Big and Little Sister Shirts + Yummy Recipe Links!

I had somebody request coordinating sister shirts for a friend with a new baby coming. I've done a lot of sibling shirts, but these are by far my FAVORITE! I have to make some for Faith and Lily asap. The big project presently is finishing *ahem* starting and finishing their birthday outfits. I ordered them Thing 1 and Thing 2 shirts off of Etsy and am turning one into a cute Lil Blue Boo Sienna Dress and am going to make a knit ruffled skirt to go with the other one. I wasn't planning on working on them for another week or so, but now we are doing pictures on Monday! Whew, I better get to work. First things first, let me finish this post =)

Here are the shirts I made.

Aren't they perfect? Ah, I love them. The "lil" is the Spunky font by Lynnie Pinnie. If you don't already have it, it's on sale half off right now! The "Sister" on both shirts is Itty Bitty from 8 Claws and a Paw. Remeber this is the font I was telling you about that comes in not just one, but FOUR different religions (Methodist, Catholic, Lutheran, and Baptist)...I just really think that is funny, not sure why. The "BIG" on the other shirt is a font called Vintage but I'm not sure where it is from? I use it a lot though, because there are three different sizes for the letters!

On to the next subject. After entering the blogging world last year, and finding so many different sources of inspiration for my sewing and other crafts I discovered another really neat aspect of blogs. I have really found some of the best recipes! I think that for a good month straight, all of our dinners came from Samster Mommy's Dinner 101 page. I've tried a LOT of them, and they were all wonderful. I've been trying to do at least three new dinner recipes and one new breakfast a week for the past couple of weeks. I thought I would share some of last weeks on here, and hopefully help out some other moms on here (or dads).

Monday-
California BLT's (whole wheat bread, turkey bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado)
Carrot Soup
Ingredients- 6 Carrots sliced, 1 onion chopped, 1 clove garlic, 1 tsp curry powder, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, 2 cups vegetable broth, 1 1/2 cups soy milk
Directions-
1. Coat large saucepan with cooking spray and add carrots and onion. Cook for ~5 minutes or until tender, and then add garlic, curry powder, and ginger. Cook for a couple of minutes longer.
2. Add broth, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and cool 5 minutes.
3. Pour into a food processor or blender and puree until very smooth.
4. Return to saucepan and add the milk. Heat for ~3 minutes or until heated through.

*This recipe is from the WomenHeart's family cookbook, and the cookbook is wonderful!*

Tuesday-
Homeade Turkey Sloppy Joes (the term Sloppy Joe has ALWAYS reminded me of daycare, I think they are a staple at most, this was a first for our family, and everyone cleaned their plates!)
Recipe *I substituted lean ground turkey for the beef*

Wednesday-
Crockpot Chicken Enchiladas (these are delicious!)
Recipe 

Breakfast of the Week -
Asparagus Fritatta (this was SO easy, quick, and yummy!!)
Ingredients- 2 tbsp EVOO, 2 shallots finely chopped *I used red onion*, 2 ounces canadian bacon *I used turkey*, 1 lb asparagus trimmed and cut into 1" pieces, 1 clove garlic, 1 1/2 cups egg whites, 1 cup shredded cheese
Directions-
1. Preheat the broiler
2. Heat the oil in large skillet and sautee shallots, bacon, asparagus, and onion for ~10 minutes.
3. Add the garlic and salt and pepper to taste and cook for ~2 minutes.
4. Stir in the egg whites and 1/4 cup of your cheese and cook without stirring for 5 minutes.
5. Pour remaining cup of cheese on top and pop in the oven to broil for 7 minutes.


Alright, this post is long enough...I'll do the second half of the week and two delicious pumpkin baking recipes we tried next time. Everyone have a wonderful day!

Halloween, We Love You So

I think Halloween is such a fun holiday. Who doesn't like dressing up? My husband would probably laugh if he came home to find me in a Snow White gown and plastic heels like Faith and Lily; however, Halloween is a day that even Mommy can get away with dress up! That actually isn't my favorite aspect of Halloween. I just really adore all of the cute little decorations...the ghosts, pumpkins, witches, and skeletons. Every time we go into Target Faith and I spend a good 10-15 minutes in the Halloween decor section. It is just so tempting! But alas, we don't typically have the money for tons of Halloween decorations. Thank goodness I can sew now ;). I need some ideas for cute Halloween decorations I can do with my sewing or embroidery machine, any would be greatly appreciated!

To kick start Halloween, I've been working on cute little shirts and bows. Here are pictures of my sweet girls wearing theirs, and one my best friends daughters wearing theirs as well.

This cute little Spider applique and hair pretty are from Pickle Pie. Faith picked our everything for her set.

Lily's is the Mrs. Ghost applique that I got here. The ghost doesn't have that little ear looking thing, but I think it came out cute anyway. That was the only black shirt that I could find for her!

When we went to bring Kailee and Camryn their shirts, little Camryn was napping, so Faith pretended to be Camryn and model her onesie. These little girls are three weeks apart, and have been playing since they came home from the hospital almost five years ago!

