Here's the Photographic Evidence

As promised, here are some photos of my recent craftiness.

Homemade Bread

Mother's Day Tablerunners...

Mom's is already on her table. MIL's is on its way to her.

Mom's from Moda's Hunky Dorey

It really is a beautiful addition to her table.

Kathleen's is Moda's Make Life...

The Circle Quilt is trimmed and ready to bind. Update: I have to make 260 inches of binding!!!

Herbs, berries, okra, and jalapenos. All with signs.

And check out the tea cup bird feeder in the left background.

Vintage teacup birdfeeder.

Another one for the front yard. This one is my favorite.

Set of bags.

Business Card Holder (inside view)

Here are the links for these projects.

Multi Grain Honey Bread

Moda Tablerunners

Circle Quilt (with modifications)

Plant Tags (with modifications)

Teacup Bird Feeders

Weekender Tote

Zippered Pencil Pouch

Pleated Bag

Business Card Holder to hold my Mommy cards. (I added velcro to mine.)

That's about it. Oh, my I-Spy charms came today. Hopefully, I can get over to the quilt shop tomorrow and get some feedback on the pattern for Gunnar's quilt. I think I've marked off the idea of doing anything that involves more prints other than my large I-Spy blocks, but that still leaves me with a couple of options for the layout. I'm really leaning towards a random disappearing nine-patch pattern, but thinking that the only prints I'll use will be my I-Spy charms in the corners and maybe two different colors of solids for the small square and rectangle parts that get cut from the inside squares. 

Hope you enjoyed the pictures. It has been a lot of fun working on these projects.

What On Earth Have I Been Doing?

Sewing... gardening... browsing around on Etsy... crafting... it's been a very productive time. I've been trying to keep everything organized in my mind, and finally had to force myself to put down my craft journal last night because I kept thinking of more things I needed to jot down before going to sleep.

One problem. Erick is asleep in the same room as my camera, so there won't be any pictures of my progress until tomorrow. But here is a run-down of the projects:

vintage teacup bird feeders
two quilted table runners for Mother's Day (one for my Mom and one for Erick's Mom)
completed the quilting and trimming for my circle quilt
weekender tote bag (Okay, so I still have a tiny bit of work left on this one.)
pencil pouch to match the tote bag
pleated little zipper bag to match the tote bag
business card holder to match the tote bag (holds my Mommy cards)
painted plant signs to label all the herbs, berries, and veggies that I've planted
cut out fabrics for quilted placemats and cloth napkins to match my patio dishes

Wow. Now that I see it all written out, I actually HAVE accomplished quite a bit. There is a slight hitch with the cloth napkin fabric. It appears to have the absorbency capacity of a slab of stainless steel. What I'm saying is that this fabric sucks if you're planning on using it to wipe up any sort of liquid at all. Oh well. At least now I know what sort of print will look good with my dishes and placemats. I'll save it and use it for something down the road. But this means that I've got to find new fabric for the napkins. At least I hadn't started sewing them. That would have been really crummy. My Mom showed me how different napkins that she has are better or worse for napkins, but I felt like mine was going to work. Again, I'm glad I gave it an official absorption test before getting them to the sewing machine.

My next projects (meaning things I've already purchased) will be to finish the placemats (and hopefully some decent napkins) and then I want to make an I-Spy quilt for Gunnar. Rather than dedicating my life to amassing the necessary fussy cuts on my own, I went on Etsy and bought two sets of I-Spy charms. My plan is to use a disappearing nine-patch pattern for the quilt, but I'm still sort of stuck on how I'll arrange the blocks. One quilt that I saw arranged the blocks so that the cut squares looked like sashing, which was really pretty, but I love the idea of arranging the blocks so that no two seams ever meet. It gives the quilt a much more abstract feel, which is nice for an I-Spy quilt. Guess I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

I bought a pattern to make a lunchbox for Evelyn to take to Art Camp, so I'll have to get that put together in the next few weeks. Then there is a little purse-sized organizer/binder that I want to make for myself, to match the Weekender Tote Bag.

