Mama Sews: Pillowcase Dresses

I wanted to make Ilona a dress to wear for Independence Day and a Clemson Tigers themed dress for the upcoming football season. Pillowcase dresses are super quick and easy to make so I went with that.

In addition to their simplicity, the sizing on pillowcase dresses is pretty forgiving so these should fit her for a while and can be worn with a shirt underneath in cooler weather or leggings once the dresses are too short.

These fabrics were found in my stash. I bought a 1/4 yard of purple fabric to coordinate with the Clemson and orange fabric I had since the Clemson fabric alone wasn't enough for the entire dress. I also bought ribbon for all three dresses.

The light blue dress was one I had made years ago and just needed ribbon to finish. This dress is a size 2T so I'll put it aside to grow into.

I always use Sew Like My Mom's pillowcase dress guide for measurements, etc.

After finishing the red gingham dress and trying it on the wiggly baby, I decided to bypass the ribbon ties on the shoulders for the Clemson dress and tried an elastic/ fabric shoulder strap instead. (I still need to adjust the straps to fit since she was sleeping when I sewed this dress.) Hopefully, it will work well. The ribbon ties are so cute but it is challenging to get the dress on and ribbons tied when your model is  a very active 7 month old! Haha!

I enjoyed my afternoon of sewing! 

The dress is adorable on her though and we got some really cute 4th of July pictures of the baby and Willie. Some great outtakes too--too hilarious not to share!

Lots of laughs during this photo shoot!

Mother's Day

I greatly enjoyed my first Mother's Day! I'm blessed to have so many thoughtful friends and family members who remembered me on this day by sending messages, cards and happy wishes in person.

To be honest, I hadn't given much thought to being celebrated on Mother's day so I was a bit surprised when my sweet mother-in-law handed me a card when they were visiting and said, "This is a little early!"

I thought, "My birthday isn't until July!" haha

Andy created a special card for me then took me out for brunch after church with some friends. We tried a new-to-us restaurant that serves breakfast and lunch. It was wonderful!

I sent Mother's Day cards to our moms and included a special gift from Ilona. We did footprint hearts for Valentines Day so I thought we'd make hand print flowers this time. Turns out the footprints were easier (at least then). She kept her hands balled up so I had to pry them loose to get prints. ;-)

They are wonky but delightfully so! I chose the best ones and went with it. She is only 5 months old once. Perfection is way overrated--these hand prints show real life! Little hands that do what they want to!

We made 4--one for each grandmother, one to send to her birth mother and I kept one for myself to put in her baby book.

Over the years, while sometimes there was a bit of sadness associated with Mother's Day, for the most part it hasn't really been the hardest day for me. One reason is that years ago, I read that the reason Mother's Day was established was to honor and celebrate one's mother. Everyone has or has had a mother. Maybe it isn't a great relationship but still everyone has a mother. This helped me to think about my mother and mother figures in my life instead of myself. When I did childcare in my home, some of the parents would give Mother's day gifts to me and that was always so sweet of them.

I hope all of you moms/mother figures had a wonderful Mother's Day!

**Flowers in jars are left from Ilona's adoption celebration. We have enjoyed them for nearly 2 weeks!

Our Valentine's Day

We had a lovely Valentine's Day. It was a long busy day but I tried to make meals just a little more special!

Note: We did not eat low-carb/low-grain on this day. We had some treats which we do every now and again. I used what I had on hand.

Early in the morning, I was in the mood to bake some muffins so I decided on Cranberry Pineapple muffins. Yum! I also pulled homemade yogurt from the fridge and some already cooked sausage links from the freezer.

For dinner, I made beef tips and gravy using my mom's instructions. I'm still tweaking the "recipe" to get it just right but Andy loved it. It's one of his favorite meals and a great way to stretch a small package of steaks, which I often find for $3-4 on markdown. I had a pan of mashed potatoes still in the freezer which we had made to use up a big bag of potatoes the day we went to meet Baby Girl for the first time!

I had thought of making some cute little cheesecakes but then I didn't get the ingredients so I made a pan of brownies which are always a hit! I swapped out the vanilla for a tiny bit of peppermint extract and that was a yummy change.

Baby Girl has been busy crafting. She made these valentines last week to mail to her grandparents. Those tiny feet! The cards were well received, of course.

We don't typically give big gifts for Valentines Day but do like to celebrate in small ways! Andy worked for a florist many years ago and I haven't received flowers on Valentines Day since. It ruined him. LOL And I don't mind.