Then Camryn woke up, and Andrea sent me a picture of her modeling her shirt. How precious is she?

Here are some of the bows I made!

That is all for now! I have to get some things done while both of my little sweethearts are at school!

Cupcake Fun

These two little shirts are definitely my favorite project from this summer. Now anyone that knows our little family knows that we are, for a the most part, fairly healthy eaters. I'll admit that my husband is the driving force, however, a few years of little changes have turned into healthy habits and I'm proud of the way that we try to eat. I would say that the most important thing to us is our grocery shopping. Of course when out at a restaurant  there are fewer options, and that is really where we splurge on our favorites. With that being said, when we are buying food for our home, we try our hardest to avoid lots of junk and bring home a lot of produce and hearty grains. Anytime people come to visit they always joke about how we only have whole wheat (bread, tortillas, flour, pancake mix, etc.), and there are never any sodas. Those are just a few examples. Why did I start of this post talking about shirts and ramble into our family dietary standards you ask? Well, because the girls and my MOST favorite splurge is delicious cupcake. We have a place here in Houston called Sprinkles Cupcakes, and we love their cupcakes. We all have favorites- Mine- Coconut, Faith- Red Velvet, Lily- Vanilla Milk Chocolate, and Zach- Pumpkin. Faith decided that since going to get a cupcake there is a special little date we try to have once a month or so, she and Lily probably needed shirts to do so. Of course I couldn't deny my little sweetheart a new shirt, so I got to work.

Here is what I came up with. Sprinkles is also having a Fan Photo Contest so I entered their pictures into it. I've never entered them into any contest before. I'm just not a "Vote for my baby as the prettiest" type of person. However, you win a $500.00 gift card to Sprinkles if you win, and I couldn't pass it up. Plus there is no voting, so wish us luck =)!

I should mention that the reason those two pictures look totally different is that my friend Jeni edited the one on the left for me to submit. I made the shirt from a little Garanimal tank at Walmart (I think they are like $3) and then I merged the "i <3 cupcake" in EMBIRD" and just added a little knit ruffle at the neck. I love her shirt!! I made the cupcake headband by gluing some ribbon around one of the millions of headbands at my house, and then added an adorable Cupcake Hair Pretty from Pickle Pie Designs. Her hair pretties are awesome!

I made Lily a little headband too. She still doesn't have too much hair, we can get it into two teeny little pig tails now though, with some effort. She asks for them all the time. It's so funny how proud a little girl can be of her "Pea Tails". Here are a couple of other pictures from Sprinkles.

Hope that everyone had a great weekend, and now I have to go finish laundry!

Baby Sprinkle Part Dos

Here are the other pictures I was telling you about, ohhhh a week or so ago. I just got home from a wonderful vacation in Kansas! My mom and I had a girls trip and got to visit with a lot of family. Faith and Lily didn't tag along, but I do hope they can next time. We drove, and even with stopping and staying in a hotel there is NO way my little girls could have made a trip like that. I had a hard time sitting still myself (my mom would say that is an understatement). I'm so proud of Zach. He and the girls had a wonderful week without me here! They went to the museum and the zoo, and they really spent some great quality time together. I can't believe that when I got home the house wasn't in complete shambles either! I'm a lucky woman.

So anyway, here are some more pictures. My friend Andrea actually took them, and they are indoor...but at least I have them! Enjoy =)

This is the Mommy to Be wearing her corsage I made her. I also made a little wrist one for Kailee (their four year old)

 This is the shirt I made for Kailee. The font is Itty Bitty from 8 Claw and a Paw.

I made this bib and matching onesie with the last of my most FAVORITE fabric! The Flower font is from Lynnie Pinnie and then I used the Itty Bitty again. I don't ever use a pattern for bibs (maybe I should?), but I just can't see spending money on something so simple!

I really love little ruffle bottomed things =)

Then I did a little burp cloth set. The Zebra Font is from Lynnie Pinnie and the Curlz font is from 8 Claw and a Paw.

Then I did this little black onesie. I got it at Hobby Lobby (black onesies are incredibly hard to find if you didn't know), and the size is pretty weird. It's very short and wide, but I really wanted to do a black one so I got it anyway. The heart font is from Lynnie Pinnie. This was my first time to make one of these onesies with the bow on it, but I think it came out adorable!

The last onesie I did is my favorite! I used the Shabby Crown file from Embroitique. If you follow my blog at all, you know that I had a really difficult time the first time I used this file. I almost always use knit on the ruffles and cut the strips half the size it says to, and when I do that it is SO much easier. Then I just added a little knit ruffle skirt.

Here are the bows and flower clips I made for Camryn that decorated the diaper cake.

I made two hand towels for prizes for our games, but only have a picture of this one. I love this new cake applique! I used an owl for the other one and it was SO cute, but of course, no picture. My cousin Nicole makes owl towels a lot, and they really are the best addition to a kitchen or bathroom!

