Life is Just a Bowl of ....

 Yes, cherries.

I quit the ding dang job that I hated so much. Oh happy day:>)

Life is too short to be chained to a desk, hating what you do.

I plan to follow my dreams from now on, and the first order of business will be filling the shop for fall and dusting the cobwebs from this blog.

I'm back, and I am so excited to be able to get back to what I love ♥

*sigh*

See you soon!

 



How to Pass Down your Family's Favorite Recipes

 

Well here it is the first day of summer and I'm looking forward to Christmas already. The best gifts take some planning, and time to put together. Along with that, we have young friends graduating from high school and college, getting married and beginning their lives together. How do you send them off with all their favorite recipes at their fingertips?  Put them in a book. Their own copy of all the great family recipes that they know and love. The ones that mean home and comfort as they forge their new lives as adults. Send them off with the best cookbook they will ever have. Yours.

I am working on a cookbook of all our favorites for family and friends for Christmas this year. (shhhhh, don't tell)

It's easy to make your own Blurb cookbook and very affordable.  Most gifts are forgotten almost as soon as the wrapping is off. Can you remember who gave you what last year? But a gift like this is a keepsake.

Blurb's program is super easy, editable to fit what you need and such a beautiful way to keep those family recipes in one place.  Maybe do a small edition each year, or put it all in one grand book. Use the link at the top of my sidebar and the coupon code to get 15% off:>) Softcover books start at $12.99

Above is a screen shot of a page that I put together in about 5 minutes.

Copy, Paste, repeat. Add some fun family photos to make it really special.  Jot some notes in the margin before you give it. I promise it will be treasured far longer than that new scarf.

Are you thinking of Christmas yet?

 

(yes, I am a Blurb affiliate, but this is a product I really love and I think you might love it too!)

A Beautiful Night

A month ago Earl and I volunteered to host an appreciation dinner for the Christian Education workers in our church. By now you know we love to feed people and I had grand dreams of a warm June evening with candles and good food and a chance to express appreciation for everything these wonderful people do for the kids in our church and community.  Oh it was going to be beautiful...

 

Enter reality.  The Saturday before Memorial day I was out in the yard, and as I turned around to go back to my weeding after talking to Earl,  I  rolled my left ankle in such a way that I actually heard it crunch. Not good, but I figured it was sprained. I grabbed a comfy chair and the darling husband brought me ice for it and I chatted with him while he finished what he was doing. By the next morning I knew I needed to have it looked at and a quick trip to the E.R. confirmed my fear, I had broken  my foot.  They wrapped it, handed me crutches and sent me on my way until I could see an Orthopedic Dr.

 

Have you ever tried to carry anything while on crutches?  The problem is your hands are already full, so I found myself unable to help prepare for the party that was to be held in our back yard on June 7. Oh, I drove myself crazy for the next  two weeks!  I couldn't so much as pick up the house, Earl worked 50+ hours a week, did the cooking and cleaning and almost everything else single handed.  We shopped for the food and other things we needed to feed 30 people and I prayed for good weather. 

So last night was the party.  No rain but June in Michigan and by 10 a.m. it was only 54 degrees outside! I had friends who graciously came and set things up while I directed from crutches. The wind blew, by 2 p.m. it had topped out at 60 degrees.  There was no going back.  People were going to freeze. I  ditched the idea of lining the center of the table with votive candles, they would blow out in an instant. I had one of my helpers grab the lanterns I had used for Lauren’s reception and used them instead.   They hung some paper lanterns but we were all pretty discouraged and didn't hang nearly as many as I had planned. I retreated to the house feeling like a helpless failure.  All my grandiose dreams of glory shot down by a broken foot and a cold summer day. I abandoned my camera in disgust.

But you know what? By 7 p.m. the wind had died down, people wore sweaters, we made hot coffee and served hot food. The evening began to grow dark and the lights in the lanterns and the twinkle lights on the fence began to glow. The wonderful, beautiful crew of teens who had volunteered to serve worked hard to make sure that everyone had what they needed and felt cared for, (How I love those kids! I wanted to give each one a huge hug and kiss, but knowing how teens feel about that I refrained. But in my heart, oh I hugged and kissed the dickens out of them:>) And it was beautiful.  It was perfect. And I let go of trying to live up to a styled image on Pinterest and enjoyed the happiness of the people around us as they celebrated their work, and friendship and service. As the light grew dim, the paper lanterns glowed and the lights behind the stand of Siberian iris twinkled on the fence. The last of the guests left around 10 p.m. not put off one bit by the chilly evening.