The Circle Quilt has been quilted and trimmed, so I need to measure it, make the binding, sew on the binding, and then I'll hand-stitch the back side binding. That will finish up my very first quilt. It was good that I had the chance to make the tablerunners, because it gave me some really good practice with binding. I had planned on using pre-made binding for the quilt, but found that I actually enjoyed the process of making my own for the tablerunners, and my hand stitching isn't nearly as horrible as I expected it to be, so I think I'm gonna go for it.

Okay, that's all for tonight. Oh. Wait. I forgot one other Etsy purchase. I bought a fat quarter pack of Barbara Jones' Simply Sweet. Oh my how cute. I think I'm going to use it to make a picnic quilt. The backing will either be laminated cotton or oilcloth, so that it will be waterproof. I want to do a little more research on that before buying the fabric, but I'm thinking it should be a really cute vintage red-check pattern. That would be perfect with the Simply Sweet line.

More tomorrow, including pictures...

A Night in the Life of a Newbie Stay-at-Home-Mommy

I say I'm still a Newbie stay-at-home Mommy, but really, is there ever a time that any of us thinks that we've got it all figured out? Do we really ever pass beyond the novice status? I guess that's what grandkids are for, but since I'm here in this season of life with young kids and still figuring out what life at home is going to look like for me, the Newbie label still applies.

When I was working full-time, there were days when the pace was nothing short of insane. Some days were fairly easy, but there were frenetic days when it seemed like I never even stopped to go to the bathroom. (Now, of course, when I do get a chance to go to the bathroom, I am accompanied by a four year old and a sixteen month old. But that's a whole different story, yes?) At home, it's different. While I am still busy and working hard, I have a different feeling about the work that I am doing. No matter how much I enjoyed and cared for the people in the office, they were not my flesh and blood, carried nine months inside my body, born out of the pains and struggles of labor, and whose souls and lives are one of my absolute top priorities. The work that I do at home is mostly done for my family ... my husband, myself, and our two children. I also enjoy baking meals and doing things for other people, but the everyday chores and tasks that keep me busy are focused on our family's sustainability and comfort. Even when I venture into the realm of hobby or personal interest, I find myself drawn into things that I believe will either enhance our lives or make our home more beautiful and homey. 

Sewing has become a great creative outlet for me. Baking and cooking have always been there, but now I find that I have the time to try things that I wouldn't have taken the time to try when I was working full time and trying to squeeze out some meager portion of time with the kids before we all fell into bed and started the race again the next morning. My newest foray into the realm of time-investment baking is bread making. I have two bread books, both of which are meant to take a total beginner all the way into the mathematics and art of baking lovely bread. Tonight, I am making my first attempt, but we won't know how it turns out until tomorrow morning. Because of time constraints (due to the fact that I forgot to knead my dough earlier in the process and had to go back, knead, and re-start the rising process) the final rising stage will be done in the fridge tonight and I'll bake the loaves in the morning. Hopefully, they will turn out well. One thing is for sure -- the dough smells wonderful, and it hasn't even been baked yet.

I'm baking this bread. No, it's not from either of my new books. I've started reading but am not yet to the point of actually making any of the formulas (recipes) from my book or this one that I bought as a back-up reference. 

What else is going on? The yard beautification continues, as does the planting. I'm working up a container garden on my back courtyard. And as it seems to happen lately, I have spent a couple of days trying to think of how I am going to make some little signs for my herbs, jalapenos, blueberries, and okra, and stumbled upon this tutorial. Yes, folks, I will be making my very own garden markers this week. 

The funny thing is that my multi-tasking hasn't stopped. Honestly, if anything, it has blossomed. While waiting for my dough to rise so that I could then form the two loaves, Evelyn and I went outside and planted nine okra plants, two jalapeno plants, a pot of mint, and two purple balloon flowers. The timer was going off to remind me to check the dough just as I was dropping the last two plants into their new pots. Pretty good time management, huh? 

