Advent Calendar - Week #2

I just looked up Jill's site to find a link to remind you all of this sew along advent calendar that I'm making and noticed that my assignment this week was 8 ornaments, not 5 like I thought.  So now I'm 3 short.  I may or may not make three more, we'll see if this post gets updated.

Week two went okay, I felt really behind but managed to complete the assignment with time to spare (or so I thought).

Last week I embroidered all of my numbers and sewed them onto my backing piece.  This week I cut out my tree and sewed it on.

A quick side note... don't you hate how the second time you do a project you end up so much happier with it than you were the first time?  I want this advent calendar to be my second attempt because I'm already doing things I wish I could change.  I wish my tree could be taller but I'm limited by to the size of the rectangle I cut out.  It'll work but there are things I would change if I could.

So I cut out and sewed on my tree.

Then I made 5 ornaments

You'll notice that lots of them are white but that's because I was so busy with the car seat that I started a bit late, meaning I chose easy ornaments.  They happened to mostly be white, I will add some colour though.

Here's a close up of the individual ornaments.

He sure is a sad snow man hey?  Not sure how that happened.

Hopefully next week goes okay even though I plan on tackling the high chair re-cover.

Passport Cover Giveaway

**Update - I've been so happy to see the comments on this post and see that my fears of no one wanting this were unfounded so I went ahead and made a second cover today.  When I announce the winner of this I'll choose two and both will get a cute, stylish cover.**

When I put out my call for projects Carla answered with a high chair re-cover request.  I've been wanting to work on a high chair for a while now but I think you need to use some sort of plastic fabric that can be easily wiped clean.  I considered laminated fabric but it's really expensive, I've never seen it in Canada and I hear that it cracks over time.  One day in Fabricland I happened to wander over to the vinyl section thinking I'd just see what they had.  I was pleasantly surprised and found a really cute black and white damask pattern.  I've never worked with vinyl so I bought the smallest amount they'd let me and brought it home to sew a few lines.  My few lines test was successful and I'm now convinced that it will work like I want.  The vinyl on the roll is really wide which is great but means my small amount was really a thin,  long strip.  I didn't want to waste the strip and I figured if I sewed a project with it I'd be that much more comfortable working on the high chair.  The passport cover is what I came up with.

It has a cute ruffle down the front to add a little something and it has black edging.  I think it looks classy and a great place to store your generic passport.  The inside is plain black fabric.

Here's a view from the back

I've decided to give this beauty away (hopefully someone wants it and I don't have an un-commented on giveaway, wouldn't that be embarrassing.)

To enter just become a follower and leave me a comment letting me know you did.  If you're already a follower comment and tell me.  That's it, easy.  I'll pick a winner and ship this off, it would make a great stocking stuffer don't you think?

I also have another fun giveaway I want to post but I have to get my act together and actually make the item first so stay tuned.


As a side note, isn't it funny how projects come in waves?  Three weeks ago I was out of projects and now I can't seem to keep up with everything I want to do.

Taco Salad - SAMM

I realize you probably read that title and thought that there's no way you need a recipe for taco salad but just keep reading.

For the past month or so I've committed myself to making one new recipe a week.  My menu had become really stale and I was just repeating the same recipe's over and over, even if they're yummy ones excessive repeats just diminish they're deliciousness.  I find recipes online sometimes but mostly I've been pulling out cookbooks I haven't used in ages and flipped through them once again choosing recipes that perhaps I skipped over the first time.  This new recipe experiment has been mostly unsuccessful so far, just about every new recipe I've tried has been average or below average until today, I finally found one that will make it's way into permanent rotation.

This recipe comes from a little Pillsbury book I got who knows when, it's called Casseroles & Slow Cooker Meals.  I was looking for a Sunday meal and lately I've been enjoying the slow cooker, especially on Sunday it's nice to come home to a cooked dinner.  I saw the taco salad recipe and thought it would be perfect because I love taco salad and since I did all the prep in the morning it would feel even easier than it already was.  This recipe is awesome and may become our new go-to taco meat.

Here's a picture of the meat all cooked.  I know it doesn't look great because it's a pot of meat but trust when I say it's so good.  I hadn't ever put beans in my tacos before but I love the extra texture and substance they add.

