Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning

 (a pic of the naughties last year look how cute they were)

As the weather warms up I've found myself looking at above ground pools at the store and googling all the pools in town to check out their rates. My naughty nieces have been swimming machines in Thailand and they'll be home soon so I can't wait to swim with them this summer. My friend linked this article Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning on facebook the other day and even though it's not usually the type of thing I post I really thought it was worth sharing. If you swim at all, take your kids to swim or have your kids around water please read it and if you have time I found the comments were really helpful.

The jist is that drowning on TV -the trashing and calling out- is not how it happens. Real drowning, is quiet (people who are having trouble breathing can't call out) and fast. The author gives a bunch of signs to look for including the mouth being water level and the body being vertical. I know from the comments that these signs have and will help save many lives. Please read it just in case you are in the unfortunate situation of being around someone who is drowning, hopefully you'll be able to recognize what's going on quickly and get them help.

Rae Gun Finds: Sunshine Birthday

 

(Eye Glass Brooch by BowieBlaine)

My parents called my sister Sunshine when she was little and her birthday is today! So in honor of my sister's birthday and the welcome sun that those of us in my neck of the woods have been receiving, I'm sharing 12 of my favorite sunshine inspired handmade goodies over on the Modern Handmade Child blog.

note: it looks like they've got the picture sizing all weird, I've sent an email but I'm not sure if anyone is around due to the holiday but hopefully they'll get it resized soon

What's for Dinner: Week 85

(tomato basil soup and guava and cheese empanadas recipes coming)

I had an awesome weekend. I got to go to a friend's baby shower (pics coming) we celebrated my MIL's 30th teaching anniversary, I tilled and planted my garden (and I totally have a burn spot on my back where I couldn't reach putting sunscreen on myself haha) and I made some yummy food.The empanadas pictured above were so easy and insanely tasty. I'll post the recipe later this week. Any ways hope you are all having a very happy long weekend.

Day	Main Meal	Goals (Veggies, Whole Grain, Fish)
Sunday	Tomato Basil Soup	Grains and nuts: Sandwich, granola bars, ww pasta Veggies: zucchini, peas, Fish: tilapia
Monday	Shrimp Alfredo
Tuesday	Taco Mac and Cheese
Wednesday	Lemon Tilapia and Pasta Salad
Thursday	BBQ Ribs and Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Friday	Eat Out
Saturday	Not sure yet

Giveaway: Red, White and Blue

To celebrate Memorial Day and in anticipation of Independence day I'm doing a giveaway. The winner will receive their choice of any of my red, white and/or blue bottoms. They can be ruffle diaper covers, plain solid diaper covers, wrap around diaper covers or print diaper covers, winners choice of size.

Also if you are interested in buying any of my goodies now is a great time to order. Things have been unusually slow and I'm ahead of schedule. That's not something I can say often so if you've been planning on picking up a little something for an up coming baby shower or the Fourth of July have a peek. Also I'll be adding a bunch of red, white and blue made to order and ready to ship items to the shop all weekend long so be sure to check back. If there's something you like but don't see it while you're there send me a note I can probably relist it for you.

To Enter
Just make sure you're a follower and leave a comment here telling me what pair of bottoms and size you'd like if you win (you can see all the options in my shop, remember the options are any of the red, white, and/or blue ones). Make sure I have a way to contact you in case you win.

Get extra entries for every friend you refer (have them leave a comment saying you refered them) you can refer them to the blog and/or the facebook page (and you'll get an entry for each). 

And for extra fun if we can hit 700 blog followers OR  1,300 facebook fans I'll pick two winners.

Giveaway ends June 10, 2011 at 11:59 pm. I will email the winner(s) I want to try and get these to the winner(s) in time for the Fourth of July so I'll give the winner 2 days to get get back to me before I pick another.

Recipe: Teriyaki Steak and Mango Salad

So I've been told I make good salads. I made this one the other day and thought it was so tasty I thought I'd share it with you guys. The marinade I use for this steak is great for those of you who like me buy cheap cuts of meat. I sister pooh poohed my inferior cut of meat once, claiming I couldn't use that for steak and after I feed my steak to her she was asking me for the marinade. This is how I make steak for eating with potatoes or throwing on lettuce.

 

Teriyaki Marinade
1/4-1/2 C soy sauce
1/4-1/2 C vermouth
1/4-1/2 tsp ginger powder
1 TBS sugar
1 tsp garlic

I don't really measure just equal parts soy sauce and vermouth, a couple shakes of ginger powder and sugar and garlic. I just put the steak and all the marinade ingredients in a quart sized ziplock back and marinate it for at least 2 hours usually most of the day making sure to flip it once. 

