Bow Ties and Boutonnières {part 1}

Last Easter I made ties for my boys to wear to church.  I used this pattern from The Purl Bee to make Davis' tie.  Collin was so little I made him a little bow tie.  

This year I wanted to make Davis the Sunday Best Bowtie, but he said he wouldn't wear one.  He is very self conscious.  I decided I would make another baby bow tie for  Collin this year.

Maybe next year Collin will be big enough not to run away while I tie a real bow tie.

Here is my tutorial for a baby bow tie......

Supplies:

13 x 1 1/2 inch strip of fabric for neck piece

4 x 4 1/2 inch piece of fabric for the bow

2 x 2 1/2 inch piece of fabric for the center of the bow

velcro or snaps to attach the bow tie

1.  Take neck piece and fold in half lengthwise.  Sew a tube with a 1/4 inch seam.  Sew the center piece in half lengthwise also.  

2.  Fold the bow piece in half, so it measures 2 x 4 1/2 inches.  Pin your fabric like the picture above.  Sew from the fold, around the corner until the pin.  Don't sew in between the pins.  Sew the other corner and side.  Remove pins.  For a stiffer bow, iron on some interfacing before sewing.

3.  Use a safety pin, or loop turner, to flip the tubes right sides out.  Turn out the bow piece through the little hole you didn't sew.  Iron your neck and center pieces with the seam down the middle.

4.  Take your bow piece and pinch the middle.  With a needle and thread, stitch it in place.  

Grab your center piece and fold the two ends in about 1/4 inch.  Set your bow on top and stitch the center together.

5.  Measure around your babies neck to see if you need to trim down the neck piece.  Tuck the ends of the neck piece in and stitch closed.

6.  Thread your neck piece through the back of the loop around the bow.

7.  Measure your babies neck and decide where your want to place your velcro.  Collin is 18 months and I placed the velcro 1/2 inch in from the ends.  I used sticker velcro and then stitched it in place.  Be sure to place on piece of velcro on the right side and one on the seam side so the neck piece doesn't twist.  

Your baby bow tie should be complete and ready for Easter Sunday.

Check back tomorrow for another tutorial. ;)

Sugar Cookie Reject

My kids love to decorate sugar cookies.

I love to make sugar cookies, but I stink at it.  I tried a new recipe recently, and it was a bust.

Davis, my toughest food critic, asked if I had any softer cookies.  These came out like rocks.  I need help!  If you have a fool proof sugar cookie recipe please pass it on.  

  Last night I made a berry galette and topped it with some whipped crème fraîche.

The sugar whipped crème fraîche was absolutely delicious.  My friend thought it tasted similar to whipped cream cheese.  I didn't love the galette, but my husband did.  I realized I am just more of a chocolate dessert girl.  I guess my next task is to make a chocolate dessert and top it with the whipped crème fraîche.  Tough job, but I'm willing to do it.

First Birthday Luau

This weekend the family and I went to my niece's 1st birthday luau.

My sister, and her husband, threw a mean party with balloons, palm trees, little umbrella's, and a piñata.

The kids loved Kurt's homemade rootbeer, and what luau would be complete 

without party noodles and pineapple.

I helped out with the fish pond.

My kids attacked the piñata.  Davis was so proud that he was the one that broke it open.  Collin couldn't believe there were lollipops everywhere.

Alia, the birthday girl, had a cute pink dress on to match her pink strawberry cake.  She found the strawberries more fun to play with than digging into the cake.

Thanks for the fun time Noelle and Kurt.  Happy birthday to Alia.

An Easter Bagsket

Are you looking for an alternative to the traditional Easter basket?

I made an easy Easter Bagsket that you can whip up in no time flat.  One of the great things about the bagsket is that it will store a lot easier than a wooden basket.

Supplies:

1 dish cloth

A coordinating fabric

12 inches of ribbon

Sewing machine

1.  Cut your dish cloth and coordinating fabric into 11" x 19" rectangles.

2.  Fold the dish cloth in half right sides facing each other.  Sew the two short sides together.  Repeat on coordinating fabric.

