GIVEAWAY on Fabrics and Flowers Facebook Page

I hit 250 fans/likes on my Facebook page last week so am now hosting a Giveaway of 3 items.  Enter to win by following the directions on Fabrics and Flowers FB page.


Anyhow, here are some pics of the items that I'm giving away:
First, this larger than usual crocheted flower hair clip.

2nd item: 12 month old baby dress (fits up to a 24 month old baby as a dress, then could be used even longer as a tunic or top).  Lots more pics.

3rd item, diaper clutch in boy colors.

Family

Hi all,


I spent part of my weekend in my hometown of Mt. Pleasant (Utah) helping with the celebration my siblings and I had planned for my Dad's 80th birthday.  We'd had a birthday dinner for him on his birthday Dec. 16 at his home, then on Saturday we had an Open House for him to visit with all his friends and various relatives.

Anyhow, we also reminisced over our favorite "Daddy" memories; like when my Dad made his ice cream sandwiches for my sister Amelia's new in-laws just a few hours after she was married (her anniversary is coming up tomorrow, 15 years for her).  Dad's ice cream sandwiches consist of a slab of ice cream between 2 slices of his heavy whole wheat bread made in his bread machine, he likes to experiment with the liquid in his bread using pickle juice, green bean [cooking] water, or sweet potatoes for examples.

I love my family, and all we've done together; and what we still continue to do together or/and for each other.  The joy of family is indeed on of the true joys of life!

=) Gayle

More crocheted flowers

Have been using the Eggbird Designs flower pattern to make some cute little crocheted blooms.


 I like using the Caron Soft yarn because it makes smaller flowers, but in some colors all I have is the heavier worsted yarn so the flowers are much bigger than I want.  I've been thinking about buying more Caron yarn, but for now am just going to use what I have.  I plan to make at least 2 flowers in each solid color I have, then either use them for Katelynn or sell them in my Etsy shop -- haven't decided for sure yet.  But really, look at this pattern, can you imagine the nearly endless color combinations?

=) Gayle

Crochet scarf

I may have mentioned on here, but I belong to Swap-bot.com (we swap all kinds of stuff with each other).  Anyhow one of the most recent swaps i was part of was a scarf swap.  I made a lovely red & blue scarf for my partner and the lady who had me, made me a scarf using this pattern here. 
 


She made the body of the scarf in a soft bright yellow yarn and the edging color in black. [At least I assume that she used this pattern, as my scarf looks just like the one in the pattern except for the colors.]   Anyhow,  I've decided to make a couple of these in different colors to match some of my favorite shirts.  They're beautiful and keep my neck warm at the same time, and since I'm cold so much of the time, I like anything that keep me warm.  I'll post a picture when I either get one made or remember to take off this yellow and black scarf to take a pic of it.  :)

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving day!

Button Flower Pin crochet pattern

I repeatedly find then lose this pattern, so have hunted around & found it yet again, now I have decided that I need to post it so that the next time I lose it again I can just come here to look at it to refresh my memory on how to make them.

Okay so I originally got this pattern from www.yarncat.com/ButtonFlowerPin.html, however it appears that this website is no more.  I believe that this is the owner of the pattern here, but she doesn't display any patterns on her blog.

These are flowers that I have made using this pattern, though her pattern only shows two rows & I've added a third row of flower petals.  And yeah, the date thingy is off on my camera, all is accurate except the year, these were taken in 2011.


Anyhow, in it's entireity (word for word), here is the Button Flower Pin crochet pattern, Design2004 by Catherine Lindsey.


This big flower pin works up so fast, you'll want to make on to match every outfit in your closet!  Search through GRanny's button box for interesting vintage buttons.  [Her example was made in vintage Red Heart Classic Brushed yarn in Ebony Sparkle.]

You'll need:
small amount of yarn/thread,
hook to match, shank button, safety pin.

The example uses worsted weight yarn, a G hook, 1/2" shank button, 1" safety pin, and is 3-1/2 inches across.  (I also tend to use a G hook.)