For the Salad
Spring Mix Lettuce
Mango
Parmesan (or I've used feta before)
Avocado
Dried Cranberries
Raspberry Vinaigrette  (I love the Maple Grove Brand, tasty and low cal)
Steak, cooked and sliced
Chow Mein Noodles

Proportions will vary depending on how many you're feeding and your personal preferences. But for two meal size salads I use a couple big handfuls of lettuce, 1 mango 1/8 C cheese, 1 avocado, a small handful of dried cranberries, a couple TBS salad dressing and a small handful of noodles.

Treasury Love: Summer Adventure

Despite the crazy rain we've had here last week I'm finally feeling like it's actually Summer.Yuliya from YuliyaArt let me know she had included my Circus Elephant Set in her lovely treasury. I'm kind of a sucker for turquoise-y blue, red and white. I just love the clean crisp fell that her collection is. If you want to see these items up close or any more from these talented artists click here. I seriously think I may need that Shift Lock Necklace. See this is how they get me, they feature something of mine in a treasury then I see something cute there and bam it's in my shopping cart (like that awesome mustache nesting doll necklace)

Show and Tell: Mockingjay Shirt

If you guys have been around my blog for a bit or peeked through my goodreads account (widget in the side bar) you already know that I have a thing for young adult fiction. I fell in love with the Hunger Game series earlier this year. This may sound blasphemous to some of you that know me but I may like them as much  as the Harry Potter books (well maybe not but really close and in a different way).

 (photo credit)

Any ways I'm so excited about the new movie coming out and I love seeing all the new people they are adding to the Hunger Games cast. I really wasn't sure about their choices and really thought Jeff Bridges would be a fantastic Haymitch before the decision was made but I'll trust them to do their best, I hope. This new image below gives be a little hope you know minus the total plastic feel, okay I'm trying to be optimistic.

(photo credit)
Anyways I had to make some iron-ons with my cricut last night so I decided while I was at it to whip up a little Mockingjay shirt. Kinda late for the shirt challenge but still a new shirt for me right? ;)

I used this image from here, traced and resized it in Sure Cuts Alot (a program that lets you cut any design you want on your cricut) and used my normal iron-on making technique to make gold iron-on fabric which I then ran that through my cricut to cut out the design. Next I trimmed it with scissors (my cricut never cuts totally perfectly) and finally ironed it on my shirt.

I knew it might be iffy since obviously the iron-on doesn't stretch and I put it on a a shirt that definitely stretches when it's on. So it's not perfect, I don't think it'll last that long (the fabric was kinda thin and didn't iron well before the stretch issues), so when this one dies I'll probably redo it using my freezer paper stencil technique But I'm still really excited about it.

I know it's not perfect but for a 10 minute shirt I'm happy and I know this won't be the last Hunger Games shirt in my life :)

What's for Dinner: Week 84

(Chicken and Veggie nuggets)

So you remember Marigold's Chicken and Veggie Nugget posts where she was all raving about her nuggets well I can honestlysay she wasn't exaggerating. We had them last night and they were fantastic. I went the oven fried way and they were so tasty. Hubby and I both devoured them. Oh yum.

My two food adventures for the week: Lasagna and Guava and Cheese Empanadas. A few weeks ago we took a gift card to Macaroni Grill to be disappointed that our favorite pork and risotto dish was not on the menu (apparently they are bringing it back though). After trying a sampler thing we both fell in love with their lasagna. The meat was like pot roast not ground beef. So I'm going to try and recreate it. Suggestions are totally welcome. Also I've been craving guava and cheese empanadas for a while, I'm just going to do puff pastry dough cream cheese and guava jam but i can't find guava jam or jelly so far, any one know where I should look? Are you trying anything interesting out this week?

Day	Main Meal	Goals (Veggies, Whole Grain, Fish)
Sunday	Steak and Mango Salad	Grains and nuts: Sandwich, granola bars, ww pasta Veggies: zucchini, peas, Salad Fish: tilapia
Monday	Balsamic and Onion Pot Roast with peas and Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Tuesday	Tomato Basil Soup Grilled Cheese and Salad
Wednesday	Eat Out
Thursday	Lasagna al Forno
Friday	Cowboy Hamburgers and grilled zucchinni
Saturday	Lemon Tilapia Alfredo with peas

End of The World Sound Track

Holy cow so my hubby just rolled out of bed and immediately went to this record and informed me that this and the Dani Lion song From the Mouth of the Lion were going to be our soundtrack for the rapture today (pay attention to the first line of the song). Hilarious. Happy End of the World all.

