Two Things Tuesday

THING ONE: Sunglasses for kids-- 2 for $5 at The Children's Place. You can't beat that for some super cute, retro-polka dot little numbers! I think that's where I've bought them since my oldest was born. I will say though, that we always buy a size up...maybe I have big headed kids, ok?! That just means they're smart, right?? Yes, it does...





THING TWO: Travel pillow for kids. I had no pattern-- just a confusing amount of orange fleece and my determination. I've made two thus far. They have both been categorically rejected by both girls in favor of...a plain, long skinny, rectangular pillow made of the same "awesome" orange fleece. They have given several reasons as to why they dislike them...you can clearly see them all in the fakeness of the smile I got...

Why orange fleece?? What was I going to make with it? I'm sure it was purchased from the sale rack, as so many things are. I obviously have a hard time with passing up anything that's on sale! I thought the pillow itself came out quite well for having not ever done one...though the orange does make it very life jacket-like. Eh, who cares! It's for sleeping and drooling on in the car--we're going function over fashion on this one.

There's your Two Things...now you go make a life jacket/travel pillow! You know you want to!

Homemade Pasta...yep, I did that!

I will tell you that everytime I home-make something I think, "I wonder if anyone I went to high school with ever would've imagined I would do this?" The answer is always the same---never in a million YEARS!! So anyway, I guess I've come into my own with this whole homemade living. It's only recently that I've even been interested in making stuff from scratch...cooking wise. It's not that I'm not a good cook, I'm decent. I'm able to put ingredients together without a recipe, if needed. But I don't just LOVE it...

The thing I do like though is the satisfaction of knowing EXACTLY what is in the food I am serving my family. I really dislike looking at a label and seeing words that I have to think about to pronounce. It's oogie. It makes me want to run to my computer and look up that bunch of consonants--but I don't. I've looked up things on the internet before and it doesn't matter what it is, it says it's bad for you. So, my solution is to make as many things I can on my own with REAL ingredients that can directly traced back to something found on Earth. We don't do this all the time, ofcourse. I figure the occasional pre-packaged, preservative laden foods is better than eating that stuff all the time, right? Right.

Ok, no more rambling--- Homemade Pasta from Blue Cricket Design. I made it today for lunch and it was VERY easy and only takes 2 ingredients (eggs and flour)! It turned out wonderfully well and the girls went on and on about how yummy it was! I was highly pleased with the whole experience! I lightly sauteed some zucchini with olive oil, garlic powder(didn't have fresh, which was kinda dissappointing) and italian seasoning to go with it. We had a little leftover grilled chicken from last night so I threw that in there, too. The pasta itself I just tossed with some olive oil, garlic powder and parmesan. Turned out lovely! Next time I'm going to try it with whole wheat flour and see how that is. We normally eat the pre-made whole wheat pasta, but I decided to follow the recipe exactly for the first try and then trick it up later.

So go make your own pasta! It's easy! You can do it!

PS-- Just went and looked at the ingredients list on the pre-packaged pasta already in the pantry, there was nothing oogie. It lists semolina flour as the only ingredient though...so how is that being held together?? No eggs? Weird. I can only assume that there is something else in there they aren't listing, right? I don't know...

Two Things Tuesday

THING ONE: One of my many goals for the summer is to spruce up the backyard. We have no seating or tables or anything back there. It's basically a play area/dog area...that's it. I know I don't want a "patio set," so I think I want benches. Ofcourse, benches are EXPENSIVE!! So, I will (hubby will) probably be making these suckers. Here are some inspirations.

This first one I already have the materals for actually---just a little on the plain side...

Fan Back Bench



I love the organic lines of this one...but I have no idea how to a) acquire wood like that and b) how to put that together.
Garden Bench
This one I am DIGGIN'!!! Maybe not this exact style, but the whole "reusing the door" thing is awesome! It wouldn't be black, for sure. Maybe have the back part be slightly shorter so it's not so formal looking. What a great idea, huh?

Door Bench Who knows what I'll end up with! It may not even happen this summer as I already have umpteenbillion other projects in line, waiting to be done!

THING TWO: This one is random. Literally. I just stumbled upon it. So no--I haven't been contemplating sponge holders...

I'm only showing 2 because the other ones I saw seemed like they would collect water in the bottom and these two seemed like they would drain better. The verdict is still out for me with using a sponge to begin with. I KNOW they are breeding grounds for all kinds of gross stuff---but I am addicted to it. I can't see having a bunch of rags hanging around...and would that even be less of a breeding ground? I don't know. I wipe the counters down many, many times a day so it seems wasteful to use a new rag everytime. I do the microwaving it thing to kill bacteria every couple of days. No one has fallen ill from my sponge usage yet, so I guess I'm doing ok.

Digressing...

Here's one that's really a card holder...but could also be a sponge holder. Notice the open sides for maximum drainage...YES!

Card/Sponge Holder

This next one is just plain cute! I dare someone to tell me that seeing these cute little birds right before you are about to wipe down the counters wouldn't cheer you up...just a little bit?

Chubby Little Love Birds Sponge Holder

Happy Tuesday!

little grey dresses for a special occasion

So this week I sewed THREE dresses!! It was a crazy, frenzy of sewing but I actually got all three done in just three days! Which is really hard because I really only sew at naptime and after the kids go to bed (aside from sleeves which need to be fitted). The first one was the grey knit dress for me from the previous post.

