Just Deanna: October 2008

Friday, October 31, 2008

Last recital and eating spiders

I finally figured out how to get around bloggers problems. I adjusted the HTML myself to make the pictures fit (I have a tiny bit of knowledge of HTML back from my eBay selling days where I used templates to match my outfit).

So here's some back posting.....

Zachary (7) had his last piano recital this past Saturday for his early childhood music piano class...he graduates next month, and then on to private lessons. He's been in this particular program since he was 18 months old.

Here he is introducing himself before his solo. They had recital at a pavilion by the river here and it was gorgeous.

Here's Miss Mouse by the river...token picture of the baby of course!

We made those spiders a few days back...link mentioned here. I changed mine to dipping the whole cracker into chocolate since they were after all our dessert after dinner. And I used marshmallows for the eyes. They were a big hit...though we didn't put enough legs on (that was kinda a pain/mess after dipping them). :)

And here is a yummy harvest trail mix I made for the kids to take on a Cub Scout field trip Zachary went on (of which is after school, meaning I have to drag all 4 kids to). Pretzels, mini marshmallows, chocolate chips, raisins, craisins, candy corn and original goldfish.

So I think I'm caught up now. I've been crafting during my blogging outage. And it's not involved one bit of sewing. Painting actually and it's been very therapeutic. Will share soon! For now off to make cupcakes for party at church tonight!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Thursday, October 30, 2008

This is for my kids

My kids love this video clip. It's usually this time of year when they get into watching Muppet clips as we have Muppet Christmas cd we listen to (no we have not broke out the Christmas music yet...soon, but not yet).

Anyway, I've been trying to post for 2 days now and blogger is acting all freaky on me and the pictures won't post right (5 times too big). So enjoy the clips with my kids til I get back to regularly scheduled programming. :)

And one more, just because.....

Monday, October 27, 2008

Last minute Halloween

Get your last minute Halloween goodies here!

A very sweet original Halloween picture at Inside a Black Apple . I am saving it to my hard drive for next year when I plan to have an adult Halloween type party.

Check out these cute cake pops at Bakerella.

Costume help and fun decorations to make with the kids at Crafty Crow.

And a very cute online paper doll game here. Dress her in different costumes.

And make some cute spider snacks with the kids like the ones here (I think we will make some to eat while we watch It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown tomorrow night). **this one was added in an edit this morning

As for me, I'm on the mends. I managed to finish my niece's costume and get it in the mail. But oh my word!!! The angst! She is going as Princess Peach and I made the dress. A long 12 yr old size pink satin dress using this pattern. I used the blue dress version. Sewing the satin was ugh! It would have helped if I had thought to serge the edges I was gathering so it didn't shred to pieces in my hand. And the corset style belt I ended up having to iron the satin to the interfacing to keep it from moving all over the place. I do not swear, but it was tempting while sewing this thing! But I love my niece and she'll look beautiful in it. I won't mention how much candy was taken from the above picture during the process. ;) I however did tell Kalla I would not be able to make her Shortcake costume this year. She said ok mama, I'll just be Cinderella (we already have the dress). Good girl. Now hopefully she won't change her mind. :)

Friday, October 24, 2008

Bummer and blessings

Just a quick note to my visitors that I am 'out sick'. I have been out of commission since Tuesday. Fevers and the whole thing. :(

The blessing come from my wonderful friends that have called to see how they could help and bringing dinners and keeping Z some after school. And the biggest is my fantastic hubby who has stayed home to take care of me and the kids. This has been quite a challenge for him to get up and get the kids ready for school and pack lunches, etc. Especially since he's not feeling the greatest.

I hope to back to pace on Monday. Til then, it's sleeping if I can and lots of fluids. :)

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Chili

Nothing beats homemade chili on chilly nights!

Here's my favorite recipe:

3/4 lb ground beef
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
1 can (14.5 oz) kidney beans
1 8oz can tomato sauce
1 green pepper chopped
1 med onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic minced
3-4 tsp chili powder
1 tsp basil
2 bay leaves
hot sauce (opt) to taste

Fry ground beef til browned with onions, green peppers and garlic. Put in a big pot with remaining ingredients. Simmer for at least 30 mins. Serve with shredded cheese, sweet cornbread and saltines. Make double or triple for larger crowds or to freeze for later meals.

The next day use leftovers for a really good plate of chili cheese fries or on a hotdog! Mmmmmm!

Monday, October 20, 2008

Pumpkin Farm pics (and 2 custom pumkin-y outifts)

Here's the 6 of us at the farm. We had a ton of fun. This farm is like the disneyland of all pumpkin farms. The kids and I definitely look forward to coming here all year long.

For the 'crafty' portion of this post. Here are the two sets I made for the girls to wear. I made Kalla jumper top with applique pumpkins and triple ruffled jeans (of the green dot that you can't see here.)

Stripwork jumper dress for Maressa with a little pumpkin applique on the front.

As for the rest of this post, here are a small portion of the pics I took. :P

Playing on the playground:

Petting the animals:

Playing/jumping in the corn cribs:

Even daddy gets in.

Hayride to pick our pumpkins:

Can you tell Micah had fun???