I think that is all! On a different note, does anyone know anything about gardening at all? All of our plants appear to be doing great. In fact, we have a TON of little bell peppers, jalapenos, tomatoes, and blueberries. However, out zucchini and squash plants have been flowering for a good three weeks now...and still NO vegetables. Is this normal? Everyone have a lovely day!

Finding my Green Thumb and a "Little Black Dress"

I have to say, a lot of my "projects" here lately have been to help my sweet husband in our yard. He does about 95% of the yard work, but I do try to help where I can. I wish I had before and after pictures, because he has truly done SO much work in our yard. We've finally finished most of the back yard and I am happy to show some pictures today! We decided to start a little garden with some family favorites for the spring/summer. The girls are both so excited about it. Every morning Faith has woken up eager to go water her plants. There are so many great advantages to us doing this! It definitely teaches the girls responsibility (Faith mostly), and we can actually be sure of what is in the food we are eating...isn't that a concern of many people these days? We make a great effort to buy organics, but of course they are much more expensive. Zach and I both make how we feed our family and the amount we spend on it a priority though. I can't wait to be able to go out and pick something from our yard to eat! Here is a picture of Miss Lily admiring the garden, and a few pictures of some gorgeous roses in our backyard. The last one is of a little blackberry bush we planted, that already has some small berries! I absolutely can't wait to do our front gardens next week!

I did this little onesie and bow for a friend this week. I think it's precious. Lily had a little black onesie that was screen printed with a design like this that I had received at a shower. When I got the Embroitique newsletter with this little ruffled dress design I KNEW that it would be totally perfect for this order! Lily had fun taking pictures with me in front of the roses...Faith isn't in any of these because she fell asleep already! On the way home...at about 6:00pm...let's hope that is a good thing and not a very very bad one. She usually sleeps on through if it has reached the 6:00pm mark :/.

She's so silly. You know earlier, right after we got home, I was straightening up and getting dinner (a frozen Amy's Spinach Pizza) ready when I heard a little splash. I thought to myself, you must be hearing things and continued on...that was a mistake. A couple of minutes after, I heard a definitely splash. I walk down the hall to inspect things and find Lily, with her favorite purple tea cup, sipping toilet water in the bathroom. I know, ew ew ew...I've never caught either of my children doing something like this before, and it honestly made my stomach upset. At least the toilet was flushed, I guess. Oh the joys of motherhood.

Look what my other little sweetheart brought me home from school-

Lovely, isn't it? It made my heart smile <3

I'm Still Alive

I have been completely MIA for a week, sorry! When my husband is home, we are so busy. We've been doing all kinds of yard work, playing, and just spending really great quality time together...so I kind of slacked on blogging. I'm so excited about this PRECIOUS dress I made for Faith. I made it from the Sienna pattern at Lil Blue Boo. It was absolutely perfect timing since earth day was this week! I actually bought this shirt for myself a couple of years ago, but haven't worn it in at least a year. So I decided to convert it to a dress for Faith. It's my second time to make the pattern, and came out much better this go around. I didn't have problems with the neck puckering or anything, woohoo! She wore it to the zoo and got a TON of compliments that, of course, made me blush =). I truly love being able to say to someone, "I made it". Here are a couple of pictures of her.

I also made that skirt I'm wearing, even though you can't see it at all. We get the Express ad, and there was one almost identical to this in it. The biggest difference being the one at Express was $69.50, and I used a pair of express jeans and no more than a yard of fabric for MUCH less. I need some better pictures of it...will do that soon.

Then I made a ton of baby shower stuff for my friend Andrea's SIL. They are naming her Addison Marie.
A sweet little blanket-

A burp cloth set-

Two little onesies-

My very popular cupcake bib-

A

And of course a banner-

I don't have time to go into where everything is from tonight...sorry! But I will be back tomorrow and try to fill that in, and show you some pictures of our new garden!

Girly Things and Lovely Paintings

I have been absolutely horrible about taking pictures of orders lately! I have no clue why? Maybe it's because my little models are becoming a bit more uncooperative, or maybe I'm a bit of a procrastinator and am always finishing orders at the VERY last minute and don't have time, either way I've been bad! Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of some things from the past couple of weeks. I made a little onesie with a tutu attached and some flower clips for my friend Angel. The onesie is precious. I totally wish Lily wasn't too old to just wear a onesie!

Then I  made this little tutu set for a friend of a friend. It came out precious! I made a bow and ruffled diaper cover to go with it, but this was the only picture I've gotten from her so far.

Now for a project that is COMPLETELY different from what I typically post on here. We went out for a very dear friends birthday this weekend and has a blast. We started out at this little place called Pinot and Picasso. There is an artist that teaches a step by step class. We did Van Gogh's Cafe at Night. It was rather difficult, but oh so fun. Oh, and did I mention you drink wine the entire time? And in our case, eat birthday cake! This place really was awesome, and there are so many paintings I want to go back and do!! Then we finished with a sushi dinner, mmmmmmm.