Can I Get A Whoo-Yeah?!?

Or a woot woot? Or maybe a you go girl? Because after my last post about the turkey place mats and the fabric that I HAD to have, Bridget left me a comment about seeing that fabric at Hobby Lobby! (That's Roman's mommy who I made that circle quilt for. Remember?) So I quickly drug my two year old out the door before my hair appointment yesterday and headed to Hobby Lobby. I got there and found the fabric. It was originally $5.99 a yard compared to the $7.99 a yard on Etsy. And I paid for a little bit of gas as opposed to $6-$12 for shipping! Then, I looked up, and it had a 30% off sign on top!

Needless to say, I rocked it at Hobby Lobby yesterday!

I even found a background fabric to use that was $2.99 with 30% off, a small amount of orange for the beaks, and I went ahead and bought a chocolate brown corduroy for the turkey body. It has a smaller nap than the pants I was going to use. It was the only thing that wasn't on sale, but I only needed a 1/2 yard. I bought my Wonder Under and buttons for the eyes at Hancock's the other day. I have scraps of batting for the inside and now I am all set. Now I just hope I can do this without a pattern. I may be showing a quilt made out of all this instead!

Oh yeah! And there wasn't much left on the bolt of those 3 fabrics that I had to have, so I bought the rest of the bolts! I got a little over 4 yards of two of them and 4 yards of one. Just in case this works out and someone wants to buy some! But seriously, don't get your hopes up. I have never made place mats before....but we'll see!

Sara

Fun Fact Friday

Halloween Fun Facts:


1. Orange and black are Halloween colors because orange is associated with the Fall harvest and black is associated with darkness and death.

2. Tootsie Rolls were the first wrapped penny candy in America.

3. Halloween is on October 31st, the last day of the Celtic calendar. It was originally a pagan holiday, honoring the dead. Holloween was referred to as All Hallows Eve and dates back to over 2000 years ago.


Have a Fun Friday!

Sara

Thankful Thursday

This week I am so thankful for Etsy. I get a lot of inspiration from this site! This week I have decided to make us some Thanksgiving place mats. I found this little turkey here. Isn't he cute? Or is it a she? Anyway, so I remembered back this summer that I went thrift shopping. I wasn't looking for anything in particular, just waiting for something to jump out at me that I could re purpose. I ended up coming home with four linen looking curtain panels. They had flowers embroidered up the sides which I didn't really care for. So this week I remembered I had purchased these and that it would be good to make my place mats out of. I got them out a little while ago and there is only enough fabric there to make four place mats after I cut off the embroidery. We have a table that seats eight, and I thought about making twelve. So I had to go to plan B. Maybe I could put fabric borders on each side in thirds. That didn't leave enough room for my turkey so onto plan C.

Now I am saving the curtains for maybe a few pillows and am going to get fabric for the back and front. This is what I have picked out for the turkey feathers. I also have a few pair of corduroy pants that are in my re purpose pile that I want to use for his body. I am hoping that they will match the feather fabric. If not, I will be going to plan D and buying corduroy. I found some at Hancock's today and it was on sale. Which means that when my fabric that I am ordering from Etsy comes in, the corduroy probably will clash.

That is my luck. I hope it turns out like it is pictured in my head. But it usually doesn't. You know, that's my luck, too!

Sara

Thankful Thursday

This week I am very thankful for consignment shops! Remember when I was doing all this here? Well yesterday was the day that I picked up my check. I did so good! I made a total of $653.18. I sold some to a friend and made $40.00 with her and the remaining $613.18 at Kid's Market! I got rid of a lot of maternity stuff too! Yay for me! So this week I am VERY thankful for Kid's Market. It makes me cringe at the thought of all the things I have just given away in the previous years. Don't get me wrong....I don't mind giving things to charity, but if they are items that are perfectly good I feel like I am being wasteful by just giving them away. I prefer to try and get something out of it and then donate what I can't sell.

Monday I took some of my clothes to Act II consignment. All of my work clothes that I wore when I worked at the bank that I don't use anymore. They are really picky there so they didn't take but maybe half of it. So now I am going to look for another consignment store for women's clothing and hopefully take some there. Let me know if you all know of another place.