I'll post pictures of the patio garden later this week. It was way too dark to take any pictures by the time I finished up outside, cleaned up, and got my bread dough into the fridge.

So that's it for tonight. It has been so rewarding to be able to apply myself and my abilities and see them benefitting my family. Every day I feel the honor of being the one whose responsibility it is to make our home a warm, inviting, and peaceful place so that my husband's hard work can be rewarded with a lovely place to relax and enjoy the kids when he unplugs. Evelyn and Gunnar notice the little things, and that just makes it all worth while. This has been a long time coming, and I wasn't totally sure that I would make a very good stay-at-home Mommy, but it's like I have fallen into the role I was meant to have all along. Even though I enjoyed working and felt great satisfaction in a job well done and in the collaboration with some of the greatest people I've even met, being the one who gets to take care of my children every day is an incredible privilege and a hysterically funny adventure. Now, I am the one who gets to see my toddler trying new things for the first time. I get to watch his face and see the wonder and amazement and joy when he figures out something new. What a blast...

Mommy & Daughter Baking Day

Before I get to today's events, let me give a small back-story. Evelyn and I really love baking and cooking together. My husband thinks it's amazing that I have the patience to give up some control over to a four year old and also allow her to try things that will either slow my progress or might not look quite as "perfect" as what I would attempt on my own. However, it is a good practice for me to have her work with me, mostly because I NEED a reason to slow down and enjoy the process and accept that it doesn't have to look perfect when we're done. Mommy could use a couple of notches knocked off the perfection meter, if you know what I mean...

Anyway, Evelyn was baking a cake with my Mom last weekend. It was a new recipe, and Mom decided to tweak the recipe as they went along. (Yes, I realize this is exactly the same thing I do. I learned from the best. We are usually pretty spot-on in our tweaks, I'll have you know.) But this one cake tweak didn't turn out exactly as planned. The cake layers didn't get quite as think as Mom had hoped, and she lamented that her cakes didn't rise while Evelyn was still nearby. Quick as you please, Evelyn looked right at her and asked, "Grandma, did you remember to put the baking soda and baking powder in the cake? You KNOW you have to put baking soda and baking powder in the cake so it will rise. Did you forget it?"

Yes, my sweet little baker's apprentice is four and a half years old. And yes, she knows that baking powder and baking soda are what go in cakes to make them rise. All this time, I've never really thought about how much she is learning when she bakes with me. I definitely underestimated how much she is listening and absorbing, despite her young age.

Okay, so on to today's fun. I found a new sugar cookie recipe while surfing blogs the other day. I mixed up the dough a couple of nights ago, but due to a horrendous migraine that lasted three days, I hadn't baked the cookies yet. When Gunnar went down for his nap this afternoon, I got the dough out of the fridge, ironed my rolling mat, and started baking. Evelyn waited as patiently as possible for her turn at the dough scraps, and here are the pictures of her rolling out her own dough.

So cute. This girl has mad cookie dough rolling skills!

Oh, and you wanna see the finished product? Oh my, they really are good. My husband needs to come home fast. Otherwise, I'm going to sit down in front of the table with the gallon jug of milk, and eat myself into oblivion. Folks, I have a new go-to sugar cookie recipe.

Aren't they pretty? I had never used this particular technique for frosting cookies, but it turned out quite well. The first step is to pipe a thicker version of the icing around the edge of each cookie. Then, you thin the icing with more milk and drizzle the icing to fill in the top of the cookie. Add sprinkles, just for an extra cute touch.

And they made plenty.

Did I say that they make plenty? Let me rephrase...

That's a whole lotta cookies!

They really are good. Nice, chewy, soft texture... wonderful flavor... sweet frosting with a touch of lemon juice... sooooo good.