This one came from Made. This Shirt Dress is fairly simple and turns out really cute! Plus, it involves repurposing, which is excellent. I used a coordinating fabric for the sleeves. Like she says in the tutorial, it really does fit a skinny 2T-3T EXACTLY. Which was perfect, because that's what I needed!

I didn't elasticize the arm part of the sleeve because I liked the ruffly sleeve look.

Just another shot of the top part. Elastic is amazing, isn't it?

This dress cost approx. 10 CENTS to make---recycled men's shirt + scrap for sleeves+ elastic. Not too shabby!!

This next one is of my own design. It's basically a knit skirt with the elastic casing folded OUT, not in, as I have been doing lately. I did the same basic sleeve as the the other one, but not as ruffly. I think it's kind of couture-y looking...maybe I'm just used to the simple, non-embellished stuff I normally make. Maybe it's because of this odd, non-chalant, model-like pose my daughter struck in this photo:

Now this pose is more like herself!

Oh yeah, and I added a HUGE bow! I don't know why the oversized bow appeals to me so much on kids' clothes...but it does. Maybe it's because I'm a child of the 80's...?

I also figured out how to do this little gathered pocket using 1/4" elastic on the inside. No casing, just sewn on the inside. I'll be using this technique in the future because it is wonderfully simple and gives a nice even gather--quickly! I'll give a tutorial on it later...

Pretty fun! Now we've all got dresses for my Grandparents' 60th Wedding Anniversary!! YIPPEE!!

Two Things Tuesday

THING ONE: WHOOP WHOOP! I did it!! I made a dress for an adult!! Namely, me. I have several people to thank for this accomplishment:
1) Old Navy-- for providing the back-up dress that I purchased to take the pressure off. It was promptly returned...
2) The iron in the hotel with which I burned the dress that I cut apart and used as a pattern for this dress!
3) Charlotte Russe for providing a cheap, polyester dress that I didn't mind cutting apart...though I was mad about the whole iron burning incident.
4) Myself! For looking in my stash one more time to double check to see if I had two yards of grey knit, and I did!!


These photos are hilarious to me because I have used every available space in my backyard for a photo shoot---now I'm just standing by a tree. I just can't see going "on location" though, I think I'll look like a weirdo!

THING TWO: This next one is something both weird, yet intriguing. I'm sure there is a tennis enthusiast that would love these? Well, this is repurposing alright...

Wait, I really need to relax on the tennis courts, maybe something like this??

Oh, don't play tennis? Maybe you are more of a winter sports person?

These are from Great For Sitting on Etsy. It's a creative use of sports equipment, you can say that much!

Well, there are the Two Things for this week! Enjoy!

Baked Zucchini "Fries"

That is some yummy stuff right there! I have been propagating this "recipe" for quite some time now. I finally took note of the temp and time so that I could write it out for people to actually have. Amazing, I know...

Here it is:
-zucchini (one could easily cover a family of 4 as a side)
-ranch dressing
-italian bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

-Cut zucchini into sticks about 1/2" thick.
-Paint on some ranch...just enough so the bread crumbs have something to stick to--not dripping.
-Dredge in bread crumbs and place on ungreased cookie sheet.
-Bake for 20ish minutes or until bread crumbs start to brown up.

My kids love these things and have since they were first eating table foods. The beautiful thing is that this can be done with broccoli and green beans, too! You could use caesar or honey mustard dressing---all good combos.

That's it!

Get those veggies in those kiddos! Yeehaw!

Two Things Tuesday

THING ONE: A skirt...but it didn't start that way. I was trying to make a dress, but it was a complete FAIL!! So I chopped it and made a skirt for me and my oldest little girl. Also, I found out that my waist and chest measurement under the arms is the same. Is that normal, or am I just a rectangle? Anyway, I am in love with using knits of any kind...this crinkle knit was fun! I used a really wide elastic for the waist (2"?) and folded the casing for it on the outside instead of in.


It is such a cool, summery shade of green, yes? I didn't even hem it bc since I double layered it as it was so thin...I liked the double layer roughness at the bottom. The one I made for my little girl was a bubble skirt though.



THING TWO: Just another wall vinyl thing on etsy...but what a novel way to use them! I had never thought of putting on the glass shower!! I don't have one of those anymore, but when I did I always hated the fact that there was really no way to hide all the soap and scrubbies and stuff. I bet you could even buy a cheapie clear vinyl shower curtain and give it the same treatment. Custom showers, who knew?

There's Two Things---yay!

Gnats---BEWARE!!

What could be MORE summer-y than...killing annoying bugs??!!

Well, I'm kicking my summer off right because I made a Gnat Catcher! Super simple and non-toxic--who could ask for more? I used this tutorial. Instead of just adding a bow, I wrapped the bottom 2/3 in fabric, held with hot glue. Then added the bow, also hot glued.

I have, thus far, caught only one gnat, but I haven't seen anymore around so maybe it also wards them off too...

This might be the grossest craft I have ever done. Just goes to show you can make almost anything a little prettier...

Two Things Tuesday---NOT!

Yikes! With Memorial Day and everything I kinda lost track of days and, whoops...it's Tuesday already!! Well, I didn't sew one single stitch this weekend. I made some more bows, we worked outside, we painted things, we thought about painting more things, we went to the Arboretum and most of all we reveled in the thought that this is my last week as a PAID childcare provider...from now on it's just going to be volunteer work! ;) Our family is about to embark on a true adventure...homeschooling! It's exciting and scary all at the same time. So anyway, with all of this going on I haven't really had a chance to let my mind wander and get inspired to do some sewing. Maybe later in the week!