlier, and took pictures so I could blog about it.

It was basic. I just stemmed the strawberries, washed them, set them out on cookie sheets and put them in the freezer. After a while (when I remembered) I put them in freezer bags. One bag full, I cut up into small pieces so I could use them for things like jello salad and such. The others, we’ll use mostly for smoothies.

Raspberry freezer jam!

I LOVE raspberries! Seriously! I love them! We planted some- and then, we transplanted them! So, sadly, they didn’t get any berries this year… just new growth! But, I was elated to hear that my friend, who recently moved in with her mom for a while, was not going to be picking their raspberries and that I was welcome to them!

Sweet and Delicious! Heavenly! That’s what I kept thinking while I was picking them- even stepping in the mud, and getting red stains on my shirt and shorts! Heavenly!

I decided to make some freezer jam with the first batch. Freezer jam is sooo easy! I just bought some fruit pectin, and followed the very basic recipe within the packet. Crush the fruit, add sugar, boil water and pectin, stir together! That’s it! I LOVE freezer jam. I’m not much of a jam person, but freezer jam will make me want to have toast with jam, just so I can have some freezer jam.

It didn’t make a ton, but we’re not a large family (at least not in eating, not yet anyway.) It will be just right. I went out and picked some more today, we’ll see what I’ll do with them. Maybe just freeze them for smoothies? Or I think you can CAN raspberries to use for things like topping cheesecake and such… or maybe I’ll just enjoy the deliciousness of the fresh berries!