A few of my Favorite Things

Just a quick post of a few of my favorites.

First: Oven Roasted Chicken

(plus it's a sneaky way to get some flax into your diet)

In a bag, place the following:

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp garlic salt

1 Tbsp chicken and meat seasoning (your favorite kind)

1/3 cup milled flax seed

Mix well and then put your favorite cuts of chicken in and shake to coat. I've used Drumsticks and Thighs. Any cut will work.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray baking dish with cooking spray and place chicken in pan. Bake for 40 minutes. Turn chicken and bake for another 20 minutes.

Remove from oven and enjoy some Amazing Chicken!

Next a favorite bread:

Rosemary Bread makes 2 loaves

In a mixing bowl, place

1 Tbsp yeast

1 Tbsp sugar

1 cup warm water

Mix and let yeast become bubbly.

Mix in:

1 Tbsp melted butter

1 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups flour

2 Tbsp rosemary (fresh or dried) one suggestion is Tone's Rosemary Garlic Seasoning

Knead for about 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Oil a bowl and put dough in and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until double, about 1 hour. Punch down and let rest for 5 minutes. Divide dough in halfand shape into 2 small rounded loaves. Prepare baking sheet by either covering withcooking spray or parchment paper. Place loaves on sheet and let rise until double. Sprinkle remaining 1 Tbsp of rosemary on loaves and lightly press into dough.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Carefully remove from oven and brush with remaining 1 Tbsp melted butter and salt if desired.

Trust me, It's Amazing!

Lastly, I am a cookie snob.

There I said it. I only like my chocolate chip cookies. I've tried others and they just don't measure up. I only know of 2 others that rival mine and they are snickerdoodles my neighbor makes and some oatmeal raisin cookies I had once but could never track down.

So here goes:

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Melt 1 lb butter (4 sticks) completely

In mixing bowl place:

3 1/2 cups sugar

1/4 cup molasses

2 Tbsp vanilla

Add butter and cream butter and sugar.

Add 3 eggs and mix.

Next add:

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking soda and mix

Next add 6 cups of flour, one cup at a time. Mix well. Dough should be soft but not stiff. Add in 2 cups chocolate chips. (I've added lots of different kinds but Nestle and Ghiradelli are my favorites)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. If you have a baking stone, use it with parchment paper. I get perfect results every time this way. Cookie sheets can be unreliable sometimes.

Use teaspoon to scoop and shape balls of dough. Place on parchment and bake for 11 minutes. Don't over cook. It ruins them. Let cool on baking rack a little and enjoy!

Etsy shopping

Hi all,

I now have an Etsy shop with some photos I have taken. Check it out. For my blog readers I will do a BOGO FREE for another print of your choice. Just send me a message in the notes letting me know you're from my blog and which print you would like.

Also, other sizes are available. Just let me know.

Thanks for looking!

PS. I'm going to upload some more photos so check back often.

Freecycle Jammies

My little girl is growing up.

She needed some new jammies, and I thought I'd challenge myself to make some out of what I already had.

Here's what I came up with.

You'll need an old pair of her Pajama pants.

Turn them inside out and put one leg inside the other. This will create your pattern for the new pants.

Now get one of your old ones or some jammie fabric. Flannel is a good choice.

Cut them apart at the inseam and crotch seam and lay them out.

Lay her pants on top for the pattern. Make sure you keep the bottom part flat,especially the crotch line. It for each side to get the proper fit front to back.

Cut out about 1 inch from the old ones. Add extra to the bottom to make sure the length will be good for a while.

Now that you have two pieces, sew the inseam with right sides together, and turn one of them right side out.

Pin them right sides together to sew the crotch line. Then pull the leg out so you have inside-out pajama pants.

Measure her waist with the elastic so it is a comfortable stretch for her. Sew the ends together and mark them at the quarter around. The easiest way is to fold it in half with the seam and mark the opposite side, then fold it in half the other way matching up your mark with the seam and mark the opposite sides.Pin the elastic with right sides together to the waist band. Make sure the seam matches the back of the pants. Use your marks as a guide to pin the elastic.Serge or zig-zag around the edge stretching the elastic slightly as you go and you're done. I like the 'boxer' look for the elastic, plus it's super quick and easy. Hem the bottom edge. This method will work for any size, just measure from one of their existing pants to get the right size. I actually made 3 pair yesterday. One for my girl and 2 for my boys. They are super quick and easy. About 20 minutes each.