3.  I wanted my bag to have a flat bottom.  I sewed the bottom corners into triangles, like my road trip satchel.

4.  Press the unfinished edge, of your inside fabric, down half an inch to the wrong side.  Press the top edge of your dish cloth down inside a half inch.

5.  Set your inside bag into the dish cloth and line up the side seams.  Find the center line of your bag and insert your ribbon between the two fabrics.  Pin in place on both sides.

6.  Stitch the two bags together.  I used a zig zag stitch to make it more festive.

This would be a fun time to use some of the decorative stitches on your machine.

Now make five more bags.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

RECIPE: CRÈME FRAÎCHE

Crème fraîche is one of those "fancy" ingredients that can feel pricey to buy at the grocery store, but so easy to make at home. I usually make a jar of this when I have left over cream from another recipe.

Ingredients:
1 pint of heavy cream
2 TB buttermilk

1. Fill pint jar with heavy cream.
2. Add a couple of tablespoons of buttermilk, or just eye ball it.
3. Cover jar, give a little shake, and set on the counter to do it's thing.
4. Check cream in 12 hours. It will have a thick like consistency, but still be pourable.

Crème fraîche can be compared to Mexican crema. It's a thinner, slightly less tangy version of America sour cream.

Add a little sugar to the crème fraîche and whip it for a sweet and tangy topping. It's delicious.

Now I need something special to top with my crème fraîche.
Any suggestions?

BIG KID BIB

Collin is getting to the age where he wants to feed himself, but misses his mouth most of the time.  His little bibs weren't cutting it anymore, and we needed something with more coverage.

Supplies:

1 dish cloth

1 package of double fold bias tape

1 cord stopper

sewing machine with coordinating thread

an old bib for a neck guide

1.  Use your little bib as a guide for cutting out the neck hole.  Place the little bib at the end of the dish towel, and don't forget to center it.  Trace the horse shoe shape and cut out.  

2.  Cut three strips from your bias tape; One strip 30 inches long, and two strips 15 inches long.

3.  Take your long bias tape strip (30") and insert the cut edge of the neck in between the fold.  One side of the bias tape is slightly shorter than the other.  I pinned the short side on top (the front side).  Make sure to center the bias tape and dish cloth so you have even tails. ;)

Pin all the way around to hold the bias tape in place.

4.  Sew with the front facing up.  Top stitch the bias tape all the way around from end to end.  My stitch was about 1/8 from the edge.  With the shorter side of the bias tape on top, you can be assured the longer side will be caught in the stitch.

5.  Take one of your short strips (15") of bias tape and pin it ten inches down from the top corner.  Repeat on the other side.  These are the side ties.

6.  Attach your side ties with a box stitch for strength.  

7.  Stitch your bias tape closed, and finish the ends how you like.  I clipped mine with pinking shears.  Fold the ends over and sew for a more finished look.

8.  The hardest part of this entire project was getting the bias tape through the little hole of the cord stopper.  After several failed attempts, I wrapped the ends with masking tape and got them part way through.  I used needle nose pliers to finish pulling them all the way through.  I only used the cord stopper on the neck of the bib.  Tying the back of the bib is easy.  Keeping Collin from pulling the bib off his neck is hard, hence the quick cord stopper.

Enjoy your new big kid bib.

The Crazy Crafter

The kids and I have been up to some crafty things lately.

I have two more dollar store dish cloth tutorials to share.  I am hoping to get them done this week.  Collin has a cold and isn't letting me set him down at all!

Oh, Have you noticed the Beehive Bazaar button in my side bar?

I will be participating in my first boutique this May.  If you are in Utah between May 5-8th, you should definitely stop by the bazaar.

Here is a tiny sneak peek of a few of my items to be sold.....

Dollar Store Table Runner

I am so excited to be guest blogging at Dollar Store Crafts today!

Head over there and check out my table runner tutorial.