To make:
Leaving a long tail for sewing, ch 4, sl st to form ring.
Round 1:
Ch 1, (sc in loop, ch 3) 6 times.  Join with sl st to first sc (6 loops).
Round 2: 
Ch 1, in each loop work (sc, ch 1, 3 dc, ch1 , sc).  Do not join. (6 petals)
Round 3:
Ch 2, sl st in back stitches of second dc on first petal of Rnd 1.  Ch 5 (sl st in back stitches of second dc of next petal, ch 5) 5 times.  Do not join. (6 ch-5 loops)
Round 4:
In each ch-5 loop work (sl st, ch 2, 6 dc, ch 2, sl st). Fasten off, weave in end.

Using long beginning tail, sew shank button and safety pin on back of flower.

Walking and walking and..... stuff

Well I wasn't wrong in my last post.  Baby K was determined to keep trying until she got the walking thing down (silly me for hoping she'd fall down enough that she'd give up the walking idea for awhile, NOPE!).  She now walks all over the house, though I still keep her contained out of the kitchen most of the time.  She is so cute & fun to watch as she takes her little almost dancing steps down the hallway, tiny fists clenched and raised chest-high for balance.  She stumbles and gets right back up, or crawls away...  giggles and all.

Poor little thing though, she has caught her Daddy's cold, and while not deeply congested yet, it is still disrupting her sleep enough that she won't [fall to] sleep unless on Mama.

Other news on the home-front, I am now thoroughly sick of canning though I have promised hubby to juice out the last of the apples to make "cider."  I am thinking today would be a perfect day for this, maybe I will sauce out the leftover apple pulp a bit too (if it's not raining on us).  I think a bit of sugar and some spices would that apple juice a delightful fall drink too, especially if i mixed in some of the last of the pear juice too.  Then to scrub out my water bath canner (used for cooking beets in) and preserve all this delicious juice in quart bottles.

Life goes on...

So I realize that it's been a really long time since I've last posted (something like 4 months), but I've been busy!
Lately I have just been canning my brains out.  Yesterday I hauled 84 bottles of peaches, pears, plum jelly & raspberry jam downstairs to my basement food storage room.  I have also canned green beans and tomatoes.  I have more tomatoes & pears to can, plus lots of apples awaiting "saucing"; I just hope that my jars hold out.  I had to to go D.I. to look for more, found some but only got 28 (had just $10 on me).
Anyhow, I have also been holding 'home & hearth' together while my hubby has frequently been sent out of town for work.  PLus my baby girl is cutting (& grinding *cringe*) more teeth, when this last one comes in she'll have 6 & will no longer look like a 'wild fanged beast' haha.
Speaking of my baby, since I have been called to work in the nursery at Church, she has now decided that she needs to walk.  She manages only about 1 or 2 tiny steps before gravity pulls her down and off she crawls with a big smile on her face.  I fear real walking isn't far away now.  *sighs*  Oh well, I guess I couldn't keep her my tiny baby forever.

=) Gayle

Shirt refashion into toddler dress

OKay, so I jsut looked at the  clock, and I need to go pull the food out of the oven to feed my family a late dinner, but here's a couple of teaser photos, then I promise i'll come back & post all the photos I took (almost took as long to take the pics as it did to make the dress).


Here is what I started with, this fabric & this shirt, it was long sleeved, all I wanted was the bodice...

here is what I ended up with:

The sleeves (unintentionally) are big enough that baby can wear this in teh winter as a tunic over a long sleeved shirt.. for long time to come.   :)

See ya later!

Swapping

So I just joined this new website, Swap-bot, where you can join up to swap all kinds of things.  I'm way excited to do this, though all I'm going to do at first is just swap some postcards with people.  It's just fun to see what will come in the mail with my name on it.  :)  I just love getting snail mail, okay emails are fun too, but snail mail holds a special place with me... mostly perhaps because all I usually get are utility bills.

