You Should See the Other Guy

I got a call today as I left work on my lunch break. It was from my son's school. I freaked out, knowing it had to be bad. His after-school teacher called to say that he'd fallen at school and had a gash on his face that would likely need stitches. I could hear him screaming in the background. They said he was in the office and they were trying to contain the bleeding. I was 30 minutes away.

Twenty minutes later, I was at his school. I flew. It was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be, but it was nowhere near what I hoped it would be.


My buddy. It wasn't anywhere nearly as bad as when he fell last year and banged up his face on the curb.

Ouch. That was a bad fall.

But it was still really hard. He didn't need stitches, even though my husband thinks the doctor was just trying to get out of holding down a 4 year old. Instead, the doctor gave him what my son called "fire glue" because it burned when the doctor put it on and my kiddo cried for me to blow on his face while he breathed through the pain.

But it's glued and taped up he's good. Clingy and comforted more than usual by his blankie. But good.

Whew.

Ruffle Skirt

I bought a dress at the thrift store about two months ago that I loved. I didn't really need to do anything with it except take out the shoulder pads, fix a small rip and shorten it by about a foot.

But it's so pretty. Black with white polka dots and mini pearl buttons down the front. Love.

I kept the scrap of fabric I cut off the bottom and wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with it. But last night, I made a really adorable skirt for my little girl.

Guys, I really need a better camera.

That said, here's what I did, in case you want to make something similar.

Measure your little girl's waist and double it. In my case, hers was 20", so I cut two strips of fabric 40" long and 9" tall. On my fabric, I was able to keep the bottom hem of the dress to use as the bottom of each ruffle. But if you don't have that luxury, you'll need to hem each strip.

For the top of the ruffle, you'll need to fold the top over .5", then fold again another .5", so you'll strip will be about 7" or so, depending on how deep you made your hem.

You don't want to secure the stitch at the top because you're going to ruffle the top by pulling the top string and pushing the fabric toward the center. See here for more specific tutorials on the ruffle. She explained it better than I could! You'll want to continue to gather until the top of the strip is 2" longer than your daughter's waist.

Ruffle each strip, then sew the sides together, making sure you secure the top where you ruffled the fabric so the ruffle doesn't come undone. Each strip should be about 1" wider than your daughter's waist.

Next, I took a pair of bloomers and attached the ruffles to them. One went around the elastic on the top, and the other went about 4" down, right above the leg holes.

And that's it. I put two buttons from the bottom of the dress on the top of the skirt. Now we have matching outfits! So excited!

I added two of the pearls to the front of her skirt. Now we can wear matching outfits! I'm SO excited!

Pleated Scarf

Ala Ruffles and Stuff.

I love this scarf. I'm going to make 20 and wear them all the time.

Probably not. You need 175" of fabric.

But I'll make one for me and some for Christmas gifts, for sure!

I started with this one I did last night for my little girl using old scraps from her quilt. It's cute -- and I can't wait for her to wear it this winter!

It's was really easy. I think it took MAYBE 20 minutes. And cheap. So, a winner in my book.

Old Nailpolish = New Toy

I've seen this a lot of places lately, and thought it was a brilliant idea. My girl is only 3, and still too young, in my opinion, for play makeup. But that doesn't stop her from asking every morning if she can put some on when I'm in the bathroom getting ready.

Enter this quick fix. You take nail polish, old makeup containers and create pretty pretend makeup perfect for little girls.

Start with a cleaned makeup case and your choice of nail polish.

Carefully fill the slots with nail polish.

And let dry. Quick and Easy.

Give it a try! Took less than 5 minutes and now she has something she can use that we're both happy about.

At Least We're Safe ...

We had superheroes visit our house ...

He's super fast.

IRON GIRL.

The fan helps him fly.

Lollipop T-Shirt!

Want to make a quick, ADORABLE lollipop t-shirt for a little girl you love?

OK!

Go here for the tutorial. I love Ruffles and Stuff!

Here's what I whipped up for my little lady last night ...

Quick, cute and perfect for my sweet girl!

Banana Spiced Cheesecake

Last fall I had a strong hankerin' for cheesecake. Partly because I wanted to eat it, but mainly I wanted to make it. I also had a ton of bananas that needed to be used somehow, STAT.

Put your hands together, my friend.

This thick banana cheesecake has a smooth texture — and is VERY filling! It's topped with a thin layer of thick chocolate ganache and cinnamon whipped cream ... guys, it's so tasty!