Picking just the right pumpkin:

Taking a plethora of pictures (but mom, the sun is in my face!):

And getting exhausted!

Whew! We're still recovering and Micah is now sick sick sick. :(

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Sew Crafty Blog

I just joined this group of sewing/crafting bloggers. It looks like fun and great blogs to peruse. If you'd like to check out other great crafting mom's blogs they are in my side bar now or you can check out the Sew Crafty Blog to join or find some other great blogs.

And a 'hello' to my fellow groupies. Thank you for the ladies that have visited and left sweet comments. I hope to check out all the blogs in greater length very soon. For now I'm in a big costume crunch (Christy it will be in the mail tomorrow!) and giving myself a timeout from the computer the rest of the day. :)

Will be back tomorrow to share completed projects from today (there are mulitple ones of course).

Oh one other thing, I've done a little blog housekeeping. You can now search my blog and I've added a third column for easier navigating (I hope).

For now, talk amongst yourselves and enjoy this video, I'm gonna go change a diaper and get to work!

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

I love containers!

I am the anti-wrapper. lol With most gifts I prefer to make a collection in a cool container. The exception is Christmas (it's just not the same if you don't have ripped wrapping paper every where) and usually kids parties. For kids half the fun is ripping up the paper. So I am constantly looking for fun ways to give gifts. In the above picture (an exception to the exception) I made this pail for a 3 year old. His favorite color is orange and I thought he'd like an orange pail to tote his toys in. I got this empty paint pail at Home Depot. Primed and painted, then lined the inside with felt. Stamped his name and stenciled a gecko on the front. The mother loved it so much she made it a table decoration for the party (which was an orange theme). I added a few orange Hot Wheels and an I Spy bag inside.

I've also used the type of pails you see on my shelves in this post. I've painted them the same way, but they are larger and hold more stuff.

More containers:

They actually now make contemporary mason jars, which are awesome to put drink mixes like this Chai Tea or sugar scrub, or candy, or other fun stuff.

Here I folded neatly a handmade apron, pot holder and embellished kitchen towel in a glass cookie jar.

Baby hoodie towel and other bath/diaper changing goods in a plastic tote with a handle for a mobile station.

These baskets are very inexpensive, come in 3 sizes and easy to paint or decorate or leave au natural. Get them at Hobby Lobby.

For wedding showers I like to get a container off their registry, like colanders, mixing bowls, bathroom garbage cans and fill with coordinating registry items...and like here a few handmade items as well.

Another great inexpensive basket from Hobby Lobby.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Apples

So I made some harvest-y type pillow slipcovers for my sofa this past weekend. They turned out so cute! The nice thing is they are removable and I will make some Christmas ones next (not to mention they can be washed when they get slimed by some kids I know of).

Making slipcover pillow cases couldn't be simpler, but I thought I'd share the how-to anyway. First you cut the front out full size of the cover you need (use your pillow to measure). The back you cut into 2 pieces to overlap one another. In my case I made the front piece 24"x 14". So the back pieces were 15" x 14". Then you hem one side of each of the short pieces. Once hemmed you lay down your front piece and then your back pieces on top, right sides together. In the above pic I have only one side laid down.

Here it is pinned to be sewn.

Here you can barely see how the two pieces overlap above the green pin. Then you sew completely around. Trim the corners and reverse through the envelope hole you have left between the 2 pieces.

Here's what it looks like in the back completed and pillow put in. Now it can be taken on and off as needed. It's a nice way to accent your home for holidays without buying new pillows and easy to stash away for the next year.

Something else we tried this weekend.

Caramel apple bites. They so did not come out very well at all. I got the idea from one of my magazines (can't remember which one at the moment). It suggested using a melon baller to make little apple balls...that part came out great! Then you poke popscicle sticks in the top and dip. The article suggested dipping in peanut butter then rolling in chocolate chips I believe. But I thought oh that would be great in caramel and chocolate like the full size versions, but easier for the kids to eat. So we tried it. Let me just tell you as sticky as caramel is, it doesn't stick to the wet part of a cut apple. And even if you force the issue and try to proceed with the choc dipping part, it gets even messier and eventually binds up the melted chocolate because there is too much juice on the apple/now caramel apple goo. And even if you get as far as getting them with some amount of caramel and choc lumped onto each bite (because you are super stubborn person and that craving for apple caramel choc is too strong) they aren't that good when you eat them. Inside the chocolate is gooey slimey apple caramel gush and though the taste is ok (kids are eating them), if you are sensitive to texture, these are NOT for you! So do like I did and buy a pre-made caramel apple at the supermarket for a quick craving fix. ;)

And last few pictures of our morning at our local train museum/depot. We took hubby there Sat morning as he's never been and the kids had been asking to go. It's a historic site with museum, old train cars to go in, trolley that takes you in a big circle and of course a playroom. The above is in the playroom. Boys hung out at the train table and the girls had tea the whole time.

Here they are in a very old timey car. There were several of them and they all had to test drive them all. :) Not sure why Kalla had that look on her face. It all goes back to the whole trying to get them all to look your way and not appear to be crying picture thing I talked about previously. :)