The second are for my gramma’s birthday earlier this month, it turns out she has been using the same corky-wooden ones since the 70’s, a gift from my uncle, so it seems they are not only useful but appreciated!

These are made from Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts, the same as the last set and the same modification of using different fabrics on each side instead of the same.  The instructions say to use a high-loft quilt batting for the interfacing, which I did for the first set, but as mentioned I thought that a layer of cotton flannel would have the same effect after being quilted.  I didn’t go that far this time around, but on Lori’s I used a single layer of some bamboo/cotton quilt batting that I had instead which was FAR from being high-loft.  Additionally, on gramma’s I used two layers of that same batting.  The verdict?  I like the two layers my low-loft bamboo/cotton in this project far more than the other two variations.  Gramma’s coasters turned out to be just the perfect stiffness, and I think they are going to turn out to have better absorption too, bonus!

This is an easy easy project with almost instant result, my favorite part is the quilting, probably because of the OCD in me making sure all those lines are straight and spaced perfectly.

PROBLEM:  How do I EFFICIENTLY carry little as possible with me on short outings while still meeting the basic needs of a messy one year old?

Obvious solution:  Throw a few diapers and some wipes along with a snack in a bit of an over sized purse and woosh, I am out the door.  Nope, here lies the problem for you childless people, or even you dads who have not had to face such an embarrassment as crunched & mangled diapers falling out of your purse a THE MOST inopportune times!  Diapers don’t stay in their vacuumed packed state, they get mushed and mangled, quickly!  Who wants crumpled diapers floating around freely in their purse or anywhere else for that matter?

REAL SOLUTION:  A pouch to hold your most valuable of wipe holders and two or three diapers!

While searching high and low the closets solution I could find was Skip Hop’s Pronto, and even it, after I saw it in person was HUGE– for my needs at least, and heavy for an on-the-go quick solution.  So here you have it, the result of a months worth of searching, plus I got to stitch a bit which I have been missing since I finishing this.

This super simple pouch is made from 100% linen, and the lining is a print from Free Spirit that Lori used on Ella’s quilt, we used on her window treatment, and these.  It is coming out of my ears, and I cannot stand it any longer as a prominent fabric in my projects, so it has been demoted to lining fabric only, which I actually really like.  PLUS I wasn’t really sure if this project was going to turn out since it was a bag with a flap that I had never done before.  I always seem to get mixed up with all the right-sides, wrong-sides, and the turning, I was sure I was going to end up with something backwards.  Must be beginners luck!

Since this wasn’t suppose to turn out on my first try I didn’t document every step, but here is the gist.  First I made a template out of some muslin then remembered I needed a 1/4 inch seam allowance, so I cut one, and then laid it on one piece of lining fabric and one piece of linen and cut.

Next I did the same thing again, but did not cut the flap out and left a 1/4 seam allowance at the top.  The result was two pieces of each fabric, one with a flap piece and the other without.  With right-sides together I sewed the two flap-less pieces across the top only, turned, pressed, and finished with a nice top stitch.  Then came the fun part, stitching.

Keeping in step with my recent bird obsession, I had this little guy begging to join the world of technicolor.  At first I tried to stitch it by tracing the transfer onto tear away stabilizer, like above, to save my transfers, but that didn’t work out so well and I ended up doing the ol’ taping it to the window and tracing it “technique.”  I think he turned out alright, my satin stitch is stinky, but I figure the only way to make it better is to keep trying.  I sorta think that I should have done him in brown so he would pop a little more on the linen, but hey, live an learn. I am sure I will be stitching him again anyway!

After this little guy was complete I sewed all the layers together as follows starting with the bottom most fabric.  Lining w/ flap right-side up, sewn together flap-less pieces with embroidery side up, and Linen flap wrong side facing up.  Stitch the entire perimeter leaving the entire top open and un-stitched.  Turn, press, and finger press the top of the flap so you can sew it up with a finishing top stitch.  There you have it.  It does need a bit of velcro or something, but I haven’t gotten that far and I haven’t really decided if it needs it, the contents make it a pretty tight fit.

If, and when I decide to do one of these again, I will be sure to give a bit more explanation, some measurements, and better pictures.  If you have questions please ask, I will answer if I can.

