Little Red Dress

I have two new Brynnberlee patterns that I've been dying to try.  I've tried to make myself get some more immediate things done around the house before diving into another sewing project.  I held myself off for as long as I could...I gave in last night.

This is the Naomi Tunic/Dress pattern.  I love the little pleat detail on the sleeves.  We added a quick belt for a little extra shape.

She needs some new black shoes.

Of course she loved it- it's red!

Go Frogs!

My Dad got the kids some awesome Tank Carder TCU jerseys for the games this year.  Youth small kind of swallowed both of them, but I had some hesitation with cutting the fabric.  For the sports superstitious types, this poses a question.  In the end, I decided to hold my breath and grab my scissors.  I'm glad I did.  As cute as pajama-jerseys are, fitted ones are even better.

a little room to grow?

There we go!

And the Frogs won (with #43 in one piece), so I feel like I made the right decision.

I made Rory a SuperFrog hair clip for the first home game, too.  When we TCU accessorize, we don't skimp around here.

Happy Birthday, Shannon!

Every once in a while, I'm on top of things.  Sort of.  Shannon is used to getting birthday gifts months late.  This year I had it all figured out and ready to go...almost on time.  A few days late is progress.

She couldn't have been all that surprised by her namesake bag.

I had more fun with felt, too.  Another felt garland in fall colored leaves.  It makes white butcher paper look so fancy-pants.

Happy birthday, my friend.  Here's to many, many more.  (We're closing in on halfway to those neon pink rocking chairs, aren't we?)

"Goldfish" Crackers

I saw this recipe for Homemade Goldfish Crackers a while ago and immediately bookmarked it.  When I signed up for a Pinterest account (hello, fun!) it was one of my first board additions.  Who doesn't love goldfish crackers?  Who doesn't love recipes with only five easy ingredients?

Rory asked if we had any goldfish a few hours ago and it dawned on me that we could try to make some.  I wish I had some extra delicious sharp cheddar cheese, but in our fridge we had a bag of shredded fiesta blend cheese that isn't designated for any dinner this week.  Better than nothing, right?  I used half salt and half garlic salt in an effort to compensate for my cheese's lack of bold flavor.  The Cupcake Project uses an adorable little fish cookie cutter.  Yeah, we don't have one of those, either.  We did have some random tiny cookie cutters, so our garlic fiesta-blend crackers are stars, bears, moons and plain old squares.  And you know what?

They are tasty!  I can only imagine that they'd be even better with a higher quality cheese.  And they're so tiny, so you only eat 3.  Or 37.

Happy Birthday, Ayla!

Rory's friend Ayla just celebrated her fifth birthday!  We made her some flower hair clips and a set of my newest felt food: Millie's Midday Snack.  It has saltine crackers, cheese, deli meat and a fruit cocktail with kiwi, mandarin oranges and pineapple tidbits.  Creating these sets always seems to take a while, but once things start to take shape, I always think it's worth it.  My favorite in this are the kiwi slices!  Bonus: I think I've finally conquered my fear of the french-knot.

I made a felt garland to dress up her present.  It's sort of a blend of this and this.  I used circles and stars and hand-sewed them together with embroidery floss.  I imagine there are more of these in my future, because I've always got scraps of felt.  I think tiny bits of brightly colored felt mysteriously multiply when I'm not looking.

I love kid's faces when you reuse a box for a gift.
"Oh yeah!  I got...a box of Great Value Raisin Bran Flakes..."

I also redesigned the topper for my felt food packaging.  I'm still catching up after updating The Pretty Bean logo.   

We love cookies, yes we do! We love cookies, how 'bout you?

I made oatmeal raisin cookies a while ago.  They had more "cookie" substance than recipes I've used before and we all decided that they kind of rocked.  I can't really take credit.  I just followed directions.  I got the recipe online somewhere and excitedly wrote it down, then forgot where it came from.  Oops.

When I went to make a second batch, I realized that I didn't have enough raisins.  Instead of cheating cookie perfection, I found another recipe.  Iced Pumpkin Cookies.  Hello, tastiness.  I'm a fan of pumping up my cookie with some icing, but read a review recommending cream cheese frosting instead and couldn't stop drooling.  Enter Cream Cheese Frosting II.  I played with the ingredients of both cookie and frosting a little based on several reviews.  They were good, too.  Soft, almost like muffin tops, with cream cheesy deliciousness.

By this point we were all cookie-spoiled.  So I made another batch.  Back to oatmeal raisin.  Mmmm.  When the kids asked for dessert this week I had a sugar-laced epiphany.  Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Sandwich with Cream Cheese Frosting.  And we all lived happily ever after.

Caution: If you teach your 1-yr-old how to say "Cookie, please." in sign language you will not be able to say "no" to him.  Ever.  Also, your head may explode from cute overload.

Off to Preschool

Today my baby went off to preschool!  How did that happen already?  She was thrilled to go this morning, reminding me at least three times not to forget her Dr. Pepper lunchbox or her Wolverine juice or her dinosaur water bottle.  And the goldfish crackers!  "Mom, did you get the goldfish?"  Not sure if she's more excited about school or lunch.  I enjoyed making a few things to get her ready like reusable chip and snack bags for her lunch. (I used this cool tutorial from Sew Tara.)

I don't know who the first person was to add tabs to the top of snack bags, but it's a genius idea.  Rory and I sat down and did a dry run with her lunch to be sure that she can open everything all by herself.  Check!

We met her teacher earlier in the week and she seems very sweet.  I decided to make her a "thanks for dealing with nine four-year-olds at one time" beginning of the year gift: a pair of cute felt apple coasters.  (Tutorial from the Purl bee.)  My mom is supervising some new student teachers and we thought they could use a little gift, too. I realized that now starts a whole new chapter of making teacher gifts, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't just a teensy bit excited about that.

We are supposed to have a change of clothes in a plastic bag to keep in their backpack.  I sort of followed directions...I made a drawstring bag with Rory's name to hold a change of clothes and a plastic grocery bag, just in case.  And then I used some orange felt and heat bonded her name to her backpack.  I might have got a little carried away.

Now, is it two o'clock yet?  I'm dying to know what my Bean did today!