=) Gayle

Lofty Lou Giveaway over at Shwin & Shwin

Go check out this fun giveaway at Shwin and Shwin. If you blog, tweet, or post at FB on your wall, that's one entry, plus another for following Stitch to my Lou's blog, plus another saying which of her fun little accessories you like.

=) Gayle

SewChristine's giveaway

Go here to SewChristine get a chance to win this gorgeous bag she is giving away.

Sewing... and other stuff... :)

yup, I'm blogging about more sewing.  I've been thinking about doing a re-vamp of my blog someday too... if I ever get tired of sewing.  LOL!  Yeah that's not going to happen though.  Today I'm making dresses for who else, but my sweet baby K who si sitting my my lap complaining at the moment because I won't sit closer so she can drool on the keyboard... okay and she's teething so life is extra miserable. 

I've also been spending scads of time crocheting, hmm maybe I can insert a photo here and you can see what I'm talking about.  

Then if you like what you see, you might maybe consider wandering over to my Etsy shop & buying a few for yourself.  :)  Use the coupon code: FandF15 to get 15% off your order... and then you might get another coupon in the mail to use at a later date.  :)  I love these flowers, they work up so quickly, and do make babies look cuter too.  I gotta make a tri-color purple one to go with baby K's Easter dress (which I stashed away the day after Easter but finally found again yesterday).  Here's a look at that dress:

Okay so this isn't the best pic I ever took, but you get the basic idea.  I got the dress pattern from Leila and Ben's cute little shop & the sweet little pleated Mary Jane shoe pattern from Shwin and Shwin's blog.  I need to add some elastic to the sleeve hems (maybe shirr them), and I did not love the length of the dress, so will either add a 3 inch ruffle to the bottom or make a skirt to be worn underneath - am leaning towards the skirt idea, because it can be worn other times too.  I'll post a pic of the final finished project, maybe even on baby K.. if I can.   :)

Anyhow, the reason I'm blogging today is because I'm going to make one or two of  these, and maybe a cute shirred skirt or two, and then maybe a slip to go under baby K's dresses & skirts, if I have time that is & if baby K cooperates & has a nap.  I have the cutest fabrics to use plus a few remnants I've had for forever.

Easter dress & matching shoes

I made my sweet daughter Katelynn the cutest little dress for Easter.  I used Leila and Ben's Sweet Baby dress pattern for the dress but added length to the sleeves to keep Katelynn's cute little arms from being chilled [by this extra cold weather we've been having lately].  Then for the shoes, I used this one from Shwin and Shwin, and had lots of fun making them.

Anyhow, here's a couple of pictures.  I want to add about a 3-4 inch ruffle to the bottom before I take a picture of Katelynn in her dress, plus I need to put some elastic on the sleeves to make them fit better.  Still I think they turned out way cute.  What says you?   :)

More flowers

These (+ a few more) flowers are the ones that I've sent to my niece to sell in her craft booth this Saturday April 30th in Mt. Pleasant [Utah].  I think I did pretty good!

A look

Here's a pic of some of the flowers I've done, because I feel like sharing today.  Enjoy!

=) Gayle

butterflies & flowers

So I've been crocheting up flowers for my niece Andrea's booth at Mt. Pleasant's Spring Fling (or whatever it's called), and the started thing about how fun it would be to make some butterflies too.  So I went to Crochet Pattern Central's free directory & looked for butterflies, then started perusing the selection.  Thus far I have fallen in love with these, and I think that after I make a bunch of flowers for Andrea, I am going to make up a few of these little cuties for my baby.  Maybe even applique them on the next dress I make for her, or make little hair clippie things for her.   :)  The possibilities are endless.

What do you think?

MUFFINS and Substitutions and my story :)

Applesauce Blueberry Muffins

I've got my first 2 dozen in the oven cooking, and will be adding to and editing this post for the next hour or so.