You see, I received my sewing machine a year ago this week for my birthday, Ella was just four months old!  Not the best time to start a new hobby as involved as sewing with nobody to teach me except my trusty book from Lori!  Well, I didn’t get around to sewing until October, at which time I thought I would commit myself to the loony bin and MAKE everybody Christmas and Birthday presents!  Somewhere in there I also thought I would hit myself over the head and commit myself all together and make Ella this perfect little Olive by Hillary Lang at Wee Wonderfuls.  Needless to say, I didn’t actually start until a couple days AFTER Christmas… after all, 6 month ella won’t know any different, right?  Well, Ms. Olive here turned out to be much more difficult than this inexperienced sewist expected, and after the holiday marathon I wasn’t exactly committed to hanging in there with it.  Somewhere along the way a few months into procrastinating I regained my confidence and popped it out in a night, but then her rear remained un-sewn for a good month until I figured that out too– again, not too committed to the project.  And here we are August, Ella is nine months older, Olive is finally getting photographed, and technically still has no face…

There is a bit of an explanation behind her facelessness too.

Since she sat so long on my mantle in various stages of being complete, visitors started to comment how much they liked her NOT having a face.  It seemed a bit crazy at first, and honestly I had every intention of giving her a cute little face, but the idea started to grow on me and here we are.  That does not mean that she will never have a face, just that right now Ella is enjoying her quite a bit without one.  I made sure to give her the big floppy bow she was suppose to have but I made it out of satin because I knew it was sure to be her favorite part.  Turns out I was right.

I thought it fitting to also attach a little something so she doesn’t get lost in the shuffle through the years, I think it turned out pretty nifty.  I just used 100% cotton fabric made to be printed on, like this, and viola instant tag.

In hindsight this project wasn’t all that difficult, there were just a couple sticky spots that I think I gave up on too easily.  I learned a lot, I would totally do it again, and I think I am better equipped to do other tricky softies in future.

Hopefully it won’t take me this long next Christmas, cross your fingers!

yes, those are cut band-aids!

…wait until you see what I have planned for this guy!

I have received a few requests for the recipe I used for the 4 dozen cupcakes at Miss E’s first birthday a few months back, and I just received another!  It is time to spill it, including all my hints for you non-seasoned bakers (me included)!

First off let me say that I absolutely adore Sprinkles, I imagine that they are the most scrumptious cupcakes around– but I wouldn’t know exactly because I have not exactly eaten one before. BUT, I have been promising myself a trip to Beverly Hills for paper and cupcakes, (sigh) someday!  Taste aside, I love the simplistic, elegant, homemade look of them.  The swirl is perfect.  Every one is a bit different, and the marzipan marking system is brilliant and lovely.  SO, you can imagine my absolute elation and lasting excitement when I found THIS and THIS!  The exact recipe from Candace herself, EUREKA! (I realize this may not be the exact exact recipe that is actually used, but please, don’t tell me that, I am perfectly content thinking that it IS!)

I am not going to go into any detail about the making process, who am I to think that I can do any better job than Martha herself and Candace… but I will let you in on three things:

First, I was completely bummed, and sad, that I was not able to find brown cupcake wrappers locally or even semi-locally the week I made these.  I did not think that they were that tall of an order, but they were, and as you can see I regretfully did not use them because I am a looser and did not get my butt in gear soon enough to order them online from HERE.  They even have polka-dot ones now, UGH!  Take my advice, order them now, keep them in your pantry, they really do make all the difference when cupcake making in the future.

Second, in the directions/recipe AND on the video, nowhere do they mention that you should STRAIN your strawberry puree!  FRUSTRATING!  I did not do so, and clearly mine look dramatically different, I will go out on a limb and say that they probably tasted the same as intended just with a few strawberry seeds mixed in.  When I do them again I will strain the puree, but I will have to say that they looked a bit more like intentional homemade goodness when all the seeds mixed in.

Third, a friend of mine was going to make these and after we got to talking she said that she was going to make them with her hand mixer.  I am not sure when the last time is that she made a cake, but I could not imagine making one or these with a hand mixer.  Somehow I imagine not being able to get the fluff and loft that is required when making a cake.  But hey, if you are th adventuresome type, go for it.  Me, I will stick with my beloved wedding gift!

