A lot of snacking going on!

We're big snackers at our house .... some of you know how crazy of a schedule Marc has with being in a very intensive Phd program and so a lot of the time we're eating dinners later in the day and snacking lots in the mean time to keep the two growing boys satisfied! We already go through 2-3 gallons of milk a week, I am seriously scared to see what our grocery bill is going to be when they're teenagers.

One of our favorite things to eat is edamame! Asking some friends and then also on twitter I was surprised at how many people had never even heard of it .... you really need to try it. Especially if you have kids! You only eat the soybeans (not the pod) but you have to crack open the pod to get the soybeans out -- Mason has mastered holding the pod in just the right way and squeezing it - shooting the bean out across the kitchen. It's hilarious.



They're healthy for you, fun to eat, usually can be found pretty cheaply, and they're GOOD! I usually buy the frozen bags at the local grocery store or Costco, so I can just cook up whatever serving size we feel like. We heat ours up in water on the stove, just because they're frozen, but you can really eat them warm or cold - whichever you prefer.

The other thing we eat a ton of is popcorn! I've been addicted lately to the microwave kettle corn you can get - I think it's just Orville brand - but it's sooo good. Perfectly salty sweet. I'm not ashamed to admit that I can eat the whole bag by myself over the course of the day and might even keep my bowl hidden from a certain perceptive 19 month old that always tries to steal it.



Another thing we do is make plain popcorn in the microwave in a regular brown paper lunch sack.
I just do a scant 1/4 cup (ha - is that like a scant 1/4 inch?!) of kernels and pour in a few tablespoons of EVOO and shake the bag around a bit to get them all covered. Then just fold the top of the paper bag down twice and put it in the micro! Put it in the microwave quick so the oil doesn't start leaking through the paper too much. Stay by your microwave and listen for when the popping of the kernels starts slowing down. Then you can put salt, cheese, paprika, cinnamon sugar, whatever you want on it! Very good and easier then dragging out our huge air popper that we have for family movie afternoons.

Edamame and popcorn - two of our favorite snacks at this time in our lives. Of course, more often then not the In-n-Out that is conveniently located right on the way home from Preschool means we are stopping for root beer floats pretty often too. ;]

Easter ties & brotherly love

So even after I blogged last week about ties for little boys the day before Easter I realized I hadn't made anything for Mason and Grahm to wear. I had found them some cute colorful shirts at Target (matchy - but not matching) and pulled some fabric out of my stash for their ties.




I couldn't decide what color but a few texts to my best friend and I landed on the fun, springy, yellow. About 45 minutes later (seriously - the velcro neck tutorial is SO easy!) I had these puppies done:




I think they went perfectly with their bright, fun shirts.




Why is it so hard to get a good picture of two boys?

Maybe because it's torture to sit by your little brother?




Especially when he scoots too close too you and you can't help but give him a little elbow jab?




But they're so cute. They can get away with it with each other - at least for awhile. ;]






I hope you had a great Easter!

Little boy tie tutorial roundup

So Easter is in 5 days ... do you have a tie for your little boy yet? I love little boys in ties - and making them lets me use some of my fun fabrics on my two boys!




Ties are relatively quick and easy to make so if you still need one for Easter Sunday you should be able to sew one up in just a few hours. They don't take much material and are super cute. There's tons of free tutorials online, here's just a few of them that I found. I've used a few of them before, as noted.

Bowties:

I made the boys these bow ties last Easter:




I don't remember which tutorial I used, but here's 2 I found that look great and look similar to the one that I made. I wish I would have made the center circle on mine a little bit wider but they worked.

Little bow tie tutorial at Ruffles and Stuff
Bow tie tutorial at A Lemon Squeezy Home

Neckties:

I made this argyle necktie for Mason 3 Easters ago .... and it was cute but honestly it was kind of a waste of time to make a regular necktie for a little boy. It was a pain to sew and turn rightside-out because it was so skinny, and then having to knot a tie on a squirmy little toddler wasn't super fun, either. I also tried to tie the knot before hand and put it over his head, but there's not a lot of wiggle room in the length of this tie so that wasn't a great solution either.




If you want to give it a try, the best tutorial I found was this one:

Little boys tie at The Purl Bee

Next time I needed to make ties I decided to try the velcro on the neck variation and this was a MUCH better idea!




I loved how you make the tie like normal, and then make an extra circle neck piece that has a velcro closure on it so it's MUCH easier to get it around your kids neck. Plus since you're just tying the knot on a piece of fabric (vs a sqirmy little boys neck) you're able to make the knot nice and fat and straight. I've made it this way a few times:




I used this great tutorial:

Little man tie tutorial at Very Homemade

Other cute tie options:

If I still had an infant I might make them this cute necktie bib. And this is a great idea for making a kids necktie out of an existing mans tie - sometimes you can find them in the best fabrics!

Let me know if you make a tie for your little guy!

new Denyse Schmidt fabric at JoAnns

Have you seen the new line of fabrics that Denyse Schmidt designed for JoAnns yet?  It's awesome ... I must admit.  I would have stopped to look if I had walked by it at JoAnns even if I didn't know it was Denyse Schmidt's new line because it's great colors & great prints and I kind of love all 21 prints. The Flickr and blog world went a little crazy with excitement over one of our favorite designers creating something for a big box retailer. Lots of big names do lines for Target - so why not in the fabric world too?!



This is the stack that I started out with this week.  Word on the street is that it's going to be continually available at JoAnns so I'm hoping that it will be there for awhile and it's not getting all bought up and the price is going to become inflated like happened with Flea Market Fancy and even now Katie Jump Rope.



