Breastfeeding

I found a great link of resources, poems, articles, etc on breastfeeding tonight.  http://www.drmomma.org/2009/08/books-for-breastfeeding-mother.html

Share this!  Someone out there needs to find this info.

Painter's cloth slip cover

I've been working on this forever.  Its finally done...my most difficult project yet.  A pair of chair slipcovers that are make out of painter's drop cloth fabric.  Not the canvas, the fabric kind.

Before:  The poor family who owned this chair had a kitten who scratched it all up.  :( 
                                                                                                       

During:  My secret...I sew the covers inside out!  I fit it this way & pin, then sew where I pinned.  I also use my fabric marking pencil a lot.




After:
                                                                                                        Pleat details

And the label.

Camping x Family Reunion = Fun

We spent last weekend camping.  Okay, some people camped.  I spent my nights in a cozy cabin sleeping on the worst mattresses ever.  I decked out the cabin with some super cute buntings that the girls helped me make.  And then we didn't even eat there!!

But our food was fabulous...check this out!


We roasted Krispy Kreme donuts over the fire.

 But the real food came out for Saturday's dinner.  BBQ Smoked pulled pork sandwiches.  We roasted the pork for 10 hours.  It took 2 days to roast 50 lbs of pork.

 We made 2 types of coleslaw for the pork.  One was a vinegar based North Carolina sauce.  And we make baked beans from scratch.  They only smoked 45 minutes.

 I made some cute little toothpick flags to match the buntings (that no one saw!).  I stuck them into some deviled eggs.  They looked like dis-proportioned sail boats.  The next pic is herbed butter, molded into stars. And of course, each got a toothpick flag!

Drinks are always fun with us....We made 3 types of beer & 3 types of soda for the occasion.  Coconut Porter, Summer Ale, & Dead Guy beers.  Sour Cherry Soda, Creme Soda, & Root Beer.  And can you see 5 bottles of wine?  I guess 3 were contributed by me.  What can I say?  I know some great vintners.

Making beer comes in handy when you need to boil 20 ears of corn.  That's a 5 gallon brew-pot.  You can't see the scale because in the background is our antique cast iron cooking griddle.  It measures at least 24x40"!!  I've never even seen these.  Its made to fit on top of our antique wood burning cookstove.

Dessert was dutch oven cobbler - peach or sour pie cherry.  I hand pitted the cherries...what a labor of love. It was a lot of work!

The kids got into things making ice cream in our ice cream balls.  They roll them around, and next thing you know - Hot Chocolate, Strawberry, & Raspberry ice cream are ready!  We made the vanilla in the big electric ice cream maker.

 Happy camping!

Photoshop fun

I get all kinds of odd offers for magazines.  I subscribe to a few free ones that I love, but really don't make much sense in my life as a stay at home mom.  Yesterday I got a free digital one on Photoshop.  I run a really old version of Photoshop.  I mean REALLY old.  What I'm learning is the new one does what mine does, but I think mine is not as user friendly.


So I'm sitting here tonight, reading this magazine on my desktop.  I don't own a Kindle, an iPad or even a laptop.  (sigh)  But since I was on this computer I was able to try out a few of the tutorials that are in the magazine.


I just learned how to make my photos black & white.  And even better, b&w with just a hint of a color!  Check this out...


 original color                                                hint of pink                                             true b&w

Maybe now that I can do this, I can work on getting my pics to show up where I want them to on the blog!  Here's the link to the magazine, if it lets you open it.  I'm not sure.

http://www.zinio.com/my-library.jsp?_requestid=1313355

 Now, back to sewing.  I am ALMOST done with the last of the slip covers.  Soooo close.  But my kids won't let me work.  Grrrrr.  And I had someone ask me today about private sewing lessons - I'd love to do them for you!  $20 per one hour lesson, or $15 per lesson if you sign up for 4 lessons or more.  Let me know!

Sewing fun!

Wow...talk about a quick turn-around!  I was delivered a bride's maid dress today at noon.  I had it finished by 4pm.  That's rare around here.  And impressive as it involved ripping out a few seams & a lining!  The mom of the bride's maid was very pleased I was able to get it done so quickly.  I'm pleased that it doesn't look altered.  I should have taken a pic of it!  Its not this dress, but it was very similar.  

Cost:  $40
Had the dress been unlined, the price would have been lower.  Or if it had not been a specialty fabric.  This was mainly hand sewn.


The mom of the bride's maid was joking that she can't sew on a button.  But I can.  And I know there are people who really can't sew a button.  Not to mention they don't have the button, thread, needle or time.  I was also talking to my contact lens professional - he was telling me about a pocket with a hole that he hand stitched.  I was telling him whatever works, as long as the hole is closed....but it didn't work!  Next time he'll call me!  Yakima, WA area 509.577.8241  But don't call me if you're selling something - I'm on the Do Not Call list.

Just had to share this adorable pic of my baby!!

If you're in the Yakima Valley...I have the photographer for you!  Run & schedule a session with Kelly at 7 Safaris.  http://www.7safaris.com/  She's just fabulous!

Working on rebranding myself...and making sure I'm getting as much free advertising as I can. Word of mouth is the best way to go. That, and the internet. I've pulled down my personal website, and canceled my phone. Hope this doesn't crush the small amount of work I was getting...I need to keep the money coming in so I can afford to stay home with our girls. Raising kids is an expensive adventure. And I'm frugal! Yikes. But it just doesn't work for me to pay for daycare.

Seamstress

Dinner Menu

So I can't do a whole lot around the house right now. Baby is here...its a girl! Miss Abby is showing signs of a favored third baby - she's never put down. She's now 8 weeks old and refuses to sleep alone. So I sit at my computer. A lot. I'm either nursing her or she's sleeping!

Today I created this fabulous chart of our favorite dinners! Hopefully this will help me figure out what's for dinner!


There are categories across the top with the main ingredient - Ground beef, Tomato, Beans, Noodles, etc. Then I filled in dinners where I thought they fit best. Most overlap, but this was my best guess on what the "main" thing was. Hubby was complaining there were too many tomato & noodle dinners in a row! Ooops. I'm sure I'll need to adjust it a bit, but we'll see how this works out. Now to print & put in my House binder!