Make-Your-Own Taco Salad
1 lb ground beef
1 pkg taco seasoning mix
1 can (16 oz) tomato puree (does this mean crushed tomatoes?  That's what I used)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 can (16 oz) pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1/8 tsp pepper

So you put it all in the slow cooker breaking up your meat before you add all your other ingredients and give it a good mix.  Cover and cook on high for 3 hours or on low for 6-8 hours.

Once it's done you plate with whatever you'd normally have on taco salad.  We had lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, salsa, sour cream, avocado and corn chips.


Linking to Share a Meal Monday

Car Seat Re-Cover 3

If you've been reading along you remember when I put out a call for projects as I'd run out of fun things to do.  KD responded with just what I was looking for, a car seat re-cover.  I've done two of these already that you can read about here and here and I enjoyed them both.  They're a challenge and they're difficult but the end result is well worth all the energy, don't you think?

KD handed me her car seat

along with these fabrics.

There are three sock monkey fabrics and the bundle of polka dots is handmade bias tape (that I was so grateful for, it was perfect for piping).  I'm sure KD would have been fine if I didn't use everything she gave me but they all looked so cute together so I fit them all in.

I'm not going to go into too much detail on this project because it's just like the last one and I detailed it pretty well over here.  Instead I'm just going to show you lots of pictures.

Hopefully KD will forgive me for mentioning that this was the dirtiest car seat I've ever seen and the cover looked practically new after a spin through the washing machine, I almost could have stopped there.  It was also a new challenge because it used piping.  At first I didn't think it would be a big deal but it made the whole thing a bit of a jigsaw puzzle, certain pieces couldn't be assembled until the piping was put on but the piping couldn't be put on until another piece was assembled... tricky but do-able.  In the photos the piping is tough to see but it looks so cute, here's a closer picture.

Here's a closer photo to show all the fabrics together.

I added the banana strap covers but they can be removed if she doesn't want them.

Catie is going to be very sad when this seat gets delivered because she loves it!  She sits and laughs and gets up and sits back down, over and over.  She would get very angry when I was doing fittings and wouldn't let her play.

For all the before and after lovers out there...

I'm going to toot my own horn for a minute here, I did a couple of really smart things on this project and I'm going to tell you about all of them because I'm so pleased with the results.

Starting at the top and working down, the banana piece was supposed to be two pieces sewn together since one of them has much more padding for the headrest.  It made a lot more sense for me to use one piece so the pattern carries on.   Looks cute and doesn't change the functionality.

The side of the carseat has a tiny label telling you how to use the lap seat belt, that got unpicked and re-attached to the new cover (sewing is all about the details).

I added small little straps (they're hidden underneath) to keep those armrest pieces from being pulled up.  They should stay on nice and snug now.

The bottom of the car seat has holes that lined up with holes in the fabric where I assume you could attach the two pieces together somehow.  I've seen this on every car seat cover I've done but I've never actually seen the fabric attached or any hardware to attache it.  I sewed a strap underneath the fabric that ties through those holes to keep the cover nice and snug so it can't be lifted.

Okay, horn tooting over.


So KD now has a custom and improved car seat cover that fits her personality and will hold her little guy comfortably, I hope she's as happy with the results as I am.

The drought of projects has also ended and my list is piling up so there should be a lot more fun posts to come, sorry for the dry spell.



I'll be linking this project up to these great parties.

Advent Calendar - Week #1

So I've mentioned it a couple times but I'm sewing with along with Jill to make this adorable Advent calendar by Inchmark Journal.

Jill gives us an assignment every Wednesday and we show our progress until we all have the above, adorable calendar, just in time for December 1st.

This week she tasked us with cutting out our main backing piece, cutting and embroidering our felt squares and sewing the squares onto the backing.  I started this project a couple days late so I felt like I was rushing and would never finish in time but surprisingly completed it all by yesterday early afternoon.

I started by going to Fabricland and picking up this beautiful selection of felt.

In the past I've used dollar store felt but I decided I want this project to last so I should use better materials.  I also really wanted to use real wool felt but who can afford that stuff?