This morning I took the things that were left over from the Kid's Market sale, went through and got all the name brand things out and I am going to try to sell some more here. I have never consigned with them so I don't know how that will go but I am at least going to try! It is all loaded up in the car and hopefully I will be able to get it down there this afternoon.

Never Again!

I finished Blaine's Halloween Costume Monday evening. I did it while Bryson was napping so I had to get it done. He is going to be a cowboy. It was an easy to sew/no sew pattern, meaning I could have glued it together instead of sewing. But since the request from Blaine was to have a costume that he could wear more than once, I thought gluing it would be silly. His reasoning behind wearing it again is...he plays a boy version of "dress up" in his Halloween costumes after the season is over. I guess that is okay...better than sitting in front of the TV, right? One day I even came out and he had dressed Bryson up as Spider Man and he was the Hulk. These are previous years costumes that weren't exactly cheap, seeing how they came with muscles and all.

So I get the pattern for $.99. (I don't think I have posted about this, but if I have, I am sorry to repeat myself.) The fabric was a chocolate brown faux suede for $5.99 a yard with 40% off. I only needed two yards for Blaine, but decided that since Bryson has new cowboy boots and a hat too, why not get one more yard and make him one too? Because if Blaine is doing it he will want to. So I get three yards, the pattern, thread and velcro (which I had to buy a whole package of for 2 little dinky pieces) and spent right at $31.00. I was so proud of myself. So, I make Blaine's vest and chaps Monday night and go to try it on him and the vest is to small.

Well, there is Bryson's vest.

Then I proceed to put the chaps on Blaine. What did I get?

"Thank you mom! I love it!" NO.

"These are the coolest things ever!" NO.

"I can't wait until Halloween!" NO again.

Instead of Blaine being grateful for my super savvy ability to not spend much money, or my ability at making his costume with very little sewing ability and for sure no pattern reading ability (it really is a different language, I think) I get a very disappointed look.

"Well, I was really hoping for real chaps and vest."

"Blaine, what do you mean a 'real one'"?

"You know. Leather ones, Mom."

"Blaine, I know you want to reuse your Halloween costume and all, but I am not about to buy you real leather chaps and vest. This is a "costume". And besides, you got a real cowboy hat and boots to go with it so this is as real as it gets."

Boy did I bust his bubble. So I set my alarm for 5am on Tuesday morning to get up and make another vest. One that fits him. It only took a few minutes. I think I had to stitch maybe a total of 6 inches. I did have to redo the pattern, making it bigger because I made it as big as it was t he first time. I get him up for school and tell him I redid it. He jumps out of bed to try it on.

"Well, I was kinda hoping for a cow print vest. Like the one in the picture. And do you think you can take those tie things off of the chaps? I don't really like that part. Maybe you can just sew it up."

"You know what Blaine? Why don't you give out the candy and me and Stephen will take Bryson trick-or-treating. Then maybe when you grow up, you can be a cowboy and get your own costume!"

And the worst part is, the pattern must have rounded up what I needed as far as fabric goes. Since I don't sew (quilting is different) I rounded up to make sure I had enough. Now I have enough to make a cowboy vest and chaps for everyone I know. Normally I would be excited about leftover fabric, but I can't quilt this. Unless maybe I make someone a faux suede quilt. HMMM.....I may have to think about that.

I had looked at several places for boots and a hat, but had no luck. When we went to Gatlinburg over fall break I saw a sign that said, "Buy 1 get 2 free!" Well, I couldn't pass that up so I went in. The boots were $60.00. Hold on! I can justify this!! I wasn't sure what size Blaine would wear so I got him two pair. The smaller pair fits so he can grow into the second pair! Bryson got the third pair so it equaled $20.00 each. Then if I sell them in Kids Market I will make money off of them! Woo hoo! And they have stars on the side that light up when they wear them! Safety first!

So whether Blaine thinks I did good this year, I think I did good this year. But NEVER AGAIN!!

Sara

It Ain't Food Network, But They Eat It....Tuesday!

