Wish Me Luck!

Well tomorrow we are headed to Ohio to visit my family for the holidays.  We had originally planned to go next weekend and at the last minute decided to go tomorrow.  Needless to say, being the procrastinator I am, I haven't finished all my projects yet.  So in the next week, before Christmas Eve,  I still plan on finishing 2 pairs of baby shoes, 2 appliqued onesies,  1 Mikey Monkey, 1 fleece hat, 1 quiet book, 1 coupon organizer and 1 batch of peanut brittle.  The Mikey Monkey worries me more than anything but I decided I needed to overcome my fear and just do it, plus I want to make a Molly Monkey for a friend's daughter's 1st birthday in January.  So the question is, can I get all these projects done before Christmas Eve?  I guess you will have to wait and see, wish me luck!

A Couple Gifts For Friends

I debated and debated about what to do for two of my friends at work.  They are both crafty and love homemade gifts so I ultimately decided to try making them each an apron.  Now, I had never made an apron before but used this tutorial as a guide, and now i'm a little addicted.  As I sit here i'm thinking of all the people I could make aprons for, including myself.  My only piece of advice for anyone who uses the same tutorial is to add extra length to your ties.  Mine ended up a little too short for my liking so I added another 5 inches to each of them.
With the apron I gave them a loaf of my delicious banana bread and a jar of homemade hot chocolate

I fell in love with this cupcake material and was looking for an excuse to buy it (haha as if any sewer/crafter needs an excuse to buy fabric)

This apron was my first attempt at making a ruffle.  For some reason I have always been intimidated by them.  Of course like many things I put off due to intimidation, once I gave it a whirl, I realized how easy it was.  I only wish I would have put a ruffle on the cupcake apron too because I think it made this one super cute.

My Favorite Freezer Meal/Once A Month Cooking Websites

For anyone who wants to try freezer meals or once a month cooking here is a list of some of my favorite websites:

Once A Month Mom
A Happy Freezer Full of Food
Christy's ClipArt

Money Saving Mom
Moms Budget
The Finer Things in Life
30 Handmade Days

Freezer Meal: Meatballs and Gravy

I absolutely love freezer meals.  I started looking at websites for recipes probably 6 months ago but was intimidated by the once a month cooking many women do. Not to mention our grocery budget is pretty tight, so getting enough money to buy a months worth of food at one time is a challenge in itself.  However, before I gave birth to my son I decided it would probably be a good idea to have some meals ready because there was no way I was going to be in the mood to cook in the weeks following the delivery, and i'm so thankful I did.  I went with the basics and the easiest of meals to freeze.  I didn't want to try anything I wasn't sure would freeze well because I didn't want to waste any food.  I ended up making meatloaf, bbq pork chops, chili, chicken enchilada soup, the filling for stuffed peppers, chicken in italian dressing marinade, and I had a turkey breast and roast ready to go.  my mom made sloppy joes, taco meat and veggy soup to add to our freezer as well.

Anyway the other night I decided to try out a recipe I found online for meatballs with gravy and then tweeked it a little to use what I had on hand.  I'd never made meatballs before so I was really hoping it turned out good and oh my goodness it was delicious.  I only wish I had gotten a picture of it to show, sorry.  Here is the recipe in case someone would want to try it.

Meatballs with Gravy

Meatballs
1 1/2 - 2 lbs ground beef
salt
pepper
italian seasoning
minced dried onion
seasoned bread crumbs
2 eggs

in medium bowl mix all ingredients.  I didn't measure any of my seasonings exactly (because I never do), I just put how much I thought looked good haha.  I didn't measure the bread crumbs exactly either but I probably put about a cup a them in.  You just need enough so you can make a ball out of the meat and it sticks together nicely.  Form meat mixture into balls (you can make them as big or small as you want) mine were about 1 1/2 inch balls.  In a pan over medium/low heat put about 1tbs of butter in your pan and let it melt.  Place your meatballs in hot pan and cook through.  Remove your meatballs when cooked thoroughly but leave the grease in the pan for the gravy

Gravy
1/4cup flour
3 beef boullion cubes
1 1/2 - 2 cups water

Blend flour into grease left in pan.  Add boullion cubes ( I didn't have cubes so I used boullion granules, either one works) and add water about 1/2 a cup at a time while stirring constantly until thickened.  Put meatballs back in gravy to heat.

I made this recipe into two batches.  I prepared the meatball mixture and only cooked about 8-10 meatballs.  With the rest of the mixture I formed about 7 more meatballs and placed them on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper and put this in my deep freezer until they were frozen.  Then I put the frozen meatballs in a ziploc freezer bag and put them back in the freezer.  Now i'm ready for the next time we want meatballs and gravy or spaghetti and meatballs.

Easiest PJ Pants!

I came across this pj pant tutorial a while ago and I've had it bookmarked ready to use when the time came around and I finally used it for my son's Christmas pjs.  I'm not one for patterns, even though I have a whole collection and love buying them.  I never seem to end up using them because they confuse me most of the time haha.  So when I saw this tutorial at Handmade Mommy I got very excited to try it out.  Here is the finished product:

I got the fabric at Joann's for $1.99/yd, it says Naughty or Nice, and these little pants used less than half a yard.  They were so easy to make and really did only take me about 20 minutes.  Now I just need to make a little pair of slipper shoes and a matching onesie to finish it off.  My plan is to get those two things done tonight after my husband gets home to watch the little one, and hopefully I'll get to post it tomorrow.

Now that i've made these, and know they are super simple and quick (which I am all about these days), I'm really wanting to make some more for my neice and nephew.  Any of you busy moms out there who want to make kids pj pants this is definately the way to go.

Door Hanger

I wanted something to hang on Grant's door but didn't necessarily want it to match his dick and jane nursery.  I wanted it to be something that could be used for more than a year or so.

Its nothing spectacular but i think its cute.  All i did was take a wood square i bought at hobby lobby along with a wood letter G and a piece of scrapbook paper.  I used acrylic paint to paint the square and G, then used mod podge to put the scapbook paper on.  I used E6000 glue to attach the G and ribbon. Viola, super simple.

Dick and Jane Nursery

When i was trying to figure out what to do my son's nursery in i came across this dick and jane fabric by michael miller that i fell in love with.  I am drawn to anything retro especially from the 50's and 60's era so this was right up my ally.  I didn't know at the time if i was having a boy or girl and didn't want to wait until we found out because i knew i would be making everything myself.  So i ended up making the curtains, quilt, and bumper pads.

Close up of the curtain fabric

I had an old set of bumper pads someone had given me that i wasn't crazy about so i recovered them with the dick and jane fabric, worked like a charm.

I pieced the quilt together myself with jack dempsey quilt blocks i've had for years.  I don't think you can even find them any more they are so old.  I embroidered them all by hand, then used the dick and jane fabric for the strips between and backing.

A friend of mine did these wood letters as a baby shower gift, i love them hanging above his crib.

Another friend made me this diaper bag, she is super talented and i love her to pieces lol.  It says Retro baby on the front. and has and embroidered G on the opposite side.