This year I had a hair appointment in the afternoon. Andy was running late from work so he met me there so we could do the baby and car swap. He took Baby Girl home so I could get my hair cut and it was a wonderful gift!

How was your Valentines Day? 

Fall Porch

Nothing like a home study visit to motivate me to clean up our porch and give it a fresh look for the fall season!

Aldi had mums for $2.99 and other plants for $4.50 so I bought a couple things to inexpensively add some pretty. A few pumpkins from the farm market instantly added some fall flavor! 

Almost anything looks better than pots overgrown with weeds...ahem! 

A good sweep of the porch, a quick wipe down for the table and chairs and some glass cleaner on the door and everything was looking fresher and more homey! 

Our wreath has been up for a couple of years and needs a refreshing so I took it down and made this little decoration from burlap, an embroidery hoop and a black Sharpie--all items I had on hand! 

Looking at the clean porch and touches of fall puts a smile on my face! 

Happy fall, y'all! 

Little Gift For Valentine's Day

I thought I'd show you this little gift I put together for my co-teacher for Valentine's Day. 

Ummm, I was at the store earlier today but totally forgot about getting her a little something! So tonight, I looked through my  gift stash to see if I had anything that she would enjoy. We are celebrating Valentine's Day at work tomorrow.

So I found a pink set of homemade hand warmers, some strawberry gum in my pantry (it's fresh!) and a couple candy canes I hot glued together to make a heart.

She loves pink, her hands are often cold and she likes peppermint and chewing gum. 

How's that for gift giving rationale? Ha! 

I dressed up a plain tiny gift bag with some trim and a thrifted crocheted flower (like I used here). Hot glue gun to the rescue! 

A small gift but something cute that says, "I'm thinking of you!" 

Merry Christmas

We're settled in and ready for a quiet Christmas at home since we won't be traveling to celebrate with family until later in the week!

Merry Christmas to all who stop by and read here. Enjoy your time with family and friends remembering the real reason we are able to celebrate the season: a Savior who came so we could live the abundant life!

Adoption Gift

Our precious Baby Boy that we have been babysitting for almost a year just had his first birthday.

And not only were we celebrating his birthday but also the finalization of his adoption which took place on July 25th!

We wanted to give a meaningful gift to commemorate his adoption but also have it double as a birthday gift since the party was a celebration of both!

One year olds usually get so many toys and things that I was pretty sure his parents wouldn't mind something else.

I started looking online and on Pinterest for appropriate gift ideas and finally decided on this.

It was in our budget and a printable so we wouldn't have to wait for shipping, giving us ample time to get it printed elsewhere. Also, his mommy had this pinned on her adoption board so I knew she would like it!

Alison from Ten Tiny Toes Designs was awesome! The printable file appeared in my email approx. 40 minutes after ordering!

We chose to have this printed at Wal-mart as a mounted print. We had a coupon too! We love how it turned out.

I had such fun  making these cards the other day so I used the same technique to decorate wrapping paper and a matching card for this gift. I love decorating paper bags!:-)

Just wanted to share this if any of you are looking for a nice adoption gift!

Happy Valentine's Day

Image from House and Hone.

For whatever reason, I'm feeling a bit uninspired in the area of heartsy cuteness this year. I do have some decorations from previous years adorning the house and it all looks so festive! And we have a couple of simple Valentine activities in store for the day.

I want to wish all of you a very happy and enjoyable Valentine's Day! I hope it's a wonderful day for you and your loved ones!

May you know God's great love for you today!

Thinking Ahead To Christmas 2013

Every year, I have these grand plans of getting my Christmas gifts and projects done way ahead of time. And every year, I'm scrambling at the last minute.

We live away from all of our family so either we ship gifts or travel; usually both, since there's no way we can get to everyone over the holidays. Since it's highly unlikely we'll get everyone together in one place.

This past Christmas was the first time we didn't ship or find creative means of "shipping" gifts to everyone! My family was here from the West Coast and then the day after Christmas we traveled to Andy's parents to be with his family which isn't as far away as the West Coast, thankfully!

Anyway, it can be a hectic time getting everything and us ready to go!

So I'm thinking of a bit different strategy for this year--possibly working on a couple gifts each month?

I could at least try it.