I'm not even sure if this could be classified as a recipe because it is so simple, but it's my blog and I will if I want to! This was given to me around 15 years ago at a singles devotional at church. The lady hosting the event made this and I came pretty close to eating every bit by myself. I.love.it. The only problem with putting it on here is it doesn't really have a name. And what we call it isn't a good name for it. Because it looks kinda like vomit, we usually refer to it as puke dip. I know, terrible isn't it? Yeah. I live with all boys, remember? And if we let Bryson name it he would call it booty dip so I am choosing right now to name it Creamy Salsa Dip. Yes, that's better.

Creamy Salsa Dip

1-8 oz. package of cream cheese, softened

1-jar of salsa

Your favorite tortilla chips

In a large bowl, mix together softened cream cheese and salsa. Stir some and then use the mixer for about 30 seconds. This does splatter when you mix it, so maybe wear an apron and make sure your bowl is big enough. Then transfer a smaller bowl for serving and refrigerate until ready to eat it.

Sorry don't know how many ounces for the salsa, but it is the short jar. If I had to guess I would say it is around 12-15 ounces. I made this the other day for the Tots to Tikes get together and I used medium salsa, but it is good with mild or hot also.

Enjoy!

Sara

Love This!

So I have been going through these quilts in the Blogger Quilt Festival. I have found one that I HAVE to have. I even emailed the maker and asked her to send it to me for Christmas! When I checked my email the other day there was a response from her!!! She politely told me that if I was waiting by the mailbox holding my breath, I really should stop because she wasn't sending it to me. Well then. I was really sad but I told her I understood and we could still be friends.

But what else would I have expected from a total stranger?
Click here to see her awesome quilt. And yes, part of the reason I like it so much is because it is green. I think most of you know that already, but just in case Candy didn't know, there ya go. Any who, so now I am on a quest. A quest to collect the selvage edge from all different fabrics. Selvages of any length. A good inch to two inches from the edge would be great. My only problem is I have one friend that I know sews and I contacted her immediately. So if you sew, or you have friends that sew, or if you have friends that have friends that sew, I want the selvages.

Give them to me and no one gets hurt.

You are going to throw them away, anyhow. You will never use them, and you know you would never get around to making one of these yourselves! You are too busy so don't even try it! Thanks!

Sara

Disappointment

Yesterday ended up being a bad day for the pumpkin patch. It was a rainy, windy, and only 42 degrees. Not pouring rain...just a misty drizzly day. Not enough for an umbrella but enough to get wet and make you even colder. We didn't stay long at all. We had just had on capri's and flip flops two days before so unfortunately I had not even had time to dig out hats and gloves and boy did I regret that!!

We went to visit the farm animals first. There were puppies this year. I have no idea how many there were because they wouldn't even wake up. We whistled. We yelled. We clapped. They were not at stupid as all of us, as they were snuggled up together in their dog house snoozing away! The llama was too busy eating which is probably best since they like to spit. The goats weren't interested in us either. A couple were eating but one was standing on a hay bail trying not to fall off because he was sleeping. I don't know if all goats sleep standing up or if this one decided to do it for show. The pigs snorted twice and that was enough to make Bryson giggle. I think his favorite was the bunnies. He was so excited to see them. He kept trying to kiss it's nose and one he tried to snuggle his rear end. He didn't understand why I kept saying, "Don't kiss the bunny! Don't snuggle his rear end!"

Then we headed to the corn crib since it was in a shed type area blocking the wind and misty stuff. I think we all liked that the best! We could stay a little warmer and the little ones weren't going to dare run off. The tractors weren't even running the hay rides to pick the pumpkins. That was a little disappointing. We got to "pick" our pumpkin from the shelves of already picked pumpkins so we did get to bring one home. Bryson also picked out little decorative pumpkins for Brayden and Blaine. We also found one for Grandma Boo called a "Baby Boo" pumpkin. It is tiny enough to fit in the palm of my hand and is white. He was so excited when I told him the name of it.

I don't think the kids were as disappointed as the grown ups. They all whined when we left. I guess since all of them were small, except for Tara, they didn't remember getting to go on a hayride and eating grilled corn. We all decided together that next Saturday it will probably be 80 degrees! That will be our luck.

The motto for Alabama is "If you don't like the weather, stick around a day or two and it will change!" And boy is it true!

