I have been trying to think of a good birthday gift for a one year old. Long ago I made bean bags and my children have always enjoyed playing with them. They are one of those toys that they constantly go back to..inventing new games for them, no matter what age. My original bean bags were painted. This time I decided to embroider them, which took much longer, but I think it was well worth the effort. One side has the numbers 1 through 10 and the other side has a color and number coordinated picture.
This Father’s Day was a bit different than any other. This Father’s Day was the day my mother died.
I am who I am because of my mom. She gave me my incredible gift of creativity. She taught me to love art and to love the simple things in life. She taught me that you don’t have to have a lot of money or a lot of things to enjoy life. She taught me how to be patient, humble and caring….all in a quiet way.
My mom was one of my best friends. I will miss her deeply. I will miss her every day. I will think of her often.
One of the things I am most grateful for is the time I spent with my mother. I am also grateful for the time my children had with her. I saw my mom often and spent many wonderful hours with her. My children will always remember her laugh, her smile and her love.
She loved the simple things in life. It didn’t take much to make my mom happy. She was a wonderful person, a wonderful friend and a wonderful mom.
Well, I finally got around to cleaning out my woolie sweater closet. I should have taken a “before” photo..but I didn’t think of that until AFTER the cleanup! I filled two giant trash bags with sweater scraps! I hate throwing scraps away..I always think, maybe I can use them for something. But the scraps were taking over the closet. And I know that in another six months, the closet will be filled with more scraps! Also, please ignore the ebay postal boxes that I have used as separators! I need to actually make some separators out of wood!
I love recycling things when I can and I love sewing. So, when my son said he needed some more summer pajamas..I had an idea. We had just gone through all his old tshirts and made a huge pile of shirts that didn’t fit him any longer. He is always sad when he has to part with some of his favorite shirts. So, I found a pattern for shorts and made him a whole bunch of summer pajama shorts using his old shirts. It took two shirts to make one pair of shorts, so he had a fun time matching up the shirts and he loved seeing his old shirts recycled into something new! And he said they were the most comfortable shorts he had ever worn!
The other day I made my favorite cake…it is incredibly rich and moist. I actually got the recipe from the Hershey website..which has sooooo many delicious recipes! The recipe calls for a chocolate frosting, which I think is (believe it or not!) too much chocolate, so for the frosting, I don’t add the cocoa.
Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.
2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost with “ESPECIALLY DARK” CHOCOLATE FROSTING. 10 to 12 servings.
“ESPECIALLY DARK” CHOCOLATE FROSTING
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
2/3 cup HERSHEY’S SPECIAL DARK Cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Melt butter, Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.
Okay…it has been awhile since I have posted anything new. But this is my new best friend. I have wanted a bobbin winder for a long time now. This is the SideWinder. It needs a little tweaking..but it is working out so well. I would like to mount it to a board because right now it is very tipsy. But I like to be able to wind about 6 bobbins at a time so that I don’t have to do it every time my machine runs out of thread.
So I needed a baby gift and I decided to make some bibs. Then I thought, “how many bibs does it take make a gift?” One, certainly not. Two, maybe if they were fancy. But then I decided on three. So, three it is…
Well, a year ago today, I started this blog. Originally, I started the blog to only talk about my little business…selling woolies to go with cloth diapers. But it didn’t end up exactly that way. I guess, like anything else, it evolved into something else….a little bit of everything. I’m not sure what my blog is about…a little bit of everything…sort of like my life, my talents and my goals.
A lot has happened in a year…I just turned 42…wow, 42…that seems old. But I guess it also seems young.
Anyway..the painting of the Starry Night Walls continues…as does life….
I’ve been working on a large mural in the stairway. It is going to be a twist on Van Gogh’s Starry Night. I fear it may take me a very long time to finish..but I am progressing slowly. The tricky part is the very large wall going upstairs….it is very hard to reach and will be quite a challenge. I will have to get creative with different ways of painting it. I’m hoping a paintbrush taped to a long stick may do the trick, though I don’t think that will be the best option. I don’t want to have to mess with scaffolding or anything like that….we will see….
Somehow I always seem to end up sewing monkeys. When it comes to my woolies, monkeys definitely seem to be the most popular design. And I do like them. And they are fun to make. And they are cute. So, monkeys it is…
