My Spring Pea and Me

It's 'Pin" Done!

2012-01-27T09:44:00.000-08:00

Have you ever pinned a recipe or tutorial on Pinterest and wondered if it tasted as good as it looked, or if the directions were easy to follow. Ever wonder about the difficulty level of a project you pinned? I do...ALL THE TIME! So I would like to start a series called "It's 'Pin' Done" where I or a guest blogger do a review of a pin. It can be something we found on Pinterest that we have actually created, or a pin that inspired us and how we made it happen. Does that sound fun? Who has a pin they have recreated? I want to hear from you!!!! So let me get us started :)

Source: brassyapple.blogspot.com via Amy on Pinterest

I was inspired to make some of these or something similar for the Spring Pea since we have moved to more frigid temperatures and really...who doesn't love a pair of cute leg warmers.

The black ones were made from a $1 thrifted sweater and the pink from a $1 thrifted knit shirt. I did the black ones with the cuff following another pin where you use the waist band on the bottom of the sweater to create a cuff. There was no cuff on the knit shirt so I just threaded some ribbon through the hem in top to dress them up a bit. The ribbon also keeps them from falling down. The tutorial was easy, inexpensive to reproduce and the legwarmers were a big hit with my little girl. Give it a try!

What we are using this year!!

2011-08-25T04:00:00.000-07:00

Spring Pea and I just started another year of homeschool. Every year I end up trying something new....branching out a bit. When I first started this journey I did all Abeka, and it served me well. I thought that was all I would ever do, forever and ever amen. It was easy to use and follow and it came all neatly packaged as a complete unit. I didn't have to worry about doing any of my own thinking or planning. For me it was the perfect starting point, especially since I was terrified I would mess up and she would never be able to read, write or count to 10. Never mind that I had just taught for 6 previous years and had a master's degree in education. Aren't we ridiculous sometimes? Anyway, I am much more comfortable in my position now and more importantly I have found the ways that Spring Pea learns best. Most importantly I have figured out that if something doesn't go as planned, Spring Pea will still be able to function in this world and in fact count as high as 20 ;) So here is our curriculum for the year

ACSI 4th grade Bible

Abeka Arithmetic 4

Bob Jones Press English 4

Spanish in 10 minutes a Day

A Reason for Spelling Level D

A Reason for Handwriting Cursive C

A Reason for Science Level D

My State Notebook

...and the one I am most excited about Expedition Earth written by Confessions of a Homeschooler for Geography

How do you feel getting your kids back to school?

Handmade gifts

2011-08-24T08:14:00.000-07:00

Again, because I am currently on a very restrictive budget. I made three birthday presents this last week.

For the young girl I made her American girl doll a sleeping bag and pillow using this pattern

For the young boy I made a pair of Superman PJ Pants using this fabric from Joann's last December. It is no longer available there but I did find it here I also have a couple more yards if you are interested. I bought like 6 yards for an order that ended up being cancelled and was stuck with the fabric. However, it has come in handy for gifts.

And finally, for a sweet lady at my church. I found this tutorial last week on Mommy by Day, Crafter by Night and couldn't wait to do it. It was a big hit. I was excited because I got by with buying only 1/2 a yard of each home decor fabric and 1 yard of interfacing> The home decor fabric was on sale for 40% off...SO the grand total cost was under $9.

That was my week last week. What handmade gifts have you created lately?

They call it repurposing and refashioning...

2011-08-18T18:16:00.000-07:00

But I call it "I don't have any money to buy those yummy fabrics so I guess I will dig through my stash". Most of my stash comes from leftovers handed down to me. Some of the fabrics I thought I would never use but I did. I love the blog world...it inspires me :)

Here are some of my projects from the last month. Mostly dressing my spring pea. Bear with my lack of photography skills ;)

Re purposing a t shirt into a dress by Make it and Love it

This was a long sleeve red shirt. I chopped off the sleeves and added a cuff from the skirt fabric. Also, to add a little interest to a simple skirt I made a casing down about an inch from the top to make a cute top to the skirt. I just kind of winged this one.

This was a fun and easy one. I used a quick shorts pattern I had, bought a cheap white shirt at Walmart and used scraps to make a coordinating top. The piece along the top of the shirt is just a ruffle and then I made one of these flowers to attach to the shirt. Finally a rolled flower on a clip for her hair. She loves matching hair accessories.

And the latest outfit. She loves these bright colors. Someone gave these fabrics to me. There wasn't a lot because she had used ost of them in a quilt but there was just enough. Initially I took a long t shirt that was handed down to us (I knew Spring Pea wouldn't wear it) and I attached the bottom piece I had cut off of the white shirt in the first dress. There are quite a few ruffle skirt tutorials out there. Anyway, the tshirt was too snug in the hips and a little too long so I chopped off the top and the remaining piece of blue shirt was snug enough it fit as a waist band. I couldn't believe my luck! After that I just made sure the top piece of the t shirt was even on the bottom, cut up the middle, strung the neckline with ribbon and VOILA...matching no sew shrug. She seriously loves this.