We all left early. We were all going to meet up at the Rosenblum's house later anyway for the pumpkin carving and cook out. We had a great time. They are always wonderful hosts' letting us bring in all these crazy kids into their home. We always have a great time with our church group and we never get to have enough get togethers! I wish we could do it more often.

Sara

Today's the Day!

Today we are going with our church group to Tate's Farm! We love going every year. I'm not sure how much we are going to love it this time with the cold, wet weather and Brayden and Blaine missing. But they are going to the Alabama game with their dad so I know they will be having fun. I just have this really bad feeling they are going to forget their coats, seeing how their dad is anti-coat/jacket.

After Tate's Farm we will be going to the Rosenblum's house for a cook out and pumpkin carving. I won't be carving my pumpkin there. I am waiting until later. You really think I could do a master piece with a bunch of little kids running around? And I can't let someone beat me at the pumpkin carving contest at church. We won't have none of that!

I made the Caramel Brownies that I posted about here. I have not made them in years and only made it once or twice. I thought I would make it to take this afternoon. So I bought the caramels last night and of course it doesn't tell on the bag how many are in the bag. So I tried to count and decided to just get three bags. Well, it took 1 1/4 bags so now I have all those caramels staring me in the face. And then to top it all off, they had apparently rode to Target in a warm truck. So when I tried to unwrap all 60 caramels (this would have been Blaine's job but yet again, he is at his dad's house) it was apparent that they had melted and reshaped themselves into weird shapes which made the wrappers hard to remove. So the wrappers tore and shredded as I unwrapped. I was afraid I wouldn't have time to make them this morning but I did and have time to post this before jumping in the shower. Yay me!

I just took them out of the oven so I have got to get moving this morning. I will hopefully post pictures soon. I know, I never posted the pictures from Gatlinburg. I just haven't had time. I spent all day yesterday cleaning out my closet and getting all the things of mine ready to take to the consignment shop. I wanted to get it done last weekend right before it got cold like yesterday so I would have a better chance of selling, but Stephen talked me into helping him last weekend and I got nothing on my 'to do' list finished.

Next week will be the time to pick up my check from here and I am SOOO hoping that I racked up! Time will tell.


Have a great weekend!

Sara

Blogger Quilt Festival

After looking at many beautiful quilts over the last few days, I have decided to enter Roman's quilt in a Blogger Quilt Festival! I hope I do this correctly! Some of you have already heard about this here so sorry to bore you :) But you really should go check out the other quilts in the Quilt Festival. Very good stuff, I tell ya!

I made this quilt for my good friends Reed and Bridget's first baby. They moved far far away right before she got pregnant, so after she had decided on what to do in the nursery, I had her send me the names of her paints that she was going to use. I went to Home Depot and picked up the free paint samples in those colors and took a trip to the fabric store. I had a hard time finding fabric to match the paint samples, but I did find what I needed in the fat quarter section and some on bolts. But of course the fabric on the bolts all had barely a yard left. That is how my luck goes, folks!

This quilt was hand appliqued over a few months at baseball games, in the car on road trips, and red lights. Yes, at red lights. I used the freezer paper method. This is the extent of my applique capabilities too. Circles=easy. If you want to learn, start with circles. Anyway, then I pieced all my blocks on the sewing machine. I hand quilted a spiral over each circle block. And yes I am jealous of all of you that quilt on your machine. I tried it a few times and it was a disaster. Maybe Santa can bring me a machine that I can do that on. Hint, hint. Lastly, I made my own binding and put it on by hand too!

So how long did it take me?

How am I supposed to know? I was watching baseball and sewing at red lights! I'm not really sure the size of it either because I didn't think to measure it before I mailed it. But it is a generous baby size. I don't do well with really small baby quilts. I want them to get really used with all the work I put into them! Okay, I just looked back through my posts and I posted about the fabric in February and took the pictures in May. So, there you go. 3 months, take or give a little.

And I photograph like I machine quilt. Sorry. This is the best I could do!

Hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for stopping by!

Sara

It Ain't Food Network, But They Eat It....Tuesday!

