Why no photos? Because my progress today was completely unexciting! I have to re-sew the shorts because I want her to be able to wear them without my constant fear that they’re gonna rip apart any moment. Gonna add a pink stripe down the sides, I think. Also, trimmed, marked, and staystitched the daisy dress, but had to stop after putting together the rear seam halfway, at the step I need to put the zipper in. Yeah, I don’t have a zipper.
I should’ve bought a zipper today.
But we went out to dinner, and it’s my husband & my video-game night. So, priorities, you know. :-D Seeya tomorrow.
One step better today! Alas, I’m going to need to reinforce those side seams like nobody’s business because they’re pretty much already too tight. (Even though the pattern says it fits a small 3T, and most 2Ts are too big for her… bargh!) Despite, again, the sizing issues (my fault, really, I should’ve compared the pattern to a pair of pants that fit her well), the tutorials/free patterns I followed from MADE are flipping fantastically easy. I’ll take better photos once they’re hemmed at top & bottom.
These are what are impossible to find for little girls… Long shorts! She’s not savvy enough to know to lift her legs up on a hot slide yet (and trust me, it’s really crazy hot here in Central Florida right now!), and I don’t want her to have to wear pants in this heat. Solution! This seems like a good/easy one. Man, easy.
So easy, in fact, that I had time left over to cut out my next project:
1969 Jiffy Simplicity! My friend Jess’s grandmother-in-law passed her down a pretty remarkable collection of vintage sewing patterns, and she in turn passed them on to me to try ‘em out! (Love, love, love so many of them.) This one called out my name in particular because I have this adorable sort of 60s vibe “Dinky Daisy” fabric from Michael Miller sitting around with which I am completely in love:
The yellow/gray is fresh & modern, and the itty bitty daisies are just too cute & girly. Love it. Can’t wait to see it in dress form! I’ll either attack that tonight or tomorrow afternoon. Gonna go see Thor, so not sure I’ll have time/energy after I come home…
[Also, sorry for the cell phone photos, but I always end up leaving my camera in the on position whenever I import photos, and my battery is (yet again) completely dead.]
First mediocre success. I did complete an entire garment. I can honestly say that clothing is my sewing weakness. I can make awesome bags & doo-dahs till the cows come home, but clothing is another beast. Clothing that anyone would actually want to wear on a regular basis is downright elusive for me (so far). And unfortunately, today’s “success” was no exception.
The instructions in the One Yard Wonders book I got the pattern from seemed pretty fool-proof. I’ve made about a dozen other projects from that book with great success. All I had to do was make it to the size of my daughter’s waist, and it cinches up to be perfect. BAH! This pattern is NOT acceptable for 2T, no matter what she says. There is just too much fabric, and this won’t fit until she’s at least 4.
Besides being a huge sack of huge, though, it’s pretty cute. The vintage fabric has been sitting in my grandma’s stash for-freaking-ever, and it’s a super soft cotton/poly blend of some sort. I’ve only ever made 1/2 of a pillow out of it for a friend, and I think it’s really beautiful as a dress for a little girl. We’ll see in another long while if she’ll ever actually wear it. :) And yes, I know I could’ve hemmed it shorter to make it theoretically wearable now, but when I looked at it shorter, the proportion just looked off. 
She was, however, a really good sport and cooperative model, which bodes well for photographs of whatever comes next this week.
The top is just a ridiculous sack. Those arm holes go on forever.
If you use your imagination and look from the back, you can dream up what it might look like when it fits right.
The only other thing I got started on today, so far, was knitting the top half of a cute knit-on-top, fabric-on-bottom dress. As much as I have shied away from sewing clothing, my record for actually completing a knitted garment is 0 for a bajillion. I hesitate to even write about it here because the odds of me actually completing it are practically nil. But, it is in the works, nonetheless: lime green cotton seed-stitch sleeveless top with cute wavy teal & lime green wavy quilting cotton on the bottom.
Here goes nothing! I stumbled across this today while looking for sewing inspiration, and I think it’ll be a great way to get me into the habit of sewing a little bit every day. Just have to figure out the perfect time to do it.
The deal is: I’m supposed to spend one hour (or more?) per day sewing, knitting, whatever, something kids can wear. Since I have a bit of a stash of fabric and old clothes to upcycle piling up on my shelves, this is a great time to get to it!
I’ll take photos & update my progress as I think about it. Wish me luck!
So, seriously, internet. And particularly British bloggers. I’m looking at you. I’ve scoured you for the past month searching high and low for the perfect flapjack recipe. I’ve seen promises after promises of the perfect, firm, golden, best-in-the-world flapjacks, and do you know what you delivered? Time after time, crumbly, pathetic excuses for the handheld oaty snack-cake I’ve been searching for. Impossible to keep together. Too greasy. Too boring. Too not-at-all-a-flapjack. Better as an ice cream topping. But finally…. I’ve done it. I’ve discovered the secret ACTUAL best recipe ever, and I’m going to share it with you.
Prep time 10 min.
Cook time 25 min.
You’ll need:
An 8”x8” pan, preferably metal nonstick
Parchment paper or waxed paper
A small saucepan
A medium sized mixing bowl
A blender or food processor
A digital kitchen scale is awfully nice to have (it’s way faster/easier to measure by weight)
-3/4c (170g) sugar
-1 stick plus 1T (130g) unsalted butter cut into a few chunks for quicker melting (unsalted butter is always better quality/tasting than salted)
-3 1/2T (75g) of sugar syrup (golden syrup, brown rice syrup, corn syrup, even fruit preserves will work, I think.)