I bought a few yards of the green and blue plaid because it's a great print for some shorts for some little boys I know.  :]  And I've even started cutting up some of the rest of it already to make a bright spring table topper / table runner for my kitchen.



There's a great Flickr Group dedicated to the new line where there's lots of pretty pictures and listings of which stores the fabric has been spotted at. It seems to be trickling into stores across the country slowly but surely so next time you're at JoAnns you need to see if it's there in yours!

Sewing: aprons and tea towels for gifts

A little bit ago my mom asked me if I'd help her make some quick and easy gifts. Sewing for fun with bright fabrics on quick and easy to finish aprons and towels - sure! We picked out some fat quarters of Sugar Pop by Moda and also a charm pack to make cutting scraps for the tea towels quick.

For the tea towels we bought my favorite plain white flour sack towels from Target and just sewed simple strips of the charm pack pieces cut in half onto them. I left the edges raw because I knew that these towels would be washed a million times and I love the frayed edge look that will come after they've been washed.

On two of the towels we did one strip and on the other two towels we did two strips, just to mix it up a little. Done and done!

For the aprons we used my favorite Fat Quarter apron tutorial from Prudent Baby - I've made aprons this way forever and they're so fast, quick and easy. Sometimes I do the pleat in the middle of the front of the apron and sometimes I don't - just depends on how accurately the fat quarter is cut and if I have some extra wiggle room in the front.

We used the same print for all the bindings and ties to make it easier - plus the fun dots coordinated with everything else in the line! About a thousand inches of bias tape later ....

And these puppies were done! I love how they turned out and they'll be so cute with the towels. These "aprons" are my favorite because they're so lightweight and thin ... they're not big and heavy and really aren't going to protect you too much from splatter when you're cooking ... but I like wearing mine to dry my hands on or wipe little faces on. ;]

Then I can just throw them into the wash with my other kitchen towel laundry and they get tossed into the drawer with the other towels. Cheap, fast, pretty and functional. I can't say who these are headed to since the gifts haven't been given yet but I hope that they're well used and loved when they do arrive! :]

((Proudly linking up at Today's Creative Blog))

Mug Rug Madness winners

Yay - the winners of the gorgeous Mug Rugs from Mug Rug Madness have been drawn! Here's the run down:

Joanna / job****@gmail.com won Andrea's Mug Rug
Ashley / ash******@yahoo.com won Angela's Mug Rug
Jenny / jde*****@gmail.com won Darci's Mug Rug
Jenny / kro********@aol.com won Jen's Mug Rug
Katy / kat**********@gmail.com won Jeni's Mug Rug
Shirley / shi********@yahoo.com won Meg's Mug Rug
Amy / str*****************@gmail.com won Nova's Mug Rug
Petra / pet**@mttaborpark.com won Penny's Mug Rug
Jessica / qui********@gmail.com won Terri's Mug Rug

All winners have been notified so please check your email if your name / email address appears above! Thank you to everyone that entered.

I've been keeping an eye on the Mug Rug Madness Flickr group and it's been so fun to start seeing all the great pictures of Mug Rugs that have been popping up in there! Lots of you have been using the Mug Rug Madness tutorials and it's so fun to see your own individual spin on things. Here's a few from the group that have caught my eye!


(photo credit: Creative Mom2010)


(photo credit: Laura @ Needles, Pins and Baking Tins)


(photo credit: Strawberrypi)


(photo credit: JMaryP)


(photo credit: bluebirdluxe)


If you've made a Mug Rug using one of the tutorials featured in Mug Rug Madness make sure to add it to the group so I can see it! Any and all Mug Rugs are welcome there, too. :]

Bookshelf Quilt for a friend

I have been so busy with other things that I haven't had as much time to sew as I'd like ... but one of my good friends decided to up and move to Australia this month and it was a great chance to get to make her something fun.





I am in a neighborhood book club with her and when the group decided we wanted to give her something to remember us by, I knew a bookshelf quilt would be the perfect thing. I have seen some great bookshelf quilts and blocks around Flickr recently and figured one would be pretty easy to whip up.

I just cut out rectangular shapes of different fabrics for the "books" and chopped them down until I had a proportional looking shelf of books. I put some books on their sides and one at an angle so it would look more bookshelf-y.

For the book bindings/title details I raided my selvage jar and found some that had good titles or cute words on them. I even found a selvage that had an inspiring quote on it! I had seen before where people have actually pieced in the selvages in the books, but I didn't have time for all that fussy piecing and so I simply sewed straight down each of the sides of the selvages to attach them to the books. I figured with them sewed down the sides as well as with the horizontal quilting, they would be secure enough on what is meant to be an art or hanging quilt.

I couldn't resist adding in this little detail - a selvage that said "dots by Erin". :] I quilted it horizontally with lots of lines and used some fun striped fabric for the binding. I washed it and it became wonderfully crinkly.

I had everyone sign a simple label for the back of the quilt so our friend would always remember who it was from. :]

We gave it to her the other night and I think she liked it! It was so fun and easy to make.

Project 365 - March wrap up

Another month, another 31 days of Project 365 pictures! I made it through March taking a picture a day, and this means I'm 1/4th of the way through the year! Here's a few of my favorite daily pictures from this past month:




Amazon.com delivery of diapers | sorting scraps for a scrap swap | tulips from Marc | new magazine





tickets | Mason's drew our pictures | St Patricks day parade | Grahm at lunch


And here's the mosaic for the whole month:




You can see my whole years worth of Project 365 pictures at my Flickr set here.

-----

I'm in the process of closing up Mug Rug Madness and picking winners for the giveaway! Winners will be posted on Monday!