I'm not going to lie, though. It's in-depth. Don't let that dissuade you. It's WORTH IT!

Ingredients:
For the Crust:
1-¾ cup Graham Cracker Crumbs
3 Tablespoons Light Brown Sugar
½ teaspoons Cinnamon
½ teaspoons Salt
4 Tablespoons Melted Butter

For the Filling:
3 whole Ripe Bananas (overly Ripe Is Best)
24 ounces, weight Room Temp Cream Cheese (light Works OK, But Full Fat Is Best)
3 whole Large Eggs
1 whole Large Egg Yolk
¼ cups Sour Cream
1-½ cup Sugar
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice
¼ teaspoons Salt
1 teaspoon Vanilla

For the Ganache:
½ cups Heavy Cream
½ Tablespoons Light Corn Syrup
¼ teaspoons Cinnamon
1 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

For the Whipped Cream:
½ cups Heavy Cream, Very Cold
¼ teaspoons Cinnamon
1-½ Tablespoon Sugar
Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 9″ springform pan with cooking spray.

Crust:
Combine dry ingredients with the melted butter and combine with fork until the mixture is moist throughout. When the mixture is crumbly but will hold together when squeezed, it’s ready to be pressed into the bottom and halfway up the sides of the pan. Bake the crust for 8 minutes, then let cool completely.

Filling:
Place a roasting/baking dish LARGER than the springform pan in the oven and fill halfway with water. While you’re preparing the filling, the water will heat to the perfect temperature. Wrap the bottom of your springform pan with a double layer of aluminum foil to safeguard from water getting in the pan.

In a bowl, mash the bananas and set aside (note-the texture is better the more you mash. This is why overripe bananas work best).

Add the cream cheese to a separate bowl and beat until smooth. Dump in the bananas and mix until incorporated. Add the eggs and egg yolk, one at a time, mixing thoroughly before adding the next. Add the sour cream and mix until combined. Finally, add the sugar, spices and vanilla and beat until well mixed.

Pour the filling into the crust. Place the pan in the oven, inside the roasting pan filled with water and bake until the cheesecake has a light golden color and the center is set (but can still have a slight jiggle). This will take anywhere from 80-90 minutes.

Cool the cheesecake to room temperature in the pan, then cover and place in the refrigerator overnight (or at least four hours).

Ganache:
When the cheesecake is cooled completely, heat the heavy cream and corn syrup over medium low heat. Add the cinnamon and pull off the heat. Add the chocolate chips and mix. When the mixture is slightly cooled, remove the sides of the springform pan and add the ganache to the top to the edges of the cake. Since the cheesecake will be cold, smooth the ganache quickly to prevent it from hardening up. It looks lovely when the ganache drips over the sides.

Whipped Cream:
Whip the cream, cinnamon and sugar in a bowl for around four minutes, or until they form stiff peaks. Add to a decorating bag fitted with a tip and decorate as you’d like. Or just lop some on the top and call it good. You worked hard on this!
Eat!

This Girl

Is the little girl light of my world. To say I love her is to say the sun is SORT of warm.

She is ... so beyond wonderful.

And dramatic.

And sassy, independent, mouthy, headstrong, willful, certain, confident and beautiful.

Smart. Funny. Loving.

My girl.

I love you more than words. To the moon, my dear.

Zee Party

We had our little girl's birthday party this weekend and it was a hit! Everyone had a great time. I made these, which were a HUGE hit.

But her cupcakes were awesome!

I used a plain white cake mix, then dyed the layers in 6 different colors. They turned out so cute! I was going to used store-bought icing, but I went with my favorite buttercream instead.

Happy birthday, to my little belle.

Gumdropapalooza

In preparation for my daughter's birthday party this weekend, I've been doing two things:

1. Stressing out.
2. Making a mess.

Number two is directly related to number one. Or is number one directly related to number two? Either way, it's been crazy.

Last night I attempted to make gumdrops. I should say I attempted to make them WELL, as I did succeed in making them, but also, number two.

I wish I'd taken pictures.

Have you ever made gumdrops? If so, have you ever made them in too small of a pan? I have. And let me tell you, the results were disastrous.

I have a flat-top stove and the four cups of sugar and six packets of gelatin boiled out of the too-small pan and all over my stove. Black clouds billowed from my burner where the burned sugar crystallized on top.

Ya'll, it got crazy.

But, the end result, minus number 1, was this:

Goodie, goodie, gumdrops.

I made my husband try all of them except the blue. The yellowish color is lemon, the red is orange (I know, weird.) and the blue is peppermint. I've been told I was too light-handed with the extracts. So use more than you think you should.