-1/3c (75ml) apple juice (or other complementary fruit juice)
-1c (85g) quick cook oats ground in blender/food processor
-1c (125g) quick cook oats NOT chopped in a blender
-2c (170g) steel cut/whole rolled oats
-Generous pinch of salt
And whatever you want your flapjacks to highlight! So far we’ve added 3/4c (100g) of raisins or mini chocolate chips and both work swimmingly (the mini chips actually break down and make the whole thing chocolatey.) The beauty of a flapjack is that you can create any flavor you can imagine. Kind of like ice cream, but more portable.
Edit 4/23: Today’s version used plumped dried cranberries, chopped pecans, and orange juice/zest. Oh-so-freakin-good!
Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350
-Combine all three versions of oats together with the “extras” you’re throwing in. (raisins, nuts, cranberries, etc.)
-In a pot, combine sugar, syrup, apple juice, butter, and salt. Cook on medium heat until the butter is melted and everything is homogeneous. (Don’t cook too long.)
-Pour the hot sugar onto the oats & other goodies until everything is moistened, and press the whole bowlful into an 8”x8” pan lined with parchment or waxed paper.
-Cook 25 minutes at 350 (make sure your oven is up to temperature before you put them in… doneness is everything!)
-When you take it out, run a knife through the pan dividing it into whatever size slices you want (I think 16 pieces are a good size), but DO NOT REMOVE THEM FROM THE PAN until they’re totally and completely cooled. Seriously. COLD. Don’t touch or eat before you can’t feel any warmth left. If you want to speed up the cooling, throw the pan in the freezer once it’s cool enough to touch.
These can be stored in an airtight container for a week or two. Longer in the fridge.
How do you convince a 70 year old woman that we don’t need to go grocery shopping when our house is already filled with food? Sure, it’d be nice to have more eggs, tomatoes and bananas. But we have grapes and blueberries and leftovers in the fridge going bad — not to mention a great dinner for tonight already marinating in the fridge. If we have fresh food to put on top of the old stuff, we end up throwing all the old stuff away because the new stuff is more appealing. It’s an endless battle in our house. I like to shop for a week and by the end of the week be struggling to be creative with the tail ends; she likes to shop every 2 days (or every day) and doesn’t mind throwing money down the garbage disposal.
It’s just super amplified today because I just cleaned our fridge and, once again, had to toss a super sad pile of food. Forgotten leftovers, produce, salad dressings, dairy. Expensive stuff. /frown
![We’re almost 2 weeks in to our Spring garden efforts. Nothing is supposed to go in the ground till about the first week of March, but that means if you’re going to do things the “affordable” way and grow from seed (instead of buying larger plants from a garden center), the time to start your seedlings is now. Truth be told, we were about a week late starting our tomatoes, but they came up really quickly and we’re excited about the progress. More photos at the end of the Our Garden album. The rest of the yard is exploding in Springtime color. Coming from South Florida, deciduous plants are something decidedly strange to us: plants that looked totally dead are popping out in beautiful blossoms. Thank goodness we didn’t pull a Periwinkle on ‘em. [Gramma found mom’s hamster, Periwinkle, still as the grave and buried her… Only to learn years later that hamsters sometimes hibernate.]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lg9t0sKeJb1qg1p47o1_500.jpg)
We’re almost 2 weeks in to our Spring garden efforts. Nothing is supposed to go in the ground till about the first week of March, but that means if you’re going to do things the “affordable” way and grow from seed (instead of buying larger plants from a garden center), the time to start your seedlings is now. Truth be told, we were about a week late starting our tomatoes, but they came up really quickly and we’re excited about the progress. More photos at the end of the Our Garden album. The rest of the yard is exploding in Springtime color. Coming from South Florida, deciduous plants are something decidedly strange to us: plants that looked totally dead are popping out in beautiful blossoms. Thank goodness we didn’t pull a Periwinkle on ‘em. [Gramma found mom’s hamster, Periwinkle, still as the grave and buried her… Only to learn years later that hamsters sometimes hibernate.]
I know it’s a show for pre-schoolers, but I really feel for Minnie on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Mickey is always referring to her as his “friend”, despite sort of awkward and occasional PDAs, and he’s so obsessed with Toodles and Pluto and being the center of attention, she is completely neglected. I’m not sure I approve of the example they are setting for our little boys and girls — theirs is a chilly, unequal, sad romance.
I think we need this placemat.
Via thedailywhat:
Kids Know The Darndest Presidents of the Day: 2-year-old Charlotte gives the History Channel a run for its money with her extensive knowledge of our nation’s heads of state.
[gawkertv.]
She begged and begged. Please please please box. Please box. Mommy box please.
This is super cool! I’m a sucker for good stop-animation stuff. Also, Lego.
(Via thedailywhat)
Lego Thing of the Day: Lego follows up last year’s successful stop-motion Lego Click promo with a sequel of sorts — The Brick Thief.
One brick, two bricks, three bricks, four…What can you do with these few on the floor? Five bricks, six bricks, seven, eight… Don’t think that’s enough? Well just you wait. It only takes a few bricks to make something CL!CK.
[mmm.]
And been bow’d to the earth by its fury;
To whom the Twelve Months, that have recently pass’d
Were as harsh as a prejudiced jury —
Still, fill to the Future! and join in our chime,
The regrets of remembrance to cozen,
And having obtained a New Trial of Time,
Shout in hopes of a kindlier dozen.
