Eliza

These were made for Eliza, my super sweet niece!! The dress was made with fingering weight cotton yarn on size 3 needles--took quite a while to make but the result was darling! The pattern was called Little Sister's Dress from Ravelry. The bonnet was from Itty Bitty Hats. Eliza's growing so fast, she probably won't wear them for very long. Which only means I'll have to just keep knittin...

Jammin

I've been going a little crazy with the jam making this year. I've made several batches of strawberry, red raspberry, and blackberry. Next I'm thinking of peach. Never tried peach jam...



I like freezer jam better than canned. It tastes like fresh fruit. Ball has a new fruit pectin for freezer jam that requires NO cooking. Seriously, it takes about 10 minutes to make. Anyone have any good recipes to share? Pass them my way!

Flubber!!!

School started this week and we still had some things to check off on our summer to-do list...Flubber being one of them. If you've never made this you HAVE to try it. Probably not meant for kids who still put things in their mouth since it contains Borax (found in the laundry detergent aisle near bleach) It's not messy at all and we just put them in Ziploc bags.





FLUBBER



Mixture 1: 3/4 cup warm water

1 cup Elmer's glue

food coloring



Mixture 2: 2 tsp Borax

1/2 cup warm water




Stir mixture 1 together in bowl, mixture 2 in another bowl. Make sure both are mixed well.
Pour mixture 1 (the colored one) into mixture 2. No need to stir, just reach in and pull out glob of flubber. Work it for 2-3 minutes then drain off excess liquid. FUN!!!

Thrifty Finds

On the way to my parents house sometimes we take "the Amish way". Take a few back roads and drive through an Amish community. There's several farms, a one room school-house and a General Store. Sometimes we'll see the horse and buggies tied up behind the store. The Olivesburg General store is full of surprises. It has a thrifty/vintage section, crafts, and then Amish supplies for canning and even clothing. Found this tablecloth that I planned on cutting up for dish-towels or an apron-but I love it so much I just can't do it. The tea cup is from China-been looking for one on ebay and ETSY for awhile now. And Charleston Chews!!! Remember these? You can only find the bite sized ones now. Growing up, we lived a block away from Lawson's. We would get these and put them in the freezer. Yum!! Kyle and Madison are now fan's too!!

Summer Frozen Treats

Here's a few yummy treats the kids have made this summer. The first one is frozen chocolate souffles from Kraft. We used french vanilla pudding and Chip's Ahoy cookies. We've also tried it with chocolate pudding and Oreo's. We put popsicle sticks in them to make them a little more fun to eat.





The Cheesecake Sandwiches (also frozen) are also from Kraft Foods. We couldn't get them to look nearly as pretty and perfect as the web site but they were still good!!





Try this!!!--round up 5 full size sheets of newspaper. Extend one arm out all the way and try to crumple each piece of paper into a ball.
Odds are, your muscles will tire out after 2-3 sheets. ( found this challenge in Family Fun magazine)

Flower Petal Bib

Knitted this for my cousin's little girl, Jillian. Turned out cute enough-I'm just not sure how practical since you have to tie it behind the neck You know how those squirming babies can be!!
Also, my cousin thought it was a shawl!!

Not much crafting going on here this summer. Mostly swimming and reading and lots of new recipe attempts. I love to cook (and eat). I also love to just look through cookbooks. I look through the same ones over and over and each time find something new to try.


For the past year I've been participating in recipe swaps through Swap Bot. Some are international and I've received cookie recipes from Scandinavia, soups from England, and lentils from India. Some are sent by e-mail and some are written out on recipe cards. Yesterday I received one from Texas for a "Healthy Dish" swap which was Zucchini Pie. If it's good I'll
post it--Veggie Power!!!

Sweet Little Backpacks

Who doesn't need a cute back pack to take to Cedar Point? The bottom 2 were the first ones Madison & I made. The top ones are for my 2 very best friends, Lori & Neej for their 40th birthdays. I love the colors!! I have a few more to make yet my sister wants one identical to mine and Kyle has picked out some cool camo fabric.


I have changed up the pattern a little and made the casing better, combining 2 different patterns. I even used cording instead of making my own straps. Just makes it an even speedier project and doesn't leave out any of the cuteness. The original pattern is from Sew What Bags and I used the casing instructions from Weekend Sewing.