Next take some of the scraps and cut whatever shape you want. In Honor of Valentine's Day I cut hearts. She had a longsleeve t-shirt that I decided to turn into a pajama shirt. Get a piece of wax paper to sandwich underneath the top layer of the shirt. This will help stabilize it as you sew on the shapes.

Zig-zag around the shapes, remove the wax paper and you're done!Too cute!

Beautiful Fabric Wreath

I've been thinking about this fabric wreath for a while. I just needed some extra inspiration from my friend Mandy over atLittleBirdieSecrets. While at her house, I got to meet Cami. She is amazing. Check her blog out. She'sgotsome seriously cute stuff and her sense of humor is awesome!

Here's the materials list:

oh, BTW, everything I used was recycled from something else. I didn't buy anything. So the cost was FREE!

One Queen size bed sheet you're willing to tear up

One empty diaper box or other large cardboard box

Scissors

Glue Gun

Sewing machine

Needle and Thread

Time

(I know the last one can be a precious commodity)

To start with, Mandy taught me how to do one of these flowers. She's got some great ideas.

Then Cami taught me how to do this one. So cute. It reminded me how much I love my glue gun.

Next I made up a few of my own. Here's one:

Tear a few about 2 1/2 inch to 3 inch strips from your sheet. I love the frayed edges. Next fold it in half and thread your needle with about 2 ft of thread.

On the folded side, knot the thread and do a forward stitch and a backward stitch in the end to start theruffle. The longer your strip, the fuller the flower. Also the wider the strip, the larger the flower. Keep that in mind.

Keep doing a running gathering stitch until you get to the end of the strip. Pull the threads tight to get a tight gather. Get our glue gun out and start rolling the ruffle together, gluing as you go.

The bottom will look like this when you are done.And this is the finished flower.

I made about 5-6 of these.

Next cut a circle from your fabric about a cereal bowl size. This will be the base of the next flower.

Use another strip about the same size as the one for the ruffle flower.

Tie a knot in the end and glue to the center of the circle.Twist the strip of fabric counter clock wise as you coil it also counter clock wise and glue it down on the fabric circle.

To finish it off, tuck the last piece of the strip behind the flower and glue down. I made 5-6 of these in different sizes.

Two down, Two to go.

Next, I made a few more of the rosettes I learned from Cami here.

Make5-6 of these too.

Next was my own creation too.

Tear a strip of fabric about 2 inches wide. On your sewing machine, create your own ruffle by folding the fabric forwards and backwards randomly as you sew. Finish all the way to the end of the strip.

Cut another circle of fabric about 3-4 inchies wide. Start gluing the ruffle down to the circle in a spiral pattern. (I tried sewing it and it was too awkward)

When you get to the last 3 inches of ruffle, to form the center, roll and glue the ruffle back towards the center of the flower. Then put a blob of glue in the center and place the roll of ruffle in the center and press. It will look like this. I made 5-6 of these too.

Next get your box out. Open it flat and measure two circles. I used my quilting yard stick to create the circle. Find the center point and make marks at 1inch and whatever the length you want keeping the center point the same. Twist the yard stick in a circle and keep making marks all the way around. Do the same for the center circle. Cut one out, then trace it and cut the other one out.Use packing tape to secure the two circles together. Make sure you rotate the cardboard so the creases are not lined up between the pieces. This will keep it flat.

Cut two fabric circles just about 1/2 to 3/4 inches from the edge of the cardboard circle. Sandwich them together and stitch the center circle. Poke 2 holes in the top of the cardboard and fabric to allow for hanging. Then put the Cardboard circles inside and stitch the outside edge. Then tread a piece of ribbon or string through the holes to be able to hang the wreath.

Next place the flowers around the circle. I placed them, then glued down each one.

I love how it turned out!

Thanks for looking!

Recent creations

I know I've been slacking on posting what I've been up to. I wanted to share a few things. For reasons I won't go into here, I got to rearrange and redecorate. Always fun.

First was this antique window I found and fell in love with. The letter is vinyl. My cricut is only a 6" so I printed the letter backwards from my computer. Cut it and traced it out of the vinyl so it sticks on from the back side of the glass.

I really like the double wedding ring design.

I found matching vintage ceiling tiles on Ebay a while ago and hung them on the wall. Then recently I decided to make a small wall hanging with the same design. We had a long car trip over Christmas and this was my project to work on in the car.

And Yes, I did hand quilt the whole thing!