The berry sweet dress

 So here is the dress. It doesn't scream summer quite as much as I had hoped it would but I think it's still cute. This was my inspiration for it. Obviously I knew mine would look quite different seeing as how mine was going to be a sewn version.
 

 A close up of the hand sewn details.

 I wanted it to look like the vines wrapped around the dress to be the button loops. The buttons I ordered online and haven't arrived yet but they are little flowers with rhinestone center. I'll update this once I add them. ;-)

Now for a picture of one of my girls modeling. It will be a much better fit when the buttons are there to hold it up. Right now it falls down in front since they aren't there yet though.

Btw, don't you love my leg sticking out behind Lil bits to make sure she doesn't fall down on the hard tile? She is sitting up well on her own now but I worry still.

If you would like to see a tutorial for this dress then please let me know in the comments below. I have some of the pics taken of the process for this one but I will have to fill in the blanks. So I'll only do this if there is some interest in it.

Chicken Cordon Bleu Crockpot Style

This is a huge hit in our house. Everyone loves it and it's one of those things that IF there are left overs then everyone asks to finish them the next day. Honestly it's like a combination between chicken cordon bleu and chicken alfredo. Chicken alfredo bleu?

I adapted it from two different recipes. One was for cream of anything soup and one was for crockpot cordon bleu. I always change a recipe when I cook it. Even when I try I always manage to change a recipe in some way. Everyone likes my cooking though so I guess I must be doing something right.

First mix up your powdered seasoning in a ziplock baggy or an empty spice jar so you can save the extra for another recipe.

The powdered mix recipe I have here will leave you with more then you need but that's ok because you can use it for loads of different things. For this recipe you will only need around 2 tablespoons full.

The powder recipe:

3/4 cup cornstarch
1 tsp curry powder
2 tbsp garlic powder 
2 Tbsp dried onion flakes or powder
2 tsp Italian seasoning

Combine your 2 tbsp into a full can of evaporated milk and 1 cup regular milk. Add 1 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp pepper and mix.

Next pour enough of this mixture in your crock pot to cover the bottom.Then put your whole chicken breasts (2-4 breasts) in your crockpot and add around 2 tsp olive oil right over the top. Then layer a few slices of deli ham or you can use Canadian bacon like I did this time. Don't over do it because chicken should be the main meat flavor in this but you do want to have a taste of the ham.

Now cover with at least two different types of cheeses. You have a lot of options on cheeses if you aren't the kind of foodie who feels that cordon blue can ONLY be done with ____. Basically anything that melts well and isn't super overpowering will work fine. This time I used pre-shredded mozzarella and a three cheese blend. Usually I use mild white cheddar and whatever else is in the house.

Drop in 2 tblspoons of butter and cover everything with the remainder of your mixture and cook for 4-5 hours or until done. I recommend checking on it from time to time just to mix it and see how it's doing. As it starts getting closer to done you can begin shredding the check while it's still in the crockpot.

When it looks done make sure your chicken is nice and shredded and everything is mixed well. Then serve over linguine noodles (I prefer the spinach kind) and sprinkle over some fried onions.

So what do you think? If you try this I would LOVE to hear your opinions. Tell us what you think. :-) 
 

Here are the links to the original recipes that helped me to create mine:

cream of anything soup recipe
chicken cordon bleu

Oh dear!

When we moved into our house last September one of the first things we did was buy an apple tree sapling to plant in our back yard. We want to grow some of our own food and who doesn't love apples? Well a couple weeks ago I was checking her out and seeing how to see if she had any new growth on her. To my surprise there was NONE! In fact it looked as though something had chewed it all away. I told my husband I thought it looked like a dear was eating our tree. However I was skeptical that was the case since we live in the middle of a neighborhood. So we left the topic and continued our day.

Fast forward to this weekend......

I woke up at 4:30 in the morning with this feeling like something wasn't right. I tossed and turned and tried to go back to sleep but couldn't. Finally I woke up my husband and told him about my feelings and he being the wonderful patient man that he is asked if I he should go check the house. He got to the kitchen and called for me to come quickly and quietly. Needless to say that is a little scary considering the circumstances but I did as he said.

Right there in the middle of our back yard was doe laying down and resting. Probably after having a good nosh on our apple tree. So now we have to decide if we want to do something to deter her from coming to our yard so we can have apples someday or if we would rather keep our furry guest coming back. What a difficult choice. I suppose if it is just that one tree and she leaves the others alone then that maybe an acceptable sacrifice to have the company of our lovely guest.

She's been here at least 2 straight nights. My husband tried to take her picture but unfortunately he doesn't know how to take a picture at night so this black picture with two shiny eyes is all I have to share with you for now. ;-)

A Berry Sweet Dress

My current project is a dress inspired by strawberries. Well three identical strawberry dresses actually. I don't really like eating fresh strawberries because of the texture of them but I love everything else about them. Even strawberry ice cream. Nom nom nom! Strawberries in general just SCREAM summer and I'm a total sucker for anything fruit, berry, or veg on clothes. I know it's kind of a weird thing to love but what can I say. There is just something about the natural beauty of raw organics that makes me love them when translated into clothing. I'm sure the ladies at the craft store thought I was nuts going in and buying sold red and green fabric AFTER the holidays. They probably all thought I was either really early or really late with my holiday sewing. I'm confident by the time I'm done these dresses although mainly red and green will scream summer and no one will find themselves thinking of Christmas while looking at them.

The Tooth Fairy

Ember my 5yr old just lost her first tooth. First thing in the morning she came in my room and told me her tooth was super lose. When I checked it the tooth was barely hanging on. I was a little worried that if we left it to fall out later in the day that she may accidentally swallow it. So I gave her an apple and told her what to expect. She gingerly ate her apple and by the eighth bite that tiny little tooth popped right out. She was so excited and happy until she say a tiny drop of blood on the tooth and got very concerned. Daddy explained that was normal though and all was well again.

I took her straight into my sewing room and let her pick out some fabric for a fairy pillow. She opted for several pink and brown strips I had left over from a jelly roll.

I stitched them all together lengthwise. There were a couple tails that were a little longer so I snipped those off and tucked under the sides on it and used it to form a little pocket to hold her tooth. Then I folded over the whole piece of fabric once so that the right sides were together and stitched along the three sides that were not attached. I left open a 4"-5" opening to turn it and stuff it. To close it up I did a simple hidden stitch by hand (I think it's also called a ladder stitch).

Unfortunately I didn't think to take pictures of the process. Hopefully I explained it well enough and the picture is easy enough to copy from in case anyone would like to try. Next time I'll attempt a proper tutorial.

Hello Blogosphere!

This is my first time blogging but it's long overdue. I've been told I needed to blog for years but today I decided to bite the bullet so to speak. It's kind of difficult to sit down and know what to put into writing here. I guess I'll start by telling you what kind of blog this is. I'm writing this to share the everyday adventures of a crafty life with four kids. I am by nature a maker. When I see something in a store that I want I usually find my first thoughts wondering to "I could make that" or "Wow, that gives me a great idea".

Now I've also been sucked into the world of pinterest. This means that now I have way more projects then I can even remember to do. Good thing I have all my boards there to remind me what I need to get to. My husband is sitting here looking over my shoulder so I think that means this is a good place to end this post tonight. Bye for now. 

P.S. I should mention that I am not the best speller. I'm not the worst but not the best either so forgive any typos or spelling errors to come. ;-)