Okay so I started with my basic banana bread recipe, one that I frequently make into muffins instead, and decided to triple my recipe because I've got several hungry mouths who eat lots (my older boys and hubby will eat 1-1/2 dozen between them); it's a two bowl, one larger than the other recipe.  However today I don't have bananas dark enough so I substituted applesauce, something I have done before often, 3-1/2 cups.  Then I put in 3/4 cup of oil, nothing changed there, then I put in 3/4 cup of honey and 1/2 cup of molasses (so you should end up with 1-1/4 cup of liquid sweeteners, but can decrease honey to 1/2 cup) for the sugar, then the eggs, well all I have are the tiny eggs from my neighbor so I put in 4 of these little darlings (instead of 3 normally when I triple the recipe).  This is in bowl [bigger] One, mix them all together well.

Now for Bowl Two:  okay, while I was digging [in my freezer] for blueberries, I found a bag with graham cracker crumbs, along with my ground flax seed meal wheat germ.  I pulled them all out with the blueberries., then I started measuring.   2-1/2 cups of graham cracker crumbs, then about 1/2 cup each of the flax seed meal & wheat germ (bought both of these from Smith's in the baking aisle, they are Bob's Red Mill).  Then I added 3 cups of flour & 1 cup of rolled oats (oatmeal).  Then for the leavening:  I put in 4-1/2 tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. of baking soda (recipe called for 3/4 tsp, but since I used honey I just rounded up to a full teaspoon), 1 tsp cinnamon (rounded up again from 3/4 tsp, 'cuz I like cinnamon).

With the electric mixer running in liquids bowl, dump in dry ingredients slowly, mixing carefully after each addition.  Then add 2 cups of fresh or frozen blueberries, and if desired 1-2 cups of chopped nuts or sunflower seeds; I didn't because my pecans are frozen and I don't have any sunflower seeds.

Baking:  well the website said that you should decrease the baking temperature by 25 degrees, but I decided to keep the temp at 350 deg Farenheit.  Still am figuring out how long, as I've been cooking 2 dozen [regular-sized] muffins at a time. Normal cooking time for 1 dozen muffins is 18-20 minutes.
Okay cooking time for 2 dozen is 25-28 minutes!!   I got exactly 4 dozen muffins by using my 1/4 cup ice cream scoop, I put a heaping scoop into each muffin cup.

Now...  here's the original Banana Bread Recipe

1-1/2 cups flour
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 [lrg] egg
1 cup mashed bananas
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup oil
1/2 tsp. lemon zest (optional)
1/2 cup chopped nuts

Mix flour, cinnamon, baking powder and soda together thoroughly.  Mix egg, sugar, bananas, oil, and zest together thoroughly; add dry ingredients to wet ingredients 1/3 at a time, mixing well after each addition; fold in nuts.  Bake in a greased 4x8 or 5x9 loaf pan at 350 degrees Farenheit for 20-30 minutes.

Just realized........

that I have yet to post any pics of Katelynn in her blessing dress, so after I did some minor repairs, Jackson & I took some pics of our little darling in her gorgeous dress (I made it, so I get to brag I think).  Now here they are!

Okay so I just realized that these pics don't really show the detail on the dress, so will have to take some up-close pics of the dress then post them.  However, I think that you get the idea here.

Oh I'm feeling itchy-fingered!!!  I really want to sew something today, preferably a cute little dress for my Katie-boo!  But first my muffins!  (see previous post)

NO Sugar Challenge for a week

So I've joined my friend KayDee Johansen Owens [on Facebook] in a week-long challenge of going without sugar.  We started on Sunday and I've done pretty good though I had an "OOPS" moment on Tuesday afternoon.

Anyhow we agreed that we could use honey & molasses as substitute sweeteners (besides the other artificial sweeteners), just not refined sugars.

So I've been really craving some blueberry muffins, and think I'll make some this morning, but I needed to know how much honey to use in place of each cup of sugar.  After googling my question, I found this website and am posting about this because I thought there might be others around who'd be interested.  :)

I have plans to do lots today, so I'd better get going on it all.  Hope you all have a great day!