Check back later this week for more easy inexpensive crafting. ;)

A delicious holiday

Today is "National Chocolate Covered Caramel Day."

Yesterday I spent the day with my friend, Rikki, making caramels in preperation for today. ;)

A big THANK YOU to Rikki and her girls for letting us spend the day with them, and for sharing their family favorite recipe.

Classic Golden Caramels:

2 cups whipping cream

1/2 cup milk

1 1/4 cups light corn syrup

2 cups sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup evaporated milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

tempered dipping chocolate

candy thermometer

Butter and 8 inch square pan and an extra bowl; set aside.  In a large bowl combine cream and milk.  In a heavy bottomed saucepan, combine corn syrup, sugar, salt, and 1/3 of the cream mixture.  Set over low heat and stir occasionally until mixture comes to a boil.  Boil for 30 minutes, or until mixture become a light tan color, stir occasionally.

Set candy thermometer in pan and increase heat to medium.  Slowly pour in 1/2 of remaining cream mixture.  Don't stop the boiling action.  Stir constantly and cook for about 15 minutes.  Slowly pour in remaining cream mixture and the evaporated milk.  When temperature reaches **242 degrees farentheit or firm ball stage, remove from heat and stir in vanilla.  Pour caramel into butter dish, but don't scrape the pan.  Now scrape the remaining caramel from the pan into butter bowl.  The caramel on the bottom of the pan has usually cooked a little longer.  It can be tougher and leave hard spots in the main batch.

Let caramel sit at room temperature overnight.  Letting the caramel sit makes it less sticky and easier to cut.  Cut into 1 inch squares.  Dip each piece into tempered chocolate, or wrap individually in waxed paper.  Store caramels at room temperature.

If your temperature gets higher than desired, add in a 1/2 cup of water and stir until mixture is smooth.  This drops the temperature of the caramel and you can continue cooking until you get to the right temp

**This is for sea level.  Test you thermometer to find your boiling point.  

Boiling Temp                    Subtract from 242

     200                                           12

     201                                           11

     202                                           10

     203                                            9

     204                                            8

     205                                            7

     206                                            6

     207                                            5

     208                                            4

     209                                            3

     210                                            2

     211                                            1

My boiling temp was 204 degree F.  I subtracted 8 from 242, and only cook my cream mixture until it reaches 234 degrees F.

Call me crazy...

I enjoy cleaning.  

As much satisfaction as a clean house gives me, there are times I wonder why I even bother.

Collin is so much fun...

He loves to feed himself.

He likes to help take care of the house plants.

He is learning the opposite of full is empty.

Collin also knows baby wipes are for more than wiping dirty faces and bottoms.  They are just plain fun to pull out of the container.

happy st. paTRICK's day

Last night Mike and the kids tried to catch a leprechaun.  They were very close to being successful, but at the last minute he got away.  The lephrechaun did drop a few coins as he was running away in the snow.

This morning Davis woke up extra early to see if the pot, at the end of our rainbow, was filled with gold.

The pot had gold, but the leprechauns also played a few tricks.  Probably because we tried to catch him.

All of the kids shoes were lined up on our railing.  The numbers we use to practicing counting were out of order!  Davis got a real kick out of that.  And our milk was GREEN.

Davis doesn't have any green in his uniform for school, so we made him a shamrock pin.

He was very excited to tell the kids in his class all about catching the leprechaun last night, and the tricks he played on us.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Birthday Bag

Tess was invited to a birthday party this week, and I wanted to make her friend something fun and playful.  I had a few ideas and settled on a little satchel bag.  

I made a pillow for our basement out of this Ikea fabric.  I had just enough left to make a nice size bag.  The satchel ended up about 10" wide and 8" high, a great size for little trinkets.

We filled the bag with a few goodies and another little purse to hold some cute little markers.  Tess is dying for me to make her a bag like this.  Let me know if you are interested in how I made this bag.  I might take pictures the next time around and post a tutorial.  

Looking for last minute St. Patrick's Day ideas?  

Click here, here, here, and here!

Have a beautiful spring day...