What have you refashioned lately?

Yummy!

2011-08-17T06:10:00.000-07:00

My spring pea has really taken an interest in cooking and baking lately and so she has been helping a lot. I decided though that I wanted to find some recipes that she could do mostly on her own. These two sweet treats can be done with a microwave and nothing sharper than a butter knife. We have partaken of both of these tasty treats and I feel like it was a double reward because not only did we have something delicious to eat....we also had a proud and happy daughter. Check out these easy recipes for yourself!

Source: tidymom.net via Amy on Pinterest

tidymom.net

Source: bettycrocker.com via Amy on Pinterest

Muddy Buddy at bettycrocker.com

What are some easy recipes you do with your kids?

It's Really Because I'm Lazy...

2010-11-30T11:31:00.000-08:00

Sometimes people are amazed at some of the prep I do or cleaning I do....

Truth is that it has nothing to do with having it all together. It's because I am lazy. Doesn't make sense? Really it does. I do as much as I can now so I don't have to do it later. My weeks are CRAZY. So when hubby is home, I prep for the week....and take a nap :). Will these tips work for everyone? Absolutely not. But hey...most of my ideas came from other mommies and have made my life just a little bit less stressful.

Snacks and Breakfast

I dish out single servings of snacks and store them for the week. I cut up veggies and put them into snack size ziploc bags and make a large container of hummus for dipping. I pop a large batch of popcorn, season it and divide it into sandwich bags. Pretty much I divide up any kind of snack into the single portions. This does 2 things. First it helps with portion control. When the bag is gone, you're done. Second, when the kiddo or I want a snack there it is ready to go. Need something while you are running out the door? Need something right in the middle of a project? You don't have to take the time to prep a snack. You just grab and go! I do the same for breakfast. I cook up large batches of pancakes or muffins and the save the extras for a day later in the week. I am SO not a morning person but this allows my family to have a hearty breakfast with minimal prep time. Thats 10-15 more minutes of sleep! And I like my sleep :)

Here are a cute pics of something I have created:

It's a Halloween Popcorn Sleeve. You could do it up for Christmas too!!! It has microwave popcorn on the inside. How fun and inexpensive is that for a gift?!?!?! Or throw it in with a DVD and a 6 pack of Pepsi.

One Thing One Week Challenge Week 4

2010-10-26T12:17:00.000-07:00

I just recently participated over at Amy's blog. I love the idea of just picking one thing to get done. That's a whole lot easier to accomplish than the to do lists I usually enjoy making for myself. My goal for this last challenge was to get all the blankets sewn up to contribute to this ministry.

It was a fun project. Keep your eyes peeled for future challenges on Amy's blog! While you're peeking you are bound to come across a few things you will enjoy.

What's for Dinner?

2010-08-11T14:52:00.000-07:00

It is going to be a yummy night at our house tonight. I am making Cream of Asparagus Soup with Cheesy Biscuits and for dessert Pink Lemonade Cupcakes. All I did was alter these recipes.

CREAM OF ASPARAGUS SOUP

1 lg. onion
1 stick butter
1 c. flour
2 qt. chicken stock, preferably homemade
2 lbs. fresh asparagus
1/2 c. heavy cream
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 pinch nutmeg

Melt butter in a large pot and simmer the finely minced onion until very soft and golden then add the flour and continue to cook another 5 minutes. Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil.

Trim the tips from the asparagus and reserve. Cut 1 inch away from the butt end of the asparagus and discard. Chop asparagus and cook in the broth 45 minutes or until asparagus is very tender.

Force the soup through a food mill or processor and strain out slightly thickened broth leaving only tough stringy asparagus remains. Return the pot to heat and remaining seasonings, and the reserves tips of asparagus and the heavy cream. Simmer 5-10 minutes. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.

For the biscuits I just used an easy drop biscuit recipe and added shredded cheese and spinach

And finally for the Pink Lemonade Cupcakes I used the recipe from this blog and simple replaced the Raspberry Pink Lemonade with Pink Lemonade Mix. They are delicious and moist!

Hope everyone is doing well!

My First Quilt

2010-07-23T09:35:00.000-07:00

Here she is. I followed a tutorial on moda bake shop but skipped the ruffles. It is a bit smaller than I anticipated but it is for my mother in law's lap since she has 2 dachsunds on it daily so it will work just fine. It's not perfect but I am pretty pleased with how it turned out. I learned a few very important things: 1) Basting is important (LOL) 2) I need to meet someone with a long arm quilter and 3)The seam ripper is my friend.

I have another quilt top ready to go but it is twin size so that quilting is gonna take quite a bit longer. Can't wait to see it finished now!!!!

Finishing this was my goal for the week. I joined the "One Thing One Week Challenge" over at Amy's Creative Side. Join in! It's good for the soul.