Our Christmas list is fairly short. We don't give gifts to everyone we know. We have 16 family members (parents, grandparents, siblings and spouses, nieces and nephews) that we give gifts to. We keep things fairly simple here, usually in the $5-$10 range per person. I like to make a lot of my gifts if I have time. Some gifts will cost $0 because of having the supplies already and then for some one else, we may purchase something that costs $15. It all shakes out in the end!

This year I enjoyed giving small bags of goodies to our neighbors and mail carrier. I also usually give something small like that to my childcare families. I don't usually give Christmas gifts to the children I babysit. I do however help them make a little something for their parents! These gifts are very inexpensive.

At Christmas this year, I started taking notes of some things that would be good gifts for family members, including some favorite candy or snacks. I knew I would forget by next Christmas if I didn't write it down so I immediately started a list on my phone which I can transfer to my notebook later.

This week, I've been working on some fabric gift bags for us to use each year. I've wanted to make them for several years and then would wait until the last minute when I didn't have time! So that's my first project for the year.

Time to get moving!

Have you started to plan for next Christmas yet?

**I already had this post written when I read Monica's post for today! Apparently, I'm not the only one who is already thinking about Christmas!

Pinned It, Made It: Hanging Christmas Cards

It's once again time for Pinned It, Made It Monday and I'm sharing the super simple way we hung our Christmas cards this year!

The idea came from this pin and this blog: Tie ribbon around the cabinet door like this:

Then hang your Christmas cards and photos on the ribbon like this:

I used clothespins to clip the cards and it worked great!

Pretty sure we'll do this again next year!

**If you have a minute, head over to Country Girl At Home to check out the other Pinned It; Made It posts!

Top 12 In 2012

Can you believe that today is the last day of 2012?

I thought it would be fitting to leave with you my top 12 favorite posts from 2012.

1. Settling In--We bought our first home this year!
2. Room To Breathe-- Stay tuned as I revamp our routines in the new year and continue to find my groove in my ever-changing schedule!
3. Resourceful Drawer Pulls-- Still love these!
4. Dear Cookies
5. Valentine Getaway
6. 7 Things We Don't Usually Spend Money On
7. Expensive Free-Range Chicken Challenge--Continuing to work on stretching the grocery budget and using resources wisely in order to afford  better quality food!
8. Inexpensive Photo Album Gifts
9. Gingham Pennant Garland Fun
10. Birthday Party
11. How Not To Be A Good Host
12. Mailbox Facelift

Happy New Year!

See you in 2013!

Chocolate Caramel Pecan Pie

This Chocolate Caramel Pecan Pie was my "fancy new recipe" contribution to our Thanksgiving dinner. When I saw the recipe in the November issue of Southern Living, I knew I wanted to make it!

This recipe called for a long list of yummy and not-so-healthy ingredients. Which is why we served it for Thanksgiving dinner. Because a) Thanksgiving is a holiday so therefore, we can eat whatever we want, right? and b) We had plenty of people to share it with so we didn't eat it all ourselves!

Anyways, this pie was to. die. for.

 What could be better than chocolate chips? Chocolate chips with cream, cream cheese and sugar, of course!

And since the chocolate layer isn't rich enough, why don't we add caramels, butter, cream, sugar and nuts?

Yes, why don't we?

Chocolate-Caramel Pecan Pie, ready to serve!

**Click the link above for the recipe!
**I substituted walnuts for the pecans. 

Thanksgiving Dinner

We're hosting Thanksgiving dinner for twelve at our house this year!

Preparations are well underway.

Several side dishes are in the freezer, the turkey has been roasted and sliced and pie crusts have been made.

Mom shared with me how a turkey can be baked ahead of time and reheated on Thanksgiving Day. Wrap the sliced meat in foil. Freeze or refrigerate. Place foil packs in crockpot and heat before serving. I've tried this before and the meat was very tender and fresh!

Doing the turkey in advance is nice because then you don't have the big turkey to take care of at the same time as everything else!

Pie crusts have been made. I planned to buy pie crusts this year but at the last minute decided to just make my own since I had all the ingredients. I'm no expert when it comes to pie crusts( lots of patches to cover tears!) and while my homemade ones won't win any beauty contests, they taste ok!


Thanksgiving Menu

My sister and family are coming for Thanksgiving plus some local friends. My sister and I are doing the bulk of the cooking but the other guests are bringing some things too. I've marked my contributions with an *. I think we'll have plenty of food!