=) Gayle

A future project

From one of my Yahoo groups, I found this link:  http://www.modabakeshop.com/2009/07/angelas-diaper-bag.html; it is a tutorial to make a really cute diaper bag.  It also includes a pattern to make a changing pad with leftover fabric & iron on laminate which you can buy here:  http://www.thermowebonline.com/dyn_prodlist.php?k=82331.  I am going to have to make this one I think, then after I don't need it anymore for Katelynn, then I'll just use is as a tote bag.


=)  Gayle

So I've been sewing lately

Perhaps you didn't know, Jackson got fired from his job a few weeks ago after he dented the fender on "his" trailer.  Really a BS reason if you ask me, but of course I wasn't consulted.  Anyhow.........

Sewing has always been my stress reliever (except after Mom died, then it was just my grief therapy but that's a whole other story), and after I get to sew for awhile I feel so happy & calm.

So I felt like I needed a project to keep me focused and be happy for my children.  Then I remembered the Haiti Orphanage project for March that AC4C (Yahoo group), and I decided that I would make several skirts and pairs of pants for these children.  Now while these children are dying from lack of proper food and clothes won't help their hunger but they will be properly clothed so they can go to school -- so making the clothes will help me because it is a service that I can provide, and at the same time get my mind off my own problems.

Well, today I completed these skirts and pants, and will be sending them in a box along with a 'sweet little dress' [originally made for my Katelynn but I can always make her more dresses], formula samples, pencil sharpeners, diaper safety pins, receiving blankets, and 3 packages of (3 each) diaper shirts.  This little bit that I can do as a service for others is also a service to me too.

Now I'm going to try to insert some pictures and I hope it works.

Love ya'll,

=) Gayle

And a close-up of the "sweet little dress."

More pics of Katelynn Jackson

Some more pics of Katelynn with her Daddy & brothers or by herself!

Cute little outfit given to us by Cammy Winder; Katelynn Hates clothing changes, but she looks way cute in Pink!

Cole and Joseph with Katelynn

Taw & Katelynn

One of her first really good smiles I caught on camera

Later, pics of Katelynn in her blessing dress...      :)

a short update

Last time I posted on here, was Dec. 3rd 2010.  Well 3 days later I gave birth to my mystery baby, and I got......... A GIRL!!!!  Most of you who know me, already know this though, sorry I'm not more with it.  We named her Katelynn Olea Jackson, and sometimes call her Katie for a nickname.

Wow!!! I can't believe that she is 3 months old already.  We blessed her on this past Sunday, March 6, 2011; I made this gorgeous dress for her (lol, though the dress shed a few of the decorations during Sacrament Meeting, and part of the skirt unraveled :( easily fixed though), and now my hubby tells me that I should make these blessing outfits (some of the cute little white satin tuxedos, infant size -  like I made for my last 2 sons; and blessing dresses) to sell.  Hmm... maybe....

Speaking of Katelynn's blessing, my brothers' Dale & Michael came with their wives and some of their family members, as well as my Dad & his wife.  I feel truly blessed because my brothers' came all this way from their homes to mine, and all on Sunday morning... we have the 9 am church schedule too!!!

Now I'm going to attempt to insert some pics of my baby girl from birth to age 3 months, though I haven't yet uploaded any of her in her blessing dress, I need to repair it first then take some pics.

Oh yeah, my sweet little guy Taw just had his 3rd birthday yesterday too.  Sometimes I can't believe he's 3 YEARS OLD already!

And now for pics....

This is the little white satin tux I made for Taw 3 years ago.  :)  Love it!

Joseph with Katelynn, sorry the year on my camera is way off  :)

Cole holding Katelynn

Katelynn, weighed in at 6 lbs 15 oz, 18-3/4 inches long; the thingy hanging off her imbilical cord stub sets off an alarm [at the doors] if someone tries to steal her

Katelynn about 6 days old