So many baby boys

Everyone I know is having babies!  Last year it was all girls, this year it seemed to be all boys.  These were a couple of the baby quilts I made earlier this year.

For my friend Jen's baby boy, Sammy Rey (how much do you love that name?).  I have to admit it was a kit I picked up from JoAnn's.  I love the turquoise and brown, the old fashioned images of active little kids, the panels of type, and the different textures of fabric - flannel, cotton-weave, and velour....now I'm kind of wishing I'd put a satin binding on it, to add one more.

For my friend Art's kiddo, Tristan.  A mish-mash of super-cute flannel fabrics I bought on sale.  Used some simple instructions I found online.  (Can't seem to find the link I used anymore.)  Almost too simple....I think now.

Recently came across these in a store.  Took me a second to realize what they were, but once I did, I kept on wanting to say pee-pee-tee-pee....and giggle.  I almost bought them, but before I walked up to the counter thought, "What are you doing?  You can totally make these!"

I did a quick search and someone else already came up with a pattern (and another hilarious name) The Wee Wee Wigwam.  I'll have to make these for the next boy baby.

Roast chicken with cinnamon?

I made this Simple Whole Roasted Chicken recipe.  Made a double batch of the rub (with half the salt)....and threw it in the oven for 2 hours at 375.  It turned out delicious.  Different in that it has cinnamon and nutmeg and a few other spices in it....I guess it's in the same vein as Chinese Five Spice.  You don't find that ready-made at HEB!  (Although, I must admit to thinking 2 hours of cooking time might not be worth it...and a $5.99 lemon-pepper one might be good enough for me.)

Served it up with Arugula Salad with Citrus Vinagrette (replaced the pear with an apple that I had on hand) and some sauteed yellow squash.  The vinagrette seemed really light....but then I went back and looked at the amount of oil in it, and it's not very "light" at all! 

I try to keep in mind some of the simple rules of the Paleo Diet ('cause I go to this Crossfit gym that encourages it)...and this was *not* a paleo dressing. 

Oh well, you do what you can.  :)

A Pincushion for Kacie

I decided to make my friend Kacie a pincushion for her birthday.  She got a sewing machine not-too-long-ago, and had mentioned she was planning on taking a sewing class, so I thought it might be handy.  (I think I need one now too...)  I followed this pattern that I found via Sew, Mama, Sew! which ends up being by Oh, Fransson! too.  It's a weighted pincushion (I used flax seeds to weigh it down.), has a handy (removable) thread catcher, little pockets for keeping your seam ripper and other small tools, as well as an area specifically for keepin' yer needles.

Chores, chores, and more chores!

Moved into a new house in the last few weeks, so I'm on this kick to try and make things different this time.  I'll admit it, I'm a slob.  Or more specifically, a pile-er.  And who wants to clean when they can be sewing, lifting heavy weights, or just wasting away hours reading random stuff on the interwebs.  ;)

I imagine this may just be another big organizing kick (love these, especially when I need to be doing something else)....which will probably all end up in great planning, but horrible execution.  But funny enough, I sort of enjoy the process of coming up with the plan.

So I started with lists of chores.  I put them up on the fridge, so that Adam (who's soooo excited about this! not really, but he's playing along) can add some as he thinks of them also.  I broke them up into daily, weekly, and monthly chores.

Once we have them hammered out.  I think this could play into the plan.  :)

Apple Cashew Clafouti

I got a copy of Edible Austin in my box of fruits and veggies from Farmhouse Delivery.  Didn't have everything I needed to make anything....but decided to try and use up some apples and cashews making an apple cashew clafouti, based off of Robert Mayberry's Communal Pecan Pear Clafouti.

Here's my recipe:

2 apples, cored and sliced
squeeze of a half lemon
1/4 c. flour
3 oz. cashews, chopped till crumbly-like in the processor
1/4 c. and a T. of sugar
3/4 tsp. baking powder
pinch of salt
2 large eggs beaten
1/2 c. Coffee Mate Gingerbread creamer
1/4 tsp. vanilla
4 T. butter
1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 425.

Bowl 1 - coat apples in lemon juice
Bowl 2 - combine flour, half of the cashews, half of the sugar, baking powder, and salt
Bowl 3 - Mix till smooth - eggs, creamer, vanilla, and 2 T. of butter (melted)
Bowl 4 - Combine leftover sugar, cinnamon and cashews.

In a pan, saute the apples in 2 T. of butter, until they are hot and sizzling.  Pour into a baking dish.
Stir eggs/creamer (bowl 3) into flour(bowl 2) until just combined.  Pour over the apples (do not stir).  Sprinkle sugar-mix (bowl 4) over top.
Bake for 30 minutes.

It's very moist and not terribly sweet (which I like).  Not bad for random stuff in the kitchen (and no baking soda).  :)

A Lesson in Flying

Trapeze Lesson!
Originally uploaded by alyourpal

Adam saw one of those LivingSocial coupons to Trapeze Austin so we picked 'em up and decided to give it a try. It was exhilarating and terrifying all at the same time. I still can't believe how much we were able to do in just a couple of hours (and that *I* was willing to).

I guess I figured for your first time, you would just get up there and swing back and forth a few times. We ended up hanging upside down, got to do a trick with a "catcher" - where you grab onto another person, learned some upside down on-the-bar flair too, as well as how to do a back flip off the bar onto the net. Yowza!

I left thinking the hardest part was jumping off the platform...seems like once you've done that the adrenaline takes over. I had so much fun, and the people were incredibly nice, and supportive.

Overdyeing Quilt

Figure, I've got a bunch of pictures of projects I've worked on over the last few months....to pack into one big long diatribe of a post.  But maybe I'll just start with the one I'm most excited about because I just finished it.

After reading Oh, Fransson!'s entry on overdyeing, I had to give it a try.  I loved the look of her dyed fabric against the white:

I started cutting up this fabric that I happened upon at JoAnn's that I thought might be perfect!

Used my rotary cutter to cut out 6 inch wide strips.

Followed these directions on dyeing a color wheel using dye and soda ash that I picked up at JoAnn's as well.  

Color wheel of dyes

Drying in the bathroom after rinsing them out...

I think next time I'll be a little more precise when I go to dole out my reds, because these ended up coming out such similar colors.  I think the red seemed to easily overwhelm the yellow dye.

As expected, the yellow showed the details of the print on the fabric best.

Then it was time to get to work cutting and piecing....and this is what I ended up with: 

I really liked Oh Fransson!'s piecing because it looked like it had more movement in it and had a kind of retro-feel, but I decided I wanted to show off the color gradation more.  At this point too, I'd decided who I was going to make the quilt for.  My coworker Kristen was getting married, so I thought a wedding quilt would be a nice gift.  (I didn't really mean for it to come 4 months late though....but better late than never!)  Adam helped me decide how the blocks looked best.

I thought it might be nice to embroider in their names and their wedding date.

I chose a light blue fabric with a small vine and heart-flowers print in white in it for the backing.  I was going to just use the pre-dyed fabric to bind the quilt, but it was an odd pale turquoise and didn't look quite right.  Thought maybe the same fabric I used for the backing....but that just seemed kind of boring.  So I had some leftover turquoise and green damask that I'd just used to make an apron....I think it turned out pretty cool.  I think (hope) it helps to make it not look so old fashioned and adds a little interest.

 

I can't wait to give it to her on Monday!