Then I worked on my numbers and here's the tricky part.  Inchmark Journal gives a really handy tutorial on how to transfer your number temlates to the felt using an iron-on transfer pencil.  I went to pick one up at Fabricland where the employee there told me that crayons work too, I'm always looking to save a buck or two so I skipped the pencil and learned that crayons really don't work, unless there's a trick I don't know.

It was late and I wanted to start so I got creative.  I traced all of my numbers onto freezer paper and ironed them onto my squares.  Since they're a mirrored image I ironed them onto the back of my felt and stitched through the paper, the paper side being the back.  I'll make that more clear with photos.

Here is my square of felt with the freezer paper ironed onto the back, see how my number is backwards?

Once I did my stitching I really carefully pulled off my paper and it looked like this, still looking at the back.

Once flipped over it looked like so...

I used a chain stitch to do all 24 of my numbers.

Once that was done I laid my squares out on my backing piece, that I'd previously cut.  I made a handy grid on PowerPoint to help me line my squares up nice and straight.  I slipped it behind the backing piece and the squares showed through so I knew where to pin.

Once I'd pinned 9 or so, (that was as many as my grid would let me do since we don't have bigger paper) I stitched them on.  I repeated that process a couple times until all of my numbers were stitched.

So here is my end result for this week.

So far I'm thrilled with how it's turning out and I'm excited to see what our assignment is for this week.

What Catie Wore Wednesday #14

14 weeks... It's really a long time.  I'm not sure how the Pleated Poppy has continued on for so long because I'm feeling right sick of photographing and trying to put her in something new every day.  This will be my last What Catie Wore for a while, perhaps I'll come back to it since I really need a break.

It's good timing because on Wednesday's for the next 4 weeks I"ll be posting my progress on the advent calendar in my sew along with Jill.  Perhaps we'll re-visit Catie's wardrobe once that is finished.

So enjoy this last week, even if I gave up and quit on Sunday.

Wednesday

Purple T - Walmart
Brown Pants - Old Navy

(she loves to be pushed on her little car)

Thursday

Yellow Sweater - Old Navy
Embroidered Jeans - Espirit
Brown Shoes - Walmart

Friday

Long Sleeve Onesie - Carters
Sweater Vest - H&M

She really did wear pants most of the day, Old Navy Jeans to be specific.

Saturday

Navy Top - Gap
Jeans - Old Navy

She loves to push that basket around and fill it with her toys

Sunday

Headband - Made by Me
Pink Sweater - Old Navy
Striped Shirt dress - Old Navy
Brown Shoes - Walmart

Linking up to

Pulled Pork Tacos - SAMM

I know there has been a serious lack of posts lately but like I mentioned I really had run out of projects.  It's not that I've been doing all this stuff and not linking it, I haven't been crafting at all except for one easy Christmas present that I can't link or I ruin the surprise.  I do have some fun things coming though.  If KD ever gets me her car seat I really will re-cover it, I'm gearing up to work on my first High Chair re-cover and I've decided to sew along with Jill and make this awesome advent calendar.  We had one growing up that was similar and we loved it, would fight over who got to put the numbers up, hopefully Catie enjoys it too (maybe next year though, she's pretty little).

Today is Monday so time to link up to Michelle's SAMM (Share a Meal Monday)
I'm linking a staple recipe in our house that is seriously yummy and easy, easy.

Pulled Pork Tacos

This is a slow cooker recipe so into the bottom you toss the following ingredients.  An onion, chopped, 2 Anaheim peppers, chopped (the recipe calls for Pablano but I can never find them so we use Anaheim instead, don't worry they're not spicy). 2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce, 2 Tbsp lime juice, 3 garlic cloves, smashed and 1/4 cup of chopped cilantro.  I don't measure any of those ingredients though, this is almost no fail so I just eyeball everything.

Once that's done (or in my house, I do that while Brad does the rub) you're going to mix up the spice rub for the pork.  I won't list all the spices here because they're below but one note, it calls for Emeril's Essence spice mix.  I don't know about you but I don't have that handy so I Googled it and found a recipe, I included that below as well.  The first time I made this rub I just looked at the ingredients for the Essence, crossed off the ones I'd already mixed together and threw a little of those new ones in.  Now that we make this so often I actually mixed up a big batch of Essence and just use the 4 tsp like the recipe calls for.  Both ways were delicious though.