Oh, and the tools that made this particularly more easier were not only my mixer, but also an offset small frosting knife that I need MUCH more practice with, and a ice scream scoop-ish thing, but smaller, that is the exact size needed for a dollop of batter in a cupcake wrapper.  I cannot for the life of me remember what it is called, if you really need to know I can get it, but for now “scoop-ish” is going to have to satisfy! ha!

Happy baking, and send one over for us please!

… and then of course there is always the token card that Mr. K has come to expect.

The red and white polka dots (which I see they don’t have any more, but they were part of the luxe collection) and beautiful chocolate paper are from my beloved paper-source.

These are the quick wall hangings I did for Ella’s “baby room,” they coordinate with the, I guess you would call it window treatment, and the quilt that Lori so generously made for Ella when she was born. I had been meaning to do something with the remaining fabric from Ella’s window project but I was having trouble deciding on what. Ella’s walls stayed naked until I stumbled upon a great and simple idea from Anna Maria Horner which was then featured on The Martha Show. I already had the fabric and Modge Podge, acrylic paint is cheap, all I had to find were the square canvases. I eventually found them at a Joann’s, but not just any Joann’s, a super store of sorts, and then it was off to Micheal’s to pick up a couple great flat paintbrushes that I have wanted to own anyway! In an afternoon the project was completed and hung. Easy breezy. I decided to use the wren that Anna Maria featured because, well… I was uninspired to do anything else, and I really do like the realistic quality, not to mention my obvious obsession with silhouettes and birds lately.

They are hung above Ella’s changing table, which poses some problems when putting on pants now that she is one! They seem to be a bit irresistible to reach up and grab and knock off the wall, but I can’t blame her, they are tempting to touch.

Keith, err Ella, so cleverly ordered two fantastic items from my Etsy Wish List, these prints from Emily at The Black Apple and these perfectly great earrings. I am in love with both equally– I have worn my earings everyday, but I am so much enjoying the new prints in my dining room as I sip my tea in the mornings, I can hardly stand it.

These are Ribba frames from from IKEA in 9×9, and I finally bought a mat cutter that I have been promising myself for months now (hence all the empty frames on my walls, for those of you who have visited lately) to custom cut the mats to fit the prints that came as 8.5”x11”. The mats are a much more dull white, more creamy compared to the white-white of the prints, so I am not sure if I will keep them this way yet.  But it was a great trial run for my new cutter and got them on the wall for me to gawk at their perfectness– the prints, not my cutting. I LOVE them, they are a fantastic twist on the age old silhouette portrait, AND a girl in a TEA cup, what could be more perfect for me? And the bird’s nest hair, holy smokes, I love them.

Dear Emily @ the black apple-
If you ever get around to doing more silhouettes I would be super happy and have just the place in my house for them to live happy and long adored lives. Please, please make more!

from,
Emily @ this humble blog

If you haven’t cut your own mats before, do it! I was a bit intimidated, which is why it has taken me so long to follow through with my plans for my other lonely frames, but the practice Ribba mats were so easy and turned out perfect that I have all the confidence I need now…. once I figure out what to put in the frames! I just followed the four step super simple direction that came with the cutter and it worked like a charm. When the time comes I plan to get my mat board from Michaels, which has tons to choose from and you can use a coupon, what’s better than that?

Here’s how it usually goes: “oooo, this is GREAT! Honey do you like it!?” “Yea, that is great, lets get it, how much is it?” I turn it over to reveal the price and then tell Honey with disappointment. “That’s not bad, seems worth it,” he says. “WHAT? That is awful… I can make that.” I say as I put it back on the shelf and longingly step away. As we get ready to leave the store Honey says “Aren’t you going to get that?” “What?” “The thing.” “No, I can make that.” “But you don’t!” “Shut up!” And so my list grows, more ideas clog my brain and our lack of coasters continued.

