Yes, You Can!!

I know that I've mentioned one of my favorite sites on the web to several of my friends, through email, in conversation, or on my EC profile but I thought it was time to post on my blog too. You all know that I'm attempting Easter dresses for the girls this year but I probably wouldn't have had the courage, or the skills, if it wasn't for all of the contributors over at YouCanMakeThis.com and their amazing designs. Take a mosey on over to the site and see if inspiration hits---it sure found me!

Getting Creative in the Kitchen

I've always considered myself fairly creative, especially when it comes to cooking. I think I'm a pretty good chef but I wouldn't call myself "gourmet" by any means--we just eat down home, fill yer gut and make you happy food around these parts. :) Every now and again I will whip up something nice but we mostly eat casseroles and my famous one-pot-wonders in our home.
Anyhow, I have hoped that I would be able to pass these traits on to my girls. I've been taking them to the craft store to help me choose little crafts that we can make together, I've taken them to help me choose fabric to make them clothes and we look online at girlie dresses and things to help us come up with ideas to make them cute little outfits. I also try and have them help me in the kitchen every chance I get. Setting the table, measuring ingredients, cutting out cookies... heck, they even know the trick about using dental floss to cut the dough for cinnamon rolls.
Well, I think I can say today that I've successfully passed on the creative culinary gene to at least one of my children; today Lara came up with her very own creation at snack time: animal cracker and green pepper sandwiches! She says they're rather tasty, but I think I'm going to take her word on that.
In the meantime, I'll keep sliced green peppers and animal crackers on hand so Lara can make herself some finger sandwiches at will. :)

Fabric Preview

Here's that fabric I told you about yesterday. Hopefully somebody's fairy godmother will show up in the middle of the night and transform the pinks, oranges and greens into some lovely Easter frocks! ;)

Bringing you up to date!

So I haven't posted in a while, but I had to get you updated on what I've been up to over here. Valentines Day was a blast! Micaela was sent home from school and ALL of the kids were sick with one thing or another; Conjunctivitis, ear infections, chest congestion... you get the picture. Through it all the kids have been troopers and morale has been pretty high. :)

I did score some great deals for the kids at Old Navy--and I found a super cute pair of knee socks for one of the girls in coral and fuscia stripes for that I adore! See? I'm pretty easy to please...

On to the most important of things: I nabbed some LUSCIOUS fabrics this weekend that are absolutely yummy! Of course they're not for me really, I'm going to try my hand at making the kids some coordinating easter dresses this year. The scary part is that I have NO IDEA what I'm doing with the fabrics yet but I have a few patterns that I'm hoping to merge together to get a euro look that will make for some cute photos. Anyhow, I have a trio of colors I'm working with: orange, pink and green--pretty out there I know. I figured that the kids can wear them first for Easter but the colors will be appropriate for them to wear all summer. No bunnies, chickies or eggs here. ;)

Oh, and I got a new shelf to help me out in my fabric organizing process too! Now I just have to put it together! Hopefully this will make it easier for me to get at my stash! Right now everything is in clear totes but it's still not THAT easy to get to everything, you know? Well, I'll keep you updated on that project... it's off to breakfast with the munchkins for now!

Special Delivery!

I was so excited yesterday when I opened the mailbox to find my first issue of Ottobre Design magazine. I wasn't sure how I'd like the magazine and didn't know if I wanted to shell out $80 smacks for a subscription so I ordered a back issue from banberry place and I must say, I am thrilled! The clothes are lovely! The directions are great, the sizing is perfect for my girls and I couldn't be any happier. I can't wait to get my sewing nook back up and running--I have some fabric that I plan on using to make matching pants for all my girls already. And I am chomping at the bit to get to the fabric store and pick up some white eyelet cotton for some underskirts and I think I'm going to snag a cutesy floral and (crossing my fingers) try my hand at some Easter dresses for the girls. Not much time for all that so I had better get cracking!

The only thing I'm nervous about is tracing the patterns out to cut them as they're printed a'la European style. I think it will take a while to get used to the fact that they print all the pattern pieces on top of each other, but I'm thankful that they're color coded at least!

Ahh, where to start?

There's so much going on right now!! The kids are doing great, I've completed a few WIPs, there's a 2 hour delay for school this morning due to the snow and ice that greeted us ever so cheerily this morning and I was invited to do a launch with some little girls clothing that I've been trying my hand at. I also made a great dish that I want to share with you all sometime soon--so easy peasy and VERY yummy! As a preview, we tried it with bacon and some sweet, snappy string beans but I think I'm going to try it with some pancetta and see how that goes. Ahh, well, off to another day with the munchkins!

What's a cookin'?

I'm a little odd when it comes to meal time I suppose; I try to incorporate as many colors as possible when serving up food and I always try to have a protein, a starch and a veggie. Tonight, I failed miserably. Aside from our perky green Brussels sprouts, our colors were sad. We had:

Glazed Boneless Pork Chops (a brownish shade)
Stuffing (again, brown)
Brussels Sprouts (happy green)
Green Beans (green again...)
Mashed purple potatoes (blue-ish purple, but in the same family as the greens)

Why we had two greens I cannot tell you. At the last minute Bill stepped in to "help" me out with dinner and he put the sprouts on the stove. Then he thought that he would spice up the beans with some olive oil, balsamic vinegar and some herbs. We all thought that they were less than desirable.

I will say that I LOVE purple potatoes! I used to call them blue potatoes as that's what the local farmers termed them where I used to live. Anyhow, they make the *best* mashed potatoes ever! Give 'em a try sometime--they taste great and kids enjoy the fun color on their plate. :)