Rae Gun Finds: Sweet Treats

All week I've been craving some special sweet treat and now that work isn't as hectic as it's been the last few months I can totally indulge in some fun baking. Here are a few of the things I've pinned that I'm considering making to satisfy my cravings. These Nutter Fluffer cupcakes look amazing. The frosting has marshmallow cream and peanut butter in it ummm yeah.

Harry Potter's favorite dessert, Treacle Tarts. A light lemony treat. Plus it has the Potter factor so if it doesn't happen this weekend I need to try them soon.

And how adorable are these Pie Pops. Yeah totally cute plus I'm really liking the crust to filling ratio on these babies. Not sure what kind of filling sounds good though.

p.s. If you are interested in pinerest it's still invitation only but click here and it should let you create an account. I've found it's a very easy way to organize my bookmarks. If the link doesn't work just send me your email address and I'll manually invite you.

About: An Interview

Hey all there's a nice little interview with me on the Modern Handmade Child blog today. Check it out here if you're interested.

SONP Tutorial: Upcycled Shirt to Dress

(I'm the wost model ever, I can't smile on cue or pose w/o looking like a fool, but it's about the dress right?)

This post is a part of Hideous Dreadful Stinky's Summer of No Pants series. For those of you who don't know what that is Marigold over at HDS hosted this great series last year where she had all kinds of contributors share skirt and dress posts in hopes that it would help her stay away from frumpy shorts during the summer. In addition to great tutorials and articles, SONP includes a challenge where anyone can enter their skirt or dress creations into a flickr pool for us all to share ideas and help give ourselves a deadline for making skirts and dresses for ourselves. For more info on the challenge see this post. I'm trilled to be a part of this year's SONP if you're visiting from HDS's, welcome it's great to  have you! Feel free to peek around. You can see some of my reader's favorite posts in my sidebar to the right.

Today I'm going to share how to change a normal knit top and some fabric into a cute and comfy dress. This is the perfect project to use on that top that's shrunk up over the years or to make the most out of the tops that haven't seen your body in ages. Even if you don't have any disposable shirts on hand you can run over to lots of stores and pick up a top from between 3-10 bucks so this can be a nice inexpensive project. This took me about an hour and a half but I sew all day everyday so I tend to sew a lot faster than the average person.

What you need

• knit top (like a tank or tee)
• 1.5 yards of skirt fabric
• 1.5 yards of lining fabric (optional but you'll want the extra layer if your skirt fabric isn't very thick. I used muslin)
• Crochet thread (optional, read my gathering technique below and see if you want to do it this way)

note: If you want a longer skirt you might want to buy more fabric so read through my directions and see my note about dress length at the bottom before you start.

(click on the photo to enlarge or go to my flickr to see more pictures and individual shots of each step)

What to do

1. Cut your fabric down the fold (lengthwise, parallel to the salvage end, you know the fold that is there in the fabric when you buy it) You should have 4 pieces of fabric about 22" x 54" each (read my note below about making the dress longer)
2. Decide how long you want the bodice part on your shirt to be and cut any extra off the bottom. I cut mine to 16 inches (shoulder to bottom and I'm 5'5).
3.  Fold the fabric in half lengthwise and lay the top on the top of the folded fabric. 
4. Cut a diagonal from about half an inch outside of the top to the edge of the fabric stack.
5. With right sides together sew the skirt pieces together on each diagonal, serge or finish the edge on the sewing machine to minimize unraveling. Do the same for the lining.
6. Cut the bottom of the lining skirt so it is 3 inches shorter than the main fabric skirt.
7. Pin the skirt to the lining with the seams of both facing in.
8. Gather the top edge of the skirt. I love gathering by using a crochet thread and zig zagging across the thread (not sewing on the crochet thread) and when you're done you just pull the crochet thread. But feel free to gather how ever your comfortable (for example with basting stitches)
9. Pin the bottom edge of the top to the the skirt top edge right sides together And sew together. Finish the edge.
10. Now you should have a basic dress. Try it on and see if you like the length cut off some length if you want it shorter.
11. Next make the sash. Cut two 5 inch strips from the fabric across the width of the fabric. You should have two 5x 44 (or whatever length fabric you bought) strips
12. Measure from your side to your other side. Cut one of the strips to this size. Cut the other strip in half. (at this step I had one 16 inch strip and two 22 inch strips).
13. Sew each of the longer (22 inch) strips to the custom sized strip. So you should have a long strip with a smaller chuck in the middle 
14. Fold the strip in half lengthwise and sew one short edge and the long edge. Inside out the tube and iron.
15. Fold in the open short edge and sew closed.
16. Finish the hem. I just did a rolled edge on my serger because I'm lazy like that but feel free to do whatever hem you like keeping in mind this will take away some length. 
17. Look at your accomplishment with pride. Put it on and hit the town. 