Once your rub is all together you just do what the name suggests, rub it all over the pork.  Cover all the sides well (before you rub you can trim some fat if there is lots, mine was pretty good so I didn't bother).  You could also choose to sear the pork once it's rubbed, I've done it before and honestly didn't notice a difference in flavour but you might and I'm sure it's what professionals would recommend.  Put your roast on top of your chopped stuff and cook for 4-6 hours on high.  I usually do all of that the night before so the rub can soak in really well.  Then the morning of you can just remove from the fridge and turn the slow cooker on. .

Here's what it looks like all ready to cook.

So I had great intentions to take pictures all the way though and show what the roast looks like after it's cooked but before removed from the crock pot but I forgot.

This roast was a big one and only took 5 hours to cook, you know it's done because it will flake apart really easily with two forks.  I also like to check on it halfway through and rotate the pork so all that yummy rub mixes with the juices.

So once it's done your remove the pork and shred it with two forks then toss it back in the slow cooker with all the juices and you're ready to serve.

(this picture doesn't do them justice, it's so yummy.  I just ate them for dinner and this post has made me want more)

Take flour tortillas and top them with your pork mix and everything you would normally put on a taco.  A warning, these can be pretty messy.  We served them to company we don't know that well so I removed most of the juices and just made the mix moist but it wasn't nearly as good, I put all the juices back in our leftovers.

This recipe makes a lot.  We ate it with another couple and then ate it for lunch the next day, lunch and dinner the day after that and put the remaining in the freezer because there was still tons left.  We also felt like our tortillas were starting to dry out and we were out of lettuce so on the last day of leftovers we made it into quesadillas instead and it was AWESOME.

It's fun because it's a new variation on tacos that's just as easy.


Pulled Pork Tacos

4-6 pound Prok Butt or Shoulder (I usually grab the biggest one they have)
2 Poblano Peppers, roughly chopped
1 large Onion, yellow, roughly chopped
2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoon Lime Juice
3 cloves Garlic, smashed
1/4 cup Cilantro, chopped
4 teaspoon Salt,
2 teaspoon Pepper, black, divided
4 teaspoon Cumin, divided
4 teaspoon Emeril's Essence or similar spice mix, divided

Emeril's Essence
2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon dried leaf oregano
1 tablespoon dried thyme

To the slow cooker add onion, garlic, poblano peppers, Worcestershire sauce, lime juice, and cilantro. Season each side of the pork with half the seasonings and place in slow cooker, fat side up. Cover and slow cook on high for 4 to 6 hours until tender. Before serving, remove as much fat as possible from the pork then shred with two forks.

Warm flour tortillas in microwave and top with pork, lettuce, tomato, cheese, sour cream, avocado and salsa.  You can also squeeze some extra lime on top and some chopped cilantro.  Wrap and serve.


Linking to Share a Meal Monday

What Catie Wore Wednesday #13

Sorry but this week I forgot to take a bunch of photos.  We were out of town and I got distracted so this is all you get.  I'll try harder next week.

Thursday

White Long Sleeve Onesie - Carters
Grey Sweater - H&M
Embroidered Jeans - Esprit

I thought this photo was too cute to leave out.

Friday

Sweater - Mexx
Navy Skirt - Gap
Cream Tights - Sears
Brown Shoes - Walmart

Saturday

Brad went to visit where he used to work and Catie helped out.

Striped T - Old Navy
Jeans - Old Navy

She's also wearing her Halloween costume here
Lab Coat - Made by Me
Stethoscope - borrowed from Rihannon

Monday

I could not get motivated to do anything today, including put real clothes on Catie.  She spent the entire day in her sleeper from sears.

Tuesday

White Long Sleeve Onesie - Carters
Ruffle Shirt - Please Mum (I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be a dress but it's ridiculously short so she's wearing it as a shirt instead)
Skinny Leg Jeans - Children's Place

Sharp Rotini Mac & Cheese - SAMM

I know, I'm a day late for SAMM (Share a Meal Monday) but yesterday I could not get motivated to do anything.  I didn't want to go without sharing one of our favorite meals though.

