quilted stockings

I got the inspiration to take on this project from Pinterest (duh).

I learned to sew when I was about 15, and it’d been since that time that I’d sewn anything.  But I decided to whip out the ole sewing machine and give it a try.

First, I had to go to Joann’s and get a rotary cutter, mat, and ruler.  If you download their app they have a 50% off coupon, so it ended up being $30 instead of $60 for everything.

I got my fabrics from Hobby Lobby.  They came in a little bundle of 5, so I got 2.  The stockings would probably have been cuter if I’d selected each fabric myself, but this saved time and money.  I also got some thin batting and fabric for the stocking cuffs and liner.

Next I cut out all my squares at 2.5 x 2.5.  54 per side, 108 in all.  And set them out how I wanted them (with Mike’s help).

I kept a piece of paper on top to remind myself who was whose and if it was for the front or back.

Then I sewed the pieces together using this youtube tutorial to help me.  The pressing of the seams is important!

Next I quilted each of these 4 pieces together with batting and liner at a diagonal.  It was pretty easy to just follow the corners.  I found that quilting every other line first (while alternating directions) and then going back to fill in the rest of the lines makes it come out a little flatter.  I didn’t take a picture of this step, probably because at that point I was getting pretty tired.

Then I laid my stocking pattern over the quilt, pinned it down so it stayed in place, and cut around it.  I got my stocking pattern from here.

I used this youtube tutuorial to sew together the stockings and add the cuff and loops for hanging.  My cuff pieces were 9 x 17 and my loop piece was 2.5 x 6.5.

And finally I was finished!  It was quite the project, but it was worth it.

 

meal planning 12.16

Another meal planning post!  I wanted to use up some of the things we had in the pantry so that explains the first 2 recipes.

I had egg noodles and beef broth so I made this One-Dish Beef Stroganoff from Yummly.com.  It was pretty good, I’d use a different type of beef next time, ground might be good.

 

Had some leftover pasta so I made Chicken & Asparagus Penne from recipesweet.net.  I had spiral pasta but it still tasted good.  It’d be even better with a little butter mixed in there.

Haven’t made this yet, but it’s on the menu.  Chicken Pot Pie from Jennifer Booth.  It looks pa-ritty good.

Other meals we will have this week:

Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup

Sweet Potato with lots of fixins

Chicken Dish (we make this quite a bit)

And then I’ll also be making these:

Pretzel Toffee from Jen’s Favorite Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies from Two Twenty One

I also bought a ton of fruit that we snack on throughout the day.  This weeks picks:  bananas, pears, clementines, and grapes.

All the recipes are pretty easy, so if you’re like me and like to cook but not to spend all evening in the kitchen, these are good ones to try out.

christmas wrapping

This year I used craft paper and a few different types of ribbon to do all my wrapping.  Here are some pics…

Basically I just did different combinations of ribbon, some with bows, some without.

I’m glad to have this chore over with; less than 2 weeks until Christmas!

 

it’s that time of year

It’s our first year as homeowners therefore decorating for Christmas was pretty exciting.  We don’t have a bunch of stuff, but I think it turned out okay for our 1st year here.  Take a look.

I was going to be crafty and make our own wreath, but I saw this at Hobby Lobby for 1/2 off and thought, naaah this’ll work.

The trees on the table are hand-me-downs and the glassware and ornaments are all from Hobby Lobby.  Not exactly what I would want here in the future, but it works for this year.

Mom started a tradition growing up where we did a Christmas puzzle every year and then she had it framed.  This one is from 2008.  Mike and I had just started dating and worked on this one together.

I was looking for card holders but this way saves some money.  It’s 2-1/2 yards of pom-poms and mini clothespins.  I just tacked it up onto the shelf.  Next year I may hang it up on a wall.

Hand-me-down Santa figurine and seasonal Scentsy from Mom in the kitchen.

Christmas towels!

Poinsettia!

I used our thankful tree and added some ornaments and it became a Christmas tree, easy enough.  The print in the black frame Mom got me from an antique store.  The frame is from Hobby Lobby (as you can see I’m a big advocate of Hobby Lobby).

The mantel isn’t exactly what I envisioned, but again, for our 1st year having a fireplace this works.  The ceramic ornaments are from Kirklands, the trees are from Hobby Lobby, and the adorable stocking hanger is from Mom.  I don’t have any stockings up yet because I’ve decided to make them myself, wish me luck!

Over in the corner with the tree is this awesome star Santa (hand-me-down) and Christmas pillow from Kohls.

On the console behind the sofa is our manger and mini tree.  The ornaments on the mini tree are handmade or sentimental.

In the guest room I have these guys to liven up the place.

And here are a couple pictures of the tree at night.

We have a handful of random ornaments in there along with some blue, white, and silver ornaments from Hobby Lobby.  I also use silver beads wrapped around the tree along with some white berries spread out sporadically.

And that’s it folks, thanks for stopping by!

more smash booking

With all the snow and the terrible road conditions I had time to catch up on my Smash Book.  Here are some more pics.

This spread has some brainstorming ideas for our snow cone stand logo that we had this past summer.

There are more ideas on my previous post, here.  But basically if I see anything in a magazine that I like, or any other random pieces of paper I’d like to keep (I have a game score sheet shown in the last pic), I throw them into a pile.  Then once I get the time I sit down and throw it all in there.  I only have a small box of supplies, which works because the paper is so cool I wouldn’t want to cover it up too much anyway.

Love these, because it’s a place to put all the random stuff I want to keep but wouldn’t know what to do with otherwise.  And it’s something to do during winter storms when you’re stuck inside.

meal planning

I’m back from my 12 day hiatus for Thanksgiving.  And on the top of the list today was to go grocery shopping in preparation for a massive winter strom that could very well not happen, better safe than sorry.  So I thought I’d take this opportunity to do a post on how I meal plan.

First of all I’m a big fan of using all your groceries up before buying more.  At the end of the week it’s typical for us to have only condiments, spices, and baking indgredients…yum.  But even after shopping the fridge never gets too crowded.  Here is picture of our fridge after shopping for the week.  Besides ingredients for the meals below, I try to stock up on lots of fruits and veggies.

This is how I break it down.

Breakfast – cereal and oatmeal.  I don’t cook in the morning.  Maybe some pancakes, waffles, or an omlette on the weekends but that’s it.  However I adore cereal, if you are looking for some healthy ones my go-tos are Oatmeal Squares Brown Sugar and Grape-nuts Fit and Honey Bunches of Oat with Vanilla Bunches.

Lunch – fruit, yogurt, granola bar, sandwich/wrap/leftovers

Dinner – I’ll do a post some other time of standard dinners that I make and they all meet the following requirments, minimal ingredients and minimal time needed to make them.  But for today’s post I’ll just show you the recipes I intend to make for this week.

Avocado Chicken Salad from Becoming Betty

Slower Cooker Chicken & Dumplings from Polish the Stars

Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup from Random Thoughts and Thrills

Other food we’ll have for dinners this week, salad (spinach, corn, black beans, green pepper, tomato), grilled cheese and tomato soup, and queso and chips (to balance out our meals).

I’m also planning on making these bad boys.  Buckeyes from Katrina’s Kitchen.

Aaand now I’m hungry.