Anna Welcomes Her New Brother

Nope, no surprise pregnancies here, but I’m a proud mama all the same!  Today Anna helped unpack her brand new Brother sewing machine!  It was a combination Christmas-Birthday gift from Gramma and it’s a hit.  How could it not be?  It’s got flowers.  Pink and purple flowers. 

It was a cold and rainy day stuck inside at home so Anna got started on her machine today.  She’s learning what all the parts are called and making big plans for all the things she will sew for her dolls.  I wanted her to get used to the feel of the foot pedal and guiding things under the needle so I had her sewing little holes along lines drawn on paper.  She’s a little nervous about the power of the machine but she was improving already.  I think she’s going to love this!

Tulip Festival 2013

It turned out to be the perfect day to visit Dow’s Lake and take in the tulip beds as part of this year’s Tulip Festival.

Kids Can: Draw String Pouches and Donuts

A while ago I started teaching my kidlets how to hand sew.  This is something that they seem to enjoy but it often gets pushed to the back burner.  Recently, Anna found some kids sewing books at the library and got re-energized about sewing so we pulled out our last project to finish up.

And now two of my kidlets have little drawstring pouches they’re proud to show off!  You can see their stitches aren’t perfect.  They’re kids.  They’re learning.  They’re already improving.  And I serged the inside edges after they’d sewn up the bottom and sides, just to make sure their bags wouldn’t come apart entirely when they filled them up with who-knows-what.

Then we decided to try our hands at these cute little felt donuts Anna found in a book.  (If you’re interested, check out Stitch By Stitch:  A Beginner’s Guide to Needlecraft, designed by Jane Bull.)  We didn’t bother with the instructions given and just winged it.  So the size of the first couple is a bit off.  But the kidlets are enjoying making these.  And I think the felt makes it easier for them to do their stitching.

I’ve learned that I need to be patient with them when we sew together.  That’s hard for me.  But if I keep sewing something for the same project at the same time, that helps.  In fact, I sewed 3 donuts and an eclair before they finished their first donut each.

So now, we have a good size set for the play kitchen.  Which Small Fry has already been carrying around the house, dunking into coffees (pretend or not), and arbitrarily rewarding people with (or taking them away as he deems fit).  I think they’re going to be a fun addition to our play kitchen.

A “Short” Day

When I went to get my Small Fry dressed for the day yesterday, I realized that I had forgotten to do laundry and that the little one only owns 2 pairs of shorts so far this year.  Bit of a problem with the beautiful weather we’ve had.  Couldn’t exactly send him out in his warmest pair of cords…  Go ahead and judge me.  It won’t change my laundry procrastination ways but if it makes you feel better…..   So!  I pulled out some cotton fabric I had on hand and sat down at the sewing machine.  And by lunch time he had a pair of shorts to wear.

The pattern I used is a slightly modified version of the Kickin’ Back Sweats in Sewing For Boys (Figueroa and LePage).  Obviously, I’ve cut the pattern down for shorts length, but I also added a side pocket (Small Fry is obsessed with things he can pick up and stash away — even to the point of stealing mittens from a baby at a party, which we had to sheepishly return when we discovered his thievery the next day).

For the elastic waistband, I sewed in a double casing and used 1/4 inch wide elastic.

And for the bottom hem, I used some vintage black bias tape, turned to the back, for a peek of contrast.

As I said, I had that pair of shorts finished by lunch time.  So, naturally, after lunch I had to sit down and churn out Anna’s cut offs.  I had 3 pairs just sitting, waiting for me to finish up the leg hems.  At least now they’re not taking up space on the back of the couch!

Her first pair got a pink bias trim.

The second pair were much simpler and just got 3 close lines of stitching so the bottoms can fray with washing (but not fray too far or badly so they look like they need to be trimmed up every few weeks).

For the third pair I serged the bottoms and pressed them to the back about 3/4 inch.  Then I simply ran a decorative scallop stitch around the bottoms in bright pink (still her favourite colour).  These were the first ones she wanted to wear.

It may have been a day of monotony as far as my sewing projects go, but at least the music we listened to was eclectic!  We started out with Rascal Flatts, then there were two musicals (Hair Spray and Phantom of the Opera), followed by Terri Clark and then Adele.  I’m glad to see the kidlets checking out different styles of music lately — especially if it means they don’t want to listen to 80s rock all the time!

Of course, now that I had 4 pairs of shorts off my to-sew list, when we got up to get ready for the day today, Noah discovered that I still had not done laundry.  And he had no shorts left.  Back to the machine for a quick fix for his cut-offs (same method as Anna’s third pair only with a dark green square spiral stitch all the way around).  Love that new Janome!  And half an hour later we were finally ready to go.

Tried It: Easy Strawberry Cheesecake

Watkins Imitation Strawberry Extract

I went searching for Watkins products when I was last shopping in the states after reading about Joy’s Root Beer Float Meringues over at My Country Manse in March.  I found imitation strawberry extract and imitation raspberry extract.  The raspberry one made an amazing batch of brownies.

And the strawberry one made this:

I used the recipe printed on the side of the Imitation Strawberry Extract box from Watkins.  It’s more of a cheesecake pie then actual cheesecake but it was easy and soooooooo yummy!  A big hit with our entire family!

Jammers for Summer Jammies

I used some lightweight gingham to whip up 4 pairs of jammer length pjs for the kidlets for this (amazing!) warm weather we’ve been getting.  This also so much faster with my new Singer serger, Susan.  Finishing the seam allowances is incredibly easy and quick!

Noah’s brown ones were made from a rub-off of a pair of shorts purchased at Walmart in the States last month.  The other two pairs you see (and a pair of blue ones that you can’t see for Noah to match Levi’s) were made from the Pajamas for Everyone pattern from Heather Ross’ book, Weekend Sewing.  When I traced my pattern pieces, I simply left out the bottom half where you would normally match the dots and finish tracing the second part of the piece.  Does that make sense?  Well, either way it worked out to be a perfect length just like that.

And now the kidlets are comfy and cooler when they sleep.

Do It Yourself: Maple Caramel Popcorn

What You Need:

• generous 15-16 cups of popped popcorn (remove all unpopped kernels)
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/4 cup maple syrup (get the real stuff — Aunt Jemima and Mrs. Butterworth just aren’t going to cut it here)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

What to Do:

Preheat oven to 200F.

Place popcorn in very large, ungreased roasting pan.

In medium or large pot/sauce pan, heat brown sugar, butter, maple syrup, and salt over medium heat.  Stir occasionally until bubbly around the edges.

Continue to cook without stirring for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat.

Stir in baking soda until foamy.

Pour sugar mixture over the popcorn, tossing to evenly coat.

Bake 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

Spread popcorn on parchment paper to cool for 30 minutes.

Store in tightly covered containers or in zippered freezer bags.