My Mom loves Macaroni and cheese, not Kraft Dinner but good, homemade cheesy mac and cheese.  It's probably because of her love that I've known how to make a really good cheese sauce for as long as I can remember.  I've made a bunch of different variations on the classic but this one easily stands out as our favorite.

I haven't actually made it in a while so there won't be any pictures but it's super yummy and you should give it a try.

Sharp Rotini Mac & Cheese

2 cups rotini pasta
3 tomatoes, diced
4 strips of bacon, fried and crumbled
2 green onions, finely sliced on an angle (they're prettier on an angle)

Sauce:
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 tsp of dried mustard
Salt & Pepper to taste
2 cups extra aged cheddar cheese, grated (it's a white cheese)

Cook your pasta according to the directions, while it's cooking make your sauce.

Heat a pot over medium-high heat. Melt butter and add flour and whisk well. Season with salt, pepper and mustard and let cook a minute. Whisk in milk and broth and bring to a boil (you could use all milk but the broth makes it a little lighter and less fatty).   Lower heat and add cheese, stirring to melt.

When your pasta is done drain and I like to add my green onions immediately to the hot pasta so it has some time to wilt. Stir in your tomatoes, bacon and add your cheese sauce.  I like to save the bacon until the last minute so it stays yummy and crispy.  Once everything is mixed go ahead and enjoy.

You could also pour it into a casserole dish, top with breadcrumbs mixed with melted butter and bake until they're nice and golden (about 20 minutes) but I can never wait to eat and so we always skip this step.

This picture doesn't show the bacon, tomatoes or onions but other than that it's pretty close to the end result.

Linking to Share a Meal Monday

A Leash For Mr. Brown

I've talked about him before but let me properly introduce Mr. Brown.

When Catie was born her cousin Riley gave her one of his Teddy bears and he became known as Mr. Brown.  One day Catie carried him to bed with her and I didn't take him away.  Since them she's slept with him and is very attached.  The original Mr. Brown wasn't very nice though, he was cheap and kind of gross and his hair fell out and he smelled and I couldn't handle him any longer so we took Catie to Toys R Us one day and let her choose a new stuffed animal.  We really wanted her to love something unique like the adorable pink pig we pulled out but she showed an obvious preference to the classic brown bear.  We switched the bears, retaining the name and her love for him only grew.  Now he's essential for nap time and don't you dare think of stealing him because it will cause a meltdown.

We have a strict rule that Mr. Brown only gets played with at bed time and diaper changes (she's a really wiggly girl, Mr. Brown helps).  The one major exception to this rule is long car rides.  We go to Calgary often which is a couple hours drive and Catie hates the car.  Mr. Brown helps make the trip more bearable for her but there is one huge down fall to him being in the car.  She often drops him or when she gets really frustrated throws him repeatedly.  That means I'm left to awkwardly reach back to retrieve him to hopefully put an end to her screaming.  By the end of our drive I'm super frustrated and so is she.

I thought of this solution some time ago but only implemented it in time for our last drive this weekend.  Mr. Brown got a leash.

This picture shows attempt number 2.  Attempt one was much too short and involved Velcro, which isn't nearly strong enough.

I took a strip of fabric that matched the car seat and made a long tube.  Then I threaded elastic through the tube.  I made one loop at the end (without elastic) and then I made a second loop at the other end (with elastic).  Before I started I had carefully measured out the three parts I wanted, a loop to go around the seatbelt, the length between Catie and Mr. Brown and then a loop to go around Mr. Brown.  Sadly I didn't think about how much my fabric would shrink with the elastic, in the end I needed to make a second tube to attach the the first.  I had initially pictured the loop going around Mr. Brown's neck but I was a little worried about the chance of decapitation so in the end I made it go around his waist.

So here's how it works

The loop without elastic wraps around the seatbelt strap and the strip of fabric pulls through the loop.  Then the large, elastic loop goes around Mr. Brown's waist.  The strip isn't long enough for any sort of choking hazard, it just keeps Mr. brown from falling (it's actually slightly longer than I would like and may be shortened at some point).  

It worked just like I had hoped and made for a much more enjoyable trip.  I loved that I didn't ever have to reach back for him and Catie loved that he was always close.