Everyone likes them. Now we wait for them to crystalize and get ready for my little gumdrop's 3rd birthday party.

Goodie, goodie!

And Runnin', Runnin'

I started the couch to 5K program last Friday and so far, it's been pretty good!

I actually ran at 6 on the treadmill (10-min mile), which, if you know anything about me, is RIDICULOUS. Of course, that was last week. I ran Friday and Saturday, then Zumba on Sunday. I took an off day yesterday then ran again today between 4.8-5 because my asthma wanted to kill me. I was not as quick-footed as last week.

The plan for this week:
Wednesday - Zumba
Thursday - Run
Friday - Bike
Saturday - Run
Sunday - Zumba

Saturday is also the little lady's THIRD birthday party! I'm doing a sweets-themed bash and am making gumdrops, banana/nilla sandwiches, melon skewers, chocolate and peppermint meringue drops and rainbow cupcakes. I was going to have a cookie bar for the kids to decorate their own treats, but there are only 8 kiddos coming, so I'm just going to let them sprinkle their own cupcakes.

Big week coming up!

Ruffle Tank Top!

I made a quick little ruffle tank top for my little girl tonight. Took about a half an hour -- but if you're more experienced, it would probably take a LOT less.

Have you been to WalMart lately? They have super cheap tanks -- $2.50. Earlier this summer, I MAY have bought one ... of each color.

I've done a few things to several of them, but I still have a few left that are plain. With summer coming to a close soon (soon, right? Yes? Please?), I wanted to doll up the rest since they won't fit my little weed next year.

I started with this:

Just a plain tank with a piece of scrap fabric (7" long x 5" tall) and cut in in half longways. Then I used my sewing machine to sew a strip down the center of each piece like this:

Then, I gently pulled the bottom string to ruffle the material. Make sure you don't pull the thread all the way out from the other side or you'll have to redo this step. One, two or three frustrating times.

Sew each side down after ruffled to keep it in the shape you want:

Then I sewed each ruffled strip to the sleeves along the center ruffle strip and across the bottom hem.

And I finished with buttons! I've loved these buttons and am sad to see them go. I think the bag was $4.99 at HobLob, but I got them 50% off. So in total, the shirt cost about $5 if you had to buy all the items. But you could easily use any scrap material on had and any shirt. If you didn't want to use them across the sleeves of a tank, you could decorate the bottom of the shirt with longer strips or across the front of the shirt.

I think she'll like it! Quick and easy -- love those types of projects!

My Next Craft

Guys, I'm so excited about my next craft!!

Scrabble Tile Pendents!

You can do so many cool things with this! If anyone else tries it before I get to, let me know how it goes!

"Leave the Milk Out!" Cookies

So I'm not a huge cookie fan. But my husband and kids are. So I tend to make a lot.

The first time I made these cookies, I tested one with milk and let my husband try it. I went back into the kitchen to put the milk away, he yelled, "JUST LEAVE THE MILK OUT!" And he proceeded to eat about half the batch while standing in the kitchen.

They're good. They're really good.

Bonus? I've included substitutions for turning these chocolate chip cookies into white chocolate macadamia nut (which, by the way, I DO love).

Ingredients:
2 cups All-purpose Flour
¾ teaspoons Baking Soda
½ teaspoons Baking Powder
½ teaspoons Salt
1 cup Unsalted Butter, Softened
1 cup Light Brown Sugar
1 whole Egg
2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
8 ounces, weight Chocolate (white, Dark, Milk--your Choice) Baking Squares, Chopped Into Chunks
¾ cups OPTIONAL Roughly Chopped, Toasted Macadamia Nuts

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in small bowl.

Using a mixer, beat the butter in a large mixing bowl until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the brown sugar and beat until smooth. Add egg and vanilla, then scrape sides with rubber spatula.

Blend in flour mixture in three stages and stir in chocolate (and optional nuts).

Scoop out walnut-sized (I use a melon baller) balls of dough onto baking sheet, leaving 1-2″ between mounds. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until bottoms are slightly golden and tops are still a light color. Remove from sheet and transfer to cooling rack.

Makes approximately 48 small cookies.

Promises, promises.

I know I promised you all a delicious salted caramel chocolate chunk brownie recipe. I know I still haven't delivered. Honestly, I think about it way more than I should. It's like, housework, schmousework, I need brownies.