So this morning I got “morning after” shots. There is a kind of beauty to seeing the remnants of a night spent with friends and loved ones. We have some great memories, and judging by the comments as people left, so will they.

 Pinterest is great inspiration, and sometimes it is hard to remember that most of those photos are styled for hours under ideal conditions and captured by professionals. I will still be addicted.  But I hope in the future I can relax my insane expectations to match reality.  What people want is not the perfect photo op party, they want good food, and the feeling that someone cared enough to make the night special.

 Not perfect, just special.

Remember...

Thank you to the brave men and women who have served our country, and for the sacrifices you have made for us all.

Happy Memorial Day

Easy Apron Tutorial

I have a friend who swears she can't sew garments or aprons. This in spite of the fact that she pieces fabulous and intricate quilt blocks on a regular basis.  You know who you are and this tutorial is for you:>)

This apron is a breeze to make, It's basic, but you can do so much to embellish it that it can be almost anything you want it to be.  Add a ruffle to the bottom, a crochet doily or vintage hankey at the neckline, and personalize the pocket. The list is endless. But it all starts with the basic apron.

I used an old tie on apron for the pattern. You probably all have one of these hanging in your kitchen. Adjust the width or the length any way you want to.

I begin by folding the apron in half lengthwise and lining up the fold with the fold of a piece of muslin that I have ready. No, I didn't iron it, unless it's really badly wrinkled, it doesn't matter.

 I like to line my aprons with muslin, I feel the apron does a better job of protecting my clothes with two layers of fabric and it just makes the apron less flimsy feeling.

cut around the old apron, being careful not to cut your apron strings off of your pattern!

Do you love how out of focus some of these photos are? Me either, but I haven't perfected the technique of using my left hand to press the shutter button while my right hand is busy. Lol. Sorry.

 

 If you want to, use your straight edge and rotary cutter to even up the bottom, and sides.

Lay your lining fabric on the fabric that you want to use for the front of your apron. I dug through my stash and found this pretty rosy blue fabric.  You can do this with about a yard of fabric.

 Cut out the floral fabric using the muslin lining as a guide.

 Lay the muslin on top of the print fabric, and sew the two together on 3 sides, leaving the bottom open. You will be sewing all around where I show the dotted line below, and make sure your patterned fabric is facing inside, because you will be turning the whole thing right side out after you sew the sides together.

 See how these don't match exactly? It doesn't matter. Really, I think it is better to try something and not worry about perfection than it is to be so afraid that you will make a mistake that you feel too intimidated to try at all. This is an apron, I swear, when you are done you will not be able to tell that your edges were a teeny bit off. choose one of the edges to follow and sew. I used a 1/2" seam.

 I left the bottom open.

 Trim the corners, just cut them off leaving enough fabric that it will stay sewn up.

Then turn the whole thing right side out.

 Use a knitting needle or dowel to poke the corners out , they don't have to be perfect:>)

 Iron the apron

 Turn up the muslin side evenly about an inch, and iron,

 Turn under the patterned fabric to match and iron,

 this is how the hem looks, ironed and ready to stitch.

 Sew across the bottom, I also top stitch about 1/2 inch all the way around so that when you wash the apron it stays flat without ironing.

 Use some 1/2 inch or larger double fold seam binding for the ties. I made my own, there are numerous tutorials online, but you can purchase cute bindings just as easily.  Just measure the ties on the apron you used for a pattern or measure the curved part of the apron you just made and add plenty to tie at the neck and in back. better to have too much than not enough.  These ties are each about 68" long and you need two lengths, one for each side. Allow enough to tie around the neck, and then encase the curved part of the apron in the binding and leave the rest to tie behind you.

 Sew the entire length of the binding, as close to the edge as possible.

 I made a quick pocket by cutting two matching halfish circles using a plate as a template. I also made a little ruffle to add to the top of the pocket. I sandwiched the ruffle between the two semi-circles, with the print facing inward. Sew across the top and then most of the way around the circle,leaving a 3-4 inch opening to turn it right side out. Iron, turn the rest of the seam inside and finish stitching. Top stitch the pocket onto the apron leaving the top open.

 Voila! A cute apron that is fast and easy. Having a few of these in your favorite colors and fabrics makes cooking more fun. You can whip one of these up in less than an hour once you know how to do it. And they make cute gifts for friends. And the friend who needed this tutorial should be checking her mail in the next day or two:>)

Happy Birthday Trish!