These little quilted gems are from Last-Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts, which I am in love with by the way. I decide to do these coasters over something much more simple because I learned to use my fancy quilting foot, it worked like a charm. Instead of one rectangle to make the folded square that resulted in the same pattern on both sides, I created the rectangle with two different fabrics from Joel Dewberry’s Aviary collection, and then continued the directions by the book. The pattern calls for a high loft quilt batting as the facing which I used, but I am not all the impressed with the idea. They turned out much more flat and non-cushy than I was hoping, I think they would have much better absorption and probably even look loftier if two or three pieced of cotton flannel were used in place of the batting. I am sure that I will be making at least a couple more sets of these as I have proved to be pretty repetitive with new projects, meaning my current obsession with totes and bags, so when I try it I will let you know.

Currently there are eight of these floating around the house, but we often cannot find three or four of them, turns out they moonlight as 12 month old teething-toys! So in the pics there are only six, the ones I could find today.

With this bag, and the last (that I failed to take pictures of!) I have decided on a favorite size, make, and model. In this case we will call coordinating fabric A, and linen B. I did not use any facing in this bag as I usually do because I feel with the linen and type of use they will get that they are just fine with out it. I like the hand of it much better anyway. Final measurements of the bag are 12.5”14.5” -ish with a 2” boxed bottom.

A x2 5.5”x16”
B x2 10”x16”
A x2 1.5”x22” straps
B x2 1.5”x22” straps
lining fabric x2 15”x16”

I think the fabric I used is part of the Urban Chic or perhaps Chick collection, my memory is failing me. If you know, please help me clear the fog. THANKS!

A new study out of the University of Exeter suggests a strong link between high glucose levels in the early days of your pregnancy and preconception and having a boy.

“According to a survey of 740 British mums to be, a high-calorie diet is more likely to lead to a baby boy in nine months’ time.”

“The level of calorie intake was the main dietary factor that affected offspring sex, say the researchers, who report their research in Proceedings of the Royal Society B ¹. Overall, women in Matthews’s study who produced sons ate an average of 180 calories more per day than those who had daughters — “the equivalent of eating a banana”, she says.”

Higher glucose levels were found in mothers who gave birth to boys, but interestingly there was also a correlation between mothers who routinely ate breakfast cereal.

“The researchers are unsure of why this happens, although they suggest that it could be to do with levels of glucose in the blood. Male test-tube embryos generally require a more glucose-rich growth medium to survive in the lab — Mathews suspects that a similar process may operate in the uterus, so women with higher sugar levels are more likely to nurture a male embryo as it is implanted in the womb lining.”

So eat up! Or don’t. Personally when that time comes I am going to load up on Whole Food’s Fruit Loops!!

I recommend this book as a great first book for beginner sewers, but I can not speak for the advanced lot of you as I am far from that; however, please check out the Bend-the-Rules Sewing errant page before starting a project! Trust me, it is frustrating to be 100% sure that you are doing something correctly and still have it not come out right at 1am, only to find out after much cursing, fist pounding, and loads of disappointment that you are NOT crazy and there truly was something wrong with the pattern or given measurements, honest!

NOTE: Sometimes the botoom photo feed breaks from flickr, I’m working on it, but in the mean time check them out here.

I bought this wonderfully 100% cotton flannel print a while back ago on the cheap with just this in mind. The backside is plain white flannel and there is an extra piece inside for additional absorption. If baby Rocki is anything like Ella was she is going to need it for sure! I used whatever rickrack I could find at Joanns, since we don’t have a proper fabric store here. The rickrack its polyester, which I had reservations about at first, but turns out it was great to use on a project like this because I was able to melt the ends instead of worrying about how to finish them. Super simple. I made these burp clothes a bit wider than anything I had and longer. More width and length is a necessity when volumes of yuck come out! Final measurements are 9.25”x15.25”, perfect for any accident baby or toddler.

So after much thinking, and very little writing or organized thoughts I have come up with some topics that I am going to try to write on in the coming weeks as well as sharing my normal interests and crafty to-dos.  You must be thinking “Oh God, no, please not another pointless blog!”  I will save you the agony and drama, ‘it’s not you, it’s me.’  You see, it is just a place for me to put my thoughts down and share with the few people that care about what I do, and what is in my head on a weekly basis… besides no Ella don’t pull the power cord out of the wall, Ella where did you find that, no bunny poo is not to eat…

So hello again my few friends.