But I haven't gotten around to trying out the recipe that's in my head. Why? Because I've fallen in love with my sewing machine. We're totally MFEO. I wound my first bobbin and I haven't looked back. I feel like I could take on the world. A sewing machine-sized world.

Now I'm throwing around terms like shirring and the idea of covering everything in my house with ruffles. It's bad, guys. Send help ...ers. Send helpers who will refill my water and make me eat because Momma's a one-track mind right now. Currently that track is taking me to Thread Town and Sewing City. Hop on board!

But brownies will come. If only because I promised to use them as currency and my dear friend won't let me forget.

So, soon, friends! Soon there will be chocolate. And it will be GOOD.

"Why Don't You Ever Make ME Anything?"

For my son, who so impatiently politely asked why I only ever sew things for his sister.

I give you, the 20-minute fishy shirt.

I started with one of my old t-shirts:

And cut it up by using one of his shirts as a pattern. I kept the bottom hem to make it easy on myself. Then I just sewed it all together. It was actually really easy.

Until I realized I didn't know what to do for the neckline. Keep in mind, this was GOING to be for his first day of school.

But it's clearly not EXACTLY first-day worthy.

Ignore the steak sauce on his chin.

It makes an excellent sleep shirt, though :)

Ready for School

My kiddo is starting school this year. I am beyond excited for him.

In what can only be described as THE BEST CITY PLANNING POSSIBLE, we had a new outlet mall open last weekend, which coincided with school starting this week AND tax-free weekend. It was awesome.

At least, I'm sure it would have been, but I wasn't there.

We were here:

Hello. I miss you.

I don't do road trips. This one was only 4 hours away, but even that's a little far for my taste. However, the trip was fantastic. We all had a great time. I'm glad I took today off work to recuperate, since half my family is now sick.

Plus, I had shopping to do.

Not a bad job for $40. I am officially in love with the outlet mall. The only downside is that this lovely gem has come into my life when my husband is going back to school full time and our budget is so strict that Dave Ramsay is jealous he didn't come up with it.

Still, it was a great weekend, a great trip to the mall and a great haul away. And in three days, my little man will be rocking his new clothes as the hippest Pre-Ker at HP!

To My Son

Five years ago today, I was at work and standing up at my desk, with papers in my hand. I twisted around to hand them to the girl who sat next to me, when all of the sudden, I felt the MOST BIZARRE feeling in my stomach. Like someone tickling me on the inside. Or butterflies' wings fluttering in my stomach. It was so different and so unexpected that I sat down, dropped the papers and said, "WHOA." I sat there for about a minute, just reeling from this fluttering. And then I knew. It was you.

You were the most amazing thing I'd ever felt.

Five years later — today — was your last day of daycare before you start big-kid school. It's crazy how quickly it's gone by. You still amaze me. I love you so much and am so excited for you to take this next step. I'm not even sad that you're growing up — not today, anyway.

But in a week, love, I won't be surprised if I feel a few more butterflies as I watch you walk into school for the first time. I hope it's the most amazing thing you've ever done.

I hope everything you do is.

I love you,
Love, me

Dreaming of Fall

If the fact that this is my second pumpkin recipe post in as many weeks is any indication, then it's clear that my mind has sworn off this oppressive heat and is vacationing in the future of fall.

Warm colors, cool air -- and DELICIOUS pumpkin desserts. Sigh.

I miss you fall. Come home soon.

In the meantime ...

Sweet Pumpkin Turnovers


Ingredients:
2 cans (8 Oz. Can) Crescent Roll Dough
1 can Pumpkin Puree (15 Oz. Can)
2 teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice
2/3 cups Sugar, Plus 2 Tablespoons
Sprinkles Of Brown Sugar
1 whole Egg White
1 Tablespoon Water

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl, mix the pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice and sugar. Set aside.

Open crescent rolls and lay them flat on a floured surface. Roll it out to about 12″ x 12″. Using a pizza roller, make three vertical slices, each 3″ apart, then three horizontal slices, also 3″ apart. This will leave you with sixteen 3″ x 3″ squares.

Sprinkle the dough with some of the brown sugar and spoon approximately 1 tablespoon of the pumpkin mixture into the center of each square.

Fold to make a triangle and crimp edges with a fork. It’s okay if they don’t close all the way or stay tight. The dough will puff in the oven and make the turnovers open a little anyway. (You can be more precise about it, but the mixture doesn’t run, so I never care too much!)

In another bowl, mix the egg white and water and brush over top of the turnovers. Sprinkle with more brown sugar.

Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet and cook for 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve and enjoy!