A note about dress length
I'm 5'5" and you see how long it is on me that is with a 16 inch top, rolled edge hem and about 0.5 inches taken away when I connected the top to the skirt and another 0.5 taken when I rolled the edge and my fabric was 44" wide. I didn't really pick the dress length. I knew that 21" was within my normal skirt length range from a higher waist so to conserve fabric I went with it.

For a longer dress: if you want your skirt longer than 21" (keeping in mind it's probably going to be a higher waist) you'll want to buy double the fabric and cut the pieces down to 54X by however long you want the skirt part. Another way to make it longer is to leave the top longer but of course this will adjust where the waist hits you.

I'd love to hear and see pics if you try my tute out so let me know. I'd love to post your pics if you send me some. And if you have any questions please ask in the comments section and I'll do my best to answer them.  I've got a few variations for this dress planned so if you're not already a follower I'd love you to follow so you don't miss them. Oh and be sure to check out all the other awesome SONP11 posts over at Hideous Dreadful Stinky.

What's for Dinner: Week 83

(seafood mac and cheese)

 For those of you are new  to my blog I write these weekly plans to help me spend less (I kinda of love grocery shopping, yea I know I'm weird), to save time and to try and help us eat in more often. Also I love knowing what other people eat so I thought it would be fun to share. For a while I'll be adding my plans for what greens. I'll be eating since one of my resolutions is to build a habit of introducing more green veggies into our diet. Maybe some day it'll be so normal for us that I won't have to mention them any more.

I only kinda stuck to the menu last week, we were expecting to be paid earlier and since I didn't feel like moving money around to grocery shop I did a nice job at cleaning out the freezer. That was good for me. I don't know about you guys but sometimes I forget what I throw in there, or I re-buy stuff that I have on hand or frozen. For instance, two halves of a can of tomatoes woohoo so I still got to make the chili I was craving. I need to do a freezer inventory or clean out regularly. Are any of you guys good at using the stuff you've got in the freezer I'd love some tips if you have any.

Day	Main Meal	Goals (Veggies, Whole Grain, Fish)
Sunday	Cheddar Brats and French Fries	Grains and nuts: Sandwich, granola bars, ww pasta Veggies: zucchini, peas, peas Fish: Shrimp
Monday	Steak and Mango Salad
Tuesday	Dinner with the Girls
Wednesday	Eat out
Thursday	Shrimp and Pea Alfredo
Friday	Campanelli
Saturday	Chicken and Veggie Nuggets

Customer Appreciation Pic: Rocker Wrap Arounds

I always love receiving customer appreciation pics from photographer customers like Melissa. She bought my rocker hot pink wrap around bottoms for her daughter's first birthday. How adorable is she?

You can check out more of Melissa's photos here.

365: A New Project: Dani Lion

He looks like he's being all sweet and helping me out right? Well while on occasion he'll do a post office run  or help me package up some orders, this is really him trying to get me to to work on the album artwork for his newest musical project Dani Lion. He wanted my pathetic, but still superior to his own, photoshop skills but I needed to finish this order, so low and behold he started helping :)




Anyways I was going to wait to share this with you guys until the album is released but I'm so proud and I really think this project is great so I couldn't wait. Dani Lion is my husband, Daniel Fischer and Lauren Hoyt. Daniel makes all the music and Lauren has one of the most incredible voices I've ever heard (seriously Freddie Mercury level amazing). I hope you guys will give it a listen and if you like it make sure to "like" the Dani Lion facebook page so you'll be update on when the new stuff comes out. Making it in the music world these days seems to rely a lot on word of mouth so I hope that it you enjoy the song you'll spread the word. Thanks!
 

Shop Update: New Baby Sets

I've been lucky enough to do a bunch of custom and wholesale lately orders for which I've been able to make a bunch of new sets. Not only have I had the fun of coming up with over twenty new designs but I finally have been forced to make some goodies for the boys.

I'll be adding all these sets and some new bottoms to the shop all next week. I hope you like them and if you have suggestions for other designs I always like ideas. But here's a sneak peak for now.

Sarah Walker's Wedding Dress

Do any of you guys watch Brothers and Sisters? It's one of the shows that I've watched from the beginning and really really enjoy. As I was watching last night's episode I was totally drooling over Sarah's wedding dress. Sarah has never been my favorite character but I adored her dress.

I still love mine, which we celebrated the wearing of last week :) but if I were to have to do it again Sarah's style would definitely be a huge temptation.