Turkey*
Ham
Gravy*
Mashed Potatoes*
Green Bean Casserole*
Butternut Squash Casserole*--changed this recipe a bit and used squash instead of pumpkin.
Brown Rice Stuffing*
Stuffing*--we love Stovetop!
Artichoke Casserole
Rolls
Cranberry Sauce
Applesauce*
Olives*
Pickles
Deviled Eggs
Another side dish or two from guests

Pumpkin Pie*
Caramel Chocolate Pecan Pie*
Another dessert or two from guests

Cranberry Juice mixed with Ginger Ale*
Sweet Tea

What's on your Thanksgiving menu?

Pumpkin Pie Play Dough

I've wanted to make pumpkin pie play dough for fall for a long time! And finally got around to it this fall...

It helps that the littles are really getting into play dough now. And our last batch of Smurf-blue  dough was needing to be replaced.

I looked at a few recipes on the internet and came to the conclusion that by adding pumpkin pie spice and red and yellow food coloring (to make orange) to my basic play dough recipe, we would have pumpkin pie play dough.

I am super practical and prefer the simple route for many things,can you tell? I mean, why reinvent the wheel play dough when you can just add to it to get what you want?

I didn't have pumpkin pie spice and I saw no reason to buy any so I just added a couple shakes of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and ground cloves that I had in the cabinet. If you really want pumpkin pie spice, here is a recipe to make your own! I didn't measure the amount I put in but I knew it was ready when it smelled so good I wanted to eat it.

I'm really happy with how it turned out--nice and orange and smelling just like pumpkin pie!

One of my favorite smells of fall!

Patriotic Fruit

Real and nutritious food can be fun too!

**Patriotic Fruit Salad--I just used watermelon and blueberries.

I don't have a picture to share but the little ones and I made these pretzel and M&M treats today. Not anything close to nutritious or real food but a fun treat to make together and share with all the families!

**Both ideas courtesy of Pinterest!

Happy birthday, America!

Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day to all my American readers!

We remember those who have fought for our freedom and thank those who are still fighting for us today. 

Enjoy your holiday weekend!

Birthday Party

My sister Kathryn had a birthday last week and to celebrate, her husband and one of her friends planned a surprise party for her.

I was in charge of table decorations for the party. Kathryn loves gardening and cottage living so I chose a sort of cottage garden theme.

I planted white begonias in pint mason jars and then tied each jar with a little ribbon. The store was all out of geraniums which were my first choice but the begonias were pretty too. For the cake table, I grabbed my galvanized watering can, a cute dry erase board I got from Blessings Unlimited last year and some of my vintage tablecloths. I also made a simple red and aqua pennant garland which I failed to get a picture of!

For the other tables, I used cloth napkins, the flower jars and some Scrabble words to spell out some party related words.

The party was outdoors at a local park so these simple decorations worked really well and I thought they turned out really cute!

Mother's Day Cards

The little ones made these simple hand print flower cards for their mamas this Mother's Day!

We took advantage of having the paint out and smocks already on and got out extra paper to paint just for fun. Toddler Girl used paintbrushes and Baby Boy finger painted!

A good time was had by all!

He Is Risen!

On the first day of the week, 

very early in the morning,

 the women took the spices they had prepared 

and went to the tomb.

They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,

but when they entered,

they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

While they were wondering about this,

suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightening

stood beside them. 

In their fright,

the women bowed down

with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them,

"Why do you look for the living among the dead? 

He is not here; he has risen!"

Luke 24: 1-6

Enjoy your Resurrection Sunday celebrating our risen Savior!

**Easter garden idea courtesy of Pinterest!

A Quiet Valentine's Meal

After my husband's Valentine surprise and beating the rush by taking me out to dinner a day early, we decided to just spend Valentine's night here at home.

Tuesday is often a long day for us and we usually eat later so I hadn't planned a special meal or anything. I had 'sloppy-joes-in-a-bowl' on the menu which just happens to be one of Andy's favorites! And I had gotten the ingredients to make this flourless chocolate pudding cake for a special dessert! Which was super good, by the way!

About an hour before he was due home, I thought it would be fun to at least decorate the table a bit, even though we'd already done more than our share of celebrating! A little more never hurts, right?

So I pulled some stuff from around the house to make our table festive and here's what I came up with! The upside of decorating my home with a lot of red  means that decorating for Valentine's Day, 4th of July and Christmas is pretty easy. Easter, not so much.:-)

We both enjoyed our quiet supper at home!

**How did you celebrate Valentine's Day this year?**