This is a recipe that was given to me about 15 years ago at a church function by a girl that was visiting our Bible class. I don't remember who she was, what she looked like or whatever happened to her and her husband. I don't think they ever placed membership with our congregation. Anyway, she brought this to a young couples dinner and I asked her for the recipe. It is still on the piece of paper that she wrote it on. I found it going through my messy recipe box. I have been trying to go through it and rewrite the ones that are like this, scratched on a piece of paper...and write them all on cards and file them in the appropriate category. It's going slowly....just in case you are wondering. I have a lot of "chicken scratch" recipes!

Caramel Brownies

60 caramels
almost 1 c. evaporated milk, divided
1 German chocolate cake mix
1/2 c. butter, melted
1 c. semi-sweet chocolate morsels

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt caramels and 1/2 c. evaporated milk in microwave or on stove top. In separate bowl, mix together cake mix, 1/3 c. evaporated milk and melted butter. Spread 1/2 of cake mix mixture in a 9x13 pan. Bake for 8 minutes. Spread semi-sweet morsels over cooked brownies, then spread caramel mixture, and top with the remaining cake mix. Bake again 18-20 minutes.

These brownies are very rich and gooey. A great twist to the traditional brownie!

Enjoy!

Sara

Bad Words

Bryson has been doing something lately that reminds me so much of Blaine. I thought I would share it here and recap somethings that Blaine has said as a toddler. I can't remember if I have ever posted about it, and frankly, I am too lazy to go back and look. So sorry if this is a repeat.

As a mother of three, I have learned that all kids will do things and see how much they can get away with. Don't you agree? I don't remember Brayden doing this, but the other two have. Saying "bad words". Now when I say "bad words", I am not talking about "bad words" as you would probably know it. I always used that phrase with my kids for things I didn't want them to say. Because they weren't "good words". Are you following me here? Like shut up, stupid, butt, fart and the list could go on and on. Just words that are rude or not nice. I know, I have boys. What else would I expect? But let me add here, boys can still learn manners.

Bryson's new thing lately is saying "little bootie". (Thanks Stephen.) Well that's all fine and dandy when we are at home and they are playing around. And I knew this day was coming. We went out to eat last night and I asked him what he wanted to eat.

"Little bootie", was his answer.

I explained that little bootie wasn't an option. He could have chicken, beef and broccoli, and so on. So I guess he decided I didn't understand that he wanted "little bootie" so he proceeded to stick his rear end up at me and smack it as he told me again, "Little bootie". I have also learned that the more you try to get them to stop, the more they will do it to be funny. So I just somewhat ignore it and he goes on to something else. Getting his brothers to stop laughing when he does it is another story.

Here is the reason that reminds me of Blaine. Me and Stephen had just gotten married so he would have been almost the same exact age as Bryson is now. I went to pick up Blaine from Bible class and the teacher pulls me aside and says, "I've got to tell you what Blaine did in class." All I could think to myself was, "Oh great." To be honest I was a little scared. He had already been in trouble numerous times for not keeping his lips to himself in class.

They were learning about Noah and the Ark. They learn one lesson at every class for a month. You know. Repetition. Anyway, they asked Blaine who built the ark.

"StupidshutupNoah." Yes. That was his answer.

His teacher wasn't sure what he had said so she asked him to repeat himself.

"Noah!"

And it went on from there. Everything they asked him in class that day his answer started out with stupid shut up. And he would say it all in one breath so you know he was just seeing if he could get away with it.

Thankfully that phase didn't last too long.

Sara

Checking In

This is a post just to check in with all my blogging buddies (and lurkers!)

We got back from Gatlinburg on Wednesday. I unpacked us all on Thursday and started washing. Then I started getting a runny nose and it went downhill from there. I have been a little under the weather over the weekend. The boys came home yesterday from an 11 day visitation with their dad and now we are adjusting back to normal life. That always takes a few days for them. We will get everything back in order and it will be time for them to go back and start it all over again.

Hopefully I will be able to post about our fall break soon, but honestly I don't even feel like doing it right now. I will check back in soon!

Sara

Where We Are

We arrived in Gatlinburg last night. We ate supper and then went for groceries. It started raining not long after we got here. This morning the plan was to go hiking but it is still raining. So I think we are going shopping today and saving the hiking for tomorrow. I will post pictures later. Maybe while I'm here, maybe when I get home. Not of the hiking, that is. Who knows.

Sara